Episode 91: Fasting and Fertility, Migraines, Accidental Over Restriction, and More

<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Fast Feast Repeat Intermittent Fasting for Life. I'm
<v Speaker 1>Jen Stevens, author of the New York Times bestseller Fast
<v Speaker 1>Feast Repeat.
<v Speaker 2>And I'm Sherry Bullock, longtime intermittent faster and health and
<v Speaker 2>wellness advocate. Please keep in mind that this podcast is
<v Speaker 2>for educational and motivational purposes only and is not intended
<v Speaker 2>to provide medical or diagnostic advice. Jen and I are
<v Speaker 2>not doctors, so make sure to check with your trusted
<v Speaker 2>healthcare professionals before making changes, especially when it comes to
<v Speaker 2>any medical treatments or medications.
<v Speaker 1>Whether you're new to intermittent fasting or an experienced intermittent faster,
<v Speaker 1>tune in each week to get inspired, to learn, and
<v Speaker 1>to have some fun along the way. Hi, everybody, we
<v Speaker 1>are so glad you're here today. Welcome to this week's
<v Speaker 1>episode of the Fast Feast Repeat, Intermittent Fasting for Life Podcast.
<v Speaker 1>How are you doing today, Sherry?
<v Speaker 2>I'm doing great? How are you?
<v Speaker 1>I'm good. Spring is trying to show it's.
<v Speaker 2>Trying to come. I have dandy lions in my yard.
<v Speaker 2>I might be the only person excited about that, because
<v Speaker 2>I mean spring is coming.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I'm always excited when I see the first daffodil,
<v Speaker 1>and I've seen them. Oh yeah, we're recording this in
<v Speaker 1>early March. It comes out in late March. But I
<v Speaker 1>have something it always comes. It always comes.
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, I have some volunteers that come up by
<v Speaker 2>my driveway. I'm assuming somebody had some planted there at
<v Speaker 2>some point, and so when I see that first one,
<v Speaker 2>I'm like, spring is coming. Yep, I'm super excited. A
<v Speaker 2>friend of mine just messaged me. We're going on a
<v Speaker 2>trip in April to Oklahoma City and still Water, Oklahoma.
<v Speaker 2>And she said, and we're going to a concert on
<v Speaker 2>a Sunday night at like seven pm. And she said,
<v Speaker 2>what are you gonna wear? And I said, I have
<v Speaker 2>no idea. It's a sweall in the Midwest after dark.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, the weather could be anything at that point.
<v Speaker 2>It's kind of like, you know, it could be cold
<v Speaker 2>and rainy, could be beautiful and sunny. You just never know.
<v Speaker 1>In mid April, well, I've gotten to the point, you know,
<v Speaker 1>I wear uggs when it's cold, just around the house,
<v Speaker 1>and you know, if I go out and about, I
<v Speaker 1>got my ugs on because they're so cozy. But then
<v Speaker 1>many days you have to transition into flip flops for
<v Speaker 1>part of the day, So I just carry my flip
<v Speaker 1>flops with me, so I'll be wearing the ugs and
<v Speaker 1>I'll put my flip flops on, and then I put
<v Speaker 1>the euggs back on later, because you know, you can have.
<v Speaker 2>All the seasons in one day. Yeah, yeah, but it
<v Speaker 2>is exciting. And you know, I saw I told somebody today,
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna tell the listeners this. A lot of people
<v Speaker 2>have struggled this winter with I think we've had a
<v Speaker 2>kind of a long, cold, hard winter and a lot
<v Speaker 2>of places in the world and a lot of people
<v Speaker 2>are noticing like they're not as active, and their windows
<v Speaker 2>have gotten longer, and their food choices have become more comforting.
<v Speaker 2>So this is my this is my talk to y'all.
<v Speaker 2>You know, by the time this comes out, it's spring,
<v Speaker 2>so it's just like kind of time to start getting
<v Speaker 2>those foundations back. I mean, I get it, winters are hard,
<v Speaker 2>but get your fasting foundations back, get your activity back.
<v Speaker 2>I told somebody today in the community, even if you
<v Speaker 2>only walk for five minutes a day, get your clean
<v Speaker 2>fast down, get your windows down, and start adding activity
<v Speaker 2>back to your days. Five minutes here and there is
<v Speaker 2>gonna make a lot of difference, and you start getting
<v Speaker 2>those pieces of the puzzle back down and you start
<v Speaker 2>having some wins and it all fall back in place
<v Speaker 2>for you.
<v Speaker 1>And it feels so good to be out and about.
<v Speaker 2>I've started taking my rebounder outside and rebounding on my patio.
<v Speaker 2>Eric pulled up one day and he could see me
<v Speaker 2>jumping over the privacy fence. He was like, what are
<v Speaker 2>you doing?
<v Speaker 1>Like the neighbors driving by there, you are jumping up
<v Speaker 1>and down.
<v Speaker 2>Well, I used to take it out to the driveway
<v Speaker 2>and jump, and I inspired my mail lady one day.
<v Speaker 2>She started asking me what is that you have? What
<v Speaker 2>is it you do out here? So she came by
<v Speaker 2>a little bit later and she said, I bought one
<v Speaker 2>of those.
<v Speaker 1>Love it.
<v Speaker 2>So anyway, anytime I can get it side is a wind.
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, anyway, So before we get going on the podcast,
<v Speaker 2>we get asked a lot of questions about magnesium breakthrough,
<v Speaker 2>and everybody wants to know does it break the fast?
<v Speaker 2>Can they take it before bed if their window closed
<v Speaker 2>a couple hours earlier? So, jin does magnesium breakthrough break
<v Speaker 2>the fast?
<v Speaker 1>I mean, technically, anything you're putting in that's a solid
<v Speaker 1>object has the potential to I don't break a fast somehow, right,
<v Speaker 1>But you know it's in a capsule, it's a solid object.
<v Speaker 1>It's got you know, all capsules, even if it's magnesium,
<v Speaker 1>it's got other things. Fillers, right, is there to keep
<v Speaker 1>the capsule together or whatever the fillers are in there for?
<v Speaker 1>So is there a potential there could be a tiny
<v Speaker 1>blip that occurs based on the capsule and the fillers.
<v Speaker 1>Always anytime you take anything, that could be true. So
<v Speaker 1>you have to really balance it between do I need
<v Speaker 1>to take this when is the best time to take it?
<v Speaker 1>So for me, it's really easy with magnesium breakthrough because
<v Speaker 1>I take it at some point between dinner and when
<v Speaker 1>I go to bed. So let's say my average window
<v Speaker 1>closing time is seven pm. We want to take our
<v Speaker 1>magnesium at some point before bed. I don't like to
<v Speaker 1>go like swallow and then go straight to bed because
<v Speaker 1>I just don't like having capsules, you know. I want
<v Speaker 1>them to have time to like, not get stuck in
<v Speaker 1>my throat while I'm sleeping or something. I don't know,
<v Speaker 1>So I might take it at seven thirty. Technically my
<v Speaker 1>window has been closed for thirty minutes. But I'm still,
<v Speaker 1>you know, actively digesting. I haven't flipped over into the
<v Speaker 1>deeply fasted state. Even if it did break my fast
<v Speaker 1>at that time, it's not going to matter. But let's
<v Speaker 1>say you're somebody and it's a down day. Maybe you're
<v Speaker 1>doing a you know, a thirty six hour fast, and
<v Speaker 1>you want to take the magnesium and you you're deep
<v Speaker 1>in your fast, so you might say, well, or all
<v Speaker 1>these you know, tiny little additive bits that they have
<v Speaker 1>in there as fillers and the capsule going to make
<v Speaker 1>a difference, But you have to weigh it with why
<v Speaker 1>you're taking it. If the magnesium is going to help
<v Speaker 1>you relax and help you sleep, then any tiny effect
<v Speaker 1>from fillers and the capsule itself will be just a blip.
<v Speaker 1>And I would not hesitate personally, you know, I prize
<v Speaker 1>and prioritize the clean fast. I would not do anything
<v Speaker 1>that I thought would be detrimental to my fasting. I
<v Speaker 1>would not hesitate to take magnesium breakthrough before going to bed,
<v Speaker 1>even on a down day. And you know that's just me.
<v Speaker 1>And so if you are so worried about the ingredients
<v Speaker 1>that you know, I mean, I don't know, you have
<v Speaker 1>to balance it out right, That's the way I look
<v Speaker 1>at it. Is the benefit going to outweigh the tiny blip,
<v Speaker 1>And I find that magnesium does help me relax, It
<v Speaker 1>does help me sleep. When I've traveled and forgotten to
<v Speaker 1>take my magnesium with me, I did notice a difference.
<v Speaker 1>And you said you noticed a difference when you ran
<v Speaker 1>out of magnesium breakthrough and had to take a different brand.
