THIS Is Why Intermittent Fasting Never Worked For You | The Mel Robbins Podcast

Mel Robbins 0:00 (Clock Ticking) (Upbeat Music) Dr. Mindy is back, office hours are open, people. She is here to grab your hand and help you implement a fasting protocol that focuses on when you're eating for maximum health benefit. We are gonna dive deep, deep, deep, deep into the difference between fasting with men and fasting with women, because there is a profound difference, and this is not being talked about enough. And this stuff is so freaking cool. (upbeat music) Hey, it's your friend Mel, and welcome to the Mel Robbins podcast. I am so excited that you're here. Welcome to this extraordinary master class and step-by-step guide into the science and the application of intermittent fasting into your life as a tool for healing and for improving your health. Now, we're about to jump into the step-by-step part and how you get started, and we're also going to talk about the different protocols for fasting for men and women and why this is extremely critical that you understand and follow. But for the sake of bringing everybody into the tent and so that we're all starting on the same page, if this is the first episode that you're listening to with me and Dr. Mindy Pelz about intermittent fasting, I want you to keep on listening, and I want to let you know that when you're done with this step-by-step guide on how to start and the protocols to follow and what you can expect, there is another resource for you. The episode just before this one is an in-depth analysis into the 101 of intermittent fasting and all the science and research. And so let me just summarize a few key takeaways so that we're all starting with the exact same information. Number one, intermittent fasting is a health protocol whereby you focus on periods of time where you're eating and periods of time where you are not eating. The purpose of intermittent fasting is to use periods of time where you are not eating to help you switch between the two different energy sources in your body. We learned all about this in part one from Dr. Mindy. You have an energy source that is all about sugar and calories and energy that happens when you eat, and then you have a second energy source that only turns on after an eight-hour period of not eating anything, and Dr. Mindy calls that your fat-burning energy source. And so what we learned is that you are designed to switch between these two cycles, kind of like how you have cycles of sleeping and cycles of being awake, you have a circadian rhythm cycle. If you're a woman, you have a menstrual cycle. The human body runs on cycles and rhythms, and your eating is no different, and fasting is a way for you to be very intentional not about what you eat, and that's why this is not a diet. Diets focus on what you eat. Fasting is a protocol that focuses on when you're eating for maximum health benefit, and so we covered all of that in

Mel Robbins 3:32 the first master class. We also talked about the six different types of fasting, and just so you know, the six different types are just a matter of how long you are fasting for and the different health benefits and reasons why people fast for different periods of time. In this episode, we're gonna focus on the first type of fasting, which is what you've probably heard of, intermittent fasting, which is when you intentionally do not eat for between 12 and 16 hours. And just so that we're using the same kind of language, that means if you were to stop eating at 9:00 at night and then sleep through the night, sometime between 9:00 AM and noon is when you would have the first thing to eat, because that means that from 9:00 PM until 9:00 AM, you have been fasting for 12 hours. And when you fast for a minimum of 12 hours, you unlock really incredible health benefits. And so that's all you need to know, but you now know everything that you need in order to step into the step-by-step guide. And so here's what we're gonna cover. Dr. Mindy is back. Office hours are open, people. She is here to grab your hand and help you implement a fasting protocol today, and here's what we're gonna cover. We're gonna cover the four questions that you need to ask yourself to determine what type of fasting you want to do and why you're gonna do it. Second, we're gonna do a quick start guide. How do you get started? Like, seriously, how do you actually get started, and when should you start this? We're gonna talk about what you can expect when you try this for the first time, day one, day two, day three. We're gonna talk about what you can expect to experience in terms of results, and then, most importantly, we are gonna dive deep, deep, deep, deep into the difference between fasting with men and fasting with women, because there is a profound difference, and this is not being talked about enough, and we're gonna unpack that today, and you're gonna learn a lot, and this stuff is so freaking cool. And of course, we're gonna talk hacks and everything else. So without further ado, please help me welcome Dr. Mindy Pelz. You know her. You love her. She is an incredible expert about fasting and the benefits. So, Dr. Mindy, welcome back. Let's get started.Let's talk about how. So first, let's start with you, how do you fast, Dr. Mindy?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 6:14 Yeah, so I, I, I have gotten to a point where I love fasting so much, I have to really make sure that I eat. Um, but I don't, I like skipping breakfast, that's my jam. Um, so I get up in the morning and I drink a cup of coffee, I have a full fat cream, um, w- in my coffee, and I'll probably eat my first meal around noon or 1:00.

Mel Robbins 6:38 Okay.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 6:38 Um, uh, uh, you know, like you, family is incredibly important to me, so we usually eat dinner as a family, like, some around 8, you know, 7:00 or 8:00 at night.

Mel Robbins 6:49 Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 6:50 And I'm, and this is my big thing, you don't, you don't, you can build this around a f- your family's desires too. So I sit down with my family, we eat dinner, we're done at 8:00, my first meal will be noon or 1:00. Now, outside of that, and we can talk about hormones if we want to go down that path, but, uh, if I feel like I'm off, you know, yesterday, I was like, ah, I had been, I had been in Hawaii, I hadn't really been eating the way I wanted to eat and I'm like, "I need to go into a longer fast." So I dipped into 18, 19 hours. So I'll use it as a tool depending on what my body needs and then once to tw- two times a year, I'll g- I'll do a three-day water fast. A- and I do that to get rid of the cells that are not serving me, to slow down aging, to increase stem cells, so it's like a cellular clea- cleansing that I do.

