Best of Broadcast: Let Me Help You Get Your Diet in Order

Hey friends, it's a brand new year.

How about a brand new you? I'm here to help you take control of your diet. It's time for The Line of Fire with your host, biblical scholar and cultural commentator, Dr. Michael Brown. Your voice for moral sanity and spiritual clarity.

Call 866-34-TRUTH to get on The Line of Fire. And now, here's your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Yes, it's the time of year, new year, new resolutions. We're going to change, going to get my diet in order, going to get healthier. Well, I want to start the new year and do my best to help you, to come alongside of you. No condemnation, no finger pointing, to come alongside of you and do my best to help you because really these are life and death matters.

Michael Brown, welcome, welcome to the broadcast. I will be taking your calls. You could call and ask me. I can't answer like detailed nutritional questions and things like that. That's for my wife Nancy to answer or we could send you to Dr. Joel Fuhrman's website for things like that and his books and videos. But I can tell you about lifestyle changes. I can tell you about things where God has helped me.

I can give you biblical principles and if you're struggling, you got questions, by all means give us a call 866-34-TRUTH, 866-34-87884. Okay, a couple of quick announcements first. If you missed yesterday's show, we told you why we're saying goodbye to ask Dr. Brown. You say, what? You're going off the air?

No, no, no. We're not going off the air. But my main calling is not to serve as a Bible answer man as some have been called to do. We're always giving you information. We're always taking calls. We're always interacting. We will always, by God's grace, supply you with thousands of free resources and then many other resources that can be purchased to help equip, strengthen you, of course.

But that's the whole thing. Our purpose is to help you stand strong on the front lines. Our purpose is in these days in which we live, in which we are all in the line of fire and under attack, we're here to help lead the troops forward and say, let's do this in Jesus' name. So that's always been our heart, but it has not been adequately expressed through Ask Dr. Brown because that could just give you the information. We're here to answer your questions.

We're here to help equip you in the midst of the battle and get you forth on the front lines so that together we can make a difference and see Jesus exalted. So if you type in askdrbrown.org, if you type that in online, it'll now come up thelineoffire.org. All the information is there.

All the information is still there. Nothing has gone away, but our whole focus has shifted to make sure that we are helping you in these times, these critical, urgent life and death times. Some years ago, Franklin Graham was asked why he talked about politics and culture more than this dad did, more than Billy Graham did, and he said, hey, in my dad's days, they were reading the Bible in public schools. It was a very, very different world in which we lived then and in which we live today.

So it's critical that everything we do breathes that spirit. And the Line of Fire is not just a radio broadcast. The Line of Fire is a movement of people, of men and women, of young people, old people, standing together around the world.

By God's grace, we've equipped and sent out laborers all around the world, standing together, shining the light in dark places, setting captives free and saying, let's exalt Jesus while we have life and breath. If you're not getting our emails, go to thelineoffire.org right now, thelineoffire.org, and you'll see right on the home page, sign up for our frontline newsletter. It's going to be sent out a little bit later this month. You'll look forward to every single edition. It's going to be chock full of interesting information, of inspiration, of equipping. So make sure you sign up.

If you get in the emails, you'll have that automatically. Also, everyone listening on KPXQ in Phoenix and on K-Word in Dallas will be coming your way same time every day, but not with a one hour live talk show, this show, but starting Monday with a 30-minute equipping show. Our theme the first month is going to be on revival, and I believe your life will be transformed by it. We'll be launching on many other stations.

Those listening that are hearing this outside of those stations, you'll continue to hear this live broadcast, but we'll be telling you where you'll also be able to listen to the 30-minute equipping broadcast. One last thing. The last half of the show yesterday, I gave some updates regarding IHOPKC and my personal reflections regarding it. Our team saw, and some of these things came to my attention, videos, Dr. Brandinger to respond to this, calling me to repent for this or that or these posts attacking me. Number one, like any public figure or ministry leader, we get attacked all the time, so it just comes with the turf. I'm not Martin Luther King, but Martin Luther King said decades ago that if we replied to the critics, that's all he would do. Obviously, there are endless websites, videos, articles, different things, posts attacking me, but again, that's common for those that are in public ministry or leadership, especially if you deal with controversy. So, we don't respond to every attack criticism.

That's number one. Number two, I did actually take time and start to watch one video in particular, calling me to repent, and within the first three minutes, everything that was said, maybe first two minutes about me, was completely false. About me or about the situation, completely false. So, when all the truth comes out, you'll understand why we've stood where we stood, but just so you are fully aware, from day one, I have said it's essential that there is an external, respected third party coming in to investigate all charges for the sake of the victims, for the sake of the accused, for the sake of ministry, restoration, righteous discipline, all of that, had to be, had to be.

