November 19, 2024 • 52 mins
Transform your health and well-being with insights from Laurie Lewis, who shares her inspiring journey of losing 51 pounds and rejuvenating her energy through intermittent fasting at age 54. Learn how fasting can empower women, especially during perimenopause and menopause, to reclaim control over their health. Laurie dives into the essentials of clean fasting, hormonal balance, and practical tips for sustainable fasting tailored to your unique needs.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to the Inspired with Nika Laurie
podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Laurie Lewis.
Welcome to the show.
I'm so excited to have you heretoday.
Hi, nika, good to see you,welcome, welcome.
So today we are going to deepdive into intermediate fasting
and the do's and don'ts and thepluses and minuses and how it
might impact women's health.
I'm really, really excited totalk to you about this because I
(00:36):
think it's such a really cool,important tool that really
anyone can use, but women canuse to improve their health.
So I'm excited to dive intothat.
But before we do, can you justtell me a little bit about
yourself?
Who are you?
How 'd you get intointermediate fasting?
What's your backstory?
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Well, I have had a passion for nutrition and
fitness and fueling myself wellfor as long as I can remember.
But I had kind of an epiphanyin my late twenties I think I
was around 29 and it startedlike this I think this diet Coke
might not be good for me.
(01:15):
I had that thought.
I had that thought and guesswhat?
I listened to it and I feellike that was a turning point
where I made some decisions formyself in that moment that have
made a big difference for me.
So I decided then to stopdrinking soda, stop eating sugar
, and it didn't seem hard, itwas just like oh, I'm not
(01:39):
feeling so great all the time,I'm kind of foggy and dragging
through life and maybe if I justchange some of these things
that I'm eating, that's assimple as it was.
And so then, through mythirties and early forties, I
became known amongst everybodywho knew me as a person who was
a super healthy eater.
But I never wanted to be thefood police, so I was not going
(02:00):
through my life telling otherpeople what to do.
I stayed in my lane, I tookcare of myself.
Well, when I got my firstsymptoms of perimenopause, I
didn't know what that was theydon't send us to biology class
for older ladies.
So I was 44 and I woke up inthe middle of the night and I
(02:21):
thought man, I need to get a newair conditioner.
This thing is broken.
Well, my air conditioner wasfine.
It was cranking out the coldair.
It was me Now, what I'vesubsequently learned.
So I'm 61 now, so that was along time ago and over the years
I've learned that menopause andperimenopause are way more than
hot flashes.
We just think, oh, it's kind ofwhen you get hot all the time
(02:42):
and your period stops, yeah, notnecessarily the case.
Well, at that time, at age 44, Ifelt like I got pushed down a
very dark hole.
My body seemed alien to me.
I started experiencing memoryloss and brain fog and I was
achy head to toe.
I experienced depression forthe first time and I was achy
(03:04):
head to toe.
I experienced depression forthe first time.
And I mean, if you look at alist of a hundred symptoms that
women experience inperimenopause, I checked many of
the boxes.
Now people don't have to expectto get all these things, it's
just when it's happening.
It's helpful to know by talkingto each other and listening to
podcasts and reading books likethe New Menopause, to understand
oh, this is part of thistransition phase.
By talking to each other andlistening to podcasts and
(03:24):
reading books like the NewMenopause, to understand oh,
this is part of this transitionphase.
Well, I suffered for five years.
My period stopped at 40.
I went into menopause at 49.
So I had one year without acycle and I was in menopause at
49, which is early and then Igained 50 pounds.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Boom yeah.
Now I was running marathons andlean and fit and healthy eater
right.
So I say to people I was leanand fit, eating the way I ate.
I ate the same exact way.
When I gained 50 pounds,nothing changed.
I didn't change my diet and Ilost the 50 pounds eating the
exact same way.
The thing that made adifference was at age 54, after
(04:11):
really suffering for almost 10years.
I read about intermittentfasting and I was shocked
because I thought wait, I'mwell-studied in nutrition.
This has been my personalpassion for all these years.
I'm well-studied in nutrition.
This has been my personalpassion for all these years.
How did I never know that youcould live your life fasting and
being in a pattern of fastingand eating every day?
(04:34):
I had no idea.
So I started that very same day.
I've kept an eating window nowevery day for seven and a half
years.
I lost the weight verygradually and healthfully and
methodically.
My body shifted within about amonth into being a fat burning
machine, becoming fat adopted,and I lost 51 pounds in 15
(04:58):
months.
And then everybody was like howdid you do that?
It wasn't just the weight losseither.
I was sharper and brighter.
I was just back to being myself, and one of the things women
report in perimenopause andmenopause is I'm just not myself
.
It's like I've been taken overby an alien.
I'm walking around in a fog, Ihave no energy, everything's
(05:21):
caught up to me, and I'm just sograteful that I was able to
start at that point.
I'm starting my seventh annualgroup program over the holidays
where I help women navigate theholidays, keeping an eating
window and feeling amazing andnever having to diet again and
never having to rely on Januaryto fix everything.
(05:43):
So that's how I started, andhaving an eating window is
really an awakening experience.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yeah, I think it can be such a powerful tool and I
think there's so much kind ofmisinformation around
intermittent fasting Is it good,Is it bad?
Does it work, Does it not?
But I think when you reallystart to kind of one just kind
of biohack your own health right, Like, test it out on yourself,
See what those windows looklike and see do they work for
(06:14):
you here or do they not, or howdoes it make you feel, I think
you know it's so it can be sucha powerful tool for some people
and I love that you're out theresupporting people, helping them
figure this out and figure outhow to implement it into their
lives.
So beautiful story and I'mreally glad it worked for you
too, because getting healthy isthe most important thing you
(06:34):
could do in your life.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
It's so awakening and fast forward.
That's actually the name of mybusiness, but I'm 61 and at age
59 and 60, I went through abattery of longevity tests and
biological age tests with VO2max and testing my mitochondrial
health, and both tests cameback that my biological age is
(07:00):
40, which is pre-menopausal.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
I got to tell you looking at you.
For those listening, we'rerecording on Zoom and I can see
you in person.
You look stunning and I wouldnever, ever guess that you were
61 years old not in a millionyears.
So it definitely you lookamazing too.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Thank, you and if you saw me when I was 50, 51, 52,
53, 54, when I put on all thatweight and I couldn't lose it
because nothing I was doing thatworked in the past, nothing
worked.
There's just squish everywhere.
I suddenly had more belly fatand I was really hurting and I
just not only looked a lot worse, I just, energetically, I was
(07:40):
just dragging through life and Iwas beating myself up for not
being able to figure it out andso to learn about daily fasting,
having a daily fasting regimenand starting within three days,
I felt better.
I had the experience that I wasvisiting my mom in Colorado,
where I grew up, and I wasstanding in her kitchen and all
(08:02):
of a sudden, I had the thoughtthere I am and it's like there I
am, but what a funny thought tohave.
And it was like, oh, I just wasground, I was back in my body,
I was sharper, bright, I wasclearer, and so now I have this
amazing joy of being able tosupport people and I have really
(08:26):
four cornerstones to the workthat I do, where the foundation
of intermittent fasting is theclean, fast, curiosity, leaning
in and discovering what your ownbody needs, customization.
There's not one right way to dothis and then continuing.
How do you continue?
(08:46):
How do you stay in a fatadapted state where you're just
burning your own body fat forenergy day in and day out and
keeping inflammation low iseverything.
High inflammation and highcirculating insulin are the root
causes of all metabolicdiseases.
Basically everything, yeah.
And then you add a new factorwhen you're in perimenopause,
(09:09):
which starts in your latethirties, the new factor, the
new root cause factor, is lowestrogen.
So we've got high inflammation,high circulating insulin,
having our estrogen tanking andthen our gut microbiome If those
things aren't handled.
Having our estrogen tanking andthen our gut microbiome if
those things aren't handled.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
You know we're in bad shape and that's going to show
up in different ways foreverybody, but it ends up being
the root cause of almost everychronic disease that you can
think of.
That's right.
So yeah, so let's break down.
So you know, I want to takeyour four C's, but let's break
that down over some differentquestions.
So, for those who may be brandnew to intermittent fasting, can
(09:49):
you just give like the basic101 explanation of what it is
and why it matters or how itworks?
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Yes.
So to alleviate anyone's fear,this is evolutionary.
Anyone's fear this isevolutionary If you think back,
even just a hundred years.
But throughout all humanhistory, humans survived, and
all the longevity experts saythis, david Sinclair's like
human beings survived throughlack of food.
We thrive, we're brighter,stronger, sharper when we're in
(10:20):
a fasted state.
This body fat is stored on usfor a reason it's to use it as
fuel.
And in our modern times of 24-7food around us, we're becoming
emotional eaters because thefood is designed to have us feel
better in the moment and keepus addicted to it.
And our ancestors there was nosuch thing as emotional eating,
(10:43):
there was no food.
Our ancestors, there was nosuch thing as emotional eating,
there was no food.
Okay, yeah.
So if you just think evolution,okay, there was food and no
food, and food and no food.
And because we have food aroundus all the time now, it's very
smart for us to now rely on theclock to determine our eating
time.
Okay, so, and each person getsto say when that is Okay.
(11:06):
So I describe it really simplylike there are two parts to
every day the fasting hours andthe eating window, and you get
to say when it is.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
And so what you're, what we're doing when we're in a
fasted state and fasting cleanand I'll explain why that's so
important is we are keepinginsulin low, so we're getting
out of fat storage mode and thenwe're getting into fat burning
mode.
We're keeping insulin low,we're keeping inflammation low
and we are in a completedigestive rest where our
(11:40):
hormones are beginning to dotheir job.
We have over 80 hormones thatare little chemical messengers
in a hierarchy and a network andthey wanna do their job.
They wanna communicate witheach other.
And then the things that we'redoing either aging or lifestyle
choices or our food choices orlack of movement, poor sleep all
of it is affecting the, andperimenopause, of course, are
(12:03):
affecting the imbalance of thosehormones.
