Episode 107: Donating Blood, Count the Fast or the Window?, Fasting on Hard Days, and More

Welcome to this week’s episode of Fast. Feast. Repeat. Intermittent Fasting for Life, with Gin Stephens and Sheri Bullock.

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https://www.counter.com/?aff=SHERIBULLOCK 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome the Fast Feast Repeat Intermittent Fasting for Life. I'm
Jen Stevens, author of the New York Times bestseller Fast Feast.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Repeat, and I'm Sherry Bullock, longtime intermittent faster and health
and wellness advocate. Please keep in mind that this podcast
is for educational and motivational purposes only and is not
intended to provide medical or diagnostic advice. Jen and I
are not doctors, so make sure to check with your
trusted healthcare professionals before making changes, especially when it comes

(00:30):
to any medical treatments or medications.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Whether you're new to intermittent fasting or an experienced intermittent faster,
tune in each week to get inspired, to learn, and
to have some fun along the way. Hi, everybody, we
are so glad you're here today. Welcome to this week's
episode of the Fast Feast Repeat Intermittent Fasting for Life Podcast.
How are you doing today's Sherry?

Speaker 2 (00:52):
I am a little bit stressed out this morning. I'm
just gonna give everybody a disclaimer. There is a lot
of heavy equipment you surround my house. Apparently my whole
neighborhood's having their trees trimmed.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
But I was out of the loop.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
I need trees trimmed, but apparently I missed them when
they went door to door or something. So I have
tree tremors on both sides of my house.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Oh gosh.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
And my lawn guy just showed up as well. So
Luna Bell is a little bit in a tizzy today.
So if you hear Luna Bell barking in the background,
I'm sorry. She does not like strangers and loud noises
around and that's all that's happening that's around her everywhere.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Yes, I'm having a thunderstorm, so there could be thunder
so today will be the weird noises episode. But you
look really pretty? Are you wearing lipstick? No, I'm not
wearing lipstick.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Okay, it is a lip stain. I found it. It's
like a clean lipstain. It's really bright right now because
I just put it on, okay, but it just kind
of fades and like when you put it on, it's
like liquid, okay, and you have to just let it
soak in. It's made with vegetable sighs, like colors from vegetables.

(02:02):
I don't remember the name of the brand of it.
It's like six dollars and you can get it at
Walmart and it's on EWG and I just happen to
find it one day.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
And it doesn't do anything weird like as it fades
and say, whenever I've tried any like, I put nothing
on my lips but birds bees. That's it. I just
use that lip bomb. I do not own a lipstick.
I do not own a lip gloss, and so like
everybody who's always putting on lipstick, I don't even have any.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
I am not a lipstick wear I wear tinted lip bomb.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
When I've tried to wear tinted lip wom.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
I have this old beauty counter tinted lip mom that
I love.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
I always end up with ring around the lips. I
don't know what I do wrong. I have no idea.
Do you like rub your lips together? I have no idea. Okay,
I don't know. I don't know what you do either.
I got funky lips. I just whatever I do, I've
always ended up with like weird ring around the lips,
or it gets all over my teeth, or it's spread.
I just do not have good knowledge of what my

(02:55):
lips are doing. Maybe I'm not sure.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
Well, I have very like compared to my skin color,
which I have kind of deep skin tone. I've really
pale lips. Yeah, and since I was probably in seventh grade,
I've always worn something on my lips because I don't
feel like my face. I'm the same way with mascara.
Until I have mescara on and lips on, I feel
like my face is just a blank canvas.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
That's funny. I do my eyes. I just do my
eyes like I output eyelinder on eyeshadow. I fill in
my little weird I have that weird mole in my eyebrow,
and I put on mascara and then I'm done. If
I have like a ZiT, I'll put on some concealer,
but I usually don't. I don't even put on any
of that. But I got nothing for the lips. Nothing.
See you said, I look really pretty.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
All I have going on today is a little concealer,
mascara and this lip stain.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
Yeah. I wish our body could see you, but they cannot.
Cereals have to take my word for well. So it's
I learned.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
It's liquid like it'll drip, and so you put it
on and you have to just let it dry. You
don't blot it or anything. But it's got a real
fine point, so you can like outline your lips and
then you let it dry and it literally lasts probably
for like eight hours.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
And does it feel real dry? See that's what always
happened when I would try to put a stain on.
It would feel draw and then I would try probably
try to put the bird's bees on top of it,
and then I would end up with ring around the lips. Oh,
because it was like migrating. Probably.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
Yeah, I don't know this. You can actually put on
your cheeks too.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
You can just like dab a little on your cheeks,
like and it comes in like three colors. I tell
everybody at work about it because I can literally put
it on, forget about it, and then my lips are dry.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
I just put a little lipom on. Well, when you're
here in six days, maybe I could try it. Can
I try it? Yeah, you can try it, try it
and see if I like it. I don't know that
you want this color. Yeah, Cherry's coming in six days
everybody where.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
Finally, noverybody's gonna ask.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Me, now, what is this lipstain that you're doing. I
know we're not sponsored by them either. I don't know
who they are, but I'm not sponsored by Birt's Bees
or that they should sponsor me though, because I'm addicted
to it, like I'm one of those people. Oh funny stories.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
So I told y'all like a couple weeks ago that
my parents have started pasting. I think there may be
six weeks in now. I sent them Fast Fee's repeat,
and they're doing well.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
I don't know. I told my mom.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
In the very very beginning that my dad needed to
give up his Kirkland brand cold brew, oh.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
Because it's got that weird ingredient and there it's called
coffee is coffee extra. We don't know what that is,
so we avoid it well.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
And then my mom sent me some complicated article about
how they make coffee extract and I was just like, so,
like five weeks was passed, and she said, so, we've
been reading Gen's book and we're learning all about the
Clean Fast and I know you talked about it, but
now I'm wondering should Dad not be drinking his cold brew?

