I was spiritually guided to read this book while I was battling mold infection. This book was an eye opener and taught me so much about how to create a fasting lifestyle not just around my health conditions but also around my hormones during menstrual cycle. I benefited from reading this book in numerous ways. My Health requirements were how to improve gut microbiome, Beat Mold and what to do when I crave carbs and sweets during periods and how to do an immune and gut reset fast matching the ebbs and flows of my hormones. This book had all the answers. Thank you to Dr. Mindy for getting this information out there for us. If you feel like you are in the same boat as me or are suffering from other health conditions but do not want to take the route of medicines or supplements or surgeries...Fasting is the way to go! Read on!
Fasting is the most non destructive way of healing chronic diseases and getting your health back. In this article you will find the proven strategies, condition specific protocols, hacks that make fasting easier, and tools that I have been used by Dr. Mindy to help hundreds of thousands of women just like you thrive with a fasting lifestyle. Knowing the WHY behind fasting is critical. Six different fasting styles and two different food programs (keto biotic and hormone feasting) that can be timed to women's menstrual cycles are mapped out below. This article also discusses about women both with cycle and without a cycle, like menopausal women or women on birth control with minimal flow, a step-by-step 30-day fasting reset that varies fasting lengths and food choices to balance their hormones while improving their metabolic fitness.
Prolonged fasting is the safest tool to use if you have been complaining about having a Brain Fog, weight loss, unexplained weight gain, chronic fatigue, IBS issues, Mold infection, PCOS, Diabetes, Cancer, gut dysbiosis, Autoimmune conditions, and extreme pain and sweet cravings during your menstrual cycles.
The Healing Power of Fasting
One of the most comprehensive analyses ever done on the science of fasting was published in "The New England Journal of Medicine" in December 2019. The authors reviewed more than 85 studies and declared that intermittent fasting should be used as the first line of treatment for obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative brain conditions, and cancer.
It also stated that Intermittent fasting has anti-aging effects and can help with pre and post surgery healing. This meta-analysis highlighted several key cellular healing responses that happen when we periodically flip our metabolic switch and move into our fat-burning system from sugar burning system.
These Cellular healing benefits include:
Improves your Microbiome - One emerging challenge humans are now faced with is that our modern lives are destroying our beneficial microbes. Everything from the foods we eat, the medications we take, and the stress we encounter to even the Wi-Fi that infiltrates our homes is destroying these helpful bacteria. It is a well known fact now that one round of antibiotics will destroy 90 percent of your gut bacteria-90 percent! How many rounds of antibiotics have most people been on, 10...20? Two of the most abundant bacteria phyla you have in your gut are Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes. Research is proving that obese individuals have more firmicutes than bacteroidetes, causing them to store more of their calories as fat. You can give two people the same diet and the one whose ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes is out of balance will gain weight, while the other person won't gain a pound. Obesity has also been linked with decreased gut microbial diversity compared to lean individuals. Weight loss, neurotransmitter production, breaking down estrogen - these are only a handful of jobs these microbes perform for you on a daily basis. Fasting brings back the health of these microbes. It does this in four ways: It improves microbial diversity, moves microbes away from the gut lining, improves the production of bacteria that change white fat (stubborn fat) into brown fat (keeps you warm) and regenerates stem cells that will repair the gut lining. All four of these factors are key if you are looking to lose weight. There is evidence that longer fasts, like a five day water fast, can dramatically impact your gut bacteria, specifically the bacteria that influences blood pressure.
Repairs the immune System - One of the most famous fasting researchers, Dr.Valter longo, brought the three day water fast to the world's attention. His notable study was done on patients going through chemotherapy; he wanted to see if fasting would help repair the decimated white blood cells that occur with a chemo treatment. On the third day of water fast he saw something miraculous happen: old worn down white blood cells died off and a new, energized group formed. It was a reboot to the immune system that anyone going through chemotherapy needs. That happened because of the release of the stem cells in to the blood stream at 72 hours of water fasting. Specifically, the job of stem cells released at 72 hours is to identify the worn-down white blood cells and make new ones to replace them.
