Fasting Space

Do you remember when we were just trying
to survive the holidays,

getting through Thanksgiving and Christmas
and the whole holiday season?

And I was bringing you a beautiful quote,
which I still love.

Like preservationist progress.

We're just trying to make it through
that time.

It's the time of the year
when people struggle

the most to with gaining weight
or to try to lose weight.

We did the December weight loss challenge.

Try to lose a little bit of weight
through it.

Well guess what?

We are on the exact
opposite side of the year,

and it is summertime
and summer is fasting season in my view,

and this is the time
where we want to lean into it.

All right.

We were praying,

practicing,
practicing defense in the fall.

And now I say it's time to go on offense.

Do you think that I'm waiting
for the summer solstice

for summer to be officially here?

I say no is a sneak attack.

We are getting after it.

Getting after it.

Everybody so excited
they never saw it coming.

Didn't stand a chance.

I say lean in challenge.

I'm saying 30 day challenge.

Lean into some summer weight loss.

This is happening.

Going to get off on the right foot.

Going to move things forward
as powerfully as possible.

Marie is here.

Says looking forward
to a 30 day challenge with everyone.

Sounds fun.

Will help with our consistency.

Yes, this is what we want.

So nice to have you here.

Glad you are excited about it.

I will tell you in more detail
about the challenge

in the moments to come.

If you are new to fasting, I tell you

this is like
the totally the best place to start.

I say because I'm going to help you lean
into it in a very thoughtful, gentle way.

Can ask any questions that you have here.

And if you are like
deep into your practice of fasting,

you're really working on it,
then really going to help you

try to lean into that too.

We're going to lean in wherever we are
and lean

in, as in like getting leaner.

That's kind of the play on words
that I'm going for,

if that helps you to think of it.

Happy Tuesday.

Veggies coming on, going garden fresh.

This is a big part of summer.

Thank you for sharing.

And this is part of the Lean In challenge
as we're leaning into summer.

Here's part of it.

Think about the seasonal.

Like the holidays.

In summer we are grilling.

Maybe you're taking fresh veggies

and putting them on the grill
with some sort of protein.

And you say, think about this compared

to December,
when it's like cookies and pies and stuff.

All right.

So just the food base of our holidays

that were operating of
is much more friendly.

If you can have some meat on the grill,
if that's your thing

or if you're not a meat person,
if you can throw your favorite thing

on the grill or hover,
you cook it some veggie based or whatever

is going to be much better.

Go veggie over cookie.

Going to help us
so much on our weight loss path.

And then there are so many synergies
that stack up

in our practice to help us.

One of the first ones that I hit you with
is just the temperature is higher.

And this does a couple things for us.

It's easier to be out and active.

So do you find it to be the case?

Are you more active in the summer

even if you're in a part of the country
or world where it is hotter?

You say, well, can we be up earlier?

It's brighter.

Maybe if it's cooler in the early morning,
can you get out for a walk?

Can you be more up and active

just with more light, easier
to be more active throughout the day?

So we're getting so many synergies,
helping us with our activity,

helping us with our food,
and just higher temperatures in general.

Many people find, especially if it's hot,
like the appetite is less.

Do you experience that?

You know,
I think there's at least a stereotype.

I think I feel that way.

Everybody's hunkered down. It's
cold in the winter.

It's like maybe it's like
the board on this coming into is like,

we got to have something to do.

At least where I am
trapped up in the frozen north,

it's like a tendency to eat
like we're inside more.

And it does seem like as it's colder,
the appetite is higher.

For me, it's warmer out.

Yes, I do experience that appetite
probably down.

That is kind of a general phenomenon,
and that is the type of thing

that we can lean into.

That's what I want with a lean in space.

I kind of like the metaphor make hay.

Well, the sun shines, right,
the sun is shining.

We don't want to wait til it's raining
and everything is bogged down

and and very difficult.

