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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
Just want to say
a special hi to everybody on the podcast.
This episode I filmed down
by the lake
by my house yesterday in the rain,
and using that footage of a rainy fall
lake to frame our discussion
today of overcoming obstacles.
So if you want to see
the lake, head over to YouTube.
But you can just picture it in your mind.
Kind of a dreary, rainy fall
lake with some leaves
floating down
from the trees into the water.
Hope you enjoy this discussion
Like to
welcome you to a fasting space today.
Welcome to the lake.
This is Lake Windrow.
It's just a few blocks down from my house.
So I brought the camera
and the microphone yesterday.
And an umbrella.
Had been thinking all
Friday in the fall,
it'll be nice to get some
nice footage of some pretty leaves and,
to center our space.
And it was raining.
And at first I was a little discouraged.
I was like, oh, just.
I'd wanted to get out, and.
I said, you know what?
Let's take the opportunity here.
See our little obstacle as an opportunity.
So grab a coffee or tea,
settle in and listen to the rain
a little bit with me here.
And I'm going to share some thoughts
with you
from this book that was coming to me,
The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday,
and I think an awesome book for.
Thinking about our thinking.
Thinking thoughts that helped
your propel us forward
in the midst of a difficult situation
when maybe we say,
I wish it was a sunny day, but
just when we really needed
it, the rain clouds move in.
Listen to what
Ryan Holiday has to say.
Outward appearances are deceptive.
What's within them, beneath them
is what matters.
We can learn to perceive things
differently,
to cut through the illusions
that others believe or fear.
We can stop seeing the problems
in front of us as problems.
We can learn to focus on what things
really are.
So I threw this comment in the chat.
A rainy day, gloomy or restful?
What do you say?
Today
isn't a lot of it what we bring to it?
What kind of energy
do we bring to a situation?
The obstacles
we face on the path that we are on here?
We're focusing on a health path.
Maybe that looks like
trying to get more active, get stronger.
Maybe it looks like
a weight loss pass.
They were trying to burn off
some of this extra energy.
Maybe it is both of these things together.
Maybe it is a mental health path.
Trying to just navigate these crazy days
that we are experiencing.
In a way that isn't such a struggle.
Whatever obstacle
you're moving forward today.
Think about what we are bringing to it.
The same rainstorm
can be a gloomy discouragement
or a restful respite.
Where is your energy at today?
How is the rain in life
feeling for you,
and how can you move forward with it
in a way that
gives us encouragement?
Some days, some seasons,
you say, oh, I want to get out of bed
early before I got to hit it.
I want to get to the gym.
I want to take a walk,
whatever the thing is.
But then it's raining and it's like,
oh, very hard to move forward.
We're perceiving
it as here is one more thing
piling on top of me,
but maybe there's an opportunity there.
Have you had a day
also where a rain just feels like the best
thing that could happen?
And the sound of it is like music.
Like a gentle chorus
that is playing a soothing song
just for us.
Sometimes
the rain will shut down in activity,
something we want to do,
and it gives us an opportunity to rest.
And maybe we didn't want to.
Maybe it's not our preferred course,
but here is
the opportunity.
Take some time for ourselves.
A rainy day, say not so much else to do.
Not going to be going out
as much as we thought.
Okay, that's one thought and rest.
And then the other side of it
is like me yesterday
I'm going to get out the microphone
and the umbrella and the camera
and head to the lake.
And maybe our calling in a space
is when it's raining and it's like,
let's get outside and film
something, you know, let's go for it.
Here is a tension.
Here is an opportunity, a space.
When we're leaning into our health space,
we're trying to build a strong
and powerful mindset
to help us overcome obstacles,
a big space
as we sit in a space
like this, fasting space,
so many times we find thoughts
that are kind of a paradox,
kind of walking a line between two
opposing, but also good forces.
Right?
So here this is showing us an opportunity
in the rain,
rain, restful, nothing to do.
Rain and opportunity.
Get out, get wet. It's okay.
Like stepping out from our fears.
