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Ep 6 • Fasting and (Not Actually) Furious
28 Plays1 year ago
Andrew Huberman, if you see this, come join us on our next episode. And bring a bowl of ramen with you because your girls are hungry.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Take It To Go'
00:00:05
Speaker
Hello, everyone. I'm Lina. And I'm Kiara. And you're listening to Take It To Go, a one-stop-shop podcast about all things life, love, and lol-worthy.
Focus on Health and Fitness Goals
00:00:17
Speaker
Today, we are talking about health, lifestyle, fitness stuff. We are getting our bodies into the most elite, physical, tip-top shape. That they can be.
00:00:34
Speaker
ever. It could be ever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Lena, you're gonna take the lead here. And I'm looking at our script. I have no idea what. I don't know anything about this. So I'm excited to have you drive here. This one is about staying fit and active basically your your current and your future fitness and health goals as an adult. I don't think this one will take as long. But I do want to speak on
00:01:02
Speaker
specifically the future goals and what we're planning to do because I want to kind of follow up with you on future episodes just to see if we're sticking to it. Yeah, let's hold each other accountable and invite our listeners to do that too.
00:01:16
Speaker
Exactly. So to start, I would say staying fit and active has been something that I have been looking into a lot more lately.
Lina's Fitness Routine and Fasting Experience
00:01:26
Speaker
Um, and it's just because now I feel like I have the time I've, you know, I'm out of school, I've graduated and really it's work flying and working out for me as my, my daily regimen. Um, I,
00:01:42
Speaker
was on YouTube and I listened to a podcast on the way to work usually every day. And so I turned on what's called the Huberman Lab podcast by Andrew Huberman. He is a Stanford professor and he basically just delves into the numbers, the data statistics of
00:02:00
Speaker
any topic really relating to the body health. And the ones that I came across were specifically, it's called Building Your Endurance. And in that podcast, he spoke a lot on different ways that you can build up different types of endurance. I'm only halfway through, so excuse me for that.
00:02:20
Speaker
And later on, he'll speak on even hydration, how to properly hydrate for your body, just because your urine runs clear does not mean that you are hydrating properly, which is something that I did not know. I also didn't know that. So I'm really interested in what he has to say. It's so much content. I mean, every minute you're getting so much new information. Sometimes I even have to go back just to make sure that I'm properly hearing and absorbing what he has to say.
00:02:48
Speaker
It's all really, really, really helpful. And he actually encouraged me to do what I'm doing now, which is a two-day fast. It was supposed to be three days, but honestly, y'all, I don't think I can make it. A water fast. So all I'm drinking is water and electrolytes.
Benefits and Challenges of Fasting
00:03:08
Speaker
And just to see the types of benefits that
00:03:13
Speaker
can occur to my body in terms of, you know, growth hormone production, lower cortisol levels, less inflammation, of course, breaking into not your blood glucose fat storage, but your adipose tissues and taking fat out of there.
00:03:32
Speaker
Not that I necessarily am doing it to lose weight, but it's more so for energy just because there are certain types of ATP. And he goes into it. I believe I'm on episode number 23. But your body, of course, develops ATP and that's through your mitochondria. So when you go on a fast, especially a three-day fast, which I, again, cannot do. Yes, you can. You can.
00:04:02
Speaker
I would have to work up to it, I think. So I think the 48 hour is good enough for me for now. I still have until tomorrow at 4 p.m. until I can even break that one and I'm already suffering thinking about it. But when you go on these fasts, 48 to 72 hours, you are number one clearing out the old cells and especially the old mitochondria, the ones that aren't producing
00:04:30
Speaker
the adequate amounts of ATP that your body requires for the day. It's called autophagy, right? Autophagy, yes. And you're also, of course, breaking into areas of fat storage in your body that are usually not used because you keep
00:04:51
Speaker
eating and increasing your blood sugar levels to a certain point. A lot of people, they don't have a lot of ketones in the blood, which are a separate area of energy production in the body. And ketones are produced during this fast, which helps with your day-to-day regulation even after you break the fast, because instead of your sugars going up and down and then thus your moods and other things being affected and, you know,
00:05:21
Speaker
going up and down throughout the day like that, specifically your energy levels rising and falling irregularly, the ketones kind of help it to stay more consistent throughout the day. So I'm hoping that this will give me more energy, more consistent energy
00:05:37
Speaker
throughout just because I know I do a lot of driving and a lot of different types of activities throughout my day. And I just, yeah, I just felt like listening to him kind of encouraged me to get on that path and try to stick with it as long as possible. Even after this, I don't plan to go back to my normal ways of eating. I definitely want to integrate intermittent fasting into my day-to-day diet.
