Episode 511 – Why I fast

• Welcome friends
• To another episode of QFY
• Today I want to talk about fasting
• I know, that doesn’t fall into my usual category of topics, which mostly revolve around habits, goals, mindset, behaviors and techniques that help us become our best self
• But in a sense – it does
• I don’t much talk about the physical aspects that help me be my best self, but I have dedicated a few rare episodes to topics such as nutrition, exercise and sleep
• Because without the physical aspects, all my other efforts become more difficult
  • Without exercise – I feel sluggish and lack ideas
  • Without healthy nutrition – the sluggishness is even worse and I wont feel like working out
  • And without proper sleep – I cannot focus and produce content that inspires
• Everything is connected and to be our best self, we eventually need to look at all areas

• I don’t like to give advice however,
• I try to be careful in telling people to eat this or that, or try a certain workout or sleep a certain number of hours
  • For once – because everyone is different
    • What works for me doesn’t necessarily work for you
  • And then – There is plenty of information on those topics already out there
    • However cluttered and confusing it may be
  • There are people that have more knowledge on those topics
    • You just have to find them
    • Not everyone who gives advise has the expertise on the info they present

• I like to share what works for me and how what I do helps me on my quest for me
• I am very focused on my health because the more I am, the better of a person I become
• And this is why these kinds of topics also have a place on the QFY journey
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• I don’t want to tell you what you should do
• I merely want to share WHY I do what I do
• You can then evaluate if it resonates with you and maybe experiment with some of the same things
• Because its only through trying something different that you learn and discover more about yourself
• This is what I did – I experimented
• And only when I find something that works for me – for a while – do I feel comfortable and share it
• Fasting, just like eating, exercising and sleeping serves both a physical and a mental purpose for me
  • Physically – it helps me maintain my weight and makes me feel better
  • Mentally – it challenges me out of comfort into discomfort
• I will dive into both aspects shortly
• Lets first talk about the concept of fasting
• I don’t want to go into detail here as the topic has exploded in popularity over the last couple of years, and a Google search will result in a wealth of information you can dive into
• I first began fasting 4 years ago and that time there was very little information available
• I experimented with intermittent fasting – which I will explain in a minute
• My first multi-day fast was 5 days – I picked the 5 days leading up to Christmas – and I tracked my glucose levels and heart rate in an excel spreadsheet
  • I loved it.
  • I felt better every day
• My second multi-day fast was supposed to be 6 days, but it was horrible – I only made it to 5 days
  • I didn’t feel good, was in a bad mood, could not focus
  • I was just done after 5 days
• Since then I haven’t attempted another multi-day fast
• There are many options if that’s what you want to try
  • Some people fast 3 days every month
  • I have a friend who fasts 24 hours every Monday, something I am also trying to incorporate
• There are also different theories out here on what constitutes a fast
• For me, the answer is straightforward – no calories
• When I fast, I only drink water and tea
• Some people drink coffee, others think a certain number of calories are OK
• I don’t agree
• Fasting means Zero for me
•  
• the fasts that really work for me and that I want to talk about today are the daily intermittent fasts
• instead of eating all day, I basically shorten my eating window and only eat for about 8 hours
• I usually stop eating around 8 and don’t start again until noon
• some days I can barely make it to 11 –
  • those are usually the days after a heavy workout or a long climbing day
• other days, I forget all about time and the App I use reminds me that I reached my 16 hours
• but even then I may not be hungry or may be busy and wait another hour
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• fasting between 13-18 hours every day, brings many health benefits that you can read about online
• and those have initially motivated me to start fasting
• but the longer I kept up the routine, the more I like and feel how good it is for me

• for some time I stopped intermittent fasting
• I was working with a personal trainer who wasn’t a fan and believed I needed a solid breakfast
• I ate, because I followed his specific diet plan
• But I can tell you, I never liked it
• I missed my IF days
• I just feel better when I don’t eat right away when the day starts
• The body adjusts – I am naturally not hungry in the morning, but after eating BF regularly, my body started craving food at 8am
• But now that I am back to fasting, I am just not hungry until around lunch time
• Again – I am not telling you to adopt this kind of fasting method
• I am sharing with you why I do it
• Physically here are some benefits I have noticed, and they are not uncommon for others who do this type of fasting

1. More focus

• I cant talk about this enough – but my mental focus is at its best when I don’t eat
• My mornings are my most productive hours
• Especially after the little hunger surge that comes around 11 passes
• If I am able to resist that, then my energy and mental concentration are top notch
• Coincidently, as I am working on this episode, I am actually fasting
• I am already in my 18^th hour
• Its Monday and I would like to play with a full day per week of fasting
• I just haven’t been successful yet but I am working my way slowly towards this
• Every Monday I try to fast as long as possible, with the goal to eventually eat my first meal at dinner
• If you have mental work to do for the first part of the day, this schedule may be very beneficial for you
• My encouragement for you here is:
  • One – as I say with everything, take small steps
    • When I started IF up again a few months ago, I started with 14 hours
    • I then slowly worked my way towards 16
    • And no, I am not going higher
    • My exercise routine is such that I do need to eat to have energy to work out
    • 16 is my sweet spot
  • Find yours
  • This will take time and experimentation
• BF may be your most important meal, and you might be ok without dinner
• I need to eat in the evening because I work out in the evening
• If my workouts were in the mornings, I might have a different routine
• It depends on your lifestyle
• Simply try it out and don’t give up
• My other piece of advice with fasting is this:
  • Your body is highly adaptable
  • If you eat every day at noon, it will eventually crave food every day at that time
  • If you stop eating lunch at noon, your body will cause you some stress, but not for long
  • You are in charge
  • If you keep at it, your body will adjust to the not-eating just the same way it adjusted to the eating
• The second major benefit for me is

