Ep. 52 - Intermittent Fasting and Health Goals

Do you practice Intermittent Fasting?  If not, you probably know someone that does...  Today, during the morning commute - Rob dives into the topic of intermittent fasting. 

THE COMPLETE INTERMITTENT FASTING GUIDE FOR BEGINNERS

• https://www.bulletproof.com/diet/intermittent-fasting/intermittent-fasting-guide/

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• What is intermittent fasting?
• Benefits of intermittent fasting
• The science of intermittent fasting
• How to start intermittent fasting
• Intermittent fasting rules

Rob's History of Intermittent Fasting

The Grain Brain Whole Life Plan --> Transitioned to Keto

Discussion on current dietary regime and health goals.

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hello everyone. Intermittent fasting. If not, you probably know someone that does. Good morning, everyone. Today on the morning commute, we are going to dive into the topic of intermittent fasting. Today is Monday, November 30th, 2020. This is episode number 52 of the All Around Growth Podcast. My name is Rob Kaiser, and I am your host. Like I said, this is the All Around Growth Podcast, where I am building the life of my dreams and sharing it with you every step of the way. And today's topic is intermittent fasting. Now we are back into the grind after a long and wonderful holiday weekend. I hope that the Thanksgiving holiday treated you and your family well, wherever it is that you were, and however it is that you celebrated. Because this is the first day back, I'm admittedly a little bit slow with my morning routine. I did not get up and dedicate my priority work time to health like I normally do with some yoga. Bear with me while I try to identify the source of the squeaking. Okay. I uh yeah, I did not wake up early to engage in yoga like I normally do. I try to at least twice a week during my priority work times or on my those days which I choose to dedicate to health. I try to get in some solid stretching in the morning and evening on those two days a week. I don't do it on a daily basis like I used to, but it's all about finding balance in life. But with that said, I am feeling good about the various progress I made on all of the various projects that I've been working on over the past four days. So hopefully this long weekend found you making progress on your projects as well and getting back to the Monday morning, kicking off the week, feeling in good spirits. So we'll just skip the show sponsor talk today, and we will get right into intermittent fasting, and we will talk about what is intermittent fasting, the benefits of intermittent fasting, the science of intermittent fasting, how to start intermittent fasting if you've never done it before, and some basic rules of intermittent fasting. So let's dive right into it. Um, what exactly is intermittent fasting? Now, when you fast intermittently, you eat within a shortened window of time, usually eight to ten hours. So that's it. That's what intermittent fasting is. It's fasting for an intermittent period of time and allowing yourself one window of time throughout a 24-hour day to take in food. So most people who do this simply skip breakfast and they'll start eating, say around 10 a.m. Have dinner, stop eating around 6 p.m. and that's about it. Stop eating by 8 p.m., something like that. So you can, you know, have a snack, have lunch, have dinner, that's it. Now, what are some of the benefits of intermittent fasting? It's gotten quite trendy over the past few years, I suppose, right alongside the ketogenic diet, and I think there are some shared benefits both in intermittent fasting and the ketogenic diet, but the benefits that are specific to intermittent fasting are as follows: weight management, fat burning, helps remove cellular waste. Now, I'm listing off a bunch of different bullet points here. These aren't my bullet points, okay? It's important to note that I am not a medical professional, nor do I give medical advice. And all of this information contained within this podcast comes from an article titled The Complete Intermittent Fasting Guide for Beginners on Bulletproof.com. And I will get into my own history with intermittent fasting in a little bit after I talk about all these various bullet points. But in addition to weight management and fat burning, intermittent fasting helps remove cellular waste, supports healthy aging, and I'm not going to get into the ins and outs and the details of those bullet points because I am driving, it is raining, and I am trying to not look at my notes in as much detail as I normally do. Now, the science of intermittent fasting, there's a lot going on in your body when you engage in this practice. Now, what happens when you eat? Alright, we'll take a look at what happens when you fast in a minute, but what happens when you eat? Your blood sugar levels rise. Your pancreas produces a hormone called insulin. And what happens when insulin is created, it the insulin that is basically communicates to your cells to fuel up on glucose as your gut begins to break down the food that you've eaten. And then finally, your body releases hormones and that gives your body the signal that you are full. Now, there are some additional details about carbs and eating carbohydrates and what that does, but as far as intermittent fasting, what happens when you fast, it gives your body time to reset. So when you take a break between meals, your glucose levels remain stable, your insulin levels drop, and in a nutshell, your body has a chance to clean itself up. And some benefits of having your body do this on the regular are quite simple. Things like weight management and overall health contributing to longevity. Alright, so if you're interested in doing this, how do you start? It's really kind of easy. It falls in line with forming new habits, goals, and setting new patterns in life, all of which we've talked about at great length before in past episodes. So you can check out some of the shows previous to this one to get some insight on habits, goals, and repatterning. But um there are several different types of intermittent fasting that you can do. Now I want to you know encourage you to not make this more complicated than it needs to be. But on the other hand, I am going to provide you with some