Nicki podcast RAW AUDIO
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[00:00:00] Okay, my friends, I am really looking forward to this episode. Today we're gonna be talking about fasting, intermittent fasting. I have our guest, Nikki Thompson here with me, and we're calling her our intermittent fasting expert. I'm so excited to have you here. Say hello and welcome. Hello. Thank you so much for having me.
Uh, it's my pleasure to be here and sharing my expertise with you today. Yeah, I can't wait to get into this conversation. And, um, before we even jump in, my, my listeners really know that I. I make sure I've got the best guess. And Nikki can tell you, we've had many email conversations back and forth where I'm like, but they might, you need to make sure, like, I need to know that you are in this space and understand this.
And, and so she's been so good about, um, being able to do that for us. And I am really excited because I feel like. Um, I found someone that's really good to, to help give us some really [00:01:00] clear information about fasting and understanding it as women and hormones. And we're gonna be talking all about it today.
So let's just start with, why don't you tell us a little bit about your journey. How did you get to this place and, and, and what makes you, you know, qualified to kind of share more with us? Yes, of course. So, um, I've been in the health, fitness, wellness industry for 20 plus years now, and I've done everything from personal training group fitness classes, which I was kind of in that toxic fitness industry a little bit where we.
Reel you in with claims of you'll lose 30 pounds in six months, just follow this starvation diet and come to our boot camps. Yes, I was in that at one point and um, basically people would go through, see results short term, you know, using willpower just to get through, and then they would eventually fall off the wagon and they [00:02:00] would be our perfect client to come back in again because they fell off the wagon.
So that's what led me to. Learn more about motivation habits, how to make new healthy habits sustainable. Um, so I did some learning on that front with, uh, transformation Academy to learn more about goal success and goal achievement, um, habit change, um, a little bit of cognitive behavioral, um, coaching, not therapy difference, and uh, just.
Learning the foundations of what it takes for someone to stick to a program. Um, and from there it was just like a rabbit hole where I eventually did, got certified as a functional nutrition health coach. And so I just expanded my offering from just being personal training and group. Fitness coach to the health coaching, getting to the foundational, um, the foundational habits that will support all other habits.
[00:03:00] And, um, fasting, how that came into play has been a part of my life for a long time. But the thing is, I was using it always as a bandaid. Like, oh my God, I'm feeling so tired and sick, and. You know, I can't sleep and digestion issues. And so then I would like, oh, I'll do a quick three day fast and I would always have great results.
Um, but then eventually I would kind of get back into the habits that led me to need to fast in the first place. And I'm just like, okay, I love the benefits of fasting, but. I want to be proactive with it, and that's where I just started my learning on intermittent fasting, so it can be part of my daily practice and be preventative and just being proactive towards my health and intermittent fasting.
It was gonna sound so cheesy, but it really did change my life. It because now day to day I was like feeling mental clarity and I was sleeping better and. [00:04:00] It was, uh, way less cravings day to day, and I was like, yo, I, I need to make this part of my health coaching. And I definitely do not think everyone should fast.
And it's not just a blanket thing that I propose to everyone, but because of the great results I had with women that are willing or curious about it, I will guide them. I will coach them through that journey. I love that. Let's kind of talk, can you define fasting for us, because I think there's a lot out there, like how do we define intermittent fasting?
Fasting? Is that an easy answer or a hard answer? Okay. So fasting is. Intentionally choosing a timeframe to not eat food. Now you can have liquid fast where you're still consuming liquids, obviously, and then there's also dry fast. I'm gonna be fully transparent. I have never done a dry fast. That is intense, but they're out [00:05:00] there.
But it's just choosing a timeframe. Where you're restricting food. And so with intermittent fasting, that's, that can be on a daily basis where you have a certain number of hours where you're not eating a certain number of hours, where you are eating, um, you know, a very common one is the 16 eight where you fast for 16 hours and then you have an eight hour window to eat.
But you can definitely play with that. Um, um, but then there's also. You know, alternate day fasting, or maybe you eat your full calories one day and then the next day you don't eat or you eat a limited amount of calories. Um, so that's it. Fasting is not starvation, it is intentional. And it's about choosing a timeframe where you're going to restrict your, your food.
