Episode 123: Blood Sugar Lows After Eating, Addressing Deficiencies, Body Expectations, 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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Resources used in today’s episode: 
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Vitamin B12: https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements-vitamin-b12/art-20363663 
Want to learn more about BiOptimizer’s Magnesium Breakthrough? Visit www.bioptimizers.com/fastfeastrepeat and use code FFR15 to save 15% off any order. 
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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.

(00:54):
How are you doing today's Sherry?

Speaker 2 (00:56):
I am a little stressed. I'm oh, I'm a lot stress.
It's gonna be fine. Miss Lulu, y'all know if you've
been listening to podcasts for any amount of time, Miss
Lulu had three surgeries in twenty twenty four on both
Bray's dog, Yes, my dog, my baby. She had to
have both of her knees reconstructed, and then we had

(01:18):
have a third surgery to go in and remove hardware
and fix some meniscus in one of the knees, and
now she has on that leg. Heard it again. She's
been lame for several days, and I'm so worried we're
gonna have to have surgery again. So I'm gonna apologize
in advance because Lulu's in my office with me as
we record today. We're gonna hope she behaves, but I

(01:40):
have a lot of workers here in my yard. We're
having a lot of dirt work done and building a
driveway for my husband's work truck, so I don't want
her wound up in her kennel and further hurting herself.
So I've got her locked in my office. So if
you hear her bark, I'm sorry. It's just gonna be
for this week, and i ext really next because we

(02:01):
record two week two weeks at a time. Anyway, hopefully
she'll behave She's sleeping behind me right now, But if
you hear her bark, I'm sorry, apologize. We have well circumstances.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Pets are important, you know, And we don't have professional
recording studios. We're recording out of our homes and I'm
recording from my eat like a grown up program in
making making the video lessons for that, and I'll be
in the middle of recording and Ellie just pops up
like she'll be she like gets up on the desk.
She's like hello, And I'm not editing that out because

(02:33):
it's like real life. Right. There was one I recorded
last week and it was hilarious because I'm talking. Ellie
jumps up and she's like all in my face and
I move her, but I didn't even like stop my
train of thought, like wrestling with Ella moving her around,
and there she had putting her into my lap and
I'm just continuing to talk. But I think about it
like when I was a teacher and I had, you

(02:54):
know what, twenty eight kids in my class, right, and
I'm like over there cleaning someone's desk out while I'm
teaching about a Anyway, I'm loving what I'm doing, but
Ellie is making cameos.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
At least she didn't bring the bird in the house
while you were recording.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
Oh my god. Yeah, they hapened last night. Sherry knows this.
Y'all don't know it till now. But last night I'm
sitting there. We have a cat door. She comes in
and out she comes running in with a bird, a
live bird in her mouth, and then she took it.
She dropped it inside. See she's learned that when something
is still alive, if you bring it in, it's contained.

(03:30):
Ah see, like she'll bring in a lizard. She brought it.
I don't know if it was a baby rat. I
had to deal with that. Now that I am by myself,
I am chasing a live bird around the house, going ah,
because it's flying right at she right. Well, anyway, I
won't tell y'all that it was kind of a sad
end for the bird. But let's just say the bird

(03:53):
didn't make it. But I got it out of the
house by myself. Well that's involved a glass window and
the bird trying to frantic get out. I was trying
to let it go out of the door nicely, you know,
like going at the bird the door, a little bird,
but it shows the window. It hit the window bam,
and then it was knocked out. I'm going to pretend
in my mind I'm going to assume the bird was
just stunned and when I released it happened.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
I just did my mind assume the bird knocked itself
out and when you put it outside, that it woke
up and flew away.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
Later. We'll just hope that's what happens. But anyway, who knows.
Once the bird's been captured by the cat, it's not
really there's not much you can do. But Ellie's really
safe in the backyard. She's got a fence. She stays
inside the fence, but things come in, like the birds
and whatever that little rat thing was that she it
looked bigger than a mouse, but she brought it there.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yeah, it did when you sent me the picture, and
it had a really long tail.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
It was real excited and she was excited to have it.
I mean to get that out of the house too.
But and that one, I think I escaped alive. But
it is just the wild kingdom over here and being
alone and having to manage it myself. But I'm doing it.

Speaker 2 (04:59):
Have you ever seen like the Facebook reels or Instagram
reels where people sending pictures of their dogs, who their dogs,
who bring animals into the house like they'll open the
door to let their dog in, and the dog will
have a deer with them, or a baby cat with them,
or I've seen baby bears with their dog and they

(05:21):
come in through the dog door with their dog, and
I'm just like, oh my gosh, I would die if
a wild animal came into my house.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
Well, we've had raccoens.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
We had raccoons coming in the cat door in Augusta,
So I hope. I don't think raccoons can get in
my yard now because of the way the fence is.
Who knows.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
When I lived in Colorado, my dog brought in a
right through the front door. I opened the front door
for her. She came in, and she brought a very
large snake in with her.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
Oh see, that's what I'm worried about. Ellie likes little snakes.
If a snake comes in, I'm gonna have to just
burn the house down.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
Well, let me just tell you. I went out back
door of house and then ran down to where a neighbor,
a male neighbor lived, and I was like, I need
your assistance. There is a snake in my house. Can
you please come get it out? And he said, why
are you coming to me? I'm like, because you're a man,
and that's a man thing.

