Episode 105: Trusting Your Body, Creatine, Fasted Exercise, and More

I've got a link in the show notes to how to get to the channel. It can be hard to find if you just searched Jen Stevens on UTSC That's how.

that he loves to do. So he could. You don't want to hate your job, no, And so then all of a sudden, bam, the idea came to me. You know, Will's graded editing videos and he loves to do videos. Now, it's the time to start the YouTube channel. Like literally, it was like, there you go, and I'm like, it's time. You know, I've had it in the back of my head literally for years, that I should have a.

low fat. Low carb worked better for some people, but some people gained weight on low carb, so that no diet was better if you averaged it, but each tight it was better for some people, which I thought was fascinating. So we're going to talk about all sorts of things and I'm excited to have him. I'm also doing did you see me talking about this in the community. I'm going to be doing coaching videos. People can email me with an issue, and I don't want it to just

all be like I can't lose weight, help me. I wanted to be you know, people looking for help with they're.

thing that came to mind was broccoli. The teacher thought I was joking and didn't understand why. Lol. Grateful in Canada, if I when I was a kid, I probably wand have told you my favorite food was green beans. I love That's hilarious. I might have just hollered me. My sister called me green Beanie like that. That was her name for me. Love it, so I get it, she said. Now. I am forty three years old, five foot five, and

I hover around one hundred and thirty pounds. In recent years, I was starting to feel a slow creep of one to two pound gain each year, and I was struggling to manage it. I was inspired to try fasting after hearing Gin on the Zoe podcast in April of twenty twenty four. I was cautious and a little skeptical, having studying nutrition in college and being very much in the quote small frequent meals camp for as long as I can remember. Jin's conviction opened my mind to at least

give fasting a try. I committed to stick to it for at least a month. I started with a very modest and doable ten hour eating window, so a fourteen hour fast. If I made it to fifteen hours, I was high fiving myself like I had just achieved the impossible. If you had told me then that I would eventually be totally satisfied and nourished eating within a three to six hour daily eating window, I truly would not have believed it. My progression with extending the fasting period has

been incremental but steady. As my body got used to the break from eating, I started to crave more fasting, which was unexpected. I loved having the parameters of an eating window. It cuts down on a ton of decision making and mental food chatter. Once I'm satisfied, that's it for the day, and I'm not tempted to later nibble on this or that. The windows closed maybe tomorrow. It's hard to explain that sense of knowing when your body

has had enough. There have been many days I got it wrong, focusing more on what I quote should be fitting in rather than listening to my body and ending up overly full. I am realizing that I really don't need as much food as I thought or was taught, and my body will let me know once in a while I have an extra hungry day, and I'm learning to listen to that as well and go for it. This lifestyle really does help us to tune into our

body's wisdom. I am slowly letting go of needing to plan and calculate my daily intake, which has been very free. I just want to say to anyone concerned that fasting might deprive your body or be overly restrictive, let we understand that concern. And that was my hesitation as well. But a year in, I feel better than ever, and I'm maintaining a comfortable body weight with ease, and I have proudly put on a noticeable amount of muscle. Not from fasting alone, but the steady energy has allowed me

to increase my physical activity significantly. I never thought I'd be able to work out on an empty stomach, and I had no idea how that would unlock a new level of energy I hadn't experienced before. This took time to build up to, so newbies, be patient with yourself. In addition to my increased energy, I have noticed that my skin is much softer and smother the expression lines on my face have faded significantly. These never really bothered me,

but it's a nice bonus. I am never angry anymore, which used to be a daily occurrence when I get hungry. Now it is so different. It's much more in control. I can choose to eat if it's time, or I can choose to delay, and it's not a problem. I recently had blood work done and my cholesterol has come down to a normal range. Previously, this had been high for them the past few years, which runs in my family.

I suspect I had some visceral fat to clear out. Also, all of the vitamins and minerals tested were well within a healthy range, so I clearly haven't malnourished myself. Fasting builds discipline into our daily lives, which translates to discipline in other areas as well. I find myself less reactive and better able to communicate in a calm and clearer way. We hear that all the time. Oh yeah, Sadly, my body does not do well with plain black or green

tea while fasting, and I prefer tea over coffee. I quickly discovered that I am one of those people who gets nauseous and intensely hungry with even a sip of tea while fasting. A few times, I'd try again, hoping it might be okay. Nope. I have learned to enjoy diluted black coffee as an acceptable runner up and then have tea in my eating window. I have shared fasting with people close to me, and I've received a fair amount of concern, which I completely understand. I would have

had the same reaction in the past. But my husband has gotten on board and is very supportive, so that is enough for me. Like you've said, it is not my job to convince others. They may come around in time the seeds are planted. This year has been a very gradual and cautious journey of exploration into what this lifestyle can do for me. I had to unlearn so much and that process is still ongoing. The health and

wellness spaces become so loud and confusing. Quote experts seem to be more and more opinionated while contradicting each other constantly. We am bombarded by health products we supposedly can't live without, and it's no wonder so many people throw up their hands and feel disempowered. Thank you both for your calm, insightful, and kind approach, reminding listeners repeatedly that this is a long gain to tune into our inner wisdom and is okay to not have figured it out even in a year.

