Confessions of an amateur intermittent faster

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!

– Lots of people (for a really long time)

I don’t know about you, but I’ve heard that my whole life. And for most of my life, I believed it!

Well Intermittent Fasting, by definition, requires you to cut out a meal and that meal is usually breakfast. So…

What is Intermittent Fasting, and why try it?

Intermittent Fasting isn’t really a diet plan, it’s more like a dietary pattern. Most diet plans focus on what you’re eating. They’ll often have a list of foods to avoid, and sometimes come with meal plans, or specific foods you’re encouraged to purchase directly from the company promoting the diet plan.

Intermittent Fasting on the other hand, focuses on WHEN you are eating, rather than what you’re eating. Of course, you’re encouraged to make healthy food choices. That should go without saying. But the important thing to focus on is that you are structuring your food intake within a smaller window of your day.

The idea is that by eating for fewer hours in a day, you’re decreasing your calorie intake without changing much about what you’re actually eating. Personally, it’s been the easiest “diet” I’ve ever been on.

The 16/8 Schedule

The 16/8 schedule is probably the most common for Intermittent Fasting. The goal is to consume all your calories for a 24 hour period within 8 waking hours, and then fast for the remaining 16 hours of the day. So usually this means that your eating window is from 10 am to 6pm. Your fast would then begin at 6pm and go until the next morning at 10am when you break your fast for breakfast (see what I did there…).

The 12/12 Schedule

The 12/12 schedule is recommended for those who want to ease into intermittent fasting. The eating window is from 7am to 7pm, or whatever 12 hour period works for you. The idea is that you’re really just cutting out late night snacking/grazing/feasting which, let’s be real, isn’t doing us any favours in this corona quarantine season. So if you want to give it a go, this is the easiest way to dive in!

Can I consume anything during the fasting hours?

Yes ma’am! (or sir)… You can drink plenty of water. In fact, you should always drink plenty of water! But don’t take my word for it because I really suck at this. Adding some ice and lemon to my water does help me drink more. So I recommend trying that if you need a little boost.

In addition to water, you can drink coffee or tea. I’ve also read that if you drink something with less than 50 calories in it, your body will remain in a fasted state. So I personally enjoy my morning tea with a splash of almond creamer because frankly, I love myself enough to add the creamer.

Will I miss breakfast?

Honestly, I can’t answer that for you. All I know is that I couldn’t believe how easy it was to give it up. Although I’ve never had an appetite for big breakfasts of eggs, bacon, waffles, etc., I could never imagine starting my day without a bowl of cereal. I just couldn’t be awake past 9am without having at least a small bowl with almond milk.

If you prefer to wean yourself off breakfast slowly, start by eating smaller and smaller portions at a later and later time, while also increasing your water intake.

Most days, I try to consume nothing until I actually feel a pang of hunger. And I’m still surprised that I rarely feel hungry at all prior to about 11:30am. When that happens, I drink a glass of water or a cup of tea. If I am still hungry after that, I’ll drink more water or more tea. Both of these (and coffee) count towards a state of fasting.

My eating window is usually from 12 or 1pm, and ends at about 7pm. So my hours of fasting are between 17-18 hours per day bringing the ratio to about 17/7.

It is recommended that for intermittent fasting to be effective, the hours of fasting should be at least 14 hours in a 24 hour period.

What I love about Intermittent Fasting

• The non-restrictive approach to what you are eating.
  Eat what you want, people! I’m not here to judge you. Of course, if you actually want lose a bunch of weight or gain muscle or see any real change in your body, then I guess eat a vegetable once in awhile. But that’s just not what this is about.
  
• Not being tempted to eat outside of the designated eating hours.
  This may be different for you, but I have always had such a hard time with evening snacking. I would do a lot of emotional eating after my kids would go to bed. I felt like I had earned the snacks I would binge eat every night because my day was so hard. I was essentially rewarding myself for surviving the day. And on evenings when my husband was out of the house, I felt like my favourite snacks were a consolation for my loneliness.

This is not a healthy relationship with food! I was not eating because I was hungry. I was eating just, because…

With Intermittent Fasting, I finally found the strength to listen to my body and recognize that it isn’t actually hungry All. The. Time. Can you believe it? And when it isn’t hungry, it’s become easier to say: I just don’t eat during this time. So it’s no longer about how many calories a certain snack contains… or how many calories can I get away with… or where can I make up for this later…

I simply enjoy the food I want to enjoy during the eating window and then that’s it, the kitchen’s closed. Come back tomorrow!

• The earlier the fast, the longer you’ll last
  I don’t understand the science behind it, but every time I eat a meal later in the evening, my hunger pangs begin even earlier the next day. It doesn’t make sense, but it’s true.
  
  My husband and I enjoy a special meal he prepares every Sunday night. We wait until the kids are settled in bed before sitting down for our date, so we don’t usually eat before 8 or 9pm. As a result, Monday mornings are inevitably my hungriest mornings. And I’ve found this to be true about any day following a later start to my fast the night before.
  
  So, the good news is that if you really stick to it, you’ll likely find it easier to cut out breakfast if you’re committed to not eating in the evenings!

For the record…

I’ve lost some weight, and that’s wonderful. But the real upside to this lifestyle for me is the healthier relationship I have found with food in general. I didn’t expect that at all, and I’m grateful for it.

Skipping breakfast and not eating after dinner, have been easier to commit to because I am simply not hungry at those times. If I do happen to feel especially hungry earlier in the morning, I’ll eat lunch a little earlier. But there’s no mental guilt trip, or cheat days, or cheat meals that I have to work around. Simply listening to my body and making healthy choices.

I still love me some dark chocolate with a cappuccino in the afternoons when the baby’s napping. And I enjoy them both guilt-free. I think that balance has been really liberating in making it a lifestyle over diet fad.

Have you tried or considered intermittent fasting?
Please share your experience and any tips, recipes, or questions.

I always love to hear from you!