Episode 99: Resuming IF After Breastfeeding, When to Try ADF, Inflammation & Weight Gain, and More

<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Fast Feast Repeat Intermittent Fasting for Life. I'm
<v Speaker 1>Jen Stevens, author of the New York Times bestseller Fast Feast.
<v Speaker 2>Repeat, and I'm Sherry Bullock, longtime intermittent faster and health
<v Speaker 2>and wellness advocate. Please keep in mind that this podcast
<v Speaker 2>is for educational and motivational purposes only and is not
<v Speaker 2>intended to provide medical or diagnostic advice. Jen and I
<v Speaker 2>are not doctors, so make sure to check with your
<v Speaker 2>trusted healthcare professionals before making changes, especially when it comes
<v Speaker 2>to any medical treatments or medications.
<v Speaker 1>Whether you're new to intermittent fasting or an experienced intermittent faster,
<v Speaker 1>tune in each week to get inspired, to learn, and
<v Speaker 1>to have some fun along the way. Hi, everybody, we
<v Speaker 1>are so glad you're here today. Welcome to this week's
<v Speaker 1>episode of the Fast Feast Repeat, Intermittent Fasting for Life Podcast.
<v Speaker 1>How are you doing today's Sharry, I'm doing great. How
<v Speaker 1>are you? I'm doing great? That's okay. Getting settled in
<v Speaker 1>and went to see Chad in his new place about
<v Speaker 1>a week ago, and it was really nice to spend
<v Speaker 1>time together. Came back home and here I am. Did
<v Speaker 1>you get to see your sister while you were down there, No,
<v Speaker 1>because she was in Scotland. Oh oh, that's right, I
<v Speaker 1>remember saying that. Yeah, And I came down there to
<v Speaker 1>help him find some furniture for the house. So we
<v Speaker 1>were very busy. We hit all of the places that
<v Speaker 1>we used to go looking for furniture. You know, I
<v Speaker 1>like vintage furniture. We need some dressers to store things in,
<v Speaker 1>and you just can't beat vintage dressers for quality as
<v Speaker 1>far as like the drawers work for a hundred years.
<v Speaker 1>We found some great stuff and they've been delivered. They
<v Speaker 1>look great in the house. But it's funny when you've
<v Speaker 1>moved away. I hadn't looked for furniture and Augusta since
<v Speaker 1>we left in twenty twenty two. So the place that
<v Speaker 1>we used to always go buy things moved. Oh so
<v Speaker 1>we went to the old place where like it's gone,
<v Speaker 1>but we were able to find it. So we had
<v Speaker 1>to be back because things like subtly are different. Oh yeah, I.
<v Speaker 2>Really experienced that when I went back home just a
<v Speaker 2>couple weeks ago. Every time I go back home, like
<v Speaker 2>where my parents live, it used to be pretty rural
<v Speaker 2>and there were farm fields at the end of their
<v Speaker 2>streets and now it is so built up, and like
<v Speaker 2>we were driving down this road, we went to the
<v Speaker 2>cemetery where my brother's buried, and all of a sudden,
<v Speaker 2>there's a brand new giant hospital there.
<v Speaker 1>Wow.
<v Speaker 2>And I'm like, what where did a hospital come from?
<v Speaker 2>I didn't even know they were building a hospital. And
<v Speaker 2>it's so like everywhere I look there's new buildings and
<v Speaker 2>new shops and new restaurants, and they're like right in.
<v Speaker 1>The thick of it.
<v Speaker 2>Like they used to live about as far south out
<v Speaker 2>in the city as people lived, and now they're building
<v Speaker 2>way out south of them.
<v Speaker 1>Everything's just growing and expanding. Yeah. Yeah, but Chad seems
<v Speaker 1>so happy. You know, he's making things exactly like he wants.
<v Speaker 1>He's working in the yard, he's enjoying getting things like
<v Speaker 1>he wants. M and so it was really nice to
<v Speaker 1>see him and have him show me everything that he's
<v Speaker 1>been doing. And you know, we're talking on the phone
<v Speaker 1>every day. So yeah, it's working out real. That's good.
<v Speaker 1>I'm glad. I'm glad.
<v Speaker 2>Everybody deserves to have, you know, joy and peace in
<v Speaker 2>their life, and he was seving that where yeah, he
<v Speaker 2>wasn't finding that there so I'm glad that he's got
<v Speaker 2>that now. Yep, all right, Well let's talk about Susie
<v Speaker 2>Q in Ontario. She has a weekly celebration to share.
<v Speaker 2>She said, first of all, a janormous thank you to
<v Speaker 2>Jin who changed my life after reading delay.
<v Speaker 1>Don't deny.
<v Speaker 2>I have been in IF for since January of twenty
<v Speaker 2>twenty and I was one of the few who lost
<v Speaker 2>weight during COVID Thanks to IF, I've never gone back
<v Speaker 2>to any other way of thinking and I will do
<v Speaker 2>this for the rest of my life. My husband and I,
<v Speaker 2>also in IFERR, went for a twenty fifth wedding anniversary
<v Speaker 2>trip to Ireland. It was a bucket list trip in
<v Speaker 2>October of twenty twenty four. Being in Ireland loving foods,
<v Speaker 2>we wanted to enjoy our trip and all that came
<v Speaker 2>with it without feeling as though we had to be
<v Speaker 2>strict on eating and drinking while we were there, so
<v Speaker 2>staying in B and b's mostly which clearly give you breakfasts,
<v Speaker 2>and I was not going to turn down a traditional
<v Speaker 2>Irish breakfast in Ireland, we indulged so I would open
<v Speaker 2>my window early then make sure to have at least
<v Speaker 2>one guinness a day and more some days anyhow, my
<v Speaker 2>stomach was a little off, eating more and enjoying different foods,
<v Speaker 2>but I didn't care because I was in Ireland. I love, love,
<v Speaker 2>love this lifestyle. This lifestyle is the best. And even
<v Speaker 2>after two weeks off the regular if of nineteen five
<v Speaker 2>or twenty four days I typically lead, I was back
<v Speaker 2>into it and I gained no weight in days after
<v Speaker 2>the trip. I'm back into it absolutely, seamlessly. So happy
<v Speaker 2>to have learned about this, and I will never ever stop.
<v Speaker 2>Thank you, Jin.
<v Speaker 1>I'm glad that you were able to jump right back
<v Speaker 1>into it. And that is the advice that we want
<v Speaker 1>everyone to hear. If you do decide to have water windows,
<v Speaker 1>is an adulge. A bit more on vacation, know that
<v Speaker 1>when you get back home, it might take you three
<v Speaker 1>days of white knuckling it to your normal window time
<v Speaker 1>to do it, but you'll get there quickly. If you
<v Speaker 1>just jump right in and go through the few hard days,
<v Speaker 1>then you'll be right back, like SUSIEQ, back to your
<v Speaker 1>lifestyle and where you were before you left. On the
<v Speaker 1>other hand, you could get back home and say wow,
<v Speaker 1>this is hard, and then just not get back to
<v Speaker 1>your normal fasting window and the longer that you let
<v Speaker 1>that drag on, the harder it's going to be to
<v Speaker 1>get back started. So yes, expect it might be challenging
<v Speaker 1>for about three days when you get back home, and
<v Speaker 1>you might have forgotten what it feels like for it
<v Speaker 1>to be challenging. Push through right, and you'll feel better
<v Speaker 1>soon versus dragging it out for weeks.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and if you notice too, she said she opened
<v Speaker 2>her window early. She never said. We didn't fast for
<v Speaker 2>two weeks in Ireland. And that's a big difference. If
<v Speaker 2>you just give up fasting all together and you just
<v Speaker 2>go back to the way you used to eat and
<v Speaker 2>drink on vacation, you know it's gonna take longer than
<v Speaker 2>three days, and you're gonna have to push a lot harder,
<v Speaker 2>and you're gonna have to give it a lot more time.
<v Speaker 2>I can tell you on our first cruise it did
<v Speaker 2>take me. We got back I think on a Sunday,
<v Speaker 2>and it was not until Wednesday. I felt that switch
<v Speaker 2>flip finally. At like Wednesday, at two o'clock, I was
<v Speaker 2>in the car traveling and I was like, all right,
<v Speaker 2>there's that fasting energy. But Monday and Tuesday were rough,
<v Speaker 2>So that was a really like big enforcement for me
<v Speaker 2>to really keep an eye on windows and keep an
<v Speaker 2>eye on things on vacation and not over indulge.
<v Speaker 1>Indulge, but don't over indulge. Enjoy. You know you're not
<v Speaker 1>trying to lose weight on vacation, right, We're not like
<v Speaker 1>I'm going on vacation, I'm gonna try to diet and
<v Speaker 1>lose weight. No, you want to enjoy, but you want
<v Speaker 1>to be mindful and you want to listen to your
<v Speaker 1>body and never feel that overly stuffed feeling. It's okay
<v Speaker 1>to order something in a restaurant and not eat it all.
