Episode 24: When to Tweak, How to Get Started with IF, and More

Welcome to Fast Feast Repeat Intermittent Fasting for Life. I'm Jen Stevens, author
of the New York Times bestseller Fast Feast Repeat, and I'm Sherry Bullock,
longtime intermittent faster and health and wellness advocate. Please keep in mind that this
podcast is for educational and motivational purposes only and is not intended to provide medical
or diagnostic advice. Jen and I are not doctors, so make sure to
check with your trusted healthcare professionals before making changes, especially when it comes to
any medical treatments or medications. Whether you're new to intermittent fasting or an experienced
intermittent faster, tune in each week to get inspired, to learn, and
to have some fun along the way. Hi, everybody, we are so
glad you're here today. Welcome to this week's episode of the Fast Feast Repeat
Intermittent Fasting for Life Podcast. How are you doing today, Sherry, I'm
doing great. I'm glad. How are you freezing? Yes? Is it
summer yet? I'm sorry to wine. Everybody who lives where it snows,
y'all don't want to hear about a Southerner who's cold. It's like sixty two
degrees or body's like what anyhow, the other day it was like kind of
warm in the afternoon, like maybe seventy one, but like seventy one right
now isn't the same as seventy one in the summer, because like we don't
have the humidity, and I think there's kind of like a cool breeze.
Yeah, And so I put shorts on because I was outside with Lulu and
I wanted a little sun. But then I had ug boots on. So
Eric comes home and I'm wearing a hoodie, shorts and ug boots. I
said, you like my outfit and He's like, well, it's interesting,
but whatever makes you have well so funny anyway, Oh, I wanted to
say Episode twenty came out today where I talked about my dia brain. Yes,
people are really commenting on that in the community because it's just something I
think that so many of us have this problem. We start trying to optimize
things, you know, I've been really thinking about it ever since recording it
and talking about it, and I don't know the answer. You know,
we want to optimize things, we want to do what's best for our bodies.
But then it starts to feel like too much, you know, the
whole biohacking thing. Yeah, it's just carry bring up the whole biohacking thing
too. There's like somebody, I'm not going to say who it is who
takes like eighty four supplements twice a day or something, and I'm like,
when is it too much? Gosh, I'm not going to say who it
is. Someone might know. Well, you know what was interesting, I
know we keep talking about Fiberfield. Yeah, when I was reading Fiberfield,
he mentioned the fact that like people come to him and they're taking all these
different supplements, and you know, they're taking these you know, biohacking supplements
and whatever, and he said, you know it maybe okay to take one
or two of these supplements. They might enhance your health in you know,
specific ways, but that you have to really understand how the whole cofactors and
how you know, one supplement isn't going to play well off of another supplement.
And I think it's really important to remember. And I also think with
you know a lot of these supplements, a lot of it is like anecdotal
evidence, like right, I mean, if you really go and you look
for research to support taking some of these it's just not there. There might
be like some favorable research, but if you like really go and you read
the conclusion, it says, you know, it's not definitive and more research
is needed. Well, that's why I'm so cheesy about the supplements that I
take. Also, when I was researching for Cleenish, the research that so
many like, like I can't remember major university, maybe it was Harvard.
I talked about it in Cleanish. They looked at supplements what they claim to
be, and they study what they really were, and like supplements that claim
to be something that was all natural to help with you know, like a
rectile dysfunction whatever, an all natural supplement really had like actual viagraa in it
or something. You know. Yes, so they're not They're not always what
they say they are, and say, that's why. From that moment on,
I got super cheesy about where I get my supplements. Is not a
supplement commercial, right, I take very few and I have to like really
know who's making them and all of that. But you know, it even
made me think about tools that I think are great, Like I think cgms
are great, I think Zoe is great. But I was like, why
did I get diabray? What started it? Do you know when it started?
Cherry Zoe? Yeah, when I did Zoe the second time in twenty
twenty two, and I was like, well, I really it's the whole
mindset of being perfectionistic and wanting to be like score well on a test,
like I need to get a high score. And I started dabbling the whole
food plant based eating because I was going to get my gut tested again.
I'm like, well, the best way to get a good gut score is
to eat whole food plant based. That was twenty twenty two before I did
Zoe the second time, and sure enough, my scores were better the second
time. And I was like, yes, I made my scores better.
And you know, I love cgms, but same kind of thing there.
And you know, I wonder if we're just you know, doing it,
if we spend our lives chasing perfection, right, we are missing out on
living and enjoying life. Yep. So I guess the message I'm making is
I'm really glad I did Zoe. I'm glad I've worn a CGM. I'm
glad about what I've learned about my body. But for anybody who's listening.
If you're wondering if these tools are right for you, you need to really
self reflect on will this cause me dieet brain? Right? Will this send
me down a spiral of trying to control everything and searching for perfection. I've
seen people in the community Sherry who are wearing a CGM, and again,
I think they're fabulous tools. But I've seen people who've talked about their blood
sugar spiking and I'm like, well, tell me what you mean by that.
