August 15, 2025 • 15 mins
The constant juggle of being a working mom sometimes feels like a pressure cooker ready to explode. That morning rush of getting kids to camp while managing work calls, racing to doctor's appointments, and trying not to melt down over forgotten insurance cards—sound familiar? These seemingly small moments stack up until we're ready to burst into tears over what others might view as minor inconveniences.
Why do we struggle so much with letting others care for us? I caught myself telling my children, "I wish someone took care of me as well as I take care of everyone else," revealing a deeper truth about control issues and possibly past trauma that many women share but rarely discuss. This isn't just about being busy—it's about the emotional toll of constantly managing everything and everyone while neglecting our own needs.
Beyond the daily shuffle, I've discovered something truly transformative for my health journey: intermittent fasting. After losing 150 pounds and then regaining 20, I needed a sustainable approach that worked with my busy life. What started as a weight management tool revealed itself as something far more powerful. Harvard and Johns Hopkins research confirms that intermittent fasting reduces insulin levels, increases human growth hormone, activates cellular repair through autophagy, and may even play a role in cancer prevention. Perhaps most fascinating is how fasting complements sleep—when we don't eat late at night, our brains can properly "wash" themselves during deep sleep, removing plaques associated with dementia.
My approach wasn't perfect at first—I bribed myself through the initial fasting periods with promises of treats during my eating windows. Yet even with imperfect implementation, I saw results that eventually led to healthier food choices and a more vegetarian lifestyle. The journey has been transformative, with my doctor recently confirming impressive health metrics that go far beyond the scale.
Have you tried intermittent fasting or found yourself overwhelmed by the invisible load of managing everything? I'd love to hear your experience—message me and let's continue this conversation about finding sustainable approaches to health while navigating the beautiful chaos of life.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everybody, this is Steel vs Podcast.
This podcast was created forwomen, by women, to elevate
women's voices.
I am very excited to welcomeyou to the show today and I have
a special guest with me thatwould also like to welcome you
to the show.
Go ahead, welcome to Steel vsPodcast.
Thank you for listening.
Good job.
So let's see here Still inAugust.
(00:20):
Thank you all for hanging withme for the summer series.
I feel like it's been a lot offun, because we've gotten to go
through a lot of episodes andtopics that we don't get to go
through in detail when I'm goingthrough my guests.
You guys do know that theformat is changing for future
guest episodes, so instead ofdoing series events, I am just
(00:41):
pushing every episode live asI'm recording them 'm hoping.
I'm hoping that it'll do acouple things.
I do hope that one it's goingto free up some time on my side.
It's going to prevent me fromhaving to do hours and hours of
editing, which is going to becool, and then I think it's
going to also give um morediversity in a broad range for
the show.
The only thing that I do haveto get to, which I haven't done
(01:02):
yet, is I'm going to release aschedule of events, so I will
start working on that so thatthat can be continuously updated
, and I actually think I'm goingto start pointing that towards
on my website because I canupdate that pretty quickly.
So more to come there.
Please do make sure you'refollowing me on YouTube or on
LinkedIn, because that is wherethe live streams get pushed.
I don't think it's going to getpushed to Facebook and for some
(01:24):
reason, this platform doesn'tpush to Instagram, but in any
case, I'm still very excitedabout that and I think I have
some episodes coming out, beingreleased this weekend, so it'll
be really cool.
They're all going to be live,so I have to get to posting
about that.
Now on to our topics of the day, our little thought starters.
So, number one I wanted to callout that you know, you guys
(01:45):
know I'm notorious and I thinkmost of us are notorious for not
taking care of our health, notprioritizing doctor's
appointments and basicallydelaying things as much as
possible until we actually haveto go to the doctor.
So I had a situation that hadcropped up and I was concerned
because I didn't know exactlywhat it was.
Now I usually am pretty good.
There's certain areas of mybody that I'm like I can handle
(02:06):
this, I can deal with it, I candeal with it.
But there's some that I'm likethis is hands off, I don't know
how to deal with this area.
I'm not an expert.
I'm obviously not a physician,so can't really claim any
expertise.
