Intermittent Fasting Journal #41

In this Broadcast, Donna Reish, blogger, author of 100 curriculum books for preschool through twelfth graders, seeker of health and fitness, and Intermittent Fasting teacher, talks about insomnia and Intermittent Fasting. She begins the broadcast with her and her husband’s fasting update and what she has been learning about calorie cycling—and how many IF’ers who are within 20 pounds of their goal weight do a version of calorie cycling without even realizing it or counting calories. She describes how making food restrictions based on occasions and eating at home can help us break through plateaus and set us up for healthier eating overall.

Donna then digs into the topic of insomnia—and how our circadian rhythms are related to insomnia as well as to our fasting and eating cycles. She describes potential causes for insomnia as related to fasting—including hunger, lack of satiety, and lack of food satisfaction. She also describes how IF-related insomnia usually subsides within a week or so and how IF actually gives deeper and better sleep overall. Then she moves into typical reasons for insomnia, describing how they affect our sleep and wake patterns. These include caffeine, blue light, exercise, lack of activity/napping/sleeping late, magnesium deficiency, and subdued melatonin release.

This week’s broadcast is sponsored by Plexus supplements. Specifically, Donna taught about Plexus’ new metabolism/cortisol-reducing/thyroid aiding MetaBurn today! This natural, plant-based product is loaded with amazing adaptogens as well as other incredible mood and metabolism-boosting ingredients. Donna is offering a FREE private FB group centered around weight management coaching and teaching for all of her wholesalers and customers in the coming year!

Get More Info!

(1) Free “Calories In/Calories Out” Game Video Series

(2) Free IF Start up Charts

(3) FREE One-Hour IF Webinar (last week of each month)

(4) Month-Long IF Course (daily video teaching, outlines, graphics, and more!)

(5) Private FREE FB Group where I teach each week

(6) FREE YouTube Videos–Weekly Broadcasts AND Fast Shot Teachings

(7) Weight Management Coaching and Teaching for Plexus Supplement Users

A. Our Story

1. How we (and many other people in their last 20-25 pounds) do “calorie cycling” without even realizing it.
2. Working on breaking through out plateaus—too many parties!
3. Fasting is a way of life…it is our daily habit.

B. Insomnia General and Fasting

1. General

a. Anything that interferes in circadian rhythms
b. Circadian rhythms control our wake and sleep cycles plus other functions throughout body and brain
c. The “master clock” tells the 37 trillion cells what to do

2. Insomnia and fasting

a. After a couple of days, you should sleep BETTER with fasting
b. When you start burning fat instead of sugar at first, you release a hormone that stimulates wakefulness
c. Insomnia with fasting WILL go away as your circadian rhythms catch up to the new eating times, hunger goes away, your body goes seamlessly into fat burning (rather than that big jump from sugar burning to fat burning each day during the early days of fasting)
d. It will be similar to adapting to a new time zone after flying—but will even out quickly
e. Food affects circadian rhythms’ many clocks—like the sun keeps track of the sleep time, your first bite of food and last bite of food set your new “food” circadian rhythms….so everything might feel out of whack for a couple of days
f. Fasting usually causes more happiness, better mood, and great sleep once you’re into it several days—causing a more pronounced circadian rhythm due to food intake being restricted to certain times of day
g. When your eating is done well before bed, your digestion and food processing is over at bedtime
h. Melatonin is released better when insulin isn’t released—so no food at night causes melatonin to be even stronger; low insulin is linked to higher melatonin and better sleep

C. Causes of Insomnia

1. Caffeine

a. Raises cortisol level–80% of people drink coffee in US
b. Caffeine’s effects on sleep
c. Has half life—at the 4-6 hour mark, you still have half the caffeine in your system
d. Some people seem unaffected but may be affected after all
e. 200-400 mg per day maximum
f. Each medium cup of coffee/most teas have 90-100 mg each

2. Blue light

a. Controls melatonin secretion
b. Artificial blue lights (lightbulbs, computers, devise etc.) all suppress melatonin levels at night when they should be increasing
c. Hungry Brain: “Your body’s 37 trillion cells don’t get the message that it’s nighttime until you turn out the lights—several hours after the sun goes down. This pushes your biological wake-sleep cycle back by a few hours relative to the day-night cycle of the sun, desynchronizing the two.”
d. Thus, time to go to sleep—body isn’t ready; time to get up body isn’t ready.
e. Cortiosol 40% higher in mornings after being exposed to blue light 30 minutes before sleep (even if you slept okay!)
f. Blue light blocking glasses

