Easy Steps to Control Your Weight and Health With Intermittent Fasting

 
 
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Fasting has been a part of humanity for thousands of years. It’s likely safe to say that early mankind did this out of necessity. Food sources weren’t always readily available for purchase in stores and there were certainly times where eating just wasn’t an option. Fasting can be instinctual as well. In times of stress or illness, our body's natural inclination is to conserve energy and we often lose our appetites. Later the practice was adopted into many religious and spiritual groups as a way of connecting with a higher power. Whether you’re fasting for health or as a spiritual practice, disciplined fasting has benefits like few other things do.

While there are many different types of fasting, our focus for this episode will be on intermittent fasting (IF). The beauty of IF is that it’s incredibly easy to implement and track. Intermittent fasting is simply abstaining from eating for a length of time. It allows the body and digestive system time to reset in a manner of speaking and can affect our health down to a cellular level. It’s a very popular practice right now, but like with most trends there is plenty of misinformation floating around on how to do it correctly. On this episode we examine the different types of IF, all of the many benefits, and how it can be done safely to maximize results.

Some Topics We Discuss:

  • What is intermittent fasting? (3:17)

  • What are the benefits of intermittent fasting? (4:12)

  • What are ketones? (11:48)

  • What are some things to consider before starting to intermittently fast? (15:50)

  • What are the different types of intermittent fasting? (19:05)

  • What are some mistakes people make when intermittent fasting? (28:03)

Some Key Takeaways from this Episode:

  • Intermittent fasting is a great way to get your insulin levels under control. Note this is different from your blood sugar.  (5:42)

  • Intermittent fasting has benefits that can drastically help slow the aging process including inflammation, human growth hormone production, mitochondrial function, stem cell growth, and more. (6:50)

  • Let your gut rest! (21:30)

  • Make your first meal of the day be spot on nutritionally to set you up for success. (25:10)

  • Drink lots of water throughout the day. Try to avoid massive amounts all at once. (28:50)

Products + Resources:

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL SHOW TRANSCRIPT

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Hey everyone, welcome back to The Holistic Navigator Podcast where we talk about all things holistic health and believe in the body's ability to heal itself, if given the proper nutrients and care. For those of you who may happen to be new to the podcasts, let us begin by saying welcome and thank you so much for listening. My [00:01:00] name is Brian Strickland. I'm the producer of the show and I'm joined in the studio as always by our host Ed Jones. Our goal is to educate anyone who may be interested in learning more about natural, holistic healing and today we're talking about intermittent fasting. Now, fasting has been a part of many people's lives for thousands of years, but we're discussing a very specific type and while intermittent fasting has grown in popularity in recent years, like everything there's a bunch of misinformation surrounding the subject, but we're here to set the record straight. So let's go ahead and get started. So Ed can you just give us some clarification of what exactly intermittent fasting is? What are some of the benefits and why should people consider implementing it?

Ed Jones: Thank you Brian so much and as always, you know, I have learned through four plus decades a big personal experience professionally and also listening and watching what happens to human bodies [00:02:00] when they embrace a certain idea of health whether it be nutrition, diet, exercise because the proof is in the pudding. Often and so many times people only rely on clinical research and that is important but is actually been shown to not be that helpful to our personal lives. Well, there's been something that I have spoken about for four decades of writing that I am actually having to eat crow on. And that is the conversation of fasting. I have written extensively back from about 1980 till probably about 2014 that we need to be eating five times a day. You need to make sure that you know that keeps blood sugar balanced, keeps some of your hormones, and all this. And a few years ago based on the fact that I swim in the world of nutrition and literature and research [00:03:00] and I had people who I respect talk me into doing this thing called intermittent fasting. And it has been a game changer for me personally. And now because of that I have witnessed so many people's lives and health improved significantly. So what is intermittent fasting? It is really choosing a window of your 24 hour clock where you're going to consume foods and the other part of the window where you will not. What are those hours? Well, everyone has slightly different opinions on this and intermittent fasting is not full fasting. For fasting is of course going 1-7 days with zero food. Intermittent fasting is, in my case, I'm picking about an 11 hour window to consume foods. That means that 13 hours I will do no calories whatsoever. I will do liquids but zero calories. And you know, there's different people with different ideas of how many hours works. [00:04:00] But I'm going to explain further about you know, how that has come to pass for me and what you may want to consider about choosing it. Well, of course, why would we choose intermittent fasting? We all enjoy eating. You know, it's a great pleasure of life. And that's not going to be taken away from you with this. It actually improves your ability to enjoy foods, but let's talk about the health benefits Brian because there are extensive. This is not going to be a gimmick. This is not going to be a fad. This is nothing like the other 723 fads that I have witnessed over 40 years. A few of which actually worked and they stuck around. This one will be here after I am gone. I will assure you. It actually has history with throughout as far as you can read in literature people who kind of had intuition on health realize the benefit of fasting so it isn't new. It's just been rediscovered

