To continue the discussion from Monday’s post on The Benefits of Intermittent Fasting, I wanted to give you a few tips just in case the spirit moved you to try it! Below are five tips to help you successfully navigate intermittent fasting.
1. Choose a Moderate Eating Window. Extremes with anything, including our diets can be dangerous or at the very least unhelpful. If you are have any blood sugar related issues such as diabetes, hypoglycemia, or glucose intolerance, you may need to fast under the supervision of a physician to be safe. Those with GERD may also need supervision to ensure fasting doesn’t aggravate symptoms. If you are generally healthy it’s important to choose an eating window that is moderate and manageable. Starting with a 10-12 hour window may be your best bet. Another popular window is 8 hours feeding and 16 hours fasting. Remember that you do not need to go to extremes to get benefits from it.
2. Don’t Binge on Junk Food During Your Feasting Period. One of the unhealthy habits some people take on when intermittent fasting is to eat whatever they want during the feasting period, including fast food. Remember that even though you are restricting your time window, your body still needs adequate nutrients to thrive long term. We tend to forget when latching onto anything for short term results what the repercussions could be years from now. It’s ideal to eat well balanced meals full of healthy fats, protein, and a low to moderate amount of complex carbs during your eating window so you don’t binge away your overall cardiovascular health!
3. Take a Daily Multivitamin. Taking your vitamin, with one of your meals during your eating window is a simple way to ensure your body has the baseline nutrients it needs. It’s even more important if we are restricting calories in any way to ensure that the body is still nutritionally nourished. Ideally you should take some sort of daily multivitamin that includes a minimum of 2000 IU of vitamin D, and B12 (especially for vegans) along with an omega-3 supplement.
4. Drink Adequate Amounts of Water & Liquids That Won’t Break Your Fast. Hydration is key to keep our energy and focus up while fasting. Most people get tired throughout the day and assume they are hungry, when 9 times out of 10 they are thirsty! Try to drink at least half your body weight in water, and keep the water glasses coming especially if you feel hunger pangs coming on. Besides plain water other things you can drink while in your fasting window includes: apple cider vinegar diluted water, water with a pinch of sea salt and the juice from a wedge of lemon, coffee (ideally with no added creamers or sweetners), green tea,
5. Exercise Moderately in the Beginning. Continuing exercise while intermittent fasting should not be an issue but as your body adjusts you may want to lighten up a bit on your normal routine and gauge your energy. After a week or two you should be able to go back to full speed. Keep in mind that there are plenty of people using intermittent fasting to build muscle who do very intense workouts while fasting. Do you! And figure out what is going to work best for your body and energy levels. -Xo Raw Girl
References:
Fung, J., & Moore, J. (2016). The complete guide to fasting: Heal your body through intermittent, alternate-day, and extended fasting. Las Vegas: Victory Belt Publishing.