Metabolic Increase:
Eating Window & Cold Plunging

There is a lot of information and speculation today about fasting,
intermittent fasting, or as I call it a scheduled “eating window”. (I just like
the word eating better than fasting! LOL) So, simply put you compressing
the segment of time in which you will consume food. And you will extend
the nighttime “fast” or lack of eating or drinking calories.
This extension can be placed on either side of the natural fasting that
occurs while sleeping. You can extend it in the morning say from early
breakfast at 6 to breakfast at 10. Or you can stop eating earlier in the
evening and go through the night until the morning. Essentially, it would
add a 2-8 hour period of not consuming calories to one side, or a little time
to both sides, of the regular night’s sleep time. For instance, if you are
finished eating the evening meal by 8pm and you normally eat at 6 am, an
extension may look like not eating until 10 am. This creates a 14-hour
fasted window and creates (my favorite part) a 10-hour “eating
window” 🙂 !
I was naturally drawn to a version of shortened eating windows
starting in high school. (Yes, it was some time ago!) It wasn’t called
anything then (and everyone told me not to do it), but it REALLY worked
for me. If I wanted to shed a few pounds (of course, it started with a too-
tight homecoming dress lol), I would delay eating lunch. I have not ever
been a breakfast eater. Breakfast just never worked for me. I was always
the morning person whose feet hit the floor at a dead sprint. So, I naturally
skipped breakfast. What I altered was that I would do something else
besides eat during lunch, such as playing basketball pickup games in the
gym or studying in the library. I delayed eating“lunch” until 4 pm, and then
I would eat dinner at 7 pm, as usual. This worked incredibly well for me.
And several things I learned pretty early on in doing the time
scheduled eating:
1st my stomach capacity would shrink within a couple of days. I was
unable to eat as much at a time because of that.
2nd the hunger pangs, once the first couple days of a new routine
were established, would cease at lunchtime.
3rd fat loss was best by day 3, and my energy level would increase
exponentially. Like, really a good deal. And that is not all the
improvements. Additionally, my mental clarity increased, and I felt better
after getting less sleep than would have been normal.
I worked 30-40 hours a week and attended school full-time. I
maintained an A student status, so it wasn’t my grades that suffered from
this rigorous schedule, it was my sleep time. I found that while shortening
my eating window, I slept more soundly, woke up more quickly, and was
more alert and clear-headed.
In the process, I discovered that I could maintain weight really
easily by only eating in the evening. So most of the time, my eating was
done in a 4-6 hour window. I would eat at 4, then again around 7-8, and
then stop eating until the next day at 4. I was eating the same amount as I
would have if I had been eating school lunch. But in a shorter time frame.
The most beautiful thing for me at that time was that by eating in that
window, I didn’t require as much sleep, which truthfully ranged from 5-7
hours a night, whether more was needed or not. So, a word to the wise: if
you are getting limited sleep, eating less often is incredibly helpful.
I didn’t like getting grief for it, so I stopped talking about it. I thought
it was genius, and it turns out – I was onto something. You can imagine my
inner smile and satisfaction when “intermittent fasting” became such a
craze! And now there is so much scientific evidence to support what I had
understood for years.
For the better part of my life, I have been a scheduled eater. And you
probably think, “Why take the heat from friends and family? Why not just
eat less at a time?” I (rather unlovingly) questioned myself about this too,
trust me. In the end, the honest reason I did scheduled eating instead of
just eating less is because I know myself. If I start eating, I will eat until I
finish the plate. That is just who I am. I don’t do things halfway. I do it all
the way or not at all. So, it was simpler for me to delay eating for a few
hours. Much simpler than eating half of a meal.
Trying to eat half was honestly just torture on so many levels. I grew
up in a “clean your plate” household. If it was on the plate, you weren’t
done until it was gone. So, I didn’t listen – at that time – to any “I’m
satisfied” messages that my body may have been sending. Because of my
formative training, I ignored any messages from my body. I ate it all, no
matter which lunch lady served it up. And so it led me to discover a gold
mine in just delaying eating for those 4 hours every day. My results were
fantastic, given the minimal effort it required on my part. I just avoided
going to the lunch room by doing other things. Things that I needed to do
or that I enjoyed instead. It was a win-win.
There were more advantages that I didn’t recognize at that time.
One of which, and definitely the best one to have learned, is “know and
love thyself.” It was kinder and more loving to avoid the lunch room and
eat a little later than beating myself up by not being able to eat half the
portion served. When eating later, I served myself and decided on the
portion I would eat. Using the eating window, I also avoided feeling
ashamed of myself, guilty and the negative self-talk such as; “You failed,
you knew you couldn’t eat only half, why bother, get a different dress…”
“You shouldn’t have.” Additionally, if I did succeed in leaving half the food
on the plate at lunch, self-talk was more like, “There are children starving,
so wasteful, clean up your plate; you’re not finished yet,” And so on. So,
even though I didn’t recognize it then, it afforded me the opportunity to be
kinder, more loving, and more positive with myself.
A couple of my favorite researchers in the field that I have learned
from and have tweaked my routine because of their kind offerings of
information are:
Dr Andrew Huberman. Dr Huberman can be found on YouTube on
the Huberman Lab channel. He is a Professor of Neurology and
Ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. His channel is a goldmine
of interesting information on so many aspects of the human brain and
body. (*Men, he does several outstanding in-depth presentations on male
hormone optimization!)
Dr Mindy Pelz is another of my favorite sources on scheduled eating,
especially for women. Dr. Pelz is the author of Fast Like A Girl. We will also
talk about her in the exercise chapter later. (Ladies, on her website, she
has a free guide to fasting like a girl! One that compliments our ever-
changing hormone and body states!)
