Episode 40: The Power of Satiety, Plateau vs. Maintenance, Live Your Goal Lifestyle, and More

Welcome to Fast Feast Repeat Intermittent Fasting for Life. I'm Jen Stevens, author
of the New York Times bestseller Fast Feast Repeat, and I'm Sherry Bullock,
longtime intermittent faster and health and wellness advocate. Please keep in mind that this
podcast is for educational and motivational purposes only, and it's not intended to provide
medical or diagnostic advice. Jen and I are not doctors, so make sure
to check with your trusted healthcare professionals before making changes, especially when it comes
to any medical treatments or medications. Whether you're new to intermittent fasting or an
experienced intermittent faster, tune in each week to get inspired, to learn,
and to have some fun along the way. Hi, everybody, we are
so glad you're here today. Welcome to this week's episode of the Fast Feast
Repeat Intermittent Fasting for Life podcast. How are you doing today's Sherry? I
am doing really great well. I am doing the best that I've been doing
in months. And you probably know why. Time change. Oh, we're
recording this on March twelfth, and we just did our spring forward and I
don't know, Sherry, am I going to be the person who just goes
to bed at eight o'clock and wakes up at four thirty during the winter,
because maybe my body never adjusted. You know, my mother said she wakes
up at four thirty. I think it's just I don't know. I always
tell people to listen to their body, but I spend the entire winter fighting
my body. I make myself stay up later than my body wants to because
I want to go to bed at eight pm during the winter, and then
I my body wakes up like at four thirty, I'd make myself stay in
the bed. So ever, since the time change, you're nine to five
thirty, nine to five thirty. Yeah, I'm going to bed at nine
and my eyes are like boop waking up. Your body just has a rigid
rhythm, does it does? And I wake up for the past two I
wake up and I look at what time it is, and it's after five,
and I'm like where when I get up? Anyway, I don't think
I've really noticed the time changed yet. So well, I worked all weekend
and then you know that my sleep was weird yesterday because it was my first
day home. And then add to that, my husband's starting this new job
and his whole schedule's changing. We used to stay up until one o'clock in
the morning, and now he has to be at work several days a week
at like three o'clock in the morning. Wow, so we are like shifting
everything earlier, which means I'm having to shift everything earlier because he gets home
earlier. So yeah, so that's a shift for you. But I just,
you know, why am I fighting myself all winter to stay up later?
Because I guess it feels weird go pit at eight o'clock. I don't
know. Yeah, but my body really like I just fight my keeping my
eyes open. Well, your body knows what it likes. And my body
is so happy it stayed. It was like seven pm last night, it
was still light, and I was so excited. Other than mother nature is
really confused in the South because well it's cold, yeah we're it was welth
and it's so clawed where my ugs. Again, last week was seventy nine
one day and all everything's blooming, the trees, the flowers, they're all
blooming. And then yesterday we had a freeze warning. Yeah, so yeah,
you know, you don't know how to dress. It's true. All
right, Well, let's celebrate with Angie from Colorado. Angie wrote, Higen
and Cherry, I have a non scale victory to share as well as a
seasonal winter why. I lost twenty pounds last year after starting fasting in February
of twenty twenty three. I have kept it off and I continue to stick
to an eightf schedule. I would like to lose another twenty pounds, and
I'm confident I'll get there. My biggest non scale victory comes from the loss
of my belly fat. I am a mediocre, middle aged snowboarder who loves
being up in the mountains with my family. Last season, I could not
reach my toes to fasten my bindings when I got off the lift. I
had to contort into all sorts of angles to get my bindings fasted. It
was embarrassing and honestly painful. But now that my belly is mostly gone,
not only can I quickly bend to fasten my snowboard bindings, but I feel
one thousand percent better in my snowboard gear. This little victory kept me motivated
over the holidays and now going into the rest of the ski season. Who
would have thought that the simple act of bending over would turn into a big
winter way. Thank you for all you do and your support. Well,
that is a great celebration. Yeah, when your belly gets in your way,
it is hard. I couldn't paint my toenails. I was gonna say,
yeah, when you bend over and it's hard to paint your toenails and
yep, that's when you're like, all right, this belly's getting in my
way. Absolutely we have it felt like when I was pregnant. That's how
my belly was toms when I was overweight. Yep. So now we have
a question from a listener. This question is from Kochie and Miami Cookie says,
Hi, first of all, thanks for such an extraordinary book. I
learned so many things I wasn't aware of. I should mention I got to
know you from Reversing Type two Diabetes Summit. Oh I think that's Beverly's summit.
Oh yeah, huh yeah. We had Beverly on the Life Lessons podcast.
So yeah, I'm glad that you found me there. And I love
Beverly. All right, she said a condition I thankfully don't have. So
she doesn't have type two diabetes, but I'm the type that likes to learn
because I think you can always learn something new. And was I right?
I got to hear for the first time someone talking about clean fasting. What
I didn't know that existed. Now I understand why I wasn't seeing any improvement
on myself while doing IF since I started in August. Yes, I'm new
to IF, but how lucky to have met you on that summit and listen
to your knowledge on clean fasting, a theme I never heard from other speakers.
