Episode 41: Why am I Hungry?, Having Flex Days, The Power of Data, and More

Welcome to Fast Feast Repeat Intermittent Fasting for Life. I'm Jen Stevens, author
of the New York Times bestseller Fast Feast Repeat, and I'm Sherry Bullock,
longtime intermittent faster and health and wellness advocate. Please keep in mind that this
podcast is for educational and motivational purposes only and is not intended to provide medical
or diagnostic advice. Jen and I are not doctors, so make sure to
check with your trusted healthcare professionals before making changes, especially when it comes to
any medical treatments or medications. Whether you're new to intermittent fasting or an experienced
intermittent faster, tune in each week to get inspired, to learn, and
to have some fun along the way. Hi, everybody, we are so
glad you're here today. Welcome to this week's episode of the Fast Feast Repeat,
Intermittent Fasting for Life Podcast. How are you doing today's Sherry? I'm
doing great? Can I share something please? I don't know if any of
you listen. You know came over from the Life Lessons podcast. I talked
more about my husband on that podcast, just because it was about you know,
life in general, but a lot of you may not know. My
husband went through a period of time where he was very, very clinically depressed,
couldn't get out of bed, couldn't work. He has just fought and
clawed his way back from there and he is doing wonderful. And this is
a man who he has really bad social anxiety. He does not like to
go into stores, he doesn't like to go to restaurants. He does it
for me a little bit, but it's not his comfort zone. He just
started a new job. He actually has been working to start his own business.
He bought a bread route through Bembo Bakeries and he's going to have to
go into stores and stock his product. And it's a whole new thing.
He's never been a salesman before, he's never run his own business before.
He's currently working as a contract worker while they like finalized the deal. So
he's been doing the job. Now he's in his third week. He is
loving it. He's doing so amazing, Like it just makes me want to
cry because he's come so far. I know, you're so proud of him.
I am. And so that's my PEP talk for the day when life
feels hard. It's not always going to be hard, and you can come
back from those hard times and you can grow and you can you can really
you can make it. So no, thank you. Well, that just
shows you know, you've seen him through the hard times, right, and
he was having a really hard time in there, and you stuck stuck by
his side and you gave him the support that he needed. And he is
trying something new and he is thriving well. In every little win he has
just builds his confidence back up. Yeah, and that that could be applied
to so many things. I mean, this lesson could relate to someone's internet
and fasting lifestyle, anything, and just you're going to have times of struggle
and you're going to come out of them. Yeah. And he told me
last night we were getting ready for bed, he said, can I just
tell you I really like what I'm doing? He said, I was working
yesterday and he said, and I caught myself smiling. Oh, he's got
the confidence, and yeah, I love that. Well, congratulations to Eric
and to you for thank you getting to this side of it. I want
to talk about something briefly before we get into our questions and celebrations, and
that is did you watch Oprah's special we're recording this March nineteenth, that came
on last night on ABC Oprah's special called Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss
Revolution. Have you watched that yet? I have not, and I don't
plan to. Well, I felt like I had to watch it, but
I wanted to know what was being said, and you know, I love
so much about it. Right the big message I think we should all take
away is no one should ever feel shame or blame for what your weight is
doing. Right. I came away a little angry though, because no one
talked about the role of processed food and why we're suddenly struggling. But the
whole theme was, you know, people are struggling with their weight. We
know this to be true, and then some people just can't get a handle
on it on their own. And so the theme was, you know,
the weight loss medications that are popular right now and that Oprah is now using,
and they highlighted some people who have had great success after years of struggling
with their weight, and so I totally I get it. But they never
talked about how food is different now. Not one time did they mention food.
Yeah, that's really a huge disservice. It's really really sad because I
don't think that people are different. I don't think our bodies are different.
I don't think that. I also do not think there should be any shame
or blame because again, it's not our fault. It is the f food
industry is making all of these ultra processed foods that are literally designed in a
lab to be hyperpalatable, and they design the ones that we will eat the
most of, right, and that's the one they sell, and so they're
just like, oh, lighted off. People can't help it. People can't
help it. Well, it's the food, right, That's why I'm mad,
because I do not think that that people can help being addicted to these
foods that are designed to be addictive, right, But they're doing it on
purpose, well, purposefully making the foods hyperpalatable and addictive. And then they're
like, well, they're hyperpalatable and addictive, but they're so low in real
nutrition that your body needs, so you're constantly hungry. And I keep thinking
that one of the reasons why these weight loss shots, you know, one
of the reasons that they work is that they know that they increase people's satiety
and that they learned to get in touch with true hunger and society because of
the mechanism of the drug. But it's like, the minute you stop,
you know, that medication, if you're still you know, eating the same
diet, the minute you stop that medication, you're going to lose that,
you know, ability to be afraid to get in touch with satiety again.
Yeah, because the diet, the foods you're eating aren't leading to satiety exactly,
so it's sort of like a snowball effect. It was just it was
just so frustrating from that perspective because I think that, you know, that
that's really important to think about, you know. And it was also interesting
when I was watching the people who were sharing their stories about how they struggled.