Getting out of our comfort zone
a little bit.
Pushing in on the edge a little bit.
Maybe that's yesterday.
If you watched that session, you know,
would people have different perspectives,
but a perspective that is inspiring people
to lean in a little harder?
I like that there's an edge.
And here's the other side of it. Today,
sometimes the path
toward progress
can look like doing nothing at all.
And to me, this is a really
beautiful space.
Later on in this section
I was reading from, he says.
Two often we react emotionally.
We get despondent,
we can lose our perspective.
All that does is turn bad things
into really bad things.
Unhelpful perceptions
can invade our minds.
That sacred place
of reason, action and will.
And it can throw off our compass.
Rainy days, slowing down, taking space.
A space to reset that compass.
To take stock of our mental space
and look.
Are there unhelpful perceptions
that have invaded our minds?
Oh man.
Get them out of there.
Unhelpful perceptions.
They are not welcome any.
That's what I'm saying to them.
But how do we even know
if we have an unhelpful perspective?
Aren't they sneaky things?
I say it takes space and thoughtfulness
to really look into it.
Take a minute with me
now, here in this space,
and see if something like
this is resonating.
Are there unhelpful perspectives
on your path in life
and health, things that you are perceiving
that are not really helping,
not really helping.
Like we see the rain clouds
and instead of seeing it as a restful,
peaceful opportunity, we're seeing it as a
a gloomy discouragement, right?
Can you resonate with a space in life
that way?
And how can we bring
a little sunshine to it
even in the midst of a dark day?
Maybe a way to get into that space?
Like, you know, sometimes people say, oh,
where do I find motivation?
How do I find the motivation
to really dial in harder?
Like, look at the first line
here, reacting emotionally.
Does that happen?
You know, to you maybe the journal
is a place where I would turn with that,
maybe a way to use a journal in a day,
maybe it's a different type of journal,
maybe not your regular personal journal,
but just like an emotional inventory
to like,
look through here, try to bring awareness.
What are the actual emotions
that we are experiencing in a day?
You know,
maybe we end up with a list
kind of a few times in a few different
emotions that are happening
is really a thoughtful space to open up.
Say, what is the actual human
experience of my life here?
What am I feeling?
See, then we're starting to get into it.
The perception is okay.
A certain thing happened and we were angry
a certain time of the day
and we were feeling sad.
Or maybe hopefully we're seeing,
oh, here are the things that are giving me
life and energy.
And here things were really positive.
And how can we lean into that?
Say, we're going to try to
dial in a little bit
on the other side.
Of this comment.
I live in Ontario,
so summer is short and winter is long.
If I don't have a positive attitude about
the weather, I would never go outside.
Yeah, I was thinking as
as I was putting this together,
I put on our little cover photo.
Sometimes it rains and I was thinking,
of the week I spent in Portland.
Maybe someone is listening in Portland.
And it rained almost the entire time.
Like maybe someone in Portland is
saying, like, sometimes it doesn't rain.
Like every once in a while.
Maybe there are seasons and spaces of life
like that.
I rented a car.
It was when I was interviewing
for residency programs.
I went out and interviewed
at a couple places out on the West Coast,
and just spent some time
thinking of how life might be different.
You know, should I leave
the Midwest, would go somewhere else,
have a totally different experience.
And, the week
I spent in Portland, you know,
I had almost no money of any kind.
I had enough money.
I rented a car, obviously the economy car.
And I got to the
rental line
and they're like,
you know,
we have an upgrade available for you.
You know, we have this bright red Ford
Mustang convertible, like, do you want it?
I was like, well,
I can't can't pay for it.
You know, I'm paying economy.
They're like,
no, no, no, we just give it to you.
Same price.
And so I was like, well, this is fun.
I never a car really like this.
And so but it just rained the entire time,
so it wasn't really that much fun.
The, the only time it wasn't raining
was in literally
like the ten minutes that I was driving
back to the airport, the clouds opened.
There was a brief moment
it wasn't really sunny,
but it was just cloudy without raining.
