Lenten Fasting

[Chemist82]

As Lent approaches for many Christians, I wanted to share something I’ve stumbled upon, by God’s grace. I actually started fasting early this year, after Septuagesima Sunday, because my father was and is in need of prayer and fasting. To my surprise, I learned it was an ancient tradition to start fasting after Septuagesima Sunday, four days a week, excluding Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, for the 70 days leading up to Easter. Beautiful really.

I’ve always found fasting difficult: hard on the brain. I tried intermittent fasting years ago, but contrary to the reports of its proponents, it did not bring me mental clarity; if anything, it brought fatigue. I fast on Fridays, but I’ve always found myself wore out by the end of the day. This time it’s a little different, and I’ve actually started to feel that mental clarity.

It’s important to have a high protein breakfast for those of us with ADD, so I’ve started taking a morning shake with 45 g of whey protein and cashew milk. It’s a little thin, but it’s enough to get me to lunch. For lunch, I’ve been having some grape tomatoes, some peppers and Skyr yogurt with about 19 g of protein. I have a normal supper, about 1100 calories.

One benefit of this pattern is that I’m tired and ready for bed at a good hour. I wake up with plenty of time for prayer and Scripture reading, and a little exercise. I hope others might find this routine helpful.

[Lunacie]

This isn't something I'm familiar with. When I hear 'fasting' I think not eating
anything at all. I didn't realize it can mean abstinence from certain foods.

[Chemist82]

It depends on the context , I suppose. Medically, fasting is not eating anything at all (and can sometimes mean nothing to drink). If I understand it rightly, our Muslim friends do not allow anything to pass their lips during Ramadan. (Observant) Catholics and Orthodox reduce their intake, and do not eat meat on Fridays in observance of Our Lord’s Passion. Catholics are encouraged to fast by taking two small meals that together are less than one meal, and one normal meal for supper. (Plus prayer, of course.) But what that looks like depends on your state in life. For a religious in a monastery, that could mean only liquids with six hours of prayer. (The Dominicans used to fast on just beer for Lent.). For a professional working 8-10 hours a day with lots of mental work, like me, that’s not realistic, especially not with my flavour of ADD. I go brain dead without food. And I would be fired if I spent the day praying!

But, you know, if you want examples of heroic fasting, look up St. Padre Pio.

[Fuzzy12]

In India there are various types of religious fasting as well. Muslims during Ramadan who eat and drink nothing during sunlight hours. However, Hindus and Jains also fast. Sometimes full fasting (no food) but often it means no rice or no carbs (and almost always no meat)

I used to fast fairly often (water fast) usually for 36h. Not for religious reasons. I found the hunger and tiredness was easy to manage but my cognitive abilities declines drastically on fasting days. I couldn't focus or think clearly. I got fairly cranky as well.

[20thcenturyfox]

Originally Posted by Lunacie

This isn't something I'm familiar with. When I hear 'fasting' I think not eating
anything at all. I didn't realize it can mean abstinence from certain foods.

To be honest, I still think of fasting as not eating anything, though I realize it means different things to different people.

For a number of years when I was younger I used to stop eating meat for Lent, and donate time and money to a shelter or soup kitchen. Since I was born a carnivore, this was rather a big effort for me, but I didn't call it "fasting," I just called it "abstinence" or an "observance." I also used it to broaden my vegetarian horizons, learn about combining vegetable proteins, etc.

I always found there were a couple of amusing effects of not eating meat for a period of time. One was I became extremely conscious of the smells of other people (meat-eaters, presumably). I could even smell a person who had left the room. The other was that I would inevitably begin dreaming of rare, juicy steak.

Did it bring me closer to God? I think so...I have often found God to have quite a sense of humour, often tricking me into doing new things I did not want to do but needed to do.