The Daniel Fast

When an old coworker emailed me with her latest news and updates, she mentioned that she had just completed a process she referred to as The Daniel Fast.  I had never heard of such a thing, but she spoke so highly of the end result that I decided to research it.

The Daniel Fast is a 21 day spiritual and physical fast, in which one basically assumes a vegan diet with some modifications.  Nothing to drink but water.  That meant no coffee for me for 3 weeks!  Also no meat, no bread, and no sugar.  My roommate and I both decided we needed some time set aside in our lives to reflect, pray, be still and make some changes in our hearts on a few matters.  So we embarked on this journey together!  I also made a choice to deactivate facebook during this time, as well.

This is day 15 for me, and what a life changing experience it has been.  In the beginning, we had perceived it as being a very feasible thing to do.  Three weeks is such a short time in hindsight!  But unfortunately it has not been as easy as that.  I had no idea how much of a dependency I had on certain things.  How much I relied on food, drink or social media for my happiness, and how I sought fulfillment in so many of these things.  The benefits were threefold: physical, mental and spiritual.

So far I have lost six pounds.  Bare in mind, we did not do this for the weight loss.  That has just been a perk (especially since I need to fit into a bridesmaids dress in a few weeks). My energy levels have been extremely high and my sleep habits are better than ever.  It is easier to work out, and all I want to do is organize everything in sight!

I am, by nature, an anxious person.  I have a tremor in my hands that I have had as long as I can remember.  It flares up when I am nervous.  But throughout this period, it has disappeared.  I haven't gotten as uptight about things as I normally do.  My mind has never been clearer, and I recognize things about myself and my world that I never noticed before.

Spiritually, this has been quite a journey.  I must admit that I have not prayed or read as much as I intended to when we started.  Although I got rid of one distraction (FB), I replaced it with A LOT of television programs.  The true purpose of this time has been lost many a night, when I get sucked in to the Bachelor or American Idol.  However, I hope to change that for this final week.

As I mentioned before, I picked an issue in my life I wanted to pray about and wished to receive an answer to after this period was over.  Interestingly enough, on the first day of the fast, I encountered satan at his finest.  I was presented with an opportunity that I consider to be exactly the opposite of what I was trying to achieve...a stumbling block to my success.  He definitely knew which heart strings to pull at, and he was playing tug of war with the Lord for sure.

Another blessing from this time has been my realization that I have not reflected Christ in certain ways to the people around me.  It is natural to want to be accepted by those in your environment, and New York is definitely a different animal when it comes to what is considered socially acceptable.  I am called to be like Christ, and sometimes Christ was different.  A lot of times He was.  Being different for three weeks has been a challenge, but has reminded me that this is who I am.  It is who I am supposed to be.  And what a great wake up call it has been.

I recommend the Daniel Fast to anyone who wants any of the three benefits I mentioned before, but especially if you want all of them.  There are cookbooks, devotionals, and a blog available to participants.  I only share my experience with it because I am thankful that someone shared theirs with me.