Interview with Frank Rabusic - 1905

SPEAKER A Hello. SPEAKER B I'm Kaysie Butler, and I want to welcome you to healthy living around the world. I'm on site at Herghelia Lifestyle Centre in Northern Romania and my guest today is Frank Rabusic. Welcome, Frank. SPEAKER C Thank you very much. SPEAKER B Thank you for being on the program today, Day. I just want to know obviously you're here at Hergalia, but where are you from originally? SPEAKER C I was born in the Czech Republic. SPEAKER B Okay, Czech Republic. All right. Is that where you've spent most of your life or what's been your general area where you've lived in? SPEAKER C So I was born in the Czech Republic and when I was 18 I went to study to America and then after a couple of years I decided to go back to study a bit more in Czech. And then when I was after my university, I went to live in England, in Oxford. SPEAKER A Okay. SPEAKER C I lived there for ten years, and then after that I lived in London and then I moved back to America to live in Boston for four years and then I moved back to London and then Oxford and Cardiff, which was my last place before going to Romania. SPEAKER B Right, so you've been to quite a few different places outside of Czech for it sounds like a lot of your life experience. So share with us how you came to then come to Agalia. SPEAKER C So I trained as a macroeconomist and a risk manager and I did that for all of my professional life, working as head of Risk and trading in energy, managing risk globally. And I enjoy reading the spirit of prophecy books. And while sitting in the board meetings I would often think about my contribution to the world and happiness in general. I managed large teams and those were extremely successful because I implemented a lot of the things I read in the Bible and in The Spirit of Prophecy. But I also read at the same time that in the last days people will be more sick experiencing a disease and death. SPEAKER A Yes. SPEAKER C And that in the last days the health message would become the right hand of the gospel and it may be the only way to share the gospel. And the more I thought about that, the more irrelevant my job was becoming, right to the point where I would hear a voice telling me to leave what I was doing and focus on health mission work. SPEAKER A Okay. SPEAKER C And when I made a decision to leave my job, it took about two years to resign from what I was doing, which was the top of a business to come to Ergalia. I did a little research, very methodical and analytical way of listing all the sanatoriums and life centers around the world which also had schools and which were in English and the program lasted twelve months and then through a process of elimination and the speed of response and the friendliness and the classes hergalia came on top of the choice. SPEAKER B Right. SPEAKER A Okay. SPEAKER B So, wow, that's been quite a process you've been through in transitioning in your mind from being in that sort of high up business role all the way to deciding to come here. Obviously, your interest then has been motivated into the health area. Can I ask, is there anything that might have happened in your life and experience that's given you somewhat of a real deep appreciation for healthy living and healthy living principles? SPEAKER C So, early days of being Adventist, I didn't really understand the health message. And in the churches in England, it's not something that is promoted widely or it wasn't promoted 20 years ago. And so it took me a bit of time to get to learn a few principles. And I think it was a lady from Australia, from that well known lifestyle center, I think Barbara oh, yes, Barbara O'Neill came to England and did some series of presentations. SPEAKER B Okay. SPEAKER C It all sounded very strange to me. I should stop eating French baguettes and cheese and milk and other things. But it stayed in my mind, and I think that was the first seed for the health message. And then my dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died very suddenly. It was very quick. I think within five months, he died, and he did not live very healthy lifestyle. We did have quite a few animals. We had a small farm, five pigs and 40 rabbits and 40 chickens and ducks. And he would eat mainly meat and drink alcohol and eat white rice and white bread and a lot of refined things and sugar. And that was a bit of a wake up call for all of us quite overnight, my mom and my brother and I and his wife decided to make some radical changes regarding what we ate. We introduced a lot of fruits and vegetables, stopped eating meat and studying whole grains. SPEAKER B Okay. Yeah. Did that make you feel better or how did that make you feel once you started changing your lifestyle? SPEAKER C It was definitely a step toward the right direction. I wouldn't say it was a remarkable change overnight. SPEAKER B Okay. SPEAKER C But it was definitely move in the right direction. Regarding maintaining a healthy weight and not obeying exposed to diseases as much as before. SPEAKER A Yes. SPEAKER C The biggest change, I think, in my life was when I was in America second time, and I knew the health message and the health principles. And yet, for whatever reason, they have a lot of sugar in their food. And even if you try to eat healthy, you still put on weight if you do not eat in moderation. And so I started putting on quite a lot of weight to the point where I thought that this is enough and I have to do something. And that's when I certified as a fitness instructor. And that's what I did after my regular job. And I started running marathons wow. And training for triathlon. So running a lot, swimming, cycling, and that was a completely different level of fitness and health. Yes, you can eat healthy, but exercise for me is absolutely crucial. It just makes you feel really well. It benefits the cardiovascular system and it also benefits a lot to the mind. And so I lost a lot of weight. I became extremely fit and extremely healthy. I wouldn't have flus and a lot of people would pick up disease, but my immune system was extremely, extremely high. SPEAKER A Yeah. SPEAKER B So you were implementing all these changes into your lifestyle. Is this still, while you're doing that job, as high up as executive? SPEAKER C I was still level executive, yes. And at the same time I would be teaching fitness classes. SPEAKER B Right, okay. SPEAKER C In a gym. That's something I always wanted to do, a health ministry. And God would tell me or speak to me to be a fitness instructor and to get certified and to read to people. And people in US are extremely obese. And I would do those classes for nothing. They would give me a class and very quickly it would be full. And then I shared with the people everything I've read and I learned in the Spirit of Prophecy books. I would tell them, it's great you come here to exercise. Cardio is very important, but are you drinking enough water? And how to drink water? And they would say, well, tell us more. And I would share with them. I'll drink two