2 days remain in 2010. I have one meal left to fast. I have fasted 299 meals this year.
Finishing up at work this week. Getting ready to pack and go to Shreveport for six months. There has been a lot to do here at the end of the year. I feel that God has used the experiences of this year to prepare my husband and I for the next chapter of our lives.
Much healing has taken place in me and I know it is because of the prayer and fasting on a steady and consistent basis for the past 12 months. My spiritual life has expanded and grown. When life has gotten busy or festive there have been times, even a week at a time that took a rest from fasting. This has been without the guilt and self loathing that comes with dieting.
My observation is when fasting a particular meal each day, you do get accustomed to it. In fact I found much of the year I was not hungry at lunch or dinner once I had fasted that meal for a week. I experimented with both lunch and dinner. I enjoy having dinner with my husband, but he has been out of town for the past 5 or 6 months. So I have fasted the evening meal most of the time while he has been gone. I enjoyed having lunch with friends. Breakfast is important to get our metabolism up and brains functioning.
I have learned much about my unhealthy relationship with eating. I found I would eat when trying to solve a problem (mindless activity to snack while thinking). I would eat under stress, and I would eat when faced with a task I didn’t want to do. I would snack during what I call transition times like early in the morning at work while making my work plan for the day and at night when returning home in an effort to dis-engage from work. Food was a distraction and avoidance tool for me. Now I am mindful about hungry and full. God made us to know hungry and full. Fasting is kind of like a reset button. Food tastes better when you are hungry.
There is no bad and good food especially in the homemade arena. Now I do know that chain restaurant food is loaded with sugar, salt and fat and all the things that make up extra calories. I would not live on it. Many chain restaurant hamburgers have between 800 and 1200 calories. If you cook 4 ounces of lean ground beef at home and add a hamburger bun, you are looking at 300 calories for the meat and 100 calories for the bun. So something in not right in restaurant-ville. I don’t know that you can eat out everyday even with fasting and lose weight.
I am fasting the noon meal today. It will be the 300th meal. I will write a bit more tomorrow about observations and thoughts from a year of fasting 300 meals.
"Fast 300 Meals is about freedom to loose weight without dieting. It is about drawing on the power of God to be healed from overeating. It is a project to fast 300 meals in 365 days."
December 30
2 days remain in 2010. I have one meal left to fast. I have fasted 299 meals this year.
Finishing up at work this week. Getting ready to pack and go to Shreveport for six months. There has been a lot to do here at the end of the year. I feel that God has used the experiences of this year to prepare my husband and I for the next chapter of our lives.
Much healing has taken place in me and I know it is because of the prayer and fasting on a steady and consistent basis for the past 12 months. My spiritual life has expanded and grown. When life has gotten busy or festive there have been times, even a week at a time that took a rest from fasting. This has been without the guilt and self loathing that comes with dieting.
My observation is when fasting a particular meal each day, you do get accustomed to it. In fact I found much of the year I was not hungry at lunch or dinner once I had fasted that meal for a week. I experimented with both lunch and dinner. I enjoy having dinner with my husband, but he has been out of town for the past 5 or 6 months. So I have fasted the evening meal most of the time while he has been gone. I enjoyed having lunch with friends. Breakfast is important to get our metabolism up and brains functioning.
I have learned much about my unhealthy relationship with eating. I found I would eat when trying to solve a problem (mindless activity to snack while thinking). I would eat under stress, and I would eat when faced with a task I didn’t want to do. I would snack during what I call transition times like early in the morning at work while making my work plan for the day and at night when returning home in an effort to dis-engage from work. Food was a distraction and avoidance tool for me. Now I am mindful about hungry and full. God made us to know hungry and full. Fasting is kind of like a reset button. Food tastes better when you are hungry.
There is no bad and good food especially in the homemade arena. Now I do know that chain restaurant food is loaded with sugar, salt and fat and all the things that make up extra calories. I would not live on it. Many chain restaurant hamburgers have between 800 and 1200 calories. If you cook 4 ounces of lean ground beef at home and add a hamburger bun, you are looking at 300 calories for the meat and 100 calories for the bun. So something in not right in restaurant-ville. I don’t know that you can eat out everyday even with fasting and lose weight.
I am fasting the noon meal today. It will be the 300th meal. I will write a bit more tomorrow about observations and thoughts from a year of fasting 300 meals.