76- How To Succeed With Intermittent Fasting with Cynthia Thurlow

Intro Music: 00:00:01 Welcome to the summit for wellness podcast where we help you climb to the peak of your health. And now here is your host, Bryan Carroll.

Bryan: 00:00:29 Hey, Bryan here, and right now I'm staring longingly at my breakfast as I wait for the clock to strike 10 so that I can start eating. And that's because I'm doing this thing called intermittent fasting. Have you heard about intermittent fasting? Typically with intermittent fasting, you wait an extended period of time between your last meal and your next meal on the next day to eat. One of the common segments of this is an eight hour window at where you eat in a 16 hour window of where you fast. So we brought on one of my friends, Cynthia Thurlow, to talk all about intermittent fasting because it's such a big buzzword, but right now we'll talk about foods that can kick you out of fasting and also liquids that might kick you out of fasting and what it does to your body on a physical, logical level. And you might remember Cynthia Thurlow was on episode 51 where she was talking about how to help women regulate their hormones so that they can lose some weight and also feel great.

Bryan: 00:01:30 And that ended up being one of the top episodes from 2018 so if you really enjoyed that episode, this episode is 10 times better and she has a ton of great information for you. So stick around before we head over and chat with Cynthia. This episode is brought to you by my friends over at Athletic Greens. Athletic Greens is a greens powder that is packed full of 75 whole food ingredients that helps to revitalize your body and provide you all the micro nutrients that your body needs. So to learn more, go to summitforwellness.com/greens.

New Speaker: 00:02:07 Now let's dive right into my conversation with Cynthia.

New Speaker: 00:02:11 Cynthia is a Western medicine trained nurse practitioner, two times TEDX speaker, functional nutritionist and believes passionately and the inherent power of food and nutrition to be your greatest asset on your health and wellness journey. Thanks for coming back onto the show, Cynthia. Yeah. So excited to be here. Yeah, I'm excited to have you because we're gonna dive into intermittent fasting, which is a big, um, kind of buzz word right now. But before we get into their last time, we had you on, you are prepping for your Tedx talk. So can you talk about that talk that you did and it looks like you did another one after that. So you've been very busy.

Cynthia: 00:02:49 Yes, yes. No, I, it, the irony is that I was a finalist for the Greenville Tedx that I did in March, uh, at the time that I was accepting the Toronto slot. And so it was really cool to have the ability to know, like I was going to have a second one that was going to come right around the corner. I didn't have nearly as much time to prepare for Toronto as I did for Greenville, but Toronto was really incredible. I mean, I, I've never had an experience like that before. This was a women's health focused, um, Tedx, which was really cool. It was all women, all women speakers, um, very few men in the audience, but the men that were there were really interested in what the women had to talk about. And you know, I got on a plane and never been to Toronto. Um, went and did my practice.

Cynthia: 00:03:33 I showed up the next morning, fashionably late, which is not my norm, um, but was totally late, showed up at the wrong venue. Like there was one digit off in the address that I was given, not by the organizers, by the hotel. And so I had to whisk away, you know, and another Uber and showed up fashionably late. But it was a really incredible experience. And the, the funny thing was that I was so concerned being an introvert that I was going to get up there and I was going to freeze and I was going to forget what I was going to say. And the funny thing is there were no constraints on the, in terms of length of when I was speaking. And so most, um, most tedx events, your, it's either like an an eight minute, a 12 minute, a 16 minute timeframe. Everything needs to be under 18 minutes.

Cynthia: 00:04:12 However, that's like the longest the TEDX can be for, for people like myself. And so, um, they didn't give me any time constraints. What's funny is I had been practicing and thought I was only speaking for 12 or 13 minutes. The reality was I spoke for 19 minutes because I got up there and I got really in the group. I got a lot of great energy from the audience. I was getting lots of great, you know, visual cues. People were very interested in what I was saying. And when I got off the stage I was like, okay, I'm a rock star. I didn't forget anything I said. And my mom was like, you spoke for 90 minutes. I was like, what? So I got up there in my groove and so I have a very long tedx that had to be cut. Like I had to cut a minute and a half out and I, and they allowed me to determine where that could be removed from. So I always remind people, if you listen to my first Tedx, it's a little long, but that's okay.

Bryan: 00:05:00 Yeah, that's actually really impressive because usually when people have nerves going up on stage, they talk faster. So the fact that you somehow added seven minutes onto that, that's, you must've been in a really relaxed, parasympathetic state.

Cynthia: 00:05:15 I was, you know, it's funny. There are certain points, I mean, I notice it because it's me. I got very emotional. There were certain points in the talk when I got emotional and I could hear my voice cracked, but then I kind of, you know, just snap myself back into my groove. But I think that I knew I was living, eating and breathing that talk for two weeks. I mean, that was all I thought about. I played it in the car to myself. I'd said, spoke to it in my sleep every night. I fell asleep for the week before. I was saying my speech and my sleep, I could hear myself going to bed and I wake up thinking about it. So I really own that material and I could probably do 80% of it right now cause it's just, it's embedded in my subconscious. I think at this point

Bryan: 00:05:56 then, uh, you were on about one year ago, so you had two tedx talks and also in that time you had a really interesting, uh, health experience and you being one of the healthiest people that I know. It was pretty shocking to hear some of that stuff that you are going through. So can you just talk us through what happened and what it was like to be, you know, from such a healthy state into what occurred?

Cynthia: 00:06:22 Yeah, yeah. No, I um, trust me, it was as big a shock to me as it was everybody else. But no, my husband and I went away for the first time on a, on one of his business trips. I've never been able to do that. We went to Hawaii and we came back and within 48 hours I was in the emergency room. And it started as nausea and vomiting. I assumed I pick up a bug. I'm like, it's just my luck. I went to Hawaii, I ate a lot of fish. I probably picked up a bug. Um, and then Sunday afternoon I felt really ill. I had more pain, abdominal pain than I had when I was in labor, which clued me into something was definitely wrong. And when I got to the emergency room, I couldn't sit. I couldn't stand. I mean I was in so much pain, it required like I had to meditate and mindfully think of something pleasant because I just couldn't get comfortable.

Cynthia: 00:07:06 And they initially didn't take me very seriously, largely because I, I, my blood pressure and pulse are usually pretty slow and that's just my norm. But when I'm sick, my blood pressure and pulse or like a normal person's blood pressure and pulse. So I didn't look sick. I wasn't running a fever. And it wasn't until my blood work came back that they started to take me really seriously. And so I went for an urgent cat scan. Um, and the cat scan showed that my appendix had ruptured. And I had inflammation in the entire length of my colon. And when the surgeon came in, which was late at night, because by this point, I mean I had been through every dog and pony trick show that goes on. And the surgeon looked at me and said, if I take you to surgery tonight, you will lose your entire colon.

