Episode 102: ChatGPT for Research or Meal Planning, Success at Work, IF After Over-restriction, and More

<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Fast Feast Repeat Intermittent Fasting for Life. I'm
<v Speaker 1>Jen Stevens, author of the New York Times bestseller Fast
<v Speaker 1>Feast Repeat.
<v Speaker 2>And I'm Sherry Bullock, longtime intermittent faster and health and
<v Speaker 2>wellness advocate. Please keep in mind that this podcast is
<v Speaker 2>for educational and motivational purposes only and is not intended
<v Speaker 2>to provide medical or diagnostic advice. Jen and I are
<v Speaker 2>not doctors, so make sure to check with your trusted
<v Speaker 2>healthcare professionals before making changes, especially when it comes to
<v Speaker 2>any medical treatments or medications.
<v Speaker 1>Whether you're new to intermittent fasting or an experienced intermittent faster,
<v Speaker 1>tune in each week to get inspired, to learn, and
<v Speaker 1>to have some fun along the way. Hi, everybody, we
<v Speaker 1>are so glad you're here today. Welcome to this week's
<v Speaker 1>episode of the Fast Feast Repeat, Intermittent Fasting for Life Podcast.
<v Speaker 2>How are you doing today, Sherry? I'm hanging in there.
<v Speaker 1>How are you? I am doing great? I found something
<v Speaker 1>cool today was that I was I'm like playing around
<v Speaker 1>with chat GPT. They like just had a new version
<v Speaker 1>whatever whatever, and I was like asking into just different
<v Speaker 1>questions and I said, if you were getting started with
<v Speaker 1>intermittent fasting. What books would you read? I just wanted
<v Speaker 1>to see what chat GPT would say. Oh, I was
<v Speaker 1>watching a video, That's what happened. I was watching a
<v Speaker 1>video and it said that chat GPT is like a
<v Speaker 1>search engine. Now really people are like searching for things
<v Speaker 1>and it's like giving you results. So I wanted to
<v Speaker 1>see what it would say. So I was playing with it,
<v Speaker 1>like I said, And guess what. Number one book that
<v Speaker 1>it recommended was delayed on deny and it told reasons why.
<v Speaker 1>And then the number two book it recommended was Fast
<v Speaker 1>East Repeat, and then number three was the Obesity Code.
<v Speaker 1>Love it, I know. I was like, oh my god,
<v Speaker 1>chat GPT knows my books chat GTP Chat, I just
<v Speaker 1>said it wrong. Chat GPT probably knows my shoe size
<v Speaker 1>and literally everything like our devices for years.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know, but it just pulls all this data
<v Speaker 2>out of the everywhere it's gathered Internet world.
<v Speaker 1>Like it probably I'm just guessing it probably looks at
<v Speaker 1>book reviews and Amazon and web stuff and it probably
<v Speaker 1>just pulls it. I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>So it's like an advanced Google almost.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, And it made sense of it. It didn't just
<v Speaker 1>like right, give you results and said here's number one
<v Speaker 1>and here's why, and here's number two and here's why.
<v Speaker 1>And then it like recommended you start with delayed on
<v Speaker 1>tonight because that was an easy introduction, and then it
<v Speaker 1>said go to fast feast repeat because it goes in deeper.
<v Speaker 1>I'm like, oh my god, every bit of this is true,
<v Speaker 1>so that's crazy. Anyway, it blew my mind, but it
<v Speaker 1>also made me very excited that chat GPT was recommending
<v Speaker 1>my books. Thank you chat gp two.
<v Speaker 2>Well, I know there's people that don't like AI. I'm
<v Speaker 2>nervous about it. You know, it has its pros and cons.
<v Speaker 2>I will say one of the things that's made it
<v Speaker 2>easier than ever a lot of us people to ask
<v Speaker 2>us questions like what do you think about this? Or
<v Speaker 2>what do you think about that? Or what's the side
<v Speaker 2>effect of this?
<v Speaker 1>It's really good.
<v Speaker 2>If you have a question, you go to Google and
<v Speaker 2>it'll give you kind of like an AI synopsis. And
<v Speaker 2>before I would have to read seventeen different research articles
<v Speaker 2>to pull information that I was looking for right where
<v Speaker 2>Now it'll kind of give you a synopsis of this.
<v Speaker 1>And what I like is that there's.
<v Speaker 2>A link then where you can, it'll give you data
<v Speaker 2>and then you can click on the link so you
<v Speaker 2>can go read it yourself. And you know, there's a
<v Speaker 2>few things that I've found where I'm like, I'm not
<v Speaker 2>sure that that's right, and then I go through and
<v Speaker 2>I look and it's right.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, there's something that there's a tool like you can
<v Speaker 1>add all these I don't know if they're called plugins.
<v Speaker 1>I'm not really sure, but there's one that works through
<v Speaker 1>chat GPT called Consensus and Consensus. It's like, I guess
<v Speaker 1>an app within chat GPT. I'm in my chat GPT app,
<v Speaker 1>and Consensus is one that I saved in there. But
<v Speaker 1>Consensus actually searches scientific literature. Oh awesome, So it only
<v Speaker 1>is searching scientific literature. And I think that made me
<v Speaker 1>feel really more confident about it. I actually the other
<v Speaker 1>day I was playing with it again. I was playing
<v Speaker 1>with it just to see what it would tell me,
<v Speaker 1>and I asked it some questions, like, I you know,
<v Speaker 1>we always get questions about intermittent fasting and women right
<v Speaker 1>all the time. So I went to Consensus on chat
<v Speaker 1>GBT and I said, is there actual research that shows
<v Speaker 1>that intermittent fasting is harmful for women? Pulled up evidence,
<v Speaker 1>and I mean it talked about, you know, not doing
<v Speaker 1>intermittent fasting during pregnancy. I mean we always say that,
<v Speaker 1>and you know, it talked about actually a benefit. It
<v Speaker 1>pulled in about how it says reduced androgen levels and
<v Speaker 1>women with obesity or pcos possibly beneficial. That was a
<v Speaker 1>good thing. And then here's one no significant harm to
<v Speaker 1>cardia METALB health across menopausal status. And they did have
<v Speaker 1>an article association with eating disordered behaviors. We know that
<v Speaker 1>people who have eating disorders might misuse fasting as a tool,
<v Speaker 1>but I thought it was excellent. Number six contraindicated in
<v Speaker 1>certain groups such as pregnant, lactating adolescents, people who are underweight.
<v Speaker 1>And there's the study. I was hoping weight would show up.
<v Speaker 1>There it showed up, So I mean, there it is.
<v Speaker 1>And then the conclusion, based on all the scientific literature was,
<v Speaker 1>while intermittent fasting can offer benefits for women, particularly those
<v Speaker 1>with obesity or pcos, it may pose risks and psychological risks,
<v Speaker 1>especially non OBEs women, pregnant women, and those at risk
<v Speaker 1>for eating disorders. Well, we wouldn't recommend it for pregnant
<v Speaker 1>women anyway, or if you're in the middle of an
<v Speaker 1>eating disorder. So it didn't pull up, Well, here's all
<v Speaker 1>the studies that show that it's bad for women. It
<v Speaker 1>didn't find any, so I thought that was awesome.
<v Speaker 2>That is awesome.
<v Speaker 1>Oh and I found one. Digging deeper, you can ask
<v Speaker 1>it follow up, are there any studies in humans that
<v Speaker 1>show that intermittent fasting impairs fertility in women? And based
<v Speaker 1>on it's combing the literature, it said, there is currently
<v Speaker 1>no direct evidence from human studies showing that intermittent fasting
<v Speaker 1>impairs fertility and healthy women. The research presents a nuanced
<v Speaker 1>picture depending on the population studied and health conditions like
<v Speaker 1>PCOS or pregnancy, And again, we would not recommend fasting
<v Speaker 1>for pregnancy. But Human Evidence Summary its summarized it for me.
<v Speaker 1>Number one, it said, no evidence of fertility impairment and
<v Speaker 1>healthy women. Number two, positive effects in women with PCOS.
<v Speaker 1>Number three caution advisor in pregnancy. So I'm like, wow,
<v Speaker 1>So I've got to remember to use the chat GPT
<v Speaker 1>app with Consensus when I'm looking for scientific information, because
<v Speaker 1>it's only looking at the journals like PubMed type journals, right, Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>and anybody could do that.
<v Speaker 2>And then I was gonna just say. You know, sometimes
<v Speaker 2>people will say, well, I want to do ADF, but
<v Speaker 2>I don't want to count calories on my down day.
