INTRODUCTION
 

On March 10th, 2009, following a biopsy of my prostate, I was told I had cancer, and on April 14, 2010, following another biopsy, I was told that there is no evidence of cancer in my prostate or anywhere else (CT scan, bone scan). I have had no medical treatment (medicine, radiation, chemo or surgery) choosing to treat with only a diet change that consisted of no meat, diary, sugar or white flour. I will never encourage someone not to have medical treatment, but a change in diet will assist you and your doctors on your own journey to regain your health. I had cancer in two of twelve cuts of my prostate, my cousin-in-law Jack had 10 out of 12 that were cancer, Cousin Jack had his prostate removed and rightfully so. M. D. Anderson cancer Center is located in the town I live in and there are advertisements on the radio telling of people that came to them that other doctor’s had given up on and they led them back to health. I had a friend go to them and she said that diet was a big part of her treatment.
 

What I would love to see people do is practice preventative eating. By eating healthy we can stay healthy and help out the overburdened medical system. If a food grows naturally feel free to eat it, if man made it, either choose not to eat it at all or restrict these foods severely and there are some unbelievable recipes that look and taste like cheesecake, crackers, pizza, meat loaf, etc. that are made strictly from natural ingredients. We will learn how foods react in our bodies and what foods are alkaline or acidic. I learned on my journey to my healing that eating can be a wrestling match. I was in a constant battle that was trying to get me to give up and totally surrender to the medical system instead of natures system. We will study Daniel’s way of eating from the Bible.
 

And if you are in the medical system, like I was, stand strong and help the doctor’s guide you through the medical system to assist you in your healing, but do your part and eat natural foods. Many of the advances in the medical field have been made only because of our ignorance of the battle for our health that comes through our diets. Cooperate with the doctors, nurses, anesthesiologist, billing department and whoever so they can have wisdom, clarity of mind and skills they don’t know they have when you or a loved one, or friends or whomever are hospitalized.
 

HOW FOOD AFFECTS OUR HEALTH
 

The vast majority of human beings come into this world healthy. In fact, 96 to 97 out of every 100 babies born are born healthy. What happens on our journey through life that the vast majority of us will be sick at sometime in our life? What is the one thing we can all do that can help us stay healthy during our journey on this earth? We must all have a plan to eat healthy and fight to keep our health or restore our bodies to health and maintain our good health that we were born with by learning how the food we eat and the drinks we drink affect our health. Unfortunately I can guarantee that the visions of your favorite foods will start flying as you begin to read and begin to battle, struggle, and wage warfare along your path to a good diet (What a person or animal usually eats and drinks on a daily basis).
 

I read “The Miracle of Fasting” by Doctor Paul and Patricia Bragg in the early eighties and on pages 55 and 56 he states, “I want it definitely understood that man can not break a natural law. He breaks himself while attempting to break the natural law. Can man break the law of gravity? Can man jump off a 25 story building and live? Of course he cannot. This applies also to the nutritional laws of nature. Man has been brainwashed into eating the processed, devitalized, and dead food (and drinks) of civilization which has propelled him into such a pitiful physical condition. Man is so gullible to the false propaganda that is passed out to him by the big “special interests” describing what healthy and long-lived people we are.
 

Sickness is costly. Who spends more money in the pursuit of health than any other nation in the whole wide world? We do! Which nation has more “drives” to collect funds to fight the many diseases that plague our population? We do! Who has more convalescent homes, clinics, and sanatoriums than any other country in the world? We do! What nation spends the most money on magazine, newspaper, T.V. and radio advertising on “do-it-yourself” over the counter drug medication? We do! What nation takes the most aspirin and other so-called painkillers? We do!” (We have also been brainwashed into eating the processed, devitalized, and dead food and drinking acidic liquids through magazine, newspaper, T.V., radio advertising and now online ads.)
 

I am always amazed at the way the average person that eats the SAD or standard American diet thinks since it is a government standard they aren’t going to get sick. And then when they get sick they get mad and lose their appetite and eat vegetable soup or clear liquids for a few days and get well. They quit putting junk in their bodies and amazingly the body heals itself. We came into this world healthy now we need to eat and drink healthy.
 

I don’t spend a lot of time reading a newspaper, but I was stuck somewhere and bored so I read the comics and one of them was Hagar the Horrible. He was at a pub drinking with a buddy and he told his buddy, “My doctor said I had to switch from beer and fatty foods to a diet of vegetables and garden salads.” His buddy said, “Wow! What did you do?” Hagar answered with, “I switched doctors.” Our doctor is wisdom and we need to seek wisdom in everything we do by educating ourselves in the area of our health. We need to take responsibility for our own health and when we get sick we need to look to wisdom to guide us back to health. It is amazing how much better you feel when you don’t eat a bunch of man-made junk and our meats with steroids and hormones are 99.9 percent man-made junk. Keep it simple.
 

Pediatric researchers acknowledge that there is an epidemic of childhood obesity in our country and some 8-year-olds are now using cholesterol-reducing drugs known as statins. Eight year olds? Some of the side effects of statins are muscle pain, liver damage, digestive problems, rash or flushing and neurological side effects according to the Mayo Clinic. Diabetes is running rampant in the United States. By government estimation 23.6 million people of all ages, 7.8% of the population, had diabetes in 2007. And, there are 57 million Americans with pre-diabetes. Can our dietary habits be influenced by all the advertisements we spoke of earlier. Diabetes in the past has not generally been diagnosed in an individual before they were in their 50’s or 60’s, but now they are seeing a dramatic increase among individuals in their 20s and 30s and juvenile diabetes.
 

Why did we invent cola/soda water/soft drinks/pop, hamburgers and French fries? Here are the ingredients for preparing fries just like one of our large chain restaurants prepares theirs: 2 large Idaho russet potatoes, 1/4 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons corn syrup, 1½-2 cups hot water, 6 cups Crisco® shortening, 1/4 cup beef lard (or save the fat from previously cooked burgers), salt. Cut up the potatoes and soak them in the hot water, sugar and corn syrup for thirty minutes before you fry them in the shortening and lard. Sugar, sugar and more sugar plus grease and more grease to clog the eight year olds arteries so they can take statins.
 

Sugar was a luxury that only the rich could afford until the explorers from Europe discovered the Western Hemisphere and planted sugar and realized that it grew well in tropical climates of the Caribbean. Now almost everything we eat contains sugar or starch. Here are some facts about Americans' infatuation with sugar and syrup:
 

“In 1967, Americans ate 114 pounds of sugar and sweeteners a year per capita, nearly all of it as either raw or refined sugar. In 2003, each person consumed about 142 pounds of sugar per year. Since high-fructose corn syrup was developed more than 30 years ago, consumption of the sweetener, which flavors everything from cola to ranch dressing, has skyrocketed. Now Americans down about 61 pounds a year each [of high fructose corn syrup]. Since 1950, soft-drink consumption per capita has quadrupled, from about 11 gallons per year to about 46 gallons in 2003--nearly a gallon a week per person. With all that sugar-eating, it's no wonder people don't have much room for their vegetables. In 2003, Americans consumed, on average, a dismal 8.3 pounds of broccoli and just over 25 pounds of dark lettuces (the kinds that are really good for you).” This story appeared in the March 28, 2005 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
 

One of the reasons I like to stay with natural food with spices for ingredients instead of sugar or sugar substitutes, is reading the ingredients on canned and packaged food is complicated. Sugar substitutes abound, but they are all acidic in our bodies and that includes natural or organic sugars. Here is a website that has and explains almost every ingredient you can think of http://www.upcfoodsearch.com
 

I saw an advertisement for a new television show in Houston that will premiere on August 5, 2010. The show is called “Salud Vital” in Spanish and means “Vital Health” in English. The show was created to address the problem of overweight and obesity in the Latino population. The ad says that Dr. Barry Winston, a private practitioner for 35 years, became alarmed at the prevalence of overweight and obese Latino patients he was seeing. The ad says that 73% of the Latino population is affected. 73%? Wow, that is a lot of people and they state that 35% of Latino high school students are overweight or obese. The show is a first and has been created to address the problem in the Houston area. Mexican food used to be one of my weaknesses. Tamales, enchiladas, tacos, refried beans, tortillas and cheese, cheese and more cheese. In my thirties I used to order the combination plate at Mexican restaurants and also fried seafood platters. We must learn to eat to live and not live to eat.
 

You don’t have to wait to be diagnosed with cancer to rid your body of the potential for cancer or one of the other deadly or debilitating diseases or just allergies or sinus infections or colds or whatever that can be controlled through a proper diet. Diabetes can and has been completely reversed through a proper diet and if diabetes can be reversed and I reversed cancer you know allergies or sinus infections or colds or whatever can be reversed. I haven’t had a cold or missed work because of illness in years. There is a very interesting DVD available from www.rdnmovement.com showing the struggles of six people with type one and two diabetes going through the struggle to change their way of eating that I highly recommend. You can buy the “Simply Raw-Reversing Diabetes in Thirty Days” DVD for 29.95 or a 3 DVD set of the “Reversing Diabetes Now” plus “Simply Raw” and “The Ultimate Encyclopedia of the Raw Food Lifestyle” for 49.90. “There Is A Cure for Diabetes” by Gabriel Cousens, MD which he states is “The Tree of Life 21-Day+ Program to liberate ourselves from the cultural, nutritional, and personal habits that contribute to the manifestation of diabetes is to not only to heal ourselves and realize better health than persons who are not diabetic, but it is an act of love that contributes to a multi-level positive transformation of society.” It is also available for 19.95 on the same website and is 400 pages long and definitely covers everything you ever wanted to know about diabetes, but were afraid to ask. And, I will state again, that if the program will reverse diabetes it will reverse any other condition you may be suffering from.
 

