Change This One Thing... The Body Fat Will Fall Off | Dr. Mindy Pelz

1. 0:00 – 0:55

   Perimenopause in the 40s: why old diet and exercise stop working

   1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee0:00

      I want to get to some particular ages now, 'cause I know there's women-

   2. MPDr. Mindy Pelz0:03

      Yeah

   3. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee0:03

      ... of all different ages who listen to this show, and I think the approach they may need to take might be quite different.

   4. MPDr. Mindy Pelz0:11

      Yeah.

   5. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee0:11

      So I know for you, something quite key happened in your 40s, where you were trying to get into the shape of your life, you were trying to be fit, healthy, but the things that you were doing in the past that did work suddenly no longer were working. And I know-

   6. MPDr. Mindy Pelz0:28

      Mm-hmm

   7. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee0:28

      ... from friends, from patients, from the public, many women in their 40s feel this, that, "Oh, my God, why am I putting weight on now? Why am I seemingly not able to cope like I used to?" Now, this can be the perimenopausal phase, can't it? And-

   8. MPDr. Mindy Pelz0:44

      Yes

   9. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee0:44

      ... for someone, for a lady who's in that phase, how might they apply the principles that, you know, you've talked about so far? Can we get specific to people in that phase perhaps?

2. 0:55 – 1:56

   Estrogen decline → insulin resistance (and the guilt/shame problem)

   1. MPDr. Mindy Pelz0:55

      Yeah, absolutely. So here's another highlight that I think women need to know, is that at 40s, your ovaries are going into retirement, and it's gonna take about 10 to 15 years, and over this time, your sex hormones start to decline. And one of those major sex hormones, as we've talked about, is estrogen. So as estrogen goes down, you become more insulin resistant. I really want you to, women to own this, because you're not all of a sudden becoming more in- uh, you know, undisciplined at 43. There's not a reason why, other than a hormonal reason, usually, that you're starting to gain weight. The diet that you used at 35 to keep your weight in, where you want it is not gonna work for you at 45 because you're losing estrogen, making you more insulin resistant. So that is really important, because there's so much guilt, so much shame that happens to women as they go through the menopausal experience. So with that in mind,

3. 1:56 – 5:23

   Menopausal brain changes: cognition, mood, and ketones as alternative fuel

   1. MPDr. Mindy Pelz1:56

      this becomes, fasting becomes this imperative tool for perimenopausal women to start to use, because we can make ourselves insulin sensitive, again, through the, the concepts we've been talking about. The second thing that I want to highlight for the woman going through perimenopause, and even into the menopausal years, is that we, as we lose estrogen, we also are l- losing a lot of our cognitive ability. We have the most amount of estrogen receptor sites in our prefrontal cortex. So as we lose the, our ability for memory and, and to hold onto new information, to keep our focus, our mood disorders that are appearing during this time, that is because estrogen has gone to the, its ultimate low, and it's a whole new experience for the menopausal brain. But we can use ketones as a way to, to substitute and power up what the brain needs as it learns to recalibrate to this loss of estrogen. So that perimenopausal time from about 40 to the early 50s, this is where fasting has to be a, a mandatory go-to tool to support women through that process.

   2. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee3:11

      I mean, just so much gold you've just said, Mindy. Just one thing I wanted to highlight there, just so women don't feel guilt, is that-

   3. MPDr. Mindy Pelz3:21

      Yeah

   4. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee3:22

      ... let's think about it through the lens of Type 2 diabetes, right? So let's say you're well and fully insulin sensitive. You can get away with a certain diet because you're insulin sensitive. Let's say you're very, very insulin resistant, as, you know, Mindy, you've already explained what that means early on in this conversation. I think we all understand that then, with Type 2 diabetes, the same diet that worked 10, 15 years ago when we were insulin sensitive is no longer going to be the right diet for us as our hormones have changed. It's the way our body's signals have changed. And you're effectively saying forget a disease state. Just in the natural process of women getting older, in their 40s, ovaries, as you say, starting to shut down for retirement. Of course, with different women, it will happen at different times. Your signals are changing. Your hormones are changing. You are becoming insulin resistant. So of course, the diet that worked for you in your 30s may no longer work for you in your 40s. There's nothing wrong with you, right? A lot of women get frustrated with the weight gain, but I think through that lens, it's like, well, yeah, maybe I need to change my diet. Maybe, for example, a lower carb diet may be brilliant in my 40s. Maybe I didn't need it in my 30s, but I now need it in my 40s.

