Episode 128: Fasting When Sick, The Importance of the Fast Start, Eat Like a Grown-Up in the Fast Feast Repeat App, and More

Episode Transcript
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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.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
How are you doing today, Sherry, I'm fantastic. How are you?
I am wonderful. I'm so glad. It's the Christmas season.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
I mean, I know this is coming out in December,
so it's obviously the Christmas season for everyone.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
But I am an early decorator. As you know. I
know that. Yeah. Well, for anybody who's listening to this
who used to listen to the Life Lessons podcast, I
used to be a little ball humbug about the holidays,
and I worked through that, yay. And now we've already

(01:30):
decorated for Christmas. It's exciting.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
I started this morning, which is late for me because
I was in San Francisco and so I waited. But
I started today and I'm drinking out of my Christmas mog.
It's still November. We haven't had Thanksgiving.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
It. Sorry, can't help it. Yeah, well, you know it
really when we talked about it on the podcast and
then we did a whole episode on Christmas traditions and stuff,
and that helped me so much. But what I realized was,
and I'm sharing this in case you might be like me,
my life changed substantially in like twenty thirteen twenty fourteen,

(02:09):
and I got out of a really bad relationship with
my ex husband, and in doing so, I had to
walk away from a lot of family and friends because
of just the bad situation my ex had created. And
I moved to Alabama. I started a new life, and
my kids were not here and my family was not here,

(02:34):
and so the holidays made me sad because I didn't
have the same holiday traditions and stuff. And my husband said, well,
then we need to make our own holiday traditions, and
so we really started to work on that, and that
made all the difference for me. Is like realizing like, Okay,
I can grieve the way I used to celebrate holidays,

(02:57):
but I can embrace from here moving forward and create
a new way and find new joy in the holidays.
And I did it, and you can do it if
you're feeling that way too. I think it's natural our
lives change and we lose people, and so if what
you're doing is not working for you, find something new
to do. I love that make a new tradition. Yes,

(03:19):
And I've also learned recently that my husband loves to
decorate for holidays. He this is so weird, Like we
had this conversation about this too, because he is not
a yard person. He's not a person that's go work
in the yard. He's allergic to grass and he is
allergic to the sun and heat. So we're never going

(03:39):
to win like the most manicured lawn of the Neighborhood award. However,
He loves to decorate, and he loves lights, and so
anything he can do to like light up the house
and decorate for holidays, he loves it. He gets joy
and going out every night and making sure the lights
are on and there's these fabulous new solar life that

(04:00):
you can put up that you don't even have to
plug in, and so he's giddy. He's like a kid.
So yeah, now I know one of his strengths is
decorating for holidays and I don't have to do it.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
And did it not used to be one of his strengths,
but he's like newly developed it or was it always there?

Speaker 2 (04:19):
I don't know, Like I could never get anybody interested
in like decorating Christmas trees and the house are decorating
inside the house for the holidays, and it always felt
to me. And then I was like, why do I
have to do all the packing and unpacking and whatever?
And I was kind of resentful of it, and that
kind of took the joy away. But then I don't know.
He last year we decorated outside. We just got some

(04:40):
little inflatables and put out and then we've just added
to that and he I don't know, I don't know
if this is something he's just discovered about himself, but
he's enjoying it. We decorated for Halloween. I think we're
the only people in the neighborhood. He built a whole
graveyard in our front yard and we did Halloween blow
ups and stuff. That's fun. So never too late to

(05:01):
have fun. Now we're having fun with it. Love that
our house is the first one you see when you
came in the neighborhood, and so the neighbors will post
like in our little group. I don't know who lives
at the first house, but I love your decorations or
good My grandkid loves your decorations. He likes to walk
by at night, so he gets He gets so excited
when he gets props for his outdoor decorating. Anyway, all right,

(05:26):
let's celebrate Kathy from Colorado, she said, I wanted to
share a slightly different story about intermittent fasting. My twenty
three year old is an intermint faster. She is a slender,
athletic young lady who is very competitive in jiu jitsu.
She travels across the country competing in high level tournaments.
She has to weigh in for these tournaments, and this

(05:48):
used to be a source of great stress for her.
Before she learned about if we kind of learned together.
She was so stressed out trying to cut weight. It
was intense, emotional and exhausted. Now that she leaves leads
and I have lifestyle, she maintains her weight effortlessly. At
her age and fitness level. She can maintain an approximate

(06:09):
sixteen to eight fasting protocol and she never needs to
cut weight before tournaments anymore. She trains in the morning
in the fasted state without a problem at all. Her
body knows how to access stored fuel even when doing
intense training. She breaks her fast in the early afternoon
and then usually stops eating around nine pm. Again, this
is effortless for her, and I am so happy for her.

(06:32):
Life is good when you don't have food stress. I
just thought you would like to hear this perspective from
a young athlete. Thank you both for all you do.
My whole family believes in the power of IF. I
do love that. That is wonderful. Kathy.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
And yes, you know I had a wrestler wrestling exactly.
I had a male wrestler on intermittent fasting stories last
year while back, I remember exactly, but he talked about
this about how hard it was to cut weight and
all the crazy things they would do to cut weight
and instead and aremitten fasting you just there you go,

(07:10):
You're maintaining in your healthy range and not having to
have all that cutting weight stress.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
Yeah. Well, my husband was a wrestler and he talks
about how they would like wear trash bags and try
to sweat out weight, take dieuretics, and I mean, just
like the crazy things you would do to try to
get stay in the lower weight class. Not healthy things, no, no,
not at all. So yeah, I think if is fantastic.

