Podcast Episode #320: Intermittent fasting, natural hair dye, & sardines

Topics

1. News and updates from Diane & Liz  [2:07]
2. Safer skincare: hair dye [13:50]
3. Listener question: how to eat sardines [20:11]
4. What we've eaten so far today [26:36]
5. Final thoughts [32:29]

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You’re listening to the Balanced Bites podcast episode 320.

Diane Sanfilippo: Welcome to the Balanced Bites podcast. I’m Diane; a certified nutrition consultant, and the New York Times bestselling author of Practical Paleo and The 21-Day Sugar Detox. I live in San Francisco with my husband and fur kids.

Liz Wolfe: I’m Liz; a nutritional therapy practitioner, and author of the Wall Street Journal best-seller Eat the Yolks; The Purely Primal Skincare Guide; and the online program Baby Making and Beyond. I live on a farm in the mystical land of the Midwest, outside of Kansas City.

We’re the co-creators of the Balanced Bites Master Class, and we’ve been bringing you this award-winning podcast for more than 6 years. We’re here to share our take on modern paleo living, answer your questions, and chat with leading health and wellness experts. Enjoy this week’s episode, and submit your questions at http://blog.balancedbites.com or watch the Balanced Bites podcast Instagram account for our weekly calls for questions. You can ask us anything in the comments.

Remember our disclaimer: The materials and content within this podcast are intended as general information only, and are not to be considered a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Before we get started, let’s hear from one of our sponsors.

Liz Wolfe: This episode of the Balanced Bites podcast is sponsored by Primally Pure Skincare. Primally Pure makes skincare products that are truly natural and nontoxic. Using ingredients like tallow from grass-fed cows; organic and fair trade coconut oil, and organic essential oils. In addition to being safe to use, their products also provide users with real, noticeable results. At www.primallypure.com, you’ll find their bestselling natural deodorant that actually works; face mists made from locally sourced and organic hydrosols, and their newest product, nature spray, an all-natural insect repellant.

You’ll also find Diane’s favorite Primally Pure product, dry shampoo, and my favorite, the Everything Spray. As a special bonus for you, Primally Pure is offering a free lip balm with your first purchase of one item or more. Simply add a lip balm to your cart along with any one item, and use the code “balancedbites” during checkout to receive one of their lip balms for free with your order. Head to www.primallypure.com and check out their range of safe and effective all natural skincare products.

1. News and updates from Diane & Liz [2:07]

Liz Wolfe: Alright, everybody. It’s me, Liz and Diane. Again. Hi friend.

Diane Sanfilippo: What’s up?

Liz Wolfe: What’s up with you?

Diane Sanfilippo: Like what’s actually up with me, or just like, what’s up with you?

Liz Wolfe: No, what’s actually up?

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}

Liz Wolfe: Can I tell you. I just told my husband that I couldn’t listen to his Voxers right now because I’m recording a podcast, and he just sent me three Voxers.

Diane Sanfilippo: Does everybody know what Voxer is?

Liz Wolfe: Eh, I don’t know but they should.

Diane Sanfilippo: It’s like a walkie-talkie app that we love to use. And you're probably supposed to mostly use it for quick things you want to tell someone, but I tend to ramble on for like two to three minutes. And then my thumb hurts from holding down the button.

Liz Wolfe: I get like 5-minute Voxers. Yeah, your thumb gets tired? You know you can set it so you just tap it, and you tap it again to stop, instead of holding your thumb down.

Diane Sanfilippo: I think that could be problematic for you if I learn how to do that, so I’m just going to encourage myself not to.

Liz Wolfe: {laughs} OK.

Diane Sanfilippo: Because poor Liz gets like 3-minute Voxer messages from me. Multiple times a day. Anyway, what’s new with me? Preorder goodies for the 21-Day Sugar Detox Daily Guide. I think that we will probably have them live on the website as soon as this episode is airing. So head over to www.BalancedBites.com. Or you can probably find the details at www.21DaySugarDetox.com. I’m saying probably as if I don’t have control over this. But I know we’re actually in the process of redesigning the 21-Day Sugar Detox website. So I don’t know what will be happening there. But you’ll definitely be able to find it all over the place. But we’ve got Diane’s Salad Madness eBook as a free gift for you guys. We’ve also got the Practical Paleo Holiday eBook as a free gift.

