Friday, 3 August 2018

Summers mean a late Sabbath start, so I decided to add a post today.  I just finished another fruit smoothie and I am really going to make these my new "ice cream" or shake.  I suppose they have a lot of calories, too, but they are so wonderful when you are hot and tired and tempted to have something you wouldn't otherwise choose.  :-)  I guess the timing worked out great.

I will definitely want to rest this Sabbath... I over-worked myself the past few days with my ivy patch and cleaning the gutter by the house where I live.  No more of that stuff until next week.

My freezer is getting emptied... slowly.  I used a bunch of my veggies for stir-fry today, and I am making too much soup right now.  I won't be able to eat all of it right away, so I will need to decide how long it will last in the fridge, or how much to freeze again.  I am hoping to learn how to use a pressure cooker to avoid this problem in the future... canning my soup for eating later.

I am sooooooo tired.  I won't last much longer, even if it isn't dark out yet.  :-)

I hope you have a great weekend... that you find GOD's best for you, and discover His greater meaning for your lives.

Until next time,
In Christ,

Deborah Martin
work2gather.us

*
*
*

PS... Check out my post for today at Twitter.
I am working on a PLAN for my fundraising effort.
Pray for me to find all the Christian members I have needed.  Thanks.

https://twitter.com/work2gather/status/1025563981568561152

Thursday, 2 August 2018

The  TRIAL Membership  is back !!!

Well... it never really left, but I am renewing my efforts to sell them before the DECEMBER regular membership drive.

The Trial Membership is an introductory option at only $10 for one year... with the benefit being a quarterly email newsletter with ongoing updates about our efforts to grow and reach more Christians throughout the world.

The Trial Membership is for anyone, not just Christians, but I tend to focus on Christians because they are the reason Working Together exists.  

Pretty much the same benefits will be offered to everyone under different program options, but Christian Memberships hold a priority position for many of the resource options it is my goal to provide.

Writing that book is still looking important to me.  I did try to create a presentation file, but that doesn't print well... I want to make something that can be printed and shared in some arenas.  I'm really not sure how I will publish, but I think it will be in print format... maybe the Kindle and Audible, I'm not fully sure.  I have to get the book finished first.  I can sell a PDF through PayPal, I think...that is an option.  In my efforts to sell digital items at Etsy I realized that creating a real object that has to be shipped is really important.

Since I started this focus, my brain has been trying to find the best path to "success" with it.  :-)  I am wondering what success would look like...  How many can I sell?  How many do I WANT to sell?  What can I create and deliver on my own, if I am not able to hire help?  Lots of questions are in my plans.

I suppose I make it sound like a flaky deal.  It isn't.  I have been working toward this for a long time... I just need to learn the process and have the right equipment... which sales would help me to get.  The quarterly newsletters would be going out in March, June, September, and December (which is our annual Membership Drive month.

Finances have been my challenge.  I am hoping (and always praying) that Christians will help me build this resource for them and the future... through their purchases and, eventually, as the staff for the building the outreach programs.  It is a big, BIG, goal... and necessary.  I am hoping to protect those of us who are vulnerable to the attacks of our enemies, myself included, and integrate Christians into the process.  We need to find a way to act as if we are the Body of Christ.

I guess there is only so much I can do... especially with the things that technology is growing into, but GOD is able to provide when the right time gets here.  I keep thinking of Jesus when He told Pilate that he couldn't do anything to Him unless GOD allowed it.  The purpose of GOD was not what we would have thought it would be, but it was the only way to provide salvation for us.  So, I have been trying to focus on GOD instead of the difficulties. . . waiting for locust to be stopped, I guess.

I hope you will join Working Together today... every Christian in the whole world needs you to join Working Together so we can all benefit in time.

Buy a  TRIAL Membership  for you, and one for someone you love...

*
Today, in my real life, I spent a lot of time in the ivy patch.  What a job!  It is a bigger mess, but it will all get cleaned up eventually.  I discovered a big tree stump under the wall of ivy by my little maple tree.  It is so decomposed... I think I will be able to knock it down into little pieces and make it into mulch for that space... or put it in the wheelbarrow and take it to the infamous debris pile.  :-)  It is making a really nice space out there.

My yellow plums are still on the tree, but they keep falling off.  They don't seem ripe yet, so I am wondering if that is why there were so few last summer when I discovered them and decided to risk my life eating one.  :-)  I will probably make some kind of decision about them next week.

I picked more blackberries today.  That is a time-consuming task.  I washed them and put them in the containers I had right now and then moved all the blackberries to the bigger freezer.  Today, I think I picked about ten cups, at least.  I saved some in two containers to eat myself.

I really enjoyed TWO smoothie drinks today... I decided to use my frozen peaches with the last of the milk I had, but it wasn't enough liquid for the blender to work right, so I added some of my cherry juice.  WOW, so good!  Then I made a second one with only peaches and cherry juice... even better!  I see a lot of smoothies in my future!!  :-)

I am looking for shelving and other things to help organize my supplies.  The IKEA catalog arrived yesterday, so I looked through it.  I also checked some of the prices and shipping online.  I discovered a sale for the same unit I already have and want more of, so I will try to get one of those... and maybe one or two crates... maybe.  I am working on my budget these days.

I guess I better get going for now.  I hope you will join Working Together today...and let other Christians know about it, too.  Pray for me, pray for WT, pray for America, pray for GOD's people... we are going to need more help than any of us realizes.

