Bill was very knowledgeable and informative. We feel that we can now move on with the information and encouragement we gained from the Restore program and will eventually meet our goals.
The Restore program is an amazing and timely blessing! Programs like this should be central to all health care. The Restore program alone is worth being a part of Medi-share!
Bill Tanner truly has the gift of encouragement and I count him as a friend. His involvement in my life at this time was nothing short of providential.
I will be praying that Medi-share continues to grow in effectiveness and wisdom.
At the time I applied for Medi-Share, I was already using a popular weight loss program. I was losing weight and considered my eating choices to be very healthy compared to “most people” and my health to be “very good for my age”. Frankly, I was shocked when Medi-Share required me to join the Health Initiatives program. My lab work was all within normal levels and I thought I knew how to eat well for my body’s needs. My initial reaction was that I didn’t want someone to tell me what to eat and do. I know that reaction wasn’t a good sign in itself, so I asked the Lord to help me change my attitude. He showed me that my health, apparently, wasn’t as strong as I thought and that I now had a unique opportunity to work with a personal “health coach” to strengthen my health, longevity and even my finances (no big medical bills). So I warily entered the Health Initiatives program.
My metamorphosis began while I was watching the videos. When one of the speakers said that I could actually choose to be free from heart problems, diabetes and many cancers, I was startled. I was used to reading about all the good foods or exercise that will reduce your risk of heart attack by x%, but I never heard anyone say that you can essentially choose to eliminate the risk. I said out loud to the TV screen and to God, “I want to make that choice!”
I learned from the Eat to Live book that my dietary choices were not nearly as healthy as I thought. True, I made better than average choices, but not the best choices. I had always believed that I needed lots of protein and translated that into being a primal carnivore – consuming lots of meat and trying to make it healthy be eating mostly poultry, fish and some “lean red meat”. I didn’t think that my body could function well or actually be content with less than 8-12oz. of meat a day. I thought that my joint and body aches were “normal arthritis” for my age. I managed them by taking over-the-counter pain relievers almost every night and occasionally during the day.
The program encompasses an entire healthy lifestyle of which healthy eating is a part. I especially like the daily records of my lifestyle – not only what I eat and don’t eat, but how I’m managing my life in other areas essential to good health – and relationship with God and others by doing relaxing, enjoyable things.
The website is a good resource for many things – recipes, information and lots of exercises. When I started on the program, I had struggled with a painful shoulder for a few months. I used a couple of Dr. Evans’ exercises on the Health Initiatives website and the pain disappeared after a few weeks!
I don’t believe that I would have or could have made the dietary changes without God’s grace, God’s power, the achievable health goal in the video, the plan and charts in the Restore materials, and the accountability and encouragement of Bill Tanner, my Health Consultant. I have been greatly blessed by having all those things and now I have better health too! I not only don’t eat meat everyday – I hardly miss it and don’t crave it – I rarely take a pain reliever. Rarely. I don’t wake up stiff and sore in the mornings. That “normal arthritis” seems to have disappeared. I had no idea that meat was doing that to me.
I am grateful for the life change that Health Initiatives had guided me into. I’m not through with the program, I’m just established in it and I’m grateful! Thank you so much for putting all these good things together!
My health consultant, Bill, is a wonderful brother in Christ! He has been patient, wise, caring and firm. He is truly a disciple of Christ and a saint. My life has been wonderfully blessed by his counsel. I will miss our biweekly telephone meetings very much. He and Health Initiatives will be in my prayers constantly. Eddie S.
We wish to give testimony to the past 6 month experience of seeing a reversal in our general health condition, but more importantly, an improvement in our attitudes toward our health thus our enthusiasm for the years that lie ahead. My wife, Joann, loves to tell others we are enrolled in our own personal "NHPP" (Nursing Home Prevention Plan).
Our desire to do more "full-time ministry", having my wife "retire" from the nursing home where she worked part time (at close to minimum wage, but with full benefits including our health insurance), provided the motivation for my qualifying "unconditionally" for the Christian Care MediShare program. The nursing home cafe that Joann managed, (where she was constantly requested to make chocolate malts for overweight residents and their visitors) was an added incentive for both of us, as we witnessed the multitude of health issues resulting from lives wrapped around unrestrained consumption of the very foods that put those people in the nursing home in the first place.
We desired before the Lord to not follow the "way of the world" in lifestyles that led to such pathetic endings. God led us to Christian Care Medi-Share and broke our "bondage" to medical insurance/medical treatment addictions. To be accepted into the MediShare program I was required to enroll in the Health Initiatives program, Restore, which literally realigned my eating and exercise habits to that which supported my biblical convictions of how I ought to be living.
Bill became my Health Education Consultant and prayer companion. Every two weeks I would receive a phone call wherein we would review the degree of short term goals achieved and set goals for the next step. When needed, Bill would have health consulting Doctors and/or Physical Therapists CALLING ME, to provide top notch guidance to my specific needs or questions. I think Bill would have had President Bush call me if the need was there!
Bill assured me that the numbers would be there if I simply stuck to the program outlined in "Eat to Live". In faith, convinced that God's hand was in this guidance, I trusted the results to Him. Today, six months later, with my total cholesterol down over 60 points, and my blood pressure at 118/72, I was congratulated in a phone call from Bill for having graduated out of the class of "Conditional Approval"into full participating membership in the MediShare program.
We are thanking God for His direct intervening hand in matters of our disciplined, (not self-indulging) healthy life-style outlook. We thank the MediShare and Health Initiatives Staff and Board-of-Directors for their obedience to God's teachings, enabling the many members, now including my wife and me, to incorporate those principles into our daily life.
Bill was very encouraging and patient with me as he continued to guide me toward better nutrition. I have made life changes in the way I eat and exercise. I no longer throw something in my mouth to satisfy a whim or hunger, but take time to reach for something healthful. I am thankful for going through this program. I have often thought it has probably saved my life!
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