Put Your Hands on What You Eat

I have the happy privilege of living with a passionate chef, who is all too eager to love me through his food. I've been most blessed by his bountiful and carefully curated offerings. You can tell by looking at me-I am dearly loved. But, as the Holy Spirit was bringing me under conviction about my role in this work of manifesting His healing, it became clear that my hands off approach to eating had to end.

God's care is evident in His attention. All He cares about He sees and knows. In a way, even if not tangibly touched by Him, all that He loves He touches. He is not a hands off God. No! He is willingly a partaker of even the most minute details of our existence.

Beloved, God's calling us to care like He does. He's calling us to pay attention. He's calling us to put our hands in the soil and fashion, with Him, the life He has always had in mind for us. This week's tip is to put your hands on what you eat.

How to Put Your Hands on What You Eat
1. Start cooking at home. 

2. Plan all your meals using the 5 Ws: 

#1 What are you cooking? 

• Identify the meals you will prepare for breakfast, snack, lunch and dinner.
• Break each meal down by its required ingredients.
• Write each ingredient down to form your shopping list. You will want to check the fridge and pantry so that you don't spend unnecessarily. Eliminate any items or appropriate substitutes that you already have available in your home.
• Go shopping! Wednesdays are a great day to head to the supermarket. It's the day that supermarkets tend to transition their stock and so there are many deals to be had!
• For more help with what you are eating join the Diabetes Food Hub. 

#2 How are you preparing it? 
Based on your dietary goals, which you should set in consultation with a health coach or related health professional, identify the best means of preparing your meal. Will you boil, steam, grill, saute or bake your meal, etc?  This is especially important, because you are cooking to thrive. You may have to modify a favorite recipe in order to make the best choice.

#3 When are you preparing it? 

• If you don't make time for it, it will never happen. Put it in your calendar. Set an alarm. You'll need to approach this as you do the start of any new discipline. 
• Try setting aside just one day to do the cooking for the following week.

#4 How are you carrying it?

• This may sound silly. But, many a great homemade meals have fallen short of being eaten because the right containers were unavailable. Checkout these containers: http://nymag.com/strategist/article/best-meal-prep-containers.html
• A strategy I've used is keeping a fridge, standard utensils and one eating container in the office. If you have this option, it can save you the hassle of having many containers and transporting them back and forth. I make my lunch for the week on Saturday and take it to work on Monday. I store it in the fridge during the week and portion my meals into my eating container. At the close of the week, I wash everything and take it back home!

#5 When are you eating it? 

• The question of timing is important for maintaining healthy blood sugar levels. This determination should be made in consultation with a medical professional because it can change based on other factors, such as medications you may be taking. (National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases). 
• General guidelines encourage eating small meals every 4 hours, for a total of 6 meals per day. (How May Times a Day Should A Diabetic Eat).

Happy temple building!

Take care. Bless many.