Brian Strickland: And it's the spiritual practice as well for a lot of people.

Ed Jones: Exactly and during that spiritual [00:05:00] practice. They observed physical improvements significantly, so whether you're doing it for one or the other or both. It does not particularly matter. So what you know physiology wise is going to happen and what is actually going to be improving in your life because you choose to do this correctly as you mentioned. As all ideas come about there's all these nuances and some of those different ideas can create less effectiveness and sometimes even some cautions in regards. So I'm going to clear that up for you. So why would we do this? Number one, and if you've heard other podcast of mine, you would know that I repeat the word insulin over and over and over. To me the level of insulin in your blood chemistry is one of the most critical numbers you must know. You want it at 2 and under do not believe the conventional information that you're fine with insulin if it's up to 15 or 20 [00:06:00] because insulin's job is multifactorial. But the thing we don't want is Insulin that stays elevated because it increases inflammation. It increases your appetite. It increases your body fat. It increases all of the things we don't want with aging. In fact, I repeat this often, when they looked at people who were 85 to 90 years old and mainly in other countries and they were self-reliant. They were sturdy, they were strong. They were taking care of themselves. They couldn't figure out any common denominator in blood work until they looked at insulin. I'm telling you right now people if your innocence at 12 and above you will not make it out of the nursing home because that's where you're going to stay most likely or some caretaker because the body is going to fall apart. It is corrosive, excess insulin. So that's one of the hugest things with intermittent fasting is going to lower your insulin and there are [00:07:00] supplements that help but I'm number one fan of using intermittent fasting to lower it. Number two: normalizes something called ghrelin levels. That is what makes you hungry. And so when you normalize it you don't eat a meal and an hour later need to eat eat again. Three: is Improvement improving blood sugar. Well, we are a nation that is epidemic with type 2 diabetes. It's not even bad. It's beyond bad and it's going to destroy the health of this nation. And financially it is it's going to bankrupt the system. Four : lower triglycerides. I talked about triglycerides a lot because it's a fat made from carbohydrates that is actually far more damaging than cholesterol. Number five: This is something that I want. I don't know about you but it's going to increase my human growth hormone. Why do I want that? It burns body fat. It keeps you looking a little bit younger. I mean people go and get these shots that cost a lot [00:08:00] of money which are HGH shots. You can visibly see a difference in it, but the problem is that is not working with nature. I want my own body to do it. In fact intermittent fasting has been shown in several studies to increase HGH in men by two thousand percent and 13 hundred percent in women. Number six is going to suppress inflammation. That is something we have to address. Beyond insulin inflammation is the critical part that damages and creates chronic diseases. I talk about it constantly. In fact, the Holistic Navigator I did on chronic pain it was mainly about inflammation and what can we do to lower that. Number seven is it's going to in many people improves their blood pressure. Next is it's going to do in studies reproduce some of the cardio benefits associated with physical exercise. I'm not saying you can do this and then quit the gym, but those people who [00:09:00] already are not exercising it's going to show some benefit even if they don’t head to the gym.

Brian Stricland: Why is that?

Ed Jones: It's because the intermittent fasting raises and lowers the blood chemistry that tends to be what you would see if you went to the gym.

Brian Strickland: Okay.

