Addicted to Ginger (and WHY)

Welcome back, my friend!

Two days ago (from when I initially sketched this post) we went in the town for our weekly grocery and window shopping, and I was feeling terrible: headaches, inflamed sinuses, blocked AND running nose, sweating and nausea and sneezing. Before leaving the house, I prepared my lemon water as I always do (Lemon water is like my second wallet, or, better said, like my life jacket). Out of desperation probably, I chose to add some fresh, grated ginger to my lemon water...

Hot lemon ginger drink

I kept sipping my ginger lemonade until we got back home. At home, finally having time to make a tea, sit down and relax (and THINK), I realized that I was feeling so well: energized and healthy. I could breathe like a normal person, and all the cold symptoms were completely gone. 

Thinking about it, I knew it was the new added ingredient: the ginger. This miraculous root handled my infection/cold so fast that it turned me into an addict overnight. Curious to find out more about it, I kept on reading and I concluded that many of the great vitamins and supplements I take could be replaced by ginger. I love this because I would rather pay the farmer than the chemist (even if I love my GMO free, soy free, vegan, Kosher supplements). 

So here are some reasons why you should add ginger to your cooked food, lemonade, (green) tea or even dessert. By the end of the list, hope you'll decide to give ginger a try!

Ginger's proven health benefits:

Antibiotic: Ginger's antibiotic effects may be exceptional and it has an antibacterial effect on respiratory and periodontal infections.
Anti fungal: Ginger has  anti fungal capability, curing even the most difficult to treat fungal infections including the drug-resistant forms.
Asthma: Because ginger enhances bronchodilation (a substance that improves breathing) and it is a much safer alternative to the medications on the market that can have serious, even lethal side effects.
Bacterial Diarrhea: Zingerone, a compound found in ginger, binds the toxins released by diarrhea, so that it cannot interact with the gut, thus preventing diarrhea. 
Blood Circulation Regulator: Ginger contains chromium, magnesium and zinc, helping to improve blood flow, preventing chills, fever and excessive heat. It curbs down cravings and can help maintain a healthy digestion.
Heart: Ginger inhibits fatty deposits on the arteries, reducing the risk of a stroke.
Cancer: Ginger can defeat several types of cancer cells, like lung, ovarian, colon, breast, skin carcinoma, prostate, and pancreatic.
Diabetes:  Ginger can both prevent and treat diabetes, along with the related abilities to lower blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood fats.
Gastric Distress: Ginger can ease any gastric distress: it eases pain and as a antispasmodic agent, it helps prevent ulcers. 
Ulcers: Ginger can prevent ulcers, and can inhibit the existing ulcers too.
Inflammation: Inflammation is a serious, modern-age problem and ginger's anti inflammatory ability can help with many chronic conditions (in arthritis, cancer, prostate disease, and general inflammatory processes).
Nausea and Motion Sickness: Ginger can ease nausea in all sorts of situations: morning sickness and pregnancy related nausea, sea sickness.
Menstrual Pain: Ginger is as effective as both mefenamic acid and ibuprofen (most prescribed drugs).
Immunity: Ginger helps battle a bad cold and a throat irritation, fights common respiratory problems.
Radiation: Ginger can help prevent vomiting and taste distortion associated with radiation poisoning. It reduced the severity of symptoms and mortality -when it is taken before the radiation.
Rheumatoid Arthritis, Knee Osteoarthritis, and Indomethacin: Ginger is, at a minimum, just as effective, and sometimes even more than indomethacin (the usually prescribed drug).
Toxicity: Ginger helps prevent the toxic effects of a wide array of substances, including the pesticide lindane, the chemical bromobenzene, and the excitotoxin monosodium glutamate (MSG). Lindane, an agricultural insecticide and a pharmaceutical drug, can be carcinogen in humans and it affects the nervous system, the kidney and the liver and it can be an endocrine disruptor. Brombozene is used as a motor oil additive and is highly toxic, damaging the liver and nervous system extremely rapidly. Ginger has been shown to alleviate its liver damage. MSG are cheap, synthetical glutamates, present in some canned food and most restaurant food (especially Chinese); MSGs can trigger neurological and psychological disorders, but  ginger extract protects against MSG nerve damage.
Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (Fructose Damage): Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NFLD) is now on the increase because of the prevalence of fructose as a sweetener. NFLD is associated with dyslipidemia (abnormal amount of lipids -cholesterol and fats- in the blood) and excess triglycerides (bad facts in the blood, that can raise the risk of heart disease) in the liver. Ginger may help this condition by lowering serum cholesterol.
WEIGHT LOSS!!!!: Ginger can boost metabolism by up to 20%, helping burn the stored fat. Ginger can also infuse the feeling of fullness after a meal and suppresses the appetite, making it easier to avoid overeating. Dr. Oz believes ginger can help you achieve a flat stomach, and uses it in his flat stomach tea recipe.

