Day 77: So I Got a Request to Blog About Intermittent Fasting...

Here ya go... A long ass, technical, citation filled rant about fasting... What else did you want to do on a lazy Sunday morning?

I practice fasting… 14 to 18 hours a day and every day… When my workouts exceed the norm, I will eat an apple in the morning after I workout and occasionally, the bowl of oatmeal but that’s rare. I have been a vegan since Summer of 2017 and on a totally clean diet since summer of 2019. I don’t eat meat, dairy, animal products, fast food, processed foods like bread, or any foods with chemical preservatives which leaves me pretty much with fresh food, canned organic and frozen… You might think I have a pretty bland diet but once you remove all the trash, food tastes really different when your taste buds heal up…   I digress.. I have been fasting for a while, I don’t really remember when I started or even why, I just found the concept of being in charge of my physical body to be fascinating and I gave it a try… I’m going to guess I started the fasting when the clean diet thing started.

Going down memory lane on this one. It has been probably the most powerfully life changing thing I have done… I fought my spare tire for years and I knew it was all in my diet because I exercised like a madman and my weight would always stop at 176 and my waist would stay at 32-33… I said I wanted abs one more time and then I drank every night, ate huge bowls of snacks late at night and huge meals 3 times a day… Like anyone addicted to their own routine, I justified it… I was too old for abs, I was working as hard as I could, etc… 

I began a quest for control of my appetite… I tried to stop snacking after dinner… Fail… Tried again… Fail… I found my weak spot… Now I don’t like weakness, it bugs the fuck out of me… If you have reading my blog, you know I despise personal weakness and failure…  I don’t fail, ever… Call it stubborn, call narcissism or whatever you want; my own weaknesses are targets for elimination. 

Then disaster struck… My left arm began to go numb, I couldn’t ride my bike anymore, I couldn’t turn my head and slowly, all movement caused me intense pain… The doctor said it was a degenerating disc in my neck and I was ordered to sit in a chair until he could schedule the surgery… That surgery would be in four to six months… I had to take pills that didn’t let me drink… It was a long six months…

I was scared…  Let me be honest here for a second… Raw… I am terrified of being overweight… I have been heavy in my life and it was not a pleasant experience. Having a stroke or a heart attack because of my own behavior is something I cannot accept. Being on medication for the rest of my life because I rejected the simple cure of eating right just does not sit well with me… I am not blaming anyone else for their behavior, I am simply saying that science is god in my life and science says I can cure my own problems a lot of the time with self control… 

I sat in that fucking chair for 6 months of my life and read self help books and watched shitty daytime television and in a gargantuan example of self control, I limited myself to three small meals of no more than 1500 total calories a day and I lost 20 pounds sitting there… That was light bulb in my life… I had always heard that it is diet AND exercise that made you lose weight… Apparently the proper combo is diet and reading because that’s all I did to lose the weight… For the first time since high school, I had a 30 inch waist and I weighed around 153 to 158 pounds…  

After my surgery, I healed up, went back to work, started exercising, drinking, over eating and night time snacking again… back up to 185 in no time… 

I said all that to say this… During my time in the chair I discovered that  I had zero self control when it came to eating…  Without some program, or the utilization of some strict system, I have zero control stopping myself from overeating, heavily snacking and using food as a reward for “being good”… You know how it works, three days of being good and a bowl of chips as a reward turns into the bag of chips and feeling sick and full of grease…  Two weeks without pizza and ordering one as “a Reward” turns into three weeks of pizza of pizza four times a week… I still fail sometimes with healthy snacks… A bowl of peanuts turns into half the package if I am not mindful… Now you know the truth of my rant against “cheat days” and “cheat meals”… There are not many people out there who can enjoy one meal or one day without turning it into total failure…  My strict diet has been developed over a period of years by implementing more and more control over how and what I eat… Vegetarian became vegan, which became whole food plant based vegan which slowly became the absolute clean diet… Somewhere during that transition, I found intermittent fasting…