00:06:04
Speaker
That's awesome. And that would probably be like an eight hour eating 16 hour fast or at least a 12 hour fast every day. Now I'm so happy to hear this from you because didn't we didn't we talk about fasting like a month ago or so?
00:06:21
Speaker
I believe we did. I can't remember exactly what but yeah, because we were talking about so we were supposed to hold each other accountable to doing like those Chloe Ting workouts and I barely made it three days with those. But I told you that like because I want to lose a ton of weight and my future dream version of Chiara is about let's say 80 to 100 pounds lighter than I am right now. Spoiler if you just listen to this podcast, you haven't seen me.
00:06:46
Speaker
your girl needs to lose some weight. I had started doing alternate day fasting because I wanted those like cellular benefits of, you know, tapping into more energy in your fast stores, but then also to lose weight. So I have been doing alternate day fasting. I kind of like fell off this week, full transparency, which is we're talking about it, but I would do basically,
00:07:12
Speaker
It's basically eating every 36 hours. So I'd eat, I'd stop eating, I'd use a zero app. This is not an ad, I just actually used it. I mean, I've used a zero app. And I would put in a timer for at least 24, but I would really try to stretch it out to 36 because that number just felt better in my head. And then I would eat whatever I wanted, basically.
00:07:36
Speaker
And then I would do that again. And so the biggest challenge that I experienced when doing that was when I would break my fast.
00:07:48
Speaker
I would break them and eat carbs. I think ideally, people tell you when you're fasting, you should really just break your fast with just fats and proteins and a low carb diet just because you don't end up spiking your insulin.
Debunking Fasting Myths
00:08:05
Speaker
You stay in some level of ketosis, but I ended up losing a ton of fat for
00:08:12
Speaker
I've been doing it for just about a month now that I said. And I've lost like, I want to say like three inches off of my waist already. I lost around like 15 pounds from my highest weight. The like discouraging part would be like when I would break my fast and eat sugar. And so like all that water weight goes back up again, but I would notice my body physically getting smaller. I was working out a little more.
00:08:36
Speaker
So fasting is great. I'm all about it. Like, if you're listening and you're afraid to do it because you think you're going to be too hungry, Lena's doing it right now. Like, sure, she's hungry, but I think what I ended up learning with fasting is that hunger is really just a feeling. And in the fast that I've done, the most I've done is like, let's say 60 hours, probably. Actually, no, probably 60 more, maybe like 50 hours.
00:09:05
Speaker
is that like the longer you fast, the less you actually feel hungry. Like as long as you're supplementing with electrolytes, I like using like element power. I think it's like element or it's L-M-N-T. I don't know how you say it. I think it's element, which already has like the salt, potassium and magnesium that you need. Like you don't end up getting like the headaches that people sometimes experience when they're going keto for the first time.
00:09:31
Speaker
You don't get that keto flu when your sugar level is really low. You stock up with the electrolytes and drink them, sip them throughout the day and then
00:09:42
Speaker
yeah you're hungry but like the longer you go it just sort of just fades away to the point where where you actually break your fast and you eat like you get full much more much more quickly so i'm
Mindset and Perceptions During Fasting
00:09:56
Speaker
all about fasting and i think it's good that you are now actually in a fasting mindset too because we can try to do like whenever you're going to do another two day fast like let me know and i'll just stretch out my alternate day fast too
00:10:11
Speaker
like every two days instead of every other day. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I, there's actually something really interesting that I feel and that I've noted now since I'm in the middle of my fast and it's that hunger. I've really not been hungry. Like it's weird. My stomach has never felt that true empty feeling and
00:10:36
Speaker
I think of course it's because I'm drinking water so it's not like I'm going on a complete nothing like I do have some substance in my body but I did expect to feel like true hunger pains and be completely miserable. I think that my hunger and I say that with quotation marks is
00:10:55
Speaker
more so a craving and that craving is like being sent by my body to my brain and saying like, oh, I want this. I want that. Like I've just written down a list of everything that I've craved since starting this. And it's been like sardines with like mustard, which is weird. I know I want like sardines, like some sort of spicy mustard and like onions and tomatoes on like toasted bread with like
00:11:23
Speaker
cream cheese. And then I'm like, okay, no, this morning I really wanted cinnamon apple oatmeal. Okay. It just sounds so amazing to me. Um, a lot of like smoked fish really is because, you know, smoked salmon to Lapia. Wow. But like, when I think about like cornbread, I don't want cornbread. I don't, I don't want
00:11:50
Speaker
bagels or toast or cake or any of that stuff. Like it's all been like smoked fish of some sort. And I'm like, what is, like, what is that? Like, and I realized then because I really had to think about it, it's that I'm not hungry because if I was hungry, I would want everything. Everything would sound good to me and everything doesn't sound good to me. It's literally my mind playing tricks on me because I'm actually okay.
