- No Cheerios at 2 a.m.
It's National Cocktail Day right now.
I am not allowed to drink past eight.
(clock ticking)
Suddenly this feels like the worst thing
in the entire world.
(upbeat music)
I'm Mei and I'm gong to be doing the 16/8 method.
- I'm Mascha, I'm a registered dietician nutritionist.
- I wanted to try this whole intermittent fasting thing
'cause I've honestly just seen so much about it,
just talking about how great it is
and how good it makes people feel.
I guess I just wanted to see
if that has the same effect for someone who,
I personally have had not the best relationship with food.
And I just feel like these kinda things
are kinda labeled as a universal what you should be doing
or this is what it means to be healthy.
And I just wanna see if that works for me as well.
(upbeat music)
It's currently 9:45 a.m. and all I want is to sit down
and eat a fat bowl of Cheerios.
But I don't get to have breakfast today.
So instead I'm gonna be drinking my coffee.
And yes I drink coffee with a straw.
I don't wanna hear anything about it.
Okay, so it's currently 11:27 and breakfast tacos
are being made directly next to me.
And I know I only have 30 minutes
but suddenly this feels like the worst thing
in the entire world.
- So what do you know so far?
- You have an eight hour eating window
where it's pretty much you can eat whatever you want,
I think, obviously the goal is to be eating
healthy, nutritious foods.
But it's not any sort of time restrictions
or anything like that.
So in those eight hours you're kinda free
to eat what you want kind of?
- Yep, exactly. - Yeah.
The rest of the time is just drink things I guess?
You're allowed to drink water and stuff like that.
- You can drink water and coffee.
And also tea.
So anything that's not going to really break your fast,
you wouldn't wanna have a latte.
- Okay, so it is 12:11, which means I can finally eat lunch
and I'm so excited.
I'm making avocado toast 'intermittent it's very easy.
And I know avocado's a healthy fat, so here I go.
Let's make some toast.
Okay, so it is currently 7:47
and I'm about to eat my last meal.
I just got this green bowl
from this restaurant in West Hollywood.
It has beans, avocado, rice, veggies,
and then carrot ginger dressing.
So I'm really excited about it.
(fork clattering)
Now we're done for the night.
No 11 p.m. ice cream.
No Cheerios at 2 a.m. but it is what it is.
Okay. - So what a lot
of people will do, they'll eat from noon to eight.
Or they'll eat from like ll to seven
and the rest of the time they'll be doing their fast.
It's a really individualized process
where some people are able to stick to it
and it doesn't feel super challenging.
And then there's some people
that just feel terrible and sluggish.
And they can't stick to it.
- So it is currently 12:23 and I cannot remember
the last time I went to sleep before 2 a.m.
But I'm about to literally put myself to bed
because I am craving every food
that is in my apartment and I can't take it.
I can't take it so I'm literally going to sleep.
So maybe this whole intermittent fasting thing
will fix my sleep schedule.
- Okay hey, it is currently 9:56.
And my mug is back and now we're drinking tea.
'Cause I remember Mascha said try and switch it up
so that's what I'm doing.
But yeah, I feel okay.
But I'm probably gonna be hungry again
in an hour and then be pissed.
(Mei chuckling) but right now I feel okay.
- Let's go over the groups of people
that these are not recommended for.
Women who are pregnant, someone who's a diabetic,
especially diabetics who are on medication
have to be really, really cautious.
People who have a history of disordered eating,
or eating disorders should probably not
be doing this either.
It's really dependent on the person
and things like your genetics,
how much you're exercising,
your hormone levels,
all of these things will effect the results that you get
and how you feel while you're doing it.
- This is gonna be a little bit of a vulnerable thing.
But after talking with Mascha, I feel kinda uneasy
about this whole thing.
I'm actually in eating disorder recovery right now.
I struggled with an eating disorder pretty seriously
for like six months.
And I'm currently recovering from treatment.
And I am in recovery. And after hearing her be like,
"Oh people with eating disorders or disordered eating
"probably shouldn't be trying this."
I just got kinda nervous.
So before trying this out I talked to my therapist.
I did get, I wanna say green light
but it's more of a yellow light of proceed with caution.
- I'm not a fan of intermittent fasting.
The reason why is I'm not a fan of any diets.
And intermittent fasting is just another diet.
They also just make people pretty obsessed
about food in a way that's not particularly healthy.
So I definitely am not a fan of it for you.
- What do you think are signs I guess
look out for me as where I kind of reach a point
where like, okay I should stop doing this.
- There are red flags to look out for.
I would think about the mindset.
I would just remind yourself that you're doing this
for a limited amount of time for a specific goal.
But not that this is gonna be a longterm thing.
Maybe you're gonna do really well
and you're gonna follow all the advice
and eat a lot of the things you're supposed
to be eating but your brain may still be saying,
"Ah this isn't that great, I shouldn't have done this.
"I had the chance to restrict a little bit more
"and you didn't take it."
That to me would be really concerning
because it kinda indicates you've woken up
the eating disorder a little bit again.
