Halfway there. After breaking my water fast and giving myself a few days to return to normal eating, I decided finish the 40 days by fasting breakfast and lunch, and eating dinner each day. Before fasting, I never really ate breakfast, but now I think when the fast is over, I’ll be adding that into my diet. 🙂 Some people recommend me if I’m looking to lose weight after giving birth, a great option is the alpine ice hack Diet Supplement,this supplement also contains green tea,  to give me lasting energy throughout the day. With regular use, I can expect to see positive results within several weeks. Remember that if someone recommend you to use a testosterone booster, the best testosterone booster to lose weight is exercise. Regular aerobic exercise such as running, jogging, cycling and swimming can help increase testosterone l evels, resulting in increased calorie burn and weight loss. Resistance training, such as lifting weights, can also help boost testosterone levels, while also helping to build muscle, which can cause further calorie burn and weight loss. There are a few exceptions to this fast: I do eat breakfast on Monday mornings for our guys Bible study, and I also ate lunch at our church meeting last Sunday. Basically, I just don’t want to draw too much attention to myself in those situations. This is a much more sustainable fast. Although it frustrates me that as each day goes by, the fast doesn’t get any easier. 2 pm is when I am the most hungry every day. The hunger kicks in around 10:30 am. While the hunger doesn’t get any easier as days go on, I think I’m gaining some ground mentally. I’ve learned to remind myself that soon enough, I’ll be able to eat. However, what I’m most frustrated about is that I haven’t been spending good deals of time in prayer and Bible study during these days. And that seems to be the whole point of this exercise, so I feel like I’m not really accomplishing much here. Also, I’m realizing that this is only half-over, and there are several more days that I have to deal with not eating until dinner, which doesn’t excite me...

I’m back to eating normal foods again! Although it’s great to be eating again, I realize that food doesn’t satisfy as much as my mind made me to believe when I was fasting. There’s a slight shallowness in the satisfaction of eating. As I end this fast, one question lingers: Did I fail at fasting? That depends on how you look at it. When I set out to do this water fast, I intended to fast after the initial hunger pains subsided all the way until “true hunger” manifested itself. For many people, that’s around 40 days. I was expecting that to happen for me at about 25 days, because of my low weight and body type. That didn’t happen–I didn’t make it that far. So from that angle, I failed. But I don’t see this as a failure. I see it as a learning experience and a time of growth. I also think that anytime we attempt to do anything to draw us closer to God, it’s never a failure. God has already done some great things in my heart. I think this idea of failure is why people are afraid to try anything–why we keep it safe. And it’s why people in ministry put so much pressure on themselves to over-perform. After all, I don’t want to become a pastor of a church, only to have the attendance dwindle in size after a year–I want it to grow! But can we look at it from another angle? Maybe the true measure of success is if we give it our all to God. If we follow Him where He leads–even if that means less people are onboard. Let’s not judge whether what we do is or isn’t a success until we stand before God on that day. Would He say that I failed in this fast? If you were to die on February 9th, what would He say about your life during those first 40 days of the year? Let’s live with THAT in...

You might be wondering why I’m still calling this “fasting,” when I’ve already started breaking the fast. Actually, the most crucial period of fasting is when you break it. I’ve already referred to the Fasting FAQ which goes into more detail about this, but if you embark on a long, extended fast, you can even kill yourself if you jump right back into eating like you did before the fast. Since my fast wasn’t too long, I’m not in danger of that. But last time I did a 3-4 day fast, I ended it by eating a Southern Chicken Sandwich combo meal from McDonalds. I’ll let you guess how that turned out… Last night, I had some veggie broth. This morning I had 4 pieces of chopped melons, and I felt full. For lunch, I had more veggie broth with some saltines for dipping and some more melons. I noted that by lunch time, my appetite had increased. I was hungry again, so I had an early dinner. I ate baked chicken, and a little corn and mashed potatoes. Later on, I even had one of those quesadillas I was craving during my fast. No problems. I think I’m ready to return to normal foods again. Here are some additional takeaways from this experience of water fasting that I haven’t already mentioned in previous posts: I would like to start praying before meals as a family. I’ve never really done this, simply because I felt they are always so perfunctory. I know everyone else does them, and I’m a pastor, but I don’t want to do something just for it’s own sake. Why bother? It’s like when we open up church business meetings for prayer–most of the time, I find that time silly. Well, I have a new-found appreciation for food and for the time we gather to eat it together. I would like to have prayers at meals that aren’t perfunctory. I think this would be a great practice to begin. I would like to try a juice fast in the future. I now realize how much more energy you have than when you only drink water. It was night and day for me when I drank that...

