Intermittent fasting and chronic disease
A recent study on the 16:8 intermittent fast (the 8 hour eating window one) found it increased the likelihood of cardiovascular disease by 91%. It got debunked, but not before the results went viral and contributed to the stress and confusion around diets and food in general.

We need to sort this out because food confusion is contributing to digestive disorders, brain fog and emotional reactivity, and an off-grounded society. We need to get grounded again with a healthy rhythm, calm our systems down and re-establish internal order. Eating naturally (in harmony with 24-hour cycle) is the big game-changer here. We don’t need more complex diets, we need more simple days.

That 16:8 study conclusion was that time-restricted eating may have short-term benefits (if you want temporary weight loss) but long-term adverse effects.
Chinese medicine backs up the latter. Your stomach is set to empty and fill 3 times a day rhythmically, your internal organ operations rely on this. And what you eat when is super important for that.

People doing the 16:8 and other fasts, tend to skip breakfast (always a bad health move) or just have a juice. There is a direct connection between both of these and chronic disease. Skipping breakfast skips an essential stage of energy production, it screws with your bodyclock, and sets off a symptom progression to chronic disease.

Juices and smoothies are not a healthy breakfast
Having juice (or smoothies) as a first meal weakens stomach chi and that also sets off a symptom progression to chronic disease. Interestingly, some Western research found that juicing fruit separates the sugars which then triggers a cellular-level stress reaction that paves the way for chronic disease.

If you like fruit in the morning eat it don’t drink it, and eat it warm! In my chi cycle lifestyle diet, breakfast is a nice warm porridge with some gently warmed apple or pear (I add apple to mine). This supports your stomach chi and promotes inner calmness and overall health.

Muesli is not a healthy breakfast
And on that topic muesli is not healthy either. The original version (Switzerland, 100 years back) was mainly apples with some soaked oats, nuts, condensed milk and lemon juice. It was an easily digestible mush for tuberculosis patients, and eaten before every meal after which they would lie in the sun to absorb Vitamin D.

Modern muesli could send you to a sanatorium. It’s a heap of random raw ingredients (or toasted with added sugar) that creates bloating, energy crashes later on, and digestive upsets (people often become conditioned to this and don’t notice).

Changing your breakfast can change your life
I’ve seen over and over in clinic that getting breakfast right really does change your life. Since The Perfect Day Plan came out, heaps of readers have contacted me saying how just eating breakfast, or changing what they ate for breakfast, changed their life. They got more energy and emotional balance, lost weight and heaps of digestive symptoms like bloating and abdominal distension disappeared.

How to do the natural 12:12 intermittent fast
But it’s also what you do before or after breakfast that makes it life-changing. Your organ system is designed to run without food for 12 hours. Follow the chi cycle (nature’s health rhythm) and you get an 8am to 8pm 12 hour eating window.

Start by getting up as close to 5am as possible and get moving for as much of the 120 minute 5am to 7am time as you can before eating or drinking anything (except water).

Take the breakfast challenge around 8am. That is sit mindfully for as long as possible after eating with no screens or scrolling. The ultimate achievement is 20 mins, but every minute helps. Imagine you’re lying on a sun lounge in Switzerland, because that helps nutrient absorption which is critical. If you get up right away and rush, food goes up not down and chronic disease beckons.

Then be productive all morning. Stop to eat a proper nutritious lunch. Finish work by 5pm, do some chill-out activities, and eat a light meal by 8pm.

All your organs will be able to work properly so you’ll be building health, building energy, turning back the clock, and launching an organ weight-loss sequence, all at the same time. So you get the results people want from the dramatic and long-term unhealthy intermittent fasts, but without sacrificing your meals or your health.

Catch the rebirth vibe
And from fasts to feasts, it’s Easter and an opportunity to tap into an ancient rebirth vibe. This is great time to get out of a rut and start to rise again.

Right now we have the cosmic back-up for something new. Great time to throw out the muesli and the juicer (actually keep them so you can have muesli or juice as enjoyable snacks!), and commit yourself to a life-changing breakfast.

Or decide to take the ‘longcut’ to health, and start to roll with the rhythm of the day, and the cosmic cycles of yin and yang. Every move you make towards this builds momentum for more.

Personally, I see every day as an opportunity for the death of the old and a rebirth. This is the essence of the chi cycle lifestyle, and it’s from the essence of Chinese medicine, which is to find our cosmic selves.

And to help out I’m offering an Easter special
$20 off my online course Chinese Medicine 101 – reduced from $39.95 to $19.95 (USD)
$20 off my online course Spiritual Awakening – reduced from $39.95 to $19.95 (USD)
Offer Ends Sunday 14^th April.
Click the link and at the Thinkific enrolment page on the left hand side you get a coupon option – enter coupon NEWBUNNY