And eating in an eating windowand putting our body into a
deliberate, conscious, gentle,fasted state every day allows
for this deep healing, includingthis incredible phenomenon
called autophagy, where, whenwe're in a fasted state, the
(12:26):
body goes in to each cell anddigs out all the broken, junky
parts, old, broken down, junkyproteins and so forth and
recycles them, spruces them upand reform makes the cell again
brand spanking new.
In fact, it takes less energyfor the body to clean up an old
cell than it takes to make a newcell.
(12:48):
So we want to be cleaning upthose old cells, which is why
people who are intermittentfasting every day for a long,
long time our skin looks reallygood because we're cleaning it
up naturally.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Yeah, yeah, that's awesome.
So talk about how intermittentfasting versus so you know, like
you mentioned, for you know thehistory of humanity, food has
always been kind of a scarcity,and so it's just really in the
last like maybe 70 years thatwe've had this overload and
(13:19):
plethora of food to us, you know, access to it at all times, 24,
seven, right, and I mind you.
I also want to say food withquotations, because a lot of the
food that's out there, that'savailable to us, isn't
necessarily food.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
I call it not food with a hyphen.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
It's food like products, but it's not actual
food.
So, with that said, we've we'vebrought in all of these
calories and all of thesechemicals that we're putting
into our body and digesting, andso our body is basically
burning the sugar all the time,opposed to burning the fat that
you may get from doingintermediate fasting.
(14:01):
Can you talk about thedifference between the two and
how the body functions different?
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Yes.
So when we are eating all thetime and that could be eating
anything, okay, so we could eventake ultra processed food out
of the equation.
When we're eating, if peopleare like I'm eating healthy and
I'm remember, my story was I waseating healthy like soup and I
gained 50 pounds.
What on earth was happening,right?
(14:27):
So once I kept my eating to aneating window and I lowered my
circulating insulin and Ilowered inflammation, I could
then balance out those hormonesand get myself into a fat
burning state.
But when we're eating and I saydrinking flavored drinks also
when we're eating and drinkingflavored drinks from the minute
(14:49):
we wake up to the minute we goto bed, we are keeping ourselves
in a high insulin state.
So we are never able to tapinto our own body fat for fuel.
So when we flip the metabolicswitch, which means switching
from being a sugar burner intobeing a fat burner, that happens
usually around the third orfourth week.
(15:12):
So if you start keeping aneating window and start gently,
start with a 12 hour fast,you're asleep for hopefully
eight of it, right?
You are then training your bodyover three to four weeks to use
up the sugar in your blood, thefood you just ate the sugar in
your blood, the stored sugarcalled glycogen, that's mostly
(15:33):
in your liver and muscles and soforth.
And about that third to fourthweek you drain that tank and the
stored sugar is used up.
And then the body rebels alittle bit because it's like we
don't like this, we're out ofsugar.
And then it remembers it.
It has a.
It remembers, it knows oh mygosh, there's all this fat here.
(15:57):
I can switch over into fatburning, but you know, so many
people are like I tried thatintermittent fasting.
It didn't work for me.
But you know, so many peopleare like I tried that
intermittent fasting, it didn'twork for me.
I want to find out from people,if you're fasting clean, how
many hours you were fasting eachday?
Did you either not fast longenough or did you go way too far
and you burn yourself out?
And then the other thing is forhow many weeks did you try it?
(16:20):
Because if you didn't make itthrough that adaptation phase,
you never got into fat burningand you just missed out on all
the goodies.
Yeah, and then when people stopand start and stop and start,
people are like is thissomething that I have to do all
the time.
Well, you don't have to.
But remember, if you getthrough that adaptation phase
(16:41):
and then you're a fat burningmachine every day when you're in
a fasted state, you don't wantto lose that, because then you
got to go back through the wholeadjustment phase again.
So you can have a longer eatingwindow, you can have a shorter
eating window, you can move itearlier, you can move it later.
Just every day, have one, andthat way you won't ever have to
(17:04):
start again.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
You keep mentioning fasting clean.
What is that?
Describe what that means.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Imagine what fasting was for ancient humans, and I
love that you said 70 years ago.
I usually say 100 to give us alittle wiggle room, but you're
right, it is about 70 years ago.
We started eating all the timeand putting stuff in our drinks
and drinking flavored drinksconstantly.
And so I human beings, Iunderstand when we start
(17:35):
something new and we dosomething that we think is going
to be hard, we try and figureout what can I get away with,
like, what is the least amountthat I could possibly do?
Okay, I understand that, but wewant to remember evolution and
we want to remember and honorour physiology and the way our
(17:55):
body works, and that what ourintention is is to put us into a
complete digestive rest toallow the liver, the heart, our
brain, our gut every aspect ofourselves is healing when we're
in a fasted state, and fastingclean not only allows for the
(18:17):
most amount of healing and fatburning, but it makes fasting
easier.
So what?
That is what a clean fast is.
Well, my friend Jen Stevens, whowrote Delay, don't Deny and
Fast Feast Repeat.
She coined that term in herFacebook group, like seven or
eight years ago, because peoplewere talking about am I allowed
to have some lemon?
(18:38):
Am I allowed to have MCT oil inmy coffee?
What am I allowed?
What am I allowed, what am Iallowed?
And so she thought, okay, I'mjust going to call it clean.
So people get in their mindthat there's fasting and there's
not fasting, and anythingthat's not fasting clean and
there's not fasting, andanything that's not fasting
(19:00):
clean, we say, is not fasting.
Because you're bringing innutrients and you're bringing in
food flavors that are excitingthe system, and we don't want to
do that.
We want the fasting hours to bequiet and boring and healing.
And then you get to eat theyummy foods, the delicious
flavors.
You can have all the lemon inyour water you want.
You can put anything in yourcoffee you want later in your
(19:21):
eating window.
So the clean fast is plain,unflavored water of any
sparkliness and any temperature.
Okay, hot, cold, sparkly, flat,whatever.
Plain, unflavored, nothing init.
Then plain, unflavored blackcoffee.
Plain, unflavored, bitter,nothing in it.
Then plain, unflavored blackcoffee.
Plain, unflavored, bitter,black or green tea.
So no, no, lemongrass or gingeror mint, or okay.
(19:44):
So, and then the fourth ounceof water coffee, black or green
tea.
And minerals.
So sodium magnesium is a superimportant mineral to be having
all of the time, and then yourmedication as prescribed.
And the thing I want to leavepeople with is it sounds like
that's a whole lot of no, likeyou can't have this, you can't
(20:05):
have that, you can't have this.
But you can in your eatingwindow and you get to say when
that is.
So we get all the healing andwe get.
And it makes fasting easierbecause imagine, when you take
in lemon or some food flavor,the tongue and the rest of your
body goes woohoo, food'sincoming, except you don't feed
(20:26):
it because you think you'refasting and the body gets kind
of grumpy and mad and it's likewhere the heck's the food.
So make it easier on yourselfFast, clean and enjoy the
delicious food you love later inyour eating window of your
choice.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Makes sense, definitely.
So let's talk about eatingwindows, and then after that I
want to talk a little bit abouthow it can impact.
We've discussed the hormonepiece a little bit, but I've had
clients ask me specificallyabout their menstrual cycle and
intermittent fasting.
But first let's talk about thewindow a little bit, because I
(21:01):
know for me my body is sort of anatural faster.
I've never been an eat firstthing in the morning person.
I usually yeah, I've alwaysbeen I like to eat after 10 am
at the minimum.
I usually don't tend to gethungry until 11.
I've noticed my daughter is kindof naturally the same way too.
You know, we usually have ourlast meal around 6, 6.30 and we
(21:25):
don't eat after that, and sowe're kind of natural fasters in
our own.
But there's definitely you knowI've been much more strict
about it where I will actuallyset a fasting timer and stay on
the schedule and then I kind offall off and then get kind of
back into it.
But my body just sort ofnaturally does it on its own.
When people first start, likeyou mentioned a lot of times,
(21:46):
they're recommended start with a12-hour fast, so overnight
while they're sleeping as theyprogress, how would you tell
them to progress.
Would you say, go two weeks andthen add an hour, or go a month
and then add an hour?
What does that look like andhow do we figure that out for
our own bodies?
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Perfect.
We want to leave everybodywho's listening with an
understanding of how to start.
And what's so great is this isnot a diet that you have to
prepare for you literally today.
Look at your clock and go I'mgoing to finish my dinner at
whatever time and I'm going toclose my eating window at
whatever time you say.
Now we know that it's a reallygood idea to stop eating many
(22:27):
hours before we go to sleep, butbased on some people's you know
daily schedule and so forth,they eat later.
Okay, that's fine.
So you get to say when you'reclosing that eating window and
then after that you drink plainwater.
You might need to mix up yourevening routine, because late
night snacking is a big part ofpeople's evening routines.
So do something different.
(22:48):
And then you might even go tosleep early and sleep and wake
up tomorrow and have plain waterand have a black coffee.
If you like coffee.
You can open your eating window12 hours after whatever time it
was you decided to close it.
But then if you're like, well,that's kind of easy, that's no
(23:11):
problem, keep going.
Other people 12 hours is astretch.
Many people eat very late andthen the minute they wake up,
they're rushing out the doorwith their candy coffee, and so
it can be hard for some peopleto get to that 12 hours.
So to answer your question,even right there at the
beginning, it's different foreach person.
(23:32):
So get to that 12 hours,gradually, increase the fasting
hours, fast squeaky clean.
It makes it so much easier.
Then, when you open your eatingwindow, I always say eat
normally.
People are like what's normally?
Well, what do you normally eat?
Okay, so we're doing one thingat a time.
We're not going to pull out allthis.
(23:54):
We're not going to hit the gymand go to different classes and
start eating healthy and doeverything at once.
Just do one thing at a time.
