Episode 14: Fasting Celebrations, Structuring Your Eating Window, Colonoscopy Prep, and More

Welcome to Fast Feast Repeat Intermitten Fasting for Life. I'm Jen Stevens, author
of the New York Times bestseller Fast Feast Repeat, and I'm Sherry Bullock,
longtime Intermitten Faster and health and wellness advocate. Please keep in mind that this
podcast is for educational and motivational purposes only and is not intended to provide medical
or diagnostic advice. Jen and I are not doctors, so make sure to
check with your trust and healthcare professionals before making changes, especially when it comes
to any medical treatments or medications. Whether you're new to Intermitten fasting or an
experienced Intermitten Faster, or tune in each week to get inspired, to learn,
and to have some fun along the way. Hi, everybody, we
are so glad you're here today. Welcome to this week's episode of the Fast
Feast Repeat, Intermitten Fasting for Life Podcast. How are you doing today's Sherry,
I'm doing great. I'm all messed up. Oh you can guess,
yes it is. I don't even know what it is. It's Wednesday.
We went to San Francisco. You know how I am with my routine and
my sleeping and all of that, and so three hour time difference. Then
we took the red eye coming back. Yeah, I was so surprised when
you said you were doing that. Both Chad and I agreed we would do
it again because of you know, the way it worked out, the way
the flights were. We either could get up really really early and leave,
meaning going to the airport at four am, or just go ahead and stay
away all the time. That's what we decided to do and leave a day
earlier, so we got the full day there. But then we just flew
all night. But I slept for ten hours that first night we were back
home. After we got home, so I woke up after ten hours straight
through, and I'm like, I fixed it. It's all better. Said.
Then last night I went to bed at my normal time. Wrong,
not fixed. I couldn't go to sleep to save my life. So I
tossed and turned for the first you know a couple of hours. But then
I once I fell asleep, I was stayed to sleep. But were you
able to sleep at all on the plane? You know? I packed my
progesterone in my bioptimizer's magnesium and so as soon as we got on the plane,
I popped it, and I took it right then, and so I
did some twilight in and out, Like I woke up when we got on
it like eleven PM or something. So I woke up when the snack cart
came by and Chad ordered black coffee. IM like, why are you drinking
black coffee in the middle of the night. They should offer a snack cart
on the Red Eye, Well they did. I mean, maybe people don't
want to sleep on the plane, I guess. But anyway, I think
I had like a twenty four hour eating window. How long was the fight
from San Francisco to Atlanta? Just over four hours? Then we had two
and a half hours in Atlanta, and then we came back home. But
literally, like I said, I think I had a twenty four hour eating
window because calin Cake cooked dinner for us that last day, which was a
Sunday. So here's the flexibility of intermittent fasting and not beating yourselves up and
listening to your body. So they cooked dinner for us at their new condo,
which was so cute to everything by walking, and by close, I
mean we walked like ten miles a day, so wow, everything is close
in that regards. They're close to trains it, but we ate dinner that
they cooked for us, then the early ish kind of dinner. Then the
uber picked us up at eight pm to take us to the airport. And
then while we're waiting for our plane, I was legitimately hungry again. It
was like ten PM, and I'm like, I'm really hungry because it had
been several hours in this dinner and I'm like, I don't want to be
miserable on this plane all night long. So we got like this little Portabello
mushroom rap that this little place that was open, and we split it and
then I was able to sleep. And then when we got to Atlanta,
I was like, now I am super starving because apparently sleeping through my fast
it really makes a difference. So I was so hungry share you already know
this. We found a restaurant cat Cora's Southern Kitchen, and I had the
best French toast I've ever had in my life. And that was where it
Cat Cora's. It was an ind Atlanta airport. Yes, I had never
eaten there, but I'd seen it an times. So like basically I ate
like every six hours around o'clock for that twenty four hour period, but that
French toast was so good, and then we by the time we were done,
we had to go to a different terminal in Atlanta. By the time
we got there was time to go and then we got home and I had
dinner that night, so I never really closed, but I didn't just eat
NonStop. But well, lack of sleep really does make you hungry. I
was hungry. I was hungry at ten whatever pm after that dinner, and
then I was hungry at eight in the morning Atlanta time. I was legit
hungry, and I feel zero gilt. But the very next day, which
was yesterday, I waited to my normal window time and opened. It was
no big deal. I get it. You know. I worked nights,
and so I usually closed my eating window around midnight at one am. But
when I get off work at seven o'clock in the morning and I'm driving home,
I'm usually starving by eight am. And I could easily convince myself I
needed breakfast every single Monday morning. And sometimes I just don't want to fight
it, and I'll have breakfast, but it's far and few between. But
I mean, like this Monday, I could have easily eaten a full meal
when I got home from work Monday morning. But I just have to push
my I'm just like, no, share, You're fine, You're just normally
asleep at this point, not awake, you know. Like for some reason,
about eight hours after I closed my window is when I'm really hungry.
That's why a morning window would just not work for me. Dittoh yeah,
because I would be starving. But you know, I felt no guilt.
I did what I wanted to do. We fasted every day while we were
there, Chad and I both did, but we generally ate like two smaller
meals. Kind of the way it worked out because calin Kater eating all the
time because they eat all the meals plus snacks. So we were so out
of whack with our normal schedule that opening with lunch is kind of like waiting
till dinner practically, you know here. So it worked out really, really
well. And I never felt overstuffed, not one time. And oh my
god, I have to tell you something. Self driving cars exist already.
