I have found the key is distraction. Sundays I do a modified fast, but I’m normally at home that day and I’m with you – food is on my mind! But on Tuesday and Thursday, my regular 5:2 fast days, I’m usually at work and frankly too busy and distracted to even think about food. So on those days it’s simply not an issue, in fact I get to the end of my Tuesdays and Thursdays sometimes and think, “Hey… did I really just get through a day on 500 calories? Yes! yes I did.” Without even thinking about food. So stay busy. If you don’t work, tackle that huge Honey-Do list we all have, pursue your long-neglected hobby, whatever. The mind at rest will focus on it’s favorite topic – food! So distract, distract, distract.

It also helps to remember what, for me at least, was one of the most helpful statements Michael made in the Horizon documentary – that hunger does not come and build and build and build, but it comes in waves, and like waves the hunger recedes after a bit – just goes away. So sometimes when I’m feeling the hunger I just remind myself this is simply “high tide” but that it will recede – and it does.