About 2015, I did a Daniel Fast. It's based on the Prophet Daniel in the Bible: Daniel Chapter 10, Verses 2 & 3 where he did 21 days. He went without meat and without "choice foods". The contemporary way of doing the Daniel Fast is no animal products at all. So no animal meats including seafood and chicken and poultry. No eggs. No cheese. No dairy. No added sweeteners, in particular, honey, sugar, etc. And then, no processed foods! So if you can do rice, you can do brown rice. If you're going to do it, we gotta do whole wheat; they're not doing white wheat. No caffeine. No preservatives, etc.

And so I did it spiritually. 100% spiritually. My church was doing it. Another group called King that I was involved with -- they were doing it. And I said, "You know, sure, I'll do this. I'll do the fast one. What the heck!"

Prior to the fast, I was the largest I'd ever been. And obesity runs in my family, especially all the men. Obesity runs in the family, so you know, it is what it is. I guess this is happening to me too.

I had constipation so bad I had to have surgery! I was straining so hard to have stools that I had a tear in the lining up my rectum! I was leaking anal fluid, walking around with toilet paper between my cheeks, so I wouldn't be, you know. It was embarrassing! It was terrible! So all that had happened plus my asthma was bad. My allergies were terrible, et cetera, et cetera. Back pain, foot pain -- all this was happening and I did the Daniel Fast.

And a week and a half into it, I was like, "what the heck just happened to me? I went to the bathroom twice today! is this diarrhea? This has to be diarrhea because what I mean is this: I usually go on a good week twice a week — little small pellets — struggling pain, dude! I missed a flight one time: I was in the bathroom so long, I missed my connection! So it was a struggle for me and to go twice with really soft stool! I was like this is diarrhea… No! This is real!"

Eventually what I got out of that was like, spiritually speaking… there's a scripture; it says: "We Are Fearfully And Wonderfully Made!" I didn't feel fearfully wonderfully made and so when I did that fast, I was like, "Maybe I am freely wonderfully made… but my diet promoted disease[ my diet promoted constipation… and therefore, if I have a diet that promotes healing and health, maybe I am fearfully wonderfully made and I can start having benefits!"

So now it was a struggle because I did five days in a row of black beans, brown rice, mixed vegetables. I was screaming like, "I hate this! I'm bored! I need something different!" And so, um.., I was reminded, "Is this a spiritual fast or a lifestyle change?" And I'm like, "oh, it's a life… I'm sorry, it's a spiritual fast. I'm gonna go pray about this." And I prayed about it and I said, "Wait a minute, I remember when I was in Haiti and in Nigeria & Uganda, I saw kids who had literally died of malnutrition!" It's like, "Lord, forgive me for being ungrateful, you know, there's a good billion people on this planet -- they'll be ecstatic to have five days in a row of good food. Or even food, period. And so Lord, forgive me for being ungrateful! Let me go and finish this fast."

When the fast was over, I lost 11 pounds in three weeks. Now probably most of it was probably stool and I suppose a fat loss, but I felt fantastic! And I was like, "There's something to this."

I felt fantastic! Yeah! My foot pain was gone. My back pain was gone. And so you know, I just I started doing Meatless Mondays and then, I was vegan Monday through Thursday. And then over time, I just felt like, "I should just keep feeling fantastic!" And I lost six inches on my waist over time, and you know, I'm down to my college weight and I feel way better than I thought I ever would at 51.