Dear Reader,

We hope this day finds you Healthy in Heart, mind, body and soul! The Lord made this day and gifted us with it; let us rejoice and be glad (Psalms 118:24)!

We are Healthy in Heart: Todd, Angel, and Kelsey. Our little family circle also includes six pernicious cats (hahaha YES SIX!): Bibbles (Little Bit), Kirby (The Boy), Samson (Sammy or Sambo), Gideon (Gid), Abigail (Abby), and Naomi (Nay Nay aka Naynay No No), and we also have Todd’s Mother Joyce living with us. She moved in about six years ago after her failing health made it too dangerous for her to continue living alone.

We are practicing urban homesteading on just under a quarter (¼) acre in Roanoke City, Virginia. Homesteading in the urban environment/inside city limits presents some unique challenges than those posed living in the country. We are attempting to be as self-sufficient as possible. We do not expect everyone to become carbon copies of us…how boring would that be! No, but if you are interested in learning, growing, making educated decisions for yourself about your physical and spiritual body, as well as learning to grow with us (gardening), then we encourage you to join us in our journey. Our dream is to one day own some more land in the country to be able to farm on a larger scale. Not to sell, but to be as close to fully self-sufficient as possible.

Spirituality

We are non-denominational followers of Yashua Ha’Machiach. You may be more familiar with the name Jesus Christ. We believe what the Bible says throughout that faith in Messiah and obedience to Yahauh are not just desired by our ABBA Father, but that they are both required. So, while we have been accused of being Hebrew Roots and many other things, we disagree. We are not part of any movement, but we believe in Faith and Torah and walking as Yeshua gave the example of in full obedience to Abba’s Law.

Dietary

If we must have a label for the way we eat, we prefer to be called herbivores as referred to in Genesis 1:29, although we will occasionally refer to ourselves as Vegan, but only because that word, with both negative and positive connotations, is more readily understood.

We changed the way we eat because of health reasons. Kelsey became allergic to so many foods, it forced us to change the way we ate and what we ate to repair her intestines and immune system as well as our own. So, our food journey began out of necessity for health reasons, and it continues to evolve. We are also vegan in the sense that we abhor the animal agriculture systems and the abuses the animals endure for people to consume them. The animals have been loaded with antibiotics and chemicals, and their environment is so very toxic. We disagree with the butchering practices, which is anything BUT Biblical. We have come to find the look and smell of cooked flesh revolting.

We eat whole food plants. We eat as close to unprocessed as we can get. We have eliminated chemicals and preservatives from our foods. While we do eat a few processed foods, they are VERY minimally processed. We try to eat foods as close to their whole form as found in nature as possible.

Meet Angel:

Writing is one of my many passions! It provides a valuable outlet of self-expression and provides a place for me to organize my thoughts, as well as research that feeds my hunger for knowledge. I would love to share what I learn with you in my walk with God and my quest for health. I will be sharing health and Biblical insights, health related research from reputable sources (including pointing out biases where they exist), real life happenings, and sharing family favorite recipes. You are welcome to learn with me as I learn, because knowledge is power, and I do love to share knowledge.

I have a couple degrees majoring in psychology and have not been able to use them in a professional capacity due to being needed as a caregiver at home, but many things I learned in college like using critical thinking skills, researching abilities, etc. do come into play in Healthy in Heart. In addition to that, I have a tremendous curiosity and hunger for knowledge, so I typically have a book nearby that I am reading. I love learning which has helped me tremendously on my journey. I also enjoy dancing, learning piano, crocheting, gardening, and many other crafts and hobbies. Just like my Heavenly Father, I love to create things.

