WEBVTT - Subtraction > Addition 0:00:00.140 --> 0:00:05.479 Hi, and welcome to your Write Your Story podcast. Good job, Curly. 0:00:06.380 --> 0:00:10.260 Pick up the pieces of your life Put them back 0:00:10.300 --> 0:00:13.380 together with the words you write All the beauty and 0:00:13.460 --> 0:00:17.250 peace and the magic that you'll start to find When 0:00:17.270 --> 0:00:21.430 you write your story You've got the words inside, don't 0:00:21.470 --> 0:00:24.130 you think it's time To let them out and write 0:00:24.150 --> 0:00:29.770 them down Uncover what it's all about And write your. 0:00:35.710 --> 0:00:37.809 Hi, and welcome back to the Write Your Story podcast. 0:00:37.930 --> 0:00:40.370 I'm Allie Fallon. I'm your host. And on today's episode, 0:00:40.430 --> 0:00:42.650 I want to talk about this phenomenon that I have 0:00:42.690 --> 0:00:49.519 noticed about how sometimes subtraction brings you more than addition does. 0:00:49.780 --> 0:00:53.940 So stay with me. Subtraction over addition. What I mean 0:00:53.980 --> 0:00:57.780 by this is that sometimes doing less actually brings you more. 0:00:58.270 --> 0:01:00.750 That whole concept of less is more. I know we've 0:01:00.790 --> 0:01:02.950 seen this play out and seen this to be true 0:01:03.010 --> 0:01:05.070 in so many different aspects of our lives. But I 0:01:05.090 --> 0:01:07.170 want to talk about this, especially as it relates to creativity. 0:01:07.610 --> 0:01:10.910 And this idea is really born from something I've been 0:01:10.930 --> 0:01:14.200 doing recently that I avoided doing. I put off doing. 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:16.780 I did not want to do. I did everything that 0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:22.920 I could possibly do before I did this thing. But begrudgingly, reluctantly, angrily, bitterly, 0:01:22.940 --> 0:01:26.240 I finally did it, which is to cut sugar out 0:01:26.260 --> 0:01:29.410 of my life. Okay, so let me explain how I 0:01:29.450 --> 0:01:32.630 got here. First and foremost, I'll give a quick health 0:01:32.690 --> 0:01:34.960 update since I haven't done that in a while. I 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:39.080 have been dealing with, if you're new here, toxic mold exposure. 0:01:39.420 --> 0:01:41.580 There was mold that was growing in my crawl space. 0:01:41.700 --> 0:01:43.340 I was exposed to mold. It was coming up through 0:01:43.380 --> 0:01:46.600 the vents from the crawl space up into the house. 0:01:47.340 --> 0:01:48.980 And I was being exposed over the course of the 0:01:49.020 --> 0:01:51.250 past several years since I moved into this house to 0:01:51.290 --> 0:01:53.890 toxic mold, unbeknownst to me. And it was causing all 0:01:53.910 --> 0:01:56.500 kinds of health problems. They started slow at first, so 0:01:56.520 --> 0:01:58.360 I didn't really notice that it was going on, kind 0:01:58.380 --> 0:02:00.820 of like that frog in hot water theory where I 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:04.080 was having lots of respiratory infections. I had walking pneumonia. 0:02:04.620 --> 0:02:08.359 And then suddenly the symptoms became undeniable and unbearable. I 0:02:08.380 --> 0:02:10.600 was going to the ER. It took me a really 0:02:10.639 --> 0:02:12.030 long time to figure out what was going on. And 0:02:12.040 --> 0:02:14.170 then once I finally honed in on the problem, it 0:02:14.190 --> 0:02:17.370 was like, oh, phew, thank goodness. I don't have some 0:02:17.540 --> 0:02:20.770 terrible disease that's going to end my life sooner than later, 0:02:21.210 --> 0:02:23.010 which is honestly what I felt like. I felt like 0:02:23.050 --> 0:02:27.070 I was going to die. The diagnosis that the doctors 0:02:27.090 --> 0:02:29.109 were all kind of zeroing in on was MS, which 0:02:29.150 --> 0:02:31.550 I know is not a death sentence, but it certainly 0:02:31.590 --> 0:02:33.110 felt like the end of my life as I knew it. 0:02:33.550 --> 0:02:34.829 And once we figured out it was mold, it was 0:02:34.870 --> 0:02:36.230 just like, oh, phew, such a relief. 