Episode 131: Remaining Consistent while Socializing, The 28-Day Fast Start, When to Expect Changes, 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
<v Speaker 1>Feast Repeat.
<v Speaker 2>And I'm Sherry Bullock, longtime intermittent faster and health and
<v Speaker 2>wellness advocate. Please keep in mind that this podcast is
<v Speaker 2>for educational and motivational purposes only and is not intended
<v Speaker 2>to provide medical or diagnostic advice. Jen and I are
<v Speaker 2>not doctors, so make sure to check with your trusted
<v Speaker 2>healthcare professionals before making changes, especially when it comes to
<v Speaker 2>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 Sherry?
<v Speaker 2>I am doing fabulous? How are you?
<v Speaker 1>I am doing great. I actually had a really fun weekend.
<v Speaker 1>I got to see snow. I know we're recording this.
<v Speaker 1>Everybody's listening is probably like, that's not a big deal
<v Speaker 1>because it comes out new Year's Eve. But remember I'm
<v Speaker 1>in South Carolina, but I got to go to Virginia.
<v Speaker 1>I actually saw my mom while I was up there.
<v Speaker 2>I didn't know you saw her.
<v Speaker 1>I did. I saw my mom, And but it was snowing.
<v Speaker 1>It's absolutely beautiful seeing the mountains and the snow. I
<v Speaker 1>got really excited. But the roads were fine, which is
<v Speaker 1>the best part, you know, because the road's being a
<v Speaker 1>mess is no good when.
<v Speaker 2>You're in a locale where snow is customary, right, they
<v Speaker 2>take care of the road.
<v Speaker 1>It's true. They were out there right, scrapers and the
<v Speaker 1>salt and everything. So yeah, so you're right. Yeah i'd
<v Speaker 1>been here, they would not have been okay, it had
<v Speaker 1>been a mess and the city would have been shut down. Correct. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>But it was so beautiful because it was like thirty
<v Speaker 1>two degrees. It wasn't really cold, but it was just right.
<v Speaker 1>It was really pretty that yeah. Yeah, driving down Interstate
<v Speaker 1>with the beautiful snow. Anyway, so I've got, you know,
<v Speaker 1>snow fixed already.
<v Speaker 2>Parker moved to the Phoenix area and I called them
<v Speaker 2>the other day and it was like thirty eight degrees
<v Speaker 2>and it was sunny here, but it was cold then,
<v Speaker 2>just Windy and I called him and we were talking
<v Speaker 2>and I was telling, you know, we had the house
<v Speaker 2>decorated for Christmas, and I said, it's kind of weird
<v Speaker 2>decorating for Christmas here because we don't get snow and
<v Speaker 2>I always think of, you know, snow and the snow
<v Speaker 2>covered trees when I think of the holidays, and I'm like,
<v Speaker 2>I'm still kind of adjusting, and like, we were decorating
<v Speaker 2>and looking for stuff to put out to decorate, and
<v Speaker 2>I was like, I felt weird putting a snowman out
<v Speaker 2>because it doesn't really snow here. But then at the
<v Speaker 2>same time, it was like, I mean, it's Christmas, y,
<v Speaker 2>it's still winter, you know. So I did it. And
<v Speaker 2>then Parker said, well, imagine what it's like being in Phoenix, right.
<v Speaker 2>He's like, I'm wearing shorts and a T shirt riding
<v Speaker 2>my bike. It's eighty degrees and he's like, it's so
<v Speaker 2>weird to see people having their yards all decorated and
<v Speaker 2>their house is all decorated.
<v Speaker 1>And I was talking to someone from Australia for the
<v Speaker 1>Internet Stories podcast last week, and you know, here we
<v Speaker 1>are and we're recording this in December, in early December,
<v Speaker 1>so she was talking about how it's summer. They're having
<v Speaker 1>summer vacation, right, you know they're having their summer break.
<v Speaker 2>Yep.
<v Speaker 1>And did you know I learned something I didn't know.
<v Speaker 1>Australia school year runs a calendar year. It's not like ours. No,
<v Speaker 1>they end the term like they're ending the school year,
<v Speaker 1>and then they have New years and then they come
<v Speaker 1>back it's a new year. It's not like ours where
<v Speaker 1>you start in the fall and that year ends in
<v Speaker 1>the spring. There's they have it like they have a
<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty five school year. All of it is in
<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty five.
<v Speaker 2>Oh no, I did not know that.
<v Speaker 1>So when they get back, like after Christmas, after New
<v Speaker 1>Year's they have whatever. When they go back, it's the
<v Speaker 1>new school year, brand new. They used to be third
<v Speaker 1>grade now they're in fourth grade or whatever. Andn't that cool?
<v Speaker 2>Pretty customary In the States, kids are out of school
<v Speaker 2>through the summer months, right. I think it's the same
<v Speaker 2>way over in the UK. But I wonder when they're
<v Speaker 2>out of school down there.
<v Speaker 1>Well, they're having this summer right now, they're having summer.
<v Speaker 1>It's summer there, yeah, but when do they get their
<v Speaker 1>time off summer?
<v Speaker 2>Right?
<v Speaker 1>Now they have they get off.
<v Speaker 2>Oh, like they're off now, and then they go back
<v Speaker 2>their summer.
<v Speaker 1>It's shorter than ours. There's quote summer break. I mean
<v Speaker 1>it is summer because they have the opposite seasons of us.
<v Speaker 1>But they have from the person I was talking to
<v Speaker 1>told me, they go till maybe like right at the
<v Speaker 1>end of November beginning of December. Then they have several
<v Speaker 1>weeks off, which is their break between school years.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, but then I bet they have more breaks through
<v Speaker 2>the year than probably instead of having a block of
<v Speaker 2>eight weeks or whatever.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know that. I don't know that it's eight weeks.
<v Speaker 1>But anyway, I just thought that was interesting. How did
<v Speaker 1>I not ever know that? I never knew that, or
<v Speaker 1>if I did, I forgot, which is possible.
<v Speaker 2>No, I didn't know that either. I love to learn.
<v Speaker 2>That's one of the greatest things about the DVD community,
<v Speaker 2>I think is we get to learn other cultures and right,
<v Speaker 2>you know, just how they live life in other countries.
<v Speaker 2>We've got people in New Zealand and Denmark, Belgium, UK everywhere.
<v Speaker 1>So but then you're like, man, that makes a lot
<v Speaker 1>of sense to have the whole school year like this
<v Speaker 1>is the twenty twenty sixth school year, and your whole
<v Speaker 1>school year is within twenty twenty six anyway.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, all right, we all learned or wheeler, I learned
<v Speaker 2>something new. Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Some people are like, yeah, we already knew that. So
<v Speaker 1>we live in Australia.
<v Speaker 2>It is December thirty first, so we are starting a
<v Speaker 2>news true. Who would have believed? I remember y two
<v Speaker 2>k it feels like yesterday.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, and the world went on.
<v Speaker 2>Yep, all right, we have a celebration this week. From
<v Speaker 2>Elizabeth in Illinois, she wrote, thanks Jen and Cherry for
<v Speaker 2>all you do. I have been a clean, intermittent faster
<v Speaker 2>since twenty twenty. It has brought me a million blessings.
<v Speaker 2>The most important for me is peace. I just wanted
<v Speaker 2>to give some people hope. I was definitely insulin resistant.
<v Speaker 2>My fastest insulince started at twenty four, went to eighteen,
<v Speaker 2>and now I'm at a ten. Woohoo. I know there
<v Speaker 2>is work to be done still, but I feel proud
<v Speaker 2>that I'm going in the right direction. Food choice is
<v Speaker 2>what has made all the difference for me. I am
<v Speaker 2>a huge creature of habit so ADF was not a
<v Speaker 2>good fit for me. I was nervous, I would have
<v Speaker 2>to go down that path. But it looks like a
<v Speaker 2>daily eating window of four hours and real food choices
<v Speaker 2>is the key for me. I am almost fifty years old,
<v Speaker 2>and I see friends around me struggling, and yet I
<v Speaker 2>look better now than I did at forty. Exercising also
<v Speaker 2>has been key. Thank you, Thank you. If will be
<v Speaker 2>part of my life forever.
<v Speaker 1>Well, I love this, Elizabeth.
<v Speaker 2>She's right. I mean, you can fast and fast and fast,
<v Speaker 2>but the diet eventually is going to.
