Two things before I get into this post - I have never really dieted in the traditional sense and I've never fasted.
I've vaguely understood that fasting was good for you, but I never felt the need to. My weight's always been around the same, and if I feel like I'm getting a bit 'podgy' as my Dad would say (thanks for that thick skin, old man) I just eat a little less and exercise a bit more. I was raised to eat healthy - I have never done tons of sugar, always eaten the rainbow, and eat tons of vegetables.
But.
I have reached the dreaded time of my life where somehow weight is shifting to my middle.
Fuck.
And I don't feel great a lot of the time - menopause is the biggest bitch you'll ever meet. I'm more tired, have more muscle fatigue, I'm not sleeping great, and so on. Ugh.
So I started looking at one of the 16:8 diet programs, or the Galveston diet which is designed for peri-menopausal and menopausal woman. I hate following 'diets' as I believe they're just asking for trouble - they're hard to maintain and it screws with your system, but this one makes sense to me. And by researching this, I've started focussing more again on how I can bring my body back to where I want it to be - not just weight wise, but fitness wise.
Firstly, the point of fasting is about reducing inflammation in your system, which can screw with your hormones, and increase your cortisol, which can lead to poor gut health as well - and combine all that and you end up with the dreaded MIDDLE. Ugh, again. But it's not just as simple as following one diet or another - it's really understanding why you do it, how it effects you personally, and whether it's right for you. I tend to squirrel this and that from various suggestions to find out what's good for me rather than blindly following what other people do, especially because of body diversity.
What is suggests you eat makes utter sense to me, and isn't far from what I do anyway, except it's making me a little stricter and more attentive. Lots of leafy greens, broccoli, vegetables, good fats and oils, less refined flour and carbs, more protein, no processed food or additives (der). That's in enough 'good' diets (such as the Mediterranean one) for me to think it's reasonable. For the record I don't think keto is reasonable as it asks me to eat too much fat and meat and I don't think that's good for me at all. The other thing that isn't explained so much in the online resources for the Galveston diet but which I'm finding out more about is how glucose affects inflammatory markers, and more cool science that is helping this all fall into place for me.
I am really liking what I've found out so far and how it's affected how I feel, but it's not the whole picture - as I'll explain later.
Why fast for 16 hours or at all?
First of all - it's easier than you think. If you have your last meal early enough in the evening, half that time you're asleep, and by the time you get up and do your exercise and potter around a bit it's time for brunch about 11 am. Then about 5 it's a handful of nuts or a cuppa tea and then dinner at 6. So I'm actually cutting out one meal and eating less in my day.
Fasting is meant to:
- aid weight loss
- improve gut health and digestion
- help with mental health
- improve memory, focus, mood & wellbeing
- reduced inflammation
- reduced cravings
- lower risk of disease (cancer, Alzheimerβs disease, heart disease, diabetes)
- increase longevity
Big call. But even after a few weeks, I'm feeling, dare I say it, a little better. I'm also concentrating more on the food I eat - perhaps because I am thinking about it all the time and don't want to ruin it by eating something I shouldn't. For example, we had 'fish and chips' last night, where I had grilled flake and greek salad. Damn did I want a potato cake! But I didn't and I survived just fine. In fact I entirely forgot about it!
And then there's other times where I'm like, hey, my body needs some breakfast, and I have some grated apple, yoghurt, peantu butter and seeds - don't knock it til you try it!
A few supplements to boost...
I tend to be very sporadic at taking them, though I know I should as they do help. But now I have a more regimented eating life, I finish my last meal, and then take some supplements - magnesium, fish oil, ashwagandwa, sage, perhaps iron if I'm feeling the need, probiotics.
In the morning, I have an apple cider vinegar in water soon after waking, and then 15 minutes after than a black coffee and a rhodiola tablet as well as a thiamine tablet. This is a bit of nootropic stacking but these are meant to improve mental acuity and anxiety and slow down the coffee jitters. By the end of this post I quit coffee, and changed my supps, but bear with me as I go through my thought processes...
Turmeric and ginger are also meant to be good for metabolism and various other things so I'm currently making a 'fire cider' or ACV infusion with fresh turmeric and ginger in it.
This comes from a far bit of research about what's good for me, so I have not included all the benefits of each here - you need to do your own research to understand why they may help.
I also have some alfalfa and paw paw powder which I've been drinking in water for the extra greens and for gut health, along with some milk thistle. Of course you can't go past tons of veggies and I'm trying to grow them over supermarket veggies as they don't have the nutritional value that home grown does.
I had started taking melantonin at night again. I didn't want to rely on it but not sleeping is one of the worse things for your health so it seems a pay off to me. Except melatonin seems to really drag me down into a death sleep that my body fights, and I have this funny feeling long term use isn't that good for me. So instead, I'm taking kava, doubling my magnesium (that is, having itboth in the morning and night) and that seems to really, really help!
All of this sounds really exhausting and laborious, and you'd think it was unnecessary if I was healthy enough, but it does seem THE CHANGE is making me work harder for my health. I think after my breakdown a couple of years ago and then going into perimenopause hasn't been easy on my body. I dont think we are designed to live the busy, stressful lives we do and our bodies are screaming out for us to look after them. And I'm kinda pissed off, as I don't think my life should be as miserable as it is right now health wise - but again, by the time this post finishes, I've got on the right track and am feeling hope...
I just want to keep surfing, gardening and doing all the things I've done all my life without feeling it so much. I can accept I'm getting old, but I can't accept how shit I feel doing it, and don't think I should be feeling this bad.
***`Note - after I wrote this post, I talked to a few people and listened to this podcast which explained a LOT about the science behind it. If you're thinking about doing similiar, I suggest you listen to it - I feel as if I need to listen and take notes!
However, there were a LOT of takeaways in here for me. For example, when your eating window should or could be, what to eat and when to eat. There's a lot of research I need to do before taking this on full on. I'd love to hear from you in the comments!
**Another note - I also went to the naturopath this week, and she said most of what I was doing was great, except to cut out the coffee. I kinda KNEW I had to do this but I was ignoring it. Now I'm a week in with no coffee (iinstead, reishi and cacao, which I enjoy anyway) and I'm feeling tons better. She also prescribed me some licorice and rehemannia tablets, which help nourish my adrenals. I've always had issues there and to be honest I should have kept going to the naturopath to really sort it out, but it's expensive, and I was feeling okay until I wasn't, so....BUT - I feel a lot better already and I'm going to make sure I go back and see her in six weeks so I can truly fix myself from the inside out so I can feel better than I've been feeling the last few months.
As far as supplements and the fasting is going, she said most of it was fine, and good call on kava instead of melantonin, and that to cut the ashwagandwa and rhodiola for now so we can see how the licorice/rehmannia adrenal support goes. She also said that whilst intermittent fasting is good for some people, for others it can muck with cortisol levels, so to be careful with that. Hence, I've started having a small 'breakfast' around 10 am - usually a bit of protein and something small, like a boiled egg or a spoonful of peanut butter. I think the main thing is to keep my glucose levels stable and not eat as much, and have to not eat between say 6pm and 10 am, which is still 14 hours, giving my system time to reboot.
The body is so complicated - I'm sooo grateful for my naturopath for helping me work out what's right for me! And I AM feeling a lot better - and very hopeful I can return to the fitness I should expect of myself at this age.
Have you had to make alterations to your diet due to menopause?
Have you tried intermittent fasting?
With Love,
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