When I was 34 years old I began to feel tired and had frequent headaches and a chest pain when I was indulging in one of my favorite activities. I was sitting on the couch one afternoon and decided to go for a run. I had on street shoes and just took off running for the first time in about 10 years. Sore is not a word that describes how my leg muscles reacted to my efforts to run a mile. It took me a month to be able to run a mile, but I made it. I got up to where I could run three miles a day and then six miles every other day, plus I was doing weight training and watching my calorie intake. If I would have kept up this routine I probably wouldn’t be writing this and it is impractical, to say the least, to think that the average person can run three miles a day and go to the gym. (Well trained athletes still are afflicted with conditions that we don’t understand how someone that appears to be that healthy could be diagnosed with or die of anything) What can we do on a daily basis that will not take a large amount of time and energy to maintain our health? Let’s look at Daniel’s diet from the Bible. People usually call this a Daniel fast. As we study his diet we will see that he ate pulse (vegetables and bread made from sprouted grains) daily for three years. It was not a fast, but his diet. (What a person or animal usually eats and drinks on a daily basis.)
 

DANIEL’S DIET
 

Daniel chapter one, “In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God: which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god. And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king’s seed, and of the princes; Children in whom was no blemish, but well favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king’s palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king’s meat, and of the wine which he drank: so nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king. Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: Unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names: for he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar; and to Hananiah, of Shadrach; and to Mishael, of Meshach; and to Azariah, of Abednego.
 

But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Now God had brought Daniel into favour and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs. And the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear my lord the king, who hath appointed your meat and your drink: for why should he see your faces worse liking than the children which are of your sort? Then shall ye make me endanger my head to the king. Then said Daniel to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink. Then let our countenances be looked upon before thee, and the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the king’s meat: and as thou seest, deal with thy servants. So he consented to them in this matter, and proved them ten days. And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king’s meat. Thus Melzar took away the portion of their meat, and the wine that they should drink; and gave them pulse.
 

As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. Now at the end of the days that the king had said he should bring them in (three years), then the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. And the king communed with them; and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: therefore stood they before the king. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm. And Daniel continued even unto the first year of king Cyrus.”
 

What is pulse? Definition from the internet: Pulse, {zer?im,} denotes all leguminous plants, which are not reaped but pulled or plucked; Definition from Webster’s: The edible seeds of peas, beans, lentils, and similar plants having pods or any member of the legume family. Definition from Strong’s Concordance: Something sown: a vegetable (as food). From what I have learned it sounds like they ate vegetables and sprouted grains. I have found bread and tortillas that are made from sprouted grains. They are called Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain bread and tortillas and are made according to the Bible verse Ezekiel 4:9, “Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof.” Fitches is spelt. I feel satisfied when I eat Ezekiel 4:9 products not bloated or stuffed.
 

MY JOURNEY TO LEARNING HOW WHAT I EAT AND DRINK AFFECTS MY HEALTH
 

I have always been interested in diet and exercise and I thought I knew what I should be eating from reading Nathan Pritkins books and “The Miracle of Fasting” by Paul Bragg in the seventies and eighties, but I would still gain weight and as I got older my weight increased from 178 in my thirties and forties to 188 in my early fifties and 198 in my late fifties and 208 in my early sixties. I never seemed to be able to get below 198. In 2003 I started an extensive exercise program and was amazed at how a sixty-three year old man’s body could respond and add muscle, but I still couldn’t lose weight. (I am now between 175 and 180 and can walk four miles in the heat of the day and take a thirty-five pound weight in each hand and do dumbbell flyes, curl a fifty pound barbell and take the same fifty pound barbell and lift it off the floor and over my head for 3 sets of 10 and I eat salmon once a week, maybe.)
 

On my journey to learning how foods react in my body and affect my health I was at Ralphena Dodson's birthday party in 2006 when someone told the group they should check the PH of their urine every morning and Ralphena stated that the PH of a soda water, regular or diet, was 2.5. I went on the internet the next day and did a search on body PH and found tons of information. As I searched on the internet I kept hearing about Robert O. Young and the “PH Miracle.” I bought his book “PH Miracle for Weight Loss” as I was about 25 to 30 pounds overweight (203 to 208) and was physically active and thought I was eating healthy. I purchased a home test PH kit from http://www.feelgoodfood.com/feel-good-food-product-home-test-pH-kit.php?pc=1 and quickly discovered that the PH of my urine should be around 7.0. Since I was drinking four 44 ounce fountain diet soda waters everyday mine was about 5.2. If you are in the 6.5 to 7.5 range that is ideal, but if you are lower you are acidic and if you are above 7.5 your body is fighting to rid itself of the excess acid in your system and that is when you need to help by cutting back on the amount of acid you are putting in your body or just relax and let your body detoxify.
 

Dr. Young has other books, “PH Miracle” which is a book his other books refer back to and some children’s books called “Doc Broc Rocks” and his wife Shelley's recipe books. He also has a website www.phmiracleliving.com and his blog of his articles of health are excellent. On the first page of his articles of health he states, “Articles of Health are the writings of Robert O. Young D.Sc., Ph.D., based upon his theory that the human organism is alkaline by design and acidic by function. He suggests that there is only one sickness and one disease which is caused by an over acidification of the blood and then tissues due to an inverted way of living, eating (drinking) and thinking. There is no way to have health and acidity -- health and alkalinity is the way!” (I read an article by Dr. Young in his “Articles of Health” blog titled “Cancer is Acid and Acid is Cancer” one week before I was diagnosed with cancer and it helped me tremendously to withstand the pain and discomfort of detoxifying because I realized the toxins I was releasing from my body were acid and/or cancer.)
 

One of the things in “PH Miracle for Weight Loss” is “live blood analysis.” Dr. Young takes a drop of someone’s blood and puts it under a microscope and can determine if they are acidic or alkaline by the shape of their blood cells. He shows pictures of blood that he has taken when they were on an acidic man-made diet and then compares the pictures of the blood after they have been on a natural alkaline diet. The blood of people with acidic or unhealthy blood is bunched up and looks like wiggle worms. In the healthy alkaline blood sample the cells are round and separated. Dr. Young says he has done 10’s of thousands of the live blood analysis and has learned to recognize signs of specific conditions and can definitely tell you what you have been eating. They can all be corrected with an alkaline diet.
 

Jane Clayson Johnson, a television personality, formerly of the “Early Show,” went to Dr. Young because she had serious digestive problems and said Dr. Young looked at her blood and told her everything that was wrong with her before she could tell him. She began to follow the alkaline diet first by drinking high PH water with Dr. Young’s “super greens” and turned her serious digestive problems around. I have had a “live blood analysis” and found it to be informative, but since it was June 5, 2010 right in the middle of my detoxifying it didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know. I was bunched up and had wiggle worms and will have another “live blood analysis” as soon as possible.
 

For the next three years I began to experiment with becoming “alkaline.” I sent off and got an oxygenation system that is designed to ionize and alkalize water by spinning and adding certain minerals. I then started experimenting with finding water that I could alkalize without spinning it first. I bought several different waters and checked the PH and found out that bottled water can be acidic. I learned from Dr. Young’s books that you can add baking soda, sodium bicarbonate, to your drinking water and raise the PH to an acceptable level. Go easy on the baking soda as it will affect the taste of the water. Check the PH as you add the baking soda and get the water between 8 or 9. I finally found water that I could easily alkalize when my local Whole Foods began selling their “Electrolyte Enhanced Water.” It only takes a very small amount of baking soda in a 1.5 liter bottle to raise the PH to 8 or above.
 

I only drink the water with mineral salts now, but in the beginning of my journey I experimented with different kinds of green powders to add to my water. The greens are a blend of organic grasses, vegetables, sprouted grains, leaves and high frequency minerals which alkalize, energize and nourish cells as they balance the body’s pH level. I started out with greens from different sources (Usually the cheapest), but ended up deciding to use Dr. Young’s “Innerlight Super Greens.” They contain: Kamut Grass, Barley Grass, Lemon Grass, Shavegrass, Wheat Grass, Alfalfa Leaf, Dandelion Leaf, Bilberry Leaf, Black Walnut Leaf, Blackberry Leaf, Plantain Leaf, Red Raspberry Leaf, Blueberry Leaf, Boldo Leaf, Goldenseal Leaf, Papaya Leaf, Strawberry Leaf, Lecithin, Avocado, Slippery Elm Bark, Marshmallow Root, Pau d’Arco, Cornsilk, Rosemary, Betatene, Rose Hip, Echinacea Purp Tops, Dog Grass, Meadowsweet, Aloe Whole Leaf Conc., Oat Grass, Soy Sprout Con., Kale, Spinach, Okra, Cabbage, Celery, Parsley Leaf, Broccoli, Watercress, Alfalfa Juice Conc., Tumuric, Tomato, Peppermint Leaf, Spearmint Leaf, Wintergreen Leaf, Sage, Thyme, Rosemary Leaf, and a Mineral Complex.
 

I later switched to Dr. Young’s “Doc Broc Power Plants” which contain: Avocado, Cucumber, Tomato, Lemon, Lime, Broccoli Sprouts, Spinach, Celery, Parsley, Cabbage, Collard Greens, Okra, Kale, Soy Sprouts, Lemon Grass, Wheat Grass, Barley Grass, Shave Grass, Oat Grass, and Couch Grass. I switched because they are cheaper. I made up the greens in a 1.5 liter bottle of the “Electrolyte Enhanced Water” and just enough baking soda to take the PH to 8 or 9 and add 4 drops of liquid stevia with no alcohol and one and a half teaspoons of green powder. I have quit using them because the greens don’t fully dissolve and when I do a cleanse most of what comes out appears to be undissolved greens.
Unfortunately from 2006 until I was diagnosed with prostate cancer I did not strictly follow an alkaline eating plan. The word diet has become a cuss word in our society, but I now chose as my everyday diet (What a person or animal usually eats and drinks on a daily basis) an alkaline diet.
 

IS IT ACID OR ALKALINE?
 

