Fasting Space

Going to be leaning into some optimism
today.

That is my goal.

My goal personally say believing
you can achieve your goal

if you're here in a weight loss space
say believing you can do it.

That is step one.

Gotta have the belief.

Here's how I set it in the description.

Believing you can hit your weight
loss goal is essential, but optimism

without the appropriate action
can be just a wish.

Can't necessarily just wish our way there.

How do we bridge the gap
between a positive mindset

and actual real world results?

Love that.

And I'm going to center our thinking

with this quote
that I found in an article yesterday.

I was reading a gentleman, Sawhill Bloom,

an article
that he wrote for the Curiosity Chronicle,

which I was really enjoying reading,
and it has this image.

Always assume things will work out
and then do the work to make it true.

Isn't that a great quote?

I love that.

He was describing in this article
when he showed this

when he was talking about this quote.

Which he says a mentor showed him
or told him.

That there are two types of optimism.

This is what he said,
two types of optimism.

There's an active activism
and then a passive optimism.

Passive optimism.

He was defining as basically like
just the belief that things will work out.

There's like the first part, but like just
in some way that is apart from yourself.

Like, I don't have to do anything.

It's just going to happen.

And maybe you can think of times
when this does happen.

But he was saying
this is as opposed to active optimism.

I really like that.

I have to see what I think about it.

What do you think about it?

He was saying,
sometimes at least passive optimism

isn't that much different than pessimism,
because in both scenarios.

You're not taking any action.

You're pessimistic,
you think it's not going to work out.

You don't do anything.

You're a passive optimism optimist.

You say things will probably be okay.

It's all going to be fine.

Okay.

In both cases, not taking action.

Like we have an opportunity
to take action.

We have gifts and abilities
that have been given to us,

taking responsibility to use those gifts
and abilities in the most thoughtful way,

I say, is the prudent course, whatever
the broader philosophical truth is of it.

And so this is what I wanted
to lean into a little bit today.

How do we become an active optimist?

Take powerful action
right here in our own life, right

in this moment, right today,
you know, start now.

Passive optimists may be thinking,
yeah, things are going to be okay.

And maybe they will.

I say probably they will.

You know,
we put so much pressure on ourselves.

I don't want anybody
putting any pressure on themselves.

I just want people being encouraged
and inspired.

An active optimist isn't going to wait.

They're not going to say, maybe tomorrow
something good is going to happen.

Say, let's make something good today,
right here, right now.

And we have a lot of tools
and a lot of opportunities to do it.

I love,
as you know, if you're following along.

for things that I like to talk about
and for places that we can be an active

optimist today fasting space,
why don't we hit it right off the top?

What is fasting space
look like for you these days or today?

And what could it look like today?

Is fasting space
actually in your being in the body?

Is that something that you're finding
benefit from?

Is it
something that's giving you energy and

encouragement, but within the body
and in your mind, in the spirit?

What is that feeling like for you?

We just went through the month

last month, Lean In Challenge,
where we're seeing plus one.

How do we just lean into a fasting space
a little bit

at the right time,
in the right season, on the right day?

And so how is that feeling?

We got an opportunity here.

Can you approach fasting
from the perspective of active optimism

to realize a fasting is an action
like say, it's nothing.

You say it's like from a certain
point of view, we say it's in action.

It's not doing anything.

It'd be an act of optimist
or looking at the other side.

It's something we do.
We have to choose to do it.

It's like taking a walk.

You can take a walk, you can practice
fasting, something you do,

and from that space you can see
is very proactive.

Fasting is a tool in the toolkit.

Not the only tool, but an active optimist
is looking at a situation and saying,

hey, I've got something going on here,
I've got an issue that I want to solve.

We've got a metabolic problem.

Perhaps blood sugar
isn't where we want body

fat levels, energy in the body,
not where we want.

One of the tools that are disposal
a fasting space,

say open up some space without food.

Let the body turn its energy
attention inward.

I love describing fasting like a fire.

Metabolism is a fire
because it is burning energy in the body.

