Episode 27: Fasting and Cortisol, Aging Backwards, Self-Talk, and More

Welcome to Fast Feast Repeat Intermittent Fasting for Life. I'm Jen Stevens, author
of the New York Times bestseller Fast Feast Repeat, and I'm Sherry Bullock,
longtime intermittent 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 trusted healthcare professionals before making changes, especially when it comes to
any medical treatments or medications. Whether you're new to intermittent fasting or an experienced
intermittent faster, 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
Intermittent Fasting for Life podcast. How are you doing today's Sherry, I'm doing
fabulous. I'm super excited because this episode comes out January third, and for
any body listening, tomorrow is our official January fourth, twenty eight day Fast
Start for people who are starting or restarting in January. Join us in the
community Jen Stevens dot com slash community. This is the only time we've ever
done like a group like date kind of a thing. But January fourth through
January thirty first is exactly twenty eight days, so just you know, inspired
by the new book twenty eight day fast Start day by day, I thought
that would be a great time to have a community fast Start. Join right
now if you're listening, even if you're a little late, join us anyway.
Yep, that's could be great. I can't wait to do that,
get people started on the rate foot and help create some lifelong fasting habits.
Can you believe it's twenty twenty four? Nope, I cannot. I cannot.
I think another year and we'll have flying cars. I think that's twenty
twenty five. Yeah, well exactly, flying cars. I'm sure they're right
around the corner. I mean, I did tell you about the cars I
thought driving themselves in San Francisco. Yes you did, Yes, you did.
You know I always thought I wanted a flying car, but people can't
really drive on the roads. Well, could you imagine? Can you imagine
in the air where there's no roads. No, I will opt out of
that. I'll stay on the ground. Well. Today we want to celebrate
Nick. A member of the DDD community, Nick shared, it is hard
to believe that I am six months into my IF journey. Never have I
enjoyed the ride as much as I am with IF. I am down forty
eight and a half pounds since I started on April twenty eighth. On Easter
twenty twenty three, I was at my heaviest at two hundred and seventy two
pounds. The night of my twentieth high school reunion. Last weekend, I
was two hundred and twenty three pounds. I also had my physical last week,
and for the first time in seven years, my liver enzymes were perfect.
I have been struggling to get them below one hundred, and at times
the number was well over for three hundred. Last week, my ALT was
thirty eight and my AST was twenty four. Fatty liver is gone. One
of the best things about Saturday Nights reunion was how confident I felt in my
own body. I am heavier now than I was in high school, not
by a ton, but I am healthier and trimmer than I was then.
I was able to walk through that room with a smile on my face,
not feeling like I was being judged for my weight. And I know Nick
how that feels. I know that felt good, he says. I am
nowhere near done losing, but I know that I have found my groove and
that if is my way of life. Thanks to all of you in this
incredible community for your support. I'm excited to see what the next six months
of this journey have in store for me. I am setting a new goal
of losing an additional twenty five pounds by my birthday in April. That would
be the first time that I've gone below two hundred since high school. And
I know I've got this. That is fantastic, Nick, thank you for
sharing. I love that he felt confident at his high school reunion. Nothing
better than feeling confident. Yeah. You know, for years I wouldn't walk
into a room full of people or a restaurant or a bar by myself.
Really, I always just can't imagine for on me. It made me so
uncomfortable. Wow, that surprises me. Yeah. When I lived in Colorado,
I remember going to this There was a bar there, the Grizzly Rose
for anybody from Colorado, you know it. And I went to a concert
my friend had broke her ankle or something couldn't go with me like my concert
buddy, and so I went by myself and I just stood up against this
pillar in the back of the room like a wallflower, like nobody look at
me. Oh, say that is not the shearce. I know. I
was so self conscious that whole night. Yeah, I f gave me like
a whole new confidence that I had read so much. I love that Nick's
liver enzymes are perfect. Yeah, that is very exciting. Fatty liver gone.
I mean, that's that's one thing fasting will do for you. When
you're fasting, your body will clear out that fatty liver. Yeah. You
know, some people are just more prone to liver issues due to genetics,
but so much of liver issues is lifestyle straight up. Yeah. And even
if you are more prone to processed foods, yep, eating time. But
even if you are more prone to it genetically, fasting is the thing that
will help with it. Yep. Super great. All right, So now
we have a question from a listener, and this question is from Cortisol in
Canada, and the question is I started if at three hundred and sixty pounds
in August of twenty twenty two. I have been overweight since around ten years
old and have done many diets and lost and gained throughout my life. I
have lost two pounds sizes and two shirt sizes with IF, but am not
weighing because of my previous battles with the scale and how going up or down
affected me mentally. I feel great not weighing, and am focusing on eating
well, moving my body, and seeing my clothes get looser. I am
forty years old and my current protocol is a mixture of two to five hour
eating windows and some eighty f days, usually one down day per week.
