Earlier start

I'm on vacation right now, but I tried to get up a little bit early this morning. My wife is still asleep, and it feels good to get a couple of hours of work done before she wakes up. That way I don't have to sit in front of the computer when she wakes up and we can spend more time together.

But man, it is rough to start getting up at 06:00 when you've been sleeping to 08:00 or 09:00 every day for the last couple of weeks.

Luckily, my morning coffee (black with a few drops of milk and some cinnamon sprinkled on top) always makes me start my day in a good way.

A strange thing with me and coffee: I can use it both to get awake in the morning and ready for sleep in the afternoon. I guess this is a mental thing.

An iphone app called 5:2 fasting diet recipes popped up on my radar today. It looks good. I will try it out later.

Anyways, back to work.

Benefits of intermittent fasting

I am glad someone took the time to put together this overview of benefits of intermittent fasting. I have read them all over the internet, but not collected in a nice list form like this.

Intermittent Fasting Guide: Benefits of Intermittent fasting

Among the items in the list:

• Intermittent fasting reduces risk of heart disease, cancer and diabetes.
• Intermittent fasting can help with digestive problems.
• Intermittent fasting helps you lose weight. :)

For me personally, the last two points is why I'm doing this. My stomach can be strange at times, and letting it rest for a longer period has helped a lot. I've never been overweight, but I have a job where I'm sitting still for 8 hours so it would be easy for me to put on some unwanted extra pounds if I did not watch out.

Coffee and Intermittent Fasting - does coffee break the fast?

Okay, so it is time to write about one of the most asked questions that I've ever received on this blog: does coffee break my fast during intermittent fasting?

The short answer is: NO, it does not break your fast. Drink away.

You see, a standard cup of coffee contains about 2 calories if you drink it black. As a rule of thumb, anything below 50 calories will not break your fast. That does not mean that you should try to meet that limit all the time, but it means that you can use it to your advantage to prolong your fast.

Why should I drink coffee when fasting?

Most people who start out with intermittent fasting will find that drinking coffee when you're feeling hungry will remove the immediate hunger. This is good news. It means that if you have a coffee or two you can probably stay away from the food a bit longer.

If you have no trouble and feeling no hunger then you probably don't need the coffee, but it can be easier in social situations like breakfast with your family if you have something, even if you don't eat regular breakfast.

Coffee fights hunger. You will need it. :)

Coffee versions

So, what kinds of coffee are okay when fasting? Generally you should stay away from sugar in your coffee, since that adds a lot (and I mean A LOT) of calories. A little bit of cream is okay, but don't make it a latte since the milk contains calories too. All those versions from Starbucks that has a lot of sugar/ice cream and milk is generally a bad idea.

Personally, I like my coffee with a little bit of real organic cream/milk and some cinnamon.

How does this work? Should I drink coffee instead of water?

Water is good for you, but coffee is too. Coffee will make your body produce more epinephrine, a substance that increases fat burning and lowers appetite. My advice is to drink a lot of water and some coffee whenever you feeling hungry.