September 9, 2025 • 48 mins
In this episode of the Do Hard Things Podcast, Jay Tiegs and Brian Larson break down the challenge of the 72-hour fast: a test of discipline, grit, and mental clarity that goes far beyond food.
They share their personal experiences with extended fasting, the science behind it, and the lessons it teaches about resilience, focus, and breaking comfort zones. You’ll hear practical tips on how to prepare, manage hunger, stay safe, and reintroduce food after the fast, plus the deeper mindset shifts that come when you push yourself past your limits.
If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to go three days without eating, and what you might gain from the process, this episode will give you the insight and tools to try it yourself.
Welcome to the Do Hard Things Podcast with your host Jay Tiegs, Are you ready to amplify and improve your life? Then you are in the right place. On this podcast we have unfiltered conversation with inspiring people who take on challenges and share with us, the wisdom from their journey. We talk about how doing hard things adequately enable all of us to deal with life's struggles and challenges and ultimately improve the quality of our lives.
Big things are happening inside Do Hard Things Nation, and I want you with us.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
All right, welcome back everybody to the Do Hard
Things podcast.
I'm Siegfried J Teagues herewith my co-host, brian Larson,
and today we're diving into anultimate challenge that tests
your discipline, grit and mentalclarity the 72-hour water-only
fast.
Before we jump in, if you'reenjoying these conversations,
make sure you smash thatsubscribe button and share the
(01:06):
show with someone who needs tohear it.
This episode of the Do HardThings podcast is brought to you
by the Do Hard Things WellnessAcademy.
We just launched that thismonth, at the time of this
recording, and it's a communitydesigned to help you build grit,
discipline and resilience soyou can perform at your best in
your health, wealth andrelationships.
The four pillars of the Do HardThings lifestyle is mindset,
movement, meaningful challengeand community.
The four pillars of the Do OurThings Lifestyle is mindset,
(01:27):
movement, meaningful challengeand community.
And inside the academy you'llget access to weekly
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So go to DoOurThingsNationcomif you'd like to learn more, and
(01:48):
be sure to grab a copy of theAmazon bestseller Life on Off,
on offense a tactical guide todominate life and end mediocrity
.
We are well on our way tobecoming a new york times
bestseller.
You'll help us with that bypurchasing and leaving us
reviews.
We appreciate that and that's it.
That's the.
Uh, it's the intro and the, Iguess, the business side of
things.
So, welcome, brian.
How you doing, brother?
Good man, how are you?
I?
Great man.
I'm 71 hours into the 72-hourfast.
(02:08):
I was going to say I'm ready tobreak a fast.
How's that Timely conversation?
And when we're done with thisrecording, I will officially be
across the finish line.
Good way to distract you for thelast hour.
Yes, I know Lacey is upstairsand this is her longest fast and
she is chomping at the bit toboil an egg and eat it so funny.
(02:30):
So how's your experience been?
Speaker 2 (02:32):
so far Good.
You know, it's funny becauseI've done several and this one
has been more spiritual basedfor me, and so we can talk about
that as we go along and justsome really interesting insights
and feeling of like my energy alittle and how my energy can
shift, and even just almost whatI would I would call my
(02:55):
consciousness leaving my body,which was really in a walk.
It was just fascinating, soit's been really good from that
perspective.
So, yeah, how about you man?
What's what's been going onwith yours?
Speaker 1 (03:08):
perspective.
So, yeah, how about you man?
What, uh, what's been going onwith yours?
This is I believe this is myfifth 72 hour, fast and hands
down.
It's been the easiest one and Ithink the more that you do it,
the easier it gets.
But every one of them have beentheir own unique experience and
I I, to be honest, I feel likeI could actually continue on,
and I know that some people goon to five, seven.
I got a friend who's done up to21 days.
I've heard of people going upto 40, trying to achieve what
(03:30):
Jesus did in the Bible.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yeah, I know a couple people that did that too.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
And of all of the hard things that I do in my life
, this is one of the moredifficult challenges for me.
It's definitely been some greatspiritual connection.
We use this to launch the DoHard Things things academy, so
we have over 30 people doing the72 hour fast and it's just
awesome to have a tribe andcommunity of like-minded people
(03:53):
navigate, navigating this hardthing, many of them for the
first time and the first time.
Lacy is gone.
You know this long, so thisone's been really really cool
for me personally, butchallenging, but not as
challenging as previous ones.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
So yeah, I find it so fascinating how every point of
hunger I would hit, I wouldremind myself of, okay, take
that time and fill that withconnection to God in some form
or fashion, yeah, and it justmakes me then go, oh man, I eat
a lot.
(04:25):
I mean I eat over 3,000calories a day, and that's
several, several like four, five, I eat a lot.
I mean, I eat over 3000calories a day, and that's
several, several like four, five, six times a day.
And I go, oh man, I'm soreliant on that source of energy
.
But I can get that source fromsource itself.
And that was it's the firsttime I've ever been that
(04:45):
intentional about doing it and Ifeel like I did have some
really good points of connection.
And so you know, there's thephysical side of things too, but
that was the spiritual side ofthis one really hit hard.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Yeah, I had a pretty good spiritual connection last
night.
We did, you know, every nightof the fast this is a guided
group experience in the Do OurThings Academy.
We do a nightly call for eachnight of the fast.
This is a guided groupexperience in the do our things
Academy.
We do a nightly call for eachnight of the fast.
And then coach Josh did abreath work session right after
last night's call and we justdid, uh, we did dynamic Wim Hof
style and on that third breathhold, like I had some very
(05:21):
powerful visuals, I had to saw alot of green, which is, you
know, the, the heart spacechakra, right Of gratitude, and
then I had a visual as a, whichis the heart space chakra of
gratitude, and then I had apowerful visualization and I
felt like I saw the face ofJesus.
It was really really cool and tojust be kind of connecting with
my intention and I've used thisone to really connect
(05:41):
spiritually and every night ofthis one we also had a moment
where those that wanted to stickaround for a spiritual moment
we did it, we did some prayerand it was really really cool.
Uh, we had a couple differentthere.
Most people were christian, butwe had someone who was muslim
and it was really cool to sharethat spiritual connection across
across platforms I don't knowwhat- it goes back to my concept
(06:08):
of ultimately, every religionhas its own version of god, but
there's something that ties themall together.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Yeah, so you can worship together and not be so
divided, and do a spiritualdiscipline that's focused on
what your version of that godlooks like, and that's okay yeah
, I mean some people that Godlooks like, and that's okay.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Yeah, I mean some people like PlayStation, some
people like Xbox, some peoplelike I mean you just pick your
own, you choose your ownadventure, how you want to play
the video game.
I don't know, I'm not going tosplit hairs over it, but yeah, I
don't want to get into a deepdive on that, but that's kind of
we know where we stand on that.
You, you know you run with whatyou got.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
And if the chains work for you.
Go for it, man.
That's awesome that that workedout like that, though.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
So why do the 72-hour fast?
Because I hear a lot of peoplelike, oh, you're crazy, you're
going to hurt yourself.
So why do people do this?
Well, ultimately there's a fewreasons.
One, there's a lot of sciencebehind it.
It's a great way to detoxyourself.
(07:10):
So from a physiology physiologyand a biological perspective,
it's like the ultimate reset.
It's like resetting your I knowyour cell phone and just a
complete defrag.
You know, you do, you do thehard reboot.
Yeah, you know the nature's wayof a hard reboot, and there's
something that happens duringthose 72 hours.
We'll kind of go play by, playon what that looks like, but
that's really one, one great wayor one primary reason people do
(07:34):
it it's for the discipline,it's for the clarity and the
spiritual connection.
Yeah, yeah, and some of thebenefits are, you know, reset
your metabolism.
It has.
It'll reduce inflammation,increase growth hormone,
activate stem cells, activateautophagy, which is where we're
constantly in the state ofbuilding new cells, and old
(07:58):
cells are dying.
Well, when you don't have anyexternal food, your body
transitions from glycogen to fatto, ultimately, the cells that
aren't being you know thataren't needed and kind of cleans
up all the old.
You don't want all those olddead cells inside of you, and so
it just kind of does a rapidfire cleanup.
It improves your insulinsensitivity, sharpens mental
clarity when you start producingketones and then, once you have
(08:21):
a hormone, yep, yep, and thensharpens your mindset and
discipline.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yeah, yeah, and then sharpens your mindset and
discipline.
Yeah, yeah, and I to me, Ithink it's.
(08:48):
You know that, the physicalside.
So with intention, as opposedto oh let me shove this down
real fast because I got to geton to the next thing, because
you can't take on as much inthat next go around.
So for me that that part makesa difference too, of just the
physical side, of stepping awayfrom it and going oh okay, I
realized how much I rely on itand I eat when I get bored too.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Yeah, that's what I've noted.
I mean, we were talking theother night about the
relationship with food, which iskind of a strange concept.
Concept you would have arelationship with food, but
that's, it's so abundant in oursociety.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
And it's.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
It's like as soon as you find some level for most
people, as soon as you find somelevel of discomfort, you get a
little hungry.
It's like I got to dropeverything I'm doing and go eat
something.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
And you know you can go weeks without eating.
Yeah, and, and and I think it'sa great opportunity to I don't
know have have greater awarenessof your eating habits and
define what that relationshipyou have with with food actually
is.
And are you I mean some people,I know some people that
strictly eat to cravings, likeas soon as they get hungry, they
(09:55):
what do I feel like eating andthat's what they go for.
Some people eat for fuel.
Some people have greaterdiscipline.
They do intermittent fasting,and so I think it's a great
exercise to see what that is foryou.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Yeah, I agree, I think it's definitely it's a
practice and a discipline.
I think it'd be interesting todo this one and have everybody
come off and eat cleaner foods,and then do another one and have
everybody come off and eatwhatever the craving is and see
how your body feels different.
(10:28):
Because if you, right afterthis, you hop on to fried foods
and what, you're going to feelawful because your body's like
wait, I don't have any nutrientsin here and this is what you're
giving me.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
I think it'd be a really interesting like little
study to do yeah, well, that'swhy we we jump to start the 28
dayday challenge, the Do HardThings 28, with this fast,
because it's a 31-day challengetotal.
But as soon as you're done withthis, we hop into a routine.
There's eight things that youdo hydration, nutrition,
sleeping, gratitude, a dailycheck-in, meditation, slash,
(11:03):
breath, work.
