Ep. 28 - What breaks a fast? Intermittent Fasting Mistakes, Fasting Struggles | Fasting Supplements, Fear, & Anxiety | Weight Loss Plateaus, Ideal Body Weight, Artificial Sweeteners | Free OMAD Intermittent Fasting Plan

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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.

Hi, everyone, welcome to the Fasting for Life podcast. My name is Dr. Scott Watier and I'm here with my good friend and colleague, Tommy Welling. Once again, good evening to you, sir. Hey, Scott. How are you? As always, man, this is awesome. I'm enjoying the heck out of it. It's so much fun. I cannot wait to record tonight's episode like I always want to say all of these things when we start. And I usually give you the same, like, canned response. So I'm going to mix it up on you tonight.

Well, yeah, I feel mixed up, but it's always sincere. I can always see your face and it's it's never canned. Even if it's even if it's it sounds the same.

Right. Right. Right. It's like stone stone cold. Stone face. Yeah. It's cool because we get to see each other while we do it, which makes us so much easier. So welcome to you. I don't know what up. So this is we've been doing so much content creation. It's just it's been so fun. And tonight we are going to talk about a couple of kind of threads that we've been seeing in the conversations and the challenge that we're doing in the 28 day live experience and just some things that we think are important for anybody at any experience level with fasting. You know, in some now there were twenty something episodes in and we've been doing this for six months. It's like, OK, so have we repeated ourselves. We have an episode topic. Let's try it. Like we weren't this organized in the beginning. So it's like think about this. I think we may. OK. Did we do this research Watier. OK, great. Luckily there's hundreds of them out there as we probably won't ever run out of those. But really trying to make this more, not even more, just continually be actionable and conversational. You know, because the action steps is the number one thing that we hear that people like the most. And as in people, we mean you guys are listening.

Yeah. And so that's why we took that and really expanded upon it. But, you know, as we're kind of going through the experience right now, we're seeing these things pop up so we know they're on more people's mind. You know, people are posting in the group and then people are coming back. Oh, yeah, I had the same question. And there kind of give us some more details, given their insight into these specific situations. So we thought, why not pull from there? Because must be on more people's minds as well.

Yeah. And it's there's you know, there's only so many if you Google fasting, right.

Dr. Google. It was I like to say, if you get on there, there's there's so many variations of fasting because people have taken it and kind of turned it into their own, you know, strategy or application. Right. And that's what we've done with the fasting for life, you know, method in the fasting life experiences, you know, the things that we want to hear and think. Thankful for you, too, Tommy, because you look at the numbers and you're like, OK, what are the things that we keep seeing over and over again? Like, where are we? What needs to be addressed? What things that we need to know in our own lives, first of all. But second wall with our with our clients. And then third, like, how do we get this information out to everybody? There's there's consistent themes of, you know, sticking points or hurdles or stumbling blocks or mindset shifts or, you know, and it's been cool to see over the last six months how it's kind of evolved from. Let me tell you what intermittent fasting is all about to. OK, let me let me tell you what. What you need to do and not to do. All right. For for the most successful outcome and again, we don't know everything. We're still on this journey with you all. But these are the things that we've been seeing tonight that are really making an impact.

Yeah, we've we've learned a lot. You guys share a lot with us and we've been paying attention. So, you know, trying to give some some really good, helpful, actionable advice, like you said, for, you know, stumbling points that we see different tricks, different ways to kind of, you know, push yourself to the next level or to open up your mind so that you can take that next step that you've been kind of hesitating with. And, you know, that's that's all we've been able to do a lot within the challenge or in the experience, rather.

Yeah. And really, the whole first week so far has just been mindset. And that's really what we plan mindset and the mindset and motivation behind it, because that's really what sets you up for success. So some of the things that we're hearing we'll go over now is we're going to talk about what breaks a fast.

So what constitutes breaking a fast? Right. We get a lot of questions about drinks and gums and and protein powders and coffee creamers and all that stuff. So what technically breaks a fast and kind of our our perspective on it? And there's different sides to every story, but we'll give you what works for us and what it's been working for, the people we've been helping. And then more, we're going to talk about a little little dark secret of everybody that I didn't realize was as dark as it was. You're looking at me like, okay, here we go. What's the dark secret? Right. Well, the fear and the anxiety that comes with a certain apparatus that is in your house that we have been programmed to not want to interact with. And that apparatus is the.

Scale.

No. Yep. You're about to say I could see it. So, yeah. And it's it's more common than I realized and I don't know it.

