Episode 108: Fasting and Women, Healing Insulin Resistance, and More

<v Speaker 1>Welcome the Fast Feast Repeat Intermittent Fasting for Life. I'm
<v Speaker 1>Jen Stevens, author of the New York Times bestseller Fast
<v Speaker 1>Feast Repeat.
<v Speaker 2>And I'm Sherry Bullock, longtime intermittent faster and health and
<v Speaker 2>wellness advocate. Please keep in mind that this podcast is
<v Speaker 2>for educational and motivational purposes only and is not intended
<v Speaker 2>to provide medical or diagnostic advice. Jen and I are
<v Speaker 2>not doctors, so make sure to check with your trusted
<v Speaker 2>healthcare professionals before making changes, especially when it comes to
<v Speaker 2>any medical treatments or medications.
<v Speaker 1>Whether you're new to intermittent fasting or an experienced intermittent faster,
<v Speaker 1>tune in each week to get inspired, to learn, and
<v Speaker 1>to have some fun along the way. Hi, everybody, We're
<v Speaker 1>so glad you're here today. Welcome to this week's episode
<v Speaker 1>of the Fast Feast Repeat Intermittent Fasting for Life Podcasts.
<v Speaker 3>How are you doing today's.
<v Speaker 2>Sherry, I'm doing fabulous, So for you guys listening, Jen,
<v Speaker 2>I record two podcasts at a time. So last week
<v Speaker 2>you heard that the following week I would be with Jen,
<v Speaker 2>but I still haven't.
<v Speaker 3>Been to Gin.
<v Speaker 1>It's still a week away, hey, but when this episode
<v Speaker 1>comes out on my birthday?
<v Speaker 2>Oh well, isn't that fun?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I'll be fifty six, all right, fifty six, No
<v Speaker 3>on no day if you're listening all the day it
<v Speaker 3>came out.
<v Speaker 2>The funny thing is is so next week I'll be
<v Speaker 2>at the beach on my birthday, I'll be fifty two,
<v Speaker 2>and somebody who's asked me the other day like how
<v Speaker 2>old I was, and I told him I was fifty two,
<v Speaker 2>And then I looked to air the day and I
<v Speaker 2>was like, I can't believe I'm trying fifty three on
<v Speaker 2>my birthday. And he's like, no, you're not.
<v Speaker 3>Oh my god.
<v Speaker 2>That's I made myself older before I had to be older.
<v Speaker 3>That's funny.
<v Speaker 2>I'm so old that I can't keep jack of how
<v Speaker 2>old I am.
<v Speaker 3>That's what happens. So anyway, but.
<v Speaker 2>We're going to have a lot of fun. I hope
<v Speaker 2>y'all are having a great summer, and I hope that
<v Speaker 2>you are keeping if front and center in your summer life. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>unless you're down under the equator and you're in winter.
<v Speaker 3>Having a winter life. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, we talked about this last summer about how
<v Speaker 2>to manage summertime, and then invariably, September came and there
<v Speaker 2>was a lot of sad Sam's and Sally's who.
<v Speaker 3>Did not man it. You actually talked about it this
<v Speaker 3>year too.
<v Speaker 2>Did we talk about the beginning of the summer.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, like it just came abound in an episode. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Well it's midsummer. So this is your midsummer reminder that right,
<v Speaker 2>you are gonna want to fit into your genes this fall.
<v Speaker 2>So if you have had lucy goosey windows with vacations
<v Speaker 2>and too much fun in your summer, this is your
<v Speaker 2>reminder to tighten things up and get back to being
<v Speaker 2>focused on your fasting window links.
<v Speaker 1>No one has ever, one time, ever come back from
<v Speaker 1>vacation and said, I really hate that I stuck to
<v Speaker 1>an eating window while I was on vacation.
<v Speaker 2>That was a point.
<v Speaker 1>No one ever has said that ever. Never, Yes, you're right,
<v Speaker 1>but we hear the opposite, uh huh quite a bit.
<v Speaker 1>People They're like, I meant to, I was going to right,
<v Speaker 1>and then by day three I was not fasting anymore so,
<v Speaker 1>and then they're all of regret that they didn't.
<v Speaker 2>And then the other thing that happens too is a
<v Speaker 2>lot of people come back and they'll say, well, I
<v Speaker 2>have zero regrets. I didn't fast for two weeks while
<v Speaker 2>I was and blah blah blah, and I ate all
<v Speaker 2>the delicious food. And then a month later they are
<v Speaker 2>struggling and they have never gotten back into their daily
<v Speaker 2>eating window because it takes work to get back to
<v Speaker 2>where fasting is easy again when you do that. And
<v Speaker 2>so if you're there, now pick up the twenty eight
<v Speaker 2>day fast start and just do a twenty eight day
<v Speaker 2>fast start again. Really get your why cemented again, and
<v Speaker 2>get your focus back, and really work the process again
<v Speaker 2>to get your body flipping the switch and making fasting
<v Speaker 2>effortless again, because I really, really, it makes me so
<v Speaker 2>sad when I see people get derailed. I want everybody
<v Speaker 2>to be able to stay, you know, consistent with their
<v Speaker 2>fasting and feeling good and experiencing the benefits of the
<v Speaker 2>clean fast.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah. Absolutely, all right, So.
<v Speaker 2>We have a weekly celebration from Lyndy in Leaksdale, Ontario, Canada. Hello, girls,
<v Speaker 2>I work in a busy dental office and we now
<v Speaker 2>have five who are doing intermittent fasting. We are perimenopausal,
<v Speaker 2>menopausal and postmenopausal women. Most of us are doing IYA
<v Speaker 2>for weight loss, but anyone who has gone through menopause
<v Speaker 2>knows it's easy to have another why. Personally, my why
<v Speaker 2>was an increase in cholesterol levels, verging on the need
<v Speaker 2>for medication, and can I just say this is normal
<v Speaker 2>during menopause for your cholesterol to rise. One of my
<v Speaker 2>coworkers has lost and maintained a twenty three pound weight loss.
<v Speaker 2>Another has lost over thirty and is still going after
<v Speaker 2>almost one year. Another does IF to help with gut issues,
<v Speaker 2>and another is doing IF as a preventative measure to
<v Speaker 2>avoid weight gain as she enters the menopausal transition. These
<v Speaker 2>women are inspirational and supportive, and without them I would
<v Speaker 2>not have started IF or stuck with it. My story
<v Speaker 2>starts in December in twenty twenty four. I was watching
<v Speaker 2>my coworkers being very successful with IF, but I thought
<v Speaker 2>it would be too difficult for me. Observing my work
<v Speaker 2>friends and asking numerous questions, they convinced me to read fast, feast, repeat,
<v Speaker 2>and then decide if IF would work for me. My
<v Speaker 2>supporter friends were convinced I could do it. I dabbled
<v Speaker 2>in fasting over the Christmas holidays, not clean fasting, but
<v Speaker 2>fasting for eighteen hours with a promise to start in
<v Speaker 2>January twenty twenty five clean fasting. On January sixth, I
<v Speaker 2>started the twenty eight day fast start. Like most lifetime dieters,
<v Speaker 2>I had a hate hate relationship with the scale. I
<v Speaker 2>did not weigh myself before starting the twenty eight day fastart,
<v Speaker 2>so I have no idea my starting weight. I did
<v Speaker 2>not weigh during the twenty eight day start, and I
<v Speaker 2>even resisted stepping on the scale or measuring myself after
<v Speaker 2>the initial twenty eight days. The reason for this is
<v Speaker 2>that in my past dieting life, it was easy for
<v Speaker 2>me to get a little diet brain, okay, maybe obsessive
<v Speaker 2>while trying to reduce weight. I was weighing sporadically while
<v Speaker 2>doing IF and getting discouraged that I was not seeing
<v Speaker 2>quick major changes on the scale. When I did weigh,
<v Speaker 2>I turned for support from my friends again, who urged
<v Speaker 2>me to weigh daily and then average the number. I
<v Speaker 2>could not understand how this would help, but oh my
<v Speaker 2>does it help. I did not lose a pound for
<v Speaker 2>at least two and a half months. I think my
<v Speaker 2>body was doing a reboot. I had gone back on
<v Speaker 2>hormone replacement therapy at the same time as starting IF,
<v Speaker 2>so there was a lot going on for my body
<v Speaker 2>to figure out. In month three, I started to notice steady,
<v Speaker 2>regular decrease in scale numbers, usually around a half a
<v Speaker 2>pound a week, and as I got fat adapted, I
<v Speaker 2>was noticing higher decreases some weeks, but it has all
<v Speaker 2>always been decreasing. I might have had one week or
<v Speaker 2>my average stayed the same. I'm in no hurry to
<v Speaker 2>lose this weight, so slow and steady is okay with me.
