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Losing weight should't be expensive or complicated. The ideal process would reduce our stress while driving results. Dr. Z weaves together his perspective on physical and mental health and the powerful way that fasting can connect these two spheres of our lives. Let's move toward total wellness and a holistic vision of health and healing. Learn more at SimpleFasting.com
Is fasting a stressful thing to do?
Or is it a relaxing thing to do?
This is the space
that I want to lean into today.
How are you?
I hope you're well. Welcome.
So nice to have you here.
Fasting space.
Fasting space.
I will tell you a space to lean
into the latter side of that equation,
to approach fasting
from a very thoughtful, gentle,
and purposeful space.
Can fasting be stressful?
I say that it can from a certain
point of view, and certainly people
who approach it in a rigid
and dogmatic space,
who feel tied down to it.
Certainly it could be.
Can fasting be a release
from things like that, a release
from the pressure of constant consumption,
a release from the stress
that is putting people in a box.
They say, I want to lose weight,
but I've got to keep eating all the time.
Now there is a stressful place to be,
so I am going to lean into this topic
with help from a video that the YouTube
algorithm provided to me.
So you know how it goes.
You're you watch something on YouTube
and then it wants to
serve you up a whole bunch more of that.
So I, watched last week.
Didn't we do that?
Talk about the video from Thomas Dilawar
and his discussion about, 168 fasting.
And so now my
my feed is full of Thomas Delaware.
And then also people
talking about Thomas Delaware.
So I tend to
try to put my YouTube in theater mode.
So it just blocks
as many of those suggestions as possible.
But one of them got me the other day.
Which is these fine people.
Here we go.
These folks do not like fasting.
This is the Jay Feldman
wellness crew with Teresa and Mike.
And so I watched this video.
Why all these health experts are quitting
fasting?
It's basically an hour
and 20 minutes of them
discussing how much they don't like
fasting.
And,
I thought I'd chat about it.
And so I just thought,
maybe this finds its way to you all.
I hope you are.
Well, you seem like actually my kind of,
people, very nutrition focused,
which I am bringing health
to people through nutrition.
I love it, and we need a lot more of that.
But I just bring my perspective
on the conversation,
for what it's worth, because,
you know, my experience in medicine,
in health,
in working with so many people,
the fasting is a wonderful tool
that can also bring health to people.
And my perspective is that
we should have some balance with it.
To recognize.
I like this discussion.
I put links to the the whole discussion.
You can go
watch it, encourage anybody to do it.
And I just give you my, perspective.
I share some of the honest positions
that though they put forward.
Look at some of the research articles
that are referenced in
that perspective,
in the perspective,
just so we can broaden the discussion.
To me, I think it's fascinating.
Health can come from nutrition.
Yes it does.
Health can come from fasting,
especially if somebody is in need of it.
So I say hello.
Yes, absolutely.
The talk was based.
This is how these I don't know,
is that the algorithm is getting everybody
running in a thing or something.
But they were commenting on a Thomas
Lauer video
and then that fed its way into my,
situation.
Thomas de Lauer,
you look into it more and more.
The gentleman bodybuilder,
you know, he's been making
fasting related content for years.
And the thing that I like, I mean,
this is a guy that kind of practice
what he preaches, he does it, you know,
he has this experience.
Now he is shifting.
This is the video we're talking
about the other day away from 168.
And then he's creating
so much content about it.
What is really the motivation?
Doing longer fasting.
And then some days without fasting
a perfectly reasonable thing to do.
A big thing that I like to talk about,
flexibility in the practice.
So he cited some research studies
about some changes in cortisol
that are happening.
And I'll link to his video in there.
You can watch all this if you want.
But he's saying all this type of fasting,
it is causing these changes in cortisol,
which are, I guess, assumed to be bad,
assumed to be something we don't want.
I'm going to show you the actual studies.
We're going to talk about it.
And then these people jump on
to these studies
and his video basically, and kind of
do you think it's fair?
J I don't want to put words in your mouth,
but kind of a gotcha.
It was kind of a gotcha.
Like, oh, you talked for years about
fasting and now you're realizing it's bad
and you're trying to walk it back,
which I don't think he's really doing.
But, anyway, we're going to dive into it.
That's kind of the background.
And, and we'll dive into it
in a little, more detail.
I put this note in here, say,
oh, it was too stressful.
And so this is the type of space
I really want to dial us in on.
Is fasting stressful
or is it anti stressful?
We want to approach it
definitely that way.
Definitely that way.
But we'll get into it.
It's an interesting space to explore.
This is the primary thing.
If you watch the video from J
is just again and again,
we just hear about how
stressful fasting is
and how this stress is bad
and damaging to the body.
And then we we've in the idea
that even little bits
okay, little bits of fasting,
you know, grabbing a coffee in the morning
and just holding off
on eating for a little while,
that it is even damaging
the hormonal structure in the body.
