Episode 150: Eating Window Variability, Balance vs. Over-restriction, and More

<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Fast Feast Repeat, Intermittent Fasting for Life. I'm
<v Speaker 1>Jen Stevens, author of the New York Times bestseller Fast
<v Speaker 1>Feast Repeat.
<v Speaker 2>And I'm Sherry Bullock, longtime intermittent faster and health and
<v Speaker 2>wellness advocate. Please keep in mind that this podcast is
<v Speaker 2>for educational and motivational purposes only and is not intended
<v Speaker 2>to provide medical or diagnostic advice. Jen and I are
<v Speaker 2>not doctors, so make sure to check with your trusted
<v Speaker 2>healthcare professionals before making changes, especially when it comes to
<v Speaker 2>any medical treatments or medications.
<v Speaker 1>Whether you're new to intermittent fasting or an experienced intermittent faster,
<v Speaker 1>tune in each week to get inspired, to learn, and
<v Speaker 1>to have some fun along the way. Hi, everybody, we
<v Speaker 1>are so glad you're here today. Welcome to this week's
<v Speaker 1>episode of the Fast Feast Repeat, Intermittent Fasting for Life Podcast.
<v Speaker 1>How are you doing today's sharing?
<v Speaker 2>I'm doing well. Anything new in your world? Will?
<v Speaker 1>I just went on a really long I was out
<v Speaker 1>of town for six nights, traveled all around, and you know,
<v Speaker 1>I've started weighing again. I talked about that a few
<v Speaker 1>weeks ago on the podcast of course I didn't weigh
<v Speaker 1>while I was traveling. But Chris and I when he
<v Speaker 1>had a work trip, so I went with him to
<v Speaker 1>d C where he works, and then he has a
<v Speaker 1>house in Virginia, and so I went to his place
<v Speaker 1>in Virginia, and then we went to Winston Salem. It
<v Speaker 1>was a baseball weekend, and then we drove back to
<v Speaker 1>Surfside Beach and so I was away for six nights
<v Speaker 1>and ate at restaurants the entire time. Got on the scale,
<v Speaker 1>I was up one tenth of a pound.
<v Speaker 2>Fantastic, I know.
<v Speaker 1>I feel really good about my choices. There was one
<v Speaker 1>day when I over ate to the point that I
<v Speaker 1>felt like I was really too fold. We had a
<v Speaker 1>kind of a short window. We were busy, we had
<v Speaker 1>been driving all day, and then we ate kind of
<v Speaker 1>later than usual, and it was a big restaurant meal
<v Speaker 1>all in a really short time. Then I was like
<v Speaker 1>overly full. But I did a good job eating in restaurants.
<v Speaker 1>One day, I had a slightly longer window most days,
<v Speaker 1>it was a pretty good window. And was super excited
<v Speaker 1>about that. So but then, of course I had a
<v Speaker 1>fabulous meal last night that was very very healthy and
<v Speaker 1>beans and rice and corn. It was like a burrito,
<v Speaker 1>kind of brito bowl kind of a thing would let us.
<v Speaker 1>It was such a healthy eat, like a grown up meal.
<v Speaker 1>And I get on the scale and I'm up a pound.
<v Speaker 2>I'm like, what scale?
<v Speaker 1>You're crazy?
<v Speaker 2>Anyway, it made me laugh, But the good news is.
<v Speaker 1>I'm no longer like it didn't. Didn't upset me that
<v Speaker 1>this gale was up a pounds.
<v Speaker 2>Good. Yeah, I'm glad, yep. Yeah, So anything with you
<v Speaker 2>going on Nope, not really just waiting for my surgery.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I know you'll be glad when that's over and
<v Speaker 1>when you're healed and you have full mobility back.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. Well, you know, FM Malay only covers you for
<v Speaker 2>twelve weeks, and they've already told me my leave is
<v Speaker 2>going to be at least fourteen weeks. So then I'm like,
<v Speaker 2>that just makes me nervous. Yeah, I'm sure it's fine.
<v Speaker 2>My boss already signed off on it. It's just one
<v Speaker 2>of those things that make me nervous. Yeah, I like
<v Speaker 2>to know I'm protected, it's true. So anyway, well, we
<v Speaker 2>are just gonna jump right into a celebration from Debbie
<v Speaker 2>in Saint Louis, Missouri. Debbie shared I am sixty years old,
<v Speaker 2>and I am celebrating five years of intermitten fasting since
<v Speaker 2>April of twenty twenty one. It took me fourteen months
<v Speaker 2>to lose thirty pounds. I'm a turtle, but I've kept
<v Speaker 2>it off. I have a so much more than weight
<v Speaker 2>loss for me. I wanted to share some of my
<v Speaker 2>non scale victories with you. I've lost four inches around
<v Speaker 2>my chest, five around my waist, four around my hips,
<v Speaker 2>and I've kept them off. Skin tags are gone, brown
<v Speaker 2>spot's mostly gone, rough elbows and heels gone. My hair
<v Speaker 2>and nails are much healthier. I heel much faster from
<v Speaker 2>any bumps, scrapes, or cuts. My teeth are wier. I
<v Speaker 2>no longer knee glasses because my vision has improved. My
<v Speaker 2>blood work gets better every year, even though I'm getting older.
<v Speaker 2>I have arthritis in my hands, and the pain is gone,
<v Speaker 2>and I have improved flexibility. I don't have arthritis anywhere else,
<v Speaker 2>such as my knees, as doctors told me I would.
<v Speaker 2>I don't get my grain headaches anymore, buying smaller sized
<v Speaker 2>clothes and donating my larger ones. My bracelets are no
<v Speaker 2>longer tight on my wrists. I've had to move my
<v Speaker 2>car seat up, I had to tighten the strips on
<v Speaker 2>my bicycle helmet and my hiking backpack. I see my
<v Speaker 2>family out of state twice a year, and at each
<v Speaker 2>visit someone says, you look great. I have other non
<v Speaker 2>scale victories too, and they all remind me of the
<v Speaker 2>overall health benefits of IF. I'm inspired weekly by this
<v Speaker 2>and the intermin Fasting Stories podcast, and I've read all
<v Speaker 2>of Jinn's books. I'm extremely grateful to both Jennis Sherry
<v Speaker 2>for bringing IF to me into the world. IF is
<v Speaker 2>truly an incredibly easy and healthy lifestyle. Well, I love that, Debbie,
<v Speaker 2>so many wins.
<v Speaker 1>And you know we had Did you see the post
<v Speaker 1>in the community the other day? It might have been
<v Speaker 1>yesterday or the day before, when someone said, was it
<v Speaker 1>her doctor said that intermittent fasting wasn't good for menopausal
<v Speaker 1>women or post menopausal women? Or was it her friend?
<v Speaker 2>Her friend asked her if she'd seen some research articles
<v Speaker 2>something like that. Yeah. I think it was her friend.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, her friend said, And I was like, bad, seen anything, Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>But she was suddenly feeling this community member was suddenly
<v Speaker 1>feeling worried, like suddenly this was bad for you. Know
<v Speaker 1>postmenopausal women, and those are the kind of things you know,
<v Speaker 1>the friend planted that seat of doubt, right, And then
<v Speaker 1>it's like very frustrating because we hear stories like this
<v Speaker 1>from Debbie, my own experience, the experience of thousands and
<v Speaker 1>thousands of intermittent fasters. I've recorded five hundred and thirty
<v Speaker 1>intermitten fasting stories. All these things that Debbie is celebrating
<v Speaker 1>at the age of sixty, all of these improvements. And
<v Speaker 1>there's a Debbie out there, though, who's been scared about
<v Speaker 1>intermittent fasting from a friend who's ill informed, who said, oh, no,
<v Speaker 1>that's not good for women of your age, right, So
<v Speaker 1>the people who are missing out on the potential health
<v Speaker 1>benefits and also the freedom the lifestyle offers, it's just very,
<v Speaker 1>very frustrating to me.
