I just finished a full-moon fasting day and was very happy that I had prepared for it. How does one prepare for a fasting day?
There are two factors. First you have to prepare yourself mentally. The day before you should determine that “tomorrow I am going to fast.” This may sound silly, but it is not. If you wake up in the morning and then have to decide whether you are going to fast, then you may start to fast but after a while you will find a hundred reasons why you should eat. However, if the night before, you have already decided, then you will wake up with the idea firmly in your mind that you will be fasting. Your body will cooperate too, and you will have less of an urge to eat.
Experienced fasters find that their body somehow kicks into “fasting mode” and they just do not feel hungry the day of the fast.
This mental preparation can only bear fruit if the person also makes physical preparation for a fast, and this is the second major factor. In order not to be hungry the day of the fast, one must eat adequately the day before. Adequately does not mean to overate but simply to eat your regular amount of food. It is also important to take enough liquids the day before the fast, especially if you are going to be doing a dry-fast.
I have found that the best food to take on the evening before a fast is a vegetable soup. It fills you up and provides plenty of liquids. The worst foods to eat (in my experience) before a fast are sweet and starchy.
So, prepare yourself mentally and physically and then do a one day fast. Do it regularly on the eleventh day of the lunar cycle (11 days after the full or new moons) and you will find it a great way to maintain your physical health and mental balance.
