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In today’s episode, Dr. Scott and Tommy share tips for managing the holiday season and staying on track with fasting. They discuss strategies for mindful eating, portion control, and optimizing blood sugar response. Emphasizing the importance of allowing oneself to enjoy holiday treats while maintaining a fasting lifestyle. They also touch on hydration, alcohol consumption, and the benefits of post-meal walks. The episode concludes with a reminder to set intentional fasting goals for the upcoming year.
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Fasting For Life Ep. 209 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.
Hebron.
Welcome to the Fasting for Life podcast.
My name is Dr.
Scott Water, and I'm here as always in
the good friend and colleague Tom Welling.
Good afternoon to you, sir.
Hey, Scott, how are you doing?
Fantastic, my friend.
Merry Christmas. Happy holidays.
Rapidly approaching.
Happy New Year to you, to the fam, to the
fasting for life fam out there as well.
I hope it has been an incredible
holiday season for you.
Hope that you have been continuing
to listen and take actionable things
that you can do to remove the stress
during the holiday season and really focus
on what matters, which is focusing
on the experience and getting together
with loved ones, etc..
So today, Tommy, we are going to continue
the holiday conversation
and we want to use this as a springboard
for 2024 as well.
So it is a day after Christmas
and you might be waking up
on the right side of the fasting bed.
You might be waking up on the wrong side
of the fasting bed or heck, you might not
have even made it to the fasting
that maybe you're under the bed hiding.
Maybe you're in the corner in the chair
with the sheet over your head,
depending on how in terms of your fasting
and your weight loss and your health
have gone with the last 30 days.
And I want today's conversation
to be really encouraging
in that
no matter where you're at on your journey,
just keep going,
keep taking steps, keep taking action.
It's not always going to be perfect,
but we do want to wish you the best
and the happiest and America's
top holidays.
And we want to go through ten, 12,
maybe 15 things.
It all depends on how many will come out.
We've got a big list
we highlighted of things that you can do
to manage a holiday, right?
So we've got two
the big three behind us, right?
So we've got Thanksgiving
and we've got Christmas behind us.
We still got New Year's and that really
falls in that 40 days and 40 nights.
And we've been talking about the research
about the holiday weight gain, etc.,
and how we don't want to be the crazy
uncle showing up
when as food at the holiday gathering or,
you know, saying no to everything
and just, you know, staying home
and abstaining from all of the fun stuff
that we can do this time of year.
So I'm excited
to kind of break down these things
because this can
then be applied to any event
on the Hallmark calendar
for the remainder of 2024.
So hopefully it'll lend some perspective
to me
and I'm excited to kind of unpack this.
We'll see how many it ends up
being ten, 12, 15
things that you can do
to make any holidays success.
I love the fact that we can apply this
to spring break, summer vacation
business trips, you know, just any,
you know, anniversary trip.
It doesn't really matter.
But any potential time during
the year could could potentially derail
or make it to where I guess
I'll be starting back over on Monday
or after the trip's over or insert X,
Y, Z here, as I've done it for sure.
On the on the kind of diet
yo yo roller coaster.
So adapting this into a lifestyle
means not every day
or every week is necessarily a ten,
but at the same time I can minimize
the feeling that I need to start over.
And as I can do that,
then that lends itself
to greater consistency,
which then improves my results over time.
And that's what we're that's
what we're here for.
Yeah,
I want to give a shout out to Cage 1959.
This was a five star review
that came through
and it just says So much
Encouragement is the title.
I love listening to Dr.
Scott and Tommy
because they have lived the way of life.
This way of life.
The life, scuse me, forgot
how to read today.
They're encouraging. And the guys.
So this I wanted to highlight that
just because of the encouragement piece.
So we know during the holidays, Tommy,
sometimes there can be
some additional stress,
some loss of sleep, some more trinity,
some stressful situations
in terms of friends or family.
There can also be loss and grief.
Sure, Yeah.
You know, personally, for my wife
this year, this is the first holiday
where her mom, her grandmother
is not going to be with us.
She passed away earlier this year
and that was the woman who raised her.
So as we have gone into this season
and now through the holiday season,
there's been times where we need
to take a step back and pause and be like,
where is this anxiety coming from?
Where is this?
You know,
because there's a lot of pressure
that we put on ourselves to to make
the holidays all special and perfect.
