Speaker 1: 0:00

I think that's really important for women to hear, especially if you have women in their late 30s listening like this. You are not, you're not exempt from this information here. It's still relevant. And not to mention that a lot of things start tapering down, including our ability to maintain muscle, etc. From the age of 30.

Speaker 1: 0:18

So what is happening when these reproductive hormones go down is that, well, they're not just reproductive hormones. They are connected to so many other processes in our body, including the ability to support a healthy metabolism, the ability to funnel sugar into our cells so that they can use them instead of just wreaking havoc in our blood system, the ability for us to hold on and maintain muscle and build muscle. And, unfortunately, because estrogen especially is so tied to these things and it is starting to decline, what you might notice is, even if you're doing the same nutrition, the same workout that you were doing, you know before you started to see this decline in these hormones that you were doing. You know before you started to see this decline in these hormones, it won't have the same impact.

Speaker 2: 1:08

Welcome to Tried and True with a Dash of Woo, where we blend rock solid tips with a little bit of magic. I'm Renee Bowen, your host, life and business coach and professional photographer at your service. We are all about getting creative, diving into your business and playing with manifestation over here. So are you ready to get inspired and have some fun? Let's dive in. Hey, welcome back to Tried and True with the Dash of Woo. I am your host, renee Bowen.

Speaker 2: 1:36

Thanks for being here, and today I have another Renee on the show, so it's Renee squared. I never meet another Renee and she was saying the same thing, which is really funny. So we are going to be talking about something really cool today, which I have not talked about on the show yet, but I'm really interested in it just in general. And it's fasting, mimicking diets, especially in peri and postmenopause, but just in general, especially in peri and postmenopause, but just in general. We go into a lot of the benefits because Renee is the leader in that field. She's actually the director of education and healthcare sales at Prolon, and so she helps shape the sales strategies there and equips healthcare practitioners with cutting edge insights into nutrition and longevity. So she's really into evidence-based practices and nutritional science, and she's a trusted authority in that field. I love that. She's also dedicated to advancing this role of nutrition in revolutionizing healthcare, so blending scientific rigor with a compassionate approach to wellness.

Speaker 2: 2:42

So we really get into the nitty gritty about wellness from the inside out, like really thinking about yes, the scientific aspects of fasting, mimicking diets, first of all, what that even is, because I wasn't 100% sure what that was. I'm not super like, well versed in that world and it's different than what I thought it was. And I got to tell you I'm not super well-versed in that world and it's different than what I thought it was. And I got to tell you I'm kind of sold on it. Now I was always like no, no, no, no, no, I don't think I can do it, but after talking with her, I think I actually might want to give this a shot. I think that there's a lot of well, there's definitely a lot of health benefits and there's a lot of science behind it. But a lot of health benefits and there's a lot of science behind it.

Speaker 2: 3:32

But it's not just about weight loss, like. This is not like a weight loss show. I want to just make sure I preface this episode with that, because it's not about that, right, like I'm very much into, like you do you? This is not about like I have to be thinner, I have to be. No, it's about feeling good.

Speaker 2: 3:41

Okay, I talk about that a lot. I talk a lot about how important it is to feel good from the inside out and that we are attached to a body. A lot of us tend to kind of live in our heads and just go about the motions, and it's really important to remember that we have this body and if we don't take care of it, it is going to break down. Those of you guys who are in my age group in our early to mid-50s you start paying attention to things that you haven't paid attention to before, because you kind of don't have a choice. So maybe, if you are in your 20s or 30s and listening to this, I can be a little helpful for you and be preemptive with that Because, like honestly, we have so much science now and so many advancements and we have so many things that help us on this journey to make it easier.

Speaker 2: 4:35

So our nutrition can be a lot easier than it used to be, and even those of us who have, like super busy lives like we can fit this in, and we talk a lot about that today in this episode. So we go into some of the hormonal stuff that happens. We talk a little bit about inflammation, insulin resistance and how all of that comes into play and a lot of the benefits to you know, fasting and making diets as well as different options for you. So you're going to love it. It is a very fun conversation and Renee is just delightful, so let's dive in. And Renee is just delightful, so let's just dive in. Hey, renee, thanks for being here. That feels so funny for me to say. I've never had another Renee on the show, but I'm excited to talk with you.

Speaker 1: 5:22

I am so excited to Renee and yeah, it is so strange to say your own name to somebody else, but I'm sure we'll get through this. But I hope the audience doesn't also get confused.

Speaker 2: 5:34

I know, right, that's so funny. I just I don't meet a lot of Renee's and it's not that common. So it's pretty exciting. But this topic that we're going to be covering today, so I have my own, I just have to let you know I have some of my own, like I don't know if the right word is like judgments, preconceived notions, let's say, about this topic, because I was always sort of like that person who was like no, fasting, no, absolutely not. I can't do it because I physically would feel really terrible when I tried to. But I want to open this dialogue about what you speak on a lot, which is these fasting mimicking diets and how they can support women, especially as they change through midlife or pre-midlife. So let's kind of just talk a little bit about what that is First of all, like. What is a fasting mimicking diet in the first place?

Speaker 1: 6:27

Yeah, absolutely. And first let me just say that I think it's incredible that you have tried fasting, even just water only, fasting yourself, and you've, you listen to your body and you recognize this is not working for me and I think that that's something that I honor all of the time. And I'm eager to hear more of these stories of women who try water-only fasting, realize it doesn't work for them, and that does happen more often than you might think. I think that's probably why a lot of people are hearing oh, fasting is bad for women.

Speaker 1: 7:02

Now, what I am talking about today it is kind of a spinoff from water-only fasting, known as a fasting mimicking diet.

