The Daniel Fast - Heard of It?

No meat, no dairy, no sugar and no coffee or tea for 25 consecutive days... Sounds like a good diet, right? Well it didn’t to us (initially) either… What is this restrictive anti-sugar, anti-meat, anti-caffeine diet I’m speaking about? It’s the ‘Daniel Fast’ which is not just a diet, it’s a temporary fasting period to rely on the Lord for your lack while also cutting out all the things we typically consume on a daily basis. Like a No.1 meal from the Chick Fil A menu or white chocolate Americanos with EXTRA room for cream…. Those types of things.

If you’re not familiar with the Daniel Fast it is based on Daniel from the bible and the spiritual fast he underwent in the book of Daniel. The partial fast focuses heavily on vegetables, fruits and other whole grains foods but completely removes all animal products, dairy, sweeteners, carbonated/caffeinated drinks, gum (yes I said gum) or bread with leavening products like baking soda or yeast. The fast is summarized as follows:

• Daniel 1:12 “Please test your servants for ten days and let them give us vegetables and pulses to eat and only water to drink.

•  Daniel 10: 2-3 “in those days I (Daniel), was mourning three full weeks. I ate no pleasant food or bread, no meat or wine came into my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all until the three whole weeks were fulfilled.”

For those of you thinking why on earth would you want to fast? Or why would Daniel do this? What’s the WHY behind this? The bible is full of Jesus followers committing a period of time to fasting and seeking God without ANY distractions. Even Jesus himself fasted for 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness… I mean that takes the cake for the most difficult fast known to man. But why do we do it? The amount of things that demand our attention these days just keeps rising. I’m sure social media, Netflix and other time wasters come to mind, but have you ever thought about food being a distraction? Have you ever thought, “I’m starving and I can’t do anything until I’ve eaten.” Or have you ever said to someone “Ask me after I’ve had lunch.” This is because food to some degree is a reliance. A necessity but oftentimes over used and emphasized. During a time of spiritual fasting we put some of the things that usually “demand” our attention and instead we lean in to God for strength and tune in to the things he might be stretching and growing within us that otherwise we might not have heard. After doing this fast I truly see the value of setting everything aside (even in the case of our foodie desires) and asking God what he wants to teach or do within and through us. Whispers are harder to hear when rooms are filled with noise. 

Week 1 –

Like most people who are about to go on a very limiting diet we ate ALL of the things we wouldn’t be allowed for the next grueling month to come. I think it was a diner for breakfast, lot’s of coffee in the afternoon (for me not Daniel I should add) and the biggest slices of pizza you can imagine for dinner… All washed down with some mini eggs since we had to take advantage since they really only come around during this time of year…. A must. This was the week that you experience ALL of the cravings, even things you didn’t know you craved. Fast food, salty fries and definitely for me the joy of having a hot tea or coffee in the morning. As we quickly began to realize, success on this fast is food-prepping everything!! It’s all in the prep! Sunday evenings became our food prep evening and lasted us pretty much all the way through until Friday.

Some of the things we ate during week 1 was:

Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Cauliflower, Green Beans, Brussel Sprouts all over Turmeric Quinoa with a little scoop of Hummus - 

Hearty Vegetable Lentil Soup & Salad - 

Potato Curry & Brown Rice - 

Each morning I would pack an apple and a banana (sometimes with some almond butter) and to take away the extreme craving for something caffeinated and warm in the morning I would have a mug of boiled water. Sometimes boiling water with a fresh lemon slice if I was getting really exciting. I know that sounds so unappealing but surprisingly it became part of my morning ritual to grab some boiling hot water and sit down and open my bible app. The apple and banana helped me last all the way until lunch with very little struggle.

Another thing to note about this fast is discipline… Not to brag on my husband but he had a work trip in Boston during Week 1 and pushed through the cravings and stuck to an apple for breakfast while all of his colleagues grabbed a Dunkin Donuts. If you cut corners in the beginning, you only make it harder on yourself later on. For us, the first week set the tone and expectations for what was to come in the later weeks.

After Week 1 we were beginning to find that the cravings were less intense and although not the only point of the fast… We had both dropped a considerable amount of weight. Mostly was just water weight but still was quite a shock. 

Week 2 –

After a challenging weekend sticking to our rigid routine, we were over the first week hump!! Over the weekend we went skiing and while most people paused for lunch diving full force into slices of pizza and chicken fingers with fries. We stuck with our spinach chickpea patties… They were about as exciting as they sound. HOWEVER, on the plus side, the foggy slightly tired feeling we experienced mid-week were gone. The caffeine headaches that Daniel was experiencing had finally left and the meals that we had prepped completely satisfied us throughout the day. We counted these as small victories.

One thing I noticed from this fast was the amount of meals I would make that are centered around meat… Since I couldn’t rely on that anymore my cooking had to get a little bit more creative to satisfy us while also hopefully tasting good.

Some of the things I made during week 2 were:

Coconut Lentil Curry & Whole-Wheat Tortillas - 

Cauliflower Fried Rice & Mixed Green Salad - 

Roast Potatoes and Salad - 

These somewhat hearty meals helped us feel like we weren’t missing out on too much. But again, back to the food prep… if I hadn’t made some of these meals in advance we would have had carrot sticks for dinner.

During week 2 I made the commitment to pray for someone or some people in my life every day. To pray for specific things in their lives I knew they were dealing with, or just to lift them up to God since I know He knows their every need. This made the fast take deeper meaning in my life as I was committing time to pray for others. It wasn’t as much about what I wasn’t or couldn’t eat, but more about WHO I could be praying for and what they might need.

