The Ultimate Water Fast Challenge Day 2

Hey guys. Welcome back to day two of the water fasting challenge. My ultimate humans. How are you feeling after conquering day one? Did you stick to the bone broth schedule like champions? Did you hit your 2 hour or your 2 liter water target? Did you sleep well last night? I want to see those victories in the chat right now. This is all about accountability. Wow. What's. Good morning from Canada. Perfect aminos all three days. I wouldn't recommend using any artificial sweeteners during a fast. Thank you, Jalen. She says feeling great. Christine says she's feeling great. 75, actually. Someone piped in at 83 years old and said they're doing the water fast. Congratulations to you. Deb says definitely have diarrhea. Deb, I'm sorry, but that is a normal response. That's perfectly fine. You know. Joan good says you're feeling great. Janice Kilmer says she hit the goals. Tommy said he didn't sleep well. That's also perfectly normal. You should sleep well tonight. James Cassidy said, I feel good. I slept well. Brandy said she slept terribly. These are all perfectly normal responses, guys. Just a mild headache today. Remember to add your Baja Gold sea salt to Happy Ever. Laughter. Whoever that was. Jay Aon says I'm on 36 hours. 39 hours in and feel great. Johann, it looks like there. Valerie said she's a little lightheaded. That's perfectly normal too. Remember to hydrate and drink your mineral salts. Can we drink element tea? Yes, you can drink element tea. My preference is a true mineral salt because we. We want to replace all 91 trace minerals, not just the big ones. Potassium, magnesium and. And sodium. Hey. Kyle said. Kyle Hayden said slept great last night. That's awesome to hear. Hey, Gary. Hey. Back to you too. Welcome. Hello from Bosnia. This is amazing. So today we officially take the training wheels off. I'm going to be completely honest with you. Day two is where we separate the pretenders from the contenders. So be a contender. Okay. Don't quit. You've already got 24 hours in. You're a third of the way here. But here's what I know about every single person watching this. You didn't show up yesterday just to quit today. That's for sure. You're here because you're ready to prove to yourself that you can do hard things. So first off, let me tell you something. You did it. Day one is officially in the books. You've already achieved something 95% of people will never accomplish in their entire lives. You successfully lowered your insulin levels. You've depleted that Glycogen store in your liver and some of it in your muscles. You've initiated the cellular cleanup process. And most importantly, you've proved to yourself that you have mental discipline. That's ma. That matters. Yesterday was all about preparation and transition. Today is about transformation. Your body spent all night optimizing your hormone production, ramping up growth hormone, and beginning the cellular recycling process. You're not the same person who started this challenge yesterday. And by the end of today, you're going to be operating on a complete, completely different metabolic level. So please stick with this, guys. Today we're diving into the real fast water only. This is where the magic truly begins. Your day two protocol is beautifully simple, but it's absolutely critical. So upon waking, you should have taken 8 ounces of spring water with a pinch of Baja gold salt or another mineral salt, added, one scoop of perfect aminos and your hydrogen tablet. And throughout the day, you'll consume three liters of spring water. And we'll divide these into three time blocks. That's. That's roughly one liter for every five to six hours with salt added every single time. So if you have the granular Baja gold, just take a nice healthy pinch, put it in that liter of water, shake it up. If you have the liquid, just squirt the liquid in there. No bone broth today, guys. Your body is ready for full ketosis, and we're going to give it exactly what it needs to shift into premium fuel mode. Your body is going to start to burn something called ketones, Beta hydroxybutyrate as a fuel source rather than burning sugar. So this isn't about surviving, it's about thriving. As your liver starts to produce these ketones, which are literally premium fuel for your brain, you might know that the keto diet was actually originally formulated for epilepsy for epileptics, because they have timing issues when things cross in the brain. By reducing the inflammation in the brain, they had a correlated decrease in epileptic symptoms. So I'm not saying we're here to solve epilepsy, but what I am telling you is when you burn fat as a fuel source, it's an extraordinarily clean fuel source. It doesn't create a lot of waste. It actually burns at a low inflammatory level. Your body makes deuterium depleted water, a very special type of intracellular water that's very, very clean. It doesn't break your mitochondria. I saw a lot of you join my VIP group yesterday. Thank you so much. So you'll stay on for the VIP portion of the call today and those of you that are new to the community, have you tried the Ask Gary Anything feature yet? My AI that I worked on for 2 years, you can literally ask me anything. I will not respond like I've been out crawling the web. I will respond like I'm sitting right in front of you right now. I'm very, very proud of the Ask Gary Anything you can actually feed at your labs can feed it your genetic test. You can ask it questions about water fasting, autoimmune, add, adhd, ocd, manic depression, children's gummies and vitamins. You can ask it anything. This is amazing. So get your questions answered. During times that I'm not live with you, I'll stay with you 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We're going to be best friends if you want to try it out. My team is dropping the link in the chat now to upgrade to the vip. I'd love to see all of you in my community, my VIP community. We really are going to change the world. If you join the VIP yesterday and stayed for the two hour session, will you please just put your comments, just your honest, true comment about what you got out of yesterday's VIP session. If you thought it was valuable, if you think it was worth the money to come into my VIP group, be patently honest. Whether you liked it or you didn't, what you loved, what you didn't. I want the other people that have yet to join the VIP to see honest feedback from people that joined yesterday. So let me break down the 3 liter strategy for drinking water. Because this is where most people either succeed or they spectacularly fail miserably. And it comes down to timing and electrolytes. Okay, so