<v Speaker 2>Sometimes I think that, you know, Debbie downers should always
<v Speaker 2>give you that person who is maybe low key jealous
<v Speaker 2>of the success you're finding, and maybe their comments about
<v Speaker 2>intermittent fasting, oh I don't think that's healthy or whatever.
<v Speaker 2>It may have more to do with them than you, right,
<v Speaker 2>They might be really envious of the success you found
<v Speaker 2>and how great you look, but they also don't feel
<v Speaker 2>like they can do it, and so rather than being
<v Speaker 2>just happy for you that you've found something that makes
<v Speaker 2>you feel great and has you know, reversed health conditions
<v Speaker 2>or you know, helped you drop some pesky way or
<v Speaker 2>you know, whatever it is, sometimes the loudest naysayers are
<v Speaker 2>doing so because they themselves feel less than because maybe
<v Speaker 2>they tried it and they felt hungry and they couldn't
<v Speaker 2>do it. So I always feel when somebody is trying
<v Speaker 2>to talk you out of doing something that you are
<v Speaker 2>excited about and that is working great for you, that
<v Speaker 2>it really has nothing to do with you. It's really
<v Speaker 2>all about them. And if you can step back and
<v Speaker 2>look at it from that perspective, it's really easier to
<v Speaker 2>just take whatever they've had to say with a grain
<v Speaker 2>of salt and just go about your business.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, don't let anybody steal your still your sunshine, and
<v Speaker 1>we can really trust how we're feeling, you know, if
<v Speaker 1>we're feeling better and better and our health markers are improving,
<v Speaker 1>and you know, all of those things that we just
<v Speaker 1>heard from DeBie, like her skin tags falling off, her
<v Speaker 1>eyesight is better, she's healing faster, her arthritis pain is gone,
<v Speaker 1>her arthritis is not in her knees as the doctor
<v Speaker 1>said it would be. I mean, it's just yeah, that
<v Speaker 1>sounds very dangerous. You should stop doing it. No, it's
<v Speaker 1>the opposite. Her body is telling her. Our bodies are
<v Speaker 1>wise and they really communicate well with us. If things
<v Speaker 1>are feeling better and better and you're getting out there,
<v Speaker 1>that's the evidence you need right there. Trust trust your results. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>if you're feeling worse and worse things are not you're
<v Speaker 1>getting As time goes on, you know, you're feeling more
<v Speaker 1>and more like the urge to bind, or you're starving,
<v Speaker 1>trust that too. You may be accidentally or restricting, you
<v Speaker 1>may need some more nutrients. So we could really really
<v Speaker 1>learn to listen to our bodies and trust that instead
<v Speaker 1>of all those other people.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. I actually just looked up the post. It was
<v Speaker 2>her doctor. Her gyah Okay felt that there has been
<v Speaker 2>new research studies on negative effects on fasting women in menopause,
<v Speaker 2>but there aren't specifically cardiac no, and that my answer
<v Speaker 2>my question by doctor would be like, oh, I would
<v Speaker 2>love to read more. Can you please tell me where
<v Speaker 2>I can find these research studies?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, And the person who shared it said she had
<v Speaker 1>looked for it and couldn't find it herself because it's
<v Speaker 1>not we haven't seen that.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I mean, trust me, anything that comes out, if
<v Speaker 2>we wouldn't see it, somebody shares it with.
<v Speaker 1>Us, Yeah, we would know. We don't miss any of it.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>So now we have a question from a listener. This
<v Speaker 1>question is from Carrie from Carolina. I have been doing
<v Speaker 1>clean fasting since July twenty twenty five. I have a
<v Speaker 1>high stressed corporate job with significant travel and a schedule
<v Speaker 1>that varies significantly daily. I have found intermittent fasting to
<v Speaker 1>be incredibly helpful when decreasing food noise. I never feel
<v Speaker 1>angry anymore, and I have amazing mental clarity throughout the day.
<v Speaker 1>I've lost about thirty five pounds. My window changes all
<v Speaker 1>the time based on my work schedule, with some sort
<v Speaker 1>of eating window of one to five hours in the
<v Speaker 1>afternoon or evening, and I often participate in meal less
<v Speaker 1>mondays as long as my schedule will allow. For the
<v Speaker 1>up day on Tuesday, I do what I can with
<v Speaker 1>making food versus eating out, but my schedule doesn't always
<v Speaker 1>allow that option, and at times I may not have
<v Speaker 1>any choice on where I eat or the time of
<v Speaker 1>the meal, I just shift my window and I plan
<v Speaker 1>around that time when it occurs. In February, I had
<v Speaker 1>a few weeks of a plateau with my weekly averages
<v Speaker 1>maintaining or going slightly higher. I weigh daily and do
<v Speaker 1>an average weekly wait unless I'm flying, which is rare.
<v Speaker 1>I'm not overly concerned about that small blip, but it
<v Speaker 1>leads me to my question, will having such an extreme
<v Speaker 1>variance in daily eating windows every day potentially negatively impact
<v Speaker 1>my weight loss? It certainly keeps my body guessing, but
<v Speaker 1>there are times when I'm ready to open my window,
<v Speaker 1>but don't have a good option for opening, as I'm
<v Speaker 1>not eating any fast food and I'm trying to avoid
<v Speaker 1>processed foods, which eliminates most snacks that are manageable for
<v Speaker 1>multiple days of travel, So I decide to continue to wait.
<v Speaker 1>When I end up opening, I know I've then waited
<v Speaker 1>too long, and I have difficulty paying attention to how
<v Speaker 1>I'm feeling. I'm a volume eater, and sometimes I don't
<v Speaker 1>feel like I'm getting enough in I'm five foot six
<v Speaker 1>inches and one hundred and eighty pounds, so I have
<v Speaker 1>an opportunity to continue to lose weight and I'm not
<v Speaker 1>sure where I will land, but I don't want to
<v Speaker 1>create any unnecessary hindrances for that. Any clarity surrounding a
<v Speaker 1>consistent versus significantly variable eating window would be great. Thank
<v Speaker 1>so much for all you do.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, well, I feel like I don't quite have enough
<v Speaker 2>information just because you said sometimes like you don't want
<v Speaker 2>to eat out, but then sometimes your schedule does not
<v Speaker 2>allow that option, and that you don't have a choice
<v Speaker 2>on where you want to eat at the time of.
<v Speaker 1>As food doesn't want fast food.
<v Speaker 2>Right, And then I mean shifting your window around and
<v Speaker 2>planning it around your day's schedule. That's smart. You say,
<v Speaker 2>there are times when you're ready to open your window,
<v Speaker 2>but you don't have a good option for opening as
<v Speaker 2>you're not eating any fast food. You're trying to avoid
<v Speaker 2>processed foods, which makes snacks you know, on multiple days
<v Speaker 2>of travel difficult. And you know, I can think of
<v Speaker 2>a lot of portable food that is not fast food
<v Speaker 2>ors not ultra processed food that could work as window openers.
<v Speaker 2>If your concern is that you might be under eating
<v Speaker 2>some days, you know, my best advice to you would
<v Speaker 2>be we've talked a lot about uppish downish eightyf hybrid
<v Speaker 2>if you can kind of look at your week, like
<v Speaker 2>if you know that you have a day and you're
<v Speaker 2>gonna be on the go, you're traveling or whatever, and
<v Speaker 2>your dinner is going to be dinner out, and that's
<v Speaker 2>gonna be the first time you have to eat, and
<v Speaker 2>you're gonna you're gonna eat it, and then that's it,
<v Speaker 2>that's all you're gonna eat that day. I would tell
<v Speaker 2>you to really tune in to society while you're eating.
