December 31, 2024 • 15 mins
This episode explores my personal journey with intermittent fasting, highlighting the successes and challenges I faced while losing weight. It emphasizes the crucial role of willpower and stubbornness in achieving health goals and offers reflections applicable to both weight management and teaching.
• A personal account of starting intermittent fasting in January 2020
• Experience with different methods like OMAD and 18:6 fasting
• Stubbornness affecting adherence to healthy eating guidelines
• Initial success, losing 20 pounds in the first month
• Challenges of willpower and healthy habits
• Lessons learned applicable to teaching and personal goals
• Encouragement for listeners to explore their own fasting journey
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Greg (00:00):
Greg Collins.
Substitute Teachers Lounge Guys, it is the last day of 2024.
Getting ready to party tonightand today you know why not?
We're going to talk aboutintermittent fasting a little
bit.
We're going to talk about someother things too, but I will
tell you that back on March 14,2020, I interviewed an author
(00:26):
named Jen Stevens of the bookFast Feast Repeat.
She has other books now who gotme going on intermittent
fasting, and I will tell youthis.
I began the journey, and it isa journey for me because right
now, there are people laughingat this because they know that
later, after I lost weight, Ihad some issues that have
(00:50):
nothing to do with her book, butmore to do with stubbornness
and willpower.
But back in 2020, when Istarted intermittent fasting
January 5th, I weighed 222pounds.
On September of that year, Iweighed 175.
So, oh and, by the way, thatMarch 14th 2020 episode, it's
(01:13):
our second most listened toepisode ever.
So I felt a little bit nervousabout doing it because we
weren't really talking aboutsubstitute teaching that much,
but it was the second mostpopular ever.
So maybe I'll entitle this oneIntermittent Fasting Works if
Substitute Teachers Loud.
(01:40):
All right, let's start by justsaying I am an extreme type A
personality.
When I go after something andI've got my mind devoted to it,
I usually do a good job.
I have dieted before and everydiet that I've ever used has
(02:01):
worked.
I just stick to it.
Ever used has worked, I juststick to it.
Now I began intermittentfasting 2020.
So that means I would have beenby the time it was over.
I would have been 62.
I guess I started when I was 61.
And we're going to talk aboutthat a little bit.
How I lost all that weight.
I want you to read that book.
(02:23):
Fast Feast Repeat.
She's got newer ones if you'drather read that.
I'm even going to tell you howI read the book.
First of all, I guess at theend of 2019, friends of mine had
talked about losing weight andI said well, what are you doing?
They said intermittent fastingand they basically described it
as they ate whatever they wantedto, anything they wanted to
(02:48):
during a certain time period.
In this book, it will describedifferent ways of doing it.
You might do an 18-6 system,where you fast for 18 hours
every day and then you eat in asix-hour window.
You don't eat constantly duringthat window, of course, but you
eat during that window.
I used a four-hour window, so Ihad a 20 slash four and eight
(03:15):
during that four-hour window.
I started out by using 3 pm to7 pm, but I could have used
anything, and I said, all right,i'm'm going to skip around this
book because I just want to seewhat she says about what I
should eat, when I should eat it, all that good stuff.
I went with a system called OMAD.
Omad stands for one meal a day,and that seemed to work for me.
(03:37):
And sure enough, I caughtmyself losing weight.
And here's the stubborn partabout it.
And it actually shocked me,when I lost weight, when I was
told that this was not a dietbut a lifestyle, and that you
could eat anything you wanted to.
Well, I'm stubborn.
I'm going to say, all right,this is not a diet.
(04:00):
That means, then, that I caneat the same amount of calories
every day.
I just have to eat it duringthose four-hour windows, because
if I reduce my calorie intake,by definition that's a diet
right.
So now read her book, becausenone of this is coming from her
(04:21):
book.
This was me being stubborn.
Also, she advises you to eathealthy.
You can eat what you like, buteat healthy One of the questions
I asked her in the lastinterview.
We played a game called Gregyou're an idiot and I encourage
her, when I said somethingthat's wrong, to say Greg you're
an idiot.
(04:42):
And here's why One time I saidall right, I just came in from
walking in my neighborhood fivemiles, it's five minutes past my
four-hour window Is it okay forme to go in and eat a bag of
chips?
And she said, greg, she shouldhave said Greg you're an idiot,
but she was too nice for that.
She said if you're hungry, eat,but why don't you try celery
(05:07):
and hummus and see if you likethat?
So she very much advises eatinghealthy, but you can eat what
you want to.
