30 Day Intermittent Fasting Challenge

Intermittent fasting has been shown to improve your health, slow the aging process, and even help with weight loss or weight maintenance – (by keeping those late night snack calories from adding up).

So, I want us to take this on for 30 days and let’s see if we can’t make it a permanent habit!

Now, I know the word fast can sound really scary and intimidating, but honestly this has been around forever and its simply been called “breakfast” – or breaking your overnight fast. Yup. Old as time.

Now, there are ways to do this that make a difference! See the top things to be mindful of below:

The first is time frame. The 12:12 approach is the easiest. So this is the one I challenge you to do. If you want to do more you can, but 12:12 for 30 days is what I’m asking of you! You simply create an overnight fast window of 12 hours. So if you finish dinner at 7:30pm don’t eat again until the next day at 7:30am.

Research has shown that a window of up to 16 hours can be very beneficial for those with serious health conditions like type 2 diabetes for example. However, a longer fast window could cause you to become overly hungry and overeat when you do finally eat – which is ultimately counterintuitive. So, I recommend starting with 12:12 and gradually increasing by 30 minute increments until you find that threshold where you feel like you are “starving” and stop before that happens. 

The second is hydration. Hydrate the heck of out yourself. Drink two full glasses of water (nothing in it) when you first wake up. This will not only help give you energy and keep you from mistaking dehydration for hunger, but it will make you feel full – further staving off any feelings of hunger for a longer period of time.

The third is “cheating”. Yes, is there is a cheat to this that will help you create a longer fast window without feeling like you are famished. The key with the intermittent fast is to avoid activating your mTOR metabolic pathway. And to make a long story short – protein and carbs do this, fat doesn’t. Hence the reason you have likely heard of things like bulletproof coffee. That said, no one needs three hundred calories of fat in the morning. So, try a splash of organic whole cream in your coffee. This usually helps me get to a 14 hour window without feeling like I could eat my sofa, i'm so hungry. Then it’s about 75 calories, not 300 and you can extend some of those fast benefits for another hour or so.