Returning to God’s design in faith, food, and discernment

Well, come to the untold, take it deep breath, take the higher road, that's why they always say, as if they know the way, they won't take it from me.

But don't ever doubt yourself by swiping just a drain, you made your own so kick and scream.

The people will lie with a never-ending force, you never have the chance, so watch your waiting for it.

This is come, my friend, cause this is one.

It's time and this is one.

So welcome back to the nurses' report. I'm your host, Ashley, and I'm a registered nurse, functional medicine practitioner.

And today we're going deeper than nutrition. We're talking about design, because I believe with everything I've seen clinically and everything I've experienced personally, that's so much of what we're seeing right now, the chronic illness, the hormone dysfunction, the fatigue, the anxiety, it's not random.

It's the result of how far we've drifted from what God originally created.

From the food, from the rhythms, from the way we care about our bodies, because if you're looking at the beginning, food wasn't confusing.

There were no labels, no ingredient list, and no debates over what was healthy.

There was provision, there was simplicity, and there was design.

And now we're living in a world where food is manufactured, modified, stripped, injected, preserved, colored,

and then marketed as health food. And we wonder why people are sick.

So today I am joined by Annalise, and I'm going to let you say your last name, because I did not ask you how to say it, and I don't want to butcher it.

But we're going to be talking about what it really means to return not just a whole food, but to God's design for nourishment, healing, and stewardship of the body.

So welcome to the nurses report and tell everybody your full name since I, I did not prepare properly.

Thank you, that's okay. Yes, and I actually go by my first and middle name is what's all over my socials. So it's Annalise, Zaviera.

Zaviera, okay, it looks real, I was like, if I try this, it's not going to sound good, so I'm going to let you take that.

But welcome to the nurses report. I always like to start with my guest just by asking a little bit about, you know, to tell our listeners who you are and kind of what led you to where you're at now.

Sure. So like I said, my name is Annalise. I am married with one boy who is a toddler and keeps me very, very busy.

We at home school and we have chickens and land and all the things to keep us busy here too.

My husband also works from home, so we're just we're busy around here all the time. And to keep it short, but give you a little background. I got here.

I started this journey about two and a half years ago. God started to reveal to me that there were some things out of order in my life in this area with food.

And started to kind of open my eyes to some of the things you were mentioning with the food system and just the way that food is being marketed to us now and how is it was affecting me in my body.

And so that sparked this whole journey and we started making little changes one thing at a time and let us all the way here.

Awesome. I love that you said that you started your journey by one thing at a time because I feel like it's very overwhelming to people.

And so they just give up. They just don't make changes because the changes seem so overwhelming. And by just kind of doing one thing at a time, I think it is just it's doable.

You know, if you kind of think about one or two things you want to change and focus on that and then move forward. Is that kind of what you did?

You didn't dump out your whole pantry in one day and replace everything.

Yes, so this was the first time a couple of years ago that I really started approaching this from a biblical standpoint.

And that looks very different than what the world tells us to do, right, because the world and diaculture, we've all been exposed to it to some degree probably and we've all, you know, I think are familiar with that cycle of change everything right now overnight.

You need to have all your systems. You need to be like in the gym. You need to have all your pantry swapped out throw everything away.

Try this whole new meal plan with all this food that you've never tried before.

And we think it's a discipline issue when we can't stick to it, right, we're so hard on ourselves.

When really that's not what we're called to do, you know, the word says that got on our small steps of obedience.

So that's what started to be revealed to me was this is going to look way different than what the world has told us it needs to look like.

It's yeah, because it doesn't need to be an overnight overwhelming overhaul of your kitchen.

It needs to be one small, faithful step at a time. That's what actually creates something sustainable.

Yeah, and we're not, you know, we're not talking about perfection.

And I think you're right, like we are probably our hardest critics and are so hard on ourselves and feel so defeated.

I think even I work with a lot of patients that they're like, well, my doctor told me to eat like this or my doctor put me on this diet and I just can't seem to do it right.

And then you just beat yourself up, you know, and it doesn't have to be that way. God created this.

It's very simple if you really think about it. So what is what is biblical eating if you had to kind of sum it up?

Sure. And yes, what you said, it is not about perfection.

It's not about legalism and rules. The Bible doesn't give us a specific diet plan.

Okay, we're not talking about, you know, necessarily the Old Testament dietary laws or the Daniel fast.