maybe take out a pencil real quick or pen. Because here's the winning formula for hydrating. Okay, so we we divide the day into time blocks. Time block one runs from 7:00am to 1:00pm, seven to one with your first liter plus salt, perfect Aminos and H2 tap. So there's three things in the water. Time block two goes from one to 7:00pm with your second liter plus salt, Perfect Aminos and H2 tab. And the time three block covers 7:00pm to 11:00pm or with your final liter plus salt only. Okay, that's the winning strategy. Keep some amino acids in the bloodstream. Keep the minerals, the electrolytes, all 91 of those trace minerals and H2 tab to help regulate homeostasis, reduce inflammation. Those elemental magnesium tablets are magic. If you are a vip, I Did a whole section on hydrogen tablets. And the research, I won't go into it now because that's not what people are here for. But showing you how it is a selective antioxidant. Enough only reduces inflammation, but it also improves circulation. Because remember, 70% of our circulation is not even done by our heart. It's done by an activity called vasomotor. Lots of us have issues with eyesight or skin conditions or liver or pancreatic issues or tingling and numbness, or we have Renaud or circulatory issues. And one of the things that helps that microvascular circulation is hydrogen gas. So the key to this time blocks, three time blocks that I just named. 7am to 1pm, 1pm to 7pm and then 7 to 11pm the key is to just sip consistently throughout each block rather than chugging. You're going to see me drinking water this entire time? Got it right here. And the reason why I'm doing that is you don't want to guzzle it and chug it because your kidneys need steady hydration, not floods that overwhelm the system. So filling. Man, I am stuffed. And here's the non negotiable part. Every single glass just gets a pinch of Baja gold salt or mineral salt, because electrolyte balance is what separates successful fasters from people who end up in the emergency room. Okay, so here's what's happening in your body right now, and this is absolutely incredible. Ketosis has officially kicked in, and your liver is now producing ketone bodies autophagy. The process of cellular death in the right order is accelerating. The cellular cleanup is reaching new levels. By cellular cleanup, your body is literally eating you from the weakest part forward. So cellular autophagy and senescence has already begun. Your growth hormone is spiking up to 10 times your normal level. And I'm going to show you the study that proves that your fat burning is increasing as your body switches fuel sources. Your mental clarity should be improving because ketones are premium brain fuel. And as we get into ketosis, we should feel the clarity from that lack of inflammation and from our body switching from a carbohydrate and glucose source to a ketone body. This is why day two often feels better than day one, even though you've consumed less. Your body's designed for this. Metabolic flexibility. Metabolic flexibility is something that all humans have the ability to engage their body in and their metabolism in. But very few of us have the discipline to restrict food intake and really take advantage of metabolic flexibility. We can Use different types of fuel sources the body can run. In fact, every single one of you watching this right now entered this world on a keto diet. Every single one of you. If you look at the first 48 hours of milk production in women when they breastfeed their fetus, it's called colostrum, it is highly ketogenic. It is a majority of fat. Fat is really good for the neurodevelopment of the brain of a, of a newborn fetus. So this is why day two often feels better. Lots of people will go their entire lives without experiencing this. Guys, you're about to discover energy levels and mental clarity that you may have forgotten were even possible. Movement is still important today, okay? But we're making an intelligent adjustment because your body's already working hard intentionally and internally. But we need to respect that process, right? So that process that we call hormesis, where you put a stress on the body and it responds by strengthening. Remember, if we don't load our bones, they don't strengthen. If we don't actually tear our muscles, they don't grow. If you don't challenge your immune system, if you don't, it weakens. So right now we're under a high amount of hormetic stress. We stopped feeding and the body is having to switch its metabolism. So let's be conscious about laying other additional stresses on there. So here's what you should do, okay? Light walking for 20 to 30 minutes. Gentle stretching or restorative yoga, not the 90 minute bikram yogas. Deep breathing exercises throughout the day, telling your body and your nervous system that it's safe. Right? There's the autonomic nervous system, which is the part of the nervous system you never think about. Regulates your heart rate, your body temperature, regulates your respiratory rate. It's actually keeping you erect right now. The reason why you're sitting up straight is because your autonomic nervous system is keeping your erector spinae group and other muscles firing. If you're standing, same thing. So this autonomic nervous system is exists in two states. A sympathetic state, which is a fight or flight state, the name is misleading. And a parasympathetic state, which is a rest and digest state. Things like breathwork, grounding, sunlight, meditation, gentle yoga, stretching, light walks. These tell your body that it's safe. They shift you from a sympathetic state, which is fight or flight, into a parasympathetic state. Let's take care of the temple the next two days. Let's just be really conscious of our temple and here's what you must avoid. High intensity workouts, like intense hits, cardio workouts, heavy weightlifting, long, prolonged cardio sessions, much, much beyond about 30 minutes of steady cardio or anything that makes you dizzy or lightheaded. Remember, let's take the stress off our body and let's give our organ systems the chance to do their job. Your body is performing cellular surgery right now. Give it the grace and the energy it needs to complete this incredible healing process. Remember, today is about optimization, not about exhaustion. So now let me head over to the whiteboard really quickly because I want to bring in to Right, before we bring on today's special guest, I want to show you a clinical study that was recently published that's going to give you a lot of validation about everything we've been talking about. So let me head to the whiteboard. Okay. Are we up here? Okay, here's a study.

