I rarely see any pictures of food while IF'ing because I am either sleeping or at work...but I see how it could make fasting harder.

I like to fast from ~10pm at night until ~3PM the next day.

This helps for several reasons:

1. I exercise at night(usually don't eat after).
2. I sleep through the first part of my fast.
3. I am too tired to worry about food first thing in the morning(usually not hungry).
4. I can keep myself busy/distracted enough at work to not worry about food.

I drink coffee if I do happen to get hungry because it usually fills me up. Some people don't think coffee is good with IF, but I don't see why.

In my first few months of IF I was sensitive to tempting foods. I remember my grandson went away for a day but left a half-eaten bag of Dorito's on the counter. I had to keep telling myself not to look at them.

Now, however, browsing images of food or walking through stores with food really doesn't bother me at all. I don't "see" them any more, in that they aren't tempting. I really eat now as a deliberate choice and, of course, after food preparation.

I happily browse a number of recipe sites every day during my fast and I don't have a physical response. But when I decide to fix a meal and open the fridge, all my senses pop and I'm immediately starving.

I think if IF is going to work for you long term, you need to reach a place where no will power is required. But that doesn't happen in a week or two, so keep telling yourself it will get easier some day!

I can't remember where but I read that there was a big difference in thinking about food and thinking about eating food. If I find myself starting to salivate over something, I do sometimes go through the mental process of actually eating it rather than holding it in anticipation of the end of the fast.

I prefer to be too busy to find food a distraction though, though I'm not afraid to spend time planning or shopping for the next meal. Aside from that, it's the same coping strategies that broke other bad eating habits. A brisk walk outdoors, a nap, a drink of water or some green tea.

I prepare the kids breakfast but myself don't eat until lunch. At first there may be issues but over time it becomes easy, because you just don't eat before lunch. It's just like everything in paleo, at least for me. I couldn't imagine a day without sugar, but now it's easy. Likewise bread, and so on. It's still not easy every day, but on average gets easier and easier. Pretty soon IF will become second nature, assuming IF is right for you.

Nope, no issues with looking at or even smelling food, nor watching other people eat.

Once you adapt to VLC (assuming that's what you're doing in order to IF), the whole craving thing goes away.

Coconut oil helps with this quite a bit. It's 4PM and I haven't yet eaten my lunch, which is in my backpack, and I had no food all day long. I've also had an hour's walk at lunch and a 30 minute walk to work, and I'll have another 30minute walk again from work when I leave for the day.

I had a couple of green teas (real tea, with hot water, not sweetened stuff from a bottle) and three mugs of coffee: cafe americano (espresso + hot water) with a couple of tablespoons of coconut oil + coconut milk and a square of 100% chocolate. I've not eaten since about 8pm last night.

At a high level, pre-frontal cortex, I know I have to eat something, but so far, I don't feel hunger at all, nor any desire. If I keep this up, I know from experience that I'll feel my heart rate rise and feel anxiety in a couple more hours as cortisol kicks in to make some glucose from protein.

So I will have to force myself to eat, but I don't feel full, and I know that once I do start to eat, I'll be able to eat the whole lunch.