0:02

Dr. Mindy Pelz: Okay, Resetters, I've got another solo episode

0:06

for you. And this one is a tool that I've created to help you

0:11

customize your fasting lifestyle. And really to help

0:14

you understand your relationship to food, understand the healing

0:19

that's going on while you fast. This is a really fun tool that I

0:23

created last year. And it's now available to you. And I'm really

0:27

excited to walk you through it. So here we go. Are you ready?

0:32

What the tool is, is it's called the fast cycle girl journal. A

0:37

little side note, when a book does really well, on Amazon, all

0:41

of a sudden, some workbooks will show up. And last year, so many

0:46

workbooks that were not endorsed by me, many of them were created

0:50

by AI showed up all over Amazon. And unfortunately, some of you

0:55

actually bought those workbooks and were disappointed in them.

0:59

And so I love this idea of taking the information that I

1:04

laid out in fastonic, a girl and now having an experience with

1:08

it. And so I love the workbook idea, but I wanted to make sure

1:12

that we had one that was based off the principles I teach. So

1:19

we decided to go in to building you a journal. And for those of

1:23

you that are Journalers, you're probably like, oh, yeah, I've

1:27

learned in writing a journal, that we have some people that

1:31

are like journal obsessed. And I think that's amazing, I would

1:35

not necessarily fall in that category. But I have heard from

1:39

so many people that have shared with me that journals and

1:42

writing down their experience while they're fasting is really

1:46

helpful. Now the other unique thing before I go into the

1:49

journal and how to use it, and why you're going to find some

1:52

real healing within these pages, is that a good friend of mine,

1:58

her name is Alex Elle. She teaches people how to use

2:03

journaling for their therapeutic healing. And when fastonic Girl

2:08

first came out, she reached out to me and she's like, You really

2:11

need to do a journal because my experience as I've been fasting

2:15

has been that I'm really changing my relationship to

2:18

food. Without my body having to deal with the digestion of

2:22

fasting, I'm actually now able to have more insight in how I

2:28

use food. And that's where a journal would be great. So when

2:32

I decided to collaborate on this journal, I went to Alex and I'm

2:35

like, you already know what it's like to build a fasting

2:38

lifestyle helped me make this journal, the best fasting

2:42

journal we possibly can. And so she did. So this is a

2:45

collaboration project with her. If you don't follow Alex L, I

2:49

highly recommend you follow her on Instagram. If you haven't

2:52

read her books, my favorite one is the one she most recently put

2:56

out a few years back, which is called how we heal and you will

3:00

see that she is a fan of using journaling for the healing

3:03

process. So with that in mind, what I want to do is I want to

3:08

break the journal down. And there's a couple different ways

3:10

that you can use this podcast. One is you could just listen, I

3:13

promise I will be teaching the different principles of fasting

3:16

lifestyle throughout this podcast. Some of you are really

3:20

working to overturn your food addictions. And if that's you

3:24

please listen through because I had you in mind when I wrote

3:27

this journal. Some of you are discovering that you are

3:31

starting to get some real spiritual and mental insight

3:35

when you are in a fasted state. And you need some more we call

3:40

them prompts and ways to dive deeper into the incredible

3:45

clarity that fasting brings you. And so some of you are going to

3:47

actually use this journal in the fasted state to really have a

3:52

deeper understanding of this intimate relationship you are

3:56

creating with your body as you are building a fasting

3:58

lifestyle. And you may have some aha laws that you are going to

4:03

discover throughout the different sections of this

4:06

journal. And then some of you if you're like me, and you have a

4:10

bit of an add brain, you need something to do during your

4:14

fasting windows. And so I have a whole activity section at the

4:18

back of the book that I'll go through that I'm super proud of.

4:21

And by the way, this journal is available now on on Amazon or in

4:26

bookstores so you can order it if you have it and you want to

4:29

follow along or you order it and then you want to come back to

4:32

this podcast and follow along with it. That's great as well.

4:36

For those of you that are watching this on YouTube this

4:40

you can see what the cover looks like. It's a beautiful coral

4:43

color with the fastonic girl logo on the front. Welcome to

4:48

the resetter podcast. This podcast is all about empowering

4:53

you to believe in yourself again. If you have a passion for

4:58

learning if you're Looking to be in control of your health and

5:02

take your power back. This is the podcast for you.

