.Day 15 of 7.

I've been thinking about food today. It's weird, for about a week now, I have not had any real cravings. Sure I grumble and complain a bit about the same 7 foods that I am eating, but I am just realizing that the cravings are gone. This seems wonderful, because I am just eating when I am "supposed" to eat. During the day I do not even think about eating or cravings or being hungry. Typically, in the afternoon especially, I will feel hungry or feel a desire for food, and  I will eat a snack, or I will watch the clock until my next meal. Ha! But these desires are gone right now - all of them - chocolate, coffee, chips and dip  - those are my main cravings. I even watch the Food Channel Network at night with Jim and the food looks good, but meh, whatever. It's weird, and nice as pounds are just falling off right now, although I am very consciously trying to make sure that is not the focus of this first fast. If that is my focus than I have surely missed out on something beautiful.

I think this 7 experiment is retraining my hunger, and really that is what a fast should do. A true biblical fast should retrain our hunger from food to Jesus. I didn't really expect that to happen with such a non-traditional kind of fast, but as I step back and process all of this I can see that it is happening.

7 is also showing me how much sin has distorted all of life - even food. With these 7 real, non-packaged, non-processed or preserved foods, I feel as if I am stronger, healthier, and able to think clearer. I realize now that I have been eating a distorted version of the food God created for us to enjoy. Now I am not saying that unhealthy food is sinful! I am merely working through my thoughts on all of this. I think God could have created us in a host of different ways to gain nourishment, but He chose to create us with the need for food. Food that tastes good and is pleasurable. But I feel like we have taken that and twisted it to such an extreme - just like sex, just like marriage, just like money - and all of these other things that God has blessed us with. I am not really sure where I am going with this, and I tread cautiously. I very easily get swept up into the organic/clean/whole food way of eating, and I am guilty of letting that consume me more than Jesus in the past. I do not think that pleases God any more than me shoveling Twinkies down my throat.

 So I guess I will just leave it at this: I am revisiting some of these food thoughts, thinking it through, praying about it, and reading up on a few things. I really am noticing a difference in me as we plow through this third week of the experiment. Maybe having all of these food choices and options available to us is more of a curse than a blessing. Maybe that was the whole point in reducing in this area of food - for me to realize what the excess is truly doing to my body, mind, and spirit. Not having to think about what I am eating has also given me back so much more time, but perhaps that is another post for another night.