When the sun is shining, hay is dry.

Cut that stuff up and get the work done.

So to me, this is the absolute optimal
time of the year to really dial in

on a weight loss sort of path, really
lean into our health practices we have.

I like to say we have a fasting sailboat
and I say try to let fasting do the work.

Right? To don't have to do very much.

It's like, okay,
we've got the wind in our sail right now.

It's like at our back.

If this season is a space where you can
lean in, you say, why not build a buffer?

You know, say, if we got some difficult
times or through holidays,

if that's a place where we struggle,
hey, let's look forward.

Let's do our future selves a big.

Gift, give a big gift to our future self
and make as much progress as we can

when it is theoretically
as easy as possible.

Yeah, I really like this.

This one leaning into some cold brew
instead of hot coffee with cream.

What a fantastic thing to do
in the summer.

Love that. Yeah, wind in the sail.

If we've got everything lining up, it's

warm and it's bright
and the food is supporting us

and our appetite is naturally
at a lower point.

Lean into it, build the buffer,

get as much benefit as we can out of it
so that we are moving forward.

Throughout the year.

People have the idea that weight
loss is always a linear process,

and many things in life we extrapolate
when many things, in fact are cycles.

And so seasons are cycles.

Seasons are showing us,
you know, patterns of how things are,

are in the world.

And so here is the lower points.

Like we're just making it through.

And now we're riding up in the high point.

High point not going to last
forever is going to come back around.

And so this is the cycle of the year.

And so opening up a bigger space
where we can.

See okay
our life is happening in seasons.

And this is why I say
summer is weight loss season.

And you can make a case that almost
any season can be a weight loss season.

We move forward in our most powerful way
in any season.

But summer, I will say I'm listing out

all the natural advantages here
and so we are going to lean in.

So let me explain more about what

I mean by our lean in challenge.

Leaning into the season,
leaning into fasting.

My main idea.

And you can make this, of course,
anything you want.

But the idea to me, leaning in
as a place to start and maybe this is

just for anyone just starting out on you,
take whatever eating pattern

you have now, whether that's no fasting,
you have not been in a groove with it.

Whether you are in some advanced
fasting space and would just go plus one,

I would say you're doing 16, eight,

add an hour in it, lean in a little bit,

17 hours space seven.

You know, instead of 16, eight, just one
click or you're at a 16 eight, all right.

Or 18 six already.

How about 19 five
and just shifting one little bit.

That'd be like the leaning in.

Part of it for fasting.

So we don't have to push ourselves.
What does it look like?

Maybe you're not in the fasting space.

So we can you can lean in
as little as you want, right?

There's no requirements and no fasting.

Never a competition.

If it were to be a competition,
it would be a competition

just with yourself.

Just like running a track meet,

really, you're just competing
with your personal best time.

But even we don't want to do that
because our experience can be different

on any day.

So really, I'd just say
fasting is openness.

It's not a competition.

Every day is is its own thing.

But if we're generally in a groove of
something, say we're not fasting,

we're on a kind of the standard,
you know, Western dietary framework.

We're eating three times a day.

Breakfast, lunch, dinner,
maybe snack. Right.

Lean in is like, can we just start to open
that up a little bit?

Where are we talking about this yesterday
about.

Yeah,
the space between stimulus and response.

Just getting a little crack in there
where we can just open it up a bit.

It's like wherever we're at on
this spectrum, leaning in is like finding

a little bit of extra space
and this is what we want.

This is something leaning in.

You can, you know, if
if you've been on a cycle with any sort of

dietary practice, leaning in for
the process can be just learning to do it.

What if, over the course of an entire
30 day challenge,

you just learn to lean in another hour
and that became more comfortable?

Like that would be good enough.

Also the practice slowly and gently
a dial can be turned

and leaning in would be like over 30 days.

Can you slowly move that

window tighter,
even if it's the same amount of calories?

This is an area that I want to dive in
and do so much more thinking on.