Is that why we. Is that we put in the. Like a dirty, like dark corner. Like in the bathroom. Because we're afraid of it. We don't want to see it.

Yeah. It's always covered by a dirty towel. Right. It's like the treadmill that becomes the lawn. The drying rack. Right. Yeah. Right. So a treadmill on the on the side of my street on trash picked up that 2002 a treadmill. What do you do when you don't get out here?

So yeah, it's the words perfectly fine. They just didn't they just didn't need it that it was.

Exactly. And then we're also going to talk about the mindset shift in fasting. You know, sometimes fasting can be seen as a mission and restriction were really what we want is not fasting as a punishment for what you have done in the days or weeks prior or what you're going to do in anticipation of a life event. But the plan really sets you up for success with having control and simplicity of, OK. This is where I'm at. This is where I'm going. And this is how I'm gonna get there. And fasting is that tool. So we don't want, you know, the old calorie and calorie out, move more, eat less failed diet plans and programs to continue to take that thought process into fasting. Fasting is simple and it's not a punishment. It's actually almost like a reward for knowing where you're going and how you're going to get there. So I'm going to let you in playing on that one because.

The way I just tried to articulate it, I don't think worked.

So, you know, maybe it was in the calories in calories out. We get we get to where if we if we fall off or we get off track at some point, then. OK, well, maybe I'll just spend a little longer in the gym. Maybe I'll hit that treadmill. But, you know, before it hits the trash, I'll hit it, you know, a little bit more. Go on there for another 30 minutes or so and kind of make up for something I did earlier. But that's that's not really a productive, you know, mindset. But when we when we take the plan and we we put life at the center of it, we can really start to, you know, anticipate what our schedule is going to look like. OK. I want to do a 48 hour, a 72 hour fast this week, but I know I have some things coming up. OK. Well, are the are those busy times, times when, you know, you may be away from the family? That may be the easiest time to actually do those longer, fast things like that. So being strategic rather than, you know, like you said, some sort of punishment or like a you know, a penance or something like that. Yeah.

Let's just dive right into this, because I think is the most interesting one that we're going to talk about tonight. The scale is gonna be a little tongue in cheek. A funny story about it. But you know what? This one. Yeah. Fasting is not a punishment. It's not reparations for something you've done. Right. Like, there's no shame involved. It's really the plan. Like you said, that it allows you this the strategy to, you know, to still live your life. Right. Every single day without having to feel that restriction or that omission. So.

When in the beginning, in the first couple of weeks, if you guys are new to fasting and we keep having I keep having to remind myself of this time and that not everybody is you know, I'm you know what, 14 months end at this point? Well, no, I did intermittent for about six months, so probably. Yeah, about 12 to 14 months. And you're doing a year and a half plus right now. There's people out there that have dabbled with it for for quite some time. But, you know, depending on where you're starting in the beginning, it's going to feel somewhat punish. Punishment like if you're, like, really hungry.

Or, for instance, my day tomorrow where I have a clinic day and I don't do many clinic days anymore. And so. They're very few and far between. And it's one of my more emotionally stressful days because I'm interacting with patients and helping and dealing with, you know, chronic issues and this is not fasting related, so. Right. And I and I enjoy and I know these people. I've known them for a long time. And it's it's an enjoyable day. But at the end of the day, it is emotionally draining from an empathetic standpoint. You know, typically, Wednesday is the day where we just talked about this right after you gave me my plan for this 28 day experience. Just so happens that you made my mind fast go from tonight, which was my short window of dinner.

All through tomorrow into Thursday night and Wednesday is my heart is day to not just say, you know what?

I'll get lunch today and then I'll start a fast after.

Right. So, yeah, it's devastating. They're gone. There was some strategy behind that as well. So, you know, being aware of what you know, what comes up in your schedule and knowing that if if you're fasting during that time, then you know that that's going to make for for a much better rest of the week. I think, you know, and maybe you're going to have, you know, a couple more additional struggles tomorrow. But I think that that that's really going to end up being a much smoother, more enjoyable week overall. And we wanted to get it started with with a longer, fast, quickly to kind of jumpstart that. Clear out some glycogen and and really just kind of get the ball rolling. So so that was that was the logic behind it in the plan.

And it makes sense to you, because I've been kind of maintaining my 40 pound plus weight loss. Right. It just kind of hanging out. I lost the weight. My men, my numbers have come back down. My my blood panel looks fantastic. Like my triglycerides are back in the normal range. You know, all this stuff that I couldn't figure out. I'm sleeping most nights if my 13 month old son allows it.