<v Speaker 1>You've paid for it, so you might think I have
<v Speaker 1>to finish it, but you don't know when you ordered
<v Speaker 1>more than you needed you wasted it, that you don't
<v Speaker 1>need to waste it by eating it too. If you're
<v Speaker 1>full stop. That's the most important thing. We've all been
<v Speaker 1>on those vacations where we ate everything because it was
<v Speaker 1>there and then we felt terrible physically. Yep. So now
<v Speaker 1>we have a question from a listener. This question is
<v Speaker 1>from Julie and Vermont. She says, I'm wondering if there's
<v Speaker 1>any research about Rainoads syndrome and fasting I am thinking
<v Speaker 1>that this problem I'm having with lack of circulation in
<v Speaker 1>my fingers and toes is related to menopause, my age,
<v Speaker 1>my fifty five pound weight loss combination, and less about fasting.
<v Speaker 1>But I'm curious if other intermittent fasters have issues with
<v Speaker 1>lack of circulation due to Rainoades syndrome.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, well, I would not assume that just because you're
<v Speaker 2>having called fingers and toes that you have Rainoades. And
<v Speaker 2>I actually looked it up and there's no correlation between menopause.
<v Speaker 2>It's actually more prevalent in women in their twenties and
<v Speaker 2>thirties for it to present. There are some other things
<v Speaker 2>that you know it could be potentially attributed to that
<v Speaker 2>are not menopause related. What I have found really is
<v Speaker 2>that usually if you're having sudden onset of cold finger
<v Speaker 2>and toes, that you would want to have a thyroid
<v Speaker 2>panel run just to make sure that your body's producing
<v Speaker 2>en a thyroid hormone because that can cause cold fingers
<v Speaker 2>and toes, and that is something that goes along with menopause,
<v Speaker 2>is hypothyroidism, So that's something that you would look into.
<v Speaker 2>Another thing that you could check into is your iron level,
<v Speaker 2>vitamin D, and a B twelve level, as those deficiencies
<v Speaker 2>can lead to cold hands and feet as well. And
<v Speaker 2>then some of the things you can do to help
<v Speaker 2>increase circulation to your hands and toes are including omega
<v Speaker 2>three's in your diet, daily exercise, and taking a magnesium
<v Speaker 2>A quality magnesium supplement can help. So those are just
<v Speaker 2>some ideas that you can try to help ease the
<v Speaker 2>y coldness. I mean, I know what that's like. I
<v Speaker 2>often have cold fingers and toes, but I've been like
<v Speaker 2>that since I was very young, so anyways, but definitely,
<v Speaker 2>if it's something that's there's very specific traits to rainoades,
<v Speaker 2>and so I would google that and look at it.
<v Speaker 2>If you really think it's rainoades, I would talk to
<v Speaker 2>a doctor about it, take pictures of your hands. There's
<v Speaker 2>very telltale signs of color changes and stuff to your
<v Speaker 2>hands with rainodes, and there are some medications they can
<v Speaker 2>use to help increase blood flow to your extremities if
<v Speaker 2>it's truly rainodes.
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, I think that's any great advice because I
<v Speaker 1>wasn't sure, like you said, if she actually has rainods
<v Speaker 1>or if she's like my fingers and toes are cold,
<v Speaker 1>and then she googled and is like, thinking it might
<v Speaker 1>be rainods. Yeah, that would be the what to really like,
<v Speaker 1>if you've got to diagnose this, then that's obviously different
<v Speaker 1>versus if you're just like, why are my fingers and
<v Speaker 1>toes cold? Oh, it must be rainodes. One other thing
<v Speaker 1>that you didn't mention, Sherry, is that when we are
<v Speaker 1>fasting and our body is burning fat, our body can
<v Speaker 1>direct blood flow away from the extremities towards our fat
<v Speaker 1>stores to mobilize the fat, and that can lead to
<v Speaker 1>extremities feeling cold. But again that's not rainoades. That's just
<v Speaker 1>what happens when your body directs the blood flow differently.
<v Speaker 1>So we do here, especially with ADF People who are
<v Speaker 1>doing the longer fasts, might feel that, you know, coldness
<v Speaker 1>in their extremities later into the fast, and so you know,
<v Speaker 1>it's not a sign of poor circulation. It's a sign
<v Speaker 1>that your body is directing the blood flow, like I said,
<v Speaker 1>from your extremities to mobilize your fat stores. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>obviously you're not storing the bulk of your fat in
<v Speaker 1>your fingers and tows, right, It's going somewhere else. So
<v Speaker 1>it's really important to understand what's happening. If your only
<v Speaker 1>issue is you're feeling coldness in your extremities, later into
<v Speaker 1>a fast, as you're fasting longer, and then when you're
<v Speaker 1>in your eating window, that doesn't happen. I wouldn't assume
<v Speaker 1>that you're having rainodes, but if you're having other symptoms,
<v Speaker 1>and that's when you.
<v Speaker 2>Talk to your doctor about it. And see, that's a
<v Speaker 2>great point. I actually there was a girl I knew
<v Speaker 2>that was doing ADF and she stopped because she was
<v Speaker 2>so cold at night on her down days that she
<v Speaker 2>couldn't sleep right.
<v Speaker 1>So bodies pull it, Yeah, mobilizing those bat stores and
<v Speaker 1>changing your blood flow, and that's just that's normal. So
<v Speaker 1>I get it. That's where that down day meal might
<v Speaker 1>come in handy, you know, turn up that furnace just
<v Speaker 1>a little bit. I'd have a big baked potato, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>before a bit. Yep.
<v Speaker 2>You know it's funny that you say that I was
<v Speaker 2>really cold at work the other night. I had like
<v Speaker 2>a pork Thomas Hugh rice bowl from Green Chef, and
<v Speaker 2>after that, I was like a furnace on fire.
<v Speaker 1>I was like, am I having a hot flash?
<v Speaker 2>And I finally realized I ate that like rice bowl
<v Speaker 2>and I was like, oh, this is what Jenn talks
<v Speaker 2>about when she gets really hot after she eats carbs.
<v Speaker 1>I do I feel my body turning up the furnace.
<v Speaker 1>I feel it like I'm not like freezing every day
<v Speaker 1>during my fast to know or if I am. I
<v Speaker 1>don't even notice it anymore. It's just how I love
<v Speaker 1>my life. But I do get warmer after I eat. Yes,
<v Speaker 1>so it's interesting that furnace is cranked up.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, all right, So we have a question from older
<v Speaker 2>New Mama in Oregon. Hello, Jen and Sherry, thank you
<v Speaker 2>so much for hosting a community driven podcast. It's so
<v Speaker 2>nice to hear from people all over.
<v Speaker 1>Can I just say I love that so much before
<v Speaker 1>you go on. We really are a community driven podcast,
<v Speaker 1>and you know, we have a community which we love
<v Speaker 1>to meet people in. But even if you're not in
<v Speaker 1>the online community and you're a listener, we value you
<v Speaker 1>as part of our community. So I just want to
<v Speaker 1>pop that in there.
<v Speaker 2>Well, and you know, we really we designed the podcast
<v Speaker 2>to be community.
<v Speaker 1>We did.
<v Speaker 2>That's why we asked people to send in their submissions
<v Speaker 2>and their celebrations, and we want everybody to feel like
<v Speaker 2>they're part of this. So anyway, She goes on to say,
<v Speaker 2>I'm an older new mama. I'm thirty six with a
<v Speaker 2>one year old boy, and I would love to have
<v Speaker 2>at least one more. I learned about and started fasting
<v Speaker 2>before pregnancy and got to a wait I felt really
<v Speaker 2>good at though it was still considered obese for my height.
<v Speaker 2>I am naturally muscular and just a larger frame person
<v Speaker 2>and curby. I am currently breastfeeding, so I know the
<v Speaker 2>shorter eating windows are not recommended for me now and
<v Speaker 2>also not recommended should we get pregnant soon. I currently
<v Speaker 2>just do an overnight digestive rest of twelve to sixteen
<v Speaker 2>hours while listening to my body, such as no snacking
<v Speaker 2>after dinner and then black coffee until I'm hungry in
<v Speaker 2>the morning. But I would love some tips for someone
<v Speaker 2>who has had to pause fasting.
<v Speaker 1>How can I.
<v Speaker 2>Have a successful longer eating window. Please summarize all the
<v Speaker 2>benefits of even just digestive rest of thirteen to fifteen hours.
<v Speaker 2>I know not much fat loss there, but are there
<v Speaker 2>other benefits? I will resume fasting of eighteen six or
<v Speaker 2>nineteen five when I can, but that is not going
<v Speaker 2>to be anytime soon with our family goals. So encouragement
<v Speaker 2>to keep doing what I'm doing, knowing it's still good
<v Speaker 2>even though there's or fast would be helpful. Thank you
<v Speaker 2>so much for sharing your knowledge.