I had no idea, Sherry. We're walking down the road and we're walking
down the sidewalk and Cal said, oh, look there's one of those self
driving cars. There's no one driving it. I'm like, what, Yes,
Sanford, this is not made up. There are self driving cars that
you can call like an uber, but they're not Uber. They're called they're
two companies that are doing it in San Francisco. You call them, you
have to like be on some list, but cal is not on the list
and on the waiting list. But if you're on the list, you call
it like you're calling an uber. It navigates to where you are, you
get in it, no one is driving it, and then it drives you
where you're going without a driver. Oh my gosh, this is crazy,
I know. But and sometimes they do have someone driving or someone sitting in
the driver's seat, but they're not actually driving it. They're just sitting there
but they're not doing it. But we saw some go by with nobody in
the driver's seat. So it's like, I don't know how many of them
have people sitting there and how many don't. It might depend on time of
day. I'm not really sure. But they have all this weird equipment on
the top. I think it's like radar, so it's more than just I'm
sure it's like totally sensing people in the street. Yeah, so many things
It sounds crazy, but it's probably safer than a regular driver. But it's
happening. It's real. And I just had to tell you that because every
time I saw one, I'm like, Okay, someone in that one or
not? And like one one bought with no one in it, like literally
no one was writing in it, no one was driving it. It was
just going by itself on the major city streets. Yeah, we've arrived.
It's the future. That wow, goodness, all right, I had no
idea. I didn't either. I's like that's not true, and I was
like, no, look look at it. I'm like, well, all
right, I'm not gonna be calling one of those anytime soon, but they're
coming if they're in San Francisco. Because I remember the first time I wrote
in the uber, it was twenty fifteen. I was in San Francisco.
Said that sounds wacky, and it's everywhere. Now that's everywhere. Yeah,
has arrived. Okay, Well, I'm still waiting on Rosie the Robot,
so I'll be excited when that happens. Yep. And now it's time for
our weekly celebration. And today I have several victories that Jen and I are
going to share from some listeners. So Cynthia from Tennessee. She shared,
I am not afraid of food. I lost ten pounds. I have more
energy and strength when working out with weights. I feel at peace when thinking
of the twenty four pounds I have left to lose. See the peace and
the freedom, that's the thing. And you know, Chad, who's never
dieted, doesn't understand the whole idea about being afraid of food. You and
I get it, the listeners get it. Chad doesn't get it. He's
never been afraid of food. Well, I don't know if it's so much
afraid of food. It's lack of confidence in your body and how that food
is going to affect the scale and your body. And I really do think
it's fear of food for some people, Like this food is bad, this
food is well. I mean there is that too, to mean, that's
kind of a separate issue that falls into sort of that orthorexia thing, and
that's that whole food noise about, like don't eat that food, it's not
healthy. But literally, there's a side to every there's a pro and con
to every food, and then there's the opposite. Like you can find a
pro or con for every food. Well, you remember probably what book was
it in that I wrote it in either Cleanish or Feast Without Fear. About
Chad and I driving in the car and we played a game. I'm like,
name of food and I'll tell you someone who says you shouldn't eat that.
Yeah, literally every food. I could tell you the diet book or
the expert that tells you that food is not meant to be eaten by humans.
Literally every food it is. It's from vegetables to beans to day every
food. Yeah, and it blows my mind. Like the people there are
people who think you should not eat beans, that beans are like terrible for
you, destroying your health, destroying your gut. People think that, And
yet you look at people who study longevity, and the longest living people in
the world ate mostly beans. So I'm like, how does that hive?
If they're destroying our health, why do these people live so long? How
much longer could they have lived? But anyway, you know, I'm not
afraid of beans. Well, and then they're more energy and strengthen working.
That waits people think, oh, I'm not going to eat gonna be low
on energy, or I'm not going to have the ability to work out,
and that's so not true. People learn that and they're always shocked when they're
like, I did my first fast and workout and it was amazing. Well,
we don't think about how much energy digestion takes and if your body is
busy doing that. We all know the Thanksgiving Day nap feeling and everybody's like,
oh, it's the turkey. No, it's because you ate a whole
lot of food and your body had to digest all of it. Even if
you didn't eat any turkey at all, if you just had everything else,
you would still have to nap from that sluggishness if you overrate. So I
love that, Cynthia all right. Maria from Brooklyn shared that she has completed
twenty weeks of alternate daily fasting mostly four three, and she's lost twenty pounds
for a total of forty. She said she loves the mental clarity and the
soaring energy and yeah, that's just right. Twenty pounds in twenty weeks.
And you know, some people mistakenly think that alternate daily fastening is going to
be accelerated rate of loss. And if you've been plateaued and you're using ADF
to boost your metabolism. The obviously, losing a pound a week is accelerated
compared to plateaud, but it doesn't mean like if you've been a pound a
week is still going to be a good substantial amount of loss. It's not
like, oh, you're fasting thirty six hours instead of nineteen, so you're
going to almost double your rate of weight loss. That's not exactly how it
works. So Kathy from Ohio, she shared that her GIRD is almost non
existent. She said, my anxiety and depression have improved so much that my
doctor is looking to reevaluate in August and start weaning me off the meds.