You know, personally. And here,
same amount of calories.

We've got some research studies
that have looked at this, but

bigger fasting window
can have profound effects in the body

because yes, the calories are important,
calories are important.

And when we are fasting,

it's like, does that help us to eat
less calories in a day?

It absolutely does.

And does that have benefits? Yes.

But the other side of it
that is generally not so appreciated

is that it is changing
what is happening with hormones

in the body as we're leaning into it.

We let the insulin fully drop down,

and this has incredible
effects in the body.

Insulin people don't appreciate everything
that is happening with it.

It's jamming energy, the excess energy
inside of body fat cells especially.

And then it's like a cap and it's blocking
access to the energy in those cells.

So as we're leaning in
throughout the summer,

it's like helping that insulin to drop.

Then the deficit in calories
that we have from our beautiful

practice is able to be accessed.

Good morning.

Thank you.

Yes, very happy
to respond to your comment.

And from the other day
I really appreciate it.

I thought it was a very deep question.

Anybody coming through
who didn't get to listen

to the talk yesterday
on dealing with stress at work.

I really loved talking through it and.

You know,

I would love to do a lot more of this,
you know, interactive sort of things.

I have the ability, you know, things
that people are struggling with.

I'll make a whole session about it.

I put all of my best thinking into it,
so I'm really happy about that.

Very glad that you found the channel
and let me know how it goes for you.

Absolutely.

And this is what I want for our challenge
here today is this type of thing

as we're leaning into it
through the month, like how does it go?

This can be a space where people
can really support each other,

share the good things, right?

Share like, hey, I am on a track,

this is going
had some, you know, really good wins.

We want to celebrate the victory
and then also a space, you know like

you are experiencing.

Say hey here is a struggle
that I really have because if you look

across the landscape on YouTube,
we're watching a dog for a friend.

I think they're trying to join.

If you look across the landscape of
videos, you say, you know,

there's a lot of things.

Like I said in the video yesterday,
it assumes, like this perfect

fasting environment,
that everything is okay, no stress

and that, you know,
it can be like a scientific experiment.

And, you know, it's very interesting.

I ran the scientific experiment
and observational study

when I was at the university,
six months of a fasting study, 16

eight and I mean, 1806,
we tried to dial people into

and then we studied it,
and we're so controlled

and people have to be logging everything
all the time and all the protocols.

And, and it's very hard to do that,
you know, is it like life happens

our average life is not like being
a participant in a clinical study.

And so this is what I want simple
fasting really to be very collaborative,

very much a dialog very much, you know,

going through the reality of it

in a way that helps us navigate
all the difficulties.

That's why I love the analogies
and things like The Mountain Is You.

That book has been just totally beautiful.

If you are new coming through
and you haven't seen the series,

I've got it organized in a whole playlist.

There's like 26 videos.

Now that I was like walking through
that book and like just doing a deep dive

to try to take every piece of that
information and filter it into our.

Weight loss and health context
to try to take the most powerful steps.

So whatever you are dealing with,
like when we have a challenge.

Okay,
the word challenge to say is challenging.

We're trying to challenge ourselves.

Just like lifting a weight is a challenge.

And then the body responds by building
the muscles back stronger, right?

So we challenge ourselves
across many domains in our life

so that we can grow and advance
in our ability to do something.

So a challenge is like
stretching ourselves a bit.

And that's why I say leaning into it,
because leaning in isn't forcing in.

Leaning in isn't anything
like punishing our way to health.

These sort of things, always the vibe
I want, nurturing our way to health.

And so leaning in has that definite
sort of vibe to me, finding the line

we're trying to find the line, where do we
how do we stretch ourselves?

How do we move ourselves in a direction
that feels good

and is the type of stress
that is giving us energy?

You know, if like,
we never had any stress, you know,

and we were just sitting in a room
and were isolated

and say, it is okay, it's boring,
we need some sort of challenge.

