I need help with fasting

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RosaLydia

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I understand that fasting is very important, but when I try to put it in practice I fail miserably.

I find myself only able to skip breakfast and then I just break the fast the rest of the day.

For those of you who are successful in this practice, what do you do? Spiritually, mentally, physically?

I tried fasting for a specific intention and fasting for the grace to know how to fast, but to no avail.

I am much better at practicing abstinence from meat or other specifc item (like chocolate) than fasting. And as a side note, I also have difficulty just eating sensibly too. 😦

Any ideas, suggestions or advice would be appreciated it.

God Bless
 
Hi RosaLydia - I wish I had your determination to fast! I find that fasting on the usual days of fast and abstinence to be all that I can take!

Fasting can take several forms - it doesn’t necessarily mean that you don’t eat anything, (except in the case of the Eucharistic Fast). What about starting by eating a good breakfast - it really is the most important meal of the day - giving the initial energy, helping concentration, etc… You could then fast by foregoing a later meal?
While fasting is important & graces can be received through it, I don’t think anyone would suggest that you starve yourself - the point is occasional self denial - making some sort of sacrifice in your daily life. While such a sacrifice is not supposed to be easy, I think you should make the sacrifice that you can make - which could be avoiding meat on a certain day, not eating sweets, or giving time to God which you would normally devote to your favourite television programme.

Sorry I can’t be of more help - don’t let yourself become anguished over this, you have gotten further than I ever could, and I’m sure God will bless you for your sincere efforts.
 
In Deut. 7, God tells us:
22 He will consume these nations in thy sight by little and little and by degrees. Thou wilt not be able to destroy them altogether: lest perhaps the beasts of the earth should increase upon thee.
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As we grow closer to God, we will find certain sins being conquered ‘little by little’ and by degrees. This is the land of our enemy, whom God has told us we would overcome and conquer.

If you are not able to fast at this time, do not fret, dear heart. There are many things you are probably able to do that the Holy Spirit is placing foremost in your attention. I have found that some things I did and which offended God, were completely oblivious to me while I was working on graver matters. As these gradually ceased through sincere effort at eliminating them, the lesser things became more apparent. God now increased the pressure, so to speak, to begin work on these.

If you do not sense His call to fast, yet feel He is speaking about others things that He would have you let go of, work on that for now.

There are always extreme cases where He will give you an urgency to fast for something utterly important, and when that happens, you will have both the will and strength to carry it out. I did that once for a very critical moment, and the results were more than I ever expected. I truly saw God’s hand in the call to fast at that time. I cannot say I ever did this again to that degree of intensity.
 
RosaLydia said:
I understand that fasting is very important, but when I try to put it in practice I fail miserably.

I find myself only able to skip breakfast and then I just break the fast the rest of the day.

For those of you who are successful in this practice, what do you do? Spiritually, mentally, physically?

I tried fasting for a specific intention and fasting for the grace to know how to fast, but to no avail.

I am much better at practicing abstinence from meat or other specifc item (like chocolate) than fasting. And as a side note, I also have difficulty just eating sensibly too. 😦

Any ideas, suggestions or advice would be appreciated it.

God Bless
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Do you have a spiritual director? If your answer is yes, talk to him or her before fasting. If your answer is no, get one! 👍
 
Saint Gemma, I do have a spiritual director, but I tried this again after our last meeting for the feast of St John of the Cross and failed miserably. He is now on vacation, so I just needed some more support 😦

God Bless
 
DJ

Bread is my problem! 🙂

I see now that on Thu my problem was that I needed to go grocery shopping and was hard to be hungry and be shopping for food at the same time. I found this wonderful organic italian bread and it was all downhill from there 😦

Tried again on Friday, but again did not do that good.

Why is it so hard for me? 😦
 
Hey, if it were easy it wouldn’t be a sacrifice. :yup:

I think the difficulty is that you’re jumping in at the deep end - expecting to go the whole day eating nothing or just bread and water? Gotta walk before you can run, girlfriend.

Start off by choosing one meal. Choose carefully. Not breakfast - we all need something solid in our stomachs to start the day off. Not dinner if you know you’ll be watching the family chow down at home.

I find lunch the best because, being at work, it’s easy to busy myself away from thoughts of food. If you’re at home, maybe get out of the house to run some errands (NOT food shopping!) at the time you normally eat lunch.

Then experiment a little. Try replacing that meal with just bread and water or plain fruit or vegetables (pick ones that you actually enjoy - it’s not about maximum pain) one time. Then try skipping it entirely another time (a glass of milk helps avoid the growling acidic stomach syndrome).

If you’re a ‘must have my coffee’ kinda person, don’t go entirely without on your fasting days - maybe cut down though.

See which way (cold turkey or bread/fruit and veg) works better for you and stick to it for a few weeks. Start just with one day a week - Fridays is traditional but whatever works for you.

If you get strong headaches, dizziness, anything like that, stop straight away - some people’s health just doesn’t permit them to fast. Needless to say, if you’re breastfeeding, pregnant or already know you’re ill, don’t even attempt it.

If it feels OK, continue. If you feel like increasing, do it gradually - maybe two meals on the same day, maybe a meal two days a week. If you want to do more than that, best get a thorough checkup by a doctor first to be sure your health won’t suffer.

