Welcome the Fast Feast Repeat Intermittent Fasting for Life. I'm Jen Stevens, author of the New York Times bestseller Fast Feast Repeat.
And I'm Sherry Bullock, longtime intermittent faster and health and wellness advocate. Please keep in mind that this podcast is for educational and motivational purposes only and is not intended to provide medical or diagnostic advice. Jen and I are not doctors, so make sure to check with your trusted healthcare professionals before making changes, especially when it comes to any medical treatments or medications.
Whether you're new to intermittent fasting or an experienced intermittent faster, tune in each week to get inspired, to learn, and to have some fun along the way. Hi, everybody, we are so glad you're here today. Welcome to this week's episode of the Fast Feast Repeat Intermittent Fasting for Life Podcast.
How are you doing today, Sherry?
I'm doing well. I'm in vacation recovery mode this week. Yeah, you were all over the place, We're all. Tell everybody where you went. I know where you went, but tell everybody.
Well.
First, I flew to Missouri via Texas. If you say via or via. I've heard it both ways. Yeah, I've heard it both ways too. I don't think anyways. Maybe it's a regional thing anyway. And then drove to Oklahoma with my best friend of like twenty some years, and then we hung out in Oklahoma City, which was a really cool city to hang out in.
We saw so much and I.
Got to go visit another Food Network chef's restaurant in Oklahoma City. It's called Birdie's and it was amazing. It's chef Kevin Lee. It was amazing. It's sort of like a Korean American fusion and it was everything was delicious, and he came out to my table and talked to me. He knew I was from out of town and that was a fan. And so then last night we just watched the final episode at Tournament and Champions and he was in the final four but he didn't make it.
He didn't win, but maybe next year. So if you're over at Oklahoma City, I go check got his food.
It was amazing.
And then we went to this concert all day concert on Sunday, I say all day. It started at five ended up midnight, but we started at noon because there was like bands outside of the stadium. It was crazy and I am too old to go to all day music festivals. I'm just oh, yeah, are that right now? I was exhausted, my feet were swelling. I think we were dehydrated. We were just drinking water like crazy. But then I went to go see my parents and some friends in Kansas City. So it was a whirlwind of
a trip. And I made it home and went back to work for the weekend, and then last night I slept like twelve hours straight.
I was your body needed that.
Yeah, traveling takes it out of you, and then you had to work your nights, and yeah.
I know.
And then Eric is just like, vacation is supposed to be a break from reality and you're supposed to get lots of rests, And I was like, it depends on what kind of vacation you schedule. My vacations are packed full of everything I want to do and every place I want to eat, and seeing all the people I want to see and go, go, go, and hard ladies.
Sleep.
Yeah, whenever I go on vacation, I never get as much sleep because my problem is I stay up too late. But then I wake up in my same normal early time, I cannot sleep in. Even if I'm up till two am, I will wake up at five thirty and I can't go back to sleep.
My body is just like it's time to get up.
Now.
That's my friend that I stayed in the hotel with, in the airbnb with. She's gets up during the week at like four thirty, so by five thirty she was awake each morning, and she's she's a good little roommate. She would just lay in bed and play on her phone or whatever until I woke up.
And so anyway, that's why I'm always so tired after I go anywhere, because my hours are all messed up because I stay up too late because everyone else does not have the early morning rising like I do, so everybody else else is fine to stay up anyway.
I can't fight biology, right, yep, yep.
And I did have some long windows in there, like in hindsight, I didn't eat a lot. It was just like we were on the go or be on the road, and so like you know, it'd be like one o'clock and I'm not knowing when we would really get to eat again. Then I'd be like, okay, well I open my window. But then you know, about seven or eight o'clock at night, I'd be starving and hadn't eaten since then, So then I would have like, you know, a little light something before you know, we'd close down the night
or whatever. So I was probably having about anywhere from six to eight hour windows most of the trip, and I thought I would make it really hard like when I got back. But I think because I really just wasn't. They weren't really full windows. I wasn't you know, eating one like meal or something right right. It was a little here and a little there. And my parents were great, I know, they made breakfast every morning and my mom, you know, they know I fast, and they'd say are
you eating this morning? And I'd say, now, I'm not and they'd say okay. But by about one thirty every afternoon they were like, well, we're really ready for lunch. Would you like lunch? And I learned before from vacationing with them, they eat their biggest meal like in the middle of the day. Yeah, they have a little something for breakfast, main meal, and then they have some nibbles in the evening, and so I knew that was my
opportunity to eat. But I'm like you, if I eat at one thirty or two, I'm gonna need something else later in the evening.
So yeah, but it don't work out.
A great trip back to my regular fasting windows and I feel great. So just that's good keeping an eye on those windows. It's not too hard to do on your vacation. Yeah, that's usually what happens for me. The windows just end up longer. And you know this comes out early May. Summer's around the corner. People are going to be traveling, and you know, when I go on a trip like you, I don't usually eat until one or two on the trip.
But then, like I said, dinner is later because people are you know, we're going to the beach and coming off the beach or whatever, right then you might not be eating dinner till eight o'clock whatever.
So it just gets shifted later. And it's no big deal. Yep.
You get back home and you didn't fall off the wagon, you didn't quit fasting. But the key really is, like if it's like I'm just gonna take this whole week off on the trip, if I started eating breakfast and lunch and dinner, that would not work out.
No, it wouldn't one day, I did go out for breakfast, well we'll call it brunch because it was about eleven am by the time our food came to our table.
But the day before was the day of the.
Concert, and I woke up that morning and I was I mean, even that night, I just knew I was so dehydrated, and I was just like, I need to eat because I've got to get some electrolytes in and I've got to refuel. I literally had eaten like a foot long core dog and that was all I had eaten the day before. So so I had a delicious breakfast and had a little something about five o'clock that evening and shut it down that day. But it's totally
you can enjoy vacation. You can eat delicious food and and stick to a window, and stick to a window. It's completely doable.