<v Speaker 2>And so many of the community's been using it to
<v Speaker 2>basically she tells chat GTP right, GPT, Yeah PT okay,
<v Speaker 2>GCP is a car anyway, she tells it like what
<v Speaker 2>she ate and it like says, oh, you had so
<v Speaker 2>many grams of protein and fiber today, and it can
<v Speaker 2>estimate calories. So, I mean you can even say these
<v Speaker 2>are the ingredient, this is the groceries I have in
<v Speaker 2>my refrigerator. Tell me what I can eat this five
<v Speaker 2>hundred calories and it'll tell you. It'll like give you
<v Speaker 2>meal planning ideas and stuff. So people are using it
<v Speaker 2>as a tool to help them in their fasting and
<v Speaker 2>their eating windows.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, like somebody was like, these are the things I
<v Speaker 1>have in our refrigerator. What can I make?
<v Speaker 2>Right?
<v Speaker 1>I mean, it's just amazing what it's doing for people.
<v Speaker 1>Or one person in the community is like using it
<v Speaker 1>as like a health coach and it's like you're doing
<v Speaker 1>a chat. GPT told her you're doing a great job
<v Speaker 1>finding mindful balance, Like so okain. The first time I
<v Speaker 1>heard it's scared me to death. But you know, maybe
<v Speaker 1>like in twenty years we were like that was the
<v Speaker 1>worst thing humanity ever did because we're living in caves now,
<v Speaker 1>hiding from the I don't know, hopefully not. We've watched
<v Speaker 1>too many movies, you know, But you really can use
<v Speaker 1>chat GBT for great research.
<v Speaker 2>Well, I feel like it's one of those things like
<v Speaker 2>you could resist using reasonist using it. But I don't
<v Speaker 2>think it's going to go anywhere. The technology is there. No,
<v Speaker 2>it's a shining way, right, so it's it's there now,
<v Speaker 2>so use it for good.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. I had to create something for I'm a part
<v Speaker 1>of a women's group, like a women's organization, and for
<v Speaker 1>the meeting that's next Monday, I had to create like
<v Speaker 1>a worksheet and you know, instead kind of like fiddling
<v Speaker 1>around with clip art and trying to find like our
<v Speaker 1>flower is the marguerite, which is a kind of daisy.
<v Speaker 1>So I went into chat GPT and I said, I
<v Speaker 1>would like you to create a graphic for me that
<v Speaker 1>has the words glow and grow alongside with a text
<v Speaker 1>out or just an outline drawing of a marguerite daisy.
<v Speaker 1>And it did it for you. It did it for me,
<v Speaker 1>and then but I was like, oh, I need it
<v Speaker 1>to be black and white. And then it turned it
<v Speaker 1>black and white. And then I'm like, oh, you know,
<v Speaker 1>I'd like to take this daisy and turn it in
<v Speaker 1>and I'm like, give me a picture of the daisy
<v Speaker 1>without the stem and the I mean, it like was
<v Speaker 1>generating all of that for me exactly like I wanted.
<v Speaker 1>I'm like, curve the words a little bit.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, it was just like, wow, I know that's
<v Speaker 2>kind of mind blowing.
<v Speaker 1>It really is mind blowing. So you know, I think
<v Speaker 1>we have a you know, be cautious about it. I'm
<v Speaker 1>not like this is the best thing that's ever happened
<v Speaker 1>for humanity. Like I said, it could end up being terrible.
<v Speaker 1>People are sounding the alarm. But in the meantime, it's
<v Speaker 1>a tool that's there, and so I'm using it in
<v Speaker 1>productive way. We just really need to make sure the
<v Speaker 1>programmers need to be programming it for good, right right.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. I just started thinking, like, you know, there's like
<v Speaker 2>the whole issue with like plagiarism and stuff when writing
<v Speaker 2>papers and stuff, and I thought, surely it couldn't write
<v Speaker 2>a whole paper on a subject, could you.
<v Speaker 1>Oh? Well, yeah, it can. It could write a whole book.
<v Speaker 1>Like when I first started playing with it was a
<v Speaker 1>few years ago, when it was.
<v Speaker 3>Why don't remember that, Yeah, I was, you were, I said,
<v Speaker 3>I said, write a chapter on autophogy, as if I
<v Speaker 3>mean I will.
<v Speaker 1>I've never used AI to write anything in any of
<v Speaker 1>my books, by the way, but I just was seeing
<v Speaker 1>what it could do. And it wrote a chapter on
<v Speaker 1>autology for me. And then I'm like, now make it
<v Speaker 1>at a fifth grade reading level so a kid could
<v Speaker 1>understand it. And it did it. And I'm like, now
<v Speaker 1>make it a little bit funny, and it did it.
<v Speaker 1>But the fear is, like I was listening to some
<v Speaker 1>podcast a while back and it said, the fear is
<v Speaker 1>that AI can make mistakes, and so it could give
<v Speaker 1>you information that's wrong because it's pulled from a wrong source, right,
<v Speaker 1>And so the person who was talking about it was
<v Speaker 1>somebody who does wildcrafting, where you go out and forage
<v Speaker 1>for wild mushrooms, for example, and AI might write a
<v Speaker 1>book that has information that will literally kill you because
<v Speaker 1>it's wrong information. Which is why I felt really good
<v Speaker 1>when I found the consensus plug in, because if it's
<v Speaker 1>just going to the scientific literature, right, it's filtering down
<v Speaker 1>where it's good act in information. And so that's just
<v Speaker 1>like me and you going to PubMed, right, same kind
<v Speaker 1>of a thing. So we got to learn to work
<v Speaker 1>with it, and we have to hope that it's being
<v Speaker 1>developed in a safe way.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, all right, Well, let's share a weekly celebration. This
<v Speaker 2>is from Nancy and San Diego. She said, there are
<v Speaker 2>honesty pants, gold pants, and divorce pants. Fifteen years ago,
<v Speaker 2>my husband of twenty five years told me that he
<v Speaker 2>didn't love me anymore and left me for a much
<v Speaker 2>younger woman. The divorced diet is something else. The scale
<v Speaker 2>went all the way down to a number that I
<v Speaker 2>hadn't seen in years and years. I went from one
<v Speaker 2>hundred and thirty five to one hundred and twenty in
<v Speaker 2>less than a month. I had to buy some clothes
<v Speaker 2>to wear, as nothing fit. I looked drawn and tired
<v Speaker 2>and sad, and I saved one pair of jeans as
<v Speaker 2>a curiosity and a reminder. This morning, I took out
<v Speaker 2>those divorce pants and I pulled them on, and they fit.
<v Speaker 2>They fit a healthy and happily remarried woman. They fit
<v Speaker 2>a body that became that size through intermittent fasting and
<v Speaker 2>toned in cardio and hot yoga classes. I am so
<v Speaker 2>awed by the body recomposition and so grateful to have
<v Speaker 2>found these podcasts. But community and intermittent fasting life is good.
<v Speaker 1>Oh I love that. I mean, I don't love that
<v Speaker 1>you've got had a very sad divorce that was hard.
<v Speaker 1>I love that you're happily remembered.
<v Speaker 2>Happy ending.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, me too. The happy ending part is the part
<v Speaker 1>that I love. I love that you have body recomposition
<v Speaker 1>to the point that you are healthy and strong and
<v Speaker 1>toned at one hundred and twenty pounds or whatever pounds
<v Speaker 1>you are with the pants fit. Whereas before when it
<v Speaker 1>was the divorced diet, you didn't didn't look good. You
<v Speaker 1>looked drawn and tired and sad. And you know, we've
<v Speaker 1>all had that experience losing weight through a low calorie
<v Speaker 1>diet or through your case, the stress and the you know,
<v Speaker 1>you probably were not able to eat and so you
<v Speaker 1>lost the weight that way, but you didn't look healthy.
<v Speaker 2>Versus now within a fasting you're glowing. It's like you know,
<v Speaker 2>we all I've said before. You know, just because you're
<v Speaker 2>at a certain size doesn't mean you're healthy. Just because
<v Speaker 2>somebody is you know, the one hundred and forty pounds
<v Speaker 2>that you're striving to be doesn't mean that they're healthy,
<v Speaker 2>because we all get to one hundred and forty pounds
<v Speaker 2>a different way. Yeah, And you know, and some people
<v Speaker 2>are just really lucky in that they have a really
<v Speaker 2>high metabolism and they can burn through junk food and
<v Speaker 2>fast food and donuts and stay one hundred and forty pounds.
<v Speaker 2>But one day you can the outside doesn't show what's
<v Speaker 2>happening on the inside, and then one day they're metabolic
<v Speaker 2>health skinn plummet and you know, all of that that
<v Speaker 2>way of living is going to catch up with them,
<v Speaker 2>and it shows up on your face. Uh huh.
<v Speaker 1>And when I the skinniest I ever was as an
<v Speaker 1>adult was I was one hundred and eighteen pounds and
<v Speaker 1>it was in the early nineties, and I was doing
<v Speaker 1>the low fat diet and I was eating just teetotal
<v Speaker 1>junk food, snack wells, yep, and fat free spaghettios and yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I told you before, I would eat an apple, fat
<v Speaker 1>free muffin with a coke from a Donald's. It was
<v Speaker 1>fat free. That was breakfast way to school. I was tiny,
<v Speaker 1>but I didn't look healthy like those pictures of me.