I also have mental clarity and calm, which is huge. There again,
is that mental clarity. We can't make this up. I know, for
anyone who doesn't know, GURD is reflux, and you know, we hear
that from a lot of people. They used to struggle with reflux or GIRD
and now they don't. But some people actually have the opposite. They'll be
like all of a sudden of star intermant and fastening and I'm all of a
sudden having reflux. You've seen that before, I'm sure, Sherry. So
Cathy noted that her reflux is almost non existent now that she's been doing intermitt
and fasting for a while. But sometimes we hear the opposite, right,
Sherry. We hear people who are new to intermant and fasting and all of
a sudden they're having reflux and they didn't really know they were having it before,
or it's gotten worse. And so that can happen when people Because you
need, reflux can be like mechanical, like imagine you're the flap on your
esophagus and the food presses up against it. So if you're used to eating
small meals all throughout the day and now you're eating one huge dinner at night
and then going straight to bed, just you know, gravity can cause problems.
So if you're someone who's new to interman and fastening, you all of
a sudden are having reflux. You need to think about backing your eating window
off of bedtime and not eating so much quite so close to bedtime. Well,
and I have two other thoughts too, and that is kind of spread
your window out, like kind of take more of a like, have a
snack pause, have your main course pause, sort of spread it out so
that your body has time to start digesting before you put it, like all
in it once. And then my other thought too, some people will say
they have some heartburn or reflux while fasting, that they've never had that before.
But the thing I want to remind people is like we love coffee,
We love black coffee, we drink black tea. Both of those things.
If you are sensitive to acid, can be hard on your stomach without food.
If you're prone to that. My father is a great example. He
will not participate in internet fasting no matter how much I talk to him about
it, because black coffee tears his stomach up. If he doesn't have food,
and he is convinced he has to have cream, YadA, YadA,
YadA, so he won't fast. So my suggestion is there are low acid
coffees out there. Delt your coffee you like, drink a cold brew.
It's also less acidic over ice. Sip it kind of across the morning instead
of downing a couple of cups all at one time. But play around with
your coffee itself. That can help. And then my other thought was baking
soda. People a lot of times don't know this, and they'll think that
they have to break their fast to take tums. You can actually take a
half a teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate or baking soda in about eight ounces of water
and drink it down and that really helps neutralize acid in your stomach, and
that does not break the fast. And one other wrinkle. Can you remember
I talked about how the flat from your esophagust your stomach. It's like a
mechanical kind of a thing, and sparkling water can exacerbate problem. You imagine,
you know, gas now it's in your stomach and it can affect that
flap. So if you notice that you're having increased issues while fasting and you're
pounding the sparkling water, you might not be able to really drink a lot
of sparkling water on an empty stomach. Just something to think about also too.
You know, as you start fasting and stuff, your gut microbiome is
healing, and sometimes as bad bacteria dies off, it can just make you
more gasy from both ends. So some people are like, I've never had
stomach issues, but you also didn't know what was going on your gut.
So if you've got bad gut microbio microbes like dying off, then that can
cause a little bit of an issue, but once you heal that then that
issue will go away, all right. Sharon from Cambridge in the UK says
I was diagnosed with hypertension earlier this year. My blood pressure has come down
since starting IF and I am not classified as hypertensive anymore. That is huge
and we hear that a lot. So we talked about on an earlier episode.
If you take blood pressure medication, you really need to monitor your blood
pressure because it's very very likely your dosage needs to be lowered over time.
If you start feeling dizzy you're lightheaded, don't say why am I dizzy and
lightheaded? Fast makes me lightheaded? No, it's probably your blood pressure.
You probably need a lower dose, all right. For Instead of one question
of the week, we have several questions regarding the eating window, and so
we thought we'd group them all together. People are asking about how and what
to eat and the idea of appetite correction. So Laurie in Longmont asks,
my main question is I don't know what to eat during my window. I
still have diet brain in that regard, so sometimes I'll do keto doing my
window, but then I get sick of it. I crave carbs, and
I binge and then I hear requirements for certain protein needs, But I don't
really love to eat that much meat. Should I eschew all the noise in
my head on what I quote should eat and just try eating what I want
in my window? Or would that be a disaster? How did you two
navigate what to eat in your window? Well? I will say that when
I first started, I was still very much in diet brain. But this
was before I met Jin, was before I even understood what all was happening
in my body while I was fasting. But once I switched to a nineteen
five, and I was firmly getting into fat burning every day, getting into
katstas every day, and I understood how that worked and how it wasn't all
about calories and it wasn't all about macros. I really just sort of left
all that food noise at the door, and I really just started re exploring
foods that I hadn't eaten for a long time. I started eating food that
I enjoyed, and to me, you know, balance is very important.
Do I eat everything that I want to eat in my window? No?
I do not. I mean, I still make smart choices, but I
no longer have you know rules, Like I didn't used to ever eat corn.
Corn corn. Yeah, there was like a crazy documentary about corn and
how I remember that corn to cattle and so why would you ever eat corn
unless you want to fatten yourself up? And I didn't eat corn. So
it was like I think a lot of it comes from understanding the science of
intermittent fasting, understanding what's going on in your body, and then that really
allows you to see that no food rule is going to make you healthy.
And you know, we're all wired so different, even Gin and I.