Increased ketones - ketones are reparative, meaning they will go to certain tissues in your body and regenerate them. Specifically, they repair nervous tissue. Ketones have the power to regenerate damaged neurons that carry information throughout your brain, improving your memory and ability to retain new information, as well as giving you increased focus and mental clarity. Ketones are also a preferred fuel source for your mitochondria- the parts of your cells that make your energy.
Increased Autophagy - The word Autophagy means "Self Eating". Autophagy improves cellular resilience in 3 ways: Detox, Repair, and the Removal of diseased cells. It refers to the phenomenon that in the absence of food, our cells get stronger not weaker. Instead of looking for nutrients outside the cell, when food is scarce, that cell turns within and eats what's inside. It is a form of Detox, it only detoxes organic materials within the cells. Over time our cells accumulate a variety of damaged organelles, proteins, oxidized particles, and harmful pathogens. This accumulation causes our cells to become dysfunctional. When in a state of autophagy, our brilliant cells will detox these malfunctioning parts of out of the cell, thus revitalizing them.
Decreased Glycogen - If you have been eating a high sugar diet for years, your body has had to store all of that extra sugar somewhere. It stores it in a form of sugar called glycogen. There are three key places your body puts this excess sugar: muscles, liver, and fat. The glycogen stores in your muscles are easy to get to through exercise, specifically high intensity interval training and strength training. But how do you get to the liver and fat stores? This is where fasting really shines as it is one of the most effective ways to release glycogen stores in your liver and fat. You do want to get that excess glycogen out of your live since liver is the hardest working organ in your body. It's burning fat, breaks down hormones, and makes lots of good cholesterol to fuel your brain. Once flooded with sugar, your liver becomes inefficient at these pivotal jobs, which can lead to diabetes, fatty liver disease, and high cholesterol. Fasting is a fabulous way to get the liver to release excess glycogen so that it can function at its best.
Decreased Insulin - Excess glucose is not only the thing your cells release when you fast. Fasting also forces your body to release excess insulin. Insulin spikes every time you eat. If you eat a high sugar, high carb meal, you will experience a large insulin spike. Do this several times a day for years and you end up flooding your cells with insulin, thus making them insulin resistant. Like it does with extra glucose, your body has to store this excess insulin somewhere, so it packs it away in your liver and fat. So once again the more you put yourself in a fasted state, the more you force your body to go find those insulin stores and metabolize them for excretion.
Increases Growth Hormone Production - Our body's growth hormone is our fountain of youth. Growth hormone production peaks at puberty, then makes a slow decline until it completely stops at 30. Ask anyone who is over 30 and they will tell you that this was the moment when the aging process started to kick in. Growth Hormone performs three key functions - first - it helps you burn fat especially around the midsection. Second - it provides muscle growth. Third - growth hormone supports healthy brain growth. The disappearance of growth hormone will accelerate the muscle loss you experience with age. But if you want to burn more fat, increase your muscle size, and have the brain power to learn a new skill? Once again fasting comes to rescue. Depending on the length of your fast, decreasing blood sugar levels stimulates your body to make growth hormone fivefold, giving you back that youthful feeling.
Resets Dopamine Pathways - Everytime you eat something yummy you get a dopamine hit! Food isn't the only source of dopamine. We can get it from visual or audio triggers. The noise your phone makes telling you that you have a text message gives you dopamine. The followers and likes on your social media give you dopamine hits. Even the Doordash guy ringing your doorbell minutes after you ordered food from your couch provides a dopamine rush. In today's world we are dopamine saturated. When we eat all day long we get dopamine hits left and right. This raises your dopamine baseline. This makes you dopamine resistant from using food all day long to feel good just like you become insulin resistant from eating too much sugar. The good news is that several studies show you reset your dopamine pathways with different-length fasts. Several types of fasts can actually make your dopamine receptors more sensitive and stop the age related decline of dopamine receptors. In some cases new dopamine receptor sites are formed, increasing your overall feelings of contentment.
Reduces the recurrence of Cancer - In 2016, The journal of the American medical Association released an observational study that looked at more than 2000 women between the ages of 27 and 70 who had undergone conventional breast cancer treatment. After analyzing this large group of women for four years, researchers determined that when women fasted 13 hours or more, they had a 64 percent less chance of recurrence of breast cancer. This is largely because fasting created a significant decrease in hemoglobin A1c, an indicator of blood glucose levels, and C-reactive protein, an indicator of inflammation. Very few drugs can offer that kind of result. This is how miraculous the body can be when fasting.