We need a 70 percent alkaline and 30 percent acidic diet when we are healthy. When I was diagnosed with cancer I needed to be almost 100 percent alkaline until my body healed itself. All food digested in our bodies metabolizes, or burns, down to an ash residue. This ash residue can be neutral, acidic, or alkaline. One of the first things I needed to know is which foods are acidic and which are base or alkaline. Alkaline is good and acidic is bad because they create toxins in your body. The human body is designed to battle to maintain a blood PH of 7.35. When we chose to eat a diet that is high in acidic foods our bodies begin to do everything it can to maintain a blood PH of 7.35. The body will store excess acid as fat. I have come to realize that the roll around my mid section is the body’s way of trying to protect me from the excess acid in my body. Fat is designed to save our lives, so in the future when you see that roll thank God that the acid isn’t somewhere else causing damage to your body, but you still need to get rid of the roll.
 

Our bodies will also take calcium from our bones to neutralize the excess acid in our bodies. From what I have read a high animal protein diet, including diary, (although vegetarians can definitely have a diet that is predominately acidic by eating white flour, sugar, vinegar, acidic salad dressings and drinks, etc.) creates excess acid in the blood and the body leaches calcium from our bones to neutralize the acid causing the bones to weaken which is the main cause of osteoporosis. Calcium content per 4 ounces of food: Sesame seeds with hulls-1,160 mg. (11.5 ounces per day is 100 percent of the daily value we need and can be easily added to some of the soups and drinks in Shelly Young’s cookbooks that are made with a Vita-Mix), collard greens-250 mg., kale-249 mg., turnip greens-246 mg., almond-234 mg., collard stems-203 mg., brazil nut-186 mg. and I bet Swiss chard is okay and many others that can be researched on the internet at http://whfoods.org or www.nutritiondata.com or in the “PH Miracle.” Be careful of whfoods he is not on an alkaline diet.
 

So that we don’t need to eat an excess of animal protein, here is an article explaining that vegetables are complete proteins and our daily protein needs, which is about 2.5 to 10 percent from calories. http://michaelbluejay.com/veg/protein.html
The percentage of protein from calories is high in most green vegetables: Kale-60%, Brussels sprouts-49%, collard greens-48%, broccoli-49%, spinach-49%, green leaf lettuce-42% alfalfa sprouts-40%, avocado is 22%, lentils-30%, mung sprouts-38%, tofu-43%, (Beware of tofu made from genetically modified soybeans. It is best to avoid genetically modified foods because of the uncertainty of their effect on the body. Generally an alkaline diet will be gmo free. Avoid corn and check that the soybeans are not gmo. Soy sprouts will be safe and you can grow your own.) Almonds-19%, sunflower seeds-24% and many others that you can check on the internet at http://whfoods.org/ or www.nutritiondata.com or buy the “PH Miracle.”
 

I recently met a man from Louisiana that told me a story about his grandmother that passed away at 104 ½. He said she had breast cancer at 68 and started eating nothing but greens, collard, mustard and turnip, and lived to be 104 ½. He said she ate a piece of fish every now and then. She evidently was getting all the nutrients she needed from the greens because he said she worked in her garden and drove until shortly before she passed away.
 

As I read Dr. Young's books I was amazed to find out how many things we eat everyday that are acidic to our bodies. Sugar, sweeteners, white flour, white rice, potatoes when you are battling to alkalize, corn, peanuts, mushrooms, dairy (You can use almond milk and I am learning to make my own), processed salt (Use Sea Salt or Real Salt), oils (Except olive, flax seed, grape seed and the special blends like Udo's and Essential Balance), meat, eggs, stored grains (I use Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted breads and tortillas as my bread substitute), yeast, spirinula, algae supplements, fermented products, alcohol, micro waved food, artificial sweeteners, almost every thing we drink, soda water, coffee, alcoholic beverages and some bottled waters.
 

I drink Electron Enhanced Water from Whole Foods because it is one of the few waters I have found that I could easily raise the PH to an 8 or 9 with a small amount of baking soda, but the best thing to do is buy a water ionizer. They cost anywhere from 1200 to 4,000 dollars. A water ionizer is hooked up to the tap water coming into your home and then the water is filtered by an ultra-fine Biostone filter that will take out all the bad stuff and leave the minerals that are good for us. The water then goes through an ionization chamber. It is here that a low voltage electrical charge is passed through the water and the negative and positive charged waters are separated and alkaline water comes out one spout and acidic water comes out the other spout.

From the internet I determined that what separates a good and bad water ionizer is the PH level AND the ORP number. A positive ORP number is bad and a negative ORP number is good. ORP stands for Oxidation/Reduction Potential. A negative ORP means that the water has anti-oxidation potential and acts as an anti-oxidant. It is essential to drink plenty of pure water to detoxify. Look for a water ionizer that produces high PH water and a negative ORP that you can actually go to the sink and fill your glass with water that you don't have to run to the store and buy or wait for it to come in the mail.
 

I have an acquaintance at church I have known for several years and he and I had discussed the alkaline diet and “The PH Miracle” on several occasions. I hadn’t seen him in a while and we ran into each other at church one day and he had gone from “pleasantly plump” to no stomach and was probably about fifty pounds lighter. He told me he had gotten a water ionizer that cost 4,000 dollars and had changed his diet, but he said the water ionizer helped him switch to an alkaline diet more than anything else. Buying a water ionizer is a great first step toward becoming alkaline and if you can afford it or if you can’t afford it do your best to purchase a water ionizer. Remember, if the wide screen or stove went out you would find a way.
 

ACID-ALKALINE FOOD CHART
 

In the following chart each food is assigned a number which represents its approximate relative potential of acidity (-) or alkalinity (+) present in one ounce of food. The higher the positive (+) number, the better it is for you to eat. These charts come in handy when trying to decide if certain foods are acidic to your system. Note: I don’t know why they didn’t include kale, collard greens and all types of chard, but they are some of the healthiest food on the planet and are very easily juiced when added in to recipes for the Vita-Mix and the juicer.
 

Healthy Alkaline Foods
- Eat lots of them!
Vegetables
Alfalfa Grass +29.3
Asparagus +1.3
Barley Grass +28.1
Brussels Sprouts +0.5
Cabbage Lettuce, Fresh +14.1
Cauliflower +3.1
Cayenne Pepper +18.8
Celery +13.3
Chives +8.3
Comfrey +1.5
Cucumber, Fresh +31.5
Dandelion +22.7
Dog Grass +22.6
Endive, Fresh +14.5
French Cut Green Beans +11.2
Garlic +13.2
Green Cabbage December Harvest +4.0
Green Cabbage, March Harvest +2.0
Kamut Grass +27.6
Lamb's Lettuce +4.8
Leeks (Bulbs) +7.2
Lettuce +2.2
Onion +3.0
Peas, Fresh +5.1
Peas, Ripe +0.5
Red Cabbage +6.3
Rhubarb Stalks +6.3
Savoy Cabbage +4.5
Shave Grass +21.7
Sorrel +11.5
Soy Sprouts +29.5
Spinach (Other Than March) +13.1
Spinach, March Harvest +8.0
Sprouted Chia Seeds +28.5
Sprouted Radish Seeds +28.4
Straw Grass +21.4
Watercress +7.7
Wheat Grass +33.8
White Cabbage +3.3
Zucchini +5.7
Root Vegetables
Beet +11.3 Carrot +9.5
Horseradish +6.8
Kohlrabi +5.1
Potatoes +2.0
Red Radish +16.7
Rutabaga +3.1
Summer Black Radish +39.4
Turnip +8.0
White Radish (Spring) +3.1
Fruits
Avocado (Protein) +15.6
Fresh Lemon +9.9
Limes +8.2 Tomato +13.6
Non-Stored Organic Grains And Legumes
Buckwheat Groats +0.5
Granulated Soy (Cooked Ground Soy Beans) +12.8
Lentils +0.6
Lima Beans +12.0
Soy Flour +2.5
Soy Lecithin (Pure) +38.0
Soy Nuts (soaked Soy Beans, Then Air Dried) +26.5
Soybeans, Fresh +12.0
Spelt +0.5 Tofu +3.2
White Beans (Navy Beans) +12.1
Nuts
Almonds +3.6
Brazil Nuts +0.5
Seeds
Caraway Seeds +2.3
Cumin Seeds +1.1
Fennel Seeds +1.3
Flax Seeds +1.3
Pumpkin Seeds +5.6
Sesame Seeds +0.5
Sunflower Seeds +5.4
Wheat Kernel +11.4
Fats (Fresh, Cold-Pressed Oils)
Borage Oil +3.2
Evening Primrose Oil +4.1
Flax Seed Oil +3.5
Marine Lipids +4.7
Olive Oil +1.0
(Coconut oil is alkaline)

Foods you should only
consume moderately
 

Fruits
(In Season, For Cleansing Only Or With Moderation)
Apricot -9.5
Banana, Ripe -10.1
Banana, Unripe +4.8
Black Currant -6.1
Blueberry -5.3
Cantaloupe -2.5
Cherry, Sour +3.5
Cherry, Sweet -3.6
Coconut, Fresh +0.5
Cranberry -7.0
Currant -8.2
Date -4.7
Fig Juice Powder -2.4
Gooseberry, Ripe -7.7
Grape, Ripe -7.6
Grapefruit -1.7
Italian Plum -4.9
Mandarin Orange -11.5
Mango -8.7
Orange -9.2
Papaya -9.4
Peach -9.7
Pear -9.9
Pineapple -12.6
Raspberry -5.1
Red Currant -2.4
Rose Hips -15.5
Strawberry -5.4
Tangerine -8.5
Watermelon -1.0
Yellow Plum -4.9

Non-Stored Grains
Brown Rice -12.5
Wheat -10.1

Nuts
Hazelnuts -2.0
Macadamia Nuts -3.2
Walnuts -8.0


Fish
Fresh Water Fish -11.8

Fats
Coconut Milk -1.5
Sunflower oil -6.7

Unhealthy Acidic Foods
- Try to avoid them!
 