00:12:19
Speaker
Like I'm still in a state where I can survive. Yeah. I mean, your body is like, if you think about it, like it's made to be able to go long periods of time without food. That's how it's designed. But when you do break that fast, like when I first broke my very first fast, I broke it with a small piece of smoked salmon. So, which was like, it felt adequate in that moment. But yeah, it just, it does make you realize that
00:12:47
Speaker
you don't actually need as much food as you think that you need. To me the biggest thing that I missed most and what I realized when I would start fasting is like I didn't realize how much time I was spending cooking and so I had to like fill the boredom of not being able to eat myself or cook for myself with cooking for my family.
00:13:11
Speaker
And so- I literally thought about that too. That's so random that you said that. I was thinking about like, should I just cook for them and not eat? Cause I just, I loved doing it. So I would just like cook stuff and I'd be like, Hey, could you taste test this and let me know if this is good? Like I started making all these really nice salads and like making really delicious things. And what's weird is that like my most delicious creative dishes were all created when I was fasting and not eating and couldn't enjoy it myself.
00:13:42
Speaker
Wow. That's really sad, honestly. I think we cry. And yeah, my family, we do our we do like the, like the Dave Portnoy pizza reviews, like we rate everything that we eat scale one to 10. And yeah, I get like the highest ratings, highest scores when I couldn't taste it, I was just going based on instinct and feel. So yeah, I just really
00:14:06
Speaker
on all my fasting days, I just miss the process of cooking and it just is I want to like fill the time with something which I had to just cooking for other people. Yeah, I completely understand. I want to make shakshuka so bad.
00:14:23
Speaker
And there are just so many dishes that I have in my mind right now where I'm like, wow, I could cook that. I would love to do it. But on my days prior to this, prior to starting this fast, I didn't even think about cooking, honestly. I did it, but I wasn't
00:14:41
Speaker
I guess fiending to cook a meal for anyone, even myself in particular. So now it's weird to me how open my mind is to all of these different things. I'm craving things that I haven't craved in a very long time. And I'm just so excited to get back to it. But I'm a foodie. Honestly, I shouldn't have done this to myself, but I'm glad I did. Me too.
00:15:05
Speaker
I think this would be a great way for us to like, not just like for me to work on my weight, but like for us to just work on your overall fitness because of like, I mean, I don't listen to the Huberman Lab podcast, I might start, but I've listened to the Joe Rogan podcast, which we discussed in our last episode. If you haven't already, check it out. Listening to Joe Rogan is not a red flag. And yeah, we just learned so much about the benefits of fasting. So I am gonna keep doing it to stay fit and stay in shape.
00:15:36
Speaker
Yeah, I really like it in conjunction with my workout routine. I've been following the Chloe Ting workouts. For those of you who don't know who Chloe Ting is, she's a very popular YouTube account, offers free workouts for anybody
Commitment and Personal Tips for Fasting
00:15:52
Speaker
at any stage of their fitness journey.
00:15:54
Speaker
Um, she also has a website where she puts together her videos so you can follow along, um, create an account you have each day kind of mapped out. You can choose what area you want to work on. It's honestly so beautiful for me, especially because I'm a person who works out from home. Um, and so I've been doing her workouts. I did one today or.