<v Speaker 2>I have experienced appetite correction, my diet brain has vanished,
<v Speaker 2>Sugar cravings are gone most days. I love the flexibility
<v Speaker 2>of a moving eating window that can adapt to lifestyle,
<v Speaker 2>social events, family gatherings, et cetera. I don't sweat it
<v Speaker 2>if my window is a little longer one day, because
<v Speaker 2>I can open it later the next day. What could
<v Speaker 2>be easier.
<v Speaker 3>I have lost twelve.
<v Speaker 2>Pounds and family and friends are starting to notice. But
<v Speaker 2>the biggest reward is how well I sleep, how much
<v Speaker 2>energy I have. My reflex is almost non existent, and
<v Speaker 2>my menopausal hit pain is less. I have a requisition
<v Speaker 2>for repeat blood work to check my cholesterol, so I'm
<v Speaker 2>hoping that I see results there as well. A note
<v Speaker 2>to jin I wanted to calm on. A couple chapters
<v Speaker 2>of Fast Feast Repeat that really helped me. I cannot
<v Speaker 2>remember the chapter, but you included a chart of your
<v Speaker 2>weight loss. When my diet brain started to get to
<v Speaker 2>me because I did not feel like I was losing
<v Speaker 2>weight fast enough or not at all, I would look
<v Speaker 2>at your chart and see that you did not lose
<v Speaker 2>weight fast either. Personally, I found comfort in knowing that
<v Speaker 2>patients would pay off. I'm going to keep all of
<v Speaker 2>my weight charts to help any of my friends who
<v Speaker 2>decide to try f later. Another chapter that helped me
<v Speaker 2>was Scale Shmail, thank you for this chapter. The point
<v Speaker 2>was well received with the scale is one tool, not
<v Speaker 2>the only tool for me. This chapter was very helpful
<v Speaker 2>to help me get over the scale diet brain hurdle.
<v Speaker 2>A funny story. In early spring of this year, we
<v Speaker 2>had an election in Canada and one of the candidates
<v Speaker 2>had the last name Shmail. I kid not so when
<v Speaker 2>I was driving in a bar and seeing the election signs,
<v Speaker 2>it was like you were reminding me to not sweat
<v Speaker 2>the scale. Now, after doing IF for six months, I
<v Speaker 2>am cruising.
<v Speaker 1>I love that so much and all that is in
<v Speaker 1>the Wayne chapter scale shmail. If you're reading fast Feasts,
<v Speaker 1>repeat like Lynn suggested, it's the weighing chapter. I have
<v Speaker 1>my weight tarden there from when I was losing weight,
<v Speaker 1>which is why you know I put it in there.
<v Speaker 1>There's the school teacher in me. I put it in
<v Speaker 1>there to be the example of why daily waing with
<v Speaker 1>weekly averaging made such a difference, because there was one
<v Speaker 1>week in there. Like you know, some people be like,
<v Speaker 1>I can't wait every day. I only weigh once a week.
<v Speaker 1>But if I had only been weighing once a week,
<v Speaker 1>there was one Friday, Like Friday was the day I
<v Speaker 1>averaged my weight. There was one Friday where my Friday
<v Speaker 1>weight was higher than the Friday weight had been the
<v Speaker 1>week before. So if I was only weighing on Friday,
<v Speaker 1>it looked like I gained weight that week because Friday
<v Speaker 1>to Friday my weight was up. However, my weekly average
<v Speaker 1>was down that week by a little bit, so because
<v Speaker 1>I had the weekly average, I knew that my trend
<v Speaker 1>was still going down. So y'all probably know from my
<v Speaker 1>story that I tried intermittent fasting as a dabbler from
<v Speaker 1>twenty nine to twenty fourteen, and I always quit because
<v Speaker 1>it felt like it wasn't working. But when I finally
<v Speaker 1>started the last time in twenty fourteen, that was the
<v Speaker 1>time I started daily weighing with weekly averaging. And I
<v Speaker 1>don't think it's a coincidence that that's the only time
<v Speaker 1>I didn't quit because I finally could see that, oh,
<v Speaker 1>my trend is going down. Even though if I just
<v Speaker 1>looked at the weights they just look random. But because
<v Speaker 1>I had that average, I could see the trend. So
<v Speaker 1>that's a really powerful strategy. And I love that you're
<v Speaker 1>using other tools as well. And I have a whole
<v Speaker 1>section at the end of that chapter. You know, you're
<v Speaker 1>you're taking progress photos, you're weighing daily with weekly averaging.
<v Speaker 1>You're also taking some measurements like your waiste or whatever
<v Speaker 1>is meaningful to you. And if something is changing in
<v Speaker 1>a positive way, then it's working. Like you could be
<v Speaker 1>building muscle while you're losing fat and the skill could
<v Speaker 1>go up, but you're shrinking in size and you're you
<v Speaker 1>need a smaller clothing size.
<v Speaker 3>It's working.
<v Speaker 1>And so if something is changing, it's working. So and
<v Speaker 1>I also love that Lindy has all that support in
<v Speaker 1>her office.
<v Speaker 3>I heard to that dental office.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, imagine the great conversations you could have. Yeah, well
<v Speaker 2>maybe not while you're laying there with your mouth open.
<v Speaker 2>My didental hygienis always tries to talk to me too.
<v Speaker 2>I'll like or this or that, and I'm like, why
<v Speaker 2>why are you talking to me? Why You've got tools
<v Speaker 2>in my mouth? That's so fun. Well, I am so
<v Speaker 2>glad that Lindy had such supportive coworkers and that she
<v Speaker 2>gave by Off a chance love it.
<v Speaker 1>So now we have a question from Anna from Maryland,
<v Speaker 1>Hijen and Sherry.
<v Speaker 3>First of all, thank you for all of your work
<v Speaker 3>on this podcast.
<v Speaker 1>I have listened to every episode and I get excited
<v Speaker 1>each time a new one comes out. I've been doing
<v Speaker 1>intermitt and fastings since October of twenty twenty four. Before
<v Speaker 1>embarking on my fasting journey, I had lost eighty pounds
<v Speaker 1>from twenty twenty two to twenty twenty three due to
<v Speaker 1>completely losing my appetite during a year of extreme anxiety
<v Speaker 1>and depression. My mental help gradually improved, my appetite came back,
<v Speaker 1>and I've been maintaining the weight loss since then. However,
<v Speaker 1>in twenty twenty four, I was diagnosed with hypoth alamic amenorrhea.
<v Speaker 2>Did I say that right, cherry amen area.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Basically that's when your period stops based on something going
<v Speaker 1>on in your your brain that hype both lam a
<v Speaker 1>your hypothalamus.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, likely as a result of the rapid weight loss.
<v Speaker 1>I started getting periods again in December of twenty twenty four,
<v Speaker 1>two months after beginning intermittent fasting, but they have disappeared
<v Speaker 1>again over the last couple of months. As you can imagine,
<v Speaker 1>I've been doing a lot of reading on hype.
<v Speaker 3>I have to keep saying this, that's hard.
<v Speaker 2>Hypo thala sat sherry, hypothallamic amenarrea.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, all right.
<v Speaker 1>So, and almost everything I read advises against any form
<v Speaker 1>of fasting. Yet I hear anecdotal stories on the podcast
<v Speaker 1>about cycles becoming more regular from IF and my own
<v Speaker 1>cycle did make a brief appearance after I started fasting.
<v Speaker 3>Of course, I've consulted with numerous doctors.
<v Speaker 1>About my hormones and my lack of a period, but
<v Speaker 1>our healthcare system is so fractured. A gynecologist will refer
<v Speaker 1>me to a dietician, who will refer me to my
<v Speaker 1>primary care physician for more blood work, and my primary
<v Speaker 1>care physician will refer me back to a gynecologist. Each
<v Speaker 1>person looks at a piece of the puzzle, and nobody
<v Speaker 1>can see the whole picture. I would love to consult
<v Speaker 1>a functional medicine practitioner, but my insurance will.
<v Speaker 3>Not cover it.
<v Speaker 1>It's also frustrating working with doctors who don't understand fasting
<v Speaker 1>and will issue blanket statements about how women shouldn't fast.
