Episode 149: Fat Cells and Estrogen, Redefining One Meal a Day, 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?
<v Speaker 2>Sherry doing fantastic?
<v Speaker 1>I'd like to say, well, are you not? I?
<v Speaker 2>Yes, and no, I am fantastic. I am having surgery
<v Speaker 2>next week. I'm very nervous about that. Yeah, and I'm
<v Speaker 2>just trying to clean up a lot of stuff, you know,
<v Speaker 2>get stuff done and prepared for being out of commission
<v Speaker 2>for at least eight weeks. I'll be in an immobilizer. Well,
<v Speaker 2>I'll only have access to one arm for eight weeks.
<v Speaker 1>Oh no, So like.
<v Speaker 2>Even just like trying to figure out what am I
<v Speaker 2>going to eat that's healthy? And how am I going
<v Speaker 2>to put clothes, hair, food with one arm? And yeah,
<v Speaker 2>exactly how am I gonna put clothes on? How what
<v Speaker 2>am I gonna do with my hair? I can't put
<v Speaker 2>a ponytail in my hair with one arm. So I'm
<v Speaker 2>sure it'll all work out, but it's just a little
<v Speaker 2>daunting to consider.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, well, we're actually recording a total four episodes, including
<v Speaker 1>this one, between now and the surgery. So by the
<v Speaker 1>time next the next episode we're going to record after
<v Speaker 1>this today and the next week, the day before the surgery,
<v Speaker 1>will record two more.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, so mice, time you here about my surgery, it'll.
<v Speaker 1>Be old news and yeah, and we're going to probably
<v Speaker 1>be talking about it like it's it's next week, but
<v Speaker 1>we'll be talking about it for several episodes like it'll
<v Speaker 1>be tomorrow and when we record next week. So anyway,
<v Speaker 1>but yeah, that is the magic of compressing the recording
<v Speaker 1>dates together. Yes, yeah, I said, well, we'll all be
<v Speaker 1>thinking about you and we'll be looking forward to an
<v Speaker 1>update of how you're doing. Hopefully you will heal quickly.
<v Speaker 1>I hope, So, I hope.
<v Speaker 2>So. My doctor actually told me it was going to
<v Speaker 2>my healing was going to be very difficult. And I
<v Speaker 2>kind of looked at him like why, Like why, I've
<v Speaker 2>had rotator cuff surgery on the same shoulder twenty some
<v Speaker 2>years ago. Yeah, And I said, I didn't feel like
<v Speaker 2>my recovery was that difficult last time. And he was like, oh, no,
<v Speaker 2>this is completely different than what you had done yesterday
<v Speaker 2>or last time. I have my shoulders a mess, and
<v Speaker 2>they have to actually detach my bicep tendon from my
<v Speaker 2>humorous my armbone. Oh, and then they have to fix
<v Speaker 2>all the tears, and then they have to reattach the tendon,
<v Speaker 2>which just makes the recovery a lot more lengthy and difficult.
<v Speaker 2>That's one of the reasons why I cannot move my
<v Speaker 2>arm for so long. And then he said, he said,
<v Speaker 2>and as an older Caucasian woman, you are the worst
<v Speaker 2>demographic for this recovery. And I kind of looked at
<v Speaker 2>him and I said, did you just call me old.
<v Speaker 2>I mean fifty too. I don't think fifty two is old.
<v Speaker 2>And he said, well from a bone density standpoint, and
<v Speaker 2>I'm like, okay, thanks, thanks doc. So yeah, that that
<v Speaker 2>did not make me feel good. But you know what,
<v Speaker 2>I'm like, you know, I got home and I'm like,
<v Speaker 2>I'm an intermittent faster.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I have you know that.
<v Speaker 2>In my corner. That's gonna help me heal and the
<v Speaker 2>increased human growth hormone deep in the fast, right, you know.
<v Speaker 2>So I'm gonna wow him. I'm on HRT, yeah, you know.
<v Speaker 2>And so yeah, I'm gonna wow him. Yep, I'm gonna
<v Speaker 2>show him what a fifty two year old woman can
<v Speaker 2>do after this surgery. Absolutely all right, Well let's jump
<v Speaker 2>into a celebration from Sally in Aliston, Ontario. I am
<v Speaker 2>a very active, well muscled woman. I exercise just about
<v Speaker 2>every day. I've lost sixteen pounds, which pleases me, but
<v Speaker 2>I am most impressed with the three inches I have
<v Speaker 2>lost off my waist, which has been a forty in
<v Speaker 2>problem forever. The guideline of a thirty five inch waist
<v Speaker 2>seemed like a dream, but not anymore. I've lost inches
<v Speaker 2>elsewhere as well. I've had two plateaus for almost a month,
<v Speaker 2>and I think as I'm getting closer to my goal,
<v Speaker 2>the weight loss is slowing down. Perhaps I'm a snowbird.
<v Speaker 2>So when I came back to Canada, my friends and
<v Speaker 2>students were impressed with the way I have reshaped my body.
<v Speaker 2>I live in a fifty five plus community and several
<v Speaker 2>of them have asked what I've been doing, and I
<v Speaker 2>told them, for sure, I could start an IF community here.
<v Speaker 2>I've been sharing the books and the podcasts and my
<v Speaker 2>shoulders if they need them. I'm a pilates instructor. And
<v Speaker 2>the three inches off my waist has been a game
<v Speaker 2>changer as to what I can do. And hello, the
<v Speaker 2>honesty pants fit for sure, measure yourself before you start.
<v Speaker 1>Well, I love that so much, Sally, that is fantastic,
<v Speaker 1>really is yeah. And the fact that people can tell,
<v Speaker 1>and you know, I love that she mentioned, you know,
<v Speaker 1>the body recomposition that's happening. She hasn't been able to
<v Speaker 1>lose herounder waist and now she has, and the fact
<v Speaker 1>that her body is changing. And you know, she talks
<v Speaker 1>about being on a plateau, a couple of plateaus, but
<v Speaker 1>I bet you know since she's so active. She's one
<v Speaker 1>of those people losing fat, building muscle, and so it
<v Speaker 1>looks like you're not doing anything because the scale looks
<v Speaker 1>like it's not budging, but you're continuing to shrink. So
<v Speaker 1>that is where those honesty pants and the measurements and
<v Speaker 1>photos can make such a difference. So now we have
<v Speaker 1>a question from a listener. This question is from Confused
<v Speaker 1>in California. Hi, Jen and Sherry. I am two months
<v Speaker 1>into intermittent fasting and absolutely loving it. I'm feeling great,
<v Speaker 1>losing weight, and just amazed at the energy I have.
<v Speaker 1>I used to nap every day. It was my first
<v Speaker 1>start of the day as I dragged myself out of bed.
<v Speaker 1>When can I nap today? After a few weeks in,
<v Speaker 1>I realized I wasn't tired in the middle the day
<v Speaker 1>and I just stopped napping. I almost miss them, but
<v Speaker 1>I just don't need them. Yay, Okay, Now for the question.
<v Speaker 1>I am fifty years old and have been in menopause
<v Speaker 1>for a year and four months, which means I haven't
<v Speaker 1>had a period in two years and four months. But
<v Speaker 1>about two weeks ago I got my period, or what
<v Speaker 1>seemed like it. Keep in mind nothing for almost two
<v Speaker 1>and a half years, so what changed. The only thing
<v Speaker 1>new was intermittent fasting. I've read both of Jenn's books,
<v Speaker 1>and I listened to both podcasts, catching up on all
<v Speaker 1>the ones I've missed, so I knew to one check
<v Speaker 1>with my doctor and two check if it could be
<v Speaker 1>intermittent fasting related. I looked it up and found that
<v Speaker 1>estrogen can be stored in fat cells, especially around the belly,
<v Speaker 1>and then released as the body burns fat. This estrogen
<v Speaker 1>can cause shedding of the uterine wall, like when you
<v Speaker 1>have a period. So I went to my guy an acologist,
<v Speaker 1>and she didn't see anything unusual on the ultrasound or
<v Speaker 1>with an exam. I told her I was doing intermittent fasting,
<v Speaker 1>nothing crazy, I do eighteen six and I mentioned what
<v Speaker 1>I had found about estrogen being released and she was
<v Speaker 1>not on board. She thinks it's just from being on hormones,
<v Speaker 1>so she upped my progesterone for a month to even
<v Speaker 1>things out. But I've been on estrogen and progesterone since
<v Speaker 1>hitting menopause and had no bleeding, so I think it's
<v Speaker 1>the fat burning and I feel like you guys are
<v Speaker 1>going to be on my side back me up here. Ladies.