You know, like so things are going really well. And it's like, OK, well, you know, here's my final push down to my ideal body weight. I think my ideal body weight, it's gonna be based more of body composition, but this is the final push. So I'm just kind of been hanging out, waiting around in the kiddie pool, just enjoying the warm water and the sunshine. And it's like, OK, yeah. So now it's time to like, you know, be a little bit more strategic and intentional about it. Because am I where I'm at. No. Could I stay here forever and be a lot healthier than I was two years ago. Hundred percent. But you know, that's not good enough. So.

So I. To make another push.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So that's what I mean. Yeah. I'm loving the accountability. So when we look at farseeing, we just wanna make sure that we're framing it not as a punishment for what you've done or what you're going to do, but you're either fasting or you're not. Right, you're on board or you're not. It's really simple and it's a great tool to create that fat loss and create the new habits of breaking away from the necessity of feeling like we need to eat and have snacks and all this other stuff that we've been programmed or told by great grandma. Right. That's been handed down to grandma. That's been handed down to mom. That's been handed down to you at breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Right. Or that you need to have protein within 60 minutes or working out or all these other myths that exist. So, yeah, you know, just to to end it on my standpoint is like, yeah, fasting is a positive thing because it gives you back control.

Yeah, it is. And also gives you back time, some money, you know, a lot of resources that, you know, we talk about. If you're new to fast thing or you haven't done a longer, fast like plan, some projects behind it planned for that time. You have a little bit of a time vacuum, but you can put that energy to really, really good use. I mean, you're listening to one creation of the time that we found whenever we started fasting and figured out what we needed to do with that, we created fasting for life. Yeah, that's fine.

And that's the personalization that we want to. So let's talk about what breaks a fast. This is a question we've gotten multiple different variations of. What can I use my college in creamer? Can I have this, you know, electrolyte drink called Boost? And what about MeOh. Right. Which is that thing, that little squirt bottle thing of flavoring that you can put into water. And I laughed when I got that question because my dad is someone who's like, I just can't drink water. I'm like, okay, well, that's kind of a strong take on it. But since you're a 70 plus percent water use, freidrich more water. I just can't stand it. Okay. Well, I mean, it doesn't really taste like anything. So what's your problem? Well, it just it's just hard. OK. OK. Really. Drinking water is hard now, ok. You know, finding you suck as hard as it.

Let me pause you for a second because I hear a lot of people say that. And I think what if allow me to translate for him. I'd prefer to drink other things. I'm really used to drinking things that are more entertaining. John. Tasty, right? Not playing like nothing. All right.

Cool. I'll be the bad cop right now. So anyway, if you're thinking this and you're like, yeah, I need something that's more enjoyable or fun. Right. Life of the party. Things. Just a couple of tips for you. So anything really that has calories in it technically break so fast.

Now we're really looking at, you know, what the insulin is. Lance is going to be so things like artificial sweeteners and the meals, you know, any type of the artificial sweetener, there is a debate on, you know, kind of how they are delivered, if there's maltodextrin at it, and if it's a liquid form of it's an extract. There's a lot of variables here. So one of the things that we talk about when it comes to calories is if you like, for instance, if you put creamer in your coffee or you use a college in like nine grams of protein. Thirty five calorie like, you know, Molk, a packet. Right. That's your creamer in your coffee. And that's something you've already been doing. Or you're taking the electrolyte packet like you don't have to stop because it's kind of like you're taking your multivitamin and it's part of your routine. So that's I think the analogy you used was a papercut. And what it what was the analogy there?

Yeah. You don't worry about your papercut during a house fire.

Right. So what technically breaks a fast is different than what breaks off. What what really breaks a fast for for compliance and ease of making this a lifestyle.

Yeah. Let me be backup for a minute here, because, like what helped me get into a lot of the fasting windows, you know, maintaining good fasting windows and, you know, getting a lot of early momentum and seeing a lot of progress that I hadn't seen in the past was, you know, switching over to black coffee, being being really strict about that stuff. That was really helpful for me, even though I was used to drinking, you know, creamer and my coffee and things like that. So, you know, if if you find yourself miserable from it, what, just work on weaning yourself off of those things? Well, you know, the whole point of fasting and regaining the control of your health and your body and your life, it has to do with coming away from from things that you may not necessarily need, like to eat three times or six times a day. So, you know, maybe a water additive is just another thing that long term you just don't need. So. So maybe reframe it like that and start start working towards getting rid of that stuff that you really don't need, even if it's not all at once.

