Hey everybo@dy, this is Mike Uhrlaub coming at you from the Flex compound with another episode of Power Your Life. Today I want to provide you with some tips on how to start intermittent fasting. But first, a little story.
A few weeks ago my daughter, Kaia, and I were out walking. While we’re out walking, there was this young pit bull black lab mix that decided to follow us. At first, we really weren’t sure if this dog was actually following us or just roaming the neighborhood. But with each one of our turns this dog just kept up with us. Initially she kept her distance. As we continued, she kind got a little closer and closer. We realized at that point she was lost.
We walk this route all the time and neither one of us had seen this dog before. She did have a red collar on around her neck, but there weren’t any tags. We knew she had to belong to somebody. As we walked, she really started warming up to us. She actually let us start to pet her and the next thing we know, she’s followed us home. It was dark and cold outside so I gave into my daughter who really wanted her to come into the garage. We opened the garage and let her in, then we gave her some food and water. We already have two dogs at home and we just really couldn’t take on another one.
Lost & Found
My wife, Shawna, put a post out on Facebook and within 30 minutes, if you can believe this, we had located the dog’s owner. Kaia and I were able to take and return her home. We found out the dog’s name was Lyla and she was only about a year old. Her owner had just gotten her and Lyla had this habit of jumping over the fence her owner had. As we said goodbye to Lyla it really got me thinking that in a way, most all of us are a lot like Lyla.
We start out our lives with so much energy, joy, and hope for what life will bring. Sometimes we let that excitement get the best of us and we start down a path without really thinking where it will lead. We just want to get out there into the world; See what’s out there for us. But if we’re not careful and don’t pay attention to where we are at, we too can end up becoming lost. Then the next thing we know, we can’t find our way home. But we can correct our path and find our way back home.
Sometimes this happens with a chance meeting of a friend or an experience in life that puts you back on the right path. Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t believe things happen by coincidence. I believe that everything happens for a reason and there is a plan, a purpose, and a path God has for each one of us. You see the signs that lead you to the right path are all around you. You just have to pay attention and look for them.
How to Get Started
The last time we talked about how to use intermittent fasting to lose weight in your daily life. Many of us out there still won’t use intermittent fasting to lose weight. The reason is they just don’t know how to get started. It seems so overwhelming and foreign that many out there just can’t get the traction needed to get started. What happens is you tend to overanalyze and overthink things. As you do that, it gets more and more complicated in your own mind. I call this analysis paralysis. We become our own worst enemy. We started thinking we have to know exactly how to do every step before we can get started. Then what happens is we never ever get started, but the reality is you don’t have to know every step to start. All you need to have is a little faith in the process and take the first step.
Today I’m going to give you some tips that are quick ways to take that first step. Any one of these will work to help get you started with intermittent fasting. The beauty is these steps will supercharge your fat burning and weight loss with intermittent fasting. The good news is you don’t have to do all of these things all of the time. You can do them as best as you can and the results you see will just keep you going.
Tip Number One: Skip a meal.
I know that your mom told you breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but when it comes to intermittent fasting, skipping breakfast and having just lunch and dinner really is a better idea.
Remember, the longer you can fast, the more fat you can burn. You start by pushing back breakfast and then you go for an early lunch. Then you can skip breakfast altogether. After a while, you may even be ready to go to having one large meal per day and fasting the rest of the time.
I want you to think about skipping the sugar and refined carbs as well. We talked about how insulin affects fat storage and fat burning. The best way to stop more body fat from accumulating those extra pounds is to cut away as much sugar and refined carbs out of your diet. Skip the sugar in your coffee. Skip the soda, candy, muffin, pasta, bread, and pizza.
The more of that stuff you can cut out of your diet and replace it with healthier foods the better. If you’re ready to drop the weight, cut out as many sugars and carbs as you can.
Tip Number Two: Eat your veggies.
