I have a peanut butter addiction. There, I said it. But before you judge me, know that I am facing this problem head on. While I refuse to give it up completely, I decided to address my compulsive consumption of this delectable spread of the gods, along with other bad eating habits, and try intermittent fasting.
What is Intermittent Fasting?
Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern where you focus your calorie intake into a window of time each day. When your body is not busy consuming and digesting food, it has time to recover and heal itself. This technique has been proven to fight disease, help weight loss, and prolong people’s lives. Johns Hopkins neuroscientist Mark Mattson, Ph.D. has studied this practice for 25 years. Mattson says that after hours without food, the body exhausts its sugar stores and starts burning fat. He refers to this as metabolic switching.
“Intermittent fasting contrasts with the normal eating pattern for most Americans, who eat throughout their waking hours,” Mattson says. “If someone is eating three meals a day, plus snacks, and they’re not exercising, then every time they eat, they’re running on those calories and not burning their fat stores.”
There are many ways to approach intermittent fasting, but these two schedules are most common:
- 16:8 (16 hours of fasting and 8 hours of eating)
- 5:2 (5 days of regular eat and two days of complete fasting)
I decided to try the first option as it was closer to my normal eating habits already.
Preface
Let me start by saying that I was never militant about this plan. If I wanted something bad enough, I ate it. I find that too much sacrifice leads to failure. Having said that, the challenge and results of this new routine became habit forming in their own right, and I organically found myself making healthier choices in the process.
The Starting Point
I started in reverse order and decided when I was going to stop eating each day and start the fasting process. My family generally has dinner between 6-7pm, so cutting myself off at 7pm was a natural starting point. If I ever wanted to snack later in the night, I pictured the food just sitting in my system while I slept and never burning off.
This mindset eventually helped me avoid heavy foods in general at night. I didn’t want to feel bloated and overstuffed while going to bed, especially on days that I had been disciplined with other meals. I still have plenty of big dinners (last night was a 6-slices-of-pizza and some wings kind of evening) but they are not as common as before.
The Morning After
The next step was the morning routine, which proved to be a bigger challenge. One of my greatest joys working in NYC was a morning breakfast sandwich from a deli by the office. I would get 3 eggs, bacon, cheese, avocado and hot sauce on a plain bagel. I did this every day for years, also known as the good ol’ days. Working from home the last two years has eliminated the deli aspect, but I still loved my morning egg sandwich.
The key for me was not eliminating the sandwich, but just slowly delaying the time I ate it. Keeping beloved foods in the rotation was crucial to my success and gave me something to look forward to. I started by pushing breakfast back to 10am, then 10:30am and finally 11am. I still had my coffee first thing in the morning, but I did not eat until that 11a meal.
The Middle Window
This part of the practice can really move the needle one way or the other. I had to remember that intermittent fasting was not a cure-all. It’s a great habit to get into but needs to be paired with healthy eating for it to truly work.
When 11am came around, I was ravenous. I am generally a fast eater (which is not conducive to managing consumption) and when I first started the process, I would eat a lot of food really fast once I had the green light. Over time though, my body adjusted to the new schedule and I found that a normal portion would satisfy my cravings. I do try to make sure that first meal is a hearty one. If it is too light, I sabotage my afternoon and overeat to compensate.
The biggest test is the middle of the afternoon. It’s in between meals and I am usually hungry. Quick and easy snacks are important to have ready. Apples and peanut butter (easy fella), a handful or two of almonds or a Think protein bar usually hold me over ’till dinner.
I will admit, some days my eyes go black like a hunting shark and the apples are replaced by a big spoon, and the peanut butter is consumed in embarrassing amounts. But just like most compulsive decisions, I regret this shortly after.
Results
For the last 15 years, I slowly gained a few pounds here and there, and eventually reached a point where I needed a change. Intermittent fasting was only part of my mindset shift, but it taught me lessons in discipline and self-control. As I continue to deal with my love of peanut butter, I lean on this technique to get me through.
