Snuffing Out Inflammation

If you’ve been around TenaciousME for a while, or have gone through the site’s menu, you’ll notice that the menu hosts information regarding autoimmune resources including nutrition and exercise. What’s different about this post is that get to write it from a different perspective. I’m not one with many autoimmune issues, I “only” have minor autoimmune issues; and that’s not to discredit the severity of anyone’s autoimmune journey.

I call mine minor because for the most part I’ve somehow have lessened the histamine effects of eating potatoes that affected me similarly to rubbing my face in my cat’s fur. Itchy, watery eyes, throat and ears would get itchy, sneezing. Tomatoes and peppers would make my stomach hurt with such sharp pains that I gave them up for almost 10 years. I also have a 2-hour window of being in the presence of pumpkin guts before I get a histamine reaction and if I eat it, I’ll lose my lunch from three day ago. Obviously, avoiding all of these is annoying but doable.

However, earlier this year, just before the coronavirus blossomed, I fell into eating ketogenically and doing intermittent fasting. And holy shit it works… when I stick to it – because let’s face it, I’m human and I like to eat all of the things, even what’s bad for me.

Since, I am assuming you’re human, too; I am here to offering insight as to why keto and intermittent fasting may help you. Know that I am not a doctor, I did not play one on TV, nor did I sleep at a Holiday Inn (stupid but a favorite commercial of mine). What I am is a certified personal trainer, certified nutrition coach, a certified behavioral specialist, and, finally, I am experienced in eating the ways of keto and scheduling my meals with intermittent fasting. Both of which fascinate me.

Hippocrates said, “all disease begins in the gut,” and we’ve seen memes telling us that “we are what we eat, so don’t be cheap, easy, or fast” and this is where ketogenic and intermittent fasting may help you. Ketogenically eating is reducing your carbohydrates (especially processed carbs), greatly increasing your healthy fat consumption, and getting in adequate amounts of quality protein. If you’re body is going to attack itself, it really should be the visceral fat that are not healthy for us to have anyway – and that’s where intermittent fasting comes in.

Intermittent fast – when done properly and may require you to touch base with your doctor, is scheduled eating and not eating. The evidence here is that when you go longer periods of time without eating, your body starts to produce ketones which is energy from stored fat. When this happens the BHB (beta-hydroxybutyrate) ketone is produced and is associated with reducing inflammation.

It does this, first by entering the anabolic stage i.e. digesting the foods you just consumed which occurs 0-4 hours after eating. Hours 4-16 you move into the catabolic stage where blood glucose continues to drop and your body starts to nibble on your stored fat cells. The fat burning stage is somewhere between hours 16 and 24 and in 24-72 hours (also called extended fasting), your body enters into ketosis and is solely using stored body fat. But wait! There’s more!

One of the best benefits of intermittent fasting is when your body goes into autophagy. This is where I love to geek out. When our bodies go into autophagy, we are literally upcycling all of our damaged cells – and yes, that take time and is not an overnight flipped switch to being inflammatory free. When our bodies transform damaged cells, it has the ability create new cells of better quality. Inflammatory response are reactions to damaged cells and when we’re fasting, our bodies use those damaged cells in order to keep us alive during the fasting process.

We’ve evolved from cavemen and we wouldn’t be here if the times when food was scares our bodies didn’t do something to survive. Because of this evolutionary enlightenment, we’ve learned that we don’t need to go to the extreme and prolong our fasts. But here’s the tricky part… We are all different in how slow or how quickly we get into the states of ketosis and autophagy. If you are accustomed to eating high carb meals and then you get into fasting, it will take you longer to get where you need to go; and this is why adding a ketogenic way of eating helps your fasting results.

We can also mess ourselves up when we enter what I call “stuff your face season” hits – aka Halloween through New Year’s. The silver-lining to this season, this year (thanks again Covid), is that we can find recipes and make wonderful holiday meals that are ketogenically approved, schedule intermittent fasting, and/or reduce the number of meals we eat each day of celebrating from 6 (if you include snacks) down to 1 or two and eating them in a short window of time – like a four hour window.

One more thing! Eating ketogenically and doing intermittent fasting are easier than you’d believe. In the long run, it’s actually economical, too. I’ve heard (and probably have said) the same thing you’re thinking… “I could never go_____ amount of hours without eating!” Here’s the funny part… You already do. Every night when you go to bed, you’re fasting. If you cut off your eating time by 7:00pm (a lot of people do this, so they don’t snack before bed) and do not eat until breakfast (7:00am-10:00am), you’re doing a 12-14 hour fast. If you only eat one meal a day, you’re fasting. Crazy, right? It’s having support that can be the trickiest part; so, if you need help with that, come over to Facebook WBFL-Coaching, like the page, share with friends.

Keep Working Out Buddies! Your Perfect Is Growing!

WBFL-Coach Angela
48-Hour Intermittent Fasting Challenge