Talking with Marisa Moon; Speaker, Certified Health Coach, & Intermittent Fasting Instructor

Today I sit down with Marisa Moon; Speaker, Certified Health Coach and Intermittent Fasting Instructor. Marisa is a Certified Primal Health Coach and creator of the online course “Intermittent Fasting Freedom”. Marisa teaches the most flexible intermittent fasting lifestyle to help busy adults forget the rules and put an end to the confusion around what’s healthy. Named 1 of 10 influential health coaches to follow in 2020, she is also a fasting coach for LIFE mobile apps, the host of the Foundation of Wellness podcast, and writer for The Primal Health Coach Institute blog.

 

This series features conversations I conducted with individuals who have dedicated their research, businesses, lifestyle, and health to various forms of Fasting and the science of Fasting. This podcast series is hosted by Patricia Kathleen and Wilde Agency Media. Patricia Kathleen Podcasts

TRANSCRIPTION

*Please note, this is an automated transcription please excuse any typos or errors

[00:00:00] In this episode, I speak with speaker, certified health coach and intermittent fasting instructor Marisa Moon, key points addressed were the core tenants of her one on one health coaching, as well as Marisa's online course called intermittent fasting freedom. We also discussed Marisa's opinions and advice regarding the fasting communities and some of the pitfalls she feels many people new to fasting suffer with. Stay tuned for my fascinating talk with Marisa Moon.

 

[00:00:37] My name is Patricia Kathleen, and this series features interviews and conversations I conduct with experts from medicine and science to health and humanitarian arenas in an effort to explore the world of fasting from a variety of angles. This dialog is meant to develop a more complete story about the information, research, personal stories and culture in and around the science and lifestyle of fasting. If you're enjoying this podcast, be sure to check out our subsequent series that dove deep into specific areas such as founders and entrepreneurs. Vegan life and roundtable topics. They can be found on our Web site. Patricia Kathleen .COM, where you can also join our newsletter. You can also subscribe to all of our series on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Pod Bean and YouTube. Thanks for listening. Now let's start the conversation.

 

[00:01:29] Hi, everyone, and welcome back. I'm your host, Patricia. And today I'm excited to be sitting down with Marisa Moon. Marisa is a speaker, certified health coach and intermittent fasting instructor. You can find out more about her. Everything we talk about today, as was Marisa herself on her Web site, w w w dot Marisa moon dot com. That is m a r i s a m o o n dot com. Welcome, Marisa.

 

[00:01:52] Hey, it's great to be here, Patricia. Thank you for having me.

 

[00:01:55] Absolutely. And for everyone listening, I will give you a quick bio on Marisa before I start peppering her with questions. But before we do that, a quick roadmap for today's podcast. We'll first ask Marisa to kind of unpack her personal fasting history and narrative before she begins to unpack the work that she does regarding fasting. And we'll then look towards her online course that she has called intermittent fasting freedom. We will also discuss elements of her podcast that she does based on the Foundation of Wellness podcast, which is discusses a lot of elements of fasting. And we'll get into the nuts and bolts, the logistics, as well as the ethos of that. I also want to discuss some of her philosophies that she has on her website, based around five elements of the approach that she looks at and kind of walks her clients through. And then I'll get into some of the specifics. I'll ask about if there's client profiles and things of that nature will wrap up the entire podcast with our Rapid Fire Questions section based on everybody who is listening and writing in in honor of letting you know that we hear you. We're going to ask Marisa some direct questions that you had for her and people of her expertize. So, as promised, a quick bio on Marisa share. Marisa Moon is a certified primal health coach and creator of the online course, Intermittent Fasting Freedom. Marisa teaches the most flexible, intermittent fasting lifestyle to help busy adults forget the rules and put an end to the confusion around what's healthy. Named one of 10 influential health coaches to follow in 2020, she is also a fasting coach for life. Mobile Apps and the host of Foundation Wellness Podcast and a writer for the Primal Health Koch Institute blog. So that's Marisa. I know that that is a very, very condensed version of what you do with your bio. And before we unpack everything that you're doing and all of the resources that you have, I'm Marisa Moon .COM. I'm hoping you can kind of tell us a little bit about your journey, your your personal history with fasting and kind of what brought you to launching your company?

