Episode 70: Time to Toss the Scale?, ADF, PCOS, 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.
<v Speaker 3>Hi, everybody, we are so glad you're here today.
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to this week's episode of the Fast Feast Repeat
<v Speaker 1>Intermittent Fasting for Life Podcast.
<v Speaker 3>How are you doing today's Sherry.
<v Speaker 2>I'm doing much better than we recorded last time. I'm
<v Speaker 2>so glad to hear feeling so much better. Yay, have
<v Speaker 2>a little lingering cough, but it's hit and miss now.
<v Speaker 3>Well, good, I'm glad you're feeling better.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, there's nothing worse than being busy and having stuff
<v Speaker 2>to do and feeling like crud.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I know, so I can't think of the last
<v Speaker 1>time I've been sick. But okay, I'm knocking on wood
<v Speaker 1>right now. Yeah, you better let me knock on some
<v Speaker 1>more wood too.
<v Speaker 2>I was just saying I hadn't been sick since twenty
<v Speaker 2>twenty one, I think was the last time I.
<v Speaker 3>Was really sick. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>I was just like, yeah, I haven't been sick and
<v Speaker 2>so long. And then well, I.
<v Speaker 3>Knocked on all the wood, so I.
<v Speaker 2>Should be fine. I was just listening to a book
<v Speaker 2>and they were talking out somebody's superstition was you had
<v Speaker 2>to knock on wood with plastic.
<v Speaker 3>Well, good thing. I don't believe that.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I was like, where that come from?
<v Speaker 3>My hand? Is good enough? I just knocked with my hand.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, so funny. All right, Well, let's share a celebration
<v Speaker 2>from a listener, and this one is from Rosemary. She said,
<v Speaker 2>I did not have a lot of weight to lose,
<v Speaker 2>maybe twenty to thirty pounds, but I still had the
<v Speaker 2>same struggles as many. I'm only five foot tall, and
<v Speaker 2>with any additional weight it shows on my petite frame.
<v Speaker 2>I was familiar back in twenty eighteen or twenty nineteen
<v Speaker 2>with intermittent fasting, and I reached out to Star, a
<v Speaker 2>follower of yours. She was terrific, but my head was
<v Speaker 2>not in the game until around twenty twenty one. At
<v Speaker 2>twenty twenty two, and at that time, I met up
<v Speaker 2>with a good friend at my nephew's bridal shower and
<v Speaker 2>I talked up intermittent fasting after she expressed her weight
<v Speaker 2>loss frustration. By then I had read all your books
<v Speaker 2>and Doctor Fung, only I was not abiding by my
<v Speaker 2>own chit chat. I knew how to talk it up,
<v Speaker 2>but I did not apply it to myself. My friend
<v Speaker 2>wound up losing forty seven to fifty pounds. Yay for
<v Speaker 2>both of us. She credits me with her swelt body
<v Speaker 2>and her forever lifestyle. So I say to myself, Hey,
<v Speaker 2>if you can mentor others, just do it.
<v Speaker 3>And I did.
<v Speaker 2>I started IF seriously in December of twenty twenty three,
<v Speaker 2>and then I did the twenty eight day fastar in
<v Speaker 2>January of twenty twenty four, and the rest is history.
<v Speaker 2>I started at one hundred and forty two pounds and
<v Speaker 2>today I am at one hundred and nineteen pounds. I
<v Speaker 2>have to say that Star started me on my path.
<v Speaker 2>But your d D community and a few other clean
<v Speaker 2>fast groups that I follow have been helpful as well.
<v Speaker 2>I've now mentored several women successfully, and I'm also applying
<v Speaker 2>what I share to myself. My blood pressure cholesterol meds
<v Speaker 2>have been reduced, but I did have to advocate for
<v Speaker 2>myself to have them reduced. It was truly an argument,
<v Speaker 2>but I prevailed my message, be your own advocate. My
<v Speaker 2>endocrinologist was happy to reduce my GURD meds to the
<v Speaker 2>lowest dose, and I'm thrilled. I'm so happy with my
<v Speaker 2>new way of life and living. There's no way I
<v Speaker 2>can ever say how grateful I am to you and
<v Speaker 2>the IF community. I always thought, since I did not
<v Speaker 2>have a lot of weight to lose, that my voice
<v Speaker 2>did not matter, But it does. I now mentor four
<v Speaker 2>ladies and all are successful. Hey, maybe I do know
<v Speaker 2>something after all. I love that so much. Yeah, I
<v Speaker 2>love that even though she wasn't ready to apply what
<v Speaker 2>she knew to herself, because we have to be ready,
<v Speaker 2>we have to be really in a mental headspace and
<v Speaker 2>be determined to change our way of living. But I
<v Speaker 2>love that she was still sharing what she knew, sharing
<v Speaker 2>her knowledge with others so that they could change her life,
<v Speaker 2>and that they actually inspired her to apply what she
<v Speaker 2>was sharing to herself.
<v Speaker 1>I really think that starting my first community on Facebook
<v Speaker 1>in twenty fifteen, when I was still very much in
<v Speaker 1>the journey myself, just to somebody who didn't know what I.
<v Speaker 3>Was doing, I was just fasting and losing the weight.
<v Speaker 1>But I think that has been transformational for my own
<v Speaker 1>journey because the more people I have helped, the more
<v Speaker 1>it's helped me. The more times I've given advice, the
<v Speaker 1>more I internalize that advice and apply it to myself.
<v Speaker 1>So I really wonder if I would have been successful
<v Speaker 1>long term had I not helped other people. I really
<v Speaker 1>just don't know, but I think that made a big difference.
<v Speaker 1>That's the power of community. You go in there and
<v Speaker 1>you give other people advice, and then you follow it yourself. Oh,
<v Speaker 1>like exact, can't give them all this advice and then
<v Speaker 1>not do it.
<v Speaker 2>Way way back when I was like helping out in
<v Speaker 2>your DDD group, before I was even on Facebook. On Facebook, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>somebody would ask a question and I'd be like, that's
<v Speaker 2>a really good question, and then I would start digging
<v Speaker 2>into research and I would start learning and then share
<v Speaker 2>what I learned. And it's like, every single time I
<v Speaker 2>helped somebody else, I was helping myself in some way,
<v Speaker 2>whether cementing the knowledge I had or learning something new,
<v Speaker 2>or just reiterating what I knew to be true about
<v Speaker 2>if and not letting the people around me who didn't
<v Speaker 2>believe in it, who didn't practice it sway me to
<v Speaker 2>go back to all day eating. So for me, it
<v Speaker 2>just like when you immerse yourself in helping other people,
<v Speaker 2>it really does. It starts to change you, and it
<v Speaker 2>starts to change the way you talk to yourself. Even Yep,
<v Speaker 2>when you start talking to other people and coaching them
<v Speaker 2>with kindness, it helps you learn to translate that into
<v Speaker 2>talking to yourself with kindness.
<v Speaker 1>It's true, and you're exactly right about everything that I
<v Speaker 1>learned was because someone asked a question and I had
<v Speaker 1>to find the answer, right.
<v Speaker 2>Because you and know, we're like when we have a question,
<v Speaker 2>we need to know the answer, find it out, and
<v Speaker 2>we're going to start, Dagan, We're going to find that answer.
<v Speaker 1>That's really helped us and then we can pay it forward.
<v Speaker 1>But I really think for anybody who's listening, get into
<v Speaker 1>the community, and not just as someone who's reading the posts.
<v Speaker 1>Start to give other people advice interact. You may think, well,
<v Speaker 1>I can't give advice. I haven't alused all the weight
<v Speaker 1>I wanted to lose. Yet you still know what advice
<v Speaker 1>to give. You still can give them a helping hand, and.
<v Speaker 3>Then you'll start hearing it for yourself.
<v Speaker 2>Sometimes people say, well, I've only been in this for
<v Speaker 2>a month, so I don't feel like I should give
<v Speaker 2>you advice, but I just want to encourage you or whatever.
<v Speaker 2>And I would courage people whether you've only been doing
<v Speaker 2>it for a month or not, still offer the advice.
<v Speaker 2>Still offer what you know. You could maybe be misunderstanding something,
<v Speaker 2>and so when you share what you know, it's not
<v Speaker 2>like you have to be right. Yeah, it's okay to
<v Speaker 2>be wrong and it will come in and help you.