But I had a moment where I waslike I'm a little nervous and I
need to go see an actual medicalprofessional Now, like cue in
the mom shuffle and some of youare going to get a kick out of
this.
This is, by the way, not thetopic.
(02:27):
I have a topic, but this issomething I just wanted to share
.
So today, the mom shuffle, Ihad to work and also had this
doctor's appointment.
So I wanted to make sure I gotmyself to the doctor's
appointment and my kids werehome and I did not want them to
come with me to the doctors,because that's a whole other can
of worms, right.
Come with me to the doctors,because that's a whole other can
of worms, right.
(02:48):
So I'm like they're going to beat camp.
Well, I also had calls startingpretty early today, at like
8.30 on my side, so I had toorchestrate being able to start
calls at 8.30, getting my kidsto camp by 9.30, stay with me
getting myself to the doctors by10.30,.
Getting back to my desk by 12o'clock.
You try to pull out all thestops when you're a working mom,
(03:11):
so you have to be prepared forthe unexpected.
So I was prepared for the factthat I might not make it back to
my desk by 12 o'clock like I'dlike.
So what I'm going to have to dois bring my laptop, bring my
portable monitor, bring all theconnections with me, bring my
headphones basically bring mymobile office with me to go to
the doctor in the event that Ihave to take calls from the car.
(03:33):
So I had all that set up readyto go.
Thankfully, the doctor'sappointment was super quick.
I'm in good health, guys, yay.
But nevertheless I had thisjuggle and the car that I had
today.
I know, boohoo, what was me,but there was no air
conditioning in it and I'm likesweating bullets running around
as I'm driving to the doctor'soffice.
So I get the kids to camp theywere complaining, no one wanted
(03:54):
to go got them dropped off.
Then I start.
I leave to go to the doctor'sappointment.
On my way there I realized Idon't have my health insurance
card I had to pull over and madesure I had it on my phone in
the app so that I could messageit to the doctor's office
because they needed it, becauseit was a first appointment.
So there was that and I'm likeready to cry, I'm ready to burst
into tears right Now.
Again, someone listening isprobably like why were you ready
(04:15):
to burst into tears?
But it's the combination ofpressures, because the only way
I can think of it is like whenyou're boiling a pot of water on
the stove, right, all right, soI'm the pot of water, clearly,
and you know you turn the heatup a little bit.
It just boils a little bit.
It's a little, it's warm, youknow it's getting warm, but you
know it's still tolerable.
But then the more flames youadd which would be the pressure
(04:37):
the more the water starts toboil and get out of control and
pop the lid off and blow the lidoff and everything.
And so it was literally justtruly like a.
I had this morning call, wantedto make sure I'm showing up for
that and that I'm listening andengaged, but in the background
my children are not gettingtheir socks and shoes on.
That's triggering me.
So I have to hang up the callsuper quick, get their socks and
shoes on and eat back on a fullby 9.05.
(04:57):
So I'm doing the juggle rightThen from the 9.05, and I
already told you get them tocamp while I'm on the call.
Getting them to camp, and thenwhile I'm doing that, I'm also
trying to do the other thingsand it truly truly was just like
a lot of little smallpressurized moments that was
(05:17):
pushing me right over the edge,on top of the fact that I was
scared to go to the doctor.
I don't really want to go, likein general, and so when I know
I have to go because I'm nervous, it's like a scary thing for me
.
But again, all was well.
But it was just that pressureof like stuff on top of stuff on
top of stuff.
And you all know how I feelabout my job.
I love my job, I'm verydedicated to my job.
(05:39):
So it's just a lot.
And I think this unseen partfor everybody it's not just
women, but you know we're womenfocused here.
So I'm going to say that I'mgoing to focus on that, this
unseen pressure that women haveto deal with the juggling.
And I actually said to my kidstoday I don't know if this is a
(05:59):
proud I don't.
I wouldn't say this was myproudest moment, but, like I
said to them, I wish thatsomeone took care of me as well
as I took care of everybody else.
Now that's probably a downfallon me to not set the expectation
.
If you guys could see my faceright now, you could tell that
I'm working this out as I say it.
