In July 2023, my older sister came home to visit and I couldn’t stop starring at her. She looked amazing. The last time I had seen her before July was in February, when we all came together to celebrate my parents on their 76th and 77th birthdays.
I wondered what the magic was, just 5 months and the change was remarkable. She had lost a lot of weight and her waist line was very visible. Her skin was another thing entirely, she looked really healthy. When I asked her what the secret was, she told me she was logging in her 10,000 daily steps along with intermittent fasting.
We had this conversation on the 2nd of July, I started my intermittent fasting journey the next day. It has been 6 months of slow but obvious results. I have been having a problem with meeting up with the daily steps, but I hope to work on that in this New Year.
Barely 3 weeks into my journey, I started to see results and I got really curious and I began to read about intermittent fasting. I was able to explain to myself why I had tried it before but with zero results. I found out intermittent fasting will not produce positive results without consistent autophagy.
Autophagy is that phase in your fasting window where your body begins to breakdown and reuse old cell parts. It gets rid of non-functioning cell parts and makes new ones. This happens when the cells are deprived of nutrients. I have tried a ketogenic diet in the past and so I recognized that the process was similar.
Apparently in my previous attempt at intermittent fasting failed because I wasn’t starving the cells of nutrients. I thought I could eat this or that. I thought the whole idea was to avoid the big meals or the high calorie meals. I am beginning to think that may be the problem for several others who complain about zero results.
How did I handle this problem?
- I went to Google play store and found an application I would use to track my activities; I found one called Fastic…it has been very helpful.
- I picked a fasting window. Initially, I was doing a 16:8 (sixteen hours of fasting and eight hours of eating) but when I got a hang of it by October, I moved up to 18:6.
- I researched and made a list of fluids I could take during my fasting period without disrupting the process; water, mineral water, apple cider vinegar, tea (green or black is fine),coffee.
- I learned to plan and pack my lunch before work.
- I planned distractions and tasks for the day to prevent me from thinking about eating.
- I worked on my sleep hours. Sleeping early prevents me from reaching for a night snack.
I have been feeling lighter and healthier, my right knee and ankle still hurt a bit but overall I would say it has been worth it.
Statistics
How I started: 102kg
Where I am: 94kg
Wish me luck!
