Live Like a Girl with Dr. Mindy Pelz

Join Dr. Mindy as she introduces the Fast Like a Girl Journal, a personalized tool for fasting experiences. Created in collaboration with therapeutic journaling expert Alex Elle., this journal empowers individuals to understand their body's healing potential during fasting. Structured into sections focusing on self-belief, introspection prompts, and a 60-day tracker, the journal also includes engaging activities like coloring sheets, gratitude prompts, and goal-setting strategies. Designed to promote holistic well-being, the Fast Like a Girl Journal aims to guide individuals on a transformative journey towards wellness and self-discovery.

To view full show notes, more information on our guests, resources mentioned in the episode, discount codes, transcripts, and more, visit https://drmindypelz.com/ep232

Check out our fasting membership at resetacademy.drmindypelz.com.

Please note our medical disclaimer.

What is Live Like a Girl with Dr. Mindy Pelz?

We were taught that doing anything "like a girl" was a weakness. Dr. Mindy Pelz is here to prove it's your greatest strength.

A renowned advocate for women's health, Dr. Mindy is passionately committed to helping women embrace and trust their body's natural healing processes. Drawing on an extensive background in women's health, she's developed groundbreaking, science-backed approaches that help women work with their hormones, not against them, through every stage of life, from cycling to perimenopause to the wisdom of the years beyond.

On Live Like a Girl, Dr. Mindy helps you come home to your own body. Every Monday, she sits down with some of the brightest minds in health and wellness for honest, meaningful conversations that hand you the knowledge, tools, and science to do health your way. No more pushing through, gaslighting yourself, or shrinking to fit. Just permission to live in rhythm with the body you were designed to have and to finally feel at home in it.

Press play, and let's live like a girl.

Dr. Mindy Pelz: Okay, Resetters,
I've got another solo episode

for you. And this one is a tool
that I've created to help you

customize your fasting
lifestyle. And really to help

you understand your relationship
to food, understand the healing

that's going on while you fast.
This is a really fun tool that I

created last year. And it's now
available to you. And I'm really

excited to walk you through it.
So here we go. Are you ready?

What the tool is, is it's called
the fast cycle girl journal. A

little side note, when a book
does really well, on Amazon, all

of a sudden, some workbooks will
show up. And last year, so many

workbooks that were not endorsed
by me, many of them were created

by AI showed up all over Amazon.
And unfortunately, some of you

actually bought those workbooks
and were disappointed in them.