5:11

So I started with the first part is called the foundation. And

5:17

just so we're you all are sort of clear on my mindset when I go

5:21

to write, you know, I, I really have you in mind, I'm really

5:25

writing to you all. And so many of you have been so gracious at

5:29

like putting in where your struggles are. And one of the

5:33

things that I've noticed amongst women in general is that a lot

5:37

of us really struggled to believe in our bodies, and

5:40

especially to believe in the healing power of our bodies.

5:43

Yet, we begin to fast and all of a sudden, we have this new

5:46

relationship of the power of our body within. And then sometimes

5:50

we're in the middle of a fast and we start doubting, we're

5:54

like, my brain is foggy, my heart is racing, I'm hungry,

5:58

does my body really know what to do. And so because there is this

6:03

inconsistency in us really feeling the power of our own

6:07

body, the first part of this book, I have a letter from me,

6:11

to you all. So please read it, I wrote it with my heart wide

6:15

open, if you and I were sitting in a room together, this is what

6:19

I would want you to know. And then I have a part of the part

6:22

one called you are your best healer, which is absolutely

6:26

something that I strongly feel that we need to start looking

6:31

at. We have a doctor within we are our own best doctors, we

6:35

have spent way too many years, giving the power away to doctors

6:39

who have gaslit us who has have given us prescriptions instead

6:44

of lifestyle tools. We have walked into too many doctors

6:47

offices and felt unheard, unrecognized. And so if that's

6:51

you, I have to tell you, you are your best doctor. So I really

6:55

wanted you to get to know that doctor within which is why I

6:59

have a whole page for you a whole couple pages on your your

7:02

best tailor. Then I also wanted to put in some of the fasting

7:07

questions answers to a lot of the fasting questions like what

7:10

breaks a fast? And what do I do if I feel X, Y and Z and a

7:13

fasting window? So I have some of my fasting FAQs in there? And

7:17

then what is it? How do you read the healing responses that your

7:22

body is giving you because symptoms in a fasted state are

7:27

are just messages from the body? But how do you interpret them?

7:30

So the first part of this whole journal is exactly that. It's

7:34

let's let's line you up with believing in your body. Let's

7:37

understand this healer within let's understand the symptoms

7:40

it's giving it and those of you who have been like I've been

7:43

asking these questions, and I'm still not getting answers, I put

7:47

a whole FAQ section in here. So that's how that part one starts.