So there's all of these thingsthat you get scored one, two or
three points, and one of thethings that you have to do is
choose a diet, and so you know,we encourage people, now that
you've had this nice reset,choose a diet so you can create
sustainable habits with it goingforward, and then you really I
mean it's a great way tojumpstart into something some
(11:25):
cleaner eating, to get thatboost of energy.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
I would push back a little bit on the word diet, and
here's why, when people saydiet diets are short term Diets,
are I'm going to do this till Ireach this goal.
I would have our listenerschallenge themselves and say I'm
going to form some new eatinghabits and just build it around
(11:52):
habit and moving forward.
You're going to choose to eatthis way or cut this out or do
this little change that becomesa part of your everyday, not
just, oh, I'm trying to hit agoal, weight and then okay, I'm
there and I can go back towhatever Cause.
You go back to whatever.
You're going to wind up whereyou were.
Yeah does that make sense.
There's something about thatword diet.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
It's always rubbed me wrong because of the short-term
, like mindset of diet yeah,it's how we flippantly use it
and just all of the I don't know.
There are so many differentmodalities shortcut type you'll
be people yo-yo with theirnutrition because they do these
(12:35):
diets that are so restrictingand it's just not sustainable.
So the key is to find somethingsustainable.
It's one of those things youhave to experiment with, but
people really struggle with that.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Yeah, it's hard.
It's hard to make a change likethat and to find what is
sustainable, but you still haveto enjoy life.
I love desserts and I willalways make room for them, but I
know from a bigger calorieperspective that means I've got
to eat a little less ofsomething somewhere where I'm
(13:07):
going to be over my calorie loadand it's gonna.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
you know, day after day that stuff adds up yeah,
well, when, when food is soabundant in our society, I mean
you could, literally by the endof this podcast, I could have,
you know, almost anything.
Door dash.
I could have all the gardendoor dash to me to break my fast
if I wanted to.
Yeah, you, you leave the houseand you drive past.
You know all these differentrestaurants.
This food is so abundant.
And then, on top of that, youknow it's so addicting.
(13:32):
They're spraying it withchemicals and they've got all
these engineers that are, youknow, trying to.
It's very competitive, so theydo all the great marketing and
they, they, they make itaddicting.
So it's very difficult in theculture that we live in.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Yeah, but you know, when you take away the food, you
know, you just realize how muchyour life revolves around it.
From just, I just noticed, youknow how I just meander into the
kitchen and open up thecabinets for no reason, like
well, why the hell am I hereright now, you know.
Or social outings, you know,like you know, we, we, it's a
very social thing in our culture.
So what I love about this andsome of that, you know, we have
daily journal prompts when wefor every day, during the fast
(14:16):
for the group.
But you know, some of thethings that we ask is like who
am I without the comfort of food?
What?
What else have I been leaningon, you know?
And and what is my relationshipI use it with air quotes with
food, and you know how can I usethis to get connected to God?
you know, and that discipline ofthat.
So, yeah, yeah, but well, let'sdive into you know what, what
(14:42):
happens, a play by play of whathappens during the 72 hour fast
and and some of the thebiological benefits of of what's
happening hour by hour.
So when we start the fast, Ilike to start the fast in the
evening, because when you know,when you finish up your your
(15:02):
dinner meal, by the time you goto sleep and you wake up the
next day, it's like you'realready, like you know, 12, 14
hours in.
So I like to to get a littlejump start.
This is a great way to start.
Personally, lacy and I weretalking.
I think next time we might tryto maybe do it at noon, because
oh yeah yeah, so I might shootfor noon next time.
But.
But bottom line is this zero to12 hours in we call this the
warm-up phase.
(15:22):
You know, when you stop eating,your body is going to first
burn through what's most readilyavailable, which is your
glucose, and it's stored in yourliver as glycogen.
And in these first hours, youknow, your insulin will start to
drop.
And this is because yourinsulin is a storage hormone.
And once the glycogen you knowis burned up, after around the
(15:46):
12th hour in, something reallycool happens your growth
hormones begin to spike, andyour growth hormone is sometimes
called the youth hormone orrepair hormone.
It helps you burn fat, it'sstarting to heal your joints,
you're starting to build newproteins and it can even enhance
your skin by keeping your skinlooking younger.
(16:06):
And a lot of people pay a lotof big money for growth hormone.
You can produce it yourselfwith simply just not eating, and
so you can make it for freewhen you fast and then.
So that's really ultimatelywhat happens.
The bottom line is first 12hours your glycogen stores.
Do you have anything that youwant to add?
Speaker 2 (16:22):
or anything, no, no.
And that is the first 12 hourswhere you start to mentally go
okay, I haven't eaten here.
Like it doesn't show up untilyou get a little bit deep into
it and you're like wait, I'mhungry.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Yeah, mental aspect of ity kicks in.
What is autophagy?
Well, it literally meansself-eating, and that might
sound a little strange, but it'sone of the most beneficial
processes that your body has, asyour cells become its own
recycling center.
So what happens is your body'sgoing through to find the
(17:01):
damaged and sticky proteins, itbreaks them down and it reuses
the good parts to build new,healthier proteins and gets rid
of the waste of the old ones.
So basically it's self-cleaning.
And just think of it like aspring cleaning for your body to
sell your, your cellular leveland they just basically get
cleared out.
Plaques in the brain whichconnect to cognitive decline
(17:24):
starts to get cleaned up.
We don't want that junk inthere either, and it's one of
the reason that fasting islinked to better brain health
and longevity, because it's justoptimizes that cleaning process
.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Yeah, and I think there's some clarity.
That comes to as you're fasting, like I think, thought
processes improve.
I think for me my personalexperiences I can think more
clearly some places where Imight have.
Now it works backwards too.
It's like in the first 24, 48hours I feel like I'm sharper,
but as I get into that 70, youknow 60, 72 hour mark, my
(17:58):
brain's like jello yes, it kindof ebbs and flows a little bit
yeah right right now yeah, yeah,there's times my brain feels
like mush and I can't think, andthen other times I'm like I'm
super clear, super focused,super creative.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Yeah, it's like what we always say.
It's like it's like surfing.
You got to ride the waves ofthe yeah, yeah, but yeah, 24
hours in, your glycogen tank inthe liver is completely depleted
and then that forces the bodyto fully switch over to fat as
the primary fuel and then, whenyou start burning fat, your body
produces the ketones, and theketones are like you have heard
(18:34):
it, I mean, it's ketosis is whathappens.
Ketones are like premium fuelfor your body, so like pulling
up the gas tank and get thatpremium grade fuel for your, for
your, for your car.
Uh, ketones burn cleaner, themore efficient, and they help
suppress the appetite.
So the hunger pangs will startto go away and that's when
people will start to report that.
(18:55):
You know that's riding thewaves.
You'll have waves of hungerpangs.
Well, when, when you're nothaving the hunger, your, your
body's really creating a lot ofketones and after 24 hours in
also your inflammation willstart dropping significantly.
Your gut gets a break fromconstant digestion.
Your gut is a, your whole gutsystem.
Your digestive system isconstantly in a state of
(19:18):
movement when you're grazingthroughout the day.
So when you do a prolonged fast, you're actually giving it the
opportunity to really, reallyrest and giving it an
opportunity to start doing somehealing.
And people that who havedigestive issues like I, have
stomach issues, ibs, bloating,and if you, if you have like
(19:41):
some overgrowth of intestinalbacteria, it often finds relief
here as your guts really startto self-heal itself, and so it's
really powerful to give yourguts just kind of a refit and
let it rest and literally justtake a knee for once.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
And to hop onto the ketones and to hop onto the
(20:24):
ketones.
So that's one of the reasonsthat people who have had success
on like an Adkins diet.
They have the body.
You're not giving it carbs andso it has to burn the food first
and then it starts producingketones because you're not,
there's no insulin, there's noinsulin response response, and
so the body's looking for somefuel source.
It's also why I love it's typeone, type two diabetics and they
have to be very careful abouttheir intake because they can
flip over into ketosis whichlong term, can have negative
complications, but short termit's not so bad, like it's the
energy supply yeah, yeah,another thing, not endorsing the
Atkins diet, by the way justanother, I mean some people if
(20:48):
you find it useful and it works.
I don't endorse any particularone, but yes, if it works for
you, go with it.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
I've tried long-term to do ketosis and as an
endurance athlete, I personallyhave struggled with it.
I need the carbs.
Some people can can operate, soit's one of those things you
have to test and F around it aFAFO, right F around it and find
out.
So another thing you know yourbrain loves ketones, but also
your heart, your cardiovascularsystem gets becomes more
(21:17):
efficient, and so that's justanother thing that a lot of
people don't realize is thatyour heart uses ketones as well.
And another thing that happensis in your brain there's a
protein called BDNF.
It's brain derived nootropicfactor and it's like fertilizer
for your brain cells and ithelps you grow new ones more and
(21:39):
it strengthens the ones youcurrently have and strengthens
the connections between them.
And that's why you feel a bitsharper and more focused during
a fast.
So interesting stuff, so manythings are happening throughout
and kind of complicated, but trynot to overload the listener
with things.
But there's a lot of amazingthings that are happening during
the fast and I know we've gotsome pretty cool videos.
(22:03):
I've had to watch them numeroustimes to grab grasp, a firm
understanding of what'shappening, because there's a lot
of uh science and a lot ofterms being thrown around here,
but the bottom line is it'sreally, really good for the body
.
Yeah, so 48 hours in, 48 hoursin, the stem cells begin to wake
up, and this is where stem cellactivity increases dramatically
(22:23):
.
And stem cells are essentiallyblank cells that become whatever
the body needs.
It can become muscle, skin, itcan, you know, add to the amount
of blood that you have.
It can move to gut lining andthey're your body's ultimate
repair system.
And this is when fastingbecomes deeply restorative, as
your immune system begins tostrengthen.
(22:45):
Your old, weak immune cells arecleared out and then brand new
ones are generated.
And there have been somestudies that suggest that
certain cancer risks decreasebecause fasting helps shrink the
unhealthy cells, while theyalso protect the healthy ones.
So for those that you know arepredisposed to cancer or maybe
(23:06):
you're undergoing cancertreatment, there have been some
studies that have shown that,you know, prolonged fasting has
been very beneficial in that.