Now this was done, by the way, this was published in Endocrinology and Metabolism. Very, very valid peer reviewed journal that talks about the endocrine system and the metabolic system in the human body. As you know, the vast majority Of Americans, about 65% of Americans are metabolically sick. 96%, sorry, 94% of Americans are metabolically unhealthy. You are shifting to a healthy metabolism right now. So this was about the effects of intermittent fasting on the circulating levels and circadian rhythms of hormones. What I want to point out here on page three, I really took a.

Deep dive into the studies is really.

Fascinating and this will give you the validation you need to complete this fast. It says likewise in humans. Actually, you know what, let me, let.

Me blow this up so you guys can read this. So, okay, I'm touching them, touching the screen. Okay.

Hopefully you guys can see that. I'm going to blow it up nice and tall. It says likewise in humans. Intermittent fasting decreased plasma insulin levels and improved insulin sensitivity. So that's a fact. Time restricted eating improved insulin sensitivity and lowered insulin levels. This change has already been observed during acute fasting. That's what you're doing today. You are acutely fasting. You're not intermittent fasting. You're not doing time restricted eating and you're not doing caloric restriction. You're taking caloric intake to zero. For example, upon 72 hour fasting, which is what we're doing, guys, plasma insulin levels dropped by about 35% during the first 24 hours and reached half of baseline levels by the end of fasting. That is incredible. Half a baseline by the end of fasting so what happens is your body is decreasing that insulin, allowing your pancreas to rest. And the next time it starts to produce insulin, it produces insulin that is more sensitive.

So you're literally cleaning up that system. There's another really interesting section of, of this study.

I'll link this study. So if you're a nerd, like I am, you can actually read the entire thing. But I'm going to try to get you guys the, the, the highlights here. Okay, so, so the, the second sentence here, it says, thyroid hormones promote thermogenesis in brown adipose tissue. Let me, let me explain what that means. So we have two types of fat in the human body. We have the white fat that nobody likes, and then you have the brown fat that you can't see. Brown fat in human beings is your thermostat.

Okay?

So what brown fat does is it exchanges a calorie for a measure of heat. It literally takes a calorie and turns it into a measure of heat. In fact, a calorie is actually a definition of heat. It's the amount of energy in joules that it takes to raise 1 cubic centimeter of water 1 degree centigrade. Why is that important? Because to maintain your body temperature when you're not fed, we're actually consuming calories, brown fat, and turning those into a measure of heat. So the thyroid hormone promotes the thermogenesis, the burning of this brown fat in adipose tissue by increasing uncoupling protein expression. You don't need to understand that, but essentially what it does is it actually forces the body to use brown fat as, as a heat source, as an energy source by using calories, turning that into heat. Here's what's fascinating. In white adipose tissues, that's the fat nobody likes. 99 of the time. When we say we want to lose weight, what we really mean is we want to lose fat. So that's white adipose tissue. That's the visible tissue on our flanks, on our derriere, on a, you know, right around the. The below our belly button, laterally around to our flanks, the fat that we all want to get rid of. Thyroid hormones accelerate lipolysis, increasing fatty acids that the liver uses for gluconeogenesis. So increasing lipolysis means increasing the rate of fat metabolism. That's a great thing. So we know we've turned on brown fat to keep our body temperature elevated. We know that we're using white fat as a form of energy. But what's amazing is that now your liver remember that Stored glucose that we talked about called glycogen. Well, we store glucose in our muscles in the form of glycogen. We also store it in the liver. The liver is going to take that fat, turn it into glycogen, store it in your liver and feed it back into your bloodstream as sugar gluconeogenesis, new production of, of sugar or glucose. So what's happening is even though you're not eating, your body is, it's just eating you and it's eating the very part of you that you want to get rid of anyway. And it's going to take those parts of you and turn them into a different fuel source. Really fascinating. I mean, like I said, the more I study the human body, the more I believe in God. There's no way that this happened by chance. The other point that I wanted to make in humans, here it is. This is really exciting, guys. In humans, fasting for 37 and a half hours and a lot of you are beyond this point right now, elevates basal growth hormone concentrations by tenfold and reduces the metabolic clearance rate of growth hormone. So what does that mean? That means that your fountain of youth, growth hormone is the fountain of youth. And I'm not talking about taking growth hormone from outside the body and putting it in. I'm talking about your pituitary's own natural production of growth hormone. What if there was a drug that could increase growth hormone levels by tenfold? Every single one of us would be on that because that is the fountain of youth. Every cellular structure in your body is responding to that growth hormone signaling. It is accelerating repair, regeneration, waste elimination, detoxification, proper cellular division. Growth hormone is truly the fountain of youth. And your pituitary is increasing your growth hormone concentration by tenfold. It's actually not allowing your body to clear growth hormone while it's still producing it, allowing those levels to rise massively when you have what I call nips and bibbles. Knees, hips, shoulders, rotator cuff, ankles, low back. Those kinds of aches and pains. A very, very common comment that I get from people that complete a three day water fast is like I woke up for the first time in years without back pain. My knees don't ache like they did. I had this rotator cuff nagging injury and for some reason it's gone. You just experienced what it was like to have 10 times the growth hormone level in your blood produced from your own pituitary healing your body. So the body is just healing and repairing right now. So please don't Give this up. The final thing I wanted to show you was right here on page seven. And essentially what these charts are showing is what can they see?

This part over here. So this is your normal insulin level.

During the day as you're eating, right? Here's, here's meal one, meal two, meal three.

So your insulin normally looks like a heart monitor.

Ideally, we want our insulin to look like rolling hills, right? Life extension happens when we have controlled insulin levels.

So in the first portion of the.

Fast, these levels are dropping, similar to how your thyroid hormone levels are dropping. You see how they undulate normally during the day. So now your thyroid levels are returning to baseline.

Your insulin is returning to baseline.

Your cortisol initially has higher spikes and lower valleys because you're stressing the body. So it responds by secreting extra cortisol. That is a normal response. You would secrete extra cortisol when you're stressed, when you're frightened, if you're having a fight, or flight response, when you're deprived of sleep. This is a chronic stressor. But this is only temporary because as the fast continues.

Let me show you this as the fast continues.

And I selected this chart for a reason, because I think it just shows.

These in such an easy way to understand.

As the fast continues. Remember, this is baseline. This is your normal insulin level during the day, looking like a heart monitor. Now your insulin levels reach a baseline.

Right?

