December 23, 1944. ‘Battle of the Bulge’ An entire US Armored Division was retreating from the Germans in the Ardennes forest when a sergeant in a tank destroyer spotted an American soldier digging a fox hole. The GI, PFC Martin, 325th Glider Infantry Regiment, looked up and asked, ‘Are you looking for a safe place?’ ‘Yeah,’ answered the tanker. ‘Well, buddy,’ Martin drawled, ‘just pull your vehicle behind me. I am the 82nd Airborne, and this is as far as the bastards are going.’
Is your diet preparing you for spiritual combat?
Please know, brothers and sister, that I ask this question and write this post in true Christian charity, meaning “to will the good of the other.” And the only good, as Jesus told us, is Our Father in heaven. Therefore, I ask this question in the hope that it may help you and me draw closer to God and God to us.
Note
Ready to “go in?” I recommend reading ketoCONTINUUM by Dr. Annette Bosworth immediately. Read it all. Follow it. Buy the workbook, too. ketoCONTINUUM: Consistently Keto Diet For Life
A Fortress for Your Soul #
I trust that you try to live according to the first and greatest commandment and the second, which is like it:
Jesus declared, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'” (Matthew 22:37)
and
“Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:39)
And I’m sure you’re familiar with what St. Paul said about bodies as temples of the Holy Ghost:
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; (1 Corinthians 6:19)
This brings us to the question I ask with trepidation. I don’t want to offend you, but to help you examine yourself as I was forced to challenge myself the day after Memorial Day.
I will assume that your soul is worthy of hosting the Holy Ghost, a worthy soul being the most crucial element to concern ourselves with. I examine my conscience regularly and often find my soul wanting.
But the day after Memorial, while listening to some Catholic podcast and enjoying a few adult beverages, I was struck with another concern: Are my mind and body (heart) worthy temples of the Almighty?
An answer came as if from someone standing just over my shoulder: “No.”
I am not strong enough to endure the challenges our Christian ancestors faced in the first five centuries Anno Domini. I am overweight with some degree of insulin resistance. A complete blood panel taken over several days would indicate I’m pre-diabetic, as my A1C tests sometimes show. I injure easily, as demonstrated by a grade-2 hamstring tear sustained while playing softball recently. I drink enough, often enough, that I’m reluctant to tell my doctor.
When it comes to my mind, it is not as sharp or resilient as it once was. I suffer from acedia, the noonday devil, that encourages sloth and laziness. I don’t want to think, much less get up and do.
So, even in those moments when my soul is clean and my intentions honorable, my heart and mind have been unworthy vessels for the Holy Ghost.
Sure, I could love the Lord my God with all my mind, body, soul, but it would be a weak offering. God, of course, can perfect my humble, slothful offering as He can perfect all things, including my soul. But shouldn’t I use the graces He affords to make my mind and body more robust, cleaner, and healthier for the Holy Ghost? Isn’t it a sin to make little effort and count on Jesus to pick up my cross and carry it over the goal line? Jesus Christ, who already suffered and died for me?
After a bit of prayerful consideration, I texted my wife, who was upstairs (see how lazy I am?), my intention: “I’m going to fast the rest of the week, so don’t worry about dinner for me.”
And I did.
Fasting to Strengthen Body and Soul #
Jesus said some demons could be driven out only by prayer and fasting. Modern, non-traditional medicine tells us that some physical and mental demons can be driven out only with prayer and fasting, too.
So I consumed nothing with calories from 8:00 p.m. Tuesday, June 1 until 10:00 a.m. Sunday, June 6. (Water, black coffee, black tea, Redmond’s Real Salt, and non-caloric vitamins and supplements only.) The extra 2 hours gained each day, I re-allocated to prayer, spiritual reading, and learning about diet, exercise, and fasting for optimal performance, both mentally and physically.
Following my fast, I followed a strict ketogenic diet which research both in the lab and in the field with real people proves to be the best way to make our bodies and minds the best they can be. I acheived peak therapeutic ketosis yesterday and today. The thick purple line indidcates GKI (glucuse-ketone index).
