Episode 146: IF Post-Partum, Losing Too Quickly, Sleep Issues, 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 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 2>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 2>How are you doing today's Sherry, I'm doing fine. How
<v Speaker 2>are you? I am doing great as well. I can
<v Speaker 2>tell you've been out, so do you get a little color.
<v Speaker 1>I have been outside a little bit all those baseball games.
<v Speaker 2>Well yeah, that well that in your you know, Florida
<v Speaker 2>trip before that's true Puerto Rico Rica trip before that.
<v Speaker 2>Compared to you and I normally feel kind of tea
<v Speaker 2>now yeah, yeah, you're always a lot tanner than me.
<v Speaker 1>I'm usually the pasty one, but I've been.
<v Speaker 2>Outside a lot more than normal. Yeah. Well, we're having
<v Speaker 2>that weird March weather where it was like in the
<v Speaker 2>seventies last week and then freezing rain and snow yesterday.
<v Speaker 1>So this comes out mid mid April, so hopefully we're
<v Speaker 1>done with Hopefully by then it's.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, we'll be in just the rainy spring.
<v Speaker 1>Well, we've all seen that that on Facebook, that graphic
<v Speaker 1>or it's like you are here and it's like spring
<v Speaker 1>of deception and then.
<v Speaker 2>Second winter.
<v Speaker 1>I feel like we're in the next winter and then
<v Speaker 1>finally we'll get to the pollening.
<v Speaker 2>Although we've already had pollen here. Oh yes see, I didn't.
<v Speaker 2>We had bad storms Sunday night, and I wasn't really
<v Speaker 2>upset about it because it Sunday. I went out to
<v Speaker 2>my car, it was just covered in that pollen, and
<v Speaker 2>so I was like, Okay, well maybe it'll wash some
<v Speaker 2>of that away.
<v Speaker 1>Uh huh, yeah, because that's miserable. Yeah, it's everywhere, all
<v Speaker 1>over everything. Yeah, but even comes in your house, it does.
<v Speaker 1>It drifts in and you have to like, I don't
<v Speaker 1>even go out and sit on the patio furniture.
<v Speaker 2>You have to hose it all down. And you know
<v Speaker 2>you come in yellow, Yeah, you do.
<v Speaker 1>And you know, my allergies are not to the point
<v Speaker 1>that I have to take allergy medicines and it's fasting.
<v Speaker 1>But if I rub it or like touch it and
<v Speaker 1>then rub my face, it makes it tickle. Oh I
<v Speaker 1>can't like rub it in my eyes or rub it
<v Speaker 1>in my nose without having a problem.
<v Speaker 2>All right, Well, this week we have a celebration from
<v Speaker 2>Robin from Pennsylvania. She said, Hi, Jen and Sherry. First off,
<v Speaker 2>thank you. I have learned so much from the both
<v Speaker 2>of you through your podcasts. I also love being part
<v Speaker 2>of your community to celebrate successes and to cheer others
<v Speaker 2>on when they feel discouraged. And today marks my two
<v Speaker 2>hundredth day of clean fasting. Hooray yay. In August of
<v Speaker 2>twenty twenty five, I met with my cousin for breakfast
<v Speaker 2>and I noticed how thin she was, so I asked
<v Speaker 2>her what she was doing. I had lots of questions.
<v Speaker 2>She had so much success and is in maintenance. She
<v Speaker 2>also gave a plug for all things gin. I went
<v Speaker 2>home with a new sense of hope, and I thought
<v Speaker 2>to myself, why not try this? What do I have
<v Speaker 2>to lose? But wait? So on August twenty first, twenty
<v Speaker 2>twenty five, I started. The funny thing is this was
<v Speaker 2>the first day my husband and I and three married
<v Speaker 2>kids and granddaughter were leaving for a little vacation. Why
<v Speaker 2>would I pick that date to start? But I did,
<v Speaker 2>And I even incorporated black coffee for the first time ever.
<v Speaker 2>I told myself, I will give this eye of journey
<v Speaker 2>six months and then reevaluate. Well here I am almost
<v Speaker 2>seven months later, and I have clean fasted every day
<v Speaker 2>since August twenty first. I had to get used to
<v Speaker 2>the black coffee, of course, but as Jen always says,
<v Speaker 2>you will get used to it. Trust me, you do.
<v Speaker 2>I do still enjoy creamy coffee, and I have one
<v Speaker 2>cup of creamy coffee during my eating window. You really
<v Speaker 2>do get used to it, and then you prefer that way.
<v Speaker 1>This weekend, at the baseball game, we went to like
<v Speaker 1>a little tailgate beforehand, and I'd already opened my window,
<v Speaker 1>but we had a little coffee left over, and I
<v Speaker 1>knew it was going to be a late night. I
<v Speaker 1>took black coffee to a baseball tailgate by choice when
<v Speaker 1>my window was open.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah yeah, yeah, yep. Occasionally will meet a person who
<v Speaker 2>just cannot learn to love black coffee. Right, But I'm convinced,
<v Speaker 2>you know, some of us are pre We're genetically like
<v Speaker 2>inclined to either like like bitter foods, prefer bitter foods,
<v Speaker 2>or really dislike bitter foods. And I'm really convinced that
<v Speaker 2>you must have that gene where you just really dislike
<v Speaker 2>bitter tastes if you can't ever learn to love coffee,
<v Speaker 2>or you've just never found a good quality.
<v Speaker 1>Coffee that I think is a lot of it, because
<v Speaker 1>you know, I've had some bad coffee, Like my sister
<v Speaker 1>one time had the worst coffee I ever had at
<v Speaker 1>her house. And I love black coffee, and I'm like,
<v Speaker 1>oh my god, what is this? This tastes horrible. I
<v Speaker 1>who love black coffee. And there's some hotels tend to
<v Speaker 1>have a variety of coffee that I hate compared to
<v Speaker 1>other coffees. There's different varieties, Like I don't like that
<v Speaker 1>one as much. I still drink it. But quality makes
<v Speaker 1>a huge difference.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yea, so she says. I have read Delayed Down
<v Speaker 2>Tonight and Fast Fees for Peat, and I've done so
<v Speaker 2>much deep diving into the hormone insulin. I also have
<v Speaker 2>given out those books for family and friends to read.
<v Speaker 2>It blew by my mind how much I didn't know
<v Speaker 2>about the effects of insulin. Now that I do, it
<v Speaker 2>makes so much sense, and I am so passionate about
<v Speaker 2>this lifestyle. I have lost at a slow city pain.
<v Speaker 2>I am about seventeen pounds down in almost seven months,
<v Speaker 2>and I have lost over sixteen inches over all, what
<v Speaker 2>on my five foot stature. It makes all the difference.
<v Speaker 2>I am almost let me see that again. I am
<v Speaker 2>also fifty four years old and postmenopause, but I think
<v Speaker 2>my non scale victories are just as mind blowing. About
<v Speaker 2>two months in I noticed my terrible back and hit
<v Speaker 2>pain wasn't as bad. I wasn't sitting on ice packs
<v Speaker 2>every night anymore. Then the fall hit in Pennsylvania, and
<v Speaker 2>we live on a property with a lot of trees,
<v Speaker 2>which means lots of sticks to pick up. Late October
<v Speaker 2>I picked up many sticks, and usually that means I
<v Speaker 2>can barely walk afterwards, but not this time. I told
<v Speaker 2>my husband, I'm not sure if it is a fluke,
<v Speaker 2>but I don't feel too bad. Then a couple of
<v Speaker 2>weeks later, I picked up more sticks and the same
<v Speaker 2>thing happened. Then the snow came, which meant shoveling, and
<v Speaker 2>I did it. Yes, I was sore, but within two
<v Speaker 2>days I was just fine. I probably have sat on
<v Speaker 2>an ice pack once or twice since October, and my
<v Speaker 2>hip pain is definitely eighty five percent better. I was
<v Speaker 2>so close to going to the doctor because I couldn't
<v Speaker 2>take it anymore. That is my biggest non scale victory.