A lot of people immediately their mind goes to those things.

But what I'm talking about with biblical eating is simply taking the values and principles that are echoed all throughout the Bible and applying it to this area of your life as well.

You know, a lot of us live our life with thinking, okay, well, food's over here and my faith is over here and they're separate, but they're not.

If you really get into the word and what I'm trying to always, you know, put out and teach on my pages is that the word of God has a lot to say about this topic, a lot to say about this area of our life.

And if we can start applying those principles, what God says about us, what it says about how intentional he was with the design of us and our food.

Like you said earlier, if we can start applying all of that to this area of our life, there's just so much freedom and it looks so different than anything that you've probably tried before with diets and trends in the world.

Yeah, I think it it's hard because coming, you know, from a nursing background, I was trained, you know, you have your patient in the hospital and you say, well, you're going to follow a heart healthy diet.

You're going to follow a kidney diet. You're going to follow a diabetic diet and it was a very clean cut, but also very confusing because if you send somebody out into the world and say, eat a heart healthy diet.

If you've been to the grocery store lately, that means you're buying Cheerios oatmeal, maybe some yogurt, you know, other things that if they brand it heart healthy and it's expensive, it's overwhelming and it's not healthy at all.

And I think the core of a lot of what we're trying to do in medicine with diet is to get back to the basics because I think God provided most of what we need to heal through food and we just dismiss that so easily.

So easily. So I love that, you know, you make it so simple and welcoming for anyone to try like this isn't just it's not a diet. It's it's a way of eating. I love that so much. I think simplicity is probably the key and God put it everything we need in the food that we have what he's provided for us.

What kind of changes did you experience as you as you started to change your diet like physically, but also spiritually?

Yeah, so I'll just start with physically. So I was when I started this I was about a year postpartum with my son and at the time I was 30 years old, but I was having joint pains going up and down the stairs like my body was so inflamed.

And they told me while you just had a big baby, he was nine pounds. So, you know, so they're like, well, that was just hard on your body. That's what I got told, but I'm thinking to myself, 30 years old, I don't care if I had a big baby. There's no way that I should be experiencing pain and an inflammation like this at 30 years old.

And so I was having actual physical problems during this time and just the mental fogginess of, you know, having a young child is already taxing on the mind and pregnancy brain doesn't really go away. It just becomes mom brain for life.

So, you know, I just, but we don't realize sometimes I didn't realize how much the food and the the processed, you know, artificial ingredients and sugars were just, I mean, making that but times 10.

So when I started making changes, I started swapping out one thing at a time, I got the mental clarity and the natural energy back, you know, instead of being on three cups of coffee a day, I was having more of the natural energy back in my system.

The joint pain completely went away. All of the inflammation and bloating and everything I was experiencing gone. And so I, you know, the cravings, the sugar cravings because sugar was like the biggest that had the biggest hold on me.

Always going for a sweet treat. So not feeling like I was physically constantly craving food or sweets anymore.

But then, yes, on the spiritual side, it just gave me, it gave me a different perspective on what it looks like to be obedient in this area of my life, to be within God's will for this area and understanding that, of course, he cares enough about us to be intentional with what he provided for his creation and how we're supposed to take care of, you know, ourselves in this body that he's given us.

And so it just, it did strengthen my relationship because I got to experience closeness with him in an area that I had never really even considered bringing him into before.

Yeah, yeah, I think, you know, this past Sunday at church, the, my pastor was talking about the spiritual warfare that's just going on in the world and how it's, it's everywhere.

It's in the news, it's in the schools, it's in our food, it's in our water system, it's in pharmaceuticals, you know, it's everywhere. And I, he always says, it's more spiritual than you think, you know, and I, I do, I agree, I feel like there is this war on our health, you know, like where we're being attacked.

We really have to kind of refocus and think about what God wants for us and to just kind of, I think, remove ourselves from a lot of the chaos, right, like, you know, all the marketing and the diets and the recommendations and get back to just simplicity and real food, right, eat real food.

That's the, what's trendy now, which I love, but it doesn't have to be so complex. I think we make it harder than it is. And what you were saying about, so I had my babies were nine pounds as well.

So I had big babies. And, you know, it is pregnancy is just hard on your body, I think, but you're right, like, you shouldn't feel that way. I think after, after my second baby, I really focused, well, during the pregnancy, I focused a lot on food. And I felt better than I ever had, like, I felt so good when I was pregnant.

