Episode 22: Creating an IF Lifestyle You Enjoy, Finding Balance, and More

Welcome the 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 so glad, me too. I feel like I usually
always say I'm doing great well. I think we're less. I'm exhausted go
through life being great well. I kind of was reflecting on that the other
day. It's funny if you design your life to have a great life,
you can have a great life. That's true. Like ten twelve years ago,
I would have never told you I was great every day. I was
always under stress and sort of miserable. But I decided not to live that
way anymore. I love it. So you designed a life that looks really
different than it did before, and now it's it's a good life. Yeah.
I said to somebody the other day, I said, you know the
purpose of life is to not just survive, to thrive. That's exactly right.
And I feel like, you know, once I got into my forties,
I really started thriving, So I think that's important. I love that.
Well. Can I tell you a funny story? Sure? You know
how Missy always makes the post? You know, what's the best thing you
ate each week? Yes? I always try to think back of what was
the best thing I ate? Did you see what I wrote on the last
time she has that? No? I really thought of it, and I
said, everything I ate this week was the best thing I ever ate.
And do you know why? Why? Because I added back, Deary,
you know, I talked about my whole diet brain situation, and you know
then I'm like, why am I doing this? And oh my gosh,
food is so delicious, like anyway, so good. I am not good
at restriction, but nor do I want to be so I have just you
know, the past year, it was always a good reason, Zoe,
I'm going to up up my you know, my gut microbirom and oh my
dad is sick. Oh I should be much healthier this way. I'm like,
you know, I am not the person who's going to give things up.
That is just what I've learned over and over again. I'm having so
much joy with my eating again. I think that's important. I think so
too, I really do. I If you are sitting down at your window
and you are not excited about where you're eating, then I think that's an
issue. And I think that's when people start to feel deprived and they suddenly
they start thinking fasting isn't working because I can't eat all the delicious fiddo want
to eat. And then those are the people who like kind of disappear and
then they come back. Right. So, I mean, yes, you
have to eat for your health goals, right, but you also have to
balance that out with just eating food that excites you. And makes you happy.
Well, it's the balance, you know. I said this on somebody's
post yesterday in the community. It was the balance of finding the lifestyle that
you can do that feels good every day versus you know, like let's say,
for example, I mean, I am at a weight that I like,
and I'm grateful for that, and I'm you know, losing weight is
not a goal I have. But if I did want to lose weight from
where I am right now, I wouldn't need to change what I was eating.
I would need to I would need to change what I was eating to
lose weight beyond my current quote set point whenever read it, because this is
where my body wants to be. Well, it was like my experiment I
did several summers ago, and I was like, you know, I just
want to see, like how thin can I really get if I really modified
my diet and I really modified my diet, I really really cut out excess
dietary fat, and you know, I dropped an extra fifteen pounds, right,
But in order to maintain that, I would have to be hyper focused
on everything I ate every single day and be restrictive and cook all my meals
from scratch and I don't want to live like that, yep. And that
was the comment that I made on somebody's post, and it's you know,
you have a dream lifestyle where you feel happy and good and you're eating the
foods you love in a window that feels easy and doable. But you might
I also have a dream body that you wish you could be, like this
certain size that you have in your mind. If those two things don't match,
you got to figure out how to make it like work together. Right,
So you've got to figure out what is the lifestyle I want to live
that gives me a body I feel good in. You don't want to have
your dream body and a miserable lifestyle, right, And that's the balance and
trying to figure out it's not easy. There's no easy answer because we're not
the same well, and you know, when it came down to it,
my husband did not like my body that then, yeah, he likes me
with somewhere curves on me and you know, he was like, you've lost
your butt, which is true, but yeah, and you know, it
was nice to be able to put on any pair of jeans and not have
a little muffin top. And you know what I've learned just buy different genes
that don't cut you off and give you muffin up. There you go.
If your jeans are too tight, you're wearing the wrong jean. It's true.
So anyway that ever, I'm like enjoying my window again and it's I'm
gonna have a burger tonight. I'm gonna eat at Trivia. I haven't had
a burger since August. I have not had a good burger in a really
long time. But yep. And somebody was talking today in the community about
sub and a tub or something, and she was asking, you know what
other things people eat like that? And I said, I like to make
a bacon cheeseburger salad now and then, and I mean, it's everything that's
in a bacon cheeseburger. And I just put it on a bed of mixed
greens and yeah, for the dressing, I mixed mayo and little Ketchup and
I dice up some a lot of pickles because I love pickles. It's like
a bowl. Well kind of like when I don't use thousand Island, I'm
just making your own kind. Well that's what I guess. Thousand Islands Ketchup
mayonnaise and pickles. It's so sweet though, Well you don't have to put
the sugar in there. Okay, So that's really what Thousand Island is.
Yeah, ketchupnaise and pickles. Yeah, oh now you know, well apparently
that's what I'm making a and a bowl and it's so satisfying to me.
