In this week’s IF Insider:
In this issue, we answer a question submitted by one of the participants who just completed our current 10 Day Fast Factor Intermittent Fasting Challenge and is now a member of our Fast Factor Circle: “Is it OK to open and close my fasting window at different times of the day?”
And as always, we will bring you the news on what we’re currently reading or watching. For our premium subscribers, in this issue’s Research Spotlight we are going to look at some intriguing studies supporting the health effects of green tea.
Plus our paid subscribers also get one of Ellen’s recipes each month and access to a live Q&A call. If you are a paid subscriber, last month we brought you a festive holiday Cranberry/Ginger/Orange Relish that is deliciously simple to make. This month, Ellen is sharing her tasty Golden Fried Rice, which is easy to make and a family favorite.
The paid option also includes a monthly live Q&A call with Ellen and Denise held on the second Tuesday of each month at 12 Noon Eastern (9 AM Pacific) time. The next call is on Tuesday, February 9, 2021.
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Our Mission is to introduce the power of Intermittent Fasting to entrepreneurs worldwide so they can exponentially improve their lives and businesses and the lives of the people they impact every day.
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Is It OK To Open And Close My Fasting Window At Different Times Of The Day?
In our last IF Insider (IF Insider No. 21) we looked at the question: “What is the difference between ketosis caused by intermittent fasting and a ketogenic diet?” In each and every issue we cover one specific intermittent fasting topic as well as highlight what we are reading, watching, and studying.
So let’s address today’s question:
“Is it OK to open and close my fasting window at different times of the day?”
This question was asked by one of the participants who just completed our last 10 Day Fast Factor Intermittent Fasting Challenge and is now a member of our Fast Factor Circle.
People who are new to an IF practice will often bring their old “diet” mentality ideas with them. Most diet plans are rather rigid and have strict “rules” about what you can and cannot eat, and many have you counting points, measuring your food, not crossing so-called bright lines, and more.
So it’s no wonder when someone begins an IF practice, and they find out they don’t need to measure food or count calories and just eat until they are satisfied and not stuffed, they may balk, because they are looking for some clear rules as sort of a safety net.
The rigid opening and closing of one’s fasting and/or feasting window can initially provide that structure and can be helpful in the very beginning to give the new intermittent faster something that feels solid.
But the beauty of IF is its flexibility. I like to say that in IF, “There are no fasting police!” The only thing I advise people to be rigid about is the clean fast, which we discussed in a previous issue here.
The more important thing is simply to decide on the minimum number of hours you want to fast and as long as you get those hours in consecutively within a 24 hour period, you are good to go.
For me, I started out as many people do with a 16:8 schedule (sixteen hours of fasting and an eight-hour eating window.) I moved rapidly to increase that, not purposefully but naturally. Eventually, I found my fasting “sweet spot” at 19 hours, but I often go to 20, 21, or even 22 or more on occasion.
I usually eat in the mid to late afternoon but I do not have a fixed time that I open my eating window. And I don’t have a fixed time to close either. I practice OMAD which means one meal a day. I moved to OMAD after about six months of daily fasting, but OMAD is NOT for everyone and I am by no means advocating it for you or anyone else unless your path leads you in that direction.
The only reason I am even telling you about OMAD is that my eating window is relatively short…
a couple of hours at the most and sometimes as short as an hour. That’s only natural when you eat just once a day. But if like most people who practice IF, you’ll have a longer eating window in which to consume your meals.
So if a more rigid fasting schedule serves you, then use it, especially if you are just starting your practice. But please don’t think you have to open and close your window on the dot to be successful with intermittent fasting, because you don’t!
Why It Matters
Let your fasting and feasting schedule serve you, and don’t fall into the temptation to become its servant. Flexibility is one of the greatest strengths of an intermittent fasting lifestyle. So relax and go with the flow. There is no failure, as you are always just one clean fast away from getting back on track!
“If a window of opportunity appears, don’t pull down the shade.”
~ Tom Peters - American business speaker, and author of the best selling business management book, In Search of Excellence.
What We Are Reading 📚
With each issue, we both bring you a short blurb on what we are currently reading or watching, including books, articles, podcasts, videos, movies, and research papers of value.
Denise - Science's Newest Miracle Drug Is Free, I stumbled on this article from 2019 in Outside Magazine while traveling down internet rabbit holes. A grassroots movement of physicians is prescribing time outdoors as the best possible cure for a growing list of ailments. I can speak from experience that getting outside for a walk in my neighborhood park in L.A. or trekking in the Peruvian Andes, does my mental state a world of good.
I was excited to read about this movement to not only prescribe outdoor time but that there are organizations dedicated to helping those who may not have the resources by providing transportation and group events so they can get out too.
The book that is credited with starting the movement is Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv.
Ellen - Clarity: Clear Mind, Better Performance, Bigger Results by Jamie Smart. This is a profoundly simple book with an even more deceptively simple message: our thoughts cause our feelings, even though it often seems to us that our outside circumstances are the real cause.
This is not new information, but Jamie presents this information in such an approachable, even winsome way, that you’ll gain an immediate and new understanding of how to turn this almost automatic way of reacting to things, into a way to return to what is our natural state, the state of clarity.
My intermittent fasting practice has done so much to help me increase my productivity, my focus, and yes, my clarity. This book is a welcome and needed addition that will enable me to add yet another arrow to my quiver of personal development tools.
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Our Mission: We bring together entrepreneurs to learn how to combine the extraordinary power of intermittent fasting with research-based practices both ancient and modern so that as we support, encourage and inspire one another, we can each expand our focus, confidence and productivity as well as exponentially increase our well being, and through us, the well being of our families, friends, colleagues, and communities.
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