Mel Robbins 7:43 So when you're in the period of the cycle where you are not eating, you're in the fasting period, water is okay?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 7:54 Water is okay.

Mel Robbins 7:55 What else is okay?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 7:57 Yeah, it's a great question. Mineral water is okay as long as it doesn't-

Mel Robbins 7:59 Yep.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 7:59 ... have a sweetener.

Mel Robbins 8:01 Mm-hmm.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 8:01 Uh, and no, NutraSweet is not okay, um, because NutraSweet can spike insulin, so just point on there. Coffee is okay, tea is okay, anything that won't spike your blood sugar. Black tea, sometimes I'll g- go have a black tea, iced tea, that is yummy, green tea, all of that is fine. It just, you can't have a sweetener in it.

Mel Robbins 8:22 Gotcha. What about, like, bone broth? 'Cause I see people, like, sipping-

Dr. Mindy Pelz 8:26 No.

Mel Robbins 8:26 ... broth during fasting cycles.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 8:28 Yeah. It, because, uh, it has protein in it, it changes the h- the healing response so it's great to break a fast with, um, but it's not the type of fasting that I'm talking about. The type of fasting I'm talking about has your blood sugar staying low. Bone broth can increase your blood sugar.

Mel Robbins 8:49 Do you have any hacks, Dr. Mindy, any shortcuts, any things that you want rapid fire for the person listening? If you're gonna take on intermittent fasting, which why on earth would you not after everything we've discussed?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 9:06 (laughs)

Mel Robbins 9:06 What are the hacks and the shortcuts to really get started in a fast, successful and supportive way when you're doing it for yourself for the first time?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 9:14 Okay, so let me, let me give you three hacks that are simple, um, and

Dr. Mindy Pelz 9:20 I also wanna go back to what you said before because I want women specifically that are listening to this, when things are confusing to us, especially when they come to healthcare, we tend to reject them. I'm gonna ask you not to do that, I'm gonna ask you to become curious about them. What we are discussing here is natural rhythms of your body and nobody's taught it to you. So I would, I would love to come back and make sure that we don't lose women in this conversation because we're, we need to embrace our natural rhythms. So I'm, I'll put that there. First hack, the easiest way to get into this is to start looking at your 24-hour period as when are you gonna eat and when are you not gonna eat? So stop, what's your stop time at night and what's your start time in the morning? Figure that out. Second, we'd brought up the coffee. W- a hack for the coffee that is amazing is putting a little bit of MCT oil in your coffee. Let me tell you why.

Mel Robbins 10:31 Why? (laughs)

Dr. Mindy Pelz 10:31 Yes, let me tell you why.

Mel Robbins 10:33 Why?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 10:33 It moves you quicker into fat burning and helps you make ketones and turns off the hunger hormone. So if you're wanting to fast a little longer and you're struggling, put a little bit of MCT oil, it's what we've seen has worked for millions of people and MCT oil specifically has the ability to turn off the hunger hormone. Put it in your coffee in the morning.

Mel Robbins 10:59 What the hell is MCT oil?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 11:02 It's a, an, one aspect of coconut oil that has this therapeutic benefit that turns off hunger. It's-

Mel Robbins 11:11 Okay.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 11:11 ... it's just na- nature made it. It's a part of coconut oil.

Mel Robbins 11:14 How much? 'Cause I once tried this with a bunch of dudes-

Dr. Mindy Pelz 11:18 (laughs)

Mel Robbins 11:18 ... and I think they poured, like, I don't know how much, b- but we then went on a hike, and let me tell you something.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 11:25 Oh, no! (laughs)

Mel Robbins 11:25 Within, within... She already knows what I'm about to tell you guys.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 11:28 (laughs)

Mel Robbins 11:29 Within about 100 yards, after about 45 minutes of drinking what turned out to probably be, like, a loo shot of MCT oil in my coffee, it doubled me over with cramps and I had raging diarrhea almost instantly-

Dr. Mindy Pelz 11:45 (laughs)

Mel Robbins 11:46 ... because they gave me too much. I don't know if it was, like, a joke, but how much we talking here, Doc?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 11:51 Yeah. Oh, my God, it's so good. I'm so happy you said that 'cause that does happen. Um, half a teaspoon to a teaspoon, you don't need very much.

Mel Robbins 11:58 Okay, and can I put my full fat creamer, no sweetener, in with it?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 12:05 Yes, you can.

Mel Robbins 12:06 Okay, got it. All right, so that's hack number two, everybody.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 12:09 Yeah, so that's hack number two. Okay, hack number three-... if you don't feel good in this fasting window, which I just wanna call out that in the beginning, it will be a little uncomfortable. And that's okay, 'cause the body will figure out how to respond. So in that discomfort, maybe it's a little bit of like, "Eh," and your brain's not quite coming back online, you're like, "I'm not feeling the ketones," try a little sea salt. Just a little bit of sea salt. Like, you can, you can p- you can put it in your coffee if you wanted, and you're gonna ask me the amount, I'm sure. A pinch. A pinch of sea salt. We have found that even the nutrients that you can find in a high-quality sea salt, like a Himalayan sea salt-

Mel Robbins 12:53 Mm-hmm.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 12:53 ... or something that's a really good one, it can have magnesium, it can have a little bit of potassium, a little bit of sodium, and it makes you feel better in the fasting window. There are a lot of products out there you can do it with, but all you gotta do is go to the grocery store and find some sea salt.

Mel Robbins 13:09 Well, I am addicted to LMnt.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 13:12 Yes, yes.

