Episode 116: Regain in Maintenance, Structuring Your Up Day, Strategies for Closing Your Window, and More

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

To make a submission for the podcast, go to fastfeastrepeat.com/submit.  We are a community-driven podcast, and we look forward to sharing your questions, success stories, non-scale victories, IF tweaks, motivational quotes (and more!) on each episode of the podcast. 

Resources used in today’s episode:

To get the books, go to https://www.ginstephens.com/get-the-books.html. The second edition of Delay, Don’t Deny is now available in ebook, paperback, hardback, and audIo book.  This is the book that you’ll want to start with or share with others, as it is a simple introduction to IF.  It’s been updated to include the clean fast, a thorough description of ADF and all of your ADF options, and an all new success stories section.  When shopping, make sure to get the second edition, which has a 2024 publication date.  The audiobook for the second edition is also available now!

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Connect with both Gin and Sheri in the community, as well as thousands of other intermittent fasters who are there to support you along your journey.  If you’re new to intermittent fasting or recommitting to the IF lifestyle, join the 28-Day FAST Start group.  After your fast start, join us for support in The 1st Year group.  Need tips for long term maintenance? We have a place for that!  There are many more useful spaces beyond these, and you can interact in as many as you like.

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Episode Transcript

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

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

(00:30):
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, I'm doing great. Yeah,

(00:56):
me too. It's been such a cool August. We're recording
this in August compared to like what it normally is,
and it was so funny. When Cal was here visiting,
all he talked about was how hot it was like
he was gonna die because he lives in San Francisco,
where it's so different, and it was hilarious. I'm like, cow,
you grew up in Augusta, Georgia, which is like the
hottest place on earth. It's like living in the oven.

(01:19):
He was to complain about how hot it was all
the time. Well, and it's not even that hot. I
mean it's August, but it was like eighty eight degrees.
And he was like complaining, I thought.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
San Francisco had some humidity.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
No, he kept talking about the humidity. It is not
like here, okay, And we looked and it was like
ninety one percent humidity here at that time.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Really. Yeah, Well, it's seventy four percent of humidity in
San Francisco right now, but it's only it's also only
sixty three degrees really, so the difference between like the
high all week is in the sixties, tomorrow gets up
to seventy.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
So we went at the end of August in twenty
twenty three. I had my flip flops and I was
regretting my feet were cold.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
To San Francisco and August yeah really, yeah, I've never
been there.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Well, we're going in November. Well, and I were going,
like I said last week, and I'm just knacking my
ugs exactly exactly. It'll be an ug trip.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yeah. I think the most miserable trip I ever took
is I was going to Dallas years and years ago
to a NASCAR race and it was the first weekend
of April, and I thought, oh, it's Texas, it'll be warm. Yeah,
And I didn't take a jacket. It was so cold.
It was so cold that I had to go to
like Walmart and buy a blanket to take into the

(02:42):
racetrack to cover up with.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, April can be a crapshoot all around the South. Yeah,
especially here at the beach. It's very cold in April.
It might even be like you might think it's warm
because it says seventy two degrees, but the wind coming
off the ocean, yeah, will make you freezing. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
Vac humid air that always older, makes it feel hotter
than it is until it gets cold, and then it
makes it feel colder than it is.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
I mean we literally have like ninety something percent of
humidity because we're on the ocean, like everything rusts. It's
a completely different place. I love that humid air though.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yeah, well it's good for your skin and hair.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
I think so.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Yeah, it's good to sweat. We don't like to sweat,
but it's good for it. Detox is your body. There
you go, so all right, Well we have a weekly
celebration and this week it's from s K in Perth, Australia.
It's titled two Years, One Journey, a Lifetime Transformed. August
seventh mark two years since I took a deep breath,

(03:38):
looked in the mirror and chose to change not just
my body but my life. What began is a simple
decision to try intermittent fasting became so much more than
a weight loss strategy. It became a commitment to myself,
a quiet promise, whispered in the dark moments, that I
would no longer settle for less than I deserve in
health and strength and in happiness. Through this lifestyle, I've

(03:59):
lost over sixty five pounds, five dress sizes, and over
forty three inches. But more than that, I've lost the
weight of doubt, of insecurity, of feeling the frustration of
being able to achieve excellence in every aspect of my
life except this, And in its place, I've gained discipline, confidence, peace,

(04:20):
and clarity. I've gained mornings when I wake up feeling strong,
evenings where I rest without regret, and days where I
know I'm living with purpose. I've gained a version of
myself I never thought possible, and now I can't imagine
living without it. My success hasn't been without setbacks. I
regained about twenty pounds. There were hard days when my
body ached, when my mind wavered, when the old habits

(04:41):
called louder than the new. I've been led down rabbit
holes and slipped in my journey. But through all this
I never let go. I kept showing up because every
step forward was a step towards myself and a promise
to always show up for myself every single day. This
is the new version of me. This is the body
that could squat two hundred pounds, dead left two hundred pounds,

(05:01):
bench press one hundred pounds, and overhead press eighty pounds.
This is the mind that wants to learn to keep
educating myself and to help others achieve the same successes.
This is the heart that gives without holding back, because
the void in it is now full of self love
and overflowing with happiness. And joy to share. This journey
isn't just about fasting. It's about choosing myself again and

(05:24):
again through discipline, grace, and belief. I am not the
same person I was two years ago. I am better,
I am lighter, I am stronger, I am free, And
this journey it's just getting started.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
That's fantastic. Yeah, maybe do we know that's okay? She's
in our community. We absolutely love her and we know
about her story. But that weight that she regains. Talked
about rabbit holes is going down that protein rabbit hole
that's out there. You can't avoid it. If you're on
any kind of social media or YouTube, you can't avoid
the protein push. And she went down that rabbit Because

(06:00):
you know we're right now, women are being told we
want to be strong as we age. Yes, Cherry and
I agree with that, but the messages you must overeat
protein to do it, we do not agree with that.
You need to eat a sufficient amount of protein, but
it's way less than people might think. And let your
strength gains be your study of one. If you're unable

(06:23):
to build muscle, then you can increase your protein and
see if that helps. But if you are able to
build muscle, then you're eating enough protein, right Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
Yeah, And honestly, your body's gonna let you know if
you need more protein. It mind does very loudly.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
Yeah yeah. Even though I don't eat as much as cherry,
it lets me know.

