It’s Time for the Truth

Can you imagine if you never cleaned your house but continued to live there year after year? You never did dishes, never took out the trash, never cleaned the bathroom but you still ate, slept, entertained and kept buying new things to fill every square inch.

How long would you be comfortable, content and happy to be home?

This is what happens in our bodies when we never let them repair and recover.

We have an internal recycling system, called autophagy (a-ta-fa-gee), that can work for us if we separate our meals enough that our body isn’t always having to spend energy on digestion. Of course, the biggest part of the problem is that we have been told for years (especially by the fitness and nutrition industries) that we need to eat frequently.

They warn us of dire consequences like low blood sugar (actually a great and valuable accomplishment especially if we want to stop storing everything we eat), low energy (not true…we actually have less energy, especially mentally, after we eat, i.e: food comas), brain fog and anxiety (the opposite effect happens when we fast - we have more clarity and focus and calm compared to after we eat).

If we eat every time we get a hunger itch, our body has to stop what it was doing and go back to digest, even if it was doing something crucial to our existence.

When we fast, our bodies can recycle old, dead, damaged cells through repair or excretion. These old cells, if left alone because our body never gets into autophagy, can float around damaging our vessels, growing tumors, making cancer and clogging our arteries.

But thankfully, when we fast, our bodies will miraculously take care of these old cells, without us having to do anything. All we do is nothing. When we stop eating, we let our bodies do the things they were created to do: keep us alive AND thriving.

For a while now, I’ve been beating around the bush, trying to avoid any negative emotions about how I help women change their bodies. It’s a lot of work to be a wordsmith around truth. Instead, I’m just going to let it land with you, reader, however it does, and let the consequences come.

In order to fight the enormous obesity epidemic (and believe me, we are getting fatter by the second in America), we have to stop eating the way we have for the last 50 years. We have to pay attention to ingredients, be willing to cook real food at home and adjust our compass for what is food and what is a food-like-product, masquerading as foods on our shelves.

It’s an unfortunate and unpopular reality that most restaurants and grocery stores are full of junk. Our bodies can’t use those food-like-products (even when they taste great!) so they store most of what we eat under our skin in order to protect our vital organs.

Our bodies protect us and put the poisonous food-like-products in our fat cells where they can stay dormant, for the most part, until we start to finally need to use some fat energy. Unfortunately, most adults never need any extra energy because we eat 14 hours a day. Literally.

When we eat that frequently, starting at 6 or 7am and not ending until 9 or 10pm, our body is in constant storage mode. As fast as it can, it breaks down the meal and shuttles it into the storage cells because our muscles and liver are still usually full from the last meal. This continues for decades and is one of the biggest reasons that we have to stop eating the way we do. We cannot survive.

And here’s how we fix it.

We fast between meals, no snacking and definitely not eating every 2 hours. None of us need that much energy as adults (children and women who are pregnant or nursing need more, of course).

When we take a break from eating, our bodies don’t have to use all the energy on digesting and storing, and they can actually do some maintenance and repair work.

Do you think you were born to live in a tired, achy, uncomfortable, hard to digest, hard to sleep, hard to feel happy body? Do you really think you were born to die fat and tired? Of course we weren’t. The miracle of our physical body is so perfect and intricate and miraculous that nothing ever created after it can even come close.

Let’s start treating our bodies with the TLC that they need in order to function fully and comfortably. Let’s fast between meals longer than we have so far, so that we can feel better than we do right now.

If you’re willing to do some therapeutic fasting (0-2 meals a day in various frequencies and durations), for 3-6 months, you will be a different person by the end of 2023. Can you even imagine how amazing that will feel?

It will feel like a miracle. You will wake up in the morning and won’t dread the day. You will have energy. Your clothes will fit and look pleasant to you. Your stomach won’t bloat after meals. You’ll make time for exercise consistently. You’ll enjoy eating real foods and won’t believe you ever did it differently. You’ll look forward to the future because you’ll know how to live in a body that isn’t dying from obesity.

You will feel free.

Many people critique fasting as too stressful, especially for women. And although women are more sensitive to stress than men, it’s not because we can’t handle it; we just feel and react to stress differently. This is a physiological reality, not a judgement on our ability to handle pressure. The real story line is that because we are over-stressed, we need to use even more care around food and fitness, not less.

We need to deal with stress and stop using food to make us feel better.

Food gives us fuel. Food is not comfort, ease, compassion, resolution, relief or companionship. Food is energy. Food is a solution to a metabolic need for energy, not because we got in a fight or feel boredom or have too much work or any other reason.

Going without food for a period of time IS a stressor, just like exercise, waking up in the morning, being productive and having a purpose in life. These are positive stressors and they make us resilient and capable and effective as leaders and functioning members of the world. Would you ever argue that having purpose, waking up in the morning and exercising are bad practices? Then neither is fasting.

These are strong words because there is an enormous urgency for us to stop killing ourselves. We have to stop the way we are treating ourselves by using food for answers other than the energy question. And if you’re still reading this, understand me: my heart breaks that we have not known how poisonous and addictive our food supply has become until recently. But now that we know, we have to behave with more discernment and good judgement, even at the expense of old habits and comfort.

I’m sure that not much of what I’ve written about is new to you. We all know that in order to live well, we need a body that is well. I can help you navigate this plan with support, strategies and simple tools that give you results. I’m looking for women who are ready to change now. If that’s you, reach out here. xo ~ Kristen