We all know that our cup of coffee can get us moving in the morning, but how long does that quick energy boost last? Usually, by late morning the dreaded crash will make its way into our day, leading to unhealthy choices like too much caffeine or sugar overload.

Instead, adding "healthy fats" to your morning cup can provide more sustained energy and fewer cravings as these fats are the most power-packed macronutrient.

These healthy fats include grass-fed butter, MCT oil, coconut oil, ghee, and cocoa butter. These essential superfoods will slow down the digestion and intake of other foods and beverages they accompany.

So by adding these fats to your coffee, you are slowing the absorption of caffeine into your system and lengthening its effects. You end up drinking less coffee and getting those beneficial fats that every healthy breakfast should be made of.

Enhancing your morning routine with healthy fats is also very helpful in your digestion and healing of the gut. As many people suffer from the shakes after a cup of coffee on an empty stomach, others can feel nauseous and scattered as the coffee is too acidic first thing in the morning.

Adding fats to your morning cup can decrease these effects as the fat lines the stomach and protects you from shakes and nausea, which assists in the healing of the gut. (Note: If you are sensitive to coffee, tea is a great substitute.)

Another benefit of these healthy fats is they are packed with Omega 3 fatty acids, which are essential to our health. Unfortunately, we don't produce them naturally, so we must obtain them through our diet.

Omega 3 has been proven to prevent and treat inflammation, high blood pressure, arthritis, and coronary artery disease. Yet, it would help if you found a balance with Omega 6 fatty acids, as the standard American diet is overwhelmingly too high in Omega 6, creating an unhealthy balance. 

So make sure you eat grass-fed butter instead of grain-fed butter to boost Omega 3. With that being said, by drinking just a regular cup of black coffee, you aren't getting any nutrients – which won't keep you full.

However, when you add healthy fats to your coffee, you increase its nutritional value, stopping hunger from kicking in and prolonging the stomach emptying after eating. That is where intermittent Fasting comes into play. 

With just the intake of your morning cup full of your favorite fats, you can get up to 17 hours of Fasting! Because of the "fats" in your coffee, you won't have the crankiness, moodiness, hunger, low energy, or brain fog that just regular Fasting will give you, so you can still get through the first part of your day.

When it comes a time in the afternoon to break your fast, the best options are nutrient-dense foods, clean-hormone-free proteins, and lots of organic veggies.

At this point, whether you are just trying to live a healthy lifestyle or lose weight, by eating a healthy choice of food, you can eat as much as your body needs until it is ready to start the fast again at the end of your evening.

There are many health benefits to intermittent fastings, like lower inflammation in the body, reduced risk of illness, and, let's not forget, a longer, healthier life. 

For intermittent Fasting to work, you need at least 10-12 hours without food. It sounds more complicated than it is. Compared to other diets, intermittent Fasting has been easier to achieve as you don't have to go days depriving yourself of food or counting your calories every time you eat a meal.

Plus, adding those healthy fats to your morning cup sustains you for the better part of your day when you are still fasting.

Stop eating a couple of hours before bedtime to get the most out of your daily fasting regimen. The food from late-night snacking doesn't have a chance to be used as energy, so it goes to fat storage and obstructs the body's cleansing process. It is also important to avoid sugar and refined grains and get plenty of exercise throughout your week.

In today's society, unbalanced hormones affect millions of people. The chemicals found in pharmaceutical drugs, prepackaged foods, sprayed on our produce, and pollution inside and outside our homes; create havoc on our body's systems.

Achieving hormone balance brings balance to your emotional and physical, and mental well-being. Intermittent Fasting, the cleansing of our body, can play a significant role in helping us find that balance.

As a bonus, healthy fats significantly boost your immune system. Adding fat, such as grass-fed butter, ghee, and cocoa butter, provides protein, calcium, and vitamins D and K. Coconut oil and MCT oil provides vitamin E and lauric acid. All these options are excellent for your immune system and energy levels to help keep illness at bay.

Once you have found your balance in intermittent Fasting, you will notice overall better health, less inflammation, focused concentration, weight loss, and sustained energy so you can get through each day of your extended life.

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​OUTLINE:

Food Evolution Getting The Most Out Of YOUR Routine Hormonal And Sleep/Wake Cycles Nutrients – What To Eat When You Eat Positive Changes You Will See Helpful Tips That You Will Need Who Is It Good/Bad For

​Food Evolution

Let me set the scene for you or the table.

It's the early 1800s – the family gathers around the lunch table, as this was typically the bigger meal of the day. The handmade table is made of slabs of wood covered in a candlelit feast for the family.

