The fish dinner was also popular at the many hair salons I went to.  If the owner of the hair salon belonged to a church she would often be apart or support her church in raising money with a fish fry.  And of course you wanted to support the woman who does your hair.  So you spent a little extra money on both your hair and a fish dinner.  In the end were supporting her business and her church.

As I think back to all those years of eating fish dinners I can’t imagine how many calories I consumed over the years just on a fish dinner alone.  So I decided to do some research.  What I found out was astounding.  I must also tell you my motivation behind writing this blog.  My father who raised me just suffered a heart attack last week. This is nothing new to me.  I am very aware of the statistics on African American and Heart Disease.  I will also share that my mother died of a heart attack in 2007.  So I feel it is necessary to share with ALL of you.  So you can begin to protect yourself and your families.

So let’s start here.  How many calories do you think are in the average fish fry? Good question right?  I was blown away when I found this out.  So the average fish fry 1100 per serving.  Yes, 1100.  That does not include the ever popular “All You Can Eat” fish fry.  Think about it, this once per week tradition equals about 500 calories more per dinner per week than the average person should be consuming.  Over a year period, you are consuming an extra 26,000 calories which can turn into adding 7.5 pounds per year.     

I am happy to announce that my father is fine.  And he is resting comfortably.   When I spoke to him he admitted that he was scared.  That he never imagined something like this happening to him.  However I wasn’t surprised.  Many of us never imagine things like this happening to us.  That’s not until it happens.  So let’s begin on educating ourselves about health.  There are so many healthy alternatives.  Research and find out what you can do to live a healthier lifestyle.

By the way this is only information on the “fish fry” Imagine how many calories in a chicken dinner.

As I take a closer look at sowing seeds I realized that once the seeds are sowed that everything doesn’t end there.  You have to plow the seed and water the seed.  You can plant them and have an expectation that they will grow.  They will grow into something so magnificent and incredible but it will take time.  But instead of nurturing the seed you just plant the seed and wait.  Then one day you decide to water it.  On another day the rain comes in and you are thankful because you know the rain will take care of it.  A few months pass and you notice that the plant is not sprouting.  You wonder why.  Looking back you remember that you

1) Planted the seed 2) Watered it once and  3) The rain came in and took care of everything.

You become upset and discouraged.  You think why is your next door neighbors Mary plants already standing and thriving.  Mary is no better than me you think.  You instantly think how silly your words were and you sit down and remember the truth.  You did not sow your seed.  You left it to fend for itself.  Now months later you have nothing but a bare ground to look at.  If only I watered the seed you think.  I would have beautiful plants just like Mary.

Realizing that it is too late.  You think maybe I should start watering it now.  Maybe I can start now.  I want the same thing Mary has.

Mary was out everyday sowing her seed and watering it.  She kept the weeds out and the insects out.  She would have a smile on her face everyday as she milled the ground.   This was the way she lived her life everyday.  She kept everything in order.  You on the other hand will need to find out what Mary’s secrets were.  Everything in her backyard looks amazing.  So you decide to make the changes in your life.  You go out and get the equipment you need to create a beautiful garden.  You even decide to bake a fresh batch of cookies and take them over to your neighbor.  You hope that she would share her ideas and ways to create “the perfect” garden.

You go over to Mary’s before you can get a word out.  She says…Hi honey I was just thinking about you.  Forgive me for intruding but I wanted to lend you advice for your garden.  You are excited and overwhelmed with joy.  Why of course.  I would love your opinion.  By the way would you like to have some cookies?  Sure Mary says.  You had no idea that this would happen.  All you did was set the intention and showed up at Mary’s door.

A year later you have a beautiful garden.  You finally took the time to sow your seed and nurture your garden.  You also began spending more time with Mary and learning everything that she knows.  You even bought some books on gardening.  Life was like you never thought it could be.  This is how life should always be you think.  Now when you get tired of your garden you can always go next door and and enjoy Mary’s garden.

I hear these words so much.  In order to be healthy you need to eat a healthy diet and exercise.   This may be true but people still struggle to do this everyday.  I am amazed at how many people think if just one without the other is all they need.  And then there are people who hear their personal Physician say they need to change their ways.  And if they don’t that may die as a result of not keeping there life’s in check.

Just recently one of my aunts was diagnosed with Diabetes.  She has been over weight and on many yo yo diets for years.  I also know for the past several years she has just given up on loosing weight all-together.  There was a time when she did something.  If she was not on a diet she was at least walking.  Today she is doing absolutely nothing.  I heard her tell my cousin (her daughter)  Listen I have been fat for years and that’s not going to change.   Interesting enough she said that a week before she was diagnosed as being a Diabetic.    What’s more interesting is that she still thinks she doesn’t need to change.  She told my other aunt yes I am a diabetic.  But it’s really not that high.  I was completely blown away when I heard that.  She is still not taking responsibility for her health.  I did offer and suggest some ways that she could lower her blood sugar levels.  She was some what receptive.

