Re: day 12

Good for you, still sticking it out. I'm finishing up my 16th day now, and I can deeply commiserate with many of the challenges you're dealing with. I'm continuing my fast until true hunger makes its presence unmistakeable- or if by some freakish anomaly that doesn't happen during the next 2 weeks, that will be my finish-line and time for some joyous (but careful) culinary celebration.

The idleness is one issue for me that grows with time. I'm trying to focus on learning new things, and on setting long, medium and short-term goals for my future. Fortunately, the brain seems to fare much better on a fast than the body in terms of capacity for work- so if you've got some serious thinking to do, great! When I manage to get my mind going productively (and I don't think fasting impedes this at all) the time goes much more quickly for me.

Early on, I made the false assumption that I could continue to exert myself physically at near full capacity, and that hubris was fully demolished late in the second week. If you are still exercising a lot, my advice is to taper down as soon as you sense your energy reserves diminishing. I tried to tough it out, and crashed hard, probably putting unnecessary strain on my heart.

Now that I am resigned to spending most of time "just lying around" I try to tune into what's going on inside my body: It seems there is always a new project underway as my metabolism takes on a succession of problems.

I break up my own external chores into short sessions, and I've learned to avoid being in the middle of something when my batteries run down, or blood-pressure starts dropping. When I start to feel droopy, I immediately lie down. This has evened out the lows for me, reduced physical stress significantly, and I expect it also accelerates the healing that the fasting experience is all about.

As an aerobatic pilot, I started this fast with dangerous false assumptions about the symptoms of rising too quickly from a resting position that we read about in so much fasting literature. I am proficient in flying with managing the loss of blood to the head that comes with maneuvering, but what's going on when we jump up while fasting is not the same at all. I have learned that pushing it in terms of rising too fast or making sudden exertions causes much more than a grey-out and loss of consciousness (fainting) if pushed too far. Overexertion while fasting triggers a physiological response, delayed by a few seconds, that I am convinced is not healthy at all, and best avoided by making slow, methodical transitions between resting and activity.

An extended fast is a very different state of being, so be prepared to learn a lot about your body first-hand. The well-founded, scientific literature on the subject is excellent and essential preparation- but going through it I'm learning many things I had not grasped in researching this subject.

I too had a lot of issues with acid reflux and generally upset stomach throughout the second week. Sipping hot distilled water, keeping my torso elevated, and avoiding swallowing a lot of saliva all seem to give me a lot of relief. Starting the 3rd week, the frequency of these attacks is diminishing for me.

Like you, I'm fasting without what I would call a robust support network. Although my wife is now mostly resigned to the idea, I have no peers and associates who understand what I am doing and why. The solution I have come to for now (and I don't consider it ideal) is virtual seclusion: You might say I don't get out much.

Still when I do go out on errands, I run into people around town, but try to limit conversations in the usual hurried American way without being too rude. Because my appearance is changing, any extended chat is likely to turn to what's going on with me. With all but a few friends, clients, and acquaintances, going into all that is prone to becoming lengthy and even contentious. Forced into that corner, I just recommend Dr. Joel Furman's books. I really don't have great advice for publicly fasting in a culture that largely cannot distinguish between fasting and eating disorders- if that's how you experience it too, then don't feel alone.

I hope you have a relatively comfortable fast from here forward lightstream- and most of all a safe and effective one.

Distilled-water Cheers to your success!

-wf