Ed Jones: So it kind of puts you into that good better state. Next boost mitochondrial function. What is the mitochondria? It is the energy production part of our cells. It's actually the engine like in your car. Well mitochondrial dysfunction is at the absolute bottom level of what causes aging & damage. A ninety-year-old has about four percent of the mitochondrial function that a 20 year old has. And that does not have to be people. Don't buy into this statement that is you know, it's just because you're old. Well, of course, you're feeling bad and you're falling apart. It is because you're 70. Oh, there's plenty of 70s who don't fall apart and 80s, [00:10:00] but the problem is today we're falling apart at 50, so don't buy into that kind of fear mongering that the conventional people have. Next stem cells. It allows stem cells in our own bodies to turn back on. They go from dormant to a renewal state. I think I mentioned this Brian, I now you probably I know you have a better memory on this and II I guess stem cells injected into my knee and also one into my directly into my blood system about a year and a half ago, and I've been pretty pleased with it. They came from umbilical cords. But again, they're expensive. Most people won't and can't do it. And I'm far more inclined to want to do it with my dietary habits. So intermittent fasting is going to help that. There is something I'm not going to get into that called MTOR which increases cancer rates and it inhibits this MTOR. Next it improves cognitive function. Let me tell you people. The brain loves [00:11:00] to burn its fuel from fat. Carbohydrates are

dirty burning. That's why they damaged mitochondria. That's why when you live in a diet of most Americans we have brain fog. We just do because the body is using. Kind of like your car, if someone put half diesel fuel and half gas in it. It's still going to run. You're probably going to get from point A to point B, but you're going to notice less horsepower, a little rough engine and the Diesels going to damage the engine without you knowing it and that's very true of the American diet.

Lastly is it is going to without any doubt help protect you against dementia, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Thanks to the production of Ketone bodies. What are Ketone bodies? they are what the liver will make when you are intermittent fasting. So actually there's something called macros and you know about macros is where people talk about the constituents of a diet and it [00:12:00] breaks it down into really carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Well guess what? There's a fourth dimension to the macros. Now, it's going to take a decade for it to filter down to any conventional textbooks. But it's a ketone. A ketone body is the fourth macronutrient. We need these because it fuels the brain and it does all the right things without damaging it. So that's you know, if that's not enough reasons to at least want to learn intermittent fasting. I don't know what could be.

Brian Strickland: Yeah, you mentioned the kind of early on the thinking was all right. I think you alluded to eating five times a day. And a lot of people think that eating those smaller meals more often is the way to go. What would you say to that? How did the benefits of that differ from say eating three decent meals and then fasting for fifteen hours?

Ed Jones:Well, you know when you have the window that you have set up for yourself [00:13:00] to consume foods, the first thing is and I see this quite commonly in the public is they're going to do intermittent fasting so that they can eat all the junk food they want.

Brian Strickland: Right.

Ed Jones: Because it's going to give them the excuse that it doesn't matter because I'm doing this other thing and it's going to negate any harm. That is BS from start to finish. Yes. You can still see some benefit temporarily, but it's not going to last, people. And your health will be destroyed in the end by this. But you could do this as long as you're going to pick that eight to ten hour window if you want to do it you can still do it because you can't get outside that window.

Brain Strickland: Is there any advantage over one over the other?

Ed Jones: It actually is not probably workable for most because here's the deal. When you only eat in an eight to nine hour window. You're pretty dang hungry.

Brian Strickland: Yeah.

Ed Jones: And so when you eat that first meal, I want you to eat till you're full not overly stuffed.

Brian Strickland: Sure.

Ed Jones: But if you want four eggs instead of two, or you want something [00:14:00] else go for it because if it's healthy and it's nourishing as long as it's not excessively carb-rich it's perfectly fine.

Brian Strickland: Of course and we're big proponents of not necessarily a super strict keto diet, but at least a keto leaning or keto lifestyle diet, correct? And that is is that really what's going to produce those ketones that are beneficial or if somebody is eating paleo or something like that, or they still going to get those same benefits?

