Encompassing your Wellness
Health is a Journey, not a destination
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Intermittent Fasting
Overview
Intermittent Fasting (IF) is a lifestyle and not a diet. Given that intermittent fasting is a lifestyle, you can choose to do it the rest of your life and be able to successfully maintain your health and wellness. The definition of diet is simply the food or drink you consume. Since IF is not a diet YOU choose the food you eat and what makes you feel your best. The Intermittent Fasting lifestyle is a pattern where you cycle between periods of eating and fasting. Your focus is not so much on the foods you eat but rather when you eat them. There are many different methods with IF that can be explored after which you can choose the one that works best for you. Come for the weight loss and stay for the health benefits.
You may have been searching for something to improve your health, lose weight, feel more energized, or improve your focus and this lifestyle can help you with all of those. First thing I want to say is DIETS DON’T WORK! Research has shown this, and you can find some more information about on this in my blog. Realize if any of these miracle diets out there are successful then we would all be at our desired weight, be metabolically healthy, and those companies would be out of business due to lack of clients.
Over the last few decades, we were led to believe that we needed not only to eat 3 meals a day but also snacks in between those meals. They told us that this kept our metabolism up but in reality, it only caused our weights to rise and our risk of disease to increase. There are fast food restaurants on every corner, convenience stores selling 42 oz. soft drinks, and more processed foods than ever before. It has only made us more metabolically unhealthy as a society. Obesity rates have tripled since the 1970’s and now even our young children are being diagnosed with obesity related diseases such as type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and many more.
If you are anything like me and have tried numerous diets, counting calories, depriving yourself of certain foods, only to lose weight and then gain it back again then this way of life is for you.
I have been living this lifestyle since 2020 and based on the health improvements I have experienced in myself and seen in others I have a strong passion to share it with anyone who wishes to listen and learn. If I can do it I know this is something you can do too!
The word “fasting” sometimes brings up a sense of fear in people. We all fast overnight while we are sleeping. It is something that our ancestors did when food was scarce. Our bodies are meant to have periods of feasting (eating) and then fasting (digesting and resting). Think about how you currently eat, or maybe did as a child growing up. We finished dinner at 6pm and maybe we wanted a bedtime snack, but our parents told us “No, you should have eaten more for dinner, you can wait until morning”. We wanted a snack before dinner and our parents told us “No, you will spoil your dinner”. We were eating our 3 meals a day, were more physically active and played outside and didn’t eat all the snacks people do today.
IF or Intermittent Fasting is simply a lifestyle that cycles periods of feasting and then fasting. You have a window of time when you are clean fasting, which I will explain later, and then a window of time when you are feasting/eating. We are all unique and each of us responds differently so your specific fasting and feasting time will be up to you. It is also very flexible and can easily be adapted to your needs or wants.
There are several common protocols out there when it comes to Intermittent Fasting and I just want to highlight are few.
16/8: 16 hours of fasting with an 8-hour eating window
18/6: 18 hours of fasting with a 6-hour eating window
20/4: 20 hours of fasting with a 4-hour eating window
OMAD: is when you typically have one meal a day only
Many intermittent fasters use one or maybe even a few of these during any given week or month to keep their body guessing, see greater results, or break through a plateau. There are so many other ways to “tweak” your fasting and feasting times too so if this is something you decide to try I would love to help you along your journey.
To begin with I want you to ease into this lifestyle and feel successful. The first week or two I would like you to focus on the 16/8 approach. If you need to start with a little shorter fast that is ok too. You can choose to do 14/10 or even 12/12. When you feel ready, and it becomes easier you can wait an extra hour before your first meal to increase your fasting time. For example, when doing the 16/8 protocol, you end dinner at 7pm today and then you don’t eat your first meal until 11am tomorrow morning. This means you have fasted from 7pm last night until 11am the next day for a 16 hour fast. When your eating window opens you will have your nutrition for the day within that 11 am to 7pm time frame which is your 8-hour eating window. At 7pm you close your eating window and clean fast until 11 am the next day. During your 8-hour eating window you can choose to have 3 meals or a snack and 2 meals or whatever feels best to you. It is best to not snack mindlessly or between meals during the 8-hour window for the best health benefit. Really it isn’t too scary after all is it?
Remember to fuel yourself with quality whole foods with a focus on protein to improve your satiety (feeling of fullness). Sometimes after fasting for 16 to 18 hours, while your digestive system is allowed to rest, you may feel better eating a small snack first, to wake up your digestion, and then wait 30 minutes before having your first meal. Others do just fine without the small snack first. Once you experiment with this a bit your will quickly learn what your body likes and doesn’t like. Intermittent fasting has made me so much more intune with my body. I am able to identify what foods make me feel my best and I can feel when I have had enough food and I am full.
Then as the days progress keep pushing that first meal of the day back a bit further until you are fasting consistently for 16 to 18 hours. You need to build up that fasting muscle so as time progresses it becomes easier.
During your fasting window feel free to drink water, plain unflavored tea, sparkling unflavored water or black unflavored coffee. In the IF world we call this “Clean Fasting”. You want to avoid anything with artificial sweeteners or flavoring in them during your fast because it will cause your body to release insulin which will break your fast, make you hungry, and cause your fasting to be difficult. Get up and enjoy your morning coffee or tea but without adding anything to it. For some this is one of the hardest things because they love to put creamer in their coffee and really don’t care for black coffee. Believe me you can do it. I love cream in my coffee too but I save it for when I open my window and stick to plain black coffee while I am still fasting.
To conclude your first fast begins after your last bite of food for the day.
SIMPLY: note when you finish eating your last bite of food and the fast begins. WAIT/FAST: Don’t eat for 16 hours. Just remember you will be sleeping through a lot of your fasting time which is great.
YOUR FIRST FAST IS UP: Enjoy your meals during your 8-hour eating window.
REPEAT: Note the time when you finish eating your last bite for the day and you are onto your second day. Then 16 hours from when you finished your last meal you will open your day 2 eating window. It is that SIMPLE!
Just one more tip. There are several fasting apps that keep track of your fasting times which were very helpful to me when I started out. Zero and Life both have free versions. I used Life and loved it. There was something magical for me living one fasting day at a time with the fasting app. Remember no one is perfect and never will be perfect. If for some reason you can’t fast for as long as you intended you just stop the fast, hit your app timer, enjoy your meals, and hit the start the next fast after that. ONE DAY AT A TIME AND NO MORE FALLING OFF ANY WAGONS!!!!!!!
Remember to be KIND to YOURSELF and SIMPLIFY process as much as possible. One day at a time and progress over perfection always.
It is my greatest desire that this helps you become healthier and allows you to live your best life. My passion is to spread health and happiness and my wish is for you to embrace this lifestyle and take a journey to Encompassing YOUR Wellness.
If I can be of service to at all, please reach out to me. I am here for YOU!
Remember health is a journey, not a destination.
XOXO
Donna