Uh, I love that. I think that was a great simple answer that allows us some flexibility, some variability there. Um, so. Obviously we know that there's probably a lot of criticisms out there about intermittent fasting, especially with women. [00:06:00] And here's what I wanna do instead of go there, I actually wanna start with the benefits.
I wanna come out strong and say, let's talk about what fasting really can do for my audience is primarily women. So women specifically, what can fasting do for them? Beyond maybe what they, what many might think of like, oh, weight loss. Right? What, what are the benefits of fa? A regular fasting practice?
Okay, so I'm gonna throw one out there that may or may not be known, but self-trust, improved self-trust and competence. That is honestly my favorite one across the board because. And I also hate putting weight loss as the main thing, the main benefit of fasting. Yes, it can. It still depends on other factors.
It's not some magic bullet, you fast and now you're gonna lose weight. Um, but to be honest, most of the women that [00:07:00] come see me, I. Are looking to lose weight. And so they are often coming from having tried a whole bunch of different things and then feeling like they failed. I, I don't see it as failing, but they feel like, oh, they failed.
You fall off the wagon, you go back to old habits, and every time you do that, you, you lose a little bit of trust in yourself and it almost may make it difficult or at the back of your mind, you're almost waiting. To fail, so to speak, because it's happened so many times. So they're just not feeling confident.
And I feel like when you start fasting, especially starting small, you start giving yourself proof that you can have control over your choices. You can have control over, you know, you don't have to react impulsively to every craving and emotion that comes up. And so every time you complete a fast, even if it's.
10 hours or only [00:08:00] 12 hours. By the way, side note, sleeping counts as fasting time. So if you are fasting 10, 12 hours, that might just mean you're, you're not eating breakfast right away, whatever the case may be. Every time you complete a fast, it's like proof to your brain, your nervous system, that you can do this, and it starts rebuilding that trust, which makes you feel more confident, and then while you're navigating your day.
Healthy choices become easier because it's like you have that memory now of, yeah, I can do this. Like, it, it's, it's not that bad. So I wanna say that I, it's my favorite thing. Um, but then there's also the potential to balance hormones. Now, I want to say, as a side note, that fasting is a tool. It is not.
Magic that, oh, fasting will fix your hormones. It will fix your metabolism. It's not that fasting is a tool to help reduce blood sugar [00:09:00] spikes. Which means you're not having these insulin spikes and which will help you reduce inflammation. And that's what can help you balance your hormo hormones when you're not having these insulin spikes followed by blood sugar crashes, followed by inflammation.
Um, that's something that can disrupt hormones. So this is a tool for how fasting can potentially balance your hormones and. I would also never say that, oh, fasting again will fix your metabolism. No, fasting is a tool to help you gain metabolic flexibility to help your body be able to shift between fat burning and sugar burning easily, so you're never getting.
Stuck or stagnant. Your body processes are just like flowing more freely, um, when you have that metabolic flexibility. And so that's something else that fasting as a tool, um, can help you with. And then there's things like improved mood and [00:10:00] I feel like that also is a result of not having so much inflammation in the body.
Um. Mental fog, clarity. I don't know. I feel like when I hit 40, that was it. The, the mental fog was just like, it was heavy. The mental fog was heavy and fasting helps me not have to deal with that. Um, I'm someone with digestion issues and that fasting period really allows my body, gives it the time and the space to do the work that it has to do.
Um. Because even when I eat the same amount of calories, when I don't incorporate intermittent fasting, I still risk being a bit like blocked up. And so just giving my body that space has dramatically improved my digestion. Um, what else? What else, what else? Oh, and self-awareness. Just self-awareness. When you take food off the table, literally and figuratively.
It just [00:11:00] creates the space for you to now start tuning into yourself, and so when certain cravings or emotions come up where previously you might have went for the snacks. Now you're in a fasting window, so you gotta deal with this. And I don't recommend trying to, um, resist it because it will only, the emotion or craving or feeling will only grow.
So it's time to examine it, get curious what is this, this craving? Am I even hungry or is there something else happening? And. When I started really tuning inward and I always get my clients, if they're gonna fast, I, I try to get them to, they don't all do, but to really look in and kind of take a moment to jot down in a journal like what you were feeling when that craving or negative emotion came up, where before you might've grabbed the chips.
