Episode 98: Muscle Cramping, Minerals, & Hydration, Alternating One Meal/Two Meals, Fertility, and More

<v Speaker 1>Welcome the Fast Feast Repeat Intermittent Fasting for Life. I'm
<v Speaker 1>Jen Stevens, author of the New York Times bestseller Fast Feast.
<v Speaker 2>Repeat, and I'm Sherry Bullock, longtime intermittent faster and health
<v Speaker 2>and wellness advocate. Please keep in mind that this podcast
<v Speaker 2>is for educational and motivational purposes only and is not
<v Speaker 2>intended to provide medical or diagnostic advice. Jen and I
<v Speaker 2>are not doctors, so make sure to check with your
<v Speaker 2>trusted healthcare professionals before making changes, especially when it comes
<v Speaker 2>to any medical treatments or medications.
<v Speaker 1>Whether you're new to intermittent fasting or an experienced intermittent faster,
<v Speaker 1>tune in each week to get inspired, to learn, and
<v Speaker 1>to have some fun along the way. Hi, everybody, we
<v Speaker 1>are so glad you're here today. Welcome to this week's
<v Speaker 1>episode of the Fast Feast Repeat Intermittent Fasting.
<v Speaker 2>For Life Podcast. How are you doing today, Sherry? I'm
<v Speaker 2>doing wonderful. How are you?
<v Speaker 1>I am great because I've determined it. Bring is finally
<v Speaker 1>here and we're not going to go back to cold.
<v Speaker 1>So I've pulled out my summer dresses and I might
<v Speaker 1>see that.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>April twenty second is when we're recording it. So I
<v Speaker 1>just started, is it cold there, you're having a rain?
<v Speaker 2>Well, it's seventy three and thunderstorming, and so it doesn't matter.
<v Speaker 2>My dad, when I was visiting, said I had a
<v Speaker 2>sweatshirt on, and he said, oh, it's so nice outside.
<v Speaker 2>My mom and I went outside and we said, this
<v Speaker 2>does not feel nice. It was like he's sixty eight
<v Speaker 2>and windy. Yeah, we were going to be out and about.
<v Speaker 2>I'm like, I had a sweatshirt on. My mom had
<v Speaker 2>a jacket on. I said, Dad, you sure you know
<v Speaker 2>a jacket? Now I'm fine. It's beautiful, and I'm like,
<v Speaker 2>it's funny how we all have different ideas of what
<v Speaker 2>beautiful weather is.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, well we're here where I've decided it's beautiful weather.
<v Speaker 2>I think I'm done done with the uggs and the jeans.
<v Speaker 2>So what's your temperature there? Well, it's it's this morning
<v Speaker 2>when I woke up.
<v Speaker 1>It was sixty six when I woke up, okay, and
<v Speaker 1>said then it was supposed to hit the upper seventies
<v Speaker 1>during the day.
<v Speaker 2>Okay. I say spring is solidly there for you then too,
<v Speaker 2>And it just makes me so happy.
<v Speaker 1>I love to just throw on a summer dress, and like,
<v Speaker 1>it's just so easy to get dressed.
<v Speaker 2>You just throw on your summer dress and bam, Hi,
<v Speaker 2>good too. I agree. All right, Well we have a
<v Speaker 2>celebration from Fabulous fifty in Chicago. She said, good afternoon,
<v Speaker 2>wonderful IF community. Last week I celebrated my one year fastiversary.
<v Speaker 2>I started with IF on March nineteenth, twenty twenty four.
<v Speaker 2>My parents introduced me to fasting, and my husband's doctor
<v Speaker 2>recommended it for him. I love to hear that me too.
<v Speaker 2>I listened to the audiobook version of Fast Feast Repeat,
<v Speaker 2>and I knew I also wanted that lifestyle for myself.
<v Speaker 2>My hubby and I loved a cruise, and I was
<v Speaker 2>afraid it wouldn't work. I also loved my boot camp
<v Speaker 2>classes and running, and I was worried about that as well.
<v Speaker 2>Since starting IF, I have found so many victories. Now.
<v Speaker 2>She started this March nineteenth, and she sent this in
<v Speaker 2>within may be a month, because it's only the end
<v Speaker 2>of April. She's been yes, so she's been doing interminvesting
<v Speaker 2>for one year. Oh it's twenty twenty five. Thank you,
<v Speaker 2>Oh my gosh, my FRAC anniversary. My brain really overanalyzed
<v Speaker 2>that it is her fast aniversary. Good lord, all right,
<v Speaker 2>welcome to almost fifty two. All right, sorry, fabulous fifty.
<v Speaker 2>Jerry's brain isn't working so fabulous anyway, she said. Since starting,
<v Speaker 2>if I've found seventy victories, I have dropped twenty five
<v Speaker 2>pounds while being in perimenopause. I have dropped fifteen inches
<v Speaker 2>all around, including over three inches for my waist. I
<v Speaker 2>started with size twelve pants and medium shirts, and now
<v Speaker 2>I find myself inside six pants and small shirts. We
<v Speaker 2>have successfully cruised and kept fasting during the cruise, just
<v Speaker 2>with some longer windows. One of the most exciting things
<v Speaker 2>for me is my progress at the gym and with races.
<v Speaker 2>I do all my workouts fasted, and I feel amazing.
<v Speaker 2>My progress photos show significant body recomposition, and I keep
<v Speaker 2>setting personal records in my five K races. I turn
<v Speaker 2>fifty halfway through this first of many years of fasting,
<v Speaker 2>and I feel the best and fittest I can remember.
<v Speaker 2>Thank you for all you do. The podcast are so
<v Speaker 2>helpful when I need a little reminder of what I'm gaining.
<v Speaker 2>I love that. I love that's fifty. And do you
<v Speaker 2>hear people get their personal best yeah, that's five ks
<v Speaker 2>and marathons and.
<v Speaker 1>Personal fast in the fasted States. People are scared they
<v Speaker 1>can't do it, but we got a lot of fuel
<v Speaker 1>on our bodies even if we're lean.
<v Speaker 2>So love it well. And I think the difference is too.
<v Speaker 2>When you're not fat adapted and you're relying on external
<v Speaker 2>fuel sources to do like endurance type exercises, then you're
<v Speaker 2>having your energy levels are depleting while you're running, right,
<v Speaker 2>and that's why people refuel. But our energy levels aren't
<v Speaker 2>depleting because our bodies are just like, oh, time to
<v Speaker 2>burn some fat for energy, So you don't have those
<v Speaker 2>periods of like increased and decreased energy.
<v Speaker 1>It's consistent, right, right, And that's the difference, and that's
<v Speaker 1>why you just keep going.
<v Speaker 2>I love it. So now we have a.
<v Speaker 1>Question from a listener. This question is from period perturbed
<v Speaker 1>in North Carolina. Hi, ladies, I've gone from a textbook
<v Speaker 1>twenty eight day cycle to thirty to thirty five days,
<v Speaker 1>still normal, but getting longer each cycle. I'm wondering if
<v Speaker 1>my cycle will adjust back to normal or if I
<v Speaker 1>need to tweak my window. I'm thirty years old and
<v Speaker 1>I've been practicing intermittent fasting. Since November of last year.
<v Speaker 1>I'm five foot five and I've lost twenty five pounds,
<v Speaker 1>having gone from one sixty six down to one forty one,
<v Speaker 1>and most of that was in the first two months.
<v Speaker 1>The past two months, I'm still losing, but closer to
<v Speaker 1>point two two point five pounds a week, which I'm
<v Speaker 1>totally okay with. I do sixteen to eighteen hours of
<v Speaker 1>fasting a day, with a down day Friday and up
<v Speaker 1>day Saturday. The month I started fasting, my LH peaked
<v Speaker 1>on day sixteen instead of fourteen. The next month was
<v Speaker 1>the same, then the next month I ovulated on day eighteen.
<v Speaker 1>My PMS symptoms are better physically, although I have not
<v Speaker 1>yet noticed an improvement in my mood swings. I know
<v Speaker 1>I'm still very new to this, but I'm worried on
<v Speaker 1>doing something wrong and will end up hurting my fertility.
<v Speaker 1>I know we are a study of one, and there
<v Speaker 1>are no studies showing cycle sinking and intermittent fasting work
<v Speaker 1>better than regular intermittent fasting, But do you think I
<v Speaker 1>should tweak drop the down and up days fast more?
<v Speaker 1>Thank you for your time and for all the wonderful
<v Speaker 1>information you research and share on the podcast.