 

[00:04:04] Yeah, I was probably in my late twenties, around twenty nine years old, and I had terrible IBS. I didn't know it was IBS at the time. I was just like, what the heck is going on in my gut? And it's really embarrassing. And I was determined to find answers and I somehow I don't know how far of looking to podcast's and I found a nutrition podcast dishing up nutrition. I think they're still in production led by these amazing dietitians and nutritionists telling me things I had never heard before about, you know, gluten sensitivities, your microbiome eating healthy fats like butter. I was like, wait a minute, because I did not eat fat and I did not even know what gluten was and I didn't know I had a microbiome, etc. They just sent me down this beautiful rabbit hole and gave me the confidence to attempt a gluten free diet to see if that was what was causing my IBS. And sure enough, it was. And all that brought me to the paleo ancestral world. And I learned while the way that I am eating now are trying to eat now is like a paleo diet. And it was just kind of like a match made in heaven for me and all made so much sense. And I was like, why is nobody talking about this and why are we not waking up to the fact that our food system has changed so much that it's destroying us. And that passion led me to blogging about my gluten free journey, my longevity kitchen dot com. And I started collaborating with some really incredible companies like Hi Vibe Superfood Usery in Chicago and my six method of really incredible weight loss program. And over time, I realized, wow, I could make this into a career. At first it was really for fun. And I became a certified health coach with the Primary Health Coach Institute. And fasting came into my life early in that journey because I was diagnosed with ADHD in my late 20s. And when I kept learning about it in the paleo literature and ancestral health literature, at first I was like, I would never do that.

 

[00:06:18] I love eating. Like, why would I ever skip a meal? That's crazy. Food means so much to me. I mean, I know it means a lot to everyone, but I'm like, that's like my hobby is food, you know, cooking.

 

[00:06:28] Cooking shows, reading cooking magazines. I went to culinary school just for fun. That's how much I love it. So I was like, OK. I don't think I'm going to skip meals on purpose. But then I started connecting the dots and I was like, wow, this is really tremendous for the brain. And I was always looking for natural remedies for my EGD brain. And I was like, I really skipped breakfast anyways on accident. So let me just try this thing out. And it was like perfect for me. It was exactly what I needed. Gave me that extra edge, that extra available mental energy so that I can be noticeably more productive. And now I really believe that this is an unspoken therapy or natural remedy or support. Like vehicle for ADHD reigns and no one's talking about it.

 

[00:07:16] Yeah, and it's interesting that it affected you in that way. I think a lot of people come at fasting from a myriad of different ways. But I think that the top one is health and exercising things. Did the paleo diet have a relationship with fasting or did it just. It was that just your gateway into kind of exploring diet as it is, as it helped your IBS and and at the subsequent, like, gluten sensitivity, like, did this go hand in hand or did one lead to the other?

 

[00:07:46] Well, some of the earliest works in the paleo diet kind of area of health and nutrition, like Mark Sissons Primal Blueprint or NORGAARD Goddesses, primal body, primal mind. They all mention the importance of intermittent fasting and how we are just constantly eating in modern times. And our body is not prepared for this constant, laborious process of digestion all day long. And how do we expect to burn body fat if we never allow our body to go without food like our ancestors always have? So even though it made logical sense to me when I was reading it at the time, I just it was kind of intimidating. I didn't even think find it appealing, you know.

 

[00:08:33] Yeah. I mean, I ended fasting. I think you've spoken on a few of your podcasts about like, you know, it's a very abrasive term. You know, it speaks of like deprivation and punishment to a lot of people. You know, it just doesn't have the most positive connotation.

 

[00:08:48] Whereas when you look at it as resting and allowing your body to take care of these other forums, it seems much more genteel, I think. And what you do in educating, you know, your clients for fasting when you personally started out, do you recall your favorite form? And I also want to get into the different fast that you personally have experienced. Have you done. Oh, Mad's 24 16. Like what? Which ones did you start out with and which ones have you experimented with?

 

[00:09:14] Well, in the beginning I just didn't care about the rules then, and I don't care about them now. And I think that's how I ended up in my own lane and this whole fasting arena. I just it didn't. It was never going to work for me. If I had strict rules, it wouldn't. And I didn't understand why there needed to be rules anyway. I was like, I feel great now. I'm doing it at a different time every day. I feel great. Some days I'm not doing it. Some days I am. Why does all that other stuff matter? And it just worked for me because 80 years we like novelty. We don't like routine. We don't like anything too ritualistic or predictable. And perhaps that's why I realized maybe that's not the key to it. And so to answer your question, I have and I still do. Changed my fasting routine constantly based on my needs, my social circumstances, my mood, my energy levels. The food that's in my fridge doesn't doesn't really matter. I've the longest I've gone without any food at all. Our 24 hour fast. And I've done five day low sugar juice cleanses. And those are awesome, too. They included bone broth. They were with high vibe Chicago. And I really I don't find it appealing to do longer fancy. No, I know it's the results are tremendous. And I have clients who like doing them. It's just perhaps for me, something I don't want to do when I'm older and I really want to experience that almost like spiritual or personal challenging kind of thing. I mean, right now I'm like, dude, 24 hour fast. I feel like a champ on me. Yeah. You know, you feel great. But then you're also like, wow, I don't need food. That's amazing. Like, I really don't need food. Right.