Speaker 1 (05:40):
This is the ingredients.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
And I was busy, I think I was at work,
and I just said, Mom, I told you in the
very beginning that Dad needed to not drink that during
the fast. And then she said, oh, I'm sorry, I
don't think I remembered that.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
Yeah, I'm like, I'm not yelling at you. I'm just.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
I'm like, that's just how much I believe in the
Clean Fast, right, And she said, has he not been
getting any benefits? And I said, look, he's still adapting
right now, his body still adapting, but he needs to
probably give it up.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
We err on the side of caution if we don't
know what something is. If it's a weird ingredient, we
don't know what's in coffee extract. Also, when they say
like natural flavors, we don't know what that is. They
could literally hide a sweetener in there and call it
natural flavors, because they do that kind of shady stuff.
And the only reason we really really know that it
matters is the number of people who have had one

(06:29):
of those kinds of coffee with those mystery ingredients. They
give it up and they're like, man, this does make
a difference. You're right, yep.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
I told my mom heard that a lot like my
dad gets up really early and he does two cups
of pour over or he was I don't even know
what he's doing because he the longest time went fast
because he said he has to eat with coffee.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
It gives him indigestion.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
Oh, and I gave him the whole baking soda tip,
and so I don't really know what he's been doing
for coffee. But then mid morning he normally has one
of these cold brews, and I knew that. That's why
I said, tell him that has to be in his window.
So I haven't talked to him to notice to see
if he's noticed a difference in giving it up. But
they're doing great. And my mom is seventy five and

(07:12):
my dad is seventy four, and they both could lose
some weight. But my mom and dad both have Alzheimer's
in dimensions, they're big. And they read some article and
somebody in community asked me what article they read, and
I said, I don't know. My dad sent it to me.
I didn't save it because it wasn't that great of
an article, but it was just enough for whatever reason,

(07:34):
it was just enough that it got my dad going,
maybe we should try this.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
So love that you planted the seed and then they
were ready.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
That's the thing I mean, really, I've been fasting for
almost ten years. I started fasting red after I got married.
July fourth, which is this coming Friday, is Eric's in
my ten year anniversary. So I'm coming up on ten
years since i started internt fasting. They've known I do it.
They've known about the podcast like they have never All
they've ever said is I don't know how you wait

(08:03):
until three o'clock in the afternoon to eat. Yeah, but
when they were ready, they were ready. And that's the
way it works. People ask all the time, how can
I get my husband or how can I get my daughter?
And it's like, you can't get anybody to do it.
It's one of those things you just have to live
the lifestyle, and when they're ready, they'll ask you the
right questions and you can get them started.

Speaker 1 (08:22):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
So anyway, how are you other than thunderstormy?

Speaker 1 (08:27):
Well, it's just a few booms of thunder, you know
how that is. It's the time of the year for that. So, yeah,
doing great. I had a nice friend visit with our
mutual friend Michelle, Yes, and it's been nice. Yeah, she's
doing great and we've had a really nice time. It's
really nice to have an intermittent faster visit, like when
you visit, it's just so nice and it's very easy

(08:47):
to keep to a one meal a day. Absolutely window
when you've got another intermittent faster with you, versus when
you have people who want to go out to eat
lunch and later than my window ends up like more
like an eight hour window. But we've had great windows.
We've enjoyed all the good things, and it's been really nice, awesome,
we've had good food.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
Well, I'm looking forward to coming. I need some beach
therapy and I'm looking forward to eating some delicious food
out there. I've been not eating out, not been ordering out,
nothing since about the middle of May. Other than like
I think three times for like special occasions, i've eaten out,
and so I was just like, you know what, there's

(09:29):
really nothing good to eat out around here anyways. So
I'm just gonna save up and I'm going to enjoy
all the good food at the beach in July and
save it for Then.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
We went out and had all you can eat crab
legs yesterday, but I've gotten it out of my system.
I think I haven't had all you can eat crab
legs and I don't know, oh, probably when my dad
visited the beach in twenty twenty one, my whole family
was here. We went out to eat. My dad wanted
crab legs. That's the last time that I've had all
you can eat crab legs. I got a out of
my system. I was like, oh a boy, the time.
You know I've never eaten them. Well, I'm not taking
you eat all you can ey grablogs because first of all,

(10:00):
it's Monday night at the place that has them, with
the claw House, which sure you know the Claw House.
They had those good crab nachos, but yeah, I was like,
they just something about they're delicious, but they just never
quite satisfy. I can't imagine. You know, I love fish.
I know you don't.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
Like I love salmon, like some wild caught salmon. I'll
cook stuff with like halibut or cod or whatever, you know,
just simple white fish stuff, but it does not stick
with me.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
Yeah. And I know it's like.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
Pretty high in protein, but I am starving later. Yeah,
and so I know I can have like some fish
with a window opener, but I cannot have it as
my main meal. I will be prowl in the kitchen
looking for something else.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
To eat.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
And it's so funny that it affects me that way.
But it's always been that way, Like I know that.
So that's just part of learning what does and does
not satisfy you.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
I guess. Yeah. But if anybody's had murals in Little
on a Monday, the claw house they do have, it
was real butter. You know sometimes you get funky butter.
That it was real butter. Like they had to wait
for it. They were back there melting. It wasn't ready.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
Well, I'm gonna be honest, it looks like a lot
of work for not a lot of it was.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
It's a lot of work, but I, like I said,
I got it out of my system. So do not
ask me to take you for all. You can eat
crab legs on.

Speaker 2 (11:16):
All I will not well and fun fact too well.
Number one, I'm a messy eater, so that's nothing I
would eat in a restaurant. Oh my god, they're so messy.
I'd like butter running down my arms. And number two,
I hate for my hands to be dirty. You would
hate crab legs. I would need so many napkins. Yeah,
but funny story for y'all. Roxy and I are going
to be there next week. And Roxy and I are

(11:37):
big meat eaters.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
We love meat. Jen does not.

Speaker 2 (11:41):
And I we were talking about places that we've never
eaten that maybe we could eat or whatever, and I said,
you know, I've never been to a Brazilian steakhouse. I've
always wanted to go. It sounds like heaven to me.
They just keep bringing meat to your table. And Roxy's like,
oh my gosh, I love that. That's my favorite. And
Jen was like, I'm not going to a Brazilian steakhouse
with y'all.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yeah, that doesn't sound good. No, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (12:04):
I've heard they have a lot of veggie options and
salad bars, but you're not even a salad eater.

Speaker 1 (12:09):
Well, I did have a really good salad at a
place one the other day. It was like a beet salad.
I like a beet salad. It was like beets. It
was at the Wicked Tune. Also at the Marshwalk it
was beets and arugola and goat cheese and pecans.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
So here's our crazy question. Yeah, can you eat raw
beets or do they have to be always prepared?

Speaker 1 (12:30):
Now? I don't even know what they do. I don't know.
I feel like they've been roasted. Okay, they've been roast.
I don't think they're raw. I think they've been roasted.

Speaker 2 (12:37):
But i'd be like eating a potato, right Yeah, I
think they were rinolet archie.