Mel Robbins 13:12 That L-M-

Dr. Mindy Pelz 13:13 Yes, yes, that's what we use.

Mel Robbins 13:13 L-M-T stuff.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 13:15 Yeah.

Mel Robbins 13:15 I love them. They're a sponsor of this podcast. I drink it every day, and, um, I'm assuming that's not breaking the fasting protocol.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 13:24 No, we're, we're big fans of LMnt too.

Mel Robbins 13:27 Okay.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 13:27 And we, we, our, our community is obsessed with LMnt-

Mel Robbins 13:31 Yes.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 13:31 ... because a pack of LMnt in your water, in your fasting window is a game changer for how you feel in the fasting window.

Mel Robbins 13:39 It's so true. Um... there was something I forgot to ask you. Can you walk us through the first time you fast, how shitty you might feel?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 13:51 Yes.

Mel Robbins 13:51 Like what to expect and how long you need to stick with it in order to move through that phase.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 13:58 Yeah. I think it's important because if you hear this, you'll get all excited, you come out of the gates, you try it, and then you don't feel good, you're gonna reject it. So what happens, let's use a sprained ankle as an example. When you sprain an ankle, it doesn't feel good, but the body is healing.

Mel Robbins 14:19 Hmm.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 14:20 When you have a fever, doesn't feel good, but the body is healing. So the first time you put yourself in this fat burning healing state, everybody will feel something different. Some people will feel not so great, but the good news is, the not so great usually only lasts the first couple of times. So usually-

Mel Robbins 14:40 And what is not so great? What are you referring to?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 14:42 Uh-

Mel Robbins 14:42 Is it gonna be like headache, moody?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 14:45 ... sometimes brain... Bra- Yeah, you can be a little moody. Moody, brain fog. Some people, you know, will, will notice, even we've seen people have rashes, like the body pushes out-

Mel Robbins 14:54 Ooh.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 14:54 ... that's extreme, but the body will push out, you know, the bad stuff. Uh, some people might get a little bit of constipation. Some people will get a little bit of diarrhea. The body is getting rid of whatever's n- not serving it. So it is a f- little bit of a detox. So as that comes out, you might have some feelings of like, "Yeah, I'm not feeling great yet. I'm not buying this thing yet." But here's what happens, is the body is building you stronger. So honor that that's a temporary sy- symptom as your body moves into this healing state, and it usually only lasts anywhere from a day to three days. Most people, I would say 50% of the people don't even notice that.

Mel Robbins 15:37 Women need a different fasting protocol than men. Why?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 15:41 Yeah. So this is the heart of, of why I do what I do.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 15:47 When the fasting craze came out, everybody got excited about it, and then women started to see they were losing their, their periods, their hair was falling out, their anxiety levels were going up, and some of them started gaining weight. And so what happened was the media grabbed that and said, "Hey, intermittent fasting is not okay for women." So I dove into the research because all those women poured onto my YouTube channel, and I examined the needs of two different hormones, estrogen and progesterone.

Mel Robbins 16:30 Okay.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 16:31 So women follow what I call a hormonal, hormonal hierarchy, and the hierarchy looks something like this. At the bottom are our sex hormones, estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. Those hormones are strongly influenced by insulin. When insulin goes up, we can throw our sex hormones off. Insulin is strongly affected by cortisol. So when our stress goes up, we become more insulin resistant. But above cortisol is the best hormone on the planet, which is oxytocin. When you get more oxytocin... And the only way you can get oxytocin is through connection

Dr. Mindy Pelz 17:16 to other people. When you get oxytocin, you bring cortisol down. When you bring cortisol down, you become more insulin sensitive. When you become more insulin sensitive, now you're gonna balance your sex hormones. And that is how a female o- body operates when we look at it in a hierarchy system. Second thing I wanna say is that men have one hormone. It's called testosterone. And testosterone for a man works off a 24-hour day light cycle. Men get testosterone pulsing in every 15 minutes, around that. Testosterone then goes up into the brain and converts to estrogen for a man. He, uh... So a man can fast. Testosterone loves when a man fasts, and a man can fast pretty regularly and not mess up that hormonal cycle.... women, we operate off a 28-day to 30-day cycle, and our hormones pulse in in days. Estrogen comes in the first 10, testosterone comes in in the middle, and progesterone comes in at the end. So we have to fast according to this cycling of these hormones. It's a different rhythm. It's a monthly rib- rhythm, not a daily rhythm. Estrogen loves when you fast. So if you... For the menopausal woman who is losing estrogen, i- i- you, you will, you will die when you see how effective this is for bringing estrogen up to a more age-appropriate level. You're never getting your 25-year-old estrogen back, but your 55-year-old age-appropriate estrogen will thank you for building a fasting lifestyle. Progesterone actually doesn't want you to fast. If your blood sugar goes down too much a- or you raise cortisol too much, you will tank progesterone. And check this out, th- we all know this, we just didn't have words for it.

Mel Robbins 19:36 Hmm.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 19:36 What do we crave when we had a cycle? What do we crave the week before our periods?

Mel Robbins 19:41 Oh my God. Everything. Ice cream, uh, alcohol, um, pizza, uh, pasta, um, pretzels with pimento cheese dip.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 19:55 (laughs)

Mel Robbins 19:55 Am I getting too personal here? Help me out. Nachos. I crave freaking anything.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 20:01 Exactly. Because progesterone is asking you to bring your glucose up.