<v Speaker 2>I am down two sizes and I love shopping again.
<v Speaker 2>After my husband's aw my results and how good I
<v Speaker 2>was feeling, he jumped on the bandwagon. He didn't have
<v Speaker 2>much weight to lose, but wanted to do it for
<v Speaker 2>the health benefits. He has experienced a lot less joint pain,
<v Speaker 2>his itchy skin, has improved, and has an overall better
<v Speaker 2>outlook on life. My eighty six year old mom is
<v Speaker 2>now doing IF as well as my sister. They are
<v Speaker 2>also experiencing benefits of weight loss and other non scale victories.
<v Speaker 2>I could go on and on, but I just felt
<v Speaker 2>I needed to write in so that I can encourage
<v Speaker 2>someone else in the postmenopausal stage of life. Nothing, I
<v Speaker 2>mean nothing else worked for me. I was so sick
<v Speaker 2>of gaining weight and I just didn't feel good. I
<v Speaker 2>have a passion and desire to help others through if
<v Speaker 2>this is my life now and I get to choose
<v Speaker 2>to live in it and still live. I am currently
<v Speaker 2>writing this at our Florida house after I just had
<v Speaker 2>a scoop of ice cream in my window. Even though
<v Speaker 2>I desire mostly whole foods now, it is so freeing
<v Speaker 2>to be able to partake in celebrations or just simply
<v Speaker 2>a dip of ice cream at our Florida home. As
<v Speaker 2>I'm ending this, I have tears for what feels like
<v Speaker 2>a miracle, and to also see the joy in my
<v Speaker 2>sister's eyes to finally see success. Let me see that again,
<v Speaker 2>and to also see the joy in my sister's eyes,
<v Speaker 2>to finally see success after many prayers, to find something
<v Speaker 2>that works. Thank you God for this newfound freedom, and
<v Speaker 2>thank you Jin and Sherry for your wealth of knowledge.
<v Speaker 2>I hope to meet you both someday with much love
<v Speaker 2>and gratitude.
<v Speaker 1>Robin Well, I love that so much. And the one
<v Speaker 1>thing you talked about that was so impactful. Is the
<v Speaker 1>faster recovery muscle soreness, that sort of thing that is
<v Speaker 1>absolutely true for me.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Like, it used to.
<v Speaker 1>Take me a lot longer to recover muscle soreness and pain,
<v Speaker 1>and now it's just bay them better. You might feel
<v Speaker 1>a little bit the next day, but it's gone. But Robin,
<v Speaker 1>so much to celebrate. And I love that you've spread
<v Speaker 1>it to your family and they're doing it too and
<v Speaker 1>seeing the benefits. That's amazing.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, And something that struck me is when you said
<v Speaker 2>that your husband doesn't have as itchy skin. And a
<v Speaker 2>lot of people don't know this, but sometimes having an
<v Speaker 2>itchy skin is related to not having a super healthy liver.
<v Speaker 2>And you know, maybe he had some fatty liver disease
<v Speaker 2>going on, or maybe his liver was just or congested
<v Speaker 2>and not detoxing well. But the fact that he's less
<v Speaker 2>itchy could very well mean that his liver is healthier.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, definitely. So now we have a question from
<v Speaker 1>a listener. This question is from Stephanie in Houston. Hyjen
<v Speaker 1>and Sherry. I just wanted to start off by saying
<v Speaker 1>I love listening to your podcast. It's helped me in
<v Speaker 1>more ways than you can imagine. I have a question
<v Speaker 1>that I can't find whether it's been answered before. My
<v Speaker 1>question is about postpartum period and getting back into fasting.
<v Speaker 1>I know you shouldn't be fasting while you're breastfeeding, but
<v Speaker 1>what if you're not. I am currently thirty eight years old,
<v Speaker 1>I'm five foot six, I'm one hundred and seventy pounds.
<v Speaker 1>I began intermittent fasting in August of twenty twenty four
<v Speaker 1>at one hundred and sixty seven pounds and dropped down
<v Speaker 1>to one hundred and forty six seven months of clean
<v Speaker 1>fasting with a nineteen five approach, I found out I
<v Speaker 1>was pregnant. After years of trying, it finally happened. Thank
<v Speaker 1>you intermittent fasting. Of course, I quit fasting, but I
<v Speaker 1>stayed mindful of not overeating. I was eating healthy, et cetera.
<v Speaker 1>I chose not to breastfeed for other personal reading reasons
<v Speaker 1>and went straight to formula. At nine weeks, I went
<v Speaker 1>back to work and back to intermittent fasting, doing a
<v Speaker 1>sixteen eight approach for twenty eight days, then back to
<v Speaker 1>nineteen five. But nothing is happening. The morning before I
<v Speaker 1>had my baby. My weight was a one hundred and
<v Speaker 1>ninety seven point eight and nine weeks postpartum, I was
<v Speaker 1>down to one hundred and seve Here I am at
<v Speaker 1>sixteen weeks postpartum, and the scale has not moved. Clothes
<v Speaker 1>still don't fit, measurements are still the same side by
<v Speaker 1>side photos. I still look pudgy. It's not all about
<v Speaker 1>the weight, because I'm a pretty active person. I feel
<v Speaker 1>inflammation bloating everything that I once had, and intermittent fasting
<v Speaker 1>previously helped with what am I doing wrong? I have hypothyroidism,
<v Speaker 1>but I take my medicine every morning before coffee.
<v Speaker 2>Please help? All right, Well, a couple of thoughts. I
<v Speaker 2>kind of went through here and kind of broke down
<v Speaker 2>what you were doing. So from nine to thirteen weeks postpartum,
<v Speaker 2>you did sixteen eight for twenty eight days, So that
<v Speaker 2>would be what we consider like the twenty eight day
<v Speaker 2>fast start.
<v Speaker 1>Although not quite because fifteen eight is not exact quite
<v Speaker 1>what we're Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, so that's what I was gonna say. So with
<v Speaker 2>you know, the twenty eight day fast start, other than
<v Speaker 2>the real ease in approach, you're going to accelerate through
<v Speaker 2>those twenty eight days, at a little faster rate, Like
<v Speaker 2>you're going to start with eight hours, and then the
<v Speaker 2>next week seven and the next six, and then you're
<v Speaker 2>going to end up at five if you're doing the
<v Speaker 2>sort of middle of the road approach. So the fact
<v Speaker 2>that you stayed at sixteen eight for twenty eight days
<v Speaker 2>just means it's going to take your body a little
<v Speaker 2>bit longer to get fat adapted. So now it's been
<v Speaker 2>three weeks since you've shifted to nineteen five, I would
<v Speaker 2>expect that at this point you should start to feel
<v Speaker 2>the signs of katosis, Like your body should be starting
<v Speaker 2>to flip the switch, and if it isn't already it
<v Speaker 2>it should be. And if it's not, then you probably
<v Speaker 2>need to take a look at your food, your food quality.
<v Speaker 2>You know what you're eating in your window. Just think
<v Speaker 2>back to what you were doing when you lost weight
<v Speaker 2>pre pregnancy and try to get back to there again.
<v Speaker 2>As far as like fasting after pregnancy, if you're not
<v Speaker 2>breast eat, I couldn't find any reason why you would
<v Speaker 2>not want to just start fasting again. It's gonna help
<v Speaker 2>optimize your hormones if you had any like high insulin
<v Speaker 2>during fasting with like you know, any sort of lean
<v Speaker 2>towards high blood sugars while you were fast or while
<v Speaker 2>you were pregnant, such as like pre just like gestational
<v Speaker 2>diabetes or sort of like borderline anything like that. It's
<v Speaker 2>gonna help get you back into a more hormonally balanced state. Now,
<v Speaker 2>what's that said, hormonal imbalances after birth. You know they
<v Speaker 2>they start to drop your estrogen and progesterone from pregnancy
<v Speaker 2>start to drop. They say usually within three to six
<v Speaker 2>months that's stabilized, but that it can take up to
<v Speaker 2>a year for your body to return to its pre
<v Speaker 2>pregnant state as far as your estrogen progesterone go. So
<v Speaker 2>that's just going to be time. And you know fasting
<v Speaker 2>is going to help with that as long as you
<v Speaker 2>are eating well nutritious foods and you're eating window. Now
<v Speaker 2>here's the other thing. You may want to get your
<v Speaker 2>thyroid level checked if you have not, because pregnancy can
<v Speaker 2>cause some thyroid issues. It can cause hypothyroidism, it can
<v Speaker 2>cause a person to have hashimotos thyroiditis, and so they
<v Speaker 2>generally recommend, especially for people that are at high risk
<v Speaker 2>for thyroid issues such as already being hypothyroid, to have
<v Speaker 2>your levels checked at six weeks and then again at
<v Speaker 2>three to six months. So if you haven't had that
<v Speaker 2>done or you had it done once, it might be
<v Speaker 2>worth having that repeated just to make sure that everything's
<v Speaker 2>imbalanced there, yep.
