Fun fact: I had no intention to fast! It wasn’t planned, AT ALL. In fact, it took me by total surprise 😂😂
I’m typically a planner. I don’t like to try new things until I’ve thought through all of the potential nuances and have built some sort of structure around the experience to keep myself “safe” and to protect me from “failing.” But this time, I jumped right in!
Several of you have asked about my first fast, so I decided to consolidate my thoughts and share my experience here, rather than copying and pasting to everyone individually.
Two weeks ago, sitting in a two-day course amongst other naval healthcare professionals, I found myself starving by lunch each day while the people at my table reported not being hungry at all… I became curious, started asking questions, and learned that they (FIVE of them!) lived a lifestyle of intermittent fasting.
I’d met previous discussions about fasting with defensiveness, not wanting to understand something that may threaten my relationship with food or what I thought I knew.
As I explained in my stories last week, I believe the scripture I’ve been studying recently is what allowed me to approach the discussion, this time, from a place of freedom and curiosity . . . for the pure sake of exploration. The benefits of feeling energized and mental clarity that they’d talked about, caused me to think, “Well, why not?!” (Plus, I do have a bit of a gluttonous relationship with food 🤪).
I chose to try fasting, not to become anything but because I felt FREE to explore . . . knowing God’s got me!
Three of them had all read The Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung, a nephrologist who specializes in the treatment of diabetes. They recommended reading it before starting my fast, but I decided to throw wind to the sails and go for it — trusting the experiences and tips they’d shared, and deciding to read the “why” behind its effectiveness as I went.
Thursday morning, after a late night of dinner and drinks with my new friends, I started four days of intermittent fasting. I ate between the hours of 12 and 6pm and fasted for 18 hours each day (6pm-12pm).
In the mornings, I drank two cups of black coffee with salt and chugged water. The salt helps stabilize, trust me — like I did them 😉 — and carbonated water does wonders.
I ate slightly more protein in my eating window, and limited sugars.
The first two days were hard, but it honestly got easier, day by day. And by day three, the mental and physical challenge was fun!
I stuck with 18 hours of intermittent fasting for four days (Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday) and then started a fast with bone broth, only, on Monday. My goal was to make it three days, but I felt so good by the end of the third day, that I went for a fourth!
I believe the bone broth fast went so well because I’d done four days of intermittent fasting, first.
During the Bone Broth Only fast, I drank my salted black coffee, chugged water, and drank Dr. Kellyann’s bone broth out of a coffee mug whenever I started feeling hungry. I drank 4-5 cups each day, needing less as the days went on. Tea (in addition to black coffee and water) is also permitted during the fast, as long as it’s without any sugar!
My literal only complaint was the constant after-taste of bone broth 😅 Eventually I got smart and bought some gum.
While I fasted, I read the book and felt like my life experience with food, exercise, and weight were all validated. I learned why
- diets don’t last
- tracking the amount of calories in vs out doesn’t work
- it’s so difficult to change our body set weight
- exercise is beneficial, but not for weight management
- it’s all about insulin
Our bodies are made to create energy from fat, but because of all the glucose running ramped inside us, the fat’s never accessed.
The increased glucose causes increased insulin, which causes insulin resistance . . . weight gain, and diabetes.
Fasting reduces insulin secretion and the availability of glucose, forcing our body to tap into the fat through gluconeogenesis.
I was astounded to read that most of us have enough fat to live off of it for a month! Whenever I got hungry, I let it pass by chugging water and reminding myself that my body was going to survive.
I honestly felt GREAT. The mental clarity is intriguing. And yes, I even worked out a few times. At the end of 96 hours — FOUR DAYS OF NOT EATING A SINGLE THING — I wanted to continue for 3-5 more . . . but Jordan arrived for a visit and I wasn’t going to miss out on dinner with him! (My first meal was salmon and Creamy Couscous with an arugula salad + a bourbon julep from Virtue Feed & Grain 😋).
The day Jordan left, I jumped back into 18 hours of intermittent fasting. We’ll see how it goes!
I highly recommend Dr. Fung’s book — he writes with a sense of humor and makes the science easy and fun. I love the encouragement to indulge and feast, and to cycle the celebrations with fasts. I also appreciate his explanation of the differences between fasting and starving.
All in all, I’m amazed… by all of it. My keys to success were
• starting with intermittent fasting
• black coffee + salt
• chugging water in the morning
• carbonated water!
• feeling safe to explore, trusting my body to be held together, like all things, in His hands 😊
This is the ancient secret. This is the cycle of life. Fasting follows feasting. Feasting follows fasting. Diets must be intermittent, not steady. Food is a celebration of life. Every single culture in the world celebrates with large feasts. That’s normal, and it’s good. However, religion has always reminded us that we must balance our feasting with periods of fasting—“atonement,” “repentance” or “cleansing.” These ideas are ancient and time-tested. Should you eat lots of food on your birthday? Absolutely. Should you eat lots of food at a wedding? Absolutely. These are times to celebrate and indulge. But there is also a time to fast. We cannot change this cycle of life. We cannot feast all the time. We cannot fast all the time. It won’t work. It doesn’t work.
Fung, J. (2016). The Obesity Code, 248.