Meat, Poultry, And Fish
Beef -34.5
Chicken (to -22) -18.0
Eggs (to -22)
Liver -3.0
Ocean Fish -20.0
Organ Meats -3.0
Oysters -5.0
Pork -38.0
Veal -35.0

Milk And Milk Products
Buttermilk +1.3
Cream -3.9
Hard Cheese -18.1
Homogenized Milk -1.0
Quark -17.3
Bread, Biscuits (Stored Grains/Risen Dough)
Rye Bread -2.5
White Biscuit -6.5
White Bread -10.0
Whole-Grain Bread -4.5
Whole-Meal Bread -6.5

Nuts
Cashews -9.3
Peanuts -12.8
Pistachios -16.6

Fats
Butter -3.9
Corn Oil -6.5
Margarine -7.5

Sweets
Artificial Sweeteners -26.5
Barley Malt Syrup -9.3
Beet Sugar -15.1
Brown Rice Syrup -8.7
Chocolate -24.6
Dr. Bronner's Barley
Dried Sugar Cane Juice -18.0
Fructose -9.5
Honey -7.6
Malt Sweetener -9.8
Milk Sugar -9.4
Molasses -14.6
Turbinado Sugar -9.5
White Sugar -17.6
Condiments
Ketchup -12.4
Mayonnaise -12.5
Mustard -19.2
Soy Sauce -36.2
Vinegar -39.4
Beverages
Beer -26.8
Coffee -25.1
Fruit Juice Sweetened
Fruit Juice, Packaged, Natural -8.7
Liquor -38.7
Tea (Black) -27.1
Wine -16.4
Miscellaneous
Most Canned Foods
Microwaved Foods
The processed, devitalized, and dead food and drinks of civilization which has propelled humanity into such a pitiful physical condition. Processed (Man Made) Foods are all acidic.
 

EQUIPMENT
 

1. Books-“PH Miracle” by Robert O. Young. He has other books, but this is his first and his other books refer you back to this one. He and Shelley have just come out with a revised updated version that came out on July 2, 2010. "PH Miracle for Weight Loss" has the information on live blood analysis and it is good to have both, but "PH Miracle" is the first of the series. You can get the principle and purpose of alkalizing from this book. There is also "PH Miracle for Diabetes" and if you follow the program in his book always remember it healed me of cancer and it will definitely reverse diabetes. I gave my copy to a friend that is battling diabetes. Dr Young’s wife, Shelley, does the cookbooks and she has two that can be bought on their website. "The Miracle of Fasting" by Paul C. Bragg and Patricia Bragg. This book is loaded with plain old common sense and if you never fast you should still read it. BUT, he wasn't educated in the acid/alkaline diet and he thought the urine should be acidic and even suggested drinking a drink made from distilled water and vinegar. Vinegar has a PH of -39.4. That is why his urine was acidic. Definition of vinegar from Wikepedia “Vinegar is an acidic liquid produced from the fermentation of ethanol in a process that yields its key ingredient, acetic acid (ethanoic acid). It also may come in a diluted form. The acetic acid concentration typically ranges from 4% to 8% by volume for table vinegar and up to 18% for pickling. Natural vinegars also contain small amounts of tartaric acid, citric acid, and other acids. ”For those of you that like to make different dishes, I like to keep it simple, “The Complete Book of Raw Food” compiled by Julie Rodwell has 375 recipes but be careful, they are not all alkaline. “12 Steps to Raw Foods” by Victoria Boutenko-Be careful she uses a lot of fruit in her smoothies and she is not educated in the alkaline diet, BUT she is educated in the raw food lifestyle and used it to reverse her husbands thyroid condition, her son’s diabetes and her daughter’s asthma and allergies. “The Acid Alkaline Food Guide” by Dr. Susan E. Brown and Larry Trivieri, Jr. To be really educated buy and read them all.
 

2. A water Ionizer-I debated whether or not to put this before books because you already have this book, but I highly recommend a water ionizer. I don’t have one yet, but help is on the way. We discussed water ionization and its anti-oxidation capabilities earlier and http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/water-quality.htm discusses ionized water in tremendous detail. Here is an example, “We Americans pitch 38 billion water bottles a year into landfills -- in excess of $1 billion worth of plastic. And 24% of the bottled water we buy is tap water repackaged by two leading soft drink companies. There is a perception among many people that bottled water is somehow more healthy or pure than water from their tap. This is simply an illusion of marketing. A four-year study by the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), released in 1999, found that one-fifth of the sampled bottled waters contained known neurotoxins and carcinogens such as styrene, toluene and xylene. Another NRDC study found that, out of 103 brands of bottled water, one-third contained traces of arsenic and E. coli. This means that out of a sample of 1,000 bottles sold in the U.S., at least 300 would have some level of chemical contamination.”
(Bottled water: A river of money) is an article that is trying to make people think about tap water versus bottled water, but say nothing about PH or ORP which is the most important thing we should consider when we drink water for the detoxifying affect. I just checked the PH of Houston, Texas tap water and it was 6.2 and wish I could do the Oxidation/Reduction Potential or ORP. The article says that John Mackey, the CEO and founder of Whole Foods drinks Whole Foods brand water at work, but has “filtered water” at home. I wonder how the CEO of Whole Foods “filters” his water? Bet you a nickel it is a water ionizer. In Dr. Young’s "PH Miracle for Weight Loss" there is a chart comparing different brands of bottled water on pages 65-68 and the majority has an acceptable PH, but none had an acceptable ORP but his bottled water and I don’t see it for sale on his website.
Last year, we each drank an average of 28.3 gallons of bottled water -- 18 half-liter bottles a month. We drink more bottled water than milk, coffee or beer. Only carbonated soft drinks, at 52.9 gallons annually, are more popular than bottled water. We should drink 3 or 4 liters of water per day and this article says we drink about 9 liters per month. If we all bought a water ionizer for 2500 dollars it would be paid for in about a year and a half plus the savings in health costs.
Here is a video that is on the Shirley’s Wellness website and explains how the Ion Ways water ionizer works that I would feel comfortable buying. http://www.ionways.com//resources_videos_2.aspx Dr. Young also has water ionizers http://www.phmiracleliving.com/c-27-alkaline-water-and-ionizers.aspx Do a search on the internet on water ionizer and pick the one that has the best reviews and you can afford, but most are advertisements.
 

3. Vita-Mix Total Nutrition Center is a high powered blender. It will blend anything into liquid except rubber bands. (I accidentally tried) There is no pulp to discard and the clean-up takes about 3 minutes max. There are many recipes out there on the internet for healthy smoothies. Refer to the acid-alkaline food chart to put together an alkaline smoothie that is nutritious and tasty. Always include a green and cucumber and check the PH of the fruit as most have high sugar content. I am a spice person, so I don’t have to have sugar to make my food taste appealing. Shelley Young’s book “Back to the House of Health” has tons of fruit free and sugar free recipes, but she is female and likes to prepare warm food and it is easier for me to throw all the ingredients in the Vita Mix with the correct spices and make a soup out of it without cooking and the clean up connected with cooking and spoon and drink my way to health. The recipe for “Popeye Soup” in the section, “My Diet After My Cancer Diagnosis,” is a good example. Here is the link to Vita-Mix http://www.vitamix.com/index.asp
 

4. Cuisinart Pro Custom 11 Food Processor-If you live somewhere where there are no restaurants that have a good salad bar this is a must to chop, slice and shred your veggies and nuts. I make a nut combination to add to my Ezekiel 4:9 cereal or just fruit out of almonds, macadamia nuts, Brazil nuts, sesame seeds with hulls, flaxseed and walnuts and add agave nectar, coconut oil, berries, occasionally banana and then use unsweetened almond milk. I am going to start to use the vita-mix to make my own almond milk.
 

5. Green Star Twin Gear Juice Extractor-Literally is a life saver when you have a condition such as cancer like I did and becomes very easy to use after you have used it for awhile. If you have a good sturdy low table or a sink that it will fit in it is best to be above the juicer when you are feeding veggies into it. If you are juicing a lot of different veggies like I did make sure you clean or change out the filter (It has two) occasionally while juicing high fiber veggies. I use this to make nut butter. I make nut butter by processing almonds, macadamia nuts, walnuts, Brazil nuts and sesame seeds with the hulls included for the high calcium content at the same time and add flaxseed powder, flaxseed oil, coconut oil and honey. I then have it on Ezekiel 4:9 tortillas and spelt bread. Here is a juicer comparison site http://www.bestjuicers.com/juicercomparisons.html
 

6. Grow your own sprouts-I am sure I can find sprouting devices in Houston, but I have just never looked. I go to http://www.sproutpeople.com/index.html and they seem to be knowledgeable and they keep it simple. I have an Easy Sprout and I am going to purchase a Sprout Master. I also have what is called an EasyGreen Automatic Sprouter and as it implies it is automatic except for making sure the water reservoir has water in it and you can purchase a device that hooks up to the kitchen sink and it will even do that for you. BUT, I have found to prevent mold you need to add 35% food grade hydrogen peroxide to the water, but the sprouter is expensive and I own one because I got it in a package deal with the Green Star Juicier. I have failed to make it work because I just found out about adding the hydrogen peroxide. It is on my schedule. Here is a link to sprouter reviews http://www.naturalnews.com/021475.html
 

HOW TO TRANSITION FROM THE STANDARD AMERICAN DIET (SAD) TO A HEALTHY ALKALINE DIET TO MAINTAIN YOUR HEALTH
 

The most difficult thing in transitioning is not retraining the mind, because a lot of us know what we should do, but it is changing the way we taste food. I know people that are repulsed at eating natural food. If it is not processed, man-made food they don’t want it. How can someone that would starve if they were taken back and placed in the Garden of Eden transition to a natural diet (What a person or animal usually eats and drinks on a daily basis)?
 

We have approximately 10,000 taste buds in our mouth that are primarily on the tongue and to a lesser extent on our cheeks, throat and the roof of the mouth. I have changed the way I taste by changing to an alkaline diet, because I no longer can drink soda water and eat things with vinegar and sugary desserts because they burn my throat. Dead bread has no flavor and greasy meat has no appeal and things like macaroni and cheese and pizza and hamburgers and hot dogs and French fries are unthinkable. I was at Sweet Tomatoes, my favorite restaurant, with a friend last Sunday (8-21-2010) and I fixed my usual salad with my usual 15 vegetables and added olive oil, ground pepper, sea salt and lemon and it was the most delicious meal I have ever eaten, because I have re-trained my taste buds. My guacamole that I make out of my life saving avocado is now my meat and spelt bread is delicious and my “Popeye soup is perfect. Cold fruit with coconut oil and honey with nuts is now my breakfast of choice, because my taste buds are re-trained and my attitude toward what is healthy for my body has changed. I want to be healthy to stay out of the medical system as much as possible and help others to fulfill their plan and purpose on this earth and we don’t need to be sick and/or overweight.
 

