[00:00:00] Sophia Lebano: [00:00:00] Hello, everybody. What’s up. Welcome back to another episode ofHear and Now Podcast. I’m so excited to have Bett Lucas today because we’ve already been chatting for so long and she is just full of joy and beauty and light. And I love it so much. So Bett welcome to the show.
[00:00:14] Bett Lucas: [00:00:14] Oh, it’s an honor to be here.
[00:00:16] And yes, it seems like whenever my name is in a sentence, the word chatty is there because I could probably chat with you all day and you are, I think we’re similar souls of that. So yeah. Such an honor to be here.
[00:00:31] Sophia Lebano: [00:00:31] Yeah. So I am so excited to have you share all about your wisdom with your health journey and intermittent fasting, and even the big question at the end of curly hair and intermittent fasting.
[00:00:41] So why don’t you just get started? Tell us a little bit about yourself and your health journey. I’m really interested to hear about it.
[00:00:47] Bett Lucas: [00:00:47] Sure. So I’m 40 years old, just turned 40 this year. Hard to believe because I remember when my parents were 40, that seemed like, like they were 70. Um, but I am a mom of six little ones ages, six months to 11.
[00:01:06] Oh, it I’ve actually been, uh, working remotely, which is, has been really kind of a unique, special treat because my job normally requires some travel and different things. And I have been on a health journey in the past few years of my life, because what kind of happened is that as my life became more and more filled with.
[00:01:31] Different components. My career, my kids, my faith, whatever you want to call it, all these things I loved, but we’re growing. They were, they were filling this room. My health slowly started going down the priority list and. You know, looking back to like when I was your age Sophia, I was always like decently healthy.
[00:01:53] Like I wasn’t always, I wasn’t like this crazy unhealthy person. I played three sports in high school. I actually really miss playing sports in college. Like when I went to college, that was a huge hole, huge hole for me. Like I remember going and like, I didn’t realize how much sports were a part of my, of who I was going into college.
[00:02:14] And so I’ve always been decently active, but I kind of hit this point where, uh, whatever her I had tried. Health-wise. It’s all the things I had been told, like count calories. Oh, you need to exercise more, join a gym. I started trying, like when I said, okay, I’m going to take back my health. I’m going to prioritize it more.
[00:02:37] I started kind of doing those things and not that I’m here to bash. If those things work for you and you like those things, that’s great. But what I found for me and my journey is that they weren’t working for me anymore. And it wasn’t that. Like, you know, looking back those tools had worked for me to some degree in the past, you know, I could just say, [00:03:00] oh, I, I I’m going on this trip or I’m doing this thing.
[00:03:03] I want to drop 10 pounds. I’m going to exercise like crazy. And I’m going to count my calories and you know, your generation probably a little different. But when I was younger it was like, oh, you just did weight Watchers and they’re counting calories. So you did an app and, and that’s what we would do, you know, but the ironic thing would be.
[00:03:22] Is that it would take a lot of time. It felt very hard. It always felt like you were struggling. Like I was on the struggle bus. Like, you know, you felt very limited, you know, you were always hungry and it was hard. It took a lot of time. And with six kids, a busy career, I started being like challenging going, you know, I don’t know if those are the right tools for me.
[00:03:46] And what I started to realize is that other moms and other women and other people were feeling the same, that the traditional tools that we had been told all these years do a lot of small meals throughout the day. Snack constantly keep your metabolism going. Exercise, exercise, exercise. Maybe isn’t the answer for everyone.
[00:04:08] And, um, I think there’s a lot of hope in that message because I think what people. I think when they try those things and they don’t work or they try them, they lose 10 pounds and then they gain 15 pounds back later. They think they’re a failure. They think something’s wrong with them. They think they didn’t try hard enough.
[00:04:28] And what I’m here to say is you are not a failure. You actually just maybe have the wrong tools in your tool belt. And I’m here to give you some bold tools for your tool belt that I believe can apply to anyone’s journey. And if someone like me who has a pretty chaotic life, pretty imperfect, clean, chaotic, It’s beautiful, but managing all, I manage my podcast, my job, my kids, I have to have health tools that work and that are not overly complicated.
[00:05:03] And it’s like, I kind of found some and now I’m so passionate about them because I want. Other people to have these tools because to me, these tools are a lifetime worth of, of things that you can have in your tool belt. Right? You can have them in your tool belt, and they’re not crazy hard and they’re not.
[00:05:26] Something where you feel like I’m a failure. And so that’s what, why I think I’m so passionate to share about it on my podcast and with you. And I want others to find what I feel like I’ve found and I’m far from perfect and I’m not done on my health journey. I will not be done until the day that I die.
[00:05:46] I won’t be, but I, uh, but. I have found some tools that I feel helped me be my best in the area of career family, my faith, my marriage. And so that’s [00:06:00] why I love sharing it.
[00:06:01] Sophia Lebano: [00:06:01] That’s amazing. Yeah. I mean, you have such an inspirational journey and, you know, last year I think everybody has struggled with the whole fresh, I called the COVID 15, you know, I was a freshman in college, so I’m like, okay, it’s, you know, freshman 15, but COVID edition.
[00:06:17] Um, So after that, I was like, okay, we’re moving this summer. And I just want to feel good about myself. So how did you start to discover what intermittent fasting was? And could you explain that for people as well?
