How do the three things in the title relate to one another? I’ll explain …
A couple weeks ago, I reached my weight loss goal, so this popped up on my Numi phone app:
NutriSystem’s app wanted to switch me over to the “Success” plan, for maintenance. So I did it, since I am generally easy to get along with.
I found out that that plan included a whole new kind of program, where we ditch what we knew before as “Smart Carbs” and “Power Fuels” in exchange for “Pinks,” “Oranges,” “Whites,” “Purples,” and “Greens.” I found some of it was intuitive, such as “Greens” were non-starchy vegetables… except that some non-starchy vegetables are not green—like tomatoes, for instance. “Purples” were fruits, which reminded me of grapes and plums… but many fruits are not purple, such as mangos and pineapples. “Pink” is the color of your medium rare steak so it’s meat… but also dairy, which has little to do with pink, unless it’s maybe a cheddar with streaks of wine in it or something.
So I found it too confusing after nearly 2 years of being faithful to the prior system. Numi also wanted to raise my calorie count from 1200 to 1700 a day. That would not work at all, unfortunately. I only lost weight, and that very slowly, because I adjusted that calorie count on my own down to about 950 a day. At 1700, I would very quickly gain back everything I had lost, no joke.
I talked with a NutriSystem weight loss counselor, and as I expected, she didn’t like it that I had skimped on the calories. Basically, there’s some kind of consensus among weight loss “experts” that your body is unable to live on less than 1200 calories, so there’s this hard and fast lower limit, whatever your size or age.
She spoke of starvation mode. She said when you stay on a low-calorie diet for very long, your body metabolism slows down to make up for the missing calories and tries to gain them back.
Well, I suppose that could happen, but I know I have never truly been at risk of starving. In fact, my mother and I both joked about how if we ever had a famine, we could survive for quite a while off “the fat of the land.”
But the mention of “starvation mode” reminded me of a scene in the book 1984, where our hero Winston has always blamed himself for the death of his sister. He called to mind how he reacted when the family was trying to survive as he grew up but instead of sharing gallantly, he had hungrily gobbled up both his share and his sister’s. Afterwards, he could recall how sickly his poor little sister had looked, and how she had disappeared…
And I remembered how I had “shared” a can of tuna with our housegirl in the Philippines. Her one small can of tuna was her whole dinner, but she was watching us kids while my parents were gone, and I was watching her tuna. I had this great idea of how we could make the tuna into a tuna salad and both of us could eat tuna salad sandwiches—wouldn’t that be great? She saw how I coveted her can of tuna and eventually just handed it to me and went without. I got in trouble of course. I also got fat while I lived in the Philippines. It was too hot to play and I was always overly concerned with getting my fair share of anything served at mealtime. Usually other family members just rolled their eyes and gave me all of it.
Was I starving? Of course not. But sometimes I have eaten as if I didn’t know where my next meal was coming from. Compare this attitude of mine with that of the birds, who are always trusting God for their next meal, remembering that He provides for all of them just fine.
But there’s evidence of a coordinated attack on our food supply right now—case after case of factories mysteriously catching fire—even a fertilizer factory in North Carolina, which will make it difficult for farmers to raise crops. Farmers have been ordered to destroy their crops or lose government subsidies, and whole farms full of chickens and eggs have been destroyed because of a few cases of bird flu.
Similar to every other manufactured crisis of 2021 and 2022, Biden wants you to blame someone else, not him or his leftist policies. In this case, it is obviously Putin’s fault for the food shortages, right? And an actual famine has been predicted by the administration, for sometime in the fall—and fortunately, we “have all summer to prepare.” Since these self-fulfilling “prophecies” tend to come true fairly frequently, we should be paying attention to them, but this won’t be caused by Putin as they say, neither will it be caused by weather or bad soil, locusts or hail—just crushing, horrible government policies.
But things are getting serious, folks, enough for some people to point to the food shortages and say yes, we’re definitely in the Tribulation period. (Not everybody, … not me.)
