Sunday, April 4, 2010

It's easy...REALLY!

When I talk to people about intermittent fasting most people say the same things.

"That would be way too hard for me."

"I don't think I could do that."

Everyone assumes it is hard to fast. Lets break this down a bit.

Everyone fasts and they don't even think about it. Lets say you eat dinner at 6pm. Once you finish eating, have dessert etc. it is maybe 7pm. Assuming you don't have a late night snack, you probably won't eat again until the next day when you have breakfast. If you have breakfast at 7am that means you have already been fasting for 12 hours!

Oh wow! A 12 hour fast...I don't know if I could do that...wait a minute...I already did.

Now all you need to do is extend that fast by another 7 hours. Now you might say, but waiting 7 hours is way too hard for me. But the way I do it is I break that 7 hours up into two parts. Half is done in the morning and the other half in the evening. Have some tea or coffee (no sugar or cream though) and water to keep your stomach happy and get busy living life.

Before you know it, the clock will be reading 11 am. If you break your fast at 12 noon like I do then all you have to do is wait one hour. You can wait one hour can't you? Especially if you have already made it through most of the morning the chances of you throwing that away for the sake of one hour is pretty slim...



12 noon Eat! Eat what you like, no powders, no packaged chemicallized food, no rice cakes and lettuce (unless you like rice cakes and lettuce). Eat all your favorites, now that is worth waiting for isn't it?

If you aren't too full from lunch then eat a snack at 3 or 4. Eat a good sized snack of something that is not meal sized calorie wise but filling. A muffin, some low fat cream cheese and crackers, some fruit and veggies with dip and yogurt. With your big lunch of yummy food and your nice sized snack at 3 or 4, you aren't going to be hungry for a while.

5 pm window closes. Now you need to do the rest of that 7 hours we had left to do in the morning. You already did 4 of them this morning by waiting until noon to eat. Now there are only three left and it is back to bed to do that base 12 hour fast that we all were doing but didn't realize it.

Because you ate such a nice big lunch and had that filling snack, 2 of those hours fly by without any effort. You feel a little grumble in your stomach for that last hour...but hey, you can wait an hour can't you?

That's all there is to it...from what I noticed, there were only two hours in the day where you really had to try...2 hours out of 19 that were a tiny bit difficult. If, for you, fasting means difficult, then, if you think about it, you were really only fasting for 2 hours...

You can do this...trust me.

3 comments:

  1. I wasn't sure I could. I had tried to do 24 hour fasts before and failed. But Fast-5 really IS. THAT. EASY. Now that I know I can eat whatever I want as soon as two o'clock rolls around, the tiny hunger pangs I get on occasion don't bother me. They pass. And I've learned it's okay to be hungry.

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  2. Wow....how you justified the 19 hour window is EXACTLY how I speak! LOL!
    I really like your blog. I've been reading other IF blogs and eventually stumbled upon yours. I read your blog and think of me - we are so alike. :)
    Because I didn't add your blog to my favourites i've spent the better part of my day surfing around (at work) trying to find your blog again!
    Please keep up your blog - I really enjoy reading it!
    Ragini

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  3. Jenna, Thank you soooo much for this blog. So much information here. I am starting the Fast five lifestyle. Why? Because I have found that once I start eating, I tend to binge! I do so much better if I don't take that first bite till dinner! Please keep up the articles here. You are a wonderful inspiration.
    Best Regards, Pat

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