<v Speaker 1>Catch up with you.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Food choices matter.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and so does daily exercise and movement.
<v Speaker 1>Yep.
<v Speaker 2>So I'm glad she found the key to reverse her
<v Speaker 2>insulin resistance.
<v Speaker 1>And I've also found that the older I've gotten, the
<v Speaker 1>more food choices matter. Oh, absolutely important. You know, if
<v Speaker 1>I were writing Fast East Repeat now, I would maybe
<v Speaker 1>even say some things differently, just because now I'm on
<v Speaker 1>the other side of menopause. I understand all that. You know,
<v Speaker 1>when I wrote it, I wasn't. I didn't.
<v Speaker 2>Well, you know, I had a client ask me the
<v Speaker 2>other day, like, what changes? Why does food become more important?
<v Speaker 2>And I, you know, just me trying to come up
<v Speaker 2>with what I feel like is a valid answer, I'm like, well,
<v Speaker 2>I think a lot of it's hormonal, right, and the
<v Speaker 2>foods you eat affect your hormones, and we have less
<v Speaker 2>tolerance as we get older. And then you know, really too,
<v Speaker 2>is something that people don't think about, is that your
<v Speaker 2>body does not absorb nutrients as efficiently as you age.
<v Speaker 2>Like they know, as you age, you don't absorb as
<v Speaker 2>much protein from your food, you don't as absorb as
<v Speaker 2>many vitamins and minerals from your food. And so compound
<v Speaker 2>that with the fact that a lot of the foods
<v Speaker 2>we eat, even fresh foods right, are not as rich
<v Speaker 2>in biomin and minerals as they were one hundred years ago.
<v Speaker 2>And it makes sense that if you are nutrient starved
<v Speaker 2>because you're not eating nutrient dense enough food, that you're
<v Speaker 2>going to overeat right, and you're going to have cravings.
<v Speaker 2>And so I think, you know, just all of that compounds,
<v Speaker 2>and that's why as you get older, your food choices
<v Speaker 2>really do matter more. Yeah, and add to that, how
<v Speaker 2>many diets have people done over their lives and really
<v Speaker 2>kind of downregulated their metabolism. On top of that, where
<v Speaker 2>you just don't have room for daily indulgences, right, you know,
<v Speaker 2>so yeah, I think it's just a compounded thing. But
<v Speaker 2>you can either be angry about it or you can
<v Speaker 2>just recognize what is true and adapt exactly.
<v Speaker 1>And we just feel so much better when we choose
<v Speaker 1>higher quality food. I mean, there's just no doubt about that.
<v Speaker 1>I know it's true. For me. Yesterday, I had way
<v Speaker 1>too much sugar. And you know, I'm not someone who
<v Speaker 1>struggles with sugar. I'm not someone who's like a sugar addict.
<v Speaker 1>But oh my goodness, did I have wrestle flags?
<v Speaker 2>Yep, your body let you know it?
<v Speaker 1>Did it?
<v Speaker 2>Did?
<v Speaker 1>I went to my women's group that I'm a member of.
<v Speaker 1>We had like a Christmas kind of brunch. Whatever I
<v Speaker 1>opened early, I shifted that window. I ended up what
<v Speaker 1>was like a seven hour window for the day, so
<v Speaker 1>it wasn't a terrible crazy window. But I went through
<v Speaker 1>the line and got everything. It was all like great homemade,
<v Speaker 1>high quality stuff and I'm like, I'm gonna eat this
<v Speaker 1>because I would like to and I can. And then
<v Speaker 1>I sat down, I was like, everything here is sweet?
<v Speaker 1>So was what dish? I mean it was, though I
<v Speaker 1>didn't realize it when I was going through the line.
<v Speaker 1>There was only one thing that wasn't sweet in the
<v Speaker 1>whole line.
<v Speaker 2>Really yes, yeah, I mean it's gonna well.
<v Speaker 1>And then I was like, the only thing that was
<v Speaker 1>savory was an egg with ham casserole, and so I
<v Speaker 1>was like, I gotta go back and have more of that.
<v Speaker 1>So I ate my first little piece, and then I
<v Speaker 1>went back and had more of that, but still I
<v Speaker 1>had the wrestle SLGs from all that sugar.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Anyway, so now we have a question from a listener.
<v Speaker 1>This question is from Chanase from Auckland, New Zealand. Hi, Jen,
<v Speaker 1>and Sherry. I want to start with I am addicted
<v Speaker 1>to your podcast, and that is an addiction we can
<v Speaker 1>get behind. She said. I want to listen to it
<v Speaker 1>when I can. I find them inspiring, motivational and fun.
<v Speaker 1>I've been practicing intermittent fasting on and off for about
<v Speaker 1>a year, and I've recently committed again two weeks strong.
<v Speaker 1>I'm five foot two inches and I weigh seventy three kilograms.
<v Speaker 1>I've taken your advice for one meal a day as
<v Speaker 1>not one plate, but one meal a day. I open
<v Speaker 1>my window with a cup of tea or coffee with
<v Speaker 1>milk slight amount of sugar, some nuts. Then I have
<v Speaker 1>my meal after an hour or two, so I'm at
<v Speaker 1>nineteen five. That's really working for me. And thanks for
<v Speaker 1>that advice. Why the scale hasn't budge yet, I'm focusing
<v Speaker 1>on those non scale victories because I know they matter.
<v Speaker 1>Can we talk about this just a little bit, Sherry
<v Speaker 1>before I keep going, because do you want to say
<v Speaker 1>anything about that or you think of the same.
<v Speaker 2>Thing that I'm thinking. You're You're only two weeks in
<v Speaker 2>so of recommitting, because she said you were on and
<v Speaker 2>off for about a year, so it's going to take
<v Speaker 2>your body to get metabolically adapted again and shift into
<v Speaker 2>fat burning.
<v Speaker 1>Passing about her the structure of her window. Oh, a
<v Speaker 1>cup of tea or coffee with milk and some sugar
<v Speaker 1>and some nuts, and then one meal a little bit later.
<v Speaker 2>But then she also says she says an hour or
<v Speaker 2>two after that, within an hour, and then she says
<v Speaker 2>nineteen to five. So it makes me wonder if she's
<v Speaker 2>closed having more food or if she's just really kind
<v Speaker 2>of spreading her meal out kind of like we talk about.
<v Speaker 1>What I think she's doing. I think she's having some
<v Speaker 1>sort of creamy coffee or tea with sugar and nuts
<v Speaker 1>and nursing that for a bit, having that for a while,
<v Speaker 1>because you know when people drink beverages, they have it,
<v Speaker 1>you think all their time. Okay, I think she's having
<v Speaker 1>a very short solid food window and she's just linked it.
<v Speaker 1>I'm not sure she's eating sufficiently, is what I'm saying.
<v Speaker 2>Yep. I mean, it just depends on how she's structuring
<v Speaker 2>her meal and how she's spreading it right out right.
<v Speaker 2>If it's a one and done meal.
<v Speaker 1>That's what it sounds like.
<v Speaker 2>And the only way that she's extending that window beyond
<v Speaker 2>one plate is some sugary, creamy tea or coffee and
<v Speaker 2>a handful of nuts, then she is definitely more than
<v Speaker 2>likely under eating right.
<v Speaker 1>And so that's what stuck out to me. So if
<v Speaker 1>that is what you are doing, Shana's I would not
<v Speaker 1>do that. I want to be very very clear. Yes,
<v Speaker 1>you can open however you want. You can have whatever
<v Speaker 1>you want in your eating window. That is your choice. However,
<v Speaker 1>I would not, ever, ever, ever, ever, and to be clear, ever,
<v Speaker 1>recommend that you open with a caloric beverage as your
<v Speaker 1>window opener. Open with food and have coffee with milk
<v Speaker 1>with it if you want to. I just don't think
<v Speaker 1>we need to be filling up on you know, those
<v Speaker 1>empty calories of a beverage with milk and sugar. And again,
<v Speaker 1>I don't want anybody to be caught up in the
<v Speaker 1>idea of calorie counting. But we know what the term
<v Speaker 1>empty calories means.
<v Speaker 2>Right, And if you think of it, if you want
<v Speaker 2>to think of it as nutrition, where is the nutrition where?
<v Speaker 2>You know, how is your body going to be satisfied
<v Speaker 2>from a nutritional standpoint from a creamy sugary drink.