Every book I have read on the alkaline diet has a transition plan. Dr. Young’s is a seven step plan: 1. Hydrate-drink lots of, one liter per 30 pounds of body weight, alkalizing water. 2. Eat right for your life which is a 12 step plan in itself. 3. Exercise. 4. Take your supplements-which are green drink, healthy fats, soy sprouts or soy sprout powder, ph drops, garcinia cambogia/HCA, chromium, tyrosine and clay. 5. Prepare your emotional environment, which is very important. I have my list of daily scriptures, but anything to introduce positive thoughts into your mind. 6. Set goals and write them down. (I have found as you begin to eat an alkaline diet that you will naturally attain your goals. It just happens.) 7. Cleanse your body from the inside out. Very important and we will discuss in toxins.
 

My steps to transitioning to having taste buds that can actually taste and appreciate natural food and have an immune system that is alkaline so that it can fight off diseases and produce good, healthy blood cells:
 

1. Education about how foods affect our health. The books in the “Equipment” section are an excellent place to start. I go on the internet when I have a question and Google my question and go from there. Last night I searched “Plant sources of protein.” I got tons of answers, but you will find that there are a lot of people that make money in the “eat healthy” business. And some of them get very elaborate with conferences and getting herbs from faraway places, etc. Herbs are good and are excellent to aid in removing toxins from the body, but I like to keep it simple because I want the average person to be able to become alkaline and fight off the many illnesses we seem to be bombarded by everyday. If you are on a limited budget start with Shelley Young’s cookbooks.
 

2. Drinking lots of alkaline water with as high a PH as possible. I make my water to a PH of about 8-9. They have the water ionizers that produce water with a PH of 8-9 and that is the best way to go if you can afford it, but you can always add just enough baking soda to a good water and make your own. Once again I use Electron Enhanced Water from Whole Foods because it is one of the few waters I have found that I could easily raise the PH to an 8 or 9 with a small amount of baking soda.
 

3. Make a list of your fifteen favorite drinks and food, such as:
1. Coffee
2. Chocolate
3. Soda water
4. French fries
5. Hamburgers, chicken burgers or whatever burgers
6. Fried chicken
7. Cookies, doughnuts, pies, cakes, brownies, etc.
8. Lunch meat. I call it man made meat.
9. Pork and beef
10. Purchased smoothies, because of the added sugar.
11. Purchased fruit drinks
12. Milkshakes and ice cream
13. Pizza
14. White bread, pasta-Macaroni and cheese-America’s health food-It has bread and cheese!
15. Cashews, peanuts and pistachios
Make your own list and put your favorite at the top and list them in that order and then begin to cut out number 15 first and work your way to the top and if you have a condition like I did begin to cut them out as soon as possible and even consider eating alkaline foods exclusively until you hear, “There is no cancer in your body.” It won’t be easy, but with God all things are possible.
 

4. Find places to eat out that have healthy choices. Transitioning is so much easier when you have a restaurant that serves an abundance of vegetables like I do. My girls at my favorite restaurant, “Sweet Tomatoes”, Lauren, Daysi, Terri and Jamie know my name and I brag about my “Sweet Tomatoes” every chance I get. I can fix a salad with 17 different veggies, romaine lettuce, field greens, spinach, cabbage, beets, green squash, celery, radish, carrot, cauliflower, green bell pepper, yellow squash, jicima, cucumbers, tomatoes, broccoli, scallions, and I use olive oil, ground pepper, sea salt and sometimes lemon for my dressing. I have now begun to add my guacamole dip to the salad and it is delicious and very healthy and does not give you that stuffed feeling when you are finished eating.
Avoid the mayonnaise based and vinegar based and sugar laced dressings as they void out the alkaline effects of the salad. Sorry to be a party pooper, but you can learn to live without acidic dressings. I have! They have many alkaline recipes for salad dressing in Shelley Young’s cookbooks.
Alkalizing Citrus Salad Dressing:
Ingredients for the Dressing:
1/3 cup fresh lemon and / or lime juice
3/4 cup cold pressed olive oil
1 tsp garlic powder
½ tsp ground oregano
¼ tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp dried basil
½ tsp ground cumin
1 dash of sea salt and cayenne pepper
Directions: Put all ingredients in a blender and mix until all ingredients are well emulsified. Season again if desired.
Tip: If you prefer a thicker dressing, you can also add 1 tbsp. of flaxseeds before blending. And there are many, many, many others out there for your dining pleasure. Do a search.
 

Sweet Tomatoes has a few soups that are good for you, but you have to watch for added sugar. When I eat an abundance of vegetables my cravings for things I shouldn’t eat are non-existent, such as, meat, dairy, sugar and white flour. (When the thought of protein and calcium enter your mind, think gorilla and elephant and what they eat and they don’t eat sugar, meat, dairy and white flour) I eat salmon about every two weeks. I have grass-fed beef in my freezer, but I haven’t yet decided to use it. If I do I will check my PH on a regular basis to be sure it stays alkaline. The grass fed people swear that it is what people ate before they started feeding grain and steroids to cattle and we didn’t have all the health problems we have now. I ate some and my PH dropped to a 5.2 but since I am on an alkaline diet except for one meal a week my PH quickly returned to 7.6. Four ounces of calves’ liver has 690% of the daily value for B12.
 

5. Accumulating the equipment that was listed earlier is not as expensive as it may seem. Cut out some the unnecessary food items on the list you are going to make and it won’t be that difficult. The books are the first thing you need and I would encourage anyone that has a condition to buy Shelley Young’s 2000 edition cookbook first if you can’t afford to buy all of them. Second is to find a way to get a Vita-Mix. I wish they didn’t cost so much, but if we will look at what we buy at the grocery store and quit buying processed food and acidic drinks and start buying natural, living whole food we could probably afford to buy a Vita-Mix. If the wide screen went out you would find a way. You can put a whole apple in the vita-Mix and it will pulverize it and the clean-up is so easy. Somebody said apple seeds may have cyanide so I started cutting out the seeds. The point is it will liquefy almost anything.
 

The Cuisinart Pro Custom 11 Food Processor and the Green Star Twin Gear Juice Extractor are two pieces of equipment you definitely want to accumulate, but in an emergency a good knife will do and a hand nut chopper. The juicier is the best I could afford and it is 450 dollars and will juice wheatgrass, but there are cheaper and more expensive and possibly better juicers out there. Go online and check the reviews. I have seen a couple for under 400 dollars that look extremely simple to use. Many people use the Vita-Mix as a juicer and there is no pulp to discard. You drink the whole vegetable and fruit. It is extremely easy to make nut butter with the Green Star and it doesn’t heat the nuts or the vegetables.
 

6. Switching to sea salt: The table salt that we find at restaurants and in most homes is man made salt. For some reason man has decided to strip all of the minerals out of the salt. Why don’t we just leave it alone and use it like God intended for us to use it? I read that they strip the magnesium by using caustic soda because they can get a higher price for the magnesium than the salt. Most of the other valuable elements in the sea salt are also lost or extracted. The majority of the processed, devitalized, and dead food of civilization which has propelled him into such a pitiful physical condition contains excessive quantities of refined salt. Eliminating processed foods is the best way to cut down on refined salt. It would be difficult to find a restaurant that uses sea salt, even my beloved “Sweet Tomatoes.”
Natural sea salt has about 80 different minerals that we need. I have been adding mineral salts that Dr. Young sells that has sodium, calcium, magnesium and potassium carbonate to my water and will begin adding about a quarter of a teaspoon of sea salt per 1.5 liter bottle. I take my own sea salt to restaurants and use it in my guacamole and “Popeye soup.” Celtic sea salt is supposed to be real good, but I use the Whole Foods brand because it is cheaper.
 

7. We must do everything we possibly can to maintain a healthy emotional environment. Anger, fear, worry, etc. are all toxic and need to be avoided as much as possible. If you wait, like I did, to rid your body of toxins/acid/cancer when you are already diagnosed with cancer it is very important that you find ways to overcome the thoughts that will try to convince you that you are going to die, must have surgery immediately and anything else our minds can produce. When toxins are leaving your body it is uncomfortable and makes you think things are getting worse. I am a Christian so I had many ways to overcome negative thoughts, but my dream is to form a support group of people that have won the battle and conquered their bad dietary habits and help each other battle through to optimal health.
 

8. Supplements are tricky and if someone took all of Dr. Young’s supplements most of us would have to get a second job. The supplements I take are TriVita’s Vita Daily AM and PM and Sublingual B-12, Purity Products advanced D, Nature’s Way Primadophilus Optima, a probiotic that Dr. Young doesn’t recommend, and from the Vitamin Shoppe: Niacin, Chromium and a magnesium and potassium mix and recently I have added for the B vitamins Irwin Naturals “Triple-Boost Caffeine-Free Energy.” Go to http://whfoods.org/ or www.nutritiondata.com and you will find that anything God made is an excellent source of vitamins and minerals and I am convinced that if we are eating a natural, non man made, diet we are going to get plenty of vitamins and minerals. I did a search on food sources of potassium and found that Swiss chard, spinach, avocado and lima beans and lentils are an excellent source, but don’t combine beans and greens unless you are staying home alone for a few days. I personally like the Daniel diet and I am going to experiment with eating grass fed beef and wild salmon once a week and check my urine PH and see if I can stay alkaline. And if not I will stick with a strict natural diet and as someone told me, "Cows are natural" but they weren’t filled with steroids, hormones and grain, they ate grass. I tried some of the grass fed beef and my PH dropped into the 5’s. I might do salmon or liver, once a week for the vitamin B12, but not every day.
 

