Altering Your Attitude - Daenielle Isaacs
WARNING: You are responsible for what you KNOW.
Proceed with caution. These are things I’ll never be able to forget.
In recent years, I have found myself delving into the topic of stewarding my body through nutrition and exercise. I’ve done better at the former. The latter has kind of crash landed since having my first child… but more on that journey another time.
From watching Netflix food documentaries, to gleaning off others who have been faithful with their eating habits, I’ve spent the last few years learning about health and nutrition. Much like fashion, nutrition goes through fads; but it’s been my desire to go beyond the latest food trend and get to the heart of how God intended us to eat and live excellently. And it is GOOD.
As much as we may or may not like to think about it, how we care for our physical body isn’t just a lifestyle preference. Much like stewarding time, finance, testimonies, etc, we are responsible for how we steward our bodies.
1 Corinthians 16:19 says, “You are not your own” (NIV) or “You do not belong to yourself” (NLT). As much as my body seems like it’s MINE to do with as I choose, it doesn’t BELONG to me.
My body belongs to God; yet it’s my responsibility to take care of it. Like with our planet, our talents, and the breath in our lungs, our body is yet another thing that is not ours, but is absolutely our responsibility to steward.
So, with love and no judgement: How have you been stewarding your body?
Here’s my story: My mom studied nutrition. Consequently, my four brothers and I grew up with what we thought were ‘normal’ childhood snacks: sliced guava, carrot sticks, homemade banana yoghurt... needless to say, our taste buds were ‘trained’ from a very young age with mom’s healthy choices for our family. Till today, I LOVE mom’s nutritious, homemade food: ground black beans hidden in minced beef marinara sauce, and all her other sneaky mom tricks!
As kids, we grew up reading ingredients on labels, knowing to avoid “ingredients” we couldn’t pronounce and learning to cook over school holidays. As a family, we didn’t eat healthy to lose weight or count calories for health intervention purposes; we ate healthy as a lifestyle. Healthy, nutritious food is delicious and should be!
The testament to mom’s wisdom with nutrition is this: Recently, both mom and dad went for health checks (in their 60’s) and both have a clean bill of health. No high blood pressure, no diabetes or heart issues - all good! (They faithfully exercise as well - such champion role models!!) #lifegoals
So, that was life growing up. And then I got married.
Start Experiment 1:
My husband had grown up in a completely different food world to mine - coke was a staple drink, vegetables were rare and he definitely did not read food labels.
Grocery shopping as a married couple was very interesting that first year, but Jai (to his credit) was ‘hungry’ for food education and so I began to pass on what I had the privilege of growing up with.
The remarkable thing we learned from this (very accidental) experiment was: YOUR TASTE CAN CHANGE!!! Initially, we thought the adjustment in diet would be a huge sacrifice, and it was for a while. But taste buds get accustomed to what we feed ourselves and Jai found his food desires changing.
Today, on the rare occasion that Jai has a soda, he remarks how sweet and artificial it tastes!
Then, a few years later, I was pregnant with Mika.
Start Experiment 2:
In the early stages of pregnancy, I remember reading that amniotic fluid has flavors (depending on what mom eats) and the baby can pick these up as early as 13 weeks old!
With that, I decided to attempt an experiment to train Mika’s sense of taste from a foetus in my womb. As a 1 year old, I’d add ground cinnamon into his homemade mashed sweet potatoes and spice up his food mush in exciting ways with cumin or minced coriander.
Today, at three and a half years old, he frequently eats half a grapefruit for breakfast, along with some homemade granola. He loves tomatoes and okra and eats whatever Jai and I eat - from salad to buckwheat to raw purple cabbage and he LOVES pomegranates! Of course, he still loves chocolate and all the other treats and snacks kids his age love, but I hope to cultivate in him a healthy lifestyle and good eating habits from this age.
In the midst of all this, I’ve had the privilege of journeying with different people through the years who “hate vegetables” or “don’t know how to eat healthy”. I’ve loved sharing recipes, teaching them what I know and cheering them on. The encouraging and life-changing stories of how they feel so much better, function better at work, are so much more effective and feel full of life have been so rewarding!
In reading the God’s Generals books, it hit me how so many Kingdom assignments may have ended prematurely. We can only wonder how much greater of an impact these revivals could have had if each of these generals had done a better job stewarding their health. One of the ways to bring God’s reality into our world effectively is by stewarding our bodies responsibly.
I speak on this topic purely based on my life experience, I’m not highly trained or qualified. But, what I have tried to do is to steward the wisdom I’ve received by passing it on to others. It’s so amazing to see people young and old living whole lives, free from debilitating sickness. In taking care of our health through what we eat, we honour God with our body (1 Corinthians 6:20).
Take a small step today.
Reduce soda and sweet drinks - save money by drinking water!
Eat a variety of veggies - if you’re not a fan, roasted veggies are amazing! Pumpkin/ Cauliflower/Okra/Carrots/Brinjal, etc. with grapeseed oil, salt & pepper. (Don’t bake with olive oil as it has a relatively low smoke point.)
Switch from white bread, white rice and white pasta to whole grains. White bread, etc. is highly refined which means it fills you up for a bit, but your body digests it to glucose very fast, so you get hungry again. However, with whole grains, your body has to work harder to digest them - filling you up for longer and using more calories to digest it.
Reduce fried food items.
Reduce oil consumption by stir-frying with a tiny (coin-sized) amount of oil, adding water for moisture.
Avoid buying food items if you don’t recognise the ingredients on the list of contents.
If you can’t pronounce it, you probably shouldn’t be eating it.
The first item on the list is the primary ingredient in whatever you’re buying. Don’t buy food items that list sugar first….unless it’s sugar!
Start cooking at home - when you’re making your own food, you know what’s in it! And if you do number 6, you’ll be well on your way towards eating better.
If these seem overwhelming, just pick one. Once you conquer that one, take on another one. Be encouraged that as you keep going at it, your taste can change and soon you won’t crave the things you used to. You can absolutely do it! One step at a time - claim Jai’s testimony. If you’re struggling, declare Philippians 4:13 over yourself: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!”.
And now to leave you with something wholesome and yummy. From my kitchen to yours...
Homemade Granola Recipe
Only six ingredients and ready in less than thirty minutes!
(*Especially perfect for full-time working moms with kids!)
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2 Cups Old Fashioned Oats
½ Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
¼ Teaspoon Sea Salt or Himalayan Rock Salt
¼ Cup Natural Peanut Butter (or any other seed/nut butter)
¼ Cup Honey (or Maple Syrup)
½ Cup Sliced Almonds (or any other nuts or dried fruit)
Preheat oven to 160 C. Grease a large cookie sheet and set aside.
In a small bowl, mix together oats, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.
On the stove, melt the peanut butter and honey together until smooth.
Remove from heat and stir in dry ingredients and sliced almonds. Mix well until combined.
Spread mixture on prepared cookie sheet.
Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until granola is lightly browned, stirring it once gently half way through.
Remove from the oven and let sit until cooled.
Once cool, break apart and eat or store in an airtight container for breakfast.
Serve with yoghurt and fresh berries or sliced bananas.
By Daenielle Isaacs
Daenielle is married to Jai Isaacs and mother to the very handsome son, Mikhael. She lives in Dubai and is on team at Kingdomcity.