“Diet” is four letter word.
Who wants to be on one of those? And when we try—and we do try—we have results in the beginning and lapse back into our old ways at the end. It becomes a destructive cycle that wears on our bodies and our spirits.
But what if our eating and our praying could be united in one effort, for a spiritual and physical blessing?
This meal plan is meant to be a spiritual journey. While I am not a doctor, I am a woman who has been healed from an eating disorder and who later in life found herself muddling through "every-day girl" food issues. Spending the last thirteen years in Christian ministry, I have experimented with both my food and my prayer life. What I am presenting here is my own plan for spiritual and physical wellness.
The food selected in this plan comes out of my own research and experience, combining aspects of the Makers Diet by Jordan Reuban and the South Beach Diet. In other words, it is a no-sugar, high protein plan. The difference with the Proseuche Plan, is not in what you eat, but how you go about it. The word “proseuche” (pronounced pros-ew-khay) is the Biblical Greek word for “prayer.” This is a “Prayer” plan.
All of us have something that is weighing heavy on our hearts. Things from the past, daily struggles, or concerns for the future. What are you concerned about right now? If you don’t know, ask someone close to you, I am sure they hear you mention your concern over and over again. Could it be your relationships, money, work, health? Whatever your chief concern is, this should become the focus of your Proseuche Plan.
Following the Proseuche Plan turns a diet into a fast. In the Bible, a fast is when you give up some or all food for the purpose of bringing your concerns before God. When you give up sugar, caffeine, grains, and many carbohydrates, you will participate in the suffering of self-denial. (This is another experience in a biblical fast.) You will probably go through withdrawals from the sugar and caffeine. In my own experience, these withdrawals could be minimal, like a little headache or irritability, or they could take the form of a migraine or flu like symptoms. Fortunately, I found that after a few days the withdrawal symptoms pass. After a week or so my sugar cravings also pass. Soon, I find that I start to enjoy my new freedom from toxic foods. Many people express that their bowel movement become regular, acne clears, and yeast symptoms subsist.
You see, a secondary benefit of the Proseuche Plan is that your body will become more healthy and you will feel better about yourself.
In my experience, I found that the first two weeks are the most difficult, physically and spiritually. If you participate (you should consult your doctor first), it is at this time you need to place a special focus on prayer. In general, pray for yourself, your concerns, and those around you. In particular, pray for your special concern. Every time you go to eat (or not eat) lift your concern up to God in prayer. For example, when I would really like a piece of chocolate I might pray, “God, I lift up _____. Please intervene,” or “Lord, help me to ____.” Then I say no to the chocolate.
The Proseuche Plan is all about motivation. We are not "dieting" to lose weight (though you will lose weight), we are doing this to draw closer to God and present our special prayer request before Him.
Once you start the Proseuche Plan, don’t be surprised if things “shake-up” a little bit in your life. While we often point the finger at others in our prayers, “God fix my husband,” we may be unaware that God needs to work in us first. In other words, sometimes God needs to readjust our lives to answer our prayers.
The key to the Proseuche Plan is that we have to continually go before God and allow Him to work in us. Each food choice provides us with the opportunity to lift up our concerns, again and again. This plan provides us with the opportunity to trust God, believing that He hears our prayers and will answer them. (Now, sometimes this answer is in a way we asked for and sometimes not.) The Proseuche Plan will help us to focus on God’s will for our lives, which comes from the very essence of love Himself.
I pray that through the Proseuche Plan you will discover that you can entrust your life to the One who loves you most.
