Intermittent Fasting
I love the holidays, yet I’m glad they are over. Like so many others, I fall out of my normal routine – I eat more food, I eat more sugar, I sleep less, I exercise less and I drink more. And I don’t like it. I want to return to the “old me”. In the spring I started with intermittent fasting — I lost weight, I felt great, I had more energy, and I cannot wait to get back to it.
The holidays are fun, yet from Thanksgiving until now (a few days post-Christmas), I let too many things change:
- I ate later at night and earlier in the morning
- I ate sugar – went from no (minimal) sugar consumption to lots of bread, cookies & candy
- I went from 1-2 glasses of wine (or a margarita) a MONTH to about 1-2 a week
- I went from going to Hotworx 2-3x a week, to just 3x in all of December
- I slept worse, finding it harder to go to sleep while also waking up in the middle of the night.
And I don’t like how those things feel. While I still “feel good”, I mostly felt sluggish & bloated and somewhat ashamed that I fell into that holiday trap again. At the same time, falling out of the routine allows me to appreciate the hard work and the positive aspects of healthy living once I get back into it.
Once I started intermittent fasting in April, I really began to love it and it has really surprised me how easy it was and how good I felt. So I’m sharing it with you, in case it’s something you want to tackle this year. I use to start out each January with some kind of detox – a 14 or 21 day dietary cleanse, but it never changed me for the long term. The good habits that came from that cleanse went away fast. Until I started intermittent fasting – which lasted 8 months in 2023 (until Thanksgiving) – and I’m going for at least 11 months or longer, in 2024.
Typically I fast anywhere from 16-18 hours at a time (meaning I didn’t eat any food), which seems like a lot, but really isn’t as bad as it seems. I’d eat between1pm-7pm, give or take an hour. Each morning I would have tea or coffee (someone did say that I wasn’t truly fasting because I had coffee, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s not food so it’s okay). I’d have 1-2 cups and be done by 8am, and then would have water with electrolytes in it, sipping on that throughout the morning. Then around 11:00-1:00 (ideally 1pm but sometimes it was sooner), I’d have a snack – like fruit, carrots or a beef stick. I’d eat a high protein lunch around 1-2pm, and then would finish that same meal around 7pm, soon after the last patient left. Sometimes I’d also have a protein shake, and that would hold me over until the next day. And then I’d repeat that cycle. And I lost weight, I had great energy, I slept well, I rarely drank alcohol, I drank a lot more water, and I felt great. Ad I can’t wait to get back to that in 2024. I find the less I eat, the better I feel.
If you want more information on this, or if you do this yourself, let me know! One of these days I’ll go for a 24-hour fast, I just haven’t gotten that far … yet. Have you? If so, let me know.
And of course, I kept getting adjusted, like you should too. A healthy spine and nervous system allows your body to work at its best, and with that, comes optimal health.
Best wishes for a happy & healthy 2024.
~ Dr. Pam ~