It's like I say, fasting is like
the oxygen that is feeding the fire.

It's the space.

You know, we cram the logs
so tight, choke out the fire,

got to open up some space,
let the oxygen flow in so that can burn.

Have you ever felt like that?

Like your metabolism
is like a smothered out fire.

Say, we got to get this going.

One of the things that before I learned
about fasting, if we dial back on the dial

2014 or so, I'll be sitting there,
both personally not knowing.

I say I put on extra weight
in my residency program.

How do I get rid of it?

Didn't know.

Personally,
practicing the same advice that I give to

all my patients, which is what I was
taught in medical school.

So you got to just work,

work, work, get like work harder
and it can bring so much judgment.

And you see, I'm like,
I can't work any harder.

I'm running half marathons.

I'm doing all this stuff.

You say, I must be doing something wrong.

Well, and then there's like
a little bit of truth to it.

If you are putting in a ton of energy
into something

and you're not getting the results
that you want, it's like, well,

something has to change.

I don't like bringing any judgment on
something is not anybody's fault, right?

We are in a space
where everybody is trying

to do their best and we get some advice
and we hit it really hard.

And this is when I started to realize
there is more going on in the metabolism

and the body than we have been led

to believe,
or that we have collectively realized.

However it is.

I was like, I'm
giving hundreds and hundreds of people.

I say, you got to just eat less,
exercise more, okay?

And then I do it.

Not really going to a better place,
going in a stronger place.

I was exercising a lot.

I was getting stronger, but
hard to get the extra weight to go away.

I was like, oh, then I start.

Then fasting came to me like a gift.

I've told that story
a few times, love telling it.

All of a sudden you see fasting space.

Now I start telling people, hey,
what if you try taking all that effort

that you're doing?

Why not just open up some space,
put some of that effort

into some fasting space?

Changed everything in my personal life,
in my medical practice.

All of a sudden I start seeing people
who had struggled for years

start moving the needle forward.

Have you experienced this in your life?

I would love to hear about it.

Have you experienced that or have you not?

Sometime
I want to do a session or a series

that is like share
the love, share the struggle.

You know, this is the two Really
the same thing though.

Work hard at resting in fasting.

Hey, that is a cool thought.

I love that
sometimes we can look at fasting

and we can say it's hard work
and sometimes we can say it's nothing.

And I love that, you know.

Work hard at not working.

Yeah, I really like that thought.

Sometimes I like to say let fasting
do the work, you know,

because it's like for the right person,
especially if you're

on the treadmill, literally,
you're just running, running, running.

And if it's working for you,
you know, beautiful.

I had a comment on a video yesterday.

Say when I was talking
about fasting strength, I chopped

that little thought up into a short
and somebody said,

you know, they're just focused
on getting the biggest muscles possible.

They're not going to be doing any fasting.
Thank you.

I say, look, different strokes
for different folks,

and I'm never going to argue with anybody
who is like a bodybuilder

that fasting is absolutely the maximally
effective muscle building process.

I think there's good physiology
to say that I'm forgetting

the exact scientific term,
but we have like these periods where.

A certain window where we can,

you know, build muscle with the protein
that we are getting in.

This is at least the classic teaching.

But I will argue that for a regular person
who isn't trying to be like a huge,

you know, absolutely enormous person,
which is not the fasting vibe,

that fasting is about being lean
and strong,

and these are things and
and also functionally strong,

not like gym bro strength where it's like,
you know, you just got,

we're just trying to hit numbers
for like the purpose of it, you know,

functional human strength
to actually do things and have energy.

Many people who are like in the gym,
who are bodybuilder

type, go through cycles
of like bulking and cutting.

If anybody ever watched that bulking,
cutting, people eat, eat, eat.

And they think you got to add
on all the body fat and the muscle

to get stronger,
and then they go through cutting phase.

And to me,
I've never found that to be very healthy.

I actually think it's
an unhealthy process.

So people who are trying to build muscle.

I think a fasting based process,
some research

I have talked about in the session fast
and can make you strong, and I've got it

linked under the sports
performance article on simple fasting.

