Twice a year, Lee and I attend a conference for the Transformational Leadership Council.  Each conference lasts for five days, attended by 80 to 100 “motivational leaders” and their spouses from around the world.  The intent of this council is to network together in an effort to make a global impact – “together we’re better”.  Ideas are shared, collaboration is solidified and the learning is exponential.

Some conferences are better than others.  But there always seems to be at least one presenter that makes such a significant impact on our lives, we can’t wait to get home to share it with our own personal network of individuals.  Last week, we had another such experience and I would like to share it with you.

Dr. Mark Hyman had flown in directly from participating with Bill Clinton’s Health Matters Summit to our conference.  He’s a smarty pants in the medical field, especially when it relates to the function of the human body.  He explained he had spent two full years working in Washington, DC trying to change the health care system, as his patients were not getting the proper care or insurance.  Finally, a smarty pants in the political field explained to him that he was just not going to win this one.  The lobbyists are too strong, regardless of his powerful political connections.  So he decided to take another route in attempting to get to the source of why his patients needed healthcare to begin with.  His findings are consistent with what we already know – DIET.  He just expresses his knowledge in a gentler, kinder and reasonable manner.  He soon had the opportunity to direct a social experiment on how to change lifestyles when he heard from Pastor Rick Warren.

You may remember Pastor Rick – he wrote the “The Purpose Driven Life” and has a congregation of about 30,000 members.  He was hosting an event, which included baptizing over 800 new members.  After about 500 full-dunk baptisms, he realized his congregation was fat.  He also realized he was fat, too.  He soon contacted Dr. Hyman and together with a few other experts, they designed “The Daniel Plan” – based on the story from the Bible, Daniel 1:15.  Here you have a Jewish doctor working alongside a Christian pastor with a single-minded intent to bring about a healthy change in the lives of thousands.

Dr. Hyman explained it like this:  In Rwanda, there are 3 hospitals – about a 3-day walk for most.  Then there are about 20 clinics throughout the small country – about a day walk.  However, there are hundreds of churches – taking a Rwandan an average of 5 minutes to reach by walking.  So if you want to introduce an idea to make significant changes in health, it makes the most sense to work with the churches.

In “The Daniel Plan”, the support system with a community working together is phenomenal and the results are astounding! These small groups would get together often and be each other’s cheerleaders.  They shared recipes and went on group hikes together.  They immediately stopped bringing donuts to church functions and replaced them with healthy alternatives.

But what I found extremely interesting is the REAL key to their success:  they did it for Jesus.  Instead of having guilty pressure and self-depreciation for a lack of a healthy lifestyle, they acknowledged the power of being a better servant to God by having a stronger body.

Please take a moment to check out these two articles:

http://drhyman.com/new-cure-for-chronic-disease-discovered-8270/

and

http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/24/health/saddleback-warren-diet/index.html

It certainly is food for thought, so to speak.  I would really love to hear feedback on this subject.

For what it’s worth, I’m the one that fell apart when Paula Deen announced her diabetic condition.  I have THREE of her cookbooks, dang it!  I’m a true follower and love, love, love that she cooks with butter, sour cream, cream cheese, etc.  You have no idea how much it ticks me off that even the queen of cream is vulnerable to her own culinary creations.  Crap!

So, I will close with Dr. Hyman’s closing remarks when asked how can we begin to make the change (it wasn’t me asking, I promise):

1. Eat more at home – take back our kitchens.

2. The worse the food is, the more you will see it advertised – take back our media and stop the media poisoning.

3. Take back our food in our schools (referred to the book, “Two Angry Moms”).

4. Provide healthy workplaces.

5. Watch who and what you support – take back our democracy. Vote with your fork.

6. Avoid artificial anything.

7. Food labels should have less than 5 ingredients. Then ask yourself if your grandmother would recognize them.

8. Avoid alcohol, sugar and gluten.

9. Eat plant-based foods; not foods made in a plant.

10. Eat protein with every meal.

11. Eat early and often.

12. Eat lots of beans, nuts, seeds, veggies (preferably local), lean protein, butter (YAY!)

13. Supplements – our soils are depleted and stress equals toxins. Suggests just a multi-vitamin and vitamin D.

14. Get outside – we need light, fresh air, clean water.

15. Find your meaning and purpose in life.

16. Find an activity that involves movement and rhythm.

17. Find your connection with LOVE.

18. This one is from me – rely on HIM to get you through!

I hope you all can find something in here that resonates.  This obviously is the Word of Wisdom.  I just like how it is being applied.

With love,

Lori