Speaker 3 (06:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:41):
And the other thing is, I think people when they
look at protein, they're looking at just protein sources like meat.
But you be amazed how a big salad with different
veggies and cruciferous veggies and some seeds and a little
bit of animal protein mixed in there. You would be
surprised just how many grams of protein that turns out

(07:04):
to be.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
Yep, oh, definitely. I went down a rabbit hole of
reading about protein restriction and longevity. Did I talk about
this on the podcast already? I know you and I
have talked about it behind the scenes, but I went
down the rabbit hole. And you know, some longevity experts
that study longevity actually recommend protein restriction. Now I'm not
you're recommending protein restriction, you know, but you can read

(07:27):
about it and see what you think. But I said, okay,
what would that look like for me? And for me,
protein restriction would look like forty grams a day, And
I'm like, well, okay, do you know that it was
practically impossible for me to limit myself to forty grams
of protein a day even though I was I just
did it like two days because I was like, this

(07:47):
is to see I just wanted to see. But I
tried to limit myself to forty grams of protein to day,
which is technically protein restriction for me. And like a
piece of whole week like Dave's Killer bread had like
five grams of protein, so if you have a sandwich
that's ten and you know I love my beans and

(08:08):
even potatoes. I mean I was like, wow, any kind
of dairy tons of protein, right, So it was practically
impossible for me to limit my protein even in an
eating window yep, which made me go, wow, you know,
we don't really know everything. I've ever seen anyone analyzed protein.
They always say we're eating more than we think.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
Yeah yeah, And if you think that, you if you
really think, I mean, I've had people say I can
only eat thirty grams a day. What do I do
if you're only getting thirty grams of protein in your
window during the day, I'm going to just go out
on a limb here and say that you are significantly
under eating in your window. And I bet they're not
really counting all their protein. Right.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
So if someone thinks they're only getting thirty grams a day,
I bet it's because they're only looking at the meat
and the eggs or whatever that they think of as
the protein source. Are you looking at your wh wheat
bread and counting that vegetables have protein? And here's a
great tip, chat GPT. You don't have to calculate it.
You just tell it what you had, and it calculates
it for you. It'll even give you like a percentage

(09:10):
and a breakdown. And so those couple days when I
was playing around with it, I just let chat GPT
keep a running total for the day. You just keep
going back to the conversation. Now, I had some Lima beans.
You wonder what's that? You know, you can actually upload
the screenshot of the label and it can read the
label and all that. So you're probably not eating as

(09:30):
little protein as you think you are. I was shocked,
and so I'm definitely not worried that I'm not getting
enough protein. Well.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
And two, like, if you were to google how much
protein like is in a chicken breast, say, well, a
lot of times they'll tell you based off of a
three ounce serving, but very few people are only eating
a three ounce serving of chicken breast. I mean, a
conventional chicken breast these days can be easily eight ounces
of protein, and there's.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
Forty five much as three. Yeah right, yeah, so yeah, Really,
the metric is are you able to build muscle. If
you are able to build muscle, then you are having
sufficient protein to build muscle. If you are not able
to build muscle, then you are not. And nobody can
tell you what that number is, although people try to,

(10:17):
because even the recommended daily allowance is an average of
people that they've checked and looked at, and it's and
they found some people needed more, some people needed less.
And we also have the added wrinkle when we're fast
and clean, we have increased protein recycling when autopogy is upregulated,
and that's something we can't quantify. We don't know how
much protein your body just recycled, but if it's reusing

(10:40):
old protein to build muscle, you ate zero protein and
yet you're still able to build muscle from that recycled
junkie protein, like maybe it's burning up an old scar, right,
So anyway, something to think about. So now we have
a question from a listener. This question is from Patty
in Atlanta, Georgia. She says, Hi, I love your show

(11:00):
and I look forward to listening each week. I'm Patty.
I'm sixty eight years old. I'm five to two, and
I currently weigh between one twenty eight and one thirty one.
I've been fasting for four and a half years. My
protocol is between nineteen and twenty one hours of fasting
a day. Some weekend days it may only be seventeen
or eighteen hours, depending on what's going on. I started
my intermittent fasting journey at one fifty and lost twenty

(11:23):
five pounds in the first year. I maintained that weight
at times, seeing one twenty three for the past four years.
For the past six months, my weight has been averaging
around one twenty eight to one thirty. I realized that's
only a three to five pound difference. But my clothes
are tighter. I pulled out last year's shorts and most
are way too tight. I do carry any extra weight

(11:44):
around my hips and butt area. I don't understand how
five pounds can make such a difference. I bought new
jeans the other day and I had to buy a
size ten when previously I was wearing eights and even
had some sixes. I look heavier with the five pounds,
and I'm not comfortable. Do you know why my body
composition is going in the wrong direction? Any suggestions for

(12:05):
me to get back to my size eight genes? Thank
you so much, well, Patty.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
First of all, as we age, unfortunately, our bodies just change, yeap.
Unless you are actively working to build and maintain and
or build muscle, add muscle weight to your body. We
just it's just inherent. We lose muscle mass as we age,

(12:31):
and after menopause we do start to distribute and hold
on to fat on our body differently than prior to menopause.

Speaker 1 (12:41):
Is all women, not just intermittent fasting women. This is
right being a woman.

Speaker 2 (12:45):
That's right. And so you know, because of that, it
may require you to do some tweaking. You know. We
notice three pounds of muscle is way more compact than
three pounds of fat, right, so you may feel that
five pounds of fat is showing up significantly for you.

