Maybe you've thought about intermittent fasting. Maybe you've tried it, made it two days, and quit.
Or maybe you're in the middle of some kind of challenge right now - a workout streak, a reading plan, anything - and you've missed a few days. Now there's a little voice saying, "What's the point?"
I'm about to hand you something that's easy to do and easy not to do. But the bigger lesson in here isn't really about food. It's about how you keep going when you don't do it perfectly.
First, the disclaimer
Full disclosure: I'm not a healthcare provider. I'm not your doctor. Before you change how you eat or how you move, go get advice from someone qualified who knows you and your health. I mean that. Everything below is what I'm doing, not a prescription for you.
Count the days you did, not the ones you missed
I've been working through a long challenge, built in stages. Stage one is simple: move your body 17 minutes a day. Walk. Stretch. Do some mobility work. If you can't move from the waist down, move your arms. Where there's a will, there's a way. And if you already train hard most days, those 17 minutes can be active recovery - a walk or some stretching on top of your workout.
Some people tell me they've hit every single day. Some, if they're honest, have done five out of seventeen.
Here's the thing. Odds are that's five more days than they did the seventeen days before.
So if you're beating yourself up - like I tend to do to me - quit doing it. Be thankful for the days you did. That's what Dan Sullivan calls the gap and the gain. The gap measures you against perfect. The gain measures you against where you started. One of those keeps you going. The other one gets you to quit.
Stage two: a daily 17-hour fast
Stage two stacks on top of the movement. It's a daily 17-hour fast with a 7-hour eating window.
You pick the window. I'll probably go noon to 7. You might like 11 to 6, or 1 to 8. Whatever fits your life.
Outside the window, keep the calories out. Water, as much as you want. Black coffee. Zero-calorie electrolytes if you like them. If you need something with a little flavor, keep it zero calories, and keep the food inside those seven hours.
Why bother? There's a lot of interesting reading out there on what fasting may do in the body, and it's worth looking into with your doctor. For me, a big part of it is simpler than that. When I stop eating a couple of hours before bed, I believe it's better for my sleep and better for how I feel the next day.
And I'll be honest with you. A lot of days I already eat in a seven- or eight-hour window. But there are a lot of days I don't. I need this as much as anyone reading it.
When 17 hours feels like too much
Maybe you're reading this thinking, "There's no way I'm doing that every day." Okay. That's fine.
The program is the program. If you want to say you did it every single day, you do the 17 and 7. But even better than quitting is doing something less than you do right now.
Try a nine-hour window. Try eight. If you wake up and eat right away, and eat again right before bed, just pull both ends in. Thirty minutes on each side. Then an hour. Surely you can go an hour.
Stay the course, man. The question isn't "Can I do it perfectly?" The question is, "What am I willing to do to get a little bit better?"
Don't think about 68 days
If you start by staring at the whole calendar, you'll talk yourself out of it before lunch. That's the gap again.
The gain sounds like this: "Today I'm doing seven hours. Today I'm not eating after 7:00."
That's it. One day. Then the next one. I'd encourage you to start day one with the full seven-hour window. You might surprise yourself. You might get to the end of the day and say, "Huh. I made it."
That's how you build the habit. Not by being heroic for a week. By keeping the promise you made to yourself, one day at a time.
Your One More Rep: water first
Here's your One More Rep for tomorrow morning. Just one.
Before coffee, before your phone, drink a big glass of water. Then give yourself a little time before any caffeine - even 30 minutes helps. My mornings go water first, then some reading and my devotional, and then the black coffee. Water before coffee sounds small. It's easy to do. It's also easy not to do.
Tonight, pick your eating window and write it down. Tomorrow, start with water and close the kitchen when your window closes. One day.
And when you eat, try to get some whole food protein in your main meals. Keep that in your back pocket. It may be where this goes next.
Keep stacking the reps
Whether you do every day or five out of seventeen, you're doing the reps. You're becoming a better version of you, one day at a time, one thought at a time, one action at a time. And that matters more than you think, because getting better equips us to go serve the people around us better.
Don't quit. Be thankful for the days you did. Then go get today.
God bless. Have a great one.
