Genie Lauren's Fast Life

View Details

Genie Lauren shares the key to keto in this episode, outlining in five easy steps how to get into nutritional ketosis and stay there for as long as you choose. There are some do’s and don’ts that you don’t want to miss if you’re a beginner, or if you’ve been trying a keto diet or lifestyle and haven’t been getting it right.

Show Transcript

You know what’s the hardest part about cooking bacon to go in my salad?

Not eating all the bacon before I put it in my salad.

I’m a Hungry-hungry Hippo and this is my Fast Life.

[Theme song]

So, we’ve already reached the third episode of Genie Lauren’s Fast Life. I hope you’re enjoying the show, I hope you’re already finding a few helpful tidbits and insights. This particular episode is going to be really helpful because I’m going to walk you through, step-by-step, how to keto.

It doesn’t have to be hard, you don’t have to be a mathematician or scientist. You definitely don’t have to take a ton of supplements and waste money on disgusting protein shakes (no offense to anyone who likes protein shakes). You just have to learn how to be mindful and deliberate about what you’re putting into your mouth.

There’s this silly idea some people have that you can trick your body into not processing everything you eat. Like, if you eat a ton of sugar it’s okay because you drank water with it, so that counteracts the sugar. That’s not how the digestive system works. And, you don’t need a medical lab to know that’s not how it works, just a little honesty with yourself and some basic understanding about food, and you’re good.

Now, if you’re wondering how I had an episode about keto flu before an episode about how to do keto. I was laying the groundwork for you, okay? I gave you a back-story. I gave you some useful terms and definitions. I gave you the urgent things to look out for, ahead of time, so you don’t get got. I set us up for this very moment we’re about to have. Ease you into it.

And, before we really get into the nitty-gritty, here’s a brief word on how you can support the show.

If you enjoy Genie Lauren’s Fast Life, please like and rate the show on Apple Podcasts. Leaving a review with your rating helps even more and I’d truly appreciate the feedback. If you would like to support the show, become a patron. Go to Patreon.com/fastlife and choose the tier that is right for you. Perks include keto recipes, a one-on-one phone call with me to coach you through your keto journey, and a keto kitchen makeover, where we go over how to shop at a grocery store of your choice. If you want to just support the show on a one-time basis, without a perk, you can do that, too. Anything is appreciated.

Okay, back to the show.

So, I’m going to say something that might seem a little radical, may make you roll your eyes, but it’s absolutely true — sugar is poison. All sugar. No hyperbole. Some sugars are worse than others, but all sugars have negative effects on your health in the short-term and long-term.

Dr. Robert H. Lustig (an endocrinologist at UC San Francisco) has called fructose alcohol without the buzz3 – fructose is the sugar you find in fruit. . . so, yes, even that mango is poison. Back when I was being tested for diabetes, I told my doctor that I was eating two bananas a day and her eyes bugged out like I told her that I never washed my legs or something. Yeah, sugar is toxic.

So, why do we eat sugar? Sugar is a fast fuel — your body quickly makes use of it and stores what it doesn’t use as fat in and around your organs. I’m sure we all know how that works, I don’t have to explain that you can gain fat by eating potato chips, right? Okay. By the way, did you know that hunger is what you feel when your body has used or stored all the sugar you’ve eaten? That’s why it prompts you to eat more. Your blood sugar has dropped and now you have to eat to pump it back up. Makes so much sense, it’s a vicious sugar cycle.

Now, as I’ve mentioned in a previous episode, your body can either be fueled by sugar (in the form of glucose) or fueled by fat (in the form of ketones). But, how exactly do you get the ketones? You’re gonna wanna write this down (or, just go to genielauren.com to get the entire episode transcript).

Step 1: Cut the sugar

Your body doesn’t have to convert sugar to use it, it can burn it right away. Which means that your body burns sugar faster than it burns fat. It’s not the best fuel for your engine, but it’s a quick one. So, as long as you’re eating sugar, you’re gonna run on sugar. You won’t make the switch to fat until you stop fueling yourself with sugar. And, once you stop putting sugar in your mouth, you have to burn what’s stored in your organs and muscles. Which leads us to. . .