I love it. Yeah. Well that's the that's the key, and it
brings you joy and you know, it's just a matter. And that's what
I hope that we can teach people is finding the balance. And we could
tell you how to lose more weight, but are you going to enjoy right
what you're doing right? And that's that's the key. Well, this is
because this isn't a diet. This is a lifestyle exactly. So anybody can
do anything and restrict for a while, but to do that long term,
that's just that becomes a job, that becomes work. It's hard. It's
really really hard to restrict. And so don't let me do it again.
Share you're my friend. Don't if I start talking to you about that,
say jin stop, you know what hard? What I knew you weren't to
stick with it? I mean, you know me, did I tell you
that no, no, like Jen figured this out for herself and I was
just supportive and excited for your car. But it's it's also fun to tweak
things. It's fun to tweak your diet and and say, oh, really
lose, hey this is working really well or ooh this CGM look what it's
showing and it feels good. But then you're like, I gotta cook that
dinner and be sure it would be better if I had some well you know
like that. It's when I start leaving the healthy food in the refrigerator and
I'm like, I don't want to cook that meal tonight, and I stay
looking for something else because I'm just not excited about it. So that's why
I say it's really important, I think, to be excited about what you're
going to cook for dinner and what you're going to eat. And I really
think the joy of eating has got to be there. You know, food
is a sentual experience and it should be. It is I think so too.
Anyway, enjoy my food, enjoying my life, So listeners, enjoy
your food. Life is too short to eat food that you do not enjoy.
And really figure out what is the lifestyle you want to live and learn
to love your body and the what that lifestyle gives you, right right,
Yeah, And I still one hundred percent believe that you're even if your weight
is not shifting as you continue to fast, your body is still changing.
Yeah. And if you're not really happy with your body, I really cannot
suggest enough to throw some bodied movement in there. Start moving your body,
because a tone body is always going to look better than a loose, saggy
body. Right. So well, I mean, you know, we want
to be building our muscles. We want to you know, I'm loving taichi
and so find something that you in a way that you can move your body,
whether it's yoga or pilates or tai chi or you know whatever it is,
walking, Yeah, move your body. Our muscles are meant to move,
they're meant to be strong. We're meant to be strong. So yeah,
there are things you can do besides diet to tweak your body. And
don't get fixated on a number, because that's the hardest part. And I
told that's why I stopped weighing, because who knows, you know, if
I were still weighing, that gave me diet brain like nothing else. Wanting
to seem a certain number because I had that in my head. So nothing's
been more fering for me than that. Yep. Well, let's talk about
a celebration. This one comes from Genie in Kansas Hi Jenie Kansas Girl Hair.
She has several non scale victories she wants to share. So number one,
she says, the first day of drinking black coffee instead of a hot
milkshake Prgin's description. Lol, my stomach wasn't upset and it wasn't hurting like
when I used to drink coffee with creamer. The second best non scale victory
was being able to bend over to clip file and paint my toenails. And
that is a big one. I remember when I couldn't do it, Like
my belly was so big I could not do my own toenails. Well,
my husband when he had surgery last time, kind of ballooned up my husband.
For those of you who don't know, if you came from the Life
Lessons podcast, you know my husband Saga. But he had several orthopedic surgeries
in a two year span and was off work a total of like thirty some
weeks, and each time he put on about sixty pounds oh wow, Yeah,
I didn't know the number. Well, he got to a point,
well, I think the first time was worse. He got up to two
hundred and ninety five pounds and he could not bend over to tie his shoes.
Yeah, and my husband, who is in his thirties at that point,
asked me for slip on shoes, and all of a sudden one day
he was like, I can bend over to tie my shoes again. That's
awesome. Yeah. Like when I was pregnant, I couldn't paint my toenails
obviously, and then Chad Chad painting my toenails, but then I was just
I had such a big belly. When I was obese, I couldn't paint
my toenails, and I was always going to get pedicures because I couldn't do
it myself. Now just do it myself. Yeah, that's a good one.
That is a good one. Number three, I can walk outside without
having any allergy issues, approximately four months into my eye of lifestyle. What
an awesome victory. I've had allergy issues since childhood, to the point of
being dismissed during school to go home and stay inside because there wasn't air conditioning.
In the schools yet. Number four, I've noticed body recomposition at work.