And that's a good point. So I was being a little wishy washy there. So I appreciate you holding me accountable. It's now just cut it out. You don't need it, right? Like it's OK. It's fine if you're not moving forward, if you're not growing. Right. Your your your style. Your dying, your. Yeah. Moving backward like that. Hold adage. So like, yeah. These are things that we've been we've been comfortable with. But that's also, you know what what gets us in these situations to begin with. So I like your perspective. There is, you know, toughen up a little bit. You know, it's OK to use it, OK? It's going to be OK. But work towards being a little bit more strict with that. I prefer just black coffee, cold brew, black coffee and water at this point. I do like my soda water, though. I like a bubbly water that's flavor with just natural flavors. So Soda Stream has some cool showed us socially. If you're listening, give us a sponsorship shout out. That'll be cool. Yeah. Let me know if that's how this works. Just throwing it out there. I just figured if I said their name I should probably like mention that I have one and I love it. And it was a Christmas gift and it's fantastic. And they have these little flavorings that are they're all natural, just natural flavors. And you've got raspberry mixed bearing, all the stuff. So it just mixes up, gives you a little bit of different. Ness, then the plain water, as you mentioned earlier, told me so, yeah, you can be the rest of the party is you going to mix and match your flavors, but.

All right. So the last thing I wanna talk about tonight is the. And this one is more rooted in. I feel like just bad programming. Right. So, yeah. The scale and the fear of the scale.

Yeah, it's interesting when it when we started seeing this question come up, it came up during the challenge earlier in the year and it came up again during the experience because, you know, you measure you know, you measure what's important to you. It's good to have measurements. It's good to know where you're starting from. Accountability. There's really no more. You don't know easier, more direct way to do that than just hopping on the scale in the morning and then tracking your progress. I think the problem comes from years of calories in, calories out ineffective Yo-Yo dieting and then just kind of fearing that it's not going to move or it's going to go backwards or if you have a little momentum going, that it's going to stop at some point in the near future. So just. And just the day to day punishment, if it if it goes up and, you know, you've been you've been trying or you made a mistake or whatever, we kind of punish ourselves based on on the scale. And that can be really, you know, learn some learned helplessness. It can be demoralizing. So I think that's why this comes up. Why do you think.

Yeah, and it's interesting, too, because this is a well-known phenomenon. You know, the way ends at Weight Watchers back in the day, right before they actually had technology. Right. The scales at the grocery stores that you put the quarter in and you can you can weigh yourself. Yeah. I remember the night. Yeah. At the public's best subs ever. I don't understand why they're so good, but they are.

I just heard that from a friend who moved to Florida and he texted me a picture of his son from Publix. And I was like, why are you texting me a grocery store sub? And he said, like, it has a cult following. It's OK.

It's unsafe. So it's unreal. Lived there for five years in Florida and all on different coasts, north south central public subs. Real deal because. Yeah. So guess so anyway. You know, the the the little cartoon caricature of the boy and the girl staring at the scale and the little girl nudges the little boy and says, oh, don't step on it, because that's what makes Mommy and daddy cry. Oh, I like this idea that like. No. Don't step on a scale like that's bad. Right. And this is the. Yeah. Hard to nose it literally in a newspaper.

So, yeah, it's it's just interesting because there's there's a lot of, you know, programs out there, a lot of coaches and nutrition coaches and life coaches and things and the scale for me as a tool. And it actually empowers me where before it would be, I would work so hard day after day after day after day, and I would do everything right for three or four days. And the school would go up and I'd like go crazy trying to figure out why. And then I would do everything wrong and the skill would go down and I'd be like, what in the bloody heck just happened? Right. So it's a crapshoot. Like, there's so many. And that's why the calorie and calorie out model is not as simple as it is touted to be. So the idea is and somebody mentioned this in the experiences to average the week, which is great, but it's also that you value like you mentioned, you value what you measure. So anyone that's listening. You know how much money is in your bank account? Within a few dollars. I'd assume, you know, when you get paid, you know what you've got in savings because you're saving for the next thing. Like the peloton or the Christmas gifts or the vacation. Right. Like you value what you measure.