And you had that one earlier time that you ate, and you can usually get people to push off when they're eating a little bit, you know, when you're going somewhere like I went down to Georgetown with some friends this weekend, and we've got to go there. And when you visit Shery, that's the keyest little riverfront town. It was established in like the seventeen hundreds and really really cute, and we found a great restaurant and we ate.
But you know, these are I'm pretty sure.
That's where a friend of yours told me that I should retire.
Well, I think that someone did tell you that. Yeah, Georgetown is really nice. It's really historic, you know, anything that comes from the seventeen hundreds. It's got old houses and it's all it's right where there's a bay, and it was good for like ships to dock kind of a thing. That's why it was settled so early. But you know, I went with people who eat frequently and
not doing intermittent fasting. So we just you know, got there a little later, pushed it a little longer, make them wait as long as you can.
Right, but how about we go in an hour later than that? You know, just yeah, I.
Was pretty sure my parents really when I wanted to eat closer to a noon, because they start asking me like, what are you hungry for it?
And I would just kind of delay. I didn't.
I was kind of delay. I would changed the subject, or let's go look at your flowers.
Just sway a little bit and you can squish your know, a little.
And you know, if I had not wanted to eat lunch in Georgetown, I wouldn't have. But I did want to because it was really really good.
So well, and you know, I'm the kind of person that like, there's all these restaurants that I am used to from back home, especially that I'm like, oh, I missed this Mexican place and I missed this place or whatever. So I was only there for like three days, and so it's like I really did want to like eat at these reminiscent plates. Is that I've eaten it in the past and squeeze them in, and I squeezed them in.
I made it work. That does make it hard.
I remember when I went to New York for the Zoe podcast March of last year, and this year, I only got to eat two meals while I was in New York based on the timing. Because I only spent one night right, I got to eat two meals.
That was it. I was mad. I was like, I need to eat more food in New York.
But yeah, the first night I had flown in and so I was just like ate on my own. The second night was a really really special meal with the Zoe team. And I was like, I'm certainly not going to eat anything before I go to this. I don't want to ruin my win at this really nice restaurant. So I was mad that I didn't have time to eat more food in New York.
You know how you and I both have discovered that we get a little queasy flying on an empty stomach. Yeah, Well, when I flew back home at Thursday and I left Kansas City, well, my plane boarded at nine to twenty five, and when I went to the airport, I was staying with a friend and I had a little cup of espresso at her house at like six o'clock in the morning when I woke up, and it shook me the airport and I just didn't get coffee before I boarded.
I don't know why, I just I don't know. I kind of wondered if if I flew with like a really completely empty stomach, if that would be better for me. So I tried it. Well, I did not get queasy. And the thing was is I didn't have a choice
because we had turbulence. So our flight attendants never offered snacks nothing on the first leg of the flight, and then the second leg of The flight was just from Nashville to Birmingham, and it's so short they don't offer refreshments, so I like literally had no eyes option but to stay fasted, and I actually did fine. And so I kind of wonder if just flying on a completely empty stomach and not even having coffee made it easier. Well, that's something to try, but I'll find it again next time.
I usually get a coffee at the airport and I'm like, let me stopping it waiting on my plane, and so, yeah, I just gave it a try. If I will see if you'd try something different. So anyway, yeah, something to think about. Anyway, enough about me, let's move on to celebrating Maria. Maria wrote in and she said, I am celebrating my time milestone of seventy five days of committed ADF,
alternating up and down days every day. I am so happy I've stuck to this protocol because, for the first time in about thirteen years, I am at a healthy weight and one that I feel comfortable at. I've been dieting since sixth grade, but this happy scale app started in twenty fifteen when I had hit my rock bottom and I weighed in at two hundred and ten pounds.
I am five foot four From there.
I tried various methods to lose weight, but you can see I've always gained most of it back. I came across IF in June of twenty twenty two, but wasn't doing the clean fast because I hadn't found GIN until September of twenty twenty three. I did have a bit of regain last year, so this January I decided I'm going to start IF and dedicate this year to really finding my true self, follow the protocol and see what happens.
I'm already so much happier in my skin and overall life, but I'm also only ten pounds away from my goal weight. IF especially ADF has been life changing for me, and I'm forever grateful for it, along with Jin, Sherry and Roxy for their wealth of knowledge, all the books and podcasts. Thank you so much for all you do. Fast On friends.
Yeah, that is awesome. Seventy five days of true ADF. That's up down, up, down, up down, alternating like that. And when I say true ADF, I'm not talking about full fast is true, I mean down day It could be the five hundred calori down day or a full fast either one.
So not four to three, not five to two, not a hybrid. She's doing down up one after another.
Yeah.
Yeah, So I love that and it seems like such an intimidating approach for so many people.
But when you get in the rhythm and you love it.
And you're having substantial up days and your body adapts to the down days, it's just really such a great way. You lose fat on the down day, you boost your metabolism on the up day. It's a very well researched protocol, and it just really works so well for so many people. So now we have a question from a listener. This question is from Curious from Rhode Island. I have been practicing intermittent fasting since June of twenty twenty two. I
am thirty eight years old, five foot three inches. I've lost thirty pounds until today, a steady loss of ten pounds a year. I intend to lose fifteen pounds more. I follow a seventeen seven protocol, I intend to move into an eighteen six or nineteen five protocol. Intermittent fasting has provided several non scale victories for me, including making healthy food choices working out regularly. I averaged four days a week, including strength training. I started running five k's.