<v Speaker 1>With a few nuts, with a few nuts, right, So
<v Speaker 1>I would encourage you instead of opening with a caloric beverage,
<v Speaker 1>open with food like have you know, if you don't
<v Speaker 1>want to eat your main melentol later, that's fine. Open
<v Speaker 1>with something else, some food that's nutritious.
<v Speaker 2>Have that.
<v Speaker 1>And I know, nuts or food, but that's just not
<v Speaker 1>really that. Nuts are not going to be like satiating
<v Speaker 1>necessarily in the same kind of way exactly anyway, right,
<v Speaker 1>I just want to pop that in there, all right,
<v Speaker 1>So she said, Now, while the scale hasn't budged yet,
<v Speaker 1>I'm focusing on the non scale victories because I know
<v Speaker 1>they matter. I also want to emphasize that you should
<v Speaker 1>really not be expecting the scale to move until you
<v Speaker 1>are finished with your first month. So I would completely
<v Speaker 1>stay off the scale for your first month. Okay, So
<v Speaker 1>now she said, here's my challenge. My happy place is
<v Speaker 1>spending time with family and friends. Catchups usually happen once
<v Speaker 1>or twice during the week and over weekends. I try
<v Speaker 1>to stay flexible, but I've noticed this often leads to
<v Speaker 1>window creek. Do you have any tips on how I
<v Speaker 1>can stick to my nineteen to five window while keeping
<v Speaker 1>some flexibility without letting the window expand so intermittent fasting
<v Speaker 1>remains sustainable for me. Also, I have a family wedding
<v Speaker 1>coming up, and relatives will be visiting from overseas for
<v Speaker 1>about fifteen days before the big day. I'm worried all
<v Speaker 1>my hard work might unravel during this festive period. How
<v Speaker 1>can I maintain intermittent fasting and stay consistent through this
<v Speaker 1>challenging time?
<v Speaker 2>All right? So my best advice, and you may have
<v Speaker 2>heard me say this before, is your window is yours
<v Speaker 2>to place it where you want during that day. So
<v Speaker 2>I think the best way to do it, and this
<v Speaker 2>is kind of how I do mine. I wake up
<v Speaker 2>in the morning and I look ahead at my day,
<v Speaker 2>what's happening, what is my schedule, Like when do I
<v Speaker 2>want to close my window that day? Based off of
<v Speaker 2>my schedule, and then I just don't open my window
<v Speaker 2>until about four hours prior to that time. So if
<v Speaker 2>I know that I've got something going on, we have
<v Speaker 2>a family event, We're meeting at the Mexican restaurant at seven,
<v Speaker 2>and I'm probably not going to get my window closed
<v Speaker 2>to eight. I'm not going to open my window until
<v Speaker 2>four because then if something happens and the restaurant's running slow,
<v Speaker 2>or we go to the restaurant and they're closed and
<v Speaker 2>we have to go to a different restaurant, which has happened,
<v Speaker 2>I have already built in an hour cushion. Or if
<v Speaker 2>I eat my meal and I'm not really satisfied and
<v Speaker 2>I want a little something else, I still have a
<v Speaker 2>built in cushion at the end of my window. And
<v Speaker 2>that's how I keep window creep from happening. I I
<v Speaker 2>look at when I'm going to end my window, and
<v Speaker 2>that's how I choose when I'm going to open my window.
<v Speaker 2>And so for me, if you know you're going out
<v Speaker 2>and you're going to be eating and drinking until nine pm.
<v Speaker 2>You definitely don't want to open your window if you're
<v Speaker 2>trying to maintain a five hour window before four pm.
<v Speaker 2>But if you know that nine pm might come and
<v Speaker 2>go and you might be still nursing a drink till ten,
<v Speaker 2>don't open until five. And then if you have a
<v Speaker 2>true like the family wedding, if that is a.
<v Speaker 1>Day, go day a wedding, or maybe the rehearsal dinner right,
<v Speaker 1>two days right, and.
<v Speaker 2>You know that that's going to include more food, long days,
<v Speaker 2>you know whatever, One or two days of an eight
<v Speaker 2>hour window not going to be an issue. It's when
<v Speaker 2>you do that back to back to back to back
<v Speaker 2>that you're going to get derailed and you're gonna, you know,
<v Speaker 2>kind of loose use your progress. So I definitely have
<v Speaker 2>a plan for when you have relans visiting those fifteen days.
<v Speaker 2>You know, just remember what your why is. Remember how
<v Speaker 2>you feel when you're fasted and all your energy and
<v Speaker 2>not being angry and that stress is reduced. Think about
<v Speaker 2>those things and that you want those things when you
<v Speaker 2>have guests over. You don't want to be angry, you
<v Speaker 2>don't want to be tired, you don't want to be
<v Speaker 2>stressed out because your blood sugar is all over the place.
<v Speaker 2>The same applies. Figure out what is the most important
<v Speaker 2>meal of the day that you want to eat with
<v Speaker 2>your family while they're there, and then put your window
<v Speaker 2>there right.
<v Speaker 1>And I have some comments about some wording that she used,
<v Speaker 1>and she said, my happy place is spending time with
<v Speaker 1>family and friends. And I want to challenge everyone to
<v Speaker 1>think about the idea that you can only spend time
<v Speaker 1>with family and friends while eating and drinking. Okay, once
<v Speaker 1>a week, you've probably heard me talk about. I go
<v Speaker 1>to trivia and I have my trivia group. We came
<v Speaker 1>in first place last week, Cherry.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>I always love when we come in first. We have
<v Speaker 1>a great team. There's four of us. We had a
<v Speaker 1>great night. Anyhow, I don't prefer to eat at that
<v Speaker 1>place anymore. You know, for the first year I ate then,
<v Speaker 1>you know, the fries I made my stomach hirk because
<v Speaker 1>the oil is not that fresh, and so I'm like,
<v Speaker 1>you know, there's nothing here I want to eat. I've
<v Speaker 1>eaten the food. I'm done with it. My happy place
<v Speaker 1>is also spending time with family and friends. I go
<v Speaker 1>every single Thursday to trivia, and I spend time with friends,
<v Speaker 1>and I drink water while I'm there and it does
<v Speaker 1>not diminish the time that I have with them. I
<v Speaker 1>have an earlier window on the trivia days, and guess what, cheery,
<v Speaker 1>I've learned that I can close my window at five
<v Speaker 1>o'clock and I don't die good. I'm able to go
<v Speaker 1>to bed and not be starving. I'm fine. It works
<v Speaker 1>really well. So you know, like tonight, though I'm going
<v Speaker 1>to trivia, it's a Tuesday, I'm going to We're going
<v Speaker 1>to a different place this week, just because Thursday we're
<v Speaker 1>doing other things, and so we're going to a different restaurant.
<v Speaker 1>And I really like the food that we're going back
<v Speaker 1>to Bohemian Bull where we went from my birthday, Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>where we were for your birthday. I'm going to eat,
<v Speaker 1>So I am shifting my window. I'm not going to open.
<v Speaker 1>We're going at five point thirty. I'm not going to
<v Speaker 1>eat until I get there, And so I can spend
<v Speaker 1>time with family and friends, not eating or eating, and
<v Speaker 1>I just set my day up accordingly. I can shift
<v Speaker 1>it earlier, I can shift it later. I cannot eat,
<v Speaker 1>and I think back to how I used to think
<v Speaker 1>about drinking alcohol like, if you're socializing and having fun
<v Speaker 1>and it's a celebration, there was going to be drinking.
<v Speaker 1>I thought that was required until I stopped drinking, and
<v Speaker 1>then I realized I had just as much fun as
<v Speaker 1>the designated driver or someone who's not drinking alcohol. And
<v Speaker 1>the same is true for eating with people. You don't
<v Speaker 1>have to eat because everybody else is eating. Right for
<v Speaker 1>fifteen days before this wedding, there are going to be
<v Speaker 1>a lot of people eating all over the place, and
<v Speaker 1>everything they're eating, you've probably eaten that before, and so
<v Speaker 1>you can decide if you want to eat it and
<v Speaker 1>then shift your window to that time, or you want
<v Speaker 1>to have your window later. You prioritize where the most
<v Speaker 1>important eating events are going to occur, because I guarantee,
<v Speaker 1>if you take fifteen days away from intermittent fasting, you're
<v Speaker 1>gonna have a really hard time. And you're right, your
<v Speaker 1>hard work will unravel this early in your process, especially now.