I think that's a fault for me,because I have never set the
(06:21):
expectation that someone will betaking care of me.
I just don't set thatexpectation.
This is like a deep-rooted,deep-seated thing for me, where
I not only am not expectingother people to take care of me,
but in a way, I'm removing thatpossibility of anyone ever
taking care of me in that way,because that would mean that I
(06:44):
would be giving up some part ofcontrol.
Oof, this went a lot deeper, alot deeper than I intended it to
be.
It was supposed to be a funnything, but now that I think
about it, I think it's more of ainability to really, really
give up control, and I thinkthat's where a lot of us will
start to falter, especially forfolks who have had like trauma
(07:06):
and past trauma, which, again, Ithink almost all of us have
that.
Why am I sharing this story?
Because we all go through thisand you're not crazy, period.
Honestly, hand to God, half thestuff I talk about here is
because I want you to knowyou're not alone.
You're not the only one goingthrough this.
You're not the only onesnapping over a bunch of little
things.
It happens.
I have a doctor's appointmenttomorrow.
(07:26):
Not as scary, it's achiropractor appointment because
I have a bad lower back.
I'm working on it so that itwon't be a bad lower back
anymore.
Nevertheless, that's adifferent kind of appointment.
At the end of the day, itdoesn't disrupt my day.
I don't have to really worryabout anything, not as stressed
out about that.
That would be an easier one.
Now onto the topic, because Idon't want this to be a super
long episode, but I want to talkabout this topic with you.
So I think I have talked aboutintermittent fasting before I
(07:47):
started practicing it last year.
One of my mom friends put me onit.
I was explaining to her that Iwas really frustrated because I
had lost a lot of weight andlike about 150 pounds and paused
.
I was very, very, veryoverweight from my pregnancies
and that's why I lost so muchweight, but it took a lot.
I had to go see doctors, like Imean, it was a legitimate like
(08:08):
health crisis that I needed toaddress, so I lost all this
weight.
I was very proud of myself forbeing able to do it, and then,
after we moved into our home, Istarted gaining weight again.
Not a lot, it was about 20pounds over the course of like
three years or so or two yearsroughly like 10 pounds a year.
It started freaking me outbecause I already know what that
looked like and I already knowwhat that felt like.
(08:30):
Now, this is not a situationwhere I'm talking about body
shaming.
I'm definitely not of thatmindset.
However, for me personally,carrying a lot, all that extra
weight that I had, was veryuncomfortable for me and it was
affecting my mental health andmy physical health.
It's just in my opinion, and inthe opinion of some of the
medical professionals I'vetalked to, it is not healthy to
(08:52):
carry that much weight with you.
I see some, unfortunately, somerepercussions in my current
body that are from when I was sooverweight and now I have to
deal with it.
Nevertheless, I wanted to focusin on intermittent fasting
because this was something thatreally really helped.
But the reason why I want tofocus on intermittent fasting is
not so much because it was theonly way that I was able to drop
(09:14):
that 20 pounds again.
The thing that I wanted tofocus on here is what are the
other benefits of intermittentfasting?
So a lot of folks are doing itbecause it's like fad.
Right, it's a fad thing.
There's all these apps for itnow and there's tons of diets
out there that you can follow,like you know that have all this
like fluff and fluff.
Intermittent fasting is not aflash in the pan.
This is actually reallyimportant.
So I'm going to read to yousome of the research that I
(09:38):
found.
I'm just going to reference it.
I do want to assure you I amreading articles from Harvard
Health, johns Hopkins Medicineand Portsmouth Regional Hospital
.
I just did a general search.
I've also talked aboutintermittent fasting quite a bit
with some of the medical folksthat I work with.
So there is true legitimatebenefits to doing this kind of a
diet.
Now there's some risk involved.
(10:00):
If you, obviously, if you'repregnant, I don't think this is
like obviously something youcould do If you are prone to
eating disorders.
If you have an eating disorder.
This would not be a good fitbecause you already are not
fasting.
It's not the right word.
You're restricting, so thisisn't the right path.
But if this is something thatyou can talk to your doctor
about, this is something youwant to try, I really do
(10:21):
recommend it, not just becauseof weight loss.