Learn how to fast clean, and Ipromise you, once that
foundation is established, youwill then have the energy, the
creativity, the curiosity toupgrade your food and move your
(24:15):
body more.
And so I always say withintermittent fasting as the
foundation, everything else getseasier.
So then your question was do weadd an hour a day or again, we
start with that clean fast andyou start with 12 hours.
If you can get to a 16 hourfast within a week or two, I
(24:37):
really recommend it.
Now some people, if they're notused, if they like black coffee
and they don't really eatbreakfast, that's really easy.
They just fast till noon orfast till 10 and close it at six
and boom, they're there.
But again, there's not.
Isn't a competition?
People feel like, oh, someoneelse is doing that, I should be
able to.
Nope, here's how you figure outyour perfect eating window.
(25:01):
One you got to feel good.
It's got to feel great.
People don't keep doing thingsthat don't feel good, okay.
The second one is it's got towork with your life.
What's your daily schedule andthe people in it?
Okay, it's got to feel good.
It's got to work with your life.
And the third thing is it doeshave to help you reach your
(25:24):
health goals.
So if you've just gotten adiagnosis of prediabetes and
your A1C is over five, is 5.9 orsomething, or you've got high
triglycerides and low HDL, oryou've got high, suddenly got
high blood pressure, I thinkthat it's very important to go
gently because we want it to besustainable.
You don't want to quit To gogently, but also have enough
(25:48):
focus and determination that youare shrinking that eating
window and then eating well inthe eating window.
By eating well, I mean eat ameal, pause in between.
This is a big habit to change.
Eat a meal until your body'ssatisfied, then don't eat
anything else for like four orfive more hours.
(26:08):
Nothing, no more flavoreddrinks.
You eat a meal, you drink water,you eat another meal, you close
your eating window and if youcan do that for a month or two,
then the curiosity, your ownbody, will start asking you
questions.
It'll say I think I can golonger, or I think I'd rather
(26:30):
have my eating window in themorning, or what if I tried this
or what if I tried that?
And when clients of mine bringthese questions to our coaching
conversations, I usually askthem where did the question come
from?
Who did the asking?
Oh, I heard it on a podcast orsomething that I should be doing
(26:51):
this or this.
Okay, I wanna know if your owninnate curiosity, your inner
wisdom, your body, who did theasking?
And so what will happen ispeople will lose interest in
ultra processed food and theywill start having thoughts like
(27:11):
have more eggs, eat moreBrussels sprouts.
You know people are like who amI?
I don't even like Brusselssprouts.
And your body's like well, wedo.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Now I love it Because I know if I haven't had a salad
in I don't know 48 hours, mybody is like where are the
vegetables, where are the greenslady.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Yeah, yeah, that's right.
And so when you can hear whatis an outside infusion or fear
or pressure as opposed to whatis the quiet inner wisdom, that
inner curiosity.
So my cornerstones again arethe clean fast you got to start
there you then listening to thatinnate curiosity and then the
(27:54):
customization is oh, maybe I'lltry this, maybe I'll try that.
And so when you talk to a wideswath of intermittent fasters,
everybody's got a differentschedule.
Everybody eats different food.
I have clients who arecarnivore and clients who are
vegan, and so we're allbio-individual and the
opportunity that fasting cleanand having an eating window
(28:16):
provides well many opportunities.
But one is you get really tunedin to the foods that are
fueling your unique body.
Very well, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
I loved earlier you mentioned too, because I think
people don't kind of click ontothis specific thing, but you
mentioned within that eatingwindow.
So say you have a six-houreating window, right, and we're
going to have a full, you knowsatiating meal when we first eat
(28:50):
and then we're going to take abreak and not eat anything in
between and then eat anothermeal at the end of our window,
right, yes, but so often peoplewill have, you know, they'll go
out to eat and then they'llbring their soda or their you
know, coffee drink back withthem and they don't think that
they're eating between the twomeals.
But while they're drinking thesoda the whole time, having
(29:11):
those liquid sugars in our bodythe whole time, you don't have
that digestive break between themeals the body really, really
needs.
So I think that's so key forpeople to really understand is
you know, go back to your cleanfasting even in between your
eating window.
It's good to have those actualbreaks between the meals too, so
(29:33):
your body can digest.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
It does.
We want insulin to come backdown Now.
I don't want to overcomplicateit, right?
So if people are like wait,laurie, you said there's two
parts to every day the fastinghours and the eating window, I
get to eat what I please in myeating window.
That's right, it's yours.
The next important habit topractice is to even notice what
(29:55):
is satiety.
What does it feel like to eatuntil my body goes?
Oh, that was good.
I can now rest in between.
And Dr Jason Fung has a reallygreat image in the obesity code
where he shows that if you eatand then pause, no flavored
drinks are eaten and then eatagain and then pause.
When insulin comes back downduring the fasting hours, it
(30:19):
goes even lower than it wouldhave if you'd kept the insulin
high during your whole eatingwindow.
So not only does this createamazing habits physiologically,
but also mentally.
We get the opportunity to quietthat constant craving, that
constant mental noise of I couldhave a little bit of this, a
(30:41):
little bit of that.
Maybe I could try this.
When do I get to eat next?
That noise that just neverstops.
And within that adjustment phaseof learning to be a daily clean
, faster the noise gets quietand then we just get to eat and
we go, I've had enough.
And then you go about your dayand then a bunch of hours later
(31:02):
you eat again and what happensis that the emotional eating
stops.
We learn other ways to calm andsoothe ourselves other than
eating.
And then that just automatichabitual eating, like when you
get home you open a bag of chipsor something, you eat the whole
box of crackers while you'recooking dinner.
It's like no, no wait, cookyour dinner, eat the meal.
(31:25):
So it's a beautiful opportunityto not only heal our bodies but
create new habits of awarenessand honor and respect for this
incredible body that is workingreally hard not only to keep us
alive but to replenish andrestore and heal itself when
we're in a fasted state women tounderstand how intermittent
(31:49):
fasting can impact them ondifferent levels.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
So we've talked about using it as a tool to lose
weight, to get healthy.
But some of the concerns I'vehad over the years working with
different clients or women havetalked to me about it is its
potential impact on theirmenstrual cycle and hormones.
(32:13):
Can you dive a little bit intothat and how we use it as a tool
to work with our menstrualcycle, opposed to against it, I
guess?
Speaker 1 (32:22):
for lack of a better way of saying that Okay.
So it's really important to knowthat pushing hard and
deprivation and over-restrictionare bad for any person,
especially women.
Okay, yeah.
So we live in what I call apunishment model where
(32:43):
perfectionism wins.
Pushing hard, extremism, likethis pendulum of all or nothing,
of good or bad.
Like I've got to be good, thesefoods are bad If I eat them,
I'm bad.
Like I've got to be good, thesefoods are bad, if I eat them,
I'm bad.
So this model of good and badachieving through
self-beratement, deprivation,hard struggle, being confused
(33:04):
all the time.
So this punishment model, thisidea of pushing really hard over
deprivation, overextendingourselves, that's not good for
anyone.
That chronic stress,chronically high cortisol isn't
good.
But then people say but fastingraises cortisol, yeah, so does
exercise.
It is a blip up.
(33:26):
The body's like woo, we'redoing something here and then it
comes back down.
So what we don't want isconstant pushing, constant
stress.
Now, regarding our cycle If awoman is hungrier and needs more
nourishing foods and a longereating window on the days before
(33:46):
her period, go for it.
But we don't need toovercomplicate things.
We have fasting hours, we havean eating window.
You discover through yourpractice, your daily habit and
your innate curiosity whateating window has you feel
amazing and then you adjust it.
You adjust it for social events, you adjust it for the days
(34:07):
before your cycle.
But I have clients who are intheir early twenties who they're
like oh, I heard I'm supposedto have a longer or no eating
window before my cycle andthey're like I don't have any
appetite before my cycle.
So again they're like I don'thave any appetite before my
cycle.
So again, everybody's different.
Yeah, so we need to adjustbased on the cycle and not be
(34:33):
mad at ourselves.
It's shocking how many womenare like well, I figured out
that a five-hour eating windowis my sweet spot, but I'm being
so bad on the days before myperiod.
No, you're not.
You're honoring your body,you're respecting what it's
telling you.
Now, if you're diving headfirstinto pints of ice cream, that's
not serving you either.
Now, I'm not demonizing icecream.
I love it, but as a reaction toPMS, it really doesn't serve us
(34:57):
.
The other thing regarding thefear of harming women's hormones
is having a gentle, daily,clean fasting practice with an
eating window where you'renourishing yourself well will
reverse PCOS and have us movefrom being insulin resistant to
insulin sensitive.
(35:17):
So if you read why we Get Sickby Dr Ben Bickman.
High circulating insulin andhigh inflammation are the root
causes for all metabolicdiseases and we want to be
keeping that insulin low whenwe're in a fasted state.
And the way to do that is tofast, clean, push.
(35:38):
It's the over-restriction, it'sthe pendulum swing, it's the
extreme all or nothing.
That doesn't serve us.
And what happens to a woman'sbody through her 40s and early
50s is usually it tells us I'vehad enough, the push is over.
And then we think, uh-oh, I'mletting myself go, I have to
(36:00):
push harder.
It's like no gentle is the way,gentle and consistent is the
way.
So that's why that finalcornerstone for me is continuing
.
I used to say consistency andthen I realized that actually
sounds like a judgment.
Consistency to me fits a littlebit into the punishment model
(36:21):
of I'm being bad if I'm notbeing consistent.
So what really matters isfiguring out how do I continue?
Today I wake up today, I lookat my daily schedule and I say
when's my eating window today?
And I fast clean until myeating window opens and I enjoy
nourishing food that I have onhand.
And then I pause again and thenI eat a yummy meal again, and
(36:43):
some people eat one meal a dayplus a little window opener or
closer.
Some people eat two meals a day.
Some people if they're like anextreme, you know competitive
fitness regimen they may havethree meals a day.