7:51

Now I also if you're like me, I like a Cliff's Notes version of

7:55

something so fast, like a girl had a lot of explanation of the

7:59

six different length fast. But I wanted to just boil down the six

8:03

different length fast. So if you ever had like, a moment where

8:07

you're like, I don't know, should I fast? 17 hours, should

8:09

I fast? 20 hours? How would I make that decision? What I did

8:14

in the first section is I have like, here's why you would do a

8:18

36 hour fast. Here's why you would do 48 hours, here's why

8:22

you would want to lean into a three day water fast. What is a

8:25

gut reset fast? Like how would you use that? So I boiled it

8:29

down into very into bullet points and into simple short

8:33

paragraphs so you can choose the fasting lifestyle that works for

8:37

you. Okay, so that's all part one. That's just part one. Part

8:41

two. Part two is where Alex's genius came in. And she and I

8:46

worked diligently on what are some questions we can ask

8:51

ourselves in our fasted state to get to know our body better. Now

8:56

I want to talk about the way our body talks to us. I have over

9:01

the last several podcasts. I've been really trying to explain

9:07

this concept that your body holds information. So if you

9:10

listened to the podcast I did with Dr. Sarah Godfried, or the

9:15

podcast interview I did with my breath worker, Cape horseman,

9:19

you will hear that I'm a big fan of this idea that the Body Keeps

9:24

the Score. And if you don't know that book, I highly recommend

9:27

you get it. It was the one of the first books that really

9:31

pierced the culture that explained that our traumas are

9:34

within and that the body holds on to traumas. So when we try to

9:39

fix any traumatic situation, we try to fix it from the mind, but

9:43

really we should be fixing it from the body. And what you'll

9:47

hear Kate and I discuss what you know Sarah and I discuss is that

9:50

fasting is one way to hear what your body is speaking to you. So

9:55

when you're in the fasted state, what I did is I broke these

9:59

questions In these prompts into several categories, I broke them

10:03

into, like what mentally needs to improve in your life? Like,

10:08

how do you become more grounded? What in your life? Do you need

10:11

more clarity on? What in your what in your health? Do you need

10:15

to be focused on? So these prompts have let's see how many

10:20

questions we have 50 questions per prompt. And each morning, I

10:25

have a tracking system. So that's in part two is a tracking

10:29

system, where you will take a question from one of these

10:34

sections, and you will journal on it. So you will write down

10:38

the question, maybe the question is, what does my body need from

10:43

my lifestyle right now? And you'll write it down. And then

10:47

you just write like a journal, you just answer it and let your

10:50

body speak to you. So the questions have been broken down

10:55

into what do you mentally need? What do you emotionally need?

10:59

What do you spiritually need? And what do you physically need?

11:03

So I've put it into categories. So you get to choose my goal, or

11:09

my hope with this journal is that you will wake up and in the

11:13

morning, and you will be like in a fasted state, and you will go

11:17

to your 60 day tracker, and you will pull one of these questions

11:21

out, and you will journal on it. And you get to choose Do you

11:25

want to go down a spiritual journaling path today? Do you

11:28

want to go down emotional, do you want to go down what you

11:31

physically need, but in that fasted state, there is wisdom.

11:35

And why what motivated me to do this journal more than anything,

11:39

was, I don't want you to lose the fact that your body is

11:44

speaking to you. And you if you just quiet your mind, and you sit in

11:50

a location where you're journaling, and you're asking

11:52

these questions, your body will tell you what you need. Now, a

11:58

lot of you are data hounds, and I love this. And a lot of you

12:04

are really trying to understand what lathe fast works for you.

