Episode 134: Weight Gain and Medications, Blood Sugar Regulation, and More

<v Speaker 1>Welcome the Fast Feast Repeat Intermittent Fasting for Life. I'm
<v Speaker 1>Jen Stevens, author of the New York Times bestseller Fast Feast.
<v Speaker 2>Repeat, and I'm Sherry Bullock, longtime intermittent faster and health
<v Speaker 2>and wellness advocate. Please keep in mind that this podcast
<v Speaker 2>is for educational and motivational purposes only and is not
<v Speaker 2>intended to provide medical or diagnostic advice. Jen and I
<v Speaker 2>are not doctors, so make sure to check with your
<v Speaker 2>trusted healthcare professionals before making changes, especially when it comes
<v Speaker 2>to any medical treatments or medications.
<v Speaker 1>Whether you're new to intermittent fasting or an experienced intermittent faster,
<v Speaker 1>tune in each week to get inspired, to learn, and
<v Speaker 1>to have some fun along the way. Hi, everybody, we
<v Speaker 1>are so glad you're here today. Welcome to this week's
<v Speaker 1>episode of the Fast Feast Repeat Intermittent Fasting for Life Podcast.
<v Speaker 2>How are you doing today, Sherry, I'm doing fantastic. I'm
<v Speaker 2>so glad dealing with the cold weather. Yes, I sent
<v Speaker 2>Jenn a picture this morning. I am trying really hard
<v Speaker 2>to get outside and get ten or fifteen minutes sunshine
<v Speaker 2>every single morning for my mood, but for I'm in
<v Speaker 2>d sleep. I mean more and more and more and more.
<v Speaker 2>There's a cardiologist I follow online, doctor Jeremy London. Are
<v Speaker 2>you familiar with him? You ever heard of him?
<v Speaker 1>I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>Well I get his newsletter, Okay. He had sent like
<v Speaker 2>basically it was kind of like a New Year's resolution
<v Speaker 2>type thing. If you're gonna resolve to do anything in
<v Speaker 2>twenty twenty six, this is what it should be, Okay.
<v Speaker 2>And it's like, do a vigorous workout at least once
<v Speaker 2>a week, sit less, focus on sleep, set an alarm
<v Speaker 2>to go to bed, don't drink alcohol. He used to
<v Speaker 2>drink alcohol. He really truly believes there is no amount
<v Speaker 2>of alcohol that's safe for your heart that we've been
<v Speaker 2>fed this sort of life. And then get morning sun
<v Speaker 2>because it really helps with your circadian rhythms and serotonin
<v Speaker 2>and all of that. And yeah, so he always just
<v Speaker 2>has really great tidbits, health tidbits that he sends out
<v Speaker 2>and stuff. And when he said something about the sun,
<v Speaker 2>I was like, I am really bad about that because
<v Speaker 2>I'm allergic to the cold. Yeah dead, Oh, but I
<v Speaker 2>am taking my blank my big blanket out, wrapping up
<v Speaker 2>in it with my first cup of coffee and sitting
<v Speaker 2>out in the sun. And Lulu loves it. So we
<v Speaker 2>sit out on this little love seat and she watches
<v Speaker 2>the yard, the squirrels, the birds.
<v Speaker 1>She's happy.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, so I'm doing it. I'm getting it done. I
<v Speaker 2>don't love it.
<v Speaker 1>But it's cold. But yeah, we're moving in the right
<v Speaker 1>direction though this year where it starts to get more
<v Speaker 1>light every day.
<v Speaker 2>All right, Well, we have a weekly celebration from Tara
<v Speaker 2>l from north of Boston. She said, I have a
<v Speaker 2>non scale victory to share. My aunt came over the
<v Speaker 2>other night and gave me a batch of her famous cookies.
<v Speaker 2>Later that night we were talking about weight and how
<v Speaker 2>much weight I'd lost. She said to me, if I
<v Speaker 2>knew you were dieting, I would not have made a
<v Speaker 2>batch of cookies for you. I immediately said, I am not
<v Speaker 2>on a diet. I am doing intermittent festing. I can
<v Speaker 2>eat what I want. I will have a cookie tonight
<v Speaker 2>if we get home and my window is still open,
<v Speaker 2>or I will have one tomorrow. I felt proud to
<v Speaker 2>be able to say this isn't a diet and actually
<v Speaker 2>believe it.
<v Speaker 1>I love it.
<v Speaker 2>I love that.
<v Speaker 1>So now we have a question from a listener. This
<v Speaker 1>is from ballooning in England.
<v Speaker 2>Can I just stop right here and say, don't say
<v Speaker 2>those words about yourself?
<v Speaker 1>Words are powerful, share are and you know, ever since
<v Speaker 1>I read the Biology of Belief doctor Bruce Lipton, it's
<v Speaker 1>a little out there little woo woo. I'm very interested
<v Speaker 1>in people who were like straight up scientists and now
<v Speaker 1>they're little woo woo. Why did they change? What made
<v Speaker 1>them change? I think that's interesting. Anyway, words are really
<v Speaker 1>powerful and what we tell ourselves matters. Like you've heard
<v Speaker 1>me say this, for I will not drink liquid death
<v Speaker 1>sparkling water.
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, I won't drink I brought a can of
<v Speaker 2>liquid death to Jin's house and.
<v Speaker 1>I'm like, get that out of here.
<v Speaker 2>I never even thought about it. I just wanted some
<v Speaker 2>good sparkling water. And I was on the road. We
<v Speaker 2>drove all the way to South Carolina, and there really
<v Speaker 2>isn't good sparkly water A true, yes, a lot of places.
<v Speaker 2>So I was like, oh, look there's a can of
<v Speaker 2>sparkling water. They were like two for three dollars, and
<v Speaker 2>I was like, here I go. Jin's like, do not
<v Speaker 2>drink that?
<v Speaker 1>And I said why I don't know, because it says
<v Speaker 1>liquid death.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know. When she said that, I was like,
<v Speaker 2>oh my gosh, I've never thought about that. Why would
<v Speaker 2>you call water that?
<v Speaker 1>I don't know, because people are buying it. They think
<v Speaker 1>it's hilarious anyway.
<v Speaker 2>And I immediately thought of that research where they talked
<v Speaker 2>to the water. The water and the ice molecules were
<v Speaker 2>like all dirizing. Yeah, in the ice cubes that they
<v Speaker 2>talked mean things into the water and not the things
<v Speaker 2>they said nice to the water. Yeah, And I was like,
<v Speaker 2>oh my gosh, maybe I don't want to drink that water. Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Anyway, that's I really do think it's it's powerful. What
<v Speaker 1>we say matters. And you know, we've all heard of
<v Speaker 1>the placebo effect and just you know, you think you're
<v Speaker 1>taking something you do better even though you weren't.
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, speak different words to yourself. Okay, So I'm
<v Speaker 2>going to call you Concerned in England.
<v Speaker 1>Right there, you go, Okay, Concerned in England says I
<v Speaker 1>have a question about set points. I've heard you mentioned
<v Speaker 1>set points on the podcast a few times, and that
<v Speaker 1>clean fasting and an intermittent fasting lifestyle can provide a
<v Speaker 1>comfortable way to reach and maintain your body's natural set point.
<v Speaker 1>I'd like to ask more about how you know where
<v Speaker 1>your body's set point is and how you can change
<v Speaker 1>this if at all. I'm a forty year old woman
<v Speaker 1>one hundred and sixty four centimeters, which is five foot
<v Speaker 1>four and a half inches tall. I'm currently sixty four
<v Speaker 1>kilograms or one hundred and forty one pounds. I'm someone
<v Speaker 1>who grew up in the eighties and nineties with a
<v Speaker 1>fairly typical lifetime of constant dieting and feelings of distress
<v Speaker 1>over not having the body's shape and size I wanted,
<v Speaker 1>encouraged by my mother, who continues down this path today
<v Speaker 1>in her sixties. I've never been overweight according to my BMI,
<v Speaker 1>but my weight has fluctuated between fifty seven kilograms and
<v Speaker 1>sixty six and a half kilograms over my adult life,
<v Speaker 1>depending on what point in the cycle of dieting I
<v Speaker 1>was at. I feel most comfortable and happy with my
<v Speaker 1>body when I'm at the lower end of this range.