I have been in several mentally and emotionally abusive relationships in the past, and in 2019 we buried my youngest sister, Pamela, at the age of 36. She had been severely battered and abused before her death. She died of cardiac arrythmia, not otherwise specified. It took almost two years for the medical examiner in West Virginia to determine cause of death. Her death affected me on a very deep level that I have yet to be able to put into words. My father passed away several years before my youngest sister, and he is still greatly loved and missed. I have a younger sister, Michelle, an older sister, Lena, and an older brother, Ben who are all still living. My dear sweet Mama, Rachel is also still with us, and currently resides with my sister Michelle. I truly love to spoil her, as I believe we should give people roses while they live, because they cannot enjoy them once they have crossed over.

I have struggled with my weight since I was 12 and had a traumatic experience, of which I still have PTSD. Afterward, in seeking comfort, I turned to food. Food also provided a cocoon of protection…a measure of safety through the layers of fat. My highest known weight was 306. I actually gained more weight, but was not able to weigh myself. That was the turning point when I had gained so much that the scales could not measure the volume. I have been on every conceivable diet known to man, and I have discovered that dieting is not the answer. The answer is developing a healthy relationship with food, not using food as a comforter or a crutch, and eating a healthy diet.

I have currently, as of January 2023, lost and kept off 70 pounds for several years. I had lost 120 pounds before my youngest sister’s death, at the beginning of 2019. Unfortunately, I gained 70 of those pounds back shortly after her death, because once again, in my grief I turned to food for comfort. I still struggle with emotional eating, not just in volume, but also in food choices when I am upset. Like I said, we are not perfect yet.

I ate the SAD diet (Standard American Diet) for most of my life which led to a fight for my life. I have battled Type II diabetes for over 20 years, high blood pressure, high lipids, morbid obesity, kidney damage, fatty liver, mysterious rashes, food allergies, and the list continues. I think the last straw for me….or perhaps I should say the A-HA moment for me was when I developed “eczema” that covered 90% of my body in painful, itchy blistering rashes. The primary care doctor sent me to a dermatologist who put me on steroids knowing it was going to make everything worse, specifically the Type II diabetes. There was no talk of finding out what was causing the horrendous rashes that was accompanied with nerve pain so severe it made me cry and itching that made me wish I could just peel my skin off to make it stop. I couldn’t sleep at night, and I couldn’t concentrate during the day. It was a living hell.

Instead of being empowered with hope and knowledge on how to get better, I was made to feel powerless and hopeless.

The doctors offered absolutely no hope of recovery, and I refused to believe that I would live like that the rest of my life! It seemed to be an assumption that my health would just go from bad to worse with ever increasing and incredibly expensive medications being the only answer. Instead of being empowered with hope and knowledge on how to get better, I was made to feel powerless and hopeless. I was so angry that the doctors only wanted to treat the symptoms, but there was no talk and absolutely no answers forthcoming about the CAUSE, much less a CURE. Because truly, there is no money in offering a cure, and I wonder if that is the biggest thing that is wrong with the medical system in our country.

It was a never-ending roller coaster that was leading me straight to death’s door, and I was getting sicker every day. It was very sobering when I got slapped in the face with how very sick I was and how unhelpful the medical community is for non-trauma issues. I realized I was getting increasingly sick and tired, and I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I was disappointed and disillusioned with the medical community who only wanted to give me poisons and then more poisons to “correct” the side effects caused by the first. I was getting so sick that I knew I was knocking on death’s door. I couldn’t even push mow our quarter-acre yard without being nauseous, sick, heart pounding, dizzy, and feeling like I was going to pass out. I was scared I was going to have a heart attack or a stroke…I knew I would die young if I continued doing the same thing over and over again. That is the “definition” of insanity, no?

Up until 2014, my quest for health was intermittent and half-hearted at best. I placed more trust and faith in the medical community than I did in God, the Creator of my body. I found the medical community to be severely lacking in the knowledge of how to attain a state of wellbeing; they neither were schooled in wellness nor in helping people get better and off of drugs. On the contrary, the medial community only wanted to add more and more pharmaceuticals to the ever-growing list.