So I.
I put the top down
and drove it into the airport.
I seized the opportunity in the obstacle.
I got a little bit of convertible time
in when we could do it.
Yeah, one one winter as we think, man,
we think as winter coming back to us.
Wherever you are.
If you experience that,
I got really discouraged.
One winter, the darkness and the cold and
maybe all could have been seven years ago
now, I remember sitting in my office
looking out into the dark, frozen,
snowy landscape
and thinking to myself like,
I could live anywhere in the world
that I want, practically.
And here
I am, sitting here in this frozen place,
and I was piling on the gloomy,
discouraging thoughts.
And as I was doing this,
and I watched this guy
just biking through the snow
and the dark,
and he's he's got a nice bike with a light
and, you know, nice tires.
And he's all decked out with ski goggles.
And I'm like,
this guy's probably having fun.
You know, he's probably is.
And so I walked over to the bike shop.
I was like, how are people biking around?
You know, I was like, what are you
what do you do?
And they're like, oh, it's like there's
no bad weather, just bad gear.
That's what the guy said.
And he hooked me up.
I was like,
oh, do I have to buy some $100?
You know, Fat Tire Bike?
He's like, oh,
you definitely do not want to do that,
you know, because it'll just rust out.
He's like, you want to buy $100 bike,
but then put nice tires on it
and not the big ones like
middle ones that'll slice
through all the slush and metal studded
tires.
It'll grab the ice.
And there was a total opportunity
in the obstacle of, like you're saying,
change the attitude from something
that went early discouraging
to something that I ended up loving.
And I ended up biking,
for multiple years every day
to my office, which only ended
because I started
working from home
after I stopped going to that office.
But yeah.
And then I was like,
oh, I became that guy.
I loved it, you know,
I biked in when it was ten below,
but I had lots of gear and it was fun.
And the amazing thing is,
I was warm when I got there.
It'd be ten below zero,
and I'd be unzipping the jacket
because I was warm with all my gear
and I biked in and so many people
coming in in their frozen cars,
and I was just like that.
That was me.
And then I was discouraged.
But then I learned to bike in the winter.
Finding the opportunity in the obstacle.
And I started loving winter again.
I went from hating it to loving it again.
Here's a list
that Ryan Holiday gives us.
In this
section to think about our perceptions,
how we might change a few things
and recenter some things.
How do we see the opportunity
in the obstacle?
He says a few things to keep in mind
when faced
with a seemingly insurmountable obstacle.
Or I say, just any kind of obstacle.
You know,
maybe we even have a little obstacle,
but it's like, I don't even
want to go over a little obstacle
sometimes,
he says.
Try to be objective.
Very, very actually difficult thing to do.
I'm thinking of the session we did.
What was it titled?
Something about being the CEO
of our life, right?
What if I was some high power,
incredibly competent CEO comes in,
you know, how do they assess a situation
in a company, their objective.
Right.
They see here is the reality of things.
Can we take
an attitude like that
sometimes right to our life,
say what is just really happening here
and what is the truth of it?
Right. It's raining.
Right.
And raining is not,
you know, you say good or bad.
And on the whole, of course it's good.
Some bringing fresh water
that we desperately need.
There's something that, you know,
there's an observation.
Rain is bringing life right to us.
And here's something
that is objectively true.
And so bringing objectivity into a space.
Do you see that
that's true with the actual rain?
And then do you see that
it can be a metaphor
for many of the barriers
that we face in life,
many of it
that we face in our health specifically.
You can bring that into any sort of health
path,
an eating path, a fasting path.
These two things are the same to me.
Like I like to say
two sides of the same coin.
Sometimes we are eating
the healthiest food we possibly can,
and sometimes we are saying no
and refraining from that.
And how much of that should a person
do is a personal decision
and calling, and something that people
can experiment with and lean
into for a season and out of,
like we were talking about yesterday,
you know,
the doctor who's saying like,
fasting is only this one thing.
