Escape to Fasting Island
An island has its own rhythm, got its own
space.
It's a protected, peaceful vibe.
And you can step into it
and you are officially on island time.
So I'd like to welcome you
to our little fasting island today.
Grab a coffee, grab a tea.
Settle in.
That stretch of water that is separating
the mainland from the island.
Just kind of walling things off.
It's like a moat.
Today we are treating
fasting exactly like this island.
I was on vacation earlier this summer.
Made it up to Door County.
This island, Canna Island.
You can see the beautiful lighthouse
on the side.
And I was able
to do a little filming of that.
So Canna Island,
today we say it's fasting island.
We're going to head out there,
protect our space.
Thinking about creating a space
where health and wholeness
can flourish, where the metabolism
or protecting
that space from the metabolism,
where it can rest and reset.
Fasting.
I say it's a great way to protect
the body.
Can think it from that way.
What are the big dangers
that the body is facing in society today?
In our metabolism, the processed food,
the simple refined sugars
and carbohydrates is damaging to the body.
It's hard on the body
to say, hard to resist those things
when they're designed
to be so appealing to us.
Say we need a space
where we can get to get out there,
wall it off protected, and then an island.
It's not just walling off, okay?
The consumption culture.
So many things.
Have you been on an island?
Have you taken a vacation on an island?
You say, man, I'm
just in my own place here.
We can let some of the cares
kind of slip away.
This is the type of fasting space
that we want.
If we're going to practice fasting,
we want to do it
in the most gentle and thoughtful way.
Fasting can be an intense process.
That's why I say we approach it
in a very thoughtful, calm, gentle way.
Bring just the amount of it into our life
that is making things better,
making things thoughtful.
That way
we can move toward health in thoughtful
and gentle fashion.
How are you doing with it?
How are you doing?
This summer, we went through a 30 day
summer lean in challenge.
What was that process like for you?
Do you feel like you're on a good track?
Have you been dialing in? Personally?
I've been seriously dialing in
and I am loving it.
Our own personal fasting island.
That's what I really like to think of it.
I was sharing that quote from Marcus
Aurelius the other day that it's like,
I mean, this guy's
got a mountain, a place in the mountains,
a place by the ocean.
And he says, hey, really?
Where I want to go retreat into.
To paraphrase something like,
the comfort of my own mind is much better
to find peace and contentment
in this space than anywhere else,
nothing else to do.
And so we want to find a mental space
like this
here
and bring that in with our fasting space.
Maybe you're visualizing an island
like this.
Take a deep breath. Feel the breeze.
Listen to the waves.
If you can see it here.
There's a little tractor heading
just on the left side of the island.
There's a little causeway
is about a foot deep.
Sometimes you'll see people
wading through the water,
and then this island has a little tractor
that will ferry people over
if you want to get to it.
They got a little visitor center,
and then you can climb up the lighthouse
and look out over Lake Michigan.
So this is interesting. Think of roads.
Think of cars driving everywhere,
of the busyness of life as that.
Tractors pulling in their.
And think of island time here, right.
Think of cars
as like constant consumption.
And then think of the island, the tractor.
What if it just came once a day?
This is like an omen
sort of space tractor.
Come bring some people over.
Tractor, head back, drag some people back.
Like all of a sudden
we get an analogy from this.
We're on the mainland.
It's like we can always head
to the fridge.
The snacks are there,
the commercials are on.
We're over on the island.
It's like cut off.
It's like maybe things
come once a day, right?
That's a fasting space.
Or maybe it comes twice a day.
And if we think, okay, some things coming,
what if there was just a highway built
all the way to the island
and is like in a big circle
and always cars are driving around to look
okay.
Wouldn't be a very peaceful island,
you know what I mean?
So in our sort of space, this is kind of
what it can be like for the metabolism.
Fasting island
body is like, oh, we get that.
Look.
Everything space is cleared out here.
We got some protection.
Let the body deal with the energy
it already has.
See that the island's
got enough energy for a while.
Not forever. Right.
If you were living out on a little house,
the lighthouse had a,
you know, in the mid 1800s.
Had, like a light keeper or something,
a little house next to it,
and they would get up every day
and light the flame in the lighthouse.
And they, they lived there,
I don't know, 6 to 8 month shifts.
They would do, I think, and just
and someone had come and swap them out.
All right.
But what is the pattern
that is working in our life to bring this?
How many times does that tractor
need to go to the our island,
our metaphorical fasting island?
Some people it's coming
eight, nine, ten times a day, right?
Always. Energy is coming
in. Think of the island.
If it only was just bringing stuff
in, bringing stuff in faster than it was
needed, right?
