There are many reasons why this plan is so popular and everyone is talking about it. First, it was founded by Pastor Rick Warren, leader of The Saddleback Church in California (one of the largest churches in the US) and Best-Selling author of The Purpose Driven Life. This guy is the real-deal. He's lost 60 lbs so far doing it, and he designed it with the country's top experts in fitness, nutrition and neuroscience. Another reason why The Daniel Plan is so popular is that Americans are in desperate need of change. The obesity epidemic is spinning out of control, and even though the miracle of modern medicine has found cures to so many acute diseases, we now all suffer from chronic ones. Many (like auto immune diseases) without an apparent cause. Americans spend more money and time on health care than we ever have, yet somehow we are all sicker. Our lifestyles have much to do with this. The Daniel Plan, simply put is a way to change your life to be healthier: physically, mentally and spiritually. It focuses on proper rest, exercise and nutrition as well as having the right mind-set.
I decided to focus on the Daniel Plan as a topic for the April Meeting of The Argyle Health and Wellness Connection, a group that meets monthly at my church. The more I learned about the Daniel Plan, the more I liked it, and my group and I decided to do it for the next 4-6 weeks. Busy time schedules being what they are, I think it is unlikely we will be able to find time to meet regularly to sit and discuss in small group, so we will mostly be doing it individually and discussing online. Our group meets one a week on Sundays to walk, so I figured we could also talk about it then.
I think this blog would be a great way for me to share my own personal experiences with the Daniel Plan with the group: to help people who are doing it with me to realize that they are not alone in their Daniel Plan journey, and to help motivate those who are considering making that lifestyle change to jump in and give it a try!
I've ordered the book, read the first few chapters and tried out a few of the recipes and so far I'm very encouraged. I should start by saying that I originally approached the entire idea of the Daniel Plan with some skepticism because I consider myself a pretty healthy person. I've always considered myself a healthy eater: I like fruits, veggies and lean dairy, and I've been exercising regularly since I was in High School. However, I've always bordered on overweight, except for a few years in college: then I was clearly overweight. As a health care provider by trade, I consider myself somewhat of an authority on nutrition, so I didn't know how much I'd learn from the book.
Turns out I have a lot to learn and put into practice. I think there are a lot of hidden (and not-so-hidden) sources of calories in my diet. From the chemical concoction that I pour into my large travel coffee mug each morning (what exactly is in Coffee-Mate anyway?), to the few cups of tea I like in the afternoons with plenty of honey and milk in it, to the glass of wine I like to have in the evenings a few nights a week: there is plenty of room for improvement. That's just the tip of the iceberg. I tend to be a large-volume eater, especially when we get a catered-lunch at work which happens quite a bit. All I'll say about that is don't get between me and either a) fried chicken, b) biscuits or c) barbecue. One more problem I have is that as a working mom of 2, I tend to run for what's quick, convenient and doesn't spoil easily: those sorts of things don't always end up being the best for us.
And although I pride myself on my 30 minute cardio workouts 3 or 4 times a week, the rest of my week (especially my current job) tends to be very sedentary where I spend a great deal of my time like most Americans (I'm doing it right this minute) hunched over a glowing screen with nothing moving except my fingertips over a keyboard.
Yes, there's lots I can (and need to) learn. But that's just one small part of it. Learning is not the hard part. The hard part is putting it into practice. I can't tell you how many times I hear from patients: "I know what I need to do, but I just can't seem to do it". I think behavior change is very hard, but very possible when 1) you have the right motivation and 2) you experience the positive reward of a good choice.
That's where the Daniel Plan gets so much right. Pastor Warren wrote the book, and he spends the first few chapters laying out all of the great reasons to get healthy. Some we've heard before, and some we may not have bothered to think about. I'm not going to rewrite the book here (just trust me and buy the book. I got mine electronically for about $10. A used hard copy can be found on Amazon for $7. It is money VERY well spent, ESPECIALLY if it adds years to your life and helps you avoid that $10,000 heart attack). But here are a few things that really struck me in the first few chapters:
Not taking proper care of yourself is a spiritual issue. Our bodies truly are miraculous. God gave us this amazing gift, and when we trash it, not only do we suffer but we are sinning. Jesus came so that we can have life to the fullest: but we can't do that when we aren't healthy. When we eat junk so that we become sick and tired, we are wasting this precious gift. We are a priceless treasure to God and he expects us to take care of ourselves.
Many of us want to make changes in our lives spiritually: lead that small group, spend more time in prayer, go on that mission trip, get more involved in ministry/charity, but we don't because we have no energy. Working on our physical health is often necessary before working on our spiritual health.
So often we ignore the connection between chronic illnesses and our lifestyles. Yet we pray all the time to God to heal our heart disease, diabetes, chronic pain or fatigue but we don't take the steps toward healing ourselves with healthy foods, proper rest and regular exercise.
Not taking proper care of yourself is a spiritual issue. Our bodies truly are miraculous. God gave us this amazing gift, and when we trash it, not only do we suffer but we are sinning. Jesus came so that we can have life to the fullest: but we can't do that when we aren't healthy. When we eat junk so that we become sick and tired, we are wasting this precious gift. We are a priceless treasure to God and he expects us to take care of ourselves.
