Donna's Intermittent Fasting Journal

Hi! I'm Donna Reish, IF teacher, weight loss coach, blogger, and half of "The Minus 220 Pound Pair" as my husband and I have lost over 200 pounds together (160 of that in the past couple of years through the Perfect Storm of Weight Loss strategies I teach!). In this episode, I present an explanation of Macronutrients and Calories. Macronutrients, also called macros, are the three main nutrients that make up calories. That’s the important point—macronutrients make up calories. Every calorie in food is comprised of grams of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. One macro at a time, I explain the major elements and facts of each, how food is comprised of them, and why we need them. The first Macronutrient Venn diagram gives a big picture of how each macronutrient stands alone and how they overlap with each other. The second Macronutrient Venn diagram gives a listing of food for each macro, including the foods that are known for having two of the macronutrients in them (such as carbs and proteins in beans and

Hi! I'm Donna Reish, IF teacher, weight loss coach, blogger, and half of "The Minus 220 Pound Pair" as my husband and I have lost over 200 pounds together (160 of that in the past couple of years through the Weight Loss Lifestyle habits and strategies I teach!). In this episode, I present Part I of my lessons I have learned from my 800th fast (and the fasts leading up to it!). In this episode, I share about how my 800th fast showed up on the Zero app, what I like about the app, and how to use an app to reach your fasting goals. Then I delve into how I average my fasts for the week—and the benefits and potential pitfalls of doing a weekly average. I describe how for over two years my husband and I never went “off” and “on” but made IF a way of life. I also talk about what breaks my fast to me and signs to look for if you might be breaking your fast in a way that is not helpful to your overall goals. Finally, I talk about what I have learned about the incredible benefits of Intermittent Fasting—its effects o

Watch episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-66hGQKse4&feature=youtu.be See full article here: https://donnareish.com/weight-loss-lifestyle-61-willpower-ii-ways-to-overcome-or-change-the-willpower-gap/ Watch new episodes live in free private FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/318664198605086/ See Index for my other broadcast, Weight Loss Lifestyle (formerly Donna's Intermittent Fasting broadcast) here: https://donnareish.com/intermittent-fasting-journal-index/ See index for Think-Feel-Eat Videocast/Podcast here: http://donnareish.com/think-feel-eat/ Check out my Intermittent Fasting Course: https://iintermittentfastingcourse.com Free Intermittent Fasting Start Up Charts: https://donnareish.com/daily-intermittent-fasting-start-up-charts/ DISCLAIMER: This is an intermittent fasting support group, blog, podcast, and/or course. None of the information/advice shared is considered to be medical advice. Information shared here is for inspiration and/or informational purposes only. Ple

In this broadcast (Episode 60), Donna Reish author and teacher of The Intermittent Fasting Course Donna Reish, blogger, and weight loss coach, shares important information about relying on willpower. Willpower is a common word and thought---one that we use to describe what we need to overcome our body's and mind's objections to eating healthfully, working out, keeping our schedule, not eating too much sugar, and much more. It has been thought for decades that people who are overweight just need more willpower. So we have sought, usually unsuccessfully, for that secret fountain of willpower. I debunk many myths about willpower in this episode, starting with defining it, how we rely on it, and why my husband and I, who have now lost over 220 pounds together, didn't understand why we couldn't conquer our food habits that made us obese by simply using more willpower. I teach why willpower doesn't work in the long term--and even many times in the short term--by looking at research studies that demonstrate how we

In this broadcast (Episode 59), author and teacher of The Intermittent Fasting Course Donna Reish, shares her course's Live Q and A video from her January students. The IF Course is a one month course that contains 21 days of daily incremental teaching videos, outlines, charts, graphs, and motivating images/self talk :posters and cards." (See graphics and daily lesson topics here: https://donnareish.com/fast-shot-sneak-peek-of-the-intermittent-fasting-course-check-out-these-graphics/ ). The fourth week of the course, Donna goes live in the private course FB group and answers her students' questions. This is a sample of one of those live Q and A sessions. In this episode, Donna answers questions about the following: 1) Fasting for 23 or 24 hours each day 2) OMAD (One Meal a Day) vs. OPAD (One Plate a Day) vs. an eating window with a meal and snacks/dessert 3) Appetite Correction--when, what contributes to it, how you will know 4) Stevia during the fast (Using three important markers: Wide, repeatable, consi

