Saturday, February 7, 2009

February Meeting Recap

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures. I did bring my camera, but I was too busy stuffing my face full of delicious food. No time for picture taking.

We chose the topic Eating Meat Sparingly to be first because we knew it would spark the most discussion and possibly some debate. and it did. I knew it would. We also thought that it would be the toughest thing to try and change about our diets, thus making it first to allow for more adjustment time. Thinking about eating less meat, or eating it sparingly takes us out of our comfort zones. It takes us from what we know and what we understand to a completely foreign new way of looking at diet. It really is a pretty major change in thinking. Even more so if you are trying to eliminate or cut back on animal protein as a whole (milk, cheese, eggs, other dairy).

What I learned was that it is really hard to , in a short amount of time, try to convey a huge message and impact understanding. It's hard to pick and choose what to say and what not to say. I have read sooooo much on the subject, both church materials an non-church materials and there is just so much information. sooooooo much.

We opened with our discussion questions, talking about what the Lord says about meat in the WoW and the word sparingly. Some said that it is personal interpretation, others thought that the Lord was pretty clear.

I gave a mini lesson on proteins, how much our bodies need and where we should get it from to best suit our bodies. I can go more into depth later about this. I gave a visual image using duplox blocks to demonstrate how our bodies assimilate and create proteins. Concerns were shared about different bodies needing different amounts of protein. I also shared information on combining proteins and creating "whole proteins". More to come on that as well.

Nichole shared a few books. Two in particular - In Defense of Food and Animal Vegetable Miracle along with a couple cookbooks. Maybe we can share a bit more on these books later as well. She also talked about how she has become convinced that this is what the Lord has intended us to eat. It just makes sense. To her and to many of us.

We discussed the Word of Wisdom as a preparatory diet for what we would be eating during the Millennium. Very interesting thoughts by Caitlin R. about preparing to meet our Maker. I mentioned that we will take the same desires and cravings with us (as told to us by the scriptures) so, since we know we will not be eating meat, might as well lose the taste for it now.

Overall it was a great discussion and very thought provoking. Of course, as many of us do I laid in bed that night thinking about all that I WISH I had said. There was so much to say and I barely touched the tip of the iceberg. I wished most of all that I would have born my testimony about these principles of the Word of Wisdom.

I think that the Word of Wisdom is just like any other principle in the gospel. If you want a testimony of tithing what do you do? You pay your tithing. And you can claim those blessings because the Lord is bound when we do what he says (D&C 82:10). The blessings offered by following the Word of Wisdom are wonderful and beautiful blessings. They are ours to claim. We need to gain a testimony of these principles just like we do all of the others. We need to make it a matter of prayer, of study, of fasting. The Lord will tell us if it is right. The spirit will confirm and witness to us that these things are true.

I know that these ARE true principles and that the Lord has given us the Word of Wisdom in its entirety to teach us how to best feed our bodies. He is our Maker. He knows more than any man what is best for our health. We need only to gain faith and humble ourselves to submit to his counsel that we may obtain the blessings that he has in store for us.

I pray that those in our group and those who are distantly reading and following may also desire to gain a strong testimony of these principles and that they may be blessed according to their desires and efforts.

Thank you for allowing me to do that. I really wish I had shared my testimony on Tuesday.

Next month: GRAINS!

Also: Recipes from the evening will be posted soon as well as information that was covered.

2 comments:

  1. I appreciated reading your testimony. I obviously wasn't at your group discussion but I have been thinking about this topic all month. I'm having a hard time thinking about giving up meat entirely--what I am doing (baby steps) is cutting back the amount of meat we eat and going vegetarian for more of our meals. I'm hoping that as we are successful with this, that we'll be able to take more steps in the future. This is a great blog and I appreciate the stimulus to improve our diet and health.

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  2. Thank you Scrap box (wink wink). We actually discussed the idea that the Lord does not intend for us to be true vegans or vegetarians even. I think sometimes health and all of that stuff can almost become a religion in itself for some people. They obsess about it and freak out about things. The way we are doing it is cooking mostly vegetarian at home and then allowing ourselves to eat meat at others homes and on special occasions.

    I can talk more about this in another post. There was a sister who came that had some great advice and insight -- her family eats vegan most of the time but aren't freaks about it, which I like. I am going to see if she wants to post on here. She is wonderful.

    I am so glad you are benefiting from this.

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