If you are not entirely happy with your weight, you probably have heard about intermitted eating, fasting, or 16:8 diet. All these names refer to a diet, where you eat only during an 8 hour window every day and consume only unsweet liquids the rest of the time, for 16 hours. This method is definitely on the rise these days and you will find celebrities, influencers, and some friends on it.
But is it healthy to listen to the clock instead of your body? Is it manageable for a long run? And how much will power do you have to have to go hungry for 16 hours every day?
In addition to losing weight, according to its proponents, this diet helps fight chronic diseases. There is another modified version of this diet, called 5:2. Jimmy Kimmel is on this diet, where you can eat all you want for 5 days and then for the next 2 you consume just 500 calories per day.
Most people on 16:8 diet start their cycle at night and skip breakfast, making their first meal of the day at noon. After that, for 8 hours you are free to eat all you want. Many dieters follow keto diet for their food to get better results faster.
This diet has ancient roots, because our ancestors most definitely hunted, gathered, and ate during the day and fasted and rested during dark hours. This could be called intermitted fasting as well.
We all have to decide what works for us, but there is some sad news for starving proponents – it turns out the result is virtually the same if you follow 16:8 diet or reduce your calories overall and spread your meals throughout the day. It’s all about what you eat and not when. Eating veggies, fruit, lean protein, whole grains, and healthy fats is a better long-term strategy than starving for 16 and overeating for 8 hours every day.
Some people, however, insist that staying on 16:8 diet is easier for them than counting every calorie. To each his own. People with high blood pressure and obesity are definitely benefiting from intermitted fasting approach. The body regulates blood sugar better and in turn blood pressure is reduced.
Fasting reduces oxidative stress for our bodies and gives a break to vital organs, reducing chances for chronic diseases. When our metabolic system takes a break, organs and hormones rest. Insulin production also slows down, so we are less likely to develop insulin resistance and high levels of it.
There are also some proven down sides to this fasting. First, LDL cholesterol tends to increase; second, you can get dizzy, lightheaded, and suffer serious hunger pangs; third, even avid water drinkers can get dehydrated without food for so long.
People with eating disorders are especially in danger because prolonged fasting causes overeating as your body gets confused without natural hunger cues and metabolism. Such long hunger periods can cause binge and purge effect, which is especially dangerous for women. Fasting like this can trigger depression, anxiety and eating disorders.
So overall, 16:8 fasting has pros and cons, and you should make the decision to try it very carefully. Many of us eat based on circumstances and not always based on hunger – popcorn at movies and eating just because lunch time came even when not feeling very hungry would be good examples. Snackers can get great help with 16:8 diet and cut back on snacks at all hours of the day.
Eating your last meal earlier can help you go to bed earlier and sufficient sleep has been liked to weight loss. 7+ hours of sleep reduces chances for chronic diseases, improves metabolism, and helps you feel energetic and rested.
At the end of the day, any diet is a personal choice. Fasting might be beneficial for some individuals, but too difficult for others. It is not easy socially and hard to follow all the rules. You can incorporate some components of this fasting into your diet of healthy food and call it a day to make your life less difficult. You can educate yourself about healthy foods and to start close your kitchen after dinner, go to bed earlier, drink more water, and have a nice breakfast when your body is ready for it.
If you do decide to give fasting a try, get some help and download DoFasting app. In a few words, this app helps you track your food time and alerts users when it’s time to eat. It costs $33 for 3 months. It has other features, but they are not very useful.
The features that don’t work very well are meal suggestions, but they don’t react to your dietary specifications. For example, vegans still get suggestions with eggs. You can log your daily calories, but you won’t be able to import them from other fitness apps. There is no mood tracking, which might be important when tracking fasting periods.
Two apps that are great for fasting tracking and additional programs are Lifesum and MyFitnessPal. Lifesum offers a few programs, including 24-hour fasting, but also suggests some calories while doing that. MyFitnessPal is great for calorie logging and exercise tracking after you choose a plan you want to follow.
The app is based in Lithuania and functions as an intermitted fasting app, which helps you stay on track and get alerts about time to eat without tracking it yourself. Early in 2020 the app took some heat for promoting eating disorders with the ads and with intermitted fasting concept overall.
The app is available for iOs and Android. It will work after you create an account online and pay for it there. Creating an account involves answering some questions about you meal times, fitness, and weight goals. The app will flag it if your weight or weight loss goals are too low. This feature was added more recently.
Be ready to dodge some upsells when creating an account. Ads can be annoying for an app that is not free already.
The most important part of the app is, of course, the time tracker. You can set it to 16:8, 14:10, 12:12, or whatever works for you. You can change it any time. Be ready to see ads on the home screen all the time. There is also a screen for suggested workouts with simple exercises. Meals section always features some recipes, but they don’t always react to dietary specifications. Calories from those offered recipes get added to your profile and you can manually log your calories, but you can’t import other apps or use a bar scan. The fourth section is for articles about healthy living and fasting, where you will find original content and articles from Google.
If you don’t like the app, you can easily cancel it via an email request. Eventually self-cancelling option might be added.
I live in southern California, where life is famously a beach, or at least used to be. Today we are on strict home orders with tourists attractions closed, restaurant dining unavailable, and some beaches open with masks only. Masks on a hot beach?
Yes, you’ve heard it right and yes, we are frustrated. So much so that some of us choose to get beach delivered in a cute box rather than bundling in masks and going there to suffocate.