And for me, I noticed that anytime I'm working on my laptop and I hit a roadblock, like. That [00:12:00] roadblock might just be, oh, a task that I'm not familiar with. Now it, there's resistance a little bit. Like, oh, I have to go ask someone or do this. I will have a wave of, oh, go get a snack. And I learned that while I was fasting.
So now that I was able to see that, oh, every time I feel a challenging moment in my work, I'm going to grab a snack. Just bringing that awareness. Allowed me to make a more informed and intentional choice. Like, oh, there's that thing again. There's that thing where when I get stuck, I wanna go for a snack.
It's okay, Nikki. She'll breathe and a couple seconds later. It passes. So just creating that pause, that's the space that comes from fasting. I feel like you can learn a lot about yourself and it's great for self-awareness work. Yeah, I, I know there's a reason that you were on this podcast because that is so much of what we talk about around here and I love that is like, [00:13:00] I was just kind of visualizing.
The rollercoaster that a lot of women are on with dieting and binging and restriction and overeating and just the it's, it allows you to kind of. Balance that out a little bit. Like take it a more smooth ride where you're like, I, you know, I do have control over my body and my cravings, and I'm using what I like to call a boundary, right?
I'm using a tool or a boundary. To help me calm that down. You know what, it's, it's not an eating window. So I have an opportunity, instead of looking at it as a negative, I have an opportunity to find another way to support my body's needs rather than turning to food. And that's kind of a little, a cool little boundary to have right there, um, in place that helps us, you know, not just like.
Automatic behaviors. Exactly. Getting off of autopilot that [00:14:00] allows you, gives you some space to get off autopilot. Exactly. Yeah. Okay, so let's, so I'm, I'm sold, but let's talk a little bit, um, about, you know, what are some of. The criticisms here and, and maybe more so like what are some ways that people do it wrong or, you know, why might it not work because of the way it's done?
Okay. Yes, I. So generally speaking, fasting is a very safe practice. So I, I found it strange how some headlines or articles are claiming that it's like fasting is not good for women, especially women in perimenopause, menopause. And I'm like, really? Is skipping breakfast that serious? You know, I don't know.
I think that what's really happening is that. The people who are seeing adverse effects from fasting are probably committing a few of a few common [00:15:00] pitfalls, like under fueling during their eating window. I. Not getting enough rest and recovery. Sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep. The cheapest and easiest tool for health that we don't utilize enough.
Or sometimes, you know, with due to hormones, maybe you're just in a phase of insomnia. I sometimes get into that. But if you're undersleep not well fed, not well-nourished, uh, in a high stress season of your life, fasting will likely only exacerbate all of your issues. And that is because. We have to remember, fasting is still a stressor.
It's a stressor on your body. Now it can be a hermetic stress, which is a beneficial stress if done properly, and that's where stress management, a good sleep and ensuring you're fueling yourself properly comes into play before you layer in something like fasting. Um. Honestly, anyone I've ever [00:16:00] met that said, oh, I tried fasting and it didn't work for me.
Or, I tried fasting and my, you know, doctor re results from blood tests and hormone tests got worse. Nine times out of 10, when I said, okay, show me what you're eating for a week, um, should tell me about your lifestyle. It was that not enough sleep, not enough recovery, and not fueling properly. Yeah, so we could maybe say it's like a supplement to a healthy lifestyle.
Yes, that's exactly it. It's a tool to support, um, your, your healthy lifestyle. That's it. And that's why a lot of, um, clients I have, I'm not trying to not sell fasting now. Well, actually, it's not a sell or not sell, but, um. A lot of clients, once they do my two week prep to get ready for fasting, start seeing some of the results they thought they would get from fasting, and it's like, yeah, miracles happen when you kind of manage your stress and [00:17:00] sleep well and eat more whole foods and they're like, oh, maybe I don't eat fasting.
After all, it was just to lay that foundation. See where you're at from there before deciding if you wanna throw fasting into the mix. Yeah. Do you have anything to add about the biggest criticism that I probably hear is that these studies were done on men and women's hormones are different. Do you have anything to add to that or, or debunk it?