12:07

Some of you are trying to understand what how to break

12:10

your fast. So in the the 60 day tracker section, not only do I

12:16

have the the prompts, and you can journal on the answers to

12:21

those. But opposite that page, I have a fasting tracking sheet,

12:25

this actually was born out of something I've used with my own

12:29

personal clients. So when I go to customize a client's fasting

12:34

lifestyle, I track a lot I track glucose, I track how many blood

12:40

sugar spikes they have, in a day, I look at how quickly the

12:43

blood sugar comes down, I track their HRV and their sleep, their

12:47

total sleep and their deep sleep and their REM sleep I track

12:50

symptoms like bloatedness, and breast tenderness and

12:53

constipation, like I have a whole tracker system so that we

12:58

can start to see patterns. And I think this is the beautiful

13:02

thing about the longer you stick with a fasting lifestyle, the

13:05

more these patterns will be revealed to you. And so I wanted

13:09

to create prompts for you to see the pattern. So let me just give

13:13

you something an example of what you'll see, in this fast

13:17

tracking. In this 60 Day tracker, you're going to see the

13:20

reflection questions that you'll be journaling on. And then

13:23

you're going to see little boxes and the little boxes have things

13:27

like what kind of fast are you doing today? And is it longer

13:32

than the day before. So you can use that prompt to either to

13:36

remind yourself of what you're doing today or what you did

13:39

yesterday, but it starts to help you see because you'll go back

13:44

or if you do this over 60 days, you'll start to see your

13:47

favorite length fast, you'll be like whoa, I did a lot of 17

13:51

hour fasts or oh my gosh, I haven't done a 24 hour fast and

13:55

a long time because you'll be using this tracking system for

13:58

60 days. So it's enough to see that pattern. Then underneath

14:03

that I have a way of but I have a little box that for those of

14:09

you that track ketones, I want you to look at your ketone

14:13

levels when you wake up. And the reason that that's important is

14:16

because that tells you how your fasting lifestyle work for you

14:19

the day before. So if you're trying to stay in a ketogenic

14:22

state, it's great to look at your ketones when you first wake

14:25

up. I also have a section those of you that have CGM or you're

14:29

using a Keto Mojo, where you're going to record your blood sugar

14:32

values. So you're going to look at what your blood sugar is like

14:35

when you wake up your blood sugar midday and your blood

14:38

sugar before you go to sleep. And the reason that I like to

14:42

look at ketones and blood sugar is it's it's an A bill it's a

14:46

way remember blood sugar tells you how you're doing within your

14:50

your eating window. And ketones tell you how you're doing within

14:54

your fasting window. So they're like data driven points that

14:59

tell That's how the sugar burner system is doing and how the fat

15:02

burner system is doing. And when you track them over several

15:05

days, you'll start to see the changes. Okay, then I put in

15:11

there, how do you track your moods when you're fast. And the

15:15

reason that this is important is that when you first fast, some

15:18

people will notice that their moods may not be great. But over

15:22

time, you may start to see your moods improve. So why I want

15:25

that wanted that there. And I give you options that you can

15:29

put, you're angry, you're sad, you're neutral, you're happy or

15:33

you're overjoyed is that I want you to start to look at the

15:37

length of your fast and your moods, because every one of us

15:42

is going to have a different fasting length. And so I want

15:45

you to be able to see again, what's the right fasting length

15:49

for you. So we're looking at your ketones and your blood

15:54

sugar, and we're looking at your mids. Then I also for those of

15:58

you that are cycling, I have a tracker in there where you can

16:02

track your what day of your cycle are you are on. I also

16:05

those of you that are very active, I have a section on talk

16:09

about the activity that you did. And how was that? Was it better?

16:12

This is where I really want you to focus in on it. Was it better

16:16

to eat before you worked out? Did what did you when you got

16:19

done working out? What Foods Did you break it with these all

16:23

matter when you're looking at patterns around your fasting

16:25

lifestyle. And then we look at sleep? How many hours sleep you

16:29

have those of you that might have a tracking system you can

16:31

put in there like did you get a lot of deep sleep did you not?

16:34

So you can start to see where too much faster you may be

16:37

affecting your sleep, were certainly fast can improve your

16:41

sleep. That's what I'm hoping those prompts will will show

16:44

you. And then I have two more sections within the tracking

16:48

system where you can look at your energy levels. And you can

16:52

look at what you broke your fast with. So again, remember the

16:55

purpose of a journal is to have self reflection. So I tried to

16:59

think of the things that if you and I were sitting down, and we

17:03

were customizing a fasting lifestyle, what questions what I

17:07

asked you to be able to help you customize the best fasting

17:10

lifestyle for you. And that's what I put on this tracker

17:13

system. Now, I do want to point out that if you're lost at all

17:18

with your fasting lifestyle, I am doing a solo episode like

17:24

this one, I have available that I did a whole hour to my reset

17:29

Academy people where I talked about all everything you need to

17:32

know about customizing a personal fasting lifestyle. So

17:36

that episode mixed with this episode mixed with with the

17:41

journal is really going to help you take this to the next level.

17:45

And one of my value systems is that I'm not here just to give

17:49

you information to entertain you, or to make myself feel

17:52

better. I am here to give you information to change your life.

17:56

And I am so proud to say that between the journal and this

18:02

episode and the other episode, I feel like you have some really,

18:05

really solid tools to be able to customize this for yourself. And

18:11

their time efficient. I have some amazing tools on my YouTube

18:14

channel. But there's 1500 videos over there. So I've synthesized

18:19

this fasting lifestyle path into these two resetter podcasts and

18:24

the journal to make it easier for you. Okay, now, after you've

18:30

done and I'm hoping you'll do the 60 day tracker, like commit

18:33

to it for 60 days. So you can see the patterns you can get to

18:36

know the questions will help you see this a little deeper. And

18:40

then my favorite part of the whole journal is the back end.

18:45

So I have created activity pages. And the activity pages

18:50

are multiple. There's multiple things for starters, there's

18:54

some coloring pages, I got into adult coloring pages about a

18:59

year ago. And I went into the neuroscience of it. I was like

19:02

why when I color a page, like when I was a kid, do I feel

19:06

calm? And sure enough, coloring is one of those and just, you

19:11

know, either free flow, but you'll see that I've got

19:14

motivational affirmations on these coloring pages. But it's

19:17

one of those ways that we move out of our amygdala and into our

19:21

prefrontal cortex. It calms the thinking mind. Now the amygdala

19:27

is the part of the brain that's always trying to keep us safe.