Men’s and women’s bodies do have some hormonal and physical
variations. I will only go into a very general guide to using an eating
window, but you may want to dive into further advanced information. The
two above sources have so much to offer that you will find helpful.
Scheduled eating windows can look however you need them to to fit
your life. Some people I know love breakfast. Live for breakfast food. They
prefer to skip dinner altogether. That fits into their lifestyle and food
preferences better. It isn’t my preference, but the human body is amazingly
adaptable and will adapt. I know this from personal experience also
because, at a few of the bigger shows we show our horses at, we will have
times classes and commitments will consume the evening. This will keep
us from eating dinner. At those times, we often find breakfast to be the
only meal we can count on. We will alter our routine to a morning eating
window. Such as 5 am to 1 pm.
As you are considering when the best eating period for you will be to
try, do not feel as though you can not alter it as needed, even within the
same week. Of course, consistency is best for the body because it is like a
routine. And as you would imagine, many scientific studies have shown
that to be beneficial. But when life is life you have to do the best you can
while enjoying life and being kind and loving to yourself first. So, use the
most loving thing to do for your life as your first parameter in determining
an alteration.
What is it about a smaller eating period that helps with weight loss?
Well, the most straightforward answer is that the body has to stop
everything else it might be involved in when food appears. Not just food.
Anything that elevates blood sugar causes a disruption. Liquids don’t
generally take as long to deal with as solid foods, but they do disrupt if
they contain calories. The more frequently the body is interrupted, the
longer it will take to do routine tasks. The more frequently you take in
“disruptive” calories, the longer it takes the body to complete its functions.
Another key part is that when the body is void of calories, it adjusts
its hormone levels. These adjustments prepare your body to convert fat
stores into energy. Causing unwanted fat to be shed relatively quickly. An
eating window is often all that is required to stop insulin resistance and
re-balance the body.
An uptick of HGH or Human Growth Hormone can be increased by
as much as 5-fold during a calorie void. It begins climbing to 5 fold within
around 12 hours and is in full swing by 15 hours. This has numerous
benefits. It burns fat and increases muscle gain. So if you are working out
to build muscle, scheduling your calorie void time to compliment HGH,
being present for your workout period will vastly increase the amount of
muscle you can lay down during one workout. The most remarkable thing
about additional muscle is that muscle in and of itself burns fat at rest. So
at night while you are asleep the additional muscle you gain, as a result of
just having a smaller eating window, will drastically improve the amount of
fat burned while sleeping.
Insulin resistance and sensitivities improve exponentially during the
first week of fasting or calorie-void periods. As you cut out your glucose
for a longer period of time your baseline insulin levels will drop. When your
body’s baseline insulin level drops, it will correct itself and begin burning
off your fat stores for energy. This is incredibly good news if you are
someone who has struggled with a sluggish metabolism and diets never
seemed to work for you. Insulin resistance is quite likely the culprit. Of
course, if you are consuming soft drinks all day long, thinking that it is only
eating solid foods, you will not get this benefit. Soft drinks, including diet
soft drinks, actually have a reverse effect. Drinking anything with sweeting
agents gives the body glucose, or the lie that it is (with zero calorie
sweeteners) going to get glucose. The “sweetness” of zero-calorie drinks
lies in the brain that glucose is coming. It isn’t going to get glucose in the
case of “zero” calorie drinks, but the body responds as if it is. This actually
further increases insulin resistance and makes losing weight harder than if
you hadn’t chosen “zero” calories! Not kidding. Artificial sweeteners are a
lie, and your metabolism pays the price for them! You would be better off
eating and chucking all soft drinks. My sister said to me once, “Do not
drink your calories. It’s a waste of your caloric intake.” Eat real food, drink
water! (Coffee, herbal tea)
The most monumental thing, and honestly the most loving reason, to
adopt an eating window is that you allow your body the time it needs to
complete its cellular repair processes. The cells clean themselves out of
old and dysfunctional proteins and wastes that build up inside them. This
extends the life and benefits of each cell. You are made up of 36 trillion
cells. That is impressive. Truly, we are fearfully and wonderfully made. If
you are someone who gets every cold or flu that comes down the pike,
you will benefit from this cellular cleanup. Your immune system relies on
each cell to do its part. If they can not because they are too “icky” inside,
the result is that you will get “icky” too! You will be sick more frequently
and for longer periods of time.
So love your body. Try the time-scheduled eating window. Show your
body that you care whether it has the opportunity to make the needed
improvements to keep you healthy and resilient.
When the body has the time to complete its most necessary tasks,
there will begin to be up-regulations in gene expression through out your
body. Gene expression means that when a muscle gene is called forth, the
body uses available resources to make the required muscle tissue. If the
body has ample required nutrients, time and energy, it will perform this
task perfectly. It will lay down strong, healthy tissue that will last a long
period of time.
If the body does not have good nutrients, energy, and time needed, it
will still do its best. However, the tissue produced will be of lesser quality
and have a shorter life span. That is called gene down-regulation. When
you adopt an eating window one of the great benefits is gene up-
regulation! You are remade more perfectly!
Each year, in 365 days, your body replaces all 36 trillion cells within
your body. That is impressive, is it not?! 36 Trillion! Adopting an eating
window will help you up-regulate those genes to the standards in your
DNA map. The result will be that you will be incredibly healthy. Losing
weight and feeling incredible will be a happy side note. Believe me I am
living proof! You have come this far! Give me one year and I will change
your life. I promise!