So now your liver is controlling gluconeogenesis. You're in a fully fasted state. And look at this. Your insulin has baselined. Your thyroid levels baseline. They don't undulate like this when you're in a fed state. And, and cortisol patterns return to normal. So that hormetic stress that your body responded to by increasing cortisol also returns back to baseline. So days two and three are less stressful on your body. It's the transition into ketosis and into a fasted state that creates some mild level of stress. That's already over, guys. So we've got 48 hours of this journey left.

Okay, amazing. So I want to address the most common questions so you have full clarity and confidence moving forward. Can you have coffee or black tea? Yes, black coffee is fine. Herbal tea is great, but nothing with calories. And just don't use any artificial sweeteners, guys. Let's not put any additional stress on our body, whether it causes a caloric impact or not. So can you add creatine to your water? Absolutely. Especially if you're maintaining an exercise routine. What if you don't have Baja Gold sea salt. Can pink Himalayan salt work? Yes, pink Himalayan salt or Celtic salt can work. Just avoid regular table salt that's bleached, iodized table salt. All that is is sodium chloride. It doesn't have all of those other minerals, trace minerals that I'm after and the rest of those electrolytes. That's why I'm such a fan of Baja Gold. What if you missed your perfect aminos this morning? Just take them as soon as you remember. They won't break your fast. So that's okay. If you missed them this morning, you can take them later. What about medications? Never stop your prescribed medications. You know, work with your doctor. Let them know that you're doing a water fast, but don't ever stop on medication. These details matter because success in preparation and execution is what's going to get us through this. So, guys, I want to really welcome an amazing guest. I know a lot of you know that she's coming. I'm absolutely pumped to introduce our day two guest expert. Her name is Taylor Dukes. Taylor has a really unique and powerful perspective. She's going to bring this to our community because she understands fasting from multiple critical angles. So as someone who's personally used strategic fasting for optimization, as an expert who works with people facing serious health challenges, including cancer support, and as someone who specializes in helping women specifically navigate fasting in a way that honors their unique physiology and hormone needs. So Taylor's going to share some insights on mental resilience, recovery, optimization during controlled stress, how to build an unbreakable discipline through challenges like fasting. So, Taylor, welcome to the ultimate human family.

Thank you. I'm so honored. Be here and be a part of it.

So good to have you on, guys. I did a whole podcast with Taylor Dukes. If you haven't checked it out, I'll put a link to that podcast below. And you guys should watch it. She's an amazing human. We're so excited to have you on.

Ah, you're so kind. I'm so happy to be here.

What part of the world are you in?

I'm in Texas. We moved to a farm, Gary, So we're living that country life.

Yeah, I'm. I love the country song. All my exes live in Texas. It's not relevant to me, but I thought I'd throw that out there. So, Taylor, I want you to dive, you know, as deep as you can into the areas where you have the most expertise, maybe starting with how women can optimize their fasting experience differently than Men. And then I want you to address something incredibly important, which is how people who are dealing with cancer or supporting someone dealing with cancer can think about fasting as a tool.

Absolutely. So I know there's a lot of men here. So just because we're going to talk about female cycles and hormones, like hang with us, we're going to get to a good Q and A. Oh, trust.

Me, we all want to figure it out too. Every guy is like, like a wife.

I want to, however, you can help me, a girlfriend. So anyway, we will focus on hormones because I think that's really relevant and important for women to understand. But we're going to get to the juicy stuff and cancer and mental resilience and recovery and all of that. But not every female has a 28 day cycle. But I do want to briefly speak to that. And then we'll get into the perimenopause and menopause. But when it comes to a 28 day cycle, that's assuming that you're having a regular cycle, you're having consistent periods. There is a time that is best to fast. And so if you've ever tried a 24, you know, 72 hour fast and you're like, I literally can't do it. I don't have enough willpower, you might want to consider cycle syncing and doing it because it does work in conjunction with fasting and there's an optimal time to do it. And so I'll just kind of briefly walk through the different stages of a cycle. You have your menstrual cycle, which is usually typically day one through five. That's when you're bleeding and estrogen and progesterone are really low. And then you go into your follicular phase, which is around day 6 to 12. Again, this varies woman to woman, but this is like the perfect time to do a fast. So follicular phase. Remember that your body does not have as much of an appetite and this is when you're going to find that a fast is much easier. So whether it's, you know, a 24 hour fast or a 72 hour, you're going to reap the benefits. Like we're talking about with the 72 hour, they're just exponential compared to a 24 hour. But follicular phase is the perfect time. And then you get into ovulation, which is around days 13 to 15, and that is when estrogen peaks. And you also have a nice testosterone surge, which is great for libido and for marriage and intimacy. And then you have some slight progesterone as well. This is when people feel their best. But it's actually not the best time to fast. It's actually time to go, you know, cold plunge and sauna and do your workouts and get that productive activity done at work. And I still recommend intermittent fasting, but this is more of a time to feast and eat, you know, high quality protein and healthy fats and fiber, and then you have your luteal phase. So follicular, like I said, is the most important for fasting. You're going to find that your body works with you during that phase. But if you didn't, if you don't hear anything else, the luteal phase is the hardest time to fast. And so this, these are the people that might have attempted a fast and were like, I literally can't do it, I'm craving everything, I can't sleep, I'm moody, I. And that's because you're in your luteal phase. And so this is usually day 16 to 28, progesterone's rising. So yeah, in summary, for a cycling female, the best time to fast is day six through 12. And that's usually after your period right before ovulation. There is also a small window if you're really in tune with your body right after ovulation, before you're full blown. And luteal phase, there's about three days in there that are really good as well that you can implement a 72 hour fast. And again, you can do it anytime. But if you find that you've struggled or willpower, things like that, I would try to be mindful of your cycles. And then let's talk about the perimenopausal women. So these are the people that can reap the most benefits from fasting. Like, they're unbelievable. But I'm not, I'm not going to sugarcoat it. This can be the hardest to fast. These people can struggle. And so I would always say for my perimenopausal girlies, reserve longer water fast for times when you're feeling strong, stress is low, you're sleeping well and you feel like you have a stable mood. Not during heavy hormonal shifts or if you're not sleeping or you're spotting, that's usually a sign of, you know, a hard time to do a fast. And so I really would encourage you to listen to your symptoms. And I will say from working with patients in a private practice, women that had irregular cycles, perimenopausal, especially if they went into, you know, earlier than projected. We have so many environmental stressors and toxins and triggers that actually people are prematurely going into menopause. So I saw people use water fasting to actually, like bring back a regular cycle. Now, it's not appropriate for everyone. Like, sometimes we biologically age and that's okay. But what I will say is that I did see people's cycles return and then they would transition into menopause so much easier, you know, because their body is well supported. And then also like day four to six, like say that you do have spotting and you're day four to six, estrogen, estrogen can begin to rise and that's kind of considered a follicular phase. So if you can time it that way, that would be a great time to implement that fast. But yeah, just being mindful of your body and in tune with your body, and if you're pushing yourself really, really hard and you're moody and you're not sleeping and you start spotting, that may not be the best time to do it. Can you all hear my dog barking a lot in the background?

