Eat Like Daniel

I’m thankful for my doctor. This month is our 4-year anniversary of every-six-month visits. I think I’ll give her flowers! She is diligent, patient, and kind… and she has worked hard to get me healthy. I had my routine blood draw last week, and have my regular doctor’s appointment coming up tomorrow. 

Doctors and dentists used to make me nervous, so I didn’t go much in my younger years.  However, when the Lord began working with me to conquer fear in my life, all that changed. 

Health Journey

There are many websites that talk about how to do a Daniel Fast.  That’s not what I’m doing.  My journey began with a book entitled “The Daniel Cure,” which I found in a two-dollar bin at Lifeway Christian Bookstore probably more than ten years ago. 

I was a stress eater, an emotional eater, and knew I needed to make a change, so I prayed and asked the Lord for help. During that prayer the thought came to mind to “Eat Like Daniel.” Later that same day, I stopped into the bookstore for church supplies and was surprised to see a book about eating Daniel’s way, so I purchased it.

It was in this book that I learned about the health benefits of the Daniel fast. It also speaks about a way of eating that takes that fast and adds meat and dairy back in to make it a lifestyle. The book teaches on what others refer to as “the Daniel Plate,” in which you make half of every meal a low-sugar fruit or a vegetable.  That is one of the pillars of my current way of eating.  

As we all know, life can get in the way of some of our best-laid plans. I worked a little on learning to “Eat Like Daniel” back then, but it was a difficult season in our lives, so it got pushed to the back burner.

Fast forward to four years ago when I prayed again for the Lord to help me get healthy, and I was reminded to “Eat Like Daniel.”

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a priced. So glorify God in your body.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Over the last four years of really working to lose weight and get healthy, I have tried to go my own way with intense workouts and meal-replacement shakes, calorie-counting, macro-measuring, and hours upon hours of food prepping.  Every single bit of it ended either in weight gain instead of weight loss, mounds of exhaustion and frustration, or fleeting periods of success followed by utter failure under a pile of cheeseburgers.

What a yo-yo it has been!

As my husband can attest, I made some surprising changes in my diet and routine over the last four years of trying to get this right. I made food prepping a lifestyle. I greatly reduced the amount of soda and fast food I was eating. I adopted regular exercise and worked at it consistently, and I began to drink more water.

But even with all of that, I still could not lose any weight. I nearly lost hope of ever being able to find success, but after praying and asking the Lord for His help again, I knew there had to be a way… and I had to get serious.

Eat Like Daniel

And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.”

Genesis 1:29

After struggling for so long to find the right formula for me, I finally began to understand what the Lord meant by “Eat Like Daniel.” The Daniel plate calls for half of every meal to be a fruit or a vegetable. That’s the beginning of the physical aspect of his plan. But Daniel’s way of eating came out of mourning his bondage in Babylon. He ate in such a way to honor the Lord in opposition to the world, and in opposition to his flesh.

This is what it means to Eat Like Daniel: Do not eat to satisfy your flesh. Eat to please God.

I know that I cannot proceed with the Lord’s plan for my life if I do not put this down. I have carried it long enough, and I have got to let it go so I can be healed and whole.

I’m not seeking perfection in this food journey between me and God. But I am seeking truth and progress lived out with character, integrity, and endurance.

Obedience to God’s Truth Brings Success

After finally humbling myself before God and piecing together a successful Daniel-based plan that is currently removing inches and pounds from my 50-year-old frame, it feels like a miracle at the end of a very long journey.  

In the last eight weeks alone, I’ve lost four inches from my waist and over ten pounds. I have renewed energy, I feel great, and any digestive issues like heartburn or acid reflux are almost completely gone.

My blood tests from last week revealed that all of my cholesterol numbers have come down significantly since my last test 6 months ago. I do not have diabetes, but my markers for that were elevated last time. This time they are back down, and I am celebrating!

Here’s My Plan

• No sugar, low carb.  I was a fiend for sugar in my younger days. Sodas, sweets, hidden sugars, I wanted it all! These days, I’m not afraid to use substitutes when a sugar craving hits. That was the secret to my success in the beginning!  As a soda drinker, I limit myself to one sugar-free caffeinated soda (and maybe one sugar-free decaf soda, but not often) each day.  Low-carb tortillas and keto bread are staples!
• Half of every meal is a low-sugar fruit or a veggie.  I focus on protein, fiber, and fat.  I follow the College Nutritionist (or Wedding Nutritionist), Dr. Rachel Paul, online and use many of her simple recipes. I also get trade secrets and recipes from my brother, who is a body builder, certified trainer, and nutritionist. He follows the Mediterranean Keto plan.
  • I pre-prep five breakfast burritos on low-carb tortillas and pair them with 1/4 of a large cantaloupe. This is my breakfast for the week.
  • For lunch, I use keto bread to make a crunchy peanut butter sandwich, and have an apple on the side. I keep peanut butter at work, so I just take bread and an apple each day.
  • Then I make a tasty veggie-based meal (usually spicy) for dinner that includes protein and fat.
  • Or a lemon and olive oil salad with romaine, spices, avocado, parmesan cheese, and grilled chicken.
  • My favorite is rotisserie chicken and smoked sausage stir-fried with mounds of zucchini and bell peppers, then topped with spices, pesto, parmesan cheese, and sriracha.
  • Or bacon stir-fried with a pound of chopped broccoli and spices, then mixed with ricotta and sharp cheddar cheeses, and topped with sriracha to taste. It’s delicious!
    