Of course, this is jen adding in follow by an up day. I'll
make sure you're always follow a down divine up date. And then the question
goes on to say I am struggling with a lot of stress right now for
the past couple of months, and that is expected to last for quite some
time. I still have quite a bit of weight to lose. Like I
mentioned, I don't weigh, but I would say I still need to lose
about fifty to seventy pounds. I know fasting does put stress on the body,
and since I'm already stressed outside of fasting. I'm wondering if I'm better
off doing only daily eating windows because of the extra stress or cortisol from longer
fasts, or if I should continue with ADF days my current one day per
week, or even increase to two to three days per week. I would
like to continue my weight loss, but don't want to put increased stress on
my body if that would impede the loss. Thanks so much for your help
and suggestions. I truly appreciate all of the work you do to help others
who are struggling. Can I pop in something real quick before you answer,
Sherry, I don't think anybody should assume that fasting causes more stress and increased
cortisol. Well, see that, I was just getting ready to say.
I think that when you first start fasting that yes, that can feel like
stress on your body because you're doing something new and your body's learning something new.
But once you're adapted and you're fat adapted and you're metabolically flexible, I
don't feel like fasting is a stress on the body. Doesn't feel stressful to
me, right, And there's actually research out there that shows that intermittent fasting
improves afternoon cortisol levels. Yeah. See, I had my cortisol tested in
the past, just you know when as part of routine blood work, and
my cortisol's on the low end of normal. If fasting just generally raised cortisol,
you would think that I would, like, you know, have high
cortisol. But I think we shouldn't assume that that's one of those blanket statements.
Oh, fasting increases corsol. We've heard, you know, bantered around
in the in the community. You can get your cortisol tested if you think
you might have high cortisol, get it tested. Get your cortisol tested,
and then you don't have to worry. If your cortisol is high, you
will know. Yeah, And I did it years and years and years ago,
before cortisol was even like a thing. My doctor brought it up because
of some issues I was having. If you're stress, the best thing you
can do is support your body. And there's so much documentation out there that
really shows that, like what you put into your body affects how your body
manages stress and anxiety. You could get lost in the internet if you just
look up HPA axis dysfunction, if you look up the gut brain axis and
so much of it comes down to supporting your body through nutrition. So if
I was going to tell you to do anything, it's to really focus on
nutrition during this time to help your body during these times of stress, and
you know, practice some good stress management. If you're really worried about cortisol,
If for some reason you feel like this is something you need to worry
about, you can modify that by you know, cutting out caffeine or at
least you know, keep it in the morning, prioritizing sleep, turning off
blue lights for an hour before bed. You can take a B complex which
helps support you know, healthy adrenals. You can take magnesium which helps your
stress response. We talk about that a lot with bioptimizers, Magnesium breakthrough,
a rodeola supplement can help. You would want to take that in your window.
So vitamin C, vitamin d Omega three's, like, all of those
are things that are going to help your gut, help your brain, and
help your adrenals. But really focus on a healthy gut biome. Eat lots
of high fiber veggies, eat lots of plants, and all of that translates
into like a more supported system all over your gut, your brain, your
adrenals. It's going to help all of that, which in turn is always
going to help weight loss. I also saw this really interesting article that a
lower BMI translates to better cortisol levels and women, did you know that?
Jen? You know, I didn't know it, But it doesn't surprise me
because that makes a lot of sense. I wonder which is the cause and
the effect, Like they're correlated lower bm Maybe you have a lower BMI because
you have better cortisol lifestyle. I was going to say, or do you
have better lifestyle, you know, preventative measures like you already you know,
eat a healthier diet and you already get daily exercise or whatever, which translates
to a lower BMI, which also translates to better cortisol. I mean,
I just think it's that whole a healthy body fuels a healthy body kind of
I think so too. But what they do say is using calorie restriction diet
increases cortisol. So since with if we're actually not low calorie dieting and our
bodies are metabolically flexible and you have endless energy stores to pull from, I
just cannot get on the train of thought that fasting is bad for our body
in that way, I would say, do it feels good. Right.
If doing a thirty six hour fast feels stressful to you and you feel your
anxiety rising, don't do a thirty six hour fast. If it feels good
and it feels healing, keep doing that. Yep. If it takes stress
out of your day to not worry about what you're having in your window,
then do a thirty six hour fast. I think it always comes back to
your body's going to tell you whether it's good or bad, don't you think.
