Episode 3: Mindset, Stress, and Emotional Eating, Self-Care, The Tapping Solution, ADF, and More

Welcome to Fast Feast Repeat, Intermitten Fasting for Life. I'm Jen Stevens,
author of the New York Times bestseller Fast Feast Repeat, and I'm Sherry Bullock,
longtime Intermitten 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. Jenn and I are not doctors, so make sure
to check with your trust and healthcare professionals before making changes, especially when it
comes to any medical treatments or medications. Whether you're new to intermitt and Fasting
or an experienced Intermitten Faster, or 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, Intermitten Fasting for Life podcast. How are you doing?
Today's Sherry doing fabulous today? I'm so glad Episode three. Yes,
just to think in April, we came up with this idea and I mean
we just like got it out there, right, That's the way we work.
Well, you know, people had been asking in the community and also
in the probably the Life Lessons Facebook group that I'm not in anymore, but
people had been asking when are y'all going to do a fasting podcast, and
we're like, no, no, no, and so yeah, we did
one fasting episode on Life Lessons back when we were going through Cleanish. We
did sort of a Cleanish book study. We broke it down over several weeks
and we did one week on fasting. And it was after that that people
started saying, why don't you talk about fasting every week? Because that's not
the Life Lessons was not a fasting podcast. But finally was at April someone
in the Delight on Tonight community said I really wish y'all would do a fasting
podcast. She said you should have a podcast called Fasting Friends. I loved
that and then I was like huh. And then but old or in the
community, I was like, I don't have time to do another podcast,
which was not a lie. But then I'd like message Sherry, and I'm
like, is it time? Is it time to do a fasting podcast?
We wrapped up Life Lessons, which was sad to do it. It's hard
to because we enjoyed that one, but we did enjoy that one a lot,
but I'm enjoying this one every bit as much so far, and I
hope the listeners are as well. Well. Anytime we hang out together we
have a great time. That's true. We could talk about watching paint drying.
I don't know if people would tune in, but it might be a
bit like watching paint dry. Baby. Well. We like to start every
week with a celebration from a listener, and today's celebration comes from Sarah and
Hawaii. She said. Since starting IF, I have developed some great new
ways to engage in self care that are not focused on consumption, whether it
be food or shopping, etc. When I was a teenager and adult,
I loved getting into different local music scenes and I went to live shows regularly.
Over the years, I stopped going and I haven't tried to listen to
new music. And years since starting Intermittent fasting, I have gotten back into
seeking and discovering new musicians, and it's wonderful. I have energy, focus,
time, and interest in exploring my musical interests again. I've also joined
a book club, I have started having some fun with art projects, and
I have journaled more regularly. It feels like I am living a fuller and
more enjoyable life now. You know, I love that, and I think
it's something that you and I both have experienced, which is really what led
us to the Life Lessens podcast. It's true, you know, I love
the way that Sarah put it, you know, engaging in self care.
They're not focused on consumption, and we're fasting from food and fast breaking beverages
for a certain period of the day. But it tends to carry over into
other things as well. Like she said, shopping. I used to do
a lot more shopping than I do now. Like I might go and walk
around like Chad and I went to what is it Broadway at the Beach?
Have you ever been to broadwayt the Beach? No, it's in actual Myrtle
Beach, and we've drove past it several times. We've been okyopped. Well,
we went to walk around. They have a big you know, like
a lake. Then everything's built around it and it's looking good again. It
had looked a little rough for a few years and there I think over the
pandemic they didn't maintain it maybe as well, but it's it's got new deck
boards. It looks really good, new stores are there, but we walked
around, We walked around the whole thing, and then we came back home
and I realized we spent zero dollars. We didn't buy anything. We looked
at things, we windows shopped, We didn't eat any food, We didn't
buy any beverages. Do you know what I think it is? You know,
when you're struggling with your weight and your self esteem, and you know,
like you want something to make you feel better. So shopping is a
little feel good high, just like food is. So I can see like
a lot of times when people are, you know, they're kind of chronically
dieting, and they're like, why I can't eat food, and so they
replace food was shopping. And for me, when I was overweight, I
would shop for shoes, like our jewelry. I had a big shoe and
jewelry habit or purses because like clothes didn't fit me right, but shoes never
let me down. I mean, jewelry, a bracelet was going to work
right so well. And sometimes I think there's that thought like I don't want
them to look at me, so instead I want them to look at my
new beautiful purse, or I want them to look at my snazzy shoes,
or I want them to look at this new necklace I'm wearing. Or you
know, it's whatever you can do to kind of detract from what you don't
want people to see, kind of an overcompensation. I would have bought all
sorts of things back in the day, but we bought nothing. We just
enjoy walking around and being outside and seeing the sights. And I love also
that Sarah is going out and listening to musicians. And she lives in Hawaii.