   5. MPDr. Mindy Pelz4:42

      That's right. That's right. And, and I just, I love your heart because this is the burden we need to take off of women. There is so much guilt and shame around our, our relationship with food, and what we're seeing in the 40s is there's these dramatic body shifts and, and I, and I've experienced it myself. I'm 53, and I've just gone through that whole process, and you don't understand yourself. You're like, I've been... You know, for me, it was I love to work out. I was doing a lot of paleo. I was, you know, really... And, and then I'd moved into the ketogenic diet. I had found fasting. I was, like, trying to play with all these tools because s- I felt like somebody hijacked my body. Like, I was not able-

   6. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee5:23

      Mm

4. 5:23 – 7:59

   A medical system gap and a mental-health crisis in ages 45–55

   1. MPDr. Mindy Pelz5:23

      ... to use those old tools anymore. I needed a new set of tools, and I need to learn how to cycle them like I teach in the book. But what happens, you know, I don't know if y- if you've seen this statistic, 45 to 55 is the most common decade for women to commit suicide. Now, why is that? There is a hormonal decline that is changing our brains and our bodies, and we are not understanding each, ourselves, and we as a society are not talking about this hormonal shift. So the 45-year-old woman is depressed. She's not sleeping. She's gaining weight. Um, she's having all these new health challenges, but she's throwing the old strategies at them that are-

   2. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee6:07

      Yeah

   3. MPDr. Mindy Pelz6:07

      ... no longer working, not realizing that something in her lifestyle has to shift.

   4. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee6:12

      Yeah. And not only that-The medical profession, and, you know, I've been part of it for over two decades now, we're just not trained that well on the things that you're talking about. So if a woman does go, "You know what? I need some help here," often they'll end up with a healthcare professional, maybe a doctor, maybe someone else, and maybe... You know, I'm not trying to throw anyone under the bus here, right? I do think medical professionals are trying their best, but I, I just imagine 20 years ago, I wouldn't, I wouldn't have known what to do for that woman. I, I genuinely... Like, I would've done my training and passed my exams.

   5. MPDr. Mindy Pelz6:51

      Yeah.

   6. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee6:51

      But 20 years ago, I just would not have known.

   7. MPDr. Mindy Pelz6:53

      Yeah.

   8. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee6:53

      And therefore, that woman then goes out thinking, "Oh, well, the doctors can't help me." Or a common one, which you will have heard, I've heard a million times is, "My doctor tried to put me on, on an antidepressant."

   9. MPDr. Mindy Pelz7:04

      That's right. Yep.

   10. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee7:05

       I mean, that's the common one. And-

   11. MPDr. Mindy Pelz7:07

       Yeah

   12. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee7:07

       ... at that point, women feel unheard. They feel-

   13. MPDr. Mindy Pelz7:10

       Yes

   14. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee7:10

       ... unseen. They've lost faith in the medical profession, quite understandably.

   15. MPDr. Mindy Pelz7:15

       Yeah.

   16. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee7:15

       And so this is really, really important. That suicide statistic was startling when I heard that.

   17. MPDr. Mindy Pelz7:22

       Yeah, yeah.

   18. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee7:22

       And it's, it's one of the reasons I think we need to take this super, super seriously. Okay. So we-

   19. MPDr. Mindy Pelz7:26

       Agreed

   20. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee7:26

       ... we've covered, um, we've covered the sort of 35 plus, in, in your 40s, the perimenopausal period of time. What about post-menopause? Because after the periods have stopped, I know you, you've, you've said before that after menopause, fasting gets easier.

   21. MPDr. Mindy Pelz7:50

       Yes, it does.

   22. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee7:50

       And I think you've also said that the post-menopausal group of women are the group that needs fasting the most.

   23. MPDr. Mindy Pelz7:56

       Right.

   24. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee7:56

       So I wonder if you could explain that for us, please.