Week 3 –

Three weeks in… Three whole weeks into this fast and I almost couldn’t believe we were still sticking it out. They say it takes 21 days to form a habit… And by Week 3 I was beginning to see some of the more negative habits go away. I am the classic ‘the meal isn’t complete until you’ve had something sweet’ type of person. Daniel even comments on how I usually leap out of my chair as if I’m in a race to get to my sweet-treat post meal. But surprisingly three weeks in and my craving had disappeared. We were also noticeably spending less money each week because everything we bought we cooked and prepped to last multiple days. Also, we couldn’t eat very much so eating out was pretty much off the table. One thing I will add that was difficult about the fast was the social aspect. We had friends asking us out to a southern barbecue restaurant complete with a full meat buffet... A salad just wasn’t going to cut it there. We had to tell them “can we reschedule this for next month?” Also, since all that you can really have on the fast is essentially water, coffee dates were also challenging. We found ourselves struggling to hang out with people since none of our hangouts could involve food! Fortunately, Philadelphia has many different food options including, salad bars, juiceries and for the first time in either of our lives we found ourselves googling “vegan restaurants near me.” Although we were in a little bit more of a rhythm... Daniel’s catchphrase this week remained “I miss burgers.”

Yet again, we noticed even more considerable weight loss this week.

Some of the things we had during week three were:

Spiced Lentils & Brown Rice - 

Coconut, Cinnamon & Banana Oatmeal - 

Roasted Root Vegetable Salad - 

As we continued the fast I truly felt my prayer time having a renewed sense of focus to it. Where sometimes my mind might have drifted off into my list of ‘to-do’s’ for that day or what snack I might be having later on. Instead I noticed a focus on my time spent with Him.

• Joel 2:12-13  “Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.

• Matthew 17:20-21 And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. “But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”

There is example after example of people coming before the Lord, during a time of fasting with prayer and petitions on their hearts seeking a fresh understanding/solution/perspective. I know that I always want to be sensitive to listen for what God has next for me even if that means removing the distractions in the room and pressing in to what he has to say.

Week 4 –

WE DID IT. Week 4 was similar to the Philadelphia weather… A sudden beam of sunlight after months of darkness. I’m kidding. Kind of. But in all seriousness, we felt really excited and almost accomplished that we had faithfully completed what we had set out to do. We all know the crash and burn diets, juice cleanses and fads that some people flock towards. But this was different. We did it together and when we were weak we truly knew He was strong.

It really only took 4 weeks to rid us of the unwanted cravings, bad habits and unhealthy cycles we had found ourselves in. It also gave us a fresh perspective of what it means to be truly disciplined. It doesn’t happen by accident, it takes a series of intentional pro-active decisions. I commend the people in my life who follow these kind of strict routines. All in all we learned a lot of lessons through the Daniel Fast, namely -

-         -  Progress takes time.

-         - Habits aren’t easy to break.

-         - A strong motivation can lead to strong discipline

Some of the things we had for the final week were:

Sweet Potato Chili - 

Chipotle Naked Burrito with Brown Rice, Roasted Veggies, Corn Salsa, Sofritas (shredded tofu braised with chipotle chilies), Beans, Lettuce and Guacamole - 

There may come a day when you're on this fast and you don't have the opportunity to go home and quickly whip up a 'Daniel Fast approved meal' - That's okay because there are plenty of places that offer alternatives to meat/cheese/bread. This was one of the examples of a meal we both had 'out' that came as quite the treat after prepping so much food on our own! You can definitely make it work if you need to grab a quick meal on the go.

Whole-Wheat Tortillas made into Chips with Guacamole - 

On our final week of the Daniel Fast we decided to pray about something pretty scary… The future. Sometimes the hardest thing to submit to or pray about is something unknown like your future. It’s something you can’t control, and you can’t always plan for, but I’m learning more and more that we can submit it to God. Fully relinquishing our control, or our attempted control of our future to Him who holds it firmly in his grasp is the best thing we can do. But it’s a daily resubmission am I right? As many of you know Daniel and I have moved quite a few times… Many times, actually. In all honesty we sometimes feel torn between two places as Philadelphia really isn’t a home base for either of us. Sometimes we feel isolated away from family and friends and the ones that know us and have journeyed through life with us. I’m sharing this because I think we’ve all felt isolated at times, whether we’ve made moves across continents, countries, or jobs. And I think we’ve all wondered what God is trying to do within us through these different seasons of life. One thing I do know is that his perfect will and plan A for our lives is far better than ANY plan we could write. One verse that has carried me through any season of uncertainty is this:

• Philippians 1:6 “And I am certain that God, who began a good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.”

If you’ve never fasted or set aside a period of time with specific boundaries I would absolutely recommend giving the Daniel Fast a try, and if you do please let us know because we would love to encourage you! If you’re looking to change up your mid-week routine and any of the recipes above interest you, let me know and I’ll happily share! The Daniel Fast has been a great opportunity for us together as a couple to be strict with our input so that our output would be reflective of Jesus. It’s been helpful to the wallet as well as the belt size. It's been an encouragement in our prayer time and a benefit to our self-control allowing us to remove the distractions and the noise so that we can truly lean on what’s important. Whispers are harder to hear when rooms are filled with noise. 

P.S. For those of you wondering JUST HOW much weight we each lost... I can confirm that Daniel lost a whopping 17lbs and I lost 9lbs. Amazing the drastic changes we can make from daily faithful steps.