<v Speaker 1>And again just to emphasize that you've just only been
<v Speaker 1>doing nineteen five for three weeks. You know, you mentioned
<v Speaker 1>that you're looking at your clothes, the scale, your measurements,
<v Speaker 1>you're side by side photos. It's really hard to see
<v Speaker 1>changes in a short period of time. Three weeks is
<v Speaker 1>probably not enough for your clothes to fit dramatically differently,
<v Speaker 1>or if your measurements to change a lot, or your
<v Speaker 1>side by side photos to really change. So I really
<v Speaker 1>want to emphasize the power of weighing daily and calculating
<v Speaker 1>your weekly average, or find an app like Happy Scale,
<v Speaker 1>which we love and use that. You know, I've talked
<v Speaker 1>about Chris being intermittent faster before, and he is, you know,
<v Speaker 1>losing weight actively, but his trend is only about zero
<v Speaker 1>point six pounds per week. That's pretty slow, and his
<v Speaker 1>weight fluctuates a lot, like he might be down two pounds,
<v Speaker 1>then he's up a pounds and a half and then
<v Speaker 1>he's down, So his weight fluctuates a good bit from
<v Speaker 1>day to day, so if you're only looking at the fluctuations,
<v Speaker 1>you may be missing a very slow change in your trend.
<v Speaker 1>Daily weighing with weekly averaging or an app that calculates
<v Speaker 1>your trend for you is essential to know what your
<v Speaker 1>trend is doing, because you could be losing weight at
<v Speaker 1>a half a pound a week, which is a perfectly
<v Speaker 1>normal rate of fat loss, but you can't see it
<v Speaker 1>because the fluctuations are hiding it. So really make sure
<v Speaker 1>you're focused on your trend, either through daily weighing with
<v Speaker 1>weekly averaging or an app that tracks your trend for
<v Speaker 1>you and shows what's happening. That's really important because those
<v Speaker 1>fluctuations really can mess with your mind. Luckily, he's got
<v Speaker 1>somebody in his ear telling him that every day.
<v Speaker 2>So right, like, I just looked at since I tweaked
<v Speaker 2>my protocol and after I did you know, some reverse
<v Speaker 2>dieting pro a metabolic boosts last year. My current rate
<v Speaker 2>of loss is at about point sixty seven pounds per week.
<v Speaker 2>So that's a very normal rate of loss.
<v Speaker 1>It is, but it's not something that is dramatic, and
<v Speaker 1>you're not going to see dramatic changes in photos or
<v Speaker 1>it is flow and steady over time.
<v Speaker 2>Right, So our next question is from Jessica and Oregon.
<v Speaker 2>She said, Hey, ladies. I started IF in early twenty
<v Speaker 2>twenty four at the age of thirty seven. I am
<v Speaker 2>five foot eight. I started at one hundred and eighty
<v Speaker 2>pounds and successfully lost thirty pounds in about three months.
<v Speaker 2>I maintained that loss within plus or minus five pounds
<v Speaker 2>until the fall of twenty twenty five, when stress, hormonal changes,
<v Speaker 2>and a diet mentality derailed my progress. I barely made
<v Speaker 2>it into my honesty pants. I started IF the DD
<v Speaker 2>the DDD way. Let me see that again. I started
<v Speaker 2>IF the DDD way in January of let me say, delay,
<v Speaker 2>don't deny, Okay, Yeah. I started IF the delay Don't
<v Speaker 2>Deny weigh in January of twenty twenty six, and I
<v Speaker 2>have lost weight quickly. It's now March second and I've
<v Speaker 2>lost over ten pounds. I am fat adapted, and I
<v Speaker 2>love the click I feel what I get into ketosis
<v Speaker 2>at around eighteen hours. I use in nineteen five typically
<v Speaker 2>a smack. I use a nineteen five typically a snack
<v Speaker 2>and a meal. I fast clean and I eat a
<v Speaker 2>diet of moderate protein high fiber, minimal sugar, and minimal
<v Speaker 2>processed foods. I focus on satiety to know when my
<v Speaker 2>meal is over, and I have no issue closing my
<v Speaker 2>eating window. I walk daily with a weighted best. I
<v Speaker 2>am thirty nine, I'm on progesterone and testosterone cream, and
<v Speaker 2>I'm in the early stages of perimenopause. My question is
<v Speaker 2>is it safe or recommended to lose weight as quickly
<v Speaker 2>as I am. I truly embrace IF as a lifestyle
<v Speaker 2>and I'm not in a hurry to get back into
<v Speaker 2>my honesty pants. Should I mix in a few sixteen
<v Speaker 2>eight days to prevent my weight from coming off too quickly?
<v Speaker 2>Please advise, as I would like this to be safe
<v Speaker 2>and sustainable. All right, So this is a tricky question
<v Speaker 2>because we don't know how much of the ten pounds
<v Speaker 2>that you quickly dropped is fat and how much is inflammation,
<v Speaker 2>you know, water weight, that sort of thing. We typically
<v Speaker 2>don't lose that quickly, and so when you suddenly change
<v Speaker 2>things up and you drop, you know, six pounds the
<v Speaker 2>first week, you did not lose six pounds of fat
<v Speaker 2>because we just don't lose fat that quickly.
<v Speaker 1>So I'm going to give you the same advice that
<v Speaker 1>I just gave to Stephanie, and that is make sure
<v Speaker 1>you are weighing daily and calculating your weekly average or
<v Speaker 1>see what your trend is doing, and that would be
<v Speaker 1>from week to week. Now, if you're losing substantially more
<v Speaker 1>than a pound per week still at this point, then
<v Speaker 1>that might be a sign that, oh, gosh, okay, maybe
<v Speaker 1>you are slightly over restricting a little bit, which will
<v Speaker 1>you know, come back to bite you in the end,
<v Speaker 1>because we don't want to do that. We've talked about
<v Speaker 1>that on multiple episodes. But you may find that you're
<v Speaker 1>actually only losing at a half of a pound to
<v Speaker 1>a pound or just slightly above a pound every week,
<v Speaker 1>so you really might not be losing fat as quickly
<v Speaker 1>as your early weight loss indicated. So that would be
<v Speaker 1>the next step for you. And I don't think that
<v Speaker 1>mixing in sixteen eight days is what you need to
<v Speaker 1>do unless you've realized you are accidentally over restricting. If
<v Speaker 1>you are someone who ends up with a you know what,
<v Speaker 1>what might be considered a downish day by accident, just
<v Speaker 1>because your appetite is not that big, you tend to
<v Speaker 1>eat clean, maybe your colork density is not very high.
<v Speaker 1>Then maybe a sixteen eight day here and there might
<v Speaker 1>give you, you know, what you need to do. But I
<v Speaker 1>would really look and see what's actually happening with your
<v Speaker 1>rate of loss.
<v Speaker 2>And I was going to say too, rather than jump
<v Speaker 2>straight to sixteen eight, if you think you might be
<v Speaker 2>over restricting, I would simply eat more in your eating
<v Speaker 2>window rather than a snack and a meal, you know,
<v Speaker 2>have two light meals, one at the start, one at
<v Speaker 2>the end, or a light meal and a regular meal.