Cynthia: 00:07:48 And I looked at her as sick as I was and I said, that's not an option. I need my colon. And she goes like, well, you don't really need your call. And I was like, no, no, I need my colon. I know does no one's taking my colon. So they admitted me in the hopes that they could slow down this sepsis, you know, this blood infection that I had because I was really pretty ill. Um, and two days later I developed a small bowel obstruction, which, you know, I'm a pretty tiny person. So I went from being a tiny person to looking like I was five months pregnant, which any woman that's listening to this understands, no one wants to look pregnant when they're not pregnant. Um, so that was the first complication and then it was kind of this domino effect. I then, you know, I spent a whole week vomiting.

Cynthia: 00:08:29 They have had a really hard time, um, controlling the vomiting. They put down a tube into my, um, through my nose into my stomach, which is as unpleasant as it sounds. I've put many of them in during my lifetime as an er nurse. Much worse when you yourself get when put down your down your nose into your stomach to decompress my gut, that didn't help. Um, they decided that, you know, I wasn't turning around so they needed to give me ivy nutrition because I hadn't eaten for almost a week and I was losing about a pound or a pound and a half a day. My muscles were just being broken down for food and I was losing all this weight. And you know, typically they'll let most people wait a whole lot longer, but they were like, we have to start feeding you because you're, you're, you're wasting away. And um, Brian, this won't surprise you that the question I had was, what's in this total parental nutrition?

Cynthia: 00:09:18 It's called TPN. And I, if I recalled from my work rounding in the hospital, I knew it was full of crap. And so I said, is there organic TPN? And the Dietitian just that fell out of her chair. She was like, no, no, we don't have any non soy organic TPN. Or my cousin was there and she's a physician. She split her hand on my shoulder and she said, if you don't eat, you're going to die. You need to just stop. And so I acquiesced to getting fed with this SoyBase nutrition in an IB. Um, and then in about 24 hours later, I started to kind of perk up cognitively, I didn't realize how much my body was starving and how poorly I felt until I started to actually feel a little bit better. And then I still wasn't turning around. And so they did a third cat scan.

Cynthia: 00:10:06 So I had three cat scans in a week. You can imagine amount of radiation my poor body endured. And at that point I didn't even care. I was like, just figure out what's wrong with me. And it turned out I had abscesses in my peritoneum, which is the cavity where your abdominal organs are and all of the antibiotics they were, they were dosing you with antifungals and I was on a lot, it can't penetrate the cell wall, the abscess. So the next thing I had to look forward to was, um, having dreams put into my abdomen. And I was fortunate enough that I was at a hospital where there's a very high level of care. And so the interventional radiologists who just happen to be on call was one who's very adept at doing this procedure. So I had those put in and that's when I started to turn around enough that they felt confident I could survive getting out of the hospital and delay putting off surgery.

Cynthia: 00:10:54 Um, and so I had, yeah, I had lots of medical procedures. I just special ID put in. That was that fed into my, um, if fed into my heart to give me antibiotics cause they said I was going to be on antibiotics for a month. Um, and there's nothing more humbling. I don't know how else to say that. There's nothing more humbling than realizing you have to absolutely surrender to be cared for. Like I was so sick, I couldn't do anything for myself. Um, and that was pretty humbling. I had some really, really good nursing care. I also had some really crummy nursing care. I had excellent physicians that took care of me. Um, my husband, God bless him every day, come up to the hospital to give me a shower. Cause that was the one thing that made me feel like a human being was king.

Cynthia: 00:11:34 Kids shower every day, even though I just sit on a stool and just, you know, I didn't have enough energy to do anything other than just sit there. Um, but it made me feel like a human being and I, you know, so many friends and loved ones that came to see me or reached out. And so I was really, utterly grateful. In 13 days later, I got to go home. And my first impression when I got home was I couldn't believe how much weight I lost. And I looked like a skeleton. And your muscles atrophy really quickly if you're not moving, even though I was up and try and move as much as I could. Um, the first time I went up the stairs in my house, I felt like I had cement blocks on my legs. Like my muscles were so atrophied and it was an effort to do anything. And so really, really profoundly humbling. How can you not be changed by something like that? Um, I was so grateful to be home, but I mean that was just the beginning of, you know, two weeks of really not having enough energy to do much of anything. It was just really life altering. If it isn't, then you're not, you're not, you're missing the message that you know, the universe or God or whoever you believe in is trying to share with you.

Bryan: 00:12:39 And I think that's a, a really good story to bring up because we talk a lot about different natural ways to help people with their health. We talk about functional medicine and we talk about looking for the root causes of issues. And so people wonder like at what point do you turn to conventional medicine versus functional medicine? This is a great example is when it's life or death. Yeah, you do what you need to do. You have that soy-based zero nutrition, I mean to get something in you and that you forego the organic side of things because you have to survive.

Cynthia: 00:13:17 Yeah, no, and I think that's a good, um, I'm, I'm not anti Western medicine. I think there's a time and a place for it. For me, being on antibiotics for a month and antifungals completely spun my head and it's probably gonna take me months and months and months if not longer, to rebuild what I lost. However, um, I'm just grateful that I had the opportunity because had I been in the air, you know, we had two long flights, you know, one from Hawaii to La and then la to the east coast had been on a flight and had a problem. And when I tell you I have never had pain like that, I mean, and it came on so suddenly that they think that maybe my, my appendix was eminently rupturing for awhile and it just then decided to let that happen. Um, but I'm just so grateful that I had that as an option.

Cynthia: 00:14:02 Now. Now we're doing all the functional medicine stuff to kind of build it back up. But yeah, sometimes you just have to surrender and let me tell you that TPN, every time I looked at that bag or that white milky bag and Yuck, I was like, thank goodness I've got something they can give me. Cause I don't think, I honestly do not think had I known had I not been able to tolerate that, I'm not sure what would've happened because I was within 24 hours of getting the bag of SoyBase TPN, I felt better. I mean it was like a thousand calories in a bag. And I mean I, I can't tell you how much better I felt. I was like, okay, I just have to be grateful. It was probably just soy based protein and probably a bunch of lipids and fats, but um, my body desperately needed it.

Cynthia: 00:14:43 So yeah, it's like you have to shut that part of your brain off, um, because you recognize it. You have to think about the greater good. And I wanted to get home to my family. That was, that was my big focus was getting home to my family. And what does your protocol look like now to recover from all that? Um, so w w so I just sent off a Gi map and for anyone that's listening that doesn't know what that is, that's a DNA based stool test. Um, my provider and I wanted to give me a bit of time afterwards because I was so tested out and I knew I was having surgery again. I knew I get another round of antibiotics. So initially it was starting with, you know, basics, a good quality lactobacillus and Bifido antibiotic Pri probiotic. I'm also a spore based probiotic.