And, you know,
we tried doing read a book every night,
a new tradition every night, wrap
wow. With the kids.
So we had some Christmas books
and we bought some others.
And, you know,
some nights were a major success.
And other nights
I was like, Who wrote this book?
This book should never be, ever
read again, because this book is terrible.
And like and then there are other nights
where the kids are fighting
and it's not perfect.
But if you are going
through the holiday season and you
are dealing with some feelings
and some grief,
hopefully some of these tips can also help
you manage those decisions
and take some of that pressure off
because we know that
that's not an easy thing
to handle this time of year as well.
And if you want to reach out to us, feel
free info at the fasting for life dot com.
She just the message will happily reply.
Love it.
Yeah.
When we get into strategies here like what
you just talked about,
what I heard there was there's a matter of
kind of being easy on myself
and what we like to call
allowing language like using,
allowing language for yourself, right?
So that you can also go into the meals
and the opportunities with,
Hey, I'm going to allow myself
to enjoy this.
I'm going to allow myself
to not feel like I'm just being restricted
or on a diet right now
so that I can go into this this meal
or this opportunity, this get together,
this holiday without feeling deprived.
So that's not a reason for me
to overdo it or permission
to to just kind of,
you know, like a like feast
or disassociate
some from myself and just go wild.
Yeah, I'm, yeah, I'm
picking up what you put down. Right.
But but I also don't have to feel like,
my gosh, like I'm trying to maintain
this strict diet throughout the holidays.
Okay,
So when we kind of merge those two ideas
right there, we can find ourselves
in a spot where I'm empowered.
I know I can.
I can make good choices,
but I also don't have to feel like
I'm doing something that I might feel
the need to like have some sort of binge
rebound behavior later
or fear of missing out
FOMO can be a big thing, especially
if you're if you're trying to like overdo
it during a very busy time
or a demanding time like holidays
or having to start over. Right.
Or using food as comfort because we talked
about that grief or loss situation.
Right?
So all of this stuff is allowing language
when we're talking about these things
in this time of year. Right.
So I love that starting point.
And if we're speaking specifically
about like, you know,
some additional food for thought.
But I'm saying,
you know, we want to be fast fasting
lifestyle, insulin friendly lifestyle.
This one meal,
let's say that you had yesterday,
or maybe the one that you're
having the day after Christmas,
because my family back home,
they do breakfast, Christmas Day,
the 26th, everybody comes over
when they do Christmas
like a post-Christmas little breakfast,
get together. Okay.
And then maybe, you know, hey, New Year's
is right around the corner, too, right?
So this one meal, right
this opportunity is like one out
of a thousand that you could potentially
have over the course of the next year.
So first and foremost,
like you don't get to practice holiday
eating all that much,
never mind holiday fasting or holiday.
Don't break
the first two rules of fasting, right?
So you only get a select few times
throughout the year to practice this,
which is why this place of grace
is really where I want
to make sure that we started today.
So I love that
that's the first place you went.
And as we come into those actual meals
that we get,
we brought our mindset
with our allowing language right,
but also wanting to practice
our fasting lifestyle and maintain
a fasting lifestyle
throughout these holidays.
Okay, So I want to make some decisions
about my plate.
So a little bit Forethought
and planning goes a long way.
So as I'm going into each opportunity,
I'm going to be a little bit more mindful
than maybe I would during the rest of the
year and go, okay, let me make sure that
let me have some idea
of what I'm going to eat
or at least what's going to be available
if there's something that I know
I don't want to say yes to
because I just don't need
it doesn't serve my long term goals.
Or maybe it's been a slippery
slope in the past, something that if I
if I have one, I'm
probably going to have three or four
or it's
going to be tough to say no
to something else or I'm
just not going to feel great tomorrow,
whatever that might be.
I want to kind of put that into my
into my plan for today.
Like, okay, this is going to be there,
so let me break my fast,
intentionally prioritize the protein
and like like let me put the proteins
and the vegetables first on my plate
so that I'm not feel like let me break
that fast, sooner like that,
so that I don't feel tempted to grab
more of the kind of appetizer, crunchy
kind of stuff. Right.
Give me the meats, birds say Arby's.
Arby's. We have have the meat, right?
Yeah.