(13:08):
I would really have you look back at when you
were actively losing weight. What were you doing and since then,
have you had a little bit more window creep? Are
you enjoying more indulgent foods in your windows? Has your
activity changed? You know, I know it's been really hot

(13:29):
this summer in Atlanta, So have you stopped going out
walking and like you used to do when it was cooler?
You know? Have you have you had you know, some
extra celebrations, vacations, those little things. You know, they can
put on a few pounds here and there and then
suddenly you look and you're like, oh, my maintenance weight
is now five pounds heavier. So really, my biggest suggestion

(13:52):
to you is to really keep an eye on your
food quality. It could be if you're having lots of
long windows on the weekends that is preventing your body
from you know, shifting into fat burning come Monday to stay. So,
how are you feeling while you're fasting? Are you still
feeling energetic? Are you still fasting with ease? Those can

(14:13):
be signs as to what your body is doing during
the fast. And then, like I've said before, get active.
If you're not active, that can make a world of
difference in your body and your body composition. So yeah,
food quality, tighten up your weekends and get active again.
It's so important and I believe that's all I have.

(14:34):
Do you have any other ideas, Jen.

Speaker 1 (14:35):
Yes, And I want to talk about the myth of
maintenance being one weight that you just stay at forever.
Maintenance is a range and it sounds patty like you
are at the high end of your range and you
don't like it because your clothes don't fit, and so
you've passed beyond it into the next level where you're
having to buy new clothes, so you're actively gaining a
little bit more. So, Maintenance is not just you get

(14:57):
to a weight. You keep doing what you're doing. You're
lack and you stay there. Maintenance is also vigilance and
when its diligence, well it said diligence and vigilance. You
got to be vigilant, and then you've got to be
digit what diligious I've lost, you know, when you start
saying words and you're like, what word even is that? Anyway?
So when your pants start getting tight, you have to

(15:19):
tighten up what you're doing. And you know I've been maintaining.
You know, I started fasting in twenty fourteen. It is
now twenty twenty five. I hit my initial goal in
twenty fifteen. So I've been maintaining now for over ten years.
And of course I don't weigh anymore, but my clothes
tell me when my jeens start getting tight, it's time

(15:39):
for me to tighten up. And that happens probably a
couple times a year. I don't like make a big
deal about it or freak out about it, but it happens.
I'm like, whoop. I'm kind of at the upper end
of my maintenance range right now, Sherry, Right, And.

Speaker 2 (15:51):
You're like, well, I've enjoyed a lot of really delicious
ice cream.

Speaker 1 (15:54):
I've had a lot of people visit and I took
every one of them to the cup and cone and
serve side. I had more ice cream, I had more
restaurant meals. I'm getting ready to go to Florida for
eight nights, and you know what, when I get back,
I'm going to be tightening it up for a little bit.
But I'm not going to ever feel deprived or like

(16:14):
I'm dieting. At no point have I felt like I
was dieting. I just know, Okay, time to stop buying
heavy cream and keeping it in my fridge. Time to
go a little more veggie centered meals, not eating out
the ice cream season is over, and that's just how
it works for me. It's balance, and so the vigilance
means that you don't get to the point where you

(16:35):
have to buy another size up without noticing you're about
to get there, and then you tighten up. But maintenance
does require some work, and when you start getting up there,
you got to bring it back down. And for me,
it's just simple things. I know that too much butter,
too much cream, too much cheese, too much restaurant meals,
too much ice cream. That's it. Knock those things out

(16:58):
for a bit. I'm still eating a little devious food.
I will never not eat delicious food, right and I'm
never going to do anything that feels like I'm dieting. Yeah,
but I mean I don't tighten up.

Speaker 2 (17:11):
I was going to say too. You know, if you're
a person and you're very socially active on the weekends
and that's why you're having longer windows on the weekend,
you might be one who's like, Okay, well I don't
want to change what I'm doing, but you might add
in a meal less Monday, and you know, have it
to day on Monday, and an up day on a Tuesday,
and that'll help you burn through any excess glycogen that

(17:34):
you have added over the long weekend windows. And you
know that'll encourage your body to shift into fat burning
on Monday, and then on Tuesday you get your little
metabolic boost from that up day, And all of that
is going to be helpful too as far as shifting
your weight and getting that extra few pounds.

Speaker 1 (17:52):
Off, yep, exactly. And you know it's going to take
a little time, but don't stress about it, and know
that you have the tools, and you know, I'm going
to Florida, like I said, for eight days, I am
planning to stick to one meal a day most of
the Day's not when I'm flying, because I like to
eat when I'm on my layover because I get airsick
when I land. My inner ear stuff. But when we're there,

(18:13):
I'm not going to snack around the pool at two
in the afternoon and have the charcootery and then go
out for a big dinner at eight pm. I'm just
gonna wait till we go to the dinner. And that
last year I didn't do that. I opened up my
normal time of two. Then my windows stretched longer every day,
big restaurant meal every day. These are my friends that
love to eat as much as I do, and I
just can't do that for eight days.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
Not gonna yep, all right, So our next submission is
both a lesson in the Clean Fast and a question.
This is from Melanie and Huntington Beach, California. She says, Hello,
I've been fasting since November twenty twenty two. I have
been cleaned fasting very easily and love the lifestyle. I
have experienced hypogocenia since my early twenties, and I dreamed

(18:57):
of not eating all day, having to plan my meals,
knowing when my next feeding will be, or having to
have food in my purse that would feed a family
of four. An acquaintance told me about the Glucose Revolution book,
and little did I know, it would change my life
forever and be the gateway for my IF lifestyle. Eating
vegetables before every meal, as the book suggests, made it

