Fasting Space

Welcome everyone. So nice to have you here.

I hope you are doing well.

Our word of the day today.

Transformation.

I was doing some reading, yesterday.

I'm going to share some thoughts from that with you.

I don't know that the word transformation ever occurred in it,
but it's the word that just kept coming to me.

And I think it is such a powerful word.

Very big, word

that is giving us this vision of a process
of becoming something new.

I was searching for, some definitions

to try to, get a handle on the word share.

The one that, I came to that I liked the best.

But even this one.

Check this one out.

It doesn't really capture it to me.

You know, this is American Heritage Dictionary.

A marked change as in appearance or character,
usually for the better.

Okay, so we're sitting in a health space.

With a weight loss space.

You see a transformation.

Such a big word.

We can see it in the body as if we're trying to lose weight.

We want the body to look physically different. Right. Lighter.

You can see it.

It's starting to go in this direction.

Yeah.

The transformation that to me is
so big is like caterpillar cocoon butterfly.

Right.

Like it's like,
if you didn't know any better, you would not know.

These are the same species.

This is a huge this is life changing.

And I was thinking about transformation
in the context of our discussion yesterday

about a weight loss, weight loss plateau,
something very common.

You know,
we have a lot of linear thinking, our society very linear.

We want weight loss to be a linear process.

Very rare that that's the case.

Weight loss often comes in kind of steps
and then plateau for a while.

And then we take another step
and then we're drifting in that fashion.

The thing I was thinking about,
people fear a plateau or plateau or something.

They say, oh, is something not working?

Look at the plateau as a cocoon, as a space.

The caterpillar built that thing.

It's in there from the outside.

You look at it and you're watching this
and you see nothing is changing.

Nothing is happening here.

Like we're not moving in any direction.

And then out of the other side, right.

The butterfly emerges, transformed.

Look at any sort of space that you can be in.

It doesn't have to be a weight loss plateau.

You say we're not looking for that necessarily,
but we are on a journey.

See, transformation
and journey to me are like really similar words.

I really like to use the word journey because journey.

Journey isn't just a day trip, you know what I mean?

A journey is a process.

It's going somewhere of distance,
you know, and a transformation.

It isn't really like, would you say is a transformation

something that you seek to transformation? Say?

Yeah, that is calling to me,
you know, a transformation to be something new.

You know,
I was thinking about our discussion, the other day about,

you know, randomized controlled trials in fasting space,
people studying time restricted eating, for example.

How many people who are involved in a clinical trial

of any kind for weight
loss are undergoing a process of transformation?

You know what I mean?

Like if we're going to really try to distill down

drill down into some powerful levels of health.

You know, the goal of a lot of weight processes,

of course, to say is like, I want to lose a few pounds.

You know, as I say, there's nothing wrong with that, right?

You say, I just want the number on the scale to go down.

As we want to see in
some of the reading we're going to do today. Okay.

This is a very superficial way to approach something.

Is outcomes focused or just focused on an outcome

and the shell of a situation, but it is not a deep,

way to approach a process.

And this is something

that I would really like to help people do.

Something that I would say simple fasting. Okay. What is that?

What are we really trying to do here.

We and describe it okay, a weight loss.

Experience or try to help people

use gentle, thoughtful amounts of fasting to lose weight.

Okay. Like yes, it's that.

But I say there's a much deeper layer.

That is really what I am trying to do.

I was, I was realizing I filmed the video once

very early in the channel and it
it was really, you know, poorly done.

The lighting was bad. I talked so awkward.

And so I think I took it off the channel,
but it was like transformational weight loss is possible.

And, I really did like that line of thinking.

I think, you know, at the time, you know,

I'm trying to figure out, you know, how do we present

weight loss paths in the most thoughtful, way?

And maybe that word at the time was too big,
you know, is too big.

I was like,
oh, let's just start at a place that is like, like just.

A little more manageable than a word like transformation.

But the more I've sat and thought about it as like,
no, transformation is really the type of thing that we want.

We want to be.

This is what we've talked a lot about of the channel.

This is where I was getting back into that space.

We're trying to have a way of being in the world.