Along the way, different firms were brought forth by HopKC. When the advocacy group was not happy with those, I had been working steadily, as of right through today, steadily to do my best to help both sides come together and agree on a third party. So, that remains the same, and at no point have been told by anyone on either side that that's not going to happen or they don't want it to happen. I believe folks want the truth to come to light on all sides, and that's where I stand, and the truth will come to light.

All of it, all of it, and as ugly as the consequences may be, so be it, let the truth come to light. Okay, that's that, that's that. Now, for the subject at hand, healthy living. Those who don't know my story, in 2014, I realized I had to make a change. I was 59 years old, I was starting to get worn out and tired in my schedule, and I'm used to going for it and running my race hard. You know, for example, this Sunday, speaking out of all those, our friends in the Valley Stream, Long Island area, so anywhere in New York City, New Jersey area, Southern New Jersey, or Northern New, well, whatever, New Jersey that's closest there to New York, all of Long Island if you're free on Sunday morning, Sunday night, Monday night I'll be at the Valley Stream Assembly with God, but you know, speaking three times Sunday morning and Sunday night as well, I mean, that's where I lived for years.

Travel around the world, get off the plane after 40 hours of travel, literally, and go straight and minister. I was getting weary, 275 pounds, had high blood pressure, the highest we ever checked it at home was 149 over 103, and constant lower back pain, and what other issues? Headaches, probably about three headaches every week I would get, sleep apnea, which was severe at that point, and what we didn't know was real hardening of the arteries with one particular artery. We didn't know that then, but this was just the result of unhealthy living my entire life, unhealthy eating. I was not a glutton. In other words, I would be disciplined in my unhealthy eating.

I would have this much and stop here. If I was going to have a chocolate extreme blizzard, large, of course, 1,500 calories, then I would skip a meal because of that. I was a disciplined, unhealthy eater, and addicted to unhealthy foods, addicted to unhealthy foods. All right, so the same Lord who set me free instantly from drugs, from putting the knee on my arm, December 17th of 71, is my witness that it was much harder for me to get free from chocolate and other sweets and unhealthy foods that I ate, but that was my pattern my whole life. As a boy, I used to have Oreos for breakfast, okay? So I grew up with unhealthy eating patterns.

That was my pattern for life, and many times I'd try to cut back, get off sweets, or cut back on this and that, or no fried food, no this or that, but ultimately I was gaining more weight than I was losing, and my overall lifestyle was unhealthy. I had been praying for God to help me, but Nancy had really prayed. Nancy really went to the Lord. Nancy was really burdened. She knew something was not right and that I was endangering my life, that this was a life and death issue. She really cried out to God on my behalf, and I sat down with her in August of 2014. And I said to her, my plan is not working.

Whatever I'm doing is not working, and it's only getting worse, and I have to change, but here's my problem. I was a food, I was not just addicted to the bad foods. I was a food wimp, a food wimp. I was terrified of trying new foods, literally. No, no, I don't eat that.

I never tried it. No, I don't eat that. That's the way I lived, and super picky in that regard. I could have pizza at the same pizzeria every single day for years, and peanut M&M's.

If I had that every day for years, I would have been happy, literally, lived like that. Almost no fruit ever, minimal vegetables, and so I lived. And she said, all right, I'm taking control of your diet.

No food passes through your lips without my approval. It was August 23rd of 2014, August 24th, it began. So within eight months, my weight went from 275 pounds to 180 pounds. Within eight months. Today, it's somewhere in the high 170's. They're about, so right about the same as it was then after that radical weight loss. It's now over nine and a half years. How about nine and a half years without a headache?

How's that? How about average blood pressure of maybe 105 over 70? How about zero lower back pain? How about no more breathing machine and sleep apnea? Not only that, but as we found out about hardening of arteries and an aneurysm in another artery, I am 99 percent sure that I would have been dead years ago if I continued to eat the way I would have died of a heart attack. Something else would have happened.

99 percent sure. As one doctor with tremendous insight into these things said to Nancy, your husband was a was a walking time bomb. So God graciously intervened. It's not I went on a diet. I changed my lifestyle with Nancy's help and with God's overwhelming grace. I changed my lifestyle.

No dairy, no flour, no sugar, almost no meat, no oil. Radical lifestyle changes and. I'll be 69, God willing, in March, and I work out with guys in their 20s and 30s and I can push them. Last workout I did seriously with some guys really in shape in their 20s and 30s. I beat them.

Yeah, so it's absolutely amazing. And here's the deal. If God could help me, a food wimp, a chocoholic, an addict for decades, food addict. If he could help me, he can help you.

Yes, he can. I'm going to talk to you honestly, candidly and take your calls as well. 866-348-7884 Nancy and I wrote a book that will help you breaking the stronghold of food. How we overcame food addictions and discovered a new way of living.

