I find myself making less ramen.

It’s ok, I’ll keep producing for friends and family and for content. BUt doing 16:8 for a few weeks now I find I crave the heavy ramen stuff less and less.

Ramen is awesome. Ramen is undulgent. It is the ultimate drunk food – likened to tacos, pizza, and barbecue  all rolled into one when it comes to region-specific styles and that it is a go to between 12AM and 3AM after the pubs.

Intermittent fasting is a neat way to control calories, enter a little ketosis, spike your hormones, and re-evaluate your relationship to food and hunger. Proceed with caution because it’s a good way to develop an eating disorder. It is not for everyone. But for a glutton like me who needs rules in place to push food away, I’ll take it.

Typically you break a fast with low fat and moderate carbs and protein. You want that insulin rush to open up your cells but not the fat to be present to get a free ride into your cells. Whatever you eat, that hits the bloodstream and your fasted body will suck it up. Best to make that breakfast high value nutrition over calories. Not ramen.

Generally you will have time for one more major meal before you fast again. That meal I do enjoy whatever I can find – more or less keeping to macros. But this is usually family time so I’m eating what the whole family eats –  so unless I go out of the way to make a bowl of ramen for myself I have a typical balanced meal that more or less hits my macros.

I did break my fast with some ramen yesterday and it wasn’t ideal and to be totally honest it didn’t appeal to me. My senses are so piqued after 16 hours fasted that instant ramen has a distinct chemical odor. Even my homemade ramen ingredients smell more vibrant than I am used to. My nose and sense of smell is not blunted by being in a kitchen with simmering pots. My food-getting equipment is in pure hunter-gatherer mode. Kimchi ramen may not hit the spot when my body is in that state.

Flash forward 10 hours and after a few beers when I have forgotten the plan altogether? Get it in me.