Episode 54: Answering Common Questions, Fasting and Weight Loss as a Diabetic, and More

Welcome to Fast Feast Repeat Intermittent Fasting for Life. I'm Jen Stevens, author
of the New York Times bestseller Fast Feast Repeat, and I'm Sherry Bullock,
longtime intermittent faster and health and wellness advocate. Please keep in mind that this
podcast is for educational and motivational purposes only and is not intended to provide medical
or diagnostic advice. Jen and I are not doctors, so make sure to
check with your trusted healthcare professionals before making changes, especially when it comes to
any medical treatments or medications. Whether you're new to intermittent fasting or an experienced
intermittent faster, tune in each week to get inspired, to learn, and
to have some fun along the way. Hi, everybody, we are so
glad you're here today. Welcome to this week's episode of the Fast Feast Repeat,
Intermittent Fasting for Life Podcast. How are you doing today, Sherry,
I'm doing well. I just saw that the air date for this is July
tenth. Yeah, we'll me two days after my fifty first birthday. And
it's funny because I was so struggling with turning fifty and now I'm turning fifty
one. I'm like, whatever, true, I already crossed that hurdle now.
But I had something fun happened to me yesterday morning. What was that?
I had, you know, work all weekend, didn't get a lot
of sleep last week because Leelou's and her surgery ordeal, and I was feeling
pretty exhausted and haggard when I got off work and I went into the grocery
store to grab a few things that were on sale, and the girl checking
me out, of course, I had my work clothes on, and she
saw where I worked and she said, oh, do you like working there?
And it kind of caught me off guard, and I was like,
well, yeah, I mean I guess I do. I've worked there ten
years and I'm not looking for anything different. And she said, you're not
old enough to have worked there for ten years. And I was like,
you know, sleep deprived. So I'm like, I don't think I heard
her right. I said what And she said, you don't look old enough
to have worked there for ten years. And I said, huh, honey,
I'm fifty. She just girl's like twenty one. Maybe. I said,
honey, I'm fifty years old, and she said no, you're not.
You're just like thirty. I was like, well, thank you very
much. Right, No, I'm turning fifty one next month. Yep.
I told my friend. I was like, I have a new best friend
at publics. She made my day. Okay, this I said this yesterday
in a little text chat that we're in it. I don't know if you
saw it, because then I texted the thing about the gator, and then
everybody was getting to the gator. There was a gator in the ocean right
in front of my house anyway, by the way, I thought it was
going to be huge. Well it was a little baby gator. But still,
I know, I mean, baby gaters come from mama gators, right,
I know, some mama's somewhere. There's a mama somewhere because there's a
baby. And we have a swash that's like right half a block from my
house, and a swash is by the way. Here is my public service
announcement, do not let your children play that yuck. This is what a
swashes. It's the runoff of everything. All the runoff from the streets right
and the yards and all the runoff comes down this little creek looking thing that's
like a canal of dirty ditch. It's a drainage dish, thank you,
that's a better way. It's a drainage ditch, and then it lets it
out into the ocean, which probably is not a good idea, but anyway,
that's what it does. We've got a drainage ditch, and they're always
children swimming in those drainage ditches, and I'm just like, no, go
to the anyway, that's my public service announcement. That is not clean water.
But I imagine that is how the little baby alligator came down, really,
because there's some lakes up there, some little ponds and the bread serve
side and so anyway, so where was I going with that? Oh,
here's what I was gonna read. You listen to this. This is a
little graphic or meme that someone shared with me. When you realize that nineteen
seventy and twenty twenty four are as far apart as nineteen seventy and nineteen sixteen.
Let that sink in while I go lay down for a bit. Oh
god, and I was born in nineteen sixty nine, so for me that
really strikes home. Nineteen seventy and nineteen sixteen seemed like a million years apart,
but that's the same distance as nineteen seventy and twenty twenty four. Funny,
Yes, I thought that fit in with our discussion of age, like
nineteen sixteen is like olden days. Well, at five PM, I have
to put my phone down. I'm allowed to have my tablet that has candy
crush on it so I can play it while we watch TV, but that
is my time with my husband. I'm not allowed to have my phone.
However, I had my watch on and I saw that you sent a text
about this gator and I could see you sent like I thought it was a
video, and I was like, hold up, wait, wait, get
wait, I have to look at this. And Eric's like, no,
you don't. I'm like, no, I do. There's a gator outside
of and I'm terrified alligators. I'm like, there's a gator outside of It
was in the surf and I'm gonna be there next month. Yeah, he
was frolicking in the surf and I didn't realize it was literally right in front
of my house. I didn't see it happened, but I had seen people
on Facebook saying, look at this gator. They pulled out of the water
and surf side. I'm like, oh. Then I saw someone say look
at the gator they pulled out of and then they said the address of where
what roads it was between, and I'm like, oh my god. Then
I went and found it and I'm looking at the video and you can see
my house the house. Yeah, I'm like, oh my god, that
guy is in front of my house with the gator. Well, I went
over to open it up in front of Eric so he could see that.
