Waist Away: The Intermittent Fasting & Weight Loss Podcast

(0:20) Hey guys, welcome to today’s episode. (0:23) And today we have Martin Scherr and he’s actually a retired CEO of an 83 year (0:29) old family business. (0:31) And now he calls himself instead of the CEO, (0:34) he calls himself the chief eating officer and he had gained about 50 pounds.

(0:40) He’s now lost that weight. (0:42) He now currently intermittent fast. (0:44) He eats in a two hour window and with his vast experience in business, (0:50) we are going to learn exactly what he did to lose 50 pounds with his own (0:56) approach.

(0:56) And he wanted to get rid of being on a vicious cycle of diet hell. (1:01) And he wanted to come on here today and show you exactly what he did for (1:08) permanent weight loss. (1:09) So welcome Martin.

(1:12) Thank you so much. (1:13) It’s so great to be here and finally get to meet you. (1:16) Yeah.

(1:17) So I want you to tell people a little bit about what are some of the things that (1:24) you did to lose that weight? (1:28) Like try to be as specific as possible. (1:31) And I want you to first start by actually talking about what you’re doing now (1:36) because you know what you’re doing now is not necessarily, you know, (1:41) what you did then, but I want you to talk about those. (1:45) Sure.

Right now I’m an intermittent faster. (1:48) I started about four years ago. (1:50) I read a book and I decided to start doing this.

(1:55) I was looking for something to maintain my weight at that point. (1:58) I’d lost 40 pounds. I ended up losing 50, (2:01) but I lost the last 10 on intermittent fasting.

(2:05) And I done such a good job on myself before that for the 16 years before I got (2:11) the intermittent fasting. (2:13) Uh, um, uh, uh, oh, (2:16) all I did was went to 20 hours the first day. (2:20) I just ripped the band bait off.

(2:21) Then I went to 20, 22 hours the next day. (2:25) And I was hungry as hell both days. (2:28) And I just stuck at 22 hours from, from that point on.

(2:31) And I generally eat in a 20 to 24 hour window right now, (2:35) but it’s mainly 22 to sometimes this week, (2:39) one day I woke up and I must’ve had a cortisol attack or something. (2:43) So I had a 16 hour, uh, uh, (2:46) fasting window and an eight hour eating window. So it varies, but I’m, (2:51) I’m pretty much, I love, I love it.

(2:53) It’s the greatest thing I’ve ever run into and I’ll never quit it. And, uh, (2:57) and that’s what I’ll do the rest of my life is intermittent fasting. (3:02) Yeah.

And I think one of the things, you know, (3:05) that is really great is with intermittent fasting is that you can, (3:09) like one day eat in a two hour window and the next day eat in a four hour window (3:14) and the next day, okay, I’m going to bump it up to six hours. (3:17) And really the people who kind of change it up a little bit (3:22) seem like they do really well, because again, (3:24) it’s kind of like going to the gym. (3:26) If you’re always doing the same exact thing at the gym, (3:30) your body gets used to it.

So when you kind of deviate a little bit, (3:34) it can kind of make your body go, Hey, okay, let me, (3:39) they’re changing things up here and it actually has a lot of benefits. (3:43) So is there any foods that you have really (3:47) kind of gotten rid of where you say, you know, (3:51) what, what we call it, the way I do it is I call it red, yellow, (3:56) and green foods. Red foods means there’s no chance I’m eating it.

(4:00) Yellow foods means, you know, once in a while, (4:03) I’m going to go ahead and indulge in that. (4:05) And then green is kind of my every day of what I do. (4:10) Yeah, there, uh, food’s kind of an interesting subject with me.

(4:14) I wrote something called the thin commandments. (4:16) And one of my commandments is thou shall eat any food on planet earth. (4:21) There’s no forbidden foods.

So that’s, (4:23) that’s what I’ve done on my intermittent fasting lifestyle. (4:26) The cool thing though is all I crave are nutritious foods now, (4:30) whole healthy, nutritious, delicious foods. (4:33) So on occasion I might have a, you know, uh, ultra processed food, (4:37) but they don’t make me feel good.

(4:39) But I know the only way for me to irrevocably commit to (4:44) permanent weight loss was to be able to eat any food I wanted whenever I (4:49) wanted it. It’s just, I don’t want those bad foods. You know, (4:52) there really aren’t good foods and bad foods, you know, (4:56) and the life because one book will say they’re good.

(4:58) And one book will say they’re bad and they both can’t be good and bad at the (5:01) same time. So I said for my lifestyle to be sustainable, (5:04) I have to be able to allow myself to eat any food I want. (5:09) So that that was just my approach at it because I’m after permanent weight (5:13) loss.

(5:15) So I did read that one of the things, and I will, um, (5:19) read a few of these things that you actually have a CEO pledge. (5:24) And some of the things that you say is that you, (5:28) I am unstoppable, compassionate CEO of my mind, body, (5:33) and spirit. I control food.

Food does not control me. (5:38) I eat to live now. I no longer live to eat.

(5:42) Food is simply fuel for my body. (5:44) So I eat what I need the most and not what I want the most. (5:48) And so you kind of just have a huge list of them.

(5:52) So I want you to kind of go over which ones are most (5:56) important. And do you say this to yourself every day? (6:02) Yes. Uh, the first thing I did, uh, (6:04) Chantel was to identify I examined my past, uh, (6:08) and I trying to find every bad problem I ever had and all my (6:13) faulty thinking or whatever bad habits I had.

