Episode 49: The Power of Real Food, Fasting While Breastfeeding, Weight Loss Meds, and More

Welcome to Fast Feast Repeat Intermittent Fasting for Life. I'm Jen Stevens, author
of the New York Times bestseller Fast Feast Repeat, and I'm Sherry Bullock,
longtime intermittent faster and health and wellness advocate. Please keep in mind that this
podcast is for educational and motivational purposes only and is not intended to provide medical
or diagnostic advice. Jen and I are not doctors, so make sure to
check with your trusted healthcare professionals before making changes, especially when it comes to
any medical treatments or medications. Whether you're new to intermittent fasting or an experienced
intermittent faster, tune in each week to get inspired, to learn, and
to have some fun along the way. Hi, everybody, We're so glad
you're here today. Welcome to this week's episode of the Fast Feast Repeat,
Intermittent Fasting for Life Podcast. How are you doing today, Sherry? I'm
doing great. I me too. Yeah, you have exciting us to share.
My name is less exciting, I sure, mondays later, but I
just wanted to share. Something that was exciting to me today is that we
had a new member who said that she finally joined the community, and she
loved listening to our sensible advice on the podcast, and that made me really
happy. I love it. She had our sensible advice in her head.
So I was just going to share this because I didn't know when we did
the Life Lessons podcast, I can't even remember somebody recommended it. I don't
remember if it was a I mean it might have been when we interviewed the
vets, Yeah, oh it was. And she recommended having pet insurance.
And I have never had pet insurance. But when we got Lulu two and
a half years ago, I we had not recorded that episode, maybe six
months earlier, and I thought, okay, well, we're getting a bulldog.
They're prone to skin and allergy issues and whatever, and so I thought,
I'm gonna go ahead and get insurance on her, and I did,
and it has paid off her. She had surgery four weeks ago to day.
Was not cheap. It was like six thousand dollars. And I really
didn't even hesitate because I was like, oh, I have pet insurance,
were good to go, and we did it, and her claim has been
held up for four weeks now, and I was starting to get really nervous.
It really wasn't on the company that I use. It was on her.
I'd taken her to a vet for the first two years of her life
that was not maybe a year and a half. That was just not a
great vet and he was kind of an old country vet and he didn't keep
good records, and so that has held up her claim. But we woke
up this morning to an email that her claim has been paid. Yeah,
so ninety percent of that was covered. That tip did come from the Life
Lesson that's great, the Life Lessons podcast. Yeah, yep, yep.
And they told me just so because she needs her other knee done in a
couple of weeks and they told me I can go ahead and just call and
get like a preapproval. That's great. And yeah, had I known that
I could done that prior, well, her other surgery was done kind of
emergently, but had I known, maybe I could have spared myself this uh
stress over the last month. But yeah, so if you you know,
don't have pet insurance, you might consider it. That's my tip for the
day, because one surgery, especially if you have dogs, Like I'm a
cat person, so I'm you know, cats just do like well, they've
run all around. Ellie got hit by the car. I do. But
when we took Ellie to our main vet after she'd been to the emergency vet,
and I was at the beach with Sherry. For everybody who didn't know,
my cat, Ellie got hit by car and back at home straumatic.
It was very traumatic. They went to an emergency vet, which I guess
was not well versed in actually what happens after the emergency perhaps, I don't
know. They were like, we're gonna have to amputate this leg or all
sorts of things. But Chad was still at home. He called our regular
vet, and our regular vet said, cat bones heel so fast. Bring
her to me, and he just put that leg in a cast and healed
it. Yeah, she runs all around. But the cats apparently they heal
quickly there. But he said, their bones heal so fast. You have
to like actually be in a hurry to get to them. They'll because they
feel so fast. They heal so fast. Yeah, versus you know,
I've heard so many stories of people with dogs that have just run normal,
running around and now there's something wrong with their legs. So I didn't know
that dogs were like that anyway. Yeah, everybody who has dogs probably knows
that already. Cats are low maintenance. I have a low maintenance pet lifestyle.
Well, anyway, I just I did want to share that, like,
yeah, look into it because it's so worth it. There's a more
sensible advice right there. Yeah, yep, all right, Well let's share
some more celebration and good news. Today. We have a celebration from BF
in Tennessee. She says, I was always the big kid. I was
very strong, freakishly so, and very athletic. I remember standing on the
starting blocks of the summer league swim team about eight years old and hearing the
parent of the kid beside me, yell, come on, Susie, you
can beat that fat girl next to you. She didn't because I said,
as I said, I was strong as an ox. I looked like one
too, A free comment. By the way I hear him, Stop it.
That is not encouraging. I know when your child grows up and is
a total jerk, it's because you. Anyway, I just had to say,
yeah, I'm sorry that that happened. B F. Well, I'm
just I can I feel so much for her because I was that big girl.
I felt like an ox, very tall, very broad shoulders, very
full, seacup chest by tenth grade, which is a whole other discussion.
My sister was felt lithe homecoming court in high school. In college, if
I had a dime for every time someone said you are a Jane's sister,
you don't look anything alike. She is so pretty. I also heard that,
oh so rude. Why which is so rude? I don't know.
I don't know. I may see two little girls who are sisters. I
don't care if one of them is gorgeous and one of them is, not
tell them they're both gorgeous, please right, and never compare them in front
of each other or even not in front of each other. Yeah. No,
it's awful. It's awful. That is something kids don't forget. I
mean, it's true. I mean I hear it, Sherry with the Internet
and Fasting Stories podcast, like so often I'll hear from a guest. You
know, this person said this when they were seven, and then they never
got over it. I mean, it's literally like ruining someone's body image for
the rest of their life, and now they're like fifty five years old trying
to get over that. Oh, trust me, I know. I mean
my brother. I love him dearly. He passed away in twenty ten.
