Ep. 173 - Listener Q&A: Does fasting make you cold? | Weight loss plateaus & “fasting fatigue” | Do protein & macros matter? | How to prioritize “non-negotiables” with fasting | Why wiggle room & the 80% Rule matter | Free Intermittent Fasting Pl
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In today’s episode, Dr. Scott and Tommy discuss mindset shifts, fasting fatigue, slippage points, life strategies, and being cold during fasting.
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Fasting For Life Ep. 173 Transcript
Hello. I’m Dr. Scott Watier.
And I'm Tommy Welling.
And you're
listening to the Fasting for Life podcast.
This podcast is about using fasting
as a tool to regain
your health, achieve ultimate wellness,
and live the life you truly deserve.
Each episode is a short conversation
on a single topic
with immediate, actionable steps.
We cover everything from fat loss
and health and wellness
to the science of lifestyle design.
We started fasting for life because of how
fasting has transformed our lives
and we hope to share the tools
that we have learned along the way.
Everyone,
welcome to the Fasting for Life podcast.
My name is Dr.
Scott Water and I'm here as always on good
friend and colleague Tom Welling.
Good afternoon to you, sir.
Hey, Scott, how are you?
Doing fantastic, my friend.
Excited for today's listener
Q&A conversation.
Dozens and dozens of questions
that come in from week to week.
And we like to take the ones that we feel
are going to be the most actionable
and have the biggest impact
on your fasting journey.
So that's the conversation
we're going to today.
We're going to have a few questions
that we've seen some repeat or similar
conversations that we can have around
and kind of grouped them together.
So you can leave today
feeling encouraged, enlightened,
and also ready to take some action
with your fasting lifestyle.
So, Tommy,
welcome in to all of the new listeners.
Thank you for giving us a chance
and bringing us into your fasting journey
or your fasting lifestyle,
The long term listeners as well.
We want to give you a shout out
and thank you for continuing to follow us,
continuing to listen in
and just continuing
to take on this fasting lifestyle.
And if you're new, go ahead, head back.
Listen, Episode one Hear a little bit more
about why we do what we do
and that we're taking on the blood sugar,
obesity, diabetes, diabetes epidemic.
One episode one person, one fasting,
actionable item at a time.
So excited to get into some of the stuff
that you guys have relayed
to us as sticking points or questions
or clarity that you're needing
just to get incredible fasting results.
TIME So I know you had a shout out.
We want to give give some love back to you
guys who share.
Show us the love in the five Star
review category.
Those are our favorite kind.
Those also give us or tell the podcast
gods and goddesses that we are doing
something of value and continuing
to bring you episodes each and every week.
So, Tom, you got a shout out here
you want to do first and foremost, right?
Yeah, Yeah.
Mr. Short lives here.
Says life changing material five stars
Since listening and learning
from this incredible
podcast back in January, I have lost £30
can raise or that is in virtual high
five virtual out of applause.
We don't have a soundboard,
but you know, you can hear it so good.
I started listening Dr.
Scott and Tommy every day on the way
to work in the morning since the New Year.
Can't imagine my commute
to work any different now.
I love that.
I love that. I feel like.
Like we're having a conversation
right now.
So appreciate you dropping the love here.
So we could
we could go back and forth a little bit.
I love how they break each podcast
into segments, really good,
inspirational motivational material
and each episode.
Thank you so much for the kind words
He says.
Keep up the good work.
It's helped me so much.
I can only imagine
how many lives you've touched with.
So we are absolutely in it to win it.
Keep doing
what's working and keep up the great work.
Mr. Short, Let's appreciate it again.
That's awesome.
You know, I never go and look at those,
or I should say I look at them, so
I don't look at them enough because that's
that's really encouraging like that.
That's just incredible.
I absolutely love it.
And we're grateful for all of the reviews,
grateful for all of you listening.
And we started this with the intention
to help.
And, you know, those testimonials
and those shoutouts right
there just means so much to us.
And hopefully we can deliver on
another episode today of Yeah,
they inspire as well.
You're right,
because this whole lifestyle thing, right,
this whole maintaining change,
this whole habit pattern interrupt this,
this creating a life, a fulfilled life,
a life that we deserve a quality of life,
you know, without the fear of disease, off
medications, not having blood
sugar issues and having energy
every single day for me personally.
BE you know, better in my
my role as a husband, as a dad,
as a health care provider, right?
So fasting is given us or given me
and you and so many of our listeners,
just like Mr.
Short, Lidge, the ability
to turn the clock back, to get control,
to exit the diet rollercoaster,
to get out of the hey,
you really got to lose weight.
But let me go
try and try and try and try again.
Try again and never get that
that sticking point of that consistency.
So we want to speak to some of the things
that you all have asked about,
which can be mental
sticking points, physical sticking points
or things that can derail from continued
successful progress.
