Intermittent fasting week two

So I have survived three fasting days and it’s been a mixed bag. The first day went off pretty smoothly. Last Friday, not so much. This is what I wrote Thursday night in my journal:

It’s 9 o’clock and already I’m hungry. At least my stomach is gurgling and I don’t know how I’m going to make it through Friday. Fortunately I scheduled errands to run in the morning so hopefully I won’t have time to think about eating. I’ll take my water thermos.

On Friday I wrote:

They say it takes 30 consecutive days for something new to become a habit. So how does that work when you’re only doing a thing twice a week. Sigh.

I did lose three pounds.

Yesterday again wasn’t too bad, and again, I was out evangelizing on campus. Is there a causal effect or simply correlation between focusing on something stimulating that takes my mind off my tummy. I have short prayers of faith (Jesus I trust in you, I love you, You are my true food, etc.) I throw up during the day. But the truth is still, I am spending a lot of my time thinking about food, even on non-fasting days. Maybe even more on non-fasting days. I also am experiencing some heartburn on mornings when I eat breakfast. Hmm.

What am I doing about it? Well, I drink a lot of water. I keep bags of raw carrots and celery in the frig for when the compulsion to eat is too great. I try to keep busy. I walk on my treadmill every other day and work with hand weights alternate days. I pray. I remind myself I AM NOT STARVING.

I don’t want to make this fasting-thing a religion in itself—I already have a religion—I want to integrate discipline into my life, body and spirit. In the spiritual realm, I feel some positive movement there, but one good date does not a happy marriage make, so…we’ll see. We work on spiritual discipline, but we must not deceive ourselves into thinking we are climbing to Mount Tabor on our own strength. It’s the discipline to surrender—to be still and know God is God.

Back to the practical, which is where I live for the most part. Lent is coming up. Will I up the ante to fasting three days a week (Mon-Weds-Fri) or go for maintaining my current schedule. Like getting a running start to Lent—a marathon, so to speak—but not pushing to where I break. My goal is to eventually get to the point where it becomes a habit I don’t have to think about.

We shall see.