So at this point, bottom lineis 48 hours in, you're not just
burning fat for energy, you'realso repairing tissue
regenerating systems and settingyour body up for some
longer-term resilience, becauseyou're basically improving
(23:28):
yourself internally.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
And I think you get at this stage there's like an
immune system reboot.
That starts to happen too, likearound the 36 to 48-hour mark,
the immune system kind ofreboots, system kind of reboots.
I don't know the details behindthat, but I think it's more of
a.
It's anti-inflammatory, but theimmune system starts to pump
itself up a little bit based onthe lack of calories.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Yes, yep, absolutely.
So really good, if your body'sthe temple and we need to
protect the temple.
We want more little ninjas,right?
We want powerful little ninjasin the way of white blood cells,
mitochondria, red blood cells,all the things we want more of
ninjas in the way of white bloodcells, mitochondria, red blood
cells, all the things we wantmore of those things.
There's an opportunity to toincrease your army of ninjas to
protect the temple.
So, all right, 72 hours, fullsystem reset.
(24:14):
Once you hit the 72 hour mark,it's like hitting the reset
button on your body stem cellactivity surges even higher, the
immune system goes through deeprenewal and then repair is
happening everywhere Joint skin,organs, brain, ketones are at
their peak, your energy is cleanand steady, inflammation is at
its lowest points and becauseyour body has been running so
(24:35):
efficiently, it needs fewercalories and nutrients to
operate.
And so this is where, you know,people start to notice, like
they start to really notice theenergy that they have, and they,
the hunger pains, ultimatelyfor most people, for many people
, go away and that's why theycan go in a longer, like you
know, multiple day, four day,five days, seven days.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
It's so strange how the first 24 hours feel they
feel.
For me they're the worst,getting that beyond day one and
then by day three, if Iconsciously think about it, I'm
stinking hungry, but at the sametime, if I sit back and go, do
I really need to eat?
No, I'm good.
I could probably go a littlelonger if I wanted to.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Yeah, yeah, this time around I definitely feel like I
could actually go further.
I'm going to go ahead and stop,though, but I think next time
around I'd like to maybe try togo a little bit further.
So we'll have another podcastepisode, maybe.
Maybe I can get Brian to joinme too.
We can go a little further andjust kind of F around and find
out and have an extended podcast.
(25:38):
We'll definitely be hosting themin the academy, probably on a
regular, semi-regular basis.
So if you're interested in this, feel free to join us in the
academy, probably on a regular,semi-regular basis.
So if you're interested in this, feel free to join us in the
academy.
But I don't, I, you know I, II'm reluctant to coach anyone
further than I have gone myself.
So we're gonna.
So anything beyond that, youknow, I have only heard from
other people's experiences, Idon't know from my own
(25:58):
experience.
Today we're just talking aboutthe 72 hours.
So.
But 72 hours is allegedly thethe peak of performance for this
, and we'll report back onanother episode when we, when we
go back past the deep end evenfurther.
So let's talk about, for thosethat are interested in the 72
hour fast, how to prepare.
So I think it's prudent not tojust jump right in.
(26:20):
I mean not, I think I think youwant to you as well, easing
into it.
I would say the best way to goabout that is maybe doing some
intermittent fasting 12, 18, 24before jumping all into the 72
hour fast.
What are your thoughts on that,brian?
Speaker 2 (26:49):
in that brian?
Yeah, I mean I, I think for meI kind of I reduce the day
before, I kind of eat a littlelighter, I will reduce calories
a little bit and I will eatcleaner and drink a ton of water
yeah, you're talking about likeright before you.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Actually I was, I was .
I guess I was prefacing likebefore you commit to a 72 hour
should you just dive right inlike a couch to 5K, to marathon
or couch to Ironman.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
I think you can.
I think the benefits of thereset that happened.
You can do it.
A 24 hour is probably a betterlike just see how that 24 hours
feels and then get back intoeating and then a couple of
months later come back in.
But I I know of plenty ofpeople who've never fasted
(27:35):
before like, oh, I'll try threedays and they'll do it and it
works the same.
I think it requires a higherlevel of like, commitment and
mental discipline, because it'sjust hard if you've never done
it yeah, absolutely yeah, it'sthe mental preparation is
definitely key.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Yeah, well, so actually preparing for the 72
hour fast, you're mentioninghydration what other?
Tips and tricks do you have I?
Speaker 2 (27:59):
electrolyte I love like element.
I think we've got thatsomewhere in the community just
talking about that productbecause it's got electrolytes.
You add it in water, just getup, I mean I will drink.
I try to drink a gallon ofwater the day before.
Dial back some of the friedfoods Not that I eat a lot
anyway, but I wouldn't put anyon board and just eat cleaner,
(28:22):
so that it's almost like startsto flush the system a little bit
before you ever even get rid offood completely and I think it
just kind of sets you up to easeinto it a little bit.
Outside of that, I don't thinkI do much for myself.
What do you do?
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Well, I try to avoid processed foods, the heavy carbs
, the sugar, alcohol, becauseultimately it reduces the
cravings, it just makes thetransition.
When your body transitions fromfuel source, it just makes it a
little bit easier.
The keto flu, they call it thesymptoms of that is reduced.
I plan my schedule out becauseI've messed around with the
(28:59):
schedule.
I've done it over the weekend.
I do not want to do it over theweekend, I want to stay busy.
Weekend's a time for social.
Uh, you're not doing as much soyou're thinking about it more.
So, planning out the schedule,and and and and and really kind
of dialing that in and yeah,just the hydration bit.
Same with electrolytes.
Now, one thing that I've learnedabout electrolytes and you can
(29:21):
take bone broth and electrolytes.
But if your intention for thefast is weight loss, then use
electrolytes, use the bone broth, but it will affect autophagy.
A lot of electrolytes have alittle bit of sweetener in them
and your body will be trickedinto spiking insulin which stops
(29:44):
the autophagy for four to sixhours.
So if you're looking strictlyto, you know you're going to
just regenerate and cleaning upthe body through autophagy.
If that's your ultimate goal,then I would recommend using
electrolytes that do not haveany sweetener, so you can get
(30:05):
the lmnt that have no flavor.
It's the all the flavored oneshave some level of extract in
them.
Or I like to drink gerolsteinerwater, which is heavy, heavy,
heavy mineral.
I've got it like right here,the gerolsteiner.
There are other like sparklingwaters out there, but this is
heavy mineral.
It's got like five to six timesthe amount of minerals compared
to like pellegrino and some ofthese other ones.
(30:27):
So this is really really goodif you want, if you, if you
don't want to mess up the, theautophagy.
But so those are the thingsthat that that I do nice okay
yeah, and I always, I alwaysdrag people into it with me.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
That is a good.
I mean, it goes back tocommunity.
There's something about miseryloves company, if that's the way
you want to look at it.
Or it's the discipline ofknowing, hey, I'm going to do
this hard thing with somebodyelse.
I think it definitely.
To do it on your own is atotally different experience.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
I tried to go it alone and I failed.
I've done it a couple of times,absolutely failed.
And so I always say, if you'regoing to do hard things, it's
better to suffer with friends,and that's funny and that, and
that you know leading a fastbeing in a community where
everyone's like pushing eachother, you know it definitely
makes it a lot easier.
You know when it gets tough,you got people that you can kind
of vent to.
(31:22):
And another thing that's really, really important, this is
critical, this is key.
This is what we do in thecommunity.
Before the kickoff, or part ofthe kickoff, is we write down
our powerful why for why we'redoing this fast.
And case in point, there wasone of our challengers in the
community on the second nightstarted boiling eggs.
(31:44):
It was late at night.
He's like I'm going to breakthis thing.
I'm miserable.
He started boiling the eggs andwhile he's waiting for the eggs
to get done, he pulls out hisjournal and he opens it up and
he starts reading why he wantedto do this.
And it was more than justhealth.
It was I want to be just moredisciplined.
I want to be stronger than Iwas yesterday.
I'm on this journey of becomingthe best version of myself, and
(32:08):
that motivated him to turn offthe water and get back at it,
and he, he finished today, whichis super, super rad.
So remembering why you startedand having community is so
critically important.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Yeah and uh.
It's interesting because, again, this one, my I, my intention
was just to deepen spiritualconnection and I so yesterday I
was tired and no, my energy waslower and I thought I just need
(32:40):
to get out here.
And so we went and walked onthe trail and this is what I was
alluding to earlier.
And as we're driving there, I'mlike, why am I doing this again
?
And I went, oh, yeah, okay,it's a deep and spiritual
connection.
What better place to do thatthan nature?
And as we're walking along thistrail, I'm leading, it's just me
and Lainey and I'm in front,and I have this moment where I
(33:04):
just feel everything around me,like I just sensed presence and
it tree is like trees, animals,everything.
And I dropped down, I got out ofmy head and dropped into my
heart and then I had thisexperience where I felt like my
conscious mind or my, myawareness, kind of slipped out
(33:29):
and I found myself like three orfour steps ahead of myself.
It was, and so it's like myawareness expanded.
It was such a fascinatingexperience and I'm like, okay,
that was the spiritual moment Iwas looking for of how do you,
how do I get outside of myselfsometimes and just experience
presence and things around me,as opposed to what's just in
(33:51):
this shell.
It was fascinating.
I mean, I had a moment where Ihad to stop because I'm like
whoa, I can't really even.
It was almost like it felt likean out-of body sort of thing
where I'm like I don't know howto control myself when I'm not
in myself.
I it sounds really weird, butit was so fascinating.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
Well, I've had a friend who's done some really
prolonged fast.
It sounds very similar to hisexperience where it feels like
plant medicine based experienceor mystical experience where you
can feel very euphoric and Idon't know.
It's fascinating that you didthat so early.
But that's common for peoplethat go even further.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Yeah, yeah I noticed my breath work good.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
I was more sensitive to it in my breath work because
I can have experience withbreath work and last night's
breath session was very powerful, like more powerful than normal
.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Yeah, well, and I I tend to about once a month I'll
do a 24 hour.
I use it as like a metabolismreset, and so it's.
I'm pretty, my body's prettyefficient at getting the
calories out and just burningthrough what's there, and so I
think by the time I hit 48, Ithink my body's already
(35:10):
switching into different modes,and so I think I was just
already in that spot, cause youknow, it was like six o'clock
last night, so you know, 50something hours into it, and
yeah, I was just it was anamazing experience.
And yeah, it was just it was anamazing experience.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
No, it's so awesome, it's so cool, yeah, so yeah, I
think ultimately, there's justso many fascinating things that
were.