Real lasting change takes months and years, not days or weeks. I aim to still tweak and learn as I go. Listening to this podcast Engines Internma and Fasting stories has become part of my daily routine. You are both so positive, helpful and informative supports I am learning to find the balance between effort and eats. I could not love that more.

opinionated while contradicting each other constantly. That is so true, And I like to think about all of human history, people knew how to eat. They knew how to move their bodies.

Versus she also is eating a lizard and she's not watching a cat influencer tell her that lizards aren't the right food for her. So it's all about trusting our body. And the number one expert on you is you.

I've struggled since I was a little girl. I was on my first weight watcher's diet in seventh grade at the age of twelve. And you start feeling like there's something wrong with you, like what's wrong with me? Why can other people eat and maintain a healthy way? And I look at a slice of bread and I can't fit into my pants tomorrow, you know, And you start to internalize that, and you start feeling like you're flawed and there's something wrong with your body and you're not enough.

And I feel like for me, once I fell into fasting and I really just put all my faith and trust into it, I was able to see that everything I was doing before it wasn't working because it wasn't designed for long time term health and weight loss.

for making me feel like I was flawed. I was able to forgive my body for not being you know, the thin, tall, you know, lanky person that my brother and sister were, and fasting gave me all of that. And you know, we hear that all the time. It's more than just weight loss, it's like overall healing.

society signals are telling you. You're focusing on something external that somebody else has told you instead of trusting yourself. I have no idea how much protein I eat, but I'm in a phase right now where i can tell I'm building muscle. I'm doing a lot of jumping on my rebounder, holding weights, and I'm building muscle from that and I'm not adding protein. I'm just eating, you know.

your window, right, or you're going to be miserable. But if there's somebody like you and they're saving all of their food in their window to be high protein, and they're not physically satisfied and they're not feeling great. That may not be right for their body. Their body may not have as much protein needs as somebody else does.

days I really am ready to eat some meat. I'm like, oh that sounds good. Yeah. And other days I'm like, I just need some beans today, you know. And it's just a matter of trusting, right and not trying to, you know, ignoring. Like I said, the person who's the greatest expert on you, is you right? No?

I wondered if this would break the fast. The product I'm looking at is an unflavored pure creatine monohydrate powder. I would also like to say that I love the podcast in the books. I first started fasting after hearing Jen on the Zobe podcast. I that's the second one in a row yeay, and recently celebrated my first fast aversary. I listened to the podcast in or I listened to the podcast in the gym each week and it helps keep me motivated. Many thanks to you both well.

of research out there. There's you know, there's some that says that you should take it before you work out, there's some that says you take it after you work out. I found some information that said as long as you have it at some point during the day and you take it consistently, because it's something that kind of builds up in your body that it doesn't matter when you take it. So it's definitely one you want to take

in your window. Now. It's one of those things that, to me, if you're worried about it, then open your window after you go to the gym. If you can't do that, then just take it in your window and don't worry about it. It's one of those things. I don't think we need to overthink it. Just get in the habit of taking it consistently. Listen, I have it. I bought it two years ago and I started reading all the research on it. I'm really bad about consistently

taking things like that. Me too. I keep telling myself I need to be better about it, so much so that I bought some little individual packets of it to go so that I would just have it with me, and I still don't remember to take it.

a fan from Germany. Hello, Jen and Cherry. I am a female, forty eight years old, five foot five, current weight of one seventy six. My starting weight was one hundred and ninety two pounds. I have a goal of somewhere between one hundred and forty and one hundred. Sorry to say that again. I have a goal of somewhere between one hundred and forty two and one hundred and

sixty pounds. My body has to decide, and I love that love, that love that love that your body will decide, and I love that you're going to let do that. I have a question regarding fasted exercise, and I hope it hasn't already been answered, I am one of the

few people who use a very early eating window. My biggest meal's at home at seven am before work, and I leave it open until eleven or twelve, but not with another full meal, just coffee with whole milk creamer is not a thing here, and one or two healthy snacks before I close. I'm so happy that I came back to IA four months ago, mainly out of desperation because of increasing weight and health issues like hypertension diagnosed last year. Like with many of us, absolutely nothing else worked.

