So the week before Memorial Day, my friend Sherri Luboff Ponticello mentioned something about intermittent fasting.
I had no idea what she was talking about, and I decided to do some research. She sent me a link to a book, called “Eat, Stop, Eat” and I listened to it on Audible. It is a four-hour book, but I finished it in less than a day! I found myself really intrigued by the information in the book. I feel like I always am looking, and interested in new healthier options. Even in the past couple of weeks I’ve made some changes in my diet as far as high fats go, creamer in my coffee. I used to do grass-fed, heavy cream in my coffee and it was delicious! Then a couple weeks ago I moved to organic half-and-half, which was a huge change. Switching from heavy cream to half-and-half was ok, and manageable, but I could definitely taste a difference.
Since researching about the intermittent fasting I found you are not allowed creamer in your coffee at all! So, here I am at day four, with black coffee
So the first week I jump right in because that’s what I do! I decide I am going to go for twenty-four hours without eating, and for me that was a big deal. After the first day of fasting I realize how much I eat throughout the day. What I was finding was I would eat a banana with almond butter before a workout. Then I would come home and eat something whether it was a shake or eggs, or whatever protein I could get in my body. Then I would have lunch, followed by a snack before teaching, pre-dinner, and then I would eat dinner. I realized all day I was eating, and while I was making healthy choices, my body wasn’t changing. So, I jumped in and did twenty-four hours no food. I went from Sunday night at dinner, around six-o’clock to the following Monday at six-o’clock.
Honestly, I was surprised at how easy it was. I drank lemon water all day, but still kept cream in my coffee, for the first week, which was a huge first step. For me to work out without anything in my stomach was huge, because I have been doing that my whole life. All of these slight changes were huge steps for week one.
After the twenty-four hour fast I decided to eat within the window of twelve in the afternoon up until eight in the evening, which works for me. That was an adjustment and a challenge, but it went ok.
The weekend came and I didn’t follow the strict schedule at all. My husband and I spend a lot of time on the Chesapeake in the Summer and we eat way too much!
We came back on Monday, Memorial Day after a longer weekend of a lot of food and eating out, and decided to do the twenty-four hour fast again. Monday night, of Memorial Day weekend, ate dinner, and then did not eat again until Tuesday night. Now this was the first time I did not do the creamer in my coffee. I said to myself, “If I’m doing this, I’m jumping in, and just doing it!” The next week I did no creamer, which was brutal! Absolutely B-R-U-T-A-L!
My coffee tasted like dirt! So, that was Tuesday, and drinking coffee, water, and that was it.
The next day I ate lunch at noon, and stopped eating at eight o’clock at night. As the week progressed, I start to feel really good. I have energy, feeling great, but also start to develop some cold-like symptoms. My nose feels stuffy, throat is scratchy, sneezing more than usual, which I wrote off as just allergies. But, I am never sick, and don’t really suffer from any allergies or like-symptoms, so I continued with my research. Come to find out, these were symptoms from my new way of eating. From what I found, it is called the “Keto-flu”. This “flu” is when your body starts to burn fat instead of glucose. So, when you eat all day, even if you are eating healthy, like I was eating bananas and Ezekiel bread, etc. your body is still going through a detox of some sort. My husband and I very rarely have carbohydrates at dinner. We usually have two veggies and a protein. What I found was that this new way of eating, and fasting was really having a huge impact on my body. I am not person who naps, always have a large amount of energy and am the on-the-go type of person.
By Thursday of this week, I felt like I hit a wall. Sneezing, zero energy to the point where I wanted to just lay in my bed and not do anything. Once I researched the effects of fasting, it was very common that these symptoms did arise. The symptoms were even more powerful this week, I believe, because I did completely eliminate the creamer in my coffee, amongst completely changing my “normal” dietary habits and timing of eating.
So here I am, excited about this whole process and I am not giving up! I am on day four of, out of two weeks, counting it as day four only because I completely eliminated creamer from coffee completely now. They say that these symptoms can last for one week, so I am going to get through the weekend. I am going to keep at it and see what happens because the results from and positive health changes from intermittent fasting are amazing. The benefits are things such as weight loss, lower insulin levels, increased energy, better sleep, increases HGH (Human Growth Hormone), which is great for the mitochondria in the cells. It resets and gives your body a chance to take a break. It gives your body a chance to stop working on digestion the entire day, and can start burning fat instead.
I am really excited and intrigued by this journey! I have been listening to YouTube videos and reading all types of books, and if anyone knows me well, you know that I jump all in, and don’t do anything half-assed. All of my biggest life decisions have been without overthinking it and just going all in.
I will keep you posted, this is an exciting and challenging journey! Follow back in a few weeks as I will post more about this journey!