Vegetable soup is made of an array of colorful vegetables from the garden and stock made from the bones of the protein from the farm. A roasted turkey from the father's butchering from the day before and cranberry sauce that the mother preserved over the winter months.

As there needed to be the convenience of grocery stores, electricity, fast food, or prepackaged foods, the family-made meals from grown, nourished, and handpicked ingredients. The labor made you appreciate every bite, and the meals that you fed your family made you put care into your daily duties of gardening, hunting, and gathering.

Compared to today, many families gather around their flat-screen TVs to indulge in chemically processed foods that have little or no nourishment for their bodies. These families also put little, if any, effort into actually making the food.

I applaud your efforts for those who cook to nourish themselves, as the world around us has made it very easy to stray from these traditions.

​So how did we get from the fresh, nourishing farm to the overly processed and chemically inclined food world we live in today? How do we return to our ancestral roots of food as nourishment and a labor of love but still live in modern society?

Labor and time are significant differences between the dinner table in the 1800s and today. For families today, there is little time for meals with everything else that we cram inside a single day.

Back in the day, food and the preparation of said food was the main priority every day. So as technology advanced to help us store, preserve, and prepare foods, the less time we had to spend in the kitchen. That alone took our focus off food as a daily labor of love and nutrition.

Now we are left with "convenient food." Food that has been chemically processed and easy to throw in the microwave or oven or drive through a lane to pick it up and shove in our faces. Most times, without the mere thought of what we put inside our precious bodies.

In today's society, to nourish our bodies and preserve our health, we must work around what is produced for us and concentrate on the foods that make us feel healthier.

Often that means you should produce the food yourself or have a reliable source to get clean, wholesome, and nourishing products. Adapt to the world we currently live in by choosing healthy options.

One healthy option I have thoroughly enjoyed and seen personal improvements from is Intermittent Fasting. It is a daily routine and remedy to give your gut time to heal and rest.

The consequences of IF are feeling better, eating less food, spending less money, and eliminating the stress of preparing multiple meals, among many other health benefits. In today's society, I couldn't ask for anything more!

​Getting The Most Out Of YOUR Routine

The modern diet and routine aren't how our bodies were designed to eat or live, and it's not what will promote optimal health or functioning. Since we have to mold to our environment, finding a healthy option that benefits YOUR body will make you thrive in your routine and way of life.

By choosing a gut cleansing, sustainable fasting routine, and a clean, nutritious diet, you will reap so many advantages to the overall health of your body.

The key is getting adequate nutrients that work with the chemistry of your particular systems and chosen daily routines. Finding a balance in your everyday life can make all the differences in energy levels, moods, hunger, and disease.

It is hard to say that one person's routine will work for another. After all, we all are different in our chemistry, lifestyles, choices, and regards. Yet, there are suggestions of what works for ordinary people in this day and age.

So once again, try what you think would work best for you, for your schedule, and then adjust what is needed for your overall health and happiness. ​One routine that I have witnessed to be beneficial in the average day of Joe and Jane that works the popular 8 am-5 pm performance is shown below:

Whichever plan you try should include a clean, nutritional palette of foods, plenty of water, exercise that is right for you, plenty of rest, and a chemistry that works with your body.

Here are some suggested plans:

• ​Goodnight Belly: A straightforward way to IF is to stop eating at 8 pm every night and choose a morning cup routine full of your favorite fats instead of breakfast. This allows your gut to rest when you are sleeping. It also provides a sustainable, nutritious, and easy way to start your day. Taking away late-night snacking and a no-carb breakfast can do wonders for your gut. Plus, you are getting 17+ hours of Fasting!
• ​Weekend Warrior: This fast consists of 2 days per week and a regular, clean diet for the other five days. It doesn't necessarily have to be on the weekend. It can be any two days you want to pick that work. Not even consecutive days are required. You can also allow yourself up to 700 calories daily on your fasting days. After that being said, I recommend getting the benefits of your healthy fats with some of that caloric intake.
• ​IF Master: I only recommend this Fasting for people who have fasted in the past, have a healthy daily routine, and are physically fit. This fasting protocol calls for a complete fast every other day. This plan can be intense but can be very effective for some people. On your fasting days, I recommend still loading your morning cup full of those beneficial fats to keep you sustained throughout the day.

​Hormonal And Sleep/Wake Cycles

As you choose the plan that is right for you, consider your hormones and stress levels. One of the most common hormone imbalances in people is cortisol levels being too high and Melatonin levels being too low.

You have to find a way to balance stress and allow your body to rest for healing, revilement, and restoration. Otherwise, it can cause weight gain, anxiety, poor sleep, and chronic fatigue.

