Intermittent Fasting? Not a diet, a lifestyle change.

How many people are so sick of bouncing from diet to diet and either getting no results or just not being able to stick to it? That's me. I've tried cutting carbs, cutting calories, cutting fat, cutting all three at one time. I've tried adding exercise to all of them and to no avail...NOTHING. I've even tried the all powerful Keto diet and while I lost 7 pounds it was just water weight (of course.) If you don't know what the Keto diet is, its where you cut your carbs down to less than 20g a day, your calories are around 1,500, and you need like 100g of protein a day! Now, while that was easy enough, that means no bread, no sweets, no potatoes, no veggies, and as far as fruit, you can only have select berries. Cheat days? nope. what happens is when you cut your carbs down to a certain amount, you body no longer uses them as an energy source and it will start using fat to power itself....hence why you lose weight right? That "state" is called "Ketosis" and if you even slightly screw it up, your body falls out of Ketosis and you have to start all over, you bloat, and it takes 3-5 to get back into that state. Now, you CAN eat sweets but you have to make everything yourself with Stevia because its the only sweetener that's guaranteed to not knock you out of Ketosis. So, you want coffee? sweeten it with stevia. You want creamer in your coffee? you need to go buy the liquid gold that is Heavy Whipping Cream, and most "flavorings" aren't keto approved. So say goodbye to donuts, pasta, soft drinks, and the glory that is ice cream (unless you want to churn it yourself and use stevia to sweeten it) FOR. THE. REST. OF. YOUR. LIFE. Now, I know a lot of people who can live this lifestyle, but I can't live a life where I see no light at the end of the tunnel. With that diet, you literally have no room for screw ups and I’m only human. So I quit that “lifestyle change.”  

Upon A LOT of investigating and remembering that my husband had tried out a random diet and of course failed (if you know my husband, you understand why). So I decided to check it out. That diet is called “intermittent fasting” or IF. IF literally goes against all logic and what people deem as healthy and good for your body. Basically you create a window in which you eat all of your meals/ingest all of your calories. Some do a 16/8 (16 hours where you do not eat and 8 hours where you do), or an 18/6, or a 20/4. One of the main benefits is to regulate your insulin response. When you eat throughout the day it can cause your insulin levels to remain high all day which in turn starts to cause insulin resistance which can eventually lead to Type 2 diabetes and causes your pancreas to go into overdrive. Spiked insulin levels=weight gain. With IF you keep your insulin levels low for the largest portion of the day and only raise it during the window when you eat which allows your body to keep a more normal insulin response. Consuming anything that raises your insulin levels during your fasting time will defeat this purpose, like coffee with creamer/flavorings, etc. So, i figured, I’m a mom and I hardly remember to eat anyway so, what could it hurt right?! As I did more research I also discovered that not only does fasting help control insulin levels, it also helps “starve” cancer cells! Im not going to bore you with the details but essentially the body of course goes into a fasting state which causes the body’s healthy cells to “hibernate” the cancer cells try to find other ways to divide and spread and they can’t because there isn’t any “awake” cells to help them spread. So, if you have cancer it will help starve the cells and if you’re prone to cancer it will prevent you from getting it! It’s fascinating! Also, after 16 hours of fasting, your body actually kicks into Ketosis and starts burning fat, so if you can extend your fast for 16+ hours, you’re REALLY kicking fat burning into overdrive! I personally do 23 hour fasts and give myself an hour to eat. I vary it so that it can fit my day and lifestyle but I never go below 16 hours and I have yet to go longer than 24. What makes it AMAZING to me is I fast for 23 hours and by then I’m pretty hungry, at that point I can literally stuff my face with food and not really worry about it. It’s recommended that you eat within your calories and try to create a deficit but I know A LOT of women and men still lose without counting calories, it’s just the amazing abilities of the body to burn off fat. I think once you get into a routine of it, your body knows food is coming eventually and so it won’t go into a preservation state and hold on to fat. I’ve been doing this for 3 weeks now and I’ve never felt better in my life. I think I’ve finally found something that I can stick to and actually create a lifestyle out of. I have one cheat day a week and that’s good enough for me, it gives me something to look forward to! I actually just had a cheat day yesterday (but fasted 16 hours before I ate) and I STILL lost a pound yesterday! I know this kind of diet isn’t for everyone and not everyone is going to agree, but I think it’s the same for all diets. I’m not starving my body, it’s not unhealthy because I’m still getting in enough calories to sustain my body and energy, I have enough energy in the afternoon to exercise which has never happened before, and I literally haven’t felt so good about a lifestyle change in my life. If you’re tired of yo-yo-ing with random diets and you’re just ready to take control of your life and how you live it, I’d definitely recommend trying out IF. It’s difficult at first but after about 4 days you feel so great!  

#intermittent #fasting #lifestyle #food