Fasting with your Cycle
Fasting with your Cycle
How I got started
Fasting is not something I ever thought I would be able to do. I really enjoy food on every level: the ingredients, creating meals, the nourishment I know the kind of food I eat gives to my body, the taste, the textures, sharing meals with those I love. On top of this I suffered from an eating disorder when I was in my late teens and twenties, and so not eating was associated for me with starving myself, almost as punishment. I have tried juice fasts before, but they didn’t work for me. I find my blood sugar levels are pretty stable (I don’t ever get hangry for example) but with drinking a lot of juice (and this is homemade, fresh, veg heavy juice), the times I tried it, I felt lightheaded and sick.
However, following a conversation with my friend Vanessa, during which I realised I naturally got close to doing long fasts (I don’t snack at night and I wasn’t eating earlier than 10 most mornings), since November I’ve been doing longer intermittent fasting almost every day. To start with it was 16 hours of fasting with an 8 hour eating window. I then learnt that autophagy (the body’s way of cleaning out damaged cells, in order to regenerate newer, healthier cells) hasn’t had chance to kick in until 17 hours, so I moved to 17 hours fasting, with a 7 hour eating window. For me that looks like finishing eating by 8pm, and then not eating until 1pm the next day.
I had my reservations about fasting at all initially because I’d always learnt that fasting isn’t great for women. I had learnt that it can wreak havoc on our hormones. Still, I trusted my body would tell me what was working for it, and consistently stuck to the 17:7 pattern.
What changed?
Of course as with all things in life, you attract what you are putting out there. I started to have conversations with other people that fasted and realised it may be wise for me to mix it up a bit. The idea of breaking my new routine felt a little hard to consider because I was enjoying it, but I also recognise that I have to be really careful about not getting dogmatic around food, because of my history with eating disorders.
A few months ago I decided to search the hashtag ‘intermittent fasting’ on Instagram to see whether there were women on there who lived a similar lifestyle to me, and also intermittent fasted. I was looking for something that resonated with me, because now I knew I could fast, but I also knew there would be deeper layers to it. In that search I discovered the videos of Dr Mindy Pelz and then went to dig deeper via her YouTube channel. I came across one video where she speaks about how to fast with your cycle. She explained the periods where women can do long fasts (up to three days or more), and other periods when we shouldn’t go longer than 13 hours. Since that point I started to work more with my cycle (which totally resonated with me as it’s how I work with women on a broader scale with nutrition and life), and since then I’ve really found a good flow for me.
How I fast with my cycle
This is what I have landed on, and worked with over the last two months (my cycle is 26 days):
I fast during my bleed (in my Sage) for the 17:7 I described above. I could theoretically go longer in this phase, based on our hormone levels dropping off here, but for me I like the comfort of more food during this time.
Immediately post bleed, for about 7 days (into my Maiden) I can go full on. Although I have found I don’t want to go more than 20 hours so far in my experimentation.
When I am in the four or so days around ovulation (Mother), I don’t fast more than 15 hours, as of course our hormones increase during this time.
After this, leading up to eight days before my bleed (so late Mother/very early parts of my Enchantress) I can go full on (like today I am doing a 36 hour fast, and did the same two days ago, with a two day break).
When I am on the 8th day before my bleed, until I start to bleed (Enchantress) I don’t fast more than 13 hours. There’s too much going on hormonally, and so my body needs space to focus on that.
Ha ha…did you catch all that?
To put it simply, based on a ‘standard’ 28 day cycle:
Day 1-10 fasting of any kind
Day 11-14 no more than 15 hours
Day 15-19 fasting of any kind
Day 20-28 no fasting, which means no more than 13 hours without food
You can watch Dr. Mindy’s video here.
But why fast at all?
The reason I am doing it is multi-faceted. Since I had Savannah eight years ago, despite my diet being excellent, my body has felt out of balance. I have changed various things, but nothing has really worked. So the main pull for me was healing the imbalance in my body. Our body’s main priority when we have food in us is digestion. When we fast then we allow our bodies to focus instead on healing. This is one of the reasons it is important to not eat a heavy meal before bed. Our sleep time is crucial for our body to be able to focus on healing, instead of digesting a big meal.
People generally intermittent fast, so the body has longer without digesting food, for:
Detoxification
Cellular healing
Supporting neurological health (when we fast we go into ketosis, when our body is burning fat over glucose, and our brains tend to work better burning fat over glucose)
Weight loss (although this doesn’t work if you then over eat the next day after the fast!)
Help with IBS or other digestive issues (gut healing benefits)
Regulate blood sugar levels
Spiritual clarity
Things to consider before fasting:
If you have any health issues, it is of course worth speaking to your doctor first
Don’t fast if pregnant
If you have a history of eating disorders, make sure you are in the right mindset to fast for the right reasons, and be careful to not let it take an ugly turn (perhaps ask someone to keep you in check around it if needed)
Don’t jump into a long fast immediately - build up to it slowly
I would advise doing it alongside cleaning up your diet, if your diet isn’t already good - this will help your blood sugars stay stable, as processed and refined foods will mean you are likely out of balance, which could cause you to struggle a lot more
I love intermittent fasting
I am absolutely loving working in synchronicity with my body, fasting with my cycle: to heal, to be balanced, to thrive!
I am interested if you do intermittent fasting and how it looks and feels for you. Comment below if you’d like to. I would love to hear from you, and I am sure others would benefit from your experience.