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The squashes that I grew this year turned out to be pumpkins. I thought they were regular green Japanese squashes but the color is orange and they taste like pumpkins. The size is pretty small though, even smaller than Japanese squashes. This is because I didn’t put in any fertilizers. With natural farming, the size is usually small.
I almost forgot about it but at the end of October, I completed the 7th quarter of my intermittent fasting. In Hare and Ke Intermittent Fasting, we have a quarter system, that is to do intermittent fasting for three months and end one cycle. Upon completing each quarter, we take a week’s break and relax. It is a refreshing period and you don’t feel you have to fast forever. Then you begin the next quarter. If you take one week break from fasting, you feel you are ready to get back to fasting. Actually, you want to get back to fasting, because that feels more natural for you at this point.
Another benefit of the quarter system is that you can try out different strategies at each quarter to test which method suit you best.
For the 7th quarter, I was going to practice fasting more freely, without following a fixed regular schedule, but I ended up doing mostly the regular pattern, which is to do a 17-hour fast on Monday, 24 hours fast on Tuesday, 17 hours on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Then, take a break on the weekend. This schedule suits me and I am so used to doing it.
I did 68 hours fast during this quarter, too. My plan is to do 36 hours fast once each quarter, and once a year, do 48 hours fast or 72 hours fast. I brought this annual long fast during this quarter.
For the 8th quarter, I don’t know what I am going to do yet. One option is to do 16 hour fast again but to bring the eating window earlier in the day, like from 10 am to 6 pm. If I have dinner between 5:30 and 6 pm, I can kind of have dinner with my family. I might still eat earlier than others but I can prepare the same dinner for them. I can even sit with them even I had already eaten. This way, I can practice something closer to early time-restricted eating, which is in the spotlight at the moment.
Another option is to do a longer fast more often. For example, do a 48 hour fast every Monday and Tuesday and eat three meals a day for the rest of the week. I’ ll be fasting less frequently but longer each time so that I can gain the benefits of further autophagy activation.
I might first just try 36 hours fast from Sunday dinner to Tuesday breakfast, and 17 hours fast on Wednesday. Then, from Thursday eat normally. That might be easier and when I feel I can push longer on Tuesday morning, I will try extending the fast till lunch or dinner.
Well, I’ll see.
Anyway, for now, I’ll just enjoy my break.