Put the meat. Build your.
Yeah, put
the meats. Meats are first. Right.
Go for it
Get a little bit larger portion
We tend to under prioritize protein Right.
And then do the non-starchy veggies,
the green bean casseroles, the rice, etc.
etc.. Right.
All the berries and apples
and all that stuff. Great.
It's great. Low glycemic, right?
If we're absolutely talking
about keeping the main thing,
the main thing
which is insulin, blood sugar,
like we talked about on the previous
episode, where we're setting ourselves up
for a metabolic state where we can lose
weight moving through January and February
and not being 50 to 90% of the population
that ends up gaining
weight this time of year.
And then it stays with us the remainder
of the year and we never lose it.
We want to be, you know,
just looking at those portion sizes.
And I'm not saying you again, allowing
you can have all of the food you can eat.
There is no good or bad
food on any given holiday.
Right.
But a little bit to your point, Tommy,
of like putting, you know,
that prioritization on those less blood
sugar spiking foods.
And the third one
then is talking about those portion sizes.
The third tip to this is,
you know, protein veggies first.
Healthy fats are great,
but then that portion size.
So if you want to increase the portion
size of the meat,
then decrease the portion size
on the other stuff, just don't pile it up
three feet high and then go sit down
and then come back for more.
Right.
As if I've never done that before.
So now you ask my wife about the top bars.
that's okay.
If you're getting smaller portion sizes
when we're putting our plate together.
Okay, So the cool thing is,
if we're not stacking our plate high,
which I used to tend to do more,
then what we can do is
we can leave a little bit space
on the plate.
And the cool thing about that is it
makes for another actual decision
necessary to get up from the table
and then go back to get more food.
If if we really want it, it's
going to put a little bit more time
in between the food rather than if we're
stacking it high right on our plate,
then I don't have to go anywhere for it.
And then it it happens a lot faster,
you know, So.
So that's good.
It gives you a little bit of a time buffer
between those additional servings,
a little bit of a, okay,
am I really hungry?
Do I really want more right now?
And so it kind of slows you down,
which is a really important thing.
And I like the idea of this swap portion
size, too.
So give me some more of the meat.
And if I'm really big on like, let's say
two, I know you call them candied yams.
I don't know what that is, but like,
we have this sweet potato
casserole that we love,
and I think there might be
some marshmallow in there or something.
Yes. Fabulous.
Like I'm a wants more of that
because I don't get that very often.
So guess what?
I'm going to leave off the potentially dry
cornbread stuffing that
I really don't like, but I just eat
because it's part of the process, right?
So you can also portion swap too,
which I love, because it's like,
give me a little more about
give me a little more of that right in.
I need a little bit less of that.
Like the cranberry sauce
that has the whole cranberries in it.
Get out of it right now.
Thanksgiving. It's one day a year.
I'm having the organic,
no high fructose jellied cranberry
sauce that you have to jiggle out of a
can that's going on my plate right now.
It's not a lot.
You can have mine just a little bit.
That's all I need. Right.
And then this leads right into tip four,
which is leave some space on your plate,
too. Right.
So we're still talking about portion sizes
where I like
to think of it the way I ate growing up,
which is my food couldn't touch.
Right.
Because that insulates me
from just mindlessly sitting there,
because we know that the research shows
the bigger
the group, the bigger the gathering.
If you're alone, you eat less,
but you typically just mimic
what's behavioral patterns of what's
going on around you. Yeah.
So if you're around a lot of people,
then you tend to potentially even more.
Right? Right.
And you know what? If you're sitting here
going, none of that.
Yeah, whatever.
It's just one day great
that works for some meal, right.
This and fasting
leading up to and coming onto the holiday
or any life event moving forward in 2024.
Great that works.
But what works even better for me
and what I found is making some
intentional choices and moving the needle
in these more subtle ways as well.
Because then I feel better.
The worst thing I ever can remember
on the holidays
or life events or vacations
or cruises or anything.
I've worked really hard to lean out,
to go on nights, a honeymoon, right?
And all that stuff is once
I get on the other side of it, it's like,
gloves are off.
Yeah, right.
Tough to get back. Yeah.
And we want to get off of that
yo yo type mindset.
So I don't like to feel overly
stuck, overly
full, growing up with allergies and asthma
and not being able to breathe.