<v Speaker 1>I've been shopping around for doctors who are open to
<v Speaker 1>the concept of intermittent fasting, but there's only so much
<v Speaker 1>sickly and doctor visits I can take. I know you
<v Speaker 1>can't provide individual medical advice, but is there a resource
<v Speaker 1>out there on interpreting lab work and medical issues in
<v Speaker 1>light of an intermittent fasting lifestyle. Is it true that
<v Speaker 1>people with art sat against.
<v Speaker 2>Sherry hypothalamic amin ahea?
<v Speaker 3>Thank you, it's abbreviated ha okay.
<v Speaker 1>Is it true that they should generally avoid fasting much
<v Speaker 1>like pregnant or nursing people or is that misinformation? Thank
<v Speaker 1>you for any insights you have on navigating the United
<v Speaker 1>States healthcare system as an intermittent faster. Here are my
<v Speaker 1>current stats in case they are relevant. My height is
<v Speaker 1>five ten, my weight is one fifty. My fasting protocol
<v Speaker 1>is mostly one milli day with an occasional full fast
<v Speaker 1>followed by an upday, typically two to three times a month.
<v Speaker 1>My diet is a balanced diet of whole foods with
<v Speaker 1>a focus on protein, fiber, and healthy fats.
<v Speaker 2>So I'm just gonna be one hundred percent honest. I
<v Speaker 2>don't know. I haven't done any really research into this.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, I understand, I understand it. You know, you're
<v Speaker 2>a hypothalamus, is a regulator for a lot of stuff
<v Speaker 2>that's going on in your body. If you are severely underweight,
<v Speaker 2>then it's not uncommon for people to have missed periods.
<v Speaker 2>We've talked about this a lot on the podcast. It
<v Speaker 2>has to do with your body and ovulation and ludinizing
<v Speaker 2>hormone and it gets pretty complicated. But time and time again,
<v Speaker 2>what I have read is that if you are fueling
<v Speaker 2>your body sufficiently and you are not in caloric restriction,
<v Speaker 2>that you should not have any impact on your cycles.
<v Speaker 2>It is caloric restriction that puts stress on your body,
<v Speaker 2>which causes your body to not produce ludinizing hormone, which
<v Speaker 2>prompts your body to ovulate. So what's going on with you.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know you know, I don't know your age.
<v Speaker 2>You didn't share what your age is. At five ten
<v Speaker 2>and one hundred and fifty pounds, that is very lean.
<v Speaker 2>I'm curious, like, are you just trying to maintain the
<v Speaker 2>weight loss that you lost when you were having your
<v Speaker 2>mental health struggles. I need to know, like, what is
<v Speaker 2>your motivation for fasting? Is it just to live a
<v Speaker 2>healthy lifestyle? Is it to prevent disease? Is it because
<v Speaker 2>it helps support your mental health. I've ran your stats
<v Speaker 2>through the smart BMI calculator. I don't have your age.
<v Speaker 2>I just put in forty just as a guestimate, and
<v Speaker 2>you are on the lower end of a normal body
<v Speaker 2>weight for a woman, so you definitely don't want to
<v Speaker 2>lose any weight. My best is I also want to
<v Speaker 2>make sure you're clean fasting because that's going to make
<v Speaker 2>a difference. So make sure you're clean fasting. I would
<v Speaker 2>suggest that you switch to A. I don't think you
<v Speaker 2>need to do any full fast days right now, even
<v Speaker 2>with your updates, I would not do those. I would
<v Speaker 2>really settle into a protocol of a. You don also
<v Speaker 2>don't say what you're eating window link is you say, oh, mad.
<v Speaker 3>She said, we have one meal a day, which can be.
<v Speaker 2>That means some people that means you sit down and
<v Speaker 2>eat and then that's it. You're done. So I want
<v Speaker 2>to encourage you to have a longer eating window. Try
<v Speaker 2>six hours. Try six hours, Try two meals, one at
<v Speaker 2>the beginning of the window, stop one at the end
<v Speaker 2>of your window. And I would do that for a
<v Speaker 2>solid eight weeks and assess and see if your periods
<v Speaker 2>come back, because I'm really concerned that you may be
<v Speaker 2>unintentionally under eating, especially if you were not eating well
<v Speaker 2>and that's why you've lost weight while you were having
<v Speaker 2>your issues with your mental health. If you got used
<v Speaker 2>to not eating very much and you have continued to
<v Speaker 2>eat that way, then it could just be habit to
<v Speaker 2>kind of under eat. So I want to make sure
<v Speaker 2>that you're fueling really well and get your body healthy,
<v Speaker 2>because a healthy body is going to have periods, right,
<v Speaker 2>so make sure you're feeling well. Make sure you're having
<v Speaker 2>a five to six hour daily window. I would have
<v Speaker 2>two meals in that window. I would give it eight weeks.
<v Speaker 2>I would see where you're at with that. If you
<v Speaker 2>have your periods returned, that's you've found your answer. And
<v Speaker 2>if your periods have not returned. I don't think intermint
<v Speaker 2>fasting has anything to do with it. I think you
<v Speaker 2>need to dig deeper. And I know a lot of
<v Speaker 2>people think that functional medicine that insurance doesn't cover it,
<v Speaker 2>But insurance does cover Most insurances cover some sort of
<v Speaker 2>functional medicine. If you go to your insurance website, you
<v Speaker 2>can search for practitioners and find a functional medicine practitioner.
<v Speaker 2>My insurance covers it. Now, I may have to drive
<v Speaker 2>clear across the state to find one because they're far
<v Speaker 2>and few between. A lot of fun medicine doctors don't
<v Speaker 2>want to deal with insurance because it's a pain for them,
<v Speaker 2>but there are some that do, and you can egen
<v Speaker 2>go to the Functional Medicine I used to have the website.
<v Speaker 3>I think it's like IDFM.
<v Speaker 2>Is that what it is? IDFM? I was thinking FMN
<v Speaker 2>or something. Anyways, you can go to the website where
<v Speaker 2>you can look at practitioners in your area, and then
<v Speaker 2>you can cross reference your insurance and see if any
<v Speaker 2>of them work with your insurance. But yeah, I think
<v Speaker 2>you really do need to figure out what's going on.
<v Speaker 1>It's not IDFM. I'm looking for it i FM, the
<v Speaker 1>Institute for Functional Medicine.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and there's a place there where you can find practitioners.
<v Speaker 2>And you know, in light of that, if you cannot
<v Speaker 2>find somebody, I've dropped a Lincoln show notes for doctor
<v Speaker 2>Tabitha Barber. She is a functional medicine gynecologist that Jenna
<v Speaker 2>and I know. She's wonderful. Yes, she'll have to pay
<v Speaker 2>out a pocket. I know she does have payment. She
<v Speaker 2>takes payments and she'll work with you. You can have
<v Speaker 2>a one on one console with one of her staff
<v Speaker 2>and explain to them what's going on. They'll let you
<v Speaker 2>know whether or not they feel like doctor Barber can
<v Speaker 2>help you, and then they can get into the cost
<v Speaker 2>associated with that. So that's also a resource too. And
<v Speaker 2>she's a wonderful, wonderful woman, and she is fully supportive
<v Speaker 2>of intermittent fasting and women.
<v Speaker 1>And by the way, I just dropped a link in
<v Speaker 1>show notes to the interview that I dined recently on
<v Speaker 1>my YouTube channel, my new YouTube channel, and it's called
<v Speaker 1>Fasting and Women Debunking the Myths with Doctor Tabitha Barber
<v Speaker 1>and Jin And so there's a link to that in
<v Speaker 1>the show notes. You can go listen to her, but
<v Speaker 1>I just want to echo what Sherry said and reiterate that.
<v Speaker 1>You know, we talked to her earlier on this podcast episode.
<v Speaker 1>What was it one hundred and three?
<v Speaker 3>I don't know what.
<v Speaker 2>No, wait, it was right, No, no, not one of twenties.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe it was one hundred something when she came on Lifeless. Yeah, okay,
<v Speaker 1>yeah it was. It was definitely not one of three. No,
<v Speaker 1>it was definitely an earlier episode. But you know, she
<v Speaker 1>talked about our periods being like a vital sign for women,
<v Speaker 1>and I do have the hunt.
<v Speaker 3>Like Sherry does. That it's it's the restriction.