<v Speaker 1>I started intermittent fasting in the spring of twenty twenty
<v Speaker 1>four and have now reached almost two years of daily
<v Speaker 1>nineteen five. I found it fairly easy and thought i'd
<v Speaker 1>finally found the answer to removing the exhausting food noise
<v Speaker 1>and decision making fatigue for my life while maintaining my weight.
<v Speaker 1>My weight was sixty three kilograms or one hundred and
<v Speaker 1>thirty eight when I started, twenty eight percent body fat
<v Speaker 1>and had fallen aracdually to fifty nine and a half
<v Speaker 1>kilograms or one hundred and thirty one pounds, which was
<v Speaker 1>twenty five point five percent body fat. A year later.
<v Speaker 1>I was happy at that size, shape and weight, and
<v Speaker 1>maintained this since then till now. I've been taking upropion
<v Speaker 1>for many years as an anti pressant in long term maintenance.
<v Speaker 1>My mood and satisfaction with life were good and stable
<v Speaker 1>for a long time years, and not wanting to continue
<v Speaker 1>this medication any longer if I didn't have to, I
<v Speaker 1>took my last dose about three months ago. My mood, sleep,
<v Speaker 1>and energy levels have been fine since then, and it
<v Speaker 1>feels like it was the right decision to stop taking it. However,
<v Speaker 1>my weight has crept up to sixty four kilograms and
<v Speaker 1>I feel very uncomfortable in my body now. Genes I
<v Speaker 1>would previously wear on relaxed days now feel too tight,
<v Speaker 1>and my mid section feels thick. And full. I noticed
<v Speaker 1>I was craving carbs and had more of an appetite
<v Speaker 1>than normal since stopping the medication, and I've read that
<v Speaker 1>this is fairly typical as a form of rebound appetite.
<v Speaker 1>I kept my nineteen to five schedule and hoped that
<v Speaker 1>the carb cravings would eventually fade, and they have to
<v Speaker 1>some extent, but I must still be eating more than normal.
<v Speaker 1>I've kept going with my normal exercise schedule with no problem,
<v Speaker 1>walking daily, running two to three times a week, two
<v Speaker 1>strength classes a week. I open my window at around
<v Speaker 1>two thirty PM, often with Greek yogurt, berries and nuts,
<v Speaker 1>some savory leftovers from dinner, or something else savory like soup, avocado, eggs, cheese,
<v Speaker 1>with a slice or two of bread. I'll then eat
<v Speaker 1>dinner with my young family by seven point thirty, generally
<v Speaker 1>a recipe or meal kit of fresh, healthy food. I
<v Speaker 1>rarely drink anything except black coffee, black tea, or water,
<v Speaker 1>a couple of glasses of wine on special occasions, maybe
<v Speaker 1>once or twice a month. I'm confident that I fast
<v Speaker 1>clean and it's usually easy. I've noticed in the past
<v Speaker 1>few weeks being more hungry from mid morning or onwards
<v Speaker 1>and more conscious that I wish my eating window would arrive,
<v Speaker 1>But this is me managible. With these carb cravings, I
<v Speaker 1>have found myself snacking on things like toast buttered bread, chocolates,
<v Speaker 1>and biscuits before dinner. This frustrates me because it then
<v Speaker 1>means I often don't feel that hungry at dinner, and
<v Speaker 1>I know it would be much more enjoyable and healthy
<v Speaker 1>to have a full appetite for a balanced meal. So
<v Speaker 1>back to my question about set points. Was the medication
<v Speaker 1>keeping my body at an artificially low set point though
<v Speaker 1>I was taking it for a few years before I
<v Speaker 1>started IF and still lost weight on IF, and this
<v Speaker 1>sixty four kilograms is my natural set point, which I
<v Speaker 1>just have to accept. I don't think life would be
<v Speaker 1>very enjoyable if I shortened my windows any further. I
<v Speaker 1>could try ADF, but I feel my metabolism and eating
<v Speaker 1>habits were in a good place over the last couple
<v Speaker 1>of years. On nineteen five and I already feel the
<v Speaker 1>beginnings of anxiety at the thought of returning to the
<v Speaker 1>feelings of restriction and food noise and decision making stress,
<v Speaker 1>which were prominent throughout all of my dieting years if
<v Speaker 1>I have to try and change my eating habits and
<v Speaker 1>fight my appetite. I do you remember noticing a spell
<v Speaker 1>of lower appetite and reduced food noise when I first
<v Speaker 1>started taking the medication, which was welcome, but I didn't
<v Speaker 1>feel like it lasted for more than a few weeks.
<v Speaker 1>I know I am still at a healthy weight, but
<v Speaker 1>I don't like the way I look or feel at
<v Speaker 1>sixty four kilograms, especially because most of my clothes now
<v Speaker 1>feel too tight for comfort. And I would appreciate any
<v Speaker 1>advice in returning to something more like sixty kilograms. I
<v Speaker 1>thought that was my set point for life. Many thanks
<v Speaker 1>to you both.
<v Speaker 2>All right, So, for those that are not familiar with kilograms,
<v Speaker 2>basically the difference between her goal weight where she was
<v Speaker 2>and where she currently is is about eight to nine pounds.
<v Speaker 2>And I did run your numbers through smartbe and I
<v Speaker 2>and as you said, you are at a healthy weight.
<v Speaker 2>You are solidly in the healthy weight range. So here's
<v Speaker 2>what's really interesting. The appropriate the brand name is Bututrin. However,
<v Speaker 2>it is the same medication that is in a smoking
<v Speaker 2>cessation drug called zyban that took away people's cravings for cigarettes.
<v Speaker 2>It is also the same drug that is in a
<v Speaker 2>weight loss medication called Contrive, and it helps take away
<v Speaker 2>your desire to eat, so it makes absolute sense that
<v Speaker 2>you did not have cravings as much for these suits
<v Speaker 2>and things when you're on the medication. It makes less
<v Speaker 2>that your appetite was suppressed. And they know that weight
<v Speaker 2>gain is a common occurrence after discontinuing this drug because
<v Speaker 2>the drug causes appetite suppression and weight loss while you're
<v Speaker 2>taking it, so stopping it can reverse these effects. It
<v Speaker 2>can lead to increased hunger, ultra metabolism, and weight regain.
<v Speaker 2>So there can also be sort of a wood draw
<v Speaker 2>period which can sort of exacerbate fatigue, increased appetite, mood changes.
<v Speaker 2>But that once like this is all kind of out
<v Speaker 2>of your system, you can find a new kind of
<v Speaker 2>like a new baseline with that, having really good healthy
<v Speaker 2>habits in place is really what's suggested, you know, not
<v Speaker 2>using food to feel good, not using food for energy,
<v Speaker 2>not using food for distraction. You know, a lot of
<v Speaker 2>the drug takes away those urges, so once you stop
<v Speaker 2>the drug, those sorts of urges come back. So having
<v Speaker 2>a plan in place to manage them is really helpful.
<v Speaker 2>So basically you've got some choices to make you can
<v Speaker 2>power through and really try to fight your cravings. And
<v Speaker 2>you know, you just full out said you are snacking
<v Speaker 2>on carbie things, biscuits, buttered bread, toes, chocolates before dinner,
<v Speaker 2>so that I'm sure has a lot to do with
<v Speaker 2>your wakain. Try to swap those foods out for some
<v Speaker 2>other foods that are more nutrient dense, foods that are
<v Speaker 2>satisfying both emotionally and physically. And if you know that
<v Speaker 2>you are eating but you are not truly hungry, I
<v Speaker 2>would really suggest trying to find some other activity besides
<v Speaker 2>eating to fill that need that you have. So get outside,
<v Speaker 2>get some sunshine, take a sunshine break. Like I was
<v Speaker 2>just talking about earlier, Sunshine is really great for helping
<v Speaker 2>regulate dopamine, serotonin, all of that those feel good hormones.
<v Speaker 2>So try to go outside, take a walk, move your body,
<v Speaker 2>call a friend, watch some funny videos, do something else
<v Speaker 2>that gives you a feel good boost besides eating, because
<v Speaker 2>that's not going to give you the results you're looking for.