Well, it reminded me of that.
Like, Yeah, right.
A shortness of breath that like Darth
Vader uncomfortableness, right?
And I don't want that right,
because it's the feeling
we want to feel good this time of year.
We want to enjoy the holiday
and ultimately the next day
when you feel like
that is a lot more difficult as well.
And then tip five, Tommy,
we've talked about this before
is if you eat in a different order, right,
put the double serving of the candied yams
or whatever the heck it is for me.
It's the sweet potato casserole.
Put the double thing of that in and leave
off the leave off the stuffing.
But guess what?
I'm going to eat those last
because that can have a 30 to 40% decrease
in blood sugar response.
Yeah, it can.
And that's a
that's a really, really good point
because it's like everything
that you bring in to your plate is going
to have a macronutrient component and it's
also going to have a time component too.
So when we can compartmentalize
and put things on a plate or
within a relatively short period of time,
then we don't have to maintain
those increased insulin levels
for longer than necessary.
But at the same time, if we can tweak
the order of how we're actually eating,
like break our fast with something
that's like,
you know, maybe we can put in some nuts
or some crunchy vegetables,
something that's going to be very low
blood sugar and insulin inducing.
Then we can put behind that some proteins
and then some vegetables
and leave the carbohydrates,
the things that are going to tend to
spike our blood sugar and our insulin
the most put those later on in the meal
so that my blood chemistry is always is
already kind of adapting to the situation.
It has less of a overreactive
overcompensating spike in blood sugar
and that which leads to insulin.
So so that's a really good way to
to kind of compartmentalize that.
And you can go a step further with that
by using a little bit of apple cider
vinegar after that meal, too,
which then tends to blunt that blood sugar
response even a little bit more for a day
like like a holiday celebration.
I like to do a little bit on the front
and the back end of that meal as well,
just to kind of prime the pump,
remind myself about my fasting lifestyle
and the fact that I do want
to compartmentalize this insulin spike.
And I'd like to take any little lever
I can to kind of control it.
Yeah.
And that kind of encompasses like this
little group of three that we're here
that we're in right now. Right?
I don't know what number one five, six,
seven, eight or whatever it is.
I lost track
but the whole eat your starches last
than the next one is the tablespoon
apple cider vinegar
and then the walk post-meal. Right.
All of those kind of fall
into these optimizers.
I don't like the word hack,
but it ultimately that's what it is.
It's a blood sugar hack.
You are going to be decreasing
that blood sugar response.
You're going to be decreasing that turkey
coma, you're going to be decreasing
the potential hangover.
You're going to be decreasing food
or alcohol related hangovers, you know, So
tablespoon apple cider, vinegar, starch,
last quarter, resistant starch,
even if you're going to have leftovers
the next day and having a second serving
or second period of enjoyment
around some of those traditional things
you don't eat year round. Right?
Remember, we talk,
you don't get a lot of practice of holiday
eating or event lifestyle
eating all that often, right?
So we want to use these events
and these opportunities to think
can be present and learn
how we're feeling through the process,
which is really great for long term
adaptability
of a fasting lifestyle for sure.
And then the walk post meal.
I mean,
this has been incredibly powerful for me,
even if it's just ten or 15 minutes,
it's cold as heck, right?
Then, you know, get crazy on Sally or,
you know, Uncle Joe.
They're willing to bundle up,
get outside with you,
go down in the basement,
walk on the treadmill,
just take a little bit of time and prime
and prep
your physiology
to give you the best benefit
for the effort
that you're putting forward. Yeah.
And if you think about that walk
and how important that is, and that's
kind of the opposite of the insulin coma
that we think about for the holidays.
It's not related to the turkey.
It's related to the amount of food
and the amount of insulin response
that we have to to actually process
that food, especially during the higher
rich, higher fat, higher carbohydrate
foods that we tend to bring in.
So if we're going to be
bringing those things in back
to the time compartmentalization of that,
I like to
have the
dessert without putting too much time
in between the meal and the dessert,
because I don't want to
I don't want to wait to have more capacity
for more dessert.
If I'm going to have it, then let me take
advantage of the one insulin spike.
I don't want it to go another few hours
because I waited for those desserts.
And I also don't want to have twice
as much dessert because I waited
to have more kind of space
to feel more comfortable in my stomach.