Speaker 1 (06:14):
Yeah. Well, I do have lots of great neighbors, and
I guess I could call on one of them if
I had. Can I tell one more story? And then
I thought we would get to the fasting. I had
what I thought was a lizard in a vent here
in this house. It looked like a lizard paking his
head out of the vent, and I thought it was dead,

(06:35):
a dead lizard. I swear to God, it looked like
a lizard, dead lizard up in the event. I'm like, well,
I'm gonna need to come over here and get this
dead lizard out of this vent. So he comes over
today and he looks up at the vent. He's like, yeah,
I see that lizard up there. He climbed out there foam.
It was foam. So got phone. He's like, Mama, this
is not a lizard. I'm like, what, it's a lizard.
It was not a lizard, but he thought it was

(06:56):
a lizard too when he first looked at it. It looked
like a lizard with his little snout. But no, it
was some kind of foam insulation.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
Oh yeah, he's a good son for coming that.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
He was a good son. He came home and to
help his mama with the death Lilitzer.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
Anyway, all right, well let's jump into a weekly celebration.
This is from E from Jersey. She wrote, Hijen and Sherry,
I submitted a question that you both covered in episode
one fifteen, and I wanted to thank you. I'm following
up with a victory that I can only attribute to
intermittent fasting. My boyfriend and I go on a trip

(07:33):
every spring and fall to different national parks. Back in
twenty twenty two, twenty twenty three, I was at my
heaviest weight of two hundred and eighteen pounds at five
foot two and very inactive. The arches of my feet,
my knees, and my lower back hurt all the time,
so I would opt for the sights that you can
drive to or a very short hike on these trips.

(07:56):
I know my boyfriend felt like he was missing out
and that I was holding him back. After I started
IF in December of twenty twenty three, my inflammation and
weight started dropping, and I felt like I could do
more now. In September of twenty twenty five, I am
down forty five pounds and I just crushed a hike.
I never thought I would be able to do the
Skyline Trail in Mount Rainier National Park. The hike was

(08:19):
five point six miles long with an elevation gain of
seventeen hundred feet. I felt amazing the entire time, and
even had to convince my boyfriend to keep going when
he was feeling discouraged. I'm so proud of us for
completing that hike, and I'm so excited to beat this
personal record on our next trip. I'm eternally grateful that
my sister in law, Suzanne from Intermittent Fasting Stories Episode

(08:43):
four eighteen, introduced fast Feasts Repeat to me two years ago.
Even if I didn't want to listen right away, it
changed the trajectory of my life. Now I'm I'm twenty six,
and I'm on the path to a much more long,
active and healthy life.

Speaker 1 (09:00):
Thank you both for the work you do. I love
this so much. First of all, I love that Suzanne
shared with her, and Suzanne was on the on the podcast,
and this is how we are changing the world. We're sharing,
and we're sharing with someone who might not be ready
to hear at the time, but then they remember it
and then you never know. It's true grassroots, I believe.

(09:23):
Of course. Now we're hearing lots and lots of you know,
doctors recommending intermittent and fasting all the time, and I
love that too. But we're changing the world. Don't be
afraid to share.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
Yeah, yeah, and I love you know. So many people
come to fasting for the weight loss, right, and I did,
you too, did, right, That's where we came. But it
does not take long for you to start really noticing
that your life is improving in so many ways. I
mean that go beyond weight loss, and just from decreased

(09:57):
inflammation and less joint pain. And I mean my mom,
who could hardly navigate the stairs in her luck, in
her house, and within a couple of months of fasting
is taking her stairs, you know, two feet at a
time instead of you know, she was doing like one step,
two feet, one step, two feet down, one step. Now

(10:18):
she just goes up and down the stairs, right. And
you know, she couldn't walk hardly a block and now
she's walking forty five minutes. And that has nothing to
do with weight loss. I mean, that really is all
about decreased inflammation, decreasing because.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
She was able to do that before she lost a
substantial amount of weight. Oh yeah, right, that's why I
wanted to say that, because, yes, weight loss does help
with that. Obviously, she was able to go up and
down the stairs prior to any significant weight loss, so
you can't just say, hey, it's the weight loss, it's
a decreased inflammation.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
She ended up having significant knee pain since twenty twenty one,
and her doctor, I don't know, her doctor said it
was too early to do any placement and he wanted
to wait, which at the time, I'm like, she's seventy
some years old, what are we waiting for. But because
she was having so much pain all the time and
her knees, she'd really stopped walking or doing anything, and

(11:12):
so she'd really lost her stamina. And then once the
fasting started decreasing the inflammation, she noticed, like her pain
was substantially better, and that's when she got encouraged to
get up and start walking more and that sort of thing.
And it's she was just so shocked at how quick
her stamina improved. And so yeah, I mean, like she

(11:33):
just messaged me the other day that if she never
lost a pound, she'll never stop fasting.

Speaker 1 (11:37):
I love it. I love it. Yeah, Share, share, share everybody.
That's how we're changing, changing lives. So now we have
a question from a listener. This question is from Diane
in Salt Lake City.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
Hello.

Speaker 1 (11:49):
I am new to IF just shia three months and
I am enjoying the lifestyle. I started mainly for the
health benefits, particularly to control diverticulitis flares. Of course, losing
weight isn't anything I'll complain about. My question to you
is about low glucose readings after eating. I've never been
concerned about my blood sugar, as it's always been normal
at my checkups. However, I was curious what it was

(12:12):
doing after taking my medication that I was prescribed for sleep,
so I ordered a gluecose monitor. During fasting, I stay
pretty close to seventy. Once I start eating, it drops
sometimes below fifty five, and my head starts to ache
a little and my vision blurs, and goodness, it doesn't
last long, but it concerns me. I asked chat GPT

(12:33):
and it says that the sudden release of too much
insulin is the cause. Let me add The meal I
had was not high in carbs, but once I started
to feel bad, I did eat some carbs and felt
better within ten minutes or so. Is this something I
should be concerned with? And are there others that experienced this?
Thank you for considering my question and I look forward
to hearing your opinion.