I have no medical conditions or concerns. Since I was feeling great with intermittent fasting, I thought about donating blood for the first time in my life in twenty twenty three. I consider this a non scale victory as well, because up until then I was just thinking about myself and
how I can help myself with intermittent fasting. Anyway, in order to donate blood, I would start feeding myself three times the previous day, stop heavy workouts the day of donation and the next day, and obviously take iron supplements as instructed. It went well for a year twenty twenty three. In twenty twenty four, one time I was sent back because I didn't have sufficient iron. This one is on me because I didn't take the iron supplements as in
strug did prior to that appointment. However, in one of my other appointments, shortly after donating blood, I passed out again. That one is partially on me because I did not wait fifteen minutes. I waited maybe five to seven minutes after donating, and I immediately climbed two flights of stairs anyway, after these episodes in twenty twenty four, I decided not
to donate blood moving forward. Although I feel disappointed, I made that choice because I want intermittent fasting and working out to be my lifestyle, and I had to rearrange too many things in my routine to make room for blood donation. Even with all of those adjustments, I felt like I was causing myself harm. My question is, have you had experience yourself or with others in the community
donating blood while practicing an intermittent fasting lifestyle. Do you think intermittent fasting could be the reason why I'm experiencing these episodes or could it be something that's deficient that's being highlighted in those situations? Thank you so much for your response. Can I just pop in with something real quick, Sherry?
About that?
Sure, I have always had low iron, Like the very first time I tried to donate blood.
I was maybe a teenager at the time.
And it was like a school is at school and it was like a blood donation blood drive at school. I went to try to go donate blood. My iron was too low to give blood. Now, was I an intermittent faster at that time? No, And so I am someone personally who has every time my blood work has ever been done my entire life, my iron comes back low.
And so did intermittent fasting cause that for me? No, So I wanted to highlight that just because there are plenty of women who just and ment to I'm sure, who tend to struggle with iron levels not falling in the ideal range. So I just wanted to put that out there. Did intermittent fasting make it worse for me?
No? I have not had worse.
Iron levels since being an intermittent faster than I did prior to intermittent fasting. So now Sherri answer her question there about iron.
Well, So, I mean we yes, we have people who donate blood all the time while practicing an eye of lifestyle, and they don't reefeed prior. They just some of them donate fasted first thing in the morning. Other people choose to donate after they open their window. People often will pass out after giving blood. That's one of the reasons why they have you lie there and they try to rehydrate you, and they give you snacks to make sure your blake glucose hasn't dropped too low. And I mean,
you are depleting some volume from your body. You know, you're losing some blood volume. So some people are sensitive to that and they can pass out from that, especially if you're dehydrated prior to donating blood. But then also some people just have what's called a vasovagal syncope. It can happen after just even giving blood. Happens pretty frequently. You hear about people who pass out when they get blood. It's not even from fear of giving blood or it's
just something that the body does, you know. I remember my daughter once she got a bunch of labs drawn, and we went up and we paid at the checked out of the doctors, and then like we left and several minutes had passed, you know, probably ten minutes by the time we stood in line, checked out, paid, made our next appointment. We're walking through the parking lot. I turned around and looked at her because she wasn't with me, and she was white as a sheet and get ready
to go down. So it just happens, and some people are more prone to it than others. So do I think if could be why you're having troubles unless you're overhydrating and you're dehydrated, I don't really think.
So when you.
Say overhydrated and dehydrated, would you mean when you say dehydrated, would you mean mineral imbalance from over both ways.
Okay, you can overhydrate, which actually they can reject you from donating blood if you're overhydrated, because it can affect like your red blood cells and all in your hemoglobe and all that. It can be affected by drinking too much water prior to donating. But if you're dehydrated and your volume depleted. So that's why there's such a balance with drinking to thirst and not drinking too much or not not drinking enough. I mean, there is a delicate
balance there. And then two, when you overhydrate, you're also depleting you know, electrolytes, and then if you give blood and you're already depleted on electrolytes, then that could skew that as well. So it's that whole finding the right
balance for your body. As far as being anemic, if that's the only time that they've told you you're anemic, it's interesting to me because you know, as a thirty eight year woman and you've I don't know, for some reason, I thought you'd said you had kids, but maybe not at some point. I feel like you would have been told you were anemic by another doctor at some point, But you know, it is important to know that. You know, one third of women under fifty are anemic, and one
of the main causes can be menstruation, heavy periods. Also different like GI diseases or vegetarians and frequent blood donations can cause anemia. But this one I thought was interesting for you, especially people who run, those who work out a lot. It can cause issues with your red blood cells being broke down, which causes you to lose iron and your urine, so that can be, you know.
A cause.
So for sure, if you're struggling with anemia or you're feeling symptoms of anemia, I would follow up with your doctor because there are people, they say, that walk around for years and years without being diagnosed and treated. But usually people who are anemic have symptoms like lethargy, they don't have the energy to work out, and it doesn't sound like that's happening for you. So I don't see like that if itself is going to cause any problems with this, because if so, I feel like this is
something we'd be hearing a lot through the community. I mean, we've supported hundreds of thousands of fasters at this time, and you're the first person who has really brought to our attention that they struggle with blood don't since starting intermint fasting. But I did leave some links and show notes about anemia.
What I think is interesting. It goes with several points that you made. She never donated blood prior to becoming an intermitt and faster, so she doesn't know how she
would have felt had she done it then. But you also mentioned that one reason someone can have low iron is frequent blood donation, so I'm wondering if she'd never done it before, and she'd also it sounds like not ever had someone tell her she was an emic, whereas I always did, like I would go to the doctor that they're like, you're an emic.
I'm like, yes, I know, you know that was common.
So if I suddenly, you know, stopped being anemic, that would be surprising because I've been an em it my whole life since teenage years. So she sounds like she hasn't had it, but now she started the frequent blood donation, so she just maybe someone, maybe she could find a schedule that where she's not donating very often, and maybe that would work out better.
