How often do you start your day without checking in with yourself? Maybe you roll out of bed and get straight to work, or the first thing you do is put everyone else’s needs above your own. Fasting plays an important role in setting daily intentions.

Ever since getting a puppy, my mornings have been less focused on my own needs and more focused on keeping him happy. I soon realized that this change meant I’d fallen out of the habit of checking in with myself before the day started.

If you don’t give yourself time to check in with yourself on a regular basis, you may feel a sense of disconnection from yourself and your goals. The more you avoid your own needs, the more overwhelmed you can become.

Something I find helpful to combat this feeling is to set a daily intention. This means taking a moment to pause before the day begins and asking myself what I want to get out of it.

By doing this, I’m able to stay more mindful throughout the day and focus on the type of energy I want to attract and put out into the world.

Setting a daily intention takes no more than five minutes, and it keeps you connected to your goals, desires, and needs. In this post, I’ll explain more about what daily intentions are, why they’re important, and give you some examples to get started.

It’s important to check with your doctor before starting intermittent fasting. Once you get his or her go-ahead, the actual practice is simple. You can pick a daily approach, which restricts daily eating to one six- to eight-hour period each day. For instance, you may choose to try 16/8 fasting: eating for eight hours and fasting for 16. Williams is a fan of the daily regimen: She says most people find it easy to stick with this pattern over the long term.

Another, known as the 5:2 approach, involves eating regularly five days a week. For the other two days, you limit yourself to one 500–600 calorie meal. An example would be if you chose to eat normally on every day of the week except Mondays and Thursdays, which would be your one-meal days.

Longer periods without food, such as 24, 36, 48 and 72-hour fasting periods, are not necessarily better for you and maybe dangerous. Going too long without eating might actually encourage your body to start storing more fat in response to starvation.

Mattson’s research shows that it can take two to four weeks before the body becomes accustomed to intermittent fasting. You might feel hungry or cranky while you’re getting used to the new routine. But, he observes, research subjects who make it through the adjustment period tend to stick with the plan, because they notice they feel better.