Island would fill up, right?
There's be like the weight
gaining process, right?
So it's a weight loss space.
We're trying to create a very thoughtful,
calm space
that can bring things into balance.
Say, how do we park the tractor
for a while?
Don't need to carry anything else
into this space.
Maybe once or twice a day.
It can be three.
It can be for whatever you need.
There's no rules, but this sort of space.
It can just help us
to start being mindful.
What is the right number,
you know, and how is it working for me?
Personal decision people.
How many times in a day does somebody eat?
Somebody sleeps in.
It's 1030.
They get up there like,
I think I'll just have brunch today,
you know, make an omelet.
Beautiful low carb creation.
A couple eggs, maybe some mushrooms,
maybe some peppers and onions,
maybe a some slices of avocado on top.
Oh, man.
But they weren't trying to eat
in any special fashion is just
they felt like doing it that day.
And then they went and had dinner.
They ate twice in a day.
They opened up some more fasting space.
That's kind of the start.
Eat two healthy meals in a day
and as a routine, say,
tractor came once, tractor
came twice to the island,
and then the rest of the time
it's floating off doing its own thing.
Island time, the island time.
Have you experienced that?
Places people don't have so many clocks.
People just life is happening on kind of
a little more casual sort of thing.
This is the sort of idea
that I really have for fasting space.
Not like we're on an app.
Okay, I think there can be value.
You get a fasting app, a fasting tracker.
I've messed around even coding my own one,
and then I'm like, I don't know
if I want to just be linking people
up to more and more apps.
You know, everything
ticking and alarms and things.
It's like fasting to me is the flow state.
Fasting is getting away from all of that.
Fasting as a way of being
just exist in the world for a while, float
through some space and some time
and realize, just like the island,
we got everything that we need here.
Everything is okay
going about and living our day.
And then that fasting idea.
You don't have to be sitting in a fasting
space being like, oh, I'm fasting.
Oh, I'm fasting.
It's like top of mind all the time.
This is let that settle down,
just like all the thoughts.
Have you ever sat on an island,
on a hammock, looking out over the water?
And then just let that the cares
of the world drift away?
This is where we really start
merging that fasting space,
the meditation space,
bringing peace to the mind.
Help to bring peace to the body.
Bring everything into balance.
I did a little short.
I posted it yesterday. Weight
loss vacation.
Take a weight loss vacation.
I chopped up that thought from our.
Session last week, which I totally loved.
But man, a weight loss vacation.
It could look a couple different ways.
So nice to have you with us here today.
Late to the party
I thought about on the island.
You know, I just mixed in
some of the audio little waves.
You hear some of the seagulls going,
I thought about all
we could put on
some beachy tunes is like a beach party.
But hey, that is right for the right day.
But, like, really the main vibe I want.
Settle everything down.
Isn't it enough?
Listen to the waves and the wind
and the birds and get ourselves
in a really calm,
centered sort of thought.
If I'm sitting by the lake
personally at this point in my life,
I think, you know, when I was 20,
I would have wanted a boom box
and I would have wanted to crank up
the island tunes and all of that.
But increasingly, and this was me.
I'm sitting here when I filmed this,
just behind the camera,
just sitting there,
you know, doing the same thing.
Listen to the waves I sat here.
This is like a loop
for like 20 minutes and.
You know, that's kind of one
of my favorite things to do, actually.
Just sit and watch the water.
Same sort of thing here, here.
If you were with me back in the winter.
I took my camera out on this frozen lake
where we were staying way up
in northern Wisconsin,
sat in the frozen lake,
found this little kind of cove
sheltered from the wind.
And then Eagle
was flying around in a snow covered.
And it was beautiful.
And I say, where else in the world
would I rather be?
But even to sit in a space like that,
that is so beautiful.
You know, for me
it takes ten, 15 minutes, kind of.
You got to settle into a space.
And I kept having thoughts like,
oh, I should at least be walking.
You know, I can't sit here
and just look at the forest.
I should be walking through it,
you know, and walking.
I always say the world's
healthiest activity.
And we've had some great talking here.
Summer weight loss about, like,
open up some fasting space
and bring in some gentle movement
if you are up for it,
because then we're really getting
the energy flowing out.
And that's great for a lot of times.
But sometimes the right answer is,
so you got to say
no to good things
in order to make room for better things.
And sometimes I say no for walking
a little bit, a very good thing.
But say no to it, just to really be able
to sit and connect in a space.
So here was a space like that for me.
Sit here out by a beautiful island.
No music, no distractions. Okay?
