Recipes – Christian Vitality | Christian Weight Loss | Christian Health & Fitness

Celery cures: Cancer, high-blood pressure, stress, bad cholesterol, acidity, inflammation, weight management, & improves your sex life?

Celery: another miracle with many healing qualities

This evening I pay homage to Celery my childhood nemesis of sorts. It’s fine time that I pay a little retribution to a vegetable that I so thoroughly loathed that it was second only to brussel sprouts as a vegetable that I would much rather throw away (or at someone) than put it in my mouth and eat it.

Celery Helps Cure for Cancer: Yep, it has bee proven that the Flavanoids Apigenin & Luteolin (in celery, artichokes, and herbs especially Mexican Oregano) kill human pancreatic cancer cells in the lab by inhibiting the cancer growth. You can read the details of the studies here and even though you likely couldn’t eat enough celery to cure cancer by itself, the simple fact that the flavanoids in it could do this in high concentrations could be argument enough for you to make this vegetable one of your regulars on the plate.

Celery May Lower Blood Pressure: Phthalides are active organic compounds in Celery that have been proven to increase your circulatory health benefits. Eating whole (raw) celery can help reduce high blood pressure over time.

Celery May Lowers Stress/Hypertension: Celery is rich in Magnesium (and other minerals) and an essential oil that soothes the nervous system. Have the late night munchies? Make a celery snack, it may help lower your stress level and may even help you sleep better at night.

Lower Bad Cholesterol with Celery: Butylphthalide is one of the chemical constituents in Celery Oil that gives it its aroma and taste. Studies have shown that it may be useful as a treatment for hypertension and have neuroprotective effect in addition to lowering cholesterol. A Chicago University research shows that eating two stalks of celery a day can lower your bad cholesterol (LDL) by up to 7 points.

Lower Body Acidity With Alkalizing Celery: In the average modern persons diet, there are many things eaten that can throw our optimum acid/alkaline levels out of balance. A neutral reading of 7.0 (or slightly higher and alkaline) is optimal. Eating acidic foods can cause a series of problems in the human body and Celery can offset them with it’s alkaline pH and its alkalizing affect on the body. For more information on how pH can have an impact for weight loss go here.

Celery Can Help You Battle Inflammation: As we’ve discussed numerous times here before, Inflammation can hinder your weight loss and actually make you gain weight. If not addressed, it can actually lead to systemic problems with permanent ramifications. Anything to help combat inflammation is a great addition to your diet. Celery is one of these and may help reduce inflammation in joints, minor infections, asthma, acne, gingivitis or many other inflammations that are holding you back from your weight loss goals.

Celery Can Improve Your Sex Life: This is not an old-wives-tale or urban legend. Dr. Alan Hirsch, famous for his invention of Sensa (the popular weight loss supplement) and founder of www.smellandtaste.org says that there are two pheromones in celery that can contribute to an increase in arousal: androstenone and androstenol. They are released when you chew celery and could be a nice addition to your diet to spice up your love life.

Celery Can Help With Weight Management: Whether eaten fresh, with some almond butter, chopped and thrown into salads, cooked up with your other favorite veggies in stir-fry, celery is super low in calories (about 10 calories per stalk) full of fiber and all the other nutrition we’ve spoken about above.

So, make sure celery is on your go-to list of veggies to have on hand at all times. Your body and your weight loss coach will be glad you did.

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Side note: After dealing with a little doldrums this morning I’ve ‘realigned with my reasons why’ and I am back on track. Praise God for reminding me why I’m on this path and giving me the strength and courage to stay on it. May God also bless you with resilience and perseverance as you stay on your weight loss path. In Jesus Name, Amen!

If you find yourself in a place of the doldrums in your weight loss program or in your spiritual life, maybe it’s time you also realign with your reasons why? Look around you, God will point them out to you if you ask.

The celery salad I had with dinner helped me too. It’s just some chopped celery with rock salt & virgin olive oil. A new favorite of mine. Try it. You’ll like it!