I was like, legit, this was an emergency. I'll look at the
text. And then I opened up and he saw it and he was like,
really, you're freaking out about that. Well, mama could come down
the swash next, That's what I said. I said, wherever there's baby
alligator, there's mama alligator. And I'm like, if that could eat a
cat, Oh my god. I'm glad Elie doesn't go to the beach.
Yeah. Good times. There's always something exciting happening outside of your house.
That is true. I miss it all. I missed them shooting down the
Chinese by balloon. That happened really outside my house. I was in Polly's
on. I missed them finding the gator. I need to spend more time
just staring at the ocean. Yeah, all right, well, and now
it's time for our weekly celebration, and today we have a celebration from MC
in South Carolina. They said, I have been intermittent fasting since January twenty
twenty four. I got married in October of twenty twenty three and went on
my honeymoon, gaining ten pounds. After my honeymoon, my weight seemed to
continue to rise to a total of fifteen pounds gained. Eat. You know,
I feel like this happens a lot after we get married and we settle
into newlywed bliss. Yep, it's a common story. She said. I
had made a New Year's resolution to walk ten thousand steps a day and was
making a point to exercise more in general. So I was shocked that my
weight kept going up. It was like I couldn't get the weight off.
My husband has been into in a minute festing in the past, and so
I looked into it and thought I'd try it myself. I am now hooked.
I have been enjoying the many benefits like reduced inflammation, relief from allergies,
a lifetime struggle, and I no longer have to take an allergy pill
every day, body contouring and freed up time in the mornings. I have
lost about nine pounds, going from one hundred and fifty three to one hundred
and forty four pounds. I would like to lose about six more pounds.
I've been mainly doing sixteen eight, working my way up to longer days of
eighteen six or nineteen five. I'm just so so thankful to have found something
that works for me and my lifestyle. Thank you for your knowledge and support.
Well, I am so glad as well, and I love that you
have found it now and you have this tool forever. So we have gotten
a lot of questions recently and say we're going to have kind of like a
lightning round of questions with just some short, sweet questions, and here we
go. The first question is I have a question about whether or not probiotics
break a fast. Well, this is do they break a fast? Are
you gonna get an insulin release from it? Maybe? Maybe not? A
lot of probiotics have prebiotics built into them, and prebiotics are little simple sugars
like polysechrides that fuel your good gut bugs. So you absolutely wouldn't want that
in your fast. But most of the research I've said I've read says probiotics
should actually be taken with food, that they're gonna work better that way.
So anything that's really gonna affect digestion, that's going to affect your gut,
those are all things I'm gonna tell you to save for your eating window.
Yeah, and if it's better to have it with food because it's gonna work
better, then you wouldn't want to have it in your fast anyway. So
the next question, I have a sweet craving all the time, So what
can I do to have a healthy fast. Well, you know, we're
not taking in anything sweet during the fast, so I think that's like one
of the best things to nip that sweet craving in the bud is by because
being metabolically flexible and letting your body be able to be fueled by your fat
stores. So you just fast clean black coffee, which is a bitter flavor
profile that will change your taste buds, Like literally, it will change your
taste buds. My taste buds when I first started drinking black coffee were like,
this is gross. I did it for a couple of weeks. My
taste bud suddenly adapted, Like are the cells of our tongue turnover, like
they change, So you will have all new taste buds that are like able
to tolerate the bitter flavor profile. So black coffee, plain tea, plain
water, your taste buds will adapt. Now. As far as sweet cravings
during your eating window, you can certainly meet those cravings with high quality foods.
We've talked about that before. In your eating window, have things like
fruit, yogurt with berries, something like that. I will never, ever,
ever believe that having sweet cravings is bad or wrong or it's something to
feel guilty about. I literally believe we were designed to feel play from things
that means they're good. Things like things that give us pleasure are not bad
for us. The problem is the modern food environment has made like weird versions
of things like all nature's sweet things you know have nutrients in them, like
the fruit and the berries that I was talking about. It's the you know,
the pop tarts and the refined sugar process cards. Are those are not
things? Yes, exactly, So we've we've made things that are not as
good. But we can choose healthy, sweet things and not feel guilty about
it one single bit of course, keep those and you're eating window, and
I would not open probably with you know something like that, have your you
know, to close your window. What I want to say too, Sometimes
we get caught up in this cycle of like needing or wanting like a serotonin
boost, dopamine hit. And so when we're feeling like stressed during the day
or whatever, our brain thinks I need chocolate or I need cookies or whatever.
But really that's your brain one to get lit up. And there's a
bazillion ways to do that besides eating foods. And the best way to do
it is get outside, even if it's only five or ten minutes. Get
outside, get some sunshine on your face, and take a little walk.
Sit in nature, walk in the grass bare foot. That can give you
the same any amount of exercise can give you the same, if not more
of a boos than any food can give you. Oh yeah, walk around
the block. Just say, when I'm having that sweet craving and I'm fasting
and I'm fast and clean, I'm just going to walk around the block one
time. Boop, go outside, walk around the block or to the end
of the driveway and back or whatever. It is I lived on a really
long driveway. I was growing up in rural Virginia. It was quite a
long driveway. But to go to the mailbox and bag twice if you need
to. But whatever it is, and that'll get your mind off of it.