App there's always a lot going on in there. But here where I
live too, there's live music all the time, even in the winter.
We can find it. We've got to go when when you're visiting, we
need to go to the Marshwalks. Sure it will be here. It was
it two weeks? Three is it three weeks from today? Is it three
weeks? About sixteen days? I'm so excited. I'm so excited. But
we need to go to the marshwalk They over by the Wicked Tuna. They
have a stage set up now for the summer, and they had the best
music there. I went there with a couple of my friends that I taught
with at Acon Elementary back and I taught with them at Acon Elementary back in
nineteen nineties when we all started teaching together, and we went and listened to
live music. And there was this little kid. I sent you a picture
of him dancing a video. This little kid. He looked like he was
a toddler. He was somewhere between one and two, and he was dancing.
It was this band and they were playing like, you know, like
seventies funk kind of you know, get down tonight kind of music, and
it was fantastic and this little kid was just dancing and having so much fun.
It's just so much joy sitting there with the ocean breeze coming and adults
were dancing, kids were dancing, and so we'll have to go and listen
to music. But again I didn't didn't spend any money. We're just sitting
there for free listening to the love music. Well, I just think it's
great that she's just really focusing you know, time and energy on things that
are just not diet related. That is something that was a big change for
me. Prior to if I was constantly, you know, in weight loss
mode, so if I had free time, it was like, oh,
well, I need to go you know, if I want to go to
the brewery to night and have two beers, I need to go hiking this
afternoon. And you know, I was constantly out which I love being outdoor
and being active, but so much of that was so that I felt like
I could eat and drink freely, and I was constantly researching, you know,
the best diet and whatever. And once you start engaging in IF,
and you just settle into the lifestyle and it's just what you do, you
suddenly have all this free time. Not to mention, you're not cooking and
cleaning three meals a day, so you just have all this extra time that
you can devote to other things that bring joy to your life. And to
me, that is just one of the best side effects of IF. I
think so too. And just you know, you have all the mental space
to not have to focus on dieting. And I love the way Sarah put
that as self care, because it really is. So Now we have a
question from a listener. This question is from Anita, and is that Barry
Ontario. I would say Barry, maybe, bar It's like Barry to me,
all right, Barrier Bary Ontario. Anita says, I have had an
up and down journey with intermit and fasting since January eleventh of this year,
and so we're recording this in June, so it's still very very early days
for anybody who was just a few months in. I can attest to sure
you can to this lifestyle doesn't just like bam clicking place from the day one,
right. It definitely takes them up and down from time to time.
Some people just start and they're just like forever, or they never have a
problem, but it's very common for the first few months to feel a little
rocky. But Anita goes on to say, during this time, I have
seen my intermitt and fasting lifestyle reduce my inflammation and seen my inflammation increase when
I don't follow intermitt and fasting, which probably has a lot to do with
my loss of close to twenty pounds since the start. And I would actually
pull in there that twenty pounds since January. It's actually really really good.
