Can’t find any eggs? There’s no need to sweat over it. Here’s my solution for surviving the worldwide food shortages.
Don’t settle for waiting out the plague. Bulletproof habits are a way to turn the lockdown into an opportunity to ramp up your fitness. And because the challenge is greater, so are the rewards.
It all starts with two minutes, or less. Each week brings us to the next level. By the end of this series, these health and productivity boosting habits will be integral parts of your routine.
Pros of Intermittent Fasting
- It’s the ultimate challenge in lockdown.
- You don’t have to cook breakfast.
- Makes the most of the lack of food shortages.
- Mutes hunger.
- Builds a better relationship with food.
- Lowers inflammation.
- Better mental energy.
- Enables fat loss.
Cons of Fasting
- It’s the ultimate challenge in lockdown.
- No breakfasts.
- You still get waves of hunger.
- Could potentially promote binge eating.
- No weetabix.
The second release in bulletproof habits could easily be the hardest one to tackle. But fasting is increasingly popular, as more people are realising that four or so extra hours without food doesn’t send the body into meltdown. So there’s a decent chance you’re already on something similar.
This article will be directed at those on the fringes or out of the picture altogether. Getting into fasting can be a tricky transition for those who have been habitually sticking to the worldwide tradition of three meals a day, with a couple of snacks thrown in for good measure.
A stab at a first fasting window is typically rewarded with uncontrollable hunger as they go past the blank breakfast phase. If you’re able to batten down the hatches and wait it out, those sensations vanish and you progress to a feeling of clear-headed energy. The hunger that had come and gone wouldn’t have been a physical urge, but a mental response to a time-based cue. Because you’ve conditioned the body to expect breakfast at a certain time, a routine that’s been established over the course of decades. And that’s the distinction that makes fasting such a potent beast at controlling your food intake.
Much of hunger is a mental craving based on external cues such as time, rather than a physical signal that the tank needs filling. Those external cues are reinforced each time you give in. If you can get past breakfast, and continue to do so over the course of weeks, the reward loop weakens and the sensations lessen spectacularly in intensity.
Not only would that open up an easy way to stop calories from skyrocketing during the lockdown, just by taking one meal out of the picture, fasting also allows a better relationship with food. You understand the difference between mental and physical symptoms, and realise that you don’t need to be shovelling food in 24/7 in order to stay alive. The body will find a way of surviving.
Fasting – Making It Bulletproof – The First Stage
Despite knowing what to expect, your first stab at fasting isn’t going to be much easier. The wave of hunger will still feel just as real. So rather than making the first stage into a colossal target, I’ll give you one simple step to execute.
- Download one of the many apps that tracks fasting.
- Start the timer once you’ve finished your last meal of the day.
- Drink at least two pints of water as soon as you wake up.
- Have a coffee if it suits you.
- Stop the clock just before you give in to the first meal of the next day.
- Repeat each day.
This will work much better than aiming for 16 hours straight off the bat, which can turn a few hours into an eternity. Instead, you’re becoming mindful of how long you can go without a meal, and it will inevitably turn into a challenge. It’s exactly for this reason I bought an oura ring to track sleep. It doesn’t miraculously fix my energy levels, but it gives me a reason to keep improving on previous tallies.
Good luck in making it past the first week of mindful fasting. The next stage will be dropping in a week’s time.
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