24. Does Dopamine Fasting Work Or Is It Just A Fad?

You know what, it's going really, really well. So as you all know, I said I was going to get out more and I definitely think the step tracker on my phone is helping me and just seeing those numbers on my smartwatch really helps me Give me a kick up the bum and get the motivation to get out there and do more. Because we all want to reach those amazing numbers right? No one likes to lose. Well, I don't anyway so yeah, it's been going really great. And like I said, I was going to aim for about 1000 steps a day. And just looking at my phone at the moment, I'd be managing to do about six to 7000 So a little bit lower than I expected. But it is hot though, because I swear I walked loads the other day and I thought I'd done about 50,000 steps, but it actually ended up being more about 6000. So you can tell that I don't get out much anymore. But I am really keeping up with it. And it's something that I really want to achieve going out for more daily walks. So I'm definitely going to 100% Complete the 100 day challenge that we set a few weeks ago. And I think just having those 100 days there just to tick it off. Site off is a great tool. So I'm hoping that people are downloading the ticker sheet because it's a really great tool. And it does help motivate you. And even if you haven't downloaded the ticket sheet and you just do it mentally or you do it in your notes, wherever because you don't actually need to sheet to change your habit. Even if you just even if you just know in your head that you're going to be doing it for 100 days. That's a great motivator because just knowing that you're going to be doing it every single day for 100 days. Helps you stick to it. Like I said, it's a great motivator. Because when you get to about 20 3040 days, you're not going to want to quit anyway because even if it gets hard, you're going to think to yourself, well I've done it for so long. I just don't want to give up the ghost right now. So you're more than likely carry on doing it. And if you are listening to this and you've started a habit that you wanted to change, and you've kind of fallen off the waggon just remember that you can start again we do encourage you to fail, but it's all about getting back off and trying again that counts and that is a great thing about changing your habits so definitely definitely jump back into it. Don't give up. So shall How are you finding your habit change? Have you been drinking much more water?

No, I'm doing well and doing well. Still drinking the water. I've had to slightly change things in the timings that I was drinking because I was just phased out throughout the day but I found myself getting up quite a lot at night. So now I've sort of tried to cut off the drinking at about seven eight o'clock at night. So try not to have too much after that. And that's been working a bit better for me. I have actually inspired by you been trying to get out a little bit more. So I'm not doing it as a sort of any sort of formal challenge or anything like that. But I think just hearing like how positive for change it's been for you and how much better your feelings are just started doing little things so my daughter doesn't doesn't doesn't like to go to bed at night doesn't sleep very well. And it's often quite a drawn out process putting into bed and reading story after story and then cuddles and insurance and water and then just it drags out. So what I started doing is bundling or into the parameter pyjamas or the weather's got a bit warmer now and just going for a walk throughout to the neighbourhood. She really loves it she's so keen you know she don't absolutely dives into the promisee anytime she will use it. She loves just like walking the streets really quiet. You can just hear birds but there's usually no people around. As she falls asleep leisurely. It's a bit of fresh air for her. And it's helping me get my steps up. So yeah, that's just a little something I've been doing as well.

Wow, that's amazing. I'm glad I can inspire someone even if I haven't inspired anyone listening. And so we always say that don't wait. It's about helping that one person and it's all about helping that one person isn't it? And you know, the fact that even if you're more than one person, then that makes me feel good. But I'm glad you're getting out and doing your walks. I do like getting out and about and it's always been a part of who I am. When I was younger. I used to love gardening, and he used to go to the seaside. My parents would be like sat on a beach sunbathing like everybody else, and I'd be out in the rocks looking at animals catching all sorts. You know, I do like getting out. And I do think it's really good for your mental health to go out and explore. So I encourage everyone to get out more.

Okay, let's get on to today's episode. So today we're going to be talking about dopamine fasting, which is a bit of a craze that's going around at the moment. Well, it's been around for a few years, but it's really picking up the pace at the moment. And there's just going to be a very different episode to what we do normally a bit of light hearted fun. We thought with it being called dopamine fasting and our podcast, a dopamine kick. It would be remiss of us to miss the opportunity to chat about this in the show. Definitely. So for those of you who don't know, the idea behind dopamine fasting is you reduce your exposure to dopamine to dopamine creating stimulus in order to reset your body. So the idea is that we have so many dopamine hits nowadays that we've become numb to them. So we need to go to more and more extremes. And there's really different levels of intensity. So the some it's just like a digital detox whereas other people the most extreme version involves periods of like 24 hours where you don't eat you don't drink anything but water. I mean, even avoid talking to other people that could be a stimulus as well. So I just found this whole concept. Fascinating. What about you, Sparky? Have you heard of it before is it something that you have you tried it?

Well, until you mentioned it to me as a potential episode that we could be doing? I'd actually never heard of it. And I didn't know much about it. So I did a bit of research on it. And I was actually shocked that people would avoid things such as drinking water and eating food. And you know, obviously there are benefits to doing various things like stuffing yourself using technology. And we've talked about why before and the benefits of doing that things such as stopping social media, but we always maintain to our listeners that it's a gradual process, and you still need a healthy balance. And we often talk about the positives as well as the negatives when we talk about topics. We're not expecting anybody or ourselves who's listening to this right now. To stop doing anything ever again. We're not expecting ourselves to ever not eat a burger or pizza again. But what we're doing is we're trying to advocate for more healthy, balanced habits. And for me, I just think that this is a bit too on the extreme side. It's again it's an all or nothing mindset, isn't it? Like you were saying then you're avoiding things like talking to people as it can be stimuli. But to me, that's just a bit mind blowing because socialisation is part of being human. It's that social interaction that we all need. And as we know, going through what we've been through in the last couple of years is that we know we need social interaction. So to demonise that as almost a problem, I think makes it worse for yourself. I don't I just don't understand. I mean, I mean I do get it. I do I do understand why people do various things, to change things and I just believe that there are healthier ways and I think for me, I just think that a dopamine fast using those kind of methods is a bit on the extreme side. Do you feel the same or are you more in the middle or do you think it's a good idea? I don't know.

