I am 80h in, 90 more to go and this whole time all my free time I have been thinking about food or reading about fasting. During the day I am pretty busy but at night when I am at home, I am just too focused on the food/fasting etc. I consume electrolytes, drink ~ a gallon of water and do some workouts. I am 5’5 and 129 lbs. Before my fast I was doing IF or OMAD for about a year (on and off). I am doing this fast for weight loss but also as a challenge for my brain.
I like food and cooking, I like going to restaurants with people, so for me it’s a big change in my routine. How do you guys get used to this change? What do you do to get distracted?
You will think about food, what matters is how you react to it.
Cheap tricks include taking a shower, brushing your teeth, going for a walk, drinking some ACV. But at the end, it’s all about building up self control.
I find if I’m having difficulty with one of the “rising tides” of hunger (it does wax and wane) that listening to lectures about the benefits of fasting really encourages me to continue.
Try to stay busy. Before an extended fast I like to have a side project planned ahead for myself. You know something you’ve been procrastinating. When I get hungry I acknowledge it and drink something like water/ACV/Matcha.
I also have a tradition to read the complete Guide to fasting for an hour or two to remind myself why I am doing this in case doubt creeps in.
I’m not exactly a veteran at fasting, only trying out a 3 1/2 day and 5 day version so far, so I’m drawing on less experience than most here. The second time was a bit easier; it seems likely that with practice and exposure it would become more normal. I expect that ramping up from one day, then two, onto three, and so on would’ve been a lot easier for me.
As a more direct answer watching movies or doing light work outside helped me not think about being hungry, sweeping the leaves in the driveway and such. Napping can be nice, sorting out energy level shifts too. After the third day hunger wasn’t the same kind of issue; it really dropped off. If something got me onto the subject of food the reaction would go back towards cravings, but it was easier to just let it drop.