The Daniel Fast

Derek and I recently took on the challenge of doing the 21 day Daniel Fast with my family.  Alison and Eric do this every year, so we decided to join them and my mom.  The premise of the Daniel Fast is basically eating everything Daniel ate in the bible while he fasted as well.  At the time he was under King Nebuchadnezzar's rule in Babylon, and decided to only eat fruits and veggies because he did not believe in the "royal" animals and meats they were worshiping.  Instead, Daniel fueled his body with fruits, veggies, legumes, and water. He relied on the Lord for his strength.

www.ultiamtedanielfast.com was our saving grace.  This provided some great recipes; however, some of our favorites meals were what we came up with on own because we had to use the veggies before they went old.  Such as a Cabbage stir fry, Thai coconut soup, spaghetti squash with my homemade roasted tomato/pepper sauce.

I am so glad that Derek and I did this together.  There were definitely some hard days in there and we were able to help each other when the going got tough -- especially the last week.  However, I am so impressed with Derek.  He quit coffee cold turkey, and he handled his first fast as a champ!  In addition, I am glad this pulled me back into cooking.  I used to cook all the time before Eli was born, and now I have been using the "I'm tired" excuse, so we would run somewhere to pick up dinner.  I love knowing what is in my food at all times, and this made me remember how much I love to cook for us, and that I am not to tired at the end of the day.  This is just what we do!

Overall this was a great experience, and I would like to continue the tradition with my family.  It was such a better and more fulfilling 21 days than just trying to start a new diet in January.  Definitely a great challenge that put us back on the map with healthy eating habits.

 I resorted to drinking my smoothies in a wine glass

Our Daniel Fast Picnic.  Even Eli loved his butternut squash and sweet potatoes!