Linda Schrader: from fast food to faith.

Kids have always pitched in to support family, homespun labors--from picking fruit to milking cows to assembling this or that. In the mid 1960s when Linda Smith Schrader entered seventh grade, she found herself framed by a drive-in window.

The Smith's new family business took off. Linda sold burgers, fries, and soft drinks after classes each day until she graduated from high school. During that time, she, along with the American culture in which she was growing up, cultivated an unhealthful taste for fast food.

Her best friend, a Seventh-day Adventist, worked at the drive-in, too. By invitation of her companion's high school teacher, both girls decided to attend Pacific Union College in Angwin, California. There Linda learned more about the Adventist brand of faith and practice. Other than her coworker, she'd never known anyone who refused to eat meat and attended church services on Saturday. At college, she met many such individuals.

That fast-food friendship and one year at college ultimately represented Schrader's first step into a belief in God that would radically change her lifestyle, though the transformation took many years.

In 1975 Linda signed up for her first vegetarian cooking class. "My husband, Mike, and I decided we didn't want to eat meat," Schrader, 52, remembers. "That lasted for about three days." When the newly health-conscious couple attempted to include meatless meals in their diet, the plan seemed doomed for reasons beyond taste. They gained weight.

Back then, Schrader explains, popular vegetarian recipes included lots of high-fat dairy products--sour creams, hard cheeses--plus copious amounts of meat analogs made from soy. But they stayed with it and, within a year, they became lacto-ovo vegetarians.

The journey continues. Today Schrader is the administrative assistant to the health ministries, community services, and disaster response director of the Oregon Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in Clackamas, Oregon. She lives in nearby Camas, Washington, and attends Riverside Seventh-day Adventist Church, where she serves on the health ministries committee.

Schrader says she passed another big milestone in 1991. That's when she, her husband, and their three daughters became total vegetarian. Their success is due, in part, to better cookbooks and attending more classes. They also found inspiration and help from church friends. "While fellow-shipping with your brothers and sisters in Christ, exchange recipes because these dishes are tried and true," Schrader advises. "It's never been easier to take that vegetarian step given all the tasty, healthful products available on mainstream grocery shelves--even soy ice cream!"

Until recently, there remained one stumbling block to her living the kind of lifestyle she felt glorified God and benefited her most: exercise. Like many people with good intentions, she tried many different approaches. Her workplace even supported her aspirations to get fit with a comprehensive employee wellness program. It involved writing out goals annually and voluntarily turning in a monthly activity log which entitled her to be eligible for a quarterly gift-certificate drawing.

But it took a deeper meditation on a particular scripture to help her make the change and stick by it. In late 2004 she began dwelling on Romans 12:2: "Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind" (KJV).

Schrader began by asking herself how a person of normal weight would view food and exercise. She pulled out her measuring cups and spoons to see what "normal" serving sizes looked like on a plate so she could better eyeball portions.

By January of 2005 she was ready to rejoin the work wellness program and wrote her new goals with a back-to-basics focus. Four months later, she hired a personal trainer to plan an individualized program and help her understand and apply safe fitness practices.

As a final touch, she decided to faithfully follow the Adventist-endorsed NEWSTART health program. NEWSTART is an acronym for Nutrition, Exercise, Water, Sunshine, Temperance, Fresh Air, Rest, and Trust in God. She believed that striving to apply all of the components of a balanced lifestyle would produce good results.

This approach worked. Schrader shed 15 pounds and dropped from a size 14 to a size 8. She says she's still got a few more pounds to go before reaching her ideal weight; but she believes she's got what it takes to get there: faith, goals, and a dedicated work ethic.

"I learned that you have to sweat, too," Linda adds with a satisfied smile.

Pam Mellskog is a freelance writer living in Boulder, Colorado.