<v Speaker 1>I didn't look I wasn't nourishing my body well didn't
<v Speaker 1>I didn't look good. Yeah, so very different than the
<v Speaker 1>way I look from intermittent fasting. Yeah. So, now we
<v Speaker 1>have a question from a listener. This question is from
<v Speaker 1>Plateauing in Edinburgh. Dear Jen and Sherry. I found you
<v Speaker 1>both through an intermittent fausting rabbit hole a year ago
<v Speaker 1>and fast feast repeat plus this podcast have taught me
<v Speaker 1>so much and given me lots of motivation. I've had
<v Speaker 1>great results, which I'm really proud of, but I am
<v Speaker 1>a bit stuck and needing your help. After having my
<v Speaker 1>second baby last year, I was at my highest weight
<v Speaker 1>of ninety two kilograms. Can you do that math for me? Sheery?
<v Speaker 1>Do you have?
<v Speaker 2>I mean it's gonna be roughly one hundred and ninety pounds, let's.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, one hundred and sixty five centimeters.
<v Speaker 2>So two hundred and two pounds.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, okay, one hundred and sixty five centimeters.
<v Speaker 2>What's that I think I want? Off the top of
<v Speaker 2>my head, I would say five to four let's see
<v Speaker 2>do that look? Thank you, googleimeters? One hundred and sixty
<v Speaker 2>five centimeters.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that's five four Okay, all right, that's really helpful
<v Speaker 1>because I have no frame of reference, but I totally
<v Speaker 1>understand five four and two O two all right. So
<v Speaker 1>she found us and she had her second baby last year.
<v Speaker 1>She started gentle intermittent fasting of twelve hours when her
<v Speaker 1>baby was nine weeks old. This meant quitting overnight snacks,
<v Speaker 1>but I gradually reduced my eating window and got to
<v Speaker 1>six hours eating between midday and six pm. I found
<v Speaker 1>this so easy when I was on maternity leave. I
<v Speaker 1>was also lucky enough to have some childcare when I
<v Speaker 1>was on leave, and I got back into exercise, which
<v Speaker 1>I am enjoying so much. I just want to pop
<v Speaker 1>in a side note right there. She didn't mention nursing
<v Speaker 1>or breastfeeding at all. I just want to always make
<v Speaker 1>sure to emphasize that we don't recommend intermittent fasting when
<v Speaker 1>you are still nursing. So maybe maybe baby was already
<v Speaker 1>weaned at nine weeks old. I'm not really sure, but just.
<v Speaker 2>I'm always and let's do this podcast that she's heard
<v Speaker 2>us repeat that, I hope so too. We'll continue to
<v Speaker 2>repeat that message.
<v Speaker 1>Well, we're always going to say it exactly, all right,
<v Speaker 1>So she said, after nine months, I had lost fifteen kilograms.
<v Speaker 1>So my current weight is seventy seven kilograms. Can you
<v Speaker 1>figure that one out?
<v Speaker 2>I will.
<v Speaker 1>But I've gone back to work and my routine has changed,
<v Speaker 1>and I'm finding it so hard to figure out a
<v Speaker 1>schedule that works. Nine okay, all right, So that's a
<v Speaker 1>great amount of loss. Yeah, she's lost over thirty pounds.
<v Speaker 1>That's awesome, over thirty pounds and nine months. But I've
<v Speaker 1>gone back to work and my routine has changed, and
<v Speaker 1>I'm finding it so hard to figure out a schedule
<v Speaker 1>that works. I commute to work on my bike, forty
<v Speaker 1>minutes each way. It makes me so hungry, and I
<v Speaker 1>find the morning such a struggle. I feel that nothing
<v Speaker 1>is filling enough, so I have lunch, and that I'm
<v Speaker 1>hungry again in the afternoon. Lunch is always homemade leftovers
<v Speaker 1>or homemade soup and sandwiches. I don't get home until six,
<v Speaker 1>so I end up closing my window at seven pm.
<v Speaker 1>Some days I work long, thirteen hour shifts or night shifts.
<v Speaker 1>I'm a doctor in a hospital, and those days I
<v Speaker 1>find it almost impossible to avoid the chocolate on the
<v Speaker 1>ward when I've missed dinner because it's so busy. I'm
<v Speaker 1>still active, obviously, cycling lots and I do a five
<v Speaker 1>k run once a week and one strength class per week.
<v Speaker 1>I haven't lost any more weight, and I would like
<v Speaker 1>to work towards seventy kilograms, which would give me a
<v Speaker 1>normal BMI. So my questions are how to manage the
<v Speaker 1>hunger of cycling. It's my only way to get to work,
<v Speaker 1>but I almost feel like it's hampering my ability to
<v Speaker 1>fast and therefore not lose more weight. What to do
<v Speaker 1>with my eating window. I'm now at a seven to
<v Speaker 1>eight hour window, which I know is not helping me
<v Speaker 1>with my weight loss a bit niche. But what to
<v Speaker 1>do for night shifts? So far, I haven't fasted during them.
<v Speaker 1>I've just tried to eat healthy, whole food meals. Please
<v Speaker 1>don't suggest ADF. I simply can't fast that long. You could,
<v Speaker 1>You could?
<v Speaker 2>You could?
<v Speaker 1>Sorry, that's my own side note. Maybe not write this minute,
<v Speaker 1>but anyway, we have lots to suggest before ADF. The
<v Speaker 1>life is busy with two little kids in a busy job.
<v Speaker 1>I don't want to give up on all of my efforts,
<v Speaker 1>but I just feel like I'm getting nowhere at the moment,
<v Speaker 1>grateful for any advice you both have. Can I just
<v Speaker 1>start by saying, no matter what happens, you're not giving
<v Speaker 1>up on your efforts unless you stop intermittent fasting. You've
<v Speaker 1>lost thirty pounds. Let's imagine you never lost another single pound.
<v Speaker 1>Why would you give up? You found a lifestyle that.
<v Speaker 2>You love and you're clearly maintaining with what you're doing
<v Speaker 2>right now.
<v Speaker 1>Exactly, so all of your efforts have paid off a
<v Speaker 1>lot already. So anyway, all right back to you, Sheary.
<v Speaker 2>Well, so you've got a kind of a lot going on,
<v Speaker 2>which I get. You've got young children that tends to happen,
<v Speaker 2>and you're a doctor and working you know, crazy like
<v Speaker 2>hospital hours and yeah, cycling. You know, I'm actually kind
<v Speaker 2>of jealous that you can cycle to work. America is
<v Speaker 2>just not designed for that. Maybe some of the bigger cities,
<v Speaker 2>definitely not where I live. I really think what's going
<v Speaker 2>on with you is that you are not flipping the metabolics. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>when a six hour window is pretty much I'm going
<v Speaker 2>to say, kind of the boundary for most people to
<v Speaker 2>be able to do that consistently, depending on how they
<v Speaker 2>eat in the window. For me, it's about four to
<v Speaker 2>five hours. If I prolong my window and I have
<v Speaker 2>two full meals over a six hour window, I'm probably
<v Speaker 2>not going to flip the switch the next day before
<v Speaker 2>I open my eating window again. So I think you
<v Speaker 2>were you you were making that happen while you were
<v Speaker 2>on leave, coupled with your you know, working out and
<v Speaker 2>eating in a six hour window and all of that,
<v Speaker 2>you were having great success. You went back to work,
<v Speaker 2>You're working longer shifts, you're working some overnight shifts, so
<v Speaker 2>now you're having some sleep deprivation, you know, thrown in there.
<v Speaker 2>And then you said like if you open your window,
<v Speaker 2>you're really hungry through the morning, and then you feel
<v Speaker 2>that nothing is filling enough, so then you're having lunch,
<v Speaker 2>and then you're a hunger again in the afternoon, and
<v Speaker 2>then you're not eating again until seven. So I don't
<v Speaker 2>know what time you're starting. You set a seven to
<v Speaker 2>eight hour window, I just think that's too long to
<v Speaker 2>support a mighty eleven or noon those days. Yeah, So
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna just encourage you. I know it's hard, Maybe
<v Speaker 2>start working on it. When you have a couple of
<v Speaker 2>days off in a row, push that window. Later shorten
<v Speaker 2>that window up. If you know you cannot close your
<v Speaker 2>window until seven pm, really push and don't open your
<v Speaker 2>window till two o'clock in the afternoon. That way, you're
<v Speaker 2>down till five hour window. If you don't get it
<v Speaker 2>closed at seven, you have a little bit of a cushion.
