{"id":39063,"date":"2017-05-16T12:38:09","date_gmt":"2017-05-16T19:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=39063"},"modified":"2017-02-16T00:38:30","modified_gmt":"2017-02-16T08:38:30","slug":"my-experiences-eating-only-one-meal-a-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/05\/16\/my-experiences-eating-only-one-meal-a-day\/","title":{"rendered":"My Experiences Eating Only One Meal a Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"eric
Portrait by Cindy Nguyen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lately \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcintermittent fasting\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 has been popular in diet circles.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Intermittent fasting<\/h2>\n

A lot of people say it is a fad, but honestly \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the ancients have been fasting for thousands of years. The ancients knew that for a lot of health ailments, fasting was one of the best ways to recover.<\/p>\n

Not only that, but fasting is also good for your mind, and to make you tougher.<\/p>\n

In today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s society, we are told to have 3 square meals a day. But in reality, back in ancient Rome \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Romans would only eat 1-2 meals a day. The first \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcbreakfast\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 (breaking a fast) was usually around noon. Then they would have their dinner (cena) at around 3-4pm.<\/p>\n

I used to eat breakfast religiously, but when I first heard about intermittent fasting, I wanted to give it a go. The first inspiration was from Nassim Taleb, who made a good point: a lion doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t eat a granola bar before hunting a gazelle. It is hunger that motivates us to move, hunt, and to expend energy.<\/p>\n

Humans aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like a gas tank, where we will ourselves with food, in order to burn it. Rather, we are a much more complex organism.<\/p>\n

Anyways, science behind, I want to share some of my experiences through intermittent fasting, and just eating one meal a day, and how I do it.<\/p>\n

Benefits of eating only one meal a day<\/h2>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve found numerous benefits just eating one meal a day. Some benefits:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Less time needed to cook, prepare, and clean food (more time to read, reflect, meditate)<\/li>\n
  2. Sharper focus throughout the day<\/li>\n
  3. No \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcfood coma\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 after breakfast or lunch (which means, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to take naps in the middle of the day, nor do I get tired)<\/li>\n
  4. When I do eat dinner, it tastes 100x better<\/li>\n
  5. More gratitude for food<\/li>\n
  6. Losing body fat (even though my dinners are massive, I can finally start to see a 6-pack)<\/li>\n
  7. More productivity, by writing more, reading more, and hustling more.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Downsides<\/h2>\n

    No real downsides to be honest, but getting used to some (mild) hunger pangs is necessary.<\/p>\n

    How to only eat one meal a day<\/h2>\n

    Here is what works for me:<\/p>\n

    1. Drink a lot of coffee:<\/strong> I have 1-2 cups of coffee immediately upon waking, and drink a lot of water. From noon until dinner time (usually 6pm), I will drink another 2-3 cups of coffee. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve found coffee to be a good appetite suppressant, and helps me also stay focused on working.
    \n2. Working out:<\/strong> When I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a bit hungry during the day, I will exercise a bit (1-legged pistol squats, push-ups, chin-ups). This gets my mind off food.
    \n3. Drink a lot of water:<\/strong> Now, when I am hungry, I just drink more water. This causes me to use the bathroom more often, but I actually feel more energetic, and cleansed.
    \n4. Listening to music:<\/strong> I currently have a lot of hip hop music I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m listening to, which gets my mind off food.
    \n5. Writing, walking, reflecting, photographing:<\/strong> Creative work helps me get \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcin the zone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u201d in which I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think as much about food.<\/p>\n

    Caveats<\/h2>\n

    Of course, when I am in social situations, I will usually eat lunch. But when it is just me and Cindy during the week, I will skip lunch, and just have another coffee.<\/p>\n

    Sometimes I find that when I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sleep enough, I feel more hungry, and get tempted to eat breakfast in the morning.<\/p>\n

    Inspirations<\/h2>\n

    I figured\u00e2\u20ac\u201d the Spartans could stay strong on a meager diet, why can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t I?<\/p>\n

    Not only that, but fasting isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really a big deal. Muslims do it all the time (in the millions) during Ramadan. Except they are tougher\u00e2\u20ac\u201d they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t drink water.<\/p>\n

    Will I keep this up?<\/h2>\n

    I will try to keep up this practice of only eating one meal a day. It is a bit tough at times, but honestly \u00e2\u20ac\u201d I feel less food is more focus, and more spiritual appreciation for food in general, and those starving all around the world.<\/p>\n

    I do admit I go through \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcdiet fads\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 a lot. So I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll keep you updated with my progress.<\/p>\n

    For some inspiration, I recommend reading the book: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Warrior Diet<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (where I got this idea from).<\/p>\n

    Always,
    \nEric<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Lately \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcintermittent fasting\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 has been popular in diet circles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38927,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_ek_photo_artist_note":"","_ek_photo_thesis":"","_ek_photo_camera":"","_ek_photo_place":"","_ek_photo_human_moment":"","_ek_photo_sequence":"","_ek_photo_question":"","_ek_photo_canonical_claim":"","_ek_photo_ai_summary":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/eric-kim-photography-hanoi-0007059.jpg?fit=4928%2C3264&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}