You can post pictures in your comments below! Please feel free to share your P3 living stuff you're doing to help other P3toLifers visualize and get ideas for how to do this!
Disclaimer: Intermittent fasting is considered a controversial topic by some AND depending on your health may not be a good idea- so you are responsible for checking with your doctor or medical professional before doing this. I am not a medical professional and the following are just my opinions based on my own experience and the research that I've done. There are quite a few books that expound on both the history and proof of the efficacy of fasting and I firmly believe in it's use, when done the right way, myself.
Your Body Adapts
I have found that fasting gets easier as your body becomes accustomed to what you're doing.
One thing I have discovered about fasting is that our bodies are SO smart. Sometimes we think our bodies get used to only what we do daily, but through this process I really believe that our bodies are smart enough to recognize as "familiar" something we do less frequently.
What I'm saying is I feel like even though I may only fast once a week, or twice a month or what not, I feel like after a short time my body RECOGNIZED my fast days in the sense that I wouldn't really feel hungry- it was like it cooperated with me.
So at first, when you're a total newbie to fasting, you might have a bit of a harder time- experience hunger for a longer period for it goes away etc. but as you do it more consistently- even though it's only say once a week, I found anyway, that my body was like, OH! You're doing that fast thing again today, and I remember that you always feed me dinner and eat plenty of food the next day, so I'm cool with this.
How You Will Feel On A Fast Day
Now I'm coming from the perspective of a person who already never eats breakfast- I've eaten breakfast about 2 times in the past 5 years (and both times I got major indigestion because my body isn't used to have it's gastric juices for digestion ready that early anymore). So while I have my 2 cups of morning black tea with half and half and stevia, I don't actually eat any food until between 11-1pm. Now, I get up at like 8/9, so if you're thinking, hey I want to try that, but you get up at 6 or 7a.m., you have to factor that in, that you're up like 2-3 hours earlier than me- so for you, you might need to start eating at like 9 or 10, ho knows.
So keep this in mind that I'm not hungry ever in the mornings because my body is adjusted to not eating breakfast.
That said, on a fast day, I will experience SOME hunger for a short period of time at my usual lunch time. The cool thing about this is that feeling of hunger actually totally goes away after about 20 minutes if you just keep doing stuff, maybe drink a glass of water. Then you can go on about your merry afternoon doing what you do, until your typical dinner time hits- at which point you'll start feeling hungry again- at this point you can decide if you want finish your fast at your typical dinner time or try to push it off by staying busy another hour or two.
Now, if you're doing a fast day because you had 2 plates of pasta the night before, it's likely that the morning might be a bit rough on you- the hormones that all those carbs signal are going to cause a lot of hunger pangs initially, even though your body doesn't really NEED food.
If you've been eating more regularly, but perhaps just overall too many calories on a consistent basis but not like an all out splurge in one meal the night before, the fast day usually feels more doable.
Regardless, in general, any intense feelings usually pass.
