Ep. 133 - The 3 Fasting Types: Fasting Freelancer, Weekend Warrior and Gratuitous Grazer | Free Intermittent Fasting Plan for OMAD
***JOIN THE FASTING LIFESTYLE CHALLENGE THAT STARTS JULY 20, 2022!
-New to fasting or want to get back on track?
-Struggling to break through a plateau?
-Ready to finally stop obsessing about your diet?
We'll teach you how to finally LOSE weight for good and use 'fast cycling' to achieve uncommon results! Join us JULY 20th for the Fasting Lifestyle Challenge! REGISTER HERE! Click the Link for DATES, DETAILS, and FAQ’s!
https://www.thefastingforlife.com/live
In this episode, Dr. Scott and Tommy discuss the 3 fasting types: fasting freelancer, weekend warrior and gratuitous grazer, and what you can do about them.
Let’s continue the conversation. Click the link below to JOIN the Fasting For Life Community, a group of likeminded, new and experienced fasters! The first two rules of fasting need not apply!
Fasting For Life Community - Join HERE
New to the podcast and wondering where to start? Head to the website and download our FREE Fast Start Guide, 6 simple steps to put One Meal a Day Fasting (OMAD) into practice!
Maybe you are an experienced faster and wondering about your results and IF they could be linked to INSULIN resistance? Head over to the website and download our FREE Insulin Resistance Assessment!
Or get both here at our website:
www.thefastingforlife.com/resources
If you enjoy the podcast, would you please tap on the stars below and consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it makes a difference in helping bring you the best original content each week. We also really enjoy reading them!
Sign up for the Fasting For Life newsletter at www.thefastingforlife.com
Follow Fasting For Life: www.facebook.com/thefastingforlife
www.instagram.com/thefastingforlife
Join the Community on Facebook!
Reference Links:
Fasting For Life Ep. 133 Transcript
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Hello. I'm Dr. Scott Dr. Watier.
[Tommy Welling]
And I'm Tommy Welling, and you're listening to the Fasting for Life podcast.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
This podcast is about using fasting as a tool to regain your health, achieve ultimate wellness, and live the life you truly deserve.
[Tommy Welling]
Each episode is a short conversation on a single topic with immediate, actionable steps. We cover everything from fat loss on health and wellness to the science of lifestyle design.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
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.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Hey, everyone, to hop on real quick before we get into today's episode and let everyone know that the next seven day Fasting Lifestyle Challenge Registration Link is live, you can go to the show notes, click the link for more details, or you can go to the Fasting for life dot com forward slash live. Wanted to speak directly to you.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
If you've been listening to the podcast, maybe you're new and just getting started, or maybe you've been fasting for a while and really trying to adopt that lifestyle and the scale just won't move beyond that two to four, three to £5 each week. Or maybe you feel like you've hit that dreaded weight loss plateau or maybe the hunger or am.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
As my wife likes to say, the hangry ness has snuck up and bite you on the backside and you just can't seem to get away from those cravings or the consistency of your fasting schedule just isn't allowing you to get back on track if you've fallen by the wayside. This seven day lifestyle challenge is exactly for you. It's coming up in the near future.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Please don't miss out on this opportunity. We are super excited to be leveling up this experience and leaving that diet baggage behind, giving you the confidence and the habits to build that long term weight loss and fasting lifestyle success. Go to the show notes. You can click the link or the fasting for life dot com forward slash live.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
We will hope to see you on the inside. And now to today's episode. Hey everyone. Welcome to the Fasting for Life podcast. My name is Dr. Scott Weidner, and I'm here as always, and my good friend and colleague Tommy Welling. Good afternoon to you, sir.
[Tommy Welling]
Hey, Scott, how are you?
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Doing fantastic today, my friend. I'm excited for today's conversation and today's episode. So the first time on the podcast, Unpacking the fasting types. So the three fasting types, I'm going to say the word we that we are a part of it.
[Tommy Welling]
Definitely.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Because we have a type as well in regards to the application of fasting and making fasting a lifestyle. So there's three main types that we have deduced over the last two and a half years from all of the comments and feedback and challenges and emails and messages that success.