All Right, here's the question. If you take prescriptions that cause weight
gain, is there something I can do to keep the weight loss and still
beyond my prescription? Okay, so I went into this in pretty fine details
on an episode a while ago. But most prescriptions that have a side effect
of weight gain, the prescription itself does not cause weight gain, but what
they can do is again increase your cravings for carbohydrates. So, if you
are craving more carbohydrates because the medicine that you're on, that's a side effect
of it, make sure you're eating healthy carbohydrates, fueling with really good you
know, whole grains, barley, wheatberries, brown rice, high fiber foods,
fruits, get those in because that's going to satisfy your body's craving for
those foods. And then the other thing that they can often do is increase
insulin. And so what better prescription is there to counteract the effects of an
increase in insulin other than fasting when you're keeping your insulin low. So is
there something you new to keep weight loss and still be on your prescription.
Yes, intermittent fasting is the perfect answer. Yep. Oh, I drink
mushroom coffee. Is that breaking my fast? Yes? Unfortunately, mushroom coffee
is not part of a clean fast. If you are sold on the benefits
of mushroom coffee and you believe it's providing you with something that your body,
you're getting something out of it, keep it in your eating window. Mushroom
is food, to just keep that in mind. You know, if it's
anything other than actual coffee, actual tea, plain water, keep it in
your eating window, especially if it has a food like name. Right,
yep, and you know I've been doing a deep dive into mushrooms and there
are lots and lots and lots of great full body benefits to them. But
again, have it in your window. Next question is my nature path has
me on a lot of supplements. My main concern is how much is that
throwing off my fast is at the same level as toothpaste, where it's so
insignificant that I probably go right back into fat burning mode or is it really
possibly affecting how much fat burning and atophagy I get from my fast? Each
day? I take courcetin, be flivver vitamin see quercidin. How do you
say that curse? Coercident the cercidin. I think I actually look this up
once. I feel like I learned it was cursed. Now I can't say
it ca churcetin, querciden, whatever the word is. I take it because
it's great for allergies and immune a health. But whatever it is, we
don't know how to say it. I absolutely take it in my eating window.
And she takes the thyroid support and some adrenal sea fliver. Did you
say fliver vitamin C? She says, they're all in pill form, and
the other pills I just take at the very end of my eating window.
What do you have to say to that, Jin, Well, first of
all, we can't ever tell you how much your fat burning or autophogy you're
being affected. Right, we want to fast clean for multiple there are multiple
things going on during the clean fast. We're keeping our insulin low. Yes,
we're going to have increased autophogy. Yes, we're going to have increased
fat burning. All those things are happening during the fasted state. So unfortunately,
we cannot tell you how much of this or that is going to affect
you. Brushing our teeth is important, and any brief insulin response from that
is going to be really tiny and it'll go back down the baseline. Versus
if you were doing something constantly, that would be different. Now, I
can't tell you how much any one of those supplements might possibly affect either insulin
response or fat burning or autophogy. However, I look at the name of
them, I mean beefliv that sounds like food. I would keep that in
my eating window personally. Now, I'm never going to tell anybody to not
do what their doctor or nature path says to do. Never. I am
not your doctor, I'm not your natural path. I don't know why you're
taking it. I don't know when you need to take it, but I
know if it were me personally, I would not take a single one of
those during the fast. I would keep them in my eating window. I
also am the kind of person that gets queasy when I take things on an
empty stomach, so I prefer to take things during my eating window. This
would be a conversation to have with your naturopath, like let your nature path
know your fasting. Say, I would prefer to take all of these in
my eating window. Is that a problem? Well? And I want to
add two like vitamin C. Yes, it's a water soluble vitamin, so
you don't have to take it with food. However, vitamin C helps your
body absorb other nutrients, like the big one is iron. So that to
me, that's an argument to take it with your food, just because it's
going to help your body absorb other nutrients that you need. I wish we
could just tell you, you know you're affecting your fast three percent or twenty
five. We can't. We can't get that specific because there's so many things
going on in your body. But I really protect my clean fast at all
costs. And again I've talked to your naturopath and say, I want to
protect my clean fast at all costs. Can I take this at another time?
And why or why not? Why must I take it first thing in
the morning? What is it going to do? Like you know, beef
liver, for example, is providing nutrients to your body. Well, we
we provide nutrients for our body and our eating window right, So that just
makes a lot of sense to me. The fastest is where it is the
time for not doing nutrient replenishment, the eating windows when we do that.
So somebody to keep in mind. All right, Oh, go ahead,
did you have some of the NAD Oh? I looked it up. It's
queer satan. It's like satan, it's for satan. Yeah, I'm just
never gonna say it. It's qu something. Why did I think it was
quercit or I don't know. Well, the emphasis is on the SAT and
it's s e h. Ok w you areh suh s e h would be
set set Yeah, say okay, queerctin querstin. All right, well we
all learn. Thank you for coming episode of Jim and Cherry. Try to
pronounce hard words. We should put that the name of the show. Pronouncing
weird supplements. But it's not a weird supplement. It's just not one we
to be say anyhow, all right, we have another question. I start
the day with a black coffee, but I would like to try something less
full of caffeine. My pal recommended Guabba leaf tea, but I cannot find
any information on it that tells me whether this is going to break my fast.