And then after I had him, I recovered and bounced back so much quicker than my first baby.

But then I noticed that, you know, you're up late at night, you're stressed, all the things, I would grab a bag of pretzels and just snack on pretzels. I would forget to eat.

I would just grab things that were super quick, super easy and kind of fell back into some bad habits. And then I started rapidly gaining weight. I was fatigued. I was depressed.

And, I mean, was it all the food? Probably not all the food. There was hormones, but I think food led me down that path when I had been recovering so well and then just took like this left turn.

And it was hard to come back from. So I think that's, you know, that's something people have to think about is, is medical providers want a tangible reason why you feel the way you do.

So blaming it on pregnancy and the baby and all of that is easy, but it goes deeper beyond that. All this food causes so much inflammation.

So I love, you know, that you said that because I think for so many women, you're looking for something to put your finger on.

It's this lab, it's this gene, you know, your genes, it's this problem that you have going on, but it doesn't have to be a diagnosis, you know.

With your, I love like your recipes and stuff. And so that's one thing I want to bring up to our listeners is we're not talking about sitting down and having this minimal meal where you feel like

you're deprived from all these good foods, like the foods you eat look so good. And you do provide a lot of like recipes and meals and things like that on your on your social media.

So if you're not following her, you definitely should, but you don't feel deprived, right? Like you do feel restricted.

Not at all. This is the most funny that I've ever felt with food. And it's because I mean the true freedom is it of it is that you stop thinking about food all the time.

You know what I mean? It's not food noise.

Yes. And that's the thing too is that whenever you start making the changes in this area, swapping one at a time, you allow your body to do what it was designed to do and heal.

You know, whenever you get all the artificial ingredients out, if there really is a root issue of something going on, it's so much easier for you to understand and identify in your body.

I was able to identify certain sensitivities I have to even just something like certain nightshade vegetables were kind of wreaking havoc on my digestive system. I never would have been able to pinpoint that.

If I hadn't got the junk out, you know what I mean? Got the unnecessary noise out and then over time I was always my whole life.

I described myself as a volume eater like I wanted big portions. I always I never felt like I was satisfied and you know would always go for it wasn't going to be one cookie. It was going to be let you know, let me have a few every time I had a craving.

And over time, eating this way, honoring my body in this way, I finally regulated and I've heard this from followers on my page two that are doing this along with me that after a while it's like something just flips in your body regulates, but you have to give it that time in that space and get the junk out to allow it to heal.

Because now I don't experience cravings like I used to and I don't overeat or feel like I have to eat as much as I did before your body just naturally gets into the rhythm it was created to live in.

But a lot of us just don't even give ourselves the chance to get there.

Yeah, yeah, and you know, and then if if you're not making these changes now, unfortunately a lot of the times it does lead to illness and then you're having to make changes quickly and and that's a lot harder to do, you know, if if you're

experiencing some symptoms, you can make these changes kind of slowly and and get used to it and not feel so overwhelmed, but I actually I have a client that I'm working with now she's young, but she does have cancer and the cancer is on her pineal gland, which kind of regulates all the hormones in your body.

So she has that and she's getting treatment and the first thing they told her is you have to completely change your diet like no more fast food, no more processed foods limit your red meat you have to eat mostly a plant blade and she was she's so overwhelmed by it all because now she's faced with this health condition that is dependent on her making these changes and it's so much harder.

And I'm working with her to help her make that not seem so overwhelming a little more simple and you know doesn't have to be hard, but you know if the earlier you start you can prevent a lot of these disease processes I mean we're talking about hormone dysregulation inflammation in the body like you said it wrecks havoc on all of your systems every single system in your body can be linked back to inflammation when you start to have problems.

So you know I think if you can start making the changes now it just it makes going forward a lot easier preventive medicine which we don't really practice here, but I think food is the preventive right.

And I even see it like you had one my husband was really excited about and I haven't done it yet, but you had like a chocolate peanut butter egg for Easter.

So I think it's it's eye opening to people that you don't have to to feel like you're on a diet all the time and you can enjoy these foods.

So I do have to make that for him Reese's peanut butter cups are like his weakness.

And I need to make make something that's a little more healthy, but but I love like your Easter recommendations and I think holidays are hard for people right do you do have big family holidays.

