The Begining

I am a 36 year old healthy male. I have, heretofore, observed no fasts, nor had the proclivity for alternative lifestyles or remedies. Innocent of the "new age" fad, I come to fasting from a very accidental discovery of its benefits.

For reasons I may go into later, my wife is away for a few months. In her absence, purely per the force of circs, I have missed a few meals here and there. Always very fond of food, this in itself has been HUGELY unusual for me. I have also always been lazy. And fat. I know, we don't speak like that in our society. But this blog is about honesty. With a BMI of 29, and a decade preceding this month when I have done absolutely NOTHING coming close to running or jogging, I think I can use the adjectives I did a couple sentences back to depict myself.

However, in the absence of the Mrs, I have taken to jogging. Since it takes me 20 minutes to grind out a mile, you may not want to call it jogging. But this is the second huge change in my life.

The final big change-- the one that DEMANDED this blog-- has been the combined experience arising out of the missing wife, the missed meals, and the uncustomary exercise. Missed meals-- fasting-- has left me feeling GREAT!

There is this new, unfamiliar, inexplicable warmth that says "you're home".

So I have done what you'd do if you had, a-hmm, a revelation (can I call it that?). I have poked and probed the situation-- experimented with reverting to slothism, for example. Peered back into hedonism. Tried to recreate the comfort offered by gluttony. I have to confess that the splendrous feeling following (NOT during, when I often felt and acted unpleasant) the fasts has beckoned me back.

So I have been doing what you'd do too-- looking at internet posts for Fasting.

Now, I if have heretofore ill suffered the accusation of athleticism and commitment to health, it is not as if I haven't occasionally wondered what inspires the likes of the "26.2" bumper stickers. My brief but compelling experiences with fasting convince me that I want my bumper sticker to declare "Fasted for 21 days". Or something more catchy, but to that effect.

My experience with fasting convinces me that this is that fork in the road that I have to follow. So, from today on, I will prepare myself for a 21 day fast. I am a professional man, I have been to graduate school. So I will do this responsibly, and I will do this (somewhat) scientifically. But do it I will.

This is a blog. So I will also do this publicly.