Tag: Daniel Fast

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Food & Nutrition Spiritual Health

The Incredible Results of a 7-Day Daniel Fast

daniel fast challenge

The Incredible Results of a 7-Day Daniel Fast

 

daniel fast results

 

I’m not one to use the word “miracle” lightly, so when I say it feels like I have been blessed with a miracle healing in just 7-days, please trust me that I mean it.

I mentioned in my email the other day that while traveling through Israel, I also decided to do a 7-day Daniel Fast.  

For those who are unfamiliar, a Daniel Fast is a partial fast where you don’t give up eating, but you refrain from eating certain foods.  The inspiration of this fast, naturally, comes from the book of Daniel.

Daniel was an old testament Hebrew prophet who lived in a time where the Hebrews (i.e. God’s chosen people) were living under oppression by the Babylonians and the King Nebuchadnezzar.   In spite of that, Daniel and 3 of his Hebrew friends (Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego) were specially chosen to try out to be a part of the King’s guard.  

For these tryouts and trainings, Daniel and his buddies decided to stick with their Hebrew law and abstain from eating the common foods of the King. In fact, when pushed on it, he offered to make it a competition to see if his way of eating would make them excel above the other competitors.  

“Please test your servants for 10 days, and let the give us vegetables [one translation says pulse which is a word that means “food grown from seed”] to eat and water to drink.   Then let our appearance be examined before you, and the appearance of the young men who eat the portion of the King’s delicacies; and as you see fit, so deal with your servants.”  Daniel 1:12-13

The results of this test where highly in favor of Daniel and his friends.  The Bible tells us they excelled high and above all the other guards not only physically, but in integrity, wisdom, and skills.

You see, it wasn’t just about the food for them, or us.  It was about being obedient to God, sacrificing in simple ways even in the face of being marked an “outsider.”  This humble sacrifice of Daniel surely paid off.  He was promoted to the highest ranks of the King.

So, this Daniel Fast is something that many churches challenge their congregations to do in the New Year for 21-days (the 21-day part comes from Daniel 10:2-3). 

I did a version of the Daniel Fast two years ago for 28 days while as I was just starting A. Wright Fit, but when I did it, I didn’t do much research into it and did not cut out caffeine nor all sugar.  I still had a great experience.  

I have had it on my heart to lead a Daniel Fast challenge in the New Year with the ladies I coach in the her Health Lounge and also invite anyone else that would be up for a nutrition challenge and training!  I will be leading the 6-week nutrition course alongside a special weekly online Bible study on Discipline for 2017.  It’s going to be amazing. 

Therefore, with this on my heart, I thought while I’m in the Holy Land and studying this ancient fast, why don’t I go ahead and do a short version of the Daniel Fast so I have a better understanding to be able to coach from in the New Year.  

Well, this experience FAR exceeded my expectations.  

To add a little background about what I have been going through lately with my health, I should add that I have kinda been feeling off in my body lately.  

I had a back injury 2.5 years ago (a bulging disc) and my back has been in terrible pain for longer than I can remember.  I can usually do some mobility and alignment drills in the AM to get it all worked out, but it’s very hard to get out of bed a lot of days and traveling is especially brutal.   

About a week or two ago, I visited a chiropractor that said he believed it was caused by inflammation of the tendons that surround my spine.  He advised me to stop bending over, stop crossing my legs, and stop twisting too much from the spine.   Uh, kind of challenging for a trainer, right?  But I took his advice and had seen some improvements.  

The other thing that had been kinda bothering me (but not too much) was that I had put on weight that I couldn’t seem to drop.  I had found a set weight of 155lbs for over a year and then this year, though my eating and exercise was always relatively on point, it had crept up to 162-164.  It seemed that nothing would make it come back down.  So I kinda just accepted it and moved on, it’s only a number after all.  

Well, in Israel last week, I have to fully admit that this Daniel Fast is a LEGIT detox for your body.  It is pretty brutal the first several days.  

My vices have always been caffeine (which is why I will give you a slow progression to follow for all my coffee and tea lovers), chocolate, and some wine.   

Well, on the Daniel Fast, you cut out all beverages except water,  you eliminate all animal products (i.e. eat Vegan), all yeast-containing bread, anything processed or with sugar or chemicals, and essentially feast on salads, nuts, legumes, whole grains, fruit, vegetables etc.  Frankly, for me, it was kinda a treat to eat so many carbs!  

Oddly enough, even through we were staying in a hotel the entire time, I had NO PROBLEM finding foods to eat (see pics below).  So the good news is that there are plenty of options.  

But, the bad news was that the combination of jet lag + cutting all caffeine caused some sluggish days, plenty of headaches, and what was most surprising was some serious BACK PAIN.  

