0 (1s):
Coming up on the get lean eat clean podcast.
1 (4s):
A good first step is to find breakfast is that you like that have very, very low amounts of carbs that are protein and fat. And just start with that one meal that that'll, that'll make such a difference because our bodies overnight replenish our blood glucose, which is why when you go to a doctor and actually when you have insulin resistance, you can even have John phenomenon. So you're already have all the blood glucose that you possibly need often too much when you wake up. So adding any carbs at breakfast is just, just the worst time to do it.
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Hello and welcome to the get clean, eat clean podcast. I'm Brian grin, and I'm here to give you actionable tips to get your body back to what it once was five, 10, even 15 years ago. Each week. I'll give you an in-depth interview with a health expert from around the world to cut through the fluff and get you long-term sustainable results. This week I interviewed fasting method, coach Larry diamond. He successfully lost 120 pounds and has reversed his metabolic syndrome and sleep apnea through intermittent fasting and a real whole food diet. We discussed his health journey is small steps that make a huge difference. How to overcome being hungry all the time.
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The importance of not snacking, the power of fasting and his one tip to get your body back to what it once was. So I really enjoyed this interview with Larry diamond. He coaches others through the fasting method and his experience. There's a lot to learn from it. So enjoy this episode and thanks so much for listening. All right. Welcome to the get lean eat clean podcast. My name is Brian grin and I have a special guest Larry diamond on welcome to the show. Larry,
1 (2m 1s):
Thank you, Brian. Pleasure to be here. Happy 20, 21 to you and your audience.
0 (2m 6s):
Yes, 2021. We have a lot to talk about today. I know my audience. I talk quite a bit about keto intermittent fasting. We're going to talk about all that today, but before we get into that preps, tell the audience maybe your story and your journey. I know you have quite a, quite a health journey to share.
1 (2m 26s):
Yeah, so my health journey started in 2013. My uncle, who was my father figure, growing up had gotten advanced Alzheimer's and we had become on unbeknownst to us. He was living alone. I was as close as family. We were trying to get him to move into our home when he retired, he refused and he kinda hit it. So it, at late 2012 there, we had to take them in. It, it, it had progressed really far at that time.
1 (3m 11s):
I was around 200 9,300 pounds. I'm five, nine. I have been even larger than that in the path. So for over two decades, I have been between three 50 or over three 50 row, two 70. And so my uncle's journey, what had happened and to see such a brilliant kind man suffering with Alzheimer's. And we had talked about him having a great time with us. And the other thing going on in 2013 was we had a newly adopted doctor.
1 (3m 55s):
So we were able to adopt her in 2011. So when my uncle came to us with this condition, she had been part of our family before that for six months, but it was about a year after the adoption. And I was 47 at the time about the turn 48. And I was really questioning, I didn't let my wife know my full concerns, but I was questioning if I would make 50. And along with the morbid obesity, there was sleep apnea, severe IBS, brain fog, very low energy anxiety.
1 (4m 41s):
Jeff's a whole problems breathing, just a whole slew of health conditions. And one, I remember this very clearly and we can talk about it. I, I do have a background. I started chemical engineering, did not get a degree in chemical engineering then went to molecular biology, ended up getting degrees in geography, but within geography, I was focused on Africa, cultural agriculture, because that's the quintessential human activity. And in a lot of ways that primed me for paleo and primal that aspect of my journey, because I was literally studying how our, yeah, use the environmental conditions and the resources that their particular ecological biological setting provided for them to thrive and become healthy.
1 (5m 42s):
So I had that background, but I remember in 2013, really kind of this thought went through my head. What if his Alzheimer's is a form of diabetes? Because his mom, my grandmother in the early seventies was when it was much less common did pass from type two after having her leg amputated. That was one of them, my earliest memories visiting her in the hospital. So in a way, a subcontext of my entire life had been what's going on with my family and protect color. And also my wife's family that I met right into.
1 (6m 22s)
Why are so many people suffering from what I come came to know is insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome are hyperinsulinemia. I don't know if these thoughts were going through my head for years or decades, but I have the thought, what if, what if that's the carbs? So when I reached what I call my go time, other people call it, finding your why high motivation. I started May 1st. I know a lot of people start January 1st, but what's important is when you reach this go time, I was so thankful. Perfect. The first time I call it ready, fire aim.
1 (7m 7s):
You know, a lot of times we just accept. What's told to us, even though in our own lives, it failed over and over. And our spouse's lives that the move more eat, less, all calories are equal. We still kind of do that. So what I did was pull back and do a ready aim fire. So the aiming part was actually, I was fortunate to have this science background geography, molecular biology. That's a really cool combo. So well, I went to the internet and I use social media. And it's why I'm so appreciative that people like you pay it forward and share.
