I stumbled into a challenge for myself.
A friend who is new to fasting began using OMAD (one meal a day) Monday thru Friday to help with her acne. She is married with 2 children, fasts during the workday and has dinner with her family during the week, eating regular meals with her family on the weekend. It is nice to have someone to chat about fasting with, share knowledge and lament when chewing on one’s arm may seems like a good idea (smile).
She discovered and shared The Fasting For Life Podcast which was new to me. I started listening to the early episodes and find the podcasters to be genuine and informative. I became inspired to commit to scheduled OMAD intermittent fasting during the week, with OMAD on the weekends being a bonus.
Since May I have been successfully intermittently fasting “mostly” each day. I am consistently tracking time using the free version of the Zero Fasting App that one of my favorite podcasters, Peter Attia, MD, helped develop.
The Zero app allows adjusting the start time of a fast (in case you forget), adjust your fasting goal/interval during a fast and receive alerts on the Apple Watch. It is always a treat to be surprised by the “your fast has ended” alert on my Apple Watch which means I am not checking the app to see how much time remains on that day’s goal (smile). Here is a screen shot of today’s 18 hour fast due to end at 1:30 PM. I may choose to switch it to a 16 hour fast, end my fast once I reach 18 hours…..or switch it to a longer fast. I do not have to switch the lenght and can simply keep going when the goal is reached.
About a week ago, I added a commitment to start clean fasting with water or tea only. Also, no dairy or sugar substitutes during with any meal. This is a challenge for me as I really like coffee with cream and sweetener and the occasional sugar free ginger ale. I have been limiting my dairy and sweetener quite a bit over the past few months and this is a good time to expand on this intention. I have decided on a goal to have sugar substitutes be something that I have occasionally rather than routinely. Reducing the presence of my bridge of using sugar substitutes in my lifestyle is a practice I am choosing to engage in.
Mind you, I am not against using sugar substitutes. I am FOR any tool that one needs to use on their journey to build upon their chosen lifestyle; to build bridges from where you are now to where you want to be. I need to work on modifying those brain pathways that still signal me to “want something sweet”. I can have a nice and filling meal, feel satisfied yet still get the urge to have something sweet. Minimizing my consumption of sugar substitutes is a practice. Minimizing my consumption of sugar substitutes is a process.
I am proud of myself for seriously engaging in this behavior change now as it has been a nagging consideration; a thought that has been lurking in the back of my mind and creating many moments of negotiating with myself for the purpose of allowing their use.
I am grateful for the opportunity to continue to learn and expand my knowledge in the reversing insulin resistance space. I am grateful for my journey and all of its ups and downs along the way.
More to come…..
Obtain and Maintain 
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