<v Speaker 1>I f for the win. Thanks for all that you do.
<v Speaker 1>I am so grateful.
<v Speaker 2>Well, I have a couple of thoughts on this. You know,
<v Speaker 2>some women, there's a term called like premature or ovarian
<v Speaker 2>failure where women stop ovulating. And back when Jenna and
<v Speaker 2>I had the Life Lessons podcast, we actually interviewed doctor
<v Speaker 2>Anna Kubeca and when she was in her late thirties,
<v Speaker 2>she was having issues with this, and through changing her
<v Speaker 2>diet and weight loss and you know, healing, she was
<v Speaker 2>able to get her periods to return. And if I
<v Speaker 2>remember right at the time, she was wanting to get
<v Speaker 2>pregnant and they had told her she wasn't gonna be
<v Speaker 2>able to because her ovaries were put but she ended
<v Speaker 2>up going on and having a successful pregnancy. So, you know,
<v Speaker 2>I wonder how much could be that you were not
<v Speaker 2>truly one hundred percent in menopause, and that since you've
<v Speaker 2>started fasting and you've you know, helped balance your hormones,
<v Speaker 2>improved your insulin resistance, maybe stopped any sort of restrictive
<v Speaker 2>dieting that might have been impacting your periods, you know,
<v Speaker 2>even improved thyroid health, that perhaps your periods have returned
<v Speaker 2>because your body really wasn't done releasing eggs. So that's
<v Speaker 2>one theory. Your theory could also be correct. Fat cells
<v Speaker 2>they are active, they're an active endocrine organ and they
<v Speaker 2>produce in store estrogen. And so when you know fat
<v Speaker 2>is broken down for energy, fat estrogen is released. So
<v Speaker 2>not only do fat cells store estrogen, they also produce
<v Speaker 2>some estrogen. So it's hard to know for sure what's
<v Speaker 2>going on with you. I the fact that you went
<v Speaker 2>to your doctor, you got it checked out. It's not,
<v Speaker 2>you know, considered abnormal postmenopausal uterine bleeding. You know, that's
<v Speaker 2>a great thing. That's not something you want. I'll be
<v Speaker 2>curious to know if the boost in the progesterone help
<v Speaker 2>because sometimes if you're you know, estrogen and progesterone are
<v Speaker 2>out of balance, then you can have bleeding when you're
<v Speaker 2>on hormone replacement therapy. But yeah, so basically the yes,
<v Speaker 2>you could be releasing estrogen causing this now, but then
<v Speaker 2>over time, as you lose weight, you'll have less fat
<v Speaker 2>cells producing that extra estrogen and releasing that extra estrogen.
<v Speaker 2>So it's gonna be one of those things I think
<v Speaker 2>that time will tell. And you know, boosting your progesterone.
<v Speaker 2>If it's an imbalance between estrogen progesterone should should take
<v Speaker 2>care of that. But yeah, that's that's really what I
<v Speaker 2>came up with. You are absolutely correct. It could be
<v Speaker 2>that you have higher levels of circulating estrogen because it
<v Speaker 2>is being released in your fat cells, and that is
<v Speaker 2>not something I had ever really considered or thought about before.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, all sorts of things are coming out of our
<v Speaker 1>fat cells when we're losing fat, so it's just important
<v Speaker 1>to know our body stashes things away there, like you know,
<v Speaker 1>like if you told your kid to clean his room
<v Speaker 1>and he doesn't know where to put everything, he shoves
<v Speaker 1>it under the bed. Our bodies do that, but they
<v Speaker 1>stick stuff in the fat cells and then when you're
<v Speaker 1>emptying it out, all the stuff's like here I am again.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, I think the balancing it with extra pogesterone
<v Speaker 1>is really the right call, whether you're right or your
<v Speaker 1>doctor's right as to the reason. You know, if you're
<v Speaker 1>having excess estrogen come out of your fat cells due
<v Speaker 1>to fat loss, then balancing it with progesterone is what
<v Speaker 1>you would want to do, right. Yeah, So, whether your
<v Speaker 1>doctor's right or you're right, I think you know listening
<v Speaker 1>to what she's doing now and what she's telling you
<v Speaker 1>to do is the right thing to do. And now,
<v Speaker 1>doctors are not all hormone experts again, and they you know,
<v Speaker 1>we learned that from the doctors we've interviewed on podcasts
<v Speaker 1>over the years and the doctors that I know personally,
<v Speaker 1>especially doctor to have the Barber abg I N. I
<v Speaker 1>was shocked when she said that they were not trained
<v Speaker 1>on hormones. Yeah, that seems crazy.
<v Speaker 2>I would have always assumed that guns had hormone health
<v Speaker 2>training because they are the ones that prescribe birth control pills, right,
<v Speaker 2>and you know HRT right, and they're the ones that's
<v Speaker 2>supposed to be helping you figure out, you know, your
<v Speaker 2>levels of your different hormones if you're trying to conceive, right,
<v Speaker 2>and so it would make sense to me that they
<v Speaker 2>should be the doctor who probably has the best understanding
<v Speaker 2>of your exact female hormones. But that's just not true.
<v Speaker 1>It's shocked me. And so I mean, it's not their fault.
<v Speaker 1>They're going through the system that trains them a certain way.
<v Speaker 1>They and that you know, there are doctors who are like, wait,
<v Speaker 1>I don't know enough, and then they go back and learn, right, Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>you don't know what you don't know until you get
<v Speaker 1>in there.
<v Speaker 2>Well, it's like one of those things people will complain like, oh,
<v Speaker 2>I went to this doctor and you tell me I
<v Speaker 2>can he can help me with that, and I have
<v Speaker 2>to go see this other doctor and they're annoyed. And
<v Speaker 2>I'm always kind of like, well, you know, would you
<v Speaker 2>take your Mercedes to the tire place to have an
<v Speaker 2>engine problem diagnosed, right, so you would go to the
<v Speaker 2>person who specializes in Mercedes engines, right, And so you
<v Speaker 2>would think that if you were having hormonal imbalances, and
<v Speaker 2>the people who prescribe hormones are GYNs, that they would
<v Speaker 2>have the training to do that. But I think all
<v Speaker 2>too often they just have a very small little bit
<v Speaker 2>of knowledge about it and they just start throwing stuff
<v Speaker 2>at the wall and sees what sticks.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, And I think what you said about, you know,
<v Speaker 1>a doctor saying I'm not the right doctor for you
<v Speaker 1>go to on another one is actually a great thing
<v Speaker 1>for a doctor to do, because you want your doctor
<v Speaker 1>to say that's not an area I know everything about.
<v Speaker 1>You know, they know what they're trained in. It's like
<v Speaker 1>when I needed a trademark for delay don't Deny. Back
<v Speaker 1>in the day, my friend an attorney. I was like,
<v Speaker 1>do y'all do that?
<v Speaker 2>She's like no.
<v Speaker 1>When we needed a trademark, we went to a trademark attorney.
<v Speaker 1>My friend the attorney went to a different kind of attorney.
<v Speaker 1>So the same with doctors, and there are so many
<v Speaker 1>great doctors out there, and even great doctors who don't
<v Speaker 1>know everything about your problem, but finding the right one
<v Speaker 1>is so important.
<v Speaker 2>Yep, all right, So we have a question from Jersey Curl.