[Tommy Welling]
Struggles, all of it.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah. We're going to unpack all of it. And the key takeaway for today is to be able to identify your fasting type and then insulate yourself from those pitfalls of that type. So this is something we've been doing in our challenges. We've put this in some of our emails over the course of the weeks to months you might have seen them before is going to be a complete unpacking of the fasting types and then more importantly, what you can do about them.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So we have a fasting challenge, a seven day lifestyle challenge coming up on July 20th. So you can go to the show notes, click that link for more dates and information as well. Do not miss that opportunity during these challenges. And if I do say so myself, you're getting more fun and more engagement. And yeah, so every time we do one, yeah, pumped that we've got another one coming up here on July 20th.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
One last announcement. Welcome to all of the new listeners. So you can hear Tommy's voice. You can hear my voice. We are the co-creators and co-founders fasting for life in the Fasting for Life podcast. We want to hear more about our story and how we ended up here. Feel free to go back and listen to With Grace. We appreciate the Grace Police episode.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Thank you. So in episode one, I think one of those was recorded on AirPods. I don't even.
[Tommy Welling]
Know.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And back here.
[Tommy Welling]
Our rotary phone.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Why we why we started this and why we continue to deliver episodes every single week. Shout out to the OGs the fasting for Life Fam that have been on this journey for a while. We appreciate your encouragement. Your five star reviews keep telling the Apple and podcast gods that we are delivering good, impactful content and we will continue to do so.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So Tony. Yeah, as we unpack the fasting types for today, the one of the funnest, funnest is that a word? Most fun? I think it's either grandma or police out there. Go ahead. Let me know they will. They will. Yeah, you will. The funnest, most fun part of coming up with these types was going through weekly check ins and emails and questions and conversations and comments on social and seeing these consistent themes and how people are applying fasting, but then also sending them selves up for some stumbling along the way.
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah, because as we've talked about before, we tend to make a lot of the same decisions today that we did yesterday. So we can inadvertently or subconsciously or almost unconsciously fall in to some typical patterns for ourselves that we may or may not be aware of, or even if we are aware of them. Sometimes it's not always obvious how to actually break out of those patterns.
[Tommy Welling]
It can become like well-worn ruts. And what we find is that for better or worse, some of these patterns continue to emerge across different fasting journeys and we can put some strategic things in place. We can understand them a little bit better, and then we can prevent, insulate, and then actually begin to break the pattern, but also mold our environment around so we can protect from falling into those same patterns again.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah, and I think this episode should hopefully kind of land in the same breath as the the willpower episode that we've gotten tons of feedback on. Yeah, you have willpower. You have willpower, and then you have the I want our which is the one that can actually be strengthened like a muscle. Yeah. And that really speaks to discipline versus, you know, versus willpower in those building of those habits over time.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So if we know what our habits are, then we can plan to address the underlying cause of the habit rather than just trying to modify the behavior which gets you most times, especially in my personal life and professional life as well. It gets you in the spin cycle so yeah, you can't seem to undo like why do I keep doing this right and.
[Tommy Welling]
Banging your head up against the.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Wall. That's all for peace, not frustration piece, especially for weight. Loss and health. Yeah, you're doing everything right or you're fully committed, and then the result doesn't match your time or your aspect. Yeah, the frustration sets in. So we, you and I each have a main fasting type. And then there's also some overlap into for most people, you've got a main one and then a secondary one that's like a minor kind of player.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah. There's a group of you that will fit into all of the groups because you really don't. You're just that special and we're going to give you outcomes or action steps for all of those. But the majority of people fall into the main, I'd say about 80%, one, maybe 20% another. And if you can't figure out which one you are, then you probably haven't been fasting consistently enough to see the speed bumps kind of pop up.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So yeah, let's start with fasting type number one. So that is the fasting freelancer. Now if you go Google the definition of freelancer, you're going to get a bunch of different definitions, but really this is going to be the individual that is going to put a lot of stock in the ability for them to pull it off to put too much stock into their willpower, too much stock into their planning, too much stock into their I got this type sweet spot, right?
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Like, yeah, I can figure this out, right? Yeah. This may sound familiar to you, right? One week you're motivated and on your fasting game and things are great, then something pops up life stress and unplanned event or a pivot, and you fall completely off the wagon. So like when you're on, you are like on on all. Yeah, hitting your fasting windows, avoiding your trigger foods, getting your workouts in plan and prep whatever it takes.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
But what causes you to fall off the wagon is the cravings and the dining out or the lack of planning when it comes to, well, what am I going to eat for lunch? Or What am I going to do when I break my fast or maybe stress or vignettes of being on the go a lot, right? Maybe your job requires that.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So nine times out of ten you lack a plan Nipsey in the bud, or you put too much faith in your motivation, right? Yeah, I will. Or I won't power in your overconfidence the ability to make those decisions in real time and you end up just continually moving the target. Well, it was going to do a 24 now I'll do it 30.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
I was going to do an 18. Now I'll do it I'll cut it at 12, then I'll start again tomorrow.