Speaker 1: 7:13

It is the ability to get the benefits of water-only fasting, of which there are many, and that's why there's a lot of people. You know that tout water-only fasting, but you get to eat, and not just, you know, like a bone broth or a juice or something like that. I'm talking breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, even like a little dessert at the end of the day. So you're getting real food every day for a period of time and everybody does their fasting mimicking diets a little bit differently, but the most well-known is going to be about five days of this protocol and that's again because we're trying to tap into longer fasts, the benefits of five day, even over about three day fasting, which you can imagine, with water only, would be incredibly difficult and maybe even dangerous for many people. So the fasting mimicking diet, in short, is the ability to get the benefits of water only, fasting, but with food, and we'll talk a lot about why we would do it this way and how you get these benefits and what the benefits are and all those wonderful things.

Speaker 2: 8:17

Okay, very cool. Yeah, it's really interesting because a really good friend of mine she's, I think. Yeah, she's in her forties and she swears by fasting Like she can go. I think she's done like a seven day fast, water only, and I'm like, how are you alive? Like honestly, because, like for me, I have always had such blood sugar issues, I think or maybe it's related to some other things that I don't know about, but like it's really difficult for me, but she swears that you know it'll kick in, like after like two or three days. She's like I just have all of this energy. She works out, she goes to the gym. I feel like I would look like a sick Victorian child by day four, but I've never made it that long. So who's to say? My husband also loves to fast, but he's a guy and I know like a lot of the science has to do with that. So what do we know about all of this fasting stuff with women?

Speaker 1: 9:08

We actually know a lot. We know quite a bit in terms of fasting. We know quite a bit about fasting mimicking. Now there's over 40 clinical trials that have been published with fasting mimicking now.

Speaker 1: 9:20

Now, what we don't know is maybe where I want to start, because, yes, there is limited data that looks at water-only fasting in women alone, and certainly almost no, and in fact I want to say, none that looks at when to fast based off of your cycle, how to fast around your cycle, how to optimize fasting for women.

Speaker 1: 9:48

So that's something that is completely lacking and I think because that's lacking, a lot of people are like, well, if it doesn't exist, then it just must be automatically bad. But or because there's no specific to women, only research, then there's no way it works for women. But I think that what's important to recognize is that in a lot of the fasting and almost every single one of the fasting mimicking diet trials with the exception of maybe two one on prostate cancer and one on muscle strength specifically that was done only in men All of the other studies were done with men and women, and about 50%. So it doesn't mean that we have no research on women, it's just we don't have very good women-specific and women's health-specific research, so that's important to note. Now we also know that women are unique, and so we should have that data. So, yes, there's we're kind of balancing between those two things of what we know and what we don't know. But I think it's important to know that we're in this gray zone and not black and white one or the other.

Speaker 2: 10:55

Okay, yeah, good to know. So what does it actually look like then, this whole fasting with food? Because, like in my mind, you know, when I think about this, it's like, okay, we're talking like a 16 or 18 hour fast and and and. Does it have to be like you said? Obviously and I do want to kind of touch on at least a little bit of some of the hormonal things that go into this as well, with women, like you mentioned, kind of like cycles what does that actually look like? And is it like, is it different for everyone? Is this something that that someone can just sort of like pick up and then customize to themselves? Or like, are there certain things that you've seen work for most women?

Speaker 1: 11:39

Yes, well, so many questions. I was taking notes. I was like, okay, well, I want to touch on this and I want to touch on this. So, yes, first, you mentioned 16-hour fasting and I want to talk about that first. So yes, intermittent fasting is typically what we call. That is, 16, 18, even up to 48 hours of fasting is generally under that intermittent fasting bucket, and the reason why we separate intermittent fasting from prolonged fasting is because we have different benefits that you'll find in both camps.

Speaker 1: 12:13

Now, usually what you're seeing is that you get the benefits of that intermittent fasting plus more once you get to that prolonged fasting. So with intermittent fasting, we usually see metabolic benefits, meaning that our body will start burning fat for energy because it's run out of sugar for energy, because it'll always pick sugar first and then go to fat. So that can be helpful for weight loss, can be helpful for just your metabolic health, and so that's really where we see these benefits of everyday intermittent fasting, which I'll touch on some of the downsides of that too. But when we reach 48, 72 hours especially, we really start tapping into this deep cellular cleanup. This is where you get some benefits that you wouldn't get from short fast or really from pretty much any other nutrition intervention. It's where you kind of like really ramp up, pull the throttle on deep, deep cleanup. That allows your body to kind of behave in like a fully newly cleaned, younger version of itself. And when I talk about the body, I'm oftentimes talking about our cells, which really make up everything that we do. So we're seeing this deep, deep cellular cleanup known as autophagy, and we can sink our teeth into that a little bit more. But that's an important difference between 16-hour fasts versus these long, prolonged fasts and a big reason why the Fasting Mimicking Guide even came to exist, because trying to get two, three, four, five days of water only fasting Now already I think 16 and 18 is a lot you know like. Imagine 72 and plus. So that's why the fasting mimicking diet becomes especially important, because once we get to those longer fasts, not only is it harder, but there's safety concerns and things like that. Hunger fast. Not only is it harder, but there's safety concerns and things like that.

