I work out between two to three times a week, I don’t eat chips or drink soda, I eat my greens, but I wasn’t getting the results I wanted. I did lose a bit of weight, and I did better my fitness score, heck I even started meal prepping!! I was happy, but I knew my schedule was about to change, and I needed to change my routine to match it.
I came across a friends tweet that mentioned “Intermittent Fasting” and how they saw such great results so obviously I was intrigued. I did my research, and I’m no professional, but this is what I found, and what I experienced after trying it for about a two months.
Alright, before we kick this off. If you’re ever going to start a new diet, or form new eating habits, please do your research. We’re all different, we all have different needs, the last thing you want is to end up sick.
Intermittent fasting isn’t a diet, nor is it you simply not eating. It’s setting a schedule, eating cleaner, and sticking to your plan. There are several ways to fast. There are 16/8 fasts, 9 hour fasts, one day fasts, and even 20 hour fasts. You shouldn’t take the hardest one and run with it if you’ve never done this before. I’m going to walk you through the one that I did, the 16/8 as well as some tips to keep in mind.
Disclaimer for women : If not done correctly, it can cause a hormonal imbalance. It can affect menstruation and worsen any eating disorders. Your body detects the “starvation” and will increase the amount of hunger hormones in your body making this all too difficult and dangerous.
The 16/8 fast is the one most recommended for beginners. It means you fast for 16 hours and eat during an 8 hour window. How often during the week you do this is completely up to you. I started with doing it on Tuesdays/Thursdays/Saturdays because it fit my schedule. I work at 8am on Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays and for my sake I needed to have at least a yogurt before 10AM because I’m a tour guide. After the first month, I started doing it every day with the exception of Sunday.
My mentality was “Follow the plan, build your discipline, but don’t deny yourself life.” That basically meant that every so often I had dinner with friends past my eating window. Or I had ice cream for dessert. Or I had a cookie with my coffee because I felt like it. It was rare, but I made sure to not over do it. You shouldn’t be miserable doing this.
Here’s what my fasting day looks like now that I do this every day.
6:30 AM / 7 AM :
Wake up, have some water.
8 AM – 10 AM :
Still fasting. Depending on the day of the week, if I need substance I will have half a cup of coffee or some yogurt with cheerios. Something very light. Maybe even an apple. (Its most preferable you don’t consume ANY calories, but as a tour guide, I need some thing lol)
11 AM – 7 PM : EATING WINDOW!
11:30 AM / Noon :
Breakfast or lunch, whatever you please. Also depending on the day, I might have some scrambled eggs with toast or a green smoothie. (Check out my green smoothie article here : http://www.hercampus.com/school/utsa/breakfasts-you-can-make-and-still-make-it-your-8-am-time )
2:30 – 4:00 PM :
Lunch or early dinner, whatever you wish to label this meal as. I usually have chicken or beef depending on what I packed the night before. Sides can include a side salad, half an avocado, white rice, another apple, anything you’d like to pair with your food. This is usually my biggest meal, so I make sure I pack it well. If you wanna have two smaller meals instead of one large one, you can do that as well.
6:00 – 7:00 PM :
Usually dinner for me. A meal much smaller than the one I had around 3ish. If I’m feeling lazy I’ll have some cereal. If I hadn’t had rice that day, I like to have some rice with black beans, corn, and peas. I’ll sometimes have some pasta if I happen to have any made.
8:00 PM – 10 / 11 PM :
Beginning of fasting window. If I had a long day, I’ll have some tea around 9:30 or 10. I usually don’t have any solid food after the 7PM mark, but you are allowed to have fluids. I try to go to sleep between 10 and 11 but I mostly fell asleep around midnight. My sleeping habits are another mess all on their own but it’s important to get between 6-8 hours every night.
A couple of things :
-
You can do yoga or light workouts on the days you fast. Don’t do your cardio filled workout routine if you didn’t prepare your body for it. Chill
-
Use coffee to your advantage. Coffee suppresses hunger, use it strategically. As if you need another reason to have coffee anyways.
-
Drink plenty of water. I can’t express this enough.
-
Snacks are not prohibited. If it’s the eating window and you want some almonds or cheese cubes or pretzels in class, have them.
-
Over time you can substitute the coffee with caffeinated teas.
I lack discipline, and I am not a flawless human being. I still had midnight ice cream talks with my best friends, sushi for lunch because I forgot to pack my own, Starbucks breakfast on a Friday morning so I didn’t lose my mind. It’s all okay as long as you’re not doing it every single day. Don’t say no to that dinner invite, or miss out on popcorn on the movies. Just make sure you follow it 90% of the time and drink plenty of water. Overall, it got easier and more convenient for me as time passed. I didn’t feel hungry anymore because my body was used to a schedule, and I enjoyed finding new meals to make. I felt like I got better rest and even more out of my workouts. I picked up yoga, and got used to starting my days off without feeling rushed. If you try it, make sure to do some research! We’re all different and I hope you get out of it as much as I did!
If you have any questions feel free to comment or reach out to me!