And so I love this idea of
taking the information that I

laid out in fastonic, a girl and
now having an experience with

it. And so I love the workbook
idea, but I wanted to make sure

that we had one that was based
off the principles I teach. So

we decided to go in to building
you a journal. And for those of

you that are Journalers, you're
probably like, oh, yeah, I've

learned in writing a journal,
that we have some people that

are like journal obsessed. And I
think that's amazing, I would

not necessarily fall in that
category. But I have heard from

so many people that have shared
with me that journals and

writing down their experience
while they're fasting is really

helpful. Now the other unique
thing before I go into the

journal and how to use it, and
why you're going to find some

real healing within these pages,
is that a good friend of mine,

her name is Alex Elle. She
teaches people how to use

journaling for their therapeutic
healing. And when fastonic Girl

first came out, she reached out
to me and she's like, You really

need to do a journal because my
experience as I've been fasting

has been that I'm really
changing my relationship to

food. Without my body having to
deal with the digestion of

fasting, I'm actually now able
to have more insight in how I

use food. And that's where a
journal would be great. So when

I decided to collaborate on this
journal, I went to Alex and I'm

like, you already know what it's
like to build a fasting

lifestyle helped me make this
journal, the best fasting

journal we possibly can. And so
she did. So this is a

collaboration project with her.
If you don't follow Alex L, I

highly recommend you follow her
on Instagram. If you haven't

read her books, my favorite one
is the one she most recently put

out a few years back, which is
called how we heal and you will

see that she is a fan of using
journaling for the healing

process. So with that in mind,
what I want to do is I want to

break the journal down. And
there's a couple different ways

that you can use this podcast.
One is you could just listen, I

promise I will be teaching the
different principles of fasting

lifestyle throughout this
podcast. Some of you are really

working to overturn your food
addictions. And if that's you

please listen through because I
had you in mind when I wrote

this journal. Some of you are
discovering that you are

starting to get some real
spiritual and mental insight

when you are in a fasted state.
And you need some more we call

them prompts and ways to dive
deeper into the incredible

clarity that fasting brings you.
And so some of you are going to

actually use this journal in the
fasted state to really have a

deeper understanding of this
intimate relationship you are

creating with your body as you
are building a fasting

lifestyle. And you may have some
aha laws that you are going to

discover throughout the
different sections of this

journal. And then some of you if
you're like me, and you have a

bit of an add brain, you need
something to do during your

fasting windows. And so I have a
whole activity section at the

back of the book that I'll go
through that I'm super proud of.

And by the way, this journal is
available now on on Amazon or in

bookstores so you can order it
if you have it and you want to

follow along or you order it and
then you want to come back to

this podcast and follow along
with it. That's great as well.

For those of you that are
watching this on YouTube this

you can see what the cover looks
like. It's a beautiful coral

color with the fastonic girl
logo on the front. Welcome to

the resetter podcast. This
podcast is all about empowering

you to believe in yourself
again. If you have a passion for

learning if you're Looking to be
in control of your health and

take your power back. This is
the podcast for you.

So I started with the first part
is called the foundation. And

just so we're you all are sort
of clear on my mindset when I go

to write, you know, I, I really
have you in mind, I'm really

writing to you all. And so many
of you have been so gracious at

like putting in where your
struggles are. And one of the

things that I've noticed amongst
women in general is that a lot

of us really struggled to
believe in our bodies, and

especially to believe in the
healing power of our bodies.

Yet, we begin to fast and all of
a sudden, we have this new

relationship of the power of our
body within. And then sometimes

we're in the middle of a fast
and we start doubting, we're

like, my brain is foggy, my
heart is racing, I'm hungry,

does my body really know what to
do. And so because there is this

inconsistency in us really
feeling the power of our own

body, the first part of this
book, I have a letter from me,

to you all. So please read it, I
wrote it with my heart wide

open, if you and I were sitting
in a room together, this is what

I would want you to know. And
then I have a part of the part

one called you are your best
healer, which is absolutely

something that I strongly feel
that we need to start looking

at. We have a doctor within we
are our own best doctors, we

have spent way too many years,
giving the power away to doctors

who have gaslit us who has have
given us prescriptions instead

of lifestyle tools. We have
walked into too many doctors

offices and felt unheard,
unrecognized. And so if that's

you, I have to tell you, you are
your best doctor. So I really

wanted you to get to know that
doctor within which is why I

have a whole page for you a
whole couple pages on your your

best tailor. Then I also wanted
to put in some of the fasting

questions answers to a lot of
the fasting questions like what

breaks a fast? And what do I do
if I feel X, Y and Z and a

fasting window? So I have some
of my fasting FAQs in there? And

then what is it? How do you read
the healing responses that your

body is giving you because
symptoms in a fasted state are

are just messages from the body?
But how do you interpret them?

So the first part of this whole
journal is exactly that. It's

let's let's line you up with
believing in your body. Let's

understand this healer within
let's understand the symptoms

it's giving it and those of you
who have been like I've been

asking these questions, and I'm
still not getting answers, I put

a whole FAQ section in here. So
that's how that part one starts.

