It’s only 8:30, and I’m exhausted.

I don’t know if it’s anything to do with the fast, but I can barely keep my eyes open.

So I’m off to bed. Day Two tomorrow!

It’s nearly dinnertime.

Surprisingly, I’m not actually very hungry. The hardest thing isn’t hunger, it’s the food others eat being tempting.

I’m pretty sure I’ll be fine. So I’m not worried at all about tonight. Tomorrow evening may be a different matter!

I haven’t weighed and measured myself yet, and I haven’t taken any photos. I’ll do that this evening, just for my reference as I’m not sure how I feel about sharing those details with the world.

However, weight loss isn’t the main reason why I’m fasting. More important than that is my health and wellness. Inflammation has been an ongoing problem for me – asthma, excema, hay fever, being allergic to generally everything. I’m hoping to find healing.

I got through the morning tea that was put on for us at work.

I’m surprised nobody noticed I wasn’t eating. If someone did, they didn’t comment. I just sipped at my herbal tea and joined the conversation. It was nice actually.

Now it’s lunchtime. I went for a nice long walk, and now I’m sitting at Queen’s Gardens near work. I feel quite hungry, but not so much that I’m desperate to eat.

If the fasts I’ve done before are anything to go by, it’ll get harder as I approach mid afternoon, then the hunger will fade away. And tomorrow lunch I’ll be really hungry.

But for now I’m fine.

I’m helped by it being a beautiful autumn day. I couldn’t ask for better weather to be walking, sitting outside and meditating.

I feel good 😊

A lot of people find success with intermittent fasting, but it hasn’t worked very well for me in the past.

I generally find long fasts easier than intermittent fasting.

I think alternate day fasting is probably the most difficult fasting method of all. You never really get used to it (or I didn’t), so it always feels like deprivation. You’re always just about to fast, or fasting, or just coming out of a fast. You never get a break.

I suppose you get used to it after a time, but I never did when I tried it in the past.

By comparison, long fasts get fairly straightforward after Day 2, or they have in the past for me anyway. The hunger spikes around meal times get less severe, and it really just becomes a head game dealing with the question of what do I do when I don’t eat.

I know today will be tricky, and I know tomorrow will be tough. But I’ve dealt with this before. I’m on familiar ground for the next few days as an experienced faster. I know what to expect – or I think I do.

So I’m going to keep busy, focus on prayer and meditation and all that introspection stuff, and I’m going to get through it.

I’ve fasted many times before, but never for anything longer than a week.

In the past, I’ve usually found Day 1 to be fine, and Day 2 to be difficult, then things get a little bit easier for a couple of days.

It’s been certain times of the day that get tough. I was always pretty much fine for the morning, but lunchtimes – from about 1 to 3 in the afternoon – I felt quite hungry.

Of course, when I’ve fasted before, I never had a 12 Step program or a Sponsor or meetings to help me out.

Today could be tricky. We’ve got a morning tea for the last day of work before the Easter break, and a friend of mine is bringing home made hot cross buns. I don’t want to offend her, but I won’t be having any.

In the past, I’d have probably lied about why, but today I’m going to try saying the truth – that I’m fasting. I don’t have to tell anyone how long I’m fasting for. I don’t have to tell anyone anything really. But I don’t want to lie about it.

Lunchtime should be straightforward. I’ll just go for my usual walk, and extend it a little across the time that I would normally be eating. That should make today quite manageable.

I’ve decided not to look into the future too much, and to instead just take each day as it comes. So my job today isn’t to worry over next week, or the week after that. My job today is to get through today as best I can.

I’m also not going to beat myself up if I make a mistake along the way. I’ll just own it, then move on. This isn’t about guilt. It’s about me trying to connect with and understand my Higher Power and my own self. It’s about me trying to become healthier and less toxic.

So yes, my fast has begun. If all goes well, and I have the resolve I need, I won’t be eating for quite a while.