<v Speaker 2>And rather than lengthening your window, because if the length
<v Speaker 2>of the fast, that's going to burn through the glecogen
<v Speaker 2>and keep you metabolically flexible.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's only if you're like a really someone who
<v Speaker 1>eats like a bird, right, that you might need to
<v Speaker 1>have a longer window if you need to if you
<v Speaker 1>cannot eat enough food in five hours because of the
<v Speaker 1>way that you naturally can eat. But again it's about
<v Speaker 1>figuring all that out. Boy, I can eat a lot
<v Speaker 1>in five hours. Oh yeah, all right, now it's time
<v Speaker 1>for our segment called what's Your Why. Most of us
<v Speaker 1>begin intermittent fasting with weight loss in mind, which is
<v Speaker 1>a great reason to begin, but there's so much more
<v Speaker 1>to what intermittent fasting can do for us beyond weight loss.
<v Speaker 1>I genuinely believe that when you have a why deeper
<v Speaker 1>than weight loss alone, you're more likely to find long
<v Speaker 1>term success and view intermittent fasting as a lifestyle.
<v Speaker 2>All right, So this week's why is from Donna in Lexington, Kentucky.
<v Speaker 2>She wrote, my biggest why is really to be and
<v Speaker 2>feel healthy and to know that I'm giving my body
<v Speaker 2>what it needs to live as long and healthy as possible. Absolutely,
<v Speaker 2>me too, all right. So our next question is from
<v Speaker 2>Forever Fasting in Phoenix. Hi, ladies, First, thank you for
<v Speaker 2>all the incredible information that you share. Has truly been
<v Speaker 2>life changing for me. I'm coming up on my four
<v Speaker 2>year fastiversary, and while I haven't lost much weight, I
<v Speaker 2>also haven't gained any which feels like a victory. Fasting
<v Speaker 2>has quieted a lot of my food noise for most
<v Speaker 2>of the day, and I'm grateful for that. I am
<v Speaker 2>a forty seven year old female one hundred and fifty pounds.
<v Speaker 2>I have a four to five hour eating window most days.
<v Speaker 2>I take progesterone, which helps me sleep seven to eight hours.
<v Speaker 2>My biggest struggle continues to be binge emotional eating. Within
<v Speaker 2>my four to five hour eating window, I can fast easily,
<v Speaker 2>but snacking, especially sweets, often sabotages my progress, and I
<v Speaker 2>know it's holding me back from the weight loss i'd
<v Speaker 2>like to achieve. I've had short stretches of success when
<v Speaker 2>I avoid snacking intentionally and the weight does come down,
<v Speaker 2>but I struggle to maintain that consistently. I've tried to
<v Speaker 2>overfill on nutrient dense food to curb the sweet monster,
<v Speaker 2>but it seems to hit often. I even cut out
<v Speaker 2>alcohol to just a few drinks a week of any
<v Speaker 2>I've read several binge eating books with strict rules that
<v Speaker 2>help temporarily, but eventually the old habits return. I feel free.
<v Speaker 2>Say that again. I feel real freedom and fasting, and
<v Speaker 2>I'd love to experience similar freedom around snacking so that
<v Speaker 2>I can reach my goals. Do you have any strategies, tools,
<v Speaker 2>or guidance for managing binge or emotional eating or excessive snacking?
<v Speaker 2>Are there any additional approaches you recommend that might support
<v Speaker 2>weight loss. I'm also tempted to try GLP one medications
<v Speaker 2>just for the food noise relief, but I'd love to
<v Speaker 2>hear your perspective first I just feel so discouraged. Sometimes.
<v Speaker 2>I always spread the word of fasting because it's truly
<v Speaker 2>an amazing way to life. I just think if I
<v Speaker 2>could dial in this last behavior that keeps me from fruit,
<v Speaker 2>true food freedom, all right.
<v Speaker 1>So I think a lot of people have this same struggle,
<v Speaker 1>which is actually one reason why I have developed to
<v Speaker 1>Eat Like a grown Up program, simply because you know,
<v Speaker 1>you desire to eat a certain way, but you're finding
<v Speaker 1>that those ultra processed foods and snacks are sneaking back in.
<v Speaker 1>And I want to read something that I actually just
<v Speaker 1>read today from someone in the Eat Like a grown
<v Speaker 1>Up community, and I'm going to just read it to you.
<v Speaker 1>This is was posted in the community there from one
<v Speaker 1>of the one of the members. A little surprise update.
<v Speaker 1>I am on week fifteen, and truthfully, I don't know
<v Speaker 1>that any of this information has been new to me.
<v Speaker 1>I am someone that listens to Zoe podcasts and I'm
<v Speaker 1>a big fan of doctor Bolschwitz.
<v Speaker 2>I'm a fangirl.
<v Speaker 1>I've consumed a lot of information and I feel like
<v Speaker 1>I'm pretty well educated on what I should do, and
<v Speaker 1>I have been for a while. The surprise is that
<v Speaker 1>after several weeks with this program, I started implementing what
<v Speaker 1>I already know how to do more consistently, to the
<v Speaker 1>point that I am almost never eating ultra processed foods.
<v Speaker 2>When I rarely.
<v Speaker 1>Do, it's in social situations, and I have been able
<v Speaker 1>to have a little and keep it under control in
<v Speaker 1>a calm and easy manner. This has been a big
<v Speaker 1>change for me, because in the past I've eaten really
<v Speaker 1>well for a while, then binged on huge amounts of
<v Speaker 1>ultra processed foods, then went back to eating very healthy.
<v Speaker 1>I can't really say what exactly has changed, but I've
<v Speaker 1>been very seriously working this program. I've done the thirty
<v Speaker 1>vegetables a week or at Storty plant foods a week,
<v Speaker 1>worksheet every single week, as well as the other weekly handout.
<v Speaker 1>I keep them organized in a notebook. I have been
<v Speaker 1>calmly building habits, and for the first time, probably ever,
<v Speaker 1>I've become consistent and not afraid that I'm going to
<v Speaker 1>fall off of my plan. I am intermittent fasting, but
<v Speaker 1>in a very moderate way. I am seeing slow, consistent
<v Speaker 1>weight loss. I am afraid it's too early for me
<v Speaker 1>to declare victory, so I'll keep you all updated, but
<v Speaker 1>I believe with all my heart that I am on
<v Speaker 1>a new path. Jen It's possible that this program may
<v Speaker 1>actually be changing me.
<v Speaker 2>For the better. I believe I am really a calmer,
<v Speaker 2>more consistent person. I believe that my mind and my
<v Speaker 2>spirit are more in harmony with my physical body thanks
<v Speaker 2>to the excellent nourishment that I'm having, and I am
<v Speaker 2>not essentially poisoning myself with these substances that would not
<v Speaker 2>have been recognized as foods for the majority of human history.
<v Speaker 2>I've done programs and plans and groups in the past.
<v Speaker 2>I would see other people rave about their success, and
<v Speaker 2>I wanted it so bad, but something in me kept
<v Speaker 2>self sabotaging. Thanks for listening.
<v Speaker 1>I plan to keep updating you as I reach a
<v Speaker 1>healthier weight and continue what I'm doing so that I
<v Speaker 1>read that this morning, and I just thought I actually
<v Speaker 1>was going to share that when I got to the
<v Speaker 1>point where I was talking about eat like a grown
<v Speaker 1>up later, but this seemed like a really good place
<v Speaker 1>to put it. And for so many of us, it
<v Speaker 1>is that that binge eating, that emotional eating, the snacking.
<v Speaker 2>We know what to do. It's the food noise.
<v Speaker 1>But you know the fact that this member is on
<v Speaker 1>week fifteen and doing the work, taking the thirty plant
<v Speaker 1>the Food the Week challenge, and doing the weekly handout.