We're we don't we're kind of out here in the middle of nowhere on our own, but I love yeah yeah yeah, but I do a lot of cooking for like events like we get our church is like it's a very small church and if there's something happening we're cooking for it you know so we're in the south.

That's just that's just how it is so yeah I do a lot of cooking for the community and cooking for church so yeah so we are we do have a big chosen family gatherings that way yeah.

Yeah, because I think you know the holidays it's i think people are excited about them that they also dread it you know because you know that you're going to be faced with all of these foods that you've been trying to maybe avoid.

I can even say like when I worked in the hospital around the holidays it was like there were doughnuts and cake and bagels and people would bring big baskets and stuff like it's always right there in your face, but you said something I think very key is that.

The longer you're removed from it the less cravings you have and it gets easier to walk away from those foods right I mean you don't feel like you need them and it doesn't I think people think about them a lot for instance like if you have ice cream in your freezer you might think about that ice cream all day long and eventually you break down and you eat it.

Once that's been removed a lot of the sugar cravings go and then if you're out and there's ice cream it's easy to walk away from it or it's easy to not buy it in the grocery store.

But speaking of grocery stores do you do grow a lot of your own food or because I know it sounds like you're kind of like on a homestead.

Yeah so we are starting that part now I'm always encouraging the believers to follow me to just take one faithful step of obedience at a time so my step this week was I planted an herb garden so we're starting with like all of our own homegrown herbs so that's my step because I can't even keep a house plan alive so we're going to start there.

Girl I feel you I and last week the the girl that I had on we we talked a little bit about gardening and stuff and I think my philosophy is like you just have to go for it and you learn as you go you can make it again like eating you can make it really complex and make it hard but it doesn't have to be herbs are a great place to start and then you can use them in cooking you can dry them you can use them and tinctures and stuff so I I love having an herb garden and for people who are

who don't have like big yards you can just grow them on your kitchen counter so I think that's that's a good place to start so if if someone's shopping in the grocery store how how do you avoid all of the the marketing and the poor choices that are that are out there do you have any kind of what do you do when you go to the grocery store I guess.

Yeah so I always tell people this is where I start levers every time is just to start with awareness start reading labels because yes it's getting more and more confusing the marketing is getting better and better it'll even get me sometimes like I've been reading labels and I can usually pretty easily recognize at this point what's going to be good and what's not.

But there it'll get me even sometimes where I'll look at the front of a package of something I'm like oh this actually looks like a great option I flip it over I look at the label and it's full of junk because it is it's just getting harder and harder it's more and more confusing and so I always say start with awareness because after you know I kind of got convicted about this I remember sitting in my place of study and I walked over to my pantry and I looked around and I was like.

So overwhelmed like everything has to go I had I had no idea what was actually in the food that I was consuming I had no idea that there were unnecessary ingredients the food dies the artificial sugars all of that so I always say at the grocery store start with awareness start reading the labels of the food that you're buying and just try and prioritize.

You know making clean healthy swaps one at a time so you don't have to start at the grocery store and the next week you're buying 100% organic farm raised you know all of that you can start with even one micro category at the time you know like I always say maybe start with your cooking oils and at the grocery store this week just start reading labels and maybe replace one of your cooking oils with something a cleaner option you know instead of the vegetable or the canola oil go for an avocado or a coconut oil or something you know more now.

So just start with awareness and as you go as you do this it's going to be easier and easier at the grocery store to be able to identify quickly what some you know a trusted brand and what's not and when in doubt always just like you said keep it simple I eat very simply and just have a lot of systems in place to make sure that I have enough variety and I'm actually working on a six week biblical eating reset right now that is going to work.

Walk people through step by step yes because I think a lot of it is there's overwhelm that comes from where do I start at the grocery store how do I actually do this so yeah that would be my first thing is just raise awareness.

Yes that's I mean I think that's that's really good advice because I you kind of have to take a step back and realize not everybody knows how to read a label I mean not that you don't have to read I get that but you look at the packaging I mean I feel like it was probably deceiving but you used to feel like you could rely on the marketing.

You know so if something said good for your heart or high you know megas like you looked at that and you trusted it and then I feel like it kind of moved to you started looking at how much fat was in something you know we went through that low fat craze so and people have always been really and providers doctors are still going to go on this.