But if something is overwhelming,
this is kind of the space

we're getting into.

Yesterday is like,
oh, there's stress everywhere.

Like the the work and the relationships
and the demands on the time,

you know, say, we can feel overwhelmed.

And so we're trying to find that
middle space where we're stretched

just enough to grow and help ourselves
to progress toward our goal.

And so fasting season in the summer.

This is a spot, really, to lean into it.

So leaning in, like I was saying,
one hour would be the idea.

And I'm not setting a specific, you know,
weight target, you know, for anybody.

Okay, you can set your own if you want.

And I increasingly encourage people
not even to think about it.

You know,
we did the challenge in the winter,

you know, try to lose 5 pounds in a month.

I like that's great.

And, you know, five is generally a number
that I look for like in a month.

If you say you're really trying to dial in
because it's practical

and it's also tangible and real,
but it's not extreme, you know.

And so that's kind of the idea, whatever
number kind of fits the bill for you.

But thinking to our thinking
from atomic habits that, you know,

a number is just one point on a line
and what we really want to focus on.

And that's why I have the challenge
just be about doing the practice.

And I think this is a better way
to think about it, really,

because I kind of get out of the scale
a little bit,

get out of the realm of numbers
and just think, what is the way of being,

what is the lifestyle and the process
that actually just becomes

something that I enjoy,
that helps me feel better first.

That is what I really want for people.

Have you experienced it where it's like,
okay, fasting has a barrier to entry

is like, okay, you have to pass through
some amount of hunger to get into it,

usually
because the body is used to a cycle

and we get hungry
because the body is kind of in this dance

with food, it's like we eat
and then we process it

and then the body is getting ready for it,
and then we do it.

It's going back and forth.

So all of a sudden we take out a meal
and it's like tripping over

your partner's feet in the dance.

You know, it's like,
where did the meal go?

Bodies.

Like we were going to blast it
and then it's not there.

And so then and that hunger feeling,
a lot of it is just the body

trying to figure out.

Oh, we thought we were going to eat,
but now we're not.

So have you gone through that?

You flow through that space
and all of a sudden

you get to the other side
and then the body reequip rates

think about like
throwing a rock into a pond.

And then there's the ripples
and then they settle out.

Have you experienced a hunger like that?

And so if you flow into

a space to say
there's a bit of a barrier to do that.

We're leaning into that space
now we can see,

okay,
this is a process that I've gone through.

And if you haven't experienced that,
I want you to experience it, because

as you experience it
and you flow through it and you realize,

oh, fasting is something that say
people be afraid of it in society.

People say, oh, this is something
that would be very unpleasant.

And when I want to see is,
oh, as you flow through it

and you overcome it, this is building
metabolic strength in the body.

It's the type of thing
that can come to feel pleasant.

And this is like the huge
unlock or paradigm shift, you know.

And it was for me as like
the first time I heard about fasting,

I've told the story incredible

Hindu woman who is a very devout,

faithful person, practice fasting
as part of their spiritual tradition.

I'm just asking questions
because I'm like, this sounds awful.

You know, like I would not want to be
taking a day without food every week.

And she's like, no, I love it, I love it.

And so this is the practice or where
she said, you know, oh, I feel lighter.

I just feel energy, I feel clarity.

I'm like, well, who doesn't want that?

Let's see if it's true.

Take some time.

And that's been my experience, that it is
definitely true that you can find

a much more calm, centered, content

energetic space with mental clarity.

If I've got a really dial in, I know
personally I've got huge work to do.

I want to be totally focused.

I'll always want to do that fasting now
because I was like, you know,

think about the very opposite time
when it's like,

when do you want to do the least work
and the least focus, right?

Right after Thanksgiving dinner,
like you just had this huge meal.

It's like you want to sit on the couch,
you know?

And so when is the opposite time of that?

How about it's June and the sun is shining
and it is like just bright.