<v Speaker 1>So you just have to decide what's really important here.
<v Speaker 1>Good sleep is really important, right, So I would risk
<v Speaker 1>that little blip. I also brush my teeth, even though
<v Speaker 1>it has a little possibility of a blip from the
<v Speaker 1>toothpaste flavor. I don't even worry about that. It's another
<v Speaker 1>similar kind of a thing.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I was going to actually suggest that, like if
<v Speaker 2>you're concerned, if you're really concerned about it, especially if
<v Speaker 2>you're like doing an alternate day fasting and you are
<v Speaker 2>doing a like a complete fast and you haven't disrupted
<v Speaker 2>your fast at all, and you're worried that you know
<v Speaker 2>it might make you feel bad or make you whatever.
<v Speaker 2>Just take it when you brush your teeth, Just have
<v Speaker 2>it happen all at like one time, and you know,
<v Speaker 2>it's kind of like in healthcare and all kinds of businesses, government.
<v Speaker 2>It's the whole risk benefit assessment. You know, you look
<v Speaker 2>at the risk, you look at the benefit, and you
<v Speaker 2>determine does the benefit outweigh the risk of taking it.
<v Speaker 2>And you know, sleep is so so important for all
<v Speaker 2>of our health processes and our you know, ability to
<v Speaker 2>manage stress and everything else, that if it helps you sleep,
<v Speaker 2>take it. And I just wanted to point out too,
<v Speaker 2>some people are concerned about taking it too early because
<v Speaker 2>they think it's going to make them fall asleep before
<v Speaker 2>they went to.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yet it's not.
<v Speaker 2>It's not a sleep aid. No, it's not going to
<v Speaker 2>make you sleepy. It's just sort of helps your body,
<v Speaker 2>your mind, your brain, your nerves, your muscles relax.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, Like, for example, they make magnesium creams and magnesium
<v Speaker 1>oil that you can rub on your body and it
<v Speaker 1>can help your body relax or like it's even like
<v Speaker 1>cramping or something, rub it on your Crampsal, yes, exactly exactly.
<v Speaker 1>But it doesn't like put you out like a sleeping pill.
<v Speaker 1>It's not like that at all. Right, So you know, I,
<v Speaker 1>I personally don't worry about it. Now. I wouldn't take
<v Speaker 1>their their magnesium beverage that they that they have that's
<v Speaker 1>of a lot of flavor or that's going to be
<v Speaker 1>a lot more than a little tiny blip. You know,
<v Speaker 1>we don't recommend that magnesium beverage at night. They're sleep
<v Speaker 1>aids that they have like that. I wouldn't take a
<v Speaker 1>magnesium gummy because that's going to have You're trying to
<v Speaker 1>find the smallest little effect thing you're going to have,
<v Speaker 1>and that little capsule is not going to make that
<v Speaker 1>big of a difference, right, Yeah. Sometimes, can I answer
<v Speaker 1>one other question about magnesium breakthrough. Yeah, since we're on
<v Speaker 1>the topic, sometimes people will ask about the loading doses
<v Speaker 1>when you order it for the first time. I guess
<v Speaker 1>they send you some paperwork with it. I don't know.
<v Speaker 1>And it suggested card suggested loading. I never did that.
<v Speaker 1>I never did that. I just started. I've just always
<v Speaker 1>have taken to a day. So do you need to
<v Speaker 1>do that. I don't think you need to do that.
<v Speaker 2>It's up to you. Still, I did it, did you?
<v Speaker 2>I did not? And if you want to know why,
<v Speaker 2>you would do it. Way back when we recorded the
<v Speaker 2>Life Lessons podcast, we actually interviewed one of the CEO's
<v Speaker 2>of by Optimizer, and he talked about the loading dose
<v Speaker 2>on it, and the purpose of it is if your
<v Speaker 2>body is severely magnesium deficient, which like eighty percent of
<v Speaker 2>the world likely is. That's what the current research says
<v Speaker 2>that it helps get your body. It helps get your
<v Speaker 2>levels up right so that you feel a difference therapeutically
<v Speaker 2>from the magnesium sooner. But it can come with some
<v Speaker 2>GI distress, and you know a lot of people, one
<v Speaker 2>of the things that can tell you that you are
<v Speaker 2>actually magnesium deficient is if you start taking magnesium and
<v Speaker 2>it causes GI distress, you're either a taking the wrong
<v Speaker 2>kind of magnesium because some actually have a laxative effect,
<v Speaker 2>or your body really needs it, and so when you
<v Speaker 2>put too much in at once, that could be your
<v Speaker 2>body can't use it all. So in that case, you
<v Speaker 2>would want to build up slowly, which is kind of
<v Speaker 2>the opposite the loading dose. But that's another reason why
<v Speaker 2>you wouldn't want to just take it for like thirty
<v Speaker 2>days and say, oh, that didn't help my sleep at all.
<v Speaker 2>Don't want to take that. You'd want to give it
<v Speaker 2>longer so that you can actually build it up in
<v Speaker 2>your system and start to see the benefits from it.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and also when I read the book The Magnesium
<v Speaker 1>Miracle years ago. I mean it was a long long
<v Speaker 1>time ago. She talks about how if you take more
<v Speaker 1>magnesium than your body needs, your body excreets it through
<v Speaker 1>your digestive system. There's the diarrhea, so back off the
<v Speaker 1>dose if that happens. And magnesium citrate is the one
<v Speaker 1>that's especially known as being a laxative if you overdo
<v Speaker 1>it right, but too much magnesium is not going to
<v Speaker 1>be dangerous. Like I said, your body's just going to
<v Speaker 1>expel it. You might have diarrhea, so you'll feel it.
<v Speaker 2>All right. Now we've done a little housekeeping there, let's
<v Speaker 2>go into a celebration. We have a celebration today from
<v Speaker 2>gabes from New Zealand, Hijen and Sherry. I've been quiet
<v Speaker 2>of late. Last time I shared, I was feeling a
<v Speaker 2>bit in limbo waa for my body to be fat adapted,
<v Speaker 2>and also waiting for the mental clarity in the fat
<v Speaker 2>adapted state. Well, I still don't know if I have
<v Speaker 2>achieved either, but I'm writing in to share a celebration.
<v Speaker 2>Since starting interment basting in July of twenty twenty four,
<v Speaker 2>I have finally become in tune with my body it's
<v Speaker 2>only taken fifty six years. Better late than ever. I
<v Speaker 2>finally realize my body doesn't like eating late. At the beginning,
<v Speaker 2>the SI would sometimes happen just when I was about
<v Speaker 2>to eat dinner, and clearly I'd eaten too much throughout
<v Speaker 2>the day prior to my main meal. So now I
<v Speaker 2>have it sorted. I open with a sweet treat. Then
<v Speaker 2>an hour later or so, I have two pieces of fruit.
<v Speaker 2>I eat different fruit each day, never the same two
<v Speaker 2>days in a row, and I usually put some yogurt
<v Speaker 2>on top, and it's so very good. Then dinner is
<v Speaker 2>a minimum of three vegetables, different every day, same as
<v Speaker 2>the fruit, lots of color, good for the gut, which
<v Speaker 2>I've been working on since being sick for some months
<v Speaker 2>early in twenty twenty four, along with the jeez. I
<v Speaker 2>have a protein about a palm size, and sometimes I
<v Speaker 2>put a carbi vegetable on my plate, but quite often
<v Speaker 2>I don't eat it. I do my protein and veggies
<v Speaker 2>a priority, and if I feel I may need extra,
<v Speaker 2>I'll sometimes eat it. I close my window and I
<v Speaker 2>feel satisfied. My window is either four or five hours
<v Speaker 2>each day. I open between eleven and noon, and depending
<v Speaker 2>on When I open, I'll close it either four or
<v Speaker 2>five pm. This is the most structured I've been in
<v Speaker 2>my whole life, and to be honest, it's liberating. Pushing
<v Speaker 2>for mental clarity and fat ab adaptation have taken a
<v Speaker 2>back seat. I love this lifestyle. I find it very easy.
<v Speaker 2>And now I finally have introduced four walks a week,
<v Speaker 2>which I'm finding hard, but I'm getting out there anyway,
<v Speaker 2>all part of the healing plan for my health. A
<v Speaker 2>big thank you to you both for your support through
<v Speaker 2>the podcasts and your books. I finally feel free and happy.
<v Speaker 1>That is awesome. I have a few things I want
<v Speaker 1>to comment on from there. First of all, I would
<v Speaker 1>be very surprised if you're not fat adapted me to
<v Speaker 1>this point, since you have a four to five hour
<v Speaker 1>window every day and it doesn't sound like you're over
<v Speaker 1>eating in your window, so I would be very surprised
<v Speaker 1>if you're not. I want to point out something that
<v Speaker 1>is working very well for you, Gabes, but would not
<v Speaker 1>work for me, and that is opening with a sweet
<v Speaker 1>treat and then fruit and then yogurt.