[Tommy Welling]
I'm freelancing. Yeah. What if you also run into that situation where you go, OK, fasting. Cool. I'm feeling better. This is working. I know this is going to be the strategy that I need, but you don't necessarily have a plan for your next upcoming fast or your next few fast. And so you go now. I'll just figure it out when I get there.
[Tommy Welling]
And then Tuesday hits and then Friday hits and then the invitation to Happy Hour hits and then all of a sudden I'm here now. I'm in the moment and oh hey, those cravings are back. Oh, hey, that looks delicious over there. And all of a sudden I'm way off track. Even though Monday like I was on it. Like you said, I was 1000%, right?
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah. And it's interesting because if you think about this in a true freelance like kind of framework, freelancers are self-employed and they're not committed to a particular employer long term. So you are literally like the I got it. Maybe perfectionist, maybe analysis paralysis that can fit in there. You work. Yeah, deadlines and pulling stuff off last minute. But the crummy part there is that you're committed to the commitment of the variability of the freelance when like you're kind of putting yourself in a corner.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
I know it's funny that way. Yeah. But it's that repetitive, like, variability that gets you in trouble. Yeah. And there is a solution to it. And for you fasting freelancers, as you're listening, if I say the word consistency, then that might be a red flag. Or it's like, what do you mean consistency? I get the job done at the time.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
I get the deadline. Yeah, when I'm on, I'm on. I'm really good at it. Right. But yeah, the consistency is the key, and we don't need to try to change everything at once. We need to allow ourselves to get 80% progress or 60% progress over perfection. Yeah, those consistent little wins is what's going to get you the result long term rather than this big, volatile, on and off type situation.
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah. You know, one way to also know if you are a fasting freelancer, you might in the vein of that hardcore on and off, that black and white, you know, big swings, you might find the temptation to you went off trail maybe it was Friday and maybe it's through Monday or maybe it's longer than that. And all of a sudden you want to hit it, hit it hard, rip that Band-Aid off with like the biggest fast that you've ever done.
[Tommy Welling]
Kind of making up for all of that being off track.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah. So the oh, let's do a five day fast because it's been two weeks since I've actually hit a consistent fasting win.
[Tommy Welling]
Yes.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah. And that speaks to one of the other things you can do as a fasting freelancer is you don't want to miss your fasting window or your feeding window more than two times in a row. So you want to rather than going for the home run, right? Three strikes and you're out rather than going for the home run and swinging.
[Tommy Welling]
For the fences.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah. Yeah. Start small, commit to something that, you know, you can hit consistently and set yourself up for success with making the meal, include some of the things that you go off the rails with or pull that long term home run type swing down to just get it. Let's get a single.
[Tommy Welling]
Let's get on base. Yeah, yeah.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Let's get it. Let's start with those small consistencies. And sometimes that really takes you from from zooming out let's see if £50 to lose and you're looking at the big picture. Maybe you've accomplished it before, but you've given it back. Yeah. You're looking at it going, oh my goodness, I know how much time, effort and energy it took for me to get it the first time.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
But then I gave it all back. So like, yeah, subconsciously you're thinking like, man, there is a gap here that's going to take a ton of work and a lot of it, and it's just, I don't know if I'm.
[Tommy Welling]
Starting.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
To do that. So zoom in on the next 48 to 72 hours, split your week in twos and break it down where you can force yourself to plan rather than freelance for the next three to four days at a time.
[Tommy Welling]
Stop thinking about the whole giant big picture all at once, especially if you've done it before. That can be a lot because you go, Wow, I sustained motivation and effort for a long period of time. Am I able to do that again or do I want to do that again?
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah, I had a resume. It was an onboarding into the VIP group coaching experience after the last challenge, and she was sharing with me the story of how she won the Biggest Loser contest and self proclaimed fast. All right. Yeah, she won the Biggest Loser contest, lost £80 over 12 months like Tuesday workouts meal planning her metrics. Wow.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Absolutely crushed it, but was unable to stay consistent with the fasting lifestyle over the last 12 to 18 months. Hopped in a challenge, saw great results, felt the woosh a couple of weeks after the challenge. Right so the scale went down, the energy starting to come up the cravings are starting to balance out. Yeah but it was that realization as we were talking that it was like, hey, so why do you think it is?
