In 2001 I did my first fast and I did it because I got really sick. I was really ill and a friend of mine handed me a book on fasting.
I started reading that book on a Saturday morning and from the moment I started reading the book I stopped eating and did a water fast for the next five days. It was incredible.
Then about 12 months later, I started going to this place in Thailand where I’d fast for seven to ten days twice a year. The health benefits of fasting were incredible; apart from weight loss which was never my goal but just a nice natural consequence, the positive impact on my immune system, mental clarity and energy levels was incredible. It’s a great detox as well.
Doing that twice a year I’d be nice and healthy and lean straight afterwards, but six months later I’d have put on a whole lot of weight and become very unhealthy, and my body needed to fast again.
So I decided to shift into intermittent fasting. It’ll be three years in January 2019 that I started intermittent fasting, where I started fasting every day for about 18 hours a day and started feeling the benefits of intermittent fasting .
At first, you get sugar cravings and feel hungry Normally it takes two to three weeks, then once your body becomes fat adapted, all those cravings start to fall away and you just experience levels of mental clarity and energy that most people dream of and it’s caffeine free.
For the first 12 months I was doing a 14 to 16 hour window, and over time I built up to the 18 hour fasting which I do now. I have my first meal around 2pm and my last meal somewhere around 6 to 8pm.
During that 18 hour fasting window my body has converted into a fat burning machine, as opposed to sugar burning. As a consequence of that I have very high levels of energy because my body is constantly burning a fuel source where there’s plenty available.
There are other benefits too. Especially when you consider the cause of most disease is damaged cells and when they proliferate they become cancer.
When you’re fasting the body starts to scavenge and it literally starts to feed on itself, and the places it goes first are those damaged cells. So the fasting process literally starts to clean up the body.
Intermittent fasting has been linked to preventing early onset alzheimer’s, early onset parkinson’s, it is shown to have huge increases on different hormones and be able to balance out hormones. It also decrease the hormones associated with certain cancers.
For me, it’s been a complete and utter game changer. I can’t emphasise enough the physical, mental and spiritual benefits.
If you’re thinking about it, google intermittent fasting or fasting, and start learning about the process.
Start learning about ketosis and how the body can transfer from burning sugars to burning fat, and what the implications are in having consistent levels of energy. Learn about what is happening at a mitochondrial level, how the body starts to rebuild itself in more healthy and more effective ways.
If you’re interested do a google search and you’ll be amazed at the benefits of intermittent fasting ..
There are different windows, different protocols, 12 hours is the baseline per day. Anything between 12 and 18 hours per day, some really magical stuff starts to happen after 18 hours. 18 is the magic number.
Find out what works for you.
Check it out!
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Sounds like you’ve found the unique sweet spot for your body Kerwin which is awesome. My wife and I loved the incredible benefits of the fasting process so much we built our business around it!
Important point you’ve made regarding each and every client finding what works for them. We’ve had over 1200+ clients walk through our doors, and each and every one has a unique physical, mental and spiritual experience during the fasting process.
Thanks for sharing the fasting love!
Great point Pat thank you so much for sharing and really glad that you’re spreading such a great health message to so many people! Keep up that powerful work
What’s the name of the book that you got from your friend about fasting?
Cleanse & Purify Thyself by Richard Anderson
Hi Kerwin,
I am interested in learning about fasting. What was the book you read to get you into this? Or that you would recommend?
Thanks!
Cleanse & Purify Thyself by Richard Anderson. Glad you’re interested in IF!
Hi mate,
Where do you find this book in Australia?
Cheers
A lot of online bookstores have it
Won’t this cause someone to lose muscle mass? I’d love to try but I’m worried about losing muscle instead of fat.
When you do intermittent fasting properly you go into ketosis which means you burn more fat for energy throughout the day. If you’re still eating properly then you won’t lose muscle mass you’re just changing the timings of your meals.
Do you just eat whatever you want during your 6-8 hour feeding window or are you following some set diet?
I still follow a set diet. It’s all on my youtube channel if you’re interested!
My husband might be interested in this but isn’t into healthy foods much. Eats what I make him but he carb loads a bit and works shift work. Does this matter?
It will help but what he puts in is still important to fix.