Speaker 2 (12:53):
Okay, well, I do have a couple of thoughts on this.
And I don't know what you are drinking to open
your window, like, because that could make a difference. Like, say,
I know a lot of people will like to They're like, oh,
I can finally drink something besides black water water, right,

(13:14):
And so some people are waiting till their window opens
to drink something, and so they might be opening their
window with something sweet or fruity, or a diet soda
or whatever while maybe they're cooking or preparing their food.
So if you were to drink something like that and
not pair it with food, you would have this insulin

(13:37):
release and you're not going to have any food in
there to keep your blood sugar up once that insulin
pushes out, and so then that could result in like
a sudden drop in your blood sugar. This depends on
the when this is happening in relation to eating. Like
I would not think that you would have a really

(14:00):
sharp decrease in your blood sugar like while you're eating
your meal, because that kind of takes a minute for
all of that to happen. So if this is happening
like an hour after you eat your meal, then it
could just be the fact that you are new to

(14:22):
if like you, if you've been insulin resistant for a
while and your body is used to pushing out all
this insulin, you know, because that's how insulin resistance happens,
Like your cells can't use insulin efficiently, so your body
starts pushing out more and more insulin. And so if
your body is still pushing out that much insulin but

(14:45):
you're keeping your blood sugars low while fasting anyway, it
could be that your body's just pushing out too much
still right now. And I feel like over time, like
you're gonna get more insulin sensitive and that's not going
to be an issue, but definitely, like, just be really
cautious about what you're opening rona with. Don't be opening

(15:07):
with sugar free drinks. Don't be opening with like some
thing that's not really balanced. People think, oh, well, if
I don't eat carbs, then my blood sugar shouldn't spike
and I shouldn't have like reactive hypogacemia. But when you're
going from like this fasted state to eating, everything's changing

(15:28):
in your body, like so all of a sudden, your
body's pushing out insulin when it hasn't been. And so
I would open with something very balanced and also maybe
just open with something kind of like balanced in lights
and don't overload your body too much with like a
big meal at first, and then like kind of pause

(15:51):
and then you can eat some more. And kind of
just if that makes sense, like, don't open have a
big meal like all at once, kind of ease into
your window a little bit. Do you have any other suggestions?

Speaker 1 (16:02):
Jin, Yeah, I wish, I wish I knew what she
was opening with. That would be helpful, as yeah, yeah,
that would be helpful. But you know, I want to
emphasize that she could tell she doesn't feel good, her
head starts to ache, and her vision, she can tell
that's her life.

Speaker 2 (16:16):
And I know that feeling because I've struggled to reactive
hypogo same in my whole life. So it does feel awful,
and sometimes your heart kind of starts to pound a
little bit. And so I mean, you were right to
eat something to get your blood sugar back.

Speaker 1 (16:29):
And I'll go to test it. If you think that
you're having blood sugar drops, you confirmed it and you are.
So now it's time to just figure out what foods
work for you and don't cause this to happen. Right,
you might need to have more carbs, not less carbs,
which I might might sound crazy, but again, if you're
having a huge insulin push and no carbs coming in,

(16:52):
where's your body going to get that glucose from that?
It needs to keep your blood sugar up. So I'm
not saying start with like something like a cookie, but
like you said, sherry, something balanced.

Speaker 2 (17:03):
Like for instance, I could see something that would cause
this would be like maybe a fruity sugar free yogurts,
right that's sweetened with stevia or something.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
But your brain thinks, okay, there's that cephalic phase insulin response.
You taste the sweetness, your brain lies, oh yeah, this
is real sweet. We're about to have a whole lot
of sugar come in from this sugar free yogurt that
your brain doesn't understand actually has zero sugar. So bam,
that pushes out a lot of insulin but no sugar.
Really came in, right, so you're crashing.

Speaker 2 (17:34):
Yeah, So I would think opening with something more savory
and then yogurt and fruit and that's all. That's great,
but like maybe you need to have that at the
end of your meal, after you've already had something that's
like high fibers, got some protein in it, got some
healthy fats in it. So eat something super balanced and

(17:56):
then if there's something kind of like sweet that your
brain ain's going to perceive sweet, have that after you
have the balanced food that's going to provide a little
bit more stable blood sugar.

Speaker 1 (18:07):
All right, So we have.

Speaker 2 (18:08):
A question from Whitney in Saint Louis, Missouri. Hi, Jenna Sherry,
thank you for taking the time to help me out.
I started IF in January of twenty twenty five after
finding Fast Feast Repeat through my library. Since starting, I
have been able to get my weight down to one
hundred and seventy three, where I have been stuck for
the last two and a half months. It is currently

(18:29):
the end of September while I'm writing this. My height
is five foot four and I'm coming up on my
fortieth birthday. My goal weight is one forty five, which
is the top of the healthy range for my height.
I have dealt with weight issues since I was a child,
and I have done all the different diet plans. Sometimes
they would work and sometimes they wouldn't, but inevitably the

(18:50):
weight would always come back on. Most recently, I had
my fourth and final child back in April of twenty twenty.
My weight with that pregnancy went up to the highest
it had ever been at a about two hundred and twelve,
and that is where I was stuck for the next
five years until I found if this has been the
only thing that has worked to finally get me back
down out of the two hundreds. Here's where the question

(19:12):
comes in. I recently started seeing a functional medicine doctor
because I've been dealing with a lack of energy, mood swings,
and some depression. After looking at my lab work, she
mentioned that I am very low in quite a few
areas like iron, be twelve, calcium, et cetera. Her solution
was for me to eat more whole foods and stop
intermittent fasting. As I mentioned before, my weight has plateaued

(19:35):
in the lows one seventies for the past few months,
and I believe that is probably due to too many
sweets and unhealthy foods in my window, which probably also
accounts for my body lacking in nutrients. I do not
want to stop IF because once again it is the
only thing that has taken the weight off. My plan
going forward is definitely cut back on the ultra process
and unhealthy sweets. My question is how can I make

