872. How Intermittent Fasting Can Help You Level Up, Gain More Energy And Reduce Your Cravings With Expert Cynthia Thurlow

Thanks to Indeed for supporting Earn. You're happy. Indeed makes it easy to connect with your applicants. No need to install anything extra. Indeed's virtual interviews work from your browser. Start hiring right now with a 75 sponsored job credit. To upgrade your job post@ Indeed.com Happy offer valid through April 30th and thanks to BetterHelp for supporting Earn your Happy. For 10% off your first month, go to BetterHelp.com Lori Start living a Better life today.

We're not many men and so we have to fast a little bit differently than men do. And to do it in a way that really leans into what makes us unique and not feeling like we have to apologize. That's one of the things I talk about a lot, is that women are conditioned to apologize for what makes us unique when in essence we should embrace it.

Hey everyone, welcome back to the show. I hope that you are already off to an amazing start for the morning. Really thinking about what you're saying to yourself in your head and I'm just going to start reminding you that whatever you are finishing this sentence with is how you are going to be feeling and focusing for the day. I am blank. Just a reminder that if you're saying I'm overwhelmed, I'm tired, I'm exhausted, we get more of that. So whenever I feel that way, I catch it right away and say I am so blessed. I am so grateful for a day full of things that potentially move me forward. I am so grateful to be needed. So many different reframes, you guys, and the faster that you do that, the more you'll notice. You just get more energy. It's just the truth. I also observe that when I'm really, really in my head, I look down at the ground a lot. Or I notice that when I'm in gratitude and I'm in wonder of what the day could hold, just in deep gratitude for the day and just excitement over what could happen. And that's a big reframe I know to go from zero to a hundred. But I'm looking up. So I even try to inform my body language by looking up instead of staring down on my walks or even when I'm walking around the house. So let's jump into our guest today. I'm really excited because intermittent fasting is something that I have done for I'm so bad with timing, but I think it's been like seven years potentially and it's really changed my life and it's not for everyone. And I'm also not crazy rigid with It. So if there's days where I'm like, sister needs to eat, I'm gonna eat something. But I can say that for sure about five days a week. I intermittent fast, which I don't eat food until about between 10:30 and 12. So with that, I'm not someone who's also crazy strict with it, where I'll have a little bit of coffee creamer or almond milk in my coffee. So you guys, we go into this in depth and why we love it so much. That's why I had to have her on. And her name is Cynthia Thurlow. She is a nurse practitioner, CEO and founder of Everyday Wellness Project, and an international speaker with over 10 million views for her second TEDx talk, Intermittent Fasting Transformational Technique. With over 20 years experience in health and wellness, she's a globally recognized expert in intermittent fasting and nutritional health. She's developed this intermittent fasting plan after entering her 40s and experiencing a health breakdown. And intermittent fasting didn't just help her lose weight, but she had more energy, fewer cravings, and lower blood glucose levels. And that's exactly why I started was because of my energy and because of my insane cravings, I could not get it figured out. And when I started intermittent fasting, it was just for me. So it took me about 30 days to really get into it. And I just found my energy went through the roof. My mood was so much better and it allowed me to eat more at dinner is really what I was after. I just wanted to be able to sit and eat whatever I wanted. So there is context to that. Listen in on the podcast and let's get started.

All right, Cynthia, I'm so excited to have you on the show. Thank you so much for coming on.

Thanks for having me. I've been looking forward to this discussion.

Oh, I'm so excited. I was telling you right before this, her and I had a really good, really great chat for about 10 minutes before, before we jumped on about all the things. And you know, it's so fun is always to just realize that we are all the same, aren't we? We're all dealing with the same things in life. We're all overwhelmed by the same things. We're all trying to figure out the same thing. So I also love this topic. You have become known as the intermittent fasting expert. You have many other things that you do and that you also have expertise on, but this is something that you really are talking about right now with your new book, the Intermittent Fasting Trans. Congratulations on that. By the way, and I would love to hear for people who don't know your background, if you could give us a little bit of background on how you got here to writing this book. You kind of mentioned it a little bit before on how you didn't necessarily expect this, but here we are.

Yeah. Thank you for that warm welcome. I think the beginning really starts in that I've always been in an occupation of service to others. I started as a inner City Baltimore ER nurse, transitioned into cardiology as an MP for 16 years. After I became a parent and had a child with life threatening food allergies. It just really caused me tremendous pause about this interrelationship between nutrition and health and starting to ask some questions that made my colleagues a little uncomfortable and so really became this transformational journey for myself. I had my second child. I started reading certain books that started to get me questioning everything. Robin o' Brien's book the Unhealthy Truth is probably what started it all for me. And initially I thought, oh, maybe I'll do a doctoral program. And I hated that. And then I did a wellness coaching program and that didn't light me up. And then I read another book called Ethiopia. I don't even remember the name of the author, but I reached out to her and said, where did you get your training? It's so completely the antithesis of everything I learned as a clinician, but felt like it really resonated with me. And so I did that program and then I hit the wall of perimenopause, as I like to share, and that changed everything. All of a sudden. The really intense job where I was in the ICU in the ER managing very acutely sick patients, and the husband who was doing a lot of international travel and two small kids and too much exercise, not enough sleep. And so anyway, I set myself up for the perfect storm to hit a wall and I kind of came to intermittent fasting. Out of curiosity, I read another book by Jason Fung, the Complete Guide of Fasting. And that gave me the courage as a clinician to really feel confident that there was a lot of solid science behind it. And so initially I told my husband I didn't want to work anymore as an allopathic trained np. And I without a business plan, I don't recommend this. Without a business plan. Left a six figure job to become an entrepreneur and just told my husband blindly. I was like, I know that I will be successful. And of course he thought I was crazy, but now he thinks differently. And so I really almost instantaneously started attracting a specific type of woman, women that felt like their needs are not being met in the current medical model. And from there, I kind of evolved this business. And to get to what got me to where I am today. I'm an introvert, and I did a lot of public speaking as a nurse practitioner within my community. But I said to my husband, I really feel called to do a TED Talk because it's a safe challenge. It's something that, as an introvert, would be terrifying, but in a very safe way. And so in 2018, I wrote a bunch of applications. And for anyone that's listening, if you're familiar or not familiar with the process, it's really a numbers game. Eventually you're going to hit enough applications that you'll get some offers. And so I was initially given an offer to speak in Toronto. And around that time, I was offered a second talk, ironically in the state that I was born in. And so I felt a tremendous calling to do this. And so I did my first talk. I went away with my husband on vacation. I came back and ended up spending 13 days in the hospital where I nearly died. And when I was in the hospital, the two things I thought about were getting home to my family. And number two, I was going to do this talk. I felt so compelled. And so 27 days after I left the hospital, I did this second TED Talk that went viral in May of 2019. And so that then opened up a lot of opportunities, never realizing I would ever write a book. The irony is that when that talk went viral, my team and I scrambled to create content. I mean, so quickly, because all of a sudden, people were coming to me, I want to learn how to fast. How do I do this? And so the basis of that book is really several years worth of work fine tuning a program that women can implement that honors their own physiology and honors them as we're not many men. And so we have to fast a little bit differently than men do, and to do it in a way that really leans into what makes us unique and not feeling like we have to apologize. That's one of the things I talk about a lot, is that women are conditioned to apologize for what makes us unique, when, in essence, we should embrace it. So that's how I've gotten to where I am today. And I was able to write that book in the midst of a pandemic. Two children, homeschooling, and all sorts of other things. And I just recall my mentor saying, just leap, because at this point, you have no excuse not to do it. And I'm so glad that I took that chance.