<v Speaker 3>Exactly.
<v Speaker 2>So, if you believe something, you share what you believe
<v Speaker 2>to be true, and then somebody else sees what you
<v Speaker 2>wrote and they say, well, that's not really how it works.
<v Speaker 2>If you don't take that as an attack, don't internalize it,
<v Speaker 2>just take it as these are the facts. It can
<v Speaker 2>really help you too.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, because you didn't know you had it sound like a.
<v Speaker 2>Pop quiz you didn't know you were taking.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so yeah, and our members are great at helping
<v Speaker 1>each other out like that, well not exactly. And here's
<v Speaker 1>and again, like you said, don't take it as an attack,
<v Speaker 1>but as somebody gently sharing what they know and.
<v Speaker 3>Then it helps you.
<v Speaker 1>So don't be afraid to be wrong, but also be
<v Speaker 1>open to feedback. And I think that's the most important thing,
<v Speaker 1>because if I go back to what I thought was
<v Speaker 1>true in twenty fifteen and what I now believe to
<v Speaker 1>be true, it's very different.
<v Speaker 2>It's funny too, and I'll see It's like I'll be
<v Speaker 2>reading through people's comments or whatever, and they'll be two
<v Speaker 2>long term fasters who have a disagreement on something on
<v Speaker 2>the way something happens in the body, you know whatever,
<v Speaker 2>and then they'll tag like jin or me, or they'll
<v Speaker 2>be like, come chime into this.
<v Speaker 3>What do you think you know?
<v Speaker 2>And so, yeah, knowledge is so powerful.
<v Speaker 3>And sharing it helps you.
<v Speaker 2>You know.
<v Speaker 1>As a teacher, I was an elementary teacher for so long,
<v Speaker 1>and when I really wanted my students to learn something,
<v Speaker 1>I had them make teaching posters or teach it to
<v Speaker 1>somebody else. Like the assignment would be teach this fraction
<v Speaker 1>concept for example, whatever it was, makeup teaching poster that
<v Speaker 1>teaches this concept to somebody else. Your goal is to
<v Speaker 1>teach them how to do whatever it was we were doing.
<v Speaker 1>And then, you know, I look at that. I would
<v Speaker 1>look at it and look for their misconceptions, and then
<v Speaker 1>I would say, okay, you're almost right, but look at this,
<v Speaker 1>and then they would.
<v Speaker 3>Understand it so much better.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, teaching it to somebody else helps you understand it
<v Speaker 1>so much better. Anyway, I love Rosemary's celebration.
<v Speaker 2>It's so funny that you said that. You know, way
<v Speaker 2>back in grade school, I was a student teacher, Like
<v Speaker 2>I would help others that were like struggling, or I
<v Speaker 2>would go down a grade and help them with like
<v Speaker 2>reading or writing or whatever. Maybe I'm just I'm clearly
<v Speaker 2>a lifelong learner and teacher. But yeah, yeah, I love
<v Speaker 2>doing it me too.
<v Speaker 1>All right, Now we have a question from a listener.
<v Speaker 1>This question is from Beth in Blacksburg, Virginia. She said, Hello,
<v Speaker 1>Jenn and Sherry. My story is the same as so
<v Speaker 1>many others who write in, but I have not heard
<v Speaker 1>my particular question on your.
<v Speaker 3>Podcast, yet, so I thought it might benefit others.
<v Speaker 1>I am fifty four years old, five to five and
<v Speaker 1>currently weigh one hundred and thirty seven pounds, down from
<v Speaker 1>one hundred and six since November of twenty twenty three.
<v Speaker 1>When I started my intermittent fasting journey, I had the
<v Speaker 1>gradual weight gain creep so many of us talk about
<v Speaker 1>and have been charting it on the Lose It app
<v Speaker 1>since twenty fourteen, so there's no denying the trend.
<v Speaker 3>Every year, I'd lose heading.
<v Speaker 1>Into summer, then gain it back, then lose going into
<v Speaker 1>the holidays, then gain it back, and every year the
<v Speaker 1>starting point for losing would be just a pound or
<v Speaker 1>two higher. My best friend hadn't used if to lose weight,
<v Speaker 1>but to maintain and because she just felt so great
<v Speaker 1>eating that way since twenty seventeen, her success inspired me
<v Speaker 1>to give it a try.
<v Speaker 3>She was not aware of you or the podcast.
<v Speaker 1>I actually stumbled upon it in the Lose It app
<v Speaker 1>in an intermittent fasting interest group. I was only two
<v Speaker 1>weeks into fasting and discovered the episode one, and I
<v Speaker 1>learned that I was not clean fasting. Thankfully, I didn't
<v Speaker 1>waste months not knowing that I listened to an episode
<v Speaker 1>each day, and I listened until I caught up, and
<v Speaker 1>I've listened to every episode to date and voraciously consumed
<v Speaker 1>fast feature, repeat, eat and delayed on deny. The nineteen
<v Speaker 1>five timeframe sounded absolutely banianas to me before I started
<v Speaker 1>doing it, and certainly nothing I thought I could maintain.
<v Speaker 1>But since once I was doing it, it became a
<v Speaker 1>non issue. Sure, some days were harder than others, and
<v Speaker 1>normally followed by a day where I probably had not
<v Speaker 1>eaten enough or the right foods during my window the
<v Speaker 1>previous day, which I continue to play around with.
<v Speaker 3>So why did I stick with it? Early on?
<v Speaker 1>I noticed just within a few days that my mental
<v Speaker 1>acuity showed a significant change, particularly in the afternoon, when
<v Speaker 1>I normally struggled to focus and to be productive at work.
<v Speaker 1>I was no longer nodding off in the evening during
<v Speaker 1>movies or TV or theater, which has been a chronic
<v Speaker 1>issue for me. My sugar cravings basically disappeared and have
<v Speaker 1>not returned. For someone who has had something sweet almost
<v Speaker 1>daily for decades, this has been a huge development. It
<v Speaker 1>was the one teaspoon of sugar in my tea at
<v Speaker 1>the beginning of the day that was setting my body
<v Speaker 1>up for non stop craving due to that insulin burst.
<v Speaker 1>It was crazy to think that a yummy cup of
<v Speaker 1>tea could wreak that much habit. I had no idea
<v Speaker 1>I was losing weight since I stayed off the scale
<v Speaker 1>month one, but I was for sure losing inches. Your
<v Speaker 1>constant refrain of if something is changing, it's working saw
<v Speaker 1>me through. I have lost fourteen inches to date.
<v Speaker 3>From my hips, waist, and thighs. Thank you. Autophagy. By
<v Speaker 3>the way, autophogy is amazing. But if you're losing.
<v Speaker 1>Fat, that's a different process than autopogy. I just wanted
<v Speaker 1>to pop that in. Autophogy is happening deep at the
<v Speaker 1>cellular level, and it's like junkie proteins getting recycled, Like
<v Speaker 1>if a scar went away, that would be autophogy. If
<v Speaker 1>you're shrinking in size, that's probably fat loss.
<v Speaker 2>Now, I will say, if you're somebody who has lost
<v Speaker 2>excessive amounts of weight and you, like with conventional diets,
<v Speaker 2>your skin kind of stays stretched out, autophogy does help
<v Speaker 2>kind of clean that up and help your skin tighten up.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's just important to know the fat loss process
<v Speaker 1>and autopogy are two separate things. But the inches that
<v Speaker 1>you're losing, I would say, are fat loss. But I
<v Speaker 1>know autophogies do another great things too, all right, She
<v Speaker 1>continues to say. The biggest reason I was not counting
<v Speaker 1>or measuring or weighing my food anymore. I did not
<v Speaker 1>feel like a failure at the end of the day.
<v Speaker 1>I no longer had to vow to do better the
<v Speaker 1>next day, and I was enjoying every bite.
<v Speaker 3>Of food that I ate during my window.
<v Speaker 1>I cannot tell you the shift this caused, am I
<v Speaker 1>Overall mental health as related to food and wellness, we
<v Speaker 1>get it because we've.
