Fast days are like taxes. We don’t like them, but they come every year anyway! At their best, fast days can be quick, manageable, and hopefully meaningful. But at their worst, fast days can be long, difficult, and feel pointless. We wanted to help you have an easier fast day with these quick tips.
1. make sure the day before isn’t too hectic.
This is something you might not think about but the way your prior day went will affect the fast day. If you spend the day before a fast sitting in the sun or running around doing errands, you may be extra tired and thirsty the next day.
During a regular hectic week, you can always rely on grabbing a coffee or a chocolate bar for a quick boost. On a fast day, however, you can’t eat anything to counter the effects of overworking. All of the neglect can catch up with you and make it much harder to get through the day.
As the fast day approaches, take a few minutes to plan out how the day before the fast will look. Try not to leave too many tasks or errands for that day so that you can focus on eating and drinking properly.
Check out our Yom Kippur Meal Plan 2022 to help you prepare for the fast and ensure that you have food ready to eat!
2. don’t overeat the day before a fast.
It may seem like a good idea to overeat the day before a fast. You might think, “If I eat double today, I won’t be hungry tomorrow.”
Sounds about right, no?
Unfortunately not.
I find that eating a lot more the day before a fast doesn’t make you any less hungry the next day. On the contrary, it can leave you feeling thirstier, more bloated, and uncomfortable. Especially if you do this towards the end of the day. Your body doesn’t know that you aren’t going to eat the next day. All it knows is that you are eating too much at the moment.
Instead of overeating, make sure you don’t skip any meals and eat normally at every meal. Eat a little bit more than you normally would without overdoing it. This way your body will store some extra fat for when you are hungry, without feeling sick from eating too much. That’s the sweet spot to aim for before a fast day.
3. eat foods that curb cravings.
I never believed that foods you eat the day before a fast can affect you the day of the fast. That was until I tried the “date craze.” I ate a handful of dates after the last meal before a fast and it worked! The next day I was barely hungry.
I didn’t feel the all-encompassing hungry feeling that makes it impossible to do anything. It was so nice to go through the day that way. Now I take more care to focus on the quality of foods when heading into a fast day as opposed to just the quantity.
One of the reasons that dates keep you full for a long time is that their natural sugars take a long time to digest, therefore stabilizing your blood sugars. When your blood sugars are stable throughout the day, you avoid the need for more sugar.
More foods like dates:
Dates aren’t the only foods that can make you feel full for longer. Any fresh or dried fruit will have this effect as well. Fruits like apples, bananas, and melons are all great options when it comes to natural sugars.
Another food group that will keep you feeling full and satisfied is fiber. This is especially important to have before a fast day because it will also aid your digestion. Whole grain bread, brown rice, nuts, and vegetables are some great examples of high-fiber foods.
And of course don’t forget your proteins. Chicken, fish, eggs, legumes, and beans are all great sources of protein to have before a fast day.
Out of all these food groups, nuts and fruits are great snack options while grains and proteins are great meal options. Fill your day with these and you’ll be good to go!
4. go to sleep early the night before the fast.
We all know the feeling of a sleepless night and it’s no fun. All we want to do the next morning is go for coffee, carbs, and sugar to help us stay awake and tame the exhaustion. The problem is we can’t do that on a fast day, so the lack of sleep becomes a lot harder to deal with.
It is worth it to put down your phone, computer, or whatever it is that might be keeping you awake and go to sleep. You will thank yourself the next day because hunger is one thing, but hunger plus a lack of sleep is an entirely different thing.
You might say that when you have a good night’s rest you develop a good appetite. That might be true but an appetite is better than the feeling of desperately needing a coffee after a night of no rest!
If getting a good night’s rest is not up to you (and I’m sure for many people it’s not – whether you have a baby keeping you up, work, or stress) try to take naps if you can or even just close your eyes and rest whenever you have a minute. This is probably good for you even when you don’t have to fast the next day!
5. make time blocks for the fast day.
This comes in more handy for a weekday fast like Tisha B’av, although it can work for Yom Kippur as well. Time blocks are chunks of time set aside for different things. For example, a time block might be:
8-9 am: Getting the kids up and out of the door for camp, school, etc.