<v Speaker 2>I was going to say the same thing that would
<v Speaker 2>not work for my body at all, so but it
<v Speaker 2>sounds like it's working great. It does actually feels great.
<v Speaker 2>It was doctor Bert Herring perhaps that suggested this at
<v Speaker 2>one point, that like, if you are a person who
<v Speaker 2>really really wants something sweet to eat, to have it
<v Speaker 2>at the beginning of your eating window and not the end.
<v Speaker 2>I always thought that was the worst advice, but over
<v Speaker 2>the years we have heard from people who have tried
<v Speaker 2>this in it yeah, really really works for them.
<v Speaker 1>Like I can't open juwe with juicing, which I don't
<v Speaker 1>do jeezing. I went on a juicing kick. You remember
<v Speaker 1>your share You're like, I'll take your juice or when
<v Speaker 1>you're done with it. You knew it was gonna be
<v Speaker 1>a fad for me, And it wasn't because I was
<v Speaker 1>trying to lose weight. It was for the health benefits.
<v Speaker 1>I'd watched something I was like, this looks like such
<v Speaker 1>a great way to get into nutrients.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>I couldn't open with the juice. It made me. You know,
<v Speaker 1>even as a kid, I couldn't eat sweets, made me
<v Speaker 1>have a crash if I eat sweet, Like I didn't
<v Speaker 1>ever have a doughnut growing up.
<v Speaker 2>For you just knew you didn't feel well that way.
<v Speaker 1>No, it didn't make me feel good at all. That's
<v Speaker 1>that reactive hypoglycemia kind of a thing. So I can't
<v Speaker 1>open that way, but I can have it at the
<v Speaker 1>end of my window or after a savory meal, I
<v Speaker 1>can have it no problem. So this is that biomin individuality.
<v Speaker 2>M hm, yep, it sure is.
<v Speaker 1>So.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I just thought this was This was such a win.
<v Speaker 2>I love that she said that having a structure of
<v Speaker 2>eating window is liberating.
<v Speaker 1>I love that too, and I made note of it
<v Speaker 1>as well.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. Yeah, I do want to say though, you know, Gabes,
<v Speaker 2>you said that you're pushing from mental clarity, and you know, yes,
<v Speaker 2>a lot of us feel that way when we're fasting,
<v Speaker 2>especially when we're deep in the fasted state, we sort
<v Speaker 2>of get some mental clarity, we get sort of clear headed,
<v Speaker 2>motivated thinking.
<v Speaker 1>But I don't think.
<v Speaker 2>That's true for everybody. Now, I do want to say that,
<v Speaker 2>you know, you are eating like really great healthy meals
<v Speaker 2>and whatever, but you're also opening your window in the
<v Speaker 2>middle of the day eleven am.
<v Speaker 1>That's kind of early, yeah, right.
<v Speaker 2>So you're not spending the majority of the day in
<v Speaker 2>the fasted state, and so I know this is working
<v Speaker 2>for you, But if at some point you really want
<v Speaker 2>to seek out that sort of mental clarity that we
<v Speaker 2>all rave about during the day. Mine doesn't hit until
<v Speaker 2>around lunchtime what would be a typical lunchtime. So you know, someday,
<v Speaker 2>if you have something going on later or whatever, push
<v Speaker 2>that window later and see if you feel that mental
<v Speaker 2>clarity in the afternoon, because I bet you notice it.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, So, because after you've eaten, you're not gonna have
<v Speaker 1>the fasted mental clarity, right right, So if you are
<v Speaker 1>having it, it's probably happening around nine am, you know, early,
<v Speaker 1>and then you eat and then there's the end of that.
<v Speaker 2>I wouldn't notice it at nine am because I'm like
<v Speaker 2>a slow person to wake up, and I'm sluggish in
<v Speaker 2>the morning anyways. My body doesn't kick in until you know,
<v Speaker 2>later in the day anyway. So I just wanted to
<v Speaker 2>throw that out there. If you really are seeking that
<v Speaker 2>sort of mental clarity, that kind of extra burst of energy,
<v Speaker 2>try pushing your window later and see if that works
<v Speaker 2>for you. Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>And also that she mentioned that she's having finding it
<v Speaker 1>hard with the walks, and I wonder why, Like I
<v Speaker 1>wonder what time of the day she's walking, what's hard
<v Speaker 1>about it? That would be interesting.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, unless it's just a habit maybe, and then the
<v Speaker 2>more you do it, the easier it gains.
<v Speaker 1>That could be it, That could be it all right. Now,
<v Speaker 1>we have a question from a listener. This is from
<v Speaker 1>trying to conceive in California, Hygen and Share. I'm a
<v Speaker 1>forty year old woman who has been fast and clean
<v Speaker 1>since November of twenty twenty one. I am a healthy weight,
<v Speaker 1>typically ranging from one hundred and twenty five to one
<v Speaker 1>hundred and thirty pounds, and I'm five four. I lead
<v Speaker 1>a healthy lifestyle, strength training three hours a week, long
<v Speaker 1>walks the other days of the week, and I generally
<v Speaker 1>eat very healthy. I am whole foods plant based ninety
<v Speaker 1>percent of the time. I recently removed my IUD and
<v Speaker 1>would like to try conceiving for the first time. I've
<v Speaker 1>read all of your books and others about women in
<v Speaker 1>fasting and listen to your podcasts religiously, but I haven't
<v Speaker 1>found much about intermittent fasting and fertility. My labs are normal,
<v Speaker 1>so I don't need to worry at this point anyway
<v Speaker 1>about bringing my glucose into a normal range. I usually
<v Speaker 1>fast for sixteen to eighteen hours, and I have an
<v Speaker 1>eating window of five to seven hours, although I throw
<v Speaker 1>in some longer fasts and shorter windows from time to time.
<v Speaker 1>I have recently cut way back on alcohol and am
<v Speaker 1>trying to get seven to eight hours of sleep each night.
<v Speaker 1>Here are my questions. I've read a lot about how
<v Speaker 1>I need to be mindful of my stress levels when
<v Speaker 1>trying to conceive. I'm a school administrator. Oh my gosh,
<v Speaker 1>that is so stressful. That's I can't think of a
<v Speaker 1>more stressful job except like air traffic controller or medical
<v Speaker 1>field all of those thanks police, then a.
<v Speaker 2>Stool administrators sort of like air traffic and grillers.
<v Speaker 1>True, it's true.
<v Speaker 2>Mixed with cat herder.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so she said. So my job can be pretty
<v Speaker 1>stressful as is. Should I avoid longer fasts to avoid
<v Speaker 1>adding an additional layer of stress to my body? I
<v Speaker 1>usually can feel myself go into fat burning mode as
<v Speaker 1>I experience hunger pains around hours thirteen to fifteen, but
<v Speaker 1>then it goes away. If trying to conceive, should I
<v Speaker 1>start opening my window as soon as I experience real
<v Speaker 1>hunger after fasting so long, I definitely know what hunger
<v Speaker 1>feels like. I know it will pass after ten to
<v Speaker 1>fifteen minutes, but wondering if this could be causing my
<v Speaker 1>body to think it's not a good time for conception.
<v Speaker 1>Do we want to talk about that question first?
<v Speaker 2>Okay, well, actually just finish reading that I think because
<v Speaker 2>it's all good. Okay, good, okay, my answer all right?
<v Speaker 1>Since I just removed my IUD, I am waiting for
<v Speaker 1>my period to start once again. I have stopped all
<v Speaker 1>medications other than my magnesium bioptimizers and prenatal vitamins. Are
<v Speaker 1>there any fasting regiments or foods you would recommend to
<v Speaker 1>jumpstart my hormones? Having been on some form of birth
<v Speaker 1>control for over half my life, I'm looking forward to
<v Speaker 1>experiencing my body as is. Thank you so much. You're
<v Speaker 1>both such an inspiration to me, and I appreciate any
<v Speaker 1>insights you can provide.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, So I think what you're doing right now you're
<v Speaker 2>doing it sounds to me like you're doing everything right.
<v Speaker 2>Does fasting feel stressful to you? It doesn't to me.
<v Speaker 2>So you asked whether or not you should avoid longer
<v Speaker 2>fast to avoid an additional layer of stress to your body.
<v Speaker 2>That's going to be very individual. If you feel stressed,
<v Speaker 2>if you feel like your body is under stress, and
<v Speaker 2>you feel like fasting longer than sixteen to eighteen hours
<v Speaker 2>is causing stress on your body, then they're.