It's really a great opportunityto get connected in your body,
mind and spirit, like it's justso many things are happening and
I think the more that you leanin spiritually, the more
mystical experiences you'll have.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Yeah, it's, it's the expectation I I tend to go, okay
, I, I'm looking for experiencethat's outside of my conscious
experience.
Yeah, and if, if you openyourself to that, stuff happens.
If you're looking for theunexpected, you get the
unexpected.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, absolutely.
Well, what do you want to shiftgears into?
Now, like I think we we've hita lot of things.
I think maybe some safetyconsiderations, maybe who this
is for, maybe who, yeah for sure.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Definitely, diabetics have to be careful.
Fasting, yeah, pregnancy,trying to think what else those
are the ones I'd have toactually do a search.
I don't know who else, who inyour mind pops up.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
They say that younger kids shouldn't do it because
they're still growing.
So it's probably not good foryounger kids.
Pregnant women that arebreastfeeding, and then people
that are just underweight,malnourished, with very low body
fat, because they may lack thereserves to sustain a prolonged
fast.
They could have issues.
And then anyone with, likecertain medical conditions, like
heart disease, kidney disease,liver disease, especially if you
(36:51):
have meds that require food.
Yeah, yes, yes, absolutely.
And so those are.
You know, those are it.
I think, for the most, if you'rea healthy adult, I think most
people can do the fast withoutany challenges or issues.
And, once again, it's justrecommend.
You know, if you're on thefence about it, just try it.
Try intermittent fasting, likework your way up to it, do a 24
(37:11):
hour fast and then, if you'reready to jump in deep in the
pool, go for it.
But if you're doing the rightthings, if you're, if you're, if
you're preparing properly andyou're doing the right things
throughout the fast, I thinkyou'll be okay, cause I think
the benefits outweigh anychallenges.
And so frequently askedquestions that we get.
So what are some of thesymptoms that I should expect?
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Hunger Discomfort, definitely discomfort.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
People experience headaches and fatigue, maybe a
little bit of hangriness, alittle irritability, maybe some
brain fog, and then after that,I mean, like I said, it's like
surfing.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
So yeah, then some calm, some clarity, yeah then
you might get an energy boost.
Islands are all over the placeI found a little peace, like I,
I, I might, I've kind of beenall over the place energetically
lately and as especially todayI like found some more peace and
I think it was just that lastwave, maybe that kind of let it
(38:16):
set into yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
You just expect a roller coaster rides when I just
just it's your body detoxingitself.
If you're not getting enoughelectrolytes, you know you can
have some challenging experience, some keto flu, but that's it.
It's going to.
You're going to have someperiods of discomfort and then
you're going to have periods ofcalm, clarity and energy.
It's just kind of, you know,hour by hour.
So it's interesting.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
Then what about movement?
Like you know, we didn't talkabout that.
To move, yeah, common one iscan I exercise during?
Speaker 1 (38:45):
the fast so for me personally, the first time I
fasted I did a crossfit, a buddyassisted crossfit exercise up
at your gym with a partner Ididn't want my partner down.
I went into it with theintention I'm just going to do
light and I didn't want to letmy buddy down.
And we went, ham and I crushedthe workout.
(39:06):
Later that night I wanted tognaw my arm off.
I was so miserable.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
The high intensity high intensity training stokes
your metabolism faster anyway.
So that was.
That was probably not thewisest of moves.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
We have, you know, the do hard, hard things.
We have frameworks for do hardthings, but the bottom line is
I've done a lot of stupid shitthe hard way and I've learned
the lessons the hard way, so Ishare all of my lessons about
doing the dumb shit so you don'thave to.
So I do hard things so youdon't have to there you go so
(39:44):
but yeah, I were you can do, I.
Your line is this your body isin a reset mode and recovery and
resetting is training.
Yeah and just, you're not goingto lose fitness in 72 hours, in
fact, if you just rest, yourbody's repairing itself you
could.
What I've been doing is 10 000steps a day, so just a few light
walks around the neighborhoodyep, some stretching and that's
(40:05):
been completely fine.
No heavy training is what Iwould recommend.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
Yeah, I think it's the mindset of even when you're
training hard, you have to restto repair.
If you went in and did heavyexercise seven days a week, your
body never gets a chance torepair, and so taking time off
and dialing it back and maybedoing nothing at all is not a
(40:30):
bad thing.
When you're fasting, becauseyou don't have the metabolic
capacity to support it like youwould, because you're depleting
your energy stores and itrequires energy to work out, and
so for me, I like to move, andso just even the walking was
helpful.
That's why we went out andhiked the trail and then this
morning I did a little, I put alittle weight on, just because I
(40:51):
hadn't really moved my body forseveral days and I felt it Like
I feel it now.
I'm like, okay, that was, butfor me I needed it, I knew what
my body needed, I had rested andrecovered.
But I think it's that time,that downtime, that's really
good for us too, especially agroup like this that tend to
want to do hard things in life.
We probably push our bodieshard in different ways and it's
(41:14):
nice to have that time torecover.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
Yeah, that's.
That's a big thing that we tryto teach is you have to rest and
recover is a part of yourtraining that you need to have
as much intention with as theexercise itself.
You're breaking your body downduring the exercise, so a lot of
competitive athletes just wantto just grind, grind, grind.
You can't fully repair yourwork.
Smarter, not harder, yeah, andthis is an opportunity to reset.
(41:38):
So another frequently askedquestion how often should I do a
72 hour fast?
Speaker 2 (41:46):
How often should I do a 72-hour fast?
So one to four times a year.
I was thinking as you weretalking about, oh, doing this a
little longer next time.
I was thinking, well, maybe weshould do it like December.
It seems like quarterly.
To do it quarterly would be agood strategy, but some people
can't really do that.
But I would recommend everybodyto do one a year at least.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
I've been doing them.
I mean this is my fifth one andif I look back at my calendar
it's been about once a quarterand maybe I should just make it
a quarterly thing.
I mean, now that we've got theAcademy up and running, we'll
definitely have them more often.
I think I like the idea of a 24hour fast once a month on the
off months.
You know're in a 24 hour or 72hour?
Speaker 2 (42:27):
yeah, I think it's good.
Yeah, maybe we should slot onein beginning of january, burn
off some of the holiday caloriesyeah, definitely, we'll
definitely.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
We did a fast and focus last year.
We had a lot of attendance onthat one, yeah, so yeah, good
way to reset before the new yearyeah, so any I don't know.
We've we've covered almosteverything I can think of on the
72 hour fast, like gettingreally geeked out on the science
.
Is there anything else you'dlike to add to it?
Speaker 2 (42:51):
No, I mean, I think we can kind of talk about maybe
some of the lessons andtakeaways from them, but I feel
like we've covered most of thestuff.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
Yeah Well, from the uh the group calls that, we
hosted over the last couple ofdays, what I found really cool.
We've had a lot of couples dothis together and I am always
impressed with the couples thatwant to grow together and
experience difficult thingstogether and what they learn
about each other, becauserelationship is difficult.
Yes, yeah, it's a challenge,that, right, right.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
It's a little stressful, it's a hard thing.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
Yeah, yeah, but being there to support one another
(43:52):
and to encourage one another and, you know, getting just more
spiritually a mindsetperspective, I think it's a
great opportunity to get intouch with your own emotions.
And you know what?
What?
What is the?
The fast is a teacher and whatis it teaching you about
yourself?
It's a powerful tool to do that.
And, on top of just all of the,the resetting that's happening.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
Yeah, yeah, that's.
I like that framing.
Everything teaches us something, but if we're not aware of it,
we don't learn anything.
Yeah, so be aware of what whatyou're learning in the time.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
Yes, well, and it's one of the pillar of the do our
things community of meaningfulchallenge.
You know, we challengeourselves in these, in
controlled environments, becausewhen you are life in itself,
there's going to be spilloverfrom life and it goes back to
the.
I'd rather be the warrior inthe garden rather than the
gardener in the war.
(44:44):
It just prepares you, it makesyou more resilient.
Doing a 72-hour fast like it'sjust another thing that you can
when you're feelinguncomfortable or discomfort.
It's just yet another thingthat you know what I've done
hard things before I can do themagain.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
Yeah, and as you're talking it, just the word
hormesis pops up again.
Right, it's that positivestress.
We do it when we work out.
It's induced by breath work,it's induced by fasting.
It's a positive stress on thebody in all three of those areas
.
That positive stress teaches ushow, when we're outside of that
(45:24):
environment, how we canregulate our own nervous system
better.
Yes, absolutely.
You know I'm saying that,thinking oh yeah, we've got
breath work tomorrow morning andas soon as we hop off, I'm
going to do a little bit beforeI go put some calories in my
body, just to have one morereset before I'm done.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
Well, another lesson and takeaway.
You know the breath work hasbeen fairly new into my life on
a consistent basis.
But there was a momentyesterday where Lacey and I were
both kind of hitting the walland we're just like let's just
take a time out and do somebreath work.
So we laid on the couch and wegot into a breathing rhythm and
then it was a relaxation one andit went right into.
(46:03):
I immediately felt the oxygenyou know, kind of curb the
hunger, and a lot of peoplereported that, like the doing
the breath work, like curb thehunger, kind of forces you to
get in your mind and it, youknow the, you know getting rid
of the carbon dioxide,increasing oxygen and then going
into a nice meditation.
Like Lacey fell asleep, whichwas pretty cool and it kind of
(46:24):
took some of the pain away.
So it's just yet another toolto use during the fast.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
So good stuff.
Yeah, if you haven't tried the72 hour fast, highly recommend
it.
If you're looking for guidedsupport, you got a community of
people here that can help youwith that and any other final
thoughts before we call it a day.
Speaker 2 (46:43):
No, I'd encourage people if they haven't done it
to try it too.
It's just an experience thatcan teach you about yourself,
teach you about how you relateto food, teach you spiritual
lessons, teach you life lessons.
It's a journey, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (46:57):
So well, brian, this has been a great conversation.
And 72-hour fast isn't justabout starving yourself.
It's about discipline, mentalclarity, connection to God,
proving yourself that you canpush past your limitations and
discomfort.
And if you're listening to this, you want to join us on the
next 72 hour fast and go to doour things nationcom.
(47:18):
Join the mailing list.
Click on events.
Go to the.
Join us in the do our thingsAcademy.
You can.
You can join their free freefor seven days.