00:16:20
Speaker
Yes, that was today. Wow. I did one this morning. Days are going by so slow. I did one this morning in the middle of my fast felt really good. And then, you know, I've been working out with her at least like five days a week, if not more. So I think that's another that is another reason why I wanted to try the fast is because
00:16:43
Speaker
You know a lot of people say that they get stuck or they feel stuck in their fitness journey in terms of seeing actual results and feeling actual results. I feel like I felt it but I wasn't seeing it and I was wondering if maybe my diet had something to do with it and I felt like fasting was a way for me to kind of reset
00:17:05
Speaker
my cravings even because I know I started to crave a lot of things that I didn't typically crave before, a lot more processed sugars and things of that nature. So I'm happy because like I said, now I'm craving things that aren't sugary. I'm just craving like really natural high protein, high calcium foods. And I plan to actually break the fast with bone broth or a vegetable soup
00:17:31
Speaker
Yeah, that's a really good idea. One thing that is so important is just staying consistent. So last week I went to Chicago, went to a Northwestern game we lost unfortunately, got our butts kicked by Penn State, but I was there rooting for the cats. And because I was on like a mini vacation, just a few days,
00:17:50
Speaker
I stopped fasting and doing my alternate day fasting because I want to go back, have all the regional eats and dishes that I really love to miss. And it's been harder to get back on the bandwagon since doing that. Fortunately, I don't have any vacations planned. And so it's much more, it's much easier to do it consistently when you're in the swing of it than to like
00:18:11
Speaker
start and stop and start and stop, which is technically what I'm doing with alternate day fasting. But whatever you are doing, it's so important to be just consistent. Because once you stop, it's so easy to fall off. So I'm glad we have this conversation. I am going on the record now. I'm going to restart my alternate day fasting.
00:18:33
Speaker
with Lena as my witness and with you guys as my listeners. And I'm gonna commit to doing it. So today was my feeding day. Tomorrow, back on it, fasting. Sounds great. My promise is that, of course, maintain my workout schedule five days a week. And then after I break this fast tomorrow at 4 p.m.,
00:19:01
Speaker
I will actually integrate fasting into my normal diet in terms of, I'm going to start with a 12 hour, 12 hour fast, but then work my way up probably by the following week to an eight 16 hour and just see how that works for me. Because yeah, I feel like if I have more energy, if things feel a lot better, if I'm getting more results in my workouts, then it's totally worth it.
00:19:30
Speaker
Do you think there any, are there any myths for you about fasting? I am starting to do this. I think I broke some myths. People like to say, like one thing that I realized when I'm actually doing alternate day fasting is when people say like, oh my gosh, I'm so hungry. I'm like, bro, no, you're not. Like I literally haven't eaten in two days. You were not that hungry. And I've also noticed that like my energy levels, they actually do stay like pretty consistent to the point where I could go out and
00:19:59
Speaker
do a really long walk, I could jog, I could run, could lift really heavy weights, which is so good for your health. And I didn't feel really exhausted after it. I felt like my energy level was still really, really good.
00:20:16
Speaker
So that to me isn't the big myth that you're just like so weak and tired if you're fasting or you feel constant pangs of hunger that you just, at least in my experience, I certainly didn't. And again, I didn't get to be my weight without eating a lot of food. So if I can go without food for 36 hours, then it really isn't that bad.
00:20:36
Speaker
For me, just because this is, I believe this is my first fast ever and I'm telling you right now the first 16 hours was easy. I could do that day in and day out because really I recognized the fact that like I really wasn't
Fasting: Control Over Food and Healthy Choices
00:20:52
Speaker
hungry. It was literally just cravings that I was having like I was fine. After
00:20:59
Speaker
24, closer to 24 hours, like 20 to 24 hours period. I started to feel heavy. Yeah, I started to feel heavy. I felt like every atom in my body was being pulled down by gravity. I'd almost felt like a melting candle. And shortly after the 24 hour mark, so like what my 24 hour mark was today.
00:21:25
Speaker
at 4 p.m. So it's been, what, five hours? It's been the toughest five hours of my life. I laid down to take a nap to try to pass time, woke up in an hour, literally felt the world caving in on me. I feel hungry now, I would say within the past hours. So since we started this podcast, I feel like constantly thinking about food. I'm constantly thinking about eating.
00:21:53
Speaker
I'm tired of water. I'm very sad. I have to apologize. I have to apologize to both of my parents after this podcast because I kind of got like snappy with them. It's terrible. I got snappy because I was so hungry and they understand but I still have to apologize.
00:22:14
Speaker
and it's terrible. You're a shell of yourself the first time you do it, but I feel like if I continue this process, if I train myself, because I jumped in cold turkey, if I had trained myself to get to this point, I would be okay. Just give it a few hours. When you wake up in the morning, honestly, you're going to be like, oh, I'm still alive. I'm fine. I wasn't that bad. And you got to drink your electrolytes. You got to do it.