[00:06:30] Bett Lucas: [00:06:30] Sure. So kind of our old, the way it’s thinking or our prior way of thinking was we needed to snack constantly to keep our metabolism going.
[00:06:41] So instead of three meals a day or two meals a day, it was really six meals a day and those needed to be healthy foods. Okay. Now some people define healthy foods is low-calorie. Some of us define it as vegan. Some of us define it as high protein. There are so many thoughts around this, but bottom line, that’s what usually you were told.
[00:07:00] Oh, and go join a gym, go run every day and or do what you’re going to do. Intermittent fasting kind of brings it back and says, no. What we need to do is not focus as much on what you eat, but when you eat now, I’ll talk about what you eat. Later, but really step one is fasting is just shortening the amount of time that you’re actually eating.
[00:07:27] And then the rest of the time you’re giving your digestive system a break. And you’re not thinking that this old mentality that your metabolism is. Slowing by not eating during a certain window, you’re actually giving your digestive system a break so that it can burn the fat in your body. So kind of think of it.
[00:07:49] Like every time you eat, it’s your fridge and then your fat stores or the pantry. If we are constantly being fridge and we’re constantly to fat stores, if the fridge gets empty, but there’s, the pantry is still there. Guess what happens? It goes and burns your fat, your body fat. And unfortunately there’s this kind of thought process that well that’s starving yourself or there, oh, yo no, it’s really not changing the volume of what you eat too much.
[00:08:22] It’s it’s just taking it and moving it into a shorter amount of time. And it doesn’t mean you can eat anything you want. It doesn’t mean that everything’s fair game, but the line of one of the lead fasting experts and New York times bestseller Jim Stevens is delay don’t deny. And our goal is to really say, okay, Sophia, instead of.
[00:08:49] When you wake up and you think I need a latte from Starbucks, I need my breakfast sandwich. I need my egg cups. I need my yogurt. No, [00:09:00] we’re going to say drink some black coffee, drink some tea. Unflavored green tea, drink some hot water and try to delay that time when you eat some of us. When we intermittent fast.
[00:09:12] We skipped breakfast. Some of us skip dinner, everyone needs to figure out what works best for them and their life, because what works for me, isn’t going to work for you. But I will say I’m going to put myself back into freshmen. Bet. I similarly went to college, gained the freshman 15, and I actually think I gained more my sophomore year.
[00:09:35] Again, like I, I did not lose weight in my college experience and. Some of that I really believe was due to a cafeteria type, um, eating lifestyle. Right. And the other thing was probably lack of sleep. You know, sleep affects our hormones. Stress. So fear every stress for tests or whatever, even though I look back and I’m like, my life was not that stressful, but there were, when there was stress, that’s why certain kids get mano and in college there’s stressful time.
[00:10:07] And however, I think that there’s this cafeteria mentality. So you’re going to eat, eat, eat. Oh, I’m hungry. And I remember thinking there was all this food and then you’re kind of grazing all day. Right? You may never really sit down and eat like a really good solid meal. You’re going to go, well, I’m going to go to the coffee store now.
[00:10:26] Now I’m going to go get a muffin later. Oh, I’m going to get a bagel. Oh. Women have an apple now. And what I challenge people to do is that if that grazing is working for you, you’re feeling your best. You’re not feeling like you’re gaining weight. You’re not feeling like just like a little bit foggy.
[00:10:47] However, the majority of us are feeling a little bit foggy, like. No matter how much healthy food we eat. Oh, no. Why? Well, I believe is that it’s due to this hormonal hormonal issue again, that they are sustainable for our life. So intermittent fasting for me. Really has changed my life in a lot of ways, because I I’m like, wow, it’s that simple.
[00:11:18] Like, I don’t need a fasting powder. I just need to hone in the timeframe, my eating. And some days my window can be long or sometimes it can be shorter. And just by implementing that, I have seen so many positive change and I look back at how hard I worked. Like how hard I worked to try to, you know, lose those 10 to 15 to 25 pounds that I gained in college.
[00:11:48] And it just felt like nothing was working. And so that’s why I really love sharing about intermittent fasting and why I like to encourage people. And the key to me on an intermittent [00:12:00] fasting is also clean fasting. So clean fasting means when you’re fasting. When you’re not eating, you can’t have coffee with cream.
[00:12:09] You can’t have a diet Coke. You can’t have a LaCroix flavored. You can’t have green tea. Unflavored black coffee. Unflavored uh, no cream. You can have a sparkling water or you can have hot water. You can have black tea as long as it doesn’t have flavoring, but you’re gonna look at a lot of fasting experts out there and they’re going to tea syrup ones.
[00:12:35] We’re going to say, oh, you can have some MCT oil or you can have some bone broth or you can have this. And my experiences is that fasting is way easier. You’re going to think that, oh, but it’s going to help me crutch. I can, it’ll make this fasting easier if I have a bone broth or a, because so-and-so said I could, but really at the end of the day, if you want to.
[00:13:03] To have your fasting journey be easier. I highly recommend your first step is to clean fast right out of the gate. And you’re in, I know everyone’s going to say, but that I love my coffee. I don’t want to give up my cream in my coffee. Okay. I get it. Have the cream in your coffee, in your eating window, do not have it while you’re fasting, because if you are having it, that is not a clean fast, and it will make your fasting harder.