It's our premium place wherewe're offering nutrition
guidance, health and mindsettraining and breathwork sessions
.
We've got a variety ofdifferent events going on in
there.
So so check us out in thewellness academy and join the
facebook community if youhaven't done so and yeah, for
(47:40):
those listening, if this episodeinspires you, do us a favor
like, subscribe, share it withsomeone, that who could use the
uh, the information.
And if you're ready to takeyour health and performance to
the next level, then check outthe do our things wellness
academy and join us in thenation.
So until next time, keepshowing up, keep pushing, do
hard things.
We'll see you next episode.
(48:00):
Let's go, let's do it.
All right, welcome back everybody to the Do Hard
Things podcast.
I'm Siegfried J Teagues herewith my co-host, brian Larson,
and today we're diving into anultimate challenge that tests
your discipline, grit and mentalclarity the 72-hour water-only
fast.
Before we jump in, if you'reenjoying these conversations,
make sure you smash thatsubscribe button and share the
(01:06):
show with someone who needs tohear it.
This episode of the Do HardThings podcast is brought to you
by the Do Hard Things WellnessAcademy.
We just launched that thismonth, at the time of this
recording, and it's a communitydesigned to help you build grit,
discipline and resilience soyou can perform at your best in
your health, wealth andrelationships.
The four pillars of the Do HardThings lifestyle is mindset,
movement, meaningful challengeand community.
The four pillars of the Do OurThings Lifestyle is mindset,
(01:27):
movement, meaningful challengeand community.
And inside the academy you'llget access to weekly
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So go to DoOurThingsNationcomif you'd like to learn more, and
(01:48):
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.
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You'll help us with that bypurchasing and leaving us
reviews.
We appreciate that and that's it.
That's the.
Uh, it's the intro and the, Iguess, the business side of
things.
So, welcome, brian.
How you doing, brother?
Good man, how are you?
I?
Great man.
I'm 71 hours into the 72-hourfast.
(02:08):
I was going to say I'm ready tobreak a fast.
How's that Timely conversation?
And when we're done with thisrecording, I will officially be
across the finish line.
Good way to distract you for thelast hour.
Yes, I know Lacey is upstairsand this is her longest fast and
she is chomping at the bit toboil an egg and eat it so funny.
(02:30):
So how's your experience been?
Speaker 2 (02:32):
so far Good.
You know, it's funny becauseI've done several and this one
has been more spiritual basedfor me, and so we can talk about
that as we go along and justsome really interesting insights
and feeling of like my energy alittle and how my energy can
shift, and even just almost whatI would I would call my
(02:55):
consciousness leaving my body,which was really in a walk.
It was just fascinating, soit's been really good from that
perspective.
So, yeah, how about you man?
What's what's been going onwith yours?
Speaker 1 (03:08):
perspective.
So, yeah, how about you man?
What, uh, what's been going onwith yours?
This is I believe this is myfifth 72 hour, fast and hands
down.
It's been the easiest one and Ithink the more that you do it,
the easier it gets.
But every one of them have beentheir own unique experience and
I I, to be honest, I feel likeI could actually continue on,
and I know that some people goon to five, seven.
I got a friend who's done up to21 days.
I've heard of people going upto 40, trying to achieve what
(03:30):
Jesus did in the Bible.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yeah, I know a couple people that did that too.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
And of all of the hard things that I do in my life
, this is one of the moredifficult challenges for me.
It's definitely been some greatspiritual connection.
We use this to launch the DoHard Things things academy, so
we have over 30 people doing the72 hour fast and it's just
awesome to have a tribe andcommunity of like-minded people
(03:53):
navigate, navigating this hardthing, many of them for the
first time and the first time.
Lacy is gone.
You know this long, so thisone's been really really cool
for me personally, butchallenging, but not as
challenging as previous ones.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
So yeah, I find it so fascinating how every point of
hunger I would hit, I wouldremind myself of, okay, take
that time and fill that withconnection to God in some form
or fashion, yeah, and it justmakes me then go, oh man, I eat
a lot.
(04:25):
I mean I eat over 3,000calories a day, and that's
several, several like four, five, I eat a lot.
I mean, I eat over 3000calories a day, and that's
several, several like four, five, six times a day.
And I go, oh man, I'm soreliant on that source of energy
.
But I can get that source fromsource itself.
And that was it's the firsttime I've ever been that
(04:45):
intentional about doing it and Ifeel like I did have some
really good points of connection.
And so you know, there's thephysical side of things too, but
that was the spiritual side ofthis one really hit hard.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Yeah, I had a pretty good spiritual connection last
night.
We did, you know, every nightof the fast this is a guided
group experience in the Do OurThings Academy.
We do a nightly call for eachnight of the fast.
This is a guided groupexperience in the do our things
Academy.
We do a nightly call for eachnight of the fast.
And then coach Josh did abreath work session right after
last night's call and we justdid, uh, we did dynamic Wim Hof
style and on that third breathhold, like I had some very
(05:21):
powerful visuals, I had to saw alot of green, which is, you
know, the, the heart spacechakra, right Of gratitude, and
then I had a visual as a, whichis the heart space chakra of
gratitude, and then I had apowerful visualization and I
felt like I saw the face ofJesus.
It was really really cool and tojust be kind of connecting with
my intention and I've used thisone to really connect
(05:41):
spiritually and every night ofthis one we also had a moment
where those that wanted to stickaround for a spiritual moment
we did it, we did some prayerand it was really really cool.
Uh, we had a couple differentthere.
Most people were christian, butwe had someone who was muslim
and it was really cool to sharethat spiritual connection across
across platforms I don't knowwhat- it goes back to my concept
(06:08):
of ultimately, every religionhas its own version of god, but
there's something that ties themall together.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Yeah, so you can worship together and not be so
divided, and do a spiritualdiscipline that's focused on
what your version of that godlooks like, and that's okay yeah
, I mean some people that Godlooks like, and that's okay.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Yeah, I mean some people like PlayStation, some
people like Xbox, some peoplelike I mean you just pick your
own, you choose your ownadventure, how you want to play
the video game.
I don't know, I'm not going tosplit hairs over it, but yeah, I
don't want to get into a deepdive on that, but that's kind of
we know where we stand on that.
You, you know you run with whatyou got.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
And if the chains work for you.
Go for it, man.
That's awesome that that workedout like that, though.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
So why do the 72-hour fast?
Because I hear a lot of peoplelike, oh, you're crazy, you're
going to hurt yourself.
So why do people do this?
Well, ultimately there's a fewreasons.
One, there's a lot of sciencebehind it.
It's a great way to detoxyourself.
(07:10):
So from a physiology physiologyand a biological perspective,
it's like the ultimate reset.
It's like resetting your I knowyour cell phone and just a
complete defrag.
You know, you do, you do thehard reboot.
Yeah, you know the nature's wayof a hard reboot, and there's
something that happens duringthose 72 hours.
We'll kind of go play by, playon what that looks like, but
that's really one, one great wayor one primary reason people do
(07:34):
it it's for the discipline,it's for the clarity and the
spiritual connection.
Yeah, yeah, and some of thebenefits are, you know, reset
your metabolism.
It has.
It'll reduce inflammation,increase growth hormone,
activate stem cells, activateautophagy, which is where we're
constantly in the state ofbuilding new cells, and old
(07:58):
cells are dying.
Well, when you don't have anyexternal food, your body
transitions from glycogen to fatto, ultimately, the cells that
aren't being you know thataren't needed and kind of cleans
up all the old.
You don't want all those olddead cells inside of you, and so
it just kind of does a rapidfire cleanup.
It improves your insulinsensitivity, sharpens mental
clarity when you start producingketones and then, once you have
(08:21):
a hormone, yep, yep, and thensharpens your mindset and
discipline.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yeah, yeah, and then sharpens your mindset and
discipline.
Yeah, yeah, and I to me, Ithink it's.
(08:48):
You know that, the physicalside.
So with intention, as opposedto oh let me shove this down
real fast because I got to geton to the next thing, because
you can't take on as much inthat next go around.
So for me that that part makesa difference too, of just the
physical side, of stepping awayfrom it and going oh okay, I
realized how much I rely on itand I eat when I get bored too.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Yeah, that's what I've noted.
I mean, we were talking theother night about the
relationship with food, which iskind of a strange concept.
Concept you would have arelationship with food, but
that's, it's so abundant in oursociety.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
And it's.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
It's like as soon as you find some level for most
people, as soon as you find somelevel of discomfort, you get a
little hungry.
It's like I got to dropeverything I'm doing and go eat
something.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
And you know you can go weeks without eating.
Yeah, and, and and I think it'sa great opportunity to I don't
know have have greater awarenessof your eating habits and
define what that relationshipyou have with with food actually
is.
And are you I mean some people,I know some people that
strictly eat to cravings, likeas soon as they get hungry, they
(09:55):
what do I feel like eating andthat's what they go for.
Some people eat for fuel.
Some people have greaterdiscipline.
They do intermittent fasting,and so I think it's a great
exercise to see what that is foryou.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Yeah, I agree, I think it's definitely it's a
practice and a discipline.
I think it'd be interesting todo this one and have everybody
come off and eat cleaner foods,and then do another one and have
everybody come off and eatwhatever the craving is and see
how your body feels different.
(10:28):
Because if you, right afterthis, you hop on to fried foods
and what, you're going to feelawful because your body's like
wait, I don't have any nutrientsin here and this is what you're
giving me.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
I think it'd be a really interesting like little
study to do yeah, well, that'swhy we we jump to start the 28
dayday challenge, the Do HardThings 28, with this fast,
because it's a 31-day challengetotal.
But as soon as you're done withthis, we hop into a routine.
There's eight things that youdo hydration, nutrition,
sleeping, gratitude, a dailycheck-in, meditation, slash,
(11:03):
breath, work.
So there's all of these thingsthat you get scored one, two or
three points, and one of thethings that you have to do is
choose a diet, and so you know,we encourage people, now that
you've had this nice reset,choose a diet so you can create
sustainable habits with it goingforward, and then you really I
mean it's a great way tojumpstart into something some
(11:25):
cleaner eating, to get thatboost of energy.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
I would push back a little bit on the word diet, and
here's why, when people saydiet diets are short term Diets,
are I'm going to do this till Ireach this goal.
I would have our listenerschallenge themselves and say I'm
going to form some new eatinghabits and just build it around
(11:52):
habit and moving forward.