<v Speaker 1>If I took fifteen days off of intermittent fasting, I
<v Speaker 1>would have a hard time, right. I took eight days
<v Speaker 1>of not even off when I was in Florida twenty
<v Speaker 1>twenty four. I had eight days of probably eight hour
<v Speaker 1>windows and it was hard for me when I got back.
<v Speaker 1>So this year when I went to Florida, I did
<v Speaker 1>it differently. I waited till we got to dinner almost
<v Speaker 1>every single night. One day we had brunch. It was
<v Speaker 1>worth it. And mean, you know, so it's just a
<v Speaker 1>matter of prioritizing how you want to feel and prioritizing
<v Speaker 1>that you are an intermittent faster. And it's just that
<v Speaker 1>mindset piece. You could that sentence. My happy place is
<v Speaker 1>spending time with family and friends. It can still be that,
<v Speaker 1>but it doesn't have to require that you're eating just
<v Speaker 1>because they're eating. Yep. If I could go back in
<v Speaker 1>time to yesterday morning, I would not have eaten that
<v Speaker 1>brunch food because it looked really good as I was
<v Speaker 1>looking at it, it looked really windy worthy, but it
<v Speaker 1>was way too sugary. It ended up if I'd just
<v Speaker 1>eaten the egg castro or whatever. I didn't need to
<v Speaker 1>eat that though, And so I would go back in
<v Speaker 1>time and not eat it because I felt I had
<v Speaker 1>the restless legs, I felt edgy. It's not worth it.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, And you know, I think people think, like, what
<v Speaker 2>else am I do? What am I gonna do? While
<v Speaker 2>they're eating, you're gonna talk or yeah, you're gonna talk.
<v Speaker 2>I mean the point of being with family friends is
<v Speaker 2>the sharing and the stories and the connection. And if
<v Speaker 2>they're coming to your house, you can decide what you're
<v Speaker 2>gonna do, right, and maybe I find the best way.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, this is what Roxy and Jenni did this summer.
<v Speaker 2>We had no problems maintaining our windows. In fact, we
<v Speaker 2>had pretty short windows because we were so busy. We
<v Speaker 2>just stayed busy doing and going and seeing. And so
<v Speaker 2>plan some sight seeing stuff, plan some activities, Go do
<v Speaker 2>something fun as a group. Yeah, and take the focus
<v Speaker 2>off of food. Get some good new board games for
<v Speaker 2>the house or something like that. If you're busy doing something,
<v Speaker 2>then you're going to be less inclined to want to
<v Speaker 2>snack and have something in your hand to eat or drink.
<v Speaker 1>It's true, and we can change.
<v Speaker 2>Our behaviors, you know. I always think of that quote,
<v Speaker 2>if you always do what you've always done, you'll always
<v Speaker 2>get what you've always got. And so if you want
<v Speaker 2>to create a sustainable lifestyle that you don't go off
<v Speaker 2>and on and that you really want to make it stick,
<v Speaker 2>you're going to have to make some behavioral changes as well.
<v Speaker 2>And it seems weird at first until you do it
<v Speaker 2>a few times and then you're like, oh, I've got this.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and you also, one other thing you might be
<v Speaker 1>thinking is yeah, but everybody's going to think I'm weird
<v Speaker 1>if I don't eat, We'll let them think you're weird.
<v Speaker 1>Who cares? That's my new where I am in life.
<v Speaker 2>We're all weird.
<v Speaker 1>You know what if you think that I'm weird because
<v Speaker 1>I'm not eating at this brunch, right, you know what,
<v Speaker 1>I'm wearing the same pants I were last year, and
<v Speaker 1>I feel good in them, and I'm going to feel
<v Speaker 1>great all afternoon. And so if you want to think
<v Speaker 1>I'm weird, I do this because I want to feel great.
<v Speaker 1>And so you know what's the saying what someone else
<v Speaker 1>thinks about me is none of my business.
<v Speaker 2>Yep, that's also a great one, right, So love it
<v Speaker 2>less worrying about what other people are thinking.
<v Speaker 1>And even if they're like talking about you behind your
<v Speaker 1>back or if they say straight to your face that's
<v Speaker 1>so weird. You know you're doing it for a real and.
<v Speaker 2>You know what the answer to that is, Well, it
<v Speaker 2>may seem weird, but I feel great exactly.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so I think it's weird for you to be
<v Speaker 1>eating all the time.
<v Speaker 2>No, and once you've been fasting for a while, this
<v Speaker 2>one thing doesn't see weird is they're like, oh my gosh,
<v Speaker 2>I just noticed at this event that people were eating.
<v Speaker 2>They'll go to a conference and they're like, oh, oh
<v Speaker 2>my gosh. I used to be like this. I ate
<v Speaker 2>all day long. How did I do it?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and then it becomes weird to do that, right,
<v Speaker 1>It seems so bizarre. Yeah. So yep, I hope that
<v Speaker 1>was helpful. You can do it all right.
<v Speaker 2>So our next question is from struggling in Belgium. I
<v Speaker 2>started consistent intermint fasting in February of twenty twenty three
<v Speaker 2>with an eighteen to twenty hour fast. I continued this
<v Speaker 2>until December of twenty twenty three, when I switched to
<v Speaker 2>eightf My starting weighted that time was two hundred and
<v Speaker 2>thirty pounds. I am nearly five foot nine. I strength
<v Speaker 2>trained two to three days a week, and on the
<v Speaker 2>other days I walk six to eight kilometers and do
<v Speaker 2>some stretching. By the end of February of twenty twenty four,
<v Speaker 2>I was down to ninety six kilograms, which is roughly
<v Speaker 2>two hundred and maybe ten pounds. I stayed around that
<v Speaker 2>weight for the next three months while doing a loose
<v Speaker 2>version of ADF and eating a lot of ultra processed foods.
<v Speaker 2>In summer twenty twenty four, I decided to tighten things
<v Speaker 2>up and I did true ADF through July and August,
<v Speaker 2>which brought me down to ninety three kilograms or two
<v Speaker 2>hundred and four point six pounds, a weight my body
<v Speaker 2>seems to settle at each time I lose weight. From
<v Speaker 2>September of twenty twenty four through October of twenty twenty five,
<v Speaker 2>I struggled to get back to ADF. I kept regaining weight,
<v Speaker 2>breaking fasts around the twenty two hour mark and then
<v Speaker 2>binging on unhealthy foods. I am now back to the
<v Speaker 2>weight I was when I first started true ADF. During
<v Speaker 2>all of this, I experienced a lot of fatigue and stress,
<v Speaker 2>along with poor sleep. My doctor initially attributed it to
<v Speaker 2>mental health and not getting enough rest. I had many
<v Speaker 2>sick days to recover, but the fatigue didn't improve. As
<v Speaker 2>a single parent with minimal support, I assumed it was
<v Speaker 2>just stress and burnout. However, even after becoming unemployed this
<v Speaker 2>summer and finally having more time to rest and take
<v Speaker 2>care of myself, my symptoms got worse, with fatigue, dizziness, headaches,
<v Speaker 2>and feeling like I might pass out during exercise. Even
<v Speaker 2>walking four kilometers became difficult. I went back to my
<v Speaker 2>doctor pushed for word testing. Yay, I'm glad you self
<v Speaker 2>advocated me too. That's for me, and I finally received
<v Speaker 2>a diagnosis severe vitamin D deficiency and chronic iron deficiency.
<v Speaker 2>Today is day six of daily iron supplementation, and I'm
<v Speaker 2>taking vitamin D once a week for eight weeks. Since
<v Speaker 2>starting the supplements, I've been following an uppish downish fasting approach.
<v Speaker 2>On down days, I take my iron with an orange
<v Speaker 2>and then I wait an hour before eating. Because of
<v Speaker 2>that waiting time, my down day eating window is usually
<v Speaker 2>about two hours. I opened my updates the same way,
<v Speaker 2>and I usually end up having two big meals with
<v Speaker 2>plenty of fruits and nuts in between, within a six
<v Speaker 2>to eight hour eating window. I'm a volume eater and
<v Speaker 2>I don't enjoy counting calories, so on down days, I
<v Speaker 2>keep thinkings simple with greens and protein. I already feel
<v Speaker 2>a bit better, and the urge to binge has decreased significantly.