But calorie counting so when you tell someone to read a label they flip it over and they just look at the calories you know and or the fat grams and that's really I I tell people I'm like forget all of that just look at the ingredients because you really can't go wrong if you have good ingredients whether no matter how many calories are in it if you're eating real food that's not something that you really have to have to monitor you know.

So yeah reading food labels I think that six week program is amazing because to get started it feels overwhelming and you do kind of need some you feel like you need guidance and some help so I think that's awesome that you're going to do that for people.

I think it once you commit and you get to the end of that six weeks then you have the skills and the knowledge and the tools that you need to to be successful on your own right.

So yeah and another thing I would say to with the the marketing I think we have to be extra careful right now and I'd love to hear your thoughts on this we do have to go to a break but what I was going to say is I feel like marketing's changing to get to help conscious people because of the maha movement and everybody's talking about this now you notice packages are changing and they're gearing it towards you but if you read that ingredient list it is still.

Not healthy and it still has a lot of junk in it so I want to talk a little bit more about that when we get back so you guys hang out with us we'll be right back on the nurses report.

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health spry can be found online and it all find natural retailers to welcome back to the nurses report I am here with Annelise today we are

talking about biblical eating and we are going to put in the show notes how to get in touch with her and she is developing a six week plan to

help people get started so before the break we were talking about I kind of mentioned quickly because we were running out of time there

but I wanted to talk about this whole like maha movement this move towards eat real food healthy foods I think it's great

that it's being talked about even if you don't agree with with everything that's being put out there it is on the forefront of everybody's mind

and faith seems to be a more popular topic that is I hear people talk about it more now than I have in the past which I think is great as well

but I do think that there is like we said spiritual warfare there's people that are going to try to take advantage of that

so I don't know if you've noticed in the grocery stores you see things marketed towards being healthy towards oh you know we removed this

ingredient or the dyes or whatever and the packaging looks different it's the same old brands like for instance

Doritos have you seen their new bag they market it like it's this healthier Dorito

but if you look at the back first of all Doritos like what kind of nutrition are you getting from Doritos

but I get it people love them and they're going to buy them and maybe it is a better option than the

original ones but if you look at the ingredients it's still full of chunk so do you feel like like this is

there's going to be people that that are trying to take advantage of this movement I think

yeah absolutely and as awareness raises and people are paying more attention you have to understand

too that marketing is going to get even sneakier and or even I guess more strategic is the right word

because they'll start using the buzzwords that everybody you know starts hearing like it'll say no

artificial dyes or no food dyes on the bag like you were saying with like a bag of chips and people

are looking at that saying oh okay yeah we're trying to eliminate dyes that's a great option not

realizing that yes when you flip over the bag and read the label of the ingredient list it's still

full of all of these artificial ingredients preservatives things that we were just never designed

to put into our bodies and how frustrating is it that you know you you're here thinking that you're

making a good choice you're trying to be better you're trying to you know food is can be overwhelming

enough as it is and now to add the confusion of you think you're making a great healthy step for

your family by purchasing something based on the marketing only to find out that you know there's

some you know maybe hidden things on that ingredient label that they're counting on you to overlook

yeah yeah and I even heard recently they're they're changing to like beetroot you know for for color

but now they're making an artificial beetroot color instead of actually using beetroot and I just

I don't get it like just be simple you know I buy products for my kids I'm not perfect I wish I just

ate a whole food diet and we never had like pro any kind of processed foods but you know I've I've

bought like candy and and different things that have no artificial dyes in them and the color

does come from natural sources spirulina beetroot and things like that and in other countries they do

that so now it's like they're taking this step forward to remove red dye 40 but we're going to

replace it with another artificial food dye that we don't know anything about I just it's really

maddening I just I guess it's to save a dollar maybe I don't know the purpose you know

do you so do you use any kind of like do you do buy products with with like natural coloring or

are you strictly like whole food where are you at and that process because I I think people get

discouraged if they're like oh my gosh I can never eat anything pre-made ever again and I don't

think it has to be so dramatic you know you can find some alternatives yeah no no no and it is

definitely not about perfection we are not perfect over here either you know I try and make good

decisions for my toddler but sometimes he wants the yogurts with his favorite character on them you

know what I mean and we just yes it's okay you know it's not about never eating sugar or never eating

a sweet treat again or anything like that it's just about intention in this area and you know

really wanting to nourish your body with food that is going to truly sustain you because that's

how food was designed for us right it was meant to be nourishing and sustaining you know in the