Let me tell you what I did.
Because I was so stubborn thatI didn't want to reduce my
calorie intake, I would, when myfour-hour window opened I've
heard her say that think of itas an appetizer when you open
(05:31):
your four-hour window, a meal,maybe a couple hours later, and
then something sweet as youclose your four-hour window.
That's kind of the concept.
Well, when my window opened, Iwas eating chips.
I was eating maybe some peanutbutter on crackers.
I did eat a piece of fruit totry to balance everything out.
I would eat whatever I wantedto for my meal and then I might
(05:55):
eat, if I had room for it, someice cream.
All that in four hours.
So there were some pretty goodcalories in there.
But yet while I was doing thatthe first month, I said, man,
let's see, I'm going to look atmy first month here.
My first month I lost 20 pounds.
So I said, man, there issomething working with this.
(06:17):
So I got even more stubborn.
There was a.
You know I got into the habitof maybe a day out of every two
weeks I would drive to DairyQueen, get a blizzard as my
four-hour window opened, driveacross the street and while I
was in line at Taco Bell gettingsomething to eat later for
(06:40):
lunch I would eat that blizzard.
So here I'm, going from DairyQueen to Taco Bell and back home
.
And so that wasn't the eatingpattern she will describe to you
.
That's the eating pattern thatI did because I was stubborn and
at that time I had thewillpower to do it.
(07:02):
And you know that I lost.
See what is that?
25 plus almost 50 pounds.
I lost 50 pounds in the process.
Now I do not weigh 175 anymore.
I gained a lot of the weightback.
And here's why, and here's myadvice to you about stubbornness
(07:23):
and willpower.
I don't know if my age affectsmy willpower, but I know, today,
for instance, I can sit aroundand if my window is now 11 am to
3, that's usually what I doThen it's 7 or 8 o'clock at
night and I'm thinking you know,I know those little Debbie
(07:48):
cakes are sitting in there,they're just sitting in there
and before I know it, I catchmyself in there getting one.
So you have to have willpowerfor this to be successful, and
I'll transfer that over to theclassroom here in just a moment.
So my willpower is shot.
That's one of the reasons.
And when I lost the weight anddecided, okay, I've had enough.
(08:11):
Intermittent fasting, I'm stillgoing to do it in concept, but I
might eat more than just thefour hours a day.
But what I was doing, I notonly was eating outside those
four hours, I was eating just asferociously as I did before.
So I was being stubborn, I wastesting willpower and it didn't
(08:35):
work out.
I say all that to say this Ifyou're looking for a weight loss
goal, this is the timeEverybody looks for that to get
in better shape.
I bought a treadmill.
I'm on it most every day If Ihave time.
I also walk four miles inbetter shape.
I bought a treadmill.
I'm on it most every day If Ihave time.
I also walk four miles in ourneighborhood I do all that kind
of stuff.
I'm going on another cruise.
I used to blame weight gain ona cruise, but we do a couple of
(08:58):
cruises a year.
But you know, I have to admitthere are all kinds of healthy
options on a cruise line.
There's nice salads, nicepieces of baked fish.
I tried to eat fish for themost part that was blackened and
baked and that kind of thing oncruise ships.
(09:19):
So I can't really blame itthere because there are plenty
of healthy options available.
I just chose not to do them andthen that makes it that much
worse.
So my stubbornness and mywillpower is not what it used to
be and that's why I gained alot of my weight back and I was
(09:39):
eating intensely at times.
Some people would call itgorging.
I don't want to call it thatbecause I don't want to admit it
.
I will say this I'mdisappointed in myself.
I would never say I was ashamedof myself, because that implies
you did something, almost thatyou did something mean to
another person.
(09:59):
I'm embarrassed for myself.
I will tell you this I stilltry to do intermittent fasting.
The most I've been able to do itprobably since the summer.
I pushed myself for three weeksand did it and you know what I
lost.
It was somewhere between sixand eight pounds in three weeks.
(10:22):
It still works.
The fact that it still worksblows my mind that I can't get
it in my willpower.
Maybe it is partially my age,because before, when I'd go home
, you know, maybe it was betterthat I ate in the three to seven
hour window and I didn't get ashungry before bedtime.
(10:45):
Maybe that was part of thereason, but back then I could
walk by all that stuff and noteat it because I knew it was not
in my four-hour window.
Now I'm struggling with that.
I would encourage you to buyFast Feast, repeat or whichever
of Jen Stevens books you wouldlike to buy.
