Two posts ago I wrote concerning day three of my Biblical Daniel detox.
But, before we start, let's review. In 1 Daniel, he instructed the cooking staff to stop giving him and his friends "King's food" and instead to only give them vegetables and water at meal time for ten days. He hoped that during this detox time that he would become more healthy and more active. And, as says the scripture, it worked! And he looked thinner and felt more energetic to perform more tasks throughout the day.
Day three for me went off without a hitch. I was worried about the sweet tooth coming to bite me in the ass, but it never did.
And from that, I was thinking that I would make it easy breezy all the way through until day 10 of the detox since I made it through the "hardest day."
But, as figured, I hit a snag.
The snag was, the weekend!
I should have prepared myself better by having lots of food readily available for me to eat and then readily available for my husband to eat as well (he isn't detoxing!). And I hit a pitfall when we woke up late on Saturday morning and went out for an early lunch.
And what was even worse, I didn't even know I was doing it!
It didn't hit me that I was still on the detox until midway through lunch I went, "Oh my goodness honey! I am not suppose to be eating this!!!"
His response you ask?
"Ah, oh, you still are on that?"
So, yes, yes, I cheated.
Boo to the evil weekend.
But good news! I really enjoyed my week-day detoxing. Can you believe that? I enjoyed a diet?
I don't know what it was, but detoxing in this way made me more aware of Christ.
Let me explain.
Everytime I wanted to take the easy road and eat out at a fast food place instead of cook dinner or just eat a bag of something instead of a celery stick, my mind went to Christ and why I was committed to not taking the easy road.
When thoughts of ultimate cheeseburger goodness came to my mind, I thought of Christ.
So even though I majorly failed at the fool-proof 10-day detox diet of nothing but vegetables (yes, no butter, no oil, no sauces, no dressings, just VEGETABLES!) and water - I am going to try to remain on this eating plan during Lent - and only during the weekdays, weekends if I am feeling frisky!
What's Lent you ask?
Well, in brief, Lent is the 40 day period before Easter. It actually kicks off next Wednesday the 9th. (Mardi Gras [or "Fat Tuesday" or "Shrove Tuesday" as we call it at church] is the day before Lent starts, and came to play because it is everyone's last chance to party and eat really bad food and drink really good, eerrr, bad drinks before lent.)
The time of Lent symbolizes the 40 day fast and temptation from the devil that Jesus underwent in the wilderness right before his capture, torture, and death. (Check it out in Matthew Chapter 4.)
One thing is for sure, I won't be going on the "Temptation Diet" (of just water, which Jesus did during his time in the wilderness). But, I think I will stick with the Daniel diet during this period.
Lent is suppose to be a time of fasting, repenting, and devotion. It's suppose to help us cleanse our minds and bodies in preparing of the celebration of Easter.
And that's part of what the Daniel Detox is all about too.
Some people "give up" something or the opposite "starting something" for lent. This is suppose to help us with our goal of "fasting" or sacrifice. I remember in the fourth grade I "gave up" birthday cake. I thought I was being pretty sly by giving this up, I mean how many birthday parties can one kid go to in a month's time?
(Nine, actually.)
I could hear God's laughter all the way down here every time I got an invitation in the mail.
You know, that devil dude is a pretty smart guy. His first temptation was offering Jesus a loaf of bread. The worst thing to offer to a guy who has had nothing but water for the last five weeks is food!
But, Jesus, being the great man that he is, refused the bread. And was able to withstand two more very tempting temptations from satan.
What a role model our Jesus is.