And I want to start off
with a mindset conversation here.
And this came from a post
in our coaching group
and it said Hashtag the site
and it said, As of this morning,
I'm at a 62% success rate at quotes
remembering the plan.
So Tommy, folks that don't have our
foundational fasting habit tracker, right?
So we're not talking about
tracking calories and tracking steps.
We're talking about tracking daily habits
that excite you and inspire you
to reach your big result
based goal by daily actions.
Yeah, that allow you to gain traction.
One of them for Marvin
is remembering the plan.
So can you explain that?
And then we'll go into
kind of the mindset shift
that we're going to encourage here.
Yeah, remembering
the plan is can be broken down.
Like what is my fasting plan for today?
What decision did I make
when I set my last timer, assuming
that I did set my last timer right?
And then did I did I achieve my intended
target of that fast that I set for myself?
What was my plan and did I achieve it
like on a on a day to day basis?
Because if I'm looking at that
as as one of my metrics, that's an
important part because it can insulate me
from going too far off track
or getting too far away from my
my big goals, my big hairy,
audacious goals, if you will, because
if I'm remembering the short term plan
just from one day to the next
or maybe every 24 to 48 hours,
if I'm if I'm relatively dialed in
to remembering that,
then that's going to make
for four big strides over time.
So that's a big foundational thing
that kind of lead
small steps lead to big changes over time.
Yeah.
So set your timer, stick to your timer,
intentionally
break your fast with good, nutritious,
intentionally chosen foods.
Right.
Not overly restrictive, overly omit
of putting these things into your plan
that you know are sustainable long term
pieces that you want takes repetition.
So remembering the plan, in essence,
is hitting some of the very finite basics
of a fasting schedule.
And one of the other questions
that came in that
we'll talk about here in a few minutes,
they'll be kind of a theme today
with like slippage or fasting fatigue
or not sticking to the plan,
which is why I wanted to start
start here with this mindset shift, right?
So we talk a lot about, you know,
as a 50% plan done 100% of the time.
Sure. That consistency piece.
So shout out to Marvin here
because we talk about 80%.
Right?
So 30 day months,
you got six days where you can,
you know, be off be off the fasting,
you know, on off switches off.
Right.
Or your intentionality wanes or a life
event comes up and nipped in the bud or,
you know,
you got a couple of nights of poor sleep
because the kid was up with a nightmare
in the middle of the night
or the bosses stress or the car accident
or whatever it is, right?
It's almost like wiggle room,
like forgiveness.
Wiggle room. Yeah. Yeah.
I'm like, I'm still on track. Right?
Even though that's
that's a really great way to say
forgiveness, wiggle room, because progress
over perfection, especially when the scale
is our driving metric or weight
losses, our driving metric,
it can get really frustrating, right
when the results
don't match the amount of effort
or your expectations
in terms of time or reality.
So I love that that forgiveness kind of
piece because progress over perfection.
So this post was a very like, Oh man, I'm
kind of down about this like 62%.
And it's really cool to see
the encouragement that came out of it.
But he says, you know,
why do I feel so crappy about it?
Like, I just gave my son some grief
about getting 70%
on a school project
because I know he's capable of better.
Isn't this the same and kind of relatively
Not really.
It depends on kind of where your mindset
lies, right?
I know it's kind of a wishy washy.
What the hell is he talking about?
Kind of answer.
We're going to unpack it here.
But my first reaction was,
well, you're 62%
better than you were
last month, where you were at 0%.
And I've seen the winds, right.
You've been crushing it.
So why does this make you think about
getting a poor grade on a project?
Well, it's relative, right?
Yeah,
It's like I'm looking at it like a D-minus
or maybe an F, depending on what the
what the scale is.
Right. And it's less than 80%, you know.
So if Marvin was sitting there
with 80% as the target and he got,
you know, 62, that it's like, okay,
I didn't hit the mark, you know,
But at the same time, it's all relative.
Because if you look back,
what did last month look like?
What did the month before that look like
and what were your results over this month
when you did hit 62%?
Because word to the wise, Marvin
has been crushing it over the last month.
Okay. So, yes, agreed.
If you hit 80% this last month, maybe
the results would have been a bit better.
Slightly better, Yes. That's awesome.
But I mean, I think as far as like
squeezing the juice out of the lemon,
I think you got most of the juice
out of it.
You know, given the results
that I've seen over the last 30 days.
So so that's that's incredible.
So so it almost feels like
a little bit arbitrary to give yourself
lashings right
now, you know, for not hitting the the
the preconceived mark
from before you know, the delta.
Right.
So if you're went from 0 to 62%
in one month,
huge 62 to 80
is like skipping a stone across the lake,
like you just you just did
and you just I don't know what analogy
I'm trying to go here,
but like you,
you did all you've done most of the work.
Yeah.
So now you just have to refine it.
So where were those things?