<v Speaker 2>And you know, in the end, it's just important to
<v Speaker 2>understand that your body off of the medication is just
<v Speaker 2>not the same as your body on the medication, and
<v Speaker 2>you need to just come to an understanding that this
<v Speaker 2>is the new you, This is the real unmedicated set
<v Speaker 2>point and the other one was giving you a false
<v Speaker 2>slow So I know there's going to be a little
<v Speaker 2>bit of mental work there to kind of accept that
<v Speaker 2>and figure out how to manage that. But I do
<v Speaker 2>believe you can do it. And really, how you talk
<v Speaker 2>about yourself, how you think about yourself, that is really
<v Speaker 2>really so important, So think about that as well.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I think that's good advice. And I know it's hard.
<v Speaker 1>Eight to nine pounds, you know, that's the difference between
<v Speaker 1>your clothes feeling great and not feeling great. So medications
<v Speaker 1>affect us in so many ways and it's hard to
<v Speaker 1>fight it. You know, you've got to just say, Okay,
<v Speaker 1>this is what's happened. What am I going to do
<v Speaker 1>about that?
<v Speaker 2>Now?
<v Speaker 1>Am I going to just be higher or not? And so,
<v Speaker 1>you know, I get it. I understand the frustration. But
<v Speaker 1>I think that was really good information, Sherry. And starting
<v Speaker 1>a new medication can cause someone to gain weight, right
<v Speaker 1>or lose weight. Yeah, Stopping a medication can cause you
<v Speaker 1>to gain weight or lose weight. So it shows us
<v Speaker 1>how much of it is outside of our conscious control.
<v Speaker 1>We've been programmed to believe if your weight is going up,
<v Speaker 1>it's because something's wrong with you, you're doing something wrong.
<v Speaker 1>If your weight is going down, it's because you're just
<v Speaker 1>doing a great job, when really there's so many factors
<v Speaker 1>that are influencing it. It's less in our conscious control
<v Speaker 1>than we like to think. We've been made to think
<v Speaker 1>that you just want it, You just want it hard enough,
<v Speaker 1>you'll just do it, And it's not always that easy.
<v Speaker 1>So this question reminds us of that.
<v Speaker 2>All right, well, our next question is from the Frozen
<v Speaker 2>Tundra Hi Jenner Sherry. Thank you for all that you
<v Speaker 2>both do. I've been reading a lot of glucose goddess
<v Speaker 2>information and I'm wondering how much we should quote worry
<v Speaker 2>about the hecks and our blood glucose if we're living
<v Speaker 2>the IF lifestyle. I love the freedom, sometimes too much
<v Speaker 2>of intermittent and fasting, but I don't want to live
<v Speaker 2>in a way where I have to do ten things
<v Speaker 2>to protect my blood sugar. Thank you for any tips
<v Speaker 2>or insights.
<v Speaker 1>All right, great question, and like you, I do not
<v Speaker 1>want to do anythings like that. I don't want to
<v Speaker 1>focus on worrying about things and should I have a
<v Speaker 1>shot of apple sider vinegar now. I don't want to
<v Speaker 1>do all that.
<v Speaker 2>Now. I don't want to take three steps before I
<v Speaker 2>can enjoy my food.
<v Speaker 1>No, I don't want to do all that. I don't
<v Speaker 1>want to, you know, eat my veggies first by themselves.
<v Speaker 1>I don't want to do that. I want to eat
<v Speaker 1>my whole meal at the same time, like a person.
<v Speaker 1>So I do not think you need to worry at
<v Speaker 1>all about what your blood sugar is doing unless you
<v Speaker 1>feel physically unwell after you eat, or you know are
<v Speaker 1>pre diabetic or your diabetic, or you know you have
<v Speaker 1>sugar regulation problems. But if you are just living your
<v Speaker 1>life normally and you're fasting and you eat and you
<v Speaker 1>feel fine, that you're fine. If you're a one C
<v Speaker 1>is healthy and you feel good, that's all you need
<v Speaker 1>to worry about. She does a lot of blood sugar monitoring,
<v Speaker 1>and you know the effects of different things, and also
<v Speaker 1>remember a lot of that is personal study of one
<v Speaker 1>we know from Zoe, we know from the doctor Aaron
<v Speaker 1>Segole's group. Did they're out of Israel, And when I
<v Speaker 1>first heard about it in twenty seventeen where people were
<v Speaker 1>wearing cgms are getting completely different blood sugar responses. We
<v Speaker 1>know it's not universal, We're not all going to have
<v Speaker 1>the same response, but she's big on here's what happened
<v Speaker 1>for me, So this is what you need to do
<v Speaker 1>with that information, which wou I would not do that
<v Speaker 1>anymore and worry about yourself and how you feel after
<v Speaker 1>you eat. And a lot of really smart people may
<v Speaker 1>not be big fans of some of the work she's
<v Speaker 1>put out there. I'm just going to say it like that.
<v Speaker 1>I'm not being negative about the glucose Goddess, but it
<v Speaker 1>can cause you to focus on things that are not
<v Speaker 1>actually bad, and you can pathologize normal blood sugar responses
<v Speaker 1>is suddenly bad. Like you start getting the idea that
<v Speaker 1>your blood sugar should never go up after you eat,
<v Speaker 1>and you know, I think we've talked about that before,
<v Speaker 1>just as an extreme true if all I ate was butter,
<v Speaker 1>if I opened my window ate nothing but butter and
<v Speaker 1>that was all I ate, my blood sugar would probably
<v Speaker 1>stay very, very steady. And I might think if the
<v Speaker 1>only metric I was focusing on was keeping my blood
<v Speaker 1>sugar as steady as possible, I'd be like, man, I'm
<v Speaker 1>doing great, but is just eating butter for the rest
<v Speaker 1>of my life a healthy diet. Note, but if I
<v Speaker 1>were thinking that any kind of blood sugar rise was
<v Speaker 1>dangerous or bad, I might be like, oh my gosh,
<v Speaker 1>look my blood sugar went up to one hundred and forty.
<v Speaker 1>After I ate it had been ninety and it went
<v Speaker 1>up to one hundred and forty. That is terrible. I
<v Speaker 1>can't eat those foods. But actually that's a very normal
<v Speaker 1>blood sugar response, not anything crazy. If it went up
<v Speaker 1>to three hundred. Okay, yeah, you know there's certain spikes
<v Speaker 1>that are going to be bad for you. But I
<v Speaker 1>probably would feel prety terrible if my blood sugar was
<v Speaker 1>going up to three hundred. So I think it's caused
<v Speaker 1>a lot of people to unnecessarily worry that a normal
<v Speaker 1>blood sugar fluctuation is somehow bad and that we should
<v Speaker 1>be trying to avoid having our blood sugar fluctuate within
<v Speaker 1>a range. We want our blood sugar to fluctuate within
<v Speaker 1>a healthy range, not go too high, not go too low.
<v Speaker 1>But we don't want to worry that it should be flat,
<v Speaker 1>because that's not what we want either. So if this
<v Speaker 1>feels like it's giving you diet brain. Look away from
<v Speaker 1>the information and just get rid of it out of
<v Speaker 1>your brain. You don't even have to think about this, right.
<v Speaker 1>A lot of the stuff she says is useful, Like
<v Speaker 1>you know, she says, put clothes on your carbs. That's
<v Speaker 1>one of her things that she says, meaning if you
<v Speaker 1>go out and eat a doughnut by itself, you're going
<v Speaker 1>to have a blood sugar crash and you're gonna feel awful.