Cynthia: 00:15:26 I have an Igg, um, immune complex powder. Then I'm ingesting at a pretty hefty amount every day by orthomolecular. Um, and a lot of it's just eating really clean. You know, the interesting thing of is when I left the hospital I had to largely consume a low residue diet. And what that is, is a diet that's easier for your body to process. For me, that's not really an issue other than I, I missed that stubbles uncooked vegetables, but I eat a lot of meat anyway. That's part of my diet is I largely Paleo. It's a lot of, I don't eat gluten, I don't eat grains and I, I don't eat dairy. So for me to not eat those things was not a big deal. Um, so I had a lot of meat. I've been craving beef. Like if there's no tomorrow, it's kind of embarrassing.

Cynthia: 00:16:05 I don't normally eat beef that often, but if you give me the opportunity, I may eat it quite a bit. And so I had cooked vegetables and that was the mainstay in my diet. So I didn't go home, eat junk. Although I had two physicians suggest I drink, ensure, uh, which is full of crap and eat ice cream. That was their best recommendation. They're like, you have so much weight to gain, Cynthia, you should just drink in shore and eat ice cream. And I looked at my gastroenterologist who is a female and as a hundred percent supportive of my lifestyle and she was like, don't listen to them. She was like, just continue doing what you're doing because you're doing really well. Um, and so I eat a lot of healthy fats and a lot of protein and um, I was so happy to eat salad. It took me a solid month to be able to get salad again.

Cynthia: 00:16:45 It was so happy to have Greens that made me very happy. But yeah, I, and I, and I suspect the insulting to my gut is probably not as bad as it is for someone who eats a standard American diet because I don't have crazy cravings. And I know usually when things are off in my gut personally, I will crave crap. I'll cry somebody sugary, something salty. I don't have any of that. And so I would really be surprised when we get the results to see that it isn't, that I'm not doing pretty well given my circumstances. And you still have your full colon. I do. The only thing that was removed as my appendix. Um, and we were laughing about that earlier. I'm on a tangential conversation, but yeah, I went and had my appendix removed on the 11th of April and I was really ready for that.

Cynthia: 00:17:30 I had been out of the hospital for about six weeks and that was their goal. They wanted to give my, my gut a solid four to six weeks. Um, and with the blessing of my physician, I actually did a Tedx two weeks before that. So I've had a really action packed year, um, to say the very least, but I feel really good. And the irony is this, um, after everything I had been through an appendectomy was nothing. I mean I kept waking up every day thinking like, did I miss something? I thought this is going to be painful. You know, they did it laparoscopically, which is great. Um, but I'd already had two c sections and I'd had a hernia repair many years ago after having my boys. And those were a lot worse. So to me this was kind of like a walk in the park.

Cynthia: 00:18:09 I was like, oh. And so my surgeon was like, don't go overboard. Like I don't want you going overboard cause you feel good. Um, but yeah, I feel good. I'm, I'm very, very grateful that the best possible outcome could have come out of this. That allowed me to, um, you know, get home to my family, do my Tedx, write a book and I'm have my surgery and you know, here I am. It's May, it's like, I feel like my, my last couple of months kind of got squished. It feels like it's like happened over two weeks.

Bryan: 00:18:35 And uh, what's your exercise program look like? Like are you exercising now or keeping things pretty mild?

Cynthia: 00:18:42 Uh, well I can't lift more than 25 pounds. It was supposed to be 10. Um, so when I got to the hospital, the things that I was permitted to do and my surgeon thank goodness, encouraged me to do was to walk. So anyone that sees me in my neighborhood, I walk four or five miles a day cause I'm just so happy to be able to move. And I'm just, I'm not somebody who sits still. I'm a whole lot. So, um, I'm allowed to do body weight exercises. She's all about playing. So I went back to doing bar. I went back to doing solid core because I couldn't lift heavy. That's really what I missed. Um, I went back to running and when I say run, I just do sprints. I'm not doing sustained cardio. I don't need to, I don't, I do it more just for the benefits of doing hit.

Cynthia: 00:19:19 Um, which when we talk about intermittent fasting will, I'll hit on some of those physiologic things. Um, but I'm not clear to lift yet and I don't think that's, you know, I actually hired a trainer, not because I didn't trust my ability to get back into the swing of things, but I needed someone to understand fundamentally that I need bodyweight exercises and you can actually get a really intense workout in with just body weight. So that's kind of what we're doing right now. Um, and that feels really good. Like I know I always use my sleep quality and my energy levels as a barometer of whether or not I've done too much. And so for me, having gone through all this, my cortisol levels, we don't want them to be high because that impacts my ability to sleep. And so for me, exercise and the right amounts and the right structure helps bring my cortisol down. And that's really a huge thing, especially for women that are kind of in the stage of life that I'm in. Um, we want to keep our cortisol levels, you know, in a healthy range and not too high or too low. Okay.

Bryan: 00:20:13 So how are you measuring that? Are you doing stuff based off of HRV? Are you looking at data from like the aura ring or how are you measuring all that to make sure that you're seeing within those zones so you can get really good sleep?

Cynthia: 00:20:26 Yeah, so for me personally, I don't have an aura ring. I, you know, it's funny, I was going to buy one for it. Got. Um, so for me I gauge how restful my sleep is. So one thing that I suffer from when my cortisol is high as I will wake up in the middle of the night because my macros, my protein, fat and carbs are rock solid. Like that is never an issue for me. I because I know how to feel my body. Um, I just tweak things. Like if I'm concerned I haven't gotten enough calories in at night, I'll make sure before I go to bed, I've got some healthy fats and some carbs on board, you know, healthy quality carbs. Um, so for me, if I'm waking up in the middle of the night, that's usually a big sign. Um, for me because I'm trying to gain weight, not lose weight, I have to be really conscientious about ensuring I'm getting, you know, within my feeding window, cause I'm backed intermittent fasting, the same amount of calories I was getting in when I was eating three meals a day.

Cynthia: 00:21:17 When I first got out of the hospital and went saying meals, you're not eating meals out of the hospital, you're eating bone broth. And, gosh, I was eating potatoes, cooked potatoes, cooked carrots, you know, over cooked chicken. I mean anything just to try and get some nutrients into my body. Um, but I'm not using a heart rate monitor. I, I've always been very aware of like I could wear a heart rate monitor and I know exactly where my heart rate was. So for me, I'm using perceived effort and how am I at how my recovery fields, I haven't gotten into like my trainer and I just start working together this week. So I will be able to tell you probably in two weeks how I'm doing with that. But he understands. And actually there was a whole, um, neurovascular tests that I had to do for him to kind of give them a sense for how well I recover from, you know, intense exercise. Like I'm not looking to go back and do crossfit or anything like that, but just enough to stay lean and toned and I'm already lean. So it's more about just building muscle. Like that's my, my huge focus at this point.