The leaves are dry and green, and as far as I'm aware,
they are just the dried leaves of the plant. Can I use them as
a replacement to my morning coffee or should I avoid them and stick to the
coffee? Now, before Shary answers this, whether the leaves are dry and
green is not your decision factor. By the way, there are lots of
dry and green leaves that are definitely not going to be part of a clean
fast. All right, take it away, Sherry. There's absolutely zero herbal
tea that I would take in my fast, that I would drink in my
fast. If you look at herbal teas, all herbs have some health benefit
to them, if you look at it. I mean, I don't know
about all herbs, but most herbs have some health been That's why people use
them. That's why they're used in tinctures and this and that and because of
that, and like with this one in particular, it has a known blood
sugar lowering effect, and it's actually recommended that people take it after meals.
So I absolutely would not take this in your fast. I don't think you're
going to feel very well if you take this in your fast. The last
thing we want to do is drop your blood sugar while you're fasting. That's
going to make you hungry and make it feel shaky, give you a headache,
give you heart palpitations. So I would this one particularly, I would
absolutely not use during the fast and the the what we're looking for is the
flavor profile, bitter flavor profile, because we know that black coffee plain tea
with their bitter flavor profile. A bitter flavor profile is not associated with an
insulin response from your tongue to your brain. That's a falaite phased insulin response.
So most herbal teas have some sort of hint of fruitiness or sweetness or
something, and that's not what we want. And again, like Sherry said,
some of these are gonna have effect masonal. Yeah, they could be
medicinal, and you really don't want to have that during the fasted state because
it might lolureer your blood sugar too much. And I again, like I
said in the previous question, I really protect my fast And if you are
trying to have less caffeine, then have decaf coffee or hot water in a
mug. And this is what we hear from people all the time you said
to have hot water in a mug, which we call empty, and that
sounded really sad, and I thought, everybody, they sound crazy. Jin
sounds crazy. And then I tried it. Oh, I like it.
It's really soothing. So try that hot water in a mug will surprise you.
Now. We all sometimes hear from people who were like, I tried
it and I didn't like it. Well, okay, I understand you might
not, but you'll probably be surprised that you do like it if you're like
and it sounds crazy. But years ago, I remember drinking hot water for
some reason, I remember why. I thought it tasted like static static.
Yeah, but I drink it now and it tastes good like I don't even
I can't say it has a flavor. But it's just soothing. It's like
a hug and a mug. It's soothing. Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't
taste it doesn't taste like static anymore. Ooh, this is what I'm really
looking forward to, Sherry. In our new house because we have oh my
god, we have a garage again. Do you know I have not parked
in a garage since twenty twenty two. Yeah, because our house that we
sold that we didn't like, or that Chad didn't like, which means we
don't like. The garage was full. Well, you couldn't park in the
garage. It was like a really narrow, weird garage. Like a golf
cart could go in the garage, and so it was too narrow to go
in and out of. So We're gonna have a garage anyway. I'm gonna
have my water dispenser like I had an Augusta. I'm gonna able to be
able to have hot water out of the dispenser. I'm so excited because I've
missed it. It's just not the same to have to microwave it or something.
No, it all right. So this last question is I'm a nursing
mama. Is there any protocol I can do while breastfeeding that is safe for
my baby? And I know we've covered this before, but it's so important
and we get it all the time. And again, I'm answering this question
from the point of view of a nursing textbook paragraph that I read it was
like, it's like a breast It was a breastfeeding textbook for people who I
guess are trained in helping breastfeeding mothers. And it very clearly said women who
are breastfeeding should not actively try to lose fat. That's with any weight loss
method. Yeah, this is not just about fasting. You should not be
trying to lose fat while you're breastfeeding. And in the modern world, we
have so many toxins coming into our bodies all the time. And what does
our body do with the toxins. Well, it tries to get rid of
them, process them out, but so many are coming in, can't get
rid of them all fast enough, so it will stash some of them away
in storage. Like if your room is dirting, you're putting stuff under the
bed. You don't know what to do with that, you shove it under
the bed. Well, your body is shoving that stuff in your fat cells,
and so if you're burning fat, that could be in your bloodstream and
released into your breast milk. So better safe than sorry. And again I
got that from a breastfeeding textbook. I will never make any other recommendation other
than that. So we don't want to be having toxins coming out of our
fat cells. So it's not just about you know, supply, because sometimes
people think, well I have great supply, I have plenty of breast milk.
It's that's not the only issue. I mean, that could be an
issue. That's a different issue. So I'm sorry to tell you that,
but really, don't try to lose any fat. Think of it as the
fourth trimester and you are still providing your baby's nourishment. That time is also
still not about you. And I look, I had two babies. I
know you want to get back into the genes. You want to lose that
baby. Wait as quickly as you can. But the time that you're breastfeeding
is the fourth trimester or the baby's on the outside, but you're still providing
all of its nourishment, and what goes into you goes into your baby.
