My wife, Sarika, is sick and tired of being sick and tired. Our daughter, Tauriel, recently turned three years old.

It had been three years since she struggled to lose that last 10 pounds after giving birth.

Two months ago, she tried intermittent fasting and dropped 15 pounds!

• She’s happier.
• More confident.
• Her old clothes fit! You know, the ones she refused to get rid of!
• She’s buying new clothes!
• She’s even posting on Instagram again – after a two-year hiatus.

She shared her results with my son David. He combined fasting with running to accelerate his results– He dropped 20 pounds!

I’m stubborn—no fasting for me, even though I have put on some pounds since the holidays.

Despite all this evidence that this approach to weight loss works, I’m clinging to my well-worn belief that fasting is harmful.

Where did this belief come from?

Over the weekend, I was the emcee for a conference. One of the speakers reminded me of a process I learned many years ago called Belief Checking.

Belief Checking

Beliefs are like clutter. If you are not vigilant about what you save, you will collect a lot of junk.

Think of belief checking as a spring cleaning for your worn-out opinions.

Like clutter collected in a home over the years, we have collected beliefs that need to be re-examined, adjusted, and thrown away. (Santa. Tooth-Fairy)

Here is the Belief-Checking Process.

1. What is the belief that needs to be challenged or checked?
2. Where did you get this belief from?
3. Is it helpful or healthy for you now?
4. If not, what would be a healthy and helpful replacement belief?

Let’s apply this to my beliefs around fasting.

In college, I was drinking at a bar with some friends. On a drunken dare, someone (not me) decided it would be a good idea to fast for a week.

And because we were all drunk, it was agreed that this was a great idea.

Keep in mind the following facts:

• We were all super skinny – there was no need to fast.
• None of us knew how to fast correctly or safely. The internet and Apps didn’t exist. We would do this with no education, professional guidance, or coaching.
• We were drunk! Any idea you come up with while drunk should automatically be reexamined the following day once you are sober.

We all committed to a week of fasting.

• I was miserable.
• I had the worst headache of my life.
• Plus, I was constantly hungry.

Once the week was over, I swore I would never fast again.

Two good results came out of my first fasting experience:

• I stopped drinking to the point of getting drunk and making terrible decisions.
• I found new friends.

3. Is this belief helpful or healthy? Based on what I have read about fasting, at least I need to update my view on this topic.

4. What would be a healthy or helpful replacement belief? My 911 weight is 190 pounds–this is the weight limit where I break the glass and pull the alarm. Since Thanksgiving, I have weighed as much as 196 and could not get under 190 lbs. Therefore, I need to try something different.

There is an App for That!
Based on my research, fasting can be done safely without the nasty side effects I suffered before. Plus, there is an app for that. It’s called Zero. (You can get it for free from your app store. I bought the paid version–I want as much help as possible).

After seeing my son and wife achieve remarkable results within a brief period, I decided to give it a go. Plus, this is an activity I could do together with my wife. We can turn this into a game.

“Fast” forward to today. (Did you catch the double entendre?)

The Ripple Effect

This time, armed with education and an app, I achieved the following results:

I lost 5 pounds in 5 days!
No misery.
No headaches.
No hunger.

Additionally, I achieved unanticipated outcomes:

• Drinking more water.
• Getting more sleep.
• The quality of my sleep improved dramatically (my sleep number ranged from 82 to 92)
• I stopped mindlessly snacking.
• I’m reading more.
• I’m writing more. (This article is evidence)
• I’m spending more time with both my wife and our daughter. (We are closer)
• I’m watching less TV.
• My clothes are fitting better.
• My confidence is improving.
• I’m eating less food overall.
• Antiaging: apparently, fasting is also suitable for antiaging. I feel I look better.
• My willpower and delayed gratification habits are growing.

Keystone Habit

According to Google, when you have a behavior that produces a ripple effect across everything you do in life or business–it’s called a Keystone Habit.

Fasting is a keystone habit I plan to keep.

Please share your keystone habits or fasting stories. I’d love to hear and share them with my readers.