That said, my Lenten fasting will significantly change the way I eat, which is why I felt like we should chat about it here. This is my basic plan for the season: 

• Full 24-hour water fast (no calories ingested between waking up on Friday and waking up on Saturday)

Sunday: 

• Vegetarian diet (the way I eat now)
• No sweets
• No fluids besides plain water and one protein shake
• Eating window: 3–7 PM

In general:

• One meal may be ordered in per week. It must be vegan and cannot exceed $30, not including the delivery fee and tip.
• Eating on campus is fair game, so long as all other rules are followed.
• Try not to exceed 1500 calories in a single day.
• I will continue to supplement as usual (I take a vegan complete multivitamin every day anyway) except on Fridays, because taking a pill with that much iron on an empty stomach is horrendous.
• I am defining "vegan" as "vegetarian, minus dairy, eggs, and honey." I am not going to wade into fringe debates about things like white sugar, carmine, and palm oil. I will leave that to actual vegans. I am but a peaceful vegetarian who does not want to argue with you about bone char.
• I am defining "sweets" as "anything I think a reasonable person would define as candy, dessert, or an excessive amount of added sugar." Fruit in any form except juice is fine-- dried, fresh, frozen, etc.-- unless something else like chocolate has been added to it to make it either a dessert or non-vegan.

My Lenten fast will involve cutting out most foods that I actually eat, surviving on fewer calories than is recommended, and a generally unsustainable way of living. If I were doing these things to lose weight, it would not be a healthy, sustainable, or good way of doing that. Therefore, I cannot and do not recommend it for that purpose.

(NB: I believe there's absolutely nothing wrong, imprudent, unhealthy, or unsustainable about being a vegan—in fact, that is a life choice that I admire deeply—but because I have severe ARFID and other food restrictions, and because veganism is not the entire plan, this will be extremely difficult for me personally. That’s part of the point. This is penance, not a diet.)

I do not intend to eat this way long-term. Lent lasts forty days and Holy Week lasts six. By the end of April, I will be eating "normally" (well, normal for me) again.

I also acknowledge that I will most likely lose weight during Lent-- probably at a faster rate than I currently am-- and I am not pretending otherwise. I am simply not doing this with the intent to lose weight. Accelerated weight loss, if that happens, would simply be a byproduct, just like a person who gave up social media for Lent as a penance would likely experience an increase in his or her attention span, but that would not be the reason to give it up.

I hope this helps-- I tried to break it down as approachably as possible without waxing too theological (I deserve a sticker for not using the phrase "double effect" in that last paragraph.) If you have any questions, of course, the comments are always open, and I'd be glad to answer whatever you want to know.

Until next time,

Simone