spk_1: 0:01
I am Dr Tabatha, the functional gynecologist. I'm a board certified OBY giant and functional medicine physician. I've embraced the world of functional medicine and wellness through my own personal health journey, and I'm super excited to share my wisdom and unique perspective as it pertains to women's health. So if you're struggling hormone imbalance, weight gain, period issues, anxiety and son, you name it, then you come to the right place. I want to be your functional gynecologist. So welcome. Hi, friends. I'm super excited for today. I'm interviewing Shawn. Tell Ray she's the author of the Amazon bestseller Waste Away, the Shan Tell Ray Way and Fasting to Freedom. She also owns a multimillion dollar real estate business, so she's doing all kinds of stuff after struggling with her weight and autoimmune disease. For years, she began interviewing thousands of thin women for their eating and lifestyle tips. She used these interviews to develop her Shawn Tell Ray way. She's gonna talk about this today, and I think you're really going to connect with what she has to say, Sean tells. Helped thousands of women around the world lose weight through her Shawn Tell Ray way of intermittent fasting. She's also created multiple programs, tools and free resource is to guide readers through her revolutionary approach to weight loss. Her podcast and website serve as a beacon of hope to the many people who struggle with sustainable weight loss. So enjoy listening to our interview today as she talks about the benefits of intermittent fasting. How to incorporate it into your life. And we also talk about her book Fasting to Freedom, which is using fasting as a way of strengthening your faith, which I just think is a really beautiful way to serve God and to strengthen your own health and spirituality. So enjoy. Well, welcome, Shanteau. Thanks for coming on.
spk_0: 2:23
Thanks for having May.
spk_1: 2:25
Yeah, I'm super excited to talk to you. You know, we just talked the other day when I was on your podcast, and so now I feel like we're becoming
spk_0: 2:33
fast friends. This is awesome. That's right. It is awesome.
spk_1: 2:37
Right before we came on, Shantel was making fun of me because I'm sitting in my closet today, So I Yeah, I've had to change things up a little bit with this Covad 19 You know, I didn't want toe cancel this so I figured out, you know, let's make it work. And this is what I'm doing.
spk_0: 2:56
Something happened. And I love it.
spk_1: 2:58
Yeah, you are one of those people. That's why I've been so impressed following you watching your story. You are one of those people that just makes it happen, no matter what the obstacles. You're my kind of girl. So, yeah, I would love
spk_0: 3:12
for you to
spk_1: 3:12
share with my listeners. Like what took you down this path of health and wellness and, you know, got how'd you get into intermittent fasting?
spk_0: 3:23
Yes. So I basically, you know, I've struggled with my weight my entire life, and I had finally started deciding. I said, OK, well, if I really want to know what it takes to be thin, I'm gonna interview people who have been naturally thin by eating what they want, right? And so, because I I didn't wanna have to count calories. I didn't wanna have Teoh, um, you know, do meal plans. I'm not really that kind of I don't I didn't want people saying you can eat this. You can't have this. You know what? I was constantly on a yo yo dieting plan. And so what I started doing as I started interviewing women and I said, OK, if you've been in your whole life Andi, what did you do exactly? And the crazy part about it is none of those women ever told me they did intermittent fasting. But after I interviewed one after another, I'd be like, Did you eat breakfast? And they'd be like, Now they're like, Oh, I didn't start eating until about 12 or I didn't start eating until two or you see what I'm saying. But none of them were like, Oh, I do intermittent fasting,
spk_1: 4:29
right? It was just their life.
spk_0: 4:31
Yeah, they just basically ate two meals a day, you know? And so some of them might be like, Well, maybe today I might eat breakfast and lunch. But I didn't eat dinner. You know, our or sometimes I might just need a really big lunch, and then I'm done. I don't need anything else for the rest of the day. And so it was just about me, literally. If you asked 20 of my friends of my top friends right now, all of them would be like, How did you meet Chantelle? And they'd be like, Well, she just randomly came up to me
spk_1: 5:02
and was
spk_0: 5:02
like, Hey, could I ask you like, what do you mean for breakfast? What do you eat for lunch? How do you stay said then? You know,
spk_1: 5:08
I love that I
spk_0: 5:08
literally did that for every person. And then it finally clicked to me is that these people were eating two meals or last a day, sometimes one meal, right?
spk_1: 5:19
Maybe on
spk_0: 5:19
how much they ate that day. They were eating when they were hungry. They were stopping when they were full and they weren't in bondage to food. And that's what I wanted. And so that's my first book. I wrote my first book called Waste Way. And that just literally is all the principles that they taught me in that book. So
spk_1: 5:38
I love that I love not being in bondage to food because, yeah, I food used to talk to me. You know, I couldn't have it in the same building or same room because I wouldn't stop thinking about it. And so it does feel like it has a hold on you, and I love that you figured out the patterns that these women were following and you put it into a book. How long did it take you to actually incorporate that into your own life?
spk_0: 6:06
Well, once I started saying, OK, I'm gonna start cause cause Intermittent fasting is one piece of the puzzle. So I have about 10 or 12 different principles in the book that I say. Everyone basically said the same 10 things, right? But but intermittent fasting is just such a huge piece of that puzzle, and it really gave me freedom to be able to lose over £30 be able to keep it off. So that's really kind of one of the big golden nuggets of it. But it's not the only piece. You know. I've seen people who have lost maybe £2030 on intermittent fasting, and then they're in a rut and they're stuck because they're not doing the other nine principles that are super important in weight loss.
spk_1: 6:54
Right? And that's where your coaching comes in, right? You do coaching online, Is that right?
spk_0: 6:59
Yeah, we have some. Could we do coaching online? We just meet with people via Skype or you know anything else, and we also do it as far as, um, we have other coaches, so someone could be a coach if they wanted to. As long as they read the book, waste away and they agreed with, You know, the principles that are in there and we're able to kind of we have a program that takes people to going It's a it's we kind of make it like from couch to five K. You know, you know, you sitting on the couch, you're not doing anything and then you can all of a sudden run If I case we have like, ah, plan that walks you through that that goes OK, you know, maybe we start with a 10 hour eating on the move to an eight hour meeting window, and then then it's not just the eating windows. It's also just all the other principles that, um you need to do to lose weight.
spk_1: 7:50
That's awesome. And so when women go through this program, they get rid of that bondage to food. They figure out to know when they're hungry and when they're satisfied.
spk_0: 8:03
Yes, so one of the biggest things that is that I talk about is this deprivation cycle right on and so I am so adamant on people not feeling deprived, because if soon as you feel deprived, what happens is you have this terrible cycle, see, you restrict the food, then you strive to avoid what you've been quotas deemed bad food, right? And then all of a sudden, you give in to that said restricted item. Right? Then you have all this guilt and shame, and then you go, Oh, my gosh. Now I'm gonna, you know, repeat this cycle and then it's just this horrible cycle of of deprivation. Yeah,
spk_1: 8:48
and it's such a psychological game. So many women just get so down on themselves and they get into this all or none mentality like, Oh, I left that up. I guess I'm going to just give up now. So I love that you're fixed. You know, you're dealing with that aspect.