I really do think so. I think we can trust ourselves. And
like I talked about it at the beginning of this question, there's so much
information out there and so many rabbit holes you can go down, but your
body will let you know if what you're doing is good for you long term.
If you feel good, that is a very good sign. If your
fasting regiment feels like it is taking the stress away from your life, then
it probably is. Now. If you're overfasting and doing CrossFit and eating and
lowcal or dieting by accident in your eating window, that's not going to feel
good for very long and your body is going to let you know. But
the fasting. Part of it is not the problem. It's the over restricting
and all of it added together. Right, So fasting can relieve stress or
it can't add stress, depending on what else you're doing and how well you're
nourishing your body and caring for yourself. So I would just be very cautious
of any blanket statements like fasting raises cortisol, right, could it? Yes?
Is it raising yours? You would have to test your cortisol and see,
look at everything else that's going on. If you've got a lot of
stress in your life, fasting can actually help with that. Like when I'm
having periods of stress things that are going on in my life like moving and
you know, whatever I'm doing that might be stressful, fasting has actually helped
me through it instead of making the stress worse. But I also wasn't doing
like you know, extended fasting or ADF for adding more. I just had
an eating window that felt comfortable and I listened to my body. I agree,
you know, because if I wasn't doing if I would be meal prepping
and constantly on the search for the healthiest meals and researching that figuring out what
to eat or you know, fai stress or that's also so stressful. And
now it's like I'm busy. I'm a busy person. I probably lead a
kind of high stress life between my work and my other work. But I
don't feel stressed. And you know, one of the things that helps me
is that I have a daily routine. I wake up, I drink my
black coffee, and I fast until evening. And there's no thought put into
it. It's just what I do. It's not stressful, not at all.
But if you were thinking should I eat now? Should I not?
Is this stressing me out? That would stress you out? Stressing about the
stress would be stressful. Stop in the middle of my day to prepare a
healthy lunch that would be stressful. So I guess it just depends on what
feels like stress to you and then modify. You know what you're doing to
make you feel best. And if you feel like fasting is extra stressful,
you can relax your eating window if you feel like having it. Maybe you're
used to a four to five hour eating window, but now all of a
sudden, that feels like too much and you feel like you need a season
with an eight hour eating window to get through the stress. Because that you
really feel better to do that. You have permission to do that at any
time. Just really check in with yourself, you know. I also read
a fascinating article about kind of on the subject, a little off subject about
keto and why men do better on it than women. And it's really been
found that women really do need more carbs than men do. And it helps
support your mental health. It helps support your hormones. You know, if
you're feeling anxious, you know, sometimes you just need some good grains in
your window. It can really really help. And I know that sounds maybe
counterintuitive to what we've been taught. It doesn't can I want to pop something
in. I watched a video last week on YouTube YouTube still showing me nutrition
videos. I can't help myself faster that. It was a conversation between Paul
Saladino and Thomas Delour. And you know, Thomas Delawa puts out a lot
of content that was sometimes the bane of our existence on Facebook because people will
be like Thomas Delawar says, I could have Stevia, you know, that
sort of thing, and they'd be like, here's this video. And Paul
Saladino is the carnivore guy, right, and he has a whole book about
just eating meat, and this was a conversation between them. Neither of them
are of the mindset right now as of we're recording this in December of twenty
twenty three. As of this video that I watched, neither of them is
in the mindset right this minute that twenty four to seven katosis should be the
goal. Neither of them. I thought that was fascinating. Paul Saladino talks
about his personal journey of how and I just watched this video, so if
I get some of the details wrong, you can go check it out for
yourself. But he talks about how when he was carnivore, like really healed
him in many many ways, like he had eczema and then he healed his
gut and all of that, but he also found over time that his testosterone
tanked and some other things. His personal story, not mine, so I'm
just trying to remember what he said. But now he has incorporated fruit and
honey, and Thomas Delawer used to be hardcore keto and he now does more
carb cycling and keto days and then carbier days, and so I think it's
really really interesting. And again, you know, We've talked before about staying
in your diet silo. I respect people who have books out there that they've
written about certain topics, like Paul Saladino and carnivore, and he's like,
huh, I realized over time that my body does need some carbs and say,
oops, that's really impressive to me. So that that whole conversation between
those two guys impressed me a lot. And the whole mindset of we should
be in kytosis twenty four to seven, I never in my heart felt like
that seemed like what everyone should do. As I understand the benefits. I
understand maybe if you have Alzheimer's, maybe a neurological condition, if you have
epilepsy, you know, therapeutic ketones or one thing. But for the rest
of us, you know, I think it's interesting to talk about. I
think we are at the beginning of a nutritional revolution right now. I think
so too. We've been keto, keto, keto. I mean we were
like what Adkins in the early two thousands that switched to straight up like keto
and like what maybe two thousand and eight, two thousand and nine, and
we kind of went from this everybody needs ze low fat to everybody needs to
eat high fat, low carb, right. And I think what we are
really finding out now in the you know twenty twenty three isabolic flexibility is so
so important. We are learning more and more about the gut biome every single
year. And I mean this wasn't even a thing fifteen years ago. It
was just getting started. And you know, we know that to have a
healthy gut biome, you have to have diversity in your diet. I think
over the next three four years there's things we're going to flip in the diet
world. And really when you start looking at everybody's all the proponents of various
eating styles that you know work for them, or maybe they don't work for
them anymore, like partality, know, moving away from one hundred percent meat,
right, realizing his body did better with some carbs in there too,
and the fruit and the honey worked well for him. It's a matter of
understanding that all the people who are eating these different ways, they do come
back to real food, you know, real food for the wind. And
I think that's the main thing. Maybe we don't have to define how we're
eating like we're in a tribe, Like I'm I'm vegan, I'm whatever.
