I would say I am observing now the second phase of eating
only one meal a day. The first phase was
physical adaptation. Hunger outside of the eating window took some time to
decrease in that first phase. I feel strong and well now again and am
physically able to perform during prolonged fasting.
But the mental adaptation that happens afterwards takes much
longer for me. And by mental adaptation I mean the uncoupling of content and
pleasure from eating. Whenever I would want to feel better in the past I would
eat something. It would usually be something natural and healthy, therefore I
never gained too much weight. But it stilled served to distract me from closely
observing what caused the slight unhappiness and emotional struggle in the
first place.
But with a very small eating window of only 1-2h you are no
longer able to cover feelings and craving with food. When you have covered your
nutritional and energetic needs the eating of food never comes from a true
physiological demand. It is triggered by emotional and environmental factors.
I am eager to see how I adapt to this very strong urges to
just snack something whenever I want an emotional pick-up. At the moment I am
confronting many of those opportunities with a moment of becoming fully present
and observing my inner emotional state. This usually teaches me a lot through
direct insight. But at other occasions I still fall short of my ideal and loose
that presence and have a snack outside of my one meal. It is a steep learning
curve and habits are harder to break than I thought.
I try to push through it and see how my habits have changed
in about two month. How will the urges have changed? How much opportunities to
learn about myself will I be presented with?