In this broadcast, Donna Reish (Intermittent Fasting teacher, blogger, curriculum author, and weight loss coach) introduces her coach's infamous Self-Coaching Model. This framework for changing your life, understanding your thoughts and feelings, and taking the actions you desire was created by Brooke Castillo. Donna uses it on Saturday mornings to teach people in her private FB group (link below)! This is the first Saturday episode (longer than usual) as Donna introduces the elements of The Model and applies them to several different circumstances to show viewers and readers how The Model can be used on real life situations, thoughts, and feelings. She spends time to really give an understanding of the five elements: Circumstances, Thoughts, Feelings, Actions, and Results. This material is life-changing, and many thanks are given to Brooke for her generosity in giving it to the world! Sign up for Donna's Intermittent Fasting course! intermittentfastingcourse.com Sign up for my month-long, step-by-step co

Should you focus on the length of the fasting period or the food in the eating window for weight loss? Does longer always mean better weight loss? Should you eat differently if you have a short fast or a long fast? Donna Reish, Intermittent Fasting teacher, blogger, weight loss coach, and curriuculum author, answers these and many other questions in this broadcast. She begins with the "Is IF magic" question. Then she uses graphics to show four main ways we lose weight, inches, and cravings through IF. Then she turns her attention to various fasting hours--and their effect on the foods and weight loss. These include 16:8; 18:6; 19:5; 20:4; 21:3; and more. Join Donna's monthly IF course to begin fasting incrementally with daily video training and lots of hand holding! intermittentfastingcourse.com

In this broadcast, curriculum author, IF teacher, and former debate coach, helps listeners cut through the noise when it comes to claims, beliefs, and research about weight loss, macronutrients, and more. She begins by drawing on her experience as a high school debate teacher and coach to point out that the terms people are using must be defined in order for us to put them in context and see if they apply or not. Then she explains what logical fallacies and biases are--and how they apply to all people at all intellectual levels. Then she delves into the six common logical fallacies and biases with their definitions, explanations, applications, and what to look for with each one. These include anchoring bias, choice supportive bias, confirmation bias, ostrich bias, bandwagon effect, and false consensus effect. Her hope is that we will use three lenses to evaluate whether something works for us or not in applying what we hear and read: (1) Personal Experience; (2) Outside Observations; (3) Robust, reliable rese

Donna Reish, blogger, Intermittent Fasting teacher, and weight loss coach, teaches an amazing truth that applies to every area of life (yes, even weight loss--certain thoughts lead to certain actions that lead to good outcomes!): our thoughts lead to our actions. We can choose our thoughts differently, which, in turn, will lead to different actions. On Donna and Ray Baby's 38th anniversary, Donna tells the story of how Ray Baby's pickle ball instructions over and over again could lead to one thought resulting in a strained relationship or another thought resulting in love and joy. It's quite compelling--and life changing! She continues to explain how we can make a relationship (any relationship!) better in a few minutes, a few hours, or tomorrow! Learn more about thoughts, weight loss, fasting, and changing your life at donnareish.com and/or her private FB group!

HI there! I'm Donna Reish, Intermittent Faster, weight loss coach, blogger, and half of "The Minus 200 Pound Pair" as my husband and I have lost over 200 pounds (205 as of this week!) together---155 of that in the past couple of years with healthy supplementation, Intermittent Fasting, and habits. We like to say that we quit counting calories and macros and started counting hours and habits! In this broadcast, I introduce a concept I have been using to lose my last 25 pounds or so---that of creating a food plan for tomorrow! I call it my "Tomorrow Real-for-Me Food Plan," and it can help you too! It is realistic, in line with research on how habits are created, and grows with you as you add in "1% Jump Ups." Check out the outline below--I feel so hopeful for you...even if you have "failed" in your latest weight loss efforts. If two empty nesters nearing age sixty can lose weight, you can too!

