How to Revitalize Your Body and Spirit in 28 Days

Fasting is an ancient biblical and spiritual tool for cleansing the soul and spirit.

Fasting is a key to genuine and deep spirituality. Throughout the ages, people have used fasting as a tool for entering into deeper spiritual realms and getting to know God better. In the Bible, fasting was considered a key part of entering into and maintaining a powerful and spiritually dynamic walk with God. To fast biblically, you must voluntarily abstain from food—partially or completely—for a period of time for a spiritual purpose.

During a spiritual fast, you deny yourself one of the most basic elements of survival, one that is loved and cherished by your body—food. The reason is that fasting, when accomplished through the direction and enabling of the Holy Spirit, has the power to break the gripping control of our lower nature.

As you develop a life of fasting and prayer, you will find that God will lead and guide you. You will walk in the footsteps of great men and women who have gone before us—men and women who increased in purity of body, mind and spirit and who touched heaven with their prayers and nations with their passions.

Daniel was one of these men. His fasting brought about powerful results. Let’s take a look at the Daniel fast for overcoming the flesh.

A Daniel fast is a partial fast based on the way Daniel and three other Hebrew youths fasted when the Jews were taken captive and led away to Babylon. We can also connect the Daniel fast to the time in Daniel 10 when Daniel waited upon the Lord for help from heaven on a critical matter concerning the kingdom he served. Using these references, I have developed the meal plan and spiritual approach.

I believe the Daniel fast was all vegetables and no grains, meat, or wine. The 21-day detox plus seven-day juice fast I’ve developed incorporate what I call a modified Daniel fast, hence the Daniel detox.

Daniel and the three Hebrew young men lived a fasted life for three years on a vegetarian diet while learning and studying in the king’s court, and God honored their partial fast. God tremendously favored their decision to fast and granted them favor, wisdom and insight far above anyone around them.

Like the Daniel fast, the Daniel detox eliminates rich foods that are tempting to the flesh. Today people are so bound to their flesh that they often cannot go one meal without eating some form of meat, something sweet, something fatty or some other type of rich food. We must crucify our flesh daily and take up our cross and follow Christ (Matt. 16:24). What better way to crucify our flesh than to follow Daniel’s fasted lifestyle?

The 28-Day Daniel Fast

This is an introduction to my 28-day fasting program.

It will provide you with the information you need to prepare for the actual fasting part of this detoxification and cleansing program. Before you consider fasting, it is important to follow this uniquely designed nutritional program to strengthen and support your liver, which will prepare it for the increased role of detoxification during your fast.

Your body was uniquely created to handle enormous amounts of toxins, poisons, germs and diseases. Your body’s detoxification system, including your liver and GI tract, is astonishingly powerful. With proper nutritional support from you, your body is able to eliminate chemicals and toxins.

The benefits to you of a detoxification system that is functioning at peak efficiency are unending. A properly operating detoxification system in your body will:

• Prevent and even reverse disease
• Provide you with more energy
• Allow you to feel better
• Aid you in losing weight
• Help clear up your skin and complexion

The first system of toxic cleansing is your liver. It’s an amazing organ that works day and night to cleanse your blood from chemicals, poisons, bacteria, viruses and any other foreign invader that comes to rob you of your good health.

If you wanted to be an award-winning Olympic athlete, you wouldn’t enter the competition without spending months in training, strengthening your muscles, developing your skills and building your body with the best diet and nutrition available. In the same way, you must train your body to compete against the toxic world in which you live.

21-Day Liver Support Program

For the first three weeks of my fasting program, you will follow this diet and regimen of supplements to prepare your body for fasting.

These dietary guidelines will help cleanse and support your liver while you fast and will continue helping your body to operate at peak efficiency as you begin your health-first lifestyle at the conclusion of my fasting program. The more closely you follow these guidelines, the more benefit you will receive from your fast. It is important that you change your diet and lifestyle to reduce the amount of toxins you are taking in as well as improve your body’s ability to eliminate toxins.

The first 21 days of my fasting program will give you the necessary dietary guidelines to cleanse and support your liver before you begin the juice fast part of the program. To get the optimum benefit, be careful to strictly follow these guidelines.

Avoid These Foods

Making the right choices of food for your liver’s health is important, especially before you consider detoxification through fasting. Here are some foods—and other products—to avoid:

• Colas and chocolate
• Alcohol (including wine)
• Processed vegetable oils
• Animal skins and meats
• Deep-fried foods
• Microwaved foods
• Hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated fats and oils
• Refined foods and processed foods, including white bread, chips, cereals, instant oatmeal and instant rice
• Simple sugars, including honey, pastries, cookies, candies, cakes and pies
• Fast foods
• Processed juices
• Wheat products, including crackers, bagels, pasta, muffins (Sprouted breads such as Ezekiel or manna bread are OK.)
• Corn products
• Soy products
• Dairy products, including butter, cheese, milk, yogurt, sour cream and ice cream
• Eggs
• Fish and poultry         

Individuals with autoimmune diseases such as psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus may need to avoid nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant and peppers), since these foods may aggravate their condition.

For this detoxification fasting program, I have eliminated all meat, dairy, eggs and other foods that commonly trigger allergic reactions or food-sensitivity reactions, including corn, soy, wheat and processed foods. Sprouted breads such as Ezekiel and manna bread are allowed unless you are sensitive to gluten, which is the protein in wheat.