You only get to 36 hours
and then you're fasting and it's like,
whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
You know, let's be objective here.
You know,
let's see that there is a spectrum here.
All right.
Oh, bring it in.
Yeah.
Exercise path. Our mindfulness.
So many good things.
Here's what he says next.
We try to control emotions
and keep an even keel.
What a
difficult and beautiful thing to do.
I think especially in this moment. Right.
Especially,
With the technology
and the social media
and all of these sort of things.
Right?
The entire called attention economy,
everything vying for attention
and everything pushed in directions,
not necessarily for health reasons.
Right.
Wouldn't it be amazing
if an algorithm was tuned
so that everything it suggested was
just giving you the most positive mindsets
and the healthiest opinions
and perspectives?
Oh man, what a world.
Do you know?
Everything tuned to promote peace
and harmony
between people and help to heal divisions
and promote
understanding and wow.
But isn't everything exactly
the opposite of that?
Isn't everything
the the push to create confusion
so that people are spinning around
and they're more likely to buy something
to try to
help with this situation, you know?
Control the emotions.
How do you do that? Take space to do that.
This is the sort of space
that we're in, fasting space in the body.
We're opening up a little space,
have a coffee or tea
space for the body
to make sense of things.
You know, bodies like, man,
we got resources, but not time to
take care of it all.
That's
how blood sugar can start rising. Really?
Because it's like, hey, more energy
is here than we know where to put it.
Body does not want blood sugar elevated.
For example,
if it can put it away, you know,
somewhere in a muscle cell, in a fat cell,
it will do it.
All right.
And so if you look at the experience
we're having in society,
just like if we took our average blood
sugar level, it's rising, right?
This is a society. Right.
So we take space.
Put that away.
How much more in the emotional
space right.
Take some space.
Put those emotions away.
That's what I'm taking out of that one.
Control emotions.
Keep an even keel. Right.
Have our awareness up.
We're crossing the streams.
Yes. There's this video.
That is the perfect thing.
I have a video. Anybody coming through?
Heart hand reset.
It just kind of came one day
as we were doing kind of a meditation,
and it just put my hand,
you know, just on the chest, just feel it
push in there and just realize, man,
our heart is right in there.
You want to get into an emotional space
where we're having a deep connection
to our mind and body
and the emotions of the body.
Go find that video it's under.
I have a playlist for live stream
highlights, like things that I really like
about our live sessions.
I put in that live stream
highlights playlist
and one of them in their heart hand reset.
And that's a beautiful thing.
Take a deep breath and you can feel it
and like really feel it in the body.
Can feeling into the lungs
feel into the heart there.
And that is a space
I'm glad you found value.
From that
I personally go back to that video
myself and just really,
help to dial in there.
And so that would be a big thing to do.
Like we were saying,
if we have the journal,
maybe we're doing the emotional inventory.
We find a space where
we're we're struggling with something
that could be struggling,
you know, with some appetite, some snacks,
some thing that is really,
observable in our,
you know, kind of dietary space.
You say, okay,
as you see it coming,
can you reach into the body with that
sort of practice, ask it for help,
just kind of really think like, say,
what do we really need here
to be really thoughtful.
What is the
the decision that is going to help us
in the long term? Right.
Because so many foods, eating in general
is like it helps us cope with emotions.
Right? And I certainly know that.
And do that. We can eat to feel better.
Sometimes that is the right thing to do,
but not always.
And especially if we're struggling
in a space or we're not making progress
on a weight loss path.
I mean, I
just know doing this right
now, this is feeling comforting in a bit.
It's almost like I'm giving myself
just a little hug here.
Right.
And do you need something like that
in a moment where you're feeling
anxious, dealing with a craving,
a difficult emotion,
like there's something physically,
how do we be in control of emotions?
Yeah.
Thanks for bringing that up.
I love this next one.
Choose to see the good in a situation.
I almost, almost grabbed
my other favorite mug.
I got my simple fasting mug today.
Let me know if you want one.
Shoot me an email.
I've got my other favorite mug.