spk_0: 9:08
Yeah. And the thing is, is the deprivation of restrictive diets always leads to overeating and binging. And so it's just a constant thing that if you just literally save yourself like I'm never going on a diet again, I'm not going. Teoh deprive myself of this, deprived myself of that. I'm just going Teoh, choose foods that fuel my body that I feel great on. But I don't deprive myself. So like in my house right now, it's so funny. And I'm telling you, at least seven out of 10 people who come to my house, I have this huge table that's in our dining room like it's huge. It's probably, I don't know, at least 10 feet. And I love to have snacks out for people. And so I have all these different snacks and they're all like organic, But they're not all super super healthy. They're all organic. But, I mean, someone might have cane sugar, regular sugar, you know? But there's tons of different sacks, and everyone always asked her like Until you just lose your mind
spk_1: 10:17
when you
spk_0: 10:17
go by this table like you have this stable, it has, like the most amazing sex, and I'm like, No, I don't lose my mind when they go question because I already Nello when I'm physically hungry, I can have any of those snacks I want have a few bites of it, and when I'm done, I just move on. But because I'm not, I'm not in bondage to that food. It could sit there, you know forever. One of the stories I tell in my but because I had this assistant that I had probably, I don't know, 15 years ago in my at my work, and she was a thin eater. She was just always one of those, you know, she's naturally just didn't gain weight and was always thin. And one day she was there and she bought one of those six pack of doughnuts.
spk_1: 11:07
You know, the beginning. You
spk_0: 11:09
expected that you get, like, a 7 11 0 yeah, Put him on her best. And she bought him the first day. It Saturday s little time. Then the second day it sat under ask the whole day. And then the third day, she had a doctor's appointment and she was like, I'm not gonna be in the next day. So that third day I was thinking to myself, I can't. I've been wanting. It was powdered donuts. I had been wanting his donuts, and I couldn't believe that she just had him sitting under guest the first day that the second day And so finally I was like, Oh, she won't mind if I ate three of them, so I ate three of them. Then, like five minutes later, ate the whole bag. And then I ended up going toe wall on getting her places. But it always blew my mind cause I was thinking the exact same thing. How could she be so disciplined to have those six pack of doughnuts there and not be tempted to eat it? And it's so funny how everyone always asked me about all the snacks that I have on mine and when it just goes back to, like, we have a huge barn or house like that has alcohol up the wazoo. I mean, any kind of alcohol premium shelf, everything you could imagine. And I probably drink twice a year. Not a big drinker. I I like to eat my calories. I don't like to drink them. So I just have never been a big drinker. Having a couple times just never been a thing for me. But again, when you don't have that magnetic force to be like I have tohave it, you know I can have any of that help college. I'm gonna want it. I just choose not happen again. So it's the same thing with that fat snack tray is like I love having that feeling that I can have whatever I want, as long as I do it in moderation. I'm eating a couple by some not going out of control, and I try to get the healthiest version of whatever that is. So if it's a granola bar, I'm gonna pick an organic one that has very few ingredients. That's clean and you know, but it's still satisfies me.
spk_1: 13:09
Yeah, I love that freedom from food that is fabulous. I think so many lessons to be learned there. So that's definitely a great benefit of intermittent fasting. What are some other benefits that you found?
spk_0: 13:24
So for me, the biggest thing and one of the things that people say right now is that they are saying that intermittent fasting is they should be calling a time restricted eating. I don't know if you heard people say that with the time Rastriya, but they say that time restricted eating is where it's on Lee when it's a form of fasting, where the time of the day is limited or compressed, meaning they eaten in a six hour window on hate our window and they say intermittent fasting is anything more than 24 hours. But I'm what I say is that intermittent fasting we've all been using that term intermittent fasting as the same is time restricted eating. You can't just now all of a sudden say Okay, if it's a six hour would know and eat eight hour eating window, it's time restricted eating more than 24 hours. It's it's intermittent fasting. So I'll just clarify that when I talk about intermittent fasting, I am talking about just eating in a maybe a six hour window or an eight hour window. So
spk_1: 14:31
okay, yeah, that's a good clarification, for sure.
spk_0: 14:35
Yeah, and you know, it takes a little bit of time to adjust to intermittent fasting. And so the biggest thing is, is that you want to get to the point where you are more fat, adapted, and what that means is your body is now using back for fuel instead of sugar for fuel. And my favorite analogy that I say is that if you have money in your pocket, well, let's say you have $100 you go to the store and there's you want to buy a little purse for $80. Well, you wouldn't go to the bank to go get the money cause you already have $100 in your bank Your pocket right now. So the same thing happens when it comes to burning fat. If you already have sugar in your in your stores, then your body is not going to go to burning. It's that because it already has glucose able to be used. And so the analogy is the cash in your pocket is like the glucose. And then the fat is like the money you have stored in your bank that you want to be in a fat being. Fat adapted is a metabolic state where your body has been in ketosis long enough that you kind of transitioned to what your body uses for fuel. So, you know, if all I'm used to is burning carbs and sugar for all my energy than once you start fasting and you're not constantly getting those carbs and sugar, your body has to find a new source of fuel. Which is that and so that's basically what it means to get your body fat adapted or getting used to intermittent fasting and people say that it really takes like six weeks to get fully fat. Adapted some people. It takes a week. Some people take a day, and it just really depends on how much weight you have to lose and how used to your body is to grabbing sugar or carbs for fuel instead of for fat,
spk_1: 16:33
right? Yeah, when I talk to my patients about it, if they've been eating three or four snacks a day, I have to get him off the snacking before I can even start to tighten up their window because they won't be able to handle it. Their body has totally for gotten how to tap into their fat stores. But it's amazing when you do get to that point, and then you become metabolically flexible how you can eat when you need to. And then, if, like, for me, when I go for on trips, I fly. I don't want to eat. I don't want to eat in the airports and you know that type of stuff that's the perfect time to have metabolic flexibility and just burn your fat for fuel. So I love it. I think it's a great tool,
spk_0: 17:19
and I really have gotten to the point where now I am a flexible enormity and faster. And what that means is, Is that flexible? It's basically exactly what it sounds like, right, but flexible, intermittent fasting is approached fasting that's not tightly restricted as some of the other purchase to intermittent fasting, meaning someone might say, OK, well, I eat in a six hour window. I started 12 05 I need to end at 605 You know where I do an eight hour window? I have to start at one oclock. I've got a did exactly nine. So it's basically where you say it. Sometimes I might have and, you know, breakfast and lunch. And then sometimes I might have lunch and dinner, and sometimes it might be a five hour windows. Sometimes I might only eat one meal a day. I'm listening toe what my body is calling me to eat for that day. I'm not eating more than I need. I'm not. I'm just eating exactly what it's craving. And so it's just very flexible. I'm not counting the hours and going, you know, one of the things I've seen people do that drives me crazy is that they will be like, OK, I'm gonna eat in a six are one. I'm gonna started 12 and then it's six o'clock. They'll just for like, 5 30 They'll just start eating everything but the kitchen
spk_1: 18:42
saying her
spk_0: 18:43
eating windows over at six. Look, and now they're just like overeating because they're worried that they're eating Window's closing. And I'm like, Really?
spk_1: 18:52
Yeah, that's not doing you any favorite Way to go, guys, How long have you been doing the flexible fasting?
