Speaker 1: Welcome the Fast Feast Repeat Intermittent Fasting for Life. I'm
Speaker 1: Jen Stevens, author of the New York Times bestseller Fast
Speaker 1: Feast Repeat.
Speaker 2: And I'm Sherry Bullock, longtime intermittent faster and health and
Speaker 2: wellness advocate. Please keep in mind that this podcast is
Speaker 2: for educational and motivational purposes only and is not intended
Speaker 2: to provide medical or diagnostic advice. Jen and I are
Speaker 2: not doctors, so make sure to check with your trusted
Speaker 2: healthcare professionals before making changes, especially when it comes to
Speaker 2: any medical treatments or medications.
Speaker 1: Whether you're new to intermittent fasting or an experienced intermittent faster,
Speaker 1: tune in each week to get inspired, to learn, and
Speaker 1: to have some fun along the way. Hi, everybody, we
Speaker 1: are so glad you're here today. Welcome to this week's
Speaker 1: episode of the Fast Feast Repeat Intermittent Fasting for Life Podcast.
Speaker 3: How are you doing today, Sherry?
Speaker 2: I'm doing well. I'm in vacation recovery mode this week. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you were all over the place, We're all. Tell everybody
Speaker 2: where you went. I know where you went, but tell everybody.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 2: First, I flew to Missouri via Texas. If you say
Speaker 2: via or via. I've heard it both ways. Yeah, I've
Speaker 2: heard it both ways too. I don't think anyways. Maybe
Speaker 2: it's a regional thing anyway. And then drove to Oklahoma
Speaker 2: with my best friend of like twenty some years, and
Speaker 2: then we hung out in Oklahoma City, which was a
Speaker 2: really cool city to hang out in.
Speaker 3: We saw so much and I.
Speaker 2: Got to go visit another Food Network chef's restaurant in
Speaker 2: Oklahoma City. It's called Birdie's and it was amazing. It's
Speaker 2: chef Kevin Lee. It was amazing. It's sort of like
Speaker 2: a Korean American fusion and it was everything was delicious,
Speaker 2: and he came out to my table and talked to me.
Speaker 2: He knew I was from out of town and that
Speaker 2: was a fan. And so then last night we just
Speaker 2: watched the final episode at Tournament and Champions and he
Speaker 2: was in the final four but he didn't make it.
Speaker 2: He didn't win, but maybe next year. So if you're
Speaker 2: over at Oklahoma City, I go check got his food.
Speaker 3: It was amazing.
Speaker 2: And then we went to this concert all day concert
Speaker 2: on Sunday, I say all day. It started at five
Speaker 2: ended up midnight, but we started at noon because there
Speaker 2: was like bands outside of the stadium. It was crazy
Speaker 2: and I am too old to go to all day
Speaker 2: music festivals. I'm just oh, yeah, are that right now?
Speaker 2: I was exhausted, my feet were swelling. I think we
Speaker 2: were dehydrated. We were just drinking water like crazy. But
Speaker 2: then I went to go see my parents and some
Speaker 2: friends in Kansas City. So it was a whirlwind of
Speaker 2: a trip. And I made it home and went back
Speaker 2: to work for the weekend, and then last night I
Speaker 2: slept like twelve hours straight.
Speaker 3: I was your body needed that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, traveling takes it out of you, and then you
Speaker 1: had to work your nights, and yeah.
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 2: And then Eric is just like, vacation is supposed to
Speaker 2: be a break from reality and you're supposed to get
Speaker 2: lots of rests, And I was like, it depends on
Speaker 2: what kind of vacation you schedule. My vacations are packed
Speaker 2: full of everything I want to do and every place
Speaker 2: I want to eat, and seeing all the people I
Speaker 2: want to see and go, go, go, and hard ladies.
Speaker 3: Sleep.
Speaker 1: Yeah, whenever I go on vacation, I never get as
Speaker 1: much sleep because my problem is I stay up too late.
Speaker 1: But then I wake up in my same normal early time,
Speaker 1: I cannot sleep in. Even if I'm up till two am,
Speaker 1: I will wake up at five thirty and I can't
Speaker 1: go back to sleep.
Speaker 3: My body is just like it's time to get up.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: That's my friend that I stayed in the hotel with,
Speaker 2: in the airbnb with. She's gets up during the week
Speaker 2: at like four thirty, so by five thirty she was
Speaker 2: awake each morning, and she's she's a good little roommate.
Speaker 2: She would just lay in bed and play on her
Speaker 2: phone or whatever until I woke up.
Speaker 1: And so anyway, that's why I'm always so tired after
Speaker 1: I go anywhere, because my hours are all messed up
Speaker 1: because I stay up too late because everyone else does
Speaker 1: not have the early morning rising like I do, so
Speaker 1: everybody else else is fine to stay up anyway.
Speaker 3: I can't fight biology, right, yep, yep.
Speaker 2: And I did have some long windows in there, like
Speaker 2: in hindsight, I didn't eat a lot. It was just
Speaker 2: like we were on the go or be on the road,
Speaker 2: and so like you know, it'd be like one o'clock
Speaker 2: and I'm not knowing when we would really get to
Speaker 2: eat again. Then I'd be like, okay, well I open
Speaker 2: my window. But then you know, about seven or eight
Speaker 2: o'clock at night, I'd be starving and hadn't eaten since then,
Speaker 2: So then I would have like, you know, a little
Speaker 2: light something before you know, we'd close down the night
Speaker 2: or whatever. So I was probably having about anywhere from
Speaker 2: six to eight hour windows most of the trip, and
Speaker 2: I thought I would make it really hard like when
Speaker 2: I got back. But I think because I really just wasn't.
Speaker 2: They weren't really full windows. I wasn't you know, eating
Speaker 2: one like meal or something right right. It was a
Speaker 2: little here and a little there. And my parents were great,
Speaker 2: I know, they made breakfast every morning and my mom,
Speaker 2: you know, they know I fast, and they'd say are
Speaker 2: you eating this morning? And I'd say, now, I'm not
Speaker 2: and they'd say okay. But by about one thirty every
Speaker 2: afternoon they were like, well, we're really ready for lunch.
Speaker 2: Would you like lunch? And I learned before from vacationing
Speaker 2: with them, they eat their biggest meal like in the
Speaker 2: middle of the day. Yeah, they have a little something
Speaker 2: for breakfast, main meal, and then they have some nibbles
Speaker 2: in the evening, and so I knew that was my
Speaker 2: opportunity to eat. But I'm like you, if I eat
Speaker 2: at one thirty or two, I'm gonna need something else
Speaker 2: later in the evening.
Speaker 3: So yeah, but it don't work out.
Speaker 2: A great trip back to my regular fasting windows and
Speaker 2: I feel great. So just that's good keeping an eye
Speaker 2: on those windows. It's not too hard to do on
Speaker 2: your vacation. Yeah, that's usually what happens for me. The
Speaker 2: windows just end up longer. And you know this comes
Speaker 2: out early May. Summer's around the corner. People are going
Speaker 2: to be traveling, and you know, when I go on
Speaker 2: a trip like you, I don't usually eat until one
Speaker 2: or two on the trip.
Speaker 1: But then, like I said, dinner is later because people
Speaker 1: are you know, we're going to the beach and coming
Speaker 1: off the beach or whatever, right then you might not
Speaker 1: be eating dinner till eight o'clock whatever.
Speaker 3: So it just gets shifted later. And it's no big deal. Yep.
Speaker 1: You get back home and you didn't fall off the wagon,
Speaker 1: you didn't quit fasting. But the key really is, like
Speaker 1: if it's like I'm just gonna take this whole week
Speaker 1: off on the trip, if I started eating breakfast and
Speaker 1: lunch and dinner, that would not work out.
Speaker 2: No, it wouldn't one day, I did go out for breakfast,
Speaker 2: well we'll call it brunch because it was about eleven
Speaker 2: am by the time our food came to our table.
Speaker 3: But the day before was the day of the.
Speaker 2: Concert, and I woke up that morning and I was
Speaker 2: I mean, even that night, I just knew I was
Speaker 2: so dehydrated, and I was just like, I need to
Speaker 2: eat because I've got to get some electrolytes in and
Speaker 2: I've got to refuel. I literally had eaten like a
Speaker 2: foot long core dog and that was all I had
Speaker 2: eaten the day before. So so I had a delicious
Speaker 2: breakfast and had a little something about five o'clock that
Speaker 2: evening and shut it down that day. But it's totally
Speaker 2: you can enjoy vacation. You can eat delicious food and
Speaker 2: and stick to a window, and stick to a window.
