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.

And she is going to tell us how she has been moving all around the world.

She is married.

You have three, right?

Lisa, three beautiful daughters.

Oh, and, uh, she started intermittent fasting.

I'm thinking Lisa, it was a. Four years ago.

Yeah.

So she started four years ago.

She has such an interesting story.

And since this podcast is about the flexibility of fasting and how

people from all walks of life make intermittent fasting work for them.

Um, you are going to really love Lisa's story today.

So welcome Lisa.

So glad you're here with us today.

Hello.

Thanks for having me.

Absolutely.

So Lisa was a former, is it English?

We were English teacher.

Yes.

Uh, former English teacher.

And, uh, like I said, I'm hoping she kind of tells you about how she's

been jet setting all around the world world and spreading the word

of God, which I absolutely love.

Um, so she is a, an amazing Christian woman doing intermittent fasting

and all right, if you're ready to get going, I'd like to start Lisa.

Uh, let's talk about your three top wins with intermittent fasting.

All right.

First of all, it was very hard to come up with only three, so I'm

going to maybe list a few more.

Well, if you've got more, that would be great.

Um, for me, first of all, as you said, we do travel full time as a family.

We're very blessed, uh, with this opportunity and I'm a routine minded

person and sometimes in our nomadic gypsy life, it's hard to keep on a routine,

but with fasting, it is so easy to.

You eat during your window and you stop eating during your fasting window.

So that is a huge win for me.

It just makes life easier.

Um, I love the mental clarity that comes with it.

I typically, I love the mental clarity.

I'll get into that later, but, um.

I also sleep much better.

I have, um, praise be to God, a great overall health.

For example, right now we have the flu battling in our home and I

really feel that my immune system's stronger because of fasting.

Um, ultimately though, I, my biggest win is the overall health issues.

My dad, my father, is struggling with some memory issues, and I believe

fasting, scientifically, is going to help with that in my future.

And my mother has diabetes, and I am telling Myself

that I do not want diabetes.

It's been in my family for generations and I believe fasting will help with

that 100 percent yeah, oh that those are fabulous fabulous wins and I love

that because You know a lot of people do start the fasting for the weight loss

Um, but as I have said a million times before, if it, even if it weren't for the

weight loss, the benefits, the non scale victories, the health portion, um, the

advantages to, you know, it's the benefits are immense and that are so far removed

from the weight loss that again, I will continue to intermittent fast because of

all of those amazing, um, things that, you know, that fasting has to offer.

So absolutely.

Um, well, that is fabulous.

So, um, let's talk about your main or preferred intermittent fasting method

or schedule or schedules or how do you, how do you do fasting, Lisa?

Okay.

Well, I'm one that uses an app, um, and I track my hour, um, but my overall fasting

routine does change, uh, for a while.

For example, if I'm going on a vacation and I want to cut five

extra pounds, I will do alternate day fasting for a couple of weeks.

I typically, uh, just fast Monday, Wednesday, Friday when I do that,

but I've done that in the past.

Um, I really enjoy OMAD.

I typically, like the last three months, I've just been focusing mostly on OMAD, or

sometimes I'll eat two small meals a day.

Um, as of recently, I've really enjoyed just doing each week, I try to get

at least one, uh, 24 hour fast in.

Sometimes I get two 24 hour fasts.

Um, and then in between there, I typically fast anywhere from 16 to 21 hours.

Awesome.

Very good.

So you mentioned I'm flexible.

I guess I just want to emphasize, I'm very flexible.

I try to look at my week and say, okay, I can get a long

fast in this day and I do it.

And then I try, I always Maybe not on Sundays, but I typically

always fast for more than 16 hours.

That's just easy for me now in my life.

That's the best part in my opinion too, with fasting and, you know, you just.

find what works for you.

And it is.

It's trial and it's error and it's finding what works, what doesn't work.

Um, but being able to still enjoy, uh, whatever you've got going on in your

family life or whatever is happening and not feeling like you're, uh, tied down to

an actual diet, and I don't think that.

Yeah, the, the, the moving around with the schedule is also great for your

metabolism and mixing things up and, and trying, you know, preventing, um, weight

loss plateaus and things like that.

So as far as weight maintenance, that's a great way to do it.

Lisa, it really, really is.

Now you mentioned an app, uh, I know a lot of us, when we were in, started in

my Facebook group, everybody loved the life app and we found some alternatives.