Now… We are finally down to the point of this blog…

I could not stop eating after 8:00 PM to save my life… Before fasting my best time was three days before devolving into eating what Taco Bell made famous as “Fourth Meal”… Going to bed full, poorly sleeping and then waking up sick as hell became routine again… No matter how many times I swore that I would not repeat the process, I repeated the process… 

I came across the latest craze sweeping the healthy living community and as I said before, I was dubious… But when I began to do the research, I found more and more positive science related to intermittent fasting…  First, intermittent fasting is defined as s an eating pattern where you cycle between periods of eating and fasting. There are many different types of intermittent fasting, such as the 16/8 method with 16 hours of fasting with an 8 hour window for eating which I use… My fasts last from 8:00 PM until Noon the next day. So basically, I don’t eat after dinner until lunch the next day… This isn’t difficult because I never ate breakfast very often anyway. Truthfully, I usually stop eating at 6:00 PM after dinner and then have a handful of nuts or something small around 8:00 PM… This can be adjusted to any ratio from 18:6 to 12:12… The idea is to get control of your eating habits…. Some people fast for two full days and eat regular meals for five days… 

A couple of side notes… Intermittent fasting should be practiced with the habit of not overeating… Fasting for 16 hours and then stuffing three pizzas, a bucket of fried chicken and two liters of Dr. Pepper into your body in 8 hours isn’t going to help you… Two regular meals is the goal here…  Secondly, Don’t do this on my recommendation… Do this after a discussion with your doctor… Don’t be dumb and launch into something that is going to hurt you… Enough said…Now numerous studies show that it can have powerful benefits for your body and brain, but this one is rough to get started… I will discuss my personal journey after we talk about the numerous health benefits of intermittent fasting…

Here are some evidence-based health benefits of intermittent fasting. Citations included for those of you who are curious…

1. Insulin levels: Blood levels of insulin drop significantly, which facilitates fat burning (1)

2. Human growth hormone: The blood levels of growth hormone may increase as much as 5-fold (2, 3). Higher levels of this hormone facilitate fat burning and muscle gain, and have numerous other benefits. (4, 5).

3. Cellular repair: The body induces important cellular repair processes, such as removing waste material from cells (6).

4. Gene expression: There are beneficial changes in several genes and molecules related to longevity and protection against disease (7, 8).

5. Lose Weight: Intermittent Fasting Can Help You Lose Weight and Belly Fat (9). Generally speaking, intermittent fasting will make you eat fewer meals. Unless if you compensate by eating much more during the other meals, you will end up taking in fewer calories.

6. Increased metabolism: Lower insulin levels, higher growth hormone levels and increased amounts of norepinephrine (noradrenaline) all increase the breakdown of body fat and facilitate its use for energy. For this reason, short-term fasting actually increases your metabolic rate by 3.6-14%, helping you burn even more calories (10, 11).

According to the Mayo Clinic, research suggests that intermittent fasting may be more beneficial than other diets for reducing inflammation and improving conditions associated with inflammation, such as:

• Alzheimer's disease

• Arthritis

• Asthma

• Multiple sclerosis

• Stroke

So when looking for a weight loss program that has these kinds of benefits, I chose intermittent fasting to control my appetite, lose weight, gain muscle and improve overall health…

Now for the downside…

This isn’t for everyone and if you have not seen a doctor or have the slightest bit of doubt about it, stay away from intermittent fasting… This type of program is tough… Side effects can include but are not limited to:

• Hunger

• Fatigue

• Insomnia

• Nausea

• Headaches

These usually pass within a month… But again, see a doctor before you attempt this one… I hope I have warned you enough about this…