Speaker 1 (12:42):
But you would be proud of me because on the side,
I had mashed potatoes. Like, I just went in the
mid for meat. They have good steak there. But Michelle
was really want to misteaks. I was like, I would
like this beat. First. I ordered some Hummus at Hummus
beat salad and mashed potatoes. So that's a gin meal
right there.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
Well, you cooked me beats one time at your house,
I think while we were working to build the first
the community community and I was there for that week
and you made some something Beats meal kit that had
beats in it, and it was like some sort of
roasted beet salad and I ate it and it was fine.
I'm gonna know, they're just kind of earthy. They are earthy,
but I'd never eaten them again. But I know they're

(13:21):
like a nutritional powerhouse, and so I decide I was
going to try to eat them. And I had bought
some that were like in the produce area package that
you could add to salad or whatever, and I did
a little trial and error. I only like them if
they're sweets, like a sweet pickle type. Yeah, maybe it
covers up the bitter earthiness.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (13:42):
I like, which is weird because I usually like savory
over sweet. I'm not a sweet person's well, I don't
like sweet potatoes or purple or mean purple orange vegetables cooked.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
I don't like that sweet flavor.

Speaker 2 (13:53):
But there's something about the like pickled sweet beets that
I like.

Speaker 1 (13:57):
So that's it. That's the only beat I'm eating. Well,
I get it. We've had some good food, but well,
I'm looking forward to some more good food when y'all come.
And also people who are good at keeping a window. Yes,
that we can do.

Speaker 2 (14:11):
All right, Well, let's celebrate Sarah in Mansfield.

Speaker 1 (14:16):
I don't know where that is England.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
That would be my guess. That'd be my guess, but
it could also be maybe someplace up in the northeast,
like I guess. So I'm sure that sounds like a
Let's see if any of her spelling looks like it's British.

Speaker 1 (14:30):
I don't think so. It didn't. That's what she didn't
say that she was gutted. She didn't put a U
in there somewhere, A word a funny thing.

Speaker 2 (14:39):
I've started adding us to words that I just from
reading people's stuff in community from overseas, like favorite the
other day, I've put a you in it, And I'm
constantly trying to put a you in yogurt. Now that's funny.
And then I catch myself and I'm like, what am
I doing? That's not how we spell that here in
America anyway. So Sarah in Mansfield says, I I have

(15:00):
to thank you both. I have just started my eye
off journey on May twelfth, and it is already making
such a difference. Yesterday was a real eye opener. My
ten month old was sick, and I spent the last
three hours of my eating window taking care of him.
When he was finally asleep, I looked at the clock
and was hungry. My window had just closed, but I
opened it again just to make sure I had eaten enough.

(15:20):
It was so freeing to know that I could just
let life happen and sudge just thirty minutes and my
whole day was not ruined. I knew I would just
close again and fast my eighteen hours as usual today.
It was so amazing, and my husband agreed that he
noticed the change in my outlook. Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (15:39):
Yeah, that's the freedom, Sarah. That the key is that
she looked at the clock, recognized if she was just
following like a time her window was closed. But she
said she was hungry, and so that's the reason to eat.
You're hungry. You don't have to force it, make yourself
for although I did was hungry last I told you

(16:00):
just anrtalle text. But last Thursday I went to trivia
and got home and I was legitimately hungry because I
didn't eat at trivia, and i'd closed my window maybe
four thirty, so it was like nine thirty, and I
was legitimately hungry. Yeah that's early for you. Yeah, closing
at four thirty is earlier for me. And I was
like mad, but I kept it closed. I was like,
I'm not eating at nine thirty. I'm not really that.

(16:21):
I'll be fine. Hunger is not an emergency. But I
don't like to go to bed feeling hungry. But I did.

Speaker 2 (16:26):
You're usually in bed by bad time, too, aren't you.

Speaker 1 (16:28):
Yeah. I usually go to bed at nine in the summer,
it stretches a little later just because it's the days
or longer still light at nine o'clock, so it feels
weird to be getting in the bed. But yeah, but
I kept my window closed, but I was hungry, and
I was a little mad that I was hungry because
I guess I hadn't eaten enough, you know before it's
to trivia, and my body was like, all right, we
need a little more. But I'm over the trivia food.

(16:51):
So that's the problem. Funny, because I don't know.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
I think you get accustomed to it, because I know
some people are like, oh, I couldn't sleep, I had
to get back up and eat YadA, YadA YadA. For me,
I rarely do that. I mean occasionally I will if
I just cannot get over it. But I probably go
to sleep hungry most nights.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
Really.

Speaker 2 (17:14):
Yeah, because I have moved my window, and I close
it a lot earlier, just because I found out I
sleep so much closed it earlier. I try to have
it closed like no later than seven, and I go
to bed later though seah, I mean I don't. I
might go to bed between eleven and one, okay, And
so that is kind of a big gap, and by

(17:35):
ten o'clock I might be starving, okay, but I just
am like, no, you had enough to eat your window, Sherry,
You're fine. You're not gonna start death. You're gonna go
to sleep, and once you're a sleep, you're not gonna
know if you're hungry.

Speaker 1 (17:45):
And so happens last night.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
And I just had a taco salad and a popsicle,
So it wasn't a big window. But I often don't
have a really big window On Mondays. I tend to
have sort of an uppish day On Tuesdays, I thought,
you know, I really didn't eat much. I didn't eat
a lot of week work. This weekend it was busy.
I could get up and eat something. But then I
was like, you know, you're just gonna go to sleep.
You'll be fine. And I slept like a rock. My

(18:09):
deep sleep was amazing, and I woke up this morning
without a twinge of hunger.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
Yeah. Yeah, So some of its mindset. It really is
like the whole idea of am I going to be
able to sleep because I'm hungry? And then if you
get anxious about it, that will be the reason you
can't sleep. Is the anxiety about it but yeah, I
slept perfectly fine. It was fine, and usually like I'm
already asleep by the time I have time to be
hungry again. But it just was that particular night. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:37):
But over time, you really learn, like, and I think
a lot of hunger two people experience. And I tell
people this is I call it rebound hunger. Like I know,
about four hours after I close my window, I'm going
to feel hungry again.

Speaker 1 (18:49):
Yeah, and I.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
Think it's because my stomach was a transit time. Now
my stomach is empty. Yeah, and my stomach starts to
make little hunger gurgle sounds and I think, oh, maybe
I'm hungry, but it's really just that my stomach's empty.
And then I get the same feeling about eight hours
into me too. Window, you know, like overnights, about eight

(19:10):
hours after I closed my window. I really struggle getting
off work Monday morning because my window's been closed for
about eight hours. And it would be so easy. I mean,
I stop and get my husband breakfast all the time,
and I'm like, oh, I could eat right now, but
I'm like, but I'm just gonna go home and take
a nap and I'll be fine. And sure enough, I
didn't open my window last night. Yesterday was Monday, and
I stopped and got on breakfast and he said, to

(19:32):
what you get, I'm like, I didn't get anything. I'm
not eating, taking a nap. I don't need food.