(19:58):
sure I'm getting the nutrients my body needs during my window. Also,
I know you've addressed the argument against women fasting in
the past. The functional medicine doctor who is a woman,
told me that women should not fast during or after
the week of ovulation. On a side note, I did
make sure she knew I was doing time restricted eating
with a daily eating window and not something like ADF

(20:20):
for going days with no food, as I had not
heard that before. Could you please let me know your
thoughts on this. Thank you again. I'm going to press
far with fasting and look forward to any help and
tips you ladies can provide.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
All right, and again, I know that it's frustrating when
your doctor says something about intermitten fasting that maybe the
opposite of what we talk about. And I would always
like to emphasize that doctors know what they know or
what they have heard. Right, there's one book about fasting

(20:53):
and women that actually has a very complicated here's what
you do during what week of your cycle. That's a
whole book out there, and maybe that's the only book
that your doctor has read on fasting and that's all
she knows, and say she believes everything in that book
is true, and she doesn't really know any different because
she doesn't do intermittent fasting. She doesn't have experience with

(21:14):
women in fasting. So she's like, this is what I know.
You need to change up your fasting because I read
that in this book and it sounded so scientific that
I believe that's true. And so I'm not criticizing your
doctor for knowing what she knows, but other doctors know
different things based on experience with it. So I would
trust a doctor who understands intermittent fasting and women. And

(21:38):
I always go back to doctor Tabitha Barber because she's
a trained OBGYN. And then she went back and got
her functional medicine certification what do they call it? A certification?
She is an expert in women's hormones. You know, obgyns
are not experts and hormones unless they go get extra training,
and so we can't assume that a functional meta doctor

(22:01):
that everyone is going to have the same breadth of knowledge.
So I really trust doctor Taba Barber based on her
understanding of both a female anatomy and also hormones and
being a functional medicine doctor. Go back and listen to
episode twenty eight of this podcast and let her explain
to you why it's safe for women. I also have

(22:21):
a video with her on my YouTube channel that you
can listen to if you like to watch YouTube videos
where doctor Barber dispels the myth about fasting in our cycles.
And she actually has a program with intermittent fasting and
women that she runs, and so she understands it. So
I understand it's alarming if a doctor is telling you

(22:41):
one thing because they just don't They don't all know, right,
So I never tell anyone ignore your doctor. But I
do think it's important to take things with a grain
of salt and recognize when your doctor might be going
on different information based on a lack of understanding in
the air. Because again, it's impossible for any one person

(23:02):
to know everything about everything. It just is we know
what we know, and so listen to doctor Tabatha Barber
and others, and I would not worry too much about it.
As far as your functional medicine. Doctors advice to focus
on whole foods. That is one hundred percent excellent advice.
We need to focus on real foods. And if you
have a hunch that your diet has been lacking, then

(23:26):
it probably is. We know, we know when it is.
You mentioned that you have lack of energy, mood swings
and you're low in iron, BE twelve calcium, you may
need some supplementation. BE twelve is very important as an example,
and if you're low in it, you need to get
those nutrients in your body. Maybe a supplement, like I said,
that might be what you need. So real foods, supplement

(23:49):
where you need to and really research for yourself by
listening to the doctors who deeply understand a particular topic.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
And then I'm going to add something to Okay, when
I saw what all her deficiencies were, like, alarms started
ringing in my head. Subclinical hypothyrotism and hypothyroidism are associated
with efficiencies in vitamin D, calcium, B twelve, iron, and calcium,

(24:21):
so you have three of those going on.

Speaker 1 (24:24):
And that she could have the others as well. She
just said, et cetera.

Speaker 2 (24:28):
Right, So, like, if your body is vitamin D deficient,
then your body can't uptake and use calcium appropriately, and
then everything is interrelated. And the fact that you said
that you've been having like lack of energy and mood swings,
you are now forty, you could very well have some

(24:51):
subclinical hypothyroidism, and I would really kind of maybe look
into that. One of the things you can do is
is to start taking your temperature several times during the day,
keep like a journal, you could make like a spreadsheet.
Even this is what I did because I was one
hundred percent convinced that I had subclinical hypothyroidism. And since

(25:15):
I started taking a thyroid hormone, I feel one hundred
times better. But I had low blood calcium. I was
B twelve deficient, I'm vitamin D deficient. My body temperature
was very low. And so you want to take your
body temperature in the morning, afternoon, and evening. It should

(25:35):
rise through the day, and then track that for a
while and track your energy levels, track your libido, track
any other symptoms you have, Like have you noticed that
your eyebrows are thinning, are you having any hair loss,
do you have dry skin, do you have a hard
time recovering from exercise, and really explore that as a

(25:59):
potent issue that's going on with your body that's kind
of causing these other issues to present. And if you're
seeing a functional medicine doctor, they should be pretty well
versed in diagnosing subclinical thyroidism or hypothyroidism because they actually
tend to use a different scale for your thyroid panel

(26:22):
than conventional medicine. They recognize that the scale that conventional
medicine uses is too tight and that the ranges should
be broader and kind of like hormone replacement therapy, where
we dose until people feel better. That's kind of the
thought on subclinical hypothyroidism. If you're having all of the

(26:45):
symptoms of hypothyroidism and you're having other signs of it,
to start with some thyroid medication, see what your thyroid
levels do, and see how you feel. For me, it
was a life changer. I started on it last spring
and I'll the lights are back on. Anyways, I wanted
to bring all that up. Yeah, that's so important. All right,

(27:07):
it's time for our segment called What's Your Why. Most
of us begin intermittent fasting with weight loss in mind,
as Shery already mentioned today.