Step 2: Start intermittent fasting

Now, there are people who do keto without fasting, but fasting is going to be the quickest way to use all the sugar you have stored and get your body to switch to ketones for fuel. There are a lot of other great health benefits with fasting, but that’s for another episode. It will take the average person roughly twelve hours to burn through the sugar they’ve stored, and now we’re in keto territory. You ever wake up one morning, after a great night’s sleep, and feel like your tummy is flatter? That’s likely because your body was in ketosis while you slept — burned all the sugar and started on the fat.

Step 2 ½: Drink water

There are a lot of misconceptions about what you can and cannot drink while you are fasting, and there are a lot of things you shouldn’t drink, but please make sure you are drinking water. If you feel hungry, put some apple cider vinegar in that water — many people have found that apple cider vinegar helped stabilize their blood sugar (so you won’t feel those hunger pains)4. Do drinks teas and coffee without milk. Don’t drink anything with fat or butter, and you should get a really deep fast until you’ve reached the time of day you want to start eating.

Step 3: Start your keto diet

I want to reclaim the word “diet” here. The definition everyone’s used to brings to mind the silly things people do because they want to lose ten pounds really quick but then go right back to eating a standard American diet. This isn’t that. For the remainder of this podcast, we’re sticking to what is actually the first definition of diet and that is, “the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats.” What will you habitually eat while you’re keeping keto?

You may be surprised to learn that this is actually different for everyone. There are people who do a vegan keto, a paleo keto, and I personally do a non-dairy keto. So my keto diet mostly consists of salmon, spinach, bacon, and avocados. There are ways to do keto that garner you more nutrition than others, but the main idea is to turn up the fat consumption and stay below 20-50 mg of net carbs a day.

Net carbs being the amount of carbs you get when you subtract dietary fiber from the total amount of carbs.

Now, if you are not used to reading the labels of the food you eat, you will definitely have to start once you’re keeping keto. You should be reading the labels regardless of what your diet is, but you’re definitely going to have to read it when you’re keeping keto because sugar and carbs are hidden in almost everything.

You will be sabotaging yourself if you aren’t mindful, but overall you can easily do keto by simply avoiding pastas, breads, grains, oats, fruits, and (of course) sugar. If you decide you aren’t interested in counting a single macro, you can simply cut those foods and fast, and you won’t be in bad shape.

Step 4: Get. Your. Micros.

I had a whole episode about keto flu, so there’s no way I’m going to give you instructions about how to do keto and not stress how important it is for you to get all your micronutrients, every day. Depending on your age and sex, you’ll need about 4,700 mg of potassium, 2,300 mg of sodium, 320 mg of magnesium, and 1,000 mg of calcium every day (you can find the fact sheets from the National Institutes of Health with the exact numbers that are meant for you on my website genielauren.com/resources).

It’s going to be easier to get certain minerals than others, depending on what your keto diet consists of (I have a particular problem consuming enough potassium because I do not eat dairy), but if you are mindful about what you eat, you should be able to hit your micro targets each day.

Step 5: Test your blood

Now, this is completely optional, but I highly recommend getting a kit that has strips that can test your blood glucose and your blood ketones. For one — early on, you really won’t know for sure if you’re even in ketosis unless you test your blood (the pee strips are not accurate). Two — you need to get a good idea of how different foods affect you. For some people, certain popular keto-friendly snacks are fine, for other people (like me) what seems innocent will send your blood sugar through the roof. The only way to know is to test. Lastly — if there’s any chance your ketones are too high, your blood test kit can indicate it.

Without getting too nerdy about it, we’re aiming for a certain level of ketosis (anything between 1.5 and 3 millimolar of blood ketones). If you test your blood and find that you are at — say — 8 mmol blood ketones for multiple hours, and you feel dehydrated and nauseous or otherwise just don’t feel good, you may be at risk for ketoacidosis. You should head to the hospital and let them know you’re concerned you have diabetic ketoacidosis, and if they find out you do they’ll probably give you insulin and fluids with electrolytes. From there, you should consult with your doctor.

You don’t automatically have diabetic ketoacidosis just because you have a level of blood ketones higher than 3 and less than 10. So, don’t freak out. Diabetic ketoacidosis has to be diagnosed by a doctor, so don’t be on WebMD scaring yourself to death. I just mention this so that you understand why it’s useful to do the blood tests and monitor yourself, early on, until you have the swing of things and you know how your body should feel.