<v Speaker 2>But I would just kind of make it just like,
<v Speaker 2>don't open until two, yeah, and then do that every
<v Speaker 2>day of the week. If you have an extra hunger
<v Speaker 2>day in your window and you need more food, eat
<v Speaker 2>more food that day. But try not to really link
<v Speaker 2>in the length of your window, because you need to
<v Speaker 2>spend time in the fasted state so that your body
<v Speaker 2>is burning through that clycogen and you can shift over
<v Speaker 2>into fat burning. And then also you talked about you
<v Speaker 2>don't know what to do with night shifts, and then
<v Speaker 2>you said that you haven't fasted for them, and I'm
<v Speaker 2>not I don't really know what that means. Are you
<v Speaker 2>just not fasting on the days that you work night shifts.
<v Speaker 2>I'm not sure how you structure that, how you structure
<v Speaker 2>your sleep and windows on those days. Different night shifters
<v Speaker 2>do different things. I can tell you I work night
<v Speaker 2>shifts every weekend and I have as long as I've
<v Speaker 2>been an intermitt faster, will I take that back. When
<v Speaker 2>I first started intermint fasting, I worked kind of a
<v Speaker 2>midday shift, like eleven am to eleven pm. It doesn't
<v Speaker 2>matter what shift I work. I can make a window
<v Speaker 2>work for me. A fast clean I eat in a window.
<v Speaker 2>I don't worry about my fasts as far as have
<v Speaker 2>I fasted long enough today. I generally don't ever fast
<v Speaker 2>less than sixteen hours, but I do keep an eye
<v Speaker 2>on my windows. Now. There are days at work where
<v Speaker 2>my window ends up running along. I had that experience
<v Speaker 2>Saturday night. I just was super, super busy, and it
<v Speaker 2>was six hours before I got my window closed. Not
<v Speaker 2>stressed about it. The next night, I had a three
<v Speaker 2>hour window at work. So whether or not you want
<v Speaker 2>to fast through your night shift or you want to
<v Speaker 2>eat during your night shift, that's totally up to you,
<v Speaker 2>and everybody figures out what works for them. I don't
<v Speaker 2>want to fast all the way through my shift. I
<v Speaker 2>also don't want to go to bed when I am
<v Speaker 2>twelve hours into my fast. I'm not gonna sleep well.
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna wake up at noon wide away because I'm
<v Speaker 2>gonna have key tones burning through me. So for me,
<v Speaker 2>it works better to shift my window. So I normally
<v Speaker 2>keep an afternoon window. My windows normally something about like
<v Speaker 2>one to six or two to seven. When I work
<v Speaker 2>night shift, I just shift it. I do not open
<v Speaker 2>it until I'm at work. It might be seven thirty,
<v Speaker 2>it might be nine. It just depends on how things
<v Speaker 2>are going when I get to work. Since I am
<v Speaker 2>fat adapted, my body shifts into fat burning. It's not
<v Speaker 2>an issue. I'm not starving, it's not an emergency. I
<v Speaker 2>open when I get a chance to open, and then
<v Speaker 2>I know, usually sometime around midnight I'll have a little
<v Speaker 2>opportunity to actually sit down and eat like a full meal.
<v Speaker 2>I do make sure that I have kind of grabbing
<v Speaker 2>go foods at work, more like yogurt and fruit or
<v Speaker 2>hummus and carrots or you know. I keep a bag
<v Speaker 2>the beef turkey, just because sometimes sitting down and actually
<v Speaker 2>eating a full meal is kind of a luxury when
<v Speaker 2>you work in the hospital. So but I do go
<v Speaker 2>ahead and pack a full meal, and at some point
<v Speaker 2>I do sit down, take even if it's fifteen minutes,
<v Speaker 2>and eat my meal and close my out something real quick.
<v Speaker 1>Because I wanted to make sure to emphasize this. But
<v Speaker 1>it goes with what you're saying, she said. There's a
<v Speaker 1>sentence in there where she said, when you know she's
<v Speaker 1>working those night shifts, she said, those days, I find
<v Speaker 1>it almost impossible to avoid the chocolate on the ward
<v Speaker 1>when I've missed dinner because it's so busy. This is
<v Speaker 1>where Sherry's strategy of packing something is going to help you,
<v Speaker 1>because we all know that you're starving. You've been working,
<v Speaker 1>it's you missed dinner and you need to have some fuel.
<v Speaker 1>And all that's there is the chocolate. That's right, that's
<v Speaker 1>not what It's not going to nourish your body. Well,
<v Speaker 1>you're a doctor, you know that, but it's there. And
<v Speaker 1>I know like in schools, we had food all around
<v Speaker 1>that was not the best food. Same is true in hospitals,
<v Speaker 1>right yep. People have all that food around. So the
<v Speaker 1>way to the way to fix that is just set
<v Speaker 1>yourself up for success and have food with you that
<v Speaker 1>is going to give you what you need. It's just
<v Speaker 1>setting your environment up for success. If the only thing
<v Speaker 1>if you're starving and the only thing there is chocolate,
<v Speaker 1>it's going to be superhuman not to dig into it,
<v Speaker 1>except if you've got something that's good for you, that's satisfying,
<v Speaker 1>you know that you will feel physically better if you
<v Speaker 1>eat that versus if you eat a lot of chocolate.
<v Speaker 1>Just set yourself up for success. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, And it's it's hard in a hospital because you know,
<v Speaker 2>everybody's babbling the same thing with there's there's not healthy
<v Speaker 2>food avow, Well there's not. And so what would happen
<v Speaker 2>is if I did not pack my lunch and take
<v Speaker 2>my lunch with me to work, I would get caught
<v Speaker 2>in the I'm starving. I don't have time to get anything.
<v Speaker 2>My options are going to be the vending machine, which
<v Speaker 2>we all know there's nothing nourishing in a vending machine.
<v Speaker 2>And or I'm going to go in with everybody else
<v Speaker 2>who's now ordering out and having pizza delivered or Mexican
<v Speaker 2>delivered or Chinese delivered, and I'm going to end up
<v Speaker 2>eating out a lot, and that's not how I want
<v Speaker 2>to eat. So I make it a point. Usually before
<v Speaker 2>I go back to work for the weekend, I batch
<v Speaker 2>cook some food and I package it up and I
<v Speaker 2>take it to work with me. And I actually have little,
<v Speaker 2>you know, containers made up of hummus and carrots. It's
<v Speaker 2>kind of portion controlled that way too. I have, you know,
<v Speaker 2>hummus and carrots. I have a package of blueberries, and
<v Speaker 2>I have a little container of yogurt that I have ready,
<v Speaker 2>and I just pack it up and I have it
<v Speaker 2>ready to go to work with me and I eat
<v Speaker 2>it there and once my window's done, my window's done.
<v Speaker 2>You know, it's there's no to me, there's no like,
<v Speaker 2>once I what I brought to eat, I've eaten, then
<v Speaker 2>it's that's it. I'm done. There's no for me. It's
<v Speaker 2>not an option to go hit the vending machine or
<v Speaker 2>to go brows and eat whatever's at the nurses station.
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna eat what I took, and that's that's what I'm.
<v Speaker 1>That's what i'm.
<v Speaker 2>That's what I do, and it's just my practice, is
<v Speaker 2>what I do. I don't even think about it. I've
<v Speaker 2>never thought about it really until we're sitting here talking
<v Speaker 2>about it. So it's just a habit more than anything.
<v Speaker 2>And if you can get into that habit, then and
<v Speaker 2>you're you're satisfied from eating really good, healthy, whole foods,
<v Speaker 2>you're not going to be prone to go eating all
<v Speaker 2>the chocolate and you're going to feel better. And when
<v Speaker 2>you get those windows tightened up, you're going to feel better.
<v Speaker 2>You're not going to struggle with hunger. You're going to
<v Speaker 2>be fueled for your bicycle ride to work, because if
<v Speaker 2>you burn through all your glycogen well riding there, your
<v Speaker 2>body's going to switch to fat burning and you're not
<v Speaker 2>going to struggle with hunger exactly.
<v Speaker 1>That's a really really your window as well. If you're
<v Speaker 1>fat adapted, you should be able to exercise and then
<v Speaker 1>maybe have a few ways of hunger, but then your
<v Speaker 1>body flips the switch and then you're fine. But if
<v Speaker 1>you never give your body time to flip the switch
<v Speaker 1>and you're eating at that time, then your body's not
<v Speaker 1>going to flip the switch, and you're going to be
<v Speaker 1>hungrier because your body's like, all right now, I'm still
<v Speaker 1>I need more fuel, and you keep putting more fuel in.
<v Speaker 1>You've got stored fuel on your body for your body
<v Speaker 1>to access. We know when people are fasting and they
<v Speaker 1>are fat adapted, you can do like ride your bike
<v Speaker 1>to work for forty minutes and flip the switch and
<v Speaker 1>be fine and not be starving. But you have to
<v Speaker 1>give your body time to do it. And teach your
<v Speaker 1>body to do it and require your body to tap
<v Speaker 1>into that fat. Also, really make sure you're fasting clean,
<v Speaker 1>because if you're accidentally not fast and clean, then that
<v Speaker 1>might explain why you're not flipping the switch out after
<v Speaker 1>your bike ride and why you're so hungry. Are you
<v Speaker 1>accidentally adding a flavored electrolyte to some water, are you
<v Speaker 1>choosing a bottled coffee or tea product? You know what?
