Black Life

Montgomery Heart and Wellness Center

by ladypbwiggins

Isn’t it frustrating when the doctor tells you to eat healthy or you need a healthier meal plan but doesn’t explain what he/she means? Or even more so, they give you a list of foods you should or should not eat and that’s eat. Many of us look at the lists and realize we already eat those foods. We make the bake or broiled versus fried substitutions and think we are eating healthy. some of us go to the extreme and replace beef and pork with chicken and turkey. We must be on the right track with that sacrifice. Maybe but could it be better?

Dr. Baxter Montgomery didn’t just tell us to eat healthy He introduced us to his Heart and Wellness Plan; a six week detoxification plan complete with recipes. Also available to us was the Center’s Garden Kitchen (GK). His kitchen staff prepares raw vegan meals for purchase by Center patients and the public. Meal plans are available for those who choose to have the GK prepare all of their meals. These freshly made raw/vegan meals are delivered daily. There is also a steady stream of health conscious foodies in the GK. This was wonderful for me because I had no clue how the dishes were suppose to taste. The GK gave us the opportunity to try the foods we were asked to eat. From juice to desserts it was available. A must try is the Avocado Key Lime Pie. HMMMM. The first 6 weeks were easy preparations because they were juices, smoothies and a variety of salads. Later “cooked” meals were added to the menu. Not everything is raw. Hot soups, beans, and vegan gumbo are cooked. I am told there is a cornbread recipe but I haven’t had it yet. It’s not in our plan, yet. If you are in the Houston, TX area give it a visit.

Video – Dr. Montgomery Explains

Montgomery Heart and Wellness Center

The Garden Kitchen

 

 

 

Why Texas?

by ladypbwiggins

Recently, we decided to move to Texas. We thought we were being led here to be near our daughter and to enjoy a lower cost of living. It is good to be near our daughter and her family but for us the cost of living has not changed. In some respects it is higher. Housing coast are lower than California but we are paying about the same. The electricity bill is greatly reduced and that’s about it.

I expected our food cost to go down but that was not realized. In fact it might be more. Houston area is an organic, non-GMO wasteland. The produce and products exist but are not in the abundance that I am accustomed to in California. The funny thing is most of the certified organic food here comes from California. But here is the good, no, the awesomely, miraculous thing. In a round about way through a conversation with some people we had just met we were led to a renowned cardiologist/electrophysiologist named Dr. Baxter D. Montgomery. His philosophy is to cure the cause of the illness not treat the symptoms. He holds to the statement made by Hippocrates,

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” 

Plant-based meals were Carl’s prescription. He did not remove him from his medications initially. He uses pharmaceuticals when needed. His plan was to eliminate them as Carl’s heart improved. After 3 weeks of eating a raw plant-based diet

  • No Soltilol (Heart rhythm medication)
  • Blood pressure in normal range
  • No diuretics
  • Physically stronger
  • Mental clarity improving
  • No breathing problems
  • Weight loss (40 lbs mostly fluid)

This is why we moved to Texas.

 

The Medicine Matrix

by ladypbwiggins

If our western diet is so healthy why are we so sick? Diabetes is rising, Obesity is epidemic, heart disease is #1 and we are a developed nation. In the last year I have become more aware of how our medical system works. We treat symptoms not illnesses. Think about it. You have a pain. You are given a pill to get rid of the pain. But what about, what caused the pain in the first place? I have some personal experiences that speak to this.

A few years ago, I went in for a physical. The doctor said I had high blood pressure. I didn’t agree but I took the medication anyway. Big mistake. I took a couple of doses. I felt worst after taking them than I did before. They dropped my blood pressure so low I could not function. I stopped taking them but continued to take the diuretic. I later discovered that the diuretic lowered blood pressure also. I stopped taking them. I increased my vegetable intake and reduced the sodas and fried foods. Every check up for a year showed I did not have high blood pressure. The symptom- high blood pressure, the cause- bad eating habits. Recently, I went through the same thing with a different doctor. I said no pills. I started eating fast food again. Not all the time but just enough to have an affect. I stopped. Pressure decreased. Had I not taken charge and convinced them to try regulating my pressure with a change in my eating habits, I would be stuck taking pills that are hard to get off of. Their pills would not have fixed the problem.

I had another doctor tell me recently that she was delighted that I didn’t want pills. She said it was rare to find patients who didn’t want pills but wanted to find the problem and solve it. Most people wanted what they thought was a quick fix. the pill. It is just a band-aide.

Don’t get me wrong, doctors have their place and so do pills. But a healthy body is not provided by pills. Getting to the source of the dis-ease and treating it does. Most of our dis-ease is caused by eating this western diet that is meat, fast food convenient, low vegetable and low fruit, high sugar based.

I am also convinced had we continued more diligently to eat a high plant, low meat diet my husband would not have had this last heart attack.  We have not been eating as well as before but we are returning to our whole vegetable and fruit juices, no soda and minimal fast food. I am continuing my laboratory (kitchen) visits. Real minimal. I can’t say none because sometimes life will get in the way of good plans.