<v Speaker 2>Jersey Girl could use some help. She said, Hi, Jen
<v Speaker 2>and Sherry. I have read Fast Piece, Repeat and Delay
<v Speaker 2>Don't Deny, and I love them both. They taught me
<v Speaker 2>so much about IF that I never knew. I listened
<v Speaker 2>to your podcast every day and I love hearing how
<v Speaker 2>IF has changed so many people's lives. I have been
<v Speaker 2>fasting for over a year. I initially lost ten pounds
<v Speaker 2>in four months doing one meal a day, and I
<v Speaker 2>was able to lower my A and C from five
<v Speaker 2>point eight to five point six. After seven months of
<v Speaker 2>doing one meal a day, I had to stop because
<v Speaker 2>my hair was falling out like crazy and I felt
<v Speaker 2>like I was starving all the time. I decided in
<v Speaker 2>order to get the nutrients my body was craving, and
<v Speaker 2>to stop the hair loss, I started doing nineteen five
<v Speaker 2>while continuing to eat healthy, wholesome foods like veggies, fruit, chicken, fish,
<v Speaker 2>and Greek yogurt. I have been doing nineteen five for
<v Speaker 2>four months now and I have never felt better. But
<v Speaker 2>I ended up gaining the ten pounds that I originally
<v Speaker 2>lost doing one meal a day, plus two more pounds.
<v Speaker 2>My clothes are tied again and my scale is going
<v Speaker 2>the wrong way. I'm not sure how much I eat
<v Speaker 2>during my eating window because I don't count calories, but
<v Speaker 2>I do eat until I'm satisfied. There are some days
<v Speaker 2>I'm just not hungry, but I still eat ninety percent
<v Speaker 2>wholesome foods. I am not a big processed food eater,
<v Speaker 2>and I only treat myself once in a while. I
<v Speaker 2>am sixty two years old, five foot two, and I
<v Speaker 2>currently weigh one hundred forty one pounds. I would like
<v Speaker 2>to weigh one hundred and thirty because that is where
<v Speaker 2>I feel most comfortable in my body. I take no medications,
<v Speaker 2>and I have been in menopause for seven years. I
<v Speaker 2>love IF and I will do it forever because it
<v Speaker 2>makes me feel terrific. I feel like I'm doing all
<v Speaker 2>the right things by eating healthy, walking, doing pilates two
<v Speaker 2>to three days a week, drinking my water, but the
<v Speaker 2>weight is not coming off. I cannot figure out why
<v Speaker 2>I can only lose weight by starving myself and not
<v Speaker 2>the normal way by eating healthy and exercising.
<v Speaker 1>All right, so let's dig in just a little bit
<v Speaker 1>to what happens when we do restrictive dieting for a
<v Speaker 1>significant period of time, and that is the metabolic slowdown.
<v Speaker 1>And so your body adapts to the low level of
<v Speaker 1>intake that you're taking in. Your body adapts and it
<v Speaker 1>lowers your metabolic rate in response. We know this from
<v Speaker 1>you know, the studies that have been done, whether it's
<v Speaker 1>it's the Biggest Loser study where they followed the contestants
<v Speaker 1>for years after the Biggest Loser and found that their
<v Speaker 1>metabolic rates were five hundred calories a day lower than
<v Speaker 1>would be predicted based on their size, and it had
<v Speaker 1>to do with the prolonged restriction that they had been on.
<v Speaker 1>We know this from the Minnesota starvation experiment that was
<v Speaker 1>done in the World War II era. We know that
<v Speaker 1>our bodies want to protect us and keep us alive.
<v Speaker 1>And if our bodies since that not much is coming
<v Speaker 1>in over a prolonged period of time, it slows or
<v Speaker 1>metablock rate in response to that. That's because our bodies
<v Speaker 1>love us and they want us to survive. And so
<v Speaker 1>then what happens if you stop the restrictive diet and
<v Speaker 1>start eating just a little bit more, Your metabolic rate
<v Speaker 1>may still be low, and now you've regained the weight,
<v Speaker 1>and so now it's like a vicious cycle that you've
<v Speaker 1>gotten yourself trapped in. And so the good news is
<v Speaker 1>metabolisms can be resilient and we can boost our metabolism.
<v Speaker 1>That's what ADF is great for. But before I start
<v Speaker 1>talking about that, I really want to talk about one
<v Speaker 1>meal a day and reconsidering that wording out. You know,
<v Speaker 1>you'd mentioned that you had read Fast, Feast, Repeat and Delayed,
<v Speaker 1>Don't Deny when I originally wrote Delay, Don't Deny. The
<v Speaker 1>end of twenty sixteen, I had a chapter on there
<v Speaker 1>about one meal a day, and I talked about how
<v Speaker 1>I structured my eating window for one meal a day.
<v Speaker 1>And I never have been a person to think of
<v Speaker 1>one meal a day as one plate of food and
<v Speaker 1>then you're done for the day, and I think that
<v Speaker 1>the whole wording one meal a day makes people misunderstand
<v Speaker 1>what you're actually doing. So the history of one meal
<v Speaker 1>a day and the wording one meal a day that
<v Speaker 1>we use in our intermitten fasting communities came from back
<v Speaker 1>when I was you know, before i'd written any books.
<v Speaker 1>I had read doctor Bert Hearing's Fast five book, and
<v Speaker 1>he was someone who ate within a five hour window.
<v Speaker 1>And I'd read that book multiple times, and one day
<v Speaker 1>I read it again and something really jumped out at me.
<v Speaker 1>He said he was talking about nutrients and you're eating window,
<v Speaker 1>and he said, you're only eating one meal a day
<v Speaker 1>comasow dot dot dot. I'm like, wait a minute, he's
<v Speaker 1>got a five hour window, but he's thinking about it
<v Speaker 1>as one actual meal within that five hour window. And
<v Speaker 1>at that time I realized where a lot of people
<v Speaker 1>went wrong with a five hour window is trying to
<v Speaker 1>cram two complete full meals in five hours, which is
<v Speaker 1>not really going to be conducive for weight loss for
<v Speaker 1>a lot of us who are volume eaters. So I
<v Speaker 1>realized that for me, trying to cram two full meals
<v Speaker 1>in five hours, even though technically he said eating five
<v Speaker 1>hours I could overeat within five hours. So at that
<v Speaker 1>moment I started thinking of my daily five hour window
<v Speaker 1>as a multi course meal spread out over five hours.
<v Speaker 1>And so that was when I started the one meal
<v Speaker 1>a Day Facebook group. And the whole point was never,
<v Speaker 1>let's have a really short, tight restrictive one meal only
<v Speaker 1>in a very short period of time, one play a day. Yeah, no,
<v Speaker 1>it was never supposed to be that. So the part
<v Speaker 1>that I really want to dig into is from Jersey
<v Speaker 1>Girl here where you said you went from one meal
<v Speaker 1>a day to a five hour window. So I always
<v Speaker 1>did one meal a day within the paradigm er I
<v Speaker 1>always thought of it as the paradigm of a five
<v Speaker 1>hour window. That doesn't mean every step of the way
<v Speaker 1>I always had five hour windows. There were times when
<v Speaker 1>it was shorter and times when it was longer. But
<v Speaker 1>I want everybody to get the idea out of your
<v Speaker 1>head that you need to do one meal a day
<v Speaker 1>that looks like one plate of food or one sitting.
<v Speaker 1>That's not what we recommend.
<v Speaker 2>Now.
<v Speaker 1>Are there going to be days where you end up
<v Speaker 1>with one plate of food or you're eating in one
<v Speaker 1>sitting because of the way the day gets away from you,
<v Speaker 1>or you're really full, or you're just not as hungry
<v Speaker 1>that day, or you eat a lot at one time. Yes,
<v Speaker 1>but I don't want anybody to dial into a daily
<v Speaker 1>one hour window or even shorter than that, or one
<v Speaker 1>plate of food a day as your approach. And when
<v Speaker 1>I rewrote or not rewrote, but I revised Delayed on
<v Speaker 1>Tonight in twenty twenty four and released the second edition,
<v Speaker 1>I took out the one meal a day chapter. And
<v Speaker 1>I do not want to emphasize that approach to anyone
<v Speaker 1>who is going to then think that it needs to
<v Speaker 1>be short and tight, because that is really, I think,
<v Speaker 1>not serving as well.
<v Speaker 2>So I mean, the fact that she felt like she
<v Speaker 2>was starving was her body letting her know that she was,
<v Speaker 2>that she was under fueling during her eating window exactly.
