A Special Live from Florida Broadcast

We are live in Florida today for a special edition of The Line of Fire You Don't Want to Miss a Single Minute. It's time for the line of fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Michael Brown is the director of the Coalition of Conscience and President of Fire School of Ministry. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

That's 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Okay, we've got a bunch of first evers here, all taking place at the same time. This is my first ever broadcast from the Charisma Media Headquarters in Florida. This is our first ever live book launch that we've done together in this way with our radio broadcast. And it's our first time where we're using Facebook Live. I'm not in my normal radio studio.

We're out on the road here, but we want to welcome all of you that are watching around the world. We want to welcome all of you listening around the world and around the states. And we want to welcome our live audience. Hey, you need to sound like you're 20,000 people here.

So live audience. There you go. All right, terrific.

Okay, I know it's Thursday, and normally on the broadcast, that means thoroughly Jewish Thursday. But we did Thoroughly Jewish Thursday yesterday on Wednesday, throwing off everyone's equilibrium for the entire week. And today we are back to what we normally cover other days of the week. But we're going to talk about the book that I wrote, Breaking the Stronghold of Food. Nancy and I wrote it together.

But I want to take you behind the scenes. We've got some of the editors and folks who actually worked on the book with us. There's some interesting stories to tell. And we've got a live audience to ask questions about what do you struggle with? What are issues that you have to deal with?

Hey, look. I've spoken to people and said, do you realize? That if you got rid of the bad foods and started eating healthy foods, do you realize that this sickness would go away, that this condition would be reversed, that this would happen, what that would happen? And they say, yeah, I know it. And I said, what's the matter?

Now I'm talking to believers. I remember we're overcomers, right? Overcomers. We're more than conquerors in Jesus. Take up the cross, follow the Lord.

I surrender all, right? Men and women of God.

So I, I, uh, I'll ask them, okay, you know all this could happen if you just changed your diet. Why don't you? And they say, well, I I I like my food. It's hard.

So here you've got these mighty men and women of God, servants of the Lord, and they're basically saying, yeah, my stomach is my God. And, you know, we sing, I surrender all, but we really only surrender some.

So we want to encourage you. We want to lift you up, not beat you up. And if there are things you've done that have helped you in your life, give me a call, 866-34TRUTH, 866-348-7884. We're going to give away a few books as well over the course of the broadcast today.

So stay tuned. That'll be the number to call. And if you're struggling, like I want to change, I know I should change. I don't know how to change or practical advice. We'll do our best to help you out today.

And remember, there's still a special offer through the publisher, but only a few days left to take advantage of this. In fact, only two days left. Go to strongholdoffood.com. Strongholdoffood.com. Order the paperback.

You can get it reduced price on Amazon, other places. And when you order it, you'll also get a free copy of the e-book.

So you're getting two books for not even the price of one, but there are only two days left to do that. That's strongholdoffood.com. Go there, it'll tell you what you need to do. And if you want to read the first chapter free, you can do that as well. There's a funny story, and I'm looking right at the editor involved with this story.

So, God had helped me. My life has changed. I'm taking weight off. And I feel, even though it's early on, I feel God's done something that's going to last, and I should tell the story to others. I should encourage others.

So I. I proposed to the publisher, I want to write a book on this, and maybe Nancy can write it with me. And I said, here's a before and after picture.

Well, I sent the wrong picture. Picture.

Some years earlier, I'd been in Central Park in New York City with family, and Nancy took a picture of me. And she then photoshopped it a little bit and said, Look, here's what you'd look like if you took some weight off. And it was pretty minor, maybe from like 240 pounds to 210 pounds or something. And I sent, that was the picture of the dramatic, amazing weightless. Same Same Place, same clothes, just one squeezed in a little.

And Debbie, the editor, sent a nice note. Oh, that's great. Oh, wrong picture. All right, we'll be right back. God of light, hear our cry, send a fire.

It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

You know, we all get excited talking about moral cultural revolution, radical change. How about radical change in our diet and lifestyle? I've got an article online. You can read it Charisma News and other places. Posted it today and took some material from the book, Breaking the Stronghold of Food, which asked the question: is it sinful for a Christian to be obese?

And you've got to answer that really carefully first for yourself, not to judge others. And second, you never really know what's going on in someone else's life. It could be that they have a rare medical condition, a thyroid disorder, and that causes the weight gain. It could be they've suffered terrible trauma, you know, depression, abuse, and things, and they're eating just out of pain. It could be, I'm not a woman, I've never been pregnant.

Maybe you've had four kids in six years, and lack of sleep and running around caring for family, it's not exactly the easiest thing to lose weight.

So the last thing you ever want to do is look at anyone in a condemning way.

So, I ask it for myself and ask the question: if my obesity was due to lack of self-control, due to gluttony, due to making food choices that were just fleshly and indulging, rather than constructive to being a good steward of our body, if we're supposed to be good stewards of our finances, how much more of our own body and health, then I'd have to deal with it on that level. And for some of us, it's a matter of obedience. For others, I want to try. I definitely want to try. I don't know how.

Others say I'm bound. I've tried to break free many, many times. That's why. Nancy and I wrote Breaking the Stronghold of Food, 866-34TRUTH. I'll go to the phones in a moment, but I'm joined.

We met face-to-face for the first time. We've interacted hundreds of times via email. Adrian Gaines. Adrian is an editor here at Charisma. You edited Hyper Grace.

I did. You edited Can You Be Gain Christian? I did. You edited the Grace Controversy. I did.

You edited Breaking the Stronghold of Food. I did. And Real Culture Jesus, that was before you. That was.

Okay. Yeah. All right, so you've edited these recent books. How did you feel now that you're going to be editing a book on diet and lifestyle change written by this guy that you've known through these other books? How did that strike you initially?

I was really, really intrigued because I know that you approach everything very carefully, very soberly, and I was interested to see how that way of thinking kind of applied to how you approached this issue of dealing with food addiction and dealing with weight loss, because so many people. Deal with those issues. I was just really interested in your take on it.

Now, when you started reading it, did anything surprise you, or did the stories I told, or anything, was there anything different you were expecting, or pretty much what you expected? I think I learned a little bit more about you through the process of editing your book. I was intrigued, I think, and maybe slightly surprised at your ability to just sort of just say, No, I'm not doing this anymore, and just to stop. You just sort of decide to stop. That was great.

When grace kicks in, it happens. Otherwise, I'm as weak as anybody else. The idea of that, that was a little bit surprising because someone who really struggles with different kinds of food addictions, sugar is a big deal for a lot of people, salt's a big deal for a lot of people. It's that's the thing that's hard to stop. And so, just kind of seeing where you're coming from and your ability to do that was a bit surprising.

And then, wanting to really see how you parse that out. You have a whole chapter about being all in and you're being graced to be all in. Yeah, and look, I say in the book, it was easier for me to stop shooting heroin than to stop having chocolate. But when I recognized that same grace, something clicked in.

So, even early on, I thought, I think God did something. Don't mess with it, don't play with it.

Now, I was talking to Debbie, also an editor here, and the first one that I pitched this to. Most of the manuscripts I send in, they get edited grammatically. But this one, you came back to me and said, okay, you got to flesh this out some more. And you and Debbie said we need two things. We need a couple more chapters from you that are practical, and we need to hear from your wife.

Why is it so important for a woman to hear from other women in this area? Because to just hear your point of view, your experience. It would be easy for a woman to think, well, he doesn't really understand our struggle as women to lose weight. I know a lot of guys, they'll go on a diet and they'll lose 30 pounds in like two weeks. And it's so frustrating because a woman doesn't often have that experience.

So, I mean, they're just different dynamics that women are dealing with. And if they only heard your experience, they might think, well, that worked for him. He's a guy and that won't quite work for me. But to hear your wife, who went through a similar transition for herself, I think that is going to have deep resonance for readers. Yeah, and I so appreciate you and Debbie pushing me to add those extra chapters and then pushing me to push Nancy.

to get her to contribute because she wanted to. We just couldn't find the rhythm how to do it. Should she write? How should we do it?

So we so appreciated that push to get it done. The other thing is most men are not having to cook for the whole family. That adds a dynamic, doesn't it? It does indeed. It does indeed.

And you acknowledge how critical Nancy was in your own journey because she's the one who basically put food in front of you and said, this is what you eat. This is what you do.

So she did a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of understanding what to eat. and how to cook things that you would find more enjoyable than you might have thought. And so she was huge in your journey, but to understand her own journey, because that's where a lot of women are coming from. You know, they're the ones having to kind of figure this out and learn how to adjust their own eating habits and their own cooking habits. Is it biology that women lose weight differently than men, or is it lifestyle and requirements?

What do you think? There's some biology there. Yeah, I won't say it's all just the way that we are thinking or the stress loads. I mean, there's a lot of factors, the way that we hold on to our hormones are working against us in some ways. And as an editor, I mean, you've got the worm's eye view of every line.

And I used to resent that. But now I'd say, great, I learned, sharpen the grammar, sharpen the expression, so on. And editors are always polite. Would it be better to say this? Like, oh, yep, sorry.

But the conversational style, the way I'll be talking, and then Nancy will weigh in. How did that flow for you as you were going through the chapters? Getting Nancy's point of view was huge. I mean, it was so helpful for the book.

So I greatly appreciated that. And some of what you'll read when you read the book, it's quite funny because she's kind of commenting on something you just said, and it's like, no, you know, we weren't fooled at all. He thought we were, but we weren't. And so it's very funny to kind of see that dialogue between you in a way because it kind of will feel a bit like a dialogue that you're hearing from both voices.