(6:15) And I made a list of them and I prioritized them. And, uh, well, (6:20) well actually to go a little bit before that took my diet brain out. (6:24) I do this visualization and I climbed a mountain.

(6:26) I took my diet brain out of my head. (6:29) I threw it over the mountain into the water and it splashed and went down to the (6:32) bottom. (6:33) And I said good riddance to my diet brain because it’s easier to create a new (6:38) habit than it is to change a bad habit, I think.

(6:41) So I just gave myself a clean slate, put my new brain in the head. (6:45) And then I started working on the affirmations, like you said, (6:48) but I identified 16 bad habits on top of my list was (6:53) I ate way too fast, ate way too fast. (6:57) That was my biggest habit.

(6:58) That’s me. I still, to this day, I’ve slowed down a ton, (7:04) but I will tell you, I still, (7:07) this is the one thing that I would say I still struggle with. It’s like, (7:12) it’s World War II for me to slow down and eat.

So, (7:15) so let’s just stop right there and talk about exactly what you have (7:19) done to slow down your eating. (7:22) Okay. That’s great.

Cause I worked really hard on that one. (7:26) It was very imperfect for me. (7:27) It took me probably five years to get it right.

(7:31) But I said the affirmations every day. And like, (7:33) that was one of your questions. I do those every day, (7:37) sometimes multiple times a day at first.

(7:39) Now I don’t really need to say them that much because I’ve become a person and (7:42) the person that’s in those affirmations. (7:45) I just do it if I’m having a little problem and I need to just, you know, (7:49) renew myself. But for fast eating, I use tiny habits.

(7:53) I call them itsy bitsy, teeny weeny, tiny habits. And this was, (7:58) these, these were the tiny habits. I’m just from memory.

(8:01) The first thing I did was to time my meals. (8:05) I would start my watch when I started, I’d look at it. (8:08) And then I’d look at it when I ended.

(8:10) And at first I learned that I was eating my three meals a day back then. (8:15) And it took me about 20 minutes to eat three meals a day. (8:18) That’s how fast I was eating.

(8:20) You don’t even get satiety signals until you’ve eaten 20 minutes. (8:25) So so I did that and I started timing it. And then after I did 20 minutes, (8:30) I said, well, let me see if I can make it 25 and 30.

(8:33) And finally I got up to where I was spending 90 minutes a day, (8:36) eating my meals, eating my three meals a day. And after I timed it, (8:42) the next thing I did was to take pauses. I took a pause, you know, (8:47) and all these things I did over a lot of time.

(8:49) I didn’t just create this big list of tiny app, do them all at one time. (8:53) I stacked them on top of each other over time. (8:56) The next thing I did was create pauses at the beginning, middle, (8:59) and end of the meal.

And, um, (9:02) and then I, those pauses tried out to be a minute long each. (9:07) And I would put my fork down. (9:09) I would picture a yellow light flashing halfway through the mill to remind me to (9:13) slow down and not see a red light.

When I had about four or five bites left, (9:18) I’d try to converse with people. I constantly, um, (9:22) uh, I kept up with my time, you know, for a long time. (9:26) I just timed them and I just went and got finished my meal until I got to that (9:30) time.

I have a, I had a, um, (9:33) a habit, (9:34) a tiny habit list with the four or five things I’m working on. (9:37) And I’d look at that every day in my CEO meeting that I have with myself every (9:42) morning, my chief eating officer meeting. (9:44) And I would check off if I looked at the yellow light or, you know, (9:48) whatever it was, I was very rigid about, uh, (9:52) making my tiny habits and living by them.

And I’ve failed. (9:57) At first I felt 99% of the times, (9:59) and then I started failing 90% of the time. And then over time, you know, (10:04) I just know, got it, got it done and just started eating slower.

(10:08) And where I was the first one to finish the meal. (10:11) Now I’m the last one to finish meal. Most of the time, not all the time, (10:15) but I I’m so aware of how fast I’m eating now that it’s really just kind of (10:20) natural to eat slowly for me.

I actually leave food on my plate now. (10:24) I never did that. My three mothers that I had, I had a mother, (10:28) grandmother and a housekeeper while I was in my family business.

And, uh, (10:33) you know, I was, uh, the, uh, (10:36) that they were from the depression and I couldn’t, (10:39) they would not want me to leave a bite. So all my life, (10:43) I never could leave a bite on the plate. (10:45) They were just trying to please me and whatever.

And I loved eating food, (10:49) but eventually I learned how to leave some food on my plate. (10:53) But one of my tiny tricks that I used before that was I had to, um, (10:58) I couldn’t leave a food on my plate. (11:00) So I got this idea one time that somebody told me, well, eat, (11:04) take the first bite of food you have on your plate, (11:07) throw it away and then clean your plate.

(11:10) That’s how I started trying to quit cleaning my plate. (11:13) I just threw the first bite away. So at least I left something, (11:17) how to get that in my mind.

And then, uh, (11:19) and then I eventually was able to leave food. (11:22) I don’t always leave food on my plate, (11:24) but probably half the time I do cause I eat so slowly now. (11:28) I’m sometimes actually not hungry at the end of the meal, not as hungry.