And,
I'm just hearing it as a wash.
It just makes me want to take a deep
breath.
Just makes me want to take a pause,
you know?
It's really not the way I see it.
Okay?
But this is how they see it,
and let's have a discussion about it.
They also say during it numerous times
no one would ever want to do it.
And you see, like,
why would anybody want to practice
fasting when eating is like
the best thing that there is?
And so,
why would you refrain from doing it?
You're basically punishing yourself.
And, you know,
I would just say from my point of view,
this is not how I experience it.
Fasting space, to me
feels like a deep breath in the body.
It feels like something very good.
And so I do want to do it.
And I also love to eat.
And I love food
and some beautiful perspectives
that we have heard from musicians
about the space
between notes
that makes the music beautiful.
And so
but this is their perspective. Okay.
I'm trying to just put it out. You know,
no one would want to do it.
Too stressful.
Many negative effects, including
on thyroid function and cortisol.
And so you'll hear this
throughout their video.
We're going to dive into it
I really want to get into that.
I really do.
And they say fasting is not special.
Okay.
Why would you do fasting when you can get
the same results from any other types
of diets, calorie restriction,
all this sort of stuff and from exercise.
And so, you know,
I have talked about this quite a bit.
This is fine.
This is a point.
I don't really like to argue too much.
If somebody can get results in any way
and they are feeling strong and healthy
and it is working for them,
then that is a beautiful space.
And I don't care if fasting is not
something like, oh, you have to do it.
In my view, there's no pressure to it.
And so, you know,
I would just grant this sort of argument
now in a metabolic space,
if someone is having difficulty.
This is the real place
where I like to use it,
is that it can help someone, you know,
in a space.
I think that they would even agree.
I think they agree.
I think we might actually agree
on most things.
This was another point
that came up during their discussion.
Negatives of fast
and can show up even within one day.
They would say that
and I think we'll have a discussion.
I'll show the evidence
and we'll have a discussion and
we'll see what they,
see what they can say.
So the a lot of the research
that they were originally
presenting, Thomas Delaware
puts these things out there.
And his solution
is lean into longer fasting.
And then the videos
that we're looking at, their solution is
basically never fast, you know, so
we're really we see the whole spectrum.
So here's some caveats.
I just pulled out from watching through,
their video note they're very clear.
Okay. Fasting is lots of evidence.
It does help obesity
and type two diabetes, which is of course
the core thing that I'm trying to do.
And so I was thinking as I was watching
this video, you know, who are the people
that we are trying to help
in this nutrition space
where fasting is so bad,
but we know it helps diabetes and obesity.
So we've got to just be really dialing
in a person who is already pretty
metabolically healthy and doesn't
have these issues, but we're just trying
to feel more energy and maybe optimizing
the diet really is the thing.
And, you know, so I thought that was
an interesting caveat in this video if
you watch it.
And many of
the benefits
they say of fasting can go away
once someone is lean,
maybe you're not doing it every day.
And this is of course the progression
that anyone would go through.
This has certainly been my experience.
I did a tremendous amount of fasting
when I had a lot of weight to lose,
and then as I normalized
my body weight now, now I'm talking about
fasting all the time,
basically with people about experiences.
But I practice it much
less than I used to because it is a tool.
And so I think we have a lot of agreement
actually.
And this is why I,
I was just surprised to here
and almost an hour and a half
on the negatives of it,
their point also they make that
exercising course increases cortisol.
So one of the fundamental arguments
they make in the video is that fasting
will increase cortisol and that therefore
that is stressful and bad.
And there's even a point I think I made a
note 2930 on the video that,
they kind of
make a joke about it, that fasting
almost going to give you Cushing's
disease, that the cortisol is so high
that you're going to have
peripheral muscle wasting and develop
a central adiposity from it.
And I just think that that discussion
Teresa was making,
that A is way off the mark.
I think it's way off the mark.
All the cortisol is physiologic.
And we're going to get into
some of the studies on the physiology.
Maria,
when you were fasting,
did you do longer fast I did yeah.
Do it.
As I was leaning into
a fasting practice,
trying to really understand it,
you know, I've told the story.
It started with seeing fasting periods
and type two diabetes
and seeing how this was helping
to normalize blood sugar and improve
insulin resistance, normalize a onesie,
and so many good things.
I said,
I have to really understand this practice
if I'm going to have people do it.
So I went through a process
learning to do it.
I found it too intense
personally to dial in from where I was at,
which was like four meal
a day, eating into like fasting for a day.
To me,
that was overwhelming. So I just marched.
I started the process,
you know, that I helped people with.
I started knocking out a bedtime snack,
which for me was very difficult.
I had done that
my entire life, basically,
and so that took a while to work on that.
And then I started in on a 168
and it was easy.
As for me, grab a coffee
and do a lunch dinner because then
it helped keep that dinner with my family
so that that was not awkward.
