Don't freak out at the word fasting, though the first time I ever fasted, I certainly did! My heart wasn't in the right place and I was miserable all day. I hated it.
Fast forward to just after college: I started an online 60 day Bible study called The Lords Table at www.settingcaptivesfree.com. This study is focused on looking at God to fill the needs that we run to for food and to help break the strongholds of laziness and gluttony. After the initial sixty days, there is a 2nd study that is an intensive 21-day liquid fast. It was in those two studies that I found the biblical joy in fasting, and since then, have done three long-term liquid fasts, ranging from 5 to 21 days.
I'm continuing to follow their model, though I've not doing the fast through their study, as I have not since the first time. They recommend the first two days as prep days, eating fruit for breakfast and raw veggies for lunch and supper. Then 16 days of liquids (no dairy, protein shakes, etc) such as juices, non-meat broths, smoothies, etc, then the last two days with raw fruits and veggies to wake the digestive system back up again. Personally, I drink more of a fruit based juice in the morning, and then veggie juices, vegetable stocks, and herbal teas for the rest of the day (my favorite lunch and dinner is vegetable stock mixed 1/2 & 1/2 with V-8 and spiced with garlic, cumin, pepper, and chili powder).
Now Day 2 is drawing to a close and I'm feeling pretty good. Fruit for breakfast (strawberries yesterday, a pear today) and veggie salads for lunch and dinner. Today's cucumber/tomato salad was delicious! Jonathan slept poorly last night, and i woke up around 1 AM with bad hunger pains. Yet God is good as I prayed over them and was able to fall back asleep. I was a bit tired this afternoon and have a bit of a headache, but we'd been traveling, too. I didn't get any exercise in today, but enjoyed a walk yesterday and hope to walk again in the morning. In the meantime, the fridge is stocked for juices (fruit and veggie) and I made a gallon of my vegetable broth soup while washing dishes this evening. For now, I'm sipping tea, blogging, and getting ready to put kids to bed and do my evening Bible study. I'm been enjoying working through Cynthia Herald's "Becoming a Woman of Simplicity" and Beth Moore's "Breaking Free", and for the first time in a very long time, am hungering for the Word in a way that I have not in quite some time. I'm sure I will blog more on this later in the days to come. For now, though, I need to put munchkins to bed, so good night!
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