[Dr. Scott Watier]
You can't stick with this when the light events or the strength or the stress pops up. So I just threw this out there. Do you think it might be because you know how hard and how much it you suffered to get the result last time? Like maybe you subconsciously don't want to do that again? Well, guess what? Yes, you have an opportunity to do it on your terms in a different way.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
With sustainability built in, I'm like, you've already done it the hard way. Now let's come over here and do it this way on your terms with your goals, with sustainability built in. And it was like the weight came off. I was like, Wait, I don't have to be the freelancer anymore. Yeah, I have to have that extra pressure and perfection over progress.
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah. Because she's looking at that last experience going. I felt like I had to out work it last time, and that's how I got there. I like grinded it out, but if I can know what I'm doing and why I'm doing it and show up consistently, I don't ever have to feel like I need to out work the last three or four or five days or the last week or two where I felt off track and make up for it because that doesn't really work anyway.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
If this is not a complete depiction of my weight loss journey and I'll spare the details, but it was like, work my butt off for three months to get to a certain number before a vacation. Yeah.
[Tommy Welling]
And I've done that so many.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Times in Houston. Who's what? World renowned and followed the program and I was sticking to the program and after three months I start, my results started to wane and it was just do more of the program, do more of the program.
[Tommy Welling]
Working.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Harder, work harder, work harder. You might know something's not right, right? Yeah. Which led to insulin resistance and fasting and all that other stuff. So self proclaimed identifying as a fasting freelancer as my fasting type, the conversation with her spoke truly from my heart because it was like, Yeah, I know what you're going through. So as a fasting freelancer, to recap, you are 100% on or 1000 person on versus 1000% off.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
It's like when you're off, you're off. Something typically pops up and snags your life stress and unplanned event. Is it right that freelancing mindset? Yeah. And then the way to get back on track is to stay consistent with small targets, force yourself to zoom in rather than looking at the big picture and then don't miss more than twice in a room.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So three strikes and you're out. So yeah. Tommy fasting type number two, which I would say is probably about 60% of the people that we come across. Yeah. And that is the weekend warrior. So Monday through Thursday, you got it. Friday man, I deserve that happy hour. Yeah.
[Tommy Welling]
Friday the temptation kicks in like this. Fasting police, they don't work on the weekend. Right?
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Like, oh.
[Tommy Welling]
There are they're always on a, on a three day weekend. I mean, this is how I went through my low calorie like my low and slow kind of diet mentality was like Monday through Thursday. I mean, I was on and then yeah, Friday I was like, we're not sticking to the whole diet thing like this. Whole weekend, right?
[Tommy Welling]
Like, we just. Yeah, right. Yeah. And, you know, usually it it started with like a Friday night pizza or something like that. And then just forget about it. After that. But, you know, come Monday, I was plenty frustrated and plenty motivated to get back on track so that we can warrior. If you start doing the math and you start looking at the intake that can happen over the weekend, it is so easy to undo what you did for the for the previous days.
[Tommy Welling]
And it doesn't feel like it like in the moment.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Especially if you're doing more of an intermittent window, if you're doing the six hour windows. Yeah. And this is how it happens and this is how it kind of how we see it kind of laying out. Right. So like you said, you know, you're great starting out Monday morning. Maybe the guilt of the weekend or the indulgence has motivated you, right?
[Tommy Welling]
Yes. Yes.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
You hit all, you plan your week, you hit your fasting windows, you break your fast nutrient dense foods, you get you're getting your movement in. Maybe you're walking or doing a couple other resistance type workouts a week. You're staying on you're focusing on your sleep. That all sounds great, right? You're moderating Monday through Thursday. You are in an impenetrable force to be reckoned with.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
You are fighting off. You are blocking, shielding, you know, blocking off all those curveballs and deflecting.
[Tommy Welling]
You're playing good.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Defense. You go the I deserve it on the way home on Friday. Like I just yeah. And I want to binge Netflix. I want to go have dinner with the family and that's fine. We want those experiences over the emotional connection to food in those situations. Right? But then you give in and you you treat yourself on Friday, which is great.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
But then Saturday you wake up and the cravings are worse and hydration is down and the sleep's been disturbed. So now you're pushing the boulder up the hill. And then it's like, all right, well, I guess I'll just deviate from the plan for just this one more meal. And then next thing you know, you wake up Monday morning and you're looking at it going, all right, here I am again, like restart it on Monday or restart my fasting windows on Monday.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And we see this in the group every Monday morning. I'm going to start Monday with a burn day. Well, fasting shouldn't be reparations for things you've done or preparation for going crazy. Yeah. Be that consistency, that lifestyle application where you should be able to enjoy the foods and the things that you love while still getting results and sustainability term.