Finding a healthy balance and proper nutrient timing between sleep/rest, exercise, and eating can do wonders for your metabolism, energy, stress, and these essential hormones. 

Intermittent Fasting helps to balance your stress hormones (cortisol) and sleep hormones (melatonin), yet only with proper nutrient timing. So choose a fasting routine that is right for you.

Melatonin is needed for a healthy sleep cycle to make you fall asleep and stay asleep. As you are resting, letting your whole body rest, including your gut, is essential. Cortisol is required in the morning to give you the energy and mental awareness to start your day.

If you give yourself nutrients in the morning with a healthy dose of fats, your energy will be higher, and your concentration will be more focused.

​Nutrients: What To Eat When You Eat

Regarding nutrition and "what is good for you," everyone is different and should account for their food intolerance. Use this as a guide to finding what works for you.

For example, I have a dairy intolerance. In this case, I will still use recipes that sound good and have mainly healthy ingredients that work with my body. Yet, if it calls for a dairy product, I substitute the dairy with an alternative nut milk or coconut butter that doesn't irritate me.

Once I learned this, my options became limitless. The food still tastes good, I feel great, and I am giving my body what it needs: nutrients.

The "so-called food" that today's society provides us, especially those advertised on television, is unlikely to have any nutrients in them. They will likely have chemically enhanced ingredients that preserve their profits and kill us one system at a time.

To succeed, pay attention to your body. After you eat, if you don't feel good, say sluggish, or have a stomachache, you probably eat something you are sensitive to or are not suitable for you.

This is where I start the process of the elimination diet. Eat the same meal and eliminate one thing you think you might be sensitive to, and you can usually find your answer. Or in some cases, eliminating the entire meal and choosing a better option for you can eliminate all the harmful side effects.

The best options when you do eat are:

• Nutrient-dense foods and beverages.
• Healthy fats.
• Clean-hormone-free proteins.
• Lots of organic veggies.

Another way to look at it is a diet low in carbs, low in sugar, and high in REAL ingredients.

Here are some suggested REAL ingredients to build your meals around that can be beneficial during your fasting break: 

​An added benefit to the list above is that all the foods listed are great for inflammation and gut issues. These are two of the top indications of disease in the body. Keeping inflammation and your gut clean of build-up can guarantee a longer, healthier life.

​Positive Changes You Will See

You are reducing your risk of a variety of common diseases that most people deal with regularly when you practice intermittent Fasting.

From extensive research and personal experience, Intermittent Fasting controls chronic inflammation, improves autoimmune conditions, balances hormones, lowers blood pressure, increases metabolism, improves cognitive function, and kills unhealthy cravings and over-consumption eating.

I will love to know if anyone reading this hasn't suffered from at least one of these ailments at least once in their lifetime.

Another positive change you can see from IF is an increase in your growth hormone. These hormones assist your body in burning fat and repairing muscle mass.

If you are eating as soon as you wake up and snacking until you go to bed, this doesn't allow much time for growth hormone to do their job and repair your muscles. Yet, when you give your body that breaks from food by fasting, you increase your growth hormone allowing your body to get back to a healthy weight and balance for the health of your muscles.

When your body finds a balance in everyday life, and you eliminate the things that have adverse effects, you automatically reduce stress.

With a decrease in stress, your blood pressure isn't going through the roof every time "life" happens, and you can focus on your improved brain function because you have allowed your body to cleanse itself and repair its cells.

With the added healthy fats in your morning cup, IF, and a clean diet, you are doing your body justice by allowing time to clean the gut and get your body back on track for a healthy digestive system.

The rest of your systems will benefit significantly from the foods you intake and the time you give your body to restore itself daily.

Helpful Tips That You Will Need

• ​Beginners and women should take a slow and gentle approach.
• ​Stay hydrated – water helps to clean and hydrate your systems.
• ​Control your nutrition and the timing of your food.
• ​Find a workout routine that is right for you and your choice of Fasting.
• ​Fully commit and give it time to show the many benefits it has to offer.

​Who Is It Good/Bad For​?

It is not recommended for people with eating disorders and high-risk hormonal imbalances like thyroid issues and adrenal fatigue.

Also, women seem to be more sensitive to Fasting than men. So ladies, take the slow, gentle approach before making any drastic changes. As always, consult a functional medicine expert before making significant changes to your diet and daily routine.

Learn more about the #DrinkYourFat method with the free ebook at www.DrinkYourFat.com

​Colin Stuckert

Founder/CEO, Wild Foods