I am so amazed at how people would rather kill themselves than change their diet and exercise.  What has gone wrong in our country and in our communities.   How do we get people like my aunt to see that if they don’t change that there will be severe consequences.  Where do we find ways to get them to see that their problems are affecting not only them but the people who love them as well.

I am committing myself to changing the life’s of both the people I love and the people in this country.

I am The Oxygen Coach

You can also make a Clove Latte Tea.  Simply by adding Indian Chai Tea.    Both the clove and Indian tea should be very hot and simmer for a while.  For best results let both teas simmer over night.  Then warm it up and add organic coconut milk with organic maple syrup or agave nectar.

I’m on a mission to to bring healing foods to your dinner table.
I am The Oxygen Coach

Batter

2  Medium size eggplants

2 Cups of organic wheat flour

2 Cups of organic corn meal

3 Cups of almond milk

2 Tablespoons of fine Himalayan Salt

Sauce

2 Cups of organic tomato sauce

1/4 Balsamic Vinegar

2 Tablespoons of organic maple syrup or  (yacon for diabetics)

1/2 Cup of chopped green onions (topping)

1 Tablespoon of minced onion

2 Cups Grape seed Oil

2 Cups of organic yellow shredded cheese

Flax seeds as desired

Optional

1 Stalk of Rosemary

Ground cracked pepper

Let cook slow

Fry eggplant in grape seed oil (lightly fry)

Preheat oven on 400

Layer eggplant in dish.  Pour sauce.  Then layer eggplant once more.  Repeat if desired.  Then top with cheese, green onions and flax seeds.

Let cook for 15 minutes just enough that the cheese melts.

What is left is a concentrated unnatural substance, which the human body is not able to handle, at least not in anywhere near the quantities that is now ingested in today has accepted lifestyle.  Sugar is addictive.  The average American now consumes approximately 150 lbs. of sugar per year.  This is per man, woman and child.

The biggest reason sugar does more damage than any other poison, drug or narcotic is twofold:

• (a) It is considered a “food” and ingested in such massive quantities, and
• (b) The damaging effects begin early, from the day a baby is born and is fed sugar in its formula.  Even mothers milk is contaminated with it if the mother eats sugar, and
• (c) Practically 95% of people is addicted to it to some degree or other.

Sugar is eaten to excess

It has been said that the criteria as to whether a substance (any substance) is harmful or medically beneficial is the quantity in which it is used in the human body.  To point to a dramatic illustration: we all know that the venom of a rattlesnake, a cobra, water moccasin, coral, and other venomous snakes is deadly to the human system.  There are some snakes whose bite is so deadly it can cause death within a matter of seconds.  Nevertheless, even snake venom, deadly as it is, has been used for therapeutic, medical purposes when used in minute quantities.

History of sugar

Whereas sugar had been around in minute quantities for several thousand years, it was practically unknown and formed an insignificant part of the average diet in the Classical civilizations of Egypt, Greece, and Rome.  The Greeks (who had a word for nearly everything!) did not even have a word for it.  Even in medieval Europe it was practically unknown and then only a rare delicacy in the royal courts.

During the last major Crusade that ended in 1204, some of the Christian Crusaders were introduced to sugar freely used by the Saracens.  The Moors when invading and colonizing the southern part of Spain grew sugar cane on Spanish soil and refined sugar.  When Spain drove out the Moors, it inherited some of the cane plantations.  It was during this time that Christendom took its first big bite of the forbidden fruit and liked it.

Sugar is an unnatural chemical

Why is sugar so devastating to our health?  One reason is it is pure chemical and (like heroin) through refining has been stripped of all the natural food nutrition that it originally had in the plant itself.

Heroin and sugar are arrived at by very similar processes of refinement.  In producing heroin, the opium is first extracted from the poppy: The opium is then refined into morphine.  The chemists then went to work on morphine and further refined it into heroin, proclaiming they had “discovered” a wonderful new painkiller that was non-addictive.  So they said.

Similarly, sugar is first pressed as a juice from the cane (or beet) and refined into molasses.  Then it is refined into brown sugar, and finally into strange white crystals C12H22O, that are an alien chemical to the human system.

Sugar is addictive

A second reason that sugar is so harmful is that like heroin, it is addictive, and being delectable and seductive to the taste, it is habit forming.  Starting with sugar in the baby’s formula, people not only develop a strong taste for sugar but an insatiable craving for it so that they never seem to get enough of this poison.

Slow but insidious

A third reason is that the damage sugar does is slow and insidious.  It takes years before it ruins your pancreas, your adrenal glands, throws your endocrine system out of kilter, and produces a huge list of damage.

