The Vessel of the Soul and the Anti-depression Diet

I have to testify to a great diet, and how it works. But first, lets look at the physical body with a different perspective. There are three realms of life, perhaps more if you are a scientist or philosopher, but for the purposes of man, just three. Those can be divided into biologic life, self aware life, and spiritual life.

The soul of man is residing in that amazing place of self awareness. God created man different from the animals, we have a choice, a free will. Our soul exist with the unique life of man, a self aware existence. This soul has underneath a void, a incomplete region of unconscious connection. Think of it as a port, a socket, an communications hub between realms. We are aware of the port, but not actively able in ourselves to exert influence in the realm beyond that port.

Without Christ, the spiritual influences of the world plug into our soul, and the end result is decay. With the Spirit of God inside, there is a check, a guardian at the access point, that informs us when we have come into contact with some other source than the eternal life flowing out of the Kingdom. We grow connected to a different realm through this access point. We become beings that are far beyond man's concept of humanity.

God has given us residence in the garden, given us a place before the throne where we can forever proclaim His glory. And through this connection, the transforming power of Christ flows into our soul, into the realm of this existence. We become something beyond our environment, beyond our education, past whatever experience has shaped us and impacted our lives. The seed that was planted in you has its roots in the fertile garden, and grows into a full display in this age to bear fruit for the purposes of God.

All of this takes place in a vessel. Your brain holds all the neurons, structures, blobs of synapses that allow for the soul's activity. Our thinking, our emotion, all of our decisions move through this biologic construction. Now, we know that the brain is connected to the senses, and through those we communicate with the physical realm. But what is of importance here is that the brain can not exist on its own. And without it, your soul ceases to have a container in this realm. If you are connected to the Kingdom, you have the access to eternal life, and the loss of the brain is simply the transfer to eternity.

Anyhow, to serve God, we need to do work here, in this age. This requires that you be able to communicate spiritual life, which needs to pass through your soul (and hence the brain) into the senses of another (hence into their brain) and from there into the others soul. The Eternal King provides the life source, and facilitates this transfer, and by no means other than faith can we make it happen, but it does require these living vessels, biologic life structures.

So the purpose of this palaver is to bear witness to a diet I have been using. Yes, I ballooned out like one of the lazy priests before the altar, feasting on the fat morsels. So the time arrived when I looked at my three daughters and thought "I would like to perhaps be here to guide them as long as possible..." Now, we should be motivated by simpler things. And I am not hiding behind any excuses, I will only live so long. I got round because of the anti-depressive effects that come with consumption of carbohydrates in quantity.

In simple terms, there is a trap that some of us fall into who have this type of body. We get serotonin increases with carbs in the gut. That makes us feel better. If we get stressed, or slightly depressed, we eat as a anti-depressant. If this becomes a lifestyle habit, we get fat as cows. I am that type of person. I won't tell you that all your depression will be gone, or give you release from whatever is stressing you. But, if you just recognize that you are in that position, this diet will work.

One thought first, if it is something terrible that is haunting you, gnawing at your mind in the dark of the night, please get professional help outside of this diet. Dealing with depression is very difficult for some people, and you need confidants who will tell it to you straight when you are at the bottom, and grab your hand to keep you from self destruction. The true psychologist lives in the community of brothers and sisters, and will assist you from there. Also, there is a place for things like SSRI's and Valium, but bear in mind what they are, modifiers of the container that holds your soul. Fixing that container is what is important, not finding a substitute escape mechanism.

Now, lets get into the diet itself. I created this diet with God's prompting. It has three components, each of them is pretty much critical to success, but they are so simple, and almost self correcting, that anyone can find this diet useful. The first and most important component is the will. It is part of your soul, and needs transformation. The second part is craving and hunger control, I loathe feeling hungry. The third part is diversity so you do not end up at a comfortable place only to go off the diet and explode!