Mel Robbins 20:08 Hmm.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 20:08 So, we craved... Now, I'm going to cycling women right now. We craved carbs before our period, not because we were undisciplined. We craved carbs before our period because we needed glucose to be higher, and that internal mechanism inside our body increased the craving of carbohydrates so that we had enough resources to make progesterone.

Mel Robbins 20:32 Whoa. And so what does the intermittent fasting protocol do for a woman who is in her menstrual cycle?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 20:45 So in a 28 to 30-day

Dr. Mindy Pelz 20:48 cycle... Every woman's different, I wanna point that out. We all cycle it differently, but have different lengths. The first 10 days is when estrogen's building. We know this as the follicular phase. In Fast Like a Girl, I call it the Power Phase, which means that you can power up on any, all of your workouts, your fasts, your anything you wanna power yourself up on. About day 10 or 11, we move into ovulation. This would be the second phase. And in this phase, I called it the manifestation phase because we can manifest whatever... You can manifest a baby, but you also have estrogen at her peak, you have testosterone at its peak, and you have a little bit of progesterone. So it makes us very mentally sharp. It makes us beautiful. Our hair curly, our skin look great. Um, and we have motivation and drive because of testosterone. Then we come out of ovulation, our hormones dip. We have a five-day window. I called i- you can go back to powering up on all your, your lifestyle tools. But the week before our period starts, around day 20, and I call it the nurture phase because you're supposed to nurture yourself that week. You need to bring glucose up, you need to bring... And you need to rest and bring cortisol down. That's the hormonal rhythm that women follow in a 28 to 30-day period. And once a woman bleeds, we go back to estrogen building. You can go back to fasting, you can go back to working out incredibly hard. Every, all the rhythms change according to the rhythms of those hormones. So if, when women were, got ahold of the fasting craze and they just fasted all month long, they started to tank progesterone.

Mel Robbins 22:33 Okay.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 22:34 And progesterone only comes in the week before our period. That's her, that's her debut.

Mel Robbins 22:38 Okay.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 22:38 She comes in that week before and says, "Hey, everybody, we gotta shut cortisol down and we gotta increase glucose." So as women started to pick up fasting, they were ignoring that. They were muscling like we often do. We're muscling through this new, and I'm gonna put in air quotes, diet, because we thought of it as a diet. And the more months we did that, the more, the less progesterone we had.

Mel Robbins 23:04 Is that why women in the beginning were losing hair and why they were having all this negative side effect?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 23:11 That's right. So, progesterone is the hormone that will also shed the uterine lining.

Mel Robbins 23:17 Okay.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 23:18 So, we weren't making enough pro- progesterone, so we couldn't sh- The lining wasn't being shed, shedding, so we started to notice, a lot of women noticed spotting and things like that. Anxiety went up because progesterone is the hormone that calms us. So... And our hair started following, falling out because over time,

Dr. Mindy Pelz 23:41 we were starting to restrict calories more and more and more. And so it was throwing the thyroid off.

Mel Robbins 23:48 Okay. So let me just see if I can bottom-line this. When intermittent fasting was first introduced, like so many things, the dudes were talking about it, and they were only talking about it as it relates to men.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 23:58 Yep.

Mel Robbins 23:58 And, uh, weightlifting and that kind of thing, and carb cycling, and we've heard all this shit. And no one took into account women's hormone health. And just like women have not been included in medical studies because of our hormone health, this is yet another example of where women have been left out of the conversation, and where the science has been applied to everybody without consideration of how it actually impacts a woman during her cycle. And what you're here to say is that intermittent fasting is an enormously important protocol for all women.And women have to handle it and, and introduce this protocol differently because of our hormone cycle, period, full stop. And so how do you do this as a woman? Because after I heard you talk about intermittent fasting, once we started talking about the research, Dr. Mindy, I'm like fricking, "I'm in. I am not going to eat after nine o'clock. This woman is not putting shit in her mouth until noon." Like, I am down. I'm doing the 90 days. This seems like a no fricking brainer based on body function and health.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 25:09 Thank you.

Mel Robbins 25:09 Like, I am in and sold. When you then went hair loss, this, that, hormone cycling, I'm like, "Oh, shit, this is complicated. I don't know if I can do this and I don't want to lose my hair." So how do we simplify this in terms of how an intermittent fasting protocol should be introduced by women in their lives? How do you want to handle this?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 25:34 Yeah, let's make it super simple.

Mel Robbins 25:36 Please.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 25:38 (laughs) Okay. Don't fast the week before your period if you're a cycling woman. Just-

Mel Robbins 25:45 Oh.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 25:45 Don't fast the week before your period.

Mel Robbins 25:48 Oh.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 25:48 You can do all the other fasts. Now, in the book, in Fast Like a Girl, I g- I give you lots of options. I gave you a whole fasting cycle. But for this conversation, just don't fast the week before your period.

Mel Robbins 26:00 Wow. Okay.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 26:02 End of story.

Mel Robbins 26:02 So you just go back to normal eating? Like, just eating whenever you want?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 26:06 Yeah, eating when... You gotta eat breakfast if you chose to take breakfast out, eat whenever you want and bring up your carb load, but I'm gonna ask you to not do it in a box of pizza or a tub of ice cream. Let's do it in some, you know, what I call nature's carbs. Let's do it in fruit and potatoes and sweet potatoes and vegetables, tons of vegetables. Like, let's, let's... Tropical fruits, bananas. Those are great for progesterone. Chocolate, chocolate's amazing for progesterone.