And, that’s that on that. If you follow those five steps you should have a very easy, very successful experience with keto. And, that’s whether your goal is treating insulin resistance or losing weight, those steps will help you successfully get into ketosis and manage a ketogenic lifestyle.

Have any questions or comments? Feel free to share, I’d love to hear from you.

Genie Lauren’s Fast Life was produced, written, recorded, and edited by me — Genie Lauren, for Rocque More Media. This episode’s artwork was also created by me — Genie Lauren, for Rocque More Media. The podcast logo was created by Huny, and the theme song was created by Tonemassif.

Thanks for listening.

View Details

Genie Lauren shares the key to keto in this episode, outlining in five easy steps how to get into nutritional ketosis and stay there for as long as you choose. There are some do's and don'ts that you don't want to miss if you're a beginner, or if you've been trying a keto diet or lifestyle and haven't been getting it right.

Show Transcript You know what’s the hardest part about cooking bacon to go in my salad? Not eating all the bacon before I put it in my salad.

I’m a Hungry-hungry Hippo and this is my Fast Life.

[Theme song]

So, we’ve already reached the third episode of Genie Lauren’s Fast Life. I hope you’re enjoying the show, I hope you’re already finding a few helpful tidbits and insights. This particular episode is going to be really helpful because I’m going to walk you through, step-by-step, how to keto.

It doesn’t have to be hard, you don’t have to be a mathematician or scientist. You definitely don’t have to take a ton of supplements and waste money on disgusting protein shakes (no offense to anyone who likes protein shakes). You just have to learn how to be mindful and deliberate about what you’re putting into your mouth.

There’s this silly idea some people have that you can trick your body into not processing everything you eat. Like, if you eat a ton of sugar it’s okay because you drank water with it, so that counteracts the sugar. That’s not how the digestive system works. And, you don’t need a medical lab to know that’s not how it works, just a little honesty with yourself and some basic understanding about food, and you’re good.

Now, if you’re wondering how I had an episode about keto flu before an episode about how to do keto. I was laying the groundwork for you, okay? I gave you a back-story. I gave you some useful terms and definitions. I gave you the urgent things to look out for, ahead of time, so you don’t get got. I set us up for this very moment we’re about to have. Ease you into it.

And, before we really get into the nitty-gritty, here’s a brief word on how you can support the show.

If you enjoy Genie Lauren’s Fast Life, please like and rate the show on Apple Podcasts. Leaving a review with your rating helps even more and I’d truly appreciate the feedback. If you would like to support the show, become a patron. Go to Patreon.com/fastlife and choose the tier that is right for you. Perks include keto recipes, a one-on-one phone call with me to coach you through your keto journey, and a keto kitchen makeover, where we go over how to shop at a grocery store of your choice. If you want to just support the show on a one-time basis, without a perk, you can do that, too. Anything is appreciated.

Okay, back to the show.

So, I’m going to say something that might seem a little radical, may make you roll your eyes, but it’s absolutely true — sugar is poison. All sugar. No hyperbole. Some sugars are worse than others, but all sugars have negative effects on your health in the short-term and long-term. Dr. Robert H. Lustig (an endocrinologist at UC San Francisco) has called fructose alcohol without the buzz1 - fructose is the sugar you find in fruit. . . so, yes, even that mango is poison. Back when I was being tested for diabetes, I told my doctor that I was eating two bananas a day and her eyes bugged out like I told her that I never washed my legs or something. Yeah, sugar is toxic.

So, why do we eat sugar? Sugar is a fast fuel — your body quickly makes use of it and stores what it doesn’t use as fat in and around your organs. I’m sure we all know how that works, I don’t have to explain that you can gain fat by eating potato chips, right? Okay. By the way, did you know that hunger is what you feel when your body has used or stored all the sugar you’ve eaten? That’s why it prompts you to eat more. Your blood sugar has dropped and now you have to eat to pump it back up. Makes so much sense, it’s a vicious sugar cycle.

Now, as I’ve mentioned in a previous episode,

View Details

In this episode, Genie Lauren shares the truth about keto flu – what it is, how to avoid it, and why the cause for it keeps getting swept under the rug.