<v Speaker 1>The videos are short, you know, eight to twelve minutes
<v Speaker 1>one a week. You watch a video, there's a handout,
<v Speaker 1>there's a weekly mission, and she is working it and
<v Speaker 1>she's doing it, and it's it's because it's empowering. You know,
<v Speaker 1>I'm not telling you eat this, don't eat that. This
<v Speaker 1>is forbidden. This is what you have. It's a matter
<v Speaker 1>of feeling empowered and focusing on what nourishes you makes
<v Speaker 1>you satisfied without rules, you're the one implementing. So I
<v Speaker 1>really think that Eat Like a grown Up might be
<v Speaker 1>something that.
<v Speaker 2>Works well for you.
<v Speaker 1>It's worth giving it a try if you think that
<v Speaker 1>it could.
<v Speaker 2>And you know, it's hard to tell too, since that
<v Speaker 2>person started the Like a grown Up program, how much
<v Speaker 2>has their gut microbiome shifted right to the point by
<v Speaker 2>it's not fueling their desire to eat the ultra processed
<v Speaker 2>foods right and faster in Phoenix. You know a couple
<v Speaker 2>other thoughts as well. I think Jen's program could be
<v Speaker 2>very beneficial for you because, you know, one of the
<v Speaker 2>things that is suggested when you're trying to change behaviors.
<v Speaker 2>Is to have a support system, to have a community
<v Speaker 2>people that can help you, people that you can turn
<v Speaker 2>to when you feel like you are wanting to, you know,
<v Speaker 2>eat foods that you know aren't serving your goals, and
<v Speaker 2>you can reach out and you can distract yourself if
<v Speaker 2>nothing else, by communicating with other people who understand where
<v Speaker 2>you're at. And then the other thing is to set
<v Speaker 2>your environment up for success. Remove foods from your house
<v Speaker 2>that lead to excessive snacking. You know, if you excessively
<v Speaker 2>snack on apples, it's probably not going to have the
<v Speaker 2>same impact on you is excessively snacking on chips, for instance.
<v Speaker 2>So whatever food it is that you struggle to control,
<v Speaker 2>I would get it out of your house. Take control
<v Speaker 2>of your environment. That really is so important.
<v Speaker 1>Get it out of the house if you are not
<v Speaker 1>going to be able to stop snacking it. That's that's
<v Speaker 1>a strategy that works really well for me. And you know,
<v Speaker 1>there's some foods I have more trouble with than others.
<v Speaker 1>And part of you know, eating like a grown up
<v Speaker 1>is knowing myself and I'm parenting myself. You know, I
<v Speaker 1>would not give you know, like I'm told to have
<v Speaker 1>a young child now, But I could have a young
<v Speaker 1>grandchild at some point, and I'm not going to hand
<v Speaker 1>that young grandchild a bag of Doritos and say go
<v Speaker 1>for it. So I'm going to parent myself the same
<v Speaker 1>way and not hand it to myself. If I know that,
<v Speaker 1>I am not going to stop eating them. So it's
<v Speaker 1>just it's having those strategies. But number one, setting your
<v Speaker 1>environment up for success makes a big difference, and then
<v Speaker 1>filling up on foods that are delicious and satisfying for me.
<v Speaker 1>It's high fiber foods, it's beans, it's Did I say,
<v Speaker 1>have I told you about how I'm baking bread yet, Sherry?
<v Speaker 2>I told you mentioned that.
<v Speaker 1>No, I don't think I'd bet you're back to breaking bread. Yes,
<v Speaker 1>I'm back to baking bread. But I had gotten rid
<v Speaker 1>of my wheat mill. I'd gotten rid of my all
<v Speaker 1>of that. So I am now using a bread machine.
<v Speaker 1>Oh really, Yes, I got another bread machine, and I
<v Speaker 1>am really enjoying baking bread. And it's so has to
<v Speaker 1>mix her though, right, I just still have my mixer.
<v Speaker 1>I I do still have it, but the bread machine
<v Speaker 1>is just so easy. I'm really busy. I don't have
<v Speaker 1>time to fiddle with all that grinding the wheat, doing
<v Speaker 1>all this. I just don't right now. It's not the
<v Speaker 1>season in my life for it. But a bread machine
<v Speaker 1>you put everything in. The bread's ready in three and
<v Speaker 1>a half hours.
<v Speaker 2>So you just put the ingredients in and the bread
<v Speaker 2>machine makes it. Yes, I had no idea. It does
<v Speaker 2>it all. It's fantastic. But here's what I was going
<v Speaker 2>to say.
<v Speaker 1>The first two time I used it, you know, I
<v Speaker 1>just want to like get it down, you know, make
<v Speaker 1>sure I know what I'm doing. So I followed the
<v Speaker 1>recipe for white bread that came with it, and it
<v Speaker 1>was delicious. We really enjoyed it. Then the third batch
<v Speaker 1>I made, I made it with whole wheat instead. They
<v Speaker 1>have a different recipe for whole wheat, so I made
<v Speaker 1>the whole wheat bread using their recipe exactly. Oh my gosh,
<v Speaker 1>is that filling really, like dramatically like it makes me
<v Speaker 1>so full. It's hard to even explain how fully. It's
<v Speaker 1>like a nice, dense whole wheat recipe. So just I
<v Speaker 1>noticed a difference between the white bread and the whole
<v Speaker 1>wheat bread, and I know what's in it. I made
<v Speaker 1>it myself and it's dense, and it's satisfying. And anyhow
<v Speaker 1>food what you're having and how it works for you. Now,
<v Speaker 1>somebody else might find the whole whet bread doesn't fill
<v Speaker 1>them up at all, you know, like you don't do
<v Speaker 1>well with rice, right, but this is the whole, like
<v Speaker 1>a grown up program is figuring out what works for
<v Speaker 1>you or just in general, you know, figuring out what
<v Speaker 1>you know, listening to your body. I have learned that
<v Speaker 1>that whole we'd bread that I'm baking is very feeling
<v Speaker 1>and satisfying for me, and when I add it to
<v Speaker 1>my meals, I'm really full and satisfied. There's something that
<v Speaker 1>like that for everybody, you know. It lets the food
<v Speaker 1>noise down for me when I'm full and satisfied from
<v Speaker 1>real food. So I just wanted to pop that in there.
<v Speaker 1>We can find what foods fill us up without needing
<v Speaker 1>to resort to medications.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. Well, and then she also mentioned yeah with the
<v Speaker 2>medications that she wants to relief from the food noise.
<v Speaker 2>And my question that I would really ask myself is
<v Speaker 2>are you truly suffering from food noise or is it
<v Speaker 2>the drive to self soothe or cope with food? You
<v Speaker 2>know has that been your go to when you're feeling emotional,
<v Speaker 2>when you're feeling stressed, when you're feeling whatever have you
<v Speaker 2>always turn to food as a way to feel better.
<v Speaker 2>And so if you are a person who comes in
<v Speaker 2>at the home at the end of the day, you've
<v Speaker 2>had a stressful day, something happened, an't work, it upset you, whatever,
<v Speaker 2>and you start thinking about snacking and food. Is that
<v Speaker 2>food noise or is that you want emotional relief? And
<v Speaker 2>if it's emotional relief, food's not really doing that right
<v Speaker 2>and it's making you feel worse in the long run
<v Speaker 2>because you're not achieving the goals that you want to
<v Speaker 2>achieve with your weight loss and your health. So I
<v Speaker 2>would really explore, like healthier coping mechanisms, How do you
<v Speaker 2>how can you better you know, process your emotions and
<v Speaker 2>your feelings. And you know, if you can't find some
<v Speaker 2>sort of book that helps you guide you with that
<v Speaker 2>or whatever, then you know, I've said it before, I'll
<v Speaker 2>say it again. There are professionals who are trained to
<v Speaker 2>help you with that, to learn to navigate and employ
<v Speaker 2>healthier coping mechanisms, whether it's seeing a licensed social worker,
<v Speaker 2>a licensed counselor you know they have the skills to
<v Speaker 2>help you navigate that and learn healthier coping mechanisms.