So the whole concept to me just I found the whole thing. Mind blowing so I came across the concept of dopamine fasting when my sister sent me an article about a reporter who'd tried it for 24 hours and sort of intrigued me really because I just don't understand how it would work. So you don't just have dopamine in your brain. Dopamine, like all over your policy right in your guts and things. So I did, and it's a naturally occurring chemical. So I didn't understand how you could fast from it. It's not like you can deprive yourself of it because it's still there. So I just find it something really like, I guess fascinating. To look into. So for the science bit. I couldn't find any studies on dopamine fasting, not surprising, really. But I did find a blog post from Harvard Medical School, so at least a legitimate source. So we'll pop that in the show notes and their conclusion is basically similar that the science doesn't support dopamine fasting, and you can't fast from a naturally occurring brain chemical. But I think I think it's important to highlight that they did they did say that the science isn't there to support the extreme version. So the you know, the 24 hours are not talking to anyone and not eating out sort of stuff. But the benefits of a digital detox as an opportunity to reconnect with people they thought was really powerful. So I thought with that in mind, it'd be nice for us to have a little chat about how to implement a digital detox, as it's not something that I've particularly ever I've, you know, had episodes where maybe I've gone away for the weekend, and I thought I'm going to make a real effort to stay off my phone, but I've never done an actual digital detox so I thought it was good to talk. About what that would look like.

It just wouldn't happen. It just wouldn't happen that like what you want about as he was just saying they're sorry to go off topic, but as you were just saying they're about the extreme version of dopamine. fustian. Dopamine, for me is a very positive happy hormone. And I know we've talked before about how you can get dopamine kicks for all the wrong reasons. And I think that's basically what them they mean here. Things such as going on social media, getting it getting a dopamine rush, because you're addicted to something in the wrong way. You become obsessed with that feeling like going on social media wanting likes, and we've talked about that before. For example, you with Facebook. So a detox in that respect will be really good for you. But will it last if it's so extreme? And I think that's the same with anything extreme doesn't work long term. When you look at certain extreme diets, you will see initial changes at the beginning because you're stopping something bad that you're doing. You're cutting that out. So you think to yourself, oh, well, you know that that's worked for me. But for me, this isn't about dopamine fasting or not. But is it sustainable? Like is there a sustainable way? I don't think anyone can sustain themselves without going on computers, having social interaction, not eating and drinking for long periods of time. So it's gonna happen anyway. So I think for me, it's more of a fad. I think personally, it's better to change your habits in small steps on a consistent basis. Not do this all or nothing thing as that almost leads to failure. And I might be proven wrong. There might be a study that comes out in years to come. I mean, it might really work for people. But for me, I just think it's just a fad that will blow away with the wind.

I mean independence with me depends how you define the camera as relaxing. I've got clients so relaxing, I'm not sure no many joking. I don't know. Digital to me means anything. Electrical. Yeah. So I guess you wouldn't be able to. Yeah, so it probably does include them as well. I mean, things such as phones, computer games, but then people might have their own definition of what's digital to them. They might think to themselves, okay, so the camera isn't really something that I need to detox away from. So I guess it depends, and again, we were talking about habits last week, and it depends on what you're trying to change and why you're trying to change it. If you're playing computer games too much. If you're constantly on your phone. If you're constantly on the computer, then a digital detox might be a really good thing to start doing. But I mean, as far as food goes, I don't know if I can really detox from not eating at all. Or drinking. I think I'd really struggle with that. Would you? I would definitely. I don't even know why I asked that to be honest. Because I already know you would

say Jake, Jamie and I went away once to I forget where the place is called now. So it's up its ups Snowden at Mount Snowdon. It's the highest point about Snowden that you can come and there's absolutely no phone signal there. And we chose it for that reason. Because there's because of there's no phone signal. So when you go down into the little village below, you've got phone signal, but when you're up at the campsite, there's nothing so you can't it's not like you can cheat and like you know, hang out have the hang out of you by the caravan. or something and don't just get like one bar is literally nothing, no phones at all. And you know why? It was such a nice holiday because neither of us could spend any time on our phone like we just get to spend time with each other like playing board games. And chatting and it was just really, really nice. So I can definitely have a digital detox. So

So it seems like a good time to come on to our little kicker so well I thought for a little kicker is I know everybody is still at the moment doing the 100 Day Challenge. I'm not going to set you and think additional but I thought it'd be really good Sparky for me and you or just I'll do it if you really don't want to, to do a digital detox just for 24 hours and see how it goes and sort of report back on what happened what it felt like how we spent the hours whether they were much more productive, shall

Yeah, yeah, well, it'll probably be less than 24 winter so I'll go to bed and probably look at my phone. Last thing before I go to bed and then that's the left. Look at your phone before you go to bed. And then the next day when I wake up, that's when it'll start the next day and I wait to get my phone for that whole day. Then I'll go to bed again and go to sleep. And the next day when I wake up, I'll look at my phone. So I won't, I can't time it can i because after you something digital, I suppose I could use a hand clock but