No.

Are you sure?

No, I really can't hear it. We don't mind it, but.

Okay. Okay, well, I'm sorry, I can go put him away. So speak up if.

What kind of dog is it?

We have a black lab.

Oh my God, I love black labs.

Family mascot.

Oh, that's awesome.

And then last but not least, menopausal people, women, those you guys generally tolerate fast better because you don't have estrogen and progesterone fluctuating like women who are cycling. So I would just jump in and jump into a 72 hour water fast. Now, if that seems too intimidating or you've tried it before, start with a 24 hour. You know, but like you, you actually are going to be set up for success because you don't have all the hormone fluctuations and it can help a ton with your postmenopausal symptoms. So I'm a huge advocate and fan of it for postmenopausal women for lots of different symptoms and side effects.

That's amazing. So we're seeing questions about everything from how women should modify their approach based on their cycle, to concerns from people who are supporting family members through cancer treatment, to questions about maintaining, you know, mental clarity at work. Those seem to be the big categories. And I know that you've had a personal journey. We talked all about. Your personal journey on the podcast. Is just phenomenal. I mean, it's, it's profound. What you went through. And even more profound, how you solved the issue in your life. And I, I talk about this on my podcast all the time. I mean, I feel like the most impactful, you know, passionate, purpose driven people in the world are the people that have solved the big problem in their life. You solved the massive problem. We don't need to go into that on this fasting challenge. But could you talk a little bit about fasting as a tool in cancer treatment and how you used it in your cancer journey and how you see it going in your practice?

Yeah, absolutely. So for anyone that we all are affected by cancer, whether we have it, whether we're at risk, there's family members that have had it. I think this applies to everybody. And also it's a lot harder to treat cancer than it is to prevent it, in my opinion. You know, once you have cancer, it's a full blown disease and there is hope and there are different ways to treat it. But. And again, like Gary said, we're not going to go. In my whole story, I beat brain cancer using a metabolic approach. No chemo, no radiation. I did have brain surgery, but go listen to that podcast. But I A metabolic approach to cancer. And what that means is cancer is hyper metabolic and it loves sugar. And there are a lot of people and a lot of oncologists, sadly, that say. And I am a nurse practitioner, so I'm conventionally trained, board certified. So I'm not knocking our medical system. We're just not taught these things. But I can't tell you how many friends that. And even me personally asking providers in the oncology units, you know, does diet affect cancer? Because I'm just curious. And most of them will say no. But I kind of want to debunk that real quick right here because when you get a PET scan, they literally put, you know, to check. This is the form of, of a scan that people get to check for cancer. And if it's metastasized, so they give you an IV and what it is, it's a sugar solution, it's radioactive. And the places in your body that drink up the sugar the quickest are hyper metabolic, because cancer, again, loves sugar. And that's where I identify that the tumors are. And so when people say that sugar doesn't affect cancer, I'm like so confused because the exact way that we test for cancer and screen for it is by giving a sugar solution. So sugar does feel cancer. And so from an oncology perspective, we really want to cut off the cancer's food source. So anytime I'm personally fasting or I was through my cancer journey, I love just being like, I'm cutting off that tumors, that tumor's fuel source, because it is really important. And then also, you know, I went out of the country, I've gone to multiple states for different treatments and therapies. And one thing that people usually leave the country for is to get stem cells. And that is very, very expensive for cancer treatment. But one thing I want to encourage you guys with is that when you are doing a 72 hour fast for free and it is accessible to you right here in your home, you are able to regenerate those stem cells which can help with healing. So whether you have cancer or not, you have that amazing benefit. And then I also, you know, I never did chemo, but I had a lot of friends with breast cancer that have gone through chemo taking a metabolic approach in conjunction with their conventional treatment. And by the way, guys, it doesn't have to be black or white. Like it can, or either or it can be both. And you can do chemo and all the treatments that you feel at peace with, but you can also still do a lot of fasting and of course work with your provider, but you can do a lot of fasting. And that can not only mitigate side effects, it can improve outcomes. And again, like I said, a lot of my breast cancer friends, they would fast the day before chemo infusions the day of and the day after, and all of them resounding like they can't speak highly enough of fasting because not only do they not have nausea, fatigue, they never struggled with their white blood cell counts. And this is just a true testament to the benefits of fasting and how it affects the immune system, inflammation. And so that can be really helpful to use in conjunction with treatment if you're doing it. But of course, we also know that fasting reduces inflammation and angiogenesis. I don't want to get too sciency. I don't know. Do y' all talk about the MTOR pathway?