While we both experienced food freedom, we don't eat the same because we both
really listen to our bodies and we eat food that makes us feel great,
and that's not the same food for us. It's true when we are together
for a significant period of time, especially as like the when you were here
for your birthday, Sherry, and the week started to you know, go
on, we were like eating completely different things. We ordered a bunch of
advertisers and Sherry ate all of hers. I ate all of mine. I
didn't want her, she didn't want mine. I'm eating all the plant foods,
she's eating meat. I mean, I was craving, you know a
different thing, so and our bodies let us know. You know. Back
to your question, or it's interesting how you talked about You talked about carbs,
you talked about protein, You didn't talk about fat because for some reason
right now, fat has the halo on it, like there's no such thing
as eating too much fat, which also is not true. Fat is not
a free food. Our body stores it easily. But with all three of
those macro nutrients carbs, proteins, and fat, I could tell you a
diet book that tells you, let's just take carbs. For example, I
could name several diet books that tell you you should never eat any carbs at
all. But I could tell you several diet books that tell you your diet
should mostly be carbs. Same with protein. There's a book that I am
aware of from way back in the day that mostly protein is what you should
be eating. Then there's another one that says protein a holic, you should
not be eating so much protein and look and fat the same way, I
can send you to diet books that are like, you should eat a mostly
fat based diet, whereas other diet books mastering diabetes, for example, they
have a very low fat, high carb program, and every single one of
those books, there are people that follow it and get great results. There
are people who follow it and don't get great results. There are people who
feel great doing that, there are people who don't feel great doing that.
So when you really understand that every single dietary recommendation in a diet book written
by a diet author, let's put it that way, I'm not talking about
all the nutrition science and you know the research and pub med and all that,
but I'm talking about a diet book. It's going to tell you exactly
what to eat, how much of it should be protein or carbs or fat.
They were all written by somebody that is explaining the diet that made them
feel their best. Right. That is a personal opinion. It's not science.
Person. I'm not going to say there isn't some science. I mean
there's some science out there if you start digging in, there's some things we
really agree more than we disagree. You know, most nutrition scientists and science
researchers out there believe that eating plants is really really good for us, and
we should add more plants to our diets. And you know how much meat
or how much fat or how much protein. That will vary depending on who
you're talking to, but the vast majority of people who study science agreed with
that. Although there is the newer thought there are people who are eating only
meat and they feel great eating that way. And so, as Sherry talked
about it at the beginning, lean into how you feel and what feels good.
So, Laura, you mentioned that you crave carbs and binge. I
think part of the problem is how we define things. Like if you say
I crave carbs and I binge, I bet you're not binging on bananas and
broccoli and bulgar and bulgar weat exactly. And you know, I remember when
cal was at Georgia Tech and he was taking nutrition in science class and he's
like, Mama, broccoli is carbs and I'm like yeah. He's like,
I thought carbs were bad. I'm like no, it's just because we were
so confused. So, you know, he asks people, what do you
mean when you say I binge on carbs? They'll name things like potato chips
or pizza. Well, those are very high fat foods that also have carbs.
So what we binge on. I would like you to relabel things in
your head as instead of good and bad and as carbs and protein and fat.
Think about it is is this real food or is this fake food?
Is it ultra processed? And so the people who are like binging on carbs,
I guarantee they're binging on ultra processed foods that are probably also high and
fat. You like ice cream, you might say, I candied ice cream,
and I can't eat all those carbs. It's also really really high and
fat. So if you gravitate towards real foods and eat what makes you feel
great within the paradigm of real foods, your body will let you know.
You know, you said you don't love to eat that much meat. My
body doesn't love to eat much meat either. My body told me I do
not need to read somebody's diet book of how much meat I must be eating
every day and then try to force myself to follow it. Also, you
can gain fat from eating too much. You don't just eat the protein and
it sticks straight to your muscles. No, if you over eat protein,
you will gain fat from that. So anybody making you force anything like that,
don't listen to that. Listen to your own body. You know,
if you want to preserve muscle mass, work your muscles, eat the foods
that make you feel great. Don't follow someone else's guidelines of well, if
you're not eating X, y Z E grams of such and such. No,
No, I will never count another gram again as long as I live,
and I'm doing just fine well, and I think too. I recently
saw this really in depth. I can't remember. I've listened to and read
a lot of stuff about nutrition lately, and I can't remember which. I
don't know if it was a podcast or a book I was reading, but
they said a really good way to determine whether or not a like carb heavy
food is going to impact you negatively, like blood sugar wise, and you
know, they're simple. There's like quick acting carbs and they're slow acting carbs,
and really the difference is fiber. And so one of the things they
really said, you know, if you're looking at a food and you're trying
to decide is this going to help me stay full? Is this going to
prevent a blood sugar crash afterwards, is to kind of look at a five
to one ratio, So for every five grams of carbs, you should have
one gram of fiber and you know, if you go look at a box
of a bag of potato chips, you're not getting not really getting any fiber
there, nor with a cookie or you know that sort of thing. So
that really helps you, I think for a person who's just like, well,
I don't know what carbs are good or bad, take a look and
see how much fiber is in the you know, the carbohydrate of your choice.
Are just really real food or fake food? Is it real or fake?
A potato is real. A potato chip is not. How it came
from nature. Even a potato has fiber a whole potato. I've been you
know this, I've said it before. I've started watching YouTube, and YouTube
has great algorithms are like, oh, you're interested in food and nutrition,
so it's like serving me up and I just can't stop watching it. They're
like, oh, that one looks good. I'm like, Chad, I'll
be ready to cook dinner in a few minutes. That's showing me something else.
