motivation

hi:) so i’ve been fasting on and off for years; as a teenager i started as a way to just help my digestive system without research. i have a severe reaction to gluten and didn’t find that out till later in life, so if my body would react, i just would water fast till i felt like myself again. over the years, specifically 2018-2021, i read a lot about IF, water cleansing for spiritual reasons, etc. the best i’ve ever felt was for about a year, i was keto/carnivore, and would do my fasting as follows: week one- two day weekend fast week two- three day weekend fast (fri-sat-sun) week three- (sort of four day) thursday morning breakfast, fast until monday lunch week four- 4.5 day fast during the week i would do 16:8, and it worked so amazing. my skin, energy, hair, sleep, moods all of that was very good. well i got out of that habit and now doing even one full day terrifies me. my work schedule is crazy so doing IF has not been successful at all. any tips or words of advice to get me back on track? i am now 150, where my happy/normal weight that supports my digestion is 125-135. i don’t work out, because again, work schedule. it’s a physical job & i can’t afford a gym and don’t have the energy to work out as my diet is currently TRASH. whatever i can find. thanks in advance 💜

Answer

I’m personally late to the game on “motivation” vs “discipline” but check out david goggins or jocko willink regarding discipline over motivation. Another thing you could look into is the personality trait of ‘grit’ which is kind of the same thing. Lastly for a true look at understanding motivation at the core dive into the mechanisms of dopamine. Some good talks on this come from Andrew Huberman. One is a youtube video about dopamine the other is a podcast he did with Anna Lemke regarding addiction and motivation (which hits on dopamine inside it.)

Ultimately motivation is like a gentle guide pushing you towards a path but grit/determination/discipline is what you need to make real consistent progress.

Perfect example from my life on this is that I would constantly flip flop start and stop the fasting with all sorts of “reasons” I couldn’t do it. I would always skip on working out, especially running, because I don’t like it.

Reality is I’ve essentially trained my body/mind to not do a thing because I want to quit. I’ve thus started down the path to make myself do things that are uncomfortable on purpose (very much inspired by David Goggins.).

Case and point I was in a low spot about 3 weeks ago, once again off track on all vectors just “too busy” to implement the changes I KNOW I want to implement. For some reason I stumbled on David goggins and got myself moving. I now wake up at 6am with one alarm and go on a 2mi run every morning and having missed a day in 3 weeks. For some reason it snapped in my head that I had sort of 2 voices. 1 that would convince me my it’s ok to stop the run early, it’s ok to eat outside my window or eat bad food just this once, etc. and 1 voice that knew I needed to stop being a wuss. My drill instructor if you will. I’m far from on a perfect path but I’ve put together a morning routine like I’ve’ never had in my life.

Hope that insp helps a bit.

Answer

Sounds like your job is stressful. Personally I would cut the junk food to a minimum, increase my fat intake and then start a fast on one of your days off. I find it easier to fast when I’m not stressed out.