It just says see the good?
And what a great reminder
when we start the day.
See the good in a situation,
no matter where we are starting,
any difficulty that we face.
This is our choice, right?
We can see the gloomy in the rain
or we can see the good in it.
And of course,
this is the mindset that we can take
to everything that we face in life.
We try to unpack the emotional issues
that are underlying,
you know, food or health issues
that we face, right?
There is this person, as I'm always having
an argument with, right.
This is one thing that's coming to my mind
can be a frustration or an opportunity.
How do you look at something like that
as an opportunity?
Many ways.
Think of all
the thinking that we've done.
You know, so many things.
We get stuck in cycles
in ways of thinking and patterns
that keep us trapped in thinking
and behaviors and things we don't like.
How do you break out of it?
Here is an opportunity dealing
with a difficult person.
We've gone through the cycles.
Here is an opportunity to break out of it
somewhere.
Maybe.
Last fall
we did the session on, forgiveness.
Thought that was a powerful
way to think about it.
Forgive us.
A huge way to break out of a cycle,
bringing love into all of the dark places
and say, we're just going
to turn over a new page in this.
Right?
So if we can find any sorts of places
where difficult relationships
and interactions with people are are.
Leading to emotional
difficulties,
okay, here's a way to get way upstream.
We're getting away. Upstream.
Find an opportunity in an emotional space
like that
can feed through in
so many other places in our life.
Steady our nerves.
I love this one.
Do you have experiences?
I'm thinking specifically
like impulsive sort of decisions like this
gets into the food space.
I know I have it like,
you see a thing, you smell a thing.
It's like you're in a state.
It's like you can be eating a thing before
you even really consciously process it.
We got into a lot of, that last fall
on that thinking fast and slow,
reading that our mind is operating
actually
in multiple places at the same time,
different levels.
Steady.
The nerves to me,
is hitting into that space
when we're amped up,
when we're stressed, when we are in
kind of that fight or flight
mode like that is in the reaction.
Thing that really can
be bypassing
a lot of our thoughtful decision making.
That's why I think, taking space, taking
time, taking breaths,
keep that parasympathetic state going,
telling the body like everything is okay
in the midst of the stress.
I was talking with some people
in my doctor Z method community
the other day.
Were wearing a CGM
monitoring the blood sugar.
They were commenting
that they went and saw a stressful movie,
and they were watching their blood sugar
going up during the stressful movie
without even eating anything.
Just think what's happening
physiologically in the body.
And then
they said, oh,
but then they had an experience,
stressful situation,
but they were practicing the breathing.
They're able to watch the sugar
and just see, oh,
if we keep the breath going, stressful
things are happening.
We can actually black that from happening.
And this was a fascinating discussion.
Many people with type two diabetes
see that.
And to me this is a mirror.
The type two diabetes
is just an exaggerated version because
of the insulin resistance of physiology
that we all experience in the body.
And so I think we can just learn so much
from it to realize that, you know,
I think so many times
we think stress, we think emotions
or this is something that is mental,
it's not really affecting my body,
but like we are a mind body
and I think the CGM is giving us a window
in to see physiology in the body
that we wouldn't normally see.
And I think it's very profound to realize,
like, whoa, like how I'm breathing,
how I'm interacting with stress.
Like even, you know,
we can't just sit in our house all day.
We can't avoid all the stress, right?
Stress finds us, but how we respond to it
and flow through it
can affect our blood sugar level,
can affect the hormones in the body.
This can feed back
around and through and affect insulin
resistance and inflammation in the body.
These are,
you know, profoundly important things.
And so, you know,
we're getting into a space that is so far
beyond just a calorie.
You know what I mean?
Like I just think of all the
Thinking that it's like,
oh, like a diet is a thing that is easy.
It's just like you eat a thing
and then that's the end of it.
But like, think
how reductionist this perspective is.
Like like we don't think anything about
what a human being is and is going through
and what kind of stress and experience
are we having
that is leading to a hormonal changes
and inflammation in the body?