<v Speaker 1>Could you accidentally be sneaking in there that you think
<v Speaker 1>doesn't make a difference. Close enough, you're kind of that's
<v Speaker 1>the thing that's making the difference if you can pinpoint
<v Speaker 1>what it is. So stick to plan water, black coffee,
<v Speaker 1>plane tea, and if you're having electrolytes, make sure it's
<v Speaker 1>nothing but minerals. Because I almost have a feeling there's
<v Speaker 1>something sneaking in that's breaking your fast if you're not
<v Speaker 1>flipping the switch.
<v Speaker 2>What do you think about that, Sherry, I mean, that's
<v Speaker 2>a real possibility too. I would hope that since she's
<v Speaker 2>a listener to podcast is Up, that she's absolutely and
<v Speaker 2>I'm accidentally do it.
<v Speaker 1>Like they're like, I'm working, I'm riding my bike, I
<v Speaker 1>need these electrolytes you hadn't read the right read the
<v Speaker 1>label and you think it's fast safe, and oh my gosh,
<v Speaker 1>it's got cit yourc acid and I didn't know that.
<v Speaker 1>Or you're drinking a bottled tea product and you just
<v Speaker 1>haven't realized that it has natural flavors in it. Just
<v Speaker 1>there could just be something, or maybe you just didn't
<v Speaker 1>realize that, you know, a certain kind of tea is
<v Speaker 1>not clean, fast safe. Because there's so many things you
<v Speaker 1>just don't think about, even as a listener.
<v Speaker 2>So I wanted to pop that in there. Yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>that's a great point too. But yeah, just focus on
<v Speaker 2>your windows, get them tightened up. And I know it
<v Speaker 2>sounds counterintuitive, people say, but I can't hardly make it
<v Speaker 2>to eighteen hours seventeen hours, How am I going to
<v Speaker 2>make it to nineteen hours? You can after a couple
<v Speaker 2>of days. Just push through a few hard days and
<v Speaker 2>then you're gonna you're gonna feel better. You're going to
<v Speaker 2>notice a difference, and that hunger is really gonna go away.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, and now it's time for our segment called what's
<v Speaker 1>your Why. We know most of us come to intermittent
<v Speaker 1>fasting for weight loss, although not everybody does some people
<v Speaker 1>come straight for the health benefits, which I love. It
<v Speaker 1>is absolutely fine for weight loss to be a big
<v Speaker 1>part of your why, but we know there's so much
<v Speaker 1>more to what intermittent fasting can do for us beyond
<v Speaker 1>weight loss. And that is why I want you to
<v Speaker 1>take the time if you haven't already, to craft a
<v Speaker 1>why statement. When your why is deeper than weight loss alone,
<v Speaker 1>you're more likely to find long term success and view
<v Speaker 1>intermittent fasting as a lifestyle.
<v Speaker 2>So this week we have a wife from Megan in
<v Speaker 2>my little journal I made, I have a what's my
<v Speaker 2>why for every day. Sometimes it's just weight loss or
<v Speaker 2>lose the fluff, but a really big one is about
<v Speaker 2>me aging. My mom and dad are seventy and not
<v Speaker 2>in the greatest health. Their ailments are from obesity. I
<v Speaker 2>also work with seniors doing recreation programming I see All
<v Speaker 2>Walks of Life. Is ninety three and an avid bridge player.
<v Speaker 2>She's not necessarily my favorite person, but it's amazing how
<v Speaker 2>she does strength training with us and she plays cards
<v Speaker 2>almost every day, so her mind is sharp. This is
<v Speaker 2>this lady has had emergency surgery somewhere in her gut
<v Speaker 2>last month and was back to our center less than
<v Speaker 2>two weeks later. What ninety three year old hails up
<v Speaker 2>that fast. Then there's a ninety year old retired librarian,
<v Speaker 2>and I love to hear her stories of her family.
<v Speaker 2>She has eight grandkids she dotes on, but she's home
<v Speaker 2>bound and can barely walk. I don't know why her
<v Speaker 2>health deteriad is so fast, but when her mind is sharp,
<v Speaker 2>her body has now failed her. And finally, my coworker,
<v Speaker 2>she's seventy five and has had some small health things
<v Speaker 2>happened in the past year. She's had a tough life
<v Speaker 2>with losing her infant daughter in a bad car accident.
<v Speaker 2>She is a retired earner, so her body went through hell.
<v Speaker 2>She is tall about five seven and pretty active, so
<v Speaker 2>they relied on her to do a lot of heavy lifting.
<v Speaker 2>She is very positive despite having so many tragedies, but
<v Speaker 2>already she is slowing down and has done so in
<v Speaker 2>the past few years. She also has some kind of
<v Speaker 2>autoimmune arthritis disorder, and we can see her in pain
<v Speaker 2>and she's getting a little bit forgetful. I don't want
<v Speaker 2>to exacerbate my pain, and I want to keep my
<v Speaker 2>mind sharp. I was in a horrible car accident in
<v Speaker 2>twenty seventeen, and I have chronic pain from that already.
<v Speaker 2>I want to keep it from getting worse. I know
<v Speaker 2>that sugar and bad carbs really affect me, and it
<v Speaker 2>gives me constant headaches. Gluten does too. The really dumb
<v Speaker 2>part is I won't stop eating it, probably because I'm addicted.
<v Speaker 2>But I won't drink alcohol because it makes me a lethargic.
<v Speaker 2>I won't eat pork because I love pigs. So what
<v Speaker 2>is the difference? What am I doing this to myself for?
<v Speaker 2>I guess I need to find my why for cutting
<v Speaker 2>out sugar and mostly gluten. That's for another post, I guessed,
<v Speaker 2>But today what my why is aging in a healthy way.
<v Speaker 2>I still have time to correct what I've done to
<v Speaker 2>my body and Megan.
<v Speaker 1>I sometimes think that writing things down and saying them
<v Speaker 1>to somebody else can really spur change. Because you just
<v Speaker 1>talked about all all the reasons. You know that you
<v Speaker 1>know the aging well and all of that why you
<v Speaker 1>do intermittent fasting, why you don't drink alcohol. You already
<v Speaker 1>have so much discipline in your life because you're an
<v Speaker 1>intermittent faster, and you don't eat pork because you love pigs.
<v Speaker 1>You absolutely can make the changes in what you're eating
<v Speaker 1>feeling good as a powerful motivator. You know we have
<v Speaker 1>the twenty eight day fast start for nailing the clean fast.
<v Speaker 1>Why don't you give yourself a twenty eight day fast
<v Speaker 1>start for making the food choices that work for you.
<v Speaker 1>If you have constant headaches from gluten and sugar and
<v Speaker 1>certain carbs, I would imagine it's ultra processed carbs. Give
<v Speaker 1>yourself that twenty eight days and cut those things out.
<v Speaker 1>Only those things, only those things. Find some substitutes that
<v Speaker 1>are delicious that make you happy. Sugar and carbs you
<v Speaker 1>don't feel great. Have cottage cheese with frozen cherries right,
<v Speaker 1>that'll give you that same sweetness kind of a feeling.
<v Speaker 1>Find some gluten free things that satisfy you and that
<v Speaker 1>make you feel good. You can do it.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, And I was going to say, after twenty eight days,
<v Speaker 2>I think you're going to feel so much better that
<v Speaker 2>you know, you gave an alcohol because it makes you
<v Speaker 2>look logic and you wanted to feel well, so you
<v Speaker 2>stop drinking it. And I think like it's the same
<v Speaker 2>with sugar and getting read of junkie carbs. And if
<v Speaker 2>gluten doesn't work for you eliminating gluten and in that
<v Speaker 2>twenty eight days, really assess how you feel. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>you can even keep a daily journal of how you feel,
<v Speaker 2>and I think you're going to see that you feel
<v Speaker 2>so much better, and that is going to be such
<v Speaker 2>a reinforcement to continue on with, you know, this lifestyle
<v Speaker 2>of being gluten free and reducing sugar and that kind
<v Speaker 2>of thing. So exactly all right, we have a question
<v Speaker 2>from super Frustrated in Massachusetts. She wad I'm currently fifty
<v Speaker 2>five years old, almost fifty six. I've been perimenopodal for
<v Speaker 2>seven years. I'm five foot five and a half inches.
<v Speaker 2>This is almost you, Cleyjen.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, she says.
<v Speaker 2>My whole life, I've done weight watchers and anything I
<v Speaker 2>could think of. I've always been active, walking, jogging weights.