<v Speaker 1>Actually she usually fasts sixteen to eighteen right, So you know,
<v Speaker 1>it sounds like you're keeping a very you know, moderate
<v Speaker 1>I would call a five to seven hour window a
<v Speaker 1>moderate window.
<v Speaker 2>I don't feel like that's super restrictive at all. No,
<v Speaker 2>you know, if you want to throw in a twenty
<v Speaker 2>hour fast here and there, I don't think that's going
<v Speaker 2>to cause you any problem. There's a doctor that Jen interviewed,
<v Speaker 2>doctor Cecily Ganhart. She is a fertility specialist. Funny enough,
<v Speaker 2>she actually works and practices in my hometown, Overland Park, Kisas.
<v Speaker 2>So she actually uses ADF and keto for her patients
<v Speaker 2>to get their hormones balanced to help them conceive. So
<v Speaker 2>I feel like if longer fasts were something that she
<v Speaker 2>was worried about causing stress us on the body and
<v Speaker 2>impacting fertility, that wouldn't be a protocol that she would
<v Speaker 2>recommend to her patients. Now, she's often working with patients
<v Speaker 2>who have, you know, conditions such as pcos, but in general,
<v Speaker 2>she's working with women with fertility issues of all sorts
<v Speaker 2>as far as balancing your hormones. All specials are going
<v Speaker 2>to tell you to eat lots and lots of plant foods.
<v Speaker 2>It helps your body process your hormones efficiently, it helps
<v Speaker 2>your liver process hormones efficiently. And it sounds like you're
<v Speaker 2>already doing that. You've cut back on alcohol, so it
<v Speaker 2>sounds like you're doing everything right. And I know it
<v Speaker 2>can take you a few months to get your body
<v Speaker 2>balanced back out after removing an IUD or stopping birth
<v Speaker 2>control pills. And then this is just for me to
<v Speaker 2>you you are forty years old, that would make you
<v Speaker 2>a geriatric pregnancy. As much as I hate to say that, warning.
<v Speaker 1>Is just not good.
<v Speaker 2>No it's not. I have a friend who's thirty seven
<v Speaker 2>and pregnant and she's a geriatric pregnancy. I mean, there's
<v Speaker 2>nothing geriatric about her, so right anyway, I would definitely
<v Speaker 2>just check in with if you can see a fertility
<v Speaker 2>specialist after a couple of months, like give your body
<v Speaker 2>time to balance everything out after having your id IUD removed,
<v Speaker 2>and just see where you're at with all that, because
<v Speaker 2>I wouldn't want you to wait too long. And that
<v Speaker 2>has nothing to do with fasting your questions. I just
<v Speaker 2>know from experience and talking with women in healthcare and
<v Speaker 2>following a friend of mine who's struggled with fertility, so
<v Speaker 2>it's never a bad idea just to talk to a
<v Speaker 2>fertility specialist when you are getting older and your eggs
<v Speaker 2>are getting less plentiful and that sort of thing. But
<v Speaker 2>I think you're doing everything right and I wish you
<v Speaker 2>all the luck you have. Anything to add in, Yeah, I.
<v Speaker 1>Was going to mention the fact that she's forty and
<v Speaker 1>that she might want to talk to somebody who's a
<v Speaker 1>specialist and that sort of thing, because.
<v Speaker 2>Perimental plause can start and again in your thirties, but
<v Speaker 2>it usually starts around forty to forty four, and that
<v Speaker 2>means that you're going you know, a normal woman at
<v Speaker 2>the age of forty is going to start having some
<v Speaker 2>hormonal changes. Do even like pogesterone can start to happen,
<v Speaker 2>and when you have insufficient progesterone then you can't. It
<v Speaker 2>can impact conception and actually impact your ability to maintain
<v Speaker 2>a pregnancy, right, So being proactive always pays off, And
<v Speaker 2>so I would really just encourage you to talk to
<v Speaker 2>a fertility specialist and just see where you're at with
<v Speaker 2>all that they can check your hormones, they can make
<v Speaker 2>recommendations for you.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that's exactly where I would start, because you know,
<v Speaker 1>we wish you well with that, and it's all just
<v Speaker 1>really going to depend on the state that your body
<v Speaker 1>and your hormones are in.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, trying to conceive in California. Write in, keep us posted,
<v Speaker 2>let us know how things work out for you. All right,
<v Speaker 2>we have one from frustrated in California. There we go again,
<v Speaker 2>she says. Hello Jenners Shery. I'm a third eight year
<v Speaker 2>old female living in majestic northern California that as a
<v Speaker 2>part of the country I've never been to and always
<v Speaker 2>wanted to go to. I started my IF journey in
<v Speaker 2>May of twenty twenty and lost fifteen pounds. I saw
<v Speaker 2>a major body recomposition, and I looked lean and toned
<v Speaker 2>at a higher weight than I would have ever expected,
<v Speaker 2>to a solid one hundred and forty five pounds at
<v Speaker 2>five point seven. That put me in the healthy weight range,
<v Speaker 2>and I was happy with my results and able to
<v Speaker 2>live a sustainable and flexible lifestyle. My fasting plan was
<v Speaker 2>generally twenty four, but I liked flexibility and I would
<v Speaker 2>vary between eighteen and twenty two hours of fasting lengths,
<v Speaker 2>always keeping my eating windows between three to five hours.
<v Speaker 2>I maintained until recently, and I truly believe in the
<v Speaker 2>set point theory. Based on my experience. I was able
<v Speaker 2>to indulge at times and see myself fall back to
<v Speaker 2>one hundred and forty five pounds by simply getting back
<v Speaker 2>to my normal routine. It was a no brainer. But
<v Speaker 2>these past few months have been different. The holiday season
<v Speaker 2>plus a couple of vacations threw me off my routine
<v Speaker 2>and I struggled to get it back. I was having
<v Speaker 2>some wind creep and comfort eating way too often. This
<v Speaker 2>struggle went on for about three months. I've since tightened
<v Speaker 2>things back up and have been feeling like myself again,
<v Speaker 2>But sadly, I've put on fifteen pounds thanks to body recomposition.
<v Speaker 2>I look very different from the way I did before
<v Speaker 2>I ever began fasting, even at that same weight, but
<v Speaker 2>I am desperate to get back to my comfortable, healthy
<v Speaker 2>one hundred and forty five pounds, and my old habits
<v Speaker 2>don't seem to be taking the extra pounds off. I've
<v Speaker 2>started weighing daily and recording my weekly average again like
<v Speaker 2>I was doing in twenty twenty, and I'm terrified that
<v Speaker 2>I've changed my set point and will have to struggle
<v Speaker 2>to get back to my previous weight because the scale
<v Speaker 2>doesn't seem to be budging. Please help, I'm afraid I'm
<v Speaker 2>going to lose hope and be stuck here forever. Thank
<v Speaker 2>you for any tips or advice. Love to you both.
<v Speaker 2>Also some additional info. I practice clean fasting, having black
<v Speaker 2>espresso in the mornings and usually break my fast around
<v Speaker 2>two or three in the afternoon. I've experimented with ADF
<v Speaker 2>with a five hundred calorie down day when I first
<v Speaker 2>started IF, but I found that even if I consumed
<v Speaker 2>all of my five hundred calories close to bedtime, I
<v Speaker 2>still had very disrupted sleep, and so I decided that
<v Speaker 2>wasn't an approach for me. As far as exercise goes,
<v Speaker 2>I've always been active, but I've found that my weight
<v Speaker 2>seems unaffected by exercise, so I don't necessarily factor it
<v Speaker 2>into my weight loss or game. All right, jin what
<v Speaker 2>you got for her?
<v Speaker 1>All right? So I wish I knew how long you'd
<v Speaker 1>been weighing daily with weekly averaging since you started back,
<v Speaker 1>because that's the part that makes it really really hard
<v Speaker 1>for me to advise you on. Like if you just
<v Speaker 1>started weighing daily with weekly averaging, you know, within the
<v Speaker 1>past couple of weeks, then you know, I you maybe
<v Speaker 1>haven't given it enough time if you've been doing this
<v Speaker 1>for like three months though already. And but I tid Okay,
<v Speaker 1>let me let's do some backwards math. Okay, so yeah,
<v Speaker 1>the holiday season.
<v Speaker 2>Let me let me just fill you in a little bit.
<v Speaker 2>I do remember, and I meant to put a note
<v Speaker 2>she wrote in right around the middle of January.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, Okay, So if she wrote in in the middle
<v Speaker 1>of January and she said that she put on weight
<v Speaker 1>over the holiday season plus vacations, the holiday window creep
<v Speaker 1>plus window creep, the holiday season had only been over
<v Speaker 1>for a couple weeks when she wrote in my hunches,
<v Speaker 1>you're just gonna need more time. You know, based on
<v Speaker 1>your smart BMI, based on your age, your height, your weight,
<v Speaker 1>you're in the healthy weight range at one forty five.