<v Speaker 2>Try to eat slowly, try to eat without distraction, eat
<v Speaker 2>fully to satiety. And if that window only ends up
<v Speaker 2>being forty five minutes or an hour, the next day,
<v Speaker 2>plan to have two full meals. Do that sort of
<v Speaker 2>downish uppish approach. And you know, if you are just
<v Speaker 2>at a place where you just don't have any access
<v Speaker 2>to good food and you just don't want to eat
<v Speaker 2>food that's not window worthy, do a complete down day
<v Speaker 2>and the next day do an up day. You know,
<v Speaker 2>the concern would come is if you were having a
<v Speaker 2>lot of back to back really short windows, right and
<v Speaker 2>you know, you say you're a volume eater, you don't
<v Speaker 2>feel like you're getting enough in so again by eating undistracted,
<v Speaker 2>focusing on food quality based off of you know, what
<v Speaker 2>you can control. You know, I don't know if when
<v Speaker 2>you travel you have the option to hit some sort
<v Speaker 2>of store and stock up your hotel room with some
<v Speaker 2>you know, healthy window openers. But yeah, this is where
<v Speaker 2>you're just going to kind of have to be creative,
<v Speaker 2>and so maybe you can't avoid all processed foods. Do
<v Speaker 2>the best you can, you know, choose the best you can.
<v Speaker 2>You know, you're always going to be better off choosing
<v Speaker 2>a meal that you can load up with plenty of vegetables,
<v Speaker 2>or you know, stay with your grilled meats rather than
<v Speaker 2>fried meats. You know, there's a lot of things you
<v Speaker 2>can do to make restaurant food and eating out healthier,
<v Speaker 2>and you know there's we can only control what we
<v Speaker 2>can control. So with that said, just focus on making
<v Speaker 2>sure that you are eating to society in your windows
<v Speaker 2>and if you're having you know, back to back short windows,
<v Speaker 2>throw in some longer, more food, more volume, uppish days
<v Speaker 2>to follow that. Do you have any well, I want.
<v Speaker 1>To just answer she had that very specific question in there,
<v Speaker 1>will having such an extreme variance in daily eating windows
<v Speaker 1>every day potentially negatively impact my weight? Loss, I would
<v Speaker 1>say no, And it's actually the opposite would be the
<v Speaker 1>problem if you did not have any variations, if your
<v Speaker 1>window was precisely the same every single day, that is
<v Speaker 1>more likely to negatively impact your weight loss. So extreme variance,
<v Speaker 1>I think about ADF, what do we recommend for people
<v Speaker 1>who are stuck ADF. That's pretty extreme variance down day
<v Speaker 1>up day. So, and I've talked about this before. I
<v Speaker 1>just tend to do that naturally, and I'm very fortunate
<v Speaker 1>that that's what I naturally do. I've never locked in
<v Speaker 1>to a short, tight window that's the same every day.
<v Speaker 1>I always have that variance, and I think that's been
<v Speaker 1>very helpful for me. So variance is a good thing,
<v Speaker 1>And so don't be stressed about that. I want to
<v Speaker 1>be consistent, meaning we're we're sticking to a routine, we're
<v Speaker 1>fasting every day, we're following a protocol. But we don't
<v Speaker 1>want to be so rigid that it becomes extremely rigid
<v Speaker 1>and unvaried every single day.
<v Speaker 2>And now two days have to look the same.
<v Speaker 1>And if every single day looks the same, you're more
<v Speaker 1>likely to plateau.
<v Speaker 2>Right.
<v Speaker 1>It's so funny. This reminds me very much of how
<v Speaker 1>I did my trip this past week. When I was gone,
<v Speaker 1>you know that one day we didn't eat till we
<v Speaker 1>didn't get to the restaurant. We sat down at six
<v Speaker 1>point thirty, which is pretty late. It's late for you,
<v Speaker 1>it was late for me. And you know, we started
<v Speaker 1>at the bar with like some hummus and olives and
<v Speaker 1>all that, and it was really good. But then we
<v Speaker 1>got to the table and ordered too much food and
<v Speaker 1>I ate too much and I was really full. That
<v Speaker 1>was not good. So I would, you know, just really
<v Speaker 1>pay attention to you know, what you're choosing and how
<v Speaker 1>you're going to feel. And you don't want to feel
<v Speaker 1>overly full, for sure, but you want to make sure
<v Speaker 1>you're getting in enough and giving yourself the time. In hindsight,
<v Speaker 1>we should have opened a little earlier.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, all right. So we have a question from
<v Speaker 2>Jennifer from the Bay Area of California. She said, hello, ladies.
<v Speaker 2>I've been inter fasting for several years. I started after
<v Speaker 2>reading the OBCD code and frequently would practice multi day fasts,
<v Speaker 2>following up with a one meal a day. I'm sure
<v Speaker 2>my metabolism is tanked. My diet is carnivore. However, I
<v Speaker 2>do on occasion indulge in low glycemic carbs when eating out.
<v Speaker 2>My question is, on my down day, should I adjust
<v Speaker 2>my calories to take into consideration the amount of calories
<v Speaker 2>I am burning for that day. I try and hit
<v Speaker 2>at least ten thousand steps daily, plus I lift weights
<v Speaker 2>five days a week. On those days that I do both,
<v Speaker 2>I tend to burn around five hundred calories, So my
<v Speaker 2>total number of calories for the day would be around zero.
<v Speaker 2>Should I be eating more on that down day to
<v Speaker 2>account for the number of calories burned? I am five
<v Speaker 2>foot ten. I currently weigh one hundred and eighty pounds,
<v Speaker 2>with the goal weight of one hundred and sixty's a night.
<v Speaker 2>Side note, I started at GLP one two months ago,
<v Speaker 2>so I already am in a calorie deficit. Thank you
<v Speaker 2>for your advice.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, Jennifer, thank you for writing in. And if you
<v Speaker 1>have been doing multi day fasts followed by one meal
<v Speaker 1>a day and then back to longer fast, then yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I would be very concerned that your metabolism is tanked,
<v Speaker 1>and so we want to rev that back up. So
<v Speaker 1>what I'm really concerned with the most is you do
<v Speaker 1>a lot of talking about your down day and that
<v Speaker 1>you are lifting heavy five times a week, you're trying
<v Speaker 1>to hit ten thousand steps a day, and you are
<v Speaker 1>really really active. And then you talk about your down day,
<v Speaker 1>but you know what, you didn't mention at all your
<v Speaker 1>up day. So your question, should you be eating more
<v Speaker 1>on the down day to factor in the number of
<v Speaker 1>calories burn? No, However, I think you need to maybe
<v Speaker 1>rest a little bit more, just in general. I am
<v Speaker 1>not a fitness expert by any means, but I know
<v Speaker 1>that the general recommendation is that you need to have
<v Speaker 1>rest days in there, so you need to give your
<v Speaker 1>body time to recover, and so I would keep that
<v Speaker 1>in mind. If we are under eating and going hard
<v Speaker 1>with working out, that is not good for us. It
<v Speaker 1>makes our bodies think something terrible is going on. We're
<v Speaker 1>in some kind of a stressful famine and a war
<v Speaker 1>and you're having to run from the enemy. I don't know,
<v Speaker 1>you know, think about how times would have been in
<v Speaker 1>the past, so that is a lot going on. Instead
<v Speaker 1>of thinking about how you need to get into more
<v Speaker 1>of a calorie deficit, I think you need to be
<v Speaker 1>thinking about how how can you let your body know
<v Speaker 1>that you are safe and well and that you are
<v Speaker 1>well nourished, and so I don't know if you have
<v Speaker 1>the second edition of Delay, don't deny, but if not,
<v Speaker 1>go ahead and get it. And I'd like for you
<v Speaker 1>to read the ADF chapter. You need to make sure
<v Speaker 1>that you're having sufficient up days and I would recommend
<v Speaker 1>three nourishing meals breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And you need
<v Speaker 1>to not be in a calorie deficit on the upday.
<v Speaker 1>You need to be in a calorie surplus. You need
<v Speaker 1>to eat more. The research on ADF shows that people
<v Speaker 1>were instructed to eat higher than the there's bodies daily
<v Speaker 1>chloric needs. So you need to really figure out how
<v Speaker 1>you're going to let your body know that you're not
<v Speaker 1>in any kind of danger that you're not having you know,
<v Speaker 1>a reason that your body would need to shut your
<v Speaker 1>metabolism down anymore, and really pay attention to how you're feeling.
