According to Healthline, intermittent fasting has many many benefits to help make your life better. The two main benefits that have drawn me into trying IF are weight loss and brain health. I have seen both of these benefits every time I tried intermittent fasting, but the most beneficial time was during my collar bone injury.
A little over a month ago I was downhill mountain biking for the first time, sent it down a jump, flipped over my handlebars, and broke my collarbone in half! Ten out of ten would do it again. The following week I got surgery to put all that mess back together, and it has now been about 3 weeks since then. This means I have about 3 more until I can hit the trails again!
Before this injury, I was a pretty active guy. I did 3 full-body strength training sessions a week, ran a couple of times a week, and did 7 hours of krav maga a week. Coming into this recovery period I had one big fear…getting fat. It didn’t really help either when my mom spoiled me with pancakes and candy every day for the week she visited. I knew I had to come up with a strategy to try and maintain my fitness levels as much as possible.
I realized I could not exercise, but I still had to eat. I know myself enough to know that during recovery I would also have a tendency to overeat. To balance this all out, I decided that at least during weekdays I would implement intermittent fasting.
I developed a pretty solid routine, which I really miss now that I’m back in the office. I would wake up around 6 am, make a cup of coffee, read the Bible and pray, get a second cup of coffee, and start working around 7:30. Around 11:30 to 12 I would start lunch. Usually, I would watch Friends while I cooked up a delicious omelet, broccoli, and a protein shake. While I was cooking and watching I would sip on some delicious bone broth from Kettle & Fire! Then I would eat and go back to work.
The rest of my day was not quite as much of a routine, but I just made sure not to eat anything past 8 pm so I could maintain a 16 hour fast. Another big worry I had while being stuck at home was going crazy. I had to learn a lot of other tips and tricks during this period to help with that. I wrote another post all about those that you can find here. This article, however, is solely about intermittent fasting.
Calculating Results…Calculating…Calculating
My results from trying this strategy were fantastic! I felt great! I never really felt hungry except during the 5 minutes before I had my morning coffee. I usually ate lunch more out of a desire to have a break than actual hunger. I also found that during my fasted period I was super focused! I couldn’t believe it! All those studies were telling the truth!
Then something more remarkable happened…
I was taking a shower and out of curiosity decided to step on the scale assuming I would be gravely disappointed. Surprisingly, I was the exact same weight as when I first got injured! I was shocked! I was thrilled!! Now, in reality, this means I probably gained some fat and lost some muscle, but maintaining my weight was a dream come true!
If you too have suffered from an injury, I can understand the pain! If you are scared of having to buy bigger clothes upon recovery, then you are not alone! Maybe give intermittent fasting a try!
One caveat, though, I am not a doctor or a dietitian! Please do your research and make sure this is right for you! Thomas Delauer has some great stuff you can check out. Most of his videos are on keto, but he also has several videos covering some of the nitty-gritty benefits of intermittent fasting. It helped me tremendously and I look forward to keeping it up post-recovery! Maybe with enough time, I can look like Terry Crews, a huge intermittent fasting advocate!
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Previously published on medium
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