spk_0: 19:00
You know, when I first started, I was a little bit more rigid. But what ISS funny is that your body will get used to eating it like around the same time, So my eating window is pretty much from 12 to 6 every day on The reason is is because it but it's still flexible, like high it. Maybe 12 30. It might be one oclock. It might be 11 45. It might be 11 o'clock. It's just I literally listen to my body and I go, my stomach will growl. I don't do not eat my first meal of the day until my stomach I've actually physically hurt. It growls, because then I know I have gotten it to complete empty and I'm truly hungry. I'm not eating for any other reason than true hunger. And so that's one thing that I absolutely always do so. But I would say in the beginning I was a lot more rigid. But now I'm just, you know, I just kind of look at my day. It's funny, cause in the last week I've been eating earlier, maybe like 10 30 I've been starting to eat. I've just been getting hungrier. And so one of the girls I work with Heather was like, You're starting need earlier. What's going on? The oh so like people know I've been done such a routine, But again, I think it's the way to go. That's That's the way to true freedom. Is they just listening to your body?
spk_1: 20:28
Yeah, definitely, because sometimes you're expending more energy, right? Sometimes your workouts change up. Sometimes you're more physically active or less physically active. Sometimes you're sick, you know. So those metabolic needs change. And I think if you can get your body to be able to get to that flexible point, it's just amazing.
spk_0: 20:51
And if you do the flexible fasting right it actually will force your body to dip into its own fat stores more and and you'll actually lose weight more because what happens is kind of like what I said before. But if I just really wait and I wait until I'm really hungry and then sometimes I might even wait a little bit more than that is to make sure I'm just definitely physically hungry before I eat. And then I even let's say it's let's say it's five o'clock and I know my window's gonna close at six. I might say, I'm just I'm not hungry right now. I'm not just cause my eating window's gonna close at six. I'm not, Do I'm not playing that game. I'm just might be a 6 30 I might go. Okay, I'm actually hungry again. To now eat. I'm gonna eat at 6 30 or I might just decide. I'm just not gonna you dinner tonight like, and then that means if I didn't eat dinner the night before, then that's why the next day I might be hungry or a 10 o'clock instead of 12 0 clock because I didn't need dinner right again. It's just super flexible.
spk_1: 21:57
Yeah, I love that. Do you have any quote side effects from this that you would say aren't so pleasant or that you had to get over?
spk_0: 22:09
Yeah, I think for me, just cause I've been doing it for so long. Um, but the side effects, one of the biggest ones is really what I do. Extended fasting. Not really that much anymore. Especially like maybe if I do one meal a day, but sometimes I get cold when I'm fasting, and that's a big side effect Is that if you're if you're constantly cold, that's not something to get really like alarmed at. But people don't realize when you're eating food and you're digesting food, it takes your body. A lot of it takes a lot of work to digest all that food. Yeah, so if you think about it, your body creates heat when it's digesting food. So on a fast day when you're eating less, you're not getting that kind of heating from eating that food. And so you know, your body is also really good at protecting your vital organs, which means that if you're not eating as much, it might sense and prioritize them. So your extremities like your hand and feet might get cold. But the good news is, is that your body actually burns calories, maintaining a stable temperature. So if you let's say or colder, that means you're burning more calories. So you don't need Teoh like freak out. I mean, I would put on some socks, put on some gloves, jump around. You know, if it's hot outside, go for a walk. None. One of the best tips that I have seen so many thin eaters dio is that when they are cold, I mean, I'm sorry when they are, they think they might be hungry or they need something to Dior. They need a snack. They have a cup of hot herbal tea. Yeah, that's
spk_1: 24:09
what I do
spk_0: 24:09
you have That's like, That's like their go to Instead of eating through their having no calories. It kind of warms them up against them. That kind of the idea of like putting something to their mouth, But they're not eating anything. And so that cup of hot tea is a really, really great thing to Dio.
spk_1: 24:30
Yeah, I love that. I think that's great advice. I just think it's awesome that you're sharing this with people and so that other people can benefit from this. And what I love even more is that it's faith based. So are you comfortable talking about your faith based journey and all of this and how that's played a role?
spk_0: 24:52
Yeah, I would love to. So if you look in the Bible, the Bible talks about fasting over 70 times in the Bible, right? And so you know one of the things that I talk about in my other books. So my my first book, that ever was Waste Way, and that's really just about no fasting and all the Thin Eater principles. But then the second book is really about my journey. Teoh fast for spiritual reasons, and I believe that that is a huge deal. There's more reasons than just weight loss too fast on DSO that's really about extended fasting. So it's called fasting to Freedom, the gift of fasting because fasting is such a gift, and no one really likes to think of it as a gift because they're like what that is. Not again George, right? That's a big bank, and it's like once you get to the place where you go. This is amazing. And I talk about in fasting the freedom that there's different reasons why people faster than the Bible. So one of them waas because they had, like, a nagging sin, right? And that if you have a nagging sin in your life, which would be if you're listening to this and overeating is an issue, then that would be a reason to fast to kind of say, God, I really want you to come into my life and take this out of my life. You won't want to basically taste victory over a nagging area of sin in your life. And sometimes maybe you just feel like you don't have God's provision. I mean, right now I know people are losing their jobs. They are, you know, struggling. That would be a great reason too fast. Um, you know, if you are overcoming difficult times and you need to receive a breakthrough when you're feeling stuck, that's another great reason to fast. So, you know, I think that what happens is my favorite analogy off. Fasting is scuba diving, so I live in Virginia Beach and our water here is Brown way. Don't want to come visit a demolition. Right now, we don't have blue water, not like gorgeous, like Cancun and Cabo. It's just not like that. And so when you stand over our water, you can't see the color of the fish or the coral or any of that. The only way to see it is if you put scuba gear on and you go underneath. And as soon as you put those glasses on, all of a sudden you can see the color of the fish and the coral and all of that, and that's what fasting does. It's It basically is a helps you to hear God's small whisper to help guide you to make decisions. So I don't ever make a big decision without fasting. Like if I'm deciding for me to do this or do that, I will go on an extended fast and you will just see God work in such an amazing way when you're doing a fast. So that's really what fasting the freedom is about.
spk_1: 27:58
That is so beautiful, and I completely agree with you. You know, there's physiological reasons why fasting makes us have mental clarity. You know key tones burn cleaner as a fuel than sugar does. But I just love the connections. Teoh, your faith. I just think it's so powerful when you can give that up, give that over to God, and he just opens up a whole new world, right? So,
spk_0: 28:30
yeah. And the thing is, I talk about different kinds of fasting. So, like in the beginning, like the one thing is, is that that I'm really passionate about is the word fast means not to eat. So you can't say I'm gonna fast from Facebook. You can say I'm gonna abstain from Facebook. You could say I'm gonna abstain from watching movies or I'm gonna stain for from this or that. But too fast means literally not Teoh sort of thing. And so that is a big you know, big thing that I talk about in that book. That's
spk_1: 29:08
fabulous. And you have done, um, things through your church. Is that right?
spk_0: 29:15
Yeah. I mean, I've spoken at different churches. I go around and speak a different women's conferences just about fasting and stuff like that. So I love doing that. I used to be a chilled before I when I was younger, I was actually a Children's pastor in a youth pastor before that. So I've done tons of work in the church. But I will tell you I grew up from the time I started going to church. My mom started taking us to church when I was 12 years old and between the time I was 12 and about the age of 30 even though I went to church all those years, I never heard one servant on fasting. I never even knew what fasting Waas until finally I went to this church and they talked about it. But there's so many pastors that are overweight and they're heavy and they just don't preach any sermons on fasting because they don't want to do it. And so they don't want people looking at them going When are we gonna do a fast? So they just don't talk about it. So I didn't even hear about fasting until I was much older.