Oh, I love that. I mean, there's so many things that I just took away from that. But one of the biggest things, just because it's what we talk about on this podcast, is you mentioned you had a mentor who was kind of helping you write that book. What were some things that you had to let go of, some beliefs that you had to let go of in order for you to take that leap?

Oh, gosh. I think perfectionism, I think, you know, that's something that's probably innate to most of us because I could never make it perfect. I had to let go of that. I think I also had to let go of identifying myself in one bucket. I think it's so easy for us say, well, I'm a nurse practitioner and I'm this and I'm that. But it was the realization that it's so much more, that it's so profoundly transformational to have the ability to put into words a way that you can connect and communicate with so many other people who maybe don't have the ability to work with you one on one. So I would say from a lot of perspectives, it's the perfectionism. It's recognizing that it doesn't have to be perfect and getting those ideas on paper. Like, I remember. And this. I'm not kidding. There was a night I could not get started. I was like, I could not figure out where to start this book.

And.

And I woke up in the middle of the night and this is funny. Slash. It's nerdy. I was like, mitochondria, I need to talk about mitochondria. It was like, that was my breakthrough. I had to get to that point that I was like, this is where I start. This is where I can start this book. So having been someone that did a thesis in college and in graduate school, I really was not looking forward to the process. But I actually found the process, once I got started was not nearly as arduous as I had anticipated it to be. And that was a tremendous relief. I think, in my mind, I wasn't going to enjoy writing the book. And therefore, that would then cloud the ability to do other books or to consider doing something like this before. But in many ways, I really feel that it's. When we are given adversity, we have opportunities. And so I've lived my life taking maybe not ideal circumstances and turning it into tremendous opportunities. So that mindset switch, I think, is critically important. And so many of us don't realize that it's very easy to make excuses as opposed to just saying, you know, I have to slog. Like, things are not meant to be easy all the time. That's how we grow as individuals. And so I feel like I'm not even the person I was two years ago because this book writing process has taught me so much about resiliency and just grit. Because, as you know, it's really hard to sit for a chunk of time every day and be really disciplined about writing a book, because there are a thousand things I'd rather do. Could be as simple as, like, binging on Netflix, which I'm embarrassed to admit I do on occasion. But I think it's important to just recognize that it is effort, but not necessarily not effort. That's not worth it. And so I'm a big believer in the path less traveled. It's very easy to make excuses for not doing things. But when we embrace adversity again, it opens up the opportunity for tremendous growth.

Oh, so good. Give us a little bit of an idea about what that process looked like for the people who have the kids at home and are trying to do the project or. I know you talked about, you know, moving and just different things going on in your life. So how did you find some space? How did you create space within the chaos to get this done every day?