You get it wherever you get your books online. Breaking the stronghold of food. It may be the same, but it will help change your life. I'm Paul Burnett, a board certified doctor of holistic health, and I want to take this opportunity to talk to you about the importance of healthy blood flow and how it's enhanced by a miracle molecule known as nitric oxide. You see, blood vessels release nitric oxide, which increases blood flow, known as something called vasodilation. At Triveda, we take blood flow seriously for our members, and we've developed a nitric oxide plus supplement that has been formulated with natural ingredients designed to maximize nitric oxide production in our blood vessels, which increases blood flow. You may be wondering why you don't have as much energy as you used to. One study that I came across revealed that by the age of 40, we only produce about 50 percent of the nitric oxide production as compared to our 20s. And by the age of 70, the study showed that we're only producing about 15 to 25 percent.

I have good news. As we age, there's another way for our body to increase nitric oxide production, and that's by converting nitrates and vegetables like beetroot into nitric oxide. Bottom line, with more nitric oxide, we stimulate more blood flow to our vital organs, and we experience more energy while supporting healthy blood pressure.

Triveda's Nitric Oxide Plus has been formulated to increase nitric oxide production and blood flow at every age. To place your order for products to support your wellness goals, call 1-800-771-5584 or online at triveda.com as a Triveda introductory offer, use promo code BROWN25 and receive a 25 percent discount on the products of your choice. Call 1-800-771-5584, 800-771-5584. May you live with greater wellness. It's the Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the Line of Fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Thanks, friends, for joining us. If I can help you with a food-related, diet-related, lifestyle-discipline-related question, 866-34-TRUTH, you can give me a call. So, yeah, there is no substitute for healthy eating. I tried everything.

It's in the book, Breaking the Stronghold of Food. I tell the stories of some of the things I tried to lose weight or get the fat off. It's kind of embarrassing, but I tried them. Look, if you take a pill, if you can eat however you want to eat and take a pill, right, or sleep it off somehow. When you sleep, you take this pill, and it'll help you lose weight. I'm talking about some over-the-counter thing, right?

Okay, it's in writing. I'll tell you, it's the most embarrassing, I think, of all. I was flying one time and flipping through some online in-flight magazine. It's embarrassing, but it's part of my story.

It was this fat-reducing cream that you put on fat parts of your body that would reduce the fat. I actually bought it. I didn't tell Nancy about it. I was too embarrassed to tell Nancy about it.

She would have thought, what are you doing? Just change your lifestyle. Pull this stuff out. Change your lifestyle.

But anyway, not only was it a complete mess. It's like, when do you put it on? It's greasy. You sleep at night. Put pajamas over it. Otherwise, the sheets get all oily and messy.

The pajamas, it's like, oh, gosh. Anything other than change the way you're eating, change the way you're living. There's no substitute for healthy eating. There are great supplements. The big transformation is lifestyle diet. Then I use these supplements, these great Triveda supplements.

I really encourage you to check them out. I think your life will be enhanced as you do. That's 800-771-5584. Call in and, yeah, I'm dealing with this. I'm struggling with this.

I want more energy here. They'll answer your questions as best as they can. Not as medical doctors, but as wellness consultants. Then check the products out. Then generously, Triveda pours back. They poured back a ton of money into our ministry last year that went straight out to reach more of you and to make more resources available around the world. 800-771-5584 or go to triveda.com.

Triveda.com and use the code BROWN25 to get the best discount and for your funds to go right back into the line of fire. What are some of the keys for me in terms of making lifestyle change? To this day, I'm not an expert on nutrition. To this day, I don't know all the different food categories and how they break down.

Nancy, to this day, spends a lot of time listening, learning, understanding, renewing her own thinking, getting fresh inspiration to live a certain way as her own life has been transformed. I rely on her for that. I know what I eat, what I don't eat. Wherever we travel, we tell people I'm on the special diet just to make sure it's not an optional thing for me. They've got the salad stuffs that I need and other things.

I bring some of my own things with me to have. But the biggest thing is this. Here's why I encourage you to start. Start with honesty.

Start with honesty. I'm not accusing. Look, it took me 59 years to get this right. In many ways, I'm a very disciplined person by God's grace. But if I was that disciplined, it would not take me 59 years to fix bad eating habits. Would it? Especially when I knew that certain things were unhealthy and I kept eating them.

In other ways, I was willfully ignorant. One doctor says this, one doctor says this. Who knows? And here's a guy who's vegan and he's 30 years old and jogging. He dies.

Who knows? I had all the excuses. But let's start here. Let's start with being honest. Do you have a problem with food? Just be honest. I did.

I did. And I would say most Americans do because the food choices we have are unhealthy food choices. And the things that are most easily accessible are unhealthy. And all the salt and stuff just makes you want to have more. The sugar content is addicting. That which is most convenient is often the least healthy. So especially in a country like America, the portions can be so large and so decadent in certain ways that most of us probably do have a food problem in America. Most of us are probably food addicts, meaning that we are dependent on certain things, not just for health, but to to feed an addiction in our body or to satisfy us.