It basically, we can talk about MTOR pathway and just explain angiogenesis, this new blood vessel formation. Because cancer actually relies on new new new vessels, new blood supply. It actually sort of, it's very sinister the way it tricks the body into creating new blood vessels by creating these focal areas of hypoxia. And then like a Perry Mason movie, you know, that tada moment, it tricks the body into, into providing an extra vascularity. And then boom, it uses that as a mechanism to even, even Spread. It's very sinister.

Yeah. And so a lot of people do a lot of different therapies to kind of reduce the MTOR pathway or igf insulin, like growth factor. It's a blood marker you can do. And that basically just decreases growth signaling so it can slow cell division and proliferation, which is the goal, you know. But I, like I said, it's much easier to be proactive with cancer and your body and autophagy. I know you talk a lot about that, Gary, and people probably understand that you can get rid of pre cancerous cells. And so this should be CTCs, circulating tumor cells. Yeah. And any given point in time, I actually did not know this until I was unfortunately in the oncology world. But at any given point in time we all have circulating tumor cells. But the way God made our immune systems is that we go and take care of them. But when our immune system is suppressed and we're, you know, burdened with toxins or viral illnesses or Lyme or co infections, trauma, all these things can affect our immune response. And we do live in a toxic world. And so we have to try harder to be healthy and support our body. But yeah, so when our immune system is suppressed, we can't take care of those circulating tumor cells. And that is when a full blown tumor forms. But it takes usually 8 to 10 years for that tumor to form. And so implementing something like the 72 hour water fast is one of the best things you can do for your health. Not just for immediate benefits like mental clarity, digestion, energy, weight loss, but also for prevention of other diseases.

Yeah, that's so such good advice. And you know, so we, we got some questions from our, our YouTube viewers, so we consolidated those. So I'm just going to throw them at you as we got them. Is fast good for a female that is type 2 diabetic?

Yes. It can be incredibly helpful. I would say you do need to be mindful. I don't know if it's working with an endocrinologist or if you have a functional medicine provider. You just need to keep an eye on your blood sugar. And I'm assuming you're on medicine, whether it's metformin or if you are insulin dependent. You just have to be a little bit careful because sometimes it can help you so much that you aren't going to be dependent on the insulin anymore. And so I would probably, again, I'm not your medical provider, but I would probably work into that and see kind of what your blood sugar does with a 16 eight hour eating window. So you're fasting six hours, eating eight. But I absolutely think you can benefit and it could potentially get you off of your medication and improve your quality of life. But again, you don't want your blood sugar to bottom out and you're giving yourself insulin because it's your prescription. You just have to be careful and work with a provider.

I totally agree with that. We've actually seen full reversal of type 2 diabetes in our clinic dozens and dozens and dozens of times. So it is absolutely possible. It's not a life sentence to be type 2 diabetic. How often do I have to fast per year to remove of these zombie cells?

You know, that's a good question. I don't know. Wwgd. What would Gary do? I, I at least two to four times a year, personally.

Yeah, yeah, I would absolutely agree with you. Two to four times a year. I do it a minimum of three times a year. Sometimes I do a slightly longer fast. This is my second one this year and I'll probably do another one before the end of the year. I just, I love the way that I feel like sometimes at the end of day three, I actually want to keep it going. I've done four or five just because I felt so good. At the end of day three. You can stop at the end of day three. But when you, when you really start to understand all of the therapeutic benefits of fasting, the magic of the human body, when you actually deprive it of food and make it utilize other resources, you just get addicted to it, for lack of better words. Like, you know, you get addicted to that feeling of feeling amazing. And then if you've had a really guilty run, you know, a long Thanksgiving or a holiday, and you're, you get to the new year and you're like, you know what? I'm going to start the new year by doing something really good. I'm just going to do a three day water fast. And that's why I give this guide so that, you know, after this challenge is over, people can just do this on their own. They can do it with their loved ones, they can do it with their community, or they can do it by themselves. So this person says, I'm currently undergoing immunotherapy for melanoma. So any additional info on fasting and cancer would be appreciated. What should I do? Undergoing immunotherapy for melanoma?

Yeah, I mean, obviously that's going to affect your immune system and so I would do anything to help your body do what it was naturally Created to do. And that's fight off cancer cells, decrease inflammation. And so I would absolutely incorporate fasting. And also it can decrease, like I said, a ton of the side effects. And so if you are having side effects, try implementing and getting creative with fasting, because it really can improve your quality of life as well as your cancer outcome.

So what about a woman that has thyroid issues like Hashimoto's?

Yeah.

Can they do water fast?

Yeah. Okay, so there's a lot of benefits. There's a lot of controversy about thyroid. You hear that too, probably, Gary, of like, oh, I shouldn't do it because I have thyroid issues. But the reality is we have thyroid receptors on almost every single cell in our body. And when we do a fast, you know, we are improving the cell's ability to get that active form of thyroid hormone into the cell. And so, like the liver and the gut, those can be sluggish. And when you do this fast, that can reboot temporarily. You might have a little bit of a decrease in thyroid hormone. But I find that it actually helps improve a lot of people, even if they're on thyroid meds. You know, I find that sometimes you have to decrease the med because you're improving that cellular signal and decreasing inflammation and detoxing as well, which I find so many women are full of toxicity and inflammation. And the fast definitely helps, you know, all of those.

Yeah, I mean, it's. It's. It's amazing. Same thing happens with insulin. We call it, you know, insulin sensitivity versus insulin resistance. So when you're insulin resistant, that means the same amount of insulin is not being utilized properly. The cell is not actually. Is. Is resistant. The receptors are resistant to insulin. And by increasing the sensitivity, it takes less insulin to accomplish the same goal. That is absolutely true with thyroid hormone and thyroid hormone receptors on. On the cell surface. As she so aptly pointed out, every cell in our body has these receptors. When we increase the sensitivity, we actually get the same result with less hormone. And so very often, you know, hypothyroid is a. An exhausted thyroid. You actually spend, you know, your. Your thyroid stimulating hormone. The signaling to the thyroid has been turned up for so long, and it couldn't raise the volume of the music. It's like having a tuner cranking it all the way to 10. And the volume of the music is not rising, making it more sensitive. So as you adjust that tuner, the. The music plays louder, very, you know, goes up or goes down very quickly. That increase in sensitivity is absolutely one of the biggest benefits of Fasting. So will lemon juice break a fast if I drink it with soda water?