Where were those slippage points. Right.
Because yes,
of course we want to do better.
And I know you had a relative analogy
about the grades, too, right, on me.
Yeah, absolutely.
Because, you know, if you're if you're
thinking of your your kids are in school,
a lot of times we're worried
about the long
term ramifications, like, oh, well,
if you're if you're not getting an A,
you know, right now, then maybe you're
not going to get into the best school.
You're not going to be able
to have the career choice
that you're looking forward to
and things like that.
But if if 62% had been the mark
or 70% had been the mark, and
and maybe that got you into
I don't know, it
got you into like Brown University,
but not Stanford or it got you into MIT,
but not Johns Hopkins or, you know,
like whatever, then it's all relative
at that point.
It doesn't it doesn't mean
that you took away nothing from from it.
Right.
Or that you would be better off
with a negative mindset
coming out of that experience.
So I absolutely don't like reframing
a win to like, justify
when my behaviors didn't kind of match.
But I have a feeling that if Marvin Marvin
reflected back 60 days ago
that he would find big improvement
over the last 30 from the
from the 30 before that.
And I think that's the key
takeaway from this.
And that's going to propel him
over the next 30 rather than like,
shouldn't I be frustrated right now?
What do you think? Right.
So I love that you had mentioned
if you start a new language
two months ago, what would you expect
your literacy point to be now?
Yeah, yeah.
My was doing babble from zero, right.
So for Spanish. Right.
And my my daughter is fluent in Spanish.
I'm going to Spanish schoolhouse
for a few years
during daycare up until kindergarten so
and she can still speak and communicate
and she's she just picked it up
like a little sponge.
So she was talking to one of her
old teachers the other day
when we saw them out in the community
and we got home.
And the other night
my wife and I were just talking
and she was like,
I could actually understand
what they were saying.
And I'm like, That's crazy.
And she said, like,
I don't know, a 600 date and I'm not six.
I'm just like a 68 day streak.
On what might be Duolingo, not BABBEL,
Whatever it is or whatever
the fancy schmancy app is.
But she's been really consistent.
So now she can understand it,
but she still can't speak it, right?
So, Marvin 0 to 62.
Man Huge improvement, 62 to 80.
Small, small.
You got this.
Those are small potatoes. Like,
not a problem.
But now that you're 62% better
at this one, foundational proficiency,
you can start adding
in a different proficiency.
So we focus on the positive.
You've got a small leap to the 80%.
Now what else can you add in now that
you're making this a foundational habit?
So yeah, the encouragement here
is that in the dieting mindset,
like we expect the result
to match the effort or the intention
and then we just kind of lose our way
in terms of, you know, the comparison trap
or the relative comparison trap,
we should say.
So I want to encourage you,
if you're relating to this in any way,
albeit the scale or drinking water before
coffee or whatever habit you're trying
to install into your fasting lifestyle,
make sure we focus on what we've achieved.
And then small tweaks to the process
is what we want to take away from it.
Not giving ourselves
lashings and falling into that.
Yeah, that despair trap, Right, build,
build on what's working.
Do more of the things that you're doing.
Well, rather than spending
all of your time focused on on
what I should be doing better.
Right, right, right.
That's such a huge
like inverted mind shift.
But it's so different from
from a lot of the diet culture, too,
especially if you dieted a lot over
time, for sure.
Okay.
Second question that came in was around
the concept of fasting fatigue.
You can call this diet fatigue, lifestyle
fatigue, fasting fatigue.
And it's it's
something that we hear from time to time
when, again, the results are not matching
the expectation and the slips.
The concept here that we want to unpack
is really that the slippage points,
we want to catch them early
before they become landslides.
Right.
So you've been on track.
You're doing I'm going to summarize.
This is more of like a post slash.
Hey, I'm looking for some guidance.
It wasn't really like a direct question,
but there is an inherent slippage
point conversation in here
that we think can be really useful
regardless if you're a beginner advanced
or if you've reached your goal
and now you're trying to maintain
those changes or the weight loss right
through the through the tried and true
art of fasting and a fasting lifestyle,
which is still pretty counter culture,
getting a little bit more acceptance.
But when you tell someone you fast,
they sometimes will look at you
like you're a little crazy.
And this is after
maybe even complimenting you
that you look great
because you've lost some weight.
So there's definitely
a little dissonance there, but it's right.
It's the best weight.
I don't want to do that, but
you just ask me what I was doing anyway.
So this person's been doing a fasting
schedule and there've been some shifts
and some ahas and some mental shifts
that have taken place.
But the progress isn't
matching the expectations.
So the wheels have come off,
the slippage point has happened
and the, the, the positive thing here is
there's some things that we can do
to catch this sooner.
And I've used this story in the past.
There's a husband and a wife.
They came in, they crushed it, 100
plus pounds lost between the two of them.
But then six months goes by
and I didn't hear from them for a while.