<v Speaker 1>But you don't need to know what your blood sugar
<v Speaker 1>is doing to know that you feel bad. You're gonna
<v Speaker 1>feel bad. Your body's going to send you that feedback
<v Speaker 1>and you can say, oh, it's because I ate that
<v Speaker 1>donut by itself. So you might say, okay, I need
<v Speaker 1>to eat a hearty meal, a real food before I
<v Speaker 1>have anything sweet. Right, that's just you know, I want
<v Speaker 1>to just say that's common sense. If you're eating something,
<v Speaker 1>you feel terrible, that didn't work for you. So a
<v Speaker 1>lot of the stuff that she says is really good
<v Speaker 1>common sense. Don't eat highly sugary carbs and isolation. I
<v Speaker 1>knew that when I was six years old, not because
<v Speaker 1>I knew anything about blood sugar, but I knew it
<v Speaker 1>made me feel awful, right, you know. I don't mean
<v Speaker 1>to be speaking negatively about the glucose goddess. It's not
<v Speaker 1>what I'm doing, but she has caused a lot of
<v Speaker 1>people to get overly focused on normal blood sugar fluctuations
<v Speaker 1>and somehow thinking that's abnormal. So don't do that. What
<v Speaker 1>do you think about that, Sherry? Did I say it?
<v Speaker 2>I agree? Well, And here's the thing too, is like,
<v Speaker 2>for instance, I was having a lot of issues with
<v Speaker 2>blood sugar disreg several years ago. Biodchical hormone replacement fixed
<v Speaker 2>that right up for me. So the interesting thing was
<v Speaker 2>is I was using a CGM. I was using a
<v Speaker 2>company that's no longer in business, and they basically would
<v Speaker 2>score my food based off of my blood sugar response. Now,
<v Speaker 2>they did not want me to have super tight control.
<v Speaker 2>They were looking at sort of the big picture. But
<v Speaker 2>because my blood sugar was very disregulated, I got to
<v Speaker 2>the point where the only thing I was eating were
<v Speaker 2>like low carb veggies and meat and cheese because anything
<v Speaker 2>else was causing me to become hypogocemic. After I ate,
<v Speaker 2>I was crashing. Well that's fine. Maybe I was keeping
<v Speaker 2>my blood sugar under control. But what was I doing
<v Speaker 2>to my body? My cholesterol went sky high, alarmingly high,
<v Speaker 2>alarmingly high. So what's the trade off? You know, it's like,
<v Speaker 2>and what was I doing for my gut biome? And
<v Speaker 2>we know a healthy gut biome help support healthy blood
<v Speaker 2>glucose response. And so eat food that you enjoy and
<v Speaker 2>if you feel awful after you eat it, play around
<v Speaker 2>with your composition of your food. Add more fiber to it.
<v Speaker 2>You know, maybe you don't need you know, the same
<v Speaker 2>composition of food I've gave In the last episode, I
<v Speaker 2>gave a story about when I had brown rice, salmon
<v Speaker 2>and green beans. Sounds like a dream meal, right A
<v Speaker 2>nutritionist would be like, oh, look, that's a perfect diet meal.
<v Speaker 2>But my blood sugar did not like it at all.
<v Speaker 2>My blood sugar went really high and then it dropped
<v Speaker 2>really low. I felt awful.
<v Speaker 1>Do you think it was rice?
<v Speaker 2>I think it was the brown rice without having any
<v Speaker 2>fiber with it. Okay, green bean is not a high
<v Speaker 2>fight enough fiber. So I know rice. My body does
<v Speaker 2>not respond. We'll have a rice Gin's body responds beautiful
<v Speaker 2>ya with rice? Yeah, so we are all very different.
<v Speaker 2>I happen to have a CGM in my house. I'm
<v Speaker 2>going to redo that meal, but I'm gonna use broccoli
<v Speaker 2>instead of the green beans. I'm gonna have a little
<v Speaker 2>salad to open with first. You know, I could even
<v Speaker 2>swap out the brown rice or add some queen kin
<v Speaker 2>wad to the brown rice. So there's things you can
<v Speaker 2>do and play around with the meal composition that will
<v Speaker 2>help your body have a little bit better like glucose response.
<v Speaker 2>But those are little tips and tricks that you're gonna
<v Speaker 2>learn over time based off of feeling good. Not doing
<v Speaker 2>a fingerstick every time you eat. Just listen to your body.
<v Speaker 2>You're gonna know, trust me, if your blood sugar's going high,
<v Speaker 2>you're gonna feel it. If your blood sugar's dropping low,
<v Speaker 2>you're gonna feel it. And then just tweak the meals
<v Speaker 2>that make you feel poor.
<v Speaker 1>M m yeah, So I would just as a summary,
<v Speaker 1>she's got some great information about things that can make
<v Speaker 1>a difference if you're having a lot of blood sugar fluctuations.
<v Speaker 1>But I don't think you need to do ten halfs
<v Speaker 1>before you have a meal right in order to eat it.
<v Speaker 1>It's more about listening to your body and understanding how
<v Speaker 1>the foods make you feel and that's more important than
<v Speaker 1>anything else.
<v Speaker 2>We interviewed a doctor, doctor Beverly on life Lessons Yates.
<v Speaker 2>Beverly Yates, Beverly Yates. Yes, and she talked a lot
<v Speaker 2>about blud glucose and how you should feel good after
<v Speaker 2>you eat and if you don't feel good after you eat,
<v Speaker 2>then you're not eating the right foods for you. And
<v Speaker 2>it's really as simple as that. It's changed your diet
<v Speaker 2>so that you feel good after eating, It's true. And
<v Speaker 2>what makes me feel good is not going to make
<v Speaker 2>gin feel good.
<v Speaker 1>It's true.
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, really learn what makes you feel good. And
<v Speaker 2>this is where a food journal can come in Handy.
<v Speaker 2>I would rather you just you know, if you have
<v Speaker 2>a meal and you don't feel well afterwards, and you
<v Speaker 2>feel like your sluggish, you can't get off the couch.
<v Speaker 2>You need to eat something to get your blood sugar backup.
<v Speaker 2>Jot down that meal, write it down so you remember
<v Speaker 2>exactly what you you ate, and then alter it the
<v Speaker 2>next time you want to eat it and see how
<v Speaker 2>you feel then and be your own study of one.
<v Speaker 2>Figure out what makes you feel good.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, exactly exactly, And don't assume that everyone is going
<v Speaker 1>to be the same. I just keep coming back to
<v Speaker 1>that because it's so important. You know, we thought that
<v Speaker 1>the Glycemer index was gospel because that number would apply
<v Speaker 1>to everybody, but it doesn't, right, We're all different. When
<v Speaker 1>I learned that, I was like mind blown.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, it's like somebody could sit there and open
<v Speaker 2>their eating window with a bowl of ice cream and
<v Speaker 2>feel horrible. I would feel fine.
<v Speaker 1>I would be fine with ice cream. But if you
<v Speaker 1>get you a rice, yeah, I would be on the floor.
<v Speaker 1>I can do ice cream. Something about that composition. I'm okay.
<v Speaker 2>So you just never know.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, like cake is one of the worst things for me.
<v Speaker 1>Makes me feel yuck, like doughnuts, things like that not
<v Speaker 1>working with. Give me a potato. I'm fine. So now
<v Speaker 1>it's time for our segment called What's Your Why. Most
<v Speaker 1>of us begin intermittent fasting with weight loss in mind,
<v Speaker 1>which is a great reason to begin, but there is
<v Speaker 1>so much more to what intermittent fasting can do for
<v Speaker 1>us beyond weight loss, and I believe when your why
<v Speaker 1>is deeper than weight loss alone, you're more likely to
<v Speaker 1>find long term success because you view intermittent fasting as
<v Speaker 1>a lifestyle.
<v Speaker 2>So this week, we have a wife from Vicky. Vicky wrote,
<v Speaker 2>I come from a very small family. My husband and
<v Speaker 2>I have no children. Unlike others, I don't have siblings, nieces, nephews, etc.
<v Speaker 2>To look after me. As I get older, I'm going
<v Speaker 2>to solely rely on myself. So my why is I
<v Speaker 2>need to be in the best health I can be.
<v Speaker 2>I need to be able to care for myself and
<v Speaker 2>not rely on anyone. It's scary to me, but I
<v Speaker 2>know intermittent fasting is the way for me to accomplish my.
<v Speaker 1>Why, and I think that's a powerful reason. That is
<v Speaker 1>a one to be in the best health we can be,
<v Speaker 1>absolutely all right.