0:02:36.410 --> 0:02:36.630 Okay. 0:02:36.990 --> 0:02:39.570 So now it was time to move on to a 0:02:40.250 --> 0:02:43.230 management of the issue. Like how can we detox my 0:02:43.270 --> 0:02:45.470 body from the mold? How can we rehab my body? 0:02:45.930 --> 0:02:49.850 I had lost a lot of muscle tone from just 0:02:50.350 --> 0:02:53.100 my neurons not firing properly to my legs. So I 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:55.140 had like lost feeling in the bottom part of my 0:02:55.160 --> 0:02:58.160 legs from the knees down. I was walking with like 0:02:58.220 --> 0:03:01.200 a little bit of a limp and was just, you know, 0:03:01.419 --> 0:03:03.560 there's so many different things. I was having terrible brain fog. 0:03:04.220 --> 0:03:06.180 So I moved on to this phase that I have 0:03:06.220 --> 0:03:07.779 been in for the last six months or so, which 0:03:07.860 --> 0:03:10.620 is like, how can we detox my body and get 0:03:10.660 --> 0:03:13.609 back to a baseline? So I've been doing all kinds 0:03:13.650 --> 0:03:17.460 of things. I've been using a pharmaceutical detox agent. called cholesteramine. 0:03:17.980 --> 0:03:21.220 I have multiple doctors that are helping me. We're doing 0:03:21.639 --> 0:03:25.350 lots of different supplements to support the immune system. I'm 0:03:25.389 --> 0:03:28.290 doing red light therapy. I'm using a sauna. There's all 0:03:28.310 --> 0:03:30.150 kinds of different ways that you can open up the 0:03:30.169 --> 0:03:32.770 detox pathways and get these toxins out of your system. 0:03:33.530 --> 0:03:35.730 So I had been doing all of this stuff, like 0:03:36.150 --> 0:03:39.340 basically anything that anyone suggested that I try. I was like, sure. 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:42.290 People are like, try acupuncture. I'm like, great, sign me up. 0:03:42.780 --> 0:03:46.100 They're like, try this kinesiologist. Yes, sign me up. Try 0:03:46.140 --> 0:03:47.180 this healer person. Okay. 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:47.440 Yeah. 0:03:47.740 --> 0:03:49.420 Like what do I have to do? Get me there. 0:03:49.900 --> 0:03:52.520 And I'm like adding, adding, adding, adding, adding things to 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:55.680 the list that I'm doing for my detox. And many 0:03:55.720 --> 0:03:58.290 of the things have been, I would say neutral. A 0:03:58.820 --> 0:04:01.410 few of them have been extremely helpful. One thing, this 0:04:01.490 --> 0:04:03.390 is not a plug, but it is, I guess a plug. 0:04:03.450 --> 0:04:05.170 It's a plug I'm not getting paid for. One thing 0:04:05.210 --> 0:04:07.970 that has been extremely helpful, like probably moved the needle 0:04:08.010 --> 0:04:10.830 more than anything else has been red light therapy. And 0:04:10.870 --> 0:04:13.740 sometimes on Instagram, you'll see me When I record reels, 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:15.920 you'll see like a glowing red light in the background 0:04:15.940 --> 0:04:18.500 because I sit on my red light mat a lot, 0:04:18.600 --> 0:04:20.240 like all the time. I'm literally sitting on it right now. 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:23.880 Hold on. You can hear me click it on. Maybe 0:04:23.900 --> 0:04:26.560 you can hear that. Maybe not. I sit on top 0:04:26.580 --> 0:04:28.609 of this red light mat all the time. It is 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:32.570 so helpful. It will calm the neuropathy that I'm having 0:04:32.589 --> 0:04:35.850 in my legs and my feet. It will calm my 0:04:35.890 --> 0:04:38.130 nervous system if I'm feeling anxious because anxiety is a 0:04:38.150 --> 0:04:41.190 big part of the effect of the mold exposure on 0:04:41.210 --> 0:04:44.980 the brain. So the red light therapy has been helpful. 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:47.839 The cholesteramine is one of the most powerful detox agents 0:04:47.920 --> 0:04:51.380 on the market. It's been really, really helpful. It's also 0:04:51.680 --> 0:04:54.090 made me sick, you know, for at least the first 0:04:54.130 --> 0:04:55.430 couple of months I was taking it, I was feeling 0:04:55.470 --> 0:04:59.070 really sick because it really is just pulling so many 0:04:59.110 --> 0:05:02.549 toxins out of your tissues and rinsing it from the body. 0:05:03.110 --> 0:05:05.070 There have been things I've done, like I've come back 0:05:05.110 --> 0:05:07.440 to hot yoga. Sometimes that will make my nervous system 0:05:07.450 --> 0:05:10.280 feel really activated and it'll kick up my symptoms again. 