Speaker 1 (27:14):
But that's a great reason to start, But there is
so much more to what intermittent fasting can do for
us beyond weight loss. If you have a powerful why statement,
I genuinely believe you are more likely to find long
term success and view intermittent fasting as a lifestyle.

Speaker 2 (27:31):
All right, So this week we have a wife from Jana.
Janna wrote My why began as weight loss like many people,
but the more I have learned about if, the more
that I know I will never stop. The history of
my family has a large percentage with diabetes, inflammation, arthritis,
and some with Alzheimer's. Most of those that were diagnosed
with diabetes were my current age of fifty when they

(27:53):
received that diagnosis. This is my why. I was already
having so much inflammation in my body it would not
be able to stand up straight when I first got
out of bed. I have eight grandchildren that I want
to be able to play with, ride bikes, and enjoy
life with as much as possible. My husband and I
love to travel, and another why is to be able
to travel without pain and be able to go on

(28:14):
hikes or long walks on the beach with him. All
of these mostly preventable diseases would take these memory making
moments away from me. We can't know the future or
how long we have left on earth, but I can
do what I can do to minimize the chances of
getting one of these diseases.

Speaker 1 (28:33):
I love that, all right.

Speaker 2 (28:34):
So we have another question this week from Steph in Oklahoma.
Steph gave us lots of details, which we love. Steph
says she's fifty years old. By four she started at
one hundred ninety eight pounds. She said, I freaked out
being almost two hundred pounds. Her current weight is one
hundred and twenty eight pounds to one hundred and thirty

(28:54):
two pounds for the most part over the last couple
of years. Her goal weight is one twenty to one
twenty five, as she says she would like to be
a little leaner and more sculpted muscle wise. She has
been intermittent fasting since March twenty twenty two, she said,
one and sixty eight consecutive days. I've never missed a day.

(29:17):
She does one meal a day for the most part.
Rarely she'll eat two meals when something is going on,
like a birthday, She shares, I like to eat between
twelve thirty to three thirty Monday through Thursday. I don't
like to eat within several hours of sleeping, and I
prefer to work out fasted when I can in the am.
I stop eating by three thirty during the week because

(29:38):
Monday through Thursday I work out at five thirty and
I want at least two hours of fasting before I
work out. I get that I don't like to work
out on a full stomach either. On Friday through Sunday,
I sometimes have longer eating windows, more like four to
five hours at times, and I work out in the morning.
I like to volume eat and then stop. I work

(29:59):
out five to six times per week and hike once
a week or so. I take a lot of leisurely
evening walks with my dog. I did my first n
body scan at one hundred and sixty eight point seven
pounds and forty one percent body fat with a BMI
of twenty nine and viscral fat level of fifteen. My
skeletal muscle is fifty five point one pounds. I wish

(30:20):
I had one for comparison. When I was one hundred
and ninety eight pounds, but I don't. My current body
fat is twenty one point eight percent and a twenty
two point four BMI. My viscral fat level is down
to five, and my skeletal muscle is fifty six point two,
so no muscle loss with if.

Speaker 1 (30:37):
It's actually up. Her muscle has gone from fifty five
point one to fifty six point two, that's awesome.

Speaker 2 (30:44):
My current labs my glucose is eighty three, my insulin
is four point two A one c's five point one.
No labs were flagged. My current clothing size is extra
small or small or size two for the most part,
ironically about the same size that I was when I
graduated high school years ago, at one hundred and seventeen pounds.
I was very fit then, so knowing this kind of

(31:05):
makes me annoyed that I still weigh about fifteen pounds
over that weight. It's not like I wasn't even more
muscular and fit then, so that part confuses me. My
body composition was likely really good then, so why am
I now heavier at approximately the same size. I was
a track athlete then. I think society just got used

(31:25):
to everyone being bigger. Overall, the only meds I take
are oral progesterone and estradial cream and some supplements vitamins.
Note I did not take any meds when at my
heaviest weight. I had no medical issues then or now.

Speaker 1 (31:40):
I weigh daily.

Speaker 2 (31:41):
Over the Christmas holiday in twenty twenty three, I gained
up to one hundred and thirty nine when I would
only weigh every couple months or so. In January twenty
twenty four, I began weighing daily. I do find myself
upset if the weight is over one hundred and thirty two,
and I'm very happy if it's under one hundred and thirty.
I know it's not the to worry about weight like
I do, but I do, deep down worry the weight

(32:03):
will come back and I feel and I'll feel awful
physically and mentally if my weight goes over one thirty five.
I really, really, really want my weight to be in
the one twenties, not one thirties. It's the two versus
the three. I eat decent. I'm not super strict, but
I don't eat a bunch of crap either. I focus
on protein and watch carbs and sweet intakes. I don't

(32:25):
drink calories, but occasionally. I'll have a diet doctor pepper
every couple of weeks or so with a meal. I
do not drink coffee or tea. I love the idea
of black coffee. I need to find one. I like.
I do have a protein shake some days to get
my calories in. Protein intake up in my eating window
if needed. I let myself have anything I want. If
I want cake, I'll eat it by allowing myself the choice.

(32:48):
I only choose yes if I really want the food item.
I don't bother if it's just junk, I'm not interested.
In the past, I would have had the junk regardless.
So Jin, what do you have to say about all
of this?

Speaker 1 (33:01):
Oh goodness, Steph, Steph. I would like to give you
a big hug, and then I would go into your
bathroom and I would get your scale and I would
smash it, throw it away, and I would say you
were never allowed to get on a scale ever again.
Go buy your pants forever how they fit, because you
are really really in your head about a number? Or like,

(33:24):
what if I snuck in there and changed the way
your scale read? Like I could change the way it's
calibrated and make it say one twenty five. Like if
you got on that scale this morning, weighing exactly what
you were right this minute, wearing the clothes you weigh
right now, and you stood on that scale and it
said one twenty five, but your body is exactly the same.
But it says one twenty five, I think you'd be happy.

