How to incorporate intermittent fasting into your life

Intermittent fasting is a new way of eating that has become more and more popular. It looks like a promising diet but how can you incorporate this in your life? I will teach you how I did it and how I made it easy to skip breakfast.

Now as you know I used to eat six meals a day and my breakfast was pretty big. Eating all those meals wasn’t enjoyable at all.

When I first learned about the intermittent fasting principle I knew my approach had to be really good if I wanted to do this for a longer period of time. Most people dive right into it and can’t hold on. Of course they are wondering why they didn’t succeed. They do it for a week, give up because it’s to hard and ask themselves if they did it right? NO, you didn’t, I’m sometimes wondering why people keep asking this question.

The key to success lies in your approach, you need to build this up gradually and you’ll get the hang of it. You don’t start with running a marathon when you never ran before don’t you?

So how did I start doing intermittent fasting?

Don’t focus on that feeding window when you start

This what scares people the most about intermittent fasting. “So you can’t eat for 16 hours? No way José. Intermittent fasting won’t be something I’ll like since I enjoy eating” will be the reason why most people don’t want to try it.

The first thing I did was skipping breakfast and ate my first meal at 10am. I just pushed my first meal two hours later in the day.

I did this for one week after that I pushed my first meal to 12 pm. The second week I also cut out my 9 pm meal and ate my last one at 7 pm.

Cutting out the last meal was really simple for me because I was never hungry at 9 pm. I was forcing myself to eat whatever was on the menu. Mostly it was low fat cottage cheese which is full of chemicals. I felt a lot better when I stopped eating it. I was feeling a lot better now that I didn’t have to follow the bodybuilder approach.

Now skipping breakfast was a completely different story, the first week was really getting used to the fact that I wasn’t eating after waking up. I really learned what hunger felt like as soon as I got into the second week.

It’s funny because in my teens I never ate breakfast. My parents forced me to eat in the morning. It took me quite a while to learn to eat breakfast but stopping with it only took about two weeks. It was a big relief for me that I didn’t have to get up earlier to cook eggs and oatmeal. Now it’s just a push on the button for my cup of joes.

Drink black coffee during the fast

During the fast, you can’t take in any calories so I quickly start my day with one cup of black coffee.

Scientists found that beverages containing soluble fiber, caffeine, and green tea catechins suppress hunger.

A second study found that in men, not in women, caffeine intake led to reduced calorie intake. Only men seemed to benefit from caffeine. So caffeine may influence both energy intake and energy expenditure in men. The study also claimed that caffeine has the potential effect to produce significant effects on metabolic rate targets such as fat oxidation and thermogenesis.

I know some people really don’t like coffee so you can replace it with black or green tea. You can also take a caffeine pill if you don’t like coffee and tea.

Water gives you a satisfying feeling

The first week I wasn’t really hungry in the morning I was more bored so I needed some food. I quickly looked for a way to suppress my hunger since it became hard after 10 pm. So I started to drink water as soon if I felt hungry.

Some guys claim that sparkling water has a better effect than still water but I didn’t notice a big difference. I prefer still water because it’s easier to drink a bigger amount of it.

How my eating window looks at the moment

Eventually, I took a 1 pm to 7 pm eating window. So yes I fast for 18 hours a day instead of 16 hours. This is beneficial for people with a busy social life. You can start to eat two hours earlier or eat two hours later without going out of your eating window.

I know Hugh Jackman started eating around 10 am and stopped at 6 pm, but he’s an actor so for him that’s possible. If you’ve got a 9 to 5 job it’s better to start eating around noon and then eat again in the evening.

After a while a took a new approach. I learned to listen to my body and started eating when I was hungry. This means sometimes I’ll eat my first meal at 3 pm. I just eat when I feel like eating and that’s even more satisfying. I still remained Wolvelean instead of Wolverine.

do you have to focus on the eating window?

You don’t have to time it like a madman. You can’t go out eating with friends and tell them you won’t eat because you’re still fasting. My friends know that I follow this lifestyle but also know that I would break the fast two hours earlier. This is pretty enjoyable if you don’t really plan it.

I only eat two meals a day

So I eat around noon and in the evening, that’s it. It’s also possible to eat multiple times if you find this more enjoyable.

In my personal experience, two meals a day is the most satisfying.

Brandon Carter eats every two hours during his feeding window. I’ve tried this and it wasn’t very enjoyable. When you go out with friends within your eating window you’ll notice what I mean.

Here are two sample days of eating during a bulk.

Workout day (3000 kcal)

Meal 1

• 200 grams of lean turkey breast baked in coconut oil with one avocado and tablespoon of olive oil
• 700 grams of potatoes baked in the oven, afterward added some butter (about 20 grams) (*)
• some white button mushrooms

(*) the potatoes were cut like fries and put in a big bowl. Once they were in the bowl I added one tablespoon of olive oil and some pepper and salt.

Meal 2

• 250 grams of chicken
• 250 grams of white rice. Topped it off with 15 grams of coconut oil and 15 grams grass-fed butter
• tablespoon of cod liver

I don’t take whey shakes as you’ve probably noticed. You can read here why I decided to stop taking them.

rest day (2500 kcal)

meal 1

• 300 grams of meatloaf (with ground beef)
• one avocado mashed
• 40 gram cashews
• 125 grams white rice
• 4 squares of Belgian bio organic dark chocolate (85%) with stevia
  tablespoon of olive oil
• some green vegetables

meal 2

• 180 grams of meatloaf (since we still had some from meal one)
• one avocado mashed
• tablespoon of cod liver
• 125 grams of white rice
• 3 big carrots

I suggest you visit a buddy of mine his blog if you want some great recipe ideas. He already shared some in his first blogpost.

Intermittent fasting and my social life

I stopped eating breakfast because I noticed all the benefits of intermittent fasting.

It’s funny how my friends and classmates react to the fact that I eat less. They were wondering why I wasn’t eating during the break between classes.

The couldn’t handle the fact that I wasn’t eating in those breaks. I left them perplexed when I explained the principle behind intermittent fasting.

They thought I wasn’t going to be able to finish my lunch during the break since the portion was that big.

After 20 minutes I’d eaten the entire meal, leaving them completely confused at the table.

I’ve still got 20 minutes I said, “time to take a walk to the drinking water fountain tap to refill my bottles”.

They are still wondering how I eat so much food within that specific time.

There’s no secret you just get used to it and that why you can eat this in a relatively short time.

Just complete your meal and let them stay perplexed. Let them overthink how you do it and just keep eating those big ass meals.

A wise showman once said “the show must go on” and that’s what happened.

Till next time

Alex

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