So. I mean, the studies are there. I'm going by my own professional experience. I mean, there's also a ton of studies of women saying swearing by fasting in all age groups. So I feel like I. You have to listen to your body more than following any protocol. Um, I know that cortisol was a big thing. It, it raises cortisol.
That's why women, especially perimenopause and menopause, [00:18:00] um, women should not. Try fasting because it'll raise their cortisol and it's just like, well, I mean, it's all about context. Cortisol is a necessary hormone for many functions in the body. It's, you know, essential for energy and alertness and even getting up in the morning, which I'm sure we all wanna do.
So it's not a villain in and of itself. The issue is more about spiking, uh, cortisol all day long. So stress can also spike cortisol working out also. You know, raises corzo, but we would never tell women don't work out. So once again, I know I keep coming back to this, but it really is the foundation for, um, all, any healthy lifestyle.
If you're well fed and well slept and can manage your stress, I do not think there is, um, an issue with women who want to try fasting. Um, it's definitely not one size fits all, but so if you do try it, um, you may have to be. Prepare to do little tweaks. That [00:19:00] work for you? Some people might say, um, during, you know, your cycle, um, usually the week before your period, uh, estrogen is low, progesterone is high.
So you might feel more carby, more snacky. You want to eat more. Don't fast. Don't fast That week. It's like not that serious. It's not that deep. You know, it's, some people think fasting because it's about not eating. Now they think, oh, eating less and. Having a bigger fasting window must be even better. But it's like that's not the case at all.
We're not fasting just to fast. We're listening to our body, finding out when we maybe need to eat more carbs. Maybe I'm low energy this week, or in a high stress period at work, maybe don't fast. Um, so like I said, I mean we, people have been fasting for health and for religious reasons, you know, forever. I feel like it is generally safe.
I know I've seen the studies as well, but I mean, I'm going by [00:20:00] myself and many of my clients and just other anecdotes that I read in books. I feel like fasting is, is very safe for women as long as we lay that solid foundation and just pay attention to the signals in our body. Yeah. What I love that you're doing here really is differentiating it from what a lot of people perceive as a diet, right?
And, and the way that people might approach it as a diet, which then leads to the diet cycle behaviors, which then can lead to hormone fluctuations, right? When we're binging, restricting, restricting cortisol, like we're, we're having those hormone fluctuations a lot more. Then when what we're, what you're saying here really is like, this isn't, we're not looking at this as another diet program, but rather a, you know, a, like we said, a supplement and um, a way to.
Kind of further [00:21:00] support. And the thing that I love too, and just to remind anyone listening is, you know, you can always change. So if you're like, Hey, I want to try the simplest version, like maybe I start with whatever the simplest version of like the hours are, right? I don't even know what numbers, but you know this, this hour I'm these hours.
I'm not eating these hours I am eating. And that's like. The, the simplest way I can jump into it and I try it and I see how I feel. And we can always change. Our bodies are metabolisms. They can always change. Our hormones can change. So if we're like, ah, that didn't work very well. Great. Maybe we can try something else.
Or, yeah, you know what, I saw that this was helpful. Um, maybe I'll try the next level, right? Or I'll try the next thing. Exactly. It's all about starting slowly and monitoring the benefits. Um, and if everything is going well, like let's say you start with a simple 12 hours fast and a 12 hour window for [00:22:00] eating, um, that's a really light schedule.
See how you feel. Did it feel easy? Did you have a lot of cravings come up? Did it feel like you were like white knuckling with, you know, willpower, just to make it through the day? Um, you know, tune into these things, but if everything's going well, and maybe you feel like, oh, I felt like I was, I had a little bit more energy today.
Maybe the next week you can try, you know, 14 hours of fasting instead. Um, but it's all about going gradually. I would say commit to a fasting schedule for at least a week before upping the game and, you know, deciding if, do you even need to, to increase? The fasting window, because again, it's not about fasting just to fast.
Like that's what I, when I sit down with a client who's maybe interested in trying fasting, the first thing I ask them is, why do you want to try fasting? What are you hoping to get out of it? And then, you know, we look at their lifestyle and I might [00:23:00] say, you don't need fasting. Like if you really wanna try it, we can, but you might not even need it.
So based on your needs, do you need to increase the eating window? For me, I was feeling good when I first started with intermittent fasting. So every week I would increase the window, um, and now I can fast anywhere and easily. It doesn't feel like, oh, I'm punishing myself. Like it really feels natural and intuitive at this point.