(07:36):
I love that she's way better choice. Yes.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
So now we have a question from a listener. This
question is from Katie in London. Dear Jen and Sherry.
I've been fasting since June, mainly eighteen six. I'm forty four,
a healthy weight and fasting for health rather than weight loss.
It's been going wonderfully overall, but I was recently knocked
off by a nasty cold from my three year old son.

(08:04):
Part of me thought, surely fasting should boost my immune system.
I shouldn't be getting sick anymore. In the thick of it,
I felt sorry for myself and I opened my window
early to snack on fruit or drink juice. So my
question is what's the best protocol when illness strikes? And
is there any truth to the old saying feed a
cold star of a fever. Thank you for the podcast,

(08:26):
It's been such a support on my fasting journey, Katie.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
There is absolutely no truth to that saying. In fact,
it's kind of the opposite advice that should have been given.
I actually looked this up because we hear this all
the time, and I know what I intuitively do as
a faster and knowing how I want to keep inflammation
down in my body when I'm sick. So what I

(08:51):
learned is that fasting actually, yes, boosts your immune system
as long as you are fueling appropriately with nutrient foods
in your eating window and you're getting a wide array
of nutrients that help support your immune systems, such as
vitamin C and zinc and even iron. However, that starve

(09:13):
of fever. What I learned was that if you are
fasting and you're getting into catosis, that can actually raise
your internal body temperature, and so that if you have
a high fever, you may not want to fast a
long time because you wouldn't want to raise your temperature,

(09:33):
your body temperature anymore. And it makes me wonder if
that raised internal temperature is maybe actually what boosts the
immune system. Oh, that's interesting and so but that if
it's just you know, your basic cold or just general
viral or bacterial illness, that by fasting through it, you

(09:54):
can keep inflammation low so that your body can address
healing the illness. When your body's highly enslamed and your
blood sugars are high and you're having unstable blood sugars
and high insulin, then your body struggles to heal the
illness as quickly. So I mean this saying really should
be starvecled and maybe feed of fever based off of

(10:18):
the research that I found. So I think it comes
down to if you are ill and you feel like
you can fast and you're not having you know, really
high fevers, then it's probably going to serve you best
to continue fasting with your regular protocol while you're sick
and could shorten the duration of your illness.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
So yep, yeah, And I just always listen to my body,
and I really don't get sick very often, very very rarely,
if at all. But I've been doing this for a
lot of years, right, I haven't been to the doctor
for a sick visit since twenty fifteen or twenty sixteen.

Speaker 2 (10:55):
Now I've lost struck of which year it was.

Speaker 1 (10:56):
It was either twenty fifteen when I was still nearly
but it might have been twenty sixteen when I started
fast and clean. So anyway, I haven't been to the
doctor for almost ten years, whichever it is, And so
for a sick visit, I've been for other things, obviously,
but I just listened to my body, and usually my
body isn't that hungry, but I do always crave orange

(11:19):
juice or an orange. So if I feel like I'm
coming down with the cold, I might go to the
grocery store. And that's the only time I ever buy
orange juice ever, But my body craves it, or like
an orange. I'll eat a whole orange in my window, obviously,
but like later in the day, and then I just
go to bed and I usually wake up feeling fine.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
That's just me, I think. You know, they say that
your body craves what it needs, and your body maybe
needed some vitamin seed to help. Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
It just always makes me want oranges orange juice every
time I'm sick.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
All right, well, we have a question from Jessica from Viola, Illinois.
I guess it could be Zola, I'd say. Viola started
to say, icond guess myself there for a second, she says,
I am forty one. I have a six month old
surprise baby boy after having my last child ten years ago,

(12:10):
and I'm thirty pounds overweight. I have been insulin resistant,
and I did have gestational diabetes with this pregnancy, although
I controlled it using keto. I was consistent with that
during pregnancy. At least I have attempted to start IF
over the last month and a half. Notice I say attempted.
I have never stuck with any diet long enough, though

(12:32):
somehow previously I did lose twenty pounds being inconsistent over years.
I mostly kept that off with low carb until after
this last child. I have been used to a keutogenic diet,
so I kind of just overlooked the twenty eight day
protocol after reading Fast Beasts Repeat and went straight into
a twenty four hour clean fast, and several days later

(12:53):
I completed a thirty six hour clean fast. I feel
great doing that, and honestly, once I get into katosis,
it isn't that difficult for me. Because I have done
Keto off and on. I personally feel my best with
low carb. However, I love eating and drinking coffee with
heavy cream. I'm a Louisiana girl and I was raised
with food as a love language. I just love the

(13:15):
act of eating and how food tastes. I know consistency
is key. How do I get over the love of
eating and the comfort of drinking my cream laden coffee.
I find myself over indulging after the long fasts because
it's as if I'm obsessing over the taste of food,
not necessarily because I'm hungry. I really believe in if.

(13:35):
But how do I get over this in my mind?
Will it get better over time? Thank you for any help.
All right, Jessica, you're about to get a talking to
from me. I knew it was coming.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
I could just see it all that face. All right, Jessica,
it's common. We got some issues here. First of all,
I'm just going to go straight to that you love
the comfort of the creamy coffee, Yes, you do creamy.
When we think about what is dairy. Dairy is nature's
perfect food for babies. It comforts them. They feel comforted

(14:07):
in their mother's arms, they have their mother's milk, and
then they sleep and they feel so good. So is
there any surprise that drinking something creamy makes our brains
light up the same way. There's no surprise to that.
But it's not doing you any favors, right. Dairy is
nature's perfect food for when a mammal is growing the fastest. So,

(14:29):
if your goal is weight loss, literally everybody listening. If
your goal is weight loss, increasing the amount of creaminess
in your life is not your best strategy. You need
a lower than the level of creaminess in your life,
not raise it. So I know it feels good, but
you can break that habit. So here is where I
think Sherry and I would both agree that you went wrong.