Of course it may be that you’re not called to fast from food, if overeating isn’t a real problem for you. For me, I would say I’m somewhat addicted to TV and the internet - fasting from those is every bit as much or more of a challenge when I try! But the key with any of it is baby steps - cut down at first rather than eliminate.
 
Lily

Your comments make a lot of sense to me. Reading your post reminded me of several things I could have avoided to make it “easier” on me. I may try skipping lunch only next time (& skip the grocery shopping 🙂 )

I also did get a headache in the evening - thus I felt I had to eat something.
 
First off, what type of fasting are you doing? I hope you are starting it easy, with the help of a Spiritual Directer.

I would suggest just fasting one day a week, or month, for starters.

I would suggest the use of the current guidelines for fasting. One substantial meal, and two smaller snacks not adding up to the full meal.

If that is too much, just try to not snack between meals.

In my case, at age 63, I am not required to fast. I do so anyhow, but ONLY with the consent of my spiritual directer AND under the supervison of my Physician, who has given me additional guidelines and warnings.

I fast as a member of the BSP and CFP. The fasting guidelines state that we are to feel hungry, but never weakened, debilitated, or otherwise unable to function properly.

Fasting can be very hard at first, and there may be, probably will be, failures along the way. Just keep on trying, knowing that God understands our frailties.

These OPINIONS have not been endorsed by my cats, who probably eat better then I do.
 
My little fasts (or probably more like just an abstinence) are like not putting sugar on my oatmeal, not taking seconds at dinner, drinking water when I could have a soda or something like that.

It seems to me that it’s not so much how little you eat as whether you are offering your small self-deprivations up to the Lord.

Just my :twocents:

God Bless
Joyful_1
 
Joyful_1 said:
My little fasts (or probably more like just an abstinence) are like not putting sugar on my oatmeal, not taking seconds at dinner, drinking water when I could have a soda or something like that.

**It seems to me that it’s not so much how little you eat as whether you are offering your small self-deprivations up to the Lord. **

Just my :twocents:

God Bless
Joyful_1
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:yup: 👍
 
I would not be able to perform my job, if I did a fast of not eating anything at all.

So, instead, I’ll eat three small simple meals, and abstain from meat. I will not eat between these meals.

Jim
 
since this is our latest fasting thread, and reminder that we do have a couple of ongoing fasting threads that may help OP, thought we should see this article on benefit of fasting “Fasting may Help Heart”
indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071216/NATIONWORLD/712160353/1083/LIVING01
studied Mormons who fast once a month from food vs others and found less heart disease (also warns diabetics against fasting)

I do know quite a few Mormons, from having lived in NE Ohio among them, and I believe that like Adventists many of their disciplines esp regards to diet are based not only on what they see as scriptural injunctions but also for health reasons. Hope this study leads to more research.

since I am diabetic my fast, that is my awareness of food as God’s gift, proper respect for food, and proper food “thought”, is to adhere to my diabetic diet and overall regimen to control blood sugar.

One should carefully discern adopting any fasting or other penitial practice that goes beyond the traditional ones and times prescribed by the Church, and should never attempt anything extreme without permission of one’s confessor or spiritual director.
 
Besides the Lenten fast I wanted to try additional fasting on Fridays in prayer for a very serious family situation. 1 full meal and 2 mini meals of bread & milk or something like that. But I could only do it 1 Friday. Then I wanted to fast for the feast day of St John of the Cross for the grace to learn how to fast. I tried in on Thursday and couldn’t and then on Friday and couldn’t either. So I don’t think the fasting I tried was very rigorous or extreme, but I stilled couldn’t do it.

I think it may be better to start with some of the good tips some of you have suggested.

Still its kind of sad that I couldn’t do it. Today I was thinking that there are so many people out there – even little children - that are forced to go hungry due to poverty - I feel like a spoiled child. 😦
 
RosaLydia said:
Besides the Lenten fast I wanted to try additional fasting on Fridays in prayer for a very serious family situation. 1 full meal and 2 mini meals of bread & milk or something like that. But I could only do it 1 Friday. Then I wanted to fast for the feast day of St John of the Cross for the grace to learn how to fast. I tried in on Thursday and couldn’t and then on Friday and couldn’t either. So I don’t think the fasting I tried was very rigorous or extreme, but I stilled couldn’t do it.

I think it may be better to start with some of the good tips some of you have suggested.

Still its kind of sad that I couldn’t do it. Today I was thinking that there are so many people out there – even little children - that are forced to go hungry due to poverty - I feel like a spoiled child. 😦
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Don’t be critical of yourself. 2 meals of bread and milk alone IS extreme for someone who isn’t used to it.

Try just one meal to start off with. Imagine yourself offering the food that you want to eat during that meal to Jesus instead.
 
Just a FYI post after reading about the bread and milk:

I once tried fasting on what I believed were the two basic foods of life: bread and milk. My intent was to avoid eating between meals, and to limit the pleasures of eating by restricting my taste buds to this basic, but very bland diet.

As time went on, I noticed more and more pain increasing in all of my joints, and it was really puzzling for I had not overdone in any way with acitivites that would explain why I ached so much.

Come to find out, I am lactose intolerant. Milk was always a food that I despised, so until this ‘fast’ I had rarely drank milk. It is also genetic, for my grandson used to go to school and complain of cramps in his stomach every morning and often had to be sent home. After suggesting the milk theory to my daughter, he was tested for it and she found that this was the source of his trouble. His habit for breakfast was to eat a bowl of cereal with milk!
 
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