(33:47):
I think you're happy with your body. You like the
clothes you're wearing, You feel good in your clothes. I
know you mentioned that you'd like to be a little
leaner and sculpty. I mean, we got the bodies we
have right you're fifty. I do not have the same
body at fifty that I had when I was a
senior in high school. Even if I weighed the same
exact thing, it's not going to be the same. I'm
older now, right, So do not compare yourself to your

(34:11):
high school body. You know they say comparison is the
thief of joy. Comparing fifty year old stuff to high
school stuff is. We're not going to be the same
at fifty as we were in high school. So I
want you to just imagine that if your scale said
one twenty five, but you weigh exactly the same as
you are right now, how happy you'd feel, and then
really reflect on that you're chasing a number and you're

(34:34):
making yourself deeply unhappy over not seeing the number you want.
You know, you said your current weight is one twenty
eight to one thirty two. Your goal weight is one
twenty to one twenty five, so you are within three
pounds of what you want, Like you want your scale
to say one twenty five, but you're weighing between one

(34:56):
twenty eight and one thirty two. You're there. You are
your happy maintenance weight. You are living your goal lifestyle.
You don't want to eat less than you're eating right now.
You don't want to restrict, you don't want to do
all that. You're happy, and you have been maintaining in
your range. It sounds like you've been maintaining in that

(35:17):
range for a almost four years. I mean for a
long time March of twenty twenty two. I don't know
when you hit your goal, but you've been You've been
maintaining for a while. You have more muscle now than
you did, so you are at a healthy level of
visceral fat. You have a healthy level of muscle mass,
and you've actually gained muscle mass. Your body fat percentage

(35:41):
is in a very healthy range. Your BMI is healthy.
And again, if I just snuck into your house, I
can't smash your skin on throw it away, but I
could just secretly change the way that it works so
that it says one twenty five. I think you'd be like,
I'm there, yay. So I want you to really think
about that, because that number, I think is your worst
enemy right now, the number that you want versus the

(36:03):
number that you have. So even if your number did
get down a few more pounds, that's not going to
change your life dramatically. What do you have to say
about that, Sherry.

Speaker 2 (36:13):
Well, my thought too. She seems hung up about the
fact that she weighed less in high school. But you
said you were a track star, so you were very fit.
But if you were running track in high school at
one hundred and seventy pounds and you were running all.

Speaker 1 (36:30):
One seventeen, what did I say? You said one seventy.

Speaker 2 (36:33):
Oh, I'm sorry, one's seventeen. I guarantee you have more
muscle mass on your body now than you did then
because track stars, people who run track all of that running,
and it has to do with like slow twitch fast
twitch muscles and how you build muscles and just how
you train. Unless you are actively doing strength training while

(36:59):
running track or while you know, doing endurance type running,
they know that you lose muscle mass. So you may
look wean, and you may, you know, have muscular legs,
but overall, like your body composition, you cannot compare your
body composition now to then, and I guarantee you that

(37:20):
you have a healthier body composition now as far as
muscle mass than you probably did at one hundred and
seventeen pounds in high school. So that's something really You're like,
you're not really comparing apples to apples anymore. The workouts
that you're doing include you know, a lot of strength
training and hit training, and we know that that improves

(37:43):
your muscle mass. You're not just doing steady states cardio
running anymore. So your body is just not the same.
You're not training the same, So I want you to
really let that go. You said like, you're like at
the same size that you were then, So does it
matter what the scale says because nobody looks at you.

(38:05):
You don't have a readout on your head that says
you weigh one hundred and thirty one pounds today, nobody
knows that they see a very fit, healthy looking fifty
year old woman, right, and your body fat percentage is
in a very very healthy range for a fifty year
old woman. So yeah, I'm with Jen, get rid of

(38:26):
your scale. Just keep doing what you're doing and let
that number go like that does not It's not like
suddenly you're going to get there and everything in your
life's going to be magical and better.

Speaker 1 (38:39):
And again, look, it's hard to find clothes. So if
you're fitting in an extra small or small in size too, like,
what are you going to be an extra extra small zero?
I mean you're at a great size, You look good,
you feel good in your body, and I really think
the main thing I want you to think about is
if suddenly you were exactly the same but the number
was lower, if you would feel bad, then that is

(39:01):
a sign of an unhealthy expectation of the number. That's
why I stopped weighing completely. It was that because I
wanted to see I wanted to see the two. Also,
the day I got on that scale, I wanted to
see it too, and I had lost two gene sizes
since the last time i'd weighed, and I knew I
was going to see it too, and I saw a
three and I was mad, and I was like, well,

(39:23):
I need to lose a little bit more weight. I'm like, no,
I don't. And then I got rid of my scale
and I haven't seen a number since then.

Speaker 2 (39:28):
And how much happier are you?

Speaker 1 (39:30):
Oh my gosh, I'm so happy. I almost thought about
getting a scale sharing I just said a curiosity, but
I didn't. I restrained myself will and I went to
a different phone carrier. So we moved to T Mobile
from Verizon, and so it came with like really great
phone up grades whatever, So we got new phones. So
but I had a new phone that wasn't that old,
so I traded it back to Apple and had this credit.

(39:52):
So I had this credit at Apple, and I was like, well,
I don't need anything in Apple, so I'm looking what
do I need? What do I need? And there was
a nice scale, and I was like, I could get
that scale. I can start weigh myself.

Speaker 2 (40:04):
And I'm like wow, I mean, unless you were wanting
to suddenly put on a bunch of muscle mass and
you wanted to see if you were making progress over time,
I can't imagine one reason why you need a.

