Fasting, but not as you know it

November 24, 2019

Fasting has become popular in recent years and many of us are familiar with the "5:2" diet created by Dr Michael Moseley - you eat normally five days each week and eat 800 calories on the other two.

However, I'm a bit more of a faster than that and I'm not the only one.

From Sunday mid-afternoon to Tuesday lunchtime, so a period of around 44 hours, I don't eat at all.  Nothing.  Not a mince pie, not soup, nothing at all, just water, every week. 

The rest of the week I then each within a 6 hour window, so only two meals, and then just have water for the remaining 18 hours.

What a fad, you're thinking. 

What a trendy, silly fad, but the thing is, I'm not the only one.  You might expect celebrities such as Meg Matthews of Megsmenopause.com to say this, she's mates with Kate Moss.  In fact Meg says she eats in the six hour window most days, but Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman, to name just a few are also said to follow this regime.

Tracey Woodward, who I recently interviewed for the podcast, is also a big fan of fasting.  She's a fan of the Buchinger Wilhemi organisation, dedicated to good health through Therapeutic Fasting and a whole host of other holistic practises.  If I tell you that Tracey is just back from an ELEVEN DAY fast then you'll see how serious she is about it.

You can find out more about what she gets from it in our YouTube Video HERE but for me, here's what I love.

• I'm overweight so losing 9 of the 21 meals you would eat if you were eating normally is a bonus for me - I'm eating a third less than I was, brilliant.

• I really have to think about what I eat because I've so few meals or time windows to get fruit, veg and fibre into me so my diet is very high quality now

• It costs a third less.  Alright, not quite because I've changed what I eat to being almost totally organic which is undoubtedly more expensive.  I did this because when I eat meat, I don't want to be eating the hormones that are in non-organic meat.

• My digestive system is "temperamental".  Not eating for 44 hours gives my guts a break that they really, really enjoy.  I completely feel the benefits of this.

• It frees your day in a way you didn't think about.  There are no punctuations of lunch or dinner so you can just plough through.  I can get to the gym at 7pm because there's no meal saying "don't eat before" or "after will be too late to eat" because there is no meal!

• I cook less.  Don't get me wrong, I quite like cooking but I've got to be honest, those years of cooking spag bol, cottage pie, sausage and mash etc because the kids HAD to eat have taken a bit of the enjoyment out of it.  Now, I cook around three times each week, the rest being an assembly job of soups or salads, which I don't class as real cooking.

• I've stopped putting on weight.  I even lose it some weeks but I'm not obsessed with losing it, that will come.  The overall annual trajectory is downwards without the pain of thinking "I'm on a diet".

 Fasting isn't for everyone and believe me, there are weeks when I crack because it's foul outside and that instinct for comfort food is huge during Winter, but once you get your head around the concept and think you can, rather than you can't, it's almost easy. 

Fill your day with projects and it will whizz by.  As soon as you feel a craving call a friend and chat, cravings do go.  Why not try an 18 hour fast, 6 hour window to eat first?  You health might well thank you for it.

Find out more about the health benefits of fasting HERE

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