<v Speaker 1>I'm so glad that you asked this question because it's
<v Speaker 1>so important and it really gets into what is important
<v Speaker 1>during breastfeeding. And I know that we might be thinking
<v Speaker 1>the only thing that matters is as long as you
<v Speaker 1>have good supply. If you have good supply, then it
<v Speaker 1>doesn't matter. That's the only important thing, and that's actually
<v Speaker 1>not true. It's deeper than just what your supply is doing.
<v Speaker 1>And when I was writing Fast Feast, Repeat, I really
<v Speaker 1>wanted to have research to support why we don't recommend
<v Speaker 1>intermittent fasting for people who are breastfeeding. Of course we
<v Speaker 1>don't recommend it when you're pregnant, but why breastfeeding? You know,
<v Speaker 1>if we just think, oh, well, if your supply is fine,
<v Speaker 1>it's perfectly fine, no big deal. So I really wanted
<v Speaker 1>to research this to have a good, solid, research based answer,
<v Speaker 1>and I ended up finding an excerpt in a breastfeeding textbook.
<v Speaker 1>Did you know they make breastfeeding textbooks? Yes, they do
<v Speaker 1>for people who are you know, learning helping people you
<v Speaker 1>know in the role of supporting breastfeeding mothers. That's who
<v Speaker 1>that textbook is for health professionals who support breastfeeding women,
<v Speaker 1>like laxation consultants and stuff exactly. So there was a
<v Speaker 1>section in there that talked about how breastfeeding women in
<v Speaker 1>the modern age, we're living in a different time. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>it would have been different a thousand years ago before
<v Speaker 1>modern chemicals, but we're in a very different time and
<v Speaker 1>in the modern age we are exposed to so many
<v Speaker 1>chemicals in our bodies just from living in the modern environment,
<v Speaker 1>eating the food. When they say we eat like a
<v Speaker 1>credit card worth of plastic a day, or I mean
<v Speaker 1>a week or something, it's like, I have not heard that,
<v Speaker 1>but that's like a credit card worth of plastical week.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know. That might just be made up, but
<v Speaker 1>I've I heard people repeating it. But you know how
<v Speaker 1>people repeat things that aren't true. But anyway, we know
<v Speaker 1>there are microplastics, we know there are other chemicals. We
<v Speaker 1>know they're all around us everywhere we go. And I
<v Speaker 1>really learned that when I was reading or researching to
<v Speaker 1>write Cleanish. But the thing is, what is our body
<v Speaker 1>do with all those toxins when we bring them into
<v Speaker 1>our body handles them the best they can, and then
<v Speaker 1>whatever they can't deal with, they stash them away in
<v Speaker 1>our fat cells. So our fat cells don't just contain fat,
<v Speaker 1>they also contain a lot of junk, including all those
<v Speaker 1>weird chemicals. So when we are breastfeeding and pregnant, we
<v Speaker 1>go out of our way to not put in anything
<v Speaker 1>that's going to harm our baby. We eat carefully while
<v Speaker 1>we're pregnant, We eat carefully while we're breastfeeding. We choose
<v Speaker 1>nutritious foods, but we don't think about the fact that
<v Speaker 1>maybe our body has stashed away a bunch of junk
<v Speaker 1>and our fat cells prior to becoming pregnant, prior to
<v Speaker 1>the breastfeeding, and so when you're releasing fat, all that
<v Speaker 1>stuff is coming out. You wouldn't eat those things now,
<v Speaker 1>but they're in your fat cells, they're coming out. So
<v Speaker 1>the breastfeeding textbook this wasn't about fasting. It said women
<v Speaker 1>who are breastfeeding should not try to lose fat while
<v Speaker 1>breastfeeding because we don't want to all those toxins to
<v Speaker 1>be released. And so I actually think that it's best
<v Speaker 1>to not try to lose fat while you're breastfeeding, I mean,
<v Speaker 1>are you gonna lose some I'm probably, you know, just accidentally.
<v Speaker 1>Your body's doing what it's doing. But I would not
<v Speaker 1>begin a fat loss regimen of any kind while breastfeeding.
<v Speaker 1>So you need to make sure to balance what you're
<v Speaker 1>doing so that you are maintaining while you're breastfeeding. I
<v Speaker 1>know that might be the opposite because everybody wants to
<v Speaker 1>lose that baby weight as fast as possible, but think
<v Speaker 1>of that breastfeeding as your fourth trimester, or however long
<v Speaker 1>it lasts. You know, it's more than just three months,
<v Speaker 1>but you're still supporting that baby outside of your body.
<v Speaker 1>And when you think about what your fat cells are
<v Speaker 1>doing and what they could be dumping out, that's not
<v Speaker 1>something that we want to do as mothers if we
<v Speaker 1>can help it. So getting back to intermittent fasting and
<v Speaker 1>losing fat or whatever method you're using to lose fat,
<v Speaker 1>I would wait till after you've finished breastfeeding. So are
<v Speaker 1>you going to get benefits by over eating or by
<v Speaker 1>having a period of time where you pause from eating? Yes? Right,
<v Speaker 1>you don't need to eat from the minute you wake
<v Speaker 1>up to the minute you go to bed. You want
<v Speaker 1>to find that balance so that you're maintaining your weight
<v Speaker 1>while you're breastfeeding your baby, and then as soon as
<v Speaker 1>your baby is weaned, you can get into fat burning
<v Speaker 1>mode again.
<v Speaker 2>So I hope that's really helpful. Like, consider yourself in
<v Speaker 2>maintenance right now exactly.
<v Speaker 1>Whatever you have to do with.
<v Speaker 2>Tota eating to maintain that's what I would do. If
<v Speaker 2>you're continuing to lose weight while not eating thirteen or
<v Speaker 2>fourteen hours of the day, then you probably want to
<v Speaker 2>expand that you are burning through calories just breastfeeding itself.
<v Speaker 1>So you need to nourish your body and you're nourishing
<v Speaker 1>your baby, and so it's not just what your supply
<v Speaker 1>is doing. I just want to make that very very clear.
<v Speaker 1>And people have probably heard me talk about that before,
<v Speaker 1>but it's just it's just something to really think about.
<v Speaker 1>And like I said, it was in that breastfeeding textbook
<v Speaker 1>and it really hit me, Oh, we're not living in
<v Speaker 1>the same world that our ancestors lived in. It's an
<v Speaker 1>entirely different time and we have to work with the
<v Speaker 1>modern chemical era differently, right, you know.
<v Speaker 2>And it's funny while you were talking about that, you know,
<v Speaker 2>you hear and you read about how fat itself is
<v Speaker 2>toxic and inflammatory, and it really makes me think if
<v Speaker 2>the toxins in are fat is what makes it so
<v Speaker 2>maybe inflammatory and puts us in such a toxic state.
<v Speaker 1>That's probably part of it, you know, I talked about
<v Speaker 1>that in Cleanish. You know, like if you've already got
<v Speaker 1>it and it's stashed away and you're fat, you just
<v Speaker 1>keep it forever and just know you know it. Eventually
<v Speaker 1>you're detoxing your body as you're getting rid of all
<v Speaker 1>of that and getting back to a healthier state. But
<v Speaker 1>you know, there really are toxins stored in our fat,
<v Speaker 1>and it's gross when you think about it, but you
<v Speaker 1>know you're making you know, your face with the issues
<v Speaker 1>that happened twenty years ago when your body stashed it away.
<v Speaker 1>So right, it's very interesting to consider so great question
<v Speaker 1>and know that what you're doing right now is healthiest
<v Speaker 1>for your body and for your babies. So now it's
<v Speaker 1>time for our segment called what's your Why. Most of
<v Speaker 1>us begin intermittent fasting with weight loss in mind. I
<v Speaker 1>certainly did, so did Sherry. That is a great reason
<v Speaker 1>to start intermittent fasting, but there is so much more
<v Speaker 1>to what intermittent fasting can do for us beyond weight loss.
<v Speaker 1>And that's why when I wrote twenty eight day fast
<v Speaker 1>start day by day, I asked readers to craft their
<v Speaker 1>why statement before beginning. I genuinely believe that when your
<v Speaker 1>why is deeper than weight loss alone, you're more likely
<v Speaker 1>to find long term success and view intermittent fasting as
<v Speaker 1>a lifestyle. So if you have not yet crafted your why,
<v Speaker 1>even if you've been doing intermittent fasting for three years,
<v Speaker 1>even if you started with just only weight loss, take
<v Speaker 1>some time now. Pull out a piece of paper, get
<v Speaker 1>out your notesapp in your phone, get a voice memo,
<v Speaker 1>whatever it is. Make note of what your why is,
<v Speaker 1>how it's evolve. Why are you doing this? But let's
<v Speaker 1>hear what somebody else had to say.
