What lies behind bad and good habits? Emotions! Understanding their origin is the key to achieving lasting success in any positive change we intend to make. When it comes to intermittent fasting (IF), emotional attachments, personal and environmental factors, and even seemingly minor details like stimulants or sugary drinks play a crucial role in shaping our habits.
In this article, we’ll explore the common challenges of IF, the impact of superficial motivation, and the benefits of tools like journaling to track your journey. We’ll also discuss how IF can become more than just a dietary choice—it can be a path to a healthier lifestyle and a deeper understanding of ourselves.
Emotional Attachment
The need for the formation of emotional attachment is a key factor in achieving and maintaining lifestyle changes.
When we set out to improve our health, recognizing initial successes, such as overcoming past difficulties, increased vitality, or taking pride in managing specific challenges - like extending fasting periods - serves as powerful motivators.
Sharing these milestones with others and incorporating them into new, healthier habits not only reinforces our commitment but also fosters a positive relationship with the new process.
This growing emotional connection allows us to identify more deeply with the changes and to maintain long-term lifestyle changes.
Personal and Environmental Factors
Our uniqueness and environment shape our behavior.
Each of us has individually set motivations, belief in our ability to succeed, and levels of mental resilience.
From this, we can infer certain behaviors - such as food choices, stress adaptability, or exercise habits.
The Instability of Superficial Motivation
If someone wants to make a change due to external pressures, like societal expectations or the desire for a better appearance, but lacks emotional and mental engagement, intermittent fasting is likely not the right path—at least not in this phase of their mindset.
The Importance of Journaling
Before starting intermittent fasting, it’s helpful to document in a journal what you eat, drink, and how you feel emotionally (situations or people that have triggered negative or positive emotions in us) at specific times over at least 3 days.
This process indicates your taste preferences, any macronutrient imbalances, the approximate level of toxins in your body due to diet and emotional stress as an important factor of this play.
An effective tool can also be a tongue diagnosis from a photo, a method used in traditional Chinese medicine for millennia to detect imbalances in the body.
Consider the Menstrual Cycle
Women who are cycling may find the most comfortable time to start intermittent fasting during the follicular phase (approximately days 1 to 14 after menstruation), when their hormones are more stable and they are less prone to cravings.
On the contrary, it is not advisable to start a new fasting regimen during the luteal phase of the cycle (the week before menstruation), when your body may require more calories and making changes at this time might be counterproductive.
What Could Discourage Intermittent Fasting?
When attempting to skip a snack or extend the time between meals beyond what we’re used to, a range of unpleasant feelings can arise—such as irritability, fatigue, weakness, hunger pangs, or intrusive thoughts urging us to abandon our discomfort. If we have important tasks ahead, these experiences are particularly unwelcome. To avoid such states, it’s essential to prepare strategically for any planned change and, if necessary, implement the initial changes, for example, over the weekend.
Common Challenges
In the diets of the vast majority of my clients, carbohydrates and sugars prevail, and they are often dehydrated. These factors need to be changed to nourish the body, strengthen the mental and psychological aspects, and create a solid foundation for intermittent fasting.
If we prioritize protein as a macronutrient, replace processed plant oils with olive oil, coconut oil, or butter/ghee, add healthy nuts and seeds, and increase fiber intake from vegetables, we're already doing a great service to our bodies—even before starting intermittent fasting.
Clinging to Stimulants and Sugary Drinks
Such attitude can be a significant obstacle when trying to change one’s lifestyle and adopt intermittent fasting. Substances like caffeine in high doses or at inappropriate times, sugary sodas and fruit juices often provide quick but short-lived energy, which weakens liver function and destabilizes blood sugar levels, leading to energy crashes and increased cravings.
To improve appetite regulation and overall health, it’s important to address these habits. Clients should be encouraged to replace stimulants and sugary drinks with healthier alternatives. The same applies to alcoholic beverages.
This process can occur through the gradual replacement of drinks or by sudden elimination.
In my experience, the gradual approach tends to be more effective, as it is less stressful and still offers self-awareness during the process.
The Path of Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting offers an opportunity to work on ego management and gain better control over it. In addition to its many health benefits, this new lifestyle significantly contributes to inner peace and contentment.
We eat with pleasure but also with awareness, benefiting not only from nutrition but also from the breaks that allow us to recover.
Ready to embark on your journey of intermittent fasting and self-discovery?
Let’s work together to create a personalized plan that aligns with your unique needs and goals.