The Fast of Life

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Show Transcript:
Let’s start from the very beginning.
A very good place to start.

I’m Genie Lauren and this is my Fast Life.

So, you’ve heard this story before. . . or, maybe you haven’t?
Either way, I’m gonna tell it. Here it goes.

Picture it, New York City, the day before Thanksgiving, 2017; I’m at a follow-up to my annual physical and my doctor diagnoses me with prediabetes.

Let me reiterate, this is the day before Thanksgiving.
The biggest food day in an American year.

Now, to be honest, I’m not even that much of a foodie. But, who doesn’t want to eat on Thanksgiving day?

And, guess what my doctor ordered me to do.

Cut sugar. The day before Thanksgiving.

*Power down sound*

Yeah, that wasn’t gonna happen. So, as you could imagine, the day after my doctor’s visit (Thanksgiving day) I BINGE.

Two helpings of candied yams.
Three slices of pie.
Is that chocolate cake? I’ll have that too.
Wash it all down with apple cider.
Binge.

B I N G E, binging was for me.

If I was going to stop eating sugar (at least, for the immediate future), I was going to make my “goodbye” as sweet as possible. Pun sort of intended.

I didn’t know it then, but in many ways, the next day would be the first day of my life. As you’d imagine, it was hard, at first — sugar is in almost everything. Bread? Sugar. Snacks? Sugar. Certain sauces? Sugar. I don’t care what Beyonce tells you — fruit? Sugar.

We’ll dive into sugar, in another episode. Just understand that I successfully cut sugar, in all its forms, out of my diet for three months — right on time for my follow-up to the follow-up visit with my doctor. And, my reward for following instructions was an improved A1C and a loss of 10 lbs.
I won! Right?

Not so fast! If I went back to eating sugar I would just go back to being prediabetic (completely defeating the purpose of all my hard work). This wasn’t a time for backsliding, and my doctor ain’t Booboo The Fool. We wanted to keep the momentum moving forward, so for the next step, she recommended that I start intermittent fasting.

Intermittent fasting is when you don’t eat for the majority of the day, condensing your meals into fewer hours in the day. We’ll get more into THAT later, what you need to know for now is that I. Was. STARVING.

I’ve never been a foodie, but you never want something more than when you can’t have it. I wanted food, bad, but I couldn’t have it before 12:00 noon and after 8:00 pm — my new window of time for eating, each day.

Like cutting sugar from my diet, intermittent fasting took some getting used to, but once I got the hang of it and it became my lifestyle, I grew curious as to what exactly my body was doing.

I was losing weight (about another 10 lbs), and sleeping better (bye-bye, insomnia), but I had no idea why. So, I went to the place we all go when we are in search of knowledge and wisdom. I Googled.

Come to find out what I was doing every day was putting my body into ketosis which resulted in some remarkable health benefits (if you’re wondering what ketosis is, we’ll get into that later, as well. I know! You want to know everything now, but I can’t give it all up right away.)

I also discovered that intermittent fasting is even more powerful when paired with a ketogenic diet. Essentially the way it works is, a ketogenic diet puts you into ketosis and intermittent fasting keeps you there, and vice versa.

After already seeing results with cutting sugar and intermittent fasting, I dove into the keto life.

Fasting until 12:00 PM, eating strictly keto meals, and ceasing once the clock struck 8 was my new lifestyle. No pain, no gain.

No, literally. Over a span of five months, there was no pain and I did not gain. In fact, I lost an additional 30 lbs of fat.

That was over two years ago. Today, I’m comfortably living a ketogenic life, getting used to my new-old body, and navigating some of the pitfalls and myths that come with this alternative lifestyle — which leads me to you, the listener.

I’m here to share what I’ve learned over the years from reading and doing and living keto.
You’re here because you either want some perspective, or have questions, or maybe even comments that you want to share about keto diet and lifestyle.

I would like to hear from you and nurture a space for conversing about this sometimes controversial approach to our diet, and this is how it works:

Go to patreon.com/fastlife and become a patron of the show. There are a number of tiers to choose from that offer keto recipes, requesting a topic for the show, and even a grocery shopping trip with me, Genie Lauren (only available in the NY-metro area, for now).

Be sure to subscribe to this podcast on Spotify, Stitcher, or Apple Podcasts. And, if you really appreciate the show, let me know by leaving a review.

Thanks for sticking with me ‘til the end, keto friend.
Catch you next time.