Latest / Callum Walker | Figuring It Out / Episode 25: From Fog To Focus: The Fasting Secret To Eliminate Procrastination

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Episode 25: From Fog To Focus: The Fasting Secret To Eliminate Procrastination · Callum Walker | Figuring It Out

0:03
Callum: If fear is the only thing stopping us from achieving our dreams and we only fear what we don't understand, then the antidote to fear is knowledge.
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Callum: All we have to do is find out who
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Callum: has the knowledge that we need to conquer our fears and achieve our entrepreneurial dreams. My name is Callum Walker, and welcome to the podcast that
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Callum: will help you figure it out and conquer this lonely entrepreneurial journey. Hello everyone and welcome to the podcast. So once again, I am driving back from down south as I've been with my partner for the weekend, which has been really nice. Yeah, something that I would like to pass on today is how I use intermittent fasting. And the reason why I'm kind of bringing this up now is because as you know, if you are a regular listener, don't know, I'm pretty regularly on a ketogenic diet.
1:06
So I'm ketogenic the majority of the time and I occasionally kind of flit through low carb periods. Let's say like in a week I might have I might be ketogenic for the majority of the week but then I might have like one meal which has got some whole grain rice in it, maybe even have like a wholemeal wrap or even like at the weekend I might occasionally have some sourdough toasted with my eggs because it is just divine! But occasionally I do get that sense of like, oh my god, I just wish I was just a normal fever big. And what I mean by that is that I just wish sometimes I was like, why can't I just eat like everyone else? I don't know if you ever feel like this, but I remember a few years back when I was solely coaching people one to one, helping them with their own personal nutrition.
2:05
I remember being in a supermarket and there was a bloke next to me. We were in Tesco. Bloke next to me and I think it was just when the self-service checkouts just started to come about. And the bloke was standing next to me and I looked at everything he was purchasing and I was like oh my god like he had a bag of family bag of burritos, dips, he had pizza, he had everything. I just saw oh my god!
2:36
And I looked at my basket and I was like avocado, salads, chicken. And like look don't get me wrong, I love all of those things but I was like that requires an element of energy and effort to go right. I am a healthy human being who prioritizes my health and fitness. And I just remember standing there going just sometimes I wish I could eat all of that shit and it didn't have a negative impact on me. Do you know what I mean?
3:07
So the reason why I'm kinda like bringing that up is because I occasionally do get that like I just wanna eat just some normal food and not have any form of mindfulness around what I'm eating. And it's funny because me and my partner were long distance. I say long distance. She's three hours away from me down south. So when I go to hers, it kind of feels like I'm on holiday.
3:34
Because I'm in like a new environment in a different place. It feels like I'm on holiday. So it's almost like I'm kind of associated with Do you know what? I am gonna be a normal human being. So the ADHD in me is very much kind of like I'm all in or I'm all out.
3:54
And naturally I kind of went all in. So I got there Friday. I got down there about what was this? We're about six and I was like we are going for a tie! We are going for a tie!
4:10
And yeah I went all in on the rice, corn crackers, everything and then just snowballed into I don't know if you've ever heard of Tono's chocolate but it's a different chocolate brand and they've got a collaboration with Ben and Jerry's and they basically had this bar of chocolate that had a shit ton of lumps of Ben and Jerry's chocolate fudge brownie in it and it was amazing! So anyway my point was and the reason why I'm bringing this up and the reason why this is linked to intermittent fasting is that when you're ketogenic or when you're low carb, you feel amazing and your body is very very much reliant and used to running on fatty acids, ketone bodies. When you're on a ketogenic diet or when you're very low carb and you're in that low insulin state, levels of inflammation in the body are very low. But what happens is it makes you like additionally sensitive to shit. So when you eat shit, it makes you like really really sensitive to it.