Speaker 2: It's completely doable.
Speaker 1: And you had that one earlier time that you ate,
Speaker 1: and you can usually get people to push off when
Speaker 1: they're eating a little bit, you know, when you're going
Speaker 1: somewhere like I went down to Georgetown with some friends
Speaker 1: this weekend, and we've got to go there. And when
Speaker 1: you visit Shery, that's the keyest little riverfront town. It
Speaker 1: was established in like the seventeen hundreds and really really cute,
Speaker 1: and we found a great restaurant and we ate.
Speaker 3: But you know, these are I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 2: That's where a friend of yours told me that I
Speaker 2: should retire.
Speaker 1: Well, I think that someone did tell you that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Georgetown is really nice. It's really historic, you know, anything
Speaker 1: that comes from the seventeen hundreds. It's got old houses
Speaker 1: and it's all it's right where there's a bay, and
Speaker 1: it was good for like ships to dock kind of
Speaker 1: a thing. That's why it was settled so early. But
Speaker 1: you know, I went with people who eat frequently and
Speaker 1: not doing intermittent fasting. So we just you know, got
Speaker 1: there a little later, pushed it a little longer, make
Speaker 1: them wait as long as you can.
Speaker 3: Right, but how about we go in an hour later
Speaker 3: than that? You know, just yeah, I.
Speaker 2: Was pretty sure my parents really when I wanted to
Speaker 2: eat closer to a noon, because they start asking me like,
Speaker 2: what are you hungry for it?
Speaker 3: And I would just kind of delay. I didn't.
Speaker 2: I was kind of delay. I would changed the subject,
Speaker 2: or let's go look at your flowers.
Speaker 3: Just sway a little bit and you can squish your know,
Speaker 3: a little.
Speaker 1: And you know, if I had not wanted to eat
Speaker 1: lunch in Georgetown, I wouldn't have. But I did want
Speaker 1: to because it was really really good.
Speaker 2: So well, and you know, I'm the kind of person
Speaker 2: that like, there's all these restaurants that I am used
Speaker 2: to from back home, especially that I'm like, oh, I
Speaker 2: missed this Mexican place and I missed this place or whatever.
Speaker 2: So I was only there for like three days, and
Speaker 2: so it's like I really did want to like eat
Speaker 2: at these reminiscent plates. Is that I've eaten it in
Speaker 2: the past and squeeze them in, and I squeezed them in.
Speaker 3: I made it work. That does make it hard.
Speaker 1: I remember when I went to New York for the
Speaker 1: Zoe podcast March of last year, and this year, I
Speaker 1: only got to eat two meals while I was in
Speaker 1: New York based on the timing. Because I only spent
Speaker 1: one night right, I got to eat two meals.
Speaker 3: That was it. I was mad. I was like, I
Speaker 3: need to eat more food in New York.
Speaker 1: But yeah, the first night I had flown in and
Speaker 1: so I was just like ate on my own. The
Speaker 1: second night was a really really special meal with the
Speaker 1: Zoe team. And I was like, I'm certainly not going
Speaker 1: to eat anything before I go to this. I don't
Speaker 1: want to ruin my win at this really nice restaurant.
Speaker 1: So I was mad that I didn't have time to
Speaker 1: eat more food in New York.
Speaker 2: You know how you and I both have discovered that
Speaker 2: we get a little queasy flying on an empty stomach. Yeah, Well,
Speaker 2: when I flew back home at Thursday and I left
Speaker 2: Kansas City, well, my plane boarded at nine to twenty five,
Speaker 2: and when I went to the airport, I was staying
Speaker 2: with a friend and I had a little cup of
Speaker 2: espresso at her house at like six o'clock in the
Speaker 2: morning when I woke up, and it shook me the
Speaker 2: airport and I just didn't get coffee before I boarded.
Speaker 2: I don't know why, I just I don't know. I
Speaker 2: kind of wondered if if I flew with like a
Speaker 2: really completely empty stomach, if that would be better for me.
Speaker 2: So I tried it. Well, I did not get queasy.
Speaker 2: And the thing was is I didn't have a choice
Speaker 2: because we had turbulence. So our flight attendants never offered
Speaker 2: snacks nothing on the first leg of the flight, and
Speaker 2: then the second leg of The flight was just from
Speaker 2: Nashville to Birmingham, and it's so short they don't offer refreshments,
Speaker 2: so I like literally had no eyes option but to
Speaker 2: stay fasted, and I actually did fine. And so I
Speaker 2: kind of wonder if just flying on a completely empty
Speaker 2: stomach and not even having coffee made it easier. Well,
Speaker 2: that's something to try, but I'll find it again next time.
Speaker 2: I usually get a coffee at the airport and I'm like,
Speaker 2: let me stopping it waiting on my plane, and so, yeah,
Speaker 2: I just gave it a try. If I will see
Speaker 2: if you'd try something different. So anyway, yeah, something to
Speaker 2: think about. Anyway, enough about me, let's move on to
Speaker 2: celebrating Maria. Maria wrote in and she said, I am
Speaker 2: celebrating my time milestone of seventy five days of committed ADF,
Speaker 2: alternating up and down days every day. I am so
Speaker 2: happy I've stuck to this protocol because, for the first
Speaker 2: time in about thirteen years, I am at a healthy
Speaker 2: weight and one that I feel comfortable at. I've been
Speaker 2: dieting since sixth grade, but this happy scale app started
Speaker 2: in twenty fifteen when I had hit my rock bottom
Speaker 2: and I weighed in at two hundred and ten pounds.
Speaker 3: I am five foot four From there.
Speaker 2: I tried various methods to lose weight, but you can
Speaker 2: see I've always gained most of it back. I came
Speaker 2: across IF in June of twenty twenty two, but wasn't
Speaker 2: doing the clean fast because I hadn't found GIN until
Speaker 2: September of twenty twenty three. I did have a bit
Speaker 2: of regain last year, so this January I decided I'm
Speaker 2: going to start IF and dedicate this year to really
Speaker 2: finding my true self, follow the protocol and see what happens.
Speaker 2: I'm already so much happier in my skin and overall life,
Speaker 2: but I'm also only ten pounds away from my goal weight.
Speaker 2: IF especially ADF has been life changing for me, and
Speaker 2: I'm forever grateful for it, along with Jin, Sherry and
Speaker 2: Roxy for their wealth of knowledge, all the books and podcasts.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for all you do. Fast On friends.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is awesome. Seventy five days of true ADF.
Speaker 1: That's up down, up, down, up down, alternating like that.
Speaker 1: And when I say true ADF, I'm not talking about
Speaker 1: full fast is true, I mean down day It could
Speaker 1: be the five hundred calori down day or a full
Speaker 1: fast either one.
Speaker 2: So not four to three, not five to two, not
Speaker 2: a hybrid. She's doing down up one after another.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I love that and it seems like such
Speaker 1: an intimidating approach for so many people.
Speaker 3: But when you get in the rhythm and you love it.
Speaker 1: And you're having substantial up days and your body adapts
Speaker 1: to the down days, it's just really such a great way.
Speaker 1: You lose fat on the down day, you boost your
Speaker 1: metabolism on the up day. It's a very well researched protocol,
Speaker 1: and it just really works so well for so many people.
Speaker 1: So now we have a question from a listener. This
Speaker 1: question is from Curious from Rhode Island. I have been
Speaker 1: practicing intermittent fasting since June of twenty twenty two. I
Speaker 1: am thirty eight years old, five foot three inches. I've
Speaker 1: lost thirty pounds until today, a steady loss of ten
Speaker 1: pounds a year. I intend to lose fifteen pounds more.
Speaker 1: I follow a seventeen seven protocol, I intend to move
Speaker 1: into an eighteen six or nineteen five protocol. Intermittent fasting
Speaker 1: has provided several non scale victories for me, including making
Speaker 1: healthy food choices working out regularly. I averaged four days
Speaker 1: a week, including strength training. I started running five k's.
