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I biffed my first EF yesterday, because I'm mentally dependant on food?

Iā€™ve always known I use food to ā€œtreatā€ discomfort. Belly feels funny? Eat something. Tired? Maybe eat something. Cranky? Try a snack.

But my attempts at fasting has made something so clear to me, I have a mental dependency on food. 99% of what I thought were justified snacking is just me trying to deal with my mental discomfort.

Yesterday I was perfectly set up to roll into my first full 24+ hours, and I broke itā€¦not because my body wanted food, but cuz my brain was throwing a tantrum. And the feeling was weirdly akin to when I quit smoking 6 months ago. Like my body didnā€™t need cigarettes, my mind wanted them.

But for smoking, I had a pill that took the choice to smoke away from me. I donā€™t think they make that for food. Iā€™ve gotta do this the hard wayā€¦any tips? I think I have the physical side down pretty well, but how do i work thru the mental self-medication side of eating? Maybe I should read up on methods for breaking addictionsā€¦.

Edit: Iā€™ve been doing omad and 18:6 for the last four weeks. If Iā€™m at work, I have no problem not eating. At home is a different story. So I need to figure out how to not use work as a crutch cuz I canā€™t work all the way thru an EF like I can an IF though I wouldnā€™t say I havenā€™t tried šŸ˜œ

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Answer

I do OMAD and have found that the daily fasting period really helped me with emotional eating, for two reasons:

  1. I know I will get to eat soon, so my brain does not go into panic mode.
  2. While waiting for my eating period to start, I have time to sit with the desire to eat without immediately acting on it. I get to sit with it long enough to learn about it.

While sitting with the desire to eat, I check in with myself physically and mentally/emotionally. Physically, I check on how my stomach feels; how my muscles feel; whether I feel faint or dizzy; whether I feel hot or cold; whether I feel pain anywhere. I even bought a blood glucose meter so I can actually check a number.

Mentally, I notice my thoughts and feelings ā€” am I confused about how to handle something; am I frustrated/angry with something or someone; am I bored; am I tired or sleepy; am I sad; am I scared/worried?

The physical check lets me know whether my body actually needs fuel. If I feel physically OK, then my desire to eat is probably not about my body actually needing food. Or maybe I do have a bit of physical discomfort, but if I pay attention, itā€™s something that food wonā€™t fix ā€” like a muscle cramp from sitting in an awkward position.

The mental check lets me know whether I need to self-soothe. Food will soothe me for the few minutes that Iā€™m actually eating itā€¦ but then Iā€™ll go right back to being stressed and upset. Maybe it would be better to step outside for a few minutes and walk around the block to clear my head. Maybe I need to take a power nap or just outright go to bed, depending on what time it is. Maybe I need to talk to a friend. Maybe I need to put on a TV show or read a book to entertain myself.

Basically ā€” I recommend trying this kind of check-in with yourself to better understand exactly what youā€™re feeling, and asking yourself ā€œWill food really fix what Iā€™m feeling?ā€

Answer

I just started easing into fasting by doing basically alternate day OMAD, and by the second OMAD day I realized that Iā€™ve had a lifelong fear of hunger, and Iā€™ve never really been food insecure, so itā€™s not based on some past trauma. And Iā€™m the same way, I donā€™t have a problem with binging, but any time something felt off my first reaction was to eat something, thatā€™s just how I was raised. Idk I donā€™t have a solution just noticing a similar feeling. Iā€™m sure itā€™s normal human behavior and you can train yourself to overcome the mental block eventually.

Answer

Contrave may be a solution for you. The naltrexone and bupropion kill the ā€œfood as a rewardā€ pleasure center thing. It can be pricey, but you can get it through helloalpha or found with or without insurance.

Answer

Well, I tried again yesterday goal 24, and hopefully with a push overnight to 35 hrs. But I started to feelā€¦depressed? Like all my old depression symptoms came back. It was cool to realize I havenā€™t felt that way in a while, but also feeling that way is unacceptable. Kinda scary. Not going back to that mental state. This was after giving up and sitting with my phone for four hours cuz I was so uncomfortable. So I called it and ate.

My body is pretty happy with 18:6 and omad, so I think Iā€™ll continue with that. A 3-5 day fast will always be my pie in the sky, but I cant force it.

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