The Day That I Stopped Eating Breakfast

365 Days ago, I began intermittent fasting. I was stuck in a fitness rut and needed to make a move. In the days leading up to this new radical lifestyle change I read multiple articles highlighting the pros & cons of IF and watched several videos of various people describing their IF experiences.

As I digested this mass of information and opinion, there was one view that really resonated with me. It originated from a physician explaining the mental and physical challenges associated with diets vs. IF, he essentially concluded that diets are mentally easy to accept but extremely difficult to physically adhere to consistently over time and that IF is exactly the opposite. IF sounds borderline crazy on the surface, not eating for 16, 17, 18 hours at a time but physically once your body adapts to this time restricted eating approach it becomes exceptionally easy to maintain.

Reflecting on the past year, IF has taught me several important lessons:

• It’s completely ok to feel hungry and choose not to eat. Whether we realize it or not our bodies were designed to go long periods of time without food consumption, think caveman. In today’s fast paced instant gratification society I realize this is a difficult concept to acknowledge.

• Discipline & personal accountability. I’ve always been a fairly disciplined person throughout most of my life but IF has taken both traits to a new level for me. A level that I didn’t know I had intrinsically. I’ve fallen in love with the “pay the piper” mentality associated with IF. You want to stay up late and eat that last slice of pizza or chicken wing? Fine but just know tomorrow instead of fasting until Noon you’ll have to extend it out numerous hours depending on when you satisfied that late-night craving.

• Simplicity. IF has dramatically simplified the way that I think about food. I typically break my fast each day sometime between Noon and 1pm, eat a snack around 3:30 pm (usually a banana or apple with almonds), have dinner at roughly 6:30 pm (my wife is a fantastic cook) then eat some sort of additional snack just before 8 pm. Rinse and repeat.

• Empty stomach cardio. This type of cardio can be tremendously effective for weight loss. For years I had heard about the benefits associated with this but was never fully able to participate due to my work schedule. With IF I’m routinely getting 4-6 empty stomach cardio sessions every week (I’m fortunate to work for a company that has an on-site gym).

Now on to the results, I’ve dropped 30 lbs. and feel phenomenal. My endurance is stronger as I’ve been running approximately 10 miles per week. Strength levels have dipped moderately which I anticipated given my reduced frame combined with the fact that I’m pushing 40 years old. Intermittent fasting has truly changed my life for the better with my only regret being that I didn’t start sooner.