Day 9

Have I been fasting my whole life? It feels like ages since I have eaten any real food yet I am less than a 1/3 of the way finished with my fast. The person I started this with dropped out after day 7. How long will I be able to continue? I feel pretty good though today. The hunger has faded. I am not hungry, I just drink juice when I can which is usually around 32-48 ounces a day but I drink a ton of water. After basketball practice today a friend of mine went and saw our high school basketball teams play each other. We stopped at a health food store on the way and had a freshly made juice! I cannot tell you how excited I am. This place is so close to work which means, I can have lunch any working day!

Day 8

Ah, I have gotten behind in my journaling, but no worries, I am still fasting. Day 8 was Monday which is always a really slow day. Although I start my week on Sunday, half of my office is out on Monday so everything is just a little quieter and slower. Although the peace is really nice sometimes when you are trying to get big projects done, the quietness can feel kind of creepy.

Today my body feels a little slowed down. Besides feeling extra tired and having a cramp in my right arm, a woman I work with gave me a scare about protein. Do I need more protein than I am getting? I panicked and went straight to Wild Oats, which now I am fairly confident that I have enough protein and if I really crave it will have a glass of soy milk. Either way, as warned by everything I have studied, people will be suspicious of a fast. Why wouldn't they. I haven't had food except in the liquid form for 8 days yet my body feels good.

This evening I probably did something that wasn't the best for me. I played basketball. Its weird, my arm was feeling tired, my body was tired, yet I scored more points than I have all season, but I know the running around was not letting my body take care of healing process. None the less, I will watch the physical activity at least until next Monday when our game comes around.

Day 7

I woke up today rested as ever. For the first time in a while I haven't hit the snooze button. Looking ahead at my calendar for the day, I knew that I had a long one in me so I had some vegetable juice instead of fruit juice for breakfast. This morning was broccoli and cucumber with a little lemon which, believe it or not, isn't half bad. My morning concluded with having to be at a huge lunch with almost two hundred people who nearly all had brought their own favorite side dishes and several pigs worth of pulled pork provided by the church. Although, I was able to hold of my urges to eat and appear to be in a fairly good mood, I left the church for a quick break seriously doubting my ability to make it 30 days.

Since I had an hour or two before I needed to be back at church, I thought I would go check in with my parents whom I hadn't seen in a while, and they own a scale. I hung out with them for quite a while but I kept wondering what this fast was doing to my weight. Clothes have been fitting a little looser, but I wasn't really expecting a major difference. 208lbs which I misread for 213lbs but either way the last time I weighed in about a month ago I was between 230 and 235lbs.
I feel better than I have felt in ages. A friend pointed out today that we often use many things to help cover our feelings whether it is food, alcohol, or nicotine. All of those and others fill little gaps and help shelter what is really going on inside. By fasting I feel able to really connect with what I am feeling. Is that how my spiritual journey begins? Am I gaining better clarity on who I am and my own strengths and weaknesses? I hope so and really feel like it today. Day 7, 1 week, has been a wonderful milestone. At points I didn't think I would make it this far, but feeling the way I do now, and seeing the immediate results, which won't make a difference unless I change my old eating habits, have given me that extra push to at least take this next 7 days in full stride.

Day 6

After spending an entire day thinking about food roughly every 2 to 3 minutes, my sixth day has been much more enjoyable. God's gift to lay professionals: real days off. It is so rare that I actually have a full day off without a phone conversation, an afternoon of emails (often I do this to myself), or some small errand to run for work. Saturday was a true day off which I spent, sleeping in, lounging around watching movies, helping a friend move a piece of furniture and then retiring back to my couch for more tube. I haven't had a day like this in ages.

I feel better too. The hunger is there, but I feel like I have control over my feelings and cravings. Also I know I will be well rested for one massive day of work tomorrow.

Day 5

Well, each day I keep writing about how this is so easy and I really haven't been craving food nearly as much as I imagined. That banter stops now! I have been so hungry all day that I haven't been able to think about much more. I still have energy and my body feels healthy with the exception of a few pains that feel like growing pains.

A friend of mine and I were in the mall this afternoon and we passed by a hotdog stand. They had these deliciously looking hotdogs that looked like giant pigs in a blanket. I seriously considered ending the fast right then and there, but deep down I knew that I would only feel aweful afterwards. Not only would I have broken my own promise, but something tells me I need to be careful about the amount of greasy and buttery food I put into my body. I have given up on trying to explain to people why in the world I am fasting on nothing but juice for 30 days. It seems worthless to even try to explain in any form of encounter. Everyone just looks at me like I am some complete idiot, which the more I try to rationlize why I am doing this, I believe there might be some truth to it.

At least every five minutes I think about what food I will eat first, how great all of my favorites taste and if it is possible to juice a cheeseburger. Sushi seems to be the choice right now for my first real meal which will come a few days after breaking the fast. Will I make it to double digits? Food... I miss you so much....