Increased Mitochondrial Stress Resistance , Increased Antioxidant Defenses, Increased DNA repair, Decreased mTOR, Decreased Protein Synthesis
Numerous studies are also proving that outside of the above cellular changes, the most important part of improving your metabolic health is changing when you eat, not what you eat.
The first such study in the journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging in 2018 showed that obese individuals saw dramatic metabolic improvement despite eating whatever they wanted as long as they ate that food within an 8-hour eating window, leaving 16 hours for Fasting. Cell metabolism published findings in 2020 revealing that the same diet eaten in a 10-hour period had a greater metabolic effect on a person than if they spread that diet out over a 14-hour time period. Both studies show very clearly that when you condense your eating window, leaving more time for fasting, you will:
Reduce total Body Fat Percentage
Reduce Visceral Fat
Reduce Waist Circumference
Lower Blood Pressure
Decrease LDL Cholesterol
Decrease Hemoglobin A1c
Research like this gives us hope that we can begin to undo much of the metabolic damage that is causing so many to struggle with poor health. Changing the time period in which we eat is more important than the actual quality of the food we eat. Everyone can learn to take this fasting step. Something as simple as compressing your eating period will yield incredible results! Not only are you burning energy from fat, accelerating weight loss, lowering blood pressure, cholesterol, and insulin, but the more often you access this fat-burning state, the more repair can happen in your body. Each time you put your body into fasted state, you are giving your body the opportunity to heal. Fasting is not like any other diet. It is not a moment of Deprivation; it's a Gift you give yourself that will allow your body and Brain to recover from the Stressors of the modern World.
Why Women need to fast so as to cater their hormones during Menstrual Cycle?
Our menstrual cycles are rarely looked at as a health priority. This ignorance affects us in so many ways, but ultimately it leads us to not fully appreciate how our lifestyle can influence the intricate design of this hormonal cycle. Without a proper understanding of our menstrual cycles, our hormones suffer, which means our whole body suffers. Most of us haven't been taught how to time our lifestyle habits to our hormones.
In fact, most women don't know what hormones are coming or going in a 28 day period. This is a massive problem and is contributing to too many hormonal imbalances for women. Education around how to time everything from our foods, exercise, social calendars, and fasting behaviors needs to start at puberty. Once you get the hang of the hormones that are coming and going throughout your menstrual cycle, you will begin to see that timing your lifestyle to maximize your hormonal performance will have you feeling like the rockstar you were born to be.
First thing to know about your monthly menstrual cycle is that yours is unique. All women have different-length cycles. Most women's cycles last around 28 days; some are shorter, while others can go as long as 30-plus days.
The second thing to know about your menstrual cycle is that hormones rise and fall throughout. They don't stay at a consistent level all month long. There is an ebb and flow to them. Perhaps the most complex part of the hormones is that they are constantly moving targets. If one hormone lags, the whole team can fall apart. This is why you feel different emotionally and physically at different times of the month. Getting to know the effects of that each of these hormones have on your moods, sleep, motivations, energy, appetite, and ability to fast will be life changing.
Metabolic Switching - Metabolic switching is a shift from utilizing glucose for energy to fatty acid-derived ketones for energy. The act of going in and out of two fuel sources - sugar burning and fat burning elicits a healing response. Your liver loves when you metabolically switch because when you go into periods of fasting, you force the cells of the liver to release stored sugar allowing it to heal and repair.
The gut also benefits when you metabolically switch. When you go into longer fasting states, such as 24 hours plus, you repair the mucosal lining of your gut, making it a better environment for good microbes to grow - microbes that will help you metabolize food and hormones.
Your Brain also thrives when you move in and out of your two metabolic states. Your neurons -the trillions of messengers of the million bits of information that move throughout your brain every second-get damaged from toxins and excess sugar. When you fast you begin to repair these neurons, allowing information to get carried proficiently from one neuron to the next. Fasting cleans up these neurons, while nourishing food builds them strong again.