We see we want to transform our experience,

from one of struggle to one of flow

on a transform our health from a place where we say,

I'm not completely satisfied with this, to a place of peace

and contentment, where we say, hey,
I actually do feel good about this.

Like I am living in alignment
in a way that resonates with my being,

that feels in alignment with the world, is feels at peace.

Everything is at peace.

This, to me is a transformational mindset.

It's a complete change in thinking.

It's it's like a cocoon right in our society.

Right?

Our society does not have these things.

Our society is not content.

Our society is a society of struggle.

And consumption.

And what does it look like to have a transformational space?

Like we're looking at these metaphors,
like the squash that has like

the thick shell that is protecting the space.

Think about the cocoon we're going today

that is like the shield

that is providing the environment
where transformation can take place,

protecting it from the outside,

everything that is going to disrupt the delicate process.

We had the the quote that I read the other day

from my tiny little book is like, let go of anger, right?

It's an acid that will burn away
the delicate layers of our happiness.

Think about the delicate process
of transformation in a cocoon.

It's got to be protected,
so that it's not disturbed otherwise.

Like it's not going to happen.

So what I want for anybody coming into this sort of space

is that we would have an environment like that.

Protected. Thoughtful.

Powerful. Transformative.

Where it's not like I just lost a couple pounds,
you know, say someone as I lost a couple pounds.

You say, that's nice.

You know, I wouldn't really describe that is life changing.

You know, I wouldn't really describe that as, like, all of us.

Incredible. You know, I was, like, transformed.

I'm going to read, and glean some more insights

from this book, Atomic Habits today.

I knew I was going to like this book.

That's, you know, why I bought it?

I knew it was going to be good, but, It's so good.

It is so good.

The analogy we got from it, the other day,
turning up the temperature in the room, melting the ice cube.

Man, that that's just one of my favorites. I love that.

That analogy is just like the transformative process

of the cocoon that we can't see it from the outside.

But change is happening
and we are trying to create that environment that.

Nourishes that situation as much as possible.

This section. Listen to this.

Why is it so easy to repeat

bad habits and so hard to form good ones?

Few things can have a more powerful impact

on your life than improving your daily habits.

I have a I saw a quote once.

What was it is like our we shape our habits in the beginning,

but our habits shape us in the end, right?

I don't know who said that,
but that's like right in line with us.

Habits so powerful.

We are really our habits. We are what we do like in a way.

Is that true?

It's like a cycle. It's a flow between it.

We do what we are.

We are what we do.

These things are together. We.

This is how we change. We change what we do.

Habits shape.

We are do. See the cycle, the flow.

This is what we're trying
to get in the middle of that process.

We want to transform our experience of transform

who we are, transform what we do.

That's another way to think of changing our habits.

They say, listen to this sentence, I underlined this.

You and I got a little upset with it.

They said, we know this.

Yet it is likely that at this time next year

you'll be doing the same thing rather than something better.

And I said, no, no, I won't,

but I will say, I think that's true for in the book, right?

I mean, most people a year later are doing
the same thing that they were doing the year before.

This is the natural pattern, right?

And we've been through this in so much of our thinking
that that complacency,

and resistance to change

is the default mode of operation
for pretty much most of human experience.

To change and especially to change boldly and significantly,

to get to a level of change that we see is transformative,

that I'm leading something
completely different in my mind right.

That's that's I mean, that's big.

There's no way around it.

You know, that's that's a place,
you know, when we just think about we'll see.

We'll do a postmortem on this book.

You know, the subtitle of this book, an easy
and Proven way to do it.

Easy as a word.

You know, we will we will hope so.

Right.

We always work for it.

We want things to be as easy as possible.

But if you're going to be on a transformative journey,
easy is not a word

that I would, encourage

the expectation of, most things of value.

I say it has been my experience, most things of value in life,

have some degree of difficulty associated with them
that that is actually the barrier

to access to pretty much most of what we want in life.

Overcoming something.

They say here it often feels difficult to keep good habits
going for more than a few days,

even with sincere effort
and the occasional burst of motivation.

So I.

I just tell you right off the bat if you've kept it.

This is true for most people.