spk_1: 30:16
Yeah, I would say the only time I hear about it is during Lent. Uh, you know, which is right now. And I think just this whole being sequestered with Cove in 19 is such a good reminder that you know what? Why don't we give things over to God. Why don't we listen to what the universe is saying? Like, Hey, it's time for break. It's time to reevaluate our lives in our situation. And I think starting with something as simple as time restricted eating is a way to gain some winds so that you feel in control and feel like you can make some changes. Wouldn't you say that that is powering empowering to women?
spk_0: 31:02
I totally do. And you know, one of my favorite versus in the Bible isn't chronicles. And since second Chronicles, and it says, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways that I will hear from heaven and I'll forgive their sin and heal their land. And I think if there's anyone passage right now that our entire country needs to hear is this verse right here.
spk_1: 31:30
And we
spk_0: 31:31
all need to humble ourselves. We need everyone should be praying right now that saying God, please come back into our country and he'll are people with everything going on.
spk_1: 31:41
Yeah, Amen. I love that. Oh, my gosh. Will you have so much wisdom to share. I really appreciate you coming on to the functional gynecologist because women need to hear this.
spk_0: 31:54
Yeah, and I will say one more thing since you are a functional gynecologist, Is that my periods before I started doing intermittent fasting were all over the place, absolutely, all over the place. And so I never knew when my period waas, you know, up from down men. For whatever reason, it's such as soon as I started intermittent fasting, it literally regulated my hormones, which regulated my periods. And now I am ISR regular, you know? I mean, sometimes I may be, you know, 28 days, some days, 29 sometimes 30. But I still don't you feel like that's still a very regular period?
spk_1: 32:35
Yeah, that's very regular. And I'm so glad that you brought that up because you, when you get off that sugar insulin, yo yoed diet situation. Yeah, your periods, they balance out. Your sex hormones aren't struggling to be produced in balanced, So that is a great benefit of fasting.
spk_0: 32:57
Yeah, because when your hormones can't communicate with the ovaries, that's when you run the risk of irregular periods and then infertility you know, poor poor bone health. I know I have seen women left and right on my show, and I get letters in and say I want to thank you so much for you teaching me how to do intermittent fasting because as soon as I did, I then got pregnant. They didn't have to dio, you know, all these in vitro and more moans and all kinds of other stuff. They literally started doing intermittent fasting and boom, they started getting pregnant so I could give you story after Smelly of that. Yeah, as well.
spk_1: 33:38
Yeah, that's why it's like my number one recommendation in the offices. Get off the snacking roller coaster, Start tightening up your eating window. It makes such a huge difference because, honestly, our periods are just a vital sign there just telling us what's going on in our body. And if they're heavier, a regular or not happening at all, that's like ding ding ding. You need to get control of your court is all in your sugar and your insulin. So that's great.
spk_0: 34:09
Yeah, because basically, the function of the head with Alma's and the pituitary glands are there so influenced by our nutrition, honorable ism And any time you have disruption where you're just constantly like he said Snack, snack. Listen, this is what my family used to sing to me all the time. You know that song? All I do is win When you you know that Yeah, I they would sing to me. All I do is say no matter what Because I wish be being isn after I just I didn't even love to eat big meals. I just like to snack snack, son. And now I just I one meal right, two rials.
spk_1: 34:51
And at the
spk_0: 34:51
end of the story, it's so easy
spk_1: 34:54
now with
spk_0: 34:55
everyone trying to save money. I mean, if you're trying to save money, this is the way to do it. You're thinking about food less and saving money. It's like when Wen went all the way out.
spk_1: 35:07
Exactly. You don't have to go to the grocery store constantly. You don't have to try and think of meals to prepare. You know it. I just find it so freeing. You know another thing for women's health. What I find works really well for peri menopausal symptoms like hot flashes and night sweats is intermittent. fasting. Do you see that a lot with your clients?
spk_0: 35:29
Yes, that's another good one is that they feel like all of those symptoms have either gotten less way less. War have gone away altogether, and we've seen different people back and forth have said. Some people said I still haven't but it's just not as much and some completely blown away from fasting. And it really depends on what they're also eating in that eating window. Because if they're filling their bodies with complete junk, you know, that's, you know, I'm a big proponent of not depriving your body, but I also put secretion Lee great foods in my body.
spk_1: 36:05
Yeah, I think that's a really important point. Is like when you do eat, it needs to be clean. It needs to be healthy and nourishing, because otherwise you won't be able to sustain this. This is where you'll rebound and gain the weight and all of that. So it's not a ticket going, you know, ho hos all day long. So
spk_0: 36:27
what? And the thing is like like you could not pay me literally. Teoh, eat a Twinkie or ho in my mouth. Now, could I Could you pay me to eat a gluten free brownie that is homemade. I'd eat that all day long. Yeah, and so it's just a matter of figuring out what you like and just finding the like, Whatever you're craving, finding the best version of that,
spk_1: 36:51
that is
spk_0: 36:52
not going to be because I have a whole section of my book and I call it Chemical City. What is so important to me is that I'm not putting all these crazy chemicals in my body, but that doesn't mean I'm depriving myself at all. I'm just like, if I want a brownie, I'm gonna eat a brownie. It'll just be a not a chemical filled one.
spk_1: 37:11
Yeah, And that's probably another reason your periods got better because you're not filling yourself without those e no estrogen's And those chemicals so super important to eat clean? Definitely. Wow, you've just been a wealth of knowledge. I love this so much. Tell my listeners where they confined you and follow you
spk_0: 37:32
If you they go to Shantel ray way dot com. That is the best place to find me that I also can be found on Facebook and we have a great Facebook group all about intermittent fasting that you can click on to be a part of, and we've also done something that's really, really special. It's called the Fasting Reset Summit. If they go to fasting recent summit dot com and we have the most amazing people talking about. It's like over 40 experts talking about Dr Mark Ola is on there. JJ Virgin Doctor Will Coal. Cynthia Thurlow I mean, yeah, great people. Just the greatest lineup. And it's just get really answer so many questions about everything you could possibly want to know about intermittent fasting as well.
spk_1: 38:22
Yeah, that's a great summit. Everybody should definitely check that out. I will put a link to that in my show notes, because it's so good. Well, thank you so much for your time today. It's been really awesome talking to you. I really appreciate it.
spk_0: 38:37
Thank you so much.
spk_1: 38:39
All right, take care. Bye bye. All right, friends, I hope you enjoyed that episode. She's a wealth of knowledge when it comes to intermittent fasting, so definitely check out her at Sean. Tell ray way dot com. And don't forget to check of the link in my show. Notes for the fasting Reset Summit. You're gonna get so much great information from all the amazing experts that have put that together. So please hit the subscribe button to the functional gynecologist podcast. Keep following me. Send me your questions so I can show you out of my question of the week on Fridays and review me. I want to know what you're thinking. Let me know how I can help serve you better. I do this for you, ladies. Now go out and have an amazing week and kick some butt.
