Episode 129: Upcoming DDD Cruise, Reversing Insulin Resistance, Managing Holidays, 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.

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

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

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

Speaker 2 (00:53):
I am doing great? How are you?

Speaker 1 (00:56):
I am fantastic. I've had some busy weeks yep, couple
of weeks and just yeah, it is.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
A busy time of the year.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
It is. We're recording this the week of Thanksgiving, so
We've already had our family Thanksgiving. We did it the
Saturday before and it was fabulous. I'll find that I
have shorter windows on Thanksgiving than like pretty much every
other day.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Because you just eat so abundantly and such rich, delicious
food and then you're just done stuffed. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Yeah, yeah. So we ate at like two o'clock and
I had seconds, and then I had dessert, and then
I closed my window and then I was like, oh
my lord, I'm so full. I couldn't eat any more
of the rest of the day if I wanted to.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah, I hear that. The food, Yeah, it's such rich food. Well,
Jen and I have exciting news.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
We dude, it's so exciting. Share it.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Let's see twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, Jen did delay, don't
deny cruises for the Facebook community. We had a lot
of fun. COVID came in twenty twenty and kind of
interrupted that. We had to cancel the last two cruises
that we had planned, and that was just sort of
a logistical nightmare at.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
The time, and so I said never again. Yeah, So
Jen said, I'm done with this. We're not gonna do
that again. So we just kind of just didn't do it,
but so many people have asked us, when are we
going to do another one? Are we going to do
another one? I think the sting, the disappointment, the frustration

(02:30):
we forget over time, you know, like childbirth. Yeah, and
so suddenly Jin's like, oh, we could maybe do another cruise. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
So we actually talked to a cruise planner this morning,
right before we started recording. So we've got some cruise
planning in the works. It's going to We're pretty excited
about it.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah, so excited. We're talking about the summer of twenty
twenty seven. Yes, so yeah, we don't have dates yet,
we don't have details yet. We're just in the planning stages.
But nobody can start thinking about summer of twenty twenty seven.
So excited.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yeah, it'll be fun. We always have had such a
great time, and like, you get off the ship and
it's just that sense of community that we love so much,
and then you just have it on the ship. So
for anybody who's done group cruising, we probably maybe do
it a little bit different than some people I've heard
of other like kind of health and wellness type cruises.

(03:26):
You know, Jen and I we are pretty laid back,
and that's the way our cruises are. We generally have
like one type of everybody can meet, sit down, have
a Q and A type session. But then after that
we're just there for fun and to meet y'all and
hang out and talk and have a good time.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Like we had a cocktail party at the last two
we had. We had the Q and A and like
some little session kind of stuff, but it was just
very informal. Yeah, we could talk about informal meet each other,
and then the cocktail party.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
That was pretty much it.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
And then people could get together and do activities or
meet up and that sort of thing. But it wasn't
like a seminar at sea or we're going to have
all the fasting experts there to give you seminars. Basically,
it's going on vacation with your fasting friends. Right.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
I'll tell you the number one reason why I would
not ever plan a seminar at sea. I am a
go and do person. I do not, especially if I
am out on a ship and there is sunshine to
be had. You know, I'm not going to see me
inside in a conference room.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
That's not fun.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
Let me tell you. We talk about a lot of
fasting pool side, and you know, we talk about fasting
while we're eating dinner. And yeah, so it's not that
it's not a focus on fasting, because the cruise very
much has a focus on fasting and you get to
see how we manage fasting vacations. Yep. So it's a
fasting community cruise, heavy on the cruise and the community,

(05:00):
right but right, yeah, yeah, so it's pretty low key.
It's a great time and we've made lifelong friends from
some of those cruises. It's true.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
And actually we had never met before the first one.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
That's true. Yeah, that is absolutely true.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
And we were rooming together on the second one.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
Look at us now exactly. And I was also gonna
say too. Something to think about is so a lot
of times people, when they like women, would come on
the cruise and they didn't choose to travel with their
spouse fore reason. My husband, I asked him a minute ago.
I was like, I think I know that, yesterir, but
I'm just gonna ask you, do you have any desire

(05:38):
to cruise with me? And he said, what are you
talking about? No, I do not have a desire to know,
And I said, why didn't think so? But I wanted
to give you the opportunity if you did, so, think
about like just the concept of it's kind of like
summer camp. You may decide you want to room with
other fasters that you don't know.

Speaker 1 (05:59):
Right, that happened on the last one.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
Uh huh, yep, you know, we would have cabins of
four women that had never met before the cruise, and
they had a great time and made new friends. And so,
you know, don't think that just because you don't have
somebody to travel with, or your spouse doesn't want to
travel with you or whatever, that it would be awkward
to come, you know, on your own. And when you

(06:23):
are able to share a cabin with somebody, of course,
that makes it way more affordable. So think about that,
or bring your best friend or you know, all are welcome.
So just something to think about, keep in mind and
look forward to. In twenty twenty seven.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
Yeah, my sister came on one of them. She didn't
room with us, but my sister and her friend and
my sister's not even fasting, but she came and that
was fun.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
Somebody brought their mom one year and their mom didn't
fast and fast.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
But we're probably going to be on an all adult
only cruise line. So we're still talking through those details
and we plan as soon as we have more details,
we will let you know on the podcast and we'll
have some sort of link. We're still figuring it out,
some sort of link and show notes where you can
sign up to get on an email list, yeah, so
that you don't miss the information. But we're not ready
for that yet. But we're just we're in the very

(07:10):
preliminized stages. Yeah, yeah, so don't email us about it yet.
We're not ready, but we'll get you on an email
list as soon as we have that INFI all right,
so let's celebrate.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
Liz from Central New York. Liz wrote, Hello ladies. As
I celebrate my one year fast aniversary, I want to
say thank you to you both. I will be fifty
seven in a couple of weeks, and I have been
overweight and dieting since I was a preteen, with up
and down weight fluctuations consistently throughout. I've done liquid diets,
weight watchers too many times to count, and even r