Not one single doctor or anyone else in the medical community bothered to tell me that the diseases that plagued my every waking hour were reversible. I was given no hope that I could get better. I wasn’t given instruction on how to eat in a health promoting way; instead I was told to eat “in moderation” the SAD Diet (Standard American Diet) and take these pills, potions, and injections just to get through the day and not die today. I was not warned the medications not only would contribute to the decline in my health and quality of life, but they were not doing anything but temporarily managing the diseases…honestly, though, they were not even managing anything. The medications did not even keep disease progression at bay, as I also developed neuropathy in my hands and feet around 2012. The medical community had let me down in a HUGE way. So when I express my mistrust of the medical community, surely you can understand why. If not, walk on, because what I am doing is working, and what they were doing was NOT.

I knew that God had made our bodies to repair themselves, and I started doing research. I found many doctors who educated me through their talks and demonstrations about the benefits of long-term fasting and short term intermittent fasting and the benefits of a WHOLE FOOD plant-based diet, and raw plant eating. Some of those doctors are in no particular order and this is not an exhaustive list: Dr. John Bergman, Dr. Alan Goldhamer, Dr. John McDougall, Dr. Michael Gregger, Dr. T. Colin Campbell, Dr. Joel Fuhrman, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Dr. Doug Lisle, Dr. Brooke Goldner, The Hippocrates Health Institute, as well as the many many testimonials and coachings offered by people who have healed themselves with nutrition. We have slowly incorporated one after another of these things over the last several years with great success.

The eczema has receded to just a small spot on my hand, and the other health issues are normalizing. I will update when everything is back in healthy ranges. As for now, what I am doing is working, albeit slower than I would like, but I did not develop these habits overnight, and they will not disappear overnight either.

Our deaf, autistic daughter is the inspiration for many of my articles. Yes, being a parent to a special needs child makes you an expert! I have worked in the education field for several years and prior to that I worked in the mental health field for about 15 years. I have an Associate of Arts degree in Psychology, and I stopped just shy of completing a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology. I stopped at the internship, because life happened and God had other plans for me, so I had to modify what I thought I wanted.

I find looking at everything through a lens of negativity to be too depressing, so, I am quite guilty of being a mixture of a Pollyanna and a realist. I prefer to look at the brighter side of life and try to find humor in life’s difficult situations, but I also believe we have to see reality for what it is, otherwise we are only deluding ourselves. I firmly believe that everything happens for a reason, and to be successful in life, we need to look at everything as an educational opportunity…if for no other reason than to prevent re-occurrences of bad experiences. After all, there is the old adage: “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result.” If we want different, we have to act differently, think differently…BE DIFFERENT.

I believe in God, but I would never try to shove my beliefs down your throat. I respect your right to believe as you wish, and I ask that you, in return, respect my right to believe the way I do. I will occasionally write articles about my beliefs and reference Biblical scriptures in my articles. If these writings do not interest you, then, by all means, please skip over them.

I have been a published writer for close to 15 years. I first started publishing with Associated Content who sold their website to Yahoo Contributor Network. Yahoo Contributor Network decided to close the site and deleted all my published articles. I am also published through the Examiner.com. While I retained all copyright to my work, the pay was very small or nil in certain cases. Needless to say, having little control over the publication of my work and receiving very little compensation for such, as a writer, is immensely frustrating. It is aggravating and makes little sense to trade my hours and expertise for mere pennies…. So, now I do it for FREE. haha I found the need to have full control over the publication of my work, which is the reason I built this site….that and being obedient to what I feel God directing me to do.

HEALTH UPDATE: As of 03-23-23, I have not needed extraneous insulin! With the help of my amazing plant-based doctor at Barnard Medical Center, I have been able to slowly taper off insulin completely. Whereas I was taking well over 150 units of both long-term and short-acting insulins, I now need none!

Meet Todd:

Todd grew up the son of doctor. He has two half-brothers and one half-sister; none of whom have anything to do with him or his mom, though one will visit his mom about once a year. Todd’s siblings were all much older than him and he was pretty much raised as an only child.

