I love that you're asking, my friend.
I was on 5:2 but I have been doing this since 2012 so it is just more like 7 days a week and sometimes a full 24-48 hours maybe once or twice a month.
I do 16 on/8 off on most days, at least. I drink a ton of pH 10 water and tea, mostly, in addition to essential oils, herbs, and strategic supplementation.
It helped me heal from the awful stuff hormonally driven cancer did to me...and pretty expediently. I have a lot of energy and people never believe how I keep myself from aging. (I will be 41 this coming Saturday.)
I think the hardest thing about it is other people wanting to eat with me at times I couldn't possibly be bothered with eating.
I'm more aware of mySELF, my actual needs versus wants, and I find I'm hyperaware of life and my opportunities due to the sharper mental focus.
Thanks for the thoughtful and detailed response. Wants versus needs is an interesting topic. I know that I am still stuck in the cycle of associating certain foods and drinks to activities, which can make something like fasting difficult. It’s so cool to hear that you have been able to separate that and get to a healthier place. Not to mention that this is been a tool for your healing from the affects of cancer. That is just amazing.
Also interesting that you mention pH 10 water. That is something I’ve been looking into lately as well. Do you eat mostly alkaline foods as well, or do you focus more on just keep in the water alkaline?
I love talking about this subject with you! I have been evangelical about how IF has assisted me in many ways and even though people around me have seen the incredible turnaround and watched me literally reverse my aging (I'm clocked for 25-28 everywhere, even my doctors forget my age), few have been willing to attempt it. The ones who've done so, have all had major breakthroughs that are respective to their own unique healing.
I have a Living Water machine and I use it for everything. I drink more water than anyone I know and so do my quadrupeds. My kitty turns 14 1/2 on my birthday and my pup turned 10 last month. No one can believe their "ages" based on how they are energetically and that's because we eat and drink together. (I make them crock pots with special things that I circulate in addition to the other food I buy for them.)
As for the foods themselves, we do everything as high integrity as possible. I love to buy at farmers markets and locally when I am able to find sources that are both non-GMO and organic. I don't eat as often or much as other people seem to feel they need to, but when I do I notice that as long as I chew the food enough, I can make it more alkaline by simply doing that. When I was healing from cancer, I would try to count to 72 chews per bite. It's amazing what you can do to create alkalinity even with things people may consider acidic.
That’s pretty amazing to hear about the anti-aging affects both you and kitty/pup are experiencing.
I have never heard of chewing your food longer to remove some of the acidity. I’ll have to look into that more. At any rate, I’m sure I would eat less if I spent that much time chewing! 😜
Thanks again for sharing your thoughts and insights!! It’s been awesome to chat with you about this stuff.
Ps... today was a fasting day and it was already easier than last week. Feeling stoked!
The energy boost is something outstanding, for sure. I'm happy that your flow is coming together this week with it. After awhile of IF, I just didn't feel like I even wanted to touch food all the time. It seriously ages the body and slows you down.
The antiaging is very crazy. I have very young skin from how I have been re-assembling myself strategically and I know that because of the way I can heal for long periods of time while not being bogged down with constantly digesting food, it's incredible what I can do. My quadrupeds are very youthful as well. No one believes me when I tell them how old we are.
As for the chewing, yes, it is a lot to chew like that. I was primarily doing it to help myself not have so many drains on my energy while healing and having had to have taken the strongest chemo meds they make for my 2nd bout (having dealt with it naturopathically the 1st).
I had learned about people who had limited access to food and who needed to make it as efficient as possible. One of the accounts I'd read about was someone who was only able to eat sweet potatoes for many years. His willingness to chew it to a liquid prior to swallowing is something they say kept him in health.