But he called me tree trunk legs my whole life, and I have never
liked my legs. Yeah, and I don't think he meant anything really mean
spirit by it. That's just brothers, you know. But at the same
time, I think now as an adult, if he knew how it affected
me, he would have been, you know, really sorry. But yeah,
just watch what you say, especially to kids and in front of other
kids. So she says, I excelled in athletics, and I managed to
keep weight off because I was doing two a day and sometimes three a day
workouts, but it was always a struggle and food, so much food.
My stepmother had no idea how to feed me. I was hungry all the
time. I was always trying to lose weight, and she was always angry
that I couldn't adapt to her very high carb, low fat, minimal protein
meals. I remember being so hungry once that I was prowling the pantry and
I found a bag of what looked like beef jerkey. I was so happy
they were dog trees. I was so hungry. I ate dog treats.
When I realized it, I sat on the floor and just cried. You
internalized that sort of thing as a kid. I don't fit. I'm wrong.
Trendy cute clothes aren't meant for me. Hell, the entire culture wasn't
meant for me. I doubled down on sports, earning three varsity letters in
college. The college football guys used to tease me about subbing in for an
injured lineman, usually the biggest guys on the team. I trained under Olympic
strength trainers and other highly skilled athletic coaches, and at one time I held
seven college conference records. But I was still overweight and unhappy. I was
the fembot, the amazon, the freak, too big, too fat,
too strong, just too much. I was what we now call fat fit.
After school, life happened, as it does to all of us.
There were marriage, kids, grad school, job and of course, the
weight crept up. We call it ex jock syndrome. You've all seen it.
You know, when you learn to eat doing two day, two a
day workouts and now you just sit behind a desk all day, you gain
weight. So I turned back to athletics, but by this time my body
had started to break down. Because the truth is that high end athletics is
glorious for a minute, but you pay the price for the rest of your
life. Blown joints, stretch ligaments, repeat injuries that now invite arthritis and
other inflammation. And she's not wrong. I see this so much, and
my husband is living this right now. Oh really, Oh yes, yeah,
she says. I struggled my weight, and I tried all of the
things diets, exercise, supplements, and then I hit menopause and I gained
an additional fifteen pounds in two years. I asked my GP and obgui in
and both said my hormones had nothing to do with my sudden weight gain.
They said I should just move more. Oh my Lord, have mercy.
Y'all stop saying that to people. So I did spin classes and weights and
HI classes. The more intense the better. I exercised myself into frequent visits
to the orthopedic clinic, shoulder surgery and physical therapy, joint pain, immobility,
spinal stenosis. I couldn't exercise the weight away, and I hurt.
I was so lost, unhappy, over weight, sore, crippled by pain,
not sleeping. Then I happened upon fast feast, repeat and doctor Fun's
a BCD code, and a lot of things made since I kept reading published
medical research on IF. Research analysis and methodology is my background in training,
and I became convinced that I have had my answers to weight and pain issues
as well as health problems that had plagued my family, like stroke in Alzheimer's.
I started IF coincidentally for lent this year, which began February fourteenth,
forty days to try something new, forty days to go back to what our
ancestors experienced year round. Well, tomorrow is Easter Sunday, and I have
lost eight pounds and two inches off my minnowbelly. My clothes fit better,
and I have fallen into the green part of the smart BMI I feel and
can say that for the first time in my life, I am not hungry.
I am shocked at how my appetite has changed. My inflammation has significantly
decreased as well. I usually do a four hour eating window, breaking the
fast with a high protein snack and my multivitamin, and then a nice full
meal a couple of hours later. I also cut my exercise routine in half.
I think the incredible stress I put on my body over the years caused
cortisol spikes, which significantly hindered weight loss and promoted hormone imbalance. Menopause exacerbated
all of it. Take it from an ex jock. You cannot exercise away
a bad diet, especially as you age. You might get away with it
as a young adult, but it will catch up to you. Do not
ever push through the pain, especially as you get older. Please please listen
to your body. It knows what is best for you. You need to
stop fighting it. Using intermint fasting, I have balanced my metabolism while actually
decreasing my exercise. I still lift weights, but lighter now and as fast
of reps. I still do a spin class most weeks, but I do
not try to max out my heart rate Zone three to four is fine.
I do a gentle yoga or a yin class for mobility and to help my
damaged joints. Sometimes on a lovely day, I skip the gym altogether and
just take a walk and that is enough. I love your podcast and appreciate
your dedication to all of us who are struggling. Thank you well. I
could not love this more BF. I am so thrilled that you are loving
intermittent fasting and that it feels so good. And I love the advice to
not push through the pain. Yeah, I think no pain, no gain
is one of the worst pieces of advice, and it absolutely is. It
absolutely is. I remember when I was training for the Breast Cancer Three Day
Walk and I told a trainer that I was having really severe pain in my
shin and they said, oh, you just have to push through it,
push through it. So I was about eight miles away from home and my
leg hurts so bad I couldn't walk, and I call somebody can pick me
up. And I ended up having to wear a boot, one of those
big black boots, for like twelve weeks and go to physical therapy because I
had torn stuff in my leg and needles to say, I did not walk
in the Breast Cancer Three Day Walk that year. So pin is our body's
signal to pay attention to something. Yeah, I learned that when I had
that back when I pulled my back and I was in October of twenty twenty
two and I got up really weird and wrenched my back and I'm like,
well, I'll just walk it off, I'll just exercise it away. No,
I made it so bad that I couldn't move anyway. Yep, listen
to it, listen to the pain. Well, anyway, I'm really really
glad to hear that beef is doing so well and intermittent fasting. I love
the part that she said she's no longer hungry for the first time in her
life, and I think that is really important, and I think we'll talk
more about that a little bit later, but I wanted to emphasize that,
all right, So now we have a question from a listener. This question
is from Pam Clark's Summit Pennsylvania. She said, I started intermittent fasting with
You and the Clean Fast on August first of twenty eighteen, and I never
looked back. I lost twenty five pounds in about a year by keeping the
fasting lifestyle, and I never gained it back. I have done eighteen six
and nineteen five and it is just maintenance. But with the start of the
new podcast, I strive for a five hour window and I'm starting to lose
again, which is great. I could lose another twenty five pounds right now.