Bible also says that everything is permissible for us but we're not to be mastered by anything so

just because you can doesn't mean you should and you should not have anything that you're serving

as a second master and for me sugar was a second master if I had a craving I was I had to give in

I was not saying no I was going to it when I had stressful overwhelming days right so that's

what I'm talking about when I'm talking about having intention and aligning biblical principles

with the way that you eat it's not about you know not having a slice of cheesecake at your favorite

restaurant when you go out or never having some like better for you treats will buy some of the

like cleaner ingredient cookies from the store I don't make everything from scratch right but it's

just about that things are back in the right order food doesn't have authority over you like it

maybe did at you know before you started making these changes that's that's what I'm always trying

to lead people towards not anything like perfection and food lists and you know because then we're

getting back into the diet culture approach of food right yeah yeah amen I I love that you said

that because I I feel that if if we can add in the spiritual component and use our faith and prayer

to help guide us in making these decisions it all becomes very clear it's it's not so chaotic it's

not so confusing um and like use the authority people are are addicted and driven by some of these

foods um I mean I even I have a stepson that is just he has to have McDonald's right like he feels

that in his soul like he has to have it and when you're so controlled by these things I think it

leaks into other parts of your life like not just your health but like your mental health

and if we can shift that back to reminding ourselves we serve one god and like you said these

things should not have authority over our life it makes the decision so much clearer I mean I even

well I I will say a prayer before I go into Costco with my two children um for my own sanity but also

to help guide me to to make the good choices and and to get the right things to nourish my family

so I think prayer can be um very helpful in in making these changes and teaching your children

you know to pray and and ask for guidance and to pray over our food to be grateful for the food

that we have is prayer I'm guessing a big part of of your life and family yes absolutely um but I

will say before I started bringing god into this area of my life I had never prayed about this issue

I had always just tried to approach it through my own strength my own discipline again keeping my

faith separate from my food but yes prayer is what I always recommend especially with the believers

who like me were dealing with sugar addiction or like it's that one soda or drink that they just

cannot give up right I always say go to prayer you know the word says that god's always gonna give

us a way out when temptation hits so you know there were times where I was literally standing at my

cabinet and I was like you know god give me my way out you said you're gonna give me my way out

please help me in this moment right now and like you said just invite I mean one was the last time

if ever that we've just invited him to go into the grocery store with us right give me the wisdom

let me help me with the discernment that I need while I'm going through here you know and so but

we just again we don't involve it yeah so prayer started becoming a lot bigger you know part of

this area of my life and it will bring the clarity like you said too god will give you clarity if

you go to him and say I need help in this area show me what I need to change in my kitchen in my

routine show me the first thing that I need to cut out you know because if he's convicting you in

this area he's trying to call you up and refine you and prune you for some reason so yes yes

prayer is always the first line of defense yeah and I think um I think it's it can be underrated

right because I've had times in my life where prayer was not something I made a priority and then

trying to make it a priority was almost a chore and I don't mean that in a bad way but I had to

remind myself this is something that I need to do today right like it was on my checklist and the

the more you do it I mean now I just find myself I will stop in the middle of anything

and and pray and we we pray before bed we pray before meals and if I'm feeling anxious confused

nervous you know you stop and you ask for prayer and it can be such a good tool and

easy anxiety and just finding your balance again you know and and being filled with the holy spirit

to be able to to do god's work and to make good choices um because ultimately that's you know

that's what we're here for and I think we as a society we've become so obsessed with

what we look like what we're wearing what we're eating are status there's so many things that

have taken priority over god and if we just get back to the basics make him the priority everything

else becomes super easy and super clear um and I do feel do you feel it like there's kind of a

movement right now where especially younger people seem to be going back to god um because I