<v Speaker 2>Well, so when you said this in you were still
<v Speaker 2>what I would consider a relatively new faster. So your
<v Speaker 2>body there's a period of adjustment where your body's just
<v Speaker 2>getting used to something new. I mean the first months.
<v Speaker 2>Your body is in that adaptation period, which it can
<v Speaker 2>even lack longer than that first month. So during that
<v Speaker 2>period of time, especially if you're eating less in your
<v Speaker 2>eating window than you would have prior to eating an
<v Speaker 2>inn window, your body does address that almost like any
<v Speaker 2>other type of restrictive diet, right, which can affect your
<v Speaker 2>cycles in the short term as your body adapts. But
<v Speaker 2>then you know after that, now your body has a
<v Speaker 2>steady fuel state, so you're not working in a deficit
<v Speaker 2>if you have fat to burn, So I would not
<v Speaker 2>you know, I do I think that if is affecting
<v Speaker 2>your cycles? Yes? Do I think it's something long term
<v Speaker 2>in a negative way? No, I don't think so. I
<v Speaker 2>think your body is going to get used to what
<v Speaker 2>you're doing and it's going to adapt. Now with that said,
<v Speaker 2>the fact that you're only fasting sixteen to eighteen hours
<v Speaker 2>per day could mean that your body's not shifting into
<v Speaker 2>katosis every day. So and if that's that's the case,
<v Speaker 2>and you're not shifting into katosis and your body's not
<v Speaker 2>accessing your fat stores, and you're losing weight simply by
<v Speaker 2>shortening up the time that you eat during the day,
<v Speaker 2>and it's acting like a calorie restriction diet, then it
<v Speaker 2>could be affecting your cycles. So I think the key
<v Speaker 2>is to eating in a manner that helps your body
<v Speaker 2>shift to katosis and use your fat stores for energy
<v Speaker 2>so that you're not in a constant calorie deficit. And
<v Speaker 2>I hope i'm explaining that, well, does that make sense
<v Speaker 2>to you? Gin? Yeah?
<v Speaker 1>And what you're talking about what the deficit is When
<v Speaker 1>we think about just calorie math calories in calories out right,
<v Speaker 1>we think of calories that your body has for fuel.
<v Speaker 1>Most people think that's just the calories you're taking in, right,
<v Speaker 1>like how many calories you took in that too much
<v Speaker 1>calories were available for fuel. But when we're fast and
<v Speaker 1>clean and we flip the metabolic switch, we're earning stored fat,
<v Speaker 1>and those calories also count.
<v Speaker 2>Towards energy as energy. Energy is energy, right, Calories is
<v Speaker 2>a unit of energy.
<v Speaker 1>When you're fast and clean for sufficient time to tap
<v Speaker 1>into your fat stores and sixteen hours of fasting might
<v Speaker 1>not be sufficient to really flip that switch and get
<v Speaker 1>into those fat stores. But when you do, those calories
<v Speaker 1>count and your body is using those calories, so your
<v Speaker 1>body doesn't feel like you're in a huge deficit because
<v Speaker 1>you're using that fuel too. You're like, okay, well I've
<v Speaker 1>got the fuel coming in. Plus I've got all this
<v Speaker 1>good stored fuel that I'm getting to so your body
<v Speaker 1>just hums along happily.
<v Speaker 2>So I think that's what you were saying.
<v Speaker 1>Share.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, where if.
<v Speaker 1>You never are flipping the switch and you're getting to
<v Speaker 1>sixteen hours and then you eat, then your body's like, huh,
<v Speaker 1>you know, I'm not as much coming in, but you're
<v Speaker 1>not flipping the switch. It can be more of like
<v Speaker 1>a you're just in that balance of not quite getting
<v Speaker 1>to flip the switch. So you might want to see
<v Speaker 1>what if you you know every day. You know you're
<v Speaker 1>saying sixteen to eighteen hours of fasting. You didn't say
<v Speaker 1>how long your window was, but if I just do
<v Speaker 1>the moth of a day having twenty four hours, it
<v Speaker 1>sounds like six to eight hour windows.
<v Speaker 2>See what happens if you do six hours every day? Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>that's what I was thinking I was to say, and
<v Speaker 2>the other option would be, say, you are doing a
<v Speaker 2>down day on Friday, so that's going to help you,
<v Speaker 2>you know, kind of deplete your glec engen stores. But
<v Speaker 2>then if you're doing an upday on Saturday, an upday
<v Speaker 2>is not going to be that much different than a
<v Speaker 2>regular eight hour eating window. So if you're shifting into katosis,
<v Speaker 2>you may only be doing it one, maybe possibly two
<v Speaker 2>days of the week and then you're refueling enough to
<v Speaker 2>like get your glicogen levels back up, or then the
<v Speaker 2>rest of the week you're not shifting into katosis and
<v Speaker 2>burning fat for energy. Right, So your options would be
<v Speaker 2>to either shorten your eating window every day, or you
<v Speaker 2>could potentially go into sort of more of a hybrid
<v Speaker 2>type fasting protocol where maybe you want to do two
<v Speaker 2>down days during the week. But even so I wouldn't
<v Speaker 2>do two down days, two up days and eight hour
<v Speaker 2>eating windows. The rest of the week. You're gonna still
<v Speaker 2>need to shorten that daily eating window. So the first
<v Speaker 2>thing I think I would do is get comfortable eating
<v Speaker 2>in a shorter eating window five to six hours. See
<v Speaker 2>how that goes? Yeah, five, five to six that's what
<v Speaker 2>I was thinking what affects LH the most, and there's
<v Speaker 2>some podcasts out there on this is if your body
<v Speaker 2>is in continual what it perceives as calore nutritional energy deficits,
<v Speaker 2>that is what prevents your body from ovulating or interrupting
<v Speaker 2>that process. So you want to make sure that your
<v Speaker 2>body's real fueled. And so that is why you think, oh,
<v Speaker 2>they're telling me to eat in a shorter window eat less,
<v Speaker 2>But it's not so much that, as we are wanting
<v Speaker 2>to courage your body to burn fat for energy so
<v Speaker 2>that your body is well fueled because that fuel counts.
<v Speaker 1>Right, We are well fueled while fast and clean if
<v Speaker 1>we give our body time to flip that metabolic switch.
<v Speaker 2>And that's the key.
<v Speaker 1>That's the difference right there, and why it's why intermittent
<v Speaker 1>fasting is different than a low calorie diet where you're
<v Speaker 1>eating tiny little meals throughout the day and never really
<v Speaker 1>flipping that switch.
<v Speaker 2>So and with that said, that's why clean fasting is
<v Speaker 2>so important exactly. And so when people do start talking
<v Speaker 2>about like cycle syncing with IF and all that, if
<v Speaker 2>you really dig into it, they're not advocating clean fasting.
<v Speaker 2>So those people that they're addressing are people who are
<v Speaker 2>not clean fasters. They're you know, having insolince spikes throughout
<v Speaker 2>the day and then insolence preventing their bodies from burning
<v Speaker 2>fat for energy, which keeps them in an energy deficit. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>all right, so we have another question. This is from Maggie.
<v Speaker 2>Maggie wrote, Hello girls, I came across your podcast by accident.
<v Speaker 2>I am sixty five and just discovered podcasts. My daughter
<v Speaker 2>thought technology was important. I commute and I started with
<v Speaker 2>the Atkins app. I have done Keto, food combining, weight watchers,
<v Speaker 2>et cetera. I started with your zero episode and not
<v Speaker 2>only have ten to get to present time. This will
<v Speaker 2>make me sad when I catch up, as I am
<v Speaker 2>a classic rocker and I've switched to this podcast instead
<v Speaker 2>of music. I love that. Thanks for joining us, she says.
<v Speaker 2>I'm very new. I started ten twenty one of twenty four.
<v Speaker 2>But I have a question. I've heard people getting constipated,
<v Speaker 2>but man, I am the opposite. I am nineteen five,
<v Speaker 2>so one thirty to six thirty is my window. By
<v Speaker 2>about three, I have diarrhea. I eat a very healthy
<v Speaker 2>food life. I get leg cramps at night and that
<v Speaker 2>now happens during the day. What the heck? I don't
<v Speaker 2>feel like I'm overhydrating ps. I started at one sixty
<v Speaker 2>five and I am now one fifty six. I'm five
<v Speaker 2>foot eight actually in this way of life to stay
<v Speaker 2>off of blood pressure prescriptions. Thank you for all you
<v Speaker 2>continue to do for Aya. Fricky's like me.