Speaker 1: 14:08

Okay, but even with everyday 16, 18-hour fasting, one meal a day, what we also see is that it is a stress to our body. That's actually part of the benefit of fasting is that it's a stress to the body. But also, too much of a good thing is a bad thing. And if we're constantly stressing our body every day, which is what we see with these 16-hour fasts because people are doing them every single day, now we can run into some problems. We can be overstressing our body and we may not need that, especially if you are a generally healthy person. You don't have weight to lose, you don't have high blood pressure, you don't have high cholesterol, you don't have those problems. Why stress your body out by doing intermittent fasting every single day? These really deep clean benefits, but then only do it a few times a year so that you can recover, rejuvenate, build every other day of the year. So that's just my little note on short versus long fasts.

Speaker 1: 15:20

Now, I think food versus water. I think we get the point. You know, obviously food makes it easier. But also when we talk about stress, I think we get the point. You know, obviously food makes it easier. But also when we talk about stress, it also reduces that stress on our body. It also reduces the nutrient deficiencies that you might see with water-only fasting. It reduces electrolyte deficiencies that you might see with water-only fasting. So all of those things that are also problematic with water-only fasting are kind of shifted away again. And then the last thing that I recall you asking was around customization and customization when it comes to water-only fasting. Well, you're not going to customize that, right, it's just everybody gets the same thing. Now that's.

Speaker 1: 16:03

Another benefit of fasting mimicking is that there is a little bit of customization. It is minor because, again, we are mimicking water-only fasting. You don't customize that. So you don't necessarily need to customize fasting mimicking too much. But there is going to be some things that you adjust, based off of your weight, for example. That will be adjusted. Or even there's some little things that you can add in. If you're really hungry, maybe you'll do a couple slices of thin apple or a Persian cucumber. You know, there's some little things that you can, you can sneak into. So there is that ability to personalize based off of you, and then lots of ways to personalize what you do beyond the fast, whether it be movement or what you are, what you're drinking and things like that. That can adjust the way that you go through your fast too.

Speaker 2: 16:52

Oh, okay, all right. So that's really good to know, because, yes, I do know people who do intermittent fasting a lot and to me that just feels, like you said, even without me knowing a lot of the science behind it it just feels really stressful for the body. I'm sort of like in this place like I went through a very, very early menopause, very early perimenopause. I had twins when I was 30. And like after that my body just sort of like stopped working the way it was supposed to, stopped working the way it was supposed to. I had one son before that, totally fine, and then I had the twins and it was like it was great, I had like a good, you know, healthy pregnancy and delivery and all of those things.

Speaker 2: 17:33

But after I had them my body just wasn't really ever the same. I progressively started gaining weight. I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's. After that Everything just started shifting.

Speaker 2: 17:47

I was in perimenopause I didn't really know it for a while, and then like 42, 43, just like literally stopped having a period and thought I was dying. But no, it was actual menopause and so I looked at HRT, started doing some of that bioidenticals and that really helped, but the weight like just kept coming and coming and coming, and so I try a lot of different things, as one does right, and the time period, because I was always like this size, like that I am now, but I could not ever, ever get back. And I kind of got to the point. Eventually I was like it's fine, you know what? I fine, it's fine if I'm carrying an extra 20, whatever. But then it got to be like an extra 50, an extra 70.

Speaker 2: 18:31

And then I had to really do some deeper work because I felt really I didn't feel good, I had no energy, my knees was starting to go out. I'm in my 50s, I want my body to last a long time. So, all that to say, how does that role of you know hormones come into play with women? And what do we need to be actually just thinking about in general, if we're thinking about doing a fasting and making diet, like what are some of those things that we have to think about in terms of our hormones, including things like cortisol, because, like, as you probably know, stress is kind of epidemic cortisol because, like, as you probably know, stress is kind of epidemic.

Speaker 1: 19:15

So, yes, and and I mean okay. So maybe let's talk about cortisol first, just because we ended there, and then I'll dive into estrogen, progesterone from there. But cortisol is of course it's, it's actually in our body to help us, to kind of call us to action. In a lot of ways, in fact, when we wake up in the morning, we see a natural increase in cortisol kind of gets you to action, gets you out of bed, right, and prompts you, ideally, to go to the kitchen and get breakfast. And then generally what we see is that once you kind of take some deep breaths, ideally you start your day, have a meal, cortisol is supposed to come back down, right, that's what's supposed to happen. Now there's so many things in our day-to-day lives that can prevent that from quelling and going back down. And one of the biggest things that I see and certainly in my field of work, of fasting and nutrition is that people are skipping breakfast and especially with intermittent fasting 16, 18-hour fasts a lot of people find that the easiest way for them to reach those fasts is by skipping breakfast. Now that can be really problematic, especially when we're trying to help bring that cortisol down in the morning. And knowing that nutrition and food in the morning to help bring that cortisol down in the morning, and knowing that nutrition and food in the morning can help bring that down as well, one of the biggest reasons that for people who do choose to do intermittent fasting every day which can be the fit for people who maybe need to lose weight and again get those metabolic numbers in check you might do that for a short period of time To try and shift that window so that you have your breakfast, so that you can bring that cortisol back down and help your body kind of have a healthy cortisol cycle through the day and reduce that constant stress on your body and then have your dinner meal a little earlier and then you can still reach these windows. Now, even if you're not doing 16, 18 hour fasting, everybody should be trying to reach a healthy circadian nutrition rhythm, meaning that you want to have about 12 hours of fasting, so you want to eat for about a 12 hour window and not too much longer than that, and that also helps you, your body, get into a natural sync. So for it sounds actually pretty easy. I think some people say oh yeah, 12 hours, no problem, I'm already doing that. But you might be surprised because you know, especially on weekends we catch ourselves like a 10 pm meal or you know whatever, something later in the evening and then you're eating again. You know, 7 am 6 am. So I always remind people to kind of be mindful of that 12-hour mark which allows your body to get into a nice little rhythm and support that cortisol health.