Speaker 1 (19:36):
I was fine.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
And I didn't open my window till like six o'clock
last night, and I was just like an open and
closed thing. And I went about my day.

Speaker 1 (19:43):
So I reminded myself that hunger is not an emergency.
Good job, Jen, thank you, thank you. And I went
to bed and I was fine. So I don't like
to go to bed hungry, but it's just very rare
that it happens. Yeah, So now we have a question
from a listener. This is shar from Utah. She says,
I've been doing clean fasting for over a year and

(20:04):
I've been doing ADF for over a month. I started
in February of twenty twenty four. Before that, I had
been trying IF without the Clean Fast, and as we
all know, the clean Fast is a game changer. I
have had success, but the weight loss is slow because
of menopause. I think I have had a lot of
the stumbling blocks that both you and Sherry have experienced.

(20:25):
And I can't thank you enough for helping me through
the hard part to loving fasting. Fasting is my superpower
for feeling amazing and no more diet brain. I would
love more advice for any more tweaking for weight loss,
but I think more patience is in order. I had
my gall bladder out and I'm having a teaspoon of
the cilium husk and water before I break my fast,

(20:46):
which helps me so much. It also took me a
while to flip the switch because I would get so
shaky and have a headache and felt I needed to
break the fast to stop dizziness. Putting salt under my
tongue worked and not guzzling water because also like Shery,
my body doesn't hold onto electrolytes. I was having bad
leg cramps at night, and since using a fast safe

(21:08):
electrolyte that has stopped. I have been doing eightyf for
over two months now to budget the scale. I was
stuck at two o two after losing twenty pounds over
a couple of years going up and down, and I've
been maintaining my weight at one ninety five. I'm female,
fifty one and five foot seven. I would love to
get to one sixty. But even when I was doing

(21:30):
weight Watchers and eating like a bird, I barely touched
one sixty nine and my went right back up to
one seventies one eighties. I wonder if I'm scared to
hit my goal, afraid I'll just gain the weight bag.
I love sharing with others how great I feel, but
I wish I looked more like I feel I feel.
I stay on my plan most of the month and
feel great, and then have a few bad days each

(21:50):
month that get me down bad meaning I emotionally eat
because of stress, and although fasting is helping me curb
my cravings those few days, I feel it is it's
likely causing me to gain the weight I lost. Also,
I have food sensitivities to chocolate and dairy, and my
cravings come from wanting those foods that I need to avoid.

(22:11):
I have healed my gut and I feel better eating
all the formerly forbidden foods, but sometimes I still have
breakouts into itching. But now I don't know if it's
the food I'm eating or related to my perioral dermatitis.
Another question I have is that I haven't heard you
talk about donating blood. I used to do it all
the time, but the last two times I've donated, I

(22:33):
didn't feel well for about a day afterwards. The first
time I donated blood, I had a daily eating window.
The second time I gave blood, I didn't fast the
day before or the day I went, and although I
wasn't as sick, I was still not feeling great for
about a day. I was wondering if you have any recommendations,
or if the change in needing more time to recover
has more to do with age. I know I will

(22:55):
fast forever for the benefits, because even when I have
a bad over eating day, I don't give up, and
I just start again the next day, knowing my fasting
superpower is there. Thank you for all that you both do. Okay,
let's see, so lots to unpack, lots to unpack here.

Speaker 2 (23:14):
It sounds like you start in February twenty twenty four.
You were clean fasting for over a year. You don't
really share what your daily eating window was when you
were doing that, like a daily eating window approach, like
prior to switching to ADF. So it's hard for me
to know what's going on ADF for over two months

(23:35):
and you don't really share what's happening with your weight
since right that same question, it's hard for me to know,
like are you not seeing weight loss after doing ADF
You mentioned having a mental block, like do you think
that you're afraid to reach your goal size? And this
is very true for a lot of people. Fat can

(23:58):
be protective physically as we age. You know, it's healthy
to carry a little body fat, but sometimes carrying body
fat is emotionally protective for whatever reason. Sometimes, especially as women,
we've had negative experiences when we're younger, you know, especially
with the opposite sex or sexual assault, things like that.

(24:21):
This happens very frequently, and people put this sort of
coat of fat on to feel protected, to not feel noticed.
And then even as women, sometimes we're so afraid of
failure and we think we have to be perfect. So
sometimes we're like, oh, well, what happens if I get
to my goal weight and then I can't maintain it,

(24:42):
and then I'll be a failure and then people will
look at me as a failure. And I've seen this happen,
you know, I'm sharing things that a lot of people
have shared with us over the years, and I understand
all of those things. And you know, because of that,
I think I would really it and explore that, and

(25:03):
you know, maybe journal about it and really exploring what
would happen if you got to your goal weight, how
would you feel at your goal weight, and what would
be the worst thing that happened if you couldn't maintain
a weight that you wanted to maintain, and really just
kind of explore your thoughts and feelings on that, because
I think working through that would be really beneficial for you.

(25:23):
A lot of times people self sabotage for many, many
reasons and they don't even really realize they're doing it,
and you know, for that reason alone, that's where I
think community really comes in. And you also mentioned that
you are an emotional eater, and so you know, my
two suggestions for that, for both the emotional eating and

(25:46):
also kind of working through why maybe you might self sabotage.
Therapy can be amazing for everybody. I feel like having
an outside party challenge your thoughts and ideas can really
help you process them and maybe learn faulty thoughts that
you keep telling yourself that are holding you back and

(26:08):
help you teach you to, you know, have more positive thoughts.
A lot of people get hung up on these faulty
thoughts till they believe them, and until somebody challenges that
and helps you see that you're thinking is flawed or
not serving you, then we just get stuck in that pattern.

Speaker 1 (26:26):
So you've got to break that cycle.

Speaker 2 (26:28):
And so you know, therapy is an option or join
our community. It's much cheaper than therapy. And what we
don't claim to be therapists. That's what group support is.
It is people who identify with your problems and offer solutions,
offer different mindset tweaks, offer different perspectives, and then watching

(26:52):
other people overcome the same issues that you're having can
be really really encouraging and motivating for you. And our
community is like a family. We know everybody in there.
If you're in the community and we don't know you,
it's because you're not putting yourself out there in the community.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
That's true.

Speaker 2 (27:10):
People that are posting day after day, week after week,
year after year. We know these people. We feel like
we know them. We know about their lives, we know
about their families, their kids, who's getting married, whose mom
just passed away. I mean, we're a big family, and so.