And I was like, I'm going to get out
and do some hiking and be active.

Right.

And it's like, so fasting
is another part of that to dial in,

not going away ourselves down with a big,
heavy meal,

going to lean into the vibe of the season,
which is literally light.

Oh man.

We lean into the light in the season
to help us become

lighter in body, mind and spirit,
I love that.

So fasting should be pleasant.

This is what I really want,
leaning into it away.

That helps it to be pleasant.

And so if you're not finding that space,
I say don't force it

because we are in a long term process
here.

I really my intention well, you know,
we see how things go.

My intention is that this channel
will be a very long term project.

And if because life is a long term
project and health

is a long term process and healthy
isn't something that just happened

once, health is something that happens
that we just be.

And so the benefits of being in a a space

in a healthy way accrue to us over time.

And so I want this process
to be very sustainable for you.

In order for a fasting based process
to be sustainable, I just tell

you have to like it.

If you don't like
what you're doing in health in any way,

you don't like the food you're eating,
are you going to stick with it?

Probably not.

You know
you don't like your exercise plan.

Are you going to stick with it
in the long term? Probably won't.

Fasting is no different.

Fasting is a skill, and it is a process
that you develop over time.

And you know, to to go
from wherever you are.

So you don't reach an expert level.

You say where
I'm just completely proficient in it, in

just like one day,
no go through a process.

That's why leaning in
is the type of thing that I really

like as the mindset,
because this is giving us space.

Take a small step each day. It's enough.

Taking one small step and each day
leaning into it

is the process of finding that line
where you can

gently move into a space
and let it grow and expand.

I like to think of an analogy
growing a garden.

I think of our fasting process and space
like growing a garden.

It starts small, tiny little seeds.

They sprout up something little.

But we give the space.
We give the water, right?

Because water helps us stay hydrated.

Quenches are hunger as much as our thirst.

Water and sunlight.

Isn't this the
this end of spring, beginning of summer?

The garden is growing like Pat says.

Going garden. Fresh veggies coming on.

They start small.

But we give space, we give the environment
and over time takes the season right?

So just like the garden is going to grow
and produce some beautiful experience

from us, we are cultivating the experience
here in the challenge.

As we lean in.

I think we're cultivating an environment
to allow

this fasting garden,
if we can call it, to grow and flourish.

And then what are we going
to be experiencing both 30 days from now?

It's going to take us
to the middle of July.

Then we're going to be in like prime time
summer, and we've

already had a month

where we've been leaning in
and it's going to set us up,

you know, for the next step
and the next step and love it.

Okay, so leaning into that window,
moving our clock an hour

forward, tightening up that fasting
window, opening up some fasting space.

That's a big part of it.

Leaning into the summer food
if the grill is your friend.

If that can be a protein veggie,

you know,
think of the ingredients that are in food.

I was having a conversation in doctor
Z method yesterday.

Links in the description
is especially focused on

overcoming blood sugar
and insulin resistance problems.

Diabetes.

But anybody okay, the ultimate

unraveling of diabetes
not getting it in the first place.

Anybody wants to come in
and just hear the perspective,

watch the course, come do it.

But the talk we were having there was just
about all the crazy ingredients in food

and how as much as you can get
like single ingredients.

And I guess if you're grilling food,

you know, if you say, well,
I threw some, some seasoning on it.

So there's a,
is there a couple ingredients even there?

But if you think of like

growing up in eggplant
and growing up a chicken or something

and say, we got like two ingredients
with maybe a little salt and pepper

and some time or whatever
you want to throw on it, you know?

But man, we can get some simple meals
going on here.

And this is the thing in general

that we want that leads to good health.

Very, very simple.

Trying to get every synthetic thing out,
every processing out

and the highest quality possible.

Here is an area
just as I'm tripping into it.

To think about is how little
we have appreciated the quality of food.

