Everytime I prepare for a fast (like today) I just give into eating and psychologically tell myself that I need to eat, and just east - I have a food addiction and I want to FAST for all the benefits it gives - any tips?
You have a habit problem so you can tackle it by changing the habit.
Every habit is the same; a trigger, a response, and a reward. You feel hungry, you get a ham sammich, you feel the release of endorphins that make you happy. If you ignore the trigger you get the double whammy of not getting the sammich and your body not getting the endorphins it really craves.
So you change the habit. Every time you get the urge to eat you instead focus on how happy achieving your goals will make you. You clearly visualize your slimmer self, loved and adored by all. Little by little that mental picture will be enough to release the endorphins that complete that habit.
Also it is not supposed to be hard. Start with 12hr fasts: Just make sure that you don’t eat from dinner to breakfast and 0 calories between the 3 meals. Focus on your habit forming exercises. When you are ready jump to 16hr fasts, skip breakfast and have two meals. No snacking nor calories in-between. At this point also focus on cleaning your diet; you are starting to learn to say no to food, so say no to empty carbs. Keep on bumping it until you hit the schedule that works for you.
Distractions are your friend, yesterday when I was hit with a wave of hunger I went out for a long walk. 30 mins after getting home my body was like oh it’s dinner time, so I took a long bath. Eventually bedtime and boom another day done.
Maybe have a list of distraction ideas to run to when the hunger hits.
insulin and unstable blood sugar- more cravings. Trying keto for 2 days and then fast.
Low electrolytes, get your blood checked and prepare a snake juice. Low electrolytes will cause sugar cravings because higher sugar means higher insulin, and higher insulin means more salt(electrolyte) retention(vs electrolytes getting flushed out from low/no-carb).
Anybody should be able to fast for prolonged periods of time easily. The body is built for it, if you can’t fast then you something is not right with your chemistry.