And something else that’s super huge, but I’m kind of nervous to tease about it on here, so I might have to wait another couple of weeks to reveal it. It may already be there, so if you go check out what the preorder goodies are, it’s pretty much the best thing ever that I could think of. I was like; what could we do that would be hands down the most amazing thing to give people from anything that I could possibly offer of stuff that we’ve got going on?

Liz Wolfe: Oh my gosh.

Diane Sanfilippo: So you guys are really going to like it.

Liz Wolfe: This sounds like a big deal.

Diane Sanfilippo: I mean, it’s a big deal. To me. Because I just; I will have to share more details another week. But all that being said, also the online program for the 21-Day Sugar Detox is getting; which is a wink, wink. Is getting a big overhaul. There will be video content. The content is actually going to align really well with the daily guide.

So it’s just going to be a different sort of multimedia experience if you are somebody who loves that information each day, but a little bit at a time so it’s not too overwhelming and you can just know what you need to do each day. Which is what the core of the daily guide book is all about. It’s just; you’ve got a lesson. You’ve got some daily dish from me. You’ve got recipes. You’ve got a full meal plan that’s super easy to follow, all done for you, written out.

You have to do the cooking, and the shopping and all of that. But you don’t have to do the thinking, how about that? Anyway, so many great things coming and I’m really excited about it. So check that stuff out. Check out the show notes of this episode; I’m sure we’ll link to all this good stuff.

Oh, there’s one other thing I’ve got also a Facebook group. We’ll link to this also from the show notes from this episode. I’ll probably have it linked also through the Balanced Bites podcast Instagram link tree thingie jiggie and also on my Diane Sanfilippo Instagram link tree. But I have a Healthy through the Holidays group on Facebook that I’m running where myself and my team are going to support you through the holidays.

So November and December, just such a crazy time for everyone with parties and all of that. Sure, there might be some of you who want to do a sugar detox or something, and you're feeling really good about it. And that’s fine. But I don’t want anyone to feel pressured to do that over the holidays. But we’re going to be talking about all different topics, like how to handle going to holiday parties. What kinds of recipes will be delicious for you and for your friends and family. All different tips and strategies and tricks to getting through the holidays and staying healthy and not going off the rails.

So check out that group; Healthy through the Holidays on Facebook. It will just be a limited time group that I’m running, and I’m going to be going live in there a bunch to kind of encourage you guys and help out and answer questions. That’s going to be coming up. So stay tuned for that. What is going on on your side of the computer, Liz?

Liz Wolfe: {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: Like, through the glass here.

Liz Wolfe: Well I don’t have as many fun things as you do, but I’m really excited that you and I just confirmed or nailed down that we will be at the NTA conference in March. Now that I’ve said it on the podcast, we can’t go back and change our minds. But in March; and that’s what’s, March 2 through the 4 I believe?

Diane Sanfilippo: I’m not sure of the exact dates, but I think it’s the first weekend.

Liz Wolfe: I think so too. And we will be there; I believe what we’re going to be doing is something just before the conference. Something official with NTA before the conference and I don’t know; are you going to stay for the whole deal and have a booth like you did last year?

Diane Sanfilippo: Probably. Which means I’ll probably rope you into being {laughs}.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: Being at the booth. Well, the booth we have, we talk about the Master Class, we talk about the Coaches program and all the programs that we have. And I think we are going to be teaching something the day before the conference starts. So for anybody; we know we have a ton of NTA enrollees and grads and all that for anyone who is thinking about going to the conference. Just a heads up now that our event, whatever we’re doing, is probably the morning before or something. So make sure you're getting; I think it’s in the same area. To the Portland area a couple of days ahead. I don’t know if the conference starts on a Friday, but our thing might be a Thursday or something to that effect. So I just want to make sure everybody knows to make your travel plans accordingly. Because we want to see you.

Liz Wolfe: We want to see your smiling faces in person, and not just behind Instagram handles.

Diane Sanfilippo: For sure.

Liz Wolfe: So that will be really great. And my personal news is; I’m looking for a new hashtag. Well, that’s not the news. But this is a little more personal. I’ve been wanting to; I’m very fulfilled by working, so I’ve been wanting to work more than I have the last two and a half years. So I was toying around with the idea of hiring a nanny for a couple of days a week. And we ended up finding somebody who is so awesome. And her name is Colleen and we’re just super excited.

