Welcome back.
My name is Samantha Linden,
Also known as the Blissful Soul.
This is our series,
Happy Hormones,
A 30-day gut reset for women.
If you haven't started from day one yet,
I highly recommend doing so to maximize your success and understanding.
Yesterday,
We mentioned that we would try to push ourselves to break our fast at 17 hours.
Why would you want to do that?
In 2016,
Dr.
Osumi won the Nobel Prize for his work on autophagy,
A natural process in which cells remove damaged parts to create healthier cells.
This process supports healing and overall well-being.
We need to be careful not to do this too much to our bodies and only during the month when our hormones will adapt well to it.
If done right,
This can have enormous benefits for our bodies.
Fasting can trigger autophagy,
Which is not the same as ketosis.
Fasting helps boost cell detox,
Anti-aging,
And healing.
This is why between days 16 and 19,
It's a good time to experiment and promote autophagy.
While for some it may take longer,
Autophagy can usually start around the 17-hour mark.
During this time,
You want to still have a high fat and lower carb intake,
But you want to have a lower protein than normal.
Even after breaking your fast,
It has been found that you can stay in autophagy longer by following a few best practices.
So although you have broken your fast,
You will still be burning fat and repairing damaged cells.
You want to break the fast with healthy fats like avocado,
MCT oil,
Or grass-fed ghee.
Then keep your meals to about 50 grams net carbs,
Less than 20 grams protein,
And plenty of healthy fats.
Keeping your protein intake below 20 grams during the eating window helps your body maintain an autophagy-like state.
Besides eating practices,
There are other ways to stimulate autophagy.
These include high-intensity interval training,
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy,
Red light therapy,
Getting quality sleep,
Drinking coffee or cacao,
Or consuming power phenols like curcumin,
Berberine,
Green tea,
And citrus bergamot.
I hope this is helpful,
But remember to be kind to yourself.
As I have mentioned,
Monitor your body and do not push yourself too hard.
Switching between a fasting and non-fasting state should start to become easy.
If it is too difficult,
Set smaller goals.
When I myself first started this journey,
13 hours was the maximum I could do for the first few months due to my chronic fatigue,
Adrenal issues,
And others.
However,
With these small changes,
I quickly began seeing changes.
We are each individual people,
So keep that in mind.
Tomorrow we will explore how to support autophagy after you break your fast.
For tomorrow,
Keep your fast between 13 and 17 hours and monitor your glucose in the morning if you have a monitor.
See you soon,
My friend.