<v Speaker 1>But you're also at the healthy weight range at one sixty,
<v Speaker 1>which would be you know, if you've put on fifteen pounds,
<v Speaker 1>that would you're doing the math that would put you
<v Speaker 1>at one sixty. So I understand that you would like
<v Speaker 1>to get back down to where you were, but I
<v Speaker 1>think it just might take some time. Keep doing the
<v Speaker 1>daily weighing with the weekly averaging, see what happens over time.
<v Speaker 1>Really think about your food choices, think about how you
<v Speaker 1>were eating before this blip occurred, and be very honest
<v Speaker 1>and see if anything has changed. For example, I had
<v Speaker 1>some fluff show up at one point as maybe I
<v Speaker 1>don't know twenty twenty one. I don't know twenty nineteen.
<v Speaker 1>I can't remember when it was. It must have been
<v Speaker 1>twenty nineteen because I was traveling. It was a pre pandemic, okay,
<v Speaker 1>twenty nineteen, and I was like, why am I getting
<v Speaker 1>a little fluffy? Well, I had started eating cheese plates
<v Speaker 1>every day, big cheese plates to open my window. It
<v Speaker 1>was after i'd been to New York, and I went
<v Speaker 1>in October of twenty nineteen, so that makes sense. I've
<v Speaker 1>been to New York. I'd been eating cheese plates every day.
<v Speaker 1>I'm like, I think it's all the cheese. So I
<v Speaker 1>was like, what's different. So I stopped having cheese plates
<v Speaker 1>as my window opener and got back to the point
<v Speaker 1>that I didn't feel fluffy anymore. So really think about
<v Speaker 1>what could possibly be different with your eating window and
<v Speaker 1>is it the same as you were eating before you
<v Speaker 1>had the before you had the window creete, before you
<v Speaker 1>had the extra fluff. Now let's talk about the idea
<v Speaker 1>of ADF and I know that you experimented with it
<v Speaker 1>when you first started. If and even if you had
<v Speaker 1>all you know your your downday meal close to bedtime,
<v Speaker 1>you still had very disrupted sleep. It might be what
<v Speaker 1>you were choosing. For example, if I had bacon and
<v Speaker 1>eggs as a down day meal, I would still be
<v Speaker 1>in deep kutosis and I would struggle to sleep. I
<v Speaker 1>have trouble sleeping in deep ketosis. But if I had
<v Speaker 1>a big baked potato, do something with starchy carbs, then
<v Speaker 1>I might be able to sleep great. So think about
<v Speaker 1>what you tried, because you might You might find that
<v Speaker 1>what you choose for your down day meal could make
<v Speaker 1>a difference. And again I wouldn't go straight to ADF.
<v Speaker 1>I would give it a little bit more time. Really
<v Speaker 1>think about is there something different versus before, like me
<v Speaker 1>and my cheese plates. If the answer is no, there
<v Speaker 1>is nothing different, then you may want to give ADF
<v Speaker 1>a try. If you know a month of daily waits
<v Speaker 1>with weekly averaging, and you're not seeing any kind of
<v Speaker 1>downward trend. And also, really think about how your clothes
<v Speaker 1>are fitting.
<v Speaker 2>I wanted to say that as well.
<v Speaker 1>You know, if your clothes still fits, then that you know,
<v Speaker 1>I would the goal would be for your clothes that
<v Speaker 1>you had been wearing to fit you comfortably again. And
<v Speaker 1>so rather than worrying about what skill number that happens at,
<v Speaker 1>just go buy Are my clothes feeling good?
<v Speaker 2>YEP? I agree? I agree too, And it's hard to
<v Speaker 2>tell too when she said she started weighing daily and
<v Speaker 2>recording her weekly average, again like, I don't know what
<v Speaker 2>she's been doing with the scale in that missing period
<v Speaker 2>of time. So you know it's possible that you you
<v Speaker 2>say that your body is different right than it was
<v Speaker 2>at like one hundred and sixty prior to IF. Now
<v Speaker 2>you're at one hundred and sixty with IF, and you
<v Speaker 2>said your body is different, So if you have more
<v Speaker 2>muscle mass now, you know it's possible. I went for
<v Speaker 2>fifteen months of fasting and I thought nothing was changing.
<v Speaker 2>I stopped. I was like at pretty much my maintenance
<v Speaker 2>weight that I had had as a weight watcher's leader,
<v Speaker 2>and so I just really was like, Okay, I'm there,
<v Speaker 2>and I stopped really paying much attention to what my
<v Speaker 2>body was doing. I stopped taking progress photos, I stopped measuring.
<v Speaker 2>I was just doing what I do, rebounding, doing a
<v Speaker 2>little rowing, doing some yoga. And I felt like like,
<v Speaker 2>I actually said, I don't think fasting is going to
<v Speaker 2>help me get any smaller than I already am. And
<v Speaker 2>then I took progress photos and I actually weighed more
<v Speaker 2>in my fifteen month post clean fast pictures than I
<v Speaker 2>did fifteen months earlier when I switched from dirty fasting
<v Speaker 2>to clean fasting. But my body was significantly different and
<v Speaker 2>I weighed more.
<v Speaker 1>So explain how it was different. Oh gosh, just toned tighter,
<v Speaker 1>You were smaller inside.
<v Speaker 2>I was at a higher size, at a higher weight.
<v Speaker 2>And it's a picture I share in the face in
<v Speaker 2>the DDD community. I used to share it in the
<v Speaker 2>Facebook community years ago because it blew my mind. And
<v Speaker 2>so we see this all the time. Jen has a
<v Speaker 2>picture that she shares of somebody who was fasting, and
<v Speaker 2>her name was Aarica. She had not lost a significant
<v Speaker 2>amount of weight, but she had been posting progress photos
<v Speaker 2>of a pair of pants that she could not zip,
<v Speaker 2>and then four pictures later she can zip the pants
<v Speaker 2>and she had not lost any significant weight. So try
<v Speaker 2>not to get hung up on this scale so much
<v Speaker 2>as like, how do you feel? How do you feel
<v Speaker 2>in your clothes? Are your clothes fitting? And in that
<v Speaker 2>sort of thing, and just get back to your healthy habits.
<v Speaker 1>Exactly all right, Now it's time for our segment called
<v Speaker 1>What's Your Why. Most of us begin intermittent fasting with
<v Speaker 1>weight loss in mind, and that is a great reason
<v Speaker 1>to get star if you need to lose weight. But
<v Speaker 1>there's so much more to what intermittent fasting can do
<v Speaker 1>for us beyond weight loss, and I genuinely believe in
<v Speaker 1>your why is deeper than weight loss alone. You're more
<v Speaker 1>likely to find long term success because you view intermittent
<v Speaker 1>fasting as a healthy lifestyle.
<v Speaker 2>And this week we have a wife from Michelle and Colorado.
<v Speaker 2>Michelle wrote, my why is to age healthfully, to be
<v Speaker 2>active and feel strong. I have reversed insulin resistance, cured
<v Speaker 2>trigger finger, lost body fat through body recomposition, and overall
<v Speaker 2>feel and look better in my clothing as my body
<v Speaker 2>is now very different. Also, mentally, I don't think about
<v Speaker 2>food all day. Finally, intermittent fasting alerted me to some
<v Speaker 2>health issues that I'd been investigating for the last eight months.
<v Speaker 2>Had I not been doing intermint fasting, I would have
<v Speaker 2>never known.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. I love that. That's my why as well age healthfully,
<v Speaker 1>be active and feel strong. Have you ever watched that
<v Speaker 1>doctor Mark mattson TED talk from twenty four.
<v Speaker 2>Uh maybe years ago? And I saw you shared it
<v Speaker 2>and I was gonna watch it, but I didn't get it.
<v Speaker 1>Well, I don't know if I ever watched it. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>like I really don't he for anybody who's listening with everyone,
<v Speaker 1>you're all listening.
<v Speaker 2>For all of you who are listening.
<v Speaker 1>If you go to YouTube and just search for Mark
<v Speaker 1>mattson TED Talk, it pops up.
<v Speaker 2>He did it.
