Change Can Be Good

4-Week Intuitive Fasting Results/Observations

I had hit a wall. Suddenly, I felt stuck in the gym and building lean muscle was becoming arduous despite high levels of exercise. It would be easy at age 48 to just attribute my lack of results to my number of trips around the sun, but I wasn’t buying it. My body was letting me know - ‘Hey, I’m bored here.’

I was curious about intermittent fasting for me and for my clients, so when I saw Dr. Will Cole’s new book Intuitive Fasting, I thought, ‘why not give it a shot?’

I dove into the book and the protocols. As a functional medicine doctor, he has written several influential books and I trusted him to be my guide for this four-week journey. 

The protocol featured fasts that varied by week/day and a Ketotarian way of eating. The Ketotarian way is basically a vegan-keto way of eating with vegetarian-keto options. I’ve never eaten keto before - well at least not intentionally. For me, this was a sensible way of doing Keto, especially because I had no interest in bringing dairy back into my life.

The 4-week routine worked incredibly well for me. I lost 9 lbs, leaned up, and it felt like every ounce of inflammation was gone. My rings were slipping off, clothes were more loose and I realized that my body could in fact become, fat-adapted. It was a way to re-balance, reset, and renew. 

He uses fasts from 12 hours to 22 hours in length. Each week was different and It was shockingly easy to complete these longer fasts. I was never hungry and never full - always satiated. I got in touch with instinctive eating patterns and increased my mindfulness. Fasting lengths were not the challenge - it was shorter eating windows. I also struggled some days doing intense exercise. My energy wasn’t up to par. I learned that my body does need clean carb cycling intermittently to function at its best. This does happen at times, especially for women. 

I would need more space to detail more of Dr. Cole’s flexible plan. But the message I wanted to share is that if you feel as if your body is plateauing, try something new. 

I cooked different recipes, ate new foods, used different fasting windows, and got much different results. I was educated on new ways to fit healthy fat into my life - something many of my clients also struggle with.  I had fallen into a repetitive pattern of eating. I received questions on social media like, “why are you doing this? What happened to Whole30?” Just like Whole30, this was a vehicle to learn more about myself. It’s a productive conversation with my body and I paid attention to the feedback it gave me. You can be happy with where you are and still be curious. It’s all a self-experiment to find what works for you.

Just adding a different eating routine, some different foods, and some variety can give your body the jump start it needs to achieve the results you seek. 

If you’re interested in a guided way to do intermittent fasting while also eliminating inflammation this is a possible option.