(14:51):
And that is the way you started. You just jumped
right into long fasts just because your body can, because
you're already fat adapted. Because you'r KETO doesn't mean you should. Okay,
So here's what I want you to do. I don't
even want you to go to the twenty eight day
fast Start chapter of Fast Feast Repeat. I want you
to get a copy of twenty eight day Fast Start

(15:12):
day by day because it was written exactly for someone
like you, and you know people who jump into fast.
There's a reason why I don't say, all right, day one,
do a twenty four hour fast. No, we're not just
building up physically, like if you're already fat adapted with Keto,
you might think, well, I've already got that nailed.

Speaker 2 (15:29):
Doesn't matter what I do.

Speaker 1 (15:30):
There's also the emotional component, and for you, that's where
you're struggling the most. So I want you to get
twenty eight day Fast Start day by day and open
it to the very beginning, including the part about day zero,
crafting your why, all of that, and then I want
you to pick a plan. And it's okay if it
needs to be the ripoff the band Aid plan, because

(15:50):
you think you can handle it. Even on the ripoff
the band Aid plan. You're not starting with, you know,
twenty four hour fast. You're never doing twenty four hour
fast during the first twenty eight day. Ever, we're not
trying to fast longer and longer and longer. I want
you to follow the plan as written without trying to
get to a shorter and shorter eating window or longer
longer fast and I would like to forbid you from

(16:13):
doing any fast longer than whatever it says in the
twenty eight day fast start, day by day for the
entire twenty eight days.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
That's my teacher voice talking. And then I.

Speaker 1 (16:23):
Also want you to forbid yourself from doing anything longer
than maybe like a nineteen five slash twenty four, and
I mean twenty pause four for like the next three months,
like for real, you are not gonna start doing a
lot of long fasts. I want you to fast clean

(16:43):
because I also wonder if you weren't doing that, because
you talked about that creamy coffee. If you're not going
to fast clean, put fasting away, Like I'm serious, everybody.
If you're not willing to fast clean, you're not ready
to fast so fast clean. Follow the fast start, and
you don't have to do rip off.

Speaker 2 (17:00):
The band aid.

Speaker 1 (17:00):
You can do the one in the middle, but approach
it as if you've never fasted before. Fast clean. I'm
saying that one hundred times for a reason. Follow the plan,
don't try to do more, and then settle in for
several months before you try to do anything more. Okay,
because the mental battle is really the biggest one, and

(17:23):
you've got to be ready for. Yeah, you're going to
fast and then you're gonna nourish yourself well and you're
get into a balance where you're not panic eating, you
don't feel like you have to panic eat, right, And
I know you said you like keto and it's how
you feel the best. Maybe it isn't though, Maybe you
need to add some different foods in because maybe your

(17:43):
body really does want you to refeed with some high
quality real food carbs.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
I mean, I know kittosis feels good. Don't get me wrong.

Speaker 1 (17:52):
Ketosis feels good, so you might feel like, well, if
katosis feels good, than twenty four to seven, kittosis feels
even better. But you know, I've been in the health
space for a long time and a lot of people
who are hardcore keto twenty four to seven, three hundred
and sixty five are now more along the line of, huh,
maybe we should fycle more than just do it all

(18:13):
the time, and fasting allows us to cycle in and
out of katosis and be metabolically flexible. So challenge that
idea that you think that keto is how you feel
your best, because maybe it won't be once you're metabolically
flexible and you're going in and out of katosis by
choosing different foods in your window.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
What do you have to add to that, Sherry, Yeah,
I agree with you a lot. I think a lot
of fasting comes down to adaptation of the body, but
also our brain needs time to catch up. Like there's
You're right, there's a really emotional connection with food. Just
like you say, I love the act of eating how

(18:54):
it tastes A two. You love your creamy coffee, so
you basically you're trying to like cold turkey that and
then jump into these really long fasts and like emotionally mentally,
you know everything's not clicking because you haven't progressed in

(19:14):
a pattern that allows you to get there. And you
know you're not the only one who loves the comfort
of drinking creamy coffee, but you can give it up.
There is you know, research that shows that the reason
people crave creamy foods like that is because it stimulates
a part of your brain that is stimulated in people

(19:37):
who struggle with addiction, and it gives you a dopamine
release and it makes you feel good. It's like a
it's like a hug. And so my suggestion to you is,
if you're struggling with getting rid of your creamy coffee
in the morning, replace it with something else that makes
you feel good and that gives you that little dopamine
hit in the morning. You know, you don't have to

(20:00):
just not get that need fulfilled in the morning, just
get it fulfilled in a different way.

Speaker 1 (20:06):
Yeah, that's awesome. All right, Now it's time for our
segment called What's Your Why. Most of us began intermittent
fasting with weight loss in mind, which is a great
reason to start, but there is so much more to
what intermittent fasting can do for us beyond weight loss.
In twenty eight day fast start day by day. I'm
really a fan of crafting your why statement before beginning,

(20:27):
because I genuinely believe when 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 (20:37):
So this week we have a wife from Sherry in Florida.
I wish this Sherry was in Florida. I know this
Sherry's sitting here bundled up in a blanket. Yeah, I'm
on my fur boots, me too all right. Sherry says,
life got in the way. I was successfully fasting daily
for a year and a half. I lost thirty pounds.

(21:00):
I felt great. Fasting was easy, and I knew this
was my new lifestyle. Then in August, I spent three
weeks on vacation in Europe, including a ten day cruise.
My eating window was longer, and I indulged quite a
bit with delicious food, which I very much enjoyed. I
know who this is. She's in our community, yep, she said,
I gained five pounds. I have struggled through September and October.

