Ep. 137 - Fasting and Vacation Mindset | Simple Boundaries and Parameters during Vacation | Free Intermittent Fasting Plan for OMAD

Uncategorized Aug 09, 2022

In this episode, Dr. Scott and Tommy discuss some simple boundaries and parameters during vacation, some vacation tips to make sure you enjoy the moments, avoiding guilt and shame, and why you should not weigh yourself when you get back from vacation.

 

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Fasting For Life Ep. 137 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 and 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. Hey everyone, welcome to the Fasting for Life podcast. My name's Dr. Scott Wadi and I'm here, as always, at my good friend and colleague, Tommy Welling. Good afternoon to you, sir.

[Tommy Welling]
Hey, Scott. How are you.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
Doing? Fantastic, my friend. We are beating the heat here in hot and humid Texas. And why am I talking about the weather at the end of this summer, even though summer heat wise is going to continue here for the foreseeable future? Probably, you know, until at least October. So we are not from a temperature standpoint coming to the end of the season, but we know that as we are in the beginning of the month of August, that school is going to start right around the corner.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
Kids are going back to colleges now and the last of the family vacations or the last weeks away for the summer vacations are taking place now or in the upcoming next couple of weeks. So with that being said, Tommy, we are going to talk around and about and dove into the idea of how fasting can have a different path and different outcome when it comes to handling life events like vacations than what you and I have experienced and what we've heard from thousands of listeners and challengers over the last two and a half years.

[Tommy Welling]
Yeah, yeah. Vacation, you know, it's supposed to be like low stress time, right? It's supposed to be something that we look forward to and it's going to be fun and bring the stress levels down.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
But desperation and resort, that sounds.

[Tommy Welling]
Smart. Yeah, but so many times in the past I can speak from personal experience and I know a lot of people can relate that this can actually become a very stressful time because, hey, I have weight loss targets that are very important to me and I have a feeling that much like in the past, this upcoming vacation is going to derail me somehow, or set me back or make me feel like I missed out on potential results that I should have had, or just kind of put me in the wrong, like, state of mind, like old habits kind of creeping in and things like that.

[Tommy Welling]
So I think this is an important conversation about how we can do that better with a few like simple modifications that that don't really have to be like very different or remove a lot of the benefits and the awesomeness, you know, that comes along with vacation.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah. We had this conversation earlier in the summer at the beginning of the summer inside of the membership, the coaching group. And the questions came up about, you know, fruity drinks at the pool going on vacation. And I'm worried about, you know, the progress that I've made. And typically I'm just, you know, not off the wagon, but the wagon's now burning in a ditch on fire right.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
And then I lose the momentum, and then it takes me weeks to get back on track. And yeah, we really want to talk about, like you just said, is framing this in a different way. And there's a couple of big key components here. And speaking from experience, in my own experience of going on our honeymoon and a couple of family vacations, we don't travel as we should be used to with kids.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
Because you were saying vacations supposed to be relaxing. I'm thinking not if you have children under the age of five. Okay. Yeah, it is not relaxing. It is packaging sand everywhere. And now we're going to have a lot of fun because we're making memories, right. So one of the things we want to talk about when you are looking at vacation and how to have success, is that emotional peace or that enjoyment or experience?

[Dr. Scott Watier]
Peace, right? Yeah. And then the second thing would be making sure that we're not like I used to do, which was work so hard and work out and calorie restrict and try in the bathing suit and just to feel confident. Right has always been the big, heavy, bulky guy. Right. You know, getting out there and be like, all right, yeah, I'm going to have a good week this week.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
But I've worked so hard for six months or three months that now I'm just going to throw it all away and I deserve this incredible, rich, indulgent experience. And then on the back end derail myself, or it's going to take time to like get back on track. And this is before fasting, but it was this constant cycle of life events and traveling and vacations and people coming to visit that would throw me off.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
And I want to make sure that we, you know, put some boundaries and some parameters that are not, like you said, big overhauls things, but just a different way to think about it or a different way to look at it, where you can still have the fruity drinks by the pool and you can still be in vacation mode and getting the enjoyment out of it.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
But you don't have to. And I'll tell a story here in a second. Constantly be like thinking about the next meal or the next drink or that dreaded scale when you get home.

