Daniel Plan Week 2

In week one of our online Daniel Plan group I asked you to read the first three chapters, and especially focus on putting extra effort into meeting with God in His word every day.  This is the most important thing you will ever do to become healthy, and even if you never change one thing about your eating and exercising this will change your life!  My prayer this week has honestly been that my DP friends would fall freshly for Jesus!  You can't spend time with Him without realizing that He's brilliant, eternally merciful, and worthy of any life change He's called us to make!  It's especially important that you maintain this "healthy habit" as you begin this week's study.

I told my face to face group this week that being on this journey is a bit different from your average Bible study and especially different from a typical "diet".  First of all, in a Bible study you usually have a week's worth of homework to do, but then you move on to something else.  This Daniel Plan journey is unique in that we aren't exactly learning the "rules" all up front and then making the changes.  At this early point in the journey, we are slowly learning some things that we will hopefully incorporate slowly but surely for a lifetime.  (Actually that's really what a Bible study should be too, though!)  We learn this way of life slowly because, honestly, it's so much information and we could easily become discouraged enough to just quit if we tried to digest it all immediately. It's not a typical "diet" because we are making changes in order to serve God and our families more effectively instead of just hoping to lose some weight.  I believe it's also different because when we make these changes we will feel so much better that we won't want to go back to our old ways!

So now for week 2...

We will actually take two weeks to talk about food, not because it's more important that faith but because most of you probably already spend time daily with God but need extra time to relearn how to eat and cook.

Your job this week:
1.  Continue spending time with God in His Word each day.  Choose a new memory verse and share it in the comments section.  I mean it...share it!  I also mean it...memorize!  I used to think that you might give up if I expected too much so I would just casually suggest this part, but I believe it's so important that I'm seriously going to tell you memorizing is a MUST!  You may say, "I'm not good at memorizing."  I don't want to hear that...try!  As legalistic and guilt-inducing as this sounds, quite honestly, if Jesus was willing to leave heaven and live in this world only to die and fight the demons in death for you, surely you can work on memorizing some scripture.  (There, I said it.) You can do this and it's so important and helpful when you'd really rather just have oreos!

2.  Begin reading chapter 4 on food.  As I said before, we will do this one in 2 weeks because it's so much information that may be new or even confusing.  As you read, highlight, highlight, highlight!  In the beginning, especially pay attention to "The Daniel Plan Perfect Plate" on page 79 and the "Top 10 Choices in Each Food Group" on page 80.






3. Start incorporating these foods in your meals!  Do not count calories, simply start using these foods.

4.  Drink at least 64 ounces of water every day.

5. Begin trying to cut out sugar and sugary foods, and DO NOT use the usual sugar substitutes.  If you need to sweeten use only raw honey, 100% natural maple syrup or whole leaf Stevia extract. This is a good one:


5.  Find and share with us one new Daniel Plan appropriate vegetable recipe!

That's enough for this week.  You will have questions, complaints, frustrations, and doubts about whether or not you can do this.  YOU CAN DO THIS!  And I absolutely guarantee that when you do make these changes you will feel so much better.

Feel free to ask questions in the comments section.  If you have a question, it's likely that someone else will wonder the same thing and can learn from your question as well. Also remember to check out danielplan.com for extra resources!

Happy week 2!  I'm praying for you!