It's like it takes a little bit,
settle in, and then you settle into it
and then it starts to flow,
you know, ten, 15 minutes in.
Then you can.
Really settle into the body,
settle into the mind,
and then in the fasting space,
this is what we want.
I assume anybody who's practicing fasting,
you've experienced it.
You hit, you know, this space
where like the idea comes in the mind
bodies thinking, are we eating?
It seems like we might be eating soon.
And it's like you kind of wrestle with it
a little bit.
That's just like, I don't think I can
just sit here quite on the beach.
I think we got to at least take a walk.
We got to do something to distract,
take a deep breath.
Body gets the message.
Body gets the message.
I know what we're doing here.
We are escaping.
This is my big attempt at making a title
that'll connect with people.
Escape to fasting island.
Okay, but I really mean it.
You know, escape, as in, like, oh,
we got a lot of stress.
We got a lot of things we're trying
to let go of and leave behind.
Letting go sometimes,
you know, it's both real and metaphorical.
If you're in a weight loss space
is not I'm connecting here fasting space.
So we're trying to lose weight.
That's like this really?
Is this like letting
go of a part of ourselves?
You know,
it's like there's energy in ourselves.
Body has taken it in.
It's made it a part of ourselves.
Did that session the other day
make fasting a part of you?
Just like we can make food a part of us,
I think we can make fasting a part of us.
Take a very thoughtful, protected
space to do it now.
Create it for ourselves.
See if we can go to an actual island.
Take a vacation like the little short.
Click on the shorts
tab here after the live and go
watch my little short
about a fasting vacation.
Maybe you take a real active vacation.
Go hike through some mountains, say
bring some fasting space in.
Maybe you just find a place on the beach
somewhere by the water,
maybe on an island.
Let fasting do the work.
If you don't have to take
a big active vacation
to have a fasting vacation,
just grab a coffee on the beach.
You know, if you've got a fasting type
of routine that is working for you
that you're building in your regular life,
like bring it to the island, you know,
bring it on vacation
and make vacation better.
So many ways that it can make it better.
Less meals is like less to do,
more relaxing,
less bills, less cost take.
Now, I say,
instead of having like the three,
if you're eating out, you know
on vacations, why do three meals out
and just take all the money
and find the very best place,
you know, and really go for it, you know?
And then you're having incredible food
experience and probably less total food.
Save money
or at least balance it out, you know.
Then we get lots of win win wins,
incredible food experiences, incredible
fasting experiences, have fun, save money
and come back from vacation
feeling better? That's what I want.
Use the vacation
as a tool for a total refreshing.
Sometimes I see people go on a vacation.
They head to an all inclusive
resort island
that might not be the best fasting island.
Buffets of food everywhere
going to make it harder, you know?
But I see people spend huge money
and go on exotic vacations
and all kinds of things,
but their food focused so much that it
it makes it very hard for people to get
out of the vacation groove and back in.
And then people gain weight on a vacation.
I say, bring these concepts on vacation
and make your vacation better,
and then be very intentional
and thoughtful about the food experiences.
Just like this island
tractor comes once, tractor
comes twice,
bringing the people across the causeway.
Great concept to bring on to a vacation.
It's good in the summer. It's good
any time of the year.
You know a here comes a tractor again.
You can see it.
I've got this on a loop
for like 15 minutes or whatever.
So now the tractor is coming back,
bringing in its next load.
Whenever you're watching this,
think about the seasons.
You know, we can derive a lot of insight
from the seasons.
We can really lean into a winter space.
The fall, the spring.
Everything has its beauty
and its different perspective.
Here in the summer, though,
I say we are in prime weight loss season.
And so just to bring these concepts
to us again, it's warmer, you know.
And has it been your experience?
I have been looking through
some different research people in general.
It's easier to eat less
as the temperature rises.
There's some natural appetite suppression
that happens that maybe
we don't experience so much
when it is cold
and the sun is out and shining,
and so it makes it easier to get out
and be active.
Has that been your experience these days?
In the summer?
Are you getting more active
than you might have been in the winter?
So here is a space.
And these things are synergistic.
They build on each other.
So when you're active in doing things,
it's like you're walking away
from the fridge.
You know you're out of the house.
So many of the distractions
and things that might be tempting us,
it's like we're getting
a little more space from them, and then
the mind is occupied doing something else
so we don't have to draw down
that bank account so much.
Our mental capital,
if we are like the worst place
to practice fasting, probably like,
what if you just set up a chair
in the kitchen
and we're staring at the fridge, right.
Just and you had to sit there all day,
it's like some sort of experiment
that people are running.
You know who would make it?
I probably wouldn't.
