The Daniel Fast was beneficial to me all the way around. My relationship with God grew stronger than it has ever been and I also lost 14 pounds in 3 weeks! I stopped drinking coffee and have a love affair with h2o. It floors me that I was so against all the good things that God makes naturally. How can I turn my nose up to his goodness? I have proven to myself that I can have willpower and for that I am thankful.
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When the clock struck midnight on New Years, I deactivated my Facebook account. I haven't been back on Facebook until this past Saturday? My husband, who is not a Facebooker decided to open an account on Saturday. Later that afternoon, he comes to me and ask me why I haven't accepted his friend request. I started to laugh because he knows and I know that I cancelled my Facebook account a month ago. I asked him why he would ask such a thing when he responded that I came up as a suggestion as he scrolled down his page. Thinking he was joking, I asked him to let me see the suggestion and saw my profile pic. Astonished, I go to my desktop and go to Facebook and see my timeline clear as day. I had over 100 notifications, 2 friend request, and a couple of messages. I ignored all of the above and went to the security page to deactivate my account for the 2nd time. As I arrived on the page, and tried to deactivate, a drop down menu appeared which gave me the option to deactivate my account for a certain number of days. I could not believe it. When I deactivated the first time, no drop down menu ever appeared. I chose to deactivate my account for the maximum amount of 250 or so days. Unbelievable!
It is amazing how much the Daniel Fast has helped me to make changes in my life. After 2 weeks on the fast, I have lost 7 lbs. I figure at this rate, I can be Beyonce by July ;). I have also started to spend quality time in the grocery store on the outer perimeter picking the ripest fruits and vegetables for my meals. The meals I have planned have turned out to not only be delicious but nutritious as well. Today I decided to try eating out for a change of pace. I visited Eden Alley Vegetarian Cafe and fell deeply in love with their cuisine. I ordered their easy street soft tacos (pictured above) and they were amazing. The tacos were filled with brown rice, avocado, and a chili cumin cashew cheese sauce. The meal included black beans that were topped with tofu. This was my first time trying tofu and I was pleasantly surprised. I am starting to think that this fast may become a way of life for me when it is over. Wow, I almost can't believe that I have went six days without eating any animal products whatsoever. Mind over matter. This has been one of the most challenging feats of my life. Challenges have arose that I would have never thought about. For instance, when cooking for my family the products that I can't have on the fast, I cant taste them to make sure they are seasoned right. Also, the constant reading of labels to make sure their is no added sugar to products has just about wiped out much of my cupboard.
Day 16 of the Facebook fast is going very well. I did have an issue where I could not find a picture that I needed and thought about activating my account just because I knew that I could find the pic quickly by using Facebook. I told myself know because I know that in the process of searching for the pic, I would come across something that I thought would be interesting to read or look at. I have to keep telling myself, "do i really need ALL of this information?" When you have a student athlete that would like to play on the next level, there is so much you need to learn. First, unless your kid is a 5 star division 1 recruit, there is no such thing as a full ride. There are so many parents who have no idea that if their student athlete is offered a college scholarship, the parents will still have to come out of pocket. Took one of my son Derrick on a recruiting trip to Avila University today and I was very impressed with the coaches. They were being up front and honest about scholarships and cost. The program is in the NAIA which is on the small college level. Usually facilities in these types of programs are run down like old dress shoes. The facilities at this school were state of the art. I felt that the coaches really wanted the student athletes to succeed in the classroom first. The agenda was well put together and was ran like a well oiled machine. The visit consisted of about 6 student athletes instead of the cattle call of 25 to 30 I have experienced while taking my oldest son on recruiting trips. I look forward to watching my son play on Saturdays next fall. Everyday my life is changing and here lately, it is changing by leaps and bounds. In the last year, my family and I have become very involved in church and I must say, it is helping to shape me and mold my children. Each day, I see life in so much more of a positive light and I attribute that to the love and strength that I gain from being involved in church. At the beginning of the year, a new ministry was started by one of my church members called Take Back Your Temple. "TBYT" is a ministry that emphasis healthy eating and exercise. The first project of the ministry is to complete a 3 week fast called the Daniel Fast. The Daniel fast is based on the book of Daniel who did a partial fast for 21 days as part of his spiritual discipline. The only foods that Daniel could eat was food that was grown from the earth and drink water. Today was my first day of the fast, however, I have been planning for this day for some time. On January 2nd, I stopped drinking coffee. The headaches for the first week were almost unbearable after being a slave to coffee for over 30 years. I also started reading labels closely and shopping for foods that I could eat. After all of the preparation for the 1st day, I still ran into a few issues. First, after church today, I had to take my oldest son back to college. I decided that I would go to McDonald's to get a salad to go and get him something to eat for the ride. All of the salads that McDonald's had were made in advanced and included ingredients that I could not eat like eggs and cheese. I walked out of the restaurant leaving my son to order his food so I would not have to be tortured by the smell of McDonald's french fries. I then realized I had some walnuts in the car and I ate those on the ride. Once I got home, I felt like I was starving. Since I have 3 other sons to cook dinner for, I decided to cook my meal first. This turned out to be an excellent choice because it satisfied my hunger which kept me from eating the fried chicken that I was preparing for them. My meal consisted of diced potatoes cooked in coconut oil, with green peppers, garlic, onion, red peppers, mushrooms and fresh spinach. I also had sides of broccoli and carrots and sliced roma tomatoes. With 20 more days to go, I look forward to the adventures this fast will take me on. My goal is to spend more time with the Most High instead of spending more time at the dinner table. A week into my Facebook fast and I can see and feel the change in me. I have been spending more time with family and friends without that 6 inch device that for the last few years had become attached to me like a third hand. I use to feel my adrenaline rise when I misplaced my phone for even a millisecond. That uneasy feeling I would get when my third hand got dangerously close to losing its battery life would also send me over the edge. I have found that I am getting more accomplished because I am wasting less time. There is nothing better than gut busting, tear making, nose snorting, roaring, howling laughter. Tonight I shared some of the best two hours with my family around the dinner table. There were no cell phones or iPads, just great conversation that lead to uncontrollable giggling, amusement, and for some of us, incontinence;) Sometimes we must put down the gadgets and remember how much we enjoyed life before we became so attached to those hand held devices. |
AuthorAndrea Cook is an ed. technologist striving to achieve a life balance between online and offline activities. Archives
January 2017
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