INTERMITTENT FASTING: HOW TO FAST ON ALTERNATING DAYS AND PRESS ON TOWARDS YOUR GOALS, EVEN IF YOU ARE 'SUPER' BUSY: INTRODUCTION

No matter what your schedule, time or mental/physical disposition may be - or if you are juggling many things at once like the fella in the picture above -, this type of partial/alternating fast is a good option.

Whether for a day, a few days, half-a-week, half-a-month or just several hours, intermittent fasting can get you going on the road to weight loss, improved health, healing, life-extension, anti-aging and increased energy/vitality.

Yes, those are HUGE benefits! If you have struggled with your weight for a long time, then ANY reduction in food intake, no matter how small, will always produce positive results.

So, my point is, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?:-) This is the moment you have been waiting for. The time has come for you to seize the moment and start taking the action needed to bring about the weight loss and health improvement that you deserve.

These are not empty words offering frothy emotional appeal. I come from a deep place of binging, obesity, isolation and darkness. It is as a result of practicing these principles that I have dodged certain death and now have the privilege of sharing this website with you.

Life is too short... there is way too much to experience and enjoy. If you have arrived at this page looking for ways to shed excess weight and improve your health, then THIS IS IT!

I want you to STOP procrastinating and "thinking about it". Rather, I hope that you START taking action. Let the rest of your life begin right here and now! I'll do everything within my power to motivate you and give you information that can help you reach your fasting weight loss goals. But you have to become willing to do what it takes to produce the results, right?

One of the most common rebuttals I get from people when I talk to them about fasting is: " Oh, I just don't have the time! Besides, I would be too weak... I wouldn't be able to function!"

The weight loss and detoxification may not be as quick and dramatic as one would experiece during a prolongued water fast or juice fast, but they come if you are persistent. Let's dive right in and see what intermittent fasting is all about and how you can get started right away.

Calorie Restriction (CR), Life Extension & Anti Aging

Intermittent fasting - also referred to often as calorie restriction - is basically the practice of NOT EATING for short periods of time as a strategy for weight loss, body cleansing and anti-aging.

This practice can be done short-term as a means to lose weight and cleanse the body, and it can also be adopted as lifestyle based on one primary premise: EATING LESS ... period.

You can start to practice intermittent fasting TODAY by simply starting to eat less like, for example, skipping lunch.

Many people begin by these types of small reductions in their food intake and continue to to implement eating reductions of 20% and go as high as 50%.

By the way, I DO NOT believe in CR for bullimic or extreme ascetic purposes.

What I am talking about here is learning to eat less as a means to lose weight and IMPROVE health and life-quality, NOT for starving oneself and becoming sick. It is very important for us to discuss these topics from a strict perspective of health-improvement and life-enrichment.

If you are overweight but are not quite ready to do a prolonged juice or water fast, why not start skipping lunch for the next 30 days? Why not stop eating altogether every day after 6pm? Yes, these are both good methods that can get the ball rolling.

The basic premise behind calorie restriction is that the less one eats, the longer one lives and - also - the slower one ages. Scientific research seems to suggest that eating less actually "awakens" a certain gene that is said to increase longevity.

If this topic interests you, I encourage you to read Ageless Quest: One Scientist's Search for the Genes That Prolong Youth, written by reknown biology professor Leonard Guarente.

Guarente - currently at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - has dedicated large chunks of his career to solving one of the most intriguing mysteries of aging: why eating less makes life last longer.

Some research has shown that caloric restriction can indeed prolong life. In one study, lab mice that had their food intake cut by 40% lived as much as 16 months longer than their counterparts.

There are no human studies verifying that CR will have the same effect on humans, but short-term studies show that CR does reduce biomarkers for aging along with lowering the risk of chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes. For many, that's evidence enough.

Out of Excuses - Intermittent Fasting Options

Alright, so what exactly are the different ways that one can carry out an intermittent fast? As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, the easiest way to start immediately is to skip one meal daily for the next seven days.

The best way to do this, in my experience, is to eat your last meal the previous night at around 8pm, go to bed and then skip breakfast the next morning. You can break the fast by eating a light lunch, preferably one that is light on fat. I like to eat a salad with a splash of olive oil and Himalayan Salt.

Do this for a week, then for two weeks, three weeks ... then try it for an entire month. Intermittent fasting with this technique alone will help you to take solid steps towards weight loss and better health.

