Three Things I Learned About Myself During A Daniel Fast
three things I learned about myself during a Daniel fast
This year, during the Lent season, I decided to do something I’ve never done before…participate in a Daniel Fast.
If you’ve never heard of the Daniel Fast before, I can explain it easily. For 10 or 21 days, you eat only things that can grow from a seed. No dairy, no meat, no extra weird ingredients you can’t pronounce. It’s kind of radical.
Why?
Why did I subject myself to a diet that is so obviously restrictive and, frankly, no fun? I actually had a couple of reasons. One, I was struggling in my personal life. I was feeling lost, out of control, and hopeless. I knew I needed to reset and that it would take something big to make me successful. My second reason goes along with the first: Food had become my comfort. My go-to when stressed, happy, sad, anxious, angry…all the things. I was so convicted and ashamed that I was turning to food instead of Jesus as my source of help. Obviously, food cannot provide comfort.
If you’ve been following my journey, you know that I started my Daniel Fast weeks before Lent began. After a bit of an unfortunate detox off of a prescription medication I was taking, I decided that now was the time. I had hoped to extend my Daniel Fast but, instead ended up slowly adding things back to my diet after 21 days.
So what did I learn?
I could think of my time during Lent as a failure. After all, I did not fast the entire 40 days. Instead, in the months following, I realized that in those 21 days, I learned a couple of important things about myself.
Caffeine amplifies my anxiety disorder.
You might be reading this thinking, “DUH!” but I really did not know or understand the impact that caffeine had on my anxiety until I stopped drinking it. Actually, I did not notice until I stopped drinking caffeine and then indulged a bit too much on vacation. Such a bad idea!
When we returned from vacation, I vowed to eliminate caffeine from my diet as best I could. I’m proud and slightly shocked to report that I haven’t had caffeine since and I don’t miss it as much as I thought I would. I switched to caffeine-free coffee (I found yummy whole beans on Amazon), and I occasionally enjoy a diet Sprite or orange soda. I sleep so much better and have not felt like my anxiety was out of control nearly as often.
Added sugar is relatively simple to cut out.
We’ve all seen the no-sugar and low-sugar diets. They’re everywhere and seem to be quite effective. Unfortunately, cutting sugar out completely would never work for me because I love fruit so much.
During the Daniel Fast, I noticed the difference between “sugar” and “added sugar” on nutrition labels. Why do we need to add so much sugar to our food? Call me naive, but I never noticed how much of this added sugar I was eating daily. The condiments we do not think much about, like ketchup and barbecue sauce, have so much added sugar! Even my “natural” peanut butter I loved had added sugar. And bread! I started looking for condiments labeled “No Added Sugar”, and I even found sugar-free peanut butter. Even after breaking my Daniel Fast, I continued eating not “sugar-free”, but “added sugar” free. I enjoyed the way it made me think about what I was eating.
This, of course, derailed during our family vacation this summer. I say that added sugar is relatively simple to cut out because it is simple in concept, but maybe not in action. I struggle with this. I probably will for a long time. It’s okay, as long as I do not give up.
This is not one-and-done.
I realized that one, 21-day fast will not break my bad habits of seeking comfort from food. Instead, fasting is a spiritual discipline. This is encouraging because my problem is spiritual. My comfort, hope, and strength come from the Lord. This is truth and this is right. Fasting is also a bit scary and definitely uncomfortable. We deny our body what it wants (not what it needs) and spending time in inner reflection. Not exactly my idea of fun.
I always assumed that fasting was an Old Testament rule but, I learned that fasting, not necessarily the Daniel Fast, is encouraged even now twice a year. We are encouraged to fast during the Lent season when we remember and celebrate Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross (and resurrection 3 days later), and the Advent season when we celebrate Jesus’s miraculous birth. I want to emphasize the word “encouraged” because this has to be something on your heart. You cannot go into it grudgingly or because you feel like you have to or are being forced to. I pray that when Advent season comes, my heart will be ready to do this again. And, by participating in fasting again, I will learn more about my God and myself, and move a little bit closer to conquering this dependency on food.
So what’s with the ice cream?
Ha! You noticed! I believe that God wants us to enjoy food. Yes, even ice cream! He created it for us and gave it to us for our pleasure. But, when we elevate food by expecting it to make us feel a certain way, we have a problem. Again, food is not the problem. Our love of and obsession over food is. Let us appreciate food without worshipping food.
But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
-Matthew 4:4 (NLT)
