If you’re reading this then apparently I was good enough at convincing you to educate yourself even more on the wonderful world of Intermittent Fasting – woohoo! Welcome! Let me show you around, make yourself at home!
So, here I have listed all of the excuses that I have heard over the past few years (some of them you may even be thinking in your head right now) along with my rebuttals for your viewing pleasure.
“I can’t do it, I need to eat when I feel hungry!”
First of all, nope. You don’t need to eat. You want to eat. You will be surprised at how long you can actually go without eating. We are so used to feeling the slightest bit hungry and then it’s suddenly the end of the world. You let this feeling take over and you end up convincing yourself that you’re hungrier than you actually are! Trust me, I’ve been through this myself many, many times. The hardest part about Intermittent Fasting is learning how to say “no” to both yourself and to others. I’ve gotten to a point where I’ll be at a family gathering when everyone is eating while I’m fasting and someone will say “Hey Aly, do you want-” and I say “no, thank you!” I don’t even let them finish their sentence. Let me tell you, once you’ve conditioned yourself to politely reject food from others, you will feel so empowered and powerful. It’s an amazing feeling.
I’m going to make another blog post about the best way to condition yourself to say “no”. Trust me, if I can, you can.
“I just can’t fast for that long!”
Good news! You don’t have to.
To an extent.
Experts, including myself, recommend starting off with a 12-hour fast. Some people do this without even knowing it! Let’s say you go to bed at 10 PM and you don’t eat until breakfast at 10 AM the next day – there’s your 12-hour fast! See how simple it is?!
In order for your body to get used to fasting for longer periods of time, you need to take it slow. So lets say you’re already fasting for 12-hours, simply stop eating an hour or two before (or eat later the next morning). Take it slow, you will progress at your own pace. There is absolutely no pressure for you to jump right into 18-hour fasts.
Intermittent Fasting works because it is a completely different lifestyle than what we are used to. Start with a 12-hour fast and slowly work your way up to longer fasts. Yeah the first couple of weeks may feel really difficult and you may be tempted to cheat, but that’s normal – but I promise you, it gets easier every day that you do it. Maybe it takes weeks, maybe it takes months! Everybody adjusts to new lifestyles in their own way at their own pace. There is no right or wrong amount of time. The day you realize you can do a 18-hour fast with no problem, you will be so grateful that you stuck it out.
“I can’t stop myself from having a snack at night!”
I struggled so hard with this one. I was so used to coming home from school and having a giant bowl of ice cream with hot fudge and sprinkles around 9 PM every day.
Currently, I end my fast around 6 PM and I don’t eat until 12 PM the next day. So the hours after dinner and before sleep are when I want to splurge and eat something so badly. I’m not going to lie, it is hard. But let me tell you, when you wake up the next day after you said “no” to eating that late-night snack, you will feel invincible – you will feel so thankful. That feeling is what keeps me from rummaging through the pantry at 10 PM when my stomach is rumbling while I’m binging Netflix for hours.
Another key component here is to go to sleep earlier.
A good trick I’ve learned is that the second I start to feel hungry at night, I try to go to sleep right away. That way, I sleep away the hunger! Ah sleep, such an amazing tool.
Alrighty my friends, that is all I have for right now. If I didn’t address your excuse, please feel free to comment below. I will be happy to write an informative and convincing response with a hint of sarcasm.