But get out on beautiful island,
hit the path, take a walk.
Look at the clouds in the space.
Okay? It's just easier to be outside,
you know, if you're.
Especially if you're in the north, you're
somewhere is like, snowing and cold.
You're kind of trapped inside.
It's like we're getting closer
to the experiment.
It's harder
to get out where we're trapped.
And then in the winter,
it's like all the goodies are around.
And the neighbors brought over
their cookies and and all the stuff.
And so we're, like, trapped in
a little box with tasty treats for months.
And you say, why do people gain weight?
Is it a mystery?
Okay, but look, we're in the total
opposite scenario.
Total opposite space.
We can get out, we can take a walk.
We can help the energy to flow out,
help the energy to flow out.
This is about the balance
that we're trying to create.
Or the maybe we're intentionally try
to create some lack of balance.
You know, it's like balance the other way.
Stop the flow coming
in, increase the flow coming out.
Body's like an engine.
It's always running,
always takes energy to run it.
And when we stop that intake coming in
okay.
Body doesn't stop bodies.
This incredible dual fuel system,
it can run off food when it's there
and then when it stops,
it should be seamless.
The physiology of the body,
it should be seamless.
When we don't train it,
that's when we feel, you know, that shift
where it's like, oh, got a shift through.
Hey thank you.
Talking about suggestions for cravings.
This is like huge space
we can just sink into.
It's like the ground balls like the
the simple things right
is like this sort of thing to start right.
Coffee, tea, water, sparkling
water maybe a little lemon or lime in it
I think is fine.
Maybe a pinch of salt on a day
if that's like feels good
sometimes you can assault
is hitting some extra craving center.
So and sometimes it's not
you know sometimes you don't need it.
But sometimes a little bit of salt hitting
the right sensor, sometimes just water.
Oftentimes, like if you're a coffee lover,
I call coffee contentment in a cup.
Part of that is the caffeine.
Caffeine
natural little appetite suppressant.
And so I think that's part of what's
happening with coffee or tea is warm.
It's comforting.
It's like a liquid sort of comfort food.
You can hold it, you know, it's very
tactile experience and then you feel it.
And so many times a craving.
Has this been your experience?
Craving is usually hormonal.
That feeling is triggered by a hormone
called ghrelin is a hunger hormone,
and that has a half life
just like any other sort of hormone.
And so that will peak and it will crest
and that will go away.
Have you experienced that?
You had a hunger experience.
And then it reaches that crescendo
and then it will diminish
sometimes just remembering that
like in the moment, like, you know,
have you had the experience where.
You get irritated or angry at someone
and then you might lash out
at them like, and it was like,
why did I do that?
Like I was not thinking, right.
You know, I was like,
I did not want to do that.
You have to apologize.
Like, hey, I did not want to do that.
So think about like,
you get that experience.
There's a thing where an emotional and
hormonal like between adrenaline, right?
It's like like something
triggered us right into that intense
mental center, bypassing
some of the rational logic circuits.
Right.
We can see how anger can put us in a space
like that.
And then and then you flow back out of it
like, oh, it peaked up,
we got upset,
and then it that situation passed.
We kind of flipped back
into our regular logical thinking,
and then we get out of it. Right.
So think about the mirror with hunger.
Right is doing the same thing.
A hormone is coming into
our body is like pushing us
into a different bit of a mental
operating space.
Really.
We're just like we say, oh,
we want to lash out.
Oh, we just want to eat something, right?
There's a hormones telling us, like,
we like to think of ourselves as always,
100% completely rational,
objective creatures.
But it's like we got a lot going on.
We say, oh, we can get pushed
into different mental space
chemicals in the body,
controlling how we feel.
Big sort of thing.
So craving hits, being aware of it.
We spent a lot of time in that book
thinking fast and slow,
bringing awareness to these things,
helping to just create enough space
where we can get in the middle of that,
keep the logic circuits running
so we can intervene.
Bring the thoughts is recognizing,
okay, we've got mental capital.
Willpower is like it's limited
but real, and we want to use it
in the most judicious fashion
that we can get into that space and say,
okay, so a craving
now we can see it comes in a wave.
Look at these waves coming by here. Come.
And then it's gone.
And you say, oh, doctor Z, then more
comes, okay, but live in the present.
Let's just deal with one wave at a time.
So has it been your experience?
The physiology?
Most of the time this experience can last
between 10 and 20 minutes.
Like in that moment, right in that moment,
the feeling is like,
this is only ever going
to get more intense forever and ever.
And like, we have to intervene
because I can't handle it anymore.
Usually that type of thought
is actually at the peak
of the experience of a craving.