For many years Todd played guitar and bass in his own bands locally and as a “hired gun,” subbing in for many well-known, national bands. (He also played in churches for over 20 years, until we stopped attending churches.) Todd retired from the music scene at age 29 and got back into bass fishing and fished local and state bass fishing tournaments for a while, but got frustrated with the dishonesty and the behind the scenes action that he saw. He is a sheet metal mechanic with a four-year degree, as you can tell from the lovely planters and buildings that he has made for me.

He was in a mentally, emotionally, verbally, and physically abusive marriage prior to God bringing us together. He is a loving father and husband, and he was the literal answer to my prayers! He also has a wonderful sense of humor and the amazing ability to make me laugh even when I am stressed out or angry.

Meet Kelsey:

Kelsey is our sweet adult daughter who is challenged with profound hearing loss (she has no functional hearing even with the highest high-powered hearing aids available), mutism (she does make some noises, but she does not speak), and autism. She communicates with a combination of American Sign Language and Signed English that she modified into what we call Kelsey Sign Language. She struggles with many of the symptoms of autism like sensory integration dysfunction, inappropriate interaction with others, and many more.

For all of her struggles, at heart, she is so sweet and loving. She needs one on one care 24 hours a day, seven days a week. No, we do not take a break from her, because she is not a burden. She is loved. She loves being active, riding her bike, walking in her community, playing in the yard and helping Mom and Dad. She has an amazing sense of humor, and we adore her laughter!!

I adopted Kelsey as a single parent after my ex-husband left me in the middle of the adoption. Out of the kindness of my heart I agreed to continued visitation with one person of her immediate biological family, and that turned out to be a mistake that cost us tens of thousands of dollars and years of heartache, anxiety, and stress for us, but mostly for Kelsey. That same biological family member continues to try to harass her, even after a judge based on the input of an ASL trained licensed counselor ended all contact because this family member was deemed to be harmful to Kelsey.

Kelsey has had many people in her life that she cares about, and most of them have walked out on her. Oh, some will pretend to want to continue a relationship with her, but they have no follow through, and this is very painful for Kelsey. So due to these and some other issues, we are very protective of Kelsey. We do not want her to get hurt any more than she already has. People who want to be a part of her life have to be vetted. Therefore, we do keep her off of Youtube and other venues in which the world would have unsolicited access to her.

Meet Joyce:

Joyce has severe nerve damage from Sjogren’s syndrome (an autoimmune dis-order that delineates the myelin sheath that protects the nerves causing permanent nerve damage) that has to date affected her ability to walk and complete ADL’s (activities of daily living) independently. It has also affected her taste, smell, and many many other aspects of her physical body and daily life. Joyce needs a lot of physical support. We are very thankful that we have an agency that is providing a part time caretaker to come in twice a week to help with her bathing, eating, and other ADL’s during the mornings. I am thankful for the respite, because it allows me to get some needed things done around the house that I would not have time for otherwise. Joyce falls frequently, because the neuropathy from the Sjogren’s alters her ability to sense her body in relation to her surroundings (sensory integration). As of April 2023, Joyce has completely lost the ability to walk, but she is still able to transfer herself from one seated position to another and stand for about a minute to enable her to get dressed and put jackets on.

When Joyce first moved in with us, for about three months she ate what we cooked, and miraculously she started feeling better. Surprisingly, this is also the way the doctor she saw for Sjogren’s syndrome told her to eat to keep the disease from progressing. She decided that she would rather have the junk food that she has been accustomed to eating “for 80 years” than feel better eating healthy. Sadly, many people make this same choice.

It always calls to mind the times Yeshua asked people, “Do you WANT to get well?” That is a question we should all ponder.

Thank you for reading this far!

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May Yahuah bless you, keep you, and give you shalom!

With much love,

Angel Keaton