It's not a spike, it's normal. Like the response they're having is
normal. And now they're like, well, that doesn't work for me,
And so we can get so caught up in like, oh, well this
doesn't work for me, when really that's not what that's really showing. Well,
and two, you could eat the exact same meal one day, and
you could eat the exact same meal another day and you're not going to have
the exact same response because it depends on like what did you eat prior to
it. Yeah, Like, for example, the research on beans and the
second meal effect, Right, if the research has shown that if you eat
beans, then there's an effect on your blood sugar, but then in the
second meal, like you have later that effect sticks around, right, just
from that, you know, two meals ago. Like for instance, if
you opened your window with say cheese and crackers, and then later you had
pizza, you may have like a very significant blood glucost response, and it
might take a really long time for it down. But if your first meal
was beans and then you had pizza, you're going to have a more favorable
blood gukos response, right, So yeah, I mean, like I think
that's really important. And not to mention exercise, stress, sleep, whether
or not you're coming down with an illness, how much water you drink.
I mean, there's so much that affects your blood ghost from day to day.
So if you're constantly just chasing this like perfect blood glucos response, you're
going to drive yourself crazy. It's true. And that's where the whole diet
brain comes from, and the whole idea of looking for perfection. It really
is. It's interesting, but I just know I was happy to see that
the episode episode twenty has made people think as well, because you know,
where we where do we stop going down the rabbit holes? Right? Right?
Yeah? No? And I catch myself doing that sometimes too, And
then I go Whope, nope, Like, do you want to do this
for the next fifty years? Sherry, No, I don't. And you
know I read Fiberfueled. I love it. I'm not going to stop talking
about it. I wish I would have read it much earlier. But you
know, and he says, you know, aim for start adding plant diversity.
It's basically his plant start adding plant diversity, and over time, like
his goal would be that you eat ninety percent plants. Yeah, now he
eats one hundred percent plants, but he said it's because he felt so good
at ninety percent plants that he just finally gave up meat and dairy. Do
I think I will ever be one hundred percent plant based? Absolutely not.
And I'm one hundred percent okay with that. But that does not mean I
cannot follow the parameters of you know how he suggests you eat for gut health
and make room for some dairy and some meat and some eggs here and there.
I'm actually gonna make egg salad after we get off, after we stop
recording today. I do love eggs. Like something about eggs I don't know,
Like I didn't I was, you know, whole food plant based at
home for for a while. But my body has missed something that's in eggs
because I'm craving them like crazy. Isn't that interesting? Some leny eggs is
an Is that what it is? That's what's coming to mind. But I
could be wrong. Well, whatever's in there, my body is craving it.
Like I ordered three meals from one company. Maybe maybe three meals were
eggs. Like we had eggs three days in a row. I'm sure Chad
was thinking what in the world, but I just was craving them. Anyway,
It's going to be delicious. But I think it's important for us to
think about it because you know, both of us want the same thing for
people. We want people to find food freedom within the parameters of living a
healthy lifestyle that doesn't feel restrictive, and you don't want to go too far
in either direction. You know, food freedom doesn't look like I'm just going
to eat ice cream and potato chips, but it also doesn't mean I'm never
going to eat ice cream or potato chips, right right, It's finding that
that middle of the road balance that feels good to you. And I do
think you know I over corrected. I've said this before because my dad's health
was so you know, going through those challenges. Well I did, and
I was like, well, I can't help him, but I can help
myself, right, And then I yeah, but if I were diagnosed with
the chronic medical condition, I think I would maybe think differently, do I
need the pleasure of whatever it is? You know, I would look more
deeply. But anyhow, being healthy, as long as we're healthy and we
know we're healthy, we should strive for being healthy and having good mobility and
aging well and also the joy. Yes, I agree, And I just
had a look because you know that's me. I have ones in the eggs?
Did you what is it? Selenium? And calling okay and BE twelve.
Oh that's interesting because you were eating meat. Twelve B twelve is one
of the things that you know, people who are vegans and ethical vegans,
people who choose a whole food, plant based lifestyle need to supplement with the
twelve. Now, I was using nutritional yeast, which has BE twelve in
it. But so, yeah, I wonder if that's part of it.
Might be it your body is like I was just like, I never I
don't like to make boiled eggs. I know they're easy, but it's a
pain and I can't peel them. I don't know. I'm sure there's a
way to do it better than I ever do. But I was at the
grocery room and I looked over and they were already like some organic, already
boiled eggs, and I'm like, damn, egg salad coming up. Anyway,
I'm really excited. Were gonna have an egg salad sandwich. I love
that. Yeah, I am doing an experiment. This is my my personal
experience. You know, my LDL was really really high as a result of
using a CGM and trying to game the system right, and I was eating
pretty much meat and cheese and meat and cheese and meat and cheese, you
know, with some green vegetables. And so I've been working on getting that
down because it was higher. It was high enough that it was concerning to
me. I do have high cholesterol in my family. I have brought it
down some too, But more importantly, my APPO B is elevated and I'm
trying to get that done. Which if you don't know about APPOB, you
guys might want to just take a little deep dive into that. That's likely
a higher predictor of heart disease than cholesterol. Now I've heard that called ApoB
ApoB appo B. I've heard it both ways. Okay, but you're right,
people are talking about that appo lipoprotein B. If I'm think that I'm
saying that correctly. Now, you also have an A version, and A
is protective. If you're high in A, it's protective, kind of like
your HDL's protective. If you're high in B, it is more detrimental.
And I'm not high, but I'm in the moderate risk zone. So I
am trying to get that down. And so I am doing a absolutely no
egg experiment, just curious to see if it may do. What happens?
Yeah, I mean, I did not know there's sixty grams of cholesterol and
an egg. This is a perfect example of when you do want to make
some changes. Like, my cluster has always been fine. I don't have
high closterol. That's not something that's in my family, right, Yeah,
we work with my parents make flattens and I don't want to be there.