Four Pillars of Fasting Lifestyle
Pillar#1 - Identify your Goals - lose weight, Balance Hormones, Alleviate specific conditions
Pillar#2 - Vary your fasting Lengths - Avoid Plateaus, Honor your hormonal surges, Be flexible
Pillar#3 - Vary your Food Choices
Pillar#4 - Surround yourself with a supportive community
How to fast according to your Menstrual Cycle?
Days 1-10 (Power Phase 1 - Keto biotic Foods)
At the beginning of your menstrual cycle, on day one, your major sex hormones - estrogen, testosterone, and progesterone are at their lowest levels. Within a few days after your cycle has started, your hypothalamus, the part of your brain responsible for coordinating hormone production, causes estrogen to build slowly within you until it reaches its peak somewhere mid-ovulation (around Day 13). As estrogen builds, you will notice several things happen to you physically and mentally. First - Estrogen contributes to the following:
production of collagen - this keeps skin young and supple
this also makes your bones strong and ligaments more elastic
at menopause estrogen drops and that's when we start to see the dreaded wrinkles and we become more prone to injury
Estrogen also puts you in a good mood, gives you clarity of thought, enhances your communication skills, and makes you feel more optimistic about life.
Estrogen is precursor to Serotonin, dopamine, and noradrenaline-the neurotransmitters that keep you happy, and feeling satisfied
it also calms the fear centers of the brain. High levels of estrogen can partially protect a woman from emotional disturbances.
Day 11-15 (Manifesting Phase - Hormone Feasting Foods)
This is known as your ovulation period. Although all the three sex hormones come into play at this time, its estrogen and testosterone influence you the most during this five day period. Between the surge in estrogen enhancing your mental clarity and moods and testosterone giving you motivation, drive, and energy, this is a great time to start a new project, lean in to a difficult task, or add a few more things to your daily to-do list. It's a great time to ask for a raise, take on a tough conversation, or launch a new business. Testosterone also helps you build muscle, so increasing your strength-training workouts during this time may yield more of a muscle-building response.
Days 16-18 (Power Phase 2 - Keto biotic Foods)
This is the time when all of your hormones dip. You will feel very much like you do the fort week of your cycle, with one major exception: Instead of your body preparing to make estrogen, your body ramps up to make progesterone. You may feel supercharged during ovulation but as you enter this stage you may experience adip in energy and mental clarity.
Day 19-Bleed (No Fasting - Nurture phase - Hormone Feasting Foods)
This is the moment your body produces progesterone, the hormone that calms you and tells you everything is going to be okay. During this time of your cycle, you will often feel less aggressive, less irritable, and more like you want to sit on the couch and chill than go out and socialize. Progesterone's job is to prepare your uterine lining for a fertilized egg to implant post ovulation. Depending on when you ovulate, your progesterone levels usually hit their peak six to eight days after ovulation. This means that if an egg was released on day 14 of your cycle, your progesterone levels will be their highest around day 19.
When you start building a fasting lifestyle, this last stage is the most important to be mindful of because progesterone is very influenced by cortisol. If estrogen thrives when insulin is low, progesterone thrives when cortisol is low. If during this phase of your cycle, your cortisol (stress hormone) spikes too much, you won't have enough DHEA to make progesterone. This scenario is common, and can lead to missed cycles, days of spotting, increased irritability, and trouble sleeping. How many years as women have we complained about our premenstrual symptoms, when in reality it's a simple function of not giving our body the right scenarios to make progesterone.
The other aspect of progesterone that you will want to be aware of as you build a fasting lifestyle is the influence glucose and insulin have over this miraculous calming hormone. Estrogen and progesterone, although both sex hormones, really require different behaviors form us. Estrogen doesn't seem as influenced by cortisol but really suffers when glucose and insulin are high. Progesterone suffers when cortisol is high but actually requires more glucose in your bloodstream to fully develop to the levels of that are necessary for your period to start. If you fast during this time or restrict carbohydrates, you may not give progesterone the fuel it needs.
THIS IS WHY WE WOMEN NEED TO FAST DIFFERENTLY!!