Ed Jones: They're going to be less on the benefits of producing ketones. You will not produce ketones until you deplete the what's called glycogen or the sugar stored in the liver. That's where you disconnect from Ketone production if you can't deplete that. Well, that's not gonna happen unless you do intermittent fasting now, you could do a Paleo intermittent fasting and still be fine with that but the ultimate goal of intermittent fasting and the ultimate goal of keto is to [00:15:00] be able to teach the body to burn fat for fuel. And when you teach the body, which most Americans have never had to embrace a type of lifestyle that would make the body do that. When you find a new fuel source for this body and this brain through the use of keto diets and intermittent fasting, then you can toggle back and forth between those fuel sources and it's pretty cool. It's kind of like one of the hybrid cars. Yeah, you know you switched from the electricity sometimes and use gas for sometimes and it becomes very very efficient.

Brian Strickland: Yeah.Definitely, that totally makes sense. All right, so moving on. Obviously, there's got to be some considerations if you're if you're wanting to do an intermittent fasting diet or keto paired with intermittent fasting there are some cautions and considerations that need to be in place. So can we talk about those for just a minute some of the things that you've seen over the years that people should be aware of?

Ed Jones: Absolutely [00:16:00] and there's only a few but one is if you have a serious medical condition and you're being treated, you know, it has to be ruled in or out that you are a candidate for this and you know, I'm not going to list all those conditions. Some conditions actually will improve significantly because you're doing it but you need guidance. You don't want to be on lots of medicines and especially if you're trying to you know you're a really bad diabetic because you're going to need to lower that medicine quickly. I'll tell you and you have to have someone who can be there to help you do that. And we're again the disclaimer is you know, we're not trying to treat your medical condition. If you think so, then you are badly mistaken and so check with your doctor. If you're having all kind of ill health issues before embracing anything that the Holistic Navigator recommends. We’re nothing but an educational source. But the other people who I don't like seeing do It or fasting to any significant degree. And I like, [00:17:00] you know, and I say the word keto leaning because what I talk about is because that's what I do. That means I'm not in ketosis all the time, but I am close to it. And that really is perfect for me. But the people who should not do this without serious considerations, if you're already significantly underweight, I mean to a point where it could be almost a problem seek real wise advice. That's not going to be easy to do because I can tell you most registered dietitians do not approve of this course. They're also a decade behind always as far as you know, where they're going to put their check marks on something. But there are growing enough number of people now who can give you the advice that you need. And then if you're malnourished. You know, if some might like you have serious gut issues you were not absorbing. If you had terrible Crohn's or colitis or things that were making you dump your food. It's not the time people to [00:18:00] probably do this because we can't have you more malnourished. If you're already at that point or you have absorption problems. Children should not fast more than ever for about 18 to 24 hours. They need these nutrients and these macros to grow big and strong. And so you intermitted is not a 24-hour fast. A child could do this if they were, you know, 10 or above and you really were conservative about it as I am like you know if they missed breakfast and then they didn't eat any calories and then they started 11 o'clock they could do it. I think that would be fine. And then lastly the one I really don't want to people to do is pregnant and breastfeeding women. No, no, no. That is just going to throw a wrench in the works and the mother the woman needs all of the good quality calories she can consume to produce what she needs for the baby on whether it’s in utero or is already born in you’re breastfeeding.

Brian Strickland: [00:19:01] All right, there are several different types of intermittent fasting but we're really going to focus on one in particular that Ed you’ve seen the most success with out of clients and different people that have come through the store. So maybe just mention the different types, but then we'll go into a little more depth on the one that you've seen with the most success.