(07:41):
and Y surgery. But no matter what I did or
even the success, it wasn't sustainable for me. About three
years ago At my annual physical my doctor suggested intermittent
fasting to help address my steadily increasing A and C.
Hooray for your doctor, I know, I thought to myself,
Yeah right, I couldn't survive a diet, so why would

(08:03):
I want to restrict myself even more. Over time, I
found a coworker who was quote dirty fasting, and we
chatted about it from time to time. She is very
fit and she benefited more from the non scale victories
of her process. When I went back to my doctor
last year, she suggested intermittent fasting again and we talked
in more detail about it and all of the other

(08:24):
benefits besides weight loss that she has seen happen. This time,
being at my wits end again, I said, yes, I'm
going to try it. When I went home that night,
I searched online and Google brought me to you. I
started the very next day with a twelve hour fast
and drinking plain tea instead of black coffee. Here's a
little tweak. Starting with plain, black or green tea made

(08:46):
a transition to black coffee so much easier for me.
Sometimes when I have a fancy coffee in my eating window.
Now I don't even want to finish it. I've read
all your books, and I listened to all of your podcasts.
Everything has been so helpful, and it feels like I
have you on my own team cheering me on. Pretty steadily.
I transition to a ten hour fast, then eight, and

(09:07):
that's where I currently find myself. But sometimes, if I'm lucky,
based on my schedule, I can do a six hour
or shorter eating window. When I started my journey a
year ago, I was two hundred and twenty five pounds.
Within six months, I was down thirty five pounds and
it didn't kill me. Ideally, I would like to lose
fifteen more pounds. I am five foot three, so I

(09:27):
know I could benefit from losing more than that, but
I like to take it one step at a time.
For now, there is so much more besides the weight loss.
After I lost the bulk of that weight, the vacations came,
the holidays came, and various work travel events. But what
used to derail me didn't. Sometimes I question if I
really am an intermittent faster, if my eating windows still

(09:49):
contains some not so good choices. So instead I think
of myself as a delay. Don't denier, but it seems
to work for me. Over the course of that time,
and through all of these occurrences, I have been easily
able to maintain the weight loss that I have achieved
so far. Yes, I'd like to lose more, and I'm
confident that I will with some tweaks that I know

(10:10):
I need to make, but in the meantime, I am
so happy with where I have come so far. Other
victories I've experienced have included decreased inflammation, more energy, clearer skin,
fitting into clothes that I haven't fit into in a
long time, and getting to buy clothes in smaller sizes,
more confidence, and at my last blood work six months ago,

(10:32):
my A and C stayed the same and didn't climb.
I'm looking forward to the next reading. Intermittent fasting is doable,
and I have been able to tailor it to my
lifestyle and schedule. Accomplishing this did not make me feel
like I failed again, and overall, and most surprisingly, I
just feel better. Maybe it's due to less weight I'm
carrying around, or less sugar and processed foods I'm putting

(10:54):
into my body, but in any case, I really and
noticeably feel different. My diet brain has diminished I don't
beat myself up if I make a bad food choice.
I know that it is temporary and I can recover
quickly by staying on my fasting journey. I am happy
with my body and myself as a whole person. And
I'd like to add some words of rit wisdom for

(11:16):
anyone who may be thinking about trying it. Just do it.
Try it for a month and see what happens. Take
the chance. I'm glad I finally did. Thank you Jenn
and Sherry for sharing your knowledge, experience and all that
you do. You've helped me changed my life. I look
forward to continuing my intermittent fasting journey and for what
the future holds. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (11:37):
Oh hooray, Liz, I love that so much.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
I love that so much too. And when she says
I'm happy with my body myself as a whole person,
I feel like we see that so much.

Speaker 1 (11:46):
That's the most important thing, because if you're not happy
with yourself as a person, no number on the scale
is going to feel good until you.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
Are well, you know. I think what happens is when
we keep trying these diets and then we feel like
we failed, right, because diets are designed to fail. It
really affects your self confidence and how you carry yourself,
and you just kind of are stuck in this sort
of beat down to feeded feeling. And when you finally

(12:16):
kind of figure out what works, what clicks, what serves
your body, what makes you feel better, and you start
to see changes in your body, you start to get
that confidence back, and you just start to carry yourself
in a more positive and uplifted version of yourself.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
Well, you feel like a failure when the diet fails.
You feel like you're a failure. There's something wrong with you. Yes,
here's something really interesting. I got to see Chad this weekend.
I was in North Augusta and Will stayed with him.
I stayed at my sister's who are there for the
Thanksgiving that I mentioned already, And Chad shared with me
that he is having some issues with his blood sugar

(12:56):
being really high. And you know, he's always been so skinny. Yeah,
I think his body doesn't make a lot of insulin,
so he's never been able to store a lot of
Like even when he tried to gain weight, he couldn't.
So imagine you're someone going around your life with just
a low level of insulin all the time. So I said,
what you need to do is get your insulin check
taught to your doctor about this. If you're not able

(13:18):
to control your blood sugar, your body's probably not making
enough insulin. But then if he's just somebody who doesn't
make enough insulin, that would he would have a hard
time storing. But it's not because he's like better than
everybody that he stays slim. It's because his body is
not good at storing. So people who struggle with weight
probably overproduce insulin just naturally. It's not anything wrong with you.