<v Speaker 1>Looks like he did the TED Talk at Johns Hopkins,
<v Speaker 1>which is where he worked, and he did it in
<v Speaker 1>twenty fourteen. That was a long time ago. Twenty fourteen
<v Speaker 1>is the year that I started as an intermittent faster
<v Speaker 1>and never stopped. And it so he actually released this
<v Speaker 1>TED talk before I was doing intermittent fasting consistently. And
<v Speaker 1>you know, he's a neurological researcher. It is such a
<v Speaker 1>good it's like just under seventeen minutes. Everybody, I would
<v Speaker 1>encourage you to listen to it because you know what
<v Speaker 1>he said in twenty fourteen, you know, based on his
<v Speaker 1>research with the brain. Brain. Hell, it's just amazing. He's
<v Speaker 1>been doing this research for so long and he's the
<v Speaker 1>one that has written the very best journal articles for
<v Speaker 1>the New England Journal of Medicine summarizing all of the
<v Speaker 1>health benefits of intermittent fasting. He wrote a book about
<v Speaker 1>intermittent fasting. He came on intermittent fasting stories, but he
<v Speaker 1>has been living the intermittent fasting lifestyle since the nineteen
<v Speaker 1>eighties because of the health benefits. He just does it
<v Speaker 1>because it's such a healthy way to live and his
<v Speaker 1>research on the brain is what got him into it.
<v Speaker 2>Anyway, Well, as soon as we finished recording, I will
<v Speaker 2>look that up and I'll just drop a link in
<v Speaker 2>show notes. Okay, but it's really I make it easy
<v Speaker 2>for it.
<v Speaker 1>It's super easy to find anyway.
<v Speaker 2>All right. So we have a question from Miserable Migraines
<v Speaker 2>in Michigan. I started to clean fasting in September twenty
<v Speaker 2>twenty four and I average a four hour eating window.
<v Speaker 2>I have lost twenty five pounds and my BMI just
<v Speaker 2>crossed out of overweight and into the normal range for
<v Speaker 2>my height. I feel really great, and almost everyway I
<v Speaker 2>have more energy. I like how I look in my clothes,
<v Speaker 2>and my back and hip pain are greatly improved. I
<v Speaker 2>say almost every way, because I'm having one problem. In
<v Speaker 2>December of twenty twenty four, I started experiencing migraines once
<v Speaker 2>or twice a week. I never had migraines before, and
<v Speaker 2>these things are the real deal. I get sensory auras
<v Speaker 2>that affect my vision, have numbness and tingling in one
<v Speaker 2>side of my body, and sometimes lose the ability to
<v Speaker 2>form words before the headache starts. I am working with
<v Speaker 2>my doctor to try to identify possible triggers, but a
<v Speaker 2>common recommendation for migraine experts is to eat frequent meals
<v Speaker 2>and not to fast. I do not want to give
<v Speaker 2>up my eye of lifestyle, and I keep reminding myself
<v Speaker 2>that correlation does not equal causation, but I do have
<v Speaker 2>to admit that the timing is suspicious. After forty four
<v Speaker 2>years with no migraines, I made a big lifestyle change
<v Speaker 2>and I am constantly plagued by them two months later.
<v Speaker 2>My migraines most frequently start late in my fasting period
<v Speaker 2>hours seventeen to nineteen, so they do coincide with when
<v Speaker 2>I happen to have gone the longest with the food.
<v Speaker 2>I know that you can't tell me what it is
<v Speaker 2>or isn't causing my migraines, but I have two questions
<v Speaker 2>for you. Have you ever encountered any other if first,
<v Speaker 2>who experienced migraines starting or worstening after starting fasting. If
<v Speaker 2>you tell me that you've never heard of this happening
<v Speaker 2>and all the thousands of fasters you've interacted with, it
<v Speaker 2>will help me remain steadfast in my denial that the
<v Speaker 2>fasting could be the trigger. If I do have to
<v Speaker 2>stop basting for a few months to see the migraines improve,
<v Speaker 2>will it be difficult for me to restart fasting again later.
<v Speaker 2>I found the adjustment to if challenging hunger, crankiness, fatigue,
<v Speaker 2>headaches of the non migraine variety, and I'm not eager
<v Speaker 2>to have to go through it again. Now that I've
<v Speaker 2>become fat adapted, I would like to maintain the ability
<v Speaker 2>to flip the switch even if I don't use it
<v Speaker 2>for a few months. Thanks in advance taking the time
<v Speaker 2>to read and respond. I enjoyed learning from you both.
<v Speaker 1>All Right, miserable migraines in Michigan. I'm sorry that you're
<v Speaker 1>going through that. As far as question one, we usually
<v Speaker 1>do see the opposite, Like we have heard over the
<v Speaker 1>years from a lot of people who used to have
<v Speaker 1>migraines and then they became intermittent fasters, and they had
<v Speaker 1>a much decreased number of migraines and severity was decreased,
<v Speaker 1>if not stopping completely. However, the only thing that matters
<v Speaker 1>here is your own personal study of one. Could there
<v Speaker 1>be something about fasting and your body that is causing
<v Speaker 1>you to have migraines. Yes, I can't possibly tell you
<v Speaker 1>what all those things might be because bodies are super complicated,
<v Speaker 1>But there could be something going on with you that
<v Speaker 1>triggers migraines with the fasting after your body flips the
<v Speaker 1>metabolic switch. Maybe your body doesn't make key tones normally.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, I'm just guessing there are some some ethnic groups.
<v Speaker 1>The Inuits, for example, don't make key tones the same way,
<v Speaker 1>and it was an adaptation based on the environment that
<v Speaker 1>they lived in. So I have a really probably going
<v Speaker 1>to be surprising recommendation. I do think you should stop
<v Speaker 1>fasting and see if you're getting migraines very very frequently,
<v Speaker 1>and it's always happening at the same time in your
<v Speaker 1>fast The only way to know if fasting is triggering
<v Speaker 1>them is to back off on the fasting and see
<v Speaker 1>what happens.
<v Speaker 2>I have a whole different answer.
<v Speaker 1>Do you have a whole different answer? Okay, that that
<v Speaker 1>would be my recommendation. So I can't wait to hear
<v Speaker 1>Shary's whole different answer because it all depends on why
<v Speaker 1>she's getting the migraines, right, Shary.
<v Speaker 2>And I think she needs to figure that out. Right,
<v Speaker 2>What could the fasting be affecting the migraine in a way? Yes, okay,
<v Speaker 2>But first of all, women in their forties start having
<v Speaker 2>migraines and it's hormone related. I started having migraines with aura.
<v Speaker 2>I would actually lose my vision At one time I
<v Speaker 2>thought I was having a stroke.
<v Speaker 1>That sounds awful.
<v Speaker 2>And I started having these problems when I was about
<v Speaker 2>a year and a half into fasting and had just
<v Speaker 2>switched from an eight hour window to a five hour
<v Speaker 2>window and started clean fasting and This went on for
<v Speaker 2>a couple of years now. I talked to my mom
<v Speaker 2>about it and she said, oh yeah, I started having
<v Speaker 2>problems with migraines in my forties too, so I just thought, okay,
<v Speaker 2>that's just all it is. Then I started taking bioptimizers
<v Speaker 2>magnesium breakthrough. I have never had another migraine with aura.
<v Speaker 1>Oh wow.
<v Speaker 2>On occasion will get a migraine, but I no longer
<v Speaker 2>lose my vision, and I no longer it never, no
<v Speaker 2>longer lasts for a long long time. I can take
<v Speaker 2>a tile and all and it'll go away if I
<v Speaker 2>nip it in the bud really easy. But when I
<v Speaker 2>go back and look, I have not been eating really
<v Speaker 2>nutrient dense foods, so I haven't been getting a lot
<v Speaker 2>of magnesium from you know, leafy greens and that sort
<v Speaker 2>of thing. It's what it's like if I've had a
<v Speaker 2>really busy weekend at work. I also like skip a
<v Speaker 2>night of sleep, so I don't take my magnesium before bed,
<v Speaker 2>and so I for me, I have found a connection
<v Speaker 2>between my mineral balance and migraines. And so when we
<v Speaker 2>don't eat all day, we're not getting magnesium through our
<v Speaker 2>food constantly, and so I don't know if you take
<v Speaker 2>a good quality magnesium. You know, we really like our
<v Speaker 2>magnesium through by optimizers, our magnesium breakthrough. But you can
<v Speaker 2>actually look up if you go to the American Migraine Foundation.
<v Speaker 2>They have a whole thing about magnesium and the best
<v Speaker 2>magnesium for migraines, and a lot of migraine practitioners actually
<v Speaker 2>have their patients take four hundred to six hundred milligrams
<v Speaker 2>of magnesium oxide per day. That specific blend of magnesium
<v Speaker 2>is good for migraines, is also good for like pre
<v Speaker 2>menstrual headaches. So anyway, that's something I wanted to throw
<v Speaker 2>out there, like if you might want to try try
<v Speaker 2>that and see if that helps you, and make sure
<v Speaker 2>you're not overhydrating during your fast. You're drinking too much
<v Speaker 2>water more than you need. You're flushing out the minerals
<v Speaker 2>that your body has. So that's my suggestion.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, that's a good suggestion.