Ed Jones: Absolutely Brian. And yes, that's all things you could read endlessly and I would guess right now there's probably you could probably find 12 different types of intermittent fasting. They're all similar but they all are tweaked in different ways everything from like a five-day on a two day off, to a full thing where you're having five days of less calories and you want two days with excessive calories. They are all named different things. I'm just going to say right now that observing so many people try different methods. First off, the method has to be fairly easy to do everyday and reproduce and if it's just [00:20:01] too difficult too complex. It's going to be probably discarded at a certain point the one that I truly observe and personally used now. Keep in mind people. I am the self-appointed guinea pig. So I always try everything but I have been blessed in certain ways that I don't think other 63 year olds are. I still have a well let me say this when I started intermittent fasting and and two years of doing it now I have achieved what I'm getting ready to say. A body fat up that berries between ten eleven percent never used to be that by entire life. I mean, I'm not bragging. I mean how many guys that 61 started reducing body fat, but yet held muscle. I don't know of many. Well, intermittent fasting did that for me. Secondly my gut function has never been bad, but it's never been optimal by any means. I mean, I had the supposed IBS. I had the loose stools I had the [00:21:01] grumbling after foods. I had these sometimes gal. The things that are most American people's just kind of have assumed as normal. Listen 95% of the time I have the most amazing gut function that I have had since I can ever remember. I remember being in college having all those issues and they're all gone either gone. Why are they gone? Because I was never letting the gut rest. It was having to work literally 24 hours a day. Because I would go home every single night. I had to eat about eight o'clock. So if I don't eat I'm not going to sleep well. I'm going to lose weight. I'm going to lose muscle. My blood sugar is going to go crazy, but I had all the reasons and I enjoyed it. I eat healthy. I ate very, very clean, but I had to eat and the first two weeks. I was scared to death to miss these foods. And mentally it has take it probably took me 30 to 60 days to mentally not want to go [00:22:01] in and get that big bowl of cereal with my organic half and half and with organic blueberries. That's what I ate for the past 15 years, actually about eight o'clock at night. And it's kind of like, I guess the cigarette smoker who you know, they finally kind of gets past the addiction but he still wants to grab it. And I can still I mean right now I want I want that damn cereal. I'm right now thinking about it.

Brian Strickland: Those cravings always kick head right about that time.

Ed Jones: Absolutely and so mentally was a challenge, but I can tell you between the gut function and my sleep improved after about 10 days. Please people I want you to know, you know, it's going to take some real readjustment here. But it will not be more than two weeks. If I challenge anyone to do this intermittent fasting like I have done for 30 days and you will be pleased and so many regard my brain fog. I don't have bad brain fog, but we all have it at times. 80% less. The only time I have it I can kind of go back [00:23:01] on it's because I did something where I excessively did something wrong. I drank too much tequila. I didn't sleep enough. I ate too many carbs which is rare. But you know, there's always a kind of a reason for it and sometimes are not a reason for brain fog, so it could be the barometric pressure. So don't think we can always figure this out.

Brian Strickland: So what are what are just a handful of the types of intermittent fasting but what's the one that you've seen success with most importantly?

Ed Jones: Well, the one I think supposed to sucessful is Ed Jones’s intermittent fasting. I’m going to name it after myself. It is not any it's this kind of the standard now. So what did all it involves is this people? It's so freaking simple. I have to do an 11 hour eat with a 13-hour not eat. That’s because I have a super fast metabolism. My food is literally gone in 60 minutes. So I really some people it may take much longer than it does but you need to pick this is the whole deal just pick between 8:00 and 11:00 hours window [00:24:01] to eat your foods and the rest you're going to drink water or maybe black coffee. You can have that in the morning. Some people say not. I say is perfectly fine. I just can't put anything in it that has more than one calorie.

Brian Strickland: So you're typically looking at what kind of window to not eat? How long, what's the minimum?

Ed Jones: The minimum is 12 hours.

Brian Strickland: Okay.