I'm sixty seven years old and fast for the benefits, the energy,
the freedom, the better health, and how easy life has become. My
question is this, Since twenty eighteen, my vision has been changing for the
better. I was always very near sighted, and as of now my vision
in one eye is almost twenty twenty. Since the five hour window, it
seems like every four months I need a correction on my glass prescription. Can
this be normal? I've listened to most of the podcasts and have not come
across this benu Fit. Thanks for all of the support you have given and
continued to give to a grateful community. And she also said The New York
Times on Saturday, April twenty seventh of twenty twenty four had a great article
on fasting and how it really impacts a long and healthy life. I'm so
glad for the friend who introduced me to delay. Don't deny this truly is
the life well, Pam. We've actually heard from a lot of people over
the years of the community that their eyesight has gotten better within our minfasting.
And you know, there are a lot of people who really believe that you
can improve your eyesight and not ever have to wear glasses again through nutrition and
stress management and eye rest. So I do believe that, yes, you
could improve your eyesight with fasting as you've seen, and I think a lot
of it comes to inflammation. Inflammation really just does all sorts of things in
the body. But when you figure, like your eyesight is really a collection
of nerves and you know, inflammation can you know it's nerve signals from your
eye to your brain, and inflammation can really like delay that nerve signaling.
And I'm sure there's some scientific explanation that I don't know that I bet.
Oh gosh, you interviewed an eye doctor, Claudia. Yeah. Yeah,
she's not a doctor. She's a holistic eye coach. Audio muhlin Wig.
I don't know if I said that correctly something like that. She's in the
health and wellness community that I'm a part of. But yes, she works
with people to restore their vision, which sounds amazing. It does it does?
I mean, like I know other people that do a tectus and doctor
it is Apple Bam used to be in our community. He's an eye doctor
who he's an actual I believe eye doctor who works for people to improve their
eyes like natural. Yeah. Yeah, so it can be done. I
mean, and like I said, we do see it, and I think
it's I think that's amazing. I have not had that experience. I'm having
age age related I guess it's far sightedness now, but hello, fifty,
I never wore glasses as a child, so I'm not someone who had had
eyesight that needed correction until after I got older, after forty and the reading
glasses came out well. And I think lasix in my thirties, So okay,
it's possible that my lasix is just kind of like the benefits are wearing
off. I know people sometimes have to go in and have it tweaked,
but I am not doing that. I also wanted to emphasize something that Pam
said that when she she was doing eighteen six and just kind of scooched it
down to nineteen five and started losing difference. Yep, there's there's a sweet
spot, right, There's a there's a window that could be too long for
weight loss, and then there's a window that could be too restrictive. So
you need to find that sweet spot in the middle. In nineteen five is
often a really good lenk for so many people. Yeah, and you know,
I told some of the opinity the other day. They said, you
know, they didn't feel like that one hour a day was really gonna help.
And I'm like, well, when you think about it, like in
the terms of what you're doing over the course of time, and in just
one week, by shortening your window to five hours from you know, six
hours, that's seven more hours of fat burning your body gets to take advantage
of in that week. Yeah, so just by shortening your window a little
bit. So. So our next question is from Becca in Arizona, and
that's a question that is posed often and I think we need to talk about
it. She says, Hello, my thirty six year old woman. I've
been fasting since June of twenty nineteen, but I took a break form my
pregnancies with my daughter and now my son. My favorite fasting protocol is three
to six hour evening windows, sometimes in the early evening. I am five
four and I weigh one hundred and thirty eight pounds. I am six weeks
postpartum, so I haven't started fasting again because I am breastfeeding my son.
I am not even really interested in fasting for the weight loss, but for
the mental clarity and energy that I need to keep up with my two kids.
I am hoping you can talk more about why fasting is not recommended while
breastfeeding. I breastfeed my daughter for two years, and I plan to breastfeed
my son for two years. Can I really not fast for the next two
years of my life? Because if I am listening to my body, my
body tells me that fasting feels so good. What if I was fasting not
for weight loss and not to try to lose weight, but just for the
mental clarity and the energy it gives me. So this is a great question,
and you know, I would encourage you to talk to your doctor if
you're ever not sure. I don't want anyone to think that we're giving medical
advice. But where did the advice not to fast when your breastfeeding come from?
I actually found a quote when I was writing I'm Ad. We found
it a while back when we were running the Facebook groups, but I included
it when I was writing Cleanish. And the whole point of Cleanish is that
we're living in a new toxic environment that our bodies are not designed for.
Right. Think about all the chemicals that we are ingesting, just as we
you know, drink out of a plastic bottle or have a food that was
prepared. I'm just a plaster bottle right now, or we're like eating food
that was prepared in a teflon pan, or we're coming in contact with endocrine
disruptors or whatever it might be. You know, we're using toxic household chemicals
that new car smell. I mean, we're really bombarded by chemicals that are
like within the past hundred years. I mean, things are so so different.
Now. Well, what does our body do with all these weird chemicals.