I think there there was a big shift I don't know the numbers but um I think my husband had had

been telling me like now within the last year there were more people that declared that they

were not religious and more people were not going to church than ever in the past but I feel like

that's shifting do you feel that I do um especially because I serve in the high school ministry at my

church so I I see firsthand this next generation and I'm telling you they are hungrier for god's

ever before and when I was growing up I know I mean to see they're the first ones to run

to the altar they don't care you know what I mean so yeah yes it's it's powerful yes and I feel

like the praise at church their hands up on their knees and it's like inspiring um because that

as you know I get reserved about that you know it's like raise my hands a little bit but you know

the the kids they're just they're all in I love it go ahead I didn't mean to interrupt you

yeah no it is yeah I'm seeing the same thing and it's when I was in that age group that

you know 18 to 25 that was I mean I was in the world fully I was walked away from my faith at

that time so to see you know and in the past I think you know a lot of that age group was you

know walked away from church and they maybe came back when or walked away from faith and came

back whenever they started families but yeah you're seeing a shift now that age group the young

adult age group in the high school through young twenties they are sticking to their faith they

are like sticking to the roots and I think that that's a huge change and I want that more than

anything because they are the that's the generation that's going to going to keep you know the kingdom

going and ministry alive because yeah they're prioritization of God first and being open about it

keeping their child like faith all the way through you know transitioning to adulthood I do believe

that it's shifting the tides are changing and it's I love to see it from this perspective it is

yeah it's so exciting I um I was walking with my husband we were like walking from church

back to our car and we had to you know it's packed so we had to park kind of far away and we were

walking with like they were kind of behind us um these young like teenagers and the way that they

were speaking and talking about their faith and like revisiting the sermon that they just listen to

and talking about what they were going to do in the community I mean I just looked at my husband

with tears in my eyes and I was like this is how I want to raise my children you know I want them to

to feel this and and to be like good stewards and um it's just it's so awesome to see and

I I don't room I feel like when I was a teen I was not that convicted you know I went to church

I grew up in church but then I you know turned 18 and I just went on with my life and I kind of

left God out of it huge regret by the way but um I realized how how much more difficult my life

probably was because of that um so I think it's just beautiful to see and I think they're going

to have an easier path because they easier in some ways right it's going to be challenging

and other ways people that will um you know condemn you for your faith then and and make it

harder but I think when you have God at the forefront it it does make your path a lot easier um

with with this chronic illness epidemic um I mean personally I feel like a lot of that has to do

with this um lack of God and and this uh just warfare on our on our health um and working in

the hospital I would see people how do I put this um kind of get through disease and get through

illness easier if they had faith then those that were without faith um do do you do you see that

like kind of just in our uh we have a huge chronic illness um epidemic going on and um I feel like

God is is kind of void from from some of that yeah um I will say that

watching people go through illness obviously not as closely as as you do every single day in your

line of work but there's a difference in the peace that someone has you know when they have

walking through it and there's a difference and even sometimes the approach of how they decide to

you know live and manage their disease whenever they have got on their side and they're seeking

things like more natural ways like you know how can how can I work with my body the way that God

designed it right with food with fasting with the way that that he designed for our bodies and

our souls and our hearts and everything to all be tied together and work together so yeah

yeah I um this was I forget exactly when it was but I I did an episode with Diana Burgess and so

for the listeners and if you haven't listened to it I would go back and listen to it because

her faith is beautiful and she was she's a nurse um she was in a plane crash and

by all means probably should not have survived um and she lost they told her she would never walk

again she has very strong faith and she prayed every day people were praying over her and she had

faith in God and let me tell you she was my nursing instructor and she ran circles around me so

you know I think you you also have to not believe everything that everybody tells you you know

you're gonna die you're not gonna walk you're gonna be sick forever and just put your faith in God

and God has a plan that I don't know what it is right and we have to acknowledge that his plan

might not be for you to walk again maybe there's another purpose but not letting man dictate

your future and what you're gonna do but trust in God um because I've I've seen these miracles

firsthand you know it it it happens and it's beautiful um so I I am like you said I'm just I'm

super excited to see what what all these young kids are gonna do with their faith and that it's

there but you know when you have something to hold on to and to not be fearful of the future and

fearful of death that makes that makes a difference in in how you live right yes yeah obviously I

mean I believe we are all here for a purpose because we all play a part in the body of some in

some way but when you have your sights set on heaven on you know being in finally in the same

place as God right it's yeah it changes your perspective on this world on your time here on

purpose and on how you see God's plan for your life too you know you can either fight it or you can

just accept that his plan always works out way better than ours does even if it looks totally

different which it usually does right anything it's almost laughable at this point if I'm like okay

well it's gonna go this way I almost have to laugh to myself and say it's probably not but it will

always look better right and so yeah when you live without understanding that just you're you're

held you're okay you're taken care of you know that there is a plan there is a purpose for everything