<v Speaker 1>Because when you were not eating and you lost eighty
<v Speaker 1>pounds in a year, that's a lot, and so that
<v Speaker 1>was probably your body thinking, oh no, this is really
<v Speaker 1>too restrictive. Something's wrong. And then you stop having your periods,
<v Speaker 1>and so that was the sign. And then when you
<v Speaker 1>started intermittent fasting, your periods came back. And so I
<v Speaker 1>want you to think back to how you started intermittent fasting.
<v Speaker 1>I would not be surprised if you were having longer
<v Speaker 1>windows when you first started intermittent fasting and then gradually
<v Speaker 1>started adding more fasting and shrinking it down.
<v Speaker 3>And that may be what it is. Your body's like, oh,
<v Speaker 3>we remember.
<v Speaker 1>This, this is too much restriction, and then bam, the
<v Speaker 1>periods have stopped again. So you're right to take that
<v Speaker 1>seriously because that's a sign that you're over restricting.
<v Speaker 3>You know, not intentionally, but I would definitely.
<v Speaker 1>Be a cautious about that and really think about how
<v Speaker 1>you're defining one meal a day. As Sherry said, it
<v Speaker 1>should not be a one hour or one plate of food.
<v Speaker 1>We do not recommend that because that just ends up
<v Speaker 1>accidentally overrestricting for most people. You know, it's really hard
<v Speaker 1>to eat in a one hour period of time and
<v Speaker 1>get enough volume of food for the whole day. So
<v Speaker 1>that's something to think about. I completely agree with going
<v Speaker 1>to two meals within like six hours and see how
<v Speaker 1>that goes, because you really want your body to trust
<v Speaker 1>that you're well nourished. If your body thinks you're not
<v Speaker 1>well nourished, you're going to stop having periods. So take
<v Speaker 1>that seriously. And you know, if a six hour window
<v Speaker 1>doesn't do it, would you say eight weeks? Did you
<v Speaker 1>suggest eight weeks?
<v Speaker 3>Go to eight?
<v Speaker 2>I would do six hours for eight weeks and really
<v Speaker 2>just focus on fueling well. And then give your body
<v Speaker 2>time to respond.
<v Speaker 1>But like again, if your period doesn't come back, go
<v Speaker 1>to an eight hour window and see. But I would
<v Speaker 1>absolutely not do any more full fast days. Definitely, not
<v Speaker 1>even with a full update. I would stop doing that.
<v Speaker 1>And you know, our bodies let us know that something's wrong,
<v Speaker 1>and those those signals are like, all right, something's wrong.
<v Speaker 1>And we know that over restriction is an oh signal
<v Speaker 1>for our body and losing your period is a big
<v Speaker 1>uh oh signal. So again I put that episode link
<v Speaker 1>in the show notes fasting in Women Debunking the Myths
<v Speaker 1>and we do have. It was episode twenty eight. I
<v Speaker 1>see you've dropped it in there, So that was you
<v Speaker 1>can listen to that episode as well. But you know,
<v Speaker 1>for women, if you lose your period, there's something wrong.
<v Speaker 1>And if you think you've been overly restricting and you
<v Speaker 1>lose your period, you probably have Overexercising can also do it.
<v Speaker 1>If you're over exercising and having a short window, that
<v Speaker 1>can panic your body. Because Tabitha talked about how Olympic
<v Speaker 1>athletes often lose their periods because that's just too much
<v Speaker 1>for their bodies. If you don't have a sufficient amount
<v Speaker 1>of body fat on your body. So there's so many variables.
<v Speaker 1>So is fasting bad for women?
<v Speaker 2>No?
<v Speaker 1>Is overfasting going to negatively affect our bodies?
<v Speaker 3>Yes? And so that's what you need to be cautious about.
<v Speaker 2>All right, So we have a question from insulin Resistant
<v Speaker 2>in Denver. Hello, I'm forty seven years old. I am
<v Speaker 2>a female still with regular cycles. I started IF one
<v Speaker 2>year ago in June twenty twenty four at a starting
<v Speaker 2>weight of two hundred and twenty four pounds. After doing
<v Speaker 2>sixteen eight for a couple of months, I settled into
<v Speaker 2>eighteen six by early fall. By December of twenty twenty four,
<v Speaker 2>I had lost fifteen pounds. I did well over the holidays,
<v Speaker 2>but then around February I started seeing my weight go
<v Speaker 2>up again. Now June twenty twenty five, I am at
<v Speaker 2>two hundred and eighteen pounds. I have been doing five
<v Speaker 2>hour windows about three to four days a week, and
<v Speaker 2>six to seven hour windows the other days. I eat
<v Speaker 2>all foods, and I will admit I have a sweet tooth.
<v Speaker 2>I try to make healthy choices and my meals are
<v Speaker 2>all homemade and nutritious. I usually have a protein shake
<v Speaker 2>with ground flax seed meal to break my fast This
<v Speaker 2>has been keeping me regular. I'll often add some wasa
<v Speaker 2>crackers with ham and cheese and a fruit or a
<v Speaker 2>cup of soup. I try to avoid snacking, but not
<v Speaker 2>all days are perfect. A typical dinner will be a
<v Speaker 2>protein veggies and rice or potatoes. I know I can
<v Speaker 2>do better at cutting out sugar, but it's my addiction,
<v Speaker 2>so it's been a struggle. My A and C was
<v Speaker 2>five point six in August of twenty four and now
<v Speaker 2>it's five point eight in March of twenty five. I
<v Speaker 2>have only had my insulin checked once and it was
<v Speaker 2>seventeen point six in March of twenty twenty five. I
<v Speaker 2>have a history of fatty liver, which is no longer
<v Speaker 2>an issue. My liver enzymes are back to normal. I
<v Speaker 2>work out approximately five days a week. I do reformer
<v Speaker 2>pilates one times a week. I strenk train three to
<v Speaker 2>four times a week, and I daily walk between thirty
<v Speaker 2>minutes and one hour. I'd love your advice how to
<v Speaker 2>go from here. My goal weight is one hundred and
<v Speaker 2>seventy five and it seems so unachievable, and I feel
<v Speaker 2>sad and upset with myself for not being able to
<v Speaker 2>lose the weight. I appreciate your time and advice.
<v Speaker 1>All right, well, I'm sorry that you are sad insulin
<v Speaker 1>resistant into and I think that a very giant piece
<v Speaker 1>of this puzzle is that you're fasting insulin.
<v Speaker 3>What did you say? It was seventeen ten point six.
<v Speaker 3>Seventy point six is high.
<v Speaker 2>Seventeen point six yep.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, seventeen point six is high. So the optimal fasting
<v Speaker 1>insulin would be between two point five and five. So
<v Speaker 1>if you just had it checked in March of twenty
<v Speaker 1>twenty five, we're recording this.
<v Speaker 3>It's jo it's Jillly first.
<v Speaker 1>We're recording this, so it hasn't been very long, so
<v Speaker 1>it's probably still pretty high. So I think you know,
<v Speaker 1>I don't want you to feel sad, I get it.
<v Speaker 1>I mean I want you to feel like empowered because
<v Speaker 1>now you're going to have a plan going forward. You
<v Speaker 1>have realized that what you're doing right now is not
<v Speaker 1>a weight loss window for you. Having five hour windows
<v Speaker 1>three to four days a week and a six to
<v Speaker 1>seven hour window the other days also would not be
<v Speaker 1>a weight loss window for me when even when I
<v Speaker 1>needed to lose weight, it wouldn't normally a six to
<v Speaker 1>seven hour window or for sharing. That's too long for
<v Speaker 1>us to lose weight. And if you've got a fasted
<v Speaker 1>insulin of seventeen point six, then you are influin resistant
<v Speaker 1>and you need to do something that's going to get
<v Speaker 1>that down. So food choices are so important, you know.
<v Speaker 1>I feel like I would stop opening with a protein
<v Speaker 1>shake because protein shakes are ultra processed, a lot of them.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, it's not natural food in its normal form,
<v Speaker 1>right if you think about it, and it's an ultra processed,
<v Speaker 1>quickly absorbed food because it's like think about it's like
<v Speaker 1>already digested.
<v Speaker 3>Your body doesn't have to do any work.
<v Speaker 1>And I understand that you're enjoying having the ground flax
<v Speaker 1>because you feel like it's keeping you regular.
<v Speaker 3>Chery do you do, gret? What do you do for regularity?
<v Speaker 2>I do cilium?
<v Speaker 3>And I do to open your window?