<v Speaker 2>So our next question is from Curious and Nebraska. Hello,
<v Speaker 2>love your show and I listen every week. I am
<v Speaker 2>sixty years old and I have been intermittent fast since
<v Speaker 2>July of twenty twenty three. I'm five eight and I
<v Speaker 2>weighed over one hundred and fifty pounds when I started.
<v Speaker 2>Not overweight, but I was uncomfortable at that weight and
<v Speaker 2>I was either going to need to buy the next
<v Speaker 2>size up in my genes or do something about it.
<v Speaker 2>I wanted to stop what seemed to be a consistent
<v Speaker 2>and gradual raise in my weight with if I almost
<v Speaker 2>immediately got down to one hundred and thirty pounds. I
<v Speaker 2>felt great at that weight and maintained it for almost
<v Speaker 2>a year, but I realized that it was too low
<v Speaker 2>for my age and size. Without really changing anything, my
<v Speaker 2>weight slowly started creeping up to one hundred and thirty
<v Speaker 2>five pounds, and now I'm at one hundred and forty pounds.
<v Speaker 2>I don't really understand it, but I'm still feeling good
<v Speaker 2>and I'm not worried about the weight because it's still
<v Speaker 2>a healthy weight for me for my age and height.
<v Speaker 2>Here's where things get weird, though. Last year, I had
<v Speaker 2>my doctor do a complete lipid profile in A and C.
<v Speaker 2>A year ago, my A and C was five point eight,
<v Speaker 2>considered pre diabetic. My fasting insulin was three point four,
<v Speaker 2>and a fasting glucose was ninety seven. I don't know
<v Speaker 2>what my A and C was before that, so I
<v Speaker 2>don't know if that was better than before I started
<v Speaker 2>fasting or not. I eat really healthy. I consistently fast
<v Speaker 2>nineteen five or eighteen six, but open longer for celebrations
<v Speaker 2>or if I'm feeling extra hungry. This year, I had
<v Speaker 2>the doctor do the same labs I was disappointed because
<v Speaker 2>although my fasting glucose went to ninety three, my A
<v Speaker 2>and C was up at six, and my fasting insulin
<v Speaker 2>was still good at four point three. I think it
<v Speaker 2>is also relevant to share that my cholesterol is high
<v Speaker 2>at two forty four, but I have a really good HDL.
<v Speaker 2>I have high LDL, but I'm higher in the larger
<v Speaker 2>particle LDL size than i am the small so I'm
<v Speaker 2>not too worried about my cholesterol levels so much. The
<v Speaker 2>only inconsistency there is my triglycerides, which are really low
<v Speaker 2>at thirty seven. My biggest concern is my raising A
<v Speaker 2>and C. As I said before, I consistently fast nineteen
<v Speaker 2>five or eighteen six. I eat healthy, more low carb
<v Speaker 2>than anything, but I don't count macros. I eat lots
<v Speaker 2>of good protein nuts, grass fed meat, some dairy, lots
<v Speaker 2>of vegetables, a huge salad daily. I don't think diet
<v Speaker 2>is the issue. I exercise daily and I am mostly
<v Speaker 2>active during the day. After doing some searches on the internet,
<v Speaker 2>the only consistent answer I can find to the inconsistencies
<v Speaker 2>in my blood work is that because of my fasting,
<v Speaker 2>I might be eating too much at meal times. Thus,
<v Speaker 2>spiking my insulin too high. When I do eat, I
<v Speaker 2>eat twice a day, one larger meal when I open
<v Speaker 2>my window, and a smaller meal when I close. I
<v Speaker 2>always try to not sit after a meal and go
<v Speaker 2>for a walk, lift weights, or do some housework. One
<v Speaker 2>of the reasons fasting works for me is that it
<v Speaker 2>broke me from my chronic snacking. Before fasting, I tend
<v Speaker 2>to eat all day and I found myself in the
<v Speaker 2>pantry a lot. Having the five to six hour window
<v Speaker 2>keeps me out of the pantry, but I do sometimes
<v Speaker 2>tend to overeat when my window opens, and sometimes at
<v Speaker 2>night if there is something really good for supper. If
<v Speaker 2>I had to guess, your advice would be to open
<v Speaker 2>my window longer and eat smaller meals. However, I'm afraid
<v Speaker 2>if I have a longer window, I'm going to find
<v Speaker 2>myself in the pantry snacking again. What would you suggest?
<v Speaker 1>Thank you for all you do, all right, I am
<v Speaker 1>absolutely one hundred percent not going to suggest that you
<v Speaker 1>open your window longer and eat smaller meals, So that
<v Speaker 1>would not be what I would recommend, So we can
<v Speaker 1>put that off the table.
<v Speaker 2>Now.
<v Speaker 1>No, you said it's not your food, but I think
<v Speaker 1>it is your food. I think food is important. If
<v Speaker 1>your A one C is going up and nothing else
<v Speaker 1>has changed, then there is something going on with your
<v Speaker 1>blood sugar regulation. Now that being said, you know you're sixty,
<v Speaker 1>assuming you're on the other side of menopause. You didn't
<v Speaker 1>mention if you were doing any kind of hormone replacement therapy.
<v Speaker 1>One thing we know is that after menopause, women have
<v Speaker 1>worsening blood sugar regulation as we get older, unless we're
<v Speaker 1>doing hormone replacement therapy bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. As an
<v Speaker 1>example from my history, my A one C went up
<v Speaker 1>before I started BHRT, then I started it, and then
<v Speaker 1>it went back to a good range. So that's something
<v Speaker 1>to keep in mind that that is just normal women
<v Speaker 1>who are not on BHRT seeing our blood sugar control
<v Speaker 1>worse than overtime. Now, I'm going to go back to
<v Speaker 1>that last question we had about the glucose Goddess and
<v Speaker 1>blood sugar regulation, and you mentioned that you're eating Would
<v Speaker 1>you say good protein? Right, We've been told to eat
<v Speaker 1>a lot of protein these days, nuts, grass fed meats,
<v Speaker 1>and dairy. Then you mentioned the vegetables and the salad
<v Speaker 1>when I have worn a CGM. If I were only
<v Speaker 1>focusing on what my blood sugar did in that little
<v Speaker 1>short range right after eating, the way the glucose goddess does,
<v Speaker 1>I would find if I ate a lot of protein, nuts, meat, dairy,
<v Speaker 1>think high fat. Okay, if I eat a high fat meal,
<v Speaker 1>even though you know we've been told fat is not bad,
<v Speaker 1>and I don't think fat is bad. But if I
<v Speaker 1>eat a high fat meal with all the dairy, the meat,
<v Speaker 1>the nuts, all of that, my blood sugar goes up
<v Speaker 1>to a normal range. But then it stays up, stays up,
<v Speaker 1>stays up, stays up, stays up. So I notice a
<v Speaker 1>connection between how much fat I was having, especially like
<v Speaker 1>dairy kind of fat for me, butter, that sort of
<v Speaker 1>thing my blood sugar. If you're only looking at that
<v Speaker 1>little snippet right after your meal, it looks ideal. It
<v Speaker 1>goes up, it doesn't go too high, but if you
<v Speaker 1>go downstream eight to twelve hours, it should be back down.
<v Speaker 1>But if I eat a lot of fat, my blood
<v Speaker 1>sugar doesn't come back down. It stays up, up, up, up, up,
<v Speaker 1>up up. The next day, it might be still high
<v Speaker 1>in the morning, and it takes longer to come back down.
<v Speaker 1>So for me, too much fat keeps my blood sugar higher.