(21:24):
There have been unexpected life stresses which made it hard
for me to get back on track, so I decided
I needed a reset. I'm working my way through the
twenty eight day fast Start book again because it is
a thing that gave me a nice jump start before.
I'm going to post day by day for accountability my
fasting why to have vibrant energy for life, To feel

(21:47):
good in my body, to fit in clothes that make
me feel fabulous, To feel happy when I look in
the mirror, to look healthy, to feel healthy, to look
and feel strong, lean and fit, to enjoy optimal health,
to sleep soundly, to have healthy sinuses, to have healthy lungs,
to have a healthy liver and gallbladder, To have a

(22:10):
clear head and calm digestion, to have clear skin, to
enjoy wonderful foods, to play better pickleball, to feel good
when I resist unplanned eating, to be less self critical,
to age gracefully. That is a great list of wise

(22:30):
And if you're struggling to find your why, maybe those
will help inspire you to come up with your own
list of wise. That's a great loss.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
And again I want to go back to what I
just mentioned in the question that we had from Jessica.
Twenty eight day fast art day by day. The subtitle
is the ultimate guide to starting or restarting your intermittent
fasting lifestyle. So it sticks so if you are struggling,
if you've been on vacation, a little too much holiday
in your holidays, because this out December tenth, so look,

(23:04):
we've all been there. A twenty eight day fast start
as written, working your way through it, reading what's in
the book, reflecting in the morning, and then the evening
really focusing on your why. Again, that can make a
lot of difference. And if you've been away for a
bit beginning as if you've never fasted before. Is actually
I recommend that to people a lot who are struggling

(23:25):
in the community. But again, as if you've never fasted
before and you're brand new, and that can just set
you up for success, because some people are like, while
I was doing nineteen five, I'm going straight to that
and then they struggle, you know, instead, maybe need to
just build it up a little bit more, give yourself
some time.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
Yeah, And again, you know, often if you've been fasting
for a while, sometimes you think it lost in the weeds,
it a little bit. Yeah, And so sometimes just getting
back to the basics, just a nice blank slate, start, refreshed, start, refresh, renew,
whatever you want to call it. It can just really

(24:04):
help you dial everything back down to where you know
you need to be.

Speaker 1 (24:09):
And I want to tell everybody, we're recording this in November,
but this comes out December tenth. So you might think
I'm just gonna wait till Christmas is over and then
I'll do my refresh on January first. No, your refresh
begins tomorrow for real. And don't wait, don't wait. You're

(24:29):
gonna feel so much worse if you wait. I have
a friend when I lived in Augusta. She was a nurse.
She heard about intermittent fasting from another nurse. By the way,
at the hospital, there was one nurse. It was the
husband of a friend of mine. He was a nurse
who was like the head nurse or something. But he
told everybody about intermittent fasting. It like spread like wild
fire through the hospital. But she started on Christmas Day,

(24:49):
love it and for real. That's when she started. She's like, well,
I'm starting tomorrow. It's Christmas Day. And she had a window.
So you do not need to wait for the holidays
to be over. That's diet brain, that's diet thing thinking,
we're not doing that anymore. Tomorrow is the day to
start your refresh.

Speaker 2 (25:05):
Yep. I was just going to say before you start talking.
If you feel like you have to wait until the
holidays are over to start your refresh, then your mindset
is really stuck in a deprivation, yes, mindset, and if
that is you, that is the first thing you need
to address. You've got to figure out how to see

(25:28):
fasting as a gift, as something that you enjoy and
want to do, rather than in deprivation.

Speaker 1 (25:36):
Yeah, if you hate it, if you hate intermittent fasting,
it's not for you, right, maybe not yet, so you
have to That's why we say, do we get till
it's easy, right, and we while also say relax into
the process. You need to find it so it's something
that works and that you love and it fits your
life and you love it. I will never stop doing it.

Speaker 2 (25:54):
You know. I did it, and I'm on.

Speaker 1 (25:55):
My chart to San Francisco. I fasted. I fasted every
day I could have and breakfast. Will ate breakfast two
of the days. He's a really slim guy. He needed
more fuel. He doesn't usually are always eat breakfast. He's like,
I'm really hungry. I'm like, all right, let's go get
you breakfast. When you're walking twenty three miles, you need
right to fuel.

Speaker 2 (26:13):
Love. That's a little bit more activity than he's probably
used to lately.

Speaker 1 (26:16):
Yeah, but I sat with him. I didn't feel like
I was missing out. I looked at what the food
was going to be, decided if it was window worthy.
So losing the deprivation mindset is really really important. And
think about how much amazing, nourishing, delicious food you can
have in your window and no diet brain. That's the
best part.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
Yep. All right, So we have a question from Dawn
in Florida. Florida is a popular place today. She says,
I am five foot five and one hundred and forty
five pounds, size six to eight. I was one hundred
and sixty two in February of twenty twenty four, and
I'm now at my goalway and feeling great. I consider

(26:57):
myself in maintenance. My question is, I would like to
know if you've ever heard of anyone doing this protocol
while in maintenance. I work out for mornings a week,
doing pilates or strength training for thirty minutes each day,
plus a thirty minute walk each day as well. My
eating window is five hours and consists of all whole foods.

(27:19):
I pack my lunch for work and we eat a
nutritious meal in the evenings. I would say I eat
no more than about twelve hundred calories Monday through Friday
or less, and then on the weekends I eat two
to three meals mostly at home and have cocktails. Nothing crazy,
and I'm extremely active outside all weekend. So it's kind
of like eightyf but down days of five days with

(27:43):
two updates. It seems to be working for me. Have
you ever heard of anyone else being successful long term
this way? Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (27:52):
All right, Dawn, Well, when you say that you're eating
twelve hundred calories Monday through Friday or less, that's the
or less is the part that I'm like, hmmm, okay.
If you let's imagine that you're eating exactly twelve hundred
calories a day Monday through Friday, and then you're having
three meals, two to three meals on the weekends. Right, well,

(28:14):
that's not a down day. Twelve hundred calories is not
a down day. A down day is five hundred calories, right,
You definitely don't want to do five hundred.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
Calories, five hundred calories, five hundred calories. We do not
do down day, down day, down day, down days.

