My Intermittent fasting Adventure

I got sick just before Christmas. A cold spoiled the holidays for me and made sure that my wife and I had to spend New Year's Eve alone at home. But like almost everything in life, this cold had its good side - we had plenty of time to think.

Mostly when it comes to thinking, it is my wife who gets the best ideas. That was also the case this time.

Se had read something about intermittent fasting and asked me if we should try it.

This was a remarkable coincidence because I, too, had read articles about intermittent fasting in the previous weeks. But unlike my wife, I had never seriously thought about trying it.

I see myself as a person with weak self-discipline when it comes to renunciation.

Although I have little problem working hard and trying to acquire good habits, I have always failed miserably when it comes to quitting.

Just as I love to smoke, I like to eat. I have been able to replace cigarette smoke with the less harmful e-cigarette, but there is no real substitute for food. So I was convinced that I could never go without food for sixteen hours at a time.

But I realized that the idea was essential to my wife. So I agreed and hoped that it would be easier because there were two of us on this trip.

The first day

We had decided to fast according to the 16:8 method. This means fasting for sixteen hours and eating all the food in only an eight-hour window.

In our case, this means that we stop eating at seven in the evening and do not start again until eleven in the morning the next day.

Since we were still on holiday, we did not get up until nine o'clock on the first day of fasting, so that the time until breakfast at eleven o'clock would not be too long. We managed to do without food until eleven o'clock.

Then we made scrambled eggs and ate. On the day we had lunch at one o'clock, a piece of cake at four o'clock and a warm meal in the evening.

At precisely seven o'clock in the evening, we put away all the food and waited to see if we were attacked by a craving for sweets, chips, or other snacks later in the evening. But this did not happen.

The only difference I noticed was that I had to go to the toilet more often. Apparently, fasting has a draining effect on me. My wife felt the same way.

We went to bed well after midnight and survived the first day of fasting completely relaxed. For me, in particular, it was a small miracle. But I was still skeptical because, with the end of the evening meal, our first full period of fasting had begun.

The second day

Immediately after getting up and going to the toilet for the first time, I stood on the scales. I had lost six hundred grams of weight.

Of course, this will have been primarily water, but since I hadn't lost any weight for weeks before, I consider this a success, which I attribute to the first day of intermittent fasting.

Overall, the second day was a little more complicated than the first. Both of us still had vacation time, so we still had plenty of time to think about anything.

After breakfast, we spent most of the time thinking about food.

Neither of us was really hungry, but we missed putting food in our mouths and tasting something. To have at least a little change to water, we drank more coffee that day than usual.

But also this day passed, and we kept on fasting until the evening.

At seven in the evening, our dinner was cooked, and we sat down to eat. To our surprise, we were both utterly full after only a small portion.

Could the body adjust to less food so quickly? I'm not sure whether this was already due to changes in metabolism or whether the early feeling of satiety had psychological causes.

Be that as it may - we also ended day two successfully.

Day three until today

After five days of intermittent fasting, three clear developments are already apparent.

1. The weight goes down equally for my wife and me. Since day one, I have lost almost 1.5 kilos. I have not given up any food in return, but have simply taken all food within a fixed time window.

2. Sleep and mental fitness have improved significantly.

I get up more natural in the morning than before and have noticeably more energy. My energy level wasn't wrong previously, but the intermittent fasting gave me an extra kick.

3. my Apple watch has documented an increase in heart rate variability (HRV) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_rate_variability, a decreasing resting heart rate and a decrease in my average heart rate since day one of intermittent fasting.

Conclusion

Up to now, I have only benefited from the fasting. Also, my wife feels better than before. To experience all the positive effects described above after such a short time is fantastic.

We will both stick with it to do something for our health in the long run.

Beyond the pure health aspects, intermittent fasting has brought me something else: I now know that I am quite capable of doing without something that I previously thought I could not do.

I can only recommend everyone to try intermittent fasting for at least a few days. Even if you eat normally again afterward, you will already notice positive effects after this short time.

Everyone can do without breakfast for a few days. Give it a try. You will be pleasantly surprised.