<v Speaker 1>And if your blood sugar is saying higher longer, that
<v Speaker 1>could end up seeing that your A one C is
<v Speaker 1>going up. You said that you thought it was because
<v Speaker 1>of you know, too much insulin coming out at once,
<v Speaker 1>and I don't want you to think of it as
<v Speaker 1>an insulin problem. It's more so that And actually I
<v Speaker 1>learned those when I taught Desyrus Cambuddha of Mastering Diabetes,
<v Speaker 1>because his second PhD was in insulin resistance, and you
<v Speaker 1>know the bio what was happening in the body right,
<v Speaker 1>what's happening biologically, And the way that they made the
<v Speaker 1>lab animal's insulin resistant was by increasing the fat in
<v Speaker 1>their diet. And so if your A and C is climbing,
<v Speaker 1>that is a sign that perhaps it's insulin resistance. And
<v Speaker 1>I would look to the amount of fat you're eating,
<v Speaker 1>because I know that is, you know, perhaps against the
<v Speaker 1>conventional wisdom that we're hearing right now. And also you know,
<v Speaker 1>we want to keep our blood sugar from going up,
<v Speaker 1>and adding more fat will do that, but it keeps
<v Speaker 1>it higher longer.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and then there's some medical reasons why you can
<v Speaker 2>get a falsely elevated A and C. So there are
<v Speaker 2>some other things you can look into. You might want
<v Speaker 2>to see an intercrinologist because they can dive into that
<v Speaker 2>a little bit more like anemia, kidney or liver disease.
<v Speaker 2>There are certain medications that can falsely raise it low
<v Speaker 2>thyroid levels, being hypothyroid or having subclinical hypothyroidism. There are
<v Speaker 2>just genetic hemoglobin variants that can cause falsely elevated A
<v Speaker 2>and C.
<v Speaker 1>That's so interesting. I didn't know any of that.
<v Speaker 2>And just age itself like it has to do with glycation.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know how to describe lication, but you can
<v Speaker 2>google it and so anyways, it just alters your hemoglobin
<v Speaker 2>so that you get a falsely elevated It looks like
<v Speaker 2>you're having worsening blood sugar control, but you aren't.
<v Speaker 1>Really. That's so interesting.
<v Speaker 2>So she's actually one that I would probably say that CGM.
<v Speaker 2>Get a CGM. I think that could be really eye
<v Speaker 2>opening for you. Get a CGM, wear it for you know,
<v Speaker 2>two weeks or four weeks and see if you notice
<v Speaker 2>a difference. And we have a link for signals. I
<v Speaker 2>was actually looking at their program and their app. It
<v Speaker 2>looks it's very intriguing. I've not used signals myself, but
<v Speaker 2>if I was going to get another CGM, I would
<v Speaker 2>use it to try it. They don't focus on, you know,
<v Speaker 2>keeping a tight control. They're very much big picture. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>so that would be interesting for you to take a
<v Speaker 2>look at and see what your trends are doing after
<v Speaker 2>you eat two hours after you eat overnight, and if
<v Speaker 2>everything looks good there, then it definitely could be be
<v Speaker 2>twelve deficiency, full eight deficiency anemia, hypothyroid, like I said,
<v Speaker 2>so that's when you would want to dig in a
<v Speaker 2>little bit more.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, very good information. So we don't want our blood
<v Speaker 1>sugar to go up like crazy after we eat and
<v Speaker 1>then crash. We want it to go up, come back down.
<v Speaker 1>But we also don't want it to go up and
<v Speaker 1>stay up for twelve hours. So those are some things
<v Speaker 1>to look at. And again that that was part of
<v Speaker 1>the feedback about the glucose Goddess that I heard from people,
<v Speaker 1>is that she's focusing on too narrow a window, right,
<v Speaker 1>and not what happens as time goes on, right, So
<v Speaker 1>something to keep in mind, all right. Our next question
<v Speaker 1>is from two months into clean Iya from Sydney Australia.
<v Speaker 1>Thank you so much for your work, Jen and Sherry.
<v Speaker 1>I am bowled over daily by your devotion to the community,
<v Speaker 1>and I am loving being a part of it. I
<v Speaker 1>am in my ninth week of clean and I'm written
<v Speaker 1>fasting and I have two questions. Number One, I have
<v Speaker 1>to take a daily antihistamine fasofinidine. Is that how you
<v Speaker 1>would say that, Shery, I'm terrible at saying medications one
<v Speaker 1>hundred and eighty milligrams all year around here in Australia,
<v Speaker 1>or I cannot function? Would it be better for my
<v Speaker 1>fasting success and ease a fasting experience to take this
<v Speaker 1>in my eating window? I heard on a podcast that
<v Speaker 1>you shary take an antihistamine during the two shoulder seasons.
<v Speaker 1>So I wondered if you would know or have experience
<v Speaker 1>if it makes a difference to your fast when you
<v Speaker 1>take it.
<v Speaker 2>Right, So let's answer that first. I can only assume
<v Speaker 2>shoulder seasons of spring and fall. Yeah, I've never heard
<v Speaker 2>that before. So what she's taking is allegra. I'm sure
<v Speaker 2>ever big is heard of Allegra. Yes, antihistamines can increase hunger,
<v Speaker 2>they ramp up grilling. I take mine before bed, because
<v Speaker 2>you know, if you know anything about like the half
<v Speaker 2>life of drugs, like you get the medication in your system,
<v Speaker 2>it builds up and then it starts to break down
<v Speaker 2>over time, and so you know there's a half life
<v Speaker 2>of a drug. In the further you are between doses,
<v Speaker 2>the less of the drug is like in your system.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know what the half life of antihistamines are,
<v Speaker 2>but so to me, if I'm going to have an
<v Speaker 2>increase in hunger, I would like to have that while
<v Speaker 2>I'm sleeping. So I take it in the evening, I say,
<v Speaker 2>before bed. In the evening, eight nine o'clock at night,
<v Speaker 2>when my window's been closed, I'm satisfied for the day.
<v Speaker 2>That's when I take mine. I don't notice a different
<v Speaker 2>I you know, just take it seasonally. I don't notice
<v Speaker 2>that I have increased hunger from it. So that's the
<v Speaker 2>best advice I have for you. Take it at the
<v Speaker 2>end of your eating window. Take it, I mean, depending
<v Speaker 2>on when your eating window ends. If it ends a
<v Speaker 2>couple hours before bed, just take it. Then take it
<v Speaker 2>before bed. I just wouldn't get up and take it
<v Speaker 2>in the morning because I don't think you want to
<v Speaker 2>increase hunger while you're fasting during the day.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I used to take a daily into histamine. I
<v Speaker 1>had to take it all year long. I had terrible
<v Speaker 1>allergies that were so.
<v Speaker 2>Bad I used to take mine daily or I know
<v Speaker 2>I have chronic hives.
<v Speaker 1>I don't take any into histamine ever anymore, so, even
<v Speaker 1>during peak allergy season here. When we first moved to
<v Speaker 1>the beach, I had a little bit the first year
<v Speaker 1>we were here, but I think looking back, that might
<v Speaker 1>have been possibly mold in a place where I was
<v Speaker 1>spending a lot of time. I don't know for sure,
<v Speaker 1>but that's the only because it hasn't happened since then
<v Speaker 1>and we no longer have that property, so that's the
<v Speaker 1>only thing I can I don't know for sure, but
<v Speaker 1>it's like a hunch I have. Maybe my bucket was
<v Speaker 1>too full when allergy season hit. So it's possible with
<v Speaker 1>intermitten fasting, you may find over time your inflammation comes
<v Speaker 1>down to the point that you don't need to have
<v Speaker 1>it all the time, and that would be a great solution.
<v Speaker 1>All right, So the second part of our question. After
<v Speaker 1>a rocky start, I'm finally working my way to a
<v Speaker 1>four hour window with the aim to have two light
<v Speaker 1>meals to satiety, one on either side, but within the window.
<v Speaker 1>Would you recommend not having any oat, milk or such
<v Speaker 1>in my tea in between those two meals to allow
<v Speaker 1>insulin to come down without being stimulated with little bits
<v Speaker 1>here and there, or does it not matter in those
<v Speaker 1>eating window hours? Can I have some calories in between
<v Speaker 1>the two meals or should I stick with plain tea
<v Speaker 1>and water? Again, like in my fast, I am truly
<v Speaker 1>just trying to find out if I'm accidentally doing things
<v Speaker 1>that make fasting and feeling appetite correction harder for me,
<v Speaker 1>as I was fasting with salted water for eight weeks
<v Speaker 1>and I only just realized that this contributed to my
<v Speaker 1>feelings of unmanageable hunger. Oh, I know who this is.
<v Speaker 1>Did you see us talk through this in the community.
<v Speaker 2>Yep.