Speaker 1 (27:30):
Come join us. We can work through these things. Yeah,
that's where you find it. It's also linked in the
show notes. But it's true. We do know we know
who has struggle with nuts. You know who you are
listening right now, Yes, we do. Or the thing is
is that you post your struggle, like you said, you
have trouble with dairy and chocolate and you're overeating them.

(27:50):
Share that. Then someone else will come and give you advice.

Speaker 2 (27:54):
Right like I canna tell you right now, try carab
if you're allergic to chocolate, right. A lot of people
who like my son was allergic to dairy and he
wasn't supposed to have chocolate, and so he would have
things with carab and carib chips instead. So there's always
brainstorming that takes place in the community, and we can.

Speaker 1 (28:13):
Help you with that.

Speaker 2 (28:15):
And you know a lot of that craving things that
you're supposed to avoid because you're allergitim you might have
some rebel tendencies. Yeah, that sounds like a rebel to me.
And so you know, my suggestion for that is go
to the Four Tendencies Gretchen Ruben's Four Tendencies quiz. Figure
out your personality type. You know, like Jenna and I
know we're both questioners. There's a lot of people who

(28:36):
come to us for help, and I rafp the bat.
I'm like, oh, they're an obliger. Yeah, And you know,
they're the people who are really great at making commitments
to other people and keeping them, but they don't make
commitments to themself.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
And that's where group check ins are so powerful.

Speaker 2 (28:51):
Right, So I think just getting to know yourself better
can be really helpful. And yeah, you said something about
perioral dermatitis, but then I'm wondering when you said you
don't know if it's perioral dermatitis, that's not usually affected
by the food you're eating. So then I was wondering
if you really meant oral allergy syndrome like my son has,

(29:12):
which can be a cross reaction to other foods that
you're allergic to. But if you're really talking about pueririe
oral dermatitised, that shouldn't affect your whole body. That's just
like around your mouth and on your face. And I
am just going to throw out a hint. I gave
up fluoride in my toothpaste years ago and I have
never ever had a perioral dermatitis breakout again.

Speaker 1 (29:32):
Now that is so interesting. I had perioraled armetitis back
in the day, early in my twenties, and I don't
use fluoride in my toethpaste either, so I use that
roy Yeah whatever, whatever it's felt my dentists. I just
went to the dentist. I finally found a dentist here.
I had been too long since I've been to the dentists.
But I don't like dentists or new dentist. Sorry, dentists

(29:53):
out there listening. You're nice, You're lovely people. I really
don't like going to the dentist, but I found a
lovely dentnists. I love my new dentist. I'm so glad.
But they were like thumbs up with the hydroxya pop
whatever say it? Say it again?

Speaker 2 (30:05):
I call it the time is half spelled that I've
never heard anybody say it, so I could be saying
it wrong. Full disclaimer. Sometimes I mispronounced words. The funny
thing is that, you know, I listened to a lot
of audiobooks and I'll hear them mispronounced words, and.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
I'll be like, it's everybody does it. We all do it.

Speaker 2 (30:24):
And I'm like, and they're getting paid a lot of money.
To read a book and yeah, that past editing, So
I don't even feel bad, right right, So then you
talked about donating blood. Donating blood should not make you
feel poorly.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
Really, it should not. It should not at all.

Speaker 2 (30:41):
The only reason I could see that you would feel
poorly after donating blood is if you're anemic, and they
should be checking that before you donate blood. And the
only other reason that you would feel poorly is if
you are not replenishing fluids and electrolytes after donating blood.

Speaker 1 (30:59):
I mean, they don't take that much blood, they really don't.
And she wasn't fasting the day before or the date
this last time, and she still felt bad.

Speaker 2 (31:08):
I think she felt bad when she went two days
without fasting, yeah, because she wasn't getting into katosisy and
she was getting that sluggish, no energy fatigue feeling that
we get when we don't fast.

Speaker 1 (31:23):
That's at a great guess there.

Speaker 2 (31:25):
Yeah, yeah, So, I mean we have people who fast
who donate blood all the time, and I have never
ever heard anybody say that they feel unwell after donating blood.

Speaker 1 (31:37):
Fasting made it likely that they felt worse. That's what
we don't hear. And there are things we do here
all the time. Like we know that, yeah, you could
have high cholesterol for a while if you're fasting. We
know if you're on blood plood pressure medicine that can
make you dizzy. But this is not a thing we
hear a lot, right, and we think we would. We would.

Speaker 2 (31:53):
The reason they give you fluids and snacks after you
donate blood is because they want to make sure you're
not hypoglycemic when you leave, and they want to help
reflenish your fluids so that you don't pass out. And
so as long as after you're donating blood, you're eating
and rehydrating, and donating blood should not make you feel poorly.

(32:16):
And I don't think it has anything to do with
fasting other than the time that you didn't fast for
two days and then I think it's because you didn't
fast that you didn't feel well.

Speaker 1 (32:25):
That's just my guess. And just because people always ask shery,
just what do we tell people about donating blood in
the fasted state? What do you answer that question? Because
you know we get it a lot.

Speaker 2 (32:36):
Follow the advice of the blood donation center that you
are donating at.

Speaker 1 (32:41):
I mean, my.

Speaker 2 (32:42):
Best advice is schedule your blood donation during your eating
window time.

Speaker 1 (32:47):
Easy, busy, then you don't have to stress.

Speaker 2 (32:49):
Right yep, So schedule it sometime when it's your eating window.
Schedule at the end of the afternoon, right before you
open your window. Take your own snacks. You don't have
to eat the processed peanut butter crackers they give you.
Take your own snacks. Take some yogurt and nuts.

Speaker 1 (33:07):
Personally, I would eat before going, then donate blood, then
have my snack. That's what I would do. Yeah, yeah,
I haven't.

Speaker 2 (33:16):
I've donated blood. I actually did it fasted in the
middle of it, fasted state. Really, they were doing a
blood drive at work, and that meant I got to
take an hour paid.

Speaker 1 (33:25):
So I was like, sure, don but you were fast
and you were just fine. That was fast, and I
was fine.

Speaker 2 (33:30):
But I'm an experience faster and I keep up with
my electrolytes. So I think that's probably why I didn't
notice the difference.

Speaker 1 (33:36):
And you felt perfectly fine. I felt perfectly fine. We've
heard that too, people fat who donate in the fastest state,
But I would not like say that's everybody should be
just fine to donating the fastest state, because you might not.

