We think peace is when everything is going well in our lives. That is the world’s definition of peace. The peace God gives us doesn’t depend on our circumstances. With God’s peace we can be at peace in pain, relationship issues, or any other crisis that comes our way.

Do you know this kind of peace?

If so, please email me mary@marymarsh.com how you have accomplished that and I will pass it on to others.

If not, ask God for His gift of peace right now!

Sugar seems to be a big contributor to that inflammation. Does that mean that fruit isn’t really healthy?

First off, no matter how much the corn growers want you to believe there is no difference between high fructose corn syrup (which is the main ingredient in soda and processed foods) and fructose found in fruits, they are wrong! Your body processes them completely differently.

Second, fruit eaten whole contains fiber and other items to help reduce the effect of the fructose in them. That is why it is best to eat your fruit, rather than drinking it as a juice.

Dr. Mercola recommends no more than 25 grams of fructose per day. If you eat processed food that is only a few items per day. However, if you look at the chart below you can see that you could actually eat several pieces of fruit a day and stay under 25 grams.

So enjoy fruit daily and relax!

I received an email a while back about this little video.

It is less than 6 minutes long produced by CBN.com about a

doctor whose husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

This is a little bit about what she did and how much her

husband improved. It turns out the cure is actually good

for other diseases as well. Perhaps using it now would help

prevent these disease’s, too. I think I will give it a try.

Make sure to watch this video

Have you ever noticed when your really stressed you tend to gain weight, especially around the belly? That’s the result of a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol is released with adrenaline during times of stress or sometimes called fight or flight situations. The stress of dieting, fasting, illness, or stuck in a traffic jam, to imagining worse case scenarios all day long.

As Mark Twain said, “I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.:

When a person is actually in a fight or flight situation, the body is prepared to fight the attacker or run from the situation, either way the body is physically very active. This burns up the cortisol and after the threat is over the body goes back to it’s natural state of calmness.

However, today we’re often in a constant state of stress. Plus, often there is no physical action to burn up the cortisol so it stays in your body. It’s meant to be used not stored. Your body now has more cortisol then it needs, so you can’t relax as well as you should. On top of that, the next time you get stressed, your level of cortisol goes even higher.

Your body can only produce so many hormones at a time so if your always using cortisol it leaves less availability for your body to make other hormones like: estrogen, testosterone, insulin, sex hormones, and all the other ones you need.

Therefore, until you learn to relax it’s going to be very difficult or impossible to lose fat.

Action Steps

1. Physical Activity: walk, run, punch, etc. to work the cortisol out of your body.
2. Meditation-Prayer-Quiet time-Time in nature all of these activities help you to relax. I have a friend who meditates about 20 minutes a day. He had an incurable lung disease that’s now gone. He attributes that to his meditation.

Be Not Afraid

When you forget your true identity as a  beloved child of God, you lose your way in life. Insecure and frightened, you act not freely, but out of fear. You become preoccupied trying to please others and you lose the confidence to be yourself. you work hard to avoid rejection, or abandonment, and you may cling to people more from fear than freedom. In making compromises you may please people but lose touch with your original blessing, the connection to the deep and every lasting love of God.

Jesus announces to us, “Do not be afraid. I dwell in you till the end of time.”

Alleluia! Christ is risen, and we are no longer afraid.

by Henri J.M. Nouwen

And here is an Easter Prayer

Almighty God, you have created us anew. Nailed to the cross for our sakes, Jesus gave his life so that we might have a share in the new life of his resurrection. Now that we have been set free from the power of sin and death, we pray to be transformed by the Holy Spirit into the image of your love. In our Easter celebration, may we remember that we have not been saved for ourselves alone, but to become light for the salvation of the world and for your greater glory. Amen

2010 Creative Communications for the Parish

The email, also, talks about uses for Coca Cola. Coke and all sodas are a mixture of chemicals that aren’t healthy for you. Caffeinated sodas add to sleeping problems and high blood pressure. In research that I was reading this morning, diet soda’s (artificial sweetened) actually cause people to eat more instead of less. Not such a great diet product!