1 (7m 52s):
Because how I really started healing was with finding a community. I found somebody named Sam Feltham who had a smashed the fat podcast at that time. And he's now the director of the public health, collaborative collaboration in the UK, an amazing in grassroots organization and people should check out his website. I found people like Peter at TIAA telling me about ancil keys and how there wasn't any really compelling evidence that fats, especially natural fats were something to be concerned about. Also professor Tim Noakes and South Africa, they went on an intellectual change journey.
1 (8m 37s):
So I found this wonderful community and I made this key point that I wasn't going to accept any thing that I had heard about what is, or isn't healthy. What is right as in a healthy food. And I was gonna really ask why and really think through things and come to my own conclusions. So that's how everything began.
0 (9m 3s):
Wow. Yeah. So, so it began, so 2013, you sort of hit a wall, I would say, or you, you know, you had an epiphany that whatever these guidelines that were given out are wrong and you did your own research, which nowadays there's a ton of information out there, right. On the web more and more. And what, what was sort of your first step? You said you started in may, was it may of 2013?
1 (9m 28s):
Yeah. My first step was well, so there was some small, but very actionable steps that I did at home that were really empowering and set the stage. So that was the pantry makeover. So I remember, and even though my wife had not reached her go time, she's such a supportive partner. So, you know, I had this thought, what if it is the carbs? And then there was another intellectual thought I had Y and people that have never been, Oh, I'm morbidly obese.
1 (10m 10s):
And I understand both the lived aspect of it and the science of it. Now we are always, always hungry. That's what people that have never become truly hyperinsulinemic high insulin levels and blood sugar swings throughout the day. We, we have no access to our own body fat. We, we get hungry every time. Our, our blood glucose and hypoglycemia, it's our brain running low on energy. It can't use fat. It can produce ketones. At that point. It's literally signaling to us throughout the day because of the state that we've come in to eat.
1 (10m 53s):
So it's this carb rollercoaster kind of vicious cycle. And so I was like, one of my breakthroughs along with maybe it is the carbs was my wife actually said, you're an emotional eater, I think. And I, and I said, you know, it, there's certainly so much emotion and tied up with everything going on. But as I said, I'm just hungry all the time. And it felt like a physical hunger. So I actually went to the internet and I realized this was great. I realized that not all foods made me equally hungry and it didn't seem to be correlated with calories because I put in kind of, I would have fast food, probably three, four or five times a week.
1 (11m 46s):
I put in the calories to one of their websites. And it was well over 2000, maybe in one meal, but I could be hungry two hours later. Why is this happening? It didn't feel like emotional. I simply felt physically hungry. So those were, and sadly, when you think about it, the conventional expert explanation for a lot of the rise in obesity eventually does come down to gluttony and slot. But what I, what I went beyond was trying to think of hunger at the biological underpinnings of hunger.
1 (12m 33s):
I didn't know that was where my journey was taking me, but I had this lived experience. Why can I not burn my own body fat? I have obviously have, at that time in 2013, I was 290 pounds at five nine. So it's a, it's a really profound question. Why can't morbidly. It is maybe the question why can't morbidly obese. People burn their own body fat throughout the day, a little bit each and every day and go a long time without eating, by burning their own body fat. Why? Sorry.
0 (13m 12s):
Well, yeah. And you talked about your pantry make-over Oh, sorry. I, I L I liked that. I always, you know, talk about it, you know, if you don't buy foods that you won't eat them, right. I'm curious to know what your, how your pantry makeover came about and what did, what did you change?
1 (13m 31s):
So I remember, I don't know, again, maybe these things were percolating underneath, but, and we can talk about this. I realized that the newer seed oils that are very, very high in something called polyunsaturated fatty acids or insects were not healthy. So as part of the over, I remember we had a bottle, I'll just say of some type of vegetable oil. It really doesn't matter if it was corn canola. So I, whatever it was. But I remember doing a little dance, kind of taking it from the pantry, kind of walking over to Anne and dunking it.
1 (14m 17s):
And it was so empowering and these things are so cheap. So I maybe threw away two or $3 worth of seed oils, but it was so empowering to do that. And I also told my wife and she was supportive. I said, I'm never buying bread and pasta ever again. So any bread or pasta I was there also got dunked into the trash can. I know it's a slightly wasteful, but you know, that, that food was creating so many health problems. And my wife went with that as when she was in our, in our home also for me, candy ice cream and potato chips, because I definitely had a snacking and eating up almost to the time of going to sleep habit.