But anyway, satiety is being talked about everywhere now for any from diet
doctor on the low carb side to the plant based people. And I'm watching
all of it because I just like to learn. There's this one guy in
the plant based world, and he is, like, I love him.
He's like a big science nerd. You know, I like science nerd guys,
right it is. I'm not saying that in a mean way because I
know I'm married to one of them and anyhow, but he has like the
largest collection of diet books in the world and like diet history of the history
of diets. But everybody from diet doctor on the low carb side to the
plant based side is starting to talk about satiety. And one of the highest
satiety foods you can eat is a whole potato and that'll fill you up.
Potato chips the very low in sotiety. So it has to do with fiber
and how activates the stretch receptors in your stomach. And that's also of an
important part of the science. You know, if it stretches out your stretch
receptors, that tell you that you're full. So, Laurie, did we
answer your question? You know, eating quote what you want? It can
be a tricky answer to say, yes, just eat what you want.
If what you want is pop tarts and potato chips, that is not going
to serve you well. But if what you want is real food, and
you can eat real food, doesn't matter if it's carbs, proteins are fat.
You eat real food that's delicious until you're full, and then you stop.
And that's really I think. Keep it that complicated, real food till
you're satisfied and then stop. And if you really want to read something that's
going to just really kind of flip your thinking on all of this, especially
the whole Low carb Idea Region's second book, Feast Without Fear, it was
very life changing for me. Well, thank you, there's some things I
would change about it now, obviously it's been I wrote it in twenty seventeen.
Like the whole thing about your genetics didn't quite pan out. The lat
of researchers were really excited about genetics and that we were going to like personalize
your diet based on your genetics. Even Tim Spector thought that was the way
it was going to go, and he was really surprised to see how much
it actually ended up being gut microbiome. I do think there is some to
play with that though, I mean, based off of your geneology and where
your ancestors came from and the way that they ate years ago. I do
think is going to drive kind of the way you eat and what, you
know, what you're driven to eat. Some cultures are more you know,
meat driven, some cultures are more plant driven. Well, like, for
example, the Japanese have a genetic adaptation to eating I get like seaweed or
something that the rest of us might not have. So that kind of genetic
difference is real because that's what happens over time as your body starts to change
your genes to accept the foods that are available and make your body thrive off
of them. But we thought back then. When I say we, I
mean I'm not one of the scientists doing the research, but I was reading
the research the scientists were doing. They thought that we were going to be
able to just like run your DNA and then it will tell you how much
you know, carbs, fat, and protein you should eat. So,
you know, there have been more recent studies where they've randomized people to different
groups. Turns out they are aren't finding quite as much of a link as
they were hoping for. So the science is ongoing with that. But yeah,
gut microbiome is really really important to how foods work for you, and
there is a genetic component It's just not as simple as run your DNA and
here's your personalized list. It's not that simple, all right, So Patty
and Boston, She writes, I am new to fasting and I'm doing sixteen
eight. She wants to know, does your stomach shrink because in my eating
window, I get full very quickly. I'm trying to listen for that sigh.
Should I stop in pretty much graze for the eight hour window to be
sure I'm getting enough nutrition and calories in. I certainly want to lose weight,
but I will also want to be sure that I'm being smart about it.
Again, trust your body. Your body knows, and there's no one
way to structure you're eating window. It just really depends. I talked a
minute ago about stretch receptors in our stomach. There's some very interesting research done
by Barbara Rolls. I can't remember what university she works for, but she
found that people have a very consistent amount of food by weight that they tend
to eat over the course of the day, and it varies from person to
person. And let's say you're somebody who you need four pounds of food to
be satisfied. I'm just throwing a number out there. If you're someone who
needs four pounds of food for your body to feel satisfied, if you're trying
to fit all that in you'd like to eat tiny little meals, you might
need a longer window. Versus if you're someone who can likes to eat more
at one time, you may need a shorter window. So we can't say,
you know, here's how you need to structure your eight hour window.
It's a lot of It is a matter of what you're eating as well.
Like if I were eating a lot of really bulky, high fiber foods,
they're going to fill me up sooner. That's just the way those foods work.
Whereas I could eat a whole bag of potato chips and not feel the
least bit satisfied. So what you need to do is just what you said,
Patty, Stop and listen to your body. If you are hungry again
later, eat more later, and you may find that an eight hour window
is too long for you to lose weight. A sixteen hour fast might not
be off of a fast, an eight hour window might be too long.
But on the flip side, there are people who do really, really well
grazing through eight hours because they can't eat large amounts at one time, and
if they tried to shrink to a four hour window eating those tiny little amounts
of food, they wouldn't be able to get enough to eat. So we
can't make any one side at all. You have to really listen to your
body. I think lasting satiety is the key. Like when you close your
window, are you satisfied, are you done for the day? Or at
the end of eating, you know two hours later you ravenous again. You
know that's a lot, but a lot of that too, can come down
to food quality and eating for what your body needs. That's very true.
But that was a great question. I want to highlight it, Sherry,
because it was so important. If you were starving two hours after you closed
your window, that is a sign that you may not have had enough.
Dat probably didn't. I mean, I reopened my window last night, and
I know exactly what I did wrong. I had a salad and cheese mannicotti.