<v Speaker 2>In April of twenty eighteen, I did a severe restriction
<v Speaker 2>diet approximately five hundred calories a day and went from
<v Speaker 2>one hundred and seventy two to one hundred and fifty
<v Speaker 2>eight in two weeks, which I maintained by jogging and lifting.
<v Speaker 2>After gaining weight back, I in twenty nineteen, I was
<v Speaker 2>back up to one hundred and seventy nine pounds and
<v Speaker 2>I did the program again, getting back down to one
<v Speaker 2>hundred and fifty nine.
<v Speaker 1>By February first.
<v Speaker 2>By April that year, I was back up to one
<v Speaker 2>sixty six by July one seventy two, and by January
<v Speaker 2>of the next year, I was back up to one
<v Speaker 2>seventy six point five. I hope super frustrated Massachusetts, You've
<v Speaker 2>realized that what you were doing was just not sustainable.
<v Speaker 1>As your crash diet. And look, she is just like me,
<v Speaker 1>because lord, do you know, I get it. I understand
<v Speaker 1>those crash diet and there is nothing that feels better
<v Speaker 1>than seeing one seventy two to one fifty eight and
<v Speaker 1>two weeks and then you stopped doing it and you
<v Speaker 1>stayed at one fifty eight forever. No, actually, that's not ever.
<v Speaker 1>What happens you regain it plus more. If you were
<v Speaker 1>back up. You started at one seventy two, went to
<v Speaker 1>one fifty eight, then you're up to one seventy nine
<v Speaker 1>the next time. And yeah, those yo yo crash diets
<v Speaker 1>leave us worse off. So yeah, every time we'd go
<v Speaker 1>yo yo higher.
<v Speaker 2>So she says, in February twenty twenty, I started IF
<v Speaker 2>at one hundred and seventy seven point six pounds as
<v Speaker 2>it was suggested by my PCP. She recommended your book
<v Speaker 2>and podcasts. I started fasting, except I was using whipping
<v Speaker 2>cream and coffee for two weeks. Then I eliminated that
<v Speaker 2>and I've been cleaned fasting since. I started with a
<v Speaker 2>six hour window and decreased and decreased. As the weight
<v Speaker 2>was coming off, I felt free from food obsession and
<v Speaker 2>I let myself have things like homemade bread. This was
<v Speaker 2>also during COVID, and I felt like it was the
<v Speaker 2>only thing I could control. I loved that I was
<v Speaker 2>finally seeing consistent results. By April, two months later, I
<v Speaker 2>was down to one hundred and sixty point eight, which
<v Speaker 2>was nearly seventeen pounds down. I continued to lose weight
<v Speaker 2>doing OMAD. Was down to one meal a day, with
<v Speaker 2>probably a one to two hour eating window most weeks
<v Speaker 2>from Sunday through Friday, with Friday and Saturday having longer
<v Speaker 2>windows to enjoy weekends, and I was thrilled. In another month,
<v Speaker 2>I was down to one fifty seven, and between May
<v Speaker 2>and December twenty twenty, my weight fluctuated up and down
<v Speaker 2>between one fifty one and one fifty seven. Then I
<v Speaker 2>began using a pelotone the end of twenty twenty, my
<v Speaker 2>one year one meal a day anniversary weight in February
<v Speaker 2>twenty twenty one was one hundred and fifty pounds. I
<v Speaker 2>was down twenty seven pounds in a year, and I
<v Speaker 2>really thought I'd found my answer. My weight might go
<v Speaker 2>up after a vacation, but then it would come right
<v Speaker 2>back down. By April of twenty twenty one, I was
<v Speaker 2>in the one forties, averaging one hundred and forty eight
<v Speaker 2>to one hundred and fifty until Midsummer, and my average
<v Speaker 2>window at this time was one to two hours Sunday
<v Speaker 2>through Thursday, again having longer windows on the weekends and
<v Speaker 2>being the lowest weight I can ever remember being Summer
<v Speaker 2>months are tougher, more vacations, and by August I was
<v Speaker 2>back up to one seventy seven one fifty seven, but
<v Speaker 2>not worried. By December I was back down to one fifty,
<v Speaker 2>but then by January of twenty twenty two and my
<v Speaker 2>two year anniversary, I was back up to one fifty seven,
<v Speaker 2>and in February I was one hundred and fifty three
<v Speaker 2>point eight and not super happy about that being up
<v Speaker 2>from the previous year, but I wasn't too worried it
<v Speaker 2>was less than two pounds, and then between the summer
<v Speaker 2>of between June of twenty twenty two and end of
<v Speaker 2>summer twenty twenty three a year injury, illness, lots of
<v Speaker 2>celebration coupled with possible over restriction, my weight had crept
<v Speaker 2>back up to one seventy two. I was still using
<v Speaker 2>my pelotone five to seven days a week, still doing OMAD,
<v Speaker 2>still the same schedule, and I started to get very
<v Speaker 2>frustrated as weight was not coming off like it used to,
<v Speaker 2>so I decided to change things up. I started one
<v Speaker 2>time a week longer fasts with thirty six hours in
<v Speaker 2>September of twenty twenty three, but was not doing eight
<v Speaker 2>hours of eating on an upday. I was still limiting myself.
<v Speaker 2>By the end of November twenty twenty three, I was
<v Speaker 2>back down to one hundred and sixty two. I started
<v Speaker 2>HRT in October and did not see any significant loss
<v Speaker 2>or gain, but my night sweats and mood issues had
<v Speaker 2>really started to erupt, and I knew I was going
<v Speaker 2>to have surgery the end of November, and my doctor
<v Speaker 2>was concerned. I had a total hip replacement November twenty
<v Speaker 2>twenty three, resulting in traumatic backspasms. Following surgery, I was
<v Speaker 2>on all sorts of medications, steroids, GABA, penton, and I
<v Speaker 2>did not fast from November of twenty thirty three to
<v Speaker 2>the end of January twenty twenty four. It was my
<v Speaker 2>first time not fasting on a regular basis since I
<v Speaker 2>started in February of twenty twenty. In January twenty twenty four,
<v Speaker 2>after surgery and fully recovered from spasms, I weighed one
<v Speaker 2>hundred and seventy five pounds. I began omed fasting again
<v Speaker 2>and working out on the pelotone, and I got down
<v Speaker 2>to one hundred and seventy by March, but I was
<v Speaker 2>still super frustrated. My PCP suggested I was too restrictive
<v Speaker 2>and told me to open with protein around four PM
<v Speaker 2>and have a three to four hour window and increase
<v Speaker 2>my protein. This did not change anything. By July, I
<v Speaker 2>was down to averaging around one sixty seven and I've
<v Speaker 2>stayed between one sixty seven and one seventy two. Since
<v Speaker 2>I'm so frustrated February twenty twenty five, I've started increasing
<v Speaker 2>weight training and protein fasting average of twenty hours a
<v Speaker 2>day Sunday through Friday. I heard episode eighty nine and
<v Speaker 2>I felt like it was my story too, But still
<v Speaker 2>so many unanswered questions. I do not eat junk food.
<v Speaker 2>I eat window worthy food nineteen to ninety five percent
<v Speaker 2>of the time. I cut out most processed food years ago.
<v Speaker 2>I eat heavy vegetables and protein. I try to limit
<v Speaker 2>my carbs and watch my fats. I only have a
<v Speaker 2>few cocktails on weekends, not during the week. Friends suggest
<v Speaker 2>I'm still too restrictive with how much I'm eating In
<v Speaker 2>comparison to my workouts, I spend an average of thirty
<v Speaker 2>to forty minutes five to six days a week, and
<v Speaker 2>I have included light arm workouts until February of this year.
<v Speaker 2>Now I'm doing more heavy full body weight workouts a
<v Speaker 2>minimum of three times a week and spinning on other
<v Speaker 2>days with one day off. My questions are, why has
<v Speaker 2>fasting stopped working? Inches haven't changed weight? Is not budging?
<v Speaker 2>Should I be counting calories or macros to make sure
<v Speaker 2>I'm getting enough? I know you all don't want to
<v Speaker 2>count calories and macros and I don't either, but I
<v Speaker 2>don't know what else to do. I was also documenting
<v Speaker 2>everything on my fitness Pal and I'm concerned I'm not
<v Speaker 2>eating enough with the amount of exercise I'm doing. Is
<v Speaker 2>fasting going to work? If I'm doing heavier lifting three
<v Speaker 2>times a week, I cannot possibly get the recommended amount
<v Speaker 2>of protein in with one meal a day or even
<v Speaker 2>a five hour window. For menopausal Women's recommended that protein
<v Speaker 2>grams is two grams per kilo of weight, and that
<v Speaker 2>would be close to one hundred and fifty grams. And
<v Speaker 2>her smartb AM I, based off of her stats as
<v Speaker 2>she gave me at one hundred and sixty pounds, has
<v Speaker 2>her solidly in the green zone of the healthy weight zone.
