Fasting: Diet Or State Of Mind?

Fasting: diet or state of mind?

Lent begins 7 weeks before Easter and lasts 49 days. Its purpose is the spiritual preparation of all believers for the great holiday - Easter. We can say that the pacification of the flesh for spiritual cleansing. Unfortunately, the dietary value of fasting is often emphasized in the press. As if it is something like unloading, from which they also lose weight. Of course, this is a very utilitarian attitude towards posts. After all, fasting is a moral cleansing, not a fasting diet. It is also a means to discipline yourself as well as organize your personality.

During Great Lent, in addition to changes in diet, which we will consider below, it is worth refraining from amusements, everyday entertainment, from marital relations, from alcohol and negative emotions. In pre-revolutionary times in Russia there were no theaters during the post, there was no alcohol in taverns. No wedding took place in the church. Strive to do good deeds these days. Be tolerant of loved ones, forgive old grudges, treat others kindly, try to notice first of all positive moments. You will see that good will return a hundredfold!

It must be remembered that Fasting is not observed for the sake of abstaining from food, but in order to reach heights on the spiritual path.

Fasting must be observed completely. What does it mean? This means that if you decide to fast, you will have to give up everything that falls under the ban: there is sex, alcohol, anger at children, and entertainment television programs. However, you should not turn off the TV if your family decided to watch it (this can only provoke a quarrel). Fasting or not is a matter for a single person. If you are unable to overcome the anger in your heart, remember Christ, who prayed for the tormentors who nailed Him to the cross. Remember the saints, in whose life there was something much more terrible than in ours, and they accepted it with love and humility. They should be remembered at the moment when you want to be angry over some trifle. In order not to swear at children, remember that they are defenseless. Education should not be built on anger: the word,which is said in a state of irritation easily loses its meaning and has the very opposite effect, even if you say the right things. Thus, fasting helps us, before saying rudeness, weigh everything on the scales of reason, so that the addressee will hear us and not be offended.

There are situations when it is impossible to observe the full fast. For example, when traveling. Indeed, during this period we live in special conditions that do not depend on us. The same is true if you come to visit. Sitting among the merry people with a lean face, while refusing the offered food, is unlikely to be correct, since they do not go to a strange monastery with their own charter.

Lent calendar

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	resurrection
xerophagy	hot without oil	xerophagy	hot without oil	xerophagy	hot with butter	hot with butter

During Great Lent on Monday, Wednesday and Friday - dry eating. This means that you can only eat uncooked food. In this case, baked food is allowed. Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday - hot food, but no oil. For example, it can be buckwheat, rice, potatoes. Hot buttered meals are allowed on Saturday and Sunday.

A more detailed calendar for each day of Lent 2011 is shown in the picture below:

During Lent, you can eat every day:

fruits;

• vegetables;
• greenery;
• bread;
• cereal dishes;
• soy products;
• mushrooms;
• nuts and candied fruits;
• honey;
• jams, pickles and marinades;
• Coffee and tea;
• juices and mineral water.



During Great Lent you should not eat:

all foods that contain meat and meat products;

• all products that contain milk and dairy ingredients;
• all foods containing eggs;
• fish;
• vegetable oil and alcohol.

That is, people refuse dairy, meat and other animal products, do not consume alcoholic beverages, sweets. Fish and seafood are allowed only on special days. Chewing gum contains gelatin of animal origin, which means that they are prohibited. The same is with chocolate, pastries, “fast food”, which is also prohibited.

But even during the strictest fasting, pleasant exceptions can be made. Grape wine and vegetable oil are allowed to be consumed on Saturdays and Sundays (except for Saturdays during Holy Week). Vegetable oil is also allowed on the days of the memory of the most revered saints. On holidays, you can cook fish dishes: for the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos (April 7) and the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem (the last Sunday before Easter). You can eat fish caviar on the eve of Palm Sunday.

Exempt from strict fasting:

sick;

• aged people;
• children;
• pregnant women;
• earlier it was possible to refrain from the military and travelers, now this exception does not apply.



Such a strict abstinence from animal food for several weeks, an abrupt beginning and end of fasting can significantly harm your health if you have never fasted. Believers are adapted to such tests: Lent is not the only one, in addition, they abstain from eating animal food every Wednesday and Friday. If you decide to fast for the first time, then for several weeks you must not consume milk and meat products on Fridays. Then one more day should be added - Wednesday. If friends are invited to visit, you can go, while observing moderation at the table.

Fasting is a time when we must forget about ourselves, learn to sacrifice ourselves for the sake of others. The time of Great Lent was given to us precisely in order for us to reconsider our life in this perspective. This is much more important and much more difficult than simply abstaining from any food. If in non-observance of the bodily fast we can often find an excuse for ourselves, then in non-observance of the spiritual fast we have no excuse. Fasting is a time of repentance, a time of prayer. And without them, it becomes just a diet.

Author: Zhanna Sh. (Specially for Calorizator.ru)

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