How I Fast, Part 1

Many of you have been asking me questions via Facebook about the particulars of how our family handles fasting. These have been great questions ranging from how do I get prepared for the fast to how do I help my children engage in the fast in a healthy way. Over the next few days I am going to be answering a few of the questions. Hopefully these answers will be helpful. What I’m hoping to do here is to model what fasting looks like in our day-to-day life. I am not trying to prescribe a set of rules for you to follow. Take the information I am presenting here and consider how it applies to your circumstances and your convictions. 

PART I: THE DANIEL FAST (Previously written for Celebration women)

Many of you will be using the Daniel Fast as the main method of fasting throughout the 21 days. Here is how I do it. 

About 5 years ago, during the 21 days of fasting and prayer our church did, I wanted to fast for my son’s healing. However, I felt that I could not maintain the pace necessary for caring for my family for 21 days while drinking only liquids. God put upon my heart to fast using the model of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when they arrived as exiles in Babylon and by the fast of Daniel as he was interpreting prophetic visions: 

Daniel 1:11-15 
Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13 Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.” So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days. At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. 16 So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead. 

This is the fast that the Lord led me to do during that time. I want to say from the beginning that there is nothing inherently spiritual about this fast. It is just what God led me to do and I have found it to be extremely effective for spiritual focus, bodily discipline and purification in the body and soul. 

This fast, when done for health purposes, is also a great way to purify your body from years of toxic intake or to jump-start a weight loss program. I am going to give you the fasting principles and the program for re-entering certain foods back into your diet. 

THE DANIEL FAST 
The main premise of this fast is cleansing the body of toxins through the intake of the purest forms of food possible, while still maintaining enough caloric intake to keep your metabolism high. You can do this for 14-28+ days, depending on your weight loss goal and your actual tolerance for it. Longer than 21 days is only good for weight loss as your body will be very clean by then. Less than 14 days isn’t really enough for cleansing. If you have more than 20 pounds to loose, you can just do it till you reach your goal weight and then add other foods in. 

What you can eat: 

1. Fruits and fruit juices (all kinds, as much as you want, even tropical fruits) 
2. Vegetables (cooked or raw, frozen, canned or fresh) 
3. Soy protein in the form of soy milk and soy protein powder. (Any flavor) 
4. Coffee/tea with a little natural sweetener (crytalline fructose, stevia, honey,agave nectar) and a little half and half. No more than 2 cups in the AM. Make it a goal to wean yourself from caffeine by the end. 
5. All salad dressings, spices, seasonings, marinades. Just try to use the purest kind you can find, like homemade or Newman’s own — not Kraft. Use your common sense, though — like don’t pour a bottle of sweet and sour sauce over your green beans. 

What you cannot eat: 
1. Meat 
2. Bread 
3. Rice 
4. Dairy, eggs, cheese 
5. Legumes (red beans, black beans, etc.) 
6. Sweeteners of any kind (except the fructose/honey in your morning coffee/tea — and the artificial sweeteners are toxic) 
7. Anything else that’s not in the “Can eat” list above. 

SOME GOOD THINGS TO EAT: 
1. Eggplant and mushroom Ratatouille over spaghetti squash: 
Peel and cut up two large eggplant, 5 cloves of garlic, one onion, and some mushrooms. Sauté in a generous amount of olive oil till tender. Pour two cans/jars of meat-free spaghetti sauce over it and simmer until the eggplant is really mushy. Add slice black olives if desired. Spice it up with some red pepper flakes. Serve over spaghetti squash. Make a lot of this. 

2. Cabbage soups with a tomato and veggie broth base. 

3. Sautéed spinach and mushrooms with Garlic. 

4. Oriental spinach, mushroom and water chestnut soup with veggie broth and soy sauce. 

5. Roasted tomato bisque: 
Slice 3 lbs of roma tomatoes lengthwise and place sliced side down in a very large roasting pan. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt. Also put on the pan a whole, unpeeled head of garlic. Roast a 450 for 30-45 minutes, or until skins are charred. Take out and let cool. Take off charred tomato skins and toss (I leave them on, but I like a very smoky flavor). Put the tomatoes in blender, and squeeze the garlic in also — all of it. Then add a can of vegetable broth, some liquid smoke (about a tsp.) some water, and about 1/2 cup of soy creamer. Blend till smooth. Reheat on stove. Thin as desired with soy creamer and veggie broth and keep adjusting the seasoning till you get it right. 

6. Sauteed green beans with garlic and olive oil. 

7. Cauliflower steamed till soft and then whipped like potatoes with 2 tbs of butter, and a little soymilk creamer. This is so good! (Try to use butter only minimally for flavoring. A little won’t kill you, but use mostly olive oil) 

8. Of course, salads, stir fried veggies, smoothies (adding a frozen banana will make it almost like ice cream), frozen fruit sorbet (Frozen fruit blended with a little organic apple juice in the blender), all the bolthouse Farms products from Publix (juice section; just don’t overdo it with the protein perfect shake). 

HOW TO ADD FOOD BACK IN WHEN YOU ARE FINISHED FASTING, DETOXING, OR HAVE REACHED YOUR GOAL WEIGHT: 

Week 1: Fish and chicken 
Week 2: Nuts, cheese, legumes and dairy 
Week 3: Whole grains such as Ezekiel bread and brown rice 
WEEK 4: Meats besides fish and chicken. 

Go back to eating sweets last, but as common sense would tell you, if you eat like you did before, you will eventually end up where you were! 

Keep in mind, if you need to continue feed your family their regular meals, you can always give your portion to a person who is single and cooks only for one. It will awesomely bless them! Be encouraged and enjoy the journey! 

Love you guys! 
Kerri