[00:13:29] I just did an episode on this. People don’t believe me until they try it, then they’re like, oh, That was a lot easier. That’s
[00:13:37] Sophia Lebano: [00:13:37] awesome. Yeah. So there’s so much information that you just gave us and I’m so thankful. Um, so let’s talk about the kind of windows, like you said, are some of the windows that you recommend could you need like the 16 or eight I’m totally butchering this or whatever it might be, but what is your experience with the windows of time?
[00:13:57] Bett Lucas: [00:13:57] Definitely. There are so many different. I like to call them fasting shoes out there. And just like, we all like different styles of clothes and different hairstyles and different things. What I would say is a great starting point. It can be a 16, eight, and that’s what you’re going to hear. The majority of people say when they’re starting and what does 16 eight mean?
[00:14:22] 16 means the amount of hours you were fasting, so you can start and include the hours of your sleep. So let’s say you go to bed at eight o’clock and that is when you stopped eating. You had a coup you had a. A decaf coffee with some cream, right before bed, or you had a diet Coke or you had a banana, whatever eight o’clock is when you stopped.
[00:14:46] That means. To get 16 hour. Next time that you can open your window is that’s is 16 hours later. And that would be noon the next day. [00:15:00] Right? So at noon you can open your window. And at that point in time, I recommend eating. Like you normally did eat a very good nutritious lunch, and then. Before that though it was black coffee.
[00:15:15] It was sparkling water. It was hot water again, no flavored LaCroix, no flavor flavored, spin drifts um, nothing with flavor in that morning timeframe. And I promise you can do it. And then, um, And when you’re eating, trying to eat something don’t open with, you know, a donut try not to. Now, I’m not, I don’t want you to make in the first few days, I don’t want you to make a lot of eating changes if that’s normally what you opened your woman to was okay.
[00:15:47] But try to open your window with a protein, some good veggies and something where you’re like, I am satisfied. You don’t want to overeat, but you’re like, Ugh. And then your likelihood of grabbing for something else is going to reduce. And then you have eight hours. Now, eight hours does not mean you eat that whole eight hours.
[00:16:09] And part of you is going to be like, oh my gosh, I got to eat all the things at first. You’re going to think eight hours doesn’t feel very long, but the more and more you fast, it’s like a fasting. It’s a muscle. You have to practice because what seemed really hard to me years ago now seems like a breeze.
[00:16:27] Like if you told me 16, eight, I’m like, oh, big deal. Like I can do that in no problem, but I am not undermining that. It’s hard at first. It is hard at first. It’s a challenge at first. Now. If you do a 16, eight, and you’re like that, that’s impossible. Move it back at half an hour, then do a 15 hour and 30 minutes and then start moving towards each 30 minutes more.
[00:16:51] Now, if there’s a lot of people that are your age listening to this, what I want to say is more fasting. Does it mean more results? So what, where am I going with that? Some people think, well, I got results at 16, eight. I’m going to bump right to a 24. What does that mean? 20 hours fasting four hours seating.
[00:17:10] The problem with condensing windows too much for some people is they make poor food choices. And so they don’t actually choose food that serves them, or they start feeling like they need to binge, like, they’re like, I gotta eat all the things. I gotta eat. All the things. Now, some people eat do really well with the 20 and four window.
[00:17:30] They love it. They eat well. They, they shoot themselves. They get enough protein, nutrients, all the things. However, I would say that if that isn’t working for you, don’t assume that more weight loss or more health results are gonna come out of, uh, out of a shorter window for some people. It does. A really nice fit for me in my, where I’m at in my life is kind of a six to eight hour eating window.
[00:17:58] So I’m going to open [00:18:00] around, let’s say noon. And then that would mean I would close around six to eight. What does that look like? I think that looks like a great midday lunch. Some days I actually try not to. Snack much after that lunch and then maybe a lighter dinner. So you could call it, I’m eating one and a half kind of meals or I’m eating two some days.
[00:18:21] And then some days I do not have dinner. I just say, you know what? I was really satiated at lunch. I made sure and got plenty of protein, plenty of nutrients from lots of green leafy vegetables or some sort of, and you know what? I had some good fats. Maybe that thrown in helped me. So maybe that’s the avocado.
[00:18:41] Maybe your fat is your salad dressing and that fat watch out for too much sugar, but on salad dressing. But that’s a great way now. Let’s say you’re Hey, Hey, you know what? I really don’t. I really like breakfast. I want to have cream in my coffee when I first wake up, what do I do then? Bet. Okay, you need to have an early window so you can open your window at eight.
[00:19:04] Let’s say you open at eight o’clock. I open up eight o’clock I want some coffee with cream. I want some eggs and I want some bacon or whatever you might have. Okay. No problem. Your eight hour window would be kind of 8:00 AM, right to 4:00 PM. Then you’re done. Now, if you do that for a few weeks and you’re like, oh bet, this is really easy.
[00:19:25] I’m feeling really good. You can do the opposite of what I said. If it’s really hard, you can start shortening it by a little bit and then figure out the shoe that fits you best. And the shoe that fits you best doesn’t have to be the everyday shoe tomorrow. It could be 17 hours felt really good to fast.
