Ep. 97 A Fasting Mindset For Weight Loss

Hi, and welcome to the mindful shape podcast. I'm Paula Parker, and I'm a life and weight loss coach. All right. So today we are talking about fasting more specifically mindset around fasting, fasting, as you probably know, if you've looked into any kind of weight loss method is very popular right now. So there's tons of information out there, especially around intermittent fasting and it's become so popular.

So I am not going to spend really any time talking about. How to fast or the benefits of fasting, because there are very smart people out there that have way more information than I do. And I will mention some resources that I really like for you. If that's something that you, it's kind of newer, or you're interested in researching a little bit more, but what I would love to talk about today is really more on kind of like the psychological components around how to really use fasting as a tool, because I mean, it can be so, I'm going to be talking a little bit about how you can incorporate sugar into your diet.

And I'm going to be talking a little bit about why it's helpful in terms of releasing weight. It's possibly something that you've considered incorporating in your life, either because you've heard about it before, or maybe because you have simply hit a plateau. So if we are doing the same thing, even if it's, you know, no sugar, no flour, even if we were doing the same thing.

Over and over and over again, your body will just get used to it. And if you still have some weight that you're carrying, that you want to release, then fasting or increasing fasting or incorporating it essentially into your protocol might be the ticket to really getting across that plateau. Or you might just want to incorporate fasting in because of all the health benefits, more energy.

Also, it helps with your relationship with food because it balances out your hormones. So I know I said I wasn't going to go into all the benefits, but I'll just mention them briefly because it does impact our relationship with food because it will reduce your the intensity of hunger and cravings that you have.

It also will help you in terms of how you feel satiated when you do eat, especially healthy food. So you won't eat as much. And as I mentioned, it really reduces cravings for sugar, all that kind of stuff. So yeah, in terms of your relationship with food, just from a physiological perspective there's tons of benefits.

So it makes sense. You were thinking, yeah, this is something that I want to get back into if you've tried it before, or this is something that I want to try for the first time. This would be a great podcast to listen to for that so that you know more of the psychological components of what to expect and so that you can manage them.

Because if we don't manage the mindset around it, it can really have some negative effects. And then that offsets any of the health or weight loss benefits that we could have. So one book that I find particularly helpful is called Fast Like a Girl. Not a huge fan of the name. I don't know why there is any girls fasting.

I don't think this book is meant for any girls, so I don't know why her publisher told her to. Or maybe they made the decision for the title. I don't think it should be called fast like a girl, but nonetheless, it's a good book. It's by Dr. Mindy Pells. So I would highly recommend that it just has, it's just such an easy read.

She also has a ton of information on YouTube, so you can watch her stuff there, but she goes into, you know, especially as women, we want to take a look at how we can incorporate fasting. With the rhythms of our body and our natural cycles. So even if you don't have your menstrual cycle anymore it's still important to eat in a way or fast in a way that's going to be supportive of your hormonal balance.

So I do encourage you to look that up. Okay. So mindset versus just fasting for weight loss. That's we're going to be focusing on here. Let's talk about some of these problematic components to fasting, how they show up. So if nothing else is on your radar, or if you've tried fasting before, and you've already experienced some of the things that I'm talking about, when you've tried fasting, you won't feel so alone because I will mention them.

Because I've heard, I've either experienced them myself, or I've heard from lots of people that this is happening, okay? That's how I know about it. And then going forward, you will have a new way to approach it and support yourself if, as I say, fasting is something that you want to do. Incorporate into your weight loss protocol, I think where fasting can go wrong is where it activates what I think of as our diet brain so that all or nothing, it's almost a fight or flight response.

That's what we want to be managing here so we can utilize fasting as a tool and again I say that really specifically because I think of fasting is simply another tool in our toolbox when it comes to managing our weight and managing our health rather than letting it. You know, just. By default, maybe reinforce some less desirable patterns around food that may be a little less healthy, maybe don't serve us as much, tend towards being all or nothing, or more of that binge restrict type of patterning when it comes to food.

So, of course, I don't want to scare anyone. This is not the end of the world. If you are incorporating fasting into your life and you're noticing some of these patterns that I'm talking about. Okay. So it's not the end of the world. If you fast and then you overeat, you didn't undo all the good that you did for your body, but it just shows you that there's still an opportunity for you to manage your brain so that you can, as I say, utilize this tool like fasting in just a more skilled, manner.

Here's what you might notice and what you will want to be paying attention to when you go into any kind of fasting. So this is whether it's like a 13 hour kind of intermittent fasting, anywhere up to a 48 or even 72 hour fasting. Okay. So some of our longer fast. And I will say that previously I've talked about fasting and I've always said that it's not necessary.

It's not required. I don't know. I think that for some of us, if we hit a plateau, we actually do need to really change things up. And that might require every now and then, maybe it's twice a month a longer fast, maybe like a 36 hour fast. So Dr. Mindy Pell says the 36 hour fast is really the ticket when it comes to weight loss.

So again I don't know for sure. That's what she says in her book that I'm reading. And I suspect. That for not for everyone, for some people, I think it's just a matter of taking out any kind of emotional overeating and really eliminating exceptions, any kind of food like sugar or flour, highly processed foods that are going to spike your insulin.

