Day 20: Have You Changed Your Mind?

Scripture: I Samuel 25-31

Today's Menu: Spinach artichoke pasta and vegetable dumplings (wholefoods food bar)

Olive tortillas

nuts and raisins

melons, strawberries, pineapples

Have You Changed Your Mind?

I like what Daniel does for my body. I don't feel so heavy and bloated. I am getting tired of the food so I am allowing myself to get hungry before eating and then eat only enough to satisfy the hunger. I don't overeat as much because now I am eating to live rather than living to eat. I am not sure how this will play out once food becomes a full sensory experience for me. I am a foodie. I love a good meal full of flavor, appealing to the eye and aromatic. So, I am prayerfully trying to figure out how to break fast and not undo all Daniel has done for me. I have to get my mind right.

After the last fast, I didn't have a taste for dairy, breads/pastas, or much meat. I stopped craving my old favorites, especially Italian food-I didn't want the pasta, cheeses and sauces I used to love. I had changed but my mind hadn't. It kept telling me that I should want it, I always wanted it, this is who I was and what I liked until it forced my stomach to go back to something it did not desire out of habit. My body had changed but my mind hadn't....sound familiar?

What I described above is the challenge of post fast living. It not only affects us physically but spiritually and mentally. Once the structure and rigor of Daniel is over, we will have to figure our how to live with freedom but not let this freedom become our undoing. So many of us are waiting anxiously for Saturday, to return to our old favorites, to the things that we gave up during this season. But, God has changed us during this fast which means there will be some things we should not go back to and some things that we will have simply lost our desire for. Therefore, if we haven't renewed our minds and accepted these changes, we will be forcing ourselves back into broken habits and bondage that really don't satisfy us, like I was trying to force myself into really liking the cheese manicotti at Olive Garden. It was an old favorite but it wasn't fitting the cravings of my new, cleaned out, post-Daniel body.

I kept pushing myself to eat like I did before, to like what I did before as if there was something wrong with not wanting all the added sugars in my food, reading labels to see the stuff I was ingesting, or not eating as much milk, cheese, meat, and starches. What my body wanted was the steamed broccoli or salad with my burger, not the fries; it liked how it felt after eating fruit instead of cakes and candy. I am not saying that I will never eat fries or sweets, but I was eating them out of an old habit rather than it being something I really wanted. I did it because it was what I used to do and therefore I equated it with who I was without really realizing that my body had changed. By the time December came, I was out of control and about 2 cheeseburgers away from needing new clothes.

This time, I am taking these last few fast days to get my mind right and think about how I will break fast and live during non-fasting seasons. I see tofu in my future and meals that have more vegetables than meat and starch. My goal is to actually get in the 6 servings of fruit and vegetables a day, to snack healthy, to make my meat choices primarily poultry and fish. When I do eat food with added sugar, I will look for natural sweeteners like fruit juices, agave syrup, honey, brown sugars, etc. I will strive to eat to live not live to eat. But I gotta let this fast change my mind; my mind has to change along with my body. So what about you, have you changed your mind during fast?