I don't want to do that. So I you know, I am motivated
to make some changes in my diet because I want different outcomes. Yeah,
you have to want it, and when it feels like too much, you
have to know when to put the brakes on. I think see, I
was making changes for problems I wasn't happened, that was what felt. Well.
The thing is is I'm changing all this stuff up right, and I
so I'm like everything else I'm doing is going to be beneficial to my cholesterol
as well. So then it's like I'm not really gonna know. So the
only way I'm going to know is if it comes down substantially add eggs back
and then check it again and see what happens. And if it goes back
up, then maybe I know eggs aren't working well for me or just not
as many just don't have Well, that's the that's the thing. I was
probably eating half dozen nine eggs a week. Yeah, oh see, even
in the week that I hate eggs three times, it was still like maybe
I had six oh yeah at the moment. I mean like I snacked on
eggs as a window opener and okay, sometimes I made a veggie omelet as
a window opener. So yeah, I've really really cut back. So although
can I tell you something funny? I was just thinking how I'll never give
up I'm not going to give things up again, but I have given up
alcohol, and I think it is gonna stick. Like Chad, it was
his birthday yesterday and I got him some dry farm wine, some a box
of reds and he was like, are you gonna have a glass with me?
And I'm like, I'm not drinking. He's like, oh, I
thought maybe you were done with that. No. Really, I haven't had
alcohol since June and I literally don't miss it. Do you think he feels
bad drinking in front of you? No? Okay, but I do think
it's not that he feels bad drinking in front of me. But I think
he would enjoy the concept of us drinking together. Does that make sense?
Yeah, Like he would enjoy the idea that we're sharing a bottle of wine
or something. But is it that or he doesn't feel like he should get
pleasure. If you're not having pleasure, that's definitely not it. Okay,
definitely not that. It's just that it's the shared, the whole like experience.
If we're sharing this together. I'm like, how about I'll just be
in the room while you're enjoying it. That's good enough. But he's surprised.
I was like, I really am not drinking. I don't miss it
and I'm not like sad. So do they make small bottles for like,
oh, that would be you know how they make drive for money? Yeah,
you know how they make like the small champagne bottles. Yep. I
was just thinking drive our wines. You can hire me to help you with
marketing. Well, they don't make any of the wine. Well they distribute
it, yeah, they yeah, they buy it right, Yeah, but
yeah, if they could get small bottles of wine for single people, that
would be really beneficial. Well, Chad can keep a bottle of wine on
the counter for like a long long time because he just drinks a little tiny
bit. Oh see, I won't do that. Yeah, well take of
funny to me after Well, we've got the little seal thing you put on
it and you pump out the air and it's and that helps. Okay,
yeah, all right, anyway, I don't I don't drink anymore. But
the thing is is that to give something up successfully, you have to have
no emotion of sadness, right, Like I've got no emotion of sadness about
never having alcohol again. But parmesan cheese. Okay, that was Anyhow,
well, let's move into our weekly celebration, and today we have a celebration
from Amanda in Kentucky. And I loved this one. This made me so
happy, Amanda wrote, my husband John and I have been doing AA for
three months. This week, I know we are still at the beginning of
our journey, and that fills me with excitement. I already feel so grateful
for all that I have has done for us, how much better we feel,
and how much happier I am, even though I still have a long
way to go. I feel like the initial weight loss has gotten me to
a place where I feel so much better, so much lighter and freer.
I was laying in bed falling asleep last night and just thought, if I
feel this good one third of the way into my weight loss, could I
even feel better? It was hard to imagine, but I cannot wait to
see. So here are our stats. John is down forty three pounds.
He no longer snores, Praise God very much needs to go shopping for new
clothes at this point. He's cut his blood pressure meds in half, and
he has been on those since his twenties. He is sleeping much better,
and he is not waking up in the night. He has kicked the late
night snacking that gave him insomnia and reflux and restless sleep. Amanda. She
says, I am down forty five pounds, I am down two sizes in
clothes. I have more energy, in a better mood. I have weaned
off my reflux meds. I've weaned off of my antidepressant and anti anxiety meds.
I've stopped taking Zertec, which is an anahistamine. Sleeping better, and
I'm getting eight to nine hours a night instead of five to six. She
says. I'm still working on my diet brain, and I know it's going
to take me a long time to really heal from almost thirty years of telling
myself certain negative things and living with bad habits. I'm trying to extend myself
grace as I learn and change and grow. Some days are better than others,
but I'm on the journey and that's what counts. I know, compared
to some of you, I'm a new intermitt faster, But to those even
newer than me, I want to say, don't waiver, don't even think
of quitting. Your body is healing and doing something even if you can't see
it yet. I am so happy to be on this journey. Forty five
pounds down and seventy eight to go. I love that too. Amanda and
John, congratulations they are doing great. Yeah, and a three months.