- Yeah, so track my guilt too kinda.
- Mm-hm yeah, exactly.
- All right so it's currently 12:15
and I'm about to start cooking lunch.
I'm actually gonna be putting in effort
into my meal today.
I'm actually gonna cook.
I'm making a cauliflower rice bowl thing.
And this is what we're working with.
I swear I have such a higher appreciation
for my food right now than I ever have, so that's fun.
Just sat down to eat.
I'm literally gonna destroy this (Mei chuckling)
really quickly and then go back to work
and then probably eat a snack
in like 20 minutes. (clock ticking)
Okay, so I'm hitting my first road block.
I just got back from a really long walk
and I feel amazing but I lost track of time.
And now it's 7:45 and I have nothing to eat
and I'm supposed to be done eating
in 15 (Mei chuckles) minutes.
But I literally have no food right now.
So I'm ordering Postmates
and it's probably gonna take like ish minutes.
I'm gonna be a little late tonight.
Hopefully it doesn't mess anything up too much.
Okay so I got vegan ramen
and this literally looks amazing.
Broth is on the side.
So we're about to put her in and then we're gonna enjoy her.
So happy 11:23 a.m.
While I sit in my kitchen
and literally count down the minutes
'til it's 12 so I can eat.
Currently on my second coffee of the day.
- As of right now I feel okay.
But I'm definitely in a much more conscious place now.
Really thinking about how this whole thing's
been making me feel.
I'm gonna make pancakes for lunch.
But I wanted breakfast food
so you know what, you can have breakfast at 12,
it doesn't matter.
Okay honestly I think they turned out pretty good.
Better than I thought,
but this is the real moment of truth I guess.
I'm not saying I'm a professional chef,
but I'm not not saying that.
I'm kinda honestly late doing this
but I just had the craziest day.
I just moved apartments.
I've been busy all day and I can't be bothered to cook.
And honestly I don't have food
because I left in such a rush from my other apartment.
So I'm ordering out again,
which is also very depressing
'cause it's National Cocktail Day right now.
But I've been told I'm not allowed to drink past eight
'cause that is considered breaking the fast.
Okay, so I have my food
and I'm gonna eat really quick.
It's 8:05 right now so I am running late.
But thankfully it didn't take as long as the ramen.
Sad about my non alcoholic adventures it'll be tonight.
But it is what it is.
Okay, so we're about to get real.
I do not feel good (Mei chuckles).
I had this feeling 10 minutes ago
where I was feeling really hungry
and then I had this thought
of feeling really good about feeling really hungry.
(Mei sighing) We're about to get vulnerable.
Which is something that I struggled with a lot.
Kind of just of reveling in knowing
that I was not allowing myself to eat when I was hungry
and having that be a success.
And I think that this is kinda my marker
of this is not what I should be doing.
Mascha did say...
- People who have a history of disordered eating
or eating disorders should
probably not be doing this either.
- And I think that that's really important
to acknowledge.
I wanna be healthy.
And sometimes it's hard when I see all this stuff like,
"Oh intermittent fasting is the healthiest way to eat."
I've seen that.
And so for me it's like oh if I can't do that,
I can't be healthy?
Its hard to sometimes not fit
into what you think you're supposed to fit into.
Okay, it's currently 10 a.m.
Just went on a walk.
Definitely pre fasting time
but I got an iced matcha late with oat milk.
Feeling a lot better mentally.
I feel like this is what I need.
Fasting is not for me.
And you know what, that's okay.
I'm gonna enjoy this latte and have a good day.
- So welcome back.
I'm so excited to hear how your week went.
- Yeah, okay, I went into it pretty confident
that I would be able to do this and it would be fine.
And I'm in a place mentally
where I'm far enough in my recovery
where I can do this safely.
And I definitely don't think it wasn't safe.
But I do think I started seeing some mental red flags.
Oh yeah, I should probably tell you,
I dropped out after the third day, the end of the third day
I kinda had this block. And I was like, "You know what,
"this kinda maybe isn't for me."
Because I kinda caught myself
having some not great thoughts.
That was definitely the biggest challenge
and it ended up definitely stopping
the entire challenge for me.
But I think I did still learn a lot.
- I'm super proud of you.
I think you totally did the right thing.
I think if you're not
feeling good, - Thank you.
- if it doesn't feel right
and you're not in a good mental space
when you're doing this diet or any kind of diet,
that's totally the right thing to do.
You listened to your body. - Yeah.
- And you did what was right for you.
So I think that's awesome.
- (Mei chuckles) Thank you.
My biggest realization is just
because something is marketed to me as healthy,
does not mean that it's healthy for me personally.
And I also realize that I've been a lot more aware
of that being okay and not comparing my health
to other people's health.
And then I also think it has given me insight
on where I'm at in my recovery as well.
Just knowing that taking this and using it as an excuse
to not eat or as excuse to restrict myself,
I actually took a step back
and was like, "Okay this is not good for me."
That was another one of my biggest realizations.
(happy calming music)