Ed Jones: If you don't do 12 hours of not eating you're not doing intermittent fasting. You just simply aren’t. I'm getting close to where I'm not. But here's the other little niche to this is I do in a people who've heard me. I'm so convinced that your first meal of the day needs to be as perfect as possible because that sets your chemistry up for the day. And if you do it wrong you're doomed, people. You might have just chunk off the day. You're still going to gain weight, you're going to produce inflammation. You're going to damage mitochondria. You can't eat well enough to fix it once you've screwed it. So bullet point number [00:25:01] two for Ed Jones has advice: you have to start the day with this perfect as you can as far as macros. So what do I do? I drink the drink. I've always said over and over for breakfast you might as well give up trying to eat foods because you're going to spin in a circle like a cat chasing its tail trying to figure out what can I eat this morning? Oh my gosh. I'm tired of eggs. I'm tired of this. I don't want to do. No. Just do the frickin drink that I talked about Metagenics Keto Powder with mixed with Green Vibrance and mixed with some flax seeds and mix with MCT oil. Those four are the magic if you put them together. I actually count that as a half fast because I'm doing basically no carbs and it works spectacularly well. And I do it with a Nutribullet with cold water. No other liquids, only cold water. So even though I do this at 5:30 in the morning, I count that as a almost a type [00:26:01] of not eating. Not legally, but it does work for me again. You got to go back pick your hours, start with maybe 12 and 12. So I think really the best advice from people would be to start small. Right and we understand that it's not necessarily a one-size-fits-all solution for every single person. You have to find what works for you but really the important part is that 12-hour window we’re not eating so that your gut and the rest of your body has time to recuperate. That's exact and at 12. You can go to 11. Then you go to 10. There are people who only do one meal a day. That's another type of intermittent fasting. I don't particularly embrace that because I do have fears that back to the insulin. I think that if you do that. And you also live a stressful life say insulin and cortisol arelike kissing cousins and if your cortisol goes [00:27:01] up it tends to raise your insulin or vice versa. And I think that is setting you up to be a little more sensitive to those things and I just feel so much better about people at least doing two meals a day. Again not processed food. Good quality from the earth, focusing on a type of keto choosing which is healthy fats, avocado, MCT, coconut oil, organic butter, olive oil. Large amounts of it. And then focusing on healthy proteins, the ones at best you can. So you need to know, choose the right foods. You don't have to be perfect people but there's plenty in those categories. And then the carbohydrates you don't have to be keto. You just need to be healthy as far as choices and then that's going to set you up for success. Now, you know there are [00:28:01] some mistakes that people make or some real tips that here that I want to make sure that everyone knows about before they Embrace this you ready Brian?

Brian Strickland: Yeah, let's hear him.

