What is a Daniel Fast

To start this year off right Keith and I are planning to do what we've done the last six years and to do a Daniel Fast for the next 21 days starting Monday the 11th. Okay I realize that it's already January 8 so we're a little behind in the starting the New Year off right thing, but we wanted to wait until we returned from St Louis visiting our grand babies (their parents were there too now that you mention it ;) ), made a menu and went grocery shopping. The menu is made and the grocery shopping will happen tomorrow (I hope). The plan is to begin on Monday.

Okay you may be wondering what on earth I'm talking about.  So what exactly is a Daniel Fast? Actually it is named after Daniel in the Bible who, with his friends Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego (remember them?), abstained from eating meat, rich foods and wine for a period of time for spiritual and also health reasons (Daniel 1:8- 16 See scripture). Later in the book of Daniel, big D also fasted in the same manner while seeking the Lord and praying for his nation Israel. (Daniel 10:2-3 and 13.) The whole chapter is fascinating but these verses specifically refer to his fast and show where we get the 21 day Daniel fast. (See scripture.) Any person with the most basic degree of knowledge about health would agree from the Biblical description of Daniel's fast, that this kind of eating would be very good for your body.

There are other types of fasts besides the Daniel Fast. There are liquid fasts, where only liquid and no solid food is consumed for a period of time. Partial fasts are another type, where perhaps a meal is skipped each day for a period of time or some other variation of abstaining from certain foods. As with any type of fast, children and those on medication or who have health problems, shouldn't participate. But there are so many health and spiritual benefits to it that Keith and I have started each New Year for the past 6 years with a 21 day Daniel Fast. Kind of kickstarts our year with a good detox (especially after all of the Christmas binging!) in addition to aiding us in focusing more in prayer. I wrote pretty extensively about fasting in my Worshiping Warriors blog a while ago. For more information on the spiritual benefits of fasting this is a good resource (See here.)

But as for the health benefits, think of the Daniel Fast as a paleo/vegetarian (pegan?), gluten free, lactose free diet. Whew! (We should be glowing with health after this is done!!!) There are tons of resources on the internet on the benefits of a paleo diets, going vegan, dropping the gluten and dairy. I'll provide links as we go. But this particular way of eating is our short-term, 21 day goal. We don't plan to continue this after the 21 days.  My long-term goal is to stick with the whole food approach of no processed foods (i.e. no white sugar, white flour, anything in a box, anything with added preservatives or colors) from here on out. To eat food as close to it's natural state (within reason) as possible. And that's what I hope to adhere to from here on out. I have done this whole foods thing in spurts but I've not really made it a committed lifestyle yet. But hopefully that's about to change. Wish us luck!

Since we've been doing the Daniel Fast for several years, I have some tried and true recipes that I'll be sharing here in the near future. I've also been compiling some new Daniel Fast recipes for the last few weeks so I will be trying some new things this year. I'll be honest and let you know if they are worth your while or not. There are several worthy blogs out there with good D-Fast recipes (not to mention Pinterest) so if you see anything worth trying, please comment (on here please, not only on Facebook :) ) and share your success, failures, and any good recipes you have with the rest of us. I'm always on the lookout for new recipes. It'll be interesting... Stay tuned!

Visiting our grand babies during the holidays.