I remember right when Amanda joined the community, she had sort of dabbled in
fasting and just was not able to make a consistent practice of it. And
if I remember right, she was not clean fasting. She was not FROMI
with the clean fast, and she was really struggling, so she would kind
of try it, struggle, get off of it or whatever. And I
think the clean fast really made a difference for her. Yep. And that's
the difference I wanted to make for everybody because I really think that that's it
changes the whole experience. You know, I was thinking, this will be
my tenth holiday season where actually this one comes out mid December, So where
were smack in the middle of the holiday season. My tenth holiday season as
a consistent internittten faster. And you know, had I not started fast and
clean, would I have quit? Probably because it would have gotten harder and
harder, and that would have been like forget it. You know, I
think it just changes the whole experience. Well, you know, for a
year and a half I did. I wasn't aware of the Clean Fast,
right, And I guess I'm just glad that I'm a very persistent, determined
person. But it was hard, and especially when I started to see the
scales start to go back up after I had gotten down to you know,
like what I considered to be a maintenance wait. And you know, I
had people in my ear telling me it wasn't working and YadA, YadA,
YadA, I you know, slowed my metabolism whatever, And I very well
could have because I wasn't clean fasting. And I'm just so grateful that I
found the Clean Fast. And I know there are people who just still are
like some of us in the beginning, where you don't think it makes a
big of a difference. And we actually people in the community who report back
all the time that they were in maintenance and they thought they could loosen up
and add cream back to their coffee. And we just had one yesterday and
it was the thing. It wasn't two months worth of cram coffee in the
morning and she went up. Did she say eight pounds? I believe,
I can't remember, but she said all right, you guys, there's you're
right. Yeah, it's different. Yeah, sometimes we got to learn the
hard way. It's true. And yeah, I'm so grateful for the clean
fast and for everybody listening. For the holiday season. You know, don't
stop because it's the holiday season, and tell yourself you'll start again in January.
Don't do it. Keep fasting every day. Have a window, even
on Christmas Day. Maybe Christmas Day your window is twelve hours long. But
don't say I'm quitting for today. Just say today I'm having a really long
window, because that tiny little mental shift, even though it might be the
exact same length of time, saying I'm quitting or I'm taking a day off
is more of a slippery slope than today, I'm going to have a long
window. I mean, listen to the difference. I'm taking a day off,
I'm having a long window. It might be the exact same window,
but what you're telling yourself matters, because if you take one day off,
then you're taking two days off, and now you're backing all the days off,
and now you have to restart because you quit versus today, I'm going
to have a longer window, but tomorrow I will not yep, yep.
I think that's so important because if this is a lifestyle, that's something you
do every day, just like waking up. Right. So somebody yesterday of
people take off time for this or that, and I said, I have
never taken a day off from fasting. I adjust my windows as needed,
you know, if I'm sick or whatever, I still wake up every morning
with the attention that I'm clean fasting because I'm a faster right now. Do
I open early sometimes? Sure? Do I have longer windows sometimes? Absolutely?
But I still woke up and I fasted that morning, all right.
So now we have a question from a listener. This is from Ashley and
Wisconsin. She says, Hi, my name is Ashley. I am thirty
one years old and have been on the Fast Feast Repeat Fasting journey for just
over three months now. I was struggling to lose my postpartum weight one hundred
and sixty two pounds, and was convinced that it was impossible for me to
lose weight since I was on antidepressants. Since starting the Clean Fasting Journey,
I am excited to share that I have lost sixteen pounds. I'm now one
hundred and forty six pounds inches off my waist and my clothes are falling off
me. My first goal is to reach one hundred and forty five pounds,
which is a normal BMI for my height, with a longer term goal of
one hundred and thirty pounds. While I initially lost weight fairly quickly, I've
been going back and forth between the same four pounds week after week, one
hundred and forty six to one hundred and fifty and can't seem to break through
and lose more weight. I am currently clean, fasting between eighteen to twenty
one hours daily and eat a fairly wholesome diet. Exercise could use some work.
My question for you is it time to switch things up? Is there
a point where your body requires you to keep upping your fasting hours or otherwise
you can't lose weight? No to spoiler alert, No, we do not
want to just keep fasting more and more and more and more and more.
Definitely not. Everybody I want you to hear that will probably say that all
the time, but it's true, So she says, Do I need to
do shorter fast for a while to continue getting results? Also? No,
is it necessary to fast to your cycle to get results. Also, no
Alrey, Sherry, I to say all that. Now I let you those
were the short spoiler alert answers. So now Sherry dig into that. Okay,
so you've been fasting for three months and you lost sixteen pounds, which
is fabulous considering we don't expect any weight loss in the first month. People
do lose weight in the first month. It's very rarely fat. It is
usually inflammation. Some people carry lots and lots of inflammation. So it's you
know, anytime you start like a crash diet, you lose weight real quick.
That's water weight. You're not losing fat. Can I tell you what
I saw at the checkout counter? Right? How much weight are we losing?
By Christmas? We're losing three pounds a day. This diet claimed you're
gonna lose three pounds a day. Three pounds a day, I mean cutting
off limbs. I don't know Schary, but I was like, oh,
I got to tell people that on the podcast, y'all are not gonna lose
three pounds a day. And I know that I Astuley doesn't think she's gonna
lose three pounds a day, But I'm just saying people see those headlines and
they think it should be possible. Right, it's so frustrating anyway, right,
sixteen pounds and three months is fabulous, it really one. You have
shed inflammation, and inflammation is deadly Okay, so right there, you're doing
good things for your body. So let's forget that. Let's pretend like five
pounds was inflammation. And you've lost eleven in the last two months, which
is well over one pound per week, so you are losing at a great
rate of loss. I think we've said this before. You said I lost
weight fairly quickly, and then you've been going back and forth between the same
four pounds week after week. I'm not sure how many weeks that is.