In the last few months, since the life app is no longer, what app do you, uh, use?

Yes, I was devastated with the life app because I sat with

a friend, which is helpful.

And that life app let us see each other fast.

And I'm sure there's other apps that does that.

But right now I just use.

EasyFast.

Oh, good.

That's the one a lot of us are using.

Yeah.

And just, just for our listeners out there, it has, there are a

couple that have a similar name, but EasyFast has like the royal blue.

It's the royal blue color icon, if you're looking for it.

And you, do you just use the free version?

I just use the free version right now.

Oh, yes.

I just use the free version and it works perfect.

Good.

Yeah.

I love that too.

And, uh, yeah, a lot of people have found that.

It has similar features to life.

I mean, it's not quite as wonderful as life was, but, um, it's

free and it gets the job done.

So, um, all right, let's talk about your biggest challenge

with intermittent fasting.

What do you think that might be Lisa?

Well, you know, I, I can't specifically over the last

several years I've been fasting.

I, there are challenges.

Yes.

You know, we're going out to dinner and it's late and I wanted to start my fast.

Things like that can be difficult every now and then.

Currently though, I turn 45 next month I'm in, I am in a different You're in it

I'm in it.

I'm in a different season in my life.

I had, uh, my, our third daughter I had a little later

in life and so I'm still in it.

I homeschool our three children.

I travel full time and I'm 45 in perimenopause and sometimes I just

want to eat a bunch of cookies.

Well, of course you do.

I know I'll be 50 this year.

So I, I know exactly what you're talking about.

Yes.

And in reality, it's not the cookies that it's, um, you know, I've

had some unexpected weight gain.

I have not changed anything in my diet.

Um, as a matter of fact, my husband and I will enjoy a beer, some

wine every now and then, or drink.

Um, but for the last four months, I have not had any drinks, and I'm still

kind of gaining weight a little bit.

So that, um, has been a recent difficulty, yet, um, I'm still

fasting, and I'm still enjoying the other wins, such as mental clarity and

overall health, and I'm embracing it.

So, um.

And I also do know that I could hop back into the alternate day fasting

and easily lose those few pounds.

But right now we're enjoying life and I'm not mentally there to hop

back into alternate day fasting.

And so.

It's a, it's, it's a problem, I guess.

Or what was the question?

Struggle?

It's the struggle a little bit.

It's a challenge, but yeah, you know what?

I feel, yes.

And I feel like I'm right there with you with that.

So I am definitely up, uh, you know, a bit, probably eight, 10 pounds from,

uh, when I first hit my goal weight and I fluctuate, uh, with that, but I feel.

So good and comfortable.

And yes, you're right.

If I wanted to get back, I know exactly what I have to do.

And I think that's key to like, I could throw in an extra extended

fast, or I have also done, like you said, alternate day fasting.

That does really work for me as well if I want to get down.

But you know, right now I'm comfortable.

Uh, you know, I don't feel restricted.

And again, That's the beauty of it.

And we have tools to know what we have to do.

And yes, I mean, I'm almost 50.

I am.

It's a little bit more difficult.

Sometimes I feel like, you know, I might have to push my 19 five, which

has been my maintenance to more of a 20 and four or a 21 and three on most days.

And when I do that, I start to see better results.

But yeah, We, you know, the flexibility again.

Um, so, so let's talk a little bit about, uh, your actual eating and fasting window.

So when you are in that, uh, fasting window, Lisa, do you fast clean?

Like with, um, black, what do you like to, drink during your fasting hours?

Yeah, good question.

I am a black coffee, sometimes green tea.

I like a LaCroix pure, sometimes I'll even steep, uh, steep a green tea

and then add the green tea into my, uh, LaCroix, LaCroix pure to make it,

you know, A little different, but I'm just a simple black coffee drinker.

I drink a lot of water.

Um, yeah So yeah, that's me, too.

I I start with the the black coffee Uh in the morning and I usually I go

probably a little later than I should I try to cut it off By one 30, if I'm,

I'm teaching, I find that I'm usually drinking it all day until about three,

but which is maybe a little too late, but then I'm, you know, I'm alternating

between water and, and green tea as well.

And, um, so yeah, I, I feel, do you feel just completely satisfied

with that during your window?

I do.

I mean, some days are more difficult than others, but I don't miss.