<v Speaker 1>All right, So, first of all, I'm so glad that
<v Speaker 1>you found this by accident and that you are loving
<v Speaker 1>this podcast, and you only have ten to go to
<v Speaker 1>get to the present time. You're worried about what you're
<v Speaker 1>going to listen to next. Boy, do I have good
<v Speaker 1>news for you, and that is that there are four
<v Speaker 1>hundred and something almost five hundred episodes of Intermittent Fasting Stories,
<v Speaker 1>so you can switch over to after you catch up
<v Speaker 1>on this one and you only have one fast East
<v Speaker 1>repeat every week on Wednesdays. You can start listening to
<v Speaker 1>Intermittent Fasting Stories with episode one, and you have over
<v Speaker 1>a year almost We're going to get to two years
<v Speaker 1>worth of episodes if you start now, so plenty to
<v Speaker 1>listen to an Intermittent Fasting World.
<v Speaker 2>Now, let's talk about what's happening.
<v Speaker 1>I want to talk about First of all, your leg
<v Speaker 1>cramps and connect it to the diarrhea. The only time
<v Speaker 1>I get muscle cramping is when I'm dehydrated. So if
<v Speaker 1>you have diarrhea, then obviously fluid is coming through your
<v Speaker 1>body very quickly.
<v Speaker 2>It is very likely that you are dehydrated. Here's the time.
<v Speaker 1>The last time I had really bad foot cramps like cramps.
<v Speaker 2>I went to Arizona. It was a couple of years.
<v Speaker 1>Ago, and I was flying and I don't like to
<v Speaker 1>get up and go to the bathroom and I'm flying.
<v Speaker 1>Everybody understands that. So I didn't drink anything on the plane.
<v Speaker 1>I like, really tried to not drink a lot of
<v Speaker 1>fluids on the plane so I didn't have.
<v Speaker 2>To go to the bathroom.
<v Speaker 1>So I got to Arizona and it was like lunchtime,
<v Speaker 1>and I went and ate lunch and had a margarita.
<v Speaker 1>This is before I stopped drinking. And then I had
<v Speaker 1>a massage scheduled. So again, I had been flying, I
<v Speaker 1>had not been drinking.
<v Speaker 2>I had food. I had a margarita.
<v Speaker 1>One thing about eating is that it takes a lot
<v Speaker 1>of fluid to digest the food. So I hadn't had
<v Speaker 1>a lot of fluid, and the fluid that I did
<v Speaker 1>have with my meal was tequila margarita. Right, So where
<v Speaker 1>is the body going to get the fluid to digest
<v Speaker 1>my food? Well, it pulls it in from your tissues,
<v Speaker 1>and so if you have dehydration of your extremities, that
<v Speaker 1>can lead to muscle cramping. So I was having these
<v Speaker 1>terrible I wouldn't have a massage right after that because
<v Speaker 1>I'd already scheduled it. So I was at my massage
<v Speaker 1>and my feet were cramping up so much on the table.
<v Speaker 1>I was like, oh my god, I'm miserable. It's like,
<v Speaker 1>could you please give me a bottle of water? So
<v Speaker 1>I figured out what was happening. So I chugged that
<v Speaker 1>bottle of water and then the cramping stopped. So if
<v Speaker 1>you're having leg cramps at night, it's possible that you
<v Speaker 1>are dehydrated and you need more water, especially if you're
<v Speaker 1>having diarrhea, then your body is pulling in all of
<v Speaker 1>that fluid from your extremities for your digestive system, and
<v Speaker 1>then it's like releasing even more than normal, So you
<v Speaker 1>need to have more fluid that could help with that. Anyway,
<v Speaker 1>that's just my own personal experience. The only time I
<v Speaker 1>ever get cramping is when I'm actually dehydrated. As far
<v Speaker 1>as the digestive upset when you first start eating, some
<v Speaker 1>people have a digestive system that just wakes up like that.
<v Speaker 1>I am not somebody who does ever. That never happens
<v Speaker 1>for me, but some people it does. It's just how
<v Speaker 1>your digestive system works. So you may want to wake
<v Speaker 1>up your digestive system a little more gradually. This might be,
<v Speaker 1>you know, start with a cup of broth, wake things up,
<v Speaker 1>get things moving. Have you know, an herbal tea to
<v Speaker 1>open your window, shary, you're somebody that deals more with this, right.
<v Speaker 2>Yeap, what works well for you? You really get into
<v Speaker 2>that well and then you know. The opposite side of
<v Speaker 2>what Jen said is so you know, lack of hydration
<v Speaker 2>can cause issues, but also lack of minerals can cause issues.
<v Speaker 2>So for me, I can tell when my potassium is
<v Speaker 2>low because I get really bad foot cramps and toe
<v Speaker 2>cramps and it's really painful occasionally cramp. So for me,
<v Speaker 2>like that's when I know that I need more. If
<v Speaker 2>I forget to take my prescription potassium pill, I will
<v Speaker 2>have foot cramps by the afternoon. So the fact that
<v Speaker 2>you're having diarrhea means you could be flushing some of
<v Speaker 2>your electrolytes out as well. But also sometimes if you
<v Speaker 2>don't have enough electrolytes and then you all of a sudden,
<v Speaker 2>you eat, so you are basically replenishing electrolytes. Then your
<v Speaker 2>body's trying to grab all of those and it can
<v Speaker 2>actually cause diarrhea. But by the same token, too many electrolytes,
<v Speaker 2>like taking too much magnesium, can cause diarrhea. So we
<v Speaker 2>talk a lot about balance, and it's finding the balance
<v Speaker 2>of like water and eating electrolyte rich foods, lots of
<v Speaker 2>fruits and vegetables that can help with that. Some people
<v Speaker 2>do you need to supplement some electrolytes, So it depends
<v Speaker 2>on a lot about how you eat and your gut
<v Speaker 2>and how your body you know, absorbs food in addition,
<v Speaker 2>So for me, starting with something liquid would not be
<v Speaker 2>beneficial for me. It would just make it worse. I
<v Speaker 2>was struggling with this issue. I started opening my window
<v Speaker 2>with silium husk because it's going to be a binder.
<v Speaker 2>It's going to draw in and absorb the fluid from
<v Speaker 2>your colon so that it can help prevent the diarrhea.
<v Speaker 2>So I would open my window with silium husk. Sometimes
<v Speaker 2>I would add it to a smoothie or something and
<v Speaker 2>then I would not eat solid food for another like
<v Speaker 2>twenty to thirty minutes to give it time to start
<v Speaker 2>to absorb. So you'll just have to kind of play around.
<v Speaker 2>And then there's a lot of people too. If you
<v Speaker 2>don't have a gallbladder, for instance, if you eat open
<v Speaker 2>your window with foods that are too high fat, it
<v Speaker 2>can cause issues like this. So it's kind of knowing
<v Speaker 2>your body, knowing how you feel, and then just making
<v Speaker 2>sure that like you said, you're not overhydrating, you're not
<v Speaker 2>under hydrating, and that if your body needs some more
<v Speaker 2>electrolytes that you get that you get them. You play
<v Speaker 2>around with it, and if you're you know, if you're
<v Speaker 2>still having issues, you may get a blood test in
<v Speaker 2>the fasted state so that they can take a look
<v Speaker 2>at your sodium and your chloride levels, your potassium levels
<v Speaker 2>and see where you're at, and that might be helpful
<v Speaker 2>for you as well.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I'm so glad you have experience with all of that,
<v Speaker 1>because I'm like, I got no problems there.
<v Speaker 2>It's so funny because you and I are so opposite
<v Speaker 2>and so many more with the way our BOI should.
<v Speaker 1>I got no diarrhea, I got no problem with minerals.
<v Speaker 1>I just you know, that's why you need a partner
<v Speaker 1>that balances you out, like Sherry.
<v Speaker 2>You definitely get both sides of the spectrum when you
<v Speaker 2>talk to Jenni, because true things that really set me off,
<v Speaker 2>she doesn't struggle with. And yeah, you know, this girl
<v Speaker 2>can eat carbs until they're going out of style. And
<v Speaker 2>I feel that way. I just I just don't. So, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>there's an answer out there for you. You just have
<v Speaker 2>to really tune into your body. And sometimes it's just experimentation.
<v Speaker 2>You know, maybe it's you need more sodium, or maybe
<v Speaker 2>it's you need more magnesium. And if you don't take
<v Speaker 2>a quality magnesium supplement at that time, I would really
<v Speaker 2>really suggest that because I can really help with your
<v Speaker 2>leg cramps.
<v Speaker 1>And we have, of course, got a link to bioptimizers
<v Speaker 1>in the show notes, and that's the one Sure and
<v Speaker 1>I both take and we don't lie when we say
<v Speaker 1>we're taking it.