But she's right in that age group, thirty eight.
But it went well for a year, right, and then she started having problems. So, I mean it could be that the rate of donation was too frequent for her body to restore her iron.
Yeah, but and bodies are just so different.
I remember I had a I've talked about this before, but I had a nurse practitioner a couple of years ago talked me into taking iron a lot because she's like, I don't know how you're walking around with this low level.
I don't know how you have any energy. I'm like, I have fabulous energy. I mean, you know me? Sheery, right, do?
I seem to struggle with energy and lethargy and not at all all the time. I would think someone with low iron would. I'm the opposite. I'm like the energizer bunny. So I'm like, all right, well I'll try it. You know, I don't want to be causing damage to my body. If I need to have more iron, I'll take iron. So I started taking iron. A few weeks later, I started having low energy and lethargy and taking afternoon naps every day.
I'm like, why am I so tired? Like what is going on? And said then I was like, well, the only thing that changes I started taking iron.
That makes no sense. It's supposed to make me have more energy. So I looked it up, and there are some people who don't clear iron well, right, And I think I might be somebody. I don't know, Like, don't take my advice, everybody, This is not medical advice, but I think I could be one of those people that is just naturally not supposed to have as much iron. And I feel amazing, So I'm like, well, obviously I would rather feel great than need naps every afternoon.
So taking too much iron.
Is actually if you don't clear it well, can cause other problems.
Anyway. Again, I'm not an expert on that, so do not start doing that.
Yeah, well, I did want to just reassure this isn't something that we hear a lot, So no, it isn't. I don't think that the anemia unless you know her diet has changed dramatically, that it has to do with fasting. It could more have to do with the running or the frequent blood other nations.
Yeah, I think you're right.
So well, we have a quick question from Julu in Idaho, and she asks, for ADF, how do you determine whether to do a mini meal down day or a total down day and what is the advantage of one over the other.
Well, that's a great question, and sometimes people think one is better than the other universally, Like theoretically, you know, I could give you theoretical arguments for why it's better to have the five hundred calorie down day meal, and I could give you theoretical arguments as to why it might be better to have the full fast. In reality, the way you determine which one to do is by being your own experiment of one and seeing which one you like the best, and also recognizing that it might not
be the same every time. Maybe sometimes you have a down day where you want to do the five hundred calorie meal for whatever reason, and sometimes you do the full fast depending on the day. So you don't have to like pick one and go with it. But here's
the thing about ADF and the research on ADF. You know, Christa Verity talks in her book The Every Other Day Diet about why five hundred calories and she says, in there through research determined that five hundred calorie down days were the ones that gave the best results versus having more, having less, having nothing. The research that Krista Verity did determine the five hundred calorie down day was the sweet.
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That being said, that is based on you know a wide range of people in the research, so you're your own study of one. Maybe you try to do a five hundred calorie Downday meal and you just absolutely no matter how you tweak it, you can't find a five hundred calory down day meal that's satisfying and you can stop at five hundred, and so you just always end up eating a thousand calories or more because you can't stop at five hundred. If that's true, then a full
fast might work better for you. On the flip side, you may be someone who finds that the full fast feels great, but you can't sleep well without the five hundred calorie Downday meal, and sleep is important. You know you're fasting, you're deep into katosis. Maybe you can't sleep. Other people sleep better on the full fast than after the five hundred calorie down day. So the answer to how do you determine which to do depends on your personal experimentation and seeing what feels the best for you.
And that's really I know that's an annoying answer, because you want me to tell you here's what you need to do and here's how you exactly do it. But knowing that the research on ADF found that five hundred calories was quote the best end quote for the most people versus any other option, that can help you realize that having the five hundred calory down day is an excellent choice, because, like I said, some people think theoretically it's better to have a full fast, and that's not
what Christoverity found. She found it was quote better to have the five hundred calorie down day. That being said, if you're someone who does better with the full fast, who cares what Christoverity said was better you do better with the full fast, so you are empowered to figure out which one you enjoy doing, which.
One works for you.
My advice for if you do choose to try the five hundred calorie meal, you know I personally need starchy carbs for satiety, So like if I did a five hundred calory down day and kept it low carb I would have like extra katosis and definitely not be able to sleep.
That would not work well for me.
So something you know is a potato, baked potato, starchy carbs would help me sleep better. Also, have your downday meal close enough to bedtime. I don't mean like you go to bed at nine o'clock, you're having it at eight thirty. I mean schedule it so that you don't have time to be hungry again before you go to bed. So like having your down day meal at noon probably isn't going to be ideal for most people. I would
have it close enough to bedtime. If I was going to go to bed at nine o'clock, I might would have it at six point thirty. Personally, that's just me. Same experiment and see what works best for you. Because if I had a big, filling, substantial, five hundred calorie meal at six point thirty with a baked potato and some veggie in all the fiber, I could probably sleep well that night.
But you really just have to try it and see do you have anything to add.
Yeah, I think there's sort of a mental like knowing your personality, and there's kind of a mental component to it too. Much. And I'm the kind of person if you tell me I can't do something or I can't have something, I'm going to.
Hyper fixate on it.
So if I said I am not going to use the down day meal and I'm going to fast straight through, all I would think about was not eating. But the minute I'm like, oh, I have a five hundred calorie meal today, and that's not that big a deal. It's just, you know, one light meal, I'm going to eat it and then close that window back up and resume fasting. That feels better to me personally, and that little rebel in me doesn't say you can't tell me I can't
have that. Yet there's other people they don't want to count out their five hundred calories to them, they don't want to count a calorie. And so again it's that balance of what works for you. I'll count a calorie all day long over just not eating. I think it's kind of fun to figure out how much.