I think I'm the type of person that is very. I can be very disciplined. And so I knew for myself there were certain things I needed to do. I needed to exercise every day. That was a non negotiable. I had to take my dogs for walks because connecting with nature was very grounding for me and for anyone that's. That's listening to this. We sold our home in Washington D.C. in September of 2020. We moved into our first rental in September of 2020. We moved into our second rental in June of 2021, and then moved into our house that we were building in August of 2021. So along the way, there were a million distractions that I could have easily just fallen into. So my kind of methodology was I had to commit to doing a certain amount of writing every day. And then I would have something, I would do something fun, but I do better in the morning. So I would get up, I would exercise, I would shower because I think it's important to like be in your body and to just acknowledge, okay, I've showered. I mean, now I'm ready to kind of sit down. And so I would turn notifications off of my Phone, I would close, email, I would just sit down and just write. And so sometimes that writing process could just be a brain dump. It could be I researched something the day before and now I have to kind of paraphrase what I've learned, put in my research articles, and then kind of continue writing. But a lot of what I did for me was I had to commit myself to spending several hours doing something and then get up and go outside. And that was kind of what I did throughout that process. And amongst this, my husband, who should be bronze for sainthood, manage this new build, which was a big, gigantic headache for anyone that's doing any construction right now. My heart goes out to you because it's 5,000 times more challenging than it probably was pre pandemic. So from my perspective, it was just being really disciplined about taking care of me. I think self care is not selfish. And whether that was meditation, whether that was doing yoga, which we weren't doing in a studio because the past two years have been challenging, really finding ways to calm the sympathetic nervous system so that I wouldn't be in fight or flight, so I wouldn't be like anxious and thinking of all the things. It's like, okay, we have to be in the right frame of mind to be able to think thoughtfully. And you can't be in that sympathetic dominant nervous system and be able to write thoughtfully because you're then thinking about all the things. So I had to work very hard because I am a very kind of methodical, type A person. But it was very challenging to stay in the moment and do the writing, get it done, take a break, go out and do something and then come back. And then, to be honest with you, because my kids for most of this process were home taking school. They're at the time middle and high school students. The great blessing for me was that they were old enough that they could get on their computers and get their work done. And they're good students, they're good kids. I think it would have been more challenging if they had been in a different life stage. I probably would have had more mom guilt than I was already expecting experiencing. But to their credit, they were really supportive, as was my husband. And so it was five to six months of really not doing as much socially. Well, most of us weren't doing a whole lot socially, but not seeing as much of family and friends, you know, the limited amount of social stuff that we were doing. But I do think it was the blessing of this was that I was forced to focus if it had been Pre pandemic, it might have been a little bit more challenging because I would have had more things on my plate, more things to do versus being in a virtual world like we are right now, where, you know, if you're just at home, you can kind of put your blinders on and focus. Whereas if it had been, you know, 2019, 2018, when I was writing this book, it might have been a bit more challenging. So that's a bit about the process. But it's interesting to me, like retrospectively, how did I do it? I just, it was the grind. Like, it's like when I was taking, you know, pre med classes, it was a grind. You know, there's a lot of places along my path in my life when I've just had to grind it out. And it's a. I hate to use that word, but there's just a process of just have to do it. Like, just do it. You don't love it, get it done. And then you can look back and go, oh my gosh, look at what I accomplished.

2026 is the year that you launch your business. It's the year that you've become the boss, you become the leader. That idea that you have that has been eating at you forever that just will not leave you alone is going to, to come to life. Maybe it's something that someone tells you you should always sell or a store you've already designed in your head. And with Shopify, 2026 is when you finally make it happen. Shopify gives you everything you need to sell online and in person. Millions of entrepreneurs have already made the sleep from household name to first time business owners. Just getting started, you guys. I use Shopify for glossy and I remember when they sent me my little shopping bag celebrating my 10,000 sales and I literally cried. I was so scared to take the leap and I'm so glad that I did and that I use Shopify. It gives you all the tools to easily build your dream store. You can choose from hundreds of beautiful templates that you can customize to match your brand setup is fast with Shopify's built in AI tools that write product descriptions and headlines and help you edit photos. So marketing is built in too. You can create email and social campaigns that reach customers or wherever they scroll. So as you grow, Shopify grows with you. You can handle more orders, expand to new markets, and do it all from the Same dashboard in 2026. Stop waiting and start selling with Shopify. Sign up for your one per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com happy go to shopify.com happy that's shopify.com happy here your first Cha Ching this new year with Shopify by your side, too many people finish their workday feeling frustrated, drained and unfulfilled. I know that. I have experienced that myself. And the good news is it doesn't have to be this way and you don't need a new job to fix it. Patrick Lencioni, author of the Five Dysfunctions of a Team and more than a dozen other bestsellers, created the Working Genius assessment to help you pinpoint the kind of work that gives you energy, the kind that lights you up, and it also shares the kind that drains it. So over a million people, including me, have taken it and completely changed how I lead and show up every day. If you're a CEO, an entrepreneur, or someone who just wants to level up in business and in life, Working Genius is going to give you the clarity and confidence to operate in your strengths and find greater joy in what you do. Because confidence isn't pretending to be good at everything. It's knowing where you're truly, truly gifted. Take the Working Genius assessment today and get 20% off with code earn@workinggenius.com that's working genius dot com. You'll be glad you did it.

Hey, question. Are you feeling as stressed and overwhelmed as I was trying to get good people into your company? Let me tell you, you can take away all of that stress with the right partner. It's time to go to the next level with a hiring partner that makes it simple to find candidates with the right skills. And that's indeed. Indeed is the hiring partner where you can attract, interview and hire all in one place. And making sure you spend your time finding interviewing candidates that are a right fit for your team is critical. Indeed is a powerful hiring partner that can help you do it all. They partner with you on every step of the hiring process so you're never lost or unsure of how to execute. Finding and hiring your new team member so you can find great talent through time saving tools like Indeed instant match assessments and virtual interviews. The coolest feature, I think is their assessments. It's so genius because you can have candidates take assessment tests specific to the skills that you're looking for. Indeed helps you see your top talent's abilities faster with their 135 assessment tests to choose from, focusing on all different skills ranging from cooking to coding. Indeed, assessments help take the stress out of the interview process. Your candidates don't need to prove themselves again and again and you can dive deeper into talking about what's important to you and your business. No other job site takes care of you like Indeed. Because with Indeed, you only have to pay if applicants meet your requirements. It's time for a hiring partner that can help you rise to the challenge, and that's Indeed. Start hiring right now with a $75 sponsored job credit. To upgrade your job post at Indeed.com happy offer valid through April 30, go to Indeed.com happy to claim your $75 credit before April 30, Indeed.com happy terms and conditions apply. Need to hire you? Need Indeed.

While I was listening to you, I did so many of those things and self care for me had always been like it had to be the first thing that I did. Meaning the workout or the dogs. I know that you have. I think you have two doodles.

Yes, yes, yes.