It's like it has built to the point
where it's like, I can't take it anymore.
That's usually the top of the wave.
And you got like, make it through
that space and it will come back down.
And so hydration is a big one,
like a lot of our hunger
experience is actually thirst.
So staying hydrated can blunt that effect
using some sort of calorie
free, ideally artificial sweetener
free beverage at that point to get through
it is really good,
and then breathing is a really good way
to get through it.
I feel like we did a session
on that somewhere.
Of course, bringing all of our tools
together is highly advised to.
So stay hydrated and practice breathing
and go for a walk in the middle of it.
Like if you're if you're feeling that
coming on, you say, oh man, it's coming.
Maybe that's the clue
to get out of the house.
Like it's like danger zone.
Oh, we're going to have some trouble here.
Let's like, get ten minutes out on a walk.
So and then you're
going to flow through it
and then you're
making the decision ahead of time.
And then by the time
you're going to get back
the wave has crested and come back
and you'll be like, okay, we made it,
you know, okay, we made it.
Think about the most difficult experiences
in life, okay?
Things that are coming to my mind.
I watch an interview.
I think it was like with Aaron Rodgers
or something like this NFL
quarterback is like, how do you step out
on a field with like 100,000 people
looking at you and you're on TV for
millions of people are watching.
Everything is being recorded
and scrutinized for all of history.
It was like there's like people practice,
you know, going into intense situations,
like breathing is like the cornerstone
of how you make it through it.
And you think of human experience
is dealing with an injury
or going through labor
like some really intense sort of thing.
How do you make it through it?
You breathe through it.
It's like centering practice.
Bring the stress level down.
So okay, all these really intense things
okay.
Really difficult.
Take very, very powerful practice
a single breath,
bring it into our life
can help us with a craving experience.
Absolutely. It's a model, I'll tell you.
Practicing that, practicing fasting
as a way to move
through a difficult experience, hunger
like that is a model that we can bring to
so many other places in our life.
I was showing this experience
flowing through anger, like,
if you struggle with that,
like if you like saying
we're irritated by someone or something,
how do you stop that cycle?
Okay, leaning into the breath,
there is another way where we can say,
I've practiced this with fasting.
Understand
there's some amount of intensity,
there's
some amount of hormonal process happening.
How do we bring all of these things
into balance so that we can flow through
some of these difficult situations
in a calm, peaceful, thoughtful way?
Bring island vibe to everything,
even the stressful situations.
Even work in the spots
where we have conflict and struggle.
Fasting.
A personal practice is like we're
working through our own internal struggle
to do it right.
Bring things into balance here sometimes.
I know you say I'm not so happy
with the way the world is,
and there are so many things
you say we wish it can change,
but how much philosophy and perspective
tells us so?
Just change this first,
you know, change the self.
This is what we can control.
Don't you wish? I know I do.
I wish I could control everybody else
and every other thing and and then.
Right.
Tiny little mortal being here is enough.
You say it's
very hard to even control ourselves
when we think about it, isn't it?
And so that's a very grounding
and humbling place to be.
Say, yes, it probably is enough
just to work on controlling myself.
And yeah, that is a trick and a half.
So fasting though I think is one of,
you know, a big practice.
Maybe you could call it a discipline
if you're not taking
that word too harshly.
But it's like a routine.
It's something that you work on.
It is something that is a challenge.
And of course, a challenge,
something very good.
You know, we need a challenge.
You know, in life we need something
to strive for and work after.
And then here, though, taking that
sort of mindset, bringing it into this
totally peaceful vibe
that we're trying to do is say, island
time, vacation time, stress reducing time.
I really like that balance, you know,
because here we're talking about
as a practice of something
that can bring health to life.
How do I bring everything into my life
into balance?
Isn't this kind of what a vacation is like
if isn't it, if we're trying to escape
something,
you know, some amount of stress?
Get out of the patterns
that we are normally in.
I think a big thing.
Go to island time is like really
the time is the same, right?
But we create this mental
construct of island time
because there's all these metaphors
around it.
We've really metaphorically, physically,
in some combo way,
kind of cut ourselves off from this.
We're using it as a construct
to try to decompress a little bit.
Fasting is like the same part of it.
And so we're just
dealing with a part of it where we say,
oh, is it a bit challenging?
Certainly can be two sides
to almost everything.
So we look at the things
we're talking about, the question
food cravings, how do we deal with it.
That's one side of it.
It's like the other side of the craving
is the flow, usually because you flow
through a craving, a food craving,
they usually are not like these waves.
It's usually it happens
and then it's gone for a good while,
at least hours.
It's usually hours.