Bryan: 00:22:13 And since you've mentioned intermittent fasting, let's just start diving right into that. Can you talk about what is intermittent fasting? Because a lot of people, they, you know, they, they're starting to use that more as a way to lose weight. Yeah. And so you're talking about you're doing it while you're trying to gain weight. So now, now I'm even mark curious what is in there met and fascinating and can you dive into that a little bit?

Cynthia: 00:22:35 Yeah. So intermittent fasting is just eating within a prescribed time periods. So for many people, yeah, that could be the fast one day a week. For most people, I encourage them to do it on a daily basis. So for me, I do a 16 hour fast every day and I eat within an eight hour feeding window. I do have friends and colleagues that will do much shorter feeding windows. That does not work for me. It doesn't work for most of the women that I know. Um, you need to be able to get hungry in between your first meal and your last meal. So I always say that's when the Macros, you know, how much fat and protein you're consuming really becomes hugely beneficial. But the most common, um, intermittent fasting schedule is a 16, eight, 16 hours fast. So with an eight hour feeding window, like I said, there are people that will do five days of normal eating with two very low calorie days where they're doing longer fast.

Cynthia: 00:23:27 It really depends on what works best for your lifestyle. For me, I don't mind not eating breakfast. I can work out fast. It, I have plenty of energy. I had to give it up when I was that first month I was out of the hospital because I was too weak and deconditioned. I had to go back to exactly the way that I talk to my clients about, about maintaining and stabilizing your blood sugar because my blood sugar was all over the place. Um, you know, I was checking it and it was low all the time, largely because I had not been eating, um, you know, regular food for such a long period for a solid two weeks, even two and a half weeks. Um, but it took a while for my body to get reacclimated and I just didn't have the reserves. So you can maintain your body weight on intermittent fasting.

Cynthia: 00:24:08 You can lose body weight, you can gain body weight. It really is all about strategizing and for me it's eating more calories than I would normally eat in one meal. And so a lot of it I use, I just use larger portions of healthy fats and that is, that's what works for my body. Um, it's always in the construct of what are your goals. Um, you know, for many people that don't want to change their diets intermittent fast and can be really helpful because you can still eat whatever you're eating between those hours of your, of, you know, you're within your feeding window. And I even have clients who don't want to do elimination diets that just do intermittent fasting and lose weight. So to me, I think it can be hugely beneficial. It's easy to implement. I always say it's simple. It's designed to be flexible and so, you know, it works and it doesn't require people to buy products.

Cynthia: 00:24:55 That is what drives me crazy where you know, we're in this health and wellness industry and there's always like the next best thing. Like you have to buy this book or you have to buy this. And I tell people all the time, listen, you can do intermittent fasting. Just having a couple simple rules for yourself and then troubleshooting. There's so many resources that are out there that are free. No one needs to, you know, buy into a program. Um, and I'm only doing a program with a trainer because of my circumstances, not, I don't normally do that. I normally do my own thing. Um, and I'll probably do that for three months and then it'll be over with. But to answer your question, that's the really cool thing about intermittent fasting. There's no right or wrong way to do it. It's all about bio individuality.

Bryan: 00:25:35 And so what are the physiological aspects of intermittent fasting? What does it do for the body? Why is it important to shorten the window of time that we feed and increase the amount of time that the body's resting from ingesting food?

Cynthia: 00:25:51 That's a great question. And so fasting really is something that's been around since ancestral times. It's, it's hot right now because I think there's a lot of research dollars being pushed into understanding it better. But from a physiologic perspective, I mean fat loss is what everyone focuses on, but there's, there's a term called autophagy. And so autophagy is a spring cleaning of the cells. And the only time that your body can get rid of these diseased, dysfunctional cells is when you're fasted. You know, we've been conditioned in our society that we need to be eating 24 hours a day. We need to be snacking, we need to be constantly eating. We need many meals. I can't tell you how destructive that mindset is. That is what is conditioned us to believe that we're supposed to be snacking and eating all day long. It doesn't give digestion a break.

Cynthia: 00:26:37 It doesn't make our digestion efficient, largely creates a system. Uh, where we are, we're going to end up being insulin resistant because we're constantly flooded with food. And you know, it ultimately benefits the food industry. You know, we do much better. I mean, I grew up in the seventies and eighties, and my mother was a first generation American. So for her it was all about, you know, you ate breakfast, you ate lunch and you ate dinner. There was no snacking. And if you didn't need a meal, you didn't have another meal to the next meal. And that's just how things were. And yet, you know, my boys are being raised in a culture largely where kids are getting crap all day long. You know, they have to have a, you know, they need it after they played a football game for 30 minutes. They needed after every swim meet. Um, and it's not healthy food.

Cynthia: 00:27:21 So for so many people, the whole concept of fasting will kind of tap into, um, ensuring that they're, they're becoming fat burners. So they're going to be more fuel efficient, meaning that they don't get hungry every two to three hours. They're, you know, they're [inaudible] is going to be maintained. In fact, the longer you do intermittent fasting, the more satiated you are. You don't feel like you're thinking about food. As soon as you hit your, you know, your feet hit the floor in the morning. But there's also, there are a lot of other physiological benefits including things like better biomarkers. So your blood pressure, your blood sugar, lowered insulin levels, overall improved cognitive functioning. So you're much more clear cognitively. Like I know when I'm fasting in the morning, like today, I didn't break my fast until, Gosh, probably 1130 and I, you know, I, I did some sprints this morning.

Cynthia: 00:28:07 I'm complete, I feel completely fantastic. And so I encourage people to really think about, you know, what are you, what are you aiming for? We know that it reduces your risk of, um, you know, of brain issues including Alzheimer's, dementia, which is considered to be type three diabetes. We know it helps stimulate growth hormone when you're fasting. And growth hormone is what helps with building lean muscle. And for many people that aren't getting good quality sleep, uh, fast and can be really helpful the most, a lot of growth hormone is secreted at night in our brains. That's when our brains are actually doing the most work. So lots and lots of physiological benefits. And then, you know, people just feel like they're able to maintain, you know, like I mentioned before, I have some clients who don't like doing elimination diets and all they do is stick to a strict feeding window and all of a sudden they're losing weight and it's because their bodies are having time to process what they're eating and their bodies are getting a little bit hungry and so payables shift into this fat burning mode and, and they'll, they'll use glycogen, um, to keep your blood sugar stable, which is, which is where we're heading, how we are supposed to function physiologically.

Cynthia: 00:29:10 And so to me it's just, it's the science behind it makes sense. And I just think with the escalating rates of obesity and diabetes in this country, we really have to make some changes and short term pain is worth the longterm goals. So, you know, we don't need to eat breakfast. And that was kind of how I started my Tedx was what if I told you that breakfast is not the most important meal of the day? And there was like a hush over the crowd because we've been conditioned to believe that we need to have breakfast and breakfast is the most important meal day and we need to eat a primarily grain and gluten laden meal first thing in the morning. And that couldn't be farther from the truth of how our bodies are supposed to work. Um, physiologically,

Bryan: 00:29:53 yeah. You, you have to have your oatmeal and cereal in the morning. Well thanks. Um, so, uh, with breakfast actually because of term breakfast is breaking your fast now. Was the breaking your fast supposed to be the fast thing just while you're sleeping or back in history? Was that a longer fast?