All these things like to think
like our blood sugar could be going up,
you know, without any food at all
because of a stress experience.
So study our nerves.
To me is getting into that same
beautiful space.
Take a breath.
Build awareness.
Blow through it.
I thought, this isn't out of the box one.
Ignore what disturbs or limits others.
What comes to your mind with that
when you hear it?
Where can you bring that mindset in?
Ignore what disturbs or limits others,
I would say, or at least try to.
The thoughts that is coming to me right
now is at least try to.
And maybe that's a good enough practice.
I'm thinking specifically
in the fasting space,
since that's
where we're trying to dial in.
Think of a hunger experience.
Does it disturb people?
Absolutely. It does. Absolutely.
Does it limit others or us?
Absolutely. It does.
You know, you say
if there were no such thing as hunger,
would it be easy to practice fasting?
Well, it would certainly be a lot easier.
You know, it would be a lot easier.
Can we
ignore it as a powerful thought, I think.
Can we at least work on it?
See, this is a practice, right?
This is the same thing as I'm seeing it
right now, a hunger experience
that we're having when we would like to be
in a fasting space.
I want to open up some space.
I say, like giving a gift to the body
so that it can run some beautiful resting
and healing processes.
How do we give that to the body?
Well, we could see that like a rainy day
and the storm clouds are here.
That could be a gloomy sort of thing.
Or it can be also like a gift
sending nourishing
rain to nourish the earth.
Fasting space,
if it's needed in the body, is like that.
And so what are we bringing to it?
And can we say, oh,
I'm just going to ignore it?
Have you had an experience like that
that sometimes it just happens
without consciously trying to do it?
Well, I was going to be eating lunch,
but I got busy and the boss called
and we had an impromptu meeting.
And then this happened and that happened.
And all of a sudden it's 3:00.
And he said, I didn't eat, eat lunch.
You basically just ignored it.
Body is fine to me.
This is one of the most profound
physiologic observations
that we can just see.
By observing the body, we get hungry.
We think that means we need the energy.
But in experience, if you've had it,
it just seems so.
If we were to just been sitting there
staring at our lunch box,
then we would have gotten hungry
and would have eaten,
and it would have reinforced this cycle
that when we're hungry, we're eat
and we feel better.
And then that's how the system works.
But, oh, all of a sudden,
something else happened.
We got distracted.
We ignored the hunger cues
that were there,
the hormones, the grayling
and all these sort of things.
We ignored it and we went about our day.
Plenty of energy and power,
and then we flow through it.
The hormones reset.
All of a sudden it's 3:00,
then we're usually not hungry anymore.
It's like, but then we get hungry again
for dinner, right?
Because it's not about what
the needs of the body are,
it's what the patterns are
and the expectations most of the time.
So that's just showing,
ignoring what is disturbing
or limiting others perfectly.
Incredible strategy,
very powerful.
We've been in a space.
We've struggled to flow through it.
We say this is a barrier to me.
It's like, what if we just ignored it?
What if we just decided
this is not something
that is going to trouble me
more?
Powerful thought.
Maybe it doesn't work, but it might.
And it might at least help
place things in perspective.
Isn't this a great list?
Place things in perspective.
I have a series of playlist
on the channel Hunger series.
I do really love that.
I think it was two summers ago.
I put together a series of videos
on different
perspectives on hunger and overcoming
and dealing with it,
because this is a primary barrier
to get into a fasting space.
And one of those
videos is on perspective.
What did I call that?
Probably could look it up here, but,
I'm holding
I got two pictures of me
with two different picture frames.
One, hunger is written
really big in red letters, and one
it is written tiny
and blue letters or something like this.
Are we perceiving hunger as of four alarm
fire or whatever you call it?
Or are we perceiving it
as something much less a setting?
That video.
Look at the grand
sweep of the human experience.
You know, look at all the things we could
possibly experience from the very best
to the very worst.
Where do you put hunger on an experience
spectrum like that?
