Fasting is one of the most powerful tools to achieve and maintain good health.
Since I started fasting almost two years ago, it keeps me clean, healthy, and I feel younger than when I started.
Do you think that you can't fast? After all, going without food seems so hard.
You can almost certainly** eat in a window, though, or restrict your eating to a certain range of time every day.
It's really not hard. I'd even venture to say, it's easy, after just the first few days.
Out of the three ways that I fast, if I had to pick just one for you to practice, it would be this one. Even though my other two styles of fasting do deeper healing because they last longer, the fact that you do this every day (er... see Cheat Day below) means that the incremental bits of good that this does for you add up quickly. Rather than getting way off course and relying on occasional longer fasts to get you back on track, this keeps your health on track every day.
If you eat in a window every day, rather than eating during all waking hours (and maybe in the middle of the night...?), you can expect to
lose weight
improve gut health
decrease insulin resistance (to prevent diabetes)
improve mental clarity
enjoy more energy
encourage proper body function
You can eat during 8 to 10 hours out of each day, say, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. (which would be 9 hours), and enjoy these benefits.
(Some people call this intermittent fasting. I am not going to use that term in this blog because it can refer to other types of fasting as well.)
One of the best parts of eating in a window is that you can eat the same amount of food that you would have eaten if you nibbled throughout the day. The goal is not to reduce total calories.
You are just giving your body a needed break from the hard work of digestion.
What Happens in Your Body if You Eat All Day
Have you ever missed a meal and gotten hangry because of it, maybe got a headache?
Do you feel an energy slump in the afternoon?
Years ago I heard that it's good to nibble all day long because it keeps your metabolism burning. That sounded good to me. I like eating, and I was happy to have an excuse to eat all the time.
I try to be in tune with my body, and at one point I felt like it was telling me that I should stop eating first thing in the morning and after dinner. I resisted that voice for a long time.
It's hard to break old habits.
Now that I am out of the habit, though, I really don't want to go back. I can feel that I am healthier eating in a window.
All day nibbling trains your body to be constantly asking for a quick shot of blood sugar. It's like training yourself to be a cranky two year old.
Do you want to know what really happens if you nibble throughout the day? It creates excess blood sugar that doesn't all get used. And that extra blood sugar gets stored as fat.
That steady supply of blood sugar is not good for your body. Type 2 diabetes is caused by cells becoming resistant to insulin because every time a cell allows sugar in, it uses more insulin. It begins to need more and more insulin to transport the sugar into the cell, meaning it begins to be resistant to insulin. But if your blood sugar drops every day because you have a nice long break between eating, the insulin in the cells drops and insulin sensitivity is increased. This prevents Type 2 diabetes.
I was prediabetic, prior to eating in a window, because I was always eating.
You are capable of going for a long time without eating, and not feeling hangry, getting a headache, or low energy because of it.
But if you have trained your metabolism to expect a steady supply of food and quick energy, your body never has to tap into the deeper energy reserves that it has. Kind of like asking a kid to do something that seems hard, and they don't think they can. But it can.
If you really ask yourself, deep down, you might find that part of your body is asking you to please not eat all the time. That part is more of a whisper than a loud two year old, in my experience.
Your liver is a storage depot for glycogen, which is a complex form of glucose. If you run low on blood sugar (glucose) because you haven't eaten for a while, your body taps into the glycogen stores in your liver and converts it back to glucose for your energy needs.
This is healthy and does not hurt insulin sensitivity.
The first couple days of eating in a window, you can expect to have intense cravings to eat out of your window. Just tell yourself that that's normal. Thank your tummy for reminding you to eat and trying to keep you alive, but tell it that you will be just fine waiting to have break-fast until 9:00 or 10:00.
With consistency, your body will adapt, and within a few days you won't crave food until your set time for break-fast.
You are welcome to have calorie free (and chemical free, meaning, no sugar substitutes) drinks before you eat. So coffee, tea, and sugar free electrolytes are all ok.
Gut Health
Gut health is central to whole body health. While eating foods that are gut healthy is critical to good gut health, NOT eating at times is also super good for your gut. Your gut craves a break from the hard work of digesting food all day.
If your gut is contantly moving more food through, it never has a chance to rest and heal.
Would you spend all waking hours at the gym and never do anything but exercise your major muscle groups? Of course not, you would wear out.
Your gut also does not want to be exercising all day.
Giving your body a break from food allows it to do the other tasks it must perform to stay healthy.
I like to think of it like this: When I have to take time to prepare food, eat food, and clean up from the meal, there is lots of house work that gets left undone. When I fast and don't have to worry about meals, I have more time to dust a shelf or clean a bathroom.
The same thing happens in your body at the organ and cellular level when you fast. Your body can give its organs the energy they need to perform their functions, and clean up its cells, when it's not constantly dealing with food in the gut.
Food as an Emotional Crutch
I have a secret for you... You don't really want food constantly because your body needs food constantly. You want food constantly because it satisfies an emotional void.
While hunger is real, I have found that what really pushes me to put food in my mouth most of the time is the emotional comfort that it gives me.
I realized that my emotional craving for food was controling me. I was not in control of myself back when I gave in to the constant urge to eat.
Be aware of the difference between actual hunger, and the emotional longing to eat. You will find that you aren't actually as hungry as you think.
Cheat Day
Yes! You can have cheat days and not ruin the benefits of eating in a window.
It is good to mix things up. It prevents that thing that happens to dieters where, even though they consume less calories than they used to, they gain the weight back. If your body becomes accustomed to a routine, it may not retain the benefits of the routine.
Eat in a window most days, but have one day a week that you eat during all waking hours.
For the long term sustainability of daily eating in a window, it's easier if you know that you get a cheat day every week.
If you are seeking vibrant health, fasting is one of the best ways to achieve it. I have worked with numerous holistic practitioners, and while they helped me with certain things that I could not do for myself, fasting has helped me achieve healing that could only come from within.
Fasting = healing.
Once you get used to eating in a window, it's much easier to move on to longer fasts. If your goal is to practice longer fasts, start here. It will make the transition to longer fasts easier.
Next week's blog will be about fasting one day a week, and the blog after that will focus on doing 2 to 5 day fasts.
Two books that I recommend if you want to learn more are The Fasting Transformation by Dr. Jockers for men, and for women, Fast Like a Girl by Dr. Mindy Pelz.
**Diabetics must exercise caution, but it may be possible. The amount of insulin you take may need to be adjusted, please see your doctor for advice.
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