We're all fast, anywhere between. 14 to 18 hours a day. When I'm at the 18, it's usually because I'm just super busy. But when I eat, I eat enough, I eat nutrient dense. So it's like I feel good. I still feel like I have energy. Um, what I just want women to remember is that I. You should never be feeling like crap because of fasting.
Like that is a sign maybe to, to ease off. Um, it's, you're not winning any awards for suffering. So, you know, pay attention to how you feel. It's really, shouldn't [00:24:00] make you feel worse at all. Yeah. When you said that, I had a memory come up of an old boss I used to have, he had two, he had like a full-time job plus a business he owned and he was like, um, kind of.
Higher in his like church capacity or whatever, in his clergy. And I remember he was like, I do not have time to eat. So he's like, I literally don't eat. And then I go, I go home and eat dinner, all of my calories at dinner. And I remember thinking, that sounds awful, but like it worked for him, you know? And it wasn't necessarily because he wanted to per se, but it like worked for him.
And what I loved that you said was, you know, it. You, you still get your nutrients, you still get your calories in, um, no matter what hours you're eating, you're still getting that. So we kind of have talked about the benefits here, and I think there's a lot of really like whole body benefits. What about someone that is like, Hey, I, I [00:25:00] actually do want, like I do wanna use it for weight loss, or can I use it for weight loss?
What does that look like? How do we differentiate it from like a dieting program? So the diet part is what you're eating, whereas fasting is more about timing when you're going to eat. So I really don't look at fasting as a diet, um, because you can do intermittent fasting and then your diet, the actual diet is McDonald's.
You know what I mean? Yeah. So the fasting itself is not the diet and. I think it can be an excellent tool for weight loss, but you still have to be mindful of what you, you eat. So I do things in a little bit of an unsexy way. I'm legit gonna pull out the macro calculator and see for, you know, your age, uh, activity level, your height, your weight.
What [00:26:00] goal weight you wanna achieve. I'm gonna find out what you should be eating in terms of protein, fat, and carbs, and. From there, I'm gonna put you on maintenance. Even if you wanna lose weight, we're gonna say this is your maintenance calories to let supposedly stay the way you are. But we're just going to start getting rid of the processed foods like we need to see.
How does your body react? First of all, to maintenance. Like we're not going from insanely disordered eating high stress. You're stressed about losing weight. I need a quick fix, bandaid, gimme some fasting. And now let me guess. You're going to slash your, you're gonna wanna slash your calories plus fasting.
You're gonna feel like hell. And then you're going to stop fasting and say, oh, fasting didn't work for me. So fasting is a great tool for losing weight because it stops the, the. Between meal snacking. Um, but you still need to eat healthy to have the best results because I see that a lot too. I read [00:27:00] articles where it's like, eat whatever you want, just fast and it'll help you lose weight.
I don't know where that came from, but I do see it. And I'm just saying, you're not gonna have great results. You should still, um, clean up your eating. And then with the fasting as a tool, once again as support, it can aid in weight loss. And sometimes even without cutting back any calories, you're still in your maintenance calories.
But just cutting out the junk food, um, people will start to lose weight. It will like unlock something because as much as they have the whole, a calorie is a calorie out there and. I mean, I guess technically it is, but you have, we have to also understand that a calorie is like a code to our body. So a hundred grams, you know, a hundred calories of chocolate or chocolate bars and a hundred calories of fruit.
Yes. A calorie's a calorie. They both have sugar even. But our body is not going to respond in the same way. So that's why I say [00:28:00] it's like a code. Certain processes get unlocked in the body depending on what you're eating. And do you, we don't want that process to be inflammation. No. So it really does still matter what you eat, and sometimes we don't even have to suffer at all.
You may not even have to cut calories very much. Just take out some foods that are not a good code for your body because it may, it makes you react with insulin spikes and inflammation and feeling, you know, uh, tired in the afternoon. Um, so if you want the best to feel the best while losing weight, um, definitely.
You would have to have a handle on your diet. 'cause the fasting is not the diet. Yeah, I love that. I am also a believer that not every calorie is created equal. So I think that's really important message to share. Um, and you know, as you were talking, I was just thinking like, it feels like a very natural.