And they came back and said, hey,
you know, we've given back about £40
of that hundred. And I said, Great.
And they're like, What?
I'm like,
I'm glad you caught it at 40 and not 110,
because that's the dieting, the weight
loss cycle is that the research shows you
that you lose the weight
and only 5% of the people can keep it off.
Right. And maintain those changes.
And then within, you know, 2 to 3 years,
you give it back plus some.
Yeah.
So the good news is here
with this question of
how do we fight the fasting fatigue?
How do we fight the slippage points
before they turn into landslides?
And then how do we get back on track?
Well, the good news is
you've identified it hopefully quicker
or sooner or had the awareness
before we ended up, you know, farther down
the give it back line, so to speak.
Yeah.
You know,
because it can be like a like a frog
in boiling water where it just, you know,
we start to we start to slip a little bit,
a little bit more slippage over here.
And it comes out like in different spots
where it's like
it could be food choices,
not setting my fasting timer,
not feeling like I really have a plan
or kind of just trying to freelance
it or, you know, just try to wing it,
you know, throughout the week.
And so the faster we can
we can kind of realize
when we've gotten away from
what was working and what got us
some success in the past,
then to your point, like,
that's that's where the magic can happen,
because I can it's so much easier
to get back on track when you don't have
all of the way to to kind of go again.
Like if you seen the scale
tick up a little bit, that kind of thing.
So so how do we kind of identify
those points?
Well, I think like physical markers,
like in your environment can be helpful.
Like I really like dedicating the home
screen on my phone to certain things.
And one of them is my fasting timer.
Like, I still use fast habit,
you know, like 3 to 4 years
in and I won't move it from my
from my home screen.
But if I ever caught myself like,
like pushing it aside because I
wasn't using it,
then that would be a pretty obvious sign
that I'm like getting away
from the foundational
habits, things
like keeping my water near my coffee
and other things like that,
like actually in my house
or making a plan for myself,
like put it in the calendar
to where I kind of go through
what is my weekly plan right now
so I can feel it
if it starts to kind of slip away.
Does that make sense? It does.
And some of the things
that we most commonly see
in regards to those slippage points
that you're alluding to.
First of all, we want to again,
catch them as soon as we can.
And that awareness is so key, especially
in the health and dieting, world
weight loss, world exiting the weight
loss world into a fasting
lifestyle world,
those those old habits die hard.
But where those slippage points come up
is typically in like poor planning
and the forgetting of the plan, Right?
So you plan out your whole week
and then something happens
and you fall off track
or relying on willpower, right?
So being too restrictive or too akhmedov
or too damned to not eat or sniff
a carbohydrate or,
you know, you forget to prioritize protein
or you're eating, you're on a health kick
and you're eating like a rabbit, Right?
You're too restrictive that everything.
Yeah.
Or you just eliminated all,
all life and fun, you know,
all, all sort of the plan, right?
Yeah.
So one of the things in those moments
is to really slow down and take inventory.
Right? Zooming in.
Right. Zooming in.
So if you were to take inventory and zoom
in on what you're doing,
then what that would mean would be like
instead of looking
at the whole month
or the whole goal, right?
Like if it's £50 or even if it's £20,
break it down
into a more digestible chunk of that.
So maybe you're looking at the next
£5 or next 48 hours, right?
Yeah, yeah.
Go to the next 48 hours, even the next 24,
like make one decision right now because
it ultimately comes down to the action,
not the overarching
Because that's that's the perfect plan
done.
less results
than the half done plan 100% of the time.
The one that I can do
consistently over time.
So so zooming in, I love that point
and slowing down and zooming in.
So don't always think the next long fast
is going to be the solution.
The solution a lot of times
is what you were just talking about,
is making our weekly plan
and then forgetting the plan.
Then that's not the plan, right?
Or our focus isn't in the right place.
We're not aiming at the right target.
So if you forget to plan weekly, then
how the heck can you do the monthly plan?
How the heck can you do the yearly 50,
How can you do the diabetes reversal plan?
Well, that overwhelmed that gap between
the big end goal and where you're at,
especially in a moment of fasting fatigue
or slippage, is really disheartening.
Right?
So the way to get back on track,
slow down, take inventory.
And you said this to me right before
we hopped on as we were kind of prepping
for this conversation.
You said act like you're not slipping.
So what are the things that you were doing
that were working before the slippage?
You had the awareness, you had the. Aha.
You caught it
before you slid into a landslide, Right.
Keep using these these analogies
for this conversation.
So to get back on track, what are those?
Zoom in and what are those things
that you can commit to that
you know, with 100% certainty
you can achieve?
Yeah.
Not the next 72 hour fast
as reparations for,
you know, being part of an avalanche
or landslide over the last couple of days.
But act like you.
I love the way you said that.
Act like you are not slipping
And what can you commit to that?