So it creates an interesting dynamic in the book as, you know. When we were editing, it was sort of like we were trying to figure out how to make this work. And so we were able to do some things with the design of the page that kind of makes it easy for the reader to experience both voices and both experiences. Yeah, and we're hearing great things from readers just for the way the dynamic works. And here's what happened.

Nancy is really meticulous in her communication. And I've had times literally where I've gone out and spoken, preached by heart out for an hour. But they got Nancy to say something right before I spoke. I mean, because she normally never would do it. I mean, would absolutely say, I have nothing to say.

And they'd hand her the mic, she have nothing to say. And literally, she's done that. But a couple times, she'll get up and say something, maybe one sentence. And that's what everybody remembers from the night. Not my great one-hour message.

So the. The reality is that the joke is, I can write a book in the time she writes an email. Because she'll be wanting to communicate something. to somebody and I'll I'll She's working on something. Maybe in our bedroom, she's working on something.

I'll go do something else. And I'll come back literally three hours later. I've written three articles for publication. I've just re-edited a chapter for a book. And she's still polishing that same paragraph, the same paragraph, literally.

Say, how do you think it reads now?

So we had all the deadlines. We had to get the book in a certain time. And I said, all right, I've written everything. She went through what I wrote, sharpened it with me. I said, now we need your input.

This is day after day after day. It's like, I was not getting it. And I wrote to you, I said, and you guys wrote back. You have to. You got to get her stuff out.

Anyway, we finally figured out the rhythm, which was that she would sit there with me, and we spent hours and hours and hours, night after night, to get it done for the deadline. I mean, many, many hours. We'd sit together, starting maybe six in the evening, and she'd read every line and then say, Hey, I want to say something. And then she'd just say it, and I would type furiously, and then we'd go to the next one, and then I would grammatically edit everything, then send it to her, here's where you said it. And then she'd work on it till like two, three, four in the morning to get it just the way she wanted.

And then that's how it blended. But yeah, and some of it is like I'll be telling my story, and she'll say, I can't believe. I'm reading this or you know, he didn't fool anybody. Yes. Or other times she'll join in and say, okay, this is Mike's experience, but he wasn't a glutton.

I was a glutton, and she'll tell hers.

So hopefully that's helping. And then, you know, just being honest. Yeah. It's so important because there's no superstars out there. There's clay vessels that God works through.

And if we humble ourselves, he'll work through any of us. Yes, indeed.

So has this book changed your life yet?

Well, I mean, I was already someone who believed in the power of real, you know, foods, of living foods. And that's a huge part of what you and Nancy changed.

So in that way, I was already kind of a bad person. I know you're messing with you. But no, it has been truly. It has been impactful, I would say, even for me personally, even though I knew some of the ideas, seeing how you guys applied them has been helpful.

Well, thank you, though, for helping us get the book the way it is. And, folks listening, watching, if the book is helping you, I want you to look right over here at Adrienne Gaines, because you owe her a big thank you. And we'll hear from Debbie a little later. But thank you so much for being an amazing part of the process. God bless you.

It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown.

Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34TRUT. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Thanks so much for joining us on the line of fire. I know you're used to Thoroughly Jewish Thursday on Thursdays. We did Thoroughly Jewish Thursday on Wednesday, just like Monday night football on Sunday. And we've got a special broadcast here. Where exactly are we in Florida?

Yeah. Like Mary, technically, but Orlando people would know better.

So, about 45 minutes from the Orlando airport at the Charisma Media Headquarters. And if you don't yet have the January edition of Charisma Magazine, it's not just because I'm on the front cover of the magazine you should get it, but it's a great issue. It's got great, encouraging stories, practical guidelines for starting the new year together. And I honestly felt, I was just talking to Steve Strang about this. After decades of ministry, the fact that I ended up on the front cover of charisma for being healthy and fit, I felt the Lord was telling everyone, hey, it's really important.

And if you could crawl in my shoes for a day, the energy level, the health, the vitality, because I put good fuel in. If you could have been with me yesterday for my brutal one-hour workout with a trainer, with my 35-year-old friend working out with us and both being pushed to the limit, it's not because I'm mega man that I can do it in my 60s. It's wonderful fuel I'm putting in, and it's radically changed my life. 866-34TRUTH. Let's start in Chelsea, Massachusetts.

Jeff, welcome to the line of fire. Oh, thank you very much, Mike.

Now, as far as your book's concerned, I'm pro I'm I'm most likely gonna get your book It looks like a good book. But but myself personally, my my my love Wait. It was a journey. Yeah. And and uh and it it took me a couple of years to to lose close to forty pounds.

Give or take a few packs. And you know what? I use honey as my sweetener. I stop all refined sugar. The key to losing weight is eliminate refined foods.

Uh used to one or two. Will you get to that to that? When you go inside the supermarket, Go on the outside of the supermarket to buy your food, but I go on the whole food. I I buy my food. On the outside.

Of the store. you know, whole food, stuff like that. Once once you start buying prepackaged food, That's that's the Of your diet. Yeah, if you get stuff that's living, I remember I'd show Nancy in the morning, hey, I'm having a healthy protein bar. Of course, it was chocolate, chocolate protein bar.

I show it to her. It's all this protein and stuff. She goes, It's all dead. It doesn't help you. It's not good.

Yeah, so get the healthy produce. And look, it looks pretty, doesn't it? All that's when you walk in the produce, it looks pretty. God even made it to look pretty. But getting rid of sugar.

Helps dramatically. And for me, once I completely cut out all the bad stuff and only ate the good stuff, so you don't crave the bad stuff anymore. You're not constantly battling with the bad stuff anymore. And in my case, I lost 95 pounds in less than eight months without dieting. And now I just live the same way and stays the same.

Hey, Jeff, God bless you. That's a great story. And I'm glad that you made a break with the unhealthy foods. And by the way, can I just say this honestly? You can still enjoy life.

wonderfully And dramatically, you can enjoy life without eating bad foods. Yeah, amazing. There is life after unhealthy desserts. There is life after pizza and pasta and burgers. In fact, how long does it take you?

to eat a meal. Think of it. You go to a restaurant, eat a really nice meal, you're out, you know, 45 minutes, and you're not eating that whole time, an hour. Maybe you're eating a half hour of that, but you got to live with the results the rest of the day. When you eat healthily, it takes you longer.

You get to enjoy the food more, and then you have the benefits of it thereafter. 866-34Truth. Let's go to Roger in Westchester, New York. Welcome to the line of fire. Hi.

Uh my my My experience is similar to yours. Uh I I went from a I went with him. I went from a 50 waste. Yeah. and I I exercise and and I eat good food.

I feel great, Ray. Yeah, how did you feel before, Roger?

Well, that's one of the reasons I started on it. I felt so uncomfortable. in my body. And now, like right now, I'm sitting in my chair and I have my legs across and that's that's a big deal for me. You know?

Got it. Yeah, listen, here's what someone needs to do. Roger, thanks for weighing in. I appreciate it. May the Lord continue to help you on your journey.

Let's say. you look at what your ideal weight should be on a chart, okay? And I always thought those were way too low.

Now that's what I weigh. And yeah, those are accurate.

So let's just say. that you need to lose 50 pounds. You should weigh 150 and you weigh 200 pounds. Go to a gym and take 25 pounds dumbbells in each hand and walk around for a while. Walk up and down the steps, try to run or jog a little bit.

That's what you're carrying all the time. I remember when I got to 60 pounds that I had lost, one of our grandsons weighed 60 pounds at that point.

So I had him cling on my back and I went up and down the stairs with him. Then I got on my face to do push-ups with him, laying on my back. It's not easy. And yet, we carry that extra baggage all the time. Just that is incredibly freeing.

So, again, if you haven't ordered the book yet, go to strongholdofood.com. When you order there, take advantage of the special offer to get the e-book free when you order the paperback. Let's see if we've got time for another call. Let's go to Bill in Noakesville, Virginia. Welcome to the line of fire.

Thank you. I'm halfway through your book, and it's really good. My question is. Um are you going to actually go into some of your um menu items like what you eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner? Or are you going to recommend something that we can have some guidelines for some of this food?

Yeah, when as you read through the book, we incorporate more of our journey in it. And then the last chapter, we give ten. Points of guidance, recommendation, and then we refer you to the plan that we've followed. And then in the back of the book, we have websites that you can just go to for free with recipes. Again, that was one of the things that Adrian, our editor, asked for.

Can you give a list of so we have recipe books? And then we have websites where you can go and get the recipes for free, all in the back of the book. And the last chapter is the most practical in terms of guidelines. I would not be the perfect one to follow Bill, in that I'm the type of person that's perfectly happy to eat the same thing day after day after day after day. Most people want a lot more variety, but the key thing is heavily plant-based in terms of what we eat.

I'll have meat if I remember to. Oh. Once a week, you know, maybe four to six ounces of wheat, once of meat, once a week. Most of the time, I hardly even think about it because it's not some big deal to me like it used to be. But we do have information there.

We do talk about some of the specifics, and then we do refer you to websites for more information. But normally for me, just to say it now, I would have, if I'm home, I'll make a big smoothie. I have six ounces of greens, two ounces of lettuce, two ounces of kale, two ounces of spinach, and then I have some, I think it's flax seed. And hemp seed that Nancy's mixed together, like a big spoon of that. And then I put in about a handful of pineapples, strawberries, blueberries.

And because of my workouts, a healthy protein powder. It takes me about a half hour to drink it, and then I don't want to even think about eating for another. six hours and then dinner time I have a salad of several pounds of salad with a healthy dressing. and then supplement that a little bit in some raw nuts and seeds and That's about it. It's the line of fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian Dr.