Here’s what’s funny, though. In the time between when I decided I needed a nanny and when we found Colleen, we actually were able to get a couple of days of PDO each week. So that’s 5 hours a day, a couple of days a week, so I can work during that time. Last year, she had PDO one day a week. And this year I can take her two to three days, which is going to be amazing, and has been for the last couple of weeks. And I realized I still wanted more help, but I didn’t want to spend less time with my kiddo.

So Colleen absolutely loves cooking. She loves gardening, she loves animals. She’s very into sustainability and real food. And all that type of stuff. So rather than having her watch the kiddo and still spending time cooking, cleaning, doing extra stuff with the dogs and things like that, we’re actually going to have Colleen do our shopping and cooking. So basically we found an amazing situation where I can take some of the stuff I don’t particularly like doing off my shoulders that takes up time; time away from my kid and time away from work. So rather than having her watch the kid, we’re having her do some of the other household stuff.

So I’m looking for a new hashtag for what Colleen cooks for us. Maybe It’s going to be Colleen cooks because I can’t; or Colleen cooks because I won’t.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing} That’s amazing.

Liz Wolfe: But I’m excited because she’s a foodie. She really enjoys cooking and she loves making vegetables. And we’ve just been in such a rut for a long time. Because when you're thinking about other things and prioritizing other things, you just stick to the same three or four things that you know.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.

Liz Wolfe: We haven’t been eating enough vegetables. We haven’t been eating enough freshly prepared stuff. So I’m really, really excited. She’s going to meal plan. She’s going to help us reduce waste. And it should be really awesome. So I think Colleen will probably become a regular mention on my podcast and social media.

Diane Sanfilippo: I love that.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: I think people may not realize that you are pre-foodie. You're into food.

Liz Wolfe: I love food.

Diane Sanfilippo: You love going to a restaurant; but I don’t know. I think some people assume to be a foodie you also have to be cooking and trying a lot of new recipes at home, and I don’t think that’s really true. You really appreciate when we would; I know when we were touring. Or doing our seminars. We would find a cool restaurant, like a farm to table place. You would really get into it, and want to try all the things.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: And we would order way too many dishes and just taste everything and take it all home to our hotel refrigerator. But yeah, I think that’s such a great idea. That’s a huge know your strengths thing and know what you really want to do.

Liz Wolfe: Yes.

Diane Sanfilippo: And it’s like; you don’t want to not be with your kid. Not that anybody; whatever. Just go with it here. It’s that the cooking and cleaning and prep of all of that; the food is really more of the thing that you don’t want to do. I think that’s good information, because that wouldn’t be me.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: I actually really love to cook. And that’s fine too. So yay! I’m so excited for you.

Liz Wolfe: I am too.

Diane Sanfilippo: And I love grocery shopping. It’s guilt free shopping for me.

Liz Wolfe: And she lives in the city, so she can go to the farmer’s market. She can help us eat more seasonally. And she’s going to come up two days a week to do the food and the food prep.

Diane Sanfilippo: Love it.

Liz Wolfe: And the other thing was I realized when I do have extra time, one or two of those days when the kid is at PDO, I will go home and cook and clean. Because I feel like I can’t work unless the house stuff is done. Unless we’ve got food for the week. That’s when I’ve been using that time to go shopping and do domestic things rather than work. So now, I don’t have that excuse. {laughs} Because that stuff is going to be done and I can actually work when I want to work, be with my kid when I want to be with my kid. And I’m just really grateful that it all worked out.

And I feel like this is realistic for a lot of people, but maybe we just don’t think of it that way. We hire a babysitter so we can go do our errands. Well maybe you can hire somebody to do the cooking and the shopping, and you can get quality time with the kid. Compartmentalize things a little bit more. Which is something that I really needed to do, because everything was just kind of bleeding into everything else, and I wasn’t getting anything done. So it should be awesome.

Diane Sanfilippo: That’s a #Obligerproblems.

Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm. Totally.

Diane Sanfilippo: I’m like, I don’t feel like I should be doing all of those things.

Liz Wolfe: {laughing}

Diane Sanfilippo: So it’s definitely Obliger. But most people are Obligers, so good to know.

Liz Wolfe: Yep.