I had a doodle. I have a sheep. A doodle as well. We're doodle moms over here. We all like, yes, we bond very quickly over that. But it was so important for the dog walk in the workout for me. Otherwise, I just. It's almost as if you need to like burn off that layer of overwhelm and frustration. That's what working out does for me. It just kind of gets me to a level, like you said, where I can then be calm and think and feel ready. So for anybody listening, whether you are writing a book or you're taking on a project, I've done so many podcasts. At this point, we're almost at a thousand podcasts. It's a common theme among people who have gotten it done. Whatever it is, whether that's the book or a big project, is literally exactly what you said. You find that process of taking care of yourself first, making sure you get that exercise and food is a really big part of it too. So we're going to talk a lot about that because majority I was telling you of the listeners are goal getters. They're people who are either wanting to get better in their career or they're entrepreneurs or they're going over after a big project. So, you know, that's the perfect segue to say food is going to be one of the biggest things that supports you. It's also one of the biggest things it used to be for me, and I know for a lot of people it still is. Which is why this conversation will be so good is one of the biggest blocks. Because it's taking up so much time and energy. Because they're thinking about it so much. What'll finally work for me, what'll finally give me that energy, what'll finally stop these food cravings? Because food can be such a control controlling part of our day. That's why I was so excited to have you on, is because when I found intermittent fasting, I felt like I finally gained control over my life eating. Like I could start eating whatever I wanted more throughout the day and I had way more energy and I didn't feel controlled by food. It was the first thing that actually worked for me. So I've been doing it for quite a while, probably maybe six or seven years now. So I would love to hear number one, why don't we kind of talk about why. I know you spoke about how you found intermittent fasting, but tell us more about why intermittent fasting.

Well, I think when you really reflect on the fact that this is not a new or novel concept, that it's really dates back to biblical times, it's part of all the major religions and we would not be here as a species if we could not go through periods of food scarcity. You look at the processed food industry, the rise of the processed food industry, and the fact that we live in this hedonistic environment where food is more than plentiful and food like substances are more than plentiful. I think we have unfortunately taught our patients, our clients, whomever, that eating many meals and snacks is the way to maintain a healthy lifestyle. And I would in fact argue that that has contributed to the degree of metabolic disease and obesity that we have here in the United States. And so for me, intermittent fasting is really a way for patients and clients to have control over helping to balance hormones in a beneficial way, not in a scary woo woo way. It's a way to really honor our bodies the way they are designed to thrive and not to just be surviving. Like, think about how many people you know, whether it's someone you went to high school with or college or a colleague. And honest to God, I hear this so frequently, well, this is just the way things are. And I'm like, no, this is not the way our bodies are meant to be at this stage of life. And so you're very right that for a lot of people, you know, eating less frequently allows them to feel fully satiated as they become fat adapted. They have so much more energy, they have lowered insulin levels, they have all this mental clarity. And that's another reason why I could completely fire through a couple hours in the morning was because my brain was utilizing a special Type of ketone beta hydroxybutyrate, which diffuses across the blood brain barrier, which is why we feel so great while we're in a fasted state. And so really honoring our bodies and acknowledging that when we can keep those insulin levels low, when we can actually tap into fat stores for energy, we're going to be much more efficient. We're going to have sustained energy between meals, we're going to be able to lose weight more easily. We're not going to have energy slumps. How many people listening go through energy slumps in the middle of the afternoon? And what do they do? They reflexively go get a fatty coffee or a coffee drink, they get a candy bar, they get something and it's really because they're not properly fueling their bodies. So the other piece of the coin is that with fasting, oftentimes, if people are doing it properly, they are then fueling their bodies properly because they want to maximize the results that they're getting. So they're going to really focus on protein and healthy fats and non starchy carbohydrates as a starting point. And then depending on who you are, how active you are, how metabolically flexible you are, you can make further adjustments. So to me, intermittent fasting improves mental clarity, reduces inflammation and oxidative stress. It evokes this scientific principle called autophagy, which for anyone that has never heard of that before, it's really a waste and recycling process in the body. It's kind of like your body is taking out the trash. It gets rid of what doesn't belong. And over the last two years, if we've learned nothing else, we want to make sure that we are optimizing our health to stay as well and preventative wellness as much as possible. So to me, it's a win win on so many levels. The challenge, I think, is that we are part of a huge diet culture that encourages people to do quick fixes, to do things that are non sustainable, to exercise till they're miserable. Everything's to an extreme. And so I like to introduce strategies that women can do for the rest of their lives, not just for the next two to three weeks, and make them completely non sustainable. So I love that you have been doing fasting for several years and obviously enjoy a lot of the benefits. But I think many, many women feel similarly to you, that it was when they started fasting that they felt so much better, that they felt like they had finally kind of gotten on top of whatever cravings or food concerns they had. I Think at a lot of levels. It allows people to really tune into intrinsically the way their information, their body is trying to give them in a proactive manner as opposed to saying, okay, it's 8 o' clock in the morning, I eat breakfast and okay, it's 10 o', clock, I need to have that granola bar. And oh, it's 12 o'.

Clock.

So I'm going to eat, but I'm going to eat this big carbohydrate late in lunch and then I'm going to want to take a nap an hour later. And so this constant swing of blood sugar and cravings and not realizing that we're really doing it to ourselves based on the foods we choose to eat and how frequently we're eating.

Oh, I love this. I can't wait to like really dive in. And, you know, you just made me kind of have an epiphany. I've gotten really into an intuitive place of eating where some days I won't eat till 5pm because I am not hungry. But other days, and I always notice, it's funny because I'll always notice it's around my period, right before my period, and I won't, I won't realize it at the time, right? Like I'm one of those women who are like, oh, here it is. I had no idea that it was coming, but it's always right before. And I allow myself, though I typically am like, okay, if I'm feeling this way, it might be around this, it's probably around this time. And I've allowed myself to really, I don't want to say give in to that, but feed myself, be like, okay, you're hungry for a reason, eat. Like, I can actually tell. I actually know when I really need food and when I don't. Which is an insane thing for me to say. If you would have asked me that 10 years ago, I would have never believed you that I could have even said this type of thing. Like, I would have felt like I needed to be so regimented. So with that said, I would love to know, why don't we start off just with energy and mood? If you could give us a few reasons why this will help us with our energy and mood.