I eat real food most of the time. I do some minimint and fasting,
and I do what feels good. I am to lose the definitions and
the tribalism. The carnivor community got real mad at Paul's heality. No,
I don't know if you've seen any of that. I have not. They're
like super mad that someone would like dare to admit that you need carbs.
And I am not anti carnivore either. You know, if somebody has a
really really you know, their gut, has a leaky gut, so many
problems. I watched a vegan advocate talk about how carnivore could be healthy for
you if you've got a really unhealthy gut, and it can be part of
your healing journey. So you know, I'm not anti any way of eating.
It might be what your body needs therapeutically for a time, but maybe
not forever. I agree. I think that's why you really have to dig
deep and again listen to your body and see what is what's the feedback that
your body is giving you. And you know, it's funny I say that
my husband, for instance, is lactose intolerant, and that man spends more
time in the bathroom than anything I know, because he refuses to give up
cheese and dairy. Yeah, you know, I looked him the other day
and he was kind of complaining about it, and I said, honey,
you hold the power, right, Like, if you don't like this,
stop it. I mean, I think about Susan Potter for the nighties.
Stop the insanity, like stop fueling on straight cheese and milk if you are
lactose intolerant. But that's what he does. And I just shake my head
and I don't say a word on his twenty trips to the bathroom in the
evening. You know, I didn't give up alcohol till I was ready,
right. I got tired of waking up at three in the morning after two
glasses of wine with the anxiety, feeling like I had poisoned to my body.
That is how it felt, And I was like, why am I
doing this? I've got the pie, you know, I've got my call's
dreammate and her daughters and a friend. They're coming to the visit this weekend.
I'm so excited. I've got the champagne chilling. I'm not going to
have any and you're one hundred percent okay with that. I'm one hundred percent
okay with it. But I had to be ready. Yeah, that's the
key. So well, until my husband's ready, I just keep buying toilet
paper by the case. Oh goodness, well, we got to be ready.
You can't make somebody be ready for anything. I gotta be completely,
I mean, and he sees how I live and how I eat, and
I always think maybe one day, maybe one day. But goodness, dairy
is good, you know, my journey of diet brain and I love it,
dairius, but I'm not lactis intolerant. I put peas in risotto the
other day and he rebelled. I don't even like peas, but I put
him in there because they came with my Hello, fresh meal and I love
peace. And I was like, well, it's a vegetable, and if
I'm eating risotto, I should eat a vegetable. And I put it in
and my husband was like, you like peas, and he said, not
that many. Oh, I will eat just peas out of that of a
can. I mean, I just literally love them, you know, me
and my lagoons. All right, So now it's time for our segment called
What's Your Why? And you know, most of us begin intermittent fasting with
weight loss is a big part of our why, and there is nothing wrong
with that. That was certainly why I started, It's why Sherry started as
well. But there's so much more to what intermittent fasting can do for us
beyond weight loss. And in my new book available now, twenty eight day
fast Start day by day before you even begin, I ask readers to craft
their why statements, and when your why is deeper than weight loss alone,
you're more likely to find long term success and view intermittent fasting as a lifestyle.
So today we have a wife from Nancy. Nancy writes, weight loss
is part of my why. Of course, it would be something awesome to
not be obese for my entire adult life. I have been at a diet
since I was about twelve. Me too, Nancy. We have that in
common. Bigger than weight loss, however, is fear. There's only my
younger brother and me left. I would love to avoid Alzheimer's and diabetes.