This is a big overarching reason that we need to fast differently than men. Men are hormonally simpler. They have a 24-hour hormone cycle with one main hormone - Testosterone - moving in and out of their bodies every 15 mins. Men don't have the ebbs and flows of estrogen and progesterone to contend with. Whether we have a menstrual cycle or not, we must take into consideration all three of our major hormones - estrogen, progesterone and testosterone that rise and fall monthly and throughout our menopausal journey. And we also need to take into account the three important and uniquely female features:
The power of our hormonal hierarchy - Here is how it works: The hormone oxytocin can calm cortisol. Cortisol spikes will cause increases in insulin, and surges in insulin have a direct effect over your sex hormones estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. When we fast, we have to pay close attention to how these hormones all impact each other. When insulin surges in the body, that signal goes back up to the hypothalamus, which tells the pituitary to shut off production of estrogen and progesterone because the crisis is still brewing. Cortisol starts the whole cascade of hormonal responses. If you know stress is high, causing insulin and sex hormone imbalances, then you want to focus first on the top of the hormonal chain - that is Oxytocin. The minute the brain gets the oxytocin signal, it turns off cortisol, leading to better glucose management, a reduction in insulin, and a rebalancing of sex hormones. One key hormone brings the whole system back into balance.
Fluctuations in our sex hormones - Have you ever had one of those days when you felt unusually hungry for no particular reason? If you have been in the habit of counting calories, this can be the day you beat yourself up for not being able to stick to your diet. Or what about the carbohydrate cravings that kick in out of the blue? Do you find yourself reaching for a cookie in that moment only to end up eating the whole box? I'm pretty sure every woman has gone through appetite and craving swings within a month, never linking those cravings to the changes in her monthly hormones. We shame ourselves when we eat foods that our bodies crave but our minds tell us we shouldn't eat. What if the foods you choose are not within your mental control? What if they are being orchestrated by your hormones? For the sake of this conversation, what is pivotal to understand is that in a one month cycle there will be times that fasting will feel effortless and times when fasting will be difficult. This is not because you are undisciplined. This happens because each sex hormone responds differently to two major hormones - Insulin and Cortisol
The impact of our toxic loads - Toxins can affect hormones in two ways. First, a well known fact is that exposure to chemicals in our environment known as endocrine disruptors dramatically impacts our hormone production. These chemicals have been proven to be endocrine disruptors which down the line can lead to chronic diseases like breast cancer and polycystic ovarian syndrome. The second way that is not talked about often is the reverse happening. Huge swings in hormones, specifically estrogen and progesterone, cause the release of toxins stored in a variety of your tissues. lead is stored in your bones, liver, and lungs. Mercury in your kidneys, liver and brain. Environmental pollutants are stored in fat tissue. Aluminium in your prefrontal cortex of your brain. When estrogen and progesterone rise, it can trigger these toxins to be slowly released. If you are going into longer fasts that stimulate autophagy during the upswing moments of estrogen and progesterone, you may be getting a double dose of toxins released into your bloodstream. During your ovulation period, as estrogen comes surging in, heavy metals like lead can get released from your bones. You might feel severe detox symptoms if you are deep into stimulating autophagy at that same moment. When hormones go high, fasting lengths should go low.
If you keep in mind these three principles as you build your fasting lifestyle, you will appreciate all the upsides of fasting without any negative hormonal consequences. There are so many wonderful ways fasting can serve our physical and mental health, but we have to do it the way our bodies respond best.
Six Different-Length Fasts are:
Not all fasts are created equal. With that in mind let's break down six fasts, and when to use them for your own healing journey.
Intermittent Fasting: 12-16 hours - use this fast for Weight loss, Brain Fog, and Loss of Energy
Autophagy Fasting: Starts at 17 hours - Use this fast for Detox, Improve brain function, and cognition, Prevent Cold, Balance Sex Hormones
Gut-Reset Fast: 24 hours - Counteract Antibiotic USe, Offset Birth Control Use, Help Tackle Small intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO)
Fat-burner Fast: 36+ hours - Use this to minimize weight loss resistance, Release stored sugar, reduce cholesterol
Dopamine-reset fast: 48 hours - Use this to reboot dopamine levels, lower anxiety levels
Immune-Reset Fast: more than 72 hours - use this to ease a chronic condition, prevent chronic disease, alleviate pain and stiffness of relentless musculoskeletal injuries, slow down the effects of aging
How to do fasting? Let's take an example of Intermittent fasting for 12 to 16 hours
This is the most popular style of fasting. Most people's definition of intermittent fasting is going anywhere from 12 to 16 hours without food. The easiest way to understand how this works is to walk through what a 24-hour period might look like when incorporating intermittent fasting into your life.
