Ramadan Mubarak!
So...it's been a while since I was last on here. :-P Moving swiftly past that...
Today I did a fast for Ramadan on behalf of a friend here who couldn't participate this year because of severe health issues. She's done it every year I've known her and knowing how much it meant to her, it felt bad not to be able to observe it in some form. Another friend got a whole load of us all together and we took a day (or in some cases a couple of days) of the month of Ramadan to fast and observe the festival and the record our experiences.
Now I've done 24hour fasts before for charity, but for those I was allowed water and dextrose tabs if I needed. For Ramadan, as I understand, you're not allowed to eat or drink anything during the hours when the sun is in the sky, so sunrise to sunset. I found this aspect the hardest to be honest, I drink a lot everyday (non-alcoholic drinks people ;-P) so to not be able to even have a sip of water was really hard! But I managed it! With some distraction techniques and self-control I managed to not think about it at all.
So anyway, my day began with a cooked breakfast of bacon and eggs on gluten-free toast and half a litre of orange juice before dawn, all very yummy and sustaining. Even got to a point where I didn't think I could eat anymore, but knew I needed to try and get as much in me as I could so I did. Finished that all off and then went back to bed only to realise that I hadn't taken my morning dose of naproxen and I really struggle with taking pills without liquid, so I decided to leave it until the evening and went back to sleep.
I woke up a few hours later and headed downstairs to help my parents to find them supping on a cup of tea: my first challenge of the day. After all, I'm British, I practically live on tea, especially at the weekends! ;-) So anyway, I ignored that and carried on helping with the dogs and cats, then retreated out of the sun to the living room where I pretty much sequestered myself for the rest of the after noon, alternating between watching the cricket when dad came in and playing on the playstation to keep my mind distracted. Honestly at that point I didn't really need any distraction, but I was concious of over-doing it in the heat when I wasn't used to fasting so I played it very conservatively. So yeah, I did that for most of the day, checking facebook and email from time to time, you know, as you do. :-P
Then it came round to about 19:30 and the parents starting cooking dinner and obviously the smell of food cooking started me feeling a bit hungry, but I overcame it and stayed strong, even helping to prepare the rice for it as well. I tell you though, the last 30mins of the fast are really hard! Waiting for sundown for a drink really started to get to me! Just to be sure I made it past sunset though, I didn't drink/eat anything until about half an hour after the time I'd found for it online (the clock on my phone is fast, the two clocks on the mantle piece don't tell the same time, the microwave and the oven disagree etc, so you know, just to cover all bases :-D) By this point I was also starting to develop a bit bit of a headache, which I can only assume was a hunger headache, as about and hour after my dinner it started to fade, but again, it wasn't too hard to deal with.
All in all, the lack of food wasn't really much of an issue for me, what really took some getting used to was not having anything to drink. Something else you're supposed to do whilst observing Ramadan is avoid anything sinful, swearing, sex and smoking for example. So two of those aren't much of an issue for me: I don't smoke and I have no sexual partner (much to my dismay, but I'm working on it). The swearing however proved to be an issue. I have to profusely apologise because I had said 'frell' twice before I even got out of bed because of how badly my back was hurting, but from that point on I made sure to observe that more keenly and I managed it too! :-)
I have now, however, taken a lot of painkillers which are now taking affect, so I'm heading to bed to sleep them off :-)
It's been a great experience, I've learned a lot about another religion and culture and I wish more people could see the peace and serenity that can be found in it, particularly in this month of discipline, introspection and charity. It has also given me an immense amount of respect for the people who do this every day, every year. My day was fairly easy, but those who fast while working and the like are amazing! I'm really glad I could do this for my friend *MAHOOSIVE HEALING HUGS* to her, I hope they find out what's wrong soon hun!
Ramadan Mubarak!
Kx
Today I did a fast for Ramadan on behalf of a friend here who couldn't participate this year because of severe health issues. She's done it every year I've known her and knowing how much it meant to her, it felt bad not to be able to observe it in some form. Another friend got a whole load of us all together and we took a day (or in some cases a couple of days) of the month of Ramadan to fast and observe the festival and the record our experiences.
Now I've done 24hour fasts before for charity, but for those I was allowed water and dextrose tabs if I needed. For Ramadan, as I understand, you're not allowed to eat or drink anything during the hours when the sun is in the sky, so sunrise to sunset. I found this aspect the hardest to be honest, I drink a lot everyday (non-alcoholic drinks people ;-P) so to not be able to even have a sip of water was really hard! But I managed it! With some distraction techniques and self-control I managed to not think about it at all.
So anyway, my day began with a cooked breakfast of bacon and eggs on gluten-free toast and half a litre of orange juice before dawn, all very yummy and sustaining. Even got to a point where I didn't think I could eat anymore, but knew I needed to try and get as much in me as I could so I did. Finished that all off and then went back to bed only to realise that I hadn't taken my morning dose of naproxen and I really struggle with taking pills without liquid, so I decided to leave it until the evening and went back to sleep.
I woke up a few hours later and headed downstairs to help my parents to find them supping on a cup of tea: my first challenge of the day. After all, I'm British, I practically live on tea, especially at the weekends! ;-) So anyway, I ignored that and carried on helping with the dogs and cats, then retreated out of the sun to the living room where I pretty much sequestered myself for the rest of the after noon, alternating between watching the cricket when dad came in and playing on the playstation to keep my mind distracted. Honestly at that point I didn't really need any distraction, but I was concious of over-doing it in the heat when I wasn't used to fasting so I played it very conservatively. So yeah, I did that for most of the day, checking facebook and email from time to time, you know, as you do. :-P
Then it came round to about 19:30 and the parents starting cooking dinner and obviously the smell of food cooking started me feeling a bit hungry, but I overcame it and stayed strong, even helping to prepare the rice for it as well. I tell you though, the last 30mins of the fast are really hard! Waiting for sundown for a drink really started to get to me! Just to be sure I made it past sunset though, I didn't drink/eat anything until about half an hour after the time I'd found for it online (the clock on my phone is fast, the two clocks on the mantle piece don't tell the same time, the microwave and the oven disagree etc, so you know, just to cover all bases :-D) By this point I was also starting to develop a bit bit of a headache, which I can only assume was a hunger headache, as about and hour after my dinner it started to fade, but again, it wasn't too hard to deal with.
All in all, the lack of food wasn't really much of an issue for me, what really took some getting used to was not having anything to drink. Something else you're supposed to do whilst observing Ramadan is avoid anything sinful, swearing, sex and smoking for example. So two of those aren't much of an issue for me: I don't smoke and I have no sexual partner (much to my dismay, but I'm working on it). The swearing however proved to be an issue. I have to profusely apologise because I had said 'frell' twice before I even got out of bed because of how badly my back was hurting, but from that point on I made sure to observe that more keenly and I managed it too! :-)
I have now, however, taken a lot of painkillers which are now taking affect, so I'm heading to bed to sleep them off :-)
It's been a great experience, I've learned a lot about another religion and culture and I wish more people could see the peace and serenity that can be found in it, particularly in this month of discipline, introspection and charity. It has also given me an immense amount of respect for the people who do this every day, every year. My day was fairly easy, but those who fast while working and the like are amazing! I'm really glad I could do this for my friend *MAHOOSIVE HEALING HUGS* to her, I hope they find out what's wrong soon hun!
Ramadan Mubarak!
Kx