Well, tries to detoxim it tries to clear them out. But stuff's
coming in faster than we can get it out, right, So our bodies
stashed things away in our fat cells. And like I said, I wrote
about this in Cleanish if you have a copy of that. But our bodies
take these toxins and stash them away. Imagine like you're trying to clean your
room and you're out of space. You're gonna shove stuff under the bed.
Right then when you start really deep cleaning your room, you're going to pull
all that crap out from under your bed. Again, that's the same thing
that your body does as you're losing the fat. When you're losing the fat,
it's gonna pull all that crap out all those toxins are coming back out
and they're recirculating. So I know, when you're breastfeeding, you are probably
eating very clean, you're careful about what you put into your body. But
the problem is not what you're putting into your body now, it's the stuff
you put into your body years before that your body stashed into your fat cells.
So the information that really caught my eye was a breastfeeding text book.
And again you'd have to look where I talked about this in Cleanish. The
breast feeding textbook says people should not try to lose fat while they're breastfeeding in
today's modern world period, because your body is going to be pulling those toxins
out of your fat and so, and that's with any method of fat,
any method of burning fat, right, So, fasting is one way that
your body will be running on stored fat. Well, where's your body getting
the stored fat from? From where you stored it away? And so that's
really why I would not do anything that led to your body releasing stored fat
that you stored away in the past when you might have been not being so
careful with what you're doing now. I'm not saying that to make her by
scared and like afraid to live in the modern world because here we are,
we live in it. But it's just one of those things. And again
that came from a breastfeeding textbook. I didn't make it up. You know,
some people are like, oh, my supply is fine, so I
can fast. But it's more than just your supply. It's what your body
might be breaking down out of your fat cells. So you know, take
that information, you can talk about it your pediatrician, do with it what
you will. Personally, I would I would not. I would not fast
in any way that caused my body to tap into those fat stores. You
know, think of breastfeeding as the fourth trimester, and you are just as
careful about what you're putting into your body. But what's already and they're coming
out of your fat cells does matter. And you know two years. I
know that feels like a long time, but it's going to be over the
blink of an eye, right It really will, it really will. I
know that's not what you want to do, hear Beca. Do you have
anything you want to share with that? Sherry? I really don't. I
mean, like I can't even I mean, she wants the mental clarity and
energy. And I know watching the food you eat and not having you know,
crazy blood sugar fluctuations can really help with that. Is it ever going
to be the same as fast as energy? No, it's not. But
you know, you have small kids at home. You're supposed to be exhaust
right now. That's true. No matter what you do, you will be.
We've all lived. We've all lived through it. Who have kids,
you know, And it's just I think the price you pay for motherhood and
it's worth it. They get older, they grew up, you can start
fasting. They sleep through the night. And I had coffee with my twenty
four year old on the porch this morning, so he's drinking black coffee fasting
himself, all right. So now it's time for our segment called What's Your
Why. Most of us have weight loss in mind when we start intermittent fasting,
and it is absolutely fine for that to be part of your why,
But there is so much more to what intermittent fasting can do for us beyond
weight loss. And in my latest book, twenty eight day Fast Start day
by day, one of the first things I have readers do is craft their
why statement before beginning when your why is deeper than weight loss alone, I
really think you are more likely to find long term success and if you intermittent
fasting as a lifestyle. So this week we have a why from a member
of our community. She wrote, why fast? Well, I love the
piece that comes over my body when I'm not eating and it's done digesting food.
I love knowing that fasting allows my body the time to do things it
needs to do when I free it from digesting food. I am in awe
of everything my body does when I give it the chance. Straightening bent fingers
that the occupational therapist was unable to after six weeks of therapy, greater awareness
of how different foods and food groups affect me physically and mentally, healing old
scars, and my list of whys will continue to grow. Is kind of
fun to see what's next. And this was from a relatively new faster.
I love that, Yeah, she's already seen benefits. And I think that
happens as we start to fast, we start to develop new wiys. It's
true, and you identify them as you go. Right, you're like moving
along and you're like, I didn't even know that was part of my why.
But there it is right, yeah, yep. And you don't know
until you start, you don't know what it's going to feel like. Yep.
So this week we have another question from Emily in Western New York.
She said, Hello, Jen and Sherry. First, I want to thank
you both for providing so much information and motivation on this intermittent fasting journey.
I appreciate you both so much, and I love the comment slash advice you
both have shared at various times about having a lifestyle goal rather than a weight
or size goal. That really speaks to me and why I chose to start
and continue the Internet fasting lifestyle. With that being said, I just wondered
if you could shed some more light on all of the new obesity medication slash
injections that are out there. I'm hearing every day more and more people choosing
to use them. I'm not asking about this to appear to be judgmental in
any way, because I have tried every single diet out there pretty much.
