Intermittent fasting is the latest buzz word in the health and wellness industry….which can immediately make you roll your eyes and dismiss it as just a craze.
But, before you do, I’ve seen fantabulous results from intermittent fasting, particularly in clients that have been doing all the right things but still can’t shift the weight or were inflamed, had high blood sugars or poor liver function test results.
Fasting has been practiced by many cultures for thousands of years, whether as part of a religious practice, to conserve food supplies or as part of a healing treatment.
In today’s world, we’re literally eating ourselves to death. Food is a comfort tool, social connector, reward, celebratory tool and much more.
What is intermittent fasting?
Intermittent fasting means eating in a compressed feeding window, so your digestive system gets a rest for a specific period of time. During the fasting phase you can drink water or clear non-caffeine herbal teas with no sweeteners, such as lemongrass and ginger, chamomile, or peppermint tea, if desired.
Why intermittent fasting works
Intermittent fasting gives your digestive system a break and uses that excess energy to clean, repair and rebuild your body. Digesting and absorbing your food can take up to 5 hours after eating and during that time your insulin levels are high, so your body can’t easily burn fat for energy.
When you’re in the post digestive phase, that takes place 8-12 hours after your last meal and your insulin levels are lower, you can easily burn fat.
When in the fasting state, your body naturally finds ways to extend your life. It’s kind of like a survival mechanism, where when faced with the possibility of starvation, your body will do everything in its power to heal and keep you alive.
Health benefits of intermittent fasting
Weight Loss
In my clinic I’ve seen huge success with 16:8 intermittent fasting for losing weight, especially if clients are already eating well but were lacking the results. For instance, they were eating cleanly, hydrating, de-stressing, doing a mix of strength and cardio exercise, sleeping well – yet their body still holds onto those extra kilos. It’s very frustrating for those people, but also comforting to know they’d do well if starving in the desert!
16:8 intermittent fasting practised daily dropped off the weight consistently and quite quickly.
Initially there will be hunger pangs but if you use herbal teas and lemon water in this period and ride them out, they will reduce over the days to follow.
For best results exercise at the tail end of a fast. Eg, Exercise in morning, eating window 11am to 7pm & fasting 7pm to 11am.
Gut Health
Giving your gut a break frees up energy for detoxifying, cleaning, repair and building, and also resets and lowers your appetite.
Intermittent fasting also improves gut microbiota, increasing the ratio of beneficial gut flora. This is a by-product from the positive changes of reducing inflammation, losing weight and normalising blood sugar levels.
Blood Sugar Levels
Intermittent fasting keeps blood sugar levels more stable and prevents the constant spiking and crashing of insulin levels that can have you craving sugars and chasing caffeine fixes all day long. It’s very helpful for those with diabetes or those struggling with fatty liver.
Reduces Inflammation
Inflammation is your body’s natural response to injury, toxicity and disease. Chronic inflammation is at the heart of many chronic degenerative diseases and ageing, as well as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular problems and much more.
Intermittent fasting also enhances your body’s natural resistance to oxidative stress which reduce inflammation throughout your body.
Longevity
If you’ve ever seen an interview with a centurion, most talk of eating less, often one meal a day, and having gone through extended periods of fasting, whether their choice or not, in their life.
There’s an old saying “The less you eat, the longer you’ll live” and I’d have to agree with it.
Brain Health
Intermittent fasting prevents cognitive function decline and decreasing memory and learning as we age. And the anti-inflammatory effect can slow the progression of neuro-degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Heart Health
Intermittent fasting can improve your heart health by helping to lower the following common risk factors that contribute to heart dis-ease:
Blood sugar levels
High blood pressure
Inflammation
Cholesterol
Perfect for those with a looming family history of by-passes, stents, strokes, heart-attacks and more.
Ways to intermittent fast
There are three ways:
16:8 Method
Most popular and easiest method, involves you eating in an 8 hour window and fasting for 16 hours. This can look like first meal of day at 11am and last meal of the day at 7pm or 7am to 3pm. Set your own window to suit your life.
You can do this every day, only weekdays or a few times a week depending on the results you want and what works into your schedule.
Remember you can start anywhere and improve over time. It’s better than not starting at all. You learn by doing.
5:2 Diet
This involves eating a maximum of 600 calories two days a week. I liken it to whole food fasting. Make sure your diet on those days is of quality wholefoods like vegetables, fruit, nuts, etc.
24 hour
This method requires you to fast for 24 hours, ideally from dinner one day to the following day, once to twice a week.
Intermittent fasting is definitely worth trialing to set yourself up to remain healthy, energetic and disease-free.
Love to hear if you’ve tried it and what results you’ve gotten? Or if you need help to get started?
Recently I ran into an old friend who’d lost 13 kilos and looked amazingly vibrant and happy. I asked her what she’d been up to and how she’d lost the weight after decades of struggling.
She said, “My back pain was so bad I had to do something to get my weight down. I decided to try a ketogenic diet, it’s been amazing I haven’t been that hungry and I’ve got loads of energy. My partner’s doing it with me even though he doesn’t have much more weight to lose to support me.”
Note to self: my friend’s secret formula to getting healthier and happier by shifting her 40 kilo excess was ketosis, support from a loving partner and needing to get out of pain. Mmmmm….all the balls had lined up and it was time to treat herself well.
Do you need a secret formula to getting happier and healthier?