Cynthia: 00:30:16 I think it was a longer fast cause if you look at, you know, ancestral eating, um, it was feast or famine. Literally. It's like what did you hunt that day and what did you bring home? And so some days you might have, you might kill a antelope and you bring that home and you eat, you know, eat heartily. And then the next day you've got tubers, you know, you have plants. Um, so our bodies are meant to have these periods of time where we are not consuming as much food. Unfortunately, what it's turned into, I'm in a really great book called Salt, sugar fat, um, which is an expert on the process food industry. When you start looking at, uh, what has happened and transpired over the last 50 years, I mean, it's, it's horrifying in my opinion. I think that, um, even healthcare providers, we're not doing enough to educate our patients about how to eat from a nutritional standpoint.

Cynthia: 00:31:03 And I think that is really to our detriment, um, health wise. And it doesn't set a good, you know, it doesn't set a good tone for future generations. And I look at my boys who are super athletic and they're smart and they're really, um, fit and you know, most of their friends are the same way, but there are plenty of other events I go to and I just, it breaks my heart because if our children are obese, um, the likelihood that they will continue having struggling with obesity into their adult years is greatly heightened. And you know, it's, you know, and the other thing we learned about pot and jurors cats as ntps in NTC is, and so, you know, diseased adults breed, you know, kids that are gonna be more susceptible to the same diseases and disorders that they're suffering from. So it's, it's this domino effect that we really have to be very mindful of.

Cynthia: 00:31:50 And, and I can't, I can't say it strongly enough. Something needs to change, you know, otherwise we are going to end up being a generation that will have a really poor life expectancy and poor quality of life. And, and you know, getting back to when you were asking me about my hospitalization, the one thing I heard over and over again from not only the physicians that were caring for me but the nurses was how could this happen? You're one of the healthiest people I know. And so the point is people that are healthy can get sick. But the reason why I got out of the hospital and was alive and I recovered so quickly was my quality of health before I got sick. And so I would encourage everyone, you know, even though I'm in my forties, um, my quality life is very important to me. And if there are things that you can do that are easy and simple and uncomplicated to, you know, improve your of life, I'm a huge proponent of that. Um, obviously there are people who shouldn't do intermittent fasting, but the vast majority of us can really benefit from eating less food and fasting longer.

Bryan: 00:32:50 So you mentioned when you're fasting, it kind of creates a spring cleaning of the body. So is that because when you're not ingesting food and allows your liver to be able to detox better, or what's kind of the process there that allows the body to start getting all this junk out of it?

Cynthia: 00:33:10 Well, I think, you know, when you look at, you know, the, the data on, on top of Jana and it's far more complicated than the, the little blurb that I'm giving here. Um, but your body actually needs to have the, the resources to be able to, you know, clean up this debris. And so it goes down to the mitochondrial level that you start to realize that there's more to it than not. You know, there was a really great podcast I listened to the other day that was talking about Mta. Oh our, which works in an inverse relationship with autophagy. So when you're fast at autophagy as high an Mto, Mto, our is at a low rate and that, and that changes when you start to eat, you know, obviously you're not cleaning up disease cells. So I think it's on the cellular level and I think every digestive organ, every cell in the body is um, benefiting from this fasted state.

Cynthia: 00:33:55 We know that, you know, insulin levels in the brain are low, so there's less inflammation. So I mean, it, there's absolutely a system wide, a body wide, um, uh, you know, scientifically proven way that intermittent fasting benefits you in every level. And I always liken it back to digestion because I think people understand the digestion. You put food in your mouth, you swallow it, it goes into your stomach, etc. That, you know, when you're giving it a break, it's almost like a timeout. Like with kids, you know, they, they misbehave and we give them a timeout when they're younger, when they're older. There's other techniques that you need to use, but it's very much the same way in the body that you give your body this time out and it gets to reregulate itself. So your blood sugar's going to be better maintained. Your body taps into glycogen.

Cynthia: 00:34:37 You know, we have glycogen that's stored in the skeletal muscles and the liver to keep your blood sugar stable, you will not starve. You know, that's always the concern. Am I going to starve? Am I going to be hungry? Well, there's, you know, there's a reason why, you know, initially when hunger comes on, it's not necessarily because you need food. It could be your dehydrated. Um, so keeping the body really well hydrated while you're fasting is also important. It also helps, you know, our bodies detoxify naturally every day. You know, we package up stool to be eliminated. We urinate, we breathe, we sweat. All those things can be improved upon by, um, you know, letting your body do what it needs to do on its own without overwhelming it with, um, crap and garbage food, which is what most of us are eating.

Bryan: 00:35:19 And then when it comes down to fasting, what can break a fast cause you hear about people just doing a water fast and that's all they have. A, you also hear about people, I'm still having coffee on their fast. You hear some people do bone broth on their fast, some people do MCT oil or coconut products. Uh, so are there certain things that break up past and if so, what are those?

Cynthia: 00:35:42 Yeah, that's a great question. It's, and it's a common question. So anything that evokes and insulin response. So if you have plain coffee, plain tea, um, if you have water filtered water, that's all fine. Um, I think bone broth is, is fine occasionally, but you shouldn't need to be dependent on that during a fasted state unless you're doing something that's prolonged. If you do a couple day fast and you want to provide your body with some nourishment, but I don't, I don't think that should be part of a daily fasting ritual. What's interesting is a lot of people will drink bulletproof coffee or they'll do MCT oil or coconut oil. And we know that those fats in particular are broken down a little bit differently in the body, a little bit easier for them to be absorbed. I'm a purist though, I'll be honest. I mean you'll find people, there's a, a very well known fitness person.

Cynthia: 00:36:25 I alluded to this individual in my last podcast with you. Um, and she tells people that if you have less than 50 calories, it doesn't count. That's BS. Um, if you are evoking an insulin response, whether it's a grape or you're eating, you know, Broccoli or whatever it is, it's still breaking your, your, your fast. So for me, what I typically say is plain coffee, plain tea, water, all completely acceptable. If you're doing a longer fast and you feel like you need something, bone broth would be acceptable, provided that it's homemade. Um, and once a month I do a 24 hour juice ritual. Um, and it is cold pressed vegetable juices that I get from a, um, a place in Kentucky. Um, I know the owner well and it's, uh, it gets delivered to my house. I do that once a month. And all that is doing, because it's all green juices. It's not, it's not juices that are, when I say the word juice, people think of like orange juice. It's not like that. I'll do that just to flood my body with some nutrients. But otherwise all of my intermittent fasting has done with filtered water. And that's what I do until I break it.

