Ep. 40 - Deciding to start fasting | Four steps to making a change | Recognizing and breaking through weight loss diet plateaus | Excuses, goals, decisions | Free Intermittent Fasting Plan

Fasting For Life Ep. 40 transcript powered by Sonix—easily convert your audio to text with Sonix.

Fasting For Life Ep. 40 was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the latest audio-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors. Sonix is the best audio automated transcription service in 2020. Our automated transcription algorithms works with many of the popular audio file formats.

Hello, I'm Dr. Scott Watier, and I'm Tommy Welling, and you're listening to the Fasting for Life podcast, and 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 on 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.

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 afternoon to you, sir. Hey, Scott. How are you doing?

Awesome. We are gearing up for the 10 day fasting for life experience from October 1st to October 10th. It has been a whirlwind over the last few days with hosting the live Q&A last night, answering a bunch of questions and concerns people had clarifying our message, what we're going to be delivering over those ten days, how we're going to be including the customized plan for the four thirty days after the challenge is over and there's a few minutes left if you want to hop on board, because this is something you and I have been joking a little bit about more me than you. But the holidays are literally right around the corner. And we want to we want to change the script or rewrite the script for this crazy roller coaster ride of twenty twenty. We want to go into the holiday season having control and bringing the simplicity back.

When the stress gets high and the indulgences are more prevalent than ever, we want to be able to give you the tools to be able to prevent, you know, that that crazy ride from continuing, if you know what I mean.

Yeah, continuing that crazy trend, how history likes to repeat itself sometimes if we are if we're not vigilant about it. But we always felt like that was something we just kind of barely missed the train last year where we got started right at the beginning of January with the podcast. And we weren't able to have like a pre holiday challenge where we could really just bring this to more people. So we said we had to have we had to have an experience this year before the holidays so that we could do better, because for us, the last holiday season was so much better. It was like like none other before it because we we understood what what we needed to do with fasting. And and now we're able to to have a big challenge and have people go through it with us, too.

You know, I'd forgotten about that. How we talked on some of the first few episodes of the podcast talking like we're seasoned vets here. We're only, what, nine months into this? Ten months in. Yeah, but it's so long ago. I totally forgot that. The holidays were so much more enjoyable this year just from an energy and feeling standpoint, and it was so much better.

There was so many less of those moments of being like, hey, I feel like crap. I have a cold, I have symptoms. I don't feel great. I'm tired. Oh, no. The kids are going to wake up at six open presents like all of these nap. Yeah, I just need a nap. Right. Like, OK, how can we get a nap in today. It was I totally forgot that it was it was a completely different experience and in full transparency, as you guys know, we try to we try to be as transparent as possible as we started this journey, as two guys trying to figure out their own health and figure out why the results they weren't getting. You know, they weren't getting the results that we wanted right. Is that we weren't going to do a challenge at the end of this year like we had set it. We're like, nope, we're not doing it. We've got some other initiatives we're working on. And lo and behold, you I think you messaged me or called me one day like we're doing a challenge.

What week's work for you? And I'm like, none, none of the week's work for me. I don't want to know. We're not doing this. We can't squeeze it in. It's too. Yeah, it's too late now. We're going to do so. We reframed it.

We have to go into the drawing board and came up with this new ten day guided live experience where each day it's going to be in the private Facebook group and we're going to go through the trainings, the communities and all that stuff.

But it's we're actually going to deliver it outside of the Facebook group to which is a new thing.

We're actually going to be able to if you don't have Facebook, you don't really care. Facebook. Cool. We've got you covered this time, which is one of the new things.

But it's also going to be the same schedule for everybody, almost like a ramp up for the first ten days. So one of the questions we always get is, oh, it's a twenty eight day fast like you guys aren't ready for twenty eight days. Oh, it's a seven day fast. You're not going to eat for a week. Well, no.

The plan is to teach you the different techniques that we've learned that work the best, but accelerate your progress so you don't have to go through all the bumps in the bruises and the pain trial by fire. Yeah. We don't we want to accelerate that process for you, especially with the fact that Halloween is about three days away and that's when the holiday season officially kicks off.