Day 4

Waking up feeling rested is something I could get used to. I have energy and have been able to suppress my appetite, but today my body has been aching a little. I feel almost as if I have growing pains which from all I have read would suggest my body is working on cleansing the toxins. Being at work around lunch time has been a little more difficult to deal with. I have to find ways of keeping busy and away from everyone else who is eating. My smelling senses have improved beyond what I ever would have imagined. I can sense who is eating what from quite a ways away. At the same time, I don’t want to bring juice to work because it doesn’t seem to stay nearly as fresh even if I put it in the fridge.

I found myself dosing off quite a bit around the early evening. But overall I feel great. I am hungry. I have thought about sushi for most of the day. A few days earlier it was buffalo wings. But what does surprise me the most is what little our bodies actually need to survive. I have been spending years filling it with junk when I could have been eating healthier, living a healthier lifestyle and feeling much better about myself. My new favorite juice is half of pineapple and a pear. I could drink this every morning regardless of a fast or not.

Day 3

At about 7:15, a little while before my alarm was scheduled to ring, I woke up with pretty sharp pains in my stomach and some pretty bad indigestion. This fast must finally be working. After moving past the stomach pains, I really felt pretty good for most of the day. Here is day 3, and giving up food hasn’t quite been nearly as difficult as I anticipated. My sense of smell seems to have improved. The cafeteria downstairs at work smells unbelievable.

It sometimes helps to take that break in the middle of the day that I so much associate with eating too much. Today, I participated in our Holy Eucharist instead of going to lunch. The bread or Body of Christ was the first solid thing to enter my body in 3 days. The real challenge came at dinner as I sat around a bunch of the youth from the church as the enjoyed their cornbread, beef stew, and hotdogs, several times commenting on how great everything tasted. I managed to hold off and even had the energy after work to go see a movie although the smell of popcorn was almost over bearing. During the early evening, the stomach pains returned and I had what I felt was my bodies first attempt to begin the cleansing process.

Day 2

I have been reading a few people’s accounts of their own 30 day juice fasts and everyone had me terrified about day two. Although, I have been hungry most of the day, the hunger has been controllable. It was not until the afternoon that my stomach started to rumble and I worked through that. By the time the early evening rolled around I was a little nervous. I haven’t had a BM all day and this is supposed to be about detoxifying my body through a cleansing process. As I continue my fast, I am sure I can find ways of regulating this.

I made my second trip to the grocery story this evening to try some new concoctions and find ways of getting more out of my juices. I picked up a bunch of spinach, beets, sweet potatoes, random fruits such as mangos and a honey dew, cantaloupe, some ginger root, more carrots, apples, some grapes, and without sharing any more details, some laxatives.

My body feels fine surprising well, and if the rest of the days are easy as day two then bring it on. The hardest part about the day was when a friend of mine brought over his dinner and it smelled so delicious. My sense of smell is already starting to improve, especially with foods. He was having Huey's Buffalo Wings which may be one of my first meals after the fast.

Lessons learned from day 2: A half of a lemon juiced in vegetables helps make them taste a lot better.

Day 1

I woke up nervous as ever. Do I have the strength to persevere through this challenging task? I feel I have been telling so many of my friends in order to have them hold me accountable. I don’t like being proved wrong, and the more people that know about my fast, the more likely I feel I will be able to finish it.

I started the morning by juicing 5 carrots and a couple of apples. The juice tasted surprisingly good and I began to feel alright about this fast. Preparation for lunch had to happen before I left for work so I cleaned the juicer and mixed a pear, an apple, and a peace of celery together. Even by lunch I still felt strong and by the time I made it home in the early evening I still felt great. Now fruits have a bunch of sugars so I decided dinner needed to be a heavy veggie mix and that way I could have a fruit drink before bed. The veggies don’t taste nearly as good as the fruits, but I expected this.

I ended up playing basketball on Monday night. Here I hadn’t consumed any food all day, and I was able to play for 30 minutes. I cut out a little early as I was feeling a little weak, but better than I anticipated. Bedtime came around 11:00, a little earlier than usually and I felt I got the best sleep I have had in ages. This 30 day fast can’t be so bad.

The Beginning

“Nothing but juice and water for 30 days? Are you crazy and won’t you die?” or “Yeah right, good luck with that.” These are the responses that I have been hearing the last few days I have mentioned my little scheme to friends as a way of having a checks and balances system. Most everyone has asked why. To be honest I feel there are many good reasons to why a 30 day fast will be good for me. First, since high school I have put on 70 pounds and lost control of my body. I have been filling it with nothing but junk for the last eight years and am tired of being a slave to my own eating habits and lifestyles. Second, I feel the need to cleanse my body of those toxins and waste that have been building up for over twenty five years. I have not been the kindest to my body over the years and have struggled with both alcohol and tobacco addiction. And finally, 30 days puts me at Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. A fast will ultimately be a test of my patience, my ability to pray, my determination, and my faith. And when Lent finally does roll around I should be able to undertake more serious and personal spiritual disciplines and lifestyle improvements in order to further me on my own spiritual journey. Please continue to pray for me as I begin this journey.