Speaker 1 (28:27):
So when you say twelve hundred calories are less, if
it's like, by less you mean eleven hundred and seventy,
you know that's fine. But if by less you mean
five hundred calories, eight hundred calories, that would not do that.
I need you to get a copy of the second
edition of Delayed on Deny and read or reread the

(28:48):
adf chapter. If you have a down day, the next
day needs to be an upday.

Speaker 2 (28:54):
We don't have a lot of rules.

Speaker 1 (28:56):
Our only rules are fast clean and after every day
you need to have an upday.

Speaker 2 (29:01):
That's it.

Speaker 1 (29:02):
And so if you do have a down day, if
you're eating five hundred calories, six hundred calories, seven hundred
and eight hundred, Yeah, eight hundred is more than five hundred,
but that's still pretty down.

Speaker 2 (29:12):
That is not what you want to do.

Speaker 1 (29:14):
So I would really think about that, really decide are
those really down days? If it's twelve hundred calories are
a little bit less and you're enjoying what you're doing
and it's feeling good, keep doing what you're doing. But
if it's really more like five hundred, six hundred, seven
hundred and eight hundred, I would stop doing that like
that and have an upday the next day.

Speaker 2 (29:35):
What do you think, Sherry, I mean, at twelve hundred
calories five days in a row, I do feel like
your body is recognizing that you are under eating right,
And it's the fact that it's five days in a
row exactly. So you may be getting some boost from
your weekends, but is add enough to keep your body

(29:57):
from adapting and as you know, you go on prevent
weight regain.

Speaker 1 (30:04):
Yeah, that is a very small amount of food. I
eat a lot, so twelve hundred seems like a very
very small amount, especially as active as she is. So
all right, Cheryl from Louisiana, Hi, girls, I love the
podcast and I love ADF. Once I lose the weight
that I want, what does maintenance look like if I

(30:25):
don't want to lose any more, but I want to
keep reaping the health benefits.

Speaker 2 (30:29):
Thank you well, Cheryl. This can look different for different people.
If you love ADF and you want to continue to
do ADF, there's no reason why you can't do that.
I think there's this maybe misconception that once you get
to maintenance, or once you get to your goal weight,

(30:49):
let's say that if you continue to do what you
did while you were losing weight, that your body will
just continue to get thinner and thinner. And that's just
really not true for most people. Your body wants to
be at a healthy weight, and so a healthy body
that is being fueled well is not going to continue

(31:11):
to lose weight to a point that's not healthy for you.
So what you'll likely figure out is that your hunger
will ramp up more when you get You know, if
you're to a point where your body is at a
happy weight and you're maintaining there, you may have days

(31:32):
where your body just asks for more food, or you
may have a day where you are like, my body
doesn't want another down day today, So you may have
to do more of like a hybrid ADF where maybe
you just do a couple down days a week with
up days to follow and then some eating window days.

(31:53):
And so that's going to come down to just your
personal experience. And this is where tuning into your body
really well and in hearing the messages it's sending you
is really important. If you don't listen to your body
and you try to override it, that's when things go awry.
So really tune into your hunger, your satiety, how are
you feeling, what is your energy like? Or maybe as

(32:17):
much as you love ADF, you would like to transition
to a daily eating window. If you want to do that,
then I would just start throwing in some window days
in there and get used to eating in an eating window,
because if you've been doing ADF for a while, that's
going to be a change and you're going to have
to kind of learn what does an eating window look like?
How do I eat enough in an eating window? So

(32:40):
it's just something you're going to have to play around
with and figure out what works for you exactly.

Speaker 1 (32:45):
And this is where you are very much your personal
study of one and it's where you just have to
figure out what do you want to do and what
will lead you to maintain that you enjoy. So I
know it seems like you want to have a plan
like here it is, here's the maintenance plan, but you
don't know what you're going to want to do. So
make it your own experiments. See what you enjoy, see

(33:06):
what feels right. That sounds like, well that wasn't an answer,
but that's because there isn't an answer, right yep.

Speaker 2 (33:14):
All right, So we have a question from enflamed in Connecticut.
Can we do a deep dive into inflammation and what
that means long term? I often hear you both state
that those who lose a lot of weight early in
their intermittent fasting are losing inflammation. Does inflammation have a weight?
How do poor diet or unhealthy lifestyles lead to inflammation?

Speaker 1 (33:38):
All right, that's a great question, and I don't know
if our job is going to be super deep, but
we'll get into it a little bit for you here.
So if we say that someone who loses a lot
of weight early on is losing weight because they're releasing inflammation,
let's think about that for a minute. First of all,
there's a very important understanding that society has lied to

(33:58):
us about how fast so we can lose weight.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
Right, if you go to.

Speaker 1 (34:01):
The checkout counter of the grocery store right now we're
recording this November eleventh, I guarantee there's probably some checkout
counter Women's magazine saying, lose fifty pounds by Thanksgiving. Like,
you're not going to lose fifty pounds by Thanksgiving. You're
not even going to lose fifty pounds maybe by next Thanksgiving. Right,
we lose fat slowly. We lose fat slowly, So anything

(34:26):
that happens quickly is not fat. It is when we
say inflammation is because when you're inflamed, it comes with
a lot of water retention, because our body is using
that fluid for all sorts of things. Maybe it's in
your lymphatic system, right, our lymphatic system. I'm super puffy
right now. I was just on an airplane forever yesterday,

(34:49):
and I ate foods that I haven't normally eaten.

