I try to keep the fast of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, partly for cultural reasons and because it gives me a sense of community with Jews all around the world also fasting at the same time. I’m not religious but I like to remember I’m Jewish on our most holy day.
But this year something happened that’s never happened before. When my Yom Kippur fast ended I couldn’t eat. It took me over an hour just to eat a salt beef sandwich which needless to say I’d been looking forward to all day. That scared me. It felt wrong. The meal to end the fast is a joyous one as well as a huge relief. People meet together to break their fast. If you attend the synagogue there’s food at the end of the service. But I struggled to eat.
My appetite did return the following day. Oh boy did it! Last week was also several family birthdays. So there was cake. There was steak, wine, chips with mayonnaise and more cake. I lost two pounds after Yom Kippur - then gained four! By the end of the week my body must’ve felt very confused. My hunger messages had gone completely haywire.
So I’ve decided not to fast again on Yom Kippur. I think it may be time to accept I’m too old to fast now. Jewish law forbids fasting on Yom Kippur if you makes you ill. I learned from it though. Our bodies - or rather our brains which controls our body - will fight back after a fast and bombard you with messages to eat. I shared my fast with fellow Jews and many reported feeling absolutely ravenous the day after Yom Kippur and sometimes for several days after.
People don’t binge because they’re pigs; they binge because they were too strict on a diet!
A weight gain often makes us think, whooops, better starve that weight back off quick as I can. But following a binge with a fast is exactly what you should NOT do! If you fast, semi fast or half starve yourself to try to get weight off you will almost definitely binge to make up for it. People don’t binge because they’re pigs; they binge because they were too strict on a diet!
I know all this. I’ve always known this. But still I persist with the hope that a bit of a fast will get the weight back off when I’ve gained after a binge. It does. For a short while. Then the cravings kick in and are almost impossible to resist.
What breaks a diet is too much dieting!
It’s boring, I know, but there really is only one route to long-term weight loss and better health. Slowly and steady. Don’t let yourself get hungry. What breaks a diet is too much dieting!
While I’m talking about hunger I feel it necessary to point out I’m well aware it’s a privilege to worry about eating too much when many people don’t have enough to eat. It almost feels crass to worry about over eating while some are starving. But if we try to take good care of ourselves it’s easier to take care of others. There is nothing selfish about good self care - it saves our health service millions if we look after ourselves so we don’t face the many diseases associated with obesity and being overweight.
If the lottery of life has dealt you a card of plenty you can always share a bit of it.
If your conscience troubles you that you worry about having too much while some have very little or even nothing remember you can only deal with what you have, where you are. If the lottery of life has dealt you a card of plenty you can always share a bit of it. Put something nice and indulgent into a foodbank receptacle. They always seem to be overflowing with cereal, pasta, baked beans and huge bags of rice. That’s sustenance. But we all need treats and the poorest need them most. George Orwell in The Road To Wigan Pier said it best:
“Would it not be better if they spent more money on wholesome things like oranges and wholemeal bread or if they even saved on fuel and ate their carrots raw? Yes, it would, but the point is that no ordinary human being is ever going to do such a thing.
“The ordinary human being would sooner starve than live on brown bread and raw carrots. And the peculiar evil is this, that the less money you have, the less inclined you feel to spend it on wholesome food. A millionaire may enjoy breakfasting off orange juice and Ryvita biscuits; an unemployed man doesn't. When you are unemployed, which is to say when you are underfed, harassed, bored, and miserable, you don't want to eat dull wholesome food. You want something a little bit 'tasty'. There is always some cheaply pleasant thing to tempt you.”