After a few weeks, you can increase the challenge and skip two meals instead of one... and so on. No matter how heavy your daily schedule may be, skipping single meals will not cause you that much discomfort. Ok, here are some of the other intermittent fasting methods I want you to consider:

Daily Intermittent Fasting (DIF)

Similar to Lent Fasting, this type of alternating fast is when one does not eat fron morning to evening. There are two ways to do it.

The easy DIF technique is to eat breakfast in the morning and eat nothing else for the following 12 hours. So, for example, if you ate breakfast at 7am, you would fast until 7pm.

The other, slightly harder DIF option, is to eat your last meal no later than 10pm the night before, and then wake up the next day, skip breakfast, and fasting all day until dinner time, no earlier than 7pm. In this latter scenario, you would be fasting for nearly 24 hours - while still being able to eat a meal each night.

In either of these scenarios, the fast should be broken with a light dinner. Lean fish, chicken, steamed vegetables, brown rice and salads is the best way to go. If you are a newbie, you can start by practicing DIF for a week, then two weeks - with the goal of eventually doing it for 30 days.

Every Other Day Intermittent Fasting (EOD)

Once you have practiced daily intermittent fasting for a while, you can move on and try EOD. With this system, one fasts for a full 24-hour cycle every other day. So this one takes you a little bit deeper into the fasting path than DIF For example, you can have breakfast on Monday morning and fast until Tuesday morning.

Break the fast with a light breakfast made up of oatmeal with low-fat milk or egg whites with whole grain bread and sliced fruit. You can eat all day Tuesday, have breakfast Wednesday morning and then fast until Thursday at the same time... and so on. With the EOD method, you will fast a solid 96 hours in seven days - a terrific step towards weight loss, detoxificaiton and improved health.

Half Week Intermittent Fasting (HIF)

Here one fasts for 3.5 days (84 hours) weekly and returns to eating for the following 3.5 days.

For example, you can have breakfast on Monday at 8am and then fast until Thursday at 8pm. You can break the fast with glass of juice and or a watered-down soup. Go to bed. On Friday morning you can resume eating for the rest of the week. It is strongly suggested that you eat as light as possible when breaking a fast.

Weekly Intermittent Fasting (WIF)

This is the ultimate type of intermittent fasting. With WIF, you fast for an entire seven day cycle, resume eating for another seven days, return to fasting for another week ... and so on. WIF is a very powerful form of intermittent fasting and can help you produce quick weight loss and detoxification.

You can start easy by, for example, fasting one week per month for a couple of months. Eat breakfast on Sunday morning and then fast until the following Sunday at the same time. This fast has to be broken with much caution. Please go to the breaking a fast page for specific instructions and follow them thoroughly.

Once you get used to fasting one week per month, increase the challenge and try fasting TWO weeks of every month.

In other words, fast for seven days, return to eating for seven days and then fast for another seven days. If you can follow this "two-week-per-month" WIF system for at least six months, you will definitely lose weight and improve your health.

Half-Gallon Daily

No matter which method of intermittent fasting you decide to do, it is VERY IMPORTANT that you drink at least half a gallon of water daily. This is a good practice whether one is fasting or not. In fact, adopting the water diet as a permanent part of your lifestyle can definitely help.

Permanent Change

As you can see, intermittent fasting gives you plenty of options. And I am sure that you can think of many others that are not listed here. The point is TO DO SOMETHING. If you have been wanting to lose weight for some time but do not want to do a long fast, then even starting out by skipping a meal daily can get you going. I always like to say: EASY DOES IT BUT DO IT!.

Something very important I want you to keep in mind is this: Fasting only to return to destructive eating is NOT the way to go. I know that it is hard to overcome our appetities. But it IS possible. Please evaluate your eating patterns with gut-wrenching honesty. Realize that IF NOTHING CHANGES, NOTHING CHANGES. Sure, I want you to produce great results from fasting.

But the ultimate and most important aspect of any fasting and weight loss program is this: CHANGING OUR EATING HABITS. To be sure, Rome was not built in a day. I am not saying that you should be perfect, never struggle and have moments of weakness. We all have them.

However, if you can admit to yourself that only a permanent change can provide lasting results, then you have taken a solid step in your journey towards freedom.

Robert Dave Johnston
Fitness Through Fasting-Editor/Webmaster
Publisher: FastingOlogy 9-Month Membership Program.