Bryan: 00:37:25 And can you just briefly touch on what is an insulin response for people that might not know?

Cynthia: 00:37:30 Yes. So you know, we eat food and our body, uh, in response to food, our body will secrete insulin to move sugar from the bloodstream into the cells. And so you can imagine it doesn't take a lot for our bodies to secrete insulin. And that's a normal physiologic response. And so, you know, when I talk about the insulin response, it's really are you eating food? Um, when you drink water, when you drink coffee that's playing, you drink tea that's playing. Your body doesn't register or need or need to do any work in terms of processing that. However, if you were to have a glass of orange juice, an orange, a sandwich, your body is going to need to secrete insulin to help kind of break down the nutrients to ensure that you're moving blood sugar that's in the cell, in the bloodstream, into the cells. And that's, that's what insulin's job is. It's a hormone in the body is secreted by the pancreas in response to food. And for a lot of people that are obese or overweight that I've insulin resistance or diabetic, that process has really, it's almost as if the cell, the cells themselves become less responsive to insulin's cues and hormones.

Bryan: 00:38:37 And you mentioned that, uh, les, I think it was today, you worked out in the morning, I don't know if that's your normal workout schedule. Um, but exercising can increase blood sugar. So how does that work with fasting? And how does that not break a fast?

Cynthia: 00:38:54 Well, I don't think that it per se necessarily, well first of all depends on what kind of exercise you're doing. But I know with my body that my body will break down glycogen, which is stored sugar to keep my blood sugar stable if it's needed. Um, I think I worry more about the cortisol response and a lot of people over exercise and that can put a stress on the body, which can then make blood sugar levels problematic. Um, you know of cortisol is high for a long period of time. It can impact blood sugar and dysregulated in a negative way. So it's always in the context of who is the individual, how healthy are you, his blood sugar problem. If I were to check my blood sugar when I got up in the morning and after working out, I bet it would not be much different. But I'm also someone that I'm very aware of how my body feels and responds to exercise. And I would say that, um, most people, if they are physically fit and if they are fasted, their blood sugar, that will not be a tremendous shift in response to eating. Your blood sugar absolutely will increase in, it should come back to normal within several hours.

Bryan: 00:39:56 And is there a benefit to doing a longer pass in just 16 hours, like even 24 48 72 hours.

Cynthia: 00:40:03 It's interesting that you ask that, cause this, this podcast I was listening to was talking about, um, so when people fast for longer periods of times, like four and five days, they actual get, um, stimulation of their telomeres and they will get stem cell regeneration. And so there's a lot of research going on that's hard for most people to do, to eat very, very low calories or no calories for five days in order to do that. Um, and I'll have to remember the podcast off to pass along to you. That is really interesting because the person that, the physician that was talking was talking about, he's, he's, you know, done this research over the last 20 years and how important it is to telomeres are what are impacted by the aging process. So obviously my telomeres are shorter now than they were 20 years ago, but he actually postulates that, mmm.

Cynthia: 00:40:50 By fasting for longer periods, um, you can actually tap into these stem cells and to improve your telomere lengths. Um, I'm not advocating that people fast for five days because I think that's extreme, but I do think one 24 hour fast once or twice a month can be hugely beneficial. And it's amazing. You know, the first one's always really hard to do a longer fast, but think about it. When you get up in the morning, you probably had been fasting for 12 or 13 or 14 hours to begin with. So you're almost all the way there anyway. It's just keeping yourself well hydrated. Um, and then also listening to how well your body does. Like I have a client who will can fast for a month. Um, and, and it's not for religious reasons, she just likes fasting. Um, I, I just think he gets to a point where it gets non beneficial if you do it for too long because our bodies are designed to be hydrated and to be fed and beach and or entity neuros. So I think it really depends on the context of who the person is, what they're looking for in terms of longterm benefits to determine whether or not that's the right strategy for them.

Bryan: 00:41:47 I'm curious, do you know what, what timeframe of fasting would start to cause atrophy in the body? Cause like when you were in the hospital and granted you weren't moving, you were laid up. Um, you said you were losing a ton of muscle mass and that was also like 13 days. So if you're on a five day pass or some, like your client that you mentioned on a 30 day fast, do they start losing muscle tissue?

Cynthia: 00:42:11 That's a good question. I don't have a statistic on how much you lose. I do know that. I think in the hospital you can lose almost 10% a day. Uh, which would makes sense because, uh, I mean I have no muscles left on me. I mean, I, and I was pretty muscular for how tiny I am. Um, and it just depends. So obviously when you're doing like a, if you're doing a, um, a two day fast, a three day fast, a four day at fast, if I bet you're still doing your normal activities, maybe you're not exercising, but you're not lying in a bed. Being the deconditioning that you get lying in a hospital bed is going to be far more significant than what you would get during a fasted state. And I would imagine it's fairly negligible. Otherwise, I don't know how they could make the argument that that would be beneficial long term. But I think when you're in a hospital bed and you're not eating, you're not moving. It's all accelerated for sure.

Bryan: 00:43:04 And is there a role of fascinating for an athlete and because of the athletes are burning through a lot more, uh, fuel, especially athletes at higher levels because they're training so much, so can they still benefit from fasting or should they be on a different type of a program?

Cynthia: 00:43:20 That's a really good question and that's not an area of specialty of mine. I would imagine that you'd have to be working very, very closely with someone that, um, does metabolic conditioning or, um, specifically works with that kind of clientele? I just feel like the caloric demands of most athletes, you'd have to be really careful about the net impact on their performance. Like I know for myself, um, when I was lifting heavy before I got sick, the day before I would do legs or the day before I would do a more intense session. I had to really be on target with my macros, like to the T. Um, most other days it didn't matter. But I would notice, and I'm not a conditioned athlete, I'm just a fit ball. I was a very fit, will be soon fit again. 40 something. Um, I think that, you know, the key takeaway is how does it impact performance and, and I don't know if I would suggest that that's the right strategy for an athlete unless they're working with someone who has a lot of experience training athletes and understands how that could impact their performance.

Cynthia: 00:44:23 Because, you know, the, the best example I can give is I know when, when Michael Phelps with swimming, you know, for the Olympics and did that for 20 years, he was at times 10, eight to 10,000 calories a day. I don't know how he could sustain the level of, um, performance that he has. And I'm not suggesting everyone as Michael Phelps or just using his, and it is as an example because I knew what his calories work cause I was so stunned at how much calories you can consume. Um, just recognizing that, you know, performances, certainly, you know, athletic performance is certainly largely impacted by what we're eating. And I don't know if the killer drop for them would be advantageous.

