Episode 13: What is the Clean Fast? Gin and Sheri Explain, and Answer Some Common Questions

Welcome the Fast Feast, Repeat, Intermitt and Fasting for Life. I'm Jen
Stevens, author of the New York Times bestseller Fast Feast Repeat, and I'm
Sherry Bullock, longtime Intermitting 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 Intermit and
Fasting or an experienced Intermitten Faster, or tune in each week to get inspired,
to learn, and to have some fun along the way. Hi,
everybody, we are so glad you're here today. Welcome to this week's episode
of the Fast Feast, Repeat, Intermitt and Fasting for Life podcast. How
are you doing today, Sherry, I'm doing well. I'm glad to hear
it. I'm not in the eye of a hurricane, in the path of
a hurricane. I guess I should say, well, I am idalia and
it's coming, so I really am thinking about the people in Florida because Hurricane
Ian taught us last year. Well that was the first one I've ever been
here for and it was just category one, So it was supposed to hit
a part of Florida that's never been hit directly and recorded history with the three
possibly category four. So I'm really really, of course, you know,
thinking about everybody on the coast of Florida. By the time it gets to
us in the next twelve to twenty four hours, we're going to have a
lot of rain, but it will maybe it will have been over land.
The problem is that's hitting us at the time when we're having what's called a
king tide, which is has to do with a full moon and a really
extra extra high tide. There's already flooding going on from that down in the
flood prone parts of the Grand Strand. So we're going to get a double
weemy with that. So we are going to move our cars so they don't
get flooded. But we're not expecting huge amounts of wind damage, just maybe
some minor flooding here in Florida are That's where you know, I'm really it
hadn't fully passed by them yet, so I'm thinking about everybody in the path.
So by the time this podcast episode comes out, it will be well
in the it's like a month from now. But yeah, I just feel
like Florida gets hammered year after a year after week. Well they do.
It's it's where they're located. That's where that hot air, I mean,
the hot water of the ocean down there just fuels. That's what fuels the
hurricanes, and so they get it from all the directions. Just when you
you and your my mom both told me about the hurricane. I live in
a little bubble. I go to work and that's where I'm at for the
weekend. And I don't even have cable TV, so I don't watch the
weather channel or the news. I have no idea. I get my news
from Gin and I was like, can we record earlier because of the hurricane
shares, Like what hurricane? That's me. I gotta go take my card
and won't parking at Will's house so it won't flood because I would not be
happy if my car flooded. I started thinking that it's early, but then
I realized it was four years ago, like this week that we have this
moderator retreat at Jen's house. The week that she moved into our new house
in twenty nineteen, and it all got diverted from where we were going to
meet Hurricane Dorian to Jen's house. Yeah yeah, and that was four years
ago. So I'm like, well, I guess it's right on target.
This is the time it is. And Hurricane Ian that was also started with
an eye, and here we are with Adalia starts with an eye, you
know, because it's sequential from a So this is right when they start to
get to the point that they're starting to hit. Yeah. So Hugo was
the worst one that hit this area and it started with an h So we
were right. And they're like, September is really end of August getting into
September when it's yeah yeah, yeah. So anyway, I hope, I
hope everyone listening was safe and made it through the people in the Florida area.
I just I hate to watch all that I know. Well, before
we get started with our weekly celebration, I just want to take a quick
minute. Somebody reached out to us with a question through our submission form,
and I just want to answer it really quick. So she mentioned that she
often hears as say that we have a link in show note or a resource.
Like sometimes we'll have studies and we'll say we have the link in show
notes, she doesn't know where to find them. So no matter what podcast
player you listen to, whether it's Spotify or Apple or Audible, doesn't really
matter. If you click on the actual show and you go to it's gonna
be different. It's gonna say show details or whatever, but there'll be a
little blurb about the show and sometimes you have to click a button that says
seymore, and within that you're going to find all the resources, any links
we have. If we talk about a book, I'm trying really hard to
make sure that I put a book link in there so that you can refer
back to it, so it's always going to be on the podcast player,
or you can always go to our website, Fast Feast Repeat dot Com.
Go to the episodes tab and you can see the show notes for every episode
we have ever corded and released. Yea, all there. If you're having
a hard time finding it in your podcast player, just go to fast Feast
Repeat dot com because it's all there, it's all linkable, it's all clickable,
and you can even listen to it right there on our website. If
you'd want to, you absolutely yep. So let's dive into our weekly celebration.
Today. Celebration comes from Elizabeth Eppling in Florida. I hope you're okay,
Elizabeth. So. Elizabeth is a member of the DDD community online,
and so she wrote just the day that I was preparing this podcast. That
day she wrote this, and Jen and I both were on the same train
of thought, where like, we have to share this with our listeners,
she said, Hi, everyone. I posted here in March of this year
because I had hit rock bottom with life at two hundred and thirty pounds.