So often we have an unrealistic expectation of how much we're supposed to lose,
and like somebody'll be struggling in the community and they'll post about how little weight
they've lost, and I'm like, all right, well, let's do the
math. We don't expect to lose any weight in the first four weeks because
your body's adapting, and then a pound per week and you're actually ahead of
pace. So a lot of times people think they're doing badly when they're really
doing way better than the math would expect you. And when you say a
pound per week, that's like max like healthy rate of weight losses anywhere from
one half to one pound per week, And it could be like you might
not lose any weight one week and the next week you might lose one and
a half pounds. So when we say a half to one week, that's
on average exactly, so I think twenty pounds since starting January. Love it
is actually really really good. But Sue did I mean? Anita did mention
that she's had some up and down along the way and mentioned not fasting and
seeing information increase. So I just encourage everybody, even when it feels rocky
and it feels hard, try to be consistent. That's my number one best
advice for you. Anyway, going on to Anita's question, she said,
my question has to do with mindset, stress, emotional eating, and intermittent
fasting. Stress affects everyone, and I assume you both have great anecdotal advice
as to how you navigated through it and stayed the course or got back on
track. Anita says, I have had at least two episodes of falling away
and coming back to IF because of stress, and would love to add a
tool to my toolbox, for example, realizing it's starting to happen and then
using my tool to stay the course. Do you have any advice. I
have lots of advice. I do too, So first of all, let's
talk about stress and how it affects interment fasting. When you're stressed, your
body releases cortisol that's sort of your fight or flight hormone, and it drives
insulin up. That's going to affect your blood glucose. It's also going to
affect grellin, your hunger hormone. So stress and sleep are kind of the
same type thing. If you don't sleep well, that is a stressor on
your body, because good sleep helps your body recover from stress. So both
of those things can make fasting feel really hard. If you're going through a
stressful period in your life and fasting feels hard, it's in your head.
It probably is harder for you, but that doesn't mean you don't do it.
It's not you. I mean, increased grellin is going to make you
feel hungry. So those are the days where you're really just going to have
to buckle down and be intentional and remind yourself why you're choosing to fast.
And then I think having a good outlet for stress in advance. Don't wait
till you're stressed. Figure out what helps you when you're feeling stressed. What
is a good stress reliever for you? Is it going outside and getting some
sunshine. Is it getting that little serotonin boost from you know, a little
bit of exercise and the outdoors. Is it calling a friend, is it
taking a nap? Is it getting an a sauna? Yeah, you know,
anything like that that's going to help your body handle stress better is going
to make fasting feel easier and help you stay more compliant. Giant. You
know she talks about mindset. Mindset is huge. If you wake up and
you're just like, this day is hard, everything feels hard, forget it,
I can't do this, then you're not going to do it. So
you really have to talk to yourself positively. If a friend called you and
said I feel awful today. I'm stressed out and I just want to eat
everything in the house. Would you tell her go for it, raid the
cabinets, eat it all. You're gonna feel amazing afterwards. No, you
wouldn't say that, because you're not gonna feel amazing afterwards. You're gonna feel
gross, and you'll feel worse than before you started. And then you're even
going to you're gonna be down on yourself. What's the saying. If food
isn't the problem, that it isn't the solution. So I think having a
good self care plan and a good stress relieving plan is very helpful. And
you know, sometimes just writing, getting a piece of paper and writing,
like sometimes you don't know why you're stressed, so sit down and just start
writing, like what's bothering you? What is on your mind? Why do
you feel stressed today? What do you think is happening? Who has hurt
you or made you mad or whatever? And then once you write it out,
sometimes you can find a solution. If you're just sitting there and it's
just these thoughts are swirling in your brain, you're not coming to a conclusion
and you can't you can't formulate a solution. So that's kind of my thoughts
on you know, mindset, stress and emotional eating. And yeah, I
can tell you, you know, when the pandemic hit, I work in
healthcare. I work in an ear that was beyond stressful, right, especially
in the early days, the er was crazy, insane. On a good
day, it's probably a little crazy, but during the pandemic, it was
like up a bunch of notches. And so you know, you not only
that, not only are we like bursting at this seems that we don't have
room for patients and we're busier than we have ever been, we also have
people who are sick and they're not at work, so we're working short staffed.