<v Speaker 1>This made me realize, however, think and have a big impact,
<v Speaker 1>hence my questions. Thanks again for all you do, so
<v Speaker 1>if everybody he's not in the community. She was having
<v Speaker 1>really terrible hunger and I'm like, what are you having?
<v Speaker 1>And she mentioned that she was putting salt in her water.
<v Speaker 1>And again a lot of people just think that you
<v Speaker 1>are supposed to do that, but I've never done it,
<v Speaker 1>and I've also never recommended that people do it, but
<v Speaker 1>so many people do recommend it or say it in
<v Speaker 1>like the Fasting Communities.
<v Speaker 2>Log post about how so it might have been doctor Herring.
<v Speaker 2>The salt making you quote me on that it was
<v Speaker 2>something with hair was doctor herring. And there has been
<v Speaker 2>research that salt can make you hungrier because it lights
<v Speaker 2>up these whatever signals in your brain. Well, it definitely
<v Speaker 2>caused you to be hungry. Yeah, And he gave the
<v Speaker 2>example of when you start eating like salty foods like
<v Speaker 2>potato chips, and that's they're hard to stop and it's
<v Speaker 2>because that salt kind of lights up that area of
<v Speaker 2>your brain that makes you hungrier.
<v Speaker 1>Well, it makes sense when you think about me and
<v Speaker 1>how I've always been the person who's struggled to stop
<v Speaker 1>with salty things like I can't eat a bag of
<v Speaker 1>Doritos and stop eating them because my brain just wants
<v Speaker 1>to keep going. But I don't have a sugar problem.
<v Speaker 1>I can say no to sugar easily. It's not something
<v Speaker 1>that lights up my brain. So I bet salt lights
<v Speaker 1>my brain up in a different way. But salt makes
<v Speaker 1>me hungry even though technically it's a mineral, and so
<v Speaker 1>it should not break a fast. It makes me hungry.
<v Speaker 1>So I'm glad that she mentioned that, because anybody, if
<v Speaker 1>you're struggling with hunger and you're having salt in your fast,
<v Speaker 1>stop doing that and see if it makes a difference.
<v Speaker 1>All right, So what would you say about her question
<v Speaker 1>about within her four our window?
<v Speaker 2>When your window is open, it is open. We are
<v Speaker 2>not worrying about insulin being low in our eating window.
<v Speaker 2>Here's the thing. Insulin gets a lot of negative attention, right,
<v Speaker 2>We don't want high insulin all the time. Insulin is
<v Speaker 2>actually good for you in many ways. One it helps
<v Speaker 2>control your blood sugar. Two it helps with muscle growth.
<v Speaker 2>So insulin isn't bad. It's not something that you're like, oh,
<v Speaker 2>I don't I shouldn't ever have that, just like with everything,
<v Speaker 2>just like with minerals and vitamins. It is finding the
<v Speaker 2>right balance. And so once your window is open, you
<v Speaker 2>have already like told your body foods incoming, insulin's being
<v Speaker 2>pumped out. Insulin is there to manage your blood glucose
<v Speaker 2>from the meal you had. So if you enjoy tea
<v Speaker 2>with oat milk in it, if you want to have
<v Speaker 2>a little bit here and there, knock yourself out. Don't
<v Speaker 2>worry about it. Now. If you come to a point
<v Speaker 2>where you're not seeing weight loss and you're eating and
<v Speaker 2>drinking empty calories and you're eating window, that's the first
<v Speaker 2>thing I would tell you to remove and just focus
<v Speaker 2>on your meals and switch to you know, plane tea
<v Speaker 2>rather than you know, sugary sweetened or creamy tea in
<v Speaker 2>your window, because those are easy things that you can
<v Speaker 2>remove so that you can concentrate on eating more nutrient
<v Speaker 2>dense foods at your meals. But yeah, that has nothing
<v Speaker 2>to do with insulin, right.
<v Speaker 1>Well said, I couldn't say anything better than that. Our
<v Speaker 1>next question is from Terry from Texas. Hi. I bought
<v Speaker 1>and read your book. It seems logical. My question is
<v Speaker 1>can you eat most anything you want in moderation while
<v Speaker 1>you're in your eating window.
<v Speaker 2>I guess that depends on what you want? Uh huh,
<v Speaker 2>Well said, So, I like to think about food from
<v Speaker 2>a perspective of am I eating like a grown up?
<v Speaker 2>As Jen say? There you go, right? Is the food
<v Speaker 2>I'm eating balanced? Is it mostly nutritious? Is it delicious?
<v Speaker 2>Does it satisfy you physically? And emotionally. Can you eat
<v Speaker 2>anything you want that means something different to a lot
<v Speaker 2>of different people. I'm gonna say yes, because for me,
<v Speaker 2>what I want is to eat food that leaves me
<v Speaker 2>satisfied that I'm not hungry during my fast, that helps
<v Speaker 2>me sleep well, that helps prevent restless legs after I
<v Speaker 2>eat them, and that supports my body in all ways.
<v Speaker 2>You know, I eat mostly healthy. It's that whole balance.
<v Speaker 2>It's that whole You've heard eighty twenty of eighty percent
<v Speaker 2>of the foods you eat are nutrient dent. You might
<v Speaker 2>have room for twenty percent to be fun foods that
<v Speaker 2>are not nutritionally dense. You're gonna figure out what works
<v Speaker 2>for you. Moderation is key the word I like the
<v Speaker 2>word balance. Am I eating in balance? Am I getting
<v Speaker 2>some good healthy starchy carbs, starchy veggies, high fiber, lean proteins,
<v Speaker 2>some healthy fats. Am I eating the colors of the rainbow?
<v Speaker 2>And then what I've got all that down? Yeah, I
<v Speaker 2>have room for some cheeseburgers and some pizza here and there,
<v Speaker 2>and some egg rolls if I want them. But I'm
<v Speaker 2>not filling up on those things. I'm filling up on
<v Speaker 2>the really good stuff, and that's sort of on the side.
<v Speaker 2>What would you say, Jen, Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>And you know, for anyone who's read Fast Feast Repeat,
<v Speaker 1>I have a whole section in Fast Feast Repeat in
<v Speaker 1>the feast part where I talk about the phrase eat
<v Speaker 1>whatever you want, and we unpack what that means. And
<v Speaker 1>you can think of it as eat whatever you want.
<v Speaker 1>You know, like the freshman going off to college for
<v Speaker 1>the first time and you're turbul loose in the cafeteria
<v Speaker 1>and you're just eating like like an eighteen year old.
<v Speaker 1>Nobody's watching, right, probably wouldn't do that, but also eat
<v Speaker 1>whatever you want. And you know, when we think back,
<v Speaker 1>especially to the Facebook days when we were having the
<v Speaker 1>Facebook groups and people came in with a lot of
<v Speaker 1>dietary dogma, kito was really big. Maybe somebody else was vegan,
<v Speaker 1>Maybe somebody else was paleoks that was big, right then,
<v Speaker 1>if somebody else was you know whatever, fill in the
<v Speaker 1>blank and say. People were very dogmatic about there being
<v Speaker 1>one best way that everyone should be eating. And our
<v Speaker 1>philosophy has always been eat whatever you want. You want
<v Speaker 1>to be keto because you feel your best keto that'll
<v Speaker 1>work for you. You are vegan or plant based, whether
<v Speaker 1>it's ethical reasons or because you feel best plant based,
<v Speaker 1>eat what you want. But even within those like let's
<v Speaker 1>say you're keto, you still can't eat whatever you want.
<v Speaker 1>You could overeat as someone eating keto and not lose
<v Speaker 1>weight or gain weight. You could overeat as a vegan
<v Speaker 1>or plant based person and gain weight or not lose weight.
<v Speaker 1>So you get to choose what you want to eat.
<v Speaker 1>But even in the original Delayed on Tonight before I
<v Speaker 1>revised it in twenty twenty four, I specifically said you
<v Speaker 1>can have such a luxurious eating window. That might be
<v Speaker 1>the exact wording that I use, that you will not
<v Speaker 1>lose weight or you will even gain weight over eating
<v Speaker 1>to a certain agree. I mean, fasting does not erase
<v Speaker 1>that right, you know, So you have to find, like
<v Speaker 1>Sherry said, balance. If your goal is weight loss, your
<v Speaker 1>body has to have a reason to tap into stored fuel.
