Hello and welcome to the intermittent fasting gems with Jen podcast.

I'm your host Jen, a middle aged Michigan mama, wife and teacher who

in 2021 stumbled upon this crazy cool thing called intermittent fasting.

And before I knew it, I'd lost 46 pounds in four months and

gained an incredible lifestyle filled with complete food freedom.

If you're hungry for unique, no nonsense fasting tips that actually

work, you're in the right place.

So whether you're walking the dog, folding that last load of laundry, or

cruising to your nine to five, let's start fasting our way to freedom together.

So today we are chatting with Laura Wilson from Pennsylvania.

Hey, Laura, how you doing?

Jen, I'm good.

How are you?

Great.

So, Laura is a fourth grade teacher and Laura and I met last summer on a cruise.

She was with her sweet mom, Elaine.

It's Elaine, right?

Is it Elaine?

Eileen.

And I was with my husband, Barry.

We had a really awesome time hanging out all week on the cruise.

We even got to meet a celebrity, Robert Neary.

He was kind of like the entertainer on the cruise.

Um, so since we were both teachers, Laura and I found out that we had lots

in common and she was a little bit curious about intermittent fasting.

So we spent the week chatting about it.

And when she got back home from the cruise, she quickly joined my email

list and she got into our, so what if with Jen Facebook group right away.

And she started her.

Intermittent fasting journey.

So welcome, Laura.

I am so excited to chat with you today.

And if you're ready, we're, we're going to start out with a bang and I'm going to

ask you what have been your top three wins with intermittent fasting, whether that's

weight loss or improved sleep energy.

Go ahead, Laura.

Yeah, so my top three wins, um, really have to do with weight loss.

I've lost 20 pounds and, um,

gosh.

went from, I was kind of a size six, eight in pants and, um, have

gone down to a solid four, sometimes a two depending on the store.

And, um, You know, I just really feel like myself again.

Um, I was always lucky.

I was pretty thin growing up.

Didn't really have to worry about what I was eating, but as I was getting into

my thirties, you know, I was slowly gaining weight and just for years now

haven't felt like me and had tried a lot of different things, but with

intermittent fasting, it just felt easy and I feel so good about myself again.

Oh, that is fantastic.

Um, okay.

So, so weight loss, you feel more like yourself.

Anything else?

Um, yeah,

any, like, um, anything that doesn't have to do with weight loss, any, uh,

non scale victories, like with energy or anything that you've noticed?

Yeah, energy.

Ha, ha, ha, ha.

the day, um, I don't get that after lunch slump, you know, I just can feel

Sure.

level all day.

Okay, so let's talk about, uh, what is your main or your, like,

preferred intermittent fasting, method or schedule, whether that

be, like, I do primarily OMAD.

I do a little bit of a hybrid, but OMAD What, what works best for you, Laura?

I guess I fall into the OMAD category, um, typically like a 20 hour fast,

four hour eating window, um, It kind of just happened because I'm a teacher.

I do work a lot and I'm at school just

Sure.

you know, maybe six o'clock at night.

So it just kind of happened.

It would basically be when I got home, then I would start eating and it kind

of typically fell in a four hour window.

So about, like, what time would that be, that, so you fast all day while

you're at school, which I found was super easy when I was teaching.

Um, you know, yeah, you're so busy anyways that it did not even bother

me to have my black coffee and my tea and just go about my business

and not even worry about lunch.

Um, so when you get home, about what time do you break your fast?

I guess it's between maybe like 6.

30, 7 o'clock is when I would start eating.

Um, and then just know, have that last, I love iced

Sure.

I would be putting stevia in my iced tea during my eating window.

Um, or just when

Okay.

sip of iced tea I had, or maybe a glass of wine.

So, you know, that would typically be around like 10 o'clock at night

before getting ready for bed.

Awesome.

Do you use a, um, a, a fasting tracker, like to track your

fast at all, or an app, or?

I'm like a old school, maybe not too old school because it's on my phone, but the

notes app in my phone, I just have a note for each month and I just label it what

week I'm on with my intermittent fasting.

I write down my weight for that day and um, You know, I calculate my

eating window and my fasting window.

That's just how I keep track of it.

That's a really great tip and I, I think for a lot of people, myself

included, I'm not very techie.

So you have to just find what works for you.

And I, I mean, I have Google Docs up the, you, up the yin yang,

like I have so many Google Docs, but that's just like my thing.

And I also, I take screenshots to remind myself of things.

Maybe a recipe or something like that, um, that I want to try and go back.

I'm not so good about cleaning them out, but I'm gonna work on that.

Um, but I just, I think that's, that's just super important to find, you

know, whether it's, you know, a tech savvy thing or whatever, um, something

super simple, like, like you just said, you know, your notes app to.

figure out what works best for you.

