让间歇性断食更轻松的 11 种方法

我的经历

I’m all for a holistic approach to health, so besides emotional and relationship health, I also like to research and practice taking care of my body. Intermittent fasting has gained significant attention over the last ten years or so. Reading about all the enticing reported benefits, I had to try it out. About eight years ago, I started my intermittent fasting with the 8/16 schedule and slowly increased it to 5/19 over the course of a few years.

It’s easy and fast to write or read about it! Not quite so easy to practice it over the course of years. Most promoters of intermittent fasting make confident claims about how easy it becomes after the first two or three weeks. Unfortunately, I can’t say I found it at all easy. I found both morning and evening hunger quite difficult to bear, even years into the practice. Sharp hunger often wakes me up in the middle of the night. About a decade earlier, I tried longer fasts a few times (10 and 12 days) and felt utterly miserable throughout the whole ordeal. If you find intermittent fasting difficult, in spite of all the promises you read online, you are in good company.  🙂  It did become somewhat easier after the first few weeks, though, even for me.

My difficulties weren’t due to the kind of food I was eating, because I was already practicing a healthy diet and avoiding processed food for many years. Perhaps the 5/19 schedule was too extreme for me. According to some authors, 女性在生理上更不适应禁食 与男性相比，由于历史上男性花在家庭上的时间较多，而花在狩猎（或战争）上的时间较少。据称，禁食会扰乱 女性荷尔蒙平衡.

I decided to stick to my 5/19 schedule anyway because I wanted all those sweet benefits. I did lose a few stubborn kilos, but I often felt low energy (in spite of the regular physical activity in my garden), and many evenings I couldn’t think of much except food. My blood tests also showed increased cholesterol levels, which confused me a lot. Then I read that an 甲状腺功能低下会导致血液中胆固醇水平升高.我开始担心，禁食会让我的新陈代谢变慢，从而降低甲状腺的活性。

Not wanting to make things worse, I decided to stop intermittent fasting for a while (by then I had been practicing it for roughly six years). My body reacted with glee, like it got to feast after famine, and I quickly regained the lost weight. For almost two years after, even the thought of starting intermittent fasting again would get a “no way in hell!” reaction from my body. Recently, however, I found out that 胆固醇增高可能是围绝经期的症状之一也是如此。这减少了我对间歇性禁食的一些顾虑。

A few months ago, I went back to intermittent fasting, this time with a mild 10/14 schedule. I find it makes me tolerably mildly hungry before bedtime but doesn’t send my body into panic mode. I might gradually go back to 8/16 with time if I can feel good enough with it. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to 5/19, though. It might work for somebody else, but for me it just doesn’t.

让间歇性禁食更轻松的策略

尽管我的身体不太适合这样严格的断食计划，但我是如何坚持了六年的呢？以下是一些让间歇性断食变得更容易的策略。请自由选择适合你的方法。并不是每个人的身体都以同样的方式运作，所以并不是所有适合我的方法都适合你。我只能从自己的经验出发。

I also advise using these strategies for reasonable goals only. Don’t risk your health with extreme practices if they don’t work for you.

1.根据自己的生物节律调整禁食时间表

Some authors say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Many proponents of intermittent fasting suggest skipping breakfast and focusing on lunch and dinner instead. Who is correct? It depends on your body. I was always an early riser and desperately hungry by 6 am or so, but I never ate much for dinner. I also know a number of people who say they can’t eat breakfast because their bodies don’t tolerate it. Many people are somewhere in between. Don’t try to force your body into a rhythm it never felt comfortable with just because someone else suggests it. It adds extra stress to an already stressful practice.

2.考虑如何将禁食融入工作时间表

Do you forget to eat when you are focused on something else? Or do you find it easier to be hungry when you are resting, and can’t focus when you are hungry? Keep that in mind when deciding when you want to fast.
In addition, consider when you have time to prepare meals. Are you so hungry after work that you can’t postpone eating until you prepare a healthy meal? Then you are likely to throw yourself off balance with some fast food. You might want to prepare food in the morning and keep it in the fridge for later, or perhaps break your fast with a small healthy snack while preparing a more substantial meal.

3.注意卡路里摄入量

禁食的一个危险是，你可能会给自己在进食窗口期暴饮暴食的自由。另一个危险是，您可能会过度减少卡路里摄入量，从而使您的身体感到恐慌。探索多少食物会让人感觉平衡，并坚持下去。

4.注意食物质量

When we do something good for ourselves, it’s very easy to tell ourselves we deserve an “outlet” or a reward and end up eating less healthily. That way, you receive fewer nutrients, which can again make your body panic. Besides being nutritionally poor, junk food throws our bodies off balance, especially our hunger hormones. That can greatly increase the sense of hunger and cravings.

5.分散注意力

如果工作会分散你的饥饿感，那就计划在工作时间饿肚子。如果玩乐会分散你的饥饿感，那就为空闲时间安排有趣的活动。大多数人在独处无聊时最能意识到自己的饥饿感。如果不是工作，考虑一下其他什么活动可以分散你的注意力。也许是散步、与孩子玩耍、与朋友外出、观看有趣的电影或阅读一本好书？一定不要忽视锻炼。

6.尝试饮用温茶

I find this works for me—warm tea makes my stomach calm down and feel fuller, and I can drink as much of it as I want. If you find it stimulates your stomach too much and makes you hungrier, then don’t do it.

7.用心观察你的饥饿和渴望

在与情绪打交道时，我发现人们越是试图对抗情绪，就越是困难。另一方面，如果你以接纳和兴趣的态度观察情绪（但不相信它们或屈服于它们），它们就会变得更容易承受。我发现饥饿和渴望也是如此。

8.等待 15 分钟

Hunger comes in waves. Well, for me around breakfast time it’s constantly intense until I eat, but at least at other times it subsides after a while. If sharp hunger wakes me up in the night, I’ve learned I need to wait 15 minutes or so. Then the hunger goes away and I can go back to sleep.

9.认识到自己的弱点并为之做好准备

Everybody has some weaknesses and triggers that undermine their willpower. Many people, for example, feel increased cravings in times of stress. A common self-sabotaging excuse is, “I’ll just cheat a little today, and from tomorrow on I’ll be disciplined!” Somehow that disciplined tomorrow comes rarely or never.
注意哪些情况和借口容易让你屈服于旧习惯。想一想，今后你想如何应对它们。如何安慰自己、转移注意力或替代不想要的习惯？比如提前准备一些茶水。列出一份激励想法的清单。计划一些有趣的活动。或者打电话给朋友，就像下面一段所说的那样。

10. Find a “Fasting/Diet Buddy” for Venting and Emotional Support

I have a friend who has to follow a strict diet due to health problems. She has another friend who is dieting to lose weight. She says the two of them call each other whenever they find cravings difficult to bear. Then they give each other space to complain and vent to their heart’s content. For example, “I hate this so much!” or “Why me, it’s so unfair!” It helps them release stress and feel better. Of course, you can also share your successes with your buddy. Joy shared is multiplied; pain shared is divided.

11.为自己提供情感支持

You can also be your own friend. Food is not just nutrition, it’s strongly associated with security and love. Hunger can therefore trigger feelings of insecurity and abandonment, probably lingering from our childhood. Consider how you can talk to yourself and what you can do to help yourself feel safe and loved. That should give you more emotional strength to deal with fasting.

I hope this advice can make intermittent fasting easier for you! Remember, no extreme is ever healthy. Don’t torture your body. Listen to it and cooperate with it to find a balance you can maintain long term.

更多信息

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