 

[00:11:03] The relationship and I think a lot of what you're talking about with your own personal journey is it's it's an interpersonal dialog. Right. It's not just on paper. It's not just something written out. I think you start to have a very different conversation with yourself, you know, over fasting and what we have been taught, you know, inadvertently or straight up about diet and eating and, you know, and how those were all fueled by industries that had no business talking to us about her family, things of that nature. So I think that that is it's a key point. I'm curious about that. When you get into. I want to kind of unpack your site and things like that. And a lot of what you do is, you know, this consultancy and coaching. Do you have a narrative where you begin talking with your clients about, like, you know, having an interpersonal dialog? I kind of I feel like there should be an intake form. Like, how do you feel about food, like all of these different things so you can kind of gauge and measure wherever one is at. Can you talk to us a little bit about that process?

 

[00:12:02] Well, there's always an intake form, even when someone just wants to hop on a quick strategy call, which is what I call them. It's like a quick consultation. They're not sure if they want a health coach. They think they want a health coach. They don't even know what the health coaches and. So just a brief form that I asked them for that call is what's not working in your life right now regarding your health and well-being? What's your vision for health and well-being? What top three things you want to change in your life regarding your health and well-being? And do you cook? And just a couple other questions. And then that kind of gives me an idea. Are there goals, like really pressing for them? Are there goals like really clearly defined? Are they ready to commit to such a change? And. Are they are they dealing with challenges that I can help them with? Because I can't help everybody. I'm not even qualified to help certain people. I know what I can do. And the whole point of that strategy calls to see if we're a match. And then if they do decide to work with me as their coach, there's a way, a longer intake form, because I need to know so many details about their life, their support system, what motivates them was worked in the past. What hasn't the the things that they crave, the foods that they miss or love, what their food experiences were like growing up. If they have any negative thoughts around food or ever had negative body image issues or things that they feel like are standing in their way of progress with their health goals. There's so many things that I get into on that form so that when it's time for the sessions and I'm working with them one on one, I already know which things from the intake form would be nice to discuss and go deeper on. But actually coaching calls are really led by the client because I want to know what you want to work on. When we get on the phone, I want to know. So, Patricia, what are you looking forward to talking about today or working on this week? Because you know what you need to do or what's weighing on your shoulders or what you think about every single day when you wake up and when you go to bed. And that's what we need to work on first, because it will be the most rewarding and it will be the most motivating and we can start moving forward in it in a more confident direction.

 

[00:14:12] Nice. Yeah. And to that end, you have. I like your your site actually really does a great job of describing your philosophy and the nature. I think a lot of coaches struggle ironically with really conveying like the parameters in which they'll be functioning under and on your side. You have these five elements. You've got diet, gut, brain, sleep, mobility and stress. And within those, you've passed out even further terms. But you present it as this kind of, you know, harmonious environment, all of which affects each other and things of that nature. And I like that because it seems very holistic. It seems like your piece of the individual out when you start advising people and helping them and coaching them and talking with them about fasting, whatever version that looks like for them. What area of those five do you find fasting affects most quickly?

 

[00:15:03] Well, that's a good question. First, I just want to say I don't tell my clients to fast unless they want to fast. So you would think that because I'm a fasting coach, I would be telling everyone to fast. But I really don't know. It just depends if they're dropping the bread crumbs that make me think that's ideal for them or will work well for them. Otherwise, you know, some people just come to me for fasting, coaching, and I love that. Now, how that affects which areas regarding sleep, brain function, gut diet, stress is so hard to say because it depends on the individual. Almost everyone feels freer right away, which is crazy.

 

[00:15:48] You would never think that you feel freer when someone's telling you you can't have something. But it's like one less thing to do in the morning, one less thing to worry about if you're doing it right.

 

[00:15:57] And it's kind of like, good. There's no decision making there. I don't have to worry. Like, should I have this or should I have that? Do I need to cook? Do I need to go shopping? It's like so much easier. And then from that, you get the confidence boost, you get the energy boost, and it makes you start thinking about other things like, wow, what I thought about food or eating or breakfast was wrong or. You know, misguided. What else do I need to learn? What else can we do? Let's do more.

 

[00:16:24] And a lot of people aren't even ready for fasting more than 12 hours a day until they fix their stress, until they fix their sleep. And I personally went through a bout of chronic fatigue that was so debilitating I couldn't even, like, stand up for longer than five minutes without feeling like I got to put my arm and body weight on the countertop to support me and constantly taking naps throughout the day. It was great. I thought I was losing my mind. I thought there was some Romi and I mean, there was something wrong with me. But ultimately, if you don't have your sleep figured out, that is already such a huge burden on the body in so many ways, it just affects everything that you do.