As soon as I heard your interview, I got online in order your
book Fast Feast Repeat and finished it in three nights. Wow, so many
new and good information. Also, I got hooked on your podcast. I'm
listening to episode eleven now. Love the energy and knowledge you and Sherry transmit.
Definitely recommending both the book and podcast to my friends. Ladies. I
have two questions regarding alloud drinks during the fast. If I brew ginger root
to make my own tea, will that be okay to drink without breaking my
fast? Also? How about if I drink water with a half a teaspoon
of baking soda. By the way, I am a sixty five year old
young woman. What can I say? I love myself. As today,
I weigh one hundred and sixty two and my goal is one hundred and fifteen
to one hundred and twenty pounds, happily noticing changes in my body since I
started a clean fast. Thank you, Jen, best regards to both.
Okay, so the ginger root, yes, that's going to break your fast.
A root is and it's gonna taste like gen ice. It's gonna be
yep. And if I remember right, I'm pretty sure I've looked up a
lot of herbs and roots and stuff because people are always asking about herbal teas.
If I remember right, I think that one is actually one that impacts
insulin like directly. So yeah, save that for your window drink atty.
So not only is flavor going to be a problem, but it also is
likely to even if you don't taste it, right, that's one of those
that impacts yeah, right, which a lot of herbs and roots do do
that. That's why they've been used in like Eastern medicinally. Yeah. And
then the half teas been a baby soda that's completely fine in your fast.
It's not a problem at all. I mean, it's really just a mineral
and it's actually a great way to relieve like heartburn or indigestion while fasting,
rather than having to take you know, something like toumbs or something. So
that's not a problem at all. And I'm so glad that you jen and
you've switched over the clean fast, and I hope that you write back in
and share with us your victories along the way. Yeah. Please, we
would love to hear from you and also submit your celebrations. I love that.
So now it's time for our segment called What's Your Why. So most
of us begin intermittent fasting with weight loss in mind, and that is absolutely
appropriate. It is fine for weight loss to be part of your why,
but there is so much more to what intermittent fasting can do for us beyond
weight loss. In my book twenty eight Day fast Art Day by Day,
I ask readers to craft their why statement before beginning, And I really do
believe that when your why is deeper than weight loss alone, you're more likely
to find long term success and view intermittent fasting as a lifestyle. So this
week's why is from Beth, and I actually really love this. She said,
my why so I can stay in integrity with myself every time I break
a promise to myself, I feel bad. Every time I keep promises to
myself, I feel strong. It's not easy to be disciplined with fasting,
but when I do it, I feel good physically and mentally. The mental
strength that results from staying in integrity with my intentions bleeds over into other aspects
of my life, like keeping my house clean, gardening, practicing, piano,
cooking. Ultimately, I'm fasting for my health, and when I do
it, my mental strength to tackle other hard things is fortified. You know,
I think that's really true. It carries over to so many more parts
of our life than just eating or fasting, And I just think, you
know, she says she fast to stay in tegared with herself, but I
also think that fasting is like so much different than like any other kind of
diet. And if you think back, like, you know, you're on
a diet, and whether it's restrictive calories or whether it's restricting foods or whatever
it is, the minute you quote mess up, then you're kind of like
your mood just goes down the drain that day, and then you have those
thoughts like, oh my gosh, why do I even try, I might
as well just give up this day and eat whatever I want and whatever,
and like then we just start to, you know, sabotage our efforts because
we expect perfection. Where with if you simply clean fast every day as long
as you can, there's no failure as long as you're clean fasting, And
so you start to feel successful every day that you choose to clean fast,
and so like they work together, like that fuels that integrity that she talks
about. Then the more you're in control, you feel in control of your
eating and your way and your health, then you do start to feel more
in control of the rest of your life. That's what I experienced. I
just remember all the decision fatigue prior to intermittent fasting, whether or not to
eat, when to eat, what to eat, how much to eat,
took up so much real estate in my brain all day long that it was
all I could think about from the minute I woke up. Should I have
another latte? Is it time for a snack? I'm still hungry. Should
I have a second snack? Or it's almost lunch time? Can I wait
till lunchtime? I mean, it was constant with fasting. It's just all
right, I'm fasting right now, and I don't have to think about the
other things. So then I can look around and think, well, I
really need to get all those financial forms to my account, and I guess
I'll tackle that now, right, So then I'm more productive because I'm not
using all that mental energy on thinking about food, stopping myself from eating.
By the way, I did just do my tex stuff yesterday, my final
text stuff that's always so painful. H Yeah, I had already sent all
my business you know, business deadline is earlier than personal deadline. But right.
I don't like financial paperwork me neither. Yeah, but it felt so
good to get it done. I got it done and checked it off anyway.
You know, I'm really big on well we say choose your heart.
