The Monthly Fast

As you may know, I'm a <a href="http://mormon.org/welcome/0,6929,403-1,00.html">Mormon</a> (member of <a href="http://beta.lds.org/portal/site/LDSOrg">The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints</a>). In the Church, the members fast together on the first Saturday/Sunday of the month. Most members start their fast on Saturday and end it sometime in the afternoon or evening on Sunday. For more information about religious fasting, read <a href="http://library.lds.org/nxt/gateway.dll/Magazines/Ensign/2001.htm/ensign%20may%202001.htm/the%20law%20of%20the%20fast.htm?fn=document-frame.htm$f=templates$3.0">this article</a>.<br /><br />Yesterday was the first time my wife and I were able to fast together in a very long time. She doesn't fast when she's pregnant or actively nursing. So now that our youngest is doing well with a bottle and is starting to eat solids, she felt that she could fast. She was talking to our neighbor about this and our neighbor mentioned that they were doing a clense this weekend. They eat nothing but vegetables and drink nothing but water. I've heard people do that before. Maybe I'll try it one of these weekends when the BCS championship and Super Bowl football games are over. But our neighbor says they've done it before and have lost a few pounds. The biggest temptation for them is beer.<br /><br />I've also read a bit on Seth's blog about fasting or semi-fasting. You can read all about that <a href="http://www.blog.sethroberts.net/2006/06/22/meal-skipping-good-or-bad/">here</a>.<br /><br />So I started my fast Saturday night. I just wasn't hungry during the day and didn't eat dinner until around 7:30pm. Fasting isn't so tough. I've found it much easier to do since I've been doing the SLD. The thing I miss most when I'm fasting is the water. I get so thirsty. As a missionary serving in Central America, during fasts I would get cotton mouth and I craved water so much. We'd hike around visiting members on fast Sunday and I remember not really sweating because I didn't have much water in me. But as soon as I broke the fast and took those first sips of water, the pores in my skin seemed to release a floodgate and I would immediately begin sweating.<br /><br />Yesterday I ended my fast at dinner time. When I end my fast, I find that despite being so hungry, I fill up quite quickly. So all I had the other day was a small dish of enchildas, two pieces of wheat bread and a bowl of ice cream.<br /><br />This morning I weighed in after my 30 minutes of running and 30 minutes of biking and was happy to see that I finally broke the 190 plane I've been on for the last two months.<br /><br />As always, same time of day, same scale with just the gym towel.<br /><br /><strong>WEIGHT: 188.8</strong><br /><em>Difference: 1.2 lbs. since January 1, 2007</em>