They never felt satisfied, they never stopped thinking about food, constant food
thoughts, constant food noise, and then suddenly the medication and then that's that's
over. I'm like, you know, that's exactly what the clean fast did
for me. And it wasn't just even fasting, like you know, I
did fasting before I was fasting clean before I read the obesity code. I
was white knuckle fasting because I was dirty fasting and white knuckle fasting I had
the constant food thoughts, constant food thoughts, white knuckling it till I could
open my window. And and it wasn't until I started fast and clean that
all that went away. And then the better my food choices have become over
time, the better my sotiety has gotten. So it's really for me thinking
about I completely understand wanting to stop the food noise, but I wonder how
many people the clean, fast plus focusing on high quality foods can do the
same thing. Well, you know, we are all born with really strong
society yep. As a baby's we have that and we lose it over time.
Food quality makes a difference if your baby is having you know, the
formulas that are made with like hornsrup or whatever in the junkie formula ingredients,
like, are you going to have the same satiety from that that you would
from breast milk? Right, So quality even matters, you know when we're
feeding our babies. But I think, I mean, meal timing really helps
with satiety as well because it allows your body to get into a rhythm.
And so yeah, yeah, I mean, I do think the whole weight
shaming thing that is a huge thing, and anybody who struggles with weight.
You know you didn't. It's not like you haven't paid attention to your weight.
Every exactly person pays attention their wait. You are feeling it in your
heart every time you buy a bigger sized pair of pants. You are dreading
getting on the scale at the doctor's office next year. You know, like
we've all been there, and it's not because we haven't tried. That's the
part that I completely agree with everything I says about that and all of the
guests, everyone that has struggled so hard, and I just really wish that
people were also talking about the food, the food quality and why why have
we lost our ability to stop eating? And it just comes back to what
we said before, the food. Anyway. I just had to get that
off my chest because you know, I just want everyone to find peace with
food, enjoy eating. We're meant to enjoy eating. We're meant to enjoy
food. We're not meant to eat all this processed food. And anyway,
it makes me mad, the whole industry and the way it's designed. It's
like if I was a conspiracy theorist, I would think that big food and
big farmer are working together to get us down this path. That would be
if I was a conspiracy theorist cheery. That's all I'm going to say about
that. Well, let's take some time to celebrate Alna Elena. Let's go
Elena or Elena and what could be? Ilana? Okay, Alana Elena.
I'm sorry that we did not know how to pronounce her name anyway, she
says, I have been doing IF for about five weeks now. Currently I'm
in the no weight loss club, but I have to say that my food
sensitivities have diminished significantly. I was at the point where it seemed like anything
I ate would make me bloated and uncomfortable, including all grains. Now I
can eat sourda bread that I make and organic full fat yogurt. I'm back
to eating millet and brown rice. And that may not seem like a big
deal to some people, but for me, it is so liberating. I
would do intermittent fasting just for this benefit. I highly recommend it for people
with any digestive challenges, and that I c five weeks. Five weeks amazing.
Giving our body a break really can help so many things work better.
So now we have a question from a listener. This question is from from
Loveland, Texas. I believe she didn't say Texas, but isn't Loveland in
Texas? It is all right, Kathy says. I've been doing intermittent fasting
since January fourth of twenty twenty four. I have read both Fast Feast Repeat
and the twenty eight Day Fast Art day by day. I am five nine
and started at one hundred and eighty and I'm one hundred and seventy now.
I work out with a TRX routine three times a week and accentrix three times
a week, and I walk and I hike once a week. I've lost
ten pounds and I've been doing a nineteen to twenty hour fast with the four
to five hour eating window, opening with a snack and then dinner, which
I guess is technically one meal a day. I fast clean, having one
cup of coffee in the morning, and I drink plain water. I feel
great and I will keep this lifestyle. My question is I seem to have
a weird feeling after about an hour after closing my window in the evening.
The best I can describe is an adrenaline burst, not necessarily energy, just
what feels like it could be a couple of squirts of adrenaline, although it
is my relaxing time before bed, so I do not get up and do
anything. Have you heard that before? Thanks? I love the podcast.
I learned so much. Well. I guess my question is she doesn't say
whether this adrenaline rush is a good feeling or like a bad feeling. I
don't even know what adrenaline rush would feel like. What does it feel like?
I was trying to I mean, that's what I'm trying to figure out.
Is it like for me, an adrenaline rush is like you go through
a really scary event and your heart starts to, you know, beat really
hard, and you get flushed or you get like sweaty, So I mean
that, and then after that, yeah, often, if that's what happens,
you have kind of an adrenaline dump where tired, and then you get
real tired and you just kind of feel spent. So I don't really know
if that's what she's describing. If that is what she's describing, I'm gonna
guess that is some sort of almost like maybe a blood sugar like a react
of hypoglycemia, because that can make you feel like that, or it could
be some sort of food intolerance, like a histamine release type thing making your
heart race. Maybe now if she means adrenaline, as in she suddenly has
a bunch of energy because she says, it's my relaxing time before bed,
so I do not get up and do anything. So if she's meaning she's
getting like this extra burst of energy after she eats dinner, I wish I
got that. I do not. It could be like we have heard a
lot of people say that after they eat is when they taste ketones and like
body dumping out the extra key tone. Yes, so once you eat,
your body doesn't need, you know, these key tones that are circulating anymore,
and so your body starts to dump it out. And I'm wondering if
it's something related to that, where you know, she's getting this last like
burst of katosis energy before her body like blows them off and uses them up,
she peees them out, that sort of thing. I'm just guessing.
Those are my two guests. So again, it's hard to say without knowing
for sure what you're feeling. Yeah, that's exactly right. And for me,
I'll sometimes get rustless legs in the evening, but that's only if I've
had too much sugar in my eating window. Yeah, too much sugar gives
me wrustless legs, and that feels a little bit squirmy, like scormy energy.