And especially here,
I'm talking about the type of hunger
that we're talking about in a fasting
space, a voluntarily chosen
small amount of time,
not the type of hunger
that people are experiencing
in the midst of war and extreme poverty
and just a terrible situation.
We're we're sitting here with first world
problems, right?
We have more food
than we possibly know what to do with.
Most of us can either walk to a place
if we needed to,
or drive some to something,
or take a public transit.
We can end up at a place
where we can get food
any time that we want.
What an incredible time to be alive.
It's almost never been like this, right?
Some people are not having that experience
today.
To me,
a fasting space puts me in a mindset,
really, of compassion
for people who are in that situation at a.
Say. I find it unacceptable,
but it's very hard to know exactly how to
approach it.
So a space like this
where we're just say,
I'm going to take one less meal here,
I'm going to sit in, where do we put that
on the spectrum of human experience?
My personal
you can put it whatever you want.
I won't tell you how to feel about it.
You just kind of decide to me,
I rate it pretty neutral.
You know, I think in that video,
I say, okay, somewhere on the,
terrible end of the spectrum.
Falling off of a roof
and breaking your leg.
Okay, so I was just thinking
I was in the air one day when I was.
I was working in the E.R.,
you know, and just caring for this guy
who was, you know, up on his ladder.
And his wife was telling him, like, don't.
You shouldn't be doing it, you know, and
and he's, they're having this argument.
And then he fell off the roof.
And so, like, not only is the guy, like,
bruised up and broken leg
and all this stuff, but then his
his wife is just guilt tripping him.
I told you, I told you so.
I don't know what was worse for this guy.
The,
the emotional berating or the things.
He is very bad, right?
I think what is the very best experiences?
I'm just thinking of, like some French
silk pie, like first bite.
It's like, oh, man, this stuff is so good.
Okay, so being hungry
and then it's just in between
these things, it's neutral.
That's this one place.
Things in perspective.
Yeah.
I like this thought. Remember to pause.
Tell myself I don't have to react
right away to a craving
better at sticking to healthy eating.
Absolutely.
Revert to the present moment.
I think that's kind of what you're seeing.
Isn't that what a pause is? Take a pause.
Really center into this space.
Find the grounded, centered space
in this moment.
Focus on what can be controlled
I. I really love this one
as as an approach to to so many things,
very few things from a certain
point of view under our control, you know,
especially as we look
out into the world,
almost nothing under our control.
And that can be,
in its own way,
a discouraging sort of space.
I know I can feel overwhelmed with that,
and the
the best,
space
that I have found personally in my life
for dealing with that,
bringing things into the present moment,
realizing the things that I can control.
Actually very small just within this one
little being here.
And isn't that actually even difficult?
And isn't that hard enough?
I've described,
the mindset is trying to create
a little bubble for ourselves.
I got into that thinking
to start with last fall
when we, we did this session
Squash Your hunger.
And I see that when I'm, like,
holding the squash, we're talking about
the squash,
the thick skin of it that protects
the nutrients, the precious part of it.
You know, for a long time,
I mean, a squat.
You grow it in the fall.
You can still be eating it in the spring.
And, squash
has gotten so many people
through so many winters.
What an incredible thing.
Especially here in the frozen north.
Somebody who is, living in a.
Ecuador.
And as you know, whatever,
papaya is growing and bananas all year is,
it doesn't quite maybe.
Do you not appreciate the squash so much?
I just I've gotten the squash
a rolling in squash,
one of my favorite foods.
I started eating the squash again
as they're coming in,
from the garden.
And I will be enjoying those all winter.
And that metaphor I'm going to just keep
leaning into personally,
everything that I don't like
that is happening externally.
Got a thick skin from that.
We're going to protect our mindset.
The most important thing of all,
and really a fragile thing actually.
You get a single pinprick.
You know, if you take a just a pin
and you puncture
the squash, it's it's
going to go bad, right?
It's going to start.
And and by next week you'll see the ring
around it and it's going to go bad.
So you puncture through that.
Think about that mindset for our health
right.