 

[00:17:09] And without that being something that you prioritize or start to improve, your diet is not going to be giving you the changes that you hear everybody else is experiencing. Your exercise program is not going to be giving you the results that everybody else is getting. And your stress is going to be worse. Your gut is going to be worse. Your brain's going to be worse. And so that's why those things are all on one holistic kind of graph. It's it's inevitable that one will always suffer because of the way our lives are in the modern world. But they all need your attention at one point in your life or another. Otherwise, you're wasting your time and energy on things that we'll never really realize. Right.

 

[00:17:56] Yeah, absolutely. I'm wondering the online course. So you've got this health focus for clients. It's interpersonal, this coaching. But the online course with intermittent fasting freedom. Can you give us, like, some of the core tenants? First of all, how long does it last? Is it is it based on live episodes like the structure of it? And then also kind of the core tenants that it's meant to deliver to the recipient?

 

[00:18:22] Yeah, well, I called it intermittent fasting freedom because the whole purpose is to free someone from dieting that sucks. And just finally create a lifestyle that makes sense for you, helps you achieve the life you imagined and feels like it makes sense and something you want to continue. And the course is a multimedia course. It's got videos, slideshows, and it's got text based modules and tons of worksheets.

 

[00:18:51] For me, worksheets are so important because I'm not there with you to kind of personalize this journey and understand your personal challenges necessarily because I'm not coaching you one on one.

 

[00:19:03] You're taking this online, although you do have contact with me throughout the course and can leave comments and questions for me, etc.. The worksheets help you kind of work through a lot of these things, like, for instance, in the very beginning, everyone goes on a 21 day carbohydrate reduction phase. It's nothing like low carb. It's nothing like HITO. It's just more realistic for the body so that you're not requiring so much insulin production and you're not addicted to carbohydrates.

 

[00:19:31] So everyone goes under one hundred thirty grams of carbs for 21 days. And in that process, we have to talk about a lot of things, the worksheets, rock walking through foods that spin you out of control, foods that you feel like you can eat in moderation. We go through circumstances in your life, places that you go or people that you're around that trigger those cravings, an appetite that are out of control. And slowly together, we learn a lot about fasting. In the meantime, we start twelve hour fast just to see how that feels, because if you can't do twelve hours, it's a sign that your metabolism needs a little while to fix the mess that you've made over the years. And everyone starts experimenting with 14 to 16 hours to kind of find their sweet spot, because I don't think anyone should be trying a 16 eight or an 18 six if they don't already feel really good at the 15 hour mark or the 14 hour mark.

 

[00:20:25] And there's just no rush that we're talking about, something that could pay off for the rest of your life. And it is already going to be paying off when you're doing twelve hours, when you're doing 13 hours, when you're doing 14 hours, you're gonna feel it. And that's why you're going to want to jump in. All matter. Jump in the 18 six. But I teach everyone really the signs to look for. I mean, even just as women, some of us can't do that so fast. It just doesn't come naturally to us as it does to managers jumping sixteen, eight or 18, six. And if it's affecting your menstrual cycle or if you're especially hungry during your ovulation phase, these are important biological signals that are happening to remind you of what really matters. And if we don't have that intuitive relationship with fasting, it'll be just like every other diet we've tried that we quit in the end.

 

[00:21:12] Right. Miserably, too. I think that, though, the worst part about failed diets are ways of trying to obtain health for any reason, weight loss, you know, disease, abrasion, things of that nature is that when you lose it, something you kind of leave more dejected than you ever came into it. There's that added horrifying aspect.

 

[00:21:35] And I'm sorry. I just want to say that I think the fasting industry does that to a lot of people, too, because you join a Facebook group that's for mad or you see everybody says you got to do 18 six or you're not going to get autophagy and you can't do it. And you feel like a failure or you feel like you're not doing a good enough or you want to have some cream in your coffee and everyone's telling you you're not really lose weight. Is that going to happen? And that's not true. I see it all the time. You will still lose weight if you might have a different route, a different path to get there. It might take longer.

 

[00:22:06] I mean, there are just so there is so much flexibility and fasting. I wish more people were talking about it because that's what will help us share it with the world.

 

[00:22:15] Yeah, I agree. I think that that's true. And it's funny to talk about flexibility and fasting because, again, even with my what I think is a storied history with it, you know, my initial thought is black and white, open or closed.