I am returning to Hippocrates’ declaration.

Let medicine be your food and food your medicine.

This is my focus and intent. Modern medicine is the emergency plan.

Breaking out of the Food and Medicine Matrix as much as possible. My education continues.

The Food Matrix

by ladypbwiggins

Where is our Food Morpheus? Where is Food Neo? The Local, State, and Federal system has “matrixized” us.

Food industrialization has caused us to ignore the food system that was very healthy for us: the family garden and the local vegetable market. When I was a child, eating out meant having dinner at a friend’s or relative’s home. Fast food meant heating up leftovers or making a sandwich. I didn’t know or understand just how good I had it. Other than childhood diseases I got the flu or had a cold only when the seasons changed. The rest of the year I was free of disease. Most remedies for the flu or a cold was natural. They were plant or herb based. Oh yeah, there was cod liver oil or castor oil. That cured or killed everything. Pills in the medicine cabinet were few. Those were my good old days.

I was taught in grade school the basic food groups and how much I should eat. I tried to change my home habits but thankfully my grandmother ignored me. We ate red meat and chicken but we ate more vegetables from the family gardens. By the way it was non-GMO and organic. Food was back then. There were some things that infiltrated our home, like white bread, white flour and white rice. I guess that was our beginning of “matrixation.”

The things we were taught:

  1. You MUST eat meat to get enough protein.
  2. You Must have milk and milk products to get enough calcium and more protein.
  3. Vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds don’t provide enough of either for healthy bodies.

We bought it because we trusted the FDA and other agencies that influenced our food supply. Those 3 axioms really only provided convenience for us and profit for the dairy and meat industry. Tell me, if dairy was so great, why wasn’t it fed to cows after they were weaned. They were fed grass and grain. The very things that weren’t enough for us.

Recently, our food pyramid changed to a food plate with the vegetable division the largest delineation. That’s good but now we have to deal with genetically modified organisms introduced into the plant crops. That’s another post, but suffice it to say, our non- organic vegetables, fruit and non-organic fed animals may be more harmful than we realize.

This matrix that we live in is suppose to maximize our health but we are sicker now than we were back in the day. There are more pills prescribed than every before. Our pills require pills to deal with their side effects. If the pills don’t work, there is always surgery.

So how is this meat-ladened lifestyle working for us?

 

 

Not Teaching, Teaches.

by ladypbwiggins

When you teach nothing you have taught!

Patrica B. Wiggins 2016

How do our children learn what is important? How do they learn the value of human life? How do they learn values? How do they learn who they are? How do they learn to learn?

If the parent does not teach them in the first three years of their lives, they will learn from whatever social stimuli they experience. They will except it as truth because the parent didn’t teach them anything else. So when we teach nothing, we basically tell them everything else is okay. Their values are not yours. Human life is reduced to less than a pet’s. How do they know what is important and how do they learn boundaries? When you teach nothing you teach they have not value. Their lives are not important.

Who am I? If you don’t teach me, I won’t learn about my family. I won’t learn my ancestral heritage. What is my anchor? “They say”, the neighbors, the street say who my family is. Most times they dwell on the negative and that’ s all I know. If you don’t teach me, I will be who “they say” and let them imprison me with negativism and lies.

It is reported that by age 3 the child’s brain is developed and character is formed. He/she is who they are going to be. Waiting until they are preschool age to begin teaching academic and social foundation is about 4 years wasted. The foundations should begin being laid at conception. Babies can hear as their auditory system begins to develop so read to them, talk to them, explain things to them, play a variety of music. That is true head start. Now that the process has begun, an alert little person will join us. This is not the time to stop communicating.Speak to the child the way you want him/her to speak? Expose them to books, and musical instruments. Endure the bang.

Teach me, who I am. Teach me my family values. Teach me my history. Teach me to value myself and others. Teach me that I am capable of learning and being creative. Teach me to read by reading to me. Teach me how to learn. Ask me things that cause me to think and ask Why? It’s not only the teacher’s job. It is first yours and then theirs. If you teach me they will do a better job.

Teach me, please.

Don’t let me learn the wrong things because you didn’t teach me.

My Heart Hurts

by ladypbwiggins

My heart hurts. I went to bed last night hurt and angry about the continued killings of black men. I watched the videos to make my own assessment and I found no justification for shooting Alton Sterling multiple times in the chest. He was already subdued. Philando Castile did not appear to pose a threat, yet he was shot with his child in the back seat. I felt like I was back in the Jim Crow south where lynchings could happen just because …. Then there was the white kid lying on the ground and then was shot. Why?

I awaken this morning to the information that a peaceful protest turned violent because someone decided to take their anger out by shooting several policemen. There was no reason for that anymore than there was for shooting those men.

America what are we becoming? We might as well be in Afghanistan or Syria. We worry about ISIS but it is us who are destroying this country. We are terrorizing ourselves. If they just wait a little while we will self destruct and they won’t have to do anything. We cannot continue like this.