<v Speaker 2>Been there, right, Sherry.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, we totally understand that, Beth, because that's why we
<v Speaker 1>love in our mitenfasting too. So she said, this brings
<v Speaker 1>me to my current question. The more weight I have
<v Speaker 1>lost and the closer I have gotten to my goal
<v Speaker 1>weight range of one thirty four to one thirty six,
<v Speaker 1>the more I have struggled with reigniting diet brain. I
<v Speaker 1>now look in the mirror and see more fat than
<v Speaker 1>I need to lose, when I don't even remotely care
<v Speaker 1>about that, And when I was still in the one fifties,
<v Speaker 1>I was feeling great and not even caring what the
<v Speaker 1>scale says. I met a weight I would have killed
<v Speaker 1>for twenty eight pounds ago, and I thought this weight
<v Speaker 1>was no longer possible. I don't know what's going on,
<v Speaker 1>but I know you might have some advice for me
<v Speaker 1>and others. Thank you for all that you do.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, So I have so many thoughts on this. First
<v Speaker 2>of all, one thirty seven is not that far off
<v Speaker 2>from one thirty four to one thirty six. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>you're looking any better of pounds.
<v Speaker 3>Right You're not going to look different exactly.
<v Speaker 2>Those few pounds are not going to change the way
<v Speaker 2>your body looks without clothes. In fact, you actually may
<v Speaker 2>be smaller right now at one thirty seven than you
<v Speaker 2>ever were at a lower weight before, because that's what
<v Speaker 2>we see over and over again with intermint fasting. Where
<v Speaker 2>things change a little bit is the fact that you
<v Speaker 2>are fifty four. I believe yes. So in all likelihood,
<v Speaker 2>postman apousle, our body distributes the fat we have on
<v Speaker 2>our body, and you want fat on your body. You
<v Speaker 2>don't want a zero body fat. Having fat on your
<v Speaker 2>body is healthy. You just don't want too much fat.
<v Speaker 2>But it changes the way your body distributes it. It
<v Speaker 2>is well known that you're going to have more fat
<v Speaker 2>in different parts of your body that you didn't have before,
<v Speaker 2>such as the atom and the hips and the thighs.
<v Speaker 2>Like this is just biological, and if you're fighting that,
<v Speaker 2>it's a losing battle. If the scale is really reignating
<v Speaker 2>your diet brain, get rid of the scale. You are
<v Speaker 2>in maintenance. You're living your eye of lifestyle, So enjoy
<v Speaker 2>living your eye of lifestyle. Get rid of your scale.
<v Speaker 2>Throw it in the dumpster like gen did. If you
<v Speaker 2>are finding dissatisfaction with where you are and you are
<v Speaker 2>not able to celebrate where you are, get rid of
<v Speaker 2>the scale. Just get rid of it.
<v Speaker 3>You don't need it anymore. Now.
<v Speaker 2>I recently saw a quote and your submission reminded me
<v Speaker 2>of it. The quote is, perfectionism steals your joy and accomplishments.
<v Speaker 2>In truth, nothing can steal your joy, but you choose
<v Speaker 2>not to experience it. Perfectionism is the decision not to
<v Speaker 2>experience joy. So I want to encourage you to experience joy,
<v Speaker 2>be proud of yourself and the weight you've lost, and
<v Speaker 2>learn to embrace your body as it is right now
<v Speaker 2>at fifty four years old, Not only does menopause effect
<v Speaker 2>where your body distributes fat, So maybe you're seeing that
<v Speaker 2>you're a little bit fluffier in places that you weren't before.
<v Speaker 2>Like I said, that's normal. It also changes your skin,
<v Speaker 2>whether you like it or not. Your skin is going
<v Speaker 2>to be i'll call it sloppier for lack of a
<v Speaker 2>better word, it's just not going to be. Your skin
<v Speaker 2>itself is not going to be as tight and toned
<v Speaker 2>as it once was, and there's just not a lot
<v Speaker 2>you can do about that. You also might be experiencing
<v Speaker 2>some muscle loss post menopause. We know that over the
<v Speaker 2>age of forty we really start really it's actually your
<v Speaker 2>mid thirties you start to lose muscle mass if you
<v Speaker 2>are not working hard to maintain it or continue to
<v Speaker 2>add muscle mass. So again, that can make your body
<v Speaker 2>look different than it did years ago in your pre
<v Speaker 2>menopausal state. So if you really aren't happy with the
<v Speaker 2>way your body looks, then I would really encourage you
<v Speaker 2>to increase your strength training, start focusing on adding some
<v Speaker 2>muscle mass. That alone is going to kind of tighten
<v Speaker 2>your skin up. It's going to give you a more
<v Speaker 2>toned appearance, and you might be happier with the weight
<v Speaker 2>that you look. But as far as your weight, your
<v Speaker 2>SPARKBMI is right in the middle of the green zone,
<v Speaker 2>and even your regular BMI is twenty three, which is great.
<v Speaker 2>Losing four more pounds might make it twenty two, but
<v Speaker 2>you're not going to gain anything from my metal body
<v Speaker 2>or health perspective. So I would really just concentrate on
<v Speaker 2>learning to love your body, learn to choose joy, be
<v Speaker 2>grateful for your body, and if you want to work
<v Speaker 2>on strength training, work on that.
<v Speaker 3>Then don't be if the scale goes up, well, she's
<v Speaker 3>gonna get rid of the scalating, right right.
<v Speaker 1>I agree with that getting rid of the scale is
<v Speaker 1>a great idea because you've probably heard me tell the
<v Speaker 1>story before.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know if you have, but I threw.
<v Speaker 1>My scale away because I felt really good in my body.
<v Speaker 1>I hadn't weighed for a year, and I had gone
<v Speaker 1>down two gene sizes over that year, and I felt
<v Speaker 1>really good in my body. So I thought, you know what,
<v Speaker 1>I've probably lost at least ten pounds since the last
<v Speaker 1>time I weighed. So I pulled my scale down off
<v Speaker 1>the shelf and I got on the scale.
<v Speaker 3>And nope, I was pretty much exactly the same.
<v Speaker 1>And I was like, I had decided I wanted to
<v Speaker 1>see one twenty five. I just wanted to see it.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know why numbers sounded good. Just like you
<v Speaker 1>know you're one thirty seven. The number you want to
<v Speaker 1>see is one thirty six till one thirty four?
<v Speaker 2>Right?
<v Speaker 3>I wanted to see one twenty five. I didn't.
<v Speaker 1>And then I was like, well, what can I do
<v Speaker 1>to see one twenty five? And I started thinking about
<v Speaker 1>that diet brain that you mentioned in your question, So
<v Speaker 1>I started thinking how can I get there? And I'm like,
<v Speaker 1>wait a minute, why I'm wearing my goal size? I
<v Speaker 1>was buying size zero Jenes at the loft. Yet it's
<v Speaker 1>the loft, but still, and what did I want to
<v Speaker 1>be at double zero?
<v Speaker 3>I mean, what did I want? I didn't need to
<v Speaker 3>be smaller? When is enough?
<v Speaker 2>Is enough? And then ask yourself, like why do I
<v Speaker 2>need confirmation from the scale? Why is a knocker going
<v Speaker 2>to tell me that I have arrived and I can
<v Speaker 2>celebrate my wins and I can be happy with myself.
<v Speaker 1>I felt amazing God on the scale, expecting to see
<v Speaker 1>a number, didn't see the number I wanted, felt defeated
<v Speaker 1>like I needed to lose more weight. Then I checked
<v Speaker 1>in with myself realized I am at my goal size.
<v Speaker 1>Whatever the scale says is not going to change that.
<v Speaker 1>I am already at my goal size. And that is
<v Speaker 1>the day I threw my scale away and I haven't
<v Speaker 1>seen a scale number since then. And that was in
<v Speaker 1>what twenty seventeen. And my body has changed since twenty
<v Speaker 1>seventeen because of going through menopause.
<v Speaker 3>Yes, yeah, I'm a different person now. My body is saggier.
<v Speaker 1>And we talked about this on episode sixty five when
<v Speaker 1>I was in Florida recently and so many older ladies
<v Speaker 1>were around the pool and I had a chance to
<v Speaker 1>really just look around and see, Huh, they really do
<v Speaker 1>have a loss of skin elast Tessa, Oh so do
<v Speaker 1>I I'm fifty five, maybe they're seventy five. My body's
<v Speaker 1>going to keep doing that and I can't change that
<v Speaker 1>it's going to happen. And so loving my body, loving
<v Speaker 1>my goal size, that I would really encourage everyone to
<v Speaker 1>choose a goal size and thank goodness for clothes. We
<v Speaker 1>put the clothes on and covers up those wrinkly parts.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>I think another phenomenon happens when people get to this
<v Speaker 2>phase of their weight loss slash maintenance like kind of
<v Speaker 2>two different things happen. Number one, we have been conditioned
<v Speaker 2>to think that you should always be striving and working
<v Speaker 2>towards something. Yes, true, you don't have to do that.