Speaker 1: I have no medical conditions or concerns. Since I was
Speaker 1: feeling great with intermittent fasting, I thought about donating blood
Speaker 1: for the first time in my life in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: I consider this a non scale victory as well, because
Speaker 1: up until then I was just thinking about myself and
Speaker 1: how I can help myself with intermittent fasting. Anyway, in
Speaker 1: order to donate blood, I would start feeding myself three
Speaker 1: times the previous day, stop heavy workouts the day of
Speaker 1: donation and the next day, and obviously take iron supplements
Speaker 1: as instructed. It went well for a year twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty four, one time I was sent back
Speaker 1: because I didn't have sufficient iron. This one is on
Speaker 1: me because I didn't take the iron supplements as in
Speaker 1: strug did prior to that appointment. However, in one of
Speaker 1: my other appointments, shortly after donating blood, I passed out again.
Speaker 1: That one is partially on me because I did not
Speaker 1: wait fifteen minutes. I waited maybe five to seven minutes
Speaker 1: after donating, and I immediately climbed two flights of stairs anyway,
Speaker 1: after these episodes in twenty twenty four, I decided not
Speaker 1: to donate blood moving forward. Although I feel disappointed, I
Speaker 1: made that choice because I want intermittent fasting and working
Speaker 1: out to be my lifestyle, and I had to rearrange
Speaker 1: too many things in my routine to make room for
Speaker 1: blood donation. Even with all of those adjustments, I felt
Speaker 1: like I was causing myself harm. My question is, have
Speaker 1: you had experience yourself or with others in the community
Speaker 1: donating blood while practicing an intermittent fasting lifestyle. Do you
Speaker 1: think intermittent fasting could be the reason why I'm experiencing
Speaker 1: these episodes or could it be something that's deficient that's
Speaker 1: being highlighted in those situations? Thank you so much for
Speaker 1: your response. Can I just pop in with something real quick, Sherry?
Speaker 3: About that?
Speaker 1: Sure, I have always had low iron, Like the very
Speaker 1: first time I tried to donate blood.
Speaker 3: I was maybe a teenager at the time.
Speaker 1: And it was like a school is at school and
Speaker 1: it was like a blood donation blood drive at school.
Speaker 1: I went to try to go donate blood. My iron
Speaker 1: was too low to give blood. Now, was I an
Speaker 1: intermittent faster at that time? No, And so I am
Speaker 1: someone personally who has every time my blood work has
Speaker 1: ever been done my entire life, my iron comes back low.
Speaker 1: And so did intermittent fasting cause that for me? No,
Speaker 1: So I wanted to highlight that just because there are
Speaker 1: plenty of women who just and ment to I'm sure,
Speaker 1: who tend to struggle with iron levels not falling in
Speaker 1: the ideal range. So I just wanted to put that
Speaker 1: out there. Did intermittent fasting make it worse for me?
Speaker 3: No? I have not had worse.
Speaker 1: Iron levels since being an intermittent faster than I did
Speaker 1: prior to intermittent fasting. So now Sherri answer her question
Speaker 1: there about iron.
Speaker 2: Well, So, I mean we yes, we have people who
Speaker 2: donate blood all the time while practicing an eye of lifestyle,
Speaker 2: and they don't reefeed prior. They just some of them
Speaker 2: donate fasted first thing in the morning. Other people choose
Speaker 2: to donate after they open their window. People often will
Speaker 2: pass out after giving blood. That's one of the reasons
Speaker 2: why they have you lie there and they try to
Speaker 2: rehydrate you, and they give you snacks to make sure
Speaker 2: your blake glucose hasn't dropped too low. And I mean,
Speaker 2: you are depleting some volume from your body. You know,
Speaker 2: you're losing some blood volume. So some people are sensitive
Speaker 2: to that and they can pass out from that, especially
Speaker 2: if you're dehydrated prior to donating blood. But then also
Speaker 2: some people just have what's called a vasovagal syncope. It
Speaker 2: can happen after just even giving blood. Happens pretty frequently.
Speaker 2: You hear about people who pass out when they get blood.
Speaker 2: It's not even from fear of giving blood or it's
Speaker 2: just something that the body does, you know. I remember
Speaker 2: my daughter once she got a bunch of labs drawn,
Speaker 2: and we went up and we paid at the checked
Speaker 2: out of the doctors, and then like we left and
Speaker 2: several minutes had passed, you know, probably ten minutes by
Speaker 2: the time we stood in line, checked out, paid, made
Speaker 2: our next appointment. We're walking through the parking lot. I
Speaker 2: turned around and looked at her because she wasn't with me,
Speaker 2: and she was white as a sheet and get ready
Speaker 2: to go down. So it just happens, and some people
Speaker 2: are more prone to it than others. So do I
Speaker 2: think if could be why you're having troubles unless you're
Speaker 2: overhydrating and you're dehydrated, I don't really think.
Speaker 3: So when you.
Speaker 1: Say overhydrated and dehydrated, would you mean when you say dehydrated,
Speaker 1: would you mean mineral imbalance from over both ways.
Speaker 2: Okay, you can overhydrate, which actually they can reject you
Speaker 2: from donating blood if you're overhydrated, because it can affect
Speaker 2: like your red blood cells and all in your hemoglobe
Speaker 2: and all that. It can be affected by drinking too
Speaker 2: much water prior to donating. But if you're dehydrated and
Speaker 2: your volume depleted. So that's why there's such a balance
Speaker 2: with drinking to thirst and not drinking too much or
Speaker 2: not not drinking enough. I mean, there is a delicate
Speaker 2: balance there. And then two, when you overhydrate, you're also
Speaker 2: depleting you know, electrolytes, and then if you give blood
Speaker 2: and you're already depleted on electrolytes, then that could skew
Speaker 2: that as well. So it's that whole finding the right
Speaker 2: balance for your body. As far as being anemic, if
Speaker 2: that's the only time that they've told you you're anemic,
Speaker 2: it's interesting to me because you know, as a thirty
Speaker 2: eight year woman and you've I don't know, for some reason,
Speaker 2: I thought you'd said you had kids, but maybe not
Speaker 2: at some point. I feel like you would have been
Speaker 2: told you were anemic by another doctor at some point,
Speaker 2: But you know, it is important to know that. You know,
Speaker 2: one third of women under fifty are anemic, and one
Speaker 2: of the main causes can be menstruation, heavy periods. Also
Speaker 2: different like GI diseases or vegetarians and frequent blood donations
Speaker 2: can cause anemia. But this one I thought was interesting
Speaker 2: for you, especially people who run, those who work out
Speaker 2: a lot. It can cause issues with your red blood
Speaker 2: cells being broke down, which causes you to lose iron
Speaker 2: and your urine, so that can be, you know.
Speaker 3: A cause.
Speaker 2: So for sure, if you're struggling with anemia or you're
Speaker 2: feeling symptoms of anemia, I would follow up with your
Speaker 2: doctor because there are people, they say, that walk around
Speaker 2: for years and years without being diagnosed and treated. But
Speaker 2: usually people who are anemic have symptoms like lethargy, they
Speaker 2: don't have the energy to work out, and it doesn't
Speaker 2: sound like that's happening for you. So I don't see
Speaker 2: like that if itself is going to cause any problems
Speaker 2: with this, because if so, I feel like this is
Speaker 2: something we'd be hearing a lot through the community. I mean,
Speaker 2: we've supported hundreds of thousands of fasters at this time,
Speaker 2: and you're the first person who has really brought to
Speaker 2: our attention that they struggle with blood don't since starting
Speaker 2: intermint fasting. But I did leave some links and show
Speaker 2: notes about anemia.
Speaker 1: What I think is interesting. It goes with several points
Speaker 1: that you made. She never donated blood prior to becoming
Speaker 1: an intermitt and faster, so she doesn't know how she
Speaker 1: would have felt had she done it then. But you
Speaker 1: also mentioned that one reason someone can have low iron
Speaker 1: is frequent blood donation, so I'm wondering if she'd never
Speaker 1: done it before, and she'd also it sounds like not
Speaker 1: ever had someone tell her she was an emic, whereas
Speaker 1: I always did, like I would go to the doctor
Speaker 1: that they're like, you're an emic.
Speaker 3: I'm like, yes, I know, you know that was common.
Speaker 1: So if I suddenly, you know, stopped being anemic, that
Speaker 1: would be surprising because I've been an em it my
Speaker 1: whole life since teenage years. So she sounds like she
Speaker 1: hasn't had it, but now she started the frequent blood donation,
Speaker 1: so she just maybe someone, maybe she could find a
Speaker 1: schedule that where she's not donating very often, and maybe
Speaker 1: that would work out better.