I was scheduled for weight loss surgery in May, but I was having second
thoughts about the gastric sleeve surgery. I had done intermittent fasting before, but
I mainly just dabbled, and I never really fully committed. Even though I
had stretches of sticking to it for several months at a time, I was
still viewing it as a diet with an end goal and a wagon to fall
off of. I received such great advice from the community on that post that
I even screenshot at many of the comments, and I refer back to them
often. I've been fasting consistently ever since then, anywhere from eighteen to twenty
two hours daily, and I'm down thirty pounds so far. I'm not close
to my goal yet, but I feel like I've relaxed into the process and
I know it will happen. Thank you to Gin and to everyone in this
wonderful community. I finally have hope that I can do this. And I
know y'all can't see this, but she posted pictures and I'm just gonna tell
you the pictures are astonishing, and to me, they looked like way more
than thirty pounds. She said, she's a long way to goal, and
I thought, you're not that far from goal, not as far as you
think, right. And that's the thing about body recomposition. When you're fasting
clean, your body is going to be different than it was at that way
before because you will have preservedly in muscle mass. And that same exact thing
today on my podcast episode for intermitt and Fasting Stories that I recorded today,
she was talking about how she would like to lose you know, X number
more pounds, but she's fitting in clothes that she wore before, the exact
clothes when she was down fifteen to twenty pounds, right, she's the same
size that she was fifteen to twenty pounds previously. Yep, we hear that
all the time because, yeah, well, such a difference. I love
this story so much because Elizabeth was feeling so desperate and that is so easy
to do in this world, especially if you see your friend who's losing weight
really fast or something and you feel desperate because you're not losing weight quickly and
you're like, I just need something. I need to have surgery, I
need to do these medications. And it always makes me so happy when someone
does not go that route. Well, and I always say, like,
give intermitt and fasting a solid six months of real effort, like Debty,
hey, your life to intermitt and fast and become an intermitt faster. Give
it six months, and I guarantee you it's going to change your life.
Are you going to reach goal in six months? Maybe not, Maybe it
depends on how much way you have to lose, but it's going to change
your life in so many ways in six months beyond the scale. Well,
so today we're going to do the question of the week a little bit differently.
We actually have a lot of questions about the same subject. And this
is something that has come up for years and years and years and years,
so many questions about clean fasting. So you might have heard us talk about
the term. You hear us refer to clean fasting a lot, but it
has come to our attention that not everybody really knows what it means and what
the importance of it is. And today we're going to kind of get into
that because we just want to clear that up. So, like Debra and
Phoenix asked, what is clean fasting, I keep hearing the term, but
I'm not sure what that means. So in addition to Debra's questions, have
a lot more regarding the clean fast and what specifically breaks a fast. So
we're going to discuss this term, why it's important, and I'm gonna let
Jin just take off from here and explain this all right. Well, first
of all, I want to give a little history of the term the clean
fast. We actually came up with that term and the Delayed on Deny and
I'm written fasting support group on Facebook in twenty seventeen. It was after I
had written Delight on Deny. I did not use the term clean fasting and
delight on Tony because I hadn't come up with that term yet, but I
started using it in twenty seventeen just because there was so much conflicting information out
there, and so people would join our group after being in other places where
lemon water was okay or it was fine to put artificial sweeteners in your coffee.
In your coffee, butter in your coffee. That was really big back
then, and I'm like, no, we do that differently here. We
believe your fast should be clean. So we just started referring to it that
way. That distinguished us from all the other advice out there, and so
over time that just part of our LINGO. Well, you know how the
world is. So when we came up with the idea of clean fasting,
people started saying that in other places. So then that people are like,
oh, well, then there must be something called dirty fasting, which is
my least favorite phrase in the world. I'm really excited about the phrase clean
fast and that I brought that into the world, but I'm not excited about
the phrase dirty fast because we like to think that if there's one thing,
there has to be the opposite. If there's something called the clean fast,
there has to be something called a dirty fast. But actually, in this
case, I don't think so. The opposite of clean fasting is you are
not fasting exactly. You're either a fasting clean or you're not fasting. And
if you're if you're not really sure, Let's think about if you had to
go have surgery or fasted blood work and the phlebotomist, you know you should
have been in a fasted state before this blood work or before this surgery.
There's no gray area of well, I put a little butter in my coffee,
is that okay? Or I had a diet coke? Is that okay?
It's not okay? And so you know, the clean fast is the
fasted state. We want to stay in the fasted state, and we want
to make sure that we are not putting anything into our bodies. It's going
to interrupt that. So when I write fast, feast, Repeat, I
did a much better job explaining it, and I thought, Okay, how
can I explain this in a way that will help people understand why we fast
clean? And so the idea of the three fasting goals was born. And
so let's think about our three fasting goals. And by the way, I'm
going to give you just the highlights of this if you have not read Fast
Feast Repeat. I have two whole chapters in that book on the Clean Fast.
The first is the why, which I'm going to go into now,
and then the second one is the how, and I'll also briefly get into
that, but it's obviously a lot longer than I can talk about in five
minutes, so you need to read Fast Feast Repeat. I've got links to
some of the research in the back. Also, there's a whole section where
people share their stories of why the Clean fastminated different for them. So all
that is in Fast Feast Repeat. So what are the three fastening goals?
When you understand this, you understand why you don't want to mess this up.
Okay, So the first fastening goal is we want to keep insulin low.
You have heard Sherry and I talk about insulin before. Why do we
want to keep insulin low? Well, because high levels of insulin are associated
with storage. We store things when we have a lot of insulin in our
bodies. Insulin is a storage hormone. But if we're fasting, we want
to be burning fat. We want to be tapping into our fat storage for
fuel. We don't want to be trapped in storage mode, so we want
to keep our insulin as low as possible. Fasting goal one, keep insulin
low. Well, what causes our bodies to release insulin? One thing that
can do that is eating food, So we don't eat food while we're fasting.
Right, that sounds like a no brainer, although Sherry and I have
seen people say as long as it's under fifty calories, it doesn't break a
fast. No. Food is food. Food is food. Try saying that
to the people. If you're going to have surgery, well, I just
ate forty nine calories of pizza. Is that okay? No, it's not
okay. So food would would obviously cause your body to release insulin. But
also this is where our brains come into play. Our brains control a lot
of things, and our bodies obviously controls our body works and taste connects to
our brain. There's something called the cephalic phase insulin response. So let's imagine
you're living a thousand years ago and you're out in nature and you find some
fruit. You're eating the fruit, you taste the fruit, your brain says,
oh, we know it's sugar's coming. We're gonna need some insulin to
deal with the blood sugar that's about to go up. So your brain tells
your pancreas to release some insulin. You have a cephalic phase insulin response.
