One Week Down...
...moving into day 8 right now.
The first week has gone very well for me. I had some reasonably consistent stomach grumbling through day 6, but it has subsided as of today. The further I get into the fast the more noticeable my blood-pressure drop is...noticeable because with each passing hour I have to be more cautious as I stand up (in an effort to not have a vision black-out and possible fainting). I have low blood pressure to begin with, so this is something I expect on each fast.
I have noticed no real symptoms of healing up to this point. I have a few specific areas of my body where I feel healing should/may? occur and I've been keeping close tabs on those, but have noticed nothing in particular (yet).
I haven't cheated. Haven't thought about cheating. Will not cheat. I will choose to end the fast before I choose to 'cheat the fast'. This process takes too much mental effort and is too REAL for me to even consider this. I think this comes with experience, because with each progressive fast I have taken I have been more and more assured of the path of the fast.
This one...this one is going for a while. I have no reason to stop today or anytime soon. I want to get myself into the most 'recuperated' state I can possibly achieve, as that is the whole goal of this fast. The goal is hunger. The goal is completion.
I have been taking daily walks with my dog (nothing too crazy) and those have all gone fine. I feel more energetic after the walks than before. I am LOVING the smell of BBQ walking down my street...it's really amazing how acute my sense of smell has been, and it seems as though it is only getting stronger.
I work from home, on my computer (website design) and have found that my eyes are 'tiring' far sooner than they normally do when I am eating. I am slightly worried about the effects of this but I'm going to simply make sure that I am as efficient as possible when I'm on my computer, and be sure to spend ample time away from the 'faux light' and rest these tired eyes.
In the first 7 days I have consumed about a gallon of water. I haven't been thinking about water unless I get the feeling of thirst. There is none of this "well I'm not eating so I better supply my body with 4x the water as usual to make up for it". There has also been no intentional withholding of water. And...I feel...perfect. I have to believe that trusting my body and intuition through this process is the only way to do this.
Anyway...there's my update. Hope everyone is doing well on their fasts