Mel Robbins 26:33 You know what's interesting? Is I wonder if this is why so many of us just bounce with our weight. Like, I've got this question from Jodie, 'cause we've got a bazillion questions from listeners when we told everybody we were gonna tackle fasting and we were gonna spend a lot of time talking about women and hormones and protocols for women. Jodie writes in, "How do I change the fact that I get down to my goal weight and then all of a sudden I gain it back? I'm constantly up and down and beating myself up, and I'm not sure if, uh, restriction of sugar and flour is the only way. I don't know if the real ticket is something else for lasting change. I'm super healthy, and then all of a sudden I eat a whole pizza or I eat a batch of coochie- cookies, and next thing you know, the same 10 pounds comes on and off. And then worse, how do I feel about myself when I'm in this cycle? I just need a formula that will work." And what I'm wondering is, this is probably what you see with women who either are just trying everything under the sun. "I'm gonna try the peptides and I'm gonna try this thing. I'm gonna do Whole30 and I'm gonna do that thing and I'm gonna try this thing," but none of it's working. Or they try fasting, but then they're bouncing all over the place because of our hormone cycle.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 27:45 You got it.

Mel Robbins 27:45 And so what you're saying is start with intermittent fasting, and then pay attention to the week before your period starts, and give yourself grace and eat nature's carbs, and then the day you get your period, you go back to your intermittent fasting protocol. Is that correct?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 28:03 You got it. You got it. That's exactly correct.

Mel Robbins 28:06 Okay. What do you do if you're on the IUD? So, um, you know, my daughters are on the IUD, and with a lot of the, uh,

Mel Robbins 28:13 uh, IUDs, you don't get a period. So how do you figure out when that part of your cycle is?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 28:20 Yeah, yeah. I- I have the same issue with my daughter. Uh, you know, um, here's what I'm gonna say. And, and this is the best gauge that we have, and I don't want to confuse people.

Mel Robbins 28:33 Okay.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 28:34 But I... But this is what we've been using, is if you have no sense of when your period is coming, use the moon cycle.

Mel Robbins 28:43 What the hell does that mean?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 28:45 Use the way that the moon waxes and wanes.

Mel Robbins 28:49 Okay.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 28:49 So-

Mel Robbins 28:49 But like you... Break it down for me. Am I starting on the full moon as the-

Dr. Mindy Pelz 28:53 Yeah.

Mel Robbins 28:53 ... as when I stop eating or start eating?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 28:55 Go. Yeah.

Mel Robbins 28:55 Like, let's just... 'Cause is this also what we m- women in perimenopause who have really weird cycles-

Dr. Mindy Pelz 29:02 You got it.

Mel Robbins 29:02 ... and those of us that are like-

Dr. Mindy Pelz 29:03 Yes.

Mel Robbins 29:03 ... bye-bye with the period?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 29:05 Yes. Yeah.

Mel Robbins 29:05 Okay. So everybody listening, I just want to make sure everybody's tracking, because we have covered so much information. If you either don't have a cycle or you're on birth control that compromises your cycle or you're peri or you are menopause, full monty, you are going to follow the fucking moon.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 29:28 Yep.

Mel Robbins 29:28 So when... What shape is the moon in, Dr. Mindy?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 29:33 (laughs)

Mel Robbins 29:34 When I'm doing the intermittent fasting protocol?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 29:41 So the first thing I want to point out is it's not a coincidence that the moon has a cycle that's 28 to 30 days and we have a cycle that's 28 to 30 days. I just want to start there.

Mel Robbins 29:54 'Cause we're magical bitches. That's why.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 29:57 (laughs) You... Exactly. You have totally nailed that one. Exactly. Like, so let's just acknowledge that.

Mel Robbins 30:08 Okay.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 30:08 First day of your period, when you start bleeding-

Mel Robbins 30:12 Yep.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 30:12 ... would be the first day of the new moon.

Mel Robbins 30:15 Okay.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 30:17 Ovulation would be the full moon, which is when we're wickedly powerful.

Mel Robbins 30:24 Uh, yes, ma'am.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 30:26 In fact, I keep saying, "Let's just put all the ovulating women in one room and they could solve all the world's problems."

Mel Robbins 30:31 As long as we're intermittent fasting. (laughs) .

Dr. Mindy Pelz 30:33 (laughs) .

Mel Robbins 30:34 So if you're gonna start the intermittent fasting protocol, for maximum health and healing benefit, and also taking into account the very real issue...... of women's hormones cycle, regardless of where you are with your period or not getting one. You are going to start with the new moon, which is that super thin sliver of a, where the hell is the moon, moon. Okay?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 31:04 That's right.

Mel Robbins 31:04 And that's gonna be the beginning of your intermittent fasting protocol. And you are going to stop fasting protocol while the moon is near its full moon phase. Is that what we're doing?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 31:18 So, let's just make it simple. Let's say-

Mel Robbins 31:20 Please.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 31:20 ... intermittent fasting, you're gonna fast 13, 12 to 15 hours.

Mel Robbins 31:25 Okay.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 31:26 Day one, uh, starting the new moon-

Mel Robbins 31:29 Mm-hmm.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 31:30 ... till about day 21.

Mel Robbins 31:33 Perfect.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 31:34 And then at-

Mel Robbins 31:34 Okay.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 31:34 ... 21, you switch out and you stop fasting for a week. And then the minute the new moon comes in, you start fasting again.