<v Speaker 2>Okay, uh huh, yes, yes.
<v Speaker 3>And you just put it in water? What do you do?
<v Speaker 2>I just put The brand I use is an organic,
<v Speaker 2>It is whole husk. It's not ground, so it kind
<v Speaker 2>of gets fluffier than the ground cilium that you get
<v Speaker 2>like metamucil or whatever. And it doesn't have any funky
<v Speaker 2>ingredients or colors, additives, sweeteners in it. I just put
<v Speaker 2>a tablespin in about eight ounces of water and I
<v Speaker 2>just chug it down and I wash it down with
<v Speaker 2>a little bit more water, and it does so many
<v Speaker 2>good things for you. My cholesterol has improved greatly since
<v Speaker 2>I started doing this. But it really helps you with
<v Speaker 2>your blood sugar. And it's gonna help you with regularity,
<v Speaker 2>whether you're constipated or some people have problems with having
<v Speaker 2>the opposite problem when they open their window. It helps
<v Speaker 2>with that as well. So if you're having digestive issues
<v Speaker 2>at all, it's gonna help with that. It's a great prebiotic.
<v Speaker 2>It feeds the good gut bugs in your gut before
<v Speaker 2>you eat. So switch try to switch to that. And
<v Speaker 2>I'll put a link to the one I use in
<v Speaker 2>show notes, because.
<v Speaker 3>We're not sponsored by that. We're not exist. We just
<v Speaker 3>like to share things we like.
<v Speaker 2>I just order it off Amazon, so I'll put a
<v Speaker 2>link in show note, and I feel better about using
<v Speaker 2>it than some of the other ones out there.
<v Speaker 3>I want to emphasize something else.
<v Speaker 1>Your A one C has actually gone up between August
<v Speaker 1>of twenty four and March of twenty five, and so
<v Speaker 1>that's an indication that you're going to really I know
<v Speaker 1>you mentioned you said that you have a sweet tooth.
<v Speaker 1>You eat all foods and you admit you have a
<v Speaker 1>sweet tooth. I want you to think about food as medicine.
<v Speaker 1>I know that the whole idea of delayed on tonight
<v Speaker 1>is attractive for all of us.
<v Speaker 2>Right.
<v Speaker 1>We don't want to give up things that we want
<v Speaker 1>to eat, and I get it. But you're at the
<v Speaker 1>point right now where your A and C is going
<v Speaker 1>up and also your fasting insulin is high, and so
<v Speaker 1>you know, I would stop with the protein shake and
<v Speaker 1>eat like something real that's protein, Like, have some meat
<v Speaker 1>if you like to eat meat beans if you're not
<v Speaker 1>much of a bean eater.
<v Speaker 3>I mean you said you eat ham and cheese.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, have some tina on your wassa crackers exactly.
<v Speaker 1>You know me eam is a little bit of a
<v Speaker 1>more processed kind of a meat and you know, just
<v Speaker 1>it really just depends. I would go to the least
<v Speaker 1>processed forms of things that are going to satisfy you
<v Speaker 1>as possible. And what's really powerful for helping with you know,
<v Speaker 1>both weight loss when you're stuck and with insulin resistance
<v Speaker 1>is ADF so ADF is really powerful, and you know,
<v Speaker 1>make sure you have the second edition of Delayed on
<v Speaker 1>tonight and read the ADF chapter there. And you know
<v Speaker 1>you like to have some longer windows you mentioned, so
<v Speaker 1>doing ADF will allow you to have. You know, you've
<v Speaker 1>been doing three to four days of five hour windows,
<v Speaker 1>so instead have three down days a week and with
<v Speaker 1>that five hundred calorie dinner, three down days a week,
<v Speaker 1>each one of those followed by a full eight to
<v Speaker 1>twelve hour update with really nutritious food choices that satisfy
<v Speaker 1>you and they're going to nurse your body well. And
<v Speaker 1>then that seventh day, you know, have an eating window,
<v Speaker 1>and that's really going to help your insulin come down.
<v Speaker 1>It's going to probably help with your A one C
<v Speaker 1>food choices, though I keep coming back to that. When
<v Speaker 1>you're a one and see is going up, that's a
<v Speaker 1>sign that your food choices need some tweaking. And again
<v Speaker 1>we call this the health plan with the side effective
<v Speaker 1>weight loss, because intermittent fasting is powerful, but the food
<v Speaker 1>that we choose really does matter. When we're closer down
<v Speaker 1>that road of insulin resistance. You know somebody who's you know,
<v Speaker 1>younger metabolically healthy.
<v Speaker 3>Not as big of a deal.
<v Speaker 1>But when we're older and we're struggling with our metabolic help,
<v Speaker 1>that's when food choices we need to be more mindful
<v Speaker 1>about that.
<v Speaker 2>Well, And I just wanted to share too. I have
<v Speaker 2>a little bit of a theory here. I don't think
<v Speaker 2>this is all bad news that you've shared. And I
<v Speaker 2>don't even think it's particularly bad that your A W
<v Speaker 2>and C climbed a little bit, because here's why your
<v Speaker 2>fatty liver has healed. And so we know that when
<v Speaker 2>people first start fasting, they often see a rise in
<v Speaker 2>their fasting blood sugar. That's true because your body is
<v Speaker 2>pushing out all this stored glycogen that's been held up
<v Speaker 2>in your liver and muscles. So it's really normal. People
<v Speaker 2>will start fasting and they'll be like, oh, I don't
<v Speaker 2>know if I should fast anymore because my morning blood
<v Speaker 2>sugars are higher than they have ever been. It's a
<v Speaker 2>temporary thing, but it's actually a good thing because you're
<v Speaker 2>getting all of that out, you're using it, and so yes,
<v Speaker 2>you're circulating blood sugars may be higher. You may be
<v Speaker 2>experiencing some dawn phenomenon where your blood sugars in the
<v Speaker 2>mornings are higher, but over time, that higher blood sugar
<v Speaker 2>is serving a purpose and it's working to heal your body.
<v Speaker 2>So I honestly have heard before that people have had
<v Speaker 2>a rise in their A and C when they first
<v Speaker 2>start fasting during the first three to six months, and
<v Speaker 2>I really believe that's what's happening.
<v Speaker 3>That's a very good point.
<v Speaker 2>But your liver has healed and that is amazing and
<v Speaker 2>that that should be congratulated. So I want you to
<v Speaker 2>I don't want you to think that it's not working.
<v Speaker 2>Our friend Roxy, who works in the community with us,
<v Speaker 2>she started intermittent fasting because of her fatty liver, and
<v Speaker 2>she didn't lose any weight at the beginning. I can't
<v Speaker 2>remember what she said, like five months, maybe she didn't
<v Speaker 2>get any weight, but she really changed her liver became healthy,
<v Speaker 2>and then once her liver got healthy and her blood
<v Speaker 2>glucose got under control, then she started to see some
<v Speaker 2>weight change. And since she did not check your fasting
<v Speaker 2>insulin when you started, you have no idea how high
<v Speaker 2>it was. It could have been thirty, it could have
<v Speaker 2>been forty, like you just don't know. So the fact
<v Speaker 2>that it's seventeen point six while it's not optimal, I
<v Speaker 2>would suspect it's a lot better than it was. So
<v Speaker 2>I'm with Jen. Tighten up your windows and keep them
<v Speaker 2>to five hours a day every week, and you know,
<v Speaker 2>do that for a couple of weeks and really get
<v Speaker 2>to where you're used to having a shorter window every day.
<v Speaker 2>And then if you're not seeing changes in like six weeks,
<v Speaker 2>then really start to introduce some down days and play
<v Speaker 2>around with some ADF protocols. After you've gotten your hands
<v Speaker 2>on the second edition of Delay to Deny, because that's
<v Speaker 2>going to be wonderful for you. And yeah, and I'm
<v Speaker 2>with Jen. Try to eat real food. You don't need
<v Speaker 2>that protein shake, Have a chicken breast, have some tuna
<v Speaker 2>have you know, eat eat real food that's going to
<v Speaker 2>feed up and stick with you. And yeah, yeah, And
<v Speaker 2>the longer it takes your body to digest food, the
<v Speaker 2>less of an insulin response you're going to have to it.
<v Speaker 2>So if you think about taking in protein, and people think, oh,
<v Speaker 2>protein doesn't.