Well, here we are in twenty twenty three, and we have managed to
manufactor a bunch of things that taste like food and taste like sugar, but
they're not diet sodas. All these flavored waters, rudy flavored teas. If
you taste something and the message goes to your brain that something sweet or something
food like is coming in, it is going to cause us aphalic phase insulin
response or pancras is going to pump out some insulin. And that's what we
don't want. We do not want insulin to go up. Do you know
I did this to myself yesterday? Go ahead, what did you do?
I? And I'm gonna just tell you guys. I felt awful, and
I felt awful for hours. I was doing a thirty six hour fast and
my husband and I were going to go get something to eat, and so
I made some iced tea to go because after we ate, we're gonna run
a bunch of errands. And so I had my stanley mug full of iced
tea, and I thought, oh, I'm thirty six hours fasted. I'm
gonna put lemon in my tea because you were it was okay to open your
window. It was okay because I was open my window right and we were
we were directly going to get some food. Well, I drank, you
know, several slugs of that tea, and then at the last minute,
my husband decided, oh, we better go the chiropractor before we go eat
because he was going to close early. So we went to the chiropractor.
An hour later. We get in the car to leave the chiropractor, and
I was almost in a coma. I mean, like my blood sugar had
dropped so low that I could hardly keep my eyes open. And even after
I ate, I was so lethargic and brain foggy and just felt awful that
I actually had to do some exercise just to like get things moving and get
some blood pumping and use up some you know, use some blood sugar.
I mean, don't when we say that you will feel awful. If you
quote unquote dirty fast, you will feel awful. It is not a good
feeling. And one caveat is because your blood sugar was low because you were
in the fastest state right when you had the cephalic phase infulin response from the
lemon. Then your pancreas pumped out some infulin. Infulin lowered your blood sure,
which is what insulin does. Because your blood sugar was already on the
lower side. You felt great because you were fasting fast and clean until the
lemon came in, but it lowered it below where you felt good. I
had to explain all of that to my husband because he didn't understand why it
felt so awful. The caveat is, let's imagine there's someone who was running
around with chronic high blood sugar like it's one forty because you're diabetic, and
then you drink something like a diet coke and insulin lowers your blood sugar a
little bit. You're not going to feel it because it's not lowered to the
point that it makes you feel shaky. So feeling it isn't the only sign.
And sometimes it can happen and you don't feel it. But Sherry felt
it because her blood sugar was already low enough. And I'm very insolent sensitive,
So which happens the longer you fast, yep, and so not feeling
it is not an excuse like, well, I put lemon in my water
all day and I feel fine, so it must be okay. No,
if only we had a continuous insulin monitor and we could actually see the effect
of what it was doing. But we can't. You can't necessarily feel it.
Whether you feel it or not, the insulin release is happening right in
the minute you do that. Think about your fat. It's burning in a
furnace, and you drink something sweet, or you eat something food like like
milk in your coffee, whatever, that furnace shuts down, right, You
just turned that furnace off. Insulin is anti lipolitic. I did not make
that word up. Anti means against Lippoltic has to do with you knowlpolsis or
fat burning. So high levels of insulin keep your body from burning fat.
Also, I want to mention there was somebody in the community yesterday who shared
about her friend who was not fasting clean and losing weight a lot more rapidly
than her. You saw that post, and she was also like, this
is not fair. My friend is dirty fasting, which of course I hate
that word. But my friend is having creamer and all the stuff and lemon
in her water, and she's dropping weight like crazy. I'm like, yeah,
but she's probably burning a lot of muscle because she's not tapping into her
fat, so she's going to lose a lot more rapidly. We've all done
that with low calorie diets, Sherry, And I never told you internet and
fasting is the quickest way to drop scale pounds in the world. Nope,
but it's the best way to burn your body fat with the clean fast,
so that doesn't always show up on the scale anyway. So you do not
want to have a cephalic phase insulin response. We want to keep our insulin
low, so we only stick to things that are not going to stimulate insulin
release. Plain water, plain sparkling water, no flavors, black coffee,
plain teeth. Those have a bitter flavor profile. Bitter flavor profile does not
stimulate an insulin response. And that's why we're not drinking the flavored coffee and
all of that, because that cinnamon roll coffee. Your brain's like, oh,
I know what cinnamon rolls are. Insulin response, all right, that's
fast, and goal one fast and goal two is we want to tap into
our stored fat for fuel, and the only way to do that is by
not putting more fuel in. So the good news is Sherry that even websites
like Diet Doctor that used to promote bulletproof coffee with butter and MCT oil and
coconut oil, they're like, oh, even the keyto community is starting to
realize that was not helpful. So the diet doctor guy had a whole talk
that I watched on YouTube, or he's like, I no longer put that
stuff in my coffee because turns out that wasn't really helpful. So to tap
into our stored fat for fuel, we do not put in any source of
fuel. We don't put in butter or MCT oil. And someone who's telling
you that the NCT oil is going to make you burn more fat, they're
probably trying to sell you their NCT oil. I don't know. I'd rather
burn the fat from my body than the fat from my coffee cup. So
don't put in exogenous keytones or any of that. So to tap into your
stored fat for fuel, you need to have a reason to by not putting
it into your body. The cream. All of that all right, and
the third fasting goal is we would like to have increased autophogy that comes with
fasting. Autophogy is our body's cellular housekeeping, and so what would slow down
autophogy? Protein slows it way down and eating, So that would be an
indication of why you wouldn't want to consume bone broth. You know, for
a while there was a whole trendy thing people were thinking bone broth was part
of a fast, but it's not. It's food for the body, it's
full of protein. It's going to turn off autophogy. So basically all of
those things, whether it's even if it's like diet sodas, lemon in your
water, flavored teas, flavored coffee, bone broth, butter in your coffee,
instead of being a fast, you're now doing a low calorie diet.
