Fast Food

Holly: Last September I tried a “Daniel Fast” for 10 days, and it went fairly well. I got out of it what I needed to. The food intake itself is pretty strict, and posed challenges for both of our palettes. For me, nothing sweet at ALL was the biggest challenge; for Joey it was no soda.

Joey: What is a Daniel Fast you ask? Well, like every diet, it is a form of “fasting” or abstaining from certain things for a period of time. Low-cal diets fast calories, Atkins fasts carbs, sugar free diets fast sugar, and so forth. For a Daniel Diet you give up all meat and meat by products (eggs, milk, etc) and just consume only vegetables, fruits, and water. It is very much like a raw foods or vegan diet. It is based on the diet of Daniel in the Bible.

Holly: As with most fasts, it is not just about food; it is meant to be a time of prayer, consecration, seeking spiritual enlightenment, and mastering your mind and body. My particular areas of focus this time around were for revelations and breakthroughs related to money/finances, and to whatever it is that is holding me back from meaningful weight loss. I’ve exercised my butt off for extended periods of time, tried various diets and dietary changes, and still seem to be stuck at way more weight than I should be. Despite being pretty strong, flexible and having decent (though under-used) cardio, I’m still stuck in a body that is loaded down under itself. Having exhausted all the means that I am capable of, I figured it was time to turn more of this struggle over to God, and so the Daniel Fast seemed like a good first step towards leaning from Him what needs to happen.

Joey: As I wrote about here, I barely got out of the starting gate before disaster struck! A painful battle with a kidney stone and a head-to-toe allergic reaction to something (still don’t know what it was) left me begging for mercy just 4 days into the diet. I quit and buried my sorrows in a pizza when I finally felt a little better. But later I did rejoin Holly for the final 10 days of this 21-day fast.

Results?

Holly: On the weight loss side, things went along slow and steady, and then I decided to go full-out fast (no food) the final 2 days, and saw a dramatic increase in loss! As for the spiritual side of things, what was revealed to me wasn’t anything earth-shattering or even unfamiliar. In fact, it spoke to my strongest spiritual gift (administration) and reminded me to manage my details. To get rid of inefficiencies that distract and increase costs (literal and figurative) and that will speed up mastery over funds. Furthermore, I learned and confirmed that I CAN have control over my own body, and that what previously were NEEDS are actually WANTS, which means they can be ignored without problem, as needed, to promote a healthy life.

Joey: This diet confirmed that vegetarian food can be tasty and delicious and I can get through life just fine without meat. But it also reminded me how much work it is to AVOID meat. It’s everywhere! It seems like every other commercial on TV is for a burger or pizza (which I love both). You have to really work at it to eat healthy these days. That kind of sucks.

Holly: Almost immediately for me, I had some good financial fortune. An unexpected “bonus” of sorts for unused sick time was approved the day after I started the fast, and it came through on the paycheck a few days later. Also, a parking ticket we got when we were volunteering downtown at Thanksgiving was nowhere to be found in the city’s database. Poof, gone! Two nice results right off the bat. I’m expecting a refund on overpaid property taxes from last year and a related decrease in our mortgage as well, so we are looking forward to that. The last week of the fast also saw our investment broker fund increase about 10%. Yay!