(19:17):
so that I did not have to eat constantly all
day long. I have never been one to eat in
the morning or before my workout, so that was easy
for me. Around mid afternoon, I would eat my first
meal that started with grazing on a salader veggies, then
an entree, and often with dessert after I would be
full for the entire evening. After a few weeks, I
realized that I was intermittent fasting. Shortly after, I found

(19:41):
fast FeAs Repeat on YouTube. After reading that, I realized
that my gum had to go, which was very easy.
I don't know my weight at that time, but it
was somewhere around one hundred and fifty five and I
am five foot eight and fifty two years old. I
was able to lose a few pounds and I could
help on my clothes and how I felt, and when
I was very pleased. I did not change my diet

(20:02):
at all, and I was thrilled that I could eat
dessert every day and maintain my weight while eating one
meal a day, usually over a four to five hour
eating window. I'm happy to tell anyone who will listen
about if. And I kept giving away my fast Piece
Repeat books, so I'd always buy a new one to
give to the next person who was interested. Things were
going well, except I was not losing weight, which I

(20:24):
now know was because of my food choices and eating
those desserts every day. But I was maintaining around one
hundred and forty six pounds last June of twenty twenty four,
my acupuncture has instructed me to spray a homeopathic topical
spray under my tongue for extra benefits. I told her
that I could not do that as I am a faster,
and she told me that it's only water and it

(20:45):
would be safe for fasting. I trust her and have
been a patient for nearly twenty years. I'm sure I
do not need to tell you, and that you can
guess what my next sentence will be. It actually took
months until I realized I was dirty fasting, which is
not fasting at all, sad face. I was struggling immensely,
as I had zero energy every day and I could
barely lift my arms some days. My fasting protocol had

(21:08):
been one meal a day the entire time, except for
a couple weeks where I had two meals. There were
many days I was not able to work or get
off the couch and go to the gym, which was
always very easy for me. I did not know it
was wrong with me, and my friends and family suggest
I go to the doctor. I'd lapsed and everything was normal.
It wasn't until mid December that I realized the spray

(21:28):
that I was spraying under my tongue was a culprit.
Every single morning, I was unknowingly breaking my fast and
because I had two years under my belt, it was
very easy for me to fast twenty four hours and
average nineteen to twenty six hours fasted every day. When
I was not well during those months, everyone suggested that
I eat, but I was adamant that I did not

(21:49):
have to because I'm a faster and that fasting is
good for me and easy. Thank God for this podcast
because listening to it something clicked. One day when Sherry
mentioned feeling like you're in a coma because of lowlood sugar,
that is exactly how I felt every day. I must
mention that I'm on HRT and even removed my estrogen
patch thinking it had something to do with my lethargy.

(22:10):
It did not make a difference, so I put the
patch back on. You both are talking every day about
clean fasting and making sure people check that they clean
fast and for me, it is like a broken record.
As I would have thought I would be the last
person to be tricked into dirty fasting, and for months
at that. I hope it shows how dedicated I am
as a faster that I would literally push through every
single day for months and months, feeling awful and continuing

(22:32):
to fast because I knew it wasn't my fasting that
was bad for me. A lot of realizations came to
me near the same time. For instance, I have very
dry skin, and I have since I was a little
girl being a faster. I am very proud of myself
that I don't need my heels scraped anymore while getting
a pedicure. So when I noticed that my heels were
making a crunchy sound on my bed sheets, I knew
something was wrong as I was not getting the benefits

(22:55):
from fasting. Another very unfortunate thing happened to me during
this time, and I gave into twelve pounds up to
one hundred and fifty eight and I could no longer
fit into ninety percent of my genes. I give you
this background to let you know I'm finally doing ADF.
I have heard you both suggest it when people are
at plateaus, as I have not lost the extra weight
for nearly four months after resuming clean fasting at one

(23:17):
meal a day, and I actually gained another five pounds
to reach one hundred and sixty three pounds. The lowest
weight that I see in my Happy Scale app is
one hundred and forty three. Back in March of twenty
twenty three, I stepped away from the scale because I
would let the number determine my happiness for the day.
I am using the scale now because I'm optimistic about
ADF helping me to take off these extra pounds. So,

(23:41):
finally to my question on the up day, is it
better to have a ten hour or twelve hour eating window?
I noticed for the metabolk boost, but I'm wondering what
will help me get the weight off. I am very
process oriented and I like to stick to a program,
even though weight Watchers, twice, calorie counting and keto never
worked for me to drop weight. I'm hoping you don't
tell me to do whatever works for me, because I

(24:03):
can easily do either. I'm looking for some guidance as
I don't have any one close to me who fasts.
I'm a member of your community and I love to
check in and get support there as it is wonderful
to summarize. I just started ADF and I've only completed
ten days My protocol is up day, down day repeat.
I'm so appreciative of any answers and guidance you both

(24:24):
can give.

Speaker 1 (24:25):
All Right, one thing I would say, and this is
just a little, tiny, little minor wording tweak here. Instead
of thinking of it as upday, down day repeat, think
of it as down day repeat. We don't need to
have an upday before a down day, although if you're alternating,
you're going to, but you must have an upday after
a down day. So that's just a little thing. Down day,

(24:47):
upday repeat. Okay, So you know, I love that you
shared this, Melanie, because every day we see people in
the community who are struggling and they're fast and not
feeling and we say, are you taking any medicine? Is
there anything you could be doing, and that they don't
think of stuff like what they might be spraying under
their tongue that their homeopathic doctor asked them to take, right,

(25:11):
And so those are all the little kinds of tiny
things that may seem tiny, but they're making a huge difference.
So it was breaking your fast and that sent you
down into a spiral of not feeling good during your
fast for months. So I'm glad that you figured it out.
And also that when you went back to the clean
fast you started feeling better. That's really good good to hear.

