Yesterday I wrapped up a ten day Daniel Fast! You may be wondering, what is the “Daniel Fast”? In short, it is a period of abstinence from caffeine, dairy, meat and alcohol. The purpose of taking part in the fast are varied, however, for some Christians, the goal of the fast is to remove pleasurable foods to draw closer to and lean into God and his word and to open oneself up to hearing from him.
Where did the Daniel Fast come from? In short, the Bible. In the book of Daniel, we read that Daniel was taken from his homeland in Judah to serve the King of Babylon. However, he refused to eat the King’s food because doing so would contradict how God had instructed him to eat. Instead, he ate pulses (foods that come from seeds) and water for ten days. Interestingly his strength was superior to his non fasting peers. He later fasted for forty days but that’s a different story! Daniel wanted to honor God and not conform to the cultural norms surrounding him.
On April 1st (this was no April fool’s joke), I started the Daniel Fast. I anticipated it would be challenging and yes, there were moments along the way that were not easy, but overall, this 10 day experience left me feeling good and 10 pounds lighter. I even started training to run a 5k. I want to share a few of the things that I learned and some of my go to recipes during the fast.
I learned I may very well have a milk / dairy intolerance going on. Why? I dropped 5 pounds within 3 days. I usually open my fasting window each day with coffee and cream, sometimes with chocolate protein powder, sometimes with cocoa and a teaspoon of sugar and sometimes just plain. It is the one thing I do regularly (as a habit) and assume breaking this habit released some stored up inflammation. Given that up to 80% of people have some sort of dairy intolerance, I assume it may be the case for me as well.
I learned just how much I fall into a routine and sometimes bad habits. Our family is definitely a meat and potatoes kind of crowd. It is easy to get into a routine and just stay there even when it’s not what’s best for me. When I removed meat from my menu, I was surprised how much I didn’t miss it except for dinner on day 9 when Tim placed pork carnitas with pineapple in the crock pot around lunchtime. Yeah, I nearly broke my fast that night at dinner. I didn’t though, because I knew I just had one more day to go.
Sugar is in everything! I had to check my ingredients and was shocked to find that my natural peanut butter from Aldi contained sugar! I switched over to an organic peanut butter and at some point may even venture to make my own. Refined sugar makes us fat and sick. When I removed processed foods of any kinds from my diet, fruits and sweet potatoes tasted sweet! Nature has all the sugar we could ever need.
Maybe we should look at refined sugar as poison. I am a baker and this one hurts! I love to bake for my family. I bake chocolate chip cookies, cinnamon buns, birthday cakes, you name it! I take old bananas and turn them into banana bread! However, maybe it is time to start calling refined sugar what it is, poison. I am pretty good at removing high fructose corn syrup from our diet but maybe that’s not enough. Maybe refined sugar needs to be eliminated as well. Nature offers plenty of natural sugars for us to consume, including medjool dates, oh yum!
Some of the recipes I enjoyed on the Daniel Fast are a Cherry Berry Kale smoothie, old fashioned oats with green apple and cinnamon, a big a## salad with shaved brussel sprouts, a burrito less bowl with sweet potato. If you are interested in the recipes, let me know!
Well there you have it. My experience with a ten day Daniel Fast. I do plan on implementing a Daniel Fast into my lifestyle throughout the year. Perhaps a bit more now as I lean into honoring God with my body like never before and get down to a healthier weight.
I hope you find this post helpful and would love to hear your feedback in the comments.