Well, I would say first and foremost, the bulk of the neurotransmitters in our body are actually produced in our gut and not our brain. I think it's anywhere from, depending on which source, you're looking at 70 to 85%. So if you are allowing yourself to make better food choices, and you're having some degree of digestive rest. Digestive rest I affectionately refer to as like more than 12 hours of not eating food, you are going to have the opportunity to produce better neurotransmitters, you know, things that impact mood. Serotonin is a big one. Dopamine. Dopamine is one of those things that we get from, you know, little hits of, you know, whether it's like looking at our phone or certain types of sugary beverage, anything sugary will actually drive dopamine. But we know we are going to make healthier neurotransmitters. We're going to actually be more protective of gut microbiome. There's a lot that goes on in terms of the epithelial layer within the lining of our gut that can really be improved upon even within a 24 hour period of time. So acknowledging that you're going to improve gut health, but in terms of energy, it really is understanding that when we eat food, our glucose levels, depending on what we've consumed, will go up. And very appropriately, our body will secrete insulin to bring them back down. Now, if you had a very carbohydrate dense diet, you're going to get a much larger, more magnified secretion of insulin. However, if you eat protein with fat or protein with carbs, it's going to kind of blunt that impact. And so when our insulin levels are low, when we're in a fasted state, we actually will. And as we get to a point where we're able to flex between using carbohydrates or fats as an energy source, and we use the term fat adapted, our body will actually go in and break down stored fat to use as energy. And one of those stored fats will actually diffuse across the blood brain barrier. So I talked about beta hydroxybutyrate and this is amazing because our brains, surprisingly, people assume it's sugar. Our brains actually love fat. Fat is a really efficient form of fuel. You want to think about fat is a big log on a fire versus carbohydrates are kindling. So they're not going to have the same degree of energy resources that are available. But that mental clarity will provide a tremendous amount of brain power, brain boosting, and also consistent energy because you're using it a much more efficient fuel source. Again, fats are the, you know, the fuel, the big logs on the fire. So you want to be using fat as a primary fuel source. And I think, you know, those two things like really acknowledging that when we are in a fasted state. We use a much more efficient form of fuel. We also give our bodies an opportunity to have a bit more digestive rest. There's all sorts of cool nerdy scientific things that go on in the gut when we're in an unfed state. But I always like to reflect on the neurotransmitters piece because food and mood are dramatically interrelated. You know, I think about the fact that, you know, over the years I prescribed antidepressants which work on the brain and actually we should be focusing on the food that we are encouraging our patients to eat because that is a much more profound impact on the way that our food and how the food impacts our mood and then ultimately how we feel about ourselves and we interact with others and in our environment.

There are so many challenges to business that I don't want starting to be one of them for you and when you want more when you're starting a business, you need Northwest Registered Agent because you get access to thousands of free guides, tools and legal forms to help you launch and protect your business and it's all in one place. You can build your complete business this identity with Northwest today. Northwest Registered Agent has been helping small business owners and entrepreneurs launch and grow business for nearly 30 years. They're the largest registered agent and LLC service in the US with over 1500 corporate guides. Real people who know your local laws and can help you and your business every step of the way. You can sign up for free account to begin managing your business hub with lawyer, drafted operating agreements, bylaws, resolutions, membership certificates, bills of sale and more at no cost. Northwest makes life easy for business owners. They don't just help you form your business, they give you the free tools you need after you form it, like operating agreements, meeting minutes and thousands of how to guides that explain the complicated ins and outs of running a business. And let me tell you, you this is life changing because I had no idea how much went into this. So don't wait, protect your privacy, build your brand and get your complete business Identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes. Visit www.northwestregisteredagent.com forward/earn free and start building something amazing. Get more with Northwest registered agent at www.northwestregisteredagent.com forward/earfree.

Hey, my goal for this podcast is to normalize not feeling normal all the time. So if you've been feeling unmotivated lately where maybe your mood and attitude is getting in the way of achieving your goals, it's okay to understand that you're a complex human and there's likely something deeper going on. If you've been feeling this, then I would definitely look into Better Help. Better Help will assess your needs and match you with your own licensed professional therapist where you connect in a safe and private online environment. Because Better Help is online, you have quick and easy access to your match therapist without the hassle or commute or having to drive to an office or wait in an uncomfortable waiting room. Simply schedule your therapy session in between your client meetings so you can take a much needed break to care for your mental health. I am such a verbal processor, you guys, that if you are too, this can be huge for you. It's important to note that BetterHelp works just like a typical therapist's office. Anything you share is confidential. You also have access to your counselor whenever you need it. You can schedule weekly video or phone sessions and send a message to your counselor at any time. BetterHelp also offers a broad range of expertise which may not be locally available in many areas such as depression, stress and anxiety, relationships and family conflicts, sleeping difficulty, and so much more. I look at therapy like I look at fitness meditation or taking a shower. It's important to include it into your weekly or daily routine, especially if you're feeling this way and don't have a place to process. Therapy is simply essential for so many people and BetterHelp makes it easy, accessible and affordable. Start living a happier Life today. Get 10% off off your first month@betterhelp.com Lori Join over 1 million people who've taken charge of their mental health. That's Better Help h e l p.com Lori for 10% off your first month thanks better Help.

I got to a place in my life where I started to learn how food made me feel. So I would look at something, whether it was, you know, processed carbs or something. It was easy for me to label it in terms of mood rather than in terms of calories or this is going to make me feel bad. It was like, oh, that makes me feel anxious. That makes me feel depressed. I made choices based off that, which was a lot easier than being like, yeah, but it's so good. I was like, do I want to feel anxious and depressed for the rest of the day? Because I noticed the direct correlation. Give me a giant Starbucks coffee with sugar in it and I'm going to be a total psycho. Like, do I want to drink that? No, I don't.