And that's when I'll get on my vibration plate and it knocks it right
out. Poor Ellie's always so mad. Ellie my cat. She'll be sitting
in my lap, I'll be watching TV. I'll be like, ooh,
I shouldn't have had that ice cream. And then I have to get up
and get on the vibration plate a little bit. And she always gets on
the back of the sofa and stares at me. She does not like for
me to be on the vibration plate. And I try to pick her up.
She's not having it anyway. Yeah, so let's do another quick question.
We have Laura in Houston. She says, I'm very nude intermint fasting
and I'm wondering if I'm doing it wrong. About ten weeks ago, I
started at fourteen ten and I have now been doing sixteen to twenty hours fasted
each day, with usually two meals in my eating window. My diet isn't
perfect, but I eat mostly whole foods with some dark chocolate in there for
fun. I've definitely started to experience food freedom, and I'm finding it easier
to say no to tempting foods. However, my weight has plateaued and I'm
hungry for the last five ish hours of every fast. I've done a couple
of twenty four hour fast to see if I just wasn't going long enough,
but the hunger just grew until it was time to break my fast. I'm
fasting completely clean, just water, as I'm not a fan of coffee or
tea. I did lose around five pounds in the first few weeks, and
my clothes fit a bit better, but I have not seen a change in
measurements or weight since then. I do run about fifteen miles a week,
and though I'm not counting calories or macros, I do think I'm getting balanced
meals and I feel very satisfied after my meals. I'm scared you'll tell me
to fast even longer than twenty four hours. I have a good deal of
muscle mass, but my body fat is thirty five percent and I should lose
at least ten pounds. Do you have any ideas where I'm going wrong?
Well, that's hard to know, that's a tricky question because you're still pretty
early. I know, ten weeks seems like it should be a long time.
And you mentioned that you started at fourteen ten, but now you've worked
your way up to sixteen to twenty hours fast at each day. That's a
big range. So you've done a couple of twenty four hour fasts, but
the hunger still grew. I do wonder if you're just still riding the edge
of almost being fat adapted, just not quite, and if you could just
maybe stick to a five hour eating window. And I'm not going to tell
you to fast more than that five hour eating window. Stick to a five
hour eating window. Don't try to push it too long. You don't need
to go past that. Give yourself a little bit of time with that,
because, like I said, I don't know when you shifted from fourteen to
ten. And if you're doing you know, more sixteen yeah, I'm having
two more mealeens and two meals, then it's possible you're not fat adapted yet.
So it's not that you need to do long fasts longer than nineteen five.
It's just that maybe you need a little more time at nineteen five.
That's the only thing I can think of. It's just really hard to know
from the details that you shared. No, you do not need to fast
longer than twenty four hours right now. Absolutely not. I never fast that
long, fast longer than that unless it happens completely by accident, and so
you know, I also want to talk about your results right now. You're
only ten weeks in and you're down five pounds already, and you only want
to lose about ten pounds. So I would really focus on what your body
composition is doing over time and how your size is changing. That's going to
be more important than the scale number, because your scale number, if you're
really active, like it sounds like you are, you're gonna build muscle as
you lose fat. So I would get a pair of goal pants. You
know, if you only want to lose about ten more pounds, you probably
have those gold pants sitting around that don't quite fit, but you want to
fit into them. Let that be your measure of when you get to your
goal body. Don't worry about what the scale says. But you know,
we definitely don't want you to be hungry for five hours of every fast.
That is not really typically what we hear, so I would also have you
really look to see if you're accidentally breaking your fast with something. I know
you said you're only having water. I mean, obviously I assume it's just
plain water and not flavored water or flavored sparkling water, just plain water.
But I also want you to look hard at something that you could accidentally be
breaking your fast with, like a supplement or even a medication. Yes,
you have to take medications if you are prescribed medications, but you know it
could be a supplement or a vitamin or something like that. It could be
something as simple as fruity lip balm that you are applying throughout the day.
Yeah, strawberry burning making you hungrier, yep. So if you smell a
strong food scent, it could make you hungrier. And so you keep that
in mind because you know you don't want to You don't want it to be
hard. It should not be hard. When we say tweak it till it's
easy, we are serious. And if it is hard, either you're not
fat adapted yet, or there's something that you're not thinking of it's making it
hard. Like vaping, for example. I'm not suggesting that Laura is vaping,
but vaping with fruity or sweet flavors that could certainly make you hungrier.
Yeah, we do encounter just you know, weird little things that you know,
when we really start questioning people in our community, like random little things
will come out and we're all like, ah, yeah, that's probably it,
like stop bad or whatever. So yeah, really really look at what
you're doing, you know, in your window, what you're exposed to scent
wise, Like I don't know what your work is, you know, maybe
you work next to a place that makes fresh bread all day and you're smelling
that. I don't. You know, it's hard to say. It really
is hard to say without knowing a little bit more. But I would also
say, you know, you mentioned that you are eating two meals, and
you're eating window and then running about fifteen miles a week. What you describe
as two meals might not be what I describe as chew meals, because I'm
more of like, I eat big meals when I call it a meal,
and so some people are not like me. Some people eat really small meals,
and so it is also possible this is the third possibility. Number one
possible you're not quite fatted out to yet. Number two possibility you're accidentally breaking
your fast. Third possibility, you really aren't quite fueling your body well enough
and your body is letting you know. Only you will know if that is
true. I was thinking the same thing, and the fact that she says
she's a good deal of muscle mass, right, and you know, I
think it's very possible. I don't have tall you are, but I carry
a lot more muscle mass than Jenda's. And I just recently read this thing
like the more muscle mass you have, like the greater your you know,
like protein needs are just because your body is wanting to support the amount of
muscle that you already have. So you might play around with your meal composition
a little bit and kind of just change up kind of the way you eat
and try, you know, adding a little bit more protein to your meals
or switching out any refined carbs from her whole grain carbs, or you know
that kind of thing. And but yeah, I agree with I would try
to first nail down a five hour eating window and see if that takes care
of it, because all too often it does. People just kind of ride
in the edge of that bad adaptation and the fact that you don't drink coffee.