Michael Brown.

Your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Yeah, just want to say one more thing about diet. The biggest meal for me is salad. If I'm on the road in the morning, I'll have some fruit. And some raw nuts. You have to understand, in one day now, I eat more fruit than I used to eat in a month or six months or even a year because I was not a fruit eater.

And when Nancy would send me to the store to get fruit for her, she'd have to describe it because I didn't know what it was. She said, get this, what is that? Or certain vegetables? I don't know what they are. She'd have to describe them to me.

I'll have some fruit and some raw nuts in the morning. And by the way, with nuts, they're healthy, but you've got to be very careful in the amounts because they're super fattening.

So, in the course of a day, you may have a couple of handfuls of nuts, and that's it. And then, so my salad, I take literally a four-quart. A four-quart bowl, biggest bowl we have in the house, for dinner salad. And I take a whole thing of lettuce, like five-something ounces of lettuce, and just dump it in. And then I put in other stuff, green peppers and a cup and a half of beans for protein, and then you know, tomatoes and onions and all kinds of other things like that.

And then I have a healthy dressing. And that literally takes me half an hour to 45 minutes to eat because it's so big. And your body likes bulk. Your body responds to bulk.

So literally, that massive salad is less calories than a king-size candy bar. Or a big handful of MMs.

So if you eat the same thing in high calorie, your body wants more. But if you have the bulk, it's totally satisfying. It's amazing. And then later in the evening, because I stay up real late, so maybe later in the evening, then I'll have a super healthy veggie burger. or one of these mega-healthy soups that Nancy's made.

Or we have a came up with like a pseudo-pizza, where I get Ezekiel bread, this healthy bread, and organic red sauce, and it's not a real cheese because we don't have any dairy. It tastes like mozzarella cheese, but it's not. And I put that on, and then onions and different things, like a delicacy for me. And again, in point of fact, If the food was sickening to me, it's still been life-changing and wonderful and helpful. I'd had high blood pressure and all these other issues that are totally gone, 100% gone.

But the food's thoroughly enjoyable. Your palate will crave. Your palate will desire whatever you feed it. amazingly enough.

So I'll have something like that later on and then a little bit more nuts and because I don't have chocolate or anything like that anymore, Nancy would make brownies made from cocoa. Beans and dates, just different things like that that are healthy, enjoyable, and have a similar kind of taste, but they're totally healthy, they're non-addicting. You don't have the food cravings and the headaches. And I used to get three, four headaches a week. And if I didn't have certain foods, if I didn't have sweets after a meal, I'd get a headache.

I haven't had a headache in two and a half years.

So it really, it really does work. 866-348-7884. Let's go to Tom. All right, Tom's gone. Let's try Hurley in Hurley.

Curly's gone. I'm going to say dropping my phys. Let's try Benjamin in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Thanks for calling the line of fire. doctor Brown, thank you very much.

I am a student of yours from Southern Evangelical Seminary. First off, I wanted to congratulate you on your success in this endeavor. And then I wanted to thank you for sharing such an inspirational journey in writing. I look forward to consuming that book and changing my life. I don't know if you remember me, but I was a...

You were in my class. Hang on. Were you in the class on answering Jewish Objections to Jesus? I certainly was. Hey, see, I just heard your voice and somehow rung a bell that that was you.

Tell you what, you stay right there. I want to send you a free copy of the book, Benjamin. All right.

So, how's going to get your info? I want to send you a free copy of Breaking the Stronghold of Food. Anyone that could sit through an intensive seminary class, 6 to 10.30, five straight nights on all day Saturday and a subject completely new deserves to get a free copy of the book.

So, Benjamin, tell you what, once you get a chance to read it, this is a whole lot easier than reading my volumes on answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, the textbooks for that other class. You shoot us a note or give me a call after you read this. Share it with your wife, too. God bless, man. Thanks for weighing in.

It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown.

Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Let's hear from our live audience here.

Alright. At Charisma Media. Publishers of my new book with Nancy together, Breaking the Stronghold of Food. And I assure you, aside from her writing the book with me, without her help, input, prayer, this book never would have been written because I would not have had this story. To tell 866-348-7884 to 866-34TRUTH, the number to call.

So I'm sitting with Maureen. You are an acquisitions editor at Charisma. Before we get to the food-related question, let's talk to all of the would-be authors out there. People always want to ask me how do you get a book published and so on. And there's the bit of the vicious cycle that if you haven't published and you're not known, how do you break through?

On average, how many? potential authors or manuscripts, how many people contact your company in the course of a year, do you think? Um I I would really be guessing to answer that question, but typically what happens is that we actually um reach out to the people that we would like to have right for us. Of course.

So um we we Rarely receive unsolicited manuscripts. But people try, though. They do sometimes. But that's not usually the best way to go about it. The best way is usually to contact us first and maybe have a conversation via email about the topic that they're interested in writing about.

And we give them an opportunity to fill out an author proposal form, which gives us information about them and about their platform. And if we feel it's something that would be worthwhile for us to bring to our acquisitions team, then we do that. Have you ever, or I should say, how often Are you surprised that someone has an idea, someone that's not known or that was off your radar, that something, that the proposal, something about it catches your team and you think, this might be something to look at. Is that once in a year? How often do you think?

It's very rare, actually. But it does happen. And sometimes it happens through the research that we do. We may come across someone who has a relatively large platform on Facebook, but hasn't been acknowledged yet. And we begin to listen to what they're saying and what their followers are responding to.

And that gives us a kind of a way to reach out and to. Um Work with their concepts. Got it. And otherwise, are you looking at things happening in society and the church and saying, boy, we'd really like someone to write on it? How do you go about reaching out?

Well, we do have. as you know, an imprint called Frontline.

So we do like to get people to write about topics that are relevant and that are current in our day. And we also use Frontline for things like Topics about the end times. But as far as reaching out, we typically just Find a way to email the person.

Now, we do have agents who send us proposals or send us information about an author, a potential author, and we'll respond to their queries. But as far as reaching out, we usually do research ahead of time and have an idea what we would like the person to write about, and we communicate with that person and find out if they're interested. And have there been books that you thought this? Book is going to be an incredible bestseller, and it doesn't go anywhere. And another book, you thought, okay, it's a good book, and then shocks everybody.

Yes, for sure. I won't say which ones, but yes, that's definitely happens. Yeah, and look, one of the things that got my attention with Jonathan Kahn's book, The Harbinger, was it had no way. Look, I've written a bunch of books. I'm in the field.

There's no way I'm an unknown author, but this subject is going to be first week, New York Times bestseller. It's just not going to happen. Exactly. And then to stay there for a whole year. That's true.

Yeah, so it's one of these things.

So when people said, What do you think about the book? I said, At the least, I think God's trying to get our attention to look at the subject. At the very least, start there.

Well, one of the books that was a real surprise to me was 23 Minutes in Hell, because the person. didn't have any kind of real ministry platform or anything before he wrote the book for us, but it became a New York Times bestseller also because the topic itself was of interest to people, not only believers, but just people who want to know what happens, you know, after we die. All right, your specific question then.

Okay, I actually have five. I'm going to try to see which one is the.

Well, let's see if we can do them rapid fire.

Okay, well, this one I think will be really helpful to people listening. I've done what you've done in the past, gone cold turkey to change my diet in different ways for different reasons. That was a long time ago. But one of the things that I think people would like to know is when you first made the change, and you sound as if you did go cold turkey. How long did you struggle with hunger and that desire for things that you said later goes away as you change your palate and so on?

And I know that's true. But how long were you still really hungry or really wanting things that you knew you couldn't have? All right.

Now, what you've done is merged several completely different questions together. It's just like in Matthew 24, when the disciples asked Jesus, what's the sign of the destruction of the temple, the sign of your coming, the end of the age, they put three questions together thinking they were all the same.

So I would make a real, real distinction between hunger. And wanting certain foods.

Okay, true. And Nancy would see me snacking at night because I'm writing all night most nights. And she'd see me snacking, and a couple hours later, I'm snacking again in the old days. And she'd say, You're eating all the time. I said, Well, I'm hungry.

She goes, You're not hungry. That's not hunger. And one of the things we talk about in the book that we learned from Dr. Joel Fuhrman is the difference between toxic hunger and just the body desiring certain things and genuine hunger, you know, the body needing food and nutrition.

So, three levels of answer. First thing is, it was three days of withdrawal. Bad stuff is in my body. The fact I feel so miserable means poison is leaving my body. And that's bad.

It was harder for me, as I've said before, to give up chocolate than to stop shooting heroin. And God's grace helped in both, but I went through real withdrawal with the food stuff.

So, in the midst of that, I felt miserable. I still had to do radio and other ministry responsibilities. I felt miserable. I had a cold on top of it, but I thought, okay, you got to start somewhere. At least I've gone a day, two days.

Why have to start at zero again, right? And the other thing was, I thought, okay, this is bad stuff leaving my body. That means I've been putting bad stuff in my body. The third night, the third day was better. The third night, I really prayed through, and I was good after that.

Some people, it can be a week, some people can be two days, it could be, you know, coffee addictions, you know, caffeine, other things. But but it's not going to go that that Worst part, it's not going to go on weeks and weeks and weeks. Absolutely not. That's the first thing. The second thing was getting in touch with actual hunger.

I don't mean starvation hunger, but okay. This is a good time to eat now. And generally speaking, what I tried to do was follow the guidelines again that Nancy suggested: all right, have my meal and don't eat anything for four or five hours. Time for the next meal. Eat that, and you never eat till you're stuffed.

