It’s so hard for me to get passed the first day. I feel so weak every time I give in and I’m just fed up and mad at myself.
What strategies do you use to deal with hunger? How do you embrace the suck?
I always keep in mind that hunger is not actually your stomach needing food. It is a sensation that is brought on by a hormone called grehlin, and it only lasts about an hour or so around the time of day that you normally eat, and then goes away. With that in mind, it’s easier to ignore it, since it’s not real. I’ve done this so many times now, that i hardly even notice it anymore. As far as feeling weak, a low carb diet might help during refeeds, at least until your insulin and blood sugar levels are more in control. If you stay in ketosis, your blood sugar won’t crash and leave you feeling weak. Eventually you might be able to refeed with carbs, and still not have your blood sugar drop when you fast again.
An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy.“It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” He continued, “The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too.”The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”
STOP FEEDING THE FAT FUCKING WOLF!!
That’s a tough one. I just try to create a different association with the feeling of hunger, try to concentrate on how lean you feel, how you’re moving forward, etc. rather than lacking something or being deprived.
I have found that after about a day, I don’t get hunger pains. Other than that, stay busy. I mean really busy. Idle time, idle hands will make you want to eat. BUt if you keep yourself really busy all the time, you will not want to eat.
I go for a walk when i am hungry, we need to trick our brain into thinking that what we’re doing is more important than eating, ghrelin the hunger harmone comes at the time when you usually eat, so keep yourself busy by doing some excercise or walking, in some time hunger will subside.
I use Redmond real salt and bought a bag of the course grind, which is big chunks. When I’m suffering, or sometimes throughout the day, I chew on chunks of salt, it gives the illusion of eating and satisfies my hunger.
Use cold showers. They’ll drop your blood sugar real quick and keep your blood sugar stable. Do one in the morning and one before bed, as cold and as long as u can stand it. Do em as often as you like if you can hit the shower more, but one in the morning and one before bed will make a big difference.
I sit and suffer and tell myself the more miserable the better. Jk lol actually if it gets too extreme, such as at the end of a 72/48, I find the best thing to do is make a giant glass of snake juice or just cold water, and drink the whole thing in one go. Other than that I keep my mind busy with music/media, or learning something. It’s rough no matter what though I can say since I started doing this rigorously in December, it gets easier and easier each time. Good luck!
I’ll drink some cold snake juice and eat ice cubes. Another strategy that I do is get on the scale to keep me focused on my end goal. That snaps me out of giving up because I want my end goal to be met.
My advice is to make sure that when you do eat that you are not consuming any sugar, processed foods, or refined carbohydrates. I find that if I stick to whole foods, mostly meat, my hunger is next to non existent. If I eat any of the aforementioned things the day before then I will get crazy hunger pangs.