You know, you can achieve?
Yeah, because there were small things
that you were doing like
just a week ago or a month ago,
whenever it was that you weren't slipping.
There were there were little things.
If you had followed yourself around
and kind of observed yourself,
you were doing little things.
So you don't have to feel like a winner
today, right?
Like not
every day is going to going to be a ten.
So I don't have to feel like I'm
just like I'm crushing it today
in order to do a couple of small things
that I know are going to serve me.
So it's like doing them
even though or doing them
like despite the fact
that I don't feel like doing them.
But they're small, they're digestible
and I can do them.
I can physically do them.
And once I do them,
then I will naturally be more inclined
to do more of those things
because those small things
are going to start to move the needle.
If I'm a little bit more disciplined with
my sleep and my hydration, guess what?
My cravings naturally come down a bit.
So the next time I find myself breaking
a fast or at a nutrition opportunity,
I'm going to subconsciously more easily
make some slightly better food decisions.
Right point.
It's going to make my next fast
that much easier.
It's amazing
how the momentum builds like that.
And so sometimes it just starts with
with one or two small actions of acting
as if not trying to convince myself
that I'm perfect,
but just acting as if any way. Right.
And sometimes it actually comes down
to a shift in targets.
So if you're relying on the scale
or if you're relying on
you know, how you feel, right, you're
you're relying on your feelings
rather than having some like hard data.
Right. So we talk a lot about non scale
victories, right?
So close fitting, different rings
fitting different, more energy
to less.
Yeah, Mental has euphoria,
less less brain fog
handling the stress in the kids
and the traffic and all the stuff better.
Right? Your mood changes.
So we need to find those things
to focus on you,
to find those diamonds in the rough
because they're there.
Our brain just typically goes to scale,
scale, scale, scale,
scale, not progress,
not making progress, not making progress.
So sometimes there's also an opportunity
to level up your your metrics.
And that brings me
to kind of our realization recently,
Tommy,
with our re-engagement with Nutri Sense.
And I want to talk about nutrition
for a couple of minutes
because it's been pretty eye
opening for me recently,
going through some injuries and rehab
and those types of things
where I've noticed some big changes
in how my body's been responding
to the way I was doing things prior
to recommitting to my nutrition program.
So first and foremost,
nutrition is a cutting edge technology.
It's a continuous
glucose monitor or A.K.A CGM,
and it's it is an incredible combination
of the bio
sensor itself, which is the thing
that you wear on the back of your tricep.
It's completely painless.
People are afraid, Oh, there's a needle.
You don't feel it.
You literally don't feel it at all.
I don't know how it makes any sense,
but it doesn't hurt.
And it's a combination of that cutting
edge technology, but also human expertise.
So you get an incredible app,
you get dietary support,
you get a community
that is all looking at these metrics
in a way to better their health
and wellness and outcomes.
So you get to see in real time
how your body responds to different foods,
exercise, stress, sleep,
some of those things
that you were just talking about that
make the journey easier
because you inherently
make better food decisions
when you're not tired, stressed,
and your cortisol is not through the roof.
Well, knowing where your blood sugar
is by using the CGM and having it on,
it gives you real time data
on what your glucose levels are doing
and then you've got your app
and the graphs and the visualization
there is so powerful
because you get to see in real time
where the places for improvement
are, right?
So some of the benefits and outcomes
that we see is, is more consistent weight
loss getting back on track,
which speaks to the question
that we were just discussing
better stable energy throughout the day,
better sleep reactions to not reactions
in terms of allergies
or those types of things,
but in how your body feels when you eat
certain things, cravings, etc..
And I know rehabbing my shoulder recently
and spending more time
creating inflammation
by going through these incredibly
painful, time consuming rehab exercises,
I've noticed that my body
is craving more nutrients,
and if I'm not careful, I'm just
going to go into full out eating mode.
Right.
But I know that if I go to the sour dough
that's always on my counter
because my wife's recently become a baker
of homemade, gluten free sour dough,
that that is going to drastically
elevate my insulin over the next
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more consistent blood sugars.
So nutrients is really giving me the
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So Tom, love it.
I want to go over a couple more things
here,
a couple more questions
that have been submitted
and my notes froze
because technology is great.
So fasting lifestyle,
I want to go over the fasting lifestyle
and this is obviously fasting for life.
So the name of the podcast for the fasting
lifestyle, this question came in
and I'm going to group this question
in the category of life.
I'm going to group it in life,
I'm going to call it the life strategy,
where you've got so many things going
on, so many yeses being said
to so many external situations
that we need to have a conversation around
being able to prioritize
and put in the non-negotiables.
So the non-negotiables meaning
what are the things that are upcoming in
your life that you are going to say yes to
because they're that important?
Does that make sense?
Yeah, it does.