<v Speaker 1>As far as the GLP one, I don't know why
<v Speaker 1>you started the GLP one. You know, if you're diabetic
<v Speaker 1>or if you have other health issues and your doctor
<v Speaker 1>put you on the JLP one for that, but if
<v Speaker 1>it's strictly for weight loss, if you're only doing a
<v Speaker 1>GLP one for weight loss, and you're also hitting your
<v Speaker 1>workout so hard and your carnivore and you're doing down days.
<v Speaker 1>You really need to focus on those up days and
<v Speaker 1>a GLP one might not be right for you right now. Again,
<v Speaker 1>I am not your doctor. I don't know why you're
<v Speaker 1>on it, but if the only reason is for weight loss,
<v Speaker 1>I would really think about that, and you know, maybe
<v Speaker 1>having like a restoration period where you're really focused on
<v Speaker 1>healing your body from the metabolic damage that all that
<v Speaker 1>restriction may have caused. Am I phrasing it well? Sherriet?
<v Speaker 1>And I feel like I'm stealing all around in.
<v Speaker 2>My concern anytime anybody reaches out to me about, you know,
<v Speaker 2>being on the GLP ones, and often they're trying to
<v Speaker 2>get off of them, but first they want to adapt
<v Speaker 2>to ADF because they want to use that as their
<v Speaker 2>tool once they get off of the GOLP one. I
<v Speaker 2>concern with being on a GLP one and having a
<v Speaker 2>diminished appetite is can you eat enough on an up
<v Speaker 2>day to get the metabolic boost that you're looking for
<v Speaker 2>from that program? You know, from that protocol, right and
<v Speaker 2>so you know, with what you said, you are supposed
<v Speaker 2>to be eating an excess of a normal daily caloric
<v Speaker 2>intake on the up day, and if the GLP one
<v Speaker 2>is not supporting that, then ADF may not be the
<v Speaker 2>right protocol. You may need more like a daily eating
<v Speaker 2>window so that you can ensure that you are fueling
<v Speaker 2>well and you are you know, protecting your muscles and
<v Speaker 2>you are able to heal your muscles after all of
<v Speaker 2>the weight training that you're doing. So you know, that's
<v Speaker 2>just really something to look at. You know, can you
<v Speaker 2>lose weight quickly by restricting calories and you know, really
<v Speaker 2>cutting back, yes, but is it sustainable and is it
<v Speaker 2>beneficial to your metabolism in the long run? Usually the
<v Speaker 2>answer is going to be no, Right, So yeah, I think,
<v Speaker 2>you know, really trying to make sure that you have
<v Speaker 2>some balance in there is exactly is really important.
<v Speaker 1>It really really is. And I get it because I
<v Speaker 1>was the person who wanted to lose weight so quickly
<v Speaker 1>that I did all those restrictive things back in the
<v Speaker 1>day before I understood how our body worked, before I
<v Speaker 1>understood what happens with prolonged over restriction and how that
<v Speaker 1>actually always backfires because your body is trying to protect
<v Speaker 1>you and there are people who can white knucklet through
<v Speaker 1>an overly restrictive approach for a long long time. But
<v Speaker 1>you're doing metabolic damage. You can fix that. But we
<v Speaker 1>really want to make sure we are not accidentally or
<v Speaker 1>intentionally over restricting to the degree that it's gonna harm
<v Speaker 1>us and cause that rebound effect. Right right, And now
<v Speaker 1>it's time for our segment called what's Your Why. Most
<v Speaker 1>of us have weight loss in mind, and that is
<v Speaker 1>a great reason to begin. It's fine for that to
<v Speaker 1>be part of your why, but there is so much
<v Speaker 1>more to what intermittent fasting can do for us beyond
<v Speaker 1>weight loss. And that is why when I wrote twenty
<v Speaker 1>eight day fast start day by day, I asked readers
<v Speaker 1>to craft their why statement before beginning. When your why
<v Speaker 1>is deeper than weight loss alone, you're more likely to
<v Speaker 1>find long term success and view intermittent fasting as a lifestyle.
<v Speaker 2>This week, we have a why from snowy northern Michigan,
<v Speaker 2>and we are recording this in April, so I hope
<v Speaker 2>it's not still snowy there North.
<v Speaker 1>It's been snowy. It has been crazy snowy. I don't know.
<v Speaker 1>We had We were at the baseball game on Saturday
<v Speaker 1>in Winston Salem. It was ninety degrees at the baseball game.
<v Speaker 1>I'm eating ice, eating ice, eating ice. Then the temperature
<v Speaker 1>dropped like so much.
<v Speaker 2>We woke up.
<v Speaker 1>It was fifty degrees. Yeah, and in some places we're
<v Speaker 1>having snow.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it was in the eighties here on Sunday. And
<v Speaker 2>then when I got off work Monday morning, it was
<v Speaker 2>like forty two degrees outside.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it was crazy.
<v Speaker 2>So it was nuts.
<v Speaker 1>We had to wear jackets and my ugs and.
<v Speaker 2>I just my coworker. The other day, I said, I
<v Speaker 2>don't know if it's that I'm older and I'm paying
<v Speaker 2>more attention to the weather, or the weather's just getting weirder.
<v Speaker 1>Well, I'm doing this new thing. Everybody should do this
<v Speaker 1>because it's fun. Do you have like a million photos
<v Speaker 1>on your phone, like from over the years, screenshots, weird things.
<v Speaker 1>I'm like, I gotta start cleaning these up. So every
<v Speaker 1>day I searched by the date. So like today we're
<v Speaker 1>recording this April twenty second. I searched my phone on
<v Speaker 1>the photo for April twenty second. Sho just me every
<v Speaker 1>photo I ever took on April twenty second. Oh, and
<v Speaker 1>you're starting to get rid of them, and I'm going
<v Speaker 1>through them, and it's fun but I'm seeing things. But
<v Speaker 1>also I can delete a bunch of stuff right, and
<v Speaker 1>stuff I don't need anymore, like you know, my grocery
<v Speaker 1>list whatever. But I saw one. It was today. I
<v Speaker 1>saw one I'd taken a like a shot of the weather,
<v Speaker 1>and it was when I was still teaching, and it
<v Speaker 1>was like seven in the morning and it was forty
<v Speaker 1>two degrees. I was like, I must have been complaining
<v Speaker 1>about bus duty. But on this date, back when I
<v Speaker 1>was still teaching, it was forty two degrees and I
<v Speaker 1>was not happy about it anyway. So hopefully the snow
<v Speaker 1>will be over soon for all of us. We're ours
<v Speaker 1>is over, but Michigan, we don't know.
<v Speaker 2>Alra, she says, I am a healthy, non medicid fifty
<v Speaker 2>nine year old yoga teacher. Daily walker and I have
<v Speaker 2>a wonderful relationship. I have noticed several non scale victories
<v Speaker 2>in the past four months. I noticed these in the
<v Speaker 2>first month. Number one, the benefit for me is better energy.
<v Speaker 2>I have suffered from horrible fatigue for many years. Number two,
<v Speaker 2>it's a noticeable decrease in inflamma of my joints, at
<v Speaker 2>belly and in general. Number three the diet, mind decision fatigue.
<v Speaker 2>Too much thought about meals is over. I love food,
<v Speaker 2>and I love my meals even more. I didn't think
<v Speaker 2>it was possible to love food more. Number four, I'm
<v Speaker 2>faster and I can focus better, such as playing pickleball
<v Speaker 2>or hiking. The bonus is I love how my clothes
<v Speaker 2>feel and I look forward to possibly wearing a size ten.
<v Speaker 2>These are my continued whis. I am so grateful for
<v Speaker 2>your teachings and contributions.