I can fit.
Like, I like high volume food, So how big of a meal can I make for five hundred calories?
And I you know, I did it accidentally. The other day.
I made this sturfry and it had soba noodles and lots of sturfry veggies and meat with sauce, and it was a giant filling bowl. And I was so shocked to find that it only came out to like, I think, four hundred and twenty five calories, and I was like, oh, I have room for some berries or an apple for dessert. So it's a down day by accident. It's a down day by accident exactly.
Yeah, And that's really the key.
And for the people out there who are like I don't want to count a calorie. I don't want to have to do that every time, it feels like diet brain. Like Sherry now has this meal idea that she figured out ste's in her back pocket. She never has to count it again. She just can make that meal and she knows that work. So take the time to plan out some very satisfying ideas, and so when it's time for your down day meal, you just pick one of those. Like somebody might have avocado toast with eggs on top
and some berries or whatever. That's their standard down day meal, and that person never has to count a calorie ever again. They just know that's one that's satisfied them it makes them happy, so not overthinking it or trying to do something different. Also, sometimes people will go out to eat at like a restaurant. I'm just gonna say apple Bee's because I know Applebee's has calories on their menu.
I don't know. I haven't been to Applebee's in decades. I don't know when I went to Applebee's. But I just gave that as an example. But they used to have weight Watchers points on their minds.
You could find a very satisfying meal on that menu and choose that and you don't feel deprived at all. The whole key is finding a way so that it doesn't feel like you're deprived. Right, And again, I wouldn't be looking for theoretically, you know, theoretically should I do this or should I?
I don't know. What feels best to you is what you should do.
Yeah, But I'm a big fan of going with what feels good because if he doesn't feel good, you're not going to have good compliance, right, and it's going to feel like a chore.
It's going to feel like deprivation.
You know, you want it to feel good so that it's something that you're like, oh, I can make this a lifestyle, even if it's a temporary lifestyle. Maybe you say, I want to do ada for three months because you know, I know I have some insulin resistance that I need to really work on, and but you know it's you
don't want it to feel like drudgery. You want to be able to know that you have down day meals that you can embrace and enjoy, or know that you enjoy fasting straight through for thirty six hours and then enjoy your update, you know, and enjoy delicious food that day.
And the only thing I have about the down day.
Is we see people get into trouble because they think they don't want to use the down day and they have no idea what to eat when it gets to the end of the day and they're suddenly like, oh gosh, I'm starving. I'm afraid I'm not going to sleep tonight. And then they'll come into the community and say, well, I tried to do Downday yesterday and I failed. Once I started eating, I just started eating all the things.
But the thing they have in common is when you start talking to them, they're like, did you have a meal plan in advance? You know, planned out before you were hungry. So you know, wake up in the morning if you're like, oh, today I'm gonna do a down day, start thinking about what you can eat. Start looking at some calorie contents and what you can throw together and make a filling meal.
Yeah.
I think that's a great suggestion because then you have that option available to have and you're not like wandering the kitchen eating things that never worked that well for me.
Yeah, if you start opening the cabinets and munch, it's you're you're.
Not going to have good success.
No, no, And so you know, we say tweak it till it's easy, and that's not just a key catchphrase, we really do mean it. When you're choosing ADF, tweak it till it's easy. Right, figure out how there is a way that it could work for you and you could enjoy it. And the same with anything that you're choosing. With intermittent fasting, it should not feel, like Sherry said, like drudgery. And now it's time for our segment called
what's Your Why. Most of us begin intermittent fasting with weight loss in mind, and that is a great reason to begin. That's what brought me and Sherry both to intermittent fasting, but we know there is so much more to what intermittent fasting can do for us beyond weight loss.
In twenty eight day fast art day by day, the first thing I have readers do before they even start is to craft a why statement before beginning, and when your why is deeper than weight loss alone, I genuinely believe you're more likely to find long term success and to view intermittent fasting as a lifestyle.
This week, we have a wife from Barb from Champagne, Illinois, and she says my why, as so many others, was initially weight loss. But I have so many more whys. I have a great granddaughter who will soon be two years old, and I of course want to see her and any future great grandchildren grow up. I am a sixty five year old female and I want to be healthy and thriving well into my senior years. I want to be active, been present for my wife's children, grandchildren,
and siblings. As I watch my oldest sister's health deteriorate at sixty nine, I know I don't want to go down that same path. Both of my brothers have had heart surgery, and recent blood work revealed that I am pre diabetic. I would love to get off my blood pressure meds and improve my labs and BARB. I hope that you write back in and tell us down the line that your blood work improves, and would love to hear you know how this goes for you in the future.
Absolutely, you can absolutely find that you are no longer pre diabetic. And also we see so many people who come off blood pressure meds with intermittent fasting.
In fact, you know, just people who may not have heard us say this before.
If you are on blood pressure meds and you suddenly start feeling dizzy and lightheaded, time to go to your doctor and get your blood pressure checked because you probably need to lower your disage.
We see that so often.
Well, and by the same token you accidentally said blood glucose meds. But if you are on meds for diabetes and you start feeling dizzy and lightheaded, you also may need your meds adjusted or may need to go off of them.
Yep, because fasting, just fasting should not make you feel too lightheaded.
So if if there's something going on, it's time.
If you're taking something that's going to cause your blood sugar to drop while you're fasting then that could make.
You feel bad. Oh, absolutely, yeah, all.
Right, So we have another question from Jeanet in College.
Station, Texas. She said, Hi, girlies, I.
Am forty six years old five seven and I weigh two hundred and eighteen pounds. I've been fasting off and on for ten months. I keep losing side of my wy and I get off track. Well, I had a scare over the weekend. My blood pressure was high, so I made an.