But mostly, as we age, we donot need to be eating the
quantity of food that we'rebeing told we need to eat,
(37:04):
because when we're fasting we'reburning our own body fat for
energy and that isn't part ofthe caloric equation.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
The irony too, is that you know most of the meals.
I always laugh when I go out toeat and you know the meal is
the size of like my whole chestright.
The size of Texas is the size oflike my whole chest right, the
size of Texas, yeah, and it'slike you know, this is like
three meals.
For me it's almost always atleast two, and that's usually
with me being really fullleaving.
(37:31):
And the irony too is that thequality of food, the higher the
quality of food usually notalways, but usually the smaller
the portion you need, becausewhen we're eating mindlessly
eating that bag of chips there'salmost no nutritive value and
(37:51):
so it just kind of goes in andit dissolves quickly and you can
eat the whole bag, whereas ifyou're eating a steak, like
really good steak and a goodsalad or something like that,
the portions are much smallerthat you need to actually fill
your stomach and fill full.
And so I think it's reallyimportant to understand that the
(38:15):
quality of food we eat alsowill impact how much of it we're
going to eat.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Exactly, and it affects how hungry you are later
.
If someone eats and they feelfull and they are then hungry an
hour later, what you just atedid not sustain you, so you want
to take a look at what was that.
And so if you're someone whocloses your eating window at six
or seven and you're suddenlyravenously hungry at nine, it's
(38:43):
because you either have a latenight snacking habit and your
body is so smart it's like, hey,tap, tap, tap.
But sometimes you can check inwith your body and be like wait,
is this just a thought that itwants to have the same thing I
had last night, or am I actuallyhungry?
And pausing and asking yourself, tuning in Intermittent fasters
(39:06):
know the difference betweenwhat I call a hunger alert like
when do I get to eat?
Like a thought, a stomach growl.
That is not actual hunger.
We actually know what realhunger is.
And when you train yourselfover that first month to become
fat adapted, it just getsclearer and clearer what real
(39:26):
hunger is and what the hungeralerts are.
When our ancestors had a hungeralert like our stomach growled
thank goodness it did, becausethen our ancestors remembered to
go find food it's like oh, wegot to get up and go.
We got to find some food, andthat wasn't always easy.
It's hard to even for us toimagine what that would have
been like.
(39:46):
And go ahead.
Go ahead Because the food isjust right there for us.
And how many times do we walkby?
You know people work in anoffice.
There's food around constantlyand and bowls of chips and
snacks and bowls of candy.
Having an eating window reallyslows us down and one of the
(40:08):
things people are very surprisedabout early on is how easy the
fasting is and how shockingly onour mind and in front of our
faces, constant eating isavailable to us and it doesn't
serve us.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
The thing, too, is like we've become so accustomed
to that constant eating that ourbrain so many people are
confusing dehydration or thirstwith hunger.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (40:36):
You know, boredom is a big one too.
Where you know, I know boredomwill get me.
Sunday afternoons I'll sit onthe couch with my husband.
We watch football, and whenyou're three hours into a game
unless it's a really great gameyou're like, okay, I probably
should get up and move my body.
And I noticed then is when Icrave the crappy foods.
(40:58):
That's right and it's not.
I've eaten lunch, I've fed mybody with nutritious food, but
the boredom will make me cravethe sugars, or crave the salts
and the unhealthy fats, and so,yeah, those two big ones.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
That's another reason to fast clean, because what it
does is we have to deal withthat boredom and if we're
constantly like, oh, I can havea little mint tea, I could put a
little of this in my coffee.
It's that constant entertainingourselves with a little bit of
this, a little bit of that.
And when you get through thatadaptation phase it does get
(41:37):
quiet.
And if you're fasting clean,what it takes off the table is
entertaining yourself with foodand soothing your emotions with
food.
And then we get to be morecreative and be more quiet and
figure out what are the ways Ican actually make myself feel
better when I'm lonely, hurt,angry, you know, and walking and
(41:59):
snuggling with a pet anddrinking a glass of water and
meditating there are so manyways journaling that we can make
ourselves feel better withoutdiving into a bag of whatever,
and fasting clean makes it somuch easier.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
Yeah, definitely so, lori.
I have two more questions foryou, but before I get to those,
is there anything that wehaven't touched on relating to
fasting, that you really thinkis key for the listener to know,
or something you'd want toshare?
Speaker 1 (42:31):
I feel like we've covered so much ground.
I really want people to be leftwith that.
This is gentle and that whenyou discover your daily eating
window sweet spot, over time youwill not want to do anything
differently because you feel sowell.
And one thing that we didn'ttouch on was whenever you start
(42:55):
let's say it's today, so there'sno reason to delay.
Today you decide I'm closing myeating window at this time,
drinking plain water, adding 12hours and going as long as I can
.
It's a really great idea.
To what I call set yourdashboard.
What are you measuring?
Because anytime a human beingembarks upon a new habit that's
(43:16):
going to take some time toimplement, we want to see
results right.
So on your dashboard, youdefinitely want to have a lot
more than the scale, becausethis is a health regimen, as Jim
Stevens says, a health regimenwith a side effect of weight
loss, and so if people you wantto have like a non-stretch item
(43:37):
of clothing that's a little tootight right now, you want to
maybe take a picture of yourface.
You want to measure your waist,because our metabolic health
having our waist less than halfour height is a really important
biomarker, and you could lookat any of your lab work, you
could have an in-bodycomposition scan.
(44:01):
There's so many things that aperson could do to put on their
dashboard of what they'remeasuring.
But the most important thingand I have people make a circle
like a pie chart and cut thecircle in half, so it's 50, 50,
perhaps the chart right, reallybig.
How do I feel?
That's half of the thingsyou're measuring, then, and the
(44:22):
other half you can put all sortsof little pieces of the pie and
can put the scale and yourwaist measurement and how your
clothes fit and your A1C.
But how do I feel?
So when people say I've triedintermittent fasting, it's not
working, I think, oh, what wereyou measuring?
And they're like I've neverfelt better, but I only lost
(44:43):
this much, you know.
So we really want to have howdo I feel as the most important
thing and we adjust from there.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
Yeah, man, that's such a I hadn't even really
thought about, which is funnybecause I have patients or
clients track things all thetime.
But really thinking abouttracking those things
specifically to just usingintermittent fasting as a tool
too, is really great, but how doI feel is so key?
to how so many people come intothe health and wellness world
(45:16):
wanting to lose weight, notrealizing that the key thing is
really how do I feel?
How is my health supporting meor hindering me in daily
activities?
And you know what are thoselong-term effects of either
supporting your health orneglecting your health long-term
, and the scale is not the bossof me, I mean it is really it
(45:39):
tells me.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
it is one data point that tells me very little, yeah.
Does not tell me about mymitochondrial health.
It doesn't tell me about mybrain sharpness and my stamina.
It doesn't tell me how long Ican hold a forearm plank.
Speaker 2 (45:53):
put two women that are around the same height and
age and have very different bodystructures, you know, and very
different genetic makeups andheritage, and their weights are
going to be very different.
(46:13):
But what's healthy for one ismaybe not healthy for the other,
right?
And so, yeah, the scale numbermeans so little in the big
picture thing it does andwherever people are out there
listening.
Speaker 1 (46:28):
Whatever your age is, whatever's happening in your
life right now, I encouragepeople to be able to say about
yourself I am a person who takesreally good care of myself
right now, no matter what'shappening in life.
So we don't need to wait forthe perfect timing and stars
align to start taking good careof ourselves.
And I have found that theeasiest way to take really good
(46:49):
care of ourselves is to say whenam I closing my eating window
today and when am I opening ittomorrow?
And from there we move more, wesleep better, we drink more
water, we pay closer attentionto our strength and movement.
So it's a beautiful foundation.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
Well, lori, I love this.
Thank you so so much forsharing all of this information
and just trying to get the wordout Because, like I said earlier
, I think it's such a powerfultool that people can use and
implement and it's somethingsimple really that people can
kind of control in their lifeand their health.
So, thank you for doing that.
I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (47:26):
Thank you, nika, it is simple.
If it gets confusing orcomplicated, just keep it simple
.
Yeah, keep it very simple.
Speaker 2 (47:34):
So, before we close out the show, the two questions.
One where can people find you?
How can they connect with you?
Speaker 1 (47:40):
My business is Fast Forward Wellness, so I'm on
Instagram, fast Forward Wellnessand my website, and people can
go to my website and you candownload a free checklist if
you're like.
Wait, she said it so fast howto start.
So you can download a checkliston how to start.
And I absolutely love it whenpeople write me and say I
started.
I have a question, or I startedand it changed my life, or I
(48:04):
have group programs andone-on-one coaching and a group
membership and I love everyminute of it.
Speaker 2 (48:09):
Awesome, I'll make sure everything's in the show
notes too.
Thank you, yeah, as easy aspossible.
So my last question for you issomething I ask every guest is
what is something inspiring thatyou've either experienced or
learned over the years thatyou'd like to share with others?
Speaker 1 (48:26):
I feel like gentle is the way.
I feel like this punishmentmodel of beating ourselves up
and that the only way tomotivate ourselves and to
achieve anything is by pushinghard and speaking meanly to
ourselves.
Yeah, that is not true.
And this beautiful transitionof perimenopause.
(48:47):
And then, as Dr Lou AnneBrizendine says, she calls
menopause the upgrade.
So I wanna leave people withbeing excited about getting
older.
Speaker 2 (49:01):
Yeah, I love that because, I will tell, I was
talking to my husband about thisthe other day.
So I am 39 and we were joking.
I said I'd probably take my 20something body back, but I would
never, ever give up the.
Just the mentality that I havenow, the thoughts that I have,
now the experience that I have.
(49:22):
I think aging is so beautifuland such a privilege and I don't
know.
I'm just always grateful forevery year that I get, the
things that I get to learn.
So I love that.
