Month: February 2021

Intermittent Fasting – Foolproof Ways to Make it Work

Posted on by kbodtmann

Intermittent Fasting (IF) has been all the rage lately. There is no way I could have achieved 100 pound weight loss without using this very important tool. More importantly it reduces your risk of many major diseases. Why would you not try it? Keep reading for my tips on how I gradually incorporated this into my life.

  • Start Slow
  • Rewire your brain
  • Learn the Benefits
  • Don’t push yourself

(1) Start Slow

Start very slow. You do not need to wake up one day and do a 16 hour fast. You will crash. First, I timed how long it was between my night meal and morning meal. If I ate a snack at 8 pm and had breakfast at 6 AM then my body was already fasting for 10 hours overnight. I just pushed back the time I had my first morning meal by 1 hour every month. YES – that is very slow and that is the point. I allowed my body to adapt to this change. If this is too hard then do 30 minutes every month. Secondly, I did let my body start to see some ketones ( this is the energy source your brain uses when it can’t have sugar). I did this in the morning so my body would recognize what is going to happen when I was fasting. I did this in the form of MCT oil ( a form of coconut oil) and started with 1 teaspoon in the morning. This way my brain was used to using some ketones as fuel instead of sugar and wouldn’t rebel on me as I started to extend my fasting time!

(2) Rewire your brain

I listened to a talk by the owner of WILDFIT on a podcast and he told a little story about how life used to be. Our ancestors in the not so distant past would wake up after fasting overnight and would need to either HUNT or FORAGE for food. They did not have the luxury of rolling out of bed and eating a bowl of cereal or a breakfast bar. Not only this, but these people would walk miles and miles to find food and then at the end of a long fasted period would somehow have the remarkable energy to use their brains and strength to hunt large prey. They had to operate with a sharpness and clarity to do this or else they wouldn’t eat. YES, we are designed to not only be functional without food but OPTIMAL without food. Imagine that! If you don’t believe me just try it. Digestion takes away precious resources and diverts blood flow from your brain to your gut and butt – quite literally. The point of this story is that when I started to feel a bit hungry at the end of my fasted period but pushed through that, on the other side was a mental clarity and increased energy I have never experience before. I learned to couple the feeling of hunger with the knowing that I was going to be more productive and more mentally sharp if I just pushed through it. This gave me tremendous positive reinforcement and helped me embrace and even like my fast!

(3) Learn the Benefits

I think Intermittent Fasting has many major benefits but I will list my favorites below. If these are not a good enough reason to try it then I am not sure what is.

Heal: Your body has a chance to heal during this time. If your body is constantly digesting food it can not dedicate its resources to healing your body 

Fat Adapt: You are slowly training your body to break down and use FAT instead of carbs. If you constantly give your body carbs and sugar, it will have no reason to get rid of your body fat 

Cleaning house: Dying or injured cells will get removed easier in a fasted state ( aka autophagy – eating your own bad cells) 

Immune boost: Let your body rest from constantly digesting food and dedicate it’s resources to boosting your immune system and health.

(4) Don’t push yourself

This is for the ladies out there. Give yourself grace. Prior to menopause, women have a very delicate hormonal balance. Simply said, if your body thinks it is really starving then it won’t want to reproduce in times of famine. Our systems are smarter than us and your hormones will be greatly affected if you push yourself too hard. If you lose your period, begin spotting between cycles, or experiencing emotional highs and lows that you have never felt before then you are pushing yourself too much. My suggestion is to stick with a 12 hour fast daily ( I do 16 hour fast but not daily!). You can also just fast a couple of times a week and then other days eat according to your normal schedule. You do not need to be militant to feel the benefits, just consistent in the fasting schedule that works for you. If you are already eating a keto diet, you are a new mom or working a stressful job/ have a stressful schedule then give yourself some love and a break. Also, remember that your body will find a way to adapt and I like to keep mine guessing which is why I don’t do a long fast every day.

Get Started Today – 5 Tips To Get The Most Important Things Done!

Posted on by kbodtmann

You do not have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great! – Zig ZIglar

Have you found yourself at the end of the day thinking, “Where did the time go?” . You feel like you were busy all day but what did you accomplish? Have you moved yourself toward your truly most important goals or even spent your time making moments you will cherish? Or are you like me and spent the day ticking things off an endless to do list and feeling unsatisfied and demotivated by all the things that are left to do each night. Below are 5 tips that can help you figure out what is important and make strides each day toward those things.