<v Speaker 1>All right, frustrated and massachusets, Oh my goodness, you have
<v Speaker 1>such a long history of dieting, and I get it,
<v Speaker 1>and so I'm pretty sure I know what's wrong. And
<v Speaker 1>between twenty eighteen and twenty twenty before you found intermittent
<v Speaker 1>fasting is when you were doing those really really restrictive diets.
<v Speaker 1>And I had my periods of that too, when I
<v Speaker 1>was doing hCG and taking fentromine that destroys your metabolism. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>those types of low calorie diets are terrible for you.
<v Speaker 1>And you found every time you would yo yo back up.
<v Speaker 1>Then you found intermittent fasting in twenty twenty, and you
<v Speaker 1>did a lot of dabbling in that between twenty twenty
<v Speaker 1>and twenty twenty four. But every single thing everything you
<v Speaker 1>said that you did from twenty twenty to twenty twenty
<v Speaker 1>four sounds like overfasting and over restriction to me, from
<v Speaker 1>the fact that you were only eating in a one
<v Speaker 1>to two hour daily window, you were having threaty six
<v Speaker 1>hour fasts without a proper update, and you were completely
<v Speaker 1>focused on what that scale was doing, right, and so
<v Speaker 1>I would be almost certain that your metabolism has just crashed.
<v Speaker 1>Plus you were like an eat less, move more mirathon. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>we think back to the Biggest Loser and what we
<v Speaker 1>learned from the Biggest Loser study was that the people
<v Speaker 1>who had gone on the Biggest Loser and had eaten
<v Speaker 1>less and moved more for so long when they were done,
<v Speaker 1>their metabolisms were five hundred calories lower per day than
<v Speaker 1>would have been predicted by their new size based on
<v Speaker 1>the way they damaged their metabolism with all of that
<v Speaker 1>restrictive eating and all of that over exercise that they did.
<v Speaker 1>And so it sounds like to me that that is
<v Speaker 1>where you are, So you said, you know, why has
<v Speaker 1>fasting just stopped working? You know, fasting never stops working.
<v Speaker 1>You were probably getting some health benefits from it, but
<v Speaker 1>you're not seeing any weight loss, so you know, the
<v Speaker 1>better answer is why am I not losing weight with
<v Speaker 1>fasting this time? And that's I think really what you
<v Speaker 1>meant by that you're not losing weight because your body
<v Speaker 1>is probably like, oh my god, what's happening. I haven't
<v Speaker 1>had enough food to eat since twenty eighteen, and there's
<v Speaker 1>more and more fasting and less and less eating and
<v Speaker 1>more and more exercise, and you know, frustrated keeps eating
<v Speaker 1>less and now I'm just slowing down everything. So I
<v Speaker 1>think you've just got to start doing some ADF right away.
<v Speaker 1>The good news is, I bet the five hundred calorie
<v Speaker 1>down day is going to be a piece of cake
<v Speaker 1>for you because you did that. You can eat a
<v Speaker 1>small amount of food. So on your down day you
<v Speaker 1>can have a five hundred calorie Downday meal, or you
<v Speaker 1>can have a full fast for thirty six hours. Then
<v Speaker 1>I want you to open up your eating on your
<v Speaker 1>update for twelve hours. I want you to have breakfast, lunch,
<v Speaker 1>and dinner. I do not want you you try to
<v Speaker 1>restrict on that day you are trying to slightly overeat
<v Speaker 1>your homework is I want you to get a copy
<v Speaker 1>of the second edition of Delayed on Deny. If you
<v Speaker 1>have the first edition, that's not good enough. I want
<v Speaker 1>you to get the second edition of Delayed on Deny.
<v Speaker 1>You can get it on any ebook reader and have
<v Speaker 1>it in five minutes. Kendall, Nook, whatever it is, wherever
<v Speaker 1>you like to read your ebooks. Go straight to the
<v Speaker 1>ADF chapter and really understand why someone with a slowed
<v Speaker 1>metabolic rate needs a DF. Those up days are going
<v Speaker 1>to restore your metabolism. You might see a little weight
<v Speaker 1>gain at first, Maybe put the scale away because I
<v Speaker 1>don't want you to freak out. The down day is
<v Speaker 1>where your body has time to tap into fat. The
<v Speaker 1>upday is where you will boost your metabolism and let
<v Speaker 1>your body know that you are okay. You need to
<v Speaker 1>eat really well, three meals over twelve hours on your
<v Speaker 1>up day, and you need to heal your metabolism because
<v Speaker 1>I get it, you know all we want to see
<v Speaker 1>the weight fast. I mean you were like, look how
<v Speaker 1>much wait I lost in two weeks, But you don't
<v Speaker 1>see all the damage that you've done to your metabolism,
<v Speaker 1>and no one really you know, we weren't told all that.
<v Speaker 1>We didn't understand it. So I get it. But more
<v Speaker 1>fasting is not your answer. More eating is your answer.
<v Speaker 1>And I really think you need to do that within
<v Speaker 1>the ADF approach because you got to find that balance
<v Speaker 1>in there. If all you do is open your window
<v Speaker 1>wider from where you are right now, I think you'll
<v Speaker 1>just see more weight gain. Like if you suddenly are like,
<v Speaker 1>oh no, I'm not eating enough, I need to eat more,
<v Speaker 1>and you suddenly start eating more, you're going to just
<v Speaker 1>see steady weight gain, which is why you need the ADF.
<v Speaker 1>You got to have the down days balanced by the updays,
<v Speaker 1>and over time, I do believe you can heal your metabolism.
<v Speaker 1>But you know, after you've been doing this over restrictive
<v Speaker 1>dieting for a lot of years now, even when you
<v Speaker 1>became an Internet and faster, you were doing it in
<v Speaker 1>an overly restrictive way by accident, and so it's really
<v Speaker 1>time to balance that out.
<v Speaker 2>What do you think?
<v Speaker 1>I agree?
<v Speaker 2>And I just wanted to note to this two grams
<v Speaker 2>of protein per kilo of weight. I found a really fascinating,
<v Speaker 2>some fascinating information. Yes, we know that increasing protein is
<v Speaker 2>beneficial as we age to number one, our bodies just
<v Speaker 2>don't use it as efficiently as we age. But maintaining
<v Speaker 2>muscle mass is so important. But if you are not
<v Speaker 2>actively weight training, bumping up your protein is not going
<v Speaker 2>to magically make you grow muscles. So you've got to
<v Speaker 2>be actively weight training. So I'm glad that you're doing that.
<v Speaker 2>I would suggest doing your weight training on your updates.
<v Speaker 2>Do ADF, do your weight training on your up days.
<v Speaker 2>I say that because there's you know, we know that
<v Speaker 2>insulin which is released when you're eating and stuff, it
<v Speaker 2>helps your body grow muscles.
<v Speaker 1>So it makes.
<v Speaker 2>Sense to have weight training days on your up days
<v Speaker 2>when you're eating and you've got higher insulin levels. Not
<v Speaker 2>to mention you are you're eating, your get in more
<v Speaker 2>quality protein sources to help with your muscle growth. So
<v Speaker 2>it makes perfect sense that if you're going to do
<v Speaker 2>ADF and you're going to do weight training, train on
<v Speaker 2>your eating days. And then this there was a meta
<v Speaker 2>analysis done and what they did was they went in
<v Speaker 2>and they looked at forty nine previous studies on protein
<v Speaker 2>and muscle and longevity and all this stuff. It included
<v Speaker 2>eight hundred and sixty three participants, and what they found
<v Speaker 2>is that while they know protein intake is positively associated
<v Speaker 2>with muscle mass gains, they also found that a protein
<v Speaker 2>higher than one point six two grams per kilogram showed
<v Speaker 2>no additional benefits, and that high protein diets above and
<v Speaker 2>beyond that can actually start to have detrimental benefits. So
<v Speaker 2>do we need to eat quality protein, Yes, from varied sources. Absolutely,
<v Speaker 2>it's important. We're also getting protein from atophagy. And if
<v Speaker 2>you're doing ADF, you know you into.
<v Speaker 1>Deeper recycling our body recyclingcling.
<v Speaker 2>All these junky proteins and your body uses those just
<v Speaker 2>like protein that you eat to build muscle. So just
<v Speaker 2>fuel well on your updates, don't count anything. Just focus
<v Speaker 2>on good quality protein sources. You don't discount how much
<v Speaker 2>protein you're getting from plant based foods because you're getting them.
<v Speaker 2>I think some people think I just have to eat
<v Speaker 2>nothing but steak and eggs, and that's not true. If
<v Speaker 2>you eat a very diet you can get your protein
<v Speaker 2>needs in. Then I actually put a link in show
<v Speaker 2>notes to that if you want to review that yourself.
<v Speaker 1>All right, before we get to our tweak of the week.