And, if I can do this, you can do it. Besides, it’s all the foods we love, as I pointed out in my previous post.
A strict keto diet has been shown to cure:
- Type 2 diabetes
- Certain forms of cancer
- Obesity
- High blood pressure
- Hyperglycemia
- Age-related arthritis
- Acne
- Many more conditions and diseases
Combined with fasting, keto diets see a remission of:
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Crohn’s disease
- Colitis
- Other auto-immune diseases
And the two together are known to prevent:
- Heart disease
- Cancer
- Diabetes
- Obesity
- High blood pressure
- Parkinson’s
- Alzheimer’s
Not to mention preventing and reversing more symptomatic problems, primarily associated with aging:
- Forgetfulness
- Lack of energy
- Brain fog
- Muscle weakness
- Loss of balance
- Declining vision
- many other factors that lead to frailty and an empty life
I learned that all of these conditions have a single common source: inflammation. And I learned what inflammation means in this context: too much water floating around in cells.
Eliminate inflammation, and eliminate most modern chronic diseases.
I also learned more about autophagy and how to produce a flood of human-growth hormones. And how to unleash an avalanche of stem cells to replace defective, mutant cells.
Additionally, I got back under the barbell and back on the rowing machine, even while I was fasting.
The results are remarkable. My morning, fasted blood glucose fell from the high 90s before the fast to 67 this morning. My ketones rose from < 0.5 on Memorial Day to 4.1 today. That’s a glucose-ketone index of 0.9, which is considered maximum therapeutic levels.
This chart explains what’s going on your body at various GKI levels:
In short, my body and mind are repairing the damage I had done to them over 40 years of enjoying the fruits of this world, thus making a better home for the Holy Ghost.
Spiritual Warfare Demands Physical and Mental Toughness #
I reluctantly accept my responsibility to combat demons everywhere, but I don’t want to go it alone. I want you there fighting with me. Or, perhaps, me fighting with you.
To stand firm in that day, yes, we must have pure souls, but we must also have the physical and mental capacity to fight through to the end.
“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Mattew 26:41)
The modern diet, pushed by Big Ag, Big Pharma, Big Medicine, and, especially, Big Government since the 1960s, was designed to make you frail, sick, and dependent on them.. Tony the Tiger was poison in a blue box. Candy, Doritos, Fritos, Pringles, pie, cupcakes, bread, pasta, rice, beans, fruit (except eggplant, tomatoes, and avocados)—ALL POISON! The food pyramid and food grid were designed to lead you to the doctor by way of grains.
The diet you were told to eat, the “healthy choice,” was a lie pushed by murderers.
“He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44)
Big Medicine and Big Government love chronic diseases and want you to have more of them. The chronically ill are chronically enslaved to that insidious machine that sells sickness for profit.
Break the chains that bind you to the father of lies!
Get Tough #
PFC Martin had the perfect attitude in 1944. He also had a rather well-conditioned body and mind. With mental, physical, and spritutal strength, we can stop retreating and declare, “This is as far as the bastards are going.”
Fasting makes you tough. Saying “no” to the comfort foods you’ve learned to love makes you tough and resilient. Nothing makes a person more powerful than denying himself.
Do it for yourself, do it for me, do it for your family, but mostly, do it for God. Make your body the worthy temple in which He desires to dwell. Sweep your temple free of the remnants of demons and fill every crack with the Holy Ghost guarded jealously by the angels.
Then you and I, brothers and sisters, will genuinely be able to say we love the Lord our Father with our whole hearts, and our whole minds, and our whole strength, and our whole souls.
Our battle is not with flesh and blood, but our flesh and blood must be up to the fight.
I’ll ask again, are your body and mind as pure as your soul? If not, please join me as we build an army of spiritual warriors for Our Lord to command and direct as He sees fit, knowing we have what it takes to complete any mission He commands.
Note
I highly recommend this book by Dr. Annette Bosworth. ketoCONTINUUM: Consistently Keto Diet For Life
Ad majorem Dei gloriam!