  • Prioritize what is important
  • “Eat your biggest frog” and get momentum
  • Batch Tasks and Stack Habits
  • Tiny Tasks and Tiny Habits
  • Motivate yourself

(1) Prioritize what is important

Sit down and choose ONLY 3 goals you would like to accomplish in the next 3 months. They could even be yearly goals. Mine this year includes; (#1) organizing and decluttering my house, (#2) working on my blog, and (#3) improving my health. These tasks are important but not urgent so they used to always get stuck at the end of the day and I would never have time for them. Now I choose to do one small thing in each category every day and I determine a general time I will do them in the day. These 3 Most Important Tasks (MIT’s) get scheduled and done. They are my biggest rocks and then everything else on my to do list is the sand that gets filled in around those rocks. If I get those three things done every day, I am taking small steps toward becoming a new person and can celebrate these tiny wins.

An Example of how this works in my life:

  • AM: Wake up, drink water, make sure the kids are settled and DO YOGA ( #3), DECLUTTER a defined space for 10 minutes ( #1)
  • Afternoon: Eat lunch, WRITE BLOG POST ( #2), MEDITATE 5-10 minutes ( #3)
  • Evening: Cook a HEALTHY DINNER (#3), Change into pajamas and 5 PUSH UPS ( #3)

RINSE AND REPEAT

(2) “Eat your biggest frog” and get momentum

Sometimes the thing you want to do least or the one thing that keeps getting pushed to the next day on your to do list is exactly what you need to get done. If you just do that one thing that keeps a pit in your stomach or makes you feel guilty you will gain so much momentum because you will feel so much joy and accomplishment when you finish it. After I make sure I can determine times to get my 3 MIT’s done in my day, I then tackle the biggest thing on my to do list.

(3) Batch tasks and Stack Habits

I love both of these concepts. Batching tasks means you set up a 30 -60 minute timer and you knock out as many things on a tiny task list or your to do list that you can. Instead of planning each activity separately, you plan one time to accomplish all those little chores that are adding up in one session. Then celebrate your big win!

Stacking Habits is also an amazing concept. This is where you pair a new habit with an existing one in your day so you always have a reminder to do it. Here are some that I have started: 5 Pushups when I change out of my work clothes at night or get on my pajamas, reading my favorite book for 5-10 minutes right before I shower ( you have the added benefit of no one bothering you because they believe you are in the shower – Mom’s will definitely understand this), wiping down the bathroom mirror after I brush my teeth, partitioning each meal’s leftovers into ready to go containers for work after I am done eating.

(4) Tiny Tasks and Tiny Habits

When you want a lasting life change then Tiny Habits is really the way to go. I was never successful when I tried to change my whole life perspective in one day. I had lost and gained 100’s of pounds before I found a way to approach food that kept me healthy and the weight off for good ( spoiler alert, I made tiny changes every day with food and replaced 1 bad food with 1 good food over time). The way to start is just by picking one small habit that you can ensure you do every day without fail. Instead of your goal being drinking a whole monster sized water bottle every day, how about just 1 cup of water when you wake up. DO NOT commit to working out for 30-40 minutes every day – that won’t work. Commit to 2 sit-ups or 2 pushups and do that daily. It needs to be small or else it won’t stick.

(5) Motivate Yourself

When all else fails; find something silly that makes you want to start. Some people count down from 5 to get themselves off the couch and moving toward their goal. Sounds silly? Actually try it and see what happens. Set an Alexa timer for the family that says “clean up for 5 minutes” at a certain time of day. Even if everyone in the house does that once a week and mostly ignores the reminder, you are still ahead of the game. Set a reminder on your phone with a motivational saying like “You got this” that goes off at the time of day you feel your biggest slump. Design your environment to bring you one step closer to accomplishing your goals. Set up your clothes or things you will need for your morning routine the night before so it is easier to just start when you get up.

The most important thing is to be the person today that you want to be tomorrow. What are you waiting for? Stop pushing off the things you know will bring you your life back and bring you joy. Just get started today and trust me, your future self will thank you!