You know, when we drink coffee, it helps our body push out
stork life pigeon. So I'm not telling you drink coffee. If you don't
like it, don't drink it. But it does help in you know that
it helps people get pushed that out and it helps them kind of flip that
switch every day so you don't kind of have that little edge. So I
think I would definitely switch to like just a solid five hour eating window for
like, do it for the next month, see how you feel, see
what happens. Yep, all right, now it's time for our segment called
what's your Why. Most of us have weight loss in mind, so it
is fine for that to be part of your why, and I absolutely would
have that as part of my why. But there's so much more to what
intermittent fasting can do for us beyond weight loss. And in my book twenty
eight Day Faster Art Day by Day, the very first thing I ask readers
to do is craft their why statement before beginning. When your why is deeper
than weight loss alone, you are more likely to find long term success and
view intermittent fasting as a lifestyle. So today our wives from Kristen, and
her goals are similar to ones that we've heard before, but sometimes it takes
watching other struggles to really figure out our why, and her why actually goes
beyond herself. She said, my why is long term health. My parents
have not made the wisest lifestyle choices, and now they're paying the price in
their later years. I want to be vibrant and thriving in my later years,
and I know that the investment must be made now. We never get
tomorrow back, so it's best to do the work today. I love my
parents deeply, and I wonder if they had had the knowledge we do today,
would they still have made the same choices. I want to be around
as long as humanly possible for my family, so this investment is just as
much for them as it is for myself. I also hope to inspire others
to become interested in their own journey. My wish is that by openly and
vulnerably sharing my own journey, that others start to question where they are in
theirs enough to start exploring if as a possibility perhaps, and I think that's
a great way. I think so too. So we have a question this
week from Australia. Feeling deflated in Melbourne. They write, Hi, Jen
and Sherry, thank you for your fantastic podcast. I love listening to you
while I create my art. I've been fasting since around September of last year
after finding your podcast. I finish eating around seven thirty PM and have some
light snacks around nine PM, and then I do not restart eating until around
two pm the following day. Some days I eat at one pm, others
at four. I wait sixty two kilograms or one hundred and thirty six pounds.
I am one hundred and sixty four centimeters or five four and a half
tall. I am forty five years old, and I'm in perimenopause. I
feel like I have two to three kilos roughly four to six pounds to lose
to be at my optimal weight and feel myself again. Since starting fasting,
I have not noticed any improvements in terms of weight loss. I don't feel
like any weight has come off, and currently I have more pudge around my
midsection and I'm left feeling a bit deflated. I'm quite fit in general.
Walk my dog around three to five kilometers or two to three miles at a
moderate pace daily and I do some weights once or twice a week. I
have two kids, eleven and thirteen, and I'm a busy business owner.
I believe, after lots of research, that I have ADHD and I will
be getting diagnosed soon. I have recently spoken to a personal trainer friend who
knows my journey and believes fasting is worse for me and is causing my weight
gain. She has suggested more weights, more small, healthy food throughout the
day, reduce alcohol and sweets, and go on kerkcuman as a way of
reducing perimenopause symptoms such as inflammation. I do feel my PMS has been much
less extreme since starting to fast, but I am again confused and unsure what
to do. My recent blood work shows I am pre diabetic, which is
concerning. I clean fast with only good quality coffee, beans, black,
no milk or sugar, and then nothing else except water. I'd love to
hear some suggestions before I give up and go back to eating as per my
personal trainer's advice. Also, Jimmy thoughts on Kerkcuman. Thank you. I
appreciate any advice. All right, So this is what's tricky. You only
want to lose four to six pounds and you haven't lost them, and you
feel like you're a little puffy around mobility, but it's hard to know,
and you're also in perimenopause at forty five. Those are all really important factors.
Most women gain weight around the mid section through perimenopause, and we also
have worsening blood sugar control, and it has to do with our bodies hormonal
changes. So then we start blaming things like, oh, it's got to
be what I'm eating, it's got to be that I'm doing intermittent fasting,
it's got to be this other thing, when really it is perimenopause. So
I am not a doctor obviously, and you know, we can't diagnose you
over an email, but I would think about that as a factor, especially
since your blood work shows that you're pre diabetic. You know, my blood
work was great, I had wonderful fasting insulin numbers. My A one C
was wonderful, and I was doing intermittent fasting for years. I lost eighty
pounds, then I went through menopause. After going through menopause, my blood
work got worse. My fasting insulin went up, my A one C went
up. I got a little pudgier around the belly. Did intermittent fasting cause
those things? No, Thank goodness, I had already been doing intermittent fasting
for years and had lost eighty pounds, kept it off, was lean for
several years. Then went through menopause and I had the typical a little bit
of belly fat from menopause and the worstening blood sugar control. Then I started
hormone replacement therapy and my blood work got better again. My A and C
went back down, my fasting insulin went back down. So during that period
of time, did fasting stop working for me? Was fasting making things worse?
