“The man who eats more than he ought does wrong, and the man who eats in undue haste no less, and also the man who wallows in the pickles and sauces, and the man who prefers the sweeter foods to the more healthful ones, and the man who does not serve food of the same kind or amount to his guests as to himself.”

—Musonius Rufus

If one can learn to control the vice that is the desire of unhealthy food, who is to say that that person cannot then resist the urge to not realise the potential of their body's might.

The Right Mindset

• See food as nourishment and energy, fuel for your body; instead of what most people do, which is to see food as a source of pleasure and happiness.

• “Lifestyles which cannot be maintained for the long term are not worth attempting.”

• You have to understand exactly why you get hungry and most importantly why you want to change and learn to master your appetite.

• Mastering your appetite goes beyond health and fitness, it's about motivation and cultivating the will-power and self-control to dominate all areas of life, through firstly and most critically, dominating your own.

Practical Methods:

1. Keep Yourself Active and Flowing

With the time that you would usually spend eating, it’s a great chance to get other work done. Doing work, keeping on track with study, cleaning the house; all of these activities will distract you from your hunger.

Stay busy, stay productive.

2. Drink Coffee Or Tea

Some people don’t drink coffee or tea, but if you do, you’re in for a treat. You may have noticed this already, but when you drink tea, especially coffee your appetite is significantly reduced. So if you do drink coffee or tea, doing so during the times of the day where you fast is going to make the process a lot easier and the hunger you may experience when starting intermittent fasting will be much easier to handle.

3. Brush Your Teeth

A bit of an odd one, but it’s true that when you brush your teeth, you don’t feel hungry. It’s a cool psychological trick to use and you get the benefit of having clean teeth. Various studies have actually backed this up, so it’s not just anecdotal.

4. Get Enough Sleep!

When you lose sleep or are behind on sleep the hormone leptin decreases in your body. Decreased levels of leptin will increase your anxiety levels and psychological this may result in more emotionally fueled eating. Sleep is actually so significant to your progress while trying to lose weight and especially during intermittent fasting.

A study has found that comparing two groups following the same program and diet, with the only variable differing being slept there was more lean mass lost compared to fat from the group sleeping less.

Sleep will benefit every aspect of your life, not too much! But a sufficient amount of around 7-9 hours will make the world of a difference in your efforts to transform your body and lifestyle.

5. Intermittent fasting.

This seems like a paradox; understand that if you learn to resist the urge to eat you will better understand how your mind works with hunger and thus over time learn to control it when the time comes to make a bad or good decision.

6. Understand The Difference Between Hunger And Thirst

You may have heard this before and it’s true. A lot of the time when you feel hungry, your body is just slightly dehydrated and you need some liquid. Try it out, try drinking more water than usual and see how your appetite differs from your usual routine, it makes a big difference.

What has worked for you? Is there anything you disagree with, or agree with? Let us know.

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