Speaker 2 (34:52):
I walked a lot. I bet if I got on
the scale.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
I don't own a scale, but I bet if I
did and I got on it, my weight would be up.
I'm puffy, I'm in flamed, so I would probably lose
that pretty quickly after back to my normal routine. That's
that fluid retention that might be in my levatic system,
maybe it's in my muscles, maybe it's just throughout my
whole body. So what is inflammation. I'm going to read

(35:16):
to you from the Internet, and it says inflammation is
a natural part of the body's reaction to injury and infection.
It's an essential part of the body's healing process. That
would be like, you know, acute injury, like if you
sprained your ankle and it was swollen, or if you
had surgery. We hear that so much. People will have

(35:38):
surgery and then they will get back home and get
on the scale and they're like, I've gained fifteen pounds.
But it's inflammation for your body healing. So anytime you're
healing or an illness, like you could have an illness
and then gain like five pounds just seemingly overnight. That
is part of the body's healing process. So if you
have any kind of injury, any kind of infection, you're

(36:00):
going to have retained fluid inflammation going on. And it
also it goes on to say the term inflammation refers
to the complex process by which the body's innate immune
system responds to harmful stimuli such as trauma. Again, there's
an injury again. Toxins and invading pathogens. So let's unpack

(36:23):
that word toxins. If you're eating the standard American diet, right,
it's full of junk, you know, Dorito's full of junk.
Your body is like, what is this? Your body is
gonna think that's some kind of toxin coming in. You know,
corn syrup, all these word chemicals, all of these preservatives.

(36:45):
Those are not natural things that we're supposed to be
putting into our bodies. So if you're putting in a
whole lot of ultra processed foods, your body is having
to process those weird chemicals as if they are toxins,
and that is in lammatory because your body is fighting
it off like it would fight off an illness. And
so the better food we put in, the less inflammation

(37:08):
we're going to have. Now here's a caveat Not all
bodies react the same to some foods. For example, dairy
could be inflammatory for your body. Or maybe shrimp is
inflammatory for your body. I'm just making stuff up here.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
It could be anything.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
Any food that is your body is sensitive to has
something in there that your body responds poorly to. Like
if you eat shrimp and the next day you're up
four pounds, maybe your body's having a little inflammatory response
to that shrimp. You didn't gain three pounds of fat.
That's impossible. So I mean over a night, it's impossible
to gain or lose fat that quickly. So when we're

(37:46):
choosing fasting, fasting lowers inflammation, and also choosing high quality
foods that work well for our body lowers inflammation. Now,
if you choose high quality foods that don't work well
for your body, you could still have inflammation. Like Will
is allergic to shrimp, He's not going to be doing
great if I fed him a lot of shrump. So
you really need to work with your body and find
the foods that work well for you and make you

(38:07):
feel great. Real foods and intermitt and fasting. Do you
want to add anything to that share. You're a lot
more medical minded than I am.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
Yeah. I recently saw an article too that said that
they believe there is a link between chronic inflammation and
psychological disorders. Wow. And they know it can contribute to
neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's Parkinson's disease. We know that
it is a primary driver of cardiovascular disease. It can

(38:37):
be directly related to hypertension, cancer, and it can impede
weight loss. It can cause loss of muscle mass, It
causes accelerated skin aging, rheumatoid artritis. Just the list goes
on and on and on, and we live in a
very chronically inflamed sight most of the time. All that

(39:02):
it is just to do with our busy, busy lives,
lack of sleep, sedentary lifestyles and really diet and exposure
to environmental toxins. And so I think what happens when
people start fasting is their body gets digestive rest. You know,
a lot of it has to do with just an
unhealthy gut biome, and so working to improve your gut

(39:22):
biome through digestive rest and then the foods you eat
can help getting quality sleep, exercise, daily sunshine exposure, like
all of those things can lower your inflammation. And so
when we go and we start fasting, that just lowers
inflammation so quickly that it's priming your body to lose weight.

(39:45):
And we see people start to have less joint pain
really quickly, and so we say people like lose You know,
somebody comes in and they lose ten or fifteen pounds,
it's usually water weight. You're not losing ten or fifteen
pounds of fat in the first month of fasting. And
that just shows how chronically inflamed people are and how
ready their bodies are to shed that. And it does

(40:07):
not take long for people to do that. And one
of the greatest ways we see it is in our
face to face Friday photos we do in our community.
People will have their picture before they started fasting and
they might only be three, five, six weeks in and
they post a new face to face picture and you
can see the difference in their face. It's astonishing. Their

(40:31):
eyes are bigger, their nose is thinner, they have a
jawline again, and they may have only lost a pound,
two pounds, no pounds but you can see it just
in their face alone. So yeah, that's what we're talking about.
And I actually put two links in show notes if
you kind of want to learn more about inflammation and

(40:52):
how to reduce it. Awesome.

Speaker 1 (40:54):
All right, So before we get to our tweak of
the week, I want to take a minute to talk
about Project Cheery.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
I'm so excited this is.

Speaker 1 (41:02):
Officially it's officially launching and it is the fast Feast
repeat app and website.

Speaker 2 (41:09):
So what is this all about? Why do I have it?

Speaker 1 (41:11):
I'm going to do a little bit of a whole
backstory here, so if I can understand Eat like a
grown Up.

Speaker 2 (41:17):
You've heard me talking about it. They Eat Like a
grown Up program.

Speaker 1 (41:20):
It actually started as a book in my head, started
as a book They Eat like a grown Up.

Speaker 2 (41:25):
It was gonna be a book, just Eat like a Grownup.