I don't know. Do y' all allow citrus in water fast?

Yes. Yeah, we will allow citrus and water fast. You know, nothing that's caloric.

Yeah, I'm a huge fan of it, and it supports that detoxification, especially if people have. Hopefully, people are transitioning out of that. But if you're struggling today and your body's not used to fasting and you're going from that glucose fuel source to ketones, there can be a little bit of that, what they refer to as keto flu. And so hopefully you'll be out of that later today. So, like, hang with it. You're almost there. And then you're like, whoa, I feel amazing. I want to keep going. But lemon water, too, is great for the liver first thing in the morning. And so supporting those detox pathways can be really helpful to help minimize that keto flu, as well as having mineral salt and getting rest and relaxing.

Yeah, I totally agree with you. Okay, we're gonna get to the last few questions. I have a strange metallic taste in my mouth. All day I've seen things say, this is ketosis. Is this true?

Ketosis can give you an interesting taste, and a loved one or friend or someone at work may notice that your breath smells, and that can be part of that trans.

Your loved one notice your breath smells. But yes, absolutely. Changes in your. Changes in your breath and that metallic taste are definitely some of the side effects, and they're perfectly normal of fasting. Just like having loose stools.

As I aptly point out, be proud of your body. Like it's doing something. You should be proud of it.

Change is usually a very positive sign. Is it okay to drink Taylor's electrolytes while doing the fasting? So some of them have your electrolytes?

I would not only because our electrolytes. And again, I love our electrolytes, but when I'm fasting, I use mineral salt or I use, like, ketone, like one of those solutions. The reason why I wouldn't use my electrolytes, and again, I love my electrolytes. I created them. Is because we do use organic fruit juice powder to flavor them. So there's no chemical natural flavors. But there could be. Even if it's like one gram of sugar, I just. I wouldn't do that during a fast. I would focus more on mineral salt, Baja gold, things like that.

Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. Can still do a tablespoon of apple cider. Vinegar in my water. I would say yes.

I would say yes.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So happy to hear that by hrt.

Should.

Should I hold my estrogen patch? Should I. Oh, bioidentical hormone replacement therapy Question. Should I hold my estrogen patch until the fast is over?

Oh, I'm hesitant to tell people what to do with their prescriptions. Gary, what do you think?

Absolutely. If you're on hormones, continue to take your hormones. If you're on medication, continue to take your medication. You know, that's a. Medications usually don't break a fast with very, very, very few exceptions, and hormones don't break a fast. So if you're on hormone therapy, continue.

That and work with your body. Now, if you are on something like steroids long term, that is something that was hard. You know, I have the history of brain cancer and I'm friends with a lot of brain cancer patients in that community, and people would be on steroids post surgery trying to get in ketosis, and that was really hard because that does raise your blood sugar. But generally speaking, most medications are fine to continue and take, and I would encourage you to do that. Ver is just opting out. Yeah.

Taylor, you're amazing. Thank you so much for taking time out of your incredibly busy schedule to share, like, all of this expertise with our ultimate human community. You guys definitely need to watch the podcast that Taylor and I did. It's amazing. We just put the link in the. In the comments below. So, like, just the depth of your knowledge that you brought to this conversation from, you know, specific considerations for women's hormonal health through this approach for people that are dealing with serious health challenges and mental resilience strategies in every area of life. This is exactly why I respect your work so much. So thank you for giving our in our. Your insight to our community. Where can our community find more of your work if they want to continue learning from you?

Well, I'm so passionate about education. So we have a blog online. I'm not a blogger. I'm a nurse practitioner that likes educating. So I have a website, just Taylor DukesWellness.com and then we create a lot of healthy products. And that's@shop.taylor dukes wellness.com and then of course, I love sharing stuff on Instagram. And so passionate. I'm a young mom and so I'm always passionate about finding healthy swaps for my kids. And I just want to encourage you guys. Like, day one's probably the hardest, but some of you that have never done this before, day two is Hard until you get into that full ketosis stage. And so stick with it. You know, I went through cancer treatment. Don't wait until you have a serious disease to start implementing this or sticking with it. Like, do it now. You're stronger than you think, and you can do hard things even when it feels uncomfortable. It's gonna. This physical test is going to stretch you in so many areas of your life. And implementing water fasting for me was a game changer, even though it was hard in the beginning.

Yeah, I totally agree with you. Thank you so much, Taylor.

You're welcome. Thanks for having me. Good luck, everyone. Y' all are gonna do great.