(13:42):
It's just your body is really good at storing. And
so you're gonna try diets and you're gonna feel like
a failure because your body is just really good at storing,
whereas Chad's is not good at storing. It's not because
if anything, he's done so anyway, I gave him some
suggestions about what to do about his diet and all
of that, but it was just really interesting to think
about because you know, he's had his insulin check and

(14:03):
it was really low.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
I wonder how much his food quality has changed too
since he's been Probably probably I was thinking too, just
the fact that he's over fifty, so his you know,
testosterone has lower and Chad is not one that has
a lot of muscle mass on his body, right, So

(14:24):
I mean even if he was to start doing some
sort of dedicated resistance exercise and try to put some
muscle mass on, yeah, I bet his blood sugar would
be better under probably so.

Speaker 1 (14:36):
So he said he's trying to work on the diet
aspect just a bit. But I just really think we
don't appreciate how different we all are and how much
insulin love we have and naturally release. And I really
do think that's probably what's going on. He had an
aunt that had diabetes, his mother had diabetes. I think
they don't produce enough insulin in their family. Yeah, but

(14:57):
that keeps you slim, and you know it that whole
morality of I'm able to stay slim no matter what
you feel good, But if you're like I gain weight
no matter what you feel guilty. But it's really just
that you've got different stuff going on behind the scenes. Yeah,
and so you have to work with what you've got
going on. So he's having the flip side of that.
Now it's not working out so well. Not having a

(15:18):
lot of insulin. So eventually, I don't know, maybe I'll
have to.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
He needs to see peptide test.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
Yeah, but he also needs to have someone look at
his insulin levels, because if his insulin is really low
and his blood sugar is high.

Speaker 2 (15:32):
See, peptide tells you if your body's producing enough insulin. Okay, yeah, yeah,
so not just what your insulin level is, but if
your body's producing enough.

Speaker 1 (15:42):
Right, right, but also having a very low level would
also show you're not producing if your blood sugar is
also high at the same time.

Speaker 2 (15:49):
Yeah, So if it's very low but your blood sugar
is very high, yeah, that.

Speaker 1 (15:53):
Is what I bet is happening. I bet he's just
not making enough insulin to control his blood sugar, so
he's gonna have to, you know, do something without it. Anyway,
I just want people to not blame themselves, because you
can't control what your body is doing behind the scenes.
Complicated they are, they are, but that explains while one
person can eat a certain way and be really really slim,

(16:16):
whereas someone else who's like I barely eat, Why am
I so heavy? It's just your body's really good at
storing and that is not your fault anyway, it's not easy. No,
it's not so. Now we have a question from a listener.
This question is from Gene in Rockland, Delaware. Hello, Gin
and Sherry. Fast Feast Repeat is my favorite podcast and

(16:38):
I love all of the trustworthy information. I am fifty
one years old, five foot nine, one hundred and sixty
five pounds, and I've been fasting since the end of
January of twenty twenty four. While I haven't seen the
scale move more than just a few pounds, body recomposition
is working its magic. I'm stronger, leaner, and I just
feel better with fasting. This is my permanent lifestyle. I

(17:01):
have a question about B vitamins and the Clean Fast.
I recently heard that coffee and black tea can interfere
with a body's ability to absorb B vitamins. After looking online,
there seems to be some merit to this claim, which
is alarming because I drink black coffee every morning and
hot tea slash decalf all afternoon with some black iced
tea thrown in for good measure. I also understand that

(17:24):
the majority of women over forty are B complex deficient
and that can impact energy, mood, memory, etc. If possible,
I would appreciate listening to you both unpack this topic
since coffee and black tea are essential elements of my
clean fast, as well as any recommended ways to supplement
or test B complex levels. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
All right, Well, here's a couple of things. I don't
think we should worry about things that may not be
happening to our body. So the first thing I would
say is ask your daughter your daughter.

Speaker 1 (17:58):
And don't ask your daughter unless you said.

Speaker 2 (18:03):
Ask your doctor to test your vitamin B levels and
if they're fine, then you're I wouldn't even worry about it, right.
We do know that as people age, their ability to
absorb nutrients does decrease, so you know, I think thinking

(18:23):
about food from an addition standpoint becomes increasingly important as
we age, and so then I just still research for you.
So coffee can actually help the absorption of B twelve.
The main concern is for people who consume like really
large amounts of coffee. So if you're the one that
you're drinking coffee all day every day, that could be

(18:46):
a concern just because coffee has a diuretic effect. So
they think it's that diuretic effect that is what could
cottribute to like thiamine and folate deficiencies in association with coffee.
But with that said, I've also read research that says
that if what you do every day is drink two

(19:06):
pots of coffee all day, that then you start to
lose that diuretic effect because your body adapts to it
like it adapts to anything. So if you're drinking a
lot of coffee, then I would just cut back. The
other suggestion is just to avoid coffee while you're eating

(19:27):
or taking your supplements, and to take your vitamins and
supplements either an hour before or an hour after drinking coffee.
Vitamin B is not when I'm taking in my fast,
which is when I'm drinking coffee, because it makes me
really nauseous. So if you're taking your B vitamins or
if you're eating your vitamin B rich foods in your window,

(19:48):
I don't think you have an issue unless you're taking
them eating them with a cup of coffee. But I
also learned just a fun fact that I'll share. Some
research is supported that B twelve deficiency can be a
driver in sugar cravings. And we have a lot of
people who say that they're really craving that they crave sugar,
you know, so if that's you, you might want to

(20:11):
get a B twelve level drawn and just see where
you're at with that. B twelve is a driver in
the production of serotonin, which is a neurotransmitter that helps
regulate appetites. And then it also says if you find
yourself craving meat, fish, or eggs, it can also be
an indicator of a B twelve deficiency. So I thought
that was really interesting.

Speaker 1 (20:32):
And here's why. That's because B twelve is something that
we get from soil, like microorganisms in soil produce the
B twelve and back if you go back before the
modern day, when people were not like washing their food
getting all the dirt off, we were naturally consuming the
B twelve from the plant foods because they were not clean.