I say most people experience that if you have some good things
going where you have built some habits, and I know people

listening have done that, I say like,
give yourself a big pat on the back,

give yourself the silver star of the day because you are doing
you've done something very difficult already.

Build some positive momentum on that and then think about
how did you do it right.

This is a path that can be replicated.

We talked about like, have you overcome a mountain already?

We've talked about people who've gotten sugar
out of their life and that it took months to do.

But then they got over it
and I said, like, now you're a mountain climber.

Right now you have done like something that most people,
honestly, in the society would benefit from doing.

But very few people do.

So however, once your habits are established,
they may stick around forever, even the unwanted ones.

Despite our best intentions,
unhealthy habits could be eating junk food.

They say other things can feel impossible to break.

Here's two reasons they say.

Here's why it can be hard to break a habit.

They maybe we're trying to change the wrong thing.

It should be help us really get in a level.

What are we really trying to change here? I love that.

And then we might be trying to change our habits
in the wrong way.

And here is where they get in us.

An insight that is so insightful.

I think you're really gonna love it.

Okay, they say try to change the wrong thing.

And I want to show you this, picture.

From the book.

These are the three layers of behavior.

Change the things that we could change.

And I'm thinking of this like a shell.

Like a nut with a seed in the middle.

You know something, protected outcomes on the outer layer.

This is what we were saying.

That is the typical weight loss approach.

I just want to lose some weight.

That's the outcome.

That's the goal.

That's the thing we're looking to.

So we are looking at that.

There's deeper layers to it though.

The process we've talked about that even from this
book is saying like what is the system that we're developing?

What is the process that we are?

Going through that's kind of like our way of being.

But look at the center
now we're diving really deep identity, man.

I looked at this picture
and I said, like, whoa, identity is deep.

But here's the way they describe these.

The first layer,
something superficial like a result, like losing weight.

Most of the goals we want to set are here.

The second layer change in the process
implementing a new routine

at the gym, decluttering our desk,
developing a meditation practice.

These are the habits that we build at this level.

But the third is the deepest layer.

This is the level where we change our beliefs.

Change the world view. Change your self-image.

Did you know you can do it?

Change your judgments about yourself and about others.

Most of the beliefs, assumptions, and biases

that we hold are at this level.

Outcomes are about what you get.

Processes are about what you do.

Identity is about what you believe.

And when it comes to building habits that last.

Problem is not that one level is better or worse than another.

All levels of change are useful in their own way.

The problem is the direction of change.

This is the insight that I think is so interesting to see.

Look at this one.

This is what we really want to think about outcome based
habits.

Look, they're forcing their way in from the outside
or trying to change the outcome.

And then we look at the process.

And then this is influencing the identity.

Look at the identity based habits.

They flow out.

The identity is transformed. First.

And then that flows out through the processes
that ultimately affect the outcomes.

Do you see the change in the mindset, the way of thinking?

To me, I think that is such a great way to think about it.

Oh man.

Listen to a couple examples
he gives here. Here's at least one.

So imagine two people trying to quit smoking.

He's talking about the first person says,
no, I'm trying to quit.

They're getting offered a cigarets. No, I'm trying to quit.

Okay, see?

Well, that seems pretty nice,
but look at the second person says, no thanks.

I'm not a smoker like you.

See the identity?

See how much more powerful that is?

Think about taking that kind of power into

any sort of habit that you are trying to change.

It's not like, no, I'm trying to achieve this goal.

Okay? It's not who I am.

It's a small difference.

But this statement like this signals a shift in identity.

Most people do not ever consider

an identity change when they set out to improve.

They say something like, I want to lose weight, and if I do
this and I'll lose weight, it's like, that's the outcome.

Layer. This is the layer where most of medicine resides.

I would say, like we're saying,
most of weight loss counseling and studies

think of every study, very rare
that someone is getting down into this sort of level.

This is where transformation resides in my view.

That is so much bigger than one specific goal.

Need to consider the beliefs that drive the action.

Shift the way we look at ourselves.

And realize that an old identity can sabotage plans for change

behind every one of our actions is a belief
that drives those actions.

Have you thought about it that way?

Then make a comment later on here.