So what would you say is your biggest challenge with intermittent fasting?

Um, it's funny.

I don't really have a challenge in the actual fasting, but it's when,

um, people have asked me about it.

I feel like some people can be very judgmental.

Um,

Oh, yes.

and I was at a And I was eating, you know, it was during my eating

window and I do make exceptions.

You know, if I'm going to go for brunch with a friend, of

course I'm going to eat brunch.

Absolutely.

it just kind of came up in conversation like, Oh, Laura's lost a lot of weight.

And, and I don't really like talking about it, but all eyes

were on me and I started to.

share about intermittent fasting and one of my friends who I consider

a good friend was like, Oh, well, of course you're losing weight.

You're eating like a toddler.

And I was just like,

Oh, I haven't heard that one.

I've heard some good ones.

That's it.

Wow.

Okay.

yeah, I was so upset and it.

Does make me not really want to talk about it because I feel like I am

Mm

from a lot of people.

If, if people ask and I can tell they're genuinely interested, I will

start to tell them and I'm like, you know, I can talk about this all day.

Like if, you know, let me know.

I kind of leave it in their

hmm.

know?

Mm-Hmm.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

I had the same thing.

I mean, I really struggled with the comments for, you know, eight, 10

months, probably the first year.

And, um, it made me sort of bashful about talking about it to other people.

I mean, these were, like you said, good friends and family members who, well,

of course you're going to lose weight.

You're starving yourself.

You're,

hmm.

you know, it just got to the point where I, I backed off until I just kind of.

Let them see that I was actually, they could see I was actually

eating a lot and enjoying my life.

And, um, you know, it was, it was something.

It's just hard for people, I think, a lot of times to, to say, Oh my gosh,

and that's what they always say.

Oh my gosh, you go 20 hours without eating.

I mean, that's mind blowing to people.

So, but, all right.

So let's talk about, um, your eating and your fasting windows.

Let's, let's start with, uh, fasting hours.

So we know you fast all day until, um, you open your eating window.

So what, like, clean, do you fast clean basically as far as, um,

not putting any, okay, great.

So what, um, drinks, clean drinks do you enjoy while you're fasting?

Like at school, at work, whatever.

Oh,

the crazy part to a lot of people.

I really only drink green tea all day.

That's it.

that's awesome.

a coffee drinker.

I have tried many

Okay.

the years.

I even tried again doing the intermittent fasting and I just really do not

like the taste of coffee at all.

So, um,

So,

I'm not really sure why, but that's what I do.

Um, every now and again, I think from your tips, I've tried the

sparkling water and, um, um, Yeah,

Not a fan?

it's okay, but

It's okay.

I'm good

Well, I know.

green tea.

So, um, that's all

So the green tea That is awesome because not only does it have, you know, tons

of amazing benefits, health benefits, um, and it does help, you know, with

weight loss and things like that.

But another thing that people don't really realize about green tea is it

really helps with freshening your breath.

Okay.

I don't know if you've gotten kind of like that metallic, like

when your body goes into ketosis and all that, I'm not going to.

Go into all the science of it because I don't totally understand

it myself, but, um, if you're, that's one of my big tips for people too,

when they say, Oh, my breath is bad from this fasting and it happens.

Oh, it, it has been something I really struggled with.

Green tea is one of the best, uh, drinks that you can have

to, to fight against that.

So that's really awesome.

I've been

Yeah.

the breath that I've asked my, my fiance a few times and he's like, no, you're good.

So I don't know if that's, that's doing it, but

So, um, I know this might seem like a silly question too, but

do you have the green tea hot?

Yeah.

Okay.

Cause I actually, it's really strange.

I don't know how I figured this out, but when I was, um, first trying to,

you know, kind of experiment with different clean fasting drinks, I

put the sparkling mineral water with the green tea and had it cold and it.

It is super duper good.

Like I absolutely love it.

So, um, yeah, I generally do that, you know, a couple of times a week

too, during my, my fasting hour.

So, um, okay, so let's move to the fun part, the eating.

Ooh, so, um, what do you, what kinds of foods do you,

I mean, Are you a vegetarian?

What types of meals do you enjoy?

What do you like eating during your eating window?

Um, I'm a regular meat eater and, um,

All right.

I'm a pretty basic eater.

Um, so typically I just, I've always just kind of enjoyed like, you know,

thrown chicken in the oven, salmon steak.

So I'm no chef, um, but it's just kind of sticking with those few

proteins and having vegetables.

Broccoli is my go to.

So my, yeah, my typical dinner is usually salmon and broccoli, chicken and broccoli.

Um, if I want to get a little crazy or I'm really lazy, I'll just throw

like some chicken pieces in a bowl with like salsa and guacamole.