3.Magnesium deficiency

a. Leg and foot cramps, muscle cramps, headaches, insomnia, anxiety, and depression or “the blues” are signs of magnesium deficiency
b. Happens during fasting due to mineral imbalances, eating less, etc.
c. Magnesium blocks the release of cortisol in the brain (less stress more sleep!)
d. Magnesium supports the release of melatonin…..more, longer, faster sleep!
e. Get more magnesium!

i. Supplement
ii. Mineral water
iii. Epsom salt baths—do give magnesium but not easily assimilated into the skin layers—might be good for relaxing but don’t count on it to help with a true magnesium deficiency

4. Hunger

a. Especially early into fasting
b. Work on timing your fast to fall asleep before you get hungry at night (I used to end my eating window at 7 or so…now I end it between 5 and 6 since my body is more trained and I go to sleep earlier now)
c. Satiety vs satisfaction

i. Might need more fat as it will stay in your body longer (satiation)
ii. Might need more carbs for satisfaction or slow carbs for satiation

5. Working out

a. Definitely helps you sleep better in the long run as the brain responds to how long you’ve been up, how active you are, etc., to cause the sleep cycle to begin
b. Exercising too late at night can increase hormones that can keep you awake
c. Exercise earlier in the day—at least two hours before bed

D. Our Sponsor: Plexus MetaBurn

1. Adaptogens

a. Group of herbs known as herbal adaptogens or tonic herbs
b. Long been used to strengthen immunity, improve energy, and enhance the body’s ability to handle stress.
c. According to Whole New Mom: “Adaptogens protect us against stress and help us achieve balance by several means that are associated with the HPA Axis and by acting on mediators of stress response, including cortisol and nitric oxide (NO).”
d. Help the body adapt to stress
e. Non-toxic
f. Help the body achieve homeostasis

2. MetaBurn’s Uses

a. Breaks through weight loss plateaus
b. Helps reduce belly fat and hip fat as it reduces cortisol levels
c. Helps support a healthy mood
d. Increases energy
e. Increases fat burning
f. Helps with cortisol levels
g. Helps with sleep
h. Known to increase libido

3. Adaptogens in MetaBurn

a. Rhodioloa rosea
b. Grains of paradise
c. AstraGin (astragalus)
d. Chinese ginseng
e. Guarana

4. Other ingredients

a. N eCetal L Tyrosene
b. L Theanine
c. Green Tea extract/True tea
d. 5 HTP

5. Rhodiola Rosea—adaptogen (Also known as arctic root)

a. Reduces stress without disrupting the body’s biological function
b. Reduces fatigue and stress
c. Reduces 21st century stress from over-stimulation, depression, etc.
d. Improve energy and mental focus
e. Reduces anxiety
f. Works by improving serotonin and dopamine levels
g. Counteracts the effects of cortisol
h. Reduces pockets of fat, especially belly and hips/thighs as it reduces cortisol
i. Enhances cognitive function

6. Grains of Paradise

a. 20+ health benefits
b. Anti-inflammatory
c. Boosts testosterone
d. Activates brown fat—brown fat has to activated for it to be lost. Only Grains of paradise and cold activation are known for activating brown fat and getting rid of white fat in the process
e. Double blind placebo for women taking Grains of Paradise showed a significant decrease in abdomen/hips/thigh fat

E. Shop or Learn More About Plexus!

a. To visit our store click here: https://plexusworldwide.com/raylreish/home
b. To try a free sample of Plexus Slim Hunger Control (pink drink) click here: https://donnareish.com/free-plexus-pink-drink-new-slim-sample/
c. MetaBurn Info Sheet: https://d2xz00m0afizja.cloudfront.net/assets/us-vo/metaburn-infosheet-en-us.pdf
d. MetaBurn Video: https://plexusworldwide.com/raylreish/shareables/video-metaburn-full
e. Helpful MetaBurn video showing how it reduces stress and cortisol levels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ui8mkagFWI&feature=youtu.be
f. Plexus Magnesium Supplement—BioCleanse: https://plexusworldwide.com/raylreish/product/plexus-bio-cleanse

Below are a couple of links to books I use and love. I am an affiliate for Amazon.com. If you click on the links below I will earn a small commission. Thank you for your support of this blog!