Regarding the will, you need to have the Spirit of God in your life to really accomplish this part. But if you don't, you can still do it, just don't expect a easy time retraining yourself. First, recognize that you are fat as a house, and it was your choice to get there. Don't make up excuses or whatnot, just accept the simple fact that you choose all those bowls of pasta, bonbons, slices of pizza, and everything else. Look at yourself in the mirror, you choose to get to this point. Now, the temptation is to let emotion in here, which leads to feelings of hopeless depression. Especially seeing how you don't want to accept your condition (come now, if you did, you would have done something already...), you want to live in a fantasy realm in your mind where you are fine.

Forget the emotional part, just force yourself to look, and say outloud, to God and everybody else, "I choose to get here." Now, if you can do that, you are going to make it. That is the hardest part! All of the excuses that pop into your mind are emotional traps that will turn you away, and if you can not face your will, you can not get transformation there. Now, ask God to move into your will. Ask Him to take your will and fill it with the healing Spirit. Tell Him you have used your will to get here, a place where the vessel of your soul is not working correctly. Tell Him that you have used your will to over eat. Tell Him you want to alleviate feelings of depression, tell Him that it makes you feel good, and you want to feel good without hurting yourself now.

Seriously, if you can do this, if you can make it through this confrontation with God and your broken will, you are going to walk this diet easily. You may not believe me, but it is true, He is so faithfull, so ready to move into those broken areas of our soul. And fast! There is no waiting. Oh, you will be tested, nothing that gets transformed goes without being tested. But it is not what you expect! When the Spirit inhabits your will, the choices we face are made with a deep and abiding peace.

So, you have made it past the hard part, and now it's time for the plan. My biggest issue was with craving control. Needing that serotonin fix is as strong a craving as any I know of. Pure addiction, like heroin, nicotine, cocaine. Some may not believe that, but it is true for body types like mine. If we don't get that fix, it is almost unbearable. So how do you break the cycle? Well, it takes about three weeks. And you must stick to it for that long!

If you start and only make it five days, or two weeks, please reset the "withdrawl" clock, otherwise you will be frustrated. Now, the key is proteins. Use them to get that sensation of fullness. And vary the type and quantity to match your 'moods' or 'hungers'. It doesn't really matter when you fill up on them, but you will need to have a ready supply. I started with boiled chicken thighs. I would cook three pounds at a time and leave them in the fridge. Then I moved to cold baked salmon. Then shrimp, then ahi tuna, then tofu, on and on. Usually I could eat the same thing for about three days before getting tired of it.

Here is the key. During this three weeks, you absolutely must not eat any refined carbs! A few whole grain portions a day are fine, but absolutely no rice, refined bread, sweets, alcohol, potatoes, on and on... This is a strict requirement. Only for the reason of 'breaking' the serotonin fix cycle. After the three weeks, you can add back some portions of basically anything you want, but you will find it hard to keep proper nutrition with a bunch of refined carbs. Why? Because the last part of this diet is about calorie control.

This third and finally point is easy, but you do need to work at it a bit. Check your daily burn rate for calories. I was at a whopping big poundage, and the calculators estimated that I burned 3700 calories a day for my activity level. Now that was a bit silly, so if you are fat as a pig, like I was, put into the calorie burn calculators a reasonable 'overweight' value for your height. Doing this brought my expected daily burn rate down to 2900 calories, quite a difference. And I can say that is about correct, as I have averaged near ten pounds a month weight loss on this diet, with a mean intake of 1800 calories a day or a bit less.

Yes, there it is, a mean daily calorie intake. You need to eat less than you burn. Nothing else will be healthy. Sure, there are diets where you trick your body and such, but we were designed by God to use the nutrition available in nature, and if we believe that, there is no need to deceive ourselves or our bodies. So, under this average calorie limit you need to do two things: stay healthy, and vary the daily level of calories. I use this pattern mostly: 1300 cal for two days, 1900 cal for one day, 1500 for a couple days, then repeat. It is important to do this, to trick your metabolism into thinking that everything is fine, and you aren't starving.

