Page 68 - Tracy Anderson Magazine – Summer 2020

INTERMITTENT INTERSTATE

Supporting your circadian rhythm, by Dr. Amy Shah.

If you’ve been paying attention to health and wellness
buzz, then there’s no way you missed the craze around “DURING YOUR
intermittent fasting. But what’s the real bottom line? Is
intermittent fasting just a trend, or is it legitimate? In the EATING WINDOW,
media, fasting is often thought to be equivalent to “starving
yourself,” which sounds extreme. But let me tell you about EAT LOTS OF
a type that is quite easy, healthy, and backed by medical
literature. VEGETABLES, FIBER,
where you take short logical breaks from food at times that AND FERMENTED
Enter circadian fasting. It’s a type of intermittent fasting
actually the most natural thing you can do for your body. FOODS.”
support your circadian rhythm. It’s life-changing, and it’s

Circadian fasting is combining the science of circadian –Dr. Amy Shah
biology with the data from intermittent fasting. It’s my own
creation based on data and clinical experience—although from food metabolism. It’s pretty clear that when your
there are other people successfully doing similar plans. body senses a “fasting” state, it turns on the repair and
It’s a method to improve your overall health, not just for renewal pathways. These pathways are designed to run in
short-term fat loss. Intermittent fasting may sound daunting the dark, evening, and overnight hours. These genetically
to the busy or on-the-go person, but circadian fasting can programmed pathways seem to get turned on once we’re
actually be easily implemented into your life without much in the fasting state, so we get younger, more renewed cells.
change to your daily lifestyle. Studies show that even with the same amount of food,
timing matters! In a study from Cell Metabolism, the journal
One of the things you can do is start with just a 12-hour found that mice that ate an unhealthy diet could mitigate
fast. Let’s say that you begin your fast at about 7 p.m. and some of the effects just by intermittent fasting in a circadian
fast until 7 a.m. You’ll be sleeping the majority of those 12 fashion. This means even with the same food intake, circa-
hours, and then you can break your fast with some nuts or dian fasting would offer metabolic benefits.
a smoothie. Then you eat your normal meals until dinner
and stop eating again at 7 p.m., and then start over for Of course I don’t recommend that you eat a junk food diet
another 12 hours of fasting. You can distract yourself at 7 when you’re not fasting. Eating a clean diet and managing
p.m. with a walk outside or by giving your kids a bath or your sleep and stress is essential when you’re doing circadi-
putting them to bed. Continue on with this 12-hour fast an fasting. Go without eating for two to three hours before
for about two weeks. After a couple of weeks, this should bed, then go to sleep for seven to eight hours. Wake up and
break your fast, after a fasted workout perhaps, and there
Photo by: Jonathan Pielmayer, courtesy of unsplash.com your fasting to the next level, and you’ll begin to reap the sults, along with staying hydrated and cutting back on your
feel pretty natural to you and become a habit. Now that
you go, you are circadian syncing and fasting. During your
you’re used to this shorter fast, you can increase the hours
eating window, eat lots of vegetables, fiber, and fermented
to 15–16 hours for about three days a week. This will take
foods. Switching to a plant-focused diet will increase re-
benefits of metabolic switching and intermittent fasting.
sugar intake.
Once you make the increase to the 15–16 hours of fasting
alternating with 12 hours, you should start seeing your
health uptick in many different ways. Some of the first im-
Dr. Amy Shah is a double board-certified MD with
training from Cornell, Columbia, and Harvard uni-
provements you may notice are gut health benefits, as well
versities. She consults with busy people to transform
as an increase in energy. You’ll also see your metabolism
their health by reducing inflammation and eating
increase, fat loss, insulin sensitivity, and much more.
more plants, utilizing the power of the microbiome
sensitivities. To learn more from Dr. Shah, please visit
amymdwellness.com.
we have a cell in every cell in our body that needs a break
66 This plan is using the power of circadian rhythms, because to help digestion, natural hormone balance, and food 67