And then I also feel like
that could be passed out to, yes,
I'm going to participate, but it doesn't
always mean, yes, I'm going to be eating
or I'm going to be eating
when everyone else there is.
So I don't necessarily have to say no
to this situation in order to say no
to the offer of the food
that's at the banquet
or the dinner or the social function
or whatever it might be.
Maybe it's not that important for me
to be eating at that point,
and maybe it doesn't fit into my long term
goals, my fasting plan.
So if you find yourself identifying
as like having a very busy social calendar
or a social butterfly or a people pleaser
or a just like I like influencing
connect ing,
you know, just a, just a social person,
then this can be something where if,
if we're not flexing our, our no muscle
or our no thank you muscle enough,
we can find ourselves
participating in ways that that don't
really serve our long term goals.
Like, like, I don't want to feel like
I'm painted into a corner
because I'm at a social event
and I feel very uncomfortable
telling people that I'm fasting or No,
thank you.
I'm not going to be eating right now, but
at the same time I don't want to go home
and feel frustrated or guilty or shameful
that I didn't.
I broke my plan, you know,
And then and then knowing exactly
why tomorrow, like the scale ticked up,
even though my goals are important to me.
Right? Yeah.
So the parameters of the question
came in around family
coming back from a trip,
bringing all of the old school stuff
that grandma and grandpa
used to used to bring us.
Right. All.
All the childhood best, right? Yeah.
Yeah.
So if I was going to go back,
I would go back to the slushies
from the little general around the corner,
the candy cigarets, the ring pops,
you know,
all of that kind of stuff, right?
Because that was,
you know, I'd get on my bike.
I'm 12, 14, 15 years old. That's
where I'd go spend my allowance.
I go get the goodies, get all hopped up on
sugar, come on, me dinner and crash.
Right.
So you have like a saltwater
taffy, though, Like where you were?
Yeah, that was down by the.
That was down by the beaches in
Rhode Island so you could get it inland.
But that's like getting seafood
in the middle.
The middle continental
United States, right.
Like just any fresh can.
Just go to the coast, get the lobster.
Yeah. Go, go, go right off the dock.
Right.
So, yes, you could get it,
but it wasn't the same.
So but that would be a
yeah, a regional thing.
Right. So some you grew up with. Yeah.
And then maybe you have a family trip
coming up.
So there's a concert involved,
a special weekend where you're going
to travel to a concert
that is like a bucket list item.
And in there you've got two restaurants
that you've gone to
that are staples of your
of your trip, right?
You fly in, you do
the thing, you're going to these places,
you've already got the reservations,
but then you've got the stuff at home,
you've got the football
barbecue, you've got the sons banquet,
you've got the swim meet,
you've got the neighborhood food truck
Friday, you know, all of this stuff.
De Beers.
Yeah. So you've got all these different
moving parts.
And the reality is, is
we want to talk sustainability.
So we like to say,
what are your non-negotiables?
What are your non-negotiables each week?
So for me, it's a date night
every week it's a date night.
That's a non-negotiable.
I'm not going to go to dinner with my wife
and not eat.
Yeah, okay.
I'm just not going to do it.
It's just weird
not saying I haven't done it, but it's not
something I'm going to do consistently.
Right? So the reality is non-negotiables.
So what are those things
that matter to you?
For me, I would prioritize the trip
and the experience
and I would just shrink the windows.
Right?
And let's say your
you know, when I was growing up,
my house was always the house
where all the neighborhood kids came to.
And it was a revolving snack door.
Right. The pantry.
I just had a conversation with my friend
the other day.
He's like, my addiction to Pop-Tarts
came from your pantry.
Oh, man.
And I was like, Oh, my gosh,
you forgot about that, right?
Like crazy.
Some of that stuff that comes
with us, right?
So a revolving door, There's always people
there. There's always opportunity.
But that didn't mean that.
Like every time I came home
and one of my friends
was sitting on my porch
eating the Pop-Tarts,
and I was going to go in
and grab the Pop-Tarts
or I was going to go in
and have a second dinner.
Right. If I had already eaten.
Right.
Like, so the external plans can change,
but that doesn't mean
that your plans have to change.
So what are your non-negotiables?
What are your boundaries?
What does sustainability
look like for you?
If you're one of these busy on
the go, always have an operating immunity
to go off track or go off
plan or say yes to something
that's not serving your long term goal.
Yeah, that's a great point
because as those opportunities
come in, a lot of times
it's away from home.
So it's not like I'm controlling
what my food choices are too.
So there may not only be like more
eating opportunities, but those,
those nutrition opportunities themselves
might be higher, like a higher calorie
load or a higher insulin load.
Like especially if I'm
if I'm trying to lose body fat,
these things are going to be
I'm going to have to be careful
about my my insulin load.
Right.
And if I'm unsure of how to say no
to some of these things
or if I'm not clear for myself,
like what my priorities are,
that's going to be tough because
I'm going to find myself a week from now
may be worse off than I am right now.