Speaker 1: 22:03

And especially for women, as we start transitioning into our 40s and 50s, that becomes even more important because our other hormones are also changing. So a nice transition into estrogen and progesterone and really all of our reproductive hormones that kind of start tapering down and that can happen. You know you shared your story and thank you. You know they say that 40 to 45 is early, but there's even premature menopause that is experienced by about 1% of women that is before 40. So you know, I think there's a lot of this idea that it's just it's 50. This is the number that it's happening, but perimenopause is also it could be a really wide scope of when that's happening too. So I think that's really important for women to hear, especially if you have women in their late 30s listening like this. You are not exempt from this information here. It's still relevant. And not to mention that a lot of things start tapering down, including our ability to maintain muscle, etc. From the age of 30.

Speaker 1: 23:08

So what is happening when these reproductive hormones go down is that, well, they're not just reproductive hormones. They are connected to so many other processes in our body, including the ability to support a healthy metabolism, the ability to funnel sugar into our cells so that they can use them instead of just wreaking havoc in our blood system, the ability for us to hold on and maintain muscle and build muscle. And, unfortunately, because estrogen especially is so tied to these things and it is starting to decline, what you might notice is, even if you're doing the same nutrition, the same workout that you were doing, you know, before you started to see this decline in these hormones, it won't have the same impact. And then, unfortunately, because you'll probably see this decline in muscle muscle is also a super metabolically active tissue and it helps support in burning more calories and supports in keeping you strong and supports in making your workouts be more. You know all of these things that compound and compound it can make it even harder. So it's this vicious cycle.

Speaker 1: 24:21

So what can you do? Right, what is the solution here mindful of is? Well, I think the two biggest ones that are specific to nutrition are going to be that you want to protect and build muscle. So, whatever nutrition solution that you are going after, and especially understandably, you know, we start gaining weight and we start looking for a solution, and usually nutrition and diet is like number one. Maybe exercise as well, but there's this temptation to just cut calories and to just, you know, cut out a bunch of food and do that every single day and go into this major calorie deficit. And what we see with those protocols time and time again is pretty serious. Yeah, sure, maybe you'll lose weight, but muscle too, and even now, you know, with GLP-1s and Ozempics and et cetera, et cetera, that can be a solution, sure, but also we see about 40% of the weight that you're losing coming from muscle. So these are all, especially if you're not carefully managing the other components of your diet and your exercise.

Speaker 1: 25:27

So muscle and we're really starting to hear this more and more but muscle protection is so important, one of the reasons why I love fasting, mimicking, so much. There are now probably a dozen studies that have shown significant fat loss, and especially in the most dangerous fat regions visceral fat, subcutaneous, in the trunk region, so your belly fat. Those are the targeted regions that we see. And then we see that muscle's being protected, and there's some science that I can go into why that is, but primarily it's that we see increase in growth hormone when we fast and we also see, with fasting mimicking, nutrition being added. So this combination of increase in growth hormone with nutrition equals muscle protection. So, plus, we're doing this only for five days a few times a year, so the rest of the days you can focus on an adequate protein amount, you can focus on healthy nutrition everywhere else so that you can support a healthy weight but also muscle protection Very important combo.

Speaker 1: 26:34

And then I'll just quickly touch on that second piece, which is metabolic health. So the ability to, especially for women entering middle age or entering into this perimenopausal phase, is blood sugar management, and so can you find a way to help your body not only have healthy blood sugar but also have healthy insulin sensitivity. So the ability to release insulin so that your body can then take up and is signaled to take this up. So all of these things, there's multiple pieces of the puzzle that all kind of kind of they work together. But again, with the fasting mimicking diet it taps into all of these areas. It helps bring your blood sugar down, but it also helps make your insulin more functional or it helps your body receive it more better. So those things all coming together to help support, kind of push back against, what's happening when we see these hormones decline.

Speaker 1: 27:35

And that is you know, regardless of whether you're on HRT or whatever you choose to do. Additionally too, and that's kind of another kind of quick win with these FMDs or fasting mimicking diets, is that you know you're only doing them for five days, maybe at most. We do have some people that are doing them monthly, right, but you could do so many other things. You can pair it with so many other things. You can pair it with whatever nutrition protocol fits your bill or none, right. It could be the only thing that you do and that has been shown to have some great benefits too.

Speaker 2: 28:10

Okay, that's really good to know. So, like, all right, if we're talking about like a five day fast, you know in this way what does like a fasting, mimicking diet for a week, let's say, what would that look like? Because, like, yeah, I'm that girl, I got to have breakfast right. Like I I am, I think I I don't try to like, I don't do it, I think intentionally necessary. Well, there might be some in there, but I end up. You know, I like to stop eating around like seven or eight and then I'll have breakfast in the morning.

Speaker 2: 28:44

but I need my breakfast and it's not a huge breakfast, but I have to have like a savory breakfast. You know like I want. I want an egg, I want like fat, I want. You know what I mean. So, or I want like um, sometimes I'll have bacon in there, because I just like that's what I'm craving in the morning. I'm craving like nothing sweet, I'm craving fat, if that makes sense, right. And so what, what? What would that look like? Would I have to just kind of change what I'm eating, like kind of walk me through some of that?