<v Speaker 1>I love it.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. You know, it's funny because I think a lot
<v Speaker 2>of people when they start, they're like, what do you
<v Speaker 2>mean was my why I want to lose weights? Right?
<v Speaker 2>But then pretty quickly you start seeing all of these
<v Speaker 2>other benefits, and then so many people are like, I
<v Speaker 2>don't care if I never lose another pound. I wouldn't
<v Speaker 2>quit fasting because I don't want to lose all of
<v Speaker 2>this exactly. Yep, all right, So we have a question
<v Speaker 2>set in by volume eating in Georgia. Hello Jin and Cherry.
<v Speaker 2>Thank you for all your words of wisdom and sharing
<v Speaker 2>your knowledge and experience with your amazing eye of journey.
<v Speaker 2>I have a quick question. Would a one hour meal
<v Speaker 2>eating window during the week be detrimental to my weight
<v Speaker 2>loss journey. If on weekends I have a four to
<v Speaker 2>five hour eating window, I ask, because, like Gin, I'm
<v Speaker 2>a volume eater. My dinner meals are things like grilled chicken,
<v Speaker 2>a sweet potato and salad packed with veggies, or two
<v Speaker 2>beef hot dogs with chili and cheese and a salad,
<v Speaker 2>or two bunless burgers with avocado, tomato and onion with
<v Speaker 2>air fire French fries. Sometimes it might be salad, spaghetti
<v Speaker 2>and garlic, bread and green beans. Breakfast for dinner that
<v Speaker 2>consists of toast, two eggs, two bacon, two sausage, and
<v Speaker 2>sometimes grips. Most nights I close my window with two oranges.
<v Speaker 2>I do not feel in any way that I am
<v Speaker 2>under eating. I am currently thirty seven years old, five
<v Speaker 2>foot seven and one hundred and eighty pounds. My goal
<v Speaker 2>is to stay in the one fifty five to one
<v Speaker 2>sixty five range for me maintenance. In April of twenty
<v Speaker 2>twenty three, I weighed two hundred and fifty seven pounds,
<v Speaker 2>so I have already come a long way, and I
<v Speaker 2>am so grateful. I am a daily wier, but I
<v Speaker 2>haven't been writing it down. Thank you all for your
<v Speaker 2>help side note, I am currently on a mission to
<v Speaker 2>lose the twenty to twenty five pounds I regained after
<v Speaker 2>losing ninety nine. I compared a picture of myself when
<v Speaker 2>I got to one hundred and eighty pounds for the
<v Speaker 2>first time in October of twenty twenty three and one
<v Speaker 2>hundred and eighty pounds March twenty twenty six, and the
<v Speaker 2>body recomposition is amazing. I look so much thinner.
<v Speaker 1>All right. So this is a great question, and I
<v Speaker 1>hate to say it. It's unanswerable because it depends. You said,
<v Speaker 1>would a one hour, one meal eating window during the
<v Speaker 1>week be detrimental to my weight loss journey? If on
<v Speaker 1>weekends I have a four to five hour eating window.
<v Speaker 1>The answer could be yes, the answer could be no.
<v Speaker 1>And it all depends on your body and what your
<v Speaker 1>body perceived is going on. So it is possible that
<v Speaker 1>I like, shoot, I just talked about that meal we
<v Speaker 1>ate when we were in d c Or we were
<v Speaker 1>in Alexandria, actually Alexandria, Virginia, just over the river. That
<v Speaker 1>was a pretty large meal.
<v Speaker 2>That's a lot of food.
<v Speaker 1>I had a you know, if I was a calorie counter,
<v Speaker 1>that was a lot of calories my body absolutely was
<v Speaker 1>not over restricted that day, but it's hard to know
<v Speaker 1>for sure for you and your body. So I also
<v Speaker 1>felt way too full. That was too much volume for me.
<v Speaker 1>I don't think I can eat comfortably in one hour
<v Speaker 1>and not accidentally overrestrict. If I'm eating comfortably, if I'm
<v Speaker 1>eating to the point that I'm overly full and feel terrible,
<v Speaker 1>then I could probably do it. But that's why I
<v Speaker 1>was always within my daily four to five hour window,
<v Speaker 1>thinking of it as a multi course meal, because that
<v Speaker 1>kept me from feeling that overly full feeling. But I
<v Speaker 1>was still able to get enough food. So here's what
<v Speaker 1>I want you to do. I want you to start
<v Speaker 1>writing it down. You said you're weighing daily, but you're
<v Speaker 1>not writing it down. I want you to write it
<v Speaker 1>down or get an app like Happy Scale. I'm actually
<v Speaker 1>not writing it down right now. I'm using happy Scale
<v Speaker 1>to see what's happening with my fluctuations, and I don't
<v Speaker 1>have any goals. I'm just seeing what's happening since I
<v Speaker 1>haven't weighed since you know, twenty seventeen until like a
<v Speaker 1>few weeks ago, so I'm just seeing what my weight
<v Speaker 1>is doing, how it's going up. And down, and I'm
<v Speaker 1>looking at my trend in Happy Scale seeing what that
<v Speaker 1>trend is doing. And so I want you to have
<v Speaker 1>some sort of tool that lets you know what your
<v Speaker 1>trend is doing. And honestly, if I were trying to
<v Speaker 1>lose weight, I did like the writing it down better
<v Speaker 1>than the way Happy Scale like a just sit every
<v Speaker 1>day and it shows you, now your trend is this,
<v Speaker 1>Now your trend is that, and it varies every day,
<v Speaker 1>so the trend is fluctuating also, which is a little
<v Speaker 1>bit much for me. I liked once a week finding
<v Speaker 1>the weekly average and there's one number and I can
<v Speaker 1>compare it to last week's weekly average. That was just
<v Speaker 1>one concrete moment and I didn't have to worry at
<v Speaker 1>all about what was going on the other days. So
<v Speaker 1>reread weighing chapter of either Delayed on Deny or Fast
<v Speaker 1>Feast repeat. Make sure you're calculating your weekly average and
<v Speaker 1>see what's happening. If you are losing at the rate
<v Speaker 1>of one half of a pound per week or more,
<v Speaker 1>then you know, or if your trend is going down
<v Speaker 1>steadily week after week, then you know that your weight
<v Speaker 1>loss journey is progressing. If you plateau, then you know
<v Speaker 1>that what you're doing is detrimental for your weight loss. Right,
<v Speaker 1>If you're not losing weight, it isn't working. If you
<v Speaker 1>are losing weight, it is working. But you have to
<v Speaker 1>determine that first and see, can I, in my mind
<v Speaker 1>conceive of the potential that someone could do well with
<v Speaker 1>one hour during the week and four to five hours
<v Speaker 1>on the weekend. Possibly, I don't think I would. It
<v Speaker 1>wouldn't work well for me. Is it possible that could
<v Speaker 1>work well for you? It's possible, But it's also possible
<v Speaker 1>that that that will to a plateau because that is
<v Speaker 1>a pretty short window. What do you think, Sherry?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, you know, I just while you were talking, just
<v Speaker 2>ran one of our meals through, okay, one of my
<v Speaker 2>I did the breakfast for dinner, okay, okay, So if
<v Speaker 2>you have three quarters a cup of cheese grits with
<v Speaker 2>your two slices of sour dough, toast, two eggs too, bacon,
<v Speaker 2>two sausage, and then I included the two oranges. You said,
<v Speaker 2>you close your window with that intake for that day
<v Speaker 2>with cheese grits is nine hundred and forty three calories.
<v Speaker 2>That is a low calorie eating day. Yeah, so I
<v Speaker 2>think It's hard to say is an hour sufficient, is it?
<v Speaker 2>I think it has to do more with number one.
<v Speaker 2>I think that they're by having a broader eating window.
<v Speaker 2>I think you're really giving your body the message that
<v Speaker 2>food is abundant, available, and incoming. I think when you
<v Speaker 2>lock into a really short window, your body senses that
<v Speaker 2>even if you eat a bunch at one time, you know,
<v Speaker 2>your body can't use all of that at one time,
<v Speaker 2>So it's shuttling a bunch of that away into storage.
