101 Things You Should Do Before Going To Heaven - No.7 - Get Comfortable In Your Own Skin

So a few months ago I said I'd bought a book called '101 things you should do before you go to heaven'.

The three latest entries I've read are my faves so far...I'll post one of them tonight:

Number 7: Get Comfortable In Your Own Skin

When you get a new pair of shoes, the only way to make them comfortable is to break them in. The same goes for your body. God has given you a one-of-a-kind physical form. He wove it together just for you and created it to reflect His glorious image. God intertwined both beauty and wander into it, inside and out. But your body is not an art object to be put on a pillar and admired. It's a tool that the real you, the eternal part of you that loves and creates and hopes and dreams and worships, uses while you're on this earth. Once you get to heaven, you'll recieve a new body-one that wont break down or wear out. But you're not there yet. So the more comfortable you are in the body you have right now, the better you'll be able to use it and enjoy it as each day here on earth unfolds.

You dont break in a new body by mistreating it. You need to take care of it, like any tool, so it can do its job well and last a long time. You break in a body by getting off the couch and becoming active whenever you get the chance. Get down on the floor and play with a child. Use your muscles to help your new neighbours move into their house. Put on a swimsuit and get some exercise, no matter what size that swimsuit is. Jump and skip and life and kneel, even if you jiggle and wiggle and need help getting up.

The less self-conscious you are, the better job you'll do at breaking in your body and becoming confortable with who you are and how you're made. So, ask God to help you put your inhibitions aside. Stop comparing yourself to others. Get up and get moving. There are places in this world where only a tool like you can do the job.

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Temporary Earthly Bodies

Colours - Amos Lee

My fave singer - Amos Lee.

Beautiful singer (yep I said the 'B' word). Absoloutely amazing songwriter.

Check him out on youtube, especially some of his podcasts when you get to know his songs, just to get the story behind the lyrics'n songs, love hearing about them, such good reason/feeling/stories behind em.

If I could meet anyone in the world, it'd be Amos, not to be some freako fan being a drooling mess over him.....just to talk. Seriously...from watching his podcasts, would just be good conversation - talking about stories and everything behind the songs....sounds like he's got a real good heart aye, totally modest, doesn't have the 'hollywood ego' that talent seems to do to people. Real genuine straight up guy......well thats what comes across in the podcasts anyway. Anyway, this is one of my faves.....

If your a listener on lyrics like me...and dont just listen with deaf ears (it can be done, listening without actually...listening)...check out his songs 'soul suckers'....and 'freedom'...heck there are heaps....just ask me.
Check Amos out here though. :)



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Modesty in Talented Ppl

Grace

I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I want to be. I am not what I hope to be. But still, I am not what I used to be. And by the grace of God, I am what I am.
- John Newton

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Progress/Present/Improvement

Suffering

I just dont get it.....



Why? Probably the most frequently used word these days.

So much pain in the world, and where do you go about starting to help? You start with ones closest to you, the community around you, but what about all the rest, there will never be enough people to help everyone else. It will never stop. Too many questions. Not enough answers. Confused. Helpless? More confused. Sometimes I look on Youtube, and look at the thousands upon thousands of 'In memory of' videos there are, of young adults, children, babies who have died through disease, car acccidents, and suicide. Children as young as 10 committing suicide just from bullying at school. What is that? Then parents who lost all three of their children in a car accident, all younger than 5. Why them? Why anyone? I googled 'images' to put up here, I searched abortion to hopefully get some poster about it, instead the first picture that was there, was a baby that had been removed from the womb through abortion, horrific. Fully formed beautiful baby. Just miniscule. 19,000 of these are done in NEW ZEALAND a YEAR. Whats up with that? 19,000 babies who dont even get a chance at life? We have one of the highest rates of suicide in New Zealand too, why? Partners who cheat on their partners, whyyyy? I dunno, been running these things through my head. I just dont get it. This isn't me being morbid and depressing, although none of this is exactly laughable, but it's just questioning and just.....not knowing or understanding. I just dont....get it.

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Heaven

Jetty Love

I dont know what it is about Jettys.

But I am a serious fan of them.

