Spiritually, I wanted to seek God and find where He was leading me for the next chapter of my life. Forty feels like a significant turning point because you really are midway through your life. I wanted to take time to reflect on the last forty years and prepare for the next forty.
Physically I felt it would be a good way to cleanse and detox my body and I wanted to lose weight. In this season of life I feel I am being called to a new 'ministry' of sorts. My husband and I have been on a path towards wellness for several years and find that people often come to us asking for advice. In some ways I knew I wasn't practicing what I was preaching because although I had made huge strides, I still continued to eat some things I knew weren't good for me. I don't want to be a hypocrite. I wish I could say I slayed that dragon during my fast, but, unfortunately, he is still alive. I guess you could say he was maimed in the process, because I do have more control than I did, but not complete.
The emotional part is connected to both the spiritual and physical aspects. Our small group from church had just completed an Andy Stanley video series. The focus of the series was to learn what it meant to be a disciple of Christ, and not JUST a Christian. At one point Andy made a statement that if you wanted to be a true disciple, there were three things you needed to do. I have no idea what one and two were, but the third point was, "don't be mastered by anything." That phrase hit me like the proverbial ton of bricks. I knew I WAS mastered by something. I was mastered by my sweet tooth! My husband says we should ask ourselves the question "What do we run to when we are sick, tired, or hurting?" If the answer is anything but Jesus, we have an idol. Sometimes I don't like the things he says and I had tried to ignore the answer to that question. Anytime I was sad, or tired, or stressed, or angry, or bored, I would run to my secret stashes of chocolate.
I could get all 'dear diary' on you, but I'll stop there. Let's just say I realized I had a problem and it was real. My jeans had been warning me for years, but I just wouldn't listen. It was time to address the issue!
To be honest, I didn't do much research about how to do a forty day fast or what was the best way to approach it. The idea had been rolling around in my head for a while, but I didn't want to do it, so whenever it came to mind, I pushed it away and ate a piece of chocolate. It worked great. I went with three ladies from my church to Missouri for some training for a conference we are hosting at our chuch. I was very busy for those four days, but I did the math and realized if I wanted to start 40 days before my birthday, I needed to start ASAP, so I just made the decision to go for it. I told them the night before what I was doing. We were driving home the next day, so I told them they could choose where we would be eating. As for me, I bought some of those Naked drinks from the gas stations along the way.
The plan I came up with was to drink one green smoothie a day and the rest would only be water or herbal teas. I usually also drink about four ounces of orange juice to help me get down all the vitamins and supplements I take, That was it. Sounds easy, huh? Actually, it wasn't as hard as you would imagine.
The smoothie I made was pretty much the same each day. It contained either a banana or avocado, a huge handful of something green (kale, spinach, or M&Ms), some coconut water, a chunk of fresh pineapple and/or some organic raspberries, green smoothie powder, and some ice and water. I made a good size one and usually didn't have it until about 3 or 4 PM. I drank it all at once because I like it cold and can't stand how the greens get frothy if you let it sit.
There are two things that I believe made this doable for me. First, I believe God gave me a lot of grace to be able to get through it. It is the ONLY explanation. Keep in mind, I was fasting during THANKSGIVING! And I am the one who cooked dinner for my whole family. It MUST have been God who gave the the strength to do that. There were numerous Christmas parties I went to during the following weeks. I will admit to licking a spoon or two as I prepared dinner for my family at Thanksgiving.
The other thing that I believe made it easier for me was that my husband and I are already used to fasting. We do something called intermittent fasting every day. It is pretty rare for either of us to eat before our noon meal. You can read about intermittent fasting here. The basic idea is that you don't eat anything after dinner until noon the next day. For us that means from about 8 pm to the following noon, giving us 16 hours of fasting each day. It is more than just 'skipping breakfast' because if you are doing it correctly it means you don't consume anything except water (and hot tea for us) during that time. Throughout a normal day your body burns glycogen for energy. Glycogen comes from the food we eat. It takes about six to eight hours for your body to metabolize your glycogen stores; after that you start to shift to burning fat. However, if you are replenishing your glycogen by eating every eight hours (or sooner), you make it far more difficult for your body to use your fat stores as fuel.
Please note that I am not a doctor, so I advise you to do your own research before you make diet changes based on my suggestions. I am just sharing MY experience. My husband and I have found that at mid-morning we go through a period of about twenty minutes or so when we are very hungry. After that, its almost like you can tell a switch has flipped and your body is burning stored energy and we are no longer hungry. I can go way up in the afternoon before I eat anything, and it isn't all that uncommon for me to not to eat anything until three o'clock.
From my reading, I have learned intermittent fasting helps you to regulate your blood sugar, and I have to say, that I FEEL that is true for me. I don't have any evidence other than just how I feel, but I do feel better when I am fasting. I don't crash in the afternoons like I sometimes do. I made pancakes for my family this past weekend and ate a couple of them. Within half an hour I felt like a zombie. Before my forty day fast I would not have realized the cause of it, but I am much more in tune with how my body feels based blood sugar swings. When I eat sugar I almost feel sick and know that I'm going to feel bad for a few hours. Prior to my fast, I would have just continued to eat sugar throughout the day to prevent the crash that comes from eating it.
I believe that doing intermittent fasting off and on for the last year prepared me for the physical part of the forty day fast. I was already used to being in that ketogenic state, so that part wasn't difficult for me. That's not to say I wasn't tempted, and the last couple of weeks of the fast I started nibbling here and there on things I shouldn't, but as far as being hungry, I can honestly say I wasn't that hungry. I certainly got familiar with how an empty stomach feels, but feeling empty and hungry are different. The hardest part was mental, not physical, because I WANTED to eat. I wanted to taste and chew my food, but as far as being hungry, I really wasn't.
Like I said in the beginning, I had several reasons for doing the fast. Spiritually, I was a little disappointed that I didn't feel like I got a lot of insight. To be honest, I was really discouraged about that and that is probably a lot of the reason that I didn't do as well in the second half of the fast. Physically, I was happy with my results. I lost twenty pounds and got back in a lot of my clothes that I had outgrown. I'm now wearing jeans I haven't worn in several years, but refused to discard. Emotionally, it helped me tremendously to know that I am not enslaved to my cravings. I can say no. I can also say yes sometimes, but it is now in my power to say no. I can see I will still have to watch that area of my life as I still have those old tendencies to run to chocolate when I am stressed, but I'm aware of it now, and it helps me to make better choices.
I shared how I felt disappointed at the end of my fast that I hadn't had a burning bush experience and didn't really feel like I had gained any significant insight. I do feel like I am getting that now. It is still not clear, but the Lord has put some things on my heart and I feel that I am changing into someone who is different with different goals and priorities than I had in the last few years. I'm still in-process, so its difficult to articulate, but I feel a change happening within me and I'm excited about it!
I shared my experience with fasting and intermittent fasting to encourage you to consider if it would be a good fit for you. I think most people would benefit from doing intermittent fasting at least several times a week. Be sure to read the article I linked to for more information about that. It contains information that comes from an actual doctor, not just some chick who thinks she knows everything. And let us know what YOUR experiences with fasting have been.
Kristy
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