0:05:10.940 --> 0:05:12.720 There have been, Plenty of things I've tried that have 0:05:12.740 --> 0:05:14.400 made it worse. There have been things that have made 0:05:14.440 --> 0:05:16.560 it better. There have been things that have been pretty neutral. 0:05:17.420 --> 0:05:19.580 But one of the things that I have avoided doing, 0:05:19.640 --> 0:05:22.719 I was saying that anything anyone suggests to me, I'm like, yes, 0:05:22.760 --> 0:05:24.849 I'll try it. Tell me what it is and sign 0:05:24.870 --> 0:05:28.170 me up. And I've done that with everything except for 0:05:28.250 --> 0:05:30.789 one thing, which was to cut sugar out of my 0:05:30.830 --> 0:05:33.789 diet and to just change my diet in general. My 0:05:33.850 --> 0:05:37.800 reasoning for being so stubborn about changing my diet is 0:05:38.100 --> 0:05:41.719 number one, I lived on a pretty restricted diet for 0:05:41.960 --> 0:05:46.350 most of my life. I went gluten free, I don't know, 0:05:46.620 --> 0:05:48.590 years and years ago before anyone was ever gluten free, 0:05:48.610 --> 0:05:52.310 like 2010, 2011, maybe even before that, before anyone was 0:05:52.330 --> 0:05:54.770 gluten free, before there were gluten free breads and gluten 0:05:54.790 --> 0:05:58.679 free baked goods. It was just like, you know, you 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:02.950 eat rice cakes and like, you know, dip veggies in hummus. 0:06:02.990 --> 0:06:04.250 That was pretty much all you could do if you 0:06:04.270 --> 0:06:08.690 were gluten-free. I was doing that a couple of decades ago. 0:06:08.990 --> 0:06:12.350 And I was also diagnosed at around 20 years old. 0:06:12.410 --> 0:06:15.170 So this would have been like in early 2000s with 0:06:15.529 --> 0:06:18.710 something called dietary fructose intolerance, where I would have a 0:06:18.710 --> 0:06:22.260 really hard time digesting fruits and vegetables and It depended 0:06:22.300 --> 0:06:24.360 on the fruits and vegetables, but pretty much any vegetable 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:26.640 that was like red, yellow, or orange, and then almost 0:06:26.700 --> 0:06:28.520 all fruits, I would have a very hard time digesting. 0:06:29.180 --> 0:06:31.000 So I had to cut those out of my diet. 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:33.750 Later on, and I don't need to get into the 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:36.690 whole story, but later on, I was able to work 0:06:36.750 --> 0:06:41.349 with a therapist and also a nutritionist to reintegrate some 0:06:41.390 --> 0:06:43.170 of these things into my diet. And then when I 0:06:43.230 --> 0:06:46.350 got pregnant with my daughter, it was like my body 0:06:46.390 --> 0:06:49.279 just completely reset I was also doing a bunch of 0:06:49.360 --> 0:06:52.040 like Joe Dispenza meditations during this time. So it's possible 0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:54.640 that that played a role as well. I know a 0:06:54.700 --> 0:06:58.550 lot of people have experienced healing with the Joe Dispenza 0:06:58.580 --> 0:07:02.510 meditations and with his work in general. And so during 0:07:02.550 --> 0:07:04.210 that time in my life, I was able to suddenly 0:07:04.230 --> 0:07:06.870 start eating gluten again. I was able to eat almost 0:07:07.010 --> 0:07:10.750 everything that I had had to keep out of my life. 0:07:11.050 --> 0:07:13.090 I had to be so vigilant about what I was eating. 0:07:13.530 --> 0:07:15.470 And it felt like even sometimes when I would be 0:07:15.530 --> 0:07:20.100 really vigilant, I would still have terrible digestive symptoms from foods. 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:25.200 And so when Nella was born or, you know, when 0:07:25.230 --> 0:07:27.330 I was pregnant with Nella, this would have been like 0:07:27.430 --> 0:07:29.470 in 2019 and into 2020. So late 2019 into 2020, 0:07:29.470 --> 0:07:31.590 I started to be able to eat everything again. I 0:07:31.590 --> 0:07:39.560 was like, I can have gluten. I can have you know, fructose. 