JStrider

i was thinkin somethin like saltine crackers would be good to start with *shrug*

but you have been drinking water and juice... so the fruit would prolly be a good way to go...

__________________
-=JStrider=-

~Clatto Verata Nicto

skier

Only 15 hours to go folks! Meph and Strider, I was thinking along the same lines, but i'm not one to go against my father's medical advice. I'm sure he knows best :P

Update:

Time: 156 hours

Mood: Excited

Hunger: I am very hungry, because my thoughts are now on food.

__________________
"Asking a bomb squad if an old bomb is still "real" is not the best thing to do if you want to save it." - denim

skier

This is the home stretch- i'm posting this 1/2 hour early because i'm "celebrating" this occasion with friends. Hey, any excuse, right?
Oh, and Strider: One and a half pints of beer got me a heavy buzz. Usually that kicks in at about 3-4 beer.

Time: 167 1/2 hours.

Mood: Jubilant

Hunger: Insatiable! The thought of food has been percolating in my mind the past 24 hours, and I am ravenous now at the last 1/2 hour...

Fuller report in the morning I thinks.

__________________
"Asking a bomb squad if an old bomb is still "real" is not the best thing to do if you want to save it." - denim

HockeyGuy

Congrats Skier, quite an accomplishment!

JStrider

hope the eating went good!

__________________
-=JStrider=-

~Clatto Verata Nicto

MrFlux

Does anyone find it disturbing he hasn't given us an update yet?

*throws a pie in skier's direction*

__________________
flux (n.)
Medicine. The discharge of large quantities of fluid material from the body, especially the discharge of watery feces from the intestines.

KellyC

What did you do the week that you selfstarve? Just stay at home?

__________________
Him: Ok, I have to ask, what do you believe?
Me: Shit happens.

Kaos

*pokes skier with a stick*

Dude, you still alive?

matteo101

Skier man, how are you doing?..we're kinda worried about you.

Evil Milkman

He's probably too busy eating.

flamingdog

holy shit... hope you're okay man.

sadatx

Congratulations. It's an admirable thing to do for a good cause.

I hope you didn't eat too much at first. Even a very small amount off food would probably knock you out cold while your body diverts all it's enery to getting the digestive juices flowing again.

They had a story on NPR a couple weeks ago about fasting. Not for fund raising or any other reason like that, but just because certain people think that it's healthy to fast and helps them find "enlightenment". (Think I'll start a 'nother thread and see if any TFPer's have done a long fast like this).

The reporter doing the story did a two week fast as research and all he felt at the end was very tired.

Have any enlightening experiences while fasting?

sailor

Almost five days now... skier, where are you?

__________________
"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws."
--Plato

skier

Ok i'm finally back! I've had an interesting time this week, lots that was being done. Friday night I experimented with the effects of drugs on my system- the result being an exaggerated effect on me even with minimal dosages. I didn't get any sleep that night. The rest of the weekend had little to do with recovery, alot to do with having fun.
Monday morning I was spent. Dragged my ass to class and took down what notes I could. Got home, slept from 7 to 12 this morning. (no class for me on tuesdays) I then moped about for a few hours and hopped on TFP at 7 PM, where i'm now postin. I feel much better, I think one more day to recover and I should feel normal.

Alright. Overview of the fast. The first 24 hours I did not really observe any change, as I sometimes go without food for a day without thinking much of it (sick or tired or whatnot) and I was having some fun with other people. There are a few myths and preconceptions in my mind that I corrected throughout this fast. The first being, in my mind, that the longer you go without food, the hungrier you will be. This isn't true at all. The hungriest point was at about a day and a half into my fast, then it was a gradual lessening as my digestive tract slowed to a crawl. After that the only hunger I felt was in my head- triggered by sights or smells. Children starving in Africa may not feel as hungry as I thought they would.
Another preconception I had prior to this experiment was that hunger, while not dominant in my life, was at least prevalent and dictatated my actions quite a bit. While fasting, I was able to continue my daily routine just as I would before, until the 5th-6th day when my condition began to deteriorate. Furthermore, I feel that as a result of this experiment, I have a certain amount of control over my hunger now, and I think this will be useful in the future to help me concentrate when most people would be distracted by hunger.
I did lose quite a bit of weight. Let's face it, I was still burning 1500 calories a day, and diluted fruit juice will only fuel so much of that. Overall I lost 10 pounds over the week, but regaining 3 in just 4 days after I finished. I expect I will gain the rest in short order, hopefully all muscle this time.

So to recap- fasting gets much easier after 2 days (in my experience), frequent bathroom breaks are inevitable, you will gain a new sense of control over your bodily functions (other than the bladder, perhaps that might be my next experiment), and you'll lose a fair amount of weight.

Now for the interesting part- Day 5,6, and 7. At the end of day 5, I was feeling pretty good, I survived over half of the week, and I could just breeze through the next 2 days. I got ready for bed, and lay down to sleep. But sleep would not come. It was the worst sleep I had in a month, I was tossing and turning all night. Luckily I had the day off, so I just spent the day in a relaxed vegetative state. The night of the 6th was tough. I didn't get any sleep at all, and after about 3 1/2 hours of ignoring the ceiling tiles above my head, I hopped on the computer and played UT2K4 demo for the rest of the night. School in the morning of the seventh day was bad. Really bad. I think it would have been better spent in bed or playing video games, because I still don't remmeber that morning. This monday I had to ask for the notes from a friend because whatever I wrote down was useless. The day progressed better after that, gradually increasing until about 5 O'clock, where I had a sense of euphoria- the closest to a spiritual experience I got I guess, it was quite novel. That lasted the rest of the night, and was hightened by alchohol and a certain smokable item. At 2:13 AM I had an apple, and sat on the couch watching seabiscuit, drinking the last of the fruitjuice, undiluted this time, which tasted great strong. At about 4:30, the movie was over, and everyone had left. I considered going to bed, but stayed up instead. Feeling more courageous later in the morning, I ate a PB&J on toast, and eyed the milk. When that went ok, I just continued casually munching on various foods for the rest of the day.

Saturday night me and my roomate went out and had some fun at the bars, and came back with the munchies. We had a breakfast sorta supper at 2AM, with sausage, eggs, waffles, toast, and oatmeal. Delicious. Sunday we went to The Druid with a few friends and I stayed up all night, then went to class on monday. Recovered monday night, and most of today.

Well thanks everyone for letting me share this with you guys, it's been an interesting experience, and I gained alot from it. I hope some of you gained something as well.

__________________
"Asking a bomb squad if an old bomb is still "real" is not the best thing to do if you want to save it." - denim

Captain Canada

I took part in this every year in high school. We'd usually have about 25 people or so doing it. We'd go over to someone's house and just hang out as a group. It was actually pretty fun. After awhile you forget about the whole not eating thing and it just becomes normal.