5. 7:59 – 10:26

   Post-menopause: symptoms can persist—and lifestyle updates can still reverse them

   1. MPDr. Mindy Pelz7:59

      Yeah. Oh, it's such a good point. So what, what has surprised me in educating the world on these concepts is how many women go through menopause and symptoms stick. So I've seen women that are 10 years into their meno- their post-menopausal journey, and they still can't get rid of the, the weight that they accumulated during the process. They still have hot flashes. They're still struggling with mood changes. And so we... The, i- it fascinates me that those, the, even though they don't have a cycle anymore, those issues are still lingering around, and the reason for that is they didn't change their lifestyle when they went through the process. So they can change it now. They can become, use what we're talking about as a tool to make sure that their age-appropriate hormones are at the highest level possible. Now, I'm not talking about bringing your estrogen or progesterone levels back to your 25-year-old self. That's not what we're talking about. But when we are 55 and 65, we need to make sure that we keep estrogen and progesterone at her peak, and even testosterone. Otherwise, we start to slip into more of these categories of dementia and Alzheimer's, especially if there's a genetic profile for that. So when we start to use fasting, especially the longer fasts, we can clean up that estrogen system for a post-menopausal woman. That's gonna make her hot flashes gonna go away, that's gonna make sure that she starts to lose weight, and that's gonna make sure that she cognitively stays at her best. But then she also needs to know to step out of fasting to mind progesterone. So we can have her go into maybe one day a week, 'cause she's not following necessarily a monthly cycle. She could follow a, a, a weekly cycle, and one day a week, two days a week, she doesn't fast. She brings her carbs up. She leans into the hormone feasting foods so that she can bring progesterone up, so she can stop being anxious, um, so that she can sleep a lot better. So we still have to mind these hormones at that phase, but we don't have a monthly cycle to look at it from.

   2. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee10:12

      Yeah. That's, that's a really good point, because we've spent a lot of time in this conversation talking about this, you know, 28, 30-day-type cycle. But of course, postmenopausally, that doesn't apply anymore. And so-

   3. MPDr. Mindy Pelz10:26

      That's right

6. 10:26 – 11:41

   Practical framework: the 5-1-1 weekly fasting pattern (post-menopause)

   1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee10:26

      ... but I still think what you've been talking about, as you've just mentioned, is highly relevant for this post-menopausal group. I know you've got a, a variety of different techniques for post-menopausal women. One, I think, was the 5-1-1. What's the 5-1-1?

   2. MPDr. Mindy Pelz10:40

      Yes. Yeah. Yep. So 5-1-1 is where five days a week she does her favorite laid fast. So let's say it's, like, 15 hours, 16 hours. Um, and in that time, I really recommend she does, uh, more of a low-carb style e- of eating. I call it... My, my version of, of keto is something I call ketobiotic. I actually bring the carb level up a little bit more than most keto diets, 'cause I think that's more appropriate for women, and I encourage women to lean into more of the, the nature's carbs, the leafy greens-

   3. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee11:10

      Mm-hmm

   4. MPDr. Mindy Pelz11:10

      ... to be able to, to help. So those five days a week she would do maybe a 15-hour fast with k- with the ketobiotic diet. One day a week, I want her to stretch her fast. In fact, I would encourage her to try to get to that 24 hours so she can create some gut repair to break down the estrogen that she needs for her brain. And then one day a week, she steps out of fasting, she does more hormone feasting foods, um, and she looks at how does she bring progesterone up. So that's a typical-

   5. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee11:39

      Yeah

   6. MPDr. Mindy Pelz11:39

      ... 5-1-1 for the post-menopausal woman.

7. 11:41 – 12:57

   Younger women and irregular cycles: why missing periods matter

   1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee11:41

      I love that. So instead of thinking 28, 30-day cycle, think more about a seven-day pattern. What about younger women? Because in the sort of under 35 age group, let's say, and, you know, maybe the under 40 age group, where women are-

   2. MPDr. Mindy Pelz11:54

      Yes

   3. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee11:54

      ... you know, maybe they've got a regular cycle, but many women don't. So what about women who have taken birth control and then come off birth control pills? I mean, there can be all kind of hormonal havoc going on there.

   4. MPDr. Mindy Pelz12:09

      Yeah.

   5. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee12:09

      I know we've mentioned the cycle, so people can, of course, follow the principles that we've already outlined if they do have a cycle. Anything for younger women to pay attention to in particular? And what about those younger women who don't have regular cycles? How might they approach your work?