Until next time,
In Christ,

Deborah Martin
work2gather.us

*
*
*
May GOD be kind and provide for the great needs of those who love Him.
May GOD bless this effort to build Working Together.
May GOD find a way to bring us together, and help us to overcome those who hate us.
May GOD show His presence, His strength, His power, His love, in the way He provides for Working Together.
Amen.

Wednesday, 1 August 2018

Interesting day... filled with new discoveries.  I watched some videos at YouTube... don't even ask me how I ended up there!

When you watch too many of these things, you forget where you started.  I discovered an ad-type video that took over an hour so I waited to watch that until I could sit for a bit.  Then I got lost in the topics I was discovering.... gut health, lectins, prebiotics and probiotics, the effects of antibiotics on your intestinal microbes, then I went on a calorie-verifying search to see if something I heard was true.

Some of the people I listened to were ::

Dr. Steven Gundy, https://silenceyourcravings.com/180619A.php  I am not sure how I feel about the Gundy presentation.  He seemed to be opposing everything in the plant-based concept, but I don't know enough about him or his message yet.  I discovered something called "lectins" in his video.  Scary stuff.  It can take YEARS to recover from one treatment of antibiotics.  I did love his explanations, his word pictures.  His was the ad video, and there was a product to buy at the end.  I went on to search for real food options, which is where I discovered Dr. Lisle...

Dr. Doug Lisle, author of  The Pleasure Trap, a book about what motivates us that was presented in some of the documentaries of that time... I think Forks Over Knives was one of them.  I watched him in a YouTube video given to a group of healthy Adventists,  :-)  talking about how healthy foods will naturally help you to lose weight.    How to Lose Weight Without Losing Your Mind (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAdqLB6bTuQ).  I discovered the concept of "calories per pound" in this video... very interesting... instead of seeing food as just calories.

The main issue is there is too little fiber in our diets now, and too many foods that are called "concentrated calories" -- like oils, which add a "silent" abundance of calories to each meal they are in.  It was really interesting that he brought up why some people gain weight because they eat that extra "little bit" of calories every day and they become all the extra pounds we don't want.

The fiber issue, and the antibiotic issue (including in the foods we eat from factory farms), were very impacting for me.  It started to make sense, all the different videos on healthy foods I have watched.

I think it was the Lisle video that said something about the order you should eat your foods, but that could have been the video I watched by Chef AJ ...also on weight loss and eating issues.  The idea is that you eat the salad first, the veggies next, and end with any more concentrated calorie foods like rice, pasta, beans, etc.

Dr. Lisle promoted the concept of switching out your foods to change your eating choices.  One example he gave was having a woman eat oatmeal for breakfast every day... and it helped her weight go down, but she wasn't a compliant patient so I think that's as far as she got.  :-)  It was a funny example of how hard it is for some people to change.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

So how has this affected my life?  Well, I also discovered my "beloved" cauliflower is a great food choice (Chef AJ), and I am inspired to get more of it so I can try the food processor version, the roasted versions, and continue with my raw appetizer version.

I don't know if I want to peel and seed my tomatoes to avoid the lectins (Dr. Gundy), but it is a thought.  I like tomatoes... on sandwiches, in salads, etc.  I have to find out what they mean when they say "too many" are harmful to your gut microbes.

I discovered some of the PREbiotic foods are ones I like and already eat... garlic, leeks, onions, asparagus, bananas, and wheat bran (which will increase now that I have discovered some of its benefits).

My best discoveries were some of the calories of foods I like... and some I am willing to eat more of.

• When you are eating blueberries, you can count them one by one... they average about one calorie each.  
• 
  
• Small strawberries average about two calories each!  
• 
  
• Iceberg lettuce is only about five calories per serving, which I think is 2 cups, but I'm not sure what the example considered a serving size.  
• 
  
• Kale was only 25 calories a serving, which may be a cup raw, or half a cup cooked... kind of like spinach servings.  
• 
  
• For my own computing needs, I have a celery stalk at about five calories... they tend to be different sizes so the average will work for me. 
• 
  
• I have been eating more cucumber because it is suppose to be good for your body, and that came in at about ten calories a serving.  

I think raw veggies are computed at one cup raw and half a cup cooked (like in canned foods). I have been trying to figure out calories and serving sizes for awhile now.  It is a very complicated issue, especially when you make something with different foods in it, like a stir-fry or soup or casserole.

These calorie counts are why you can eat a lot of veggies, feel very full, and lose weight without suffering.  I was extremely in awe of Chef AJ when she explained that she eats two POUNDS of green veggies EVERY DAY!!  She had an example of two pounds of fresh green beans and snap peas in the video linked above.  She offers food ideas for those of us who cannot imagine how to change our food choices... and shares how adding oils and nuts (for her) mean you add too many calories.  I will be eating more topped baked potatoes in my future meals... something I am not use to doing... and benefiting by the reduced calorie loads.

I am getting ready to do my food shopping soon, so these videos and my diet book by Dr. Neal Barnard will help me make some new choices.  I don't think I can afford all the veggies I like, but I will be trying to stretch my budget as far as I can.  Each month I try to get further in my quests... all of them.  Food is a very difficult issue... financially and physically.

So, I almost lost my entire blog post a few seconds ago... I am recovering from the experience now.  I think I will get going before something terrible happens.  :-)

Until next time,
In Christ,

Deborah Martin
work2gather.us

*
*
*
May we all find the best health possible... and new foods to like... and good information.
Amen.