Ep. 30 - Alcohol and Fasting | Beer, Wine, White Claws, & Margaritas! | How to fast around weddings, golf, and hangovers | Date Night, Inhibition, Insulin Resistance | Free 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.

Hey, everyone, welcome to the Fasting for Life podcast. My name is Dr. Scott Watier. I'm here, as always, with my good friend and colleague, Tommy Welling. Good evening to you, sir.

Hey, Scott. How are you doing?

Fantastic, man. This is a topic tonight that I can absolutely get fired up about. It is something that I partake in personally on date nights and holidays and special occasions. And it's something that a lot of people have asked us about. And we realize that we have actually not talked about it yet.

Yeah, yeah. I also partake with discretion and of course. Yeah. Yeah. We've gotten a lot of questions and kind of surprised that it's taken us 30 episodes, 30 episodes yet.

Wherever we're happy to to address the topic. So they all shout out in appreciation for all you listeners. Really cool milestone that we just said we just had. Forty thousand downloads to our podcast. I don't know what that means. We we don't have any sponsors. This isn't monetized. We we just we get on we talk about subjects that we've experienced are questions that were asked and sometimes we get a little research and nerdy and other times it's more anecdotal and just, you know, talking from from case study or observation or personal experience. But forty thousand downloads, so much love and appreciation and gratitude to everybody that is listening because, yeah, we we don't we had no idea what to expect, but definitely blown away by the response.

So thank you to every one of you out there.

Yeah, absolutely. It's been it's it's really cool. And it's great to hear the feedback and the questions and hear the stories and just Welling raising stories out there, too, and just, you know, kind of letting people see the other side because there's there's just so much misinformation out there and things like that.

Yeah. And just to to people that have been through it that are on the journey that are going there with you, we wanted to be conversational and it's certainly been really cool. So much love and appreciation again. And tonight we're gonna go over a topic that we realize, like we had mentioned, that we hadn't talked about in all of the months.

And it came in through our free, Fast Start guide and mini master class that if you guys have been listening to the for a while or if you're new, you go to our site, the Fasting for Life dot com.

It's a free, fast start guide at six simple steps to put fasting into your day to day life, starting today, along with a six video free course that's about 20 minutes long and kind of walks you through all the steps. And Kimberly Le left us a message in the course relating to having a glass of wine with dinner. And is that allowed and is that OK? So tonight we're going to talk about alcohol and the physiological kind of component to it, but then also the nutritional component to it, the calorie component, and then how it can really fit into your day to day life. Because what we want is we want you to live life to the fullest and your fasting plan to be a part of it, not the other way around.

You know, what the fasting to be.

Do to help you get to where you want to be.

Your your goals, your health goals, but other goals in life as well. It should be it should be part of it. Life should be at the center. And, you know, alcohol is going to come up. But, you know, special occasions, social aspects, things like that. And so, you know, we want to empower you guys to know how to to work it into your fasting plan and you know how to make good choices with it as well.

And I think her question was specifically with with respect to one meal a day type of plan. So we'll address that as well.

Yep. So I'm comfortable with one day total water fast then. Oh, man. The other day is which is one meal a day. But I like an occasional glass of red wine with the nomads on the days she has dinner, especially on the weekends. Is that OK? And my answer is one hundred percent as long as we're talking about. Not not the extremes. Right. We're talking about. Yeah. I mean, we when we go on date night, my wife, I'll go out and have a couple of maybe an IPA while we're waiting to get sat at the restaurant and then maybe a glass of wine with dinner on the golf course or family outings, you know, at the community pool will, you know, have a have a truly or two or a white claw. Yeah, I admitted it. Don't don't comment, Tommy. I see you snickering. It's fine. I've seen you with them, too.

Now what what what's the saying? There ain't no laws when when you're with the claws.

Yeah, right. I've seen some T-shirts. All right. Right. So. So just just for a disclaimer, we're not talking about the extreme situations.