5:19
And for me, I can feel like very jaded, lethargic, that brain fog starts to come back. And there's multiple reasons for that but specifically if I can kind of explain to you how I feel right now. I feel very puffy. Very puffy especially around my face. Part of that is going to be that by taking on that carbohydrate intake naturally my glycogen reserves are going to increase and with that you get an increase in storage of water and I definitely feel like that.
5:54
But mainly it's that brain fog really starts to like really bed in. And for a while I always really thought I was like right is this this placebo? Is this are you being shit? And naturally like you know you now feel like shit and everything's harder. But it's happened so many times whenever I've gone off track that there's no way it can't.
6:19
And again from a scientific perspective the brain really really thrives when it is using ketone bodies and that's the main reason why I am ketogenic because the biggest benefit that you get from being ketogenic really is this enhanced cognitive function, this clarity, this ability to think, be creative and come up with ideas. It's just so much easier. So really where does like my intermittent fasting kind of tie in? Well I think one thing that I would really kind of say, and this is how it can be really useful for you to pass on to your clients or even using intermittent fasting for yourself, is that whenever you're looking at any form of protocol, whether it be exercise nutrition based, just anything physiological. The biggest question you have to ask is like right, what is the intention?
7:17
What is the purpose behind me actually using this? Like what is the overall outcome that I'm trying to get from it? Because you get so many people who are like, oh, intermittent fasting is amazing. I'm like, okay. But at at what?
7:30
Like, because it can do multiple things. You also get a lot of people who are saying to me and fasting doesn't work. I'm like okay but like in what sense? So I think the point that I'm trying to come at from here is seeing every single protocol that you're ever using with a client or with yourself as a tool to achieve a specific outcome. So my point with that is the way I use intermittent fasting is going to be very different to the way and the reason behind would use intermittent fasting to lose weight.
8:06
They're very different things. They might produce similar outcomes, but there is a different intention behind it. So the thing I'd like to kind of make really really clear is that I don't use intermittent fasting as a way solely to focus on my body composition. Like yeah okay it definitely helps, like naturally when you are in a fasted state you get lower levels of insulin and that can level up your ability to burn fat. So in terms of my ability to maintain a lean physique all year round, intermittent fasting is a great tool to be able to do that.
8:44
It also naturally decreases your overall caloric intake because you're eating less anyway. But that's not the reason behind why I do it. Because the main thing is that I'm like okay right, what has happened has been that me taking on some form of carbohydrate will have kicked me out of a ketogenic state. Because naturally if you're really trying to get the benefits of the ketogenic diet and you're really trying to elevate cognitive function, the key thing you have to do is produce ketones. And the thing that really kind of serves as the doorway to opening up your ability to produce ketones is insulin.
9:27
So again, although intermittent fasting decreases insulin which can be beneficial for fat loss, I'm not trying to decrease my insulin for fat loss purposes. I'm trying to decrease my insulin so that I can produce ketones. Because provided that insulin is there in high enough quantities, you can't produce ketone bodies to a level that would really enhance your ability to think, be creative and get those cognitive benefits of the diet. So the way I use intermittent fasting which is today, yes I feel additionally puffy from the glycogen that I'm probably going to be storing, so naturally in a fasted state is gonna dump that water and deplete that glycogen which makes me feel a little bit better. But more importantly what I'm doing is I'm using fasting as a tool to allow my insulin to then produce my ketones again.
10:22
Does that make sense? So it's almost like a little bit of recalibration. So you know, yesterday I you know, I was still a little bit like, oh fuck it. You know, it's still like I'm gonna have a little bit of carb. So it was kinda like a weekend where I'm just gonna kinda chill out and just like take any form of real mindfulness kind of away from my food.
10:47
I didn't really go gung ho and crazy. Like I mentioned, you know, I had my Thai on a Friday and my Tony's chocolate which I was very happy with. But yesterday so it's Monday at the moment. Yesterday, Sunday, we went out for a roast. I had some roast potatoes and then it's gonna sound silly.