And then that is the place
where you can really flow through it.
The last note I talked.
Yes, just summer things. To refresh.
We talked about the temperature,
the activity, the food environment,
food environment. So key.
How are you doing on creating a food
environment for yourself this summer?
Think of food environment in the winter,
so many baked goods
and all this sort of stuff
here in the summer.
Do you like to grill out?
Do you cook like a meat and a veggie
or something like this?
A protein veggie doesn't have to be meat,
but man, that is a combo.
Skip the roll, skip the rice, skip, skip
all the piles of white rice.
Right?
Just have extra
veggies, you know, if you go protein
veggie and pair that with some fasting.
That is such a powerful weight loss combo.
Try to nix the desserts in the treats.
I say fruit is nature's candy.
If you got to have a dessert.
How about some strawberries?
Skip the strawberry shortcake.
Like maybe have it once in a summer
if it's your special thing.
Like I'm never seeing anybody.
Can't have anything they want.
But is that routine thing?
Don't need a dessert routine.
Okay, if you do say, make it some berries,
you know,
and really just appreciate a berry,
you know, for what it is.
Think of like, the history of people.
It's like, oh, if you are in the woods
and you find some berries
and something bright, it's like,
this would be nature's candy.
This is this is the sort of thing.
No candy factory out in the woods.
You got some honey, if you're lucky.
Sometimes you got some berries.
And so that is the sort of thing,
the food context
that we can create, though in the summer.
Really lean into it.
And then, you know,
we're trying to create the balance between
all four of the main things
that I love to talk about
bringing a fasting element
into our life in the amount that it helps
us creating a food environment,
low carb, low processed food, right?
Keep the insulin low.
That's another thing that is going
to super help the cravings, right?
So much of the time our cravings
is because we're stuck in this sugar
and insulin cycles and where our blood
sugar isn't actually stable,
even if we have not been diagnosed
with type
two diabetes, prediabetes,
any sort of blood sugar problem.
Listen, if we are in a space,
we say we're trying to lose weight,
a weight gain process.
Pretty much anybody who's experiencing
that is already having insulin resistance,
and that is leading to blood sugar
to being less than ideally stable.
And as a blood sugar is heading low,
then that shouldn't be happening.
But the body can be impaired
in its ability to respond to it.
And that starts sending off
warning signals in the body,
cortisol and adrenaline and stress signals
and is communicating to the body
energy level is heading down.
Need to eat something now.
Anybody with any sort of blood
sugar issue, just like anybody approaching
fasting, of course, talk with
your medical team about the situation.
But in the normal physiology of the body,
somebody who does not have insulin
resistance, your body has incredible
resources to keep your blood sugar
from crashing to low.
The process of repairing that process.
Okay,
but things aren't ideal. Body is impaired.
There is insulin resistance here.
People
get diagnosed with insulin resistance
and they think that
it is a permanent process.
But it is not a permanent process
necessarily,
because a fasting space
is basically the antidote to that.
If you open up some fasting space,
you give the body the opportunity,
okay, blood sugar is coming down, but
body is like, well, what do we do with it?
Look, the insulin, all these hormones,
it's like, but look at this.
We open up some space.
Now we have an opportunity
to unwind the cycle.
Cycle got hit because too many trips
on the tractor to the island
like we're seeing there, right?
But now we slow the tractor down.
Now we give the body the space.
It's like I like to describe it
and is a metaphor.
It's not exactly like it,
but like you get callus on your hands
and say, I've been doing a lot of work out
in the country, moving the goats around,
and I got these big calluses on my hands.
But what if
what if I stopped doing all the work
and I wore gloves around all the time?
By three weeks from now, right.
These would be peeling off.
I the soft hand would be back. Right?
Think of the surface of the cell.
Think of the insulin hitting it all
the time.
Think of insulin resistance
like a big callus.
All of a sudden we create an environment.
We escaped to our fasting island.
All of a sudden insulin
level has dropped.
We don't need it, right?
Insulin is put out in order
to do some work in the body,
take care of extra sugar
that the body doesn't need and sell.
Finally getting loaded up, so much insulin
hitting it's building up a callus.
Metaphorically, really.
It's more interesting
what's really happening.
It's more interesting,
but this is a easiest way to think of it.
Pretty accurate, you know, as a metaphor.
Create some fasting space.
Let the insulin level drop.
The insulin resistance will come down.
We can dive into scientific papers
that show that.
But you can you can just basically know it
from first principles.
This is what happens to things. Okay.
Really, really think that that is one
of the most profound medical concepts
that we are.
That we should be talking about
in our society, the ability of some food
free space to reduce and reverse
insulin resistance just incredible.
