In last week’s Health Tip, we explained what the Hallelujah Diet looks like for the first half of the day – from the time of arising until lunch time.
In this week’s Health Tip, we are going to pick up with the noon meal and share with you the rest of the day.
But first, a brief review...
The Hallelujah Diet is comprised of 100% Genesis 1:29 foods. They are all plant-sourced foods with the majority of these being consumed in their natural and raw, uncooked form as they all were in God’s original Genesis 1:29 diet.
The Hallelujah Diet consists of approximately 85% raw and 15% cooked food, with the 15% cooked food portion usually being consumed at the evening meal.
But before we go any further, please note... do NOT worry about the percentages! The point is that there is no counting of anything on the Hallelujah Diet (calories, fat grams, carbs, etc). This makes the diet extremely easy to follow.
Children are an exception to the 85/15 raw-to-cooked ratio. Children are very active and require more food energy to support this activity levels. Therefore the ratio of raw-to-cooked foods for a child should be approximately 50% raw and 50% cooked.
It’s Time for Lunch On The Hallelujah Diet
At home or away, we want this meal to contain as much raw food as possible. Ideally, we would like this meal to consist of 100% raw, plant-source foods — but it is not as imperative that this meal be 100% raw as the morning routine should be (BarleyMax upon arising, the green smoothie, and the mid-morning veggie juice). In other words, we can (if necessary and if it is more convenient) consume a small amount of cooked food at the lunch meal, or a person can switch the noon meal with the evening meal (which contains cooked food) if desired. People who are able to be home at lunch time have the opportunity of preparing their own meals. For those in this category, a healthy lunch is much easier to obtain than for those away from home. Here are some menu suggestions for those who have the privilege of being home for lunch...Lunch At Home
Lunch at home begins with a serving (teaspoon) of BarleyMax (I take mine straight from the spoon, but most people prefer to mix it with 4 oz of distilled water). Next, we can have a bountiful vegetable salad, either a traditional chopped salad or a blended salad — or, lunch can be a nice fruit salad, or just some whole fruit. All of these entrees are easy to prepare and do not require a lot of digestive effort. This helps to avoid that sluggish feeling after a meal. If desired, a “wrap” could be consumed for this lunch meal. The wrap itself should be made of organic whole grains, and though the wrap is technically "cooked", we are going to fill it with lots of raw veggies. All these raw veggies help speed up digestion. Wraps can be very delicious, extremely satisfying, and very sustaining.Lunch on the Road
We realize that lunch can be one of the more challenging meals to “do right” because a large percentage of people are away from home at lunch time – at a job, at school, traveling, shopping, etc. Because of this, we want to make this meal as easy to obtain as possible while still being nutritious, satisfying, and attempting to avoid anything that would negatively affect our health. Lunch on the road also begins with a teaspoon serving of BarleyMax for outstanding nourishment and continued energy. Though it is extremely low in calories, a teaspoon of BarleyMax probably contains a wider variety of nutrients and quick energy than anything else a person can consume at the lunch meal! Even though you may be away from home, there are still a lot of options for a Hallelujah lunch. A salad could be prepared at home and brought to work in a cooler or placed in the company refrigerator if one is available. Or a lunch box could contain a number of pieces of fruit. Depending on circumstances, some compromise may be unavoidable at the lunch meal, but we are going to try and stay as raw as possible for this meal. The exception to this compromise is being on the Recovery Diet, which requires a stricter adherence of certain foods. (In a future Health Tip we will talk about the Recovery Diet).Lunch In a Restaurant
As far as restaurant eating is concerned, many restaurants now have healthy, creative vegetable salads on the menu. Many restaurants will substitute romaine lettuce for iceberg lettuce if you ask, and raw fruit is often available, too. Even in the Chicago airport, where I used to pass through often, there were many venues that offered raw fruit. The Subway chain restaurants also offer a pretty nice salad. You just pick out the veggies you want from their vast array and they will put the salad together for you. Most Subway restaurants now offer spinach as well, which you can choose over the iceberg lettuce, and avocado is always nice to have, too. For example, at Subway, you can order a Veggie Delight on 9-grain bread (though the ingredients of this bread are not ideal, they will do in a pinch). And as shared above, more and more restaurants are offering wraps on their menu, including Subway. Restaurants such as Golden Corral, along with many steak houses (ironically) offer an impressive variety of salad fixings from which you can make a great salad, too. These are usually not organic greens, but sometimes that is the best one can do when traveling or out of the house. When having a salad away from home, try to also bring your favorite healthy salad dressing from home with you. If you get in a pinch, a Hallelujah Acres “Original” Survival Bar (if not on the Recovery Diet), can be used as a meal replacement for lunch. This bar is made of 100% raw dried fruits, seeds and nuts, and even contains BarleyMax, BeetMax, and CarrotJuiceMax. They are very tasty, highly nourishing, and provide the body with wonderful nourishment.Mid-Afternoon Stack