The behavior
that is incongruent with our identity is not going to last.

That's what makes habits difficult, to stick to.

If they aren't in alignment,
we ultimately act in alignment with our beliefs.

Beliefs might be about who we are.

This is why I ask the question what do we really want?

Like, who am I really?

You know what I mean.

This is the type of question
you can ask in a meditation space.

Dig deep.

Then when we identify, it's like, no,
this is who I have thought I was.

This is who I am.

Then the processes can flow out of that,
that drive the actions that we seek.

He says here it's one thing to say,
I am the type of person who wants this.

It is something very different to say
I'm the person who is this?

True change is an identity change.

You might start with a habit because of motivation,

but the only reason you stick with it
is it becomes a part of your identity.

Anyone can convince themselves to visit a gym

or eat healthy like a few times, right?

But if you don't shift your beliefs,
then it's hard to stick with it in the long term.

This can be good or bad.

When we have the stories in our mind that we tell ourselves
about who we are, we can change that identity.

We can change it into the most positive,
thoughtful version of ourself.

They can possibly be.

That's what our goal is, right?

That's the transformational process.

This whole things is the inversion
of everything that works against us

all the voices in our mind
that tell us, you could never do that.

That's not who you are. All these negative things.

Stories that we have told ourselves for years.

Ideas
that were put in there even by other people or by culture.

The more deeply a thought or action is tied to our identity,
the more difficult it is to change.

It can feel comfortable
to believe what your culture believes to do,

what upholds your self-image, even if it isn't helpful to you.

The biggest barrier is identity.

Conflict.

Yeah, so this is what I say in a transformational space.

I love that thinking. I love this image.

I love this concept to flow out from our identity

through processes that align with our identity

and help us to walk on the path

to the outcomes that we want.

So we're here,
you know, in a weight loss space, in a health space,

we're trying to take powerful steps toward better health.

What is the thinking that will help us do this?

I say, is this part of the path that we need to walk
very much?

In alignment? The mountain is you, right?

This is the book that we are alternating with that

we step, through these processes outward from that.

Who are we trying to be?

And that's shaping our way of being in the world that we've
talked about from so much of this artistic thinking.

Who are we trying to be?

How are we trying to be?

What is our way of being in the world?

That is reflecting who we are ultimately,

to me, this is the deep level that is at our identity.

That's where transformation, resides.

And that is the type of mindset

that can help us get into a flow state.

We're trying to, get to a space.

Like I said, we're not trying to say that things are easy,

trying to just say, oh, it's easy to transform my life.

Okay. No, I say no.

It takes deep work to do that, to change our identity.

That's the deep, work.

But it's the very important work
to come to alignment and peace.

You know, somewhere in here, right?

But doing that deep, deep work is what

allows the change to flow out

so that as we start acting in alignment with that space,
who are we?

That's where we can find the flow.

That's where things are finding a place of ease.

That's what we want.

We're trying ultimately
to do things to make it as easy as possible

to do something difficult, you know, to change

our life is a difficult task and we, in a culture

that is not really supportive of it,
where complacency reigns supreme, right?

We create this space for ourselves,
like that shell like that image.

Right?

The little bubble, the cocoon where we can drive that

transformation, driving our process, our thinking.

Solidifying.

These core, most important, foundational thoughts

and beliefs of our identity
and who we are walking through the world.

To me, that is where it is at.

That is where it is at.

It's such a deeper place to start than just saying,
you know, like.

It's like, okay, I'm just I'm going to eat twice
in a day and like, see how it goes.

Like this. A perfectly fine place to start.

I like how I said that every layer of this,
you know, onion like, has its own value.

I've definitely had people, you know, fasting process
I've described on the channel.

It's got superficial layers, got deep layers,

fasting to me, very, very powerful space.

Okay.

Therefore can be approached very thoughtfully
and gently as a place to start with.

These things have a superficial practice with is the

if the transformation, say the word is too big,

I don't want to dive in some

transformation process like we've said, hey, this is okay.

Like everything is okay with it.

Sit on this superficial sort of process, say, hey, I can just
I can align my eating in this sort of way.

I've got an outcome.