Sitting on the end of one of those with one, or two, other people, just chillaxin, chatting. Love it. Whether I've actually DONE it before is another story, but in my brain? Soooo goood. :)

NOT such a fan of docks when its middle of the day and a whole bunch of fisherman are there casting their rods, chucking gutted fish into their chillybins, seagulls going ca-razyyyy trying to get at em. Slight mood killer. BUT when its all quiet like, and all secluded, such a fan.

....And normally Jettys are all cold-ish, especially at night, so your all rugged up in ya gears, squishing together to keep warm and cosy, and just.....chat. Jettys + cosy + chatting + sweet views = good times.

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Dont Think Of A Pink Elephant

Tell me you didn't think of a Pink Elephant. If we tell ourselves not to think about something, in my case anyway, it ends up being the ONLY thing I think about. When I give myself restrictions in certain areas of my life, I usually wanna barge on through those restrictions and break em down so they dont exsist no more, usually ending up worse than what I was to begin with.......

So the area of my life relating to these things is...Kai. I've found last week I didn't do nearly as good in my Rawness as I did in my first two weeks. The first two weeks were transition weeks, so my mentality was kinda 'eat as much fruit and rawness as you can, but if you slip up its ok, and for the next two weeks, have maybe one cooked meal a day, rara'........so was wanting to do my best, but allowing myself the freedom in having whatever cooked I wanted, if i felt like it, but i did SO good - yea I still had a cooked meal most nights, but some nights I just didnt, cos I knew I could have it if i wanted to, my kinda 'want' for it wasn't really there, wasn't a big deal. BUT last week, cos I put the rule in place for 'no cooked' and 'all raw' and 'not allowed' and restrictions and 'dont dont dont', all I wanted was the very things I had told myself I wasn't 'allowed'.......SO this week, I'm getting the 'transitional' mentality back.

Tonight I bought a few packs of soup, so I'll have soup for dinner from now on, for something to defrost ma insides when I get home from work. Until I find a sweet recipe and have/make the time to make my OWN soup, which would be farrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr more nutrient rich being homemade, yummmm. Winter is a toad. I love it, but in terms of wanting just nice warm carbilicious food, its a total toad. :) At work most mornings, for morning tea, the cook serves grilled cheese on toast, it looks so good - I just want to be the healthiest I can be ya know.

Last night at church, they said about looking after your body, looking after what God gave you and respecting it and treating it right so its at its peak to win the race. So I wanna play my part and try as often as I possibly can to only put real high quality food into my body. My taste buds are supa big fans of the crapppppp foods that have no benefits to our bodys at alllllllllllllllll, chocolate, lollies, cheese toasties, carbs carbs carbs, sugar sugar sugar...etc. And I'm sure God would be down with us enjoing them OCCASIONALLY, but eating it to the point where we're rugged and looking numpty and we're not healthy, we're lethargic and getting sicknessess due to eating unhealthy and poor exercise, running out of breath after basic everyday activities, obesity - I think he'd draw the line somewhere then zap you into a fruit shop/orchard. :) Right this second a thought came to me....If someone gave you this real cool present, then while they were there and overtime you just totally disrespected it, right in front of them sometimes, throwing it on the ground, walking on top of it, putting drinks on top of it, not moving mess away from it, so it gets destroyed and stained, not cleaning it, it would soon look pretty rugged and would take aLOT to get it back to its original 'just like new' state again, not only that, but your friend would be feeling pretttttty lame, since he gave you this AWESOME gift and you just treated it like crap with no respect at all. Isn't that the same with God giving us our bodies, like he's blessed us with them, so if we treat them like crap, he's gonna feel pretty guts about it and we're gonna suffer the consequences of not looking after our bodies, and we have no-one to blame but ourselves if we're eating fast food more than we eat fruit and veg, if we drink fizzy and coffee more than we drink water and if the most exercise we do each day is to the letterbox and back etc. So this is why I'm trying real hard to eat the best that I can, I just wanna look healthy and be real healthy too - cos when I was doing 2months of raw end of last year/beginning of this year, I have never felt so amazing in my whole life. I dunno, I'm still working it all out, I dont wanna be some freaky anal person about food, I've seen that and I hate that. I just want a healthy balance, eating consistently well, most of the time. A work in progress. :)