Yeah. Every year I struggled through doing my own taxes and I hate it
and I dread it, and I put it off to life. I spent
it, and I second guess everything I do. And this year I said,
you know what, I'm gona choose my heart. I'm going to pay
somebody else to do my taxes. Well, I am fifty years old,
and it's the first time I've ever paid somebody to do my taxes, and
what a relief it was to go into her office and turn over a folder
full of paper doer and walk out and leave it in her hands. Yeah,
mine's really complicated because I have a couple of corporations that my business runs
through, and so you know, I don't know how to do all that
well. And Eric's starting his own business, and so I saw this is
just going to get more and more complicated, and I don't want to learn
what all's tax deductible for a business and what is not well. And they
can help you do strategies you didn't even know, Like if you have a
good CPA, then they can think. They're like, you know, you
should really be doing this retirement strategy. You're like, oh, I didn't
even know doubt was something I could do. So that's why. Yeah,
and so you save money in the long run. The stress of not worrying
about messing it all up. The last thing I ever want in my life
is a tax on it. Knock on wood, I know, and the
irs heard me. I don't have the time for that kind of stress.
No, but that's why we have a CPA that will help us. That's
exactly what it is, and they're giving us the advice anyway. It feels
good to get that done. Yeah, I'm just gonna know my own expertise,
and that is not well, that's the thing exactly. But turn that
over. So we have a question from Confused in Australia. She says,
high ladies, I love everything you do and the Fast Feast Repeat podcast is
superb. It's a highlight of my week. My question for you is about
food choices, carbs, and satiety. I am a forty one year old
woman and I have been an intermittent faster since May of twenty seventeen, and
while my window length is varied, I've never stopped fasting. I love it,
and during this time I've had some stressors, like supporting my child through
a serious illness, yet I kept on fasting. At the moment, I
vary my eating windows throughout the week in an organic fashion. I don't like
eating on the run or taking food with me, so if I'm out,
it's a no brainer just to fast until I get home for dinner. However,
if I'm having an easy day at home and I feel hungry at noon,
I might eat and have an eight hour window. I try to keep
mixing things up without planning it too much. I've never tried ADF, but
if i have a short window one day and i'm hungry earlier the next day,
I'll open my window. So I'm modified up down day approach at times.
So it sounds like she's doing kind of an uppish downish just listening to
our body, she says, I'm five three and I'm at the top of
my BMI range, which is around sixty four kilograms or one hundred and forty
one pounds. While I know I'm not technically overweight, this is an uncomfortable
weight for me, and I'm not feeling comfortable in my clothes. While I
have been on and off a diet for a lot of my adult life,
I haven't really been higher than one hundred and forty one pounds excluding pregnancy and
postpartum. For me, though a comfortable weight is around one twenty seven,
I have been as low as one twenty but it's hard to maintain. So
basically I would love to lose about fifteen more pounds and maintain in the one
twenties for four or five years. I was able to maintain this by combining
low carb eating with fasting. When I was eating low carb, I could
have two meals a day in about a seven hour eating window and effortlessly lose
or maintain weight despite the eating window not being overly short. Now I find
low carb hard to maintain, especially with the busy family life. And when
I was low carb in the past, I was never keto and I was
not super low carb either, as I wasn't really restricted with fruits and vegetables.
However, I stayed away from bread, pasta, rice, flour,
and desserts. I keep having this internal dialogue now that says, if you
want to lose weight, you need to be low carb, because that's the
only time in my life when I was able to maintain in the one twenties
for many years. However, I now wonder do I really have to be
low carb. I've been thinking recently is it low carb that helped me?
Or was it just eating satiating food? For example, I used to have
an omelet cooked in butter with salad for lunch and that kept me full until
dinner and not looking for snacks. Now I eat sort of a good to
average diet. I try to be healthy with plenty of fruit, vegetables,
quality meat, simple dairy, and I only eat bread and pasta occasionally.
But I also have some unhealthy habits, like snacking on crackers before dinner or
having a sweet treat after dinner every night. And as Jin says, when
you develop these cravings, your gut says, send more down and it's hard
to stop. I would love to do Zoe to find out what sorts of
foods I should be eating, but we don't have it in Australia. I
have been interested to see doctor Andrea's enfelt has I useday his name and I
never say is Let's name right, so don't ask me. I actually looked
it up online because I wanted to know, and now I can't remember.
That was like four days ago. I think it's enfelt sweetish or something right.
Yep. He was the CEO of Diet Doctor, which was a huge
low carb slash keto website, and I've seen him start to move away from
low carb as the best only answer for weight loss and talk more about eating
satiating food. You might have seen he's starting to set up a website called
Hava Hava it is open now, which rates foods based on their satiety.
Jin, I know You've talked about not enjoying a low carb approach to eating
yourself, and Zoe confirmed this. Do you have any other ideas on how
to find out the best way of eating without using Zoe? Do you think
some people do need to keep carbs load to lose weight regardless of their eating
window or do you think the answer for everyone is nonprocessed, real satiating food
regardless of macros. I'd love to hear what you both think. That last
sentence, yes, man, that's it. That last sentence is the answer.