I am Dr Tabatha, the functional gynecologist. I'm a board certified OBY giant and functional medicine physician. I've embraced the world of functional medicine and wellness through my own personal health journey, and I'm super excited to share my wisdom and unique perspective as it pertains to women's health. So if you're struggling hormone imbalance, weight gain, period issues, anxiety and son, you name it, then you come to the right place. I want to be your functional gynecologist. So welcome. Hi, friends. I'm super excited for today. I'm interviewing Shawn. Tell Ray she's the author of the Amazon bestseller Waste Away, the Shan Tell Ray Way and Fasting to Freedom. She also owns a multimillion dollar real estate business, so she's doing all kinds of stuff after struggling with her weight and autoimmune disease. For years, she began interviewing thousands of thin women for their eating and lifestyle tips. She used these interviews to develop her Shawn Tell Ray way. She's gonna talk about this today, and I think you're really going to connect with what she has to say, Sean tells. Helped thousands of women around the world lose weight through her Shawn Tell Ray way of intermittent fasting. She's also created multiple programs, tools and free resource is to guide readers through her revolutionary approach to weight loss. Her podcast and website serve as a beacon of hope to the many people who struggle with sustainable weight loss. So enjoy listening to our interview today as she talks about the benefits of intermittent fasting. How to incorporate it into your life. And we also talk about her book Fasting to Freedom, which is using fasting as a way of strengthening your faith, which I just think is a really beautiful way to serve God and to strengthen your own health and spirituality. So enjoy. Well, welcome, Shanteau. Thanks for coming on.
spk_0: 2:23
Thanks for having May.
spk_1: 2:25
Yeah, I'm super excited to talk to you. You know, we just talked the other day when I was on your podcast, and so now I feel like we're becoming
spk_0: 2:33
fast friends. This is awesome. That's right. It is awesome.
spk_1: 2:37
Right before we came on, Shantel was making fun of me because I'm sitting in my closet today, So I Yeah, I've had to change things up a little bit with this Covad 19 You know, I didn't want toe cancel this so I figured out, you know, let's make it work. And this is what I'm doing.
spk_0: 2:56
Something happened. And I love it.
spk_1: 2:58
Yeah, you are one of those people. That's why I've been so impressed following you watching your story. You are one of those people that just makes it happen, no matter what the obstacles. You're my kind of girl. So, yeah, I would love
spk_0: 3:12
for you to
spk_1: 3:12
share with my listeners. Like what took you down this path of health and wellness and, you know, got how'd you get into intermittent fasting?
spk_0: 3:23
Yes. So I basically, you know, I've struggled with my weight my entire life, and I had finally started deciding. I said, OK, well, if I really want to know what it takes to be thin, I'm gonna interview people who have been naturally thin by eating what they want, right? And so, because I I didn't wanna have to count calories. I didn't wanna have Teoh, um, you know, do meal plans. I'm not really that kind of I don't I didn't want people saying you can eat this. You can't have this. You know what? I was constantly on a yo yo dieting plan. And so what I started doing as I started interviewing women and I said, OK, if you've been in your whole life Andi, what did you do exactly? And the crazy part about it is none of those women ever told me they did intermittent fasting. But after I interviewed one after another, I'd be like, Did you eat breakfast? And they'd be like, Now they're like, Oh, I didn't start eating until about 12 or I didn't start eating until two or you see what I'm saying. But none of them were like, Oh, I do intermittent fasting,
spk_1: 4:29
right? It was just their life.
spk_0: 4:31
Yeah, they just basically ate two meals a day, you know? And so some of them might be like, Well, maybe today I might eat breakfast and lunch. But I didn't eat dinner. You know, our or sometimes I might just need a really big lunch, and then I'm done. I don't need anything else for the rest of the day. And so it was just about me, literally. If you asked 20 of my friends of my top friends right now, all of them would be like, How did you meet Chantelle? And they'd be like, Well, she just randomly came up to me
spk_1: 5:02
and was
spk_0: 5:02
like, Hey, could I ask you like, what do you mean for breakfast? What do you eat for lunch? How do you stay said then? You know,
spk_1: 5:08
I love that I
spk_0: 5:08
literally did that for every person. And then it finally clicked to me is that these people were eating two meals or last a day, sometimes one meal, right?
spk_1: 5:19
Maybe on
spk_0: 5:19
how much they ate that day. They were eating when they were hungry. They were stopping when they were full and they weren't in bondage to food. And that's what I wanted. And so that's my first book. I wrote my first book called Waste Way. And that just literally is all the principles that they taught me in that book. So
spk_1: 5:38
I love that I love not being in bondage to food because, yeah, I food used to talk to me. You know, I couldn't have it in the same building or same room because I wouldn't stop thinking about it. And so it does feel like it has a hold on you, and I love that you figured out the patterns that these women were following and you put it into a book. How long did it take you to actually incorporate that into your own life?
spk_0: 6:06
Well, once I started saying, OK, I'm gonna start cause cause Intermittent fasting is one piece of the puzzle. So I have about 10 or 12 different principles in the book that I say. Everyone basically said the same 10 things, right? But but intermittent fasting is just such a huge piece of that puzzle, and it really gave me freedom to be able to lose over £30 be able to keep it off. So that's really kind of one of the big golden nuggets of it. But it's not the only piece. You know. I've seen people who have lost maybe £2030 on intermittent fasting, and then they're in a rut and they're stuck because they're not doing the other nine principles that are super important in weight loss.
spk_1: 6:54
Right? And that's where your coaching comes in, right? You do coaching online, Is that right?
spk_0: 6:59
Yeah, we have some. Could we do coaching online? We just meet with people via Skype or you know anything else, and we also do it as far as, um, we have other coaches, so someone could be a coach if they wanted to. As long as they read the book, waste away and they agreed with, You know, the principles that are in there and we're able to kind of we have a program that takes people to going It's a it's we kind of make it like from couch to five K. You know, you know, you sitting on the couch, you're not doing anything and then you can all of a sudden run If I case we have like, ah, plan that walks you through that that goes OK, you know, maybe we start with a 10 hour eating on the move to an eight hour meeting window, and then then it's not just the eating windows. It's also just all the other principles that, um you need to do to lose weight.
spk_1: 7:50
That's awesome. And so when women go through this program, they get rid of that bondage to food. They figure out to know when they're hungry and when they're satisfied.
spk_0: 8:03
Yes, so one of the biggest things that is that I talk about is this deprivation cycle right on and so I am so adamant on people not feeling deprived, because if soon as you feel deprived, what happens is you have this terrible cycle, see, you restrict the food, then you strive to avoid what you've been quotas deemed bad food, right? And then all of a sudden, you give in to that said restricted item. Right? Then you have all this guilt and shame, and then you go, Oh, my gosh. Now I'm gonna, you know, repeat this cycle and then it's just this horrible cycle of of deprivation. Yeah,
spk_1: 8:48
and it's such a psychological game. So many women just get so down on themselves and they get into this all or none mentality like, Oh, I left that up. I guess I'm going to just give up now. So I love that you're fixed. You know, you're dealing with that aspect.