And so can you lose weight doing a low calorie diet, Yes, you
might actually lose it more quickly, but again it's because insulin's insulin is antilopolitic.
You may be burning valuable muscle tissue. That is not what we want.
So to preserve muscle to make sure you're tapping into fat, you want
to fast clean well, not only that, you want to support a healthy
metabolism because if you are not fast and clean, and yes, you may
drop this twenty pounds, but you're going to lower your metabolic rate. You're
not improving your insulin resistance, which is one of the leading drivers of obesity.
You're not getting the metabolic health renewal, the metabolic boost like none of
that, like healing inside that you can't see on the scale is happening.
And what we see time and time again, And I experienced this myself before
I found delay. Don't deny, was weight regain after you lose it?
Yeah, because basically all you're doing is a low calorie diet, and we
all know low calorie diets are not sustainable. And you start to gain back
weight usually what you lost, and you know they bring along five more pounds
usually. Yeah, that happened to me. Before I read the Obesity Code
in twenty sixteen, I had already lost seventy five pounds. I wasn't fast
and clean because I hadn't read the Obesity Code. I'd never heard of insulin
other than in the whole scheme of like type two diabetes or type one diabetes.
I'd never heard of the insulin response. Then I read the Obesity Code,
and I was like what, I had already lost the weight, but
I white knuckled it every single day. And as soon as I read the
Obesity Code, switched to black coffee instead of coffee with stevia and cinnamon,
and I stopped drinking the dit sodas I stopped with the flavored water. All
of a sudden, I was no longer white knuckling it, and I had
started to regain weight. So if I had not read the Obesity Code and
started fasting clean, I predict I would have stopped fasting and regained all the
weight. Instead, I lost more weight and had been maintaining since twenty fifteen,
well twenty sixteen after I read the Obesity Code and started fast and clean,
but I've been maintaining ever since. Thank you, Thank you Clean Fast.
It changed everything, all right. So that was my crash course in
the Clean Fast. So really for a deeper dive, read Fast Feast,
repeat the clean fast section. Plain coffee, plain tea, nothing added bitter
flavor profile, plain water, plain sparkling water, bam yep. So we
could answer questions all day, every day about the clean Fast, and we
have. We used to do it in the Facebook group. But today I
just pulled some of the most common questions from listeners that were submitted about the
Clean Fast, and so we're just going to go through them just to help
you better understand the whys and why not. It's okay, so let's start
with this one that we get asked a lot. Does Himalayan salt break a
fast? I find it helps me to stay hydrated if I suck on one
or two granules before I drink my first class of water. So minerals do
not interrupt any of those three fasting goals. They don't keep you from happen
into stord fat, they don't cause an insulin response, they do not affect
your autophogy. So minerals do not stop anything that we want to keep going,
so they do not technically break a fast. No, that being said,
salt makes me hungry. So you can absolutely have salt in your water
or suck on a crystal of it. It's fine for you, it's not
breaking the fast, but if you're like me, it makes me starving,
and so that doesn't work for me. I don't know why it makes me
starving, but it does. Well. Salt seems to go two ways,
and they're actually research studies that show different things. And I think this comes
back to bio individuality. They say, sometimes when people are hungry, they're
really sort of dehydrated, and to get rehydrated, you don't just need water.
You often need other minerals with your water so that your body can use
it appropriately. So you can try salt and if it helps you, great.
So many people will say, you know, my last two hours are
my fast. If I do a little salt water, some granules of salt,
I can get through the last two hours and I feel great. Other
people say, salt makes me hungry, So salt may not work for you.
If it does, great, if it doesn't, set it aside,
because why would you want your fast to be harder? Exactly, I wish
it didn't make it harder, because yeah, for me, I wish I
could have the salt, but anyway I can't. All right, here's another
one. I have some specific questions about clean fasting. I want to know
if two supplements I am taking in the morning are actually breaking my fast.
The first thing I take is a probiotic. I take primal defense from Garden
of Life. Really that the brand doesn't matter. It could be any probiotic,
but this person said, I take three capsules and the instructions say it's
best taken on an empty stomach. There are no calories listed on the bottle.
And the other is a multicollagen powder that I completely dissolve in my morning
green tea. It's tasteless, but one scoop is listed as having four grands
of protein and fifteen calories. I also take one small thyroid pill in the
morning as well. And I just want to say, I hope listeners are
like already know the answer to the college in question just from me reading what
was in it and why not? Just I want you to know why.
I mean, I don't just want you to know yes or no. I
want you to be able to articulate why. That's the teacher in me.
So let's start with the probiotic. Probiotics are best taken when food is going
to follow them, So yes, take them on an empty stomach, but
it's better to take them closer to eating. So open your window with your
probiotic if you want to open your window with your probiotic and any other supplements
you take, and then make your window opening snack that gives your body time
to start breaking it down and using it. So I would not take that
while you're fasted. No, And I've also seen years back, years ago,
maybe when like twenty seventeen twenty eighteen, I found a study that indicated
that probiotics are more effective wind taken with food. I have seen the same
thing, and it's because your stomach acid isn't as high when you have eaten,
and so it doesn't kill the bacteria in your stomach before it even reaches
your bowel. Right, So I don't know. I know that it says
that on the back of the air, but I don't think that. Yes,
And I know I've researched probotics a lot because I actually took a probotic
that said to take on an empty stomach, and then I'd seen other ones
that say take with food, and then I started researching it. I think
the bottom line is it's it's best with food because you've got to get it
past that hostile environment of your stomach or it's not doing you any good.