Ed Jones: Alright one is that I've already mentioned it a couple times is do not replace your foods with junk food or continue to eat eat junk food. That's not going to serve you well now pick a day a week like I do on Sundays as my Carb Day. I do eat clean, but I ate anything I want on Sunday. Next, most people don't get enough water. How much is enough water? I counted 1/2 ounce per pound of body weight. So I weigh 170 for half of that. Let's just say 80. So, you know, that's that's easy to accomplish and you do it in divided doses. Do not think you can drink 32 ounces at 10 o'clock and that has just gotten you almost near half because all of that almost is going to run off. What we want with water people is it to get into the cell not wash over it. [00:29:01] And right now is way way down the line but I am really really intrigued by this vortexing of water. There's a Dr. Cohen who wrote a great book who just came out on cancer and water and all of this and vortexing is like spinning the water. And I actually have a person who has built and designed a vortex piece of equipment that you can put on your plumbing and it lasts the rest of your life and is going to Vortex water. It is a new dimension of water. So I'm just so so intrigued by that. Saying that I want to also make one comment on the published literature in PubMed and all the way down the list on people who are doing chemo if they will fast before chemo it makes the chemo two to three times more effective. Now that that sounds counterintuitive that you're going to go do a drug that's actually going to make you sick. So I better eat a lot before I go. So, I understand [00:30:01] that feeling but all I can tell you is the solid research says it's going to increase your odds of survival and cure so much better. Guarantee you that there may be a handful of oncologists in this country, but that's only a small handful that are even discussing it and on that. I have to keep ranting that vitamin D levels are imperative to be over 50 nanograms for anyone who's chronically sick. So please you can do all your blood testing at The Holistic Navigator website. Just go up to the products page and drop down to Direct Labs. Order this vitamin D people. You can get your blood drawn in your own town or any other blood work. It's imperative. You have to stand up and be your own best advocate; don't expect these other people to do it for you. Okay, number three. These are the things to consider if you want every bit of the possibilities of renewal, and weight loss, and looking better, and energy with this intermittent fasting. Most [00:31:01] people don't get enough collagen. What is collagen? It's kind of the glue that holds us together. Why do you think a 20 year old has such firm skin and no wrinkles? It is because their collagen and has significant amounts that is holding it really nicely and tight. How do you produce more collagen? Well, I'm sorry to say father times pretty damn cruel to the collagen in part of us along with other things. You probably need to purchase a collagen product. However, here's my bullet point number three that you will never hear from anyone else almost guarantee you that talks about collagen. There is a small subgroup of people with collagen and who will exhibit extreme anxiety because they took it. Guess who number one does that? It’s Ed Jones. I could not figure out why I kept having more than normal anxiety levels and are finally stumbled upon a piece of research. It said collagen can sometimes [00:32:01] fill in the receptor site for tryptophan and it causes people to be deficient in tryptophan because of the way it works. Well, guess what tryptophan make serotonin. Serotonin has a brain chemical. Now a serotonin has a lot to do a depression but it also is a cousin to the anxiety conversation. So if you experience anxiety with collagen do not do it. I just can't do it. I can't ever do it again. Number four is make sure that you're going to schedule time in your life to unwind, to relax, to connect or reconnect because cortisol cannot stay super high and you expect to get the best results. The herb of all time that I recommend to everyone leading these chaotic lives that we do is ashwagandha. It is truly a blessing that the Earth has offered us this product because taken twice a day it will lower cortisol. What does that mean? It means you're gonna lose body fat. You're going to have better [00:33:01] thinking. You're going to have less destruction. So doing some scheduling of your own life at least, you know, 10 minutes a day or something else. You really really need it. It's not a luxury people. You deserve it. Next is people don't eat enough fat sometimes on intermittent fasting. I love MCT oil. It's a great fat, but you only can do 1 tablespoon if you get loose stools, but I live on avocados every day. I live on some nuts. I live on olive oil. I live on every single meal has significant fat in it. Do not believe the people who are touting still the kind of the low-fat, you know, it's going to raise cholesterol and all of that. It is just bunk. One last tip sometimes when we fast and most of the time you are going to probably excrete some toxins. What a wonderful thing. We live in a chaotic jungle of [00:34:01] toxins that we need to allow our body to excrete it. But sometimes you get over burdened with these toxins, what are the couple tips to get rid of it? Charcoal between meals and or Bentonite liquid. I love Bentonite. It reduces all of your toxins. It's easy to drink. You just do it between meals. and Sonne’s number 7 is my favorite. Been around since 1942. Have you ever drank Bentonite?

Brain Strickland: No, I've never had it before.

Ed Jones: Well your day will come. I want to get you a bottle. All right, Brian. I hope I made it clear enough the importance of considering intermittent fasting and how freaking easy it is to do and many of the reasons why it works for us. Again to reiterate. It very quickly just pick an 8 to 12 hour window to eat and the rest of the time you don't eat. And that's pretty dang simple to start a plan. And one of the reasons that this works in my mind and a few other people along [00:35:01] with things that I've spoken about before like cryotherapy, exposing yourself to very low temperatures breath-holding, which I've talked about on the podcast under breathe. Extreme exercise where you're like push-ups and you are holding your breath. The reason that works is because you know, it renews a lost type of healing capacity that we have been built into us from the very first day on this Earth. And they put it in us so that we could endure really, really, really tough times. And what happens is is kind of like the story of you know, we've all heard and read about the mother who can pick a car up because their child is underneath it. Where did that come from? That strength? Well, she didn't produce it at that moment. She just retrieved it. We all have the ability to retrieve the magic [00:36:01] of healing if we know what to do. Please send us emails if you would have questions and I so deeply appreciate your time. Thank you so much.

Brian Strickland: The information on this podcast in the topics discussed have not been evaluated by the FDA or any one of the medical profession and is not aimed to replace any advice you may receive from your medical practitioner. The Holistic Navigator assumes no responsibility or liability whatsoever on behalf of any purchaser or listener of these materials. The Holistic Navigator is not a doctor or doesn't claim to be please consult your physician before beginning any health regimen.


“Intermittent fasting, in my case, i’m picking about an eleven hour window to consume foods. That means for about 13 hours i will consume no calories whatsoever. I will do liquids, but no calories.”

-Ed jones, the holistic navigator