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Broke my fast because of an advertisement

I was 3 days into it, going for the full 7. But seeing one image launches a cascade of thoughts that cause my brain to break out of scarcity mode and into abundance mode, and suddenly my health and commitment doesn't matter everything in my world is suddenly perfect and I deserve a reward, and I'm craving that unhealthy food item and break down. And I can write paragraphs of the hours that went by and the exercises and mindfulness exercises and waters and then teas, but ultimately I was too weak. Day-to-day life is one thing but having to see advertisements are truly a mind virus. My phone is mostly good but just having drive around and see images of food everyone makes me think I should just focuson on long-term fasting when I'm travelling or hiking for an extended amount of time. How does everyone else battle the ubiquity of temptation??

Answer

Three days has already done you a lot of good. You’ve already activated hella stem cells and got hella HGH floating around in your body.
Regarding temptation: contrarianism. Multiple times I was about to give in and have a tiny snack, making excuses like “On the scale of a thousand calories, I can round this down to zero.” When those cravings happen, I would reaffirm to myself why and how I am being influenced (as you have): “Everyone and every thing is beckoning me to eat.”

Which I then follow up with: “If that’s what they want, then I’m practically obligated to not give them what they want.” It doesn’t matter if I lose, but I can’t let “them” win. It’s childish assertion of willpower, but it works for me.

Answer

Be kind to yourself. Three days isn’t nothing, and you got that far! I battle similar issues but for me it’s cooking for my kids. The smell of food and making dinner for them can push me over the edge. Other than outsourcing the cooking and begging my husband to be home in time to feed them, I’ve yet to find a good solution. I find some weeks are easier than others too as far as resisting the temptation, but no clue why.

Start another fast and try again. That’s my current approach. I end up with a bunch of shorter fasts than planned, but figure it’s better than nothing.