Um, So I do stay away from carbs as much as I can.

Um, it's typically

Okay.

and veggies, um, for my dinner.

Okay.

Um,

Sure.

you know, if I get home from work and I know I don't have time to cook right away,

but I'm really hungry, my snack, a lot of

Mm hmm.

just quickly make some scrambled eggs.

Um, also my kind of, What I feel is a real treat is one, a tip I

got from you, because I have always

Okay.

chips, like chips and dip,

Yeah.

So I have given up,

My husband, too.

I've, that I never have chips,

up?

Yeah.

pork rinds, um, yeah, love them.

And I,

It's amazing, isn't it?

I love to have, uh, we have taco salad a lot and instead of the

tortilla chips, I crumble some of the, they have like jalapeno ones

and a bunch of different flavors.

I crumbled those on top to get the crunch in the taco salad.

So, oh, so what do you like?

Just the plain one pork rinds or there's no carb or really little carbs.

is, um, a salt and pepper one.

Um,

Oh, I've seen that.

I haven't tried it though.

Okay.

like called Southern Country Recipe.

I think that's what it's called.

That's my favorite.

It's got a good

Okay.

Oh, yummy.

Oh, good tip.

All right.

Yeah, I think I, um, we make those.

Um, I have that, um, on my recipe site.

It's the pork rind, uh, chicken nachos.

My husband, that's what my husband, he loves nachos.

So, and like I said, I was trying to break him of the, the

chips and you know, all of that.

So we, we make that quite often.

Um.

So what, what do you typically, uh, like to break your fast with?

So that first bite of food after you've been fasting all day, what do you do?

Sure.

So for a long time at the beginning, the first few months when I was doing this, I

Mm hmm.

religious with your fasting break fasting

The, the apples, the apple cider vinegar.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

find, um, from my, you know, tracking of everything, was, Two weeks early on that

I had lost like three pounds, four pounds.

When I started using your drink, I was blown away.

Um, I got away from

I know it's crazy.

Did, did you, did you like it?

I mean, at first,

spicy.

It

bad.

to it.

Um, but yeah, I liked it.

And

What were you mixing it with?

Like the sparkling mineral water?

your favorite

Yeah.

the ginger lime.

Is that?

I like lime and ginger and lemon.

Lemon.

Yeah.

It's my favorite.

um, yeah, just lemon, just lime, that kind of base.

Okay, yeah, fruity stuff I find it tastes, oh, not so good, but, um,

in the regular water, I can't do it.

It's terrible.

I don't know how it changes the taste so drastically, but for some reason it does.

So, so I'm sorry, did you say you, so now you've kind of gotten away from that.

think what was happening was it would take me probably a good half hour

to drink the drink, um, and there

Yeah,

I was getting home and I was like, I need to eat right now.

Um,

sure, sure.

happened.

convenience.

Now, are you making the, the cubes up ahead of time?

you know what,

It's

I went out, I even bought,

okay.

you recommended to make it in the

Yeah.

what is the,

Oh, the, the molds, the silicone molds.

Yeah.

Yeah.

never made it.

Yeah.

Oh, okay.

Well, that's my, that's my tip.

I, uh, go at the beginning of the month and I make up a whole batch for the

whole month so that you can just pop them right out of the, the freezer.

And then all you have to do is add the sparkling mineral water because it's

already, it already has the lemon juice.

It has the spices and the Bragg apple cider vinegar.

So

it, especially now that it's summer for me and I've got my wedding coming

up, so I wouldn't mind, you know,

yeah,

lose a

absolutely.

I do really, I have to say I was tracking too, and it, it makes a difference.

So, um, so how about when you're closing your eating window, when

you're ready to say, so long, I'm ready to stop eating and enter into

my next fasting window, what do you.

Like.

You know, do you have a healthy dessert or anything that you

enjoy kind of closing that up with

Um, nothing, yeah,

with?

really.

It's just like I was saying

Okay.

just usually the last sips of what I'm drinking.

Um, I'm not a huge dessert person, but sometimes I do get into kicks.

Where, um, you know, I'll have a little bit of ice cream or even

like some peppermint patties.

So, you know, I think

Oh, good.

do love about the fasting too, that you can still eat what you want within reason.

Um, you know, so,

Yeah.

And not feel deprived.

And yes, absolutely.

I think that was, that's for me by far one of the best benefits because

every fat diet and crazy diet I went on, I just felt so deprived.

And.

I never, I mean, I do not end my eating window feeling hungry at all.

I just feel completely satisfied.

So

I did, I do have sometimes if I am getting ready for bed and I still

feel like hungry, you recommended

Yeah.

bars.

I forget.

Um,

Oh, you mean the Keto, the Keto, the, or the coconut fat bombs?

