My Latest Way of Eating: Intuitive Cyclic Real Food Keto with IF (ICRFKwIF?)

Intuitive Cyclic Real Food Keto with IF (ICRFKwIF?)

Oh my Gosh, am I for real with this?  

Well, I did make this up – I don’t walk around calling it this, but, yes, it’s how I’m eating – for now anyway  – because it’s working for me and it feels really, really good – both physically and mentally.

Let me break it down:

First.  I have basically experimented with every eating approach known to man or woman for over 3 decades: junk food, caloric restriction, points, food combining, raw, low fat, vegan, vegetarian, pescetarian, alkaline, gluten free, dairy free, AIP, paleo, mediterranean, balanced macros, high protein, low carb, keto, fasting and all the major fad diets. I’ve done it all pretty much. So it’s with a lifetime of trial and error and a degree in nutrition, that I land here. For now.

As I’ve shared a few posts ago, I started to incorporate Intermittent Fasting (IF) into my eating approach based on my doctors’ recommendations and copious amounts of research.

IF has soooo many benefits beyond weight loss, including increased growth hormone, decreased inflammation, better digestion, appetite correction, brain health, cancer prevention, becoming a fat burner instead of a sugar burner and along with all that, improved insulin sensitivity. Since diabetes is in my family history and my fasting blood glucose is sometimes higher than I want it to be, this is an area of focus.

I started IF’ing in March using the popular 16:8 window – I’d fast for 16 hours and ‘feast’ for 8 hours – not the entire 8 hours – but I’d eat 1 or 2 meals to satiety.  I started to extend my window to 18:6 and 19:5, 20:4 and even incorporated some 24 hour fasts too. I started experimenting with “clean fasting” with no stevia or MCT oil in my coffee.

I felt really great! I loved the freedom of not having to think about food all day — no more ‘just in case’ food stashes, protein shakes and bars to tote around.  IF did away with all that.

This was all well and good, except I started to let the clock rule me – instead of me actually listening to my body.

I made the mistake of following a few podcasts and IF groups on Facebook and got sucked in.  So many women (and some men), “white-knuckling’ their fasting window to meet some arbitrary clock goal that some self-appointed expert came up with because it ‘worked’ for her or him. UGH!

I remember a few days where my ‘Type A’, anal retentive, “Determined” self, got home from seeing clients and I was starving.  I had like 5 minutes until my eating window was technically ‘open’, and I refused to eat 1 second before that time.

That’s just sick and stupid. I couldn’t believe I was doing this. That is SOOO not me or my philosophy.

SIDE NOTE: At first, this clock watching is kinda necessary, because our appetites are programmed by our past eating patterns – also called “Clock Appetite”.  If you’re used to having breakfast at 8 am, your hunger hormones will start signaling you to eat every day around 8 am.  If you have pets, you know this is true.  My dogs can’t tell time, but I’ll be damned if they don’t start begging for dinner EVERY DAY at 5pm – without fail.  If you’re changing your eating patterns, your body will start to adapt to the new schedule after about 3 weeks (give or take), but I was starting to go overboard. months into my transition.

So I no longer track or restrict my eating window, but I still ‘IF’  – just naturally and flexibly now.  I eat when I’m hungry and fast when I’m not.  Because my appetite has corrected itself, this sometimes means I fast 14 hours and sometimes I go as long as 22 hours – especially if I’m busy or at work. I really don’t care how long I’m fasting at all because I’m just doing what my body wants me to do.

 My body wants me to nourish it – or give it a rest. It’s tuned in and that’s completely liberating.

Another aspect that I’ve adjusted since I started IF’ing is I’ve shifted back to a ‘keto’ type eating approach. Keto is a term used to describe the metabolic state of using ketones for fuel (fat) instead of glucose (sugar). It’s a high fat, moderate protein, low carb way of eating.

If you read my blogs from 2015, you may recall that I experimented with keto for nearly a year.  I LOVED it at first, I lost weight, my brain was clear and sharp and my energy soared through the roof, but then, kinda like IF, I started to focus more on the macros and the keto ‘rules’, instead of my own body.

What happened eventually that year:  I was faced with some fun, but stressful travel at a culinary bootcamp on the west coast. It was positive stress at that time, but I couldn’t be “perfect keto” while cooking and training and I got knocked out of ketosis because of 1. the added carbs  2. the cortisol stress response that was happening.

Stress increases cortisol. Cortisol increases blood glucose and insulin. Insulin stops ketosis (fat burning).

Later that year, I was experiencing actual negative stress in my life and my thyroid and adrenals revolted. On top of that, menopause was in full swing.  It was the perfect storm.

I not only couldn’t get back into ketosis no matter how low carb and high fat I ate, but I started to gain weight and feel exhausted. My thyroid hormones and cortisol levels were in the tank.

I tabled Keto for nearly two years and basically tinkered with different combinations of real food macros to heal and boost my metabolism.

Until IF.

IF and Keto really complement each other because a keto approach is very satiating with all that delicious fat.  Another major benefit of keto is only needing to eat maybe once a day – sometimes twice – because it’s so filling. No noshing on snacks needed ever.

Now cyclic, intuitive keto with IF is the sweet spot for me.

Cyclic keto just means that every now and then – about once a week – sometimes more, sometimes less, my body tells me that it could use some starchy carbs or fruit.  This helps with hormonal balance, sleep and recovery, adrenal health and thyroid hormone conversion. It also helps me not feel restrictive. If I want to have dessert at my favorite restaurant, I will. My “Diet” or eating approach doesn’t restrict me EVER. I just decide what I want to eat with my goals and body balance in mind.

The intuitive part of this way of eating just means, just like with my more relaxed IF approach, I don’t count macros, minutes, calories, carbs, points – NADA. I eat loads of non-starchy vegetables everyday along with delicious high quality fat and protein. I don’t count anything. I just listen to how I feel.  My body always reports back.

The ‘real food’ aspect of my eating approach is just that. I eat almost all real, whole foods – maybe some gluten free toast or a ‘treat’ once in a while, but other than that – it’s all unprocessed good stuff. I don’t eat much dairy/cheese like some keto people do because it’s inflammatory for me. My go-to foods include: avocado, coconut, ghee, grass-fed butter, olives, nuts, seeds, fish, pastured meats and eggs AND dark chocolate and wine  – (of course!) – .with tons of greens and a variety of low glycemic veggies.  This is my favorite way of eating – hands down!

This change is something I wanted to share – not so that you start eating the same way. Nope. I’ve had a lifetime of trial and error. A lifetime of listening to experts and ignoring my body – and now, I’m finally tuning in and honoring it – and it’s really happy.

What I encourage you to do is to just tune in to your body.  What’s it telling you?  Do you feel great? Great! Are you looking for improvement? OK.  What speaks to you? Start with real, whole food most of the time and then play, listen and adjust. You may need to count or track in the beginning to understand how different approaches feel, but after a few weeks – stop.

Trust your body.

if you need support to get to your eating sweet spot – that “Food Flow”, reach out. That’s what I’m here for. 🙂

I’m creating a workshop and maybe an online group program to help people find their way to better eating using real food and body/mind intuition and some of these tools  – experimenting with different eating styles based on what they already know about their body, but also busting through the common myths (like fat is bad, never skip breakfast, eat 3 meals and 2 snacks/eat every 3 hours < these are all false!)

What do you think? Would you or someone you know be interested in something like that? Please comment below or send me a private note if you have ideas, questions or want to share your insights. I’d love to hear from you!

xo,

Ev