(11:34) So your goal is 25 minutes is kind of the goal for each meal. (11:41) Now I don’t, I don’t time them. You know, I’ve been doing this for years already.

(11:45) So I don’t, I don’t look at time now. I just eat slowly. (11:49) And I kind of pay attention to the people at the table and how I know you (11:53) interviewed a lot of them people, you know, (11:55) at one time when I was reading your book and I just kind of keep my eye on (11:59) everybody and see if I’m eating too fast.

(12:03) I really just enjoy a savor my food now and I enjoy it. (12:08) And I put my fork down and I talk and I’ve just made it, (12:14) you know, it didn’t noticeable what I was doing at the beginning. (12:17) I was just doing these tiny habits, but people, you know, it wasn’t noticeable.

(12:20) I knew I was doing them, but nobody else did except my immediate family said, (12:24) you know, what the hell’s going on here? You know, (12:27) they thought I was crazy when I started tapping my meals. (12:30) But if I go out to eat with the social contacts or friends, (12:34) I wouldn’t make it an obvious to them. (12:36) I don’t know about you guys, but I am stressed.

(12:40) And if you’re feeling overwhelmed this holiday season, (12:43) then I get it with all the family get togethers. (12:46) It is just a relentless source of stress. But anyway, (12:51) there is something that I’ve got called stress guardian, (12:54) and it’s actually made by, by optimizers, (12:57) the people who make the magnesium breakthrough, which I love, love, love.

(13:01) But anyway, they are literally made this new product. (13:05) It has 14 adaptogenic herbs and it just regulates your stress. (13:11) I just actually took some right this second.

And it’s awesome. (13:14) If you go to stress guardian.com slash waste away and put in waste away for 10% (13:20) off your first order it’s stress guardian.com slash waste away. (13:25) Go there now.

(13:27) I love that so much. And this is an area that I still need work on. (13:32) I will say, um, (13:34) one of the things that I did is I recorded a lot of these thin women and I (13:40) actually created a video course.

(13:42) Cause I think that sometimes people really learn like it’s, (13:47) it’s crazy. Cause I’ve had people say, you know, I’ve, (13:49) I’ve read your books and I lost 10 pounds and then I did the video course and (13:55) then I lost an extra 20 pounds because they watched the ladies eat that were (14:03) naturally thin and, and they talked and they watched everything. (14:07) And it’s, it’s really magical.

And, and I will tell you, so when you, (14:12) when you do the video course, (14:13) so you’ll watch when one of the girls how she eats her soup, (14:19) on her spoon, when she’s eating the soup, (14:23) she only fills the soup halfway. (14:26) So it’s halfway that she fills it and then eats it. (14:31) And this is how she naturally eats.

Like she’s not doing this for camera. (14:35) She’s not doing this for show. This is, (14:37) that’s what I’m talking about is like when you’re watching these naturally thin (14:40) people, it’s like light bulbs go off.

And so, (14:45) you know, for me, when I’m eating a bowl of soup, (14:47) I don’t think I’ve ever eaten a bowl of soup where I didn’t have a full spoon. (14:54) Yeah. And so, um, another girl was Miss Virginia and she, (15:01) um, when, when you watch her, (15:05) literally she takes the food so she would eat and then the waitress comes over (15:10) and she’s like, she, she eats about half of it.

And she goes, (15:14) can I take your plate? And she’s like, are you done? (15:16) She actually pushes it away from her. And she’s like, no, I’m not done. (15:20) I’m just still picking at it.

And so like almost like she’d start talking. (15:24) And then three minutes later she would eat another bite of food. (15:29) And the waitress came by and she’d say, no, are you done with your plate? (15:32) No joke.

Waitress comes by four times and says, (15:37) can I take your plate? And she’s like, Nope, I’m still picking at it. (15:41) It took her about 35 minutes. She was the last one to eat, (15:45) but she ate so slowly and then she, (15:49) she wanted to make sure that she was full and she just kept kind of taking (15:54) another bite here or there and then was like, I’m going to see if I’m full yet.

(15:59) But that kind of stuff, (16:01) watching that is really, (16:04) really powerful and it changes how you live. (16:08) And for me, you know, (16:10) just even having this discussion again is another reminder that yes, (16:15) I’ve made a lot of progress, (16:16) but that I would say me eating too fast because I’ve worked out all my other (16:22) kinks. You know, I do the intermittent fasting, I’m eating, (16:26) I eat clean and I do all that.

If I had to put a pinpoint, (16:30) I would say currently I’m probably about five pounds heavier than I want to be. (16:35) My husband loves me at the weight than I am. (16:38) And he liked me like five pounds heavier than I like to be.

(16:43) Um, but if I had to state, (16:46) I would say the five pounds comes from me eating still faster than I need to eat. (16:52) If that makes sense. (16:54) Yeah.

I have a question. I’m, I’m just curious on the lady. (16:57) There was Miss Virginia or whoever took so long to do her plate.

(17:00) Do you think she was born thin or, or those, those were those habits just, (17:05) you know, (17:05) some people are just born thin and they say the same weight their entire life and (17:09) they can wear their wedding dress and all that. (17:11) Where do you think some of those people train themselves to do that? (17:14) Or do you know, I don’t know if that was. (17:16) Yeah.

