Fasting, Flexibility & Real Life: Making It Work When Life Gets Busy

Erika: Hi and welcome to the Pause and Fast Podcast. I'm Erica Barnhart, and I am your host today, and I love talking about intermittent fasting. I am not a medical doctor, but I am an intermittent fasting enthusiast. So thank you so much for joining me today as you take a break from your day to focus on yourself. So today I want to talk about something that I think is incredibly important when it comes to fasting, and that is flexibility. Fasting is something that should fit To your life and not something that requires your entire life to revolve around it. So I want to invite any listener that is fasting or who is focused on taking care of themselves in any way. If you have a story, an experience, a perspective about fasting, I would really love to have a conversation with you. I'm always interested in talking to other faster, other creators, other influences. Let's help each other out. So reach out to me directly through my podcast email. It's pause.and.fast at gmail.com. You could also follow me on social media. I'm on TikTok, Instagram, and on Facebook. So you can message me there as well. So just a quick reminder that I'm sharing shorter conversations on those things, some tips, positive mindset, and vibes only. So follow me if you want to fill your feed with positive good things. So Today guys I wanna talk about How easy it is for fasting to become a set of roles. Things like I have to fast this many hours, or my window has to be exactly this many hours. I can't eat before this exact time. I messed up my fast. I need to make up for what I ate yesterday. I need to revenge fast. And what I want to remind everybody today is that fasting needs to actually fit into your actual life. So I know. That just like me, everybody who is listening has work, appointments, family, friends, travel, errands, birthdays. Unexpected things always happen in our worlds. Flexibility doesn't mean that you failed at fasting. Flexibility can actually be what allows you to continue to fasting. It's how I fit it into my everyday real life. Well, guys, this is what I want to talk to you about flexibility this week because I actually had one of those crazy weeks that you never know what's gonna happen. Those kind of weeks are rare, but as an experienced faster of three and a half years, I've had several of them and I've made it through. And I wanted to talk to you about it as Well. so I'm gonna start a little bit with telling you about my week. I'm gonna tell you about what went well, and a little bit about what I may have changed if I could turn back time. let's start with Wednesday. So Wednesday was a particularly busy day. I had to visit a few businesses for work and I and they were each about an hour apart. So I spent a lot of time driving to these businesses. I was in my car for a very long time. It was a rainy day too. Not that that really matters for this story, but just added a little extra to everything, right? For that day. And then I had a volunteer opportunity and it was so much fun. I helped with a radio thon for the Children's Miracle Network in the radio station. this is the second year I've done that. It's a lot of fun, but I agreed to volunteer from four until seven and I just know that I wasn't gonna be home until late. So I was really getting into some diet brain about this day because I knew at best I would have maybe an hour to stop at home before my volunteer opportunity to eat. And I didn't want to eat that late and I didn't want to eat too early, and I thought about not eating at all and having a down day, and I just can't believe how much time and energy I thought about this particular Wednesday for whatever reason. It's just an anomaly. So even up until the very last minute, I'm gonna tell you why I was so diet-brained about it. So everything Worked out. I got to come home. I almost had a full hour at home. I ran in the door and I had this really good bacon. I threw it in the air fryer and toasted some sourdough bread, and I got dressed for my event. And I had a really nice sandwich, a handful of kettle cooked potato chips, a BLT is what I had. And then I made myself a little charcuterie board. And it was beautiful. and I grabbed myself a pear. So in my mind, I was like, I'm gonna have to eat all of this. before I get to the hospital, which is like forty minutes away. But I'm gonna eat and drive and I get all of my nourishment in so that way I could close my window and move on. And then I said, whoa, stop. This is exactly what I'm always talking about. Not rushing through your meal or thinking that there's this timer at the very end or you have to close your window or else. And I was like, let's take the or else out of it. It is a busy day. Let's see what happens here. So I ended up eating my sandwich. I had my chips in the car. I ate my pear and then I all of a sudden said I am really satisfied right now. I'm gonna put all of this other food aside and you know what? If I want it after the event, I'll eat it after the event. And then at the event I had a little it was like Nutella dipping cup and a cup of coffee with my friends that were volunteering as well. And