Passion Struck with John R. Miles - Cynthia Thurlow on How To Take Control of Your Health Through Intermittent Fasting EP 327

Episode Date: August 3, 2023

In this episode of the Passion Struck podcast, host John R. Miles sits down with Cynthia Thurlow, a functional nutritionist and nurse practitioner, to dive into the world of intermittent fasting and its impact on overall health and wellness. Cynthia is the bestselling author of Intermittent Fasting Transformation: The 45-Day Program for Women to Lose Stubborn Weight, Improve Hormonal Health, and Slow Aging. Want to learn the 12 philosophies that the most successful people use to create a limitless life? Pre-order John R. Miles’s new book, Passion Struck, releasing on February 6, 2024. Full show notes and resources can be found here: https://passionstruck.com/cynthia-thurlow-on-wellness-intermittent-fasting/  Take Control of Your Health: Expert Insights on Intermittent Fasting and Hormonal Balance with Cynthia Thurlow If you're feeling frustrated and defeated by your efforts to improve your overall health and wellness through various methods like dieting and exercising, only to see little to no results, then you are not alone! Despite your dedication, you may be experiencing a lack of progress, struggling with weight loss, or even feeling constantly fatigued. In today's episode, Cynthia Thurlow and I explore the transformative power of intermittent fasting for enhanced metabolic health and hormonal balance. We discuss her tips on clean fasting, managing cravings, and metabolic health. Brought to you by Netsuite by Oracle: Visit netsuite.com/passionstruck to defer payments of a FULL NetSuite implementation for six whole months. Brought to you by Lifeforce: Join me and thousands of others who have transformed their lives through Lifeforce's proactive and personalized approach to healthcare. Visit MyLifeforce.com today to start your membership and receive an exclusive $200 off. Brought to you by Indeed: Claim your SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR CREDIT now at Indeed dot com slash PASSIONSTRUCK. Brought to you by OneSkin. Get 15% off OneSkin with our code [PassionStruck] at #oneskinpod. Brought to you by Hello Fresh. Use code passion 50 to get 50% off plus free shipping!  --► For information about advertisers and promo codes, go to: https://passionstruck.com/deals/  Like this show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter or Instagram handle so we can thank you personally! --► Prefer to watch this interview: https://youtu.be/W0K4TXytQz0  --► Subscribe to Our YouTube Channel Here: https://youtu.be/QYehiUuX7zs  Want to find your purpose in life? I provide my six simple steps to achieving it - passionstruck.com/5-simple-steps-to-find-your-passion-in-life/ Catch my interview with Marshall Goldsmith on How You Create an Earned Life: https://passionstruck.com/marshall-goldsmith-create-your-earned-life/  Watch the solo episode I did on the topic of Chronic Loneliness: https://youtu.be/aFDRk0kcM40  Want to hear my best interviews from 2023? Check out my interview with Seth Godin on the Song of Significance and my interview with Gretchen Rubin on Life in Five Senses. ===== FOLLOW ON THE SOCIALS ===== * Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/passion_struck_podcast * Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/johnrmiles.c0m  Learn more about John: https://johnrmiles.com/  Passion Struck is now on the AMFM247 broadcasting network every Monday and Friday from 5–6 PM. Step 1: Go to TuneIn, Apple Music (or any other app, mobile or computer) Step 2: Search for “AMFM247” Network

Coming up next on Passion Struck. I think a lot of the confusion surrounding intermittent fasting is really just semantics. Some people think it means starvation. Others think that it represents this disorder of pattern of eating, and I like to remind people that it's just eating less often. That's really as simple as it is. Welcome to Passion Struck. Hi, I'm your host, John Armiles, and on the show, we decipher the secrets,

tips, and guidance of the world's most inspiring people and turn their wisdom into practical advice for you and those around you. Our mission is to help you unlock the power of intentionality so that you can become the best version of yourself. If you're new to the show, I offer advice and answer listener questions on Fridays. We have long form interviews the rest of the week with guest ranging from astronauts to authors, CEOs, creators, innovators, scientists, military leaders, visionaries, and athletes. Now, let's go out there and become PassionStruck. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to episode 327 of PassionStruck, consistently rated by Apple

as one of the top 10 most popular health podcasts and the number one alternative health podcast. And thank you to each and every one of you who comes back weekly. Listen and learn, how to live better, be better, and impact the world. PassionStruck is now on syndicated radio on the AMFM247 National Broadcast. You can catch us on your weekly evening commute Monday and Friday from 5 to 6PM Eastern time, links are in the show notes. And if you're new to the show, thank you so much for joining us today. For you simply want to introduce this to a friend or a family member, we now have episode

Sturderpacks, which are collections of our fans' favorite episodes that we organize into convenient topics that you can find either on Spotify or passionstruck.com slash starder packs. In case you missed it, earlier in the week I interviewed Dr. Hatendra Wadwa, author of the groundbreaking book Intermastery Outer Impact. How your five core energies hold the key to success. In our interview, Dr. Wadwa introduces a powerful framework for achieving success that starts from within, specifically focusing on what he calls one's inner core. Please check it out and I also wanted to say thank you for your ratings and reviews.

If you loved today's episode where Dr. Wad was, we would appreciate you giving a five-star review and rating and sharing it with your friends and family. I know that we and our guests love to see comments and questions from our listeners. Today, we have a special guest who is here to revolutionize your approach to nutrition and help you unlock your full potential. Get ready to discover the secrets of a customized nutrition plan that will transform your life. I am absolutely thrilled to introduce Cynthia Therlo, someone who I've wanted to have on this podcast for a very long time. Cynthia is a nurse practitioner and intermittent fasting in nutrition expert, a two-time TEDx speaker, author, and podcaster.

She has dedicated her career to empowering individuals to achieve their health and wellness goals through personalized nutrition strategies. Her expertise has earned her recognition in the fasting community, and she is known for leading numerous specialty fasting programs. In her groundbreaking book, which we discuss, Intermittent Fasting Transformation, Cynthia unveils a game-changing approach to Intermittent Fasting, designed specifically for women, but also applicable to men in the audience as well. This individualized six-week program is the sustainable solution you've been waiting for. It will help you not only shed unwanted pounds and burn fat, but also support your hormonal needs at every stage of life. Imagine a life where you can lose weight steadily and effortlessly without hunger, cravings,

or frustrating plateaus. Picture yourself achieving better metabolic health and hormonal balance. While easing the symptoms associated with perimenopause, with Cynthia's guidance, you'll learn which foods best support weight loss, detoxification, and overall health. Say goodbye to brain fog and restless Knights as you welcome clarity and restful sleep into your life. And here's the exciting part. Cynthia's program can even help put aging in reverse, allowing you to look and feel more youthful, sexy, and vibrant. Join us as we dive deep into the world of intermittent fasting, exploring the profound impact it can have on your life.