spk_0: 9:08
Yeah. And the thing is, is the deprivation of restrictive diets always leads to overeating and binging. And so it's just a constant thing that if you just literally save yourself like I'm never going on a diet again, I'm not going. Teoh deprive myself of this, deprived myself of that. I'm just going Teoh, choose foods that fuel my body that I feel great on. But I don't deprive myself. So like in my house right now, it's so funny. And I'm telling you, at least seven out of 10 people who come to my house, I have this huge table that's in our dining room like it's huge. It's probably, I don't know, at least 10 feet. And I love to have snacks out for people. And so I have all these different snacks and they're all like organic, But they're not all super super healthy. They're all organic. But, I mean, someone might have cane sugar, regular sugar, you know? But there's tons of different sacks, and everyone always asked her like Until you just lose your mind
spk_1: 10:17
when you
spk_0: 10:17
go by this table like you have this stable, it has, like the most amazing sex, and I'm like, No, I don't lose my mind when they go question because I already Nello when I'm physically hungry, I can have any of those snacks I want have a few bites of it, and when I'm done, I just move on. But because I'm not, I'm not in bondage to that food. It could sit there, you know forever. One of the stories I tell in my but because I had this assistant that I had probably, I don't know, 15 years ago in my at my work, and she was a thin eater. She was just always one of those, you know, she's naturally just didn't gain weight and was always thin. And one day she was there and she bought one of those six pack of doughnuts.
spk_1: 11:07
You know, the beginning. You
spk_0: 11:09
expected that you get, like, a 7 11 0 yeah, Put him on her best. And she bought him the first day. It Saturday s little time. Then the second day it sat under ask the whole day. And then the third day, she had a doctor's appointment and she was like, I'm not gonna be in the next day. So that third day I was thinking to myself, I can't. I've been wanting. It was powdered donuts. I had been wanting his donuts, and I couldn't believe that she just had him sitting under guest the first day that the second day And so finally I was like, Oh, she won't mind if I ate three of them, so I ate three of them. Then, like five minutes later, ate the whole bag. And then I ended up going toe wall on getting her places. But it always blew my mind cause I was thinking the exact same thing. How could she be so disciplined to have those six pack of doughnuts there and not be tempted to eat it? And it's so funny how everyone always asked me about all the snacks that I have on mine and when it just goes back to, like, we have a huge barn or house like that has alcohol up the wazoo. I mean, any kind of alcohol premium shelf, everything you could imagine. And I probably drink twice a year. Not a big drinker. I I like to eat my calories. I don't like to drink them. So I just have never been a big drinker. Having a couple times just never been a thing for me. But again, when you don't have that magnetic force to be like I have tohave it, you know I can have any of that help college. I'm gonna want it. I just choose not happen again. So it's the same thing with that fat snack tray is like I love having that feeling that I can have whatever I want, as long as I do it in moderation. I'm eating a couple by some not going out of control, and I try to get the healthiest version of whatever that is. So if it's a granola bar, I'm gonna pick an organic one that has very few ingredients. That's clean and you know, but it's still satisfies me.
spk_1: 13:09
Yeah, I love that freedom from food that is fabulous. I think so many lessons to be learned there. So that's definitely a great benefit of intermittent fasting. What are some other benefits that you found?
spk_0: 13:24
So for me, the biggest thing and one of the things that people say right now is that they are saying that intermittent fasting is they should be calling a time restricted eating. I don't know if you heard people say that with the time Rastriya, but they say that time restricted eating is where it's on Lee when it's a form of fasting, where the time of the day is limited or compressed, meaning they eaten in a six hour window on hate our window and they say intermittent fasting is anything more than 24 hours. But I'm what I say is that intermittent fasting we've all been using that term intermittent fasting as the same is time restricted eating. You can't just now all of a sudden say Okay, if it's a six hour would know and eat eight hour eating window, it's time restricted eating more than 24 hours. It's it's intermittent fasting. So I'll just clarify that when I talk about intermittent fasting, I am talking about just eating in a maybe a six hour window or an eight hour window. So
spk_1: 14:31
okay, yeah, that's a good clarification, for sure.
spk_0: 14:35
Yeah, and you know, it takes a little bit of time to adjust to intermittent fasting. And so the biggest thing is, is that you want to get to the point where you are more fat, adapted, and what that means is your body is now using back for fuel instead of sugar for fuel. And my favorite analogy that I say is that if you have money in your pocket, well, let's say you have $100 you go to the store and there's you want to buy a little purse for $80. Well, you wouldn't go to the bank to go get the money cause you already have $100 in your bank Your pocket right now. So the same thing happens when it comes to burning fat. If you already have sugar in your in your stores, then your body is not going to go to burning. It's that because it already has glucose able to be used. And so the analogy is the cash in your pocket is like the glucose. And then the fat is like the money you have stored in your bank that you want to be in a fat being. Fat adapted is a metabolic state where your body has been in ketosis long enough that you kind of transitioned to what your body uses for fuel. So, you know, if all I'm used to is burning carbs and sugar for all my energy than once you start fasting and you're not constantly getting those carbs and sugar, your body has to find a new source of fuel. Which is that and so that's basically what it means to get your body fat adapted or getting used to intermittent fasting and people say that it really takes like six weeks to get fully fat. Adapted some people. It takes a week. Some people take a day, and it just really depends on how much weight you have to lose and how used to your body is to grabbing sugar or carbs for fuel instead of for fat,
spk_1: 16:33
right? Yeah, when I talk to my patients about it, if they've been eating three or four snacks a day, I have to get him off the snacking before I can even start to tighten up their window because they won't be able to handle it. Their body has totally for gotten how to tap into their fat stores. But it's amazing when you do get to that point, and then you become metabolically flexible how you can eat when you need to. And then, if, like, for me, when I go for on trips, I fly. I don't want to eat. I don't want to eat in the airports and you know that type of stuff that's the perfect time to have metabolic flexibility and just burn your fat for fuel. So I love it. I think it's a great tool,
spk_0: 17:19
and I really have gotten to the point where now I am a flexible enormity and faster. And what that means is, Is that flexible? It's basically exactly what it sounds like, right, but flexible, intermittent fasting is approached fasting that's not tightly restricted as some of the other purchase to intermittent fasting, meaning someone might say, OK, well, I eat in a six hour window. I started 12 05 I need to end at 605 You know where I do an eight hour window? I have to start at one oclock. I've got a did exactly nine. So it's basically where you say it. Sometimes I might have and, you know, breakfast and lunch. And then sometimes I might have lunch and dinner, and sometimes it might be a five hour windows. Sometimes I might only eat one meal a day. I'm listening toe what my body is calling me to eat for that day. I'm not eating more than I need. I'm not. I'm just eating exactly what it's craving. And so it's just very flexible. I'm not counting the hours and going, you know, one of the things I've seen people do that drives me crazy is that they will be like, OK, I'm gonna eat in a six are one. I'm gonna started 12 and then it's six o'clock. They'll just for like, 5 30 They'll just start eating everything but the kitchen
spk_1: 18:42
saying her
spk_0: 18:43
eating windows over at six. Look, and now they're just like overeating because they're worried that they're eating Window's closing. And I'm like, Really?
spk_1: 18:52
Yeah, that's not doing you any favorite Way to go, guys, How long have you been doing the flexible fasting?