Right.
So bring it with you to the table
with your plate and you'll have a better
time feeling better afterwards,
reducing that feeling of insulin coma
and then being that much more likely
to take that post-meal walk,
which is where we can see
a drastic decrease
in that ultimate insulin
spike and blood sugar spike, right?
Yeah, they've all worked right.
And then the big thing for me
here is wearing the CGM shout out
to neuroscience, who we partner with.
I know we talk a lot about them, but it's
because it's been incredibly powerful.
I used it early on to reverse
my blood sugar instabilities
and just feel better and learn
what foods we're doing in and out.
But nutrition is combines
cutting edge technology
with the biosensor,
which is the CGM, the thing that you wear
on the back of your arm.
It's not just, you know,
you can get it without a prescription.
It can be incredibly beneficial for you
from a health perspective.
It gives you real time data.
So like I've tested these things
and seen how my body
responds to grandma's apple pie
right after a meal.
I've seen how it responds to me
being on less sleep.
I've seen how it responds
to periods of high stress
or different types of exercises
or soreness or cold plungers.
And what it really does
is it gives you real life information
on how your body is responding
to the decisions that you're making.
Right? Yeah. You know what it does for me?
It helps me connect the dots
between some of the small decisions
that really move the needle versus
what I'm saying in my monkey brain,
which is like, I don't really want to
change the order of my foods because
how much difference can it actually make?
But the cool thing is
when you're wearing the CGM.
Doubting Thomas
Yeah, yeah, you can see it visually
and so you actually get real time feedback
and you can, you can see exactly
what's going on under the hood,
which then subconsciously helps
you make better decisions in the future
that support my fasting lifestyle
and support my ultimate long term
health and weight related goals.
So it's really cool. It's eye opening.
So I definitely encourage everyone,
if you're on the fence about it,
take the plunge because you'll definitely
get a lot out of it.
Yeah,
and we're talking about things that move
the needle
in terms of blood sugar response.
So that visualization is so powerful
and that's why the nutrition app
and the dietitian support
that they have combined
with the CGM or the technology has been
just game changing.
So I'm wearing it again
through the holidays.
It's been incredibly eye opening.
This is the best holiday season
I've had in terms of weight and how I feel
and health metrics, etc., etc..
So it really does help with that
lasting, sustainable change.
So head to nutrition start
i o forward slash fasting for life.
You can click the link in the show notes.
You get $30 off and one month
of dietitian expert dietician support.
So when we're looking at these next
two tips, Tommy,
I want to go
I'm going to flip them. Right?
So tip number nine and tip number eight.
We're going to switch
and we should have mentioned the hydration
one earlier on is put some boundaries
around your trigger foods, your sweets.
Right.
Didn't say completely remove them
the foods that you want to enjoy,
put them in your window today. Right.
But staying hydrated is
incredibly important for those cravings.
I know for me, when I get up
and I do my hydration protocol,
I've got my element shout out,
click the link in the show notes.
You get a free sample pack
when I get my Elementi
or my Redman salt in or my trace minerals
inconsistently consistently,
I notice that my cravings
for those more craveable stuff
for my salty snack
type behavior that I typically experienced
over the years.
Later in the afternoon into the evening.
Post-Dinner When I'm hydrated properly,
I mean, it's way less so, especially on
holidays like starting the day with proper
hydration is so stinking important.
Yeah, it really is, because we know
that most of our salt is going to come in
from the food that we eat, especially
if we're not if we're not deliberately
supplementing with salt.
So being very proactive with
that means that you don't have to crave
as much food because,
you know, there's there's this there's
this connection there subconsciously.
And so it's it's really interesting
how that works.
It's a that's a powerful needle mover
right there, which also can lead in
to the alcohol portion of the holidays,
which I want to touch on briefly as well,
because when I'm making food choices
and I'm trying to compartmentalize
my insulin spike, well, alcohol matters
because it's going to bring in additional
calories.
It's also going to hijack
what the liver needs to do
to actually process all of macronutrients
that I'm bringing in.