<v Speaker 2>I would like to see you try to work through
<v Speaker 2>that before just giving up on fasting, because if you
<v Speaker 2>start eating all day and they go away, is it
<v Speaker 2>because you're not fasting or is it because your mineral
<v Speaker 2>balance is back?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that's a great point to try. The mineral balance first,
<v Speaker 1>and then see what happens with the fasting.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and as far as why do they tell people
<v Speaker 2>to eat all day when you have migraines. They don't
<v Speaker 2>want people to have drops in blood sugar, right, because
<v Speaker 2>that can trigger a migraine. But when we're fasting, we're
<v Speaker 2>not having those drops in blood sugar. So there's a
<v Speaker 2>difference between.
<v Speaker 1>She said it's happening at a certain point in her fast,
<v Speaker 1>So maybe she is when you're dropping her blood sugar,
<v Speaker 1>you know. Maybe maybe she's accidentally.
<v Speaker 2>Wearing a sea might be helpful. Yep, yep.
<v Speaker 1>It could be. She could be having something going on,
<v Speaker 1>and maybe she's drinking that was that brand of coffee,
<v Speaker 1>the cold brew that has the additives, and she's actually
<v Speaker 1>breaking the fast and doesn't know it, and then that
<v Speaker 1>would cause blood sugar crashes, right, that could be a
<v Speaker 1>factor as well. See, I've never had migraines. I don't
<v Speaker 1>know anything about them. It sounds poutiful.
<v Speaker 2>Yep.
<v Speaker 1>I'm really fortunate.
<v Speaker 2>I had a headache for three days last week. Migraine
<v Speaker 2>or not, I'm not sure. But it had been a really,
<v Speaker 2>really busy weekend at work before it all started, so
<v Speaker 2>It's possible that I was out of balance. But anyway,
<v Speaker 2>you're not very mineral sensitive like I am, and I
<v Speaker 2>know that there are people who are more mineral sensitive.
<v Speaker 2>For whatever reason, our bodies just need more minerals either
<v Speaker 2>we you know, our kidneys are better at filtering them
<v Speaker 2>out or whatever it is. So yeah, anytime you're having
<v Speaker 2>like kind of like headaches or dizziness, well fasting or
<v Speaker 2>something like that, my brain always goes to mineral electrolyte balance.
<v Speaker 1>So all right, So we have a question from Sarah.
<v Speaker 1>She said, about six years ago, I bought Fast Feast
<v Speaker 1>Repeat and began reading it. However, I was still breastfeeding
<v Speaker 1>and determined that it was the wrong time to start. Yes,
<v Speaker 1>for everybody, we definitely don't want to start fasting pregnant breastfeeding.
<v Speaker 1>Wait till the baby is weaned, all right, she said.
<v Speaker 1>A year or so later, I was weaning my daughter
<v Speaker 1>and really struggling with body image, so I turned to
<v Speaker 1>Google and social media in search of answers. Intermittent fasting
<v Speaker 1>popped up and I remembered I had Fast Feast Repeat
<v Speaker 1>sitting on my bookshelf. I finished it in a couple
<v Speaker 1>of days and got my whole family to read and
<v Speaker 1>join me on the twenty eight day fast start. We
<v Speaker 1>all had tremendous success. I lost those stubborn twenty pounds
<v Speaker 1>of baby weight that needed to come off in the
<v Speaker 1>first six months. I'm five ten and began around one
<v Speaker 1>hundred and sixty one pounds and got as low as
<v Speaker 1>one forty one. I thought it was going to be
<v Speaker 1>my permanent lifestyle because it really was so easy. As
<v Speaker 1>time went on, I noticed weight starting to creep back on,
<v Speaker 1>and so I kept tightening up my window and watching
<v Speaker 1>what I was eating. I began to feel tired all
<v Speaker 1>the time. I was struggling with constipation. My cycles were
<v Speaker 1>getting shorter and shorter. I was having daily heart palpitations
<v Speaker 1>and extreme foot cramping. Every night when I went to bed,
<v Speaker 1>I had joint pain that sent me to the doctor
<v Speaker 1>asking for an X ray. My doctor ordered regular labs
<v Speaker 1>as well and congratulated me on my very low ae C,
<v Speaker 1>but noticed my thyroid was super low. Right around this time,
<v Speaker 1>the holidays had arrived and I decided to take a
<v Speaker 1>little break from if. The most amazing thing happened. I
<v Speaker 1>stopped having regular heart palpitations, the feet cramps disappeared, my
<v Speaker 1>cycles became more normal and I had energy again. Also,
<v Speaker 1>the shoulder I got an X ray on stopped hurting.
<v Speaker 1>That's when I realized that IF might have been to
<v Speaker 1>blame for all of the issues I was experiencing, so
<v Speaker 1>I permanently stopped. After two years of intermittent fasting, I
<v Speaker 1>felt better, but within six months I had gained twenty
<v Speaker 1>pounds back. I then went on to try all the
<v Speaker 1>other various diets out there and had great, albeit short
<v Speaker 1>term success with a v shred coach who made custom
<v Speaker 1>carb cycling meal plants for me. I lost eighteen pounds
<v Speaker 1>and had really nice muscles. It was just too expensive
<v Speaker 1>to keep up, and without a personal coach, I kept
<v Speaker 1>falling off the macro tracking wagon. I longed for the
<v Speaker 1>days of easily keeping my weight down with IF. I
<v Speaker 1>really want to start IF again, but I want to
<v Speaker 1>make sure I don't end up with the same hormonal
<v Speaker 1>issues I had before. After doing tons of research, I
<v Speaker 1>believe I had harmed my metabolism and was dealing with
<v Speaker 1>significant nutritional deficiency. I'm wondering if having a morning eating
<v Speaker 1>window would be less stressful on my body, or maybe
<v Speaker 1>I was being too restrictive with my food and was
<v Speaker 1>literally starving myself. At the tail end of my fasting experience,
<v Speaker 1>I was opening my window around two with creamy coffee
<v Speaker 1>and a little meal, and then having dinner with my
<v Speaker 1>family around five thirty and a dessert, and closing my
<v Speaker 1>window by six thirty or seven. I really want to
<v Speaker 1>intermittent past successfully without side effects. Help. I'm back up
<v Speaker 1>to one hundred and fifty eight pounds.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, well I would.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know your age. First of all, I know
<v Speaker 1>what you're doing. I get forty when I ran it.
<v Speaker 1>C Yes, thirty, okay, I put in thirty less regardless
<v Speaker 1>your regular BMI. Let's Jen and I were both calculating
<v Speaker 1>your SPARKBMI at the same time. We like all the time,
<v Speaker 1>you're at the very depending on your age.
<v Speaker 2>Even if you were thirty, you're still at the very
<v Speaker 2>low end of a normal weight for somebody who is
<v Speaker 2>five ten.
<v Speaker 1>You are almost in the underweight range.
<v Speaker 2>And a conventional BMI for you is twenty, which is,
<v Speaker 2>you know, relatively low for a woman. So do I
<v Speaker 2>think that you were probably overdoing it? Yes? I do.
<v Speaker 2>It sounds that way to me. You said that you
<v Speaker 2>were having foot cramping, heart palpitations. Those are all signs
<v Speaker 2>of electrolyte imbalances. So if we're overfasting and we're not
<v Speaker 2>you know, fueling well with good quality foods that have
<v Speaker 2>lots of magnesium and potassium in them, then you can
<v Speaker 2>start to have issues with that. You may need some magnesium,
<v Speaker 2>you may need some potassium, you may need to not
<v Speaker 2>hydrate as much, you may need to have a wider window.
<v Speaker 2>If you're you know, malnourished, you're going to have not
<v Speaker 2>enough magnesium in your body. You're not gonna have enough potassium,
<v Speaker 2>You're not gonna have enough sodium in your body. And
<v Speaker 2>all of that has to do with how you feel,
<v Speaker 2>and you know that's also going to support your hormones.
<v Speaker 2>So fueling well, fasting moderately, and fueling well, that's that's
<v Speaker 2>what you need to do. I don't know did she
<v Speaker 2>say how long her windows were.
<v Speaker 1>Well, she would start at two with her creamy coffee
<v Speaker 1>and then closed by seven, so it was like five
<v Speaker 1>fire window.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, okay, so eat real food, don't open with creamy coffee,
<v Speaker 2>Open with some food, Open with some nutrient dense food.
<v Speaker 2>And you know, we get hung up on talking about
<v Speaker 2>macro nutrients. But we also need to worry about our micronutrients.
<v Speaker 2>Those are the ones that support our hormones and support
<v Speaker 2>our organs and our muscles and our brain and our hearts.
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, I do think you can if safely, and
<v Speaker 2>you just have to balance your fasting and your feasting.