And in fact, it's hard to get stuffed eating Brussels sprouts and broccoli, you know. Or you're getting stuffed on having an apple or blueberries. But you eat and you're satisfied and you feel good. You never have that gloated feeling.

So I had to get used to that pattern because snacking was just. You know, something I did all the time, especially at night. And then the biggest thing, though, was renewing my mind. But food was my reward. And I realized it because I started it.

In years past, when I would quit things, I won't have sweets for a while, or I'll cut back on this, or nothing fried ever. And I did really well for a year, a few years back. And then I went to the doctor to get my blood test in the year, and my cholesterol had gone up. And I thought, oh, come on, forget this. I didn't have cheese, I didn't have fried stuff, and I cut back on this, and my cholesterol is higher.

So I just got discouraged. I thought, forget this. But the biggest thing was, I would tell Nancy, I love ministry, I love what I'm doing, but I'm under constant pressure. My life is constant pressure. I cannot add to that the feeling of being deprived all the time.

That's the straw that breaks the camel's back. And that's what happened any other time I tried to change my diet by cutting it out a little bit, cutting out a little that, but still having the same basic lifestyle. Because all that does is it leaves the door open for all the cravings, all the bad habits, all of that. I began to think about life. And nothing had meaning without food, as I began to think about it.

You know, why am I at the airport if I can't eat what I want? I'm on this overseas flight. You know, I fly overseas long, long flights, and I'm upgraded to business class, and there's all kinds of snacks and nice pretzel rolls I like, and this food is like.

Well I can't have that. Why am I flying? Why would I take the grandkids to a family movie if I can't have popcorn and non-Perels? And I thought, wait a second. I'm taking the grandkids to a fun movie to have fun with them and to enjoy something with them, not to eat.

I could eat that food anytime. And I'm not going to the airport to eat or getting on the plane to eat. I'm getting in the airport and on the plane to go somewhere.

So I realized food was my built-in reward. Preach. All day, Sunday, afternoon, evening minister, go to the room. What do you do? You eat, put on some, chill a little bit, take a break from writing, chill, and eat.

I get to the hotel, traveling, and what do they have? You know, fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. That was a gift from God. That was the Lord's smile. Like, there are your cookies waiting for you.

I'm even thankful for them. Eat one there, take two from my room, you know, and even know when they're gonna come out so I get them fresh, you know, if I'm there at the right time. And I realized, food is my reward. Food's not my reward. Fuel is my fuel.

Once I reprogrammed my mind, it was easy. I had one breaking point, which I talk about in the book, I Can't, I Can't, where I completely broke one night. Otherwise, it has not been hard at all. We'll be right back. Yeah.

It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Thanks so much for joining us at this live event. Live event. There we go, our live audience. At Charisma Media, we've worked together on different books for years, and my articles always appear in Charisma News.

So we've had a great partnership with Steve Strang and the team here, and blessed to partner together on our new book, Breaking the Stronghold of Food.

So just a reminder, if you have the book, if you've read it, because many of you pre-ordered before Christmas and got advanced copies, once you've read it, if it's been a blessing to you, go to amazon.com and place your order, excuse me, post your review there. That would really encourage others, and it's just a great way to get the word out on Amazon. I'm sitting with Maureen, who's an acquisitions editor here at Charisma Media, but I want to get to some calls first, and we'll go to Richmond, Virginia. Brian, thanks for holding. Welcome to the line of fire.

Yes, Mr. It's an honor and pleasure to be on your show. We all know as believers that God works in a mysterious way. And I am strong. With food, I'm struggling with food and it's killing me.

Mm. And I'd need help and And I really don't listen to the radio that much, but Something may be turning on. on and something made me tune into your station. And it it's just killing me. Everywhere I go, it's food.

I read meeting, I go to at work, they have this food. You know, I go to a birthday party, there's food stuff that is killing me. I'm overweight, I can't stop eating this stuff. I'm addicted, you know, every commercial I see on T V You know, it's food and I just I'm I'm stuck. I'm I'm and a stronghold.

Please help. Brian, this is your day for help. And I hate to hear what you're going through, but Brian, what you just said speaks for millions of other Americans. You're just honest enough to say it. to recognize the addiction, to recognize the stronghold.

And I want to do my part to help and get you my book today. Let me ask first, when you say it's killing you, what effect is being overweight having on your life? I gotta apologize. I gotta get myself together. First of all, uh, I I'm always tired.

I'm always sleepy. Um Uh I I I none of my clothes fit anymore. I always have to, you know Uh put another hole in my mouth I gotta, you know linked up my belts and you know get some Biggest closed. Um I just can't I can't function. Yeah.

What do you like about it? But I'm too much. Um, everything revolves revol revolves around food. I mean, it's it seems like every two or three hours I gotta go get something else to eat. Yeah.

I mean, you're not. Of six four. and I weighed three hundred and ten pounds. And everybody says, Oh, you know, you're tall. It doesn't look bad on you.

You're okay. You're okay. Don't worry about it. You're okay. Except my doctor.

I have I have type two diabetes, which I was diagnosed with. Last year. I have high blood pressure.

Well shots can't seem good. you know But I So it's good. It's the food. Yeah. Brian, listen, you are steps ahead of most because you know the issue.

Look, I'm over 6'2 and I weigh 275 pounds. And a lot of people told me, We just thought you were a big guy, big bone. No, I was obese, I was fat. I worked out, but I w I was fat and my weights now I'm you know between 180, 185. And life trends and all the stuff you talk about, you know it.

The type 2 diabetes can be reversed, the tiredness can be reversed.

So do you do you normally listen to this radio station, this show, when you do listen, or you just happen to stumble over here today? I I stumbled on instantly, you know what? I I look at it as not as a stumble. God let me strike. I don't listen to the radio.

All right, Brian, this is absolutely The Lord. In fact, normally on this day, on Thursday, I have a different subject focus, but we changed it today because we're doing this book launch.

So here's what you're going to do: stay right there. Howard's going to get your mailing address. I'm going to send you a free copy of the book, Breaking the Stronghold of Food. I assure you, as you read it, you're going to get hope. And you'll see practical steps.

If you start taking those steps, and then we'll recommend here's something else to read or a website to go to for the next step. We've got a Facebook page, Breaking the Stronghold of Food, on Facebook. Where you could come in there and say, Hey, here's what's going on. Anyone have any advice?

So, when you get the book, Breaking the Stronghold of Food, you'll see that the Facebook page is the same name as the book. You can join in that community there as well. But we're going to pray for you right now. We've got a live audience, and then we've got listeners, of course, across the country and around the world.

So, Father, we pray for Brian right now. We pray that this day is the beginning of a life transformation. He knows that food is killing him, and we know that whom the sun sets free is free indeed. Lord, there are people who don't even know you, who just by their willpower have made change. How much more your children, whom you help?

We acknowledge this is a stronghold, we acknowledge our weakness, and we pray, God, I ask you for the same help. That you gave me to help me to lose 95 pounds in less than eight months and keep that weight off and change my whole life. That same grace, that same help to come to Brian. Touch him, help him, bless him. In Jesus' name, and we hear from him in the months ahead about how his own life has been radically, dramatically changed.

Amen. Jesus' name. And Brian. I assure you, this is not the end. Yes, this is a divine appointment.

Yes, God led you to listen for this very reason. And you are going to receive great help. Remember, my story is your story. Your story is the story of many, many others. And there is help that can come.

You are not a slave to food. When you learn how to break the bad habits and replace them with good habits, you'll be amazed at how you feel and what happens.

So stay right there, Brian. Howard is going to get your contact info. We're going to send you a free copy of the book. Hey, can I just say something to all of our friends at Charisma that helped in the process? The editing process or marketing process or anything else having to do with the book, to all of you on Facebook that have shared our articles and things along these lines as we've talked about it, to everyone listening that's prayed and taken an interest, this is why we wrote the book.

This is not just some trite subject. I never write about anything that's trite. But the interesting thing, when this book was coming out, I take seriously every book. I've written almost 30 books now. I take every one tremendously seriously.

But I felt it, I said to Nancy, I really feel there's going to be the difference between life and death for thousands or perhaps millions of people. That's the goal. That's why we did it. And yeah, we want to sell lots of books because we want to help lots of people. That's the whole goal.

We're giving books away because we want to help. People.

So again, if you haven't ordered yet, go to strongholdoffood.com and you see there's a special offer there. You get a free e-book, especially if you go through Amazon. That's the easiest and best way to do it. Strongholdoffood.com. And maybe there's someone listening or someone watching on Facebook, and you've got a burden to pray for Brian.

You want to make Brian your prayer target. Ask the Lord to give you a burden for him because I had Nancy helping me each step of the way until I could kind of get on my own and learn how to live and live this out. But the more help we can get, the better.

So maybe the Lord will lay it on your heart just to pray for Brian on a daily basis or just say, Lord, whenever he's struggling, let me know and I'll pray. And God will do that. Remember, friends, visit the website thelineoffire.org. Check our latest articles and videos there. My bottom line today: food is killing many, many Americans.

Don't let it kill you. We are live in Florida today for a special edition of the Line of Fire. You don't want to miss a single minute. Um It's time for the line of fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution.

Michael Brown is the director of the Coalition of Conscience and President of Fire School of Ministry. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH. That's 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

All right, here we are, our live audience, Tourism Media, right outside of Orlando, Florida, all watching on Facebook, all joining us on the radio.

So glad to be speaking with you today. 866-34TRUTH, 866-348-7884. The number to call. I know it's Thursday, and we normally do Thurley Jewish Thursday on Thursdays, but if you're listening yesterday, we did Thurley Jewish Thursday on Wednesday of last week because of the special live event that we're doing here.