9. And, if possible, exercise and/or sweat. The reason I don’t elaborate on exercise is because of those people that are too ill to exercise until they can restore their system to a healthy enough state to exercise. I walk and go to the gym and do weight bearing exercise and the steam room and spa. If you can only go to the gym and walk a treadmill and/or sit in the sauna and spa that would be great. After you are healthier you can work out an exercise plan. Exercise is a great way to sweat and release toxins. I belong to 24 hour fitness and that makes it easy.
 

10. Fast-I don’t recommend fasting more that one to three days to anyone that is not healthy. The body releases a lot of toxins during a fast and you need to be careful. I am currently (July 01, 2010) on a ten day fast and I will give an account of my fast in the section “Fasting should only be done when you are healthy.” I have reread “The Miracle of Fasting” and I feel as if someone should use it for a guide to fasting, but he is too lenient in other people’s diets. His personal diet is very strict and I like his plan to fast 10 days 4 times a year and once a week. That is 44 days of weekly fast and 40 days of quarterly fasting and I will try my best. Dr. Bragg also stated that the PH of the urine should be acidic and he recommends a 6 ounce glass of water with two teaspoons of vinegar to keep it acidic. The vinegar is what makes the urine acidic. Stick with “The PH Miracle” and avoid vinegar, but use his book for fasting when you are healthy.
 

MY DIET AFTER MY CANCER DIAGNOSIS
 

The first month or so after my cancer diagnosis on March 10, 2009 following a biopsy I ate “Popeye Soup” and drank Dr. Young’s “Innerlight Super Greens.” They contain: Kamut Grass, Barley Grass, Lemon Grass, Shavegrass, Wheat Grass, Alfalfa Leaf, Dandelion Leaf, Bilberry Leaf, Black Walnut Leaf, Blackberry Leaf, Plantain Leaf, Red Raspberry Leaf, Blueberry Leaf, Boldo Leaf, Goldenseal Leaf, Papaya Leaf, Strawberry Leaf, Lecithin, Avocado, Slippery Elm Bark, Marshmallow Root, Pau d’Arco, Cornsilk, Rosemary, Betatene, Rose Hip, Echinacea Purp Tops, Dog Grass, Meadowsweet, Aloe Whole Leaf Conc., Oat Grass, Soy Sprout Con., Kale, Spinach, Okra, Cabbage, Celery, Parsley Leaf, Broccoli, Watercress, Alfalfa Juice Conc., Tumuric, Tomato, Peppermint Leaf, Spearmint Leaf, Wintergreen Leaf, Sage, Thyme, Rosemary Leaf, and a Mineral Complex. I added 1 ½ scoops into a 1.5 liter bottle of Whole Foods Electron Enhanced water with enough baking soda to raise the PH to between 8 and 9, 4 four drops of stevia and 1 ½ scoops of Now brand montmorillonite clay.
 

Popeye Soup to serve four is:
1 avocado
1 cup water or veggie stock
2 cucumbers
1 cup raw spinach (I also put in collard greens or kale or chard for more protein and calcium)
1/3 red bell pepper
2 green onions 1 garlic clove 1/2 - 1 tsp: Garam Masala and Curry and Spice Hunters Zip Blend
Bragg’s Liquid Aminos or Real Salt to taste (I personally don’t use either one of these)
Lime or lemon juice, to taste
In a blender (I use a Vita-mix), add the avocado and water or vegetable stock and spices, lemon and aminos and blend, then add the rest of the ingredients and blend. Thin with more water if necessary.
 

I eat this with Ezekiel 4:9 spelt bread with a touch of organic butter from pasture fed cows.
 

Shelley Young’s book, “Back to the House of Health,” has what she calls foundational recipes that are 100% alkaline. She cooks and or heats some of the ingredients, but I am male and would much rather put the ingredients in a Vita-Mix and be done with it. Just drink or spoon your way back to health.
 

I did various things to change and vary the diet as I went along ridding my body of cancer and becoming alkaline and staying alkaline. With the Green Star twin gear juicer I juiced a combination of wheatgrass, celery, carrots, cucumber, spinach, kale, collard greens, green onions, tomato, bell peppers, any sprout, garlic and apple (Although I didn't use apple, but it can add sweetness to the juice since it has a high sugar content, but since it has a high sugar content it is best to avoid sugar in any form until you hear the doctor say, "You are cancer free!") and a very small amount of jalapeño. Careful on the jalapeño and don't juice the seeds.
 

I also drank wheatgrass from Jamba Juice and Floressence, a detoxifying herbal mix you can buy from Whole Foods. Some wheatgrass tastes like a fresh cut lawn smells, but the wheatgrass from Jamba Juice is sweet and tasty. I did my own with the Green Star juicer the Lord provided for me and always had to pray and thank God that it was better than being operated on or radiation treatments or chemotherapy or medication as I drank the life giving nectar.
 

After about two months I added my own personal guacamole dip which is: One avocado, juice of a lemon to taste, pico de gallo, sea salt to taste and Spice Hunter Zip blend or any Mexican spice blend to taste. Enough for me, but would probably be enough for two. I eat this with Ezekiel 4:9 tortillas.
 

MY DIET AFTER I WAS CANCER FREE
 

After I knew I no longer had cancer I ate at “Sweet Tomatoes” (My favorite place to eat) where I can put about 17 different veggies (Romaine lettuce, field greens, spinach, cabbage, beets, zucchini, celery, radish, carrot, cauliflower, green bell pepper, yellow squash, jicima, cucumbers, tomatoes, broccoli, scallions, and I use olive oil, ground pepper, sea salt and sometimes lemon for my dressing) on my plate and lately I have been adding my guacamole dip to the salad. They have a few soups that are good for you, but you have to watch for added sugar. My favorite soup after Popeye Soup is Amy’s Organic Lentil Soup that I gently heat on the stove. The ingredients are: filtered water, organic lentils, celery, carrots, onions, potatoes, extra virgin olive oil, sea salt and spices that are 100% pure with no hidden ingredients. One cup of soybeans supplies us with 50% of our daily iron and lentils supply us with 40% of our daily iron. Be careful of how you prepare them. I have used Mrs. Dash salt free original seasoning blend in the past with excellent results. I have started experimenting with my “Popeye Soup” and have cut out green onions, garlic, the spices and the aminos and added a tomato and carrot. Something was burning my throat and I will add each ingredient back in until I determine what was burning my throat. It was the garlic. I was putting four cloves instead of one. I am now fixing it with all the ingredients except aminos and salt and have added half of a carrot and a medium tomato.
 

And, of course, I drink as much Whole Foods Electron Enhanced water with enough baking soda to raise the PH to between 8 and 9 as I could hold. With the combination of everything I very rarely have a craving for anything sweet or unhealthy and I think the water is very important to curb cravings and is where everyone should start. I wish we could figure out a way to have community ionizers where 4 or 5 families or a church could divide up the cost and come to get their water for the week.
 

Almonds are good and I use homemade nut butter on Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain bread or tortillas for a snack or a meal. I have found that it is easier to make your own nut butter with the Green Star Twin Gear Juicer. I make nut butter by processing almonds, macadamia nuts, walnuts, Brazil nuts and sesame seeds with the hulls included for the high calcium content at the same time and add flaxseed powder, flaxseed oil, coconut oil and honey. I then have it on Ezekiel 4:9 tortillas and spelt bread.
 

For breakfast I will have Ezekiel 4:9 cereal with my home-made nut mix. I make a nut combination to add to my Ezekiel 4:9 cereal out of almonds, macadamia nuts, brazil nuts and walnuts and add agave nectar, coconut oil, berries and then use unsweetened almond milk. I am going to start to use the vita-mix to make my own almond milk. I have been eating fruit in the morning, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and also mango, kiwi, apricot and occasionally plum and apple. I don’t eat all of them at once, but a mixture and with the berries I add coconut oil, honey and the nut mix. The cold fruit makes the coconut oil harden and you have a crunchy snack.
 

I go out to eat after church on Sunday and if we go somewhere I can’t eat, I just get a salad and fellowship and go eat afterwards. I like to have salmon with steamed broccoli and salad about twice a month. I need to make or purchase an alkaline salad dressing and take it with me. I only eat salmon when I feel my body needs it for the B-12.
 

The children’s version of “Popeye Soup” is to include carrot and tomato and red delicious apple and leave out garlic and green onion and the spices, but remember there is sugar in carrot and apple.
 

FOOD COMBINING
 

I recently read on the internet that Americans spend 2 billion dollars per year on antacids and that is strictly because we don’t know how to properly combine our food. I read Harvey and Marilyn Diamond’s book “Fit For Life” sometime in the mid-eighties and I first heard of “food Combining” from their book. What I remember is don’t combine meat and a starch, fruit should be eaten alone two hours before you eat anything else and you can eat bread with vegetable and potato, but don’t eat meat with bread and potato. But, since I am on an alkaline diet (what a person or animal usually eats and drinks on a daily basis) I really don’t have a problem with food combining except to eat fruit 2 hours before I eat anything else. Can you see where the SAD is a food combining mess? Hamburgers by themselves are not combined correctly and then throw in an order of fries and it gets worse. We have all ordered steak and potatoes and on my every week or two salmon order I enjoy broccoli and mashed potatoes, but I don’t eat the bread and I am a food combining king the rest of the time. Once again go on the internet and do a search on “food combining.”
 

TOXINS
 

As my body began to heal I didn't feel like I was healing because my body was fighting off toxins. For the last year I have had pain from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet. As my body cleansed itself of toxins the pain moved from my neck to my lungs to my kidneys to my lower back to my knee and then my feet began to stink. Toxins stink, but they didn’t come to stay they came to pass out of my body as my body purged itself through proper diet.
 

The best way to release toxins is by following the liquid feast in Shelley Young's book "Back to the House of Health" that I was on after I was diagnosed with cancer using the “Green Powder Drink” and “Popeye Soup” and the juicing of the powerful combination of vegetables I told you about earlier. Releasing toxins too fast can be dangerous if you are not in reasonably good health. I read an article by Dr. Young in his “Articles of Health” blog titled “Cancer is Acid and Acid is Cancer” one week before I was diagnosed with cancer and it helped me tremendously to withstand the pain and discomfort of de-toxing because I realized as I released toxins I was releasing acid and cancer from my body.
 