Show Transcript:

The ketones?

The fasters?

The speedsters?

Speed demons. . . feed demons? No, that’s too. . . Gremlins.

sigh Anyway. . .

I’m Genie Lauren and this is my fast life.

[Theme song]

Okay. Let’s start off by clarifying what this show is not here to do.

First of all, I am not here to make any health or weight-loss promises. I am not your doctor, I do not know your life, and I will not promise that you will lose weight. A whole host of things could be going on with you — or nothing at all, really. I just have no way of knowing and I won’t pretend to. I also don’t have anybody’s license or certification to diagnose you with anything. I’m not interested in tricking or misleading anybody. This is the Fast Life, not the scam life. I am a strong supporter of you going to your own doctor to evaluate your health and using information from this podcast in a way that’s appropriate for you.

Second of all, I am not here to shame anyone about their food choices. We’re all adults, right? (I mean, I’m an adult. I’m assuming you’re also an adult. I don’t think kids care about keto podcasts, do they?) Anyway, at the end of the day, you have to be accountable to you. Not to me. So, I am not judging your situation or your choices. I do want to give you information so that you can make better choices, but how you live your life is up to you. I’m not a food nazi.

Lastly, I am not here to data-mine my listeners. I really dislike the way that advertising has taken over all of our media. TV shows, radio shows, podcasts, music — they all basically live and die on the strength of their ad support, whether they’re mainstream or independent, and I think that’s bull. I didn’t create a podcast so that I could sell you a mattress, or a website builder, or whatever. And, that’s no shade to anybody who does that to support their podcast — everything costs, and someone’s gotta pay. I’m just really invested in creating a more ethical, reasonable internet. What this means is that my website (genielauren.com) does not engage in non-consensual tracking — there are no ads on my site and no Google Analytics codes following you around the internet. Now, if you listen to my podcast through a third-party, I can’t make any guarantees, but as far as genielauren.com is concerned, there is no non-consensual tracking.

There are cookies, though. They aren’t keto-cookies, but they’re useful, browser cookies that help your browser load my site faster. So, we don’t have to hate on them like they’re oatmeal cookies or something. They’re good.

There may also be the occasional Amazon Affiliate link. If you hear me recommend a product on the show, the link to the product from my episode page will most likely be an Amazon Affiliate link. If you don’t like Amazon, trust me I completely understand, do not click the link. Or, just click the links that aren’t from Amazon. It’s really just another way to support the show without traditional advertising and non-consensual tracking.

Ultimately, what my site is here to do is to help you avoid the mistakes I made early on in my keto journey. And, that leads us to today’s topic: keto flu. But, before we jump right in, here’s a brief word on how you can support the show.

Hey! If you’re enjoying the show, so far, subscribe and rate it on Apple Podcasts. Leaving a review with your rating helps out even more, but all stars are appreciated (okay, I lied, anything over 3 stars is appreciated). Also, if you’d like to support the show you can go to Patreon.com/fastlife and become a patron. Tiers start as low as five dollars a month and you can get access to rewards like unique keto recipes and complete fridge makeovers to help you with your ketogenic lifestyle. Don’t pass up on the opportunity to request a topic. Become a patron. Okay, back to the show.

Now, before we get to keto flu, we should probably define some terms. So, bear with me, I’m going to try to make this as un-nerdy as possible.

Depending on the context, “keto” can either be short for ketosis or ketogenic, and all of this is centered around ketones. A ketone is a chemical that your liver creates by burning fat. Your body can turn around and use the ketone chemical for fuel. So, essentially, your body can be fueled by burning fat, instead of burning sugar. Still with me? I’ll reiterate — your body, most likely, is fueled by burning sugar. Ketosis is when you fuel your body using ketones instead. Got it? Okay.

Now, if you are eating a diet or living a lifestyle that causes your body to be in a state in which your liver is creating ketones, that’s what we would refer to as a ketogenic diet or a ketogenic lifestyle.

Depending on where you are in your ketogenic journey you’ve either never heard of keto flu, or you’ve had the misfortune of experiencing it, yourself, to varying degrees. I had a very painful experience with keto flu and, in hindsight, it pisses me off because it was entirely avoidable.