I was listening to an interview once

and I almost cut it up
to to put a video on here, and I didn't.

Maybe I still will, but
it was an interview between two doctors

and they were debating
and they say one was saying only calories

matter and one was trying to say
some fasting space matters.

And then the one doctor is talking
to the other one about like,

well, if you think that, okay,
if fasting doesn't matter

and if only calories matter, like,
what does it even matter what you eat?

Or only the total calories?

And the doctor

who's very widely respected doctors like,
no, it doesn't matter what you eat,

as long as you get your calories
and the thing you could eat,

you know, 2000 calories of ice cream and
as long as it hit it, it wouldn't matter.

So and then going back and forth,
like clearly calories do matter.

There's you can find videos.

I mean, you find videos
on every single perspective.

Of course calories matter,

but the idea that you can just sit around
and eat ice cream,

I mean, it's just it's ludicrous.

Like, it is just totally ridiculous.

So if we can accept that premise, like,
oh, well, clearly the foods

that we eat matter, like your life
experience is going to be a lot different

by eating a stake in an experience
than 2000 calories of ice cream.

I mean, it's just totally different
experience. And.

From that paradigm, you can see, oh,
doesn't the quality of the food matter?

And isn't a stake in asparagus
a different thing?

If it was raised in completely nutrient
poor soil

and doused with chemicals
and then treated with preservatives

and all this sort of stuff versus
something that was fresh,

that was cared for,
that was treated in a humane fashion,

able to eat grass instead of corn like,
so that there's not the inflammation.

Like, I think all of this stuff matters,
and this would be my encouragement.

And and one of the benefits, I think, of
fasting, obviously food prices been high.

And so like, can a fasting space is say

save money on the cereal box
and the bagel and cream cheese

and like say, I'm going to take the money
that I save out of some meal

as we flow through a space and put it
into the highest quality of food

that we possibly can have,
and I think this is the best thing to do.

I've done a couple videos
where I've taken investing analogies.

I think investing in our health
is the very most

the highest return investment
that you can make.

And how do you actually do it?

And a big part of it is giving ourselves
the nutrition that we need

and the highest quality food.

Doesn't it taste better?

Like if you get the highest quality
things, aren't you more satisfied?

Does that loop back around?

See, we're really enjoying
the meals that we're having

and we're getting solid core nutrition.

This is one of our points
from yesterday is like, make sure

that our food in our eating space
is the very best

so that it helps us be satisfied,
helps us flow through a fasting space.

To me, all of this is.

The same thing. It's all the same thing.

And when we are eating in the
healthiest way and when it's balanced out

on the other side, doesn't that help
our mental space to be better?

Help us to walk forward
in a space of peace and contentment

is like the ultimate sort of thing.

I've of course, running a
weight management

program at the university
and now my private consulting practice.

And I'm always talking to people
in a space struggling with a weight loss

path and say, isn't the real path?

Yes, we want

a number on a scale to change, but don't
we want the human experience to change?

This is what I want.

I want people to say, hey,
I am actually finding a space

where things are okay, you know,
and we're flowing through a space.

So I hope the challenge
can be that for you.

I hope that it can give you
a very positive and encouraging mindset,

where we can lean into it together

and let me know your experience and say,
what are the barriers?

And we will move toward them together

and then share your experience with it.

Lean into the good food,
the good food experiences.

Balance it out
with the right amount of fasting.

Practice.

Challenge yourself to grow in it. Slow.

Over the next 30 days.

Dogs are giving you encouragement.

Can you hear them on the mic?

There's they are jumping for joy
up there.

I'm going to get out
and give them a walk and.

I wish you great success in this day.

Great encouragement.

I want this whole space
to be beautiful encouragement for you.

I will be back with you tomorrow.

We're going to take a step
on the challenge together, and

we'll look forward to sharing
more thinking with you.

And I wish you the very best in this day.

Have a great day
everybody. We'll talk again soon.