The FLU!

The past two weeks has been the PITS!

Kirby started out feeling down and under the weather about two weeks ago after teaching Sunday school to a group of sick teens! Of course he had to give them all hugs! Kirby calls it, "The Obama Flu!" Because he says it's really serious stuff and there's been nothing like it that he's ever known! Ha Ha!

Ya gotta love him! He can find humor in any situation!

I told him that maybe we had just bragged too much about the Royal Jelly that we have taken for the last six or seven years or so...
When Kirby and I were first married, Kirby had a real problem with always catching the flu around this time of the year every year that rolled around. Then he would always get worse and it would go into pneumonia and he would wind up in the hospital for a stay! The last time that he was in the hospital for that was in 1999. Then one morning as I was having my morning Cheerios, and listening to a Christian talk show, one of the guests was talking about a product called Bee Alive and how she had begun taking Royal Jelly. She told of how a friend had gotten her to take Royal Jelly and suddenly she began to get better and feel great! She talked about being deficient in B12 vitamins and how Royal Jelly seemed to change all of that for her! This really got my attention because the doctor had told my husband that he would most likely have to take B12 shots for the rest of his life and Kirby, who was always full of life and energy, seemed to just "crash" at the end of every evening. And in the mornings he would just drag himself out of bed! This is not like my husband! Normally he is Mr. Rise and Shine and give God the Glory!

So, I did some research on royal jelly and found it in a local GNC store. I began to give it to him daily and after about a month of taking royal jelly, I could tell a big difference in my husband! He had his energy back! He stopped taking the B12 shots all together! When Kirby went back for his regular examination, our doctor asked him, "What are you doing? You have not been taking your B12 shots, yet all your tests say that your OK." Kirby began to tell the Doc what we had been up to and Dr. S. just smiled and said, "Well, it seems to be doing well for you! Keep it up!" So we did!
I began to take it as well. For years we have not even had a sniffle, until now!

But here is the part that really proved to me that the stuff has been keeping us well! My pitiful husband made a confession to me last week. When I went to get the royal jelly bottle and looked inside, it looked as if it had not been touched. I turned around and gave him that "look" that mothers can only give and he confessed, "I haven't been taking it because we were running low and I wanted you to take it instead." The thing is, I stopped taking it because of the same reason! Neither one of us had taken it for about a month prior to us coming down with the flu!
I promise, I will never do that again! We will get back on royal jelly, ASAP!
But tonight, I am running a fever of 100. Just enough to make me feel really lousy!
It may be a few days before I feel well enough to blog again, but I do want to report that being on the flu has brought my weight down by about 5 more pounds! My doctor says, that this weight would be easy for me to put back on when I am well so I must be careful and stick to my diet and exercise when I am feeling better.

TIME LINE - 100 Years of FAD DIETING!

I ran up on this interesting bit of information that I thought someone may enjoy reading! It is a time line of sorts - a FAD DIET time line.