If you love your soda, though, try replacing one soda a day with a glass of water. Add some lemon or lime juice to it. If you like the bubbles add some mineral water to it. I usually add a drop or 2 of Young Living Orange, Grapefruit, or Tangerine Essential Oil to my water. It tastes great. Gradual cut down on the soda and add water. It is much healthier and less stressful to your body.

For more information or to purchase Young Living Essential Oils.

I personally seem to be able to forgive others easier than myself. I rage on about how I knew better and I still did it, especially when it ends up hurting one of my children. I sometimes say, “You think a mother bear is ferocious if one of her cubs is attacked, well don’t attack one of my cubs if you want to see ferocious”! However, I occasionally unintentionally hurt them myself, which is so hard for me to let go of.

A theme for Lent seems to be forgiveness. Unforgiveness causes great stress and contributes to many health issues. If you allow unforgiveness to stay in your heart it poisons you so you can neither give love nor receive it.  Then you become bitter and unhappy which effects everyone around you. If you don’t forgive others, you can’t receive forgiveness yourself.

When really bad things happen it is extremely difficult to let go, however, Jesus said, “Forgive them for they know not what they do.” Ask God to show you how to forgive others and yourself. Sometimes it just comes down to believing God forgives me, my children forgive me, I just have to let go and forgive myself! Another question I ask myself, “Is this worth my health?”

Lord, teach us the way of forgiveness. Never let the knot of unforgiveness block your love in our hearts.

Here’s the video

Or if you don’t have time to watch the video here is what she basically came up with. She eats about 3 cups or a dinner plate full of greens, 3 cups or a dinner plate full of veggies like cauliflower, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, etc., and 3 cups or a dinner plate full of colored fruits and veggies: berries, carrots, peppers, eggplant, etc. each day. She, also, eats grass fed beef, free range chickens, and their eggs. The video is great so please take a few minutes to watch it.

With the news of Whitney Houston’s death this week I have been thinking about what makes us happy. Most of us tend to think that if we just had more money, fame, beauty, and/or talent that we would be happy. However, Hollywood continues to show us that’s not necessarily true. Many of the rich and famous often turn to drugs and alcohol in their search for happiness.

So what do we need to be happy? Those of you reading this are blessed more than about 5.5 billion people on the planet and yet we seem to find things to be unhappy about. Why is that? Partly, I think, we look for happiness in all the wrong places! We look outside of ourselves, for things to make us happy. Or we put our happiness off until such and such happens, however, as soon as that happens, then we want something else so we end up putting off  happiness our whole life.

We have also been well trained to look at what is wrong in our life, instead of appreciating all the good we have. That is why I often recommend a grateful journal to write down 5-10 things each day you are grateful for.

But perhaps St. Augustine had it right when he said, “Our Hearts are Restless Until They Rest in You Oh Lord” From the Confessions Saint Augustine of Hippo. During this long weekend take a few moments to go inward and search for God. Hopefully, that will make you a little happier and much less stressed!

From: http://lowfatveganchef.com/raw-vegan-sweet-onion-salad-dressing/

Makes about 1 1/2 cups of dressing

Ingredients:

5-6 tbsp of apple cider vinegar
1 cup peeled cucumber, chopped
1 clove of garlic
1 cup of sweet vidalia onion, diced (about 1/2 large onion)
8 small dates, pitted
1/4 tsp salt
pepper to taste
2+ tbsp water (to blend or thin as necessary)

Directions:

1. Place ingredients into a Vitamix or food processor and blend until smooth.

2. Taste test and adjust seasonings if desired.

3. Serve over green salad and refrigerate any leftovers.

Tip:

To make the onion flavour more mild, you can chop the onion in advance and let it sit out or in the fridge and oxidize so that some of the strong oils dissipate and it won’t be as intense.

For more recipes from http://lowfatveganchef.com