Greetings, fellow traveler! Just a quick note from me regarding the Weekday Fast book and website. I have officially retired from promotion of the Weekday Fast plan. When I wrote the book back in 2000, it was a passion project more than anything. Having lost a lot of weight through IF, I wanted to spread the word. And so I set off to do just that.
If you’ve never written a book before, let me share with you that it’s not easy. This was before we had ChatGPT to write our books for us. 🙂 It took several months of fairly dedicated writing and researching. It’s not the greatest book ever written, but it’s not bad for a first effort, and I’m proud of it.
I’ve had many people thank me for the book and tell me that they learned a lot and tell me they lost a little (or a lot) of weight, so it was worth the effort. But as it is with all technology and research – the more we research, the more we learn. Now, even just five years later, I realize the Weekday Fast book needs a serious update to be accurate based on what we have learned. But I have neither the time nor the inclination to set off on a rewrite at this point. But if I did, here is a non-complete list of the changes from me, your non-doctor, non-official advice giving friend.
- Mix it up. Do NOT Intermittent Fast in the same way every day or every week. You have to keep your body guessing. Some days, do 16/8. Some days, do OMD. I’d do at least one and probably two days where I didn’t fast at all. And if you’re up for it, do a 40+ hour fast occasionally. Get that autophagy going folks!
- Prioritize Protein with every meal. If you’re going to have breakfast, make it mostly protein!
- Eggs are a super food. Try to eat them every day. Pasture-raised are the only kind of eggs to buy from the grocery store. Yes they’re more expensive but do your research and you’ll find they are worth it. Better yet: buy local pasture eggs from a farmer’s market!
- Lift weights! I personally made this mistake – I walk every day but I had gotten out of the habit of lifting weights and as a result I lost a lot of my muscle mass, which is going to happen as we age anyway. It is SO IMPORTANT that you lift weights to keep your bones and muscles strong. Intermittent Fasting will cause you to lose muscle mass if you don’t lift weights!
- Don’t drink calories. Especially not sodas, and especially not diet sodas. These are garbage that are damaging your body and hurting your microbiome. Don’t drink fruit juices either – some have more sugar than sodas. Eat fruit in the form nature delivered it to you – the whole fruit – so you can get the fiber too.
- Get rid of any ultra-processed foods in your house – throw that stuff straight in the trash and don’t buy it again. You’ve heard the old sayings…. don’t eat anything your grandmother wouldn’t recognize….only shop on the outside of the grocery store…don’t eat anything out of a box….don’t eat anything with more than three ingredients. There’s a reason they are old sayings – becuase they are true!
- NO SEED OILS. Only Olive, Avocado, Ghee, Beef tallow… there’s a few others but NO Vegetable, Corn, Canola etc. That stuff is crap.
- Get outside every day into nature if you can. Preferably first thing. Get some sunlight every day – as early in the day as you can. And don’t lay in bed – you only have a certain number of days on this planet, cherish every one of them. As soon as you wake up, get your butt up and brush those teeth and get outside!
- I stole most of this from influencers – Search for Youtube videos and podcasts by: Gary Brecka, Casey & Callie Means, Dr. Ken Berry, Dave Asprey, Peter Attia, Dr. James DiNicolantonio.
- Most importantly – BE PROACTIVE. Read, learn, implement healthy changes in your life. Cook your own whole foods. Buy as much as you can locally. Take daily walks, lift weights, love yourself, and …. Live Your Life!
Wishing you health & happiness always,
Markus