additional information that may help you determine what the best approach is for you. Now, there are people that do intermittent fasting in a 5-2 approach, which means you normally eat five days a week, and on the other two days you fast, eating only 500 to 600 calories a day. There are people who do a 16-8 approach where you eat all of your daily calories within a shortened window, typically six to eight hours. This is also called OMAD or one meal a day, if I'm not mistaken. This kind of even further shortened approach. There's alternate day fasting where you eat every other day and eat normally on non-fasting days, and well, this is where they list OMAD in the show notes or within the article, and it's slightly different than 16.8, but a very similar concept with even a shorter window of time. At the very core, intermittent fasting is eating simply less meals, less frequently, than you did before. That's it. It's really quite simple. So the rules as outlined in this article are very very easy. And then when we go over the rules, and as we conclude the article, I will tell you what I do with intermittent fasting and how I integrated it into my life. Now, fasting purists only drink water during a fast so that you aren't consuming any calories at all. Okay. And a lot of people who are into the intermittent fasting do that. But I would say even more do not. A lot of people who fast intermittently also include black coffee and tea in the mornings, since that is such an integral part of our routines, and coffee and tea generally do not have a high calorie component and are not considered something that will break your fast. Now, if you add cream to these substances, it's kind of a different story, but I personally add a serving of a seven mushroom compound, a seven mushroom blend compound supplement, and also some medium chain triglyceride oil. And what that does is with an immersion blender, it takes a boring black coffee into a creamy treat and really makes the coffee experience as though I had cream without actually experiencing any of the caloric consequence of it. Now, Dave Asprey of Bulletproof.com has his own suggestions on making bulletproof coffee. You can find all of the ways in which he does that in the link to the article that I am referencing here. Now, without further ado, let's just jump right into my own history of intermittent fasting. Now, as I was going through some notes this morning trying to determine what a good show topic would be, I came across these notes, which dated back all the way to January 4th of 2017. Now what's nice about the article that I am referencing is that it has been continually updated and now dates to October of 2020. I have been deliberately practicing intermittent fasting for almost two years, and I'd been doing something resembling intermittent fasting for quite some time prior to that by simply skipping breakfast periodically, but I didn't make it a part of my day and a ritualistic component of my mornings until about two years ago. Fasting in general became part of my annual routine and my structure about two years ago at the same time, and that dovetailed when I was learning more about diet via David Perlmutter's book, Dr. David Pearlmutter's book, The Grain Brain, specifically the Grain Brain Whole Life Plan, and following that 14-day meal plan. With some information shared by Dr. Carl Goldkamp of the Keto Naturopath. Now, initially I followed this 14-day grain-brain meal plan and then transitioned to keto. At one point in time, about a year and a half ago, I was a little bit more, I was very strict on my diet, and over the past year and a half, I have transitioned to a little bit more of a what most people would call a lazy keto approach. Now, my health goal for the autumn season this year was to transition to a strict keto diet by winter of 2020, 2021, which officially begins on December 21st. Now, I am not going to hit that goal. And the reason the rationale for that goal and the drivers behind that goal were a little unclear. I wanted and still want to be healthier, but I want to begin exploring alternative and adjunct therapies. And the best way that I can do that is by cleaning up my diet, but the current approach that I am taking without having, you know, specifics and making broad goals like, well, I want to do this so I can do that better. It's not a good smart goal. But with that said, I am re-evaluating what kind of health goal I want to work towards this winter. Intermittent fasting will certainly play into that, and I will make some adjustments, and I will also keep you posted as I work towards those goals. Now, hopefully, this episode today on intermittent fasting and health goals was something that helped give you a little bit of information so that you can adjust your own health goals accordingly. And if you don't keep health goals, why not? And that's about it. Um I have not reached the goals that I set. Because the goals that I set needed to be refined. And that's okay. Sometimes we make progress, sometimes we don't, but what is most important during this journey called life is that we consistently learn while we make progress. So hopefully this episode on intermittent fasting was a valuable use of your time. And if it was, I would like to invite you to go to the show notes and click the link at the bottom of the notes to rate and review the podcast. That is the easiest and best way that you can support the show. That link will take you directly to iTunes where you can give it a five-star review and even take the time to give it a little written review if you like. So give it a five-star rating, a little written review if you care to. And if you have any questions for me, feel free to send them my way at allaroundgrowth. Or allaroundgrowth at gmail.com. I will be happy to include those in a future episode. And as always, I would like to also encourage you to join the Allaround Growth community at t.me slash allaround growth. We've got a great group of people there. It's a nice intimate chat outside of social media groups. There's just a few of us there. So jump on board, join the community, check it out, and look forward to seeing you there at t.me slash all aroundgrowth. This is Robin Kaiser, and you've been listening to the All Around Growth podcast. Thank you very much. Have a great day.