Is that what Lent is about? What I've found with food and drink is that if you stop eating it for long enough eventually you won't even like the taste as much as you used to. For example I used to drink coca cola all the time but for the last few months I haven't and now when I drink it I still like it but it tastes a lot more watery than I remember so I don't reach for it as much anymore. So that's a good trick.
It was different for me (though I've never been much of a soda drinker).
To keep it simple, I'll list it as a homeschool project (it also helped me to learn rudimentary Russian as I was trying to do, and it did help for awhile, though I've since forgotten a lot of it). It was Russian Orthodox (though many other Eastern Orthodox participated), and it was strict. I actually wasn't expected to get through it as most Americans don't the first time, and I felt it important for them to know that I was there to LEARN of their religion, as I didn't want to blaspheme it by eating blessed bread while not a believer, and they were okay with this.
It was a slight problem as the priest said I was not allowed to take part in the communion rites, but the rest was fine. Others learning of this snuck me bread soaked in wine (I was 17), and I didn't want to refuse them as that would be rude and awkward. Ironically, I symbolically ate more blood soaked flesh than the believers! But other than this, I stayed true.
There generally wasn't sitting, save where it was clearly unreasonable to stand (and I recall more than a few children napping on thick sweaters brought from home). It's chanting (for HOURS, often late into the night, so add sleep deprivation) and standing with a lot of incense. The icons were so colorful. I wasn't even a believer and it felt like the icons were windows into another world (though fair disclaimer, I'd done shrooms about 3 years earlier with possibly a little stored in my fat, easily being released during the stricter fasting times). But it wasn't just me. I noticed people reverently grabbing the priest's cloak as he walked by...they sincerely believed it would heal them or basically perform miracles as if Christ touched them.
The last part was the hardest, the days Christ was dead, and then came the Resurrection, at which point, my reaching my limit. It was almost dawn and we'd been chanting about all night, followed a procession, and so on, and standing and chanting, deprived of food and sleep and I think even water at that point. I think this is where it got trippy for me, where the incense smells and smoke and candle-lit icons became dreamlike.
But with the climatic end, we were led to a feast, where EVERYTHING was available...and oh, was it good. I can see why Stoics often say abstain for a time to increase the pleasure later (as just one version). And it did feel as if Life had returned to the land. Even the priest got giddy and he'd done it several times, so I can't just say because it was my first time and all that.
Perhaps it's best not to say the rest, other than it's a memory I cherish, especially that one morning where the fast was over and a big communal feast began. And indulgences of all sort (especially food and drink) were better for awhile after that...but again, not a soda or coffee drinker here.
Remembering it, I'm actually tempted to go through it again as a ritual of stoicism (and delayed pleasure), as well as hopefully breaking some bad habits I've formed over the last couple of years or so.