You're going to choose to eatthis way or cut this out or do
this little change that becomesa part of your everyday, not
just, oh, I'm trying to hit agoal, weight and then okay, I'm
there and I can go back towhatever Cause.
You go back to whatever.
You're going to wind up whereyou were.
Yeah does that make sense.
There's something about thatword diet.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
It's always rubbed me wrong because of the short-term
, like mindset of diet yeah,it's how we flippantly use it
and just all of the I don't know.
There are so many differentmodalities shortcut type you'll
be people yo-yo with theirnutrition because they do these
(12:35):
diets that are so restrictingand it's just not sustainable.
So the key is to find somethingsustainable.
It's one of those things youhave to experiment with, but
people really struggle with that.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Yeah, it's hard.
It's hard to make a change likethat and to find what is
sustainable, but you still haveto enjoy life.
I love desserts and I willalways make room for them, but I
know from a bigger calorieperspective that means I've got
to eat a little less ofsomething somewhere where I'm
(13:07):
going to be over my calorie loadand it's gonna.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
you know, day after day that stuff adds up yeah,
well, when, when food is soabundant in our society, I mean
you could, literally by the endof this podcast, I could have,
you know, almost anything.
Door dash.
I could have all the gardendoor dash to me to break my fast
if I wanted to.
Yeah, you, you leave the houseand you drive past.
You know all these differentrestaurants.
This food is so abundant.
And then, on top of that, youknow it's so addicting.
(13:32):
They're spraying it withchemicals and they've got all
these engineers that are, youknow, trying to.
It's very competitive, so theydo all the great marketing and
they, they, they make itaddicting.
So it's very difficult in theculture that we live in.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Yeah, but you know, when you take away the food, you
know, you just realize how muchyour life revolves around it.
From just, I just noticed, youknow how I just meander into the
kitchen and open up thecabinets for no reason, like
well, why the hell am I hereright now, you know.
Or social outings, you know,like you know, we, we, it's a
very social thing in our culture.
So what I love about this andsome of that, you know, we have
daily journal prompts when wefor every day, during the fast
(14:16):
for the group.
But you know, some of thethings that we ask is like who
am I without the comfort of food?
What?
What else have I been leaningon, you know?
And and what is my relationshipI use it with air quotes with
food, and you know how can I usethis to get connected to God?
you know, and that discipline ofthat.
So, yeah, yeah, but well, let'sdive into you know what, what
(14:42):
happens, a play by play of whathappens during the 72 hour fast
and and some of the thebiological benefits of of what's
happening hour by hour.
So when we start the fast, Ilike to start the fast in the
evening, because when you know,when you finish up your your
(15:02):
dinner meal, by the time you goto sleep and you wake up the
next day, it's like you'realready, like you know, 12, 14
hours in.
So I like to to get a littlejump start.
This is a great way to start.
Personally, lacy and I weretalking.
I think next time we might tryto maybe do it at noon, because
oh yeah yeah, so I might shootfor noon next time.
But.
But bottom line is this zero to12 hours in we call this the
warm-up phase.
(15:22):
You know, when you stop eating,your body is going to first
burn through what's most readilyavailable, which is your
glucose, and it's stored in yourliver as glycogen.
And in these first hours, youknow, your insulin will start to
drop.
And this is because yourinsulin is a storage hormone.
And once the glycogen you knowis burned up, after around the
(15:46):
12th hour in, something reallycool happens your growth
hormones begin to spike, andyour growth hormone is sometimes
called the youth hormone orrepair hormone.
It helps you burn fat, it'sstarting to heal your joints,
you're starting to build newproteins and it can even enhance
your skin by keeping your skinlooking younger.
(16:06):
And a lot of people pay a lotof big money for growth hormone.
You can produce it yourselfwith simply just not eating, and
so you can make it for freewhen you fast and then.
So that's really ultimatelywhat happens.
The bottom line is first 12hours your glycogen stores.
Do you have anything that youwant to add?
Speaker 2 (16:22):
or anything, no, no.
And that is the first 12 hourswhere you start to mentally go
okay, I haven't eaten here.
Like it doesn't show up untilyou get a little bit deep into
it and you're like wait, I'mhungry.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Yeah, mental aspect of ity kicks in.
What is autophagy?
Well, it literally meansself-eating, and that might
sound a little strange, but it'sone of the most beneficial
processes that your body has, asyour cells become its own
recycling center.
So what happens is your body'sgoing through to find the
(17:01):
damaged and sticky proteins, itbreaks them down and it reuses
the good parts to build new,healthier proteins and gets rid
of the waste of the old ones.
So basically it's self-cleaning.
And just think of it like aspring cleaning for your body to
sell your, your cellular leveland they just basically get
cleared out.
Plaques in the brain whichconnect to cognitive decline
(17:24):
starts to get cleaned up.
We don't want that junk inthere either, and it's one of
the reason that fasting islinked to better brain health
and longevity, because it's justoptimizes that cleaning process
.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Yeah, and I think there's some clarity.
That comes to as you're fasting, like I think, thought
processes improve.
I think for me my personalexperiences I can think more
clearly some places where Imight have.
Now it works backwards too.
It's like in the first 24, 48hours I feel like I'm sharper,
but as I get into that 70, youknow 60, 72 hour mark, my
(17:58):
brain's like jello yes, it kindof ebbs and flows a little bit
yeah right right now yeah, yeah,there's times my brain feels
like mush and I can't think, andthen other times I'm like I'm
super clear, super focused,super creative.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Yeah, it's like what we always say.
It's like it's like surfing.
You got to ride the waves ofthe yeah, yeah, but yeah, 24
hours in, your glycogen tank inthe liver is completely depleted
and then that forces the bodyto fully switch over to fat as
the primary fuel and then, whenyou start burning fat, your body
produces the ketones, and theketones are like you have heard
(18:34):
it, I mean, it's ketosis is whathappens.
Ketones are like premium fuelfor your body, so like pulling
up the gas tank and get thatpremium grade fuel for your, for
your, for your car.
Uh, ketones burn cleaner, themore efficient, and they help
suppress the appetite.
So the hunger pangs will startto go away and that's when
people will start to report that.
(18:55):
You know that's riding thewaves.
You'll have waves of hungerpangs.
Well, when, when you're nothaving the hunger, your, your
body's really creating a lot ofketones and after 24 hours in
also your inflammation willstart dropping significantly.
Your gut gets a break fromconstant digestion.
Your gut is a, your whole gutsystem.
Your digestive system isconstantly in a state of
(19:18):
movement when you're grazingthroughout the day.
So when you do a prolonged fast, you're actually giving it the
opportunity to really, reallyrest and giving it an
opportunity to start doing somehealing.
And people that who havedigestive issues like I, have
stomach issues, ibs, bloating,and if you, if you have like
(19:41):
some overgrowth of intestinalbacteria, it often finds relief
here as your guts really startto self-heal itself, and so it's
really powerful to give yourguts just kind of a refit and
let it rest and literally justtake a knee for once.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
And to hop onto the ketones and to hop onto the
(20:24):
ketones.
So that's one of the reasonsthat people who have had success
on like an Adkins diet.
They have the body.
You're not giving it carbs andso it has to burn the food first
and then it starts producingketones because you're not,
there's no insulin, there's noinsulin response response, and
so the body's looking for somefuel source.
It's also why I love it's typeone, type two diabetics and they
have to be very careful abouttheir intake because they can
flip over into ketosis whichlong term, can have negative
complications, but short termit's not so bad, like it's the
energy supply yeah, yeah,another thing, not endorsing the
Atkins diet, by the way justanother, I mean some people if
(20:48):
you find it useful and it works.
I don't endorse any particularone, but yes, if it works for
you, go with it.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
I've tried long-term to do ketosis and as an
endurance athlete, I personallyhave struggled with it.
I need the carbs.
Some people can can operate, soit's one of those things you
have to test and F around it aFAFO, right F around it and find
out.
So another thing you know yourbrain loves ketones, but also
your heart, your cardiovascularsystem gets becomes more
(21:17):
efficient, and so that's justanother thing that a lot of
people don't realize is thatyour heart uses ketones as well.
And another thing that happensis in your brain there's a
protein called BDNF.
It's brain derived nootropicfactor and it's like fertilizer
for your brain cells and ithelps you grow new ones more and
(21:39):
it strengthens the ones youcurrently have and strengthens
the connections between them.
And that's why you feel a bitsharper and more focused during
a fast.
So interesting stuff, so manythings are happening throughout
and kind of complicated, but trynot to overload the listener
with things.
But there's a lot of amazingthings that are happening during
the fast and I know we've gotsome pretty cool videos.
(22:03):
I've had to watch them numeroustimes to grab grasp, a firm
understanding of what'shappening, because there's a lot
of uh science and a lot ofterms being thrown around here,
but the bottom line is it'sreally, really good for the body
.
Yeah, so 48 hours in, 48 hoursin, the stem cells begin to wake
up, and this is where stem cellactivity increases dramatically
(22:23):
.
And stem cells are essentiallyblank cells that become whatever
the body needs.
It can become muscle, skin, itcan, you know, add to the amount
of blood that you have.
It can move to gut lining andthey're your body's ultimate
repair system.
And this is when fastingbecomes deeply restorative, as
your immune system begins tostrengthen.
(22:45):
Your old, weak immune cells arecleared out and then brand new
ones are generated.
And there have been somestudies that suggest that
certain cancer risks decreasebecause fasting helps shrink the
unhealthy cells, while theyalso protect the healthy ones.
So for those that you know arepredisposed to cancer or maybe
(23:06):
you're undergoing cancertreatment, there have been some
studies that have shown that,you know, prolonged fasting has
been very beneficial in that.
So at this point, bottom lineis 48 hours in, you're not just
burning fat for energy, you'realso repairing tissue
regenerating systems and settingyour body up for some
longer-term resilience, becauseyou're basically improving
(23:28):
yourself internally.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
And I think you get at this stage there's like an
immune system reboot.
That starts to happen too, likearound the 36 to 48-hour mark,
the immune system kind ofreboots, system kind of reboots.
I don't know the details behindthat, but I think it's more of
a.
It's anti-inflammatory, but theimmune system starts to pump
itself up a little bit based onthe lack of calories.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Yes, yep, absolutely.
So really good, if your body'sthe temple and we need to
protect the temple.
We want more little ninjas,right?
