How fitting to write this week’s overview on the 4th of July – a day celebrating Freedom. Well at least for my fasting friends in the United States. Intermittent Fasting as a lifestyle has brought me incredible freedom. Some items i feel free from are:
- freedom of guilt after I eat
- freedom of counting calories
- freedom from food obsession
- freedom from feeling left out if I was actively dieting
- freedom from poor self-image
- freedom of searching for the next solution
- freedom of yo-yo diets
I want everyone to experience the same freedoms I enjoy on a daily basis; that’s why I continue to share my personal journey. As an encouragement to those starting, already on or considering an intermittent fasting lifestyle.
Freedom From Rigid Rules
Another thing I feel free from is rigid rules! While it’s hard to understand initially, Intermittent Fasting gives such freedom and flexibility to implement how best fits each individual. This week’s recap highlights that! I opened my window as early as in the noon hour one day and nearly 6 PM another.
Using the data above, you can see my eating windows really varied. July 01, I had over a 6 hour eating window! This was an up-day. You can see it followed a very short eating window the day before – only 7 minutes. This was a down-day and I simply ate a single 500 calorie smoothie/drink (see it here, it was so refreshing and delicious!)
If you want to calculate individual eating windows, you look at the top dark line for a day and then see how much time passes for the bottom line on the day above. In example, June 26 12:53 PM was when i opened my eating window (or closed that fast). The next set of times above show June 26 1:25 PM. This was when I closed my eating window (or started the next fast). So you can calculate I had a 32 minute eating window that day.
Using the data above from the recap, you can see my eating window averaged just over 2.5 hours. I can share the math if someone finds that interesting/wants assistance in calculating… but I thought maybe too dull for the blog post. Let me know in the comments if maybe a “Fasting Math” post or two would be helpful in the future.
Anyways, I was able to meet my 18 hour minimum fast each day. This is the most important part for me and what I track. If I hit that at a minimum, I know I will continue to feel good. I am less inclined to worry about how long I eat. I know that it will naturally be regulated when I ensure I get 18 hours in between each eating window. This is because the later I keep an eating window open, the longer I’ll have to wait to eat the next day.
My Favorite Meal of the Week
My oldest daughter Mila was at camp for nearly 2 weeks. She came back home on July 01. We had a pool side dinner complete with an ice cream machine. It was so fun to hang out, eat delicious food (she requested walking tacos as her homecoming meal) and not have to consider what/how much I should eat. Fasting is really an easy thing to do when I have meals I love to look forward to!
I hope you all have fun celebrating the 4th of July if you’re American.
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