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah, absolutely. And like when you come into it after a weekend like that, you should expect that, you know, the next time you set your fasting timer, it's going to be a little tougher. Like, right, those cravings kick up my stomach, grumblings kick up. I'm still remembering those highly safe, not not satiating foods, those highly controversial foods, especially if I had like some highly processed carbohydrates or restaurant meals.
[Tommy Welling]
I if there was alcohol involved, that's going to kick it up even worse. And then I'm going to see the scale probably take up Sunday or Monday as well, which can be can hit my motivation as well. I can be frustrated. I can be judging myself off the last couple of days, have a little regret well, and then especially if I'm an emotional eater or I have emotional ties to food, I may want to bring in some more food to kind of help fix the feelings that I'm feeling now with the frustration on Monday, too.
[Tommy Welling]
So all of these things can make that next fast, that much harder. So if you find yourself in this weekend warrior cycle, this vicious cycle, even if it happens again, which it might, you know, it's it's a behavior pattern. It might pop up again, right? So let's be prepared for it. So if it does, then giving some grace on Monday and rather than failing at an attempt at like a 40 hour fast, you know, going into Monday, doing a little bit of a shorter fast before you do maybe a slightly longer fast, the next day is going to be much more likely to be a successful win book that win and then get off on
[Tommy Welling]
the right foot. Yes. I might feel like I'm a day behind, but who cares? It's not a race, you know, and they can help break that thought process right there.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah. The finish line in maintaining weight loss and healthy. It doesn't end right over here. Yeah, it's a constant. Yeah. Right. So putting those hard boundaries around it, starting it on a certain day of the week, that's why we do our challenges. We start them on Wednesdays. We go through the weekend with you. Right? And then it's crazy because we know what happens and we know where the live participants and then we see the uptick on Monday, you know?
[Dr. Scott Watier]
All right. We can walk right back, right? Yeah.
[Tommy Welling]
Right. Yeah.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Reengaged, right. So I love that. How to start the week with the smaller win. But I'll also say maybe keep your fasting winter the same, but make it an actual clean, fast like get rid of the which is the third fasting type which we get to in a minute. Get rid of all the floss, do a clean fast, make it stick to the window.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And then when you get to the weekend, obviously we still need some boundaries for those events and special events. But yeah, we'll talk about that a second. But you're going to be able to frontload your week with some wins. So the decision to fall into the old weekend warrior mindset is more difficult on the weekend and you want to make sure you're planning for those weekend occasions, special dinners, football games, you know, back to back baseball games, you know, sports vacations.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah. So you have a football day, right? You're going to a football game to be tailgating. OK, go do a long fast and then break your fast like by going straight into the event like yeah. Make sure before you get to the event or the dinner, you plan what you're going to get. But like have a big old, I don't know, serving a protein some green, some veggies, some stuff that's going to fill you up and protein is going to balance your blood sugar.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah. For you get to the event so you're not ravenous at the end of let's say a 30 or 36 hour fast and you're pointing to the event because you're just going to have this insulin spike and then the sleep is going to be disturbed and then you're going to be right back where you were on Saturday and Sunday morning going, oh my gosh, why is it so much harder in.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah, because you're working against the underlying physiology.
[Tommy Welling]
Those kind of foods that would be around like a weekend event or a tailgating event or something like that. I mean, they're going to be Cold War. Yeah.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah. Just that alone, it's like all the holidays we have. It's crazy.
[Tommy Welling]
It's exhausting. But but those foods that are oftentimes around tend to be more calorically dense, more crave a bowl. You're going to bring in more feel less. Yeah, more snacking. You're going to feel less satisfied. They're going to have a higher insulin response and they're going to sneak calories in which is going to make the next fast, harder.