Foods are loaded with sugar

A fourth reason is the outrageous amounts of sugar-civilized nations consume.  Americans in particular are told how they are the best-fed and best-nourished people on the face of the earth.  If we are talking about processed junk food – this is true.

If you examine the “foods” in any supermarket more closely and start reading labels, you will find just about everything contains sugar.  Most of the foods are loaded with it – from cereals, to soups, to ketchup, to hotdogs.  Even flue-cured tobacco can contain as much as 20% sugar by weight.  Some cereals are as much as 50% sugar.

List of Damages

We have stated that sugar is deleterious to your health: that it is more damaging than all other narcotics combined; that it is a long-term chemical poison.  Just what damage does sugar do to the human body?  The list is endless.

When we talk about sugar, we are including bad nutrition as a whole, since anyone who indulges in sugar has bad dietary habits per se.

1. Sugar is by far the leading cause of dental deterioration – cavities in teeth, bleeding gums, failure of bone structure, and loss of teeth.
2. Sugar is the main cause of diabetes, hyperglycemia, and hypoglycemia.
3. It is either a significant or a contributory cause of heart disease, arteriosclerosis, mental illness, depression, senility, hypertension, cancer.
4. It has an extremely harmful effect in unbalancing the endocrine system and injuring its component glands such as the adrenal glands, pancreas, and liver, causing the blood sugar level to fluctuate widely.  It has a number of other extremely damaging effects on the human body.

Some of the other effects of sugar on the body are:

• Increases overgrowth of Candida yeast organism
• Increases chronic fatigue
• Can trigger binge eating in those with bulimia
• Increases PMS symptoms
• Increases hyperactivity in about 50% of children
• Increases tooth decay
• Increases anxiety and irritability
• Can increase or intensify symptoms of anxiety and panic in susceptible women
• Can make it difficult to lose weight because of constantly high insulin levels, which causes the body to store excess carbohydrates as fat.

There are a number of books available on the subject, but perhaps one of the most interesting ones is “Sugar Blues” by William Duty.  It is available in most Health Food stores.

Nitric Oxide is essential for healthy circulation. It helps dilate blood vessels, prevent blood clots and regulate blood pressure. It also helps inhibit the accumulation of dangerous arterial plaque.

How It Works: Nitric Oxide helps prevent heart disease and stroke in the following ways: Expanding blood vessels: Nitric oxide protects the blood vessels smooth muscle tissue from harmful constriction. This allows the flexibility necessary for blood to circulate with less pressure.

Dr. C. Noel Bairey Merz, MD of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center at Women’s Heart Center says a daily exercise regimen is crucial to help heal the arteries that have been damaged.  Exercise stimulates cells to make nitric oxide, a natural chemical helps arteries dilate.

Walking is the perfect remedy.

 All watermelon are really great. No matter how it is sliced, it is packed with some of the most important antioxidants found in nature. It is an excellent source of vitamin C and a very good source of vitamin A, particularly through its concentration of beta-carotene. The beautiful red watermelon is also a source of the potent carotene antioxidant which is called lycopene. These antioxidants travel throughout the body neutralizing free radicals. Free radicals are substances in the body that can cause much damage to us. They are able to oxidize cholesterol, making it stick to blood vessel walls and thicken them which can lead to hearty attack or stroke. The lycopene which gives fruits the attractive red color that we find in watermelon can help reduce the risks of prostate cancer.

1-2 Yellow Summer Squash

2   Zucchini

1/2 Cup of chopped green onions

1 Tablespoon of crushed red chili peppers

1/3 Grape seed-oil

1 Large lemon

Himalayan salt to taste

Heat oil.  Add all contents.   Later add chili pepper and lemon.

Seitan
8 Ounce of Upton’s Naturals Ground Beef Style Seitan
2 Cups of brown rice (already cooked)
1 Tablespoon minced onions (optional)
1 Tablespoon of Montebaldo 100% Pure Grape-seed Oil
1/3 Cup of Bone Sucking BBQ Sauce
1 1/2 Teaspoon Ultimate Superfoods Himalayan Crystal Salt (Fine Stone Salt) 16 oz bag.
Add all contents fry lightly for 10-15minutes

Salad
2 Cups of dark organic greens/lettuce
1 Large size hot house cucumber (cut in circles)
2 Medium size tomatoes (cut in small cubes)
1 large lemon
1 teaspoon Ultimate Superfoods Himalayan Crystal Salt (Fine Stone Salt)

Put all fruit in first. (except lettuce) Slice lemon in half. Squeeze lemon then add Himalayan Crystal Salt (Fine Stone Salt) Pour juice over greens then add all other fruit. Top with cracked black pepper.

Tortilla chips
Frontera Brand All Natural Lime +Sea Salt Tortilla Chips