Day 7 Get Hungrier for Success
In a 2016 study from the Netherlands, 3,018 people agreed to end their daily showers with a blast of ice-cold water. Afterwards, this hardy lot reported having more energy and were less likely to call in sick to work. That’s how I ended up shivering in my bathroom. I’d jump straight in and try to jog on the spot to keep from freezing. And though the showers definitely woke me up, I came to resent them. The dread that I felt in my pre-shower moments erased any positive feelings on the other side.
Osborn powers up with a more controlled kind of masochism: he fasts intermittently, restricting his food intake with the classic 16:8 protocol. (Don’t eat for 16 hours, then pack what you want into the other eight.) “Fasting makes you feel great,” he told me with earnest enthusiasm. “I have more energy, so my mornings are way more powerful.” I wanted a more powerful morning,
too, so I adopted his eating window of 11.30am to 7.30pm.
Much has been said about the influence of intermittent fasting on fat loss, but less on how it affects your brain. Early on, forgoing food made me feel noticeably sharper. That’s because after 10-12 hours without food, the brain increases production of two compounds: brainderived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). The first enhances cognition and the second induces calm, so they’re essentially priming you to stay focused despite the stomach growls.
That effect sticks around until you break your fast (aka breakfast), so counter-intuitively prolonged hunger can actually jump-start your mornings. “GABA is well known to have an anti-anxiety effect,” says Mark Mattson, a professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University, who himself wakes before 7am. “And it can also enhance learning and memory.”
I still drank my black coffee in the morning, but to ward off hunger, some days, I’d also slurp a tablespoon of olive oil, a Mattson-approved cheat to feel fuller. Whatever got me to 11.30am, right?