<v Speaker 2>When you're eating, you know, a high volume food and
<v Speaker 2>a really short period of time, it just can't handle
<v Speaker 2>all of that energy at once. So I think you
<v Speaker 2>would be better off spreading that food across a longer window.
<v Speaker 2>And I know some people who are volume eaters think
<v Speaker 2>that they need a short window as a way to
<v Speaker 2>put a stop on their eating. But I also think
<v Speaker 2>that if you open your window with a window opener
<v Speaker 2>and then you wait a little bit to have your
<v Speaker 2>I feel like you can go into the meal with
<v Speaker 2>a little bit more. You're not so ravenous when you
<v Speaker 2>started eating. You've already given your body a little bit
<v Speaker 2>of nutrition. Your brain isn't like, oh my gosh, I
<v Speaker 2>haven't eaten all day. I need to eat everything right
<v Speaker 2>now and inhale it. So you know, some days I
<v Speaker 2>have an hour window. You know, the other day we
<v Speaker 2>ordered Mexican food and I had beerria tacos, and I
<v Speaker 2>had some beans and I had some guacamolee and I
<v Speaker 2>was absolutely one hundred percent satisfied. It was rich food.
<v Speaker 2>It was more food than I normally eat, more rich
<v Speaker 2>food than I normally eat, and my body said it
<v Speaker 2>was done. It was also a day where I turned
<v Speaker 2>around for night shift, so I'd only fasted about seventeen hours.
<v Speaker 2>When I ate, and I ate it, I was done.
<v Speaker 2>It was like five o'clock and I'm like, I really
<v Speaker 2>have no desire to eat anything else. So I went
<v Speaker 2>ahead and my window. But yesterday I had a little
<v Speaker 2>bit longer window with a little bit more food in it,
<v Speaker 2>and it balanced out what I did the day before.
<v Speaker 2>I was naturally hungrier earlier because I closed earlier. And
<v Speaker 2>you know, and so I think this is where really
<v Speaker 2>leaning into how are you feeling? What are your hunger
<v Speaker 2>qes telling you? You know, if it's possible to widen
<v Speaker 2>that window some days and sort of spread your food out,
<v Speaker 2>I don't think it can hurt you to do that, right, right?
<v Speaker 1>I think so, And I do wonder why she wants
<v Speaker 1>to have a one hour window during the week. Is
<v Speaker 1>it her schedule or just I don't know why she
<v Speaker 1>wants to do that, But as you said, we naturally
<v Speaker 1>vary based on hunger from day to day. When you
<v Speaker 1>said Buria tacos, I finally had some real Berria tacos
<v Speaker 1>that were delicious.
<v Speaker 2>Oh good. Yes.
<v Speaker 1>In Winston Salem, a friend of hours from college, one
<v Speaker 1>of my sorority sisters who's a really good friend of
<v Speaker 1>Chris's because she was the sweetheart for his fraternity. So
<v Speaker 1>she came and stayed at Chris's condo for the weekend
<v Speaker 1>for the baseball game. She loved sports. But we walked
<v Speaker 1>over and had Mexican food before the baseball game. Baseball
<v Speaker 1>season really will mess up your window, because you know
<v Speaker 1>you don't want to eat at the game. So I
<v Speaker 1>had just like you. I had the Beerria tacos, We
<v Speaker 1>had chips, we had salsa, I had beans and rice.
<v Speaker 1>I was really really full and that was all I
<v Speaker 1>had for the day. So then the next day I
<v Speaker 1>was hungrier, right, So we ate a little earlier. Windows
<v Speaker 1>stretched a little longer, so finding that balances of.
<v Speaker 2>Your window opener, I would guess was more substantial than
<v Speaker 2>a typical window opener.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I opened with a meal. The next day I
<v Speaker 1>was like, I got to eat something. We opened with
<v Speaker 1>a meal, and then we had another baseball game, because
<v Speaker 1>baseball games are forever. And then after the baseball game, though,
<v Speaker 1>I had something else because I knew it hadn't. It
<v Speaker 1>felt like I didn't want two short windows. I felt
<v Speaker 1>like I needed more food, so I ate more food.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, I think what would be you know, if
<v Speaker 2>your reason for doing the one hour window is that
<v Speaker 2>you feel like maybe it will speed up your weight
<v Speaker 2>loss or it will help you have better control of
<v Speaker 2>your eating in your window, I think you need to
<v Speaker 2>address that. You know, if you if you know, if
<v Speaker 2>you are concerned that you are over eating in your
<v Speaker 2>window and you want to do a one hour window
<v Speaker 2>to control that eating. I don't think the one hour
<v Speaker 2>window is the way to do that, because that doesn't
<v Speaker 2>give you the opportunity to really lean in and hear
<v Speaker 2>your body's true satiety signals. Now you're just eating to
<v Speaker 2>get it eaten and get that window closed back up again.
<v Speaker 2>As opposed to you know, eating a little food, waking
<v Speaker 2>up your appetite, getting out of katosis, and then having
<v Speaker 2>you know your main meat, and then leaving a little
<v Speaker 2>time to assess satiety and determining whether or not you
<v Speaker 2>truly need more food before closing your window. I'm just
<v Speaker 2>a fan of just a more relaxed window. Spread your
<v Speaker 2>food out, tune into satiety, and make sure you're not
<v Speaker 2>short changing yourself exactly.
<v Speaker 1>All right, We have a question from Genie from Kansas
<v Speaker 1>Hygen and Sherry. I have a question which stems from
<v Speaker 1>episode one hundred and forty about fasting blood work. I
<v Speaker 1>understand that it's not a good idea to drink black
<v Speaker 1>coffee right before you go to get blood drawn for
<v Speaker 1>your fasting insulin. Does this apply to drinking coffee and
<v Speaker 1>water throughout the morning to finish the coffee around eleven
<v Speaker 1>and then go get the fasting insulin lab work drawn
<v Speaker 1>later in the afternoon after three pm. I typically drink
<v Speaker 1>black coffee until mid morning to finally finish the coffee
<v Speaker 1>by eleven fifteen. I am scheduling lab work most of
<v Speaker 1>the time after work. I thought it would be okay
<v Speaker 1>since all I drank was water and black coffee. Should
<v Speaker 1>I be scheduling lab work in the mornings to only
<v Speaker 1>drink water and no coffee so I do not risk
<v Speaker 1>having false indicators with a fasting insulin and day one C.
<v Speaker 1>Thank you for your time answering my question. I love
<v Speaker 1>listening to your podcast. I get a lot of questions
<v Speaker 1>answered while listening to you, ladies. God bless you both.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, an A and C. You can have tested at
<v Speaker 2>any time, day or night. You do not have to
<v Speaker 2>be fasted.
<v Speaker 1>For it, and don't word about the coffee.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, because what it is is it's giving you sort
<v Speaker 2>of a like, let's call it a summary of what
<v Speaker 2>your blood glucose has been doing for like the three
<v Speaker 2>months preceding that blood draw, so it's not going to
<v Speaker 2>vary so much based off of what you've done that day.
<v Speaker 2>The fasting insulin is completely different. It is very it
<v Speaker 2>is very variable and lots of things can impact it,
<v Speaker 2>and you need to be one hundred percent completely fasted
<v Speaker 2>for eight to twelve hours prior to the test. Personally,
<v Speaker 2>you know, I'm not going to go all day and
<v Speaker 2>go through the stress of the day and all of
<v Speaker 2>that and then try to see if my fasting insulin
<v Speaker 2>is accurate in the afternoon. I'm going to get up
<v Speaker 2>in the morning before my day starts, before I've had coffee.