(20:52):
But now all the plant foods are sterilized, they're washed.
We're not getting B twelve from the plant food because
the plants don't have it in there. But animals are
eating getting the soil and through their food or whatever,
eating the grass, whatever they're doing. And so that's why
we get our BE twelve from the animal foods. So
anyone who's a vegetarian or especially a vegan. Most people

(21:15):
who are already know that you've got to supplement with
BE twelve. And I have been loan BE twelve before
because you know, I tend to be more plant based
in general. So I have actually done BE twelve shots
and now I take it. I actually take it every morning. Shure.
It doesn't bother me at all, does it not?

Speaker 2 (21:31):
Nope?

Speaker 1 (21:31):
BE twelve doesn't make me squeasy at all, But iron does.
Those kinds of things do. But yeah, bea twelve doesn't.

Speaker 2 (21:38):
So we have a question for Maggie in Ohio. She
is a fifty nine year old female and she would
like some tips on how to use intermittent fasting to
reverse insulin resistance.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
Okay, that is very broad, Yes, very very broad. So
let's think about let's like backtrack and magaver a little bit, like,
let's figure out, first of all, why do you have
insulin resistance? And then you want to do the opposite
of that, So why do we become insulin resistant? First
of all, frequently signaling our bodies to release instanllin constantly.

(22:11):
So if you think back to someone who is drinking
flavored sweetened even just sugar free, like a diet soda.
If you're constantly stimulating your taste sensation throughout the day,
like probably every American who's not fast and clean, sipping
on a latte, sipping on a diet soda, sipping on

(22:32):
flavored water, your body is constantly pumping out insulin, constantly snacking.
So if you are constantly stimulating a response, an insulin response,
all your waking hours, you are probably going to end
up insulin resistant as time goes on. So if you
are insulin resistant, first of all, how do you know

(22:54):
if you are well? If you have abdominal obesity, you
probably are. But if you want to know for sure,
we've talked about this before. You get your fasting insulin
level and your fasting blood sugar drawn at the same
exact time, and then you just calculate it. You get
your homa IR homa IR homa IR for insulin resistance.

(23:18):
Just google that homa IR calculator and it'll take you
to a website that will allow you to put your
numbers in and it will give you a number and
show you how likely you are to be your your
insulin resistance number. Right, So, if you are insulin resistant,
you have to do the opposite. You have to give

(23:39):
your body time to become more insulin sensitive. The clean fast.
So the clean fast is the number one way because
you're not constantly pulsing out insulin because you're fast and clean.
That's so important. Also, food choices matter in real foods,
high quality foods, less refined type foods, fewer ultra processed foods,

(24:04):
and so like real food, fiber rich foods, things like that.

Speaker 2 (24:09):
Yeah, and I was going to say too. Depending on
the level of your insulin resistance, many people are able
to reverse their instantlin resistance with just a daily eating
window four to five hours, honoring satiety, focusing on good
quality foods. Other people who have a let's just say,
a higher degree of insulin resistance, maybe they've been insulin

(24:31):
resistant longer, maybe they are even somebody who has been
diagnosed with diabetes. They may need a more intense protocol
to get that lower. But I'm a big fan of
settle into a fasting lifestyle, give it time for your

(24:52):
body to start to heal and then retest. If you're
not seeing a pretty big change within the first six
to nine months of doing a daily eating window, then
you may find that you need to do ADF. But
there's a lot of people who immediately will come into
community and say, I just found out that I'm diabetic,

(25:15):
or my doctor said I'm going to have to go
on medicine if I don't get this down, and they
immediately think that they ADF is their only option. And
I just want to reassure you that many, many, many
people reverse their insulin resistance with a daily eating window right.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
And food choices again, like we've boy said, those are
going to matter too.

Speaker 2 (25:32):
And I actually just went ahead and dropped in show notes,
I already had something typed up. It's a link where
you can order your own insulin, fasting insulin and fasting
glucose test. I have put the number the code for
those tests in there with a link of where you
can order them. It's for people in the US outside
of a couple of states up around New York. They

(25:54):
can't do it, but I've got it all typed out
there for you. Visit our show notes you can find
that there. And I've also got the link to a
home I R calculator which you have that you can
put your numbers in.

Speaker 1 (26:06):
Awesome, thank you for doing that all Right, Now it's
time for our segment called What's Your Why? And we
know most of us come to intermittent fasting with weight
loss in mind. That's a really great reason to start.
But there's so much more to what intermittent fasting can
do for us beyond weight loss, such as reversing our
insulin resistance. In twenty eight day fast art day by day,

(26:28):
I ask readers to craft their why statement before beginning,
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 (26:40):
All Right, so Cheryl wrote, when I started, If I
made a list of wives, they are. I want to
be as healthy as I can for my grandchildren. I
want to be able to walk up that hill in
our neighborhood without stopping to catch my breast. I want
to be able to look over my shoulder while driving
to switch lane safely. I want to be able to
put on my pants without leaning against the furniture. I

(27:02):
want to be able to dry without numbness in my hands.
I don't want the numbness of pain in my hands
to wake me up. I don't want to experience cramps
in my feet. I would like to improve my lipid profile,
especially those climbing triglycerides. I want to feel free of
food choice, self shame. I want to feel in control.

(27:22):
I want to tolerate the summer heat. I want to
wear shorts in public. I want to look better in
all clothes, and for all clothes to fit from season
to season and year to year. I want to be
able to see my jawline when I look in the mirror,
and to see muscle definition in my arms and legs.
I want to feel strong. I want to feel comfortable

(27:43):
being photographed. I don't want to suffer from indigestion any longer.

Speaker 1 (27:47):
I love that when I read a list from Cheryl,
Thank you Cheryl.