Speaker 1 (41:27):
And I actually had I've been working on it for
probably a year, eighteen months, probably something like that. The
idea might have been around even longer than that, but
I had been taking notes, compiling things. This is my process,
pulling stuff in, outlining it. And when I got back
from my Florida trip in August, I was like, all right,

(41:50):
it's time time for me to write this book. So
I sat down with my book writing program that I use.
By the way, if anybody wants to write a book,
it's Atticus is the program that I use. It is
fantastic for self published authors. Helps you format your book.
It's web based. You just pay one time, you have
it forever. I am not sponsored by them. They don't
even know I exist. I'm just sharing that because I

(42:10):
know people like to write things.

Speaker 2 (42:11):
Anyway. That's what I use Atticus.

Speaker 1 (42:13):
Again, not sponsored by them, but they I would let
them sponsor me if they wanted to.

Speaker 2 (42:18):
And he had that's so much. I love that.

Speaker 1 (42:20):
But I started it. I put it in there. I
had the whole outline done, all the chapters named. I've
been thinking about chapter names for all this time. The
whole book was outlined and I started working on it,
and I said, this is not a book. This is
too much for a book. Because if you were listening
last week, Cherry talked about how when we want to

(42:42):
make change, we need to adopt one new thing at
a time instead of trying to change everything at once.
So everybody think about this, and I'm going to also
think about my book Cleanish. My book Cleanish came out.
A lot of people read it. They're like, that was
a lot of stuff, and then they put it to
the side. Maybe they made a change of something that
I bought new shampoo, they moved on. I don't know

(43:02):
how many people really made a ton of changes after
reading that, because it was like, Bam, there it is.
You read the book, you move on. You've probably experienced that, Sherry.
You've read a book. It taught you a lot of stuff,
it gave you good ideas, and then you didn't do
anything right.

Speaker 2 (43:17):
Silent Field is a great example. Well, I mean I
made some changes, but they didn't all stick around. Right.
You have great intentions, right, Yeah, If you throw a
handful of spaghetti at the wall, a few pieces of
stick and the rest don't. And that's kind of like
adopting a lifestyle change, right.

Speaker 1 (43:34):
And so that is why I decided to shift. Instead
of a book where people might read the book, love
the book, change something, put the book away, show it slowly,
it fades away, it's gone, you're no longer doing it.
I decided to turn it into kind of I mean,
I guess the word is coarse, right, but I consider
I'm going to call it a transformational learning journey, which

(43:54):
sounds super fancy, but I've been working on this fifty
two weeks. So I took the entire line on my
book and turn it into fifty two weeks. And so
it's got six different phases. Each one is a week.
Phase one is foundations. Each week we're doing something different.
Phase two is nourish, Phase three is wisdom, Phase four

(44:15):
is resilience. Phase five practical skills. Phase six integration. But
all throughout there is everything that was going to be
in the book. So that part of the app is
called the grown Up Year fifty two weeks to Listen, play,
and nourish. So every single week there's a lesson. It
might be ten minutes long, it might be fifteen if

(44:37):
we're early on, it might be eight minutes long.

Speaker 2 (44:38):
Whatever, short video lesson from me.

Speaker 1 (44:42):
So it's a video lesson, and then at the end
of it you get there's a handout. It's your weekly mission,
and we're not trying to eat like a grown up.
Twenty four to seven, three hundred and sixty five days
of the year, there's like one thing you're focusing on
that topic in your weekly mission. There's some thing for listen.
Every week, we're listening to our bodies. There's a play component.

(45:05):
We're playing with our food even though we're eating like
a grown up, we're gonna have fun with it. And
then we're gonna nourish every week there's a nourish component.
So I'm just gonna pick a week at random. I'm
looking at my hand out here. Okay, So for example,
let's say, let me let me pick one here. Okay,
Week three mindset Shift. This is the topic for week
three is mindset shift dieting versus eating like a grownup,

(45:29):
And so for that week, we're focusing on how is
what's a dieting mindset, what's an eating like a grown
up mindset? And our word choices. So you're going to
notice that all throughout the week with your weekly mission,
you're listening, your play, your nourished. And there's also a
community component to this app where you go into the community.
It's not like the Delay Do Not the Night community,

(45:50):
but it's a place for you to just reflect on
what you did and share what you did that week. Okay,
So the app is for anybody. It's called the Fast
Feast Repeat App and it's a website. You can find
it at app dot Fast Feast Repeat dot com. That's
app app dot Fast Feast Repeat dot com. So that's

(46:12):
where the app is. So right now, when I'm first
launching it and it's available today, everyone who's listening, you
can go to it now and you can join, and
when you join, you'll have access to the grown Up
Year fifty two weeks to listen, play and nourish. But
I'm also going to be adding intermittent fasting resources to it.
It's already got some in there. It's got a video
and the Clean Fast It's got just some various different

(46:34):
videos that I've made in the past or in there.
I'm going to be adding a twenty eight day fast
start day by day eventually. Right now, I'm focusing on
the grown Up Year, and it's going to be asynchronous.
So I don't want everybody to think, what when are
we starting the fifty two weeks.

Speaker 2 (46:48):
We're starting it.

Speaker 1 (46:49):
Whenever you join, you're starting right then, and you're just
working your way through it. There's always going to be
people there on different weeks, and that's the plan there.
But really, right now, if you're hearing the it's for
you if you feel like there's some room and improvement
for how you're eating, if you think there's some room
for improvement, if you know there's room for improvement but

(47:10):
you don't know where to begin, if you're confused about
what to eat, then this program is absolutely for you.
And you know me, so you know that dietary perfection
is not required. We're not trying to be perfect. We're
not going on to eat like a grown up diet.
You're not going to be counting things. This is not
an Internet and fasting program. This is, you know, figuring

(47:32):
out how can you find peace with food, improve how
you're eating, nourish your body well again listen play nourish.