00:22:41
Speaker
biggest tip is Zach Choi and any mukbang video you can find on YouTube. Whenever I'm super hungry, I just watch those and I'm like, Oh gosh, these are all the delicious foods that I could eat if I was of a different size at a different stage in my life. But yeah, that usually keeps me motivated.
00:23:03
Speaker
I think it's made me angry. I've been watching a lot of cooking videos on Instagram and I swear I want to like punch my phone and reach through and like tell them to shut up and shut down their accounts and report them for inappropriate behavior on social media because like I can't watch another person make like short ribs or even like a chicken parm or a burrito or
00:23:28
Speaker
some sort of Brazilian dessert that I can't even pronounce the name of it just all looks so good at this point so like I'm not like tell you now Kiara I'm not talking to you or anybody else for like the next few hours my dad also was the rudest person alive today and decided to make burgers oh my god in my home you could smell it
00:23:53
Speaker
And I was so angry. That's why I had to lay down. I had to take a nap. I was like, dude, I can't sit up here and smell this and maintain sanity. So I don't know. This is a mind versus body versus neurons. It really is mind over matter. It's my neurons that are trying to tell me that I want one thing when really I don't need it and I'm okay. So I'm just trying to use this as a life experience of saying, hey,
00:24:22
Speaker
I am, my mind is stronger than my body. And right now I feel like I'm failing, but the fact that I haven't gone into my kitchen yet and whipped up some yams is kind of telling me that I am stronger.
Advice for Beginner Fasters
00:24:35
Speaker
Yeah, you're, you're winning right now. And yeah, fasting gives you like a, like, I mean, not to get off and like did too much of a tangent, but like the reason why people like lose so much weight with osempic is because they're not eating.
00:24:47
Speaker
If you are someone who is trying to lose a lot of weight, you don't need osempic to tell your body, hey, body, you're not hungry anymore. Fasting helps you build that muscle and that sense of discipline over what you're eating. And you don't let your food control you. So even though you might see and smell a delicious juicy burger that your dad is making, you've already set it in your mind. And I know you and the kind of person you are, you're very like focused and disciplined.
00:25:16
Speaker
you already said I'm not gonna eat until four. So as good as the burger might smell, you can just go to sleep to avoid being around it because you've been able to have control over something. And to me, like the biggest one I've had with fasting is like not letting food win over me anymore.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:25:33
Speaker
right right and i think it goes into like those healthier choices as well because when you're able to eat you think about what you put yourself through in those moments where you're not able to eat and you say no like this isn't worth my time i want to focus on eating this meal because i know i'll feel better when i eat this yeah that's at least how my mind is going so far so all good things um i would definitely say like
00:26:00
Speaker
If you would like to start a fast, definitely do your research, look up experienced doctors, speak to your own, but
00:26:10
Speaker
I wouldn't suggest going in cold turkey on a three day. That's what I plan to do this time and I know with how my mind is going, I can't do it just because I also am in the middle of studying for a big flight exam and I can't focus on what I need to focus on because I am in the middle of this big change mentally and physically.
00:26:33
Speaker
Two days for me is a lot. It's more than I think most people would do on their first attempt, but work up to it. I definitely plan to work up to something longer times, but just not this time. But we'll keep you updated. Thank you for being vulnerable about that, about the challenges that you're experiencing, but the fact that you're still going through with it and sticking with it.
00:27:00
Speaker
Oh, yeah, yeah, I will I plan to tell you all about how it went in the next episode, just very briefly. So you know how I ended. Sure. And I'll also give you and our listeners are wonderful listeners and update on whether or not I have been sticking with my alternate day fasting commitment. Yeah, I look I definitely, definitely look forward to it because I want to hear some more of your tips and tricks for it as well. All right, I think that's it.
00:27:30
Speaker
Awesome. Well, thank you all so much for listening. You can contact us by following us on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter at takeittogopod, or by emailing us at takeittogopod at gmail.com. You can follow me, Lina, everywhere at FlyingWithLina. And you can keep up with me, Kiara, at thekiaradino on TikTok and Instagram. Remember to rate us and review us. Give us those five stars. Thank you for listening, and we'll see you on our next ride.
00:28:02
Speaker
Bye!