I can wear dress pants while weighing more than I weighed when I used
to wear them back in twenty fifteen, and that is something we hear a
lot. Yeah, if you've got old clothes from before that fit you at
a certain weight before, and you've saved those clothes, you're going to be
surprised at the weight where they fit you thanks to body recomposition. That is
how we know we are losing fat and maintaining muscle mass because we're smaller at
the same scale. Number right, Yeah, you know, my weight watcher's
leader weight was one seventy three. That's what I had a wagh in I'm
in order to work and that so that's what I set as my eye off
weight. And I actually at one seventy three at when weight watchers, I
was a ten to twelve and at one seventy three. Oh, then I'm
at fasting, I'm a six to eight. Yeah, and I've seen your
photos, so people could say, oh, it's just vanity sizing. It's
not. You've shown photos of you at one seventy one. I can't remember
what those subers are at one seventy three versus I was puffy, I was
inflamed. I mean even my face at one seventy three from twenty twelve to
now is totally different. Yep, totally. So yeah, yeah, people
get I know everybody who wants to weigh a certain number and we you know,
you're told to weigh a certain number, but you it is very likely
that you will not get to your previous maintenance weight number when you were like,
oh, the best I felt in my life was after I did this
crazy crash diet and I weighed one hundred and forty two pounds, So I'm
going to weigh one hundred and forty two pounds now. You may not get
there because you're just not losing muscle mass at the same time as you're losing
fat. If you're clean, fasting and your body may settle in one hundred
and forty you are one hundred and fifty, you may look as much the
same as you did at one hundred and forty two. You probably are like
better than you did at one hundred and twenty two, and your clothes are
going to fit the same. So like when it comes down to your final
ten pounds, be flexible. That's what I always tell people in the community,
especially if they're like brand new to intermittent fasting and they're like, I'm
here and I only need to lose ten to fifteen pounds. I'm like,
all right, let's talk about that. I want you to completely get that
number out of your head. Instead, there's if you only want to lose
ten to fifteen pounds, you probably have some goal clothes dashed away that no
longer fit you. That is how you're going to decide. If you're there,
you might lose two pounds and fit back into those clothes and be amazed
at the way your body has changed. But the scale has not right right,
and it may not change for a year. I mean, you could
do it for a year and think, oh, the scale's not changing.
This isn't working. But that's why I really, really, really if I
cannot express enough, take progress photos. Take them when you start. I
don't care if you're three hundred pounds and you don't want to see yourself in
shorts and a tank top. Do it. It's going to be so amazed
later. Yeah, one day we're gonna want to have that. I promise
you you're gonna want it. I cannot tell you how many people say I
wish I would have taken progress photos when I started. Yeah, and you
might feel like like you, you might feel embarrassed to take the photos or
ashamed of seeing yourself in photos, but you're gonna want to have that,
you really, really are. I'll still take progress photos like every three months
or so, just because I like to compare and see what my body's doing.
And we're the same outfit if you can. Yeah, And if you're
somebody who only needs to lose ten to fifteen pounds and you've got those gold
pants that don't fit you, and that's where you want to get, try
to put those on, take a picture. Maybe you can't zip them up,
and then you'll be able to tell the difference once they button, once
you can zip them, that'll tell the story. Yeah, that's powerful,
all right, So let's get to our first question. This is from Margie
from Olive Bridge, New York. Margie said, Hi, I am beyond
grateful that you've started this podcast exactly the moment I decided to give myself one
more or last try with if I've read both Delayed On Deny and Fast Feast
Repeat listen to the podcasts and started intermittent fasting. A few different times.
I've dropped about ten pounds of the forty I really need to drop. But
I have not been able to adopt this as a lifestyle yet. I've tried
fasting apps and timers, and it almost seems like the more I focus on
it, the more my ability to stick with it eludes me. Then I
get frustrated and feel defeated. Then I neither delay nor deny, and I'm
creeping up to be the heaviest. Yet I'm sixty five years old, very
healthy and active, a performing musician, and I know that my ability to
stay active and healthy depends on keeping out of the obesity range. That knowledge,
however, doesn't seem to be enough to keep me on trap. Do
you have any words of wisdom to help me shift my frustrating stuckness. I
have been an ethical vegetarian since age fifteen. I don't care what anyone else
eats. My husband and cats eat meat, and I don't judge, so
I mostly eat a whole food, plant based diet. I avoid dairy,
no eggs, fish, or meat. I do all my own cooking,
and I'm good at it. If I do say so myself, maybe too
good. I love good food. One last thing, I detest the way
I feel in the fluffiness of my belly. I detest the numbness on my
outer thigh due to a pinched nerve because of the excess weight I'm carrying.
But I'd rather drop the weight. Not because I hate my appearance, but
because I love myself unconditionally. It's just words now, and I'm struggling to
make it real in my heart. Okay, really, one last thing,
Like you, Jen, I believe I learned my food language from my mom,
who had a lifelong struggle with weight and yo yo dieting and body image
issues. Thank you so much for creating this space and giving me an opportunity
to express these things, even if only for my own clarity. Well,
there's a lot going on. I wonder if, Margie, are you a
perfectionist? I'm just having that same thought. Are you the person who has
tried fasting apps and timers and then you messed up one day? You didn't
do it perfectly, you didn't get to your fasting goal, or your window
ran over a little bit, and you just do the baby out with the
bath water. I don't know. That's mean kind of something that we see
happen, and I'm wondering if that's happening to you. You say that your
ability to stick with fasting willude you, so I think you need to craft
your why. I also think you really need to learn to love yourself just
as you are. We're not seeking perfection. Nobody expects you to be perfect.
All you have to do is wake up every day with the fasting intention.