And if you took it away, we really struggle. So start with honesty. Do you have a problem? And next next question, are you over your ideal weight? Forget how other people look.

You may be in a morbidly obese family and you're not quite as obese. Don't compare yourself to others. All right.

And sometimes it's just what you've been. I'm not pointing a finger. I'm not accusing. I'm not condemning. All right. I'm just trying to help.

I'm just trying to help. Because, again, according to everything I know, I would be dead now if not for the lifestyle change. God graciously intervened in my life nine and a half years ago. To my knowledge, I would be dead if not for that. And without any possible question, I'd be a shell of who I am today without that. I'd be able to accomplish far less for God and serve far fewer people and be there far less for my family and friends if not for this radical lifestyle change.

God intervened. But but how about just starting with with honesty? And and you know, when. OK, so my height, let's say if I was if I was six foot three, six foot three. I think according to Dr. Joel Fuhrman, my ideal weight would be like 175, maybe 180, 175, somewhere.

OK, so I'm right. Right about my ideal weight. But there's still just some flab that doesn't need to be there. So I could be even thinner. I'm not I'm not trying to be emaciated. I'm just saying I could be even healthier than I am.

But. Ask yourself a question. Do you have a problem with food? Do you find yourself eating too much regularly?

Do you find yourself addicted to certain foods? You say, how do I know if I'm addicted? Just give it up for a week. You'll find out.

You'll probably find out within a day. Give it up for a week. If you can give it up for a week without the slightest problem, without withdrawal, without pressure in your life, without feeling. You have to have it without craving. And then you're likely not addicted.

All right. Are you addicted to foods? Are you putting unhealthy stuff in your body that is destructive? Are you taking good care of the temple of the Holy Spirit?

If God was going to judge you on healthy living and healthy eating here as stewards of our body. Right. We have this amazing gift, this amazing body that God's given us. I mean, it's made in the most extraordinary way as I check my blood pressure every day and things like that. I'm just stunned by this mechanism, the heart that God gave us and how it keeps pumping. You have to change batteries of things. Right. But for decades and decades, it keeps pumping and doing its work. And are we working with God or against God?

If we are stewards of our lives and we have to give account to God on that day for our lives. Hey, bad stewards of finances. That's not good. Bad stewards of time. That's not good.

How about bad stewards of health? I don't say this again to condemn. You're like, man, I felt bad to start.

I feel worse now. OK, let's be honest. It says in Proverbs twenty eight that the one who rebukes someone will find more favor in the end than the one who speaks with a flattering tongue. So I want to see you healthy and thriving. Healthy church starts with a healthy you. Spiritually first.

Yes. Physically, emotionally. That's really important, too, because it's Dr. Furman has said that that if you're chronically sick or dead, you can't fulfill your goals and purposes. That's a paraphrase. And it's not even spoken as an unbeliever, just as a as a believer, just as a medical doctor making that observation. Some of us are sick and it's completely beyond our control. And the conditions we have are completely unrelated to our healthy eating. But probably over 90 percent of the sicknesses and diseases we deal with in America are self-inflicted. And if we made radical changes to our lifestyle, to our diet. Yeah. Exercise to radical changes to our lifestyle and diet.

Probably over 90 percent of the diseases we deal with would go away. Yeah. I'm telling the truth.

Michael Brown here, friends, with a very, very sober announcement. We're living in different days. We're living in different times. The battle has come to us. And like it or not, every single one of us, we are in the line of fire today. And friends, there is an all out war today against the Jewish people.

There is an all out war like there was before the Holocaust to annihilate and destroy Jewish people. And God has positioned us with the line of fire on the front lines to do two things that are very, very critical. One, to speak the truth about Israel, to speak the truth about anti-Semitism, to push back against the destructive lies, to push back against false theologies, to stand strong and tall and say this is what the word says and this is what reality is. And then with that, friends, we also reach out to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.

It is a key role that we play. We are equipping Jewish evangelists around the world. We are equipping the church to share the good news. We are directly involved in winning Jewish people to Jesus, Yeshua.

So we are fighting on these two critically important fronts in unique ways. And I want to call on each of you to stand with me. Stand with our support team. Become a torchbearer today. These are urgent days and you can make a difference. Go to AskDrBrown.org. AskDrBrown.org. Click on donate monthly support.

One dollar a day or more. You become a torchbearer, a monthly supporter. Together we're making a difference. We will pour into you. Immediately get two free books that will bless you.

You get access to many free online classes, exclusive video content, all other benefits. Read about it at AskDrBrown.org. Join our support team today.

This is how we rise up. It's the Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the Line of Fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome back, friends, to the Line of Fire. If you don't have the book Nancy and I wrote, Breaking the Stronghold of the Food, How We Conquered Food Addictions and Discovered a New Way of Living, you can get it online. You can get it at the Line of Fire bookstore, LineOfFire.org. Wherever you get your books, you should be able to get this. You'll find it practical, inspirational, and far and away, far and away, the best parts of the book are the parts where Nancy adds her comments and sometimes short comments, sometimes long comments.