<v Speaker 1>Right, yep, that's an excellent point, all right. Our next
<v Speaker 1>question is from Mandy from Maryland, Hijen and Sherry. Here's
<v Speaker 1>some background details. I am a thirty six year old
<v Speaker 1>female that is five foot seven and I currently weigh
<v Speaker 1>one hundred and fifty one to one hundred and fifty
<v Speaker 1>two pounds. I was an intermittent faster for just over
<v Speaker 1>a year back in twenty twenty three to twenty twenty four.
<v Speaker 1>During that time, I began with sixteen eight for a month,
<v Speaker 1>seventeen seven the next two months, eighteen six the next
<v Speaker 1>three months, and ended with nineteen five. And I did
<v Speaker 1>that until I was fasting for just over a year.
<v Speaker 1>When I was doing intermittent fasting, I averaged around one
<v Speaker 1>hundred and forty two to one hundred and forty five
<v Speaker 1>pounds with nineteen five, although my desired weight was one
<v Speaker 1>hundred and thirty five to one hundred and forty pounds.
<v Speaker 2>I would skip.
<v Speaker 1>Breakfast and only have black coffee and water, and I
<v Speaker 1>would open my window around twelve to twelve thirty. I
<v Speaker 1>closed my window between five and five thirty Every day,
<v Speaker 1>I opened my window with a large smoothie and closed
<v Speaker 1>my window with a food kit meal. On the weekends,
<v Speaker 1>I would eat out for both meals on Saturday and Sunday.
<v Speaker 1>The first reason I decided to quit intermittent fasting was
<v Speaker 1>because I had the worst sleep of my life. When
<v Speaker 1>I was fasting, I had the hardest time going to sleep,
<v Speaker 1>and it would take me hours to fall asleep, only
<v Speaker 1>to wake up multiple times throughout the night. I never
<v Speaker 1>had issues falling asleep before I started fasting. The lack
<v Speaker 1>of sleep interfered with my work. I stayed home a
<v Speaker 1>lot in order to try to make up for the
<v Speaker 1>lack of sleep. I would get so sleepy in the
<v Speaker 1>middle of the day to where I could barely keep
<v Speaker 1>my eyes open. I even drove home one day from
<v Speaker 1>work and I almost fell asleep at the wheel. All
<v Speaker 1>in all, sleep is the main reason I gave up fasting.
<v Speaker 1>The second reason I gave it up was because towards
<v Speaker 1>the end of my fasting journey, I felt like I
<v Speaker 1>couldn't get enough food in my body. I was so
<v Speaker 1>hungry and it was starting to remind me of my
<v Speaker 1>disordery eating days. I used to binge eat. So my
<v Speaker 1>dilemma is that I want so badly to get back
<v Speaker 1>into fasting. It offered me so many benefits, and the
<v Speaker 1>main benefit was food freedom. I am a foodie. It's
<v Speaker 1>one of my favorite things about my day. I felt
<v Speaker 1>so much more confident, and while I didn't weigh and
<v Speaker 1>look exactly the way I wanted to, I felt much
<v Speaker 1>better in my body than I do now. I was
<v Speaker 1>much more accepting of myself, and my outlook on life
<v Speaker 1>was better. Now that I'm back at one hundred and
<v Speaker 1>fifty two pounds, I feel a huge difference in my mindset.
<v Speaker 1>I beat myself up figuratively about letting myself go. I
<v Speaker 1>hide myself in my clothes when I desperately want to
<v Speaker 1>wear more form fitting outfits. I'm back to hating the
<v Speaker 1>way I look, and I have zero self esteem when
<v Speaker 1>it comes to my image. When I was fasting, I
<v Speaker 1>was so proud that I was a faster. I even
<v Speaker 1>tried different eating window times. I need to be able
<v Speaker 1>to eat dinner because that's the meal I look forward
<v Speaker 1>to the most every day, and I struggle to not
<v Speaker 1>eat it. Breakfast is the easiest for me to skip.
<v Speaker 1>I eat mostly foods and I'm about eighty percent plant based.
<v Speaker 1>I make a lot of rainbow plant life recipes so tasty.
<v Speaker 1>I do still eat out on weekends, and that's a
<v Speaker 1>habit that's hard to break. Do you have any recommendations
<v Speaker 1>on how I can get back into it without sacrificing
<v Speaker 1>my sleep and being so hungry. I will say that
<v Speaker 1>I did all the things you're supposed to do for
<v Speaker 1>healthy sleep during this time. Sun exposure, exercise, wind down routine,
<v Speaker 1>no caffeine after my one cup early in the morning,
<v Speaker 1>et cetera. Thank you both for listening.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, well, I have a couple of thoughts for you.
<v Speaker 2>So first of all, I ran in your stats through
<v Speaker 2>the smart Bama calculator and you are at a very
<v Speaker 2>healthy wait right and hat Yep? She has a conventional
<v Speaker 2>BMI of twenty four. A smart BMI is in the
<v Speaker 2>green thirty six over seventy. Ideal ranges anywhere from thirty
<v Speaker 2>to thirty nine over seventy, So you're in there. So
<v Speaker 2>right now, maybe you need to experience a little body recomposition,
<v Speaker 2>you know, maybe you have a little bit of fat
<v Speaker 2>left to lose. My first thing that came to me
<v Speaker 2>was when you said you struggled with sleep before, and
<v Speaker 2>you were closing your window between five and five thirty
<v Speaker 2>every day. That may just be too early of an
<v Speaker 2>eating window for you. Yep, that it is interfering with
<v Speaker 2>your sleep. So the first thing I would do if
<v Speaker 2>I was going to resume intermittent fasting would be to
<v Speaker 2>have my window close closer to bedtime. So there's that.
<v Speaker 2>And then you say you eat plant based about eighty
<v Speaker 2>percent plant based. I don't know. You were eating a
<v Speaker 2>smoothie and you were closing your window with a Hello
<v Speaker 2>Fresh meal, okay, And then you said you were having
<v Speaker 2>problems with like falling asleep while driving. I don't know
<v Speaker 2>where your commute was happening. In between the smoothie and
<v Speaker 2>your Hello Fresh meal. You said that you want to
<v Speaker 2>have dinner every day, so I don't know if you're
<v Speaker 2>home from work, and that dinner at five to five
<v Speaker 2>thirty it was at home. But if I was to
<v Speaker 2>have a smoothie, I would have blood sugar dis regulation
<v Speaker 2>me too.
<v Speaker 1>To open my window with the smoothie would be a problem.
<v Speaker 2>I would be very sleepy afterwards. So I almost wonder
<v Speaker 2>if the sleepiness, especially while driving, was more related to
<v Speaker 2>what you were opening your window with rather than feeling
<v Speaker 2>like you were lacking sleep or you know, it could
<v Speaker 2>have played together.
<v Speaker 1>But right, like, where does where's the sleepiness in the
<v Speaker 1>middle of the day in relation to the opening the windo?
<v Speaker 1>If it's prior to opening the window, that's one thing.
<v Speaker 1>If it's after opening the window, then it's what you're
<v Speaker 1>opening with.
<v Speaker 2>Right, right, So when you eat a smoothie, you've already
<v Speaker 2>broken down all of the you know, the pulp, the fiber,
<v Speaker 2>the you know, and so it's a pretty quick straight shot,
<v Speaker 2>you know, to your system. Your body doesn't have a
<v Speaker 2>lot of food to break down because the smoothie maker
<v Speaker 2>has done it for your body, and so it doesn't
<v Speaker 2>take your body long to digest that and for that
<v Speaker 2>sugar to shoot into your blood strength. And if you
<v Speaker 2>are a person that just doesn't handle that well, then
<v Speaker 2>you could be having some reactive hypogecemia from the smoothie.
<v Speaker 2>So you could have maybe two things happening there. And
<v Speaker 2>because of the way you eat, it's very possible that
<v Speaker 2>a large smoothie and one serving of fresh meal, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>just is not enough food for you. And you know,
<v Speaker 2>not only is having an early window possibly disrupting your
<v Speaker 2>good sleep at night. Not having enough food in your
<v Speaker 2>window could be potentially disrupting your sleep at night. So
<v Speaker 2>if I was to resume fasting, I would give up
<v Speaker 2>the smoothie and I would open your window with a meal.