Wake up fast as long as you can comfortably fast. And I mean
like physically comfortably fast, not mentally. If you're mentally seeking food for comfort
or to make yourself feel better or whatever, that's not when you open your
window. That's when you do a little more internal work. And then and
if you don't like fasting apps of tipers, don't use one. Try focusing.
I don't know if you've ever just focused on the window. Try focusing
on the window. Decide you know what window link you like. Right now,
if you're just trying to build consistency, jump into an eight hour window.
Set a timer. Set a timer when you open your window, set
it for let's say seven hours, and when that timer goes off, you
know you have one hour left of your window. So if you need to
have a window closing snack, or you haven't had dinner yet, or whatever
it is that gives you a little hour cushion there. If you get to
that timer going off and you're satisfied for the day, then you've already been
fasting. It doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to you know,
you don't have to track anything other than you're eating window and then as
far as food goes, I do not think, well, I'm gonna just
say it this way. I don't think anybody becomes obese from eating too many
vegetables. So I know you say you're vegetarian. That's great, whole food,
plant based, Yeah, yeah, so mostly, Yeah, there's something
else in your diet that I think is not probably serving you well. And
I don't know what that is. You'll have to maybe take a look at
your diet and see what is what's happening there. You know what is in
your diet that is not allowing your body to maintain a healthy weight and make
some tweaks to your diet. Like I said, I don't know what that
is. It could be too much fat in your diet. Are you eating
too many processed carbohydrates like pasta and bread and that sort of thing, like
maybe you need to cut that out for a little bit as you're losing.
It's really hard to say. And then I think it'd be really interesting if
you could get a fasting insulin done and know where you stand with that acts.
So those are my thoughts. What do you think, Jen, Yeah,
I think that's really good advice. I love the idea to just give
yourself eight but have the timer go off at seven and then reassess, because
you might be like, yeah, I've had enough for the day. That's
enough. And I do agree that if if the apps and the timers are
making it harder, then you should totally stop with that, because that perfectionistic
tendency does happen, you know, and the fasting timers out there focus on
the fast and so we get this feeling of, oh, if I don't
hit you know whatever it is, nineteen. If I don't hit nineteen,
I'm failing. And then you're like, well, I only fasted sixteen hours
and I might as well just give up. And we tell ourselves that lie
in our heads. But every morning, like Sherry said, you wake up
and it's a fast every morning you wake up fasted, and so you just
extend it. You extend it till till the time of the day that is
comfortable for you. And I also want you to really try to figure out
the time of day that you're eating window that works best for you and for
me that is waiting until afternoon to open. But that doesn't mean that's what
it is for everybody. Someone interviewed me for a podcast last week and said,
so, your goal is for everyone to end up one meal a day
with an afternoon evening eating window, And I said, absolutely not. That
is not what everyone's goal should be. You know, maybe Margie, maybe
you or somebody that would find your rhythm with a morning window. Maybe I
mean the fewer people end up with a morning window, but that might be
your sweet spot. If you have an experimented with that, try it.
Maybe your ideal window is in a day, or maybe your window is more
like mine and it's better to delay it later in the day. But you
need to experiment to see if you can figure out what feels easy. Because
you know, we say tweak it till it's easy, and we mean it.
You need to find the time that feels right to you. As far
as as what you're eating, you if you if you're you say you're committed.
Whole food plant based is how you you live ethically, It's how you
feel your best. I would recommend there's a book out there that if I
ever needed to lose weight again, I would one hundred percent focus on this
book. But Plant to Fully Lean is the name of the book and it's
someone who I just YouTube showed her to me, and she makes beautiful food
and it's whole food plant based and she's lost a ton of weight and it's
it's whole food plant based, like literally, So if you sticking to your
whole food plant based, if you want to tweak the food, if you
feel like food might be part of your problem, get that book. Plan
a fully lean and take a look and craft you're eating window in such a
way that it feels good to you. And you know, whole food plant
based foods are just they're very satisfying and delicious and you can figure out,
you know the way to choose the foods that are working well for you.
Do you have anything you want to add to that, Sherry, Yeah,
I do. And actually, just because people always come back later and ask
us they don't always have pen and paper when they're listened to the podcast,
We'll drop. I'll put some links in show notes for that book. And
I also want to recommend another book that was very life's changing for me,
and that is The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown. I recommend this book
a lot. It's the subtitle is let go of who you think you're supposed
to be and embrace who you are. And this is a quote from Brenne
Brown. She says, I do not think you can truly change for the
better in a lasting, meaningful way unless it is driven by self acceptance.
And I know you are how old sixty something was trying to scroll back up
and see how old she said she Why did I think she said she was
sixty? Oh, yeah, she's sixty five or sixty five, Margie.
And it's really time to learn to love yourself and who you are. And
I kind of just reading between the lines of your message to us. I
mean, it's not even really reading between the lines. You said, I
hate my appearance and you want to drop weight not because you hate it,
but because you love yourself unconditionally. And this book really really helped me.
She said she wants to drop the weight, not because she hates her appearance.