Try this yourself.
It does work, as long as youdon't stumble across, just like
(11:08):
any diet.
Whether you call this a diet ornot, it will work if you let
your willpower control you andyour positive willpower.
What I was doing was lack ofwillpower and that worked out
for me.
I'll mention this.
We have stubbornness andwillpower issues in the
(11:31):
classroom too.
I mean, I'm stubborn on a lot.
When we get so stubborn that wedon't want to admit that maybe
a student made a good argumentabout something you told them
you couldn't do, do you have thewherewithal within you to not
(11:51):
be so stubborn that you can'tadmit that's a pretty good
argument.
Let me think about it and getback to you and then maybe give
in to what they said.
But if it's logical and theytold you some things that you
weren't really thinking about,don't be so stubborn that you
won't give in because you're thebig bad teacher and the student
(12:13):
it's the itsy-bitsy littlestudent.
Okay, same with your willpowerWillpower, you know.
Usually you think aboutwillpower as a food situation.
But do you have the willpower togo back and get your education
and stay with it and pushyourself to the next level?
(12:33):
I've been asked why don't yougo back and get your full
teaching certificate?
I'm an MBA, which is not aneducation degree, but it allows
me to.
As long as I take their testand get approved and get my
background checks, I get what'scalled an emergency
certification every year.
That's what allows me tosubstitute teach and I'm asked
(12:57):
all the time why don't you goback?
Well, I really don't want to goback to school.
If I did start I would have thewillpower to finish.
I just don't want to start it.
I'm happy being a substituteteacher.
I never thought I would have thewillpower to go into elementary
school but I did and I loved itand almost prefer it now.
I always thought that maybe Iwas too stubborn to do to go
(13:21):
back from long term to shortterm.
Now I actually prefer shortterm.
I prefer a day at a time.
But we're all different.
Do what you have to do if you.
If you think you want to tryintermittent fasting, do it the
way I read her book.
I read what to do first and thenI went back and read how it
works, because when it worked Iwas fascinated.
(13:43):
I didn't even read that part ofher book, but it has to do with
insulin release, as you mayexpect, and it's really a
fascinating book.
So I encourage you to read that.
I think we'll call this a dayand a year and, I hope, your
substitute teaching.
I'm already aggravated atmyself because there was a week
(14:03):
of substitute teaching at anelementary school and I didn't
the first week.
We're going on a cruise for twoweeks after that.
I could have had a job for thewhole week that first week and
didn't pounce on it quicklyenough.
So here's hoping that I getsome of those days, that you get
some of those days and we getback at it in january 2025.
Greg Collins.
Substitute Teachers Lounge Guys, it is the last day of 2024.
Getting ready to party tonightand today you know why not?
We're going to talk aboutintermittent fasting a little
bit.
We're going to talk about someother things too, but I will
tell you that back on March 14,2020, I interviewed an author
(00:26):
named Jen Stevens of the bookFast Feast Repeat.
She has other books now who gotme going on intermittent
fasting, and I will tell youthis.
I began the journey, and it isa journey for me because right
now, there are people laughingat this because they know that
later, after I lost weight, Ihad some issues that have
(00:50):
nothing to do with her book, butmore to do with stubbornness
and willpower.
But back in 2020, when Istarted intermittent fasting
January 5th, I weighed 222pounds.
On September of that year, Iweighed 175.
So, oh and, by the way, thatMarch 14th 2020 episode, it's
(01:13):
our second most listened toepisode ever.
So I felt a little bit nervousabout doing it because we
weren't really talking aboutsubstitute teaching that much,
but it was the second mostpopular ever.
So maybe I'll entitle this oneIntermittent Fasting Works if
Substitute Teachers Loud.
(01:40):
All right, let's start by justsaying I am an extreme type A
personality.
When I go after something andI've got my mind devoted to it,
I usually do a good job.
I have dieted before and everydiet that I've ever used has
(02:01):
worked.
I just stick to it.
Ever used has worked, I juststick to it.
Now I began intermittentfasting 2020.
So that means I would have beenby the time it was over.
I would have been 62.
I guess I started when I was 61.
And we're going to talk aboutthat a little bit.
How I lost all that weight.
I want you to read that book.
(02:23):
Fast Feast Repeat.
She's got newer ones if you'drather read that.
I'm even going to tell you howI read the book.
First of all, I guess at theend of 2019, friends of mine had
talked about losing weight andI said well, what are you doing?