And here's the thing so confused in Australia, you've been down a lot
of roads of dieting. You did lose weight when you were eating low carb,
but listen, you were not crazy low carb. You just had satisfying
food. You were not restricted with fruits or vegetables. But you stayed away
from those obvious bread, pasta, rice, flour desserts which ultrip processed are
all ulder processed. Right, bread, probably you were having I doubt you
were grinding your own wheat from scratch like you know, so it was it
was more processed. Right in pasta, rice, flour desserts, all of
those are highly processed carb foods, so you would have a very satisfying meal
that kept you full and satisfied. And now you are having your snacking on
crackers and also having sweet treats after dinner every night. Yep. Yeah,
those are the two things I think we've talked about. We've talked about java
on this podcast before. And I'm a giant fan of the work that doctor
I felt, I can't say it, I'm sorry, is doing doctor Andreas
of diet Doctor. I'm such a fan of the work that he is doing.
And yeah, he used to believe that low carb was what everyone should
do everyone. He thought everyone should do that to lose weight. And he
no longer believes that, and he is now eating potatoes and other foods like
that. And I genuinely do believe one hundred percent the answer for everyone is
nonprocessed, real satiating food, regardless of macros. Now here's the caveat.
When I say regardless of macros, I mean, for you, Cherry's ideal
macros and Gin's ideal macros are different. Cherry needs more protein to be satisfied.
I need more starchy carbs to be satisfied. If I just had an
omelet and salad. I would be so hungry, like the whole rest of
the afternoon, I'd be starving until I got something starchy. And that is
one hundred percent truth for me, and why keto and low carb never worked
for me. I was not satisfied. So the key is that we are
not the same when it comes to satisfaction. And even you know, the
work that he's doing with is hava that is not going to be personalized to
you. That's based on a formula that they've developed based on I think caloric
density goes. It comes into play how processed something is. Like for example,
raw spinach is the highest rated thing because you could not eat enough of
it to sustain your life with enough calories you'd be too full, right if
you just only ate raw spinach, you wouldn't be able to get enough you
know, quote calories in And so it's definitely skewed to more protein as being
satisfying in the numbers that well fibers in there too, like the spinach example,
and something like a cracker is going to score really really low on their
satisfaction scale. So and the same with zoe. You can't do zoe,
so that's off the table. And here's the thing Zoe did confirm why I
didn't do well and why I gain weight. If I eat too much fat,
my body doesn't clear fat well. That makes a lot of sense.
You know, my body's more likely to store it if I eat too much
of it, I don't clear it well. That confirmed. Huh, that's
why I did so well on the low fat diets of the nineties. I
did great. That's why maybe my blood sugar isn't as good if I eat
too much fat, because my body is not clearing the fat, and it's
just hanging around and messing up what my body's doing with the blood sugar as
well. So I don't think you need to have Zoe to know your body
does really, really well when you feed a real foods with a lower carb
slant. But that doesn't mean you can't add beans or potatoes or other things
like that. You could absolutely craft something that feels very satisfying for your body
out of real foods and include more starchy real food carbs like doctor I'm just
gonna call them doctor E, Like doc doctor is doing Doctor E and doctor
B from fiber exactly doctor E and doctor B. So doctor E is eating
real foods until he's satisfied and he's showing with his app his society scores it's
working really really well for his body, and he's feeling really satisfied. So
I think what I would tell every single person is your goal is to focus
on non processed or not ultra processed, real satisfying foods that satisfy your body,
and that is not going to look the same. Shery needs more meat
than I do. We know this, Yeah, And I wanted to say
too, Like I had recently saw a I can't remember as a research I
think it was a research study, and it really said it really showed that
I think it was less than thirty percent of women are able to successfully lose
weight and maintain weight loss following a ketogenic diet. I don't remember as low
carb or ketogenic, but anyway, it because it just doesn't work like long
term, and they did say it works much better for men than women.
But also I think what comes into play is that when we are eating low
carb and we're you know, restricting some of the good high fiber carbohydrates,
like Jen said, like legumes or whole grains and that sort of thing,
it can really mess with your gut microbiome, and there is a known relationship
the whole gut brain access thing that your gut microbiome plays into like your core
satiety. So if you have a really poor gut biome because you haven't been
feeding, you know, these good gut bugs that help with soatiety, then
that's going to come into play too. So I mean, it's that whole
balance thing between eating a well rounded, whole food's diet and focusing on what
your kind of satiety food is like. For me, like Jenna said,
I need adequate protein, I need high fiber. Fat does nothing for my
satiety. So that's something that when I'm like building my meal, Yes,
I throw some olive oil in here, if I'm having a salad or whatever.
I'm not building my meal around a lot of get in that dairy products
or anything like that. I could not if I ate let's say cheese manicotti
for example, which I love, I would not be satisfied afterwards. Now
if I had like one tube of cheese manicotti with a side of curlled chicken
and some vegetables and salad, I'm going to be very satisfied ditto. So
it's kind of finding that balance for you. And then as far as satiety
as well, blood sugar comes into play. And if you're having a strong
blood sugar response to something and then you know your blood sugar is crashing afterwards,
then you're also going to feel more hungry and feel like you need something
else after dinner. So it all it's just kind of all works together.