If we are like the squash,
if we are trying to protect,
like he said in this other picture.
How did he say it?
The sacred place
of reason, action and will write our mind.
And how do we protect that?
What are the things
that are going to puncture that?
Maybe what we can control.
Our own little space,
protecting our mind
and body from negative influences
that are,
like he said, throwing off our compass,
keeping us off the path.
Maybe the idea today that is enough
is to make a powerful decisions like,
this is who I am.
That's what Atomic habits,
that's the deep level we've gotten to,
not just here
are some things that I'm doing.
Like, this is who I am.
These are the things that are important,
really.
Setting the boundary
is the opportunity and the obstacle
that I'm seeing right here,
really being clear on who we are
and what we do and what is important.
That is a powerful mindset
to really lean into that,
you know, and to really be firm on it.
And how important is it to do?
He concludes that section.
This is how you see the opportunity
within the obstacle.
It does not happen on its own.
It is a process, and I really love how
he ends this
section.
To me, it is very encouraging
because I think a process
is something that can be worked on.
It feel like
if an opportunity is just a one and done
so, then you could miss it, you know?
But a process you don't really miss.
And I think, you know, here
we are in a health space.
Sometimes it can feel like,
oh, did I miss did I miss it?
We can feel bad. Like time has gone by.
I should have done this.
I should have done that.
A process is helping us
to reframe the situation.
A process is something
that we can learn and grow from,
and we can take
all the experiences that we have
and we can see these are not failures
or things, that these are all perceptions.
This is what he is telling us.
These are just perception that we bring
and we can change them.
It's not a gloomy day.
It's a restful rain.
We can learn and grow from everything
that has happened and build it up into a
a powerful
mindset, a powerful physical process
that can actually help us to do
very difficult things, and ultimately
accomplish the things that we want.
This is what I want.
I want everybody coming through a fasting
space,
accomplishing goals that they want.
Maybe not instantly. Okay.
Not like the guy yesterday,
say six weeks and everything is perfect.
Rarely practical
if you have a mindset to do it.
Don't be discouraged from pursuing it.
But don't.
I, I love the line secret to happiness
in life is low expectations.
Somebody I'm wearing throws out a thing.
Or you can
you can fix every problem in your life
in six weeks just by doing this one thing.
Little red, red flag rare.
You're setting yourself up
for some disappointment there.
It's like we looked in the comments,
a lot of people
having some disappointment, hearing that
bringing the pressure down.
Like we said yesterday, 18 months,
not even that long really.
I definitely need to control our thoughts.
It takes a lot of focus.
I am a person who nourishes
my body is a thought that helps me.
Hey, thank you for sharing that.
I just love that.
That could be like a mantra,
you know, during the day.
Maybe write that out somewhere.
I think I want to write it out
and just tell myself
that,
you know, a couple times during the day
and just keep it in,
keep it in the center
of the thinking.
Really nice to have you here with me.
Really great to share
this sort of space to me.
I just love listening to the rain.
That sound.
I love standing out in it.
Yesterday, actually, the,
it's it's
hard to get out in the rain, you know,
that was my first thought when I was,
I was going to go film the rain,
the the lake and,
and some other places with some leaves
and some other things, and then I.
It's like, I guess I won't, you know,
but then, getting out there
and standing out there and breathing and,
you know, the smell of it,
we don't have a smell of vision here,
you know,
it's like just the smell of the rain
and the smell of the fall
to it's a be out in it,
something you can't experience, you know,
sitting in your basement and,
and then the sound of it,
just the feeling of it.
I really felt good to do.
And so it felt really to me.
Like it tied in the these thoughts.
If the rain wasn't there yesterday,
you know, we wouldn't
have had the same type
of discussion today.
So I'm grateful for it.
Excellent. Yes.
Wish everybody the best.
Have a beautiful weekend.
And yeah.
Easier to listen to and stay dry
while we're doing it on the program.
I will look forward
to sharing more thoughts
in time with you next week.
Be well everybody.