But, yeah, I mean, of course, we want to be able to live life and enjoy it. So holidays, weekends. I know, you know, glass of red wine at night after a long day. There's there's some health benefits to it as well. And there's some research out there that shows that we're not going to go into that detail tonight. But the question I thought was really cool to kind of give just an overview. You know, Tommy, you and I were talking about the physiology of alcohol. So, you know, what it does and how it relates to fasting for me was a big part.

To the point where when I would go out to dinner, I wouldn't get a full meal and have alcohol because I would feel awful because I had insulin resistance, which was not allowing me to lose the weight, keep it off and see my metabolic numbers improve on my bloodwork. So, you know, just relating to to that feeling. You know, alcohol has a physiological effect, that effect that really depresses everything.

Yeah. I think what you just hit on there is the reason why a lot of people may feel terrible the next day. They kind of have this hangover cycle and they start back in college or during the younger days. But it can it can, you know, travel in the 20s and 30s and 40s and beyond that to where you're you're drinking and, you know, maybe moderate or maybe even heavy along with some heavier eating as well. And you're just waking up the next day just feeling just completely awful and then of jumping right back into the cycle and making matters worse by going, well, I really just want to feel better. What do I need to eat now to feel better? Trying to stay on some sort of eating, you know, meal schedule and really just makes matters worse because your stomach's already not feeling great and then you're weighed down by all the insulin and as well as the alcohol, undigested food. And then you just bring more things on top of that. And well well, like you said, all of the cells in the body are already, you know, having been slowed down by all of the alcohol. It's a depressant and it's working on the liver, the stomach, just the brain everywhere in the body slowing it down.

And one of the things I will say here, too, is this is probably one of the least studied areas, alcohol effect on humans like it was. I couldn't find a human study. It's all animal studies which don't translate well in this situation.

And it's really kind of a rabbit hole and really hard to discern.

So we're just going to give some like like you just said, Tommy, there is just some basic overview of things that we've seen and experienced and things you've seen in our alliances.

You know, the insulin resistance directly relates to the body having to process that which can lead to, you know, cytokine creation, which starts the inflammatory pathway, you know, and it can also promote the insulin resistance or that or that clogging of that face to liver. For me, I would always wake up between 2:00 and 3:00 o'clock in the morning.

And, you know, I would I would just be awake. My body would be like, yep, I'm awake. And that's that typically means liver or detox that at that time of day, if you're looking at the more wellness and holistic side of things. So it definitely can have an effect on your sleep cycle, which if you have insulin resistance, the importance of sleep is crucial.

If you want the fastest way to lose weight without spending a dollar other than putting fasting into your life is get eight hours of sleep a night and stay hydrated and you will lose weight like that because sleep is so important.

Yeah, it's because it's so important on that cortisol in circadian rhythm and balancing everything out. But it also high levels of cortisol over long periods of time will mimic those same effects on the body as insulin resistance. So I'll call doves does have an effect on that, too. Alcohol, sleep, sleep after having alcohol is not as restful. And that's been proven. And then there's always the last piece of alcohol in related to food.

If you're not really strict with your plan or if you're not focused on the plan or really have a plan. I know the inhibition of, you know, eating things you normally don't eat and snacking goes, you know, just increases.

Right. Because, you know, one of the big things that we know about alcohol is that it lowers our inhibitions. Right. It's it's working on the prefrontal cortex, you know, kind of our our executive powers and our brain. What gives us all are our rules and our self-governing. So it's bringing those those activities down. And so, you know, that that plays right along into whatever meal plan or diet or whatever else that you're following or your fasting window. And then all of a sudden, it can be easy to justify. You say, well, I'm already having a drink. Maybe I need something to snack on, too. And then your inhibitions are lower, you know, and then you're in you're in a social environment. And so all of a sudden you're eating when when you didn't plan to be. And so that's that can become a slippery slope as well.