So, for example, intermittentfasting induces hormonal
changesonal changes, so itreduces insulin.
Insulin levels decrease, makingyour body more sensitive to
insulin and potentiallyimproving blood sugar control.
Increase human growth hormones,so levels of hgh increase,
which can aid in fat burning andmuscle preservation.
(10:41):
This next part is incrediblyimportant cellular repair.
So there is a process calledautophagy probably not
pronouncing that right Cellsinitiate repair processes,
including autophagy, where theyremove damaged or dysfunctional
proteins, promoting cellulargrowth, cellular health, gene
expression if it can influencegene expression, potentially
(11:04):
impacting longevity and diseaseprevention.
I want to pause there for aminute.
I interviewed somebody for thepodcast, amy Van Loo.
She told me as part of hercancer prevention, her doctor
asked her to do intermittentfasting.
This is really important.
Your body needs time, needsperiods of time during the day
where it is completely empty sothat it can regenerate itself,
(11:26):
and I know from a lot of people.
This happens at night, but ifyou're a late night eater, when
you're sleeping, your body isactually not at rest and it's
not healing itself and it's notregenerating.
When you go to sleep and you'rein deep sleep, your whole body
resets itself, including yourbrain, and this is a little bit
like off of this topic.
I had actually read somewhereelse and I'm going to try to
find it while I'm talking thatyour brain basically goes
(11:50):
through a wash cycle.
It clears any plaques off yourbrain that would promote
dementia.
It rinses and pulls any bloodthat was floating there, like I
mean, truly look it up, googleit.
When you sleep, what happens toyour brain?
It's basically like a wash,rinse, repeat and then you wake
up in the morning and you can goand do your thing.
This is probably also why, whenyou were staying up for long
(12:13):
periods of time and I'll usemyself as an example when I have
really hot projects that I'mworking on and I need to lose
sleep and I need to work reallylate, like consistently
throughout the week, that plays,that takes toll on me and I
can't think right, like my brainis foggy, like I start to make
mistakes.
That's not just the sleepdeprivation, but your brain also
has not had time to cleanitself Like.
(12:33):
This is a problem.
Lean in more Like we need toreally be focused here because
we could be doing things in ourdaily lives that are helping our
physical health.
So, of course, intermittentfasting promotes metabolic
shifts fat burning, ketoneproduction, mitochondrial
function, which are thepowerhouse of cells, potentially
leading to increased energyproduction.
Other potential benefits areimproved gut health, reduced
(12:55):
cardiovascular risk factors andbetter sleep.
I mean you can look this up.
This information is not hidden,but I wanted to talk with you
about it because people arelooking for really quick hits
for how can I lose weight superfast?
And I'm not trying to putanyone down for that because,
again, like I've shared with youmy story a few times, I was
desperate when I went to thedoctor the first time and I was
(13:16):
crying because I was souncomfortable, so unhappy, and I
felt like I had triedeverything at that point and I
hadn't.
So I understand the need and Iunderstand the deep desire I
really do to lose weight.
I've battled this my entirelife.
But there's a good way to do itand there's not a good way to
do it and there's a way that youdo it.
That could affect younegatively for your whole life.
(13:37):
But there's a way like this,like intermittent fasting, that
could really have a hugepositive impact on you.
So I'm going to stop it there.
I would love if anyone isreally looking at trying to lose
weight, not even if they'retrying to lose weight.
If you just want to shift yourlife around a little bit, this
would be a great thing to tryout.
And I will say this one lastthing when I first tried it, my
(13:59):
willpower is awful in generalWell, for the most part, and I'm
prone to late night snacking.
So I used to.
When I first started, I wouldpromise myself Jenny, if you get
through today like an addict,I'm like.
If you get through today likean addict, I'm like, if you get
through this, you can have adonut tomorrow.
(14:19):
So the first month that I didintermittent fasting, I ate
terribly.
During that window that I hadavailable to eat, I ate whatever
.
I ate junk food, I ate sweets,I ate sugars I didn't care.
I was like I'm just trying thisout, what shakes what shakes
out.