And I think that she trained herself to do that. (17:21) And she, she was, you know, I, I think, (17:25) and if you ask any thin person that I’ve talked to, (17:28) they actually fluctuate between five and eight, five and seven pounds. (17:32) So even the thinnest eater can gain between five and seven pounds and they will (17:40) bring themselves back by doing some of these tools that they have put into their (17:45) tool belt.

(17:46) And one of the tools that she knows is that when she eats slower, (17:51) she eats less food. So, (17:53) but she also doesn’t want to feel deprived and she also doesn’t want to, (17:57) you know, put the food away and then feel like, you know what, (18:01) I need to eat more. (18:02) So she allows herself that full 30 to 35 minutes.

(18:07) If she feels like she wants another bite, (18:10) she takes it and she talks so much in between. (18:15) And for me, (18:15) what I’ve had to do is I’ve had to create a way for me to eat half of the food (18:22) because eating so, so slow drives me absolutely batty. (18:27) I mean, it really does.

(18:29) Huh? (18:30) It was the hardest thing I ever did was to learn to eat slow. (18:34) Yeah. So I have to, I still eat slower, (18:37) but then I almost have to just eat at the halfway mark.

(18:41) And I start, like, if I’m at home, like, I’m like, does anyone need anything? (18:45) And I, I’ll go to the bathroom and then I’ll, you know, (18:49) go get some ketchup if someone needs ketchup or I’ll refill drinks. (18:53) I, I almost like makeup stuff for myself to do because just sitting there, (18:59) I start losing my mind. (19:01) So I kind of have to do something.

(19:04) It’s really hard, but I’ve, I’m enjoying my food so much more. I’ve never, (19:08) I never really tasted food for 57 years until I retired from my business. (19:12) I just shoveled it in.

Now I actually, you know, taste the food. (19:16) It’s really kind of fun. And especially with intermittent fasting.

If you, (19:20) if you combine slow eating and intermittent fasting together, it’s, (19:25) it’s wonderful. (19:26) I really suggest people to do intermittent fasting to slow their eating down (19:29) because they’ll just enjoy it. (19:31) Guys, I just want to interrupt for just a second.

(19:33) And I want you to hear Paul Saladino talk about why liver is (19:38) so important. And if you don’t like liver, we have another option for you. (19:44) Your ancestors were eating liver.

(19:45) And the reason that this sort of wisdom has been passed down is because liver is (19:49) very nutritious. It’s basically nature’s multivitamin. (19:51) If you look at the nutrients in meat, they’re great.

You’ve got zinc, (19:54) you got B6, you got B12, you got some K2. But if you look at liver, (19:57) it really complements what’s in muscle meat. (19:59) And there are many unique nutrients found in organs, (20:02) specifically liver as a powerhouse of these that are difficult to obtain outside (20:05) of liver.

Like meat and organs are like peanut butter and jelly. (20:08) They just go together. They’re supposed to be eaten together.

(20:11) The easiest way to eat liver is just to do it raw. (20:13) If you don’t want to eat liver raw, you can cook it. (20:14) But the reason that I like to do it raw is because there are unique nutrients in (20:18) liver that are probably somewhat degraded when you cook the liver.

(20:20) This really is like the most nutrient rich supplements that you can find. (20:25) And they are amazing. I have tried them.

I absolutely love them. (20:29) So just go to heartandsoil.com, (20:32) use the coupon code ChantalRae and save yourself some money. (20:42) I think you just said something so powerful because one of the things that is (20:49) really, (20:50) really bad with intermittent fasting is that you get to the point where you’re so (20:57) hungry.

(20:57) So in my book, (20:58) I talk about the hunger scale and I put that scale between zero and five and I (21:04) always say, you know, (21:05) it’s nice to be able to eat when you’re at a level one because if you’re at a (21:10) zero or like a negative one, (21:12) you get yourself so ravenous and then it’s very, (21:17) very difficult to eat slow. (21:20) And so one of the things that I also recommend is to right before you’re about to (21:26) start your eating window, (21:27) eat a little something meaning like whether it’s a little bit of an avocado or (21:32) like a boiled egg, (21:33) like 15 minutes before you’re actually going to sit down to eat. (21:38) And that really does help you to slow down because once you get to that point (21:44) where you’re so ravenous, (21:46) that’s another problem that people have.

(21:49) And then now they’ve gotten themselves so hungry. (21:53) Now they’ve overeaten because they’ve eaten so fast. (21:57) So what you just said is so powerful.

(22:00) It’s the combination of intermittent fasting and slow eating that is the real (22:07) key, um, to, to weight loss. (22:11) I really agree with that. (22:12) I want you to talk about allowing yourself to eat what you’re craving and how (22:20) when you allowed yourself to do that, you’re still eating nutritious food.

(22:24) Like you’re not eating Twinkies and you know, just a bunch of junk. (22:28) You’re eating what your body’s calling for, (22:31) but your body’s now calling for healthier options. (22:35) Talk about that.

(22:36) Okay. I’m pretty lucky. I, my wife, (22:39) we’ve been married 50 years this year and my three children live in my three (22:43) grown children live in town also.

And my son’s like an unbelievable cook. (22:47) So he cooks a lot forced real high quality food. (22:51) And my wife’s a good cook and my daughters are good cooks.

So we, (22:55) uh, I’m just kind of blessed. I get, (22:57) I have all this really great food brought to me. We, we very, (23:01) we don’t really eat out that much.