0 (15m 9s):
Yeah, no, I mean that right there can make like a huge difference. Maybe talk about like the emotional, mental part of it. I had drew Manning on he's that fit fat fit guy. And, you know, he's gone from obviously being 70, 75 pounds overweight and, and brought it back. That was a years past, and he's done it again, you know, I always going back to, to getting fit, but he talked a lot about that. The mental, emotional part, w was that the most difficult part for you or what, what sort of, you know, help, help make you make it easier for you?
1 (15m 47s):
Yeah. And I'm a big fan of Drew's and people should definitely check it out because he intentionally gained 70 pounds to get a better understanding of some of the issues, the emotional and the lived experience of his clients. Cause he had adopted being really into fitness for his youth. And so he wanted to understand his, his clients better. I think for me, the biggest thing was that I had always accepted this phrase, but I could never do it.
1 (16m 31s):
Just eat real food. I, I, I understood that food was, well, I don't want to overstate it, but I did reach a point where I understood the food choices were well beyond, you know, brain fog and low energy and the obesity and how I appear to other people. They were endangering my life. So there is almost a kind of learned helplessness that you want to make this change. And I've, it's so common and it's so common for people that are exceptional in their careers are able to raise.
1 (17m 13s):
Kids are able to be involved in community service, do all these amazing day in and day out things, but they, they can't get control over their eating habits. And for me, I needed kind of these small habit changes when I was the most motivated. The first couple of weeks did involve willpower. It's what I tell a lot of my clients. It's the fake it until you make it state, I didn't know this was going to happen just, but what I found was after two or three weeks of really kind of being intentional and also I didn't care about fat loss at the beginning, I didn't care about weight loss.
1 (18m 3s):
And I only, I only lost two pounds. My first month. I knew intuitively that success hinged on overcoming constant hunger. And I was like, let me try, let me try this a different way with changing, not the amount of foods I eat, but what I eat. And if I was becoming aware of blood sugar swings and hyper glycemia, and I know a lot more now the biology of hunger and also that natural fats are healthy and people were proposing that low carb, high, healthy fat had a hunger advantage that, and so I was intentional the first two or three weeks, and especially the first two or three days that metabolic switch over.
1 (18m 55s):
I did have some, I did feel worse and even loopy because my body cannot produce ketones or run on free fatty acids. So my brain did have an energy deficit. So I want to make people aware of that magnesium and salt can help, but there you're literally retooling your metabolism to switch from burning glucose every day to switch for burning your either plate fat or your own body fat, which is exactly what we want. And body fat is like a gigantic log. So it makes as we're going to probably talk about not snacking, it's like a clean burning.
1 (19m 38s):
It's great for mitochondria. So you get that. You don't produce as many reactive oxygen species, but on a, on a more practical lived experience, you're able to not have food control your life anymore. So it did involve a willingness to go for it for understanding the science, but the great thing, Brian was on like any other thing after two or three weeks, the hunger went down. So it kept getting progressively easier. Whereas every attempt before I would get more and more hungry with starvation mode.
1 (20m 19s):
So was it white knuckling? Not really because I love, and this is another great aspect to, to share with your audience food snack.me healthy. I'd always loved that a kid. I think they're they're foods that humans resonate with. In fact, it's almost a luxurious or rich diet, you know, meat and veg with lots of butter, all of oil. So it, the great thing was the feed that healed me is the food that I continue to love now, seven years later. So it wasn't this, you know, rice cakes and, and, you know, bean curd or whatever, you know, non pleasurable diet.
1 (21m 10s):
And I, I think that's a breakthrough. I think humans have a fat tooth. So once we understand the science that natural fats are healthy, we can then switch over to a diet that is satiating, that reduces insulin, that takes us to become fat burning. And it's the diet that both heals us. And it's our maintenance diet, which is awesome. That's like the gold standard.
0 (21m 40s):
Yeah, no, that is great. And yeah, I know you talk all about, you know, hunger controlling hunger. I mean, that's so key. What I know you mentioned magnesium, you know, some people are, are, you know, might need to up their salt intake to help control hunger. What other tips do you have that you use to help sort of, you know, control your hunger and obviously, you know, eating, like you mentioned healthy fats and things like that was a big piece to it, but what other things did you do to help with hunger?
1 (22m 10s):
Yeah, no, that it's a process. Hydration has also important. A lot of times people we can be getting feeling hungry and it's actually a low hydration because food has a lot of water in it. So remember to be hydrated also, I think the best thing, and we were telling everyone in our circle, you know, we'll talk more about intermittent fasting, but a good first step is to find breakfast that you like that have very, very low amounts of carbs that are protein and fat. And just start with that one meal that that'll, that'll make such a difference because our bodies overnight replenish our blood glucose, which is why when you go to a doctor and actually when you have insulin resistance, you can even have John phenomenon.