[Tommy Welling]
It's going to make the scale tick up. And it's kind of like, OK, wait a minute, what's going on here? Right. It's like definition of insanity. Keep doing the same the same cycle over and over again. So finding these little points do to kind of break up that cycle can go a long way.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Last thing here for the weekend, warrior would be before you order the next drink or before you have that next plate of food or before you order that dessert or before you keep your window open count down from five to one. Acknowledge that the behavior has shown up the back. Virtual hug, virtual high five. It's OK. You're not you're not a bad person.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
You're not a chronic diet or you're not a procrastinator. You're not a whatever you are. You have a habit of doing those things. Yeah. The habit is not your identity. The habit is what we're going to tap into the long term consistency and fasting and balancing the hormones, et cetera. So just count down five to one. Set a timer for ten or 15 minutes before you do that.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Next active that next action habitual thing. Yeah, yeah. And most times this came out of research across the nation. Most times you won't go back and do it again. You'll be like, Yeah, you know what? Yeah, I don't need this or No, I don't. Yeah, right. So it's called the five, four, three, two, one exercise. And it's been powerful and you can use that any time.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
But specifically for the weekend warrior when you're trying to stop the bleeding, so to speak. Yes. Just the realization that the habit is the thing, not you as the thing. And like give yourself a little bit of grace in that moment, which is where we started the conversation around, you know, the weekend warrior type fasting style.
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah, that's a big one because, you know, getting out of that like shame guilt cycle that can come along, can come along, especially with with years and years of yoyo dieting. But then you can see it from from week to week in that cycle, too. And that's the whole purpose of that. Five, four, three, two, one. It's that's a huge one because what it does is it allows the emotional and the automatic behavior response.
[Tommy Welling]
Both of those sides of the equation. It allows those to come down. We have enough time to put rational thought process within that ten minute timer that you just said. And then I get to make an actual decision rather than just repeating a more automatic behavior in the moment. Yeah.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah, it's huge for sure. And it's one of the things like when we start the challenges and we we share the schedule and we go over it on Monday and the challenge starts on Wednesday, and then we go through and then the weekend and one of the biggest things we get is, well, what about my insert event on Friday, Saturday or Sunday?
[Dr. Scott Watier]
What about this? Heck, we did one of these over Easter. We were like, why it might? Well, because that's life.
[Tommy Welling]
That they're never going to avoid Easter right?
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah. Like, and you don't have to fast on Easter. You have to have a birthday, right? Like a 28 hour, 36 hour fast. No. Right. Yeah. Put some boundaries. And so it's that idea that the construct that we're operating in is it doesn't have to always be based on the external thing that we are able to tap into the control of that situation and literally just saying the word weekend right like yeah.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Oh yeah.
[Tommy Welling]
Like a trigger word. Yes.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah. Oh, it's hump day, it's Wednesday. I'm almost there, right? Yeah. That stuff is built in societally into our everyday experience. Yeah.
[Tommy Welling]
Our culture.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah. Yeah, our culture, too. I love that framework. All right. Fasting type number three. Tommy.
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah, smile on the couch. My on the couch. Yeah. Gratuitous. The gratuitous grazer. I got my hands up right now. Gratuitous grazer. Yeah, that's.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Me. But yes, I can see that his hands are both is liking the test that both of his hands are raised right now.
[Tommy Welling]
This is a good one. I don't know. Percentage wise, off the top of my head, but I know that if you find yourself going, wow, like, if you find yourself waiting for that eating window or if you call it a feasting window, that can make it even worse, because then it's like, oh, the buffet is open, you know?
[Tommy Welling]
And especially if fasting is giving you the freedom of not counting calories, but you're used to doing it or you've done it in the in the past, and then it becomes an opportunity to, you know, have all the things that you felt like you were missing out. You had fear of missing out during your fast, or you're bringing in everything that you can kind of think of or just like a like kind of an ongoing grazing session.
[Tommy Welling]
This can be a recipe for disaster.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Like it was, right? Yeah. 100%. And I love you say this sometimes too. The revolving pantry door. Yes. Yes. So it's defined by the taste splash bite like sip of your favorite thing, right? So now we don't obviously preach long term restriction of certain macro groups, like based on your lifestyle, based on your metabolic flexibility, based on what's sustainable for you is what's most important yeah.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
If you're trying to reverse diabetes and yes, removing sugars and carbohydrates is going to get you there faster. Absolutely. That's the stuff that got you accelerated the process in the first place. But sure, as a gratuitous grazier by framework, it's, you know, the donut that the coworker brought in, but it's not during your eating window. Right. In a few hours before or the I have to have it in my coffee, all right?
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Like I need that creamer, I need that whatever it is, you know, the, the, the extra stuff at the end of your eating window, the popcorn, the chips, the ice cream, the snacks at night is something crunchy. Yeah, yeah. The salty crunchy, the leftover. This is for me, the leftover delicious sausages left on your kids breakfast plate, right?
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah. Yeah. Huh.
