My Seven Day Fasting Project - The Beginning

Today at 5:30 pm was my last meal for the next 7 days. I ate two slices of pepperoni pizza totaling about 1000 calories. For the next 7 days I will only consume water. Every 12 hours beginning 5:30 on the 21st of October I will complete 20 simple math problems that are 2 numbers, 3 digits. There will be 5 addition problems, 5 subtraction problems, 5 division problems, and 5 multiplication problems. I will time how long it takes me to perform each group of 5 and test how fasting affects my cognitive ability. I realize this isn't exactly scientific, but the test just give me an excuse to starve myself for 7 days.

On a side not the real reason why I am doing this is because I am looking for answers. Not scientific answers but the answers to the question, "Do I want to live?" I figure 7 days of fasting will trigger a self preservation instinct in me and answer that question for me. I'm not saying that I will starve myself to death or kill myself by other means if that self preservation instinct never kicks in.

I am going to try and update my blog twice a day with the results of each set of math problems and a short description of how I feel physically and mentally. I also am going to weigh myself every 24 hours to see the effects this fasting has on my weight.

Just before I began this post I completed my first set of math problems for the purpose of a baseline. The results are as follows

Addition: 1 minute 33 seconds

Subtraction: 1 minute 47 seconds

Multiplication: 1 minute 41 seconds

Division: 2 minutes 17 seconds

CURRENT WEIGHT: 107 lbs (bathroom digital floor scale) Beginning Weight

Heart Rate At Rest: 72 beats per minute

Being that I just ate about 30 minutes ago I am full, energized and feel completely normal. I will be back in 12 hours.