Cynthia will share her wisdom back by scientific research and her own personal experiences. Not further ado, let's welcome Cynthia Thurlow, the Passion Struck Podcast. Thank you for choosing Passion Struck and choosing me, be your host and guide on your journey to creating an intentional life. Now, let that journey begin. I am absolutely ecstatic today to welcome Cynthia Thurlow to PassionStruck. Welcome, Cynthia. Thank you. I've been looking forward to our discussion. Well, as we began talking before you came on the podcast, you and my fiance have a lot

of things in common, both of you being nurse practitioners, and I wanted to start out the conversation with what led you to pursue the initial phases of your career in health care. It's interesting how life evolves. I was a polysci major in college and really wanted to go to law school. And I got into law school in my senior year of college and it really forced me to reflect because I would be taking on back then a substantial amount of debt. It's even worse now. Did I really want to be an attorney? And the answer was no. I think I had always considered graduate school. I'm from a family of people that really value education. And so it was an easy answer when my parents asked what do you want to do after college? I was like, I'm going to go to law school. And then when I'm faced with this decision and the concept of taking on quite a bit of debt, it really forced me to examine, was that really what I wanted to do? And the easy answer is, I graduated from college, I got a somewhat decent job.

I say somewhat decent because you leave the womb of college where you have a lot of flexibility and then all of a sudden you're in a suit every day going to an office and you work Monday through Friday and there are no long vacations. I know you're expected a lot of times to work evenings and weekends and I didn't love what I did and I started to really reflect on what did I want to do and what's interesting is I had always wanted a dog. I had parents who got divorced and very appropriately decided that it was not a good idea to get a dog. No one was really home during the day. So, in early 1994, I actually got a dog and that changed my life because I started to

realize that I came from a family with a lot of physicians, a lot of nurses and healthcare professionals and all of a sudden I became very interested in medicine and potentially veterinary medicine. And so I would work Monday through Friday and would take pre-med classes in the evenings. And that got me really excited. I was like, science is actually what I want to do. And initially I thought I would go to med school

and then I was sitting in a class and one of the professors, because I was a couple years older than the undergrads. He said, what are you doing? And then I explained to him, I was pre-law and I got into law school and I decided not to go and I really hate my job, but I have to do something to pay the bills. And what I found was this amazing clinician who was also a professor who said he ever thought about becoming a nurse practitioner. And I was like, oh, I don't want to be a nurse. That was my visceral response because I had so many family members, both my grandmother's, my mom, several of my aunts were all nurses.

And I was like, I don't want to do that. And he said, no, you should really think about being a nurse practitioner. And he actually put me in touch with a sister who was an MP. And so we're talking about the mid 1990s. There weren't a lot of nurse practitioners. And so I actually found that was really what I wanted to do. And so you probably know this, but you can't become a nurse practitioner unless you're a nurse.

And so I started applying to dual programs where I could get a nursing degree and then also get, at that time, you were masters prepared, go on and get a second degree. And also at that time was the height of the AIDS crisis. and get a second degree, and also at that time was the height of the AIDS crisis, and I was really interested in HIV. In AIDS research, I worked at a clinic in Washington, D.C. And so really thinking about what were the two standout research institutions at that time for HIV and AIDS research, and you're talking about Johns Hopkins, or UCSF, and I'm an East Coast girl. So it was an easy decision that I really wanted to go to Hopkins

and I was accepted into this dual degree program. And as someone who had always played things pretty conservatively to leave an area that I knew, to go to an area that I did not know, to live in a city. And I have never been more academically and seriburally challenged in a city and I have never been more academically and cerebral challenged in a good way. It was wonderful that I was surrounded by people who were just as eager to learn and excel and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. So I graduated from the first program and became an e-horners and I'm a

total adrenaline junkie. I like sick patients, the higher the acuity, the more interesting they were to me. And after I finished my nurse practitioner program, I easily transitioned. I worked at a very cardiology-focused hospital. ER medicine, cardiology, made a lot of sense. Continue with that adrenaline junkie, a really sick patient, calling a chopper, helicopter. And I loved that for a long time, until I didn't.

But that's how I came into nursing. And I always say it was one of the best decisions I've ever made. I always say that a lot of my life is the path less traveled. Most of my friends were going on and going to graduate school or getting these amazing jobs. And I went back to school and spent most of my 20s, which is hard to believe, doing school. But it was the right decision for me. And so I finished up at 29 and loved becoming an nurse practitioner. That was the best of both worlds.

I had a high quality of life. I didn't have an enormous amount of debt like most of my physician friends. And I still had a lot of vigor and rigor in what I was learning and practicing about medicine. Whereas physicians during their residency, they have many years of training. Nurse practitioners finish their education and then they do a lot of training on the job. And I was very fortunate that the cardiologists I work with were willing to invest in me

because they felt like the more we invest in our nurse practitioners, the stronger we are as a practice. And so that practice model was so important because I was the youngest MP, the youngest by far, because most nurses are, and peace usually for a long time, before they become advanced practice nurses, but I wasn't. And so I had to make up for the fact they didn't have an experience. I had to really, I spent a lot of extra time,

had a lot of colleagues that were willing to break things down and make sure that I understood them because they understood the value of training us in a way that we could be very autonomous. And I really was very autonomous. Even before the state that I live in allowed nurse practitioners to be fully autonomous, which means you don't have to have practice agreement

with a physician, you can hang a shingle, if you will, but in clinical cardiology where there's just a very high acuity, it was actually good to be in this cocoon where there was a tremendous amount of support as I was evolving my own practice. Well, even before I met Corey, I have historically sought out either nurse practitioners or DOs primarily because I find more of them practice functional medicine than your traditional MD does, which is something I subscribe to, which leads me to ask you, I understand when your youngest son was four months old, he developed severe eczema, which is where you began yourself to explore alternate health options. And I wanted to ask, how did that and reading unhealthy truth shift your perspectives in mindset forever?

Yeah. So Jack is now almost 18 years old. So it shows you how many years ago this was, but my exclusively breastfed baby had horrific eczema. To the point where when I looked at him, I kept thinking this can't be this bad. I eat a pristine diet, how could he possibly have eczema? And we did the traditional things. I took him to the pediatrician, they prescribed high potency, topical steroids. They said, oh, it's nothing you're eating.