Absolutely incredible.
To me.
Just looking at here and saying that,
I look out, I see the lighthouse,
and I just think about the purpose
of a lighthouse, right?
Like shining light out into the darkness.
To me, this is what fasting feels like.
Fasting has been a a human practice.
People voluntarily choosing to refrain
from eating for thousands of years.
You read the writings of Hippocrates,
early physician.
You know that fasting, an incredible tool
for bringing health and healing
to the body.
So this is something
that's been recognized by human beings
for thousands of years.
To me, this is totally incredible.
I take a vacation and just sit
and think about it, just and sit
and look at a lighthouse and think like,
lighthouse is showing the way.
We are like, you know, lighthouse.
Very helpful.
Someone who is lost.
The ship doesn't know where they are.
They don't know where the dangerous rocks
are, like all these sort of things.
We're sitting in a space
consumption culture, I don't know,
has there ever been
a culture of consumption like this on
such a massive scale across
not just food, but like everything,
plastic appliances and cars
and just just everything, right?
Fasting, showing us a pattern.
It's like, remember this, you know, like,
look at what people have done.
People have found great value
from retreating off
to the island, saying no
to some good things.
Say, isn't it great
that we can consume all these things?
We have such abundance?
Yes, it's a total miracle.
And I recognize that.
Do you want to be alive
at any other point in human history?
Probably not, I don't know, who knows?
I don't know, maybe. Tough question.
But here we are,
right here we are in this moment.
You say, what do we do?
I love that session
we did looking to the light.
Wasn't it something like that?
Here's the lighthouse to me
in a metabolic storm, right.
We have metabolic storm.
It's like difficulty.
Difficulty we see here.
We can talk about a craving
and say a craving is difficult.
Okay.
And that's fine.
But like, then
the everything is difficult.
We did the talk
the other day is like choosing our heart,
you know, it's like everything comes
with its own set of challenges.
That's it.
And so voluntarily
accepting a challenge that fasting offers.
To me,
this is the cycle of confronting fear.
How many things in life
are on the other side?
We fear things
and we build things up into be a challenge
and a things that is much greater
than it is many times.
And so what is that quote
that is like nothing to fear
but fear itself, right?
So we got to get over our fears of things.
Part of the way that we get over fears
through acceptance.
Come to accept the reality,
the truth of what
things are happening in the body and why
and how we see
by accepting a challenge of fasting,
not fearing it,
always
in the medically appropriate context.
Right?
So we know it's like things is safe here.
This is actually how we start
to find the flow with it is
they make it a part of yourself.
To me, that's what the lighthouse is
symbolizing today is just showing people
been doing this for thousands of years
across cultures, around the entire planet.
I think this is how it found its way
into world religions as like a practicing.
You look at different world
religions, different spiritual traditions.
I mean, pretty much all of them
have some element of fasting
for some special holiday,
some sort of practice.
I just think cultures throughout time
have recognized there's
great value in this space
that's been like,
enshrined or memorialized
into deep human tradition.
And to me,
from a medical scientific standpoint,
I think that's something we should pay
attention to.
Like, isn't it interesting?
There's not that many things
like that, right?
Where you say cultures through off
throughout history have found enough value
that they've put it into their deep
cultural traditions.
Say we should pay a little attention
to that.
Something to contemplate as we're
sitting on the hammock on island time.
Listening. To the peaceful waves.
And the birds. So I grabbed a coffee.
Yesterday
I was sitting out on my porch in the city.
Listening to the birds and.
A hummingbird flew up to me.
But like, really
close. Like closer than I've ever seen.
It was probably like 18in away
and it just came out like right in.
And you know how fast they are
right there.
Just zoom, zoom, zoom.
Hummingbird flew in 18in
right in front of me,
you know, for half a second.
And then it glitched over
to its other spot, half a second
and it like, made eye contact with me.
I was like, looking right,
right in at the hummingbird.
And then boom.
And it was off
on the other side of the street, you know.
But I was like, oh, it was like here
boom, boom and then go on.
And I was just thinking in that moment
I was like, well, this is cool,
and this is not going to last.
Like, this is just cool.
It's just a moment, you know?
I was really thinking yesterday like.
Did the whole thing
take place in less than a second,
like the whole experience
of the hummingbird?
Was it less than a second?
How much difference would it have made,
how long it was,
you know, so I was thinking, what
if it was three seconds instead of one?
Would it have really have mattered?
I can see it.
You know,
I see I saw it, I, I had that moment.