Bryan: 00:45:00 Right. And, um, another thing that you were mentioning is when you're fasting, you're pretty satiated. And that's both while you're trying to gain weight now and previously when you're trying to maintain or lose a little bit of weight. Um, so now that you're trying to gain weight, do you have two more force, more food into your diet and that a hour windows so that you can gain the weight?

Cynthia: 00:45:29 I do. And it, and it's kind of a mind a mind screw because it's the opposite of what most women at my age are probably thinking about doing. But I recognize I want to gain muscle and not fat, so I have to be really strategic about it. Um, yes, I ended up eating larger portions of fat and protein than I probably normally would gravitate towards, but I'm recognizing it's for the greater good. Like I don't, I don't want to be a small as I am because it puts me a larger risk for osteoporosis and, um, it just isn't healthy for me to be at this weight. Like I, someone asked me, what is your weight? And I don't even want to tell people because weight is so arbitrary. But where I was before was my healthy weight and I intend to get back there. I've every confidence of getting back there and doing it in a way where I gained muscle and not a bunch of fat. So that's my, that's what I'm sticking to.

Bryan: 00:46:18 So you, so for the majority of people, if they're trying to lose weight, are they just trying to reach as satiated point in their eating and then call that good or it go just below, just below satiation?

Cynthia: 00:46:31 Um, you know, I think I'm a, an advocate of, you know, mindful eating, you know, listening to what your body intuitively wants to consume, you know, from a healthy perspective. And so, you know, many times that can represent no, what makes your body feel like it's gotten to a point where it feels good. Um, and I generally encourage people to not overeat. So don't rush to eat your meals, being a parasympathetic state and make sure you're not distracted, you're not eating while you're on the run, you're not eating all of your kids' plates. Um, so I probably am a larger advocate of eating a little less than you think that you need to in most instances. Not My personal instance right now cause I'm now, I have different goals than, than most of my clients. But I think that you have to be in, you have to be tuned into your body. I mean, that's the most important thing. You know, too many of us are so disconnected from our, from our bodies, we don't even register food as being anything other than fuel. Um, it's not meant to be savored. It's not meant to be enjoyed or we find food as a source of comfort. And that's a whole other issue that can make it hugely challenging to change your habits. Um, longterm.

Bryan: 00:47:41 Yeah. And a lot of people eat on the run. So like you said, they're not paying attention. Correct. And they're not achieving and eating.

Cynthia: 00:47:47 Right. And so I'm not saying that I haven't ever eaten a clean, well, I'm not an advocate of eating bars, but I'm a realist. And so when I travel, I will buy things like a bulletproof bar because sometimes I get stuck in airports and I don't have a lot of food choices. Honest to God. Um, South Carolina is one of those places. My, my son and I both couldn't eat anything. So I ended up getting like as clean a bar as we could and like a banana and like some water. Um, which was fine for me, but not for my 11 year old. He was kind of like the smirch and not happy. Um, but you know, sometimes I'm a realist. You're going to be in your car, you're doing Carpool, you, you know, you're in your car for three or four hours driving kids from one end of your town to the other and back.

Cynthia: 00:48:25 Um, and centers, you just have to do those things. But that shouldn't be our norm. You know, we, we've gotten so disconnected from food that we don't even acknowledge the process of eating it. It's just shoveling it in our mouths and going onto the next task when really we should have taken 15 or 20 minutes, sat down, not been distracted by our workload, not on our iPhone, not on, are not on Facebook. Um, you know, all those things that we get distracted by. Um, I encourage clients, I'm like, just look outside, like, look out in nature, sit outside, sit out, you know, by a tree. Um, put your feet in the earth, you know, just be connected to nature and just enjoy 15 or 20 minutes of your day, not being stuck in a, you know, we live in northern Virginia, so everything's here is very humid. The air conditioning's on from like April through October because it's so humid. And so for many of us were an air conditioned environments, 24, seven, we don't get outside other than to walk our dogs or take our kids to a, to an activity. And so it's like, you know, connect with nature. You know, our bodies are designed to be that way. I could have a whole conversation with you about circadian rhythms. Um, because I find it also fascinating.

Bryan: 00:49:26 That might be one we have to do in the future because it is definitely a big problem for a lot of people. And you briefly mentioned it on the last podcast about some of the stuff you'd do when it comes to electronics and blocking out some of that blue light so people can definitely go back to episode 51 and listen in on that. Um, but are there certain people or certain conditions that should not be fasting?

Cynthia: 00:49:52 Absolutely. Um, okay. So first and foremost, if you have difficult to control blood sugars or you're a brittle diabetic, it is not a good strategy. Um, if you've recently been in the hospital and you're underweight or frail, it is not a good strategy. If you have a history of a distorted relationship with food, whether it's Anorexia, bulimia, or binge eating, it can fuel those tendencies. Um, I don't believe breastfeeding women should be fasting. You know, unfortunately, again, I'm going to go back to that same fitness person. Um, she talks, talked all about how she, you know, intermittent fast and while she was breastfeeding. Well why would you do that? I mean it's the one time when your body has to have a certain amount of fat stores in order to Breastfeed, produce breast milk, have enough adipose tissue and estrogen stores in order to make breast milk.

Cynthia: 00:50:37 I just don't think that's the right time. And I think, and this is a whole other rant, I think there are far too many people that are shaming women feeling like they have to be back to whatever size they were in before they got pregnant immediately. So I don't like breastfeeding women to do it because it can impact your, your breastfeeding stores or if you've got a history of kidney, liver or heart disease, you've got to make sure you talk to your primary care provider, your specialist to make sure this is the right strategy. But those are generally the big ones. Those are the ones where I'll say to people, you know, I just don't think this is the right strategy. A lot of it's blood sugar issues. You know, I have a lot of women, it's still buy into this mindset of you need to eat six meals a day, no fat or low fat.

Cynthia: 00:51:16 And I'm like, okay, first of all, low fat, no fat is garbage, it's full of crap. Um, I can't be more blunt than that. If it's not full of extra sugar, it's full of a bunch of chemicals and or both. Um, so you have all these women that had been conditioned to believe that fat is bad and so they've got blood sugars, they're going up and down throughout the day. They've got all these energy level dips and so I was done. Let's get your blood sugar stable first before we try the strategy. And then if we do it that way, then they're usually ready for it.

Bryan: 00:51:43 Is it pregnant women in general or just breastfeeding?

Cynthia: 00:51:48 Uh, I'll probably get a lot of hate mail for this. I just, I don't know. I, you know, I was one of those people that was active throughout my pregnancies. I just don't believe in being restrictive when you're talking about pregnancy or breastfeeding. It's a time for your body. The greater good is all about what's the, what's best for the baby. And I just don't think the, it's a time to be restricting calories. And when you're pregnant you only need a couple, maybe two or 300 extra calories a day. It's not a ton of you pigging out. When you breastfeed, you can eat like you are a Mac truck driver. Um, you predict if you're breastfeeding. I mean you really do need a lot more calories to produce all that milk. And so I, I'm just not a believer. I mean, I know there were a lot of fitness people who would disagree with me, but I just think it's all about what's best for the baby. And if you're eating, you know, a normal, healthy amount of food, I just don't see the need to restrict your calories. That's just my personal feeling.