Your diet is pristine, it can't possibly be contributing. And for me, that really became this process of awareness around the fact that his skin was just a manifestation of what was going on in his gut and in his body. That's a great inflammation. And so I kept pushing for allergy testing. I said, I know he's a baby, but I just intrinsically think there's something he's being exposed to. And I thought it'd be the nine. Oh, it's raspberries. He gets worse with raspberries. Well, it turns out he had life threatening food allergies. He had

peanut and trina allergies. And as someone who doesn't live in the mindset of being fearful, all of a sudden I was very concerned about, can we take him to someone's house and can he eat somewhere? Can he eat in a restaurant? Can he eat at my family's homes? I started making all of his baby food. And you have to understand, 18 years ago, there weren't as many options. And you couldn't just buy canned organic food. It just wasn't there.

So I was making everything. And for me, that started the process of understanding that it all starts with food. And then a few years later, I read a book by Robyn O'Brien, called The Unhealthy Truth, and I was so upset when I read this book that I could read it a chapter at a time, because I had never heard information like this, that this interrelationship between prophets

and the process food industry and the food industry in general, and understanding that for many children, we have escalating rates of food allergies, food sensitivity, life-threatening food allergies, and a lot of it is a byproduct of many factors. But for me, that was really a changing point. That's when I started to understand that there were limitations to traditional alopathic medicine.

And let me be clear, alopathic medicine is important. If you have an emergency or you need critical care, that is where alopathic medicine, I believe, really excels. But for prevention and dealing with things that come up that were very focused on treating symptoms and not root cause. And so I kept trying to have these conversations with the pediatrician who to her credit was very patient with me. Which you're saying, Cindy, I think you have to understand there are limitations to what I can do. And so for me, that really shifted

my perspective. And so I started considering what can I do in addition to this part time, now nurse practitioner job, while being a mom of two little boys. And for me, I've started with considering all different options, but really that lifestyle medicine is the way to focus and understanding that it all starts with food. And so the practice that I worked for thought it was cute. And I'm going to use their words. It was cute that there was this nurse practitioner who really put a lot of emphasis on focus on food. And I said, guys, we can't keep telling our patients. Breakfast is the most important meal the day and that they need to be eating lots of heart healthy grains and that they need to be fearful of fat and they need to not eat enough protein.

I think we need to flip everything we're telling them. In some instances, they were curious and then others they thought I was just crazy. And so that was the big pivot. I always credit Robino Brian's book for really getting the process started of questioning what I was trained in and questioning the dogma that we so rigidly adhere to in medicine. It's hard. Sometimes it takes 20 years for research to filter down into traditional medical roles. And so I do believe that the pivot that I made is now doesn't seem so strange. Now people are like, I get it. It all starts with food. But back then then that was not the case. People in many ways try to be supportive, but in many ways thought that my ideas were really missing the bow.

We've got all these powerful medicines. How could food be equally as powerful? But now we understand and we know better. And it's so interesting. I've done so many interviews on this show that highlight just how important our gut health is. And one of the most intriguing ones to me was with Dr. Chris Palmer, who's a psychiatrist, who you might know, who's at Harvard, but he wrote a book last year called Brain Energy and what was so interesting to me is through his research, he is uncovering that all mental disorders are actually tied to metabolic disorders. And so he feels, and he's starting to gain more traction, that this is why we're having such a rise in all rates of mental disorders is because

gut health has become so out of whack that it's having severe and lasting impacts on how people are functioning cognitively. Have you seen things like that in your studies? Oh, absolutely. And it's interesting. I met Chris in person last summer and we just started an organic conversation and he mentioned he had a book coming out and I said, oh, tell me about your book. And I brought him on the podcast last fall. And he mentioned he had a book coming out, and I said, oh, tell me about your book. And I brought him on the podcast last fall. And before we start a recording, as to Chris, your work is going to change

the way we view mental health completely. And it's wonderful to see the impact that his work is making, because it needed to be an academic physician that was going to be able to have the ability to transform the way that not only clinicians, but the late public view mental health because obviously my background is not in psychiatry, had a lot of mental health problems throughout the trajectory of my medical career and recognizing there were limitations to what we could do. Maybe acutely, we could benefit people that, coming down acute symptoms, but chronically,

they're needed to be more to bad. And when we talk about these hyper-palible, highly processed foods and what they do to our endocrine system and what they do to brain communication and what they do to the neurotransmitters that are created in our gut, it makes complete sense that diet and nutrition has a great deal to do with the degree of mental health benefits we have or don't have. And so I think that it's really compelling for us as a society to contemplate that not only we are what we eat, but we also are directly implicated or impacted by the food choices we're making from a mental health perspective.

It's not just a physical health, a mental emotional well-being, and that's a really powerful connection. So I really think Chris's book and trajectory of his work is really going to be incredibly impactful. Yeah, I did as well. And I've since introduced him to several other people in the field, because I think his ideas need to be heard by many more. So people understand what he's uncovering.

Well, one of the main things that I try to do on this podcast is I try to provide stories of how a person is able to reinvent themselves and their personal journey. And you have a great story of that. Can you talk about your journey from being a clinician to becoming an entrepreneur and wouldn't inspired you to make that transition? Oh, yes, this is one of my favorite things to talk about.

So obviously I had worked in clinical cardiology for 16 years. I love everything about the heart, but I was growing increasingly disillusioned with the traditional alopathic model. Go to work. I write a lot of prescriptions. I'd see patients in the clinic in the hospital. And I was like, gosh, I could do so much more if I just had more time to talk to them about lifestyle. And in February of 2016, I literally woke up one morning, looked at my

husband and said, I can't do this anymore. I'm going to give an appropriate time for leave, but I can't do this one more day. And I married to a very fiscally conservative man who panicked that I was going to leave this well-paying job to leap into becoming an entrepreneur. It was actually April 1st of 2016. I took that leap. And I don't recommend this that you do it without a business plan.

But I took that leap and I kept saying to my husband, I'm going to be successful. There is no question in my mind. I'm just going to figure out the how. So almost instantaneously, I started attracting women that were the same stage of life I was in. Really 40s, feeling like they weren't being, their needs weren't being met by the traditional medical system. Feeling their needs weren't being met or heard. And so I started creating group programs and I started creating one onon-one work that I was doing and that evolved into a lot more than that.

It ultimately led into creating a podcast with a clinical psychologist from the mind. It evolved into wanting to do a TED talk because I'm a total introvert and I thought that would be a fun challenge. That would be scary challenge, but a safe thing to do. And the year that I accepted my first TED Talk, I also accepted a second, not realizing that a few months

after that, I was going to end up in the hospital for 13 days. And what's relevant to the conversation that we're talking about now is that, as a clinician, as someone who's taken care of very sick people throughout the trajectory of my career, to suddenly be one of those very, very sick people was really humbling.

The concept of surrender because I realized I could continue to fight and fight everything that I didn't want to be in the hospital. I didn't want to be there. I wanted to be home, but obviously it was too sick to be home. And the concept of surrender, that when I finally was at peace with the fact that I was gonna let this really talented team of physicians and nurses take care of me to help save my life.