<v Speaker 2>That's like really the only supplement I take and I
<v Speaker 2>love it. And my husband suffers with muscle cramps too,
<v Speaker 2>and we ran out. I told this story on a
<v Speaker 2>couple of podcasts ago. We ran out of our bioptizer's
<v Speaker 2>magnesium over the holidays in December and I went probably
<v Speaker 2>two weeks without it, and my husband within twenty four
<v Speaker 2>hours started having muscle cramps again.
<v Speaker 1>So it's a good a good quality one. That's why
<v Speaker 1>we suggest it. So now it's time for our segment
<v Speaker 1>called What's Your Why? And you know most of us
<v Speaker 1>start intermittent fasting with weight loss in mind. It is
<v Speaker 1>a great reason to start intermittent fasting or burning that fat.
<v Speaker 1>It's our superpower while we're fasting, and we want that
<v Speaker 1>to be part of our why if we have weight
<v Speaker 1>to lose. But there is so much more or to
<v Speaker 1>what intermittent fasting can do for us beyond weight loss.
<v Speaker 1>In my book twenty eight Day Fast Start day by day,
<v Speaker 1>the first thing I ask readers to do is craft
<v Speaker 1>their why statement before beginning. I even have like suggested
<v Speaker 1>ideas in there, like a whole list of things you
<v Speaker 1>could choose from. You can create your.
<v Speaker 2>Own things you might not have thought of.
<v Speaker 1>You just like being more physically capable playing with the grandchildren,
<v Speaker 1>going up and down the stairs. There's so many reasons
<v Speaker 1>that we want to be intermittent fasters not having the
<v Speaker 1>afternoon crash. When your why is deeper than weight loss alone,
<v Speaker 1>I genuinely believe you're more likely to find long term
<v Speaker 1>success and view intermittent fasting as a lifestyle.
<v Speaker 2>So this week we have a wife from still Hopeful
<v Speaker 2>in Pennsylvania. I wrote into the show about a half
<v Speaker 2>a year ago as Hopeful in Pennsylvania. Since then, I
<v Speaker 2>joined the community for support and I have been a
<v Speaker 2>dedicated faster almost every day with a four to five
<v Speaker 2>hour daily window. At about three months in I accepted
<v Speaker 2>that taking a supplement before bed was not clean fasting
<v Speaker 2>and I redid the twenty eight day fas start and
<v Speaker 2>I have been clean fasting since I moved all of
<v Speaker 2>my supplements to my window. I've plateaued for the last
<v Speaker 2>three months. Slowing or stopping the weight gain is a
<v Speaker 2>victory in and of itself because of my long history
<v Speaker 2>of weight gain. I am healing and I will be
<v Speaker 2>able to release the excess weight when it is time.
<v Speaker 2>My why is becoming a reality. I have a chronic
<v Speaker 2>disease that can shorten a person's lifespan by twenty years,
<v Speaker 2>but with clean fasting, I am becoming healthier and stronger.
<v Speaker 2>I now regularly exercise and fast without issue. I know
<v Speaker 2>that even if the scale isn't moving, I am healing inside.
<v Speaker 2>My medication has become too strong, and after four years
<v Speaker 2>on a higher dosage, my doctor is finally tight trading
<v Speaker 2>me down. I no longer have blurred vision all day long.
<v Speaker 2>I no longer feel overdrugged and listless. I have energy
<v Speaker 2>and the motivation to accomplish the things that I want
<v Speaker 2>to achieve in life, and I have the self confidence
<v Speaker 2>to know that they are possible. My fast empowers me
<v Speaker 2>to make time for things that nourish my soul, and
<v Speaker 2>I'm learning to connect with others on things that don't
<v Speaker 2>involve food. Taking control of my eating habits has empowered
<v Speaker 2>me to see that I can do hard things in
<v Speaker 2>other parts of my life. I look forward to my
<v Speaker 2>fastniversary and many more non scale victories and hopefully some
<v Speaker 2>scale victories too. I regularly listen to the fast Pease
<v Speaker 2>Repeat podcast on my walks, and I go to the
<v Speaker 2>community for support and accountability. Thank you, Jen and Cherry
<v Speaker 2>for all you do well.
<v Speaker 1>I love that list of victories that is a You're
<v Speaker 1>just really seeing the healing, and I know you said,
<v Speaker 1>I am healing, We'll be able to release the excess
<v Speaker 1>weight when it is time. I would like to encourage
<v Speaker 1>you to do some tweaking with your protocol if you
<v Speaker 1>continue to be plataued. You said you've been plot toyed
<v Speaker 1>for three months. And I agree with you when you
<v Speaker 1>said that slowing or stopping weight gain is a victory.
<v Speaker 1>And I want everyone to hear that. If you're somebody
<v Speaker 1>who has been slowly and steadily gaining weight for twenty years,
<v Speaker 1>for example, you've been slowly and steadily gaining weight no
<v Speaker 1>matter what you did, for twenty years. If the only
<v Speaker 1>thing intermittent fasting did for you, besides that long list
<v Speaker 1>of victories, means that you've stopped slowly gaining weight, that
<v Speaker 1>is a victory right there. That is something to celebrate.
<v Speaker 1>But I do think that there is a way for
<v Speaker 1>your body to tap into those fat stores and release
<v Speaker 1>some of that fat.
<v Speaker 2>So it's just a.
<v Speaker 1>Matter of you know, figuring that out. Maybe it's some idea,
<v Speaker 1>maybe it's food choices. We have so many tools in
<v Speaker 1>our toolbox and so when we say trust the process,
<v Speaker 1>part of the process is the tweaking. So you're in
<v Speaker 1>the community, so act for some support with that. We
<v Speaker 1>will absolutely help you there.
<v Speaker 2>Well, and I noticed too, She says that she has
<v Speaker 2>been dedicated faster almost every day. Yeah, and lean into
<v Speaker 2>your why. You've given us some really strong whys, and
<v Speaker 2>lean into your why. And I bet if you was
<v Speaker 2>to clean fast every day with your four to five
<v Speaker 2>hour window, then you're going to start to see the
<v Speaker 2>chain that you're seeking. Yeah, all right, So we have
<v Speaker 2>a question from Emily and Florida. She says, My age
<v Speaker 2>is forty five. I don't have too many perimenopause symptoms yet.
<v Speaker 2>I'm five foot three. I started if June ninth of
<v Speaker 2>twenty twenty four at one hundred ninety five pounds. I
<v Speaker 2>currently weigh one hundred and seventy two pounds at ten
<v Speaker 2>months in. My goal weight is maybe around one hundred
<v Speaker 2>and sixty. I usually do a nineteen to five protocol
<v Speaker 2>with a window of twelve thirty to five thirty PM.
<v Speaker 2>I've been a vegetarian for sixteen years. I do not
<v Speaker 2>drink ever. I take magnesium, vitamin D, and a probiotic daily.
<v Speaker 2>All my labs are normal. So that's her background. She said, Hi,
<v Speaker 2>Jen and Sherry, I kept putting off writing because I
<v Speaker 2>really just wanted to write with a celebration in June
<v Speaker 2>on my first year fastniversary, but I decided I really
<v Speaker 2>have one more question before I write in with that celebration.
<v Speaker 2>I have Gin's books and I listen weekly, and I
<v Speaker 2>think you will say food quality. But I feel like
<v Speaker 2>there's another piece of the puzzle I am missing. While
<v Speaker 2>I feel so much better doing if I am frustrated
<v Speaker 2>these last few months, you can tell my my stats.
<v Speaker 2>Even smart BMI would not have me in my zone.
<v Speaker 2>I for sure have more to lose. I was hoping
<v Speaker 2>at least ten more pounds, if not twenty. I gained
<v Speaker 2>a lot of weight with all three babies, my highest
<v Speaker 2>being two oh five after the birth of my last baby.
<v Speaker 2>Even when I was in the best shape of my
<v Speaker 2>life in my early twenties, I have never been below
<v Speaker 2>one hundred and forty seven pounds. I have a lot
<v Speaker 2>of muscle, naturally, I would not even expect to get
<v Speaker 2>much below one sixty at this age. I have never
<v Speaker 2>been a dieter. I did one big restrictive diet in
<v Speaker 2>twenty fifteen after I knew I was done being pregnant forever,
<v Speaker 2>and I lost forty eight pounds in eight months, from
<v Speaker 2>two hundred and five pounds to one point fifty seven.