Both my parents had that and fatty liver and heart issues which my sister had.
I already have high blood pressure. That is tough for even meds to
control. With the MTHFRG mutation, I'm predisposed for all sorts of issues that
I don't even understand. My biggest why is to stay independent for as long
as I can. Likely I'll be alone when I get to that point,
and it scares me to require total care from strangers, and it scares me
to go out alone. So longevity. My brother and I have agreed that
we're going to live to one hundred. My role model is my great aunt,
who passed at one hundred and six. Short term, I joke about
it, but I'd like to gain enough mobility back to be able to get
up off the floor without crawling to something. I know that the lack of
this ability sets me up for my failure in my previous wives, and that's
powerful. Nancy and I I recognize Nancy, of course from the delay.
Don't deny community. By the way, Sherry, Nancy has gotten me hooked
on my latest fast breaking what's that snack? Lima beans? Oh? I
saw her posting about that. She posted out lima beans that was like her
dinner, and so I was like, oh my god, Lama beans.
I had a can of Lama beans that I bought at some point, so
I heated them up, added a little butter, a little cream, salt,
and pepper. Oh my lord, they were delicious and satisfying. Nancy
as question, Yeah, are lima beans and butter beans the same thing?
There's a lot of different kinds of butter beans, And I really think,
okay, if I had to make a vendagreum, I think okay with elementary
teacher me, if I had to make it, and I could be wrong.
I am not a horticulturalist or a bean expert, even though I love
them. If I had to guess, I would make a big circle that
said all different kinds of butter beans, and inside it would be all the
types of limas. I think they're all like the same. Yeah, Oh,
I think that, Like, there's lots of different varieties of butter beans
and also varieties of limas, but they might all fit under the umbrella of
butter beans. Well, I'd never heard of butter beans till I moved to
the South, and then I went to a restaurant once and they had butter
beans on the menu, and I was like, oh, I love beans,
And then or maybe the circle would bema beans. I don't know.
The big circle might be lima beans, but they're all the similar kind of
beans, and they're like that there's something about them are uniquely satisfying to my
body. I don't know what it is, but that that mushiness, whatever's
in there, just makes me super happy. Anyway, I just had to
shout out to Nancy about inspiring me. They satisfy me a ton like I
can eat that, like I had the entire can. I had the little
baby limas with a little bit of cream, a little bit of butter,
salt, and pepper, and I was so satisfied from that. It made
me so happy. But I love Nancy's why. Yes, Yeah, And
I remember when her sister passed away, so I know that was really motivating
for her to really at that point she was kind of finding her way with
IF, and I think that was very motivating for her to stick with it
even when the scale hasn't cooperated the way she wants it to though. I
just saw her six month progress photos and she's doing great. She is doing
great, but healthy as we age. That is the most powerful why.
It's why I jump on my rebounder, It's why I run up and down
the stairs. You know, we want to be healthy. We have another
question, and this was sent in by Denise and Colorado. This is a
book. Oh actually it's not a question. It is a book recommendation.
She said, I'd like to recommend a book called Aging Backwards Fast Track,
Six Ways and Thirty Days to Look and Feel Younger by Miranda Esmond White.
Would you say, Esmond Hm? I guess that seems to go at the
end anyway, She says, it's about eccentrics, which is the feel good
aging backwards exercise technique I love. She said, I discovered fast fees Repeat
four months ago in the library and started IF the next day. I'm super
excited to have found the aging backwards way to eat. I've only lost eight
pounds so far, and I would love to lose five more. But I
plan to stay for it with life, along with doing eccentrics for life.
I used to be a gym rat and I was lifting weights and doing hiit
three times a week. I call it hit me too, hit right,
and after a while I had pretty much constant muscle pain in my upper body.
I heard Miranda speak on PBS about how exercise should be enjoyable, yes,
and make you feel better. Yes. I started adding a little bit
of eccentrics to my life, but it took me a while to let go
of the no pain, no gain mentality and finally quit the exercises that were
hurting me. Eccentrics keeps my muscles strong with no pain. One of the
main rules in eccentrics is don't do anything that hurts. It should be easy,
just like IF. I think they go together very well as an aging
backwards lifestyle. I'm excited to see where adding if will take me and my
aging backwards lifestyle as well. I should add that there is a short version
of eccentrics on PBS pretty much every day called Classical Stretch. Most libraries have
eccentrics DVDs you can check out. There are a few full workouts for free
on the internet. If you go to accentrics dot com you can learn more
and they have a streaming service that has around four hundred eccentrics workouts of all
types and a variety of instructors. And there are also some instructors who teach
in person classes around the world. So I was intrigued and I had to
look it up because that's what I do. So I what it is.