The things fell into place and my number one priority was to leave the hospital and get home to my family because my boys at that time were still pretty young. Number two was I was still committed to doing this talk and as crazy as everyone thought I was to say I still wanted to do the talk. I just said for some reason I feel really compelled to still do this talk. And initially when I left the hospital, a great deal of it was to prove to myself that I hadn't been as sick as I had been. I lost 15 pounds, I'm not a very big person, I looked very emaciated, and credit needs to be given to the TEDx organizers

that they were supportive cautiously, that this woman was going to do this talk 27 days after being in the hospital. And so I got up on stage, I said to my boys, I'm going to do this talk, I'm going to get off the stage and then we're going to have a really great summer. And that was the sole intention. I just wanted to show my kids I was okay. And so I went back home. And then in May of 2019 things changed forever, because that talk went viral. And when it went viral, my team and I were not prepared

for what ensued. It was all the wonderful things that came from that, but the trajectory of my business really accelerated like a rocket. And so I humbly say to everyone that's listening, that my great lesson through all of this is that through great adversity comes opportunity that sometimes in our toughest moments when we dig really deep

The universe God, whoever you believe in I really believe that I had to go through all of the Suffering of being so sick and being hospitalized in that recovery to get to where I am now And I always say there's the before Cynthia and there's the after Cynthia, because there's nothing like the threat of thinking you're going to die to make you realize that you need to live the rest of your life with tremendous purpose, not that I was lazy or uncommitted to my family or my loved ones.

But now every day counts. And everything that I do, I try to make sure that as an entrepreneur that I'm making a bigger impact and that's really coming back to the original question that if I'd remained as a traditional nurse practitioner in that cardiology practice, I wouldn't be where I was today. So now I get to impact more people and especially women, impact and inspire and educate more women to be able to take control of their lives and not feel like they're less important that they're less than because they're at a different stage of life. And so for that,

I'm really grateful, but my entrepreneurial journey has been an incredible one. And now I can sit back and say I've learned so much about creating a business, growing a business, having a social media online presence, being able to interview. I know we were talking before we started recording, I think podcasting is one of the best form of networking that's available, having the opportunity to talk to so many incredible and amazing people on a daily basis, and then being able to be events and meet people that you've really impacted their lives, I think that it's such a blessing. And as an introvert, it would never have happened otherwise. I had to get outside of my comfort zone. And I had to leave what was familiar. And again, it goes to the path less travel. There's been very specific times in my life when I've done what most of my peers would not do. And that's not a judgment. I'm just saying that it's part of my personality that I can be a little risk-taking within a comfortable kind of set of parameters. And so again, that big shift that makes through great risk comes great reward. I'm a fervent believer

in that. And that's where I've gotten to where I am today and continues to evolve and shift. And I'm sure for even you in your business, finding things that you like, leaning into the things you like and saying, no, the things that you don't like, I think is very important. Yeah, well, I have to say when I first started, it was difficult for me to initially do these interviews because similar to you, I am also an introvert, but I have discovered over time that it is really a great means not only for networking, but for constant learning

and for just engaging with a community of like-minded people who are trying to bring a positive message to so many people. So it's really become an honor to get the opportunity to talk to people like you and so many others who are trying to change lives. I wanted to keep going down this path a couple of questions more before we get into your book. Can you provide, since you just brought up the TED Talk, some insights on how you master the art of delivering effective talks and what tips or strategies you have for

aspiring speakers? Well, I can tell you I've learned the things not to do. Maybe I'll start there. I always like a positive reframe. So I'll just tell you that one of the things I had to learn in the hard way is I can get up in in front of a room full of people and I just adapt a different persona. There's the introverted Cynthia that like quiet surroundings with smaller groups of people. And then I step on stage and I'm like, I'm an educator, I'm a teacher, that's really what I'm stepping into. But when I was a more novice speaker, my nervous energy, the way that I worked it, I was I would move. Now, as you can imagine, it gets distracting, which is moving back and forth. So if you happen to see my first or second TED talk, give me grace, because now I now know I

stay planted. I might move, but then I'm planted. And so one of the first things that I learned from a really good speaking coach was to plant myself, say a couple of points and land and then pivot that don't move back and forth. So it can be distracting. But that's how many of us have to learn. How do you deal with that nervous energy? So for me, I have breathing exercises that I do before I get on stage to regulate my autonomic nervous system

so that not only is my speech and allocation is spot on, but it also allows me to get very centered. So for me, I have a whole kind of process that I go through. It's not very complicated, but I'll do box breathing, I'll do guided imagery. That's what I do before I get on stage. And there's actually a song.

I don't know why this song in particular really appeals to me. But in my mind, it's a song that allows me to get into this extroverted side of myself. So there's a Metallica song, and her Sandman, which I don't know why someone was laughing one day, they're like, how in the world? And I was like, I don't know why, but it gets me excited. And so I listen to things. I do that guided imagery. I do the breathing exercises, and then I stand on sale. And I try very hard to make sure that I've made eye contact with a couple key areas.

There's someone with a smiling face in the audience, and I'm talking to them. And so I'm thinking as I'm speaking, that I'm making sure that I don't just look in the same direction, that I look around, that I use my hands, we know based on research. If you are someone that stands there frozen like a pencil, you are not going to be perceived as good of a speaker,

as if you're a little more relaxed, you use your hands, and not that you're using them excessively, but gestures, and it confers a degree of warmth. So when I think about the things that have been most helpful, it's making sure you have a system before you get on stage to calm yourself down if you're someone that gets nervous. Number two, acknowledge that it's okay sure you have a system before you get on stage to calm yourself down if you're someone that gets nervous.

Number two, acknowledge that it's okay to move, but not too much, it's all relative. Number three, find a smiling, happy looking person in the audience and speak to them. And people love when you make eye contact with them. It makes them feel connected, it makes them feel a sense of warmth. The other thing is be really clear about who you're speaking to.

So if you're getting up in front of a group of women, don't talk about something that's not relevant. That's why before we start a recording, I said, tell me a little bit about your audience because I want to make sure when I'm sharing is relevant and to make sure that it is going to be helpful and actionable. The other thing that I think is really important is to not put up too many slides. I've been guilty of this myself. We're at a medical conference as an example. Too many slides and people pay attention to slides and not you. And I think a lot of people sometimes put a lot of slides up because it makes them feel like they're focusing on the flow of the discussion. But what it really does is it tracks from you.

The last thing that I would say that I've found to be super helpful in terms of speaking is to step outside your comfort zone. If I only spoke to people that were interested in intermittent fasting or metabolic health, that's all I did all the time, that would not allow me to grow. So I like to speak on a variety of topics.