And I also don't know are you weighing daily and averaging weekly. If you're
not doing that, please do that. Eighteen to twenty hours twenty one hours
a day of fast is great. I'm assuming that means your windows are anywhere
from three to six hours also great. You say you eat a wholesome diet,
fabulous, clean fasting, wonderful. No, I don't think it's time
to switch things up unless you are averaging your daily weights weekly and you are
literally not losing anything for say three weeks, then it might be time to
do something. But I'm not sure that changing up your fasting protocol is what's
going to get things moving. Usually that's when it comes to what you're eating.
Are you honoring satiety while you're eating? Are you still eating for future
hunger? Are you you know? You say exercise could use some work.
You know, we say you don't have to exercise to lose weight. You
can't out exercise, a bad diet, whatever whatever, But exercise still does
really beneficial things for your body. It helps you burn through glycogen, it
helps you become more insolent sensitive, and some bodies do need more exercise weight
loss. I am body, though I am not. My DNA when I
had it done, said that exercise has a really strong impact on my ability
to lose weight. And I do know this, you know, for myself,
and you could be that person. So do you have to go get
a gym membership? No? Can you increase your activity? Absolutely, It's
as simple as while you're watching TV at nights, stand up in march in
place for fifteen minutes a couple of times, take some walks with your kids,
like just keep moving your body and then the other thing you said,
I just want to address and you said that you thought it would be impossible
to lose weight since you're on antidepressence. And this isn't really towards you,
but to anybody listening, because we hear this a lot. And yes,
antidepressants can have to effect on your weight in several different ways. One,
they often make you crave carbohydrates. And when we talk about craving carbohydrates,
people aren't craving barley and bulgar and brown rice. Okay, They're craving cookies
and doughnuts and pasta, right, So it's true it does make you crave
carbohyte, some antipressants do. You make some people crave carbohydrates. But if
you're eating fairly wholesome and you're fasting, then that really shouldn't be a big
problem. The other thing is is ssries have been shown to increase secretion of
insulin, and it is well known that a lot of antidepressants and psychmeds increase
your chance of becoming diabetic. And that is likely why so you are fasting,
which is fabulous, because you're keeping insulin low, you know, for
most of the day, so for anybody who's concerned that they can't lose weight
with fasting because you're an antidepressants, this is actually probably the very best way
you can lose weight while on antidepressants. And I really wanted to throw that
out there because I think that's really important. Sometimes we get things stuck in
our head like, well it doesn't really matter because X, Y Z,
But arguably, in fact, I could just say, if you're on antidepressants,
you should be fasting. Yeah, so yeah, their mood boosting benefits
to intermittent fasting as well. Yes there are, yes, there are,
and exercise it's true, yeah, exactly, do anything to add absolutely,
And I want to reiterate what you said because it's just so important. We
so often see people who think that their their weight is stuck, when really
it's they really are not looking at the trend. Because fluctuations, we can
go up and down so much. You really need to weigh daily, calculate
your weak average. Like Sherry said, we will keep saying that like a
broken record, because it really really is important. I want to address the
questions from Ashley where she said is do you need to just keep upping your
fasting or otherwise you can't lose weight, and that I think is such a
slippery slope and a dangerous road to go down. And we see it even
in our community where people are like, well, you know, I've been
doing a five hour window, and then I wasn't losing weight, so I
went to a four hour window, and then a three hour window. Two
now I'm at a one hour window. I'm just gonna do a one hour
window. We don't want to just keep restricting more and more and more and
more, and that's the slippery slope. We do not want to accidentally over
restrict, even with intermittent fasting, and so you know, there's certain you
can switch things up, like have a little shorter window one day, like
maybe a two hour window one day and then a six hour window the next
day, for example. You know, switch it up. My I just
always did that naturally, it happened. I didn't have to plan it.
You don't want to get too rigid and just shrinking that window down. So
just keep that in mind. We've been so conditioned by diet mentality to think,
well, if what I'm doing isn't working, I need to do it
more, and I need to do it harder and we don't want to do
that. We want to make sure we're nourishing our bodies well. We don't
want our bodies to adapt to over restriction. Now, the question about is
it necessary to fast to your cycle to get results? Uh uh no,
it is not. You know, your body might have a period of time
during your monthly cycle where you're a little hungrier for like a day, and
you can listen to those you know, those extra hungry signals and eat more
that day. What we don't want to do is push down hunger. Like
if we find ourselves getting hungrier and hungrier and hungrier over time and it's just
building and building and building, and now we want to binge, that's a
sign that you're over restricting for your body. But you do not need to
overthink this. You know, there's there's a fasting Method podcast episode where they
have a ab G I n on we should if we can get her on
I don't absolutely should. We have so many questions about it. People weren't
you know A recent book just came out that tells women they've got a fast
differently, and it's really making people worry that they that they need a fast
differently. But this a b g I in on that Fasting Method podcast,
really talked about how you know, she's tested hormones and it's not she's a
proponent of fasting, and she's like, no, there is no evidence that
fasting and nourishing your body well is going to cause you to have hormonal problems
or that you can't do it. So and that is exactly in line with
what doctor Sarah Gottfried. I'm not sure if she's a O B G y
N. I think she maybe she does a lot with HPA access dysfunction.
But she actually addressed on a podcast fasting and this was twenty eighteen, twenty
nineteen. I heard this, and it's just always stuck with me and the
problem fasting or a restrictive diet. If you're not fasting clean so that your
body doesn't have access to ongoing fuel, then the body perceives it's in restriction.
So if you're on a restrictive diet and you're not eating enough calories or
you're over exercising, your body also perceives that. As you know, that's
same type of thing, right, So what happens is is that affects your
lutinizing hormone in your body. Lutinizing hormone is what tells your ovaries to ovulate.
