The FastDay Forum

Sounds like you've nailed it @Margotsylvia. And adding the spiritual dimension makes it more meaningful and easier for you. The effort becomes something bigger than just losing weight. Well done. I am thinking about Lent. I wonder if it has pagan roots, pre-dating Christianity, as so many Christian festivals do. It makes sense that in Northern hemisphere Spring, when winter food stocks are running low and new spring crops are yet to come in, that people would find reasons to restrict food, out of necessity. I am wondering what I will give up. Possibly Solitaire on my phone!

Dear@Sallyo
That's an interesting thought about Lent and the pagan year, but I'm not so sure whether it fits or not.
There is a pagan festival around Lent, but it marks the start of the farming year with the beginning of spring, and is associated with the first calves and lambs and therefore the first milk and cheese of the year. So, it marks the first indications that scarcity is over. That festival is perhaps more closely associated with Candlemass, with which it shares a date. There's also the pagan festival which seems to be very closely aligned with that of Easter.

I think, though, that perhaps there is a parallel between the story of Christ's disappearance into the desert, which Lent commemorates, with the disappearance of Persephone into the underworld. I don't know what things there are in the other stories which seem to mirror Christian ones, but there are clearly many myths in various cultures which have echoes in Christian stories.

This gets more and more interesting! Incidentally I am not fasting today, because it is Sunday. I had bacon and eggs for breakfast!
I think Christian fasting has its roots in Jewish fasting, rather than pagan fasting.
Nehemiah fasted, because he was so sad about the occupation of Jerusalem. Also Daniel prayed and fasted asking for God's mercy on Jerusalem. King David fasted and prayed over his sick child. Esther and all the Jews fasted fasted for their lives.
In the New Testament the prophetess Anna fasted (Lk 2:37) The Church in Antioch fasted when they were commissioning workers for a missionary trip. Jesus command prayer linked with fasting (Matt 17:21).
I weighed 54.1 kg this morning, but of course I will probably put on weight today because I've had both breakfast and lunch! So I do not think I lose overly much weight this way. Happy lent to all and sundry!
OH yeah, Bracken mentioned Jesus disappearance to the desert. That is significant, because we read that Jesus fasted for 40 days and then became hungry. And stopped fasting, That is partly why many Christian fast for 40 days before Easter. Jesus' fast was a complete fast from food. Most Christians like myself do less severe fasts.

Not a good day today. I suppose it is bound to happen, Cannot stay 'high' all the time. Just could not get up this morning, and the whole day seems slow and awkward. The weather is very gray outside.
I have been messing up my schedule a bit, maybe that is the reason. Who knows. I ate all meals on Sunday, as planned, so Sunday was not a fast day. Sunday morning my weight was 54:1 kg, On Monday it was up to 54.5 kg. Monday I had my snack and Dinner 0.5 hour earlier than normal, because we were going out. There I only had a c cup of tea, with milk, though about 18:45.
Today I am trying to stick to the normal schedule. Although, since I got up so late I only did my morning yoga after my cup of black tea. My weight was down to 54.1 kg this morning. Do not feel hungry at all. Just gray like the weather. As fasters we know that 'there is always tomorrow'. I wasn't sure whether to write about my bad day here.... but then I was even cut off from this webb site by a computer glitch. Sigh. So I decided to come back and write that today is 'one of those days'. Thanx for listening, and better luck to all you others.

31 days left of my Lenten window fasting. Smallish snack ( I call it break- fast) at 15:00 and Dinner (we call it Supper) at 18:00.
Tonight is a Spinach Loaf with Salad.
This morning I weighed 54 kg.
I am quite puzzled. I do not lose weight any more. Some days I have even gained quite a bit. I have now spent 9 days in the 54s.
Good thing I am not only doing this for weight loss.
But with this weight loss cessation, I also experience a heavy feeling. Very hard to get up in the mornings. The weather outside is gray, gray gray. Day after day...
We are eating vegetarian from Mon - Sat. I wonder if the vegetarian food is more fattening than our normal fare. Meat takes more to digest, I know. But it is great to give my system a holiday, and there are other benefits to fasting than weight loss, eh?
Fasting is not always just easy, sometimes it is tough. Willpower exercise... I know all this stuff is very good for me, so I keep at it. The sun must shine one of these days again... Good luck to all other Lenten and otherwise fasters.

Does the weather affect YOUR weight loss???
I have been moaning here that I do not seem to get below the magic line of 54kg.
Well, on Sunday morning I was 53.9 kg. Yippee! I found it easy to wake up early. And the sun shone that day.
Here in SW Finland we've had an inordinate number of gray days recently. The radio announcer was joking and said "For a great surprise we have an other mild and gray day again". Sigh! Today is an other gray and misty day, the temperature just above 0 Celsius. This is mild for Finland at this time of year.
This morning I was back to 54.1 kg --- I am actually surprised I did not weigh any more, because yesterday was Sunday and I had all possible meals and snacks and dessert. Back to fasting today. A couple of gray hours to go before I can have my break - fast snack at 15:00. It is 12:45 here now, because we're not on Greenwich Mean Time. After this March it will be Easter! Let us all keep on persevering.