Christmas trees are up at Home Depot. Not going to say I'm happy about it, but that's why we're going to do the challenge. So it's it's exciting. And if you guys last minute registrations, let us know.

You can see the link in the episode notes or you can go to the Fasting for Life dot com and there's a banner up top and click on the banner and get in before the closing bell.

So let's get into tonight's episode. Me, this was something that you had this is a conversation that you and I have never had before. And if you ask our wives shout out to the wives, I'll get a I'll get a bonus point there for mentioning them. We talk a lot about this stuff, like all the time, like this is what we do. Yeah. Yeah, that's fair. Yeah, right. Fair assessment, right. So we. We've never had this conversation before in the way that you brought it to me, so I want you to kind of like frame it for everyone because it made me stop and think. And it really. Brought some light to one of the questions that we've really been wrestling with, and that's how to how to get people. Ourselves included. The results and there's some sticking points along the way and some consistencies that people come to us with questions where we're like, whoa, there's something here that's missing in the standard weight loss, health gaining programs that are out there.

And I feel like we're finally starting to uncover how we can get more people there faster. And when you brought this to me, I was like mind blowing.

So, yeah, in a moment of clarity, a little while back, I was I was sitting there and we had some some guests coming in for the weekend. And it had been a very eventful weekend. And I was I was basically doing Omayyad, which with some guests in town, kind of turned into maybe like a two to three hour eating window kind of thing. And there were a few drinks and a few restaurant meals. And by Sunday afternoon, I was feeling like, what do I wear? Where do I go from here? What do I need to do for this coming week?

I feel like I got off track, full transparency. I felt off track. And and then I started thinking about it and I realized it wasn't just a problem of that weekend or the last couple of days. It was really a problem of the last few weeks before that and maybe even a month or two where the scale had just stopped moving. And even when I did a little bit more aggressive, Akhmad or I did a couple of like two or three day fast in there and and the scale would tick down. But then I kind of tick right back up and and I was trying to get a handle on where this was coming from. So it it ended up it ended up feeling like like a major kind of plateau area when I started looking back at it.

Right. That's what we're doing. Oh, my God. How many people like that's one of the biggest things that people come to us with. Like, I've lost the weight, but I put it back on and I got down on that number and I put it back on and I've just been stuck and I lost this and I've got another 15 or 20 to go, but I just can't seem to get past it.

And I mean, the word plateau is like is like is evil in the weight loss world, like it's, you know, the dreaded plateau.

So that was one of the things that stuck out to me when you're like, yeah, this is what I was thinking about when I realized X, Y and Z, I was like, well, yeah, because, you know, you have you make decisions every single day.

And I started to think about why why has the scale been just staying in the same spot? I wasn't at my my final goal. I'm still not. But at this point, I was just trying to zoom in. I was trying to really get granular and figure out what the decisions were and what was the what was the thought process, if there was one, why I was making the wrong decisions and why the the momentum had stopped at that point.

And that's where you said, like, determining there's a problem and how you're going to fix it. So, like, how did you get clear and moving through that? Kind of like because I've been in it to that complacency point where you're like, yeah, I lost forty eight pounds, I'm doing awesome, I'm doing great. But you're not really at the end. And that downward trend has plateaued.

So that starts to mess with your mind. So like what did that look like? You had that light bulb moment.

I realized I realized that there's kind of a logical framework for for what has to happen. And it kind of in that moment, I realized that there was a problem. So I I think it came down to perception, really. Like I previously, I didn't perceive that there was a problem. I was just thinking, well, I'm just comfortable here, just living my life, just living life. But I didn't attribute it to any wrong thought process or bad logic or bad decisions or wrong action. Right? Yeah. Exactly. So just just perceiving that there was a problem, it's kind of like like what they always talk about with AA and things like that, the first step is admitting there's a problem. Well, just kind of looking in the mirror or looking back at at at the recent history and saying, yeah, there's a problem here, I'm going to need to do something different. I don't know what it is just yet and we'll get there. But just realizing that there was a problem.