And then I started doing mad
and kept that dinner and learned it,
but I definitely then I leaned in,
and then I worked on being able
to head out toward a 36 hour fasting and,
I won't tell all the story of it.
I wrote it up in an article on simple
fasting.
My experience fasting.
You find that under articles? Absolutely.
But I talk a lot more about it.
Maybe at the end, after I go through it,
I talk in in any detail about fasting.
I've done
so. Exercise?
Yes, it increases cortisol.
All stress is not bad.
You know, I've referenced the book,
which I haven't actually read,
but I love the title The Comfort Crisis.
Right?
We are in many ways.
We are living in this incredible society.
We don't actually have to do that much.
And so, you know, you want to be strong.
You have to choose to exercise.
That's voluntarily
taking a stress upon the body.
And then strength comes to it
and the body responds to it.
And so fasting to me
is that type of stress.
When voluntarily chosen,
we are accepting a type of stress
into the body for a period of time
so that the body can respond
to it and strengthen,
and it really does strengthen from it.
And so,
they brought that up in the video.
Okay.
I just think that
that is a point of agreement.
So here's two papers,
that were referenced
that are getting into this hormonal space.
I think the big thing
that caught my attention about this video
is we're not just talking about, you know,
a mental or emotional experience
of stress in the body.
It's getting tied in to this,
what is being presented
as a scientific fact
that this is really hurting somebody.
And I just
really fundamentally question that.
And so I want to dig in, like,
let's read the papers and hey, guys,
if you have more papers
and you don't feel that my review of
this is adequately assessing the thing,
like change my mind, you know, like
show me in detail, you know, let's talk.
But I read these papers
and I pull out the specific parts
that are about five roid function
and cortisol because, you know, just
this is like the relevant
things and these are reviews
and they're drawing I actually
on, you know, lots of other studies
that are bringing this in.
So this first paper,
effects of intermittent fasting
on the circulating levels
and circadian Rhythms of hormones
from endocrinology and metabolism.
And here's some key sections okay.
In humans the T3 level
this is the functional active
thyroid hormone level starts to decrease
rapidly after fasting when measured
during 80 hour fasting in healthy subjects
marked t three and now ts h.
If you're not familiar,
this is the central hormone is driving
the T3 level
and then it exists in a feedback.
So you want to see these things
balancing TS h were reductions
were observed within 48 hours
from fasting onset okay.
In that study.
And then another trial reported
that T three decreased up
to 55% after 24 hours of fasting,
contrary to serum T3,
TSH levels remained unchanged
after fasting.
Fascinating. Wouldn't you agree that.
That's fascinating.
What what what? That is meaning the TS.
It is not sensing in this study
that there's any problem.
It is not increasing its drive in response
to this, which is fascinating to me.
Short term and long term.
More than six months alternate daily
fasting diets, very aggressive practice,
six months of Addie,
very aggressive study
reduce circulating
T3 without any change in TSHT.
To me this is fascinating
and I'm going to talk about it
in more detail once we get through this.
But to me this is a key point.
Fasting is a tool.
This is what I say.
And does anyone walk around wondering,
you know, what is my T3 level?
Someone who doesn't have hypothyroidism,
right?
Someone who is feeling otherwise known.
People want results, right?
People want a weight loss.
They want a Betis batter.
Can hypothyroid be in the mix?
Is it worth checking these things?
It certainly can be.
But we don't just care what the number is.
How does someone feel
these studies aren't doing that.
They're marker studies
here.
We switch over here.
Listen to this.
Five day fasting increases cortisol levels
and shifts the peak from the morning
to the afternoon.
Other fasting experiments up to six days
elevates plasma cortisol levels.
Okay.
Early TRF between 8 and 2.
So you have your 8 to 2 window
for four days slightly,
but significantly increases
serum cortisol levels in the morning okay.
And then we're going
to see a picture of it.
So you're seeing having an effect
on cortisol.
Small but statistically significant.
In one study six months of ads
did not affect.
Oh and here we're back
in their summary section six months.
Oh we did that TSH. Yeah.
Okay.
That's
summarizing that other finding here.
They're showing a study though
in Ramadan fasting.
Right. So this is a in Islam right.
We have Ramadan
a month people eating just after sundown
and then fasting during the day.
People who were hypothyroid right,
might need
adjustment of their levothyroxine.
Some people with primary hypothyroidism
had their TSH had over normal. Yeah.
So that's
good.
Here is the graph from the paper okay.
Here is showing insulin levels
over two days of fasting okay.
Where people normally would be eating
we see our insulin level heading up.
And then here we see fasting insulin level
dropping down.
Now isn't that isn't that good.
Like that is a good thing.
I say and then here is
what we are seeing
with the thyroid levels,
the T3, some normal variation we see.
And then head out to two days
and it is drifting down
a bit.
Okay.
That's that's normal.
We see that in between meals
we fast that that process is happening.
