So. It’s 2:30 on Day 4 of your juice fast. You haven’t had a juice since 11:00 AM, and now, your brain is running rampant. You’re thinking about ice cream. You’re thinking about short ribs. You’re eyeing your kid’s bowl of Cheerios, shooting her a dirty look and contemplating ways to justify stealing it away. You’re thinking…”I’M STARVING!”

Here’s some news for you. You are NOT starving. You may be hungry, but you’re not starving.

The thought of being hungry is one of the scariest things people think of when contemplating a juice fast. However, the hunger is a temporary feeling, and not necessarily your BODY experiencing hunger, but your mind screwing with you. After a few days, all that calms down and the cravings go away (trust me on this). Until then, people who have trepidation around being hungry may be distracted by random thoughts of fast food, funnel cake, or foods they haven’t had in years. That’s when the panic tends to set in.

(Side note: being on Day 4 myself, I had forgotten how much I absolutely enjoy the feeling of an empty stomach! It’s almost peaceful. Seriously. I used the word “peaceful”.)

Let’s talk about mind hunger versus body hunger, how to tell the difference between the two, how your past habits play into how much your mind messes with you, and how to trick your brain into always wanting to reach for juice. Yeah, I said “trick”. You gotta do what you gotta do to get through the beginning of a cleanse!