So the perception that you're like this isn't really why I originally started or this isn't where I wanted to end up or yeah, things are good, but there's just like this little piece, really, OK, I've I've plateaued and plateaus are super frustrating. So then that's when for me anyway, and we hear a lot as well as it's like the the plateau is when the excuses come in. Right, and that's where you're talking about with the family and the choices. So you had you had a couple of realizations where I think you give an example of when you were cooking or prepping food for the family or the morning coffee where you were like the perception hit you like, oh, wait. That's where it starts.

Yeah, I remember I texted you even before all this this clarity, because this didn't just happen in a moment.

It happened over maybe a week or two where things just kind of started to to cement in my mind, because I realized, like, why are there other people that we're we're talking to? They're coming to us with the same questions and the same plateaus and the same like I've been doing X, Y, Z for six months or for a year. And and my my progress has stopped. And then I think it was at that point where I said, you know what, I'm feeling similarly. So there must be some common threads. Why don't we start digging in here? And what I realized is, let me look at my coffee. Let me start there. First thing in the morning. When I first started fasting, it was just black coffee. And if you read the obesity code and Dr. Fung and and, you know, we talk about how if if Creamer is going to make or break your day for for a tablespoon or something, then then keep it in there if if if it keeps you going with the fast. But at the same time, if you find yourself six months or a year or two years later having full cream in your coffee or just a different kind of beverage, but you're still saying that you're fasting like, are you really fasting or is it starting to slip? Are those boundaries kind of starting to slip? And then once that happens across multiple areas, that's when the progress is really going to slow down. Right.

And that's that whole I love the analogy that you use the papercut in a house fire. Right. Like, don't get the kids and the animals out. Get these kids for you first. Kids like you and kids first. Right. And then don't don't make a comment. If I screw up the hierarchy here right now, just everybody out. Right. Everybody get the whatever you got that's important in the safe. You got some documents you need, like get out, have have an evacuation plan. But don't really you know, you're not going to be too worried about it or. Yeah. Leave the TV or I don't get the screwdriver to pull off the. Yeah. So it's, it's that first little thing that turns into other. So you had mentioned where. Prepping food, it was like, oh, I'm going to make sure that this tastes good, right?

Yeah, yeah, I like my wife will cook, she makes a mean turkey chili shout out to Jen's turkey chili, just trying to catch up to even the score that's there to do so. But it's it's really good. And she always asked me, like, hey, can you take the chili, make sure it's spicy correctly. And that's I'm happy to do that every time. But but at this at this point and after these realizations, I go, whoa, wait a minute. Like this is one of those spots where where all of a sudden, you know, a twenty four hour fast can become, you know, a 20 hour fast or a forty eight becomes a thirty six. Because I tried the chili and I said, you know what, she only makes it every every couple of weeks I'm going to have a little bowl. Luckily, you know, like I'm feeling good, I'm feeling comfortable and I'm hungry. And this is amazing. And and, you know, so there comes the bowl of chili and there goes the fast.

And the whole point of that is the insulin, the timing between insulin. So, like, you're losing all of the hard work that you just put in and you perceived it is OK in the moment.

But then the second point is that you made the decision prior to get the end result or now you're making the decision to give in because the perceptions change. So for me, it was like the second part is versus the perception. Right. The second part which blew my mind, I was like, oh, man, then it's just a simple decision. Like, is this moving me closer or further away from my goals? Like I used the analogy earlier, the smokers trying to quit and he's tried and tried and tried. He or she tried and tried and tried and tried and tried over and over again. And then one day they're just finally like driving down the road and they burn themselves and they're in this moment of rage and they walk up the stairs earlier in the cold weather. And they were out of breath and they were coughing and they're like, you know what, fun. And they just throw a pack of cigarettes out the window. Like you make a decision in that moment. No, like, this is what starts it. And I'm not going to allow that to happen anymore.

Yeah, absolutely. That that's where you've really clarified a boundary. It's really solidified in that moment. And that's what I experience, too. And like, I feel like the even once this was going on, because I remember where I was, I was in the car I was driving and it was it was quiet. There was no music playing or anything like that. So it was just clear mental focus. And I said, OK, well, that's great. I feel this way. I'm deciding the boundaries are getting clearer. But now what like what am I going to do, I need a plan, this week's going to come just like last week came.