9-10 am: Read/Pray
10-11 am: Cook
Etc. Etc.
It’s essentially a specific schedule with the option to make the time blocks as short or as long as you want. A time block can be as short as five minutes or as long as five hours.
You can allot time for prayer or spiritual growth as well as some time for resting and reading. Do what works for you and make the time blocks unique to your schedule and interests. If you can handle cooking on a fast day (other than Yom Kippur) then go for it!
When you do this on a fast day it will help you have a more structured day that doesn’t seem endless. Instead of constantly looking at the clock waiting for the fast to be over you can assign certain hours to certain activities and the day will go by more quickly.
6. practice meditation.
Take the time to slow down and be in the moment. Because there isn’t much that you can do on a fast day without draining your energy, you might have extra time to pause and reflect. So much of our lives are spent running around chasing things that we forget what the real purpose of life is. A fast day is a good time to be grateful for all of the food that we have on a regular basis, and it’s a great reminder to be thankful for all of the blessings in our lives.
Reading is another way to slow down. Many people have great books on their bookcases that they never have time to read, like self-help, growth, and development books. A fast day is a perfect time to read one of those books, internalize what it says, and think about what you want to take away from it.
When you change your routine and pace for even one day it can help your body relax. You will realize that the day will eventually come to an end and you will be able to eat again. When you finish a day that was spent reflecting and being in the moment, it does wonders. You will feel re-energized, invigorated, and spiritually replenished.
7. have activities lined up for the kids.
The worst time to think about what you’re going to do with your kids on a fast day is ON the fast day! The pressure of having to figure something out in the moment will leave you feeling overwhelmed and at a loss.
If you spend a couple of minutes earlier in the week or even the day before thinking about what you’re going to do with the kids, it can make all the difference. If you have them scheduled to go to camp, make sure to plan something for when they get home. The afternoons are long and if there’s nothing to do things can quickly get chaotic.
If your kids don’t have camp, ask around if there are any camps just for the day of the fast. If camp is not an option for your kids, maybe you can get a babysitter for a few hours to help out. You can order some arts and crafts online for them to do, or even pick some up at your local Target or dollar store.
More great ideas for kids:
Another great idea is scheduling playdates for your kids with their friends. You can schedule the playdate to be at your house for a couple of hours and then at the friend’s house for a couple of hours. This way you get some quiet time to yourself when the kids are at the playdate, and when the playdate is at your house it will hopefully keep your kids busy!
Anything you can do in advance for the kids will be helpful. Things like preparing their food, putting out their clothes, and having activities ready for them to do will leave you feeling relaxed and ready. You can even plan a movie for the kids to watch while you rest or take care of things. (I know screen time might not be ideal, but this may be a good day to make an exception.)
8. break your fast smartly.
Once the fast is over all you’ll want to do is eat anything and everything in sight. But don’t forget that how you break your fast is just as important as how you prepare for it. Eating a big or heavy meal after not eating all day can leave you feeling sick and uncomfortable.
It’s not easy to not eat everything in sight after not eating all day but try to pace yourself. On a regular day, your stomach stretches as you eat normally, so you have room to eat some extra calories. On a fast day, however, your stomach has shrunk and therefore has less room to store and digest any extra food that you might be eating.
EASe into it:
Start by drinking warm water and eating high water-content foods like fruits or a smoothie. Once your stomach is a bit more settled and has expanded, you can add more to your meal like bread and soup or a protein and vegetable. It’s probably not the best time to have pizza and fries, or burgers and cake. Your stomach is a lot more delicate and will have a harder time digesting oily, salty, or overly sweet foods.
Eat slowly and stop when you’re full (not when you’re stuffed and can’t move). Remember that you might not feel satisfied right after eating a small amount but wait a little bit and let the food go down. It’s better to go to sleep having had a small meal than to eat too much and feel sick afterward. You can start eating normally again the next day and your stomach will thank you for easing back into it.
Just in case you do overeat, as any Jewish family knows – have seltzer on hand 🙂
We hope you have an easy fast and we hope this is the last fast for us all!
Read about fast days and what they are here.