So understanding that and not breaking
my fast with an alcoholic beverage,
but instead being a little bit
more strategic about breaking my fast,
going into a holiday celebration
and then compartmentalizing
the alcohol as well, which means
I'd rather have a drink or two
over a one or two hour period
rather than just kind of sipping on
something like all throughout
the day is going to be tend
to be better for my on my insulin response
and my my liver actually being able
to get back to what I want it to be doing,
which is ultimately getting me back
into the fat
burning process as quickly as possible.
Yeah, two things here I just heard was one
is possibly, well, there's two things
I want to talk about right now.
One is distance between bedtime.
So for me, alcohol
is much less a part of my life these days.
And three kids under seven being hung
over as dad having crappy sleep.
It's just not in the cards
from your heart now.
So it's very few and far between.
Even less than date nights these days.
And I just know how I feel
and what it does.
Now that I have a WOOP and a CGM,
I can actually see what it does.
And I'm like, Ha
ha ha.
That is not what I was a very bad
sound for a podcast.
But that reality, that's what my gut does
when I think about it, right?
So distance between that time.
So I prefer to eat earlier
and if I am going to have
a drink, it's earlier in the day
because then my sleep isn't as affected,
which makes the next day that much easier
to stick to bossing windows.
And then there's one thing around sweets
and desserts that I want to mention here.
So this is like tip 10.5, maybe tip 11.
I don't know.
I lost track, but say you're at grandma's
house and they've got three desserts
and grandma is trying to put a piece
on a piece of each on every plate,
ask for them to go.
And you have the ability to use something
that's called delayed gratification.
And it is incredibly powerful as a tool
when used properly for long
term weight loss success.
Take the stuff home, get some leftovers,
put a piece of pie, and guess what?
Maybe bring your own container.
I don't know.
Put it in Ziploc. Who cares?
Like grandma, I'm stuffed.
I'm going to bring it home.
I want to enjoy this.
I want to have this right.
I'm not going to enjoy it. Yeah.
And now you've got delayed gratification
and you've got something
to look forward to tomorrow night
when you got leftovers.
Nice, right?
So we're just talking
about sustainability, right?
We're talking about long term.
We know that the weight
we gain statistically
through the holidays
is something that we keep with us.
So we want to talk about long term habit
change, long term adaptability, right?
So using these types of thing on weekly
Sunday fun days
or holiday events or barbecues or kids
sporting events or professional sporting
anything, any type of holiday.
Right.
Anything in 2024
that falls into the hallmark calendar,
these things can still apply.
You set yourself up for success
to know that you're still on track.
Right.
And we started with this allowing
this grace kind of mindset because,
you know, if we're looking at like kind of
an overarching theme for this would be
there are no problems,
there are just opportunities
and there are no stop signs,
just guidelines.
And this one meal or this one thing
that you might be putting
a little extra pressure or this one week
or just 40 days a year.
Right. Which is the holiday season.
Right.
Over the course of the year,
there's thousands
of these different types of opportunities.
So how can we get more practice
in what's being intentional?
It's being in the moment.
It's using delayed gratification.
It's bringing home
grandma's pie in a Ziploc bag.
It might be messy. Who cares? Right?
But really focusing on the intentionality
of when you're fasting,
when you're breaking your fast,
how you're breaking your fast,
the optimizers that you're using
during that time, and then ultimately
the intention behind
what you're going to do the next day,
the following day, and some of those
foundational fasting habits that combine
with these tips that we just went over
can really create some sustainable change.
I love that.
I also love the fact that if I'm using
if I'm if I'm using a balanced
kind of allowing language framework
for myself going into the holidays
and I get to think about these holidays
a little bit differently
because I've spent a lot of time
white knuckling holiday diets.
You know, my diets during past holiday
season. Yeah.
Extra treadmill session cardio.
Yeah.
Let me do some cardio on Christmas Eve.
That sounds like a lot of fun, right?
So, you know,
So I can earn that by morrow.
Yeah. Not a lot of fun.
Also not really physiologically effective
either.
So healthy
from a mindset perspective. Right.
But but nonetheless I've done it
and but the cool thing is here,
bringing a different mindset
with my fasting lifestyle
and into the holidays
means that I can also give myself
permission to push myself
when I feel like, Hey,
it's the holiday season, but I don't have
anything going on this week, or maybe
for the few days around Christmas or,
you know, after before or after Christmas.
So if I want to set a little bit
of a longer fasting time or
if I want to hit some new fasting goal,
maybe it's
hit my first 20 or my first 24 hour fast
the week before Christmas.