19:31

And when you are in longer fast, especially that amygdala may be

19:35

screaming at you. It may be like why are you doing this? The

19:38

amygdala really is it can squawk at you. And so if that's you,

19:44

and you find in a fasted state, you don't like the mindset that

19:48

you develop, try coloring. It's really common and it puts you in

19:52

that predicament frontal cortex and the prefrontal cortex is the

19:56

part of the brain that that shows you hope and possibility

20:00

it and it soothes you. So I'm hoping you'll use this the

20:06

coloring pages, there's one, let's see 12344 different

20:12

coloring pages in here with affirmations, and my designer

20:15

designed them. And so I hope you enjoy it. And that helps you

20:18

there. Okay, but I didn't stop there, then I go into some real

20:23

key parts of these activities, pages one is a page I call I

20:27

matter. And you'll see that I really am hoping especially

20:32

those of you when you go into these longer fasts, that you

20:34

really get clear on why you matter. Because if you don't put

20:39

yourself as a priority, if you don't have a sense of your

20:44

worthiness, when you go into these fasted states, you might

20:48

start second guessing yourself. So I want you to hear your inner

20:52

voice, I want you to commit to your worthiness. And so the eye

20:56

matter page is about putting down short little statements

20:59

that will help you understand why you matter. And you might

21:02

put on there like I matter because I'm a kind human, I

21:05

think that's that's one of the greatest reasons to matter. And

21:08

I bring kindness to every conversation that I have, you

21:11

might put I matter because I am in charge of three little humans

21:16

that I need to make sure I stay healthy for I matter, because my

21:20

thoughts are important to the world. There's a lot of

21:23

different reasons you you matter. But I really want you to

21:26

emphasize that. Then I on on the next page, I have something

21:31

called my circle of support. This one's really important in

21:34

this I learned from a patient of mine who was going through a

21:38

cancer diagnosis and was really trying to assess who in her life

21:42

she wanted to keep close, and who was a negative influence

21:45

that was affecting her healing that she wanted to keep far

21:48

away. So I gave it different levels, level one through level

21:51

four. And in the circle support, you can color it too. But I also

21:55

want you to put in there in level one who's in your front

21:58

row who's cheering you on, who's you know, I did a whole podcast interview with my