<v Speaker 2>I counted calories eight months for every day, and the
<v Speaker 2>day I hit my goal weight, I stopped counting. The
<v Speaker 2>weight crept back on over the next five years, and
<v Speaker 2>then during the pandemic really crept on. While I know
<v Speaker 2>you will both say twenty three pounds and ten months
<v Speaker 2>is amazing, it doesn't feel feel that way because I
<v Speaker 2>lost eighteen pounds the first five months and only five
<v Speaker 2>pounds these last five months. Is my body getting too
<v Speaker 2>used to my window? I try to switch it up
<v Speaker 2>with a twenty four hour fast every seven to ten days,
<v Speaker 2>and I sometimes push my window till two or three
<v Speaker 2>doing a four hour window, and sometimes it does seem
<v Speaker 2>to shake up the scale. Another weird thing is is
<v Speaker 2>I always seem to weigh more Monday through Thursday. Friday
<v Speaker 2>through Sunday I weigh less. I mean, for six months,
<v Speaker 2>I do weigh daily and I do my weekly average.
<v Speaker 2>I swear I don't do anything that different. Maybe I
<v Speaker 2>get a little more sleep on those days. I will
<v Speaker 2>admit that I do sometimes have days where I eat
<v Speaker 2>past a tidy, but never more than one times a week.
<v Speaker 2>I am militant with my window and I clean fast
<v Speaker 2>only only water some days black tea, and I do
<v Speaker 2>not have window creep. I also don't think I'm under eating.
<v Speaker 2>I feel I have to be really mindful of stopping.
<v Speaker 2>Sometimes I eat eighty percent of my food in that
<v Speaker 2>first forty five minutes, and then I'm like, oh my gosh,
<v Speaker 2>you need to slow down and spread this out. I
<v Speaker 2>think my food quality is pretty good. I do sometimes
<v Speaker 2>endulge in a pastry or creamy coffee, but not daily.
<v Speaker 2>I'm vegetarian, and so I eat tons of beans, almonds,
<v Speaker 2>pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds, homemade chia pudding, daily potatoes, roasted veggies, avocado.
<v Speaker 2>All dinners are planned out. I say dinner, but it's
<v Speaker 2>usually around four pm. Cauliflower tacos, lentil, bollionnaires, loaded baked potatoes,
<v Speaker 2>do it yourself, chipoli bowls, tempe nachos with cheese and beans,
<v Speaker 2>and yes, sometimes pizza, but I'm not eating junk. I
<v Speaker 2>think if I had an issue is in portions, not quality.
<v Speaker 2>My stress is possibly higher. As we get to the
<v Speaker 2>end of the school year. With three kids grades six,
<v Speaker 2>nine and twelve, I work thirty minutes daily with weighted
<v Speaker 2>best and now that it's getting hot, I'll switch to
<v Speaker 2>swimming in my pool. The question is should I just
<v Speaker 2>keep plugging along? Please don't say I have to do
<v Speaker 2>do ADF. I really don't want to. I want to
<v Speaker 2>tweak it till it's easy. It's easy right now with
<v Speaker 2>a five hour window, and get into slide treats in
<v Speaker 2>here there so I don't feel denied. But one pound
<v Speaker 2>a month is so slow? Should I just plug along
<v Speaker 2>but know that it'll be super slow loss? Or will
<v Speaker 2>it come to a grinding halt if I don't change something.
<v Speaker 2>I want to thank you so much for your books
<v Speaker 2>in the podcast. That weekly podcast really helps keep me
<v Speaker 2>on the path. I plan to only do the twenty
<v Speaker 2>eight days and then give up because I knew i'd
<v Speaker 2>hate it. But one week in and I loved it
<v Speaker 2>and I'm never going back. I love getting asked what
<v Speaker 2>are you doing? You look great? And I want to
<v Speaker 2>age as healthy as possible. Sidebar, My seventeen year old
<v Speaker 2>daughter started fasting with a seven hour window a few
<v Speaker 2>months ago, which was approved by her pediatrician, and after
<v Speaker 2>years of the worst period pain ever, it has dramatically
<v Speaker 2>improved it's hard to keep the schedule in high school.
<v Speaker 2>So she stopped and the pain came back, so she
<v Speaker 2>went back to it. We know it's the IF helping her. Okay,
<v Speaker 2>so this is long, and I hope I gave you
<v Speaker 2>all the details you need, and thank you both so much.
<v Speaker 1>You did a beautiful job giving us those details, Emily,
<v Speaker 1>and I really really appreciate it. And you're right, if
<v Speaker 1>you only have lost five pounds in the past, what
<v Speaker 1>was that five month?
<v Speaker 2>Five months? Said? That is very slow.
<v Speaker 1>One half to one pound per week is a great
<v Speaker 1>rate of fat loss, and you're going slower than that.
<v Speaker 2>So I understand why you're frustrated.
<v Speaker 1>That makes a lot of sense, and it does seem
<v Speaker 1>like if you just keep plugging along, it is very
<v Speaker 1>likely that you're just going to plateau right where you
<v Speaker 1>are because your body will adapt, and that is where
<v Speaker 1>ADEF is such a great strategy. That being said, you
<v Speaker 1>don't want to do it, and I understand. So how
<v Speaker 1>about giving your body some natural alternating without going full
<v Speaker 1>on ADF and instead alternating something like a one hour
<v Speaker 1>window with a six hour window, one meal, two meals,
<v Speaker 1>And when I say one meal, I'm talking about like
<v Speaker 1>tight like a one hour, one meal, so you're just
<v Speaker 1>having dinner.
<v Speaker 2>And the fact that she says she eats eighty percent
<v Speaker 2>of her food in the first forty five minutes of
<v Speaker 2>her window makes me feel like this shouldn't be It
<v Speaker 2>shouldn't be that hard. It's hard for her to do.
<v Speaker 1>I would have it later, though I wouldn't because you
<v Speaker 1>said twelve thirty to five thirty is sweet spot.
<v Speaker 2>Say you have it at you're four, at least.
<v Speaker 1>At the four o'clock time, right, So I would delay
<v Speaker 1>you push it of a one hour window with one
<v Speaker 1>very satisfying meal, and it sounds like you've got some
<v Speaker 1>great satisfying meal options. And then the next day give
<v Speaker 1>yourself two meals within like six hours. Okay, so just
<v Speaker 1>alternate one meal two meals, one meal, two meals, and
<v Speaker 1>so you know you're not quite doing a DF because
<v Speaker 1>you're not restricting to five hundred calories and so you're
<v Speaker 1>not having an actual down day and you're not having
<v Speaker 1>you know, the.
<v Speaker 2>Full up day.
<v Speaker 1>But this is where I almost hate to say it,
<v Speaker 1>because people want rules, right, but downish uppish instead of
<v Speaker 1>down up down up your downish uppish. So one meal,
<v Speaker 1>two meals, one meal, two meals and that might give
<v Speaker 1>your body just the little boost that it needs because
<v Speaker 1>in that one hour window, you're gonna be eating less
<v Speaker 1>on those days, so you should have so a little
<v Speaker 1>more fat burning from that, and then the slight metabolic
<v Speaker 1>boost from having the two meals on the two meal day.
<v Speaker 1>To see if that shakes things up and helps, because
<v Speaker 1>you know, if we're plateaued and what we're doing has
<v Speaker 1>kept us steady and not losing, then we got to
<v Speaker 1>switch something up. And it sounds like your food quality
<v Speaker 1>is good. It doesn't sound like you're overdoing it, so
<v Speaker 1>you got to figure out some sort of tweaks to
<v Speaker 1>see how that goes. What do you think about that, Sherry.
<v Speaker 2>I just had one suggestion that is like, for me,
<v Speaker 2>I know that if I want to see fat loss,
<v Speaker 2>I really do have to limit my fat intake. And
<v Speaker 2>I know that's harder when you're vegetarian, right because your
<v Speaker 2>meal components are pretty much vegetables, grains, you know, complex cards,
<v Speaker 2>and fat, so you know you do need some fat
<v Speaker 2>to help you with society and stuff, but you can
<v Speaker 2>also really overdo your fat if fat loss is something
<v Speaker 2>that you are trying to promote, and that's something that
<v Speaker 2>Jason Fung even addressed. And Jin had recommended a book
<v Speaker 2>to me last summer, and I actually watched some videos
<v Speaker 2>and I downloaded the cookbook that Kiki So that plants
<v Speaker 2>philanth Yeah, so she is plant based, but she has
<v Speaker 2>come up with a lot of like substitutions for like
<v Speaker 2>you say, like you used cheese, and so like she
<v Speaker 2>has a cheese sauce that she makes good and it's
<v Speaker 2>not right, it's gonna it's not cheese, but it's not
<v Speaker 2>gonna be as high fat as cheese too. So if
<v Speaker 2>you were going to try to tweak your food at all,
<v Speaker 2>I would just like kind of look at how much
<v Speaker 2>fat you're eating in the day and see if you
<v Speaker 2>can maybe tweak some of that or make some substitutions.