And so this is something
that I was just thinking yesterday, like,
like our whole life
really is just like a moment like,
I don't know, however long it
is, we're here in a space
where maybe some people, it wouldn't
be like this for me, a vacation.
When I, I go to an island,
I go to a space I don't know.
I start thinking thoughts like this
what is life and how much time do we have
and how are we using it?
And I usually find a space
like that to be actually
the most energizing and encouraging.
I come back from vacation
after some thoughts of really being able
to think like,
like when we're creating space
from all the stress
and the thoughts,
it can give us a space to dial in
and think about things
that are truly important
in life, things that are truly beautiful,
like a single moment with a hummingbird.
And if if that is beautiful,
about a single moment
with a family member or friend
and all the stress of life
we see, just kind of try
to put it in its place for a while.
Sometimes we can get so wrapped up
with the stress of the world
and the stress of our responsibilities
and work,
and all the things that we can really lose
sight of.
The beautiful moments, the incredible
opportunity that we have here
in this life to be in this space
and to show love and kindness
and patience and grace and fasting space
to me, very merged into that.
Because, you know, here,
you know, we're just straddling this line,
mind and body and spirit
and I and Time Island space giving us
an incredible metaphor for some of that,
leaving the stress of the world behind.
Fasting space,
we can see, is very physical part
of that in the body
creating that space around.
So it's like just the body is here.
What are the things
that are really important in the body?
Fasting space, from my point of view,
really important in the right need for it.
Of course, like we said in the session
the other day, not really important
to someone who is underweight
or malnourished or having trouble.
But if you're trying,
if you're on the other
end of the equation,
if you're struggling with blood sugar
and weight, like the body
is basically saying,
it's like we need some space.
And we need space in our life.
So this would be my encouragement for you
starting our week.
Let's try to find some space in our week.
Space in the body.
However, we can find its space
in the mind, in our spirit.
However it works in the midst
of all of our responsibilities.
Even if we have to say no
to some good things in order to find it.
Just feeling super good to me.
Just take a moment.
You know,
I sit here, I'm looking at the timer.
I've been talking
for like 50 minutes, like.
And then just stop
and just listen to the waves.
You know? It's feeling good to me.
Leave it a little open.
Leave some openness.
Leave some space for the breath.
Think of the space of the wind
blowing through.
And just take a moment.
Let some of that breath
flow into our life right now.
Breathe in the
openness and then breathe out
any of the stress, any of the tension.
Like, don't you wish
you could be on an island right now?
Maybe you are somewhere, somehow.
Yeah, I wish I was, but like here, I'm
going to just take that mindset.
I'm gonna see that.
I'm going to bring it into my mind.
We can choose to bring
that island vibe into our life,
even if we've got lots to do,
just to take a centering moment.
Yes, a new week.
Start off some fasting space.
Start off some great health practices.
You know, if you have a mindset, of course
you can do all the health practices
if you are, but you can bring it down.
You say, oh, one is enough.
Say, this week
I'm going to be leaning into some fasting.
Or if, say, if that's not my week, maybe
I'm really leaning into some movement.
Maybe we're taking the week leaning into
like really some healthy food prep,
you know, all these things
taking the week and say, hey,
I'm going to really with
whatever time I have, I'm
going to carve out some space for myself,
accept the challenge
of spending some time with myself.
Recognizing okay,
to take ten minutes is like,
oh, we're going to go through a space.
We're going to say,
am I going to really just sit here?
It's like, oh, and then
but then we'll just like a hunger
wave can kind of peak
and then we can flow through it
just like a meditation wave,
a little bit of anxiety
of all the pressure to check the phone,
do something, anything else
other than just have to sit here
with my own thoughts.
But then we see them
come and go to commit to doing that
and realizing that those two things,
to be able to sit
with ourselves in a space
and to complete a fasting,
to make through a hunger craving,
these are very, very similar experiences.
And so we can gain strength in one
by practicing the other.
Maybe we can bring little elements
of all these things into our life,
and maybe the practice week by week
as we go through it
is the practice of learning how to foster
and develop all of these four things.
Because they are together,
they are very synergistic.
They feed on each other,
they support each other
incredible processes
that help us move forward in health.
Really beautiful
to share this space with you today.
I hope you enjoy this island.
I hope you enjoy the thinking.
Come back to it any time you need a
a little refresh, say head back to Island.
Fasting Island helps
to bring that metaphor into your life
and dial in on the thinking,
giving ourselves some space
and walling ourselves off from the stress
a little bit.
Some really dedicated, thoughtful space.
Focus on the needs of the body
about giving that gift to the body.
Hope you have a beautiful day.
I'll look forward to seeing you back here
tomorrow.
Be well everybody.
