** Please Note: Intermittent fasting might not be for you if you have a history of eating disorders and/or are still in recovery. Please seek professional advice. **
Aside from what you eat, the next most important factor is when you eat it.
So when should we be eating? All you need to do is look at nature.
When in human history have we ever had such abundant access to any food we like 24/7?
Never.
This has only been our reality for the past 50-100 years max, probably less.
We never had fridges to just eat out of whenever we please. We didn’t have apps on our phones to order any meal on the planet straight to our doorstep in 30 minutes.
Back when we were living in nature, we would go for long periods of time between meals.
We would go out and hunt or forage, find some food, eat it as quickly as possible to make sure other tribes or animals don’t take it first, then fast for another decent period of time until our next meal.
This is how the body has evolved to function optimally – by feasting and fasting.
Because of this, our bodies learned to function at a very high level after we have fasted for an extended period of time as we would have needed that energy and focus to make sure we could get our next meal to survive.
Having an extended period without food it gives your body a rest from constantly digesting food all day long so it can focus it’s energy on other important bodily processes like healing, cleansing, balancing hormones and recovery. It also helps your body to burn fat as it’s main energy source.
“Fasting is the greatest remedy – the physician within.” – Philippus Paracelsus
Having our bodies under the constant stress of digestion can cause us to get sick, constantly be run down and gain weight as it never gets enough time to rest.
Ever had a food coma after a big meal?
Then you know how it can feel when your body is focusing its energy on digestion.
This is very counter to what we’ve been led to believe in mainstream nutrition because it’s simply not as profitable to these large corporations for us to consume their products less frequently.
The powerful food and pharmaceutical industries spend billions to push their agenda and indoctrinate our society in order to consume as many of their products as frequently as possible.
They want to keep us in the middle zone where we’re most profitable – not dead, but not healthy – so we keep coming back for more.
Luckily, we can take control of this by introducing intermittent fasting into our lives.
It’s how we have naturally evolved to eat and thrive. It’s our natural way of eating – not a trend, diet or fad. And the benefits are endless.
Intermittent Fasting Benefits
“I fast for greater physical and mental efficiency.” – Plato
Fasting has been a central part of many ancient traditions for thousands of years, and for very good reason.
I’ve personally been applying intermittent fasting in my life for over 6 years now.
I seriously can’t believe how efficient my body has become:
- I stay leaner than I’ve ever been in my life all year round with very minimal exercise (about 20 minutes of yoga each day)
- Just about every day I wake up feeling full of energy that lasts all day long (provided I get to sleep at a reasonable hour, though sometimes that doesn’t even matter)
- I practically never get sick
- I have so much more time for the people and things I love because I’m not always preparing food
- And best of all I enjoy food so much more because every meal I have is epic as I’ve been looking forward to it and I’m eating it when my bodies ACTUALLY HUNGRY – not just eating out of habit or boredom.
Many studies have also proven scientifically that fasting can help your body:
- Reduce Inflammation
- Rebuild the Immune System
- Resist Ageing
- Improve Insulin Sensitivity which helps with burning more fat
- Increase Human Growth Hormone which helps with building muscle
As well as a myriad of other health benefits:
These are just some of the many compounding affects you can expect when you’re consistent, eating in alignment with nature’s laws and providing your body with the conditions it needs to thrive.
How to Get Started
There are many different ways to apply intermittent fasting into your life however the method I use and recommend is called the 16/8 split.
I prefer this method because it’s consistent every day and doesn’t require much will power at all – practically zero will power once your bodies adapted to it.
All you need to do is skip breakfast and have your first meal around 12pm. Then eat the same amount of food/calories you normally would and finish eating around 8pm.
This gives you a 16 hour fasting window between 8pm and 12pm which gives your body enough time to get into fasted state and begin to reap the benefits.
During this fasting window you simply don’t consume any calories however you can have zero/very low calorie drinks like water, tea and coffee.
It takes your hunger hormone Ghrelin about 3-4 weeks to adjust (so you won’t get hungry during your fast anymore).
So if going straight to the 16/8 split it too daunting at first, I recommend working your way up by simply moving your breakfast time up an hour each week, eventually to 12pm (that’s how I originally got started).
The longer the fasting window the more benefits you’ll receive and as you continue to apply intermittent fasting into your life you’ll experience the compounding benefits from your body becoming so much more efficient.
It’s actually mind-blowing compared to what mainstream nutrition has led us to believe about the capabilities of our bodies.
These days I personally fast for around 20 hours each day. I usually start eating around 3-4pm depending on when I feel hungry and my activity levels for the day.
Always Listen to Your Body Above All Else
However, if I’m truly hungry earlier in the day, or have something more physical during the morning (or have something social on), I’ll definitely eat.
Intermittent fasting isn’t about depriving yourself at all. This is about ADDING enjoyment and increasing your quality of life, never taking away or restricting.
This is something I’ve worked up to after years of applying intermittent fasting and my body has fully adapted to it, so take it slow and listen to your body. The key is to make this a pleasurable experience and just take small steps each week to integrate it into your daily life.
A Sustainable Long-Term Approach
We want this to be a sustainable long-term lifestyle, not some short-term quick-fix diet or fad that you go back on and are in worse shape than when you started. This is about abundance and eating real food from nature that you enjoy until you’re satiated, this is NEVER about starving yourself.
The best thing is, when the vast majority of the food you eat is real wholefoods from nature, they naturally make you much more satiated due to their water content, fibre and the fact that you’re giving your body the nutrients it needs so it doesn’t keep asking for more.
As with every principle I teach, always listen to your body above all else (above any external philosophy). Always eat when you’re truly hungry (though it does take a bit of practice and reflection to be able to differentiate between true hunger and just eating out of habit or boredom).
Intermittent fasting is just a set of parameters you can use to help you learn how to eat intuitively and most effectively.
Intuitive eating is an art form that you learn over time from tapping into your body’s natural signals by removing all the bad habits and misinformation we’ve been fed by our modern way of living.
Recommended Meals
We’ve all heard the old adage that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. The truth to this is more that the meal you BREAK your FAST with is the most important meal of the day.
It’s best to eat easily digestible food when you are breaking your fast, so I recommend starting off with some fruit or salad.
Then have your heavier meals later in the day after you’ve finished your work for the day so your energy is maximized when you need it most (obviously this will need to be adjusted if you work different hours than the usual 9-5).
What I personally do is break my fast with a few pieces of fruit once I get hungry. I then follow it up with a large salad and a big main meal for dinner – usually a stir fry or curry. I’ll have meat from a clean source about 2-4 times per week as that’s what I’ve found works best with my body.
Though you may want to have more meals in your fasting window when you’re starting off to make sure you’re getting enough calories in.
Intermittent Fasting Benefits Can Help Mitigate Bad Habits
One of the best things about intermittent fasting (though you don’t want to abuse this) is that it really does free up your body’s resources and allow it to mitigate some bad habits you may have.
Because you’re giving your body an extra 4-8+ hours where it doesn’t have to put its energy into digesting food, it has the time and energy to cleanse and heal from any less than ideal foods, drinks or lifestyle habits.
They, therefore, don’t have the same negative impact as they normally would have if you had of continued to pummel your body with more food from the moment you wake up when it needs that time to recover.
Obviously, it’s still a good idea to make sure these less than ideal foods you have still come from a clean source and don’t contain anything that REALLY doesn’t agree with your body (like if you have a gluten intolerance). But intermittent fasting can definitely help out A LOT when your body needs it most.
Have you tried intermittent fasting? What benefits have you felt in your life? If you have any questions please leave them in the comments section below! I’d love to hear from you 🙂
