Thursday, March 1, 2012

Daniel Fast


My weight loss journey has slightly derailed this week.  I am fully aware of the choices I have made that have caused it to do this, and sadly I have not felt guilty about those bad choices.  I sat down and ate three of those Cadbury Chocolate eggs that are only available this time of year.  I ordered that food that I normally wouldn’t at our favorite restaurant, because we got our tax return.  I found a justification for every bad choice that I made.  And I did not feel bad about it.  Granted, I occasionally looked down at what I like to call my “jelly roll” and wished that it would be gone… but I chose to do nothing about it for the past two weeks.

In discussing diet with a friend yesterday, she brought up her struggle, and her solution: The Daniel Fast.  In sharing her decision to follow this fast she used the words “I prayed about it”. Wow, powerful words at this moment in my life. Initially I nodded, and said that I might give it a try.  My motivation was purely physical. The word might was one that stuck in my head, followed by probably not.  Then, this morning, as I went to make my morning cup of coffee, I began to think about it.  “Okay… I need to go grocery shopping; I need to PLAN what I am making this week… I need to make a change….” But do I really want to be so restrictive? I was thinking only about the food…. Then I realized that it is not only about the food.  Daniel chose to follow this food plan because the food presented to him by the King was a distraction.  “Hmmm…. What else is a distraction? …. Wait, this is more than about the food.” 

Light bulb moment… I realized that like Daniel, I need to focus on God… He has been on the back burner in my life recently and I need to move him to the front and turn up the heat…. I need this, not because I need to lose weight (this will be a bonus), but because I need to refocus, remove an area that has caused me great distraction of late, and focus on God.

It is not going to be easy … I love my food… but I also love God.  God can do amazing things, and if I chose to focus on him, and avoid the distraction that food has become, I will be taking a step in the right direction. 

My journey truely begins today, not only towards a trimmer me... but towards a more centered me. I need to put God back into the center of my life. And I start today.

Here are a few links related to the Daniel Fast (listed in order of ones I found most helpful)

 

1 comment:

Christie said...

This is my favorite post you have ever written. I heard beautiful Jani loud and clear in your words. True. Simple. Heartfelt. YOu can do it girl! We will be praying for eachother!!!

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