Our Thoughts Make Us Weak

Behavior change is hard, because we become comfortable with our patterns. It up takes a great deal of mental energy until it becomes habit.

Intermittent fasting challenges the “three meals a day plus snacks” style of eating we are so accustomed to, in which it’s easy to feel like you should take in a meal, even when you’re not hungry, simply because it’s lunchtime.

To avoid the morning munchies, look at the last meal you ate before starting your fast: Did it have enough fiber? Protein? Whole grains? Are you hydrated? Filling up with balanced and satiating foods before your fast will keep you fuller longer.

Of course, if you’re nearing the end of your fast and no amount of black coffee will fill the void, breaking your fast early is not the end of the world. 

• GIP and GLP-1 are responsible for stimulating the production of insulin to regulate the metabolism of carbohydrates.
• Other hormones are involved in slowing down the movement of food through the stomach.
• CKK and PYY are vital in reducing the feeling of hunger. (Increased PYY causes a loss of appetite and is particularly high in patients who have a gastric band fitted to reduce the size of the stomach.)

Even though your stomach has a hormonal system for telling your brain it is empty, it can also raise your hunger levels at specific times by learned associations, even if you had a large meal.

If you repeatedly eat chocolate after dinner when you sit on the couch, your body can start to associate sitting on the couch with eating, and you'll experience a craving.

It doesn’t mean giving in to every craving; it means getting rid of the idea of “giving in” to “bad foods” altogether. Eat that Oreo when you want it, without any negative emotion attached, and you won’t feel like you need to eat the whole bag.

Listen for the body signals that tell you that you are no longer hungry. Intuitive eating is about understanding what foods your body feels best eating, and how to make your own food choices based on your own hunger and fullness

Hunger causes certain chemical and hormonal changes in the body, and the brain processes these signals the same way it would process sadness, fear or anger.

The brain tries to tell us when we are hungry that the body is not in a good shape and an action (like eating food in this case) needs to be taken.

The brain requires glucose to function properly, and its limbic system, the part associated with hunger, fear, and anxiety, starts to give out automatic responses when the glucose levels are low.

• It makes your day simpler: fewer meals= less stressing about what you'll eat.
• It helps you live longer: you get the benefits of a longer life without the hassle of starving.
• Still up for debate, but intermittent fasting may reduce the risk of cancer.
• It is much easier than dieting, once you get over the idea that you need to eat all the time.

• Daily Intermittent Fasting: 16–hour fast followed by an 8–hour eating period. 
• Weekly Intermittent Fasting: One of the best ways to get started with it - do it once per week.
• Alternate Day Intermittent Fasting: incorporates longer fasting periods on alternating days throughout the week.

To eat intuitively, you may need to relearn how to trust your body. Distinguish between physical and emotional hunger:

• Physical hunger. This biological urge tells you to replenish nutrients. It builds gradually and has different signals, such as a growling stomach, fatigue, or irritability. 
• Emotional hunger. This is driven by emotional need. Sadness, loneliness, and boredom are some of the feelings that can create cravings for food, often comfort foods. 

Some of the concepts of intuitive eating have been around at least since the early 1970s, though the term wasn’t coined until 1995.

The program was built on the principle that diets don’t work and that lifestyle changes and personal care are more important for long-term health.

Several new studies are claiming that restricting our meals, and not eating post-afternoon, has some remarkable benefits.

Limiting our eating has produced miraculous results in these studies, where insulin levels of the body along with insulin resistance, dropped due to the semi-fasting.

Eating in your last meal of the day in the afternoon results in a 16 to 18 hour fast, which can significantly boost your health, according to research.

The tests also show that it is not hard to fast in the evening, and green tea, coffee etc. can help as a fasting aid.

• Mentally remind yourself of your present action: Use self-talk to direct your focus back to the present moment.
• Focus on your senses: Direct your attention back into your body and out of your head.
• Do things differently: Make things more challenging. As a result, you are forced to act consciously instead of acting on autopilot.

• Factors such as negative mood, fatigue and alcohol play a large part in self-control failure.
• Previous effort is one especially well studied factor that decreases self-control. All else being equal, a second self-control attempt after an initial one is more likely to fail than one that comes after a relatively restful period when no self-control was exercised.

• Self-control is indeed a resource, but a renewable, psychological one.
• Goals that are motivated from within—for reasons that are personally important to us—are more likely to succeed than those that are motivated from without.
• Succeeding at self-control is more about the desire rather than the ability to do so.