And then meantime, you're trying to keep yourself healthy and you're trying to
put your PPR on and you're like everything was new and I can't tell you
the last time I have felt so stressed. And let me tell you what
happened. I pretty quickly gained ten pounds and it took me. I mean
that all really hit in March and it took me to July. And I
was like, okay, look at first, you think, okay, it's
fine, this is going to go away, right, And yeah, I'm
having longer windows, and yeah, people were bringing us food to the hospital
until you would eat when you could and whatever. And then I just had
to really have a talk with myself and be like Sherry, Look, this
is life for the foreseeable future. This is no longer an excuse to have
long windows. This is no longer an excuse to eat two meals in your
five hour window. This is life, and how are we going to cope
with it? And I had to be very intentional and keep in mind,
in twenty twenty, I had been fasting for five years. I still had
to be very very intentional about wake up in the morning, fasting, the
amount of time I wanted to fast that day, keeping my windows, you
know, tight, not letting window creep get me. You remember, That's
when I pulled out my app. Again. I had not used an Eating
Window app for years. I pulled out my fasting app, the one that
cal made me. I still have the old, un updated version because I
thought never updated it. But I was using the Eating Window app just to
kind of get a handle on it. Yes, I needed that extra tool.
Me Jen Stevens needed that tool my alcohol consumption had increased, my sweets
consumption had increased, and you know, one of the things I had to
tell myself was, Okay, my body is under stress right now, and
therefore I need to treat it better, not worse. So what can I
do to support my body so that it can better handle all of this?
And when you think of it in that way, it wasn't I didn't feel
restrictive. I felt like, what gift can I give my body to help
it better handle what's going on right now? And just flipping that little mindset
switch in my head made it so much easier. And you know, once
I really got back in the groove, that weight came back off, and
you know, I was able to overcome it. But you have to be
intentional about it. I want to go back to what we talked about when
we were talking about James Clear a few weeks ago and atomic habits, and
tell yourself, I am an intermitten faster. You know, because Anita talked
about that She's been off and on and she lets it go by the wayside
through stress. And I would like to challenge everyone, if you have the
desire to be an intermitten faster, and you find yourself struggling to make it
actually, and you need to shift your inner thinking too. I am an
intermittent faster. It's what you do. You wake up and you're fasting every
single day. You don't say, am I got to fast day? Am
I you are? You're waking up, you're fasting. And you know that
doesn't mean that you must fast till five pm or something. I mean,
you know, you you decide when you want to have your window. You
open it with purpose, and you're intentional, just like Sherry said, you
want to be intentional about it. And let's say you're having a really stressful
day and you're having a hard time waiting. Maybe you normally like to wait
till two and you like to have a five hour window, and it's like
noon and you just can't. You're just like, I just can't make it
till two today. You know what, you still fasted. If you have
to open it noon, you fasted. Make fasting be a non negotiable.
That's what I was gonna say. It's a nonnegotiable. And you just you
know, let's say you have to open your window early that day, that
doesn't mean you have fallen off the wagon or you're throwing it away, you
know, like we've all had the experience like, well, I ate too
many chips, I might as well eat the whole bag. No, you
don't have to keep going just because of something. So let's say you have
the feeling like you're like, well, I normally wait till two, and
today I know I'm going to need to open earlier because I'm just not making
it. So I want you to really be intentional about how you're going to
nourish your body well when you open your window, because that is the difference
for me between a window gone wrong and a highly successful window. You know,
if I'm like, you know, I'm a little munchee and I have
these cheese and crackers left from them in my friends visit, I'm going to
just open and have this now because I can well, after I eat that,
I'm not satisfied. Then I'm rummaging around and I'm eating this, and
I'm eating that, I'm eating junk, And now I might end up with
a really long window and I just ate junk the whole way through, and
now I feel very unsatisfied. Yeah, that could still happen to me versus
the other day, I was hungry a little earlier than usual, and I'm
like, I really am hungry. I opened with a daily Harvest bowl and
it was lentils and something I can't remember what was all in it. And
I ate that along with a tomato sandwich. And it may be a little
more than I normally eat to open my window, but I was so satisfied
after eating that, I didn't go to the cabinet and look for something else
and needling a little something else. So I nourished my body with healthy food
that was delicious. I planned for that instead of just eating crackers straight out
of the box or whatever was around. And that comes back to intention.