Oh I would be starving from that too. Yeah, then I had
so I was like, okay, well that wasn't enough. So then I
had some fruit and some nuts and I physically felt full, but I was
deep in my soul starving. I had a chicken breast. I was fine,
that's that whole I have to have meat for satiety thing, and that's
me and I knew. I was like, I'm just not going to be
satisfied until i eat some meat. I was trying to do a meatless day
and get backfired on me. So you know your body, So yeah,
just lessen your body and then don't worry about I mean, if you're eating
a very diet in your windows over the course of the week, I mean,
if you locked in and you ate the same foods every day, day
after day, yes, you're going to be missing nutrition. If you are
eating to satiety, your body has plenty of stored energy. Calories don't really
matter unless you are significantly under eating. But if you're eating to satiety,
you don't have to vet calories. If you are worried about nutrition, the
best advice is to eat a very diet. Eat a colorful diet. Yea,
he says, thirty different plants a week is what he recommends. So
you know, we're so confused by all these dietary recommendations like the recommended daily
allowance. Did you know how they came up with those Sherry, I'll watch
something about that recently as far as like how much like the RDA of like
vitamins and stuff of everything, all of them. So yeah, I do
know a little bit about that. Basically, they find out how much what
does the bare minimum people need to be healthy, and then what they know
is that some people will need more than that and some people will need less
than that, but they kind of settle with like the mean, and that's
what they put out there. Actually, what I heard recently is not quite
that. It's that there's the range of what you will need to be healthy,
and they err on the side of the high end. So like people
who need more, like the person I was listening to you talk about this,
the people who need more, they're going to recommend that for everybody so
that everybody's safe. Oh see that that's not what I heard as much.
I heard something like sixty percent of people, if they follow the RDA exactly,
that is what they need to be healthy. But then you're going to
have twenty percent that are underfed and twenty percent that are overfed. Whoever I
was listening to said that they make it higher. I don't, I don't
remember. Maybe I'm remembering wrong anyway. The point of all this is whatever
the RDA is, it's not customized to you, and you know it's what
we need is more of like over time, instead of like every single day
trying to get everything in all right Della from Philadelphia. She says, I
have a four hour eating window in the afternoon so I can have dinner with
my family. I stay satisfied most days just drinking water, plain tea,
and black coffee, and I generally open my window with something high protein that
will keep me satisfied until I can get home and get our dinner prepared.
After I eat dinner, I feel satisfied, but I'm concerned that I'm not
eating enough. I try to pay close attention and eat slowly so that I
recognize when I'm satisfied and not stuffed. My eating window generally looks something like
this four o'clock, a handful of almonds, and then for dinner, I
may have a grilled sterloin burger with all the trimmings and ear fried potatoes.
Should I be concerned if I'm truly satisfied when I stop eating. There have
been a few days where I ate too much and was miserable for hours after.
Well, if you are truly satisfied when you stop eating and you're not
hungry again later and you're sleeping well and you are not white knuckling it through
your fast the next day, after you've become fat adapted, then I think
those all signs. All those signs point to the fact that you are eating
enough in your window. You don't want to eat till you're miserable. Ideally,
you want to stop eating when you're no longer hungry. Well, let's
talk about what could happen if let's imagine that you aren't eating enough in your
window. Okay, we always are worried about not eating enough. Let's imagine
you are not eating enough in your window. Two things are going to happen.
One, your body is going to tell you over time that you're not
eating enough by sending you the signal to eat more. And that's part of
appetite correction. Is your body say, hey, you hadn't been eaten enough.
Eat some more, and you might have like a day of really really
crazy increased hunger that feels different and you eat a lot. And what you
might do is if you're stuck in dietbright and you might feel guilty like you
fay old, But actually you did a great job listening to your body's signal
of you need to eat more. And so instead of feeling like a failure,
congratulate yourself for listening to your body tell you that you need more.
So that's one thing that could happen. If you're not eating enough, your
body will tell you, hey, eat some more, and then you listen
and then you do that. The other thing that can happen is your body
can say, all right, we're not quote eating enough and this has been
going on for a while, and so we're going to gently slow down the
metabolic rate to adapt to this low level of intake. Well, what's going
to happen is your plateau. And if that happens, and your plateau and
you're weighing daily and calculating your weekly average and you're absolutely not budging week after
a week after a week, and you're like, huh, I think my
body is adapted to my four hour eating window where I'm not eating a lot.
It's not an emergency that that has happened. You haven't ruined your metabolism,
you haven't broken your body. You can strategically do a little bit of
down day, up day and boost that metabolic rate. Again, metabolism aren't
like you don't like, break it and then it's ruined. We can bump
things back up again, so don't be panicked about it. So if you
are under eating, either a thing that will happen is not an emergency.
You'll get the urge to eat more or you'll plateau and you'll know, I
need to do some strategic adf down days followed by updates. And if you're
someone who struggles to you know, quote eat enough, then a five hundred
calorie down day it is going to be super easy for you. And then
you'll the hard part is going to be having an update because you're not going
to be used to that, you know, having the longer day where you're
eating in you know, about eight to twelve hours. So yeah, and
you know, we do run across people who we find out they are consistently
over under eating, under eating today today, And I think that comes from
a lot of people who just have a long dieting history, who are used
to eating very little and their metabolism is so down regulated that it feels normal
for them to under eat so severely and their bodies aren't telling them eat more
because their metabolism has adjusted to that low level of eating. So when people
come in and they're like, you know, this is what I'm doing and
I haven't lost any weight and I'm three months in, and you start talking
to them and they share what they eat, and then you know me,
I'm the data person. They're sharing what they normally eat, and I'm throwing
it into a calorie counter and I'm find out they're only eating like maybe six
hundred calories a day in their window. And that is the kind of person
that needs to move into an ADIA protocol. They've got to get their metabolism
red backup. But I think for most of us, I don't think that's
an issue. I mean, we like to eat, right, Yeah,
I do. But you're right. If someone has been dieting for decades,
they may have trained their body to eat tiny little meals and then they can't,
you quote, eat enough because they have not done it. They're stuck
in that diet mentality of dieting. So we want to make sure that we're
feasting. But that's where the ADF comes in. As long as you're losing
weight and feeling good, then that's a great sign. It's just if you're
weight loss plateaus for several weeks and you think, huh, maybe I wasn't
eating enough. I need to do some updates here and there, that sort
of thing. All right, Mary from Fenton, Michigan. She wrote,
Hi, ladies, I am such a huge fan of the both of you.