[Tommy Welling]
Yeah, yeah. That can be like an overhanging, like, dark cloud above the vacation. Just like, what's that scale going to do when I get back home, you know? And then it can almost feel like when you do get back home, especially if you've fasted in the past where, oh man, maybe I should just set my next timer, like just do a super fast, you know, to kind of undo it.

[Tommy Welling]
And we call that reparations. We don't want to go into the reparations mindset either. So it's like, okay, well, here's a bunch of things that we don't really want to do, so how do we get a little bit more proactive on the front end of it, set some good boundaries for it, and then then we can enjoy the heck out of our time.

[Tommy Welling]
Because, you know, like what you alluded to, you're looking for a certain feeling in those moments and we can get those without having to let the food or the intake or the social pressure that comes along with vacation, a lot of times kind of steer us in the wrong direction and actually like stress us out and push us backwards on our fasting or our weight loss journey at the same time.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah. And one of the things it was like the happiness that came through one of the comments or questions that we got earlier in the summer about, yeah, I'm so glad that the schedule, the fasting schedule that we were coaching on, that we matched up with the vacation days. Right. And a couple of things in there. Now, I don't know if this is going to be relatable to everybody, but family vacation specifically, especially when you're getting together, was extended family or you have kids or you have a hangry husband or wife that needs to eat every few hours.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
I did say hangry, by the way. That was correct.

[Tommy Welling]
Yep.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
That is a joke that we have in my family to my wife. Oh, yeah, yeah. Me too. Used to be me too. But not anymore. Is the fact that family vacations typically are built around who's cooking the meal? Where are we eating? Are we going to the steak house? What's the buffet status? Is the all night pizza bar on the cruise open?

[Dr. Scott Watier]
A lot of it is around that indulgent. Hey, when's the next meal? When's the next meal? Who's getting coffee or we're getting bagels. What's for breakfast? Would you guys bring the drink? Oh, you got the good whiskey. Okay, you brought the. Whatever you brought. Oh, these new high noon over here in the aisle. Let's get a frozen daiquiri here.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
Right, like, yeah, there for all of this.

[Tommy Welling]
It's all inclusive, right? We got the wristbands. Yeah, yeah.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
And I'm not saying not enjoy it, but the fact of the matter is, is that when the constant bombardment is there, and that's a lot of like what you're going to do on what day is around the meal times, then you're really focusing all of the attention, energy on food when it really should be mainly on the experience.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
Right. And I'm not saying I'm good at this going on vacation and resting first of all, not taking vacations enough, but like not going on vacation and actually resting and recouping. Last time we went on a longer vacation, just my wife and I, it took me four days just to, like, chill, right? So, yeah, not saying I got this all figured out, but that food component now when we go on vacation is a lot less stressful because I know that I can put some simple boundaries in.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
And then the second thing I wanna unpack after we talk about those boundaries or non-negotiables is the family component.

[Tommy Welling]
Yeah. So like if you're going into the vacation and then you're sitting down at a restaurant that you know is like a special place or is a particular place is like a unique opportunity, and you're going to want to enjoy it.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
You small town ice cream creamery that's been there since 1905. Right. And you've been going there with your grandparents, right? Like. Right. Enjoy that. Put that on your non-negotiable list that I'm going to enjoy this and just feel complete freedom by doing it right.

[Tommy Welling]
Can you imagine the look on one of your family member's face if you told them that you weren't going to be partaking in that tradition right there or that you were to.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
Be extradited from the family.

[Tommy Welling]
Immediately, you'd be done. You'd be done.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
Wait a minute. You're not one of us anymore. Like what? What are you doing? So the simple way to handle that, obviously, is, first of all, make sure you're getting the enjoyment out of what you want. Have those meals put those drinks in your window, don't have the drinks all day starting at 11, right? Wait till three and then have them within your eating window as well, which then gives you the added benefit of not spiking the blood sugar all day.