So you intentionally decided I'm going to open my window early because I feel like
I just need to do that today. But then you were intentional about well,
what you chose to open your window with, and intention is so it
sets the tone. So because you were intentional about your choices to fast clean
that morning and when you were going to open your window, it wasn't by
chance, it was by choice. And then you chose what you're gonna eat.
You didn't just go raid the cabinets at the end of the window.
You can still feel good about what you did that day. And I,
you know, maybe I close it a little earlier too. I'm focusing on
the boundary of my eating window. I opened a little early, I'm going
to close. Maybe I won't leave it open till eight I'll go ahead and
close it down a little earlier. And so that boundary of the eating window,
and I close it. But I have nourished my body well, and
you know, I just want to go back and really reiterate this important fact.
The way I opened my eating window every day determines how it's going to
go. If I open my eating window poorly, it's not going to be
a very good eating window because I start getting in that blood sugar roller coaster.
I'm searching for something else. If I start off, I'm like,
you know, at the grocery store and I bought some chips, and I'm
like, I like these chips. I'm just gonna eat a few on the
way home because it's time to open my window. My window is gonna be
just not going to go well the rest of the time. And we've learned
from the glucose Revolution of the glucose God as Jesse, Who's last night I
can't say, do you know how to say your last name? I do
not, well, it starts with an eye. She's amazing. But her
book The Glucose Revolution, she talks about how the order of what you eat
can make a difference. It's exactly true for me. I went out to
eat last Thursday with my friends that were visiting, and I ended my meal
with strawberry cake. My blood sugar stayed steady as a rock. It never
went past I mean. I was like, because you ate well prior to
Yeah, I still opened with a salad and then I had I had some
shrimp, I mean, and then I finished up with that cake. And
I had a started with cake, it would have been a whole different scenario.
So for anybody who's struggling in your window, how you open your window
matters a lot more than you think. And think about it too. When
you're fasting, your body is primed and ready for nutrition. It can absorb
that nutrition so well because it's like a blank slate and it's ready to absorb.
It's like a sponge all the nutrients you give it. So if you
give it JOHNK to start with, you're missing out on a really good opportunity
to fuel your body with really good, strong nutrition, with vitamins and minerals,
and those vitamins and minerals are going to support your body when they're in
a stress state. And blood sugar really affects your mood as well. So
if you feel blaw and you're kind of depressed or you're super anxious and you
get on a blood sugar roller coaster, that is not going to help at
all, and then you're going to just be munching some more. But you
know, I ate strawberry cake, and my blood sugar states solid, but
it was at the end of my window. So and something else I thought.
We notice a lot and this comes back to the mindset of I am
an interment faster. This isn't something that you do when it feels good.
This is something you make a commitment to do and then you do it.
And when you don't, you're not letting me down, You're not letting gender
and you're only letting yourself down. I've noticed people are like, well,
I didn't sleep well last night, so I woke up this morning and I
just decided I really needed creamy coffee. No, you don't, you don't
need creamy coffee. What you are looking for is something soothing. You're looking
for a hug and a mug, So don't get a hug and a mug,
Go get a hug from somebody who cares about you. You're looking for
soothing and that creamy coffee is only going to soothe you while you're drinking it.