They said intermittent fastingand they basically described it
as they ate whatever they wantedto, anything they wanted to
(02:48):
during a certain time period.
In this book, it will describedifferent ways of doing it.
You might do an 18-6 system,where you fast for 18 hours
every day and then you eat in asix-hour window.
You don't eat constantly duringthat window, of course, but you
eat during that window.
I used a four-hour window, so Ihad a 20 slash four and eight
(03:15):
during that four-hour window.
I started out by using 3 pm to7 pm, but I could have used
anything, and I said, all right,i'm'm going to skip around this
book because I just want to seewhat she says about what I
should eat, when I should eat it, all that good stuff.
I went with a system called OMAD.
Omad stands for one meal a day,and that seemed to work for me.
(03:37):
And sure enough, I caughtmyself losing weight.
And here's the stubborn partabout it.
And it actually shocked me,when I lost weight, when I was
told that this was not a dietbut a lifestyle, and that you
could eat anything you wanted to.
Well, I'm stubborn.
I'm going to say, all right,this is not a diet.
(04:00):
That means, then, that I caneat the same amount of calories
every day.
I just have to eat it duringthose four-hour windows, because
if I reduce my calorie intake,by definition that's a diet
right.
So now read her book, becausenone of this is coming from her
(04:21):
book.
This was me being stubborn.
Also, she advises you to eathealthy.
You can eat what you like, buteat healthy One of the questions
I asked her in the lastinterview.
We played a game called Gregyou're an idiot and I encourage
her, when I said somethingthat's wrong, to say Greg you're
an idiot.
(04:42):
And here's why One time I saidall right, I just came in from
walking in my neighborhood fivemiles, it's five minutes past my
four-hour window Is it okay forme to go in and eat a bag of
chips?
And she said, greg, she shouldhave said Greg you're an idiot,
but she was too nice for that.
She said if you're hungry, eat,but why don't you try celery
(05:07):
and hummus and see if you likethat?
So she very much advises eatinghealthy, but you can eat what
you want to.
Let me tell you what I did.
Because I was so stubborn thatI didn't want to reduce my
calorie intake, I would, when myfour-hour window opened I've
heard her say that think of itas an appetizer when you open
(05:31):
your four-hour window, a meal,maybe a couple hours later, and
then something sweet as youclose your four-hour window.
That's kind of the concept.
Well, when my window opened, Iwas eating chips.
I was eating maybe some peanutbutter on crackers.
I did eat a piece of fruit totry to balance everything out.
I would eat whatever I wantedto for my meal and then I might
(05:55):
eat, if I had room for it, someice cream.
All that in four hours.
So there were some pretty goodcalories in there.
But yet while I was doing thatthe first month, I said, man,
let's see, I'm going to look atmy first month here.
My first month I lost 20 pounds.
So I said, man, there issomething working with this.
(06:17):
So I got even more stubborn.
There was a.
You know I got into the habitof maybe a day out of every two
weeks I would drive to DairyQueen, get a blizzard as my
four-hour window opened, driveacross the street and while I
was in line at Taco Bell gettingsomething to eat later for
(06:40):
lunch I would eat that blizzard.
So here I'm, going from DairyQueen to Taco Bell and back home
.
And so that wasn't the eatingpattern she will describe to you
.
That's the eating pattern thatI did because I was stubborn and
at that time I had thewillpower to do it.
(07:02):
And you know that I lost.
See what is that?
25 plus almost 50 pounds.
I lost 50 pounds in the process.
Now I do not weigh 175 anymore.
I gained a lot of the weightback.
And here's why, and here's myadvice to you about stubbornness
(07:23):
and willpower.
I don't know if my age affectsmy willpower, but I know, today,
for instance, I can sit aroundand if my window is now 11 am to
3, that's usually what I doThen it's 7 or 8 o'clock at
night and I'm thinking you know,I know those little Debbie
(07:48):
cakes are sitting in there,they're just sitting in there
and before I know it, I catchmyself in there getting one.
So you have to have willpowerfor this to be successful, and
I'll transfer that over to theclassroom here in just a moment.
So my willpower is shot.
That's one of the reasons.
And when I lost the weight anddecided, okay, I've had enough.
(08:11):
Intermittent fasting, I'm stillgoing to do it in concept, but I
might eat more than just thefour hours a day.
But what I was doing, I notonly was eating outside those
four hours, I was eating just asferociously as I did before.
So I was being stubborn, I wastesting willpower and it didn't
(08:35):
work out.
I say all that to say this Ifyou're looking for a weight loss
goal, this is the timeEverybody looks for that to get
in better shape.