even including you know maybe disease or pain or struggles in this area yeah it just it changes

your your perspective and the way you live while you're here yeah I um so I went through a time

where my mom was diagnosed with cancer she had stayed for cancer unfortunately she did not

make it but we were um when we first we're dealing with all of this and um I kept praying every night

and I'm like look God I need you to spell it out for me maybe write it down and tell me exactly

what you need me to do and I was so demanding of like I don't need a sign I don't need a hint I

need you to just tell me right like I was desperate for some guidance on what I needed to do and um

one night I had a dream and y'all are gonna think I'm cuckoo but this was real so I in my dream it was

my pastor at church and I'm standing in my driveway and he comes walking up the driveway like

preaching and I'm like there's no congregation you know but he's preaching and he gets right next to

me and he stops and he looks at me and he's like just turned to God and then he just walked off

and so I woke up the next morning and I was like it was so vivid and I'm like all right I still

don't know what this means but this is what I'm gonna do and I literally just threw everything my

faith my uncertainty everything I put it in God's lap and took it off of mine and

lo and behold everything started falling into place we were able to get her care the

church provided resources they provided food they provided counseling they provided money

and it was just overwhelming the support that we had so I think that I remind myself of that

like just turned to God sometimes it's literally that simple when we're trying to make it so hard

it doesn't have to be um but you know I think this conversation what we're talking about today

is not it's not about going backwards it's not about like eating what Jesus would

would eat you know and grapes and olives and pita bread you know it doesn't have to be like that

the fish and loaves I mean by all means eat fish and but I think this is about returning to what

was what's always been true um what God has provided for us so if you have just kind of um to

to wrap things up like advice where for people kind of where to start and if there was one thing

that they could change or do today what would you what would you tell them to do if they're hungry

for for this yeah um and it kind of goes along with what you just said in the journey that you

walked with your mom is that just seek God first seek him first in this area of your life that's

all that biblical eating is is just God what's your will for my life in this area so first things

first just surrender and prayer God I don't want to do this by my own strength anymore I want to

know what your will for my life in this area is and I want to take faithful steps of obedience

every single day that just keep me in alignment with you with how you created me and just start

with that start with presence with him and start with awareness just start paying attention to the

foods you're consuming what's in them and if you just start there and you stay in presence with

him if you remain in him like you are saying he will continue to guide you what seems impossible

now is going to be second nature you'll be teaching it to another believer you know if you just

give God a little time and space to work in this area of your life too yeah and I think to finding

a community that's supportive you know like you you're involved at church of course following her

on social media you know so for all my listeners because I I get recipes I save a whole bunch of

your videos to to go back and to use these recipes or if it's like a good reminder for myself like

man I love what you just said you know sometimes we need those reminders and we need that community

of support so finding a good church finding good online communities just to help guide you and

support you it makes it seem a lot less challenging and difficult when you have people you know to

support you so where can people find you if they are looking to follow you on social media or um

I know you you're working on the six-week plan but where are they going to be able to hear about

that if that's something they want to do for so um like Ashley said she'll put my spelling in

the show notes but yeah I am on Facebook TikTok and now YouTube so it's just my name on Elise

Zaviera on all across all platforms and yes I share recipes tips I have a daily verse series if

you want to dive into like where should I start in scripture with all of this and yes I'm working

on the six-week biblical eating reset it will be coming out and launching the Monday after

you listen to this episode so um if yeah so that'll be on my page and you can find all the info

on that there if you want more of a step by step I'll hold your hand through it way to start

awesome no I love that because I think that makes it just seem less overwhelmed

less challenging when you have that's important if you already don't have a community to support you

like this is this is the the way to go um to walk you through it and I so and just you're not aware

but we're starting like a um a bible study and we are talking about using some of your tips and

your verses and your videos kind of to coincide with what we're learning in scriptures so

I think you're impacting so many people out there and I just I really love what you're doing

and thank you so much for being on the show today it's been so much fun um and for the listeners

you know you can find the nurses report um daily on america out loud at 10 a.m and then of course

our shows all go to podcast the next day on your favorite podcast app we'd love to hear from you

so you can um email the nurses directly just go to america out loud and you'll be able to find

our email and reach out to us directly we'd love to hear from you so thank you guys so much for

listening and thank you so much for being on the show yes thank you this was amazing thanks for

listening to the nurses report

it's time and this is