Well, to me, that means she hates her appearance, and we've
been there, you're right right, Okay, I'd read it again through that
Yet she would rather drop the weight because she hates her Okay, I get
it. Yeah, So yeah, I just thought that was a powerful quote.
You cannot truly change for the better in a lasting, meaningful way unless
it is driven by self acceptance. Yeah, and I think that's very,
very true. So while working on you know, getting some fasting under your
belt in a consecutive you know manner, also do a little a little self
work and I think that will really help you in the long run. I
think, so that's really really important. All Right, now it's time for
our segment called What's Your Why? And most of us have weight loss and
in our minds when we start intermittent fasting, and it's great for that to
be part of our why, But there's so much more to what intermittent fast
can do for us beyond weight loss. So in my new book twenty eight
day Fast Start day by day, I asked readers to craft their why statement
before even beginning, and when your why is deeper than weight loss alone,
you're more likely to find long term success and view intermittent fasting as a lifestyle.
So today we have a why from Judith and Judith you know, I'm
meant to ask you in community how to pronounce your last name because I hate
mispronouncing people's names. I did say in that post where people to add their
why that we weren't going to say their last name. Oh you did,
Yeah, it's part of the post, like we're just going to say because
people might not want you to say their last name, Okay, so we're
just going to say their first name. I meant to remind you of that
I don't have to pronounce our last name because I was looking back at that
post today because someone made a comment on it and I was reading it,
and now because I said, we don't like to share things from community unless
you give permission for us to share them. But in that exact post,
I said, if you put a reply here, we assume you are giving
us permission to share it, because that's but we won't share your last rank.
I didn't need it or notice that. I was too busy reading the
responses, well, happy accident. Yeah all right, well thank you for
letting me know. Yeah, so okay, Today's wise from Judith, Just
Judith. She said, fifty six years of age. My wife was easy.
April fourth, twenty twenty one easter, I could barely stand and walk,
and preparing a big family meal was killing me. I told my husband
that night that if I did not find a way to make a full lifestyle
change, I was afraid I'd wind up in a wheelchair for the rest of
my life. I've dieted, I've lost weight, but I could never maintain
I worked in a physician directed weight loss center, and I knew it was
a lifestyle I was searching for and not just another fad diet. Now,
at fifty eight, I'm down over one hundred and twenty five pounds with more
still to shed, and I am living the lifestyle that I want to live
for the next fifty eight years. I love that so much. And you
know from that we can take a couple of really important lessons. Number One,
she has watched people in a physician directed weight loss center. She's probably
seen people lose just a crap ton of weight quickly, right, But she
knew that that's not what she wanted to do because those people lose it,
then they gain it back. That was me yo yo ing all those years
ago, back and forth, back and forth. So she knew she needed
to make a lifestyle change. And at the very last thing, she said,
she's living the lifestyle she wants to live for the next fifty eight years.
That is really what I want to get across. You are choosing an
IF lifestyle. We talked about this at the beginning. You got to craft
a lifestyle that you can live for the next fifty eight years. Yeah,
I can give up dairy and eggs and meat for apparently sixty days. I
could do that. I feel this time you didn't. I did. Here's
the thing this time, this time, here's what I didn't really actually because
remember this time, I was like, I'm gonna do that at home.
You started out, Yes, that's right. Like I was like, I'm
not gonna do I'm not going to be like I knew I wasn't going to
be able to like never again have those things. But the reason I made
it longer because I did have those things when I was out. If there
was a little cheese in there, you know, if you were getting your
little cheese fixed. I got it a little bit, but then I was
like, you know, let's say Darry does have these caso morphines that do
something in our brain. I like that. Maybe cheese is like a drug,
and I accept that. I like the way it makes me feel,
and I'm not even sorry anyhow. So the part of living a lifestyle is
what matters. I could white knuckle it through whatever for six sixty days or
whatever, but that a lifestyle you shouldn't have to white knuckle it through.
Yep, agree, I agree, Yeah, And I think her WiFi is
a very powerful way to just fear of losing mobility and living in pain.
That's a very powerful motivator. And you know, it's really easy when you
have one hundred and fifty two hundred pounds to lose, to really just be
like forget it, give up, throw your hands up. And I love
that Judith just kept searching and she's now found her answer. Or you can
think that the only alternative is to do something drastic like have weight loss surgery,
right, you know, And I know that we have listeners who have
had weight loss surgery and it changed their life and they're glad they did it.
But we also have listeners who had weight loss surgery and they wish that
they had not, and they wish they had learned about intermittent fasting beforehand.
Yep, so very true. You know, we want to find a lifestyle
that allows us to live our healthiest life. Yeah. So we have another
question this week, and this is sent in by Jennifer Desperate in Virginia.
She says, hello there, Jin. I've been listening to you on and
off since twenty eighteen, and I really appreciate your stories, studies, guidance
and materials. I'm delighted for you and Sherry's new journey with this podcast.
So here's a little background on myself. I started fasting in twenty seventeen,
and I did very well for about three years, and then COVID happened.
