Snack Tips

I'm on Day 2 of the 14:10 Fasting. I do want to go to 16:8 eventually but I wanted to ease into it and make it work with my work schedule. I work 8.5 hours a day (30 minute lunch) with me bussing/walking. I'm a scheduler in a doctors clinic and we cannot eat in front of patients. I used to eat breakfast but now I can't with my fasting schedule and how my eating period begins while I'm at work. It's tricky to hold off starving/losing focus when you also have the late lunch. Most of my coworkers are sweethearts who help cover each other to hide away for 5 minutes to snack, if someone misses breakfast or gets hangry. So I know I will be able to sneak away during a slow period to get something in my belly when I need it. But what I need help with, awesome people, is what snacks to bring? What foods would you suggest? Something to starve off hunger, can be eaten quickly and can be easily sneaked into work? Nothing too unhealthy, I hope.

Answer

You talk about sneaking it in, so I assume you don’t have a lunchroom or fridge. Otherwise, you just put your snacks in the fridge with your bag lunch and who would know the difference?

Breakfast or energy bars. Nutri-Grain, Luna Bars, Clif Bars, etc. I think I’d lean toward the more calorie dense versions if you have little time.

Fruit. A bag of grapes, cut up apple. Dried fruits like apricots, dates, raisins.

Half a sandwich. PB&J or something that won’t spoil.

Answer

Re: snacks — a bag of nuts & some string cheese. But if this starts your eating window (raises insulin) you may as well just wait another hour. This sounds counter intuitive but to stave off hunger, chose a shorter fasting window. You might have to just power through it the first two days; start on a weekend. It’s tough to become fat adapted and reset your body into understanding how to burn fat as fuel if it never has to in the first place- and with 14:10, unless you’re doing keto it doesn’t need to, there’s always glucose available.