<v Speaker 2>My goal for the next twelve weeks is to raise
<v Speaker 2>my feradine and vitemin D levels, so I'm eating more
<v Speaker 2>greens and red meat to support that. I've always struggled
<v Speaker 2>with binge eating sugary ultra processed foods. My fasting insulin
<v Speaker 2>is also high. My homa IR is two point four
<v Speaker 2>to six, showing a great deal of insulin resistance, and
<v Speaker 2>I would like to bring it down. I'm currently back
<v Speaker 2>at two hundred and thirty pounds. My question is what
<v Speaker 2>do you think of my new approach to fasting and
<v Speaker 2>what advice would you give me as I work on
<v Speaker 2>improving my health and losing fat in a sustainable way.
<v Speaker 1>All right, So I'm so glad that, as Shehery said already,
<v Speaker 1>that you pushed for more testing. And if you're feeling
<v Speaker 1>what did you say, you were feeling like you might
<v Speaker 1>pass out fatigue? All of that low iron can definitely
<v Speaker 1>lead to fatigue. So it's good that you got that
<v Speaker 1>piece figured out. You're getting that supplementation that your body needs. Also,
<v Speaker 1>vitamin D. I think that's you know, Belgium is Belgia.
<v Speaker 1>Belgium would have lower vitamin D from the sun right
<v Speaker 1>shery based on where it's located and the latitude, So
<v Speaker 1>that's probably very common for really a lot of people
<v Speaker 1>who are not like right near the equator, having trouble
<v Speaker 1>with vitamin D. So it sounds like you're doing downish
<v Speaker 1>uppish in a format of one meal is downish. You're
<v Speaker 1>not trying to limit, you're trying to lower five hundred.
<v Speaker 1>You're just having a solid meal and then the next
<v Speaker 1>day uppish and you're having two meals for that six
<v Speaker 1>to eight hours. So that's a great approach. Keep doing
<v Speaker 1>that if you want. I want to focus on one
<v Speaker 1>thing that it sounds like you're thinking about, and you
<v Speaker 1>may be doing a better job with it now, but
<v Speaker 1>that is food quality. You were talking about binging on
<v Speaker 1>unhealthy foods. You mentioned that you did ate a lot
<v Speaker 1>of ultra processed foods in twenty twenty four, and so
<v Speaker 1>you mentioned that the binging got worse. Now I want
<v Speaker 1>to talk about what binging can signal. It can signal
<v Speaker 1>over restriction, but it can also signal that you're undernourished,
<v Speaker 1>which are really I guess you know the same thing.
<v Speaker 1>You can be overfed and undernourished at the same time.
<v Speaker 1>Which means you had a lot, lot of food. You
<v Speaker 1>binged on a lot of food, but there were no
<v Speaker 1>nutrients in that food, so your body is like, that
<v Speaker 1>was not it. Because we do have nutrient sensors in
<v Speaker 1>our body that lets us know if we've had sufficient nutrients.
<v Speaker 1>So if you are prioritizing ultra processed foods or those
<v Speaker 1>empty calories, again, your body is not going to feel satisfied.
<v Speaker 1>Like imagine eating an entire bag of potato chips and
<v Speaker 1>how you would feel at the end of that. You
<v Speaker 1>might feel gross and h and like, oh that was
<v Speaker 1>too much, but you're not going to feel nourished, and
<v Speaker 1>you're gonna be wanting something else versus you know, my favorite,
<v Speaker 1>a big baked potato with toppings that ever make you happy,
<v Speaker 1>You're going to eat that big baked potato. I always
<v Speaker 1>eat the peel as well because I love it, and
<v Speaker 1>your body's going to feel a lot more satisfied. It's
<v Speaker 1>also heavier, so it engages your stretch receptors. You have
<v Speaker 1>the fiber in that whole potato versus the ultra processed
<v Speaker 1>potato chips, So what your choosing to eat is going
<v Speaker 1>to make a huge difference. So if you're starting to
<v Speaker 1>get the nutrients your body seems to have been missing
<v Speaker 1>iron and that could have led to you having more
<v Speaker 1>cravings and binging, and now you're getting what your body
<v Speaker 1>was missing from that. But I would also focus on
<v Speaker 1>you mentioned plenty of fruits and nuts. I would also
<v Speaker 1>add the vegetables you mentioned, greens, high quality protein. I
<v Speaker 1>would just keep adding real foods. And you know, side note,
<v Speaker 1>this is what might eat like a grown up program
<v Speaker 1>is all about, is shifting to the real foods, nourishing
<v Speaker 1>your body well. And you know, you can go to
<v Speaker 1>app dot fast, feast repeat dot com to see more
<v Speaker 1>about that. But I really think food quality is going
<v Speaker 1>to be the answer if your fasting insulin is high.
<v Speaker 1>I think a downash uppish approach can work really well,
<v Speaker 1>but food quality is going to really matter. If you
<v Speaker 1>want to improve your help, then nourishing your body plus
<v Speaker 1>internet and fasting is the best way to do it.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, And the only thing I was gonna say is
<v Speaker 2>sometimes missing peace to the iron puzzle is B twelve,
<v Speaker 2>So if you haven't had a B twelve and even
<v Speaker 2>a full light checked, you might ask your doctor to
<v Speaker 2>check those. If you don't see the response that you
<v Speaker 2>are wunning from the iron. And then two you say
<v Speaker 2>you take your iron with an orange, which is great
<v Speaker 2>because it needs vitamin C for absorption, but then you
<v Speaker 2>wait an hour before eating, and I'm not I guess
<v Speaker 2>I'm not sure why you're doing that. Usually they tell
<v Speaker 2>you to take iron with food. The only caveat to
<v Speaker 2>that is dairy can inhibit the absorption of iron. So
<v Speaker 2>as long as you're not having like a lot of
<v Speaker 2>dairy on your down day, there's really no reason why
<v Speaker 2>you can't keep your down day or your downish day
<v Speaker 2>eating window to an hour.
<v Speaker 1>Well, I think I know why she's doing that. I
<v Speaker 1>just checked it just to make sure I was right.
<v Speaker 1>Vitamin C helps us absorb iron.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that's why I said.
<v Speaker 1>Oh, I missed that, But I don't.
<v Speaker 2>Know why that she's waiting an hour after her Okay.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, okay, I don't know how I missed that.
<v Speaker 2>Because food in its self, you know, vitamin C and foods,
<v Speaker 2>you know, if you're eating other fruits, greens, that sort
<v Speaker 2>of thing. Right, just take your vitamin C, have your
<v Speaker 2>orange if that's what you want to have with it.
<v Speaker 2>But you can just eat your meal. Yeah, you don't
<v Speaker 2>wait unless you're including a lot of dairy and that
<v Speaker 2>down day meal. Okay, that would be the only reason
<v Speaker 2>you would need to wait. Really, so yeah, you could
<v Speaker 2>whittle that down day to an hour less.
<v Speaker 1>Mm hmm. Yeah, yeah, that's a very good point. I
<v Speaker 1>would also probably feel very queasy if I took iron
<v Speaker 1>and all I had with it was an orange. I
<v Speaker 1>don't know, I need iron make tains so queasy.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, zink all those things and the acid of
<v Speaker 2>the orange with the iron, I wouldn't feel great.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, in your stomach. Yeah. So now it's time for
<v Speaker 1>our segment called What's Your Why. Most of us have
<v Speaker 1>weight loss in mind, and that is a great reason
<v Speaker 1>to get started, but there's so much more to what
<v Speaker 1>intermittent fasting can do for us beyond weight loss. I
<v Speaker 1>am a big believer that if you have a why
<v Speaker 1>that is deeper than weight loss alone, you're more likely
<v Speaker 1>to find long term success and you're going to view
<v Speaker 1>intermittent fasting as a lifestyle.
<v Speaker 2>So this week we have a wife from Chelsea. My
<v Speaker 2>why has changed since the beginning of my EYEF journey.