Speaker 1 (49:32):
It is a privilege You're so welcome.
Speaker 2 (49:34):
Thank you Awesome.
Well, thank you again forcoming on the show.
I appreciate it.
Thanks, Nika.
Welcome to the Inspired with Nika Laurie
podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Laurie Lewis.
Welcome to the show.
I'm so excited to have you heretoday.
Hi, nika, good to see you,welcome, welcome.
So today we are going to deepdive into intermediate fasting
and the do's and don'ts and thepluses and minuses and how it
might impact women's health.
I'm really, really excited totalk to you about this because I
(00:36):
think it's such a really cool,important tool that really
anyone can use, but women canuse to improve their health.
So I'm excited to dive intothat.
But before we do, can you justtell me a little bit about
yourself?
Who are you?
How 'd you get intointermediate fasting?
What's your backstory?
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Well, I have had a passion for nutrition and
fitness and fueling myself wellfor as long as I can remember.
But I had kind of an epiphanyin my late twenties I think I
was around 29 and it startedlike this I think this diet Coke
might not be good for me.
(01:15):
I had that thought.
I had that thought and guesswhat?
I listened to it and I feellike that was a turning point
where I made some decisions formyself in that moment that have
made a big difference for me.
So I decided then to stopdrinking soda, stop eating sugar
, and it didn't seem hard, itwas just like oh, I'm not
(01:39):
feeling so great all the time,I'm kind of foggy and dragging
through life and maybe if I justchange some of these things
that I'm eating, that's assimple as it was.
And so then, through mythirties and early forties, I
became known amongst everybodywho knew me as a person who was
a super healthy eater.
But I never wanted to be thefood police, so I was not going
(02:00):
through my life telling otherpeople what to do.
I stayed in my lane, I tookcare of myself.
Well, when I got my firstsymptoms of perimenopause, I
didn't know what that was theydon't send us to biology class
for older ladies.
So I was 44 and I woke up inthe middle of the night and I
(02:21):
thought man, I need to get a newair conditioner.
This thing is broken.
Well, my air conditioner wasfine.
It was cranking out the coldair.
It was me Now, what I'vesubsequently learned.
So I'm 61 now, so that was along time ago and over the years
I've learned that menopause andperimenopause are way more than
hot flashes.
We just think, oh, it's kind ofwhen you get hot all the time
(02:42):
and your period stops, yeah, notnecessarily the case.
Well, at that time, at age 44, Ifelt like I got pushed down a
very dark hole.
My body seemed alien to me.
I started experiencing memoryloss and brain fog and I was
achy head to toe.
I experienced depression forthe first time and I was achy
(03:04):
head to toe.
I experienced depression forthe first time.
And I mean, if you look at alist of a hundred symptoms that
women experience inperimenopause, I checked many of
the boxes.
Now people don't have to expectto get all these things, it's
just when it's happening.
It's helpful to know by talkingto each other and listening to
podcasts and reading books likethe New Menopause, to understand
oh, this is part of thistransition phase.
By talking to each other andlistening to podcasts and
(03:24):
reading books like the NewMenopause, to understand oh,
this is part of this transitionphase.
Well, I suffered for five years.
My period stopped at 40.
I went into menopause at 49.
So I had one year without acycle and I was in menopause at
49, which is early and then Igained 50 pounds.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Boom yeah.
Now I was running marathons andlean and fit and healthy eater
right.
So I say to people I was leanand fit, eating the way I ate.
I ate the same exact way.
When I gained 50 pounds,nothing changed.
I didn't change my diet and Ilost the 50 pounds eating the
exact same way.
The thing that made adifference was at age 54, after
(04:11):
really suffering for almost 10years.
I read about intermittentfasting and I was shocked
because I thought wait, I'mwell-studied in nutrition.
This has been my personalpassion for all these years.
I'm well-studied in nutrition.
This has been my personalpassion for all these years.
How did I never know that youcould live your life fasting and
being in a pattern of fastingand eating every day?
(04:34):
I had no idea.
So I started that very same day.
I've kept an eating window nowevery day for seven and a half
years.
I lost the weight verygradually and healthfully and
methodically.
My body shifted within about amonth into being a fat burning
machine, becoming fat adopted,and I lost 51 pounds in 15
(04:58):
months.
And then everybody was like howdid you do that?
It wasn't just the weight losseither.
I was sharper and brighter.
I was just back to being myself, and one of the things women
report in perimenopause andmenopause is I'm just not myself
.
It's like I've been taken overby an alien.
I'm walking around in a fog, Ihave no energy, everything's
(05:21):
caught up to me, and I'm just sograteful that I was able to
start at that point.
I'm starting my seventh annualgroup program over the holidays
where I help women navigate theholidays, keeping an eating
window and feeling amazing andnever having to diet again and
never having to rely on Januaryto fix everything.
(05:43):
So that's how I started, andhaving an eating window is
really an awakening experience.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yeah, I think it can be such a powerful tool and I
think there's so much kind ofmisinformation around
intermittent fasting Is it good,Is it bad?
Does it work, Does it not?
But I think when you reallystart to kind of one just kind
of biohack your own health right, Like, test it out on yourself,
See what those windows looklike and see do they work for
(06:14):
you here or do they not, or howdoes it make you feel, I think
you know it's so it can be sucha powerful tool for some people
and I love that you're out theresupporting people, helping them
figure this out and figure outhow to implement it into their
lives.
So beautiful story and I'mreally glad it worked for you
too, because getting healthy isthe most important thing you
(06:34):
could do in your life.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
It's so awakening and fast forward.
That's actually the name of mybusiness, but I'm 61 and at age
59 and 60, I went through abattery of longevity tests and
biological age tests with VO2max and testing my mitochondrial
health, and both tests cameback that my biological age is
(07:00):
40, which is pre-menopausal.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
I got to tell you looking at you.
For those listening, we'rerecording on Zoom and I can see
you in person.
You look stunning and I wouldnever, ever guess that you were
61 years old not in a millionyears.
So it definitely you lookamazing too.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Thank, you and if you saw me when I was 50, 51, 52,
53, 54, when I put on all thatweight and I couldn't lose it
because nothing I was doing thatworked in the past, nothing
worked.
There's just squish everywhere.
I suddenly had more belly fatand I was really hurting and I
just not only looked a lot worse, I just, energetically, I was
(07:40):
just dragging through life and Iwas beating myself up for not
being able to figure it out andso to learn about daily fasting,
having a daily fasting regimenand starting within three days,
I felt better.
I had the experience that I wasvisiting my mom in Colorado,
where I grew up, and I wasstanding in her kitchen and all
(08:02):
of a sudden, I had the thoughtthere I am and it's like there I
am, but what a funny thought tohave.
And it was like, oh, I just wasground, I was back in my body,
I was sharper, bright, I wasclearer, and so now I have this
amazing joy of being able tosupport people and I have really
(08:26):
four cornerstones to the workthat I do, where the foundation
of intermittent fasting is theclean, fast, curiosity, leaning
in and discovering what your ownbody needs, customization.
There's not one right way to dothis and then continuing.
How do you continue?
(08:46):
How do you stay in a fatadapted state where you're just
burning your own body fat forenergy day in and day out and
keeping inflammation low iseverything.
High inflammation and highcirculating insulin are the root
causes of all metabolicdiseases.
Basically everything, yeah.
And then you add a new factorwhen you're in perimenopause,
(09:09):
which starts in your latethirties, the new factor, the
new root cause factor, is lowestrogen.
So we've got high inflammation,high circulating insulin,
having our estrogen tanking andthen our gut microbiome If those
things aren't handled.
Having our estrogen tanking andthen our gut microbiome if
those things aren't handled.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
You know we're in bad shape and that's going to show
up in different ways foreverybody, but it ends up being
the root cause of almost everychronic disease that you can
think of.
That's right.
So yeah, so let's break down.
So you know, I want to takeyour four C's, but let's break
that down over some differentquestions.
So, for those who may be brandnew to intermittent fasting, can
(09:49):
you just give like the basic101 explanation of what it is
and why it matters or how itworks?
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Yes.
So to alleviate anyone's fear,this is evolutionary.
Anyone's fear this isevolutionary If you think back,
even just a hundred years.
But throughout all humanhistory, humans survived, and
all the longevity experts saythis, david Sinclair's like
human beings survived throughlack of food.
We thrive, we're brighter,stronger, sharper when we're in
(10:20):
a fasted state.
This body fat is stored on usfor a reason it's to use it as
fuel.
And in our modern times of 24-7food around us, we're becoming
emotional eaters because thefood is designed to have us feel
better in the moment and keepus addicted to it.
And our ancestors there was nosuch thing as emotional eating,
(10:43):
there was no food.
Our ancestors, there was nosuch thing as emotional eating,
there was no food.
Okay, yeah.
So if you just think evolution,okay, there was food and no
food, and food and no food.
And because we have food aroundus all the time now, it's very
smart for us to now rely on theclock to determine our eating
time.
Okay, so, and each person getsto say when that is Okay.
(11:06):
So I describe it really simplylike there are two parts to
every day the fasting hours andthe eating window, and you get
to say when it is.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
And so what you're, what we're doing when we're in a
fasted state and fasting cleanand I'll explain why that's so
important is we are keepinginsulin low, so we're getting
out of fat storage mode and thenwe're getting into fat burning
mode.
We're keeping insulin low,we're keeping inflammation low
and we are in a completedigestive rest where our
(11:40):
hormones are beginning to dotheir job.
We have over 80 hormones thatare little chemical messengers
in a hierarchy and a network andthey wanna do their job.
They wanna communicate witheach other.
And then the things that we'redoing either aging or lifestyle
choices or our food choices orlack of movement, poor sleep all
of it is affecting the, andperimenopause, of course, are
(12:03):
affecting the imbalance of thosehormones.