1 (23m 8s):
So you're already have all the blood glucose that you possibly need often too much when you wake up. So adding any carbs at breakfast is just, just the worst time to do it. And, and so start with like bacon and eggs. It doesn't have to be bacon and eggs. It could be eggs and avocado. Maybe a, a little tomato could be leftover. I like warming up. Like if I cook the roast, you know, some, some meat and an omelet, so kind of a steak omelet in the morning, but just start with that one change.
1 (23m 54s):
And what you'll be doing for your body is you won't have that low sugar, which prompts even anyone to start looking around their work environment or their home environment for a quick energy. So we want to avoid that by, by the first step would be to have a breakfast as low carb with some nice protein and healthy fats in it. And eight momentum.
0 (24m 25s):
Yeah. I like, I like that tip that first meal or whenever it is, right. Whenever it is like people start breakfast, I'll have a muffin. Like that's like, you know, a blueberry muffin, right? Like that's not a great way to start the day per se, like you said, because excuse me, you're going to get, start on that sort of insulin rollercoaster, that blood sugar roller coaster that's going to affect the rest of your day. Perhaps. I know. We'll talk about fasting. How did you start implementing fasting? Was it something you did right away? I know, obviously you, you, you changed, you know, you cleaned out your pantry. When did you start implementing fasting?
1 (25m 6s):
Yeah. So what was interesting was that method of, so I mentioned not being hungry after the two or three weeks, so I'm, I wasn't measuring blood glucose at the time, but I felt like I was no longer on that roller coaster that you just, you just described
0 (25m 31s):
And that took you about an hour. And that took you about like a month maybe to get, to get that honed in, give or take.
1 (25m 37s):
Yeah. So I was up to that time. I was having three meals a day and this is so critical. So in, in our fasting method program, we take people on all kinds of different protocols and we've found something called alternate day. Fasting is an excellent protocol, but the kind of hallmark solid base that is for advanced fasters for Dr. Fon or Megan Ramos are present in herself to me or my wife, who've now done this for seven years is not snacking, not snacking.
1 (26m 19s):
That is really the hallmark. And especially Dr. Fung has talked about this up until like the seventies or even early eighties, that average amount of times eating was three a day. And then now it's become six, eight, 10, and as much as sugar and seed oils and flowers and ultra processed foods are culpable. And in obesity code and diabetes, Cody talks about this. It's not only using insulin, but it's how frequently any of us trigger insulin throughout the day.
1 (27m 2s):
Then we become resistant. Our body literally stops listening to it. I heard somebody named Shawn Stevenson R talk about, think of it as a direct message. Four moons are messengers. They send singles they're communication AIDS for our, our body to work well when you snack, all of a sudden insulin signaling starts going to the spam folder. Isn't that empowering. It starts going to the spam folder, body no longer listens to insulin. It becomes insulin resistant. So long story short, I, I chest somewhere about three weeks, a month, five weeks.
1 (27m 43s):
I just started organically without even knowing the term time-restricted eating or intermittent fasting, not having breakfast. So that's how it started. And sometimes as my fat burning ramped up and my metabolic healing, my inflammation went down. So a hormone called leptin, my body could then sense all the extra fat I had. And what's so cool about this. I think my metabolic rate even went up, even though I wasn't eating as much because leptin kind of controls metabolic rates. So then a lot of times I would just not really forget, but just not be hungry at work.
1 (28m 27s):
So I had some one meal a day. So it was, it was not intentional. It was a result of all this hormonal and metabolic healing and yeah, it was pretty awesome. It just happened kind of organically.
0 (28m 42s):
Yeah. That's, that's great. I mean, you know, you got up to what, like almost 300 pounds, right. And it probably took you your whole life to get to that point, right? Like, yeah,
1 (28m 52s):
I, yeah, I, I that's much, but in the, my late 20, I think there might have been some closure and, and, or reactions to some pharmaceuticals. Cause I, I never really wanted to, to blame this, but I was always Husky I'm 55. So it, it, it was called Husky clothes. So, and again, with my grandmother getting type two and having her leg amputated in the 1970s, I think my family genetics, I very much love epigenetics epi above that, but so it means genes are not destiny genes are not destiny.
1 (29m 39s):
And I communicate that to our fasting members all the time, both the science and my lived, and my wife's lived example that genes are, are not our destiny whatsoever. So I think I'm prone even more so ironically than the average person to insulin resistance and obesity and type two with, you know, our, our heart rate, high carb, frequent snacking food culture. So I did get up to 350, like I mentioned, by around 27. So I certainly, but ironically I never developed type two and we don't have time to get into all, all the rabbit holes, but there is something that people might want to look up called personal fat threshold.