I'm just curious and concerned about this new trend. Could you share your thoughts
on these medications, possible side effects, and what happens when you stop using
them. I honestly feel there needs to be more discussion and transparency regarding the
use of these medications. I'm just struggling with why this is so readily available
and everyone seems to be jumping on the bandwagon. There was a point in
my life where I one hundred percent would have looked into that option, but
thankfully I'm not feeling that impulse at all, and I truly believe in the
health benefits of IF and living a medication free lifestyle. Thank you. Well,
this is a great question, and you know, we've talked about weight
loss medications on the podcast before and we debated, you know, is it
time to have another question about it? And I actually said yes because I
wanted to share some new information for listeners, and that is You're gonna have
to wait till September fifth, but episode four hundred and thirty of Intermittent Fasting
Stories Chelsea and Roz I interviewed from Australia and Roz is the first guest I've
had who started her journey with ozimbic but finished it with intermittent fasting. So
we've had people in our community. Yeah, we've had people in our community
who had, you know, used the weight loss drugs in the past,
but this is the first guest that I've interviewed for intermittent fasting stories. She'll
be able to hear it. And she was over three hundred pounds at one
point in her life and was really really struggling, and her doctor suggested biatric
surgery and she's like, I don't want to do that. So she started
the weight loss medication and it got her off to a start. It got
her to the beginning. But then in Australia there was a shortage of the
medication so she couldn't keep taking it, and so she was like, oh,
well, I've got to figure something else out. Well, she ended
up finding intermittent fasting and she she and I talked about that on the episode,
and I mean, she's grateful that she had something that she felt gave
her a jump start. But we talked about the appetite correction that we get
from intermittent fasting. You know, we go back to the celebration we had
earlier today from BF talking about her hunger is finally gone, right, you
know, Roz says the same thing within her and fasting, she feels appetite
correction that she never felt before ever and that was what was really striking to
me when I watched the Oprah special where she talked about ozimpic and the weight
loss medications people talking about, and also when it was on Diary of a
CEO an episode about that about ozempic. Recently hearing the people talk about how
suddenly it's like a switch has been flipped. The ones who are taking the
medication, they're suddenly not having that incessant hunger all day. Well, that
is what appetite correction does. That is what intermittent fasting does. That's what
happened for me. You know, I don't have the thoughts of food all
day and feeling like I'm always hungry, and so I think intermittent fasting has
a lot that it can do for us without the drug. So anybody who's
listening, if you are considering intermittent fasting but you're also considering the drugs,
or if you're doing intermittent fasting and you're watching a friend who's losing weight a
lot faster on the drugs than you, I want you to understand that they
are on a starvation level diet. They are eating tiny, little amounts of
food because these drugs are GLP one agonists. Isn't that what you would what
we say GLP one antagonists agonists? Now, I don't know. I just
confused myself. I feel like they are agonists anyway. Whatever they are,
they they they keep them their agonists. Okay, yes they Basically, the
GLP one is a naturally it's naturally released in your Yeah, it's naturally released
in your body. And it's like your body's to tidy, like, all
right, I had enough, I don't need to eat anymore. Well,
these these injections cause you just to have that all the time, right,
so you're not hungry like people say they can only eat like a couple of
bites of food and then they can't eat anymore. And so you're really on
like a starvation level diet because your body is like, we're full, but
really you haven't eaten. But in the meantime, though, we know from
the Biggest Losers study and from the Minnesota Starvation experiment that when our body is
really on that starvation level diet, and again with these weight loss medications,
a lot of people are, you know, eating tiny meals throughout the day,
like they'll eat a few bites and they won't eat for a while.
Then they'll eat a few more bites as something that sort of thing, and
so they're not really they're not fasting, but they're eating little bits of food.
That's like the ultimate low calorie diet. So we would expect that people
would have metabolic effects that would come along with any very low calorie diet.
You know, you're not hungry, and that feels like a miracle, but
remember that fasting can give that to you as well. And I also looked
up some information about food and GLP one, and Sherry probably does. What
is the food that causes your body to release the GLP one the most and
tell you that you're satisfied more than any other food. Fiber? Fiber,
Yes, it's fiber. And let's think about the modern diet and people who
are eating ultraprocessed foods, which is what most people are eating now, are
not getting fiber. And so you know, this ultraprocessed stuff that people are
eating is very low fiber, and fiber stimulates our bodies to produce the GLP
one. And there's even something that is called caused the second meal effect.
Be part of the second meal effect, Sherry. And so the second meal
effect is like this, if you eat a lot of fiber at one meal.
Like they all said, this is something that happens with beans, for
example, but anything that's really high fiber. If you eat a lot of
fiber at one meal, by the time you get to your next meal,
it's gone far enough through your digestive system that it's activating you know, your
natural GLP one. So when that second meal roll is around, you can't
eat as much and you're not as hungry, and you get that I've had
enough signal sooner. So I really really think the lack of satiety that is
causing people to overeat and turn to these drugs comes back to an ultraprocessed diet
and they're not getting the satiety signal that their body is designed to do.
So, knowing what I know now, the prescription is high fiber foods plus
internet and fasting right and so another like also, the effect of a high
fiber diet is small is it? Small chain? Short chain? Sorry,
short chain fatty acids are like produced in your gut. So by really focusing
on your diet and eating a diet high in fiber and real food and avoiding
ultraprocessed food, you're improving your gut microbiome. And when you improve your gut
microbiome over time, you're also going to improve your hormone balance. And really
your whole body's going to benefit, from your brain to your hunger, to
your blood glucose levels remaining more balanced because a high fiber diet helps your body
produce short chained fatty acids, and short chained fatty acids causes your body to
naturally release GLP one. So like it all works kind of symbiotically. Our
bodies are designed to have these signals, right, but we're also not designed
to eat the modern food. So I talked about this with you, Sherry
in the earlier episode where we talked about the Opra special, but it was
very disappointing that no one talked about food at all. Right, The message
was, yeah, you can't stop eating, but these druggle will make you
stop. It's just you're broken. You're broken, and no one said it's
because you're eating food that it is not food and your body doesn't have what's
it's supposed to be doing going on anyway, Listen, when you have struggled
your whole life to balance your weight and to achieve a healthy weight, and
maintain a healthy weight. You start to see food as the enemy. Right.
I feel like right, food is bad. Food's the enemy. I
can't eat that. I can't eat that. But food can also be the
solution. Food can be be sure. Yeah, real food, fiber,
real food, stuff that people would have recognized as food a thousand years ago.
Yeah. I used to say, if your grandmother would have eaten it.