Now I'm finally losing weight easily, although nothing worked before and I was hungry all the time. I tried IAF with a clean fast and a late eating window I think back in twenty eighteen or twenty nineteen for almost a year, but it didn't work for me at all, which was super frustrating because I loved the concept and desperately wanted it to work. But I had high cortisol in the morning, was super nervous, and my whole day was about when can I start eating again? So at

night I was constantly binging and I couldn't stop. I have no idea why I didn't try to switch it back then anyway, the early eating window works like magic on me. The non scale victories are even more impressive than my weight loss, my blood work, my blood pressure, my mood, food freedom, and many things more. Here's my question. Although I like working out over the last few weeks

or months, it wasn't my focus. I mainly trained in the morning on the weekends with heavy weightlifting and a little bit of running afterwards, and rarely during the week except my everyday forty minute lunch walk. But I'm interested in going back to a few things I like, and these are only available in the evening. One of them is an outdoor boot camp. It is intense one hour training with lots of hit and weight training. I imagine is a little bit like CrossFit style training, but it's outdoors.

Sometimes I play rugby, which is even worse because it's two hours and super hard with lots of sprinting, maximum strength, and also challenging for the brain because of the speed. I was wondering what the two of you are thinking

of doing things like that fasted once a week. I would do it fasted, for sure, but I was wondering what is recommended afterwards, Like should I break the fast post training on the specific day, even if I might feel good without doing that, when I would feel dizzy or really extremely hungry, I would eat afterwards no matter what, because I know how important it is to listen to

my body. But maybe there are other health or metabolic reasons why doing high intensity exercise in the middle of a fasting period is not a good idea, even if I feel okay. As I mentioned, I only have time once a week for boot camp or rugby, so it shouldn't bother my usual protocol too much. But I am still interested in your opinion regarding tough exercise while fasting and then not eating directly afterwards.

So I'm so glad that she found that a morning window is what feels the best to her. That is awesome. Now let's talk about you know, do you have to eat after a workout? No, you do not that you should just listen to your body.

under the beach house. And it was just me doing it by myself, and I had already eaten, and then I remembered O Tamar's trash day, let me run over there. So I am like trying to do all this heavy lifting, and I felt, h it was really hard. I didn't have my normal strengthen durrance that I have when I'm fasted. Like I could tell a difference, so I personally feel stronger. I can do harder work when I'm in the fasted state.

And it was just I don't usually do a lot of heavy stuff after I've eaten, but I could really tell a negative difference trying to do it after eating. So this is where you can learn to again trust your body. If you feel fine, you don't need to fuel up after the exercise. You've got plenty of stored fuel already on your body and you want your body to use it. That's what it's there for. So what do you have to say about that, Sherry?

from eating, but it's because you're rebalancing your electrolytes. Yeah, not because you're feeding, because your body has stored energy. So it's not a matter of needing more energy intake. It's usually a matter of needing some salt, you know, maybe some potassium. So if that's something that you do experience, you may not. Not everybody does. I would find a fast safe electrolyte that you could take prior to working out.

And to find a fast safe electrolyte you're gonna find, want to find one that has zero flavors, that is simply like I have a liquid one that I recommend. It is minerals in purified water. That's it. There's nothing else in it. You don't want citric acid, ful of the acid, humic acid, you don't want flavors like, none of that. So it's gonna be very plain minerals in water. And you can get that in powder form, you can get that in liquid form. Just be very very cautious

about the ingredient list. So, and then I do want to backup real quick, So the question about the creatine.

While you were talking, I knew I had seen a research article, so I went and found it and I dropped it in show notes, and I'll just read the conclusion, and it basically says, as it stands, adapting creatine timing specifically according to when training is performed, is not currently supported by solid evidence and should not be considered a real concern for now, more well controlled studies determining whether the timing of creating supplementation around training truly influences the

increases in untramuscular creatine content are required to substantiate any such claims. Okay, So, I mean that's pretty reassuring to me that as long as you're just routinely taking it, it's something that's picked up by your muscles and stored in your muscles. That that's why gils often see a loading protocol for creatine where you load up and then you scale back your amount. So yeah, I feel very confident in the way I answered that earlier, but I left the research article in show notes.

you for listening anyway. My why initially weight loss. Of course, I had expressed to my sister in law that my benefits will no longer be covering I think she means her like insurance insurance benefits. Yeah, would no longer be covering my Ozimbic prescription. And I was scared about coming off because of weight regain I experienced the year before when I tried to quit it. But as the weeks have passed and I've had more time to really think

on it, it has changed. I still want the weight loss, but as of today, I zero point eight pounds from my weight I've not been since two thousand and eight, so I know the loss will come. So how has it changed? To be clear? This isn't a pity party for one, It's just my why. I am forty seven.