I think when you really just start looking at nonprocessed, real satiating foods,
like you said, you're gonna fuel your body, well you're not gonna be
inclined to snack and it's gonna affect your weight loss. Yeah, I really
think satiety is the missing piece. Honestly. You know, if I opened
my window with cheese and crackers, I could eat like a million of them
and still not feel satisfied. It's delicious, I enjoy it, but I
would not ever feel satisfied. And finding those real food you know, you
have stretch receptors, you know, throughout your digestive system, and you need
to activate those stretch receptors. Think about what crackers do, They just like
liquify, Like put them in a glass of water and see what those crackers
do. They liquify and then they're nothing right and they're not activating your stretch
receptors or making you feel full. Whereas if you had a big baked potato.
You know, if you are someone who has been you know, conditioned
with carbs are bad, then you might be scared of that big baked potato,
but it's going to really make you feel satisfied and full. So nothing
gave me more happiness than seeing Doctor E eating potatoes when he used to be
low carbs. So many people in the low carb community are shifting away from
full on low carb and I know there's still a lot of voices out there
that are you know, carnivore or keto. And I'm not saying that that
is not a valid approach, because there are people who love the way they
feel when they eat that way and that is how they have their best satidi.
They feel amazing, and it is the way they want to live long
term. If you want to live that way long term, you feel great,
it satisfies you you one hundred percent should keep doing that. But confused
in Australia doesn't want to be that low carb. So you can figure out
how to find a mix of satisfying real foods just like doctor E did with
his focus on satidi instead of eliminating carbs. And I just want to say
too, like you mentioned that you like to have pasta now and then,
and to me, it's not an all or none thing. I used to
avoid pasta, but like I just wouldn't eat it because it didn't lead me
satisfied after eating it. And I am a person who I don't have blood
sugar spikes. My blood sugar stays pretty stable, but I'm more prone to
have drops in blood sugar after eating, and especially something like refined carbs will
do that to me, and then I'm ravenous. And so it's like I
would always eat pasta with meat sauce, and then an hour later it was
like, you know, some people say that with Chinese food, I would
feel like I hadn't eaten, so I might kind of feel physically full,
but I would still be hungry and I would want something else to eat.
But like maybe a year ago, and I'm trying to remember, I think
I did it after reading I don't remember whose writing it was about, but
I switched to incorn wheat pasta whole wheat pasta, and it's used the ancient
incorn wheat, which is like the wheat from hundreds of years ago before we
went to GMO. We eaten all that and it's high in fiber. And
if I eat pasta made with that, I'm so much more satisfied. I
don't have that blood sugar dip afterwards. And you know, I throw in
lots of veggies with it, and you know, some meat with it,
and I feel great. So it's really easy to make some swaps. And
like, I'm the same way with brown rice. I can eat brown rice.
White rice is gonna make me starving, So really play around with just
swapping up your rice for brown rice, or adding whole grains instead of rice,
and just kind of play with that. See, I do great with
rice. Rice fills me up. It makes me satisfied. Your body just
loves rice. Yeah, but it doesn't like certain pastas. And here's the
weird thing. I've said this before. My body doesn't do well with spaghetti
pasta, the long, skinny pasta, but it does better with like a
like a hearty noodle, the corkscreet coind. Yes, I don't know why
that why the shape of the pasta would make a difference, but it absolutely
does. I bet it's like your example with the crack her and how fast
it takes to break. Maybe, I don't know. Corkscrew pasta, thumbs
up spaghetti, you know, all little hair pasta. No, yeah,
thought about that. And you know, I have never bought the iron corn
in spaghetti because I've always just been naturally more prone to go like the pennae
or the spiral like that, a more dense. All the meal kits just
confirmed it. If there was ever a pasta dish that had spaghetti pasta or
whatever, I would not order that anymore because it made me so hungry.
So funny. Yeah, we really can learn a lot about our bodies and
society and whatever, just by really paying attention what makes you feel good after
you eat, or what makes you feel good during your next day's fast.
Because if I ate rice, there are times I've been at Gen's house and
She's made a rice dish for dinner, and the next morning I wake up
and I am starving, and Gin is fine. Yeah, and Gin's fine,
She's perfectly great, and I'm like watching the talk all morning exactly.
So I really want to encourage everybody to Yeah, there's Zoe is fantastic.
I love the work they're doing. The Java app I'm sure is fantastic.
And the fact that it's shining a light on satiety and that some things are
more satiating than others, I think is the takeaway. But the real takeaway
that I want everyone to get is you can trust your own body. You
can trust when you feel satisfied after you eat something versus if it sends you
back to eat more. And ultraprocessed foods and desserts are never going to be
If anybody who's listening, if you think that what's holding you back is ultra
processed foods and desserts, the answer is yes. All right, now we
have a question from plateaued in California. Hijen and Sherry. First and foremost,
thank you so much for the information you've provided regarding intermittent fasting. I
am a fifty one year old female eating a plant based diet. I have
tried calorie restricted diets in the past, but always stopped within a month.