Speaker 2 (27:51):
All right, so we have a question from Jane in Newcastle, UK.
Jane wrote, high ladies and lovely listeners. I have been
cleaned for three years with very little weight loss but
some promising non scale victories. I have a question about
medication versus brushing your teeth. I take leva thyroxine for
an underactive thyroid, and having looked at the ingredients I

(28:14):
see it contain some food like substances such as microcrystalline
cellulose and maize starch. I have moved my liba thyroxine
to an hour before my eating window rather than first
thing in the morning, as I think that might have
been a stumbling block for me and losing weight. I
haven't seen any results yet, but I'm hopeful. My question
is this, You both advocate brushing your teeth outside of

(28:36):
your eating window, for example, first thing in the morning.
It seems most people still lose weight doing this. How
come the minty taste in our mouth doesn't impact on
weight loss for most people, but a tiny amount of
the ingredients in my medication can. I don't think this
has been covered before, but apologies if it has. Thank
you so much for all your support you provide to
everyone listening, and I hope you have a lovely day well.

Speaker 1 (29:00):
Also, Jane, I don't really think that tiny little amount
in your medicine is impacting your weight loss. So I
don't think that's it either. I know that you're really
trying to figure out why you're not losing weight, but
I don't think it's your medicine or brushing your teeth. Okay,
so you know you can certainly move your medication timing
if you want and see if you notice a difference.

(29:20):
But I would be very surprised if that was it.
So let's think about the insulin response for a minute.
If you brush your teeth with your minty toothpaste and
it's got some sweetness to it, and you take your
you know, your thyroid medicine, it's going to be tiny.
If your body pulses out a little bit of insulin,
it's just going to be small for a very short
period of time. Now contrast that with someone who's drinking

(29:44):
a diet soda. You don't have one sip of your
diet soda and then don't have any more of it
for five more hours. People sip on it, sip on it,
sip on it. Like I remember a teacher that taught
with me. She had a giant She would every morning
go get a giant styrofoam at coke and she like
nursed it all day long. That's a very different thing

(30:04):
that's going on. Or if you're drinking you know, coffee
with something in it or flavored water, that is just
hit after hit after hit. So that's what you need
to keep in mind. A little brief toothbrushing or a
little thyroid medicine is probably not a problem.

Speaker 2 (30:21):
Now.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
If every time you take your thyroid medicine it makes
you nauseous and you're starving, then just because it doesn't
feel good, you can push it to later. But I
really don't think that's the reason why you're not losing weight. Yeah,
And I was gonna say, I just did a little question.

Speaker 2 (30:34):
I was questioning. You know, I'm a questioner.

Speaker 1 (30:36):
I'll do me too.

Speaker 2 (30:37):
So I asked Google how many calories and a typical
pill or tablet, and it's usually less than one. They
give an example of a talentol has aboutero point three
calories and a sugar coated ibuprofen tablet has approximately a
half a calorie. Right, so if you were to look

(30:58):
at an insulin response from half a calorie, it's gonna.

Speaker 1 (31:02):
Be nil, no, very minuscule if any.

Speaker 2 (31:06):
And I take my leave with thyroxine in the morning,
I don't even think anything about it. I take it
and drink my coffee.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
And I think it's smart to be a detective and
figure out it is am I accidentally breaking my fast
and there's something I can shift. But also, really look
at how you're living the internetfesting lifestyle, and you know
some of the things you've heard of, say before, is
your window too long or is your window too short?

Speaker 2 (31:32):
Right?

Speaker 1 (31:32):
If your window is too short, you'll adapt to that.
If your window is too long, you won't shift into
fat burning. And so that's the whole nuance behind right,
you know, switching things up?

Speaker 2 (31:42):
Are you honoring satiety in your eating window? Right? Does
your food quality need to be adjusted? What is the
stress like in your life? How is your sleep?

Speaker 1 (31:53):
Right?

Speaker 2 (31:54):
You know, there are so many moving parts to figuring
out how to get your fasting protocol and your lifestyle
to support weight loss. So now that we've ruled out
that we think that this is a problem, I would
urge you to write back into us. Use the submission
form fast feasrepeat dot com forward, slash submit and tell

(32:17):
us exactly what you're doing in your window. Give us
your stats age, height, weight, What is your fasting protocol?
How do you eat in your window? How do you
structure your window? How active are you? And kinda let
us know you know what you've tried, and we are
happy to troubleshoot that for you exactly.

Speaker 1 (32:36):
Yeah, glad to do it all right, Brenda in Salt
Lake City, Utah, asks how do you feel about a
genericcilium husk powder. I've read nothing but good about it
and wondered if it would be a helpful supplement to
take as an intermittent faster, And she said thanks. By
the way, I'm in the maintenance phase. I've achieved my
goal weight, and I'm loving the intermittent fasting lifestyle, which

(32:57):
I have done since last October. So it sounds like
as of recording, she's been doing this for just over
a year. Yep.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
I feel great about taking a silium husk powder. I
have one that I use that I take. I personally
choose to use an organic one. I like to know
that if I'm eating I mean, it's essentially a seed
that it hasn't been sprayed with chemicals, and so I
actually use a whole husk powder rather than in the

(33:24):
finely ground powder like in a meta musol or whatever.
It's got a different texture and it's fluffier, it kind
of absorbs more. But it's Doctor b in Fiberfueld he
is a big fan of using silium as a prebiotic
to help kind of feed your good gut bugs. He

(33:45):
takes a prebiotic whether it's sillium or there's another one
he uses, like I think it's been a fiber, which
is like a sort of wheat starch. I believe he
uses that one as well. He's a big fan of
people using those. It can be great for cholesterol management,
it can be great for blood glucose management. So it's

(34:05):
a great way to open your eating window. You know,
it's great for bowel health for as far as keeping
things moving or keeping things from moving too quickly. So yeah,
I'm a big fan of cilium for many, many reasons,
So go for it. I actually put the link for
the one I use in show notes.

