If you are on medications (especially insulin or blood pressure drugs) or have an eating disorder, consult a healthcare professional before starting any fasting regimen. This is crucial to avoid hypoglycemia, manage blood pressure, and ensure the fasting protocol is suitable for your individual health conditions.
Before starting any fasting, eliminate all artificial foods, sugar, and processed foods for approximately two to three weeks. This helps reduce potential withdrawal symptoms and prepares your body for fasting by adapting to whole, natural foods.
Consume foods in their natural, whole form, ensuring you can recognize what’s on your plate. This includes grass-finished meats, organic chicken/eggs, fish, and plenty of vegetables for gut health, while avoiding anything processed, packaged, or made into flour.
Shift your eating pattern to only consume food when truly hungry, rather than eating out of routine or at specific times. This helps break addictive eating patterns and empowers you to regain control over your habits.
Ensure you get at least seven hours of sleep daily. Adequate sleep is crucial for maintaining energy, mental clarity, and willpower, which are essential for adhering to dietary changes and fasting protocols.
Actively seek pleasure and happiness in your life and daily activities. This helps prevent the body from metabolizing negative physiology stemming from bad habits and contributes significantly to overall well-being.
Begin your fasting journey by randomly skipping meals when you are not hungry, such as breakfast or lunch, for about two weeks. This gradual approach helps your body adapt and builds confidence without immediately committing to longer fasts.
After adapting to skipping meals, aim for two meals within a 6-hour eating window daily (Monday-Friday), creating an 18-hour fasting period. During the fasting window, consume only water, black tea, or black coffee, ensuring no caloric intake.
Progress to eating only one meal a day on specific weekdays (e.g., Monday, Wednesday, and Friday), while maintaining two meals on other weekdays. This further extends your fasting period and deepens metabolic adaptation.
Once comfortable with one meal a day, introduce a 36-hour fast once a week for two consecutive weeks. This typically involves skipping an evening meal and not eating until breakfast the day after next, helping to induce ketogenesis.
For deeper metabolic benefits or to break weight loss plateaus, consider a three-day water fast, but only after gradually adapting through shorter fasts. This prolonged fast can significantly enhance autophagy, growth hormone production, and fat mobilization.
When hunger strikes, recognize that ghrelin levels (hunger hormone) typically peak for about an hour before subsiding. Drink a glass of water and keep your mind busy with chores or activities to overcome the craving.
Recognize that food addiction, especially to sugar and processed foods, can be linked to other addictive behaviors like digital media, alcohol, or gambling. A holistic approach addressing all forms of instant gratification is often necessary for sustainable change.
Extend the concept of fasting beyond just food to include social media fasts, alcohol fasts, or caffeine fasts. This broadens the practice of self-imposed scarcity and control over various dependencies in your life.
If you are on blood pressure medication, monitor your blood pressure twice daily during fasting periods. Any adjustments to medication should only be made by a healthcare professional based on your readings.
If on oral blood sugar agents, continue them during 18-24 hour fasts while monitoring blood sugars. If on insulin, reduce dosage by half for 24-hour fasts and discontinue completely for fasts longer than 24 hours, under strict medical supervision, to prevent hypoglycemia.
If experiencing cramps during longer fasts, add a pinch of salt to a glass of water and drink it. This helps replenish electrolytes and alleviate symptoms, especially during extended periods without food.
To manage stress during fasting or in daily life, practice simple meditation by closing your eyes and focusing on your breath. Let thoughts pass without engagement, returning to your breath, to find inner awareness and reduce stress.
Realize that you are more than your hunger, cravings, or habits; you are in charge of your choices and can change your behavior. This realization fosters self-confidence and can positively impact all areas of your life, from work to relationships.
Understand that health outcomes are significantly influenced by social determinants such as relationships, social support, and self-perception. Addressing these broader life aspects can profoundly impact your physical and mental well-being.