During that time, I would lose five pounds or more than gain it.
Right back when I really learned about intermittent fasting in twenty twenty one, I
gave it a try, and it was easy. At the start, I
was one hundred and forty eight. I have successfully lost ten pounds and I
am so happy with the way I feel and look. However, I have
plateaued for the last two years. I have two goals in mind. I
want to lose ten more pounds and I want to lower my blood pressure without
taking any meds. Currently, I am on high blood pressure medication. I
am on a nineteen to five fasting schedule. I stay active, work toward
reducing my stress level, and sleep at least seven hours a night. Should
I include more strength training in my activities? What about ADF Are there other
tests I can take to give me more information about my situation. Looking forward
to hearing your suggestions. Okay, as far as other tests, I wish
I how tall is she? She didn't say how tall she was. She
doesn't make such a difference. No, I also don't know. Oh,
she's fifty one. Yeah, it is hard to know without knowing her.
He if she's five feet tall, I would have different advice versus if someone
we're five to seven. So, y'all include your height if you can,
because that would super help. Yeah. The more information you can give us
about your age, weight, height, any medical issues that really helps us
fine tune the advice for you. Okay, so are there tests I can
take? You know, I would absolutely if you've never done a fasting insulin,
it would be helpful to do that. I think that's going to kind
of give you an idea of where you're at. You say you eat plant
based diet. I don't know what all you're including in your plant based diet,
and you know, maybe there's room for tweaking in there, so having
your fasting insulin that might be helpful. EIGHTF you want to try ADF,
go for it. I don't think it ever hurts to try a new fasting
protocol, especially if you've been doing the same thing for a couple of years
and then you're kind of just stuck in a maintenance phase that you're trying to
bust through and then strict turning at fifty one, I think that is absolutely
a great idea and it really does help your metabolism, just help so much
in your body that I think everybody should be doing some sort of strength training.
And then as far as your high blood pressure medication, I know that's
a huge goal to get off that medication, and so many people want to
get off their blood pressure medication. I get it. Some people just genetically
are going to be wired to have high blood pressure. But with that said,
by losing a little bit more body weight it could affect it. If
you are a person who is carrying a lot of inflammation, that can lead
to your blood pressure being higher. Your electrolyte balance can affect your blood pressure.
So there's a lot of little things that can affect your blood pressure.
But there are some people who are just going to have high blood pressure genetically.
I wonder if your family, if your parents had high blood pressure.
While that's a great goal, I don't want you to think that you're failing
because you can't get off of it. And keeping your blood pressure in a
healthy range is so so important for brain health and cardiovascular health and everything.
So don't beat yourself up about that too much. You anything you want to
add, Jen Yes, the big clue. Like I said, I wish
I knew plateaued in California's height because that would help a lot, because you
know, if she's five five or above, then she is at a very
very healthy weight for her height. If she's really really short, then you
know, I could see she's one thirty eight now, I mean, one
thirty eight can be really really slim, or it can be a little bit
overweight. But one thirty eight, even if you're really short, one thirty
eight is probably still a healthy weight. Right. But here's the thing.
If you've been you use the word plateaued. You said you've been plateaued for
two years. I actually would call it maintenance. Your body has decided that
one thirty eight is your maintenance weight based on the lifestyle you're living. So
here's where you've got to make a decision. Like, for exam, Well,
I don't know what I weigh because I haven't weighed since. I don't
know what twenty seventeen, whatever that was, I haven't weighed. I don't
know what my weight is. But I have been plateaued ever since then,
right because I met this weight, my body is staying at this weight with
slighte ups and downs over the seasons, depending on you know, what I'm
doing. But maintenance is the ultimate plateau. Now, if I decided that
I wanted to weigh ten pounds less than I weigh right now, I could
decide that. I could say, you know what, I got a little
more cellulate than I wish I had. My belly is not quite as slim
as it was before I went through menopause. Both of those things are true.
Even though I'm still fitting in my clothes, They're a little tighter than
they were premenopause around my belly, just because menopause changes your body. If
I decided I wanted to lose ten more pounds, I could do it,
but I would have to diet my way there, and I would have to
diet to stay there. Absolutely, the lifestyle that I am leading right now
does not support ten fewer pounds. Then that's what you've got to decide,
And that is the unfortunate thing there is. Isn't going to be a lose
ten pound protocol that will help you lose the ten pounds and keep it off
forever without making permanent changes now ADF. Maybe maybe you could lose some weight
with ADF, But if your body has just plateaued and maintained right here,
just I want you to really be happy. Your body is happy here right
So I could fight to get more weight off, I absolutely could, And
I understand wanting to feel really good and ideal in our bodies and ten pounds
sounds like a lot, and it can feel like a lot, but it
just you have to have to think about how do you want to live your
life? Yeah, And I also want to say too, I don't know
where this ten pounds is coming from. Is it because you're trying to get
to some past weight that you liked at? You know what you're like about
one hundred and thirty eight pounds now? So you know, did you feel
great at one hundred and twenty eight pounds when you were thirty years old?