Mel Robbins 31:43 That's fantastic. And so that's very clear. And, uh, I wanna underscore why this matters. This matters because women are very different physiologically, hormone, chemically, m- like all of it, from men. The system operates differently. And this fasting protocol is gonna help with brain fog, and belly fat, and energy, and anti-aging, and gut reset, and the research is completely unbelievable and irrefutable. And you also have to be responsible for the fact that we run in a network of hormones that are different than people who are born male. And so I want you to understand this seven-day window where you're not gonna be following a fasting protocol is because of your metabolic health and your hormone health. And that's why we're being very specific about this. Now I wanna ask one more very specific question. For those of us in menopause, who no longer are going through a cycle, is our 30 days, 21 days on, seven days off?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 32:57 So, um, there's apps. Let's start there.

Mel Robbins 33:00 Okay.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 33:00 You just pick up an app and when you have... W- and just find the new moon. It's not that hard to find on an app.

Mel Robbins 33:06 Okay, just google "new moon this month."

Dr. Mindy Pelz 33:08 Yeah. I, I can tell you the app I use is called Moonly.

Mel Robbins 33:11 Moonly? Okay.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 33:12 Moonly. And look at where the new moon is.

Mel Robbins 33:17 Okay.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 33:17 That would be

Dr. Mindy Pelz 33:18 day one of your cycle.

Mel Robbins 33:19 Okay.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 33:20 In, in my book, in Fast Like a Girl, I have a 30-day fasting reset.

Mel Robbins 33:25 Got it. You're gonna follow your, your menstrual cycle if you have a regular period.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 33:30 That's right.

Mel Robbins 33:31 If you are not sure because of birth control or other reasons when your period is happening, you are going to follow a 30-day procal- protocol. We will link to resources with all the show notes. You can find them at MelRobbins.com/podcast. You're gonna follow a 30-day protocol and you're gonna begin day one on the day of the new moon.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 33:53 For simplicity's sake, yes.

Mel Robbins 33:55 Okay. All right. Great. That's amazing. You have an example with a story of a woman named Bridget who followed this protocol. Could you share that story with us?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 34:06 Yeah. So what was interesting about Bridget's story is that she did what most of us do. (laughs) We exercise more and we eat less to lose weight. And she's what I, what I call a, a, a rushing woman. She was, you know, a h- a, uh, CEO, like had a very, very busy lifestyle, tons of family, was in, you know, w- engaged in her family, engaged in work. And all of her tools that she was using to keep her weight where she wanted to be were failing her. So she found... Right? Sounds familiar. So she found fasting and she started to fast, and, um, in the first moment that she found intermittent fasting, it was like a miracle. Like her brain came back online, she started to drop weight and she could f- was all of a sudden like, "Wow. I'm supercharged for this rushing woman lifestyle." But she didn't know to cycle it. So 30 to 60 days into this miraculous lifestyle, the opposite started happening.

Mel Robbins 35:10 Hmm.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 35:10 She started gaining weight. She started losing her period completely. Everything we've been talking about. So she was a patient that I figured out... She was one of the women I figured out, like, "Oh, there's a rhythm here. I need to find Bridget's rhythm." And so in finding Bridget's rhythm, I found-

Mel Robbins 35:29 Mm-hmm.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 35:29 ... every other woman's rhythm, which is this idea that you, you can't... You gotta step out of fasting because of this hormone, progesterone. And once we found her rhythm, it, it was her tool to do everything she wanted a- at her age.

Mel Robbins 35:46 Can we just say fuck you, progesterone?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 35:48 (laughs)

Mel Robbins 35:48 Can we just say that right now? Have to complicate things for us. You have four steps to determine which of the six fasting protocols is the right one for you. What are they?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 36:04 Oh. So yeah, I call it building a fasting lifestyle.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 36:09 T- so the first step is, what are you trying to do? You know, this is what w- uh, keeps coming up in this conversation. Um, th- the one-size-fits-all protocols that we give, whether it's diet or medication or whatever, it's, it, it is, works better for a man than it works for a woman.

Mel Robbins 36:28 Hmm.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 36:29 It doesn't work for humans in general. We need to find our own personal path. But you might, let's use you as an example, Mel. Maybe you decide, "Hey, I need to repair my gut, so I need to make sure that I get, train myself to get into that 24-hour fast." Whereas somebody else might say, "God, my weight is so stuck, I gotta throw some 36-hour fasts." So make sure you w- know what you're doing. Second th- or what you want to do. Second thing is you gotta cycle your fasts.

Mel Robbins 36:58 Mm-hmm.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 36:58 We already talked about that.

Mel Robbins 36:59 Yes.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 36:59 The third thing, you gotta cycle your food.So, we haven't talked much about that. Fast Like a Girl goes way into s- th- how you look at different food. And then the fourth is let's stop doing health on our own. Let's do it in a community. So, you know, w- women thrive on oxytocin. We're getting oxytocin right now talking to each other. And as oxyti- t- tosin goes up, it calms cortisol. When cortisol goes down, you become more insulin sensitive, and when insulin gets regulated-

Mel Robbins 37:33 Mm-hmm.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 37:33 ... now all your hormones regulate. So oxytocin, for a woman, is a powerful hormone. So when she goes into a fasting lifestyle and does it on her own, she misses that oxytocin moment. When she does it in community, she actually amplifies oxytocin. So-

Mel Robbins 37:52 How do you do that?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 37:54 How do you do it in a community?