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101 Things You Should Do Before Going To Heaven

So I had a visit to the Manna Store today! I could actually spend hours in that place - last time I went I DID spend hours in there...without realising - then came back to my car to find a friendly parking ticket from the generous parking warden I attempt to love so much. Today I wasn't able to spend hours because someone else was with me. I ended up walking away with about 5 cheap but AWESOME picture books for my neice....my fave was this book: (I've posted just a few of the pages on here - it's pretty cool, real easy for someone like my neice to understand what happened back then) :)...

Then the one book I bought for me, pictured below '101 Things You Should Do Before Going To Heaven'....I just wanna copy down what the opening intro page says.....I think it's one of the coolest intro's to a book I've read:

'If you are a Christian, you can look forward to a magnificent eternity in heaven and your arrival there will be an undescribable homecoming. A new beginning. A new body. A new intimacy with God. A new life - one without end. No more pain. No more tears. No more sun or moon, because God's own glory will provide enough light. Although God hasn't provided you with a crystal-clear picture of what your eternal home will be like, you can be sure it will exceed your wildest dreams. It will be what you heart has always longed for here on earth but could never quite touch. It will be paradise in every sense of the word. But you're not there yet.

You may take the journey home tonight, tomorrow, or years down the road. This book you hold in your hands, 101 Things You Should Do Before Going to Heaven, was written to help you prepare for your arrival in heaven by making the most of every day God has set aside for you here on earth. Take hold of the wonderful adventure God has planned for your life. And if you have not yet done so, take hold of His grace, forgiveness, and unfailing love. Then go out there and really live. There's a wild and wondeful world that's longing to catch a glimpse of God - and heaven - through you.'

Pretty cool aye! It's mainly the first bit I like, any talk about heaven is pretty much superior talk, love it. But yea, definitely one of the cooler intros, made me buy it anyway. :) I also really wanted this cross with Hebrews 11:1,6 on it, but so pricey. eek. When I start reading this book, I'll post ma fave of the 101 Things the authors suggest you should do, as I go. :)

Reet.Likes.Manna Store Books.

Goji Goodness

What The Dang Is A Goji Berry?

WELL, a Goji Berry is a shrivelled up raisin lookin thing, cept RED! It's found growin on evergreen shrubs, in subtropical places round China, Mongolia and within the Himalayas in Tibet!

WHY would you wanna eat this nasty lookin shrivelled thing?

Why WOULDN'T you is the question! Goji berries are SUUUUUPA high in antioxidents...it's got some goood quality thangs in it, one in particular is 'zeaxanthin' - one of 'zeaxanthins' key thingees is to protect the retina of the eye, yay for vision! Studies say by having foods containing Zeaxanthin may decrease the risk of people aged 65 years plus develop AMD (age related macular degeneration) the leading cause of blindness and loss of sight in that age group. Woh siz.

Chinese Herbal Doctors Know Their Stuff....Would THEY use Goji Berries?

Heck YEA they would! They DO! Only for the past 6,000 (!!!) years! Even Herbal doctors in Tibet and India, thats a long time! Some of the reasons these herbal doctors have used Goji Berries and its juice is to:

• Improve Circulation
• Strengthen yo legs
• Crank your immunity up
• Help your eyesight
• Protect your friend 'the liver'
• Boost your....(whisper) sex drive...
• Improve Longevity - no harm in sticking around abit longer aye.

What Medical Tests Have Been Done On Goji Berries?

Hmmm...so far, only a few. SEVERAL 'test-tube' studies have been done prove goji has antioxidents AND that goji extracts MAY prevent the growth of cancer cells, reduce blood glucose and reduce cholestorol levels, when eaten raw. The fact they used the word MAY kills alot of excitment of this 'test-tube' study which would be a whole lot more exciting if the word 'may' just wasn't there.......BUT a study of cancer patients were followed, and the 79 that were having goji juice and raw goji berries all rssonded a whole heap better to treatment than those who had no goji in their diets.