Speaker 1: 29:17

Yes, Great question. So. So I would say first of all, I would I will never promise anybody that you are going to have a giant meal for every, every, every meal of the day because realistically, with fasting, mimicking diets, you're probably having, maybe on the first day, about 1,000 calories and then you're gonna drop to about 800, 750 for the remaining days. So it's still calorie restricted. And that's because and it's not, by the way, just about calories. In fact it's not really about calories, it's about the types of food that you're eating and whether or not you are having enough of very specific nutrients. That tells your body that you're in and out of a fast. And I'm not going to go into that in too much more detail unless you care to, because it can get really complicated. But essentially, the way that I like to think about it is just we're living below a threshold that our body has defined. As I need specific nutrients before I am going to say that we're in growth mode versus fasting mode, and we live just below that with fasting. So how much food can you really have before you fall below or above that threshold? And what's really going to kick you out of that are two things simple sugars and amino acids or protein, and so what you'll find is that those are reduced. Now, things that you can have more of during a fasting-mimicking diet that usually don't trigger them as much are things like fiber and fat. So you mentioned that you like having fat body soothes in the morning. I mean amazing. That's great, because there's going to be a lot of nuts and olive oil and things like that. As part of a fasting mimicking diet. You'll also see a lot of plants, so vegetables, and especially high fiber vegetables You'll find a lot of those in a fasting-mimicking diet.

Speaker 1: 31:11

I'm a big proponent of the pre-made kits that will ship to your door. There's two companies doing that right now Prolon and L-Nutra Health. So they have five-day kits, each with individual day boxes in them, and in your day's box there's everything that you need and what they'll do in those are things like breakfast bars that are made with nuts and honey, and they're actually really good. On the first day you even have two of those. You'll get plant-based soups for lunch and for dinner. You'll get snacks like seed crackers or olives, and you even get like little chocolate bars at the end of the day with, again, lots of nuts and cacao and seeds and things like that. So that's generally what you can expect throughout the five days.

Speaker 2: 32:03

Okay, yeah, that makes it a lot easier because that's kind of like my. I also I'm not very, admittedly, I am not one of those people, and I think a lot of women in my age group. It's really funny, like once our kids like leave, go off to college, it's like that running joke. They come home and they're like where's all the food? It's like I see all those TikToks. They're like what happened? My parents don't eat food anymore. Yeah, we eat. We just like we're not cooking for you. I really am.

Speaker 2: 32:33

I've never been that person to love to cook. I just don't. I'm also busy. I would rather like do other stuff, right. So my husband ends up doing a lot of the cooking and, just in general, I'm not that kind of person who's going to want to put a lot of time and effort into something like this. So I like the fact that there's kits that you can get, because that makes it so much easier. And what about things like, like, like. Either juicing or smoothies, like green, like you mentioned, veggies. So, like I used, I love making like a spinach smoothie, sort of thing. Right, like, like. So are those kind of things that we can incorporate into this kind of fasting?

Speaker 1: 33:15

so it's a good question now you would, if you were going to do it yourself and you wanted to add, you wanted to do smoothies and things like that, you would have to.

Speaker 1: 33:24

You wouldn't do it as part of the kit because with the kits, okay, everything you need is in there and you don't want to add anything because it's very carefully designed to not go over that threshold.

Speaker 1: 33:33

So pretty much anything like there's not really, unfortunately, like there's no, like safe, like freebie foods style, you could totally try and create like a smoothie or something like that, but you want to very much and very carefully make sure that you are designing it in a way where your full day is not going over that threshold and each meal isn't going over that threshold. Dr Walter Longo I usually have his book nearby, but I don't right now. I usually have his book nearby, but I don't right now is. He wrote a book called the Longevity Diet. Dr Walter Longo is kind of the father of fasting, mimicking, and in his book he has a page where he kind of outlines what you would typically have. Now, with that sure, you could totally make a smoothie. I think actually it would be really good, but you'd just have to coordinate it with what else you were going to do.

Speaker 2: 34:34

Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, well, again, I'd rather not think about it. I mean, maybe there are people out here listening who are like, yeah, I want to dig into this, I like learn about it. I'll link that book to in the show notes in case people are interested in reading it, because that sounds really interesting to me too. I'm just going to want to do it as easy as possible and make it happen. But I wanted to touch on really quickly because you mentioned it and this is a really big factor. It was for me, it still is, because I have Hashimoto's, the inflammation piece, right Like the inflammation and insulin resistance piece, and I know that those words get thrown around a lot these days, just in general, but I think that it's such an important thing to dig into. So obviously a fasting, mimicking diet, I would assume, would help with these things.

Speaker 1: 35:26

Yes. So I'm going to touch on a couple things because I want to separate Hashimoto's from insulin resistance and inflammation, even though of course they are tied. Now, when we look at Hashimoto's and thyroid health, we have to be very, very careful because there isn't enough research right now with fasting and fasting mimicking to suggest that this would be a safe protocol for everybody. It's seen in case studies in individuals. I've walked thousands of people through fasting mimicking protocols where they swear by it and say that they're, you know, off of medications. Now that is not clinically shown yet. So we have to just be very careful. So anybody who has Hashimoto's or thyroid conditions, I would urge you to speak to your physician before moving forward. Now, moving over to insulin resistance specifically and then inflammation more globally. Inflammation is kind of an umbrella term, like we love to use it, and a lot of like podcasters, social media people talk about it all of the time, right, but it considers so many things and there's so many ways to measure it, so it's kind of a very, in my opinion, a relatively nebulous term. But when we look at all of the pieces that kind of make it up, then you kind of get a little bit of a better picture. So I love that you bring up insulin resistance, because I think it's one of the really big pillars that make up inflammation, and I'll just kind of double down on that which, when we look at insulin resistance, the people that usually are at the furthest spectrum of that are people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Their body is no longer able to healthfully funnel sugar from the blood into the cells, and usually that is caused primarily by insulin resistance.