Um, [00:29:00] form of helping people. Quiet food noise too, which is really cool because it allows your, it kind of allows your body to, it just allows you to like, stop with all the food noise and what I'm supposed to be doing and not supposed to be doing, and like. It's setting a, a simple boundary. I kind of said that already, is like, it's really setting that simple boundary that helps, um, eliminate some of that, those hard choices.
It doesn't, they don't have to be choices anymore. Right. Exactly. Exactly. Honestly. Especially when you get, for someone who may get into a 24 hour fast or two or three day fast, oh my goodness. Like you feel so free. Like you don't even realize how much of your mental bandwidth. It's like, what am I gonna eat for breakfast?
Oh, what's for lunch? I gotta cook for the family. Oh, I gotta go do groceries. And the amount of time to prep and cook and eat and clean up and just always. Like the thought of food takes up [00:30:00] a big portion of our lives, and it just, that's exactly it, Elizabeth. It clears that noise out for even if, just for a small part of your day.
Um, because every choice, whether it's about food or otherwise, is tapping into our energy. It's tapping into our bandwidth. Um. We can feel depleted at the end of the day after making so many different choices. So if we can just eliminate one that, oh, I don't have to think about what to eat for breakfast anymore.
You have freed up mental space, um, less stress, less decision fatigue in your day. Just one less thing, which I love. That for women, because we do so much, we need one less thing, let's be honest. Right. Oh, I think that too. I'm like, man, I should really do this. Like I don't have to think about food. That might be really helpful.
And it's not so much think about food in the sense of like, should, shouldn't, but like just the amount of time and energy I have three little kids and [00:31:00] getting them food and then getting myself food, I'm like, this is exhausting. And some days it feels like. What even is breakfast? You know, like I try, I and I love breakfast.
It's like really valuable to me. It's important, but what happens sometimes is like I don't get the opportunity to sit down and be mindful about it. And it might be a cool opportunity for me to say, maybe I don't eat breakfast right now. Like maybe I can have that breakfast food in a few hours when all the chaos has died down for a minute.
And I can still get that. Um, you know, that food in and, and what we talk a lot about around here, and I just wanna remind anyone listening, is that you have the ability to listen to and meet the needs of your own body. And so, you know, you may have a shorter eating window, but your body's still gonna give you hunger and fullness cues.
And when you are in tune, you're still gonna be able to eat the amount of calories, the food that you need because your body's gonna say, Hey, I need this and, and I do this. I mean, lots of women do this. A [00:32:00] little bit backwards where they starve themselves at the beginning of the day and then they skip meals and then by the evening they're binging because their body's actually hungry.
But they put themselves in too, too much of a hunger space. And I kind of flip it usually. I love breakfast. I like to have, I. Bigger breakfast, bigger lunch, and then by dinner I'm not really that as hungry as as normal. And so our bodies are really good at being able to do that. And what you're really giving us is kind of this permission to just adjust things a little bit and know that our body will still give us the cues that we need.
It's not gonna interrupt those cues. Exactly, exactly. You will still, you will still get your hungry and satisfied cues. Um, but yeah, I love, that's what I love about fasting. Make it, tailor it to your lifestyle. So if mornings are chaotic, maybe that's your time to fast. Yeah. Speak [00:33:00] to the women here who are like, uh, should I consider this?
Like, who is a good candidate for this? Or. Like where, where might they be right now? Like kind of give us a little motivation to get started or like who really does fit this, um, description to try something like this? Yeah. So I think a good candidate would be someone who is. Curious, curious about fasting as a tool May usually, or maybe someone who's tried other, um, methods to bring a sense of health or wellness or balance to their body.
People who are interested in natural approaches. And even better, if you've already done a little bit of research on fasting and it's, and you see. Have read about the deeper health benefits of it. I think that is an excellent [00:34:00] candidate to, to potentially start. They, they've already been looking for solutions.
Um, I. The one people who I might think are not ready are people looking for quick fixes. This is not a quick fix, and I feel like if you approach it in that way, that's where you risk all those pitfalls and not having success with fasting and possibly doing. More, uh, damage to already hormones that are already out of balance.