I know, I shouldn't let something take the blame for my bad eating habits
and falling back into them, but it is what it is. From there,
it has been a constant struggle with what and how I eat every day.
I hate the way I look and feel in my clothing and of course
without clothing. When I was fasting, I lost almost forty pounds and I
was able to control my weight without feeling deprived, and overall I felt really
healthy. Now I have to plan in detail for events such as family events,
date nights on what I wear to hide my body, and it is
quite sad. My question is should I start off again doing a longer window
or do you recommend starting with the four hour eating window. Also, I'm
a forty two year old woman who has a family history of diabetes and just
really needs some motivation to get my life jump started again. I know I
can do it since I was able to before, and I would like any
guidance for starting over the right way. Yes, I was a fake sugar
user and I would love to know a little bit more on that. Thanks
again, and I look forward to hearing other people's questions stories and growing stronger
together as a fasting community. Well, Jennifer, I your story is one
that we have heard, and we've heard it a lot, and so you
know, I don't think it's an excuse to blame COVID. That really happened.
You know, that was a time when we were going through So I
think we were all going through something traumatic and scary, and we all just
made different choices during that time, So I want you to give yourself grace
for that. And one thing, I know, when someone was a successful
intermittent and faster and then they still for a significant period of time, they
don't remember what it was like when they started the first time. Exactly what
they remember is when it was easy for the first time after they'd been doing
it a while. So you expect it to be like that immediately and it's
not. So I get the same advice to people in the community, like
literally almost every days, someone who has been away for a while. Now
I'm not talking about someone who went on a vacation and they would stop for
five days and now they're like, I'm starting over. If you just,
you know, took a little brief pause, you're not starting over. I'm
talking about like you you did it, COVID hit. You've not been doing
it, so you're consistently not doing it. I want you to begin again
as if you've never fasted before. Forget about what it was like before,
forget everything like you begin with the beginner's mind, like you've never done it.
I want you to pull back out your fast feast, repeat, and
I want you to reread the twenty eight day Fast Start chapter as if you've
never done it before, and you're probably going to notice the that you don't
remember reading before, and you're going to choose one of those plans. You
are not going to start like you asked if you should, you know,
start with twenty four No, you're not going to start with that. Maybe
you were doing a four hour window before, but in the twenty eight day
Fast Start, nobody starts with a four hour window. In fact, not
even everybody ends with a four hour window. So I want you to start
brand new, like you've never done it before. Choose one of those three
approaches, stick to it. You're easing in. You're going to follow it
like a complete beginner. And I cannot wait for twenty eight day Fast Start
day by day to be out because I wrote it exactly for people like you.
And I just finished reading the audiobook Sherry. Yes, it took a
while, a couple of days to get it read, and while I was
reading it, I was like, Man, this is I wish everybody had
it now because I really think this is the book that's going to help because
I really explain the fat adaptation process better. But in little snippet day to
day. By the way, people also might say, why in the world
would you need an audiobook for this one? I would not buy the audiobook
as the only one, So everybody listening, do not buy the audio version
of twenty eight day Fast Art Day by Day as your only option. My
publisher might not want me to tell you that, but I'm going to tell
you that you need the paperback. You need need, need, need,
need, need need the paperback. If you also want the audiobook for me
to read the daily lesson to you and hear the intermitt and fasting stories successes
from people that are in there, that's fine. You can listen to that,
but you need the paperback version. So only by the paperback version if
you are only going to get one, But the audio is a supplement anyway.
I think that once that book is out, that'll be the place to
quote start over and really set your intention that you're not going to start over
again, that this is going to be your lifestyle now. So, Jennifer,
I hope that that helps. I don't really know what you mean by
fake sugar. If you're talking about maybe during the fast, then it's time
to refresh yourself and why the clean fast matters and cherry. Do you ever
listen to the Zoe podcast, And you know Tim Spector, he's one of
the world's premiere gut experts, and he is really talking now about artificial sweeteners
and the effect on the gut, not just you know, obviously we don't
have them while we're fasting, but they affect your gut help than our metabolic
health. So if you can, you know, transition away from the fake
sugar definitely during the fast. Promise me you're not going to use any during
the fast, but even during your eating window, it can make a big
difference. Did you want to add anything to Jennifer. Yeah, And you
know, even like stevia, which we've been told is a natural sweetener,
YadA, YadA, YadA, it's healthy. Years and years and years ago,
I learned about how it can break down biofilm, which is a good
thing. But even stevia, they're finding out has negative impact on the gut
health. My other thing, I was gonna say, the same thing as
you just start back over with the fastart. The only thing I was going
to add is that she said that it has been a constant struggle with what
and how I eat every day just start fasting. Yeah, forget about what
you're eating. Just start fasting. Eat delicious food in your window. Get
the fasting down. I mean, whether it's twenty eight days or it's fifty
six days, before you start addressing what you eat. You know, do
it on your time schedule. The most important thing is to get the fasting
down exactly. I think that's right. You know, we want to just
do everything perfectly from the beginning, right like I'm going to start, I'm
going to clean out my diet. I'm going to have a four hour window.