And then here we see cortisol.
And they even say this J and crew
that cortisol and insulin
have have a counter relationship.
And this is true.
I just say when I look at these pictures,
do you know what I see?
I just see physiology
happening in the body.
Like nothing about this
paper is concerning to me.
I just see
physiology right as insulin is coming
down.
Cortisol of course,
is there to help with glucose regulation.
It is affecting gluconeogenesis
in the liver.
And like this
is like a pretty normal thing to happen.
Just say normal physiology
is happening in the body.
And like are there
hormonal effects happening.
There are like
does this mean that it is bad?
Like I just don't see any way
that this is bad.
You know, I just don't.
Okay.
This other study effect of one day
fasting one day in this study
on cortisol.
And so we get some more.
Now I'm going to show
you just briefly some things okay.
They have the people in the hospital.
It was like 47 people.
And then they monitored them
on a hospital diet
for a day and then a fasting day
and then back on a hospital diet.
And they're monitoring
their cortisol levels.
And here are the two main findings between
day one and day two.
And it was like.
You got
to do some maths to dig out the difference
between the error bars
and the statistical significance.
It's like heart,
I mean, to me, hard to look at.
And they get a bunch of data at you.
The Me saw the akra phase like all of this
and it's just.
I link the paper.
You can read this if you if you want.
Okay.
We've shown that one day fasting causes
changes between the minimum and maximum
values of the cortisol rhythm curve.
The amplitude on the fasting day
was higher than the other sampling days.
And then a shift in the phase
has been observed.
Phase on the fasting day
occurred earlier.
The Mysore,
which is like a fancy way of saying
average.
Didn't differ.
Oh, the average didn't differ, actually,
you know, some things changing, you know,
like.
But then they just know it.
Then there's a partially contradictory
study by this other person
where they know
that fasting caused an increase
in the amplitude, and Mysore,
but not this phase, thank God.
Okay. The phase was not changed.
All right.
But it's a different population.
This was slim then the other people
was in a more overweight population.
So like do you see that?
I mean, to me this is the type of thing
where I'm like, we are drowning
in arcane details
and what is the relevance?
This is what I say.
What does it actually mean?
Like what are we observing?
I'm not questioning that
that this is a real observable
fact.
Here's some discussion section
out of this paper.
Obesity is associated with inactivation
of cortisol
and impaired hepatic regeneration
of cortisol from cortisone.
Well see this is see
this is starting to get interesting to me.
Obesity itself is doing
is like people having this talk
and like in a fit
about cortisol changes and fasting.
But you know what it changes cortisol.
Obesity changes cortisol.
Obesity is accompanied by an altered
circadian rhythm of cortisol.
Oh isn't that interesting. Isn't it
weight loss associated with very low
calorie diet
in obese persons
normalizes the production of cortisol.
So to me this paper right in
it has these nuggets
that are speaking directly to this issue.
People in this discussion
say don't ever fast because it's stressful
and could increase cortisol.
But here obesity is increasing cortisol.
And resolving obesity helps cortisol
the normalize.
And here we have a tool that is fasting
that is getting into this cortisol space
can help us to lose weight.
Like to me I'm
thinking like this is also making sense.
You know this is also feeling good.
See? Furthermore, obese subjects
showed no decrease
in cortisol concentration in the evening.
Interesting.
So like this normal curve
they're saying oh obesity.
We're not seeing that so much.
Like don't we want to get to that point
where we're not experiencing that.
In contrast,
this other study showed that in obese men,
the secretion of cortisol
in the fasting state
and after a meal was lower
than in lean persons.
Interesting.
Our study showed that the total cortisol
concentration,
measured by the area under
the curve did not change.
So there we are.
When we get the spike in the cortisol
a little different, the peak of it change,
but not the total amount.
Like are we changing our life about this?
Thomas Delaware is changing his life
based on these results.
To me, I'm not not
super concerned or convinced by this.
To me, this feels like physiology
happening in the body
that is also poorly understood
in great detail.
The people on this podcast,
like you're looking at the cortisol curves
in a state of constant consumption,
where you never have a break
and you're
looking at what cortisol looks like.
And then from, as best
I can tell, feel free to disagree.
You just take that as just normal.
And this is how it always has to be.
And so we change something in the body.
We have a fasting space
and we see that the body responds to that.
And now we just say that that's abnormal.
And we say look at this change.
I see the papers, right?
The hormones change. But is it bad? Right.
Is it hurting people
like which is your implication?
Is it damaging someone?
As is probably the opposite.
I think it's probably the opposite.
And we can discuss that.
Say it's a point of knowledge.
This is a point of knowledge.
I think we can say that.
And what does it mean?
Things are different in the fasting state,
and maybe the population that you are
are working with
is like some of these people
in some of these studies,
like a lean, healthy group,
like if someone's BMI is low,
you are counseling someone for longevity
like there, and they are trying
to do all this fasting and it's like
they don't really need to lose weight.
