Has it been 8.4 days Already?

Ok, yes we have reached 8.4 days.  Seems it went by pretty quickly and easily.  Mostly i have felt quite good with only occasional feelings of weakness.  A more refined report on light headedness is that when i go from laying down or tying a shoe to the upright position too quickly, i get light headed.  When i am sitting and then stand, i can do this quickly and without caution.  Still no sign of heartburn, which is really nice.  Strangely and surprisingly i woke up this morning with the slightest headache (after 8 days with no such symptom).  It is so mild as to not even be the least bit of an annoyance, but somehow i felt it to be worthy of mention...  even if only because i found it to be so unexpected .

The light exercise continues nicely.  Yesterday i was hiking in the forest, took one wrong turn on the way back and ended up hiking for about 4 hours instead of the 2 i intended... meanwhile with a growing thirst.   Taking it very easy on the uphills, prefering not to encounter them, but to no avail ;).  Since i was planning on only two hours, i drank a small surplus of water before leaving and didn't bring any with me, so i was NICE AND THIRSTY by the time i got home.  I can't recall an instance where water was quite so eagerly anticipated and so immensely satisfying .

The deep pain in my left ankle is not fully recovered but is feeling quite a bit better.  The very mild headache i woke up with is already gone.   The tiny growth under my left eye "grows tinier".  Seems to be one of the tougher types of growths for the body to absorb as discussed by Shelton or it would have been completely gone by now.  

Hunger: To review, i was not feeling much hunger sensation in the first 1.75 days (which is unusual).  That 2nd evening, however, i was hit pretty hard with appetite, which persisted for about 4 hours before i went to sleep.  Over the next 3 days appetite was pretty mild, but would arise frequently for short periods.  By about day 6 to present, physical appetite has been all but absent with very little exception.  

However, within this absense of physical hunger i was watching a couple of nature shows last night.  Grizzly bears were eating salmon that were swimming upstream as they were leaping up a small waterfall.  In the other program there were a billion (yes a billion!) sardines migrating and dolphins and a certain species of diving bird were waiting for them... watching this i was overcome by the strongest emotional craving for sardines!... all with no feeling of physical hunger :).  This lead to a strong craving for nuts as well. 

This was my strongest temptation so far, but i focused on my desire to reach the 20-30 day goal.  It's not like i could eat the foods i craved anyway (needing to gradually work towards them over several days), so this provides an added layer of protection against a premature breaking of the fast.  

Once i feel this strong of a craving (and not before), it helps me to take in the aromas of food.  So i opened up a can of sardines and poured some mixed nuts and a little piece of the sardines into small containers and enjoyed whiffing them for about a half hour .  

So i will continue one day at a time, enjoying each day as much as possible and i hope soon to have achieved my 20-30 day goal... and once again i would be immensely delighted to encounter "a return to genuine hunger" within that timeframe.

Oh, i almost forgot the weight log. 

Weight log at 8.4 days:

Scale weight and "estimated real weight" upon start of fast: 192
Scale weight today: 174.25
Estimated real weight today: 184.4
Overall weight loss (which still means nothing to me): 17.75
Estimated real weight loss (fat loss): 7.6
Estimated temporary weight loss, water, intestinal content and other (i consider the small amount of protein i am losing as temporary as well, expecting to put back double that amount within a very short time upon refeeding): 10.15

Today i found myself reaching the mini goal of 185 real pounds.  The next mini goal of 180 is 6 days away.  The body fat is melting away quickly .