Jin I think I finished Delay, Don't Deny, and about a day.
I can honestly say that that book changed my life. Thank you for
all you've done in the IF community. My question for you guys is this,
when your window opens, what stops you from binge eating before it closes
again. I have fallen into the habit of stuffing my face during my window
because I know I won't be eating again for another twenty two hours or so.
All right, Mary, twenty two hours. It sounds like you might
be doing twenty two two day after day, which I would not recommend.
So the first thing you need to do is I would like you to relax
into a longer eating window. You know, we tend to be in a
society that thinks, well, if a nineteen hour fast is good, then
a twenty two hour fast is going to be even better. And if I
could do a twenty two hour fast. Maybe I should do a twenty three
hour fast and have a one hour eating window. And that is not the
goal. The goal is not to have the shortest eating window you can.
Actually, your body, I think is sending you the signal of this is
not a long enough eating window for me. So if you are having an
urge to binge or the idea that you use the words stuffing your face,
that may be your body telling you, hey, eat while the food is
available, because you won't be eating for twenty two hours, and so that
is not a good sign. If you have an increased urge to binge,
that is not a good sign. It can be related to over restriction.
And I think a twenty two hour daily fast every single day after day after
day after day, I think that's likely to be under eating for your body.
I would not be able to get enough nutrition for my body in two
hours a day, every single day. I wouldn't would you share, I
would not know. I mean I eat my window opening snack and I'm not
hungry again for a couple of hours for dinner. So I mean I'm not
a person that can eat a ton of food at one time, especially when
I first opened my window, so I get full really quickly. I can
eat some hummus and a couple of little Peta rounds and some syakraut Jen's got
me on that kick, and I am satisfied for hours. So I mean,
there's no way I could keep a two hour window day after day after
day. I would not be eating enough. But I also want to say,
too, there's a psychological component to a short window too. I think
I feel that when people have had this same complaint that you're having, that
you feel like you're stuff in your face and you're in this rush to get
your window and you want to get it all in because you've got to get
your window closed, you're not giving your body even time to like talk to
you, to give you true hunger and satiety signals. And it's just like
rest restaurast, I have to eat, this is my time to eat,
and you're just putting it in without actually experiencing appetite correction. And there's this,
you know, kind of frantic mental thought of I have to eat now,
Like you said, I have to eat now because I'm not gonna be
eating for twenty two hours. So by just opening your window up to four
to five hours a day. You can approach your window in such a more
relaxed manner and you can have a snack, and then you can pause,
and you can wait for your hunger to come back, and then you can
eat your meal, and you know, then after that you can close your
window. But just give your body time and give your hunger and satiety signal
time to like fire up and do their job. Very good advice. So
part of it is physical, part of it is psychological. But we just
don't want to restrict that much in day after day after day. Yeah,
there are days that I have a one hour window. It's very unusual if
I'm very very busy. That doesn't mean we should never have a one hour
or a two hour window. It just means that you don't want that to
be your default every single day. I like to balance it with that twenty
four hour window that I had earlier this week when trifling kidding, not really
all right? So we have another question. This week. We get a
lot of questions concerning colonoscopy prep and I mean a lot, so a list
I wrote in with questions of her own as she prepares for one. This
question is from a faster in the Finger Lakes region, which I had to
look this up if you're not familiar with it. It's in a region in
New York State. So she said. I've been fasting for about a year,
but I only learned about clean fasting about a month ago. So that's
all good, and now my body is responding pretty positively. So this may
seem like a weird question, but I have a colonoscopy coming up, and
as part of the prep, I am only supposed to have clear liquids for
forty eight hours. On a positive note, this doesn't seem as daunting as
it did once. I was even thinking about having broth during my fasting window
on the first twenty four hours and then simply having an extended fast for the
last twenty four with the thought that I'll eat after the procedure. But I'm
a bit concerned that clear liquids are too much of a fast, and I'm
a bit nervous about my body thinking that we're entering the zombie apocalypse and slowing
my metabolism. Is there a better way to approach this, or in my
way, overthinking it? Yes, you're overthinking it. I knew that's what
you were going to say, too, sheery. So here's the thing.
Remember how I said a minute ago that our metabolians are not that fragile that
you're one. Anything, a short thing like one colonoscould be prep is not
going to tank your metabolism. So the best advice is, you know,
talk to your medical professional, follow their advice. Don't stress about it.
It is just a short period of time. And you know, don't stress
out about oh am I fasting. It doesn't matter. You do the prep.
If it breaks the fast, it breaks the fast. It's a short
period of time. Do what you need to do to get through it.