1 (30m 34s):
I wasn't healthy, but we, many of us have different abilities to put on subcutaneous fat. And that's very, very important for your audience because a lot of people can become type two, never being above 25 on the BMI. They can have double digit because they have less capacity to put excess energy or excess calories from the frequent snacking into subcutaneous fat so that the fat starts going into their Oregon's so forth and so on.
1 (31m 15s):
But yeah, I got really large, you know, I had a, what I would consider a very young age. So it, it now what Dr. Funding, once it happened, I think this is the key Brian, once it happened, then it kind of sets up a vicious cycle because I probably got fatty liver and fatty pancreas. So then when I might have a meal of even real food or eat like somebody who didn't have that fatty pancreas and fatty liver, my blood glucose would go up on theirs. So then what's so powerful about us.
1 (31m 59s):
Cause when people elves in this situation, fascinating, literally we call it therapeutic fasting. It can literally start reversing in really powerful ways. What we found is even people doing keto and real food, mindful of natural fats, just crushing it with keto, but still eating four or five, six times a day. Can't read it each their goals because they really need to add the fasting to give their bodies an opportunity to get that additional fat burning within organs.
1 (32m 40s):
That's why it's so powerful what we do.
0 (32m 43s):
Yeah. Yeah. And fasting such a powerful method. And I like to think of it as almost just like a tool in the tool box. You know, people I think at, I think people fear fasting, they think like, it's almost like they're going to starve themselves. How do you explain it to your clients when for, to someone that's never done fasting before?
1 (33m 5s):
Sure. One of the best ways and the most illuminating is what we call riding the hunger wave. And there's been a lot of science. So, and I was this way too. We are, our bodies are so, so adaptable, which is, can kind of go the wrong way, but then knowing that it can go the right way and they quickly adapt to new habits like becoming fat adapted Mark Sisson, who I love. And I'm a primal certified health coach, you know, really does talk. I mentioned the three weeks, you know, the three weeks of consistency, really, we become different at the metabolic level.
1 (33m 51s):
So it's, you people will, will experience hunger, especially if they've never fast. But what they've never experienced is by having this and 10 being motivated, it's like shocking to them that if they're able to have some water, have some salt and we do recommend one and a half teaspoons as a good starting point, that's around 3,200 milligrams taken throughout the day. People take it in various ways. And we, we literally recommend real salt, which is Redmond real salt or Himalayan salt, a good natural form of salt.
1 (34m 34s):
You know, sea salts have all these micronutrients and there believe it or not, there can be ultra processed salt and have all kinds of additives and caking agents. You couldn't stay away from those, but it's called riding the hunger wave. And once people can get to like 30 minutes or an hour, the hunger goes away. It goes away. Especially, especially if they can combine that with the protein and fact breakfast. Yeah. That's, that's the, because almost everyone thinks won't sink.
1 (35m 15s):
It gets that they'll get an hungrier. So it makes logical sense that quote unquote, they can't do fasting or it would be super painful or not. So it's those riding, the hunger waves, which is a skill like anything else. And, and what can be helpful. I've is again, starting with the three meals and, and really focusing for the first few weeks on, not snacking. Say my fasting. I also think people go backwards. If they try like a three-day fast off the bat, it's really painful. It would be akin to somebody wanting to do cardio who had never run doing a five or 10 K I've done five Ks.
1 (36m 4s):
But I built my self up to that. If I went from not running to a 5k, my legs would not, even if I could mentally tough it out, I would be so sore. I would never want to run again. If you do a three day fast and you're, you just feel miserable and your body can't burn its own body fat and your brain's screaming and you're not properly, you don't have the electrolytes and you just feel, then you may never fast again. So you do not want to do that. You want to be aware, you want to get a good, if it's our group, I love the fastening method, but you want to get some great, great knowledge on how to do fasting well, and to build up your fasting muscle.
0 (36m 50s):
Yeah. I love how you, how you say that, like your fasting muscle. I like to, cause I coach some people through fasting is, and I have a journal and in the journal, what we'll do is, and I like to start, like, I think, you know, you can take it, take it in steps of, you know, maybe first, like you said, clean out the pantry take, you know, try to just focus on whole foods then from there, you know, perhaps go to three meals a day. If you were doing five or six as a next step. And then once you get that down, then perhaps maybe push back your breakfast. I like to maybe, right. So maybe if you're used to eating at seven, eight in the morning, just push it back an hour and maybe do that for a week or a few days until like, but like, you know, going to your point, like you said, like it starting out with a three-day fast is probably going to set you up for failure and you're better off sort of easing into the whole fasting process.