Maybe somebody really is low energy.
You know, maybe we are just talking
about different populations of people.
You know, these aren't this is not the
group of people that really needs fasting.
And maybe this is where we can find
some common ground about it.
People who need fasting
are are people who are
energetically overloaded,
who have diabetes.
It's just blood sugar
floating around the bloodstream
with nowhere to go is like, can
we just give it some space to burn it up?
You know, not somebody who is
already very lean and maybe not getting
their basic nutrition needs met.
And I would never want that for somebody.
But to just blanket statement, it's like,
oh, fasting is bad, stressful
and we can see these hormones.
To me,
I'm just not convinced.
So here's some spaces where I say
we can find some common ground
people who don't like fasting.
And then, you know, someone like me
who just likes it a little bit.
Just a little bit. It's okay.
Never fast if it is stressful.
Like, can we all agree on that?
And fasting is a thing.
It can be stressful.
I won't say that it isn't,
but it is the type of thing that could be
a good stress.
Like lifting a weight is a good stress,
and you choose to do it
because it is
bringing strength to the body.
You choose to exercise
because it lowers your stress.
Do you feel that way?
Do you take a walk
and then you can just feel like
it is helping to get stress
and tension out of the body?
A fast can be like that,
whether it's for 16 hours or a bit longer,
like whatever it is.
But one of the main reasons that I started
making my own fasting content
and putting this out there
from my point of view, is that I feel like
this is the way
we should be approaching
fasting in our health system, in society.
I know it's what I want for everybody,
and it is not really the way
that is put out there.
And so that's why I want to engage
with people like Jay and Teresa.
Is that, you know,
I see if someone who has not had
a lot of experience coming to it
and they see people rigidly
and dogmatically approaching it,
especially if it is
someone has driven it to the point
where they are,
you know, going overboard with it.
This is the type of conversation
that I have with people.
You know,
I use my experience like Maria was asking.
I did a longer fasting.
I ramped that up from amid.
And then, you know, one day a week
I would start throwing
in a whole fasting day
and then do 16, eight and then I, I,
I did personally do some extended
fasting, twice in my life.
And it's been a while now.
Did a week long fast
and, but I lost a lot of weight
doing that.
I did lose a lot of weight doing that.
It was an incredible experience.
But it's not something that I at all
feel called to do now.
That was like that was difficult.
Like that was it was stressful,
especially the first parts of it.
And then it flow into this
incredible state where it wasn't where
it was just like one of the most open
spaces where the hunger disappeared.
And I felt incredible energy.
And then it kind of
came back toward the end.
And then I called it. Right.
So it's a tool.
Right? Is a tool.
Never do it if it is stressful,
unless it's the type of stress, like
exercise is a stress where you want to do
it, where you feel called to it.
So I think hopefully we can find some
agreement in that space.
Get solid nutrition.
This is the whole point
that they're making people
focusing on fasting, they say, but
they're not meeting their energetic needs.
I totally love your perspective on it.
And I say,
absolutely, I'm in agreement with it.
Do it.
This is a core thing
that I want for everybody.
And if I had to pick
what is more important, you know,
getting the the best solid nutrition
or having a fasting space,
I probably go with the nutrition,
you know, it's like it is so important.
Just the thing that I want to bring is
there is the other side to it
that is important to.
And that can really super power
that process for weight loss and diabetes.
And, you know, I want to bring that
perspective thoughtfully to it.
And then, you know, I super agree
that exercise and if I had an exercise
can get everybody
to where they need like beautiful.
So I totally agree with that.
And so we have so much in common on it.
And I just say,
can we
agree on this as, say, fasting as a tool
to be used in the appropriate situation?
They do say that they're like,
oh, there is evidence for diabetes
and obesity.
And I'm like, yeah, yeah, there is.
And so we certainly agree on that.
And then can
we just take it one little part further
and realize, well, why does it help
with diabetes and obesity?
Okay.
And can we see that
this is actually one of the primary health
problems in the world today, that in fact,
a majority of the population
is dealing with.
And like from that perspective,
can we see, oh,
there actually is value here
like quite a lot.
And then can we see if it is a process
that treats these things right,
that can help them to resolve. Right.
That that is a process of healing.
Can we see that some measure of it is also
the type of thing that would prevent it
from happening in the first place?
And, you know, if,
If the primary health problem
in society can both be prevented
and help to be resolved by a process
like somewhere in an hour and 20 minutes,
could we just acknowledge,
you know, that in, in a little bit more?
That's just the thing that I would make,
you know, maybe
you did it a tiny bit tiny.
All right.
So, my view of fasting, I say completely
different than all these people.
I'm not going to read, you know, one study
or three in a couple journals
that say it like some,
some numbers change
in the significance of it.
You know, so much
has been extrapolated out to these things.