<v Speaker 2>I'm going to go then, and I'm going to get
<v Speaker 2>my fasting insulin. Not to mention, I want a good
<v Speaker 2>indicator of what my fasting insulin is doing, like, not
<v Speaker 2>when I'm deeply deeply fasted, because we know it should
<v Speaker 2>be pretty low. Then I want a good average of
<v Speaker 2>what it's doing most of the time. So if I'm
<v Speaker 2>fasting nineteen hours out of the day, you know the
<v Speaker 2>midpoint of that is going to be around nine to
<v Speaker 2>ten hours. So that's about the time I want to
<v Speaker 2>get my fasting insulin drawn. I want to know how
<v Speaker 2>is it respond to my morning blood sugars, which are
<v Speaker 2>typically higher. I want to know what it looks like
<v Speaker 2>while I still have while I'm still burning through glycogen,
<v Speaker 2>before I get into fat burning, when we know that
<v Speaker 2>insulin is much lower. So to me, if you want
<v Speaker 2>the most accurate fasting insulin, you would go have it
<v Speaker 2>done in the morning when you're somewhere in that like
<v Speaker 2>ten twelve hour fasted range. No coffee, no exercise, just
<v Speaker 2>get up, get it done first thing.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I think that's great advice. And also it's really
<v Speaker 1>nice to go ahead and get the fasting blood glucose
<v Speaker 1>done at the same time so you have both numbers.
<v Speaker 1>Absolutely you can see because sometimes people will come in
<v Speaker 1>and ask us questions about their fasting insulin. They'll say,
<v Speaker 1>I got my fasting insulin done and it was a
<v Speaker 1>one point nine or some one point seven or something
<v Speaker 1>really low, because optimal is like two point five to five,
<v Speaker 1>and it'll be below optimal, and they'll say something like,
<v Speaker 1>should I be worried?
<v Speaker 2>Well, we don't know.
<v Speaker 1>We can't tell you that. But if you have a
<v Speaker 1>fasting glucose done at the same time, that gives you
<v Speaker 1>a much bigger picture. Like if your fasting insulin is
<v Speaker 1>very very low below the optimal and your fasting glucose
<v Speaker 1>is also very low at the time, that's less of
<v Speaker 1>a red flag. But if your fasting insulin is very
<v Speaker 1>very low below optimal and your fasting blood glucose is elevated,
<v Speaker 1>that indicates that possibly your pancreas is not keeping up
<v Speaker 1>with enough insulin to keep your blood sugar low. So
<v Speaker 1>having them at the same time is a really important
<v Speaker 1>snapshot to see. So if you can get them boats
<v Speaker 1>done at the same time, that'd be great. And again,
<v Speaker 1>you know we're not giving you medical advice, and we
<v Speaker 1>really don't like to analyze your blood work in the
<v Speaker 1>community anyway, but understanding optimals two point five to five
<v Speaker 1>and then if it's lower than optimal, looking at at
<v Speaker 1>your fasted blood glucose at the same time to see
<v Speaker 1>if that's also good, that's probably not a problem. And
<v Speaker 1>just really having this conversation with your doctor who knows
<v Speaker 1>your health history.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and you being if you have those numbers, then
<v Speaker 2>you can plug them into a homer Ir calculator, I
<v Speaker 2>like one from the blood code and you get those
<v Speaker 2>two numbers drawn drawn at the same time, and then
<v Speaker 2>plug those two numbers in because they they're sort of
<v Speaker 2>interdependent on each other, so that and then they will
<v Speaker 2>give you an insulin resistance score and and that can
<v Speaker 2>be really beneficial for determining like Okay, I've been fasting
<v Speaker 2>for four years, but you know it's still saying that
<v Speaker 2>I'm insulin resistant. That's where you know, like okay, it
<v Speaker 2>might be changed time to change your fasting protocol or
<v Speaker 2>your food quality or both.
<v Speaker 1>Right exactly, And that's just really important to have that
<v Speaker 1>information to know if you need to make the changes.
<v Speaker 1>And by the way, don't come in the community and say,
<v Speaker 1>here's my numbers, tell me what my insulin resistance score is.
<v Speaker 1>We're not going to do that. We're going to say,
<v Speaker 1>here's where you look for google homa ir, homa homa
<v Speaker 1>dash ir and the blood code is the one Sherry likes.
<v Speaker 1>That one's good to and they will analyze it for
<v Speaker 1>you and tell you. Any good teacher is not just
<v Speaker 1>going to give you the answer. We want you to
<v Speaker 1>figure it out, how to how to apply that information,
<v Speaker 1>how to know if it's good or not so homa ir,
<v Speaker 1>search it, put in your numbers, calculate it, and then
<v Speaker 1>you know, there's a lot of a lot of empowerment
<v Speaker 1>with figuring out for yourself and reading the analysis and
<v Speaker 1>then understanding it rather than just me or Sherry saying yeah,
<v Speaker 1>that's great or no that's not. You know, how do
<v Speaker 1>you go through the process? Is the process? You need
<v Speaker 1>to figure that out yourself because that's how you really
<v Speaker 1>understand it. All Right, Before we get to our tweak
<v Speaker 1>of the week, I want to take a minute to
<v Speaker 1>tell you about the fast Feast repeat app and website.
<v Speaker 2>Eight.
<v Speaker 1>If you are struggling with food confusion or diet brain
<v Speaker 1>when 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. The Eat Like a
<v Speaker 1>grown Up program is for you. It's a fifty two
<v Speaker 1>week learning journey that helps you to finally build a peaceful,
<v Speaker 1>confident relationship with food without dieting, guilt, or overwhelm. And
<v Speaker 1>it's only available in the Fast Feast Repeat app. So
<v Speaker 1>join me in the app for the grown Up Year
<v Speaker 1>fifty two weeks to listen, play, and nourish. Each week,
<v Speaker 1>you'll watch a short video lesson and download a simple
<v Speaker 1>practical mission designed to help you listen to your body,
<v Speaker 1>play with your food in a joyful way, and nourish
<v Speaker 1>yourself with calm intention. You'll learn how to move past
<v Speaker 1>emotional eating, understand your hunger cues, make meals deeply satisfying,
<v Speaker 1>and fall back in love with real food, all while
<v Speaker 1>connecting with a community that's growing right along beside you
<v Speaker 1>in the app. So if you're ready for transformation that
<v Speaker 1>unfolds gently but meaningfully over time, this is where it begins.
<v Speaker 1>Go to app dot Fast Feast Repeat dot com to
<v Speaker 1>join or you can find the fast Feast Repeat app
<v Speaker 1>in the app store that works with your phone. Along
<v Speaker 1>with they Eat like a grown up fifty two week program,
<v Speaker 1>you'll find an ever growing library of intermittent fasting resources
<v Speaker 1>as well. Go to app dot fast Feast Repeat dot
<v Speaker 1>com to join us or download the fast Feast Repeat
<v Speaker 1>app today. There is also a link in the show notes.
<v Speaker 1>And now it's time for our tweak of the week.
<v Speaker 1>You know, I always say tweak it till it's easy,
<v Speaker 1>But the tweak that works for me might not be
<v Speaker 1>the one that works for you. And that's why it's
<v Speaker 1>super helpful to hear how other intermittent fasters are making
<v Speaker 1>intermittent fasting work for them. This is from Gail. Gail says,
<v Speaker 1>yesterday I completed twenty eight days of intermittent fasting. This
<v Speaker 1>was my fourth time starting, and the first time I
<v Speaker 1>tweaked it till it was easy. To say it was
<v Speaker 1>effortless is not quite true. But this time I never struggled.
<v Speaker 1>And by the way, I would like to say, life
<v Speaker 1>is just not effortless. I have days that don't feel effortless,
<v Speaker 1>and I've got to.
<v Speaker 2>Put into effort.
<v Speaker 1>Right, there's effort involved anything involves effort, but back when
<v Speaker 1>I was eating all day, took a lot more effort.