0 (37m 46s):
And then once you get the hang of it, cause I was the same way. I, I never fasted my whole life and then I got into it. And I remember when I first started doing it, I'm a big golfer. I was like, Oh, you know, I'm not going to eat going into this golf round. And I played, I think it was maybe like a mid morning round. And then I realized on the course, that was probably not the smartest idea. My body was just not, not ready for it. And yeah, I just was, I had major hunger pains cause I, you know, I think that, so yeah, I think the key, like you mentioned is ease into it and yeah. And then the results of, you know, you'll be able to do it for a longer period of time down the road.
1 (38m 27s):
And we also talk a lot about mindset and this is so, so powerful and that we, we term fascinating days or the times when we're, we're fascinating as healing times. And then combining that with real food that is really that we handle well as kind of healthy rebuilding times. So think about how powerful that would be to have both of these habits. So literally every day you're either healing or rebuilding healthily. So then that's just going to an, even if there's a fraction of 1% healing and rebuilding, well each day with 30 days, right.
1 (39m 18s):
You know, and then 365 days, the results will be astounding and something that you mentioned, we also make our members aware and why not? Snacking is so powerful. Three mails plus three snacks essentially to the body, that's six meals. And, and then the other thing that we talk about, cause a lot of people I'm listening to your podcast and wanting to go on a health journey and we call it taking control of our health. We'll hear terms like 16, eight or 18 six. And it's important when, so when people are able to do the two meals, let's say and push that back, the first meal, the breath that going back to the original word, breakfast break fast.
1 (40m 10s):
So whenever that happens to be that you eat in two eating windows, maybe 90 minutes to start, and then 60 minutes that you're mindful and present with your meal, but maybe eat from 11 to 12 and then five to six, but not throughout the eating window. So then insulin is only use two times a day and you can look, you can look at graphs and with a low carb or keto, healthy, fat, not much insulin is used. There's not much blood glucose swing. So and so on will go up. Then it'll go down. Then it'll go up a little bit and then beautifully, it'll go really low, low enough to set up a actual like policy or fat burning in that 18 hours of not eating.
1 (41m 1s):
So every day you're burning a little bit of your own body fat every day for calories, for satiation. And again, think about burning, even if it's a little bit, but compounding like compounding interests, we all know that can pay big dividends, literally same way for fat loss and regaining your health.
0 (41m 25s):
Yeah. And what's your, I guess I'm curious now, so now you're into, you know, your coach at the fasting method, health coach and you're coaching others and you you've had this great weight loss journey. What's your routine now? What does it look like now? And I'm sure it changes, you know, throughout the, you know, depending on the day or, but I'm curious to know what you do now
1 (41m 49s):
And yes, absolutely. And let me just for my clients, because I did mention this and our website is the fasting method.com. I mentioned something called alternate day fasting. And this is when people get really good at those 18 hour and sometimes 24 hours, or maybe they get really busy and, and they go overnight. And that going overnight is so powerful because I talked about Oregon fat. It gives the body an additional opportunity. We talked about it as a tool. The body will go, aha. I really depleted liver glycogen.
1 (42m 29s):
I'm producing ketones and people love their brains on ketones. Ketones will go preferentially to the brains and something that people love is what we continue. So I'm reading this book called tiny habits by BJ Fogg and really habits stick when they're emotionally satisfying. So, you know, people feel great with the method we do. So just briefly alternate day fasting can be very, very powerful, especially if people haven't quite gotten where they want to with real food, primal, paleo, low carb keto version and exercise, it would be three 30, six or 42 hour fast.
1 (43m 15s):
Most people will have. So 42 hour fast, we'd be going from dinner, say Sunday, not eating Monday to lunch on Tuesday. So most people have ended up having two meals on Saturday and Sunday, so they can participate in family and you know, social outings. Then they won't eat Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. And they'll have two meals on Tuesday and Thursday and that can simplify work week so much. You only have to really can plan for eat, you know, cook. However you want to do it four times during the traditional work week, it can really provide benefits.
1 (43m 60s):
What it looks like now, for me as a, a lot of 18 sex, some one meal a day days. I do like we're recording this on a Monday. I like to think of Monday as I got this term from Mike Mutzel, but metabolic Monday. So Monday's usually, always at least a one meal a day day, and probably every other week to every third week, it's at least a 42 hour. So I like, and then I like once a quarter to have a three-day fast and once a year to have a five day fast.
1 (44m 41s):
So that's, that's what things look like now.
0 (44m 44s):
Yeah, no, I like that. And I mean, obviously you've been doing this for awhile, so, you know, like you said, your, your fasting muscle is strong and I go, I like to do the same thing. I do do some extended fasts. I haven't done a three or five day. What is, what is that like? I'm curious to how you do a five day fast once a once a year. How does that look?