<v Speaker 2>You're not getting a gold medal on your deathbed because
<v Speaker 2>you continually are trying to tackle a goal. And then
<v Speaker 2>what happens when you get to that goal. Then you
<v Speaker 2>start trying to work to another goal. I mean, goals
<v Speaker 2>are great, but balance, joy, happiness, those are important too.
<v Speaker 2>And if you're so busy chasing the rabbit, are you
<v Speaker 2>enjoying your life? So there's that, And then I think
<v Speaker 2>there's also this sort of fear that comes into play
<v Speaker 2>for some people. Well, I got this low. What happens
<v Speaker 2>if I start to have a little rebound? So if
<v Speaker 2>I get lower, I have a little cushion. Or if
<v Speaker 2>I can get this low, maybe I can get this low.
<v Speaker 2>And again, you're just chasing a number and in the process,
<v Speaker 2>you're losing your joy, You're losing your happiness. You're not
<v Speaker 2>being grateful for where you are and you're not it's
<v Speaker 2>a distraction from enjoying life. Yeah, so anyway, so.
<v Speaker 1>Good, But we say it all the time. Choose a
<v Speaker 1>goal lifestyle as well when you're living the way you
<v Speaker 1>want to live. If I had like photos of myself
<v Speaker 1>in a bathing suit from twenty seventeen twenty eighteen, and
<v Speaker 1>I had the same photos right now and put them
<v Speaker 1>side by side, I'm sure I'm a little fluffier than
<v Speaker 1>I was after going through menopause. My skin is definitely sagear,
<v Speaker 1>no doubt about that. But I am living the goal
<v Speaker 1>lifestyle that I want to live. You know, I've experimented
<v Speaker 1>with whole food, plant based lower fat. Yeah, I could
<v Speaker 1>get a little leaner doing all that, but I don't
<v Speaker 1>want to. That's not my goal lifestyle, right So I
<v Speaker 1>have embraced that I am living my goal lifestyle right
<v Speaker 1>now and whatever my body does is what it does.
<v Speaker 3>I don't want to diet more.
<v Speaker 1>I want to live the lifestyle that feels good. So
<v Speaker 1>choose your goal size. When you're there, You're there regardless
<v Speaker 1>of what the scale says. Throw your scale away if
<v Speaker 1>it's giving you diet brain like I did, and live
<v Speaker 1>your goal lifestyle.
<v Speaker 3>YEP.
<v Speaker 2>I think that's so so important. All right, So we
<v Speaker 2>have another question from Mary Anne on singer Island.
<v Speaker 3>Is that in Florida? I don't know. I think it
<v Speaker 3>might be, but I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>She said, Hi, ladies, My question is about what you
<v Speaker 2>would suggest if you find yourself fasting over twenty four hours.
<v Speaker 2>I'm thinking that it's not alternate day fasting because you
<v Speaker 2>can still eat every day. Can I just say I
<v Speaker 2>want to interrupt for a second. I feel like we
<v Speaker 2>see that the term alternate day fasting thrown around a lot,
<v Speaker 2>when what people really mean is a down day, so
<v Speaker 2>alter day fasting. To me, that's a protocol that is
<v Speaker 2>you fast one day, you refeed the next day, you
<v Speaker 2>fast the next day, or even a version of that
<v Speaker 2>would be like four to three.
<v Speaker 3>Now I'm going to disagree with you a little bit here.
<v Speaker 1>Really, yes, I am, because having a down days in
<v Speaker 1>an up day is an alternate day fasting stretchtrategy. Anytime
<v Speaker 1>you have a down day, I would say you're doing
<v Speaker 1>an alternate day fasting strategy. If you'll notice, I've got
<v Speaker 1>all that in the Alternate Dave Fasting chapters of my books.
<v Speaker 3>So if you do a down day.
<v Speaker 1>And an upday, you are not doing alternate day fasting,
<v Speaker 1>but you're using an alternate day fasting strategy.
<v Speaker 3>Does that help? Well, that's how I would I would
<v Speaker 3>say it. I gut today.
<v Speaker 1>Fasting has a meaning. It's every other day literally if
<v Speaker 1>you were.
<v Speaker 2>People get so confused because they're like, I did an
<v Speaker 2>alternate day fasting on Monday and I ate all day Tuesday.
<v Speaker 2>What do I do on Wednesday? Well? Nothing, just go
<v Speaker 2>to your regular fasting schedule. You did a down day,
<v Speaker 2>you did an upday, and now you're just on your
<v Speaker 2>regular festing schedule. I don't know, I know I've seen
<v Speaker 2>you say that before.
<v Speaker 1>Words it is, but it is an alternate day fasting strategy.
<v Speaker 1>No matter how many down days you have, you're using
<v Speaker 1>those strategies, right, they all fit in. And when I
<v Speaker 1>read the Every Other Day Diet book written by Christa
<v Speaker 1>back in the day, she talks about four, three and five,
<v Speaker 1>two and six one all is under that umbrella.
<v Speaker 3>So if you're doing any.
<v Speaker 1>Down days and up days, that's under the alternate day
<v Speaker 1>fasting umbrella.
<v Speaker 3>Even if you're not doing pure alternate day fasting.
<v Speaker 1>Which I talk about all this in the chapter of
<v Speaker 1>the ADF chapter of DDD second edition. All the different
<v Speaker 1>terminology true ADF. You are correct one hundred percent if
<v Speaker 1>you're just having one down day a week and one update,
<v Speaker 1>you're not doing true ADF. You're using an ADF strategy anyway, Okay,
<v Speaker 1>it's word.
<v Speaker 2>Anyways, She says, I'm thinking that it's not alternate day
<v Speaker 2>fasting because you could still eat every day.
<v Speaker 3>But also you can eat every day with alternate day fasting.
<v Speaker 2>That's true, so, she said, I never thought about it
<v Speaker 2>because I averaged nineteen five, but yesterday I couldn't open
<v Speaker 2>my window for twenty six hours. I ended up doing
<v Speaker 2>my first down day because I didn't want to go
<v Speaker 2>to bed on a full stomach. I definitely had an
<v Speaker 2>upday to day, but I felt diet brain guilt. But
<v Speaker 2>I'm thinking that I did it right. But I wanted
<v Speaker 2>to check in thank you always.
<v Speaker 3>So now I wish I could ask why she felt guilt.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know.
<v Speaker 3>I have two suspicions.
<v Speaker 1>One, sometimes people who are trying to alternate day fasting
<v Speaker 1>strategy of having a down day followed by an upday,
<v Speaker 1>feel guilty if they have the five hundred calorie meal.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know.
<v Speaker 1>If she had a five hundred calorie think so, or
<v Speaker 1>maybe you think she just fasted all the way through it.
<v Speaker 2>Sounds like she wasn't going to be open her window
<v Speaker 2>for twenty six hours, so she just decided to make
<v Speaker 2>it a down dad so that she wouldn't go to
<v Speaker 2>bed with a full stomach. Okay, so I read it
<v Speaker 2>as a full fast.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, So she did a full fast.
<v Speaker 1>But sometimes people have diet brain guilt if they have
<v Speaker 1>the five hundred calorie meal because they feel like that's
<v Speaker 1>not as good. So put that out of her mind.
<v Speaker 1>If you're feeling that way, everybody, the Downday meal is
<v Speaker 1>a great choice. Now, the other reason I was thinking
<v Speaker 1>she might have diet brain guilt is because she had
<v Speaker 1>an up day and feeling guilty that she had an update.
<v Speaker 1>You should never feel guilty about having an upday. An
<v Speaker 1>update is actually required.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I think that's what it is, because she said
<v Speaker 2>I definitely had an upday to day, but felt diet
<v Speaker 2>brain guilt.
<v Speaker 1>Right, So it's just guilty because she ate three meals.
<v Speaker 1>So let's talk about, first of all, what you do
<v Speaker 1>if you're fasting over twenty four hours and is a
<v Speaker 1>twenty four hour fast to down day or when does
<v Speaker 1>it become a down day?