What beach in a box am I talking about? It’s called Beachly and it comes to your door every season, bringing you beachy things, sans sandy feet. It is the next best thing to get you in the sunny mood and to bring hope that real beaches will be open as normal someday again.
So even if there is no sand delivered, the box is full of all kinds of beach essentials and items to remind us of times when life was very different.
It has fashion, jewelry, beach essentials, coastal home décor items, beauty, fitness, and plenty of good vibes.
All items are full size and of great quality. Each seasonal box is not very cheap at $99, but with at least $200 worth of items inside it’s worth it. Discounts are available for the first box and for yearly subscribers.
Without further ado let’s take a look at what beachy goodies my first box brought:
This is as perfect as it gets for southern California vibes, which you can feel in Florida too. The tote is spacious, beautiful, features vegan leather straps, and will serve me great for pool trips or whenever I have kids’ sleepover at their friends. I am an optimist and believe those will be taking place soon!
Kimono or not, but I will use it whenever sun and water is included – beach, pool, lake, river tubing, whatever. I love the Hawaiian motives in blue and white, and how light and luxurious it feels. It also looks perfect with the tote, making it a perfect beach set. Those two items alone are worth $200!
The tank from Fresh Produce is another piece of the puzzle for summery collection from Beachly. It will look great with white jeans or denim shorts, if I will fit my quarantine legs in any of them, that is. I see myself going everywhere with this tank!
No beach outing is complete without a bit of beats and this tiny device with plenty of power will be my trusty sidekick this summer. It has up to 5 hours of battery life before it needs charging and can even be used as a speakerphone on the go. I have plans to take it along for dog walks instead of those earphones that keep falling out of my ears.
Nothing says beach more than bracelets with silver, gold, beads, and shell details. Tis trio of bracelets is very hip and works with everything year round. You can wear all three of them as a set or separates based on your preference of materials and colors.
Finally, a great scrub for the entire body to help your skin get beach ready! The last thing you want to happen is get out of your house looking all dull and not sparkling, which can easily happen after staying home for weeks. This great smelling scrub will get your skin clean and hydrated in no time, so that you can look radiant on the beach and in your backyard just the same.
While the products are all great and will be used without a doubt, I also like the initiative Beachly is taking. The company is partnering with LA-based Heal The Bay organization and funding beach cleanups with the purchase of every box. I, as a proper Californian girl, enjoy this no end and feel proud that my money can help too.
After this pleasant introduction to Beachly, I can’t wait for my summer box!
The first time I have ever heard about Enjoy Flowers was when I got a gift – a beautiful bouquet of crisp flowers. It was arranged more naturally than you would normally expect from traditional florist and had so much exotic greenery that it really caught my attention. I am a bit tired of the usual flower delivery services and really wanted to try something different, especially with Mother’s Day in quarantine approaching.
The gift of unique combination of fresh flower blooms and greens is what took me to Enjoyflowers.com and encouraged me to try this subscription service on my own. I love flowers in my house and usually buy a bouquet at least twice per month from a grocery store, so why not get delivered something that can’t be found at any grocery store?
Everything can be subscription service these days, so why wouldn’t flowers? You can get a delivery 1 or 2 times per month. It’s definitely 2 times for me and I won’t have to buy them myself during my shopping trips with masks, and gloves, and all other bells and whistles. And neither will my mom because I am thinking about ordering this service for her as well.
All flowers come from greenhouses in Colombia, where it takes just 4 days between cutting and reaching your doorstep. This is why flowers are so unusually fresh! Each bouquet is handmade by in-house florists, had-wrapped, and shipped to you with love.
The bouquet arrives in a beautiful box and includes simple handling directions, biodegradable compostable wrapping, plant food packet, and an optional card if it’s a gift. All you have to do is un-wrap them, trim the stems, dissolve the food in the water, and place that beautiful arrangement in a vase. The company guarantees freshness for at least 7 days or they will send you a replacement. Most often flowers stay fresh for up to 2 weeks, at least some of them, so you can discard the wilting blossoms, refill the water, and continue to enjoy it until the next shipment is due.
I like how flexible this service is by allowing you to choose how often you want your delivery to be. You can cancel and edit your subscription any time. I also enjoy knowing that flowers reach me by sustainable farm to consumer model with as few middle men as possible.
There are two collections to choose from: Signature and Farm Fresh. Signature Collection often includes roses, hydrangeas, callas, lilies, alstros, and many more. Farm Fresh brings arrangements with roses, spray roses, Alstroemerias, carnations, and matsumoto.
There are also different sizes of bouquets – Signature Collection can come in 20 or 40-50 stems, and Farm Fresh Collection has three sizes: 20-25 stems, 30-35 stems, or 40-45 stems.
As I said before, you can choose to get your flowers 1 or 2 times per month. You can pay each time automatically or prepay for 3, 6 or 12 months. I suggest you try one time and if you like what you get, prepay for two months and save 5%. If you choose 1 time monthly delivery and prepay for 12 months, you will save 15%!
Overall I could rate my experience with the first gifted bouquet and my own order 10 out of 10. From the moment my huge box arrived, to opening it, putting all the colorful blooms in the vase, to enjoying them for two weeks, I have no complaints and only look forward for more!
Whether it’s for you, your Mom, friend, grandma, or for your office, fresh rose and exotic flower arrangement is definitely going to brighten the mood. Think about all the good it can do during corona lockdown when spring is passing by on the other side of the window!