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From January 13
Sugar is my major eating habit downfall. I have a sweet-tooth! I love non-chocolate candy and Oreos the best. I’m definitely a honey addict too. If you’ve read previous “Thoughts by Me”, you know that doctors think I can’t have dairy products because my system can’t tolerate whey…..which is in all dairy, chocolate candies and a lot of foods. I am an avid label reader now (you get faster at it the more you do it. It’s second nature to me now).
I wasn’t always like this. When I was pregnant with my son, who is now 16, my whole third trimester I ate a large thin crust extra cheese pizza for dinner (it was an expensive pregnancy). Nearly every night I devoured all that cheesy goodness. I would snack on large hunks of cheese and MUCH chocolate as well. I think pregnancy changed my body.
I was picked on about my weight my entire life and battled eating disorders (I got so bad that I wouldn’t eat in front of anyone unless I HAD to. If someone was around I had specific things I would let them see me eat and specific amounts) so when I got pregnant I thought, “Yay! This is my chance to eat anything I want, whenever I want, however much I want and no one can pick on me”.
I weighed 199 after he was born….go figure! I spent the next year in a gym losing the weight and paying for my mistake of being a glutton. One of the trainers suggested I try Whey Potein powder. So I went to the local nutrition store and bought a huge container.
I had never been so sick in my life. I kept going to the doctor with complaints of ridiculous nausea and much time hugging the toilet bowl. At first I thought it was psychological because of my past with bulimia (I would throw up everything I ate in my younger years. Not just binge and purge like many people think bulimia is). After many dollars and doctor visits, they told me it was the whey. I now had to read the ingredients of everything I consumed.
I learned to read every label of the food I put in my body and in the process started noticing all the preservatives and junk the manufacturers put in foods. Stuff that God never intended for us to ingest.
Over the years I’ve learned so much about eating healthier, although I still battle nausea and digestion issues. I personally think people are causing a lot of their own health problems because of all the garbage we put into our systems and believe it or not…..watch out here it comes……..
Our love of chocolates and sweets and junk food is a learned behavior…an acquired taste. People tell me all the time, “I could NOT live without chocolates or dairy. I feel so sorry for you. I would do it anyway”. I have NO desire to eat those foods anymore. I unlearned the behavior.
Americans are obese because of our “addictions” to foods that are bad for us. Don’t get me wrong, I know calcium is a very important nutrient and dairy is the best way to get it. But anything in excess is bad. And God provided other ways to get it. We can literally cause our bodies to reject what we are overusing (ie: certain types of Diabetes, high cholesterol. The list could go on). Especially when we aren’t really getting pure foods anymore with the hormones, preservatives and other ingredients that we can’t pronounce. Moderation is a key to healthier living.
The Daniel Fast is not a diet!
Fasting is done throughout the bible in order to get closer to God and deny ourselves certain things that are fleshly. It is a refocus on the Almighty, which is one reason Daniel Fast is observed at the beginning of the year. There are many reasons for fasting all which are personal and between the individual and God. The Bible states there are some things can only be accomplished through fasting AND prayer. It is a setting aside of wants….a denial of self. It's learning to say no to yourself.
The guidelines are from the book of Daniel: In Chapter 1, Daniel who was in royal training says to the king “12 “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13 Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.” 14 So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.15 At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. 16 So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.”
Then in Daniel 10 as he had just received a disturbing vision of the desolation of Jerusalem, “2 At that time I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. 3 I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over.”
As well as focusing on God, we can learn healthy eating habits. We can learn to eat more of what God originally supplied us with and intended us to consume, before the fall of mankind.
I have some crazy dreams while I’m fasting and I always learn so much more about what He has in store for me and the path He wants me to take. It’s a way for me to lay it all at the foot of the cross and focus on how amazing my Lord really is.
If you want more information about the Daniel Fast go to http://www.daniel-fast.com/about.html They have great information, recipes and bible study plan ideas to go along with the fast. I’ve gotten a lot of my recipe ideas from them.
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