In my experience far too many women are over 40 & feeling frumpy and they’ve thrown in the proverbial towel on losing weight and getting their mojo back as the hormonal chaos of menopause approaches.
Amanda pulled herself up the stairs to my office huffing and puffing as she went. She’d tipped the 100kg mark on the scales as her 46th birthday approached and was filled with shame. “How did I get here?” she said, “it’s the heaviest I’ve ever been. I’ve tried eating healthier like I’ve done before but nothing’s happening . My body’s not dropping anything and I’m getting scared. I can’t stay here. I look like my mum and I swore I’d never do that to myself. Things have got to change. I need your help Julie, I can’t do this alone. I’ve had a few hot surges, especially at night and my period’s all over the place and heavy.”
I’m here to say not on my watch ladies! It’s all so fixable.
Here are 3 quick things to give you an instant pick me up and lose the feeling frumpy.
Hack #1 Real wholesome colourful foods.
It’s super simple ladies mainly plant based foods with a moderate amount of protein (beans, tofu, fish, chicken, lamb, beef, eggs…) and leave out all the fillers, numbers, artificial things, sugar and excess salt.
Stop listening to the hype and noise in the media that’s confusing the hell out of everyone. In real terms it’s a palm size piece of meat and three handfuls of a colourful array of vegetables, steamed or raw. Now, repeat often.
Remember the learning is in the doing. Start simple and improve over time. Model to your children to pass down great habits.
Real energy will soar with consistency, so no need for endless coffees, teas – one per day should be plenty.
Blood sugar levels will plummet and so will your waist line, fluid retention and feeling frumpy.
“Get out of bed and move every day and you’ll feel better and have more energy. Your energy is locked in your cells and moving releases that energy and sets you up for a better day with better decision making.” I’d have to agree 110% with this one.
Schedule a minimum of 20 minutes a day to oxygenate your cells and clear out the waste. Walk, jog, cycle, swim, kayak, Pilates, yoga, weights, dance….the possibilities are endless.
Set yourself up for a great day, don’t just hope for one.
It’s hard to be feeling frumpy when you’re bouncing with energy and kissing goodbye to the kilos.
Hack #3 Technology detox
Schedule in tech free time each day. To make sure you’re using technology it’s not using you. It wears you out all the swiping, liking and over comparing. Get in and get out.
I’m a big advocate for putting on an alarm one hour before bed (ideally 9pm), heralding fill myself up time – having a bath, reading a book, meditating, stretching, journaling or watching the stars.
Practice the art of being present – warm water caressing your body, cold air dancing on your face. It benefits you and everybody around you. You’ll have a great night sleep and dial down your stress barometer, which blocks weight loss, messes with your mood and gets you feeling frumpy.
Did you know being present hones your listening and empathy skills, vital for building and maintaining trust in relationships? And we all know better relationships equal a better life.
Do I hear you say, god that’s so simple. Is that all you have to do? Yes it is, the hard thing is being consistent. But the results are enormous and they’re long lasting because you’ve changed what you do everyday. Change your patterns, change your life.
Hope that’s got you started on your journey from feeling frumpy to fabulous! It’s never too late.
Detox is certainly not a new concept. There’s hundreds of ways out there to cleanse and detox your body, anything from juice fasts, sipping bone broth to comprehensive programs. Many of which, may or may not tickle your fancy.
As a society more and more chemicals are in our food chain and environment. On a daily basis we’re exposed to pesticides, herbicides, BPAs, preservatives, artificial flavours and the list goes on. Our genetics haven’t caught up with the onslaught of all the chemicals and inflammatory and autoimmune conditions are on a steep rise.
The question is not should I do a detox, but when. So start listening to your body and if you’re experiencing any of these signs, think detox time now.
Whether consciously or unconsciously, many people are frustrated with their body shape and size and often list ‘weight’ as a major concern. They worry endlessly over their body’s appearance many times a day. This niggling worry and frustration can take up valuable headspace, deeply affecting their self-esteem and influencing their moods.
Imagine for a moment what life might be like if you truly stopped worrying about your size or the appetite you feel you can’t trust. If you didn’t wake up thinking about what you will or won’t eat that day or how much exercise you might be able to squeeze in and what the consequences will be if you don’t.
Most people will tell you, that you have to lose weight to be healthy, but the reverse is actually true, you need to be healthy to lose weight.
And the concept of calories as the ONLY factor that influences weight loss is SO OUTDATED. There are many factors that affect whether your body is getting a message to burn fat or store it – calories, stress, gut health, liver function, thyroid, sex hormones, insulin, nervous system and emotions.
So, all of these need to be addressed for you to get to the heart of your success formula for lasting results.
Working together we can solve your weight loss puzzle, giving you support, guidance and getting to the heart of your ‘whys’ – why you eat emotionally, why you choose poor quality food even though you know better, why you just can’t seem to shift excess body fat no matter how hard you try, why dieting can’t be sustained and why eating certain foods can transform your health.
One universal truth I do know is, to effortlessly make choices that serve your health is to get back in touch with the amazingness of your own body. I have never seen sustainable change come from judgment, fear and criticism, rather from loving kindness, understanding and encouragement.
Enjoy having somebody on your team who has had thousands of successes and lives what she teaches every day and will hold your hand to keep you resourced, accountable and inspired for lasting results.
Super excited to share what I do Feeling Great Naturopath Corowa video I love to Read more
Search
Categories
Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