<v Speaker 2>I stumbled across the discussion regarding intermint fasting while scrolling
<v Speaker 2>through social media while outwork sick with COVID, specifically a
<v Speaker 2>comment that led me to read the book Fast, Feast
<v Speaker 2>Repeat in September of twenty twenty two. I had heard
<v Speaker 2>of intermint fasting, but I had never actually seen someone
<v Speaker 2>do it long term or thrive from it. My initial
<v Speaker 2>goal was to recover well from COVID and to loose
<v Speaker 2>some weight I had put on in my forties. My
<v Speaker 2>doctor called in an anti viral for my COVID diagnosis,
<v Speaker 2>and I realized that I qualified for it because I
<v Speaker 2>was in the overweight category. That was definitely a light
<v Speaker 2>bulb moment. After diving into the intermitt and fasting lifestyle,
<v Speaker 2>I quickly realized that this was the lifestyle for me.
<v Speaker 2>Fast forward. Approximately six months later, I turned fifty years old.
<v Speaker 2>I felt better and looked better than I had in decade.
<v Speaker 2>I have been clean basting every single day since September
<v Speaker 2>of twenty twenty two, with no plan to return to
<v Speaker 2>my former way of life. This way of life is
<v Speaker 2>so much easier to me than previous times in my
<v Speaker 2>life when I have attempted to lose weight or improved
<v Speaker 2>my health. I have succeeded when younger with things like
<v Speaker 2>weight watchers. And sugar busters, but I would always eventually
<v Speaker 2>put the weight back on. These previous attempts for a
<v Speaker 2>way of life were not sustainable for me. With if,
<v Speaker 2>I do not feel deprived, and I feel so much better.
<v Speaker 2>The numerous non scale victories such as clear headed thinking
<v Speaker 2>makes a huge difference in how I function day to day.
<v Speaker 2>I can remember frequently experiencing brain fog after lunch at work,
<v Speaker 2>and this was with decent food choices. I have so
<v Speaker 2>much more energy now. I actually look forward to participating
<v Speaker 2>in exercise. Since September twenty twenty two, I've lost thirty
<v Speaker 2>pounds and have easily kept it off, and I am
<v Speaker 2>in a healthy BMI goal for my height and age.
<v Speaker 2>I am wearing clothes from twenty years ago, and I
<v Speaker 2>feel so good about myself. Thank you Jin for your contribution.
<v Speaker 2>I am so thankful that I started this journey.
<v Speaker 1>That is fantastic, Chelsea, I love it all right.
<v Speaker 2>So we have a question from Natalie in North Carolina,
<v Speaker 2>and she says she wants to know what is the
<v Speaker 2>twenty eight day fast for beginners.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, well, there's something called the twenty eight day fast start.
<v Speaker 1>And initially when I wrote fast, Feast, repeat, it's one
<v Speaker 1>chapter in Fast Feast Repeat the twenty eight day Fast Start,
<v Speaker 1>And I have a quiz that you can take. It's
<v Speaker 1>right there in the book Fast Feast Repeat to figure
<v Speaker 1>out which approach you want. There's one that you really
<v Speaker 1>ease in, there's one that's more middle of the road,
<v Speaker 1>and then there's one that's called rip off the band aid.
<v Speaker 1>And so that's just one chapter in that book in
<v Speaker 1>Fast Feast Repeat, that is the fast Start. Then time
<v Speaker 1>goes on, right, time goes on, people are reading the book,
<v Speaker 1>people are starting, and then I realize, as any good
<v Speaker 1>teacher does, some people need extra resources and just a
<v Speaker 1>little more guidance for the first twenty eight days. And
<v Speaker 1>that is when I wrote twenty eight day Fast Start
<v Speaker 1>day by day. You know, there are a lot of
<v Speaker 1>people who might struggle with consistency. They just need a
<v Speaker 1>little bit more. So I wrote twenty eight day Fast
<v Speaker 1>Art day by day. And you know there's a part
<v Speaker 1>at the beginning, you know that talks about fasting and
<v Speaker 1>the clean fast and all of that. You write your why.
<v Speaker 1>You figure out what your why is, then you're ready
<v Speaker 1>to get started. So every day of the book twenty
<v Speaker 1>eight day Fast Art day by day, there's a place
<v Speaker 1>for you to figure out what your window is going
<v Speaker 1>to be that day. You know what plan did you choose?
<v Speaker 1>What's your window? There's a daily lesson of some sort,
<v Speaker 1>And the feedback that I've gotten since that book came
<v Speaker 1>out is that those lessons are spot on for where
<v Speaker 1>you need them. Like people will be like I was
<v Speaker 1>having trouble sleeping, and then the daily lesson was why
<v Speaker 1>can't I sleep? Or I was binging, and the daily
<v Speaker 1>lesson was why am I binging? You know, so, I
<v Speaker 1>think it really does flow well with the experience. And
<v Speaker 1>also each day there's an intermittent Fasting Stories spotlight of
<v Speaker 1>a past guest who shares how they've been doing since
<v Speaker 1>they were on the podcast, give you their words of wisdom.
<v Speaker 1>And then at the end of the day there's a
<v Speaker 1>little place to check in about how your day went.
<v Speaker 1>So it's got a journal component. So it's twenty eight
<v Speaker 1>days with a lesson that you need every day. It's short,
<v Speaker 1>sweet to the point you're setting up yourself for success
<v Speaker 1>in the morning, you're having your day, then you're reflecting
<v Speaker 1>at the end of the day. And a lot of
<v Speaker 1>people have found that book really helps them stay on track. Now,
<v Speaker 1>if you're somebody who just decides to do something and
<v Speaker 1>you do it, you don't need that book. This book
<v Speaker 1>is not the book that everybody has to have. But
<v Speaker 1>if you're somebody who struggles with consistency, you are of
<v Speaker 1>and on, off and on, then twenty eight day fast
<v Speaker 1>Start day by day is really a great resource. And
<v Speaker 1>I would start like you've never fasted before. That's what
<v Speaker 1>I tell people in the community who are struggling and
<v Speaker 1>they feel like they need to start every I'm like,
<v Speaker 1>pretend like you've never fasted before. Get this book with
<v Speaker 1>beginner's mind, work your way through it. You know, maybe
<v Speaker 1>you were doing a daily four hour window, then you
<v Speaker 1>quit fasting for five months. I want you to pretend
<v Speaker 1>like you're a beginner, start again, read the lessons, and
<v Speaker 1>maybe it'll just click differently, especially since you're taking the
<v Speaker 1>time to focus on that every day.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and I just wanted to add, like, why is
<v Speaker 2>the twenty eight days importance? Because that twenty eight days
<v Speaker 2>is where you're really building the foundation for a successful
<v Speaker 2>fasting lifestyle. It's going to give you the tools you need,
<v Speaker 2>the knowledge you need, and help you create the habits
<v Speaker 2>that you need. To sustain a fasting lifestyle as well
<v Speaker 2>as get your body adapted so that you can get
<v Speaker 2>to the fat burning part right. So that is the
<v Speaker 2>really most difficult part of creating a fasting lifestyle is
<v Speaker 2>getting through that metabolic adaptation and really getting your habits
<v Speaker 2>aligned with what you're doing. So that twenty eight day
<v Speaker 2>fast start just helps.
<v Speaker 1>You do that. Yeah, and again, not everybody needs it.
<v Speaker 1>Some people can just hear here's how you fast clean.
<v Speaker 1>A five hour window works for a lot of people,
<v Speaker 1>and they they start doing it and they do it right.
<v Speaker 1>But some people just need a little more structure and support.
<v Speaker 1>And that is why I read that book and it
<v Speaker 1>has really helped a lot of people, and I'm glad
<v Speaker 1>to hear that. But if you need a little more support,
<v Speaker 1>if you're struggling, then you probably know you need a
<v Speaker 1>little more support, and it's for you.
<v Speaker 2>You know, somebody joined our community maybe maybe two months ago,
<v Speaker 2>may not even be that long, and they'd kind of
<v Speaker 2>been dabbling off and on for years and said they
<v Speaker 2>were really struggling to just make it a lifestyle, said
<v Speaker 2>they joined the community for some extra support, which is
<v Speaker 2>a great place for the support to do that. But
<v Speaker 2>I suggested that she get the Towyd asked, have you
<v Speaker 2>ever done the twenty a Day Pastar book? And she
<v Speaker 2>said no, And I said, I really suggest you do it.
<v Speaker 2>I said, I know you think you know what to do,
<v Speaker 2>but just working through the steps, you learn a lot
<v Speaker 2>about yourself and your habits by doing your daily check
<v Speaker 2>ins and your end of day check ins, and.