   6. MPDr. Mindy Pelz12:27

      Yeah, and, and again, this has shocked me how many women don't have a cycle. So the first thing I wanna point out about our cycles is we tend to look at them as a, you know, something that's, uh, we don't wanna deal with. It's like, "Oh, I'm gonna feel this way. It's a hassle." Um, but what I wanna say is when we shed blood, it is a version of a detox. So we need that menstrual cycle. It is how your body is removing toxins from your system. It is the beautiful

8. 12:57 – 14:18

   Tools to restore cycle health: fasting-cycle reset, tracking, and symptom-guided eating

   1. MPDr. Mindy Pelz12:57

      mechanism that has been born into us that we should cherish. The fact that younger women are not having regular cycles should be of great concern to all of us. So now having said that, we can start to bring back a healthy cycle by following what we've been talking about, and in the book, I call it the fasting cycle. We actually have an app now where you can go in and you can put your day of your cycle in and track your symptoms, and it'll tell you the best foods and fasting length. Uh, we even go into nutrients that you can use. So that's, that's available for women. But you can either choose your own length fast, you can choose your own food styles according to how I teach it in the book, or I did put a 30-day fasting reset in there where you just map it to your cycle and it'll start to balance out those hormones. But if you look at the majority of women that are 25, they're high-stress, a lot of them are eating the wrong foods, and every single month they're working against their hormones. And so all of a sudden now we're seeing a rise in infertility. We're seeing a rise in PCOS. And all at the root of these hormonal challenges is a woman not living in flow with her hormones, and that is what we can change to dramatically change the needle on those type of situations occurring.

9. 14:18 – 16:38

   No regular period? Start anyway—reported improvements in 30–90 days (and fertility gains)

   1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee14:18

      So let's say for a 28-year-old young lady who is not on the pill, a lot of people are don't even realize when they're taking the pill, they're not really having periods. Yes, there's blood and it's happening at a certain time, but actually that is artificially stimulated through the pill. It's not a natural period.

   2. MPDr. Mindy Pelz14:37

      Right.

   3. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee14:37

      For, so for women who are not on birth control pills and they don't have their period, they, they just don't know when it's gonna come, some of them are not having it at all, obviously extreme weight loss will do that. But let's say they're not super low weight.

   4. MPDr. Mindy Pelz14:53

      Right.

   5. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee14:53

      Could they just follow your 30-day cycle, and if they don't know where they are, they don't know where day one is, they don't know where day 10 is, they're just like, "Okay, well, why don't I just start?" Would simply starting and living in accordance with day one to 10, power, day 10 to 15, manifestation, and changing the fasts, changing the stress, changing the exercise, changing the inputs to the body, is that gonna help them, and is it gonna help them bring their periods back?

   6. MPDr. Mindy Pelz15:21

      Yeah. That's exactly what it's gonna do. And this actually shocked me because I came up with w- uh, this concept, the fasting cycle that we've been talking about, and I started to use it on myself in my perimenopausal years and then I started to use it on my patients. And then I expanded it out to the social media audience that was following my teachings. And what really sh- surprised me was how many women w- within s- 30 to 90 days could bring their, their cycles back into sync just by following what we're talking about. And beyond that, the other surprising effect, and I, you know, this is just me observing, you know, millions of women by now who have gone through the fasting cycle, is that when women were infertile, that w- that because they don't have a, a regular cycle, that's a problem if you're trying to get pregnant. So what we started to see was that fertility went up, and within 90 days a lot of women that have spent years trying to get pregnant all of a sudden became pregnant. So to your point, it's that simple. If you are, uh, not seeing a regular cycle, just go to that fasting reset and do day one through day 30. If you do that for 90 days, you will sync yourself back up. That is what we're seeing.