<v Speaker 2>So this week we have a wife from Crystal. She says,
<v Speaker 2>I'm so incredibly excited my husband has joined me in fasting.
<v Speaker 2>It's so funny to me because last year he had
<v Speaker 2>to convince me to join him in fasting. Then he
<v Speaker 2>said fasting was too hard and he went back traditional dieting.
<v Speaker 2>And I am the one that kept on fasting. I
<v Speaker 2>had since found the clean fast and the DDD online community,
<v Speaker 2>and he has seen me, for the first time in
<v Speaker 2>my life not have diet brain and be successful somewhat effortlessly.
<v Speaker 2>So he decided to join me again. We are doing
<v Speaker 2>ADF four to three, and for him, a full thirty
<v Speaker 2>six hour fast is just easier. He said, the down
<v Speaker 2>day meal awakens the hunger monster, so I am supporting
<v Speaker 2>him and joining him. It took quite a bit of
<v Speaker 2>conversation to convince him of the clean fest. He read
<v Speaker 2>the chapter in DDD number two, the second edition. He
<v Speaker 2>is still not sold on the idea that citric acid
<v Speaker 2>in his bottled iced tea will break a fast, yet
<v Speaker 2>he was still struggle a little bit. I went ahead
<v Speaker 2>and got some organic black tea bags and organic green
<v Speaker 2>tea bags, and I made a couple of jugs to
<v Speaker 2>keep in the fridge. I told him, don't you think
<v Speaker 2>organic would be better while we're fasting? And he agreed
<v Speaker 2>and has been drinking that now during our down days.
<v Speaker 2>He said to me the other day, Wow, fasting has
<v Speaker 2>gotten so easy. I suddenly chuckled to myself and thought, yes,
<v Speaker 2>because you are no longer drinking the bottled iced tea
<v Speaker 2>with cistric acid.
<v Speaker 1>Haha, Oh my gosh, Sheery, I am over here. I
<v Speaker 1>am just I love it crystal so much. I feel
<v Speaker 1>like I might would tell him now now that he
<v Speaker 1>knows it's easier, Like that's the whole point of the
<v Speaker 1>clean Fast challenge that I have in Fast Feast Repeat
<v Speaker 1>is like even if you think I'm a moron for
<v Speaker 1>suggesting it, Like if your husband thinks it's dumb, how
<v Speaker 1>could citric acid possibly make a difference. He has accidentally
<v Speaker 1>taken the clean Fast challenge without knowing it because you
<v Speaker 1>set him up for success by brewing that tea, and
<v Speaker 1>now he feels like it's easier.
<v Speaker 2>Well, and I love how she manipulated it to be
<v Speaker 2>like what's switch to orthanic tea?
<v Speaker 1>It's a great way to do it. But he has
<v Speaker 1>taken the clean Fast challenge by accident, and he now
<v Speaker 1>is a believer, even though he doesn't know it exactly.
<v Speaker 2>Exactly, And if he isn't a believer, the sadistic side
<v Speaker 2>of me would be like, give him a bottle of
<v Speaker 2>the citric acid tea to drink and see how his
<v Speaker 2>fast goes that day.
<v Speaker 1>It's gonna be harder. Or if you're mad at him,
<v Speaker 1>slip him some citric aas we're not just trying to
<v Speaker 1>like make the fast complicated. We believe that the citric
<v Speaker 1>acid makes a difference, and her husband believes it even
<v Speaker 1>though he doesn't know it well.
<v Speaker 2>And we've had community members who were struggling and we'd say,
<v Speaker 2>what are you drinking?
<v Speaker 1>I think the tea it's just yes, yeap.
<v Speaker 2>Or there's one bottled coffee that is the bane of
<v Speaker 2>our existence that has citric acid in it.
<v Speaker 1>Well, it has natural flavors. It says natural flavors the stove,
<v Speaker 1>the stoke, I thought it has citric acid. No my
<v Speaker 1>tea that we keep running the citric acid. The coffee
<v Speaker 1>says natural flavor okay. And we don't know what they are,
<v Speaker 1>but we know that they cause a problem just from
<v Speaker 1>trial and error.
<v Speaker 2>If a person is struggling though, and we really nail down,
<v Speaker 2>like tell us every single thing you put in your
<v Speaker 2>mouth and where do you get it?
<v Speaker 1>Are you brewing it yourself?
<v Speaker 2>And they say, oh no, I drink it out of
<v Speaker 2>a bottle and we're like stop that, like, don't do that,
<v Speaker 2>And then never fails. They come back a week later
<v Speaker 2>and they're like, oh my gosh, fasting is so easy.
<v Speaker 2>I just started making my own tea or right, I
<v Speaker 2>switched to my bottle of coffee and yeah, yep. So anyway,
<v Speaker 2>so she says, on a different note, for some reason,
<v Speaker 2>the scale jumped and my average weight went up two
<v Speaker 2>pounds that the past two weeks. I had no idea why,
<v Speaker 2>and I just kept doing what I'm doing. I figured
<v Speaker 2>my body was working hard on something and must need
<v Speaker 2>the extra water. Inflammation isn't always bad. Sometimes inflammation helps
<v Speaker 2>clear things out because your body is working. I put
<v Speaker 2>on a pencil skirt, one of my goal skirts during
<v Speaker 2>this time, on an up day in the evening, with
<v Speaker 2>all of that food in my tummy, and it fit
<v Speaker 2>like a dream. I were it all night to an event,
<v Speaker 2>and it was so comfortable in it. This was a
<v Speaker 2>reminder to me to listen to what the scale is
<v Speaker 2>actually saying. It wasn't saying I was doing anything wrong.
<v Speaker 2>It was saying I'm working on something right now, so
<v Speaker 2>I need to hold on to a little extra fluid.
<v Speaker 2>Please don't worry. You look great. No one will see
<v Speaker 2>these two pounds, but I need them for a few days.
<v Speaker 2>It's already starting to melt off, and my weigh ins
<v Speaker 2>are going back down. I'm so glad I didn't let
<v Speaker 2>diet brain even have a moment to say anything to
<v Speaker 2>discourage me, and I wore that skirt proudly with those
<v Speaker 2>two extra pounds. She went on to say, her why
<v Speaker 2>is that it just makes life better and easier. So
<v Speaker 2>and she has a new appreciation for her body.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, And the thing about the scale, any time the
<v Speaker 1>scale goes dramatically up or dramatically down over a short
<v Speaker 1>period of time, it does not reflect fat loss. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>you may have gained a little fat, you may have
<v Speaker 1>lost a little fat along with that scale up or down,
<v Speaker 1>but fat loss is very slow. Fat gain is also
<v Speaker 1>very slow. And just know, any sudden change in either
<v Speaker 1>direction is probably the weight of food in your system.
<v Speaker 1>You haven't pooped. Water retention, inflammation, you know, we always
<v Speaker 1>hear sherry in the community. Somebody will have just had
<v Speaker 1>surgery or they've been sick and like had of some
<v Speaker 1>sort of a cold or the flu or whatever or something,
<v Speaker 1>and they're like really surprised that their weight jumped up,
<v Speaker 1>and we're like, no, it's inflammation, having surgery and injury.
<v Speaker 1>If you sprain your ankle, Like look like, if you
<v Speaker 1>sprain your ankle, it swells up. There's something there, fluid,
<v Speaker 1>it has weight, it's healing. The healing process comes with inflammation.
<v Speaker 1>Inflammation comes with scale weight, but not fat.
<v Speaker 2>Right, So understanding, you know, I've said for a long time,
<v Speaker 2>I used to be one those people that I would
<v Speaker 2>ump on the scale multiple times a day, and depending
<v Speaker 2>on what the scale said in the morning depended on
<v Speaker 2>my behavior that day.
<v Speaker 1>It was like it was a great day.
<v Speaker 2>I might be like, Oh, the scales down, I can
<v Speaker 2>have pizza today, or whatever. Oh the scales up, I
<v Speaker 2>need to do an extra workout today. Trust me, I
<v Speaker 2>have lived this okay. But once I started weighing every
<v Speaker 2>single day and then averaging my weight weekly, I was
<v Speaker 2>able to see that those daily fluctuations a lot of
<v Speaker 2>times are a result of the food I ate that
<v Speaker 2>did before, and through that, I was really able to see,
<v Speaker 2>you know, which foods are inflammatory for me, which foods
<v Speaker 2>make me just hold onto water like crazy. And so
<v Speaker 2>it kind of became a game where I'd be like, Oh,
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna eat this today, and I bet the scale's
<v Speaker 2>going to be up three pounds tomorrow, and I the
<v Speaker 2>next morning, I'd be like, well, let's see if the
<v Speaker 2>scales up three pounds from yesterday, and you know, it
<v Speaker 2>got to the point where I could pinpoint almost to
<v Speaker 2>the pound how much the scale was going to be
<v Speaker 2>up the next day if I ate something that I
<v Speaker 2>knew made me super in plant flamed and puffy.
