Day 7 - The Point of No Return

Spiritual

I had a double dose of Christmas today. A bit early for me - as I do not like the whole pushing by the media of Christmas to before thanksgiving. But today was different. At church they played Christmas songs and in the afternoon I went to see my friend's Barbershop group perform Christmas carols. Barbershop is similiar to the old time tunes like from the black and white movies.

Since being on the fast I have a much clearer mind and I realized today that the music I hear is much more crisp sounding in my mind. The words flowed into my soul and I became very emotional during two particular songs. One at church and the other at the concert.

The core of today's message was, "Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means "God is with us."

The guest preacher, a young British women, explained that when God is with us -that is all we need. No presents, no family, no food (I put that one in). God is all we need. And when God is with us, the course of our lives are forever changed. This could not have been said better.

You might have wondered why i don't talk about my husband a lot in this blog. He has been out of the country for one month and I have not told him that I was doing this fast. You see - I tell my husband everything, sometimes too much. I talk and talk and sometimes fail to listen. It has been a challenge this past 7 days as I talk to him on the phone. Because I do not talk about the fast and in turn end up listening a little bit more. This is good.

I've diverted, but I really did want to share that with you because I am very close to him. So at the concert this afternoon, I fixated on a particular song which I have never heard before but I presume must be a classic. The song was "Mary did you know?".

At one point the songs goes, "Mary Did you know that, this child that you've delivered. Will soon deliver you." Wow! I thought. Those words just seemed so powerful to me. Just like Mary, many of us hear or say the name Jesus not fully comprehending that the words we deliver can soon deliver us.

Merry Christmas! A little early.

Mental

The chapter should have been written, "for six days it was smooth sailing, and on the seventh day she was tempted". So I was invited to go to breakfast before church at the cutest most authentic french patisserie in Portland. I had agreed to meet at 8:30 instead of 8:00 like the rest of the group because I didn't know if I could handle being surrounded by sweet smelling pastries and heaping plates of omelet. It turns out I was the first on there at 8:15am. As I sat in the corner of the room and sipped my peppermint tea apprehensively, I was amazed to discover that I was not tempted at all.

A couple of minutes later the rest of the gang came in, one had coffee, one had tea, and the other a cream cheese filled pastry. The conversation was so engaging that the time slipped by and before you know it we were paying the bill and were off to church.

Later on in the day, I decided to test this new found discovery and go shopping at the grocery store. My husband is coming back into town tomorrow and I thought it not good for him to come home to a completely desolate fridge.

I passed up and down the aisle inspecting fruit, and loading my cart with all sorts of vegetables. It was very easy for me, I had no cravings for any food and found myself only picking up raw and completely healthy food. I am very excited about the time after the fast and my desire for health foods.

Physical

So, this whole time on the cleanse I really didn't feel like I lost any weight for real. I do not have a scale and did not buy one on purpose - mainly because I would have been fixated on the scale/numbers and would have put aside all of the other reasons why I did this fast.

Today was different for some reason. I looked in the mirror and saw a change. My body seems to like to let go of all the fat on the top half before it even starts to go to the bottom half. So I've noticed, not necessarily to my liking, this phenomena. I measured my thighs today and surprise my thighs have reduced - but maybe more importantly are becoming the same size. Ever since I had knee surgery around 5 years ago my right thigh seemed to hold onto more fat. My theory for the fat accumulation was that the circulation in that leg was off. I stick by this theory because it can go numb sometimes.

So, today I put on two pairs of pants that I bought new and then wore once. A whole section of my wardrobe has just opened up to guess who? Me!

Thigh R- 23

Thigh L - 23

Hip - 37.25