spk_0: 19:00
You know, when I first started, I was a little bit more rigid. But what ISS funny is that your body will get used to eating it like around the same time, So my eating window is pretty much from 12 to 6 every day on The reason is is because it but it's still flexible, like high it. Maybe 12 30. It might be one oclock. It might be 11 45. It might be 11 o'clock. It's just I literally listen to my body and I go, my stomach will growl. I don't do not eat my first meal of the day until my stomach I've actually physically hurt. It growls, because then I know I have gotten it to complete empty and I'm truly hungry. I'm not eating for any other reason than true hunger. And so that's one thing that I absolutely always do so. But I would say in the beginning I was a lot more rigid. But now I'm just, you know, I just kind of look at my day. It's funny, cause in the last week I've been eating earlier, maybe like 10 30 I've been starting to eat. I've just been getting hungrier. And so one of the girls I work with Heather was like, You're starting need earlier. What's going on? The oh so like people know I've been done such a routine, But again, I think it's the way to go. That's That's the way to true freedom. Is they just listening to your body?
spk_1: 20:28
Yeah, definitely, because sometimes you're expending more energy, right? Sometimes your workouts change up. Sometimes you're more physically active or less physically active. Sometimes you're sick, you know. So those metabolic needs change. And I think if you can get your body to be able to get to that flexible point, it's just amazing.
spk_0: 20:51
And if you do the flexible fasting right it actually will force your body to dip into its own fat stores more and and you'll actually lose weight more because what happens is kind of like what I said before. But if I just really wait and I wait until I'm really hungry and then sometimes I might even wait a little bit more than that is to make sure I'm just definitely physically hungry before I eat. And then I even let's say it's let's say it's five o'clock and I know my window's gonna close at six. I might say, I'm just I'm not hungry right now. I'm not just cause my eating window's gonna close at six. I'm not, Do I'm not playing that game. I'm just might be a 6 30 I might go. Okay, I'm actually hungry again. To now eat. I'm gonna eat at 6 30 or I might just decide. I'm just not gonna you dinner tonight like, and then that means if I didn't eat dinner the night before, then that's why the next day I might be hungry or a 10 o'clock instead of 12 0 clock because I didn't need dinner right again. It's just super flexible.
spk_1: 21:57
Yeah, I love that. Do you have any quote side effects from this that you would say aren't so pleasant or that you had to get over?
spk_0: 22:09
Yeah, I think for me, just cause I've been doing it for so long. Um, but the side effects, one of the biggest ones is really what I do. Extended fasting. Not really that much anymore. Especially like maybe if I do one meal a day, but sometimes I get cold when I'm fasting, and that's a big side effect Is that if you're if you're constantly cold, that's not something to get really like alarmed at. But people don't realize when you're eating food and you're digesting food, it takes your body. A lot of it takes a lot of work to digest all that food. Yeah, so if you think about it, your body creates heat when it's digesting food. So on a fast day when you're eating less, you're not getting that kind of heating from eating that food. And so you know, your body is also really good at protecting your vital organs, which means that if you're not eating as much, it might sense and prioritize them. So your extremities like your hand and feet might get cold. But the good news is, is that your body actually burns calories, maintaining a stable temperature. So if you let's say or colder, that means you're burning more calories. So you don't need Teoh like freak out. I mean, I would put on some socks, put on some gloves, jump around. You know, if it's hot outside, go for a walk. None. One of the best tips that I have seen so many thin eaters dio is that when they are cold, I mean, I'm sorry when they are, they think they might be hungry or they need something to Dior. They need a snack. They have a cup of hot herbal tea. Yeah, that's
spk_1: 24:09
what I do
spk_0: 24:09
you have That's like, That's like their go to Instead of eating through their having no calories. It kind of warms them up against them. That kind of the idea of like putting something to their mouth, But they're not eating anything. And so that cup of hot tea is a really, really great thing to Dio.
spk_1: 24:30
Yeah, I love that. I think that's great advice. I just think it's awesome that you're sharing this with people and so that other people can benefit from this. And what I love even more is that it's faith based. So are you comfortable talking about your faith based journey and all of this and how that's played a role?
spk_0: 24:52
Yeah, I would love to. So if you look in the Bible, the Bible talks about fasting over 70 times in the Bible, right? And so you know one of the things that I talk about in my other books. So my my first book, that ever was Waste Way, and that's really just about no fasting and all the Thin Eater principles. But then the second book is really about my journey. Teoh fast for spiritual reasons, and I believe that that is a huge deal. There's more reasons than just weight loss too fast on DSO that's really about extended fasting. So it's called fasting to Freedom, the gift of fasting because fasting is such a gift, and no one really likes to think of it as a gift because they're like what that is. Not again George, right? That's a big bank, and it's like once you get to the place where you go. This is amazing. And I talk about in fasting the freedom that there's different reasons why people faster than the Bible. So one of them waas because they had, like, a nagging sin, right? And that if you have a nagging sin in your life, which would be if you're listening to this and overeating is an issue, then that would be a reason to fast to kind of say, God, I really want you to come into my life and take this out of my life. You won't want to basically taste victory over a nagging area of sin in your life. And sometimes maybe you just feel like you don't have God's provision. I mean, right now I know people are losing their jobs. They are, you know, struggling. That would be a great reason too fast. Um, you know, if you are overcoming difficult times and you need to receive a breakthrough when you're feeling stuck, that's another great reason to fast. So, you know, I think that what happens is my favorite analogy off. Fasting is scuba diving, so I live in Virginia Beach and our water here is Brown way. Don't want to come visit a demolition. Right now, we don't have blue water, not like gorgeous, like Cancun and Cabo. It's just not like that. And so when you stand over our water, you can't see the color of the fish or the coral or any of that. The only way to see it is if you put scuba gear on and you go underneath. And as soon as you put those glasses on, all of a sudden you can see the color of the fish and the coral and all of that, and that's what fasting does. It's It basically is a helps you to hear God's small whisper to help guide you to make decisions. So I don't ever make a big decision without fasting. Like if I'm deciding for me to do this or do that, I will go on an extended fast and you will just see God work in such an amazing way when you're doing a fast. So that's really what fasting the freedom is about.
spk_1: 27:58
That is so beautiful, and I completely agree with you. You know, there's physiological reasons why fasting makes us have mental clarity. You know key tones burn cleaner as a fuel than sugar does. But I just love the connections. Teoh, your faith. I just think it's so powerful when you can give that up, give that over to God, and he just opens up a whole new world, right? So,
spk_0: 28:30
yeah. And the thing is, I talk about different kinds of fasting. So, like in the beginning, like the one thing is, is that that I'm really passionate about is the word fast means not to eat. So you can't say I'm gonna fast from Facebook. You can say I'm gonna abstain from Facebook. You could say I'm gonna abstain from watching movies or I'm gonna stain for from this or that. But too fast means literally not Teoh sort of thing. And so that is a big you know, big thing that I talk about in that book. That's
spk_1: 29:08
fabulous. And you have done, um, things through your church. Is that right?
spk_0: 29:15
Yeah. I mean, I've spoken at different churches. I go around and speak a different women's conferences just about fasting and stuff like that. So I love doing that. I used to be a chilled before I when I was younger, I was actually a Children's pastor in a youth pastor before that. So I've done tons of work in the church. But I will tell you I grew up from the time I started going to church. My mom started taking us to church when I was 12 years old and between the time I was 12 and about the age of 30 even though I went to church all those years, I never heard one servant on fasting. I never even knew what fasting Waas until finally I went to this church and they talked about it. But there's so many pastors that are overweight and they're heavy and they just don't preach any sermons on fasting because they don't want to do it. And so they don't want people looking at them going When are we gonna do a fast? So they just don't talk about it. So I didn't even hear about fasting until I was much older.