 

[00:22:29] You know, you're fasting. You're not. And I think you're right there. If there isn't flexibility, then it won't be appropriate for the masses. It will only be for a very Taipei, you know, individuals like myself who are aren't scared at that prospect. And I don't think that it should exist that way because not just between genders and and all of those things, but we're all so varied and storied, you know, lifestyle, ethnicity, gender, all of these things vary from every single person to the next. And there's got to be flexibility within it.

 

[00:22:57] You know, all black or white thinkers, like we're all all or nothing. So many of us are like, if I can't do it the best, I'm not going to do it at all. Or people just don't fast on the weekends because they can't do the 18 six on the weekends. And I'm like, what about 14?

 

[00:23:12] What's the other one, 10, 14 time? What about Pat? That's still good. It's better than not fasting at all. Because trust me, Monday is going to be a lot harder when all you've been doing is eating and drinking on weekend. Oh.

 

[00:23:24] Absolutely. And that actually ties into a lot of what I want to discuss about trends and things that you've seen over your clients and things of that nature going back into a fasting lifestyle after not, as you mentioned, being difficult. But before we get to that, I want to look at your podcast.

 

[00:23:41] And I just want it unpacked for everyone listening. It's called the Foundation Wellness Podcast. And really quickly, just some logistics. When was it started? What was the impetus and how many do you release a month or a week?

 

[00:23:55] Well, the foundation of wellness is something I created just about three years ago. I can't believe it's been that long and I've wanted to do one forever. But I knew that I wouldn't be consistent with it or have like the ongoing motivation or confidence to really realize this dream. If I didn't have a co-host and through working with High, I met a registered dietitian, Jessica Doga, who I adore and is still my best friend today. And she helped me in the first couple years of the podcast co-host it. And it was a great dynamic because we each offered something the other didn't. We have opposite personalities and voices and it was just such a great way to kick off the show. And the concept of the show was something I always wanted. The Foundation of Wellness is really about offering listeners a refreshing take on diet and lifestyle that helps to diffuse the intimidation factors about so many things around dieting and wellness. And then also just being really relatable. That's so important because so many of the nutrition and wellness podcasts are like sometimes even over my head and I'm in the field and it's like sounds like everyone's got something to prove. And I'm like, well, who are we really talking to? I want to talk to people who might need a health coach one day. I want to talk to people who are frustrated and but they're still looking for answers because they're on the edge, man. They're like this cause they're like, I know something is out there that can make me feel better. I just haven't found it yet. But, you know, they could give up at any time. So many people do. And so I hope the foundation of wellness makes learning about health and wellness fun and also feels relatable. And I think we've we've begun to achieve that. We published shows every single week until I got to run the 80th episode or or something. And now I'm just trying to keep up do it all myself. I finally hired an editor and so that helps a lot. I was doing all the production myself and the promotions, graphics, everything. And it's hard. It's hard when you have a business that you're running to because I wasn't making any money on the park, as it were. I was literally just to provide a library of content for my audience, followers and clients.

 

[00:26:08] Nice. Yeah, it is. It's a lot of work. I think that people are discovering that somewhere. I feel like about a year ago it got advised on some massive Tony Robbins kind of platform where everyone was advised that everyone started podcast because 90 percent of the people that bring me on their podcast, you know, are talking about, you know, how difficult it is and and asking me to speak to it. And I was like, yeah, I never thought it was going to be easy. But I think that a lot of people go into it thinking it's just this very simple platform. There's so much post-production work and preproduction. If you're doing one well with research and things of that nature, it is. It's a labor of love, even if you're making money off of it. I've never heard there's very few that are actually making like parts of America, like these kinds of, you know, massive figures off of it. And that's what I love about it. It's, you know, it's information sharing and things of that nature. How many do you so do you shoot to release one a week or is it just kind of varied? Given your business schedule?

 

[00:27:03] Well, right before the pandemic, it was still once a week. And I slowly had to figure out, you know, how am I going to keep managing everything like I'm in school right now for the second level certification at the Private Health Coach Institute to qualify for the board certification exam. And I realize I just can't keep doing it all. And so now, you know, I've told my listeners a couple times through the pandemic, like it's been hard for me. I even went through a stage of depression. I didn't know what was going on. My husband's an emergency room physician. I didn't know what to expect and I had to work from home. All of a sudden, my Internet sucks at home. It was just too many changes, like for me too fast and too many unknowns. And in that I told my podcast listeners, like, the only thing like I truly have control over is the podcast. And I feel like I need to be more reasonable with my expectations regarding that. And so now I'm just kind of there's always gonna be at least one or two a month, always right now, even while I'm in school. But if I feel like I need to be satisfied with two a month right now, because once a week is just not going to happen. And I just went through like my long advance booking of guests. And so if I'm creating the content myself or I have to find, I guess there's like this whole nother, you know, amount of work that needs to happen. So right now, the. Expect to hear from me once or twice a month.

