Juice/Daniel's Fast Update

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I talked about my juice/Daniel's fast a couple weeks ago, and think now is a pretty good time to do an update. I thought the hardest part was going to be drinking only juice initially, but I've come to find that the partial fasting is more challenging for me. When I was doing research about juicing fasts, many people said day 2-3 were the worst. If someone were to give up, these would be the days that would make it happen. I couldn't agree more! I had headaches, was nauseous and had a number of other sickening symptoms. 

I'm pretty positive if I hadn't read so much before I started I would have thought I was getting sick and given up. However, when you're feeding your body nothing but nutrients, it begins flushing out all the negative stuff you've ate that has just been sort of "stuck" in your body. This flushing results in all the unpleasant things I was experiencing. Detoxing. Those feelings were enough to motivate me to eat better period, even once this over. To know that there are toxins just chilling in my body that can make me feel THAT bad is pretty disgusting to me. It doesn't matter how young I am or how fast my metabolism is, I've got to do better. That's gross!

As I transitioned from juice only to the Daniel's, I found a whole new appreciation for eating itself. It was funny in a way, the simplest thing of just eating, is something that can be taken for granted. Even though I feel like I'm just eating nuts and berries, it's so much more fulfilling than not even chewing anything! The funny thing is that now that I am eating again, my body is craving everything it can't have: sweets, meat, fried foods, dairy... I think my body adjusted to juice only by day four, but there is no adjusting to this partial deprivation stuff.

One thing I am learning is about how much self-control I do (or don't) have. Denying my basic human desires is hard and I'm getting more frustrated with things that normally wouldn't even bother me, but when I do I have to remind myself of the origin of those emotions. And essentially get over myself, which is what this is all about. It's a struggle that I'm trying to embrace because it wouldn't be a sacrifice if it wasn't. Sometimes I feel like I am accomplishing nothing, but at the same time, it's become easier to deny myself other things that I usually struggle with like budgeting, eating out, shopping and wasting time. I think because my body and mind are so focused on the basic things that I'm not giving in to, these other things are not even phasing me. That coupled with feeling like I am more focused on my relationship with God and drawing closer to Him, has me motivated to continue. 

During this time, I have watched God move miraculously in the lives of close family members who, by medical reasoning, should not be alive. I don't think being on this fast made this happen; I think being focused on Christ when things seem to be falling apart has allowed me stay positive and be extremely grateful just for life itself. I am at the point now where I am going to start slowly adding things back into my diet to prepare for ending. First dairy then in a week or so bread and then I'll be done. I am way too excited about cheese and milk! haha! As always, thanks for following along with me and reading!

(Note:this post was reposted due to some issues I had with posting it initially)

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