and a half to three liters a day and space it between meals. Great. They try it, it works. What else do you have? Well, cut down cheese, don't eat cheese, don't drink meal. Great. What else? Don't eat meat. So rather than being a paid fitness instructor who is interested in people to be always overweight so that you always have clients, I was interested in people's well being because my main motivation wasn't paid. And I was able to share with them a lot of truth. I was reading in those books, which most fitness instructors don't do. They just teach them how to exercise and that's it. But I think it's powerful to combine both exercise and nutrition and diet. SPEAKER A Yes. SPEAKER C And then when you do that, the effects are quite amazing. Pretty much everybody in my class lost weight. And then they would give me another class, it would be packed, and then another third class packed and fourth class packed. And I think it was one of the most popular classes in the gym, which had like 3000 members. SPEAKER B Wow. So that's almost like you had a bit of a ministry in doing that fitness instructing work, didn't you? SPEAKER C But I also used it at work. So all of my staff, I would tell them what to eat and what not to eat and what to drink, how to conduct themselves. And I saw quite a steep drop in sickness levels. SPEAKER B That's very interesting. So you've developed this aspect of healthy living in your own life and in your own work with people and now you come to the point where you're wanting to come to hergalia. What was your motivation wanting to come here? SPEAKER C So the main reason was to observe how the lifestyle center works and understanding every single detail of the routine how long is a session? How many patients, what does the room look like, how is it equipped? Yes, how do the finances run? Where do they source things from? What about staffing? What are the ratios? Equipment? Just like a boss or managing director would have to know about a lifestyle center because my goal is to have my own and so that was the reason I came here, to learn how to set a lifestyle center and how to run it successfully. SPEAKER B So then obviously you're going to finish here soon because I think you've been here a while, is that right? SPEAKER C I've been here for nine months now nine months, okay. SPEAKER B So you've probably seen a lot of what goes on and how things can be done and you want to actually apply this elsewhere. That's something that I think many people need around the world. So if you are going to speak to someone who is wanting to change their lifestyle to be more healthy or whatever, they're just contemplating making changes, what words of wisdom or advice would you say to them in terms of moving forward in that direction? SPEAKER C Move so the most important thing for me is to move? SPEAKER A Yes. SPEAKER C By moving you will exercise your vital organs, which is hard, but also you will develop muscles yes, that's absolutely crucial a lot of people will tell you that diet is crucial but if you eat healthy and don't move, you will still very likely develop a cardiovascular disease. So moving is important cycle walk, swim, run, do any sort of exercise, the more the better 30 minutes is not quite enough do an hour, do 2 hours okay. Try to stand on sit too much? Yes, and then nutrition goes hand in hand with moving, so cut down anything unhealthy. Temperance tells us to avoid anything that is harmful and eat in moderation, which is good. That means avoid any cakes, any sweets, any soft. Drinks. Drink pure water three liters a day, and then eat as many vegetables as you can. Seven, eight portions. Fruit less five portions. And then whole grains, nuts and seeds. The original diet. People say you cannot get fat on vegan diet, you can get fat on vegan diet and that's why it's crucial to eat healthy and move as you eat healthy. SPEAKER B Okay, so you need that combination absolutely. Of the two, you've got to take. SPEAKER C In and you've got to put out. SPEAKER B That'S like the cycle of life, isn't it? You take, you give and it just keeps going around. You have to have it imbalanced, you're just storing and it's not yeah, that's true, that's true. So one more question is how have you found living a healthier life to impact you spiritually. SPEAKER C A healthier lifestyle has got a lot of benefits. One of them is it sharpens the front lobe. We know that the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and we are to look after it. But if you do look after it, the benefit is your reasoning ability. And your ability to connect to your Creator increases exponentially. You are able to have a very clear communication with God. So your prayer life gets revitalized. SPEAKER B Right. SPEAKER C You will be able to pray for long periods of time. You will not be falling asleep, you will not be tired, you will be less sick. So you will be able to pray more, read your Bible more, worship and adore God more, and you will be able to witness as well. SPEAKER A Okay. SPEAKER C Because you can only give what you have. SPEAKER A Yes. SPEAKER C And a lot of people come to me and say, I want to look like you. And I would say, that's very easy. And then the important thing is point them to Christ. Yes, but if we don't have anything that separates us from the world, then we will not draw people. SPEAKER A Yes. SPEAKER C And that's how it helped me. I understand that anything good comes from God. SPEAKER A Yes. SPEAKER C That includes health and wellness. It's my responsibility to look after my body and maintain it as a well oiled machine. And as a result, he promises to speak to me, to bless me and to keep a lot of diseases away from me. And we can have that communion which you would not be able to in an unhealthy state of body or mind. SPEAKER A Yeah. SPEAKER C Wow. SPEAKER B So it sounds like having a healthier lifestyle has enabled you to have a richer experience with God through all of the ways you described. Wow. SPEAKER C And if you read the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy, it's full of tips and promises regarding health and the body. SPEAKER A Yes. SPEAKER B I think that's something that a lot of people are longing for a deeper experience. Maybe they don't know quite how to achieve that. But obviously living more healthfully might be a way that would make it more possible for people. SPEAKER C A lot of people try to separate the two, but for me, it's very closely connected. We are one being body, mind, spirit, and we cannot separate. One influences the other. It's absolutely crucial that all of the mind perfect health. SPEAKER A Yes. SPEAKER B That's very good. Thank you for sharing all of this today. I'm sure our listeners will have been blessed by what you had to share. Our guest today has been Frank Rabusic and he's from Czech Republic. He's here at Herghelia Lifestyle Centre in Romania, where we are on location with this recording. And I'm your host, Kaysie Butler. And thank you so much for tuning to Healthy Living around the world. God bless.