<v Speaker 2>And like I said, that cookbook she has lots of
<v Speaker 2>great ideas for adding flavor and stuff to foods without
<v Speaker 2>it being high fat options.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, plant fully lean is a great resource for anyone
<v Speaker 1>who's leaning plant based. And you said you're vegetarian not
<v Speaker 1>obviously not whole food plant based completely. You still have
<v Speaker 1>the cheese in there, but yeah, her cheese sauce it's
<v Speaker 1>made from like it sounds crazy it's you boil potatoes
<v Speaker 1>and carrots, and then it has some cashews in there
<v Speaker 1>and some nutritional yeast and like maybe onion powder, graleut buttter,
<v Speaker 1>I can't remember exactly. You blend it all up. It
<v Speaker 1>is fantastic. The carrots give it that orange flavor.
<v Speaker 2>You know. I love cheese, and I don't like things
<v Speaker 2>that pretend to be other things. But I love this
<v Speaker 2>sauce like I could just eat it with a spice.
<v Speaker 2>It's so good.
<v Speaker 1>Of course, you're not a lot potatoes and one of
<v Speaker 1>the main ingredients, and it is potatoes, so that doesn't
<v Speaker 1>surprise anyone.
<v Speaker 2>And nutritional yeast has a great flavor. So yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Plant of fully Lean is a great source for some
<v Speaker 1>recipes that can their whole food plant based and they're simple.
<v Speaker 1>She also has one called Plantify Simple. I don't think
<v Speaker 1>I have that one.
<v Speaker 2>If I'm gonna have a baked potato, it's gonna have
<v Speaker 2>sour cream. That's just the way it is. But I
<v Speaker 2>make the decision that I would prefer sur cream over cheese,
<v Speaker 2>so I leave off the cheese and just have the
<v Speaker 2>sour cream. And actually Daisy has a light sour cream.
<v Speaker 2>There's nothing weird in it. It just doesn't have a
<v Speaker 2>heavy cream in it. I think it's cut maybe with
<v Speaker 2>some skim milk or something. It's just three ingredients, I think,
<v Speaker 2>and it's fine. I don't notice the difference between full
<v Speaker 2>fat cyur cream. So if you could just make some
<v Speaker 2>little tiny tweaks like that, it might help you as well.
<v Speaker 1>And again we don't want to go down diet mentality,
<v Speaker 1>but it's just a matter of figuring out what your
<v Speaker 1>body needs to release some of the fat. And like
<v Speaker 1>Sherry said, cheese this is a big culprit for me. Well,
<v Speaker 1>it's so good.
<v Speaker 2>I think about Zoe. And so when you do Zoe
<v Speaker 2>and you log your foods and whatever, they'll tell you, like,
<v Speaker 2>even though your seeds and nuts and avocada are healthy,
<v Speaker 2>they'll tell you like, oh, you ate too much fat
<v Speaker 2>at one time. And if you do that, and they'll
<v Speaker 2>tell you spread your fat intakeout or eat less fat
<v Speaker 2>or whatever. And if you're doing that, it can keep
<v Speaker 2>your blood sugar elevated and it can cause inflammation in
<v Speaker 2>your body, depending on your body. And so that's why
<v Speaker 2>I just wanted to suggest that is a possible tweak
<v Speaker 2>as well.
<v Speaker 1>All Right, we have a question from New I Effort
<v Speaker 1>in Texas. Hi Jen and Sherry. I'm twenty seven years old.
<v Speaker 1>I'm a mom of two who are now almost three,
<v Speaker 1>and I have a one and a half year old.
<v Speaker 1>I was either pregnant or breastfeeding for the past almost
<v Speaker 1>five years, and I needed changes in my lifestyle as
<v Speaker 1>I am the heaviest i've been at around two hundred
<v Speaker 1>and ten pounds. I started by reading Fast Feast Repeat,
<v Speaker 1>but I never fully committed. I did fasts here and there,
<v Speaker 1>but we all know that doesn't have much benefit. Recently,
<v Speaker 1>about two weeks ago, I recommitted myself one hundred percent
<v Speaker 1>and I have been doing eighteen to twenty one hour
<v Speaker 1>fasts every day since. I am a nurse that also
<v Speaker 1>works the night shift, so I do something similar to
<v Speaker 1>what Sherry does, and I move my windows to accommodate
<v Speaker 1>my schedule. Luckily, I only work two a week, so
<v Speaker 1>it's worked out just and a lot of times I'll
<v Speaker 1>fast straight through my shift because I don't get decent
<v Speaker 1>naps for work, but I just do my usual window.
<v Speaker 1>Obesity runs deep in my family, along with other health issues.
<v Speaker 1>I won't bore you at the details, but I want
<v Speaker 1>to be healthy for my kids, and I already feel
<v Speaker 1>the toll that extra weight has on my body. I
<v Speaker 1>have extreme brain fog and fatigue, and that may just
<v Speaker 1>come from being a mom of young children, but I
<v Speaker 1>want to avoid medication at all costs. My body hurts
<v Speaker 1>when I walk for long periods, and I'm constantly at
<v Speaker 1>a low energy level, so I have a few questions.
<v Speaker 1>My daughter is very young and she has started noticing
<v Speaker 1>when I'm not eating since I used to eat all
<v Speaker 1>of my meals with her. I'm still sitting at the
<v Speaker 1>table with them, usually with a big water or hot
<v Speaker 1>black tea, but she's always telling me I have to eat,
<v Speaker 1>and for now, I just tell her, oh, Mama isn't
<v Speaker 1>hungry right now, and that is sufficient. I do worry
<v Speaker 1>about the effects it might have on her, because I
<v Speaker 1>would obviously to hate for her to think at a
<v Speaker 1>young age that she doesn't have to eat breakfast like me.
<v Speaker 1>I'm just unsure how to approach that with a young child.
<v Speaker 1>Second question, I do plan on having another child at
<v Speaker 1>some point, however, I want to get my body healthy
<v Speaker 1>before doing so. I will obviously stop fasting when trying
<v Speaker 1>to conceive, but I did notice that my period was
<v Speaker 1>late this month, which is extremely abnormal for me. Is
<v Speaker 1>there any way that intermittent fasting can alter your hormones
<v Speaker 1>in a bad way? Because when you google it, you
<v Speaker 1>come up with all sorts of things, And after reading
<v Speaker 1>Jen's book, I have a hard time believing that it
<v Speaker 1>would alter my hormones badly. Thank y'all so much. By
<v Speaker 1>the way, when I get discouraged or want to open
<v Speaker 1>my window early, I turn on the podcast and it
<v Speaker 1>helps me get through it.
<v Speaker 2>All right. Well, a couple of things. First, as a
<v Speaker 2>night shift worker, one of the things I noticed is
<v Speaker 2>that you said that you don't often get to take
<v Speaker 2>decent naps for work. And here's something I want you
<v Speaker 2>to really focus on. I've known so many people in
<v Speaker 2>my thirty years plus and health care who, especially young moms,
<v Speaker 2>who they're trying to work night shifts and try to
<v Speaker 2>maintain a normal life during the day, and in a
<v Speaker 2>long run, this is not going to pay off for you.
<v Speaker 2>And you know, you say you have brain fog and fatigue,
<v Speaker 2>and yes, you're a mom of young children and that's exhausting,
<v Speaker 2>and then you're working night shifts on top of that.
<v Speaker 2>So sleep is so so important and I want to
<v Speaker 2>just encourage you to prioritize sleep. Not sleeping well, it
<v Speaker 2>affects your brain, it affects your metabolic health, it affects
<v Speaker 2>so much mental health. So really see what you can
<v Speaker 2>do to get quality sleep while working night shift. And
<v Speaker 2>it can be done, you just have to prioritize it. Second,
<v Speaker 2>as far as your daughter goes, she's three and she
<v Speaker 2>is going to whatever you tell her. She's going to
<v Speaker 2>not question. She's going to believe you're her mom. She's
<v Speaker 2>three years old, she's learning right, and if you are
<v Speaker 2>uncomfortable about talking with her about it with her, then
<v Speaker 2>she's going to sense that discomfort. Kids sense when something
<v Speaker 2>doesn't feel right. So it's really the answer is really simple.
