"Getting healthy" is not difficult—although it does seem to be a shock to most people's nervous systems to discover the extent of the changes required in their lifestyles (especially the major modifications of habits involving the purchase, preparation, consumption, and elimination of food). It is here that many health-seekers falter. For most, their imaginations fail them and their present habits impede them, so they just take the easiest road. They give up. The purpose of this essay is to help you see how simple it can be for busy people—who live in a complicated, demanding era—to live a healthful lifestyle.

I realize fully that the following suggestions are just a beginning in the process of living more productively and healthfully. They are not intended to be a limitation on your own efforts. I will be fully satisfied if they merely stimulate your thinking so that you are able to see that it really is possible to make improvements in the health of your family without having to clone yourself.

1) Get organized. Our God is not a God of disorder or confusion (1 Cor. 14:33). We are wise to follow his example and instruction in this area.

You can maximize your personal productivity by discerning when you are most productive during a day and making sure not to waste those hours. (I am a "morning" person, so I usually do my writing—like this—early in the morning when I am most alert.)

"The shortest pencil is longer than the longest memory." Make notes on what obligations you have. Organize them. Do them. Then, get rid of them. When a matter comes before you, handle it immediately in one way or another. If you can deal with it at that time, do so. If it can be delegated, do so. If it must be put off until a future time, get it into your list of priorities. If it is not really of value, forget it. The essential factor here is not to let your mind and life get littered with unprioritized, unhandled obligations. Many will "fall through the cracks" if you do, and you will have little control over whether the truly critical items are ever accomplished.

Do things properly the first time (Ecclesiastes 9:10). Most people have the perverse habit of never finding the time to do things right originally—but always having to make the time to do them over.

2) Use the resources at hand. Get your family members to participate. Older children can supervise the taking of supplements by younger ones. The children can pick the herbs (after proper instruction). A $30 blender can do your juicing until you can afford better. A crock pot can be the source of many tasty (but easy) meals. (Cook the food overnight on the "low" setting to minimize destruction of nutrients.) Work together with others among your congregation, extended family, or friends to find local sources of natural milk, raw honey, and organic produce. Don't try to carry the entire burden by yourself.

3) Make space in life by evaluating things according to your new knowledge and aspirations. Then, jettison any features of life that make it difficult to achieve those goals. TV shows, "get-togethers," unnecessary or lengthy phone conversations, and sports cannot be non-negotiable items in your life or your health will wind up being negotiable (translation: "unimproved").

Don't just add more responsibilities to your present obligations. That will assure the impossibility of creating a healthful lifestyle. All of us have limitations of time and other resources. The only approach to this dilemma that I have ever seen actually work is when we replace aspects of our lives that do not promote health with those that do. You will be surprised at how much room your life has in it when the unproductive areas are cleared out.

4) Make your own herbal preparations to reduce their expense and increase their effectiveness. If you don't care to spend a fortune for herbs harvested and stored (under conditions that would likely be absolutely unacceptable to you) in a third-world country up to two years ago and then irradiated and gassed with ethylene oxide when they hit our shores, I have good news for you. Collecting and preserving your own herbs is fun; it's a great family project; it's free; and you maximize the health benefits in many different ways. There is no "magic" to all of this, and it does not require "professionals" to do it. Soon, everyone in your family will be picking fresh, potent, healthful herbs and enjoying the blessing from God they represent!

5) Don't make things more complicated than they have to be. Breakfast can be fresh, raw, farm eggs, ripe bananas, some high-quality fruit juice, lecithin, and a little ginger whizzed in a blender. Most people find this gives them more energy in the morning than they have ever felt, and you can practically feed an army with an absolute minimum of effort and expense. Visitors to our home are amazed when they see how simple it is to prepare large quantities of delicious, healthful food.

A healthful lifestyle is not drudgery. Building health is fun, easy, and inexpensive It makes us more reliant on God and less reliant an other people (especially those outside the family of faith). It strengthens our families by enlarging the circle of family activities. The church family can work together on this, too. I am convinced that this is another step toward living the way God wants us to live.

Information offered and opinions expressed in this column are for educational purposes only. They do not remove the responsibility for your health from your hands. My degrees and certifications are NOT in the area of medicine. I do not "diagnose," "prescribe," or "treat" "diseases." Your right to seek and discuss information about nutritional matters and natural means of supporting health is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and by the right of private contract also protected by that document. © D. A. Gundlach 1995. All rights reserved.