But that's the best part of the book for sure. Okay, so let me be practical, all right? Let me be practical. You've got to start with honesty. You've got to start with, I'm struggling. I'm having a hard time. I know we all have excuses. I was the chief of excuses. To this day, I can be a great excuse maker in other areas of life. It's really not my fault. Really, I could easily do that if I get in the flesh, okay? And I certainly did it with food-related stuff.

Now, some of you, it's really challenging. You say, okay, Dr. Brown, your wife eats super healthily. You live super healthily. It's the two of you on your own. You don't have kids in the house. You don't have grandkids in the house.

You don't have a whole family you have to feed. You're both in this together. It's a whole lot easier. Oh, yes, I know it. I fully understand it. I get it. And that's why I say no condemnation, no criticism.

I'm not standing and judging. When I see someone really overweight, my heart goes out to them. My heart goes out to you because I'm thinking, wow, that could feel like a long battle back.

And you could think there's just no way I could ever. And then you get depressed, so you eat because you're depressed and it comforts you, and then it just makes the problem deeper and worse, right? Some people are emotional eaters.

So, again, I just have sympathy, empathy, compassion, no judgment, no condemnation. You might say, look, my husband doesn't eat healthily. I got four busy kids in and out of the house. They don't eat healthily. Oh, I'm supposed to now just make healthy meals for myself. And plus, we can barely afford the food as it is.

I don't have money to get other food. I got it. Understood. Understood. Very challenging. So, let's start here.

Are there bad things you're eating that you don't have to eat? How about if we just start there? It's simple. I know I'm messing with people, and I know if I dealt with some ministry controversy, we'd have people flooding in to watch and listen because it's salacious and it's hot and it's all that. Like, who wants to hear this? Well, this is life and death. This is life and death. And just think of how you can feel if you could be thriving, if you could be full of energy, if you could be full of life.

Yeah, I know a lot of this ties into our relationship with God and things happening in our lives, but come on, so much is health-related. What if you could just push a button, like I did, and by God's grace, went from 275 pounds to 180 pounds? So, that was in less than eight months. But you could just push a button, and boom, that would be the case. And push another button, and you stay that way for life. You feel like you're flying. You literally feel like you just want to run and jump because your body's functioning right. And I'm saying this as someone approaching 70 years old. That's how I feel at this moment.

That's how I feel. Literally, when I'm in the grocery store, and it's pretty frequently because of getting healthy foods and things like that, I have to restrain myself from running down the aisles with the cart because I just feel so full of life. I didn't feel like that when I weighed 275 pounds.

I can tell you that. So, what if so many of the sicknesses and the pains in your body don't need to be there? I'm virtually pain-free. I mean, the most minor, a couple of fingers, toes, the most minor, like a little arthritic feeling, that had it years back, it should have been much, much worse, thankfully. I do take some supplements with that, and Nopalea with Triveda is great in that regard as well.

But I'm virtually pain-free, ache-free, medicine-free, by God's grace, yeah, and thriving, thriving. And it's all, yeah, exercise helps. Exercise helps. But everything starts with diet, what you're eating. So, here's the big, start here.

Start here. If you eat unhealthy foods, whether you're unhealthy foods like these slices of pizza, chocolate, or some other sweet, unhealthy sweet, I'm not talking about fruits, right, natural fruits, but some kind of healthy sweet, or Doritos, or potato chips, or French fries, or whatever else it is that's unhealthy, right, what if you just got rid of that to start, and say instead of a candy bar, had a piece of fruit. No, not dried fruit with tons of sugar.

Oh, I like that, you know. Well, I used to eat orange slices, that's something I used to like eating. So, orange slices, they're just pure sugar, like yuck, sure. It was bizarre, no, it's not orange. And, oh, I liked Chuckles. I grew up having them in New York, and then as a travel fan, a lot of states don't have them.

There's an airport in Phoenix used to have them. I especially get some extra ones there, because they have like fruit flavors. It's all sugar, it's all sugar, it's all sugar, okay. Even fruit juice is so much sugar in them. But why not, why not just start with something little, start with something little. Whatever your favorite bad food is, just get rid of that entirely. And maybe you don't need to replace it at all.

Maybe it's just an extra, just get rid of that. Now, some of you, you're already sweating. It's like, oh my God, oh my God. All right, food's tough, because you got to eat every day. And I remember, you know, I was eating healthily, and on a flight, I think to California, so it was a few hour flight, and I had my salad, you know, they came by with dinner. I said, no, no, I'm good. I had my salad. Then they came by with dessert. And it was the best looking chocolate cake I've ever seen on a plane.

And I fly a lot. And came by, she said, dessert? I said, no, I'm good. And she said, are you sure? And she put it right in my eyes.