<v Speaker 1>So it's just some when I had to make decisions
<v Speaker 1>about food from the moment I woke up to the
<v Speaker 1>time I went to bed, that required a whole lot
<v Speaker 1>of effort instead as a faster A little bit of
<v Speaker 1>effort here, a little bit of effort there, but it's
<v Speaker 1>a whole lot less anyway. I just wanted to say that,
<v Speaker 1>but I'm glad that Gail has not struggled as much,
<v Speaker 1>she said. I kept to nineteen five, planning healthy, balanced
<v Speaker 1>meals both at home and at restaurants, and I avoided
<v Speaker 1>ultra processed foods whenever possible. I love creamy coffee, but
<v Speaker 1>I waited to have it when I opened my window,
<v Speaker 1>and I was satisfied with frothy black coffee from mine
<v Speaker 1>espresso machine. I think the biggest shift this time was
<v Speaker 1>realizing I don't have to eat to be social. Adjusting
<v Speaker 1>my plan to social events with others derailed me in
<v Speaker 1>the past. I ate when my window was open, but
<v Speaker 1>never felt I had to eat because I was in
<v Speaker 1>a social situation. Only once did a friend ask me
<v Speaker 1>if I was going to eat a scone with her,
<v Speaker 1>and I told her I would save it for later.
<v Speaker 1>My body reacted very favorably with an eight pound loss
<v Speaker 1>during my restart. I felt better hydrated because I was
<v Speaker 1>drinking more water and less coffee, and I slept better.
<v Speaker 1>I adopted a new dog during this time, and I
<v Speaker 1>am walking her over a mile every day. I'm also
<v Speaker 1>strength training and swimming each week. I never stopped believing
<v Speaker 1>in the health benefits of intermittent fasting, and I continued
<v Speaker 1>to listen to Gen and Sherry on the podcasts, knowing
<v Speaker 1>one day I would find my way back to intermittent fasting.
<v Speaker 1>Thank you and for your steady presence and wise advice. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I think that's really struggle for so many people sharing
<v Speaker 1>the eating to be social, that can be the hardest thing,
<v Speaker 1>especially if the food is free. I'm gonna brag on
<v Speaker 1>Chris for a minute here. He went to that event.
<v Speaker 1>It was his work event in Alexandria and DC last week,
<v Speaker 1>and they had like a full on sit down lunch
<v Speaker 1>at one of his favorite Alexandria restaurants. He used to
<v Speaker 1>live in Alexandria for a long time and it was
<v Speaker 1>one of his favorite restaurants and the company took everyone
<v Speaker 1>to lunch and it was like a multi course meal.
<v Speaker 1>He like sent me a picture of the menu and
<v Speaker 1>I'm like, ooh, that all looks really really good. And
<v Speaker 1>then he showed me a picture of his lunch, which
<v Speaker 1>was guess what, black coffee.
<v Speaker 2>Oh, that's sad.
<v Speaker 1>He sat there at his favorite restaurant in Alexandria and
<v Speaker 1>had black coffee and had black coffee and it was free.
<v Speaker 1>It was free meal, and he could have chosen to eat,
<v Speaker 1>but they also had like a catered dinner that night
<v Speaker 1>that they were going to. So he's like, I don't
<v Speaker 1>need to eat two giant meals in a day, and
<v Speaker 1>even though it's free, I'm going to drink my coffee instead,
<v Speaker 1>And so he waited and just had the one meal.
<v Speaker 1>And that's that's really hard. He came home from the
<v Speaker 1>trip and got on this skill and he had not
<v Speaker 1>gained any weight at all. So he managed to maintain
<v Speaker 1>through all the work trips and the social events. And
<v Speaker 1>that's not always easy.
<v Speaker 2>That's fantastic.
<v Speaker 1>But you just have to decide, right, and we can
<v Speaker 1>do it. We can say no, and it feels really powerful, it.
<v Speaker 2>Really does, you know, And we live we live in
<v Speaker 2>a world where food has become a social experience, right,
<v Speaker 2>and it's great for it to be a social experience,
<v Speaker 2>But when you're eating window is right, and you know,
<v Speaker 2>if it's at lunch and it's super important and you
<v Speaker 2>don't want to miss out and you want to partake
<v Speaker 2>or whatever, you always have the option of moving or
<v Speaker 2>eating window and having a lunch eating window that day,
<v Speaker 2>or maybe you know and advances is going to happen,
<v Speaker 2>and you know you're going to be doing lunch and
<v Speaker 2>you know that you're also going to be doing dinner
<v Speaker 2>with your family because you know yourself and you know
<v Speaker 2>that you won't keep your window closed. You always have
<v Speaker 2>the option the day before to do a downish day,
<v Speaker 2>and you know, plan and prepare for an uppish day
<v Speaker 2>on the day that you want to have two big meals.
<v Speaker 2>So there's always ways to adapt and adjust. And then
<v Speaker 2>the other thing I wanted to say was we don't
<v Speaker 2>people are uncomfortable standing out or being different or doing
<v Speaker 2>something different, and so a lot of times when they're like, well,
<v Speaker 2>I didn't want to be the only one not eating,
<v Speaker 2>they feel like the people at the table maybe are
<v Speaker 2>going to judge them, or they're going to have to
<v Speaker 2>explain themselves. But all of the years, what I think
<v Speaker 2>I have learned from what people have shared is that
<v Speaker 2>when they share with somebody like oh, I'm not eating
<v Speaker 2>now because I'm waiting and eating later or whatever, people
<v Speaker 2>for the most part don't really care as long as
<v Speaker 2>they get to eat.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, It's true.
<v Speaker 2>They don't really care what you're doing at the table. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>And then so many people will say, yeah, I just
<v Speaker 2>sat there and I just drank my black coffee or
<v Speaker 2>drank an iced tea and nobody said anything to me.
<v Speaker 2>So I think a lot of times we make it
<v Speaker 2>a bigger deal in our head than it really is. Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>The funny part of that is that at that time,
<v Speaker 1>I was eighty lunch, I met one of my sorority sisters.
<v Speaker 1>She lives in Maryland, and so I drove to Annapolis
<v Speaker 1>and we had a very window worthy meal on the
<v Speaker 1>water and Annapolis, and I didn't eat till about one thirty.
<v Speaker 1>But I knew Chris was going to go to a
<v Speaker 1>dinner that night, so I was going to be on
<v Speaker 1>my own. So I had a big lunch in around
<v Speaker 1>one thirty, and then we met up in the afternoon
<v Speaker 1>in between his events. Before his dinner, and he opened
<v Speaker 1>his window with a little snack and I had a
<v Speaker 1>little Yeah. So I had a giant meal and a
<v Speaker 1>little snack, and he had a little snack and a
<v Speaker 1>giant meal, and we just shifted and made it work.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. I love that. Yeah, ohway. We love to leave
<v Speaker 2>you with inspiration our motivational messages to carry you through
<v Speaker 2>the following week. And this week we have a quote
<v Speaker 2>from Vivian your mind will always believe everything you tell it.
<v Speaker 2>Feed it faith, feed it truth, feed it love, and
<v Speaker 2>she wrote thoughts come and go, attached to the ones
<v Speaker 2>that heal not hurt.
<v Speaker 1>I love that. Thanks so much for listening today. We
<v Speaker 1>would love to have you join us in the Delay
<v Speaker 1>don Tonight community, where you can interact with both me
<v Speaker 1>and Sherry, plus the most supportive bunch of intermittent fasters
<v Speaker 1>you'll find anywhere. Go to Jenstevens dot com slash community
<v Speaker 1>to join us.
<v Speaker 3>Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast to your favorite
<v Speaker 3>podcast app, and if you haven't already, please leave us
<v Speaker 3>a five star review that helps new listeners find the show,
<v Speaker 3>and we really appreciate it.
<v Speaker 1>We are a community driven podcast, so to submit your
<v Speaker 1>success stories, your questions, your favorite tweak it till It's
<v Speaker 1>Easy moments, or anything else you want us to share
<v Speaker 1>on the podcast. Go to Fast Feast Repeat dot com
<v Speaker 1>slash submit and then listen each week to see if
<v Speaker 1>we share your submission or answer your question.
<v Speaker 2>Until next week. Thanks for listening.