Hello again, fancy seeing you here.

Now, on to even more fun stuff, fasting. :)

I want us to keep it super simple and gently play with the concept of beginner Intermittent Fasting this month; nothing crazy. There won’t be any hunger pains, dizziness, or dreaming of food. :) I just completed a 38 hour fast for the sole purpose of giving my body the foundation it needs for autophagy to occur. This was specifically guided from my doctor for my brain health and concussion healing as I am still coping with intense pain and limited lifestyle. I am so glad I did it! Doing a longer fast really proved to me how these shorter ones are quite simple, and doable. I wasn’t even hungry!

Let’s all be beginner’s together for now, okay? You have three choices. The first number represents the amount of hours you fast for and the second number represents the amount of hours you feed for.

Options~

A. 12:12
B. 14:10
C. 16:8 *I will practicing this one for the month of July

Most of us naturally practice intermittent fasting already, without even trying. When we eat our last meal at 5:00, 6:00 or 7:00 pm and don’t eat until the next day, that’s a fast! That’s why we call it breakfast; it is when we break a fast. If we eat dinner at 5:00 pm and don’t eat breakfast until 9:00 am that’s an effortless 16 hour fast with an 8 hour feeding period.

You get to customize it however you wish. And I am here to help you every step of the way. There is science behind 16 hours of fasting to be the sweet spot so if that is conducive to your lifestyle, then great! Double points for you. But please know that a 12 hour fast is also quite beneficial. What are the benefits you ask? Why do we even care? Well, I thought you’d never ask.

Here are a few, there are endless reasons why this is wise to incorporate in our lives.

~Intermittent Fasting (IT) can help drive a process called ketosis. This is where our body burns ketones instead of glucose for energy. This has numerous benefits; some being improve metabolism, weight loss, reduce inflammation, heal leaky gut, balance gut biome, help with sleep, mood, skin, digestion and oh-so many more.

~IT also increases levels of growth hormone, which helps with fat loss, muscle gain, improved insulin sensitivity, meaning blood sugar gets processed quickly and stored fat can be burned for energy, cell repair, and more!

~Autophagy, this is the magical stuff. This is cellular repair and it only happens if our body isn’t given food. Our mitochondria and cells repair themselves through this process, where damaged cells are removed and replaced with new cells. Yes please! It’s like taking out the trash but if we keep feeding our body we keep getting distracted and never empty the trash. As soon as we consume even a little bit of food our body stops autophagy, which comes from the Greek works phagy meaning eat and auto meaning self. I have attached a PDF with more info for those who find this as fascinating as I do. For me personally, it is the one motivation to do this, aside from gut health.

~Brain health, gut health, heart health, mood, sleep, skin, liver health, gallbladder help, menopause support, okay, basically everything!

Here are a few lovely options to break your fast with. All organic and homemade preferred.

~bone broth/veggie broth
~egg
~banana
~oatmeal
~gluten free homemade bread, porridge bread, or a clean brand
~berries
~homemade plant based milk with no sweeteners, binders, oils, etc.
~cucumber water
~lemon water perhaps with vinegar

Feel free to chat with me about ingredients on some store bought items you may consider eating.

Please know I am here with you if you have any questions. If you are feeling trepidatious please know this, we are almost all doing it effortlessly already. All we are now doing is practicing it more mindfully and for some of us perhaps a bit longer on the fasting side of things. Remember, this experience will be different for each of us based on our gender, age, lifestyle, eating patterns, health, habits, amount of sugar and carbs we take in, if we drink alcohol, etc.

**Please do not dive into the longer fasts without a session with me to properly educate you and guide you as to how to prep for the fast days leading up, support yourself during the longer fast and how to break the fast. For now, let’s simply practice one of the three options listed above unless you are already a faster and wish to go deeper, then schedule a session today and let’s get to it!