Speaker 3: But she's right in that age group, thirty eight.
Speaker 2: But it went well for a year, right, and then
Speaker 2: she started having problems. So, I mean it could be
Speaker 2: that the rate of donation was too frequent for her
Speaker 2: body to restore her iron.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but and bodies are just so different.
Speaker 1: I remember I had a I've talked about this before,
Speaker 1: but I had a nurse practitioner a couple of years
Speaker 1: ago talked me into taking iron a lot because she's like,
Speaker 1: I don't know how you're walking around with this low level.
Speaker 3: I don't know how you have any energy. I'm like,
Speaker 3: I have fabulous energy. I mean, you know me? Sheery, right, do?
Speaker 1: I seem to struggle with energy and lethargy and not
Speaker 1: at all all the time. I would think someone with
Speaker 1: low iron would. I'm the opposite. I'm like the energizer bunny.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, all right, well I'll try it. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't want to be causing damage to my body.
Speaker 1: If I need to have more iron, I'll take iron.
Speaker 1: So I started taking iron. A few weeks later, I
Speaker 1: started having low energy and lethargy and taking afternoon naps
Speaker 1: every day.
Speaker 3: I'm like, why am I so tired? Like what is
Speaker 3: going on? And said then I was like, well, the
Speaker 3: only thing that changes I started taking iron.
Speaker 1: That makes no sense. It's supposed to make me have
Speaker 1: more energy. So I looked it up, and there are
Speaker 1: some people who don't clear iron well, right, And I
Speaker 1: think I might be somebody. I don't know, Like, don't
Speaker 1: take my advice, everybody, This is not medical advice, but
Speaker 1: I think I could be one of those people that
Speaker 1: is just naturally not supposed to have as much iron.
Speaker 1: And I feel amazing, So I'm like, well, obviously I
Speaker 1: would rather feel great than need naps every afternoon.
Speaker 3: So taking too much iron.
Speaker 1: Is actually if you don't clear it well, can cause
Speaker 1: other problems.
Speaker 3: Anyway. Again, I'm not an expert on that, so do
Speaker 3: not start doing that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I did want to just reassure this isn't
Speaker 2: something that we hear a lot, So no, it isn't.
Speaker 2: I don't think that the anemia unless you know her
Speaker 2: diet has changed dramatically, that it has to do with fasting.
Speaker 2: It could more have to do with the running or
Speaker 2: the frequent blood other nations.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you're right.
Speaker 2: So well, we have a quick question from Julu in Idaho,
Speaker 2: and she asks, for ADF, how do you determine whether
Speaker 2: to do a mini meal down day or a total
Speaker 2: down day and what is the advantage of one over
Speaker 2: the other.
Speaker 1: Well, that's a great question, and sometimes people think one
Speaker 1: is better than the other universally, Like theoretically, you know,
Speaker 1: I could give you theoretical arguments for why it's better
Speaker 1: to have the five hundred calorie down day meal, and
Speaker 1: I could give you theoretical arguments as to why it
Speaker 1: might be better to have the full fast. In reality, the
Speaker 1: way you determine which one to do is by being
Speaker 1: your own experiment of one and seeing which one you
Speaker 1: like the best, and also recognizing that it might not
Speaker 1: be the same every time. Maybe sometimes you have a
Speaker 1: down day where you want to do the five hundred
Speaker 1: calorie meal for whatever reason, and sometimes you do the
Speaker 1: full fast depending on the day. So you don't have
Speaker 1: to like pick one and go with it. But here's
Speaker 1: the thing about ADF and the research on ADF. You know,
Speaker 1: Christa Verity talks in her book The Every Other Day
Speaker 1: Diet about why five hundred calories and she says, in
Speaker 1: there through research determined that five hundred calorie down days
Speaker 1: were the ones that gave the best results versus having more,
Speaker 1: having less, having nothing. The research that Krista Verity did
Speaker 1: determine the five hundred calorie down day was the sweet.
Speaker 3: Spot for ads.
Speaker 1: That being said, that is based on you know a
Speaker 1: wide range of people in the research, so you're your
Speaker 1: own study of one. Maybe you try to do a
Speaker 1: five hundred calorie Downday meal and you just absolutely no
Speaker 1: matter how you tweak it, you can't find a five
Speaker 1: hundred calory down day meal that's satisfying and you can
Speaker 1: stop at five hundred, and so you just always end
Speaker 1: up eating a thousand calories or more because you can't
Speaker 1: stop at five hundred. If that's true, then a full
Speaker 1: fast might work better for you. On the flip side,
Speaker 1: you may be someone who finds that the full fast
Speaker 1: feels great, but you can't sleep well without the five
Speaker 1: hundred calorie Downday meal, and sleep is important. You know
Speaker 1: you're fasting, you're deep into katosis. Maybe you can't sleep.
Speaker 1: Other people sleep better on the full fast than after
Speaker 1: the five hundred calorie down day. So the answer to
Speaker 1: how do you determine which to do depends on your
Speaker 1: personal experimentation and seeing what feels the best for you.
Speaker 1: And that's really I know that's an annoying answer, because
Speaker 1: you want me to tell you here's what you need
Speaker 1: to do and here's how you exactly do it. But
Speaker 1: knowing that the research on ADF found that five hundred
Speaker 1: calories was quote the best end quote for the most
Speaker 1: people versus any other option, that can help you realize
Speaker 1: that having the five hundred calory down day is an
Speaker 1: excellent choice, because, like I said, some people think theoretically
Speaker 1: it's better to have a full fast, and that's not
Speaker 1: what Christoverity found. She found it was quote better to
Speaker 1: have the five hundred calorie down day. That being said,
Speaker 1: if you're someone who does better with the full fast,
Speaker 1: who cares what Christoverity said was better you do better
Speaker 1: with the full fast, so you are empowered to figure
Speaker 1: out which one you enjoy doing, which.
Speaker 3: One works for you.
Speaker 1: My advice for if you do choose to try the
Speaker 1: five hundred calorie meal, you know I personally need starchy
Speaker 1: carbs for satiety, So like if I did a five
Speaker 1: hundred calory down day and kept it low carb I
Speaker 1: would have like extra katosis and definitely not be able
Speaker 1: to sleep.
Speaker 3: That would not work well for me.
Speaker 1: So something you know is a potato, baked potato, starchy
Speaker 1: carbs would help me sleep better. Also, have your downday
Speaker 1: meal close enough to bedtime. I don't mean like you
Speaker 1: go to bed at nine o'clock, you're having it at
Speaker 1: eight thirty. I mean schedule it so that you don't
Speaker 1: have time to be hungry again before you go to bed.
Speaker 1: So like having your down day meal at noon probably
Speaker 1: isn't going to be ideal for most people. I would
Speaker 1: have it close enough to bedtime. If I was going
Speaker 1: to go to bed at nine o'clock, I might would
Speaker 1: have it at six point thirty. Personally, that's just me.
Speaker 1: Same experiment and see what works best for you. Because
Speaker 1: if I had a big, filling, substantial, five hundred calorie
Speaker 1: meal at six point thirty with a baked potato and
Speaker 1: some veggie in all the fiber, I could probably sleep
Speaker 1: well that night.
Speaker 3: But you really just have to try it and see
Speaker 3: do you have anything to add.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think there's sort of a mental like knowing
Speaker 2: your personality, and there's kind of a mental component to
Speaker 2: it too. Much. And I'm the kind of person if
Speaker 2: you tell me I can't do something or I can't
Speaker 2: have something, I'm going to.
Speaker 3: Hyper fixate on it.
Speaker 2: So if I said I am not going to use
Speaker 2: the down day meal and I'm going to fast straight through,
Speaker 2: all I would think about was not eating. But the
Speaker 2: minute I'm like, oh, I have a five hundred calorie
Speaker 2: meal today, and that's not that big a deal. It's just,
Speaker 2: you know, one light meal, I'm going to eat it
Speaker 2: and then close that window back up and resume fasting.
Speaker 2: That feels better to me personally, and that little rebel
Speaker 2: in me doesn't say you can't tell me I can't
Speaker 2: have that. Yet there's other people they don't want to
Speaker 2: count out their five hundred calories to them, they don't
Speaker 2: want to count a calorie. And so again it's that
Speaker 2: balance of what works for you. I'll count a calorie
Speaker 2: all day long over just not eating. I think it's
Speaker 2: kind of fun to figure out how much.