The inflamed tendons up and down my spine were definitely yelling at me.  At first I thought it was the travel and perhaps an injury, but then as I was reading the Daniel Fast book by Susan Gregory, I read that back pain is a common symptom of the detox.  Therefore, I just swallowed some Advil and stuck with it.  

MY RESULTS: 

Well, after just 4 days of bad symptoms, I started to feel like myself again.  My cravings were severely diminished.  

Better yet, all that back pain COMPLETELY went away!!  I mean ZERO back pain.   

I never dawned on me that my pain could have been caused by my eating and drinking habits.  Now I realize that my over-consumption of caffeine and was a huge factor.  

Not only that, but when I returned back home this week and began transitioning slowly to eating back to my Nutrient Based eating (another aspect I’ll be coaching you through) and did some gentle workouts, I went to weigh myself and had lost 7 lbs!  

Now, let’s be clear, this is not fat loss, this is for sure predominantly water weight.   But even so, it felt great to see the inflammation in my thighs, face, and stomach drop as well!  

All this to say, that while doing a “cleanse” will always be tempting for the human side of us that wants “quick results.”  But that’s not what the Daniel Fast is for.  It’s NOT a diet.  It’s not a quick fix.  

It’s an act of Spiritual discipline and sacrifice that makes way for you to grow closer to God and experience God’s healing physically and spiritually. 

I am SO EXCITED to see what 21-days of this journey will look like in the New Year and I hope you will pray and see if God is calling you to join me!  

Even if you do this with your church, you might find that having a support and accountability group of women online is really helpful for you to stick with it.  I’ll be giving a whole class and book on recipes, instructions, and spiritual practices to make it success!  It will also include my Nutrient Based Eating program too!

I will be offering this 6-week course as a BLACK FRIDAY & CYBER MONDAY deal, so look for the discounted offer next week!

If you have any questions, feel free to respond back to this email and I’ll be glad to share more!   

With Love and Light, 

Mandi

Categories
Spiritual Health

The Surprising Twist I Experienced on My Trip to Israel

Holy Surprises in the Holy Land

holy-lessons-from-the-holy-land

For those that follow me on social media, you may be aware that I have just returned from a 7-day trip to Israel, accompanying my husband for work and enjoying as many sites of the Holy Land that I could muster.  What a country!   I fully expected to take my Spiritual life to the next level with the trek back to our Faith roots, but I was certainly surprised by what I experienced instead.  

I have had so many of my friends and family write and ask if I felt so much “closer to God” or if I am experiencing "greater amounts of peace" having witnessed these areas that are so rich in the Jewish history of the Old Testament and the sites of Jesus miracles in the Gospels?

Surprisingly, my honest answer throughout last week was “No.”

I know this might severely surprise you, heck, it obviously surprised me.  But upon further reflection, I think I understand why I didn’t have greater peace or feel such a surge in Faith even though I was in God’s “Promised Land.” 

I have 3 reasons to share, along with some pictures of course, and what I’m most thankful for in this experience!   (see below)

 

#1.  Obvious Travel Repercussions And My Daniel Fast Distractions:

One reason I felt off was because this trip was the second part of a two-week journey for us and time change is always a hard adjustment.  You feel off, your body hurts from such a long plane ride, and for me, my senses were heightened while visiting a historically war-torn area.  This is all very distracting. 

On top of that, I decided during this trip that I wanted to do a Daniel Fast.  I am going to do  a separate email about this because I have been studying the Daniel Fast and have decided to incorporate it into a 6-week small-group nutrition course for the New Year (which I’ll be inviting you to join!).   The Daniel Fast has you cut out caffeine, sugar, all non-water drinks, animal products, fried foods etc.   So, needless to say, after a week in New York city on a coffee, wine and chocolate bender, my body was in a major detox when I cut these things away.  The results of this Daniel Fast were TRULY INCREDIBLE, and I can’t wait to share more, but yes, all of these affects can definitely distracted me from emotionally connecting more.

 

#2.  Jesus Got Real and It Spurred Some Questions

Here is where I had to sit and process so much that I witnessed.   For example, on a 1-day bus tour while my husband had meetings all day, I was able to tour the town of Nazareth (where Jesus was raised and Mary and Joseph were from), visit the small fisherman town of Capernaum (where the Apostle Peter lived), and the lake right next to it called the “Sea of Galilee” (where Jesus and Peter both walked on water and many of Jesus miracles were done)! We also visited the town where Jesus turned the water into wine and the site, Tabgha where they believed He delivered the Sermon on the Mount, and the Jordan River (where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist...and so was I!).  

While these old sites are true treasures to behold, you can’t help but question —did this REALLY happen?  I mean, I went down to the Sea of Galilee and touched the water that Jesus walked on and sure enough, it was just water (you can see it above).  