[00:19:44] That felt great. You know what, one day you could be like. 20 hours felt really good. And then some days your body’s going to tell you, no, I think you need to eat and I’m hungry now. Perfect. If you really think it’s true hunger, not just boredom, not just emotional, not just anxiety, not just your boyfriend broke up with you.
[00:20:05] If you think it’s really that it’s not COVID, I’m stressed out about cOVID. Then that’s okay to eat. Just try to reach for the right thing. And I really believe that if you’re eating the right foods, the highest nutrient foods, good proteins, and getting enough of those things, the likelihood of you grabbing the crap.
[00:20:27] Is going to go down. It just is. And I’m human, like all of you. And the only reason that I can make sure I don’t overeat my pantry, my, uh, kids sugary treats that they are not hidden around the house is by making sure I eat a really good satiating midday meal. And when I was in college, I just think I grazed, I grazed all day and it was pretty healthy Grazie.
[00:20:54] Now I probably. Was drinking too sometimes. And that probably didn’t help [00:21:00] when I hit 21. I was like, you know, I S and staying up late, not getting as much sleep. However, I want to emphasize that you can pick a window, but don’t think that because Sophia’s window is a 19 five that a 19 five. You don’t think just because I do a 17, eight, that that is the right window for you.
[00:21:22] Um, so I, sorry. That’s 17 eight, that’d be 17 seven. Um, but you, we gotta, you gotta just try out a lot of shoes and, um, and then promise me when you first start. You’re not going to make all these major food changes, but you’re going to clean fast and you’re not when your window opens. Don’t just graze within that window, either really try to eat more meal based things that can satiate you and keep you from that constant grazing, because that constant grazing didn’t work for you.
[00:21:55] It made your insulin and blood sugars go nuts. And that is why your body could never burn fat. It’s because it constantly had inbound energy and that’s why your body at first will be mad at you. It will be mad. It wants that constant. It, it likes that you are constantly giving it snacks. I mean, look at you, look at a dog.
[00:22:18] Do you think they’re ever sad about a constant stack note? They’ll overeat themselves till they can barely walk. Right. At least my lab will just realize the reverse, right? The first 30 days, it’s just going to be two things, clean, fast, pick a window, have grace for yourself and don’t change much else and see how you feel.
[00:22:42] Try on a few things, but don’t, don’t. Try everything all at once. You’ve got to kind of give it some time. And for the first 30 days at first it may feel hard and then you’re going to hit a stride. I promise.
[00:22:57] Sophia Lebano: [00:22:57] That’s awesome. Well, so much good information. Um, I was getting to the point where I was like, I used to be so hungry when I would wake up and I was like, I need to eat breakfast right away.
[00:23:07] Um, And then after my mom started listening to you and just kind of all the things that you were saying, then I was like, okay, well maybe I can start to push myself a little bit. Um, so if I wake up at eight, I’m not going to eat breakfast until maybe 11, sometimes close to noon. Um, and so just from a personal perspective, if we’re up late studying or anything, how do you deal with the desire to snack super late at night?
[00:23:30] Do you say, do we push our window in the morning and not eat as early.
[00:23:35] Bett Lucas: [00:23:35] So I get that completely. I find the evening is the most problematic, whether you are 15 to 25 or you are my age or you’re 60 to 85, it’s just a, it’s a hard time because the later you stay up. The more tired. You usually are. Snacking, definitely coincides with that.
[00:23:59] Snacking is [00:24:00] also kind of boredom, right? Like we’re used to having food and foods around, especially if you’re studying. Right. What I would recommend are two things either don’t have an evening window. Uh, so you, you literally cut yourself off and when everyone else is snacking, you have hot water, you have tea, you have, I can’t drink coffee late at night, but you know what, when I was your age, I could and still go to sleep.
[00:24:24] It’s so bizarre. Um, but college, it, we’re just, you’re just an amazing
[00:24:31] Sophia Lebano: [00:24:31] human being. No, I don’t drink coffee, so I don’t understand like the need to have coffee.
[00:24:37] Bett Lucas: [00:24:37] Go well, that’s great because really coffee in a lot of ways, is masking something. If you’re that tired and really can’t function without coffee, that’s usually when something else is saying, Hey, you need to sleep a little bit more.
[00:24:51] Your help is probably so not a bad thing, Sophia so I would say one, cut your window. Um, because to me, if you don’t have that strict cutoff at some point. You’re gonna keep doing it. You’re gonna keep the tortilla chips. They’re gonna come there. You’re going to go grab another, even if it’s a nutritional bar or protein bar.
[00:25:13] Um, so you can either not have an evening window or just cut yourself off. So you start saying a positive statement. I am someone. Who only eats until 7:00 PM or I am someone who only eats till 10:00 PM. So in a 10:00 PM life, let’s say that’s even kind of late. Your window could be, you know, four to 10 year window could be two to 10.
[00:25:37] And especially if you’re staying up late, you’re probably sleeping in more. So maybe that’s not as late. As it may seem at first, I regularly opened my window between 11 and two to three. So my window changes. So, but if you would’ve told me when people used to say two or three, it to open my window, I’d be like, they’d be like, oh, I, I, I, I could, I just, I just can’t.