Be blessed my friend.

Pastor Dan

P.S. Please comment, share, or like if you find this a blessing to you. Thank you!

Dark Chocolate: God’s gift to you and me that cures what ails you!

Yes, Dark Chocolate, and more importantly chocolate with a Cacao content of 72% or higher is not only good for you it can help prevent some pretty nasty ailments.

I’ve been eating Dark Chocolate for about 2 years now. I was first turned on to it by Mark of Primal Blueprint fame, when he convinced me to give it and try it as a supplement to my diet, because it had so many benefits and was a nice replacement for this choco-holic who just quit his long-term sweet-addiction.

I started with 72% (and would recommend at least 70%), which today I’d say is a bit to sweet for me and a bit high in sugar. I slowly graduated up over time to an 86% Cacao (you can find it at Trader Joes if you have one close by) which is the highest I’ve been able to find.

I imagine if you ate cacao-nibs, you can increase the Cacao percentage, but I’ve not yet found a way to easily integrate those little guys into my diet. I’ve tried them and the experience was a little like chewing on little wood bits that had a slight chocolate flavor. I guess people who use them a lot use them in homemade shakes and smoothies. Evidently some people also throw them into savory dishes. Any way you can get them into your diet is a good thing and once you read all of the health benefits of Dark Chocolate I might have you convinced as well.

Dr Mark Hyman, in his great book Ultrametabolism recommends you eat between 1-3 ounces of dark chocolate everyday day. I’d like to add, that when you do so, make sure that it is after a meal or eaten with some other lower glycemic foods to help minimize the glycemic load of the chocolate. Even the very high cacao content chocolate has a pretty high level of sugar.

Another tip to keep in mind is that it’s very easy to go overboard on this super-food. When you are going to eat dark chocolate ration out your 1-3 ounces and put away the rest. You’ll be glad you did. I know, speaking from experience, I’ve gone overboard on more than one occasion in the name of super-food consumption.

Here are just some of the benefits of Dark Chocolate:

Dark Chocolate contains healthy fats. Mostly monounsaturated and saturated fat, with very little polyunsaturated fat. Most of the saturated fat is stearic acid widely know to have no bad effects on LDL cholesterol, so you don’t have to have any guilt to enjoy cacao fat.
Dark Chocolate is loaded with Polyphenols too. In particular flavanols. When it comes to polyphenols & antioxidant capacity, Dark Chocolate blows away any other super-food. The most studied polyphenol in cacao is epicatechin, a flavanol that is highly potent and potentially healthy for humans.
Dark Chocolate lowers your blood pressure too. Epidemiological studies consistently show that dark chocolate consumption is related with lower blood pressure readings. One study even found that eating dark chocolate for 15 days straight, lowered blood pressure and insulin sensitivity in healthy subjects.
Cacao consumption has been proven to improve arterial flow of blood in smokers.
Dark Chocolate can reduce cardiovascular disease.
Dark Chocolate lowered insulin resistance in diabetic patients (in addition to lowering blood pressure).
Dark chocolate is good for folks who have a fatty liver (some of us who have been eating sugar in high doses all of our lives are in this camp). The chocolate can reduce oxidative stress and inflammation as well.
Dark chocolate can help increase our body’s natural defense against UV exposure. In several studies recently it’s been proven that eating dark chocolate can increase our natural defense against the harmful affects of the sun by as much as double. So, you could stay out twice as long without sun-damage.

So, go eat some dark chocolate with dinner tonight. Make sure it’s high in cacao (70%+) and low in sugar. Eat it with your meal and feel good knowing you just took in some of the best tasting medicine on the planet. Thank you God for the gift of Dark Chocolate.

So, what’s your favorite dark chocolate recipe? Have you tried 86% Cacao ye? Tell me about your experiences with Dark Chocolate below in the comments.

Breakfast, lunch, or dinner you’ll love this Samson-sized low calorie meal!