0:07:39.580 --> 0:07:43.200 I can have all, I had already reintegrated mostly, most 0:07:43.220 --> 0:07:46.020 of the fruit and many vegetables into my diet, but 0:07:46.240 --> 0:07:47.480 I just moved into a phase where I was like 0:07:47.620 --> 0:07:50.920 able to eat everything and didn't have to constantly restrict myself. 0:07:51.760 --> 0:07:55.520 And it really, really changed my relationship with food. It 0:07:55.540 --> 0:07:59.310 like opened my mind. I felt free. I was like, oh, 0:07:59.430 --> 0:08:01.210 I can go into a restaurant. I can order whatever 0:08:01.290 --> 0:08:05.230 I want. It felt like, wow, this is the life 0:08:05.330 --> 0:08:09.560 that I have been missing. It's wild how much food restrictions. 0:08:09.700 --> 0:08:11.460 And you'll get this if you're someone who struggled with 0:08:11.500 --> 0:08:15.480 chronic pain or chronic food issues, or if you've had like, 0:08:15.860 --> 0:08:18.960 you know, any kind of eating disorders or even just 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:21.690 like mildly disordered eating, which I feel like is most 0:08:22.350 --> 0:08:25.470 women if you grew up in the generation that I did. 0:08:26.090 --> 0:08:28.230 So if you have any kind of weird relationship to food, 0:08:29.050 --> 0:08:31.710 you'll get how big of a role this plays in 0:08:31.770 --> 0:08:34.530 your everyday life. It's not just like, oh, bummer, you 0:08:34.550 --> 0:08:36.890 can't have that food. It changes the way that you 0:08:36.929 --> 0:08:38.910 experience going to a restaurant. It changes the way you 0:08:38.929 --> 0:08:41.030 experience going to someone's house. It changes the way you 0:08:41.070 --> 0:08:44.470 experience eating with friends. It changes the way you experience 0:08:44.510 --> 0:08:52.910 birthday parties, celebrations, alcohol, cake. Every single holiday is different 0:08:52.970 --> 0:08:55.130 for you than it is for everyone else because everyone's 0:08:55.230 --> 0:08:58.410 eating pumpkin pie and you can't have any. Everyone's eating 0:08:59.200 --> 0:09:01.790 XYZ dessert and you can't have any. And that was 0:09:01.820 --> 0:09:06.210 a good portion of my adult life. And so when 0:09:06.330 --> 0:09:08.050 I realized that I could eat all these foods again, 0:09:08.070 --> 0:09:10.970 I was just like, I'm never going back. I'm living 0:09:10.990 --> 0:09:14.950 the dream. I'm eating cinnamon rolls. We're eating bagels for 0:09:14.970 --> 0:09:17.080 the first time in my life. You know, we're like 0:09:17.670 --> 0:09:20.560 having just whatever sounds good. I moved into a phase 0:09:20.580 --> 0:09:23.760 where I was eating more intuitively, like thinking about like, 0:09:23.820 --> 0:09:27.120 what is my body craving? Instead of before then I'd 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:29.640 had to eat from a, from more of like a 0:09:29.700 --> 0:09:33.280 utilitarian perspective, It's like, okay, my body needs protein. My 0:09:33.330 --> 0:09:35.990 body needs fiber. My body needs XYZ. And so I'd 0:09:36.030 --> 0:09:40.150 have to eat using my mind instead of using my body. 0:09:40.190 --> 0:09:42.290 I was eating in a more embodied way during that 0:09:42.330 --> 0:09:44.570 time of my life. And I loved it. And I 0:09:44.670 --> 0:09:47.790 soaked up every single minute of it. And so when 0:09:47.870 --> 0:09:52.969 some of these doctors started suggesting that I cut foods 0:09:53.050 --> 0:09:55.590 out of my diet, like maybe let's eliminate gluten again. 0:09:55.650 --> 0:09:58.429 Let's eliminate dairy for a while. Let's see how that goes. Let's, 0:09:58.950 --> 0:10:03.199 you know, try eating fewer packaged or processed things, which 0:10:03.820 --> 0:10:06.860 I wasn't necessarily eating tons of packaged and processed things, 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:09.740 but I was not stopping myself from eating chips. If 0:10:09.800 --> 0:10:11.900 that was what was served at an event, you know, 0:10:11.940 --> 0:10:15.199 I'm eating nachos, I'm eating like spinach and artichoke dip, 0:10:15.240 --> 0:10:17.800 just things that I had not eaten before in my life. 0:10:18.520 --> 