Health Journey Part 2 Intermittent Fasting + What I Eat
Thank you!!! I got such good response from y'all on my last post! I love that this is something we can all really help each other with. I get stuck in a rut and it's nice to read what other normal people are doing.
Intermittent Fasting
While chatting with a friend at a Christmas party last month, I realized I practice Intermittent Fasting. I didn't realize it was a thing or had a name - I just thought I went to bed early and didn't like breakfast. The basic premise it that you only eat during an 8 hour window and fast during the remaining 16 hours of a 24-hour day.
It might sound pretty awful at first, but, think about your own schedule and eating habits and it may not be as hard to do as you think. I only eat during the hours of 11am-7pm. For instance, I sip on coffee all morning until I actually feel hungry and then I eat whenever I'm hungry for the next 8 hours but the only thing I have after dinner is water. If you're a breakfast lover break your fast first thing in the morning and eat bottom heavy-meaning eat the majority of your food on the bottom half of your day so you're left with an early light dinner. Switch it around if a big ol' dinner is your thing and eat super clean/light during the day. Personally, I spread my eating out so I'm never really consuming a big meal at once.
Also, this isn't law so if you need to wing it some in the beginning while you're learning your body that's okay! The whole purpose is to change up how you think about food and meal times and let your body be your guide.
Grazing
Personally, I can't follow a meal plan with strict guidelines. That lack of ability to follow directions has been trailing me since elementary school. If you tell me I have to eat a hand-full of almonds at 3pm I can assure you I will grow a sudden aversion to almonds and only want to eat a yogurt or maybe just eat the whole bag. The first step in progress of any kind is to know your strengths and weaknesses and play off that. Maybe it's my creative side but I prefer to work within a circle of possibilities and guidelines instead so I just stock up on foods I know are good for me so I can grab when I feel the need.
Stock the Pantry & Fridge
Playing off my statement above I have to say that I have the willpower of a threenager who wants to tie his own shoes when I'm grocery shopping. All bets are off once it's in my house so I have to make strong choices at the store. First, I go straight for the produce section to stock up on apples and carrots because they are super filling. Then I shop the store perimeter -meaning produce, meat, and dairy/dairy alternatives. Lastly, I hit the middle section to pick out things that will keep my children from hating me like pasta and jar sauce, goldfish, pretzels, chips, pop-tarts, etc. But I have a very specific mindset when I'm in that danger zone. School snacks and school lunch items only. That's not my food, it's theirs. Each child has their own basket in the pantry and their items are divvied up accordingly. This makes it way easier to get out the door in the mornings but it also works as a good stoping strategy for me. It's a lot harder to eat a whole bag of chips when you're stealing them from your son's lunch box section.
What I Eat
Okay so this is a hard one and I'm going to need to journal for about a week or so to really get a good handle on "what I eat" in a particular day. I tend to rotate in a lot of the same foods but I don't necessarily have all of this on hand at a given time. I drink a lot of green drinks and eat a lot of salads and grilled chicken with vegetables so I went ahead and included those on my list.
Snacks
Baked/Grilled Chicken/Salmon Dishes
Green Drinks
While chatting with a friend at a Christmas party last month, I realized I practice Intermittent Fasting. I didn't realize it was a thing or had a name - I just thought I went to bed early and didn't like breakfast. The basic premise it that you only eat during an 8 hour window and fast during the remaining 16 hours of a 24-hour day.
It might sound pretty awful at first, but, think about your own schedule and eating habits and it may not be as hard to do as you think. I only eat during the hours of 11am-7pm. For instance, I sip on coffee all morning until I actually feel hungry and then I eat whenever I'm hungry for the next 8 hours but the only thing I have after dinner is water. If you're a breakfast lover break your fast first thing in the morning and eat bottom heavy-meaning eat the majority of your food on the bottom half of your day so you're left with an early light dinner. Switch it around if a big ol' dinner is your thing and eat super clean/light during the day. Personally, I spread my eating out so I'm never really consuming a big meal at once.
Also, this isn't law so if you need to wing it some in the beginning while you're learning your body that's okay! The whole purpose is to change up how you think about food and meal times and let your body be your guide.