And the first month I think Ilost like five pounds and I was
eating badly.
And then I started to catch onand wise up and I was like, oh
you know what, like perhaps Ishould actually just eat clean,
like maybe I should just eatbetter.
And then I started like reallytransitioning more into being a
(14:41):
vegetarian and eating healthierand doing better things for
myself, like in general.
So with that, my physical bodyhas gone through so many things
and it is in pretty good healthstate at this point, as
confirmed by my doctor earliertoday.
She was very impressed with mystatistics, but I want to leave
you guys with that thought wecan do things for ourselves that
(15:01):
are outside of like oh I needto lose weight, or outside of
going to the gym.
That really could have apositive impact on your overall
health.
I hope you found this episodeinformative.
If you give intermittentfasting a shot, I would love to
hear about it.
So please feel free to messageme and thank you for hanging out
with me and I will catch you onthe next one.
Take care.
Hello everybody, this is Steel vs Podcast.
This podcast was created forwomen, by women, to elevate
women's voices.
I am very excited to welcomeyou to the show today and I have
a special guest with me thatwould also like to welcome you
to the show.
Go ahead, welcome to Steel vsPodcast.
Thank you for listening.
Good job.
So let's see here Still inAugust.
(00:20):
Thank you all for hanging withme for the summer series.
I feel like it's been a lot offun, because we've gotten to go
through a lot of episodes andtopics that we don't get to go
through in detail when I'm goingthrough my guests.
You guys do know that theformat is changing for future
guest episodes, so instead ofdoing series events, I am just
(00:41):
pushing every episode live asI'm recording them 'm hoping.
I'm hoping that it'll do acouple things.
I do hope that one it's goingto free up some time on my side.
It's going to prevent me fromhaving to do hours and hours of
editing, which is going to becool, and then I think it's
going to also give um morediversity in a broad range for
the show.
The only thing that I do haveto get to, which I haven't done
(01:02):
yet, is I'm going to release aschedule of events, so I will
start working on that so thatthat can be continuously updated
, and I actually think I'm goingto start pointing that towards
on my website because I canupdate that pretty quickly.
So more to come there.
Please do make sure you'refollowing me on YouTube or on
LinkedIn, because that is wherethe live streams get pushed.
I don't think it's going to getpushed to Facebook and for some
(01:24):
reason, this platform doesn'tpush to Instagram, but in any
case, I'm still very excitedabout that and I think I have
some episodes coming out, beingreleased this weekend, so it'll
be really cool.
They're all going to be live,so I have to get to posting
about that.
Now on to our topics of the day, our little thought starters.
So, number one I wanted to callout that you know, you guys
(01:45):
know I'm notorious and I thinkmost of us are notorious for not
taking care of our health, notprioritizing doctor's
appointments and basicallydelaying things as much as
possible until we actually haveto go to the doctor.
So I had a situation that hadcropped up and I was concerned
because I didn't know exactlywhat it was.
Now I usually am pretty good.
There's certain areas of mybody that I'm like I can handle
(02:06):
this, I can deal with it, I candeal with it.
But there's some that I'm likethis is hands off, I don't know
how to deal with this area.
I'm not an expert.
I'm obviously not a physician,so can't really claim any
expertise.
But I had a moment where I waslike I'm a little nervous and I
need to go see an actual medicalprofessional Now, like cue in
the mom shuffle and some of youare going to get a kick out of
this.
This is, by the way, not thetopic.
(02:27):
I have a topic, but this issomething I just wanted to share
.
So today, the mom shuffle, Ihad to work and also had this
doctor's appointment.
So I wanted to make sure I gotmyself to the doctor's
appointment and my kids werehome and I did not want them to
come with me to the doctors,because that's a whole other can
of worms, right.
Come with me to the doctors,because that's a whole other can
of worms, right.
(02:48):
So I'm like they're going to beat camp.
Well, I also had calls startingpretty early today, at like
8.30 on my side, so I had toorchestrate being able to start
calls at 8.30, getting my kidsto camp by 9.30, stay with me
getting myself to the doctors by10.30,.
Getting back to my desk by 12o'clock.