<v Speaker 1>So that's just our bodies. They're variable and they change.
<v Speaker 1>But no meal is going to cause three pounds of
<v Speaker 1>fat gain overnight. Knowing that is powering because you just.
<v Speaker 2>Need to let it stettle out, and no indulgent weekend
<v Speaker 2>is going to result in lasting fat gain. Yes, you
<v Speaker 2>might come back Monday and the scale maybe up, but
<v Speaker 2>just keep weighing and averaging weekly and maybe you don't
<v Speaker 2>lose that week because you had an indulgent weekend, But
<v Speaker 2>you just stay on the same path and it'll, you know.
<v Speaker 1>You'll go shift back into fat loss again. And I
<v Speaker 1>love that she let her pencil skirt, let her know
<v Speaker 1>she was still fitting beautifully in that skirt. She knew
<v Speaker 1>that she was doing great.
<v Speaker 2>Yep, all right, so we have a question from eating
<v Speaker 2>like Jane. She says, I've been IF for about three
<v Speaker 2>weeks now. I started with sixteen eight and then I
<v Speaker 2>moved to nineteen five. Now I'm trying to do alternate
<v Speaker 2>day fasting.
<v Speaker 1>Can we pause right there? Sure? Okay, you know what
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna say.
<v Speaker 2>Gee, oh, I know, I think you probably saw the
<v Speaker 2>look in my face when I said that.
<v Speaker 1>All Right, I'm gonna assume your name. I don't know
<v Speaker 1>if you're eating like Jane or you Jane. I'm gonna
<v Speaker 1>call you Jane. So Jane. I love that you're excited
<v Speaker 1>about intermittent fasting. You started three weeks ago. You started
<v Speaker 1>with sixteen eight, moved to nineteen five. I would absolutely
<v Speaker 1>not try alternate day fasting until you've been doing a
<v Speaker 1>daily eating window for at least a couple of months,
<v Speaker 1>because you want to really get fat adapted, let your
<v Speaker 1>body adapt, you really want to get used to it.
<v Speaker 1>It's a mental adjustment process as well. And the reason
<v Speaker 1>we recommend I didn't used to make this recommendation until
<v Speaker 1>I've been doing the community work for so many years.
<v Speaker 1>When we see people try to do too much too soon,
<v Speaker 1>they often crash and burn. So I want you to
<v Speaker 1>keep that in mind, and I want you to trust advice.
<v Speaker 1>We're not just you know, making it up. We're telling
<v Speaker 1>you based on experience that people tend to have better
<v Speaker 1>long term results when they start intermittent fasting with the
<v Speaker 1>daily eating window approach, settle in, get used to the
<v Speaker 1>daily eating window approach, and only then once you're comfortably
<v Speaker 1>doing it, you're fat adapted, you have settled in, relaxed
<v Speaker 1>into the process, then it's time to start thinking about
<v Speaker 1>if you want to try some alternate day So three
<v Speaker 1>weeks in is definitely not when I would do it.
<v Speaker 1>I would say more like three months in might be
<v Speaker 1>time to play with that, because you just again, we're
<v Speaker 1>in this this diet world and I've been there and
<v Speaker 1>Sherry's been there where it's like, well, if a five
<v Speaker 1>hour eating window is great and alternate daily fasting is wonderful,
<v Speaker 1>I'm going to do that now. But really, you need
<v Speaker 1>to set yourself up for success by nailing the lifestyle
<v Speaker 1>before you get more aggressive with it. It would be like,
<v Speaker 1>you know, I started couch to five k last week,
<v Speaker 1>I'm going to run a marathon tomorrow. You're not ready yet.
<v Speaker 1>You need to be ready, and that sets you up
<v Speaker 1>for the best chance of success. All right back to you, Sherry.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I always say you want to build a solid
<v Speaker 2>fasting foundation. You wouldn't build a house on dirt. You've
<v Speaker 2>got to build a foundation for it, or it's not
<v Speaker 2>going to last. So she says, my appetite has changed
<v Speaker 2>drastically during this time. Essentially, I am only really hungry
<v Speaker 2>for one meal for most of my windows, and by
<v Speaker 2>the time I'm ready for a second meal and I
<v Speaker 2>have waited for insulin to reduce, my window has closed.
<v Speaker 2>A meal might be some sugar snap peas with hummus
<v Speaker 2>and a large vegan salad with homemade dressing, beans, olives,
<v Speaker 2>or avocado, or in a handful of tortilla chips, or
<v Speaker 2>a rice bowl with beans, veggie, avocado and sauce, or
<v Speaker 2>maybe tofu broccoli and smashed potatoes. For example, I may
<v Speaker 2>eat one meal around eleven or twelve until I'm satisfied,
<v Speaker 2>but then I won't be hungry again until after my
<v Speaker 2>four to eight hour window closes around eight or nine o'clock.
<v Speaker 2>I don't mind doing OMAD, but I want to make
<v Speaker 2>sure I'm getting enough calories in over the long haul
<v Speaker 2>so that the body doesn't get used to the pattern
<v Speaker 2>or go into starvation mode if this lack of appetite lasts.
<v Speaker 2>I am trying to alternate fasting patterns to help keep
<v Speaker 2>the body guessing. I also know you stated that after
<v Speaker 2>a thirty six to forty eight hour fast, one should
<v Speaker 2>be eating two to three meals a day, but I
<v Speaker 2>just wasn't hungry. Should I eat anyway? Or is there
<v Speaker 2>a way to adjust to this or is omat okay
<v Speaker 2>long term? Regardless of the IF lifestyle, I am hoping
<v Speaker 2>for a weight loss and reducing insulin and inflammation levels overall,
<v Speaker 2>as I am the only non diabetic in my family
<v Speaker 2>and I want to beat the genetic predisposition.
<v Speaker 1>All right, So, Jane, I have a homework assignment for you.
<v Speaker 1>I would like for you to get a copy of
<v Speaker 1>Delay Don't Deny. Well, if you go to Jen Stevens
<v Speaker 1>dot com, there's a tab link forget the books. Go
<v Speaker 1>follow that link and get Delayed on Deny on Amazon.
<v Speaker 1>If you follow the link from Jen Stevens dot com
<v Speaker 1>to get the books tab, you'll make sure you're getting
<v Speaker 1>the second edition. You need the second edition. And I
<v Speaker 1>need you to really really read the ADF chapter before
<v Speaker 1>you even try to experiment with the longer fast again.
<v Speaker 1>I really would advise that you read the whole thing.
<v Speaker 1>My hunt is that you're a podcast listener and you
<v Speaker 1>haven't read the book yet, and so I think there's
<v Speaker 1>a lot of foundational information in the book. You know,
<v Speaker 1>I'm a school teacher, right. I want you to get
<v Speaker 1>the foundational information so that you are setting yourself up
<v Speaker 1>for success. And like you talked about a thirty six
<v Speaker 1>to forty eight hour fast, we do not recommend that
<v Speaker 1>you do ADF with forty eight hours. The max would
<v Speaker 1>be forty two, and that's even pushing it. Thirty six
<v Speaker 1>is more along the lines of what we would recommend
<v Speaker 1>for ADF, But of course you're not quite ready for
<v Speaker 1>that yet. You need to settle into the eating window first.
<v Speaker 1>Now you're opening you said around eleven or twelve, until
<v Speaker 1>you're satisfied and you're not hungry again until later, I
<v Speaker 1>would consider you know, I think that you do need
<v Speaker 1>to be mindful that you're not just having one small
<v Speaker 1>meal at eleven or twelve and then you're hungry again
<v Speaker 1>at eight or nine. That would not be a timing
<v Speaker 1>that would work well for me either. If I had
<v Speaker 1>one big meal around eleven or twelve, I would be
<v Speaker 1>starving before bed and I need to eat again. So
<v Speaker 1>it doesn't sound like you have found your daily eating
<v Speaker 1>windows sweet spot yet, so I would keep working through
<v Speaker 1>that to see what works well for you, and it
<v Speaker 1>is absolutely essential. When you read the ADF chapter of
<v Speaker 1>the second edition of Delayed on Deny, you will see
<v Speaker 1>that you absolutely must commit to eating two to three
<v Speaker 1>full meals over an eight to twelve hour period after
<v Speaker 1>a longer fast. That's non negotiable. And if you can't
<v Speaker 1>and I'm using quotation marks around can't, If you can't
<v Speaker 1>fit in two to three full meals, then ADF is
<v Speaker 1>not for you, because that is what keeps it from
<v Speaker 1>being too restrictive. We have to have the balance in there.
<v Speaker 1>We have to balance the fasting and the feasting. There's
<v Speaker 1>such a thing as too much fasting. There's such a
<v Speaker 1>thing as too much feasting. And the balance that works
<v Speaker 1>for your body based on your goals is what you're
<v Speaker 1>looking for. So you said you're hoping for weight loss.