So, I have me a pack of goji berries, pretty crazy expensive, and taste like disgustingness in a berry form, BUT I munch them all up with some raw cacao beans in a teeny tiny grinder thingee, with some water and a banana, otherwise those lil hardnut berrys dont munch up. THEN I chuck all that glorious muck into my big ol mufussa sized blender, full of fruity and spinich muck, then mmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmm so good! Brown slop with Goji Goodness, soooo good for ya! :) Do it! :)

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Hippocrates

Let food be thy medicine.
- Hippocrates.

Also quoted as...

'Our food should be our medicine, our medicine should be our food'.
- Hippocrates

Totally.


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Hippocrates

Day 4 - Heaven in a Blender

Agh, so I've got 7mins to get to work, but I didn't wanna forget about the heaven that is in the cup im ...spooning from this morning for breakfast....

This morning I got up and made one of my green smoothies - ingredients:

half a pack of spinich (spinich is neutral, so you cant actually taste it in a smoothie)
2 bananas
1 apple
2 kiwifruit
2 handfuls of frozen blackberries
1/3 of a mango
2 small clumps of raw coconut meat

OHHHHHHHH myyyyyyyyyyy goodness - who would have thought brown thick muck could taste so GOOD? IT is actually so so so good! Even on this fa REEEEZING morning where I see my fingers moving but I cant actually feel them, they are so FROZEN!

I'm feeling quite 'hot right now', I'm wearing my baggy work pants (gota be slightly scruff when working with kids in a kindy, spew, paint, poo, the possibility of what you'll be covered in each day) with thermal pants underneath - knee high socks on top of that...then a singlet thermal and a long sleeve thermal then my work shirt....ohhh yeaaaaaa, working it. ;)

K, back to my smoothie......soooooooooooooooooooooo tastyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.
2mins to get to work....

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Tasty Brown Muck

Day 2 and 3 - Raw

It is soooooooo cold aye - I'm sure this is the coldest winter we have had. WHICH makes raw quiiite hard, seeming as its all cold food if you dont have a dehydrator, or not too clued up on recipes, as yet.

Day 1 and 2 went really well - raw for the whole day -then a 'cooked' meal at night, although i dont even know the extent of its cooked-ness....it was just a cup of chilli con carne with tuna through it - was real good. :)

Today, Day 3, I resisted some serious urges - cakes, biscuits and crackers were offered to me - crazy the power food has over you aye, just the habits we have with reaching out and grabbing something when its offered to us, where as, if it had never been offered, we wouldn't have thought about it in the first place........we see, we want. SO, i managed to fight off those urges, and then grabbed some popcorn which I have never liked, but this hit the spot. I've just asked peeps on one of my trusty websites of Rawists about popcorn, and several of them have said popcorn was the last thing they ate, before going 100% Raw, so thats cool to know. Someone else mentioned that there was a cauliflower version of popcorn, where you cut it very finely then put it in a bag with some vege stock and spices, then stick it in the dehydrator, then munch on it from outta the bag............always something to try, if i can ever find a high quality dehydrator in NZ that doesn't cost the Earth - have a feeling i'm going to have to get one shipped over from Auzzie though. Eeeek....

BUT when I got home, there were hot chips, and I didn't resist those - before ya knew it, I had a bowl of them in my puku. Uncool, but still - although I say I'm going to be having one cooked meal a day, hot chips is definitely not that cooked meal I had in mind.

Because Raw isn't a DIET....I hate that word, and its just a lame word for a 'temporary' way of doing something, that once you get to your 'goal' you head back to your original way of eating, and lack of exercise to go BACK to what you were before you started on the DIET, then just repeat it again and again and again........ THAT is why RAW is not a diet.....defintiely a LIFESTYLE......so because a change in LIFESTYLE doesn't happen too quickly - changing the decades of routine, patterns and bad habits is going to take a while, involve alot of screw ups, alot of mistakes and lessons learnt, re-learning your strengths and weaknessess, and yea..........all that jazz - so hot chips tonight, not cool at all, BUT thats ok - they wern't even good - I would have much prefered a Essene (raw) bun, or a nori roll, but without a CAR still (Because mine was written off a month ago) i havn't been able to get my seaweed or other sweet goodness ingredients. AND I feel grose all heavy like and lazy, from eating those chips, so each time I eat something tragic like that, I'll learn more and more each time how RANK i feel after it, and that will hopefully help me for the next time to resist or choose a healthier option.