<v Speaker 3>Raise your blood sugar, but it does. It does.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, And so if you take think about taking in
<v Speaker 2>liquid protein, it doesn't require any digestion and that can
<v Speaker 2>spike your blood sugar up as opposed to eating a
<v Speaker 2>chicken breast or eating a can of tuna or whatever
<v Speaker 2>it is. You like, that's going to take longer to digest,
<v Speaker 2>You're going to have better blood glucose control and better satiety.
<v Speaker 1>There's actually something that I learned about when I was
<v Speaker 1>researching for Feats without Fear, and it's called the insulin index,
<v Speaker 1>and I just go, go gole dit, but it was
<v Speaker 1>super duper surprising. The insulin index was really surprising to
<v Speaker 1>me because.
<v Speaker 3>We think that.
<v Speaker 1>Like you know, meat would not raise insulin, you would
<v Speaker 1>not have much of an insulin response to it. But
<v Speaker 1>they actually found that some things were super surprising.
<v Speaker 3>Like I'm trying to see on here.
<v Speaker 2>Feel like, isn't there one like steak had a higher
<v Speaker 2>insulin index than like ice cream or something crazy. I
<v Speaker 2>feel like I've read that book.
<v Speaker 1>I'm trying to find it, Like I don't this is
<v Speaker 1>not that. This is just the Wikipedia I went to it.
<v Speaker 1>I thought it would have a nice this is not
<v Speaker 1>the full The one I'm on right now is not
<v Speaker 1>the full one. But like, oh, here we go. Beef
<v Speaker 1>had an insulin score of fifty one. Okay, so the
<v Speaker 1>insulence Okay, here we go the insulin score, so that means,
<v Speaker 1>you know, hire is is worse.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, So beef had an.
<v Speaker 1>Insulin score of fifty one, whereas all brand cereal, which
<v Speaker 1>everyone would think, well that would probably be worse.
<v Speaker 3>No, that had eight carbs thirty two.
<v Speaker 1>Right, So beef raised the insulin higher than all brand
<v Speaker 1>white bread raised at one hundred, whereas brown pasta was
<v Speaker 1>only forty. So on the insulin the insulin score, brown
<v Speaker 1>pasta was only forty, whereas beef.
<v Speaker 3>Was fifty one.
<v Speaker 2>Right, that's where fiber is your friend.
<v Speaker 1>Fiber is your friend. Eggs were thirty one, but cheese
<v Speaker 1>was forty five. I mean, it's just so interesting. So
<v Speaker 1>I just googled insulin index everybody if you want to
<v Speaker 1>find it, and literally, this is just a chart that's
<v Speaker 1>in Wikipedia. It's just a chart you could find at
<v Speaker 1>other places as well, but it just goes to show.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, ice cream was eighty.
<v Speaker 1>Nine, so that was okay, fantastic, Okay, Jelly for one
<v Speaker 1>hundred and sixty.
<v Speaker 2>I saw some comparison between ice cream and oh it
<v Speaker 2>might have been like over prolonged blood sugars maybe maybe,
<v Speaker 2>and steak had a higher prolonged blood sugar response than
<v Speaker 2>a cup of a half a cup of ice cream
<v Speaker 2>or something like that.
<v Speaker 1>It's just so interesting to think about that there's a
<v Speaker 1>lot going on behind the scenes and eating causes insulin
<v Speaker 1>to go up.
<v Speaker 3>And it's not just the things that you think.
<v Speaker 1>Because we had all that in the low carb the
<v Speaker 1>whole idea that actually has not turned out to be true.
<v Speaker 1>There was the whole carbohydrate insulin theory that it was
<v Speaker 1>carbohydrates that major insulin go up so much.
<v Speaker 3>And when it turns out, oh no, that's not just that.
<v Speaker 1>It's eating, right that makes that happen, or like even
<v Speaker 1>the taste of something sweet, like an artificial sweetener. So anyway,
<v Speaker 1>I don't know how I got on that rabbit hole,
<v Speaker 1>but we were talking about insulin resistance and bringing down insulin.
<v Speaker 2>Well, we were talking about the protein drinks.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, it was the protein drink.
<v Speaker 1>You're right, And I don't think I wonder if this
<v Speaker 1>is a protein drink. Oh no, it's a cereal. I
<v Speaker 1>don't see any there on this particular list I'm looking at.
<v Speaker 1>There's no protein drink on there. But I would bet
<v Speaker 1>that it would have it happen, it would go up
<v Speaker 1>a lot.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. Well, it's just anything you chew is going to
<v Speaker 2>have a better impact on your blood sugar control than
<v Speaker 2>anything you drink. It really comes down to that, whether
<v Speaker 2>it's a protein drink or it's drinking your fruits and
<v Speaker 2>vegetables as opposed to eating them. Exactly, you don't have
<v Speaker 2>the fiber, you don't have the ruffedge, you don't have
<v Speaker 2>the food that needs to be broke down in your gut,
<v Speaker 2>and food is going to really give you more satiety
<v Speaker 2>than any liquid. I mean, liquid can promote satiety when
<v Speaker 2>combined with food like soups. And you know your fruits
<v Speaker 2>and veggies that are full of liquids, right, but they
<v Speaker 2>have to be paired with other foods. So when it
<v Speaker 2>comes to protein, when it comes to your fruits and vegetables,
<v Speaker 2>you're just gonna be better off eating them rather than
<v Speaker 2>juicing them or eating your protein and liquid form.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so now it's time for our segment called What's
<v Speaker 1>Your Why? I genuinely believe that when your why is
<v Speaker 1>deeper than weight loss alone, you're more likely to find
<v Speaker 1>long term success and view intermitt and fasting as a lifestyle.
<v Speaker 2>So this week we have a why from Taileen. Like
<v Speaker 2>many in the community. My why has changed over time,
<v Speaker 2>and because we are human and supposed to evolve, I'm
<v Speaker 2>sure it will continue to change today. My why is
<v Speaker 2>to be the best version of myself I can be daily.
<v Speaker 2>It is to break generational health curses. It's to motivate
<v Speaker 2>my loved ones and patients that a healthy life is
<v Speaker 2>not just for others, but for them too. My why
<v Speaker 2>is to age backwards and to live my longest, healthiest life.
<v Speaker 2>And I am pretty sure Tyleen just joined the community.
<v Speaker 2>And if she didn'tay, I dreamed it, but I feel
<v Speaker 2>confident she popped into community last week.
<v Speaker 3>Well ya, welcome Tileene.
<v Speaker 2>All right, so we have a question from Connie and Texas. Connie,
<v Speaker 2>it's hot in Texas right now, but I feel like
<v Speaker 2>it's hot. It's hot everywhere, you know. I always think
<v Speaker 2>of Canada being cold. I think of it being like
<v Speaker 2>more of an Arctic type place or whatever. But oh no,
<v Speaker 2>they were having like a heat wave there last week
<v Speaker 2>and it was hotter Ontario than it was here in Alabama,
<v Speaker 2>Alabama on the Gulf. So Knyie and Texas says, I
<v Speaker 2>have been faithfully following the eye of lifestyle for two
<v Speaker 2>and a half years. I truly love the freedom it
<v Speaker 2>has given me and the fact that I have maintained
<v Speaker 2>a twenty five pound weight loss effortlessly. I follow a
<v Speaker 2>nineteen five routine and I eat mostly whole foods. I
<v Speaker 2>know that low carb makes me lose more weight, but
<v Speaker 2>I am content and feel comfortable at this weight. I
<v Speaker 2>am in generally very good health. I am aged sixty eight,
<v Speaker 2>five foot six and one hundred and sixty five pounds.
<v Speaker 2>I do water aerobics three times a week and log
<v Speaker 2>more than twelve thousand steps daily. The only medicine I
<v Speaker 2>take is armor thyroid, but my doctor doesn't like that.
<v Speaker 2>My cholesterol is on the higher side. My total cholesterols
<v Speaker 2>to forty six. My age DL is sixty six. Triglysterodes
<v Speaker 2>fifty four in LDL one sixty five, and she keeps
<v Speaker 2>mentioning medications for that. I have let her know that
<v Speaker 2>I am not interested in this, and can I just
<v Speaker 2>say that triglysterrides of fifty four are amazing, so good
<v Speaker 2>job on that. My question is about the fasting insulin data.