That's great.
And I could allow myself to do that
even while I'm also allowing myself,
Hey, you know what?
It would be nice
if this was the first year that I didn't
have to feel guilty about what
I ate at Christmas time or felt like
I was just totally derailing myself,
kind of knowing that I was getting off off
track during the holiday season.
So I like that for a juxtaposition,
a bit of balance too.
I got a better mindset coming in
and I'm going to end the holiday season
with better physiology and likely be
closer to my my weight and my health goals
than when I started the holiday season.
So I'm going encourage
everybody to also like
think about the next way
that you want to push your fasting.
And if you haven't got gotten started
or if you haven't downloaded the blueprint
to fasting for fat loss, go grab that,
because that's that's a great thing to
to have with your balanced mindset
going into the holidays.
Have some strategy to push yourself
to the next level at the same time.
Yeah, I'll just say
coming out of the holidays. Right.
So it's it'll give you the strategy
to be like, all right,
some things one good some things went bad.
Literally.
The next episode you listen to from us
is going to be in 2024.
Right? Right.
So it's like, what's my plan?
Well,
if you already got it, go get it again.
If you haven't looked at in a while,
great.
Evaluate
you measure, measure which values.
You haven't looked at your bank account,
you're out there spending.
Well, maybe you're not going
to have enough to pay the mortgage.
You got to check the balance, right?
So get plugged in, head to the shownotes,
click the link.
It's free. It's 20 page PDF.
It gives you some of the what, the why,
but it also give you
some fasting schedules on things
that you can just take the thinking out of
and be like, All right.
I reflected on the holiday were New
Year's is right around the corner
boom New Year's.
I want to hit the ground running.
As we talked about in last week's
episode, Fasting is incredibly powerful.
You get the benefit.
Even if you're not losing weight,
you get incredible physiological benefits
from it.
So regardless of
if it's been an incredible 40 days,
while we're almost at, it'll be 40 days
in 40 nights on January 1st, right?
Wherever you are,
whenever you're listening
to this during that time
frame, you have the opportunity
to do the 1% better.
The next time
the one decision better, the next time
the one pushing your fast like Tom,
you were saying, what is your plan?
Putting a little bit
more of intentionality
into it, giving yourself
a little bit more grace.
But definitely if you're looking for some
passive schedules or for some momentum,
head to the show notes, grab it,
and then you can also join the Facebook
community, the fasting for life community
that links in the show notes as well.
Come on in.
We know January is gym membership
season is New Year's resolution season.
Not that we believe in
either of those two things, but
we know that motivation is typically high
this time of year. Coming up.
So we want to support you
the best that we can.
So we would love to see you inside of
group, Tommy And I just think that's 2024
from Fasting for Life.
We have some really cool things
that we're working on and some things
that we're continuing to build out to
to deliver additional support
and adaptation of a fasting lifestyle,
because we truly believe that now
that we're three years into this coaching
challenges rapidly approaching three and a
half million downloads on the podcast,
which we are incredibly grateful for each
and every one of you listening in,
but know that
we're so on this journey with you
that we're on a mission to empower people,
to teach people that they have a choice
when it comes to their health
and their weight loss.
And it may not be the standard operating
procedure that you see around you,
but fasting is something
now that is becoming a household name
and we just want to support you
on this journey.
So grab the blueprint,
head to the community.
Tommy I want to wish everyone
listening a Happy New Year
that's coming up right around the corner
and just excited for what's to come, Yeah.
So my it's going to be an incredible year
and it starts today.
Whatever day it is
that you're listening to this,
you can think of one or two ways
to push yourself today
and to start getting in the reps
that lead to the habits
that are going to also ultimately
lead you to your long term success.
So there's no time like the present.
Absolutely. Love it.
Sarah Can't believe it's
next time we record, it's going to be 21
or are All right, y'all.
I just just thought of Macaulay Culkin
in Home Alone.
We watched that for the first time this
year, where he puts a nice shave on that.
So that's the image
that just went through my head
when I said, my goodness, it's 20, 24.
Lots more coming next time.
Tommy, appreciate a conversation and happy
New Year to everybody once again.
And we'll see you in 2024.
Happy New Year. Thanks you. Bye bye.
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