<v Speaker 3>Because sometimes people.
<v Speaker 1>Get really confused about that and they'll say I did
<v Speaker 1>a down day because I fausted for twenty four hours.
<v Speaker 1>I'm like, no, twenty four hours is not a down
<v Speaker 1>day unless you then ate a five hundred calorie meal
<v Speaker 1>and started another fast, right, So what is the definition
<v Speaker 1>of a down day? There are two down days, and
<v Speaker 1>all of this is in the ADF chapter of the
<v Speaker 1>second edition of DDD. So if you're really confused, you
<v Speaker 1>got to get that and read that chapter and read it.
<v Speaker 3>Again till it makes sense. But these are the two
<v Speaker 3>types of down days.
<v Speaker 1>One a full fast that spans two overnight periods, like
<v Speaker 1>thirty six hours.
<v Speaker 3>If you have two.
<v Speaker 1>Overnight periods, that is a down day, Like I said
<v Speaker 1>thirty six hours. But like if you close your window
<v Speaker 1>one day at four o'clock and then the next day
<v Speaker 1>you didn't eat till five o'clock, did that span two
<v Speaker 1>overnight periods? No, that was twenty five hours. That is
<v Speaker 1>actually not a down day. You don't have to follow
<v Speaker 1>that with an update unless your meal meets the criteria
<v Speaker 1>of the second kind of down day, which is when
<v Speaker 1>you only eat five hundred calories that day. So if
<v Speaker 1>you went twenty five hours, then you had a five
<v Speaker 1>hundred calorie meal and then started a second fast that
<v Speaker 1>would count as a down day because you only had
<v Speaker 1>five hundred calories. So the two types of down days
<v Speaker 1>are number one, you fast over two overnight periods, which
<v Speaker 1>is like thirty six hours, or number two, you only
<v Speaker 1>ate five hundred calories in your window that day and
<v Speaker 1>then the next day you wake up.
<v Speaker 3>Either way, the next day is an up day, and you.
<v Speaker 1>Need to follow the same guidelines of having an eight
<v Speaker 1>to twelve hour period of eating aim for three meals.
<v Speaker 1>It's better to err on the side of having a
<v Speaker 1>bigger upday than a lower one, because what you don't
<v Speaker 1>want to do is accidentally overstrict and then not have
<v Speaker 1>the metabolic boost of the upday. And now it's time
<v Speaker 1>for our segment called What's Your Why. Most of us
<v Speaker 1>start intermittent fasting because we'd like to lose some weight.
<v Speaker 1>That's why I started, That's why Cherry started. But over
<v Speaker 1>time we realize that intermittent fasting can do so much
<v Speaker 1>more for us beyond weight loss. So I genuinely believe
<v Speaker 1>when your why is deeper than weight loss alone, you're
<v Speaker 1>more likely to find long term success. And I view
<v Speaker 1>intermittent fasting as a lifestyle before.
<v Speaker 2>I read today's why I do want to just pop
<v Speaker 2>in and say, we see a lot of people in
<v Speaker 2>community who are like I started this in twenty nineteen.
<v Speaker 3>I started this in twenty twenty one.
<v Speaker 2>I had great success, but lately I find myself window creep.
<v Speaker 2>I wake up in the mornings and I thinked, oh,
<v Speaker 2>one creamy coffee today isn't gonna hurt anything. And when
<v Speaker 2>I see people say stuff like that, they have lost
<v Speaker 2>their way.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, they're only thinking about their weight.
<v Speaker 2>It is time to really sit down and really figure
<v Speaker 2>out your why. Why do you want to be an
<v Speaker 2>interimatet fasting? What are the pros of it? What are
<v Speaker 2>the benefits of it? How do you feel? I mean
<v Speaker 2>like somebody was talking about how she just threw it
<v Speaker 2>all out the window because she went back to school
<v Speaker 2>and started teaching, and she was eating all the foods
<v Speaker 2>and she was feeling awful and her digestion was awful
<v Speaker 2>and her energy was awful, and that she just couldn't
<v Speaker 2>figure out why she couldn't get it together. And I said,
<v Speaker 2>what do you prefer? Do you prefer the way you
<v Speaker 2>feel when you're fasting, or do you prefer the way
<v Speaker 2>you feel the last two weeks, and she said, oh
<v Speaker 2>my gosh, I absolutely prefer the way I feel I'm fasting. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>And she's like, what am I doing tonight myself?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah?
<v Speaker 2>And I don't know whether there was some denial going
<v Speaker 2>on about how bad she felt. I mean, she could
<v Speaker 2>verbalize how bad she felt, she could not somehow translate
<v Speaker 2>that into a why to step back into her fasting lifestyle.
<v Speaker 2>I'm a pros and cons person. How do I feel
<v Speaker 2>when I'm fasting? How do I feel and I'm not fasting?
<v Speaker 2>Which way do I want to feel or what benefits
<v Speaker 2>do I see?
<v Speaker 1>This episode comes out on October thirtieth, so the weather's
<v Speaker 1>getting cooler. People are wanting that nice, warm beverage in
<v Speaker 1>the morning. This is when we see people start to
<v Speaker 1>fall into that trap, like you said, of wanting that
<v Speaker 1>creamy coffee.
<v Speaker 3>It's full.
<v Speaker 1>Everybody else is having a pumpkin spice lattey I deserve it.
<v Speaker 1>And then you're on that slippery slope yep. And again,
<v Speaker 1>if you're only thinking about weight loss and what your
<v Speaker 1>weight is doing, maybe you can have some creamy coffee
<v Speaker 1>for a little bit and it's not going to impact
<v Speaker 1>your weight loss at first, right right. Eventually though, that
<v Speaker 1>slippery slope turns into not even fa a all ever, right, right,
<v Speaker 1>And so I want you to find your fall comfort elsewhere,
<v Speaker 1>not within a creamy coffee, or save it for your
<v Speaker 1>eating window if you really really want to have it.
<v Speaker 1>But you deserve to fast clean. We start telling ourselves
<v Speaker 1>what we deserve. I deserve, I've worked so hard. I
<v Speaker 1>deserve to have this whatever it is right now at
<v Speaker 1>nine in the morning. No, you don't. You deserve to
<v Speaker 1>fast clean. You deserve to give your body the extra
<v Speaker 1>time with autophagy. You deserve to have the healing effects
<v Speaker 1>of the clean fast. You deserve your insulin being low.
<v Speaker 2>Right and if for no other reason, we are moving
<v Speaker 2>into holiday season right right, So we all want to
<v Speaker 2>partake in delicious foods and sweet treats through the holidays,
<v Speaker 2>and pie and cookies and Christmas this and that's coming
<v Speaker 2>up and whatever celebrations that you have coming up in
<v Speaker 2>the next two months till the end of New Year's right. So,
<v Speaker 2>fasting affords you some leeway with that. It puts parameters
<v Speaker 2>on when you can eat those things and stuff. So
<v Speaker 2>if you're kind of lucy goosey right now and you're
<v Speaker 2>not feeling super motivated and falls coming and you want
<v Speaker 2>your comfort foods and stuff. What really right now? Cement
<v Speaker 2>your why?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, protect your clean fast above all else, because we
<v Speaker 1>just hear that so often.
<v Speaker 3>Well, I just started with I was having a splash
<v Speaker 3>of milk, and then we have heard that story, would
<v Speaker 3>you say hundreds of times? Yes, yeah, we've heard it.
<v Speaker 1>And then I just wasn't fasting anymore. It starts with
<v Speaker 1>that splash of whatever it is. So protect your clean
<v Speaker 1>fast now and stay off that slippery slope, I promise.