27 days of the Lenten Fast left. I weigh 53.9 kg. And I keep discovering things. The other night I ate a huge amount of supper, and I did not gain or lose (54kg) But that started me thinking about the amounts I eat. I should not stuff my face at supper. Just eat normally. And I realized that my 3 o'clock snack was almost a full meal. I thought it was half my breakfast, but when I really, really thought about it is was a lot more. So yesterday I had a smaller snack and a reasonable supper, and I lost 100 grams. Problem solved. Even with this small eating window I cannot eat mindlessly. Anyways, I feel better in myself when I do not eat too much at supper.. I suppose this whole fasting journey is about learning how one's body reacts to food etc.
Happy fasting journey to all other fasters.
The sun is almost shining today!

Hi @Margotsylvia, I think it is very much more difficult to lose weight in cold weather. I do not know why this should be and I haven't ever read any scientific study of it. But I know myself that many a year, I have lost weight over summer only to put it all back on in winter. In winter I crave lots of carbs, warm puddings with custard and cheese on toast. Soup is all very well, but when it comes to real comfort, give me pudding or dumplings! Last winter I just had to hold onto the idea of not putting on weight. Now I am getting to the end of summer and I still haven't lost any more weight. I am having to come to terms with the reality that this is the weight I am. You are doing really well with your Lenten fast. So hang in there and keep on keeping on. Easter is in sight. I just ordered some dark chocolate Easter eggs and some rabbit dolls from the Oxfam catalogue. Soon it will be time to be thinking about hot cross buns! Holding you in the Light.

Hello, all and sundry. Here we are about midway in our Lenten Fast. I weighed 53, 1 kg this morning, the lowest yet. And tomorrow will be an eating day, so my weight will go up again. All I have to do now is to last until my snack time in two hours. Sometimes I do find fasting a bit hard. But never ever hungry. It is just hard restricting what I eat.
Really, many congratulations to you, Sallyo, for losing so much weight that you've become unrecognizable.
It has been amazingly sunny here in Finland lately. Many of our crocuses are out, and I saw a butterfly the other day. The nights are frosty, though. Clear skies and lovely stars. Three more weeks of fasting left, not including any Sundays, so it'll be 18 days left. Easter WILL be special this year. I'm going to make a Simnel Cake for Easter.
Wishing you all sunshine as well.

Hello, congrats to all who are sticking to their Lenten goals. I am not religious but have decided to forgo candy, chocolate and all chips or cheezies or such salty snacks for the foreseeable future. I didn't start on February 4, though. I started on February 23. 19 days in and I've had two days where I gave in to the cravings. For 17 days, though, I haven't had any desire to have any junk food. That is a first for me! For all of December I ate nothing but junk food all day every day. No wonder I gained 10 lbs! It feels good to not want that unhealthy food. It is a challenge to make meals, though, after not doing so for so long. I must get back to it. I am doing well on the fasting front too. Last week's fasts were easy, I'm hoping this week's will be as well. A couple of days a week I've been starting to do eating windows. Eating at 3 or 4 in the afternoon up until 8 and then fasting until 3 the next day. 19/5 and other days more like 16/8. I'm constantly surprised at how effortless this WOE eating can (at times) be.

Just wanted to jump in, sorry it isn't a true Lenten fast to all who are giving up something to better their health and well-being!

Time for an update. How's everyone doing with their giving up x y or z for Lent?
I have found my Lenten Fast tough going at times. Today seems to be an other hard day. So I am whiling away the time with you guys! About two more hours to go for my 'eating window ' to begin at 15:00.
Again I found it hard to lose any weight. I stayed around 53 kg for several days. So I've decided to be really, really careful not to overeat at my snack time nor supper time. It paid off. To my great surprise I weighed 52.5kg yesterday. Now THAT is within 1 kg of my goal weight. So we are getting places. Yesterday I had a bigger snack in the afternoon, because I walked a couple of kilometers to my 1H15 min Asthtanga Yoga class, and walked back again. Doing all this I felt justified in a bit bigger snack.
And this morning my weight had gone up to 52.7... which is exactly 1 kg over my ideal weight. But at least I have broken the 53 kg barrier!
Only 8 days of fasting left. And it'll be Holy Week, when it'll really make sense to fast, prior to the Feast of Easter.
Good luck to all other fasters!

the FINAL POSTING this year under this topic.
And really happy Easter to everyone!!!
I started this Lenten Fast on the 18th of February 2015. I weighed 55.6 kg. After my first (window) fast day I lost 700g, which was encouraging. There have been a lot of ups and downs, but I have managed to keep fasting for 40 days. This morning I weighed 51.8 kg. This makes me smile, because I so wanted to end up weighing 51.7 kg, because that is my goal weight. But as I have said before, I was not only fasting to lose weight. Fasting has made Easter so much more meaningful. Food more meaningful. Eating more mindful etc, etc...
This morning we had bacon and eggs and croissants. I skipped lunch.
But afternoon tea will see my Simnel cake, with the 11 Apostles on the top.
And Supper will be mutton, greens, vegetables and wine.
I think I'll take up someone's suggestion here on the Forum to fast this coming Tuesday. Fortunately Easter is not as long as Christmas.... Thank you all at this Forum for helping me achieve my 40 day goal.

Happy Easter @Margotsylvia.

Congrats! Sounds like you learned a lot on your fast. Good job on attaining your goals