It says it's influenced by the flowing movements of tai chi, the strengthening theories
behind ballet, and the healing principles of physiotherapy. Accentris promotes a pain free
body, greater joint mobility, a healthy cardiovascular system, maximum range of motion,
and a perfect posture. I sounds like something everybody should do. I
know, I'm thinking I'm gonna look into it. Now, here's how you
spell it everybody, in case you're like, what it's E S S E
N T R I C S acentric I put I put a link in show
notes to that good. That'll help. Let me while I while I say
that, let me just say, people will send me emails saying that they
heard us say there's a link in show notes, but they don't know where
to find show notes. So whatever app you're listening on, if you click
on the app, I mean like, if you click where you're listening,
it's in the about information about the show. It's it's on there wherever you're
listening, Yeah, it's down there. It should be there. Like if
you if your show is open and you go to your thing I mean it
just scrolled down. It should be there. You may have to click like
I mine. I have to click Seemore and when I say Seymour, the
entire show notes opens up. If you are listening from our website, the
show notes are right there under the player. Ye also Apple podcasts, and
all you have to do is just scroll down and everything like the hyperlinks are
linkable. You just click them. You scroll down on Apple yep. You
just go from wherever you're listening and you just scroll down for that episode and
there they are in the show notes. Okay, so yeah, they should
be there. We put out show notes every single week. If we tell
you there's LinkedIn show notes there there and if you ever can't find them,
just go to fast feesrepeat dot com. There's a link with all of our
show notes there. Yeah, all of them are there. But I like
the sound of that. And exercise should be pain free. I think that's
so important. You know, we've been trained in the whole you know,
no pain, no gain. Pain is your body's way of saying so it's
not right. It's like you remember, I hurt my back last October,
like I pulled it in a weird way, and wrenched it. And then
I was like, oh, I can work this out. And then I
hurt mine like three days later. Yes, but I was like, I
can this is just it's clenched. I can work it out. So I
went for a two mile or I don't even know, maybe four mile walk
on the beach. I can't remember. I walked a long time on the
beach. Then I got on my vibration plate and then it got so bad
that it was the worst back pain of my life. And what I really
should have done is rest it. I'm like, oh, you don't work
out back pain, you let it heal. I mean, sometimes a gentle
walk is very helpful for about well this was not This was not the right,
not on the beach where it's not level. I was like, oh,
it's tight. I didn't realize what was really going on, but you
know, the pain was my body's way of saying, you need to rest
your back, not work out, And boy did it send me some pain
for the next few days. The worst pain I've ever been into my life,
honestly was that those few days of pain. But I'm gonna look up
eccentrics. You know, I get bored with an exercise routine I talked about
I was doing tai chi. I did it for a few weeks and then
I was like, all right, I'm tired of it. What's wrong with
me? I don't think there's anything wrong with you. I just think you
like adventure, and so once you've done something a few times, you're kind
of like, Okay, done that, over that, move on, moving
on. You need the next thing to well. I do, and my
brain needs to be more active in things. That's why I can jump on
my rebounder every single day, or stand up my vibration plate every single day
while there's something on the TV and I'm watching it, I'm engaged in.
Your brain's occupied. My brain is occupied. But I mean that says a
lot about me. I guess one of my flaws is that my brain has
to stay occupied. That's why meditation is a challenge for me. You know,
maybe that's not my greatest strength, and I need to slow my brain
down, and tichie is exactly what I need. But in the meantime,
I'm jumping on my rebounder. You know. I just was reading something about
the vegus nerve, and one of the things that said that your vagus nerve
is overstimulated. Is if you have a hard time being still and quiet to
meditate, Yeah, and that you should do some vegas nerve exercises to calm
your vegas nerve. So there is one meditation I can do that works well.
It's a Joda spends a meditation. And I tried a bunch of different
meditations. Jodahs spends. He is researching these science of metadation and how it
changes our bodies and good stuff. I heard him speak in What Yours that
it's twenty twenty three right now. I heard him speak in twenty twenty two
in October and it was fascinating. But he's got a meditation. It's free
on Apple Music. It's the Morning Meditation. It's got the music and the
what you do where he has you think about like the space between your ears.
It sounds crazy, but it actually I can tell it's it's calling my
brain really that Joe Despends a morning meditation is the only one I can do,
and I really do feel a difference when I do it. It's you
know, it's scientifically designed, whereas you know the other ones you listen to
are just like people talking and whatever. And they just don't don't do anything
for me. Yeah, I think that's maybe why I do yoga. Like
I can do yoga. I still had to teach myself to do yoga,
but I can do yoga because it's physical, Like I'm moving my body while
being calm and quiet and still and you're so focused on your body and your
breathing and there, and like that's really the most still I can be.