<v Speaker 2>She is a growing child and she needs to provide
<v Speaker 2>her body with lots of nutrients so that her body
<v Speaker 2>can grow strong. And you are an adult, you're a mom,
<v Speaker 2>You've already grown your body. You're not growing babies right now.
<v Speaker 2>So I mean it's just as simple as you're a kid.
<v Speaker 2>Your body's growing so that you can be you know,
<v Speaker 2>big and strong when you grow up. And I'm already
<v Speaker 2>an adult and I don't need to eat as much
<v Speaker 2>as you do. Adults don't need to eat as much
<v Speaker 2>as kids. And when you just put it like that,
<v Speaker 2>and yes, it's different, so you can say, well, I
<v Speaker 2>recently learned that in order for me to be healthy
<v Speaker 2>and be able to take care of you and your siblings,
<v Speaker 2>that I don't need to eat as much as you do.
<v Speaker 2>And most kids, and our experience with community members who've
<v Speaker 2>had the same concern, they come back and they say, oh,
<v Speaker 2>my daughter just said okay, and she went about eating
<v Speaker 2>and that was the end of that. So rather than
<v Speaker 2>like avoiding it or you know whatever, just next time
<v Speaker 2>she brings it up, you can just honestly tell her
<v Speaker 2>that you don't need to eat as much as her,
<v Speaker 2>it's healthy for you not to eat so much, and
<v Speaker 2>leave it at that. I bet she just accepts it
<v Speaker 2>and moves on. And she's only three. Three year olds
<v Speaker 2>don't even need much. They don't need much.
<v Speaker 1>And then, you know, like you said that, you've only
<v Speaker 1>been doing this for two weeks, So like she's suddenly
<v Speaker 1>noticing that you all of a sudden, for two weeks
<v Speaker 1>haven't been eating breakfast with her, she will forget about
<v Speaker 1>all that.
<v Speaker 2>And it won't be a big deal.
<v Speaker 1>And like Sherry said, even if later she does say,
<v Speaker 1>you know, Mama, why do you never eat breakfast? Just say, well,
<v Speaker 1>you know, adult bodies don't need as much fuel as
<v Speaker 1>growing bodies, and you're growing.
<v Speaker 2>That's it. Move on. And I was gonna say too,
<v Speaker 2>she might be noticing if you're not sitting down with them,
<v Speaker 2>and you used to sit down with them, So maybe
<v Speaker 2>they're sitting down to eat and you're like, well, I'm
<v Speaker 2>not eating, so I'm not going to sit down. So
<v Speaker 2>may it couldn't be she is still sitting at the
<v Speaker 2>table with them. She said that.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, she says, she's still sitting at the table, So
<v Speaker 1>maybe don't sit at the table, you know, switch that up,
<v Speaker 1>so stand up, unload the dishwasher, right, So yeah, she
<v Speaker 1>might think that if you're sitting, you should be eating too.
<v Speaker 1>So that might be just she's so young, she's not
<v Speaker 1>going to have memories of this for long. And again,
<v Speaker 1>don't make it a big deal. I think that's the
<v Speaker 1>best thing to do.
<v Speaker 2>And then eventually I'll just be mom doesn't sit down
<v Speaker 2>and eat breakfast.
<v Speaker 1>Now let's talk a little bit about you said your
<v Speaker 1>period was late this month.
<v Speaker 2>Now you're only two.
<v Speaker 1>Weeks in, so with fasting let's just talk about overrestriction
<v Speaker 1>in women. Over Restriction in women can lead to problems
<v Speaker 1>with our cycle, but that doesn't happen in two weeks.
<v Speaker 1>So let's imagine that you were overly restricting for a
<v Speaker 1>long period of time and your period stop. That would
<v Speaker 1>be a bad sign. Whether you're an intermittent faster or
<v Speaker 1>doing a low calorie diet or taking a zimbic or whatever,
<v Speaker 1>people accidentally over restrict. Women's bodies do not do well
<v Speaker 1>with over restriction. You know, doctor Tabatha Barber came on
<v Speaker 1>the show early on and taught she's an obgim, she's
<v Speaker 1>a hormone expert, and she told us how, you know,
<v Speaker 1>like Olympic athletes, Women who are Olympic athletes often lose
<v Speaker 1>their periods, and you know, you look at those Olympic
<v Speaker 1>athletes and they're very, very lean. They have low levels
<v Speaker 1>of body fat, and their bodies are like, okay, not
<v Speaker 1>enough stores, not enough reserve. I'm gonna stop having a
<v Speaker 1>cycle now, because that's what bodies do when we over
<v Speaker 1>restrict and we don't have sufficient body fat. But you've
<v Speaker 1>got plenty of body fat. Your body is well fueled,
<v Speaker 1>and you're not over restricting so it can sometimes take
<v Speaker 1>bodies a minute to catch up with intermitten fasting. And
<v Speaker 1>I remember there was a blog post years ago, and
<v Speaker 1>I think they've changed the way their blog posts were organized.
<v Speaker 1>But it was one of Jason Funk's, you know, Megan Ramos,
<v Speaker 1>who worked with doctor Jason Fung, had a blog post
<v Speaker 1>about women and periods. And I don't know where that
<v Speaker 1>blog post is now. Like I said, I think they
<v Speaker 1>reorganized them. But she said that often women will have
<v Speaker 1>a little bit of weirdness at the very very beginning
<v Speaker 1>the first month or two, and then it evens out.
<v Speaker 1>So give yourself some time for your body to catch up,
<v Speaker 1>you know, cause the first month your body is not
<v Speaker 1>fat adapted yet, and so you're not well fueled during
<v Speaker 1>the fast. But once your body flips the metabolic switch
<v Speaker 1>and it figures out. Okay, I got lots of store fuel.
<v Speaker 1>I'm not overly restricted. Things usually settle down, So I'll
<v Speaker 1>keep that in mind.
<v Speaker 2>Any bit of stress or illness can affect your periods.
<v Speaker 2>And so you know, fasting is a stress on your body.
<v Speaker 2>It is a healthy stress on your body. But eventually
<v Speaker 2>then your body like gets used to it, right, right,
<v Speaker 2>So even the stress, right, just like exercise, Just like exercise.
<v Speaker 2>And so we have had people come into the community
<v Speaker 2>and they might be in week FIBE and they're like, oh,
<v Speaker 2>my period was a week late. Is this from fasting?
<v Speaker 2>And then the community reassures. I'm like, oh, it's going
<v Speaker 2>to be fine. And then they'll come back later and say, oh,
<v Speaker 2>I'm more regular than ever or you know, so at
<v Speaker 2>the beginning, it's something new on your body. Your body's
<v Speaker 2>figuring out, your hormones are trying to balance, your blood sugars,
<v Speaker 2>you're balancing. That can all play into it.
<v Speaker 1>And especially if you have a history of obesity, high
<v Speaker 1>levels of influence, or highly linked to pcos and that
<v Speaker 1>has a negative impact on fertility. And so the best
<v Speaker 1>thing you can do is get that under control, and
<v Speaker 1>fasting is.
<v Speaker 2>Really the best way to do it.
<v Speaker 1>So great questions, and I hope that that alleviates your
<v Speaker 1>concerns just a bit. But for anybody who is still concerned,
<v Speaker 1>if you want to find that episode from doctor Tabitha Barber,
<v Speaker 1>then you can listen to that Jim or what episode
<v Speaker 1>number it was. If you just go to any computer
<v Speaker 1>and google fast feast, repeat Tabitha Barber, it'll come up,
<v Speaker 1>It'll show you what episode that is. All right, Before
<v Speaker 1>we get to our tweek of the week, I want
<v Speaker 1>to take a minute to talk about my books. You know,
<v Speaker 1>I will always be a teacher. Even though I'm a
<v Speaker 1>retired teacher, I'm still a teacher. I'm just teaching about
<v Speaker 1>intermittent fasting now and it makes me really happy to
<v Speaker 1>have a wide variety of resources for you, no matter
<v Speaker 1>where you are in your intermittent fast journey. And a
<v Speaker 1>lot of times people say where should I start or
<v Speaker 1>what book do I recommend to a friend he's ready
<v Speaker 1>to get started, or my brother or whatever. I want
<v Speaker 1>everyone to start with Delay Don't Deny. That is the
<v Speaker 1>best quick introduction to intermittent fasting. I think that's out there,
<v Speaker 1>and especially since I updated it in twenty twenty four.