But my grandmother made dream whip and tang, so that's right. Yeah,
Well, my grandmother made cheesecake and the Switch called it. I have
no idea what it was. It had jello in it and a cool whip.
I don't even know it was. It was the furthest thing from cheesecake
that you could write find right, But I get it. I get it
too. And you know, Emily, if I had not found intermittent fasting
plus change the way I eat so much, just naturally because it made me
feel so much better and I was still, you know, obese, I
would probably be taking the object the injections too, just because I didn't didn't
know. I wouldn't know that there's a better way. But for anybody who's
listening, if you're struggling with hunger, all the time, and your friend
is losing a lot of weight. Even if you're someone who's fasting and you're
still struggling within your eating window, eating real food, lots of fiber beans,
Yep, that second meal effect. You know, open your window with
some high fiber something or other, and then you know, see what happens
when you try to have some more food later to your society. Don't tell
you have been making homemade refried beans. No, I'm obsessed. I don't.
I can't even tell you, guys, why I find refried beans.
I will not eat them at a restaurant. I have never If I go
to a Mexican restaurant and I have beans as a side, I always ask
if they have ceabe beans or whole beans. Really don't like restaurants refried beans.
You just don't like them. I don't like the texture of them,
like okay, I don't know. I like like I like my refread beans
a little chunky, okay, And I like a little more flavor in them.
And so yeah, I've been making my own like refried black beans,
and I learned how to do it from like a Green Chef recipe, and
then I was so delicious I can add a little lume juice to them,
and you know, whatever I want, I can add a little garlic to
them. And I love to open my window with a bowlery fried beans.
Beans. I'll put it in a a I'll make a wrap like a little
bean burrito with it or whatever. And it's so satisfying to me, and
I don't I don't want to snack after that, Like I feel it.
Nothing satisfies me better than beans. Seriously, old potatoes, potatoes and beans.
I really I feel the satidi later, just like that second meal effect.
It really really does help. So if you're caught in that, you
know diet mentality of well, beans and potatoes or carbs. Carbs are bad,
Well, don't eat potato chips, right, eat a real potato.
And you know, beans are just one of the foods most connected with longevity
out there. I think you know, if you are a person you have
diabetes and you need to take these medications to control your diabetes. I absolutely
get that, and I would all different if conversation. You know, use
it to keep your blood sugar under control and start fasting and hopefully heal your
body where then you wouldn't need medications to control your blood sugars anymore, because
your body will do the work for you. Right. But you know,
my concern is the people that are using this medication for weight loss with internet
fasting, that is something that we can do the rest of our life.
We are creating a new lifestyle with this medication. Once they start on the
medication, what happens next? So, yes, they're eating less, and
the idea is that you've now trained your body to eat less and that eventually
you can wean yourself off of these medications. I keep hearing people talk about
this, but by this point, you've downregulated your metabolism by eating, you
know, this low calorie diet. Basically, if you haven't changed your diet
and you're still eating the same way you've always eaten, you you're going to
go back to not being satisfied with that food again once you're not on the
medication anymore. Where if you incorporate fasting, then you know you're getting the
benefits of the appetite correction with fasting, and that you're you're basically programming your
body to behave in a new way and to recognize satiety and to you know,
recognize what true hunger signals are and you're not relying on an outside source
that's very expensive to do that for you. So I mean, I just
I wish I could get everybody to get fasting a try. Yeah, fasting
plus real foods. And by the way, if you haven't been eating beans,
don't just eat all the beans day one. Yeah, don't do that.
Let you're you know, we joke about beans in our society. Society,
but my guts really used to beans. Yep, you know what it
was, and used too though, Sherry. When I was on my trip
to Dallas and I talked to you about the cauliflower, did you eat cauliflower?
Yeah? Oh, this is actually a funny story. Can I tell
it real quick? Yes? Okay. So I was at this conference and
we were lunch was provided and if you guys don't know this, Jenna does
not like cauliflower. Well what else do I not like a lot? Anyway?
That comes to put into play in a minute. So the first day
of the conference, lunch was provided and it was a beautiful lunch and I
was like, the salad looked so good. And I didn't know what was
coming later, but I was like, what's going to be and it was
chicken. I'm like, well, we'll see. So I ate the meal
and it was so good, and I was like it was totally window worthy.
I'm glad that I ate it. So the second and everyone got the
same thing. It was like conference food. But you could have ordered the
regular food or you could have ordered a vegan meal. And I almost ordered
the vegan meal because yeah, I just didn't know. But I was like,
well, the vegan meal might be weird. I'll just eat whatever it
is. It'll be fine. So I ate the chicken. I ate.
It was a really really good lunch. Well, the next day I show
up and we're sitting there and the guy comes around. He's like, I'm
going to go get all of your salmon. Salmon was the meal, Oh
Jinn's favorite. I don't like salmon. I don't like any kind of fish.
So I was like, I'm allergic to salmon. What you said.
They'd already said you can't your meal, you can't change your meal. And
he's like, well you can't change your meal, and I'm like, well
I can't eat it. And see, Unfortunately, by that time, i'd
already started eating my salad. If i'd have known the choice was, I
would have just been like, I would have just kept fasting. And I
really would have kept fasting had I known what was coming next. But the
guy sitting next to me was like, oh, I ordered the vegan meal,
but I I'm pescatarian, I'll eat the salmon. And I'm like,
whoo, So we switched meals. I'm like, I'll get the vegan meal.
It'll be fun. Well, they come around with the vegan meal.
It's a slab of callflower steak. So I got a cauliflower steak. And
by that point i'd eaten the salad, which wasn't very good that day.
The first day was really good, so I ate just a little bit,
but not very much. So then I had to eat because I was starving
because I'd eaten just a little bit, Whereas if I had kept fasting,
I would have been just fine. And that's what I should have done.
