Many of you read this blog to find help with healthy and low carb cooking and baking (and productivity/organization!). I’m sure those of you in lower carb circles have been hearing all the buzz about Intermittent Fasting—and for good reason. It coincides nicely with low carb eating, creating even more fat burning for faster weight loss and definite quicker size loss. It makes you feel AMAZING. And it provides incredible health benefits.
So….in addition to providing you with healthy recipes, tips, and motivation, I will also be chronicling my Intermittent Fasting journey here—via a podcast titled The Intermittent Fasting Journal and through videos and blog articles, all detailing my journey with IF, along with tips, what I’ve learned, and more.
This post includes my first week’s video about my journey, show notes from that video, and a link to listen to this show as a podcast episode, if desired.
I’d love to hear your thoughts—or have you subscribe to the podcast or join my FB group. I will be sharing daily at the FB group, including answering questions you might AND offering support and encouragement for those who would like to try IF themselves!
Listen to this first episode at my podcast:
Or watch it in video form here:
Outline and Show Notes for The Intermittent Fasting Journal: Episode One/Week One
1. Back Story
i. Pre-Diabetic several years ago
ii. 80-100 carbs per day solved it
iii. Started trying 16:8 (fasting 16 hours/eating 8 hours) off and on over last year
2. Started learning from Delay, Don’t Deny
i. Podcast (Gin and Melanie—see link at end), book by same name, FB group
ii. Realized I wasn’t fasting clean—made huge difference in hunger immediately
iii. Started 20:4 and 19:5 right away with more success than I ever had trying 16:8 without clean fasting
3. My first week on IF (“One Meal a Day” protocol)
i. Started on a Thursday—which happened to be a night out at a restaurant—so easy knowing I could order like a “normal” person
ii. Lost first day!
iii. 20-22 hours of fasting was way easier with “clean fasting” (water and supplements only—no stevia-lemonade, hard candy, gum, fat bombs, etc., to keep me going!)
iv. Yes, I was hungry! But not as hungry as I had been “fasting dirty” on 16:8 off and on the previous year
v. Lost 2 pounds the first week!
4. What I learned
i. How calorie dense I had been—even though I was usually sugar-free, grain-free, and low to moderate carb, I still ate too many calories with eating low carb/higher fat foods but not actually being “keto” (20-30 carbs per day is what it takes for me to be “keto”)
ii. Learned another way to “fight fat” and how effective the “not eat whenever I want” part of “Three Sure-Fire Ways to Lose Weight” really is (it’s not just that you are “eating less” or “eating fewer calories” with IF—you are turning yoru body into a fat-burning machine during the fasting window!
iii. Learned that I simply don’t need as much food as I’ve been eating on my “diets” the last five years!
iv. Empowerment—such an amazing feeling to make it to 19 or 20 hours of fasting each day
v. Money saving—low carb cooking and baking is expensive; eating three meals a day and two or three snacks a day is expensive; buying special foods is expensive; IF is so reasonable!
vi. Time saving—as a self-pronounced “efficiency-expert-wannabe,” I LOVE saving time by shopping, cleaning, cooking, baking, and prepping foods less. While I love cooking, I didn’t realize how burdensome it had become and how light it felt to only think of one meal a day and what I would fix for that one meal (and possibly one snack and/or one dessert).
vii. Simplicity—after homeschooling seven children for thirty-two years and writing over one hundred language arts and writing curriculum books (and t9 or testing those books with one hundred students every semester) and more, I absolutely fell in love with the simplicity of IF. It goes with everything I have been trying to do in my home, personal life, business, and more as I streamline and make things easier.
viii. I am not starving. Hunger goes away if you just drink some water, take in a little caffeine, and keep on keeping on!
ix. I won’t ruin my metabolism—IF helps you turn your body into a fat burning machine during the fasting window (after a three week or so adjustment period)….the opposite of “metabolism ruining” actually takes place!
5. IF Protocols
i. Mine: 19:5 or 20:4—19 or 20 hours of fasting and 5 or 4 hours of eating
ii. OMAD—One Meal a Day—Eating during a short window of time that results in 1 to 5 hours of eating one meal and possibly a snack and/or dessert all during that eating window
iii. Windows—Fasting Window/Feasting Window or Fasting Window/Eating Window or Fasting Window/Feeding Window—the windows are the periods of time in which you do not eat or you eat
iv. 16:8—a protocol in which the person fasts for 16 hours a day and eats for 8 hours; sometimes a good starting point for those who want to try IF in stages; sometimes used for maintenance later
v. 5:2—five days of eating and 2 days of fasting or eating very little (500 calories or less)
vi. EOD—Every Other Day—Eating one day and fasting the next
Resources
1. Delay, Don’t Deny
2. Feast Without Fear
3. Donna Reish.com—blog focusing on healthy recipes, productivity, and my intermittent fasting journal!
4. The Intermittent Fasting Journal podcast on iTunes
5. The Intermittent Fasting Journal FB Group
6. “9 Facts About the New Plexus Slim” (blog article—for those taking Plexus supplements with their IF)
7. 3 Surefire Ways to Lose Weight