And if I was not moving my body like that, like if I hold
a post too long, my brain starts to wander. That's when it's time
to move to the next post. But yeah, I think it's about learning.
You know what works for you and what doesn't work for you. But
as I was reading that, I was like, Okay, there's no way
I do tai chi. It's too still and slow. But when they started
talking about ballet and stuff in there too, made me think I need to
look that up. I also wanted to talk about the title of that book
that Denise recommended, Aging Backwards fast Track Six Ways and Thirty Days to Look
and Feel Younger, because I love that. Denise said that she's found the
aging Backwards way to eat as well, because we often say that people in
our community are aging backwards. They'll put up a photo and it is just
remarkable. They're after photo, they look so much younger. It's been there
before photo. Even if they haven't lost a ton of weight, people look
like they're aging backwards. So I think intermittent fasting is our secret weapon.
No, it absolutely is not so secret. Yeah, if you want to
improve your life in so many ways. If you're listening, you haven't started
minute fasting and you're like, I don't know if that's for me. I
don't know how they do that or whatever. If you're vain at all,
intermittent fastings for you, you're gonna look better. You never look back,
You're gonna glove your eyes, never lot better. Yep. We talked about
Nancy a few minutes ago that you know, longevity and aging, well,
that's one of her main focuses. And you know she has not seen the
scale go down as quickly as she would have liked to see it go down.
But she shared her progress photos this week and like her face is,
her face is, it's transformed. She looks like she's lost. You would
think she'd lost fifty pounds, you would from looking at her from fast to
face. I don't know what she's down. I can't remember, but I
mean it's not fifty pounds, but she looks like she looks like she is
aging backward. And you can't see it necessarily in yourself when you're looking in
the mirror every day. It's when you take those progress photos that we want
you to take that you'll see them. So take those photos, take those
before photos, even if you don't like them. One day you're going to
be like, oh my gosh, look at that difference. Yes, one
hundred percent. You know what I always find interesting when people post their face
to face photos is how many people are like, I think my nose is
smaller, And it's true. We see people's noses get like like, who
would think that when you gain weight your nose gets broader and bigger. But
you see so many people and their eyes are bigger, eyes always smaller every
time. Yeah, we see the eyes popping out and jawlines pop out really
quickly. So I love it. Before we get to the tweak of the
week, I just want to share a bit about my beauty counter journey.
I know you guys have heard me talk about it, so I just want
to share how I came across it. I had a friend who was on
her own health journey, and she found out that she has the BRCA one
G mutation, which increases her risk of breast cancer, and she also has
the mtahfr mutations, which Nancy talked about earlier, which means her body doesn't
detox well. In an effort to make lifestyle changes included cleaning up the products
she used to non toxic versions. She discovered beauty Counter and she loved it
so much, and she kept encouraging me to try it, but I resisted,
mainly due to the price of getting started going to be you know,
I really listened it too. Right when when someone first told me about it,
I'm like, I like what I have, It's fine. I didn't
want to switch. It might have been the same friend, No, I
have. The same friend was definitely Melanie. Melanie who told me about it.
Yeah. Well, so then I did my own genetic testing and I
discovered that I too have the mthf far mutation, and that explained so much
about my health over the years, and I too, made it a priority
to clean up my life from toxins like balats and fragrances which are known in
crensystem disruptors. And I also wanted to remove any potential carcinogens for my beauty
products. Since I don't detox well, I want to make sure that I'm
not putting things on or in my body that my body can't clear. And
until I started researching, you know all of these beauty products and all the
harmful chemicals and intercrine system disruptors are in them, I just had no idea
how many of these products make their way into like our everyday beauty routine.