I hope now you can give ginger a try! I did, and now my hot lemon water always has some grated ginger in it! Also, ginger tastes great in green tea. But should not take ginger if you suffer from a bleeding disorder or take blood-thinning medications (such as warfarin or aspirin).

Happy ginger day everyone! Right now, I am having my 'healing drink' and I'm loving it! Here's a yummy recipe:

Resources:

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/10-benefits-of-ginger-that-you-didnt-know-about.html
http://www.greenmedinfo.com/node/83545
http://www.progressivehealth.com/ginger-for-weight-loss.htm
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/265990.php
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/11/04/ginger-benefits.aspx
http://www.thewhistlingkettle.com/lemon-ginger-cooler-pu-erh-white.html

P.S. If you want to learn more about the health benefits of HOT LEMON Water, scroll down to one of my earlier posts! :)

Walking through the desert

We all like happy places, comfortable places. That's why most of us like to be inbetweeners: not cold, but not hot either. Just comfortable. Comfortable 'inbetweeners', neither cold nor hot.

Dry desert

But funny enough, we hardly get to be comfortable in this life; it is all a journey, and never are we static, but always threatened by change. It is like God can't stand this comfortable fluffy existence, so He's always interrupting our otherwise comfortable nap!!!  In this article I invite you to meditate on the walking through the desert season.

Let's remember God's chosen people, the Israelites, who found refuge in Egypt during the seven-year famine that ravished their country. They came to Egypt, the pagan land, for food and comfort, and they flourished there under the leadership of Joseph, who ruled the country with Pharaoh. In the Egyptian prosperity they had forgotten they were chosen for God's good plans. They forgot that they were chosen to reign, so instead they served as slaves. But when they got abused, experiencing the hot Egyptian weather, not wearing linen, nor enjoying refreshments or sunbathing during the weekends, they remembered God and cried out for help. Only when the Egyptians started to hated these immigrants and "worked them ruthlessly" for few centuries, they remembered their divine legacy and cried to God for help. God heard their cries and send Moses to rescue them and bring them to this promised, blessed land.

Then appears Moses, a man with a divine calling, but also a federal fugitive. This man was sought for with murder charges, and was deserving death under the Egyptian law, but God chose to give him life, and life in abundance - making him the leader of Israel. As as his tainted past was not enough, Moses was 80 years old when God called him to lead His people out of Egypt. He was old! He had  spent the first 40 years of his life in Egypt learning first from his mother about God and then learning from Pharaoh the skills needed to run Egypt.  The next 40 years he had spent as fugitive, working as a shepherd for a priest in Midian.  There he took care of sheep all day long, and HAD experienced God's refinement. Moses became the meekest man on earth (Numbers 12:3). Chosen and refined, this old fugitive is the man that God used for His mighty plan - this so clearly shows the heart of God.

So here comes this fugitive whom God gives specific instructions, and the Israelites miraculously get under his leadership and left Egypt. 

No one likes to leave. Not even the slaves. Their hearts broke leaving the known territory for the Big Unknown.  So their freedom starts with leaving Egypt behind. But somehow God did not work His magic like they must have expected it. God did not get them out of Egypt and did not transplanted them in the promised land immediately. There was no instant miracle in that. They had to WALK through DESERT. They were HOT and THIRSTY. They were HUNGRY. They wanted the food they had in Egypt. Walking, step by step, day after day, though foreign territories, with a cloud guiding them, all this started to look insane in their eyes. The longer they walked, the  more things they had to give up and leave behind: heavy gold they must have saved for years, life possessions they relied on, family members they lived for.

Desert season, anyone?

But God was apparently very interested in their walking though the desert.

Are you having a desert time in your life right now? When it is all dry and you are dragging yourself out of breath and strength. When you see nothing else, but blurry clouds of sand in front of you.The Israelites were walking with their feet towards the promised land, but with their hearts away from God. They were walking and complaining, and when they got the food and water they were complaining about, they were not even grateful for it, and didn't like it. They didn't like God's daily provision as they already knew how that provision should have looked like:  Egyptian meals and Egyptian drinks.  The past was still defining them. Well, this walk took 400 years, so the complaining generations all died before reaching the promised land. Their dead faith eventually resulted in their death.

I wonder if we walk though our desert to live, or to die. I wonder if we spend our time complaining, or praising God. I wonder if we complain about what we had to leave behind, or thank God for his daily provision.  God is right and just, and He took care of them though the desert: their shoes did not break, not their clothes tear apart, they all had food to eat and water to drink. But their dead faith did not allow them to see God's provision. They had their own agenda, and couldn't see  God’s. God had a plan for them, but their unbelief prevented it. They persisted in unbelief for 40 years, separating themselves from the promise of God (Romans 11:20,23). Their dead faith dictated their dead end: "According to your faith it will be done to you."(Matth. 9:28-29). Because of unbelief, they did not entered into God's promised Canaan rest (Hebrew 3:19). Because they did not believe and trust in God's deliverance, (Ps. 78:22), they did not get delivered. They all died in the desert, before reaching the promised land. Only the new generation that was not tained by unbelief entered into the promised land. 