If we stay on a very low calorie diet, our bodies shift into starvation mode. You can loose weight, but the minute that you intake more calories than you burn, your body wants to turn that to fat right away. When it does this, hunger actually increases, as your body thinks it is in the season of plenty, and you eat eat eat, then explode! With the diet here, there is no problem going "off the reservation", as you will just be eating your normal amount. Even if you did gorge out, your body would just slowly switch to storage, instead of growing a new spare tire.

So, putting the two items together, here is what happens. If you get up in the morning, and you are ravenously hungry, eat protein only. Maybe a piece of fruit, or half glass of juice, but nothing else besides protein. Some days, the worst days, I would eat four chicken thighs for breakfast before I felt full. That is around 700 calories! Plus coffee and a quarter glass of milk. Half of the daily requiremet gone in the first meal. But I would be full. Full enough to eat a very light lunch. Say a protein bar (300 cal), or a salad. Still fine all the way to dinner, where I would finish up the daily calorie count.

On other days, I would wake up fine, and eat a couple of whole grain crackers, some avocado, perhaps a bit of fruit. Keep it to 400 calories or so. Then check yourself at lunch, shoot for another 400 cal, mostly protein. Now you have a 800 calorie dinner waiting, which is pretty substantial, and should fill you completely. If you are not feeling extremely hungry, go for more vegetables and whole grains. If you feel like it will be a night of lying in bed dreaming of pasta, eat all protein! Stuff it in.

After three weeks go by, begin to balance things out with nutritious items. But if you get hunger cravings, immediately switch back to all protein for a few days. The whole point of the protein is to break your serotonin drug dependence, and that is of the highest priority! Higher than meeting a calorie limit. The lesser goal is to be as nutritious as possible while eating 500-1000 calories a day bellow what you need. All the while, you simply must be finding God in your will. That spiritual transformation will allow you to plan and execute this diet easily. You can do it for months, or even years if you are morbidly obese.

And you are not "on a diet" in the traditional sense, because this is the way your body needs to eat anyhow! Keeping the vessel in working condition is necessary to be of use to God. So of course He will help you to do it! You don't need guilt, or pain and suffering. If you are caught in those traps, you are denying the sacrifice of Christ! He freed use from our transgressions, even those of fatness and food abuse! Grasp this reality, and let Him into your will for serious healing and transformation.

So here is the plan. Get in front of God, and a mirror. See yourself honestly, and be honest with God about your condition. You made the choices to get there, now you can choose to live in a different way. Then set out a plan for three weeks of zero refined carbs. Write down your daily calorie requirements, and estimate a level that will give you good weight loss. For instance 500 calories a day less than you need will equal nearly six pounds a month loss. I wouldn't go beyond 1000 calories a day less than what you need no matter your size, as this is not sustainably healthy.

Now get through the three weeks. It isn't eternity, but if you do blow it completely, just be honest. Dealing with the will is difficult, but absolutely necessary. If you can not do three weeks, you have flaws in your will that run deeper, get with a counselor in the Spirit. Don't be lame with excuses, it is a waste of time and just indicates you are not willing to change. Look deep at yourself, it is fine to see broken pieces, give them to God! Keep going until you master the three weeks, and I believe for most people with body type like mine that you will find the serotonin addiction pretty well beat.

After that it is just deciding to make the vessel of your brain, the organ that holds the soul, a healthy organism. Do it for service to God, and He will make that path a easy one. If you get seriously hungry, drop back to a full protein anti-craving meal plan for a few days. I went through a period about three months into this program where I was ravenously hungry! For two or three days, it was constant, I ate fish all day it seemed. But it did work, each time I was hungry, filling up on protein would eventually satisfy.

Finally, praise God from which you found the source of eternal life. He has beaten death, and can overcome the flesh in every way! For Him, to renew our will to His design is effortless, and in line with His purpose of growing the Body of Christ. Know this, and be ready to see it happen. Proclaim His Glory throughout the earth in this and in all things!