<v Speaker 1>So here's the thing you talked about. You don't know
<v Speaker 1>how much you're eating during your window because you don't
<v Speaker 1>count in calories, but you eat until you're satisfied. We
<v Speaker 1>know that counting calories is flawed, and I don't recommend anybody,
<v Speaker 1>you know, say I am going to eat fourteen hundred
<v Speaker 1>calories a day and that is what I'm doing. And
<v Speaker 1>then every day you eat fourteen hundred calories, because again,
<v Speaker 1>your body adapts to that sort of thing. I am
<v Speaker 1>blessed to be someone who naturally has variation in how
<v Speaker 1>much I eat. You know, one day I may eat
<v Speaker 1>way too much over six hours because of the way
<v Speaker 1>the day turned out, and then the next day I
<v Speaker 1>eat a lot less in two hours, and it just
<v Speaker 1>naturally ends up being varied. I've not been somebody who
<v Speaker 1>locks into the same amount of food every single day,
<v Speaker 1>day after day, but a lot of people seem to be.
<v Speaker 1>So I would actually recommend that you do count how
<v Speaker 1>many calories you had every now and then, not because
<v Speaker 1>you're trying to count your calories and manage your calories
<v Speaker 1>and stick to a certain number of calories, but as
<v Speaker 1>an information point, like if you realize you're only eating
<v Speaker 1>eight hundred calories a day, every single day, that would
<v Speaker 1>be like, ooh, that's you know, that's not enough, right,
<v Speaker 1>And so this is where you may need to do
<v Speaker 1>some variation from day to day. And this is where ADF,
<v Speaker 1>you know, which is fully described in the ADF chapter
<v Speaker 1>of the second edition of Delayed on Deny. That's the
<v Speaker 1>one I want you to read. For that ADF. Maybe
<v Speaker 1>the strategy that you need to do, especially since it
<v Speaker 1>sounds like you overrestricted for a bit and you're not
<v Speaker 1>even sure what you're doing right now as far as
<v Speaker 1>how much you're eating, so you really want to make
<v Speaker 1>sure you're not over restricting. You could also do kind
<v Speaker 1>of a downish uppish approach, which is not an official protocol,
<v Speaker 1>but you could think of it as, you know, one
<v Speaker 1>meal one day and then the next day, two substantial meals.
<v Speaker 1>That's the uppish part. Two substantial meals maybe in six
<v Speaker 1>hours or something like that. So short window with one meal,
<v Speaker 1>then two substantial meals over like a longer period like
<v Speaker 1>six hours, and that that will rev your metabolism back up.
<v Speaker 1>But I just want everyone to reconsider the wording one
<v Speaker 1>meal a day. The idea is two full substantial meals
<v Speaker 1>a day might be too much for most of us
<v Speaker 1>if we like to eat a big, substantial meal, But
<v Speaker 1>thinking of it as one tiny, little short period of
<v Speaker 1>time is also not good. So it's finding that balance.
<v Speaker 1>Multi course meal over five hours is a great way
<v Speaker 1>to think of one meal a day. Short, tight restrictive
<v Speaker 1>window is not what we would recommend what.
<v Speaker 2>We like about. Yeah, she said, there are some days
<v Speaker 2>I'm just not hungry, but I still eat ninety percent
<v Speaker 2>wholesome foods. So that would be a perfect day to
<v Speaker 2>if you just have a day and you're not feeling hungry,
<v Speaker 2>decide right then and there, just do a down day,
<v Speaker 2>right Like a lot of times when I do a
<v Speaker 2>down day, it's because my body kind of guides me there.
<v Speaker 2>I don't have a lot of interest in food. I
<v Speaker 2>can't really think of anything that sounds appetizing. I don't
<v Speaker 2>have a drive to eat that day. Or it's just
<v Speaker 2>I'm super busy and the day gets away from me
<v Speaker 2>and I don't allow time to really eat anything substantial.
<v Speaker 2>And now it's six o'clock at night, and so then
<v Speaker 2>I'm like, you know what, I'm just going to eat
<v Speaker 2>a little something and close it back up and return
<v Speaker 2>to fasting. And tomorrow I'm gonna do an up day,
<v Speaker 2>or you know, if it's what I eats more than
<v Speaker 2>five hundred calories. If it's more like a thousand calories,
<v Speaker 2>then the next day I'll do more of an up
<v Speaker 2>fish day, and I'll do two meals of you know,
<v Speaker 2>full lunch, full dinner. So you know, if you work
<v Speaker 2>with your body and you know, do a down day
<v Speaker 2>on a day that you're not hungry. I think down
<v Speaker 2>days sometimes is a mental hurdle for a lot of people.
<v Speaker 2>But if you kind of align it with what your
<v Speaker 2>body's asking for anyway that day, it makes it so
<v Speaker 2>much easier because you're not like, oh, I'm going to
<v Speaker 2>do a down day on Monday, and then Monday you
<v Speaker 2>wake up hungry and you're fighting hunger all day, but
<v Speaker 2>convincing yourself you need to stick to a down day
<v Speaker 2>that day. So kind of work with your body and
<v Speaker 2>when it feels good to do a downish day or
<v Speaker 2>a down day, do that.
<v Speaker 1>It can only help and then intentionally have the right
<v Speaker 1>kind of day next the up day or the uppish day.
<v Speaker 1>And so we just want everyone to really really analyze
<v Speaker 1>what you're doing and make sure you're not accidentally settling
<v Speaker 1>into a pattern that's overly restrictive. And we've talked about
<v Speaker 1>this multiple times on the podcast. If you are at
<v Speaker 1>your goal weight and you're happy, and you're eating amount
<v Speaker 1>of food that feels satisfying every day and you're going
<v Speaker 1>to keep doing that forever and you're nourishing your body
<v Speaker 1>while on your window, then you don't have to stress
<v Speaker 1>about it. But it's if you're plateaued, you're stuck. You
<v Speaker 1>have a lot of weight to go and nothing's budgeting.
<v Speaker 1>That's when to really get dig in there and say,
<v Speaker 1>am I accidentally under restricting? I mean, yeah, over restricting
<v Speaker 1>under eating and my body has now settled in at
<v Speaker 1>a weight higher than I want to be. That's when
<v Speaker 1>you're going to have to take some intentional action to
<v Speaker 1>boost your metabolism. Yep, I agree, And now it's time
<v Speaker 1>for our segment called What's Your Why. Most of us
<v Speaker 1>have weight loss in mind, and it is a great reason,
<v Speaker 1>but there is so much more to what intermittent fasting
<v Speaker 1>can do for us beyond weight loss. If you craft
<v Speaker 1>a why statement that is deeper than weight loss alone,
<v Speaker 1>I genuinely believe you are more likely to find long
<v Speaker 1>term success and view intermittent fasting as a lifestyle.
<v Speaker 2>So this week we have a WYE from Genie in Kansas,
<v Speaker 2>Hi Jen, and Sherry. So what's my why? My why
<v Speaker 2>is still live healthier, stronger, and to have a longer life.
<v Speaker 2>I came to IF to lose weight. I never imagined
<v Speaker 2>that IF would lead me to be more in tune
<v Speaker 2>with my body. I've gone through a lot lot of
<v Speaker 2>weight loss from being one hundred ninety pounds five foot
<v Speaker 2>three down to one hundred and fifty pounds. I've been
<v Speaker 2>doing IF since January first, twenty twenty three. I plateaued
<v Speaker 2>in August of twenty twenty three, so I tweaked my
<v Speaker 2>intermittent fasting by adding in the hybrid approach in the
<v Speaker 2>fast Feast Repeat tool section. To do ADF, I typically
<v Speaker 2>do down days on Mondays with a five hundred calorie meal,
<v Speaker 2>with a follow up Tuesday with a twelve hour, three
<v Speaker 2>full meal up day. The other days, I do a
<v Speaker 2>daily eating window of five hours, and then I do
<v Speaker 2>a down day on Friday to have an up day
<v Speaker 2>on Saturday with three full meals. I got down to
<v Speaker 2>one hundred and forty pounds by October of twenty twenty
<v Speaker 2>three by tweaking my IF. I experienced menopause in twenty
<v Speaker 2>twenty five, which made my one hundred and forty pounds
<v Speaker 2>move around in sustaining from anywhere to from one hundred
<v Speaker 2>and forty one pounds to one hundred and forty six pounds.