There is research that shows

that fasting is just as good as frequent
eating for maintaining muscle while

losing weight,
and so that's been better established.

And I don't think we have to say,
well, fasting

doesn't have to be the maximally effective
pure muscle building process.

If it is a process that can let you
get stronger without putting on extra body

fat at the same time, which is many,
many people's experience in that world.

And then the more practical thing for us
is that it can help you to stay strong

and be strong

while losing weight, and that's the thing
that is practical for most people.

So this is all a big thought about this
first section that I was saying.

Fasting is a tool.

We can use it to accomplish metabolic
things in the body.

And an optimist going to say, I'm
going to take that tool

and I'm going to use it
to the best of my ability.

And so what does that look like?

Oh, I loved thinking more about this.

Let fasting
do the work or work hard at not working

in that space,
resting in in a fasting space.

That is the vibe I want.

So fasting can be an intense process.

It can be difficult.

Never want to sugarcoat anything with it,
but it can also be a gentle space

that I like to say is like a sailboat and
let the wind kind of blow into the sale.

And that's how fasting can do the work.

That sort of wind
that's like the metabolism is the wind

metabolism is always working in the body.

As long as we are
on this side of the ground, right.

The heart keeps beating, we
keep breathing, everything keeps running.

It's like a furnace in the body, 98

degrees inside out here at 70 degrees.

Don't walk outside today
because then it'll be 98 both places.

But see, then we can overheat
because that metabolism

doesn't stop and that energy's
got to dissipate somewhere.

So usually in society today.

Right.

We are consuming,
consuming as a flow of energy.

You see coming in.

You see in some ideal
scenario it's balanced

and the energy that it takes to run
that whole metabolism,

we just let it flow out in the other
direction, keep things balanced.

One of the things
I should try to find it again.

I saw a graph once that showed

total daily energy expenditure
between people who are exercising

and people who are not exercising,
and what was fascinating is

the difference was
not as much as you would think, because

all the time while people are exercising,
were still running the basal metabolism

and that basal metabolism,
it's always got to be going

like we're just when we're exercising,
we're just we're amping it up a notch.

And so sometimes we can think off.
We didn't exercise.

Nothing happen. No.

You still ran
the whole bodily process for a whole day.

And that takes a lot of energy.

And I'm going to find that.

Make a note I want to find that
graph again very interesting.

It was very good to exercise.

I'm not opposed to it in any way.

And that's maybe the second thing
we can talk about to lean into.

Spent most of my last month personally,
I was talking about and dialing

in fasting exercise, and

I found it to be such a powerful process.

I just loved it and felt so much better.

Is that a space
where you can thoughtfully lean into

and maybe it's not the season for it?

Talk with your medical team
if you have any concerns about it.

And always
I say, you gotta walk before you can run,

and you got to sit before you can walk.

And so that's the progression.

Just to be able to work hard
at not working in a fasting space.

Beautiful.

To sit in that space,
let the body run that basal metabolism.

Always working,
always chewing up the energy.

And that is you want to
I say you want to stack a lot of success

in that space
before you take it to the next level.

But when the time is right,
maybe walking is the next sort of thing.

Get in a fasting space, open up
some walking, moving in that space.

And how does the energy flow
in that space?

And of course, over time, the body.

What's incredible?

You have a great ability
to open up that space.

And as the body is trained in practice,
there's just incredible

activity space in a fasting space.

Somebody came on my fasting strength
video

yesterday and was talking about that.

They run six miles most days fasting,

and I just love that
people are having that experience.

I've had that type of experience.

Certainly
I run a half marathon fasting couldn't.

I was so far away from anything
like that, could never have imagined

that you could do it,
but train up for it and do it.

And I prefer to do it.

Like I said,
same with that muscle building guy.

I'll never argue that fasting
is the best way to set a record time

in a half marathon, but I'll say

it might be the best way to feel the best.

I mean, I know I feel better and I just,
I prefer it now.

I don't want to.