Yeah. And then as for the multi collagen powder, let's consider where collagen
comes from. It either comes from she takes a multi I'm gonna guess maybe
it's a combination. It either comes from the sea or it comes from cattle,
which what do we use cattle for? It's a food source, right,
So how where you look at that? That is a food collagen contains
nineteen amino acids. Amino acids autophagy immediately, So there's two reasons not to
take it. One it's food and number two, you are stopping autophagy the
minute that goes in your body. Let me just throw this out there too.
Same with branch chain amino acids. People always like, can I take
BCAAs during my fast? No, don't do that. You're halting a autophagy,
which really you want if you're going to go work out and you want
you're gonna be breaking down and trying to build new muscles. And then for
your thyroid pill, absolutely take that in the morning. You are supposed to
take a thyroid pill fasted and then wait, I believe it's like two hours
before having food. So it's perfect to take your thyroid pill in the morning.
And we always say take your medication as indicated, and you know,
if you have any concerns about it needing to be taken with food talk to
your doctor about changing the time that you take your prescription medications. But I
hope that everyone heard that, and as soon as I said four grams of
protein, you were like, Nope, no protein, D're in the fast.
So the next question is I've always been a water drinker, so that
part is easy for me. I don't usually drink flavored water, but I
was wondering about mineral waters, for example, the unflavored smart water, which
has the falling ingredients vapor distilled water, calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, potassium
bicarbonate, which are electrolytes added for taste. Do these additions make it a
clean fast? There are other unflavored mineral waters out there also, Thank you,
all right, And so if you heard me say that minerals do not
break a fast, this is another example of that. So we've got calcium
chloride that's a mineral, magnesium chloride that's a mineral, Potassium bicarbonate that's a
mineral, and it tells you those are all electrolyte sources. So that is
absolutely fine for a clean fast. I drink mineral water with no problem.
For whatever reason. Mineral water does not make me hungry, just the salty
water does it might be just the salty water makes my brain think I'm having
broth or something makes my brain think, you know, I'm eating. Do
you use Redman's Real salt Now I use Oh what is the brain? Oh
that is the one I use. Yeah, the one that it's pinkish.
Well, do you know it has a sweet flavor profile? They say that
it has a sweet flavor profile. Really huh that's interesting. Oh that's why.
Yeah, but I just kicked in that maybe your brain, maybe you're
so insolent sensitive that your brain tastes as a sweet So yeah, that's really
really possible. I don't know. But minerals are fine. There should be
no problem mineral waters. As long as they're unflavored, they should be okay.
But again, I've seen people in the community say, you know,
I can drink I'm just gonna throw this out. I can drink perea,
but I can't drink Topo Chico or Vice versa, or this brand makes me
hungry. So listen to your body. Even though something absolutely has nothing in
it that should break a fast like me and the salt water, it makes
me hungry. So I don't I don't use it. That doesn't mean it's
not okay for like nineteen percent of people. All right, So here's a
question. It says, I am a thirty four almost thirty five year old
female five five, one hundred and sixty pounds, which is the highest in
my life. I just started intermittent fasting for the first time about a week
ago after stumbling upon this podcast. Yay, I'm so glad this is that
makes me super happy. She said. I'm still working on reading Fast Feast
Repeat and had a question related to clean fasting. Right now, I'm just
consuming black coffee and water as I don't want to break my fast. I'm
starting out with a sixteen hours fasting in an eight hour eating window. My
husband is also trying to make healthier choices and recently purchase a fume, which
you basically suck in vaporized air with flavor. For him, this is a
healthier and no calorie alternative to drinking alcohol. I was thinking of trying this
during my fast, but I'm hesitant because it could induce the cephalic phase insulin
response and break my fast. Does vapor or air that has natural flavor induce
cephalic phase insulin response and break a fast even if it is not digested.
Still learning lots and so excited for this new healthier chapter in my life.
Loving this podcast. And we'll have to listen to your other podcasting. And
again, I'm so excited that she found this podcast first. I know,
I love that, I mean, do well. So I looked up what
fume was. I had never heard of it. It's very interesting. It
is basically a tool. It kind of looks like a vape pin, but
all you're really breathing in is essential oils, and they say it can help
with addictions like drinking, smoking, that sort of thing, because it keeps
your hands busy. It it can help you with anxiety or coping or whatever.
However, even though it's essential oils, we would not drink essential oils
in our water while we're fasting, so we should not be inhaling essential oil
air into our mouth because so many essential oils are fruit flavors, and fruit
flavors are absolutely going to cause a cephalic phase insulin response, so that is
not good. And of course, as I'm thinking to myself, somebody who's
sitting there hitting that all day is just causing insulin response after insulin response.
Yeah, you know, I am so worried about all this this vaping that's
going on. One of my I'll just gonna say will will it Will vapes.
And you know, he had started off smoking cigarettes, and so as
a mom, you know, I'm like, well, do kids listen when
you're doing a bunch of leccy them? No, They've got to figure things
out. But I'm so glad he stopped smoking cigarettes. And no one wants
their sun to be smoking cigarettes. But also I don't want him vaping,
but he these a lot of people are vaping all the time this generation,
and you know it seems like such, oh, it's better than smoking.
Well maybe it is, but it's still not good. It's really really bad
for your lungs. And I know the fume seems like it's going to be
you know, oh, this is better than vaping, and probably it is.
