It seems a long time ago that I last ate breakfast. Or lunch. Two and a half years ago, to be precise.

I do intermittent fasting. I fast for twenty hours every day and eat for four.

Don’t get me wrong, I love food and I miss the easiness of eating a snack or having a meal if I am hungry… or if I just feel like it. I especially miss not being the ‘odd-one-out’ when there is a celebration breakfast at work or when I sit with my colleagues during our lunch break.

But I’m sticking with it because it works … for me.

I have been certain of my convictions for so long now, that it is no longer difficult to eat just one meal a day. But sometimes, I do have to reassess. Is it still the right thing? Are the pros still outweighing the cons?

Our society revolves around food, like it’s some kind of prize or reward. I admit to feeling a bit like ‘Miss Killjoy’ every time I turn down an offer of a piece of birthday cake. ‘Oh that’s right, you don’t eat’. It’s not true. I do eat. A lot. Just not during the day.

My conviction to reduce the timeframe of my eating schedule came about by accident. I too would have thought that eating just one meal a day was a crazy thing to do if someone had told me to do it. Now that I’ve looked into it I’ve changed my mind. The health benefits can be enormous.

About 8 years ago, I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). I think I can say now, that I ‘had’ RA, albeit a mild version of it. I was only ever in the early stages. I would never compare myself to anyone who is deep in the depths of that cruel disease. It can be debilitating and all-encompassing.

At that time, I was showing signs of joint inflammation and had significant pain in my hands, ankles, neck, and knees. On top of that, I had back pain that had been with me since the age of 21 when I was involved in a rather strange accident that involved a cow and ended with several slipped discs. Mine… not the cow’s.

I had been on a world adventure at the time living on a kibbutz in Israel. I had a job working in the ‘refet’ or cow shed…milking cows. I loved that job. I must have smelled awful but I did not care one bit. One minute, on one of the last days of my stay there, I was tramping through the mud, and the next, there was an almighty impact and I was thrown into the air by the cow who’d charged me.

When I got home to Australia, spinal fusion was suggested, but for me, I had the wherewithal to decline. Now I’m glad I did, but I doubted that decision for a long time.

For 27 years, I struggled with chronic pain. Sometimes I could barely walk, but I hid it as best as I could. I had good and bad days, but the pain never left me.

I tried many different things, but in the end, the only thing that made any difference was 1) exercise… and I mean hard exercise, and 2) avoiding chairs that were unsupportive (couches, folding chairs, that kind of thing). I sat on the floor a lot. The pain could be so bad that I struggled to get out of bed if I didn’t abide by those two simple rules.

In my forties, I found out that I had developed certain biological markers for rheumatoid arthritis – unrelated to my back pain but likely exacerbating it. I became concerned that this was not heading in a good direction.

I tried a gluten-free diet. It helped a little and nudged those Rheumatoid Factors downwards, but they were still very high. Since this fairly simple dietary change was helping to some degree, I stuck with it. I’d never known that gluten was difficult for my body to deal with, but after I completely cut it out, if any gluten accidentally entered my system, my stomach could no longer tolerate it and all my joints flared angrily. Gluten was no longer my friend.

What happened next was not an ideal scenario but the silver lining was pretty amazing. A combination of stressors occurred all at the same time. I lost 10kg within about 3 months.

I absolutely wouldn’t recommend doing that to anyone. I have regained 5kg of that now and am at a happy and stable weight again, but the consequence of my changed eating habits was unexpected.

I remember sitting at the table one day with my family, and it dawned on me: I had no pain. Nothing was hurting me, and I had not taken any painkillers to bring that about. I couldn’t remember the last time I had honestly been able to say, that there was no pain anywhere in my body.

I won’t go into the physiological response that may have occurred within my body, but it appears that for me, letting my gut rest for longer periods, allowed an anti-inflammatory response to occur.

Let me just stress that intermittent fasting is not for everyone. Especially not the OMAD (one meal a day) version. It is not safe for everyone, so please do not take my word for it. Check with your doctor first if you do ever consider it. I am not an expert by any means.

In my case, the last two times I have had my bloodwork checked, my biological markers for rheumatoid arthritis have been normal. I know nothing has structurally changed in my spine, but my back pain is gone. It seems a 4-hour eating period is best for me, and I am yet to nudge it much further.

About a month ago, I made an exception, and I ate lunch. There had been an occasion at work, and that day, I just couldn’t stomach, once again, sitting there with a cup of coffee while everyone else ate. It was not that I was worried about not having the food. I was just sick of feeling like a weirdo… again. So I ate a small lunch. Fast forward two days and when I got out of bed, I couldn’t straighten my back for several hours. Every joint in my body was on fire. It simply wasn’t worth it to me.

So this is where I am at now. My parents think I should eat ‘normally’. I don’t want to upset them, but I am trying to reassure them that I am reaping some real benefits from intermittent fasting. The last few times we have talked about it, my parents acknowledged that I look very healthy. I don’t think they’ll ever like it, but they are starting to accept it.

For me, having a full stomach is not preferable to chronic pain. Chronic pain can suck the joy out of your life. Chronic pain can isolate you. Not eating, can isolate you too, but for me, this is very different. This feels proactive. I have some control here. Before, it felt like the pain was in control.

Not eating when everyone else is eating is still not a very socially acceptable thing to do in our society. But having different eating schedules is becoming more common.

I’d love to see a shift away from the focus on food as a social lubricant, or as a prize for a job well done.

Food is nourishment and eating is such a joy. But we are all different and need different things. Let’s appreciate our differences and keep our minds open for new information.

I may be a weirdo in lots of other ways, but maybe not in this way.