Now I also if you're like me, I
like a Cliff's Notes version of

something so fast, like a girl
had a lot of explanation of the

six different length fast. But I
wanted to just boil down the six

different length fast. So if you
ever had like, a moment where

you're like, I don't know,
should I fast? 17 hours, should

I fast? 20 hours? How would I
make that decision? What I did

in the first section is I have
like, here's why you would do a

36 hour fast. Here's why you
would do 48 hours, here's why

you would want to lean into a
three day water fast. What is a

gut reset fast? Like how would
you use that? So I boiled it

down into very into bullet
points and into simple short

paragraphs so you can choose the
fasting lifestyle that works for

you. Okay, so that's all part
one. That's just part one. Part

two. Part two is where Alex's
genius came in. And she and I

worked diligently on what are
some questions we can ask

ourselves in our fasted state to
get to know our body better. Now

I want to talk about the way our
body talks to us. I have over

the last several podcasts. I've
been really trying to explain

this concept that your body
holds information. So if you

listened to the podcast I did
with Dr. Sarah Godfried, or the

podcast interview I did with my
breath worker, Cape horseman,

you will hear that I'm a big fan
of this idea that the Body Keeps

the Score. And if you don't know
that book, I highly recommend

you get it. It was the one of
the first books that really

pierced the culture that
explained that our traumas are

within and that the body holds
on to traumas. So when we try to

fix any traumatic situation, we
try to fix it from the mind, but

really we should be fixing it
from the body. And what you'll

hear Kate and I discuss what you
know Sarah and I discuss is that

fasting is one way to hear what
your body is speaking to you. So

when you're in the fasted state,
what I did is I broke these

questions In these prompts into
several categories, I broke them

into, like what mentally needs
to improve in your life? Like,

how do you become more grounded?
What in your life? Do you need

more clarity on? What in your
what in your health? Do you need

to be focused on? So these
prompts have let's see how many

questions we have 50 questions
per prompt. And each morning, I

have a tracking system. So
that's in part two is a tracking

system, where you will take a
question from one of these

sections, and you will journal
on it. So you will write down

the question, maybe the question
is, what does my body need from

my lifestyle right now? And
you'll write it down. And then

you just write like a journal,
you just answer it and let your

body speak to you. So the
questions have been broken down

into what do you mentally need?
What do you emotionally need?

What do you spiritually need?
And what do you physically need?

So I've put it into categories.
So you get to choose my goal, or

my hope with this journal is
that you will wake up and in the

morning, and you will be like in
a fasted state, and you will go

to your 60 day tracker, and you
will pull one of these questions

out, and you will journal on it.
And you get to choose Do you

want to go down a spiritual
journaling path today? Do you

want to go down emotional, do
you want to go down what you

physically need, but in that
fasted state, there is wisdom.

And why what motivated me to do
this journal more than anything,

was, I don't want you to lose
the fact that your body is

speaking

to you. And you if you just
quiet your mind, and you sit in

a location where you're
journaling, and you're asking

these questions, your body will
tell you what you need. Now, a

lot of you are data hounds, and
I love this. And a lot of you

are really trying to understand
what lathe fast works for you.