2. Safer skincare: hair dye [13:50]

Diane Sanfilippo: Alright, let’s dive into a safer skincare. Which doesn’t just mean skincare. But safer skincare segment here. I got a question recently that says, “Hey Diane! Do you use a safe hair dye? If you do, just curious if you could talk about it in your next Instagram story.” Well, maybe she wanted it in my Instagram story, but I do not. So I’m going to defer to Liz to enlighten us on some of these topics. I did try henna once, and it just wasn’t my jam. But I only have my hair colored maybe once or twice a year, I think. So why don’t you tell us about some safer options, Liz. I think that would be really good to hear about.

Liz Wolfe: Sure. For some reason I’m getting this feeling of de-ja-vu right now. I feel like we must have talked about this at some point in the last six years. I don’t even remember because I feel like I’ve talked about this before. But things might have changed.

So for a really, really long time, I was dying my hair with henna. I have some grays, and henna is basically an herb with a pigment that will bind to; I don’t know if it’s the keratin in your hair. But it will bind to your hair chemically. So it is basically a dye. And there are different things that you can blend with henna to kind of change the tint that it gives your hair. But pure henna will make grey or white hair a super rich coppery red color. And you can kind of tint that a little bit differently, depending on what you add to it. So it’s really lovely. And henna is totally safe. You cannot always dye over henna. Henna won’t be dyed over.

So a lot of the hennas that hair dressers traditionally consider unsafe are not actually henna at all. It’s like henna mixed with different chemical salts or henna mixed with other things. So the problem is not the henna, it’s the chemical salts. So actual pure, herbal henna that I always got from Hennaforhair.com which is an amazing resource. It tells you all about how to tint the henna. Different herbs you can use to change the color. It’s a phenomenal resource. So I always got their henna and their cassia and their indigo to do my hair with.

But henna is totally safe. You can’t necessarily dye over it, because I just don’t know that it works. I think you have to grow it out to color your hair a different color. But you can use henna over other hair dyes, which I think is really cool. So you don’t have to wait for your hair to grow out to start using henna, necessarily.

But henna is like the most natural, most historically used option, I think, for natural, safe hair dye. It smells like hippies. It is a mess. It’s like slathering mud all over your hair. If you don’t have a great showerhead that you can detach and bend your head over your bathtub and get all of it out. You might want to reconsider using it. It was easiest for me to use in the summer when I was using it because I could just go outside and blast it out of my hair with the hose. {laughs} So that would work. But you can’t do that in the winter, obviously. And our water pressure isn’t great.

But I did use it for quite some time, and I loved it. When I got pregnant, the smell kind of bothered me, and then after that I just didn’t have the time. It is an investment. You have to set it. You create the mixture overnight. You apply it to your hair, which takes quite some time. Some hair dressers will do it, but there aren’t a lot out there that are going to do that. And then you have to sit it on your head for a while, and then you have to wash it out. So it’s a whole process.

So for a while, after I stopped using henna, I tried using Hair Print. Which is kind of; I guess it’s a sciency formulation that’s supposed to return; it’s supposed to reactivate melanin. So it’s supposed to return your gray hairs to their natural colors. It’s not supposed to affect the other hair on your head. I found it to be a little bit labor intensive. You have to apply it within a certain period of time, and then you have to apply it again. I suppose if you have shorter hair, it’s a little easier to use. But I’ve always had; not so much now, but I’ve always had much longer hair so that was a little bit annoying. And I felt like it also colored my scalp a little bit. And that took a while to wash away.

So I stopped using Hair Print, but I do know some people that really, really like it. And I know a lot of people, for a more conventional option that’s free of the standard really bad ingredients in hair dye is Madison Reed. I haven’t tried it, but I know a lot of folks that are really chemically sensitive that use it, and they do well with it. So that’s encouraging.

I think I will go back to henna eventually. I did start going to the salon and just having them dye my hair with whatever probably about; I don’t know, maybe a year ago. I was like, this is just a season, I’m not going to do this forever. But I just need to feel not like garbage with gray hairs hanging out everywhere. Not that there’s anything wrong with gray hairs, I’m just not ready. I’m just not ready. So I started just going for a little self-care and whatever.