But for some of us who have been eating that way for a really long time, and we still have a little bit more weight to release. Then we need to change things up. We need to stress the body in a way that is going to help us repair and adapt and allow us to really utilize the fast force off our body.

So all that to say, it might be something that you want to look into. All right, before a fast, here's what can happen. anxious eating. Okay. I suspect this happens because your nervous system gets over activated from past dieting, which I don't know for sure, but I suspect that this is actually a cortisol spike.

If you feel any kind of anxiousness before you are going to fast, especially if it's for longer than 13 hours. It could be because of previous restriction that felt very stressful for you emotionally and physically, right? So what can happen then from that? Anxious feeling is that you give yourself permission to overeat before a planned fast.

So you're thinking, well, I can have this because I won't be eating for the next X amount of hours. I know I'm going to get really hungry. I don't want to experience all that hunger. And I know I'm not going to be eating for 36 hours, 48 hours or whatever it is. So I'm going to get all of this food in me.

And it can, of course, that's overeating. That's more food than your body needs. Another way I see this showing up is when you are not really planning on fasting, but you start overeating and then as you're overeating, you essentially give yourself permission to do that because you're thinking, well, I will make up for it in air quotes with fasting the next day.

This can be kind of sneaky. This is very much diet brain. Okay. It's the diet starts Monday mentality with kind of a fasting slant on it. Okay. So Essentially fasting becomes a consequence of overeating and that's going to feel very different than fasting in a planned and conscious way. So fasting from diet brain feels more like a punishment, like punitive.

There's remorse. You didn't want to eat all that food, right? It's very reactionary. So there was, there wasn't a lot of foresight into, okay, I'm going to do this for this, my health. I'm going to really think about this. It's more, well, I overate and so I'm just going to fast tomorrow. There's this thought of, I should do it.

We need to compensate or make up for the damage so that we either maintain our weight or we continue to release weight. So it's a way of getting back on track. In contrast, fasting when it's planned and conscious feels more like. Liberating, like you are taking care of yourself, you're taking care of your health, you're taking care of your body.

It's really a gift to yourself and your body and your health. You're working with the rhythms of your body rather than any kind of compensating for overeating. There's a distinction there. So you just want to be very mindful if it's fasting from diet brain. So another thing that I notice is overeating happening after a fast.

So when you come off of a fast or say out of your fasting window, there can be a tendency to overeat. And it's because you're thinking, okay, finally, finally I can eat. And you feel very permissive and there's intense desire for food. There's a bit of a rush. There's a bit of a panicky feeling. So then you're eating.

Almost in a frenzy. So you're eating quickly. You're not paying too much attention to how full you're getting or how your body's feeling or how satiated you are. You will eat too much. You will give yourself permission to indulge, maybe eat foods that don't necessarily serve you because you, You know, or thinking I deserve it, I've earned it.

Or you might be thinking I need the calories I need to compensate. And I need all these calories. So I want to make a note here that oftentimes we can think, well. Maybe fasting isn't for me because then I tend to overeat or I binge eat. So fasting doesn't work I can't fast and I just want to plant the seed that Overeating and binge eating doesn't come from fasting It comes from the thoughts to continue to eat that create all of that permissiveness and desire The thought okay.

Finally I can eat everything that I want That is the thought that you want to watch out for. So it's not, well, fasting doesn't work for me as a method or a tool for weight loss because I just overeat and you give up on it. It's more so how am I approaching this currently? How am I thinking about things?

That is just creating all of this permissiveness and overdesire either before and or after the fast. So how can I think differently? So here's a thought that I will offer to you. And of course, as always, I really encourage you to do a little self coaching on this. Take, you know, 15 minutes and just maybe journal for yourself.

How am I thinking before or after my fast? And how is that creating some? over desire or over permissiveness with food and how do I wish I was thinking like what else is possible to be thinking and I'll just share with you what I have found very helpful which is simply you know how to eat responsibly okay you do even When we have wild and wacky hormonal things going on, or we're feeling intense hunger or desire coming off of a fast or that panicky feeling going into a fast.

That is always true that you know how to eat responsibly. You know what that looks like. If you would feel comfortable telling your best friend what you ate. That's likely a responsible meal. So, if you don't, then it might be that you don't feel like that's a responsible way of eating. So, it tells me that there's a distinction.

You understand the distinction. So, when you remind your brain, I know how to eat responsibly. Just imagine you can put yourself in that space. How do you feel? When you know, you know how to eat responsibly. Right? You know how to do that. You feel calm. Likely you feel calm. And when you feel calm, how do you approach eating?

You are much more likely to pay attention to how your body feels. You slow down. You're not in a rush or a panic. You're noticing how satiated you are as you're eating. You eat foods that serve you. You drink lots of water. You also appreciate your efforts, your commitment to your health, your commitment to your goals, your commitment to your body.

Your commitment to fasting using that as a simple, but very challenging. It can be very challenging at times tool to support your body and your health goals. And then of course, all of that creates responsible eating and you do eat responsibly. So if you practice that thought, but you still notice overeating is happening, either anxious eating beforehand, you have a couple of options.