 

[00:28:24] Yeah, and it's great. I like how candid you are. I've listened to several of your podcasts and you mentioned, you know, this depression. And one of your episodes very, very candidly lays out this feeling of depression and and, you know, kind of working through that moment with your husband and things like that. And I think it's important because particularly with fasting and all dietary research, it doesn't exist on paper. It exists in a living organism. You know, that we call human beings. And so when you when you go to correlate or translate something that's being studied on paper, I theorized on paper and you apply it to a living creature, you have to have the flexibility that you're talking about and the authenticity to experience, you know, depression or anxiety which the world over, you know, has been suffering through these things. And so I really appreciate that you have that very transparent lens for your audience. You're able to kind of walk through it. It's I think it's very unique and really necessary. I'm wondering as you've gone along. So we had a lot of move. Rapid fire questions are coming up and we have a lot of people that really want coaches to be asked with fasting coaches and things like that. A lot of what you speak to, which is the particulars of someone being an individual. And so I want to start off with a couple of my questions and then we'll get into the rapid fire. But you've had because you deal with people on this very level, you have, you know, your podcast where you advise you have this consultancy and coaching with one on one. And then you also have these online resources and classes. So you've come across people on a myriad of different platforms. And I'm wondering if you yourself have kind of recognized trends or anything like that that you can speak to different client profiles like, you know, people who prior to the pandemic, of course, work nine to five struggle in these areas, more with fasting as opposed to those that don't front that women and fathers of mothers and fathers of young children. You know, the fasting can vary for them. Do you have any, like, kind of summaries of different client profiles for fasting that you can proffer up for us today?

 

[00:30:27] Yeah, you know, I kind of wish I took a minute to gather these thoughts because it's such a great question and I need to work on that. But I just hear you give a couple examples was perfect because it triggered a few memories for me, like people with small children that have a really hard time with fasting because they're constantly around children snacks, which are often not even the foods they usually will eat like goldfish crackers, pretzels and just cookies and things that they know are not really going to contribute well to their goals.

 

[00:31:00] But they can't help themselves. They're always around and they're always preparing their children's food and all these snacks in between. And, you know, I've I've learned that if it takes some real determination to make the changes at home that support your fasting goals, because you can have all of that stuff already prepared for your kids the day before while you're in your eating window.

 

[00:31:26] And you can also get the kids involved once they're at a certain age. I mean, they don't have to be very old to grab their own goldfish crackers and put them in a baggie. And I don't have children, so I'm not usually giving a lot of ice in that area. But over time, I have seen like, hey, there are certain things where we need to put our foot down. Like if your family doesn't want, you stop buying ice cream and donuts and Doritos, but you need that in order to move in the right direction and just kind of get through this phase of breaking those bad habits.

 

[00:31:56] Then you either need to put those foods in a separate part of the pantry, your own food on a different shelf, put their stuff in that weird cabinet above the fridge that nobody uses and, you know, get it out of the house if you can.

 

[00:32:09] I mean, if you're the one who buys the groceries and does all the cooking and I say you're the one who makes all the rules. And I think you can put up with your family being annoyed with you for like two weeks. And anytime they want Doritos or pizza or donuts, they can just go get it. You're asking them to please support you in these one or two weeks while you help break the habit. I think that's one of the hardest things. And the people that come to me, I'm starting to notice, have a history of disordered eating in a way where they're like obsessive around dieting and trying to do everything right and feeling like they have to be careful of every single thing. And it starts to become like this fear based relationship with food. And they come to me because I'm so like laidback or flexible in my approach that they're like, I need to get some of that. And then together we start to achieve that somehow.

 

[00:32:58] I honestly, I can't give you the formula, but all I can say is when you're working with a coach, they start to make you more self-aware and you start to just realize the things that you are doing without any real reason. Besides that, it became a habit. And together they we realized that fasting actually gives them more.

 

[00:33:21] Um, because like I said earlier, they don't have to think about if they're doing it right or wrong, if they're eating at the right time in the morning or having too much carbs or too much protein or whatever, it's like they're free. Then they can just eat whatever they want within reason when the eating window opens.

 

[00:33:40] And I think that's surprised me. I didn't imagine that someone with a history of disordered eating would take to fasting in such a healthy way. Well, I'm starting to see that more and more is the case.

 

[00:33:52] Yeah, absolutely. And I think you're right. I think it could be nothing more than a long novel about, you know, the different observations to be made among those groups of people. There you go. That's your next assignment. Write a book for us. All right. Well, we're back down to our Rapid Fire section of the podcast. And for everyone listening, I want everyone to know that I love you writing in. I adore our audience. Feisty and calm as they come. And I want you to know that I will continue asking your questions to the experts that we have on in the areas that they pertain. So the first question we have is what what for you? What is the most unexpected benefit that you personally received from fasting that you hadn't anticipated?