(25:32):
So that's how you can tell that was it. You
felt bad while you were using it, as soon as
you stopped using it, you feel better. That's a good sign.
So I would say twelve hour up days with three meals.
Just keep it simple, you know when we tend to
think that, well, for trying to lose weight, then I
know ten would be better than twelve because you're gonna

(25:55):
eat less than ten than you eight and twelve. But
then you'd have to remember why we're doing the up day.
The up day is not the weight loss day. It
is the metabolic boost day. So you're not going to
eat twice as much food as your body needs over
a twelve hour period, and so it's going to balance out.
We lose fat on the down day, we metabolic boost

(26:16):
on the up day. Air on the side of longer versus.

Speaker 2 (26:20):
Yeah, And I want to jump in two because sometimes
people think, just like you, that oh, the shorter the upday,
the better, and so they're trying to squeeze three meals
in into eight hours or ten hours, and they're miserable,
and they often are like, I just can't eat three meals.
Only two meals on my upday works for me. Well,
when you're trying to get your three meals in a

(26:41):
really in a short period of time, you're also really overwriting,
like listening to your body, listening to satiety. There's this
kind of push to like, oh, I've got to hurry
up and eat this, and then people are like, oh,
I'm miserable in the evening. But if you simply relax
into your upday, wake up in the morning, don't make

(27:01):
it a race to resume fasting, use the entire day.
Eat breakfast, stop when satisfied, have lunch, stop when satisfied,
have dinner, stop when satisfied. It really just kind of
takes that kind of frantic energy out of the up day,
and you're going to be so much more comfortable a

(27:22):
time and time again. When people try to have too
short a window, they're trying to make sure they get
all their nutrients in. They're trying to, you know, do this,
and they want to eat all the things they want
to eat. But then you don't feel well and then
you think, oh, adfs not for me, or people like oh,
adfs not to me because I eat too much on
the up day. But if you can relax into the upday,

(27:43):
it's so much more comfortable.

Speaker 1 (27:44):
Spread it out.

Speaker 2 (27:45):
I literally cannot do a full update in less than
probably ten and a half hours, So.

Speaker 1 (27:52):
Yeah, spread it out, give yourself time, let it rest
between the meals. On the flip side, though, you know,
I wouldn't go out and get like milkshakes and ice,
and you're not just like trying to eat as much
food as you can get in right you want to.
I like the way you described it as a nice
breakfast and then you stop when you're satisfied. I wouldn't
have a tiny breakfast. I wouldn't have like a yogurt

(28:13):
with a little sprinkle of granola on top. That's a
tiny breakfast. Don't have a diet breakfast, have a hearty breakfast. Yeah. Yeah,
And now it's time for our segment called what's your Why.
Most of us have weight loss in mind when we
get started. That's a great reason to do intermittent fasting,
but there is so much more to what intermittent fasting
can do for us beyond weight loss, And I genuinely

(28:35):
believe that if your why is deeper than weight loss alone,
You're more likely to find long term success and view
intermittent fasting as a lifestyle.

Speaker 2 (28:45):
This week we have a why from Julien titled My
Why because it Truly Works. I had a visit with
my nurse practitioner yesterday. I had been discouraged recently because
she put me on amlodipene a month ago because my
resting heart rate was so low of forty to five
fifty beats per minute. I had thought it was just

(29:05):
because of IF, but she didn't like it, so she
did an EKG and then put me on the medication.
My blood pressure was also high, so I'm not able
to get off that medication quite yet. But yesterday I
went back for a check on the medication and my
blood pressure. With the meds and also losing even more weight,
my blood pressure and pulse were perfect. The even more

(29:28):
fun part is that she told me that my blood
work from four weeks ago was perfect. My blood sugar,
my kidney function, my liver function, my electrolytes. She showed
me the past few years results and wow, it is
amazing to see the blood sugar be in a healthy range.
I used to be on met Foreman and I have
been off that for a year. I have been intermittent
fasting for fourteen months. I'm down fifty seven pounds with

(29:50):
thirty to forty more to go, but my health is
already better at one hundred and ninety pounds heavy. Just
imagine how much healing will continue between now and my
goal and maintenance weight. Our bodies love IF and I
am so grateful to have found it.

Speaker 1 (30:05):
That is fantastic to lean Wow. I mean, you can't
argue with those test results getting better health plan with
the side effective weight loss. Even if you never lost
another pound, you wouldn't want to stop doing intermittent fasting
for those health benefits.

Speaker 2 (30:22):
All right, So we have a question from Andrea of
Portuguese living in the Black Forest of Germany. Dear Gin
and Cherry. First, I want to thank the universe for
finding your podcast. It's truly a blessing. I'm forty four
years old and I'm not new to intermittent fasting. The
first time I tried this lifestyle was three years ago,
where I had extraordinary results. I managed to lose fifteen

(30:42):
kilos in four months. But I had no idea about
clean fasting, and like Gin, I had what's called diet brain.
I didn't eat fruit because experts said it had too
much sugar. I didn't eat beans, bread, rice, potatoes, or
dairy products, all because I listened to these types of
opinions not to mention how I should fast when I
was on my minstrl cycle, which led to me having

(31:05):
a huge binge after getting the desired results and going
on vacation. And then you can imagine what happened. I've
listened to a lot of episodes of your podcast, and
my god, it's been an eye opener and change of thinking.
I discovered that I don't work well with prohibitions, and
that was the number one reason I didn't continue. I'm
currently in my first month of fasting, and yes, you

(31:25):
can see and feel the change. I'm not going to
lie and say that I'm not doing it to lose weight,
because I do want to lose ten kilos, but I'm
here for the energy, the clarity of thoughts, and everything
that fasting makes me feel. I feel that this time
I'll be able to maintain this lifestyle because I don't
prohibit myself from anything, which means that my attitudes towards

(31:46):
food is relaxed and not repressive. As of Portuguese. I
have a healthy diet, very Mediterranean, with lots of veggies, fish, meat,
and fruits. That was never the problem. I have a
sweet tooth and I love, love, love bread with a
heavy coat of butter and jam first thing in the morning.
You can imagine how the rest of the day went
after that. I am one hundred and sixty eight centimeters

(32:09):
and at the moment seventy six kilos. My goal is
to be at sixty three kilos and that is when
I feel my best. I question to both of you
is related to vacations, because in two months I'm going
on three week vacation and to be fully honest, I'm
a little scared of not sticking to my fasting window.
Can you please touch on this subject of fasting and

(32:29):
enjoying at the same time your vacations. Thank you, girls
for everything that you're putting into the world about health
and living our best life. Ps. I will be joining
the community and I.