She's walking by, so she's holding it all up. Are you sure? Yeah, of course I was sure. But, you know, I said to myself, because bear in mind, by God's grace, the changes I made, it's been nine and a half years without exception. In other words, I haven't had that chocolate bar. I haven't had that slice of pizza.

I haven't had those French fries. I haven't, by God's grace, once I realized He had set me free, once I realized He helped me, when I understood that, I knew, don't mess with it. Don't play games with it. When God's intervened, when He's given you wings to fly, don't play games with it. I realized it was supernatural. I realized it was grace.

Again, poster boy for unhealthy eating. If God could change me, He could change anyone. Let that be your hope. Get on your knees and say, God, you helped Dr. Brown. You helped him, then help me. He's no respecter of persons.

Right? So, and He will give you a way of escape. But what if you start with just, first start with honesty. Just say, God, I'm weak here. I have an issue here. I have a problem here. He knows it. You know it.

Why not be honest? And if that's your starting point, God, I don't know what to do except to tell you I have a big problem, so please help me. I don't even have hope to be helped.

Start there. But then if you want to take a step towards healthy eating, yeah, ideally, you get rid of all the unhealthy stuff and substitute it all with healthy stuff. And as you do that, over a period of days and weeks, it's like, whoa, I'm starting to feel, I'm starting to feel different. I'm starting to see my blood pressure drop. I'm starting to see change here. I'm getting the headaches. I've got extra energy. I'm sleeping better. My focus is stronger. Boy, this sickness I had for months, it just, I've had it for years.

It's just one way. These things happen. They're documented.

Document here. Type 2 diabetes. You completely get rid of that with a radical, different, healthy lifestyle.

100%. Type 1 diabetes is a different animal. But type 2 diabetes, you get, now, if your body has broken down and you generate it over decades with type 2 diabetes and bad diet added into it, and now, you know, your sight's worse or your limb's not functioning right, I'm not saying everything gets miraculously restored, but the type 2 diabetes can go away 100%, period. Gone for life with healthy eating. I remember Nancy was talking to a friend of ours who had type 2 diabetes years ago, a pastor, and she said to him, you know, if you went vegan, you could get rid of it 100%.

He said, yeah, I know, but I hate veggies. That's a rough choice to make, isn't it? Isn't that on a certain level saying, yeah, I'm a slave to my stomach. I'm a slave to my appetite. I'm a slave to fleshly desires. You know, isn't a fruit of the Spirit self-control? Isn't gluttony sinful?

And aren't we stewards of our lives before God, and aren't we called to serve others? That's something you have to think about. Get honest with yourself, and then take the one little step.

Get rid of your favorite bad food. Say, man, Mike Brown, you're really messing with us today. I'm trying to help. I'm trying to help. And Nancy urged me. She said, come on, New Year, everybody talking about these things. You got it. I said, yeah, but we just released a new book, Seize the Moment.

She goes, this is important. I said, I agree. I agree.

And that's why I'm taking the whole show today. Not to try to draw in more people or get more clicks or likes. I mean, who does that? And it's really serious to honor the Lord and fears God. He just does things to be sensationalistic.

Nobody with their head screwed on right. But my goal is not to win your favor. My goal is to help you.

So say it again. How about you just start with that? You get rid of your favorite unhealthy food. So that's my whole diet. Start with one.

Start with one item. And then just either if you don't need it, if it's extra calories and unneeded to get rid of it entirely. Or if it's you'd like to eat at that time and it could be healthy, then substitute something healthy. Not better, okay? Not, okay, I'm going to have the ice cream but without all of the syrup on top of it. No, no, no. I'm going to have a stack of pancakes but with less syrup.

No, no. Get rid of the unhealthy and substitute something healthy. If you want some good guidelines on this in a comprehensive way, our book Breaking the Stronghold of Food will lay out principles and give you some basics.

Give you some basics, all right? But Dr. Joel Fuhrman, the end of dieting, we followed his guidelines for Eat to Live, an earlier book. And we found them absolutely life changing.

Or just get online and watch some of his videos that are free. F-U-H-R-M-A-N. And then just kind of learn, hey, when I put this stuff in, it works with my body rather than against it. When I put this stuff in, it works with my organs rather than against them. When I get rid of this stuff, it gets the sludge and the junk out and the healthy stuff in. So first, be honest. Second, take that one step and get rid of your favorite unhealthy food.

And substitute something healthy for it. And then maybe you can take another step after that and another after that. All right, I've got some more encouragement for you.

Stay right here. I'm Paul Burnett, a board certified doctor of holistic health. And I want to take this opportunity to talk to you about the importance of healthy blood flow and how it's enhanced by a miracle molecule known as nitric oxide. You see, blood vessels release nitric oxide, which increases blood flow known as something called vasodilation.