So when people are over restricting anorexics, people who exercise a lot,
like elite athletes, often they don't have periods anymore, and that's because they're
not ovulating. So that's but that's extreme stress on your body. That's causing
that. We fast clean and we eat to so tidy, and we listen
to our body, and some days we may eat less and some days we
may eat more. That's not what we're doing. We're not putting our body
into that state of restriction and stress. And so I mean, as long
as you're continuing to get your cycle, if you're you know, if you're
in that age where you're getting a cycle, then you can be pretty confident
that you're feeding your body well, right, you know. Now when you
get into perimenopause, of course things get one. Everything changes. Yeah,
And then I recently actually just read an article that said post mental pausele women
is probably the absolute safest people to fast. Like even like they say,
men, men don't have to worry a thing, right, they don't have
cycles like women do. So men are kind of like anything goes right,
we focus all this energy on women, but postmenopausal women, especially when you
are providing biolodentical hormone replacement therapy, super safe to fast because your body is
no longer cycling on its own. So because we do, we do get
some questions from people that are like fifty nine, sixty years old, and
they're like, I keep reading that, I you know, I shouldn't fast
the same all month long. And unless you're having periods, that's not even
that's way not even a concern. And if you're not in premenopaure, you
know, if you're not perimenopausal and having just the natural like naturally your cycles
get different, like forty days and forty six days like that. That's just
naturally what happens to us, and as we go through the menopausal transition.
But if you're still cycling normally, then your hormones are not being negatively affected.
In fact, you know, I think back to the interview I did
with doctor Cecily Lee Gerhart. That's what I lost just thinking she's an obgi
n. She works with patients who have trouble with fertility, trouble conceiving,
and patients with pcos. And guess what she does for them fasting. She
prescribes fasting, and she told the story on intermittent fasting stories and it increases
their fertility right to fast. And I can't tell you through the years and
the DDD communities, how many women come into fasting. And we've had some
oopsie babies. Yeah, because we've had women who were told they were not
going to be able to get pregnant and they start fasting and they might be
three, four, six months into their fasting journey and they're like, hey,
y'all, I'm gonna have to take a break fasting because somehow I ended
up pregnant. Yeah. So I just it's not something that I think most
people need to be concerned with unless you're over restricting purpose. That's the part
that's also super frustrating for me because all those years that I did the crazy
diets, right, crazy diets, diet pills, no one said you should
not take finn it's bad for your hormones. But guess what it probably really
was. Nobody said you shouldn't the eight five hundred hCG. You shouldn't eat
five hundred calories a day for forty two days, Jen, it's really bad
for your body. It's bad for women. No one told me that,
But suddenly we're like, oh, well, but fasting that's pretty dangerous.
I mean, I ate a lot of calories, I eat a lot of
food. I nourished my body well. And that's just it's just super frustrating
because the same people who are saying, well, you might not want to
do fasting, it's bad for women, but we have a shot for you
that'll make you not want to eat right. You're gonna lose so much weight
really fast, and you're gonna do Is anybody saying that it's bad for your
hormones. No, I've never heard one person say it ever, But suddenly
fasting is like anyway. That's my personal pet peeve is when something that has
the potential to really really help you in a natural way. You're not using
pharmaceuticals, We're not. We do not want you to be overly restrictive.
We don't want you to just fast more and more and more and harder and
harder and restrict more and more and more. We don't want you to over
exercise and wear your body out. We want you to nourish your body well.
Listen to your body, Listen to how you feel and suddenly that is
the dangerous way to go well, and I understand too, like hunter gatherer
days and days of famine, we have not become extinct. Yeah, we
could talk about that a lot, right. Yes, we don't let popular
new books that are making the rounds scare you off from fasting. Right.
Not everyone has the same opinion. Not everyone does, right, And your
body will let you know. If you're over restricting and you suddenly stop getting
your period, then think, hi, am I overdoing it? Now?
I will say, as people start fasting in the first few months, we
do hear a lot that when and say, oh, you know, my
period came early or my period came late, And I mean, you're really
just you're really changing up everything in your body. All of your hormones are
shifting. But give it a couple months, right, and everything's going to
balance back out and you know, settle into a new reap. That's a
good point. There was a blog post Megan Ramos did, and I feel
like that it's no longer available, but she did a blog post about women
in their cycles and how yeah it can we wonked at the very very beginning,
when you're first starting but it usually evens out and gets more regular than
it had been, which is a sign that your body is working better.
Yeah. All right, so now it's time for our segment called What's Your
Why? And most of us started intermittent fasting because we wanted some weight loss.
I'll be honest, that's what brought me to it. It's fine for
that to be part of your why, absolutely, but there's so much more
to what intermittent fasting can do for us beyond weight loss. Book twenty eight
day fast Start day by day, I asked readers to craft their why statement
before beginning, and when your why is deeper than weight loss alone, you're
more likely to find long term success because you view intermitten fasting as a lifestyle.
So today we have a why from Sherry. She wrote four years ago
this week, I began a three year long journey of caretaking for my dad's
final years. My sister and I didn't know that we would lose him at
age seventy nine, but he had some critical things that were about to cascade
that included an amputation, a heart valve replacement, vascular stens, and chemo.