Speaker 2 (33:46):
Be Yeah, And I'm just gonna say too, there could
be a little psychosomatic thing here that's with me. If
you think you're gonna feel bad, you'll probably are gonna
feel bad. Yeah, I'm just that's human nature. I see
this all the time in the er. We feel how
we think we're going to feel a lot of times.
So if you think you're going to be scared of

(34:07):
a procedure test, you're going to be scared of the
procedure a test. So anyway, ask for ADF and trying
to budge your weight. I mean, my best goal right
now is to tell you get a fasting insulin test,
see what your fasting insulin is. At the same time,
get a blood glucose test. A fasting blood glucose test.
These are two different tests. One's testing the amount of

(34:28):
glucose in your blood. One is testing the amount of
circulating insulin in your body. There, you can do a
homer Ir score. It's a calculator online Homa dash Ir.
It's going to give you your insulin resistance score. If
you're really really insulin resistant and you're not seeing weight loss,
you're probably really going to need to tweak your food choices.

(34:50):
And ADF is also going to be great if you're
not sure if you're doing ADF correctly. Get Jen's second
edition of Delay Don't Deny. She goes into great detail
on how to do ADF correctly. And the fact that
you have done weight watchers eating like a bird, you
probably have really lowered your metabolic rate. So I think
it's great that you're doing ADF to get that metabolic boost,

(35:12):
but you want to make sure that you're doing it
right so that you are getting that metabolic boost. And yeah,
that's I think I covered everything. Did I miss anything?

Speaker 1 (35:22):
The only thing I want to add is that variable
of menopause. Well that too. We know that most women
gain weight over the menopausal transition. That's just part of
the hormonal changes of being a woman. Most women gain
weight over the menopausal transition, even women who have not
struggled with their weight, Women who have maintained the same

(35:42):
weight their whole adult life with no struggle. I mean,
that's not us. But if there are women like that
out there, they start putting on weight without changing anything
because of the hormonal changes. So it can be seen
as a victory to just be maintaining instead of gaining
and I know if weight loss is your goal, so
you don't want to hear that, You're like, I don't
want to hear that I want to lose weight. But

(36:03):
if you would be gaining weight, but you're not because
intermittent fasting is helping you not gain weight, that is
actually a positive. So I have to be more mindful
with my food choices after menopause than before menopause, you know.
And I just happened to live for, you know, five
years as an intermittent faster before I went through menopause,

(36:23):
and so I do know that after menopause, I've had
to be more careful. I can't be quiet as Lucy Goosey,
can't have ice cream quite as often. I had ice
cream last night though, Sherri it. It was delicious. If you
want some good ice cream, I'll take you to a
good place. Okay, I'm always down for good ice cream.
Cup and cone, everybody who's listening, that's the name of it.
But it's here in serf side. But you may need

(36:46):
to really tighten things up a bit. And those few
days that you're having challenges each month, no matter what
your plan is, if you're having a few days that
don't go according to plan. That could be just enough
to keep you maintaining versus tightening it up might be
what you need. And again that menopausal transition changes things.

Speaker 2 (37:06):
Yeah, and let me just say like it doesn't have
to be complicated. From all the reading I do on menopause,
I do a lot of reading. I do a lot
of reading about hormones and how menopause affects our fat storage.
And I just recently read the average woman gains between
five to ten pounds during the menopausal transition. Now, this
can start at forty. It can take ten years to transition.

(37:29):
Perimenopause can start at forty. You can start in the
late thirties. And then the average age of menopause is
fifty two.

Speaker 1 (37:37):
I thought it was. Is it fifty one? I think
because I saw fifty two. When I went through it,
I was fifty one, and I may have changed this. Well,
it could be later, but when I went through it,
it happened was fifty one. Well, that would be later.
I mean, we're checking it. It's fifty one.

Speaker 2 (37:54):
Well, see this says fifty two nationalands two and aging.

Speaker 1 (37:57):
Well, see when I googled it, it says fifty one. Anyway, okay,
right around there. Oh, I see that the Cleveland clinic
says fifty two. Yeah, and another that it.

Speaker 2 (38:07):
Is happening earlier and earlier.

Speaker 1 (38:08):
The Mayo Clinic says fifty one in the United States. Yeah.
So anyways, she's right there. Anyway. See, we're questioners, everybody.
This is what questioners do. We look it up the answers.
We have to know. I gotta know, well, which is it?

Speaker 2 (38:24):
Okay, and then two pounds per year after is what
I've read. So if you are maintaining you're ahead of
the curve, it's true, and you're a head of the curve.
And we only fight our bodies so much, so at
some point you have to just accept this is where
we're at. I'm going to make the boast of it.
But you know, lean proteins, high fiber, lots of fruits

(38:46):
and veggies, high fiber grains, real food, cut out your
ultra processed foods, really reduce your sugar intake, reduce your
alcohol intake. Your body does not process alcohol well after
menopause at all, and it can cause more damage to
your liver after menopause, especially if you are on estradile

(39:08):
hormone replacement. Oh really, yep I recently read that another
good reason that I quit drinking yep ye. So anyway,
food quality, make sure you do an ADF correctly, join
the community, and or you know, check out some CBT
therapy to see if you can't figure out what's holding
yourself back. It's going to help teach you to how

(39:30):
to handle stress without turning to food as a coping mechanism.
So and I think you'll see great changes.

Speaker 1 (39:38):
And now it's time for our segment called What's Your Why.
Most of us begin with weight loss in mind, but
it's time for us to think deeper than just weight loss. Right,
weight loss is definitely something we we're looking for, but
I genuinely believe that when your why is bigger than that,
like Sherry's parents who started for brain help, you're more

(39:58):
likely to find long term success and view internet and
fasting as a lifestyle.

Speaker 2 (40:02):
And this week we have a why from Sally in Alabama.
My why is to not be diabetic, to improve my energy,
to keep up with my five grandchildren, and to live
a productive and healthy life while helping as many people
as I can along the way. I love being able
to help and serve others. I am confident that I
can make adjustments to my window for each day. I
don't worry about cheating or falling off the wagon.

Speaker 1 (40:26):
I love that, all right.

Speaker 2 (40:27):
So we have a question from Alisa in Ventura, California.
She says, Hi, I'm so very sorry if this has
been answered before. I have been clean fasting for one
hundred days now, and I'm loving how I'm feeling and
the changes I am seeing. I have lost fifteen pounds,
but more importantly, I feel more comfortable in my own
skin and have more confidence in myself. I am a
nurse and my schedule of life is kind of crazy

(40:49):
and need some flexibility. I was wondering is it more
important to keep the window timing or the fasting timing?
For example, I like to fast eighteen to nineteen hours,
but some days I eat a later dinner with my
husband after work, so my eating window ends up being
longer than the five or six hours. But then the
next day I will wait the eighteen or nineteen hours
to eat. Is this hurting my progress in any way?

(41:12):
Should I worry more about the eating window timing or
the fasting length?

