I am experimenting with “fasting”. I have long been envious of people who manage semi-long fasts regularly, such as 16 hours fasting, 8 hours eating. I love the idea of not thinking about food for that long.
But I have never felt that sort of prolonged fast was a good fit for me. I like strenuous exercise first thing in the morning, which usually makes me hungry. And owning a business that has set hours, but also being the person doing all the extra behind-the-scenes stuff, means I don’t have as much control over when I eat as I’d like. If we get slammed at noon, I may not have a chance to eat until 3pm. Adding a strict window to this weird non-schedule seems difficult.
Yet fasting itself should not seem daunting or strange to anybody. What do you think we are doing while we sleep? So I decided to try a 14:10 approach to fasting. Fast for 14 hours, eat for 10. I downloaded an app (Fastic) to help me keep track. I only use the app to cue me to stop eating and start eating – which can be done in the free version. I have other apps I’ve used for years to track meals and exercise.
I’ve done this a little less than a month now, and while I can make a list of things I’ve realized and learned during this time, it all boils down to one thing: I’m snacking less in the evening.
We eat dinner sometime between 5:30 & 6:30 at night. And it is beginning to be a habit for me to assess my hunger 10-15 minutes afterwards. If I’m hungry, I have a snack. If I’m not, I start my fasting window.
I’m motivated by the fact that I *do* like to eat breakfast. Again, the whole who-knows-when-I’ll-get-to-eat during business hours means I really like to have a “real” meal before I leave for work.
I leave for work sometime between 8:30-9:30 AM, depending upon how much I need to get done before I turn on the “Open” sign at 10AM. So the latest I’d like to eat the night before is 7PM, giving me a 14-hour fasting window and breakfast at 9AM.
I thought I would feel too constrained with an early stop time in the evening. But I’m really not. I go to bed earlier than most so it is not like I’m up for hours not eating after dinner.
I probably thought I’d feel constrained just because I like to snack so much in the evening. And I do not know why deciding to do a “14:10 Fast” has been successful where simply acknowledging I eat too much after dinner and need to cut it out has failed in the past. Likely because it’s a hard and fast rule that I have to stop eating at some point in the evening.
Will I progress to a stricter fasting schedule? Unlikely. I have had a few days where I’ve fasted for 15 hours because I was super-tired the night before and therefore went to bed earlier/woke up later. But often I find myself counting the minutes and having breakfast ready to go as soon as my “eating window” starts.
Have I lost weight? No. At least, not yet. We happen to be in a very slow period of our business and I’ve taken to snacking out of boredom throughout the day. (Yes, my schedule is both too hectic and too boring.) I have floundered with a good eating plan for the past month or so. But the success of my fasting schedule is giving me confidence to try to stick to a calorie budget and have the same hard and fast “when I’m done, I’m done” mentality.
I didn’t necessarily start fasting with weight loss in mind. I did it out of curiosity and an interest in having some structure of my eating habits when I could not seem to care about what foods I stuffed in my face.
I do believe a side benefit of fasting is that my sleep has improved. There are lots of other factors (evening meditation, trying to be strict about bedtime) but even when I feel like I’ve had a subpar night, my tracker will say, “Meh, not that bad really.” My tracker has also counted some recent nights as my best sleeps ever. I assume part of this is not having a full stomach to digest while my body is resting.
So that’s it. Just an interesting experiment I’ve done that I thought I’d share. I really hated the idea of jumping on the band wagon of some fad eating style, but when I put it in context of what I already did and how it fit into my lifestyle, I’m quite pleased with the results. I’ll likely continue the 14:10 fasting schedule. I might even remember to update you in a few months on the progress. (But don’t count on it.)
In Progress Jess 