Intermittent Fasting (IF)

Good morning everyone,

Did you guys get your 8 hours of zzzzz's?  Thankfully I was able to get quality zzz's from 1am to 9am and I didn't get up to go to the bathroom until 7:30!  Not sure if anyone cares, but if anyone has issues waking up in the middle of the night to go potty, then you can relate how sucky it is to break your sleep so you don't wet your bed.  The two major adjustments I've made to get QS (quality sleep) were blacking out our windows and not drinking any water after 9pm.  Those two changes have made the WORLD of difference between QS and CS (crappy sleep).  So, what does this have to do with Intermittent Fasting?  Nothing.  I just thought I would share with my 5 followers (thanks for joining Sadie!) my sleep progress.  How are you guys sleeping?

Okay, what is Intermittent Fasting you ask?  IF is known as occasionally going extended periods without eating.  Seriously?  Yes, seriously.  Everyone already does some form of IF and you may not even know it.  From the time when you last eat before going to bed to when you wake up is your IF time.  There have been studies on how IF helps regulate blood glucose levels, control blood lipid, control weight management, maintain or gain lean muscle mass and more.  All of these changes can occur if IF is done correctly.  Remember, our ancestors were HG (hunter gatherers) and they didn't have grocery stores to go to when they were hungry, so there were times when they had plenty of food to eat and plenty of times when they didn't.  We can teach ourselves to manage hunger and in turn we can reap the benefits of IF in many levels.  Like I said in my first blog, I am NOT a doctor or a certified nutritionist.  I'm a crossfitter who truly believes in living a paleo lifestyle (as best as I can) and I enjoy sharing my knowledge of crossfit and nutrition with people.     If anyone is interested in reading about IF, check out this website precisionnutrition.com/intermittent-fasting/ or just google it.

So, how and when do I IF?  I'm going on my third week of doing IF at least one day a week and I'm getting used to it.  Personally, I choose to IF on a rest day from crossfitting because I don't do well when working out on an empty stomach.  That's just how my body works for me, but some people actually do pretty well on an empty stomach and get great results.  So, for example, last night I got home from work around 12:15 am and when I walked into the kitchen I wanted to make my almond butter& unsweetened apple sauce dessert, but I refrained and instead I sat on the sofa with Dunkin (our dog) and we watched ESPN to wind down.  I went to bed starving and woke up hungry, but I won't eat my next meal until noon today (12 hours of fasting).   Im learning to manage my hunger and it feels good.  Really, it does, but I'm also looking forward to lunch so I can finally CHOW!  Another benefit to IF is, that when we go to bed on an empty stomach our body can focus on healing tweaks, strains, bruises (workout injuries) etc.. instead of working on digesting our food intake.

Do some research on IF and give it a shot.   If you decide to give this a try, do it for a month and log what you eat, when you fast, the duration of your IF, weight, body fat % (if you can), and how you feel. After a month of logging your information you should see if it worked for you or not.

Best,

Christian