[Tommy Welling]
Yeah. Yeah. Think of how many hours it may have been like last year or before you started fasting and go like, okay, well maybe I can do a little bit better than that with some intentionality there. But like getting back to the ice cream or to that like special steakhouse that, you know, this is a local place or it's like a, it's a special meal during your yeah.

[Tommy Welling]
During your vacation. Like you're going to want to go into those meals feeling like you've maintained enough of a sense of control before that meal so that you're not piling good food on top of like my glycogen stores are already full. I'm already feeling like the scale has been ticking up and now you're sitting there at dinner, maybe enjoying the food, but also being simultaneously stressed out about what the scale might be doing right now.

[Tommy Welling]
Or like, oh, man, I really shouldn't be eating this right now. If you can go into that meal feeling like I've done a few things, I've put a couple of boundaries in place earlier today or yesterday, I've made some better choices. Or maybe I skipped out on lunch today that everybody was having because I knew this was going to be a more indulgent dinner.

[Tommy Welling]
That's a huge win right there. Like I felt good during lunch and I got to enjoy the heck out of dinner. And I don't have to be putting on more long term fat stores at the same time during the process.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
So we know by looking at some of the statistics, drinking can double on vacations, which means increased calories and absolute just trashing fat burning sugar because your body's going to shut everything down to process that alcohol. Right. And then we know that the 1 to £2 a year adage of weight gain, half of that can come from the vacation that you take.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
And that shows that it doesn't go away. Right. It sticks with you unless you have a good plan. So I love the idea of putting these non-negotiables in like, all right, well, we have a brunch on Sunday. Great, I'm going to have brunch. But then I'm not going to have lunch and I'm going to eat maybe a light dinner or maybe there's a dinner planned for Friday.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
So you don't eat lunch or breakfast that day. And when somebody asks you, right, hey, you're not eating, be like, No, I'm still full from last night or Yep, I'm still full from those daiquiris yesterday and I want to have some more of them later before we go to dinner. So I'm just full, I'm not really hungry. And guess what?

[Dr. Scott Watier]
The pressure comes off. Everybody goes, Oh, okay, you're going to join us later.

[Tommy Welling]
Great, good, good.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
Good, good. Okay, great. You can still be part of the family and it just takes that pressure off. And, you know, going into the vacation, like let's say it's a week, right. And you gained 5 to £10. Yeah. God forbid. Right. You go home and you weigh yourself, which is something we're going to tell you not to do.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
Right away. If the scale is your enemy, don't create more guilt and shame. Right? Right. Put some boundaries. Use your fasting as a tool. Enjoy the moments. Right. But that 5 to £10, there's no way that you consumed 17 or 18,000 extra calories in a week that turned into fat. Right. So you could do about 5000 extra calories a day for a day or two.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
Like you can't do that for seven days in a row. You're not going to be able to enjoy anything of the vacation. You're going to be in a food coma the whole time. Right. So the fact that the weight can go up might be because of the alcohol kicking you out of fat burning. Yeah, it's probably due to some of the more indulgent foods and the sugary drinks.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
If you're partaking in that and the carbohydrates and the traveling and the fact that people don't tend to have the same consistent bowel movements when you're on the road and the hydration component and the salt component and the fact that you're not in your normal routine and maybe you haven't slept is good, or maybe you're stressed a little bit because you have kids on a beach on a vacation, right?

[Dr. Scott Watier]
Like, why does everything say this other things? So you haven't done anything that is caused the fact to like burn the wagons and just be like, I'm done. So when you're leaving vacation and you've had those winning moments, when you come back, give yourself a few days of grace and don't just be like, I'm going to do a 72 hour fast when I get back.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
No, you're.

[Tommy Welling]
Not. Yeah, you're right.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
No, you're not. Okay, maybe some of you can. Yeah. And you'll push through. But it's not necessarily like the reparations way we want you to do it. Like, don't beat yourself up, ease back into the routine and get on the scale. When you start feeling like your energy has come back and you're recovered and you know, I've always hear people say busy people when I was in practice.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah, I need a vacation from the vacation. Right, right, right.