<v Speaker 1>You can find the updated second edition available in paperback
<v Speaker 1>or hardback only on Amazon. It's an ebook and audiobook
<v Speaker 1>wherever you find your ebooks or audiobooks. It's got a
<v Speaker 1>comprehensive ADF chapter that has the most current recommendations, and
<v Speaker 1>there's also an all new success stories section from inspirational
<v Speaker 1>members of the Delay Don't Deny community. So for anybody
<v Speaker 1>who is wanting a refresh or wanting to recommend intermittent
<v Speaker 1>fasting to others. Delay, don't deny is where you should start,
<v Speaker 1>and then you know. If you want a deeper dive,
<v Speaker 1>there's fast Feast repeat. If you need to help during
<v Speaker 1>the twenty eight days of your fast art, there's twenty
<v Speaker 1>eight day fast art day by day. There are other
<v Speaker 1>books out there for what you need, but just to
<v Speaker 1>light on deny is all that a lot of people need,
<v Speaker 1>and so that's where you start. So now it's time
<v Speaker 1>for our tweak of the week. You know, I always
<v Speaker 1>say tweak it till it's easy, But the tweak that
<v Speaker 1>works for me might not be the one that works
<v Speaker 1>for you. And that's why it is super helpful to
<v Speaker 1>hear how other intermittent fasters are making intermittent fasting work
<v Speaker 1>for them. So this tweak is from Julie. She says,
<v Speaker 1>I have been stuck for a while and not seeing
<v Speaker 1>any movement on the scale. Last week I shifted my window.
<v Speaker 1>I started opening around twelve thirty to one and closing
<v Speaker 1>four to five hours later. My weekly average is starting
<v Speaker 1>to go down. I feel like I'm not snacking as
<v Speaker 1>much closing earlier. I eat at work and then my
<v Speaker 1>window is closed before I get home.
<v Speaker 2>I feel good too.
<v Speaker 1>I have been doing intermittent fasting for over four years,
<v Speaker 1>and over the last year I had window creep and
<v Speaker 1>I gained back ten of the thirty pounds I had lost.
<v Speaker 1>I'm determined to get that weight back off, and I
<v Speaker 1>would still like to lose another ten after that. Next
<v Speaker 1>week is my birthday week, so I know there'll be
<v Speaker 1>a couple of days I'll need to adjust for celebrations,
<v Speaker 1>but that's okay. I'll be fifty eight years old and
<v Speaker 1>I feel great thanks to intermittent fasting. You know, I
<v Speaker 1>love that you just shifted your window timing and you're
<v Speaker 1>finding that that's solving your problem. And again, that's really
<v Speaker 1>part of the tweaking is identifying your problem time. For Julie,
<v Speaker 1>she realized her problem time was snacking in the evening,
<v Speaker 1>and so she shifted her window so that problem time
<v Speaker 1>doesn't happen anymore. She's no longer doing all that snacking.
<v Speaker 1>Her window is closed. On the flip side, there could
<v Speaker 1>be someone whose problem is snacking in the evening and
<v Speaker 1>they might find the opposite is true, shifting their window
<v Speaker 1>later so that it encompasses their snacky time is the solution.
<v Speaker 2>So again, I was gonna say that, right. A lot
<v Speaker 2>of times when people are new, they want to have
<v Speaker 2>an early window because they don't want to be hungry
<v Speaker 2>during the day. They're not fat adapted yees, so they're like, oh, no,
<v Speaker 2>I really want a mid midday window. But then they're like, oh,
<v Speaker 2>I'm really having trouble keeping my window closed because I
<v Speaker 2>find that I'm snacking at nine o'clock at night. And
<v Speaker 2>so we'll tell them, oh, move your window later then,
<v Speaker 2>so that you you know, you're not eating outside of
<v Speaker 2>your window. But Julie's been a long time faster and
<v Speaker 2>she realized that her evening snacking was more of a
<v Speaker 2>possibly just bad habit, boredom at home type thing. So
<v Speaker 2>she said, oh, I'll take care of this problem. I'll
<v Speaker 2>just move my window earlier, right. And we've had people
<v Speaker 2>do that who were trying to give up like wine
<v Speaker 2>in their window, and they're like, oh, I just moved
<v Speaker 2>my window earlier. I can't drink wine at or I
<v Speaker 2>can't drink wine at three o'clock in the afternoon, and
<v Speaker 2>that helped them. So that's it's one of those things
<v Speaker 2>where you kind of have to know yourself and your
<v Speaker 2>personality and why.
<v Speaker 1>You same problem that's going to bet a fallution. Right,
<v Speaker 1>your problem is nighttime snacking. You can shift earlier and
<v Speaker 1>say my window is closed, or you can shift later
<v Speaker 1>and encompass that that time. So it really is that
<v Speaker 1>is why we tweak it till it's easy. And Julie
<v Speaker 1>has found it's easier to keep it closed and not snack,
<v Speaker 1>or somebody else might find that's harder.
<v Speaker 2>Right yep. Oh, to back up a little bit, so
<v Speaker 2>we had two questions in this episode about fertility and
<v Speaker 2>I just added the link to show notes. It was
<v Speaker 2>episode twenty eight of the podcast with doctor Tabitha Barber. Okay,
<v Speaker 2>so all right, so we love to leave you with
<v Speaker 2>inspiration motivational quotes, and this week we have a quote
<v Speaker 2>from Triple J in Alabama. We loved him by the way.
<v Speaker 2>He yes, he is a relatively new member of our
<v Speaker 2>community and he's right down the road for me in Oxford, Alabama.
<v Speaker 2>So yep, anyway, we love to see people jump in
<v Speaker 2>the community and just he just jumped in and he's
<v Speaker 2>got acron away and he got he reversed his type
<v Speaker 2>two diabetes.
<v Speaker 1>But that has Yeah, and he's got such a positive
<v Speaker 1>mindset and everything he posts is just positive.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, yep, all right, So he posted eight things to
<v Speaker 2>remember when going through tough times. One everything can and
<v Speaker 2>will change. Two, it's a learning experience. Three, allow yourself
<v Speaker 2>to have fun. Four you've overcome challenges before. Five being
<v Speaker 2>kind to yourself is the best medicine. Six other people's
<v Speaker 2>negativity isn't worth worrying about. Seven not getting what you
<v Speaker 2>want can be a blessing. Eight And there is always, always,
<v Speaker 2>always something to be thankful for. And I number four
<v Speaker 2>is probably the one that stood out to me because
<v Speaker 2>people will, you know, come into community and they're upset,
<v Speaker 2>they've got something going on in their lives. One that
<v Speaker 2>said you've overcome challenges four Yeah, And I always tell them, like,
<v Speaker 2>you have survived all of your worst days and you're
<v Speaker 2>still here and you're still thriving. And you know, people
<v Speaker 2>sometimes think they're not thriving, but I can see that
<v Speaker 2>people are thriving even when they think they're struggling. And
<v Speaker 2>you know, as long as you're getting up every single
<v Speaker 2>day and you're still facing your challenges and you're still
<v Speaker 2>trying to overcome them, you're winning.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and my favorite, the one that spoke to me
<v Speaker 1>was number six. Other people's negativity isn't worth worrying about
<v Speaker 1>because I am somebody who wants everyone in my vicinity
<v Speaker 1>to be happy at all times and everyone literally I'm
<v Speaker 1>constantly like looking around and see anybody needs anything, if
<v Speaker 1>somebody's here, you know, or what do you want to do?
<v Speaker 2>People?
<v Speaker 1>Pleasing making sure everybody is happy, and realizing that other
<v Speaker 1>people's negativity is not always something I have the power
<v Speaker 1>to fix, or it's even my responsibility or even something
<v Speaker 1>I should worry about. That's the one I'm I'm working on.
<v Speaker 1>That's my current life lesson. Thanks so much for listening today.
<v Speaker 1>We would love to have you join us in the
<v Speaker 1>Delay Do Tonight community, where you can interact with both
<v Speaker 1>me and Sherry, plus the most supportive bunch of intermittent
<v Speaker 1>fasters you'll find anywhere. Go to Jen Stevens dot com
<v Speaker 1>slash commune unity to join us.
<v Speaker 3>Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast to your favorite
<v Speaker 3>podcast app, and if you haven't already, please leave us
<v Speaker 3>a five star review that helps new listeners find the show,
<v Speaker 3>and we really appreciate it.
<v Speaker 1>We are a community driven podcast, so to submit your
<v Speaker 1>success stories, your questions, your favorite tweak it till It's Easy, moments,
<v Speaker 1>or anything else you want us to share on the podcast.
<v Speaker 1>Go to Fast Feast Repeat dot com slash submit and
<v Speaker 1>then listen each week to see if we share your
<v Speaker 1>submission or answer your question
<v Speaker 2>Until next week, Thanks for listening.