So we want to welcome everyone watching on Facebook Live. As we talk about breaking the stronghold of food, this is where the book has been produced, where the book has been edited, and now we're getting it out together to touch the maximum possible audience. We're going to take some live questions from our listening audience here. We're going to take some calls, as always. And a question on Facebook Live: sugar addictions.

Do we talk about that in the book? Oh, yeah, because I tell my story. And I was absolutely a sugar addict. Look, I know what it is to be dependent on stuff because I used drugs heavily for two years before I was saved, ages of 14 to 16, when I got saved at the end of 1971. And everything from pot to hash to LSD to mescaline to cocaine to heroin to speed, and did mega quantities of drugs.

And I said it earlier, I say it again, it was harder for me. To give up chocolate than to give up heroin. And a study was done. It's not just a story, I read the details of the study. one university did an experiment on rats.

and they got the rats addicted to cocaine. And to Uh to cocaine and to Oreos.

Okay, this is not a telltale, this really happened. And when they took them away, the rats craved both equally. Both addictions, cocaine and oreos, equally strong. And I was flying overseas And one of these flights, long flights, they had a little snack bar where it was just unlimited free snacks there. And they had Oreos there, and I looked at them, and I thought, you know, you're my enemy.

You got stuff in you by design that addicts people. By design, that's what's there. You know, you ever have chips and things that salt, that makes you want to have another one.

So, the foods that we eat are addicting us and dragging us down.

So, the problem is, though, that sugar is also in lots of stuff. You know, sugar is in salad. You think I'm eating super healthy and salad dressings? You can have salad dressings that are laced with sugar. You know, I had pizza all the time.

Pizza has a lot of salt in it. I never associated salt with pizza. Anyway, the thing with addictions, though, you can try to wean yourself. Little by little by little. And that may work for you.

If it works for you, great. But the best thing with an addiction is to put the thing away. And you here here. You will not die without sugar.

Now, if you have a certain condition, you know, you have a certain diabetic condition and you have certain issues going on with your body, then you go to your doctor and find out what you can and can't do with diet. But if you know something is destructive and wrong, here, I want to say this plainly. I am at Charisma Media, famous for the things of the spirit. I'm going to make a bold declaration. The power of the Spirit is stronger than the power of doughnuts.

Yes, I actually believe that. And if we don't walk in the flesh, but in the spirit, That means we can say no to fleshly things, but if you're addicted, you'll probably go through some level of withdrawal. We talk about it in the book. And then, what do you do for the sugar that your body wants? It wants good sugar, fruit.

God gave us fruit. And I walk through grocery stores now. I'm telling you the truth. Like, ooh, those apples look really good. This is from someone that couldn't even eat apples before because they used to have a allergic reaction because of pollen and apples.

I'd eat an apple and have an allergic reaction.

So you start to replace it with good sugars, healthy sugars. Before you know it, the addiction's gone and you're free. It's amazing, it works. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown.

Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Thanks so much for joining us at our live event here. Right outside of Orlando, Florida. Michael Brown, delighted to be with you. Your voice of moral sanity and spiritual clarity. We're here at Charisma Media.

They've published my new book, the book Nancy and I wrote, Breaking the Stronghold of Food. If you have a question, if you've got a story to tell in your own life, or you're frustrated, or you don't know a way out, you're struggling, give us a call. If you've got a testimony, if you've read the book and it's been a blessing to you, I know the book's just out, give us a call, 866-348-7884. During the break, I was asked a question by Jackie, an audience member, about Struggles with food and yo-yo dieting, so you diet, you lose weight, and then you gain it back, gain it back. In fact, it's almost guaranteed that you do.

The vast, vast, vast majority, I've read even stats, like 98% of people who yo-yo diet end up gaining the weight back and even more. That was Nancy's story for years. And I recently saw a study about the TV show The Biggest Loser. I've never seen it, but I think we know what it's about: that the majority of people who lose all the weight gain it back, or a good portion, or even more. The the question is, what's the answer?

So the answer is not dieting. Not dieting. Because remember, if you're cutting back on certain things, but you still have the bad stuff there. In your diet or lifestyle, it just is almost inevitable that you're going to be pulled back into it. You're constantly having to exercise some kind of self-control, having so much, but no more.

So, the solution is not dieting, it's change the lifestyle. Change your relationship to food. and make a wholesale change of get rid of all the stuff that's bad. And eat the stuff that's good.

Now, if you say, How often do you cheat? I'll get picked up at the airport, and the pastor will be chatting with me, or the guy picking me up at the airport, chatting with me, and they see the change, and they'll say, How often do you cheat? I say, How often do you cheat on your wife? And if it's cheating, why am I doing it?

Now, here's the deal. I'm not saying that having a bowl of ice cream or having a big steak Or having a candy bar is like committing adultery.

Now, for somebody, it might be. I mean, for somebody, it might be that serious. It's like a recovering alcoholic, and they go and have a sip of alcohol in the bar. That's fatal to them.

So, I live as if I'm a recovering food addict. When I got set free from drugs, I was free. I couldn't even relate to the idea of being a recovering drug addict. I was free, end of subject. But food you deal with all the time.

So, I live as if I'm a recovering food addict. I'm not tempted, I don't struggle, I'm thriving, but I look at it like don't play with fire.

So, if theoretically, Once in a couple of months, you could splurge or do this or that, and you have no problem with the file. Nancy did that initially. She totally changed her lifestyle, started eating totally healthy, following the guidelines of Dr. Joel Fuhrman, eat to live, end of dieting. And said, this makes sense nutritionally, because she'd been studying nutrition for decades.

This finally made sense. It was working. And she thought, okay, I'm going to plan it out, whatever it was, once every couple of months. She she tells her story in the book. And I'll just have this amount, controlled portions, one day, and it worked initially.

And then after a few more months, it one day became two, two became three, and next thing she found it harder to change back the second time than the first. That's why I try not to mess with it. God's given me grace. I live no exceptions and I thrive in the midst of it. But we do need certain things.

How do we make up for if you ate meat all the time and the protein in it? If you'll read enough about the meats that we have and eating lots of meat and potential cancer risk with that, that'll probably cause you to cut back on meat right away. But here's what I've done. First, all the greens, the massive amount of greens I have every day, they themselves have protein in them. The healthy nuts and seeds have certain protein and healthy fats.

For pasta, for example, We buy bean pasta. It's made of beans. You cook it up, it tastes just great. We use an organic red sauce with it. And especially once you get used to that, it's wonderful.

You enjoy that thoroughly. That has actually a lot of, and it tastes like regular pasta. I have a cup and a half of beans in my salad.

Now, Jackie said she can't eat beans. I don't know if you can't eat them the way I couldn't eat things before, meaning I didn't like them. I didn't like the taste of them, or I gagged on them. I remember having Brussels sprouts one time, and I literally gagged on it. I tried it once.

That was it. I literally gagged on it.

So sometimes we just have to change our palate. Nancy tells the story in the book. that she made this massive soup. And it was it was a She had a lot of mushrooms in it because Dr. Fuhrman's guidelines are G-bombs.

Greens, beans, onions, mushrooms, berries, seeds. G-bombs. Greens, beans, onions, mushrooms, berries, seeds. And She knew mushrooms were important, but she hated mushrooms.

So she made a soup. She had a lot, tried to sneak mushrooms. Anyway, she went to eat it and gagged. This is a soup she made. She went to eat the soup and she literally.

Gagged.

Okay. So she said, What am I going to do? I made this massive amount of soup.

So she put it in Tupperware portions, put it in the freezer. Two months later, took it up, heat it one up, and it was delicious. Delicious.

So your palette will change. And you have to understand. You talked to everybody that knew me for decades around the world. And if you gave them a list of every person they knew, who's the last person that's going to write this book, it would have been me. Because I was the unhealthiest eater you could imagine with really limited tastes.

Again, growing up, I used to have. Oreos for breakfast. There were years where every day my meal was was burger and fries at least once a day. There were years where every day I'd have at least Two slices of New York pizza. I lived right near and tied the Bible school right near a fabulous pizza on Long Island.

We estimated in my four years living there that I ate 3,000 slices of pizza at that place.

So If my palate could change, anyone's can change. I do have a little meat once a week. But the other thing I'd suggest, Jackie, is just type in eat to live online. All right, Dr. Joel Furman's website, and then just put in protein and he'll give you a list of things that are healthy, that are good, that will get you adequate protein.

I'm having a discussion with my trainer now because he's a beast of a guy. I mean, massive, super strong guy. Can bench press 450 pounds. He can press with his shoulders 450 pounds. He's massive.

And his wife read our book and she absolutely wants to change her way of living, but she said, You're going to do it with me. And he's concerned because he's Mr. Big, you know, you need all kinds of meat. I said, You actually don't need that much animal protein as you think that you do.

So, Jackie, if you go to eat to live and then look at other protein substitutes, here's the other thing.

Sometimes we can weave things in little by little.

So, Nancy would sneak certain things into stuff she cooked for me or into my salads, and then it got to the point where I am now and just pour all kinds of these things in. And sometimes we don't like the texture, we don't like the look, but you do get used to it, and then it becomes a health-giving, life-giving thing. All right, we're going to take a phone call, and then Maureen, you've got five questions. We've covered what, two? All right, three to go.

Let's go to John in Radford, Virginia. Thanks for holding. Welcome to the line of fire. Hello, Doctor Brown. Thanks for making my call.

