Yay! I made it!! Well, I still have until bedtime but today is the last day of our fasting diet!
This study has been amazing, enlightening, eye-opening, frustrating, hair-pulling, and completely revelatory all rolled together. I’ve failed miserably at keeping to my chosen diet of chicken, rice, veggies and fruit. During the last few weeks, I’ve gradually added in some dairy – a taste of cheese, a glass of milk at bed time, a bite of cottage cheese at lunch or a dab of sour cream on a chicken and salsa quesadillo. I don’t know if it’s cheating but it certainly wasn’t in solidarity with the poor. I know I’m a food addict now. I know I’m also a product of cultural influences and succumb quite easily to the temptation of sugared and processed foods. For instance, I LOVE Doritos…do you KNOW how fake and over processed and loaded with sodium and crap they really are??? Or Cheez-Its, Pringles, practically any salted, bagged or boxed snack? I just threw out bags of chips that have been hanging around from one of our feast day BBQ’s. I don’t want them anywhere near myself or my family!
It’s a wonderful journey, though. I’ve been learning so much from researching food labels and food blogs. In fact, today I stepped out to our local Hannaford’s and carefully picked through the myriad assortment of offerings and found to my delight and surprise, raw milk cheddar cheese from Grafton Village cheeses! I also stocked up on whole grain Naan, California grapes, organic free-range milk and 1/2 & 1/2, and organic local greek yogurt. Found some organic local fresh mozz, some farm fresh tilapia for dinner, but caved in for a frozen pizza – Newman’s Own organic, though!!
Throughout this process, I’ve lost some weight, too. I consider this a happy side effect! I’ve been feeling better, sleeping better, and, obviously, eating better! The next step is to simply continue as I’ve been doing these last 40 days. Portion control, healthy, minimally processed foods with fresh flavors, fresh herbs and complete awareness that whatever I happen to buy will affect someone somewhere in a positive or negative way. My goal is to make it a positive effect. I almost grabbed some beautiful zucchini for a veggie saute and noticed they were harvested in Mexico. Not sure how ethically they were picked so I put my baggie down and moved on. I’ll wait until I see them in my local farmers market! Something else I love but need to be cautious of are apples..not all are harvested in the US. Or avocados – they tend to be grown and harvested in Mexico, too. So, I’ll do more research into the companies that provide fresh produce for Hannaford just so I can put my mind to rest.
People NEED to be paid a fair wage for their hard work no matter what society they live in. Farmers work very hard to grow their fruits and veggies so if we can be conscious of our decisions we can help provide a fair and ethical living for people around the world and help to eliminate human trafficking in this arena. Make no mistake, forced or child labor used in harvesting produce absolutely contributes to human trafficking. We can all make a difference, one at a time we can gather together and with the power of our consumer buying, tell unethical companies NO MORE!
Glorious Father, guide my hands and feet to do Your will. Continue to give me conviction in this area of my life. With Your Spirit flowing through me, help me to do Your good work. James tells us that our faith without action is dead. (Ja 2:14-17) Don’t let my faith die! Let me be a shining vessel lighting the way for all to see Your Glory. Use my brokenness and my failures – turn them to good ends. You have been merciful to me and I thank you for Your amazing blessings on my life. Light my path! In Christ Jesus’ name, AMEN.
Blessings on you all! May you walk with the Lord lighting your paths!
farmfreshmama 