Sugar Scare

For the past week the Mr. and I started fasting. We decided to take on the 21 day Daniel fast. The   Daniel fast is a spiritual fast that removes meat, fish, sugar, yeast, alcohol, and bread completely out of your diet for 21 days. During this 21 day fast, you read the book of Daniel to understand the importance of being in control of your body and what you put in it. Your body is a temple.

I've always been a healthy eater. Dinners consist of a fish, or meat with veggies as a side. We occasionally drink and only snack on fruits and vegetables. (I eliminated all process foods in January 2012)  Now, going into this I thought to myself "this is my lifestyle now, so it will be easy." WRONG. My downfall is sweets so giving up Starbucks and a little sweet after dinner each night was supposed to be easy. Today is day 7 on the fast. I am eating all day, craving sugar and feeling like I need to snatch up someone's hamburger at a restaurant and rub it all over my face. HA. But I'm serious. 

You would be AMAZED at how much sugar is in EVERYTHING. We always shop at the Fresh Market (local organic grocery store) and I buy grains, fresh veggies, nuts, and meat. When we began the fast and went grocery shopping we paid close attention the sugar content (and of course the ingredients). Even in rice, nuts, dried fruits, gluten/yeast free bread, tomato sauce, vegetable soup/broth...etc. etc has sugar. Now, the items I just mentioned are Healthy, right? Well..that's what I thought! I never pay attention to the sugar, I just pay attention to the ingredients (all ingredients that I can pronounce is my m.o.) I've always made sure I'm getting the good stuff without chemicals/preservatives, etc.

What does this all mean to me? We are what we eat and knowledge is power. Type 2 Diabetes, Cancer, and Heart Disease are steadily on the rise and America is overweight. Everything that we put in our body matters. We have to work at it, we have to fight the cravings, say no to the Doritos (which aren't food-just chemicals) and eat real food.

Oh, another crazy perk to all of this..The Mr. has lost 12 pounds in one week. Did he exercise? Just once in one week. It's amazing how much fat we can shed just by changing our diet. I have immediately noticed fat disappear. It has only been a week but I've noticed the resistant fat (i.e- stomach and legs) slim up a bit. It's minor, but I've noticed and that's something.

To learn more about the Daniel Fast--go to http://daniel-fast.com