11:05
When I got back, I was just really craving some rye and hummus. Yeah. It was just like the crisp and the crunch of it. So naturally, what I was doing was, you know, I finished I had some baribeeta and hummus for 08:00 last night. So and the time of recording this now it's eleven.
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So I'm fifteen hours in to my eight minutes of fasting. Now what I want to do is is really get myself back into full on ketogenic state. And I typically have found over the years the most potent way for me to do that has been through one cardiovascular exercise but then also intermittent fasting but specifically a twenty four hour fast. Now if you're not familiar and regular with intermittent fasting, me saying, oh yeah, I'm just not gonna eat today, that could just like blow your mind. Like right now it's like, my god, that is really really unhealthy, that is really poor.
12:06
And that used to be kinda like the mentality that I used to have when I first heard about intermittent fasting. I used to think it was a gimmick. Like this just kind of like notion of I'm gonna be fasting for twenty four hours. I used to think it was really really extreme. But as with anything, and this would be my biggest bit of advice to you, is that if you wanna go and do something and you really wanna learn more and more and more about it, the best thing that you can do is start applying it to yourself.
12:37
With me I always used to kind of shoot down this idea as almost like just crackpot crazy stuff. Like you know fasting for a twenty four hour period. Like that's just nuts. Until I actually did it, I realized how easy it was and also how good I felt. So yeah, so today I'm gonna be doing a twenty four hour fast and also I don't have in my mind like I'm doing a twenty four hour fast and doing a twenty four hour fast.
13:01
I just have in my mind like right, I'm gonna have my dinner around seven 08:00. That's when I'm gonna do it. I'm just gonna maintain an element of hydration throughout the day. And I'll go through kind of like you know what I'm gonna be doing during that day to kind of make that a little bit easier and also I'll be touching on in a second about how this could be useful not only to you but also for your clients and some really simple steps that you can put in place to really ensure that you can do it safely, can do it effectively and really get the benefits of it. But it's interesting because like I said, I woke up being quite jaded, lethargic.
13:39
You know, when I'm down south, I go and work for the coffee shop and it was just like it was just a real slog to kind of get my brain going. And when you're used to really working at this like high level where things come very easily, quickly, it can be quite frustrating. So again that really kind of like served as a motive to go right. I really do need to fast today. Because again as you know, you you'll probably know like I massively prioritize and value working at the highest level that I possibly can.
14:15
So fasting is a tool to be able to kind of overcome that frustration. But specifically if I kind of walk through like what the day sort of looks like, the main thing that can serve and probably will serve as a challenge if either you or your clients are going to do a twenty four hour fast is really just hydrating yourself is the main thing that you need to stay on top of. But it's not just as simple as nailing as much water as you possibly can, because you do need to be quite strategic around your water intake. And there's multiple reasons for that. It's because you've kind of got to do this bit of a dance between making sure I'm getting enough fluid in, but then also making sure that I'm not taking on too much too quickly.
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Now when it comes to hydrating yourself, there's three key things that we do need to nail. It's not just as simple as drinking water. The real key things are that we need to focus on the volume so the amount of fluid that we're actually going to be taking on. Secondly we need to be looking at what we're actually taking on so the composition of what we're taking on. So ideally drinking something that is a little bit more than water and you'll get what I mean in a second.
15:43
That can sound so that can sound so confusing. All the water? What the fuck do you mean? You'll get what I mean in a sec. But really kind of like what we wanna consider is what is it that we're actually drinking?
15:55
And then thirdly, the rate of consumption. So how quickly are we going to drink? Now why is water the most thing that we need to consider when we're in a fasted state? Well multiple reasons. The first thing which is kind of the obvious one, but people don't really kind of talk about, but when you're eating your food technically hydrates you.