Frustrated that I'm not closer
to my longer term goals.
So practically in the moment,
what I find works well is like
is is having like like a default because
this is one of the reasons
why we started with with one meal a day,
like a simple way to build in
some to get some traction fasting.
Yeah.
And and also not have to say no
to everything.
Right.
Because it's rare
that there's going to be a day
where I'm going to have multiple things
that I really feel like.
I can't say like I know
don't want to like, sit out of.
Yeah right right.
Do I mean, you know, you may have like,
like a Christmas or Thanksgiving or
something else
like that, even along those, those times
I might exercise like a two or three,
maybe a four hour window on like
a multiple opportunity holiday like that.
But I'm probably not going outside of that
because I'm just not going to feel great.
And so I'm going to have to find something
that I'm like, No, no, no, thank you.
I'm eating later or I already ate
or I'm just not feeling 100%.
I'm good.
But, you know, I'm participating
in the event or the connection,
but I'm just not taking in more food
because it's not going to serve me.
I know that already.
I've already learned that lesson.
It's hard to do in the moment. True.
So that's where intention.
If you've noticed the theme today, right?
Is the intention a little bit of planning
and the awareness of the situation right.
My wife and I talk a lot about the
the pace, right, the pace that we're at.
We just went through a season of pace
that while we thought we were out of that
hasn't ended yet.
And the pace has been very pacey.
It's been very fast and lots of curveballs
and lots of things shifting on the fly.
Yeah.
So stepping back and regaining control,
all is simply putting a few minutes
of planning and intention
into your fasting schedule,
into your week, into your non-negotiables,
because controlling what you can control
only reinforces
the fact that you're voting
yes when you stick to the plan.
Right.
But if but if you're constantly
flailing around, I like to use the analogy
of plastic bag
like floating around in the breeze.
Right? It's just like one minute because
it's weight and it's going to cause this.
Or like you see the plastic on the highway
and you're driving down the highway
and this thing's like,
you know, it's like,
No, don't hit it, Don't go, mister Dios.
Veer right, right.
And it's just like whipping around because
of all the drafts in the wind, right?
We want just to regain that consistency.
A little bit of planning,
a little bit of intention
a non-negotiables and the awareness
that, you know,
sustainability
comes from the practice of this.
Getting the repetitions and seeing
what's going to be what works for
you long term and what doesn't.
And that's why the personalization
and customization of weight loss
is something that we feel
is missing in the dieting culture.
It's something that, you know, the done
for you plans, the done to you medications
or surgeries, the macro, the recipe guides
the workout plans, right?
Like if you don't love running, don't
go try to lose weight
by picking up a new pair of running shoes.
Right. Like go
do something you love to do is my point.
So little bit of intention
goes a long way.
The last thing you want to go over
today is the question that we
get often about why do I feel cold?
Right?
So beginning of the conversation
today was things that might derail you,
how to get back on
track, physical, mental has.
But how do we cold
can be one of those things.
Remember every time I fast I get really
cold and I just don't want to do that.
And there's also the concern about,
well, is that my metabolism is my thyroid.
So we just want to impact this
in a couple of minutes here for you.
First things first,
there are four main contributors
to why you feel cold when fasting.
So when you start intermittent fasting,
your body is going to start the process
of becoming fat adapted.
When you fast
your liver is going to convert
stored energy, stored fat into energy.
Excuse me, since there is no energy
generated from food
and that metabolic shift
is called fat adaptation,
and during that process
your body system uses the fat tissue
blood flow.
So the energy meant to keep your body
warm, the adipose,
the blood for that goes to the adipose
tissue.
It uses that for the conversion
of the white fat,
the fat around your hips, belly
and vital organs.
That visceral adiposity.
It uses that blood flow
to turn into energy,
which then causes
your body temperature to drop.
It's robbing that blood flow, right,
to produce this fat burning effect,
which is a positive.
So some factors huge, right?
But it's uncomfortable.
So some factors
that influence the duration may include
age, menopause, carb consumption,
slow metabolic rate, etc..
Now, luckily, fasting boosts
that growth hormone and that metabolism
in the first,
you know, 0 to 40 8 to 72 hours.
So we're going to get that benefit.
The second is a lack of heat
from digestion.
So your your body just isn't
digesting the food, which is the thermal
effect of food category
in your body's ability to burn calories
throughout the day.
You just no longer
have the thermic effect from that food.
So when you do eat,
one thing you can do to counteract
this is make sure that you're
prioritizing protein because protein
has the highest thermal effect after burn,
so to speak, prioritizing protein.
Really good. Number
three is the redirection of blood flow.
So when you are fasting, your blood flow
turns to your brown adipose tissue
and that unique fat, that brown
adipose fat breaks down
glucose and stored fat
to regulate your body temperature.