I really don't think so. I think it was the hormonal changes of
menopause. And my biggest clue for that is the fact that when I started
hormone replacement therapy, things got better. So I would think about you know,
you said you're having your perimenopause symptoms like you're already seeing it yourself,
and hormone replacement therapy is really powerful. If you could find a doctor who
understands, you know, how to guide someone through hormone replacement therapy in this
phase of your life, that could be really really helpful, you know,
our sary, and I going to tell you this is because you're fasting and
you should quit fasting. Well know, we don't think that's true. We
don't think stopping fasting is going to fix any of that. And you know,
I don't really even understand why it would. Yeah. And then a
couple of things stand out to me too. When I was reading this.
You said that your trainer has suggested that you reduce alcohol and sweets as we
get hurt, small healthy food throughout the day plan. We agree with reducing
alcohol sweets, and you're eating window yes, yeah, and we're on the
same page. I'm sorry. I've said this before. I love good craft
beer. I love a glass of mine now, and then my body doesn't
love it as much since I entered perimenopause. It absolutely affects my fasting.
It affects weight loss, It affects the way I sleep, The way you
sleep affects weight loss. And it's we just don't have the freedom and liberties.
Our bodies are not going to respond to those things as well as they
did when we were twenty five. I hate it, but that's just the
way it is. So I mean, I think that's a great suggestion from
her, and I would suggest you do the same and you're eating window.
I'm not to say you can't ever have alcohol and sweets, but for me,
that is something that the more I go without it, the more I
am inspired to go without it because I feel better asleep, better, I
don't have the restless legs at night. And then the other thing that stood
out to me is that you said that you open your window sometimes at one,
others at four. You eat dinner at seven point thirty, and then
you have light snacks around nine pm, and then you start eating around two
the following day. So you kind of have some loosey goosey windows if you're
opening your window between one two four o'clock in the afternoon, and then it
sounds like maybe you're just kind of snacking through them. You have dinner at
seven thirty and then you have some more snacks. Oh yeah, that's a
really good point. I didn't notice how long her window was. That's yeah,
you're averaging anywhere from five to eight hour windows. So kind of like
we suggested earlier when we were responding to was that Kathy Nope, Oh nope,
Laura, Laura and Houston, Oh, we had two from Texas earlier.
So yeah, sometimes you just are really going to have to dial down
that window. Yes we want window flexibility, Yes we want to be able
to move our window around as needed. But you know, it helps to
lock down a window that supports weight loss if that's your goal. It helps
to dial down a window that allows adequate fasting to help with insulin resistance.
It's helpful to lock down a window that helps you get in touch with appetite
correction and that reduces just unnecessary snacking. And too long of a window is
just often too long of a window. We just eat more than we need
to eat, and often the foods that we're eating don't they're not contributing to
our health. I'm going to suggest lose that nine pm late night snack.
Yep, that's not helping anybody. Nope, you just don't need a snack
at nine pm after dinner. Closed that window down one hundred percent. There
is no need to have a snack at nine thirty. If you were opening
really late, that would be a different story, but you're not. You're
opening between one and four, and even if you open at four, you
don't need a snack at nine yep, I agree. I agree. You
want to open your window, have a snack, have a you know,
a light meal, whatever you want to call that. And I like to
call it a light meal because when I call it a snack, that means
it's snacky foods. So that's a really good point. I like to call
it a light meal. And that might be a salad with some protein and
some nuts and some fruit in it, or it might be some piedas and
hummus and some fresh cut veggies. But I don't I personally don't call it
a snack. I call it a light meal. And then I have my
dinner. And I tend to once I eat dinner and I'm satisfied with my
dinner, I tend to just shut that window down. I just close it.
I use my I still use an app. I like it. I'm
a visual person. I like that stop it's closed. And by God,
once I close that window, unless I'm truly hungry, I'm not adjusting my
fast dart time. I'm not. I mean there are times where I'm like,
hm, I could eat a little bit, and I look at my
fasting timer and I've already been fasting an hour and thirty seven minutes and I'm
not going to restart that, I mean unless I'm really hungry. So yeah,
I really think if you lock your window down and reduce alcohol and sweets,
that is going to help your inflammation as well. Yeah, I wanted
to just reiterate we both agree with your trainer on these points, that we
both believe that your trainer and Sherry and I all agree that maybe do more
weights. You will never regret doing more weights and it's great regrets. She
says, more small, healthy food throughout the day. Obviously, Shery and
I don't think you need more food, and we don't think you need to
eat throughout the day, but we are all on board with healthy food.
If you feel like food quality, if you and your trainer both agree that
your food quality can be improved, then we agree with that too. You
know, reducing alcohol and sweets, we one hundred percent agree that is something
to try. And then as far as inflammation, you know what's the best
way to reduce inflammation, the clean fast. Yep, did you want to
talk talk about I just wanted to say you asked about Kurcuman. I did
look it up. There are lots of research studies on it. I didn't
even know that. So one research study suggests that kirkcumin can help in the
management of oxidative and inflammatory conditions metabolic syndrome, arthritis, anxiety, hyperlipidemia,
and it may also help in the management of exercise induced inflammation and muscle soreness,
thus enhancing recovery and subsequent performance and active people. So there was that
one, and then there was another one, and basically the takeaway was that
the study showed that in the first years of menopause, kirkcuman supplementation can improve
oxidative stress. Awesome, and I know that. Did you know that fasting
also helps with oxidative stress? I did know that, But I would keep
that in your eating windows. Yes. Yeah, that's definitely a food like
supplement. Yeah, but if you want to take it, take it.