We want powerful little ninjasin the way of white blood cells,
mitochondria, red blood cells,all the things we want more of
ninjas in the way of white bloodcells, mitochondria, red blood
cells, all the things we wantmore of those things.
There's an opportunity to toincrease your army of ninjas to
protect the temple.
So, all right, 72 hours, fullsystem reset.
(24:14):
Once you hit the 72 hour mark,it's like hitting the reset
button on your body stem cellactivity surges even higher, the
immune system goes through deeprenewal and then repair is
happening everywhere Joint skin,organs, brain, ketones are at
their peak, your energy is cleanand steady, inflammation is at
its lowest points and becauseyour body has been running so
(24:35):
efficiently, it needs fewercalories and nutrients to
operate.
And so this is where, you know,people start to notice, like
they start to really notice theenergy that they have, and they,
the hunger pains, ultimatelyfor most people, for many people
, go away and that's why theycan go in a longer, like you
know, multiple day, four day,five days, seven days.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
It's so strange how the first 24 hours feel they
feel.
For me they're the worst,getting that beyond day one and
then by day three, if Iconsciously think about it, I'm
stinking hungry, but at the sametime, if I sit back and go, do
I really need to eat?
No, I'm good.
I could probably go a littlelonger if I wanted to.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Yeah, yeah, this time around I definitely feel like I
could actually go further.
I'm going to go ahead and stop,though, but I think next time
around I'd like to maybe try togo a little bit further.
So we'll have another podcastepisode, maybe.
Maybe I can get Brian to joinme too.
We can go a little further andjust kind of F around and find
out and have an extended podcast.
(25:38):
We'll definitely be hosting themin the academy, probably on a
regular, semi-regular basis.
So if you're interested in this, feel free to join us in the
academy, probably on a regular,semi-regular basis.
So if you're interested in this, feel free to join us in the
academy.
But I don't, I, you know I, II'm reluctant to coach anyone
further than I have gone myself.
So we're gonna.
So anything beyond that, youknow, I have only heard from
other people's experiences, Idon't know from my own
(25:58):
experience.
Today we're just talking aboutthe 72 hours.
So.
But 72 hours is allegedly thethe peak of performance for this
, and we'll report back onanother episode when we, when we
go back past the deep end evenfurther.
So let's talk about, for thosethat are interested in the 72
hour fast, how to prepare.
So I think it's prudent not tojust jump right in.
(26:20):
I mean not, I think I think youwant to you as well, easing
into it.
I would say the best way to goabout that is maybe doing some
intermittent fasting 12, 18, 24before jumping all into the 72
hour fast.
What are your thoughts on that,brian?
Speaker 2 (26:49):
in that brian?
Yeah, I mean I, I think for meI kind of I reduce the day
before, I kind of eat a littlelighter, I will reduce calories
a little bit and I will eatcleaner and drink a ton of water
yeah, you're talking about likeright before you.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Actually I was, I was .
I guess I was prefacing likebefore you commit to a 72 hour
should you just dive right inlike a couch to 5K, to marathon
or couch to Ironman.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
I think you can.
I think the benefits of thereset that happened.
You can do it.
A 24 hour is probably a betterlike just see how that 24 hours
feels and then get back intoeating and then a couple of
months later come back in.
But I I know of plenty ofpeople who've never fasted
(27:35):
before like, oh, I'll try threedays and they'll do it and it
works the same.
I think it requires a higherlevel of like, commitment and
mental discipline, because it'sjust hard if you've never done
it yeah, absolutely yeah, it'sthe mental preparation is
definitely key.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Yeah, well, so actually preparing for the 72
hour fast, you're mentioninghydration what other?
Tips and tricks do you have I?
Speaker 2 (27:59):
electrolyte I love like element.
I think we've got thatsomewhere in the community just
talking about that productbecause it's got electrolytes.
You add it in water, just getup, I mean I will drink.
I try to drink a gallon ofwater the day before.
Dial back some of the friedfoods Not that I eat a lot
anyway, but I wouldn't put anyon board and just eat cleaner,
(28:22):
so that it's almost like startsto flush the system a little bit
before you ever even get rid offood completely and I think it
just kind of sets you up to easeinto it a little bit.
Outside of that, I don't thinkI do much for myself.
What do you do?
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Well, I try to avoid processed foods, the heavy carbs
, the sugar, alcohol, becauseultimately it reduces the
cravings, it just makes thetransition.
When your body transitions fromfuel source, it just makes it a
little bit easier.
The keto flu, they call it thesymptoms of that is reduced.
I plan my schedule out becauseI've messed around with the
(28:59):
schedule.
I've done it over the weekend.
I do not want to do it over theweekend, I want to stay busy.
Weekend's a time for social.
Uh, you're not doing as much soyou're thinking about it more.
So, planning out the schedule,and and and and and really kind
of dialing that in and yeah,just the hydration bit.
Same with electrolytes.
Now, one thing that I've learnedabout electrolytes and you can
(29:21):
take bone broth and electrolytes.
But if your intention for thefast is weight loss, then use
electrolytes, use the bone broth, but it will affect autophagy.
A lot of electrolytes have alittle bit of sweetener in them
and your body will be trickedinto spiking insulin which stops
(29:44):
the autophagy for four to sixhours.
So if you're looking strictlyto, you know you're going to
just regenerate and cleaning upthe body through autophagy.
If that's your ultimate goal,then I would recommend using
electrolytes that do not haveany sweetener, so you can get
(30:05):
the lmnt that have no flavor.
It's the all the flavored oneshave some level of extract in
them.
Or I like to drink gerolsteinerwater, which is heavy, heavy,
heavy mineral.
I've got it like right here,the gerolsteiner.
There are other like sparklingwaters out there, but this is
heavy mineral.
It's got like five to six timesthe amount of minerals compared
to like pellegrino and some ofthese other ones.
(30:27):
So this is really really goodif you want, if you, if you
don't want to mess up the, theautophagy.
But so those are the thingsthat that that I do nice okay
yeah, and I always, I alwaysdrag people into it with me.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
That is a good.
I mean, it goes back tocommunity.
There's something about miseryloves company, if that's the way
you want to look at it.
Or it's the discipline ofknowing, hey, I'm going to do
this hard thing with somebodyelse.
I think it definitely.
To do it on your own is atotally different experience.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
I tried to go it alone and I failed.
I've done it a couple of times,absolutely failed.
And so I always say, if you'regoing to do hard things, it's
better to suffer with friends,and that's funny and that, and
that you know leading a fastbeing in a community where
everyone's like pushing eachother, you know it definitely
makes it a lot easier.
You know when it gets tough,you got people that you can kind
of vent to.
(31:22):
And another thing that's really, really important, this is
critical, this is key.
This is what we do in thecommunity.
Before the kickoff, or part ofthe kickoff, is we write down
our powerful why for why we'redoing this fast.
And case in point, there wasone of our challengers in the
community on the second nightstarted boiling eggs.
(31:44):
It was late at night.
He's like I'm going to breakthis thing.
I'm miserable.
He started boiling the eggs andwhile he's waiting for the eggs
to get done, he pulls out hisjournal and he opens it up and
he starts reading why he wantedto do this.
And it was more than justhealth.
It was I want to be just moredisciplined.
I want to be stronger than Iwas yesterday.
I'm on this journey of becomingthe best version of myself, and
(32:08):
that motivated him to turn offthe water and get back at it,
and he, he finished today, whichis super, super rad.
So remembering why you startedand having community is so
critically important.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Yeah and uh.
It's interesting because, again, this one, my I, my intention
was just to deepen spiritualconnection and I so yesterday I
was tired and no, my energy waslower and I thought I just need
(32:40):
to get out here.
And so we went and walked onthe trail and this is what I was
alluding to earlier.
And as we're driving there, I'mlike, why am I doing this again
?
And I went, oh, yeah, okay,it's a deep and spiritual
connection.
What better place to do thatthan nature?
And as we're walking along thistrail, I'm leading, it's just me
and Lainey and I'm in front,and I have this moment where I
(33:04):
just feel everything around me,like I just sensed presence and
it tree is like trees, animals,everything.
And I dropped down, I got out ofmy head and dropped into my
heart and then I had thisexperience where I felt like my
conscious mind or my, myawareness, kind of slipped out
(33:29):
and I found myself like three orfour steps ahead of myself.
It was, and so it's like myawareness expanded.
It was such a fascinatingexperience and I'm like, okay,
that was the spiritual moment Iwas looking for of how do you,
how do I get outside of myselfsometimes and just experience
presence and things around me,as opposed to what's just in
(33:51):
this shell.
It was fascinating.
I mean, I had a moment where Ihad to stop because I'm like
whoa, I can't really even.
It was almost like it felt likean out-of body sort of thing
where I'm like I don't know howto control myself when I'm not
in myself.
I it sounds really weird, butit was so fascinating.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
Well, I've had a friend who's done some really
prolonged fast.
It sounds very similar to hisexperience where it feels like
plant medicine based experienceor mystical experience where you
can feel very euphoric and Idon't know.
It's fascinating that you didthat so early.
But that's common for peoplethat go even further.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Yeah, yeah I noticed my breath work good.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
I was more sensitive to it in my breath work because
I can have experience withbreath work and last night's
breath session was very powerful, like more powerful than normal
.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Yeah, well, and I I tend to about once a month I'll
do a 24 hour.
I use it as like a metabolismreset, and so it's.
I'm pretty, my body's prettyefficient at getting the
calories out and just burningthrough what's there, and so I
think by the time I hit 48, Ithink my body's already
(35:10):
switching into different modes,and so I think I was just
already in that spot, cause youknow, it was like six o'clock
last night, so you know, 50something hours into it, and
yeah, I was just it was anamazing experience.
And yeah, it was just it was anamazing experience.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
No, it's so awesome, it's so cool, yeah, so yeah, I
think ultimately, there's justso many fascinating things that
were.
It's really a great opportunityto get connected in your body,
mind and spirit, like it's justso many things are happening and
I think the more that you leanin spiritually, the more
mystical experiences you'll have.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Yeah, it's, it's the expectation I I tend to go, okay
, I, I'm looking for experiencethat's outside of my conscious
experience.
Yeah, and if, if you openyourself to that, stuff happens.
If you're looking for theunexpected, you get the
unexpected.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, absolutely.
Well, what do you want to shiftgears into?
Now, like I think we we've hita lot of things.
I think maybe some safetyconsiderations, maybe who this
is for, maybe who, yeah for sure.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Definitely, diabetics have to be careful.