<v Speaker 1>I also have another thought, and that is that her
<v Speaker 1>doctor noticed she had low thyroid, and then I wonder
<v Speaker 1>if her doctor put her on thyroid medication because of
<v Speaker 1>her low thyroid, and then maybe the thyroid medicine caused
<v Speaker 1>those issues to away, because guess what can cause heart
<v Speaker 1>palpitations low thyroid?
<v Speaker 2>Low thyroid, so Sarah, and it can affect your hormone.
<v Speaker 1>Right, because thyroid hormone. It is a hormone, right, yep.
<v Speaker 1>So if you started taking thyroid medication and stopped fasting
<v Speaker 1>at the same time and everything got better, it might
<v Speaker 1>be from the thyroid medicine, not from the fasting, yep.
<v Speaker 1>So I would dip the toe back into fasting and
<v Speaker 1>see what happens. So let's circle back to win is
<v Speaker 1>fasting bad for your hormones? And I would like to
<v Speaker 1>take the word fasting out of that and say when
<v Speaker 1>is dieting bad for women's hormones, because whether you're fasting,
<v Speaker 1>or taking weight loss injections or just doing a diet,
<v Speaker 1>if you are over restricting to the point that your
<v Speaker 1>body feels panicked, that is bad for your hormones. No
<v Speaker 1>matter what approach you're using. If you are accidentally over restricting,
<v Speaker 1>that is bad for hormones. We had doctor Tabitha Barber
<v Speaker 1>on this podcast. She's an obgi in and a hormone expert,
<v Speaker 1>and she shared how Olympic athletes. Female Olympic athletes will
<v Speaker 1>often lose their periods because they are working out so
<v Speaker 1>extensively and they're eating to maintain, you know, a certain weight,
<v Speaker 1>Like look at those little tiny gymnasts for example, they're
<v Speaker 1>having to remain tiny and they will lose their periods.
<v Speaker 1>That is not good for your hormones. And so over
<v Speaker 1>exercising and over restricting is not good for a woman's
<v Speaker 1>hormones no matter how you're doing it, whether it's fasting
<v Speaker 1>or like I said, weight los shots, or just a diet,
<v Speaker 1>a regular diet where you're eating frequently throughout the day.
<v Speaker 1>So I would again look to your thyroid and see
<v Speaker 1>if if you've gotten that under control, you might want
<v Speaker 1>to try it with the fasting again and make sure
<v Speaker 1>you're not accidentally over restricting. I also really want to
<v Speaker 1>talk to you about your goal and your weight. Like
<v Speaker 1>Sherry said the Smart BMI, I know that we might
<v Speaker 1>feel our best at a really really low shredded weight
<v Speaker 1>where we have you know, visible abs, and you know
<v Speaker 1>we look like a you know, a model. And I've
<v Speaker 1>never looked like that, by the way, my body's never
<v Speaker 1>looked like that. I'm fluffier. I've always been squishier. But
<v Speaker 1>the weight that it takes, the low weight that you
<v Speaker 1>have to get to to have that body type, might
<v Speaker 1>be lower than a healthy weight for your body. And
<v Speaker 1>so one hundred and forty one and again I checked
<v Speaker 1>it at the age of forty and so is someone
<v Speaker 1>who's forty and five ten one one is almost in
<v Speaker 1>an underweight category. So I would really think about what
<v Speaker 1>is a healthy weight with a healthy percentage of body fat,
<v Speaker 1>because if a woman's body fat gets too low, that
<v Speaker 1>also is bad for our hormones because our body starts
<v Speaker 1>to panic that something is wrong. So it may be
<v Speaker 1>that where you are right now at one fifty eight,
<v Speaker 1>instead of help, I'm back up to one fifty eight,
<v Speaker 1>it might be your body saying, thank goodness, we're back
<v Speaker 1>up to one fifty eight. That might be where your
<v Speaker 1>body wants to be at a healthy fat percentage. We're
<v Speaker 1>not trying to get to the lowest body fat that
<v Speaker 1>we can get to. And it sounds like you know,
<v Speaker 1>your body might have been telling you that was too low. Also,
<v Speaker 1>losing too much fat can can damage our thyroid like
<v Speaker 1>it can our body slows down, you know, all sorts
<v Speaker 1>of things hormonally. So I would encourage you to think
<v Speaker 1>about your goals. You're a healthy body fat percentage and
<v Speaker 1>gently fasting in a way that feels good, without the
<v Speaker 1>goal of getting back to a weight that puts you
<v Speaker 1>almost underweight, just because again, our bodies don't respond to
<v Speaker 1>all of that, and I think your body told you that,
<v Speaker 1>and so everything can be taken to the extreme, Like
<v Speaker 1>drinking too much water is not good for our bodies.
<v Speaker 1>Would we ever say water is dangerous When not drink
<v Speaker 1>a normal amount of water, that's fine, but overhydration can
<v Speaker 1>cause someone to die. Right. Fasting is the same thing.
<v Speaker 1>It's a matter of finding the fasting approach that lets
<v Speaker 1>your body feel safe, that keeps you in the healthy
<v Speaker 1>weight range. And listen to the suns that are going on.
<v Speaker 1>Did you have anything to add to that?
<v Speaker 2>Nope? All right, Before we get to the tweak of
<v Speaker 2>the week, I want to take a minute to tell
<v Speaker 2>you about non toxic sunscreen. I've worked hard under years
<v Speaker 2>of sun damage on my face, so now I'm super
<v Speaker 2>careful about playing sunscreen to my face anytime I'm going
<v Speaker 2>outside or I'll be out and about running a lot
<v Speaker 2>of errands, because you can still get sun damaged through
<v Speaker 2>your car windows and sunroof. Even if I'm going to
<v Speaker 2>be doing a lot of work on my computer, I
<v Speaker 2>apply some because blue light from our screens can age
<v Speaker 2>our skin. Non toxic sunscreen that doesn't break out my
<v Speaker 2>skin is so important to me, So I'm happy to
<v Speaker 2>share that Crunchy has you covered. Their Sunlight collection includes
<v Speaker 2>both tinted and non tinted sunscreen for your face. The
<v Speaker 2>tinted comes in five shades, works as skincare, sps and
<v Speaker 2>makeup all in one, and includes Vitamin Ceed to visibly
<v Speaker 2>brighten your skin and diminish the look of imperfections. It
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<v Speaker 2>also have spray sunscreen for your body in single or
<v Speaker 2>family packs now. This episode releases on March twenty six,
<v Speaker 2>twenty twenty four, and through March thirty. First all sunlight
<v Speaker 2>products are twenty five percent off, so don't wait. Stock
<v Speaker 2>up for summer now. Visit crunchy dot com slash Sherry
<v Speaker 2>Bullock or fastpeasrepeat dot com slash Sherry and you'll find
<v Speaker 2>a link there and as always, feel free to email
<v Speaker 2>me if you have any questions.
<v Speaker 1>And now it's time for our tweak of the week
<v Speaker 1>from Leah. Number one, trust the process. Number two. Tweak
<v Speaker 1>when you feel the need for a change. Number three.
<v Speaker 1>Listen to your body and be kind to yourself. Number four.
<v Speaker 1>Celebrate your non scale victories, especially in the delay. Don't
<v Speaker 1>to night community. Number five. Feel your feelings if you're
<v Speaker 1>like me and used food to suppress emotions. Number six,
<v Speaker 1>share your story. Number seven, Eat your vegetables and drink
<v Speaker 1>your water. Number eight go for a walk.
<v Speaker 2>All right, Well, we'd love to leave you with inspirational,
<v Speaker 2>motivlational quotes, and this week we have a quote from Ann.
<v Speaker 2>The quote from Young Pueblo is serious. Transformations begin with
<v Speaker 2>two commitments, the courage to try new things and act
<v Speaker 2>in new ways, and the honesty to no longer hide
<v Speaker 2>from or lie to ourselves.
<v Speaker 1>Thanks so much for listening today. We would love to
<v Speaker 1>have you join us in the Delayed On Tonight community,
<v Speaker 1>where you can interact with both me and Sherry, plus
<v Speaker 1>the most supportive bunch of intermittent fasters you'll find anywhere.
<v Speaker 1>Go to Jenstevens dot com slash community to join us.
<v Speaker 2>Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast to your favorite
<v Speaker 2>podcast app, and if you haven't already, please leave us
<v Speaker 2>a five star review that helps new listeners find the
<v Speaker 2>show and we really appreciate it.
<v Speaker 1>We are a community driven podcast, so to submit your
<v Speaker 1>success stories, your questions, your favorite tweak it till It's
<v Speaker 1>Easy moments, or anything else you want us to share
<v Speaker 1>on the podcast, go to Fast Feast Repeat dot com
<v Speaker 1>slash submit and then listen each week to see if
<v Speaker 1>we share your submission or answer your question until next week.
<v Speaker 2>Thanks for listening.