1 (45m 9s):
It's, it's really interesting. So I will, you know, it's funny cause Dr. Fung and Megan, we, we really focus on effectiveness and N one and what's best for the, for the person. So one, one thing to be mindful of is we live in a very toxic environment and this is a good thing, but it can, I've experienced my wife and my clients have as well. You will, because fasting is so powerful for light policies or fat burning. It can release some of the toxins that were stored in our body.
1 (45m 51s):
So then we need to get those toxins into ourselves and out of ourselves, this could be a whole hour itself, but things like sauna can help things like really well-researched safe binders done correctly. I don't have time to, but something like activated charcoal can help, but I like to support my liver. I, so I often do extended fasting as bone broth fats. So either high quality store bought bone broth or when we've made our own, maybe one to three cups, you know, there's lots of nutrients.
1 (46m 32s):
It's a great way to make sure I get all my salt, but then broth and salt go together. So well,
0 (46m 41s):
Yeah, I'm sorry. So you'll have one to three cups of bone broth during those extended fasts. Is that right?
1 (46m 46s):
I will. I will. I'll high quality bone broth. And I measure, I think again, our body is on our side. You know, my key tones after that, that first night. So into the second day, they're usually above two and then my, my blood glucose will stay right around 80. You know, my ketones will be usually on the subsequent days, you know, three or four and just I'm producing ketones, my blood glucose. And the, the amazing thing is that you can also get euphoria and a lot of our clients, some clients, it depends on the, they, they, they do more, three-day fast as their protocol or even five day fast.
1 (47m 36s):
And the alternate day fasting because they find, especially on day three, four and five, they're the least hungry. Ironically days three, four, and five become the easiest and they get that mental clarity. I've had clients tell me that they've solved decades, long work problems like engineers B and it's well-known throughout history. This kind of incredible clarity. It's, it's probably because more, more fuel is being supplied to the brain on ketones. And it's such a great fuel for our brains.
1 (48m 19s):
Our, you know, our brains and bodies just love that. And, you know, I mentioned my blood glucose being steady. So humans have always had a fast throughout history out of necessity. So it's the ultimate, not fad diet, the whole human history that we've even eaten three meals a day has been the last hundred years. The only time we've eaten more than three meals a day has been since the 1980s and, and that hasn't worked out well. So I want people to be aware of that. Fasting is not the fad. That's why we can supply all the glucose we need from our own bodies, protein and fat triglyceride.
1 (49m 11s):
It has a glycerol background or backbone or stored fat. Our bodies can convert that. So people don't have to worry, especially as they build up their fasting muscle. So, you know, we talked about it not being comfortable off the bat, but lots of people end up really enjoying the three and five days. Yeah, yeah. So there's no wrong way to do it. If, if you know, you want to do it with bone broth and I didn't complete that thought, but bone broth is very supportive of the lever. So I, I feel like on longer, fast I'm detoxing more because I tend to lose, I regained about 50% of this.
1 (49m 57s):
Maybe sometimes 60%, but on the longer fast, I tend to lose like two pounds on the scale. So I'll be losing, you know, 10 pounds in a five day fast. That's a lot of fat burning, so I want to support. So I'll take saunas as well. You know, you want to be mindful with saunas that you also build up your S your fasting or sauna muscle, but yeah. So it can feel really good. It can feel really good. Yeah. If you want to try one, I would definitely suggest doing it with bone broth and being mindful that you may be experiencing some, not because it isn't working, but because it is working and maybe some toxins that were stored in that deeper fat that you're getting to in a longer, fast, you know, you, you want to be mindful of addressing those toxins in a, in an actionable way.
0 (50m 54s):
Yeah. And a quality bone broth, I mean, is the main reason you do that for the, mainly for the minerals, the electrolytes, just to the hydration of it.
1 (51m 6s):
Those that's a great, yes. The, and it's got a lot of nutrients with, certainly not. It doesn't interrupt my fat burning at all. It may, may or may not interrupt Tophat G for a little bit, and it helps extend fast. And it's, even though I'm used to it, it, I, since I only do a five day, I'm used to shorter fasting once a year, it can even help, you know, with some of that, that hunger, especially on day two, sometimes day two is a little tricky for me.
1 (51m 46s):
So it has multiple impacts.
0 (51m 48s):
Yeah. And we won't go into autophagy magic. She, I just did a podcast on how, how, if coffee affects the , what are your thoughts around black coffee?