So that's a good thing, right?
But temporarily you'll feel cold
as that blood flow that normally keeps
your hands and feet warm is redirected
to that brown adipose tissue.
So it's something that will happen,
but it's not lasting.
So you'll start to warm back up
as your body becomes more fat adapted,
which is related to that first point.
And then the fourth thing
is the nutrient deficiency.
So if you're fasting,
you're not getting as many nutrients in.
So that's why we really want to make sure
that we are supplementing
with trace minerals.
Himalayan salts.
Redmon Sea salts, trace minerals,
supplements, multivitamins as well
to make sure that we are going
to be replacing the nutrients
that are lost, the fat soluble nutrients
that are lost when your fat burning
and the water based the water soluble
nutrients and vitamins
that are lost when you fast
because your body is going to
start excreting more water,
especially
when you cut down on your carbohydrates.
So making sure
that you are getting nutrient dense food
choices, right, natural foods,
non refined, non processed stuff,
and then making sure
that you're supplementing,
getting in your salt, your trace minerals.
And that's also going to support your
thyroid function specifically for thyroid,
you can look at things
like iodine, selenium and zinc
to make sure, for instance,
Brazil nuts, right?
Brazil nuts just to a day
is your entire daily allowance of selenium
that can also support
your thyroid function.
So when it comes to cold, your body is
doing what it should be doing.
It's just doing it differently
than what you're used to.
And you will warm up, I promise you.
I know for me personally,
we used to keep the air at 75,
excuse me at 72 during the day
and then 67 at night.
And if it went to 73,
I'd feel uncomfortable.
Now it's 75, 76
during the day and 7071 at night.
Because I'm smaller,
I don't have as much fat anymore.
Right? So I am a little bit colder.
But it will get better, I promise you.
Not as much physical insulation
on your body.
Right? Right.
So it also brings me back to the fact
that when I first started fasting,
I was definitely looking at like,
okay, what is my next eating opportunity?
Because there are some things I feel like
I've said no to some of my old favorites.
Some cravings were there.
And so I would, I would definitely
and we hear that question too a lot,
which is if I'm fasting, do I really have
to worry about what I'm eating?
And I would say
absolutely in the beginning, probably not.
Yeah, you should not a requirement.
It's not a requirement
to get everything right all at once
or to change everything right.
In order to have success or or
to find some some enjoyment and some aha.
Some realization in that that this is this
could really be a good solution for me.
So at the same time,
if I'm if I'm taking a look at this like
I have a lot fewer nutrition opportunities
now let me make it count.
Let me get in some really good high
quality foods when I am eating
because I'm not going to be eating
as often.
That just makes
a lot of intuitive sense to me.
I'm not saying that I did it immediately
when I started for sure,
but I think that that's
that is like a key part of the mindset
that like
really that kind of sets the stage for,
for some of the more intuitive things
and for long term adaptability and
sustainability of of a fasting lifestyle.
Couple of things
just to just hit here in terms of cold,
obviously things like iron deficiency
can cause low blood circulation,
but that's going to be required by a blood
test, low B, B vitamins,
and especially B one for something
like Raynaud's syndrome.
Right?
So you want to make sure that you're
getting nutrient dense foods
or maybe supplementing with B vitamins.
If you're not noticing
that your fat adaptation is taking place
or maybe you have a lot of weight to lose,
so you're going to be cold
for a little while.
You go through this process.
You can also look at things like chromium.
That deficiency can contribute
to insulin resistance
as well, which will take you longer
to become fat adapted.
So there's a few other considerations
here.
Obviously,
speak to your health care provider
if you've got some like
serious cold concerns.
But being cold and going through
the process is quite normal,
especially when you start to like
stack your fasts on top of one another
and really start to see some traction
and some weight loss.
So just want to encourage all that
your body's doing what it should be doing.
We just want to lessen the speed bumps
along the way.
So Tommy Wright,
as you wrap up today's episode,
just great questions, great submissions.
Hopefully the conversations are going to
move you forward in your fasting journey.
If you want more guidance on the blueprint
to fasting for fat loss,
we created a new brand new resource
this year that came out in January
and the response has been great.
It gives you some of the tactical,
some of the big picture,
some of the encouragement,
some of our kind of lexicon that's
been growing over the last few years now
adopting this fasting lifestyle
and helping hundreds
and hundreds of other folks just like us,
just like you, to get results.
So head to the show Notes
Blueprint Link is there download
it, it'll bring your website,
will zip it to your email inbox
and we'll make sure you get that resource
that we feel is pretty incredible.
So hopefully that will solidify by you
being able to take some action today,
which is our promise
to you every each and every episode
that we're going to allow you
to have something you can take away
from today's conversation
to add into your fasting lifestyle.
So, Tommy, as always, sir, appreciate
the conversation and we'll talk soon.
Thank you. Bye.
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