I am 40 hrs into a 3 day fast and I’m not actually hungry, I just find myself THINKING about food a lot. I work around food so I smell it all day. Physically I am able to recognize I have no signs of hunger, but I’m having trouble not thinking about food.
ME TOO. This is the most difficult thing. I’m about 45 hours into a 4 day fast and today my co-workers had BBQ and I didn’t really come close to breaking but it sure got my attention. It’s really just willpower
Realize that you’re just not stimulated, you’re bored and your brain is telling you to fill that boredom with food. The whole world is at your door. Surely, in a world of the internet, Podcasts, music streaming, not to mention books, hobbies and The Outside, you can find something else to do instead of eat. You are blessed beyond anything anyone had even 20 years ago for distractions. Use one of them.
That’s how I deal with it anyway.
Listen to podcast, audiobook or youtube vids of fasting, It helps to keep in mind the reason why you’re doing this!
This might be counterproductive for most people, but one thing I did do in the past was… watch mukbang videos LOL I watched Strictly Dumpling, he basically posts videos where he eats lots of food. What I’d do is I’d write down the stuff he ate, and promise myself I’d eat those foods. His eating so much actually made me feel a bit sick, because I know I can’t eat that much without throwing up. After some time passed, I threw away the papers with the foods written…. and I sincerely can’t remember even one food I wanted to eat! It’s a temporary thing, so it helped me a lot to stay on track while not completely denying my mental hunger thoughts.
Ironically, before I fasted the only time I didn’t feel hungry was working as a line cook in an Italian restaurant. I was sick of the smell of pizza and tomato sauce and pasta. After I got off work, it took me a solid hour to move on from that mindset and feel hungry again.
Now I think about those times when I’m surrounded by food. Heck, it still will pop up when I’m cooking a big meal at home. I have to wait 10 minutes to actually mentally prepare to eat sometimes over a decade later!