A month without Sugar, Flour, Dairy & All Things Processed

January 1st, 2015 started a month long fast for me. My entire church chooses to do the Daniel fast or, like me, cut out what you love the most. I chose to give God my all for the entire month, seeking His face, seeking direction and just show Him that He is the most important. I chose to give Him the first month of the year and the rest will be blessed!

"I believe the power of fasting as it relates to prayer is the spiritual atomic bomb that our Lord has given us to destroy the strongholds of evil and usher in a great revival and spiritual harvest around the world." -cru.org

Matthew 4:4 ESV
But he answered, " It is written, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God."

1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.

I quickly knew what I was going to cut out. My addiction, my loves, my cravings. ALL cut out. I wanted to hear from God more than I needed to satisfy my insatiable appetite for all things sugar. Looking back now, I had a sugar addiction. I could live off of chocolate alone, whether or not it was good for me was another thing. I was your habitual chocolate, cookie, soda grazer. Now, don't get me wrong, I LOVED eating healthy too. I just would happily eat sugar whenever I could.

Being a crafter and blogger, I tend to get  major munchies as I do my "thang." Cheez Its anyone? Cheez Its, Coke and M&Ms were my go to working snacks. Type some words here, grab a snack, paint this there, grab a snack. It's a wonder that I didn't weigh 200 lbs or get diabetes at my whopping 4'11 height. My metabolism didn't get as much credit as it deserved.

With a happy heart, as the clock struck midnight, I gave up all sugar, all dairy, all flour, breads, white anything including rice, sugary drinks, tortillas and everything processed. I'm not going to lie, the first day was a little hard. Ok, more like a lot. I craved sweet things. It is true, what you eat the most , you crave the most. By the end of the day I tried talking myself into just taking a bite of chocolate, bread, anything! I did overcome the craving and woke up the next morning ready to take on the day and not eat anything other than meat and veggies and water/tea. Now, I know what you're thinking. Are you kidding me? How did you survive? My answer, plain and simple... hundreds of years ago, there wasn't anything processed. There wasn't M&Ms, Pepsi or cheez its. They ate from the land. Fresh berries, wild meat, eggs straight from the chickens. Everything was in it's natural state. Everything freshly grown from the land God had provided for us.

Now a days everything is processed, everything has chemicals, or GMOs and everything has been tampered with. We are a nation of more, more, more. Things weren't growing fast enough and of course American's don't want to starve so things like hormones for cows & chickens were administered, chemically treated seeds were sown into this American soil and  now fruits and veggies are sprayed with chemicals. Nothing in it's natural state, fresh from the farm. You either buy organic or grow your own. Those are the only options if you don't want anything to do with any of that. Just look up documentaries on Netflix concerning the American food industry. It will blow your mind and change the way you grocery shop.

1. GMO- Genetically modified foods (or GM foods) are foods produced from organisms that have had specific changes introduced into their DNA using the methods of genetic engineering.
2. Organic foods are food items produced using processes without synthetics such as chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Inorganic foods, on the other hand, use synthetics to produce the finished food products.- bigoven.com

We are constantly shoving fake, nutrition lacking things into our mouths. I am definitely guilty. Dorritos anyone? Yes please. So as my fast went on and I dove deeper into prayer about how things used to be in the farming and food industry, things got easier. Day by day, I started to crave all of those things less. I started feeling great. Not just good but great. I had tons of energy. I woke up with a spring in my step. I was always in a good mood. PMS never attacked. I was never bloated, no headaches, I wanted to work out. Wait what?! Yes, eating healthy and feeling that great made me want to treat my body differently. I felt so great about myself that I wanted to try harder. It was amazing. I was a different person. I had confidence when I got dressed in the morning. I over all felt HEALTHY. My soda addiction went away and instead I craved fruits and veggies.

Another HUGE plus to cutting out all of those things was that I lost weight. Who doesn't like the see the scale go down? To top it all off my faced cleared up crystal clear... No more adult break outs from eating greasy food and being stressed out.

I ate healthy --->I was in a good mood --->my face amazingly cleared up ---> I lost weight ---> I had a ton of energy ---> I wanted to work out.

Everything that I experienced was 100% worth the physical effect and giving up those things for God was  100% worth the praying, crying out and wanting that snickers bar but saying no.

So you're asking what did I eat? A whole lot of grilled chicken and ground turkey since I don't eat beef and a boat load of vegetables and fruit. I would eat fresh peaches if I had a craving for sweets. I also did allow myself to eat hummus. That was my go to. Baby carrots and hummus for snacking. I grilled, sauteed and did everything to veggies imaginable without adding cheese or anything to them. I did use spices though.

When deciding to fast you need to ask God what is right for you. There are so many ways to fast. Maybe it's just give up a thing you love, or something like the Daniel Fast. Also, you need to ask god what and how long. It could be for a day, week, month, a year or who know! That's between you and God. Whatever He leads you to do, do it with your whole heart.

In conclusion, with getting rid of fast food, processed, chemical, fake food with added hormones and who know what else is lurking in your pantry, I saw DRAMATIC results.

I was a DIFFERENT person. A better friend, better wife and better mom. Prayer and fasting are so worth it. Spiritually and physically. I looked better and was more motivated to treat myself better.

Now, you want to know when I broke my fast? I was on vacation at Knott's Berry Farm with my family. Anything that I tasted, I only tasted chemicals and artificial sweeteners. Nothing tasted good. My taste buds had done a 180. That delectable chocolate chunk cookie and carbonated drink tasted terrible! My body knew it wasn't real food and kept on telling me to quit while I could. We eat so much of it that out body's tolerate it to the point that the bloated tummy and sluggishness become the new norm. You don't have to live like that! Give up the crud and start feeling better today! I promise you that in a month from now you will see food differently. Now go out and change your life and live healthy and happy from this point forward!

So, have you ever fasted or just given up anything? Did you see a dramatic difference in your self during that time? I'd love to hear about it!