It's hard to explain fully, but you know the feeling you have when you read a book and you love it so much, but then you go and see the movie about it and they completely changed the mental image you had in your mind?    

Well, it’s kind of like that.  

We can all agree that the miracles of the Bible can almost read like a fairytale.  And seeing some rundown desert towns is just truly hard to believe that Jesus did these amazing miracles.  I had a hard time taking it all in.

 

#3.  Religious Pomp and Circumstance is Overwhelming 

The city of Jerusalem is fascinating.  Simply MESMERIZING.  I was confronted with my own ignorance of the significance of this Holy City and how meaningful it is to such widely varying belief systems of 3 major religions.  For those that may also be unaware, allow me to share just a few facts.  

The “Old City” of Jerusalem is an ancient walled city that is only about 1 Cubic KM that houses about 40,000 people.  There are 4 quarters of these walls:  the Christian Quarter, the Armenian Quarter (also Christian), the Muslim Quarter, and of course, the Jewish Quarter.  

I hadn’t fully realized, but thanks to an amazing tour guide Itay, this site is the physical location for the most important acts of these most popular faiths in the world.  

For the Jews, the town of Jerusalem represents the areas where the first temple was built for God.  It was built by King Solomon (about 800 years BCE), who was the son of the beloved King David.  In ancient Hebrew times you could only access God in the Temple.  There are many purification and sacrificial rituals you had to participate in for entry, but the “ark of the covenant” (which is believed to be the tablets of the 10 commandments) is the physical place that God dwelled.   So while the temple had been destroyed by the Babylonians and rebuilt and re-destroyed in many wars since then, the Jewish faith still prays to the area that the old temple was located, which is on the other side of this “Western Wall.” (See my pics of the Western prayer Wall below).  

Coincidentally, the Muslim faith revolves around that exact same location.  It is believed that Muhammad was transported from Mecca to the Dome of the Rock (which the Jewish/Christian faith also believe is the place where Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac) where he then composed the 5 Pillars of Islam before ascending into heaven.  All this happened around 632 AD (so about 700 years after Christ).  The Muslim faith therefore has a lockdown on this territory as well and it is the main reason there are so many wars between Israel and Palestine/Muslim countries.    In fact, whenever the Muslim faith prays (5x a day) they pray toward Jerusalem and this location.  It’s highly significant.

Then, for us Christians, this whole city is significant because it is where Jesus came during Passover, was persecuted, crucified, buried and then rose from the grave 3 days later.  I went through about half of the 14 "Stations of the Cross” and was able to see the area where they believe the cross was hung (now a Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox shared church), the stone they washed Jesus crucified body, and even the area they believe the tomb was. 

So all this to say, while it is breathtaking, and SO amazing to see all of these locations, the religiosity of it all really overwhelmed me.  

Even in the Christian quarters, I was not raised Catholic or Greek Orthodox, so the religious traditions of these two denominations is quite a lot to take in.  

I did have the privilege of fighting the crowds to touch some of these (let’s face it “alleged”) spots where such significant acts took place, but I couldn’t help but wonder if all of those crowds around me were worshipping God, or worshipping these artifacts?  

These thoughts were distracting to my intention of focusing on the presence of God.  Chaos has a way of doing that, of course, which is why we saw in the Bible that Jesus often had to get away alone and in solitude to stay in the Spirit.  

Overall, I believe that was my biggest lesson and takeaway.  

I learned a SO MUCH in these 7-days that I will never, ever forget.  And God willing, I will get to go back again with even greater knowledge of the history and diversity involved.  This trip has truly made the Bible come alive in my mind and that is powerful!  

As I have come home, I have come home truly changed by this experience.  It is impossible to put into words how grateful I am that I can feel God just as much in my living temple (a.k.a. my body) than I do when I’m in His Holy Land. 

He is there, there is absolutely no doubt about that.  But He is in ME TOO.  He is in ALL of us who have received Him.  

The thing I am most grateful for is having seen the desperate, legalistic, and oppressive behavior that the Legalistic version of religion can be for thousands and thousands of people,  I know now more than ever, that God, who from a place of perfect love, sent us His Son for a BIG PURPOSE and that purpose is to save us from our own tyranny of trying to save ourselves by religious rigmarole.  

While I fully participated in every act of prayer and religious tradition I saw, I know that my life glorifies God the MOST when I am FREE to live a life of servanthood, love-based actions, quiet times of prayer, and in sowing Goodness in everything and everyone around me.  

I thank God that He loved me enough to send His Son  to offer me a way to focus on THAT RELATIONSHIP that empowers me for Good, more than I have to focus on RULES that keep me enslaved to a system.