It's not going to soothe you for the rest of the day. It's
not calming your emotions, it's not doing anything for you. So that's where
you know, having a stress plan and you know, knowing what you can
do to relieve stress in advance and then implementing that is so important. Well,
this week we have a book recommendation to share and we hear about this,
you know, from time to time from our listeners, from our community
members and Sharon in Cambridge, UK. She shares that after finding success with
if Interman fasting several years ago, stress derailed her progress. Here we go
we got stress again. Anita, I hope you're listening because Sharon might have
a tip for you. Sharon says that she stepped away from fasting due distress,
which led to weight regain and then since then she found the book The
Tapping Solution for Weight Loss by Jessica Ortna. Sharon says reading this book has
been life changing. I use tapping as a general coping mechanism, but when
it came to weight loss, this book revealed that sometimes it's not just about
food and comfort. It goes deeper into our beliefs about ourselves and our past,
and it teaches us that we can take back control by practicing the simple
art of the emotional freedom technique. And that's what they call it, Emotional
Freedom Technique and the Tapping Solution. They have an app for it. Anyone
who's ever heard of tapping? Until I got the app, I didn't really
understand how to do it. You're just reading the book that there's an app
that you can get and it's free, and there's some free tapping exercises on
there, or you can pay for a subscription to unlock all of the different
tapping. It's often referred to as EFT. So you ever see somebody say
EFT. That's short for Emotional Freedom Technique, and it really if you've never
heard of it, it just might sound wacky. You're like, what is
this crazy? You're tapping on your head and you're tapping on you know,
your eye and you're tapping under your arm, and it sounds crazy, But
what's amazing is it's research based. They've done a good number of studies on
this technique and the amount of changes that it causes in people is just remarkable.
So I went to their website and I pulled in just from their website.
We'll have a link to this in show notes. But a few of
the studies that they cited about tapping, and again Sharon specifically, she was
already a tap but she found the tapping solution for weight loss because it can
be different kind of programs. It's basically EFT is designed to reprogram your thoughts
and it doesn't using meridians in your body. So like if anybody's familiar with
like acupuncture or acupressure, you know, there's different spots in your body that
it actually, from what I've read, can actually like change your whole neurochemical
makeup. And the programs that are playing in our heads, you know,
drive us to do what we do and make the decisions that we make,
Like when Sherry just talked a minute ago about drinking that creamy coffee. If
you've got a program in your brain saying I feel stressed, I need creamy
coffee. You're not even maybe you aware consciously that you're doing that, but
you know tapping could be a way to reprogram you're thinking about it. So
I pulled some of these studies, like I said, and here's one of
them. This is a study by doctor Peta Stapleton. This is from twenty
twelve, and they found that EFT tapping lowered cortisol significantly more than traditional talk
therapy or resting. So they did a randomized control trial. They measured cortisol
levels the saliva testing before and after treatment. Each group got their treatment for
fifty minutes. The people who were doing the EFT tapping they had a twenty
four percent drop in cortisol, whereas the non treatment group and the listening groups
they only had a fourteen percent drop in cortisol. That's huge. There was
another study done where they basically did a study with healthcare workers to see whether
or not tapping alleviated pain and distress and cravings as well. So, because
you know, healthcare is stressful and people turn to food when they're stressed.
It's not just you, it happens everywhere. So immediately before and after having
a tapping workshop with these healthcare workers, the participants measured their pain levels,
they rated their emotional distress, and their cravings for food, and then everyone
received a two hour workshop on EFT and then a two hour session where they
applied the technique, so they learned about it and then they applied it,
and then after the four hours, they basically went through and did the same
like survey with them and the users reported significant improvements in their psychological pain levels,
their emotional distress, and their food cravings. So after ninety days,
all the participants were contacted and they wanted to see, you know, if
people were still doing the tapping, and they found that those that were using
tapping you know, more frequently, like three times a week, saw a
greater decrease in psychological symptoms. They found that EFT tapping was very effective for
both immediate and prolonged relief from issues that are typical in healthcare such as burnout,
pain distress, and cravings. I mean, that's just fascinating. And
here's one that's even that like it blows your mind because you might think,
okay, well, it's just you know, they're psychological, they feel like
they're doing something like the placebo effect, right. Well, they did a
study. They took fifteen obese adults in total, Ten went through the EFT
tapping treatment and five went to a control group that didn't get any intervention,
and they were all scanned. They gave them an MRI before and after a
four week EFT tapping treatment phase. After tapping, their MRI scans look different.
