Welcome to Week 3 of my Intermittent Fasting For Mental Health Challenge. In Week 1 and Week 2 we touched on how to prep for a fast and how to maintain a fasted state. This week we will talk about how to break your fast. I’ll be using the ebook I created called Intermittent Fasting For Mental Health as a guide if you’d like to purchase it and do the challenge for yourself.
The first thing you want to do when breaking your fast is to consider healthy options. However, this doesn’t mean you can’t have any treats. I think it’s most paramount to begin eating healthy when you break your fast. Think things like healthy fats, clean protein, fruits and vegetables. If you have a day that you have been exercising I recommend adding more protein. When it comes to carbs it will largely depend on your body type but for most people this can not seem like enough nutritional value or can cause reactions such as spikes in blood sugar. Some people like to break their fast beginning with a bone or vegetable broth. This can be a good smooth transition from fasting to consuming calories. I personally don’t feel this is necessary except in instances where you are doing extreme fasting such as a 36 hour fast. This is something worth exploring for yourself personally. Sometimes I do like to break my fast with half of a fat bomb so I'm not overly hungry and overindulging when I do break my fast completely.
CHEAT DAYS
Many people have two ways of seeing cheat days, they will either consider a full cheat day or just a cheat meal which is more ideal. Normally your cheat meal will not be back to back with another cheat meal day if you can help it. If you spread out these meals then you give your body the chance to benefit from recovery and recover faster. Through my work as a Holistic Nutritionist I have seen many of my clients have cheat days on the weekends and eat clean throughout the week. In my experience it’s better to split up the days so your body can recover. I have also found that moderation works much better than forbidding yourself to eat certain foods. Having a cheat meal twice a week is a good way to satisfy the things we may want but may not be the healthiest options for us while also balancing healthy eating. If we don’t balance this then we tend to abandon our new healthy habits quite quickly. Another way to satisfy cravings is to create healthier versions of the thing that you want. For example, if you are craving a burger and fries you could cook something like a turkey burger with avocado, hot sauce, mustard, oven roasted fries and in a low calorie or no calorie bun option. This way you can eat the thing that you want while providing much more nutrients to yourself. This gets easier as you go along. You intuitively will reach for healthy options and begin to crave those. When you are making the transition to healthier options it can feel overwhelming to do it all at once. To make sustainable changes I recommend swapping out a less healthy meal or ingredient for a healthier alternative.
IDENTITY SHIFTS
Mindfulness also plays a big factor when it comes to eating habits. Many people can get an identity around how they eat. You might be someone who says something like “I just can’t eat healthy”. This becomes your identity so as much as you need to make physical changes you also need to make mental changes to shift your identity to that of a healthy person. Whatever we tell ourselves our mind and body will respond to. If we are building a habit of saying I can’t do something then your actions will reflect that however if we also tell ourselves we can do something then our actions will reflect that as well.
TOOLS
In last week’s challenge post I mentioned that there are apps that can assist you with your fasting journey. One of the apps is called Simple Fasting. Another good option is the Zero fasting app. While doing my research about fasting I also came across this interesting article about leptin/ghrelin ratio and how it affects our feelings of hunger, mentally and physically. This study may not necessarily be focused on women or women of color which is important when it comes to weight, fasting and BMI however it is a good food for thought article to get you started. Ghrelin helps to determine your hunger cues and the intensity of them. Leptin is a hormone that helps balance energy by inhibiting hunger. As you continue fasting your body will get adjusted to your new routine and the mental hunger pangs will subside.
I’ve noticed that the last thing I eat within my feeding window makes a significant difference in how well my fast goes. The thing I eat is a large, low calorie oatmeal cookie. The oatmeal is packed with vitamins and nutrients. It also helps me stay full for longer. I created an oatmeal three ways video where I share recipes on ways you can incorporate oatmeal into your diet.
EATING WITH OTHERS
Whether you are a mom or you live with other individuals that you are used to eating with, it can feel like a lot of pressure to not eat while they are eating. My biggest tip for this is to choose an eating window that aligns with the time the others in your house would be eating. I choose to have my eating window during dinner time so I am still able to enjoy that time with my family. If you are present during times that others are eating but you aren’t you can also use that as an opportunity to become a great conversationalist and focus on building relationships instead of eating. In some cultures it can seem rude if you do not try the food being offered. In these cases you can say something along the lines of “Yes, I’d love to try so please save me some as I’m focusing on my health until 4pm”. This way you can still say yes without seeming rude while also keeping in line with your health goals. This is a great opportunity to set boundaries. Sharing why you are fasting is a great way to help people understand as well. It can also inspire others to try fasting for themselves. If eating socially is a large part of your interactions with people this can be a great opportunity to suggest other activities like crafts of hiking.
I encourage you to apply these tools that we discussed above and know that this is a fluctuating life practice and it doesn’t need to be perfect. You can adjust however you’d like so it best suits your needs.
WATCH THIS VIDEO TO LEARN MORE:
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