What happens when people are actually hungry, though? This is something most of us have never really had to worry about beyond being uncomfortable because dinner was late. We may say, “I’m STARVING!” but… we’re not, any more than I was truly starving when I was “sharing” (stealing) someone else’s food as a child.
But if Americans were actually hungry, like out-of-food hungry with nothing on the grocery store shelves, I doubt that very many among us would just willingly lie down and die so that others could live. When people are actually starving, they very well may be a bit rude (like on Black Friday). They may steal. They may kill. It could get ugly.
In desperate times, people do desperate things.
In the book of 2 Kings, the city of Samaria was besieged by Ben-Hadad, King of Syria, and the people were slowly being starved out. Before the Lord came to the rescue, they were buying and eating anything they could find, including dove droppings and donkey heads. The King of Israel heard an oral argument between two women, who had earlier agreed to eat their sons one at a time, but when it was time for the second one to give up her son to be the meal of the day, she didn’t. And the first one thought that wasn’t fair, so she appealed to the King. That was pretty desperate!
Here are things some people are recommending to prepare for the coming days:
Do not go anywhere alone or with only children. Have two adults together at all times.
Consider carrying a gun.
Store up food now, while you can.
Grow your own food, including sprouts or garden foods, inside or outside.
Learn to hunt or fish.
Be an entrepreneur. Find alternative ways to make money.
Invest in gold, silver, and cryptocurrency.
Get off the energy grid.
DON’T let them bully you into being afraid and complying.
Not everything on the list is imperative, but if any of it rings true to you, and you feel led to do so, then do so.
Eric and I decided to get some backup food, which is never a bad idea anyway. We didn’t get the package deals advertised on the internet because there’s a lot of macaroni involved, and most of the meals heavily depend on being able to access water and a stove. If our power grid is also attacked while we’re having a food shortage, we would be out of luck. Granola bars in a storage tub truly would be a better idea. We’ll try to store enough for us and enough also to share with others.
Then Sunday afternoon we took a free gun safety class at Geneo’s Hunting and Fishing, and it was very interesting. I know I have been harassed a lot for being a military veteran who never handled a weapon during my military experience. But maybe it’s high time to do something. Because the Left has been talking about gun control, and some are talking more openly about confiscation. If you read history, you know that that always happens just before a dictator takes over. An unarmed citizenry assures the dictator that no one can successfully resist him. You may want to read “The Auschwitz Escape” by Joel C. Rosenberg for some perspective. (That link is a 30-second trailer for his book.)
We the American people are watching our Constitutional rights evaporate before our very eyes. The Second Amendment is the latest of these.
Meme from Sizzle.com
Gun control is not the answer to the violence in our society. Here are better answers:
If every armed bad guy knew that everybody he intended to victimize had a concealed weapon and knew how to use it, that would seriously cut down crime. That would be multiplied if armed bad guys who intended to shoot up a Wal-Mart experienced dozens of shoppers aiming their weapons at him.
If the police were allowed to do their job and not be brutalized every time they had a confrontation with a criminal that ended up in the use of deadly force, that would greatly help.
If criminals knew they would not be released as soon as they had checked into a prison because of lenient prosecutors, they might think twice before committing a crime.
If prisoners on death row were speedily executed without spending years and years there, that might be a deterrent.
If we had a great outpouring of God’s Spirit and a coat-to-coast revival in America that caused great changes in the way people lived, that would be the best thing we could ever hope to see in our lifetime, short of the Rapture itself. Revival doesn’t have to be something that happened back in the good ol’ days. It can happen again, especially when people are desperate and seeking for answers.
Consider carefully and prayerfully what you must do: Vote, run for office, store up some emergency food, grow vegetables, carry a weapon, pray for guidance and revival and peace, share the Gospel… Maybe all of the above?
“Lord Jesus, Your Bride the Church is still here on Planet Earth, watching the earth-dwellers scurry around like anxious ants after their hill has been kicked. We see trouble on every side, but we are not troubled. As we wait upon You, we are hoping for revival and trusting in Your providence and Your deliverance in the midst of this crooked and perverse world. As You taught your disciples to pray, so do we:
“Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen”
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