<v Speaker 2>I have had my fasting insulin check three times throughout
<v Speaker 2>the past years, and it has been consistently around four
<v Speaker 2>can you explain how this data impacts my health? I
<v Speaker 2>know under five is optimum for fasting insulin numbers, and
<v Speaker 2>that my insulin levels are pretty low and I am
<v Speaker 2>in a good range. I'd really like to help my
<v Speaker 2>health care provider understand the importance of this data. Thank
<v Speaker 2>you for your input and hard work to keep us
<v Speaker 2>up to date on health matters.
<v Speaker 3>All right, so that is a great question.
<v Speaker 1>And right, like we've said before, two point five to
<v Speaker 1>five is considered to be optimal, and so you're at
<v Speaker 1>a four, so you are right there in that optimal range.
<v Speaker 1>A great book for understanding why high levels of insulin
<v Speaker 1>all the time like hyper insulinemia, like high high insulin
<v Speaker 1>all the time. And we say it again, hyper insulinemia.
<v Speaker 1>That's the word for having chronic high levels of insulin.
<v Speaker 1>And if you want to really do a deep dive
<v Speaker 1>and to how that impacts your health just across the board,
<v Speaker 1>like from every bit of how your body functions, then
<v Speaker 1>you need to read Why We Get Sick by doctor
<v Speaker 1>Benjamin Bickman.
<v Speaker 3>Now, right off the bat, I'm going to say he
<v Speaker 3>and I do not.
<v Speaker 1>Agree on necessarily what foods you need to eat, Like
<v Speaker 1>Key's in the low carb camp. And like we just shared,
<v Speaker 1>you know, Bee phrases insulin more than all brands, so
<v Speaker 1>you know, we don't want to have constant high levels
<v Speaker 1>of insulin. But he and I definitely agree that fasting
<v Speaker 1>is great for bringing down insulin, especially the clean fast.
<v Speaker 1>So if your doctor wants to learn about insulin why
<v Speaker 1>we get sick, doctor Benjamin Bickman is the best explanation
<v Speaker 1>of what happens all throughout our bodies when our insulin
<v Speaker 1>is high all the time.
<v Speaker 2>Also, I just wanted to say too, you are sixty
<v Speaker 2>sixty eight, am I remember that right? Sixty eight? Yes,
<v Speaker 2>and you're very active, and I know that like doctors
<v Speaker 2>get really antsy when the total cholesterol gets over to
<v Speaker 2>forty six or whatever. You might want to run your
<v Speaker 2>numbers through. There's a couple of different websites out there.
<v Speaker 2>Look for a cardiovascular risk calculator, and you could run
<v Speaker 2>your numbers through that and it can really give you
<v Speaker 2>a real honest assessment of what those numbers mean and whether,
<v Speaker 2>like what kind of interventions are necessary. And my doctor's
<v Speaker 2>been trying to put me on cholesterol medicine for years now,
<v Speaker 2>and I have run my score through there, and it
<v Speaker 2>literally says that the American Heart Association, the American College
<v Speaker 2>of Cardiology does not recommend statins for me. So you
<v Speaker 2>might run your numbers through there and you might feel
<v Speaker 2>better about it. And the other too, is if you've
<v Speaker 2>not had a coronary calcium score done, you might just
<v Speaker 2>ask your doctor about that, and if your coronary calcium
<v Speaker 2>score is good, you might be able to get your
<v Speaker 2>doctor to kind of get off of the cholesterol thing.
<v Speaker 2>So I just wanted to reassure you on that you're
<v Speaker 2>eating healthy, you're fasting, you're very active, and you're doing
<v Speaker 2>everything right there.
<v Speaker 1>All right, we have a question from fasting in North Carolina,
<v Speaker 1>new to fasting about thirty four days in, I'm down
<v Speaker 1>five pounds. I have a daily five hour eating window.
<v Speaker 1>I brush my teeth around seven am, but around noon
<v Speaker 1>they feel dirty, especially a crown that I have. I
<v Speaker 1>open my window between one and three, and after I eat,
<v Speaker 1>they feel cleaner. Any ideas on the dirty feeling and
<v Speaker 1>why after eating would they feel cleaner. I'm glad you're
<v Speaker 1>answering this one, Sherry, because I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>I absolutely have the answer to this.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, good, because I have a guess but I don't know.
<v Speaker 1>Let's see if it's the same.
<v Speaker 3>It's katosis, That's what I was thinking, some people say.
<v Speaker 2>And I do get the metal mouth taste sometime, and
<v Speaker 2>I think I'm just kind of used to it now.
<v Speaker 2>I don't notice it as much. Occasionally I've really tuned
<v Speaker 2>into it. But I get a dirty mouth feeling. I've
<v Speaker 2>always explained it that way way back in the Facebook groups,
<v Speaker 2>everybody's talking about the taste of katosis or this and that,
<v Speaker 2>and I was like, I don't think I get that.
<v Speaker 2>I get a feeling like my mouth is dirty. I'm
<v Speaker 2>and I'm like, I've brushed my teeth. Why did my
<v Speaker 2>mouth feel dirty? That's what it is. It's katos. It's
<v Speaker 2>how she experience is kotozi. But do you have that
<v Speaker 2>now or are you just used to it? No? I
<v Speaker 2>get it. I usually feel it about well, probably around
<v Speaker 2>sixteen hours of my fast, usually around late morning, and
<v Speaker 2>I've already brushed my teeth for the day and all
<v Speaker 2>I've been drinking is water and about usually eleven o'clock
<v Speaker 2>in the morning, which was i'd be about sixteen or
<v Speaker 2>seventeen hours fasted. All of a sudden, I get that
<v Speaker 2>kind of dirty mouth feel, and that is how I
<v Speaker 2>know I'm shifting into katosis.
<v Speaker 1>Oh well, yeah, I don't experience it that way, and
<v Speaker 1>that's the thing not everybody does experience at all. Right,
<v Speaker 1>before we get to our week of the week, I
<v Speaker 1>want to take a minute to tell you about my books.
<v Speaker 1>And you know we've talked about this a couple of
<v Speaker 1>times already today, but the second edition of Delayed On
<v Speaker 1>Deny is the book that I recommend you start with
<v Speaker 1>for your intermittent fasting journey, or if you have a
<v Speaker 1>friend that you'd like to introduce to intermittent fasting, that's
<v Speaker 1>the one to start with. The updated second edition is
<v Speaker 1>available in paperback and hardback only on Amazon. The ebook
<v Speaker 1>and the audiobook are available wherever you find ebooks and audiobooks.
<v Speaker 1>It's the best ADF chapter, you know, let's you all
<v Speaker 1>know all about the clean fast and also my favorite
<v Speaker 1>part the success stories all from inspirational members of the
<v Speaker 1>Delayed on Tony community, and I just think that's the
<v Speaker 1>best place to start. You know, we've got other tools
<v Speaker 1>as well. We've got Fast Feast Repete. If you really
<v Speaker 1>want to know more, that's a great book for that.
<v Speaker 1>After you've gotten started, you want to dig in a
<v Speaker 1>little more and then twenty eight day fast start day
<v Speaker 1>by day is great if you feel like you've kind
<v Speaker 1>of you know, I hate the words falling off the wagon.
<v Speaker 3>I don't like to say them.
<v Speaker 1>But if you feel like you've fallen off the wagon,
<v Speaker 1>are like you're fasting is not quite where it used
<v Speaker 1>to be or where it needs to be. Twenty eight
<v Speaker 1>day faster, day by day is a great way to
<v Speaker 1>recommit to yourself and give yourself a refresh. So now
<v Speaker 1>it's time for our tweak of the week. And you know,
<v Speaker 1>I always say tweak it till it's easy, But the
<v Speaker 1>tweak that works for me might not be the one
<v Speaker 1>that works for you. And that's why it's super helpful
<v Speaker 1>to hear how other intermittent fasters are making intermittent fasting
<v Speaker 1>work for them. This is from Sammy from Florida. Sammy says,
<v Speaker 1>I've learned a couple of things that may be helpful
<v Speaker 1>to your listeners. First, when I recommitted to intermittent fasting
<v Speaker 1>this spring, as an experience faster, I decided to do ADF.