<v Speaker 2>Yep, all right, So we have a y from Eliza
<v Speaker 2>in Bristol, UK. She said, I want to get rid
<v Speaker 2>of my hormonal acne and cure my pcos I was
<v Speaker 2>told by my doctors that I will never be able
<v Speaker 2>to have children and then I'll have to take medication
<v Speaker 2>for the rest of my life if I want a
<v Speaker 2>regular cycle. I want to have kids one day, even
<v Speaker 2>though it's ten years from now, but I want them someday,
<v Speaker 2>and I want to be able to have a cycle
<v Speaker 2>that I can track and to take care of myself
<v Speaker 2>like every other woman. I feel like I don't even
<v Speaker 2>know what it is like to be a woman because
<v Speaker 2>of my lack of periods. No kidding, I've had less
<v Speaker 2>than eight cycles in my whole life. I can't feel
<v Speaker 2>feminine with such persistent agne. I also want to help
<v Speaker 2>my parents because my parents are the ones with the
<v Speaker 2>real health issues. My mother has high blood pressure, constant
<v Speaker 2>back and leg pain, and she is pre diabetic. My
<v Speaker 2>father has high acidity, which could be due to cortisol,
<v Speaker 2>and both of them are in the lower end of
<v Speaker 2>the obese weight range category. And when she says the city,
<v Speaker 2>I think she's talking about like acid stomach.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, that's what I was thinking too.
<v Speaker 2>She says, I want to lose weight to prove to
<v Speaker 2>them that if is a lifestyle and then it works.
<v Speaker 2>But I know they will not listen until they see
<v Speaker 2>some results, So I want to lose weight as well
<v Speaker 2>to also encourage them to lose weight. My mother is
<v Speaker 2>stuck in the mentality of you need to eat frequent
<v Speaker 2>but small meals a day, and she is horrified by
<v Speaker 2>the idea that I do not eat every other day.
<v Speaker 2>So I also want to change her mindset about fasting.
<v Speaker 2>She also believes fasting causes high stomach acid because there's
<v Speaker 2>no food in the stomach, even though they don't have
<v Speaker 2>gurd so her why is multifold. She wants it for
<v Speaker 2>her health, she wants it so that she can get
<v Speaker 2>her cycle back and have kids one day, and she
<v Speaker 2>also wants to change the health of the people around her.
<v Speaker 1>Eliza, I would encourage if you haven't already listened to
<v Speaker 1>episode four hundred and twenty four of Intermittent Fasting Stories.
<v Speaker 1>Karen is a member of our community, and I know
<v Speaker 1>her story because she shares it frequently in the community.
<v Speaker 1>But she had PCOS and didn't have regular cycles, and
<v Speaker 1>intermittent fasting has brought her back to regular cycles. I
<v Speaker 1>first heard about that, Gosh, it was a long time
<v Speaker 1>ago an early episode of Intermittent Fasting Stories. Doctor Cecily Ganhart,
<v Speaker 1>she's an abgyn. She uses fasting with her PCOS patients
<v Speaker 1>to increase their fertility, and so I would encourage you
<v Speaker 1>go ahead and get a fasting insulin test now, Eliza,
<v Speaker 1>know what your fasting insulin level is and whatever intermittent
<v Speaker 1>fasting protocol you're using, keep doing that, and then check
<v Speaker 1>your fasting insulin level again in three to six months
<v Speaker 1>and see if it has come down.
<v Speaker 3>And if it has you're on the right track. Keep
<v Speaker 3>doing what you're doing. If not, it may be time
<v Speaker 3>to look at alternate Dave fasting.
<v Speaker 2>I think that's what she's doing because she said that
<v Speaker 2>her mom can't believe she does not eat.
<v Speaker 3>Every other day. Oh okay, yeah, I was looking up SOMETIMECE.
<v Speaker 3>I missed that part. I was looking at what episode
<v Speaker 3>Karen was.
<v Speaker 1>So yes, alternate Dave fasting is a great approach for
<v Speaker 1>anyone with PCOS that needs to lure their insulin. I
<v Speaker 1>would still check your fasting insulin level and check it
<v Speaker 1>again in a few months to see because it's possible.
<v Speaker 1>If you said you've only had eight cycles in your
<v Speaker 1>whole life, it is possible that you may also need
<v Speaker 1>to focus on food choices down the line.
<v Speaker 3>So just think about that as well.
<v Speaker 1>The very last thing that you would want to do
<v Speaker 1>is eat frequent small meals with pcos. So you are
<v Speaker 1>on the right track and I'm proud of you for
<v Speaker 1>making these changes now, knowing what your long term goals
<v Speaker 1>are and taking care of your health now.
<v Speaker 2>So I'm not one that recommends a lot of supplements
<v Speaker 2>to people, but I know you're in the UK and
<v Speaker 2>you may not have the ability to see like a
<v Speaker 2>functional medicine doctor for your PCOS. But there is a
<v Speaker 2>lot of research out there on I may not be
<v Speaker 2>saying this right. It's inositole n SI t o L
<v Speaker 2>for PCOS and it helps improve and sulen sensitivity and BMI.
<v Speaker 2>It's really showing a lot of promise as a primary
<v Speaker 2>treatment for women with PCOS as it helps improve metabolic
<v Speaker 2>and reproductive hormone levels.
<v Speaker 3>So spell that supplement again.
<v Speaker 2>I noo SI tool, and I will include a research
<v Speaker 2>study that's on the National Institutes of Health and just keynote.
<v Speaker 2>Our results showed that inoctol supplementation was more effective in
<v Speaker 2>people with PCOS and overweight obesity than among other populations.
<v Speaker 2>So that was just like one quick finding that just
<v Speaker 2>popped up. A lot of functional medicine doctors are using
<v Speaker 2>this to help their PCOS patients, and I have read
<v Speaker 2>just even on Reddit, people with personal experience with it
<v Speaker 2>how it's helped them and helped them return to having cycles.
<v Speaker 1>And of course that's when I would keep in my
<v Speaker 1>eating window because I know people are going to want
<v Speaker 1>to know because here's the definition of it.
<v Speaker 3>In osatol whatever said.
<v Speaker 1>It's a form of sugar found in your body and
<v Speaker 1>some foods and as a supplement, so I would not
<v Speaker 1>have that during the fast, just in case, because I
<v Speaker 1>know I knew people would ask.
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, I just wanted to throw that out there
<v Speaker 2>because my heart goes out to you and I had pcos.
<v Speaker 2>Luckily it did not impact my fertility. But yeah, any
<v Speaker 2>thing I can do to help somebody. Yeah, all right,
<v Speaker 2>So we have another question from Kathy and Indiana. She said, hello, ladies,
<v Speaker 2>thank you for all you do. I am sixty six
<v Speaker 2>years old and recommitted to fasting recently in May of
<v Speaker 2>twenty twenty four. I previously had success with IF after
<v Speaker 2>reading FFR three and a half years ago, Let's Fast
<v Speaker 2>Feast Repeat, someone dear to me passed away and I
<v Speaker 2>lost my rhythm and fasted only occasionally, so not really
<v Speaker 2>fasting for the last two years. As for my history,
<v Speaker 2>about twenty years ago, at my peak weight of three
<v Speaker 2>hundred and eighty five pounds, after years of one filed
<v Speaker 2>diet after another, I elected to have R and weis
<v Speaker 2>gastric bypass. I lost one hundred pounds, but as many
<v Speaker 2>who have had bypassed will tell you, that is only
<v Speaker 2>a tool and not a cure. Since I did not
<v Speaker 2>change the way I ate. While I did lose an
<v Speaker 2>additional fifty pounds, the same came and went with regularity.
<v Speaker 2>I am five foot one. I currently weigh two hundred
<v Speaker 2>and fifty five pounds. I don't really have a number
<v Speaker 2>in mind for a goal weight. I figure I'll know
<v Speaker 2>it when I feel it, and I love that. She says,
<v Speaker 2>I have now come back strong and I'm Monday fifty
<v Speaker 2>four of my recommitment. I usually do eighteen to twenty
<v Speaker 2>hour fasts and keep my window within the four to
<v Speaker 2>six hour range. I am clean fasting and working on
<v Speaker 2>have less processed and more whole foods in my window.
<v Speaker 2>I currently take met Foreman extended release one in the morning,
<v Speaker 2>one in the evening.
<v Speaker 3>I have classic.
<v Speaker 2>Insulin resistant symptoms. A recent fasting insulin was eight, but
<v Speaker 2>my blood sugars are still sometimes high before taking medication.
<v Speaker 2>I have values anywhere from seventy eight to one thirty five. Recently,
<v Speaker 2>I decided to try millis Monday with the community. I
<v Speaker 2>feel like I must be fat adapted because I sailed
<v Speaker 2>through without any difficulty. I don't think I'm ready for ADF,
<v Speaker 2>but I'm considering adding a second down day during the week.
<v Speaker 2>To try and reverse insulin resistance sooner rather than later.