I still make my girls, well, they make their own breakfast, but when I do make

the family breakfast, I don't miss it.

I'm perfectly content with just my clean fasting drink.

Love it.

Love it.

So now, um, how, well, how about before we head to, uh, food and

your eating window, do you use any, uh, electrolyte supplements at all?

I don't now.

As of recently, I have been taking an Earthly Wellness Mushroom Tincture.

It is, um, a tincture that is holistic, and sometimes, on some

mornings, I will put a little of that.

I put like 10 drops in my coffee.

And I've kind of experienced I've experimented with that.

First of all, it's a very bitter taste.

It's just 10 tiny drops.

And I've experimented with that to see if about an hour after I take it, if I feel

hungry, then I don't want to be taking it because I think it takes me out of

the autophagy out of the fasting state.

And maybe it does, but again, right now in my season, I I'm busy in the mornings.

I need to think clear and this, this mushroom tincture is.

Fabulous for mental clarity for me, so I've been doing that, Jen.

I love that.

Uh, I love hearing about stuff like that.

So, you just put it right in your coffee then?

You said like 10 drops?

I put 10 drops right in my black coffee.

I don't taste any different.

Um, I do know that it does have a bitter taste.

Okay.

Um, and that's good.

Bitter, just like coffee.

Uh, and so you're not getting that, the sweet, uh, that, you

know, could potentially spike your insulin levels and things like that.

So it's, you know what, it's working for you.

That's fabulous.

It is working for me and it's not an everyday thing and it's new.

It's new as of the last two, three months that I've been taking a

good holistic mushroom tincture.

Awesome.

And do you feel like it really does help with the mental clarity?

Oh my goodness, a hundred percent.

It is fabulous.

I've never experienced.

We're more of a holistic family and this is a great immune.

It's great for your immune system.

And it, for me personally, it makes my mental clarity when I have, I got

to get the six year old doing this.

I've got, you know, a million things as all moms have, it just helps me.

Focus, focus in.

Oh, I love that.

Mm-hmm . So would you mind giving us the, do you know what

the name brand of that is or?

Absolutely.

It, it's a company I am a huge advocate of.

We use a lot of their products.

It's called Earthly Wellness.

Earthly Wellness, yep.

Yeah, if you wanna send me, is it, um, do you order order it online then, or?

I do.

I do.

Okay.

Do you wanna send me that?

To the website and go straight to the website though, because I also, which is

helpful for the fasting community, I also have been using for years, a magnesium

lotion of their, Oh, it's a lotion.

So you put on your stomach, your, your belly, I use it.

Nightly.

And, um, you know, the lotion absorbs more in into your body than

absolutely physically taking it.

And so I love that.

And so, um, and I say, go to the website because I've ordered that

lotion from Amazon and it didn't, it, it, it is not the same.

No.

And so, don't be fooled.

Don't be fooled.

As, as much as I love Amazon, don't be fooled by products on

there because they're not all.

Okay.

Um, well, wonderful.

I will put the link for our listeners to that website in the show notes.

So, uh, love that tip, Lisa.

Thank you so, so much.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So let's move to the fun stuff.

Let's talk food.

So when you are in your eating window, do you kind of gravitate towards certain

foods, more low carb or high protein or certain things that you love or?

Yeah.

Tell us about that.

Okay.

Um, we typically, you know, we do, we've been blessed to be able to

enjoy restaurants and breweries and wineries across America.

But on average, I'd say 95 percent of the time we are, uh, make

our own food and eat at home.

And so, you know, we make our own meals.

We don't use frozen meals.

We make our own meals.

So we do gravitate towards just, you know, this winter, for

example, healthy soups and chilies.

Um, I am, uh, eat two eggs every day.

I'm focusing on high protein, but I also I've been baking sourdough

bread for years and I enjoy it.

My two eggs on a piece of sourdough toast.

Um, so I'm not, I like fasting because I don't like dieting.

I don't want to be told that I can't eat something.

Um, but I do gravitate more towards healthier stuff.

Um, we, we like, you know.

Good protein.

We, we, we, um, we eat healthy stuff.

One of my go to recipes that I have pretty much every week in our fridge

is what we call chickpea salad.

It's chock full of pepper, celery.

It has black olives, feta cheese, um, all kinds of vegetables

with a very simple dressing.

Um, and I typically, oh, red onions, I typically open and

we'll just have a bowl of that.