And eating in an eating windowand putting our body into a
deliberate, conscious, gentle,fasted state every day allows
for this deep healing, includingthis incredible phenomenon
called autophagy, where, whenwe're in a fasted state, the
(12:26):
body goes in to each cell anddigs out all the broken, junky
parts, old, broken down, junkyproteins and so forth and
recycles them, spruces them upand reform makes the cell again
brand spanking new.
In fact, it takes less energyfor the body to clean up an old
cell than it takes to make a newcell.
(12:48):
So we want to be cleaning upthose old cells, which is why
people who are intermittentfasting every day for a long,
long time our skin looks reallygood because we're cleaning it
up naturally.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Yeah, yeah, that's awesome.
So talk about how intermittentfasting versus so you know, like
you mentioned, for you know thehistory of humanity, food has
always been kind of a scarcity,and so it's just really in the
last like maybe 70 years thatwe've had this overload and
(13:19):
plethora of food to us, you know, access to it at all times, 24,
seven, right, and I mind you.
I also want to say food withquotations, because a lot of the
food that's out there, that'savailable to us, isn't
necessarily food.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
I call it not food with a hyphen.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
It's food like products, but it's not actual
food.
So, with that said, we've we'vebrought in all of these
calories and all of thesechemicals that we're putting
into our body and digesting, andso our body is basically
burning the sugar all the time,opposed to burning the fat that
you may get from doingintermediate fasting.
(14:01):
Can you talk about thedifference between the two and
how the body functions different?
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Yes.
So when we are eating all thetime and that could be eating
anything, okay, so we could eventake ultra processed food out
of the equation.
When we're eating, if peopleare like I'm eating healthy and
I'm remember, my story was I waseating healthy like soup and I
gained 50 pounds.
What on earth was happening,right?
(14:27):
So once I kept my eating to aneating window and I lowered my
circulating insulin and Ilowered inflammation, I could
then balance out those hormonesand get myself into a fat
burning state.
But when we're eating and I saydrinking flavored drinks also
when we're eating and drinkingflavored drinks from the minute
(14:49):
we wake up to the minute we goto bed, we are keeping ourselves
in a high insulin state.
So we are never able to tapinto our own body fat for fuel.
So when we flip the metabolicswitch, which means switching
from being a sugar burner intobeing a fat burner, that happens
usually around the third orfourth week.
(15:12):
So if you start keeping aneating window and start gently,
start with a 12 hour fast,you're asleep for hopefully
eight of it, right?
You are then training your bodyover three to four weeks to use
up the sugar in your blood, thefood you just ate the sugar in
your blood, the stored sugarcalled glycogen, that's mostly
(15:33):
in your liver and muscles and soforth.
And about that third to fourthweek you drain that tank and the
stored sugar is used up.
And then the body rebels alittle bit because it's like we
don't like this, we're out ofsugar.
And then it remembers it.
It has a.
It remembers, it knows oh mygosh, there's all this fat here.
(15:57):
I can switch over into fatburning, but you know, so many
people are like I tried thatintermittent fasting.
It didn't work for me.
But you know, so many peopleare like I tried that
intermittent fasting, it didn'twork for me.
I want to find out from people,if you're fasting clean, how
many hours you were fasting eachday?
Did you either not fast longenough or did you go way too far
and you burn yourself out?
And then the other thing is forhow many weeks did you try it?
(16:20):
Because if you didn't make itthrough that adaptation phase,
you never got into fat burningand you just missed out on all
the goodies.
Yeah, and then when people stopand start and stop and start,
people are like is thissomething that I have to do all
the time.
Well, you don't have to.
But remember, if you getthrough that adaptation phase
(16:41):
and then you're a fat burningmachine every day when you're in
a fasted state, you don't wantto lose that, because then you
got to go back through the wholeadjustment phase again.
So you can have a longer eatingwindow, you can have a shorter
eating window, you can move itearlier, you can move it later.
Just every day, have one, andthat way you won't ever have to
(17:04):
start again.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
You keep mentioning fasting clean.
What is that?
Describe what that means.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Imagine what fasting was for ancient humans, and I
love that you said 70 years ago.
I usually say 100 to give us alittle wiggle room, but you're
right, it is about 70 years ago.
We started eating all the timeand putting stuff in our drinks
and drinking flavored drinksconstantly.
And so I human beings, Iunderstand when we start
(17:35):
something new and we dosomething that we think is going
to be hard, we try and figureout what can I get away with,
like, what is the least amountthat I could possibly do?
Okay, I understand that, but wewant to remember evolution and
we want to remember and honorour physiology and the way our
(17:55):
body works, and that what ourintention is is to put us into a
complete digestive rest toallow the liver, the heart, our
brain, our gut every aspect ofourselves is healing when we're
in a fasted state, and fastingclean not only allows for the
(18:17):
most amount of healing and fatburning, but it makes fasting
easier.
So what?
That is what a clean fast is.
Well, my friend Jen Stevens, whowrote Delay, don't Deny and
Fast Feast Repeat.
She coined that term in herFacebook group, like seven or
eight years ago, because peoplewere talking about am I allowed
to have some lemon?
(18:38):
Am I allowed to have MCT oil inmy coffee?
What am I allowed?
What am I allowed, what am Iallowed?
And so she thought, okay, I'mjust going to call it clean.
So people get in their mindthat there's fasting and there's
not fasting, and anythingthat's not fasting clean and
there's not fasting, andanything that's not fasting
(19:00):
clean, we say, is not fasting.
Because you're bringing innutrients and you're bringing in
food flavors that are excitingthe system, and we don't want to
do that.
We want the fasting hours to bequiet and boring and healing.
And then you get to eat theyummy foods, the delicious
flavors.
You can have all the lemon inyour water you want.
You can put anything in yourcoffee you want later in your
(19:21):
eating window.
So the clean fast is plain,unflavored water of any
sparkliness and any temperature.
Okay, hot, cold, sparkly, flat,whatever.
Plain, unflavored, nothing init.
Then plain, unflavored blackcoffee.
Plain, unflavored, bitter,nothing in it.
Then plain, unflavored blackcoffee.
Plain, unflavored, bitter,black or green tea.
So no, no, lemongrass or gingeror mint, or okay.
(19:44):
So, and then the fourth ounceof water coffee, black or green
tea.
And minerals.
So sodium magnesium is a superimportant mineral to be having
all of the time, and then yourmedication as prescribed.
And the thing I want to leavepeople with is it sounds like
that's a whole lot of no, likeyou can't have this, you can't
(20:05):
have that, you can't have this.
But you can in your eatingwindow and you get to say when
that is.
So we get all the healing andwe get.
And it makes fasting easierbecause imagine, when you take
in lemon or some food flavor,the tongue and the rest of your
body goes woohoo, food'sincoming, except you don't feed
(20:26):
it because you think you'refasting and the body gets kind
of grumpy and mad and it's likewhere the heck's the food.
So make it easier on yourselfFast, clean and enjoy the
delicious food you love later inyour eating window of your
choice.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Makes sense, definitely.
So let's talk about eatingwindows, and then after that I
want to talk a little bit abouthow it can impact.
We've discussed the hormonepiece a little bit, but I've had
clients ask me specificallyabout their menstrual cycle and
intermittent fasting.
But first let's talk about thewindow a little bit, because I
(21:01):
know for me my body is sort of anatural faster.
I've never been an eat firstthing in the morning person.
I usually yeah, I've alwaysbeen I like to eat after 10 am
at the minimum.
I usually don't tend to gethungry until 11.
I've noticed my daughter is kindof naturally the same way too.
You know, we usually have ourlast meal around 6, 6.30 and we
(21:25):
don't eat after that, and sowe're kind of natural fasters in
our own.
But there's definitely you knowI've been much more strict
about it where I will actuallyset a fasting timer and stay on
the schedule and then I kind offall off and then get kind of
back into it.
But my body just sort ofnaturally does it on its own.
When people first start, likeyou mentioned a lot of times,
(21:46):
they're recommended start with a12-hour fast, so overnight
while they're sleeping as theyprogress, how would you tell
them to progress.
Would you say, go two weeks andthen add an hour, or go a month
and then add an hour?
What does that look like andhow do we figure that out for
our own bodies?
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Perfect.
We want to leave everybodywho's listening with an
understanding of how to start.
And what's so great is this isnot a diet that you have to
prepare for you literally today.
Look at your clock and go I'mgoing to finish my dinner at
whatever time and I'm going toclose my eating window at
whatever time you say.
Now we know that it's a reallygood idea to stop eating many
(22:27):
hours before we go to sleep, butbased on some people's you know
daily schedule and so forth,they eat later.
Okay, that's fine.
So you get to say when you'reclosing that eating window and
then after that you drink plainwater.
You might need to mix up yourevening routine, because late
night snacking is a big part ofpeople's evening routines.
So do something different.
(22:48):
And then you might even go tosleep early and sleep and wake
up tomorrow and have plain waterand have a black coffee.
If you like coffee.
You can open your eating window12 hours after whatever time it
was you decided to close it.
But then if you're like, well,that's kind of easy, that's no
(23:11):
problem, keep going.
Other people 12 hours is astretch.
Many people eat very late andthen the minute they wake up,
they're rushing out the doorwith their candy coffee, and so
it can be hard for some peopleto get to that 12 hours.
So to answer your question,even right there at the
beginning, it's different foreach person.
(23:32):
So get to that 12 hours,gradually, increase the fasting
hours, fast squeaky clean.
It makes it so much easier.
Then, when you open your eatingwindow, I always say eat
normally.
People are like what's normally?
Well, what do you normally eat?
Okay, so we're doing one thingat a time.
We're not going to pull out allthis.
(23:54):
We're not going to hit the gymand go to different classes and
start eating healthy and doeverything at once.
Just do one thing at a time.
Learn how to fast clean, and Ipromise you, once that
foundation is established, youwill then have the energy, the
creativity, the curiosity toupgrade your food and move your
(24:15):
body more.
And so I always say withintermittent fasting as the
foundation, everything else getseasier.