Sure shouldn't cause any problems. Yeah. Yeah. So we are really on
a lot of the same page as your trainer. We just don't believe that
the fasting is causing you to gain weight. Right, here's the one way
that it might. It's not the fasting, but fasting might cause you to
gain weight. If you used to be a really healthy eater and now you're
doing intermittent fasting, and you're like, now I have total food freedom because
I'm doing intermittent fasting. That could cause you to gain weight, but it's
not the fasting. It's the permission to eat things you weren't eating before.
So I want to pop that in there. But that's not the fasting's fault.
That is, you know, I get it. We're like, all
right, I've been fasting for seventeen hours. Now I can have all the
things. And if that is ever happening, you got to like maybe have
that little talk with yourself and say, Okay, I can eat whatever I
want, but I can't eat whatever I want right right. Yeah. I
shared with somebody in the community who was having that struggle this week. I
said, you know, when I want to eat something, I ask myself
does this support my health and well skulls? And if it doesn't, then
that is a food that I'm I'm not gonna say I'm never gonna eat that,
but that is the food I'm going to limit, right and rather than
have it, you know, every night of the week, I'm going you
know, the other day, I really wanted chocolate chip cookies. I kept
thinking about them and I was like, you know, I'm gonna have chocolate
chip cookies, but I waited. I have one day a week where I
just don't That's my day of the week that my husband's off, and we
tend to go out to eat, and I just really don't want to be
hung up on, like, oh, they don't have anything super healthy here
to eat. So I have one day to eat a week where I just
have total food freedom. And I don't always make the wisest choices, and
so if I want cookies, I say, Okay, on Eric's day off,
I'm gonna have cookies that day. And do you know what happens?
A lot of times you don't want them that day and I didn't come through
them. Yeah, Or my husband says, what do you want to eat?
And all week I've been like, oh, I'm gonna have a bacon
cheeseburger and i'ma have loaded tops. And then Wednesday comes and I'm like,
I really would just like a really good big salad. YEP. So if
you can just delay those foods that aren't supporting your health, and you could
pick a day of the week if you know you're loosey goosey and you eat
more indulgent foods on weekend. Say you know what, I'm going to delay
this to this weekend. That's just going to go along a long way because
choosing the foods that support our health and our goals are going to service way
more than those other foods that we know and probably shouldn't be including every day
in our diet. And don't call it a cheat day, because I just
really those words cheat day implause that you like, I don't know that that's
toxic diet wording to right, Yeah, you know, you just allow yourself
to have a little more flexibility. Yeah, that is positive and empowering my
daily eating goals. To eat lots of veggiese plant proteins, beans, the
whole grains. You know, that's the way I choose to eat because I
feel good and I'm really working to restore my gut health and all of that
stuff. But it's nice to have a day where I'm not focused on that,
right where whatever, you know, we end up somewhere out of town
and there's a Mexican restaurant and let's face it, you don't get a lot
of good g choices at a Mexican restaurant. I'm not going to be like,
oh no, I can't eat that today because it's not plant, you
know, full of my seven plants today or whatever. I'm just gonna eat
it and I'm gonna feel good about it, and for me, for me,
that takes the guesswork out of it. If I'm eating really, really
clean six days a week, that one day a week is not going you're
clean ish. That's clean ish. But again we're not calling it a cheat
day because is there ever a situation where cheating is positive or is that just
the negative word? So I think that the words we tell ourselves matter.
All Right, We have another question from Amy and Michigan. Amy says,
I am an avid water drinker. It may seem crazy, but I like
to find different brands of water to try. It's actually like a special treat
for me. I have recently found a great water called ritch Still Rainwater and
another one called path Now have you ever heard of either of those? Here?
I have not. No. She says, my question is about the
added items in the water, all right, And she mentions purified water with
electrolytes, and she wants to know if that breaks a clean fast. And
she also wants to know if alkaline water breaks it fast. Okay, here's
what I want you to do. And she look at the ingredients on your
water. If it is water or purified water or whatever or reverse ospmosis water,
that itself is fine, right, it's water. The electrolytes themselves do
not break it fast. So if it says something about magnesium or potassium or
sodium whatever, so yeah, sodium, bicarbonate, whatever. If it has
a mineral in the ingredient, and if you aren't sure if it's a mineral,
go to Google. Look it up. It's gonna tell you it's whether
it's a mineral or not. And that's it. That's all it has.
It doesn't have anything weird like full of acid or citric acid or boric acid
or whatever, crazy acid or acid. Yeah, as long as it is
a hting like that in it, you're good to go. It's just water
enhance with electrolytes and that's fine. And usually those electrolytes are not there to
enhance your electrolyte balance. They're there to make the water taste better. Yeah,
they actually say that to enhance neever on some lelevels. Yeah, because
if they actually were enough electrolytes to raise your electrolyte levels, it would have
to be disclosed on like the nutrition label. It would have to tell you
what how many milligrams of potassium, magnesium, sodium was in that water.