[Tommy Welling]
I don't want to go to waste.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah, right. They'll eat them cold, put them in a bag. The kids lunch that they didn't eat, even though you made them exactly what they wanted to open it up. What the heck? The extra glass of wine. The second plate of food, the third craft beer. You can tell that my old life, I wrote these. It turns into less inhibitions and more consumption.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Oh, I'll just have one Oreo cookie. Oh, my God. I'll have one Pringle. Now, you won't.
[Tommy Welling]
No, you won't.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
I will. Yeah. So long term sustainability, all of those things added up together. Every time one of those happens is you break your fast and you spike insulin so you're not able to get the long term benefit of the balancing of the hunger hormones, the decrease in insulin, the euphoria and the autophagy that takes place in the decrease in brain fog at 24 hours.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Right. And all of those other things. And you just kind of get stuck in this. Well, I'm doing it, but I'm not getting the result. And that comes from the realization that, you know, they did some research that they did a study. How many a BMI group of 30 and above. So the obese category. Yeah, they were looking at asking the individuals, OK, how many food decisions do your food related decisions or thoughts do you make every single day.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah. And everybody was like, oh, I don't know. Like the average ended up being like 14 and a half or. Yeah, so you think about food 14 times a day. Well, the reality was that the average person in the study made over 201 d food related decisions.
[Tommy Welling]
Well.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Perhaps so went up to the 35 and above group. It increased like exponentially. Wow. So if we are constantly stimulating that right grazing type mentality, we are constantly thinking about food. And I had a conversation with another, an initial call after the last challenge and it was, yeah, we're going to vacation coming up. And I was like, let me ask you a question.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Is your entire vacation, your entire family vacation trip included? Let me guess if this sounds familiar. Hey, where are we going to have breakfast? Hey, when do we eat lunch? Hey, who's making dinner? Hey, you have plans tomorrow for the restaurant. Hey, we need to make a grocery run. Hey, go to the coffee shop and get X, Y, and Z.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
The entire itinerary of the trip is framed through when are we getting together to consume? Yeah, especially, let's say if you're camping, my parents go camping, and I'm like, it's a grace fest. Yeah, right. It is now on vacation. Yeah. Enjoy yourself. Put some boundaries, but you don't need to do a three day fast on a five day cruise.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Like, that's.
[Tommy Welling]
Ridiculous. Right?
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah, but every time you aren't doing a clean fast, you're sticking to it. You're increasing that insulin response, which is not allowing you to see that long term.
[Tommy Welling]
That's it. Yeah. And then a lot of times the things that we graze on bring in the additional energy, the additional calories in a way that not only spikes our insulin significantly, but it also brings in more energy that keeps us from tapping into the long term fat source the next time we're on a fast anyway so we can put ourselves on a hamster wheel like that where we didn't feel any more satisfied or really even remember those things that we grazed on.
[Tommy Welling]
But at the same time, we just created more additional fasting time that we're going to need, going to need to do to reverse what we're looking to do in the first place. So it's kind of like it's crazy.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So we can take it or not yet. Right? Yeah.
[Tommy Welling]
So one thing that I like to do as a gratuitous grazer self-report, it is if there's something that I really want from the pantry, I'm going to put it in my next meal. Or if I'm, if I'm using an eating window, I'm going to put it into that eating window. But I like to rephrase that as a nutrition opportunity, rather than a feasting window or an eating window, because that just subconsciously triggers that grazing mentality for me and for for a lot of folks that we talked to.
[Tommy Welling]
So I'm just putting those things inside of my meal, putting it on the plate. And then actually part of my grazing mentality is I was never like a sit down, eat kind of guy. Like I would just walk around the kitchen, like standing up grazing. That's just kind of how I'm wired. But so sitting down can kind of defeat that.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
I'm not about tracking and I have been tracking recently. I'm doing a little like, you know, self study and being a guinea pig, trying a new eating style and tracking my.
[Tommy Welling]
Oh.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
OK. Yeah. So I'm tracking it and my goodness, like I have scars lots of me years and years and years of, of of tracking and weighing and meal prepping and all that kind of stuff. And fasting is free that. But in the grazing situation, some of you need to see what it is so you know, the small splash versus the large splash of creamer, the second glass of alcohol, the three sausages, off the plate.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah, donut. Right. You need to track for a few days to put it in front of your face of actually what you're consuming and this is like, yeah, the old nutrition coaching back in the day and side of it be like, all right, where is your food journal to log everything for a week so we can actually see what's happening because the brain just like the food decisions.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Well, yeah. Plus decisions off a day. Yeah, like no, no. I mean really good. Yeah. No, I'm sticking to my fasting windows. Well, something's going on. So tracking even just for a few days, if that's the underlying issue, it's going to smack in the face can.
