My Five Pillars
My Five Pillars
Dr. Nadia Brito Pateguana reveals what she considers to be the keys to successful fasting
If you’ve ever been on a call with me, as a coaching client or in one of my groups, you’ve certainly heard me talk incessantly about “The Five Pillars,” or what I consider to be MY five pillars. I’ve also written about these in an article titled The Five Major Factors for lowering insulin. Fortunately, the people that I’ve shared these “Five Pillars” with and have successfully been able to implement these appropriately into their lifestyles, have done very well, and I hope you do, too!
First of all, let me define what I mean by “Pillars.” As I mentioned above, I’ve written an article on this topic before, where I referred to these same five “pillars” as “major factors” to lowering insulin. And that’s exactly what I mean. Not to say that there aren’t other “important” factors to lowering insulin and to helping you on your journey, there are, but these, in my view, are the FOUNDATION of our program and the KEY to your success.
So, without further ado, let’s get to them. Here are “My Five Pillars”:
How often you eat (part 1 of “how you eat”)
What time you eat (part 2 of “how you eat”)
Diet (“what you eat”)
Stress
Sleep
How to follow these, practically? Each of these pillars can be individualized to your own goals.
1. How often you eat (part 1 of “how you eat”)
TRE: Time restricted eating. Give TRE the importance and focus it truly deserves. (I’ll write more on this later.) Full meals, no snacks. Bring each and every single thing that raises insulin into your short eating windows, and keep your in-between windows clean! This should be the case regardless of how long your fasts are.
2. What time you eat (part 2 of “how you eat”)
Dr. Fung calls this “The Critical Importance of Meal Timing,” also known as eTRE (early time restricted eating), here’s some info.
3. Diet (“what you eat”)
A real food, lower carb diet is encouraged. The Obesity Code Cookbook just came out in December 2019, and it’s a great resource. If you're a member of our TFM community please also check out my Food Pyramid if you need some guidance.
4. Stress
I’m not implying that you’ll ever get rid of stress, but rather that figuring out stress-management skills, including cortisol-lowering techniques, is a pillar. The Fasting Method, as you may know, offers a whole lot of focus groups. Many of these groups now focus on behavioural changes, mindset and paradigm shifting, as well as the emotional and mental aspect of dieting and fasting.
5. Sleep
Sleep Hygiene is another big one. A lot of people struggle with not getting enough sleep, yet many have disregarded or are not aware of how much this impacts their metabolic and overall health. Here’s a good read on why you must address this pillar of health.
Read the full TFM article here:
https://thefastingmethod.com/newsletter-january-31-2020/