I used to do
when I used to run half marathons,

I get up extra
early, I'd eat a bunch of oatmeal,

I'd drink orange juice,
I'd try to get a bunch of carbs in,

and then all throughout the run,
I'd be hitting the Gatorade stands,

and I just don't feel as good
when I do it that way anymore.

I'd be very curious to know.
Have you ever watched?

You can go on YouTube
and you can watch the world

record, you know, half marathon race,
and you can watch these folks.

I'll tell you, they're not stopping at any
Gatorade stands.

They're just sprinting.

Basically, the entire 13 miles
is just incredible to watch in.

Like, I don't know what where
we're at currently.

It's like 48 minutes or something,
you know, and they just

they're basically
pace is like me sprinting, I think.

Totally amazing.

I do wonder

what is their pre-workout like, you know,
what are they are they fasting.

Are they loading up with gels?

I don't know what is the very world
record pinnacle thing to do.

You know, in sprinting, you know,
glucose is the fast burning fuel.

And I think for extremely intense short

term activity,
I think there really is a place for it.

Fasting space.

Like I said in that other video
and in our hiking discussion.

Right.

Fasting
especially burning that fat for fuel,

very stable, long term low intensity
energy source really help you

walk a long way, do a hiking all day,

do some endurance sort of stuff.

It's like you you dial in on that sugar
for the short term, sprint

for the high intensity interval training,
you know, stuff like that. So.

Two tools, right?

How are you feeling about it?

Are you going to be leaning into it today?

Lean into some fasting space today.

Lean into some exercise space today.

When the fasting space is over,
giving your body

the gift of the very most nutritious,
healthy, unprocessed foods.

There's another space to lean into.

All these are tools.

And an optimist is saying like,
look at the opportunities I have today.

I'm going to do it.

Not just like all health is going to come
to me, like I am going to take an action.

I am going to do the very best thing
I can do.

I'm going to take the effort,
the opportunity to seek out

and find the most healthy food
that I possibly can.

I'm going to prepare it,
which maybe the healthiest food

does not take as much preparing.

Sometimes, you know, to get
some fresh vegetables and cut them up

and make a salad, you know, does not
necessarily have to create a lot of work.

Maybe just the getting of them
like to find them.

To cook some portion of a protein, right,

to give us something
satisfying does take a little work.

It does, but it doesn't have to be
some gourmet meal, you know,

to simply fry up an egg is on the grand
spectrum of cooking.

It's not quite as convenient
as opening a beef stick.

Okay, there would be the fallback.

Can't cook anything,
you know, fall back into something

like that
more than other sort of snack food.

Some sort of fallback,
like some nuts or something still natural,

unprocessed, giving you some fats
and proteins, fiber, minimal carbs.

You know what a great fallback.

No cooking required.

No refrigeration can bring them with you
to work.

Optimus is going to be saying,
how can I get every fall back in place

so that I can flow through this day
and just hit every possible opportunity?

Like the quote, if you're new coming
in, I throw it up again.

We're chatting about this quote
I saw from Sawhill Bloom.

Always a thing.

Soon things will work out,
but then do the work to make it true.

Do the work.

I love it having a positive attitude.

I'm a huge believer
in like there's so much

think of the things talks
we did during the fall

about all the processes that are happening
in the subconscious mind

that we are not aware of.

Got this thin film on the top.

You know, the top 10% of what's happening.

The cortical layer is like we're thinking,
but all this stuff

happening under the radar.

And I think this is part of the thing
when we set the direction,

we set the direction of the whole system
with our thoughts.

And if we are stuck in cycles of negative
thinking, I think it's just programing

and it's sending the message
to everybody else in the noggin.

They're like, hey, don't work too hard.

It's never going to work out anyway.

And and it's like it just dampens
the whole thing.

But if we set the intention,
the perspective,

this is what I think is so positive
about, you know,

having a visioning space, you know,
even starting in the beginning of the day

and trying to picture the day,
what is the perfect health day look like?

You know, in the context
of all these things like, look,

I got these meetings and this thing to do
and, and I have to get here.

