Martin Blank's Journal: First day of the fast...

I decided a few days ago to try something as a test of will. In the past, I have done things like stop eating candy for three months, or stopped with sodas for a month at a time. Each time, I have made certain that I had something of that which I chose to give up for a while readily available. I kept candy bars or soda in the refrigerator, or else made a point of walking past the snack machines at work. The results? I rarely eat candy anymore, and even with the constant supply of various beverages at work, I usually choose one of the Hansen's drinks over a Coke or a Dr Pepper.

This week will be different. This test will, I think, prove far more difficult. I have decided to go without food, or more accurately without solid sustenance, for a period of 168 hours, which equates to seven days. This period was to begin at 12:01am this morning, but due to my late exit from work last night and the last piece of pizza left from a couple of days earlier, I decided to postpone the start to 1:00 am. I had finished the pizza by 12:15, but I like a nice round target to shoot for.

In any case, because I was too lazy to go to the store earlier, I ended up drinking water for the entire day. I got to about a half-gallon, I think, before I kind of got sick of it. I knew I would need something more for the coming week, so I just got back from the store. A couple of gallons of milk, a gallon of orange juice, two kinds of V8, some Gatorade (thrown into the freezer for a nice slushy effect), and some Milk Chugs (two each of strawberry and chocolate) round out the purchased consumables for the next quarter-month.

A friend of mine periodically takes three days and does this. He's mentioned that the first day is relatively easy. The second day gets very hard, but he said that there's a point where the hunger breaks. I imagine there would have to be. As it is, I crave solid food, and I do have some of it here, though not in the way I have done these kinds of things in the past. I decided that I didn't need to stock anything; I already have a few things, and there are enough fast food places around that should my will break or I begin to feel ill effects, it would be a simple matter to get something to eat.

The question I ask myself is whether I will do anything to celebrate. There's not much open at 1am on Sunday morning; even Del Taco and Taco Bell have taken to closing at some point, abandoning the 24-hour schedules that most of their outlets used to have. I'd love to dig into a nice steak, but the best steak place will have been closed for a long time by then. Maybe the celebration will have to wait for Sunday morning. We'll see.

In any case, I'm about 22 hours into this test of wills. I expect to sleep through the next eight hours or so of it, though the hunger is getting to me. That's where the milk comes in, as the fats in it will help to take the edge off. Tomorrow, I'll start the day off with some Gatorade and later some milk for "lunch". Tuesday will be a little odd, perhaps, because I'm supposed to go to some one-day conference on computer security. I'm sure some snacks will be there, but we'll have to see. I'll probably take some Gatorade to it after having milk in the morning.

Wednesday through Saturday should be easier. I'll have the constant supply of drinks at work, including the Hansen's smoothies which are fairly filling. I'm sure I'll end up blasting through can after can of whatever is available, assuming that I forget to bring things in from home. I don't think I will. By that point, the hunger will probably be fairly constant, and I'll have to grab something on my way out the door anyway. Maybe I'll save the V8 for that.

One hundred forty-six hours and counting....