<v Speaker 1>I had tried ADF in the past and found it
<v Speaker 1>pretty intense, probably because I was an overachiever and incorrectly
<v Speaker 1>thought that skipping the five hundred calorie meals on down
<v Speaker 1>days made me a better intermittent faster. This time around,
<v Speaker 1>I'm two months in and I'm loving ADF. The five
<v Speaker 1>hundred calorie meal makes a huge difference for me. It
<v Speaker 1>allows me to have dinner every night with my family
<v Speaker 1>while also having breakfast or lunch with a friend or
<v Speaker 1>colleague on my up days. In addition, even though I
<v Speaker 1>feel hungry sometimes on the down days, I know I
<v Speaker 1>can hold off until my five hundred calorie meal, and
<v Speaker 1>I'm encouraged by the thought that I can delay anything
<v Speaker 1>I'm craving until the next morning, when I'm free to
<v Speaker 1>have whatever sounds good, and by then it's almost always
<v Speaker 1>something healthy. I think ADF sounds more intimidating than it
<v Speaker 1>actually is. My body is loving the digestive rest time. Second,
<v Speaker 1>I am embracing my feelings of hunger. For years and
<v Speaker 1>years I ignored my body's signals in dieting, and I'm
<v Speaker 1>relearning how to listen to my body's wisdom. So when
<v Speaker 1>those hunger feelings come up, and they do, I thank
<v Speaker 1>my body for letting me know. I'm hungry and if
<v Speaker 1>it's midfast. As silly as it sounds, I literally tell
<v Speaker 1>my body that it's time to use the energy I
<v Speaker 1>have in storage instead of taking new energy in right now.
<v Speaker 1>It usually doesn't take long after that from my metabolic
<v Speaker 1>switch to flip. A brisk walk helps if that switch
<v Speaker 1>needs a boost, and I'm good to go. Thanks so
<v Speaker 1>much for sharing your insights. Your podcasts helped me with
<v Speaker 1>discipline and remembering my why on days I need a boost.
<v Speaker 1>I absolutely love that. I don't think it's silly at
<v Speaker 1>all to tell your body to use some stored energy.
<v Speaker 1>I think that is the perfect thing to do, because
<v Speaker 1>hunger comes every day and you can either feed it
<v Speaker 1>or your body can use the what you.
<v Speaker 3>Already fed it.
<v Speaker 2>Your body can feed it, your body can feed itself.
<v Speaker 2>And I love her tip of a brisk walk. Oh yeah,
<v Speaker 2>that is a good because that can really really help.
<v Speaker 2>Like if you're feeling a little low energy and you're
<v Speaker 2>really hungry, and you go out there and you take
<v Speaker 2>a brisk walk, or it could be jump up from
<v Speaker 2>your desk and jog in place for five minutes. That's
<v Speaker 2>going to push out any leftover like remaining stored glycogen
<v Speaker 2>that's preventing your body from shifting into fat burning and
<v Speaker 2>get that switch flipped so that you confess with ease
<v Speaker 2>the rest of the day.
<v Speaker 1>That's exactly right. You know how we were always told
<v Speaker 1>in school. I don't know, maybe just I was or
<v Speaker 1>like we thought this. We thought that a camel's hump
<v Speaker 1>was full of water. Uh huh yeah, like or like
<v Speaker 1>like cause we it's not.
<v Speaker 3>But did they teach you that it was full of
<v Speaker 3>water or did we just think that?
<v Speaker 2>I don't know that they. I mean, I don't now
<v Speaker 2>that you say that. I guess I don't know, but
<v Speaker 2>we always.
<v Speaker 3>Thought it it was water. I think our teachers told
<v Speaker 3>us that.
<v Speaker 2>I feel like they did too. They did they lived
<v Speaker 2>in the desert. Yeah, I actually heard.
<v Speaker 1>My I had a third grader who had a second
<v Speaker 1>grade teacher that told them that snakes didn't have any bones.
<v Speaker 1>And I was like, well, they're vertebrates, so that's not true.
<v Speaker 1>And other kids had been in that same class. They're like,
<v Speaker 1>she did, she told us they didn't have bones. I'm like, okay,
<v Speaker 1>So I think our teacher told us that camels had
<v Speaker 1>water in their.
<v Speaker 3>Humps, but they don't.
<v Speaker 2>Oh my gosh.
<v Speaker 1>They actually it stored fat. And so the camel's hump
<v Speaker 1>is the best example of you know, they can go.
<v Speaker 1>They can go for long periods without food because the
<v Speaker 1>camel's body and also you know, fluid of coming out
<v Speaker 1>of those the fat stores right in the liquid whatever
<v Speaker 1>it's in our bodies.
<v Speaker 3>But it's fat, not water.
<v Speaker 2>Anyway, I did not you just thought me something new.
<v Speaker 3>It is not full of water.
<v Speaker 1>It is full of fuel, and so the camel can
<v Speaker 1>survive with limited food and water based on that hump.
<v Speaker 3>But it is not a big old water sack.
<v Speaker 1>So when you're having a hard time, think about the
<v Speaker 1>extra fat on your body as the camel's hump.
<v Speaker 2>Well, can I just too? I want to just throw
<v Speaker 2>in a little tidbit here. As she was talking about
<v Speaker 2>that she's two months in and loving ADF, but she
<v Speaker 2>was already experienced faster and so when she decided to
<v Speaker 2>tighten things up and really get back at it, she
<v Speaker 2>decided to do ADF this time around. And you know,
<v Speaker 2>that's great. I'm glad that it's working for her. But
<v Speaker 2>if you are a brand new faster and you're hearing
<v Speaker 2>this and you're thinking, oh, I you know that'd be great.
<v Speaker 2>I would love to be able to do this. I really, really,
<v Speaker 2>I cannot say this enough. Please please do not try
<v Speaker 2>any ADF until you've got a solid twelve weeks of
<v Speaker 2>fasting under your belt. And it's not that we want
<v Speaker 2>you to be deprived or restricted or not enjoy breakfast
<v Speaker 2>with a friend. We just really want you to be
<v Speaker 2>successful and to really have a strong fasting foundation. And
<v Speaker 2>we've just seen too many people attempt to do this
<v Speaker 2>too quickly and then pretty much all of a sudden,
<v Speaker 2>all their days become up days.
<v Speaker 3>It's true, and there tomorrow like that.
<v Speaker 1>That's when you started getting into that diet brain diet
<v Speaker 1>mentality where you're like, well, you know, today was supposed
<v Speaker 1>to be a down day, but I would really like
<v Speaker 1>to have another up day, and tomorrow will be down,
<v Speaker 1>And then you keep promising yourself that tomorrow will be down,
<v Speaker 1>and tomorrow never is.
<v Speaker 2>Yep, yeah, yep. So really, really get consistent with really
<v Speaker 2>mastering the clean fast day in and day out before
<v Speaker 2>you try any ADF. All right, So we love to
<v Speaker 2>leave you with inspirational motivational quotes, and this week we
<v Speaker 2>have a quote from Carrie and our community. Carrie wrote,
<v Speaker 2>keep in mind the following quote. It applies when others
<v Speaker 2>are uncomfortable with your eye of journey. The quote is,
<v Speaker 2>don't ever feel bad for making a decision about your
<v Speaker 2>own life that upsets other people. You are not responsible
<v Speaker 2>for their happiness, and.
<v Speaker 1>That's good for everything. Not very fasting journey. Yeah, you
<v Speaker 1>are not responsible for someone else's happiness unless, like you
<v Speaker 1>have an infant, then you do your best to make
<v Speaker 1>them happy.
<v Speaker 3>But other than that, other than.
<v Speaker 2>That, you have to take care of yourself and do
<v Speaker 2>what's right for you. Because if you're not taking care
<v Speaker 2>of yourself and doing what's right for you, you can't help
<v Speaker 2>other people. You can't be of service to other people.
<v Speaker 2>You can't be your best for other people.
<v Speaker 3>Very true. Thanks so much for listening today.
<v Speaker 1>We would love to have you join us in the
<v Speaker 1>Delayed on Tonight community, where you can interact with both
<v Speaker 1>me and Sherry, plus the most supportive bunch of intermittent
<v Speaker 1>fasters you'll find anywhere. Go to Jenstevens dot com slash
<v Speaker 1>community to join us.
<v Speaker 2>Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast to your favorite
<v Speaker 2>podcast app, and if you haven't already, please leave us
<v Speaker 2>a five star review that helps new listeners find the
<v Speaker 2>show and we really appreciate it.
<v Speaker 1>We are a community driven podcast, so to submit your
<v Speaker 1>success stories, your questions, your favorite tweak it till It's Easy, moments,
<v Speaker 1>or anything else you want us to share on the podcast,
<v Speaker 1>go to Fast Feast Repeat dot com slash submit and
<v Speaker 1>then listen each week to see if we share your
<v Speaker 1>submission or answer your question
<v Speaker 2>Until next week, Thanks for listening,