Speaker 1: 37:22

Now the fasting, mimicking diet was studied in patients with type 2 diabetes that had insulin resistance. Of course, heavier weight also had high levels of HbA1c, which is your long-term measure of how you're able to manage the blood sugar, and after. So in this population they did one five-day cycle a month for six months in a row and what they were able to show is 22 pounds of weight loss. That was fat-focused, right, so muscle protected, incredible. They were able to show a drop in A1c or so improvement in their blood sugar, but they also took them off of medication. So this was doing this drop in A1c while dropping their medication and showed improvements over 50% of patients in HOMA-IR or the measure of insulin resistance. So all of those things were improved while coming off of medications that are supposed to be, you know, keeping these things down in patients with type 2 diabetes that have this in the most severe form.

Speaker 1: 38:31

So I think this is just really cool to look at. And, you know, while we try not to, you know, take a certain population and assume that those results are going to happen in a healthy population, we've also looked at healthy populations and shown improvements in fasting glucose or again, your blood sugar levels at that given moment, and A1C levels in healthy individuals. And even there, in healthy people, we see improvements there. So, yes, in healthy people, we see improvements there. So, yes, we see really great results on insulin resistance, blood sugar management, all of these really cool metabolic markers in healthy people and in people where it's the most severe.

Speaker 2: 39:12

Wow, that's incredible, especially the fact that they didn't lose the muscle at the same time and coming off the medication. That's crazy. Yeah, that's really, really cool. And I know, yes, it is a hot topic, but we hear a lot about it. But I mean, our diet in this country, right, it's not the best, and I've made a lot of dietary changes in the last three to four years. Again, I've, again I'm, you know, almost 55.

Speaker 2: 39:43

So I think that sort of like comes with the territory of of like realizing, okay, I can't continue doing the same things that I used to do.

Speaker 2: 39:55

Um, one of those things is, you know, I barely drink alcohol anymore and I I I'm from Louisiana, you know'm from Louisiana, I grew up around that.

Speaker 2: 40:03

It was a way of life and I loved my glass of wine at night, and then it turned into two, right, and so it got to this place where I was like that in itself can be super inflammatory.

Speaker 2: 40:14

But just in general, dietary changes, lifestyle changes, just becoming more health conscious I just wanted to, you know, touch on that for a second, because I know when we mentioned the words fasting and all the things that we've been talking about here, it is very easy to just kind of gloss it over under that umbrella of like, oh okay, we're just talking about weight loss. But no, this really is for me like the weight loss was great, it was definitely welcomed because I feel better, like I don't have the knee issues that I used to, that's for sure. But it's about feeling better. It's about like really living a more healthy life just inside out, and so I just kind of wanted to make sure we we touch on that as well, and I know you've walked like so many people through this protocol itself and I would love to know if you have like one or two like really impactful stories that you've seen firsthand People really shift their health from that inside out their health from that inside out.

Speaker 1: 41:24

So many, so many, like I mentioned, thousands of people now and people coming off of various medications, you know, and because, again, as you mentioned, this is so much more than weight loss, for example, there's really incredible studies on skin health. So I've I've heard of some really incredible results in terms of, like rashes or bumps on your arm or whatever that you know had been around for so long and then those disappearing after a few rounds and things like that, to the point where we actually ended up doing a dermatology study on skin health and showed that even with just one round, improvements in 25% improvement in skin texture, fine lines, hydration, so all of these things right, because when we're working at this deep cellular level and getting this deep cleanup, you can see it full body. So, even with skin health, incredible results. So a lot of people now are measuring their biological age, so there's lots of ways to do that. So you know there's not just one, but you know we did a study on that too because of all of the incredible results we were seeing. There Showed, on average, a 2.5-year biological age reversal, with just three cycles, which is, again, really quite unheard of in the world of a biological age and aging with 15 days of nutrition intervention.

Speaker 1: 42:47

I love that you mentioned confidence. That's one that I like. Kind of that stuck with me because it was one that was even measured in that skin health study. That was only done in women, by the way, where they asked the women just subjectively before and after and they had a control group. So they also asked the control group how do you feel, how where's your confidence level? And confidence dramatically increased, and I think that this is not something that we should glaze over, and it's not just because they might have lost some weight or maybe their skin was feeling or was looking brighter or more hydrated or whatever.

Speaker 1: 43:22

What we've also shown, kind of going back to some of these diabetes trials that were done, is that people actually, when they complete even just five days, feel really accomplished, feel very motivated, they feel lighter and stronger, sure, and so they're motivated to do other things even beyond just nutrition changes. They feel better, they, they feel more energy, etc. So all of those things are like this perfect storm of of of good, of motivation, and we've even shown this in that, in that diabetes study that I mentioned, where they asked the patients okay, so now, six months later, how much are you exercising? And the group that had done the fasting mimicking diet was exercising an additional four hours a week and the group that was doing healthy nutrition which, by the way, like the control group, is still doing healthy nutrition they dropped their physical activity by six hours a week. Just crazy, right, like there's a 10 hour difference in physical activity a week between those two groups and it's really exclusively due to this motivation and this feeling like stronger and also the fact that you know you're doing everyday nutrition change.

Speaker 1: 44:39

That can be draining, like if you're constantly thinking about everything that you're eating every day, like no wonder you don't want to do anything else. That sounds like so much work as opposed to five days, right, where you're doing. You know you're focused on that and, honestly, you can really think about a lot of other things, especially if you're doing these preset kits or if you've pre-prepped everything things, especially if you're doing these preset kits or if you've pre-prepped everything. Lots of time to think about other things that you want to do and then 25 days to accomplish them before, or up to three months before, you do your next round anyway.