[00:26:01] No, no, you can. You can. Um, it’s just, we have been so trained eat all the time and I like you when I used to wake up. I drive to work. I’d go to Starbucks and get my latte. Then I would go, I would sometimes speak another stop to get a breakfast sandwich because I had to have breakfast. I was starving and then I’d be at my desk.
[00:26:21] And then a few hours later I’d want some nuts. Edwin, some carrots I’d want, oh, I’ll have the protein bar. I mean, I was snacking constantly. And if you looked at my snacks or my food, you probably would have said that doesn’t look so unhealthy. And yet I could not budge the scale. I could not get rid of my inflammation and I wasn’t like drastically overweight, but I was like 40 to 50 pounds.
[00:26:49] At a place where I just couldn’t move it and then I I’d move it a little bit, but nothing really moved the needle. And I think intermittent fasting along with those tweaks of [00:27:00] making a little bit more food choices that are more meal based versus. Snacking really are two powerful things that can help you.
[00:27:10] Sophia Lebano: [00:27:10] That’s amazing. My mom always tells me dine in instead of dine out and I thought this is great. Like, you know, if I’m working out, I’m not going to work out after having a large meal, that’s not going to do anything. So, if I’m not eating in those windows of intermittent fasting, I’m going to go work out or I’m going to make sure that I’m continuing to dine in, um, instead of filling my body with all the foods and salty snacks and everything.
[00:27:32] Um, so do you know if there’s any, um, fasting windows that are not healthy or dangerous or anything that you would recommend against?
[00:27:42] Bett Lucas: [00:27:42] Yeah. So I think if you’re someone who has maybe a history of disordered eating, uh, or prone to disordered eating, obviously there is caution to be exercised. However, A few of my guests on my podcast.
[00:27:58] One recently she is, uh, she discusses her bipolar journey and she really feels that intermittent fasting helped her on her mental health journey because it freed her from constantly thinking about food. It freed her from counting calories, being obsessed with how many macros were in this and weighing her food.
[00:28:19] It was literally. This is when I eat, this is how I try to eat within this window. And then the rest of the day, she didn’t have to think about it. And what she says is she really believes she was suffering from it like a food obsession on. Just, it was overwhelming her on what to do. I also, just back to my original advice that more fasting doesn’t mean better.
[00:28:43] And some people will just keep shortening their windows. They’ll go 23 and one they’ll do 22 and two. And for certain people on their health journey, maybe they’re significantly overweight maybe in, and maybe classified as obese. Maybe they can’t walk on their journey. They can fast for longer because they have a lot of body fat to lose.
[00:29:07] But when you are in your college years, I still think that you can have a very kind of. I moderate approach to intermittent fasting and still have some great results. I do not think you need to go just Uber crazy on what you’ve seen on you tube. Uh, the other thing I would say though, is that if at any point you’re just feeling like it’s and you’ve done it for more than 30 days, the first 30 days, your emotions, your hunger, all of that’s going to be a little wacky, but you’ve.
[00:29:46] Clean fasted, clean fasted for 30 days. And then from that point forward, if you ever feel like all like sluggish, you’re not feeling like quite right. You probably need to be there. Look at your food [00:30:00] choices or you need to adjust your window and widen your window again. Isn’t always the worst thing because sometimes with widening it, you’re making better food choices.
[00:30:11] So I would caution anyone if they are doing a really short window and they’re just making crap food choices and they’re doing like a binge be here. Then they need to widen their window or take a break for a few days or figure out a different shoe for them. That’s really what I would caution. And, um, sometimes the more we relax and just rest and just have peace about it and no obsess about it.
[00:30:39] And I think that’s what intermittent fasting helps us do then, you know what, a lot of times that stress releases, so, you know, stress can help us hold on to weight. And people don’t realize that that is, it affects our cortisol, which helps us think, oh, we got it. We got to keep this weight because you know, when our ancestors, when they have stressful moments, they were running from a wild beast trying to eat up, or they were, you know, they’re trying to survive.
[00:31:09] So stress meant maybe lack of food. And so our body goes, oh, well, I’m going to hold on to this weight. Right. So the more we can relax. Just take it easy. And if you’re feeling kind of cruddy after, after doing it for a while, you may need to eat more, not eat less, any better. And maybe why that’s my advice.
[00:31:31] That’s
[00:31:31] Sophia Lebano: [00:31:31] such great advice. Yeah. It’s funny you say that about the whole ancestors and survival type thing. And one of my favorite shows to watch a survivor. Have you ever seen that before? So I’m looking at these people. I’m like, wow, the amount of time that it took them to lose weight, because they’re not eating, they’re kind of relaxed or on a beach, they’re just enjoying their life.
[00:31:50] Um, I’m like, wow, I should go on that show.
[00:31:58] yes. I mean, you live on your bathing suit 40 days, what could be better? Um, but I look at these people, they have very limited access to food and they’re really just. They’re treasuring what they have in our short amount of time that they can need to. Um, plus they’re doing all these physical activities, which brings me to my next question is where do we factor in exercise while we’re fasting?
[00:32:19] So we don’t end up with, you know, passing out while we’re not eating in those windows. So what is your advice for that?
