This weekend was kinda rough. I dreamed about food. I desired food. I even got distracted by gross and unhealthy food like hot dogs and a Bacon Western Cheeseburger from Carl’s. I haven’t eaten either of those in over 6 years! But they were on my mind. I’m in a bit of a rut with the juices that I choose: either Mean Green, Tomato, or Citrus. That’s pretty much the extent of my variety. I know I need to expand this, so today I’m having a carrot, apple, and beet juice for lunch. I’ll see how that goes. I REALLY want fruit juice, but that’s not really the point here. Veggie juice is where it’s at. As difficult as this weekend was, I didn’t really get close to the “giving up” point. I just recognized the feelings, whined a bit, and moved on.
It’s easy to stick with the diet because of the benefits I’ve been seeing. My broken foot is healing fast. I normally heal like a turtle; it takes forever. So when I went from not being able to weight bear at all, to hobbling around in like 3 days, I was amazed. Amazed! This healing has probably set me back on my original focus, which was my ulcerative colitis. As soon as this foot is healed, I’m sure my body will turn it’s attention to all the other stuff.
The other thing that this weekend taught me, was that my focus for the fast is all wrong. I am looking at health, detoxification, and healing. Not bad, but I’m also a Christian. I got some books from the library to give me a boost and motivation, and they talked about the spiritual background of fasting. Holy cow I missed the boat. I mean, I had prayed before starting the fast to ask God if this was the right choice for me: and I felt He answered with a yes. I have prayed on a deeper level and felt my relationship with Him strengthen, but it’s not what it could be. Fasting is talked about often in the Bible. They fasted regularly for reflection, guidance, repentance, and health. But we don’t do this as a culture anymore. Reading these books is really opening my eyes to the benefits of fasting beyond my physical health.
So I’m calling a do over. Wait, I’m not starting over. This was hard work and I’m 1/3 of the way through! How about I call an about face. Change directions. Shift focus. I’m calling to myself to focus on Him and not on me. It’s interesting how fasting works, you have this whole other area of your brain that opens up and allows you to connect to a Holy God when you choose to give up His good gifts (food) for His even greater gifts (relationship). But this doesn’t happen when you just stop eating. This happens when you replace the time that you spent eating, with prayer, worship, and Bible Study.
One of the books I’m reading says that because fasting is so powerful, you will still feel more deeply spiritual and connected even if you don’t focus on God. But you’ll miss out on the explosion of grace and connection you could have. It’s like eating the cookie when you could have the whole cake.
If you need some inspiration for a juice fast, or fasting in general, watch the movie Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. Some of the books I’m currently reading are Fasting by Lynne Baab and Toxic Relief by Don Colbert M.D.
Mean Green Juice from the movie Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead:
1 cucumber
5-7 leaves of kale
1 apple
piece of ginger
1/2 lemon
It's like this 