1 (52m 0s):
So one of the people we work with Dr. Nadeer Ali, N a D I R and a L I a it, so we talk a lot in the fasting method, and I'm sure you do with your clients and equals one. And it's part of the kind of cool puzzle solving, being a health coach and enlisting the other person on really observing their responses and so forth and so on. So it depends because some people may be having cortisol issues and, and coffee might backfire, but from, so it, but from an audit phages standpoint, it does seem to actually black coffee, B pro autophagic.
1 (52m 54s):
And so does green and, and black tea. Yes. And then they're also cinnamon seems to be pro autophagic. I'm a fan of Salen cinnamon because it's safer. It doesn't have that Saigon cinnamon. You can, you can't have that much of it. So cinnamon potentially tumeric as well. So yeah, that, it's really, it's really cool.
0 (53m 27s):
Yeah. And I, I say, you know, black coffee, it's one of those things. It can help you perhaps get through the fast and, and if it does then, then go for it. I wouldn't put a ton of sugar creamer and stuff like that. I mean, I know people like to do, we won't get into it, but you know, the Bulletproof coffees and things like that. And I know we're running up on time. I'll just ask you this, Larry, what would be, I know we've talked about a bunch of different things, but what would be maybe one tip you'd give someone who wanted to just get, get their body back to what it once was, you know, maybe five, 10, 15 years ago. And you know, let's say they're in their middle-aged.
1 (54m 4s):
Yeah. I think to, I would, I would kind of say mindset to, to think of it as an adventure to embrace it, to think of it as what we're talking about as kind of a, a celebration of what life can be, what you can be connect with as many why's for making these habit changes, as you can do mine wasn't particularly the mayor. There's nothing wrong with it being the mirror, but it could be my big one was not wanting to be hungry all the time.
1 (54m 46s):
So ironically, I most people expect the dye to make them hungrier, but we talked about some of the biology of hunger. So I connected my journey with a sense of better quality of life and actually freedom. And also that when we do it sounds like you're a very accomplished health coach. Things, things get easier, not harder. So it's not like you will not in folks' starvation mode, you'll be getting less and less hungry. You'll start enjoying food more, believe it or not, because you'll start enjoying umami and savory and better, your sweet tooth will adjust.
1 (55m 37s):
So all of a sudden, 85, 90, 95% chocolate will become enjoyable and you'll be able to sustain this. I'm sure you're all about this. Not a short-term plan at all, but giving people the real science and, and changes and support to make this a lifestyle and enjoyable lifestyle for the rest of their life. So yeah. Think of it that way. Don't think of it. Think of it as a way of eating and way of living change, not as a diet and that, and that it's a gift. It's not a restriction or, or it's something taken with a sense of joy and adventure and impossibility.
0 (56m 29s):
Yeah. Well said, well said, no, no need to elaborate on that. Well, this is great. We're the best place. I know the fasting method.com right. To find you. Yeah. Yeah.
1 (56m 41s):
And it's so great. We have do it yourself options and a one week trial on that with incredible resources and support. And then there's also a tab for coaching and all of the coaches, including me. So that's for people that want to have one-on-one sessions with a coach and an includes two visits that the packages with two wonderful doctors. So it can really help people that, you know, are maybe more busy. And, but then there's also that quote, unquote, do it yourself option. They can email me at any time. It's Larry with two RS, L a R R y@thefasteningmethod.com.
1 (57m 25s):
I'm on Twitter at nature, boy, R R and Instagram nature. Boy, our R and our websites just wonderful. And just to let people know, there's one website when you aren't a member, and then if you choose to become a member, you can trial it in that one week trial. All of a sudden you get these member only message boards, regular questions, and answers with Dr. Fung and Megan Ramos entire courses. Yeah. It's just a whole different site when you become a member.
0 (58m 1s):
Yeah. And it's great support community. I think that's all important when you're trying to, you know, go on your health journey and well, Larry I'll, I'll definitely put all the links in the show notes so people can find you. And this was great. We probably could have talked for another hour, but thanks so much for coming on.
1 (58m 20s):
Thank you for the opportunity. And thank you for helping folks. It's, you know, it almost feels guilty at times, doesn't it? Because it's so, so much fun helping people, but it's win-win, which is, you know, I think society needs a lot more win-win scenarios.
0 (58m 42s):
I agree. I agree. Well, thanks so much, Larry. Great.
1 (58m 45s):
Thank you. How about have a great 20, 21 yourself and your loved ones and everyone out there.
0 (58m 53s):
Thanks for listening to the get lean, eat clean podcast. I understand there are millions of other podcasts out there and you've chosen to listen to mine. And I appreciate that. Check out the show notes@briangrin.com for everything that was mentioned in this episode, feel free to subscribe to the podcast and share it with a friend or family member. That's looking to get their body back to what it once was. Thanks again, and have a great day.