<v Speaker 1>That is where daily wang with weekly averaging comes in
<v Speaker 1>so handy. We don't expect any weight loss at all
<v Speaker 1>for the first month. So when you get your copy
<v Speaker 1>of Delay Don't Deny, after you've read the beginning part,
<v Speaker 1>you'll get to the weighing chapter, and in that chapter
<v Speaker 1>you'll see daily Wang with weekly averaging is what we recommend,
<v Speaker 1>and then you'll be able to see if your weekly
<v Speaker 1>average trend is going down from one half to one
<v Speaker 1>pounds per week, then that is a really good rate
<v Speaker 1>of loss. Now you're asking about how to keep your
<v Speaker 1>body from going into starvation mode, and I think starvation
<v Speaker 1>mode is thrown around out there a lot, and actual
<v Speaker 1>starvation mode is pretty rare. And actual starvation mode happens
<v Speaker 1>when your body cannot access your stored fat for fuel,
<v Speaker 1>or there's so little stored fat on your body that
<v Speaker 1>you're significantly underweight and there's no more fat to go
<v Speaker 1>for your body to use. That would be true starvey mode.
<v Speaker 1>But if you are fasting clean and letting your body
<v Speaker 1>tap into your fat stores, you're not going to get
<v Speaker 1>into any kind of starvation mode because there's plenty of
<v Speaker 1>fuel on your body that your body can use and
<v Speaker 1>you're also nourishing your body well in your eating window. Now,
<v Speaker 1>the other thing that this is not starvation mode, but
<v Speaker 1>you're talking about, you know, getting used to the pattern.
<v Speaker 1>That is a real concern. Like if every day you
<v Speaker 1>only ate within one hour and you had a thousand
<v Speaker 1>calories a day, I'm just throwing that out as it's
<v Speaker 1>not like a magic number. But let's just assume as
<v Speaker 1>an example, if every day you ate exactly one thousand
<v Speaker 1>calories in one hour. Your body likes homeostasis. You know,
<v Speaker 1>so many functions of our body operate that way. Our
<v Speaker 1>body temperature, our respiration rate, or heartbeat, all of those
<v Speaker 1>things get into a pattern and they just keep going
<v Speaker 1>with that what feels good. Right. Our metabolic rates the
<v Speaker 1>same way. So if you have one thousand calories a day,
<v Speaker 1>every single day, in one hour and that is what
<v Speaker 1>you do, eventually your body be like, all right, this
<v Speaker 1>is what we're doing, and it will adapt to that.
<v Speaker 1>If you feel great, you're at a great weight and
<v Speaker 1>you're nourishing your body well, and you're at a weight
<v Speaker 1>you enjoy, it's not a big deal. But if you
<v Speaker 1>have a lot of fat to lose, you don't want
<v Speaker 1>to adapt at a higher weight than is right for
<v Speaker 1>your body. So if weight loss slows, it doesn't happen quickly.
<v Speaker 1>You could probably eat a thousand calories a day and
<v Speaker 1>a one hour window for quite a while before your
<v Speaker 1>body adapts to that. And how will you know. Because
<v Speaker 1>your weight loss will stop, you will no longer be
<v Speaker 1>trending downward from one weekly average to the next. Maybe
<v Speaker 1>it might be like that for two months you've plateaued.
<v Speaker 1>That's a great time to try ADF because metabolisms aren't
<v Speaker 1>broken and you're not in starvation mode when that happens. Instead,
<v Speaker 1>that's when you need the full up day the down day,
<v Speaker 1>and the update pattern is so good for that. So
<v Speaker 1>you're asking some great questions. Something that happens as well.
<v Speaker 1>If you are consistently providing will use Gen's theoretical number
<v Speaker 1>of one thousand calories a day to your body, and
<v Speaker 1>your body's going to regulate your metabolism your energy expenditure
<v Speaker 1>to match that. Right, But at some point your body's
<v Speaker 1>wanting more nutrition, it's not getting anything it needs, and
<v Speaker 1>this is where people start having problems with binging and hunger. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>so now you're eating more because your body is directing
<v Speaker 1>you to eat more, but your body has down regulated
<v Speaker 1>to a thousand calories, so you're not going to lose weight,
<v Speaker 1>and you may even gain weight because you're hunger. You're
<v Speaker 1>legitimately hungry. Your body's wanting that more nutrition, is wanting
<v Speaker 1>more energy. So that's where the ADF comes in because
<v Speaker 1>then you're spending more time in fat burning, you're overfeeding
<v Speaker 1>your body. On the up day, you're raising that metabolic
<v Speaker 1>rate and getting your body to burn Potter, So I
<v Speaker 1>wanted to mention too. She said that she is waiting
<v Speaker 1>for her insulin to reduce before having her second meal. Oh,
<v Speaker 1>I forgot. It's something that we want to even concern
<v Speaker 1>ourselves with. We don't want insulin low all the time.
<v Speaker 1>Insulin has some really good benefits, like it's important grow
<v Speaker 1>your muscles.
<v Speaker 2>So it's not we don't want to just like keep
<v Speaker 2>our insulin low while we're fasting. Keep it low, keep
<v Speaker 2>it low, eat a little bit, wait for it to
<v Speaker 2>come back down, you know, to baseline again, and to
<v Speaker 2>eat again. We don't want to worry about that. We
<v Speaker 2>want to open our window. We want to eat to satiety.
<v Speaker 2>We want to pause, we want to assess hunger, we
<v Speaker 2>want to eat again. We don't want to give another
<v Speaker 2>thought about insulin again until we are fasting again. Yes,
<v Speaker 2>so yeah, that is not that is not something you
<v Speaker 2>have to worry about. Awesome, I'm glad you went back
<v Speaker 2>to that because I forgot.
<v Speaker 1>All Right, this week we have a follow up contribution
<v Speaker 1>from Meg and Ontario. She says, Jen and Sherry, thank
<v Speaker 1>you so much for spreading knowledge and creating a community
<v Speaker 1>for support and sharing. Another community that makes me so happy.
<v Speaker 1>It's community Day, she said. I am newer to fasting
<v Speaker 1>and I've been working through your podcast and enjoying it
<v Speaker 1>so much. I just listened to episode fifty where someone
<v Speaker 1>was asking you to talk more about losing inflammation and
<v Speaker 1>how that relates to weight loss. I had the same
<v Speaker 1>question myself. I am a physician and couldn't help myself
<v Speaker 1>but to look through the science to learn the pathophysiology.
<v Speaker 1>You guys had a great answer that explained how fasting
<v Speaker 1>relates to inflammation, but I would like to take it
<v Speaker 1>one step further and share how I understand it relates
<v Speaker 1>to weight loss. I love this. I'm so glad that
<v Speaker 1>she shared this all right, She said. Inflammation is a
<v Speaker 1>massive production of signals in the body that build up
<v Speaker 1>to tell your immune system that there is a problem,
<v Speaker 1>so that the fighting cells will build their armies and
<v Speaker 1>nowhere to go. Inflammation makes your blood vessels leakier, so
<v Speaker 1>you're going to end up with more water out of
<v Speaker 1>your blood vessels and in your tissue. These signals can
<v Speaker 1>even tell the kidneys to retain more water as well.
<v Speaker 1>If you decrease the inflammation in your body, your blood
<v Speaker 1>vessels stop leaking and you will lose more water weight.
<v Speaker 1>So just like how gligogen stores make your body hold
<v Speaker 1>onto more water, inflammation does too. I hope this is
<v Speaker 1>a helpful way to conceptualize it. That was fantastic. That
<v Speaker 1>was fantastic.
<v Speaker 2>Love that all right, So we have time for one
<v Speaker 2>last question from Carly and Kansas. Hello friends, Newish faster.
<v Speaker 2>Here with a question for you, ladies. I've noticed that
<v Speaker 2>when I'm towards the end of my fast, usually nineteen
<v Speaker 2>or twenty hours, I get super chilly. Nothing I can't
<v Speaker 2>deal with, but a definite feeling of cold comes over me.
<v Speaker 2>When I looked unlined, I learned that this could be
<v Speaker 2>a sign of one's metabolism slowing. I don't know much
<v Speaker 2>about the diet world, but what I do know is
<v Speaker 2>I don't want to slow metabolism. Is that always the case?
<v Speaker 2>And what else could it be? Thanks for your help.
<v Speaker 2>And I didn't realize when I already hit it together
<v Speaker 2>that this kind of went along with the first question earlier.