As many of you have read, I require structure to stay with any exercise, diet or self improvement program… If I am going to learn guitar, it has to be structured, timed and scheduled. Diet? Structured, planned and monitored… Exercise? Highly structured, data tracking and scheduled… This keeps me honest and on track… So when I found intermittent fasting, the discipline to keep the schedule was perfect for my personality. Don’t eat every day from 8:00 PM until Noon the next day worked for me… Now this 90 Day Life Change includes “Do Not Overeat” as a stipulation of the challenge to keep me honest…  In 76 days I have dropped eight pounds and went from 16% body fat to 13.5% and lost two inches around my waist and gained muscle mass like never before… 

Bottom line is this shit works if done correctly and maintained without “cheating” over a long period of time…

Lets finish up… My first month of intermittent fasting was fucking cruelty… I felt like from 10:00 AM to Noon that I was starving and I would prepare my meals and wait for the clock to turn to 12:00 and I remember salivating while I waited… Seriously fucked up shit folks…  Then I discovered that the first bite was almost like having an orgasm… I remember eating a handful of blueberries that were so tart and sweet that time just stopped and it was me and those blueberries and nothing else mattered in that moment… Olives, grapes, mango, etc… If you ever want to enjoy a bite of something, I highly recommend intermittent fasting and then savoring that first bite you put in your mouth…

Of course, after a couple of years, I don’t get hungry anymore, eating is back to mundane and even stopping coffee in the last month hasn’t affected my eating habits… I practice intermittent fasting now and eating between 6:00 and Noon the next day isn’t a issue anymore… My weight is good, my blood pressure is good, my arthritis only bothers me on cold, wet days and food doesn’t control me anymore… I still have the occasional slip once in a while and if my workout is exceptionally hard, I will eat a bowl of oatmeal and blueberries with maple syrup to make up the calorie deficit…

Yes, I know this part is something people don’t talk about but listen… In the two years since I went vegan and began fasting I have NEVER, and I mean not once had heartburn, indigestion, a stomach ache or diarrhea… I have zero digestion issues… That is unheard of in someone my age… I never eat Rolaids, or Tums or any of that shit… I haven’t been sick to my stomach, I haven’t thrown up… As unbelievable as all of this sound, I may have had two, maybe three small headaches in this last two years… When I combined a whole food, plant based diet with intermittent fasting; I became fucking bullet proof… 

Then some crazy shit happened… I got stronger… My workout times decreased as I got faster. I became more agile, had better balance and was able to work out harder and longer (giggity) because my stamina increased… Intermittent fasting made me a better athlete. This makes some sense as early humans went without food for days and they would need bursts of energy when hungry in order to get more food...  I still want to reiterate here that my diet is whole food, plant based and all the necessary protein, carbs, vitamins and minerals are tracked daily… If you don’t have time to monitor your intake and keep data until you find the correct diet to offset the intermittent fasting, do not do this… I religiously watched my intake of food, vitamins and water for months before I found the right combination… We are all different but I am quite positive of one thing… Not one fast food company has the right combination of food to keep you healthy… Just thought I would throw that in there… Stop eating that shit, its slowly killing you…

But back to my journey…  This took me a month to adjust to and it was not pleasant nor was it easy… I stuck with it because I had done the research and I knew the unpleasantness would pass… Eventually it did, and with the tweaks I have done in the last couple years, I have found what works for me… Intermittent fasting isn’t for everyone… 

Sorry for the technical aspect of this blog but I thought that it was important to offer the science as well as the personal experience… 

Find your way, see a doctor first… I of course, didn’t do that but as a blogger, I must insist that you do so you don’t die and then I get sued and feel bad and all that… I don’t like feeling bad, cause feeling bad makes me feel bad…

Have a great day, I’m in Los Angeles today buying a new long board in Venice…  I’m done doing trick but I still like that long downhill, slow cruising… 

The 90 Day Life Change Challenge update… Sunday is rest day for 1/2 Murph... So all I had this morning was squat/push-up challenge, plank and Yoga X... Easy day... 

See you tomorrow…

Love you like Pete Rose liked throwing a baseball game…

And oh yeah…

Get off your ass and get to work, I know it’s Sunday, but you rested enough yesterday…