Yep. So I have a question from Jane and new Brunswick. She says,
I've been intermittent fasting for about two months and enjoying it. I'm really
noticing increase energy and loving that. I'm currently using an eighteen six protocol and
I've been opening my windows around noon and closing it by six. I would
like to move it till later in the day, however, so that I
can be more alert during the afternoon eating lunch. App's my energy. I
find it really hard to get past the hunger I experience at noon, and
I wonder if you have any advice on how to get past that so that
I can move my window to around three pm. Thank you, And I
love your podcast in books so helpful and encouraging. All right, I'm gonna
be Nike, and I'm going to say just do it, because that's really
it. You're going to continue to have that hunger wavery on no matter what.
Like literally, I just had a hunger wave right now, just talking
about it. It's two thirty seven we're recording. I haven't eaten yet today.
I'm still in the fast day. Just talking about being hungry made my
stomach, girl. But I know that it will pass, because hunger waves
don't just build and build and get worse and worse. And I know you're
only two months in and you're used to eating at noon, so your body
is in that habit and your body says, all right, this is when
we eat, and you feed it. So if you push past that,
maybe tomorrow you push till twelve thirty, then the next day you push till
one, and then you just keep backing it up. You're still going to
feel those hunger waves, but you just keep going, and that's how you
become fat adapted and how you are able to fasclateter. You know, after
we finish recording, I've got to go run some errands. I'm probably not
going to be able to open my window till five today, and I might
have some waves of hunger. Ate it too yesterday and my body is reminding
me, oh, you ate it too yesterday. You could eat now if
you want it, but I don't have time right now. I'll be fine.
So don't be afraid of hunger. But also don't think that fasting equals
zero hunger ever, because that is a myth. You will have hunger every
day of your life, whether you are an intermittent faster or not. I
will say that the hunger that I have during my fast is way less intense
than the hunger that I had when I ate frequently. When I was out
of town Sherry for the funeral for my dad one day, I cooked lunch
for my stepmother and my brother. It was just us. We had things
we needed to do that afternoon, like we had to go to the cemetery
and all of that, and I had brought some food with me meal kit,
and we needed to use it. So I'm like, I'm going to
make lunch for all of us. We ate at like noon. When it
was four o'clock, I was starving. By the way, I also fed
three of us in meal for two, so it wasn't yeah, but I
was starving, like I was so hungry. At four o'clock. I was
like, I got to eat something right this minute. I'm going to die.
I was hunger at four o'clock than if I had just up fasting.
I think that's just important for people to understand there will always be more started
that blood sugar really did I did. I was no longer, you know,
in the fasted state because I ate, and do I regret that I
ate it? Absolutely not. I would go back and do it again.
And I just had something else at four and it was not a problem.
All right. Now it's time for our segment called What's Your Why. Most
of us begin intermittent fasting with weight loss in mind, so it is fine
for that to be part of your why, but we know there is so
much more that intermittent fasting can do for us beyond weight loss. And I
believe if you craft your why statement before you begin, like I have you
do in my book twenty eight day fast Art day by day, And if
you have a why that's deeper than weight loss alone, you are more likely
to find long term success and view intermittent fasting as a lifestyle. So today
we have a wife from Jasmine. She says, I started I have fifteen
months ago, and I lost thirty pounds in about ten months, and then
I plateaued. I was frustrated and mad at myself, and yet I was
finally under two hundred pounds and maintaining for the first time in seventeen years.
I should have been proud of myself. I decided to stop letting the scale
determine my mood. So two months ago I stopped weighing. But I knew
I wasn't going to stop this lifestyle. Why Because I feel good. I
have energy all day, I have more time in the morning. I don't
have to worry about prepping, cooking, or cleaning up after breakfast. I
don't even have to worry about packing anything for lunch. I know I'll be
okay until I get home. Not thinking about food all day freeze up so
much mental space. More importantly, I want to be a good example to
my family, especially my children. I want to keep avoiding disease and prescription
medications for as long as possible. I just turned forty seven, and I
don't want to be afraid of turning fifty. In fact, I'm going to
embrace the fabulous fifties, feeling better than my thirties, all thanks to I
think this is a powerful way, Jasmine, and I appreciate you sharing the
struggle that you had, because here you were, you lost thirty pounds,
you were under two hundred pounds for the first time in seventeen years, and
your brain started to say, I'm plateaued, I'm stuck, I'm not good
enough, this isn't working. But then you're like, wait a minute,
I am under two hundred pounds and maintaining for the first time in seventeen years.
That is huge. Seventeen years is a long time, and so you
feel good. You know that what you're doing is healthy for your body.
We are so much more than our number on the scale. Yep. And
you know what I've noticed too, that when people are chasing a number and
they're hard on themselves and they're trying to force weight loss faster than their body
is ready to shed it. I absolutely think it holds up your weight loss.
Yeah. I think there is a huge power in just settling into the
lifestyle fasting every day, not micromanaging it, just embracing life while you're fasting,
and then enjoying delicious, nutritious foods while you're feasting and let your body
sort it out, relax into the process. All right, So we have
a question from Patty and Harrisonburg, Virginia. She said, Hello, ladies,
I need some help tweaking. I'm soon to be fifty eight years old
this month. I bought FFR Fast Feees Repeat in September twenty twenty one,
and I followed the clean fast from the get go. Throughout twenty twenty two.