I have been single for the better part of the last thirteen years, with the exception of some horrible relationships that I stayed in because I had such low self esteem that I told myself, well, who else will love you? The answer, by the way, is me. I love me. I love me so much. I have come to accept that I may never enter our relationship again, and that's okay. But as a childless single woman, I only have me

to take care of me. So my why is that I watched my father literally pass away before my eyes on December twenty second, twenty twenty four, and there was nothing that I nor my mom could do for him. He was a relatively healthy man all my life, but in twenty twenty three he suffered a stroke. This brought many changes to his life that my mom, who is trim but not healthy, could not accommodate easily. And now that she's alone, I worry what will become of her.

She has kids to help her, but again I don't, so I have to be here for me one hundred percent. I want to make sure that I'm now taking the best steps to not have a stroke like my dad, and I don't want to not be able to do things such as simply walking my dog around the block like my mom. And if I find myself so fortunate to meet someone again, I want to make sure that we can have an amazing life together, not one sitting

around doing nothing but getting fat and old together. Thank you so much for the forum to share and the guidance you have given. You help in more ways than you know. And beautiful TRAINA that is I'm sorry for the loss of your dad.

lose another fifteen pounds or so. My IF protocol is nineteen five, sometimes eighteen six, and I can tell that I lose weight best at nineteen five, but life happens. My diet is mostly clean and my goal is to eat thirty plants plant foods a week. Ninety five percent of my meals are cooked at home. I pack a lunch and I love good food. My eating window is usually one o'clock to six o'clock. My question is I eat a healthy lunch at work, usually consisting of vegetables, fruit,

a healthy carb, and sometimes protein. I get home from work around four thirty and I usually go for a walk right away before I eat my last small dinner. There have been several times when I come home from the walk and I'm shaking and feeling so weak. It reminds me of when I really struggled with hypoglycemia before.

I didn't have any fell lethargic. I felt I didn't have I just didn't have as much strength as I do in the fasted state. It's hard to explain. So I would just swap two things. I would swap your walk and your last small dinner. It's really great to walk after you eat, so that helps your body clear out that blood glucose in a good way. But you don't want your body to clear up blood gluecose and

now you feel shaky and hypoglycemic. Except I would come home, eat the last small meal, and then go for your walk, and I think that would solve the problem completely. High often will take a walk after dinner.

your meal. But when you see when you walk fat, when you walk fasted, your body's pulling fat for energy. But when you're walking bed, it's pulling glycogen for energy.

what was happening in your body. Yeah, but again too, if you're really struggling with some hypogicemia after you eat, you might really play around just with what you're eating to open your window, because you know, maybe you said vegetables, fruit, a healthy carb, and sometimes protein. It could just be that your fruit, your vegetables, your carb without enough fat and protein is leading you to be a little hypogocemic.

I am a person that trends that way. So you might just change up what you're eating a little bit and see if it makes you feel a little bit better.

forty minutes tops. I was previously able to maintain my weight at one twelve to one point fifteen, but now I weigh one twenty four to one twenty seven, and I do think a couple of those pounds are muscle. But my clothes are no longer fitting, and I'm very confused and frustrated. Help.

your body. When your energy intake and your energy output are vastly different, your body can downregulate your metabolic rate to try to match that, because it wants everything to be in balance and so you know, it may not be releasing weight right now because you may not you may need a broader eating window. But at this point of doing this for a year, I'm really gonna recommend that you try to do some ADF because you could

really benefit from the metabolic boost. And if you don't, if you're not ready for ADF and you just want to kind of ease in, I would kind of do an upish downish approach. One day, have you know, one meal and a one hour window, which shouldn't be a problem for you because it looks like you maybe have a one hour window some days, and then the next day have two meals across a six seven hour window

and give that a try. And if you're if you're liking that rhythm, then you could just switch to straight like four three or eighty straight eightyf where every other day you have an upday down day. But I think that would really benefit you and help you see, you know, your body get back to where you were a year ago.

I don't know if you're gaining fat or muscle. And you know, if somebody gained ten pounds of muscle, their clothes would probably feel tight. You know, you think about people who gain a lot of muscle, who have a lot of visible muscle. It's it can be larger, right if you are of really scrawny arms and now you have muscular arms, your sleeves are going to be tight, or like your pants, legs are going to be tight if you put on a lot of muscle in your leg.