Speaker 1 (34:24):
And also Erry mentioned it, but I wanted to highlight
this is not for during the fast. She said she
opens her window with it. This is not doing to
incorporate in your fast, because if we don't say that specifically,
people be like, oh, we're taking it in the fast. No,
have it to open your window or in your eating
window or anything like that. And I actually do not
use it.

Speaker 2 (34:44):
I will say that you would not. If you're a
person that takes a bunch of supplements when you open
your window, take them away from your cilium.

Speaker 1 (34:51):
Because it will like bind we supplements.

Speaker 2 (34:53):
Yeah, it can help. It can keep you from absorbing
the nutrients.

Speaker 1 (34:56):
Yeah, good point. Yeah that's super helpful.

Speaker 2 (34:59):
All right, Well, before we get to the tweak of
the week, I just want to take a minute to
urge anyone who is struggling for whatever reason with your
fasting lifestyle. Maybe it's consistency, maybe it's mindset, or just
trying to figure out how to create a sustainable, flexible
fasting lifestyle to reach out to me. I have people
who really just need some external accountability until they really

(35:23):
get the habits down. And a lot of times a
personal meet with me, I'll do a little background history
and I can pinpoint pretty quickly what's going on and
what shifts need to be made that sometimes you just
can't see personally. You get kind of mired down and
all the details and you start overthinking things, and I
like to keep things pretty simple. I would love to

(35:45):
help you. We can do a one on one session,
we can do a monthly coaching session. Whatever you need,
I'm happy to give you that support. So email me
at Sherry s h e er I one R at
fast feast repeat dot com. Yeah, I can give you
more information and we can set something.

Speaker 1 (36:04):
Up awesome, and people in the community are raving about
Sherry's coaching because she's just good at it. Cherry can
help you with any problem. You should also do life coaching.
Like she's not just gonna help you with your fasting.
You got problems of any kind? Sure, I'm not kidding them.

Speaker 2 (36:23):
I've been Jen's kind of life coach. Well, that's true.

Speaker 1 (36:25):
Sherry sees things that other that I don't see, and
she'll just like say something that's right on. But I
don't like believe her at first at first, and then
like five years later, I'm like, oh my god, you
were right. Before we move on, I really want us
to talk about Christmas a little bit because this comes

(36:48):
out December seventeenth, yep. And so we're a week out
from Christmas Eve, and the holiday season is upon us,
and every year people struggle and this is the time
when they're about to just like let it all go
and say, I'll just quit. There's too much going on.

(37:09):
I'm going to stop fasting and enjoy the holidays and
I'll start back up January first. And so let's talk
about that for a few minutes. Sherry, what do you think.

Speaker 2 (37:19):
Absolutely, because most of my coaching clients right now are like,
can we talk about what to do on the holidays?
So I know this is on people's minds right now. Yeah,
here's the thing I now I keep in mind. And
I've been fasting for a long time. So this will
be my eleventh Christmas as a faster, maybe tenth.

Speaker 1 (37:38):
This is my twelfth.

Speaker 2 (37:40):
This is my eleventh, So I don't even think about
it anymore. To me, a holiday is just like any
other day when it comes to food and my eating window.
I'm going to eat in a window and I'm going
to fast period. Like there's no should I or shouldn't die.
It's just what I do. And sure, if I had

(38:01):
a big family event and there was it was going
to be an all day event, and there was going
to be food at noon and then there was going
to be a dinner at five, I might have a
longer eating window that day. It might be eight hours
instead of five hours. But I'm still going to fast
clean up until that very first bite I take. I'm

(38:21):
not going to wake up and say, oh, it's Christmas,
so I'm gonna have creamy coffee this morning. No. I'm
also not going to schedule a breakfast and a dinner.

Speaker 1 (38:31):
On the same day, on the same day, right.

Speaker 2 (38:33):
I know people like to do Christmas breakfast. I would
be the one that'd be like, Christmas breakfast doesn't work
for me, But we could do a Christmas brunch. How
about we have Christmas brunch at noon or eleven thirty,
which would mean even then if I started eating at
eleven thirty or noon and then I had dinner at
five or six, I'm still going to be able to

(38:56):
maintain an eight hour window easily that day. It's the
mindset of I'm an intermitt faster. Where do I want
my window that day? Right? Right? I mean it kind
of comes down to where do you want your window
that day and then kind of plan accordingly.

Speaker 1 (39:12):
And how do you want to feel? And I think
people need to recognize Christmas is one day. Christmas Eve
is one day, and we have a whole season around it.
So like you mentioned, for example, the creamy coffee on
Christmas Day, you know, you know what if your family
gets up and you have, like we have cheese and

(39:32):
sausage balls every Christmas morning, so and I'm the one
baking them, but I usually have them ready. I know,
maybe they're ready at ten o'clock. Maybe they're ready at
nine o'clock. I'm going to go ahead and have them
while they're hot and fresh out of the oven. That's
earlier than I normally open. But it is Christmas Day.
If you love that creamy sweet treat coffee, and it's
Christmas Day and you're sitting around your pajamas and you're

(39:53):
getting ready to open your presence, and that would make
you happy to do it, But you don't need to
do it the whole season, right, We're not sitting around
the Christmas tree on you know, December seventeenth, December eighteenth,
having your creamy coffee because it's the season, and you'll
start back with clean fasting in January.

Speaker 2 (40:10):
I'm gonna guess though, that when you do your Christmas dinner,
you're doing it when early, Yeah, early afternoon, mid afternoon. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:18):
Every single Christmas so far, no matter what time I open,
I feel like I'm eating all day long. And by
the time I'm done for the day, I'm like, oh
my gosh, that was the longest day. And I look
back and it was always like eight hours.