So, but that's a really powerful realization to make. I think a lot of people either it's a great degree of cognitive dissonance. Like they're just not comfortable with that realization. But when you do, it's so profound. I'll give you an example. I've never been a big alcohol drinker. I had a father that was an alcoholic. But during the pandemic, obviously we're not doing a whole lot socially. I said to my husband, like, I really only drank alcohol when we were at parties or at to dinner with friends. So I wasn't really drinking alcohol at home. And I said, it just no longer serves me. So I just cut it out. Because for me it started getting to a point where whenever I would drink alcohol it would mess up my sleep so badly. And I'm so protective of my sleep that I finally said, you know, I think this is my golden opportunity to say I'm going to let go of something that no longer serves me. Much to your point about acknowledging those interrelationships with certain types of foods, combinations of foods that make you feel like crap. Like I'll give everyone the best example. I don't do well with like flours of any kind. Like I've been gluten free for a long time, but even gluten free baked goods, they taste delicious. I can't seem to moderate. Therefore I would say if you can't moderate, eliminate. And they don't make me feel good because they bring my blood sugar up and then they bring it back down so quickly. Because flour is such a processed ingredient that for a lot of people we don't have the buffer of like, you know, if you eat a sweet potato, you have a little bit of fiber, it's going to slow down the absorption versus flour is like directly into your bloodstream. And so I think that for each one of us, if we're honest about what service or doesn't serve us, it's really empowering. And that kind of intuitive or intuition or intuitive eating is a really great starting point for a lot of people that, you know, maybe before they weren't aware of it, or maybe they just thought nothing of the food they were eating. They just said, okay, if it's in the grocery store, it's healthy. If it's in a box, it's healthy. And then you have this realization that if it's in a box, a bag or a can, it probably has been highly processed to get it in that state. And maybe that doesn't serve you. And let me be clear, like I eat fun foods on occasion. But just the point being, like the acknowledgement that Sometimes the foods we want to eat no longer serve us.

Oh my gosh. Especially when you and everyone who's listening to this. When you start wanting to uplevel, it takes all the energy that you have and you can get more by really learning what you're eating and what works for you. And yes, I just want to also say to everybody listening, I absolutely fall off the wagon, do all the things. But it's just, it feels very different now because I also know that that is a part of it too. So having grace for yourself around that, just hitting on mood one more time. I guess that I'll ask specifically for myself because I know everyone else will have this question as well. Sometimes we can wake up and think that we're doing all the right things, but you can wake up and you're like, why do I feel kind of depressed today? Or blue even though I ate the same, I didn't drink, I'm eating. Like I feel like I'm doing all the right things. I don't think it's anything going on in my life. But you can feel so drastically different from day to day. Is there anything that you hit on in your book around of more consistent feelings, maybe around managing your mood?

Well, I think just as an example, like women as they go through their menstrual cycle and you know, when estrogen predominates in the first half and progesterone predominates in the second half, I do see women at different points throughout their menstrual cycle having more episodes of just feeling, especially the premenstrual time period. Maybe they don't have enough circulating progesterone. So like really leaning into that, you know, looking at. And for me, I come at from it as a clinician, like get tested, know what your levels are so that you have a starting point. Maybe you're someone that just needs to, you know, really lean into better balancing your blood sugar to help with your mood. Maybe it's really making better food choices. Maybe you need a little bit of progesterone the week before your menstrual cycle because your progesterone's low. And that tends to be our hormone that is more anti anxiety antidepressant. It's meant to be like our happy hippie hormone. And when it's not adequate levels, that can really exacerbate things. So I usually think about hormones when someone is saying I'm feeling like a little out of sorts. It's like, where are you in your menstrual cycle? Like leaning into that as a starting point, but also acknowledging that the week before your menstrual cycle. And I do talk about this. We don't want to be fasting. We don't want to be doing more than 12 to 13 hours. You mentioned you noticed you're really struggling, and you're like, oh, I get my period in a couple days. It's just the acknowledgment that it's our body's innate way of telling us this is not a point to be. We're not in a food scarcity mindset. We need a little bit more calories, maybe a little bit more carbohydrate. Maybe we need to go to bed earlier. Maybe we need to figure out how to better support progesterone, which is that predominant hormone in that second half of the menstrual cycle. And so that's typically where I start from. Always kind of leaning into, like, food and mood are always an interrelationship. And then the other layer is blood sugar. Because if your blood sugar is low or if you're having labile blood sugar that's up and down, that can certainly impact your mood in a negative way. Making sure you're getting enough sleep. I mean, these are all things that are not super sexy. Making sure you're managing your stress right kind of exercise. Because how many women do you know that over exercise instead of, you know, being kind to their bodies and saying, okay, week before my period, I need to be doing more yoga, I need to be doing more barre. I need to be backing off of, like, intense hiit and not doing, you know, really intense strength training. Like, maybe that's not the day to go doing CrossFit. Maybe it's the day to walk outside in nature with your dogs. And so really being more attuned. And this is information that I definitely did not have when I was younger. And so, yeah, we definitely dive into this in the book because I think it's so important for women to not feel like they have to apologize because they have a period. Like, we. It's part of life, you know, like, someone said to me the other day that she was somehow, like, completely disappointed that her menstrual cycle was going to start on vacation. And I was like, who cares? Like, you know, don't not go on vacation and not enjoy yourself. Like, that's so silly. Like, just kind of lean into. This is like, I have to think about one extra variable when I'm traveling. But beyond that, you're completely in a good place.

I'm so excited to read the book because it's just the more that I can learn as I get older, I'm like, work with the thing, work with your body. So excited to read about that. Okay, so we've talked about energy, we've talked about mood. Let's talk about how this balances food cravings.