Speaker 1 (40:17):
Weigh No, And I can actually tell very easily, like
when your weights fluctuating a little bit, and I can
see like like I'm doing. I've been doing a lot
of rebounding, and like my calves are very muscular. I mean,
I know, I know, I'm fine. So anyway, I resisted,
but I almost did because I had, you know, all
this Apple cash and I'd spen it at Apple. So yeah,

(40:39):
I almost got a scale, but I was like, no,
I don't need that, am I line? All right? We
have a question from k in Berkshire, UK. Hello. I
am a fifty four year old woman who has been
practicing intermittent fasting for around four to five years. I
started with ensuring I got eleven hours away from eating overnight,
and I've built up slowly to eighteen six with occasion

(41:00):
longer fasts. I've done a few of twenty one, thirty
six and one forty four hour fast. I'm in good
health and good shape at one forty and five foot eleven.
I fast for the health benefits it will hopefully bring
me as I get older. I've never been overweight, although
my weight varies between about one forty eight depending on
whether there is a why in the month. She said,

(41:20):
I always fast clean with just decaf green tea, decaff
coffee or water. My eating window is what it was
that one I'm doing some moth because she said thirteen
thirty to nineteen thirty, so that would be what one
thirty to seven thirty most days, which allows me to
eat dinner with my partner on the evenings I'm not
at work, and it means I sleep better than with
an earlier window. Compressing my window further is difficult for me,

(41:43):
as I find I can't eat enough food to maintain
my weight without being overly full. Well, then I would say,
don't like I can answer that question right this minute.
You don't need to lose weight. You're already doing a
great amount of fasting. There is no reason to shorten
your window. You also said, I can't practice ADF as
my job. No need to do idea. There is no
need to do either of those things if you're feeling

(42:07):
happy with your weight. All right, So she said, I
envy those who say they have amazing mental clarity when
they fast. I've never found this, and I wonder what
I'm doing wrong. I feel steadily more physically okay, now
we see, now we'rer I jumped ahead a little bit,
all right. I feel mal coordinated, which I guess is
uncoordinated and mentally foggy as I fast longer and I

(42:28):
end up unable to make decisions. She said. I still
eat fresh, healthy food with occasional treats, but the main
part of my diet is vegetables, salads, fruit, and home
cooking with extremely little processed food, and I don't have
much of a sweet teeth. Hunger while fasting is not
an issue, as it tends to pass if I have
a hot drink. I also wonder whether preparing food while
fasting can trigger an insulin response. I work shifts, and

(42:51):
I often need to make a pack dinner to take
into work in the mornings while I'm fasting. I am
careful not to taste anything or nibble if I'm feeling
hungry before I make the Dude, I often feel a
lot better after I've prepared it, even though I have
not tasted it. By the way, whether I prepare food
or not seems to have no impact on the mental
fog at the end of my fasting periods that I
just grab above.

Speaker 2 (43:12):
Okay, so she said, you know, she's mentally foggy as
she fasts longer, So this really does make me feel
like she is not flipping the switch. Yep. And when
you get to a certain part of your fast, you
start to feel the effects of depleted glycogen, but your
body's not flipping over to ketosis, which is where we

(43:35):
get that clear headed energy, and that kind of foggy
feeling goes away the fact that you're not really having
physical symptoms. You know, sometimes feeling a little mentally foggy
could be an electrolyte issue, but I don't think that's
your issue. I think your issue is that you say

(43:56):
you've regularly done eighteen six and I think your issue
is that you're just not flipping the switch. Well, And
we actually really went in depth into this two weeks ago,
I believe it was and why this happens. But if you,
like you say, you don't feel like you can you
cannot eat enough food to maintain your weight without feeling

(44:18):
overly full. If you can press your window, have you
actually ever shifted to a five hour window and done
that for a couple of weeks, Because I don't think
that that's going to impact your weight. I really don't think.
I think you're going to be able to eat the
same amount of food in five hours as you can

(44:41):
in six hours. The only difference is is you get
an extra hour a day where your body is able
to deplete glycogen and start flipping the switch so that
you don't have these feelings. So I mean, my best
advice to you is for a month, go to a
five hour eating window. If you see weight loss, then

(45:06):
you know, all you've got to do maybe is go
to a five hour window and then maybe try one
day on the weekend having a full two meal eight
hour window. But I don't really think Jen and I
eat in five hour windows. Jen eats very well in
a five hour I know, and she hasn't just continued

(45:28):
to lose weight. That's just not the way it works.
So I think shifting to a five hour window is
the answer for you.

Speaker 1 (45:34):
I actually just did some thinking about it. I ran
her stats through the smart BMI and now I have
a different idea.

Speaker 2 (45:40):
What is your thought?

Speaker 1 (45:41):
Well, she's five eleven and she weighs one forty one
and forty pounds.

Speaker 2 (45:46):
Yes, oh you see that?

Speaker 1 (45:48):
See And I just went back and found that information,
so I ran Ka's stats through the smart BMI, and
she is at the very very lowest end of almost
venturing into underweight. And her BMI is only twenty, so
she is almost in the underweight category. So I actually
wonder if she just needs to lengthen that window and

(46:11):
have like like she doesn't have fat to spare. So
perhaps you need to have an eight hour window and
two solid meals within it. And if your weight went
up a little bit, that actually would not be a
bad thing, because as we get older, we don't want
to be, you know, verging into the underweight territory. We

(46:32):
want to be you have a little bit of reserved fat.

Speaker 2 (46:36):
Yeah, what was her smart BMI.

Speaker 1 (46:38):
It was twenty And when we look at the smart BMI.

Speaker 2 (46:41):
Like that fraction it should be like thirty over seventy or.

Speaker 1 (46:45):
Thirty over seventy.

Speaker 2 (46:47):
Oh, she is at the very low end.