During the beginning of the COVID shutdown. Oh, and then three rounds
of seedff and if anybody doesn't know, that is an infection in your call
in, usually brought on by antibiotics. Stress was high, to say the
least, so there was much snacking and cooking of special meals trying to get
him to eat. After losing his long fought battle, I found intern and
fasting, and I thought, my why was just weight loss to recover from
my caretaking journey. I'm a researcher, reader, and ponderer, and after
delving into IF with great success, my why now seems much clearer to me.
I do not want my children to have to watch me fight so many
medical maladies that are completely avoidable. I now know that the slippery slope of
my dad's health issues stemmed from him being a lifelong smoker that led to peripheral
artery and heart disease. Thankfully I have never smoked. He had a real
sweet tooth and ate a standard American diet that kept him obese and firmly made
him a diabetic who then lost all toes on one foot that never completely healed
in three years. He never had anyone speak of insulin resistance or potential for
reversal of his diabetes. I feel like he never really stood a chance.
I have two lovely children who will see me out of this world when the
time comes, but I plan for it to be a graceful exit, with
time spent relishing shared memories. I am working to have a long, independent
life of health because I choose intermittent fasting as my way of life. I
love that. That's very powerful. It is powerful, and I mean,
I don't love that obviously that Sherry went through that with her dad. It's
really really hard to watch a parent struggling with health. But I love that
she has used that as motivation to craft how she would like to age.
And there are so many things we can do, yep, and I think
fasting is a big one. Yep. So we have another question this week
from Morgan in Central Illinois. She said, I am trying to just start
the fasting process and gain some knowledge. I got engaged in October and I'm
having a wedding in December of twenty twenty four. I currently weigh one hundred
and eighty seven pounds and the scale isn't moving. I have endomytriosis, so
I have horrible blow and constipation daily. I'm mother of two delivered via C
section, so I have the quote shelf, stomach, mom, punch burn,
belly fat is killing me. My mother was a Type two diabetic for
years and now she is Type one. She wears two pumps, and I
do not want to do this for my future. I'm going to be thirty
two in March. I am always tired, sluggish, and I can't get
motivated because I feel like nothing ever helps. I've been on weight Watchers but
not going to meetings, so it's very easy to cheat yourself. I have
around thirty two pounds to lose in twelve months. When I try too fast,
acid reflex hits me around nine thirty am, and my stomach feels like
it's eating itself, and I get a lump in my throat like the acid
is coming up. I'm not sure if fasting is something for people that have
acid reflex, because not eating makes it worse. I feel like I need
something in my stomach to soak up the acid. I hope I am wrong
and that you have an answer to fix this or tell me that it's just
time to get used to you say in the podcast to be as detailed as
possible, so I'm trying to tell you all of the important stuff. I
do take my pills in the morning on an empty stomach and it doesn't hurt
my stomach. I take medication for anxiety, acid reflex, a vitamin B
complex because I have low B twelve, and I also take magnesium every day.
I was getting migraines and my doctor recommended the magnesium because my blood work
showed it was low. It has helped with the migraines, so I continue
to take that daily. Those are the pills I take daily, other than
my contraceptive pill that I take at night. I want nothing more than to
get the knowledge to do this the correct way. I am struggling with finding
where you guys talk about how to get started on doing it. Can you
direct me to an episode or a book or a web article to give me
the starting answers I need to get going and succeed. I want to be
the best mother and version of myself that I can become. For my wedding
day, I want to be proud of the woman I see in the mirror
in my wedding dress. My ideal weight would be between one hundred and fifty
to one hundred and fifty five pounds, please help me. All right,
well, Morgan, I can feel that you're really you, really motivated,
you want to do this, and let's talk about what's going on. First
of all, Fast Feast Repeat, that's the book you need. Fast Feast
Repeat is the book that you need to get going. Although coming up really
really soon, like less than three weeks, no from the time that this
episode comes out. This episode December thirteenth. So today, if you've yet
gotten started with intermittent fasting, I want you to go to Amazon or your
favorite bookseller right this minute, and I want you to order twenty eight day
Fast Start Day by Day. It will show up on your door on December
twenty sixth, and that is the book that you are going to need to
get you started. You also need a copy of Fasteast Repeat, go ahead
and order them both. Twenty eight Day Fast Start Day by Day is a
companion book. So you asked where do you start? That is where you
start. You need to start with a twenty eight day Fast Start itself,
and there's a chapter on that in Fast Feast Repeat. But then the new
book is just completely designed to walk you through the fast Start literally day by
day. It's in the title. So I think this book is going to
be a great resource. Now, would you recommend that they read the twenty
eight day Fast Start chapter and then switch over to the new twenty eight day
notebook. Now you start with twenty eight day Fast Start day by day,
and you just literally start with that, And as you're reading through it,
you know there are parts that say to learn more about this, go to
fast Feast Repeat and check out that section that I prefer, whatever it might
be for the day. So you just literally start with twenty eight day Fast
Start day by day with me sending you to Fast Feast Repeat. If you
want to dive deeper on that topic. You don't have to during the first
twenty eight days. You don't have to crack Fast Feast Repeat a single time.
Twenty eight day Fast Art day by day will get you through the fast
Start, but at the end of it, you got to go to fast
Feast Repeat because you're now beyond the twenty eight days. There's more that you're
going to need. So that's why you need both of them. But I
want to talk about a couple of things, and first of all, your
weight goal. We get so caught up in a number like I highlighted this
wording, I have to lose in twelve months, thirty two pounds in twelve
months. I want you to just take a deep breath, release that number.
You're going to be a beautiful bride no matter what. So I totally
understand that you would like to take great care of your body between now and
your wedding. You want to feel beautiful on your wedding day. But I
want you to get a number out of your head to just let that go.