Picture it, New York City, August 2018. After struggle-cheating with my diet, I’d finally settled into intermittent fasting and keto diet in a way that was consistent. The training wheels were off. I was riding confidently. And, then I hit a curb. That curb was keto-adaptation. Roughly twelve weeks after doing a great job of sticking to my keto lifestyle my body realized that I really was giving up sugar for good and switching to fat as a fuel source. Once your body makes that realization, you go into keto-adaptation. For some people, this happens as quickly as 30 days, and for others, this might take several months. Either way, if you are consistent at eating no more than 20 – 50 grams of carbs a day, your body will eventually become keto-adapted.

Now, being the person that I am, I’d read extensively about keto flu long before I’d ever cooked my first meal of brussels sprouts sauteed in bacon. I was prepared, right? Or, so I thought. All the blogs said that keto flu could lead to fatigue and muscle aches for a short time, none of them ever mentioned perpetual migraines.

At first, they came on as short pangs behind my eyes and at my temples. I figured I could pop a couple of Tylenol, take some CBD oil, and go about my day. But, they persisted. A day later I was tired, weak, and walking around in a headache haze. I’m thinking this has to be how zombies feel. Day three, I decided to stay home, sleep, and drink lots of water. That should’ve helped right, but the problem was, the water just made me nauseous and the headache persisted. By day four, this headache wasn’t playing. It was no longer a short pang. It was waves of unbelievably sharp, stabbing sensations in my brain. I was in agony. I went to the E.R.

Of course, the doctors and nurses in the E.R. had no idea what I was talking about. They didn’t seem particularly familiar with the keto diet, and while they were good at treating my symptoms they didn’t have much insight about the underlying causes, and how I wound up in the hospital in the first place.

It wasn’t until I got to see my doctor, the next day, that I found out what I was suffering from was an electrolyte imbalance brought on by my keto-adaptation. One of the main things to happen when you start decreasing the amount of carbs you eat is that you start to lose water weight, and with that water weight, you also lose electrolytes.

In other words, keto flu is not a “flu” it’s an electrolyte imbalance. There’s no virus involved, you don’t just wait it out and get over it. You need to increase the micronutrients you’re eating to replenish what you’ve just lost (those would be your potassium, magnesium, calcium, and sodium).

There wasn’t a single blog or YouTube video about keto that made that bit of information clear, for me, in 2018. Everyone went on and on about macronutrients (fat, protein, and carbs), but nobody talked about micros in spite of the fact that they’re just as important for your body to function. Even today, you’re way more likely to see influencers in the keto community talk about macros than micros, but you need sufficient micros to live. Potassium is what helps your heart pump blood through your body, guys. You need it.

To add to that frustration, none of the food tracker apps that I came across really had accurate data about micronutrients. I know a lot of people are fans of a certain fitness pal, but some of the data that I found on that site was wildly inaccurate — they said salmon has carbs. Salmon does not have carbs. There was no way I could rely on that. So, in an effort to do a better job tracking my macros AND micros, I created my own meal calculator in an Excel spreadsheet populated with data from the USDA food composition database. You can find this meal calculator on my site, under the Resources page, plug your own numbers in, and plan the meals that will help you reach your macro AND micro targets.

This is going to be even more important if you’re black in America because reportedly, black Americans have less serum potassium than our white counterparts8. That means, in general, there’s already less potassium in our blood. Again, potassium helps our heart pump blood, and black people have less of it in our blood. All our lives we gotta fight, and this is just one more battle.

Now, if you’re thinking, “Genie, this sounds like a lot of work.” I understand that. Keto is a lot of work because it is an alternative lifestyle. Period. Every single thing about the way we consume food in the United States promotes the consumption of sugar (we’ll dive into that in another episode). And, a ketogenic lifestyle challenges you to divest from sugar. It’s not going to be easy because our food industry and our government and our culture make it hard. But, you know what’s going to be harder? Living life with metabolic syndrome.

In 2018, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Gillings School of Global Public Health found that only 1 in 8 Americans are achieving optimal metabolic health. That means 7 out of 8 Americans are either at risk or already suffering from metabolic syndrome.

