(Sunday, Jan 4, 2026. I forgot my laptop at church this morning so I am writing this on paper so that I can keep my daily writing habit going. I will transfer it to the blog tomorrow when I get it back.)<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n
As I write here about my fasting experience, I realize that it could come across like I’m boasting about something which Jesus told us to do “in secret”.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
That’s not my intention. My purpose for writing about this here is, first, for myself – to record and process the experience – and, second, for others – to encourage more believers to give fasting a try.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
It’s something that gets a little easier each time you do it.<\/p>\n\n\n
My present fast is mainly for physical benefits. (But fasting always has a spiritual dimension to it.)<\/p>\n\n\n
I have been putting on weight at a slow but steady pace for the last five years. I started this fast Friday at 205.2 lbs. That’s the most I have weighed since I hit my peak weight of 220 in the early 2000s. My lowest in that timeframe came while we lived in Haiti, where snack food was hard to come by. I remember hitting 170 there for a while.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
But none of that was muscle. I’ve built up a tiny bit of muscle since then and would be glad to be in the 180-185 range again. Mainly because I think that is a weight which would signal I am eating healthy again.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
My other physical motivation for this fast is a near constant experience of “brain fog”.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
For the past five years, coinciding with my weight gain, I’ve had a daily, general sleepiness and a haziness in my thinking. And I think it has slowly grown worse.<\/p>\n\n\n
I strongly suspect this is tied to my diet, but I don’t know if there is one specific culprit – sugar? caffeine? some additive? – or if my problem is eating a Standard American Diet in general.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
(Or, worst case scenario, it’s just my age.)<\/p>\n\n\n
So, 3 days in, here’s my experience on both fronts.<\/p>\n\n\n
First, weight loss.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
1st Morning (Friday) – 205.2<\/p>\n\n\n
2nd Morning – 201.2<\/p>\n\n\n
3rd Morning – 198.4<\/p>\n\n\n
That’s progress, but keep in mind that at least 3 pounds of what I have lost so far is merely water weight. I was up several times that first night to visit the restroom. So I know I haven’t actually lost a true 7 pounds in 3 days.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
I’ve heard it’s possible to lose 20 lbs in a week of fasting, so I’m curious how much I will truly drop when all is said and done.<\/p>\n\n\n
As far as the brain fog goes, the first two days I was pretty headachy and a bit restless. So I don’t know if there was any immediate improvement. But this morning I woke up 3 minutes before my alarm sounded and felt NOTICEABLY clearer in mind. (And that’s a helpful thing for preaching.)<\/p>\n\n\n
Tomorrow is day 4 and a workday, so it should be interesting. I don’t think I have actually fasted beyond 3 days since my time at Asbury, where I was first introduced to fasting and joined a friend in a 7 day fast. That was in the late 90s.<\/p>\n\n\n
As for hunger these past 3 days, it hasn’t been a huge problem. More of an inconvenience. The bigger issue for me is boredom. I think most of my eating is for entertainment rather than nutrition.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(Sunday, Jan 4, 2026. I forgot my laptop at church this morning so I am writing this on paper so that I can keep my daily writing habit going. I will transfer it to the blog tomorrow when I get it back.) As I write here about my fasting experience, I realize that it could […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7671"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7672,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7671\/revisions\/7672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}