I realized that I didn’t provide a fasting update for everyone once I was done.

The bottom line: I completed the fast, without breaking it for meat, hours of the day, alcohol, or any other reason I was concerned about. However, I probably won’t do it again.

There are a number of reasons I don’t think I’ll participate in a fast again, but the basic reason is that I just don’t feel like I would grow again the way I did this time. I think it was a blessing in its action, and a God-produced method to make a major, necessary change in my physical life.

While I was fasting, it came time for my annual health check-up. I knew this would happen, obviously, but I didn’t realize the outcome would create such a monumental change. For the past year, I’ve been monitoring my cholesterol. My mother has high cholesterol. My father has high cholesterol. At least one of my grandparents had high cholesterol. Genetically, its just a matter of time until I have high cholesterol. That happened last year. I was solidly within the “borderline” numbers, and the doctor prescribed exercise.

I’m proud to report that in the past year, I have lost over 30 pounds. (In fact, I’m now within 20 pounds of my goal weight, and I hope to drop those last ones before I leave school for my internship this spring.) However, that didn’t do the trick. I went in this year, and my numbers almost doubled where they shouldn’t, and the so-called “good” cholesterol dropped in half. As a result, I was prescribed a vegetarian plus fish diet for the next six months, and then instructed to return to the doctor to have my blood screened again.

Now, I’d like to point out that since this diagnosis, I’ve broken the vegetarian diet at least a dozen times. If it weren’t for the Advent fast, I know I wouldn’t have been able to keep it as much as I have already. What I’m currently working on is a vegetarian home diet, but when I go out to eat I am going to have controlled amounts of chicken, meat, etc. Unfortunately, I’ve been going out a lot recently, which has been contributing to the situation.

The fasting allowed me to recognize exactly what it was that I ingest in my system. I realized just exactly how much I eat in the course of a normal day. I realized how much of my food intake is stress or social-related, as opposed to physical necessity. I realized how much less I need to eat at each meal, as opposed to gorging out.

Since returning to eating a “normal” routine, I’ve discovered how much I miss fasting on a physical level. For the first two weeks, my stomach hurt from what it felt like was over-eating, even though lunch would consist of a toasted sandwich and handful of carrots. Eating more often has just resulted in… eating more often. And I’m not sure that is the best solution for survival.

I’m glad I fasted, and I’m glad that it helped push me along to where I am now. I’m glad I fasted to give me the shot in the foot needed to receive the news of my new diet in a positive state of mind. Perhaps I will do it again someday, but not for a while.