Some of you are trying to
understand what how to break

your fast. So in the the 60 day
tracker section, not only do I

have the the prompts, and you
can journal on the answers to

those. But opposite that page, I
have a fasting tracking sheet,

this actually was born out of
something I've used with my own

personal clients. So when I go
to customize a client's fasting

lifestyle, I track a lot I track
glucose, I track how many blood

sugar spikes they have, in a
day, I look at how quickly the

blood sugar comes down, I track
their HRV and their sleep, their

total sleep and their deep sleep
and their REM sleep I track

symptoms like bloatedness, and
breast tenderness and

constipation, like I have a
whole tracker system so that we

can start to see patterns. And I
think this is the beautiful

thing about the longer you stick
with a fasting lifestyle, the

more these patterns will be
revealed to you. And so I wanted

to create prompts for you to see
the pattern. So let me just give

you something an example of what
you'll see, in this fast

tracking. In this 60 Day
tracker, you're going to see the

reflection questions that you'll
be journaling on. And then

you're going to see little boxes
and the little boxes have things

like what kind of fast are you
doing today? And is it longer

than the day before. So you can
use that prompt to either to

remind yourself of what you're
doing today or what you did

yesterday, but it starts to help
you see because you'll go back

or if you do this over 60 days,
you'll start to see your

favorite length fast, you'll be
like whoa, I did a lot of 17

hour fasts or oh my gosh, I
haven't done a 24 hour fast and

a long time because you'll be
using this tracking system for

60 days. So it's enough to see
that pattern. Then underneath

that I have a way of but I have
a little box that for those of

you that track ketones, I want
you to look at your ketone

levels when you wake up. And the
reason that that's important is

because that tells you how your
fasting lifestyle work for you

the day before. So if you're
trying to stay in a ketogenic

state, it's great to look at
your ketones when you first wake

up. I also have a section those
of you that have CGM or you're

using a Keto Mojo, where you're
going to record your blood sugar

values. So you're going to look
at what your blood sugar is like

when you wake up your blood
sugar midday and your blood

sugar before you go to sleep.
And the reason that I like to

look at ketones and blood sugar
is it's it's an A bill it's a

way remember blood sugar tells
you how you're doing within your

your eating window. And ketones
tell you how you're doing within

your fasting window. So they're
like data driven points that

tell That's how the sugar burner
system is doing and how the fat

burner system is doing. And when
you track them over several

days, you'll start to see the
changes. Okay, then I put in

there, how do you track your
moods when you're fast. And the

reason that this is important is
that when you first fast, some

people will notice that their
moods may not be great. But over

time, you may start to see your
moods improve. So why I want

that wanted that there. And I
give you options that you can

put, you're angry, you're sad,
you're neutral, you're happy or

you're overjoyed is that I want
you to start to look at the

length of your fast and your
moods, because every one of us

is going to have a different
fasting length. And so I want

you to be able to see again,
what's the right fasting length

for you. So we're looking at
your ketones and your blood

sugar, and we're looking at your
mids. Then I also for those of

you that are cycling, I have a
tracker in there where you can

track your what day of your
cycle are you are on. I also

those of you that are very
active, I have a section on talk

about the activity that you did.
And how was that? Was it better?

This is where I really want you
to focus in on it. Was it better

to eat before you worked out?
Did what did you when you got

done working out? What Foods Did
you break it with these all

matter when you're looking at
patterns around your fasting

lifestyle. And then we look at
sleep? How many hours sleep you

have those of you that might
have a tracking system you can

put in there like did you get a
lot of deep sleep did you not?

So you can start to see where
too much faster you may be

affecting your sleep, were
certainly fast can improve your

sleep. That's what I'm hoping
those prompts will will show

you. And then I have two more
sections within the tracking

system where you can look at
your energy levels. And you can

look at what you broke your fast
with. So again, remember the

purpose of a journal is to have
self reflection. So I tried to

think of the things that if you
and I were sitting down, and we

were customizing a fasting
lifestyle, what questions what I

asked you to be able to help you
customize the best fasting

lifestyle for you. And that's
what I put on this tracker

system. Now, I do want to point
out that if you're lost at all

with your fasting lifestyle, I
am doing a solo episode like

this one, I have available that
I did a whole hour to my reset

Academy people where I talked
about all everything you need to

know about customizing a
personal fasting lifestyle. So

that episode mixed with this
episode mixed with with the

journal is really going to help
you take this to the next level.

And one of my value systems is
that I'm not here just to give

you information to entertain
you, or to make myself feel

better. I am here to give you
information to change your life.