This recipe is great for high nutrient dense low-caloire meals

One of my favorite parts of Saturdays is that I take a break from my Intermittent Fasting. I make sure that I not only eat breakfast, but I eat a Big Breakfast that any one would be proud of.

The overall plan of all of my meals if you haven’t already figured it out, is to eat only good fats, a ton of protein, and a ton of veggies.

One of the things that helps me do that on Saturday mornings is one of my favorite dishes (have to say my wife even likes it as long as I omit the mushrooms).

So, here’s the recipe and how to prepare it. There are many variants as far as the veggies are concerned, so I generally use what I have on hand at the moment. For me it typically consists of Zucchini (or yellow squash), purple onions (or shallots), green chiles, jalapenos, bell peppers, and some specific spices and of course Omega-3 eggs (cage free if I can get them).

Step 1) I set the pan to medium heat on our gas stove-top and throw about 1 tablespoon of coconut oil in it. I use coconut oil for all of my cooking. I stay away from Olive oil for cooking and generally only us it uncooked. (the reason being is that olive oil and other oils tend to oxidize when they are heated…it changes their chemical make-up and they are no longer as good for you after you heat them). Coconut Oil (especially high-heat coconut oil) isn’t as susceptible to heat damage (oxidation) compared to other oils and it has some very unique nutritional benefits that are great for you.

Eat Purple Onions for awesome health benefits — Purple onions have polyphenols & flavanoids. Antioxidant miracle veggies.

Step 2) Chop your hot chiles, jalapeno, onions (shallots) and throw them in first. Cook for 5-7 minutes (constantly turning or tossing over the heat) or until they start to show some carmelization. I do so with these guys first because the heat tends to knock of some of the spiciness of them.

Step 3) Throw in your zucchini & yellow squash…the sliced (or chopped) bell peppers and chopped celery.

Celery is great for your health — Celery’s components have been scientifically proven to kill cancer cells in a lab

Step 4) While the veggies are cooking throw in garlic powder, low-salt (or salt free) multi-spice, paprika, ground black pepper, and salt. Sometimes I throw in yellow curry which has Tumeric in it and is highly nutritious.

Step 5) Once the veggies have reached your desired tenderness throw in 3-5 Omega-3 eggs and stir in until eggs are completely cooked and water has evaporated.

Step 6) Serve and Enjoy! Knowing you are feeding your body with some great fuel and signaling your body’s DNA to keep you healthy & strong.

Ingredients:

1-2 zucchinis or yellow squashes
1-2 green chiles
1-2 jalapenos
1/2 a purple onion
2 stalks of celery
1/2 purple onion (purple has a higher nutritional value) or equivalent amount of shallots
2-3 cloves of garlic (to replace garlic powder if you have it)
1 red/yellow/green bell pepper
3-5 eggs
1/2 tsp of Paprika
1/2 teaspoon Garlic Power (if you don’t have fresh garlic)

How many calories in this dish? Well, the coconut oil is about 100 calories (minus what you lose to cook off). The eggs are about 70 calories each (I use 5 of them for 350 calories). The zucchini and squash are about 20 calories each. Celery is 10 calories per stalk. After all is said and done I have a HUGE plate of food worth about 600 – 750 calories. It’s so much food that I often give Diana half and still have a decent meal, but honestly…I most often eat the whole plate and am full for most of the day and half to force myself to eat lunch.

Please try this. I had it this morning for Breakfast.

You’ll love the ability to have a guilt-free pig-out-party and can feel good about feeding yourself full of an endless list of healthy nutrients.

If you do try it, please comment & share. I’d love to hear you feedback. Or please share your variation. I’m always trying news things and will give YOUR recipe a try.

Side note: If your are implementing Intermittent Fasting (like I did by only eating between 1:00pm – 7:00pm) this is a great way to get to fill yourself up with a relatively low number of high nutrient density foods and not feel hungry at all.

Will you try this? If you have, what do you think? Easy huh? Have any favorite low-calorie recipes to share with us? Please share your comments below…