Appointment with my doctor.
I was prescribed by Centeparl ten milligrams and she ordered lab work for me, which I will do in a few weeks. I was pre diabetic last year with a five point seven percent a one C level. She said, if the number is higher, she wants me to start taking met Foreman. I need to lose roughly seventy pounds, but I'm hoping just losing thirty five pounds would make a difference in my health markers.
I told her what I.
Was doing to lose weight, and she said to keep doing that and check back in six months. So my question is what happens after six months? How will I know if my blood pressure is lower. Will it be because of the medicine or weight loss. If I start met foreman, how will I know if my numbers have improved or of just from the medicine. I will follow the doctor's orders as I know both of you will tell me to do. And she did mention we could wean me off the medicine when I get down to
a healthy weight. Thank you for your help and thank you for creating such a loving community. All right, Well that's a great question. And the answer is you said, how will I know if my blood pressure and my blood sugar are better because of the intermittent fasting or the medication?
And the answer is, you won't. You can't. It's impossible. The only way you know.
I think back to when I taught the scientific method to elementary students, right, you know, when you're trying to figure out something, You're like, your hypothesis might be intermittent fasting will lower my blood pressure. And if you wanted to see if intermittent fasting would lower your blood pressure, your variable would be intermittent fasting only and see if
that makes a difference. You don't want to have two variables that you're working with because then you can't tell which it was, like it is it the medicine or is it the intermittent fasting. It's probably a combination of both. So I think that you're on the right track with what your doctor said. You know, she wants you to take the medication based on your current numbers, and she said to keep doing what you're doing with intermittent fasting. And then she said that you can wean off the
medication when you get down to a healthy weight. And then that's really when you'll know, Like when your doctor weans you off the medication, if your blood pressure stays normal and your blood sugar stays in a healthy range, then you'll know that intermittent fasting is sufficient. Right, it's healing, it's sufficient, it's all you need. If you get down to a health the weight your doctor weens you're off your medication and everything goes back up, but you haven't
stopped intermitting fasting. That's that variable again. You'll know, Well, the medication was an important variable because when we removed it, it went back to not so healthy. So it's really a lot of you know, being your own experiment of one and trial and error, and you adjust, you see what happens, you adjust again, you see what happens but you know, I want to go back to what you said at the beginning, that you were losing sight of your why and getting off track, And now I think
your why is more powerful. Your blood pressure was high and you were pre diabetic, and we know that fast and clean is fantastic for blood pressure and also fantastic for blood sugar levels. So that would motivate me to keep doing it. Let that be your your motivation, your powerful why.
Yeah, And I just wanted to say as well, I would get a fasting insulin done, like right now, okay, and then you can get it done a layer a really good indication where you can actually see that you are healing your insulin resistance. And especially because like you know, you're on this medication and you're questioning, like is it the medication or is it the fasting? And how will I know if I'm healthy enough to come off the medication.
If you repeated it in.
Six months and it was significantly lower, you know, that might be a good indicator for your doctor that you could wean off of it. Another thing, too, is if you know, you get to six months and you've lost weight and you're feeling better, and you know things are coming down. If your doctor is hesitant to stop the medication and you're wanting to stop it, you know, you could always ask for an oral glucose tolerance test. You know,
I'm sure anybody who's pregnant knows what that is. You drink the nasty orange glucose syrup and then they take your blood sugar, you know, a few times following that to see how your blood sugar responds. So that would be a good way too. If they do that and your blood sugar comes back down to a normal range, then you know that's going to show that your body is responding much better to sugar than it was before. So that's something that you could keep kind of in
the back of your mind too. If you need it, all right, well, definitely let us know how it goes.
Janet, we would love a follow up for us down the road to hear about if you were able to wean off the medication. And I really think that intermittent fasting plus food choices, those are both.
Very very important. And you know, if you're.
Already you know, struggling with being pre diabetic, you're already struggling with the high blood pressure. Food choices do make a difference too, So focusing on eating really good real food.
Real food is just so delicious anyway.
And if you need a powerful why, I couldn't help it thinking what I think while you were talking. You know, we see a lot of chronic kidney disease. I do it in my work. I see a lot of chronic kidney disease. And there's people who are like in their fifties who don't have great it's their GFR. It talks about your kidney function and their GFR is really low, and they're like, well, you know, I exercise, and why
would I have problems with my kidneys. But if you start really looking into their health, they came into the er and their glucose is really high, their blood pressure was high, and nothing is going to damage your kidneys more than run around with high blood pressure and high blood glucose coupled. Those things just are not good for your kidneys. So if you really need a really powerful why, really think about your kidney health. We don't talk about
kidneys a lot. We talk about liver health. Then you know, we talk about metabolic health. But kidney health is so important too, So really keep that kind of in the back of your mind too, is keeping your kidneys healthy.
That's so important, that's really important. I'm glad you said that.
And you know, sometimes people will ask is intermittent fasting safe for someone who has kidney problems? And I just want to always remind everybody Jason Fung, you know, the Obesity code, big, big proponent of intermittent fasting. He's a nephrologist, which is a kidney doctor, and he, you know, like all kidney doctors, sees so many patients with diabetes and other issues, and then now they have kidney damage. Now
they're coming to him. And so he started using intermittent fasting with his patients, his kidney patients, as a way to help them with their kidney issues. And so he became a big believer in intermittent fasting obviously for more than just your kidneys, but for overall metabolic health. So I thought I was a really good reminder because I mean, there's dialysis on every corner now. It seems like people
are just there's an epidemic of kidney disease. But it's downstream from like you said, high blood glucose, high blood pressure. It takes you know, decades of poor help You're going to have these problems down the road, right, so more powerful reason to fast, all right?
From wondering in Washington.