You try to pull out all thestops when you're a working mom,
(03:11):
so you have to be prepared forthe unexpected.
So I was prepared for the factthat I might not make it back to
my desk by 12 o'clock like I'dlike.
So what I'm going to have to dois bring my laptop, bring my
portable monitor, bring all theconnections with me, bring my
headphones basically bring mymobile office with me to go to
the doctor in the event that Ihave to take calls from the car.
(03:33):
So I had all that set up readyto go.
Thankfully, the doctor'sappointment was super quick.
I'm in good health, guys, yay.
But nevertheless I had thisjuggle and the car that I had
today.
I know, boohoo, what was me,but there was no air
conditioning in it and I'm likesweating bullets running around
as I'm driving to the doctor'soffice.
So I get the kids to camp theywere complaining, no one wanted
(03:54):
to go got them dropped off.
Then I start.
I leave to go to the doctor'sappointment.
On my way there I realized Idon't have my health insurance
card I had to pull over and madesure I had it on my phone in
the app so that I could messageit to the doctor's office
because they needed it, becauseit was a first appointment.
So there was that and I'm likeready to cry, I'm ready to burst
into tears right Now.
Again, someone listening isprobably like why were you ready
(04:15):
to burst into tears?
But it's the combination ofpressures, because the only way
I can think of it is like whenyou're boiling a pot of water on
the stove, right, all right, soI'm the pot of water, clearly,
and you know you turn the heatup a little bit.
It just boils a little bit.
It's a little, it's warm, youknow it's getting warm, but you
know it's still tolerable.
But then the more flames youadd which would be the pressure
(04:37):
the more the water starts toboil and get out of control and
pop the lid off and blow the lidoff and everything.
And so it was literally justtruly like a.
I had this morning call, wantedto make sure I'm showing up for
that and that I'm listening andengaged, but in the background
my children are not gettingtheir socks and shoes on.
That's triggering me.
So I have to hang up the callsuper quick, get their socks and
shoes on and eat back on a fullby 9.05.
(04:57):
So I'm doing the juggle rightThen from the 9.05, and I
already told you get them tocamp while I'm on the call.
Getting them to camp, and thenwhile I'm doing that, I'm also
trying to do the other thingsand it truly truly was just like
a lot of little smallpressurized moments that was
(05:17):
pushing me right over the edge,on top of the fact that I was
scared to go to the doctor.
I don't really want to go, likein general, and so when I know
I have to go because I'm nervous, it's like a scary thing for me
.
But again, all was well.
But it was just that pressureof like stuff on top of stuff on
top of stuff.
And you all know how I feelabout my job.
I love my job, I'm verydedicated to my job.
(05:39):
So it's just a lot.
And I think this unseen partfor everybody it's not just
women, but you know we're womenfocused here.
So I'm going to say that I'mgoing to focus on that, this
unseen pressure that women haveto deal with the juggling.
And I actually said to my kidstoday I don't know if this is a
(05:59):
proud I don't.
I wouldn't say this was myproudest moment, but, like I
said to them, I wish thatsomeone took care of me as well
as I took care of everybody else.
Now that's probably a downfallon me to not set the expectation
.
If you guys could see my faceright now, you could tell that
I'm working this out as I say it.
I think that's a fault for me,because I have never set the
(06:21):
expectation that someone will betaking care of me.
I just don't set thatexpectation.
This is like a deep-rooted,deep-seated thing for me, where
I not only am not expectingother people to take care of me,
but in a way, I'm removing thatpossibility of anyone ever
taking care of me in that way,because that would mean that I
(06:44):
would be giving up some part ofcontrol.
Oof, this went a lot deeper, alot deeper than I intended it to
be.
It was supposed to be a funnything, but now that I think
about it, I think it's more of ainability to really, really
give up control, and I thinkthat's where a lot of us will
start to falter, especially forfolks who have had like trauma
(07:06):
and past trauma, which, again, Ithink almost all of us have
that.
Why am I sharing this story?
Because we all go through thisand you're not crazy, period.
Honestly, hand to God, half thestuff I talk about here is
because I want you to knowyou're not alone.
