Autonomy & Intermittent Fasting

In this episode I talk about the importance of autonomy when practicing intermittent fasting for weight loss. 

An AI generated transcript is below.  

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The Laid Back Guide to Intermittent Fasting: How I lost Over 80 Pounds and Kept It Off Eating Whatever I Wanted

Overcoming Weight Loss Obstacles: How To Keep Going When Things Get Difficult 

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ALL THE INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THIS PODCAST IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. IT IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR MEDICAL ADVICE. YOU SHOULD ALWAYS CONSULT A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL BEFORE GOING ON ANY DIET OR EXERCISE PROGRAM.

Begin AI Generated Transcript

Welcome to the Six Miles to Supper podcast. I'm your host, Kayla Cox, and I've lost over 80 pounds with intermittent fasting six days a week, eating whatever I wanted at my meals, taking a cheat day every Sunday and walking six miles a day. And I'm here to help you on your weight loss journey. In today's episode, we're going to talk about the importance of autonomy with intermittent fasting.

I recently read a really good book on motivation called Drive by Daniel Pink. And in that book, he talks about motivation and what are the ingredients that need to be present in order for motivation to occur. And he says it comes basically down to three elements autonomy, mastery and purpose. And in today's episode, we're going to just focus on the idea of autonomy.

Autonomy comes from two Greek words Otto's meaning self and numerous meaning law. When you put that together, all it really means is when you have autonomy, you are governing yourself, you're giving yourself rules, and then you are following them. And if you don't feel like you have autonomy, then you lose motivation. In other words, when you start to feel like other people are in control of your weight loss journey or they're in control of your fasting, you're going to feel less in control.

You're going to feel like you don't have autonomy and then you're going to lose motivation. So it's important to listen to how you are feeling on the weight loss journey and to, you know, like if you ever start to feel like you're not in control, that's a red flag. And so I'm going to go through a few areas where I feel like a lot of us can start to feel like we don't have autonomy.

But really, this is an illusion. Ultimately, you are in control of every single aspect of the weight loss journey. So let's talk about the fasting window itself, because that's where a lot of people have trouble. Ultimately, you are in control of what you allow yourself in the fasting window. But too often it can be, you know, a thing where maybe you've heard like, oh, well, you can't have anything at all, or you're not allowed to have a mint, or you can't have gum or you can't have cream in your coffee.

And then you can think that that rule is forcing you to do something you don't really want to do. But the truth is, it is your choice whether to adopt that rule for yourself or not. It's a trap to adopt that rule for yourself and then to feel resentful of the person who you got the rule from. The truth is, there is no intermittent fasting police.

So if you want to have cream in your coffee or you want to have a piece of gum or you want to have a spoonful of peanut butter in the fasting window, because that's what gets you through it. That's okay. You also have autonomy in the eating window. You get to decide what to eat and what not to eat and how much to eat.

If you want to eat higher calorie kind of foods or things, you know, have a lot of sugar, a lot of salt or a lot of fat, you can do that. You're in control of every bite that goes into your body. And yet sometimes you can start to forget that, you know, you might think the other people are forcing you to eat a certain way, but that's simply not true.

If you want to be low carb, be low carb, but understand that that's your choice. It's not anybody else's. Also, you are in control of how often you eat. If you want to eat three or four different times, and that still makes it so that you have the appropriate amount of food going into your body. Then you'll still lose weight.

You're in control also of what time you fast and for how long you fast. You know, like if you want to do a second eat, great. If you want to do a 15 nine, you can do that. You can, you know, put all your eating in the morning or you can do all your eating late at night. It doesn't really matter.

You're in control of that. It's also up to you how many days a week you're practicing fasting. You know, some people do it seven days a week. Other people do it five days a week. Some people do it three days a week. It's all about what you can stick with and what works in your life. It's also in your control.

How often you take the day off. For whatever reason, you get to decide what an acceptable reason is. The thing is, people can get into your head, you know, like if you listen to one fasting person and they're all about clean fasting and they tell you absolutely, you can't have even a single bite of anything and can never have any kind of calories at all.

And if you ever, ever, ever do it any differently, then you're doing it wrong. They can get in your head. And I mean, right now I'm in your head and I hope that you remember that just because something worked for me, just because, you know, I like Matt and I like I like dirty fasting. That isn't necessarily mean that that's the right path for you.

You have to decide what will work in your life If you ever find yourself thinking like, Oh, other people are in control, other people are making you eat this certain way. Just understand that that can lead to some, you know, really interesting kind of behavior that will make you gain weight, you know, because you may start to eat out of a sense of rebellion.

I know I certainly did this on various diets. I would start to really be resentful that, you know, some doctor in some book was telling me that I couldn't eat bread and that kind of a thing. And and so I would rebellion step. And ultimately, that did not serve me.

And the real change happened for me when I realized that I'm in control of every bite I take. I get to make the rules for myself. And that will eventually get the weight off my body. So I hope that you'll take a minute and think about all the different parts of your plan. And if you see an area where you feel like you don't have autonomy, I would encourage you to remind yourself that you do that.

You get to control that. And if you need to make a change, you should. Thank you for listening to this episode and I'll see you in the next one.

Do you want to lose the weight without getting rid of the foods you love and that you know you'll go back to eating again anyway? My book, The Laid Back Guide to Intermittent Fasting, teaches you how to practice intermittent fasting so that you lose the weight sustainably and keep it off for good.

You can get the audiobook read by me for free when you sign up for your 30 day trial of Audible. The link is in the show notes, and if you've gotten value from this podcast and you'd like to let other people know about it, it'd be great if you could leave a review on either iTunes or wherever you get your podcast.

 

Thanks.