Am I on a roll, or what?! Two weeks of blogging in a row.  Please, someone, somewhere clap for me :). As you read this, especially if you’re new… please do not think this is a blueprint to copy!  My schedule SHOULD NOT be yours!  This is simply an illustration; a picture of flexibility and how one person implements Intermittent Fasting.  You can be flexible in how you fast, too!

June 19-25, 2022

This week I was 100% of my goal.  (As a reminder, my goal is to reach 18 hours fasted daily). Is it the end of the world if I don’t meet it?  Of course not, shorter fasts aren’t failure.  However, this week I had no circumstances or food that caused me to break the fast early!  June 25 was the anniversary of intermittent fasting – and can you believe it, I didn’t even rememeber day of!! To be honest, I thought it was today until I went back and looked oh well.  I’m not officially into my 3rd year of fasting.  CRAZY – a good crazy!  Never did I think my YouTube channel would be all about Intermittent Fasting, but here we are (and I am SO, SO thankful!!!)

My hope with sharing this data weekly is that it will illustrate flexibility.  Below you can see the wide range of times I open and close my windows.  I never feel stuck with fasting because there is such variety!

If you wonder, “when should I open my fast?” challenge you to let that question go!  You don’t need to know when you’ll break your fast.  Looking at my hours above, you can see I ate every single day… but when was different each day!  I ate as early as 12:34 pm…. or waited as late as 6:02 pm!  Neither of those times were dictated by a rule.  I simply based my eating window on a number of items – circumstances of the day, how hungry I felt and available food!!

For instance, on June 25 when I opened my eating window at 6:02, it wasn’t a predetermined goal to get 24 hours.  Instead, I went shopping into town prior to picking up dinner.  My errands took longer and Chipotle had a really long line.  By the time I was home with dinner, my fast was at 23 hours and 41 minutes.  I decided I would waiting to eat just a bit longer to get 24 hours.  I didn’t have to, but it was the perfect opportunity to unload my items from errands and help my kids get their food.  The final 19 minutes were well spent and I got the full 24 hours.

Earlier in the week you can see i broke my fast right after 18 hours!  I was hungry that day!  18 hours is my minimum fast every day, however… there are days the timer goes off and bam…. food finds its way to my mouth!  But I am okay with that because I am listening to my body.  You can see it’s not that way daily, but I don’t worry when it is.

I get a weekly report sent to my email (the first picture) that gives me an overview of the week; this is directly from my app Zero.  I plan to continue to share this each week – you can see my very first weekly summary shared here.   Let me know if this is helpful, especially if you’re new to Intermittent Fasting!

In the past two plus years, one of my most frequently asked questions is what my fasting/eating times and windows are.  The answer is simple – it varies, but I try to fast at least 18 hours.  This can be hard to understand until you have a great grasp of how flexible intermittent fasting can be.  Because of this, I have been planning to share my weekly snapshot each week.  I think the visuals will be a great illustration of how I flex my schedule and how no two weeks look the same!

Have a wonderful week; fast on!