Let's say you finish dinner at 7pm. You don't eat or drink anything after that point so that your blood sugar starts to decline. If you delay your breakfast the next day until 10am, that's 15 hours of fasting. A general rule is that your liver will switch on and start making ketones somewhere around eight hours from the last morsel of food or sip of drink you put in your mouth. Somewhere between the 12 and 15 hour mark, as your body is making energy by burning fat, ketones flood your bloodstream. The first place those ketones go to is your brain, turning off hunger and giving you a boost of physical and mental energy. Your cells begin to move into a state of autophagy, repairing, detoxing, and regenerating themselves. As your liver continues to sense the absence of glucose, it keeps releasing glycogen and insulin stores by breaking down more fat. Dip into these fasted states repeatedly and you will start to see long-term improvement in metabolic markers like blood pressure, fasting glucose and insulin, hemoglobin A1c, and C-reactive protein. The bacteria in your gut will also shift as bad bacteria dies off and good bacteria regrows. This improvement in your microbial makeup will lower blood pressure, allow your body to make more mood-enhancing neurotransmitters, and help your blood sugar balance more efficiently.
Food Styles:
Keto biotic Food Plan during Power phases of cycle
50 grams net carbohydrates
75 grams protein
>60 percent of your food coming from good fat
2. Hormone Feasting Food Plan During Manifestation and Nurturing Phase of cycle
100-150 grams net carbohydrates
50 grams protein
Healthy Fats as desired
Types of Fasting:
Intermittent Fasting (13 hours and 15 hours)
Autophagy Fasting (17 hours)
30 Day Gut reset Fasting
Power phase 1 - Keto Biotic Food
Days 1-4: Intermittent fasting (13 hours - example - 7pm to 8am)
Day 5: Intermittent Fasting (15 hours - example- 7pm to 10am)
Day 6-10: Autophagy Fasting (17 hours - example - 7pm to 12pm)
Manifestation Phase - Hormone Feasting Foods
Days 11-15: Intermittent Fasting (13 hours)
Power Phase 2 - Keto biotic Food
Day 16-19: Intermittent Fasting (15 hours)
Nurture Phase-Hormone Feasting Foods
Days 20-30: No Fasting
Advanced Fasting Reset
If you have been fasting for some time, follow this advanced version of the 30-day reset below.
Power phase 1 - Keto Biotic Food
Days 1-5: Intermittent fasting (15 hours - example - 7pm to 10am)
Day 6: Gut-Reset Fast (24 hours - example- 2pm to 2pm)
Day 7-10: Autophagy Fasting (17 hours - example - 7pm to 12 pm)
Manifestation Phase - Hormone Feasting Foods
Days 11-15: Intermittent Fasting (15 hours)
Power Phase 2 - Ketobolic Food
Day 16: Gut-reset fast (24 hours)
Days 17-19: Autophagy Fasting (17 hours)
Nurture Phase-Hormone Feasting Foods
Days 20-30: Intermittent Fasting (13 hours)
Estrogen-Building Foods
These foods work well for keto biotic days. You will want to put your food focus on these foods during your two power phases (days 1-10 and 16-19 of your cycle)
Seeds and Nuts: Brazil Nuts, Almonds, cashews, Roasted salted peanuts, Pine nuts, Pumpkin seeds, Sunflower Seeds, Walnuts, Sesame Seeds
Legumes: Peas, Chickpeas, Soybeans, Lima beans, Carob, Kidney Beans, Mung beans, Pinto beans, Black-eyed peas, Lentils
Fruits and Vegetables: Cabbage, Spinach, Sprouts, Onions, Garlic, Zucchini, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Strawberries, Blueberries, Cranberries
Progesterone-Building Foods
Eat these foods during the Manifestation and Nurture Phase (Days 11-15 and 20-30 respectively). If weight loss is your focus, be sure to keep closer to 100 grams of net carbohydrates on these days.