And so that's your goal? Well, she said in there, she said,
direct quote, I am so happy with the way I feel and look
actly. And that's what I wanted to point out is that we often weigh
more in maintenance with intermittent fasting than we did at our quote ideal weight past
from the past, just because we are not losing muscle mass like you do
with conventional diets. And I also just wanted to say too, if you're
having a hard time wrapping your brain around that, and you just think that
at fifty one you should weigh what you did at thirty. There's a Zoe
podcast episode on menopause. I think it came out in maybe March of twenty
twenty two, if I'm remembering right, look that up and listen to it,
because I'm not sure where you're at on the menopause spectrum, but at
fifty one years old, you're there. The body absolutely changes and there's really
nothing you can do about it. It's nature. And so I think,
just embracing your body. And you're happy with the way you feel and look,
so just embrace that and continue to be happy. So that's you know.
The thing. Maintenance is the world's longest plateau, right, You're eventually
going to do that. We don't just keep losing weight forever. So when
your body plateaus and your at a side it is a healthy weight and you
feel good in your body, it's time to disconnect from that scale number.
It's hard. We've been trained to what's your goal? What's your goal?
Right? And I can tell you my personal experiment several years ago was I
had maintained at my maintenance weight for several years, and I thought, you
know, I would love to see if I could just take it ten pounds
more. And I absolutely had to diet my way to ten pounds less.
I was working out a lot almost every day that I wasn't at work,
and I was very lean and thin, but it wasn't something I could do
long term. It was work you didn't want to I did not. I
mean could I sure, sure I could, but it wasn't fun and it
just took too much brain power and too much effort and too much thought,
and I just thought, I can't do this. And it was kind of
a good experiment for me because I realized, like, yes, I could
force my body there, but it's not something that gives me joy and happiness,
and joy and happiness is worth more than any number on the scale.
My best advice for everybody would be live your goal lifestyle and then see what
your weight does. And you want to live in a way that feels like
freedom, where you can enjoy food and enjoy a healthy, strong body.
Maybe it's not the skinniest you could possibly be, but there's a lot of
hard work that comes with being at the very low end of the weight that
your body will get to. You just have to decide is that what you
want to do. I have decided no, I do not want to do
that. Well, So we have a final quot this week for Maria and
Seattle. She said, I love fast peece freepeat. It is my fasting
bible. I understand the importance of a clean fast. I do have a
beverage submission for clean fast consideration. Hops Water has been on the market for
a bit now, and it is made by several companies, Slash Berries.
It is non alcoholic, unsweetened sparkling water infused with hops. I really enjoy
this beverage and believe that it is a strictly bitter profile when infused only with
hops and not fruits or other flavors. Try it if you get a chance.
I get it whole Foods here in Seattle, and it is likely available
at your local high end or natural foods market. But what I'd love to
know is if you would weigh in on whether or not I can have it
in my fast. Until I'm given approval, I'll consume it only in my
eating window. Now, sure you've had Hops water before in your eating window?
Oh, I have some in my fridge right now? All right?
Describe the flavor profile. It is bitter, but it is also floral because
the different hops have different flavors. There's floral hops and there's piny hops.
And I mean, there's all kinds of different Hops out there, and they
are absolutely flavors. And I'm going to be honest. When I drink a
Hop water, I think of a delicious ipa and my brain, I guarantee
you thinks that I have a delicious beer coming in and it's gonna release insulin.
So I would never, ever, so would you have it during the
fast? Never? No, I would not me neither, Sorry about that.
I mean it sounds delicious, that's how you know it's not for the
fast exact exactly. So, yeah, it's all these flavors, and I'm
going to be honest. It's been in the last Hops and I found a
Hops Flavor tart and it does it says all those things, citrus, grapefruit,
tones, floral, spicy, hints of annis, distinct citrus, peach,
passion fruit. I mean maybe that's all marketing stuff, just like with
coffee, because I don't taste anything with coffee, no matter what they say.
But here's one they call candy, like just the HAPs So anyway,
unfortunately, Hops is not something that we like. If you were going to
go have fasted blood work and you said all I had was Hop water when
they'd be like, sure, no problem. They'd probably be like, no,
that's not what you should have anyway, Sorry about that. Yep,
Well just break it down like this. Hops are a plant, and plants
really don't belong in our fast with the exception of tea and coffee because we
know that those are fast safe items to drink. But other than that,
we should be avoiding plants, roots, seeds, all of that going the
fast Yep. Before we get to our tweak of the week, I want
to take a minute to talk about my books and which ones you need.
If you are new to intermittent fasting, you are restarting after a break,
or if you are just in need of a refresh, maybe window creep has
gotten you down and you need to tighten things back up. You're going to
want to get twenty eight day Fast Start Day by day, the ultimate guyde
to starting or restart your intermittent fasting lifestyle. So it sticks. Now,
that is a companion book for fast Feast Repeat, so you are going to
want to have that one as well. Fast Feast Repeat is comprehensive. It's
the comprehensive guide for delay. Dn't deny intermittent fasting, So It has everything
you'll need as a resource when you need to go back and look up something
later. And if you are a settled intermittent faster and you know you want
to clean up what you're eating, your personal care products, and the cleaning
products you use in your home, then I think you will enjoy cleanish.