spk_1: 30:16
Yeah, I would say the only time I hear about it is during Lent. Uh, you know, which is right now. And I think just this whole being sequestered with Cove in 19 is such a good reminder that you know what? Why don't we give things over to God. Why don't we listen to what the universe is saying? Like, Hey, it's time for break. It's time to reevaluate our lives in our situation. And I think starting with something as simple as time restricted eating is a way to gain some winds so that you feel in control and feel like you can make some changes. Wouldn't you say that that is powering empowering to women?
spk_0: 31:02
I totally do. And you know, one of my favorite versus in the Bible isn't chronicles. And since second Chronicles, and it says, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways that I will hear from heaven and I'll forgive their sin and heal their land. And I think if there's anyone passage right now that our entire country needs to hear is this verse right here.
spk_1: 31:30
And we
spk_0: 31:31
all need to humble ourselves. We need everyone should be praying right now that saying God, please come back into our country and he'll are people with everything going on.
spk_1: 31:41
Yeah, Amen. I love that. Oh, my gosh. Will you have so much wisdom to share. I really appreciate you coming on to the functional gynecologist because women need to hear this.
spk_0: 31:54
Yeah, and I will say one more thing since you are a functional gynecologist, Is that my periods before I started doing intermittent fasting were all over the place, absolutely, all over the place. And so I never knew when my period waas, you know, up from down men. For whatever reason, it's such as soon as I started intermittent fasting, it literally regulated my hormones, which regulated my periods. And now I am ISR regular, you know? I mean, sometimes I may be, you know, 28 days, some days, 29 sometimes 30. But I still don't you feel like that's still a very regular period?
spk_1: 32:35
Yeah, that's very regular. And I'm so glad that you brought that up because you, when you get off that sugar insulin, yo yoed diet situation. Yeah, your periods, they balance out. Your sex hormones aren't struggling to be produced in balanced, So that is a great benefit of fasting.
spk_0: 32:57
Yeah, because when your hormones can't communicate with the ovaries, that's when you run the risk of irregular periods and then infertility you know, poor poor bone health. I know I have seen women left and right on my show, and I get letters in and say I want to thank you so much for you teaching me how to do intermittent fasting because as soon as I did, I then got pregnant. They didn't have to dio, you know, all these in vitro and more moans and all kinds of other stuff. They literally started doing intermittent fasting and boom, they started getting pregnant so I could give you story after Smelly of that. Yeah, as well.
spk_1: 33:38
Yeah, that's why it's like my number one recommendation in the offices. Get off the snacking roller coaster, Start tightening up your eating window. It makes such a huge difference because, honestly, our periods are just a vital sign there just telling us what's going on in our body. And if they're heavier, a regular or not happening at all, that's like ding ding ding. You need to get control of your court is all in your sugar and your insulin. So that's great.
spk_0: 34:09
Yeah, because basically, the function of the head with Alma's and the pituitary glands are there so influenced by our nutrition, honorable ism And any time you have disruption where you're just constantly like he said Snack, snack. Listen, this is what my family used to sing to me all the time. You know that song? All I do is win When you you know that Yeah, I they would sing to me. All I do is say no matter what Because I wish be being isn after I just I didn't even love to eat big meals. I just like to snack snack, son. And now I just I one meal right, two rials.
spk_1: 34:51
And at the
spk_0: 34:51
end of the story, it's so easy
spk_1: 34:54
now with
spk_0: 34:55
everyone trying to save money. I mean, if you're trying to save money, this is the way to do it. You're thinking about food less and saving money. It's like when Wen went all the way out.
spk_1: 35:07
Exactly. You don't have to go to the grocery store constantly. You don't have to try and think of meals to prepare. You know it. I just find it so freeing. You know another thing for women's health. What I find works really well for peri menopausal symptoms like hot flashes and night sweats is intermittent. fasting. Do you see that a lot with your clients?
spk_0: 35:29
Yes, that's another good one is that they feel like all of those symptoms have either gotten less way less. War have gone away altogether, and we've seen different people back and forth have said. Some people said I still haven't but it's just not as much and some completely blown away from fasting. And it really depends on what they're also eating in that eating window. Because if they're filling their bodies with complete junk, you know, that's, you know, I'm a big proponent of not depriving your body, but I also put secretion Lee great foods in my body.
spk_1: 36:05
Yeah, I think that's a really important point. Is like when you do eat, it needs to be clean. It needs to be healthy and nourishing, because otherwise you won't be able to sustain this. This is where you'll rebound and gain the weight and all of that. So it's not a ticket going, you know, ho hos all day long. So
spk_0: 36:27
what? And the thing is like like you could not pay me literally. Teoh, eat a Twinkie or ho in my mouth. Now, could I Could you pay me to eat a gluten free brownie that is homemade. I'd eat that all day long. Yeah, and so it's just a matter of figuring out what you like and just finding the like, Whatever you're craving, finding the best version of that,
spk_1: 36:51
that is
spk_0: 36:52
not going to be because I have a whole section of my book and I call it Chemical City. What is so important to me is that I'm not putting all these crazy chemicals in my body, but that doesn't mean I'm depriving myself at all. I'm just like, if I want a brownie, I'm gonna eat a brownie. It'll just be a not a chemical filled one.
spk_1: 37:11
Yeah, And that's probably another reason your periods got better because you're not filling yourself without those e no estrogen's And those chemicals so super important to eat clean? Definitely. Wow, you've just been a wealth of knowledge. I love this so much. Tell my listeners where they confined you and follow you
spk_0: 37:32
If you they go to Shantel ray way dot com. That is the best place to find me that I also can be found on Facebook and we have a great Facebook group all about intermittent fasting that you can click on to be a part of, and we've also done something that's really, really special. It's called the Fasting Reset Summit. If they go to fasting recent summit dot com and we have the most amazing people talking about. It's like over 40 experts talking about Dr Mark Ola is on there. JJ Virgin Doctor Will Coal. Cynthia Thurlow I mean, yeah, great people. Just the greatest lineup. And it's just get really answer so many questions about everything you could possibly want to know about intermittent fasting as well.
spk_1: 38:22
Yeah, that's a great summit. Everybody should definitely check that out. I will put a link to that in my show notes, because it's so good. Well, thank you so much for your time today. It's been really awesome talking to you. I really appreciate it.
spk_0: 38:37
Thank you so much.
spk_1: 38:39
All right, take care. Bye bye. All right, friends, I hope you enjoyed that episode. She's a wealth of knowledge when it comes to intermittent fasting, so definitely check out her at Sean. Tell ray way dot com. And don't forget to check of the link in my show. Notes for the fasting Reset Summit. You're gonna get so much great information from all the amazing experts that have put that together. So please hit the subscribe button to the functional gynecologist podcast. Keep following me. Send me your questions so I can show you out of my question of the week on Fridays and review me. I want to know what you're thinking. Let me know how I can help serve you better. I do this for you, ladies. Now go out and have an amazing week and kick some butt.