And then you wonder why you can't do it because that's too much at
one time. Yeah, and you're better off doing it in baby steps,
solve one issue at a time, then just throwing up your hands and not
doing any of it because it's just too much. Yeah, we can overwhelm
ourselves, all right. Do we have time for one more short question?
Share? I think we do, think we do all right. This is
from Sarah Jane from Belfast in Northern Ireland. She said, I have been
intermittent fasting on and off for a while, but have been consistent for the
past six weeks with a five to eight hour window and have got amazing results.
I didn't have much weight to lose. The vanity ten pounds was the
problem that I kept gaining and losing, and since becoming consistent with IF,
the last ten pounds are almost gone without restricting any foods. I have a
history of binge eating and that has more or less stopped since committing to IF.
My issue is that I am going to London for a few days with
my family for a city break. We were booked to stay in a hotel.
So what do I do about the hotel breakfast? My children are ages
ten and eight and look forward to the buffet breakfast in a hotel with all
of the lovely choices they don't get at home. But I know I don't
need the breakfast. Do I opt out entirely and not join them for breakfast?
Or do I take a break from IF for the three mornings we were
away and just join them for the experience. The children haven't noticed I fast
at home, and I haven't really discussed it with my husband, who naturally
does IF without really being aware that that is what he is doing. Any
advice, yes, okay, Number one. Like one thing that stands out
to me is that you said in the past, you had some history with
some benge eating and that has stopped since you committed to If so, what
I do not want you to do is to just stop fasting, because why
would you set yourself up to fall back into that cycle. I don't want
you to come back from vacation and you know, have refilled your Calikagen stores
and you're hungry and suddenly you're opening your window early. That can really like
spiral out of control. But am I gonna tell you never to eat breakfast?
No, I would tell you maybe the last day you're there enjoy breakfast,
or the first day, well, see the problem with the first day
is if it's a pretty slious you're gonna on it. The second day,
you might convince yourself then it's okay to have breakfast again. See I'm with
it. Like on the cruises we would do the brunch on the last day.
Well, if I were in a hotel, I would have it the
first day and then I'd feel like crap the whole rest of the day and
I wouldn't want it the other day. Well, see if that's the other
reason I was gonna tell her not to have breakfast because she's gonna feel awful.
It would teach you enjoy her vacation. Well that's true either which are
you? What are you? Sarah Jane? I want I need it the
first day because then I'd feel like crap and I'd be like, that is
why I'm not going to eat it the rest of the time. Now,
if you ate it the first day, that's a really good excuse to not
eat it after that because you could say, Nope, I had it yesterday,
I didn't really enjoy it that much and it made me feel sluggish the
rest of the day, so I'm going to opt out the rest of the
trip. So yeah, either way works. I like to save it to
the end. And there's no wrong answer here, Sarah Jane. You know
yourself. This is where it's self knowledge is powerful. Are you more likely
to if you have it the first day, now you've broken the seal and
now you're just gonna have it every day And in that case, waiting until
the last day is something that would be better. Just join your family,
have the coffee. It's not a big deal. Or are you more like
me? We're going ahead and get it out of the way and say all
right, that really wasn't as great as I was expecting, or maybe it
was so delicious that it was so worth it, but then the rest of
that didn't feel great. The last time I had a hotel breakfast, that
is how I felt. I was like, this is why I don't do
this, So I did not think I've ever really had a hotel breakfast that
was worth breaking a fast forward. I did this when I was in Greenwood,
South Carolina at then on the Square, and it was really good.
I mean, was it worth breaking? Okay no, but I mean it
was foods I've had before. It was really it was a cook to order
breakfast and it was really really good. It was totally window worthy. But
then I was like sluggish and hungry the whole rest of the day. So
did I need the experience of that breakfast food at that time? Turns out
I didn't, But right it reminded me why I don't. Yeah, all
right, So before we get to the tweak of the week, I want
to one more time just mentioned twenty eight day Fastart Day by Day. It's
a companion book for a fast feast repeat, And as I was reading it
for the audio book, I'm really, really, really proud of this one
because I think it's going to fill that need that's out there for the people
who need me like right there with them a little bit for the first twenty
eight days, every single day and you're setting your intention for the day,
you are setting your goals. You're learning at just a little bit of something
every single day. And the goal is, you know, the subtitle is
the ultimate guide to starting or restarting your intermittent fasting lifestyle. So it sticks
because that's what we want. We want you to create an intermittent fasting lifestyle
that you enjoy. If you've been a dabbler, this is the book you
need. Go ahead today pre order it from your favorite bookstore. It will
arrive on December twenty sixth, twenty twenty three, just in time for the
new year. And as I was reading it, Sherry, I was thinking,
you know, if you're an experienced faster, does this book have anything
for you? It really does, even if you think you were never going
to quit and never need to restart. I'm really proud of what I put
together. From day to day, you will learn some things you didn't know.