10. 16:38 – 19:37

    Why women’s health is society’s health—and the need to redesign care

    1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee16:38

       Yeah. I just, I really want people to take heed of that. If, if there's someone, a man or a woman listening, and you have a daughter of that age who's struggling, please send them this conversation. Send them Mindy's book. Send them Mindy's YouTube channel. If you've got a friend, share this with them because I, I can't emphasize enough, Mindy, how much your work has touched me because as I've-

    2. MPDr. Mindy Pelz17:01

       Mm

    3. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee17:01

       ... already mentioned, I think the implications go far beyond improving that individual woman's health. Yeah, sure, great-

    4. MPDr. Mindy Pelz17:11

       That's right

    5. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee17:11

       ... improve that woman's health, but what does that mean? Well, who are the women in society? What are they doing? They're, they're usually the nurturing ones. They're the ones who are looking after people. They're often the caregivers. They're the mothers. They're the grandmothers, right? They're the people who carry babies, which is how the population keeps going.

    6. MPDr. Mindy Pelz17:30

       Yeah.

    7. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee17:30

       If you look at it through that level, helping women to feel better, to have more energy, to have more vibrancy, to have better memory, cognition, better gut health, the implications are huge.

    8. MPDr. Mindy Pelz17:44

       They're huge. They're huge. Yeah, ex- uh, thank you for saying that. I, I... We have to pause at this moment in human history and ask ourselves how we're taking care of women's health. There was a, an article that went out in The New York Times a couple weeks ago around menopause and how we have a cultural acceptance of women suffering. And what we're doing as women is that we're internalizing that. We're creating more guilt, more shame because we're not s- thriving in this patriarchal healthcare system. And when we look at what women need from a healthcare system, is we need to bring in all the nuance of what we're talking about. We need to bring in self-love. We need to bring in doctors that have compassion for us. We need to understand ourselves and where these hormones are coming in and out, and we have to stop trying to do everything from how we eat to how we work out to the medications we take at the same as men because we are massively different, and we have been tr- we've been taught to do it the way that we teach men, and that is what needs to stop-

    9. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee18:54

       Yeah

    10. MPDr. Mindy Pelz18:54

        ... in order for us to thrive.

    11. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee18:57

        Yeah, I mean, this conversation is already gonna change, it's already gonna change how I approach things in my own personal life, not only professional life, but personal life. I can see how it would make me more, more aware, let's say, with my own wife, for example-

    12. MPDr. Mindy Pelz19:16

        Yeah

    13. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee19:17

        ... how I can be more supportive potentially at different times. You know, I, I'd like to think of myself as quite enlightened and progressive, but you know, I'm learning things, uh, from your work that I, I wasn't that aware of, which now that I am, I can make changes. So on a personal level, I wanna thank you for that.

    14. MPDr. Mindy Pelz19:35

        Oh, thank you.

11. 19:37 – 21:54

    What people misunderstand about fasting: not a fad, a built-in healing state

    1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee19:37

       Um, what do you think people get wrong about fasting?

    2. MPDr. Mindy Pelz19:40

       Oh, well, the, here's the number one thing. They think it's a fad diet. It is not a fad diet. It is a healing state you put your body into. Your body was de- was designed to fast. So if you're not fasting, it's not like, oh, I'm not choosing to do that, that fad diet. You're actually taking this massive healing mechanism out of your healing picture, your health picture.

    3. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee20:05

       Mm-hmm.

    4. MPDr. Mindy Pelz20:05

       So we have to stop looking at it like a diet and look at it as a therapeutic healing state that every single moment you dip into it, your body is actually starting to build more health and instead of more disease.

    5. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee20:19

       Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I think, um, if you just look at cultures around the world as well, you know, most cultures have had fasting built in within them for thousands of years. So this modern idea that, you know, fasting is dangerous, it- it's, you know, I get, and we- we- we've caveated it several times throughout the conversation, but fasting is not dangerous for humans.

    6. MPDr. Mindy Pelz20:49

       No. No.

    7. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee20:49

       Healthy, vibrant humans. It- it's definitely not dangerous for, you know... How many people around the world follow the Islamic faith? How many of those people fast for one month every single year? Yes, there's some nuances to that fast. It's just incredible, you know? And actually, I was... I mentioned I was at a book festival recently in the Middle East, and I, I was chatting to this wonderful lady called Sally who lives out there, and she said a couple of things which really resonated with me. One was she was really looking forward to Ramadan. She was saying, "I'm really excited."

    8. MPDr. Mindy Pelz21:24

       Mm, mm-hmm.

    9. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee21:26

       And she said, "Rangan, you don't know how good a sip of water can taste-

    10. MPDr. Mindy Pelz21:34

        Oh

    11. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee21:34

        ... until you've fasted."