You bet. Um I've been learning about your book a little bit from what you've talked about on the radio and I feel like that uh Um you know, for me You know, I've approached you know, the traditional diet stuff that everybody does. almost in as uh as a mindset on the flesh. And what I I'm excited about is the potential of having a lifestyle change with food that really incorporates you know walking in the spirit. Yeah, absolutely, sir.

Why should we think, okay, I've got an issue with lust. I've got to grow closer to the Lord and overcome that in the Spirit. I've got an issue with anger. I need to grow closer to the Lord and overcome that. Find out the roots of that spiritually or pray more.

I've got an issue with my tongue. I'm out of control with my tongue. Whatever it is, we understand all these different issues we have: fleshly issues, struggles with our human body. Different things like that struggles with our mind that we combat this not just in the natural, but spiritually. Why don't we think the same way when it comes to food?

Of course, these are spiritual issues. In fact, one chapter in the book is Holiness Principles for Wholesome Living. I took some of that material from a previous book I'd written called Go and Sin No More and just took the same principles of how we deal with sin in our lives and then made application to how we deal with bad food habits. Paul talks about false teachers and said their God is their stomach.

So here is idolatry and with it the God of the stomach. And when Jesus talks about if your right hand causes you to sin, Or your right foot causes you to sin, or your right eye causes you to sin. The passage that we have in Matthew 5 and Matthew 18 and Mark 9, you apply that same principle. You don't cut it back, you cut it off.

So if a guy is very close to having an affair with a gal that he works with, he doesn't just say, okay, I'm going to. Cut back on the amount of time we email each other or the amount of time we talk on the phone, or, you know, no, no, you don't, you cut it off. And that's the way to freedom. You go away from the wrong in the direction of the right. And then I know for a fact, John, that it's God's grace that empowered me.

It was not just Mike Brown's willpower. If it was Mike Brown's willpower, I would have changed decades ago. Because I hated being overweight.

So absolutely, life in the spirit. John, stay there. I'm sending you a free copy of Breaking the Stronghold of Food. If you've got a question, 866-348-7. 884.

We'll be right back. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

All right, I'm here. There we go. I'm still here. At Charisma Media Headquarters, hosted by Steve Strang and the team. Good to see you, dear brother.

Thanks for your solidarity all these years together in the Lord on the front lines. And you know, it's just so interesting. That some things, Steve, that you were involved with reporting on pioneering decades ago that are just mainstream now. that are just taken for granted now were awfully controversial. In the early days.

It's just a good reminder: if you know you're doing what's right and honoring the Lord, stick around. I've told people with some of the cultural issues we've taken stands on, you can mock my words today, but you're going to mark my words tomorrow.

So glad to be here. If you have not yet ordered Breaking the Stronghold of Food, only two days left to get the e-book free when you order, but you've got to do it. It's strongholdoffood.com. Strongholdoffood.com. You'll see the instructions there.

If you're not sure, read the first chapter free, get a feel for how Nancy and I share things there. And then when you order through there, it'll take you to a link on Amazon or elsewhere. Order the paperback, and you get the e-book sent free through the generosity of our publisher, 866-34TRUTH. If you have a question, all right. I'm sitting with Maureen, who is an acquisitions editor at Charisma.

We had some interaction a little earlier in the broadcast. Back to you for a question.

Okay, you mentioned earlier, you just kind of referred to the exercising that you do and that you were working with a trainer. When you first made the change in your eating habits, Habits, that lifestyle change. Were you already exercising? Did you feel as if the you or you just and you just continued it to help you lose weight, or was it just something you were already really found to be important in your life? How did they work hand in hand?

Yeah, I was already exercising. And I had a personal assistant who started going to CrossFit years ago. And in the office building we shared, there was a tiny little weight room, but it had enough, had some rolling machines and some weights and some other bars and things.

So it was enough to do heavy workouts.

So we would do CrossFit workouts there. And I could keep up well. I had endurance. I was strong. Nancy would always say, you're crazy doing this.

You're eating unhealthily and you're pushing your body and you're overweight, it's not good for your heart. And my answer was: the fact that I can do it proves that I am heart healthy. And you know, of course, I was always going to be right, I was always going to have an answer. Then we had a brother in our congregation who's a professional trainer, certified fitness trainer, worked with professional athletes, a certified massage therapist. And just if you're going to stretch or something, he knew how to torture you.

And he said, Hey, I've got these two slots open during the week. I'd like to come in and train the pastors and leaders here for free.

So we started to work out. I mean, an hour of absolute torture. And then he moved away.

So we kept working out, but not as heavily. But he used to say, Look, abs are made in the kitchen.

So I worked out heavily, and it helped some. but only a little. Let's just say on a scale of one to ten If 10 was where I was supposed to go health-wise, working out got me to a 2 because I hadn't changed my diet.

So I had been working out already. Then I radically changed my lifestyle. I was still trying to work out some. He moved back. And now we do these heavy, heavy workouts.

And, you know, just yesterday, for example, the warm-up was I put boxing gloves on, and he was at the foot of the steps, run up and down the steps, come down 20 punches, run up and down the steps, come down 20 punches, 10 times, running up and down the steps, 20 punches each, just to warm up. And then we went from there into a minute of intense boxing and then getting in a hold your core position for a minute, jump back up a minute, back and forth. We'll do this for an hour. And we've had several people join us in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, and every one of them was in the bathroom throwing up within minutes.

So it's not just that I'm really strong and I've, you know, he said I'm mentally tough, fine. But the fact that I'm 61 and can do this, the great, great reason is healthy. Fuel. I put good fuel in my body, and that's why.

So the exercise is great. It gives me energy, it increases my mental sharpness, it's great vitality. And as painful as it is, I love being pushed to the limit. But it is, I tell everyone in the book, I talk a lot about exercise in the book, and Nancy chimes in with hating exercise. We came up with her mantra, you know, no pain, no gain.

We came up with her mantra, when I feel the pain, I refrain.

So she just does not like it.

Sounds like me. Yeah, exactly. But she's a hard work. I mean, she'll work all day out in the yard or just doing different things like that. I mean, she pushes herself in those ways, but just hates exercise.

And anyway, The the deal is I tell people J deal with the diet. Exercise, yes, but deal with the diet. Because in my mind, I'm just going to exercise harder. I'm just, yeah, I know I shouldn't have that king-size, you know, babe ruth after, you know, candy bar after my pizza, and I probably shouldn't have the pizza. I'll just exercise harder.

No, it's counterproductive.

So exercise is great, it's important, but change in relationship with food is much more important. All right, last question.

Okay. The last question has to do with how many times a day that you eat, because a lot of nutritional professionals suggest that people eat three smaller meals, or six, I'm sorry, smaller meals a day, you know, kind of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and then snacks mid-morning, mid-afternoon, and before you go to bed. And you previously said that after that big protein shake in the morning, you typically can go like six hours without eating.

So I'm just wondering what your thoughts are about more frequent eating and I'm not a nutritionist, so it would be foolish for me to argue with those who said it. I've talked to people who are very healthy and thin and fit and disciplined, and they do that, you know, five or six smaller meals in the course of the day. There may be a logic to it. You know, again, I'm not the one to comment on it metabolically or anything like that. Even the word metabolically is a, you know.

I'm showing off by using that. But the point is this. In short. The The whole issue for most of us is we eat too much. and snacking is kind of a way of life.

So, if you can just eat when your body really desires food and needs food. It tends to be just a more disciplined way to live.

So that may be great. It may work for certain people. And I know some, because of conditions, need to eat more frequently. But normally, the goal is three main times a day. Because I'm a late-night person, I'm not normally up really early in the morning.

Like this morning, I had to leave the house before eight for a flight. Normally, I don't have to do that.

So I'll have my smoothie. I'll have like a handful of raw nuts. And then that smoothie or some fruit in the morning. And then I try to wait five hours or something. Then I have my massive salad.

And then, you know, maybe an apple after that, and then wait like maybe three, four hours, and then have the last meal. The more I can do that, the better. I found that if I don't do that, I end up just having a little handful of this, a little handful of that. It's all healthy stuff, but then I'll actually see my weight's gone up two, three pounds just from that.

So, even though I only eat healthy stuff, always, only without exception, 24/7, two and a half years, right, or plus, the fact is, even eating the wrong stuff there, and I exercise, can still start to bloat you.

So again, let everyone work that out. But once you give yourself a good, healthy meal and you realize, okay, just stay away from it, when you step back, it's like, Oh, actually I don't need food. I just was craving more stuff, or I like this and wanted to have extra.

So nutritionally, I can't comment on what's best. I know the Dr. Fuhrman recommendation is the three main meals and then kind of get in touch with true bodily needs. But let everyone work that out. There are many different plans and programs.

We think the heavily plant-based is very important, though. All right, we're going to go to your calls next: 866-342. We're going to talk to. The editor that I first pitched the idea to about breaking the stronghold of food. It's the line of fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian Dr.

Michael Brown.

Your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34 Truth. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Thanks so much for joining us. We are live right outside of Orlando, Florida, headquarters of Charisma Media. We're also live on Facebook Live on some different platforms. We've been on for an hour and a half. Hey, any of you on Facebook, give me a thumbs up if you've been watching the entire hour and a half of the broadcast.

We may do some Facebook Live video excerpts of our radio shows here and there. But if you've been with us the entire hour and a half, give me a thumbs up. And some of our live audience here at Charisma Media, they've been here the entire time as well. All right.

I see those thumbs up being relayed to me.

Someone just asked on Facebook, can they get Breaking the Stronghold of Food on Amazon? Yeah, you absolutely can. It's at a reduced price there. You get the e-book or the paperback, and make sure when you get it, you post a review. You, if the book has helped you.