So you know, if you're going down the continuum of definitely don't smoke
a cigarette and vaping, it's good to get rid of that. And I
can see that fume would be better on the continuum of you know, affecting
your body negatively. But we are not meant to have constant cephalic phase insulin
response. Or food food stimuli coming in all the time, and look at
the metabolic health of our world and all this constant stimulation is just really it
might feel soothing, but it's it's not natural. So I hate to say
no to it, but I mean, it's a better choice than vaping,
and it's a better choice than smoking a cigarette. It's a better choice than
addiction of other things. But it still would not be recommended during the clean
fast. So there's my whole mama mama's story, and I don't know what
to hopefully. My husband went from smoking to vaping, which worried me,
right, but I preferred it because he didn't smell. And it did take
him a couple of years, and he weaned down his nicotine and then when
he started fasting, he went to an unflavored vape juice, right, and
then he had to have surgery and he had to give up all nicotine.
He had cervical spine surgery, and so then he was vaping just the liquid,
no nicotine, no flavor, And he did that for about a year
and then pretty soon he just never picked the vape up again. That feels
so good that he quit and he has been vape free for probably six months,
and I'm so thrilled. Well, that's my goal, my goal for
will it is possible. I hope that he does. But you know,
well, the continuum of these are all the terrible things that he could be
doing. Moved down the list, down the list. Well, we have
two submissions from two different people in regards to supplements. The first one is
this taking vitamins and supplements break up fast again. This person's asking about a
probiotic, but she's also wanting to know about a multi vitamin supplement and an
Omega three supplements. And then the second question, she says, I've been
a fan in fasting since twelve nineteen. My question is simply about vitamin supplements.
What are the guidelines? Does taking vitamins and supplements affect my insulin levels?
Sometimes guests mention it, but I would like information in detail. Example,
does the type of supplement matter vitamin versus other supplements? So there are
thousands and thousands and probably I don't even know. I couldn't even tell you
hundreds of thousands of possible combinations of vitamins and supplements and ingredients and formulations.
Right, So let's think about the fast versus the feast. The fast is
the time when we're not putting in nutrients, Like we're literally not putting in
nutrients because we're fasting. So think about your supplement and why you're taking it.
If it's a vitamin, what's a vitamin for, well, it's for
putting in nutrients. That sounds like the feast, right, and keep that
in your eating window. Now, there might be a supplement, you know,
like Sharon mentioned, a thyroid medication that you're supposed to take the first
thing in the morning. Medications are completely different and they all have different mechanisms
of action. So always talk to your doctor a pharmacists about medication and let
them know you're fasting because that might affect when the dose is needed. Maybe
they told you to take it first thing in the morning only because they know
you're about to eat breakfast, and they would rather you take it right before
you eat. If you're not eating till three, they want you to take
it at two thirty. So you really need to let them know you're fasting
instead of trying to guess. And I can't tell you. I'm not your
doctor or your pharmacist. But whenever you're wondering about a vitamin or a supplement,
Say, is this one designed to be a nourishment type of vitamin or
supplement? If so, it goes in you're eating window. Very rarely can
I think of a reason why you would need to take a supplement during the
fast, But I mean it's possible if it's something your doctor is having you
take. Ask them why. I really think we need a lot fewer supplements
than we think we do well. And here's where supplements get tricky these days
is a lot of manufacturers are big on symbiotic or synergistic supplements. So you're
a lot of these are not just like vitamins and minerals. Then they also
have a lot of herbs, adaptogens and that sort of thing in it.
And a herb's a plant which makes it of food. So you're going to
keep that in your window for sure? Yeah, So when and dout put
it in your eating window? All right? So here's another one. I
drink black coffee, but I am worried that what I am drinking may not
be keeping my fast clean. And you are completely right to worry because you
go on to say that it's hazel nut cake cups during your fast. Does
flavored coffee ruin my fast. Absolutely, yes, yes, any kind of
flavored coffee, flavored water. Your brain is going, oh, hazel nuts,
that's delicious. Avoid all of those. And if you don't understand cephalic
phase insulin response, basically, you put hazel nut in, right, and
your brain thinks, oh, I have delicious food coming in. It doesn't
realize it's just a cup of coffee. It has no fat, fiber,
or protein, right, So it thinks it's food and it's gearing up for
food. It's gearing up for a rise in blood glucose that's going to occur
with the food, and so it's gonna dump insulin to counteract that. Right,
this person says, I have read that cinnamon does not break a fast
in your opinion. If I brew a small amount of fresh cinnamon in my
coffee, is that considered breaking my fast? Yes, yes it is,
because again, cinnamon is a food flavor and your brain, I mean it's
it's an herb. I mean it's a spice. Cinnamon is a spice.
We avoid all herbs and spices during the fast, and especially ones that are
food like, and cinnamon is definitely I mean, it's delicious. I used
to use cinnamon in my coffee before I understood the Clean Fast. I white
knuckled it every single day. In fact, I actually experimented with it after
I was fully adapted to the Clean Fast. It was one day I was
about to open my window. It might have been like right around the holidays.
It might have been Thanksgiving or something, and I'm like, I'm gonna
be opening soon, but it's gonna be a long day, so I'm gonna
go ahead and have some coffee and I'm gonna put some cinnamon in it,
just to see. Starving I was starving at one hundred percent causes cephalic phase
insulin response, because you know, I've been fast and clean long enough to
know so. But again, remember just because you try it and it doesn't
make you starving, that doesn't mean that it's okay. You know. It
all depends on what your blood sugar is doing. So if it makes you
starving, it doesn't work. If it doesn't make you starving, it still
might not work. So I would not risk it for cinnamon. Absolutely not.
And there's a lot of people that they don't understand that about cinnamon because
they're like, oh, but I've read that it lowers your blood glucose.