The parts of the brain that activate cravings and hunger no longer like lit
up the same way. I mean, it was like the MRI showed changes,
I mean brain function. Yeah, functional MRI. You know more about
that than me because that's your field. They did functional MRI, which basically
it shows activity in the brain in different areas light up and then they stimulate
the patient and see how you know, it changes the areas in the brain
that light up. So the parts of the brain that usually light up to
activate cravings in hunger no longer did. I mean that's amazing. They've also
confirmed through brain scans that you can reduce anxiety and under ten minutes with tapping,
so they inspected brain changes after treatment for anxiety. This was the first
EFT tapping study that used pre and post treatment functional brain imaging, they showed
a shift toward normal levels of brain activity and patients who were treated with EFT,
they compared them to people who had CBT or cognitive behavioral therapy, and
so after a year, CBT patient scans were more likely to return to higher
pre treatment levels then those people who continued with tapping over the year, and
the people that did the EFT were more likely to maintain an improved state of
lessened anxiety than those who had CBT. So, I mean, this is
like, you know, great research. And finally, one of the other
studies I want to share, they did a pilot study on the physiological effects
of tapping. They found that tapping positively influenced DNA, which is like what
you know, if you've ever read the biology I belief or you are the
placebo, we really can change our bodies physically. And they found that tapping
affect a genetic expression for seventy two different genes related to various health conditions like
immunity genes were upregulated, inflammation genes were downregulated. I mean, it's just
fascinating, So you know, don't take our word for it. We have
a link to the tapping Solution website and the link to these studies. You
can go and read the whole thing on all of them if you want to,
and we have links to the books. But the Tapping solution for weight
loss is the one that Sharon recommended, And if you're struggling with emotional eating
or binge behavior, or just anything from your diet pass that you feel like
it's still holding you back, this would be a great tool to add your
toolbox. Well, before we get to our tweak of the week, I
want to take a minute to tell you about Hungry Root. I love to
eat fresh, healthy and delicious food, but I am never going to be
the person who enjoys spending an hour preparing and cleaning up, especially since my
husband and I rarely eat the same meals. No matter how hard I try,
I am just not going to get the man to love veggies. I
love Hungry Root because everything comes prepped. I can design my meal around the
grocery items that I love and never be offered foods I don't. Many of
the quality meats they offer are already cooked and I only need a quick reheat
in the skillet, such as pork chops, pulled pork or chicken. They
have amazing steak tips that are super quick to saute for a quick meal.
They have awesome sauces that bring your veggies, grains, and meat together into
a tasty meal. I personally love their chimmy cherry sauce best of all.
All Hungry Root food and all the food they carry, meets a three point
standard. First, it has to be nutritious and made from whole, trusted
ingredients. Second, it has to be easy and quick to prepare in real
hectic life, and finally, it has to taste good. All the food
they carry is free of partially hydrogenated oils, free of artificial sweeteners, high
fruit, toast, corn syrup, artificial colors, and artificial preservatives. And
I love that I don't have to go to the grocery store and read the
labels and everything. I just know if I get it from Hungry Root,
it is good to go. Hunger Root is like a cross between meal kit
delivery and grocery delivery. I can order entire meals from hundreds of recipes or
individual grocery items. The choice is mine each week, and if you don't
use all your credits one week, you can carry them over to another week.
Check out my link in show notes and say fifty dollars on your first
trial week. And now it's time for our tweak of the week. You
know, I always say tweak it till it's easy. But the tweak that
works for me might not be the one that works for you. And that's
why it's super helpful to hear how other intermitt and fasters are making intermitt and
fasting work for them. So this tweak was submitted by Maria from Brooklyn.
She says thanks to Roxy and the mealst Monday challenges, and she's talking about
in the Delayed on Tonight community and you can find that at Jen Stevens dot
com slash community. She said, thanks to Roxy and her melest Monday challenges,
I jumped on the bandwagon myself with longer fasts weekly. Twenty weeks ago,
a community member announced she was doing a ten week adf for Alternate Daily
Fasting Challenge. I jumped in again and blew past the ten and I'm finishing
my twentieth week of mostly four three. I love it and have finally found
my groove. I know that I will keep going even on summer vacation.