Many of us want to make changes in our lives spiritually: lead that small group, spend more time in prayer, go on that mission trip, get more involved in ministry/charity, but we don't because we have no energy. Working on our physical health is often necessary before working on our spiritual health.
So often we ignore the connection between chronic illnesses and our lifestyles. Yet we pray all the time to God to heal our heart disease, diabetes, chronic pain or fatigue but we don't take the steps toward healing ourselves with healthy foods, proper rest and regular exercise.
Its a lot to think about.
The 5 "F"s in the book: Food, Fitness, Focus, Friendship and Faith are all the areas we will work on as we put the Daniel Plan into practice in our own lives. As I've read the first few chapters, I'm starting first to focus on the food. I think that is what most people think about when they talk about the Daniel Plan: what you can and can't eat. The main idea with foods in the Daniel Plan is to eat God-made food, not man-made. "If it grows on a plant, eat it. If it was made in a plant, leave it!" Following The Daniel Plan means eating fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, and lean meats. Foods eaten should be pretty much the way they came from the farm, with very little processing. I think this is a great way to think about food. It makes sense. It isn't easy, but it is simple.
So I've tried over the past few days to eat only fruits, veggies beans, seeds, nuts and lean meats. You really aren't supposed to have sugar, except for the naturally occurring sugar in fruit. This is tough. There are tons of sources of sugar in our diet that we probably aren't as aware of: even if you are eating something healthy, like a container of yogurt, it probably has a good bit of sugar in it.
If you go online to www.danielplan.com and click on "food", you will find lists of foods you should and shouldn't eat, recipes, and even a 3 day meal plan. On that meal plan: there are several great recipes. There's a homemade salad dressing that is pretty good, as well as baked cinnamon-covered almonds. I liked them. At first, I found them really bland. I think that I, like most Americans, am used to my taste buds being assaulted by a flood of sugar or salt when I eat anything. So when I first tasted the almonds, I immediately noticed the lack of any salty or sweet taste. (Same goes for the unsweetened almond milk). But after that initial shock wore off, and I had a few bites, I started to notice the almonds had a warm, buttery taste: it was really good. Since there wasn't any salt or sugar coating the almonds, I felt less driven to eat a ton of them, and just had a handful.
I think with time, I can get used to eating like this most of the time, and I certainly have felt more energetic. I even came up with my own recipe that is REALLY good: take frozen blueberries, and blend them with unsweetened almond milk. Makes a yummy milkshake. You may need a teeny bit of honey for a little more sweetness; I promise I won't tell.
I have also been continuing to keep up with friendship and fitness: just this past Sunday, Sherri, Donna and I walked at the Oakleaf Athletic fields, and talked about the Daniel Plan. Donna was so great: she thanked me for putting the group and the walk together and told me that she was thinking of skipping the walk, but came out because she knew we'd miss her if she didn't. We all laughed. All three of us had felt the same way: we were tempted to skip out on the walk, but since we had friends counting on us, we went anyway. We were all glad we did.
Howabout anyone else? Have a recipe you tried & loved or hated? Anything that struck you as really interesting from the book? Having any triumphs or struggles so far? Please share! Remember, those who do the Daniel Plan as a group are more successful and lose more weight than those who try to do it alone...
So I've tried over the past few days to eat only fruits, veggies beans, seeds, nuts and lean meats. You really aren't supposed to have sugar, except for the naturally occurring sugar in fruit. This is tough. There are tons of sources of sugar in our diet that we probably aren't as aware of: even if you are eating something healthy, like a container of yogurt, it probably has a good bit of sugar in it.
If you go online to www.danielplan.com and click on "food", you will find lists of foods you should and shouldn't eat, recipes, and even a 3 day meal plan. On that meal plan: there are several great recipes. There's a homemade salad dressing that is pretty good, as well as baked cinnamon-covered almonds. I liked them. At first, I found them really bland. I think that I, like most Americans, am used to my taste buds being assaulted by a flood of sugar or salt when I eat anything. So when I first tasted the almonds, I immediately noticed the lack of any salty or sweet taste. (Same goes for the unsweetened almond milk). But after that initial shock wore off, and I had a few bites, I started to notice the almonds had a warm, buttery taste: it was really good. Since there wasn't any salt or sugar coating the almonds, I felt less driven to eat a ton of them, and just had a handful.
I think with time, I can get used to eating like this most of the time, and I certainly have felt more energetic. I even came up with my own recipe that is REALLY good: take frozen blueberries, and blend them with unsweetened almond milk. Makes a yummy milkshake. You may need a teeny bit of honey for a little more sweetness; I promise I won't tell.
I have also been continuing to keep up with friendship and fitness: just this past Sunday, Sherri, Donna and I walked at the Oakleaf Athletic fields, and talked about the Daniel Plan. Donna was so great: she thanked me for putting the group and the walk together and told me that she was thinking of skipping the walk, but came out because she knew we'd miss her if she didn't. We all laughed. All three of us had felt the same way: we were tempted to skip out on the walk, but since we had friends counting on us, we went anyway. We were all glad we did.
Howabout anyone else? Have a recipe you tried & loved or hated? Anything that struck you as really interesting from the book? Having any triumphs or struggles so far? Please share! Remember, those who do the Daniel Plan as a group are more successful and lose more weight than those who try to do it alone...
