Losing My Religion

Last month I had the privilege of joining Callid Keefe-Perry, Jules Kennedy, and host Pastor Nar for the Losing My Religion podcast – outdoor edition!

We were at the beautiful campus of Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington DC, at a truly singular event emceed by Steve Knight, communicant extraordinarine at Halogen: TransFORM – East Coast.

This conversation is like a small tasty morsel of the feast that was this ‘conference.’ I use air quotes because, truth be told, I didn’t attend too many of the actual sessions; raging ADD aside, there were just so many people I’ve known for years online, whom I was able to meet in-person for the first time. It was like a “family reunion in heaven” – people whom you’re simultaneously meeting for the first time, but whom you’ve also known forever. (I also had a great time with my Atlanta and Cobb Emergent Cohort peeps, and even a lovely Augusta representative – getting to see them is too long and far-between!) It was a rag-tag conglomeration of emergents and outlaw preachers and missionals and mainliners and meditators and Wild Goosers and Big Tent-makers and organics, all coming from every denomination (or lack thereof) under the sun – lots o’ variety in God’s great big family.

This event was very well-timed for me, personally. I’m at something of a crossroads, both vocationally (great developments, some of which I’ve already shared, as well as some scary-awesome challenges!) and health-wise (I really will get to posting about this in the near-term future); during large swaths of TransFORM I felt quite literally like I was going nuts. And yet the warmth and unconditional presence of the TransFORM folks carried with them the distinct aroma of Jesus. There was a palpable sense of Christ and his Kingdom throughout the weekend, on display in the kindness and dizzying diversity of those present – women and men; black, white, Latino and Asian; Quaker and Wesleyan, Pentecostal and Catholic, Baptist and Reformed.

TransFORM: The Event is but a subset of TransFORM: the Network – a collection of church-planting and pneumatic-community enthusiasts who color outside the lines. If this is you, you should connect with us. As I like to say, there’s more than meets the eye with TransFORM. (Cue groans)

Okay, without further ado, here is the free-flowing conversation, with gentle provocateur Pastor Nar at the helm!

And a little namesake R.E.M. – why not?

Finally – and most significantly – a TransFORM blog-post roundup (If I’m missing some – and I probably am – please put ’em in the comments section below; I’ll list ’em up here):

Adam Moore

Anthony Smith

Brandon Mouser

Callid Keefe-Perry

Chris Rosebrough (note: Chris, from Pirate Christian Radio & Fighting for the Faith, is not a fan. He’s more of a loyal critic, and drove all the way out from Indiana for the main purpose of critiquing. But we love him anyway!)

Darren Rowse (yes, the accliamed ProBlogger was with us via video link from Australia!)

Doug Pagitt

Drew Tatusko

Hugh Hollowell

Jonathan Brink

Joy Lynn- Schroeder

Julie Kennedy

Kathy Escobar

Liz Dyer

Lori Wilson – Part I and Part II (a very thorough recap of the actual sessions!)

Marcus Gibbs

Pete Rollins

Phil Wyman

Shawn Anthony

Sivin Kit (joining us via video from Malaysia!)

– Trans4m in the Twitterverse

Fitness & Testing For Nutritional Deficiencies

Thus far in my daily range-of-motion routine I’ve seen a consistent loss in fat and consistent gain in muscle. Consistency is good, but it’s been s-l-o-o-o-w. Slow is undoubtedly good for me.

But! I’ve also been curious as to whether there might be more going on with me, in me – could there be anything blocking a more heightened weight loss? And what about my blood pressure? It’s reduced considerably since I’ve been using the ROM, but it’s still high for someone my age. And finally, there’s this pesky (more than pesky; downright frustrating) generalized anxiety that’s reared its head in recent years (I owe you at least a full blog post on that – remind me sometime) – what’s up with that?

I have questions. My Aunt Sharon has answers.

If not answers, at least responses. Good ones. My Aunt Sharon, whom I called Auntie Ra-Ra as a child, is Dr. Hatch to you. Dr. Hatch operates a wellness center in the West Metro Atlanta area that addresses questions and symptoms such as mine, without the use of pharmecuticals or surgery. She has a three-fold approach to health that includes chiropractic care, NAET allergy testing (& removal!), and nutritional testing; while we were in Atlanta last week I scheduled a couple of appointments with her. I already see a good chiropractor in Raleigh and NAET takes several months to do right, so on this brief of a visit we focused on the latter – nutritional testing.  I think her website (which, true confession, I helped her set up) asks a great question with regards to nutrition in general and vitamin and mineral supplements in particular:

Are you tired of wasting hundreds – perhaps even thousands – of dollars on expensive and seemingly useless nutritional supplements? Wouldn’t it be great to know exactly which nutrients your body needs? At the Wellness Center, we provide precise nutritional testing and counseling that specifically targets what you and your family need. Because nutritional needs change over time, we re-test regularly to ensure that you aren’t taking supplments pointlessly – overdosing on vitamins and minerals your body already produces in abundance can actually be detrimental to your health.

That’s been my experience at least – walking into a supplement store (or browsing a ‘health’ website), eyes glazed over – I mean, the way the labels are written you want to take ’em all – I mean, who doesn’t want increased stamina, better eyesight, and silky hair? But the thing is, if (and I realize this is a big “if” these days) you have a basically healthy diet eating real food, you don’t need most of those supplements. In fact, too much of a good thing can be harmful.

So back to Dr. Hatch. She uses a kinesological approach to test your body’s response to different nutrients – if you’re sufficient in an area, or have an allergy to a certain nutrient, she can tell. And if you’re lacking in something she’s testing you for, she can tell that, too. We discovered that my adrenal system is fine (something that can lead to increased anxiety if its out of whack), but my thyroid is off and my blood pressure, while not astronomical, is too high for someone my age. My body also needs a lot of Vitamin B right now. There were other results, too, but what I really cared about was the bottom line – she recommended to me several supplements that I’ll be taking at fairly high doses over the next 45 days, in conjunction with my normal ROM-ming and chiropractic routine. Then I’ll go in for testing again, to see how my body is responding to this nutrient infusion in areas I’m deficient in. She deals directly with a medical-strength supplement company that ensures high-quality ingredients – another relief, since I never know what I’m getting online, really. I was surprised at how affordable they are.

My aunt thinks that my body should respond positively to these supplements fairly quickly – that I should see positive results within 30 days, including a stronger metabolism and lower blood pressure. Perhaps a weight loss acceleration is coming? I can only hope! Stay tuned…

For my continuing whole-health journey, go here!