My team knows this. It's always finding out someone's niche, how can we serve them, what would be of greatest interest. And actually, the way I grow is when I have to talk about things I'm less familiar with. I haven't spoken about before. I'll give you an example. In July, I was asked to speak at a mastermind event

for couples. And so I'm going to actually be talking about relationships, especially with your partner. I've been married for almost 20 years and they really wanted to know what's it like to be an entrepreneur and exist in a marriage and how do you make it work. And so this is a very different type of conversation that I'm going to have because it's very personal. I can get on stage. I may be able to talk a little bit about my children or some little story about myself, but talking about my marriage and my husband and my relationship with my husband, that's really personal, but it's also very freeing because I know that people are curious, what are the things I do to make my business work in the construct of having a happy, healthy marriage? And so I think those are the things that had I known about before, would have really helped me as a speaker.

But I think sometimes the way that we learn is by doing things not in the most ideal way, and then you can go back and course correct. So again, if someone sees either of those talks and thanks, gosh, Cynthia is moving around a lot, I didn't yet know how to focus my nervous energy. So now I do. So if you see me talk now, I don't move around a whole lot.

It's like, I walk and plant and I talk and then I walk and plant, but I don't go back and forth. And how have you incorporated humor into your talks as well? Because I know that's something that a lot of keynote speakers do. Well, I think on a lot of different levels that when we incorporate humor, it allows people to see that we're human. It allows people to relax and laugh. It makes things a little less serious. It's in my nature to be sometimes be snarky, but never at anyone's expense. Let me be

clear. But I think humor can allow people to see that there's more to you than just the shell of a clinician or this human being. And so the one thing I've learned is that when I watch really talented speakers talk, it's that connection. So whether it's laughter, whether it's a storytelling, whether it's the sharing of mutual shared goals. It's the connection piece. It allows people to see you're a real person. I think humor is very important. It has to be used carefully, obviously. I always say, you want things to be funny, but you don't want to be at the expense of someone else. I think that's also very important.

It's just the delivery, I think, can be something that needs to be structured very carefully. But not in a way where you have to make it over complicated. I think sometimes simple humor is sometimes the best way you can go. Cynthia, thank you for sharing all that advice. I now wanted to turn our attention to your incredible book, intermittent fasting transformation, the 45-day program, for women to lose stubborn weight, improve hormonal health, and slow aging. And I did want to let the audience to know that we're not only going to be talking about things that impact women, but men as well when it comes to intermittent fasting. And this is of real importance to me, because for years now, I have practiced intermittent

fasting continuously. But it's interesting because depending on who I've had on the podcast, there are many different definitions of intermittent fasting. Can you explain what it is and why people get it so confused? Sure. I think a lot of the confusion surrounding intermittent fasting is really just semantics. Some people think it means starvation. Others think that it represents this disorder of pattern of eating and I like to remind people that it's just eating less often. That's really as simple as it is. That can be defined

in terms of hours in which you consume food or you are in an unfed state. It can be defined by shorter fast, longer, fast. There's a lot of different ways to do it. And now it's increasing in discussion groups and it comes up almost regularly in terms of when I'm being asked to do talks or on podcasts. And I like to remind people it's not new or novel. It's actually something that has been incorporated

in all the major religions. And so it dates back to the local times. It's just now, I think people are looking for different strategies to support their health that are not a short-term fix. That is, to me, intermittent fasting is a lifestyle. It is not a something I do for 30 days. And then I go back to eating the way I was before. I think this is something that most people can embrace throughout their lifetime with a few caveats.

And to me, creating sustainable strategies is the way for people to be able to have lasting success when it comes to lifestyle practices. Why no for me, it's done wonders. It's been the most consistent I've ever been on maintaining weight. I feel my cognitive processes have been enhanced. I have more energy throughout the day. I feel better when I go to the gym. But it's interesting because I do a weekly ride with a number of friends of mine and they like to stop

for breakfast in between this ride. Something I have to tell you, I don't like to do, but it's a nice social gathering. But for four years now, I sit there and watch them have breakfast as I have a cup of coffee and they're always like, aren't you hungry? And I have to tell you, at this point, I don't crave anything until somewhere around noon time. Sometimes it goes even later than that. And I think I practice similar to you, a 16-hour window.

Sometimes it's longer than that. It's typically never shorter where I don't eat. But if you think about it, over history, as we were hunter-gatherers and et cetera, we didn't have this constant supply of food that we do now. So I think it was very common for us historically too fast because we had no other option. There were not refrigerators and supermarkets and this hyper-palatable, highly processed food available to us 24 or 7. And I would agree with you, and I love that you serve as a kind of reflection point for your fellow cyclists.

I would imagine that you probably over time, they'll get curious, and they probably will try intermittent fasting, especially working out fasted. I think for a lot of people, they think, oh, if I'm doing a 40, 50 mile ride, I have to have food with me. And the ultimate food is being able to use stored fat as a fuel source. And so I love that is incorporated into what you're doing exercise wise.

It's very telling that more and more people are starting to observe hunger cues. They notice when they're fasting, they can differentiate between Oh, I'm bored versus Oh, I'm genuinely hungry. This is how I feel when I'm genuinely hungry. I'm ready to break my fast versus just the relative boredom. And the average American consumes food or sugar sweeten beverages six to 10 times a day. And so understanding what that meal frequency is doing to our metabolic health can allow a lot of people to think, huh, maybe I need to eat less frequently metabolic health can allow a lot of people to think, huh, maybe I need to eat less frequently to be able to improve

my metabolic health and longevity and aging process, which can be accelerated when you're doing the antithesis of that. I totally agree. And I know one of the things that intermittent fasting is intertwined with is for more mental health. I think it's probably more pronounced if you're a female, but it also impacts males. I know it's impacted me given you and I are a similar age. It catches up with you after a while. And can you shed some light on

the importance of hormonal balance and its impact on overall well-being? Absolutely. So we always like to think about hormone hierarchy, and this is where cortisol and insulin and oxytocin, and I'm sure everyone's heard of cortisol and insulin, perhaps not oxytocin, but it's this bonding hormone. It's this hormone that when you hug your pet, your child, your loved one, it gets to create in the brain. And what's nice about oxytocin is that it lowers cortisol.