1820
Vinegar and Water Diet - Made popular by Lord Byron (I remember the Grapefruit, Vinegar and Lecithin diet which was a tough one too!)
1825
Low Carbohydrate Diet - First appeared in The Physiology of Taste by Jean Brillat-Savarin
1830
Graham’s Diet - Only legacy: Invented Graham crackers (So that's how we got Graham crackers!)
1863
Banting’s Low Carbohydrate Diet“Banting” becomes a popular term for dieting
1903
Horace Fletcher promotes “Fletcherizing”Chew food 32 times
1917
Calorie Counting Introduced by Lulu Hunt Peters in her book Diet and Health, With Key to the Calories
1925
Cigarette Diet “Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet” (Now really! How lucky was that idea? It wasn't so lucky for a lot of poor people! )
1928
Inuit Meat-and-Fat Diet - Caribou, raw fish and whale blubber (All I can say is...YUK!)
1930
1. Hay Diet - Carbohydrates and proteins not allowed at the same meal
2. Dr. Stoll’s Diet Aid - First of the liquid diet drinks
1934
Bananas and Skim Milk Diet Backed by the United Fruit Company (wouldn't ya just know it?)
1950
1. Cabbage Soup Diet - Flatulence is listed as a main side effect (Sorry, I've just gotta laugh!)
2. Grapefruit Diet Also known as Hollywood Diet (Now this is one that I tried! Oops! I'm telling my age!)
1960
Zen Macrobiotic Diet Created by Japanese philosopher George Ohsawa
1961
Calories Don’t Count Diet - FDA filed charges regarding diet’s claims
1964
Drinking Man’s Diet - Harvard School of Public Health declared diet unhealthful
1970
1. Sleeping Beauty Diet - Individuals heavily sedated for several days (Some people will try any thing)
2. Liquid Protein Diets -Liquid protein drinks were low in vitamins and minerals (I lost a ton of weight on this one, but a dear friend lost his wife. Not a diet that was good for you!)
1981
Beverly Hills Diet - Only fruit for first 10 days but in unlimited amounts
1985
1. Fit for Life - Avoid combining protein and carbohydrate foods
2. Caveman Diet Foods from the Paleolithic Era (Really?? I can't believe that anyone would believe that cavemen dieted in the first place!)
1986
Rotation Diet - Rotating number of calories taken in from week to week
1987
Scarsdale Diet - Low carbohydrate, low calorie diet plan
1990
Cabbage Soup Diet - Diet from 1950s resurfaces on the Web
1994
High Protein, Low Carb Diet - Dr. Atkin’s version
1995
Sugar Busters — Cut Sugar to Trim Fat. Eliminates refined carbohydrates
1996
Eat Right for Your Type - Diet based on blood type
1999
Juice, Fasting and Detoxification - Perennial dieting favorites reappear in combination
2000
Raw Foods Diet -Focuses on uncooked, unprocessed organic foods
2001
High Protein, Low Carb Diet - 1994 diet updated (What goes around - comes around again!)
2004
Coconut Diet - Fats replaced with coconut oil
2005
Cheater’s Diet - Cheating on the weekend is required (Hey! Now I could get into this!)
2006
Maple Syrup Diet - Features a special syrup-lemon drink

Now be honest, how many of these did you try? Did you have long lasting Success with any of them or did you do like I did and wind up right back on the dieting treadmill all over again in a year or two? I was surprised to find a couple of the "Fad Diets" listed above on the list! But I did notice one good thing! Weight Watchers is NOT on the list of FAD DIETS and that is because it is not just a "FAD." Weight Watchers is tried and true!
But check out the ADA website! I believe you may find a resource that will be of great help to you on your dieting journey!
With approximately 65,000 members, the American Dietetic Association is the nation’s largest organization of food and nutrition professionals. ADA serves the public by promoting optimal nutrition, health and well-being. To locate a registered dietitian in your area, and an awesome list of aricles and recommendations for safe, healthy and practical dieting tips, visit the American Dietetic Association at www.eatright.org.

Diet? What's that?

OK! So I have not gotten to blog for awhile! But that doesn't mean that I have forgotten that Kirby and I are supposed to be dieting! But we are like most other people in the world and the cares of this old world just seem to overcome us all sometimes...
I am NOT happy about it though! But as the old saying goes, when you fall off a horse, you just climb right back on top of it and R-I-D-E! That is exactly what we are doing! Actually, we have been extremely busy lately and it seems that I hardly get a chance to sit down to my computer lately to share our experiences on this diet journey that we are on! Our lifestyle is slowly beginning to change for the better. We have made some drastic changes in the foods that we eat and how much we eat of it! Seeing this take place encourages me because I know that these are life time changes that will lead to better health for the both of us.

Last week was the first anniversary of our church! We celebrated by having a Homecoming! We had Dinner in the fellowship hall and afterwards a singing group from the middle Georgia area called South Georgia Quartet blessed us with songs of praise. We were so blessed to have this wonderful group of such great talent (who are filled with the love of Jesus Christ) to come to NLHC! They gave up an engagement in Atlanta to come be with us instead! I pray for God to bless them greatly for that! Kirby and I can not believe that one whole year has come and gone already! Time certainly does fly when you are having fun! What blessings we have had this past year! My husband met with his staff and General Assembly and discussed the achievements that our congregation has made in fulfilling the God given vision of New Light Harvest Chapel. What we found is that in spite of ourselves, God is building His church! Praise the Lord! And the people have remained faithful! It has just been amazing to see everyone coming together in faith and love and serving one another as well as the community! New Light Harvest IS a family of God!
Pastor Kirby and I are truly blessed to have been called to serve such a wonderful family of God!