So if you don't measure somehow, then you honestly don't value it and you're not ready to make that transformation. So skells a tool and that's all it is. So take it for what it's worth. And if you're not seeing the changes, then it's time to reflect a little bit and be like, OK. First of all, why am I doing this? And secondly, what am I actually doing to get results and get from point A to point B? Because if you're in the desert somewhere and you don't know where you are, you really can't figure out where the heck you're going to end up because you have no bearings. Right. So. Right. Use the scale as a tool and just try to kind of compartmentalize it as this is just something that is going to get me to the end result.

Yeah, I think I think that it's kind of like going into a relationship and you just came out of a bad one. OK. Go. You just came out of a bad relationship, right? You've got some baggage. And then and then something comes up and, you know, you're worried about your your new boyfriend girlfriend because you got burned in the last relationship. So think the calories in, calories out. If you've been down that road a lot and you lost control over the scale, you couldn't get it to move based on your inputs. You may have developed some fear or some anxiety around it. So just know that, you know, once you've figured out that fasting is effective and you're going to be using it as a tool to get to your goals, you don't have to worry so much. And eventually that anxiety does come down. It comes down with exposure and some control. You'll feel it over time.

So once you do a month of Nomad's, one meal a day is right for you guys for one meal a day. It's just you eat like dinner everyday. And then you don't eat the rest today or until dinner the next day. Like, once you do like 30 of those, you kind of realize, you know, what the scale is going gonna do because you're like, oh, yeah. Yeah. It's going to go up a little. But then the next day it's going to drop. And then you learn like that short term glycogen storage and the water retention that ends up dissipating. So you kind of get like a feel for it. Really? Yeah. Rhythm in it. It takes away that anxiety with it, but that's a real thing. So try to frame it a little bit differently.

And that's one of the things you talk about is really the beginning of if you're starting fasting is that mindset. So I go nervous their timing with the relationship advice. Good job, Lynn. And the plan there, I was like holding my breath. I'm like, where is he? OK, perfect. That was really good. I didn't know that was coming.

I saw your face. So, yeah, I'm OK. I'm glad you approve of the message.

No, no, it was great. I couldn't have. I don't think I could have navigated those waters so well. So if we're going to wrap up tonight's episode, a couple of action steps.

If you're new to fasting, I'm going to recommend that you go download our Fast Start guide at WWL. We got the Fasting for life dot com, click the button, putting your email, and then you will have the guide sent to you and you can download it. And that also comes with a free mini master class. So it's six videos that accompany each of the six steps in the Fast Start guide. If you've been fasting for a while, you've done some intermittent fasting. Well, guess what? Oh, mad if you want results. One meal a day. This is what this thing teaches you to do because it gets you the wind faster. So it gets you in a better rhythm and more confident quickly to be able to get those results that you've been looking. Or if you've been burned by the previous relationship of the calorie and calorie out model, this is going to get you there and get you those winds quickly. So if you haven't done that, go download if you're new to the podcast or download the fast our guide. And Tommy, if if they have a little bit more experience with fasting, what do you think is a good thing that we can say, OK. This is what you need to do. If you've kind of dabbled in or out or kind of dip the toe, you know, the hot tub experience kind of thing, what do you think they can do to try to create more of that consistency?

Yeah. I mean, if you've if you've dabbled, I'd say go back to the Fast Start guide. It's a great way to build some momentum, build some good habits one day at a time. It's very simple. It's effective. You can put it in place as early as tomorrow and just repeat it, repeat it for a while until it becomes habitual. And, you know, you'll start you'll see the scale move. And then, you know, no matter where you are in your fasting journey, I'd encourage you to take a look at that relationship with a scale because it can only get better. So see, you know, if you if you have anxiety with it, see why that is. And and remind yourself that you just need some wins and having faith in how effective the solution is that you have now that you're going to have control over it. You don't have to worry. And and also examine your relationship with any water additives and other things like that.

So if you have anything that that you may not need, just just take a look and, you know, work towards weaning yourself off of that stuff, because you may you may be happier overall in the long term knowing that you don't need it.

That's great. That's awesome. So, Bill, building the habits are too. So follow the fast. Our God, the fasting for life. Acom, start off fresh. This will get you there quicker if you're new to it. If you're more experienced, like Tommy said, it's going to reframe some of those bad habits, get you back on track. So we appreciate all of you for listening. We also appreciate if you go to wherever you download and listen to the podcast, drop us a five star review, refer a friend. And we just really appreciate the following in the questions and the conversation that we've been having. So, Tommy, thank you so much, sir. Thank you. Have a good one. Bye.

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