Why Fast?

The benefits of fasting are powerful and the best part is how simple it is to implement in your own life. It costs you nothing, has been scientifically proven to help you lose weight, reverse insulin resistance and even helps your body heal from fatty liver disease. It helps increase energy, increases your metabolism, stabilize blood sugar, slows the aging process (some even say it can reverse aging!), decreases hunger and increases satiety and helps your body shed excess body fat while preserving lean muscle mass... and did I mention it works with any way of eating?

You can get all these benefits with intermittent fasting (which we like to call time restricted eating).  You don't have to do longer fasts.

• Simple to start
• No cost (it will probably even save you money!)
• Increased satiety when you eat during your eating window
• Focus shifts to WHEN you eat instead of WHAT you eat
• Scientifically proven to help you lose weight
• No side effects
• Supports our bodies natural circadian rhythms
• Eating every 2-3 hours (as  many popular diets recommend) means we're constantly in a fed state and this causes digestive issues because our organs don't get a chance to rest and reset.

• Your gut gets a chance to rest
• Blood sugar stabilizes and Insulin levels fall which allows your body to heal from insulin resistance
• Human growth hormone is released which protects our lean body mass and bone density
• Metabolism increases because Noadrenaline is released
• Decreased hunger once you adjust to timed eating because fasting lowers your insulin and leptin levels and increases receptor sensitivity!
• You'll shed excess body fat and boost fat burning. Time restricted eating results in you naturally eating less calories. The larger meals help you feel satisfied.
• Neuroprotective benefits of timed eating because fasting can boost BDNF (brain derived neurotrophic factor) by anywhere from 50-400%. BDNF is important for our brain health.
• Free radical production decreases which means time restricted eating slows our rate of aging. Who doesn't want to slow aging?
• Natural detox/cleansing happens while you're fasting which allows your body to detoxify and recycle damaged cells. This includes repairing and maintaining your tissues, slowing inflammation, reducing the aging process, decreasing cancer growth and optimizing your bodies biological functions!
• Ketones, which are an alternative energy source for many of the bodies organs are produced after 13 hours for those on a ketogenic diet and 18 hours for those who are not. Ketones have been shown to be muscle-sparing energy source and signals your body not to break down lean muscle mass.
• Increases energy -- after a few weeks of time restricted eating you'll no longer feel the energy slumps that used to plague your afternoons.

Note: Before attempting fasting, please consult with your medical doctor. Any fast greater than 24 hours should not be undertaken without the care of your personal physician. We are not medical professionals. No information in this module or this course is intended to diagnose, treat or cure any disease.

What To Expect, Best Practices & Dealing With Hunger

• If you're used to grazing during the day and at night, expect to feel hunger as your body adjusts to timed eating. This will go away! We'll share some methods to deal with the hunger later.
• Expect weight loss, especially if you've never done this before!
• Expect to start feeling all the physical benefits we listed above within 1-2 months of time-restricted eating.

1. Chose an 8 hour eating window and eat 1-2 meals during this time. For example, we recommend 11am-7pm or 10am-6pm.
2. Stop eating (close your eating window) 3-4 hour prior to bedtime
3. Ditch the bulletproof coffee. Drink your coffee black or switch to unsweetened tea. If you MUST have something in your coffee, limit yourself to 1 tsp heavy cream or full fat coconut milk.
4. Do not use any sweeteners of any kind during your fasting time period. This includes sugar, alternative sugars and artificial sugars. This is because of the brain's response to anything "sweet" tasting.

• First, let's discuss what hunger is...
  • For most of us, hunger is not true hunger... instead it's a conditioned response to triggers in our environment
  • Think of the Pavlov's dog study... when the bell was rung...the dog eventualy started salivating because he'd been conditioned to expect food shortly after the bell.
  • The same thing has happened to us-- we are surrounded by the smells of food from restauraunts on every corner
  • Usually hunger is just a response from a trigger
  • We've lost touch with what true hunger is
• When you feel hungry, ask yourself if you're actually hungry or if it's a triggered response. Start to re-program yourself.
  • I wont lie to you and say this is easy to do. Reprogramming yourself takes work! That's why I've created a 3 part video series to help you with some mindset shifts as you enter into the new year!