So then your question was do weadd an hour a day or again, we
start with that clean fast andyou start with 12 hours.
If you can get to a 16 hourfast within a week or two, I
(24:37):
really recommend it.
Now some people, if they're notused, if they like black coffee
and they don't really eatbreakfast, that's really easy.
They just fast till noon orfast till 10 and close it at six
and boom, they're there.
But again, there's not.
Isn't a competition?
People feel like, oh, someoneelse is doing that, I should be
able to.
Nope, here's how you figure outyour perfect eating window.
(25:01):
One you got to feel good.
It's got to feel great.
People don't keep doing thingsthat don't feel good, okay.
The second one is it's got towork with your life.
What's your daily schedule andthe people in it?
Okay, it's got to feel good.
It's got to work with your life.
And the third thing is it doeshave to help you reach your
(25:24):
health goals.
So if you've just gotten adiagnosis of prediabetes and
your A1C is over five, is 5.9 orsomething, or you've got high
triglycerides and low HDL, oryou've got high, suddenly got
high blood pressure, I thinkthat it's very important to go
gently because we want it to besustainable.
You don't want to quit To gogently, but also have enough
(25:48):
focus and determination that youare shrinking that eating
window and then eating well inthe eating window.
By eating well, I mean eat ameal, pause in between.
This is a big habit to change.
Eat a meal until your body'ssatisfied, then don't eat
anything else for like four orfive more hours.
(26:08):
Nothing, no more flavoreddrinks.
You eat a meal, you drink water,you eat another meal, you close
your eating window and if youcan do that for a month or two,
then the curiosity, your ownbody, will start asking you
questions.
It'll say I think I can golonger, or I think I'd rather
(26:30):
have my eating window in themorning, or what if I tried this
or what if I tried that?
And when clients of mine bringthese questions to our coaching
conversations, I usually askthem where did the question come
from?
Who did the asking?
Oh, I heard it on a podcast orsomething that I should be doing
(26:51):
this or this.
Okay, I wanna know if your owninnate curiosity, your inner
wisdom, your body, who did theasking?
And so what will happen ispeople will lose interest in
ultra processed food and theywill start having thoughts like
(27:11):
have more eggs, eat moreBrussels sprouts.
You know people are like who amI?
I don't even like Brusselssprouts.
And your body's like well, wedo.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Now I love it Because I know if I haven't had a salad
in I don't know 48 hours, mybody is like where are the
vegetables, where are the greenslady.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Yeah, yeah, that's right.
And so when you can hear whatis an outside infusion or fear
or pressure as opposed to whatis the quiet inner wisdom, that
inner curiosity.
So my cornerstones again arethe clean fast you got to start
there you then listening to thatinnate curiosity and then the
(27:54):
customization is oh, maybe I'lltry this, maybe I'll try that.
And so when you talk to a wideswath of intermittent fasters,
everybody's got a differentschedule.
Everybody eats different food.
I have clients who arecarnivore and clients who are
vegan, and so we're allbio-individual and the
opportunity that fasting cleanand having an eating window
(28:16):
provides well many opportunities.
But one is you get really tunedin to the foods that are
fueling your unique body.
Very well, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
I loved earlier you mentioned too, because I think
people don't kind of click ontothis specific thing, but you
mentioned within that eatingwindow.
So say you have a six-houreating window, right, and we're
going to have a full, you knowsatiating meal when we first eat
(28:50):
and then we're going to take abreak and not eat anything in
between and then eat anothermeal at the end of our window,
right, yes, but so often peoplewill have, you know, they'll go
out to eat and then they'llbring their soda or their you
know, coffee drink back withthem and they don't think that
they're eating between the twomeals.
But while they're drinking thesoda the whole time, having
(29:11):
those liquid sugars in our bodythe whole time, you don't have
that digestive break between themeals the body really, really
needs.
So I think that's so key forpeople to really understand is
you know, go back to your cleanfasting even in between your
eating window.
It's good to have those actualbreaks between the meals too, so
(29:33):
your body can digest.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
It does.
We want insulin to come backdown Now.
I don't want to overcomplicateit, right?
So if people are like wait,laurie, you said there's two
parts to every day the fastinghours and the eating window, I
get to eat what I please in myeating window.
That's right, it's yours.
The next important habit topractice is to even notice what
(29:55):
is satiety.
What does it feel like to eatuntil my body goes?
Oh, that was good.
I can now rest in between.
And Dr Jason Fung has a reallygreat image in the obesity code
where he shows that if you eatand then pause, no flavored
drinks are eaten and then eatagain and then pause.
When insulin comes back downduring the fasting hours, it
(30:19):
goes even lower than it wouldhave if you'd kept the insulin
high during your whole eatingwindow.
So not only does this createamazing habits physiologically,
but also mentally.
We get the opportunity to quietthat constant craving, that
constant mental noise of I couldhave a little bit of this, a
(30:41):
little bit of that.
Maybe I could try this.
When do I get to eat next?
That noise that just neverstops.
And within that adjustment phaseof learning to be a daily clean
, faster the noise gets quietand then we just get to eat and
we go, I've had enough.
And then you go about your dayand then a bunch of hours later
(31:02):
you eat again and what happensis that the emotional eating
stops.
We learn other ways to calm andsoothe ourselves other than
eating.
And then that just automatichabitual eating, like when you
get home you open a bag of chipsor something, you eat the whole
box of crackers while you'recooking dinner.
It's like no, no wait, cookyour dinner, eat the meal.
(31:25):
So it's a beautiful opportunityto not only heal our bodies but
create new habits of awarenessand honor and respect for this
incredible body that is workingreally hard not only to keep us
alive but to replenish andrestore and heal itself when
we're in a fasted state women tounderstand how intermittent
(31:49):
fasting can impact them ondifferent levels.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
So we've talked about using it as a tool to lose
weight, to get healthy.
But some of the concerns I'vehad over the years working with
different clients or women havetalked to me about it is its
potential impact on theirmenstrual cycle and hormones.
(32:13):
Can you dive a little bit intothat and how we use it as a tool
to work with our menstrualcycle, opposed to against it, I
guess?
Speaker 1 (32:22):
for lack of a better way of saying that Okay.
So it's really important to knowthat pushing hard and
deprivation and over-restrictionare bad for any person,
especially women.
Okay, yeah.
So we live in what I call apunishment model where
(32:43):
perfectionism wins.
Pushing hard, extremism, likethis pendulum of all or nothing,
of good or bad.
Like I've got to be good, thesefoods are bad If I eat them,
I'm bad.
Like I've got to be good, thesefoods are bad, if I eat them,
I'm bad.
So this model of good and badachieving through
self-beratement, deprivation,hard struggle, being confused
(33:04):
all the time.
So this punishment model, thisidea of pushing really hard over
deprivation, overextendingourselves, that's not good for
anyone.
That chronic stress,chronically high cortisol isn't
good.
But then people say but fastingraises cortisol, yeah, so does
exercise.
It is a blip up.
(33:26):
The body's like woo, we'redoing something here and then it
comes back down.
So what we don't want isconstant pushing, constant
stress.
Now, regarding our cycle If awoman is hungrier and needs more
nourishing foods and a longereating window on the days before
(33:46):
her period, go for it.
But we don't need toovercomplicate things.
We have fasting hours, we havean eating window.
You discover through yourpractice, your daily habit and
your innate curiosity whateating window has you feel
amazing and then you adjust it.
You adjust it for social events, you adjust it for the days
(34:07):
before your cycle.
But I have clients who are intheir early twenties who they're
like oh, I heard I'm supposedto have a longer or no eating
window before my cycle andthey're like I don't have any
appetite before my cycle.
So again they're like I don'thave any appetite before my
cycle.
So again, everybody's different.
Yeah, so we need to adjustbased on the cycle and not be
(34:33):
mad at ourselves.
It's shocking how many womenare like well, I figured out
that a five-hour eating windowis my sweet spot, but I'm being
so bad on the days before myperiod.
No, you're not.
You're honoring your body,you're respecting what it's
telling you.
Now, if you're diving headfirstinto pints of ice cream, that's
not serving you either.
Now, I'm not demonizing icecream.
I love it, but as a reaction toPMS, it really doesn't serve us
(34:57):
.
The other thing regarding thefear of harming women's hormones
is having a gentle, daily,clean fasting practice with an
eating window where you'renourishing yourself well will
reverse PCOS and have us movefrom being insulin resistant to
insulin sensitive.
(35:17):
So if you read why we Get Sickby Dr Ben Bickman.
High circulating insulin andhigh inflammation are the root
causes for all metabolicdiseases and we want to be
keeping that insulin low whenwe're in a fasted state.
And the way to do that is tofast, clean, push.
(35:38):
It's the over-restriction, it'sthe pendulum swing, it's the
extreme all or nothing.
That doesn't serve us.
And what happens to a woman'sbody through her 40s and early
50s is usually it tells us I'vehad enough, the push is over.
And then we think, uh-oh, I'mletting myself go, I have to
(36:00):
push harder.
It's like no gentle is the way,gentle and consistent is the
way.
So that's why that finalcornerstone for me is continuing
.
I used to say consistency andthen I realized that actually
sounds like a judgment.
Consistency to me fits a littlebit into the punishment model
(36:21):
of I'm being bad if I'm notbeing consistent.
So what really matters isfiguring out how do I continue?
Today I wake up today, I lookat my daily schedule and I say
when's my eating window today?
And I fast clean until myeating window opens and I enjoy
nourishing food that I have onhand.
And then I pause again and thenI eat a yummy meal again, and
(36:43):
some people eat one meal a dayplus a little window opener or
closer.
Some people eat two meals a day.
Some people if they're like anextreme, you know competitive
fitness regimen they may havethree meals a day.
But mostly, as we age, we donot need to be eating the
quantity of food that we'rebeing told we need to eat,
(37:04):
because when we're fasting we'reburning our own body fat for
energy and that isn't part ofthe caloric equation.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
The irony too, is that you know most of the meals.