[00:32:25] Bett Lucas: [00:32:25] Yeah, no, that’s great. I. Cannot agree more that, um, I think that the more we can just relax and enjoy it and remember that our ancestors did not have drive-throughs, they didn’t have Instacart, they didn’t have it for every piece of food they ate.
[00:32:46] They had to kind of work for it. And find and walk to and run to, or a hunted. And even if you don’t want to go that far back in history, your grandparents, I guarantee it, or your great grandparents did not eat three [00:33:00] meals a day. I guarantee they didn’t snack. I guarantee it, they ate probably one to two meals a day and you know what a lot of them clean fasted.
[00:33:09] And if you look back the weight issues, the health issues. That we have today in our society. We’re not there with our grandparents and great-grandparents generations because food was not so readily available. And so I just want people to think like this concept of fasting, isn’t that crazy? It’s actually just, wasn’t called fasting back then.
[00:33:32] So in terms of exercise, so I exercise regularly. I love to exercise. I love to move my body. I love to incorporate movement, but what I want everyone to do. Is, I want them to boldly realize that if your goal is weight loss, if that’s what you need, if that is what you know, that you need to lose some weight, your BMI is too high.
[00:33:57] I don’t love BMI, but I’m trying to give an example. Um, I knew I needed to lose some weight. I was not as healthy as I could be. So if you know that, yes, I want you to exercise. Yes. I want you to move however, If you were starting on your fasting journey. For the first 30 days, if you don’t normally exercise or you just normally go for a walk every day, do some yoga here and there.
[00:34:22] I don’t want you to add a lot in that first 30 days and a concept that a lot of people think they think, oh, well, I could never exercise on an empty stomach. Yes, she can. Yes, you can do it all the time. I actually exercise regularly and intermittent. Fasters all over the world. Exercise. After fasting more than 10, 20, 30, 40 hours at times, I have ultra runners on my show that exercise faster, faster.
[00:34:50] That means they’re running 50 to a hundred miles. Fasted. So just, I just, we have to kind of change our thought process a little bit. However, we have to baby step this, because this is more of a mind game than it is a physical game. So now I’ve physically proven you can do it, but you mentally have to get there.
[00:35:12] So the first thing I want you to do is just fast for 30 days. Do intermittent fasting for 30. It’s not fast, straight for 30 days. And I want you to do whatever exercise you were doing. And if you want to rein back a little bit, you can, if, um, if you ever feel a little bit like you get a headache. You’re feeling like something feels off likely that is a, you need some salt.
[00:35:40] And so sodium potassium, magnesium are the main electrolytes like creator. Rob Wolf created them. L M N T like element packets. There’s unflavored ones. You can have the. Well, when you’re fasting, you can also have trace minerals which [00:36:00] are electrolytes found on Amazon and, or go grab some pink, salt, or some salt, put it in your tongue or put it in your black coffee.
[00:36:08] I know it sounds crazy, but. Salt to so often perky right up, because that feeling a lot of taco was hunger. Isn’t always that the fastest going bad, you just need a little bit of electrolytes. So yes, you can exercise. Don’t overthink the timing of when you exercise before your fast, after it fast during your fasting, just do what you normally did and keep testing it.
[00:36:32] But what I want to give you encouragement is that it’s more of a mental thing than it is a physical thing. You mentally. All of us think, oh, we can. I used to think I could never, I needed a goo or I needed a protein bar or I needed this. And you really don’t. Uh, you, you really don’t. And does it mean that I’m telling you, you need to go run a marathon faster today.
[00:36:57] It’s really baby steps. Try going for a walk and actually exercise can be a great way to help you fast, because let’s say you have an hour left on your fast in your window. Go for a walk. It’s a great thing to take up that time in that boredom that instead of walking to the pantry and going and grabbing a bag of chips, go for a quick walk.
[00:37:19] Sophia Lebano: [00:37:19] It’s all awesome. Yeah. I mean, I can’t add anything else to it. It’s just so much good information coming. Um, so how, in terms of results, you know, you’re saying if the shoe fits there’s different shoes that we can wear, um, And I know it’s going to be different for everybody, but what are some of the things that we can do to like see those results?
[00:37:39] You know, if you’re a person that needs to see tangible results, should we expect a quick turnaround in a week? And so going to take years, like, what do you think?
[00:37:46] Bett Lucas: [00:37:46] Yeah, I do think for people that have. If weight loss is the goal. I do think that they will see pretty quick results because their body was used to getting constant inbound food.
[00:38:03] What is quick results though? We all have different, different theories around this now. Some people who don’t have. And I would say the majority of the listeners here probably don’t have more than let’s call it 50 pounds to lose. Let’s say the majority of here more of them, probably the majority it’s like, I want to lose 50 pounds or less.
[00:38:22] Your attorney’s gonna be a little bit slower, but here’s the encouragement results with fasting last. This is not the diet programs of the past. This is not the juice fast. That sounds. Oh, But you did do this. Isn’t this is not the type where you just lose a bunch of water weight, and it comes all right.
[00:38:45] Back in more, I’m going to emphasize this is such a lifestyle. And what you’ll see is is that they they’ll, the scale will consistently go down. But it will also stay down. Like that’s what [00:39:00] I noticed with fasting. So we, I love to repeat, we are worthy of more than fast. We are worthy of things that lasts, you know, let’s let go of this old diet mentality where we’re trying to drop 10 pounds in a week, because guess what?
