After listening to the book Eat Smarter by Shawn Stevenson and completing a series of clean eating programs such as the Ultimate Reset and Slow Carb Diet I finally made the decision to complete a fast. The studies show so many benefits with weight loss,  heart health, improved blood sugar control, brain function, and cancer just to name a few. After hearing about it, reading about it and seeing the results it is hard to ignore. The time and energy I have put into reducing inflammation and healing my body’s troubles with the autoimmune disorders I realized it was time. Obviously it is something you ease into and there are time lengths better than others! From what I have read and learned the overall best time is 36 hours. The benefits are huge and it is honestly more manageable for busy moms!

From research I followed the advise to work up to the longer fasts so I started with intermittent fasting going 12-16 hours between meals. The best time obviously is from dinner to breakfast. We tend to eat around 630pm so this meant a late breakfast which I actually thought worked well. It allowed me to serve up the kids and get a few things done before jumping into a meal for myself.

The intermittent fasting was easy during the summer but once school started and all the activities kicked into action the early timing became harder to maintain and so my fast was pushed to lunch time. I definitely could have done a better job packing my lunch with the clean foods, avoiding the carbs but I let the excuse of teaching full time and running our kids around become good reason to grab “whatever”. The lesson here is to look at your timing and adjust properly, plan for the worst case scenario and give yourself grace!

After a few weeks of intermittent fasting I was ready for a 24 hr fast. There is the full on fast with only water and then there is the dirty fast where you are allowed to consume black coffee, green tea and black tea. Knowing myself the dirty fast definitely was the right route to take. My information gathered also made an extremely valid point that eating as clean and healthy the few days before will help the fast go more smoothly. Makes sense so there you have it. Don’t eat fried goodies and cookies before fasting…it will only make the time cause more mental and physical pain!

So my first 24 hours was a bust because we ended up having guests for dinner unexpectedly and the husband decided to stay home so I decided it would have been super awkward if I sipped my tea and watched her eat. Thankfully a couple days later I was able to jump into the fast (maybe a little less clean than I had hoped). I actually went so well that I went into 30 hours instead of the 24. Mainly because I wanted to eat a simple clean meal for the first time and my timing didn’t work for the 24.

I transitioned back to the intermittent fasting for a few months, work and kids became complicated and I let my stress take over my eating again. I lost track of the clean eating (avoiding those flours and sugars) and find myself ready to reset. I let myself get carried away with the stresses of my new job, planning and tracking less and less each day.

Today I woke up feeling my intentions at their highest! Instead of that frothy coffee with nutpod almond milk creamer (yummy) I made myself a cup of hot green tea. It is a low key day so I am feeling good about the task! Adam hasn’t been feeling well and neither of us have been sleeping well so I asked if he would like to join me in the fasting fun. It always helps to have someone else to lock arms with!

Cheers to the next 24 hours! And creating a monthly routine (ideally with 36 hours instead of 24)!