Throughout my life, I’ve only eaten one meal a day and at most one meal and a snack. The main reason was simple: I don’t enjoy cooking and didn’t have the time to spend on food preparation. Besides, at times, I didn’t have a lot of money and my food budget was one of the first things to be cut which meant that there simply wasn’t more than one meal that day, usually cheap pasta or rice.
Over the years, as my life changed, I started to eat a more “normal” way and guess what: I gained weight… and a lot of it. With the weight gain came health issues, a drop in energy and other negative impacts on my life. Now what?
About 18 months ago, I was told that I had three tumors and that nothing could be done about them. The only way to deal with them – so I was told – is to sit, wait and watch. If they grew or not and if they grew, how fast. I was not impressed and spent the next few days (weeks?) wallowing in self pity before going on the offensive.
I started reading up on my situation and how to deal with it in the most natural way possible. After all, I want to help my body heal itself and not load up on more chemicals which caused the tumors in the fist place.
Side note: as a result, I changed cleaning products, toothpaste, moth repellents… Let me know in the comments if you have positive experiences with cutting out unnecessary harmful chemicals.
For the next few months, I tried all sorts of diets, supplements, relaxation techniques etc before I stumbled across a growing number of people (including medical doctors) who advocate for intermittent fasting. One of my favorite book titles is “The Energy Paradox: What to Do When Your Get-Up-and-Go Has Got Up and Gone“. I suggested it to my partner who then promptly adopted intermittent fasting without me ever asking.
Side note: I am not sponsored by any of these people, organizations and companies. I merely mention them because they may be of interest to you. Please always make up your own mind. For me, I replaced cows milk with goats milk and I can have Caffè lattes again.
Intermittent fasting, in a nutshell, is when you eat during a certain number of hours and don’t eat (aka fast) during the rest. One of the better known versions is the 8-16 where you eat during 8 hours and then fast for 16 hours. If that sounds hard, it isn’t really. After all, on 8-16, you can fit breakfast in at 10am, lunch at 1pm and then finish dinner by 6pm. That is when I realized that possibly I simply need to go back to my old lifestyle to get back to my old healthy self. After all, there are plenty of health benefits of intermittent fasting which are being investigated and discussed in the medical community right now.
So, I am back to eating once a day at lunchtime on most days and sometimes I will have breakfast. I’m not very tall so it’s easy for me to get all the energy and nutrients I need from that one meal. Most importantly, it saves a lot of time in the kitchen and additionally, it gives me more energy. You heard right. Despite having a slightly larger meal, I don’t feel the post-lunch slump. I also don’t feel hungry – not a single time, never. My body seems to be happy to have only one meal and then digest it for the rest of the day.
What’s more, I am sleeping a lot better and that means I wake up without an alarm clock again. For me, sleep is really important and I am so happy that I no longer toss and turn before falling asleep or wake up in the middle of the night. Also my (menopausal?) night sweats have disappeared at long last. I am so happy 🙂
I am confident that intermittent fasting is good for me and I am ready to take the next step. This Saturday, I will be fasting the whole day. How exciting!
Try intermittent fasting for yourself! Leave out breakfast or dinner and tell us in the comments how you got on.