I bought a treadmill.
I'm on it most every day If Ihave time.
I also walk four miles inbetter shape.
I bought a treadmill.
I'm on it most every day If Ihave time.
I also walk four miles in ourneighborhood I do all that kind
of stuff.
I'm going on another cruise.
I used to blame weight gain ona cruise, but we do a couple of
(08:58):
cruises a year.
But you know, I have to admitthere are all kinds of healthy
options on a cruise line.
There's nice salads, nicepieces of baked fish.
I tried to eat fish for themost part that was blackened and
baked and that kind of thing oncruise ships.
(09:19):
So I can't really blame itthere because there are plenty
of healthy options available.
I just chose not to do them andthen that makes it that much
worse.
So my stubbornness and mywillpower is not what it used to
be and that's why I gained alot of my weight back and I was
(09:39):
eating intensely at times.
Some people would call itgorging.
I don't want to call it thatbecause I don't want to admit it
.
I will say this I'mdisappointed in myself.
I would never say I was ashamedof myself, because that implies
you did something, almost thatyou did something mean to
another person.
(09:59):
I'm embarrassed for myself.
I will tell you this I stilltry to do intermittent fasting.
The most I've been able to do itprobably since the summer.
I pushed myself for three weeksand did it and you know what I
lost.
It was somewhere between sixand eight pounds in three weeks.
(10:22):
It still works.
The fact that it still worksblows my mind that I can't get
it in my willpower.
Maybe it is partially my age,because before, when I'd go home
, you know, maybe it was betterthat I ate in the three to seven
hour window and I didn't get ashungry before bedtime.
(10:45):
Maybe that was part of thereason, but back then I could
walk by all that stuff and noteat it because I knew it was not
in my four-hour window.
Now I'm struggling with that.
I would encourage you to buyFast Feast, repeat or whichever
of Jen Stevens books you wouldlike to buy.
Try this yourself.
It does work, as long as youdon't stumble across, just like
(11:08):
any diet.
Whether you call this a diet ornot, it will work if you let
your willpower control you andyour positive willpower.
What I was doing was lack ofwillpower and that worked out
for me.
I'll mention this.
We have stubbornness andwillpower issues in the
(11:31):
classroom too.
I mean, I'm stubborn on a lot.
When we get so stubborn that wedon't want to admit that maybe
a student made a good argumentabout something you told them
you couldn't do, do you have thewherewithal within you to not
(11:51):
be so stubborn that you can'tadmit that's a pretty good
argument.
Let me think about it and getback to you and then maybe give
in to what they said.
But if it's logical and theytold you some things that you
weren't really thinking about,don't be so stubborn that you
won't give in because you're thebig bad teacher and the student
(12:13):
it's the itsy-bitsy littlestudent.
Okay, same with your willpowerWillpower, you know.
Usually you think aboutwillpower as a food situation.
But do you have the willpower togo back and get your education
and stay with it and pushyourself to the next level?
(12:33):
I've been asked why don't yougo back and get your full
teaching certificate?
I'm an MBA, which is not aneducation degree, but it allows
me to.
As long as I take their testand get approved and get my
background checks, I get what'scalled an emergency
certification every year.
That's what allows me tosubstitute teach and I'm asked
(12:57):
all the time why don't you goback?
Well, I really don't want to goback to school.
If I did start I would have thewillpower to finish.
I just don't want to start it.
I'm happy being a substituteteacher.
I never thought I would have thewillpower to go into elementary
school but I did and I loved itand almost prefer it now.
I always thought that maybe Iwas too stubborn to do to go
(13:21):
back from long term to shortterm.
Now I actually prefer shortterm.
I prefer a day at a time.
But we're all different.
Do what you have to do if you.
If you think you want to tryintermittent fasting, do it the
way I read her book.
I read what to do first and thenI went back and read how it
works, because when it worked Iwas fascinated.
(13:43):
I didn't even read that part ofher book, but it has to do with
insulin release, as you mayexpect, and it's really a
fascinating book.
So I encourage you to read that.
I think we'll call this a dayand a year and, I hope, your
substitute teaching.
I'm already aggravated atmyself because there was a week
(14:03):
of substitute teaching at anelementary school and I didn't
the first week.
We're going on a cruise for twoweeks after that.
I could have had a job for thewhole week that first week and
didn't pounce on it quicklyenough.
So here's hoping that I getsome of those days, that you get
some of those days and we getback at it in january 2025.
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