The same things are going to come up. There's going to be meetings, there's going to be people, they're going to be family. What am I going to do differently?

Otherwise, Turkey Chili might be the famous Meg's famous muffins, right.

Scoreboard like it might be the same stuff is going to come up this week just in a different costume, like hidden behind a different flavor profile or in a different stress or on a different routine. So it's like when you were like perceived aside, like you perceive the problem, you're like, oh, yeah, you know what? I'm not really where I'm going or I'm not really where I want to be. And then those little decision making, you just kind of cut them out, you know, this is it. And then it's like, OK, well, now what do I do now that I took that out? What do I put in its place? What's my plan? Where am I going?

Yeah, right. It kind of leaves a void where you go. OK, well, last week if I decided to have the turkey chili, what would I do instead? How do I how do I do something different in that moment? Because positive reinforcement almost, right? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Filling the void. So so you have to have a plan for that. And so I said, OK, so when that comes up, no, I'm no longer taste testing this week, even when Jen makes another delicious meal for dinner.

Right. I'm not doing it. I'm not I'm not putting any of the creamer in my coffee. I'm not having you know, I'm not going to chew the gum. If that if that sends me down the slippery slope, I'll have lemon and water, black coffee, and that's it.

And it will be it'll be easy to stay on track. It'll be because it'll be 100 percent clear of the boundaries get clear. And there's no there's no slippery slope symbol.

And it's it's like I remember, you know, date nights for you guys. And we do something similar as well where it's like, OK, well, I'll make a concession meal plan for the concession. Don't don't let the concessions become the plan. Like, yeah, it's like, oh, the work meeting or I'm traveling and it's like, OK, great. You have a work meeting that doesn't mean you have to go to the all you can eat buffet with everybody, and if you do go, it doesn't mean you have to eat. You literally control with that immediate decision. And that's where I feel like learning the art of emotional intelligence where you have the feeling and before you act, you stop and think. Right. So it's that small little window. You can see a lot of the same information out there in life coaching and coaches and mentors and whatnot. You can read all the books in one and there's always this thing of like, OK, just stop and think for a second. It could either be the shift when you get agitated or angry. Like what made you angry? Was it the person? Was it your wife that made you angry?

Well, no, it's usually not.

It's usually something that's happened earlier in the day that causes that trigger. So the same thing comes with food because it is so ingrained in our life in our in the messages we see and the societal norms and the family gatherings and all of this stuff that like we we want to be social people and especially in the year of the crazy roller coaster ride of twenty twenty.

Yeah. Like I feel like those cravings are even more pronounced.

It's like, oh man, we get to go out. Right. Things are open and back up. Great. Let's go.

Yeah. Pent up demand. Yeah. It's like man.

So I think that's why I just noticed you've been hearing a lot more of it and that's when you said we're doing a challenge. I'm like, OK, OK, I'm going to want no, this is like I need it. So I love the fact of how you framed it. You know what you say you're going to going to redo the closet, clean the gutters. You get to find something to fill that void when you make the decision to not give in to the the new perception that the new habit that you were doing that isn't getting you the results you want.

Yeah, we do. Taco Tuesdays. Jen makes a mean Taco Taco Tuesdays and those can be tempting. OK, I've been tempted in the past. I've I've broken a fast that I wasn't planning to break because of Taco Tuesday. So I said, OK, well what am I going to do. OK, clean the closet, let me do some cluttering. I'm going to go clean the gutters out like it doesn't matter at all that I walk. Yeah. Whatever project you need. But that was part of that preplanning during the moment of clarity, visualizing the week ahead so I could see those decisions being made. So they're that much easier. They're they're right on the tip of your tongue.

Whenever the moment actually comes around, some perception, decision planning and then the last the last of the kind of new framework is in the execution, right.