Eat These Foods Instead

For at least two weeks, in preparation for your fast, eat as many of the following foods as possible. Because certain fruits and vegetables have higher pesticide residues than others, I strongly recommend organic for these:

• Organic fruit: Drink a glass of freshly juiced fruits and vegetables in the morning.
• Organic vegetables: Eat as many raw vegetables as possible. In addition, cruciferous vegetables, such as cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, kale, collard greens, mustard greens and turnips, are very important. Other liver-friendly vegetables include legumes (all types of beans), beets, carrots, dandelion root and greens. You may steam the veggies or lightly stir-fry them in organic extra-virgin coconut, macadamia nut or olive oil.
• Liver-friendly starches: Eat brown rice, wild rice, rice pasta and brown-rice bread.
• Good fats for your liver and for detoxification: Use organic, extra-virgin olive oil; avocados; raw, fresh nuts such as almonds, macadamia nuts and walnuts (avoid peanuts and cashews); seeds; flaxseed oil (not for cooking); evening primrose oil; black currant seed oil; borage oil; and fish oil.
• Beverages: Drink plenty of pure, clean water with fresh-squeezed lemon or lime (two quarts daily), fresh vegetable and fruit juices, organic green or black tea and other herbal teas. While I don’t recommend that you start drinking organic coffee, one cup of organic coffee per day is allowable if you are already a coffee drinker when you begin the program.

Take These Liver Supplements

There are certain supplements that are very important to the liver, which you should take to prepare for a detoxification fast and when ending a fast.

The following is a summary of the important supplements that I recommend you take every day of the first 21 days—the liver support phase—of this fasting program:

• A comprehensive multivitamin and mineral supplement
• Milk thistle (Silybin Phytosome)
• NAC (N-acetyl cysteine)
• Organic green tea, dandelion tea, other herbal teas (available at health food stores)
• Phytonutrient powder/drink
• Balanced rice protein supplement (optional): one scoop in 4 ounces of water, twice a day, for those individuals who are sensitive to fruits or vegetables or who have a sensitive GI tract.

Keep a Positive Attitude

The successful completion of this fasting program requires a winning attitude and the support of your friends and loved ones! Not only do you need a determined attitude to make necessary lifestyle changes, but it will be very important to maintain a positive and cheerful outlook.

Discuss this part of the fasting program with your family. Whether or not they are joining you in this 28-day program, it is best to discuss the program with them first. This would be an excellent time to sit down together as a family and create the guidelines for your new health-first lifestyle you will launch at the end of the 28 days.

As you begin this phase, it is extremely important now for you to make the decision to eliminate toxins from your life. This should be a permanent decision for you, and it is essential during the 28-day fasting program.

Other Tips and Techniques

• Do not cut or prepare fruits and vegetables before you are ready to eat them. You may be tempted to slice up that melon and carrot just for the convenience of being able to grab them from the refrigerator, but fruits and vegetables lose their nutrients when they are cut and stored. It’s best to prepare them when you know they will be immediately eaten.
• Don’t deplete your food of nutrients by improper cooking techniques. When you boil vegetables, most of the nutrients leave the vegetables and end up in the water. By the time you eat them, the boiled water has a greater nutrient content than the vegetables themselves! Soups, however, are an exception to this rule because you do consume the broth that contains the nutrients from the vegetables.
• If you must boil vegetables, bring the water to a boil first and then add your veggies to the water for a brief time. Do not allow them to soak in the water. Drain them immediately and then serve them. I strongly recommend that you steam your vegetables or eat them raw. I also recommend that my patients avoid microwaved foods altogether.
• Don’t prepare too much food or prepare it too far ahead of time. Reheating food and leftovers depletes the food of valuable vitamins, minerals and other nutrients—especially if you reheat in the microwave.
• Fruits and vegetables should be eaten unpeeled whenever possible because many vitamins and minerals are actually concentrated just beneath their skin. If you have not purchased organic items, it is imperative that you wash these fruits and vegetables carefully to remove pesticides.
• It is best to use fresh, organically grown produce. However, if fresh produce is not available, choose frozen fruits and vegetables. Rarely should you choose canned fruits and vegetables, making sure the label lists only organic, whole ingredients.

Before You Begin

Before you start, it’s important to set the boundaries of your fast. Determine what type of fast you will go on. Check the boxes below that identify the fast or fasts you will be implementing.

• A partial fast to support the liver during detoxification
• A Daniel fast, as in the book of Daniel
• A fruit and vegetable juice fast

Now it’s time to get started. I pray that these special days of cleansing and healing will be some of the most rewarding days of your entire life. I pray that you will experience renewed health, energy and vitality. In addition, I pray that your soul and spirit will be refreshed and renewed. 

Dr. Don Colbert, M.D., is board-certified in family practice and anti-aging medicine. In addition to speaking at conferences, he is the author of the New York Times best-selling book The Seven Pillars of Health, along with the best-sellers Toxic Relief and the Bible Cure series. He has treated over 50,000 patients in his more than 25 years of practicing medicine.

Watch Dr. Don Colbert explain the reasons why the Daniel Detox cuts out meat temporarily at nomeat.charismamag.com.

If you liked the article, you’ll love the book

Dr. Don Colbert shows you how to cleanse your body in his latest book, The Daniel Detox: 21 Days to Revitalize Your Body and Spirit (Siloam). His 21-day meal plan will leave you feeling fresh and ready to conquer the day. You can find this book at amazon.com, christianbook.com or anywhere Christian books are sold.