And I do feel like over time my hair has actually gotten thinner. And I don’t know if I can blame that on the hair dye or the chemicals or if it’s just stress. But I am excited to go back to henna sooner than later, because it does make your hair so thick and beautiful. And it just nourishes your scalp. So if you have time for henna, and the opportunity to try it, I would totally do it. I really do like it. Just remember, you can’t lift it off. You can’t use chemicals to remove it or anything like that. You're kind of stuck with it if you do the henna. So, those are my favorites. Or my suggestions, anyway. Not necessarily my favorites.

Diane Sanfilippo: Today’s podcast is sponsored by Vital Choice seafood and organics. Purveyor of premium sustainably sourced seafood and a certified B corporation. Vital choice offers a wide range of fish, shellfish, humanely raised meat, protein rich bone broths, and paleo friendly snacks like organic dark chocolate, super antioxidant trail mix, and bison jerky. My favorites from Vital Choice are the king salmon and the scallops. And Liz’s favorites are the salmon and the tanner crab. www.vitalchoice.com is your source for real food.

3. Listener question: how to eat sardines [20:11]

Liz Wolfe: Alright, we have a listener question. This one is from two; Heather and Manny. “Hi lovely ladies! You girls rock, and I love your podcast so very much. Not much time to type a bunch, so just giving my quick question. How on earth do you eat your sardines? Meaning, when you open the can, what do you do? We want to be sardine eaters, but we have a really hard time. We’ve checked websites and blogs for recipes, and we’ve tried a few, but we always feel like we need to clean up the first. That we just have the sardine filet, and it’s so much effort and so gross. Yuck! We know everyone usually just chops it up and eats it, bones organs and all, but really? Any advice? Keep up the amazing work. From sunny South Florida, post Irma, Heather and Manny.”

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} I love this question.

Liz Wolfe: I do too.

Diane Sanfilippo: Really!?

Liz Wolfe: I did a YouTube. I didn’t know there were organs in there. Maybe there are. But I’ve always; the bones are just kind of chalky. They just kind of…

Diane Sanfilippo: They’re so little.

Liz Wolfe: I know Vital Choice, I think, has some sardine filets that don’t have the bones. But I always eat the bones for the extra nutrition. I always was kind of excited about that.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.

Liz Wolfe: I did a YouTube video a long time ago about how to eat sardines, I think. Or why you should eat sardines. So you could look for that. But I always just kind of dump some mustard on top and eat it right out of the tin. {laughs} What are your suggestions?

Diane Sanfilippo: I know a lot of people do the mustard. And there are some that come with different sauces. There are some; they come in a white tin, and they’re wild, maybe from Portugal, that I think you can get them at Whole Foods. I don’t know where else. And they come with lemon, or they come with tomato sauce and things like that. So that’s when you get into it; those are pretty good.

I think there are a couple of different ways to do it. I actually don’t think making a recipe with them is the best way to go for it. Because I think that’s so involved. And a lot of time dealing with these fish that you may or may not be excited about. And a lot of effort, you know, to make something else.

There is a recipe for sardine cakes in Mediterranean Paleo Cooking. So it’s kind of like sardines and some maybe almond flour or cashew flour and eggs and seasonings and all of that. So you could make it into a patty and do a little thing out of that.

But what I think probably two good options are, aside from that, because I do think not doing a recipe is easier. One is to just kind of treat it like you would tuna in a can, and break it up with a fork. You're going to leave the skin on it. You're going to leave the bones in there. It’s ok. The skin has so much of the nutrition; don’t throw that stuff away. You shouldn’t be mini-surgery style on your sardines.

Liz Wolfe: {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: Don’t get your little knife and fork.

Liz Wolfe: Like operations.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, peel the skin off. We’re not doing that. No. Don’t eat them if you're going to do that. No. But mash them up with a fork and throw them on top of salad like you would tuna. So if you want to mix it with some healthy mayo or whatever you would do to make tuna salad, you could totally do that. Or just put it on top mashed up and then lemon, olive oil, all that stuff. And just think of it as tuna. It’s really not that different.

The other thing that I know some people do is take something like a grain free cracker or gluten free cracker or something. You could do a Mary’s cracker or Jill’s crackers. I’m trying to think of all the ladies making crackers.

Liz Wolfe: {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: There’s Mary’s, there’s Jill’s, there’s the Simple Mills crackers I’ve seen people do. They’re almond flour so I haven’t had them. But that, with a little bit of some kind of cheese spread if you want. I’ve seen people do Kite Hill almond cheese. Almond, it’s like almond party everywhere that I’m not a part of. {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: Yeah, you're not invited to that party.