I should have inquired what was being served but was on the menu. I
ate the cauliflower and I didn't die, and it wasn't terrible, but my
gut, like the it does not used to digesting cauliflower. Let's just say
I stood down out of everybody for a while. Well, I'm sure I
don't because my gut doesn't know how to process cauliflower. My gut was like,
what is this, We don't know what this is. Everybody go crazy.
So I stood down wind for a while until it just cleared out of
my system. So anyway, all that to say, if you don't normally
eat something and then you eat it, it can produce a lot of gas.
But I seem, yeah, I eat beans all the time and I
don't have that problem cauliflower. Huh. Yeah. Somebody read Fiberfield and they
were like super excited and gung ho and they started changing their eating up all
at once, and like after few days they said, I know, you
guys recommended this book and I read it and it sounded good, but my
gut doesn't like it. I'm gonna have to stop eating this way. And
I'm like, no, you just need to introduce these foods slowly over time.
You can't go from eating ten grams of fiber a day to thirty five
grams of fiber a day and not exactly your gut to protest a little bit
exactly. All right, we have a question from crying in CALLI. She
said, hello, ladies, I'm sitting in my car listening to your podcast
and tears are just streaming down. I've been trying to lose weight with intermittent
fasting since December of twenty eighteen, and I cannot seem to get myself to
one stay within a reasonable eating window. For me, four hours is the
one that works. I got to this window by trying almost every other one
and two stop over eating and eating processed foods. She said, I know
the solution to my problem, but how can one make themselves do it?
I feel so lost and helpless. I'm a forty eight year old woman five
five, one hundred and eighty pounds. I guess I'm writing because after all
this time, I feel like maybe if will not help me lose weight,
and it's a feudal effort. My emotional eating and cravings are just too strong.
Thanks for any words of encouragement or advice. Well, this is a
really big problem. I mean you, we've been talking about this now,
the eating processed foods, and your body's just not going to get the signal
it's had enough if you're eating processed foods. So my first step would be
to start there, because the emotional eating is going to take more work,
But I feel like if you are physically satisfied with food, you're going to
have an easier time of stopping because your body is really going to give you
those strong stop signals. And as long as you're eating the over processed FOD,
you're not getting those stop signals. So once you get those strong stop
signals, then when you are inclined to eat emotionally, it kind of will
give you pause and it'll give you the the ability to stop and be like,
Okay, I'm really not hungry, what is it? What is it
that I need? Because when we when we eat for you know, emotional
reasons, because we're sad, we're stressed, we're angry, we're you know,
whatever it is, we're filling a void. We're trying to fill a
void with food. And when when that void is already full because you ate
really nutritious, good food, you really do have to deal with those emotions
now in a different way. And that's a process, and it does take
time, and it takes work, it takes intention, but I think to
even get to that point, you've got to get in touch with satiety in
the first place. You have any thoughts to that, Jen, Well,
I'm setting up big hug to you because I know this isn't easy. And
again, the foods that you're struggling with, the processed foods that you can't
stop over eating and that are calling to you, are designed in a lab
to be that way. You know, you might want to read something like
Ultra Process to Keep Process. People read that book and get mad at the
food industry and realize that you are set up to fail by the food industry.
And you know, if you don't have strong coping mechanisms, the food
is going to tempt you even more and then you're going to turn back to
it. And that it seems like you're caught in that cycle. So first
understand it's the food that is causing you to have these cravings and also the
emotions that you're feeling and not being able to cope with those. Well,
so it's like a vicious cycle, right, and that it's feeding in.
You know, the the emotions make you stressed, you eat the food.
The food makes you feel worse. Now you're emotional about that, and it
just keeps getting worse and worse over time, and you feel like a failure.
And so again, like Sherry said, food qualities, where I'd start
first. You know, if you've got certain things you cannot have in the
house because you're going to eat them. Like imagine that you're an alcoholic.
If someone is an alcoholic, they would not keep alcohol around the house for
just in case people came over, or they wouldn't you know, Like if
you were an alcoholic and your husband or family they would not have it around.
They would be like, we can't have this in the house. They
would do everything they could to support you. So I want you to consider
that the food that you have in your home is that important and start with
the real food. Start with eating real food and then let that Just do
that first, Just do that, and then you know, another book you
might want to read, Science is Skinny. I read that a long time
ago. I was thinking of that. She talked about her struggle with She
didn't use the words ultra processed food because that terminology had not yet been invented
when she wrote the book. But read the Science of skin I just focus
on the food first and get that part under control. You know, if
you're having emotional issues that you really you might need to go go to some
therapy to help help the emotional component of it, because that's real. You
know, that's you know, it's it's real that you're feeling those feelings.
So, you know, therapy for the counseling for the emotional component, real
food, and then you can start thinking about how do you incorporate fasting.
Twenty eight day fast art day by day might help you with that. I
certainly wouldn't start at twenty four I would meaning you know, four hour eating
window. I wouldn't try to do everything all at once. If you're struggling
with the fasting and the food, then I really think that the food is
the first thing for you to focus on, and then when your body is
feeling better, you'll be ready to pull in the fasting. I do think
the food plus the fasting could be your solution, but you got to get
out of the cycle that you're in right now. It can be done.
Stop. You got to do something though, absolutely, speaking of getting better
nutrition into the windows, are you at a loss as to what to cook?