then I did get to the car and I was like, I actually do want those things. So I ate a hard-boiled egg and cheese and I also had a banana. So that was really good. I ate it on the way home. So I ended up having almost a six-hour window, which I normally do not prefer. It feels like a long period of time for me personally, usually, but this actually felt really good. It felt like a good decision. I felt nourished, full, satisfied, happy. Now, with this day, I want to tell you that I think everything went almost perfect for a very busy day. I had a great window filled with nourish. Foods. The only thing I would change about this day is I would have gotten rid of that Diet Brain sooner. So next time I'm gonna recognize Diet Brain as soon as it starts to kick in, and just remember that it's not a race to close my window. It's all about taking care of myself. So Wednesday I loved. I can look back and say That one was pretty good. So then let's talk about my day on Thursday. This day became a little weird all of a sudden, too. very weird week. Again, a very busy day at work, traveling around, doing all of the things, and then I had planned on coming home and making a nice dinner for my family. and literally I was about to leave, I was on my way home, and my husband messaged me and as you If you've been listening for a while, you know that my daughter and my granddaughter live with us. And he said the the kid and the grandchild, she picked up a work shift. Her girlfriend said that she'd babysit. We have the whole night off, and I don't want you to have to cook. Okay. That sounds great to me. I don't mind cooking, but you know what? These kind of moments happen very rarely. He's like, Let's get an Italian sub and some pizza from up the street and just make it an easy night. And you know what? We did. And I really liked that pizza, and I had a piece of a sub, and everything seemed really good. And then we continued our evening, and we're watching shows, and we've been playing a video game with some friends, so we're playing our video game, and it all this happened about 5 or 5:30 with the pizza, and then the evening progressed. And this hasn't happened to me in a really long time, but at 10 o'clock at night. I felt legitimately hungry. Jen Stevens talks about this all the time. Like if you close your window too early and maybe you didn't have enough nourishing food, your body may want more. And that happened to me at ten o'clock at night. And I was honestly kind of mad about it. Because Erica doesn't usually eat at 10 o'clock at night. That's something that doesn't happen hardly ever. But I just really felt like maybe it's something that I needed, especially since I'm having this busy week. So I made a decision to have another piece of pizza at 10 o'clock at night and then it actually made me feel a little bit better in the moment, but I felt pretty yucky and sluggish all night and I had little bit of indigestion and so this wasn't the worst thing that ever happened. If I really think about it, if I open my window at five o'clock with pizza and I close it at 10 o'clock with pizza, that's only a five hour window. It was just I think a little later than I wanted, and I still didn't feel like my body had enough nourishing food. food. So flashback to yesterday, guys, again, I'm gonna make this beautiful dinner for my family and it's gonna be great. We just moved it to Friday. And then something happened, guys, that I'll share with you. So my poor little granddaughter, it turns out that she was on antibiotics and she had an allergic reaction to penicillin. Poor baby, right? And this actually happened on Wednesday. Started on Wednesday, so this added to the stress of the week. But of course she went to the doctor. The doctor said that's likely what it is, but then it kept getting worse. So she went back to the doctor on Friday, and the doctor said that she had some concerns about it being something worse than just a reaction and asked us to take the baby to children's hospital. I said, really? Tonight we have to do that. And she said, I really feel like it's important, and that's where she has to have the test. done. So I said, okay, looks like we're going to children's hospital. So I didn't get to make my beautiful dinner once again and I quickly grabbed some leftover pizza. again and had it because we had to get to the hospital and that's what I did again last night. So by Friday night I was feeling pretty yucky. I said I feel like there's been three days in a row. No Wednesday wasn't terrible. I didn't nourish my body but at least two days in a row where I just didn't feel like I nourished my body and treated it the way that I wanted to. But you know what? I never stopped fasting. I still had a window. I still ate my food and actually I did enjoy most of So Wednesday versus yesterday, what did I learn about myself? That maybe if I would have planned a couple more vegetables or a salad, I would have felt better with the pizza. or sometimes whenever things get stressful, I kinda might go to some quicker foods, as we all do. Like a lot of us were raised in a culture where fast food is there sometimes whenever you need it. It exists for a reason. But