We do some, but we, (23:04) we just enjoy eating together at home when we can. (23:07) Maybe we’ll do that a couple of times a week with everybody and me and my wife, (23:11) Debbie makes, makes great food. And, uh, and I, I, (23:16) uh, I’m not hungry all day.

I’m really that I do a 22, two. And, uh, (23:22) I do a one to 100 scale and I’m at 50, you know, (23:25) I’m not hungry and I’m not satisfied. (23:28) I’m just kind of like cruising along, doing good.

Now, sometimes I get hungry, (23:32) but you know, crazy to say you don’t ever get hungry, but, uh, (23:36) most of the time I really just kind of cruise all day. If, if I eat it, uh, (23:40) six o’clock at night, around five, I just start thinking it’s about, (23:43) it’s dinner time. I’m maybe I’m getting kind of hungry, (23:47) but if I’m busy doing something, I don’t even think about, (23:49) I’m just been real fortunate and then metabolically blessed with what I’ve been (23:54) doing with it.

I’m just not hungry. (23:57) Um, I love that. So, and really what that is, (24:01) is that means that your body has really become fat (24:06) adapted.

Um, because once you become fat (24:11) adapted, that’s when you stop getting so ravenous. (24:16) And fat adaptation is basically a longterm metabolic (24:20) adjustment to ketosis where body is in a (24:25) state of where it’s going to burn fat for fuel instead of carbs. (24:30) It’s you’ve trained it now that when it gets hungry, (24:33) it automatically can go burn fat for fuel.

(24:37) And that is one of the huge benefits of doing intermittent (24:42) fasting. (24:43) And that fat adaptation is what actually results in (24:48) decreased cravings, increased energy levels, and improved sleep. (24:52) So being fat adapted is really where you want to be.

(24:57) And it doesn’t mean that your body will avoid using glucose when it’s (25:02) available. Um, it will, (25:04) but if it doesn’t have any glucose or anything, um, (25:09) it will simply go to the fat that you have to be able to (25:13) eat. (25:14) So let’s talk a little bit more about some of the other, (25:19) um, pledges.

So one of them is my mindset is how slow can I eat? (25:23) Not how fast. So that’s one, (25:25) but talk about some of the other mindsets and things that you have in there (25:31) that saying to yourself. (25:33) Sure.

Uh, my mindset is how soon can I stop? (25:38) I eat this. You want to stay on each one? Yeah. Okay.

Okay. (25:43) So how soon can I stop? Um, it’s kind of like how little can I eat? (25:47) How soon can I stop all the, (25:49) all the instincts I had when I was heavy and all the things I did wrong. (25:53) I just told my mind to do the opposite.

And then, you know, (25:56) hopefully I end up somewhere in between right there. But I said, uh, (26:00) how slow can I eat? How soon can I stop? And how little can I eat? (26:05) Those were the three, how my mindset things that I used. (26:10) And, uh, (26:11) I don’t really feel like I need to say that anymore because it’s just kind of (26:15) happened naturally.

I don’t overeat as much as I used to. (26:19) And I was as bad. I was a fast eater, but I always weigh over eight.

(26:23) Cause my, my three mothers I discussed earlier wanted me to be full and happy. (26:27) And I carried that around my, my entire life. (26:30) And I just get kind of full a lot sooner.

I still eat a lot. I mean, (26:35) I’m a volume eater, but, uh, uh, when I’ve had enough, (26:39) I’ve had enough and I know I’ll feel better if I, if I just stop, (26:42) I don’t think anybody ever wakes up the next morning after they’ve overeaten and (26:46) said, I wish I’d eaten two more bites. I don’t think that happens.

(26:50) So you want to hear some more of these or do you want to? (26:52) Yes, I do. I love the one where you said I eat to satisfy hunger only. (26:58) And I want you to talk about how you no longer eat for comfort, (27:00) not for entitlement.

And you know, all of that list. (27:05) Let me tell you, that’s a, you know, (27:06) I talked about slow eating and intermittent fasting. (27:09) That’s the other great thing that happened.

(27:11) I used to eat for every reason besides hunger. (27:14) It didn’t matter whether it’s comfort, entitlement, reward, (27:17) celebration out of boredom, because I’m excited future hunger, all that stuff, (27:22) but the coolest thing about fasting and intermittent fasting is what you have, (27:27) an eating window and a fasting window and the fasting window. (27:31) You just eat when you’re hungry.

(27:32) You don’t eat for any of those comfort reasons. That’s just kind of what you, (27:36) how you live. So I had like, I told you I had 16 bad problems.

(27:41) When I, if I had done intermittent fasting, (27:43) I would have gotten rid of those eight because you just eat when you’re hungry. (27:48) That’s the idea. Now people, you can, anybody can eat anytime, (27:51) but if they’re serious about doing intermittent fasting, (27:54) most people say they don’t want to mess with their, you know, fasting window.

(27:58) They, and so all those reasons kind of go out the way. And when, (28:01) when I’m eating during my two hours, (28:02) I’m hungry and there’s no other reason I’m eating. And then I, (28:05) then I stop and then I don’t do those comfort things the next day.

(28:10) I want to read this out loud. And because it says, (28:14) I no longer eat for comfort. I no longer eat for entitlement.

(28:18) I no longer eat for reward. I no longer eat for celebration. (28:23) I no longer eat out of boredom.

