Intermittent fasting

So I heard recently about this idea of intermittent fasting. And it just blew my mind!! Why? Because it's so simple and in line with what I'm trying to achieve.

When you hear a word "fasting" you probably have these images in your head of starving yourself, monks in a temple meditating all days long, anorexic girls etc. Intermittent fasting is nothing like that. 

There are 3 simple rules to follow:
1. You eat 8 hours in a day and let your body rest from eating and digesting for another 16 hours.
2. You eat only natural food (hence clean food).
3. You eat 2-3 meals a day.

Idea behind it? Let me put it in points again:

1. By not eating for quite long time during a day you allow your body to digest all food before you go to sleep. You basically go sleep with an empty stomach. And because your body doesn't need to work on processing food it can rest properly. Effect? You have more energy the next day you get up.
2. As you eat only natural food it is quick to digest and dense in nutrients  which gives you stable levels of energy during a day. Apparently with time you stop craving things that are processed in any way (including bread, pasta, dairy products) and you start craving fruits and veggies.
3. If you stick to the above rules you notice with time that you actually don't need as much food as you could think. We tend to overeat these days. Eating on emotions, bad habits, choosing "comfort foods" over good foods. Very often confusing huger with thirst or cravings. 
4. With time focus shifts from EATING itself to overall care of your well-being. Food has a great impact on how we feel (and so this is why it is so popular topic) but there is also stress management and spiritual growth. Body, mind and spirit - that's what we are. Not only a body. And any form of fasting actually forces you to get your mind off physical aspect of life and seek for something more. (Otherwise you would go just crazy thinking of food all the time).

I'm going to test this on myself. I'm so curious how this will work in practice for a person who works full time and does sports daily. And who has still struggles with some aspects of bulimia (i.e. tendency to obsessive thinking of food).

It's now 4 weeks to Christmas. I will use this time for this test and hopefully I will get a perfect Christmas presents that I can give to myself:
1. more energy
2. leaner body
3. feeling overall great and by that being ready to serve others and help them to achieve their goals.

I'm ready to go.

Clean eating

So what clean eating is all about? 

There are many different definitions you can find in the Internet. Some say it's being vegetarian and not eating sweets. Others say it's about being vegan. Some stand for eating raw. It may be quite confusing so what this really is about?

The fundamental rule of eating clean is to avoid processed food. And that's simply speaking food that is made in factories, where loads of sugar and chemicals are put into it, then it's packed, distributed and sold. The main purpose here is not to provide good, healthy food to people but to make money. It's a business. I can go on forever on how the big food companies are tricking us to think what they offer is good for our bodies. But this is not the main objective of this post. The main thing is to get us to stop for a while and think - what is good for me? Is my food clean?

So coming back to definition itself. When you think of it clean food is what is in the nature. Fruits, veggies, nuts, grains, water. All these controversies about dairy products and fish/ meat are huge subject to discuss. To my understanding of the subject is not WHAT it is as much as HOW it finds its way to our table. Example: if you have your own cow and milk it for your family - that milk is clean in nature. But compare this to milk production the way it's done these days on a massive scale - it's not only disgusting (the process itself) but the end product has not much in common with real milk.

Being vegetarian or vegan is a matter of choice. I wouldn't dare to say it suits everyone. But I will say with all determination: make fruits, veggies, nuts and grain at least 90% of your daily food intake, if you don't want to resign from dairy or fish/meat. Let these be base of your nutrition. And second - get rid of all JUNK FOOD. Meaning all sorts of fast food, sweets, fizzy drinks etc. You know very well what junk food is. Introducing these two rules to your daily life will make a huge positive impact on your health and overall well-being. And once you feel great you can do more, be more productive in your work, training, social life. It affects everything you do.

Try eating clean for a month and see how it changes you. The great chances are you will never go back to stuffing yourself with chocolate or another cheesy hamburger with fries. You have nothing to loose but so much to gain.

Stay strong.