So Day 4 tomorrow, I know I'll be having a cooked meal tomorrow night, because its my good friend Camerons farewell partayyyy dinner at a restaurant (he's leaving for wellington, boooo). So lots of meat and veges. But thats ok, lots of fruit through the day, raw milkshake in the morning, if not that, then a green smoothie (bought 2bags of spinich and rocket last night for ma smoothies, yummm, mangoes and pineapple too, mmm mmmm), so it'll be a good day. I need all the fruit and veges I can get - need some serious brainpower for the weekend when I'll be starting and finishing an assignment that is due next week.

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Lifestyle changes

Day 1 - Rawsomeness

So Day 1 of 12week raw challenge is finished. Success.

Feelin goooood.

I dont know why I came off it when I started raw last year (November 08). After a few months of looking into it, investigating online, talking to people online, checking out youtube, raw websites, it looked so good! So did abit of a transitioning period, went through some crazy detox time - headaches, sleeping for extra long amounts of time, then not sleeping at all, getting dizzy, mad cravings, mood swings, - to come out the other side feeling better than I'd ever felt my ENTIRE LIFE- mentally and physically. I actually felt amazing aye, it was ridiculous the change I felt, SO GOOD. The food was INCREDIBLE and I hadn't even learnt any (gormet) recipes, I just did the basic Nori Rolls, Green smoothies, Fruit smoothies, and Fresh fruit and veg'n salads..nothing fancy, just live, natural raw foods. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO tasty - esp in Summer - fresh plums, peaches, nectarines, berries, strawberries, pineapple, yummmmmmmmmmmm!

So, why I slowly eased back into the SAD (Standard American Diet) way of eating who knows...I lasted through christmas even, with all that tasty looking christmas kai that only gets busted out once a year. Meanwhile, I've been feeling grottier again, physically and mentally, health has deterroriated, skin is dry again, also the spots related to my condition are getting their red colouring back again (not good), my leg is getting worse, mentality deterroriating............suck suck suck. Oh the best of all, i'm putting on the weight i lost - oh glory glory.

SO, after a fun weekend in Wellington for Queens birthday, and NO raw food, and a wholeeeeeee lotta stomach cramps and not fun times, today is the day I have started a 12week raw challenge with my good friend Hannah Mac (http://www.aychblog.com/). Transition time starts again - the intention is to have just the one cooked meal a day, most likely dinner with it being winter and so freakishly cold. After the first two weeks I reassess.

I have no doubts that I will mess up now and again, or have days where my raw intake drops abit for different reasons, but it's not gonna be 'Monday' when i start again, or 'next week' or 'next month', it'll be the following morning. I'm not sure i'll ever be 100% Rawist, I'd love to think so, and maybe some day I will - as I look more into it, and view more videos on raw, read more books and blogs, talk to more rawists and natural doctors, hear testimonies, and see evidence AND I have experienced it firsthand, it seems more and more beneficial to have the highest raw intake possible....just makes sense.

I'm salivating over the recipes I've just checked out, and am actually craving my nori roll tomorrow, my fruit smoothie, and my raw milkshake in the morning. I'll fill you in on the ingredients in the DEEEELICIOUS raw milkshakes I have every morning - straight from the cow baby, soooooooooooooooooooooooo good!

Looking fwd to Day 2 - yummmmmmmmmmmm!

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Starting Over

June 2nd - Day 1 - Rawsomeness!

IT

STARTS

TODAY.

To be continued....

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Rawsomeness

Evil Manky Bread

I had 3 peices of bread earlier tonight - I had one peice when I came home from work - then mum bought me back a ham and egg toasted sandwich, and I ate it. Bread hates me, and I 'hate' bread....my taste buds would marry bread it likes is that much, but my insides hateeeee it with a vengence.

I feel soooooooooooo ill. blurgggggg.