At TriVita, we take blood flow seriously for our members, and we've developed a nitric oxide plus supplement that has been formulated with natural ingredients designed to maximize nitric oxide production in our blood vessels, which increases blood flow. You may be wondering why you don't have as much energy as you used to. One study that I came across revealed that by the age of 40, we only produce about 50 percent of the nitric oxide production as compared to our 20s. And by the age of 70, the study showed that we're only producing about 15 to 25 percent.

I have good news. As we age, there's another way for our body to increase nitric oxide production, and that's by converting nitrates and vegetables like beetroot into nitric oxide. Bottom line, with more nitric oxide, we stimulate more blood flow to our vital organs, and we experience more energy while supporting healthy blood pressure. TriVita's Nitric Oxide Plus has been formulated to increase nitric oxide production and blood flow at every age. To place your order for products to support your wellness goals, call 1-800-771-5584 or online at trivita.com.

As a TriVita introductory offer, use promo code BROWN25 and receive a 25 percent discount on the products of your choice. Call 1-800-771-5584, 800-771-5584. May you live with greater wellness. This is how we rise up. It's the Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the Line of Fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks, friends, for joining us on the Line of Fire. So in breaking the stronghold of food, the first chapter is called Set Your Sites on the Goal. So it's a really important thing to think of where you'd like to be, clothes you'd like to fit into again, things in your body not functioning well you'd like to see functioning well again, things you'd like to be able to do that you can't do or struggling to do.

Set your sites on the goal. That is super healthy when it comes to lifestyle transformation. And then second chapter, Confessions of a Recovering Food Addict, just tell the truth about the struggles and why it's so important for me to have the no exceptions policy. Nancy will tell you firsthand that she was doing great but would give herself like a splurge day and kind of measure out what she was going to eat on certain days and then it became an extra splurge day.

And then she fell back completely, regained weight and had to redo everything again and found it more challenging the second time than the first. But once she got back in the group, she realized, OK, the key is no exceptions. And then this way you stay free. If you can get into that mentality and realize, OK, I don't have the liberty, just like those who used to be alcoholics, you know, you don't even have a single drink.

You don't hang out in bars because there were just bad tendencies in your life. Then it becomes very freeing. It's like, oh, it's not an option.

It's not an option. Chapter three, What if Unhealthy Eating is Sinful? It really is something to consider before the Lord and say, Lord, if I'm abusing my body, if I'm not taking proper care of the temple you gave me, if I'm not being a good steward over my health, if I'm lacking self-control, my sinning. Jesus died for that sin and Jesus will help us overcome that sin.

It's a question we need to ask. The fourth chapter, Changing Your Mind About Food. For me, food was my reward. Food was the built-in reward in everything I did in life. I didn't realize it until I got free from the addiction.

It took me three days of going through a miserable withdrawal because there was that much junk in my body when God helped me to just go cold turkey and give up all the bad foods and eat only healthy foods in August of 2014. Then after that it was a matter of renewing my mind. And for me, food was a reward.

So, you know, travel around the world. Preach day and night. What do you do when you're done? Eat. I'm not going to watch porn.

I'm not going to get high or get drunk. But I'm going to eat. This is the one way I can indulge the flesh. And I realized that everything I did in life, food was the built-in reward. So I had to change my mind instead of food being the reward. Food was the fuel for a healthy life, and a healthy life was a reward. So some of you just say, hey, I'm an all-out glutton.

Others, well, no, I eat. I'm an emotional eater because of the anxiety or depression. Change your mind about food, how you relate to it. When you understand food rightly as the fuel for a healthy life, lots of things change.

And then too fat to fly. Just talking honestly about how these things do hinder not just us physically but even spiritually as well. Then, yeah, chapter six, anti-fat cream and the magic energy pill. All the different things I tried to lose weight until finally came to grips with.

You're going to have to change the way you eat for life. Oh, I can't. Yeah, I got to that point too. And God gave me grace.

And God gave me grace. Chapter seven, my plan was not working. At a certain point, you have to realize, okay, I'm 50 years old. In the last 20 years, my New Year's resolution has been I'm going to change my diet, and I weigh 30 pounds more now than I did 20 years ago, or I made 50 pounds more. At a certain point, we've got to acknowledge, okay, my plan's not working.

I'm going around in circles where things are even getting worse. Chapter eight, how my radical transformation began, just telling the story of realizing change had to come. Chapter nine, breaking the food addictions and reprogramming my mind. So, again, you've got to deal with the fact that most of us have serious food addictions living in America, many other countries as well.

And the best way you can recognize it, like I said, is whatever food you most want, you most desire on a daily basis or drink, whatever you put in your body that you most desire on a daily basis. Just don't have it for a week and see if you are addicted or not. Then, chapter 10, one of Nancy's favorites in the book, I can't, I can't. I tell the story of how I completely broke. It was about three weeks in and I can't do it. I can't do this anymore. And it was out of my weakness, God brought strength. So, let that be hope for you. You can be crying like a baby now. God, even the thought of it, I can't. Okay, then just be honest and say, God, I am a wimp.

