Monthly Archives: June 2009

Day 3 of 40-Day Fast

I guess I should be very clear about my ground rules for this fast. First, it is not a water-only fast. As I wrote in a previous post, I’m also consuming several ounces of a high quality nutrient drink filled with minerals and vitamins. But after the warning of a commenter, I decided to also consume 8 ounces of a protein shake every other day. The protein is high quality whey, and I’m adding a fruit concentrate, along with a calcium additive, magnesium, and kelp (for iodine). The total calorie count on all of this amounts to less than 200 calories per day, which I think still qualifies what I’m doing as a fast. It will also keep my digestive system operating, at a very low level, which I think is important. Under these conditions I think I can make it 40 days without any problems, except the expected hunger, temptations, emotional ups and downs, and everything else I was hoping to achieve with this.

If anyone is interested in the details of my nutritional supplements for this fast, let me know and I will post a link.

So today was Day 3. Actually, one of my greatest fears going into this fast was that I wouldn’t be able to survive without my daily chocolate chip cookie from the Barnes and Noble Cafe. It’s a *huge* cookie, packed with chocolate chunks, and giving it up was one of the main reasons I hesitated so long before deciding to do this fast. Of course Jesus didn’t have to contend with chocolate chip cookies of this magnitude.

So afraid I was of the temptation of this cookie, I avoided the Barnes and Noble for the first two days of the fast. However, I realized that I needed to confront my fear. So today I resolved to enter the book store, make my way to the Cafe, and steer clear of the cookie. It’s not as easy as it sounds. Everyone who works in the Cafe knows that I buy my cookie every day, and so they have it waiting for me as soon as they see me coming. So I figured that I would have to quickly get to the cash register and tell them, “No cookie today,” before they had served it up on a plate and charged me for it. Such are the difficulties of being a regular customer.

However, today it seemed that “higher powers” were at work. Okay, I’m just being silly now. Being an atheist, I don’t believe in a higher power. But when I arrived at the book store, a thunderstorm had just passed over us, and the lights were all out in the store. I walked in, was greeted by an employee who knows me well, and she said that the store was open but they weren’t doing transactions. Hmmm. So I went to the Cafe expecting to buy only a large water, but they wouldn’t even sell me that. No transactions. They didn’t even try to sell me a cookie. I couldn’t have bought a cookie even if I had wanted one!

It was quite depressing.

So I sat at my usual table, prepared to study some math and physics, and was rudely interrupted by loud children sitting at the next table. In my weakened and hungry state of mind, and sitting virtually in the dark, I was only able to stay for a few minutes and then I had to leave.

I’ll have to face my cookie temptation later.