Can you see yourself doing it and say,
what would it look like

to flow through all of these decisions
and situations right now?

It's like the CEO.

I loved that session. CEO of The Appetite.

Sending the marching orders, getting
all these deep layers that are running.

All of these things say,
we are going to make this happen today.

And that is an optimistic way.

We want to create a positive,
self-fulfilling prophecy

where we look at the situation
and we see the good,

and we are looking to the light,
and we are trying to marshal

every resource that we have seen
the opportunities, the fasting,

the exercise, the healthy eating,
and then dialing in our mindset.

Bringing in some space into the mind
also where we can breathe

and we can let the stress flow out,

even if it's for five minutes
in the midst of a difficult day.

This has so many positive effects,
not the least of which is hormonal.

Hormones
might be the most important thing.

Some people say, well, is the
total calories the most important thing?

A lot of study going into that.

And that would be the default perspective.

And I'm certainly not blowing it off.

It's not that it doesn't matter,

but hormones control
how energy is processed in the body.

And this is why I think we can get into

so much confusion
and difficulty in a space.

Would you say it's true in your life?
Isn't it true?

Doesn't everybody know somebody
who seems to eat whatever they want,

but they are lean and then say,
some people say, I don't even eat so much.

And there's like, the weight does not go.

And how can that be true?

And I think part of it
is that there are more variables

in our human systems,
and we've appreciated.

One of which is
what is the hormonal state of the body.

And this is how we can set up a dynamic

where people think that their metabolism
is broken and damaged.

And what people don't realize that
the metabolism is dynamic and flexible

and it can change in response
to the environment.

And so really,
I think a couple things are happening both

in a fasting space and an exercise space
as we change our food environment

and as we change
our emotional psychological environment

through things like breathing
and journaling and a meditation space

or changing that hormonal structure,
it's like changing the operating system.

How is the body running?

The default state?

As best I see it in the dieting space?

Okay, dieting I would define

is like no fasting but eat less.

And so we end up getting these
conflicting pieces of advice

that are basically like,
you got to dial down the calories

so that you can lose weight,
but you can never fast because

fasting is bad for you.

This is basically,
do you feel that message from society?

I certainly hear it from different places.

Different nutritionists feel that way.

And I did some sessions on this last
year, maybe even a year and a half ago.

We should maybe revisit it.

There are a lot of studies
and oh, I did the the session

on The Biggest Loser effect from that show
that was on NBC, The Biggest Loser.

They bring people on, put them on

extreme exercise and calorie restriction
protocols.

Eating down something like 800 calories
a day bring the calories way down.

And then the NIH followed participants
on that show.

For, I don't know, even a couple of years

after the show
and everybody put the weight back on.

People lost
hundreds of pounds on that show,

but they did, based on metabolic
monitoring on all the participants,

and showed that people's metabolism was
slowing down over the course of the show.

And then when the show is over
and they stopped

the extreme restriction,
then people put all the weight back on.

And so this is what many people experience

through cycles of dieting,
that they hit things very intensely.

They lose weight,
they plateau, and they end up on cycles.

And people often
go on multi-year cycles like this.

And so a big goal that I have,
and that I have successfully helped people

get out of using fasting,
is to break out of cycles like that,

because it can break out of these cycles
of negative adaptation

when it is done
carefully and thoughtfully.

Because as we are getting into a space
where we have calorie restriction

without fasting, I think the reason we get
into these pieces of advice is people

look at studies like this,
and they just assume

that this is a straight line, always.

And if severe calorie restriction
without fasting is getting negative

adaptation, then taking it the last notch
to peer fasting has to be even worse.

But that's usually not how it is.

That curve inflects and fasting
can actually be the unlock.

And it's not forever.

Because fasting, eventually,
especially as we flow out to ten days,

everybody's
metabolism will slow down again

because the body is going into a long term
conservation

mode, doesn't mean you still aren't
losing weight in that space.

It's just all these things are dynamic.

But this is the way I like to personify
that sort of situation in the body.

