Welcome to 3 Point Thursday!
Each week I'll send you the three most compelling ideas, facts, studies and/or products related to nutrition, health and wellness that I have to share.
All right here's the deal: I've been eating too much. Can you relate?
Quarantine is an absolute breeding ground for over-consumption.
I will be focused on consumption of food, but looking at what we're consuming, with all our senses, is of utmost importance for our mind-body-spirit health.
95% of what I'd been eating are foods I'd approve for human consumption for any day and time (fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, beans, grains, herbs and spices) but the quantity and frequency is where some disapproval comes in.
I realized I'd been eating something basically every hour or two, less a few hours before I work out, from when I woke up, until I was having grapes and pistachios as a "before bedtime snack"(?!)
After a few weeks of this and noticing some of the effects, along with a need for more trips to the grocery store than I'd prefer, I was talking to a client who said she was thinking about getting back to Intermittent Fasting, something we'd worked on last year to improve her eating patterns.
And it hit me, what a brilliant solution this is for this time of frivolous eating.
I am now in my fourth day and am feeling awesome.
Intermittent Fasting is actually an umbrella term referring to a few different eating and fasting patterns but the one I'm into is Time Restricted Eating.
TRE calls for creating a schedule of specific windows of time for eating (feeding) and not eating (fasting) that is followed on a day to day basis.
For example, the 16/8 method of TRE (16 being the number of hours spent fasting and 8 the number of hours kept open for eating) could be to eat for the first time at 11:00 am and wrap up all eating by 7:00, then not eating again until 11:00 am the next morning.
So the idea is to have two healthy meals inside this window and some healthy snacks are ok too. But you really can eat as much as you want during your feeding window as TRE is not about calorie restriction as much as when you're consuming calories and when you're not.
If weight loss is a goal for you, then calorie restriction matters.
And of course, the quality of calories is always important for our health, no matter what eating schedule we keep.
Follow my modified version of Michael Pollan's rule: Eat Food. Not too much. All plants.
There will be days you blow it, and that's ok, you can make it up the next day.
So if you started eating at 11:00 and don't finish eating dinner until 8, you wait to have your first meal the following day at 12:00. Just make sure you get the fasting in, even if it's not the exact times you've set up, you still put in the hours.
You can choose your window based on any factors that are personal to you.
Maybe you really like breakfast so you have an earlier window, like 9:00 am - 5:00 pm, though that might be a long time before you go to bed without food. Maybe you're less hungry at night and being finished eating by 5 sounds great to you. Maybe you're really not hungry in the mornings so you start your feeding window at 12:00 or 1:00 and finish up by 8:00 or 9:00.
The point is to create timing guidelines around eating that end up becoming a healthier structure for our whole day.
In other words, because eating is such a staple, HOW and WHEN we do it, affects everything else we do - let's use that to our advantage!
If 16/8 sounds crazy, start with 12/12, master that over 4 days to a week, then move to 14/10, master that, then graduate to 16/8.
Any boundaries are better than none because of the psychological impact (which I get into in the second point) and also because the window of time for fasting allows our digestive system to be passive, which has been proven by numerous studies as well as practiced in ancient health systems to enhance and improve overall health.
When we're constantly eating, and digestion has to remain active, there are so many other healing processes in our bodies that don't get attention because digestion is so important and it commands so much of our energy.
But when we intentionally and habitually limit the time our digestion needs to be active, we allow our bodies to truly work their magic for us.
This one new habit can change your health in some great and impactful ways!
Here are some of them:
- Enhancing energy and brain function
- Improving metabolism
- Stimulating weight loss
- Regulating hormonal issues of all kinds
- Lowering blood sugar/improving insulin resistance
- Lessening inflammation
- Lessening pain of all kinds
- Improving asthma and allergies
- Improving cell health by clearing out toxic and damaged cells
- Lowering risk for cancer and other chronic diseases
Life as we know it is changing, and calling us to find ways to change and improve with it.
All day access to your refrigerator is dangerous, so creating some perimeters around when and how often we visit helps mitigate these dangers. That might not sound fun.. but it can be.
Intermittent Fasting is like a game to play.
How good can you get? What benefits are you seeing because of how dedicated your practice is?
And I'm telling you, do this for one week, and you will notice positive changes.
As I said, it's personal, so it's fun to see what benefits you notice.
I noticed having a different, more vibrant energy on day two!
I'm drinking more water. I'm feeling stronger during my work outs. I'm going to bed earlier and sleeping better. I'm feeling pretty fab when I wake up - and that's because my body has been working its magic while I sleep, doing everything listed above and more, rather than spending its precious energy digesting grapes and pistachios.
TRE offers us a challenge to manage and master our time, which we all seem to have a bit more of now.
Inserting a new energy of structure for our time that makes us feel great, can help with the general malaise of the days.
Here's some other good news: During fasting windows, you can drink as much coffee, tea and water as you like. (just no sugar and very little "lightener" like almond or cashew milk - no dairy, please)
Please respond with any questions for getting started or as you move into it, if you're up for this new challenge. I'd love to help.
“Have regular hours for work and play; make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well.” - Louisa May Alcott
Replies and idea contributions are always welcome and if you enjoy 3 Point Thursday, please forward to a friend who would enjoy it too or reply and ask me to add!
Do you experience day-to-day anxiety, have trouble sleeping, or are you managing an autoimmune condition? Or maybe you just want to supplement your diet and lifestyle to experience more full homeostasis in the mind and body..
I carry organic, full spectrum, medical grade CBD oil in my practice that can deeply address all these concerns and many more in a smooth and natural way.
I also provide consulting with schedule and dosing.
I will mail the oil to you free of charge and consulting is free as well.
Check out my previous bullets about CBD and reply to this email if you're interested in purchasing or learning more.
Know someone who could benefit from one-on-one health coaching to improve their life through simple and gradual changes to diet and lifestyle? Please feel free to introduce us via email and we can set up a free health strategy session!
Check out my website for information about my health coaching programs. www.wholenutritionny.com
With love,
Beth Klein
|
