Fasting

I am fasting today. Yesterday I started a cleanse / fast that lasts 9 days:
• Two days of fasting and drinking aloe juice (blech!)
• five days of shakes for breakfast and dinner, with a sensible (ha! ha!) lunch
• two more days of fasting and aloe juice

I've done this particular cleanse two times before. It is pretty good. My energy stays good throughout, which is a big plus for me. Need to stay functional while I'm doing it. Though, I'll admit, I do get a little spacey and the teeniest weeniest bit grumpy on the 2nd day of fasting.

Thankfully, enduring hunger pangs has gotten easier over time. The first time I fasted, I was an emotional wreck. I literally had never gone through a hunger pang with out eating to assuage it. It was the first time I had to just stay hungry. Boy, lots of emotional baggage came out during that fast.

But now I've been through it several times, I know better. I say to myself,
"They're just feelings. They will go away. They do not last forever." It kind of puts them into perspective. Actually, that works with most uncomfortable feelings, not just hunger. When I was fretting about some family issues over the weekend. I repeated my mantra, "They're just feelings. They'll go away." And voila! They did (the next day, sadly. I had to endure them all Sunday).

So, as I smell the fragrant odors of my son's quesadilla waft throughout the house, I'm hanging in there. Strangely, things I don't even really like are appealling to me today. The rice crackers that my kids eat. Mmmmm.... They smell sooooo.... good. But I'm sure if I ate some, they would not be that impressive.

I'm doing this fast / cleanse partly for health reasons and partly to prepare for a seminar I'm doing next week called Cleansing Streams. Its a Christian thing; lots of praying and contemplating and such - for some reason fasting helps deepen that. On the health side, I'm hoping to give my system a break, cleanse impurities (remember the thyroid stuff?) and hey! I won't complain if I lose a few pounds.

Tomorrow I get to eat! eat! eat! Eating sensibly is the challenge. I tend to gorge during my one meal per day. But I'm trying to do it right this time - so we'll see.