<v Speaker 2>Add a partial hysterectomy back in twenty twenty three, which
<v Speaker 2>triggered menopause I have some triggered inflammation that's been as
<v Speaker 2>identified as high from LABS. I believe the longer down
<v Speaker 2>day fasts have helped heal my immune system by giving
<v Speaker 2>my body a longer restroom digesting food. I am forty
<v Speaker 2>eight years old, soon to be forty nine. I keep
<v Speaker 2>doing the IF hybrid approach even though I've struggled with
<v Speaker 2>my weight patterns, because I feel the best I've ever
<v Speaker 2>felt in my life. Sure, I've had some ups and downs,
<v Speaker 2>but my why now is still of healthier, stronger, and longer.
<v Speaker 2>I will never quit doing IF for the health benefits.
<v Speaker 2>Jen and Sherry, you're a godsend. Thank you so much.
<v Speaker 1>Ah well, thank you. I'm thank you really glad that
<v Speaker 1>you're doing well. And that's a great great loss, great
<v Speaker 1>weight loss, awesome, and I love that you're tweaking it.
<v Speaker 1>You know. She went from a daily window, then she
<v Speaker 1>added in some ada with the hybrid approach, down and
<v Speaker 1>up and eating window days, and so that's how to
<v Speaker 1>do it. Yep.
<v Speaker 2>All right, So we have another question this week from
<v Speaker 2>Kathy in Sherville, Indiana. I've been intermittent fasting for two
<v Speaker 2>and a half years now, and I've lost twenty five pounds.
<v Speaker 2>In the past few months, I have started gaining weight.
<v Speaker 2>I feel like I have went off of the program
<v Speaker 2>a little bit, and I don't know how to get
<v Speaker 2>myself started again. I have gained the inches back in
<v Speaker 2>my waistline and my hips. I felt like I was
<v Speaker 2>at a standstill for at least a year and a
<v Speaker 2>half without any more weight loss. I was still doing IF,
<v Speaker 2>but it seems like I was not sure what foods
<v Speaker 2>were doing the best for me physically, mentally, and health wise.
<v Speaker 2>I feel like I just need some help on how
<v Speaker 2>to get restarted. I bought the twenty eight Day Fast
<v Speaker 2>Start book and I just started reading that, so I'm
<v Speaker 2>hoping that will help me get going again so I
<v Speaker 2>can continue losing weight. I would like to at least
<v Speaker 2>drop another twenty pounds. I am seventy years old and
<v Speaker 2>my height is five foot three and my current weight
<v Speaker 2>is one seventy I weighed one ninety when I first
<v Speaker 2>started intermittent fasting, and I would like to get down
<v Speaker 2>to about one hundred fifty if possible. I feel like
<v Speaker 2>that would be a good healthy weight for me. Any
<v Speaker 2>help would be greatly appreciated on getting myself started back
<v Speaker 2>on intermittent and fasting the correct way.
<v Speaker 1>Well, Kathy, thank you for reaching out. And so just
<v Speaker 1>to summarize, it, sounds to me like you said you
<v Speaker 1>started gaining weight because you went off the program, and
<v Speaker 1>I wonder what you mean by that. But you said
<v Speaker 1>you don't know how to get started again. So I
<v Speaker 1>wonder how much you've like quit fasting or if your
<v Speaker 1>window has just gotten really, really long. I'm not sure,
<v Speaker 1>but it says you still were doing it remitten fasting,
<v Speaker 1>but you're not sure about what foods were doing the
<v Speaker 1>best for you, and that you need some help to
<v Speaker 1>get restarted. You were in the exact right place with
<v Speaker 1>the twenty eight day fast start day by day. I
<v Speaker 1>would start through it as if you're brand new to
<v Speaker 1>fasting and you've not done it before. That's the advice
<v Speaker 1>I always give for people who I feel like they're
<v Speaker 1>kind of off their game for whatever reason, and you
<v Speaker 1>just want to get back into a good groove. So
<v Speaker 1>start as if you're brand new from the very beginning.
<v Speaker 1>Follow it as written, pick a plan, follow it, adjust it.
<v Speaker 2>You know.
<v Speaker 1>I would probably start with a rip off the band
<v Speaker 1>aid approach, since you sound like you've kind of been
<v Speaker 1>doing some fasting, but if you want to start with
<v Speaker 1>the one that's in the middle, then do that. You
<v Speaker 1>can always ramp it up a little bit more as
<v Speaker 1>the weeks go by, but take the time to reflect,
<v Speaker 1>just as as it asks you to do in the book,
<v Speaker 1>stay off the scale for those twenty eight days, and
<v Speaker 1>then really just focus on getting back into the routine
<v Speaker 1>that you know you enjoy. Now. You talked about that
<v Speaker 1>you were having some confusion about foods, like what foods
<v Speaker 1>are doing the best for you physically, mentally and health wise.
<v Speaker 1>And that is one reason why I have developed to
<v Speaker 1>Eat Like a grown Up program, so you can look
<v Speaker 1>for that. And the thing about the Eat Like a
<v Speaker 1>grown Up Program is that it teaches you to choose
<v Speaker 1>healthy foods, but you're not like doing everything all at once.
<v Speaker 1>I would wait till after you go through the twenty
<v Speaker 1>eight day fast start day by day. Definitely wait for that.
<v Speaker 1>But if you go to app dot Fastfeast repeat dot com,
<v Speaker 1>you can read more about the Eat Like a grown
<v Speaker 1>Up Program app dot Fast Feast repeat dot com. Read
<v Speaker 1>about it there. But really just to you know, summarize
<v Speaker 1>and simplify real food. That's what we're looking for. Real food.
<v Speaker 1>Food that you can prepare at home using real ingredients,
<v Speaker 1>high quality food, fewer ultra processed foods. That's going to
<v Speaker 1>be best for everybody mentally, physically, and health wise. Choosing
<v Speaker 1>the real foods so that you feel great after you
<v Speaker 1>eat them, Foods that your great great great great grandparents
<v Speaker 1>would recognize as foods. You know, if you've gotten into
<v Speaker 1>the habit of you know, desserts or snacks or ice
<v Speaker 1>cream or chips or you know, fill in the blank
<v Speaker 1>chocolate desserts package, a lot of packaged convenience foods, those
<v Speaker 1>are not going to be the foods that are best physically, mentally,
<v Speaker 1>or healthwise for any of us. In The closer to
<v Speaker 1>real foods, the better.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, And I a couple of things, like she doesn't
<v Speaker 2>say what protocol she was using before, and then like
<v Speaker 2>so she just sent this in very recently, and she
<v Speaker 2>said in the past few months she started gaining way
<v Speaker 2>that she feels like she want to program a little bit,
<v Speaker 2>like I don't know if this could be leftover from
<v Speaker 2>like the holidays, maybe her windows got a little loose
<v Speaker 2>on the over the holidays to where it got to
<v Speaker 2>where fasting felt harder, right, which then made it more
<v Speaker 2>difficult to stick with your clean fasting. Maybe you started
<v Speaker 2>opening early. We see this happen a lot, you start
<v Speaker 2>to experience window creep, and once that happens, that's when
<v Speaker 2>fasting filled hard again, as if you were a new faster.
<v Speaker 2>And so really it just takes some dedication and diligence
<v Speaker 2>to get that window tightened back up to make sure
<v Speaker 2>you're absolutely clean fasting, focusing on your food quality, and
<v Speaker 2>then fasting will feel, you know, easier again. The fact
<v Speaker 2>that the weight just started coming back on means something changed.
<v Speaker 2>So I think it would really benefit you to think
<v Speaker 2>back about what changed, when did it change, so that
<v Speaker 2>you can kind of course correct as you do this
<v Speaker 2>twenty eight day fast start day by day sort of refresh.
<v Speaker 2>And then the last thing I just wanted to say was,
<v Speaker 2>you know, if you were doing, like say before you
<v Speaker 2>were trying to do like six seven eight hour eating
<v Speaker 2>windows and so maybe initially you lost weight doing that,
<v Speaker 2>but then you said you were like in a standstill
<v Speaker 2>for a year and a half, So that means at
<v Speaker 2>some point during that year and a half a tweak
<v Speaker 2>was likely in order. And if you didn't start tweaking,
<v Speaker 2>then what that tells me is whatever you were doing
<v Speaker 2>initially is not a sustainable weight loss program for you.