And I am so proud to say that
between the journal and this

episode and the other episode, I
feel like you have some really,

really solid tools to be able to
customize this for yourself. And

their time efficient. I have
some amazing tools on my YouTube

channel. But there's 1500 videos
over there. So I've synthesized

this fasting lifestyle path into
these two resetter podcasts and

the journal to make it easier
for you. Okay, now, after you've

done and I'm hoping you'll do
the 60 day tracker, like commit

to it for 60 days. So you can
see the patterns you can get to

know the questions will help you
see this a little deeper. And

then my favorite part of the
whole journal is the back end.

So I have created activity
pages. And the activity pages

are multiple. There's multiple
things for starters, there's

some coloring pages, I got into
adult coloring pages about a

year ago. And I went into the
neuroscience of it. I was like

why when I color a page, like
when I was a kid, do I feel

calm? And sure enough, coloring
is one of those and just, you

know, either free flow, but
you'll see that I've got

motivational affirmations on
these coloring pages. But it's

one of those ways that we move
out of our amygdala and into our

prefrontal cortex. It calms the
thinking mind. Now the amygdala

is the part of the brain that's
always trying to keep us safe.

And when you are in longer fast,
especially that amygdala may be

screaming at you. It may be like
why are you doing this? The

amygdala really is it can squawk
at you. And so if that's you,

and you find in a fasted state,
you don't like the mindset that

you develop, try coloring. It's
really common and it puts you in

that predicament frontal cortex
and the prefrontal cortex is the

part of the brain that that
shows you hope and possibility

it and it soothes you. So I'm
hoping you'll use this the

coloring pages, there's one,
let's see 12344 different

coloring pages in here with
affirmations, and my designer

designed them. And so I hope you
enjoy it. And that helps you

there. Okay, but I didn't stop
there, then I go into some real

key parts of these activities,
pages one is a page I call I

matter. And you'll see that I
really am hoping especially

those of you when you go into
these longer fasts, that you

really get clear on why you
matter. Because if you don't put

yourself as a priority, if you
don't have a sense of your

worthiness, when you go into
these fasted states, you might

start second guessing yourself.
So I want you to hear your inner

voice, I want you to commit to
your worthiness. And so the eye

matter page is about putting
down short little statements

that will help you understand
why you matter. And you might

put on there like I matter
because I'm a kind human, I

think that's that's one of the
greatest reasons to matter. And

I bring kindness to every
conversation that I have, you

might put I matter because I am
in charge of three little humans

that I need to make sure I stay
healthy for I matter, because my

thoughts are important to the
world. There's a lot of

different reasons you you
matter. But I really want you to

emphasize that. Then I on on the
next page, I have something

called my circle of support.
This one's really important in

this I learned from a patient of
mine who was going through a

cancer diagnosis and was really
trying to assess who in her life

she wanted to keep close, and
who was a negative influence

that was affecting her healing
that she wanted to keep far

away. So I gave it different
levels, level one through level

four. And in the circle support,
you can color it too. But I also

want you to put in there in
level one who's in your front

row who's cheering you

on, who's you know, I did a
whole podcast interview with my

friend Dr. Gara, Karen Gordon
about the middle chair, people

that cheer you want and want to
see that you're well, that would

all go in the level one. People
that are like they bring you

joy, but you don't. Sometimes
you don't completely feel like

they have your back, they would
be level two. And then level

three and level four would be
people that you intentionally

need to to be around less, that
they derail you from your health

habits. And they they can they
can make you feel bad about

yourself. So I explained how to
use each one of these and I even

put level one is front row
cheerleaders. Level two is the

inspirers. The men, the mentors,
level three is friends with

boundaries. And level four are
the naysayers. And it's just a

reminder, when you and you might
do that one in pencil because

those people move around and
they change but it's a good

opportunity to look at that.
Okay, then the next thing I put

is a whole beautiful page on
what you're grateful for. And

it's in a it's in a picture of a
sunflower. And I love it because

sunflowers are my favorite. And
so you get to write down all the

things you're grateful for. I