Speaker 1 (41:17):
Okay, so the question you're asking is is this hurting
my progress in any way, And the answer to that
is yes or no. It depends, right if you are
over eating in a window, because your window is longer,
so you end up eating more within it than it's
going to hurt your weight loss progress. Like for me,
I am a volume eater, and for me, I needed

(41:40):
to keep my eye on my eating window. An eating
window of five hours or less for weight loss worked
really well because it was easier for me to keep
an eye on how much fear I was eating in
five hours or less, Whereas if my window stretches to six, seven,
eight hours, it's more likely that I over eight And
you're not going to lose weight if you are over

(42:03):
eating in a window, so you know, is the fast
important Yes. If we don't fast long enough, then we
won't ever have time to go into fat burning, So
they're both important, is really the answer. Should we worry
about the eating window yes? Should you worry about the
length of your fast, yes, But usually you have to
figure out what is easiest for you to keep your

(42:25):
eye on. For me, it was the eating window length.
So like if you know that you're going to eat
a later dinner with your husband after work, you probably
know that ahead of time, and so that would be
the time to shift your window opening until later, if
you can do that so that you'll still have that
boundary of your eating window length. Okay, and again it

(42:47):
just really depends, you know, is that stretching your window
to be six hours or is it stretching it to
be nine. So that's a lot of difference there. You know,
a six hour window not going to be a giant, huge,
big deal that happened every now and then. But if
a couple times a week you're stretching to nine hours
because of your schedule, that's probably going to be an issue.

(43:08):
So it just really that question is that they're both
important and you have to figure out with your schedule
what matters most for you. Like I never keep an
eye on the length of my fast just because I
just tied my window. I try to slide it around
so that it works well for me.

Speaker 2 (43:26):
Yeah, I think if we had really regimented schedules you
could really keep track of both. If you were to
eat at the same time, If every day you ate
from three to seven, and then a few days you
just extended it to nine, you know, maybe that wouldn't
be probably be a big problem, right, But number one,

(43:46):
we don't want to lock in like that. Our bodies
adapt more easily when we lock into a very rigid
schedule like that. So some flexibility is great, but we
get caught up in like trying to monitor the fast
length and the window time, and it can just get
really confusing. And for me, with my variable schedule working
night shifts and you know, my husband being off one

(44:07):
day during the week or whatever, I would drive myself
crazy trying to track both.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
And I used to do it.

Speaker 2 (44:14):
Yeah, it is so much easier to just track.

Speaker 1 (44:17):
My window length.

Speaker 2 (44:19):
And you may wonder, like why would having a longer
window a few days a week. Well, when you're eating
five or six hours each day and you're getting into
fat burning by doing that, six hours tends to be
a little bit on the longer side. Most people really
need about a four to five hour eating window unless
you just don't eat a lot of volume in your window.

(44:42):
If you're a very light eater, you can probably get
away with six hours. But if I had a six
hour window every single day over time, my body would
not shift into fat burning as easily. And I've experienced
those experiences during COVID. Working crazy long hours and having
kind of unpredictable windows at work, I actually realized I
was no longer shifting into fat burning daily, and I

(45:04):
had to really tighten things up. So if you're doing
five to six hours, you're kind of righting the edge anyways.
And then if once or twice a week you're extending
that to eight or nine hours, you're really impacting your
body's ability to burn through that glycogen efficiently and shift
into fat burning. So you may think, oh, having this
nine hour window twice a week isn't going to hurt me,

(45:26):
but it actually can. And it may not show up
next week or the next week, but it could show
up over time. So that's just something to think about.
I always like to think of my liver as a
gas tank, and I want to keep it empty exactly.

Speaker 1 (45:39):
That's a good way of putting it. And again, there
might be somebody they can have a daily eight hour
window and they're eat light as a bird and they
shift into fat burning or they're very very active, right,
and you need eight our windows. So when we say
like most people, you know, four to five hour window,
that's people who like to eat big meals like us
like I'm much party eater. Yeah, I do not eat

(46:01):
like a bird, and so that's why I needed more
of a boundary on my eating window, whereas somebody else,
if you only eat within four hours, you know, you
only can get a little tiny bit of food. Over
that time, you might need seven And that's why there
is no one size fits all way of doing this. Yeah, okay,
we have time for one more question. This is Virginia

(46:23):
from Australia. Hello, Virginia. From one Virginia to another. A
funny story, Sherry, when I started teaching in Carrollton and
nobody knew who I was. I was new to the community.
I've only been teaching for like ten years. But they
saw that their teacher was Virginia Stevens and they're like, oh,
she's gonna be really old, like the name Virginia, and
like that was like, what, Virginia's not an old name anyway.

(46:45):
I just thought that was funny. I like the name Virginia.
I think it's nice. But do you don't think it's
an old name? Do you?

Speaker 2 (46:51):
I mean, yeah, I would think so. Okay, well, I've
never known anybody named Virginia except for you. Okay, Well,
you know what I've noticed. There's a lot of though
they're like, it may be more of a southern name.

Speaker 1 (47:03):
Maybe I don't know. Well, I think it's lovely. Virginia
from Australia. I don't meet a lot of Virginia's, but
I love when I do. So Virginia says, thanks Jen
and Sherry for a great podcast. I learned so much
from them. I apologize in advance that this has been
asked before. You don't need to apologize, Virginia, because we
really have heard it all. It's very rare that we
hear something we haven't heard before, right, Yep, it does

(47:25):
happen sometimes, actually, yeah, But never apologize because just because
we've said it before, it doesn't mean that you have
heard it before. So Virginia said, I go for a
morning walk every day, and I usually stop for a coffee.
After realizing late last year that I was breaking my
fast by having a cappuccino, I switched to a long black,
which I'm really enjoying. Now. My question is should I

(47:47):
be assuming that because I'm having a long Black at
these cafes, that I'm drinking pure coffee and therefore not
breaking my fast, or should I be checking with them
about the ingredients in their coffee. We don't always stop
at the same cafe. When I'm at home and fasting,
I have a black coffee which states it's one hundred
percent coffee, so I'm safe there. Can I answer this first? Cherry? Sure?

(48:08):
Did you see when Jenny? Yes? I did. Were you
gonna say that? Yes? Is the answer? Okay, well, I'll
just let me say it. Go ahead.

Speaker 2 (48:14):
Well, so here's the thing. If you're ordering this from
a coffee shop, like a real coffee shop, I'm not
talking fast food whatever, a real coffee shop. A long
black is kind of a reverse Americano. So an Americano
they pour pure espresso in a cup and they top
it with water. Along black is basically hot water with

(48:37):
an espresso poured over the top of it. And when
you do it that way, you get like a layer
of crema on top, which is not cream. It's just foam,
foamy coffee. So anyway, should it be fast safe. Absolutely?
But somebody recently in our community who works at McDonald's

(48:59):
made a post and wanted to share with people that
if you go to McDonald's and you ask for an
iced coffee.