<v Speaker 1>I want to take a minute to tell you about
<v Speaker 1>my books. I will always be a teacher, and it
<v Speaker 1>makes me very happy to have a wide variety of
<v Speaker 1>resources for you no matter where you are in your
<v Speaker 1>intermittent fasting journey. According to chat GP two, start with
<v Speaker 1>Deload on Tonight, which I have been saying ever since
<v Speaker 1>I came up with a second edition in August of
<v Speaker 1>last year. I do think it's the best quick introduction
<v Speaker 1>to intermittent fasting out there. You can get it through
<v Speaker 1>paperback or hardback only on Amazon, ebook, audiobook wherever you
<v Speaker 1>get your ebooks and your audio books. Now, if you
<v Speaker 1>want to dig in a little bit deeper to the
<v Speaker 1>concepts of delay Don't Deny, either on your own or
<v Speaker 1>in a book study group with a friend or a
<v Speaker 1>group of friends. I have a book study companion workbook
<v Speaker 1>called Delay Don't Deny Digging Deeper. It has been updated
<v Speaker 1>to match the twenty twenty four Delay Don't Deny updates.
<v Speaker 1>School Teacher jen is there on every page, and you
<v Speaker 1>will enjoy reflecting on how to apply the concepts into
<v Speaker 1>your own life. We all know that reading a book
<v Speaker 1>is one thing, but applying it is another and Delay
<v Speaker 1>Don't Deny Digging Deeper was designed to help you apply
<v Speaker 1>the concepts from Delay Don't Deny in a meaningful way. Now,
<v Speaker 1>if you're looking for a way to keep track of
<v Speaker 1>all sorts of things such as your daily fast, you're eating,
<v Speaker 1>window link, your daily weights, your weekly averaging, goal setting,
<v Speaker 1>non scale victories, so many things, then you will enjoy
<v Speaker 1>The Delay Don't Deny Life Journal is designed to last
<v Speaker 1>you six months, and it's a great place to keep
<v Speaker 1>track of what you're doing, what's working, your overall progress.
<v Speaker 1>Both Delay Don't Deny, Digging Deeper and The Delay Don't
<v Speaker 1>Deny Life Journal or available in paperback only on Amazon,
<v Speaker 1>and Digging Deeper is also available as an ebook wherever
<v Speaker 1>you get your ebooks. All right, it's time for our
<v Speaker 1>tweak of the week. You know, I always say tweak
<v Speaker 1>it till it's easy. But the tweak that works for
<v Speaker 1>me might not be the one that works for you.
<v Speaker 1>And that is why it is so helpful to hear
<v Speaker 1>how other intermittent fasters are making intermittent fasting work for them.
<v Speaker 1>This is from Jane from North Carolina. She says, reminding
<v Speaker 1>myself of the difference between cravings and actual hunger. Jen
<v Speaker 1>you taught me way back in your first podcast, how
<v Speaker 1>distract yourself and wait for me just ten to twenty
<v Speaker 1>minutes and see if the hunger wave is gone or
<v Speaker 1>if it's getting stronger. I find that nine hundred and
<v Speaker 1>ninety nine times out of one thousand, the hunger is gone,
<v Speaker 1>and I continue with the fast as planned. Easy, Thank you, clean,
<v Speaker 1>fasting far the wind Hugs from Jane fifty three.
<v Speaker 2>It's true a little distraction can work on your body.
<v Speaker 1>Flip that switch.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, what what is that saying? What you focus on?
<v Speaker 2>Expand Yeah. So if you focus on your hunger, all
<v Speaker 2>you're going to feel is your hunger. But if you
<v Speaker 2>go get busy doing something, usually that hunger all go away.
<v Speaker 1>And I imagine my body in the background going, okay, fine,
<v Speaker 1>I'll burn some stored fuel. Three year old stopping their foot.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah fine, your body can do it. There's lots of
<v Speaker 1>storm fuel there. All right.
<v Speaker 2>Well, we love to leave you with inspirational motivational quotes,
<v Speaker 2>and this week we have a quote from k The
<v Speaker 2>quote is discipline is choosing between what you want now
<v Speaker 2>and what you want most. She shared, I have a
<v Speaker 2>habit of running every Wednesday morning before my kids wake up.
<v Speaker 2>This morning, I really wanted to go back to bed,
<v Speaker 2>but I looked up my schedule and it's packed. There
<v Speaker 2>was no other time for exercise size today, So I
<v Speaker 2>got out there, and I think that's it's important. Like,
<v Speaker 2>you know, right now you want to get in bed,
<v Speaker 2>but what you want most is to be active and healthy.
<v Speaker 1>So I really love that quote. Intermittent fasting does require discipline.
<v Speaker 2>You know.
<v Speaker 1>Every day you employ that discipline and it really does
<v Speaker 1>get easier. But you have to choose between what you
<v Speaker 1>want now and what you want the most. You know,
<v Speaker 1>there's that delay in action as well if you're fasting.
<v Speaker 1>You know, Kay's example was exercise, but it could certainly
<v Speaker 1>relate to when you open your eating window, right, what
<v Speaker 1>do you want now? Or what do you want most?
<v Speaker 1>Because you know, if everybody around you is eating something.
<v Speaker 1>I think about when I was a school teacher and
<v Speaker 1>maybe there's cookies in the workroom, right, everybody's eating those cookies.
<v Speaker 1>So I look at those cookies and I'm fasting. What
<v Speaker 1>do I want now? I want to eat that cookie now, right,
<v Speaker 1>But what do I want the most? What I want
<v Speaker 1>the most is the benefits of the clean fast, and
<v Speaker 1>I also want to feel better in one hour versus
<v Speaker 1>if I'd eaten the cookie, I'm not going to feel better.
<v Speaker 1>And here's what I always remind myself. I have eaten
<v Speaker 1>cookies before. Have you eaten cookies before?
<v Speaker 2>Sherry?
<v Speaker 1>Absolutely?
<v Speaker 2>And I will.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. I mean then that they are some fantastic, homemade
<v Speaker 1>looking chocolate chip cookies that someone brought in and there
<v Speaker 1>they are sitting there in the workroom, everybody's enjoying them.
<v Speaker 1>I have had fantastic chocolate chip cookies before. I know
<v Speaker 1>what they taste like. I can close my eyes and
<v Speaker 1>I can imagine what they taste like. Yep, I just
<v Speaker 1>did it right then, I imagined what chocolate chip cookies
<v Speaker 1>would taste like. So do I actually need the sensation
<v Speaker 1>of putting those cookies in my mouth right now? Right?
<v Speaker 1>I don't. I can delay those cookies and have them later.
<v Speaker 2>I think of this quote in relation to emotionally too,
<v Speaker 2>when people are having a bad day and they want
<v Speaker 2>to emotionally sue the food and right now you want comfort,
<v Speaker 2>right and that may make you feel good right now
<v Speaker 2>because you get that little dopamine hit from that melty
<v Speaker 2>chocolate and the sugar hits your tongue and your brain
<v Speaker 2>lights up, and you feel better right now, But at
<v Speaker 2>the end of the day when you close your window,
<v Speaker 2>or if you're like, well, I'm just gonna open my
<v Speaker 2>window early, and now you're going to close your window early,
<v Speaker 2>but now you're hungry at seven o'clock and you're like,
<v Speaker 2>why did I do that? And now I'm gonna have
<v Speaker 2>to have a longer window because I can't go to
<v Speaker 2>bed hungry, Or you're down on yourself because you just
<v Speaker 2>said I'm going to learn new habits and you fell
<v Speaker 2>back into the old emotional eating because you came to
<v Speaker 2>what you wanted right now rather than keeping your eye
<v Speaker 2>on the big picture and realizing that you want success
<v Speaker 2>more than anything. And then as you start to conquer
<v Speaker 2>this what you want right now, and you tell that
<v Speaker 2>inner child, go sit in the corner and be quiet,
<v Speaker 2>it's not your turn. That you're creating a new habit
<v Speaker 2>and you're creating new coping skills, and then over time
<v Speaker 2>it gets easier to focus on what you want most exactly.
<v Speaker 1>Thanks so much for listening today. We would love to
<v Speaker 1>have you join us in the Delayed on Tonight community,
<v Speaker 1>where you can interact with both me and Sherry, plus
<v Speaker 1>the most supportive bunch of intermittent fasters you'll find anywhere.
<v Speaker 1>Go to Jenstevens dot com slash community to join us.
<v Speaker 4>Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast to your favorite
<v Speaker 4>podcast app, and if you haven't already, please leave us
<v Speaker 4>a five star review that helps new listeners find the
<v Speaker 4>show and we really appreciate it.
<v Speaker 1>We are a community driven podcast, so to submit your
<v Speaker 1>success stories, your questions, your favorite tweak it till It's Easy, moments,
<v Speaker 1>or anything else you want us to share on the podcast,
<v Speaker 1>go to Fast Feast Repeat dot com slash submit and
<v Speaker 1>then listen each week to see if we share your
<v Speaker 1>submission or answer your question
<v Speaker 2>Until next week, Thanks for listening,