• Tell yourself the hunger you're feeling will go away and make yourself busy. Evenings are often the most difficult. If you're at home, do a puzzle or play a board game instead of watching TV. If you're on-the-go, leave the snacks and cash at home so you can't stop and buy any food. Think of it as your money-saving-new-year-strategy!
• If you're keto, put some sea salt under your tongue and drink a glass of water.
• Drinking water is smart for everyone when you feel hunger!
• Drink unsweetened tea.
  • Our favorites are chamomile in the evening and decaf green tea in the afternoon.

• As timed eating gets easier for you, play around with extending your fasting time-frame to 18, 20 or 22 hours. Pay attention to how your body feels, how your digestion feels and how satisfied you are when you do eat!

How To Intermittent Fast

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When I first heard of intermittent fasting, i shuddered.

Choosing not to eat food sounded absolutely terrible. And unnatural.

However, when I hit my first plateau on Keto and started researching how to break through the plateau--I came across Intermittent fasting over and over again.

I didn't really want to admit it-- but there had to be SOMETHING to this thing if the experts were so excited about it. The more I learned , the more I realized its whole body benefits.

So... what IS Intermittent fasting or IF for short.

IF is easiest explained by thinking about our natural eating patterns.

At some point during our day we stop eating and we go to sleep.

When we wake the next day, we eventually "break" our fast by eating breakfast.

Intermittent Fasting is simply an extension of these hours intentionally.

Are you a person who doesn't like to eat breakfast?  If so... you're already naturally intermittent fasting!

Let's break this down.

If you stop eating at 8pm tonight and wake at 6am. That's 10 hours of no eating, right?

So we would call that a ten hour fast.

What time will you eat breakfast?

For this example, let's say you eat breakfast around 9am. This means your fast was 13 hours long.

Intermittent Fasts are usually around 16 hours. Experts seem to agree that this is a great place to start and that you don't necessarily need to go much longer.

To get to 16 hours in our example then you would just skip breakfast all together and have lunch at noon.

Intermittent Fasting is very effective when you are eating a Keto Diet because IF you've been loyal to your keto diet, you've trained your body on how to retrieve and burn stored fat.

Before I wrap up...let me tell you about my early experience with IF

My routine had been to get up somewhere between 4:30-5am and get my husband out the door. Then I'd eat my breakfast and read for 30 minutes before beginning my workday.

When I started IF, I began with twelve hours because my average fast was pretty short. Generally I would finish eating by 7:30. This left my fasts at well under 12 hours at times.

Twelve hours wasn't easy for me but I pushed through. I did that for entire week and then realized that I actually wasn't hungry. 

My perceived hunger was actually centered around my habit of reading for 30 minutes while I ate breakfast

So, as you begin with IF-- pay attention to your hunger cues. Are you really physically hungry? Or is it based around a habit or emotional need instead.

After I figured this out, I was able to extend my fasts to 14-16 hours with ease.

For the ladies out there-- I find I'm much hungrier during my time of the month. You'll have to see how this works for you.

Remember that you are a bio-diverse human being. Meaning you have to figure out what best works for you! Think of this as your "Great Experiment". Pay attention to how you're talking to yourself and work on changing that language to positive words and phrases. When you catch yourself saying something like “This is too hard” -- replace negative self talk with a positive phrase such as "I can and I will".

Remember that this negative self talk or self doubt is natural. I challenge you-- right here and now- to believe in your ability to figure this out.

I want to challenge you to experiment with Intermittent Fasting starting tomorrow. Start by being just a little bit uncomfortable and then begin to stretch and challenge yourself from there. Think about this process just like you would if you were trying to grow a muscle-- improving your health is a lot like that--you have to stretch and challenge yourself from time to time to see real progress.

Drop me a comment below with how many hours you will Intermittent Fast TOMORROW. Or, right now if you're done eating for the day!

Note: Before attempting fasting, please consult with your medical doctor. Any fast greater than 24 hours should not be undertaken without the care of your personal physician. We are not medical professionals. No information in this module or this course is intended to diagnose, treat or cure any disease.

Now for some resources!!

Studies on Intermittent Fasting:

• The effects of intermittent or continuous energy restriction on weight loss and metabolic disease risk markers: a randomised trial in young overweight women
• Short-term fasting induces profound neuronal autophagy
• Caloric restriction improves memory in elderly humans