Food: Day 28

Last Day!!! This has been a long, trying month… hardest one thus far. And now that it is the end, I can say I am glad I had the experience.

The physical effects of this month’s food fast are as follows:

Weight lost- zero pounds, inches lost- zero, I never once had a good run or work out, I was tired and cranky, I slept horribly all month long, and my prolactin level (hormone that is produced by my brain tumor) has sky rocketed.

It was horrible. I had zero positive physical effects from this program. Every testimony that I read, everyone I personally know, even the girls that were doing this the same time I was doing it had some sort of positive physical effect from this fast. I did not. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a tad disappointed when I weighed in and measured today. But when I was out on jog shortly after that this morning, God gave me amazing peace and clarity about the entire thing. This wasn’t about anything physical. This was a spiritual journey that I was on, and food was my stumbling block. I had to lean on God all day, every day this entire month.

I’m not sure why I didn’t loose a pound or an inch or have amazing workouts. When reading the book it says that this program works for 95% of the people that try it. I tend to be in the small percentage of things (I mean I have been struck by lightning for Pete’s sake), so I guess I will be hanging with the 5% on this one. But I really think God wanted to show me that this was not about making better food choices to be in a smaller size pants and run 7 minute miles. It was about Him. It was about showing me very clearly how I turn to other things (food in particular) when I should turn to Him. I think in my personal journey, if I would have had the weight loss or feel amazing, it would have been a “look what I have accomplished” moment. “Look how hard I worked and disciplined myself and deprived myself and here is what I have to show for it.” I didn’t want it to be about that, and God knows me way better than I know myself, and so it was made perfectly clear that it is NOT about me. This is about less of me (and all my crazy) and more of Him.

I did learn a lot of things this month about food. There was some very useful information and I have gained a lot of knowledge about food and how it is supposed to work, or not work, in the process that I can use to help make better, healthier decisions for me and my family. And for that I am very thankful.

Before this month started and a good portion of this month, I used the Lysa TerKeurst’s  Made to Crave 21 Day Bible Plan as a good refresher and encourager throughout the process. Today I went back and re-read some of the daily readings and came across this that sums up this month and the end result of this month perfectly for me.

Tying our happiness to food, skinny jeans, relationships, or anything else will only set us up for failure. But tying our security, joy, and identity to God’s love is an anchor that we can cling to no matter what the circumstances.

This has been a horrible, difficult, amazing, full of blessings month. I look forward to my week off from fasting (which will include chocolate, pasta, and bread :)) before the next one starts.

Thanks for joining me on the journey!