Intuitive Fasting: The Flexible Four-Week Intermittent Fasting Plan to Recharge You Metabolism and Renew Your Health

by Will Cole

The type of carbs you eat matters; not all carbs are created equal.

Melatonin, your sleepy-time hormone, is actually made from serotonin. This means that carbohydrates are helpful for melatonin production, and if you mess with this intricate connection between melatonin, serotonin, and carbohydrates, it may have the unexpected consequence of messing with your sleep.

high-quality carbohydrates (like those found in sweet potatoes, fruit, and rice)—and only eat them in moderation and intermittently—carbs can be extremely helpful for your sleep quality.

Many of my patients also do quite well when they increase their carb intake around their periods and ovulation—once or twice a month—as opposed to cycling in added carbs every week. Here’s what to do: On days 1 and 2 of your menstrual cycle, increase your carbs. You can also try increasing your carb intake after ovulation, around days 19 and 20 of your menstrual cycle, which is about 5 days after ovulation. You can experiment with this and see how you feel.

When you cut carbohydrates too low for too long, you run the risk of dropping serotonin to a place where you start to feel hungry all the time. This can make it extremely difficult to lose weight.

thyroid hormones play a role in basically every aspect of your health, including appetite, energy levels, mood, temperature regulation, and sex drive—and an imbalance in thyroid health can cause a wide range of health problems.

Make sure you are going for raw nuts and seeds and properly preparing them. I find that most people do better with soaking nuts and seeds in water overnight to break down the inflammatory lectins and make their nutrients more bioavailable.

In fact, pasture-raised eggs have been shown to contain three times more of the brain-beneficial omega-3 fats than supermarket eggs.

Just keep in mind that, like eggs, not all meat is raised equally. The conventional meat you typically find in grocery stores is from animals that are fed grains and pumped with hormones, both of which decrease the availability of naturally occurring nutrients and can perpetuate a lot of health problems rather than help overcome them. That’s why you should always try to opt for grass-fed, organic, and hormone- and antibiotic-free sources of meat. Support regenerative farms whenever possible.

If you pick up most processed, packaged food in a grocery store and read the label, you will often see “partially hydrogenated oil” on it. These pesky fats are hiding in a ton of common foods—like creamers, spreads, and even cookies, cakes, and potato chips—where you wouldn’t think to look for them. Trans fats are also commonly used in the fryers at restaurants and fast-food chains. As a general rule, do your absolute best to avoid this type of fat entirely.

Well, if PUFAs win the award for the most confusing type of fat, SFAs are the most misunderstood.

The real problem with saturated fats like coconut oil occurs when people eat them with refined grains (which turn into sugar), such as breads and pasta or sugary foods. This “mixed meal” combination amplifies the inflammation of sugar.

Most conventionally run dairy farms in the United States use cows that have many gene mutations after thousands of years of crossbreeding, and they produce the A1 casein dairy that is sold in most grocery stores. This A1 casein is one of the main factors that increases inflammation in the body and can lead to digestive issues. On top of this, the cows producing this dairy are fed corn instead of grass, and their milk is pasteurized and homogenized, and the fat is removed. Many times, the dairy isn’t the actual issue, it’s what is done to the cows and the milk that makes it such an inflammatory food.

First, the beta-casein is removed from ghee, which means all that’s left is grass-fed clarified butterfat that contains fat-soluble vitamins—such as vitamins A, D, and K2—that many of us are deficient in. Because ghee is a healthy fat source derived from animals, it also has a high smoke point. Most conventionally used oils have low oxidation levels and can form things like free radicals when heated. Ghee has a smoke point of 485 degrees Fahrenheit, so it’s a great option to use when cooking and baking.

Even fluoride, which has been added to drinking water intentionally, could be linked to some serious health concerns. A scientific review of the Environmental Protection Agency’s drinking water regulations suggested that tap water treated with fluoride was associated with increased rates of bone fractures and dental problems.3 The study also recommended further investigation into fluoride’s impact on thyroid and brain health.

black tea, green tea, white tea, and oolong tea all come from the same plant!

If black, green, and white tea are Destiny’s Child, oolong is the overlooked member of the group who got kicked out sometime in the late ’90s. But oolong is awesome!

I love Earl Grey for its health benefits. Earlier in this book, we learned about autophagy; well, bergamot can actually help enhance and support autophagy. In fact, bergamot oil is one of the polyphenols that contain natural healing properties at cellular levels that increase and induce the autophagy process.24 These polyphenols are compounds found in plants that protect the plant from any damage. And as bergamot oil protects the plant, when eaten it also protects our bodies by boosting our autophagy process.

We have to expand our view of workouts to include anything that gets our body moving for any amount of time. Let me say it louder for people in the back: Anything that gets your body moving for any period of time is a workout—and that means dancing to your favorite song, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, and even walking around the mall for the day. It also means tennis, gardening, or playing basketball with your kid. We often overvalue “workouts.” What are you doing the other twenty-three hours a day? Make movement a lifestyle.

The people who live the longest don’t have Equinox gyms and fancy Apple Watches to track their workouts. Instead, they garden, carry their groceries up the hill, and they walk—everywhere. In fact, in Old Order Amish communities, the average woman logs about 14,000 steps per day; these communities also have some of the lowest rates of obesity anywhere in America.59

Long-term low-carb diets can put additional stress on the adrenals, which can exacerbate an adrenal issue and cause uncomfortable symptoms like fatigue, insomnia, and anxiety. In fact, in my functional medicine practice, I discourage my patients from going low-carb long-term until they’ve addressed their unhealthy stress levels.

The Japanese term is shinrin-yoku. Shinrin in Japanese means “forest,” and yoku means “bath.” I recommend spending some amount of time in nature every single day if possible. Forest-bathe as much as you can. That could even mean a walk in the nearest park, lying outside in the grass, or taking a walk on the weekend.

Clutter on the outside can cause clutter on the inside, so take time each week to clean up your home, office, or workspace. Throw away anything that doesn’t have a positive or practical purpose.

If you’re being bombarded with any content that makes your adrenaline rise or makes you feel like you should be doing more, be merciless about getting that content out of your zone. FOMO-inducing, stress-increasing endless scrolling of content online is detrimental to your health. Sometimes self-care means hitting the mute, unfollow, or turn-off-notifications buttons with abandon. Consider doing intermittent phone fasts. You can also set time boundaries with social media; for example, don’t scroll before noon or after 8 p.m., saving your sharing and liking for the middle of the day. If you’re not sure about this in the long term, commit to doing it for the 4-Week Flexible Fasting Plan and see how you feel by the end;

you may feel like you’re alone in this. At the end of the day, even if you have company, changing your diet and lifestyle can be an isolating thing. It’s even possible that you’ll receive some judgment or criticism from those around you. If you suspect this may happen to you, remember this: just because something is common doesn’t make it normal. Feeling lousy and eating unhealthy food is a really hot-button topic for people, and you may ruffle some feathers by changing things up. My advice is to write down, on paper, why you decided to take this journey and then read that note to yourself anytime someone makes you question your efforts.

Eliminating certain foods that don’t make you feel great during this plan is not a way to punish your body, but a way to show yourself deep honor and respect. Love yourself enough to nourish your body with good food medicine. Your body is alive because of brilliant biochemistry, and with each meal, focus on how you can fuel yourself.