But two days left to do this. Just two days. There's a link right on Facebook Live: strongholdoffood.com. Strongholdoffood.com. If you go there, then you can order through Amazon and you'll get the pay-per-back and then the e-book you'll get as a free bonus.

But only two more days to do that, and that is at strongholdoffood.com. I know it's Thursday. Many of you tuning in for our Thorly Jewish Thursday broadcast. We did that yesterday because of the live event today. 866-34TRUTH.

Let's go to the phones. We'll start in Salt Lake City. Hope, welcome to the line of fire. Hi, thanks so much for taking my call. You bet.

First, I wanted to. Just to agree with you, I used illicit drugs for a while and I also was an avid sugar addict. It was definitely Harder to get off of sugar than it was to get off of cocaine.

So I think that would shock most people, but it's true. Um My question is this. I am now Completely all sub sugar. But I'm married to a great guy who understands the dangers, reads books, has gone through intense cleansings. but now is back in sugar.

Eating Just chocolate chips. I just watch them and I recall a handful as a snack. Um As a woman And who loves her husband. What would you suggest? Is the line.

I was thinking to myself, Why did I even let those stay in my house? They should have thrown them away. But I want to be submissive in a in a loving life and supportive. Right.

Well, obviously, first, the biggest thing is keeping a good relationship with your husband, right?

So you understand that. And sometimes you can get so upset with it. You think, what are you doing? You're hurting yourself. You're killing yourself.

And look, he may not see it. He may be struggling. He may know it's true, but just struggling. I mean, plenty of times I thought, I know this is unhealthy, but I want it. I like it, I want it, and I need it.

And then you kind of just get in the patterns, it's not such a big deal, and it's not that important, and whatever.

So, in point of fact, the best thing you could do, aside from just being a loving, wonderful wife, so that ultimately your feelings are very important to him, is pray, pray, pray without question. That's what turned the tide for me. Nancy. privately and unknown To me, she was crying out. I mean, we had talked about this enough, but she was crying out to God for me.

She knew the way I pushed myself in ministry. She knew the way I pushed myself in lifestyle. I mean, I'd travel around the world and come back, you know, get home at midnight from world travel and then do a workout the next morning and go straight and do radio. And she just knew the way I pushed, the way I lived, that I was pushing myself in an unhealthy way. And with my high blood pressure, she knew that's a silent killer.

You can't play with that. I was praying on my own. She didn't know because I just felt embarrassed being overweight. I thought, it's not how I live. I live a disciplined life, and yet, my unhealthy eating, I'm overweight.

So we were both praying, but without question. Her prayers made the difference. I got to that point where I said to her, I have to change. My plan's not working. I have to change.

And she prayed, she asked God for creative ideas, things she could make for me that would take the place. And what I want to do, Hope, stay right there. I want to send you a free copy of my book, our book, Breaking the Stronghold of Food. Maybe he'll read it. Maybe the Spirit will convict him.

Maybe just put it out. Say, I got this book free from the radio. Stay right there. God of light, hear our cry, send the fire. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr.

Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

All right, we're live here right outside of Orlando, Florida, with the publishers of our new book, Breaking the Stronghold of Food.

So I'm sitting here with Debbie Maury, who's one of the senior editors at Charisma. Debbie, the first project we worked on together was the Real Kosher Jesus, correct? That's correct. And that, Steve Strang, thought it was an idea to get this book out, had a burden to do it.

So from the day I started writing it to the day it was published on my desk, that was 10 weeks. That's called crashing. Yeah. All right.

Explain what a publisher is dealing with. And we did one even faster from the day I started writing to the day it was published was seven weeks, also with you folks. But okay, so explain how a publisher has things scheduled and why it takes this process of time. A lot of times the amount of time you need to publish a book has more to do with the marketing and sales side of things than even the editing and the writing side that we deal with. You know, the people in the bookstore.

Stores have a certain amount of time when they've decided this is when we're making our decisions of what we're going to sell in our store. And they designate when that time is. It's usually a good nine months out from when that selling season is actually going to take place. And so our sales and marketing team have to be ready and equipped with all of the information about your book and the cover and the title and all those things really nailed down at that point that far out in the future so that they can really give your book the promotion that it needs and the running start that it needs. We really only need about six months usually on average to work with you on the editing part.

All right, so when you say only six months, that'll surprise a lot of people because they don't know what goes into things.

Now, I do my best to send in a clean manuscript as best as I can. It's still going to be cleaned up greatly by the editor. But things come in all different stages, really sharp, sloppy. What's the process? You like the manuscript, your team says, okay, we want to go with this.

Now you get someone sends you 250 pages. Here's my book, and it needs work. What happens now? We have different editors who focus. On different things, and so usually the editor who did the acquiring of the manuscript, we contracted the book with the author, will be the first person to look at it.

They're looking at it really from a 30,000-foot view to make sure we're getting the book that we paid for. That we have all the things in that book that follow the outline that we agreed to at the time when we were contracting it, and that the author, you know, we understand some things are kind of morph as they come to life as you write them, and the Holy Spirit's going to lead in certain ways. But by and large, we want it to be the book we were expecting it to be. And so, they're looking at it for that, making sure it's good. If there's some major problem at that stage, it's going right back to the author to say, Hey, we can't even accept this really from you yet until we deal with some of these big issues.

But hopefully, it's come in in the shape that we want, it's what we were expecting. And if there are other things, then it passes on to another editor to work with. And sometimes, authors like me forget how. How many words are supposed to be in the contract? And we send you a much bigger page.

Do you remember that? Like Hyper Grace and Can You Be Gay and Christian? Only about 100 pages longer than they were supposed to be. But it's important subjects.

Okay. So then you get into the, so you have the basic book you're happy with.

Now the nitty-gritty editing.

Now what happens?

Now an editor does what a lot of publishers call a substantive edit. They're checking to make sure the flow of the writer's language is good, that they have good transitions from one thought to the next, that they haven't left something out. They're watching for legal issues, making sure there's nothing libelous that could expose the author or the publisher to any type of legal action, that there's no copyright infringement on things that are included in the book, song lyrics, things like that.

Song lyrics, that's miserable. Right.

Yeah, someone just, I had a quote in one book that said, don't do it. Right.

You've got to get the rights. You can usually get permission, but then you have to pay for those things. And so it's just all a part of what we look at just to make sure all those big picture things are really taken care of in a manuscript. Once that's all been worked through with the author, then it goes on to a copy editor who's looking at it for, they're really drilling down on the spelling, the punctuation, the grammar, making sure yes. We have a style guide, which you're familiar with.

He's so wonderful compared to some authors at knowing these things. We hardly have to correct anything at all with his manuscripts. It's great. You have an appreciation for those things. A lot of people, it just goes right over their head, the nuances and the little details that have to all be consistent throughout the book.

But it's great.

So a copy editor really focuses on those things, and their job is really to kind of prepare your manuscript, finalize it so that it can be laid out and typeset in the book. Proofreading, how many eyes? Because I'm always amazed. I look at it over and over and over, and editors have looked at it, and proofreaders look at it, and it's a real science. Yes, we do.

Of course, it goes through the typesetting process, and then usually at that point, we may still be finalizing the last few changes with the author. And so, we have a person who's still looking at it at that point as it's being typeset. And then, like you said, there's a final proofreading that happens, and we have kind of a rule in-house that it's not the same person ever looking at it for any of these various steps of editing. And so, that last person is watching it to make sure that when all these last few issues were worked out with you know, different questions the editors had and they got answered by the author, did we create any new mistakes or typos in the manuscript when they were laying it out? Did this image all of a sudden block half the words on this page by accident and nobody caught it?

Did a page number get dropped from you know 10 pages in a row? Just random things that can happen in a file.

So, they're looking at all of those things and also reading through word for word just. To make sure somehow a new spelling error wasn't introduced or missed by the other sets of eyes that were focused on other things. Yeah, I remember one editor, I had commas in places that he didn't like. And I said, No, look, I'm trying to say it a certain way. He said, No, no, but the rule is.

So he finally wrote me an email because the editor is like, This is the rule. You can't break the rule.

So I remember the email he wrote to me, I comma to you in peace. And he said, Okay, I've worked out a way to make this acceptable. But over the years, I learned from editors, ah, this works, this doesn't work, this stylistically is appropriate. And okay, here you have liberty. And if you're like, if you're a certain class-level author, you can do whatever in the world you want.

You can write one-word sentences, whatever. I edit Jonathan Kahn, who many of your viewers may know, as the author of The Harbinger. We've created our own style guide for him because he has his own set of rules that he does well, and we. Who are we to argue? When I initially sent you the idea of writing this book, The weight loss was very fresh at that point.

I had some pretty dramatic before and after pictures of from 275 to 180 pounds. I was excited about that. But you didn't know me for that. I mean, no one knew me for that. And you don't think, well, I'm going to listen to Mike Brown because, you know, Dr.

Brown because he's going to talk about being healthy and healthy eating. It'd be a pizza story or chocolate story or something. I remember one night going out with some friends. There was a gospel group I played drums with and spoke for. And in the 80s, went out.

We went to a diner, New York, great diners and every kind of food you can imagine. And I had dinner earlier, so it was just dessert.

So I got a chocolate milkshake with two brownies. And he was a former heroin addict. He said, why don't you just mainline it, man? Just shoot it, you know, because that was the way I was.