Can I just intervene right here and say, real quick, even if
you only lose fifteen or twenty pounds, say worst case scenario, right,
you are going to feel so much better, and you're going to have so
much more hope, and you are just going to You're going to glow because
you're going to have the eye of glow. So you're going to be a
glowing bride. And that last few pounds they're not going to weigh on you
because you by that point, you're going to know that it is possible to
shed it. Yeah, exactly whether you get there or not, it doesn't
matter, I promise. Yep. Now let's talk about what's happening with your
reflux. Now, we're not doctors. We're not giving you medical advice here.
I would talk to your doctor about reflux if you're having this big of
a problem with it. And also, I know you mentioned that you take
your pills in the morning on an empty stomach and it doesn't hurt your stomach,
But then you're having horrible acid reflux. So it actually might be like
you think it isn't bothering your stomach, but actually it is. Like I
would certainly not take the vitamins in the morning. I would take them later
maybe when you know, if you don't want to take vitamin be twelve close
to bedtime, take it when you open your window. And here's the thing.
If you find over time, we're all sudy of one. Maybe you're
somebody that absolutely you're gonna get reflux if you don't eat first thing in the
morning. I'm just like hypothesizing here. You know, we don't know,
but let's say that that's true. Maybe you're somebody who has a morning eating
window, and you'd have your morning eating window, you take all your pills,
and then you just you have your window earlier the day versus later.
That's something to think about, and so many people heal their reflex with fasting
relatively quickly. So just because maybe you need to have a morning window to
begin, doesn't mean you would have to have it forever. Yeah, And
so like that's the thing when you say, when you try to fast and
the reflex hits, reflex hits around nine thirty. I mean, it's been
a long time since you've had food in your stomach by nine thirty. So
I'm really wondering if it has something to do with those pills that you're taking.
I wondered the exact same thing. And I actually kind of have a
suggestion, and that is like a lot of reflex happens at night, like
while you're laying in bed, and I'm wondering if you actually shifted and took
your medication before bed, if it might help you feel better in the morning.
And I know, like maybe you think it's better to take it sooner,
but rather have it in your system and working its magic overnight, and
maybe you'll have less irritation in the morning, because reflex is very irritating to
your esophagus. Yeah, so maybe try taking it before bed. That's when
my husband takes his and definitely, you know, any medication changes and timing
changes, talk to your doctor about it and see because we can't we can't
give you actual medical advice, but it does just some things to think about,
maybe to talk about to your doctor and just see about that, because
I think you could probably find a way to find an intermittent fasting approach that
works for you. It's just a matter of, like we always say,
tweak it till it's easy, and it's going to depend on your body.
Yep. All right. So before we get to the tweak of the week,
I want to remind you of my new book, twenty eight Day fast
Art Day by day. I already said it. It's coming soon. Go
ahead, get it now, even if you've been an intermittent faster for a
while, it's got some new stuff. So now odd's time for our tweak
of the week. And this tweak was submitted by Anne in Maryland. She
says, I am celebrating the freedom that fasting has brought into my life this
time around. When I did fasting before, I did it like a diet
because I still had diet brain. I overfasted and the minute it stopped working,
I ran for the hills to try the next thing. This time around,
I feel the freedom around, the letting go of the fear of being
hungry and the fear of food. Fasting was so easy the first time,
but eating was hard. This time around. My relationship with myself has changed
and the fasting is still easier for me, but the eating is also easier
and more natural for me. I have struggled with this idea of eating and
binge restrict method of trying to control my weight my whole life. It was
truly the definition of insanity. It was like those paper fingercuffs when I was
a kid. The more you struggled to get out of them, the tighter
they get. Relax and they fall right off. As I relax, I
know that will just fall off effortlessly. This is true freedom from diet brain
and the prison it created for me. Thank you for sharing that, and
we relax into the process. We tweak it till it's easy. That's exactly
right. Well, we'd love to leave you with inspirational or motivational quotes to
carry you through your next week, and this week's quote is a combined effort
from two very special ladies in the DDD community. In April, Amy Joe
shared a very vulnerable post and she included a sentence that another community member,
Amanda, built on, and that sentence was the perfect is in the Repeat,
and Amanda wrote, Amy Joe, I hope you don't mind my barring
your brilliant quote. This will stick with me forever. I should tattoo it
on my forehead, but instead I made an iPhone background cheaper and less painful.
Thank you again for your beautiful words of inspiration. And the phone background
that she created simply states there's no perfect fast, there's no perfect feast.
The perfect is in the repeat and I love that. It's just love it
too. Powerful reminder that we don't have to do anything perfectly except for wake
up and decide to clean fast. Yep, that's exactly it. And aiming
for perfection sends you down a hard road. It's curtain there. We've both
been there. Yeah, thanks so much for listening today. We would love
to have you join us in the Delayed on Tonight community, where you can
interact with both me and Sherry, plus the most supportive bunch of intermittent fasters
you'll find anywhere. Go to Jenstevens dot com slash community to join us,
don't forget to subscribe to this podcast to your favorite podcast app, and if
you haven't already, please leave us a five star review that helps new listeners
find the show and we really appreciate it. We are a community driven podcast,
so to submit your success stories, your questions, your favorite tweak it
till It's Easy, moments, or anything else you want us to share on
the podcast, go to fast Feast repeat dot com slash submit and then listen
each week to see if we share your submission or answer your question until next
week. Thanks for listening,