Let the fast begin

I officially began the Daniel Fast today (matt test drove it til dinner time). Since there was no school, Matt took the kids early to Nana's, leaving me to my own devices: reading from TWO devotionals before I went in to work. I even got to work 15 minutes early and got a mile walk in before work. I must say, that's a good start, not that I expect that to EVER happen again!

So, here is what I have done so far:

Sunday, I

• chopped up a lot of vegetables
• made hummus from a mix (does anyone know if you can make it from canned garbanzo beans?)

Then, today, here was my menu:

Breakfast: Oatmeal with soy milk, pears and cinnamon (made way too much and ate it all, but it lasted much longer than breakfast usually lasts).

Lunch: Apple with peanut butter, Romaine Wraps (with broccoli slaw from the salad section) http://www.ultimatedanielfast.com/2010/01/who-says-eating-healthy-cant-be-fun.html, and the bread I made Saturday.

Snack: Oatmeal bars from Saturday and almonds

Dinner: Peanut butter with flatbread an almond and dry salad

Tonight, I preparation for the next few days, I am:

• making a slew of brown rice for this: http://www.ultimatedanielfast.com/2010/11/daniel-fast-main-dish-with-brown-rice.html and rice and beans
• cooking a baked sweet potato for this: http://www.ultimatedanielfast.com/2010/02/spicy-but-sweet-bean-burger.html (minus the chipotle)
• roasting chick peas for a crunchy snack
• cooking chicken to add to the kids dinners
• soaking pinto beans for rice and beans tomorrow night

Although I am enjoying finding exiting new recipes, and all, there are a few complications/prayers:

1) feeding the kids-there are going to be a lot of new tastes that we aren't used to, so as yo can see, I am making some concessions for them and their nutritional needs, but overall I am just adding to what we are eating

2) the pocketbook-because we didn't have a lot of this kind of food laying aound and most of it has to be fresh anyway, we are having to buy EVERYTHING we want to eat. I am used to buying what is on sale and making meals over the next couple of weeks out of it; now, a lot of what have isn't acceptable so we are starting from scratch. I am also not used to buying vegetarian, so i am not sure if I am making the best choices (maybe I could be doing it cheaper, but I want it to be a positive experience).

Overall, I think it will be worth it. I think it is good from time to time to regulate yourself and take a step back. I am debating doing this one day a week or maybe one week every month or two, but we will see how I feel at the end of the week. Just to make it official, while Matt is commiting to the full 10 days, I think I feel compelled to commit for 5 days (Mon-Fri).

Thanks for coming on this journey with me!