Root vegetables: White potatoes, red potatoes, Sweet potatoes, Yams, Beets, Turnips, Fennel, Pumpkin, Butternut Squash, Acorn squash, Honeynut Squash, Spaghetti Squash
Cruciferous veggies: Brussel sprouts, Cauliflower, Broccoli
Tropical fruits: Bananas, Mangoes, Papaya
Citrus Fruits: Oranges, Grapefruit, lemons, Limes,
Seeds: Sunflower, Flax, Sesame
Legumes: Chickpeas, Kidney beans, Black Beans
Probiotic Rich Foods
Sauerkraut, Kimchi, Pickles, Yogurt, Kefir
Polyphenol Foods
Broccoli, Shallots, Brussels sprouts, Parsley, Artichoke Hearts, Olives, Red wine, Dark Chocolate
Prebiotic Foods
Chicory Root, Dandelion Root, Konjac Root, Burdrock Root, Onions, Jerusalem Artichokes, Garlic, Leeks, Asparagus, Red Kidney Beans, Chickpeas, Split peas, Cashews, Pistachios, Hummus
Foods that support Liver Health
Arugula, Coffee, Dill, Dandelion greens, Jerusalem artichokes, Brussel sprouts, Eggplant, Saffron, Kale, Sesame seeds, Turmeric, Ginger, Citrus such as lemons, limes, and grapefruit, Peppermint, Green Tea
Good Healthy Fats -
Good fats are important throughout your menstrual cycle, so feel free to eat these all month long. You will find good fats especially helpful on keto biotic days.
Olive oil, Avocado oil, Coconut oil, MCT oil, Sesame oil, Flaxseed oil, Black Cumin oil, Coriander oil, Avocados, Olives, Coconut, Raw nut butters, Grass fed dairy or Ghee, Grass fed butter
Fasting protocol for Autoimmunity - When it comes to autoimmune conditions such as Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus, Hashimoto's, PCOS etc toxins and gut imbalances are at the root of all autoimmune conditions, there are two fasts that will help you tremendously gut reset (24 hours) and autophagy (17 hours). Following is the protocol for fasting:
Days 1-5: 17 hours autophagy fasting (Keto biotic)
Days 6-7: 24 hours gut reset fast (Keto biotic)
Days 8-10: 17 hours autophagy fast (keto biotic)
Days 11-15: 15 hours Intermittent fasting (Hormone Feasting)
Days 16-17: 24 hours gut reset fast (Keto biotic)
Days 18-19: 17 hours autophagy fasting (Keto biotic)
Day 20-bleed: 13 hours intermittent fasting (hormone feasting)
Fasting protocol for Thyroid Conditions - For the thyroid, the brain, liver, and gut need to be working properly. When it comes to brain with all thyroid conditions, you want to use the autophagy tool as much as possible; best done in power phases. To support liver, incorporate hormone feasting foods plenty of cruciferous and bitter greens.
Days 1-5: 15 hours Intermittent fasting (Keto biotic)
Days 6-8: 17 hours autophagy fasting (Keto biotic)
Days 9-10: 24 hours gut-reset fast (keto biotic)
Days 11-15: 15 hours Intermittent fasting (Hormone Feasting foods)
Days 16-19: 17 hours autophagy fasting (Keto biotic)
Day 20-bleed: 13 hours intermittent fasting (hormone feasting)
Fasting Protocol for Chronic Fatigue - 3 most common causes of chronic fatigue are depleted cellular mitochondria, adrenal exhaustion, and Epstein-Barr virus. Your mitochondria are the part of your cells that give you energy. They become depleted for a variety of reasons, but the main ones are too many toxins, eating the wrong oils, and consuming a highly refined carbohydrate diet. If you know you are adrenal exhausted, take a look at the protocol for adrenal fatigue. lastly if you have been tested for Epstein-Barr virus and know that you have high amounts, the key fasting principle to know here is that one way to stop viral replication is to have your cells operating from your fat-burning energy pathways the majority of the time. Therefore, a diet low in carbohydrates will be best.