I followed the fast Art directions to a t. I didn't change what
I ate during my window. I don't drink coffee, so that wasn't a
problem for me. I eventually landed on eighteen six very comfortably and without struggle.
Throughout twenty twenty two, I experimented with different times during the day to
have my six hour window. During twenty twenty two, I slowly dropped about
fifteen pounds when I started if I weighed two fifty five. I currently weigh
too forty four, and I fluctuate between two forty and two forty eight.
I'm five foot five. My goal weight is one forty as of March twenty
twenty three. I'm most comfortable with an eating window between four to five hours.
I've been listening to the Interment fasting story since the April of twenty twenty
three. They've been very inspirational for me. I've learned some great tweaks from
those successes and still in the trenches stories. I don't think I would have
held on as long as I have without the opportunity to hear these. My
PCP is on board with fasting, but I don't feel he is overly excited
in helping me beat diabetes. I have been diagnosed for over seven years now,
as that is what my chart says. He actually never even told me
that I'm officially diabetic. I read it in the chart. I stopped taking
lipitour that he had prescribed after reading much about the drug and getting advice from
my pharmacist daughter in law. My mother died from Alzheimer's and I'm trying to
change the trajectory of my life because of that family history. I am on
a blood pressure of medicaid. I am not on any diabetic meds. I've
refused my doctor when he wants to put me on that foreman. I've told
him that I'm making lifestyle changes and I don't want to be on this.
I had lab work done in February twenty twenty four. I requested a fasting
insulin due to hearing you talk about this on your podcast. My fasting insulin
is eight point four, Mihama glob at awin C is six point nine,
my LDL is to twelve. My husband is also obese and he has been
doing IF with me. He has lost forty one pounds and he did not
start until twenty twenty three. Is really helpful doing it with him, and
I realized that my body and my gut are sick from the years of abuse,
and that may be why weight loss is slow or non existent for me.
I also realize I'm insulin resistant because I have this big belly. I
guess my body still has a lot more work to do before it will start
releasing fat. I have seen my fasting fingerstick numbers going down, so that
is a real plus for me. I wore a CGM because I heard you
talk about this too on your podcast. My insurance paid for sixty percent of
it, and so that has changed the way I look at food. For
sure. I took before picks, and even though I haven't lost much weight,
I really see some body recomposition in my legs and middle and back.
My t shirts are fitting looser, and I can get into some pants a
half size to one whole size smaller. But what tweaks can I make?
All right? So I know the feeling of not wanting to be on any
drugs because we just started like got it in our mind. I shouldn't be
on any drugs because I want to do this naturally. But there are some
drugs that you might need. And like, for example, met Foreman,
you had some resistance for that drug, But did you know that for a
while, like biohackers were taking it because they believe that it would extend longevity,
like people who were not diabetic were taking it. It is not one
of those drugs that is like you need to be scared of. Do you
want to add something to with that? Share? I just met form In
general, it does have some side effects, It does bother some people's guts,
and there's ways to work around that. Whether you split your dose,
you start with a low dose and work your way up to a higher dose.
The thing I want to say about this is when many people start met
Foreman, they see immediate weight loss, and I believe it's twofold. My
husband eats horrible. You guys know this, and his chemic lab on A
and C was really getting close to diabetic. And of course the doctor told
him to stop drinking soda, and he's not going to do that. I
asked them to put him on met Foreman. He said he can't because he's
not diabetic yet. But I mean, we're talking six months, he was
going to be full fledged diabetic. I personally got online and ordered it for
him through a company. He started taking it. He immediately felt better,
He had more energy, he had more motivation, he didn't have brain fog.
It got his blood sugars down. I used to be able to smell
sugar coming out of his pores. I cannot smell sugar coming out of his
pores anymore. I know he was spelling glucose in his urine. I would
have mold growing in my toilet. That is a huge sign that you have
excess sugar coming out in your urine. I don't have that anymore. He
immediately lost almost fifteen pounds. But more importantly, what he told me was
that he feels like he has appetite control for the first time, and it's
because his blood sugars are not doing that huge roller coaster that they were doing,
and he just no longer craves Carbie foods. I mean he used to
really really crave them. And he also has appetite correction. He now will
be eating. This is a man who would clean his plate and make himself
sick. He now will be in the middle of eating, put his fork
down and say I'm done. I can't finish this. And if I so
much as say, hey, take a bite of this and try it,
he's like I just told you, I'm full. He has a hard stop
on food now. So I don't want you to be afraid of taking this
medication because it could really help you. And if you can get your blood
sugars under control, that's going to help your brain health. And I know
you're worried about Alzheimer's, and that is so so important. Your fasting insulin
is not sky high. It's eight point four. I mean that is almost
ideal. But your heemaglalin A and C is still quite high, which you
know this is going to come down to food quality for sure. I think
it's time to make some food changes. I'm wondering if this is an example
of her pancreas is not producing enough infuluin because she's had diabetes for seven years,
and so this would be a situation where you know, a low fasting
infuluin and really high blood sugar is not a good sign because if you have
high blood sugar, your pancreas is supposed to release influin to manage that,
and when your pancreas can't, and then then it's not like at first you
have high fasting insulin because your pancreas is trying. But then eventually, I
don't know what the medical terminology, it looks like it burns out your pancreas.