Yeah. And this is really just kind of diving into the you know, and again, thank you, Kimberly, for the question making us realize we haven't talked about it. So the answer to her question was yes. Absolutely. You know, if if you're on a weight loss journey and trying to lose weight and you're doing it through using the tried and true art of fasting, then there's some things you should be aware of in terms of what the alcohol turns into in the body in terms of calories, because typically people will use caloric intake, calorie intake and the scale as the guide.

Right.

So the alcohol nutrition is kind of tricky because you don't really realize what you're in taking, especially if you're ordering off the specials menu at the local at the local restaurant, the drinks special menu with all the fun, sugary, colorful things that are on there.

Yeah, yeah. They're not actually screaming at you about how many calories you're ordering. Yeah.

So, yeah, I mean even just a light beer being, you know, a hundred and twenty calories, let alone you know.

What do you like a double IPA. Yeah. Yeah. How many calories is that. Anywhere between 250 to 300. OK. So I mean that's that could throw a wrench in things pretty quick.

Two of those right to the ises is 600. I mean, two of those is is a meal that my wife eats.

Right. I mean, that's that can really throw you off, especially if you say, well, you know, I'm kind of hungry and I'm in a restaurant.

Why don't I order something on top of that? Will all of a sudden you're your own. I just became, you know, an additional meal or meal and a half.

Right. Right. And then so we talked about beer and then the seven calories per gram.

You did some quick math on the fly. We're kind of talking through this. So we want to we want to talk about how what that equates to in the body and how quickly can add up. But, you know, I'll fight a wine. Wine, scuse me. A house pour five ounces. Somehow supporters are now six or nine ounces. One hundred and twenty to 180 calories. A hard seltzer. The truly is the white cause. Those are one hundred cows apiece. Who really knows what's in them, though? They're so new restaurant Marguerita, 250 to 500.

Yeah, that that's a that's a killer right there, especially where we are here in Texas.

Yeah, yeah. Or you get the big giant margarita, then you have the corona flipped upside down with a little sidecar. Right. I don't know what those are called, but that was some chips in case. So and you could really be in. Right. Right. So it adds up.

So if you've got a plan, you know, I know I have a couple of people that I that I work with that and a and not a formal setting kind of coach on the side. And, you know, they'll do Monday through Friday intermittent workouts and all that. And then on the weekends, they'll do a time restricted eating window, more of like an intermittent fast. They'll skip breakfast, skip lunch, and then they'll do like a dinner and drinks out at night or something like that. And here's the here's the catch. All is if you're getting the results, then it's fine. But if you're not and you're doing more than the one glass with dinner or it's more prevalent or more, it's causing you to have the inhibition go down and you're eating more snack foods and you have less willpower than it might be. Something you want to try to limit to, you know, having and looking forward to it in your schedule rather than just kind of having it come up on a whim.

Right. Absolutely. Second, that can keep you from going down this slippery slope, sir. Well, yeah. Eating window expand. And you didn't want to 100 percent.

I get that. I get the I get the crunchy. I like the crunchy things. I like the chips and the popcorns and the year. And he mentioned the the you know, the, the adjacent chips in case. So like I like the crunchy, crunchy, salty stuff.

So yeah I know lately when we go out on date night, it's all either split an entree or just have a couple of drinks and an appetizer. And I wake up feeling great. I'm still on my plan. Numbers are moving in the right direction. I don't see those big fluctuations. So it's definitely been been a learning experience, but it makes sense when you start looking at it.

Yeah, I love that, too. You know, at this point when I'm on date night, I'm pretty much about half of the food intake that I was maybe a year, year and a half ago. And so, like I said, you know, like split an appetizer and I get, you know, a soup or something small or, you know, kind of just a side that I really want and not an entree.

And I feel a lot better about it. So when we're talking about your plan, you know.

The way we use fasting, especially if you're starting with the fast start God, is to really push the intermittent fasting window to get you guys to 20, 20 to 24 hours.

And one of the things we always said about fasting is it's not a punishment for what you've done or reparations for what you've done or preparation for what you're going to do in terms of what you're going to eat and drink. Right, Tommy?

