I know this thread is a bit old, but:
Thank you so much for going to all the effort of sharing your experience with us, Lucas. I really appreciate it. I'm new to the forums, as you can see, but I have the feeling I'll be around for a while.
I plan to start a week-long fast pretty soon, once I can get a few days off work. I was just talking to a new (international) work acquaintance last night, and we got onto the subject of fasting and he has done many fasts, up to a week long; and I found out first-hand (though i'd already read about) the benefits and reasons for going through with it. Hopefully I'll one day get up to the 30-40 day level, but I plan on building up to that -- I think environment also plays a big part, and I'd need to get away from work for a while (IT consulting and training) if I were going to do that.
Anyway, thanks again to Lucas and to many of the other people that posted and shared knowledge and insights.
-A-