<v Speaker 2>So as you go through the twenty eight day fast
<v Speaker 2>Start day by daybook and you start shortening up your
<v Speaker 2>eating window, you know, just go into it with a
<v Speaker 2>mindset that you may you're like, your daily eating window
<v Speaker 2>approach may look different this time around than what you
<v Speaker 2>were doing before.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, those are really good points. Yes, I agree with
<v Speaker 1>everything that you said. All right, we have a question
<v Speaker 1>from Laura from York in the UK hygien and Sherry.
<v Speaker 1>I hope you are both well. I started my IF
<v Speaker 1>lifestyle in January of twenty twenty four. It really suits
<v Speaker 1>me and I can't imagine ever again eating and snacking
<v Speaker 1>for most of the daylight hours. An eating window of
<v Speaker 1>four to six hours a day is my new norm.
<v Speaker 1>I began intermittent fasting purely for health improvements and recognized benefits.
<v Speaker 1>Some have been quite bizarre early on. I have never
<v Speaker 1>had a weight problem, but my leaner body, especially around
<v Speaker 1>my middle, I feel is such a reward and both
<v Speaker 1>aspects have motivated me to make this part of my life.
<v Speaker 1>Oh by the way, I'm sixty one, five foot four
<v Speaker 1>inches weighing one hundred and thirty one pounds at the
<v Speaker 1>start and now one hundred and twenty two pounds, which
<v Speaker 1>I'm more than happy with. My frustration slash question is
<v Speaker 1>that I am prescribed trospium hydrochloride.
<v Speaker 2>Is that right?
<v Speaker 1>Sheret?
<v Speaker 2>I say it right, Hi, that sounds quite enough.
<v Speaker 1>I would say it for an overactive bladder, a rare
<v Speaker 1>neurological condition. And I take sixty milligrams daily. I have
<v Speaker 1>read delayed on Tonight, Fast Feast Repeat, and I am
<v Speaker 1>on week seventeen of the Eat like a grown up program,
<v Speaker 1>which I am taking pretty seriously. And I'm now trying
<v Speaker 1>to introduce new fruits and vegetables for those fabulous gut guys.
<v Speaker 1>But I googled the effect of trispium on the microbiome
<v Speaker 1>and certainly didn't like the answer. It probably means death
<v Speaker 1>to some of the hard working gut guys and a
<v Speaker 1>slowing down of most, if not all, of the remaining microbiome.
<v Speaker 1>Despite being a retired dentist and therefore having a medical background,
<v Speaker 1>I rely on Gin's research so much and hang onto
<v Speaker 1>her every word. She's a wonderful teacher and teaches with
<v Speaker 1>so much relevance to how our bodies function. I was
<v Speaker 1>at university around the same time as Professor Tim Specter,
<v Speaker 1>who was also taught about the toxic bacteria living in
<v Speaker 1>our guts. I think there was an hour's lecture on
<v Speaker 1>nutrition in the five years I was at university. I
<v Speaker 1>find that in the US the medical doctors sound very
<v Speaker 1>thorough and I hear you both speaking of blood tests
<v Speaker 1>that just aren't even available in the UK, certainly not
<v Speaker 1>on the NHS. Do you think it's reasonable to seek
<v Speaker 1>a natural alternative to maintaining bladder control rather than taking
<v Speaker 1>the chemical medication with its rubbish effect on healthy bodily functions,
<v Speaker 1>especially the microbiota. It feels like a battle I'll never
<v Speaker 1>win if I continue with this medication. Anyhow, I can't
<v Speaker 1>thank you both enough. Life changers for sure, kind regards, Laura.
<v Speaker 2>Well, Laura, I do know, just because I have a
<v Speaker 2>lot of coaching clients in the UK, that there are
<v Speaker 2>things that you are not routinely tested for, like lab
<v Speaker 2>work over there, that we are sort of routinely tested
<v Speaker 2>for a lot in the United States. And you know
<v Speaker 2>one of those things is vitamin D. And I learned
<v Speaker 2>that low vitamin D is linked to an overactive bladder.
<v Speaker 2>So I wonder if you can't get your vitamin D
<v Speaker 2>level checked to see if that could potentially be an issue,
<v Speaker 2>and if you know, getting your vitamin D levels up
<v Speaker 2>might be beneficial. You know. As to whether or not
<v Speaker 2>you want to stop the medication and try a more
<v Speaker 2>natural approach, you know, that's completely up to you and
<v Speaker 2>your choice. You know, your body. I think it's really
<v Speaker 2>wise to think about your gut, you know, for long
<v Speaker 2>term health and immunity. Low magnesium is also linked to
<v Speaker 2>overactive bladder. So if you are not taking a quality
<v Speaker 2>magnesium supplement, that might be something you would like to
<v Speaker 2>look into. And then there are a few other herbal
<v Speaker 2>treatments that can be beneficial and helpful, such as cap
<v Speaker 2>sasan pumpkin seed extract, saw healmetto, bromelaine, and corn silk.
<v Speaker 2>Then there's things you can do like acupuncture, pelvic floor therapy,
<v Speaker 2>you know, estradile vaginal inserts, and avoiding bladder irritants such
<v Speaker 2>as city foods, coffee, stuff like that. So I did
<v Speaker 2>find some links about treating over active ladder, you know, naturally,
<v Speaker 2>and so I've put those in the show notes. If
<v Speaker 2>you go to the show notes for today's episode, there'll
<v Speaker 2>be some links there that you can explore and you know,
<v Speaker 2>see if you can come up with something that can
<v Speaker 2>help you.
<v Speaker 1>Awesome. That was great information.
<v Speaker 2>All right, well, we have one quick question from Stacy
<v Speaker 2>and North Dakota. She said, I just started pasting two
<v Speaker 2>weeks ago, and I hope to lose about ten pounds.
<v Speaker 2>I'm confused because everyone on the podcast interviews say how
<v Speaker 2>helpful the Facebook group posts are and the chats are,
<v Speaker 2>but everything that I see, the chat and comments are disabled.
<v Speaker 1>That is a great question, Stacy, and it has to
<v Speaker 1>do with the way that podcasts are permanent and even
<v Speaker 1>when things change, and you know, we start started it
<v Speaker 1>off with I mentioned it earlier in this episode. The
<v Speaker 1>first Facebook group I opened, I opened it in August
<v Speaker 1>of twenty fifteen, so we're now way past that. But
<v Speaker 1>we had those Facebook groups that went on from twenty
<v Speaker 1>fifteen until we left Facebook in twenty twenty one. So
<v Speaker 1>we've actually been off of Facebook for five years and
<v Speaker 1>we have a community off of Facebook, and people that
<v Speaker 1>have been around a really long time or we have
<v Speaker 1>listened the whole way through, they know they know why.
<v Speaker 1>By the time we left Facebook, we had combined totals
<v Speaker 1>in the Facebook groups of almost half a million members.
<v Speaker 1>It was all consuming, and anything that went on in
<v Speaker 1>the groups, I mean, I obviously I can't. I couldn't
<v Speaker 1>be everywhere with five hundred I coudn't even see all
<v Speaker 1>the posts. I couldn't see them all. I couldn't interact
<v Speaker 1>with all of them. We were having We had post
<v Speaker 1>approval turned on, and then just the delayed on de
<v Speaker 1>Night group alone, the one larger group, we had over
<v Speaker 1>a thousand posts a day, and then people would get
<v Speaker 1>mad at stuff that happened, like we couldn't win. It
<v Speaker 1>was just kind of like all the time we were handling.
<v Speaker 2>Problems, we were drowning.
<v Speaker 1>We were drowning. I couldn't relax. I would wake up
<v Speaker 1>in the morning to a nightmare that had happened overnight,
<v Speaker 1>and then people would blame me. Something happened one time
<v Speaker 1>while I was sleeping. I wasn't even aware of it,
<v Speaker 1>and someone went and left some really awful reviews on
<v Speaker 1>my books on Amazon based on what had happened, and
<v Speaker 1>I wasn't even awake when it happened. So I was like,
<v Speaker 1>this is not helping me at all, this is ruining
<v Speaker 1>my life and I can't even have.