[Tommy Welling]
Be eye opening.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah. Hey, now I see where the problem's coming from. And then like you mentioned, you kind of alluded to it was changing the framework or changing the environment. Right? So if it is a certain drive home with the Chick-Fil-A, then take a different way home in a different route. Yeah, for a little bit. For a few repetitions. Insulate yourself from that situation.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
If you know it's Taco Tuesday at the office and everybody gets tacos for lunch, then plan your fasting windows around that or. Yeah, workers that week. Hey, I'm going to skip Taco Tuesday this week. Right? They asked why? Just be like, I got bloodwork or something, right? Yeah. But you could tell the truth but I wouldn't. Yeah. If you knew to fasting, but like, just be like, no, you don't need to know.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Like, it's fine. So put your priorities in, but then also change your environment, which is going to allow you to get some of those wins. So either expose it, right? So track it, see it, and then also change your environment. And to your point, tummy the habit that goes along with that and that framework of it and that can help break that cycle of the gratuitous grazer man.
[Tommy Welling]
That's a big one. Just understanding the fact that our brains will suppress something like that because we just don't think about all those food decisions all the time. It's kind of just like.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah, no.
[Tommy Welling]
There can't be that many of them. Right, right. But, but literally over 90% of them got suppressed in recollection of what we actually did. So a lot of our automatic behaviors kind of fall in that category. So putting it in front of your face, not so that you can, you know, judge yourself harshly about it, but so that you can be real about the situation because that consumption matters and it's going to dictate my results.
[Tommy Welling]
So if I'm really feeling stuck like I'm at a plateau or like I can't get the scale to budge, there's something that needs to change about the situation so that you can keep moving forward, right?
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Absolutely. And I just want to say this is a fasting podcast, OK? So these fasting types, you get the fasting freelancer, you get the weekend worry you get the gratuitous crazy and you might be thinking, oh, that seems simple. Yeah, I'm definitely a type one. But then you're like, Where am I going to find the energy focus guidance, support to actually pull that off?
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Like we do right? Police. Yeah, right. Podcast drops on Tuesday. What do you do in the rest of the time? So I want to encourage you guys, if you're looking to break through a plateau, gain some traction get back on track if one of these fasting types resonates with you, or if you're all three pop show notes, click the link.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
July 20th is the next fasting challenge. We've got some new stuff coming out. We're super fired up about it and it will accelerate your learning curve dramatically. Which is why consistently throughout the calendar year. Now, if you're new to fasting or new to the podcast, you can also go to fasting for Life.com and you will see some resources and gain a better picture on what this fasting for like lifestyle truly is and more importantly, what you can do about it and what control you have over the situation.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Which is why I love the fasting types because once you're labeled and you know your type, I like, well, yeah, I do do that so I go, OK, well now you're aware of that behavior. The next time see us break a plateau. Tommy, regain control. If you're a beginner, challenge is for you too. We have different yeah. Where you can do a beginner or an intermediate or an advanced fasting schedule.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Absolutely. Live every single day in the group time. And I'm just super excited to finally share these fasting types with all of the listeners because they've been so impactful inside of our ecosystem.
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah, these these are huge. And, you know, just understanding which one I typically fall into and my default behavior pattern because once you understand that default, now you can start using that. I want power to start steering in a different direction that leads us towards the results that we're looking for. So it's huge and this challenge can be a lot of fun.
[Tommy Welling]
I can't wait to do unpack some more of these these fasting type strategies within the challenge and see some cool results too. So it's going to be awesome.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
All right, sir, as always, thank you for the conversation. Good stuff. Yeah. I am going to hang up the episode today with the realization that you, sir, were a gratuitous grazer. And I was the fasting freelancer. But yeah, years later, keeping the weight off, pushing down to new goals, body composition, visceral. Yeah. All of those new level ups that we're going through.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
The fasting type should be a fun touchpoint because we usually. Yeah, a lot of interesting fun feedback about these individual situations. So, Tommy, as always, thank you, sir. And we'll talk soon.
[Tommy Welling]
Thank you. Bye. So you've heard today's episode and you may be wondering, where do I start? Head on over to the Fasting for Life dot com and sign up for our newsletter where you'll receive.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Fasting.
[Tommy Welling]
Tips and strategies to maximize results and fit fasting into your day to day life.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Why are you there? Download your free fast start guide to get started today. Don't forget to subscribe on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Make sure to leave us a five star review and we'll be back next week with another episode of Fasting for Life.