Speaker 3: I can fit.
Speaker 2: Like, I like high volume food, So how big of
Speaker 2: a meal can I make for five hundred calories?
Speaker 3: And I you know, I did it accidentally. The other day.
Speaker 2: I made this sturfry and it had soba noodles and
Speaker 2: lots of sturfry veggies and meat with sauce, and it
Speaker 2: was a giant filling bowl. And I was so shocked
Speaker 2: to find that it only came out to like, I think,
Speaker 2: four hundred and twenty five calories, and I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: I have room for some berries or an apple for dessert.
Speaker 2: So it's a down day by accident. It's a down
Speaker 2: day by accident exactly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And that's really the key.
Speaker 1: And for the people out there who are like I
Speaker 1: don't want to count a calorie. I don't want to
Speaker 1: have to do that every time, it feels like diet brain.
Speaker 1: Like Sherry now has this meal idea that she figured
Speaker 1: out ste's in her back pocket. She never has to
Speaker 1: count it again. She just can make that meal and
Speaker 1: she knows that work. So take the time to plan
Speaker 1: out some very satisfying ideas, and so when it's time
Speaker 1: for your down day meal, you just pick one of those.
Speaker 1: Like somebody might have avocado toast with eggs on top
Speaker 1: and some berries or whatever. That's their standard down day meal,
Speaker 1: and that person never has to count a calorie ever again.
Speaker 1: They just know that's one that's satisfied them it makes
Speaker 1: them happy, so not overthinking it or trying to do
Speaker 1: something different. Also, sometimes people will go out to eat
Speaker 1: at like a restaurant. I'm just gonna say apple Bee's
Speaker 1: because I know Applebee's has calories on their menu.
Speaker 3: I don't know. I haven't been to Applebee's in decades.
Speaker 3: I don't know when I went to Applebee's. But I
Speaker 3: just gave that as an example. But they used to
Speaker 3: have weight Watchers points on their minds.
Speaker 1: You could find a very satisfying meal on that menu
Speaker 1: and choose that and you don't feel deprived at all.
Speaker 1: The whole key is finding a way so that it
Speaker 1: doesn't feel like you're deprived. Right, And again, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: be looking for theoretically, you know, theoretically should I do
Speaker 1: this or should I?
Speaker 3: I don't know. What feels best to you is what
Speaker 3: you should do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, But I'm a big fan of going with what
Speaker 2: feels good because if he doesn't feel good, you're not
Speaker 2: going to have good compliance, right, and it's going to
Speaker 2: feel like a chore.
Speaker 3: It's going to feel like deprivation.
Speaker 2: You know, you want it to feel good so that
Speaker 2: it's something that you're like, oh, I can make this
Speaker 2: a lifestyle, even if it's a temporary lifestyle. Maybe you say,
Speaker 2: I want to do ada for three months because you know,
Speaker 2: I know I have some insulin resistance that I need
Speaker 2: to really work on, and but you know it's you
Speaker 2: don't want it to feel like drudgery. You want to
Speaker 2: be able to know that you have down day meals
Speaker 2: that you can embrace and enjoy, or know that you
Speaker 2: enjoy fasting straight through for thirty six hours and then
Speaker 2: enjoy your update, you know, and enjoy delicious food that day.
Speaker 3: And the only thing I have about the down day.
Speaker 2: Is we see people get into trouble because they think
Speaker 2: they don't want to use the down day and they
Speaker 2: have no idea what to eat when it gets to
Speaker 2: the end of the day and they're suddenly like, oh gosh,
Speaker 2: I'm starving. I'm afraid I'm not going to sleep tonight.
Speaker 2: And then they'll come into the community and say, well,
Speaker 2: I tried to do Downday yesterday and I failed. Once
Speaker 2: I started eating, I just started eating all the things.
Speaker 2: But the thing they have in common is when you
Speaker 2: start talking to them, they're like, did you have a
Speaker 2: meal plan in advance? You know, planned out before you
Speaker 2: were hungry. So you know, wake up in the morning
Speaker 2: if you're like, oh, today I'm gonna do a down day,
Speaker 2: start thinking about what you can eat. Start looking at
Speaker 2: some calorie contents and what you can throw together and
Speaker 2: make a filling meal.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think that's a great suggestion because then you have
Speaker 1: that option available to have and you're not like wandering
Speaker 1: the kitchen eating things that never worked that well for me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you start opening the cabinets and munch, it's
Speaker 2: you're you're.
Speaker 3: Not going to have good success.
Speaker 1: No, no, And so you know, we say tweak it
Speaker 1: till it's easy, and that's not just a key catchphrase,
Speaker 1: we really do mean it. When you're choosing ADF, tweak
Speaker 1: it till it's easy. Right, figure out how there is
Speaker 1: a way that it could work for you and you
Speaker 1: could enjoy it. And the same with anything that you're choosing.
Speaker 1: With intermittent fasting, it should not feel, like Sherry said,
Speaker 1: like drudgery. And now it's time for our segment called
Speaker 1: what's Your Why. Most of us begin intermittent fasting with
Speaker 1: weight loss in mind, and that is a great reason
Speaker 1: to begin. That's what brought me and Sherry both to
Speaker 1: intermittent fasting, but we know there is so much more
Speaker 1: to what intermittent fasting can do for us beyond weight loss.
Speaker 1: In twenty eight day fast art day by day, the
Speaker 1: first thing I have readers do before they even start
Speaker 1: is to craft a why statement before beginning, and when
Speaker 1: your why is deeper than weight loss alone, I genuinely
Speaker 1: believe you're more likely to find long term success and
Speaker 1: to view intermittent fasting as a lifestyle.
Speaker 2: This week, we have a wife from Barb from Champagne, Illinois,
Speaker 2: and she says my why, as so many others, was
Speaker 2: initially weight loss. But I have so many more whys.
Speaker 2: I have a great granddaughter who will soon be two
Speaker 2: years old, and I of course want to see her
Speaker 2: and any future great grandchildren grow up. I am a
Speaker 2: sixty five year old female and I want to be
Speaker 2: healthy and thriving well into my senior years. I want
Speaker 2: to be active, been present for my wife's children, grandchildren,
Speaker 2: and siblings. As I watch my oldest sister's health deteriorate
Speaker 2: at sixty nine, I know I don't want to go
Speaker 2: down that same path. Both of my brothers have had
Speaker 2: heart surgery, and recent blood work revealed that I am
Speaker 2: pre diabetic. I would love to get off my blood
Speaker 2: pressure meds and improve my labs and BARB. I hope
Speaker 2: that you write back in and tell us down the
Speaker 2: line that your blood work improves, and would love to
Speaker 2: hear you know how this goes for you in the future.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, you can absolutely find that you are no longer
Speaker 1: pre diabetic. And also we see so many people who
Speaker 1: come off blood pressure meds with intermittent fasting.
Speaker 3: In fact, you know, just people who may not have
Speaker 3: heard us say this before.
Speaker 1: If you are on blood pressure meds and you suddenly
Speaker 1: start feeling dizzy and lightheaded, time to go to your
Speaker 1: doctor and get your blood pressure checked because you probably
Speaker 1: need to lower your disage.
Speaker 3: We see that so often.
Speaker 2: Well, and by the same token you accidentally said blood
Speaker 2: glucose meds. But if you are on meds for diabetes
Speaker 2: and you start feeling dizzy and lightheaded, you also may
Speaker 2: need your meds adjusted or may need to go off
Speaker 2: of them.
Speaker 1: Yep, because fasting, just fasting should not make you feel
Speaker 1: too lightheaded.
Speaker 3: So if if there's something going on, it's time.
Speaker 2: If you're taking something that's going to cause your blood
Speaker 2: sugar to drop while you're fasting then that could make.
Speaker 3: You feel bad. Oh, absolutely, yeah, all.
Speaker 2: Right, So we have another question from Jeanet in College.
Speaker 3: Station, Texas. She said, Hi, girlies, I.
Speaker 2: Am forty six years old five seven and I weigh
Speaker 2: two hundred and eighteen pounds. I've been fasting off and
Speaker 2: on for ten months. I keep losing side of my
Speaker 2: wy and I get off track. Well, I had a
Speaker 2: scare over the weekend. My blood pressure was high, so
Speaker 2: I made an.