It just it kind of boggles
my mind that it can start with somebody
who has, you know, millions of followers
just cranking out the videos.
They're going to change their whole life.
And you like, you look through it
and people change in their lives.
It's just wild to me.
Something that can be helpful to somebody.
And we put out into the world
these statements of like scientific fact
that are really opinions
based on on things that are saying,
oh, you can't do it this way now and then
and then it's just creating
so much confusion for people.
And then we take it even to a space
that I think is very thoughtful,
a space of nutrition.
And then it's just like we're taking,
from my point of view,
a lot of leaps
are a lot of leaps from data
that I can see into spaces to say,
oh, this is hurting the body.
So I just my view is totally different.
That's what I see.
Fasting should be
a restful space in the body,
a place where health
and rejuvenation can happen, a place
where the pressure can come off.
Nothing rigid or dogmatic.
The type of thing that.
Makes things easier.
Absolutely.
This is exactly the thing.
It is exactly the thing. Thank you.
All of this stuff. Is.
Running a business.
I guess
people making money off of these things.
And I sat around
actually a lot during a, during this.
So just thinking about this
topic specifically,
It works, I guess,
you know, I guess it works.
It creates this, this confusion
that leads to clicks.
It creates a shock sort of thing.
People read a thing and I think, you know,
after you read through
all the comments on these sort of things,
I think people see these things.
They interact with a fasting process.
Personally, a lot of people
have had a lot of benefit from it.
And then you see headlines like this
like you might be hurting yourself.
Oh, people, experts quitting these things.
Like it's like what?
Like, am I doing something so crazy?
And then it, you know,
I mean, it certainly works for me.
I see a thing like this,
and here I'm clicking on it,
and then I take my time
to, like, look into it.
And then and then this is increasing
the watch time on everybody's videos.
This is what people want.
And, I don't know,
I guess the way that it comes out to you,
I've had
I spent a couple, a couple dollars,
I met with a marketing team.
I did sort of things and
I guess that's what they told me to do,
and probably it would work.
And this is, this is why
I guess things are the way they are,
and which I've just totally come to peace
with.
Personally, I have a coffee with Marie
and Pat and lunch, Reno and Harper group
and, Queen of Heaven and all the wonder
and Christy and everybody.
Okay, that is here.
It's good enough.
You know, I don't need hundreds
of thousands of people, and, I don't know,
maybe I wouldn't even do
well with the stress of it.
But on the other
hand, I just feel like the vision of it.
I wish. I guess that's what it would be.
I wish that we, had a space
where thoughtful,
sort of discussions were more popular
where you didn't have to just, like,
twist things into some outrageous,
controversial thing
in order to just, you know, build
something meaningful for people. So,
I don't know,
maybe that is the world we're in.
We just have to be patient with it.
You know,
this is kind of the idea for me of
just trying to engage
more with people on it.
So hopefully I maybe send this over to J.
Maybe we can have a talk.
Hopefully people find value
from this sort of thing.
I would love it.
You know,
if there are like videos like this,
I'm happy to,
you know, share perspectives on them.
I love digging into the research.
To me, it is fascinating to, you know,
just someone makes claims off of things
and it's like, let's just really try
to get down to the level of,
you know,
what is true to the best that we can.
Very hard these days to really.
Feel confident that things are true.
I mean, you can hardly watch a video
until if it's real anymore,
you know,
it's like so much AI generated stuff.
And so then
to watch something, at least,
you know, you watch some big influencer
channel, I say, well, you at least know
presumably there's a real person.
They were on YouTube
before all the crazy started and,
you know, but then someone says
a thing is difficult,
you know, to track down the papers,
to dig into it, to read it.
And, I don't know.
To me, it's very important,
and it's something that I want to know.
And it's something it's
not something that I just claim
I'm not here
claiming, like, oh, I know the truth.
You know?
I know how the human body functions.
I'll just say, I've been studying
the human body for like 20
some years, you know, interacting with it
in medicine
in as much a way
as as I can to try to help people.
And I say
human body is humbling.
You know, it's an incredible thing.
You know, an incredible being.
Human body is immensely
powerful and adaptable.
It has just so many abilities
that we, that we don't really appreciate.
And we have like, ideas.
We know more than we used to, but,
still humbling to think, you know,
the the absolutely incredible
variety of the human experience.
And, you know,
some people going long periods of time
eating, you know, carnivore diet,
for example, not something that I'm like,
you know, super into,
but people can do it, you know,
you can live, people live and people do
okay even for long periods of time.
Amazing.
And someone else eating a vegan diet?
No animal products at all.
Also, you know, to me, I'm more kind of,
you know, find some balance
between things.
But there are people who live, you know,
their entire adult lives
eating a vegan diet
and also strong and healthy.
And so you just think like,
how crazy is it of all the people?
And then everything in the middle,
a human being can, can live and flourish
in so many different ways.