Well, I mean, I think it really goes back to the fact that you are. Well, in my mind, when I'm teaching people how to intermittent fast, we remove the snacks and then we go to restructuring macros. And for anyone that's listening, protein, fat and carbohydrates. Protein is the most satiating macronutrient. So we really focus on making sure we're hitting our protein macros. And for anyone that's listening that maybe is not as familiarized with this terminology, I eat anywhere from 40 to 50 grams of protein at a sitting, so that that completely, you know, shuts off my satiety. Hormones are met. Like, I'm full. I don't want to go looking for more food. I probably will have some non starchy vegetables. Maybe if I have ribeye, I don't have the added fats. If it's chicken, I might add some fats to what I'm eating. But it's really that simple that you are eating for satiety. Like that is the key, that is the goal, and that shuts down those cravings. Now, that doesn't mean that the week before your menstrual cycle, you might not have a craving or two, but it's really your body's innate way of trying to ensure you're getting a little more magnesium, perhaps having a little bit more carbohydrate, the right kind of carbohydrates, not five cupcakes in a sitting. But what I feel is really particularly beneficial about intermittent fasting is that when you restructure those macros, you then know, like, I need to hit these protein macros. And depending on whether or not protein is consistent with every meal, but it's always the lever. Like, is it a higher carbohydrate day? Is it a higher fat day? Like, really understanding that, you know, you want to be structuring the meals, either protein and fat predominantly, or protein and carbs. That is the way to keep yourself satiated. That is certainly the way to better balance your blood sugar. And most of us eat too many carbs, too many of the wrong fats, and not enough protein. And so you set yourself up for having blood sugar dysregulation, for having cravings. For feeling this blood sugar lability like you're going to at 3 o' clock in the afternoon, you're looking for that Snickers bar, or you're looking for a fatty coffee, or it's evening, you're bored. It's just the acknowledgement that when you're full, you're full, you don't want to eat more food because you genuinely don't have the space for it in your body. And really ensuring that if you eat that healthy lunch, you're not hungry until dinner time. Or like you mentioned, you know, you have some days where you're really leaning in intuitively to what your body's saying and you're not hungry until the afternoon. And that is totally okay. We are a nation that is so uncomfortable with the concept of hunger. And I remind people that more often than not when we're hungry, we're really dehydrated. It isn't even that we need nourishment, we just need to be hydrated. So I think it's an important distinction, but it's one that a lot of people haven't fully appreciated because we've spent most of our adult lifetime eating for reasons other than actual true intrinsic hunger. We're eating for emotional reasons. We're eating because we're bored, reading because we're stressed. And I get it, we are all human. But I think it's also important to understand that our bodies, when we are properly nourishing them on every level, emotionally, spiritually, intellectually, etc. We are much more even keel. We find that level of balance for each one of us. It might be a little bit different, but I do think it is possible for women to be in a position where they have a healthy relationship with food, where they feel like they are not constantly thinking about when their next meal is. Because to me, it's kind of like I eat and then I don't think about food again until I get hungry. And it's not a restrictive behavior. It's just my body lets me know when it's hungry and I lean into that. Days I lift. I eat earlier in the day than I do on days I don't lift. But I think it's a beautiful place to be when you feel that comfortable and confident in your body's cues. And one of the ways to do that is to really focus on restructuring those macros.

Talk to me about why don't we talk about how this can improve sleep and also touch on improving your hormone health.

Well, I think when it comes to Sleep, I mean, there's so many things that play into sleep, but on a lot of levels like that blood sugar balancing, like it's, it's on the hierarchy of needs, making sure your blood sugar is properly balanced. Because a lot of people wake up in the middle of the night. Yes, it can be sex hormone imbalances or cortisol's up, or you're stressed, but it can also be because you're not properly fueling your body. So that blood sugar dysregulation piece, when you are hitting those macros, eating the right macros for you in the evening or when you eat your last meal can be tremendously beneficial. You know, you repleted those glycogen stores in the liver, so your blood sugar should remain stable throughout the night. This is why I love continuous glucose monitors or glucometers. If I have women waking up at night, it's like the question is always, what was your blood sugar doing? If it's fine, then we know that's not the issue. Now when it comes to balancing hormones, it has to be. So we want to think about intermittent fasting as a strategy. That's a hormetic stress. So the right amount of stress at the right time, in the right amount. And so we have to be conscientious about the fact that if we're going through something super stressful like a divorce, a major move, a major renovation, a job change or et cetera, something major life stressor, and all of a sudden you're not managing your stress quite as effectively, that might not be the time to push that fasting lever. So really kind of leaning into cortisol is that predominant hormone when we're stressed, it'll become elevated in response to that will elevate our blood sugar, which also then evokes this insulin response as well. So understanding that there's not just one hormone that's impacted, it's all the hormones. So stress management, along with the sleep piece, along with the food cravings piece, and then also understanding that when we're looking at sex hormones and women before they go through menopause, our ovaries are producing progesterone. As we get closer to perimenopause, our adrenals start to pick up the slack. Adrenals also secrete cortisol, so there's this hierarchy of needs. It's going to be survival over reproduction. And then understanding that estradiol is a hormone that our bodies use cyclically throughout the month, as well as testosterone. But in a lot of People that are insulin resistant, they sometimes can get imbalances in their estrogen and their testosterone and their progesterone. And so understand, like, as the blood sugar gets better balanced, as we are focusing on managing our stress, as we are working on managing this insulin resistance piece, that will help better regulate testosterone, estrogen, cortisol, progesterone, they're all interrelated, as well as thyroid. So I think when a woman is properly fueling her body, getting plenty of rest, managing her stress, that's when fasting can be hugely impactful. And the last thing I want to add to that is when we talk about balancing hormones, it again goes back to macros. It really is that kind of circuitous that it's important for people to understand that when you're giving your body the best type of food to manage your blood sugar, that makes sure everything is functioning on a better and more optimal level. And I think that's really, really important for women to understand that the way you ate when your 20s and 30s is not necessarily the way you can optimize your body in your 40s and 50s. And certainly for your listeners that are entrepreneurs and are very kind of, of dedicated, methodical, thoughtful business people, we really want to put ourselves in a position where we are being thoughtful about how we are managing the lifestyle piece. Okay?