2. Weight management

• Ideally, skipping breakfast means I am skipping a meal and therefore eat fewer calories overall
• I said “ideally” because it often doesn’t work this way
• By noon or 1 I am quite hungry and usually eat a bigger meal
• The word of Caution here is this:
• There is a tendency to go all out during the short eating window
• Sometimes, knowing I am coming up at 8pm I will just add snack after snack after my already filling dinner – just because
• So this is something I have to be conscious of and I have heard others mention as well
• Its also very easy to eat just whatever, and consume foods that are not healthy
• I still prep my meals and try to eat well
• I also have to keep my active lifestyle in mind
• I need calories to be able to perform well in the gym, but its not as many calories as some people may think
• For me – my noonish meal is fairly big, and the remaining meals for the day are smaller, often just snacks
• Some fasters eat 2 big meals, some only one, in their eating window
• My encouragement for you here is, if you want to try fasting:
• Find the most convenient time
• Obviously sleeping time is time when you don’t eat
• But then figure out where to get the extra hours from
• I have noticed something interesting:
• I naturally fast when I am out in the wilderness climbing or hiking
  • Sometimes we start the day really early and there is no time to eat until the afternoon
  • Other days I eat a breakfast because I have a physically challenging day ahead
  • But then I am so busy all day I may not eat all day until dinner
• The best way to try out fasting is when you are busy, ideally both physically and mentally
• This is why multi-day fasts are very hard for me
• I am in the office Monday-Friday and only stand at my desk
• My work only keeps me occupied for certain stretches of time and then my thoughts will wander to food
• But when I am running around doing stuff, I may hear my stomach talking to me, but I don’t have much time to pay attention to it
• I just got back from my TG trip to Utah and I fasted my full 16 hours almost every day
• I didn’t plan on it like I plan it when at home
• It simply happened
• We woke up and went hiking
• It was cold so we needed to warm our bodies up before we could stand in the freezing cold and cook something
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• We often eat just because its time to eat and that’s when everyone eats
• Remember – the time in this life is your time
• You can decide when to eat
• When I heat up my breakfast at noon in the office, people think its my lunch
• Do what makes you feel good
• Not what everyone does

• There are many other physical benefits to fasting that are less obvious and that you read about on the internet
• My digestion for example is much better and I have also noticed that it gives me more energy overall
• You will have to experiment and see what it does for you
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• This brings me to the mental benefits of fasting and those are equally important

1. It’s a challenge

• Every day, I am faced with a little bit of discomfort and I love that
• Food is so readily available everywhere, its easy to eat
• Even if I don’t bring breakfast to work, there are plenty of opportunities to eat in my office
• But knowing I cannot eat,
• not eating on purpose
  • Watching the time than tells me when I am allowed to eat again
  • I enjoy that small daily challenge
  • Even though it’s a restriction I imposed on myself

• I have noticed that a little bit of constraint every day helps me develop a sense of discipline that then I can apply in other areas of my life
• The reason I like IF so much as a weight management strategy is that I find it easier to not eat for a long stretch of time than to wait several hours in between meals
• This was always hard for me when I ate according to a diet plan
  • I had small, calorie-measured meals but I suffered in between those meals
  • They were to small for me and my discipline wasn’t there to avoid the snacks to fill up a bit more
• With IF, I can have a decent size meal – and I am not talking overeating here – and feel full and satisfied
• I use an App called Zero to track my hours
  • Its not necessary
• The clock tells me every day what time it is and I know when I stopped eating at 8pm that I can eat again at 12
• The math is not the reason I use the app
• But as humans we all like tracking
• Seeing our progress gives us a sense of accomplishment
• And for me as a chart freak – I like seeing my weekly fasting chart, and my weekly fasting average
• It pushes me to last another 30min the next day just so I can get my average up

2. And the second mental benefit is focus as well

• Physically I am more focused as a result of my brain going into survival mode, leading to increased ability to focus on the tasks at hand.
• But mentally, there is the added benefit of not having to think about food
• Its just not an option so there is no distraction – trying to figure out what to eat
• It allows me to focus on my work
• For example, at work there may be a breakfast catered in or donuts might be laying around
• Instead of contemplating what and how much I should eat, I don’t even think about it
  • Its not time to eat
• When on the road, the same thing
  • I don’t have to worry about breakfast
  • I can focus on what I have to do
• I think we spend many of our waking hours thinking about food
  • What to eat, where to eat, with whom to eat
  • It can be a distraction at times, taking us away from the stuff we really need to be working on
• Lastly
• I enjoy food more after a long fast
• I noticed this especially on my recent trip, which I will talk about soon
• A meal tastes so much better after a long hike or a morning busy with other tasks
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• So – there you go
• This is why I fast
• I like the challenge it adds to my days
• I like the time it gives me back where I don’t have to think about food
• And most importantly, I like how I feel when I fast
• Physically and mentally – when I reach my little goal of 16 hours every day.

Maybe you give it a try

Certainly – each out with questions if you have then

Until then

Much love