So when I talk to patients and clients about ways to reduce stress levels, we talk about getting oxytocin hits. You need multiple ones. Oxytocin doesn't last all that long. Another way to think about it is when a woman's bonding with her infant, if she's breastfeeding, she's releasing oxytocin because it's this bonding hormone. If we have an orgasm, it's another way to release oxytocin. So it's definitely this bonding hormone. But when it is optimized, can actually lower cortisol. When I think about the concept of balancing hormones, I know there are people in the traditional alopathic space

that hear that and they cringe. But it's really speaking to the fact that we want our lifestyle and our endocrine system, which is the system in our body that kind of governs a lot of communication between glands and hormones throughout the body, making sure that they're aligned. In our modern day lifestyles with poor sleep, hyperpasta, hyperpalible foods, too little or too much exercise, stress that's out of control in the past three years have certainly taught us this. When you have this heightened response to stronic stress, lack of sleep, crappy food, and cortisol is high, it'll actually

increase your glucose, which is your blood sugar. And response to your blood sugar going up, also insulin goes up. Unfortunately, insulin is one of these hormones that gets a really bad rap, but it's helping people understand that when we're not taking care of ourselves, our body can't be optimized from a hormonal perspective. And if you have sustained high insulin, your body is not able to free up stored fat as a fuel source. And we want our bodies to be able to use both stored glucose and stored fat as a fuel source. That's what metabolic flexibility really embodies. And so when we talk about that hormone hierarchy, it's really understanding that those three hormones are very instrumental for a very baseline view of what goes on in the body.

Now beyond that, obviously men and women have sex hormones, hergesterone, estradiol, testosterone, depending on where a woman is in her life. If she's in her peak fertile years, then she's having regular menstrual cycles. She has fluctuations in those sex hormones every week. When a woman's in parimenopause, she gets tremendous fluctuations in hormones, more so than during her puberty years. And then menopause is this 12 months

without a menstrual cycle average age here in the United States is 51, but when I think about men and women, menopause of women and men have less hormonal fluctuation. So I find that they generally speaking do really well with intermittent fasting as a strategy. We're talking about other hormones. We're talking about sleep quality as one indicator of hormonal balance.

We know that people to get less than six hours a night of sleep, they have blood sugar dysregulation. They have adjustment in left and in growl and signaling, so the appetite, satiety hormones are not going to be properly regulated. And it's why when you have one night of crappy sleep, your blood sugar is going to be higher the next day. You're not going to crave broccoli or chicken. You're going to crave junk.

And that is because the left and in growl are out of balance. So helping people understand that with optimizing the sleep piece, making sure you're getting high quality sleep, managing your stress, which for many people is more than five minutes in meditation. Once a day, eating nutrient dense whole foods irrespective of what nutritional paradigm you cling to is important, eating less processed food, and then moving your body. We're not conditioned to these sedentary animals, but yet most of us are. And by last estimations, the most recent study I looked at was only 78% of Americans are metabolically healthy. So most of us are not doing these lifestyle pieces in a way that is

going to balance or support our bodies. But when those are dialed in and we look at meal frequency, so how frequently are you eating? Like I mentioned earlier, if you're eating constantly and your blood sugar gut, your glucose goes up, if you're chronically stressed, your cortisol goes up, your insulin will correspondingly go up to try to bring your blood sugar back down. You're not going to be able to lose weight. And this is one of those things that I think for many people, they don't understand why they're weight loss resistance. And it's because they are chronically stressed.

They overeat. They're not cutting enough sleep. They don't exercise. And with age, we start losing muscle mass. And that's a whole other discussion, really understanding the way that what muscles do for our bodies, it's not just locomotion, it's not just movement. It's also as a glucose reservoir.

It's also an organ for insulin sensitivity. And I think that is becoming more increasingly, I think more of us are aware of that concept, it's certainly something I've thought about muscles just as locomotion. And it's more to it than that. But for many people, as they understand that interrelationship between lifestyle and whether or not

their hormones are within the context of being properly regulated, the more people can understand why that lifestyle piece is so important. And obviously, there's way more hormones than that, but those are the ones that we typically think about as the most commonly known and the ones that I think most people have some degree

of familiarity with. Well, I believe ultimately it comes down to the micro choices that we make on a daily basis. And as you said, all of this is interrelated. So you don't get optimal health just by doing one thing. All of it has to align. And some glad that you brought up your sleep hygiene has to go along with your nutrition hygiene. You need movement in your life, which, as we're doing this podcast, I'm standing because I try to spend half my day standing and half of it's sitting. And so these things along with other aspects of your mental health, etc, all combined is what gets you to more optimum performance. So I think what you just said

is so important for people to understand. And we were just talking about metabolic health. Are there any misconceptions or myths about metabolic health that you often come across? I think people don't understand what that term means. So I always like to define it. So when we're talking about metabolic health, we're talking about being able to use different fuel substrates, whether it's ketones or stored fat or stored glucose as a fuel substrate. And people that are metabolically healthy

can do all of the above. If you are not metabolically healthy, AKA, that is the 93, 92% of us are not metabolically healthy, aka, that is the 93-92% of us are not metabolically healthy. That means we probably don't have well-controlled blood pressure. We probably have a waste circumference that's problematic. So for women, it's a waste circumference of greater than 35 inches, for male greater than 45 inches.

Your triglycerides are probably elevated. Your blood sugar is definitely elevated. You may have low HGL. So for a male, less than 45, for a female, less than 55. And that's one way to look at metabolic health from a lab perspective. I think it goes beyond that. I think understanding a fasting insulin,

understanding your gastro, looking at inflammatory markers. Are you someone that wakes up rested in the morning? Are you someone that is physically active every day? And I don't mean doing one crossfit class once a week. I think a lot of people go to the gym and they assume because they went to the gym for an hour in the morning that they can sit and be sedentary the rest of the day. And I always say sitting is like the new smoking.

It is far more problematic than people realize. And for those of us that wear like activity trackers, like I have an Apple watch, it keeps me on as trying to make sure we're aiming for a certain amount of steps. How frequently are you eating? Because if you are eating snacks and many meals and eating six times a day, that's six times a day, your blood six times a day your blood sugar goes up

and your insulin has to go up and depending on what you're eating, that may lead to glucose spikes. And if you're at all familiar with Jesse of Chappets work glucose revolution, which I think is one of these books that really got people thinking and talking about blood sugar dysregulation differently,

helping people understand that complex interrelationship between the food choices that we're making and whether or not it keeps our blood sugar stable So when we talk about metabolic health someone that has healthy blood sugar regulation will eat a meal and not fall asleep afterwards They're not going to get hangry when they get hungry. They're going to be able to lose weight They are going to be clear cognitively and someone that isn't able to properly regulate cognitively and someone that isn't able to properly regulate their blood sugar will be the opposite of that. People to get hangry, people that have trouble losing weight, people that have energy slumps after meal, it's not normal. It's not normal to feel like you need an app after a meal. In fact, for me, if I eat a meal and I get tired afterwards, I'm like, wow, I must have eaten too much carbohydrate,

even though I'm mindful of that. But it's all information that allows us to make decisions that are in our best interest. So when I talk about metabolic health, that's being free of being on medications to control your lipids, your blood pressure, making sure that your waist or comforances within a normal parameter, ensuring that you're fasting blood sugar. And actually I was speaking to a podcast guest a little while ago, and it was talking about how a fasting blood sugar between 90 and 99 is not benign. It is not benign. And yet, the common rhetoric that medical professionals tell their patients is if it's under 100, it's normal.

