Survival Guide to Vegetarian Intermittent Fasting

Tara’s Tuesday Tips this week is something very different for us here at MVF.  As you know, we are vegetarian 💚.  What you may not know is that this week marks the one year anniversary of our journey with Intermittent Fasting.  So, I thought it was appropriate to share some tips from our journey in this Survival Guide to Vegetarian Intermittent Fasting.

New Year, New Beginning

The fresh start of a new year always provides opportunity for new beginnings, goal setting, and fresh perspectives on old problems.  This leads us to make changes in our diet, exercise routines, and daily habits. Fabulous! Well, fabulous for a little while anyway.  Why don’t these changes implemented in the new year stick? Typically, the simple answer is, that we base these changes on a new “diet”.  These types of resolutions are unsustainable.  So, what to do? First of all, let’s shift from using the word “diet” as a verb to using it as a noun.

That is exactly what we decided to do.  One year ago this week.  We embarked on a new way of life, a new way to nourish our bodies, not a “diet”. Guess what? We survived.  Not only did we survive, this mindset shift empowered us to figure out how to take this new way of life and live it happily.

What We Learned After One Year of Vegetarian Intermittent Fasting:

• You can survive without eating breakfast (funny but true).
• Fasting is not a free pass to gluttony (again, funny but true).
• You do not need meat to survive Intermittent Fasting.
• If done correctly, you will lose weight. Hubby and I both lost 14% of our body weight!
• Explaining IF to our families was one of the most difficult tasks.  What? You don’t eat breakfast any more? Why?
• Travel is difficult but we stuck with it (note: 2020 was our first year of IF … the pandemic put a serious halt on our travel so we only had January and February travel data to work with).

Strict eating windows are not an absolute necessity

• Some days we were just hungry, so we shifted the window a little. Start eating a little earlier in your day, but end eating a little earlier.
• Our goal was an 8 hour eating window every day.  If you are new to IF, this is a goal to work up to.  At first, we started with 12 hours.  It took a solid month to get the window comfortably down to 8 hours.
• Our morning coffee/tea/caffeinated beverage needed an overhaul.  Ultimately, we had to cut down or cut out the sugar, milk, sugar substitutes, syrups, and flavors.  This can totally derail your fasting efforts.  Don’t let your morning cup of caffeine break your fast! This is a very easy mistake to make and to fix. Surprisingly, we got accustomed to putting less things in that morning brew.
• Water, water, water, water …. stay hydrated! I found that sometimes I was simply dehydrated not hungry and was able to curb the desire to eat with a few glasses of water until my fasting window opened up.

Here is the schedule I found works best for me:

• Wake up, drink water, drink tea or coffee, eat around 11:30 or 12, eat again somewhere between 5 and 7, at that point the window + the kitchen are closed – no snacks after 7, just water.
• PLAN!!!!! Plant tomorrow’s meals today.  Super helpful!!!!!! I take the guess work out and I eat the same meal every day when my fasting window opens (again, thank you pandemic for making it so that my routine rarely changes 🤣). One cup of cooked steel cut oats + one cup of blueberries, 1/4 cup walnuts, one apple, coffee with oat milk. Check out what I eat in a day right here.
• I cannot even begin to put into words how great I feel with vegetarian intermittent fasting.  Cravings down and feeling of control over food way up. For real, it happens.
• You MUST know your “why”.  Why are you choosing IF? Without this, you will not survive.  For us, it is disease prevention and autophagy. Read on …

Why Choose Intermittent Fasting: 

• Autophagy. AKA cell rejuvenation.  Gives your body a chance to rejuvenate your cells while it isn’t busy digesting food.  Therefore, your body has a chance to repair your damaged cells during your fasting times. This allows you to have improved cognition, less inflammation in your body, and this slows down the aging process.
• Increases your Insulin sensitivity and therefore decreases your risk of developing diabetes.
• Decreases fat storage and you lose weight. Vegetarian intermittent fasting will speed this process up over meat-eaters as most of your food choices will have lower calorie density and higher fiber content.
• Decreases your risk of Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, and cancers.

Tara’s Tips for Beginners:

• Start slow.  Similar to exercise.  If your goal is to run a marathon, you don’t try to run 20 miles on day one.  You start by walking.  IF takes endurance.  You will need to build up your endurance for success.
• Start with cutting out night time snacking, then work on shifting breakfast down to a later time, eventually cutting out breakfast completely.
• Figure out your “why” (see above)! Super super important for the days that you feel you might want to quit!
• Let the window of eating be an experiment at first.  See what works, see how hungry you feel, see how a longer or shorter window impacts your food cravings.  Don’t quit, simply reassess and adjust until the fit is right.  I made lots and lots of changes over the course of the year.
• Read my other IF article here where I go into detail about the different types of fasting and fasting window options.
• If you are an endurance athlete, be sure your fasting is adjusted to best support your training. You need to be nourished to train!

What special considerations do vegetarians have with intermittent fasting?

• Vegetarians on IF need to remember to get adequate amounts of nutrients in a shorter window.
• Break the fast with high quality, whole foods with lots of nutrients.  Start your eating window with water followed by colorful fruits and vegetables and lean proteins. The best foods are low sugar fruits (such as apples) alongside fresh vegetables, whole grains or legumes, and a healthy/”good” fat.
• Being vegetarian doesn’t mean you necessarily are already eating healthy! Calories still count so be mindful of what you are consuming.
• Use your fasting time to reflect on what foods you need and don’t need and plan your meals accordingly. Eat only the foods that will fuel your body to do the things you have set out to do.
• Again, vegetarian or not, if you are an endurance athlete or training for a specific race/event, your body needs fuel! Don’t try to train without proper nutrition.

Need recipes to make when you break your fast?

How about Cinnamon Steel Cut Oats, Avocado Salad, or Stove-top Indian Lentils, Instant Pot Lentils, Chana Masala, Instant Pot Steel Cut Oats, or Air Fryer Sweet Potato Fries.

As always, leave a comment below or email me with comments or questions on vegetarian intermittent fasting AND always check with your doctor before beginning intermittent fasting to be sure it is right for you 💚

You can always find me on Instagram @myvegetarianfamily AND be sure to subscribe here to my weekly emails for tips and recipes so that you never miss a veggie thing!

All the best,

Tara 💚