And so to me, I just think we need
a lot more humility in a space.
This is the sort of vibe
that I want to bring into a space.
I've, I have had,
I think, you know, a tremendous
amount of experience in the fasting space.
I've read as much
as I really can about it.
I have interacted
with thousands of people doing.
I think there is a lot of value there.
So, but I don't want to hype anything.
You know, it's not for everybody.
It's a tool.
Hey. Good morning.
Thanks for dropping a note.
Listening on my back in a comfy space
on the yoga mat.
But here, absorbing the info.
Hey, I am really happy to hear that.
That sounds like the type of space
that I want for people.
The yoga mat.
A great place
to let the stress, out into that.
I am going to head in that direction.
After I turn off the camera.
After that,
I personally
have been doing a
some type of yoga routine
every day,
except recently when I got sick,
when I hit, got hit with a Lyme disease
and didn't get out of bed,
it interrupted like a four year stretch.
I don't do marathon yoga sessions,
but I do a flow through,
you know, most of the big positions.
And I gotta say, it just feels so good.
And when I have more time,
I might do it 2 or 3 times.
But I do love that.
Finding gentle ways to move the body
through its range of motion
highly encouraged.
A whole nother type of strength.
You know,
I think for a long time we have seen
strength is just like,
anaerobic strength.
How much can we lift?
And then aerobics strength,
how far can we run?
But then fasting, showing us
another type of strength.
How tuned is the body to using the
energy that is inside of it?
Here we're in this space.
We say, oh, is fasting stressful
okay if you never have ever done it.
And all of a sudden you try to do it
or it's forced
upon you, you are in a difficult situation
where you you're stuck
at some place
and then you cannot get food.
Okay. Can you feel unwell? Yes.
Can that be stressful? Of course it can.
And so the analogy from lifting
weights is like,
what if, like you never lifted a weight,
you never did anything and and,
you know, the muscle has atrophied
and then you have to lift
something, you know.
Very hard, very stressful.
Like is not working. Okay.
But if you are prepared for it,
if you are strong, right,
if you have built that capacity,
this is the thing in the fasting space.
This is why I say start very small
and help it to grow
so that that it can flourish like this.
You know,
so that
if life happens, you say,
I can't get to food.
Like the airplane was delayed
and we're stuck and the place is closed,
or like whatever it is that
the body is like, hey, we got this right.
Like our talk on mitochondria
the other day, right?
That as we do these practices, we can
increase our mitochondrial density, right?
That our capacity for energy
generation is optimized.
And this is what I want for people.
I want health to be optimized.
I want people to be strong and resilient.
And fasting strength
is a type of resiliency and optimization
in the body that I've just come to
see can be very valuable, very valuable.
And then yoga showing us
another type of strength.
How good is the body
at actually moving through its potential
and actually just staying there
for more than a few seconds
without having to get back
into a specific space.
It's a process.
This is what I say. Yes.
Thank you for asking.
Healing from the lime
has has been a process.
I don't know that it's
a completed cycle, but I am much better.
I am much better.
It it really,
I would say it was
just surprisingly difficult.
You know, like I was saying, if you've
been following along the show with me
before I got Lyme disease in the summer,
I was having the best summer of my life.
I would say
probably the best summer of my life.
We took this incredible vacation
to North Carolina,
hiking with the kids and the dog,
and it was so beautiful.
And I put the video on the channel.
If you've seen it, where I hiked up this
mountain fasting for like the whole day.
And I was just like,
really, really feeling good.
And,
you know, so I think it took
I still I had so much momentum from that.
I just thought,
you know, I'm, I'm in such good shape now.
I am going to wallop this.
I am not going to be one of these people
who is struggling so much.
But then I really, really did.
I found a wonderful doctor,
in southern Wisconsin
who actually really helped me with it.
I, I explored some herbal medicines,
which actually really helped me.
A number of viewers on the channel here
actually sent me thoughtful emails,
with some suggestions of some
herbal medicines that have helped them.
And I got to say, I am,
I don't know, I would say
I am a recovering Western medical doctor.
That's how I feel a lot of days.
You know,
I really do respect, large elements
of the scientific
and medical establishment.
There's incredible value in it, but
it does not have a monopoly on knowledge.
And I will just say for my part,
that it was not until I started the,
the herbal things
that I really started feeling better,
and it was hard for me to do it.
I will tell you,
there is an internal, tension within me
where I'm like, oh, we are scientists now,
and we have antibiotics
and these are the things, okay.
But and, you know, the whole space of,
supplements.
I'm not a big supplement guy. I just,
I just am not.
But the herbal
preparations did
help, and I am feeling much better.
And, you know, I was going back
and looking the other day at,
some of the, the couple of the videos
that I cranked out,
you know, when this was starting,
after I came back
from disappearing for a while and,
tried a little bit and took another break,
you know,
it was just trying to get rolling.