Mel Robbins 37:55 Yeah.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 37:55 Well, w- we, we did for years, and we still do it, something called a fast training week, um, on my YouTube channel, where I would just take five days and we would just, I would just lead the whole world through these different weeks. So that's still there. Um, we... you know, you can keep an eye out. We do three-day water fasts all the time in community. I, I do one on, um, in, on in September and J- and January. I have a, a membership group. So the, there, and y- um, you know, you can do it that way or just make it simple. Grab Fast Like a Girl and do a book club with a group of women. Do it together with a group of women. I, uh, one thing I do with my girlfriends is we do challenges all the time together. It's like, "Hey, for the next 30 days I'm gonna do this." And then they're in on it, and now we're doing it together in a community.

Mel Robbins 38:45 I love that. I love that. I love the idea of doing it with someone else, 'cause whenever I've taken on a health challenge, just having a buddy that I'm texting with is critical.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 38:53 Yeah.

Mel Robbins 38:53 And I love that you're explaining that there's a scientific research-backed health benefit to all these reasons. Um, I wanna ask you a question from, uh, Becky who DMed us and said, "You know, I'm studying this fasting info. This is super helpful. I wanna know, good, bad, or different, if there is one of your fasting plans that, um, could be a day a week for lunch. Could I eat a meal with my comfort foods? Like is there something that I can do that's a little bit more flexible?"

Dr. Mindy Pelz 39:28 So she wants to eat lunch... I mean, ev- y- well, let's... let me explain it this way. Take your eating window-

Mel Robbins 39:37 Yep.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 39:38 ... and move it wherever you want.

Mel Robbins 39:40 Hmm.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 39:40 So if you...

Dr. Mindy Pelz 39:42 like, if you wanna eat with your family dinner at 7:00 at night and be done by 8:00, then you're gonna... and you wanna fast for eight hours, then your eating window opens at noon-

Mel Robbins 39:56 (laughs)

Dr. Mindy Pelz 39:56 ... and you start eating from noon to 8:00.

Mel Robbins 39:59 See, this is why this is so great, because she is asking a question that shows how we've all been trained to calorie restrict and to focus on the what we're eating, and she's like, "I'd just like to know, if I'm fasting, is there a day a week I could have my comfort food for lunch?" And what you're saying is, if you adjust the window, yes-

Dr. Mindy Pelz 40:19 Exactly.

Mel Robbins 40:20 ... because you know that you're playing with a cycle of on and off.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 40:24 Yeah.

Mel Robbins 40:24 And so just figure out when you're gonna stop eating the night before so that the window opens up right around lunchtime.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 40:32 Yeah.

Mel Robbins 40:32 And then you've got your comfort foods all day long.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 40:35 Yeah. Yeah.

Mel Robbins 40:36 It's so easy.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 40:38 Maybe you, maybe you wanna h- you're going to a great brunch on Sunday morning and the brunch starts at 10:00. Don't deprive yourself. That's when your eating window opened. So at 10:00 you start, and by 6:00 you're done. Just move that eating window around to match your lifestyle. That's why people are sticking with this type of lifestyle, because i- you can match it to the other parts of your lifestyle that are important.

Mel Robbins 41:01 And does a fasting cycle, for women, does it reduce the muscle? Does it reduce the protein? Like, is, is... are th- do these things work together? Because I wanna be clear. I want, I wanna make sure people understand that they gotta do what works for them, but this isn't necessarily conflicting advice.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 41:20 E- exactly. So I 1,000% agree that muscle and protein are incredibly important and we need to prioritize them. So, when you're fasting, in the fasting window, you're gonna break protein down. This is not a bad thing.

Mel Robbins 41:37 Okay.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 41:38 Your, your body's getting rid of stored sugar in that muscle,

Dr. Mindy Pelz 41:43 so it breaks it down. When you start to eat, now you need to up your protein. You need to make sure that you get enough protein so that you have enough of an amino acid. Those are the nutrients in protein that build muscle. So where this falls apart is if you start to fast and then you open your eating window and you forget to include protein in your diet. You didn't give the fuel source to the muscles that it needed. So make sure when you eat, eat. This is a big thing, is like eat good quality food. If you want more muscle, you gotta eat more protein.

Mel Robbins 42:24 Got it. Love it. We did not dive deep into the extensive amount of research that you do have about the kinds of food that you're eating and the impact it can have on a fasting protocol as a lifestyle. I wanna give one little tip, though, to everybody, because you say that there are three foods that, from a fasting perspective, if you focus on simply limiting these three foods, that it's

Mel Robbins 43:01 gonna help the fasting protocol of when you're eating and when you're not a lot. So what are those three foods?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 43:08 Yeah. The first one is...Good oils, not bad oils.

Mel Robbins 43:13 Okay.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 43:13 So good oils are avocado oil, they're olive oil, they're sesame seed oil. They're, um, you know-

Mel Robbins 43:23 W-

Dr. Mindy Pelz 43:23 ...there's a lot of great ones. Walnut oil, yeah.

Mel Robbins 43:25 What are the bad ones?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 43:26 Yeah, let's (laughs) .

Mel Robbins 43:27 Give me the don'ts.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 43:29 The bad ones are canola oil-

Mel Robbins 43:32 Ooh.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 43:32 ...cotton seed oil, corn oil, uh, partially hydrogenated oils, you know, safflower, sunflower oils. I listed them all in the book. But yeah, and they're everywhere. They're everywhere.

