Is there any benefit to Intermittent Fasting?
I've found it very helpful because I struggle immensely at keeping consistent with physical activity. Figured that until I get around to messing with the CO part of CICO, I needed to focus on the CI piece.
For anyone that's a big snacker like me, I've found the most valuable part of combatting that is not at home. It's at the grocery store. Had to stop cold turkey buying certain snacks because I exist to consume salty carbs. Going from having chips, pretzels, crackers,
and popcorn all on hand to
only a bag of pretzels or
only a tub of popcorn kernels (to cook from scratch with minimal oil and salt) has helped. From there, I've been slowly integrating better snacks: fruit, yogurt, low sugar granola clusters, low sugar protein bars, etc. Am now at the point where when my body wants me to snack, I'm a-ok with taking the time for something like making a bowl of yogurt instead of craving chips.
It's been a slow going process for a year and some change, but it's been worth it. Highly recommend. You'll feel better physically and about yourself when you're no longer dealing with the daily addiction to salt, bad fats, and carbs.
As an aside, I also recommend learning to bake desserts. Don't buy overly sugary stuff if you can help it and instead bake what you want once a month or so. Making it a time-consuming hassle to get your hands on something super sugary and making it into an infrequent treat can cut down on added sugars immensely. Same idea as snacks above: eliminating easy access can be huge. Quite cost effective too.