Speaker 2 (40:33):
Right exactly. Yeah, So again, so that's where to me,
it's like Okay, So what I wouldn't do was open
with sausage balls at nine am and then have a
dinner at six thirty.

Speaker 1 (40:46):
But I might on Christmas Day if I don't.

Speaker 2 (40:49):
But I feel like once you start eating, you just
kind of keep eating, right, So once you start, you
just keep eating, and then but times six thirty comes around,
you're really not gonna want to eat at Christmas dinner.

Speaker 1 (40:59):
Probably not so to me, the.

Speaker 2 (41:01):
Best way to enjoy food is to actually be hungry
for it, you know, and not just be putting food
on top of food. It starts to lose its kind
of joy and specialness you know, of the day. So
the problem is where you're like, it's a mindset thing, too, right.
If you love fasting, you love fasting, you love how

(41:24):
you feel when you're fasted, you enjoy just eating delicious
food in your eating window. I think that is a
different mindset than Oh, I'm fasting and it's gonna be
hard because everybody's gonna be eating around me, and I'm
just gonna say forget it, and I'm just gonna just
throw fasting out the window that day. Like, that's a

(41:46):
different mindset because when you do that and you just
throw fasting out the window that day and the next
day when you wake up, now you're gonna be one.
Your glycogen stores are gonna be woop boop topped off,
and fasting is gonna feel hard. And guess what happens
when fasting you feel hard. It's real easy to be like, well,
there's all those leftovers today. Maybe I'll just not fast
again to day until those leftovers are done, and I'll

(42:07):
pick it back up tomorrow. Right, But then what happens
is that's a slippery slope, and.

Speaker 1 (42:11):
Now it's tomorrow, it's going to be even harder. Right now,
it's harder than it would have been. Right.

Speaker 2 (42:17):
So that's why I just really encourage you really think
about still maintaining a window and kind of in your
head and advance plan it out, figure out where you
want your window. If you go over thirty minutes, oh well,
it's one day, right. But the mindset of I'm going
too fast and eating a window on Christmas is way
different than it's a holiday. I'm not going to fast,

(42:38):
even if.

Speaker 1 (42:38):
It ends up with a twelve hour window, I wouldn't
be mad about that, right, And again, like I always
feel so full that I'm ready to stop and look
back and it's been eight hours. That's just me. But
maybe you're like, you know what, I'm going to enjoy
this whole day. I'm going to fast clean until eight
am when the cinnamon rolls come out of the oven.
But you fasted clean till eight am, right, And then

(43:00):
maybe you eat for twelve hours on that day. But
then the next day you push through and get back
to a shorter window, and you don't beat yourself up,
but you don't let it linger. That's that slippery slope, right,
And then before you know it, you're like, well, we're
still finishing the creamer. I might as well go ahead
and have it. You know what I would do is

(43:21):
if there was something like that calling to me, I
would pour it out at the night at night, because
you know, in the morning when you're feeling like a
might as well it's here. But if it was poured
out the night before, you're not gonna You're not gonna
have it.

Speaker 2 (43:34):
I agree.

Speaker 1 (43:35):
Just don't get down that slippery slope. Remind yourself of
how great you want to feel, and choose your events wisely,
moving your window as possible. So we're going to have
Christmas Eve, we're going to get my sisters. We're starting
at twelve thirty, so again, it'll probably be one big
meal that day, and it is possible I could be

(43:56):
hungry again later and have a slightly longer window. If
I'm hungry later, I'll eat Thanksgiving. I couldn't do it.

Speaker 2 (44:01):
I was stuffed.

Speaker 1 (44:03):
But you know, then the next day will be a
longer window. And then on December twenty sixth buddy, I
am right back to having a shorter window.

Speaker 2 (44:10):
Yeah, and you know, even with holiday parties. I know
one of my clients was concerned. She's an afternoon window person,
like eleven to four and that's her preferred window. And
she said, I just don't know what to do. We've
got holiday things coming up, We've got a dinner at
five tomorrow, whatever. And I said, just move your window.
Like she literally just said, I never even thought of that.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (44:34):
So those are the kinds of things that when I'm like,
plan when you want your window, r s your window,
put it where you want it. And if you are
an experience faster, you should have absolutely no issue shifting
your window. I mean, may you have some hunger twinges
around the time that you normally eat, absolutely, but you're
not going to be like white knuckling it by delaying

(44:54):
your window for the whole time.

Speaker 1 (44:56):
You might white knuckle it for ten minutes. Yeah, and
then it's hunger is not an emergency. It passes. And
here's something important if it doesn't. If you normally open
at eleven and you have your hunger and you push
through it, and then at eleven thirty you're still so hungry,
and at twelve you're still so hungry, and at twelve
thirty you're still so hungry and it never goes away,

(45:17):
then you need to think about are you giving yourself
time to become fat adapted? It might be too long, yep.

Speaker 2 (45:23):
Yeah, And you know so the other interesting thing too, is,
even though she's heard us say this before, the reason
she's never thought to move her window is because she
had a fasting goal that she had to meet every
single day. Right. So the minute I said throw that
out the window, just focus on the boundaries of your
eating window, she said, what does that look like? And

(45:44):
I said, it means you have this five houred block
of time. Do you want to use that block of
time from eleven to four? Do you want to use
that block of time from four pm to nine pm.
And she said, what do I do the next day?
I said, you open your window whenever you want that
block of time on that day, right, And this was
like a whole Like her eyes lit up and I
saw the light bulb turn on and she was like,

(46:06):
Oh my gosh. That makes it so much easier.

Speaker 1 (46:08):
That is why it is easier to track your window
than worry about how long you've been fasting. Yep, it
all evens out because if she opens later one day,
she's just had a slightly longer fast Yeah.