<v Speaker 1>Carly, you heard the earlier part, and yes, when you
<v Speaker 1>are fasting and your body is mobilizing fat for fuel,
<v Speaker 1>it directs your blood flow away from your extremities and
<v Speaker 1>the result is you can feel cold. So here's how
<v Speaker 1>to know if it's a sign of metabolism being slow
<v Speaker 1>or if it's just the normal fasting thing. If you
<v Speaker 1>are cold all the time, whether you're fasting or eating,
<v Speaker 1>you're cold after eating all the time and you never
<v Speaker 1>warm up ever, that would be a sign that maybe
<v Speaker 1>your metabolism is slowing, or you just you have thyroid
<v Speaker 1>disease or you have a thyroid issue. But if you're
<v Speaker 1>cold towards the end of your fast, like you said,
<v Speaker 1>it's not at the beginning, it's just as you get later,
<v Speaker 1>which is exactly what we would think with the blood
<v Speaker 1>flow going towards your fat stores. If that's the only
<v Speaker 1>time that it happens, then you're likely fine. Now here's
<v Speaker 1>one caveat because I just said that you should not
<v Speaker 1>be cold after you eat. If you're eating cold food,
<v Speaker 1>you might be cold. So let me rephrase that just
<v Speaker 1>again so everybody can hear. Like, if I ate a
<v Speaker 1>bunch of frozen grapes, which would I love to eat,
<v Speaker 1>I might be freezing after I eat them. That does happen.
<v Speaker 1>It's also why I don't eat them in the winter.
<v Speaker 1>Cold food, really really cold food, can make you feel cold.
<v Speaker 1>So you know, if I have a big, giant baked potato,
<v Speaker 1>that's when my body temperature is gonna go up and
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna feel hot. But if I had a bunch
<v Speaker 1>of frozen grapes, I'm gonna feel cold. So, like somebody
<v Speaker 1>in the community one time, it's like, after I eat,
<v Speaker 1>I get really really cold. Why is that? I'm like,
<v Speaker 1>are you eating cold food? She's like yes, I'm like
<v Speaker 1>that's why cold.
<v Speaker 2>I get cold immediately after eating too, every time you eat,
<v Speaker 2>a lot of times after I eat. But I've always
<v Speaker 2>been told that it's because now your body's diverting blood
<v Speaker 2>flow to your gut.
<v Speaker 1>I think it requires system.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, so all your blood flows diverted to your digestive
<v Speaker 2>system temporarily as your digestion starts to process your food. Now,
<v Speaker 2>like after an hour or two after I've eaten, I
<v Speaker 2>go back to my normal temperature, which is always cold.
<v Speaker 1>Anyways, I'm just a cold person. Well, I'm not a
<v Speaker 1>cold person, but you're very warm. Share. I hope I'm
<v Speaker 1>not cold. Person.
<v Speaker 2>But I'm sitting here right now wrapped up in a blanket,
<v Speaker 2>so that tells you anything. But the other thing is
<v Speaker 2>while you're fasting too, same kind of thing. Is just
<v Speaker 2>that digestion creates energy in your body and it can
<v Speaker 2>warm you up, and so if you're not digesting anything,
<v Speaker 2>you're just running cooler. So there's multiple theories on it,
<v Speaker 2>and you know, we hear from a lot of people
<v Speaker 2>it's very normal to feel cold deep in you're fast
<v Speaker 2>all right. Well, before we get to the tweak of
<v Speaker 2>the week, I just want to take a minute to
<v Speaker 2>tell you about a company that I found and that
<v Speaker 2>I've been using. I've been using ever now since really
<v Speaker 2>in December. You guys have heard me talk about, if
<v Speaker 2>you've listened to the podcast for any amount of time,
<v Speaker 2>the awful experience I've had at different doctors trying to
<v Speaker 2>get hormones. You know, I had one doctor who was
<v Speaker 2>only concerned about hormones as far as libido goes, because
<v Speaker 2>he didn't want my husband to suffer. Oh No, every
<v Speaker 2>time you say that, I'm like, Lord, have mercy, Like, seriously,
<v Speaker 2>I think I need, I might need far be from that.
<v Speaker 2>I'm just like, what are we is this like nineteen fifty.
<v Speaker 1>What is happening? Are you hysterical? Are you hysteriously? You
<v Speaker 1>have hysteria? Oh god?
<v Speaker 2>So I was like, okay, I can't go back to
<v Speaker 2>this guy anymore. Okay, because he always asked me, you know,
<v Speaker 2>is your husband like in your hormones? Wink wink, And
<v Speaker 2>I could not do that at all.
<v Speaker 1>So I went.
<v Speaker 2>I found a new place locally. I was driving an
<v Speaker 2>hour to see that man. This man was like, no,
<v Speaker 2>I'm not on board with all this new giving hormone
<v Speaker 2>stuff out, but he didn't tell me that until after
<v Speaker 2>I'd sat with him for an hour and talk to him.
<v Speaker 2>He would not refill any of my prescriptions. And I'm
<v Speaker 2>desperate now because I'm getting ready to runt out and
<v Speaker 2>I know I don't want to be without my estrogen
<v Speaker 2>and protresterone. So I started doing a lot of research,
<v Speaker 2>as I do, and I found a company called ever Now.
<v Speaker 2>They are a women's health company that uses all North
<v Speaker 2>American Menopause Society certified providers that help you manage your
<v Speaker 2>menopause symptoms. It's all online and they are so quick.
<v Speaker 2>I talked to them one day, explain my issue, you
<v Speaker 2>told them the meds i'd been on that I was
<v Speaker 2>doing great. I had to send them like a copy
<v Speaker 2>of some of my medical records, which was super easy
<v Speaker 2>to do, and I had my prescriptions the next day.
<v Speaker 2>You can either use your local pharmacy so that you
<v Speaker 2>can use your prescription coverage, or if you don't have
<v Speaker 2>a pharmacy or you don't have prescription coverage, they have
<v Speaker 2>their own discounted pharmacy and they can ship them straight
<v Speaker 2>to your house. So I'm really loving it.
<v Speaker 1>You a lot. They work with a lot of health.
<v Speaker 2>Insurance companies even to help cover like online video visits.
<v Speaker 2>So if you're struggling to find somebody to prescribe you
<v Speaker 2>your hormone therapy or you think it's time to start
<v Speaker 2>talking to somebody about that, check them out. It's called
<v Speaker 2>ever Now. There is a link in show notes and
<v Speaker 2>you can save twenty five dollars off your membership if
<v Speaker 2>you use my link. You can pay per visit monthly
<v Speaker 2>or what I did, which was annually, and it starts
<v Speaker 2>under thirty five dollars a month for the service, and
<v Speaker 2>they're fabulous.
<v Speaker 1>That's wonderful. Yeah, this one the one you use. They
<v Speaker 1>just provide the prescription and then you get it through
<v Speaker 1>your regular pharmacy.
<v Speaker 2>Or I could choose to use I could choose to
<v Speaker 2>use their pharmacy and they would ship it straight to
<v Speaker 2>my house. But I have prescription coverage, which is fabulous.
<v Speaker 2>I only pay ten percent for all of my prescriptions,
<v Speaker 2>so it would be silly for me to not just
<v Speaker 2>use my own pharmacy.
<v Speaker 1>For me, I use a different company that works the
<v Speaker 1>similar way. I was going to my functional medicine doctor here,
<v Speaker 1>but they're pricey. They wanted to see me a lot
<v Speaker 1>just and I'm like, oh, you know what, So I
<v Speaker 1>found this online comedy. But my problem was my local
<v Speaker 1>pharmacies were running out, like they couldn't get the progesterone,
<v Speaker 1>and like one of them couldn't get it. They couldn't
<v Speaker 1>get it at all. And then so I use a
<v Speaker 1>company that will send it to you, but this one
<v Speaker 1>will send it to you as well if you want,
<v Speaker 1>if you just gets in the mail every three months,
<v Speaker 1>and it's pricier than if I were getting it from
<v Speaker 1>a regular doctor and getting it prescribed. But I couldn't
<v Speaker 1>get it, Like I said, I think CVS couldn't get it.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, there was a problem because there was like a
<v Speaker 2>big fire at some I don't remember. There was a
<v Speaker 2>period of time where there was problems getting a lot
<v Speaker 2>of medications because of that.
<v Speaker 1>It wasn't that long ago.
<v Speaker 2>I have not had any issues. I had an issue
<v Speaker 2>one time where they said we don't have your estrogen
<v Speaker 2>in stock, and luckily I was just able to go
<v Speaker 2>to a different pharmacy and they transferred my prescription. I
<v Speaker 2>got it picked up, you know, the same day. But
<v Speaker 2>my pharmacy has never had an issue getting it since then.
<v Speaker 1>Well that's good. Like I was desperate. I was not
<v Speaker 1>going to be out of progesterone. So they're like, we're
<v Speaker 1>transferring it to a different pharmacy than not the same company.
<v Speaker 1>And I went over there and they're like, we haven't
<v Speaker 1>gotten it. I'm like, well, I'm just going to sit
<v Speaker 1>right here in this charity. I'll figure it out with
<v Speaker 1>a big smile on my face. And guess what, they
<v Speaker 1>figured it out within twenty minutes. Oh that's great. They're like,
<v Speaker 1>you're going to have to come back. We don't have it.