I've seen plenty of people have good outcomes saying,

we're not trying to, like, transform our whole life.

We're just trying to find a new pattern that is serving us.

Outcomes focused like that can be good enough.

Like nothing about what I'm saying
is any kind of pressure to say,

oh, if you aren't doing fasting this way,
if you weren't diving deep

into some deep thing
and uncovering all these things that required right,

no requirement to have to do anything, but I am showing

it is something that is available
right where we can have a practice.

It could even be for a long period of time.

And flowing in a space outcomes focused even no judgment
just fine.

What if you get in a pattern?

You say I can alternate teach myself some two meals a day,

eating, doing some omad, opening up some fasting space.

So train the body to do it.

Maybe that's the only thing you ever do.

And then alternating, like we said yesterday,

don't have to be stuck in one specific groove.

You can lean harder in it for a while,
then back off for a little while.

Like that's fine, take an entire break from it
so you don't, just because you say,

I have an open mind to fasting and I can do it,
and I've done it,

doesn't mean it's for even every season

or every, you know, every week, like whatever it is is just

fasting is openness can be open to that space.

Can you say, can just having a mindset of openness
like that, just being open to the pattern of it?

I say that even of itself can be transformative.

Like I might even like as I'm sitting here
thinking about it like,

you know, we go back to this image like

both of these things can have value as not that
this top image, you know, can't work and have a thing

like if you are says, I don't want to start at that deepest
layer, let stuff flow out.

I see how it could be, see if it feels better.

Sit on this pattern.

Fasting is the type of thing it can kind of soak
in, you know, seeing really honest outcomes.

Layer say I'm going to just dial in on this pattern,
help me get an outcome, okay.

But then as you're doing that, you see,
and then we're diving in like some of our other

thinking like we talked about build out the SOPs for life.

You know, there's like a next level of,
things like what really is our way of being in the world.

And as you go through that, I would say that over time
that can shape and change us and change like that identity.

We can get to it, you know? Whatever serves you.

I loved that session.

We did no rules for weight loss, right?

There's no rules here.

We're seeing concepts, that can, shape our experience.

Like this quote where we started,
we shape our habits in the beginning.

Our habits shape us.

In the end, we're trying to get into that flow.

Say, sets in.

New habits help to shape our experience in a different way
as we're flowing through this.

And then we say, well, we can run that cycle backwards, too.

We can dive in with some really thoughtful space

in and, and identity, who we are,

what we're doing, how we're living,
what are these things, what is really a value.

And then out of that space,
then the process can flow backwards.

Then the decisions become hopefully easier.

Like just love.

That person says, you know, no, I'm not a smoker anymore.

You know, it's like we're just completely separated from it.

That would be a powerful mindset
to take into this sort of space.

See how it goes.

I say try out some of the thinking, try out that process.

If you have some space in your day today,

say, I'm going to dive in deep on this layer.

What would it look like to really dial in on that space
and then push it outwards?

Could that help me walk through, this experience

in, Flow through the experience.

That's what I like.

Liken flow through the experience in a better way.

open up some space for it

to let it sink in and say, what does it mean, really?

In my life?

A transformational process could be weight loss,
could be health, and anything could be any avenue of our life.

Because, of course,
everything in our experience flows together.

Our work, our family,
you know, our relationships, everything that we do

is kind of flowing together in this space
that is making up our experience,

that is determining, you know, our stress and mindset
and all these things that flow together.

I'm trying to build a powerful mindset of health

that can flow out into every aspect of our life,
so that we're just experiencing health

in everything that we do, including,
you know, our relationships and our work.

And this the way that we are being in it,
is really the vision that I would have.

Certainly what I am trying to do.

Beautiful to share this space, with you today.

I hope you have a beautiful day full of, meaning and purpose

and some, deep thinking on what it means.

What does transformation mean to you?

And, do some visioning.

You know, in that picture.

What do you think of that sentence?

Like he said in there,
are we going to be the same a year from now?

We're going to be doing the same things,
or are we going to be different?

Are we going to be new?

Are we going to be taking steps?

We center ourself also in this present moment.

We can take a step today. That's what we can do or focus here.

We'll take the most powerful step
forward in health that we can do.