Your pancreas can't, it gives up. Your body pushes out more and
more of insulin, and the more insulin resists that you are, the more
insulin your body pushes out. But your body almost like can't use that insulin.
So your body's pushing it out, but your body is not using it
efficiently. It's the insulin resistant part of it. Yeah, yes, then
your pancreas will just peter out and it's not going to be able to produce
enough insulin. That's how people end up having to take insulin shots. That's
how that's diabetic is suddenly. Yes, insulin dependent diabetics suddenly become insulin dependent
is because their bodies just can't produce that insulin anymore. So I would keep
your eye on that, Patty, and I would have that conversation with your
doctor as well. Hey, my fasting insulin's low, but my blood sugar
is still high. My AID when SEA is high, and just really see
if there's something going on there. Because you're right with your A and C
of six point nine is officially in the diabetic range. There's another blood test
that can be done, Like you might want to see an indercinologist. There's
actually another blood test they can do and it's not coming to my brain at
this minute, but it actually helps determine how your body is producing insulin in
response to foods and stuff. So I know, you know, nobody wants
to be on medication and a lot of people think if I'm a medication,
I have to be on it for life. But this could be really healing
for you. And I don't want you to discount that because you've been fasting
for two years now and your A and C is still high and maybe three
years. She bought it in September of twenty twenty one, oh so going
on three years. Yeah. Yeah, So I think that's a really aod
conversation you need to have about your doctor, and I think you need to
be more open to that. And and I agree with your idea to go
to an endocrinologist. Yep. Definitely go to an intercrinologist because that is their
specialty. If you have a two hundred thousand dollars sports car, you're not
going to take it to a conolube to have the oil changed. So I
mean, a family practice doctor is great for managing some conditions like high blood
pressure, but when it comes to other things like diabetes and more intricate diseases,
you want a specialist who understands all the ins and outs of that better
and can help you manage that better. And I would talk about the fasting
insulind being low as a red flag with your under chronologist. All right,
I want to talk about food choices for a minute, and I've talked about
this before. Watching my dad struggle with uncontrollable type two diabetes, especially as
he got older and sicker, sent me right into diet brain. I was
like, you know, I'm going to eat in a way that keeps me,
you know, from having any kind of problem going forward. You're forgetting
that I actually do have a good blood sugar response and I'm healthy and I'm
not, so I didn't need to change my diet completely. That being said,
if I were ever to be diagnosed with diabetes, I one hundred percent
would change my diet because food is medicine and there are two approaches that I
will always recommend. Actually, the one I recommend the most is the mastering
diabetes approach. And that's after talking to Cyrus, having him come on my
podcast and me go on his podcast, and really understanding insulin resistance at the
cellular level like he explained it to me, because he has a PhD and
his expertise with his PhD was insulin resistance and all of that. So he
came on intermittent fasting stories. If anyone wants to listen for that episode.
But the mastering diabetes approach, they are reversing diabetes. They actually have group
programs like if I had a chronic disease like diabetes, I would one hundred
percent use food as my medicine. Like, yeah, pizza is delicious,
I love pizza, but I would be like I am going to I'm not
going to eat that because I'm this is my health protocol, this is my
this is my life saving food medication. Right. So mastering diabetes is one
option. The other option is the diabetes code. Doctor Jason fun it's the
other direction. Now Cyrus explains why I low carb. We'll get your blood
sugars down, but it may not be reversing the insulin resistance as underlying he
explains it really well in mastering diabetes, but it could be a great therapy
for you to get that blood sugar down. So mastering diabetes or the diabetes
code, food really is medicine, and I would work on that, especially
since your weight isn't budgeting, and I know that you really want to have
your weight budget, but I think that your A one C being so high
is really the thing to focus on, and your LDL being high and you
know, I think you'd see amazing results with the whole food plant based approach
that Cyrus from and mastering diabetes. You know, I am not whole food
plant based, I am not low anything, but if I needed a therapeutic
way to eat, I absolutely would do it. Oh, I wanted to
add into we talk about food a lot. I still have to throw this
in. Getting some exercise in. The more muscle mass you have, the
more insulin sensitive your body will be, and taking even a ten to fifteen
minute walk after your meals can lower your blood sugar naturally to help your body
so that it's not pumping out so much insulin exactly. All right. This
was sent in by Jade from Central Kelli Coast. I've been fasting twenty four
meaning twenty hours fasting four hour eating one day for about five weeks. I'm
five three and weigh one hundred and forty five pounds. My goal is to
lose twenty five pounds. I was twenty pounds lighter about two years ago,
but I've been getting there and gaining it back forever. Career yo yo dieter
who would achieve success only to fall right back into the gain. I'm sixty
years old. I clean fast and I'm not hungry all day. My window
is from three thirty to seven thirty sleeping better tons of energy, but no
weight loss and no looser fitting clothes. What am I doing wrong? I
don't think you're doing a thing wrong, Jaye, I got one thing.
