40 Day Fast (and 40 Nights)

My Current Fasting Plan

I modified my plan yesterday

Could I accomplish a 40 Day Fast?

A while back I wrote an article, I am on a Mission. I told how I was going to do a long fast and wanted to get down below 200 pounds before eating again. So far, I am on track, I am on my 14th day of fasting right now. Everything is going great. I feel good and have not eaten a thing in the 13 1/2 days that I have completed so far.

Yesterday, I had to go run some errands in the City, and on the way home, while riding, I was thinking about how well I am doing on this fast. Frankly, it is the best I have felt during a long fast ever.

In the past, my longest fast was 28 days, but I did eat 2 eggs on day 6. I have done quite a few 10-day fasts successfully in the past. But, never gone 14 days, as I have now, without food.

My main Goal

My main goal when setting out on this fast, in my quest to go below 200 pounds, was that when my wife gets home from her 6 months in the States, I would be under 200 pounds.

I felt that it was something that is important to me to reach my goal.

I got thinking

While riding home from my errands yesterday, I continued thinking about how well I feel and how well I am doing.

I used to set goals for how many days I will fast, but this year, instead I have abandoned that practice. Now, I just start fasting and go until I feel the need to eat. This, I believe that is a good thing to do.

However, the thought hit me yesterday, while thinking, Jesus did a 40 Day Fast. I have never made it beyond 28 days, but I am feeling that I can do a 40 Day Fast.

I am a Christian

Don’t worry, I am not here to push religion on anybody. I am a Christian, though, and not ashamed or afraid to say that. While thinking yesterday, I thought about how Jesus did a 40 Day fast. It dawned on me that I think I could also accomplish a 40 Day Fast.

Why would I do a 40 Day Fast?

There are many reasons that I have decided to attempt a 40 Day Fast.

Among my reasons to attempt a 40 Day Fast:

• Personal Development
• Reinforce my “under 200” goal, and go beyond that
• Religious Development
• Personal Challenge

Personal Development

Fasting has been a blessing to me since I started doing it last year. I started by doing intermittent fasting in February 2017. In March I decided to do a 10 day fast and was successful.

In terms of personal development, fasting has been of great benefit to me. It has helped me develop both physically and mentally.

Physical Development

I have eliminated many health problems through fasting.

Blood Pressure has become normal (even low normal) without any medication. Before, I was taking 3 different medications to bring my blood pressure down, and it was still in the upper-normal range. I checked my blood pressure yesterday and it was 100/66. Amazing result for me! And, the really amazing thing is that I have not taken any medication of any kind (including BP meds) since January 1 of this year.

Diabetes is gone. I used to be severely diabetic. This lead to a stroke in 2001 and a heart attack in 2016 (resulting in a quadruple heart bypass that same year). Now, I have no diabetes. No more medications. No more injections of insulin. Yesterday when I checked my blood glucose it was 52.

I just feel so good.

Mental Development

In addition to physical improvements, I have experienced many mental improvements as well. The clarity of my thinking is amazing. My brain power is in overdrive.

Periods of fasting have been proven to lead to mental clarity, and I can attest to it.

Reinforcing my “under 200” goal

As I have said, my goal for this fast was to not eat until I was under 200 pounds. In my mind, I wanted to wait for food until I was at 195 because when you eat even just 1 meal you can easily gain back 5 pounds the first day due to water retention.

By going for (hopefully) a 40 day fast, I believe that I can further that goal, maybe get as low as 185 or so, we shall see.

Religious Development

As I said, I am a Christian. I am not as strong in my Christianity as I want to be, though. I have always felt that my devotion to my faith is not as strong as it should be.

Like all people, I am a sinner. I have done some seriously wrong things in my life. By doing a 40 day fast, I am emulating Jesus, he did it. I hope I can also accomplish a 40 day fast.

I believe that doing a 40 day fast, emulating the example that Jesus made, it is a way for atoning for my sins. This is something that I want to do. I was raised Catholic, but I am not a born-again Christian. Part of the Catholic faith includes Confession. As a born-again Christian, we don’t have Confession. I do believe that by just “talking with God” through prayer I can become forgiven for my sins. Doing a 40 Day Fast, though, is taking action to apologize for my sins, that is what I believe.

I think it would be something pretty “cool” to accomplish something that Jesus also did. I don’t like to do things just to be “cool” but a 40 Day Fast is something that is personally cool, and I don’t care much what others think about it. It is just cool and fulfilling to me if I can accomplish a 40 day fast.

Personal Challenge

In most things in my life, I like to challenge myself. I like to attempt to do things that I have never accomplished before.

Completing a 40 day fast would achieve the personal challenge that I like to do. It would be fulfilling to me in many ways.

How hard will I push

Well, I will push hard to successfully accomplish a 40 day fast. I will not, however, take risks with my health. If I feel that my body is in trouble, I will see a doctor, and eat if necessary.

Listening to what my body says is my policy, and I will follow it. However, I have never gone for even 5 or 6 days of fasting and felt this good. Because of how things are going, I feel that I am up for a 40 day fast, and I will do my best.

Whether you are Christian, any other religion, or even an atheist, that is your business. I have friends of nearly every religion I can think of, and some who are atheist as well. This 40 day fast does have religious overtones for me, but it is also mostly about health, and bringing me to a weight that is pretty close to where I think I should be for the rest of my life.

Please don’t worry about me. I am very experienced in fasting. Because of my fasting experience, I know when to call it quits based on the signals from my body, and I will do that if necessary. But, I do hope that on November 7, when my 40-day fast will end, I can say that it was successful and very fulfilling for me.