I need inspiration. I'm not a person that can just be like,
oh, this is what I'm cooking this week. I'm not a foodie like
that. I also want my meal prep to be easy, quick, available
to grab and throw together. I have a few favorites that I use routinely
to make meal time simple and less stressful. I have groceries delivered to my
house, which is great for ordering the basics, but I'm just never pleased
at the prices or quality of produce that my local supermarkets. The last time
I went and stocked up on a bunch of produce, I think it was
after I read Fiberfueld and I was like, here we go. I spent
way too much money and it all seemed like it went bad really fast,
like it's old. And since I'm the only one eating it, I often
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where I lean on my favorite companies like Hungry Root for produce and quick Hole
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I do. Or you can browse through their expansive recipe list and drop entire
meal components in your basket. You basically pay for credits each week. I
have my credit set so I get free shipping and you can skip any week
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pick a protein, toss it in a sauce. I have a quick meal
this week of a lot going on, so I just let them choose my
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beans, sweet chili chicken rainbow salad, and a zesty bison and veggie skillet
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plus twenty percent off for Life on Wild Pastures meets Visit Fastpiecerepeat dot com slash
Sherry to see the link or see the links and show notes. Awesome.
Yeah, the quality food Schario, it makes such a difference. All right,
now it's time for our tweak of the week. You know, I
always say tweak it till it's easy. But the tweak that works for me
might not be the one that works for you. And that's why it is
super helpful to hear how other intermittent fasters are making intermittent fasting work for them.
This tweak was submitted by Glenn in Essex. Glenn said, Hydroen and
Sheery. I have recently started adf alternate daily fasting for everybody who wasn't sure
and would like to share more of a mindset, I guess, rather than
a tweak. I know that there is a temptation to shorten the feast and
lengthen the fast, but I think the upday is as important as the down
date, and Glenn one hundred percent agree with that. Yes, we do
just based on experience, so Glenn says, so rather than get hung up
on a number of hours, I have in the back of my mind my
opening and closing time as parallel pillars of my feast. For example, eight
to eight, open at eight am for a nice breakfast, timing a window
closing snack just before eight pm. If I think of it in those terms
seven to seven or nine to nine, the eight to eight that he said,
I'm not hung up on the number of feast hours on my feast day.
It allows me to space my meals out reasonably, whereas in the past
having a smaller upday window could lead to a racete against time of food cramming.
I hope this makes sense and is of use to someone. And really,
Glenn, if you were following ADF like that, it's going to be
thirty six twelve yep. If you just think, O, what that is
eight to eight or seven to seven, or that's twelve hours, so you're
you're doing thirty six twelve and that is really really a great approach to ADF.
Yeah, somebody recently was asking us about their upday and they were worried
about they were using the down day meal and they were worried about fasting long
enough after their downday meal before they open, and so then they were like
not opening until the afternoon on their upday. But then they also try not
to eat after six pm. So then they were trying to close and they
were like, this is hard, and it's going to be hard. That
is why we just if you're going to do updays, just open it in
the morning. Don't even worry about how long you've been fasting since your Downday
meal or whatever, or if you fasted straight through, don't worry about how
long that was. Yeah, there's no magic. You're not going to get
an award because you went forty two hours or forty four hours or thirty nine
point seven hours. It doesn't matter. Just it does. It doesn't wake
up eat. What matters is you're not only not going to get an award,
but your body is going to punish you if your update is not long
enough. Yes, and that's when it's hard, if your update is not
sufficient. We recently had somebody who had been really active in are delayed on
deny communities. Laylah. Hello, Laylah. If you're listening, you saw
Layla in the community and she was posting and she talked about how she was
really leaning into ADF again, but she has learned that her update needs to
be longer. She actually did you see where she mentioned in the post that
she had been one of those people back in the day who was trying to
have a six hour update, yes, and that backfired. And it was
watching people like that that were you know, they were like, I,
e, I'm eating two giant meals in six hours. And when I wrote
fast feast repeat, that's what people were doing a lot of and I was
like, well, that's that's up And then in practice that really didn't end
up working out well, which is why eight to twelve is the new recommendation.
Really, everything we refine as we learn, or if you're a person
I see this two people, I can do two down days, but I
just can't get that third down day in a week, and I'm really like,
you know, they're frustrating because they want it to work. Invariably,
it's because they're not having long enough updays. Yeah, if your updates aren't
sufficient, your body's not going to support you doing that third down day.
Yeah. And in the research on ADF, there were no windows on up
days. That's just something to reiterate. That's just us trying to you know,
we might be used to doing nineteen five and having a five hour window
and now we're going to throw in some ADF, so we think every day
has to be a window. But on the actual research on ADF, they
just got up in eight right. They weren't trying to have a time restricted
period on the up day. So it's when we try to have that be
time restricted that we get into the back day. Yeah, it does,
yep, yep. All right. Well, well, love to leave you
with inspiration our motivatational quotes, and this week we have a message from Judy.
I'm sorry, Jody and being being. I can't say that you got
the tongue twisters now being being Binghamton, Binghamton. Wow, it's a good
thing. I don't live there. I would struggle. See, I can't
say it. You would get it, you would know it. Jonie lives
in New York. She says, as a teacher, I always told my
kiddos it's only through mistakes that we grow. When things are hard, your
brain is growing and we can do hard things. This applies to all of
us. Oh yeah, we learn so much more from mistakes than from things
that go perfectly. Am I right? Absolutely, Thanks so much for listening
today. We would love to have you join us in the Delayed on Tonight
community, where you can interact with both me and Sherry, plus the most
supportive bunch of intermittent fasters you'll find anywhere. Go to Jenstevens dot com slash
community to join us. Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast to your favorite
podcast app, and if you haven't already, please leave us a five star
review that helps new listeners find the show and we really appreciate it. We
are a community driven podcast, so to submit your success stories, your questions,
your favorite tweak it till It's Easy, moments, or anything else you
want 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,