I no longer eat because I’m excited. (28:28) I no longer eat just because I have a craving or want something. (28:32) And I no longer eat just to clean the food off my plate.

(28:37) I think that one of the ones that people don’t talk about (28:41) enough is this idea of I no longer eat for (28:46) entitlement and I no longer eat for reward. (28:50) Explain those two to us. (28:52) Okay.

That that’s I’m so glad you asked that question. That’s cool for me, (28:56) because I gained 40 pounds over 40 years, (29:01) a pound a year, 3,500 calories. And I told you, I think I told you, (29:04) I don’t know if it was before or during this thing, I’m 72 years old, you know, (29:08) but I exercise like a maniac.

(29:10) I played basketball twice a day when I was younger. I played tennis all my life. (29:15) I played pickleball.

I walked six miles a day. (29:18) And I was relying on that to lose weight, which it never did. (29:21) I gained 40 pounds doing that.

And what I learned, (29:24) I had a nerve problem in my back and I was in bed for three weeks (29:29) when I was trying to lose weight. (29:31) And I lost 11 pounds in three weeks by (29:36) laying in bed all day. I gained two of those back, (29:38) but I ended up net losing nine pounds by doing no exercising.

(29:43) When I was spending two hours a day exercising and I said, (29:46) I was just doing this for entitlement and reward. And that’s, (29:50) so I was over eating. (29:51) That was one of the biggest aha’s in my life because I thought you’re supposed to (29:56) exercise like a maniac and all this weight’s going to fall off.

And that’s, (29:59) that’s what I, that’s what I did for most of my adult life. (30:03) So that, that was awesome when I figured that out. (30:07) I will tell you one area, and I’d love for you to give an example.

(30:12) If you can think of one, I hate to fly. (30:16) I don’t know why I do, but I just don’t enjoy it. (30:20) And my husband loves that.

Like he loves to fly. He loves to travel. (30:25) And the nice thing is he knows I hate to fly.

So he almost always, (30:28) we either fly private or we fly, um, first class. (30:33) And so that’s good. But in first class, (30:37) depending on where you’re going, you always get food.

(30:40) And so even if I’m not hungry, (30:43) one of the things that I would say that I’ll justify is sometimes I’ll eat (30:49) during that time because I’m like, in my mind, I’m like, (30:53) this is such a miserable thing. I’m going to be on this flight for four hours. (30:58) I hate flying so much.

At least I can eat this nasty plane. (31:02) I mean, the food’s not good, you know, but it’s like, okay, well, (31:06) at least I have something to do to keep me occupied. (31:09) And so that is kind of in my mind, (31:13) an entitlement or almost eating for reward, (31:16) like good job for flying on this plane.

I’m going to do that. (31:20) And so that’s one of the things that I have to, (31:24) I what I’ve done now to get rid of that is I just tell myself I’m fasting during (31:29) that time. So if it’s a lot of times we’ll fly in the morning.

(31:33) And so I’m not hungry and I, you know, I don’t eat breakfast anyway. (31:37) So I’ll kind of do that. (31:39) But I know that is an area where I could, you know, (31:43) really kind of the devil will get to me and lie to me and say, well, (31:47) you’re on this terrible flight and all of that.

(31:50) Can you think of any other examples like that? (31:53) I’ll just tell you what I do. And by the way, I hate the flight too. (31:56) I had to do it a lot during my career and hated being on airplanes.

(32:01) But what I do is I just take something to be real busy on. I’ll read a book. (32:06) I’ll play games.

(32:08) I’m with my wife will unscramble words or do things. (32:12) And when I’m in my fasting window, (32:16) I just hadn’t really had a problem with that every once in a while. (32:19) Every time I’m hungry, I eat.

I’m just not hungry. (32:23) If I’m on the flight on the flight and I feel the least bit hungry, (32:26) I’ll just go ahead and eat. (32:28) But I, I kind of stick to the reasons why I eat and why I don’t eat, (32:33) but I hadn’t had that problem.

But sometimes Debbie will get, you know, (32:37) some crackers or cookies or whatever. And I’m just not that, (32:40) I’m not that interested. (32:41) And I just look back at my book and see whatever I was working on.

(32:44) I do a lot of journaling too, to help me with this stuff. (32:48) One of the things that I absolutely love that you wrote is you said, (32:53) in fact, the hungrier I am, (32:56) the slower I eat and the slower I eat, (33:00) the more I enjoy my food. (33:02) I need to memorize that one for sure, (33:05) because the one time that I really can talk myself into (33:09) eating fast is the justification.

Let’s say, (33:13) maybe I just waited, you know, 24 hours to eat. Like I just, you know, (33:18) I didn’t get a chance to eat. I went longer than I got busy and just, you know, (33:23) I hadn’t eaten all day.

I just forgot. (33:25) And then by that time I’m like, Oh my gosh. So in my mind, (33:29) I justify it and go, well, I haven’t eaten anything all day.

I’m ravenous. (33:33) Of course I’m going to eat fast. And what you wrote is, (33:38) in fact, the hungrier I am, (33:40) the slower I eat and the slower I eat, (33:44) the more I enjoy my food.

That is powerful. (33:49) Thank you. Thank you.

It was for me, because like I said, (33:52) I ate fast and I overate and I did the opposite. (33:57) This list of the Compassionate Chief Eating Officer pledge is the (34:01) opposite. Everything in there is the opposite of how I was my entire life.