Diane Sanfilippo: I’ve seen people do that. Almond party; I’m not invited. Like an herb cheese in that way, and put the sardine piece on top of that. I feel like Cassy Joy has done that. And those are kind of the two ways. I know, for me it’s basically on a salad. I haven’t eaten a lot of them lately just because I’m mixing other seafood. I’ve got a lot from Vital Choice. I do a lot of salmon and that kind of stuff. But I know I’ve definitely carried sardines {laughs}. I’ve definitely eaten them on an airplane before. This is a running joke, I think, on the podcast where it’s like, “Well if Diane is going to eat sardines on an airplane, I’m going to eat this in my office.”

Liz Wolfe: Yep.

Diane Sanfilippo: Right? That was back when I was traveling to teach seminars. But yeah, those are some tips.

Liz Wolfe: That was when I gave you crap about eating hardboiled eggs on an airplane. And you were like, if that lady can eat her Panda Express.

Diane Sanfilippo: Stinky McDonald’s. Yeah.

Liz Wolfe: Stinky, yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: Or come in here and sit next to me smelling like an ashtray.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. Anyway. I didn’t care. But that’s what I would do. And I would not remove parts. If you want to get some that don’t have bones to just get yourself into it, that’s fine. No big deal. But the bones are a good source of calcium. And if you're not doing dairy, and you're not eating other sources of calcium, like a bunch of tahini or something like that, then it’s a good source of calcium. So don’t ignore it. I mean, salads seem like a good idea in sunny Florida. So throw it on a salad. Lots of lemon juice.

Liz Wolfe: Just keep eating them. You’ll get used to it.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} That’s Liz’s advice. Mustard. And just keep eating them. You’ll be fine.

Liz Wolfe: Mustard. Yep.

Liz Wolfe: The Balanced Bites podcast is sponsored in part by the Nutritional Therapy Association. The NTA trains and certifies nutritional therapy practitioners and consultants (including me; I’m an NTP), emphasizing bio-individuality and the range of dietary strategies that support wellness. The NTA emphasizes local, whole, properly prepared nutrient dense foods as the key to restoring balance and enhancing the body’s ability to heal. Nutritional therapy practitioners and consultants learn a wide range of tools and techniques to assess and correct nutritional imbalances. To learn lots more about the nutritional therapy program, go to http://www.NutritionalTherapy.com. There are workshop venues in the US, Canada, and Australia, so chances are you’ll be able to find a venue that works for you.

4. What we’ve eaten so far today [26:36]

Liz Wolfe: Alright, I’m excited about this segment.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} This is a really interesting segment to do today.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah. I think we’re going to have to lean heavily on me. Maybe not; we’ll see. So this segment is called what we ate so far today. There should be some exciting music there.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yes, tell them what time it is.

Liz Wolfe: So it is 2:41 where I am. It’s 12:41 where Diane is, in the afternoon. And Diane, what have you eaten so far today?

Diane Sanfilippo: I’ve eaten nothing. {laughs} I had some coffee this morning and have not eaten. And I have my Zero app open, which is the app Michelle Tam talked about when we had her on the show several weeks ago. It’s a fasting tracker. I mean, {laughs} we don’t really need an app for this, I don’t think. But maybe you would forget what time you ate dinner and weren’t sure what time you wanted to start eating again.

So I’ve just been thinking about what would make me feel better. And I was like; you know what, I’m going to try intermittent fasting again. I’ve done it before. I just wanted to see if it could help get my energy regulated. I know a lot of my energy dips are just related to stress. But I’m very curious if adjusting my feeding window would help with that. And since I’m such a good eater {laughs} I’m not really worried about not eating enough in the window when I am eating. I wanted to see how this would do for me.

So I’m currently at 16 hours and 33 minutes without food. I did have coffee this morning with some coconut milk in it. And I’m not really concerned about that typically having some fat. Even having a tiny bit of carb, I’ve heard, isn’t a big deal. Just like barely anything. But yeah, I have had nothing to eat so far today at 12:41. What about you. What have you eaten so far today?

Liz Wolfe: This is so bad mom. But I think I’ve had; the day just gets away from us, man. It was I think I ate a Core Meal bar this morning. And oh my gosh this is so bad. A Lara bar. One of those fruit and greens bars before the podcast. Ok, let me just back up and say that this day has been incredibly busy.

