STYLED BY GRACE WRIGHT. PHOTOGRAPH BY STEPHANIE SIAN SMITH. HAIR BY PATRICK WILSON AT CAREN. MAKE-UPBY AMANDA BOWEN. ANGELA SCANLON WEARS: SUIT, GIANNI AT NET A PORTER; T-SHIRT, REISS; JEWELLERY, ALIGHIERI. THE BOOK YOU WISH YOUR PARENTS HAD READ
BY PHILIPPA PERRY (£12.99, PENGUIN LIFE)READ
THE BOOK YOU WISH YOUR PARENTS
HADREADBY PHILIPPA PERRY
PsychotherapistPhilippa Perry shares the
fundamental dos and don’ts of raising
children to help you accept the mistakes you
make and what you can do about them.BUY
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sleep. £12.95, betteryou.comANGELA SCANLON’SFAD HABITS
Thismonth, our columnist puts the 16/8 intermittent
fasting method to the test. But will she get hangry?I decided to do a fast the day after coming back from holiday.
Itfelt extreme, a little cruel even, but I had cheese and
daiquiris, and crusty stumps of Mallorcan bread running
through my veins, so it seemed like it may offer a bit of much-
neededbalance. My husband has been playing around with
intermittentfasting ever since he heard about it on a Tim
Ferriss podcast (he’s that guy) and, unlike the many mad-cap
fadsI excitedly explore for you, he’s actually been sticking to
it (he’s that guy). He had told me it’s pretty easy and that,
insteadof being ‘hangry’ and irritable, he feels energised
and focused when he does it. His abs also look pretty sharp.
Now, let’s be fair – fasting has been practiced for thousands
of years, and is a staple across many different religions and
cultures around the globe, so it’s not technically a ‘fad’. But
recently, there’s been a shit ton of talk and research around
fasting and the benefits on the body; helping with weight
managementbut also cell regeneration, even curing disease.
Bigclaims. That’s fasting at the extreme for days on end,
sometimes longer, and should always been done under
medical supervision and with advice.
But fasting has been mainstream for a while now, thanks
to Dr Michael Mosley (that dude who doesThe One Showand
otherstuff ). He created the 5:2 diet back in 2012. It feels a bit
oldfashioned now to ‘diet’, and everything ever discovered
about them would suggest that, in the long run, they’re pretty
bad for your body and your head. But intermittent fasting has
had a makeover, and it’s now all about the 16:8 diet, where
you limit your food intake to an eight-hour eating window
and go 16 hours without consuming any food.
Sounds extreme, but you count sleeping hours, too. So,
let’sassume you finish your dinner at 8pm, get up at 8am and
plough on until 12pm when you ‘break fast’. Basically, have
some coffee/tea/water, but no food until noon. You can
tweak timings to suit your schedule and don’t have to lasta full day on minimal calories like the 5:2. Then you can
go for gold within the given window. In theory, it’s more
sustainableand definitely more sociable.
It also makes you more conscious of what you’re eating.
A week in, I realise I eat my lasagne with poise and purpose,
mindful of each mouthful, remembering it’ll be a while.
There’s garlic bread, too – the proper stinky stuff, ‘homemade’
by chopping a baguette and assaulting it with real butter and
nubs of garlic. It tastes like a death-row meal. I then ready
myself for deprivation. Except it never comes. I wake feeling
hungry-ish,as usual, but now I only have a few hours to wait.
I drink a strong coffee, busy myself with some work and feel
onlya little jealous when I feed my daughter a delicious-
lookingsoft-boiled egg.
Lunch comes and I devour it. It tastes better than
I remember. I snack. I plan dinner (this preoccupation is not
unusual) and start again. There’s something comforting
aboutthe ‘windows’ and I feel alert, not ‘hangry’. In spite of
myself,I’m into it. Apparently, I’m that guy, too – for now.
@angelascanlon #FadHabitsWORKING FOR ME