And I was thinking about,
you know, I got these tickets
to run the half marathon,
which is coming up in just a couple weeks
that I had wanted to run.
I was going to run another one
two weeks ago and it couldn't happen.
It's really been
just the last, yeah, two weeks
that things have really started
to get back to normal.
But I ran I ran two days this week and,
Feel pretty good.
I'm going to go run again today.
I'm going to do a yoga
and then loosen up and go run
and, really looking forward to it.
It's still feeling pretty unlikely
that I would do a half marathon
by three weeks from now,
but the thought is entering my mind.
It is entering my mind.
How are you doing?
How are you recovered from the surgery
fully?
Or b, I hope you are doing well.
I remember commiserating
somewhere in the middle where it was like,
oh, we're just trying
to make it around the block.
Oh man, that was that was tough.
Is fasting stressful?
They say fasting is stressful.
I'm looking at the title,
the last note I made on my list here.
Maybe I said it already, but to me,
stressful.
Set it at the top.
Stressful is trying to lose weight
by continually eating all the time.
This is the one of the most stressful
places.
The psychology in our system
is so crazy for people.
It is just crazy.
We have, you know, there's
an incredible drive for most people.
Everybody wants to be healthy.
We're all trying to figure it out.
How do we do it?
We're trying to do our best
with every avenue that we have
on top of, like, a personal desire, right?
Like to be healthy. Of course.
We want to live a long and vibrant life,
all these good things.
Right?
Then we have the medical establishment
and societal pressure
and all these things coming together
is like putting pressure on everybody.
So much money coming into the space,
selling so many things,
so many experts, people with
their perspectives and points of view
and these things that it is just creating,
like this pressure cooker
where everybody says
and is selling the idea
that this is supposed to be
an easy thing to do and that something is
basically wrong with you
if you haven't figured it out.
And then my perspective
that I try to bring in is to just
start to recognize how dysfunctional
the culture and society is,
and that we are all caught up
in this tangled mess of it.
And,
and so it is actually difficult, right?
This is why so many people are struggling
in this sort of space, right?
It is difficult.
And it does take work,
you know, even mentally,
physically, all these things to figure out
what is even true.
This is what I was saying before.
And so then within that space of it,
one of the big ideas in culture,
this is maybe one of the biggest things
that I want to push back is
this idea lose weight
by continuing to eat all the time.
You have to eat less,
but don't you dare stop as soon as you
dare, stop for a little bit
and create some space.
You have people.
Do you see how how this develops, right
that people start hitting?
Oh, you can't stop.
Even with a tiny bit of fasting,
you're already damaging yourself.
This is a message that is communicating
fasting from culture.
Because and I think we have gone beyond
science in many places into culture.
This is a consumption culture.
It preaches and teaches to people
that happiness and health
comes by buying and consuming
and eating as part of this, right.
And fasting is showing
a different way from that, that there is
strength and energy, power, vitality
in the human body, that you don't
have to buy or pay anything to access it.
It's just there.
It's actually the process of saying no
is how you access it.
And to me, I think people feel
can feel threatened by that.
And to say we aren't going to like,
that's not what we do here.
You know, it's not
the American
way or the North American way
or wherever you are.
You know, it's not the.
Way it is done.
Let me push back a little bit.
You know,
I want to push back on a little bit.
I say, can we push back on it
in a way that creates some win wins?
This is what I really want for people.
When wins, take the pressure off.
This is fasting space.
Pressure is coming down
less to do, less confusion.
It's like
we're for just a little bit here.
We recognize
there is energy in the body.
We have body fat in the body.
It is there to power the body.
In the absence of food,
can we create a space where it is
also anti stressful in the mind,
where it feels like a rest,
where it feels like taking a break,
where it feels like taking a deep breath.
And maybe we bring these things together
and actually take a deep breath
in that moment to help
bring all of these practices
together.
To me, it feels like the antidote
for so much of this
tangled mess of confusion.
Part of the way out.
It's just doing nothing at all.
Like, isn't that beautiful?
Like I just.
I really think it is a beautiful space.
I think it is because it is so simple,
because it is not flashy, because
there's not really anything you can sell
or put in a bottle with a flashy label.
So easy to overlook
because it is countercultural,
it's easy to just dismiss.
But if we can change our thinking on it,
if we can just take enough of a space
to pause
and breathe and contemplate for a bit,
we see that
there is just a richness
and a depth here that is really profound,
really, really profound.
It's like in the midst of all the struggle
that at least
part of the answer
could be nothing, just doing nothing.
When the society is always more
and bigger and faster and better
by, by.
Actually.
Just going to sit here,
grab a coffee or tea
or nothing.
Thank you so much for being here
with me, sharing this space,
listening to my rambling thoughts.
I hope they are a value.
Do some more thinking on this today.
I will be back tomorrow.
Bring some more thoughts.
We take another step forward in health.
Be well everybody.