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Do you want that quick win on your health, too?

Intermittent Fasting is a way, and already well known. Many people apply it but did you know that it is actually part of a much larger intervention, called Intermittent Lifestyle.

Intermittent Lifestyle consists of eight proven interventions of which Intermittent Fasting is one. So if you already get health benefits from one tool, imagine what you can achieve when you have eight at your disposal. Then you really have power tools in your hands that will give you a lot of health benefits. But let’s start with the best known tool.

Intermittent Fasting.

If you Intermittent fast, you want to get the most out of your fasting days. Many sites do not impose any restrictions on your diet, as long as you eat within a certain period of time. I don’t agree with this. I think that if you use Intermittent, then use it to its fullest, and really see it as a break for your body of unhealthy and eating too much.

Feed your body with healthy food on these fasting days. So eat lots of vegetables, a bit of fruit, fish and poultry.

Avoid: sugar, grains, sweeteners, milk products, ready-to-eat food, alcohol.

 

What is fasting and what is it meant for?

Fasting is depriving you of food for a certain period of time or imposing a calorie-restriction on yourself. This can be a few hours or days or even weeks. Is it something new? No, the Greek physician Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.) already taught his students about the benefits of fasting. According to Hippocrates, healing is achieved by fasting: “To give the body the chance to heal itself”. In addition, he pointed out to us the importance of “cleansing our body fluids”. By this he meant the blood, the lymph, the bile, the intestinal juice and all glandular juices. These include gastric juice, saliva and pancreas juice. He assumed that there are about nine litres of these body fluids circulating in our bodies. So here he didn’t mean the water balance. Hippocrates was also of the opinion that diseases have different symptoms, but they all have one thing in common, a bad condition of the body fluids. This is often caused by unhealthy food or lifestyle. In the past this was mainly due to poor hygiene and many bacteria in food and water. Strangely enough, nowadays it is precisely because of prosperity.

What do our body fluids do?

Through our body fluids we feed our organs, among other things. So the lower the quality of the juices, the more burden on the organs. That is why Hippocrates was of the opinion that diseases seldom occur suddenly, but are a consequence of years of pollution.

What else do we know about how diseases come about?

By now we have discovered that diseases are also caused by an energy distribution problem. Simply put, it means that everything in the body requires a certain amount of energy.

When, due to weakness, illness, pollution and stress, certain systems or organs in your body require more energy for a long time, this is always at the expense of other organs or systems in the body.

As long as this lasts long enough, disease(s) can eventually get a chance.

Another problem…

We spoil our bodies too much. We make sure it doesn’t have to worry when the next meal comes, because we eat at set times. Morning, afternoon and evening + snacks! 😳

 Besides that we don’t drink in bulk but the bottle of water goes everywhere with us. Or even worse a bottle of sugary drinks.

The many drinks and meals of sugary drinks mean that our pancreas has to continuously give off insulin. This is a problem because only 2% of the pancreas makes this insulin. The other 98% produces enzymes to digest your food. You don’t have to be a whizzkid to understand that this will cause problems.

If you put enough strain on the pancreas you will end up with blood sugar or digestive problems. The best way to give your body time to do the repair work is to fast, otherwise it won’t work.

Especially at night, our immune system (IS) ensures that these repairs are carried out. The IS does need at least 12 hours to do this. Poor sleep therefore also affects the repair work of the immune system. Snacking before going to bed is of course completely out of the question!

What are the health benefits of Intermittent Fasting! (IF)

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It improves your insulin sensitivity!

You’re pancreas gives less insulin, which will increase your insulin sensitivity. Now the insulin you make will also be used up.

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Less oxidative stress and inflammation

The body becomes more resilient and has a nice side effect, it prevents aging.

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Stimulates cell repair

Recovery processes go into a higher gear. So your body can keep up.

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Creation of Noradrenaline

This is a stress hormone that releases fatty acids to burn for energy. Evolutionally it was, hunger-> noradrealine -/+ -> boost metabolism by 14%.

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Promotes nerve cell growth

This has a positive influence on depression by producing the brain hormone Brain-derived neurotrophic factor.

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Helps to lose weight!

Your system goes back to fat burning instead of glucose burning.

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Reduces the risk of type-2 diabetes

Because you become more insulin sensitive, you reduce the risk of type-2 diabetes.

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Influence on the Growth Hormone up to 500%.

The GH ensures, among other things, the breakdown of fat and the preservation of muscle mass.

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Reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease

Because IF has a positive effect on the sugar level, blood pressure, elevated LDL levels and triglycerides, inflammations.

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You also get smarter

By creating ‘Brain derived neurotrophic factor’, new synapses are formed that influence memory and learning processes.

When you start Intermittent Fasting, you may experience low blood sugar levels. Your body is used to delivering more insulin, but you eat less carbohydrates. Your body corrects this itself by delivering glucose from the liver. But before this happens, there are some symptoms you may experience:

Dizziness, headaches, double or blurred vision, irritability, confusion, yawning, hunger, trembling, sweating, palpitations and restlessness.

*Diabetes patients need to keep a close eye on their blood sugar and adjust medication to the carbohydrate intake. And if your blood sugar drops to low, of course you take some carbohydrates. Type-1 need to be extra care-full!

What ways of Intermittent Fasting are there!

The most important thing about IF is that you “over night” fast and extend that time. I have noted down the best known for you.

1. Time fasting by fasting a period between 13 and 18 hours.

So you eat your last meal at the end of the day between 16:00h and 19:00h and then you eat the next meal 13 to 18 hours later.

For example, you can start with fasting at 13hr and expand to 18hr.

In the hours that you do eat, you eat 2 to 3 meals.

You could do this every day, but then vary between the times. One time you fast for 13 hours, the other time you fast for 16 or 18 hours. Variation is the key.

2. Off and on: 4 days a week you don’t fast and eat 3 meals a day, no snacks.

And 3 days a week you fasten and eat 2 meals a day.

Or 5 days a week you don’t fast and you eat 3 meals and 2 days a week you fast and you eat 1 meal.

On days when you fast you have a calorie restriction, men 700 calories and women 600 calories.

The days are up to you. One day on one day off, or 2 days of eating 1 day of fasting or similar.

3. The 5:2 diet. You must eat 2 days in a row, by not eating more than 500cal for women and 600cal for men. The other 5 days you just eat 3 meals a day. But of course varied and as healthy as possible.

4. The Bert Herring method. You can then eat (healthy) food per 24 hours within a continuous period of 5 hours. 20hr of fasting.

It is best to do this in the evening between 17:00 -22:00. This is because it is assumed that our ancestors first had to go hunting, before they could eat.

Varying is the key

Based on the Intermittent Lifestyle idea, I advise you to vary between these 4 methods so that no predictability for the body creeps in. If you have fasting days and normal days, make sure you eat extra healthy on fasting days but low in calories. So extra vegetables and low in carbohydrates, not more than 40 grams a day.

Take a nice long walk and enjoy the beauty around you. Pamper yourself by taking some time out for the things you love. Even if it’s only an hour. I love to spend an hour on the couch with a blanket and read a good book on such a day. With next to me a nice cup of Golden milk.

🌸 Play with the different methods so that you can find at least two that suit you.

🌸 Make it days with a golden ring.

Intermittent Fasten is the first tool of an Intermittent Lifestyle. If you have any questions, you can always mail me.

I would love it if you could share my blog with friends and acquaintances you could do a favor with!

With love, Pammela