16:17
So one of the main reasons why you feel kind of like shit if you've ever gone through a period of time where you've tried to fast and it's just been really really challenging, then you might have like headaches, lightheadedness, dizziness. There's been that you really kind of start to suffer from symptoms of dehydration and one of the main reasons for that is that you miss out on opportunities where you'd normally hydrate yourself. Because let's say I'm eating a chicken breast for example, that chicken breast has got water in it which means that when I eat it, I'm technically hydrating myself. So if I'm fasting, I'm technically missing out on an opportunity where I'd normally be taking on the fluid that would be in the food. But then the other thing is that most of the time when I'm actually eating that meal, I'd probably be having a drink with that meal.
17:12
So not only am I missing out on opportunities where I'd normally be taking off fluid during that meal, I'm also missing out on opportunities where I'd normally be drinking in a company month with a meal. So we've got to take that into consideration. So how I like to kind of look at that is that let's say that we look at a standard eating schedule the way that someone would normally typically eat. Let's say they have breakfast when they wake up, they have a mid morning snack, they then have lunch, they then have a mid afternoon snack, they then have dinner. I like to stay on that exact same schedule and this is how I used to use it with my clients as well because they're already in a routine of they eat, they probably have something around mid morning, they then have lunch, they probably have like a little scooby snack around two 03:00 and then they probably have dinner.
18:00
They're already in that routine and trying to change too many things at once they're just gonna turn to a puddle, they're gonna fail and they're gonna go back to old habits. So we might as well just stay with that same schedule. So how I kind of started the day off I was like right okay normally typically in terms of breakfast instead of eating I'm going to make sure that I have some form of fluid. Specifically what I did was I took on some form of electrolyte. Now why have I gone with electrolytes?
18:28
Why are electrolytes vitally important if you want to fast at the highest level, get the most benefits from the fast and ensure that you can do it as easy as possible? Well there's two primary reasons for that. First of all, when you drink fluid, you don't retain all of the water that you're actually consuming. Let's say I go and drink a liter of water, I'm probably gonna pee out about three to 400 ml of that fluid that I'm actually drinking. Which means that I'm only actually retaining between 6070% of what I've actually consumed.
19:06
Does that make sense? So although I've taken a lot of that fluid, I'm not actually retaining all of the fluid. So what I want to do is I go right okay, I want to make sure that whatever drink that I'm actually maintaining or retaining as much of that fluid in the body as I possibly can and that's where an electrolyte supplement can be really useful because specifically the sodium or we can just call it salt for simple terms here. Sodium and salt arsenide are different things. But the salt within the fluid actually enhances your ability to retain fluid.
19:45
I always used to So use electrolytes with my athletes because what we want to do is make sure that they're adequately hydrated and that we're keeping whatever fluid that they're drinking within the body. That's where you can use an electrolyte supplement. Because by putting a I use science and sport hydro, by putting one of those in there what happens is that then the fluid that I'm actually drinking more of that is going to stay in my body. So if I look at the amount of fluid I'm consuming, it then actually goes from a retention point of view from 60 to 70% of the fluid that I'm drinking up to actually I'm probably gonna pee out one to 200 ml which means that that retention goes from 60 to 70 to 80 to 90%. So I become far more efficient at hydrating myself and I'm keeping that fluid in the body.
20:34
So that what I'm doing is that even if I'm not eating, I'm missing out on opportunities to be drinking that I would doing off the back of intermittent fasting, I'm also going to be maintaining that element of hydration at the same time. So first things first, what I'll do is typically throughout the day I'll probably have two or three electrolyte supplements. Like I said I go with Science and Sport Hydro. Main reason for that they've got a high salt content, they taste really good and if you get them from the right website they're not overly expensive as well. So what I would do is don't go with the lemon flavor, tastes awful and don't go with the cola.
21:14
Again tastes awful and also it's got a high caffeine content. What happens is that I'll maintain the fluid that I'm actually consuming off the back of having electrolyte supplements. So I had that for breakfast, if I can call it breakfast, at that normal sort of time schedule and then I'll have that around lunch. Now how do I kind of differ from gonna have two or three? Really off the back of how I feel.