    12. MPDr. Mindy Pelz21:35

        Yeah.

    13. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee21:37

        And I just thought, wow. It's something we take for granted every day.

    14. MPDr. Mindy Pelz21:42

        Yeah.

    15. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee21:42

        You know, I- I- I, yeah, I get it. I get it, and especially if you're in a hot country, what must that be like? That first sip must be like an elixir from heaven, right?

    16. MPDr. Mindy Pelz21:52

        Yeah.

    17. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee21:52

        When you, when you first taste that.

    18. MPDr. Mindy Pelz21:54

        Yes.

12. 21:54 – 25:58

    Psychological and spiritual benefits: hormetic stress, dopamine rewiring, mental clarity

    1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee21:54

       But... And there's other things she said to me which were really quite profound, but this wider point for me, Mindy, and I... Towards the end of our conversation, I wonder what your view on this is. I think in Western society, a lot of the time we, you know, we, we say, "What are the benefits? Come on, tell me about insulin, growth hormone. Tell me about cancer risk, immune system function, gut health." Okay, these things are important.

    2. MPDr. Mindy Pelz22:17

       Yeah.

    3. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee22:17

       But my feeling from experiencing myself and talking to people is that a lot of the real benefits from fasting are actually psychological.

    4. MPDr. Mindy Pelz22:30

       Mm, so true.

    5. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee22:31

       It goes beyond what's happening in the body. It teaches us that, oh, we can go without food.

    6. MPDr. Mindy Pelz22:36

       Yeah.

    7. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee22:36

       We're not going to crumble and, you know, disintegrate into ash. We are capable, resilient humans who can tolerate discomfort. I mean, what is your view on that? You know, physical benefits, psychological benefits. How do you see those two things?

    8. MPDr. Mindy Pelz22:52

       Yeah. Oh, there's so much to say on that topic. Um, you know, when you go into these fasted states and it gets difficult, what I want you to remember is that your body thrives with small doses of difficult situations. We call that a hormetic stress, and if you keep the body in comfort, whether it's temperature comfort or food comfort or, you know, or just life comfort, you are actually breaking the body down in a bad way. You are aging yourself. You are building disease. We have to have moments of micro-discomfort. So when we use... Like, I always say to people, once they've mastered a 15-hour fast, I'm like, "Great. Now let's try 17." And when it gets dis- in, in this place of discomfort, you have an opportunity in that moment to learn a new skill. For example, often we go to food as a dopamine rush, but what happens at 17 hours when, when you're hungry, your brain is bored, and you're like, "I need food, but I can't eat it right now"? What's gonna end up happening is you're gonna have a whole new set of tools that are gonna be revealed to you on other ways to stimulate dopamine, like maybe turning on music, maybe going for a walk. Like, something is going to appear-

    9. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee24:13

       Yeah

    10. MPDr. Mindy Pelz24:13

        ... that you were not able to see because you never put yourself in that discomfort to be able to get the brain to search for it. And then the second thing I wanna say on this, and this is how I ultimately see fasting being used as a culture, is that when you're not bringing food in, within the first couple hours, the, the brain will start to chatter at you, and it'll keep kind of giving you that monkey mind. But the longer you go, the thoughts quiet down, and there, this, there's a reason that every religion has used fasting as a spiritual tool. You become very, very clear, and y- the thoughts, you're thinking a lot less thoughts than when you're thinking when you eat. So I've even used a three-day water fast as a tool to help me through difficult times. The example I always use is with my 23-year-old daughter w- was going through a really tough time in college, and I was scared as her mother, and I couldn't figure out how to help her.

    11. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee25:14

        Mm-hmm.

    12. MPDr. Mindy Pelz25:14

        So I went into a three-day water fast, and I got the message that it's gonna work out. It's all gonna be okay. Just relax. And within a week after that, I started to see some dramatic shifts that moved her in the right direction.

    13. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee25:29

        Yeah.

    14. MPDr. Mindy Pelz25:29

        But that insight I don't think I would've ever received if I had been eating all day. I needed to go into that quiet space to be able to hear that message.

    15. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee25:39

        If you enjoyed that short clip, I think you are really going to enjoy the full conversation, which you can check out here. [outro music]

Episode duration: 25:59