Fasting and Slowing

I'm in a class at church where we're reading a book together and working through a devotional guide, with daily questions and reflections, etc. One of the practices that's encouraged is to try fasting--whether from food altogether for one day a week, or from one or two meals, or something like that. The idea in this, as in all fasting, is to dedicate the time to the nurture of the spirit and a focus on God, and perhaps to remind the body that it and its demands don't always rule.

Those who can't participate for whatever reason are invited to try fasting from something in particular rather than from all food; in the Bible, Daniel fasts by eating only vegetables for example, so it's based on that idea. Sometimes people give up caffeine, or sugar, or coffee, or things like that. The problem is that these days my diet is restricted enough that there's basically very little left--no caffeine (never a fan anyway), no cold lunchmeat, no soft cheeses, not too much sugar, limited seafood choices. I don't hold absolutely to those rules since I think they're a little paranoid, but a "fast" wouldn't make much of a difference.

So the other option on the table, so to speak, is to a non-food-related fast, where you give up something else: cigarettes, the Internet, television, etc. I tried the Internet last week but found it virtually impossible, not only because everyone's blogs are so diverting, but also because work requires me to look up a lot of information in a given day. And I haven't had time for much t.v. anyway lately, and I don't smoke.

I considered giving up driving to school in the mornings and walking instead. This was successful for three days, until I wiped out on the ice. It was my third fall in the past week--the other two little tumbles or trips were down a few stairs (not as bad as it sounds, but not my most graceful moment) and in the shower (also not as bad as it sounds--more just a clumsy scramble). No harm done, but my otherwise-indulgent husband made me promise to drive until the ice is gone from the sidewalks, gently pointing out that my perpetual clumsiness is compounded by my present ungainliness.

So, in the absence of any good ideas from you all, no fasting or even pseudo-fasting for me. I don't think I really believe in the giving up of other things as fasts exactly anyway . . . they're little sacrifices and/or disciplines, and possibly useful for their own reasons, but since fasting seems rather mysterious to me in how it works, I don't feel confident switching around the rules. I don't know--has anybody ever had a really good non-food-related fast?