Speaker 2: 45:09

So yeah, that makes so much sense. That makes so much sense though, to me. Like you know, I've always been that person of I don't know. I feel like it just goes hand in hand, just like the whole nutritional and exercise piece, if that kind of makes sense. And I know a lot of people talk about how, like, the nutritional piece is so, so important, like you can't exercise your way out of like a bad diet per se. Right, you can do a lot, I'm sure. You can do a lot, I'm sure.

Speaker 2: 45:38

But, all that to say, I can definitely see why doing something like this, like you said, you have that feeling of accomplishment, of like, yeah, I did it and it really is. It's proven that when we do that, we are literally like rewiring something in our brain as well and creating different habits, and I love that you brought that piece into it, because I feel like that's a really big part of it. I know it is for me. You just feel better and then you kind of start creating that momentum and then you just want to stay in that place, and especially if you're doing it with other people I don't know if there's communities that people join with you guys, you guys with Prolon, like if there's people that keep you on track and stuff like that Is that part of kind of what you guys do as well.

Speaker 1: 46:28

Absolutely yeah. So there's two ways to go about this. So with Prolon, they are doing group coaching. So there's absolutely a sense of community. It's so fun. There's like hundreds of people a week that will jump in and support each other. There will be people that have done it 20 times and people that have done it for their very first time, and everyone's supporting each other through the week. There is a live coach that will answer questions live and there's right now three coaches with Prolon that have been doing this for several years now, walking again thousands of people through these protocols. And that is free, by the way. That's completely free, oh wow, just to help motivate people through that program. So that's awesome.

Speaker 1: 47:15

But also I mentioned another company, alnutra Health. That is a company that is more medically focused. So if you have a high blood sugar, high blood pressure, diabetes, prediabetes and you want a little bit more support, safety guidance etc. Then you can have one-on-one support. So with that you'll get two visits, one-on-one with a registered dietitian. You'll also get meetings with an MD or through telehealth. This is all virtual, so it makes it really easy to do it from home again and really personalize it to you. So anybody who's looking for just a little bit of an extra push. I would strongly recommend L-Nutra Health. Even if you're not diagnosed with anything, you're just looking to support that metabolic health and get that one-on-one guidance, it's really awesome. And they also, if individuals, as part of that program, want to do some group sessions. I think they offer a couple of those monthly too, just as part of the program. So so much support. I mean, we know now that community and social you know, connection is so important to health and longevity so you can't have one without the other.

Speaker 2: 48:26

You have to have some both yeah, I agree, um, just across the board, but especially in in this, this instance, I think it would make a huge difference, um, especially if you know you're, like, the only person in your house doing it, like, if your spouse isn't doing it, your partner, whatever. That's a great opportunity to commune with other people who are also doing it and, like you said, people have already done it. So that's really, really awesome. Okay, so I will put those links below for people. I'll get those from you guys and list them so that everybody can kind of find those in the show notes.

Speaker 2: 49:03

But before we wrap up, I want to ask you a couple of different things. So, first of all, where can people connect with you? Where would you like me to send people? And also, because the show is Tried and True with the Dash of Woo, you know we've been talking about tried and true strategies when it comes to nutrition and health and science here. What's something that you do personally, that you turn to some practices that you do that support you and the the woo side, or the spiritual side or any, any of that sort of like, outside of what we've been talking about? This, they support your well-being from the inside out.

Speaker 1: 49:42

So good, okay. So first, if you are looking to connect with me, bestways honestly. On Instagram it's Fit and Nutrition F-I-T-T-O-N Nutrition. I also have a website where you can connect with me there fitandnutritioncom. If you are curious about learning more about Prolon or L-Nutra Health, visit their websites. For Prolon, it's P-R-O-L-O-N lifecom and for L-Nutra Health, it's L-Nutra N-U-T-R-A healthcom part.

Speaker 1: 50:22

Actually, this is something that I have really enjoyed talking about and we could probably talk about this for hours is I have recently started, over the last couple of months, adding in a part of my morning routine, which is morning sunlight with a gratitude journal and 15 minutes of meditation. I stand by this as like completely changing my life. I want to say honestly it has. It has really been so helpful in calming nerves, anxiety, and you know like I used to wake up in the morning and just be like what are all the hundred things that I have to do? Where's my telephone, what's going on, where are the emails that I have to answer? You know, and just immediately kind of like going into life.

Speaker 1: 51:09

And now kind of like shifting gears into this gratitude journal takes literally two minutes of three things that I'm grateful for. It forces you to get creative, because I never write the same three things down. So what you know, now I find myself just walking around and I'll be like, oh, that's something I'm grateful for, let's save it for the journal, like it. Just you know it's so you just become especially grateful and then I split my 15 minutes into 10 minutes of just breathing meditation, where I try not to think about anything and yes, that's super hard and I'm still not perfect at it because I always have things that will pop in, but I just like take it and let it go. And then five minutes of manifesting meditation and I honestly think it's working. So, yeah, I love it.

Speaker 2: 51:55

That's awesome. Yeah, I'm always talking to my coaching community about, you know, from the get go in the morning, taking control of your day and not jumping to the phone, not being in reactive mode, which it's hard. It's hard especially these days, right, like there's always something and you know you have to like walk that fine line of you know being informed and, and you know, being chaotic, and so that's that's definitely a big part of my morning as well. I love the morning sunlight too. That's a really big one. There's a lot of science behind that, and I get that. Not everybody has access to sun all the time. I do. I mean, I think you're in LA too, aren't you? Yeah?

