No M.D. after my name
First things first. I’m not a doctor or healthcare professional, even though I’ve worked in a hospital for over twenty years. I am not clinical. What I share is from my personal experience, and it’s important that everyone seek counsel from a healthcare provider when wanting to make changes. Everyone is unique, and no two paths to health are identical.
What is fasting?
No doubt you have heard of fasting. Some people engage in it for religious purposes, a practice to grow deeper in one’s relationship with God. Some people implement fasts for multiple days or even weeks for this purpose. Others engage in extended fasts to give the body a break and time to rejuvenate. Typically, these fasts include water but no food.
Maybe you’re familiar with Lent, the practice of giving something up for God in the forty days (minus Sundays) leading up to Easter in order to prepare one’s heart for the Christian celebration of Jesus’s death and resurrection. Some people fast chocolate or caffeine. Others might fast a TV show or video games. So instead of giving up all food or all pleasures, people give up one particular food or pleasure that means a lot to them out of reverence to God.
What do windows have to do with fasting?
As mentioned in my previous post, I prayed that God would heal my relationship with food. It was a toxic one that needed his intervention. He led me to Intermittent Fasting.
Intermittent Fasting, more commonly known as IF, is different than extended fasts or giving something up. To sum it up, IF is a method of bouncing between a fasting window and an eating window. These windows are made up of hours. Typically, in a 24-hour day, someone will fast for a certain number of hours and eat for a certain number of consecutive hours.
You mean people binge-eat for hours in a row during their eating window? No. Not quite. Let me give you an example. A common IF routine is known as 18:6. The first number represents the number of hours in one day that people will fast, and the second number represents the number of hours people will eat within. The first number also represents the number of hours after an eating window closes and before the next eating window opens.
This is actually the pattern I used for my first two weeks of fasting. So, on any given day, I had an eating window between 12:00 PM – 6:00 PM. That’s six hours total. All the food I ate for that day was within that period of time. If one day has 24 hours, and I subtract the 6 hours for my eating window, then I fasted 18 hours. Also, from 6:00 PM, when I closed my eating window, until 12:00 PM the next day, when I opened my next eating window, was 18 hours. Get it?
Plethora of patterns
For me, I find that focusing on my eating windows makes more sense and is easier to track, but some people like to focus on the fasting windows. Eating windows are also referred to as Time Restricted Fasting (TRF) or Time Restricted Eating (TRE). There are many more options or patterns for IF. Some people settle on 19:5, 20:4, or even 23:1. Notice, each combination equals 24 hours, or one day.
Some take it a little further and do what’s known as 6:1, 5:2, or 4:3. In those number combinations, the first number represents the number of days in a week that someone eats normally, and the second number indicates the number of days someone either completely fasts (except they do drink water, which is vital) or reduces their caloric intake to around 500. This is the only time calorie counting is involved.
If I chose to do a 5:2 plan, I might decide to eat normally on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday but fast or reduce my caloric intake to 500 calories on Tuesday and Friday. People can be flexible with the days, just as long as the two fasting days are not consecutive.
Raise your hand if you’re tired of dieting
If you’re like me, you’re no stranger to diets. Maybe you’ve doled out points with Weight Watchers, or you tried the psychology route with Noom’s interactive app, which also included the dreaded calorie counting. Familiar with MyFitnessPal? I am too. Did I stick with it? Not for long. How about the low-carb trend? Low-fat band wagon? Keto? Whole 30? Plant-based eating? I can go on, but I’ll stop.
There are endless plans out there that claim to be the one diet to solve all your health problems. The problem? I don’t do well with restrictive plans. And, honestly, I think the freedom that God has in store for those of us who follow him includes freedom from restrictive diets.
Isaiah 61:1 says, “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.” NIV Version
That freedom for me has to do with food. I was a slave to it. WAS! He set me free and gives me the power each day to choose a healthier option. To me, it’s not freeing to count calories or say I can never have a piece of cake again. It’s not freeing to cut out carbs or only eat plants. Is all food good? No. In this modern era, we have a lot of things we ingest that are far from being food. They’re more food-like substances.
Could Veganism be the answer for some people? Of course! Is Keto right for others? Yep. But if it just becomes another form of bondage that someone is trying to adhere to, then it’s not the freedom Jesus came for us to have. For me, intermittent fasting feels freeing. I have windows of time that I eat within and eat whatever I want. And I don’t get hungry in my fasting periods. I’m truly satisfied.
What to eat during an eating window
So what do I eat in my eating window? After all, I just said I eat whatever I want. I eat normal food. Today, I had a baked potato with real bacon, freshly grated Cheddar, a slice of butter, and a bit of salt, pepper, and garlic powder. It was so satisfying. It was real food and so tasty. I ate until I was full. Nothing more. Oh and a glass of sweet tea. I’ve cut down the sugar I put in it though over the past year from 2 cups a gallon down to 3/4 cup a gallon. And I still have 4 hours of my eating window to go. I see some strawberries in my future and maybe a light dinner, depending on my hunger.
If I want to include a pack of fruity Mentos in my eating window, I will. I have. I am becoming pickier about what I will include in my eating window though. I want the food to be satisfying, both to my taste buds and to my body. It’s getting easier to pass on the unhealthier items, and that wasn’t even my intention. I’m learning to listen to the body God gave me. He designed us in a way that our bodies will tell us what they need. As Psalm 139:14 says, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” That goes for you too!
What pattern is right for me?
In my first 28 days, I’m following Gin Stephens’ Rip-Off-the-BandAid approach. After these four weeks are over, I will begin tweaking the fasts until I find out what works for me. Maybe I’ll have consistent eating windows every day. Maybe I’ll do a 5:2 plan. We’ll see. As I’m finding out, everyone is unique. One pattern works well for one person, while another pattern works well for someone else.
I love the flexibility of IF. If I know I’m going out with friends on the weekend, I can plan my eating window to include the time I’ll be out with them. I’m going on a vacation in a few weeks, and my hope is that I can maintain my eating windows with a snack in the afternoon followed by dinner.
I pray for you, my reader, that God will set you free from whatever bondage you find yourself in, so you can experience the freedom he has for you. I pray God leads you on your personal path to health and freedom. He loves you.