(34:06) So when I identified all my problems, I turned them into my affirmations. (34:11) I did them the polar opposite of how I am. (34:15) So when I wrote, when I did those things the first few times, (34:19) I didn’t pay a bit of attention to them.

(34:21) I’m just sitting there like reading these things, how I’m going to be. (34:24) And if you, every once in a while, if you do it for a month or two months, (34:28) one time you do eat slower when you’re hungry. You know what I’m saying? (34:31) It just kind of builds and builds and builds.

But I’ve had to tell myself, (34:35) I’m going to be the opposite of how I exact how I am. (34:39) And if you live 17, 18 years doing that, you can become that person. (34:43) Really I started changing after two or three years.

(34:47) It took me that long to get those things in my brain. (34:51) Did you guys know that your thyroid’s main food is iodine and guess what? (34:56) Mercury and other toxins gobble up your selenium and your thyroid glands need (35:02) selenium to convert iodine to thyroxine. (35:06) So if you have mercury fillings and with all the toxins and mold, (35:11) your selenium gets just gets gobbled up.

So here’s the bottom line. (35:15) I take something called heat thyroid. It’s got iodine, (35:19) it’s got copper and it’s got selenium, (35:21) everything you need to get your thyroid back to functioning without medicine.

(35:27) So go to Chantalrayway.com slash upgraded formulas. (35:31) Use the coupon code Chantalray to get a huge discount. (35:36) I want you to kind of describe in as much detail, (35:41) kind of the benefits of mindful eating and you know, (35:46) by paying attention to, you know, (35:49) how you’re feeling at that time or you know, (35:52) kind of maybe some of these tips like kind of what I was saying before about the (35:56) girl only puts half of the spoon, the soup on the spoon, (36:01) or you know, chopping your food up in really small, you know, (36:05) bites or whatever that you have done to be able to practice mindfulness, (36:11) whether it’s a few deep breaths or, um, you know, (36:15) employing all your senses or, you know, (36:19) tuning in to how you’re feeling at that time.

(36:21) Can you describe any of that in as much detail as possible? (36:26) Yeah. Uh, honestly, (36:27) I have to tell you that the way I started eating slowly was to do mindless (36:32) eating rather than mindful eating. And what I mean by that is, uh, (36:37) my first meal of the day, I’d get a big bowl of raw vegetables, (36:42) and then I would get, go to my computer.

(36:44) I put hummus or salsa or whatever I did with them could be leftover vegetables (36:48) from the night before. (36:49) And I set my watch and I had this big thing of vegetables. (36:53) And I said, well, 11, 15 at 12 o’clock, (36:57) I’m going to be through with this.

So I just sat there and ate a bite or two. (37:01) I was really trying to figure out what my satiety signals were like, (37:04) and when they went into effect, (37:05) I’ve become an expert on that for my own unique body. (37:08) I can’t couldn’t tell anybody else how to do that.

But, uh, (37:12) I would take a bite when I go and do whatever I was doing on my emails or (37:16) whatever. And I’d take another bite. (37:18) Sometimes I’d take three bites because I was a little hungrier and I need a (37:21) little bit more.

But if I did that, I’d wait an extra two minutes. I just, (37:26) it was, it was really, really, really hard to do almost impossible to do, (37:30) but that’s how, uh, one of the main ways I slowed my eating down, (37:33) it wasn’t so much at supper. It was having my first meal of the day.

(37:37) I don’t call it breakfast whenever I had it. (37:39) And I would actually be busy doing something rather than being mindful. (37:44) Cause if you try to eat that long and you’re mindful, (37:47) you’ll go absolutely nuts.

I couldn’t do it. (37:51) Nobody can do that. So that, that was how I dealt with that.

(37:55) I did the opposite things of what, you know, people might do. (38:00) Yeah. And I think, you know, just simple things like, you know, (38:06) putting your utensils down after a few bites of food is really, (38:11) really hard.

Yeah. And, (38:15) and also chewing like I, I don’t even think people understand. (38:19) Like for me, (38:22) part of a lot of my issues that I have had in my gut is because I don’t chew (38:29) well and I don’t have good digestion.

(38:32) And so taking the time to chew your food more mindfully and observing how many (38:37) chews that you have and avoid feeling rushed is so, (38:44) so important because the first step of digestion people don’t realize happens in (38:49) your mouth. People think, Oh, digestion’s happening. (38:52) Once it gets to the stomach, it’s not.

(38:55) There is a complete process and the number one most important place starts with (39:01) that saliva and the amount of times that you’re chewing it in your mouth. (39:05) And so it’s just such a great reminder. (39:08) Well, you’ve got a new book that’s coming out.

(39:11) I want you to give us a couple of your best tips that we haven’t talked about (39:17) yet that can get people excited about getting the book. (39:22) Okay. I have a section called the thin commandments.

(39:26) And what I did, Chantal is, you know, (39:29) I’ve been keeping up with diets and dieting my entire life and have, (39:32) I have shelves of books and all kinds of folders and everything. (39:36) And I tried to find about 30 concepts that I thought were important. (39:41) And I eventually got down to 20 and then down to 10, (39:44) which I call the 10 thin commandments.