No, actually, if your fasting blood sugar is 90 to 99, you are at three times greater risk for developing insulin resistance. It is not benign. We need to stop telling our patients that a blood sugar in the 90s, fasted, is normal. It gets this greater awareness and the more awareness and more empowerment and more education we can give people to help them understand their metabolic health. And I jokingly say, but it's metabolic health is true.

Well, because the more you understand about what you need to be looking for, the more you can course correct. Because most people, when I talk about these lifestyle pieces, they're like, well, that's a lot to do. I'm like, pick one thing. Go to bed 30 minutes earlier one night, or cut out snacking, or commit yourself to going to the gym and lifting weights one day a week. Like just find one thing that you can work towards that is going to improve

your metabolic health. And this is an antidote. This is research driven. These are the things that are solid research and that suggest these lifestyle pieces are really what contribute to metabolic health. And that is a platform I feel very comfortable standing on because I've been talking about these things for so many years now. Okay well I did want to spend some time with you on your 45 days transformation program. Can you give us an overview of the program? Would inspired you to create it in what sets it apart from other programs that are out there? Thank you. I can tell you it was created out of that viral TEDx talk because all of a sudden people were coming to me and said, okay, I want you to teach me how to intermittent fast. So

that was four years worth of research figuring out was it 30 days? Is it 60 days? Is it 45 days? 45 days is a perfect amount of time to walk women through. How to go about prepping your house, prepping your lifestyle, dipping your toe into the proverbial pond of intermittent fasting, setting you up for success, helping educate you about what's going on in your body, what are the reasons why we fast? How do we fast effectively?

How do we challenge our bodies? How do we eat to break a fast? How do we eat in a feeding window? What can we consume that doesn't break a clean fast? What distinguishes it is the very first book written by a clinician for women. And so I proudly say that it's the first of its kind. It's published in 2022.

Almost every day we have women reaching out or saying thank you so much for writing this book. It's changed my life. But it helps women narrow in on all of those lifestyle pieces that we've talked about in the context of, how do I set myself up for success? Also embracing and not apologizing for being a woman. So if you were 35 and under, I talk about

how you need to fast differently than a woman in Perry, Menopause. Someone who's 10 to 15 years precinct menopause versus a menopausal woman. Because we have to fast differently depending on where we are in our cycle, where we are life stage wise, and doing so without apologizing for it.

I think women reflexively, like we love to apologize for things. This is what makes us unique. Being able, if we choose to conceive a child and carry a child, and birth a child makes this unique. And so we shouldn't feel the need to apologize for physiology we should embrace it. And what would you say are some of the most important factors

to keep in mind when you're at the early stages of implementing intermittent fasting routine? I think if you're transitioning from a standard American diet and being sedentary, you have to first inform us, give your self-grace because your body is not in a state where it's been optimized for fuel. So when I remember right mentioned earlier, there's different types of fuels for the body. It's understanding that if your body's been predominantly using glucose as its primary fuel source, it is going to take a bit more time to get to the point

where your body can use stored fat as a fuel source. So is going to take a bit more time to get to the point where your body can use stored fat as a fuel source. So if someone is very sedentary eating a standard American diet, it may take them four to six weeks to become fat adapted, meaning that their body can go in and utilize stored fat when they need it, as opposed to just burning like kinling, which is what glucose is. So that's number one. Number two is helping people understand that the first thing you need to do is to rip the bandaid off and stop snacking. You are never going to be able to fast if you continue to snack. So this forces you to restructure your meals. So protein fat and carbohydrates, you always have protein with every meal, you always have protein. That is the consistent piece. Is either protein and healthy fats or protein and carbs. And so depending on whether or not someone is insulin resistant, if someone's

insulin resistant or not metabolically healthy, they probably need to lower their carbohydrate threshold. And the way to do that is to increase their protein. And so 30 to 50 grams of protein with each meal, if you have weight to lose, you're not metabolically healthy or insulin resistant, you probably need to get your total carbohydrates, not net, under 75 grams per day. And for a lot of people in average Americans 200 to 300 grams of carbs a day, that can be a little daunting, but it's something to work towards. And then lastly, being able to go from dinner to breakfast without eating, that's another kind of like hurdle. These are big picture things, like people are trying to imagine what an intermittent fasting lifestyle looks like. You have to be able to go from, as a starting point, from dinner to breakfast. So maybe that's 13 hours, but that's great. That's 13 hours that your body is going through digestive rest. It's optimizing

things that go on behind the scenes. your digestion gets optimized because it's allowed to take the time to function in an optimal level. And then you go from there. And so I always say, obviously, in the book, I really walk women through this whole process. I've a lot of men that read the book too. I just tell them lean into the menopausal women area where there isn't as much hormonal fluctuation day to day week to week, like there are with other women, but we've gotten really great feedback. And really giving yourself grace throughout the process, I don't expect the average person to go from eating six times a day, eating snacks and mini meals to automatically fasting 16 hours. Like that may take a couple weeks and that is okay. Okay, and then Cynthia, I have a number of questions that I got from audience members who heard

you were going to be coming on the show. And these are all pertaining to intermittent fasting. The first one has to do with the green powders that are all the rage today. I'll have to admit, athletic greens has sponsored this program. I take these myself daily. If you use one of those products, will it break your fast if you take it during your fasting window? Yes, because it's food.

So I'm an advocate of clean fasting, and I speak very openly about that. I want everyone to learn clean fasting, and then from there they can determine what they want to do. Clean fasting means it is bitter coffee, bitter teas, water, and plain electrolytes in a fasted state. So save the athletic greens or the green powders. Maybe use it to break your fast.

Maybe enjoy it with your first meal of the day. But that is absolutely something you want to take in a fed state. Okay, and the next question was on the lines of supplements. So a lot of people like to take their vitamins in the morning, is that have any impact on your fast? I think it depends on what it is. I always say when in doubt leave it out. So that's like my standard moniker.

If it's a fat soluble vitamin, if it's a probiotic, those things should be taken with food. If you are consuming fish oil, I would take that with food. But if it's like magnesium, if you have ashwaganda, like an adaptogenic herb, if you are told that you have a medication you need to take in an unfed state, like I have thyroid medicine that I take first thing in the morning, I take that completely fasted. As far as I'm concerned, hormones, you get a free pass on a hormone because you have to take it.