Yeah, we'll talk soon. Thank you so much. Did she, like, I'm fired up after that. Like, she's just so bright and intelligent and. And engaging. You know, I really. I really love her. And her story is incredible. If you actually watch that podcast, how she overcame a glioblastoma, which is an inoperable brain tumor, and she was actually given some very, very sad news, and she just focused on her metabolic health, including fasting, and she was able to actually shrink and get rid of that tumor. She did have some surgery, but it's a really inspiring story. So let me just teach you something that may actually change your entire fasting experience. Okay? And this is the concept of hunger waves. Because understanding this will help you determine whether you succeed today or maybe you Give up by 2 o' clock this afternoon. Hunger is not constant during a fast. That's important to understand. It comes in waves that are completely predictable, and they're also manageable. So a hunger wave hits for about 20 to 30 minutes with really strong hunger sensations. And then it passes and you get a two to three hour reprieve with very minimal, if any, hunger at all. And then you get another hunger wave, 20 to 30 minutes. If you ever actually had this when you got the flu, usually nausea will. Will come in waves. And when the nausea hits, it's brutal. And you sort of ride through the nausea. Sometimes you actually vomit. And then usually afterwards, you feel normal for a few hours, and then it comes back and hits you in waves. So if you're familiar with how that works when you have the seasonal flu, very similar to how hunger waves hit the body. So these are not permanent. So when it hits, just know that you can ride it out for 20 to 30 minutes. Distract yourself, do some breath work, drink a big glass of water, add some Baja Gold sea salt to it, go out for a walk, focus on your emails, do something to Distract yourself and not respond to the hunger signal, because 20 to 30 minutes after it starts, it's going to be over. So that's the incredible part. The waves get smaller and they get shorter as the day progresses because your body's adapting to shifting in ketosis. It's like, hey, are we going to get some food? Okay. No, we're not going to get any food. Hey, are we going to get some food? No, you're still not going to get any food. And then finally, it's like, all right, we're not going to get any food. We're just going to go away. That's literally how hunger works. If you've ever actually showed up to a restaurant and you were voraciously hungry when you arrived, you ordered everything on the menu, and then by the time the food came out, you were no longer hungry, why did that happen? Well, because during that period of time when you, when you arrived to the restaurant, your blood sugar was falling, so you got very, very hungry. By the time the food came out, your blood sugar had fallen, so your body had shut off the hunger. So as your blood sugar bottoms out, you actually stop being hungry. On its way down, you get very hungry. Remember, the liver is still putting sugar into the bloodstream. It's still taking, you know, was taking carbohydrate, storing it as glycogen. Now it's going to take fat and store it as glycogen, but it's still going to produce glucose. So after it throws that glucose into the bloodstream and that glucose level starts to drop, that's where the hunger pang comes in. Ride it out for 20 to 30 minutes. It's an incredible part of conquering a fast. So how do you know that you're entering ketosis and that everything's working perfectly? So here's the positive signs I want you to look for. And these prove that your metabolism is shifting. Okay? The metallic taste in your mouth is very, very common. That is a key sign that you're. You've entered ketosis. A slight fruity breath odor that is also complet normal. Increased mental clarity usually kicks in during the afternoon. So this afternoon you should notice that you have increased mental clarity. Why? Because you're running on ketone bodies. You should see the decrease in appetite, which seems paradoxical, but it's totally expected. Stable energy without the typical 3pm crash is what you should experience today, definitely tomorrow, and an improved mood. Because ketones positively affect neurotransmitters, and neurotransmitters form the basis of mood and emotion. These are not problems to solve. These are victories that we should celebrate. So every single one of those signs means your body is actually successfully making the transition from burning glucose to burning fat and producing premium fuel for your brain and for your body. So let's be completely honest about the challenges you might face today and give you some specific solutions, because preparation is what's going to prevent you from panicking. If you're hungrier today than yesterday, that is completely normal because there's no bone broth to stabilize you. So drink extra water with salt. And remember that hunger comes in waves. You can survive the hunger wave. You'll make it to the other side. If you feel weak or dizzy, it's usually an electrolyte imbalance. So add more Baja Gold sea salt to your water immediately. Sit down. Breathe deeply. Hydrate consistently. If you can't focus at work, this should automatically improve by the afternoon as ketosis deepens. But take an H2 tab in the morning for brain support. And if you feel foggy in the afternoon, you can take another hydrogen water tablet. Neither of these tablets will break a fast. The key is understanding that everything, every challenge has a solution. And every solution is just making you stronger and more resilient. So day two, ultimate humans, you're finally in the elite category. Now, I want you to understand what's happening in your body tonight when you sleep. Remember, ketosis, which is continuing throughout the day, will deepen. So it's going to reach levels that provide incredible mental clarity. Tomorrow morning, maximum growth hormone is going to be released. Remember that study we Talked about a 10x10 fold increase in growth hormone that's going to accelerate, accelerate the cellular repair process. Your body's going to continue to burn fat for fuel while you rest. So the longer you fat fast, the more fat you're going to burn. Accelerated cellular cleanup will work overnight to rebuild stronger, healthier cells. And perhaps most importantly, you might wake up tomorrow knowing you conquered day two, which is the hardest part of any fast that is so important for you to mentally know that you can do hard things. So tomorrow is our final day conquering the final stretch. Day three, where we maximize the benefits and we prepare for successful refeed eating vip. Stay with me for advanced protocols that most people never learn before our VIP community continues for advanced training and this personalized guidance. I just need to address something critical that for everybody that's still watching what we are about to cover in this exclusive VIP session. It goes far beyond basic fasting protocols. We're going to dive into advanced metabolic optimization strategies, personalized troubleshooting for your specific biochemistry. And I'm going to give you recovery protocols that elite program performers use to maximize and control stress and mental training techniques that'll build unbreakable resilience for you in every area of your life. So our VIP members also get a three day guide that I did to prepare them for the comprehensive refeeding and exclusive access to resources that are going to ensure the long term success and changes in their lifestyle. So if you're serious about maximizing this experience, my my challenges will always be free. There will never be something behind a paywall and I will never hide information behind a paywall. This is just a chance for us to interact more directly and personally and be a part of this community. So if you're ready to join the vip, I really encourage you to join it right now. You probably saw some of the comments in the chat about the experience that people are having. You have nothing to lose. You can join for a month and quit if you don't get value. But I promise you, this is what I pour myself into. I am building a community of like minded people to change the world. I really believe that. So I will see my VIPs in 15 minutes. Take a break, grab some water, use the restroom. And for all of you guys, I will see you back tomorrow at noon. Please stick with this. You're almost halfway through this challenge. You can do it. You can do hard things. I'll see you all tomorrow at noon. VIPs I'll see you in 15 minutes. That.