<v Speaker 2>EIGHTF doesn't appeal as I don't really enjoy the following
<v Speaker 2>up day. I truly prefer a daily eating window.
<v Speaker 3>Can we pop in there real quick?
<v Speaker 1>And just to clarify that, this kind of goes with
<v Speaker 1>what we were talking about before about ADF. But I
<v Speaker 1>know that you said you don't like the upday. It
<v Speaker 1>almost reads like you're not doing an up day after
<v Speaker 1>Mealis Monday, So I want to make sure that you are.
<v Speaker 1>Mealis Monday is a down day and it has to
<v Speaker 1>be followed by an upday, and so if you add
<v Speaker 1>a second down day, you will have to have a
<v Speaker 1>second up day.
<v Speaker 3>So you may just be thinking.
<v Speaker 1>You don't want to do ADF the pure definition of
<v Speaker 1>every other day down up, down, up, down, up, down up,
<v Speaker 1>And that's fine, but I just want to make sure
<v Speaker 1>that you're having a full up day.
<v Speaker 3>I just couldn't tell for sure. Am I reading too
<v Speaker 3>much into that show?
<v Speaker 2>Maybe I don't know. Said she doesn't enjoy the following
<v Speaker 2>up day, which makes me think she's having it. She
<v Speaker 2>just doesn't like it.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I just wanted to clarify that, just make sure
<v Speaker 1>even if you have a mealis Monday that counts as
<v Speaker 1>a down day.
<v Speaker 3>It needs to have an update.
<v Speaker 1>You probably I just the teacher in me wants to
<v Speaker 1>always double shu shark. So yeah, all right, she says. Finally,
<v Speaker 1>here's my question. Because of the gastric bypass, I don't
<v Speaker 1>have hunger and sotiety signals like most do. I know
<v Speaker 1>to open my window even without hunger, and when I'm
<v Speaker 1>in my eating window, I have an opening snack and
<v Speaker 1>then more of a meal four or five hours later.
<v Speaker 2>Where I'm stuck is on the up day following the meal.
<v Speaker 1>Ess days, Well, I should have just let you kept going,
<v Speaker 1>because there it is.
<v Speaker 3>She's having it. Okay.
<v Speaker 2>I know I should have an eating window of at
<v Speaker 2>least six hours, but extending beyond that has been difficult.
<v Speaker 2>What I don't know is whether I should eat right
<v Speaker 2>before I close my window on the up day to
<v Speaker 2>get to an eight hour window. I'm not hungry, so
<v Speaker 2>I can't decide if I should eat just to make
<v Speaker 2>sure my body gets the update benefit and go ahead
<v Speaker 2>and have something smallish to close the day. I do
<v Speaker 2>not snack between meals since I've been back on if
<v Speaker 2>I'm not able to eat as much as before, so
<v Speaker 2>I think my stomach has begun to shrink, though thankfully
<v Speaker 2>we'll never get to the immediate post surgery volume restriction.
<v Speaker 2>A big part of my why is to reverse the
<v Speaker 2>insulin resistance, get off the net format, and cure my
<v Speaker 2>fatty liver. I've wanted that for a long time. I'm
<v Speaker 2>also quite annoyed with my family doctor who keeps suggesting
<v Speaker 2>a GLP one. Nope, don't want to do it. It irritates
<v Speaker 2>me that she keeps bringing it up. I know, with
<v Speaker 2>the help of you ladies and the community as a whole,
<v Speaker 2>I will build a healthy body and a relationship with food.
<v Speaker 2>Loving the podcast, thank you for all you do for
<v Speaker 2>us PS. Anyone listening who may be considering gastric bypass
<v Speaker 2>please reconsider if is a lifestyle that will bring all
<v Speaker 2>the change you want and need.
<v Speaker 1>All Right, So, I'm probably going to surprise you, Kathy
<v Speaker 1>and tell you that I don't want you to make
<v Speaker 1>your window eight hours.
<v Speaker 3>I want you to make it twelve hours. Yep. Oh
<v Speaker 3>is that where you were good to say too?
<v Speaker 2>And I actually think she needs ADF.
<v Speaker 3>I think she does too. I think that ADF is
<v Speaker 3>what you need.
<v Speaker 1>And I think that you need twelve hours, especially with
<v Speaker 1>a smaller stomach. So let's think about why we do
<v Speaker 1>ADF one to keep our insulin low. It's a great
<v Speaker 1>strategy for lowering insulin because you're fasting longer for a
<v Speaker 1>period of time, whether you have the Downday meal or not.
<v Speaker 1>You can have the Downday meal if you want or not,
<v Speaker 1>that's fine, but you're still going to have more insulin lowering.
<v Speaker 2>Effects even if you choose to have the pancreatic rest exactly.
<v Speaker 1>But then the upday is where you need to have
<v Speaker 1>the metabolic boost, and so if you definitely don't want
<v Speaker 1>to try to do that in six hours. And you know,
<v Speaker 1>I clarified this in Delayed on to my second edition
<v Speaker 1>in Fast Feast Repeat, I said six to eight hours minimum,
<v Speaker 1>And if I could go back in time, I would
<v Speaker 1>say eight to twelve hours minimum instead of six to
<v Speaker 1>eight because some people are like, oh, six to eight minimum, Okay,
<v Speaker 1>I'm going to do six.
<v Speaker 3>The recommendation is six. It never was me recommending six.
<v Speaker 1>And we've now realized six is not enough for almost anybody,
<v Speaker 1>and it's definitely not enough for you.
<v Speaker 3>If you've had gas or bypass, you are.
<v Speaker 1>Physically unable to have an upday in six e and
<v Speaker 1>I would pretty much guess you probably can't do it
<v Speaker 1>in eight either. Twelve is going to be the minimum
<v Speaker 1>I would suggest for you. And I know that if
<v Speaker 1>you really prefer a daily eating window, that's going to
<v Speaker 1>be hard, But think of it as like a prescription
<v Speaker 1>for your body. Your body needs that upday metabolic boost.
<v Speaker 2>Not only with her insular resistance, but just her history
<v Speaker 2>and the gastric bypass and the lower calorie the kind
<v Speaker 2>of imposed calorie restriction you have with that that I
<v Speaker 2>think you could use the rhythm of the up and
<v Speaker 2>down day, but also I think with it because of
<v Speaker 2>you've had gastrid bypass, I really feel like that upday
<v Speaker 2>with a good long window is going to help you
<v Speaker 2>so much, because it is very possible that you are
<v Speaker 2>just not eating enough in a four to five hour
<v Speaker 2>window because you say you're having an opening and then
<v Speaker 2>you say more of a meal. Now I don't know
<v Speaker 2>what that looks like to you, but a snack and
<v Speaker 2>then more of a meal does not sound to me
<v Speaker 2>like a window. A full eating window.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe it is, but probably not if you stomach.
<v Speaker 2>That's my thought, and I feel like as far as
<v Speaker 2>getting good nutrition in and then not having the with
<v Speaker 2>because of gastric my pass. It does cause you to
<v Speaker 2>have higher blood glucose spikes after you eat and stuff.
<v Speaker 2>So if you can kind of use a twelve hour
<v Speaker 2>update and kind of just even graze. You say you
<v Speaker 2>don't have snacks, but even if you kind of just
<v Speaker 2>grazed your way through the day, that's going to be better,
<v Speaker 2>I think than what you're currently doing.
<v Speaker 3>Yep, yeah, all right, we have a question. Firm Araylis
<v Speaker 3>A R. E.
<v Speaker 2>L I. S.
<v Speaker 3>Raylists. I've never seen it before in Jersey. I haven't either.
<v Speaker 1>I've seen a lot of names as a teacher. All right,
<v Speaker 1>so sorry if we did that terribly. I have been
<v Speaker 1>fasting since twenty eighteen, dirty fasting, that is, I was
<v Speaker 1>losing weight but not consistently and found myself struggling and
<v Speaker 1>not happy with the process. At the time, I was
<v Speaker 1>one hundred and eighty five pounds at five ten. When
<v Speaker 1>the pandemic came, I was working remotely and fasting went
<v Speaker 1>out the window. My husband was home as well and
<v Speaker 1>loves to cook. He was making me breakfast, snacks, lunch,
<v Speaker 1>and dinners with wine. It was non stop eating and drinking.
<v Speaker 1>I never really had the fasting down to a schedule.