Mel Robbins 43:45 Why are they-bay bad?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 43:47 They cause your cells to inflame, to swell. They cause your cells to swell. And when your cells are swollen, your brain's swollen, your joints are swollen, your belly's swollen and you're not, your cells are not able to pull in nutrients and hormones. So let's just get those foods out. Let's change the ways.

Mel Robbins 44:09 Done.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 44:09 Okay.

Mel Robbins 44:09 Delete. Okay.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 44:10 Gone. Okay, second one, uh, we've already talked about it, nature's carbs, not man-made carbs. The breads, the cakes, the cookies, the pastas, can we l-limit those? Can we get those out of the diet? Even if they're organic, even if they're gluten-free, they should still be fairly minimal. And can we bring fruits and vegetables and potatoes, even, like, wild rice, quinoa, let's bring those back into the diet and make those the highlight.

Mel Robbins 44:41 Great. And the final one.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 44:42 The last one are toxins. So this is your NutraSweets, your Splendas that a lot of people go on diets with. This is your artificial colorings. This is the nitrites that we put in. Anything that has been made toxically by man-made tox- you know, made by humans is going to destroy cellular health.

Mel Robbins 45:05 Basically, if I look at... This is how I think about it, Dr. Mindy. If I look at an ingredient list on a package and I either can't pronounce it or it doesn't look like something that I would see on a label at a farmer's market, probably not that great for you.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 45:18 Yeah. And best yet, buy something without a label.

Mel Robbins 45:22 Ooh. Or, uh, stick to the perimeter of the grocery store is what my mom always said.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 45:26 Yes.

Mel Robbins 45:27 Um, we've covered a ton, and so there's a couple of things I want to say. Number one, we are absolutely gonna have you back because I'm super curious about everything that you want to say about eating-

Dr. Mindy Pelz 45:39 Mm-hmm.

Mel Robbins 45:39 ...and specifically eating for women's health-

Dr. Mindy Pelz 45:43 Yeah.

Mel Robbins 45:43 ...and how that impacts your, um, natural healing and health systems in your body. Second, I want... I know we're gonna get a gagillion, that's a technical term, questions.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 45:58 (laughs)

Mel Robbins 45:58 And so I am inviting you listening, go to melrobbins.com/podcast, and you're gonna find a form. I would love, if you have follow-up questions-

Dr. Mindy Pelz 46:08 Mm-hmm.

Mel Robbins 46:09 ...I would love to bring Dr. Mindy back.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 46:11 Mm-hmm.

Mel Robbins 46:11 And I mean it, because I feel like there are so few female doctors getting the airtime that they deserve. And the information that you are sharing with patients, getting to a broader audience in a simple, tactical, applicable way, that I want to make her expertise available to you listening more, so that we can really make sure that this zero-cost, profoundly researched and documented tool that you have within your body c- is being used by you for maximum health and healing benefit, because you deserve that in your life. Dr. Mindy, you are freaking awesome. I have loved every second of this. I am now through my fasting window too-

Dr. Mindy Pelz 47:07 (laughs) .

Mel Robbins 47:07 ...so I am going to go face plant a salad with some steak on top.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 47:12 Perfect.

Mel Robbins 47:12 Um, I love you. I can't wait to have you back, Dr. Mindy. Thank you, thank you, thank you for explaining all this to us and giving us the gift of healing and health at zero cost.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 47:25 Yeah.

Mel Robbins 47:26 You freaking rock.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 47:27 Mm-hmm. Thank you, Mel. And thank you for being such an incredible mouthpiece for women and for supporting women and for supporting a free health tool like this. I mean, again, this is where we're stronger together. When we unite our missions, our passions, we teach, we do it from a loving place, everybody wins.

Mel Robbins 47:48 1,000%.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 47:48 So thank you.

Mel Robbins 47:49 You're welcome. Can't wait to have you back. Okay, that was so cool. I'm so excited. I cannot wait to hear your questions, to have her back. Most importantly, thank you for spending the time. Thank you for listening this far. And the reason why I'm thanking you is because I'm thanking you on behalf of your future self. What you just learned is a zero-cost tool that helps you unlock the extraordinary power of your body to heal itself. It helps you tap into decades and decades of research that you can benefit from. And the thing that I love the most is that it costs you nothing, and you don't have to add anything. We're gonna simplify it. You're just gonna watch when you eat, and then you're gonna watch these amazing results happen, and you deserve that. All righty, I love you. I believe in you, and I believe in your ability to take control of your health, take control of when you eat, and to take control of your life. All righty, I'll talk to you in a few days. Okay, ready? Here we go. Mindy. Um, how did it or when did it or why did it or... Good?

Dr. Mindy Pelz 49:07 That's a perfect pickup.

Mel Robbins 49:08 Oh, okay. I'm trying, am- I'm trying. Is that a new sentence? Hold on a second, let me just see. Okay. Ooh, that's a jumpsie. Oh, great, we're done.

Dr. Mindy Pelz 49:22 We are. Yeah.

Mel Robbins 49:22 Oh, my God. Well done, team. (claps)

Dr. Mindy Pelz 49:26 (claps)

Mel Robbins 49:27 Oh, and one more thing. And no, this is not a blooper (laughs) . This is the legal language. You know, what the lawyers write and what I need to read to you. This podcast is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes. I'm just your friend. I am not a licensed therapist, and this podcast is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional. Got it? Good. I'll see you in the next episode. YouTube, don't you love this? I love this, and I love you for being here. And speaking of loving this free, zero-cost content, you're gonna wanna check out this episode with Dr. Amy Shaw. It's all about a deep dive into women's hormonal health. Check this out.