One of the best things to do to gently release toxins is to drink wheatgrass from Jamba Juice and Floressence, a detoxifying herbal mix you can buy from Whole Foods or the Vitamin Shoppe. Some wheatgrass tastes like a fresh cut lawn smells, but the wheatgrass from Jamba Juice is sweet and tasty. I did my own with the Green Star juicer and always had to stop and thank God that it was better than being operated on or radiation treatments or chemotherapy or medication as I raised the glass and drank the life giving nectar.
 

I once had a three or four year old tell me I had lipstick on. I have red lips and I have been told that is a sign that the colon is clean and healthy. We have twenty feet of small intestine and five feet of large intestine. The small intestine is where digestion occurs and the large intestine absorbs water and the excretion of solid waste material. I feel that the alkaline diet is an excellent cleanse for the intestines and particularly what I did after my cancer diagnosis. You aren’t weak from a lack of food, but you will have regular bowel movements and you need to know where the facilities are located.
I added montmorillonite clay to my green powder drink after my diagnosis for about six months and then one day my colon cleansed itself. Fortunately it was a Friday evening and I spent the weekend having an unannounced cleanse. I even missed church Sunday, but I went Saturday night. I slept a lot and released a lot of weird looking stuff that we won’t discuss. I haven’t used clay since, but if I need to I will. Research using clay, but it worked for me and it is discussed thoroughly in Dr. Young's books. I used Now brand and you can buy a 5 pound jar for 35 dollars on the internet.
 

And, if possible, exercise and/or sweat. The reason I don’t elaborate on exercise is because of those people that are too ill to exercise until they can restore their system to a healthy enough state to exercise. I walk and go to the gym and do weight bearing exercise and the steam room and spa. If you can only go to the gym and walk a treadmill and/or sit in the sauna and spa that would be great and after you are healthier you can work out an exercise plan. Exercise is a great way to sweat and release toxins.
 

I have fasted on water with lemon and honey many times in the past and it is amazing how our bodies rejuvenate themselves as we fast. BUT, as we get older and particularly when we have allowed our bodies to become polluted with toxins we must be careful that we don’t flush toxins out of our body too rapidly. The green drink and Popeye Soup still flushes toxins out of my body, but at a much slower pace so as to not endanger my health even further and when I have detoxified I can fine tune by doing a fast.
 

FASTING SHOULD ONLY BE DONE WHEN YOU ARE HEALTHY
 

The book on fasting I use is “The Miracle of Fasting,” by Paul & Patricia Bragg. It can be ordered from Health Science, Box 7, Santa Barbara, CA 93102 for nine dollars and ninety-five cents plus shipping and handling. You can also order by dialing 1-800-4461990 or through their website at http://www.bragg.com.
 

(I like this so much I am going to include it again) On pages 55 and 56 of “The Miracle of Fasting” Doctor Paul Bragg states, “I want it definitely understood that man can not break a natural law. He breaks himself while attempting to break the natural law. Can man break the law of gravity? Can man jump off a 25 story building and live? (Remember Jesus in Luke 4:9-12) Of course he cannot. This applies also to the nutritional laws of nature. Man has been brainwashed into eating the processed, devitalized, and dead food (And the drinks) of civilization which has propelled him into such a pitiful physical condition. Man is so gullible to the false propaganda (fiery darts of the wicked) that is passed out to him by the big “special interests” describing what healthy and long-lived people we are.
 

Sickness is costly. Who spends more money in the pursuit of health than any other nation in the whole wide world? We do! Which nation has more “drives” to collect funds to fight the many diseases that plague our population? We do! Who has more convalescent homes, clinics, and sanatoriums than any other country in the world? We do! What nation spends the most money on magazine, newspaper, T.V. and radio advertising on “do-it-yourself” over the counter drug medication? We do! What nation takes the most aspirin and other so-called painkillers? We do!” (We have also been brainwashed into eating processed, devitalized, and dead food and drinking acidic liquids through magazine, newspaper, T.V. and radio advertising and online advertising.)
 

I have gone on fasts before and thought about food, but was never really hungry until after the fast. Any time I go on a fast and am real hungry I have decided to fast and I have learned to go ahead and eat, my body will let me know when it is ready for me to fast. Once you are ready to fast don't hesitate, because you will talk yourself out of fasting. Rarely will we do a forty day fast and I believe a forty days fast was an extreme example to show us that our little one, three, seven, ten, fourteen or whatever day’s length fast is easy compared to what others have done.
 

Fasting, to me, always has a two-fold purpose. The number one is spiritual like Gandhi’s because you are always fasting to break a spiritual stronghold and you may or may not know what it is. The other reason to fast is to allow your body to what I call, catch up. The body has a filter system (lymph nodes, spleen, liver, lungs, kidneys, the blood, etc.) that gets overtaxed as we stuff it full of unneeded and unhealthy food over the years. When we are young we can generally stuff ourselves with no ill effects, but then the filtration system gets plugged and if we never allow it to “catch up” it will stay plugged. The only way to unplug the filtration system is by fasting or when you get ill and then the system will cleanse itself. I have also gone on an extensive exercise program that included running six miles and cleaned out my system. Unfortunately most of us choose to diet and the digestive system never gets to rest and clean or purge itself. The last time I fasted I couldn't believe the divers temptations, visions of tacos, because the body doesn't like you to fast. Look throughout history and see how fasting played an important part.
 

A neighbor of mine once had an operation to clean out the arteries in his legs and they actually went in and removed the arteries from his legs, turned them wrong side out and put them back in his legs. It worked and he is doing fine. I was visiting him during his recovery period and as we talked the Holy Ghost spoke to me and let me know that fasting (Or greens and Popeye Soup and avocado) would have prevented my neighbor from having to go through what he went through.
 

I was beginning to have signs of a sinus infection once and I went on a fast and the symptoms almost immediately ceased. I have been fasting off and on for several years and have learned that there is always a purpose for our fast. Many times there is a reason for your fast that you won’t be aware of. One of the tremendous benefits of fasting is allowing your body to get rid of toxins we acquire along the way in this polluted world in which we live. I went on my first long fast in May of 1987 and fasted for 21 days and I lost 25 pounds but I always gain it back. Whenever I begin to gain weight I know that I must be being fattened up for a fast. I have fasted for as long as 14 days on my job and no one knew it because I kept my mouth shut. I am looking forward to going on a good long fast, because I need to hear from God and cleanse the temple and let God do whatever in the spiritual realm.
I was fasting from January first, 1991 to January fifteenth, 1991 and the war in Kuwait, Operation Desert Storm, broke out the day I broke my fast. During this fast, I was in church and every time we would have praise and worship my back would stiffen. The Sunday before I broke the fast I sat down and for the first time in a long time my back didn't hurt.
 

From May 18, 1996 to May 26, 1996, I fasted. My body knew I needed to fast because I woke up the morning of the 18th and my left testicle was swollen. This is a condition called hydrocele and my body knew about it and the fast cleared it up in about four days and from reading about it on the internet it usually takes surgery or a painful procedure to draw off fluid with a needle. Praise the Lord!!! My physical condition was not good during the fast because of all the toxins I had allowed to accumulate in my body during the two years since I last fasted. In the reference book I use for fasting, it says if your tongue turns white during the fast that is an indication of the amount of toxins in your system. For the first time I can remember my tongue was white during a fast.
 

Anytime I begin to get symptoms of an illness it is generally diet or stress. During my fast from May 18 to May 26, 1996 I could really see how many toxins I had allowed to accumulate in my body. Colds and sinus infections are signs that we need to cleanse our intestines.
It is the morning of June 28, 2010 and I have begun to fast. I will keep an account of how I feel and how my body reacts. I have a job that I work from 4:30 PM to midnight and it is not a physical job, I just watch and wait. I weigh 185 and in the past I have lost about a pound per day. I feel as if I am being called to a 14 day fast so that would be 171 after 14 days. I feel as if I am to drink wheatgrass and Floressence, a detoxifying herbal mix, during the fast.
 

Day two-June 29-I am sleeping a bunch, which is good and I feel good and know from past experience that my body is releasing toxins and purifying itself. I had headaches all night and resisted taking anacin which is loaded with caffeine. I need to drink more water and I am heading to the store now to stock up before I go to work. On my job I probably walk about a mile and a half every night. This is good, because I have found that activity helps rid your body of toxins. I weigh 182 today and lost three pounds on day one and I hope that slows down, but I know that my body will break the fast exactly when it needs me to. Went to Jamba Juice and got a 2 ounce wheatgrass on the way to work. I had a bowel movement about two hours later and I don’t normally have bowel movements during a fast and have fasted 27 days without a bowel movement.
 

Day three-June 30-I am still sleeping about ten hours. I weigh 179 and in my opinion I am losing weight too fast. We will see where that goes and I will drink more water. My urine PH is 5.2 which is good because my body is releasing toxins. The goal is to become alkaline, 7.0 to 7.5, while I am fasting and that will tell me the toxins are out of my body. I have just gone to Jamba Juice and had a 2 ounce wheatgrass and will have another later this evening. I also went to The Vitamin Shoppe and bought the Flor-Essence Herbal Tea that I will take at 12 noon and 10 PM and the wheatgrass at 8 AM and 4PM. I had a good day at work and made my rounds.
 

Day four-Got up at 8am and made some phone calls and weighed and I weigh 178. That is normal as you should lose about a pound a day. I feel as if this is a ten day fast and will be broken on Wednesday, July 7th. The beauty of fasting is that it allows your body to cleanse itself. I either have prostatitis, inflammation of the prostate, or I am seeing symptoms of prostatitis because of the release of toxins. We need to get the PSA, prostate specific antigen, number down to an acceptable level. The PSA test is a test that is unique to men that shows problems in the prostate and is used as an indicator for the potential for cancer in the prostate. It doesn't mean you have prostate cancer when you have a high number, but when you see the number begin to increase it is time to change your diet and seek God with all your heart and ask Him to give you wisdom to get your PSA number to an acceptable level. Your normal PSA should be between 0-4 and when it hits 3 it is time for us to seek God and “The PH Miracle” and don’t wait until you get cancer. My last PSA test in April of 2010 was 8.2 and I didn't have cancer, but when it was 6.8 in March of 2009 I did. My PH this morning is 5.8.
 