Ketosis is a coveted space to be in by many people. When most people think of ketosis, they think of the keto diet. However, if the keto diet were the only way to get into “fat burning,” how would people lose weight every day with other protocols? (Yes, please….make all decisions for your health and weight management through three lenses: research, personal experience, outside observations of others!) Come to find out, we can get into fat burning in many ways. On today’s broadcast, I discuss three ways to get into ketosis—that is three ways to burn through circulating glucose and stored glycogen to get the body into the optimal position for fat burning. In this broadcast, I discuss what is ketosis and why people seek it. Then I move into three ways that we can get into ketosis. The first way is the most commonly known—the ketogenic diet. I also point out some of the downfalls of this method (including that people think they’re doing keto is they simply reduce carbs—the keto diet is not simply reducing ca

In this broadcast, Donna Reish, author of over 100 curriculum books for students, Intermittent Fasting teacher, blogger, and online teacher, teaches how our thoughts affect our results by looking at her husband’s Pollyanna way of thinking. She delves into how working with weight loss and life coach Brooke Castillo in Self-Coaching Scholars has led Donna to see how her husband’s way of thinking has been right all along! (Gasp!) When we think differently about people, situations, our goals, life’s disappointments, and more, we act differently. When we think good thoughts, we act in a way that brings good results. When we think bad thoughts, we act in a way that brings bad results. Donna applies this to work, marriage, weight loss, and exercise with examples of both---thoughts that lead us to negative results in these areas and thoughts that lead us to positive results in these areas. She then talks about the need to be extremely specific in our thoughts—take a circumstance or person and think an intention

Donna Reish, author of over 100 language arts books for students grades two through twelve, blogger, weight loss coach, and Intermittent Fasting teacher, brings the topic of chocolate to us! In this departure from Donna's typical  broadcasts, Broadcast #50 is about how to move from creamy milk chocolate to a healthier or sugar-free chocolate to help you reduce sugar and cravings in your life. She begins with the power of dilution explaining how you can dilute the dark chocolate taste or stevia taste with either nut butter or cream, depending on how "loose" or soft you want it to be.  After instructions on how to do those dilutions, Donna talks about three other ways to "dilute" the dark chocolate or stevia taste through mix ins, layers, or even dipping. She describes kid-friendly approaches to this as well as low carb approaches. She explains how to use these chocolates in recipes, such as Reishes' Cups, Take 5 Bars, chocolate cheesecake mousse, chocolate-chip cheesecake dip, and more. 

In this broadcast, Donna Reish, blogger, weight loss coach, author of over 100 curriculum books, and Intermittent Fasting teacher, teaches about Dr. Stephan Guyenet’s seductive nutrient combinations (from his book, The Hungry Brain) in a concept she calls “Six Seductive Craving Concentations.” Donna opens the video with how she discovered her “trifecta”---the effect that the combination of flour, sugar, and fat has on her cravings and overeating via pastries, cookies, pies, cakes, and donuts. As she pondered this, she hit upon overweight/brain researcher, the aforementioned Dr. Guyenet, and was able to start piecing together why these foods had this effect on her. (Hint: It isn’t the sugar or the flour or the fat alone—otherwise people would be overweight from Twizzlers or plain sandwich bread or spoonfuls of butter!) Donna teaches Guyenet’s seductive nutrient combinations and their effect on the brain chemical, dopamine. She explains what dopamine is and how it is spiked through the Six Seductive Craving C