[00:39:14] You did not lose 10 pounds of fat in a week. You just lost some water weight. So I, I want to reassure people that it is. Not always as fast as you want. If you’re comparing it to diets, that just help you drop water inflammation. However, if you want to lose fat on your body, it is the best way to do so and the fastest way to do so now, what can you, you can expect the first thing I want you to do.
[00:39:43] You don’t have to share it with anybody. Take a picture. It doesn’t have to be with no clothes on it. Doesn’t have to be in your underwear. Take a picture in something. I want you to take a measurement. Take a measurement. Take two. Most of us can just measure our waistline. Maybe you want to measure your thigh fasting.
[00:40:01] We’ll get you different body composition than again, your traditional diets. And what you may see is your circumference of your waist. Your thighs will go down and yet the scale doesn’t always move. And a lot of people will say, well that’s because muscle weighs more than fat. Okay, well, one pound of muscle is the same as one pound of fat.
[00:40:25] It doesn’t mean more because it’s one pound each. Well, if the difference is. Is that it’s by volume and muscle. If you look at a picture, as someone is losing weight, muscle kind of fits a lot of excess fat. So what can happen with fasting is that it’s such a good way to burn excess fat on our bodies.
[00:40:49] That a lot of us will report that we will go two weeks without losing weight. And yet we’re down a Jean size and it’s like, what? Or we’ll notice like our midsection. Like I can wear a belt now, Sophia, I couldn’t wear a belt for a long time, or it wasn’t comfortable for me to wear a belt because you guys, if you are on your period, if you are, um, if you just ate a lot of heavier food yesterday, sorry to be a little bit more crass.
[00:41:20] If you didn’t poop, you know, th those things are gonna affect your scale. So we need to get away from this day to day swings. What I think you, if you like the scale and it’s not a toxic tool for you, if it’s a toxic tool, don’t use it. If it’s a, if, if you want to use it, what you want to look as your is your averages.
[00:41:40] So time after time, week after week, that’s going the right. If you’re just looking day to day that doesn’t tell you anything as not telling you the amount of fat you’re losing. So for me and my journey, I lost 40 to 50 pounds in, in a months, amount of [00:42:00] time. It wasn’t years. Um, so I find that that’s, that can be doable depending on how much weight you lose.
[00:42:06] Also, depending if you have other healing that needs to happen. So intermittent fasting. It’s first goal. Isn’t always wait. It may be trying to heal something else in your body. And you know, one of the phrases that Jen Stevens likes to use is the health plan with a side effect of weight loss. Watch those non-scale victories too.
[00:42:28] Like how. Your mental clarity, how’s your energy, how’s your bloating? How was your sleep? How, you know, look at all of those things too. If you have skin tags, how are those doing? How’s your hair? You know, all these other things that disk your skin, are you seeing improvements on your skin, in your eyesight people report that their eyesight improves with intermittent fasting?
[00:42:50] And so those are things I would say. If you’re kind of wanting results. No, you’re not going to lose all the way you want in 10 days. No, you’re probably not going to get all the results you want in 30 days. Will you get some results? Yes, you will. I guarantee you, you get something in your 30 day period, and I guarantee too that at some point you might get a wish.
[00:43:15] And what is a wish mean? Which means that your body knows everything’s kind of moving along. Not all of us just move, move the scale. It like this. Sometimes we go like this, we go straight and then we do a big drop. All of our bodies hold onto weight differently.
[00:43:34] Sophia Lebano: [00:43:34] That’s so interesting.
[00:43:35] And I just, I don’t know.
[00:43:37] I just so. And I guess amazed by all the knowledge that could happen and you know, how much it affects your skin and your sleep. Like there’s just so many benefits that could come out of it other than just weight loss. Um, and so back to an earlier point that we were talking about, and you hear your theories on this, about curly hair and intermittent fast day.
[00:43:57] So we briefly talked about this before we started recording. So what, what do you, what do you got?
[00:44:02] Bett Lucas: [00:44:02] Okay, so I think it kind of folds into my. You know, my premise of wanting everyone to live boldly in their life and that boldness isn’t being loud. Boldness doesn’t have to be having 6 million kids or, or, uh, having working outside the home.
[00:44:19] It, it really is curly hair and fasting to me are, we sometimes are fighting our own body. We’re fighting things and we’re making things more hard than they need to be. And with fasting. It really doesn’t have to be hard. It may be at first when you’re first trying it, but if it’s too hard and if you’re overthinking it too much and it’s not feeling good, you need to tweak it until it’s easy.
[00:44:49] Tweak it till it feels good. What feels natural for you? And what I’ve found is for natural for me, isn’t essentially. Uh, [00:45:00] most of us do. I naturally love having a great lunch and in that’s my bigger meal of the day, and it’s kind of sometimes a later lunch and I feel so good when I do that. Sophia. And then I sometimes have a light, light dinner or no dinner.
[00:45:15] It just kind of depends. But if I would force myself. To do what everyone tells me to do, which is I have to eat at this time. I have to snack or dinner should be my biggest meal. You know what? I’m kind of fighting my body. I’m also making things more complicated. Curly hair. Here we go. Don’t fight your curly hair so much.
