Some of you may be wondering why I chose to do a seven day fast. As I am on a spiritual journey, it is important that I reach a state of clarity with my mind. When we consume food, our body is in a constant state of survival. In order to get past this survival mode, one must deprive the body of that which it desires. With a fast, this does not usually happen until around day four. After this point your mind and body reach a new state of existence and self-introspection can really begin. Most people will not really have a break through until day six or seven of a fast. This is the reason why I chose the length of seven days.
On this fast I will be abstaining from movies and tv series, facebook as well as intimate encounters with my hubby (cuddling is still ok, though). As this is a spiritual fast, I wanted to make sure that I keep my mind free and clear of anything that might distract me. On a more practical note, watching people eat and drink in movies or seeing recipe posts on facebook might make me want the things that I cannot have on this fast. So I thought it would best to remove as many forms of stimulation as possible.
On to my fast update. My last day of eating food was supposed to consist of smaller meals, which I did all day until my last meal. Saturday evening we had friends over for dinner and I decided to indulge myself with the hopes that I would not have any desire to eat the first day of my fast. The last thing I consumed was a slice of my vegan strawberry cheesecake. For me, it was definitely the right move!
When I woke up Sunday morning I chugged some water and then got ready to go to a coaches meeting downtown at CYSO. During the meeting I continued to sip my spring water. Then I headed to Yoga class at the Lab (12pm class) - at this point I still did not feel hungry. It was not until the end of the class that I even noticed I had not eaten anything.
After class I came home, took a 30 minute nap and then taught for an hour. I was very lucky that my schedule was much lighter, as I was done with my obligations at 4:30pm. It wasn't until around 5pm that I started feeling more hungry, really cold and noticed a bit of pressure in my head. Around 6pm I felt sleepy, so I took another nap (approximately an hour).
Surprisingly when I woke up I was not too hungry and had more energy than I had expected. I cut Andrew's hair, caught up with some emails and worked on my blog posts. I headed down to bed around 12pm feeling a little hungry. It took me about 20 minutes to fall asleep, but once I did, I was out cold.
“It is a wise artist who knows when to cry 'halt' in his composition, but it should be pondered over in his heart and worked out with prayer and fasting.”
~ Albert Pinkham Ryder
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