<v Speaker 2>Nothing to do with fasting, right, So it was like
<v Speaker 2>a personal disagreement between people in the community.
<v Speaker 1>Is politics, yes, something politics and so so you know
<v Speaker 1>how Facebook can be. So anyway, we left Facebook in
<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty one and we haven't looked back. So we're
<v Speaker 1>looking to connect with a fantastic, helpful community. It is
<v Speaker 1>no longer on Facebook. It hasn't been for five years,
<v Speaker 1>over five years now. If you go to Jen Stevens
<v Speaker 1>dot com slash community you can find it. I made
<v Speaker 1>it very affordable on purpose. It's nine to ninety nine
<v Speaker 1>a month. I mean, you just don't drink your lattes
<v Speaker 1>anymore from Starbucks. You're saving that so and there's the
<v Speaker 1>meals that you're not eating. So I haven't ever raised
<v Speaker 1>the price since we started.
<v Speaker 2>There's a link in our show notes.
<v Speaker 1>I have yet link in the show notes every week,
<v Speaker 1>or you can join for the year for fifty nine
<v Speaker 1>to ninety nine. It's like like five bucks a month
<v Speaker 1>if you join for the annual subscription. And so I
<v Speaker 1>wanted it to be affordable enough that anybody who wanted
<v Speaker 1>to join could afford it. But turns out nine to
<v Speaker 1>ninety nine a month. Is the keeps out people who
<v Speaker 1>are not serious about coming to a supportive environment. We
<v Speaker 1>have a wonderful, supportive community and it is the place
<v Speaker 1>to be. Funny story, Sherry, remember when we when we
<v Speaker 1>did it, we had the Life Lessons Community Facebook group
<v Speaker 1>at the same time, and I can remember we didn't
<v Speaker 1>close that one down because the podcast was still going
<v Speaker 1>on and it was a different kind of vibe. But
<v Speaker 1>somebody made some comment. You showed it to me. They're like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>she'll be back about me talking about me leaving face.
<v Speaker 2>Do you remember that.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, She's like, oh she'll be back. People leave Facebook
<v Speaker 1>all the time, but they always come back. No one
<v Speaker 1>can make a private community work. Congratulations for being wrong.
<v Speaker 1>We have a great private community and it has been
<v Speaker 1>so worth it. And what I didn't think about when
<v Speaker 1>we left Facebook, I didn't even it didn't even cross
<v Speaker 1>my mind. I just thought about, Oh, no, we're leaving
<v Speaker 1>all these people, what's going to happen. There are a
<v Speaker 1>lot of people who are not on Facebook that are
<v Speaker 1>awesome people. My sister is not on Facebook.
<v Speaker 2>You know.
<v Speaker 1>There's someone in our community named Michelle who we love.
<v Speaker 1>She's a very important member of our community. She's never
<v Speaker 1>been on Facebook. So when all we had was face
<v Speaker 1>people who like for whatever reason, don't join Facebook, and
<v Speaker 1>people have their reasons, they're valid reasons, we were including
<v Speaker 1>all of those people. So yeah, the problem community has
<v Speaker 1>worked out so well.
<v Speaker 2>I want to say too. One of my coaching clients,
<v Speaker 2>I was like, you're a community, right, because I kind
<v Speaker 2>of recognized her name, and she said, yeah, but I
<v Speaker 2>don't ever post there. And so when I asked her why,
<v Speaker 2>she said that she's just not comfortable posting personal information
<v Speaker 2>about herself online. And I said, then change your profile
<v Speaker 2>and don't put your name on it, right, I said,
<v Speaker 2>pick any name, Princess Petunia. I don't, it doesn't matter, Like,
<v Speaker 2>pick a different name. I said, would that make you
<v Speaker 2>feel more comfortable posting if your real name wasn't attached
<v Speaker 2>to it? And she said, yeah, yeah, I didn't know.
<v Speaker 2>I didn't know I could do that.
<v Speaker 1>You can do it, and you can also like start
<v Speaker 1>a new email address for this, Like Google will let
<v Speaker 1>you create an email address Princess Petunia at Google dot com,
<v Speaker 1>and so you can sign up with a different email
<v Speaker 1>that you create just for it. That's a really good idea, Shorey,
<v Speaker 1>we do have a lot of people who you'd use
<v Speaker 1>aliases because they feel more safe than we have a
<v Speaker 1>lot of people who don't. Like a lot of people
<v Speaker 1>use their real name, right, I mean. But it's also
<v Speaker 1>really really different because only members can see what you
<v Speaker 1>post exactly. You have to get from a community and
<v Speaker 1>see it accidentally see it, right, Yeah, unless they join
<v Speaker 1>the community too, right, that could happen.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, yeah, So if you're we want you, if
<v Speaker 2>you're in the community now and you're listening and you're like,
<v Speaker 2>I don't post a lot because I'm not comfortable sharing,
<v Speaker 2>you know, personal details about myself, go anonymous, change your
<v Speaker 2>name in the community. Go to your profile, change your name,
<v Speaker 2>and I guarantee you this is the most judgment free zone.
<v Speaker 2>But if you are concerned about privacy for whatever reason,
<v Speaker 2>just go in, change your name, put some other profile
<v Speaker 2>picture besides your picture up there. I promise you that
<v Speaker 2>the more you post and the more you use the community,
<v Speaker 2>the more we learn who you are, what you're doing,
<v Speaker 2>what your struggles are, and we can custom tailor advice
<v Speaker 2>when we when you're actually posting and asking questions and
<v Speaker 2>asking for support.
<v Speaker 1>Yeap, And we're not just going to tell you what
<v Speaker 1>you want to hear, though, three times in a row
<v Speaker 1>this morning, I gave people advice. And Chris and I
<v Speaker 1>were having coffee this morning and I said, I did
<v Speaker 1>the three people. I've just gave them some tough love advice.
<v Speaker 1>He said, is it tough love Tuesday. I'm like, well, no,
<v Speaker 1>it's Wednesday. But it just you know, I'm not going
<v Speaker 1>to tell you all the time what you want to hear. Ye,
<v Speaker 1>no teacher is going to do that, and so you know,
<v Speaker 1>we're going to tell you what we think you need
<v Speaker 1>to know. So we we we love what we do
<v Speaker 1>and we love the community. And again, it is a
<v Speaker 1>judgment free zone. But because I guarantee whatever you're struggling with,
<v Speaker 1>whatever it is, you think it's weird and you're the
<v Speaker 1>only one you're not exactly And you know, funny, funny story.
<v Speaker 1>You know how I talked a few weeks ago about
<v Speaker 1>how Chris burps when he's flipping the switch, and I'd
<v Speaker 1>never heard of that. Do you know how many people
<v Speaker 1>more than two people? Was it more than two? Probably
<v Speaker 1>like five have now said in the community other, God,
<v Speaker 1>that's me too, I did.
<v Speaker 2>That's so funny.
<v Speaker 1>So you may think that whatever you're doing is weird.
<v Speaker 1>It is not. Someone else is going through it, and
<v Speaker 1>it's when we talk about it that we can then,
<v Speaker 1>you know, like menopause is just one example. Our parents
<v Speaker 1>didn't talk about it, their mothers didn't talk about it,
<v Speaker 1>and now suddenly our generation is talking about it, and
<v Speaker 1>so we realize what struggles have been. And you know,
<v Speaker 1>my mother didn't talk about it. When I asked her
<v Speaker 1>about it, she's like, I don't know, I don't remember.
<v Speaker 2>Hm.
<v Speaker 1>So let's talk about the things that you are not
<v Speaker 1>going through alone. You just only think you are. And
<v Speaker 1>it's not weird, we promise.
<v Speaker 2>Well, and you have the whole hive mind right right,
<v Speaker 2>So if you're struggling with something, you can't make something work,
<v Speaker 2>you're having a strategy issue, you're having a mindset issue.
<v Speaker 2>You've got you know, however, many people that come through
<v Speaker 2>the community of the day that read your posts, that
<v Speaker 2>can offer you a suggestion or hey, I went through that,
<v Speaker 2>this is what I did, and it becomes a sounding
<v Speaker 2>board and you know, our community members they come up
<v Speaker 2>with fantastic solutions and ideas.