 

[00:34:39] My appetite decreases. I didn't even think that was possible.

 

[00:34:43] I was already kind of achieving that. With the paleo type diet. But food was just always on my mind. Like, that's all I ever wanted was to eat. Even if I had just eight, I wanted to eat again. If somebody else was eating around me and nowadays, I don't remember the last time I said, I'm starving, like, you know how that's just kind of part of our language casually today. Like we're just having eat and we're like, I'm starving. And really, you you just eat lunch like five hours ago, like you're fine. But I don't even get that feeling anymore.

 

[00:35:11] That was probably the biggest shock to me was that food became less of a, I don't know, dictator of my my day to day mood and appetite. It's just incredible.

 

[00:35:26] Yeah, it is. And it's crazy how beholden we are to it on so many levels. You can say it, but it feels like the words just put out there don't really convey, you know, what a slave. I think that the majority of people, at least in the United States, are to it. What are the top triggers that for you that you advise, that you find for yourself or for CLY and clients that make fasting difficult?

 

[00:35:50] So social or it wasn't really clarified, but that the triggers of their delineate fasting.

 

[00:35:57] Well, honestly, if you haven't slept on a biological level, you're getting hormones that signal for you to eat.

 

[00:36:05] And for you to eat carbs. And for you eat them very soon. And so you might not even usually crave carbs. But all of a sudden, you find yourself like you just got to have something or you've just got to eat. And that's because you don't sleep.

 

[00:36:18] And so that's number one. Number two, if you're smelling somebody heat up, their like tacos at work.

 

[00:36:25] It's going to make you want to eat. If you're scrolling social media and there's food pictures, all in your feed is going to make you want to eat and being extremely emotional or for women,

 

[00:36:35] Those few days leading up to our period, the day that it actually starts, I mean, we are seeing like a huge plummet in our hormones right before that happens. And it can be such a shock to you emotionally and hormonally in a way that really affects your appetite. And if you don't give into that a little bit and really understand what's going on there, it can even happen in the ovulation phase. Then you start thinking that you screwed up or you just can't do it or you're not good enough. And really what's going on is your brain logy is like, hey, excuse me. Now is not the time for this whole 18 six thing. Can you relax a little bit?

 

[00:37:11] Yeah, exactly. We had people right in asking the things that enable fasting. So I guess, conversely, the other side of that, do you find that there are techniques that people can easily implement that kind of enable them to do a daily fast?

 

[00:37:28] Yeah, you have to eat more nutrient dense foods and bring your carbohydrate intake down to something more reasonable for the human body. I mean, never before in history did humans have so much access to readily available shelf stable carbohydrates made from flour and that we could eat anytime day or night.

 

[00:37:47] And if you're eating those carbohydrates at night, especially, you can have 25 to 50 percent more of an insulin response to the same exact food. If you eat it at night than if you were to eat it during the day. And that means you're packing on more weight and you're gonna crave more food fast, there's going to be more difficult the next day. And fasting come so much easier when you start to cut out some of those flowerings foods and some of the sugar sugary drinks especially. That is a tough habit to break. But man, does it pay off.

 

[00:38:17] Yeah, there. And this goes along with we had several questions to this train of thought. So we'll I'll ask further. We had people ask if you recommend a specific diet or lifestyle. And also can fasting in European humble opinion, can it be done in this? You know, there's there's people writing in who are vegans. There are people who are trying the paleo. Do you feel like fasting is better suited to one of them? Can it be done under all diets?

 

[00:38:47] I'm starting to see that it can't be done under all diets, although I just. I guess I don't really get it, so I don't understand how fruitarian is for innocent people who only eat fruit. Are fasting like I just don't get it. But it's not like I really care to get it. It's not my area is not my arena. I believe in an ancestral diet and an ancestral diet is focused on eating the foods that have been available to humans for tens of thousands of years and before civilization. So before we were farming for the masses, before we had refrigeration, grocery stores, convenience. Before that, humans diet consisted of things that you could hunter-gatherer or grow or catch. And that's important because our genes have adapted or evolved to expect certain nutrients and to you know, they can't necessarily deal with the onslaught of toxins and sugar and carbs that we have now. And so I think that that's one of the most important things, is eating a well-rounded, diverse, like variety packed plant heavy. But digestion, friendly diet that is filled with adequate fats from healthy animals so that you can feed the myelin around your cells, especially the brain cells. Man, we really need that. That healthy cholesterol. Cholesterol. We've all been so afraid for so long of eating healthy fats or eating saturated fats or eating cholesterol or animal products. And I believe it's all misguided. And the science has really misled us in a direction that just goes so far from commonsense and human wisdom. And we can really look at all of these time tested lifestyle factors and dietary influences that that are right there for the taking. Like if we just sit and think for a moment what has always worked for humankind. I really believe it's a Whole Foods diet that includes a huge variety of plants and wild or pastured animal foods. Yeah, we have people asking, what is the most common misperception regarding fasting that you come into contact with, that you have to do it perfectly, that it has to be clean and can't be dirty, that you have to do it longer. And that's why you're not losing weight. Like, there's just the rules are let me say this. The people who are screaming the rules are usually one of two things that are really, really science driven people who are just looking at the research. And so they're like, this is what the research says. So this is the way you have to do it. But nutrition research sucks. It's just hard to to consider all the variables that really affect our bodies, reaction to nutrition. And then there's also the other group of people are people who are in the minority.