Body is thinking,
okay, body knows about fasting, right?

The body knows.

We don't know.

You know, collectively we in society
don't always know or appreciate it, but

the body knows and the body knows that
stored energy, body fat is there to power.

The body in a fasting space is trying
to save it for when we really need it.

This is we can start to realize,
you know, we have frustration in a weight

loss space, can be angry at the body,
and we start to realize

like,
oh, like the body is working, actually.

It's like we just don't understand it.

And so food and we're eating

body will always use the food
before we start

getting to body fat, because body fat is
for when there's no food.

So look at the space that we set up
in a classic dieting sort of space.

We keep food coming all the time,
which is sending hormonal signals

to the body

that we're not supposed to be accessing
body fat, but then there's not enough.

And so we get into a really conflicted
space.

Doesn't it
feel like that to be in a dieting space?

Doesn't it feel like
just being in an internal conflict?

You know, it's like we're always
feeling hungry because we're never eating

satisfying meals,
but then our energy is low

because there's not enough food there
and we're blocked from the body fat.

And so this is how we can get into this
space that feels like chronic low energy,

don't have enough energy to get to the gym
or do something because we're, like,

locked up in this tight metabolic space,
trapped between worlds, right

in between too much energy
coming in to let us into a fasting space,

not enough energy
coming in to run our life.

It's like metabolic netherworld.

When you're in that sort of space.

That's the space where you fully open up
the space.

Fasting is here now.

The body is like, oh, look at this now.

There's nothing coming in.

Now the insulin level can drop.

Now the blockers
that are blocking access to body fat

can open up in the metabolism,
can reignite.

That's the space
between the logs that lets the fire burn.

Let it breathe. So hormones.
Very important.

It's not.

The calories are not important.

Calories are important.

But it's not the only variable.

And when we put that calorie restriction

into an actual fasting space,
that's something in my experience

and in many people's experience,
help us flow actually more easily.

A classic criticism of a fasting space.

People say, oh, it's so difficult,

why are you making things more difficult
for people when people can just eat less

and they say, well, how many people
have you talked to that have tried it?

You know, it's
not exactly easy to eat less,

and it's especially not easy to eat less
if we're getting into

that sort of space where we say,
oh, I'm feeling the energy going down.

Okay. Is fasting difficult?

I say, well, it can be,
but actually when we open our mind to it

and we see that we can actually

start flowing through a space
that the body can adapt to it,

it can actually become very,
very pleasant.

And it can look like
what we're doing right now.

I'm fasting right now
and I'm having a coffee and I'm

feeling great, and I have a lot of energy

and I just feel mental clarity from it,
and I value it a lot.

And so this is my hope for anybody
coming through fasting space.

Our session, our show, this experience

that you can sink into, this space
that you can spend some time with it,

lean into it, soak up these ideas,
bring them into your life

to the extent that you like them
and find value from them.

Let them plant them like seeds.

To me, these things,
like seeds that we can nurture,

give them water, give them sunlight,
help them to grow and flourish

and can become a beautiful garden,
maybe a flower garden of health,

and that you can

enjoy and come to a space where you say,
you know what?

The struggle is not so intense actually
finding a space just flowing through here.

Because if you can find a mindset
like that,

so that is like really going to support
the optimism.

Optimism can be a cycle.

You know, it can start in a place
and we take the action

and then we see results as no one.

What kind of results are we seeing from it

and how whatever the results are.

So I'm getting some results,
but I'm having struggle.

Okay.

See then that's awareness
and that's the place to work with it.

That's where the struggle is.

But then as we start working through it
and we see the steps that we are taking,

this can build our optimism,

a very active optimism taking us

to the place that we want to go.

Beautiful to share this space with you.

Thank you for being here with me.

I hope you have a beautiful day.

Fire up those optimism circuits,
apply them with the most thoughtful

and conscientious action
to any or all of these areas

we are discussing,
and let me know how it goes for you.

I'd love to hear
and I'll be back with you tomorrow.

Have a great day, everybody.