You're not the only one goingthrough this.
You're not the only onesnapping over a bunch of little
things.
It happens.
I have a doctor's appointmenttomorrow.
(07:26):
Not as scary, it's achiropractor appointment because
I have a bad lower back.
I'm working on it so that itwon't be a bad lower back
anymore.
Nevertheless, that's adifferent kind of appointment.
At the end of the day, itdoesn't disrupt my day.
I don't have to really worryabout anything, not as stressed
out about that.
That would be an easier one.
Now onto the topic, because Idon't want this to be a super
long episode, but I want to talkabout this topic with you.
So I think I have talked aboutintermittent fasting before I
(07:47):
started practicing it last year.
One of my mom friends put me onit.
I was explaining to her that Iwas really frustrated because I
had lost a lot of weight andlike about 150 pounds and paused
.
I was very, very, veryoverweight from my pregnancies
and that's why I lost so muchweight, but it took a lot.
I had to go see doctors, like Imean, it was a legitimate like
(08:08):
health crisis that I needed toaddress, so I lost all this
weight.
I was very proud of myself forbeing able to do it, and then,
after we moved into our home, Istarted gaining weight again.
Not a lot, it was about 20pounds over the course of like
three years or so or two yearsroughly like 10 pounds a year.
It started freaking me outbecause I already know what that
looked like and I already knowwhat that felt like.
(08:30):
Now, this is not a situationwhere I'm talking about body
shaming.
I'm definitely not of thatmindset.
However, for me personally,carrying a lot, all that extra
weight that I had, was veryuncomfortable for me and it was
affecting my mental health andmy physical health.
It's just in my opinion, and inthe opinion of some of the
medical professionals I'vetalked to, it is not healthy to
(08:52):
carry that much weight with you.
I see some, unfortunately, somerepercussions in my current
body that are from when I was sooverweight and now I have to
deal with it.
Nevertheless, I wanted to focusin on intermittent fasting
because this was something thatreally really helped.
But the reason why I want tofocus on intermittent fasting is
not so much because it was theonly way that I was able to drop
(09:14):
that 20 pounds again.
The thing that I wanted tofocus on here is what are the
other benefits of intermittentfasting?
So a lot of folks are doing itbecause it's like fad.
Right, it's a fad thing.
There's all these apps for itnow and there's tons of diets
out there that you can follow,like you know that have all this
like fluff and fluff.
Intermittent fasting is not aflash in the pan.
This is actually reallyimportant.
So I'm going to read to yousome of the research that I
(09:38):
found.
I'm just going to reference it.
I do want to assure you I amreading articles from Harvard
Health, johns Hopkins Medicineand Portsmouth Regional Hospital
.
I just did a general search.
I've also talked aboutintermittent fasting quite a bit
with some of the medical folksthat I work with.
So there is true legitimatebenefits to doing this kind of a
diet.
Now there's some risk involved.
(10:00):
If you, obviously, if you'repregnant, I don't think this is
like obviously something youcould do If you are prone to
eating disorders.
If you have an eating disorder.
This would not be a good fitbecause you already are not
fasting.
It's not the right word.
You're restricting, so thisisn't the right path.
But if this is something thatyou can talk to your doctor
about, this is something youwant to try, I really do
(10:21):
recommend it, not just becauseof weight loss.
So, for example, intermittentfasting induces hormonal
changesonal changes, so itreduces insulin.
Insulin levels decrease, makingyour body more sensitive to
insulin and potentiallyimproving blood sugar control.
Increase human growth hormones,so levels of hgh increase,
which can aid in fat burning andmuscle preservation.
(10:41):
This next part is incrediblyimportant cellular repair.
So there is a process calledautophagy probably not
pronouncing that right Cellsinitiate repair processes,
including autophagy, where theyremove damaged or dysfunctional
proteins, promoting cellulargrowth, cellular health, gene
expression if it can influencegene expression, potentially
(11:04):
impacting longevity and diseaseprevention.
I want to pause there for aminute.
I interviewed somebody for thepodcast, amy Van Loo.
She told me as part of hercancer prevention, her doctor
asked her to do intermittentfasting.