I wish that I would have changed something about Wednesday and then I never expected Friday to happen. So we're going to fast forward to today and when I'm recording this it is Saturday and then again another busy day guys. Sadly, one of my good friends, her father, passed away and I had to ret attend the memorial service today. But I do have good news. although that was sad. It was really nice to see some of my friends that I haven't seen in a long time. And they had a beautiful lunch. I mean such good food. Great chicken, broccoli salad, potatoes, all the fix fruit, so and cheese. So I had a really, really great lunch. In fact, I was like, How the heck again am I gonna come home and make this beautiful meal I've been promising my family? So I got home and I even said that my husband's like, I'm stuffed. And I said, I don't know how I'm gonna cook this meal. And he's like, You don't have to. I mean, we can eat pizza. I said, I'm not gonna do that to you guys. I'm not gonna do that. So I decided to make it. It actually didn't take Very long. It was pretty quick. I did change one thing. I was gonna like do these hand cut potatoes. I'm like, we're gonna flop to mac and cheese because you know grandma's not that hungry anyway. I I don't want either of those, and you guys don't care. So I made my dinner and I didn't think I was gonna eat any of it, but I did have a little bit of the ham loaf, and if you don't know that what that is, it's quite good. We get it from our local meat market and some beans, and they ate the rest of this stuff, and it was really good. And I just closed my window and I said I want to come up and I want to talk. Talk to my community, my friends about flexibility because this was one of those weeks that really challenged me a little bit where I had done everything. I had diet brain, I was stress eating. my windows were a little longer and I didn't eat exactly all of the food that I planned on eating. But guess what? I'm still here, I'm still showing up, I'm still an intermittent faster. I didn't fail. I just learned a little bit, or maybe next time I can plan a little bit better for that. So I just Also, want to talk about diet brain. Sometimes I get stuck in this as well. So we all need to calm down and take a step back and say and stop judging good food versus bad food, good day versus bad day. I was good today or I ruined everything. All of those things, because one meal doesn't determine your progress, one shorter fast doesn't erase any of your previous fasting. you don't need to punish yourself, you don't need to extend your fast. Every day is a new day. Every day is a new fast, and that is one of the most beautiful messages that I could give you. No matter what happens today, tomorrow, you could simply pause, you can check in with yourself, and you get to decide what makes sense next. So have a general plan, not rigid rules. Instead of see saying things like I must eat at two o'clock and be done by four o'clock, maybe we should think about I'm planning to eat this afternoon. Maybe have a backup plan. That's something I wish I would have had this week, but I didn't. I'm human. So know what's in your fridge. Maybe have a plan a little bit ahead of time. Don't turn an ex unexpected meal into a crisis in your mind. Sometimes life requires you to eat earlier or eat later or maybe something different than you planned. So also don't worry. If you eat more than you intended, you don't necessarily need to fix it. Just start today, one day at a time. What can we learn from this? That's what I'm gonna ask myself instead of what did I do wrong. So I'm gonna bring it back. To something. For me, fasting isn't about creating another set of rules that makes my life harder. It's about finding something that works in my life. Because I've been making these videos on TikTok and Instagram, I like it. it's called fasting without the drama, life with a little more pause. And that really speaks to me. Because sometimes fasting can feel a little dramatic, you can get a little d diet brain, you can read things that throw you off, and Take the drama out of it. We're all just humans. We're all doing the best that we can. I'm proud of you for showing up. I'm proud of you for taking this time just to focus on yourself and thinking about things that you may be doing and hopefully using your ex my experiences to help your own journey. So I'm gonna ask you guys where could you be more flexible? are you following a plan that actually is fitting into your lifestyle and are you ever letting diet brain get in the way of your joy? So, again, I'm gonna ask you guys to follow me on TikTok, follow me on Instagram, join me on Facebook. If you can, invite other fasters to join as well. I promise, just positive vibes, fasting, and everything like that. I want to encourage you to share an episode with somebody. I've interviewed some really great people, and I'm so proud of them. So if you love one of my episodes, please ask someone to listen. And remember that the goal. to make fasting fit perfectly into your life. It's to find a way that fasting can actually live alongside your life. Thanks so much for listening guys. I'll talk to you real soon.