22:02

friend Dr. Gara, Karen Gordon about the middle chair, people

22:05

that cheer you want and want to see that you're well, that would

22:08

all go in the level one. People that are like they bring you

22:11

joy, but you don't. Sometimes you don't completely feel like

22:15

they have your back, they would be level two. And then level

22:18

three and level four would be people that you intentionally

22:22

need to to be around less, that they derail you from your health

22:26

habits. And they they can they can make you feel bad about

22:29

yourself. So I explained how to use each one of these and I even

22:33

put level one is front row cheerleaders. Level two is the

22:36

inspirers. The men, the mentors, level three is friends with

22:39

boundaries. And level four are the naysayers. And it's just a

22:42

reminder, when you and you might do that one in pencil because

22:46

those people move around and they change but it's a good

22:48

opportunity to look at that. Okay, then the next thing I put

22:51

is a whole beautiful page on what you're grateful for. And

22:55

it's in a it's in a picture of a sunflower. And I love it because

22:58

sunflowers are my favorite. And so you get to write down all the

23:02

things you're grateful for. I personally spend 20 minutes

23:05

every morning listening to music and going through a just an

23:08

analysis of everything I'm grateful for in my life. I think

23:12

this is a great prompt to do in the morning, after you've done

23:15

your tracking sheet. Go to I am grateful. You might put a couple

23:19

of things every morning in there, and then it can change

23:21

over time. Okay, then the next page is health goal page, which

23:25

is how do you pick? How do you set health goals and create a

23:29

strategy around achieving those health goals. So I put in here,

23:33

everything from the top health goals, you have people who are

23:37

going to support you and in achieving those health goals,

23:40

daily actions, you're going to take rewards, you're going to

23:42

give yourself information you need to help you hit those

23:45

health goals. How you're going to feel when you when you hit

23:49

the health goal. And in supportive environments you're

23:52

going to put yourself in. So if you're trying to lose weight, or

23:55

you have a big health goal, put it right in the center of this

23:58

activity page. And then over time, fill in the other pieces

24:02

because the other pieces are important. If you don't if you

24:05

go in there and you're like, Well, I don't know the daily

24:07

actions. Okay, well, that's you need to work on what your daily

24:10

actions on. Or if you're like, reward myself after I hit a

24:14

goal. If that's not a strategy, do you need to reward yourself

24:18

when you hit a goal? Or people who support me I hadn't really,

24:21

you know, we tend to be like, I want to lose 20 pounds. Okay,

24:24

well, who's gonna support you and helping you achieve that

24:27

goal, we all need human connection. So I mapped out all

24:31

the little things you might not think about when it comes to

24:35

achieving a health goal. And again, you can color these that

24:37

are beautiful. And then I didn't stop there. Again, the activity

24:41

pages are my favorite. I put a whole thing on kind things I

24:45

hope you say to yourself, when you look in the mirror, I put a

24:48

whole activity page on what makes you beautiful. And this is

24:51

why this pack page I really wanted you to get people out of

24:55

thinking that beauty has to be a number that you See on the

25:00

scale, or it has to be a certain pant size that you are, there

25:05

are so many different ways we are beautiful. And I really

25:07

wanted to highlight that. And then the last part of the

25:10

activity page I put in there is like what do I What do I love

25:13

about my body? We're so conditioned to think what we

25:16

hate about our body, I want you to start thinking about what you

25:18

love about your body. And so there are prompts there and

25:21

coloring pages that you can lean into. And then we have some

25:25

charts like what how do you break a fast? How do you break a

25:28

longer fast? How do you break a shorter fast, and then I have a

25:31

bunch of bonus gifts for you. So hopefully you can see, I'm

25:36

really proud of this journal. It's like if I could, you know,

25:40

sit next to you and help you take the principles I taught and

25:44

fast like a girl and customize it to you. This is what I have

25:49

done. This is the closest thing I can get to sitting right next

25:53

to you. And I'm really proud of it. I'm really excited for you

25:56

to get it. And I think I'm the most excited about what you're

26:00

going to discover about you in this process. I have seen people

26:04

with eating disorders use a fasting lifestyle to overturn

26:08

eating disorder disorders. I've seen people who are now using

26:12

five fasting lifestyles, for performance states really

26:15

understand how to, to use a fasting lifestyle to enhance

26:20

mental and physical performance. I've seen people go into the

26:24

spiritual side of fasting and really discover some huge

26:28

insights authors use this a lot for creativity, I write a lot in

26:32

a fasted state. So there's, this is a juicy one. There's a lot

26:37

within these pages that will expand how you feel about

26:40

yourself, and make sure that you're on the right track of

26:43

your fasting lifestyle. So I hope it helps. As always, if the

26:48

journal resonates with you, reviews matter, I would love a

26:51

review, both here on the resetter podcast but also

26:54

wherever you bought your book from so that others can see how

26:58

helpful it was for you if it was and so we can really predict

27:02

together collectively start to overturn the Chronic Disease

27:06

situation we're in fasting lifestyles are free. And we need

27:10

a tool that everybody can lean into, to point them in the right

27:15

direction at this critical time in human history, where chronic

27:19

diseases are becoming the norm. And we've got over 50% At least

27:24

here in America of people with one Chronic Disease 40% with two

27:28

or more, that's horrific, and a fasting lifestyle is our way out

27:33

of that and this journal is going to deepen your your

27:36

understanding of view your relationship to food, and how

27:39

you can save yourself. So as always, I hope that helps. Thank

27:45

you so much for joining me in today's episode. I love bringing

27:50

thoughtful discussions about all things health to you. If you

27:54

enjoyed it, we'd love to know about it. So please leave us a

27:57

review, share it with your friends and let me know what

28:00

your biggest takeaway is.