So for people who, you know, we're listening, we're so excited about it, but it can feel really big to people who don't live in this. Right? Like, wow, that was a lot of information. And I want to do it, but I don't know where to start. Number one, obviously you guys are going to need to get her booked to check it out to be able to really dial it in and understand why, which I do believe, obviously, that when people understand the why behind it, you will stick to it better. You'll be driven to want to do it. You'll actually want to do the thing. So for people, though, who are like, just maybe a little overwhelmed right now by the conversation of, like, oh, my God, I want to do it all. I want to have all the good things, but I don't know where to start. What is somewhere that they, you know, where can somewhere that they start be with intermittent fasting?

Well, I always start from, like, the easiest place. Like, if you are eating a standard American diet and having snacks throughout the day, stop the snacking, because that's going to force you to restructure your macros. So breakfast, lunch and dinner are going to be focused on protein, non starchy vegetables, Healthy fats. That's a good starting point. And that can take, for some people, that can take a week or two. And then you go from eating dinner at night and not eating anything until the morning. And for a lot of people, not eating for 12 to 13 hours is eight. Heart is like a scary concept. And I remind people, like you're going to spend most of that time sleeping. So I think once people wrap their heads around that concept, then they're like, okay, step one, no snacking. Step two, restructure your macros. Step three, don't eat from dinner to breakfast. And then really starting to open up that fasting window. So maybe on the first week you're doing 12 or 13 hours and then the next week you do 14 hours, then you're slowly opening up that window again, remaining attuned to where you are in your menstrual cycle. If you're still getting a menstrual cycle the five to seven days preceding it, you don't want to be fasting. But as soon as you start bleeding, you can kind of ramp things back up again. So really kind of leaning into where you are in your menstrual cycle. So sometimes I recommend people just wait till they get their cycle or when it's going to start and then they start from there because that will give them about three weeks. And then it gives you an opportunity to kind of lean into what feels good for your body. What can you get away with? Like, I think for many, many people, they are so fearful of exercising fasted because they've been convinced that their body desperately needs to eat right before they exercise and immediately afterwards. And most of the research that I've read and certainly my colleagues and I talk about is that it's really most important what we eat over a 24 hour period. It's not necessarily critically important. And I'm talking about normal people, not an athlete, not someone who's training for something big that may be very different. That is not my zone of genius. I will defer to the, you know, the trainers for that. But I think it's important to really look at it as slow and steady wins. That's a phrase I use quite a bit, that you don't have to be a couch potato eating a standard American diet and then two days later you're doing 18 hour fasts effortlessly. Like that would not be normal, nor would that be sustainable. So really doing things slowly and methodically so that you will set yourself up for success.

So good. What is something that you want to share and leave everybody with, oh, gosh.

I mean, small changes have a huge impact, I think, on a lot of levels. Like when I hear other people talking on podcasts or people hear me speaking on podcasts, they understand, like, I've been on this journey for a long time. Like 20 years ago, this is not what I was doing now, 10 years ago is not what I'm doing now. We constantly want to continue to grow as individuals. And so just acknowledging that every small change you make has a huge impact. I'm not suggesting anyone do too many things all at once. It's so much harder if we do it that way. It's not sustainable. And so just acknowledging, like, give yourself grace, give yourself time to ease into new lifestyle changes. They're not meant to be easy. And I always say to people, unfortunately, this methodology in our, like, western medicine trained clinicians is that we give pills for everything. And that's like, you know, there's a symptom, we give a pill for it. Well, I wish it was that easy. I wish I could say to everyone listening, I could just, just wave a wand or write a prescription and it would make things effortless. But the reason why lifestyle changes are hard is because we really have to put in the work. There are no quick fixes. And so once you get to a point where that change is no longer such a big deal, where it becomes habit, you don't have to think about it, then you settle in. And that's really a beautiful thing. But for anyone listening, give yourself grace. Make one change. It could be as simple as, I'm not going to have dessert after dinner. And start there, really start there. What does not serve, you pull one thing out and then replace it with something else. Like instead of, you know, I think one of the best ways to manage your insulin levels better after a meal is to go for a walk. Like, instead of having dessert with your spouse, your significant other, take a walk with your kids. I mean, I have teenagers, so they refuse to walk with us, but my husband and I walk the dogs in the morning and we walk them at night. And that has become this ritual. We get to catch up with one another, we get to catch up, we talk. And then I get to know that there is a net positive impact on my blood sugar response. And so I get to go to bed and my blood sugar is 5 to 10 points lower than it was before. Because our bodies really, it's a really efficient way to clear glucose in the system as well as kind of promote your gut, moving food forward in Your digestive system. So it's totally a win win.

I love that. It's life changing. It is. Literally. I love that choice. Instead of like sitting and snacking, it cuts it off. Like you might feel like you want to the first 20 minutes of your walk and then all of a sudden your body chemistry and all those things, things that you were talking about just changes. And it really helps you just manage that. So. Because that was huge for me, snacking. I grew up in a family that snacked. That was what we did. That's who we were. We snacked all the time. So thank you so much for coming on. Where can we get your book? I'm so excited.

Yeah, so you can go to the website. So www.cynthia thurlow.com. you can catch it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target, or your local bookstore. And the really cool thing. And I'm not sure when this is going to air, we have some pre sale bonuses that are only available until midnight the night before publication. But nonetheless, it is such an honor to be able to connect with your listeners and to be able to share what I think is a really valuable and important strategy for women to be able to, you know, manage their health and wellness throughout their lifetime.

Yes. Thank you so much, you guys. Definitely go and grab that book because I can tell you, when I saw this come through, I was so excited to have this conversation because you guys always ask me how I'm able to do it. And truly a lot of it is because I've optimized my health so much. And intermittent fasting has been one of the things that has been a key for me to learn and to help me manage my energy, which helps me manage my mood, which helps me get the ideas and actually do them. So this has been amazing. So I'm so excited you guys definitely go grab the book. And thank you so much again, Cynthia. And until next time, earn your happy, everyone. Bye.

Bye.

It.