What Does The Fasting Wave Represent?

The FastingWave is one half intermittent fasting and the other half is a metaphor for your habits. All the little things you do every day like little waves that just barely cover your feet on the shore of life.

When I started intermittent fasting I experienced immediate weight loss which was great but I managed to maintain this weight loss which was totally new to me. I was a yoyo diet expert up until that point, and the side benefits from the fasting has improved my eosinophilic esophagitis from the point of being hospitalized twice to the point of it being almost completely gone.

My skin has more of a glow according to friends and family and in general I just feel lighter on my toes, like I have more energy when I’m fasting than when I’m recovering from a big meal. I used to have 3 big square meals a day plus snacks and desserts.

Acknowledging my habits, listing them, analyzing and inserting new key habits based on my beliefs about my life and the person I want to be in the future has been instrumental in my sticking with a fitness program for over a year now whereas the previous version of myself would maybe manage 3 months. I’d see a little change in my body. I’d sit back, relax and lose interest when month 4 didn’t show any changes.

Atomic Habits by James Clear covers in great detail what he calls the plateau of latent potential in which your efforts in a task initially show some cool results, then you have a period of tiny improvements over a long period of time followed by a breakthrough moment when your body or abilities show a big change. It’s at this point of achieving the big change that you are very unlikely to give up this new habit.

After the big change moment others will recognise your achievement and possibly aspire to have that look or level of skill. However understanding the path of getting from beginner to proficient by little improvements every day, completely took the stress out of weight lifting for me.

I changed my mindset from the beginning to “I’m a weightlifter” NOT “I want big arms so I have to do these boring exercises”. I understood that I’m going to perform a little exercise every day and made a promise to do so. I also understood that for my goal I would go through a period from about month three to month nine of not seeing any improvement and that I had to stick to my promise and my habits and my mindset of already being a weightlifter.

Approaching month twelve I look bigger but I don’t have to remember the promise it’s become part of who I am. The one set of twelve repetitions I started on per day has naturally grown to an easy twenty minute weightlifting workout five days a week. It’s a part of me now and I’ve invested in bigger weights that I actually use.

So many times in the past I purchased exercise equipment only to use it for a few months then give it away.