For me, this all looked like refinement. God wanted to refine them and make them ready for His promise, but they just not having it. Ever since I got disrupted from my previous life and came here, on the other side of the ocean, I've felt l that I’m walking though the desert myself. Ever since I came, I had reasons to complain and to be bitter on a daily basis, and some sounded so reasonable. The sun did not set in the summer, and I could hardly sleep at all; the sun does not exist in the winter and I can hardly wake up at all. I am a foreign young wife in this very American land, and I am so very aware of it. I did not find a place to belong yet, nor did I make friends like I wanted to.  Shopping can no longer be my therapy for happiness, as I am now accountable to my husband with our money. I am far from the things I loved, and there's not even a coffee place nearby.  I can complain so very well, and sometimes I do. But then I remember God's calling. Then I thank God for my husband and how well he provides, I thank God for the dog that makes some noise keeping me busy and sane, and I  thank God for the time I have to read and cook, and clean the house. 

I choose to let my walk though the desert build a thankful heart in me. A heart that relies on God and waits for His plan. The desert is not forever… From the winter solstice, we started to get some sunlight, and with every tiny sun we have almost each day now, I get happier and happier, knowing that summer is coming. I can see it. The desert is not forever.

New season sign

.Time will come to rejoice, celebrate and help others with their deserts. The sunrises and sunsets I see almost every day talk now talk about the sun who is coming back to us: 
"The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world. God has made a home in the heavens for the sun. It bursts forth like a radiant bridegroom after his wedding. It rejoices like a great athlete eager to run the race" (Psalm 19:1-5 NLV.

For anyone wanting to hear more about the signs of the new season God is starting in you, please listen to this podcast, it will empower you and skyrocket your faith: Robert Madu podcast (2nd from top of the list down):
http://www.hillsong.co.uk/podcasts/

Please see Israel's journey below:

Israel's journey to Canaan

Now, sister, go and help your sisters with their faith! Believe for them, pray with them, believe, believe with them! Enjoy this beautiful day, sister and...I see you soon!:)


References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exodus

http://biblehub.com/exodus/13-18.htm

http://www.gotquestions.org/wilderness-wandering.html

http://www.bibletimelines.net/article/145/available-timelines-sorted-by-category/moses-the-exodus-timeline

http://www.bible-history.com/maps/route_exodus.html

http://www.localhistories.org/bible.html

Beth Moore: Praying God's Word

My 2013

London 2013

Now that 2013 is left behind, it is somehow easier to look back and understand what last year was all about. 

2013 has been a hard year for me, in almost every possible way. I entered 2013 from the cold loneliness of a cute London house, watching the lazy snowflakes, sipping on some tea, eating biscuits and missing my hubby who was at the other end of the world. We had been long distance for 18 months already, were half married (ceremony in my home country), and I had given up a good job for one that would keep me sane at least -meaning: keeping me close to my church.

That night, when I prayed over 2013, I sketched up my resolution: to basically be reunited with my hubby and finally start our lives together. Also, I secretly wished, but did not dare to pray, that this would happen by May, so that the famous Alaskan winter would be almost gone and so I could also attend the Hillsong Women's Colour Conference with my sister - a surprise I had in mind for her.

Then 2013 hit hard and quickly, and it all felt like nothing new was about to happen. January was cold, dark, and wet, and then February felt better as hubby came to visit. Then March felt cold again, with long working hours every day and hardly any time for a book to read or a run at the gym. I struggled to believe my prayers would be answered, and the only strength I had was in the God I knew, in the lattes with friends, and in the shopping Saturdays I loved.

 Then all of a sudden I was announced that my visa was finalizing. Between all the mixed feelings of uncertainty still, I decided to quit my job, and arranged for my sister to come over for the Colour Conference. After that, it all worked like in a scripted dream: my sister came over and we had a great sister to sister time, I had my visa, shipped my things and was flying over to my new life. By the end of May, we were fully married and we started our 'together' life in June.

My year resolution was all completed, but God's wasn't. Ha!!! I still had to learn to be happy and content being in a foreign country where everything was new. I had never been without a job before, so there I was, a home stay wife, cooking and cleaning like I was born with the spoon and broom in my hands. Not that I was any good, but I was trying. Besides learning to drive, take care of a pet hubby came home with one day, I learnt to feed our marriage first and not my emotions. I learnt to be content and happy in this beautiful place that does not define me at all - but a place where I had all the time in the world to read, go to the gym and sleep. It all felt a bit like a holiday after my tiring London life, and I am touched that God even chose to have me rest. He does answer even the silent prayers! It also felt like a burning fire where I was being modeled into this kind of wife, pet person (never had a pet before, and never felt the need or wish for one), and I had to embrace it.

Overall, It has been a good and a full year!

And stepping into 2014, I am sure that it can only be the same good type of year, as it has the sealing of the same God that loves and cares. The new year comes with new dreams and prayers, and it is all fascinating how life always changes, and we are more and more refined into being what we were meant to be.

Happy New Years to you!