Day five-I got home from work and can’t sleep. I don’t know if that is the wheatgrass at 10:30 PM or what, but I can’t sleep. It is now 3:30 AM and I could not sleep until 4 AM. I don’t like that. I got up at noon and my PH is 6.0. I bought a two ounce shot of wheatgrass on the way to work and had two bowel movements in the evening. It had to be the wheatgrass, but it was a good cleanse.
 

Day six-I slept 12 or 13 hours and that is good, because it allows your body to detoxify while you sleep. My PH is 6.0 and I weigh 174. Doesn’t look like I will make church tomorrow. This is a “let the weak say they are strong” day, which means that my body is getting rid of toxins at a rapid pace. I did the FlorEssence today, but not the wheatgrass. My stomach had too much acid or toxins in it and I had drunk lots of good water.
 

Day Seven-July 4th, 2010-I have never had a fast like this one. I guess it is because of my age, I will be 70 in two weeks, or the amount of toxins or acid that has accumulated in my body, or because I haven’t fasted on a regular basis in the last 14 years. I have done 27, 21, 14, 7 and 3 day fast several times in the past and have never slept this much. I have even worked and fasted for 14 days around people I had known for years and they never said a word. I went to sleep last night at one AM and have just forced myself out of bed at 3 PM. I weigh 173 and my PH is 6.0. My stomach feels fine as the toxins/acid were flushed out last night. I have started sprouting broccoli sprouts. I almost forgot I had the sprouting equipment, but God hadn’t.
 

Day eight-What a day yesterday. That was a battle as I released tons of toxins. I am feeling hungry, but I want to be sure not to break the fast too soon, but since I haven’t eaten in eight days and the temperature is going to be in the nineties today and I will be outside for the next 8 hours maybe I had better eat. I weigh 172 and my PH is still 6.0. I ate a 28 ounce can of peeled tomatoes throughout the evening.
 

Day nine-I broke the fast like the Bragg’s book “The Miracle of Fasting says and had a salad of grated carrots and cabbage with fresh squeezed orange juice for dressing and then mustard greens and diced tomatoes with spelt bread. I drank water during the day and then had a salad of cabbage, carrots and celery with orange juice for dressing and the same greens and tomatoes and spelt bread for supper. I am still releasing toxins like crazy.
 

Day ten-In the morning I had banana and pineapple with some nuts sprinkled on them and a small amount of honey. For lunch the same salad and greens with toast. Supper was a regular salad and greens and tomato and green beans with spelt bread. After that I went to my regular alkaline diet.
 

July 24th-I am on the regular alkaline diet and weigh 177 and my PH is around 7.6. I go to the gym and can pretty much do everything and I am about built up to where I was in 2005. Eating predominately alkaline food does not weaken me as I can stand heat a whole lot better than some of the younger folks around the steam room. PTL!
 

August 22-I weigh 177 and my PH is around 7.6. I guess that is my new normal. Blood pressure is 108/70 with a heart beat of 72. Cholesterol is 158 and everything else is normal according to the VA exam. We will check the PSA in 6 months. I want to praise the doctors at the VA for their dedication and diligence in following my progress. All the personnel there are very busy and do a tremendous job of keeping up with everybody.

MISCELLANEOUS ACHES AND PAINS
 

Anytime I begin to get symptoms of an illness it is generally diet or stress and recently I have felt an urgency to exercise. I got me a job once and since I really wanted to be in the ministry, but was completely unprepared, I began to have lower back pain and diarrhea almost immediately. It was stress from not really wanting to be there, but I had learned to recognize this, so I got control of it rather quickly.
 

Another time I was experiencing lower back pain and a few days later I was barely able to get my socks on. The next time my back was hurting I tried different shoes and the back pain went away. I have to wear shoes with a heel and as soon as I got a different type of shoe my back cleared up.
 

Once my back started hurting and I had to go on an exercise program to strengthen my stomach muscles and it cleared up and was doing real good until about six months into the program my back started hurting and I discovered I needed to stretch after I exercise. We have a tendency to always think back pain is a spinal problem. I have stretched many times and been completely pain free when I get through. These are gentle stretches. But, of course, be careful, and see a doctor if you aren't comfortable with doing anything without your doctors approval. You don’t want to risk further injury.
 

Here is the stretching program that works for me:
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Enter AI stretching. In AI stretching, you hold each position for only 1½ to 2 seconds. Then you return to the starting position and relax. After resting for 2 seconds, you ease into the stretch again. Beyond the 2-second limitation, AI stretching differs from static stretching in another important respect: AI stretches are "assisted" in two ways. First, you contract the opposing muscle group to help move the stretched area into position. Second, while continuing the contraction, you use a rope or your own hands to gently enhance the stretch.
Don't tug, however. The cardinal rule of stretching remains unchanged: Don't ever force yourself beyond the point of light irritation. Stretching is never an instant solution to an injury problem, so take your time. The best results come from consistent, gentle stretching.
Keith Brantly (Whoever that is) says he used to consider stretching a waste. It still doesn't rank as one of his favorite activities. But he has stuck to his AI stretching program because it works (witness his longevity in the sport and his PR in last November's New York City Marathon). A number of other top runners have discovered the same:
AI stretching can work for you, too. Try incorporating the stretches in these pages into your training program. They have been selected because they are the stretches most likely to help runners increase flexibility and prevent injuries.
 

The Stretches:
Follow these steps in performing each stretch:
• Contract the muscle group opposite the area you're stretching.
• Bring each stretch to the point of light irritation.
• Hold for 2 seconds. Return to your starting position and relax for 2 seconds. Repeat the stretch.
 

1. Hamstring (rear thigh):
Lie on back with right leg bent. Wrap rope around arch of left foot, lock knee and lift straight leg upward, contracting the quads (muscles on the front of the thigh) while you gently assist with rope. Return leg to floor and repeat. Then perform same stretch on opposite side.
2. Adductor (inner thigh/groin):
Lie on back with legs extended and wrap rope around arch of left foot, then bring the two lengths of rope together and wrap around inside and back of ankle. Point left foot inward and lift leg to the side by contracting outer-thigh and hip muscles. Assist with rope, pulling toward shoulder. Return to original position and repeat. Perform same stretch on opposite side.
3. Abductor (outer thigh/hip):
Lie on back with legs extended. Wrap rope around arch of right foot, then bring the two lengths of rope together around outside and back of ankle. Point toes of both feet to the right. Bring right leg across opposite leg by contracting inner-thigh muscles. Assist with rope. Return to original position and repeat. Perform same stretch on opposite side.
4. Quadriceps (front thigh):
Lie on left side and bring both knees to chest; with left hand, grasp left foot from the outside. With right hand, grasp right ankle and extend right thigh back by contracting gluteus (buttocks) and hamstring muscles and assisting with hand; heel should press into buttocks. Return right thigh up to chest and repeat. Perform same stretch on opposite side.
5. Hip and Gluteus (buttocks):
Lie on back with right leg extended and pointed inward to stabilize hips. Bend left knee and contract abdominal muscles to lift knee toward the opposite shoulder. Assist with hands on shin and outer thigh. Return to original position and repeat. Perform same stretch on opposite side.
6. Piriformis (deep buttock):
Lie on back with left leg fully extended and left foot pointed to the right. Wrap rope around arch of right foot, and then bring the two lengths of rope together around outside and back of ankle. With knee locked, contract quad, upper-hip, upper-thigh and abdominal muscles to (1) lift leg up toward chest then (2) bring leg across the hips. Repeat both steps. Perform same stretch on opposite side.
7. Lower Back:
Sit with knees bent, legs wide apart and feet flat on the floor and pointing straight ahead. Tuck chin to chest and contract abdominal muscles to bend body toward floor. Assist by placing hands on shins or ankles and pulling forward. Return to original position and repeat.
8. Lower and mid back:
Sit with knees apart and bent 90 degrees and hands clasped behind head. Tuck chin to chest; contract abdominal muscles to twist trunk as far as possible to the left side and dip right shoulder between legs. Return to original position and repeat. Perform same stretch on opposite side.
9. Soleus (lower and deep calf):
Sit with right leg fully extended and left knee bent 90 degrees. Wrap hands around ball of foot. Lift toes toward body by contracting shin muscles and assisting with pull from hands. Repeat. Perform same stretch on opposite side.
10. Achilles Tendon (rear ankle):
Variation of soleus stretch. Sit with right leg extended. Bend left leg, bringing heel to buttocks, and wrap hands around ball of foot. Contract shin muscles to lift toes; assist with hands pulling upward on ball of foot. Repeat. Perform same stretch on opposite side.
11. Gastrocnemius (upper calf):
Sit with legs fully extended and about 6 inches apart. Double up rope and wrap around ball of left foot. Lock left knee and pull toes toward you by contracting shin muscles. Assist with rope. For a deeper stretch, lean forward and allow foot to come off floor when pulled. Repeat. Perform same stretch on opposite side.
 

For best results, build up to two sets of 8 to 12 repetitions of each of the stretches, and perform them in the order shown. Exhale during the stretch phase, and inhale during the relaxation phase. Perform AI stretching before and after a run. If time is limited, just do one set of stretches after your run, with fewer repetitions; but even when you shorten the routine, always keep in mind good form, and do the stretches in the correct order.
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I have found over the years that stress can create tension in our bodies and the muscles in our neck and back and legs can tighten up and these stretches are an excellent way to loosen up the muscles.
The last time I was sick with diarrhea and nausea I needed to fast and pray and I didn’t, so I ended up going to the doctor and getting pills and spending 200 dollars when I should have either gone on a clear liquid diet or fasted.
 

I used to have problems with sinus infections. Since I changed my diet I haven’t had a sinus infection in 20 years.

To be continued!