<v Speaker 1>The daily lessons are about things like mindset and right
<v Speaker 1>habits and what do you do when you're struggling.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's a valuable resource. And so she took my advice.
<v Speaker 2>She got it. She got to the end of it,
<v Speaker 2>and she shared that it was very very helpful that
<v Speaker 2>she couldn't believe she hadn't done it before.
<v Speaker 1>So, well, I didn't write it just to sell people
<v Speaker 1>another book. I wrote it because I wanted their need.
<v Speaker 1>I saw in need everything that I do, like the
<v Speaker 1>new Eat like a Gardnut program, I saw a need.
<v Speaker 1>And we could tell people all day long, you know,
<v Speaker 1>choose real foods. But people need just a little bit
<v Speaker 1>more support. And so that's what teachers do. We say,
<v Speaker 1>here's a need. This is how we're going to help
<v Speaker 1>people who have that need. So our next question is
<v Speaker 1>from Becky from Connecticut. I am newish to intermittent fasting.
<v Speaker 1>I dabbled when I did a keto weight loss program
<v Speaker 1>with an OBCD medicine specialist in twenty twenty. I lost
<v Speaker 1>thirty pounds, but reached a comfortable point and let it
<v Speaker 1>all go. I think I gained forty pounds back. I
<v Speaker 1>am fifty two and I do CrossFit workouts three to
<v Speaker 1>five times a week. I am fasting for twenty hours,
<v Speaker 1>with a four hour window at dinner time and then
<v Speaker 1>I'm done. How long should it take to notice a
<v Speaker 1>difference weight wise? I'm noticing some non scale victories, but
<v Speaker 1>I have a physical in February and I want to
<v Speaker 1>see some good results. Thank you so much for all
<v Speaker 1>you are both doing well.
<v Speaker 2>As I just mentioned, it's going to be different for everybody.
<v Speaker 2>Not everybody's fat adapted in the first four weeks. It
<v Speaker 2>really depends on your body, how you eat, how you
<v Speaker 2>move your body, your metabolic health, how insulin resistant you are,
<v Speaker 2>how long you've been struggling with weight loss, whether or
<v Speaker 2>not you have a fatty liver. So all of that
<v Speaker 2>is going to affect how quickly your body becomes fat
<v Speaker 2>adapted and can shift into fat burning each day during
<v Speaker 2>the fast. So generally we see this happen for I
<v Speaker 2>would say the majority of people within four to would
<v Speaker 2>you say eight weeks. Yeah, there are a few stragglers
<v Speaker 2>that take eight, eight to twelve weeks, but those are
<v Speaker 2>also going to be the people who really ease into this,
<v Speaker 2>and they start with a much longer window. If you
<v Speaker 2>jump in.
<v Speaker 1>She's doing four hour windows windows's cry. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>I would think really within three to four weeks you're
<v Speaker 2>going to start shifting and if that burning daily, and
<v Speaker 2>then it's just a matter of how much weight you
<v Speaker 2>have to lose, how much inflammation you're caring. But as
<v Speaker 2>far as going and doing your physical in February, most
<v Speaker 2>people start to see an improvement in their fasting glucose
<v Speaker 2>pretty quickly. Now here's something I do want to warn
<v Speaker 2>you about. When you are in the early days of
<v Speaker 2>intermittent fasting, your body's pulling all this glycogen out that's
<v Speaker 2>stored and that's what is using for fuel, Like in
<v Speaker 2>the mornings of your fasts, like after you've burned through
<v Speaker 2>the food you ate, it's pulling glycogen out of storage
<v Speaker 2>and this can result in a higher than typical blood
<v Speaker 2>glucose and when I say typical, I mean your typical
<v Speaker 2>blood glucose until you have purged all that glycogen out.
<v Speaker 2>And so because of that, if they were to do
<v Speaker 2>an A and C in February and you started fasting
<v Speaker 2>in November, is reflective of three months prior average blood
<v Speaker 2>glucos So November, December, January is three months. So if
<v Speaker 2>you go in February and have a physical, your A
<v Speaker 2>one C could have an increase from your last A
<v Speaker 2>and C. Don't panic. This happens and it's very normal.
<v Speaker 2>But what should happen is three months from then you
<v Speaker 2>should see a great change in your A and C.
<v Speaker 2>And then you know, other than that, we also see
<v Speaker 2>a transient rise in cholesterol. Quite often as people are
<v Speaker 2>adopting intermint fasting lifestyle, you are mobilizing your fat stores
<v Speaker 2>for energy, so it can cause a rise in your HDL,
<v Speaker 2>which then causes i'm sorry, you're LVL, which causes a
<v Speaker 2>rise in your total cholesterol. So if you can, I
<v Speaker 2>would almost suggest delaying your physical, like by a month
<v Speaker 2>or so, just because if you want your doctor to
<v Speaker 2>see good values, if you could push it back a
<v Speaker 2>little bit, great, If not, just go in knowing that
<v Speaker 2>you may see some sort of falsely inflated numbers, but
<v Speaker 2>that in three months they should look significantly better. And
<v Speaker 2>then most people are seeing a difference in like high
<v Speaker 2>blood pressure within the first three to six months of
<v Speaker 2>starting an internet fasting lifestyle. So if that's an issue
<v Speaker 2>for you, that should show an improvement in February as well. So, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>if my answer to you would be different if you
<v Speaker 2>had already been fasting three months, but the fact that
<v Speaker 2>you're fasting really close to this physical that you just started,
<v Speaker 2>it could skew your results some and so I don't
<v Speaker 2>want you to panic or be discouraged if that happens.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and she also asked one to see a difference
<v Speaker 1>weight wise, make sure that you are tracking your trend
<v Speaker 1>weighing daily with weekly averaging. If you've got delayed on
<v Speaker 1>deny or fast feast, repeat read the weighing chapter, look
<v Speaker 1>at my examples. Make sure you you are collecting data
<v Speaker 1>daily once a day, first thing in the morning. Collect
<v Speaker 1>that data point and then have some sort of a
<v Speaker 1>way of figuring out what your trend is doing, whether
<v Speaker 1>that's an app like Happy Scale, or you actually do
<v Speaker 1>the math, or you add up your weights and divide
<v Speaker 1>by the number of weights to get your average. That
<v Speaker 1>makes such a difference. You want to see your average
<v Speaker 1>going down from one half to one pound per week.
<v Speaker 1>And you know, if you're just weighing and you're not
<v Speaker 1>calculating your trend, those fluctuations are really going to get
<v Speaker 1>inside your head. And all the examples are in those chapters,
<v Speaker 1>and I really want you to see them. You know,
<v Speaker 1>if I were only weighing once a week, I would
<v Speaker 1>have thought I was gaining weight one week, but my
<v Speaker 1>trend was really down. If you're only weighing randomly, you
<v Speaker 1>might get to catch yourself on an upday of your
<v Speaker 1>weight and think that you're gaining, but your trend is down.
<v Speaker 1>So knowing your trend is really really important, which is
<v Speaker 1>why I'm always going to be a broken record when
<v Speaker 1>it comes to that, because the only time I didn't
<v Speaker 1>quit intermittent fasting was the first time that I had
<v Speaker 1>been calculating my trend and I saw that I was
<v Speaker 1>losing weight week after week, and then I didn't quit.
<v Speaker 1>But every other time I would let to wait convince
<v Speaker 1>me it wasn't working. So know your trend. I also
<v Speaker 1>want to caution you about a daily four hour window
<v Speaker 1>with dinner only and heavy CrossFit three to five times
<v Speaker 1>a week. Just be careful that you're not overdoing it.
<v Speaker 1>Over exercising coupled with over restriction is not a good
<v Speaker 1>thing for your body. So just make sure you know.
<v Speaker 1>We're a big fan of exercising, we're a big fan
<v Speaker 1>of fasting, but we don't want to overdo either of them,
<v Speaker 1>especially combined. You need to have a good balance.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and you know, years ago, I can't remember who
<v Speaker 2>it was, they made a video a YouTube video was
<v Speaker 2>circulating in the Facebook group years ago, somebody in the
<v Speaker 2>health and fitness industry, and they were talking about when
<v Speaker 2>you are intermittent fasting, oftentimes your workouts less is more.