<v Speaker 1>And if you're eating so much in your eating window
<v Speaker 1>that your body is storing more than you're burning, then
<v Speaker 1>you're not going to lose weight. And again that might
<v Speaker 1>make it sound like I'm saying calories and calories out
<v Speaker 1>the traditional account calories eat less, move more. There's some
<v Speaker 1>truth to calorie balance needing to happen. But we know
<v Speaker 1>it's a lot more complicated than just the calorie math
<v Speaker 1>because what you're choosing makes a difference. You know, beans
<v Speaker 1>versus jelly beans, if they had the same exact number
<v Speaker 1>of calories, your body's going to process them differently. It's
<v Speaker 1>going to have a different effect. So you know, what
<v Speaker 1>you're eating does make a difference. How much you're eating
<v Speaker 1>does make a difference.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, And if you're new to the podcast and you
<v Speaker 2>have not listened to episode one sixteen, go back and
<v Speaker 2>listen to one sixteen. We really dive in. That epis
<v Speaker 2>about the whole energy balance, about the fact that you're
<v Speaker 2>trying to balance the amount of energy you take in
<v Speaker 2>with the amount of energy you burn during the fast.
<v Speaker 2>That's where you see fat loss right exactly.
<v Speaker 1>So before we get to our tweak of the week,
<v Speaker 1>I want to talk about the new fast Feast Repeat
<v Speaker 1>app and website. If you are struggling with food confusion
<v Speaker 1>or diet brain when it comes to what you should
<v Speaker 1>be eating or what you want to be eating, or
<v Speaker 1>if you know that you need to make changes but
<v Speaker 1>you don't know where to begin, I am excited to
<v Speaker 1>announce my new Eat Like a grown Up program. It's
<v Speaker 1>a fifty two week learning journey that helps you finally
<v Speaker 1>build a peaceful, confident relationship with food. No dieting, no guilt,
<v Speaker 1>no overwhelm. You're not going on the Eat Like a
<v Speaker 1>grown up diet. But it's only available in the New
<v Speaker 1>Fast Feast Repeat app. You can join me in the
<v Speaker 1>app for the grown Up Year fifty two weeks to listen, play,
<v Speaker 1>and nourish. Each week, you'll watch a short video lesson
<v Speaker 1>and you'll download a simple practical mission which has been
<v Speaker 1>designed by me, a teacher, to help you listen to
<v Speaker 1>your body, play with your food in a joyful way,
<v Speaker 1>and nourish yourself with calm intention. It is very school
<v Speaker 1>teachery because that's I can't help, but that's our role.
<v Speaker 1>You're going to learn how to move past emotional eating.
<v Speaker 1>You're going to understand your hunger cues. You're going to
<v Speaker 1>make your meals deeply satisfying. You're going to fall back
<v Speaker 1>in love with real food, all while connecting with a
<v Speaker 1>community that's growing right alongside you in the app. So
<v Speaker 1>if you are ready for transformation that unfolds gently but
<v Speaker 1>meaningfully over time, this is where it begins. Go to
<v Speaker 1>app dot fast Feast Repeat dot com to join, or
<v Speaker 1>you can find the fast Feast Repeat app in the
<v Speaker 1>app store that works with your phone, and along with
<v Speaker 1>the eat like a grown up fifty two week program,
<v Speaker 1>you're going to find an ever growing library of intermittent
<v Speaker 1>fasting resources as well. Go to app dot Fastfeastrepeat dot
<v Speaker 1>com to join us, or download the fast Feast Repeat
<v Speaker 1>app today. There's also a link in show notes and
<v Speaker 1>by the way, Sherri, we're recording this in December. I
<v Speaker 1>opened this up to our community first on December first.
<v Speaker 1>I am loving what's happening in there. Excellent, the posts
<v Speaker 1>that people are making.
<v Speaker 2>I've peeked in there a few times. Yeah, I seen,
<v Speaker 2>you know, some of the post people are making about
<v Speaker 2>their meals and the changes they're making, and it was
<v Speaker 2>really inspiring.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I'm really really liking what I'm seeing in there.
<v Speaker 1>So I think even some of the people who have
<v Speaker 1>been intermitting fasters for a long time but felt like
<v Speaker 1>they just needed to focus on the food, they're now
<v Speaker 1>in that Fastest Repeat app. And so, you know, I
<v Speaker 1>want us to be able to apply what we're learning
<v Speaker 1>in a way that's going to make a difference. And
<v Speaker 1>I mentioned last week when we recorded that, you know,
<v Speaker 1>my smaller genes are fitting me better than they had
<v Speaker 1>been for a while. And I think it's because as
<v Speaker 1>I started working on like a grown up, I started
<v Speaker 1>listening to my own advice, which is always good. So
<v Speaker 1>as I like a grown up, I'm down at the
<v Speaker 1>lower end of my maintenance range. So now it's time
<v Speaker 1>for our tweak of the week. You know, I always
<v Speaker 1>say tweak it till it's easy. But the tweak that
<v Speaker 1>works for me might not be the one that works
<v Speaker 1>for you. And that is why it's super helpful to
<v Speaker 1>hear how other intermittent fasters are making intermittent fasting work
<v Speaker 1>for them. You know, we always encourage you to find
<v Speaker 1>the foods that you enjoy that satisfy you. In your
<v Speaker 1>window and Darien shared an easy recipe that she uses
<v Speaker 1>as a window opener. She said, I like to open
<v Speaker 1>my window with a homemade high protein bagel. I normally
<v Speaker 1>add two eggs on it and make it into a sandwich.
<v Speaker 1>I just combine one cup of selfrising flour, a cup
<v Speaker 1>of non fat Greek yogurt, and a bowl until it
<v Speaker 1>forms a dough. I cut that into four pieces and
<v Speaker 1>roll it out as bagels. I dip them an egg.
<v Speaker 1>I like to sprinkle some everything bagel seasoning on them.
<v Speaker 1>I air fry them for ten to twelve minutes at
<v Speaker 1>three hundred and sixty degrees. This same dough makes a
<v Speaker 1>great pizza dough too.
<v Speaker 2>That's a great tip.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it is all right.
<v Speaker 2>Well. We love to leave our listeners with inspirational motivational quotes,
<v Speaker 2>and this week we have a message from both Nicki
<v Speaker 2>and Kay, who are both active members of the DDD
<v Speaker 2>online community. The message is stop editing your personality. Say
<v Speaker 2>the thing, wear the outfit, be too much on purpose,
<v Speaker 2>laugh too loud, take up the space you've been taught
<v Speaker 2>to shrink out of. Ask the question, make the first move,
<v Speaker 2>post the picture. Refuse to be palatable, Refuse to be
<v Speaker 2>watered down. Stop waiting for permission to exist. Your life
<v Speaker 2>isn't meant to fit into someone else's comfort. It's meant
<v Speaker 2>to be lived full volume, unfiltered.
<v Speaker 1>I love it, Love that. Thanks so much for listening today.
<v Speaker 1>We would love to have you join us in the
<v Speaker 1>Delayed on Tonight community, where you can interact with both
<v Speaker 1>me and Sherry plus the most portive bunch of intermittent
<v Speaker 1>fasters you'll find anywhere. Go to Jenstevens dot com slash
<v Speaker 1>community to join us.
<v Speaker 2>Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast to your favorite
<v Speaker 2>podcast app, and if you haven't already, please leave us
<v Speaker 2>a five star review that helps new listeners find the
<v Speaker 2>show and we really appreciate it.
<v Speaker 1>We are a community driven podcast, so to submit your
<v Speaker 1>success stories, your questions, your favorite tweak it till It's Easy, moments,
<v Speaker 1>or anything else you want us to share on the podcast,
<v Speaker 1>go to fast Feast Repeat dot com slash Submit and
<v Speaker 1>then listen each week to see if we share your
<v Speaker 1>submission or answer your question.
<v Speaker 2>Until next week. Thanks for listening. This podcast was edited
<v Speaker 2>by Resonate Recordings.