I need help. And then keep crying out to Him and then take the steps. When you feel the motivation, take that step.

You never know if this could be the beginning of a lasting breakthrough. Chapter 11, blessed with the gift of being all in. It's the way I've lived that when I was unsaved doing drugs, I was completely given over to that. When I got saved, I was completely given over to the things of God.

When I started studying languages, I took six languages at once. And in ministry, I just go for it, heart and soul. But I realized that with food, this is a good mentality to be all in and not to allow for exceptions or cheat days or splurge days. Number one, if you give yourself a cheat day, maybe you eat those old foods and all the floodgates open again and all the addictions come back. Or two, as Nancy also discovered when she did it, the good foods don't taste good anymore. Like I eat a certain amount of raw organic nuts every day. Well, maybe I'm out somewhere and they say, oh yeah, these are raw. And I grab a cup and say, no, these are salted.

They really taste better salted, but they're unhealthy that way. So anyway, anyway, you eat the bad stuff, the good doesn't taste so good anymore. And then for me, the biggest thing is if I can find an excuse to do it today, it's our anniversary, it's our birthday, it's this birthday, grandchildren's, this is Christmas, it's New Year's, I'm in this country only one day. If you can find an excuse to do it one day, you can find an excuse in another day. And that's why just all in, no exceptions is the safest way to live. Chapter 12, the Esau mentality is deadly.

What's the Esau mentality? Hey, I'm hungry now. Deal with the consequences tomorrow.

I'll sell my birth right now because I'm hungry. Look, when you're 20, 30, even 40, you can get away with a whole lot more. But all the while, you're sowing bad seeds in your body. As you get older, it starts to catch up with you. You start to reap the bad seeds. No one gets away with anything ultimately. And you make bad short-term choices to gratify the flesh for the moment. It's always bad long-term consequences of our bad short-term choices.

Chapter 13, excuses are for wimps. Yeah, that's self-explanatory. Chapter 14, holiness principles for a wholesome eating. That's where we get into biblical principles about holiness and separation to God that tie in with wholesome eating. And then Chapter 10, recommendations for a healthy lifestyle. So point for point, steps to take, things to do to live differently. When you get your TriVita order, in fact, it's a free e-download where we work that and put out 10 recommendations for a healthy lifestyle. And then Nancy tells her story in depth.

She gives her keys for breaking food strongholds, a little chart for determining your ideal weight, and then recommended resources. In fact, okay, I've been messing with you. Let's just mess a little deeper. Now, everybody's different. I'm not big-framed. I don't have these massive hands, big-boned, medium-framed, Nancy small-framed.

So everybody's different in that regard. But here, are you ready? These are Dr. Fuhrman's guidelines to calculate your ideal weight.

For women, you ready? Ninety-five pounds for the first five feet and four pounds for each inch over five feet. You say that's starvation.

That sounds like absolute starvation. Let's add five pounds to it, right? A hundred pounds for the first five feet. So if you're 5'2", that would be 108 pounds if you're just a medium-framed person.

It's like that's impossible. Okay, for men, it's 105 pounds for the first five feet and then five pounds for each inch over five feet. So if you were 5'6", then he'd be saying 135.

Average built person, 135 would be ideal weight. This is crazy stuff. Okay, I just throw that out there to say we may be more out of shape than we realize.

We may have a higher fat content index in our body than we realize. And what's been so amazing to me is you so bad seed, you get bad results. So good seed, you get good results. It just works like that.

God put all this amazing stuff in the earth, all this amazing stuff. And here's the deal. As a former food wimp who lives like a recovering food addict, in other words, I don't play games.

I don't struggle. I'm free. I could be at any restaurant.

You could be eating anything. I'm great. I'm free. I'm not judging you.

I'm free. I'm not tempted. I'm not struggling. You could put all the ideal foods.

By God's grace, he's helped me. I'm dead to those things. I don't miss it. When I go home today, can't wait to have my giant salad. Look forward to it. We'll thoroughly enjoy it.

Absolutely, absolutely, without hesitation. But having said all that, having said all that, when you start eating the healthy food, it may take some weeks, but you'll not start to crave the healthy foods. Not crave in an unhealthy way like I have to have it, but that's what you really want. I don't want the other stuff in here.

It's been nine and a half years. I don't want the other stuff. I'm not tempted by it.

I don't want it. And if God could do it for me, such an unhealthy eating person for 59 years, he can do it for you. So how about just being honest and say, God, I need help and I want to make changes. I believe our book will help you breaking the stronghold of food. Watch some of the Dr. Fuhrman videos, Nancy's found it to be so reliable and he's helped a whole lot of people. F-U-H-R-M-A-N and see what you can do to make some radical lifestyle changes. They may have to be one step at a time or maybe you'll make an overnight change like I did. But either way, God will give you grace if you cry out. Don't stop crying out for him until you get the answer.