I’ve talked a lot about the 131 Method in the past and how much I love it as a way of learning about your body and eating healthy. It is one of my ongoing goals to be as healthy as possible to I can live a fun and active life. The 131 Method helps me do that.
You can learn about my overall experience on the 131 Method here.
That said, I’ve had several questions from women asking me how I handle the Ignite phase of the 131 Method as a mom. The 131 program has 3 phases, Ignite, Nourish, and Renew. Each phase modifies your eating style in order to figure out what works for you.
There are 2 main characteristics of the Ignite phase. The first is intermittent fasting and the second is eating high fat similar to the ketogenic style of eating. Here’s how I handle these two things as a mom of 3 young kids.
Intermittent Fasting
As a mom of young kids, especially two young girls, I know that the way we talk about eating, and health and body image matters. I do not talk to my kids about losing weight, or being on a diet. I want them to view their bodies positively. Instead we talk about health and energy.
At the same time, when you are intermittent fasting and your kids notice you not eating at meals, it can raise questions. Or, even if they don’t ask questions, they may try to emulate that behavior by not eating themselves.
We definitely don’t want them to think we are starving ourselves. But, if we are not eating when they are used to seeing us eat, that’s what they might think. This is especially true if they are not around for the times we actually do eat for example when they are at school or we are at work.
Here is how I handle this issue. In our family, my kids are used to not always seeing me eat in the morning. Even when I am not intermittent fasting and I do eat breakfast, many times I am done eating it before they even get up.
Therefore, I handle my intermittent fasting by skipping the breakfast time meal and eating later in the day. I eat at work and then I also eat dinner with the family when I get home. This allows my kids to see me eating when they normally would and removes any confusion.
During the fasting week of this, or really any phase of the program, I will choose either the shortened window, or One Meal A Day (OMAD) option. This allows my kids to still see me eat something at dinner which avoids confusion. I also only do fasts on weekdays so that I am at work and/or they are at school and they don’t see me skipping lunch.
This is not intended to be deceptive to my kids. I am not trying to diet on the down low.
However, they don’t yet have the understanding required to know the conscious planning and intention behind a fast. I don’t want them to do it the wrong way where they can harm their bodies. Therefore, I choose to fast at times when they would not know the difference.
I do still have my morning coffee regardless of phase, so they do always see me ingest something in the morning.
High Fat, Ketogenic Eating
Another characteristic of the Ignite phase, is a ketogenic style of eating. That is, you are encouraged to eat a diet high in healthy fats and limit your intake of carbs.
While this can be healthy for adults for certain periods of time, it may not be right for our kids. At that stage in life, they require more carbs than we do. Besides, for most young kids, that’s the majority of their diet.
Now, I am no short order cook, and I barely want to make 1 meal after a long day at work, much less 2. So, when I am eating low carb, I make one meal that includes a healthy carb like brown rice or sweet potatoes, or hearty vegetables, etc.
Then when I serve everyone, I just serve myself a very small or no portion of the carb and give myself more of the protein and fat and low carb vegetables. So the rest of the family can have the turkey and sweet potatoes and spinach salad and I’ll just take more salad in place of the sweet potatoes.
In other cases, I might swap out. If they are having chicken and peas, I can swap out the peas for 1/2 an avocado. We get to keep the main item the same and the only additional prep is halving an avocado.
For my brunch meal which I usually have at work I’ll have things like a ground beef and egg scramble or avocado tuna. I also usually also do a greens and protein shake and I’ll snack on some nuts.
If you want to learn more about the 131 Method just click here to see if the program is right for you. Feel free to comment with any questions you have about any aspect of the program. I am happy to help.
Cheers,
Emily