So a week is not going to be different. It's things are going to be masked in different ways. Stressors are going to come up. You know, I saw a funny video the other day that was, like I said, something to the effect of when your toddler wakes up at at at 1:00 a.m. and you're at Disney, and then it's like just this screaming mantra of like, I'm going to have a great day regardless of what happens.

And it was like this funny, like voice over video where the stuff's going to happen, like you're going to have the curve balls, right. We had a bunch of room today before we recorded this podcast and full like full honesty. It's like, man. All right. Well, some technical stuff, some scheduling stuff, some timing stuff like, no, we are doing this today and that's where the execution comes in.

So really, you know what what was it for you in terms of being able to set the framework with the plan in order to execute?

Well, you know, like one example that comes up and that came up for me was, OK, well, how am I measuring my fast's? How am I how am I starting them and stopping them at this point? Like, I've I've probably done several hundred falcinelli. Yeah. Kind of willy nilly, kind of just looking at the clock and going, OK, well, you know, it's four o'clock now. Just had a late lunch. Going to eat tomorrow around dinnertime. That'll be about twenty seven hours. And then. And then that's it. OK, so but where did I start. Where did, where did the results come from. The results came from the clear boundaries. The results came from using just a few little tools to my disposal like a fasting timer app. Right. And so that can be huge. Just the physical motion of setting the timer and seeing how long it's there for and knowing that it's going to go off when it's time to eat again. Just preprogramming the cues is is huge. That's a commitment step. It's much more difficult to to break that and to to kind of break that promise than it is if if it's just kind of like, well, it kind of Lucy Goosey, you know.

So I have two thoughts there. And I was like leaning into the microphone. One is supportive people and accountability because you are much less likely to let someone else down than you are yourself. So printing it out, putting it on the calendar, putting it in your app that works, having someone.

And that's why the power of these challenges in the groups and the friendships that have come out of these groups, these group challenges that we do.

It's just been incredible. You and you were on your journey. I tagged along and then lost all the weight with with diving into the research and fasting and using your experiences to help me through it. And so there's always that. Importance of having the support of people around you. We joke, joke around about the first and second rule of fasting is don't talk about fasting. But once you've done it long enough, you can actually talk about it because now you actually know what to do and how to do it.

And in all of those different types of yeah, it gets really it gets fun to talk about. Yeah. But in the beginning it can be a little like protect it. Yeah. Protect your inputs. That's always important, but especially when you're you're going down a new a new path. Most people haven't been down this path. That's why we're here talking about it.

And the second thing that you reminded me of is when you set the timer, it removes your brain from thinking about anything else. And I go to my time. I go off now.

Ok, well, then don't eat cake. And it reminded me of my three and a half year old daughter where she'll want to do something like watch patrol or color or go up back in the Welling or whatever it is. And it's like, OK, we have exactly eight minutes from dinner to bed time, like it's Monday night.

Mom got home from the office late is like, OK, no, we don't really have time for that.

So we literally use timers and it works wonderfully. We're like, All right, Quinn, you got ten minutes. Go tell her she'll be like Alexa, set a timer for ten minutes and when the timer goes off, she is boom, ready, ready to go like she's be doing.

Yeah. She stops what she's doing and I'm like.

I never thought I'd even want this thing in my house, but now I can't see, like living without the Aleksa that was gifted to us for Christmas a few years ago. Like, I didn't want this thing. I want Big Brother. I was like, no, no, get out of here. But I can't imagine not having them in multiple rooms now because it's such a tool that we've used to use ever those clear boundaries.

So when you said that it's just like light bulb went off, I was like, wow. Download an app, there's tons of them, right? Fast, I'll have it one of it fast. Habits, my favorite can also just use your simple alarm timer or alarm on your phone.

Yeah, exactly. So to recap here, perceived side plan and execute.

And I can't believe that we haven't talked about this in this framework up until this point.

But I alluded to the few situations that we continually hear and that we've both experienced being on this journey with everyone that's. Wanting to move towards health and decreased weight and just a better quality of life and is, you know, people that fall on and off the wagon, right? Oh, yeah, I lost the weight. Oh, I couldn't. And then people that just can't seem to stick to it, they start fasting and then they just they fall off.