Well, how does it lower your blood goes anything that says it lowers your
blood glucose or it improves insulin sensitivity. You're not taking it and magically it's
doing some work in there. No, it's doing something to your pancreas.
And I did, like I did a real deep dive into cinnamon because it
is supposed to be a very beneficial spice. It can help with cholesterolic can
help with cardiovascular health, it can help with insulin sensitivity, like we know
this. But all of the data regarding cinnamon has been conducted in conjunction with
food, right, and the most recent data that I've read says it allows
your cells to use glucose more efficiently. But if you're not eating, you
don't have all this high circulating glucose for your cells to be using. So
there's really absolutely no reason to put cinnamon in your fast ever exactly, but
enjoy it in your eating window. All right. So here's the question.
Is the coffee brand bulletproof okay for the clean fast. This is funny because
there was that bulletproof coffee that people were drinking with putting butter in MCT oil
and coconut oil. That's like a recipe. But there's actually a brand called
Bulletproof Coffee that was started by Dave Asperry. So what say you, Sherry?
Is that brand okay? Bulletproof brand coffee, when brewed and drank as
it comes without adding anything to it is absolutely okay. For the clean fast
it's just black coffee unless they release of like a It's possible they could in
the future release of bulletproof coffee pod that is infused with mcyto oil or something.
Right, So if they do, if there's anything else in it,
So instead of asking for any coffee brand, here's what you do. Fill
fill in the blank with any coffee brand. You read the ingredients. If
the only ingredient is coffee, you are fine. Yep, coffee and water.
That's all you want to see. So this person says, I was
wondering if the five sprays of flavored melatonin I take it and I impact my
fast. I need this to assist with my sleep, and I am unable
to find anything unflavored. I usually close my five hour window at five thirty
pm. So this one is tricky, and ideally you would want to find
unflavored. But you can't. This is at bedtime. You're doing it all
at once. So I almost think of this as like the brushing your teeth
phenomenon. You need it for sleep. Sleep is important, you're about to
go to sleep. So worst case scenario, just like when you brush your
teeth, toothpaste has has a little bit of sweetness to it, we still
brush. We don't mind. Yes, we brush our teeth with toothpaste in
the morning and at night. We don't worry about our fast. It's brief.
Any insulin response is going to be small, but if you're drinking a
beverage repeatedly, that's going to be continuous. So see duration matters. So
if you're just using this meltone and you go straight to sleep and it's the
only way you can get to sleep, then the trade off of did it
break my fast a little tiny bit? Did I release a little insulin?
It's going to be a blip so well, and to me too, it
would be way different if you closed your eating window at ten am and then
you were taking this at ten pm. Then I think your insulin response is
going to be much stronger and you may actually not sleep as well. Yeah,
because you're deeper into the fast, you're deeper into the fast. But
I mean, if you're still within a few hours of closing your window,
you're gonna have a blip. And but I think I would wash it down,
like get that lingering sweetness out of your Mouth's a good idea. Yeah,
all right, does water with lemon juice from a lemon, not a
bottle break the fast? So confused about it, so many opinions. I
put lemon in my tea yesterday and I was sick. Yeah, lemon is
food, whether it's juice, whether it's lemon just floating in your water,
whether it's essence of lemon. Don't do it. No fruit in the fast.
And here's what's funny. We can hear so many opinions exactly exactly like
you said, But we want to find the one thing we could put in
there. We want to find that flavor that's going to make our The fast
is not supposed to be delicious. It's supposed to be boring. It's a
time for your body to rest, to prepare, and and so we want
to make sure that it's not a flavor adventure. You know, I think
that's really important. Also, another thing to watch out as citric acid,
because citric acid you'll see in a lot of bottled products, and it gives
it that little lemon tangy flavor, that tartness. And also one thing people
sometimes are confused about. They'll say, well, you said bitter flavor profiles
don't break a fast, and lemon is bitter, And I'm like, no,
it isn't. It's sour. Sometimes people are confused by that. They
think lemon is bitter, but it's not. Bitter. Is black coffee,
plain tea, green tea? Well, and if you break it down,
it has fruit juice in it, and the body perceives juice as sugar.
It doesn't perceive it any different than if you swallowed granules of sugar. Yea,
there is nothing you should be putting in your water to flavor it during
the fast. All right. I'm new to the clean fast, and I
tried black coffee yesterday. The taste was very bitter, and I did not
care for it. We hear this a lot, yep, she said.
I ordered some less bitter coffees to brew, but in the meantime I thought
I would try tea. I went to the cafeteriat work, and they had
black tea, camomeal peppermint tea with spearmint leaves not artificial flavoring. Are any
of these teas acceptable? I chose the black tea, but I really want
the mint tea. All right now, I'm going to tell y'all a little
story called the day Jan's fast at insulin came back as tin did I already
say this on the podcast you did. I'm gonna say it again. And
you know, I have peppermint oil for breath freshening in the gray area when
it comes to the clean fast, because sometimes we just haven't going to be
like face to face with people and we need to freshen our breath. And
so I went to the doctor and I did not realize they were going to
be doing fast and blood work that day. And it was like eleven o'clock.
I had already had black coffee, but I had just used some peppermint
oil wild drops on my tongue. They dream my blood. My blood work
came back. My fasting insulin, which is usually below five, was ten.
Yeah, I'd like doubled it and I was like, oh my god.
And then it took me a minute and I'm like, oh, I
had that those wild drops I had that peppermint oil. I have not used
wild drops since that day during the fast because you know, we don't have
a way of testing our insulin. It was just an accident. I mean
during the day. I mean we do if we go get blood work of
the doctor, but we don't have a way to test it during the day
on our own. So I had no idea that the wild drops of peppermint
oil, of the wild drops used one time on my tongue made my insulin
go from below five where it normally was, to ten. So, as
I said, I have not used peppermint oil during my fast since that day.