We are going to do the same thing for the mid-afternoon snack as we did for the mid-morning snack. Rather than eating a candy bar or soft drink in mid-afternoon — which artificially and chemically stimulates the body by sending a sugar rush followed by a sugar crash — we are going to do something completely different. On the Hallelujah Diet we have an 8-ounce glass of freshly extracted vegetable juice if at home. If we are away from home, we bring it with us in an ice chest or put it in refrigerator at work. Because the fiber has been removed in the juicing process, digestion is minimal, and like with the vegetable juice we had for the mid-morning snack, the nutrients pass almost instantly into the blood system to give the body incredible energy, along with giving the cells powerful building material to wind up the work day. If juice is not available, a serving of Hallelujah Acres BarleyMax could be substituted, or even a half of an Original Survival Bar.It’s Supper Time on the Hallelujah Diet
We are going to assume that most people will be at home for this meal. If not at home, there are some suggestions under the heading “Lunch on the Road” (above) for what a person can do at supper time if still on the road. For most families, the evening meal is the only meal of the day where the entire family can sit down together, and without distractions and pressures, enjoy a leisurely meal together. This provides the opportunity for a “family time” and should not be consumed with the television, electronic devices, etc. on. Because this meal usually provides a more leisurely opportunity to consume our food we have made it the biggest meal of the day on The Hallelujah Diet. If desired and it is more convenient, the evening meal and the noon meal can be swapped. Supper begins with a serving of BarleyMax just as we began the day and as we began our noon meal. This gives the body outstanding nourishment and provides continued energy with which to go into the evening hours and for whatever activities are on the docket for the evening hours. The BarleyMax is followed by a LARGE vegetable salad. The salad can be consumed in its raw, chopped form or as a blended salad. In our home, we have a blended salad at the evening meal after learning that a blended salad provides the body with considerably more nutrients than a cut up salad. When a person consumes a regular chopped salad, the only nutrients released from the vegetables in that salad are those the teeth have masticated. In other words, if the teeth do not rupture the cells of the veggies the nutrients are not released and those nutrients just pass right on through and out of the body. With a blended salad, especially made with a powerful blender, there is a total mastication of the cells of the veggies, releasing most of the nutrients. According to Dr. Blaylock, a blended salad may release as much as seven times the nutrients as a chewed salad. To make a blended salad, all the salad fixings are placed in a blender. Rhonda and I begin making our blended salad each evening by first placing several cherry tomatoes or a half a medium tomato along with a couple inches of peeled cucumber in the bottom of the blender along with a tablespoon of our favorite healthy salad dressing in the blender. Next we place in the blender whatever veggies we like. When Rhonda and I make a blended salad we always place half an avocado. This not only provides good fat and easily assimilated protein, but also makes the salad creamy and adds a nice flavor. Then we add a stalk or two of celery, a medium carrot cut up in 1-inch slices, and a large handful of organic spinach. If desired, you can add broccoli, cauliflower, or other veggies. The blended salad should be blended only long enough to make sure it is thoroughly pureed, which takes less than a minute. A plunger is usually needed to push the veggies down into the blades and if a plunger is not available, a stalk of celery can be used and the off and on pulse setting used to work the veggies down into the liquid provided by the tomato and cucumber. Blended salads should be consumed slowly. Following the salad, comes the cooked food — again, 100% plant-sourced. The cooked food can be a baked potato, but we much prefer a baked sweet potato, baked squash, steamed vegetables, brown rice or other whole grain, or a whole grain pasta or beans. Whole grain organic bread is also an option. This cooked portion of the evening meal allows for a huge variety of recipes, and it is amazing how delicious these cooked, vegan dishes can be. They are certainly as tasty and satisfying and sustaining as anything on the Standard American Diet and for sure much more healthy. This cooked food provides concentrated carbohydrates and calories, which in turn provides the body with energy. It also ensures the body is receiving sufficient protein.Evening Snack
Close to bedtime, snacking should be avoided except for possibly a piece of juicy fruit like a pear or peach or apple, which digest very quickly. We don’t want to go to bed with anything in our stomach requiring a lot of energy to be used for digestion purposes. This disrupts sleep. We need to give our digestive system a good long rest (fast) over night.Liquid Intake
It is extremely important that we keep our bodies adequately hydrated. In order to assure adequate hydration we need to consume approximately one-half our body weight in ounces of liquid each day.All Hallelujah Diet compliant liquids count toward that amount – veggie juices, liquid found in raw fruits and veggies consumed, as well as all water (no caffeine-containing liquids like coffee or tea). Water should always be purified water – distilled water or reverse osmosis water being the best source of that liquid.For example, a 150-lb person should consume 75 oz of liquid each day.
That was a day on the Hallelujah (Maintenance) Diet. Easy, delicious, and nutritious! Next week, the good Lord willing and if the creeks don’t rise too high we will return with another exciting issue of the Hallelujah Health Tip. Trust you will join us and that you will share these Health Tips with friends and loved ones.Important note: Water from a tap should never be consumed as it almost always contains toxic chlorine and fluoride.