 

[00:41:45] They're the two percent of people who can't have stevia during a fast or it's going to trigger insulin. They're the people who can't have any dairy in their coffee because it's going to make them hungrier and make fasting harder. But we're talking about a small percentage of the population or if people have to lose over 100 pounds. Those aren't the people that I work with. Again, I usually don't attract people like that, probably because I didn't get into fasting for my weight loss journey. And I've helped plenty of people lose 40 pounds, 50 pounds. And that's pretty remarkable.

 

[00:42:15] But I think it might change when your metabolism, you know, your whole metabolic health history is so far from optimal because of years and years of damage or living with obesity or Type two diabetes. I think that really takes a different, more strict approach than the type that I and I believe in. Right.

 

[00:42:37] Yeah. And finally, we had people talk. You you speak a lot about this as well. Breaking habits of sugar and refined carbohydrates and things like that. Do you have a set group of time that you advise people to break these habits with people like inquire like is it one week away from it? Is it two days away from it? And can fasting help speed that up?

 

[00:43:03] It depends where it is. I mean, I love this concept by Gretchen Rubin, she calls it abstainer or moderator and what she's getting at. She's habits. And happiness expert. And she explored that some people can eat certain things in moderation. And that's what we've all been taught, like Jews in moderation. You can have it in moderation, but some of us can't.

 

[00:43:22] It depends on the food. So I teach my clients to go through this whole abstainer moderator worksheet that makes them think like which things actually spinning out of control and make you like have an eating frenzy and dream about the food every single day from that point forward. Or which ones do you feel better when you have just a bite or just a piece? And just having that permission makes you have more control. And that is moderation.

 

[00:43:46] Now, for me, I can't eat French fries in moderation. You got to be kidding me. I can not. OK. So I just don't eat them. I'm better off abstaining from French fries personally, like I'll have them on my birthday or like for a big celebration. You know, every few months. But the day that I have those fries grama be dreaming about those fries the next day, I want to every single day that follows. And so I know I can't have them my reason, but I can have ice cream in moderation. I can have, you know, like a sweet drink in moderation. Now, once you figure that out about yourself, you can see where you find the freedom.

 

[00:44:24] Do you find the freedom from abstaining or do you find the freedom for moderation? And then you really have to probably go at least two weeks of breaking a habit that is so ingrained.

 

[00:44:35] And it's easier than you think because it's not always just about getting rid of it. It's like what triggers the habit? Where are you when you do that habit? Are you eating popcorn every single night after dinner because you go sit on the couch and you watch your show, just go watch your show in a different room, use your phones that you have to use both hands and your hands aren't free to eat popcorn. Do that for two weeks. Go for a walk instead.

 

[00:44:57] And before you know it, you broke that habit. And is it gonna be harder? Someone's eating popcorn right next to you. Yeah. But I mean, within reason, it's totally doable and easier than people think.

 

[00:45:08] Yeah, I agree. And I think you're right, it's an interpersonal dialog. Along with this theorist about, you know, moderation versus abstaining. I agree. Well, Marisa, so we're out of time. But I want to say thank you so much for giving us your time and your expertize today. I really appreciate it.

 

[00:45:23] Oh, yeah. It's been a blast. Thank you for letting me go on and on about the things that I'm passionate about. It's really nice being here always.

 

[00:45:31] I appreciate it as well. Your transparency and just your honest rhetoric is is so wonderful and necessary in these areas, in these times and for everyone listening. Thank you for giving us your time today. We've been speaking with Marisa Moon. She's speaker, certified health coach and intermittent fasting instructor. You can find out more and contact her on her Web site. W w w dot Marisa moon dot com.

 

[00:45:52] And until we speak again next time. Remember to stay safe, eat responsibly and clean when you do eat and always bet on yourself. Slainte.