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Intermittent fasting has become incredibly popular across the globe. No matter where you live – whether it’s Australia, United Kingdom or anywhere in Asia – you will no doubt have heard about intermittent fasting, either from your peers or healthcare professionals.
Australian organic food enthusiast Varun Venaik has been inquisitive about intermittent fasting for many years, but only introduced it into his routine recently. In a short space of time, Varun has seen many remarkable physical and mental health benefits from intermittent fasting. In this article, he outlines his experience with this new health fad that is taking the world by storm.
The concept of intermittent fasting is actually pretty simple – it just involves not eating for a period of time each day or week. There are several ways you can intermittently fast, and it’s really up to you to choose what suits your schedule. One of the popular ways of intermittent fasting is to avoid eating for 14-16 hours in between one day’s dinner and the next day’s breakfast.
Varun decided to try a slightly different way – he decided to intermittently fast by skipping lunch every day for two days a week, and just eating breakfast and dinner on those days. It was quite difficult for him at the beginning but over time it became easier once he established a routine. In a short space of time, Varun noticed number of benefits from intermittent fasting, which he sets out below.
Loss of body fat
One of the most immediate changes that Varun noticed from intermittent fasting was a loss of body fat in his stomach. He found it remarkable that something he had been trying to achieve for years through doing abdominal specific exercises was achieved relatively quickly, simply by adjusting his eating habits twice a week. He also found that despite losing fat, he maintained all of his muscle mass – so he really got the best of both worlds by intermittent fasting.
Mental clarity
Improved mental clarity was not in any way an objective that Varun set out trying to achieve, but he was actually amazed by the improvements he noticed to his thinking and memory after he started intermittent fasting. One of Varun’s reservations about trying intermittent fasting was that he felt by not eating for long periods at a time, he would feel dull and unable to focus. However remarkably he found that quite the opposite occurred – his attention and focus became significantly sharper.
Mindful consumption
One of the underrated benefits of intermittent fasting is that it encourages people to be more mindful about what they put in their bodies. Varun found that an indirect effect of spending many hours of the day avoiding eating was that when he was permitted to eat freely, he was very mindful and deliberate about what he consumed and didn’t simply binge eat. He actually expected that he would experience the opposite result but was glad that this wasn’t the case. During periods of intermittent fasting, Varun also became very conscious of how much water he was drinking, and made sure he was consuming adequate amounts to maintain his energy levels and focus. These water drinking habits have stuck with Varun over the long term, which is an excellent benefit.
Intermittent fasting also has a number of long term health benefits such as improving heart health and reducing the risk of diabetes and other diseases. Given that Varun has only recently started intermittent fasting, he is yet to experience these long term benefits; however he’s extremely optimistic that the benefits from this new habit will continue to grow in time and generate increasing returns for his health and wellbeing.
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