[Tommy Welling]
Yep.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
All right, let's slow down. And then when you get back, start with some fasting windows and some good quality nutrition choices that will allow you to rebuild the foundation and not just try to dove back into the deep end.

[Tommy Welling]
Yeah, you know, and there's been a couple of vacations that I've been on personally, especially ones that are a little bit bigger, more of like a family get together kind of thing where it started to kind of compound where it was like, you know, everybody want breakfast and then lunch and then dinner like multiple days and it's like, Oh, what about this restaurant?

[Tommy Welling]
It's local, you know? And then I started to feel at a certain point, like, I've consumed a lot of calories here. I'm going to take like the last day or two here before I leave, and I'm just going to slow things down. Okay? I'm going to do just one meal today and maybe even that one is going to be a lighter meal because I am feeling like, wow, I've just kind of piled it on.

[Tommy Welling]
This is going to help me feel a whole lot better. So by the time I got home feeling better, the scale hadn't moved nearly as much as if I had just jumped on it just a day or two before that. And that's huge, you know, for motivation also for looking back and reflecting back on the vacation, like you're looking to lower stress and create new memories.

[Tommy Welling]
Right. But if I leave and stress is high or frustration is high because now the scale has ticked up or I feel like I've regretted some of my choices during that vacation. That's not a good capstone for my vacation. I've kind of negated a lot of the potential impact and the purpose behind the vacation itself. I don't want to do that.

[Tommy Welling]
Right.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
No. And that you just said two things there. First was, you know, when you travel with kids, there's always food around. There's always snacks around. Like, you know, we went to the beach for a couple days for my wife's birthday and around the 4th of July. And it was like the majority of what we put in the car to drive 2 hours to get there was food, right?

[Dr. Scott Watier]
It was like bathing suits, company shorts and food. Like it was just to make sure that the army was satiated. Okay. Right. It's funny, but that's the reality of it. So there's always that stuff around. So I love the idea that I can simply know that that stuff is there, but it's not for me. I don't need to be snacking the entire time on a road trip.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah, like I don't need that anymore. Never mind. What? I just want to sleep. The whole drive. That's not going to get us anywhere. Right. So that was the first thing. The second thing you just mentioned about like the mindfulness of it. Right, is like putting a little bit of intentionality behind it or planning can remove the stress.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
And I'm not saying like rigid planning because that can increase the stress. Yeah, but you know, the moving the drinks later in the day to picking out your ideal meals, the how you're going to handle the question from the family member. Right. When they ask you how you look, great. What are you doing? You don't say you're fasting.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
Okay? Right. That is not a vacation conversation. All right. That's the next time I see you conversation. All right. See yourself out of this conversation. We're not going to do it. Okay. You. Because then every time you say no to food, the rest of the vacation, you do the passing thing. Yeah, you do. In the fashion. Okay. Yeah.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
And I told everybody else. Yeah. So they're doing it right, right, right. And then take the pressure off and don't worry about it. This isn't something that is going to completely derail you and maybe bring one or two things that you're doing successfully in your fasting journey now before vacation. Take them with you. Maybe that's journaling in the morning.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
Maybe that's a certain chocolate indulgence. Maybe you have a couple squares, a dark chocolate during your eating window, bring it with you or stick to your walking routine, or use this time to start a walking.

[Tommy Welling]
Oh, that's a big one. Yeah. Use some of that downtime to knock down that blood sugar. Right up to.

[Dr. Scott Watier]

[Dr. Scott Watier]
Okay. It is like the shopping mall from the south. It gets crazy. I don't understand it. There's 7000 gas pumps. Yeah, there's people buying, like, Christmas gifts, and there's, like, food and brisket and brisket and bathrooms. And I'm just like, I don't want to be here. The reality is, is just make sure that you are controlling the 80% rule, 80% of your decisions you've thought about, you've put a little bit of intentionality into and try to bring that pressure down right?