0:10:21.290 And So the thought of having to cut those foods 0:10:21.340 --> 0:10:22.840 out of my diet again, it was just like, nope, 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:25.140 I'm not doing that. I'm willing to make pretty much 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:30.120 any sacrifice, but not that. And finally, finally, finally, I 0:10:30.160 --> 0:10:31.900 got to the place where like the detox was going 0:10:31.940 --> 0:10:34.450 very well. And I was having a few other complications 0:10:34.929 --> 0:10:37.970 related to what I think based on my research, based 0:10:38.030 --> 0:10:39.930 on the doctor that I was working with, we think 0:10:40.450 --> 0:10:44.120 was related to candida overgrowth. And so this is when 0:10:44.150 --> 0:10:47.559 she was like, kind of, Okay, sorry to break this 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:49.280 to you, but if you want to deal with this, 0:10:49.300 --> 0:11:02.590 you're going to have to change your diet. Finally, finally, finally, 0:11:02.630 --> 0:11:04.190 I got to the place where like the detox was 0:11:04.230 --> 0:11:06.230 going very well and I was having a few other 0:11:06.390 --> 0:11:10.270 complications related to what I think, based on my research, 0:11:10.330 --> 0:11:12.030 based on the doctor that I was working with, we 0:11:12.170 --> 0:11:16.500 think was related to candida overgrowth. And so this is 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:19.910 when she was like, kind of, okay, sorry to break 0:11:19.970 --> 0:11:21.850 this to you, but if you want to deal with this, 0:11:21.870 --> 0:11:25.290 you're going to have to change your diet. And it's 0:11:25.330 --> 0:11:30.330 really mostly about gluten, about sugar and carbohydrates and cutting 0:11:30.370 --> 0:11:31.949 back on those for a period of time until you 0:11:31.970 --> 0:11:34.710 can get the candida under control and get the gut 0:11:34.750 --> 0:11:39.949 back in the microbiome back in balance. And then your 0:11:39.970 --> 0:11:43.150 microbiome can be more resilient and can handle more foods. 0:11:43.890 --> 0:11:50.229 And so- I was like, oh, I'm very begrudgingly, very annoyed, 0:11:50.290 --> 0:11:55.099 very bitterly agreed to do this diet. I bought a 0:11:55.160 --> 0:11:57.979 book by Dr. Mindy Peltz, I think is her name. 0:11:58.660 --> 0:12:01.720 I know it's Mindy. I'll put a link to the 0:12:01.740 --> 0:12:03.800 book in the show notes. Her book is called Fast 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:07.170 Like a Girl. And I had seen her book a 0:12:07.190 --> 0:12:10.110 few times before and been curious about it because she 0:12:10.130 --> 0:12:14.020 talks about How you can use food to help yourself 0:12:14.380 --> 0:12:17.400 find more balance in your hormones. But again, like I 0:12:17.420 --> 0:12:18.949 was in a place in my life when I first 0:12:18.970 --> 0:12:20.530 saw her book and when I first started following her 0:12:20.550 --> 0:12:23.210 on social media where the idea of intermittent fasting was 0:12:23.250 --> 0:12:24.730 like a big no-go for me. I was like, nope, 0:12:24.950 --> 0:12:27.430 we're not doing that. We're eating first thing in the morning. 0:12:27.590 --> 0:12:29.210 I'm hungry when I wake up. I'm going to just 0:12:29.230 --> 0:12:31.350 go ahead and eat. I'm going to eat when I'm hungry. 0:12:31.429 --> 0:12:33.910 I'm going to stop when I'm full. And that was really, 0:12:33.929 --> 0:12:36.030 really working for me for a period of time. But 0:12:36.070 --> 0:12:39.270 then once we realized that there was a candida situation happening, 0:12:39.290 --> 0:12:41.050 which by the way, a lot of times is a 0:12:41.070 --> 0:12:44.750 secondary condition of mold. If you think about it, candida 0:12:44.830 --> 0:12:48.650 and mold are, they coexist very well together. And they 0:12:48.670 --> 0:12:53.510 also hide from the immune system through biofilms. And so anyways, 0:12:53.630 --> 0:12:56.540 these issues are interplaying with one another. And I just 0:12:56.580 --> 0:12:58.880 realized if I really want to get rid of the 0:12:58.900 --> 0:13:00.859 mold in my system and start feeling better all the time, 0:13:00.980 --> 0:13:03.160 