Personally, I can't follow a meal plan with strict guidelines. That lack of ability to follow directions has been trailing me since elementary school. If you tell me I have to eat a hand-full of almonds at 3pm I can assure you I will grow a sudden aversion to almonds and only want to eat a yogurt or maybe just eat the whole bag. The first step in progress of any kind is to know your strengths and weaknesses and play off that. Maybe it's my creative side but I prefer to work within a circle of possibilities and guidelines instead so I just stock up on foods I know are good for me so I can grab when I feel the need.
Stock the Pantry & Fridge
Playing off my statement above I have to say that I have the willpower of a threenager who wants to tie his own shoes when I'm grocery shopping. All bets are off once it's in my house so I have to make strong choices at the store. First, I go straight for the produce section to stock up on apples and carrots because they are super filling. Then I shop the store perimeter -meaning produce, meat, and dairy/dairy alternatives. Lastly, I hit the middle section to pick out things that will keep my children from hating me like pasta and jar sauce, goldfish, pretzels, chips, pop-tarts, etc. But I have a very specific mindset when I'm in that danger zone. School snacks and school lunch items only. That's not my food, it's theirs. Each child has their own basket in the pantry and their items are divvied up accordingly. This makes it way easier to get out the door in the mornings but it also works as a good stoping strategy for me. It's a lot harder to eat a whole bag of chips when you're stealing them from your son's lunch box section.
What I Eat
Okay so this is a hard one and I'm going to need to journal for about a week or so to really get a good handle on "what I eat" in a particular day. I tend to rotate in a lot of the same foods but I don't necessarily have all of this on hand at a given time. I drink a lot of green drinks and eat a lot of salads and grilled chicken with vegetables so I went ahead and included those on my list.
Snacks
- Red Apples
- Wow!Butter (nut butter alternative)
- Carrots
- Hummus
- Red Peppers
- Fruit Pouches
- Rx Bars (chocolate sea salt)
- Kind Bars (blueberry vanilla cashew, dark chocolate sea salt, blueberry almond breakfast bar)
- Unsweetened Cranberries
- Yogurt
- LaCroix
- Rolled Oats
- Berries
- Granola (Kind Vanilla Blueberry clusters with Flax Seed)
- Mandarin Oranges
- Dried Mango -no sugar added
- Lettuce
- Tomatoes
- Spinach
- Eggs (hardboiled)
- Quinoa
- Grilled Chicken
- Black Beans -no salt added
- Corn - no salt added
- Cranberries
- Mandarin Oranges
- Pear
- Green Apple
- Brianna's Blush Wine Vinaigrette
- Cabbage
- Flax Seed
- Chia Seed
Baked/Grilled Chicken/Salmon Dishes
- Lettuce
- Tomatoes
- Spinach
- Cabbage
- Quinoa
- Red, yellow, and orange Peppers
- Limes
- Organic chicken
- Atlantic Salmon
- Avocados/Guacamole
- Black Beans -no salt added
- Cilantro
- Salsa
- Garlic
- Brianna's Blush Wine Vinaigrette
- Corn - no salt added
- Blue Cheese or Goat Cheese
- Paul Prudhomme Red Fish Magic and Poultry Magic Seasoning
- Red Onion
- Brussels Sprouts
- Broccoli
- Basil
- Olive Oil
- Sea Salt
- Red potatoes / new potatoes
- Sweet Potatoes
- Zucchini Noodles
Green Drinks
- Green Apples
- Mint
- Pineapple
- Chia Seeds
- Flax Seed
- Spinach
- Kale
- Carrots
- Cucumber
- Oranges
- Celery
- Limes
- Lemons
- Parsley
I'm going to get Matthew's help to write down some recipes for you and put together a sample meal plan or daily meal plan to show a sample of what I eat during any given week. Also, my best advice is to start with a cleanse to reset your body. There are so many good ones online you can follow, but, if that's too daunting for you how about just give yourself 1-3 days where you only eat when you're really hungry and then really think about how that food affected you afterwards. That's a start!