<v Speaker 1>I'm like, that's fine, I will wait right here. They
<v Speaker 1>were amazingly able to get someone on the phone, but
<v Speaker 1>that was you know before. But I was like, I
<v Speaker 1>never want to be in that situation again. Once you
<v Speaker 1>have it, you don't want to be without it because
<v Speaker 1>I feel so much better. So what I love is
<v Speaker 1>that there's all these options and you're working with real doctors,
<v Speaker 1>and you know, thank Goodness for the freedom to take
<v Speaker 1>what we know about our healthcare and work with real
<v Speaker 1>doctors of our choosing.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, well, I love that I can chat with them
<v Speaker 2>as much as I want me too. If I'm at
<v Speaker 2>work and I have a question, I can send them
<v Speaker 2>a text and within usually about eight sometimes shorter. I
<v Speaker 2>mean I might get a response back in two hours,
<v Speaker 2>but not in the middle of the night, but definitely
<v Speaker 2>within twelve hours I have a response back from them.
<v Speaker 1>They're very, very responsive. So, ladies, there are options. I
<v Speaker 1>think that's what we're trying to say. There are options
<v Speaker 1>that are that will work for you and work with
<v Speaker 1>your situation, and don't take no for an answer because
<v Speaker 1>your doctor doesn't know the latest recommendations. And that's okay.
<v Speaker 1>Your doctor could be fabulous. It's so many things, but
<v Speaker 1>maybe asn't a hormone expert, and you just you want
<v Speaker 1>to find a hormone expert that can help you, all right,
<v Speaker 1>now it's time for our tweak of the week. You know,
<v Speaker 1>I always say tweak it till it's easy. But the
<v Speaker 1>tweak that works for me might not be the one
<v Speaker 1>that works for And that's why it is so helpful
<v Speaker 1>to hear how other intermittent fasters are making intermittent fasting
<v Speaker 1>work for them. So this is from Karina from Katie,
<v Speaker 1>and we're assuming this means Katie Texas, if not Katie somewhere.
<v Speaker 1>Kid Arena says I had a bit of an AHA
<v Speaker 1>moment and felt compelled to share this thought. Episode ninety
<v Speaker 1>really sparked this realization for me. The writer mentioned losing
<v Speaker 1>twenty six pounds through alternate day fasting, but life inevitably
<v Speaker 1>got in the way and much of the weight crept back.
<v Speaker 1>This resonated with me deeply, as it mirrors my own
<v Speaker 1>journey A while ago. I embraced a lifestyle that had
<v Speaker 1>me running thirty miles per week and eating a strictly
<v Speaker 1>plant based diet. I reached my lowest weight ever and
<v Speaker 1>I felt on top of the world. But here's the truth,
<v Speaker 1>it wasn't sustainable. As soon as I stopped running and
<v Speaker 1>shifted towards a standard American diet with longer eating windows,
<v Speaker 1>the weight inevitably came back. Here's what I've come to understand.
<v Speaker 1>Long term success doesn't come from dramatic lifestyle changes that
<v Speaker 1>can't be maintained. Oh gosh, I love that, so I
<v Speaker 1>know I'm going to read that, Simpithia.
<v Speaker 2>I got chills listening to you read it, and I've
<v Speaker 2>already read this because.
<v Speaker 1>This is really the key everybody. Here's what she said.
<v Speaker 1>Long term success does not come from dramatic lifestyle changes
<v Speaker 1>that can't be maintained. Instead, focusing on a fasting plan
<v Speaker 1>that's realistic and sustainable, one that you can see yourself
<v Speaker 1>sticking to for the rest of your life is the
<v Speaker 1>true key to success. As intermittent fasters, we already have
<v Speaker 1>shorter eating windows than most people, which is a powerful advantage.
<v Speaker 1>Finding an approach that fits seamlessly into your daily life
<v Speaker 1>is transformative. I personally incorporate a weekly thirty six hour
<v Speaker 1>fast and look forward to it. It's my weekly reset
<v Speaker 1>in the most positive way. My daily protocol is nineteen five.
<v Speaker 1>That is my sweet spot, and that is so important.
<v Speaker 1>You know, maybe your intermittent fasting protocol that feels like
<v Speaker 1>a sustainable life style isn't the one that gives you
<v Speaker 1>your lowest scale weight. And so we've got to tell ourselves,
<v Speaker 1>why do I want to be my lowest scale weight?
<v Speaker 1>What's the motivation for that. It's been freeing not to
<v Speaker 1>look at a scale weight for so many years, and
<v Speaker 1>I just go by how I feel. Maybe if I
<v Speaker 1>got on the scale, I'd be really disappointed with what
<v Speaker 1>that scale told me. But I like the way I
<v Speaker 1>feel in my body. Oh, she had a little more choristubmissions.
<v Speaker 1>She said, to anyone navigating a similar story or a
<v Speaker 1>similar journey, remember it's not just about the weight loss.
<v Speaker 1>It's about creating a sustainable lifestyle that keeps you feeling
<v Speaker 1>strong and healthy for the long haul. This mindset has
<v Speaker 1>helped me immensely, and I hope it resonates with someone listening.
<v Speaker 1>I hope it resonates with everybody listening, because that is
<v Speaker 1>really the key. I love that.
<v Speaker 2>And you know, we have people who come in and
<v Speaker 2>they think they want to do ADF and they give
<v Speaker 2>it a month or six weeks, and I always say,
<v Speaker 2>give it like four to six weeks. You are really
<v Speaker 2>adapting your listically and emotional habits. Yes, with ADF, they'll say, Oh,
<v Speaker 2>I've done this three months and I just hate it.
<v Speaker 2>I want to go back to it. And I'm like,
<v Speaker 2>then go back to a daily eating window. Yeah, Like,
<v Speaker 2>you have to enjoy your lifestyle or you're going to
<v Speaker 2>abandon it at some point. And I would much rather
<v Speaker 2>see you move back to a daily eating window and
<v Speaker 2>maybe not see your lowest weight ever, but be healthy
<v Speaker 2>and do something that's sustainable, then do something that you
<v Speaker 2>hate and give up and walk away. So well, we
<v Speaker 2>love to leave you with inspiration or motivational quotes, and
<v Speaker 2>this week we have a quote from Virginia. The word
<v Speaker 2>motivation often comes up a lot, whether we are talking
<v Speaker 2>about our exercise goals, our work goals, or our if lifestyle.
<v Speaker 2>Some days the motivation is there with bells on, and
<v Speaker 2>sometimes it's not. We can't always wait for the motivation
<v Speaker 2>to turn up. So the quote she shared is, I
<v Speaker 2>won't succeed because I'm special, lucky, super gifted, or destined
<v Speaker 2>for greatness. No, I'll succeed because I'll do the work
<v Speaker 2>when it's hard. I'll do the work when it's inconvenient.
<v Speaker 2>I'll do the work when i'm not motivated. I'll do
<v Speaker 2>the work when most people would give up. I'll do
<v Speaker 2>the work, and that is attributed to Craig Harper, and
<v Speaker 2>I think that's wonderful.
<v Speaker 1>I think so too. And we've talked about this before.
<v Speaker 1>Motivation wanes, and that's where discipline comes in. When it's hard,
<v Speaker 1>when it's inconvenient, when you're not motivated, you rely on
<v Speaker 1>that discipline and you do the work. You fast clean,
<v Speaker 1>you have a window, you close your window.
<v Speaker 2>And when it's a habit, it's going to be easier
<v Speaker 2>to just do the work. The longer you do it,
<v Speaker 2>the easier if you have to overthink it. But if
<v Speaker 2>it's just something you do every day, even if you
<v Speaker 2>don't want to do it, you're going to do it
<v Speaker 2>just because that's what.
<v Speaker 1>You do exactly. Thanks so much for listening today. We
<v Speaker 1>would love to have you join us in the Delayed
<v Speaker 1>On Tonight community, where you can interact with both me
<v Speaker 1>and Sherry, plus the most supportive bunch of intermittent fasters
<v Speaker 1>you'll find anywhere. Go to Jen Stevens dot com slash
<v Speaker 1>community to join us.
<v Speaker 3>Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast to your favorite
<v Speaker 3>podcast app if you haven't already. Please leave us a
<v Speaker 3>five star review. That helps new listeners find the show,
<v Speaker 3>and we really appreciate it.
<v Speaker 1>We are a community driven podcast, so to submit your
<v Speaker 1>success stories, your questions, your favorite tweak it till It's Easy, moments,
<v Speaker 1>or anything else you want us to share on the podcast,
<v Speaker 1>go to Fast Feast Repeat dot com, slash submit and
<v Speaker 1>then listen each week to see if we share your
<v Speaker 1>submission or answer your question.
<v Speaker 2>Until next week. Thanks for listening,