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Hello @MLMR how are you doing?

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Great post! I recall a post explaining triggers which I'll try to paraphrase in case it helps someone as much as it helped me. There are 3 kinds of triggers - - Daily triggers. These happen daily e.g. coffee, lunch, in the car driving to work, returning from work, etc. When we quit smoking, these are the triggers that we tackle first and overcome within the first few days. Having overcome these, we start to feel confident ...not realizing there are other triggers waiting to trip us. - Occasional triggers. As the name suggests, they happen occasionally e.g. vacation - drive, flight, visiting family or friends, social activities like bar, dance etc. Generally, these are events that happen a few times a year but not daily. These are dangerous because they surprise us just as we're feeling confident. If we're not prepared, we can lose the quit to these occasional triggers even after staying quit 3,4 or 6 months. - Life event triggers. These only happen a few times in our lives e.g. losing a job or a loved one or a break up. Again, smoking doesn't help with anything but the trigger catches us at a moment when we are vulnerable and may not be acting rationally and can result in losing a quit. For me, it helped to understand the concept ahead of time - that after overcoming the initial daily triggers, there will come other triggers and they will tend to catch you by surprise and unprepared. A bit of thinking and preparing ahead of time helped so that when the time came, it was possible to fight and kill the trigger. It's all in the head after all and I had my own game that I played in the head to kill triggers. I visualized hitting the trigger with a hammer and shouting "Die trigger die". A couple of times I may have shouted aloud getting a few strange stares ... but it worked ... and that's all that matters.

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I think I ate everything I could find in the kitchen, fridge, freezer, pantry.

Congratulations @overcome Great job! Do stay on guard though. Strength to you!

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It's done. Ate today. The reality of eating was underwhelming compared to the expectations but managed to avoid the upset stomach by being (somewhat) reasonable. Lost some pounds but more importantly lost waist size which is kind of nice. Not sure how much of it will come back. The last few hours seemed like the hardest. It's amazing how the body continues to function without any food for so many days although I did feel cold even in this nice weather. The next one is probably mid-Oct after the half marathon but will probably keep it to 5 days.

Congratulations Nancy !

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All right, 7 days down. Less than 24 hrs to go. Had a crappy day today and of course the brain tried to rationalize - it's ok to eat since it was such a crappy day. Sound familiar? Crappy day at work. Then in the evening someone decided they wanted to change lanes into my car. Not a big deal, no one was injured but there's the hassle of going through the whole process of reporting etc. Anyway, tomorrow's the day. The fish is marinated, have some takeout and I expect it will be a long meal as I introduce food slowly with gaps.

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Thank you @intoxicated yoda 6 days down, 2 more to go. The end now seems to be in sight. Did some food shopping but I think it was a mistake as I had to battle thoughts of - I've gone 6 days, it's ok to eat now. Bought a fish which I'll marinate tomorrow and bake the day after. Also bought a tender coconut, some fruits, nuts and ice cream. There are no hunger pangs but still... so looking forward to eating.