I wish we had a suction tube we could just plug into our belly button and remove everything - I suppose then, everyone would be skinny, and colonics companies would be out of a job. Aneorexia and bullemia would seem kinda pointless too if we could do that....hmmmm, I estimate in ....10years time, this belly button tube will totally be available. And on that day, I will eat a loaf of bread, then set that tube on full power. ;)

Raw is my best friend, but its so harrrrd in winter, with all the food being cold.

I think some spew-age needz to occur, evil bread and its wicked gluten/wheat goodness.

Reet ('s insides)
(dont) Like
Bread

Mrs Rita Cullen

So, it seems I share the same fascination as majority of teenage gurls, towards the movie/book Twilight. Only the days of my teens are prettyyy much long gone, holla-ing at the mid 20's is abit more likely with turning 24 a couple of days ago. Agh.

WHAT is it about Twilight that is so awesome? I mean, its about vampires! I saw the movie first, then read half the book, then watched the movie again (which I now OWN. Yay for Jess and birthdays) and just finished the second half of the book tonight. Such a fan! SUUUUCH a fan!

So, yep, What is it that makes it so awesome? Wellllll, maybe the fact that Edward is so incredibly smitten by Bella.....she fascinates him, and his desires (to suck her blood) that are stronger than a heroin addiction, he can refrain from them, because his love for her, and how much he cares for her, are enough for him to resist his temptation or natural desires. The fact that he's so protective of her, saving her from harm, rescuing her from terrible situations (in the alley with the creepy men), the fact that he is OBLIVIOUS to other chicks around him giving him the eye, flirting ridicuously with him, and he doesnt even LOOK at them, or give them any look or recognition or anything to intitiate or feed the chick and her flirting, he soley has eyes for Bella, and isn't even .00001% interested in anyone else. He's so intense and attentive towards Bella. Also it might have something to do with the fact that Edward is so strong, not just in strength, but in character!

Agh, I dont even know....I can never explain what I mean when I try to describe a 'Strong' Man....I dont mean, benching 250lbs, or squatting 300lbs at the gym (although that would be ridicuoulsy amazing, I think...although I think my brother does that, the mufussa sized beast that he is). I mean strong in Character..........

Where do gurlz even get their idea though, of what a man 'should' be. And where do guys get their idea of what a chick 'should' be, in a relationship? Do we get our ideas from our parents? Which would make sense for me. Cos if you knew all the men in my family (dad, brother, cousins, uncles, on my dads side anyway) you would soon see they are all solid units, rugged, manly (again i cant describe it) MEN. Dominant.....Ummm...desicive......ummmmm...takes the lead....but at the same time - lovely and gentle, and compassionate and dare I say romantic.

So, as I was talking to a friend about Twilight. Does it just put these fictional characters on a pedistool, and create unhealthy expectations, or 'wants' for a future partner. Unrealistic expectations. I'd hate to think which fictional female character guys would be wishing their future girlfriend would be like. Like me and this friend said/thought, we DEFinitely wouldnt want those expectations put on us, only to let our partners down, failing to meet the characteristics, etc, of the fictional lady character.

It is more though, than just Edward and his awesomeness, to what makes Twilight awesome. The fact there is no swearing and junk in it, no sex scenes or anything like it, makes it so much cooler. I love that. I'm looking fwd to watching the 'behind the scenes' of the movie, but I already know the author of the book is a mormon, so she has the morals of the no sex before marriage, hence the no sex scenes in the movie and no potty mouthed characters. It's still about vampires, but pish. All good! :)

So yep, Edward is awesome, luckily I, and hopefully the rest of the population who digs Twilight can seperate a fictional movie, to reality. Pretty much the hottest thing out, is a dude totally in love with that Jesus dude. :) Holy, is hot. Way hotter than any vampire called Edward (gasp) Cullen. Seriously though. ;) A dude that oozes Jesus? Seriously the man. So if in the 4th movie of Twilight, Edward turns Christian........you miiiiight be hearing about me on BBC news, headlined 'Kiwi woman Rita Oliver takes stalking to a whole new level, Robert Pattinson (edward) triples his security'.

Yerrrrrrrrrrrrp. ;)