Diane Sanfilippo: Liz is looking at my face, and she’s so worried about the potential what am I even going to say about this {laughing}.

Liz Wolfe: I mean, this is like bad nutrition podcast host situation right here. But I told everybody, Colleen’s here, and she’s going to fix it. {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}

Liz Wolfe: So I woke up this morning and the kid needs to get to PDO. So I got her to PDO; fed and off to PDO. And I let her have an Exo cricket protein bar in the car {laughs}. So I took a Core meal bar with me in the car. And this is Colleen’s first day, so right when I got back, Colleen and I started talking. I showed her around the farm. And that spilled over into when we started recording the podcast. And then after 30 minutes of tech issues, I finally remembered, you know, I’ve got to eat real quick. So I had one of those fruit and green bars. And then we’re recording two podcasts. So I’m really hungry right now, and this is very, very bad.

Diane Sanfilippo: I’m also really hungry.

Liz Wolfe: So after this I’ll eat something. So this is probably going to be a shorter podcast because we both want to eat. But yeah, that’s what I’ve had today and it’s terrible. {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: It’s not terrible. No need to, you know, be judgmental of yourself. I think it’s totally realistic. But look, the day is young. There is still food to be eaten. {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: {laughing} Pull quote. Pull quote.

Diane Sanfilippo: The day is your oyster. On another type of day; we’ll just do this on other days, and we’ll have what have we eaten so far. And some days it will be nothing, and some days it will be something. I mean, who knows. But yeah.

I am curious, you guys. If you are interested in learning more about intermittent fasting, leave us a comment on this weeks’ episode Instagram or on the podcast show notes. Our episode with Dr. Fung on fasting was by far the most downloaded episode we had, and I don’t know if that was purely; obviously that wasn’t from just our typical listener base. There were lots of folks who probably found that episode, because it was more than I know our typical listeners are downloading. But if that’s something that you guys would find interesting, perhaps I can find a female to talk about it versus a male just to get a different point of view. I think that would be really interesting.

And you know, I’m just going to hat tip also to Robb Wolf. Because he has been talking about intermittent fasting; not that he’s the first one, either. But in our circles, he’s probably laughing and maybe rolling his eyes somewhere. Like, really you guys? Now we’re talking about intermittent fasting? Because I’ve been talking about this since probably 2008 or something, and the benefits and all of that. I know he has an episode of his podcast way back in the archives with Matt Lalande. And I believe Chris Kresser was on it, as well. Where they talked about some of the cell clean up, and all of the good things that do happen when we’re between meals and we have a longer time between them. So anyway. That’s essentially what a fast is.

But interesting stuff. And I think it’s kind of funny that you’ve eaten a couple of bars and I’ve eaten nothing yet. So a good way to kick off that segment. I think; look, it’s real. We’re not going to lie just because we think it would be more interesting. I think this is interesting, though.

5. Final thoughts [32:29]

Diane Sanfilippo: Alright, Liz. Let’s wrap it up with some closing thoughts. What are your closing thoughts for today?

Liz Wolfe: I feel like a couple of times during the course of this episode I was just thinking to myself, “You just do what you’ve got to do.” And the hair dye thing. I by no means think that getting your hair dyed with conventional dyes is an imminent danger. But there are also things that we know about the chemicals used in traditional hair dyes. That if you have the time and the opportunity and can put in the effort, why not try something a little different and see how it goes. But I just want to make sure that nobody feels guilted about their choices about what their using. You just have to triage what you can, and not stress about the rest.

But with that in mind, I’m also really proud of myself for figuring out a creative solution that worked for me; like my conundrum of wanting to work more, but not be with my kid less. And I feel like I came up with a creative solution with a little bit of extra effort and creativity. So maybe just pushing yourself a little bit to find a solution that’s different from what you're already doing will lead to an exciting discovery. I’m really excited about what lies ahead. And I still need that hashtag, so if anybody has any ideas.

Diane Sanfilippo: That’s it for this week. You can find me, Diane, at http://dianesanfilippo.com. And find Liz at http://realfoodliz.com/. Don’t forget to join our email lists for free goodies and updates that you don’t find anywhere else on our website or on the podcast. While you’re on the internet, leave us an iTunes review. We’ll see you next week.