You can decrease the length of fast so that it just feels more doable and doesn't kick up all of that diet brain. So just decrease the fast knowing that over time you're going to get there. Over time, emotionally, you're going to be able to handle that and you can go for longer and longer. So simply meet yourself where you're at.

Or, if you're really committed to doing that length of fast, use it as an opportunity to explore what handling those intense emotions feels like without eating anything. Try to see if you can hold space for them without reacting in any way. Just explore what that is for you, what that experience is like.

If you are someone who has been using fasting as a makeup tool for any kind of overeating, I just want you to know that that's a very common pattern. And that stems from that older diet brain. So don't feel too bad about it. Don't feel guilty about it. If that's happening for you. What I recommend is to decide that you won't use fasting in that way anymore.

It's just not going to likely, you can probably recognize for yourself that it's not getting you closer to what you want. What you want in terms of your relationship with food if nothing else right it might it might be effective in terms of Maintaining your weight, but in terms of how in charge you feel around food It's setting you back rather than getting you closer to what you want So if you do overeat you will either a simply wait until you are really truly Physically hungry again, and then you will eat and this might mean skipping meals Okay.

Or if that's too much to manage for where you're at that day, either mentally, maybe you're highly stressed or emotionally, then what I recommend is you simply eat a well balanced meal at your next meal. You might not be. And I'm going to be talking about how to get out of that you know, that, that swing of like the all or nothing.

What we're trying to do is just balance, balance you out emotionally, balance you out physically. So just choose a well balanced meal. You don't have to overdo it or anything like that. You're just trying to. Get things back on track. More than anything, you really want to be practicing self kindness around all of this and being tender with yourself about the overeating.

To prevent yourself from overeating after your fast, for sure practice the thought, I know how to eat responsibly. And You can decide ahead of time, what will that first meal be? What is a responsible amount, roughly? And what foods will serve you best? If you know that you might be prone to this state of being highly permissible, being, having lots of desire, or any kind of rushing, then make sure that you are Spending extra care when you have that meal, make sure that you've planned it out ahead of time.

If you finish the meal and you're still hungry, then give your body time to adjust. And If 30 minutes goes by and you're truly physically hungry still, then just eat some more. It's not a problem, right? Otherwise, just make sure that you're staying very, very hydrated. Okay. Another thing, another mindset component I thought I would mention is the mindset required to stick with a fast, especially one that's longer than 13 hours, because that can be mentally tough, right?

The key to doing that mindset wise is to decide ahead of time. What you believe about yourself. Okay, this is a decision This is not something like I need a ton and ton of evidence in order to believe this. Okay, I want to give you permission To just decide what you want to believe about yourself. I know that if I decide to do a 36 hour fast, a 48 hour fast, whatever that is for me, I just know I'll do it.

Now that was not the case a few years ago. I just didn't have the access. It's not that I'm particularly amazing or anything like that, but I just decided I would make that decision, right? So I would encourage you to make that decision for yourself before you take on any kind of challenge like this. So you need to decide and change your self concept for yourself.

First, so that when it gets hard, it actually won't feel as hard because you will keep going back to that thought. Yeah, it's hard, but I'm someone who will do it. And that reinforces that self concept that said, I do recommend doing your research. When it comes to fasting so that you know, kind of what to expect and you know, kind of the reasons why you're doing it.

And all of that really helps to support your compelling reasons, right? It helps. And also I would say, ease into it. If you go from a standard American diet and snacking all of the time and, and, you know, drinking and having sugar and flour and all of that to A crash 36 hour fast, it's going to feel horrendous.

It's going to be very physically challenging and of course mentally and emotionally challenging, but very physically challenging. So start slow and your body will get more hormonally balanced and it will be physically much easier. Also start changing your self concept when you have these mini wins and you'll give your brain some evidence that you can totally follow through so that when you say, yeah, I've decided I'm going to do this.

You do it. One of the things that Dr. Mindy Pell says is momentum over motivation. I have, I don't think I've heard it that succinctly before, but it's definitely something that I have talked about because I always say the biggest misconception I think in weight loss is that you need more motivation, that you need more self discipline, or you need to feel motivated To release weight, but it's such a trap, as I mentioned many times, because you're not going to feel like it all the time.

You're just not, you're not going to feel motivated all the time. And so if you rely on that emotion, of course, you're not going to follow through. And what she talks about instead is momentum. And I love that because you can. Build momentum even when you're not motivated because momentum comes from taking action Even if it's the tiniest action, even if it's okay.

I've never done fasting before I'm gonna try like a 10 hour fast Maybe maybe that is going to be a challenge for me or maybe I really want to extend it to a 14 or 15 hour Fast, maybe I can build some momentum there. Whatever it is. You want to be taking action To start building momentum. And that's how you will carry through and take on bigger and bigger challenges and do harder things.

Because weight loss, as I say, is always about a skillset. You just want to become more skilled. Building momentum is a skill. Okay. So I hope that was helpful. If you have any questions about anything that I've mentioned here, please feel free to reach out to me and I will talk to you again soon.