Speaker 3: Appointment with my doctor.
Speaker 2: I was prescribed by Centeparl ten milligrams and she ordered
Speaker 2: lab work for me, which I will do in a
Speaker 2: few weeks. I was pre diabetic last year with a
Speaker 2: five point seven percent a one C level. She said,
Speaker 2: if the number is higher, she wants me to start
Speaker 2: taking met Foreman. I need to lose roughly seventy pounds,
Speaker 2: but I'm hoping just losing thirty five pounds would make
Speaker 2: a difference in my health markers.
Speaker 3: I told her what I.
Speaker 2: Was doing to lose weight, and she said to keep
Speaker 2: doing that and check back in six months. So my
Speaker 2: question is what happens after six months? How will I
Speaker 2: know if my blood pressure is lower. Will it be
Speaker 2: because of the medicine or weight loss. If I start
Speaker 2: met foreman, how will I know if my numbers have
Speaker 2: improved or of just from the medicine. I will follow
Speaker 2: the doctor's orders as I know both of you will
Speaker 2: tell me to do. And she did mention we could
Speaker 2: wean me off the medicine when I get down to
Speaker 2: a healthy weight. Thank you for your help and thank
Speaker 2: you for creating such a loving community. All right, Well
Speaker 2: that's a great question. And the answer is you said,
Speaker 2: how will I know if my blood pressure and my
Speaker 2: blood sugar are better because of the intermittent fasting or
Speaker 2: the medication?
Speaker 3: And the answer is, you won't. You can't. It's impossible.
Speaker 3: The only way you know.
Speaker 1: I think back to when I taught the scientific method
Speaker 1: to elementary students, right, you know, when you're trying to
Speaker 1: figure out something, You're like, your hypothesis might be intermittent
Speaker 1: fasting will lower my blood pressure. And if you wanted
Speaker 1: to see if intermittent fasting would lower your blood pressure,
Speaker 1: your variable would be intermittent fasting only and see if
Speaker 1: that makes a difference. You don't want to have two
Speaker 1: variables that you're working with because then you can't tell
Speaker 1: which it was, like it is it the medicine or
Speaker 1: is it the intermittent fasting. It's probably a combination of both.
Speaker 1: So I think that you're on the right track with
Speaker 1: what your doctor said. You know, she wants you to
Speaker 1: take the medication based on your current numbers, and she
Speaker 1: said to keep doing what you're doing with intermittent fasting.
Speaker 1: And then she said that you can wean off the
Speaker 1: medication when you get down to a healthy weight. And
Speaker 1: then that's really when you'll know, Like when your doctor
Speaker 1: weans you off the medication, if your blood pressure stays
Speaker 1: normal and your blood sugar stays in a healthy range,
Speaker 1: then you'll know that intermittent fasting is sufficient. Right, it's healing,
Speaker 1: it's sufficient, it's all you need. If you get down
Speaker 1: to a health the weight your doctor weens you're off
Speaker 1: your medication and everything goes back up, but you haven't
Speaker 1: stopped intermitting fasting. That's that variable again. You'll know, Well,
Speaker 1: the medication was an important variable because when we removed it,
Speaker 1: it went back to not so healthy. So it's really
Speaker 1: a lot of you know, being your own experiment of
Speaker 1: one and trial and error, and you adjust, you see
Speaker 1: what happens, you adjust again, you see what happens but
Speaker 1: you know, I want to go back to what you
Speaker 1: said at the beginning, that you were losing sight of
Speaker 1: your why and getting off track, And now I think
Speaker 1: your why is more powerful. Your blood pressure was high
Speaker 1: and you were pre diabetic, and we know that fast
Speaker 1: and clean is fantastic for blood pressure and also fantastic
Speaker 1: for blood sugar levels. So that would motivate me to
Speaker 1: keep doing it. Let that be your your motivation, your
Speaker 1: powerful why.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I just wanted to say as well, I
Speaker 2: would get a fasting insulin done, like right now, okay,
Speaker 2: and then you can get it done a layer a
Speaker 2: really good indication where you can actually see that you
Speaker 2: are healing your insulin resistance. And especially because like you know,
Speaker 2: you're on this medication and you're questioning, like is it
Speaker 2: the medication or is it the fasting? And how will
Speaker 2: I know if I'm healthy enough to come off the medication.
Speaker 3: If you repeated it in.
Speaker 2: Six months and it was significantly lower, you know, that
Speaker 2: might be a good indicator for your doctor that you
Speaker 2: could wean off of it. Another thing, too, is if
Speaker 2: you know, you get to six months and you've lost
Speaker 2: weight and you're feeling better, and you know things are
Speaker 2: coming down. If your doctor is hesitant to stop the
Speaker 2: medication and you're wanting to stop it, you know, you
Speaker 2: could always ask for an oral glucose tolerance test. You know,
Speaker 2: I'm sure anybody who's pregnant knows what that is. You
Speaker 2: drink the nasty orange glucose syrup and then they take
Speaker 2: your blood sugar, you know, a few times following that
Speaker 2: to see how your blood sugar responds. So that would
Speaker 2: be a good way too. If they do that and
Speaker 2: your blood sugar comes back down to a normal range,
Speaker 2: then you know that's going to show that your body
Speaker 2: is responding much better to sugar than it was before.
Speaker 2: So that's something that you could keep kind of in
Speaker 2: the back of your mind too. If you need it,
Speaker 2: all right, well, definitely let us know how it goes.
Speaker 1: Janet, we would love a follow up for us down
Speaker 1: the road to hear about if you were able to
Speaker 1: wean off the medication. And I really think that intermittent
Speaker 1: fasting plus food choices, those are both.
Speaker 3: Very very important. And you know, if you're.
Speaker 1: Already you know, struggling with being pre diabetic, you're already
Speaker 1: struggling with the high blood pressure. Food choices do make
Speaker 1: a difference too, So focusing on eating really good real food.
Speaker 3: Real food is just so delicious anyway.
Speaker 2: And if you need a powerful why, I couldn't help
Speaker 2: it thinking what I think while you were talking. You know,
Speaker 2: we see a lot of chronic kidney disease. I do
Speaker 2: it in my work. I see a lot of chronic
Speaker 2: kidney disease. And there's people who are like in their
Speaker 2: fifties who don't have great it's their GFR. It talks
Speaker 2: about your kidney function and their GFR is really low,
Speaker 2: and they're like, well, you know, I exercise, and why
Speaker 2: would I have problems with my kidneys. But if you
Speaker 2: start really looking into their health, they came into the
Speaker 2: er and their glucose is really high, their blood pressure
Speaker 2: was high, and nothing is going to damage your kidneys
Speaker 2: more than run around with high blood pressure and high
Speaker 2: blood glucose coupled. Those things just are not good for
Speaker 2: your kidneys. So if you really need a really powerful why,
Speaker 2: really think about your kidney health. We don't talk about
Speaker 2: kidneys a lot. We talk about liver health. Then you know,
Speaker 2: we talk about metabolic health. But kidney health is so
Speaker 2: important too, So really keep that kind of in the
Speaker 2: back of your mind too, is keeping your kidneys healthy.
Speaker 3: That's so important, that's really important. I'm glad you said that.
Speaker 1: And you know, sometimes people will ask is intermittent fasting
Speaker 1: safe for someone who has kidney problems? And I just
Speaker 1: want to always remind everybody Jason Fung, you know, the
Speaker 1: Obesity code, big, big proponent of intermittent fasting. He's a nephrologist,
Speaker 1: which is a kidney doctor, and he, you know, like
Speaker 1: all kidney doctors, sees so many patients with diabetes and
Speaker 1: other issues, and then now they have kidney damage. Now
Speaker 1: they're coming to him. And so he started using intermittent
Speaker 1: fasting with his patients, his kidney patients, as a way
Speaker 1: to help them with their kidney issues. And so he
Speaker 1: became a big believer in intermittent fasting obviously for more
Speaker 1: than just your kidneys, but for overall metabolic health. So
Speaker 1: I thought I was a really good reminder because I mean,
Speaker 1: there's dialysis on every corner now. It seems like people
Speaker 1: are just there's an epidemic of kidney disease. But it's
Speaker 1: downstream from like you said, high blood glucose, high blood pressure.
Speaker 1: It takes you know, decades of poor help You're going
Speaker 1: to have these problems down the road, right, so more
Speaker 1: powerful reason to fast, all right?
