For years I’ve been experiencing the benefits of intermittent fasting: Increased mental focus, energy, clarity in the eyes, and my favorite… more joy and laughter. Intuition and solid research has had me sold on this approach to detox for years, and I wrote about the metabolism boosting benefits in my eBook, Detox Lifestyle Diet.
Occasionally and sometimes regularly, I opted to fast one day a week, which worked great. But over the past few years it has become more difficult to go an entire day without eating, so I decided to simply delay breakfast for a few hours in order to extend the benefits of my nightly fast. For those of you who do not know the research on intermittent fasting, we experience the benefits of a fast when we go 15-17 hours without eating. In addition to the benefits I mentioned above, fasting slows down cell production, which is a bummer for cancer, which thrives on rapid cell growth. It also decreases inflammation and stabilizes insulin. Oh, and the decreased cell production is anti-aging… Bonus!
I was feeling pretty good doing this, although hungry at first, since I was used to having at least a smoothie first thing in the morning. But then I came across a review for David Zinczenko’s book, The 8 Hour Diet. He’s the guy who wrote, Eat This, Not That and has been on The Today’s Show a zillion times. The 8 Hour Diet presents all the research that supports going a full 16 hours each day without eating. It can be any window at all, but because I tend to eat dinner late, my window is typically from 8pm to noon (Although, I sometimes I’ll have a 15 hour window because I know that works too). This extended my already delayed breakfast an hour or so and I’m feeling the benefits even more!
I’ve been doing a 15-16 hour fast most days now for three weeks and although I don’t own a scale, I do feel lighter. More importantly, my body feels clear and my energy is good. The reason that I like this is because it’s not a diet, but a lifestyle. But the proof it is the pudding… Pardon the pun. Try it! I think you’ll find that you drop excess weight and feel great doing it. Intermittent fasting finally goes mainstream and we no longer have to fret over breakfast!