personally spend 20 minutes

every morning listening to music
and going through a just an

analysis of everything I'm
grateful for in my life. I think

this is a great prompt to do in
the morning, after you've done

your tracking sheet. Go to I am
grateful. You might put a couple

of things every morning in
there, and then it can change

over time. Okay, then the next
page is health goal page, which

is how do you pick? How do you
set health goals and create a

strategy around achieving those
health goals. So I put in here,

everything from the top health
goals, you have people who are

going to support you and in
achieving those health goals,

daily actions, you're going to
take rewards, you're going to

give yourself information you
need to help you hit those

health goals. How you're going
to feel when you when you hit

the health goal. And in
supportive environments you're

going to put yourself in. So if
you're trying to lose weight, or

you have a big health goal, put
it right in the center of this

activity page. And then over
time, fill in the other pieces

because the other pieces are
important. If you don't if you

go in there and you're like,
Well, I don't know the daily

actions. Okay, well, that's you
need to work on what your daily

actions on. Or if you're like,
reward myself after I hit a

goal. If that's not a strategy,
do you need to reward yourself

when you hit a goal? Or people
who support me I hadn't really,

you know, we tend to be like, I
want to lose 20 pounds. Okay,

well, who's gonna support you
and helping you achieve that

goal, we all need human
connection. So I mapped out all

the little things you might not
think about when it comes to

achieving a health goal. And
again, you can color these that

are beautiful. And then I didn't
stop there. Again, the activity

pages are my favorite. I put a
whole thing on kind things I

hope you say to yourself, when
you look in the mirror, I put a

whole activity page on what
makes you beautiful. And this is

why this pack page I really
wanted you to get people out of

thinking that beauty has to be a
number that you See on the

scale, or it has to be a certain
pant size that you are, there

are so many different ways we
are beautiful. And I really

wanted to highlight that. And
then the last part of the

activity page I put in there is
like what do I What do I love

about my body? We're so
conditioned to think what we

hate about our body, I want you
to start thinking about what you

love about your body. And so
there are prompts there and

coloring pages that you can lean
into. And then we have some

charts like what how do you
break a fast? How do you break a

longer fast? How do you break a
shorter fast, and then I have a

bunch of bonus gifts for you. So
hopefully you can see, I'm

really proud of this journal.
It's like if I could, you know,

sit next to you and help you
take the principles I taught and

fast like a girl and customize
it to you. This is what I have

done. This is the closest thing
I can get to sitting right next

to you. And I'm really proud of
it. I'm really excited for you

to get it. And I think I'm the
most excited about what you're

going to discover about you in
this process. I have seen people

with eating disorders use a
fasting lifestyle to overturn

eating disorder disorders. I've
seen people who are now using

five fasting lifestyles, for
performance states really

understand how to, to use a
fasting lifestyle to enhance

mental and physical performance.
I've seen people go into the

spiritual side of fasting and
really discover some huge

insights authors use this a lot
for creativity, I write a lot in

a fasted state. So there's, this
is a juicy one. There's a lot

within these pages that will
expand how you feel about

yourself, and make sure that
you're on the right track of

your fasting lifestyle. So I
hope it helps. As always, if the

journal resonates with you,
reviews matter, I would love a

review, both here on the
resetter podcast but also

wherever you bought your book
from so that others can see how

helpful it was for you if it was
and so we can really predict

together collectively start to
overturn the Chronic Disease

situation we're in fasting
lifestyles are free. And we need

a tool that everybody can lean
into, to point them in the right

direction at this critical time
in human history, where chronic

diseases are becoming the norm.
And we've got over 50% At least

here in America of people with
one Chronic Disease 40% with two

or more, that's horrific, and a
fasting lifestyle is our way out

of that and this journal is
going to deepen your your

understanding of view your
relationship to food, and how

you can save yourself. So as
always, I hope that helps. Thank

you so much for joining me in
today's episode. I love bringing

thoughtful discussions about all
things health to you. If you

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