They can't seem to get over the hump. I have a feeling that once we start having these conversations with people more often and putting this into practice, we're going to see some pretty crazy transformations take place.

Yeah, I think that even so, that no matter if you're in the beginning of your journey or somewhere in the middle or even closer to your maintenance goal or your health goals, that if you're stuck in a plateau, you'll if you if you think about these four pieces of the puzzle, you'll probably be able to identify where you are in that and be able to take action to get to the next step to get out of it. Because if you've found yourself at a plateau, found the results slowing down or not, really sure why you haven't reached that goal, even though it it seems like you should be there already or you should be further along than you are, then, you know, take a look at what you're doing. Are you still doing the same things like when you were first getting those results or have they kind of changed a little bit? Have they kind of have they slipped and kind of rounded out the edges or are things as as clear and focused and decided upon as they used to be?

Success leaves clues, so. Right. And we're we're preaching to ourselves here to see you guys know like this. This came out of Tommy's realization and us having the conversation for the first time. We're like, no, no, let's not talk too much, because we want this to be like real and raw and live as we're starting to digest this and put it into practice. So the action step for today, you just summarized it, is take a step back, perceive where you're at, perceive the habits and the little things that you're doing throughout the day. Make a decision in the moment. Sometimes you need to get emotional. Sometimes you need to do something physical. Sometimes you need to whatever it is for you that works, but be able to find a moment where you can make a decision and attach a motion to it, because it's going to it's going to move you forward. It's going to move the needle, put the plan in place. If you've had success in the past, go back and look at those cues, because success truly does leave clues and then simply enough execute to make sure you have the app, make sure you have things to do. Make sure you've got the so you're not the taste tester. You're the gutter cleaner of the dog walker, whatever that is. Make sure you've got that in place. So, Tommy, I appreciate you bringing this to me and having the conversation because it's also going to anchor.

I know personally it's going to rank for me to get down to that final goal.

And if you guys are new to the podcast, go ahead and go back and listen to our story. If you want to learn more about why we started doing this and how we ended up on Episode forty, I think this episode Forty Somewhere in that forty range, we started with an idea of, wow, there's people that don't know this and new, do we. And we just want to share it with everyone. So go back, listen to the episodes with a little bit, the first few episodes, a little bit of grace as we were new to the podcast World and still getting our footing now and go to our website that the fasting for life dotcom. You want to get last minute entry into the registration before the closing bell. Go ahead and click on the banner. At the top of the website. You can download our Fast Start guide by signing up for our newsletter. Different bunch of different ways to engage.

And we always love and appreciate the good reviews and the bad ones. We have a couple, you know, a couple of people that, you know, might not agree with everything we say. And we are totally transparent that we don't know. We are just here trying to improve, trying to distill down the information for you all and just appreciate each and every one of you that listens each week and tell me. Thank you, sir. And we'll see you on the next episode. 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 Dotcom and sign up for our newsletter where you'll receive fasting tips and strategies to maximize results and fit fasting into your day to day life.

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 podcast. Make sure to leave us a five star review and we'll be back next week with another episode of Fasting for.

Automatically convert your audio files to text with Sonix. Sonix is the best online, automated transcription service.

Sonix uses cutting-edge artificial intelligence to convert your mp3 files to text.

More computing power makes audio-to-text faster and more efficient. Automated transcription can quickly transcribe your skype calls. All of your remote meetings will be better indexed with a Sonix transcript. Automated transcription is getting more accurate with each passing day. Lawyers need to transcribe their interviews, phone calls, and video recordings. Most choose Sonix as their speech-to-text technology. Get the most out of your audio content with Sonix. Do you have a podcast? Here's how to automatically transcribe your podcasts with Sonix. Create and share better audio content with Sonix. Are you a radio station? Better transcribe your radio shows with Sonix.

Sonix uses cutting-edge artificial intelligence to convert your mp3 files to text.

Sonix is the best online audio transcription software in 2020—it's fast, easy, and affordable.

If you are looking for a great way to convert your audio to text, try Sonix today.