Speaker 1 (49:06):
With black ice, the way.

Speaker 2 (49:09):
Well, she didn't say black.

Speaker 1 (49:10):
She just said, if you asked for an iced okay,
a plane plane.

Speaker 2 (49:14):
The ice coffee doesn't have any cream or anything in it, right,
And I love their iced coffee. It's actually a really
good iced coffee. It's a great option when you're out
running around you want a little something. But I learned
the hard way, and she shared a if you go
and you ask for an iced coffee, it has sugar
syrup in it, So you have to say black iced coffee,

(49:36):
no sugar, no cream. Just every time you order a drink,
make sure you say that because you have no idea.
Like to me, an iced coffee should just be coffee.

Speaker 1 (49:47):
Over ice unless I say something else.

Speaker 2 (49:49):
Yeah, unless I say I want a iced coffee with sugar,
or I want a sweet iced coffee or whatever, a
creamy ice coffee. But that's not the way it is,
so never assume. Definitely. I just check with your this cafe.
If you're in there all the time, just say, you know,
I just want to make sure this is just like
espresso and water, right, and I'm sure it is. Coffee

(50:10):
houses are very they like their coffee pure, so you're
probably fine.

Speaker 1 (50:15):
But it never hurts to check.

Speaker 2 (50:17):
All right, Well, I just want to take a minute
to share.

Speaker 1 (50:19):
I share a.

Speaker 2 (50:20):
Couple weeks ago that the old Beauty Counter has returned
and is now Counter, and I was really really excited
that they asked me to come back and be a
brandy advocate for them. I love doing it. I am
still gonna do Crunchy I have. There are a lot
of products I like it Crunchy that either are not
being offered anymore from Counter, or there's one product I

(50:42):
just like better, actually two products I just like better.
But then there's some other products that I think are
maybe more effective and also more affordable through Counter. So
I will be an advocate for both companies. I love
getting clean beauty in people's houses. I think it's really important.
And if you just like to feel good and you
want to do some self care and take care of

(51:03):
your skin, I'm happy to help you do that. Visit
our website fast Feastrepeat dot com slash Shary to learn
more about both of these companies. Remember my name is
one R s H E R. I gets misspelled all
the time, so fast Feastrepeat dot com slash Sharry or
visit the links and show notes and you can always
email me and I'm happy to help you. Shary at

(51:25):
fast feastrepeat dot com.

Speaker 1 (51:27):
And this week for our tweak of the Week, we
have a tip from Sherry And is this you, Sharry?
Is this tip from you? Yes? I thought it was
because it sounded like you. So this is a tip
from our very own Shary. She said, Often people come
to community after having a hard day for one reason
or another, and they're either coming to share how disappointed
they are with themselves for eating outside of their window,

(51:50):
or for reinforcement not to eat outside of their window.
Sherry has an exercise to share that helps her on
those hard days. Do you want to read it yourself?
Since it's you, make sure go ahead?

Speaker 2 (52:02):
So when life is hard, I talked about this a
little bit earlier when mondays, when I get off work
at seven am and I'm exhausted, and I'm emotionally exhausted,
and i am tired, i am hungry, it is really
easy to try to tell myself that I need food.
But the question I use or it could just be

(52:23):
a really hard day. If I'm exhausted from life or stress,
or feeling down or sad or lonely, I ask myself.
If food is not the problem, how can it be
the solution? And that gives me pause, and it gives
me a chance to come up with a better solution
to whatever is preventing me from feeling strong that day.
Am I seeking comfort? If so, I seek it from

(52:45):
a friend or loved one. It doesn't have to be
in person. Sometimes a phone call or a video chat
with a friend is just what you need. Am I
seeking distraction? I'm an ADHD girl. We like to eat
for a distraction, So I just get busy with something else.
Or am I just really hungry and I'm not feeling
up to pushing through the hunger because it's persistent and annoying.

(53:07):
And if that's the case, sometimes I just choose to
have an earlier window and then I plan to make
my evening busy or go to bed early so that
I'm not tempted to reopen after closing earlier. But make
sure you're feeling strong enough to do that, because it
takes some willpower to push through the evening if you
open earlier. But anyways, I just I always ask myself

(53:28):
at that moment, will my choice right now make me
feel strong and proud tonight? Will it fuel my success
and empower me? Or will I then have one more
thing to feel bad about tonight? How about tomorrow morning?
The tomorrow morning question is usually relation to opening my
window or extending it. Will I be mad when I
wake up and I realize I'm not as far fasted

(53:49):
as I usually am, and I'm going to be hungrier
in the morning, and I'm not going to flip the
switches easily the next day, and I'm going to regret
that decision. So having self check ins like this helps
me to make the best choices for myself when the
hard days, and I hope that these tools help you
next time you're having a hard day.

Speaker 1 (54:07):
We love to leave our listeners with an inspiration or
motivational quote, and this week we have one from Crystal.
Yesterday was not the best day mentally. I was down
on myself and my confidence. I'm not sure why. As
a result, I ended up opening my window a little
earlier and closing a little later. And she said, my
overall eating was not the worst it could have been,
but I became very full, very fast, and I didn't

(54:29):
care much for wanting to binge once I started eating,
which is actually a huge win for me personally. For that,
I am proud and thankful. Again, it was just old
stuff coming up, but I still closed my window at
a decent time. I know this is part of the process.
I will have these days and need to work through them.
I just need to remember that in the moment instead

(54:50):
of shutting down, I did, however, pick myself up faster
this time, and for that I am grateful and proud.
And here's the quote that she shared that goes with that,
Choosing yourself might be the hardest decision you ever make
because guilt, shame, and fear are powerful gatekeepers. Do it anyway,

(55:12):
You are more powerful than they are, much more. I
love that. I love that too. Thanks so much for
listening today. We would love to have you join us
in the Delayed On Tonight community, where you can interact
with both me and Sherry, plus the most supportive bunch
of intermittent fasters you'll find anywhere. Go to Jenstevens dot

(55:33):
com slash community to join us.

Speaker 3 (55:35):
Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast to your favorite
podcast app, and if you haven't already, please leave us
a five star review that helps new listeners find the show.
And we really appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (55:47):
We are a community driven podcast, so to submit your
success stories, your questions, your favorite tweak it till It's Easy, moments,
or anything else you want us to share on the podcast,
go to fast Feast Pete dot com, slash submit and
then listen each week to see if we share your
submission or answer your question

Speaker 2 (56:07):
Until next week, Thanks for listening,