Speaker 1 (32:40):
Look forward to seeing you there. And for anybody who's wondering,
go to Jen Stevens dot com slash community and you
can find it. And there's also always a Lincoln Show notes.
All right, so three week vacation. You're right to worry
because you definitely don't want to stop fasting for three weeks.
And you know, I'm usually a little more relaxed when
I go on vacation. But like I mentioned of minutes ago,

(33:00):
I'm going to Florida for eight nights. And last year
when I went to Florida for eight nights, I opened
my window at my normal time most days, two o'clock
and snacked around the pool, snacked in the condo, snacked
wherever we were. Maybe he had would have been considered
a light lunch, but then we went out to a

(33:21):
really big dinner every night, and I had a really
big dinner every night. By the end of that trip,
I was feeling sluggish. I was napping in the afternoon
around the pool. I felt real heavy in my clothes.
And I came back and I said, well, I'm not
doing that next year. So I have a different plan
this year. I learned it the hard way because I

(33:41):
had not been on a trip that was eight nights
the whole time I've been in in passing that the
longest trip I went on. And so this year I'll
probably eat two meals on travel days. But when we
were at the condo, I am going to wait until
we go to dinner to open my window, and I'm
going to enjoy the heck out of it, because literally,
anything we're around snacking on, I've had that before. Right,

(34:03):
There's not a single thing they're going to be snacking
on that is going to be something that I like,
haven't eaten in my life, and we'll never get to
eat again. I do not need to eat a snack
at two o'clock in months through the afternoon because if
I actually a little bit that I'm really hungry, and
now we're not eating dinner till eight pm because these
friends like to go out late instead of not meeting
even more because I'm hungry, Whereas if I keep fasting,

(34:25):
I won't be hungry till we get to dinner and
then I'll eat my good meal and that'll be it.
And we also stay up too late for me, so
I won't be like going straight to bed at none
like I normally do. But it's just a matter of
wanting to feel good on the trip. I mean, it
didn't ruin my life. I came back and got back
on my regular plan, and I was fine, but I
didn't feel my best and I also don't weigh I

(34:47):
don't know how much my weight might have gone up.
No big deal, you know, I'm still fitning in my clothes.
But I don't want to feel like that again. So
I completely don't want to repeat what I did last year,
and I have a new plan for it.

Speaker 2 (34:58):
Yeah, And it sounds to me she was fasting well
and then she went on vacation before and kind of
maybe lost the plot and we hear this. Yeah, so
I think it's really important before your vacation to really like,
I know, you don't do good with you know, prohibition,
as you say. For me, it's really about making sure
that my actions align with my goals. And my goals

(35:21):
are to feel good, to have great energy, to sleep well.
And I don't want to come back from vacation because
I've done this my very first cruise as a faster
long windows alcohol dessert every night, and I came back
and felt horrible and I really felt like I had

(35:42):
the flu for three days. I couldn't get off the
couch until the third day, and I felt that switch
flip again and then I'm like, oh, oh, that's how
I'm supposed to feel right, and I learned really quickly.
I don't want to go through those three sluggish days
of feeling lethargic, not having energy, and not being alert.

(36:02):
So to me, it is not a compromise. It is
not me missing out because I choose to keep a
tight window on vacation. You know, if there's a day
that there's a really fabulous lunch and I'm not going
to ever get to experience that again, sure, I might
have a two meal day exactly, but on a five
or six day trip, I'm probably going to do that once.

(36:24):
On a five day trip have two meals. For the
most part, I like to still stick with one full
meal and really thoroughly enjoy it and make sure it's
window worthy.

Speaker 1 (36:34):
Yeah, Like when y'all came to visit me, You and
Roxy came to visit early July. One day we did
go out twice, but every other day we just had
one meal a day. We went to a restaurant and
had a meal. Yes, and that was.

Speaker 2 (36:47):
It, and that was very satisfying.

Speaker 1 (36:49):
It was we had great meals. We weren't restricted at all,
whereas the year before I would have the shark eater
in the afternoon and we did a little right nacking.
But this year, I was like, I didn't even get
all that.

Speaker 2 (36:59):
Yeah, we didn't miss it at all.

Speaker 1 (37:01):
I thought, y'all was people lazy. I was like, I'm
not getting all that. If they want it, we can
go get it once they get here. But we didn't
do it. We just went out at ate and it
was fine. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:10):
Well, and I told some of a community once they
were worried about vacation, I've been having a good time without,
you know, while maintaining a window or whatever. And I said,
you know, I think the point of vacation is have
such a great time with the people you're at and
exploring where you're vacationing at. The food is the last
thing on your mind.

Speaker 1 (37:27):
Now, I'm going to enjoy the dinner every night. I'm
not going to say it's the last thing on my
mind going out to eat of these ones.