I don't have a choice. There's no way out of the way around it. But there's a lot of nuances, but generally speaking, when and doubt leave it out, like things like creatine, branch chain amino acids, they will absolutely break a fast. Consume them in your feeding window. If you're concerned, take it in your feeding window. Again, if it's magnesium, ashwaganda, plain electrolytes,

you can absolutely consume them in a fasted state. OK, and then the last question was, it's common for people to experience cravings or hunger pains during fasting periods. Do you have any tips or strategies for managing these cravings and staying on track? Yeah, so first and foremost, make sure you're eating enough in your feeding window. Sometimes you're getting cravings because you're not hitting those protein macros, you're not eating enough food in your feeding window. I see that a lot. I would say the other piece of that is if you have a rumbling in your stomach, sometimes

it's dehydration. When we're in a fast state, we have these counter regulatory hormones like norepinephrine that actually will suppress hunger. The other thing is enjoy bitter coffee or bitter teas like green tea, black tea, plain coffee because one of the things that they do is they actually will upregulate atop a juicist's waste and recycling process in the body and they can actually suppress hunger as well. So I'm never an advocate of white knuckleing fasting. So this means right before you're getting your menstrual cycle and you're miserable trying to do 12 hours in a fasted state, don't torture

yourself. But if you're new to fasting and you're really trying to do 12 hours in a fasted state, don't torture yourself. But if you're new to fasting and you're really struggling, maybe it's a day you need to break your fast. So understanding that you are going to experience a little bit of hunger, sometimes that is again this physiologic thing that goes on over time your body will secrete these counter-regulatory hormones, which will help suppress it. But the cravings piece is almost always related to something that's not being met. And I just find a lot of women in particular, I don't mean to pick on women,

they just don't eat enough food. So when they start cutting an amount of time which they aren't eating, and they're not eating enough food in the fed state, that can be problematic. So I think that using an app like chronometer, I've no affiliation with them. I just think it's a great app that tracks macros and microbes.

So you can have a sense, are you deficient in potassium? Do you need more sodium? Are you deficient in protein? And I always say we're working towards one gram per pound of ideal body weight, which means most if not all of us are under-eating protein, over-eating carbohydrates and consuming way too much unhealthy fats like seed oils. But that's generally how I look at that.

Okay, and then what advice or encouragement do you have for individuals who may be considering trying intermittent fasting, but may feel hesitant or unsure? Well, I think for every person that intermittent fasting is a great philosophy for there are other people it's not, and that's okay. I do talk about it in the book people that should avoid intermittent fasting or maybe at that time in their life it's not the ideal thing to do. But I think this is where coaching can be very helpful and that's why having the book can be a resource for you to walk you through day one. This is what we're gonna do, day two. This is what we're gonna do. If you're feeling ambivalent or you're feeling unsure of yourself, the question is why.

Is it because you're it's new? And sometimes when things are new, they can be scary. But you can always try it. Give it a week, see how you feel, give it a couple days, see how you feel. I feel like things aren't working well or you don't feel good, then obviously you stop. Like I always say, there's no sense in white knuckling fasting. If it's working

well for you and for me, before I ever saw weight loss, I felt really good. I felt like my brain turned on. I got a lot of accomplished because I wasn't worrying about eating breakfast. And so for a lot of people, they're pleasantly surprised. But I think there's nothing wrong with being hesitant, but examine while you're hesitant. Is it just because you need more resources? Is it because you feel a little bit of yourself, because it's new? That's okay, that's to be expected,

but you can absolutely try it. Just like I tell my kids, you have to have a thank you bite when they were little. If you have a thank you bite, at least one bite, just try it. You don't know it until you try it. Okay, and then,

Cynthia, I always like to get fellow podcasters, the opportunity to tell the audience about their shows in case my audience would like to learn more about yours. Thank you. So my podcast is Everyday Wellness. It is one of my favorite things I do in my business. I get to interview the best and the brightest in the health and wellness space. I get to interview researchers, clinicians, group experts,

and it's one of my great joys is being able to connect with all these brilliant like-minded individuals. So everyday wellness, you can find it on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you find podcasts. Most recently, I'm trying to think of some of the more interesting hosted characters I've had on recently, like Dave Asprey and Sean Stevenson

and the glucose goddess who's a joy I've had Dr. Chris Palmer on as well as many other in the metabolic health space, but definitely one of my favorite things I do in my business and definitely check it out. Okay, and then the last question would be for things other than the podcast, where's the best place for listeners to go?

Probably my website, so www.synthethorlo.com. You can connect to the website there. I'm active on Instagram. Before warned, I can be a little snarky on Twitter, although not at anyone's expense. Then I have a free Facebook group for men and women. It's called Intermittent Vassing Lifestyle, Backslash My Name, and that is on Facebook, all are welcome.

Well, Cynthia, thank you so much for joining us today. It was such a pleasure to have you on the show. Thank you so much. It was great. I thoroughly enjoyed that interview with Cynthia Thurlow. And I wanted to thank Cynthia and Avery Books for the honor and privilege of having her appear on the show. Links to all things Cynthia will be in the show notes. Please use our website links if you purchase any of the books from the guests

that we feature on the show. All proceeds go to supporting the show. Videos are on YouTube at both John R. Miles and our Clips channel at PassionStruck Clips. You can also tune in on your weekly commute on syndicated radio where reappear on the AMFM 247 National broadcast, catch us Monday and Friday at 5 to 6 p.m. Eastern time. Everties are deals and discount codes in one community in place at PassionStruck.com slash deals. I have some exciting news to announce that I have a book coming out in February. Links will be in the show notes and you can pre-order it now. I'm on LinkedIn and you can also catch

me at John Armeyles on all the other social platforms where I post daily doses of inspiration. If you want to know how I book amazing guests like Cynthia on the show, it's because of my network. Go out there and build yours before you need it. You're about to hear a preview of the PassionStrike podcast interview I did with mental health expert and neuroscientist Dr. Caroline Leif, who is known for her science-backed mind management techniques. We discuss her new book, How to Help Your Child Clean Up Their Mental Mass. You can't look to what our generations are facing as the cause of something because social media is good, so is radio, so is television, so is AI.

So they're not the problem, the problem is what are we doing with them, the problem is how we manage them. Instead of looking to an external cause as the cause of something like mental health, external causes do impact mental health, but it's blaming something without looking at the benefits of it, so it's about management of it. So social media is not bad, it's how we manage it. The fee for this show is that you share it with family or friends when you find something useful. If you know someone who would like to practice intermittent fasting, then definitely share this show with those that you love and care about. The greatest compliment that

you can give the show is to share it. In the meantime, do your best to apply what you hear on the show so that you can live what you listen. And until next time, go out there and become Passion Star. you