this is something that I'm going to have to do 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:05.739 for a period of time. So I bought Mindy's book 0:13:06.190 --> 0:13:08.910 It's called Fast Like a Girl. She teaches you how 0:13:08.970 --> 0:13:11.970 to fast. And most of it is intermittent fasting, but 0:13:11.990 --> 0:13:15.319 there are longer fasting options. But intermittent fasting, meaning like 0:13:15.460 --> 0:13:18.840 fasting for like 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, maybe 18 hours, 0:13:19.620 --> 0:13:22.360 finishing dinner at like 6 p.m. and then not eating 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:26.819 breakfast the next morning until 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 0:13:26.820 --> 0:13:32.100 somewhere in that window in order to reset your hormones, 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:36.119 in order to start the process of autophagy, which is 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:42.580 where the healthy cells start to like flush out the 0:13:42.620 --> 0:13:45.729 less healthy cells. The less healthy cells really start to die. 0:13:45.750 --> 0:13:49.370 And I think if you understand this process really well, 0:13:49.390 --> 0:13:51.350 if you're like a scientist or a doctor, send me 0:13:51.429 --> 0:13:52.850 an email if I'm getting this wrong. But I think 0:13:52.890 --> 0:13:54.630 the way it works is like the healthy cells actually 0:13:54.870 --> 0:13:58.030 eat the unhealthy cells when your body is in autophagy. 0:13:58.790 --> 0:14:01.939 And again, like I'm going to explain this probably not 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:05.170 the most precise way possible. but I believe that autophagy 0:14:05.190 --> 0:14:08.740 begins when you enter ketosis. So when your body stops 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:14.280 feeding off of the like easily available sugars and that 0:14:14.360 --> 0:14:16.900 easily available sugar isn't available, it has to break down fats. 0:14:17.460 --> 0:14:20.700 That's when your body enters into autophagy. And so in 0:14:20.740 --> 0:14:24.370 order to get there, you have to either have very 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:28.290 few carbohydrates in your system period, or you have to 0:14:28.690 --> 0:14:30.630 be in one of these like, you know, fasting windows 0:14:30.650 --> 0:14:33.980 at 12, 13, 14, 18 hour fasting window. So I 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:36.720 started doing a little bit of both and Minnie's book 0:14:36.760 --> 0:14:38.740 is helpful because she walks you through how to do 0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:41.120 this without you get, if you, if you do too 0:14:41.140 --> 0:14:44.140 much fasting or if you go too crazy with the carbohydrates, 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:47.010 you can, as a woman really mess with your cycle 0:14:47.050 --> 0:14:51.690 because your cycle depends on carbohydrates to create progesterone. Um, 0:14:51.830 --> 0:14:53.810 when you starve your body of carbohydrates, from what I 0:14:53.850 --> 0:14:58.170 understand from her book, that helps generate estrogen. But then 0:14:58.210 --> 0:15:00.640 in the second half of your cycle, um, when your 0:15:00.660 --> 0:15:03.400 body's trying to create progesterone, you actually need those carbohydrates 0:15:03.460 --> 0:15:06.330 to create that. So she walks you through different phases 0:15:06.390 --> 0:15:08.790 of your cycle, when to do what, when to have 0:15:08.810 --> 0:15:12.390 the longer fasting windows, when to cut out sugar. Anyways, 0:15:12.470 --> 0:15:15.190 all of this long story to say that I started 0:15:15.250 --> 0:15:19.690 doing these fasting windows according to Mindy's plan, and I 0:15:19.730 --> 0:15:24.360 started really thinking seriously about when and what carbohydrates I 0:15:24.380 --> 0:15:27.200 was putting in my system. And once I started to 0:15:27.260 --> 0:15:32.170 do that, I tragically... started to feel much better, like 0:15:32.270 --> 0:15:34.740 so much better. Like I have been wearing an aura 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:38.480 ring for the last couple of months because I just 0:15:38.500 --> 0:15:40.960 needed a way to track my vitals with the symptoms 0:15:40.980 --> 0:15:44.060 I was having. I was having heart palpitations, racing heart. 