• Water, water, water.  This one takes focus, and I still don’t drink enough, but I’m getting better.  It helps me to connect a new action to something I already do, so I try to drink one bottle of water on the way to work, two bottles at work (short days this summer), and another one on the way home. That is in addition to any other beverages I may consume.
  
• No eating after 6pm (or very little, but only if I’m really hungry).  I don’t want to count calories, so I use this aspect of intermittent fasting to keep my food intake, and any heartburn from my love of spicy foods, under control.  Before I added this aspect, I was slowly losing inches but not pounds. This was because my body was learning to burn fat for energy (using up my stored fat), but I was still eating too many calories for weight loss.

This has been the winning combination for weight loss in my life.  No other plan has worked to keep me full and satisfied while losing inches and pounds.  It’s also a very simple plan.  No complex recipes or hours of food prepping required!

Truth from Daniel Chapter 10

Firstly, I don’t want to take God’s Word out of context.  I know that Daniel 10 is not talking about food idols, food strongholds, or weight loss.  However, after walking through my four-year journey toward health and wholeness, several things from that chapter stand out to me as foundational truth. 

You Are Very Precious to God

Just then a hand touched me and lifted me, still trembling, to my hands and knees. And the man said to me, “Daniel, you are very precious to God, so listen carefully to what I have to say to you. Stand up, for I have been sent to you.” When he said this to me, I stood up, still trembling.

Daniel 10:10-11

One of the greatest battles of my life has been to know and receive God’s perfect love for me, and to rest in His grace. I suffered from low self-esteem, low self-worth, and no sense of purpose or direction. When I finally came to the end of myself and faced His unconditional love, I realized the power of His grace and mercy, and became a different person altogether. 

Now I don’t WANT to feel gross because of the meal I just ate.  I don’t WANT to enter back into any bondage from the past.

When I felt I had no worth or value, I didn’t care about my health. It didn’t really matter.

But when I became confident in God’s love for me and asked Him for His help, I learned to stand up for what’s right in my own life, and to set higher expectations for myself. I’m not just some purposeless victim, I am a child of God!

Humble Yourself Before God

Then he said, “Don’t be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven. I have come in answer to your prayer.

Daniel 10:12

Don’t Be Afraid.  Fear has been my greatest weakness all my life.  I was afraid of every window in every bedroom I ever had growing up.  A lot of my food addiction was connected to my fear of different things.  I used it as a self-soothing tool for any discomfort, and it was always there for me!  

In fact, there was a time in my life when the thought of giving up my comfort foods felt like losing a close friend. That was the depth of my co-dependency. Maybe it’s yours, as well.

It wasn’t until I began to humble myself before God and focus on walking in obedience to Him that fear (and food addiction) began to lose its grip on me.  Even now, the greater obedience I walk in, the bolder and stronger I become in the things of God.

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Matthew 6:33

I Have Come in Answer to Your Prayer. When obedience to God rose to the top of my list of wants for my life, and I began praying for HIS HELP to get free, food addiction lost its luster.  I began to notice how gross and tired I felt after eating certain carb and sugar-laden meals.  The thought of eating yet another greasy fast food meal made me nauseous.

My desire for freedom became greater, and with forward steps of obedience, my strength to overcome the addiction increased.  Now, I am able to fast and take authority over my flesh to the point that I don’t have to eat if I don’t want to. 

I recently told my hunger to “sit down and be silent” because it wasn’t time to eat.  It might sound silly to some, but do you think I could have EVER done that before?  Absolutely not.  I was in complete bondage to food, but now I’m finally walking in freedom.

Break the Stronghold

But for twenty-one days the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way. 

Daniel 10:13

Then the one who looked like a man touched me again, and I felt my strength returning. “Don’t be afraid,” he said, “for you are very precious to God. Peace! Be encouraged! Be strong!”

Daniel 10:18-19

This has been a battle since my 20s.  I was thin in my teens and never thought I would have a weight problem, but the further I got into adulthood, and the more stress I experienced, the heavier I got.  

This has been a very long journey, and I don’t want anyone to think it’s been easy.  It hasn’t.  The level of freedom that I have today couldn’t have come around back then because I wasn’t ready, and it NEVER could have happened without God’s help.

My bondage came from fear and other life hurts. I bound myself to food addiction so I could feel better. Safer. More in control. Giving up that control can be scary and feels at first like the wrong thing to do. That’s what makes breaking food addiction so difficult. Not to mention the actual addictive nature of food as a substance.

I wasn’t able to break the addiction until my desire for change finally outweighed my need to stay the same. That’s when everything changed. I was finally sick of it… and I’ve been sick of it for a long time.

It took getting all the way to the end of myself, and way too many wake-up calls, to finally open my eyes.   So, wherever you are in the process, don’t give up!  Keep working it out until you find the plan that works for you.  Ask God for His help in finding freedom.  Most of all, believe that you are precious to God.  He holds your worth and value in the palm of His hand, and He will not let you fall if you trust in Him!  He can be trusted.

Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him, and He will act.

Psalm 37:5