<v Speaker 2>If you are eighty percent plant based and you eat
<v Speaker 2>really healthy and you're not eating a high fat diet,
<v Speaker 2>you could probably benefit from two meals on either end
<v Speaker 2>of your eating window. Yep. And then you mentioned doing
<v Speaker 2>things that are supposed to help you with sleep. The
<v Speaker 2>one thing you did not mention was magnesium. Most people
<v Speaker 2>are magnesium deficient. I've read statistics that say anywhere from
<v Speaker 2>seventy eighty percent of the world is magnesium deficient, even
<v Speaker 2>when you're eating a healthy, plant based diet, because our
<v Speaker 2>oil is depleted of nutrients. And so I really suggest
<v Speaker 2>taking magnesium before bedtime. Jen and I swear by magnesium
<v Speaker 2>breakthrough from by optimizers. Not all magnesiums alike, Not all
<v Speaker 2>of it's formulated the same. Your body can't absorb it
<v Speaker 2>all the same. We will swear by that one forever.
<v Speaker 2>So I would definitely try taking magnesium before bed because
<v Speaker 2>it can help calm your body. It also helps with
<v Speaker 2>blood the host management and so give that a try
<v Speaker 2>as well. Do you have any other thoughts?
<v Speaker 1>Jen, Yes, not being able to sleep and also having
<v Speaker 1>an increased urge to binge really did make me think
<v Speaker 1>that you just were not feel quite Yeah, you were
<v Speaker 1>underfueling and not quite having enough. I have a kind
<v Speaker 1>of a funny story that I didn't share earlier, just
<v Speaker 1>because I hadn't talked about Chris yet.
<v Speaker 2>But when we were at.
<v Speaker 1>The bowl game in January, when to see White farest
<v Speaker 1>in the bowl game with a bunch of friends, and
<v Speaker 1>so we tailgated before the game and we kind of
<v Speaker 1>ate lightly just because we were socializing, and we had
<v Speaker 1>the football game and it was over at midnight. We
<v Speaker 1>were both kind of hungry, but it was midnight and
<v Speaker 1>we're both in Mitten fasting. But we went to bed
<v Speaker 1>anyway because it was midnight, right, and so we woke
<v Speaker 1>up at like three point thirty, and we were both
<v Speaker 1>like in such deep katosis. Not only could we not sleep,
<v Speaker 1>but we were really hungry and wired. And I was like,
<v Speaker 1>you know, we've got food over there, because we just
<v Speaker 1>put all the stuff away from the tailgate. I'm like,
<v Speaker 1>we could eat, then, I bet we could sleep. And
<v Speaker 1>he talked me out of eating in that funny well.
<v Speaker 2>Because I knew it was deep katosis. I knew that
<v Speaker 2>was why we could both of us were wired.
<v Speaker 1>I think we had an accidental down day without meaning to,
<v Speaker 1>just because we were socializing and we ate lightly. We
<v Speaker 1>picked up some things and then I was like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>this is what's happening. And you know, I katosis really
<v Speaker 1>just rupted my sleep. So anyway, it was funny, but
<v Speaker 1>I was like, let's let's touch something to eat. He's like, no,
<v Speaker 1>we're not eating something in the middle of the night.
<v Speaker 1>So the next day we had, you know, we opened earlier.
<v Speaker 1>We had kind of a uppish kind of a day.
<v Speaker 1>We had brunch and then we had a second full meal.
<v Speaker 1>But I think that's really important is if you're always
<v Speaker 1>in deep, deep cotosis to the point that you can't sleep,
<v Speaker 1>it may be a sign that you're underfueling by accident.
<v Speaker 1>And when your plant based, that can happen a lot easier,
<v Speaker 1>just you know, just because it's you know, low calorie density.
<v Speaker 1>So I would like Sherry said, shift that window a
<v Speaker 1>bit later and two meals rather than a smoothie and
<v Speaker 1>then one meal. Maybe you're you're better a better window option.
<v Speaker 1>For you. Maybe you need a six hour window and
<v Speaker 1>open with a meal, close with a meal, maybe close.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know what time you go to bed, but
<v Speaker 1>closing around seven starchy carbs in your last meal can
<v Speaker 1>also make a big difference, like potatoes or you know
<v Speaker 1>that whole week bread that I'm making now, something like that.
<v Speaker 1>So really really tweak it and see what you can do.
<v Speaker 1>You know, hunger that increases and increases and gets worse
<v Speaker 1>to the point that you're binging, and the fact that
<v Speaker 1>you're waking up feeling wired every single night, those would
<v Speaker 1>be signs that maybe you need to eat some more.
<v Speaker 1>I think you can figure it out.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, all right, So we have a last question from
<v Speaker 2>down day drinks. My question is related to down days
<v Speaker 2>and non bitter flavor profile drinks. Often on down days,
<v Speaker 2>I will not have a five hundred calorie meal, but
<v Speaker 2>I have found that after a heavier workout, I feel
<v Speaker 2>very thirsty and would like an electrolyte drink. Plain just
<v Speaker 2>salt is not for me, so I typically only do
<v Speaker 2>flavored within my window. I also was recently fighting a cold,
<v Speaker 2>losing my voice, and I wanted some hot tea to
<v Speaker 2>soothe my throat. In cases such as this, Will it
<v Speaker 2>have much impact on my down day if I decide
<v Speaker 2>to have a flavored drink or would be better to
<v Speaker 2>go ahead and have a five hundred calorie meal. If
<v Speaker 2>I choose to have the flavored drink, thanks so much.
<v Speaker 1>Well, the answer is yes, it will have a huge
<v Speaker 1>impact on your downday If you're adding in flavored drinks.
<v Speaker 1>You don't want to do that. And let's think about
<v Speaker 1>this for a minute. Right, you're having a down day
<v Speaker 1>and you have, for example, done a heavy workout. Like
<v Speaker 1>you mentioned, you've done a heavy workout, so you're probably
<v Speaker 1>depleted your glycogen I would bet that you are having
<v Speaker 1>blood sugar that's at the low end of normal because
<v Speaker 1>of your workout. And now you're going to introduce a
<v Speaker 1>fruity flavor or a sweet flavor or an herbal tea,
<v Speaker 1>you are much more likely to have a blood sugar
<v Speaker 1>crash because your body's going to pump out some insulin
<v Speaker 1>and because your blood sugar is at the low end,
<v Speaker 1>then you're going to get shaky and nauseous and feel bad.
<v Speaker 1>So we don't want to be having insulin responses while
<v Speaker 1>we're fasting, and especially if you are on the low
<v Speaker 1>end of your blood sugar range, so you would not
<v Speaker 1>want to do that. You would want to definitely have
<v Speaker 1>a five hundred calorie meal with it. That being said,
<v Speaker 1>I wouldn't want to have the five hundred calorie meal
<v Speaker 1>too early in your down day because then it can
<v Speaker 1>be difficult to not be hunger again before you go
<v Speaker 1>to bed. Here's one thing about electrolyte drinks. You can
<v Speaker 1>add mineral drops to water and it's giving you electrolytes
<v Speaker 1>without that saltiness. You know, I wouldn't just have straight salt,
<v Speaker 1>but like some kind of mineral drops will give you
<v Speaker 1>electrolytes without any kind of flavor that you know, like
<v Speaker 1>a electrolyte beverage sweetened or fruity or flavor or whatever
<v Speaker 1>it's going to be. You know, that's the flavor we
<v Speaker 1>want to avoid. So you can do electrolytes without having flavor.
<v Speaker 1>And you know, if you are very thirsty, that is
<v Speaker 1>a sign that you need some electrolytes. But mineral drops
<v Speaker 1>or sherry, what kind do you like? And we're not
<v Speaker 1>sponsored by them, but what is it that you like?
<v Speaker 1>I can't remember.
<v Speaker 2>I don't use any drops. I mean electrolyte I make
<v Speaker 2>my own.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, you make your yep, I make my own.