So I really doubt that you've put on ten pounds of fat, and you know some of that is going to be muscle. And people who are muscular might need to wear bigger clothes than when you were at a less muscular that's true.

significant amount of muscle. I have some pictures I share in the community where my weight is the same between like about a sixteen seventeen month period. My weight is the same, but my body is drastically different, and it's it's muscle. So if I hadn't put on that muscle, my way might have easily been ten fifteen pounds less than it was. So it's you know, there's more than just just because your clothes don't fit as well. It doesn't mean that it's all fat and it's right, you know,

but you know, if you're feeling fluffier. We know when we feel a little fluffier and we don't feel as toned. But I would think that you're feeling more toned if you're working out like that. So that's one of those examples where maybe your honesty pants are not going to be a good guide for you.

especially since she's adding muscle. But if she's four or eleven, we're gonna have slightly different advice for her. So, Ruth, I get that you're frustrated. I do want to really point out that we do not recommend a tiny, tiny, little eating window. You know, a twenty three hour daily fast, for example, would not be something we would recommend that

you do every day. Do I sometimes end up with a twenty three hour fast, Yes, because I'm busy, But I also don't follow that with a one hour eating window. In general, I keep my eye on the length of my eating window, and three to five hours, maybe six hours sometimes it just depends on what's going on that day. But make sure you're having a sufficient window that you're not accidentally over restricting. You know, when we talk to

Tabatha Barber for our podcast, I don't know gosh. Early on it was an episode what is not good for women or men or anybody is over restriction. And over restriction can look like not eating enough, but it can also look like working out more. So, if you combine not eating enough with working out more like sure he was saying at the beginning, then your body's like not enough, not enough, and that's when you start to have the

metabolic problems. So you may need to eat a little more to support your your workout, but I would really think about the quality of the way that you've gained and whether it's fat or whether it's a muscle.

exciting news. If you've been listening to this podcast for any time, you know that Jen and I both were really big fans of Beauty Counter, a clean skincare and beauty company, and last April, the company that was the company was originally founded by one woman and she sold it to an investment company and they did not manage it well, and they ended up claiming bankruptc she bought back parts of the company and she has been working for over a year now to bring the company back

the way she envisioned it and the way she ran it initially. So it's been a long process, much longer than we thought it was going to be. And they are going to be back the end of June, and by the time this episode comes out, it'll be the early July. And I'm just really excited. They invited me to come back and to be a brand advocate for them, and I'm going to be doing that. As you know, I have been. I switched over to Crunchy during the interim,

and I love a lot of the Crunchy products. I like some of them more than some of the parts to Beauty Counter. When it comes back, it's going to be known as Counter. And if you were a former Beauty Counter customer of mine and you've been waiting for them to come back, I hope that you will come back and shop with me again. I am going to be adding a link to my storefront in our website at our website at fast Feast Repeat dot com. Slash Sharry It's s H E. R. I. It's one R

and you can find links there. I'll have links and show notes, and moving forward, I'm going to just be developing a website where I'll be sharing about different skincare products, ingredients and products, why the ingredients matter, and just all things living a healthy, balanced life. And I'll get into that more later. But if you want to be involved in that, you want to know about that, keep an eye on that page on our Fast Feet Repeat website.

And you can also always email me at fast Feast Repeat or Shary at Fast Feets Repeat and I can it is there email dot com.

there's gonna be options for people out there. And you know, skincare is just has always been a passion of mine. So keep an eye on the website and I'll keep you guys posted.

one decision. My food choices are better, and my sleep is better. My focus is better, energy levels are better. I'm exercising harder, with more endurance. I'm walking every day, which is helping a lot with distracting myself from mindless eating. I have a better way of dealing with emotions, and I'm great at using up all of that extra energy. And I've dropped almost six pounds in just nine days. Goes to show how much inflammation slash fluid my body

was holding. I think too often we get so bogged down with changing too much at once and then being hard on ourselves because we couldn't keep it up. Just taking a breath, relaxing, focusing on just one thing at a time, and letting everything else fall into place naturally around that one change makes it so much more successful. And as you start having small wins, they all add up to big wins before you know it.

up to what she shared there. She included a quote from Gary Keller and the quote is it's not only one thing, it's one thing at a time. And I just think this is a perfect reminder that, yeah, as we tweak things or dress bad habits, just one thing at a time. And you know, people have really come to us and said that they are struggling because they're trying to give up beats, but then they invariably reopen their window and eat them, or they can't stop eating them.

And this is just a perfect time to remind you set your environment up for success. If you are one of those people who just really struggles to give up sweets and not overeat them, get them out of your house. Like I cannot say that enough. There's nobody in your house that needs sweets more than you need success. That's true.