Speaker 1 (46:49):
She's at the right like, she's right there.

Speaker 2 (46:51):
Anyway, she loses weight.

Speaker 1 (46:53):
If she loses any more weight, she gets to the
underweight category. And we don't I don't think we want
to be going into the underweight category at the age
of fifty four. And so your body might be sending
you a very important signal. We don't have fat despair.
Don't flip the switch. Don't flip the switch. You might
not need to flip the switch.

Speaker 2 (47:14):
And you're thought you recognize I didn't recognize the five.

Speaker 1 (47:18):
Eleven Yeah, five eleven.

Speaker 2 (47:20):
Yeah, I mean I'm five ten and if I was
one forty now I'm very large framed, and you may
be very fine boned, but one forty is still very thin.
Yep or five foot eleven. Yeah, sure, so I agree,
definitely agree with you. Jen.

Speaker 1 (47:39):
There you see, it depends our answer varies depending on
your body. Right. That's why there's no one size fits
all answer, and we can't just say here's the window
that everybody needs. You have to look at all of
the factors. Do you need to lose fat or are
you right on the verge of not quite having enough
stored fat? And we have to really keep all of
that in mind when you're deciding what to do.

Speaker 2 (48:00):
Yeah, and then her last question was really about red
Bush tea, which is rubos I think has happened.

Speaker 1 (48:07):
That's not one for the clean fast.

Speaker 2 (48:08):
Yeah. She was asking if she could have it as
she prefers it, but unfortunately no. It is described as
naturally smooth, sweet and nutty with hints of honey, vanilla
and caramel and a mild woody undertone. And that's not
anything you want your fast That would probably actually make
you feel worse, So I'm definitely avoid that, ye all Right,

(48:30):
Before we get to the tweak of the week, I
just want to take a minute to share with you
about the one on want work I'm doing with intermittent
fasters just like you. The holidays are approaching, and that
is often a time where people get off track what
they're fasting, where they don't know how to work fasting
in around all the holiday celebrations and they start to
experience window creep and they either stop losing weight or

(48:51):
they put on weight, or they stop fasting all together
and then come gane away. They're in a panic trying
to get things back together again. So don't what that
happened to you this year. You can both honor your
fasting and your health goals and enjoy the holiday with
the right mindset and having a plan in place. So
if you're looking to create a holiday action plan or

(49:12):
you like some accountability during that period of time that's
coming up, reach out to me. We can set up
a one time session, a monthly session, or even just
a monthly coaching plan with daily check ins. I would
love to help you successfully navigate the holidays. I just
wanted to share. One of my fasters who did the
monthly coaching plan with me signed up for a second month,

(49:34):
and then she shared the other day. She wrote, Cherry
gave me the plan, support and accountability I needed to
get back on track to the results I was looking for.
She's a true game changer and that just warmed my heart. Yeah,
and you're loving it, Oh, I'm loving it.

Speaker 1 (49:51):
Yes. And now it's time for our tweak of the week,
and this is from Gina from Nina, Wisconsin. She said,
going for a wall or something active when I feel
those strong hunger pains coming on really helps redirect my focus.
I also often listen to the Fast Feast repeat podcast
while I am fasting because it keeps me motivated to
keep going.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
I love that Gena, and you're right going for a
walk when you're feeling hungry. That can help me with
the switch. Yep. All right, Well, we love to leave
you with inspirational or motivational quotes. Today we have an
inspirational message from sk and she actually wrote me and
she said, your listeners might get tired of me always
sharing stuff, but now we never get tired.

Speaker 1 (50:34):
Never.

Speaker 2 (50:34):
She wrote, Hello, lovely ladies. After a really crazy and
stressful month of September, I wrote this letter to myself,
which I thought I would share in case anyone else
is going through a difficult time and needs to hear this.
So the letter she wrote to herself was, dear me,
you made it through September. I know it wasn't easy.
There were days when the weight felt heavier than you

(50:54):
could carry, and still you rose. You may have felt tired, overwhelmed,
stressed and anxious, But here you are at the doorway
of a new month that takes strength, that takes grit,
that takes courage. October is here now, and with it
comes the opportunity to dust yourself off and continue onwards,
not with pressure, but with grace. This is a month

(51:17):
of self love, kindness and choices that serve your goals.
Remember that every choice you make is a vote for
your future self. So here's what I want for you
in October. I want you to be kinder to yourself,
Speak to yourself like someone you love, hold space for
the hard things you're feeling and without needing to fix
them all at once. It's okay to rest, It's okay

(51:38):
to not have it all figured out. I want you
to give yourself permission to just be. You don't always
have to aim for perfection. You don't always have to
be everything for everyone. You don't always have to make
huge progress every day. Some days will feel easy, others harder.
But every step forward, no matter how small, is still progress.

(51:59):
And remember it's in those hard days that we learn
to become stronger and more resilient. Most of all, I
want you to know that you are loved deeply and unconditionally.
You are worthy just as you are. You are enough.
Even in your uncertainty, you are doing the best you can,
and that's all that matters. Walk into October slowly. You
don't need to rush. Breathe, trust yourself. You've come this

(52:22):
far and your journey still continues. I know that you
know you are destined for great things with love me.

Speaker 1 (52:31):
I love that, and so as we're releasing this episode,
it comes out at the beginning of November, so carry
that on for your listeners through November and in a December.
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.

(52:55):
Go to Jenstevens dot com slash community to join us.

Speaker 2 (53:00):
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 (53:11):
We are a community driven podcast, so to submit your
success stories, your questions, your favorite tweak it till It's
Easy moments, or anything else you want us to share
on the podcast, go to Fast Feast Repeat dot com
slash submit and then listen each week to see if
we share your submission or answer your question.

Speaker 2 (53:31):
Until next week. Thanks for listening,