Today, my mental anguish over fasting was not so much an issue. However, my exhaustion continued. The first time I fasted for a couple of days, the first three days were very difficult because I didn’t prepare my body by cutting back days before the fast began. But following those three days, things got easier. This time, the first 3 days have been easier than the following days, even though the hunger pains subsided once again after three days. The difference is that the first three days’ hunger pains were not nearly as hard to manage this go around, because of my preparation. However, instead of the following days being easier, they became more difficult. My exhaustion level continued to increase, and showed no sign of letting up. Part of my fast these 40 days is to cut out TV during the evenings so that I can be productive (such as writing, etc.). However my exhaustion level has been such that that’s the last thing I want to think about! After evaluating everything, I feel that my water fast is actually diminishing my ability to seek God and accomplish what I set out to do during this fast. In addition, I was being no help to Audra or the family. I also was concerned that my exhaustion level was not going to decrease anytime soon, and that the longer I continue my water fast, perhaps the more time I would waste. So after evaluating, consulting, praying, thinking, and rethinking, I decided today to start ending my water fast this evening. I’m sure Audra is relieved. 🙂 However, I plan to continue fasting for the remainder of the 40 days, but not a water fast. I’m still thinking about what that will look like. In the end, I want to be able to seek God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength during these days, and that wasn’t happening. So I made some homemade vegetable broth from odds and ends vegetables we had in the house. It actually didn’t turn out too bad–except that I overdid the pepper. I had half a bowl of the broth, and I ate two of the carrots that I used for the broth....

Today has been the worst day of my fast. I was hoping that wouldn’t be the case, since everyone says that day 3 is the worst. I thought the worst was behind me… Regarding hunger pains, this day has definitely been easy. But the problem is in my mind. While I don’t feel much, if any, physical hunger sensations, I’m just plain tired of not eating. I just want to be able to eat. And there are specific things I’d just love to have right now: pizza (I never want pizza!) scrambled eggs sausage Tostitos (I never crave Tostitos!) a nice big sandwich any kind of meat dish quesadillas I could go on. Surprisingly, I couldn’t care for any desserts (even ice cream, my favorite food) or fast food of any kind. Then again, I’m not a huge fast food fan, anyway. It’s a last resort for me. But it’s weird to me that certain food stands out to me right now–there’s no rhyme or reason I can see. I wonder if this is similar to temptation in the Garden of Eden. The Bible says that Eve saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, she ate it. I think I can relate. There’s nothing wrong with eating food, and it seems so desirable right now, even though I’m not physically hungry. Perhaps the saying “you don’t know what you have until you lose it” fits the situation. Just like when you get sick and you wish so much that you would return to health and be able to breathe easily in your nose again. At that point, you realize what a blessing it is to be in health, and to be able to fall asleep at night with ease. Right now, I realize what a blessing it is to be able to eat and enjoy food. I look forward to being able to enjoy it again, but realize how far away that time is…at times I feel at the edge of just caving in. I need to find strength. **On another note, we got a Wii for Christmas. I weighed myself on the Wii Fit just before starting my fast,...

I don’t plan on blogging for each day of my fast–just whenever I have something to say. However, I thought it would be good to at least do the first 3 days, since they are the hardest. And day 3 has indeed been the hardest. My hunger was a little intensified today, but not a whole lot. What really got me is that I needed to do shopping and errands today at several stores, and I wore myself out doing that. I’m pretty exhausted–so I’m sure this post will be short. Interestingly, my hunger today is more on junk food, rather than apples, etc. I think I don’t really have increased hunger, it’s more like I just miss the foods I like. I’m hoping that tomorrow will be easier than today. After all, it’s day 4–should be the day I break this barrier! I look forward to being able to pray without having the distraction of hunger in the background. I’m shooting a video tomorrow, and I’m sure we’ll take a lunch break. I’m looking forward to getting away during that hour to pray and read the Bible! Up to this point, that’s been hard to do. Well, that’s all for now. Time to crash!...