She's axcucting to things to be different. After five weeks, exactly's gonna say.
You just need more time, right, just more time. You're only
five weeks in, so we don't expect any weight loss during the first month
or so. And me personally, I did not start losing any weight until
week seven. The first six weeks for me after coming from a low calorie
diet. I actually gained weight at the beginning of my intermittent fasting journey,
and then in week seven my body started figuring out what to do and it
started shifting into fat. So just give it time. And I want to
encourage you in advance. You say that you've been a yoyo dieter your whole
life. Please do not under eat in your window. Make sure you're eating
to satiety because that is really going to support weight loss. Yep. And
again I really think that what Sherry said is important. If you've been yoyo
dieting for decades now you're sixty, I would imagine you have you know,
we know that story. We were there ourselves, yoyoing up and down,
up and down. Your metabolism may also be slow. You know, if
you were twenty pounds light or two years ago and now your weights popped back
up twenty pounds, I would not do it now. Give yourself time,
settle in a few months of what you're doing now. But you may need
some ADF. And if you're a lifetime dieter who has no trouble with a
four hour eating window, you could do ADF and that would be a five
hundred calorie down day is probably what I would recommend for you, follow by
a day eating three meals, and I would just alternate that. And you
need that metabolic boost. So the down day is where you tap into stored
fat and the up day is where your body's like, oh good, plenty
of food, we're not starving. Boosts the metabolic rate, but you got
to have that metabolic boost. The longer we diet, the more our bodies
adapt. So if you've been doing this for decades, it's very likely that
you just get more and more weight loss resistants as time goes on. And
that's just that's the story we've heard so many times. So all right,
before we get to the tweak of the week, I want to take a
minute and talk about my books and which ones you need. If you are
new to intermittent fasting, or you're restarting after a break, or if you're
just in need of a refresh, you're going to want twenty eight day Fast
Start day by day. It is the ultimate guide to starting or restarting your
intermittent fasting lifestyle. So it sticks. I recommend the paperback because it's got
a right end component. It is a companion book for fast feast repeats.
You're going to want to have that one as well. And it is comprehensive
and it has everything you're going to need as your journey continues beyond the first
twenty eight days. If you're a seasoned intermittent faster and you are ready to
clean up what you're eating, also your personal care products, the cleaning products
you use in your home, then I think you will enjoy cleanish. I
wrote it so that the process of cleaning up would feel less daunting it's got
a step by step approach, but you are in charge every step of the
way. Like if you're not ready for clean deodorant yet, that's okay.
Maybe you don't do that one yet or ever. So you just decide,
you know, the easy thing to do, change your plots and pans,
for example, get the teflon out. But you decide what's important to you,
what would be easy. You change your shampoo, but you control it
every step of the way, and you don't want it to feel overwhelming.
Every change that you make is going to be a change in the right direction.
So now it's time for our tweak of the week, and this tweak
was admitted by Janet in College Station, Texas. She said, this tweak
is a tweak in mindset. Before starting Internet and fasting, when my stomach
growled, I felt like sirens were going off telling me to eat and eat
right now. I would get panicky. Now in my stomach growls, I
smile. I smile because I know what is coming. That growling will stop.
And when it does, I imagine pac Man being released into my body.
When I think about my body using what is already there to fuel me,
I am thrilled. I no longer dread to growl. In fact,
I get a little sad. If I don't feel it, then I just
assume it must have happened when I was asleep, because I'm not hungry,
so I know my body is getting energy from somewhere. It is a beautiful
process. And the beauty happened when my attitude chose to see it as a
wonderful thing. And what did you say last week's sherry that even really lean
athletes have how much stored fuel? Forty thousand calories of stored fuel? We
got plenty of store fuel. All right. Well, we love to leave
you with inspirational or motivational quotes, and this week we have a message from
Chinie in Kansas. She says. I just finished reading The Obesity Code by
Jason Fung. I loved reading his perspective on fasting, especially chapter seven on
insulin. I enjoyed his term to respond to someone on fasting when they say
that you're starving yourself, He said, starving people have no idea when and
where their next meal will come from. Fasting, however, is the voluntary
abstinence from food for spiritual health or other reasons. Of course, I always
say, I'm delaying but not denying myself the delicious food I want to eat,
But that is that is true. Yeah, starving people, that's exactly
right. They have no idea when and where their next meal will come from.
And also starving people. When someone is really starving and like there's a
famine, they love somewhere where there's a war, there isn't any food,
and then their body uses up all their stored fuels and then they're like really
desperately need it. So if you're fast, you've got those story fuel,
you got them. You are not starving. Your body is feasting on your
stored fat. Thanks so much for listening today. We would love to have
you join us in the Delayed on Tonight community, where you can interact with
both me and Sherry, plus the most supportive bunch of intermittent fasters you'll find
anywhere. Go to Jenstevens dot com slash community to join us. Don't forget
to subscribe to this podcast to your favorite podcast app, and if you haven't
already, please leave us a five star review that helps new listeners find the
show, and we really appreciate it. We are a community driven podcast,
so to submit your success stories, your questions, your favorite tweak it till
It's Easy moments, or anything else you want to 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.