Um, as my first thing I eat when I break a fast, sometimes I get

the Mediterranean style in it.

I even put my, um, eggs over the chickpea salad.

Ooh.

Um, so it's an easy way to fill our bodies with nutrient dense, um, foods.

I love that.

Yeah.

And if you felt inclined to send that recipe, I could,

uh, leave that below as well.

That's fabulous.

It's so easy.

I love chickpeas.

Everybody in our family likes it.

It's so easy.

That makes it nice too.

. Yeah.

How old are your daughters now?

We have a 13-year-old now.

Oh, a 12-year-old.

And then the good Lord blessed us with Tessa, our.

six year old.

Oh my goodness.

And for all of you out there, my daughter Cambria had, uh, the pleasure

of being Lisa's babysitter for a while there because I believe, Lisa, were you

were her teacher or yes, in high, high school, uh, or was that middle school?

I can't remember me in eighth grade.

I had your beautiful daughter in eighth grade, and then I was transferred up

to the high school and I was blessed to have her again through church

because I used to serve in the church youth group and then my girls love

still to this day, they talk about it.

your beautiful daughter.

Oh, thank you.

Well, I know Cambria loves, love, loves you.

So, and your daughters, they're just, so I love that.

Um, you know, you kind of, I know your, your girls started here in Michigan

and I just want everyone to know how you can incorporate fasting so many

different ways, but tell it, talk a little bit about if you don't mind.

When you decided to kind of get your camper and sell your, sell

your place and stop teaching and do, do what you were doing.

Yeah, you know, um, the good Lord blessed us with Tessa, our six year old.

We thought we were done with children and she just changed

the whole course of our life.

Uh, COVID happened.

And even before that, I started staying home more.

I taught part time and the Lord just provided financial

means through my husband's job.

And next thing you know, it was like, you know what?

I want to stay home full time.

So then I started staying home full time.

And then right before COVID, we had faithfully prayed about

what we wanted to do and what we wanted our lives to look like.

And next thing you know, I started homeschooling.

Never in a million years did I imagine I would homeschool

as a public school teacher.

Um, nor, so then we homeschooled for a year.

And then.

We legit were just were inspired, had dreams to sell everything.

We sold everything.

We have six bins sitting, um, in my friend's house.

And then we have a few things at my parents house.

That's it.

We sold everything and we've been educating our children on the road.

They've been to 38.

Maybe even more now national parks.

Um, they've studied life and educated.

They've been educated in real life scenarios and we feel so

blessed for this opportunity.

Um, it has its difficulties.

You know, I never want to portray like, oh, they can do travel.

I mean.

We live in a tiny home and, um, anyways, we've just followed the Lord's lead on

it, Jen, and he has blessed us and we give him all the credit and I'm excited

to see how our girls will end up and what the good Lord will do in their life based

on this lifestyle that we've been living.

Um, And next, uh, we are moving on to a boat and we're going to our last, we

keep saying our last, um, big adventure as a family before we settle down is

we are going to do a huge boat trip.

It's called the American great loop.

And then after that, in our minds, we think, okay, then we'll buy

a home and settle back down.

You know, we miss a community.

We miss the consistent community.

We could go on and on about it, but, um, All the while, as I've been doing

this, fasting has just stuck with me.

I mean, I remember when we were selling our home and getting

rid of all of this stuff.

Jen, it was like, I was doing it in a fasted state because I

had energy and mental clarity.

Right?

Isn't it amazing?

So, Lisa, how about exercise?

That's got to be a little bit tricky if you're on the go, but, uh, how do you like

to move around and stay active, uh, with, especially, like I said, fasting, and do

you like to, active in the fasted state.

Go ahead.

Yes.

I typically always in the fasted state.

Um, my family and I were very active.

We've hiked big mountains, you know, out West.

My girls have hiked some of the biggest mountains in North America.

Um, I myself am a big hiker and, uh, I always, Accomplish most.

I shouldn't say always.

I'd say 99 percent of the big hikes I've done.

It's been in a fasted state.

Some of them I've started fasting and then halfway up the mountain.

I'm like, I need energy.

So well, and that's it's that's part of listening to your body.

And you're right when if when it's time to eat, And you know, it's

time to eat, then you need to eat.

Absolutely, Jen.

Yeah.

So we are an active family.

We've been in Northern Michigan, for example, for three months.

We've been cross country skiing.