Hi, i have been intermittent fasting for a year and a half, working up to twenty four and I've had great s sss when I behave. I have slipped lately and gotten more lazy, with longer windows and making poor nutrition decisions. When my window is open, we call that window creep. By the way, wondering in Washington, she said, however, I'm ready to go back to my four hour window and fast clean, which I have not been doing since early on because I had bad breath and I feel
I cannot without chewing gum. All right, now, listen, you're wondering in Washington. I'm gonna give you a little tough love. Yes you can.
You can do it. You don't have to chew gum. The clean fast makes such a difference.
All right.
Let me finish reading her question, She said, Please tell me what effective solutions there are for treating or killing my bad breath or in my fast so I can fast cleanly. I've tried peppermin oil spray, but it really wasn't effective. I've done all the other things like talking to my dentist about my oral help and ingesting capsules that supposedly kill bad breath at the source also ineffective.
I've searched for mint gum or drops that are not sweet to trigger an insulin response, but I've had no luck so far. Please help, thank you?
All right?
Well, first of all, a lot of times when people first start fasting and they're starting to get into katosis, they start worrying because you can taste katosis, and for me, it tastes like a dirty mouth. I feel like I need to brush my teeth. I feel like my tongue is dirty and my teeth are dirty. And when I get that feeling, I know I'm in katosis. But the longer and anymore I have to be in pretty deep katosis. I really only notice this if I'm doing like an
thirty six hour fast, I'll notice it. Then the longer you fast, the more efficient your body uses kewtones and you don't exhale as many key tones, so you're not gonna notice it anymore. And even then, even if you can taste it, or you think you can smell it, it doesn't mean other people can. It's in your breath. It's not even really in your mouth, So just keeping a toothbrush if in you can just with water brush
your teeth, brush your tongue can be really helpful. They have tongue scrapers that can be helpful.
You know, you can gargle with salt water.
But if you really really have true halitosis, you know, then you probably want to get to the bottom of it because it often comes from GI causes, whether you have cibo or you might have h pylori, which can be treated. You might have some silent reflex going on, which can be really damaging to your esophagus, So that's
something you would want to know. So you know, I know you say you talk to your dentist, but if you really truly have bad breath and it's there, it's going to be there whether you're fasting clean or not, and gum is not taking care of the problem. It might be covering it up that's not taking care of it. So I would suggest seeing a GI doctor and seeing
if you can't find the source of this. But yeah, I wouldn't let that stop you from fasting, because if you do have some GI coss, fasting can really help it as well, we hear people talk all the time that they have, you know, healed their guts, their ce bow there, they've improved their gut microbiome through fasting, so it could be part of your treatment.
And as far as like covering it up, there really isn't a single gum or drops that are not going to lead to an insulin response. I used to recommend peppermint oil, like WOWD drops are the name of the drops that they are peppermint oil. But you know, I told this story before I went to the doctors in
my new functional medicine doctor a few years ago. I hadn't been before, and I went to my first appointment and I didn't know they were going to be doing blood work, and I used some WOWD drops they're peppermint oil right before, because you know, it's like right in somebody's face, right, It's like, I'm.
Just gonna use a little little this peppermint oil.
And then they did the blood work and my fasting insuluin was higher than I'd ever seen it, and so I was like, ooh, I think that the peppermint did cause me to have a little insulin response. So I was like, hmm, maybe this isn't as benign as I thought it was.
That was just and you had it repeated then a few months later and it.
Was back back lower. Yeah, yeah, that's normal.
So yeah, anyway, I was like, oops, I mean, it didn't make me feel weird, it didn't make me have a blood sugar crash, so I didn't think it was causing any kind of you know, blood sugar response or insulin response or anything like that at all. But the blood work came back with my fasting insulin higher than it had ever been, so well, higher than it had been as an intermittent faster. I didn't have it tested before. I'm sure it was really high back when I was obese,
but I didn't have it done anyway. Brushing your tongue with water, gargling with salt water, those are our good strategies for the clean fast.
But you really really really want.
To fast clean. If you're fasting, I promise, the key is keeping your insulin low, and you don't want to have gone.
You just really don't.
And I know that the breath is something that you're very self conscious of. But you know, when I was a teacher and fasting and drinking my coffee I just didn't breathe all in the faces of the kids, right, Yeah, I would just not exhale real close to them, I think, since children will tell you if your breath is bad. Oh yeah, they will, they will, So you know, I just I didn't get super close to people if I
felt like my I had coffee breath or something. Just something to keep my coffee breath is one reason you can have bad breath. By the way, if you're drinking black coffee, coffee breath is a real thing. But brushing my tongue, having some sparkling water, some unflavored sparkling water really helps with that. So if you don't have unflavored sparkling water, give that a try. You may find it that helps.
All Right, Before we get to our tweek of the week, I just want to take a minute to tell you about Crunchy Clean skin care. Ever since I was a teenager, I've had sensitive skin and I've always had to be very careful with what I used on my skin or I would get breakouts or rashes. And I was lucky to have parents who were pretty concerned about my skin and took me to a dermatologist because my dad has acne scarring and they wanted to prevent that from happening for me, and I'm very thankful.
To them for that.
So that maybe does what peaked my interest in quality skincare from a really early age. But even when I try high quality skincare, I'm always very skeptical that it won't work for me. I just kind of identified in the shower today that I'm a natural skeptic.
I always have been too, totally.
We were a questioner, right, We're both questioners. Are personality type, Gretchen Rubens.
We're both questioners, Yeah, yep.
And people always jump on a bandwid and they're like, oh, you have to try this great new product. I'm always like, yeah, I'm gonna wait and see to wait and see, and eventually I might try it, and I'm always surprised when it works for me.
I don't know why I think I'm so special.