And the number one commandment, (39:48) I think is the most important thing it was to me. (39:52) And I think it might be to a lot of people is thou shalt make an irrevocable (39:57) commitment to permanent weight loss and irrevocable commitment. (40:02) I’ve made commitments and I think I made a commitment every week for 50 years (40:07) after I ate too much on the weekend that I’m going on a diet this week.

(40:11) Well, when I weighed my highest weight ever at 234.6 and I couldn’t believe it, (40:15) I fell off the back of my scale. I think while I was falling, I said, (40:19) I don’t care what I have to do and how long it takes to do it, (40:22) but I’m going to lose weight permanently and keep it off. (40:25) And I knew when I did that, it kind of took pressure off of me.

(40:28) Cause like a big, you know, (40:29) like you have something on your shoulder and it’s a big barrier to your life or (40:33) whatever. It kind of lightened me. And I said, wow, (40:35) I just finally made that decision.

I don’t have to make that decision again. (40:39) So it was sort of a relief. And I was, I was so committed.

(40:42) There was no way I was going to see that scale go over 235, 234.6. (40:48) It was going to be bad. And then I have a form. (40:50) The other thing is to have a four, I weigh every day.

(40:54) And I think that’s really important to do. I know people don’t do it, (40:57) but I, I relate it to like a football coach. (41:00) It’s halftime and he didn’t look at the scoreboard.

(41:03) I wanted to become an expert on myself. (41:06) So I have a four pound line in the sandweight. (41:10) When my weight goes down a pound, uh, (41:13) the line in the sand goes down a pound and it keeps going like that.

(41:17) And my weight goes down. It might go up, but the, the, (41:20) my last line in the sand never goes up. It never goes up.

(41:24) I might go over it, but it’s never going up. (41:26) So I have to get my way back down. So they’ll move down proportionally.

(41:30) But you know, (41:31) sometimes you get the four pounds and you go over the four pounds because you (41:35) ate a big meal for some reason, and you’re up to six pounds. (41:38) But that last line in the sandweight never went up for me. I just, (41:43) if it takes me 10 days or two weeks, (41:45) I’m not raising my line on the sandweight for any reason whatsoever.

(41:49) So I would say that are irrevocable commitment and having a line in the (41:54) sandweight, (41:54) because the best way to lose weight is not to gain weight in the first place and (41:57) additional weight. So that would be my two. I have a lot of, a lot of stuff.

(42:02) I have something called a tree and tiny tricks. Uh, (42:05) but just all the ideas I’ve had my entire life or whatever I saw in the diet (42:09) book or whatever, I’ve clipped them my entire life. (42:12) Somebody said, don’t put it in your book.

(42:13) You need to just do your next book on doing that. But so those, (42:18) those would be the two, I would say irrevocable. (42:22) I love it.

And I just wanted to help people. Um, you know, (42:25) one of the things that I’ve even started doing as a little side tip is that (42:30) you actually should chew, even if you have a smoothie, (42:34) like I get a lot of smoothies sometimes just to have a lot of different fruits (42:38) and vegetables in there. (42:40) And they say that you should actually chew your smoothie to help support healthy (42:45) digestion and absorption and actually chewing activates saliva.

(42:50) So when you take a sip, you actually, (42:53) it will activate your saliva and that contains amylase. (42:58) It’s an enzyme that breaks down carbohydrates and the fruits and vegetables in (43:03) your smoothie. And like I said, (43:05) is the first phase of digestion in your mouth and breaking down into smaller (43:10) pieces.

So even when you’re doing a smoothie, you know, (43:14) we’ve talked about eating slow, even having that smoothie. Cause you know, (43:18) I know people who they’ll take a smoothie. I’m that’s me too.

(43:21) It would be like, you know, five sips later and it’s gone, (43:26) but you can even do that with like a smoothie. (43:29) And so this has been amazing. (43:32) Tell listeners where they can find you and where they can follow you.

(43:36) Okay. I really have fun. Like I say, I’m not doing this to make a living.

(43:41) I’m fine that way. So I’m just doing it for fun. And it’s a passion, (43:45) passion of mine, but I have a Facebook group that is (43:49) put that in the show, put the link in the show notes so that they have that.

(43:54) Okay. And then I’m at Twitter and then anybody can call me or (43:59) contact me any way they can. (44:00) And I don’t have a website when I get my book done, (44:02) I’m planning on having a website also, (44:05) but I’m just an old retired man when I don’t have a staff anymore.

(44:09) And I just have to do everything myself. (44:11) And everybody has to help me with technology and this, that and the other, (44:14) but I’ll just learn, learn as I go, (44:16) but that would be the best way to help me. (44:20) Well, Martin, this has been my pleasure.

(44:22) Thank you so much for all that you’re doing and really helping people to (44:27) get rid of the vicious cycle of dieting and just really losing weight (44:31) permanently. (44:32) You’ve been a blessing to me today and I know everyone listening, (44:36) this has been a blessing to them. So you guys stay tuned.

(44:39) We’ve got another episode coming up in just a few. Bye-bye for now. (44:45) Hey guys, thanks for listening to today’s podcast.

If you enjoy the podcast, (44:48) it would mean the world to us for you to leave a review on iTunes to get this (44:51) podcast out to others that may have the same questions that you do. (44:54) And as always, if you have a question that you want answered, (44:57) email those two questions at shantellrayway.com. Thanks again, (45:00) and we’ll see you next time.