Speaker 2 (37:32):
Well, I meant day during the day that's not going
to be late and yeah, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 (37:40):
All right, So we have a question from Closing Trouble
in California. Hello, Jen and Sherry. Thank you ladies for
producing such a fun and helpful intermittten fasting podcast. I
started IF right after Thanksgiving for about four months now,
and I've really been enjoying it. I do a daily window,
ranging anywhere from five to eight hours. I typically in
my windows somewhere between two to four PM, and I

(38:03):
aim to close by ten PM. I am forty one
five foot four and I weigh around one twenty eight.
I tossed my scale during the first twenty eight days,
and I honestly never brought it back into my life.
I have noticed so many other health benefits since I started,
such as my genes size dropping. I feel better in
my clothes, I have more energy. I'm thrilled with my
new lifestyle. I never had much weight to lose when

(38:25):
I started, and I've chronically been one of those five
to ten pounds over my goal weight people. But I
was tired of constantly having to analyze what and when
I ate. Intermittent fasting gives me freedom to eat what
I want during my window, and also the freedom to
not have to make any decisions during my fasting, not
to mention the significant money I'm saving from not buying

(38:46):
lattes every time I was out and about like I
used to. I am an emergency medicine physician. I work
many overnights and late nights. I have always been a
zero to one hundred work hard, play hard, all or
none kind of person, which actually works really well with
intermittent fasting. My struggle is closing my window. Once I

(39:07):
get going on my days off, I find it very
hard to close my window, and I often close later
than I intend to, or I just keep eating or
drinking one last glass of wine up until bed. If
I'm watching TV with my husband and he is still snacking,
I find I want to have more dessert or another
glass of wine. Are there any tips or tricks you
can provide that help facilitate closing the window and what

(39:29):
to do after your window closes and when you want
to sip something? Do you give yourself some kind of
countdown on when the window closes to get all of
your last snacks and drinks in. Any tips or tricks
or advice would be greatly appreciated. I searched and couldn't
find any advice on tips for window closing, so I
figured I should ask thanks again and keep being amazing.

Speaker 2 (39:51):
Well. I have a two part answer. One, if you're
using dessert or wine as a way to now a
lot of times people use wine as a way to
unwind before bed, but really it really negatively impacts your sleep.
And as a physician, I know that you know that,
so I'm not preaching to you, but I would really

(40:14):
suggest finding a different way to unwind at the end
of your day. We all love to sit around after
dinner and have a glass of wine or I like
to have a glass of craft beer, but I also
know it does not help me with weight loss, and
it also makes me not sleep well. So then the
next day I am not well rested, and I don't

(40:36):
make as good a choices in my window, and I
struggle with hunger the next day. And we want fasting
to feel easy, we want to feel great while we're fasting.
So for me, it's just over the years, that's been
something that has really I've weeded out of my eating windows. So, yeah,
can you come up with some different kind of way

(40:58):
to unwind at the end of the day with your husband,
Like maybe you could take a walk together, or maybe
you could rub each other's feet, or take a relaxing
bath and listen to some music, or you know, find
a new wind down activity. And then the other thing
is if you know that you just struggle to get

(41:19):
your window closed. I would delay opening your eating window.
So if you're trying to close your window by ten
pm and you want a five hour eating window, don't
open your window prior to five pm. Just make that
your hard and fast rule. Rather than saying, oh, it's afternoon,
it's time to open my window, and then your windows

(41:42):
get too long. Really set yourself up by success by
looking at your day ahead. What time do I think
I can realistically close my window today? Okay, it's going
to be ten o'clock. Okay, don't open your window till
five pm, and then you're setting yourself up for success
that way.

Speaker 1 (41:58):
Yeah, I think that's great. And you know, I go
back to doctor Burt Hearing in his fast five approach,
and doctor Burt Hearing his window was five pm to
ten pm, and he worked. I think he worked at
the National Institute of Health in their metabolic division, and
he was like a doctor. But I think he I think,
if I'm remembering correctly, that's where he worked. And so
his window of choice was five hours from five pm

(42:22):
until ten pm. And so I was thinking the exact
same thing. If you want to have those evenings where
you're snacking until later and you don't want to close
till ten. You just have to open later. And that's
the thing you get to decide. But you do have
to decide one or the other. You either have to
delay or you have to deny. Let's a pick one.

(42:42):
And since we don't want to deny, you just have
to nail that delay. And I know that's only not
happening every single day, you know, you don't have those
long stretched evenings of relaxing and having the line seven
days a week, maybe just on the weekend, but on
other days when you want to close maybe earlier. You
want to close by seven, and you're still going to

(43:03):
have sitting on the couch watching TV with your husband,
but you want to close at seven. You know. For me,
I find having a clean, fast approved beverage makes a difference.

Speaker 2 (43:13):
You know.

Speaker 1 (43:13):
I go to trivia on Thursdays with my trivia friends,
and I don't really like the food at the place
where we go, and so I've really just not been
eating there. I just sip on club soda, I eat
before I go. I actually close my window by five
on trivia nights now and I sip on the club
soda while we're there. I don't get club soda with
lum I just get regular club soda. And so I'm

(43:35):
fasting the whole time. They're all eating their food. Literally
everything they're eating I've eaten before. I know what that
burger tastes like. I know what that Casadia tastes like.
I don't want it. I'm fasting, and so I just
keep my window closed. So having a beverage that's clean, fast,
safe can help you put it in a wineglass if
you want to. You know, brushing your teeth can be
a signal that your window is closed. That works for

(43:56):
a lot of people. Make yourself a mug of m
T which is hot water, and a mug, so you're
still doing something with your hand and with your mouth.
You know that can make a lot of difference. So
you know the powers in your hands to choose what
you want to do, because you know that opening it
too and keeping your window open late into the evening
is not serving you well. And so you get to

(44:17):
decide whether you delay opening or whether you stick to
closing it, because for me, delaying the opening is always easier.
That's like what I said, That's what I'm going to
do when I'm in Florida. I'm going to delay the
opening until later and it'll be a lot better for me.

Speaker 2 (44:34):
Yeah. The other idea I had too was if you
have kind of a rotating schedule. I don't know how
your schedules set up, but if you know on your
day off that you are just that you enjoy along
your eating window, you might consider doing a down day
on your last workday so you can have an up
day on your off day. And that's another way that

(44:55):
you could set yourself up for success.