So for Christmas of twenty twenty, I made the decision to switch my beauty
routine over to beauty Counter. It ended up being a cost effect to switch
for me, because first I discovered that you could pay with Klarna, which
is a pay and four plan, so you split your initial investment up over
four interest free payments, and new customers get a really nice discount to get
started. And best of all, the products are so effective that I stopped
searching for the holy Grail of products. You know how that works. You
buy a product only to hate it ends up in a drawer while you try
the next best thing. Beauty Counter ended my hunt for those product. People
started commenting on how great my skin looked by February, and beauty Counter products
are super concentrated, meaning that they last a really long time. So I
started with the Counter timeline, which is designed for aging skin, and I
did not have to replace any of my products for nearly a full year the
following December. So once you're a customer, you'll be invited to their best
sales throughout the year, usually one in the spring, one in the fall,
which is the perfect time to try out other products or stock up for
the coming year. You can become a Band of Beauty member, which is
kind of like Amazon Prime for beauty Counter, earning credit back on every purchase
to be used later, and you get free shipping when you spend a certain
amount. If you're interested in cleaning up your beauty routine, I cannot recommend
beauty Counter enough. Check out my link and show notes or send me an
email at share a fastbeastrepeat dot com and I am very happy to help you
get started. Yeah, it was when I was researching for Cleanish that I
realized, oh, it really does matter, you know. We Cleanish came
out in twenty twenty one. I was writing Cleanish throughout twenty twenty. Yes,
it came out officially in January of twenty twenty one. Okay, and
I had just switched to Beauty Counter at that point as I was reading Cleanish,
I was like, actually, it might have been when I read my
preview copy that you had sent to me. That's what really prompted me to
switch, because I started reading about the forever chemicals and everything and just one
least thing to worry about. And now it's time for our tweak of the
week. You know how 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. That's why it's super helpful to hear how other intermittent fasters are making
intermittent fasting work for them. And I also want to point out that the
tweak that works for you in one season of your life might not be the
one that you need in a different season of your life as time goes on.
So having that toolbox to pick and choose from is super helpful. So
this tweak was submitted by Kayleen and the Delayed on the Night community, and
I love this one. It's called self care. She said, Hey,
beautiful people, I am just checking in with you. Nine days ago,
I made a post about my struggles and got some great feedback about self care.
I want to let you know how wonderful my week has been. I
decided my first step would be to introduce journaling to my day. I've always
loved journaling, so knew this would be a great place to start for me.
Each entry started with the day number and the reminder that I am focusing
on self love. Today's started with day nine self healing. I have decided
that I'm going to add something to my self care routine each week. This
week, I've added flossing, nothing big and nothing food focused for now,
because this is my biggest issue and I do not want to set myself up
to fail. Already, I see an amazing difference to my self talk.
I've been to the gym a couple of days. I don't get mad if
I eat something I wish I didn't. I'm still a wayre and I do
not let the number bother me. This first step has been such a positive
thing to do, and I'm so grateful to this community. So thank you
everyone. I saw that she posted that in the community, and she didn't
call it tweak of the week. She just called it self care. And
I'm like, this is a tweak, a tweak of the week. So
I asked her, you know, we will always ask permission if we can
share something that you share in the community, but she said that we could,
and I just thought that was beautiful because when you approach life through the
lens of how am I caring for myself, it really changes everything. Not
like I'm eating these lima beans because they're good for me, but I'm eating
these lima beans because I'm nourishing my body and they're good for me. Notice
my tone, I'm eating I'm doing this because it's good for me, versus
I'm doing this because it's good for me. Same words. But whether you're
feeling like I'm fasting because I need to lose weight or I'm fasting because it
makes me feel good. Right, But even like the mentality that you are,
the words you're saying, I'm fascinating because it's good for me, but
you don't really it doesn't feel like self care. It just feels like,
you know, like the flaw thing right right, like a drudgery. But
shifting it to really be self love and self care. Like real belief,
self care translates to self love. I think. I think so too.
Yeah, I like it's hard to have self love if you're not practicing self
care. The spirit with which you tell it to yourself matters. Yep,
I love that. Well, thank you Kayleen for sharing that. Thank you,
Kayleen. The part that also really made me excited is that she had
made a post nine days prior to this one. She was struggling, and
the community rallied around her and gave her some great ideas and that really made
a difference. Yeah. I was trying to remember what her original post was
and I couldn't remember. But yeah, our community's great at giving the little
ideas for getting through challenges exactly. Well, we'd love to leave you with
an inspiration or motivational quote, and this week message comes from Nancy. Nancy
Game Nancy, Save the episode of Nancy. I just love this Nancy.
I love Nancy. Yes. Yes, she called herself the turtle the other
day and I said, well, I love turtles, Yeah you do.
She is working to overcome perfectionist tendencies that do not serve her. So she
is reading a book called how To be an Imperfectionist The New Way to Self
Acceptance, Fearless Living and Freedom from Perfectionism by Stephen geiss So. She shared
a great quote from the book and several people in the community related to it.
The quote is, we make the grave air of redefining partial success as
failure if it isn't whole and complete. We find it embarrassing at best and
humiliating at worst. Nancy asked, is this you? It certainly is me,
And it's true. We get caught up in thinking that if we don't,
you know, do everything to our best. You know, if we
try something and it's not a success the first time that we failed, and
nobody becomes successful without failures along the way. Y, that's what makes you
grow and learn and evolve. It's true. 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 Sherry, 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're 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,