I was grateful and blessed to spend the day yesterday with a cousin I hadn’t seen in over two years. At one point, she asked me what my fasting strategy is, how much I fast every day. I said something like…it varies day to day. I hadn’t really thought about what my fasting strategy is right now. When I started fasting, I had all sorts of plans and strategies. At first, it was 16:8 that I tried. 16:8 helped me curb nighttime binges and balance my blood sugar. Then, I experimented with 18:6. I extended my fasts to 24 hours, 36, and eventually 48. At some point, I got into a pattern of doing two fasts a week of 42 hours, doing one feasting day with 3 meals or more, and the rest of the time doing 16:8, or something like that. Every 3 months, I would do a 3-5 day fast to get into deeper autophagy. This pattern was ReALLY effective for helping me let go of over 70 pounds of excess weight. Most recently though, my pattern is “I do what I feel like.” The technical term for it is IDWIFL :oP It’s been working pretty well for me. I strive for doing at least one fast of 36-42 hours per week, but it doesn’t always happen. Last week, I had 3 days of one meal a day, and one 36 hour fast. This week, I’ve had 3 days of 3 meals a day. For my birthday in the beginning of May, I did a 5 day fast to gift myself stem cells. Then, I parent chaperoned a trip to Catalina Island and didn’t fast at all for a week. Well ok, I fasted once for 18 hours, but that was it. If I find myself feasting a lot, I make it a point to take more pauses in between eating and lean into fasting. If I find myself fasting a lot, I recognize it’s time to feast and throw in a day or two of feasting. I don’t stress about it at all, just strive for having some sort of balance between fasting and feasting. And it works for me :) What’s your fasting strategy? Do you have one? How about a JOY strategy? I’ll share about my joy strategy in the comments.

Sending greetings and love from the Black Sea Coast in Bulgaria! Of course, we have spent some time watching the animals around here. The pigeons and sea gulls make me think of our ducks and guinea hens back home. Yet, they’re completely different! If you enjoy watching animals as much as I do, take a minute to watch the pigeons playing with sand on the beach… Truth be told, they’re probably looking for food, not playing. But I like to imagine they’re playing :)

Welcome to the Thrive! Community. New and Old Members are welcome to introduce themselves in the comments below! It is WONDERFUL to have you here. We are here to live a life of health and vitality. If you’re a Health and Wellness Professional, or a Business Coach who can help our amazing H&W Pros, Message me to set up a Masterclass and send me your bio/pic/links so i can add you to the Wellness Directory! Topics that we have been exploring... -optimal nutrition for energy, health, and breast cancer prevention -intermittent fasting for healing and metabolic flexibility, -how to create a Thriving Gut -healing the nervous system, -developing emotional resilience and rewiring the brain for joy, -learning how to focus better and eat more frogs to attain our goals in any area of life. We know that optimal health and fitness help us to show up in a bigger, bolder way in our business. We also know that doing well in our business helps us to be our healthiest, fittest selves. Both of these aspects of our lives feed into each other. We support each other in being the healthiest, fittest, most vibrant, abundant, wealthy version of ourselves. We are committed to overcoming addictive behaviors like stress eating, excessive scrolling, overworking, and other behaviors that derail us and hold us back. You will not find long lists of what to do and what not to do in here. What you will find are tools, useful information, meditations, live meetings, and conversations to support you as you craft your own path to health, wellness, vitality, and abundance.

First of all, welcome to our newest members, @Tatyana Madzharova , @Elena Maren , @Elizabeth R , @René Barlow , @Steven Bornstein , @Chelsea Sachs , and @Andrea Lecos !! Relaxation Saturday serves as a reminder for us to take time to relax TODAY, this weekend, and beyond. Relaxing can be as simple as taking a few deep breaths, humming and singing to yourself as you drive somewhere, or as involved as spending an hour in meditation and prayer. Whatever works for you, however you can fit it in, is just right! Sharing some videos of our amazing animals on this relaxation Saturday. Sheep eating grass, guinea hen doing the ancient art of “dirt bathing”… Spending time with animals and watching them just do their thing is one of my favorite ways to relax.