What is intermittent fasting:
Intermittent fasting (IF) is incredibly popular in the diet culture world. So popular in fact, that it was the most asked question on our question pole when we sent it out asking what you all wanted to know more about. It’s important to know what IF is so you can better understand why we don’t love it and by no means support it here at Find Food Freedom. Please note, if you are reading this and have done IF or currently are. We are not “anti-you” , we are “anti-diet”. IF is a lot of the time marketed as a “non-diet” approach to meeting your weight and health goals. IF is done by restricting food for periods of time. There are several different methods to this restriction. Short, medium and long durations of time are suggested to restrict food which is considered the fasting state.
During the “eating” time, IF, suggests you eat normally with few restrictions, but stop eating at the correct time to keep you within your chosen fasting state. Let me tell you why we here at Find Food Freedom® disagree with intermittent fasting. When fasting you are choosing to restrict yourself of any food during a duration of time. This is ABSOLUTELY considered a diet and can affect your mental state around food.
Questions to ask yourself before starting a diet:
1. Is it sustainable long term?
2. Does it compromise your mental sanity?
3. Will it benefit your health long term?
Let’s talk about these questions while thinking about IF. Is IF sustainable long term? Can you do it for the rest of your life? How will you treat yourself when you can’t follow through with it every day for the rest of your life?
This leads into question 2. Will IF compromise your mental sanity? What self-talk will you have when you “fail” at fasting during holidays, vacations, brunch with friends, or a late dinner out with family? Will this improve or damage your current relationship with food?
Question 3, will IF benefit your health long term? Over the next 5 years, how do you see IF helping your health and relationship with food?
When thinking about these questions can you answer these questions in a way that will support starting intermittent fasting and it not being a diet? Will it help your relationship with food, and how you think about yourself and your body?
However, if you are someone that can answer yes to these questions, and you can go days not fasting and have no morality or opinion about food and the decision to eat or not eat, then IF may be just fine for you. Just be sure to really think about your past relationship with food, and your dieting history.
Here’s another way to look at it. The 3 most basic things in life that ALL humans need is: sleep, water, and FOOD. Food is necessary to help our bodies and minds function at their best, and when we deprive ourselves of the basic needs our bodies are suffering. This is an absurd thing to do to ourselves (on purpose), especially when we are all so abundantly lucky to have these basic things at our disposal most of the time. Food is a privilege and we shouldn’t restrict it on purpose. I want to remind you that restriction can perpetuate disordered eating, leaving you feeling worse after dieting then you did prior to starting.
Want to learn more about intuitive eating?
Click here to listen to the Find Food Freedom Podcast Episode #36: I Want To Find Food Freedom But I Want To Lose Weight
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