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, it's true. So again that's Jen Stevens dot
<v Speaker 1>com slash community Stevens is with a pH. Jen is
<v Speaker 1>like Jen and Tonic.
<v Speaker 2>All right, Well, before we get to this week of
<v Speaker 2>the week, I just wanted to share a recommendation for
<v Speaker 2>my coaching that one of my monthly coaching clients, Jenny
<v Speaker 2>from the Isle of Man, wrote last week in the
<v Speaker 2>DDD community. She said, I would like to take a
<v Speaker 2>moment to share my incredible experience over the past four
<v Speaker 2>weeks of coaching with Sherry. I began my fasting journey
<v Speaker 2>primarily for weight loss, but it has evolved into something
<v Speaker 2>much deeper. Achieving a healthy weight is crucial for me.
<v Speaker 2>I started this journey at two hundred and thirty five
<v Speaker 2>pounds and I aim to reach one hundred and seventy
<v Speaker 2>pounds now at five foot ten and forty seven years
<v Speaker 2>of age. I've made progress, but I kept hitting a
<v Speaker 2>plateau and I kept returning to two hundred and thirteen pounds.
<v Speaker 2>Feeling frustrated, I reached out to Sherry for guidance and
<v Speaker 2>here's what I've gained from our sessions personal insight. Sherry
<v Speaker 2>helped me understand my body better, especially how I feel
<v Speaker 2>during my fasting and eating windows. This has been a
<v Speaker 2>game changer. Daily weigh ins. I was encouraged to weigh
<v Speaker 2>myself daily and track my weekly average. Guess what, over
<v Speaker 2>the four weeks, I've gone from a weekly average of
<v Speaker 2>two hundred and thirteen pounds to two hundred and six pounds.
<v Speaker 2>Improved sleep. I learned how to enhance my sleep quality,
<v Speaker 2>especially with my hormonal issues. We worked on strategies to
<v Speaker 2>balance my blood glucose, which has made a noticeable difference.
<v Speaker 2>Shift friendly eating since I work shifts at the hospital's
<v Speaker 2>share help me figure out how to adapt my eating
<v Speaker 2>window around my schedule, including how I might manage my
<v Speaker 2>upcoming night shifts. Over All, these four weeks have been transformative.
<v Speaker 2>I cannot stress enough how valuable it is to focus
<v Speaker 2>on your eating window rather than just counting your fasting hours.
<v Speaker 2>If you're feeling stuck or you need extra support, I
<v Speaker 2>highly recommend reaching out to Sherry. She has been an
<v Speaker 2>incredible resource. So I was so pleased. We finished up
<v Speaker 2>our monthly coaching last Thursday, and I think it was
<v Speaker 2>the next day that she wrote this, and it just
<v Speaker 2>made me really happy to see that the work we
<v Speaker 2>did has really made such a positive difference for her. So,
<v Speaker 2>if you're feeling stuck, or you need some extra support,
<v Speaker 2>please reach out. I would love to help you as well.
<v Speaker 2>Together we can work through your personal struggles or just
<v Speaker 2>troubleshoot what might be holding you back from the lifestyle
<v Speaker 2>and the results that you desire. You can visit Fastbeastrepeat
<v Speaker 2>dot com slash coaching to learn more, or just email
<v Speaker 2>me at Shry at Fastbeasrepeat dot com. Shary is sh
<v Speaker 2>e r I.
<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 Fresh Start
<v Speaker 1>in Victoria, BC, Canada. I used to find it hard
<v Speaker 1>to stop eating once i'd started, and hard to close
<v Speaker 1>my window. Then I started listening to your podcast while
<v Speaker 1>I worked on a puzzle in the living room. I
<v Speaker 1>love this combination of activities in the evening, puzzle and podcast,
<v Speaker 1>and I found myself looking forward to closing my windows
<v Speaker 1>that I could go and do that. I realized later
<v Speaker 1>while reading Atomic Habits that I had done something. He recommends,
<v Speaker 1>I made my desired habit closing my window attractive by
<v Speaker 1>combining it with something non food related that I really enjoy.
<v Speaker 1>I love that.
<v Speaker 2>I love that too. All right, well, we love to
<v Speaker 2>leave you with an inspirational or emotional message to carry
<v Speaker 2>you through the next week and this week. We have
<v Speaker 2>a favorite quote shared by s K in Australia. It
<v Speaker 2>is well, it's actually a poem, I said quote. It's
<v Speaker 2>a poem. It's called keep Going by Edgar Guest. The
<v Speaker 2>poem is when things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
<v Speaker 2>and the road you're trudging seems all uphill, when the
<v Speaker 2>funds are low and the debts are high, and you
<v Speaker 2>want to smile, but you have to sigh when ker
<v Speaker 2>is pressing you down. A bit. Rest if you must,
<v Speaker 2>but don't you quit. Life is queer with his twists
<v Speaker 2>and turns, as every one of us sometimes learns, and
<v Speaker 2>many a failure turns about when he might have won
<v Speaker 2>had he stuck it out. Don't give up. Though the
<v Speaker 2>pace seems slow, you may succeed with another blow. Often
<v Speaker 2>the goal is nearer than it seems to a faint
<v Speaker 2>and faltering man. Often the struggler has given up when
<v Speaker 2>he might have captured the victor's cup, and he learned
<v Speaker 2>too late, when the night slipped down, how close he
<v Speaker 2>was to the golden crown. Success is failure turned inside out,
<v Speaker 2>the silver tint of the clouds of doubt, and you
<v Speaker 2>can never tell how close you are. It may be
<v Speaker 2>near when it seems afar, So stick to the fight
<v Speaker 2>when your heart is hit. It's when things seem worse
<v Speaker 2>that you mustn't quit, And she wrote on to write
<v Speaker 2>this poem has been one of my favorites since I
<v Speaker 2>was young, and as I reflect on it now as
<v Speaker 2>an adult, I realize how deeply it applies to every
<v Speaker 2>stage of life. Its powerful message reminds us that life
<v Speaker 2>will be hard at times, there will be setbacks, and
<v Speaker 2>things won't always go to plan. The will moments when
<v Speaker 2>we feel tired, discouraged, and unsure of the path ahead.
<v Speaker 2>But it also reminds us that pain is temporary and
<v Speaker 2>struggles are part of our growth. They become part of
<v Speaker 2>our story, but they do not define who we are.
<v Speaker 2>We must never give up on ourselves, because we are
<v Speaker 2>capable of great things. When we believe in who we
<v Speaker 2>are and what we can achieve. It's okay to pause,
<v Speaker 2>It's okay to rest, It's okay to fail, and to
<v Speaker 2>find the strength to rise again. But never give up dreaming,
<v Speaker 2>never give up believing, and never stop striving for the
<v Speaker 2>happiness you truly deserve. And often when we share something
<v Speaker 2>really meaningful like that, people will reach out asking for
<v Speaker 2>a copy of it. So I was able to find
<v Speaker 2>a copy of this online and I've linked it in
<v Speaker 2>show notes for this episode in case you would like
<v Speaker 2>to look it up and save it.
<v Speaker 1>Awesome. Thank you for doing that. Thanks so much for
<v Speaker 1>listening today. We would love to have you join us
<v Speaker 1>in the Delayed On Tonight community, where you can interact
<v Speaker 1>with both me and Sherry, plus the most supportive bunch
<v Speaker 1>of intermittent fasters you'll find anywhere. Go to Jenstevens dot
<v Speaker 1>com slash community to join us.
<v Speaker 2>Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast to your favorite
<v Speaker 2>podcast app, and if you haven't already, please leave us
<v Speaker 2>a five star review that helps new listeners find the
<v Speaker 2>show and we really appreciate it.
<v Speaker 1>We are a community driven podcast, so to submit your
<v Speaker 1>success stories, your questions, your favorite tweak it till It's Easy, moments,
<v Speaker 1>or anything else you want us to share on the podcast,
<v Speaker 1>go to fast fee Repeat dot com slash submit and
<v Speaker 1>then listen each week to see if we share your
<v Speaker 1>submission or answer your question.
<v Speaker 2>Until next week. Thanks for listening.