Speaker 1: 52:37

Yeah, I am. I'm actually in Denver right now, but even now there's. And you know what? I'm originally Canadian, which means no, there's not always morning sunlight there, but there are lamps that you can use. There's like there's. You know, there are ways to get creative. Do not let you know. It seems like, well, there's no morning sunlight. So I then? What can I do? But there are still solutions, believe it or not. So time to just get creative when you run into those barriers.

Speaker 2: 53:06

Yeah, and there's a lot of science behind that which I find really fascinating. It makes a big difference. And then grounding too, always going outside and just put my feet on the grass, I think that's a really big piece of it too. There's a lot of science behind that too. So, anyway, I could talk about that all day. Like you said, I love, I love all of that. But thank you for sharing that. And it's funny because one of my really good friends, tiffany she's also a coach. She uh, she has her own gratitude journals that she has, and so I'll link those below if you guys are interested in doing a morning gratitude and you want an actual like. I'm one of those people I like to like have. I'm a stationary freak, so I have journal upon journal and I think that the way that she kind of put hers together is really fun. So I'll link hers below just as well, because that just kind of sparked my, sparked an idea. I use hers every morning and thank you so much for being here. This was really, really awesome.

Speaker 1: 54:00

Thank you so much for being here. This was really, really awesome. Thank you so much for having me. I hope that we spiked some curiosity. There's so much more to talk about. I mean, we really just scratched the surface, but yeah, I'm so grateful to have been here. So thank you for having me.

Speaker 2: 54:13

All right. So who else is a little sold now on this whole fasting and making diet thing, especially given that we don't have to do it daily? That's kind of been one of my things. It's like I'm just not. I don't think I could do intermittent fasting Like I really don't. I love my breakfast, I really really do so daily. I don't think I could do this Like I can't live like that, and I know a lot of people do and it works for them. But for me personally I just don't think I could do it. But five days out of the month, maybe three, four times a year, I could probably do that, especially with a kit right, make it easy.

Speaker 2: 54:44

So I like how we touched on all the different options that you could use and that there are some that are just kind of pre-made for us. Love that Got all those links for you guys in the show notes, so definitely check those out and connect with Renee too If you have any questions about any of this. She's such a wealth of knowledge when it comes to any of these topics and again, you get to be about my age and all of a sudden things get very important. That used to not be important, so I definitely want to dig a little deeper into all of this as well. So, if that's you, I'm right there with you and I love, at the end there, how we did bring it back to a little bit of the mindset as well, because that is part of it, right. Like you know, it's not just about weight loss. It's not about trying to fit in your clothes you know your clothes should fit you, not the opposite way but it's about feeling good and having confidence, because when you feel good from the inside out and I talk about this all the time, you guys you have to feel good first, and that includes feeling good in your body, not just in your head. Okay, yeah, your mindset is super important, and I do believe that having a positive outlook and being optimistic and living from a place of abundance and all of that, all of that is great, and if you don't feel good physically, all of that other stuff is going to go right out the window.

Speaker 2: 56:13

And just as a case in point, just recently I had like not a major health thing, but a little bit of a health thing, okay, and it took me out for about a week and I'm a pretty resilient, disciplined, I would say strong person Like I, I think that I can like kind of get through what I need to get through, right, but this kind of knocked me out for about a week and I couldn't couldn't stop stop working. It wasn't so bad that I couldn't do my job per se, but it was uncomfortable, it made working uncomfortable and it really was a wake-up call for me in a lot of ways, because I'm actually really proactive with my health just in general. I'm not one of those people who is like, oh, something's going on and I'm not going to go see about it. I'm going to go see about it. I want to be around for a long time, I just do, and I want to feel good for as long as I'm going to be around. I don't want to be broken down at 90. I want to have strong bones and be able to move around on my own and I want my brain to work for as long as I'm alive, like that's my big thing.

Speaker 2: 57:23

And just having that you know week of not feeling good physically, it really affected my mindset and I'm pretty strong in my mindset. So all that to say you have one body mindset. So all that to say you have one body. You get one chance at this body and this life. Well, I do believe in reincarnation, but that's a whole other show. You get one shot in this life with this body, and everything that we consume not just food matters. So it's really important to look at what other things are you consuming. So we did touch on that at the end how you start your day, how you allow yourself to be affected by everything around you, and how willing of a participant you are to that.

Speaker 2: 58:16

So I think that all of that comes into play and you do need to feel good first. Okay, feeling good first means you are going to be able to do the things Okay. So the energy that you put behind something, the energy that you put into anything, matters. If you sit down to write a blog post or a social post and you are feeling just really negative and weighed down by the world, or you're feeling really not good physically, it's going to affect your writing. It's going to affect the energy that you put behind that post, and that matters Because if you continue to push and push and push when you don't feel good, it's going to show up in not just your marketing, but in all the other things that you bring into your field right, like who you're attracting. Your resonance is really important, so be very mindful about that beacon that you're putting out, and it starts with you feeling good.

Speaker 2: 59:18

So I hope today's show helps you feel good. I hope it helps you look at some things and maybe a different perspective, and I'd love to hear your takeaways. As always, please hit me up over on Instagram at Renee Bowen. Let me know if you like the show. If you did, please share it. That's always welcome, and all the links that I mentioned are going to be down below in the show notes for you. If you're watching on YouTube, same thing, it's going to be down below in the show notes for you. If you're watching on YouTube, same thing, it's going to be down below. And I hope you guys have a fantastic rest of your week, go out there and do something awesome and be good to yourself. Love you Bye.