Intermittent Fasting Day 1!

Hey all,

I know I haven’t written a blog post in a while (just got accepted into grad school. need I say more lol) and have been MIA with my recipes and personal health endeavors but today I was encouraged to start again because I wanted to share the start of a new eating pattern/journey! I officially started this pattern of eating today after doing research over the past week or two. I actually follow a trainer named @followthelita on Instagram and have been for a couple of years! She’s an awesome trainer and gives real advice without being dramatic and egotistical. She just started her intermittent fasting journey recently and I read about it on her Facebook page. It seemed like a pattern of eating I could easily follow so I’m trying it now. Intermittent fasting is a pattern of eating where you fast for a 16 hour period and eat in an 8 hour window (most common). There are other ways of following this pattern such as the eat-stop-eat method and the 5:2 diet (which are only recommended once you’ve tried and mastered the 16/8 method). The eat-stop-eat method is when you fast for a 24 hour period and do this maybe twice a week and eat normally the rest of the week. The 5:2 diet is where you eat only 500-600 calories on no-consecutive days. It’s benefits are that your insulin levels do not peak and actually lower due to smaller eating windows (you’re not eating small meals throughout the day where your insulin levels are going up and down and back up and down). Studies also show it increases the release of the fat burning  hormone, noradrenaline. Also, your metabolic rate increases, meaning you are burning more calories at an increased rate. This was my routine for today:

• I woke up and drank my usual cup of black tea first thing (It is ok to drink water, tea and coffee during the fasting period)
• At around 12:30pm, I drank my pre-workout (Jym, which I just started and love because it tells you exactly what is in the product, no surprises!) After it kicked in, I completed my 30 minute workout from fitness blender.
• I then took a shower and ate around 1:30 (which gave me until 9:30 to eat my last meal). I ate a bowl of oatmeal with blueberries, nuts, granola, ripe banana, honey, powdered peanut butter and chocolate, coconut sugar, coconut flakes and dried banana chips (I love a hefty oatmeal lol)
• I then went to the park but didn’t forget my snacks. I ate an apple, some trail mix and also an iced coffee from Caribou (hey, I deserved it because I worked out earlier lol)
• I then went home and had another cup of black tea and ate a sandwich with Ezekiel bread, 1 piece of cheese, 3 pieces of turkey, 1/2 avocado, handful of spinach and 2 slices of pickles (I also put some siracha sauce on it, I love that stuff) and also a handful of baby carrots, a banana and another handful of trail mix.

SO this was my meal plan of the day. I was off for the 4th of July so it was a bit easier to stick to an eating plan. It should get interesting when I go back to work tomorrow. Hopefully, I’ll stick to it and eat enough calories during the eating period. I have a tendency of not eating breakfast anyway so I figured this would be a great meal pattern for me. Let’s see how this goes and I’ll check back in soon!