Bryan: 00:52:43 Yeah, I definitely agree with that. Baby comes first.

Cynthia: 00:52:46 Exactly. Unfortunately there's a lot of people who feel otherwise it's all about then maintaining and you know, instagraming and photoing and you know, that whole, that whole scenario.

Bryan: 00:52:56 And then my final question is, um, for someone that's doing intermittent fasting to lose weight and then they stall out, what should they do or what things should they be looking at to change?

Cynthia: 00:53:10 Yeah, so I was looking at if your, if your weight stalls, are you inflamed? Um, are you eating inflammatory foods? Like are you sneaking back in some alcohol and some sugar? Is it gluten, grains or dairy? I would be digging to look at gut health. Um, sleep is huge if you're not sleeping. I always tell my female clients is if you're not sleeping I cannot get you to lose weight. You know, we know that there is a, a huge connection between um, poor quality sleep and um, dysregulation of key hormones like Leptin and Ghrelin, which govern, uh, fat distributions to Tay d in the body. Um, I would be digging at lifestyle choices and sometimes it's portions. I mean, it comes down to, you know, your idea of what Amit portion is or fat portion is maybe grossly off. Sometimes people have to start measuring their foods.

Cynthia: 00:53:57 I don't like to start off that way, but if you stall, there's a reason. Maybe it's that your goals are not realistic. Um, you know, I get some people who say, well, I want to be the same way I was at 20. Well that's probably not highly reasonable for most of us. Um, so it, you know, there's a couple different things that I'll look at. Are you inflamed as food inflaming you? Is it gut health issue? Are you sleeping? Are you sabotaging yourself? You know, if you're not sleeping and you have super high stress and cortisols I'm over abundance, you're going to stay your, your body's gonna think that you're in a state where you need to not lose weight because you're under stress. So really have to look at those hormones too.

Bryan: 00:54:34 And then do you have any final things you want to say just about intermittent fasting or fasting in general?

Cynthia: 00:54:39 I love intermittent fasting and I hope everyone that listens to the podcast is inspired to try it. Um, you know, I just feel like it's magic in a bottle. I mean, for the bulk of us, we would all benefit from shortening our feeding window. And like I said, it's simple. It's flexible. There's no reason not to try it unless you have one of those things I talked about as being, you know, not an ideal candidate for it. Don't be afraid of skipping a meal. You are not going to starve. Your bodies have plenty of adipose tissue and you know, stores that they can draw off of to keep your blood sugar stable. Um, and, and if you feel like you're just starting out and it kind of freaks you out, you can start out with a 13 hour fast. You can start with a 14 hour fast. Um, I find for many women that the thought of going 18 hours is daunting. So, you know, do a 14 hour fast and then celebrate. You know, there's just so much benefit. Even if you do it a couple of days a week. It doesn't have to be daily, but definitely something to consider for most everyone.

Bryan: 00:55:36 And if you're sleeping a full eight hours at night, there's eight hours of your fast right there. Exactly. You just trim off full four hours on the other ends as well and there you go. Exactly. Rating window.

Cynthia: 00:55:47 Exactly. I always say just think about it. You just skip breakfast. That's what you do and you just pick up wherever your lunchtime is.

Bryan: 00:55:53 Yup. Alright, well people can find [email protected] they can also find you Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at CHT wellness. You have your podcasts that everyday wellness podcasts as well. And then we will also have links to at your ted talks and the show notes as well.

Cynthia: 00:56:15 Thank you. Yeah, my second one should be out pretty soon. I was told it's like first week in May, so to become a

Bryan: 00:56:21 perfect then there'll be ready for this episode. Awesome. Cynthia. Well again, thank you so much. You always bring a wealth of knowledge we love having you on and we can't wait to talk to you again in the future. Yep, sounds good. We have links to both of Cynthia's TEDX talks in the show notes at summit for [inaudible] Dot com slash 76 and her latest ted talk on intermittent fasting is at 1.9 million views. It has gone viral since she's released it. So pretty impressive talk. And as Cynthia mentioned in this episode, intermittent fasting is free. It doesn't cost any money to get started. You can do it at any time, as long as you are not part of the, the list of different conditions that she mentioned that that should not be intermittent. Fascinating. So thank you Cynthia so much for coming on. It's always a blast having you here and I appreciate, uh, sitting down and chatting with you.

Bryan: 00:57:17 On our next episode, we have a very difficult topic that we will be talking about and we will be discussing different ways to help prevent teen suicide. Uh, the rates of teen suicide have been dramatically increasing and a lot of people just want answers to why this is happening. And we will talk a lot about that in the next episode in different ways that we can go about supporting our children and making sure that they, um, feel like they have a place in this world. So let's briefly touch base with Dr. Mark Wilson to learn a little bit more about him and what we will be learning about next episode. I am here with doctor Mark Goulston and mark, can you tell us one unique thing about you that most people don't know?

Dr. Mark: 00:58:11 Um, well I used to be that I think I was suicidal in med school and I got over it. But now since I talk about it wherever I go, so people relate to me and I relate to them. So I guess they, they know that, um, I guess here's a, here's a unique thing. We all have a shadow and a shadow is the part of our personality that we don't want to admit is there. And lately I've been working on my shadow and anybody who knows me would say, oh, that's not you will because it's my shadow. And one of my shadows is, um, I, uh, have a chip on my shoulder. I can have a chip on my shoulder, I can hold grudges. And when I used to tell that story about my med school thing, what happened is I used to ridicule the dean of the school when he sent the letter to the dean of students because the letter said, I met with Mr Golston.

Dr. Mark: 00:59:14 We discussed an alternate career, perhaps the cello, and I'm advising the promotions committee that it'd be asked to withdraw. And when I would say that I would ridicule him, perhaps the cello, and everyone would laugh with me. Oh, what a, what a doofus. But I realize recently he's the one who saved my life. He's the one who thought, you know, I'm not really good at this empathy department and we got to cut our losses. And they didn't obviously because the dean of students that up for me, but he was the one who was worried that I could kill myself. And, and, and sent me to the dean of students. So I realized there's a number of people who I thought done me wrong, who basically were worried about me and I've been looking at me through their eyes and I realize many of them were trying to help me, but just like a teenager, I wasn't ready to receive it. So even though I probably came off as this nice empathic guy, uh, just like all of you, I got to shadow and I'm working on it

Bryan: 01:00:17 and we have a very important topic that we'll be talking about and that is going to be about suicide so people can listen in on that next week. Keep on climbing to the peak of your health and we will see you next time.