DO YOU NEED TO FAST? Intermittent Fasting?

Fasting is one the the oldest tricks in the book!

Throughout various religions, fasting is a significant aspect of traditional lifestyles, varying in duration, time of day, and time of year.

Apart from fasting, traditional balanced diets typically do not involve avoiding foods such as meat, dairy, or grains. Instead, they emphasize proper preparation techniques and include periods of fasting or abstaining from indulgent foods at certain times to enable the body to fully digest and recover.

Many of us eat before the last meal has moved on- from the stomach even!

Now, obviously this varies from person to person and how active we have been, our age, stress levels and metobolic rate.

Animal foods are similar to the grain section, they can even reach 22 hours to leave the system.

THINK ABOUT YOUR OWN LIFESTYLE

• How many times do you eat each day?

• How late do you finish eating before you sleep?

• What sorts of food do you consume later in the day?

• What foods do you eat to start the day?

• Are your foods digesting during your sleep?

• Are you ever, not digesting?

• Do YOU have ama? (lingering waste)

When was the last time you felt toxic or rundown? Do you snack frequently, or do you opt for balanced meals?

Some of the most common things I hear:

• lack of sleep

• change in hunger patterns

• lack of energy

• bloated or constipated or gassy

• aches pains, never feeling like the body resets

Many of these can be side effects of over consumption of food and eating before our previous meal(s) have been digested. As we continue to follow this pattern, the body becomes over burdened and cannot process everything, leaving an accumulation of ama, the leftover waste, undigested food and lingering toxins that, according to Ayurveda, is the root cause of all disease. To learn more about ama, how to identify and remove, check out this blog post here.

Time to give our digestion a break.

Why? This gives our body the opportunity to restore the ideal pH in the stomach, replenish enzymes, and allow the digestive muscles to rest completely. When we completely empty our body, it naturally cleanses itself. It's easy to overlook, but our digestive lining consists of muscles, and just like any active muscles, they need time to rest and recover fully. Consider whether your digestive muscles are always working hard. Think about how your legs feel after a busy day; it feels good to lie down and rest, doesn't it?

How hard is your system working overnight to digest all the foods you ate during the day? Can you still feel yesterday roaming around inside when you wake up in the morning?

Our body needs time to:

• Reset our hormones:

  • Like insulin for proper energy production

  • Cortisol for proper stress management

  • Reproductive hormones for fertility and desire

• Fully assimilate the food we consume:

  • Covert vitamins and assimilate minerals

  • Actively use the nutrients and send them to the appropriate system in our body

• Clean waste :

  • Detoxify toxins and excrete all the unnecessary waste from the body

  • Heal damage and recover to reduce inflammation

So what's next then?

If you are prone to frequent snacking, try focusing on whole and balanced meals. The human digestive system typically has enough time to process 1-3 meals per day (please note: 4 or 5 depending on activity level, digestive load and other states, like pregnancy). To achieve this, allow for sufficient intervals between meals, 3-4 hours, this allows for a cleansing wave to wash over the gut before the next food enters the system.

Eat balanced meals that satisfy the system until next mealtime, reducing the need for snacks. Eat with intention and allow your food to digest properly. This helps stabilize your blood sugar levels, avoiding fluctuations that lead to hunger spikes and dips.

From an evolutionary standpoint, it is important for our body to be able to survive a famine / or period of less, little or no food. This improves our body's ability to produce ketones, burn fat and protect muscle strength with reduced fuel.

How to fast

Everyone is different so find what works best for you. If you are in a relaxed state, fasting can be productive and energizing. If you are depleted and stressed, it can impact your hormones, muscle tone, mood, etc. So be mindful.

There's a lot of discussion about the idea that "women shouldn't fast because of hormones." I find this unfair, as it suggests women can't excel as athletes. Intense physical activity induces fasting metabolic states, and as a woman, I know I can perform well in these situations when my body is properly trained, without negatively affecting my hormonal health.

With that in mind, fasting is pointless if it compromises your health, so it's important to prepare mentally and physically and to begin gradually. There are certain times when fasting is not advisable, such as during pregnancy, breastfeeding, or recovery from illness. However, some illnesses might benefit from a ketogenic state, water fasting, and sweat fasting.

Here are some tips:

• Gently increase your fasting window to prevent stress on the body. Finish dinner early, push back breakfast. Just try a little at a time and once a week at first.

• Keep in mind the last meal you eat before a fast sets your blood sugar. Treat it as if you were going to perform an important event: eat to fuel and sustain, not binge and starve.

• Intermittent fasting does not have to be about restricting calories, but rather adjusting your eating windows to allow for your body to heal.

• Watch caffeine consumption. In my experience, only consume it near when you are going to be eating again, as it impacts blood sugar and can increase cortisol/stress in the body.

• If you are doing a fasted workout, either take it easy (like stretching or walking) or schedule it near your eating window so you can replenish your glycogen promptly afterwards to prevent fatigue and injury.

• Try herbal teas that contain nutritives—mint, nettle, raspberry leaf, holy basil, rooibos—plants that provide nutrients without impacting energy levels.

• If you are drinking lots of water, consider adding salt or an electrolyte mix to aid hydration.

HOW FASTING HAS IMPACTED MY LIFE:

Fasting has reshaped my view on eating habits. As a lifelong athlete, I've always been known for my hearty appetite!

One day, I decided to figure our intermittent fasting. This made me reconsider the food on my plate, as unbalanced and unwholesome meals left me feeling hungry during fasting periods. It taught me how to fast without putting stress on my body. Increasing cortisol during fasting isn't healthy and undermines the goal.

With extended fasting periods between meals, and especially during morning fasted workouts, I could enjoy meals rich in protein and fats. It also helped me understand how carbohydrates provide immediate and long-term energy but can also lead to physical and emotional crashes.

I was able to go on longer runs in the forest, and eventually allowed us to train for a trail half-marathon, Brian and I ran and finished 33rd & 34th out of 117 who finished the race, and I was 6th in women's, so an overall success.

By incorportating intermittent fasting into our lifestyle, I've become better at identifying real food and distinguishing it from "foodstuff" that merely fills space and tastes good but offers less nutrition.

Most importantly, I've embraced homemaking skills, like creating health foods such as yogurt, kombucha, and homemade sprouts. We've learned to ferment our favorite vegetables as garnishes, make our own sauces, dips, and dressings, and ultimately enjoy preparing meals from scratch.

It's important to note that I don't practice intermittent fasting daily. I enjoy fasted morning workouts when my schedule permits. I love a late, full-course brunch! However, I don't snack between meals, except after intense physical activity. We eat 2-3 balanced meals a day, and sometimes I have dessert with the last meal.

My job is physcially demanding, so I aim for a longer fast at least once per week, and each day I aim to have an overnight fast of at least 10 hours.

-Samantha