Fasting, yeah, pregnancy,trying to think what else those
are the ones I'd have toactually do a search.
I don't know who else, who inyour mind pops up.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
They say that younger kids shouldn't do it because
they're still growing.
So it's probably not good foryounger kids.
Pregnant women that arebreastfeeding, and then people
that are just underweight,malnourished, with very low body
fat, because they may lack thereserves to sustain a prolonged
fast.
They could have issues.
And then anyone with, likecertain medical conditions, like
heart disease, kidney disease,liver disease, especially if you
(36:51):
have meds that require food.
Yeah, yes, yes, absolutely.
And so those are.
You know, those are it.
I think, for the most, if you'rea healthy adult, I think most
people can do the fast withoutany challenges or issues.
And, once again, it's justrecommend.
You know, if you're on thefence about it, just try it.
Try intermittent fasting, likework your way up to it, do a 24
(37:11):
hour fast and then, if you'reready to jump in deep in the
pool, go for it.
But if you're doing the rightthings, if you're, if you're, if
you're preparing properly andyou're doing the right things
throughout the fast, I thinkyou'll be okay, cause I think
the benefits outweigh anychallenges.
And so frequently askedquestions that we get.
So what are some of thesymptoms that I should expect?
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Hunger Discomfort, definitely discomfort.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
People experience headaches and fatigue, maybe a
little bit of hangriness, alittle irritability, maybe some
brain fog, and then after that,I mean, like I said, it's like
surfing.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
So yeah, then some calm, some clarity, yeah then
you might get an energy boost.
Islands are all over the placeI found a little peace, like I,
I, I might, I've kind of beenall over the place energetically
lately and as especially todayI like found some more peace and
I think it was just that lastwave, maybe that kind of let it
(38:16):
set into yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
You just expect a roller coaster rides when I just
just it's your body detoxingitself.
If you're not getting enoughelectrolytes, you know you can
have some challenging experience, some keto flu, but that's it.
It's going to.
You're going to have someperiods of discomfort and then
you're going to have periods ofcalm, clarity and energy.
It's just kind of, you know,hour by hour.
So it's interesting.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
Then what about movement?
Like you know, we didn't talkabout that.
To move, yeah, common one iscan I exercise during?
Speaker 1 (38:45):
the fast so for me personally, the first time I
fasted I did a crossfit, a buddyassisted crossfit exercise up
at your gym with a partner Ididn't want my partner down.
I went into it with theintention I'm just going to do
light and I didn't want to letmy buddy down.
And we went, ham and I crushedthe workout.
(39:06):
Later that night I wanted tognaw my arm off.
I was so miserable.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
The high intensity high intensity training stokes
your metabolism faster anyway.
So that was.
That was probably not thewisest of moves.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
We have, you know, the do hard, hard things.
We have frameworks for do hardthings, but the bottom line is
I've done a lot of stupid shitthe hard way and I've learned
the lessons the hard way, so Ishare all of my lessons about
doing the dumb shit so you don'thave to.
So I do hard things so youdon't have to there you go so
(39:44):
but yeah, I were you can do, I.
Your line is this your body isin a reset mode and recovery and
resetting is training.
Yeah and just, you're not goingto lose fitness in 72 hours, in
fact, if you just rest, yourbody's repairing itself you
could.
What I've been doing is 10 000steps a day, so just a few light
walks around the neighborhoodyep, some stretching and that's
(40:05):
been completely fine.
No heavy training is what Iwould recommend.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
Yeah, I think it's the mindset of even when you're
training hard, you have to restto repair.
If you went in and did heavyexercise seven days a week, your
body never gets a chance torepair, and so taking time off
and dialing it back and maybedoing nothing at all is not a
(40:30):
bad thing.
When you're fasting, becauseyou don't have the metabolic
capacity to support it like youwould, because you're depleting
your energy stores and itrequires energy to work out, and
so for me, I like to move, andso just even the walking was
helpful.
That's why we went out andhiked the trail and then this
morning I did a little, I put alittle weight on, just because I
(40:51):
hadn't really moved my body forseveral days and I felt it Like
I feel it now.
I'm like, okay, that was, butfor me I needed it, I knew what
my body needed, I had rested andrecovered.
But I think it's that time,that downtime, that's really
good for us too, especially agroup like this that tend to
want to do hard things in life.
We probably push our bodieshard in different ways and it's
(41:14):
nice to have that time torecover.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
Yeah, that's.
That's a big thing that we tryto teach is you have to rest and
recover is a part of yourtraining that you need to have
as much intention with as theexercise itself.
You're breaking your body downduring the exercise, so a lot of
competitive athletes just wantto just grind, grind, grind.
You can't fully repair yourwork.
Smarter, not harder, yeah, andthis is an opportunity to reset.
(41:38):
So another frequently askedquestion how often should I do a
72 hour fast?
Speaker 2 (41:46):
How often should I do a 72-hour fast?
So one to four times a year.
I was thinking as you weretalking about, oh, doing this a
little longer next time.
I was thinking, well, maybe weshould do it like December.
It seems like quarterly.
To do it quarterly would be agood strategy, but some people
can't really do that.
But I would recommend everybodyto do one a year at least.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
I've been doing them.
I mean this is my fifth one andif I look back at my calendar
it's been about once a quarterand maybe I should just make it
a quarterly thing.
I mean, now that we've got theAcademy up and running, we'll
definitely have them more often.
I think I like the idea of a 24hour fast once a month on the
off months.
You know're in a 24 hour or 72hour?
Speaker 2 (42:27):
yeah, I think it's good.
Yeah, maybe we should slot onein beginning of january, burn
off some of the holiday caloriesyeah, definitely, we'll
definitely.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
We did a fast and focus last year.
We had a lot of attendance onthat one, yeah, so yeah, good
way to reset before the new yearyeah, so any I don't know.
We've we've covered almosteverything I can think of on the
72 hour fast, like gettingreally geeked out on the science
.
Is there anything else you'dlike to add to it?
Speaker 2 (42:51):
No, I mean, I think we can kind of talk about maybe
some of the lessons andtakeaways from them, but I feel
like we've covered most of thestuff.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
Yeah Well, from the uh the group calls that, we
hosted over the last couple ofdays, what I found really cool.
We've had a lot of couples dothis together and I am always
impressed with the couples thatwant to grow together and
experience difficult thingstogether and what they learn
about each other, becauserelationship is difficult.
Yes, yeah, it's a challenge,that, right, right.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
It's a little stressful, it's a hard thing.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
Yeah, yeah, but being there to support one another
(43:52):
and to encourage one another and, you know, getting just more
spiritually a mindsetperspective, I think it's a
great opportunity to get intouch with your own emotions.
And you know what?
What?
What is the?
The fast is a teacher and whatis it teaching you about
yourself?
It's a powerful tool to do that.
And, on top of just all of the,the resetting that's happening.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
Yeah, yeah, that's.
I like that framing.
Everything teaches us something, but if we're not aware of it,
we don't learn anything.
Yeah, so be aware of what whatyou're learning in the time.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
Yes, well, and it's one of the pillar of the do our
things community of meaningfulchallenge.
You know, we challengeourselves in these, in
controlled environments, becausewhen you are life in itself,
there's going to be spilloverfrom life and it goes back to
the.
I'd rather be the warrior inthe garden rather than the
gardener in the war.
(44:44):
It just prepares you, it makesyou more resilient.
Doing a 72-hour fast like it'sjust another thing that you can
when you're feelinguncomfortable or discomfort.
It's just yet another thingthat you know what I've done
hard things before I can do themagain.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
Yeah, and as you're talking it, just the word
hormesis pops up again.
Right, it's that positivestress.
We do it when we work out.
It's induced by breath work,it's induced by fasting.
It's a positive stress on thebody in all three of those areas
.
That positive stress teaches ushow, when we're outside of that
(45:24):
environment, how we canregulate our own nervous system
better.
Yes, absolutely.
You know I'm saying that,thinking oh yeah, we've got
breath work tomorrow morning andas soon as we hop off, I'm
going to do a little bit beforeI go put some calories in my
body, just to have one morereset before I'm done.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
Well, another lesson and takeaway.
You know the breath work hasbeen fairly new into my life on
a consistent basis.
But there was a momentyesterday where Lacey and I were
both kind of hitting the walland we're just like let's just
take a time out and do somebreath work.
So we laid on the couch and wegot into a breathing rhythm and
then it was a relaxation one andit went right into.
(46:03):
I immediately felt the oxygenyou know, kind of curb the
hunger, and a lot of peoplereported that, like the doing
the breath work, like curb thehunger, kind of forces you to
get in your mind and it, youknow the, you know getting rid
of the carbon dioxide,increasing oxygen and then going
into a nice meditation.
Like Lacey fell asleep, whichwas pretty cool and it kind of
(46:24):
took some of the pain away.
So it's just yet another toolto use during the fast.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
So good stuff.
Yeah, if you haven't tried the72 hour fast, highly recommend
it.
If you're looking for guidedsupport, you got a community of
people here that can help youwith that and any other final
thoughts before we call it a day.
Speaker 2 (46:43):
No, I'd encourage people if they haven't done it
to try it too.
It's just an experience thatcan teach you about yourself,
teach you about how you relateto food, teach you spiritual
lessons, teach you life lessons.
It's a journey, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (46:57):
So well, brian, this has been a great conversation.
And 72-hour fast isn't justabout starving yourself.
It's about discipline, mentalclarity, connection to God,
proving yourself that you canpush past your limitations and
discomfort.
And if you're listening to this, you want to join us on the
next 72 hour fast and go to doour things nationcom.
(47:18):
Join the mailing list.
Click on events.
Go to the.
Join us in the do our thingsAcademy.
You can.
You can join their free freefor seven days.
It's our premium place wherewe're offering nutrition
guidance, health and mindsettraining and breathwork sessions
.
We've got a variety ofdifferent events going on in
there.
So so check us out in thewellness academy and join the
facebook community if youhaven't done so and yeah, for
(47:40):
those listening, if this episodeinspires you, do us a favor
like, subscribe, share it withsomeone, that who could use the
uh, the information.
And if you're ready to takeyour health and performance to
the next level, then check outthe do our things wellness
academy and join us in thenation.
So until next time, keepshowing up, keep pushing, do
hard things.
We'll see you next episode.
(48:00):
Let's go, let's do it.
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