0:15:44.580 --> 0:15:48.420 There were certain symptoms where it was, the symptom was uncomfortable, 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:50.280 but then also not knowing what was going on with 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:53.990 my body was really anxiety provoking too. So I felt 0:15:54.030 --> 0:15:56.610 like wearing some kind of wearable device that could track 0:15:56.650 --> 0:16:00.650 my vitals was just a necessary part of the process 0:16:00.670 --> 0:16:02.729 for me in being able to check and say like, okay, 0:16:02.750 --> 0:16:05.790 I'm feeling this way in my body, but actually my 0:16:05.830 --> 0:16:09.090 vitals do look okay. So that's been very helpful for me. 0:16:09.370 --> 0:16:12.150 And what I noticed as I'm tracking my vitals is 0:16:12.190 --> 0:16:15.890 that as soon as I cut sugar out, as soon 0:16:15.910 --> 0:16:19.390 as I cut out all processed sugar. I'm not doing 0:16:19.470 --> 0:16:28.609 any ice cream, chocolate, candy, cookies, any refined white sugar. 0:16:28.690 --> 0:16:31.510 I'm not doing any of that. So no flavored lattes 0:16:31.550 --> 0:16:35.810 or flavored drinks or sodas or anything like that. I've 0:16:35.830 --> 0:16:39.870 cut all of that out. And then a lot of carbohydrates. 0:16:39.950 --> 0:16:43.960 So any kind of chips or tortillas or bread or 0:16:44.000 --> 0:16:46.140 things like that for right now, just while I get 0:16:46.160 --> 0:16:50.080 the I have opted out of those foods for right 0:16:50.100 --> 0:16:53.780 this minute. And then the way Mindy teaches it is 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:58.730 there are natural carbohydrates like sweet potatoes, for example, or 0:16:59.050 --> 0:17:01.850 berries that you can do in the second half of 0:17:01.890 --> 0:17:04.489 your cycle when your body's trying to create progesterone, that 0:17:04.510 --> 0:17:06.250 your body really needs that extra support. And then in 0:17:06.290 --> 0:17:08.190 the first half of your cycle, you can skip those things. 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:12.859 So I've been doing that. And I've noticed that since 0:17:12.920 --> 0:17:17.510 I've been doing it, my vitals are greatly improving. Like 0:17:18.070 --> 0:17:22.530 one vital that has dramatically improved is my heart rate variability. 0:17:23.490 --> 0:17:25.590 And I've learned a lot about heart rate variability since 0:17:25.630 --> 0:17:28.379 I've been going through all of these mold symptoms because 0:17:28.980 --> 0:17:33.580 the mold toxicity creates these secondary conditions like mast cell activation, 0:17:34.359 --> 0:17:41.750 like POTS syndrome, which is like a posterior orthostatic tachycardic syndrome. Um, again, 0:17:41.790 --> 0:17:43.030 if you're a doctor, tell me if I got that wrong, 0:17:43.050 --> 0:17:46.190 but I think that's how it goes where your heart 0:17:46.230 --> 0:17:48.110 just starts to do wild things and you can feel 0:17:48.130 --> 0:17:51.350 really dizzy and you can sometimes pass out. And one 0:17:51.390 --> 0:17:54.500 of the elements of that POTS syndrome is that your 0:17:54.580 --> 0:17:57.879 heart rate variability is quite low, meaning that you're the 0:17:57.940 --> 0:18:00.600 variability from like your lowest heart rate to your highest 0:18:00.619 --> 0:18:03.800 heart rate is just not that wide. You want your 0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:05.800 heart rate variability to be pretty wide. You want your 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:09.070 heart to like, when you're exercising, you want it to 0:18:09.150 --> 0:18:12.679 get up into the hundreds, like 110, 120, whatever it is, 0:18:13.220 --> 0:18:15.740 maybe even 130, depending on how hard you're working out. Yeah, 0:18:15.760 --> 0:18:17.109 you want your heart rate to go up, up, up 0:18:17.570 --> 0:18:20.210 when you're stressing your body. And then you want it 0:18:20.230 --> 0:18:22.169 to come down nice and low when you're not stressing 0:18:22.190 --> 0:18:25.810 your body. So a higher heart rate variability is actually 0:18:25.910 --> 0:18:28.350 good because that means your body's going nice and low 0:18:28.390 --> 0:18:30.169 when you're at rest and then nice and high when 0:18:30.210 --> 0:18:33.480 you're under stress. So a low heart rate variability is 0:18:33.500 --> 0:18:36.160 what can kind of give you that lightheaded feeling when 0:18:36.220 --> 0:18:39.080 you stand up too fast or stand up off the 0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:42.110 floor or Or when it's really hot outside, if your 0:18:42.690 --> 0:18:46.790 heart can't rise to the occasion, I guess, it can 0:18:46.830 --> 0:18:49.670 kind of give you that lightheaded feeling or dizziness, which 0:18:49.750 --> 0:18:51.479 I was dealing with a lot of. So anyways, my 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:56.740 heart rate variability has gone from like 35 to like 0:18:56.740 --> 0:19:00.899 48 on average, which is insane. All my stats, all 0:19:00.940 --> 0:19:02.320 my vitals are doing so much better since I cut 0:19:02.340 --> 0:19:05.330 the sugar out, which is a big bummer because I 0:19:05.369 --> 0:19:07.590 was like hoping that it would just be like a 0:19:07.630 --> 0:19:09.370 terrible flop and it wouldn't work and then I could 0:19:09.390 --> 0:19:12.760 go back to, living my best life, eating ice cream 0:19:13.340 --> 0:19:16.859 and cinnamon rolls, which I will do again at some point. 0:19:17.260 --> 0:19:23.000 This is just a passageway on the journey to healing 0:19:23.020 --> 0:19:26.939 my body. So all of that to say, the takeaway 0:19:26.980 --> 0:19:28.700 from this, one of the main takeaways for me has 0:19:28.740 --> 0:19:33.310 been subtraction is more powerful than addition. In other words, 0:19:33.790 --> 0:19:36.369 you can add, add, add, add, add all you want, add, add, 0:19:36.470 --> 0:19:38.679 add all the things, And you can use this in 0:19:38.700 --> 0:19:41.979 whatever context makes sense for you. But if you're trying to, 0:19:42.030 --> 0:19:43.810 whatever problem, think of a problem in your life you're 0:19:43.830 --> 0:19:45.730 trying to solve. For me, it's my health issues. So 0:19:45.770 --> 0:19:48.490 maybe you also have health issues. Or maybe for you, 0:19:48.510 --> 0:19:51.740 it's your finances, which okay check check two areas of 0:19:51.780 --> 0:19:53.879 my life where I have problems I would love to 0:19:53.920 --> 0:19:56.280 solve these are problems I would just love to solve 0:19:56.340 --> 0:20:00.010 okay maybe for you it's your romantic relationship maybe for 0:20:00.050 --> 0:20:05.250 you it's your like parenting tactics maybe it's your job 0:20:05.490 --> 0:20:08.450 maybe it's your whatever pick a problem in your life 0:20:08.490 --> 0:20:11.870 that you would love to solve And I think our 0:20:11.950 --> 0:20:15.090 tendency when we're trying to solve a problem is add, add, add, add, add. Like, 0:20:15.109 --> 0:20:16.189 I'm going to try this. I'm going to try that. 0:20:16.210 --> 0:20:17.270 I'm going to go here. I'm going to do this. 0:20:17.290 --> 0:20:20.050 I'm going to talk to this person. Expert, expert, expert, expert. 0:20:20.170 --> 0:20:23.010 Ask more advice. This person says do this. I'm going 0:20:23.030 --> 0:20:25.129 to try that. And there can be a lot of 0:20:25.170 --> 0:20:28.449 value in an openness and a willingness to try everything. 0:20:29.090 --> 0:20:31.190 I use this word to describe myself a lot. And 0:20:31.210 --> 0:20:33.030 maybe this resonates for you. Like, I feel like I 0:20:33.090 --> 0:20:36.510 am the most earnest when it comes time to solve 0:20:36.550 --> 0:20:39.020 a problem. I'm like, I will try whatever you suggest. 0:20:39.570 --> 0:20:41.530 I'm willing to try some of everything. I'm very open 0:20:41.550 --> 0:20:44.669 about problem solving. I, you know, I just want to 0:20:44.710 --> 0:20:47.260 figure out the right solution. I'm quite earnest about it. 0:20:48.190 --> 0:20:51.730 And that can have its place and can be helpful 0:20:51.990 --> 0:20:53.670 and can be important. I mean, it's how I found 0:20:54.030 --> 0:20:55.730 red light therapy because I was just like, tell me more, 0:20:55.820 --> 0:20:58.260