So when I pitched it to you, obviously it was a different subject, but I sent you the wrong picture. I was mortified when I realized, but years earlier, I mentioned this in the first year, I'll just repeat it. Nancy had taken a picture of me in Central Park, New York City. I'm wearing a short-sleeved dark shirt and just looking, you know, plump, looking fat. And she took a picture of it and then just the most simple, she can do amazing Photoshop stuff.

I mean, unbelievable. But just she did the simplest thing and just slimmed me a little bit. That's all, just slimmed me a little bit. And had them side by side to say, this is what you'd look like if you got rid of some of that flab. And it wasn't much.

I mean, maybe a 20, 30 pound change. And of course, this exact same outfit, the exact same backdrop.

So that's the one I said. You're like, Debbie, you're not going to, I've got these amazing before and after pictures. You've just got to see this. And anyway, so, I mean, you wrote me back a very polite email, but tell me honestly what you were thinking when you saw it. At first, I thought, oh my goodness, what a difference.

And then I looked a little closer and said, wait, he's got the same clothes on. He's in the exact same position, in the same location, hand in the same spot.

Something's not adding up. I need a little clarification.

So I sent back an email to say, this looks like maybe the same photograph just changed a little bit. Yeah, and so anyway, I realized this when I saw it, because I just looked back at the email and I saw the attachment, and I said, oh no! I mean, it could have done something even worse than that. But anyhow, yeah, I'm looking to see if I can find it on my computer now. I can't.

But once we got into the book, And then I submitted. We talked to Adrian, who was the hands-on editor through it. You and Adrian push back. And you told me, okay. Your story is great, but we need more practical wisdom, and we must have your wife's viewpoint.

And that was always part of the plan. Again, from your viewpoint as a woman, why is it so important for another woman to hear from Nancy? Why could many women not relate to my story?

Well, you know, I think it's no secret, especially to women, that there's a big difference in how easy it seems to be, at least from our viewpoint, for men to lose weight versus women. For women, it just seems to be so much more of a struggle. You know, a lot of women joke: you know, my husband can just decide, well, we're going to lose weight, and he'll drop five pounds, and I just look at a piece of cheesecake and I gain 10 pounds.

So it's just a real disparity. And Nancy was also so instrumental in helping you.

So we just felt like she was too much a part of the story to leave her out. I know it stretched her a little out of her comfort zone to be included, but we're so glad that she was because there was just an added element of having her voice come into it and to tell parts of the story that just added a lot of depth and a lot of interest to the book. And also some practical things. I mean, even at lunch you were sharing with me, she said to you, Look, you can eat, just think of it this way. There's a little trick to tell yourself: just eat anything you want, just don't eat it today.

Yeah, yeah. In other words, when I really would want something, she said, use this trick. Just say to yourself, you can eat whatever you want, just not today.

So, tomorrow I'm going to do it. I lived like that for months. Then it just never ended up eating it. And so I thought, that's exactly the kind of brilliance. Oh God of burning, cleanse.

Single flame. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown.

Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34 TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Alright. Welcome back to the line of fire. Hey, let's give a hand to everyone that's been watching on Facebook Live. All right.

And to all of our faithful radio listeners, if you missed any part of the broadcast, just go to the website thelineoffire.org, thelineoffire.org. Just click on listen. A couple hours after the show, the whole show is archived. You can also subscribe by podcast there or listen. Online anytime, just search for previous broadcasts at thelineoffire.org.

While you're there, be sure to look for my latest articles and latest videos. And interestingly enough, yeah, we timed it for today. My article that's up on websites all over Charisma News and other sites is on the subject: is it a sin for a Christian to be obese? And we start by making clear we're answering this for ourselves, not others. We're not judging others.

And there are many reasons why someone may be overweight, and the last thing we want to do is judge them. Let's look at our own lives. And if we're overweight because of lack of self-control or gluttony or choosing fleshly indulgences that hurt our health, then yeah, it's sin, and God will give us grace to turn from that. And that sin is also forgiven through the blood of Jesus as well. During the break, I was asked about what salad dressings we use.

Because here, if you make a massive salad the way I do, all right, and then you put a decent amount of dressing on it, you can have hundreds of calories of dressing. And then you can have high sugar content or sodium content or things like that.

So Nancy makes super healthy dressings. And some I just had to get used to eating, but most from the start, I really enjoy. And then if I'm traveling or if she hasn't had time to cook them, you know, to make some of the dressings, then what I'll do is just get the healthiest dressings I can, certain low-fat dressing, and I look for the lowest sodium content, lowest sugar content, lowest calorie content. And again, the salad's the biggest part of it. The dressing enhances the flavor a little, but you'll get used to any of the other tastes.

And if you could enjoy something healthy just as much as something unhealthy, why not?

So remember, if you haven't ordered the book yet, two days left to go to strongholdoffood.com.

So literally only two days.

So January 7th, this ends. Strongholdoffood.com. When you order your book there, order through Amazon or your other preferred vendor, you get the e-book free. From the publisher.

Okay?

So strongholdofood.com, order there. You'll get the e-book. Free as well. Only two more days to do that. Otherwise, it'll be available in your bookstores everywhere else thereafter.

And if you've read the book and it's been of help to you, post a review on amazon.com. The more people hear about your experience, the more encouraged they'll be. And we have a Facebook page with the same name as the book, Breaking the Stronghold of Food. That's the place to go where you share your stories, where you ask questions, just like what salad dressing to use, or what do I do for protein, or things like that. And you can encourage one another there as well on the Facebook page, Breaking the Stronghold of Food.

All right, sitting with Debbie Mari, who's one of the senior editors at Charisma Media. Debbie, how how long have you been working as an editor? I've been working here at Charisma House for oh, actually Charisma Media. I started we used to have curriculum and I actually started my first five years there and then moved to Charisma House after that. But total here at the company for 16 years.

All right.

You seem very excited. We were talking at lunch and I said What books for 2016 were the best, most exciting, or best impacting? And you had to go back because you're so excited about what's coming next. Why is it that you're still so excited and visionary about this after 16 years? Because, you mean about just publishing in general?

Yeah, yeah, publishing and editing. What do you do? Well, you know, in your first hour, we had a caller from someone named Brian, and that's exactly why I'm excited about doing what we do. It's for people like Brian that you could hear it in his voice, that this was going to make a difference in his life, that God was going to change his life from this day forward, and he was going to use a book that we were able to have even a small part in bringing forward. And that's really what it's all about.

That's what motivates me and gets me out of bed every morning. Yeah, Brian, who doesn't normally listen to the show, just happened to turn on the radio and go to our station. And he's 6'4, weighs 310 pounds, he's got type 2 diabetes. He's struggling just with his weight. Tired all the time, and he knows it's because of his lifestyle, his addictions to food.

And he said, Food is killing me. He had to compose himself to talk on the air.

So it's not just a matter, it's not the publishing business. This is about changing lives. Right, all of us could work anywhere for our jobs, or we could authors find easier ways to make money. It's really not about that. There's a lot easier ways to make money than write a book, you know.

Absolutely. And so it's really not about that. It's about knowing that these authors we work with have a message that God has given to them. And through publishing, we're able to get it into the hands of people that may never get a chance to hear that author speak. Those words will then live on even longer than that author is here on the earth and could be touching people for generations to come.

And so understanding the power that that medium has to bring a message that God can use to change somebody's life, that's really what it's all about. And of course, we've got e-books now, we've got blogs. We've got social media. That doesn't mean that books are less important. It just means that more people can now get messages out.

Right, right. It's really about content management. It's the fact that we have content here that you've come up with, and we're managing that for you. We're figuring all the different ways that we can get out there to reach as many people with it as we can. And from beginning to end, from acquisitions editor to the final getting books into bookstores within your organization, how many different people would touch one book.

Oh my goodness.

Well, we have quite a team. I mean, between we have the editor who first looks at it when it comes in-house. We have usually another person who will clean up that file, get it ready for an editor to work on. Then we have the editor who does the substantive edit, a copy edit. We have then typesetters who work on it in our production department.

Then we have a proofreader. I mean, you've got the art department for the team. Right, the graphic, yeah, the design team who creates the cover. You've got the people in marketing working with them that take that content and they figure out all the different places they're going to use it to promote the book. You've got the sales team who is asking us for copies of the book ahead of time for different clients of theirs who want to vet it first or to see what it's all about so they can engage with it and put it on the shelves in their stores.

And then you have it work with the printer, the first device. Right, we have a manufacturing department that works out all the logistics with the printer, and whether it's China or again, gets the book shipped to us. And then the hours. Could be hundreds or thousands that authors notice put in. That's why you have to buy books because it takes a whole lot of money to get a book produced.

And the reason you write them is not to make money. The reason you write the book is to touch people's lives and change them.

So, Debbie, it's been a great journey thus far. Working together, look forward to great fruit in the future. And so, so thrilled. All right, here's the, just get this picture here. All right, we started with me writing to Debbie, and then Adrian, you can wave at us again.

Our gifted editor took us through Breaking the Stronghold of Food.

So, go to strongholdoffood.com. There's the link right there on Facebook. Only two more days to order and get the e-book free. And then, once you've read the book, post your story, your review of the book on amazon.com and join our community at Breaking the Stronghold of Food on Facebook. Because this kind of thing, you can encourage each other, you can strengthen each other, you can tell your stories, you can ask your questions.

It's really helpful. Nancy spends so much time doing that with a community of people. Let it change their lifestyle. Then she'd come back to me with counsel and wisdom. I had that advantage.

Many of you don't have that advantage. And sorry, there's only one Nancy. I can't ship her around everywhere. But this is our way to get the message to you. My bottom line today: hey, God's given us a way of life.

There are other things that are a path to death. Ask yourself, even in your diet, is this the way of life? or the way of death.