<v Speaker 2>I measure out potassium and a high quality salt, and
<v Speaker 2>I've got the ratios right for my body, for you,
<v Speaker 2>for me, And you know, I just basically baste it
<v Speaker 2>off of a popular electrolyte that I liked, the ratios on,
<v Speaker 2>the sodium to potassium ratios on, and then I just
<v Speaker 2>make it myself. You here's the thing. You don't have
<v Speaker 2>to make a giant bottle where you're sipping salty water.
<v Speaker 2>Put it in eight ounces of water, let it dissolve,
<v Speaker 2>and shoot it down, and then drink another bottle of
<v Speaker 2>water behind it, regular water.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, just take it like medicine, shoot it down,
<v Speaker 2>bring some regular water behind it. Yeah, that would be
<v Speaker 2>the easiest way to do it. Keep your fast clean
<v Speaker 2>so that you feel best and get the electrolytes that
<v Speaker 2>your body needs.
<v Speaker 1>And I also wanted to emphasize the part about the
<v Speaker 1>hot tea to soothe your throat. Plain hot water will
<v Speaker 1>also soothe your throat absolutely. Now that being said, if
<v Speaker 1>you're truly sick and you need something because your throat
<v Speaker 1>hurts and you need something to coat your throat or whatever,
<v Speaker 1>sometimes when we're sick, we might set fasting aside and
<v Speaker 1>take something or open earlier so you can have that.
<v Speaker 1>I probably wouldn't have a down day when I was
<v Speaker 1>feeling sick and only have hot tea to soothe your
<v Speaker 1>throat and that's it.
<v Speaker 2>You know, you would want.
<v Speaker 1>To just have a normal eating window that day, and
<v Speaker 1>you know, open your window early because you're sick and
<v Speaker 1>you need something medicinally, and that's that's fine, But you know,
<v Speaker 1>really think about am I ready to open my window
<v Speaker 1>if I'm going to have this hot tea? There may
<v Speaker 1>be a time when you do want to have some
<v Speaker 1>medicinal tea. I understand that, but understand that you're setting
<v Speaker 1>fasting aside briefly because we're not going to have that
<v Speaker 1>happen very often when we're fasting. We want to fast clean.
<v Speaker 1>When we're sick and we need something medicinally, that's a
<v Speaker 1>different situation, but recognize that is not going to be
<v Speaker 1>you know, the clean fast all right. Before we get
<v Speaker 1>to our tweek of the week, I do want to
<v Speaker 1>talk about the fast feast repeat app that I mentioned
<v Speaker 1>earlier with the eat Like a grown up program. If
<v Speaker 1>you are struggling with food, confusion or diet brain when
<v Speaker 1>it comes to what to eat in your eating window,
<v Speaker 1>or if you know you need to make changes but
<v Speaker 1>you don't know where to begin. That is where they
<v Speaker 1>eat like a grown up program can help. It's a
<v Speaker 1>fifty two week learning journey that helps you finally build
<v Speaker 1>a peaceful, confident, and empowered relationship with food without dieting,
<v Speaker 1>without guilt, without being overwhelmed. And it's only available in
<v Speaker 1>the Fast Feast Repeat app. So join me in the
<v Speaker 1>app for the grown Up Year fifty two weeks to listen, play,
<v Speaker 1>and nourish. Each week, you'll watch a short video lesson.
<v Speaker 1>You'll download a simple practical mission designed to help you
<v Speaker 1>listen to your body, play with your food in a
<v Speaker 1>joyful way, and nourish yourself with calm intention. You're going
<v Speaker 1>to learn to move past emotional eating. You're going to
<v Speaker 1>understand your hunger queues.
<v Speaker 2>You're going to.
<v Speaker 1>Make meals that are deeply satisfying, and fall back in
<v Speaker 1>love with real food, all while connecting with a community
<v Speaker 1>that's growing right alongside you in the app. If you're
<v Speaker 1>ready for transformation that unfolds gently but meaningfully over time,
<v Speaker 1>this is where it begins. Go to app dot fast
<v Speaker 1>Feast Repeat dot com. That's app dot fast Feast Repeat
<v Speaker 1>dot com. Or you can find the fast Feast Repeat
<v Speaker 1>app in the app store that works with your phone.
<v Speaker 1>I think most people are joining it that way, they're
<v Speaker 1>just getting it in the app store. Along with the
<v Speaker 1>eat like a grown up fifty two week program, you'll
<v Speaker 1>find an ever growing library of intermittent fasting resources as well.
<v Speaker 1>Go to app dot fast Feast Repeat dot com to
<v Speaker 1>join or download the fast Feast Repeat app today. There
<v Speaker 1>is also a link in show notes. So now it's
<v Speaker 1>time for our tweak of the week. You know, I
<v Speaker 1>always say tweak it till it's easy, But the tweak
<v Speaker 1>that works for me might not be the one that
<v Speaker 1>works you. That's why it's super helpful to hear how
<v Speaker 1>other intermittent fasters are making intermittent fasting work for them.
<v Speaker 1>We have two submissions this week that are very similar,
<v Speaker 1>so I will share them both first. Susan and Georgia.
<v Speaker 1>Hello Jen and Sherry. Something I have done for the
<v Speaker 1>past two years of fasting to encourage myself is to
<v Speaker 1>use mantras as my passwords. I have to change my
<v Speaker 1>password at work every six weeks, and I like to
<v Speaker 1>create phrases to keep me focused. For example, strong instead
<v Speaker 1>of skinny, trusting the process, delay for one pound a week,
<v Speaker 1>and my favorite fast feast Repeat and Kim in Western
<v Speaker 1>New York shared change your passwords to affirmations. My work
<v Speaker 1>just changed their password requirements to be super long strings
<v Speaker 1>with at least one punctuation or number. At first, I
<v Speaker 1>was annoyed because I have to type this six to
<v Speaker 1>ten times per day. Yeah, that is annoying.
<v Speaker 2>I get it, I know same.
<v Speaker 1>But they suggested that we use phrases to make it
<v Speaker 1>easier to remember. The link makes it super strong and secure.
<v Speaker 1>So when trying to come up with a new phrase,
<v Speaker 1>I thought about what I would like to type that
<v Speaker 1>many times per day. So I decided to make my
<v Speaker 1>password an affirmation for my health and fasting, like I
<v Speaker 1>love myself and can do hard things, but without the spaces.
<v Speaker 1>My particular one has to do with fasting specifically, and
<v Speaker 1>typing it in at one thirty PM when I'm still
<v Speaker 1>fasting and not going to open until three is a
<v Speaker 1>perfect reminder that I can keep going.
<v Speaker 2>I love that. I love that. I love that. They
<v Speaker 2>both shared that, like I know, within like a week
<v Speaker 2>of each other. That's cool, all right. We love to
<v Speaker 2>leave our listeners with inspiration our motivational quotes, and this
<v Speaker 2>week we have a quote from a lister in the
<v Speaker 2>Finger Lakes, New York. This is from James Clare's three
<v Speaker 2>two one newsletter. I believe it's so important to get
<v Speaker 2>out of our comfort zones, to grow and to learn.
<v Speaker 2>The quote he shared was what looks like consistency and
<v Speaker 2>commitment can some times be fear and disguise. He goes
<v Speaker 2>on to ask, are you sticking with it because it
<v Speaker 2>serves you or because it's just what you already know? Oh?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that's really important because we can get trapped in
<v Speaker 1>that comfort zone and we got to take that step
<v Speaker 1>out to get.
<v Speaker 2>What we really want. Thanks so much for listening today.
<v Speaker 1>We would love to have you join us in the
<v Speaker 1>Delayed On Tonight community, where you can interact with both
<v Speaker 1>me and Sherry plus the most supportive bunch of intermittent
<v Speaker 1>fasters you'll find anywhere. Go to Jenstevens dot com slash
<v Speaker 1>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 repete dot com, slash submit and
<v Speaker 1>then listen each week to see if we share your
<v Speaker 1>submission or answer your question.
<v Speaker 2>Until next week, Thanks for listening. This podcast was edited
<v Speaker 2>by Resonate Recordings.