Eat well, fast well - the simple path to wellness

[WhollyAligned]

Hi All. This motto I came up with recently of 'Eat well, fast well.' is to help simplify what it is to be healthy. Eat well - basically eat real food and ditch all the process and packeted muck. And fast well - incorporate long fasting periods into your daily life. Start with 12 hour fasting windows - meaning for example you supper at 7 p.m, you breakfast at 7 a.m the next day at the very earliest. If you can go for longer, great. Build up to it. This also helps you attune to your natural appetite. We massively over-eat in the West due to availability of food. This has been a disaster for public health. All religions even include fasting as it is so key to vitality. Fasting of course also promotes autophagy so gives your body the chance to attend to cells that are no longer useful.

Start today. No more putting things off! You can do it!

[L4u4laith]

I agree but l don’t always practice it l do my best

Many years ago when l was in my middle 20s my kidney surgeon also said

YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT l

I am now 79 in October

Keep the two things in mind it will help

[WhollyAligned Administrator in reply to L4u4laith]

it's all about balance so it's great to have a foundation and then it's ok to have a little of what you fancy. I'm so pleased you had such a great piece of advice from your kidney surgeon. And you've been enjoying life clearly to have navigated your way to almost 80! Thanks for your comment. We all can learn so much from each other through kindness and sharing.

[healthyjoel]

This is great! The studies I've seen require 16 hours of fasting to get autophagy going. Do you have any source that day 12?

[WhollyAligned Administrator in reply to healthyjoel]

Hi Healthyjoel - thanks for connecting and glad you like the post. 16 hours is a super fasting window however for many who have got into patterns of late night supers and snacks, 12 hours is a more achievable starting point for changing existing and sometimes deeply embedded patterns. The Gut Makeover by Jeannette Hyde incorporates the 12 hour fasting window throughout the 28 day program. I agree with her approach that it is more sustainable in a modern setting to initially aim for 12 hours. Studies indeed show that limiting eating to within an eight hour window holds many benefits (so there's the 16 hour fasting window) including interestingly less calorie extraction from food as well as allowing our wonderful gut ecosystem to rest. If it's possible for you I do encourage 16 hours fasting windows. I tend to do that at least twice a week so an earlyish supper - for example I had a light supper last evening around 6 p.m and broke my fast at about 10.30 a.m this morning.