And as far as alkaline water, it's the same thing. Really. I
will say somebody recently in our community was drinking lots of alkaline water and then
they went on vacation and they did not have access to alkaline water and they
had been struggling with bloating and like stomach pain, and they noticed when they
stop drinking alkaline water, all of their GI issues went away. So I
just threw that out there just to say, if you're drinking some crazy expensive
water and you're having any like GI issues, maybe switch for water. Yeah,
I've heard. You know, there are a lot of people who really
do believe that the alkaline water makes a difference, but in a positive way,
But it might actually be making a difference in a negative way, and
just something to think about. Yeah. And the other thing too is we
have a lot of people who will say, oh, I can't drink this
brand of bottled water, it makes me hungry, And it could just be
that the addition of different minerals changes the taste of the water, where like
your you taste it is sweeter than just regular still water. So if you
drink a water and you think that water's making you feel extra hungry, it
could be. I guess somebody said that about regular topo Chica the other day,
and they said regular typeo Chico makes them starving. Somebody or anything out
there makes them get starving. Is there anything in there that should break a
past? Nope. But if your body is finding that a signal for something
going on back there, that's just your body. It doesn't work for you.
Oh I just thought of a new word. You said, we don't
do cheat days, Okay, I I thought of a positive word. What
is it called a flex day? A flex you know, flexing. We
all like to flex our muscles. We used to do FlexIt Friday in those
Facebook group bos and so flexic. You just got flexuer nutrition that day makesac
and yes days I love it. Well. Before we get our tweek of
the week, I just want to take a minute tell you about two amazing
new products from Beauty Counter that I love. Beauty Countter released a wonderful new
body Better in January, and it sold out so quickly that I just finally
got my hands on it last week. It's amazing. It locks in quick
absorbing, non greasy, twenty four hour moisture. It really does. It
has ingredients like a cacia seed, extra rich in peptides, shade butter,
mango butter, and hyaluronic acid, which helps skin to stay hydrated and supple.
After two weeks products study participants, ninety seven percent said their skin felt
deeply hydrated and conditioned and looked more youthful, and one hundred percent said that
their skin looked more supple, hydrated, and toned. It's super rich.
A little goes a long way. And the next product I'm loving is their
new clean perfumes. So I did not expect to love these. I'm just
gone. How you write off The bat Beauty Counter has long advocated for safer
fragrances free of toxic chemicals and indocrine disruptors, and after years in the making,
they have now released their entire line of perfumes that uphold their clean beauty
standards. And I get up perfume years ago when I learned out how toxic
they were and how they could really disrupt your indocrine system. And I did
not plan to order any of these perfumes, but they sent me a trial
package, and I'm going to be honest. There are several cents that I
love and I've been wearing them regularly. The Sensor really so but long lasting.
I love one called Pacific Dreams. It smells just like the ocean and
sunshine and it just makes me happy. And the other two I really like
are sun Spill No surprise there is, I'm a sunshine lover. And then
one that I didn't expect to like but I do is a subtle floral vanilla
cream called second Skin. So I actually found this video I attached in show
notes and they go into the sense and the top notes, middle notes,
based notes of the perfumes, and I put it in show notes. So
if you're interested, check that out. Mother's Day is coming up in the
US, so treat yourself something just for you that makes you feel good,
and just visit the show notes or beautycounter dot com slash Sherry Bullock to learn
more. Well, now I'll have to pull those out because I stuck them
in the closet. I figure I have about since I always fige shout things
in the closet, and then when Sherry comes over, I'm like, do
you want this beauty Counter hat, this beauty Counter water bottle, this Beauty
Counter perfume lipstick. Yeah, I wasn't even see you how much I love
them, because then I was like, hey, if I tell her she
might want, she's gonna try it that she like, I just don't like
to smell things, So that's just me. Well, you know, I've
gotten so sensitive with like I can smell people's like laundry detergent and dryer sheets
and stuff, but this is so subtle. It's just kind of like in
the background and a sniff. I don't like it. Also said to you
your way, I do believe in aromatherapy and well on that Pacific dreams.
It is like my food and it makes me feel like I'm at the ocean
and I like it. Yeah, I do like that kind of stuff.
I'm just so skeptical of sense, but I'll give it a try. Thank
you for convincing me. So 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's why it is super helpful to hear how other intermittent fasters are making
intermittent fasting work for them. This tweak was submitted by Freya from the UK.
She says, Dear Jen and Sherry, I have a little tip for
faster starting out that I want to share. It's an obvious one, very
obvious in fact, but I didn't do it and I regret it now.
I read Fast Feast Repeat. At the beginning of twenty twenty three, after
having surgery that put me in surgical menopause, I decided to give IF a
try and took my measurements, recorded my weight, and took my before photos.
I only lasted about ten days. In hindsight, it was probably too
soon after the surgery for me to commit, and so I gave up and
forgot all about IF. Fast forward to Christmas of twenty twenty three, I
had gained a lot of weight. I felt awful about myself, and so
I picked up Fast Feast Repeat again, and in January of this year I
started my journey. What I didn't do on my second attempt was take new
photos, measurements or record my weight why well. I think I was feeling
so down about myself that the idea of documenting it and acknowledging how much bigger
I had gotten was too depressing for me to handle. This was a mistake,
because fifty nine days into if, I have no frame of reference for
how far I've come. I know I've lost weight, but I don't know
how much. I have no idea of the inches I've lost, and I
have no photos to compare. I can feel that my clothes are looser.
The coat that I could only just zip up now fits like a glove.