We've been downhill skiing multiple times.

I typically take walks outside two to three days a week.

And then something I found because I don't have a gym that I can consistently go to.

I have just YouTube Pilates and instructors and you know, I sometimes

when we're in the camper, I'll look up for small spaces and I really enjoy.

I know.

I kind of call it lazy exercise, but I love it.

I do, you know, 2 to 3 times a week.

I try to do, uh.

15 to 25 minute Pilates session that I just find online.

I love that.

So last month I talked to Jen Mopaw.

She was my interview for that month and she said something about the body project.

Have you heard of that?

She was talking, uh, yeah.

So she says.

They have several YouTube videos and they're all different kinds of workouts.

And they're anywhere from 10 minute quick workouts, um, to all

the way up to 40 or 50 minutes.

And you can, basically, customize it to whatever kind of fitness level you're at.

So they have modifications and then they have some for advanced.

And so I did look it up after and it looks amazing.

So there are quite a few that you could find, uh, online too.

So.

Yeah, but I love that too.

I, I actually honest with you, I've never set foot in the gym.

Um, I don't like to work out in public.

I like to do my own thing.

And so a lot of times I'll just put, I'll find a. A real quick kettlebell workout on

YouTube and I'll put my favorite TV show above and then I'll put it, the workout

on my laptop and then I'm doing the kettlebell workout while I'm watching my

favorite, like, trashy show or whatever.

I don't know.

So it's great.

You kill two birds with one stone.

So, um, no, that sounds fabulous.

I would say my difficulty with working out is I have yet to make that a routine.

Okay.

So I really would like to see myself and I would encourage people like,

again, maybe it's just my routine driven mind, but I lived in a perfect world.

I would get up, I would have a cup of coffee and I would get my workout done.

Okay.

But that's hard.

Sure.

Um, so sometimes, so sometimes if I pass a point in my day and I haven't worked

out yet, I'm like, I'm not going to do it.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, I totally get it.

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

So I would like to end this episode with your very shiniest gem.

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

you can leave our listeners with today?

Fasting is simple.

It's adaptable.

It's flexible.

It is.

The health benefits are amazing.

Um, it's just simple.

You eat during your eating window and you stop eating during your fasting window.

Um, I know.

Some people are probably thinking, it's not that easy.

They like to eat snacks at night.

And I get those, I get, I get those struggles, but the more you do it and

make it adaptable, that works for your lifestyle, it becomes very simple.

If you want to indulge in a snack at a family movie night, do it.

Fast wander the next day.

So, so my shiniest gem there, Jen, is it's simple.

You know what?

I love that so much.

And I wrote something down that you said earlier.

Um, you said, I like fasting because I don't have to diet.

And to me, that is such a simple statement, but such a powerful

statement at the same time.

And, uh, you pretty much took the words right out of my mouth.

And that is That's 100 percent why I like fasting too.

And I think after so many of us have struggled, um, up and down the weight

loss rollercoaster and the, the trials and tribulations and frustrations and all of

that, that comes in with that diet mindset and all of that, you could pretty much

throw that out the window with fasting.

No, it's not perfect, uh, by any means.

And you do have to, like I said, you've got to do some trial and error

and figure out what works for you.

But for the most part, um, you know, like you said, just, just do it.

It's, it's simple.

And, uh, the benefits, uh, are.

are completely incredible.

So, oh my gosh, Lisa, I have loved, love, love talking to you

today and you have shared so many great tips with our listeners.

And I, I really can't thank you enough.

So great to connect with you again.

Well, same to you and please give Cammie a hug and thank you for having me.

Oh, absolutely.

It's great talking with you

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

to this episode of the Intermittent Fasting Gems with Jen podcast.

If you think these tips could help a friend or a family member, please

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Tune in for new 15 to 25 minute episodes released on the 10th,

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Episodes will feature solo shows filled with IF hacks that have worked for me, as

well as episodes where I get to chat with.

fun folks of all ages who've experienced incredible success

with intermittent fasting.

If you have questions or want more unique intermittent fasting health

and weight loss tips, tricks, and recipes, please visit my website

and blog at sowhatifwithjen.

com.

Finally, we'd love to welcome you into our free intermittent

Fasting Facebook support group.

So what if with Jen, find all of these links in the show notes below.

And as always, I hope you spend your day loving without fear and

laughing until your cheeks hurt.