Speaker 3: From wondering in Washington.
Speaker 1: Hi, i have been intermittent fasting for a year and
Speaker 1: a half, working up to twenty four and I've had
Speaker 1: great s sss when I behave. I have slipped lately
Speaker 1: and gotten more lazy, with longer windows and making poor
Speaker 1: nutrition decisions. When my window is open, we call that
Speaker 1: window creep. By the way, wondering in Washington, she said, however,
Speaker 1: I'm ready to go back to my four hour window
Speaker 1: and fast clean, which I have not been doing since
Speaker 1: early on because I had bad breath and I feel
Speaker 1: I cannot without chewing gum. All right, now, listen, you're
Speaker 1: wondering in Washington. I'm gonna give you a little tough love.
Speaker 1: Yes you can.
Speaker 3: You can do it. You don't have to chew gum.
Speaker 3: The clean fast makes such a difference.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: Let me finish reading her question, She said, Please tell
Speaker 1: me what effective solutions there are for treating or killing
Speaker 1: my bad breath or in my fast so I can
Speaker 1: fast cleanly. I've tried peppermin oil spray, but it really
Speaker 1: wasn't effective. I've done all the other things like talking
Speaker 1: to my dentist about my oral help and ingesting capsules
Speaker 1: that supposedly kill bad breath at the source also ineffective.
Speaker 1: I've searched for mint gum or drops that are not
Speaker 1: sweet to trigger an insulin response, but I've had no
Speaker 1: luck so far. Please help, thank you?
Speaker 3: All right?
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, a lot of times when people
Speaker 2: first start fasting and they're starting to get into katosis,
Speaker 2: they start worrying because you can taste katosis, and for me,
Speaker 2: it tastes like a dirty mouth. I feel like I
Speaker 2: need to brush my teeth. I feel like my tongue
Speaker 2: is dirty and my teeth are dirty. And when I
Speaker 2: get that feeling, I know I'm in katosis. But the
Speaker 2: longer and anymore I have to be in pretty deep katosis.
Speaker 2: I really only notice this if I'm doing like an
Speaker 2: thirty six hour fast, I'll notice it. Then the longer
Speaker 2: you fast, the more efficient your body uses kewtones and
Speaker 2: you don't exhale as many key tones, so you're not
Speaker 2: gonna notice it anymore. And even then, even if you
Speaker 2: can taste it, or you think you can smell it,
Speaker 2: it doesn't mean other people can. It's in your breath.
Speaker 2: It's not even really in your mouth, So just keeping
Speaker 2: a toothbrush if in you can just with water brush
Speaker 2: your teeth, brush your tongue can be really helpful. They
Speaker 2: have tongue scrapers that can be helpful.
Speaker 3: You know, you can gargle with salt water.
Speaker 2: But if you really really have true halitosis, you know,
Speaker 2: then you probably want to get to the bottom of
Speaker 2: it because it often comes from GI causes, whether you
Speaker 2: have cibo or you might have h pylori, which can
Speaker 2: be treated. You might have some silent reflex going on,
Speaker 2: which can be really damaging to your esophagus, So that's
Speaker 2: something you would want to know. So you know, I
Speaker 2: know you say you talk to your dentist, but if
Speaker 2: you really truly have bad breath and it's there, it's
Speaker 2: going to be there whether you're fasting clean or not,
Speaker 2: and gum is not taking care of the problem. It
Speaker 2: might be covering it up that's not taking care of it.
Speaker 2: So I would suggest seeing a GI doctor and seeing
Speaker 2: if you can't find the source of this. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I wouldn't let that stop you from fasting, because if
Speaker 2: you do have some GI coss, fasting can really help
Speaker 2: it as well, we hear people talk all the time
Speaker 2: that they have, you know, healed their guts, their ce
Speaker 2: bow there, they've improved their gut microbiome through fasting, so
Speaker 2: it could be part of your treatment.
Speaker 1: And as far as like covering it up, there really
Speaker 1: isn't a single gum or drops that are not going
Speaker 1: to lead to an insulin response. I used to recommend
Speaker 1: peppermint oil, like WOWD drops are the name of the
Speaker 1: drops that they are peppermint oil. But you know, I
Speaker 1: told this story before I went to the doctors in
Speaker 1: my new functional medicine doctor a few years ago. I
Speaker 1: hadn't been before, and I went to my first appointment
Speaker 1: and I didn't know they were going to be doing
Speaker 1: blood work, and I used some WOWD drops they're peppermint
Speaker 1: oil right before, because you know, it's like right in
Speaker 1: somebody's face, right, It's like, I'm.
Speaker 3: Just gonna use a little little this peppermint oil.
Speaker 1: And then they did the blood work and my fasting
Speaker 1: insuluin was higher than I'd ever seen it, and so
Speaker 1: I was like, ooh, I think that the peppermint did
Speaker 1: cause me to have a little insulin response. So I
Speaker 1: was like, hmm, maybe this isn't as benign as I
Speaker 1: thought it was.
Speaker 2: That was just and you had it repeated then a
Speaker 2: few months later and it.
Speaker 3: Was back back lower. Yeah, yeah, that's normal.
Speaker 1: So yeah, anyway, I was like, oops, I mean, it
Speaker 1: didn't make me feel weird, it didn't make me have
Speaker 1: a blood sugar crash, so I didn't think it was
Speaker 1: causing any kind of you know, blood sugar response or
Speaker 1: insulin response or anything like that at all. But the
Speaker 1: blood work came back with my fasting insulin higher than
Speaker 1: it had ever been, so well, higher than it had
Speaker 1: been as an intermittent faster. I didn't have it tested before.
Speaker 1: I'm sure it was really high back when I was obese,
Speaker 1: but I didn't have it done anyway. Brushing your tongue
Speaker 1: with water, gargling with salt water, those are our good
Speaker 1: strategies for the clean fast.
Speaker 3: But you really really really want.
Speaker 1: To fast clean. If you're fasting, I promise, the key
Speaker 1: is keeping your insulin low, and you don't want to
Speaker 1: have gone.
Speaker 3: You just really don't.
Speaker 1: And I know that the breath is something that you're
Speaker 1: very self conscious of. But you know, when I was
Speaker 1: a teacher and fasting and drinking my coffee I just
Speaker 1: didn't breathe all in the faces of the kids, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would just not exhale real close to them, I think,
Speaker 1: since children will tell you if your breath is bad.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, they will, they will, So you know, I
Speaker 1: just I didn't get super close to people if I
Speaker 1: felt like my I had coffee breath or something. Just
Speaker 1: something to keep my coffee breath is one reason you
Speaker 1: can have bad breath. By the way, if you're drinking
Speaker 1: black coffee, coffee breath is a real thing. But brushing
Speaker 1: my tongue, having some sparkling water, some unflavored sparkling water
Speaker 1: really helps with that. So if you don't have unflavored
Speaker 1: sparkling water, give that a try. You may find it
Speaker 1: that helps.
Speaker 2: All Right, Before we get to our tweek of the week,
Speaker 2: I just want to take a minute to tell you
Speaker 2: about Crunchy Clean skin care. Ever since I was a teenager,
Speaker 2: I've had sensitive skin and I've always had to be
Speaker 2: very careful with what I used on my skin or
Speaker 2: I would get breakouts or rashes. And I was lucky
Speaker 2: to have parents who were pretty concerned about my skin
Speaker 2: and took me to a dermatologist because my dad has
Speaker 2: acne scarring and they wanted to prevent that from happening
Speaker 2: for me, and I'm very thankful.
Speaker 3: To them for that.
Speaker 2: So that maybe does what peaked my interest in quality
Speaker 2: skincare from a really early age. But even when I
Speaker 2: try high quality skincare, I'm always very skeptical that it
Speaker 2: won't work for me. I just kind of identified in
Speaker 2: the shower today that I'm a natural skeptic.
Speaker 3: I always have been too, totally.
Speaker 1: We were a questioner, right, We're both questioners. Are personality type,
Speaker 1: Gretchen Rubens.
Speaker 3: We're both questioners, Yeah, yep.
Speaker 2: And people always jump on a bandwid and they're like, oh,
Speaker 2: you have to try this great new product. I'm always like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna wait and see to wait and see, and
Speaker 2: eventually I might try it, and I'm always surprised when
Speaker 2: it works for me.
Speaker 3: I don't know why I think I'm so special.
