Intermittent Fasting
To understand how intermittent fasting works you can watch the videos included here. I am writing here about my experience and how I do it.
I started the ketogenic diet after watching and listening to the many doctors who talk about it on YouTube. I listened to everything that I could to learn about the Keto diet. One of the big things that was mentioned all the time was Intermittent Fasting. The concept is to have a break from food for 16 hours during a 24 hours period. Doctors recommend to do it twice a week. There are many benefits of intermittent fasting: When taking a break from food the body has the opportunity to heal itself so a few things happen:
1-The Insulin level drops and it allows for the leptin hormone (satiating hormone that tells us that we don’t need to eat anymore) to appear.
2- HGH increases in the blood – This is the Human Growth Hormone which is in charge of healing and repairing our cells and the fast facilitates the fat burning.
3-Longevity – Because the cells are not busy handling food all the time they have the time to heal and repair and to provide protection against disease.
4- Intermittent fasting helps losing weight.
So how do you do it?
Let say that you eat with the family dinner at around 5-6 PM - counting 12 hours will be 5-6 AM. Stretch it as much as possible - count at least 16 hours and then have your breakfast. Push it as late as you can. While you are 'fasting' you can drink all type of drinks as are listed below.
What you can have while you are fasting? It's best to have fats (butter, coconut oil, MCT oil, coconut milk - if you can have dairy, you can prepare a bulletproof coffee - use my recipe for bulletproof coffeea and replace the coconut milk for whipping cream - so yummy!) that way you stay satiated for a long time.
When you search online you can find different opinions and methods of what you can drink while you are doing intermittent fasting. Here are my choices:
- Bulletproof coffee
- Broth
- Tea - I like to add coconut milk to it
- Water with some lemon
At first I could not do it. I followed the diet – I ate eggs, avocado, olive oil (I did not eat dairy because I am lactose intolerant) low carb vegetables and I was hungry. I knew that intermittent fasting is not eating for at least 16 hours and the night sleep is included in those 16 hours. I was eating three meals a day, but slowly I began pushing the breakfast to a later time. I pushed it to 11 AM and than to 2PM. I had to take out of my mind that “breakfast is the most important meal of the day!”
As I continued my diet – I was able to push the meals to a later time and so now, I eat an egg or two around 12-2 PM and the next and only meal at around 5-6 PM and I am done eating until the next day. So I am doing intermittent fasting every single day.
I start my day today with a fatty coffee (here is the recipe) and it holds me until ‘breakfast.’ I will have another cup of coffee later with less fat and if I feel like I want something to eat, I will drink a cup of chicken broth. I try to drink two cups of broth a day, but sometimes it is too much for me because I am not hungry.
When you follow the ketogenic diet, you lose your appetite. You are not hungry. So if all the concept is eating when hungry – I sometimes eat because the family is seating down to eat and not because I want to. My cravings had gone down completely. I do not crave sweets or foods at all. I used to be addicted to sugar and this addiction completely disappeared! Sometimes I crave meat or fat. So you know that if you open the refrigerator and the avocado is calling you or you want some eggs – you are on the right path!
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Contact me if you need support on your journey to healing with the ketogenic diet.