But I just wish I had listened and put my pride aside and documented the
start of what has already been an amazing journey. I'm still a beginner,
but after fifty nine days, I'm fasting anywhere between nineteen and twenty three hours
a day, depending on my schedule. I get better quality sleep, my
skin is clear, and I am so much more productive at work, and
I feel a lot more alert. Generally, Tomorrow will mark six days of
intermittent fasting for me, and I am planning on taking my baseline data.
Then my message to anyone about to start with intermittent fasting is to prepare for
it, and that starts with getting all of that before data. And even
if it makes you feel bad or ashamed, do it knowing you're never going
to be that way or those measurements again, and that those photos mark the
start of something really special and one day you'll be proud of them, even
though you aren't right now. To Jen and Sherry, I just want to
say a massive thank you, and also to Roxy for answering my questions and
being so amazing on the Delay don Deny community online, without which the last
fifty nine days would have been much more difficult to anyone contemplating dipping their toe
in the intermittent fasting pool. Please take my advice, read the book,
listen to the podcasts, join the online community, and most important of all,
record your baseline data. You will regret it if you don't. Yeah.
I just thought that was so powered when she shared, because I tell
people all the time, and you're gonna want it. You're gonna want it.
Put it in a hidden folder in your phone, don't look at it,
but one day you're gonna want it. And people don't believe me,
and that's just me right, But here we have a faster, who's new
and she's only fifty nine days in and she's already like I should have listened.
Yeah, so that's I mean, it doesn't get more powerful than that.
And you know, I want to return what we talked about at the
beginning, you know, Oprah's special shame blame and the weight loss revolution.
You know, I would love it if it was a whole story about how
she was fast and clean and discovered the amazing power of ittermen fasting. That
would have had a better show. However, you know, the story about
you feeling a shame to take your photos, a shame to take your measurements,
a shame to get on the scale. I really do want us to
drop the shame. Well, you know, listen and a huge fan of
Brene Brown. She is a shame researcher and I have learned so much from
her and I have grown so much much from reading her books, listening to
her ted talks. If you do nothing else, look up her ted talk.
It's amazing. You don't realize how many of your behaviors are rooted in
shame until you really understand what shame is and what it looks like. And
so you know, I just cannot express that enough. If you are anybody
who has ever struggled with your weight, with your self esteem, with you
know, self confidence, that's all rooted in shame. And if you can
learn how to really live without shame, live a wholehearted life, as Brenee
Brown says, then it just everything gets better. It does. And if
you want to blame somebody, blame the food manufacturers. Read Ultra Processed People
or some of some of the books that really shine the light on ultra processed
food. And it's okay to have blame for the people who are putting this
food out there for us knowing what they're doing, you know, how could
be anything but intentional when they're designing the foods to be Yeah, they so
that you can't stop eating them. It's okay to share that blame. But
it's not our fault. And that is the message that we definitely want to
promote. And it's also very powerful to forgive yourself. Yeah, forgive yourself
because you didn't know until you knew, you were only doing the best job
you could do. It's true, I want to reiterate. The powerful part
of that was you need to have the data, you want to have the
data. You want to have your measurements. You want to have the photos.
And when you're taking those photos, you want to put on that same
exact outfit again and have the same outfit the second time and try to get
the same distance from the mirror or the same angle exactly. Take several angles,
because sometimes you will be looking at someone's progress photos and from the front
you can't see as much of a difference as you can from the side view.
Right, Like, you'll look at the side view and you can even
at the back. Wow. Yeah, the back view is a good one,
very powerful. Get somebody to take that picture. If you can't manage
the best. The timer. Use the timer on your phone. I use
it all the time. Oh do you I don't know if you could do
that. I've never use turn the timer on. You can turn I found
you have three or ten seconds. You can say timer. Never done that.
If you have an Apple watch, you can actually take the picture from
your watch. Very cool. But yeah, prop it up on a shelf,
your bathroom vanity, whatever, and yeah, take the pictures, do
the measurements. And I know sometimes when you join, when you're like,
okay, I'm gonna start and I'm investing. There is that little devil on
your shoulder that says, this isn't gonna work, because nothing's gonna work.
But you're gonna be surprised and just you know it's gonna work. Your body's
gonna change, and you are gonna want to have that information and just be
on the scale, right, you know. I talk about this in the
Scale Smail chapter A Fast Feast Repeat. If one thing is changing, it's
working. If the scale is still the same and you can't really tell in
your measurements but your photos show dramatic different, it's working. If your photos
look the same and your measurements aren't different, but the scale is down,
it's working. As long as something is changing, it's working. Oh yeah,
make sure you do a headshot, yeah, because we see changes in
the face, so so so many changes. Yeah. Yeah. Well,
we'd love to leave you with inspiration, our motivational quote to carry you through
the next week. And this week we have a beautiful poem from s K
titled not Not by Aaron Hanson. You are not your age nor the size
of clothes you wear. You are not a weight or the color of your
hair. You are not your name or the dimples in your cheeks. You
are all the books you read and all the words you speak. You are
your croaky morning voice and all the smiles you try to hide. You're the
sweetness in your laughter and every tear you've cried. You're the songs you sing
so loudly when you know you're all alone. You're the places that you've been
to, the one that you call home. You're the things that you believe
in and the people that you love. You're the photos in your bedroom and
the future you dream of. You're made of so much beauty, but it
seems that you forgot when you decided that you were defined by all the things
you're not. I love that. I love that too. 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're 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,