In this broadcast, Donna Reish, author of over 100 curriculum books for students, blogger, weight-loss coach-in-training, and Intermittent Fasting teacher, goes where few IF peeps go: the calorie problem. She opens with a study that shows just because “experts” say it doesn’t make it true. (Especially when other experts/researchers say something different!) You have to bring together research, your observations of those around you, and your own personal experience. Donna delves into how the thought that calories have no bearing on weight loss (or health!) can be dangerous because consistently overeating can cause little weight loss, health concerns, unnecessary expense, and more. Then she introduces fifteen clues that show that maybe you really do believe in calories—just a little. And what we should do with this information (i.e. eat less overall!) These clues range from watching the calories you burn on devices to cutting back portion sizes to your past history of losing weight while decreasing calories

In this broadcast, Donna Reish, curriculum author of over 100 books, weight loss coach, blogger, and Intermittent Fasting teacher, teaches about the 130 Calorie Snack Concept---that is, that most packaged snacks have 130 calories in them for every 30 grams of snack (or approximately 4.5 calories per gram). This is the case for nearly all packaged snacks--health food store ones and all out "junk food" ones. Donna doesn't delve into the ingredients in snacks or the macros (that's a topic for another day). Instead, Donna explains why this matters to those seeking to lose weight: (1) Calories, or total food intake, really do matter; (2) The question isn't how many calories a packaged snack has; the question is how "big" is a 30 gram snack and how satiating is it?; (3) Stomach filling is based on a combination of volume, fiber, and water; (4) Many snacks leave us hungry; (5) Real foods always win--they have all of the fluffy qualities that fill us up (and give us important nutrients); (6) Snacking is often enterta

Donna Reish, blogger, Intermittent Fasting teacher, health seeker, and author of over 100 curriculum books for students shares the Four Ways We Reduce Weight, Inches, and Cravings With Intermittent Fasting in this episode. Donna uses her four quad chart to show the four things that affect weight loss, inch loss, and craving reductions. (See charts for this episode at https://donnareish.com broadcast #46.) The four ways we lose include getting into fat burning during the fast, retaining muscle through fasting, skimming off calories (and reducing cravings/controlling appetite through fasting), and boosting our metabolism. Donna then describes IF as a lifestyle and how we CAN tweak the schedule as desired, but veering too far off or constantly making exceptions can lead to our "stopping and starting" IF---which reduces the chance of it becoming a lifestyle for us. This episode is sponsored by Plexus Slim, Hunger Control. Get your free sample of this amazing, energy-giving pink drink HERE: http://donnareish.com/

In this Broadcast, Donna Reish, blogger, author of 100 curriculum books for preschool through twelfth graders, seeker of health and fitness, and Intermittent Fasting teacher, talks about what to expect after one month of fasting and what to focus on for your fasting time and your eating window at this point. (She also gives lots of help and encouragement for new fasters in general!) Donna begins with her and her husband’s “journal.” She talks about how there will always be things to work around and problems to solve. Being a problem solver is a huge part of achieving weight management. She talks about how she has a little longer eating window now (5-6 hours a day) due to her schedule with her husband and her strength training—and how important it is to eat more healthy and real foods when you have a longer eating window. She also describes her opening snack as “more real food” and less villainizing of a certain macronutrient (i.e. fats or carbs). Next, Donna delves into what to expect and what to focu

In this Broadcast, Donna Reish, blogger, author of 100 curriculum books for preschool through twelfth graders, seeker of health and fitness, and Intermittent Fasting teacher, talks about whether you should continue to fast when weight loss has plateaued, slowed, or stopped. She begins this presentation by telling, in a nutshell, why she and her husband (the two have lost over 100 pounds together in a year on IF) will always practice some form of Intermittent Fasting (in spite of both of their “weight plateaus” right now). Donna begins this discussion by talking about what was happening to her before IF—always some form of dieting, losing and regaining, perfection or guilt, limiting one macro or another, etc. She also discusses the differences among various metrics—pounds, inches, clothes, appearance—and how we should consider all, not just weight. She also touches on motivation to exercise and change our bodies. Next, Donna describes the difficulties in achieving leptin and insulin sensitivities. Both of th