So, you know, in terms of Zeena, fine. It's not a citation. Yeah, yeah. It's it's it's not a savings account either. Yeah.

And you can, you know, a I feel great fasting a little bit more, you know, going into a trip or a vacation or something like that or coming off of one. But at the same time, it psychologically it should not be a punishment or prepayment.

Yep, so the eating windows in your plan. So, you know, drink swaps, calorie offset. You know, we talked about insulin and how you feel the next day if you have gone out and there's been an event and then the next morning you wake up and you you crave that breakfast. Right? You get the stack of pancakes and juice and whatnot. And then that turns into the lunch, the late lunch. And then that turns into the, you know, the down time. Let's just order out for dinner. Next thing you know, you're back on your plan on Monday going, what in the heck just happened? And yeah, you actually have undone all of the great work that you did earlier this week. So really, the master of it comes into sticking to your windows and like you just mentioned, kind of planning going in and coming out of of an event or a holiday vacation ceremony or whatever, whatever it is that that is going to where the alcohol is going to be a part of the plan. Or just like like she said, just, you know, on the weekends, likes to relax with a glass of wine and dinner, like. Perfect.

Yeah, perfect. And, you know, we've had a few people that send us messages or we did plans for and they talked about, you know, maybe like a 4:00 or 5:00 p.m. dinner with maybe a seven or eight p.m. glass of wine. And so, you know, what we've encouraged them to do was, was bring the two closer together so that you don't really feel like you have these two bigger intake windows, because those can that can lead to two more more intake and ingestion than you'd like. So, you know, you're your 4:00 or 5:00 p.m. dinner can become longer because, you know, you're looking forward to this drink three or four hours later. And then all of a sudden when you have that drink, maybe you're feeling a little snarky at that point, too. And all of a sudden you've had a whole lot more calories than you originally planned on. So bring the two close together.

Yep. Yep, I like it. And then the drink slops thing, too, is is good. You know, we talked about a couple where you could, you know, the IPA to have your beer compared to a light beer compared to a hundred calorie.

Are they malt beverages or am I going back to the days of, like, Mike's Hard Lemonade? What are the like the truly is was a hard seltzer's. Yeah.

If you're doing a Marguerita, you can ask for a skinny margarita. If you typically do something with soda, you can ask for soda water or stay away from the sugary adenoids and things like that, because if you are going to have a couple of drinks, then that adds up a lot quicker.

But there are opportunities out there to kind of swap those things out, too.

Yeah, absolutely.

Cool. One action step for the topic of alcohol and fasting.

One thing I will mention before we get to the action step is, yes, alcohol breaks the fast. We've gotten this question. Anything outside of water, black coffee, tea, any kind of, you know, Kremer's breakfast? You know, we have an episode on Creamer's and like those little Kitto packets and Moka packets and, you know, electrolyte drinks and boost drinks and all those things.

Typically, we just say if it's on a fasting day, stay away for bent and stick to the water carbonated waters and then the black coffee and unsweetened tea.

Keep it simple. So for for your action step for this, I'm going to encourage you to to look at the alcohol that you do consume and then find find one or two spots where you can make a better choice. You can optimize. So if it's outside of your eating window, bring it closer in or if there's a certain drink that you have that's that's particularly high calorie that you enjoy. You know, find a way to just, you know, have a little less of it or or make a smart change to it. Make it a skinny, like you said. Yeah. Or something along those lines. Make a couple of swaps.

Perfect. Awesome. So, Tom, I think we'll wrap up tonight.

If you guys are new to the podcast, go and check on our Web site. Fasting for ICOM is the free fast ARCI. The free mini master class gives a shout out. We love the questions. We're going to continue to compile those, put them into Q and A's. We've done some Q&A episodes in the past. A lot of good response. So much love and appreciation for breaking the 40000 thousand mark again to each and every one of you and Tommy. Next time we go out, first round's on me.

All right. We'll look forward to it. Thank you, sir. Have a good time. You, too. Bye.

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