Many of you that have known me for a good portion of my life know how eating has always been one of my favorite things. I remember the grocery bill growing up was often $250-$325+ every two weeks for 3-4 people. Granted, my friend Larry and I could scarcely be eaten under the table and he and I single-handedly kept the Maple Grove Cub Foods' inventory turning over with great regularity.
I remember the countless number of people who would say to me things like, "If you keep eating like that...," and, "You know that'll catch up to you some day," or even more often, "Just wait until you're 21...25...etc." I kept rejecting this wisdom as my pants were still the same size and besides that, I really like food. Sure enough though, as I passed through college and into my mid-20's I realized that my appetite was decreasing and seasons of mild chubbiness were increasing.
To further protract this nonchalance about (and overindulgence in) food, I've had very active jobs painting and hanging lights for over 10 years that have kept me thin and kept me from realizing any issues I had with food. Finally when I hit 29 my metabolism started slowing down and at 30 it just took a siesta! The fall of 2007 (passing from 29 to 30) was the fattest I've been. Not that I was "fat" or felt fat or that I have any issues with that (just FYI), it's just that my belt ran out of notches and I had to get some bigger shorts! I was eating out most days whilst hanging the lights and the Lord finally revealed to me the next Spring that I hadn't been hungry for six months! I ate when it was time or when something looked good and not when I was hungry...and I ate a lot! That's when I knew that food had really become a problem, and a spiritual one at that.
So why does this matter if I'm "relatively" thin compared to most people my age? That right there is indicative of a major spiritual problem in our culture. We judge ourselves based on our performance compared to the next guy and not in relation to the truth. In the midst of many other sinful things being cleansed from my life over the years, food has been creeping in and becoming a vice. And it was very hard to begin getting a handle on as most everybody in my life still expected me to eat like a horse and a few people even made it very hard to resist at times, not in anything but good Minnesota hospitality, "Eat some more, want some more, you should have some more, come on, I know how much you like..." You get the drift. :)
Now it is time to make this a front burner issue as my dear, sweet Jessica has dietary issues of her own. Many of you know that she has a skin condition called eczema, but no one we know has seen it quite like hers. She is at the point where having anything with sugar, even just a little, feeds an overgrown yeast condition in her gut called Candida and her hands break out in a flaming, itching rash. She has tried many different topical remedies, but the problem lies within.
When we were in Colorado for training we went on a strict Candida diet and within five days the pain largely went away and there were no new spots. The old ones had mostly healed up as well. Of course, at our commissioning party the last day they had a room full of desserts, which we ate, and let's just say the flare up was overnight. Once your body gets this out of balance it takes several months before you can have any kind of "normal" eating, but it can be done, and by God's grace we will.
The American diet for decades has been utterly horrible and it's sad to see that so much of the junk food we eat is appearing all over the shelves here in Mongolia; right before our eyes it's changing. There are very few overweight people here as of now, but in a few years the earth might tilt a little more to the east if they don't get a clue on the junk food. On a positive note, things like fresh vegetables arrive here by the truckload all the time and we have wonderful produce to choose from. Every week or two there's new things! It is fairly exciting to be living in a rapidly emerging country.
Please keep us lifted up as we are in a dash to find foods we can eat and different recipes to vary the few items. Basically, we can have many of the vegetables (minus corn, cooked carrots, potatoes) and most of the meats. We can supplement this with various beans (kidney, black, navy, mung), eggs...uh...I think that's about it for now. Once Jess' system gets cleansed out a little there are many things we can start to add in with a rotating cycle. We've even found buckwheat and millet here which are both very healthy but are on the "limit" list for now.
Surprisingly enough there is a GNC just down the street so we've been able to get some probiotics (an essential in fighting Candida). We've been on the diet for a few days now and already her hands have subsided and are starting to heal, it's amazing to see the corralation. In fact this picture was take today. Two and three days ago they were much worse, keeping her up at night, and full of bumps and clear fluid. We've cut out all sugar, including fruits and grains. Last night Jess sat down with the the list of "OK Foods" and made a list of all of them that we can actually get here. She whipped up a pretty fancy meal plan and today we went SHOPPING! It was great! This really helped the morale and there are actually some super yummy meals coming up in the next couple weeks. Last night we had ground beef with fresh cilantro, tomatoes, onions, yellow peppers and spices on top. It was so fresh and delicious! Today I borrowed the Detherages' coffee mill and turned our mung beans into flour so we can have tortillas, chips, breadings, stew thickening, and who knows what else.
Sorry for the length of the post but we really want you to know about these things so you can intercede for us on our behalf. It's amazing how something so seemingly simple can turn into a pretty big thing, but we know that this is for our good and that we will be given everything we need to persevere through these difficult early stages.
We love you all so much and are constantly aware of your role in us being here.
Matt-n-Jess