<v Speaker 2>And they really were talking about like CrossFit and hit
<v Speaker 2>that people that think they have to do it four
<v Speaker 2>or five six times a week, that your body will
<v Speaker 2>actually respond better if you back that up to about
<v Speaker 2>three times a week and then do more restorative exercise
<v Speaker 2>on the days that you aren't doing the intense workouts.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so three days that are spaced apart rather than
<v Speaker 1>three that are consecutive. Right, Yeah, right, And you know
<v Speaker 1>a very good point.
<v Speaker 2>Once you're over fifty, your body just does not respond
<v Speaker 2>and heal the way it did when you were younger,
<v Speaker 2>And so that's also a case for less is more.
<v Speaker 2>If you want to avoid injury and muscle over use
<v Speaker 2>and give your muscles time to repair in between those
<v Speaker 2>heavy duty workouts, you're going to be so much better
<v Speaker 2>off in the long run.
<v Speaker 1>Right all right, before we.
<v Speaker 2>Get to the tweak of the week, let's talk about
<v Speaker 2>your goals for twenty twenty six. I'm going to encourage
<v Speaker 2>all of you to have really strong goals. Remember your why.
<v Speaker 2>Maybe it's time to create a new why. Or maybe
<v Speaker 2>you have goals but you're not really sure how to
<v Speaker 2>obtain them. So if you're listing right now and you
<v Speaker 2>find yourself thinking about what you're going to do different
<v Speaker 2>in twenty twenty six to achieve your health and wonless goals,
<v Speaker 2>or maybe you didn't make the progress you would have
<v Speaker 2>liked to make over the past months or year, and
<v Speaker 2>you're just not sure how to make fasting a sustainable
<v Speaker 2>lifestyle something that you just wake up and do every
<v Speaker 2>day because it's part of who you are, that's how
<v Speaker 2>Jen and I live. Or maybe you're trying to shake
<v Speaker 2>loose a plateau. Maybe you need help with mindset or
<v Speaker 2>self limiting beliefs. I would love to help you. Whether
<v Speaker 2>it's a one hour session or a monthly package, we
<v Speaker 2>can meet to figure out what is holding you back.
<v Speaker 2>We can create an action plan to overcome it. And
<v Speaker 2>one of my favorite things I just told Eric this
<v Speaker 2>last week. When I first meet with my monthly clients,
<v Speaker 2>they are usually kind of downtrodden. It's in their face,
<v Speaker 2>it's in their vibe. And I meet face to face
<v Speaker 2>through video, just like Jen and I are talking to
<v Speaker 2>each other right now, I can see it. They are heavy,
<v Speaker 2>they feel heavy, their mood is down, they feel like
<v Speaker 2>they're failing, they don't feel like success is there for them.
<v Speaker 2>And by the end of our four weeks they are
<v Speaker 2>just lit up. Really Often by the second or third week,
<v Speaker 2>I see a dressedic I tell them, I'm like, oh
<v Speaker 2>my gosh, you just are so different than you were
<v Speaker 2>the first time we met. And it's that feeling empowered
<v Speaker 2>and feeling like you're on the right path. And you
<v Speaker 2>start to take the action plan and you start to
<v Speaker 2>applie it, and you start to feel change, and you
<v Speaker 2>start to see change. It just changes everything. And so
<v Speaker 2>it is so rewarding to me to see people the
<v Speaker 2>end of four weeks laughing and smiling and cutting up
<v Speaker 2>when week four they were just sad and we won,
<v Speaker 2>and or week one they were sad and just kind
<v Speaker 2>of beaten down feeling, and that is so rewarding for me.
<v Speaker 2>So if you would like to learn more about my
<v Speaker 2>coaching how it works, send me an email at Sherry
<v Speaker 2>at fast feastrepeat dot com and I'm happy to share
<v Speaker 2>with you.
<v Speaker 1>So now it's time for our tweak of the week.
<v Speaker 1>You know, I always say tweak it till it's easy.
<v Speaker 1>But the tweak that works for me might not be
<v Speaker 1>the one that works for you. And that's why it
<v Speaker 1>is so helpful to hear how other intermittent fasters are
<v Speaker 1>making intermittent fasting work for them. We have Janet from
<v Speaker 1>College Station, Texas. She said, I participated in meal less
<v Speaker 1>Monday this week, and I found something that really helped me.
<v Speaker 1>I listened to Dawn the minimal Mom on YouTube and
<v Speaker 1>I'm a member of her community, which focuses on decluttering
<v Speaker 1>and maintaining the home. I made a huge meal on Sunday,
<v Speaker 1>so when I got home from work on Monday, I
<v Speaker 1>didn't have to cook. I turned on her YouTube channel
<v Speaker 1>and started decluttering my bathroom. I decided that Monday afternoons
<v Speaker 1>would be my time to pick an area of the
<v Speaker 1>house to declutter or reorganize. This is one of my
<v Speaker 1>favorite pastimes and provides me so much peace of mind.
<v Speaker 1>It was a great distraction from my routine during dinnertime.
<v Speaker 1>My tweak is to find something you like doing and
<v Speaker 1>plan it during your down day. I got a little
<v Speaker 1>hungry in the evening, but I kept doing what I
<v Speaker 1>was doing, and I ended up not only with decluttered,
<v Speaker 1>clean bathroom, but also with my fast serving as an
<v Speaker 1>internal decluttering session. I got rid of the junk with
<v Speaker 1>both activities. I love that.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, all right, well, we love to leave you with
<v Speaker 2>inspirational or motivational messages, and this week we have a
<v Speaker 2>quote from fair Play Nancy on the Voice, there was
<v Speaker 2>a singer whose comfort zone was to sing Latin leaning
<v Speaker 2>songs in Spanish. He was being asked to sing a
<v Speaker 2>song in one of the battles that was a different
<v Speaker 2>genre and in English. While competing. Lizzo said to him,
<v Speaker 2>when you're out of your comfort zone, bring your comfort
<v Speaker 2>into the zone, and suggested that he find a place
<v Speaker 2>in the song to sing in Spanish. So the question
<v Speaker 2>is when we're out of our comfort zone in our
<v Speaker 2>eyef journey, how can we bring our comfort to it?
<v Speaker 2>And she says, by the way, the singer and the
<v Speaker 2>voice did as was suggested, and he knocked it out
<v Speaker 2>of the park.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, but we got to get out of our comfort zone.
<v Speaker 1>Where does comfort get us? Doesn't roxy always say that
<v Speaker 1>we're has comfort gotten you?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah? Yeah, you know. I said something to somebody community
<v Speaker 2>this morning. They were having a little bit of a
<v Speaker 2>struggle with just mindset and consistency, and I said, you know,
<v Speaker 2>we live very comfortable lives right right, and we're acclimated
<v Speaker 2>to being comfortable. We don't like to be uncomfortable, and
<v Speaker 2>we for the most part, none of us have to be.
<v Speaker 2>If you're cold, turn up the heat, if you're hot,
<v Speaker 2>turn down the ac. You know, we don't live uncomfortable lives.
<v Speaker 2>But part of creating a fasting lifestyle that is sustainable,
<v Speaker 2>and that is you know, beneficial, is you have to
<v Speaker 2>lean into discomfort sometimes, right, And when people say, well,
<v Speaker 2>how much should I fight hunger before I open my window?
<v Speaker 2>I like to tell them fast, as long as you
<v Speaker 2>are comfortably uncomfortable.
<v Speaker 1>Comfortably uncomfortable. Yeah, we're not shaking, you're not nauseous, you're
<v Speaker 1>not passing out right.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, so yeah, its comforts can be growth.
<v Speaker 1>Thanks so much for listening today. We would love to
<v Speaker 1>have you join us in the Delayed On Tonight community,
<v Speaker 1>where you can interact with both me and Sherry, plus
<v Speaker 1>the most supportive bunch of intermittent fasters you'll find anywhere.
<v Speaker 1>Go to Jenstevens dot com slash community to join us.
<v Speaker 2>Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast to your favorite
<v Speaker 2>podcast app, and if you haven't already, please leave us
<v Speaker 2>a five star review that helps new listeners find the
<v Speaker 2>show 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
<v Speaker 1>Easy moments, or anything else you want us to share
<v Speaker 1>on the podcast, go to Fast Feast Repeat dot com
<v Speaker 1>slash submit and then listen each week to see if
<v Speaker 1>we share your submission or answer your.
<v Speaker 2>Question until next week. Thanks for listening. This podcast was
<v Speaker 2>edited by Resonate Recordings