<v Speaker 1>In July of twenty twenty three, I went on a
<v Speaker 1>cruise beverages, food, desserts all day. I came home and
<v Speaker 1>weighed one hundred and seventy two. I didn't like the
<v Speaker 1>way I looked that day. I decided to get serious.
<v Speaker 1>Fasting is the only way I love food. But I
<v Speaker 1>really love ice cream and I didn't want to give
<v Speaker 1>it up. I researched books on fasting and found you
<v Speaker 1>Gen Fast Feasts, repeat other books, but your book stuck.
<v Speaker 1>I began listening to podcasts and guess who I found
<v Speaker 1>Gen and Sherry. I could not be any happier. I
<v Speaker 1>was hooked. That was the true beginning of fasting. I
<v Speaker 1>officially became a faster in July of twenty twenty three.
<v Speaker 1>I started eating clean and what a difference. My sweet
<v Speaker 1>spot is nineteen five And I wonder if she means
<v Speaker 1>fast and clean. Started fast and clean, because that does
<v Speaker 1>make a difference. Fast and clean makes it makes a difference.
<v Speaker 2>She said she was dirty fast dirty fasting.
<v Speaker 1>The cleaner you are, the better it feels. Let's just say,
<v Speaker 1>she said, my sweet spot is nineteen five. My current
<v Speaker 1>weight is one hundred and thirty two pounds. I'll be
<v Speaker 1>fifty five is July, and the weight just comes off.
<v Speaker 1>I don't even think about it, and I flex my
<v Speaker 1>window as needed. I have two questions. I notice I
<v Speaker 1>get a tingling that turns to numbness around my mouth.
<v Speaker 1>It begins to happen when I get close to opening
<v Speaker 1>my window. I researched and it seems the lack or
<v Speaker 1>deficiency of nutrients. And when it happened yesterday, I ate
<v Speaker 1>something and it went away. It was one half hour
<v Speaker 1>before my window. What do you think it could be?
<v Speaker 1>My second question, I have a physical coming up. What
<v Speaker 1>blood work should I request? Any recommendation or tips you
<v Speaker 1>could give me would be so appreciated. Now, I've never
<v Speaker 1>heard anybody say they had tingling.
<v Speaker 3>Around their mouth.
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, people talk about it in fasting well in
<v Speaker 2>the community, not like right before they open their window.
<v Speaker 2>But people have taught tingling around their mouth. And I
<v Speaker 2>told the one lady what it could be, and then
<v Speaker 2>she went and got checked for it. And that is
<v Speaker 2>LOB twelve.
<v Speaker 3>Okay.
<v Speaker 2>Lobe twelve can give you tingling in your mouth, tongue
<v Speaker 2>around your lips, even fingers and toes. But the thing
<v Speaker 2>is is you can't just assume that's it because got aassium.
<v Speaker 2>Low potassium can cause the exact same symptoms, and so
<v Speaker 2>can low blood sugar. Now, if you are fat adapted,
<v Speaker 2>and which you should be, you should not be having
<v Speaker 2>low blood sugar. So I am not inclined to think
<v Speaker 2>that's it unless you are somehow breaking your fast and
<v Speaker 2>you don't realize it. So double check, make sure you're
<v Speaker 2>absolutely fast and clean, that you are not consuming anything
<v Speaker 2>that could be lowering your blood sugar. Doing the fast
<v Speaker 2>and release and then fasting. Insulin is a great one
<v Speaker 2>to have, A and C thyroid is always a great
<v Speaker 2>one to check every couple of years, be twelve and
<v Speaker 2>then in a regular basic KEM profile lab they will
<v Speaker 2>check your potassium and if they don't find anything, this
<v Speaker 2>doesn't clear up. You might want to get a glucometer
<v Speaker 2>and check your blood sugar when you're having these episodes,
<v Speaker 2>just to make sure that your blood sugars aren't dropping
<v Speaker 2>too low well fasting.
<v Speaker 1>Before we get to the tweak of the week, I
<v Speaker 1>want to remind you about my books and what you
<v Speaker 1>need if you're new to intermittent fasting or if you're
<v Speaker 1>sharing intermitten fasting with others. You'll want delay, don't deny,
<v Speaker 1>and you want the second edition. The paperback and the
<v Speaker 1>hardback are only available on Amazon, but the ebooks are
<v Speaker 1>available through every major ebook retailer. You can have it
<v Speaker 1>in less than five minutes when you're ordering on Amazon.
<v Speaker 1>Make sure you end up with a second edition. It
<v Speaker 1>came out in August of twenty twenty four, and it's
<v Speaker 1>written in the description. The easiest way is to go
<v Speaker 1>to the get the books link in the show notes
<v Speaker 1>or at Jen Stevens dot com.
<v Speaker 3>Follow the links.
<v Speaker 1>You'll know you're getting the right edition, and then we
<v Speaker 1>have other books along the way, but start with Delayed
<v Speaker 1>on tonight's second edition. Now it's time for our tweak
<v Speaker 1>of the week, and this is from Francesca from Massachusetts.
<v Speaker 1>She says, until starting if, I never realized how often
<v Speaker 1>my emotions impacted my life, especially when it comes to
<v Speaker 1>my weight loss efforts and my health. In the last
<v Speaker 1>six months, I came up with a tweak that has
<v Speaker 1>helped me stay in check whenever I start getting diet
<v Speaker 1>brain or I start getting caught up in the number
<v Speaker 1>on the scale I ask myself one simple question, but
<v Speaker 1>how do you feel?
<v Speaker 3>Yay? I know, love that so much, she said.
<v Speaker 1>That has become my own emotional checks and balances to
<v Speaker 1>avoid getting derailed by diet noise. For example, I recently
<v Speaker 1>shortened my eating window to about four hours a day,
<v Speaker 1>and it has felt great so far. I stepped on
<v Speaker 1>the scale only a week into my new fasting schedule
<v Speaker 1>and saw my weight had crept up a bit. At first,
<v Speaker 1>my diet brain started screaming at me that this new
<v Speaker 1>pro call was a complete failure and I should stop
<v Speaker 1>and try something else, full panic mode. But then I
<v Speaker 1>took a deep breath and asked myself, but how do
<v Speaker 1>you feel? The truth is that until I stepped on
<v Speaker 1>the scale that morning, I felt great, both physically and emotionally.
<v Speaker 1>So after taking inventory on how I felt at that moment,
<v Speaker 1>I decided to stay the course and not quit my
<v Speaker 1>adjusted fasting schedule. Taking inventory on how I feel also
<v Speaker 1>helps with making better food choices during my eating window
<v Speaker 1>and helps with recognizing and respecting my satiety signals. If
<v Speaker 1>I want to keep eating because something tastes great, but
<v Speaker 1>I feel physically full, I stop a beat and ask
<v Speaker 1>myself how I feel this tweak has been a great
<v Speaker 1>gut check for me in moments where I typically allow
<v Speaker 1>my emotions to control my decision making. Asking myself how
<v Speaker 1>I feel gives me the opportunity to stop what I'm doing,
<v Speaker 1>recognize the emotions I'm having, and keep pushing forward without
<v Speaker 1>getting derailed.
<v Speaker 2>I love that, but not love that more. Love it all? Right?
<v Speaker 3>Well, we loved it.
<v Speaker 2>I leave you with inspirational motivational quotes, and this week
<v Speaker 2>we have a quote from a listener in Missouri. Quote
<v Speaker 2>is I Choose Me? She said. I have seen this
<v Speaker 2>quote from time to time, but it only recently has
<v Speaker 2>resonated deeply with me. My culture is to always celebrate
<v Speaker 2>with food and not the healthy stuff, and I'm trying
<v Speaker 2>to rewire my brain into thinking that I can be
<v Speaker 2>happy without over indulging, and I don't have to eat
<v Speaker 2>everything in sight. I choose healthier, mindful eating habits for
<v Speaker 2>me and my family. I choose me.
<v Speaker 3>Thanks so much for listening today.
<v Speaker 1>We would love to have you join us in the
<v Speaker 1>Delayed don On Tonight community, where you can interact with
<v Speaker 1>both Me and Sherry, plus the most supportive bunch of
<v Speaker 1>intermittent fasters you'll find anywhere. Go to Jenstevens dot com
<v Speaker 1>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 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.
<v Speaker 2>Question Until next week. Thanks for listening,