And then you did not ruin your metabolism. You haven't messed it up.
It'll be over. And then I just want to throw in there, yes
you said you would have an update after your procedure. Really going to advise
you to ease into some foods after your procedure. Think about this, Your
colon is completely empty. That is the point of the colonoscopy prep so that
they can see what they need to see with the camera. You are not
gonna want to hit that with a bunch of heavy meals after your prep.
So I would you know have your procedure. I don't know what time of
the day it is, and then you know, probably you just want to
have two light meals that day, and you know, if you're extra hungry
the next day, consider having two meals again the next day and then just
fall back into your normal routine. I mean, have an update after the
procedure, like I wouldn't go to waffle house after the procedure, for example.
You may have it come through you more quickly than you're expecting. FYI,
all right, before we get to our tweak of the week, I
want to remind you all about my new book, twenty eight Day Fast Start
Day by Day that's coming out. I'm so excited. It's been in the
hands of a few people Nail that had the early reader addition, and I've
gotten some really positive feedback from people really really excited about this book. So
the subtitle is the ultimate Guide just starting or restarting your intimate and fasting lifestyle.
So it sticks. It's a companion book for Fast Feast Repeat, and
not everybody wants to start by, you know, starting on page one of
Fast Feast Repeat and reading straight through. It's a lot of information. So
with a twenty eight day fast Art day by day. Every day you have
a framework to focus on for that day. You have a quick check in
a daily lesson from me, and also you get a short inspirational story from
a past intermitten fasting stories guest with their best advice for new intermitten fasters.
This is the book you're going to want to have on hand to give your
friend or your sister, or that person in your life who's interested in intermitten
fasting but needs more structure than fast feast repeat gives them. That's the teacher
in me realizing that, huh, some people need more structure than fast feast
repeat gave them. So it's the book you need if you're someone who dabbles
in Internet and fasting and you have trouble making it stick. So go to
your favorite bookstore today and pre order twenty eight day Fast Art Day by Day.
It should arrive on December twenty sixth of twenty twenty three, just in
time for the new year. So now it's time for our tweak of the
week. You know, I always say tweak it till it's easy, But
the tweak that works for me might not be the one that works for you
like Sherry and her needed a chicken breast. That's why it's super helpful to
hear how other intermitten fastors are making intermitt and fasting work for them. This
tweak was submitted by Tests in Alberta, Canada. She says, I made
I have easy by really understanding it's not important to eat throughout the day and
have snacks. I really listened and found out how to decide if I was
truly hungry. I have learned that a late afternoon light meal and a regular
family supper works best for me. I would really recommend taking your time and
learning what works best for your lifestyle, your body, and your family.
My intermitten fasting is not a burden on my daily life, my camp life,
or my social life. And you know, Tests, that's really very
much what I do. A late afternoon light meal. I call it a
snack, but it's probably most people look at it and say that as a
light meal. And you know, then a regular family supper. That's very
much how I structure my window. So you know, we love to leave
you with some inspiration to carry you into your next week. And this week
we have a great quote that comes from Donna in West Augusta is West Augusta
like part of Georgia. There's a part of Augusta we call West Augusta.
But it's not like a regular like it's not like you don't get your mail
at West Augusta. There is a North Augusta. Well I knew that.
Yeah, that's a place, but it's in South Carolina. North Augusta,
South Carolina is near Augusta, Georgia, but West Augusta is a part of
Augusta. So she wrote, I saw this quote yesterday and it really spoke
to me. The quote is promises you make to yourself are as important as
promises you make to others. She says, Wow, that is so good,
and that is so true. How many of us would never break a
promise we made to someone else ever, but we'd break them to ourselves all
the time. We put ourselves last. Well, I know I promised myself
I wouldn't you know, do this? But well, do you know have
you ever done the four tendencies quiz from Gretchen Ruben. It's been a while
I have. Yeah, Okay, well there's one of the four tendencies.
I can't remember which one it is. Where you are prone to keep your
promises to other people, No matter what is that obliger. It might be
an obliger, yes, but you have problems making promises to yourself and keeping
commitments to yourself. So you know, if you tell somebody you're gonna bake
them seven dozen cookies and you wake up sick, you're still going to cook
those seven dozen cookies. But if you say I'm gonna do this for me,
then you're like, well, I'm not that important. I need to
take care of this person instead. I think you're right. I think that
is the obliger. If you find that you are a person who does struggle
with keeping promises to yourself or like honoring commitments to yourself. Look it up.
It's free to take online. It goes with her book, and it's
really interesting. My husband and I just recently took it. It kind of
gives you some insight into yourself, and then it gives you some ideas on
how to overcome it. Yeah, it's been years since I took it.
I can't remember what I was, but I'll have to look and see.
Thanks so much for listening today. We would love to have you join us
in the Delayed on Tonight community where you can interact with both me and Sharry,
plus the most supportive bunch of intermittent fasters you'll find anywhere. Go to
Jen Stevens dot com slash community to join us. Don't forget to subscribe to
this podcast to your favorite podcast app, and if you haven't already, please
leave us a five star review that helps new listeners find the show, and
we really appreciate it. We are a community driven podcast, so to submit
your success stories, your questions, your favorite tweak it till It's Easy,
moments, or anything else you want us to share on the podcast, go
to Fast Feast Repeat dot com slash submit and then listen each week to see
if we share your submission or answer your question until next week. Thanks for listening