But anyway, when I switched over from another clean skincare brand to Crunchy last summer, I only introduced one product every several weeks so that if my skin reacted, I would know, you know, exactly which product was culprit. Now fast forward to the last few weeks while I was
on vacation. I did pack any foundation, and I'm the kind of person of i'm going to be out going out, I want to look pretty and I usually put on, you know, foundation and makeup, but this time I only use the Crunchy sunlight tinted face and screen in lieu of makeup because I knew I was gonna be spending a lot of time outdoors. And it covers like a foundation, but it has mineral sunscreen in it and some moisturizers and it somehow I don't even know. There's only five colors,
and it color matched my skin perfectly. I have not had one skin reaction, not as much as one little pimple. So I'm totally sold. This is going to be my new spring and summer skincare regimen. It's going to just go on every day. And if you want to learn more about this product or their entire clean skincare and makeup line, you can visit the show notes or visit fast Fees Repeat dot com, slash Sherry s h E. Ri I, and you can find a link to learn more.
Can I tell you that I've been using my very first Crunchy product, Sheary, I got it I've been using cleanser, the cleansing clearing bar Yees, you know the other clean skin care line beauty counter that you can't buy right now. And I had stocked up on everything, and they didn't have any more the face cleanser that I've been using for years. So I like, I am at the very end of my stash of the face cleanser. So I was like, I gotta find something else. So I've been trying to
research find different things. I tried two different other ones in between there. One of them I didn't like the way it smelled. I was like, yeah, this isn't gonna work. I use it to scrub my feet. I by face cleanser that I'm cleaning my feet with in the shower.
There you go.
And then another kind. I didn't mind the way that one smelled, but I started using it. I'm like, oh this is great. No, my face broke out. I started getting zo because I've gotten sensitive skin. The beauty counter didn't make my skin break out, but this one did. So I'm like still trying to make my beauty counter lass. I'm like, look, I'm finally gonna try the crunchy. It's a bar and that was like, no, I don't want a bar.
I like a liquid. So I got the bar. I've been using it so far, so good, and I really like it.
You don't get that tight feeling after you wash your face to you.
Well, I don't get that anyway, I.
Know, see I do, and especially bars like I feel like they're too harsh or I don't get that tight feel whales off or something.
I don't get that feeling for me. Well, I just haven't used a bar.
I'm like, I have not owned a bar of soap in like, okay, decades, Like I've not used to, but I've always I.
Don't like bars of soap.
Weird.
But anyway, this crunchy face washing bar is working in fingers crossed face sunscreen, and so any mineral sunscreen make I know, I thought the beauty count, the beauty counter made me break out.
I'm taking this to Chin on vacation. I'm and see see how our skins. Yeah, maybe maybe this is the one.
Maybe. So so now it's time for our tweak of the week.
And like I said earlier, we always say tweak it till it's easy. But the tweak that works for me might not be the one that works for you, and that's why it's super helpful to hear how other intermittent fasters are making intermittent fasting work for them.
This is from Julie in Vermont.
She says, I teach preschool and we spend so much time during the day feeding the children. Between breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, it feels like we are always sitting down with food. This constant snacking was one of the most difficult habits for me to break. So if there is something that I really want to have that is being served, I will set aside a small bowl or plate of that item and I'll eat it when I open my window. That way, I don't feel deprived. I'm just simply delaying
the consumption of that food. Jen, your motto of delay, don't deny has been instrumental in me being able to change how I think about eating and delaying food. Knowing that being hungry is not an emergency has taken quite some time for me to accept and understand. I now eat on my terms, enjoy my food when I'm eating it, and I do not feel guilty or deprived after I eat. I cannot tell you how many years it has taken me to get to this point.
I love it, Julie, I love that as well. We also have a quick tip from bar in South Carolina. She said in episode eighty eight, the timing of taking Leeba thyroxine was discussed. Keep it simple, sweeties. Some of us at a certain age or bladder size, must make a potty run in the middle of the night. I put my liba thyroxine by my sink and I take it at three four five AM when I empty my bladder. Generally I sleep a couple more hours and then I'm able to enjoy black coffee as soon as I desire.
I appreciate and love you, ladies beyond imagine.
Barbie. Well, that's a great tip.
That is a great tip, all right. So we love to leave you guys with inspirational or motivational quotes, and this week we have a quote from Monica. Monica wrote, your self talk matters. If you keep telling yourself you're overwhelmed, you'll get better at feeling overwhelmed. If you keep telling yourself you're calm, you'll get better at staying calm. If you keep telling yourself you're unlucky, you'll get better at noticing what goes wrong. If you keep telling yourself you're capable,
you'll get better at finding solutions. If you keep telling yourself you're stuck, you'll get better at staying stuck. If you keep telling yourself you're growing, you'll get better at moving forward. Your brain strengthens whatever you repeat, even your thoughts, and I believe this so much.
Yeah, that is true. There's a quote that I love.
I don't know where it came from, but it says, whatever you focus on expands, and I think that this illustrates that. If you're focusing on being unlucky, that's expanding. If you focus on being lucky, that expands. So yeah, focus on what you want to see more of. Thanks so much for listening today. We would love to have you join us in the Delayed On Tonight community, where you can interact with both me and Sherry, plus the
most supportive bunch of intermittent fasters you'll find anywhere. Go to Jenstevens dot com slash community to join us.
Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast to your favorite podcast app, and if you haven't already, please leave us a five star review that helps new listeners find the show and we really appreciate it.
We are a community driven podcast, so to submit your success stories, your questions, your favorite tweak it till It's Easy, moments, or anything else you want us to share on the podcast, go to Fast Feast Repeat dot com slash submit and then listen each week to see if we share your submission or answer your question Until
Next week, Thanks for listening,