Days 1-3: 13 hours intermittent fasting (Keto biotic)
Days 4-6: 15 hours intermittent fasting (Keto biotic)
Days 7: 17 hours autophagy fasting (Keto biotic)
Days 8-9: 15 hours Intermittent fasting (Keto biotic)
Days 10-15: 13 hours intermittent fasting (Hormone feasting foods)
Days 16-19: 15 hours intermittent fasting (Keto biotic)
Day 20-bleed: No fasting (hormone feasting)
Fasting Protocol for type 2 diabetes - The root cause of Type 2 Diabetes is insulin resistance, which makes building a fasting lifestyle quite simple. Although metabolic switching is always the goal, you will want to spend more time as a fat burner. This means that monitoring your blood sugar and insulin levels is key. Involve your doctor in this conversation of fasting.
Days 1-5: 13 hours Intermittent fasting (Keto biotic)
Days 6-10: 15 hours intermittent fasting (Keto biotic)
Days 11-15: 13 hours intermittent fasting (Hormone Feasting)
Day 16: 17 hours autophagy fasting (Keto biotic)
Days 17-19: 13 hours intermittent fasting (Keto biotic)
Day 20-bleed: No fasting (hormone feasting)
Fasting Protocol for Brain Health, Memory Loss, Depression, Anxiety - Knowing that toxins and mismanaged blood sugar and insulin are at the root of so many memory problems, we can now lean in to our fasting principles. Keep in mind that ketones are healing to the brain, so you want to make lots of those to accelerate the healing that needs to happen to get your brain back on track. If you are experiencing mood disorders like depression or anxiety, be assured that as ketones go up, so do neurotransmitters like GABA, Serotonin, and Dopamine. Often the longer you fast, the more ketones your body will make. Also, keep in mind that minerals are key for mood disorders like depression, so increasing your mineral supplementation is pivotal.
Days 1-5: 17 hours autophagy Fasting
Days 6-7: 48 hours Dopamine Fasting
Days 8-10: 15 hours Intermittent Fasting
Days 11-15: 13 hours Intermittent fasting
Days 16-19: 17 hours autophagy Fasting
Days 18-19: 17 hours autophagy fasting
Day 20-bleed: 13 hours intermittent fasting
Fasting Protocol for Adrenal Fatigue - For those who are adrenal fatigued make sure you increase your good fat. You will want to stabilize your blood sugar to make fasting easier. The worst thing someone with adrenal fatigue could do when they fast is eat a high carbohydrate, low fat diet; this will make fasting incredibly hard, if not possible. Do the following protocol for 6 month time period, easing your body into a fat-burning state.
Days 1-10: 10 hours Intermittent Fasting (pre-set)
Days 11-15: No fasting (Hormone feasting)
Days 16-19: 13 hours Intermittent Fasting (pre-reset)
Days 20-28: No Fasting (Hormone Feasting Foods)
Fasting Protocol for Immune system reset - If you are needing a serious immune system reset, then you are going to want to lean in to a three-day water fast. This is the best fast for an overhaul of your immune system. If you do choose to go on a three-day water fast, then you want to take these precautions - 1- have a blood sugar and ketone reader, 2 - do your 3 day water fast during one of your power phases, 3 - If you have low progesterone, then choose the first power phase window in order to not risk lowering progesterone any further.
The other fast for our immune systems is Autophagy Fasting. This fast helps to make your cells more efficient. One key element of the efficiency is that they can kill pathogens within the cell, including viruses, bacteria, and fungi.
Days 1-5: 17 hours autophagy fasting (Keto biotic)
Days 6-9: 72 hours three-day water fast
Days 10: Break Water fast with Four Step Process
Days 11-15: 17 hours autophagy fasting (Ketobiotic)
Days 16-18: 24 hours gut reset fast (Keto biotic)
Days 19-bleed: 15 hours intermittent fasting (Hormone feasting)
Reference Book - Fast Like a Girl by Dr. Mindy Pelz (A woman's guide to using the Healing Power of Fasting to Burn Fat, Boost Energy, and Balance Hormones)
Also read my another article - How healing your fears can help you recover from chronic diseases permanently
Another article - How I got rid of SIBO and Candida and Mold on Vegan Diet?
Comentarios