We’ve all come across different people or have loved ones who have shown interest in trying a new diet, and surely we’ve all read several theories and articles around nutrition online and on social media. Loads of information is fed to us each day; regarding types of foods and their quality, the number of calories we should be taking in, eating schedules to follow, etc.

As with everything else in life, there’s no “one size fits all” method that will work for every single person because we all respond to different approaches differently. There’s no right or wrong way; just different- Different bodies, different lifestyle habits, different outcomes.

So which factors about a diet can we focus on that will guide us to feel our best, with steady energy throughout our daily tasks and help with a positive mood? Without dwelling over the immense variety of foods available to us, there might be some reasonable variables that we can actually control with more certainty regardless of all our specific preferences.

The following questions will give us another perspective other than the foods we eat:

• - Do we eat when we’re hungry or do we follow a 2-3 hours cycle because we were told?
• - What time of the day do we break our fasting?
• - Until how late at night do we eat?
• - Do we go to sleep on a full stomach or on an empty one?
• - Do we get sufficient, quality sleep?
• - How little can we eat still feeling at our best and without losing muscle mass?
• - We know what and how much we eat are important variables. What about when we eat?

Intermittent fasting and time-restricted eating are methods that you might have thought of while reading the above questions. One or the other have become more popular for allowing our bodily systems to cleanse and regenerate during periods when they don’t have to spend time digesting foods and absorbing nutrients. Weight reduction/management is a mere reinforcement to those non-eating periods, either by ingesting less quantity or cutting calories.

More and more studies show that the same amount of calories from the same foods ingested within 12 hours or less every day help us prevent chronic diseases in a long term. Of course it doesn’t mean you can simply eat nutrient-empty foods within 12 hours and you’ll be fine, although it sure is good news.

Being shift-workers, freelancers, or another category or worker, all of us have committed to different schedules and it can be quite a challenge to follow a 12-hour eating window. Keeping that in consideration, there are always small strategies we can adopt, such as preparing meals in advance to take to the workplace, pieces of fruit, drinking enough water throughout the day and adding nutrient-rich foods to your diet.

This article wouldn’t be complete without an example of a healthy recipe as an alternative to common overly sweet and artificial desserts. Enjoy!

Cocoa & coconut mousse

Ingredients:

• - 1 ripe banana;
• - 1/3 can of organic coconut cream (organic makes a difference on this one);
• - 1 ½ tsp of cocoa powder;
• - 1 scoop of unflavored protein powder;
• - 1/2 cup of oat flour.

Recipe:

• - Put all the ingredients in a blender and let them mix until you have a uniform consistency;
• - Let it sit in the fridge overnight or in the freezer for 3 hours.