Your mom was right there. You need to eat your veggies. Replace those refined carbs with plenty of veggies. For best results load your plate up with plenty of low-carb vegetables. Think about it like eating the rainbow. Make sure you get all the nutrients and vitamins you need. Leafy greens are a good choice. Everything from the cabbage family, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, those are all good choices.
Limit your fruits. Don’t get too over carried with that. If you do want to do some fruits, stick to berries as much as possible. They have a lower glycemic index and they’re lower in carbs than things like bananas and grapes. Kind of steer away from those,
But load your plate up with those veggies!
Tip Number Three: Feast on healthy fat and add some protein.
Make sure you add plenty of healthy fat and some quality protein to your plate. Think about it, this is worth your money right here. Eating fat helps you burn fat. Good sources of healthy fats include avocados, olive oil, nuts, seeds, coconut oil, and grass-fed butter. Those are all good sources of healthy fats.
Pick some chicken legs and thighs over breast meat. Get some fatty fish like salmon. Those are all good sources of fats and protein. Of course, there’s always bacon. But don’t overdo it with the bacon even though bacon always make everything better. This fat will help keep you full and satisfied longer without having influence on your blood sugar and insulin. P
Protein is very important as well so make sure your protein intake is adequate. You really should shoot for a half gram per pound of body weight.
Just take your body weight, divide it in half and that is your daily protein intake you should be shooting for in grams. Between the veggies, fat, and protein you’re going to have plenty of food to eat without the sugar and the refined carbs.
You can make plenty of delicious meals without bread and pasta. Seeing the beauty of intermittent fasting is it isn’t all or nothing. You can stick to your fasting schedule and then work on days where you skip the sugar and refined carbs. Then you can have another day where you do enjoy that piece of cake or slice of pizza. You don’t have to give that stuff up forever, but keep it balanced and do what you can to burn away the excess body fat.
Tip Number Four: Combine intermittent fasting and low carb eating.
That’s what I’ve already outlined for you guys. Combining the intermittent fasting with low carb eating. I really find it helpful to be able to track what I eat for a few days. Then I get a feel for how many carbs or carbohydrates are in the foods I eat.
For fat loss, try and keep your daily net card intake below 30 grams. This will help you stay in ketosis or the fat burning phase all day long.
Tip Number Five: Get some exercise before you eat.
We all know how to get and keep our body in fat burning mode. Let’s talk about an easy way to burn fat faster. I’m sure you’ve guessed it. We just mentioned it.
That key is exercise. You’ll burn extra calories and rev up your metabolism for hours after you work out. An easy way to make a hard work count is to work out before you eat. This could be as simple as going for walk before you eat your first meal. Maybe ride your bike to work; Maybe not now in the winter, but this spring. Or hit the gym in the morning.
The key is move around as much as possible before you have your first meal of the day. If you can’t do that because your timeframe with work doesn’t really match up, then just get moving. Even if it’s at the end of the day, that’s okay. It will still benefit you.
Any exercise is good. But if you can schedule it during your fasting hours, it is more effective since your body won’t be able to rely on burning the easy sugars in your system.
Summary
Let’s quickly recap what we talked about. Skip sugar and refined carbs. Skip a meal. Stick to meat, healthy fats, eggs and veggies instead. Move around to burn fat fast.
Follow the supercharged strategies as much as possible and you’re going to watch those pounds melt off fast. Once you get into the groove of not eating for long stretches of time, you’re going to be pleasantly surprised how easy and effective it really is.
I just gave you the five tips you must know to start intermittent fasting now. But I do know there are some of you who may want some extra help, and that’s why we’ve created a weight loss system that follows intermittent fasting. It guides you through the process and is available online. It’s called The Four Week Weight Loss System for Busy Moms and Dads. You can learn more just by clicking HERE.
What I’d like to do now is leave you with this thought-provoking quote from the great Billy Graham. “The will of God will not take us where the grace of God cannot sustain us.”
I’ll let you chew on that one for a while and remember it’s progress, not perfection.
Until next time, Power Your Life and keep moving forward.