And also, just if you've been an intermittent Fasting Stories listener. The
little updates from the people who were past guests. There's one on every day
you get a past guest. I just sent out a Google form to everybody
who'd been on Intermittent Fasting Stories up to the to that point and said,
fill out this form if you would like to update listeners. And seeing the
ones who sent it back in, I couldn't use all of them, unfortunately
I had too many. But you know, like Dennis Shock, for example,
he was episode five of Intermittent Fasting Stories and there he is, there's
this update, he's still fasting, and it's just I say, and it's
so inspiring to think twenty eighteen to you know now, and to know that
somebody from episode five is still fasting today and living in fasting lifestyle. So
and each day you get one of those like what's what's those people are up
to now and how it's been, and then they give you their advice,
you know, for intermittent fasting and and I loved seeing that. And also
I tell you what episode they were in, so you can be like,
you can hear the update and then go back and listen to their original episode.
So even if you think you're never gonna need to start again whatever.
I think that you could enjoy this book just for that, so order a
copy today. So now it's time for our tweak of the week. And
you know, I always say tweak it till it's easy. But that tweak
that works for me might not be the one that works for you. And
that's why it's so helpful to hear how other intermittent fasting superstars in our world,
and all of you are are making intermittent fasting work for them. So
this tweak was submitted by Noreen in New York, and she said finding a
window that worked for me five hours made it possible to tackle the next thing
I needed to work gone. I may sometimes have a shorter window, but
that's not the plan. Ever. The plan is always the five hours.
Because of that, I found I could start eating the way I've never been
able to in my entire life, with minimal sugars and other highly processed foods.
I've incorporated a window opening smoothie, which has become the best moment of
my day. I usually make my smoothie and I think I'm in love.
In case anyone wants to try it, I use about one and a half
to two cups of frozen berries, half a cup each of coconut milk and
cottage cheese, about a tablespoon of sweetener, and a mounded tablespoon of chia.
Now, I love my five hour windows so much that if I want
more therapeutic fasting, once or twice a week, I'll have a twenty four
hour fast with a nice one meal a day dinner without having to deal with
an up day the next day. All right, so's she's she just thrown
out with good nutrition at the beginning of her windows, and the chia seeds
Ta seeds are very, very filling. I love that she plans for the
five and she uses it how it works out best for her. But once
or twice a week she'll have a nice dinner, but it's not a down
day. M h. Yeah, the next day she's back to her five
hours. You know, I feel like more and more we're seeing people who
are really trying to shorten their windows, and you know, they're trying to
keep two hour windows or three hour windows, and invariably at some point now
they're struggling with hunger and binging, and you know, they whatever their issue
is and when you start really asking them like, well, what's going on,
and they say, well, I do a two hour window, right,
And I don't know how much of that is fear driven, like,
oh, I'm in maintenance, but I'm afraid i might gain weight, so
I'm going to maintain a two hour window, or they think I'm gonna do
a two hour window because I'm going to lose faster. But I think it's
really important to remember. Again, Jenna and I've talked a lot about balance
this episode, and I think it's important to remember you need a good balance
of feasting to go with your fasting. Yeah, I think that's really really
important. So in a five hour window really does that for you? It
does? And I have never ever, one time suggested that someone should do
a really short day to day eating window. So it just it's that's our
fear of mind, Like you say, you know, we think, well,
if we're if it's better to eat less than my windows should be shorter,
or you know, if we really start ramping up fat burning after our
eighteen then I should be really great if I make it to twenty three every
day, right, And that's not the goal. We're not trying to accidentally
over restrict in our eating windows. So you don't want to have such a
restrictive day to day window that your body adapts where you don't want it to
be. And for me, five hours was about that sweet spot and it
gave me time to five hours, enough time to really like, you know,
you may have a day that at three and a half hours you're like,
oh, I've eaten plenty today, I am completely satiated. I don't
need another bite to eat today and you close your still yep. Right.
But then you have other days that maybe you get busy and it's five hours
and that is fine, that's great, and that does keep your body from
really locking into a set amount of you know, caloric energy coming in nutrients
time frames. Like so, yeah, any variables to your eating window is
beneficial. Yeah, we don't want it to be really really short and accidentally
overrestrictive day after day. Right, yep. Well, this week we have
a motivational quote from Vanessa in Kentucky. She said, I have this quote
on my desk to inspire me every day to push myself. The quote is
how long will you put off what you are capable of doing? Just to
continue what you are comfortable doing. It encourages me to stick with IF and
push myself to stick to my window, and also to take walks during my
lunchtime. And that's a great use of a lunchtime. Go out and get
some sun and a little bit of exercise and keeps you from sitting around watching
other people eat or wanting to eat. So I like to visit with people
when I was backing, you know, teaching, I like to go and
sit with them while they ate, just because it was fun to talk to
it grown up. But I if you're the opposite and you don't want to
be around people that are eating, then get out and walk. 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
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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,