Most of us go down that path eventually, Shery and I both did,
and I wrote that book so that the process of cleaning up would feel less
daunting, with a step by step approach that you control every step of the
way. And now it's time for our tweak of the week. And 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 is
why it's super helpful to hear how other intermittent fasters are making intermittent fasting work
for them. This tweak was submitted by Heather from Northern New York. Heather
says, after reading ac The Power of Appetite Correction and then noticing the five
Steps Approach to Reducing Stress, which is posted in the school where I teach,
I devised a five step approach to appetite correction for being mindful for appetite
correction. I even printed out a large font colorful copy to post in my
kitchen and dining room to remind me of this approach during my window. And
I just have to say, Heather, the school teacher in me loves that.
This sounds so teachery, right. You know you've got your poster that
you made to remind you, just like a classroom poster. I love it.
So here are Heather's five steps to appetite correction that she keeps in mind.
Five take five bytes in weight. Four, put four thought into what
you will eat before you start. Three exercise thirty minutes three times a week
to take two beats, assess your hunger. And one one half of the
food I am eating is whole food. At least I am clean ish.
Oh my gosh, I love that so much. And also it's extra teachery
with the five four, three two one, So that just made me really
excited. Yep, I think that's great. I think I'm gonna put that
whole thing in show notes. Don't you think Heather's five steps I'm gonna with
the whole thing in the show notes. Yeah, I think that's great.
I was gonna say, I think number four of the put forthought in what
you will eat before you start so important. A person with a plan is
unstoppable. So I think that comes down to planning what you're gonna eat rather
than just mindlessly eating. All right, So just now copied and pasted that
and put it into the show notes and so I love it. Thank you
Heather for sharing that. I just wanted to share two really quick. While
Jen was talking, well earlier we were talking. I mean I was talking
about the gut microbiome and satiety, and so I thought, I know I've
seen you information about this, and so I looked it up and I thought
I would link like a study in show notes. But what I found is
there are multiple studies that have been done on this that link gut microbiome to
society and how it works and how it affects grillin. So I'm not even
a link one. If you're curious, just go to Google and type in
does the gut biome of FUC satiety and you're going to get a whole slew
of different research articles. And here's my little tip for researching for anybody.
If you just type in gut help satiety PubMed. That word PubMed will get
you to all the research studies. Whenever I do a search and I'm looking
for a research study, just put that word PubMed pub med in there and
it'll filter out so that you're not getting someone else's weird interpretation of the study,
You're getting the actual studies. That is a great suggestion my brain for
a second there. All right, Well, we love to leave you with
inspiration or motivational quotes, and this week we have a message from Michelle and
Saint Charles Missouri. Your attitude can either be your best friend who has your
best interest at heart, or your worst enemy who wants to see you fail,
destroy your life and be miserably unhappy. It's imperative that you check your
attitude, make sure that your attitude is working for you, not against you.
There's limitless value in having a positive, empowered, and optimistic attitude.
Choose wisely which attitude you give life to. And that is from Stephanie Lahart.
I love that. Yeah, it all comes down to mindset. Really,
I think those words are so important. Positive, empowered and optimistic,
right, even in the face of challenges. You know, I've had challenges
in my personal life. Lately, you've had challenges, but throughout that it
doesn't mean you just have like the perfect optimistic everything is fine when things are
not fine. Right, my dad is really not doing well with his help.
And they're things that we go through all the time. But we can
still feel empowered as we're going through these challenges even when they're hard, right,
and knowing what we can control. I also love what is it the
oh, I can't think of it, nevermind the optimist prayer? What is
it called anyway? Uh? The serenity prayer? Yeah, the serenity prayer.
I knew that I was saying, you're wrong. You know, God
is a paraphrase, God give me wisdom to change the thing I can.
I don't know. I'm just winning it. I'm gonna look it up.
Hold on serenity prayer. Well, and I have to say too that you
know, when you start to feel overwhelmed and like life is kind of weighing
on you, or things aren't going right or whatever, and you get kind
of stuck in that mindset, life just feels heavier. Yeah, right,
I found it. If you can be like, Okay, this is really
hard right now, but it's not forever, or you know, if you
think, okay, today was really hard, but this went right. Sometimes
just try try to keep focused, even if it's just a little bit on
what is going right or what you do have to be thankful with. It
can really help you from feeling buried under the weight of things that aren't going
great. So this is just my favorite saying of all times. But God
grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to
change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. That's
my favorite arative path times. Yes, and you know, we don't want
to just have a positive attitude all the time if things are really bad,
but you need to have the serenity to know, okay, this is what
I'm going through, the wisdom to know the difference. Thanks so much for
listening today. We would love to have you join us and 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,