Intermittent Fasting made easy! Change your microbiome with La Vie Wellness.

Intermittent Fasting made easy!
Change your microbiome with La Vie Wellness in a Bottle

Last summer I gained 3 pounds.

It may not sound like much but for someone who weighs 125 pounds and does hot yoga wearing a tight yoga outfit--those 3 pounds shows up as an additional fat roll that I am not happy about. My background is as a national swimmer so I am used to feeling fit and in sync with my body, when something is off I feel it right away. I am also a firm believer in fixing things. Just to be clear, it’s not about the weight - its about gut health and working on my optimum health at all times.

So, I tried intermittent fasting (IF). As a foodie, the word “fasting” is equivalent to running a marathon uphill. So, I want to make it a pleasant experience by incorporating my biological clock and my lifestyle. I normally don't get hungry until 11:00 am, so,eating at 8 p.m. and then eating again at 11:00 a.m the next day, I was doing IF without much effort. But I still need to lower my calorie intake to lose those extra 3 pounds.

What’s intermittent fasting?

According to Healthline, “it is an eating pattern that cycles between periods of fasting and eating. It doesn’t specify which foods you should eat but rather when you should eat them. In this respect, it’s not a diet in the conventional sense but more accurately described as an eating pattern”.

There are many ways and methods to do it but here is how I did it and I think it’s the less painful way to do it (by not feeling hungry at all). One of the healthiest ways of IF (intermittent fasting) is by overpopulating my intestinal flora with high amount of probiotics therefore “remodeling” my intestinal flora, and the best thing is--it's easy (a key to success: Keep it Simple!). As soon as I feel hungry in the morning I start blending a really thick smoothie full of nutrients: fruits, cacao powder, kale and sprouted almond milk. That lasts me until 3:00 pm. In between, I drink probiotic drinks that don't have fruit juices in them, because I have put fruits in my smoothies earlier, so I drink Beet Kvass, Coconut Kefir and Coconut yogurt for snacks. The key here is to not feeling hungry so I allow myself snacking on superfoods such as nuts (I like cashews and almonds) and avocados with Braggs (soy sauce alternative) and nutritional yeast (these are good fats that keep you feeling full). Around 6:00 pm I start making dinner as usual. Because I haven’t eaten all day I look forward to making a meal and enjoy my dinner with family. Foods never tasted so good!!!

Here is what happened to my body as I was doing IF for about 2 months.

Why 2 months? It felt so good that I didn't feel a need to do anything differently. It keeps my life simpler by not having to think "what's for breakfast and lunch?" My choices were only liquid. If I were out and about I would just go to a juicery instead of going down the list of restaurants. I notice that I had so much energy that I didn’t have to sleep that much (for a workaholic like me I spent it on working). Every week my dinner portion became less and less and this also helped my stomach shrink. On week 5, I started to feel that I don’t want any red meat at all, and I put this down to the fact that red meat is heavy to digest.

I continued with hot yoga 4 times a week while fasting, as well as my usual activities. I didn’t do this if I had a strenuous work load such as vending 16-20 hours at a festival. I didn’t have a setback or the need to rest to detox. I felt really well and not eating out in restaurants was a huge saving! Best of all, I felt so good. I came up with a theory that the less I eat, the less hungry I get and the better I feel. This intermittent fasting so far is my favorite, it doesn't require much preparation before and going back to regular eating is easy.

So, why did I stop? I listen to my body’s needs and wants. I missed having those hot potatoes in the morning and I gave myself permission to eat them. Fast forward two months and I haven't gained weight. I have increased the frequency of yoga and have gained more muscle weight so I am leaner with the same amount of weight.

I recommend that you incorporate your biological clock into the program, if you are used to having breakfast and light dinner maybe you should keep the breakfast and do the fasting from morning until dinner time with some warm broth at night. It’s good to have warm food at night to relax our intestines.

Here are La Vie products I recommend making your IF experience more delicious, healthier and easier. One week supply from La Vie:

• Half gallon Unsweetened Almond milk
  (pre-order by Wed at noon for weekend pick ups). For breakfast blend it with fruits or vegetables of your choice and avocados for good fat. 
• Half gallon Beet Kvass, Coconut Kefir or Tropical Kefir
• 3 Coconut Yogurts (any flavor)
• Optional: 3 Magic Mineral Broths for the evening after your dinner.