This is really important.
Your body needs time, needsperiods of time during the day
where it is completely empty sothat it can regenerate itself,
(11:26):
and I know from a lot of people.
This happens at night, but ifyou're a late night eater, when
you're sleeping, your body isactually not at rest and it's
not healing itself and it's notregenerating.
When you go to sleep and you'rein deep sleep, your whole body
resets itself, including yourbrain, and this is a little bit
like off of this topic.
I had actually read somewhereelse and I'm going to try to
find it while I'm talking thatyour brain basically goes
(11:50):
through a wash cycle.
It clears any plaques off yourbrain that would promote
dementia.
It rinses and pulls any bloodthat was floating there, like I
mean, truly look it up, googleit.
When you sleep, what happens toyour brain?
It's basically like a wash,rinse, repeat and then you wake
up in the morning and you can goand do your thing.
This is probably also why, whenyou were staying up for long
(12:13):
periods of time and I'll usemyself as an example when I have
really hot projects that I'mworking on and I need to lose
sleep and I need to work reallylate, like consistently
throughout the week, that plays,that takes toll on me and I
can't think right, like my brainis foggy, like I start to make
mistakes.
That's not just the sleepdeprivation, but your brain also
has not had time to cleanitself Like.
(12:33):
This is a problem.
Lean in more Like we need toreally be focused here because
we could be doing things in ourdaily lives that are helping our
physical health.
So, of course, intermittentfasting promotes metabolic
shifts fat burning, ketoneproduction, mitochondrial
function, which are thepowerhouse of cells, potentially
leading to increased energyproduction.
Other potential benefits areimproved gut health, reduced
(12:55):
cardiovascular risk factors andbetter sleep.
I mean you can look this up.
This information is not hidden,but I wanted to talk with you
about it because people arelooking for really quick hits
for how can I lose weight superfast?
And I'm not trying to putanyone down for that because,
again, like I've shared with youmy story a few times, I was
desperate when I went to thedoctor the first time and I was
(13:16):
crying because I was souncomfortable, so unhappy, and I
felt like I had triedeverything at that point and I
hadn't.
So I understand the need and Iunderstand the deep desire I
really do to lose weight.
I've battled this my entirelife.
But there's a good way to do itand there's not a good way to
do it and there's a way that youdo it.
That could affect younegatively for your whole life.
(13:37):
But there's a way like this,like intermittent fasting, that
could really have a hugepositive impact on you.
So I'm going to stop it there.
I would love if anyone isreally looking at trying to lose
weight, not even if they'retrying to lose weight.
If you just want to shift yourlife around a little bit, this
would be a great thing to tryout.
And I will say this one lastthing when I first tried it, my
(13:59):
willpower is awful in generalWell, for the most part, and I'm
prone to late night snacking.
So I used to.
When I first started, I wouldpromise myself Jenny, if you get
through today like an addict,I'm like.
If you get through today likean addict, I'm like, if you get
through this, you can have adonut tomorrow.
(14:19):
So the first month that I didintermittent fasting, I ate
terribly.
During that window that I hadavailable to eat, I ate whatever
.
I ate junk food, I ate sweets,I ate sugars I didn't care.
I was like I'm just trying thisout, what shakes what shakes
out.
And the first month I think Ilost like five pounds and I was
eating badly.
And then I started to catch onand wise up and I was like, oh
you know what, like perhaps Ishould actually just eat clean,
like maybe I should just eatbetter.
And then I started like reallytransitioning more into being a
(14:41):
vegetarian and eating healthierand doing better things for
myself, like in general.
So with that, my physical bodyhas gone through so many things
and it is in pretty good healthstate at this point, as
confirmed by my doctor earliertoday.
She was very impressed with mystatistics, but I want to leave
you guys with that thought wecan do things for ourselves that
(15:01):
are outside of like oh I needto lose weight, or outside of
going to the gym.
That really could have apositive impact on your overall
health.
I hope you found this episodeinformative.
If you give intermittentfasting a shot, I would love to
hear about it.
So please feel free to messageme and thank you for hanging out
with me and I will catch you onthe next one.
Take care.
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