I always laugh when I go out toeat and you know the meal is
the size of like my whole chestright.
The size of Texas is the size oflike my whole chest right, the
size of Texas, yeah, and it'slike you know, this is like
three meals.
For me it's almost always atleast two, and that's usually
with me being really fullleaving.
(37:31):
And the irony too is that thequality of food, the higher the
quality of food usually notalways, but usually the smaller
the portion you need, becausewhen we're eating mindlessly
eating that bag of chips there'salmost no nutritive value and
(37:51):
so it just kind of goes in andit dissolves quickly and you can
eat the whole bag, whereas ifyou're eating a steak, like
really good steak and a goodsalad or something like that,
the portions are much smallerthat you need to actually fill
your stomach and fill full.
And so I think it's reallyimportant to understand that the
(38:15):
quality of food we eat alsowill impact how much of it we're
going to eat.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Exactly, and it affects how hungry you are later
.
If someone eats and they feelfull and they are then hungry an
hour later, what you just atedid not sustain you, so you want
to take a look at what was that.
And so if you're someone whocloses your eating window at six
or seven and you're suddenlyravenously hungry at nine, it's
(38:43):
because you either have a latenight snacking habit and your
body is so smart it's like, hey,tap, tap, tap.
But sometimes you can check inwith your body and be like wait,
is this just a thought that itwants to have the same thing I
had last night, or am I actuallyhungry?
And pausing and asking yourself, tuning in Intermittent fasters
(39:06):
know the difference betweenwhat I call a hunger alert like
when do I get to eat?
Like a thought, a stomach growl.
That is not actual hunger.
We actually know what realhunger is.
And when you train yourselfover that first month to become
fat adapted, it just getsclearer and clearer what real
(39:26):
hunger is and what the hungeralerts are.
When our ancestors had a hungeralert like our stomach growled
thank goodness it did, becausethen our ancestors remembered to
go find food it's like oh, wegot to get up and go.
We got to find some food, andthat wasn't always easy.
It's hard to even for us toimagine what that would have
been like.
(39:46):
And go ahead.
Go ahead Because the food isjust right there for us.
And how many times do we walkby?
You know people work in anoffice.
There's food around constantlyand and bowls of chips and
snacks and bowls of candy.
Having an eating window reallyslows us down and one of the
(40:08):
things people are very surprisedabout early on is how easy the
fasting is and how shockingly onour mind and in front of our
faces, constant eating isavailable to us and it doesn't
serve us.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
The thing, too, is like we've become so accustomed
to that constant eating that ourbrain so many people are
confusing dehydration or thirstwith hunger.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (40:36):
You know, boredom is a big one too.
Where you know, I know boredomwill get me.
Sunday afternoons I'll sit onthe couch with my husband.
We watch football, and whenyou're three hours into a game
unless it's a really great gameyou're like, okay, I probably
should get up and move my body.
And I noticed then is when Icrave the crappy foods.
(40:58):
That's right and it's not.
I've eaten lunch, I've fed mybody with nutritious food, but
the boredom will make me cravethe sugars, or crave the salts
and the unhealthy fats, and so,yeah, those two big ones.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
That's another reason to fast clean, because what it
does is we have to deal withthat boredom and if we're
constantly like, oh, I can havea little mint tea, I could put a
little of this in my coffee.
It's that constant entertainingourselves with a little bit of
this, a little bit of that.
And when you get through thatadaptation phase it does get
(41:37):
quiet.
And if you're fasting clean,what it takes off the table is
entertaining yourself with foodand soothing your emotions with
food.
And then we get to be morecreative and be more quiet and
figure out what are the ways Ican actually make myself feel
better when I'm lonely, hurt,angry, you know, and walking and
(41:59):
snuggling with a pet anddrinking a glass of water and
meditating there are so manyways journaling that we can make
ourselves feel better withoutdiving into a bag of whatever,
and fasting clean makes it somuch easier.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
Yeah, definitely so, lori.
I have two more questions foryou, but before I get to those,
is there anything that wehaven't touched on relating to
fasting, that you really thinkis key for the listener to know,
or something you'd want toshare?
Speaker 1 (42:31):
I feel like we've covered so much ground.
I really want people to be leftwith that.
This is gentle and that whenyou discover your daily eating
window sweet spot, over time youwill not want to do anything
differently because you feel sowell.
And one thing that we didn'ttouch on was whenever you start
(42:55):
let's say it's today, so there'sno reason to delay.
Today you decide I'm closing myeating window at this time,
drinking plain water, adding 12hours and going as long as I can
.
It's a really great idea.
To what I call set yourdashboard.
What are you measuring?
Because anytime a human beingembarks upon a new habit that's
(43:16):
going to take some time toimplement, we want to see
results right.
So on your dashboard, youdefinitely want to have a lot
more than the scale, becausethis is a health regimen, as Jim
Stevens says, a health regimenwith a side effect of weight
loss, and so if people you wantto have like a non-stretch item
(43:37):
of clothing that's a little tootight right now, you want to
maybe take a picture of yourface.
You want to measure your waist,because our metabolic health
having our waist less than halfour height is a really important
biomarker, and you could lookat any of your lab work, you
could have an in-bodycomposition scan.
(44:01):
There's so many things that aperson could do to put on their
dashboard of what they'remeasuring.
But the most important thingand I have people make a circle
like a pie chart and cut thecircle in half, so it's 50, 50,
perhaps the chart right, reallybig.
How do I feel?
That's half of the thingsyou're measuring, then, and the
(44:22):
other half you can put all sortsof little pieces of the pie and
can put the scale and yourwaist measurement and how your
clothes fit and your A1C.
But how do I feel?
So when people say I've triedintermittent fasting, it's not
working, I think, oh, what wereyou measuring?
And they're like I've neverfelt better, but I only lost
(44:43):
this much, you know.
So we really want to have howdo I feel as the most important
thing and we adjust from there.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
Yeah, man, that's such a I hadn't even really
thought about, which is funnybecause I have patients or
clients track things all thetime.
But really thinking abouttracking those things
specifically to just usingintermittent fasting as a tool
too, is really great, but how doI feel is so key?
to how so many people come intothe health and wellness world
(45:16):
wanting to lose weight, notrealizing that the key thing is
really how do I feel?
How is my health supporting meor hindering me in daily
activities?
And you know what are thoselong-term effects of either
supporting your health orneglecting your health long-term
, and the scale is not the bossof me, I mean it is really it
(45:39):
tells me.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
it is one data point that tells me very little, yeah.
Does not tell me about mymitochondrial health.
It doesn't tell me about mybrain sharpness and my stamina.
It doesn't tell me how long Ican hold a forearm plank.
Speaker 2 (45:53):
put two women that are around the same height and
age and have very different bodystructures, you know, and very
different genetic makeups andheritage, and their weights are
going to be very different.
(46:13):
But what's healthy for one ismaybe not healthy for the other,
right?
And so, yeah, the scale numbermeans so little in the big
picture thing it does andwherever people are out there
listening.
Speaker 1 (46:28):
Whatever your age is, whatever's happening in your
life right now, I encouragepeople to be able to say about
yourself I am a person who takesreally good care of myself
right now, no matter what'shappening in life.
So we don't need to wait forthe perfect timing and stars
align to start taking good careof ourselves.
And I have found that theeasiest way to take really good
(46:49):
care of ourselves is to say whenam I closing my eating window
today and when am I opening ittomorrow?
And from there we move more, wesleep better, we drink more
water, we pay closer attentionto our strength and movement.
So it's a beautiful foundation.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
Well, lori, I love this.
Thank you so so much forsharing all of this information
and just trying to get the wordout Because, like I said earlier
, I think it's such a powerfultool that people can use and
implement and it's somethingsimple really that people can
kind of control in their lifeand their health.
So, thank you for doing that.
I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (47:26):
Thank you, nika, it is simple.
If it gets confusing orcomplicated, just keep it simple
.
Yeah, keep it very simple.
Speaker 2 (47:34):
So, before we close out the show, the two questions.
One where can people find you?
How can they connect with you?
Speaker 1 (47:40):
My business is Fast Forward Wellness, so I'm on
Instagram, fast Forward Wellnessand my website, and people can
go to my website and you candownload a free checklist if
you're like.
Wait, she said it so fast howto start.
So you can download a checkliston how to start.
And I absolutely love it whenpeople write me and say I
started.
I have a question, or I startedand it changed my life, or I
(48:04):
have group programs andone-on-one coaching and a group
membership and I love everyminute of it.
Speaker 2 (48:09):
Awesome, I'll make sure everything's in the show
notes too.
Thank you, yeah, as easy aspossible.
So my last question for you issomething I ask every guest is
what is something inspiring thatyou've either experienced or
learned over the years thatyou'd like to share with others?
Speaker 1 (48:26):
I feel like gentle is the way.
I feel like this punishmentmodel of beating ourselves up
and that the only way tomotivate ourselves and to
achieve anything is by pushinghard and speaking meanly to
ourselves.
Yeah, that is not true.
And this beautiful transitionof perimenopause.
(48:47):
And then, as Dr Lou AnneBrizendine says, she calls
menopause the upgrade.
So I wanna leave people withbeing excited about getting
older.
Speaker 2 (49:01):
Yeah, I love that because, I will tell, I was
talking to my husband about thisthe other day.
So I am 39 and we were joking.
I said I'd probably take my 20something body back, but I would
never, ever give up the.
Just the mentality that I havenow, the thoughts that I have,
now the experience that I have.
(49:22):
I think aging is so beautifuland such a privilege and I don't
know.
I'm just always grateful forevery year that I get, the
things that I get to learn.
So I love that.
Speaker 1 (49:32):
It is a privilege You're so welcome.
Speaker 2 (49:34):
Thank you Awesome.
Well, thank you again forcoming on the show.
I appreciate it.
Thanks, Nika.
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