Speaker 1 (44:57):
Yeah, that's a great idea that can make a big
difference used to strategies that we've got. Before we get
to our tweek of the week, I want to take
a minute to tell you about my books. You know,
I will always be a teacher as my main thing.
That's what I am. I'm a teacher and now I'm
just teaching about intermittent fasting, and so it makes me
very happy to have a wide variety of resources for

(45:19):
you no matter where you are in your intermittent fasting journey.
You know, if you are a teacher, you've heard the
word differentiation. That was a big buzzword when I retired.
We differentiate for the kids, and so I have differentiated
for you. You will want to start with Delay Don't Deny,
which I think is the best quick introduction to intermittent
fasting out there. And the updated second edition is available

(45:40):
in paperback and hardback only on Amazon, and you can
get it an ebook and audiobook format wherever you find
your ebooks and your audio books. And if you're thinking
about doing ADF, that's the chapter you want to have.
I've updated the recommendations since fast feast to repeat and
the EIGHTF chapter is both more comprehensive, easier to understand,

(46:03):
and also has the updated recommendation on the upday, which
we have found after all these years of working with people,
what really gives people the best results? And I love
the success stories that are in there, all from the
inspirational members of the Delay Don't Deny community. Maybe you're
somebody who needs community support. You might not even realize

(46:24):
that you need it. Join us for a month. Go
to Jen Stevens dot com slash community. That link is
in the show notes. Join us for one month. You
can cancel if you don't like it, but I bet
you'll like it. Start interacting with us, make some posts
comment on the posts of others. There really is nothing
like having that support. And Sherry, I know you saw

(46:45):
Kim that came on my very first YouTube video where
I was kind of coaching her on YouTube, and she
was struggling with consistency, and we learned that she was
an obliger and she has been checking into the community
every day morning, setting up her intention for the day,
and at the end of the day, she's telling us
how her day went, and she has been consistent, and
she's alsot like, I don't know, twelve to fifteen pounds.

Speaker 2 (47:08):
The second around fourteen something, you know, right before she
met with you, is when she came back into community
and said she was really struggling struggling. And I started
talking to her and found out that the reason she
was not participating in communities because she didn't feel like
she was being successful. She only wanted to come in
and share her wins, right, and so when things weren't

(47:32):
going well for her or she wasn't finding consistency, she
was also not checking community, which was not helping her
find the consistency that she needed. And I'm the one
that said, look, you know, if you're a person who
is really good at committing to others then, so it
didn't surprise me when it came when your video came
out and turned out she's an abliger. After that, I said,

(47:53):
check in every single morning, check in, make that commitment
that you're going to do this day, and then I'm like,
at the end of the day, come and check back in.
I'm like, we're not just here for success stories. We're
not right here to celebrate people's wins. Like we are
here to support people, to help them build better habits
and to give them a place to really problem solve.

(48:14):
And really, since she made that commitment to do that,
she has found so much more success and consistency.

Speaker 1 (48:21):
She has And that's why we're there. And that's just
one more piece of the puzzle for people who need it.
So join us in the community Jen Stevens dot com
slash community, and we are there to support you on
your good days and your bad days and all the
days in between, your successes and also your challenges. And
Sharon and I are literally there every day, yep yeap.
So now it's time for our tweak of the week.

(48:43):
And you know I always say, tweak it till it's
easy and tweak it till it works. But the tweak
that works for me might not be the one that
works for you. And that's why it is super helpful
to hear how other intermittent fasters are making intermittent fasting
work for them. This is from Emma in New Hampshire.
She says, I religiously weighed daily and did my weekly

(49:03):
average for almost a year, but recently, in the last
two months, I realized how upset I would get if
I had a day where I was three to four
pounds up, usually from eating at a restaurant the day before.
Now I allow myself to skip two days a week.
If I'm feeling extra heavy, or I just got my period,
or I had as salty restaurant meal the day before,
I just skip. As long as I have five days

(49:26):
to average. That still feels good. Plus I don't have
to have that bad psychological feeling of seeing it go
up four pounds since the day before. I plan to
skip the scale altogether once I've been in maintenance for
six months.

Speaker 2 (49:40):
All right, Well, we love to leave you with inspiration
or motivational quotes, and this week we have a quote
from Pamela in Texas.

Speaker 1 (49:47):
The quote is.

Speaker 2 (49:49):
Remember to focus on the life that you desire to create.
This is your journey. Pamela shared, I find this incredibly helpful.
Envisioning my future self in certain clothing or sitch situations
helps me remain focused and determined today.

Speaker 1 (50:04):
I love that. Yeah, envision your future self. You're making
the choices today for your future self. And if you're like, eh,
I don't feel like it today, I'm going to stop fasting.
And then that happens to snowball and you're not fasting,
You're choosing a future that isn't going to be as
great as if you choose the fast every day. Yeah,
well I will.

Speaker 2 (50:24):
Sometimes people think like life's busy. I get it, and
there's a lot of stuff that happens outside of our control.
But the quote is remember to focus on the life
that you desire to create.

Speaker 1 (50:33):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (50:34):
We all have the ability to create the life we want,
and if we don't like the life we're in, then
it's up to us to create the change to get
where we want to be. And we all have that power.

Speaker 1 (50:46):
We do. We do, and every day you're choosing your
future self. Thanks so much for listening today. We would
love to have you join us in the Delayed on
Tonight community, where you can interact with both me and Sherry,
plus the most supportive bunch of intermittent fasters you'll find anywhere.
Go to Jenstevens dot com slash community to join us.

Speaker 3 (51:08):
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 (51:19):
We're a community driven podcast, so to submit your success stories,
your questions, your favorite tweak it till It's Easy, moments,
or anything else you want us to share on the podcast,
go to Fast Feast Repeat dot com slash submit and
then listen each week to see if we share your
submission or answer your question.

Speaker 2 (51:39):
Until next week. Thanks for listening.