The,

ones I buy the think the think

oh, Think, yeah.

Think Keto.

I like those.

Oh, that, yeah.

They have a bunch of flavors that are really good.

The thing I like about those is I've noticed, um, like with some of

the kind of bars that have the, uh, sugars that are artificial sugars.

Or whatever.

Um, but these, it doesn't have as much in there or something because some of those

make me, Oh, they make me a little gassy and they give me kind of a stomach ache.

Um, but the Think Keto ones do not do that.

They have a great like flavor to them.

And so yeah, those are really nice too.

Uh, awesome.

So, what is, here's a big question.

I don't know if you know this, but what is your absolute longest

fast that you've ever done?

Um, almost, or was it 24 hours?

And it wasn't even on purpose.

I think I was so busy.

Okay.

That happens a lot.

so busy.

Yeah.

home from work and started doing stuff and yeah, I think

it turned into a 24 hour fast.

Oh, that's really good.

So many benefits after that.

All right.

So, Laura, do you, do you exercise?

And, um, like if you do, what are kind of your favorite ways to, to stay active?

So I hate to admit this, um, but I don't really

No.

Um,

That's wow, you're one of the lucky ones.

to.

I mean, I want to.

well, I have, I have slowed way down, uh, since I've been in like weight

maintenance and it's just because I'm, busier and also I feel like I'm, getting

older, but, um, So you don't exercise really at all, but you, I'm sure you,

well, as a teacher, you're exercising.

I know that, especially because my room was at the total

opposite end of the school.

So, I mean, you're back and forth and back and forth.

So, and as a teacher and anybody out there who's listening, you know,

teachers are so, so, so, so busy.

So, well, no, that's, that's, that works.

And I have found that I mean, I know for decades, I thought, okay,

I can exercise this weight off.

And no matter how much I exercised, it just, it was, maybe

small wins here and there.

And so I do believe it has, so much more to do, um, with our eating habits

and, you know, things like that.

So yeah, that is another thing I love about, about intermittent fasting,

because even if you don't get much exercise, you really can see.

Mm-Hmm.

results.

So, all right.

Well, Laura, we are almost ready to wrap things up.

So I would like you to end with your shiniest gem.

So what would you say is your very best intermittent fasting tip for success that

you can leave our listeners with today?

Oh, that's a big question.

Um, I guess for me it was, and I know this might not totally be easy all the time,

but it was a real mindset shift that I made that this is a lifestyle, not a diet.

Um, so I think that's just something.

If people are going to try this, they really need to think about it like that.

And as you and I both, like we've over the years tried so many things and I

was always looking for the quick fix.

Um, you know, when I would try something new, if I didn't lose

five pounds in that first week, I was like, well, this isn't working.

And then I would just like completely throw it out the window.

And I remember after meeting you and deciding that I was going

to do this, Cause that was like the end of July we met and I

Sure, yeah, it was, yeah, last summer.

Yep.

myself, okay, you're going to do this until Christmas.

Like just, that's what you're going to do.

And so I think once I was doing it, you know, for a few weeks, it really did just

feel like, oh, this is what I do now.

Um, you know, so this is coming up on a year later and this

is, is what I do, you know?

It's your lifestyle.

I know it is.

It's so freeing, isn't it?

Like I just, and, um, I, I love that, you know, once you kind of, like you

said, you have to make that mindset shift in your brain to know, okay,

this really is how I can live the rest of my life and it's a lifestyle.

And, um, I don't know.

It is, like I said.

I say it a million times, but it's not having to worry.

I like on that vacation we were on, you know, I am able to enjoy myself and enjoy

the food and the drinks and it's a cruise.

So you're eating and you're drinking a lot, but to know that all I have to do

is get back on track when I get back with my intermittent fasting schedule and.

You know, and then you're right back where you were and, and you don't feel

guilty and you feel great on vacation.

And so, yeah, it's, it's wonderful.

Well, Laura, thank you so much for chatting with me today.

And I honestly, you are an intermittent fasting rockstar.

I have had so much fun.

And I also want to say a big congratulations to you because

I heard that you got engaged and you have a wedding coming up.

soon as August 10th.

Oh, so excited.

What's your fiance's name?

Dan.

And I won't start a big thing, but I'm wondering how supportive

is he with the fasting?

So, funny enough, um, he was like keto, intermittent, faster

Oh, really?

was one of those people that was a little judgy.

Mm hmm.

Oh, well, it's okay.

It happens to the best of us.

I met you and told him all about it, he's like, I know, yeah,

together soon.

We'll get, Dan and Barry together.

So, oh, well, Laura, thank you so, so much.

Um, it's been really a pleasure talking to you today.

Hey, thank you so much for choosing to spend part of your day listening

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