21:37
So if you feel like if you are fasting or if you have a client who is fasting and you feel additionally hungry, you feel a little bit lightheaded, jaded, lethargic, maybe just like dizzy take on some form of electrolyte and you'll find that those side effects will start to disappear. Yeah so typically like I'll go for like I've had one first thing in the morning and then I'll have one around lunchtime Because the other thing that you're combating when you are fasting is something called FASTING INDUCED DIARESIS. Really really fancy word for if you think about DIARESIS, if any of you have previously been in the bodybuilding world, the word diuretic people use diuretic drugs to flush water out to make them look leaner. But what happens is that when you get into a ketogenic state or a fasted state what happens is that the body can get into a state of diuresis where the kidneys change and they start to dump fluid and they start to dump salt. So what you might find is that if you've got a client who's fasting or if you're fasting yourself, then you might be going to the toilet quite a lot.
22:52
That's for two main reasons: one) when you're in a fasted state the kidneys start to dump a lot of fluid, but then also you'll find that if you've got quite a lot of glycogen that because the body's not getting food from the outside world, it's running on its inside, resources. And if you're not ketogenic, the body's initially going to its glycogen reserves. So when you're using that glycogen, what you're also doing is you're kind of getting rid of the majority of the water that you've got stored with that glycogen as well at the same time. So I always find that if I've gone and had a high carb binge of a weekend, then I notice that I start to dump a lot of fluid as soon as I go ketogenic again and I'm just peeing like a race course, so I'm dumping that glycogen. Because remember for gram of glycogen that we're storing, we're also storing three grams of water at the same time.
23:46
So by burning that glycogen I'm also dumping that fluid. So we've got to realize that and be aware that okay my body's gonna be a little bit more dehydrated. So just keep on top of your fluid but that's where you've got to do the dance between taking on enough fluid but then not too much. How do you do that? Just keep an eye on the color of your urine because effectively the big mistake that we see that we really kind of like make when it comes to our hydration is that if it's clear we assume that we're hydrated.
24:24
No! What that actually means that if it's clear what's come in has come straight back out. So actually you've probably taken on too much too quick and you've actually peed out the majority of what you've taken on. So that's where again if we look at kind of the three things I was talking about earlier in terms of volume, composition and rate of consumption. We look at like you know composition being you want to make sure that when you're consuming fluid that you've got some form of sodium in there to retain that fluid, and keep it in the body.
24:56
But then in terms of volume and rate of consumption, this is where you have to do that dance of really keeping an eye on your urine color throughout the day. So if it's completely clear, you're probably drinking too much, so the volume, and then you're probably drinking too quickly, the rate of consumption. So what we wanna do is just kinda like gradually slow that down and find your rhythm really by keeping an eye on your urine color. So what sort of color are we actually looking at, trying to achieve? We really want to achieve, a urine color of, of almost like a champagne yellow, like a straw yellow.
25:37
That means that we're probably gonna be adequately hydrated and just kinda keep ticking along at that sort of color throughout the day. So that's what I'm gonna be doing throughout the day anyway. So my main thing is really just staying on top of, my hydration, staying on top of my electrolytes, mainly having that at like a breakfast, lunch and dinner schedule with occasional snacks being electrolytes. Or one other thing that you find can be really really useful at being able to really kind of get through our fast with greater ease is caffeine. You know there's a lot of speculation and kind of argument around is caffeine appetite suppressing?
26:23
You know some people say it is, some people say it isn't. I'm just gonna come solely from my own experience of I find that caffeine is very good at suppressing my appetite. So specifically first thing in the morning I find having that caffeine really just makes a fast a lot easier. Whether it's the caffeine suppressing effects of the caffeine that makes it easier or just the sense of I'm drinking something with flavor that isn't water that naturally that that kind of makes it easier to fast. So I've also had an absolute stinker here.
