Fasting: The opposite of slowing (and other thoughts about fasting)

I won't outline the spiritual benefits of fasting, because that's been done elsewhere on the Interweb, but I'll just point out some things I've thought of in the past couple of days..

• God bless those people who fast from certain foods or food groups, as opposed to certain meals or days. I mean, if I'm fasting from one meal per day for 40 days, at least I can eat whatever I want during the other two meals. But, if you're cutting, say, sugar out of your diet for 40 days...that's a long time! And you know you crave whatever it is you're cutting out within the first 10 seconds of that fast.
  
  One of my friends is giving up pork and beef for 40 days. I could live with that until I had to pass up a really *good* cheeseburger, and then I'd be a little cranky. I can give up fast food burgers all day long, but I have a weakness for the homemade grilled kind.
  


• Fasting is a really great excuse to get out of eating lunch/dinner with co-workers/friends/family members that you really don't like. You can say you have a "prior appointment." Well, sure you do! With JESUS!
  


• I looked for "fasting jokes" online, to see if I'm the only one talking off the cuff about this important Christian practice, and the following is the only joke I found (and I laughed at it): The biggest drawback to fasting for seven days is that it makes one weak.
  


• Someone has found a way to make fasting super-complicated AND marketable! The Daniel Fast--It's not just a plate of veggies and some water! I'd be too busy reading labels and making sure my salad dressing was Daniel Fast-approved that I wouldn't have time to pray, read my Bible and all that other fasting goodness...
  
• I should probably fast from biting my nails, but I've almost given up hope on that dream. I was wearing the mittens for awhile, but then I became too confident in myself, and then I bit my long thumbnails off. Right now, my right thumb is in more pain than usual because I've bitten it so low.
  
• If you're doing a good old-fashioned normal fast (no food and all the water you could ever want), it really does get better after about the third day. Don't ask how I know this--I'll try anything once.
  
• Random story about me: When I was in college, I did this modified version of Ramadan for about two weeks, even though I'm not Muslim. I "modified" it only so I wouldn't have to get up at 5 a.m. to beat the sun when I was getting off of work every morning at 1 a.m. I basically gave myself half an hour to one hour after I woke up--whatever time that was--for breakfast and then didn't eat or drink for 12 hours after that. It was usually a 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. sort of thing. If I slipped up and woke up late, it would end up being like 10 a.m. to midnight or 1 a.m. thing, because I'd still be working at 10 p.m. Inevitably, I wanted to drink water about one hour into the fast every single day. I'm such a weenie.
  
  I can only explain this by saying that I have this weird desire to put myself in other people's shoes, so I'll set up these experiences for myself to see what it's like to be another kind of person or come from another kind of culture.
  
  But, yeah, I pretty much had the picture after about two weeks. By the way, if you ever meet my mom, don't tell her about that.
  
• I went to the doctor for an annual physical required by my health insurance company. When I arrived, the nurse asked me if I'd fasted for at least 12 hours (for accurate blood sugar readings). I responded in the affirmative. She said, "I couldn't do that," as if she was surprised I'd actually done it.
  
  It was 9:30 a.m. All I had to do was not eat or drink anything besides water past 9:30 p.m. the night before and delay/skip breakfast that morning. Barring any medical conditions, that shouldn't be that hard to do. People are funny.