Speaker 2 (47:39):
That's throughout the whole year.

Speaker 1 (47:41):
Like, for example, are you confused about protein, that's week thirteen,
you know, if you're worried about ultra processed foods, that's
week fifteen. If you struggle with emotional eating, that's week
twenty five. So all throughout the year. I'm really excited
about it and I want it to be transformational, which
is why it's fifty two weeks. You're going to do

(48:01):
one focus each week and you can do it. You
just need to set aside, you know, ten minutes to
watch the video and then do your weekly mission and
then share about your weekly mission. I don't want it
to be just another thing like a book that you
read and then okay, I did that. I want it
to be something at the end of the fifty two weeks.
I want you to have a different relationship with food,

(48:22):
with your body, with the idea of eating and that
is my goal. So again, go to app dot Fastfeastrepeat
dot com join it. You can also you're going to
be able to find it in the app Store for
both iPhone and Android. It's called the Fast Feast Repeat App.
You can join it right there by the way. If
you join it through the app like in the app store,

(48:45):
then you have to manage your subscription through the app
like you do for all of your apps, like you
know how Apple does that. But I'd rather you go
to app dot Fastfeastrepeat dot com and join it there.
Then it's a lot easier for you to manage your subscription.
You can still mean your subscription through the app if
you join it through the website, but if you join
it through Apple, you have to manage it through the

(49:07):
way Apple does it. You know what I mean by that,
Sherry through that little subscription section. So I hope this
is transformational. I hope that people will give it a try.
If you're joined by the year, you get it's like
getting a couple months free, or you can join it
month by month if you like it, and I hope.

Speaker 2 (49:23):
You love it. I'm really excited about it. I've been
working with it hard.

Speaker 1 (49:26):
Oh and by the way, it's not all there yet.
The whole fifty two weeks are not there. I have
created the whole outline is there. Twenty nine weeks are
in the app right this minute, so, but there'll be
more by the time this launches, by the time December
rolls around. But right now, I mean, you're not going
to do all fifty two weeks at once, so we
got time for the rest to get there.

Speaker 2 (49:46):
Yeah, I'm excited. I think it's going to be just
what people need, because sometimes it can be hard. It
can be intimidating trying to figure out how to change
your diet and what to do, and so a lot
of times people are just like, well, I don't know
what to do, so I'm just gonna do what I've
always done.

Speaker 1 (50:04):
Right right, So and just as we go, and we're
all busy. We're all busy, but intermittent fasting gives us
back a lot of time. So you're an intermittent faster
and you're busy, but this is going to help you.

Speaker 2 (50:16):
Every week you can.

Speaker 1 (50:17):
Do one thing, one thing new right, and those things
will build and over time, in a year, like I said,
you will not even recognize yourself. That's my goal, all right,
So now it's time for our I'm so excited. It's
time for our tweak of the week. You know, I
always say, tweak it till it's easy. But the tweak
that works for me might not be the one that
works for you. And that's why it's super helpful to

(50:38):
hear how other intermittent fasters are making intermittent fasting work
for them. This is from Anna. She says, change your
colors on happy scale. I switched my gain from red
to blue, and it seems so much less scary. Something
about the color red just affects me psychologically. Brightening up
the colors also makes it feel more pots and less scary.

(51:02):
Now my upward gain seems a little less nerve wracking,
happy tweaking.

Speaker 2 (51:06):
And I've heard that before from other people too. I
actually did that years ago and I made blue too.
Blue Yeah read.

Speaker 1 (51:13):
I mean there was a time as a teacher when
they're like, don't grade with red pins anymore because red
pins had that association with like.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
Wrong, you're wrong. Oh that's funny. Yeah yeah. All right. Well,
we'd love to leave you with inspiration or motivational quotes,
and this week we have a message from s K
from Australia titled the Snakes, the Ladders and My Health
Journey and fun fact about this. She shared this in
the community and when I was reading it, I was

(51:44):
kind of perplexed because she showed a board game and
apparently in Australia the board game is called Snakes and Ladders.
In the US it's called shoots and ladders, And I
also learned that in Germany it's simply called ladders. That's
so fun. Not fun. Yeah, So she says, my health

(52:05):
journey feels a lot like a game of Snakes and ladders.
Every morning, I roll the dice, my choices, my mindset
my effort. Some days I hit a ladder. I fast clean,
my energy is steady, my mind feels sharp, and I
can feel myself climbing closer to the version of me
I'm working to become. Then there are days when I

(52:25):
hit a snake, I slip, maybe I break my fast early,
maybe stress wins. Maybe I just feel tired of it all,
and suddenly I slide down a few squares, watching progress
fade into frustration. But here's what I've learned in this game.
The only way to lose is to stop rolling the dice,
because every new day is another turn, another chance to

(52:47):
land on a ladder, another opportunity to learn from the
snakes and rise stronger. Interritten fasting isn't a punishment. It's
my way of playing with purpose. It teaches me patience, consistency,
and the power of small winds. Some ladders are tall
and some short, but every single climb counts, and the
snakes may be setbacks, but even then I will always

(53:10):
be further along than when I first started on this journey.
And when I finally look back, I see how far
I've come, not because I avoided snakes, but because I
kept rolling, climbing and believing that I would reach the top.

Speaker 1 (53:22):
I love that she has got such a way with words.
She really does. Okay, you're going to need to write
a book of some sort. I'm seriously one day. 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

(53:45):
to Jenstevens dot com slash community to join us.

Speaker 3 (53:50):
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 (54:01):
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 (54:22):
Until next week. Thanks for listening.

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