So, um, if it was like, oh, I just saw this thing on TikTok, get a slim stomach in 10 days by fasting. No, I, I, there's nothing, I have nothing against that, but I wouldn't personally take that person as a client, let's say. Um, so I like when people are looking for. Self care, like I, I like when, like, let's frame fasting as a way to take care of yourself, as a way to [00:35:00] empower yourself.
People who are still seeing it as punishment or res or restriction or sacrifice to get some external reward, I, that might not be a good fit. Yeah, maybe we could say, you know, if you're coming in from a place of desperation, that's not gonna be very successful for you. Good word. Yes. Awesome. Well, this has been such a good, a good conversation and I wanna remind everyone that you're gonna go deeper with us inside our Women's Wellness Hub and help us kind of really get in the mindset how to get started.
Um, you know, just like getting, getting like the step by step, um, space. But what would you say to someone who's listened to this and they're like, yeah, maybe I wanna take that next step. What is that for them? Read my two week mindset reset because I do not recommend anybody start fasting without laying a foundation.
I just don't. So getting into the right frame of mind, um, starting the [00:36:00] process of cleaning up your, your current diet. Like if there's a lot of processed foods, start with getting the processed foods out of the diet. Don't start by cutting any calories. Just start seeing what it feels like again, to eat.
Majority Whole Foods, um, but definitely lay a good foundation. So when I say mindset, that again is about not seeing fasting as, oh, it's restrictive and I'm just doing it to reach this goal because I. To see the best results in anything is when your thoughts, words, and actions are aligned. So if you're fasting for health, but your words are, oh, this is hard and this is restrictive, and ugh, but I'll lose 10 pounds in the end, it's not gonna be sustainable.
When there's one of those three things are out of whack, either the thoughts, the actions, or or the words. I feel like it is not, eventually you will stop it [00:37:00] just because it's not in line. It's like you're in opposition with yourself. So just seeing fasting as a healing modality, as self-care, as a tool to promote your health.
That is a great start for the mindset. Um, I would also say start reading about fasting because input equals output. And so the more you're reading about it, the more it will feel less intimidating, and it will feel easier while you're fasting. Um, so make sure your inputs are aligned with your bigger goals.
Um, you know, read healthy recipes. Uh, the more you're, you know. Into this whole space of health, wellness, fasting, the more the actions will feel easier. Um, and yeah, so that's where I would say to start, read my, my Reset mindset guide to prepare yourself for fasting. And if you don't, I would say get your mind right about fasting, because it's not a punishment, it's not restrictive.
And first clean up [00:38:00] your diet where you're getting rid of the processed foods. And then if you're feeling good after that, a week or two. Try it out. Start slow. Maybe a 10 hour, you know, 12 hours of fasting. Write down in a journal how you feel. That's where I'd say to start, oh man, this conversation has gone exactly as I hoped.
I feel like it brings a lot of hope to him in a lot of information, right? It helps us understand. Uh, I, I feel like it just helps kind of weed out the noise that's happening. And so it's been, it's been so helpful and I hope anyone listening is like, yes, I understand fasting a little bit better from a perspective of.
Health nourishment, right? That, that very gentle approach to health and wellness. And just like that, what I loved is the opportunity to be a little bit more self-disciplined. And I think there's something really powerful about having self-discipline, um, and self-confidence. So thank you so much for kind of sharing, [00:39:00] for sharing everything.
I think it's brought a lot of, um, positive. Positivity to fasting. Will you tell everyone where we can? Where they can find you and they can listen and learn more from you? Yes, of course. So I am on Facebook under fasting with Nikki. That's N-I-C-K-I. Um, I'm also on LinkedIn where I publish newsletters on fasting and health.
Uh, I try to do it at least once a month, but now that I've just taken on an assistant, it might start actually being more regular. But, um, I give a lot of tips on mindset. To make healthy habits fasting and otherwise more sustainable. So LinkedIn is also fasting with Nikki and my Instagram is a little bit more, um, not so health focused.
It's more about fitness, but again, it's fasting with Nikki. If anybody has any questions about this, um, our, our interview [00:40:00] today, they can reach out to me on any of those channels, ask away. I love this. This is my passion. I will gladly and happily answer. And we'll make sure all those links are in the show notes and everything as well.
So thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you, Elizabeth.