[00:45:36] I’m not saying that you need to wear it curly every day. I am not saying that you need to, um, think it’s bad if you’re ever straighten your hair. No, but make it a little easier. Simplify your life a little bit more and stop these thoughts that your curls are not beautiful. You know what, the more you.
[00:45:59] Start embracing them just relaxing and kind of again, tweaking it till it’s easier, right? Till it’s easier. Make it work for you. For instance, today, before this interview, I haven’t washed my hair for quite a few days. I try to go as long as possible. I was tempted to get in the shower and wash my hair and you know what.
[00:46:21] In T instead of that, I said, no, I’m going to take this scarf. I’m going to figure it out my hair. And what did that save me? Save me like an hour. It’s simplified my life. And I got over this mental block that. I needed to straighten my hair. I got over this mental block that I needed. I had to, it would look better this way.
[00:46:41] And I think, you know, you have to think bold when it comes to your health intermittent fasting and kind of your hair. And I really want to encourage people that a lot of things in life, you kind of have to challenge what you’ve always been told or what you’ve always thought. And. There’s a lot of things when you really take a step back, when you hopefully think of things, you’re like, oh, I had always been.
[00:47:13] And so I would encourage you to rock those curls where the bold colors, if you like them wear black, if you like black wear, but don’t. Don’t just follow what everyone else is telling you to do. It is time for you to blaze your big, bold trail and in college and everywhere else. That is the challenge because you are called to move your own, own, own building.
[00:47:42] You’re called to blaze your own path and we can’t be blazing our own path. If we’re not being a little bit bold in our health journey and a little bit bold with our style and our, and who we are called to be. And that’s why I’m, I really believe [00:48:00] in that word bold because boldness, if we don’t live boldly, you know what, we’re going to stay in our rut.
[00:48:07] We’re not going to change. We’re not going to challenge. And we’re probably not going to hear. That bold voice that’s talking to us and telling us, you know what? I know you want to go this way. I know you think, but this is, this is where you’re called to go. And I think the more you prioritize your health, the more you can hear that voice better.
[00:48:27] Wow.
[00:48:27] Sophia Lebano: [00:48:27] I love how it just. I guess integral to every part of your life, that this little thing called fasting can really change your perspective on so many things. So yeah, you did talk about being bold. What’s your podcast where people who can connect with you and learn more from you.
[00:48:43] Bett Lucas: [00:48:43] Yes. So my podcast is called living your big, bold life podcast, and I tackle topics.
[00:48:49] Like health, intermittent, fasting, career and family. And when I see the word career, some of the people talk to work, their home don’t work to me. Everyone works. We all just work differently. Right. And family, I talked about that hat with plea. Doesn’t have to me. In your family looks like my family and health and fasting.
[00:49:19] I interview, I interview people on how they’ve had success on their intermittent fasting journey and their health journey, and really kind of back to my original message. That to me, there’s two components and living boldly is that we need to be bold to prioritize our health bold, to maybe challenge what we’ve always been told and bold enough to say, oh, Okay, I can go, I can do this.
[00:49:46] I can live the life that I am called to live to the best of my ability. And I’m going to be bold, even though I’m a little bit scared at times, even though fear is, is pulling at me. And that’s really what I want to leave you with on every episode is encouragement that an inspiration that you can boldly do this.
[00:50:06] And you have all of it within you and you at heart is telling you, it’s telling you and it wants, it wants to lead you on to your big bulb life. And so I’d love for you to come listen. I’m on Instagram as bet, Lou hookahs and as big bold life podcasts. And I’d love to connect with all of you and I am in perfectly learning.
[00:50:32] Too. So I, uh, in five years from now, I hope that a lot of what I say today, Is different. Right? Right. I hope, I hope I’ve learned even more. So don’t think any of our journeys are ever done and don’t think that I ever think I know it all. I’m here learning right with you.
[00:50:52] Sophia Lebano: [00:50:52] I love it. Yes, Bett this is so good.
[00:50:54] And I’ve learned so much and I hope everybody else did too. Um, I mean, I honestly [00:51:00] have to have you back on for part two. I still have so many more questions. About everything and I’m sure people will as well. But what you’ve left left us with is definitely going to inspire me at the very least to kind of take a look at my journey and a little bit bold.
[00:51:13] And I love it. It’s just so good. That’s going to be my motto for the rest of this week is living bold. I love it.
[00:51:20] Bett Lucas: [00:51:20] Oh, well, you’re such a light. Thank you for having me.
[00:51:23] Sophia Lebano: [00:51:23] Yeah. Thank you guys
[00:51:25] for tuning into this week’s episode of Hear and Now podcast. All of bett’s links will be down in the show notes below and without further ado,have a wonderful week and I will see you next time.
SHOW NOTES:
It’s the 91st episode of Hear and Now Podcast! Thank you for joining me this week as I have Bett Lucas on to discuss intermittent fasting and staying healthy.
Enjoy this unedited episode of Hear and Now Podcast!
Disclaimer: This episode discusses weight loss and eating. The advice on this page is not meant to replace or represent medical advice. This is nutritional advice, which is NOT the same as medical advice. Before any weight loss endeavor, the consultation of an experienced health care provider is a must.
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