Speaker 2 (46:20):
I had to explain to her, a look, if you
take your two days and you add up your fasting
time on those two days, and you add up your
windows time on that two days, it's gonna end up
being the same regardless if you move the window or
you keep it the same.

Speaker 1 (46:36):
Yeah, so the average is the same. Average is the same,
one is longer, one is shorter, It averages in the middle.

Speaker 2 (46:44):
Math.

Speaker 1 (46:45):
I love it all Right, 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 is why it is so helpful to hear how
other intermittent fasters are made, making intermittent fasting work for them.
This is from Angela from eastern Pennsylvania. She said, I'm

(47:06):
hoping my current tweak might reach listeners struggling with consuming
too much sugar in their eating windows. Earlier in the year,
I had realized that I was eating a donut or
a bowl of ice cream or cookies nearly every day
before closing my window. My weight wasn't moving, probably because
of my consistent twenty plus hour daily clean fast and workouts.

(47:28):
But I knew having that much refined sugar wasn't doing
me any favors. So basically, she wasn't vaining, so she
wasn't gaining. She also wasn't losing, so she felt like
what she was doing was helping or not gain, but
she may have wanted to lose, so she said, I
didn't want to quit eating desserts altogether and really denying myself,
so I do this instead. On the weekdays Monday through Friday,

(47:50):
when I want something sweet to close my eating window,
I'll have a sliced apple with cinnamon or three to
four dates with peanut butter. Or one to two squares
of seventy two percent scent dark chocolates, or a cup
of yogurt with berries that satisfies my sweet tooth, and I,
knowing I'm consuming something nutritious, then I immediately brush my
teeth and close my window. On Saturday and Sunday nights,

(48:13):
if I really want it, I enjoy a scoop of
ice cream or that doughnut or a couple of cookies.
I also eat those sweet treats very slowly to savor them,
and then I immediately brush my teeth so I'm not
tempted to eat anymore. I'm simply delaying those extravagant desserts
for Saturdays and Sundays rather than denying them altogether. This

(48:35):
tweak seems to work, and I find myself looking forward
to the weekends. I hope this tweek helps someone else.

Speaker 2 (48:41):
Do you know I've recently read something that if you
eat something like that blindfolded, you know, when you take
away one sense, other senses become heightened. Yeah, that the
pleasure of eating it is more intensified. And it made
me think, have you ever heard of those blind full dinners?

Speaker 1 (49:03):
Yeah, we had somebody in the community that went to one. Remember, yeah,
uh huh, yeah, yeah. I was like, I'd be like
I would need a bib and a towel. I never
thought about that. That's how my mind works.

Speaker 2 (49:19):
Like did they cut up your meat for you?

Speaker 1 (49:21):
I don't even know. I'd be like eating with my hands.
I don't know, But then nobody could see, so who cares.
The waiter would be laughing. I would like to work
in one of those restaurants and like laugh at the Sorry,
I don't really want to laugh at people. Sorry, everybody,
that sounded rude. I would laugh at the people.

Speaker 2 (49:39):
You know what's funny though, I don't know. Maybe it's
the over fifty thing, like where you have to turn
down the radio to park your car.

Speaker 1 (49:45):
Right.

Speaker 2 (49:45):
Yeah. I don't like to eat in the dark. Like
our house stays pretty dark. My husband likes, he's like
a vampire. Windows have to be closed, lights off. But
if we're eating, the first thing I do is flip
all the lights on. I do not eat in the dark.
I want to see my.

Speaker 1 (50:00):
Fod do not eat in the dark. That's funny.

Speaker 2 (50:04):
Oh gosh, all right, Well, we love to leave you
with inspiration our motivational quotes and this week, we have
some inspiration from Michelle, a member of our DDD community,
and we love her, so I do love her. So
she shared this other day and it was too good
not to share with y'all. So Michelle wrote, I love
an acrostic. So here's a little shout out to two

(50:26):
words that keep this wellness journey flowing. And the words
are inspire and community, and she said mainly this DDD community.
So for inspire she has I ignite your inner light.
Let wellness spark from the inside out. In nourish your
whole being, food, movement, sleep and joy all count s.

(50:50):
Surrender the noise. Fasting creates quiet space for clarity, pee
protect your peace. Self care is a boundary, not a luxury.
I invite healing in Your body knows what to do
when you give it time. R rise renewed. Every reset
brings a stronger and balanced side e embody your intentions,

(51:15):
walk toward the life you're creating. And then for community,
she has c come as you are. We honor every
part of the journey, and that is true.

Speaker 1 (51:24):
We do. We honor the struggle, don't we and the
success and everything in between. M oh open your heart.
Support grows when we let ourselves be seen. M move together.
Shared goals make the load lighter. The second M is
motivate with kindness. Gentle encouragement goes a long way. You

(51:46):
uplift each other, celebrate wins, and hold space for the
challenging days in nourish connections, Healthy relationships equal healthy living.
I inspire by example. Your consistency becomes someone else's tea.
Trust the process. Progress looks different for everyone. Why you're

(52:06):
never alone. We're walking this path side by side. And
she followed up by saying, I'm here for the health
of it, and I absolutely love that. Michelle is just awesome.
But that is exactly what our community is. She nailed it,
the whole spirit of it, from start to finish.

Speaker 2 (52:23):
She absolutely did.

Speaker 1 (52:24):
Thank you, Michelle, Thanks so much for listening today. We
would love to have you join us in the Delayed
on Tonight community, where you can interact with both me
and Sherry plus the most supportive bunch of intermittent fasters
you'll find anywhere. Go to jenstevens dot com slash community
to join us.

Speaker 3 (52:44):
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 (52:55):
We are a community driven podcast, so to submit your
success stories, 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 (53:15):
Until next week, Thanks for listening.

Speaker 1 (53:29):
This podcast was edited by Resonate Recordings.

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