So do you want to drink peppermint tea or spearmint tea? Absolutely not,
you don't want to risk it. Camrameal is also not a bitter tea.
Cameramel tea has a sweet flavor profile, so please avoid that one.
I'm so sorry that black tea and black coffee are not pleasant yet, but
I promise they're going to get better and your taste buds adapt. Our taste
buds turn over very quickly, and I had to hold my nose and drink
the black coffee for the first week or two, and now I'm totally used
to it, and I actually prefer it that way. You know, if
you really need something else, you just are not in the mood for black
coffee or plain tea, but you want something hot, have a mug of
plain hot water. We call that m tea like empty and it's very It's
more delicious than you think it would be. It's not sad, it's and
I just want to say, there is not an herbal tea out there that
I would use during my fast. There is not one. I have researched
and research and research this. And if it's a detox tea, I mean
that it's it's being done with herbs and plants. Yeah, what about urba
matta? See, that's the one I'm on the fence about because it's it's
bell. It is very bitter, and I have not seen that it affects.
See here's what I People get confused. They're like, oh, but
Holly Basil says it lowers your blood glucose. Well, how is it lowering
your blood We're not looking for things that lower blood glue coaster in the fast.
We don't want to, we don't want to do that. What lowers
your blood glucose infuluen insulin. Yeah, so does Urba Matta claim to lower
your blood sugar. I have not seen anything about blood sugar with yourbote Okay,
so yeah, I I don't think that that would be a problem.
That's the one herbal tea that I'm like. I think it's bitter enough,
but I still I don't drink it, especially in the fact that some stuff
with YOURBA Matta says it actually can act does an appetize suppressant, which to
me, if you were going to have an insulin response that would not that
would not be an appetite suppressant, right, So I feel like it's pretty
safe. But again it's one that I think you need to be firmly fat
adapted. Yep. You need to know what the clean fast feels like.
And then if you try it and you and you feel different in any way,
sleepy, dizzy, headache, hungry, nauseous, hungry you, that's
a pretty clear indication that should not be used during the fast. And I
just don't want to risk it. I just don't want to. So,
all right, element claims to not break a fast, Please provide your input.
Element is l m NT and it's an electrolite supplement. So what do
you say about element Sherry LMNT electrolite supplement. They have one called raw which
is unflavored. That one is absolutely fine to use in your fast. Do
not use any of the flavored ones during your fast. You would want to
save those for your window. And this pretty much goes for all electrolytes out
there. You don't want to use anything that's flavored. You want to look
at the ingredients. If the only ingredients are minerals, no citric acid,
seek help. I see that one in some you know, so really,
just look at your ingredients, know why you're taking it, and as long
as there's no flavors or any additional food like products, you're fine to take
minerals in your fast. Have you been meaning to switch up your skin and
beauty products to cleaner options free of toxic chemicals and endocrine disruptors, but you
just aren't sure where to start. Maybe you've read Jin's book Cleanish and you've
been meaning to make an action plan, but you were overwhelmed. Gin and
I both love Beauty Counter for clean beauty. I switched over nearly three years
ago, and I have never been happier with my skin or makeup routine.
The easiest way to make the sw is to pick a few products that you
use most often and start there. Perhaps you wash in condition your hair daily,
so you might start with their shampoo and conditioner. Maybe you wear makeup
every single day, start by switching out your morning moisturizer, foundation, and
concealer. If you wear it, it does not have to be overwhelming,
and I'm always happy to help you make the switch if you share with me
your skinner beauty needs. Right now is the perfect time to get started,
as this fall, holiday sets will be available for purchase. Holiday sets are
an amazing way to try multiple products and smaller sizes. They also have special
holiday products that make great gifts for both the ladies and men in your lives
or yourself. If you visit beautycounter dot com slash Shrry Bullock, you can
reach out to me through my website for guidance and I will drop a direct
link to reach out to me in show notes for this episode. And now
it's time for our tweak of the Week, submitted by Pam from Texas.
She said, we talk often of mindset shifts, and with good reason.
It's important to find your best way of achieving your own personal victories. I
think the biggest mindset shift for me has been to accept when a tweak doesn't
suit me, followed closely with just letting that one go. No need for
frustration or self judgment. Remain curious about what will be best for you,
keep looking and learning. The only thing that can be called a fail here
is if you give up. And I love that because you know, we
got a lot of tweaks, but not all tweaks are right for every person.
And so you try a tweak, you're like, Nope, don't like
this one. You move on. No guilt, yep, thank you.
Pay them well. We'd love to end our show with some inspiration from our
listeners, and this week we have a message from Ramanda in twenty nine Palms,
California. She wrote, this quote is from Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolts.
I think about this quote when I feel like my results aren't coming fast
enough. It can be applied to anything you want in life. Though.
The quote is I trained four years to run nine seconds, and people give
up when they don't see results in two months. Wow, that's powerful.
That is so true. Yeah, four years of trying to run nine seconds.
Well, thanks so much for listening today. We would love to have
you join us and the Delayed On Tonight community, where you can interact with
both me and Sharry plus the most supportive bunch of intermittent fasters you'll find anywhere.
Go to Jen Stevens dot com slash community to join us. Don't forget
to subscribe to this podcast to your favorite podcast app, and if you haven't
already, please leave us a five star review that helps new listeners find the
show and we really appreciate it. We are a community driven podcast, so
to submit your success stories, your questions, your favorite tweak it till It's
Easy moments, or anything else you want us to share on the podcast,
go to Fast Feast Repeat dot com slash submit and then listen each week to
see if we share your submission or answer your question until next week. Thanks
for listening.