Introduction
Attention Getter: How many of you work nine-to-five or spend your days over a studying table? Does not leave much time for self-care, I would know. It is rather challenging to stay healthy, and dealing with medical bills is not a pleasure. There is, however, at least one truly effective way to stay healthy without great effort.
Motivation: I propose a way to improve your day-to-day well-being and add a couple of extra years to your life. Getting rid of extra pounds, enhancing your memory and thinking, improving your cardio – without exhaustive gym training or starving diets.
Thesis: Decades of extensive scientific research and observation have proven that intermittent fasting is a highly effective and safe way to improve your quality of life.
Preview: Several articles from credible sources will be used to explain the concept of intermittent fasting, why it is the modern self-care trend, its benefits, and why you should make it a habit. Starting from the basics, we must first understand what intermittent fasting is.
Body
What is intermittent fasting?
Overall basis and summary of what intermittent fasting is:
- Intermittent fasting is an eating plan that focuses not on what to eat but on when you eat, directed primarily at reducing calorie intake and developing consistent eating habits (“Intermittent Fasting: What Is It, And How Does It Work?” par. 3).
- There are several different ways to do intermittent fasting, but the main idea lies in establishing a time pattern for eating and fasting, daily or weekly. For example, you can choose to eat only during a certain period each day. Or you might choose to eat only one meal a day, two days a week (Gunnars par. 9).
Different intermittent fasting plans:
- There are several optimized fasting plans to choose from. Generally, they are divided into daily, weekly, and mixed approaches.
- 12 to 16-hour fasting is a good option for beginners. The 5:2 plan involves eating normally for five days a week and including two days of reduced calorie intake in between (Kandola par. 18).
Transition: Let us look at the excellent health benefits it provides.
Benefits of intermittent fasting.
Cognitive benefits: Fasting has positively affected people with brain-related disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, and others. Intermittent fasting also improves verbal and working memory, executive function, and global cognition (Mattson et al. 54).
Physical benefits: The primary goal of reducing and regulating calorie intake is fat loss and the associated benefits, including improvements in glucose regulation, blood pressure, and heart rate.
Transition: Let us first ask celebrities who practice intermittent fasting what they think.
What the celebrities say about it.
How they attribute it to their success:
- Jennifer Aniston is also into intermittent fasting. In 2019 she told Radio Times, “I noticed a big difference in going without solid food for 16 hours.” (Scipioni par. 3)
- “I actually do intermittent fasting every day,” told Moby in October 2018. “I try minimum 12 hours, usually 16. Basically, I just don’t eat dinner.” (Meola par. 4).
Transition: Let us summarize what we have established during this presentation.
Conclusion
Review of main points:
- Intermittent fasting is an eating plan aimed at the reduction of calorie intake by committing to a chosen fasting schedule.
- The benefits of intermittent fasting include weight loss, improved cardiovascular system condition, enhanced cognitive abilities, and general well-being improvement.
- Jimmy Kimmel – “I got the idea from a BBC documentary about this Indian man who seemed about 138 years old and said his secret was severe calorie restriction. I have Gandhi.”
Final statements:
- I have been following the 5:2 fasting schedule for a couple of years and it has been the best self-care decision I’ve ever made.
- Intermittent fasting is the best way to greatly improve the quality of your life for no cost and comfort at all.
Works Cited
Gunnars, Kris. “Intermittent Fasting 101 — The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide”. Healthline. Web.
“Intermittent Fasting: What Is It, And How Does It Work?”Johns Hopkins Medicine. Web.
Kandola, Aaron. “What Are the Benefits of Intermittent Fasting?”Medical News Today. Web.
Mattson, Mark. P., Valter D. Longo, and Michelle Harvie. “Impact of Intermittent Fasting on Health and Disease Processes.” Ageing Research Reviews, vol. 39, pp. 53–55.
Meola, Kiki. “Kourtney Kardashian, Molly Sims, Hugh Jackman and Other Stars Who Swear by Intermittent Fasting.”Diet Secrets. 2019, Web.
Scipioni, Jade. “Inside Jennifer Aniston’s daily wellness routine, from celery juice to intermittent fasting”Health and Wellness, Web.