[Dr. Scott Watier]
Allow yourself to enjoy those moments, enjoy the food, enjoy the drinks, but also know that it's not a black or white thing, that this is a sustainability thing and a vacation is a part of the good life. As my wife and I like to say, vacationing is a part of the good life, like having the ability to go away and spend time with friends and family.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
That's part of the good life and we don't want to be continually bringing all of this baggage with us. So know that the scale is going to move. Don't weigh yourself when you get back. Try to enjoy this in a different way. And when we had this conversation in the beginning of the summer, it was cool to see so many people that went on vacation with this new mindset and came back a different individual that can then go on to the next vacation with just 10% more confidence or 10% more drive or 10% more.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
I know what to do this time, rather than it being the derailing type thing or the life event that derails you. Like we always hear people get married and then the weight comes on, right? Right, right. But raising both hands. Okay, right now I know you can't see this, but like my hands are waving above my head because that was me too.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
So I'm excited to see and hear the feedback on this episode, and I think the timing of it is perfect as we're wrapping up the summer months here in Texas, as everybody's going to be heading back to school.

[Tommy Welling]
Yeah, I think you hit on one last point that made me remember some of the comments that we got, which was about the road trip, specifically because road trips, if you're in a family or you're used to like road trip culture that can be very specific, like for the Buckeyes or whatever it is for like you're like neck of the woods, those can be very ingrained habits.

[Tommy Welling]
Like, Hey, we're going to get from rest stop to rest up to rest up. I pick up these. These are my items I'm looking for, you know, in the shelf or maybe the things that I only, you know, eat or drink on road trips. But either way, like for me, it was oftentimes like fighting the insulin spike that was leading to my being tired and like I'm wanting to do the driving, but I'm feeling more tired because I keep spiking my insulin every time we get to a rest stop, right.

[Tommy Welling]
To like pull in some of my favorite, you know, things that I like to have. So now I'm looking for the stronger coffee to counteract that. But I'll tell you, like the first long road trip that I took after really kind of figuring out how to use fasting for me was incredibly like night and day different where I was super happy, not hangry the whole time because I wasn't spiking the insulin, I wasn't living the blood sugar rollercoaster at that point, and I barely felt any urge to really like worry about coffee at all.

[Tommy Welling]
I said, like, give me a sparkling water and a regular water. I'm going to sip on them because I don't want to have to stop every 20 minutes, you know, to go to the bathroom. But at the same time, I don't need the coffee and I don't need the insulin spikes. And I was able to drive straight through like one of the road trips.

[Tommy Welling]
I just drove 12 hours straight. I didn't even think about it. And another one I did. 16 hours were just like a small stop. I would have never been able to pull that off in the past. It would have been like 2 to 3 hours and I would have not felt like continuing to drive. Like, let's take a break for a little while.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
Let me get out of the car. Let me walk around. Yeah, I'll meet you. Go walk around. Yeah, yeah. So true. I'd forgotten about that because you've done some longer trips and guys, my wife, that is not my thing. Yeah, I guess four or 5 hours in a car and I'm like, That's just crazy. So I really appreciate you sharing that because I hadn't thought about that in a long time.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
So if you guys are thinking about the vacation, what to do, come get your questions answered or get some more vacation tips. Join us in the Fasting for Life Community Group. It's an incredible group of people, podcast listeners, lifetime fasters people on this journey with us. And I say ask as Tommy and I are on the sustainability part or the lifestyle part of this journey, continuing looking to level up our fasting skills and continue to maintain the results that gave us our life and our health back.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
So come join us in the group, go to the show notes, click the link, answer a couple of questions. We will send you the mini masterclass, which is 20 minutes of six steps of how to put one meal a day fasting into day to day life. If you already have the fast start guide, don't worry. This is a video component to it that we made a while back.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
It's been hugely impactful. Thousands of people have commented on it and downloaded it. The proof is in the pudding. Could be the next thing that you need to set yourself up for success. When you get back from that next incredible vacation that you are going on. Tommy, appreciate the conversation as always, sir. And we'll talk soon.

[Tommy Welling]
Absolutely. 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 icon and sign up for our newsletter where you'll receive.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
Fasting tips.

[Tommy Welling]
And strategies to maximize results and fit fasting into your day to day life.

[Dr. Scott Watier]
While you're 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 and.

 

 

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