I finally broke through a long time plateau. My advice, and this is
advice coming from Maria. She said, my advice is to find community.
I don't know if I would have come up with the idea to do this
on my own, but I'm always an enthusiastic joiner. Thank goodness for the
group and the incredible members. I love that I do too, And what
I love is that she felt like it. She probably wouldn't be doing it
on her own, you know, if she was just off doing fasting on
her own. But Roxy and her melist Monday challenges, She's like, well,
I'll try it, and then she didn't die, she didn't hate it,
and then somebody else is like, I'm going to do it for ten
weeks, and Maria joined her and then twenty weeks later loved it, found
her groove and sometimes she just need I mean, you're trying something a little
scary, you know. I've mentioned before I don't love going a whole day
without eating. It's a mental thing for me. I really started participating in
Roxy's mealist Monday, and after doing several of those and really realizing that it
works well for my schedule. To have an update on Tuesdays because my husband's
off. That's kind of our date day every week, and it gives me
way more flexibility. If he wants to eat at noon, I don't have
to say no, I can't my windows and not open. I want to
wait till dinner. So it's just makes it easier for me. And I've
enjoyed it so much that I have the last month included a second down day
each week, and I'm really enjoying it. But had I not been in
the community, and I had not had the encouragement and I wasn't doing it
with a group of other people, I probably would have never done it.
So and you enjoy the down days with a five hundred calorie meal because you
like to eat every day, And that's a very well researched approach. So
someone asked the other day. They're like, well, if I'm having the
five hundred calorie meal, can I still be part of meliss Monday? And
I'm like yes, because we just call it mealis Monday because that sounds good.
Down day Monday didn't have the same ring. Yeah, we like alliteration.
It's really down day Monday. It doesn't sound very fun. Actually,
it doesn't I didn't name it down day, down day, up day.
Someone else named that. But you know, meal less Monday sounds a lot
more fun and you can even have that five hundred calorie meal if you want
and you're not cheating. So oh yes, some people do feast free Friday.
There we go. Yeah, because they like a good long window on
Saturday. And like, was it like therapeutic Thursday, windowless Wednesday? Call
it whatever you want that it's motivating to you. Yeah, Downday just does
sound a little drab, but especially on a Monday. People don't like Mondays
anyway. Down day Monday. Like I say, I picture or in the
rain. Yeah, and it doesn't feel like that at all, especially when
you're doing it with a lot of other people. So yeah, Well,
we love to leave our listens with inspirational or motivational quotes to get you going
into your next week on a positive note. And this week's message comes from
Asa Asa. I'm not sure how to say your name. I'm sorry if
I said it wrong. I know who you are because I talk to you
in community. I'm going to have to ask you now how to pronounce her
name. She's from Sweden, she said, my mantra is move your ass
and your mind will follow. And it is because I know that if I
just keep waiting for motivation or inspiration to do something, it will never happen.
I have to start to do something to be able to appreciate and continue
doing it. I actually have the quote and your mind will follow tattooed on
my arm as a reminder. I really love that. That's just do it,
right, That's Nike. Just do it is what that is. I
mean, you know, people sometimes ask him the community or they'll say,
how do I find the motivation. I'm like, well, you don't have
to be motivated, just do it. Motivation comes to you. I feel
like from doing like I never am like I am just dying to work out.
I can't wait. No, But once I start working out and I
get about eight minutes in, then I start, you know, all those
endorphins start pumping, and then I feel really good and then I'm motivated.
But I'm not motivated first. I just have to do it and your mind
will follow. Yep, 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 Jen Stevens dot com slash community to join us.
Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast to your favorite podcast app, and if
you haven't already, please leave us a five star review that helps new listeners
find the show and we really appreciate it. We are a community driven podcast,
so to submit your success stories, your questions, your favorite tweak it
till It's Easy, moments, or anything else you want us to share on
the podcast, go to Fast Feast Repeat dot com slash Submit and then listen
each week to see if we share your submission or answer your question Until next
week, Thanks for listening,