Speaker 2: But anyway, when I switched over from another clean skincare
Speaker 2: brand to Crunchy last summer, I only introduced one product
Speaker 2: every several weeks so that if my skin reacted, I
Speaker 2: would know, you know, exactly which product was culprit. Now
Speaker 2: fast forward to the last few weeks while I was
Speaker 2: on vacation. I did pack any foundation, and I'm the
Speaker 2: kind of person of i'm going to be out going out,
Speaker 2: I want to look pretty and I usually put on,
Speaker 2: you know, foundation and makeup, but this time I only
Speaker 2: use the Crunchy sunlight tinted face and screen in lieu
Speaker 2: of makeup because I knew I was gonna be spending
Speaker 2: a lot of time outdoors. And it covers like a foundation,
Speaker 2: but it has mineral sunscreen in it and some moisturizers
Speaker 2: and it somehow I don't even know. There's only five colors,
Speaker 2: and it color matched my skin perfectly. I have not
Speaker 2: had one skin reaction, not as much as one little pimple.
Speaker 2: So I'm totally sold. This is going to be my
Speaker 2: new spring and summer skincare regimen. It's going to just
Speaker 2: go on every day. And if you want to learn
Speaker 2: more about this product or their entire clean skincare and
Speaker 2: makeup line, you can visit the show notes or visit
Speaker 2: fast Fees Repeat dot com, slash Sherry s h E.
Speaker 2: Ri I, and you can find a link to learn more.
Speaker 1: Can I tell you that I've been using my very
Speaker 1: first Crunchy product, Sheary, I got it I've been using cleanser,
Speaker 1: the cleansing clearing bar Yees, you know the other clean
Speaker 1: skin care line beauty counter that you can't buy right now.
Speaker 1: And I had stocked up on everything, and they didn't
Speaker 1: have any more the face cleanser that I've been using
Speaker 1: for years. So I like, I am at the very end
Speaker 1: of my stash of the face cleanser. So I was like,
Speaker 1: I gotta find something else. So I've been trying to
Speaker 1: research find different things. I tried two different other ones
Speaker 1: in between there. One of them I didn't like the
Speaker 1: way it smelled. I was like, yeah, this isn't gonna work.
Speaker 1: I use it to scrub my feet. I by face
Speaker 1: cleanser that I'm cleaning my feet with in the shower.
Speaker 3: There you go.
Speaker 1: And then another kind. I didn't mind the way that
Speaker 1: one smelled, but I started using it. I'm like, oh
Speaker 1: this is great. No, my face broke out. I started
Speaker 1: getting zo because I've gotten sensitive skin. The beauty counter
Speaker 1: didn't make my skin break out, but this one did.
Speaker 1: So I'm like still trying to make my beauty counter lass.
Speaker 1: I'm like, look, I'm finally gonna try the crunchy. It's
Speaker 1: a bar and that was like, no, I don't want
Speaker 1: a bar.
Speaker 3: I like a liquid. So I got the bar. I've
Speaker 3: been using it so far, so good, and I really
Speaker 3: like it.
Speaker 2: You don't get that tight feeling after you wash your
Speaker 2: face to you.
Speaker 3: Well, I don't get that anyway, I.
Speaker 2: Know, see I do, and especially bars like I feel
Speaker 2: like they're too harsh or I don't get that tight
Speaker 2: feel whales off or something.
Speaker 3: I don't get that feeling for me. Well, I just
Speaker 3: haven't used a bar.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I have not owned a bar of soap
Speaker 1: in like, okay, decades, Like I've not used to, but
Speaker 1: I've always I.
Speaker 3: Don't like bars of soap.
Speaker 2: Weird.
Speaker 1: But anyway, this crunchy face washing bar is working in
Speaker 1: fingers crossed face sunscreen, and so any mineral sunscreen make
Speaker 1: I know, I thought the beauty count, the beauty counter
Speaker 1: made me break out.
Speaker 2: I'm taking this to Chin on vacation. I'm and see
Speaker 2: see how our skins. Yeah, maybe maybe this is the one.
Speaker 3: Maybe. So so now it's time for our tweak of
Speaker 3: the week.
Speaker 1: And like I said earlier, we always say tweak it
Speaker 1: till it's easy. But the tweak that works for me
Speaker 1: might not be the one that works for you, and
Speaker 1: that's why it's super helpful to hear how other intermittent
Speaker 1: fasters are making intermittent fasting work for them.
Speaker 3: This is from Julie in Vermont.
Speaker 1: She says, I teach preschool and we spend so much
Speaker 1: time during the day feeding the children. Between breakfast, snack, lunch, snack,
Speaker 1: it feels like we are always sitting down with food.
Speaker 1: This constant snacking was one of the most difficult habits
Speaker 1: for me to break. So if there is something that
Speaker 1: I really want to have that is being served, I
Speaker 1: will set aside a small bowl or plate of that
Speaker 1: item and I'll eat it when I open my window.
Speaker 1: That way, I don't feel deprived. I'm just simply delaying
Speaker 1: the consumption of that food. Jen, your motto of delay,
Speaker 1: don't deny has been instrumental in me being able to
Speaker 1: change how I think about eating and delaying food. Knowing
Speaker 1: that being hungry is not an emergency has taken quite
Speaker 1: some time for me to accept and understand. I now
Speaker 1: eat on my terms, enjoy my food when I'm eating it,
Speaker 1: and I do not feel guilty or deprived after I eat.
Speaker 1: I cannot tell you how many years it has taken
Speaker 1: me to get to this point.
Speaker 2: I love it, Julie, I love that as well. We
Speaker 2: also have a quick tip from bar in South Carolina.
Speaker 2: She said in episode eighty eight, the timing of taking
Speaker 2: Leeba thyroxine was discussed. Keep it simple, sweeties. Some of
Speaker 2: us at a certain age or bladder size, must make
Speaker 2: a potty run in the middle of the night. I
Speaker 2: put my liba thyroxine by my sink and I take
Speaker 2: it at three four five AM when I empty my bladder.
Speaker 2: Generally I sleep a couple more hours and then I'm
Speaker 2: able to enjoy black coffee as soon as I desire.
Speaker 2: I appreciate and love you, ladies beyond imagine.
Speaker 3: Barbie. Well, that's a great tip.
Speaker 2: That is a great tip, all right. So we love
Speaker 2: to leave you guys with inspirational or motivational quotes, and
Speaker 2: this week we have a quote from Monica. Monica wrote,
Speaker 2: your self talk matters. If you keep telling yourself you're overwhelmed,
Speaker 2: you'll get better at feeling overwhelmed. If you keep telling
Speaker 2: yourself you're calm, you'll get better at staying calm. If
Speaker 2: you keep telling yourself you're unlucky, you'll get better at
Speaker 2: noticing what goes wrong. If you keep telling yourself you're capable,
Speaker 2: you'll get better at finding solutions. If you keep telling
Speaker 2: yourself you're stuck, you'll get better at staying stuck. If
Speaker 2: you keep telling yourself you're growing, you'll get better at
Speaker 2: moving forward. Your brain strengthens whatever you repeat, even your thoughts,
Speaker 2: and I believe this so much.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that is true. There's a quote that I love.
Speaker 1: I don't know where it came from, but it says,
Speaker 1: whatever you focus on expands, and I think that this
Speaker 1: illustrates that. If you're focusing on being unlucky, that's expanding.
Speaker 1: If you focus on being lucky, that expands. So yeah,
Speaker 1: focus on what you want to see more of. Thanks
Speaker 1: so much for listening today. We would love to have
Speaker 1: you join us in the Delayed On Tonight community, where
Speaker 1: you can interact with both me and Sherry, plus the
Speaker 1: most supportive bunch of intermittent fasters you'll find anywhere. Go
Speaker 1: to Jenstevens dot com slash community to join us.
Speaker 2: Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast to your favorite
Speaker 2: podcast app, and if you haven't already, please leave us
Speaker 2: a five star review that helps new listeners find the
Speaker 2: show and we really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: We are a community driven podcast, so to submit your
Speaker 1: success stories, your questions, your favorite tweak it till It's Easy, moments,
Speaker 1: or anything else you want us to share on the podcast,
Speaker 1: go to Fast Feast Repeat dot com slash submit and
Speaker 1: then listen each week to see if we share your
Speaker 1: submission or answer your question Until
Speaker 2: Next week, Thanks for listening,