27:07
While recording this I've come off at the wrong junction and right now it's saying it's taking me one hour and thirty to get home. That's okay it's only added thirty minutes. Three minutes onto the journey. That's alright not a problem! But coming back to the caffeine side of things, having a cup of coffee first thing in the morning can be really really helpful in terms of being able to stay on track with my fast a lot easier because my my appetite is suppressed.
27:42
Now the the question that you can then be asking is okay but what about if I wanted to have milk in there? Does that break my fast? That should be pretty fine. The main that thing we're really kind of looking at when it comes to your fasting is really around just making sure that you're not excessively stimulating insulin and will milk excessively stimulate insulin and break your fast? Probably not.
28:11
No. So yeah, so really if I kind of look at like the day, I'll start off with a cup of coffee. My breakfast on that sort of like schedule is really gonna be centered around having a cup of coffee and some electrolytes that will naturally kind of just like make it a little bit easier to fast because one the caffeine enhances my ability to do that by suppressing appetite and the electrolytes also enhance my ability to do that by suppressing my appetite at the same time as well. So that can be just like a really easy start. Naturally throughout the day I'm kind of staying on a sort of like standard eating schedule of breakfast, mid morning snack, lunch, mid afternoon snack, dinner.
28:57
But instead of having the snacks what I'm doing is I'm hydrating. So I'm just making sure that I'm either having you know an electrolyte or some form of fluid just to be able to kind of like you know really stay throughout the process. And really I think the key thing is just like keep yourself busy and keep yourself occupied. You'll also find that by being in a fasted state, your ability to get work done is just so much easier because you have this heightened level of focus. You find that the body naturally increases its production of adrenaline, which is really really useful for your ability to be able to to actually focus on something as well.
29:41
So so yeah, so kind of just to like summarize that. The main thing really is about ensuring so I'm just making sure that I can get my right way through high. Yeah cool! Really just like you know to really get the most out of a fast, sticking to a standard sort of schedule breakfast, mid morning snack, lunch, mid afternoon snack, dinner and then off the back of that then going taking on some form of electrolytes throughout the day to ensure that we're continuing our levels of hydration. Then afterwards we then go through the process of potentially bringing on some caffeine and then in all honesty just stay busy.
30:31
Like stay as busy as you can because you'll find that you're then able to actually take the reap the rewards and the benefits of fasting by getting that additional adrenaline kick. So anyway I realized that it's been thirty minutes and also I know I've mentioned this on a past few episodes but what I am going to do is really try and add some more structure to this podcast and have some real real clear structure to my podcast in terms of regular themes and almost kind of doing series. Now why is that? That like what I really wanna do is take you on a journey. I'm a real big believer in if you wanna go and do something find someone who's done what you wanna do and model it.
31:29
So that's why you know for me the main purpose of this podcast to begin with the first I think we're probably about 30 episodes in. It might be more, might be less. I have no idea. But is to really to like really find my voice and really kind of figure out how I want to do this. So I'm fully aware that there hasn't been a massive amount of structure in these podcasts.
31:53
They're very much kind of being like Dear Diaries and it's really kind of been more of a me just expressing how I want to I want to share this. And you know what actually, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna film one more little episode and actually say what I wanna say here. So just stick with me here. Listen to the next episode because it might give you a really really good idea as to how you would want to if you wanna start your own podcast, if you wanna really kinda like enhance your own content, this is something that could be really useful for you. So I'm gonna stop recording this and I'm gonna start a new one just to kind of explain exactly what I'm gonna be doing, how this podcast is gonna change, it might provide you with some ideas.
32:47
So yeah, that's just kind of like providing me with some excitement as well. Anyway, so today I've covered some fasting, a little bit about why I would do intermittent fasting, why you could do intermittent fasting, some quick and simple tools that you can use, not only for yourself but also with your clients in terms of intermittent fasting. And yeah, so I'm gonna finish that off. Never forget, if every single one of your clients gave you just one new client, you have doubled your business. But the question is, are you giving them a good enough reason to recommend you?
33:26
If not, drop me a line. See you later.