Ignorance opens the door for Fear. Fear makes it easy to Hate. Hatred breeds Hatred.

Let’s try reasoning with each other.

Let’s try understanding each other.

Let’s try not repeating the negative past.

Let’s try living out what we say we believe as a nation.

Let’s admit we have a systemic problem. The rest of the world already knows it.

Let’s try loving each other even when we disagree.

Let’s stop killing each other.

My heart hurts for us.

 

You Found Me!

by ladypbwiggins

I threw myself away

But you Found me.

I did not see the God created value in me

You pushed through the garbage

Because you Saw Me.

I am so very blessed that 39 years ago

You Found ME!

As I looked at my husband sleeping this  morning, I was overwhelmed by the love and joy he has given me for 39 eventful years.

 

 

Voiceless, Powerless

by ladypbwiggins

Why is there such a strong effort to bar people from the vote? Why is there such a determined attitude to keep certain people from the table? Why are lies spread that discourage people from trying? Because if I can keep you unheard, I will render you powerless.

This is the strategy of those who want to retain the power for themselves. We have seen the shift in our society because certain groups lost their voice.

During the severest time of the economic crisis, the 90%-ers spoke up and they were silenced. The method: make them appear crazy. There are always those who jump on the bandwagon with little understanding of the purpose or they just want to cause trouble. Were they infiltrated?

Black Lives Matter spoke up and suddenly there was an attempt to silence the sound of their voice.Speak up Black folks at the polls, in the arts, in the classroom. When we as an organized group did before, the nation and the world listened.

Y’shua or Jesus followers where are your voices? The world hears the voices of the religious Christians but not His followers. Is there a difference? Yes. Much like the Pharisees during Jesus’ time, the religious Christians adhere to the letter of the Word and selectively at that. Religious Christians check off the doctrinal boxes and are quite judgmental. They judge everyone but themselves. Y’shua followers, don’t have to agree with what you are doing but have the compassion to help you, listen to you, respect you while explaining why they believe you are wrong. That’s what He did. There is no condemnation.He only condemned the self righteous.

It seems those bent on destruction have no problem raising their voices of hate. Where are the voices of sanity, righteousness, hope, love, compassion, wisdom, construction?  Take back your power. Be heard.

As Michael Jackson so eloquently put it, Take a look at yourself and make a change.

Get educated about the candidates for Congress. We need to elect people who represent us. These last eight years this Congress, both Democrats and Republicans have represented a select few. Some have been there longer than many of us have been alive. It is time for a change. Select people who care about the welfare of the country. Let’s stop this political game of Dems vs Repubs.  We have abdicated power to them. Let’s take it back.

This should not stop with Congress. The candidates that affect you immediately are local. Check out any judges, assembly men and women, mayors, council people that are up for election.

We, the people, should be heard!

Take back your power!

Raise Your Voice!

Since October

by ladypbwiggins

Many of you followed my postings last year regarding our journey through my husband’s life scare. I don’t know if I thanked you, so Thank you for your support. I have learned that 2015 was a horrific year for a great many people. I pray that it was a time of spiritual growth for you as it was for us.

To recap

  1. Massive heart attack on March 27, 2015
  2. Stopped breathing and needed electrical shock 3 times before conversion
  3. Months of hospitalization and rehabilitation care centers followed.

During those rehabilitation stays he struggled to regain the use of his legs. So what has happened since the first rehab stay.

  1. He was taken off Mexilitine.He was given that drug to counteract the worst, Amiodarone. Amiodarone was not his friend. It caused severe blood pressure drops and may have been the cause of some of the tachycardia events, however, I can’t prove it. It took awhile but it was finally replaced with a less toxic drug o September 28.  I had to fight but was successful.
  2. We changed cardiologist and that was a great blessing.
  3. He decided to stop taking Atorvastatin and the Qvar. He decided to control his cholesterol with his diet and he said he could breath fine without that inhaler.
  4. Oh, he lost almost 100 lbs over the 10 month period.

Since October

  1. After his last Ventricular tachycardia episode on September 27, a pacemaker/defibrillator was implanted on October 1.
  2. He came home on October 6th using a wheelchair. He had a few attempts with a walker. He has gone from wheelchair to walker to cane. He still needs the walker for long distances but for someone who was not believed to live and then not ever to walk this is awesome.
  3. His memory is improving but his meds are creating some interference. He is overcoming.
  4. We have learned so much about our power and authority when dealing with the medical community. We are empowered and plan to share that knowledge.
  5. We have learned how to eat even better with targeted focus for health reasons, heart and brain.

God planned and provided the best foods for our health,

the slave master changed our diet to the worst because it wasn’t what we ate n Africa,

and now we choose to continue to eat what sickens and is designed to kill us.

Please let’s help each other leave the plantation.

We can make soul food healthy.

Thank you for praying for us and supporting us. We thank you for your continued prayers and support.

In His Love