Here’s a shortlist of the diseases linked to metabolic syndrome:

Type II diabetes

Heart disease

Stroke

Depression

and, it’s good friend Anxiety

If you’ve suffered from any of those things, you know just how hard it impacts your day-to-day life. Is keto hard? Sure. But, a heart attack is definitely harder. Just saying.

I don’t want to scare anyone, but I do think we need to be real about what we’re doing to our bodies — whatever that is. Whether it’s a keto diet or a standard American diet, people should know what they’re doing to themselves with the food they eat.

Your body doesn’t know what a “fad diet” is. Your body doesn’t know that you plan to water-fast for two days in the hopes of losing ten pounds. Your body only knows whether or not it has what it needs to function properly every day.

Do you?

That’s how you avoid keto flu.

Genie Lauren’s Fast Life was produced, written, recorded, and edited by me — Genie Lauren, for Rocque More Media. This episode’s artwork was also created by me — Genie Lauren, for Rocque More Media. The podcast logo was created by Huny, and the theme song was created by Tonemassif.

Thanks for listening.

View Details

In this episode, Genie Lauren shares the truth about keto flu - what it is, how to avoid it, and why the cause for it keeps getting swept under the rug.

Show Transcript: The ketones? The fasters? The speedsters? Speed demons. . . feed demons? No, that’s too. . . Gremlins.

sigh Anyway. . .

I’m Genie Lauren and this is my fast life.

[Theme song]

Okay. Let’s start off by clarifying what this show is not here to do.

First of all, I am not here to make any health or weight-loss promises. I am not your doctor, I do not know your life, and I will not promise that you will lose weight. A whole host of things could be going on with you — or nothing at all, really. I just have no way of knowing and I won’t pretend to. I also don’t have anybody’s license or certification to diagnose you with anything. I’m not interested in tricking or misleading anybody. This is the Fast Life, not the scam life. I am a strong supporter of you going to your own doctor to evaluate your health and using information from this podcast in a way that’s appropriate for you.

Second of all, I am not here to shame anyone about their food choices. We’re all adults, right? (I mean, I’m an adult. I’m assuming you’re also an adult. I don’t think kids care about keto podcasts, do they?) Anyway, at the end of the day, you have to be accountable to you. Not to me. So, I am not judging your situation or your choices. I do want to give you information so that you can make better choices, but how you live your life is up to you. I’m not a food nazi.

Lastly, I am not here to data-mine my listeners. I really dislike the way that advertising has taken over all of our media. TV shows, radio shows, podcasts, music — they all basically live and die on the strength of their ad support, whether they’re mainstream or independent, and I think that’s bull. I didn’t create a podcast so that I could sell you a mattress, or a website builder, or whatever. And, that’s no shade to anybody who does that to support their podcast — everything costs, and someone’s gotta pay. I’m just really invested in creating a more ethical, reasonable internet. What this means is that my website (genielauren.com) does not engage in non-consensual tracking — there are no ads on my site and no Google Analytics codes following you around the internet. Now, if you listen to my podcast through a third-party, I can’t make any guarantees, but as far as genielauren.com is concerned, there is no non-consensual tracking.

There are cookies, though. They aren’t keto-cookies, but they’re useful, browser cookies that help your browser load my site faster. So, we don’t have to hate on them like they’re oatmeal cookies or something. They’re good.

There may also be the occasional Amazon Affiliate link. If you hear me recommend a product on the show, the link to the product from my episode page will most likely be an Amazon Affiliate link. If you don’t like Amazon, trust me I completely understand, do not click the link. Or, just click the links that aren’t from Amazon. It’s really just another way to support the show without traditional advertising and non-consensual tracking.

Ultimately, what my site is here to do is to help you avoid the mistakes I made early on in my keto journey. And, that leads us to today’s topic: keto flu. But, before we jump right in, here’s a brief word on how you can support the show.

Hey! If you’re enjoying the show, so far, subscribe and rate it on Apple Podcasts. Leaving a review with your rating helps out even more, but all stars are appreciated (okay, I lied, anything over 3 stars is appreciated). Also, if you’d like to support the show you can go to Patreon.com/fastlife and become a patron. Tiers start as low as five dollars a month and you can get access to rewards like unique keto recipes and complete fridge makeovers to help you with your ketogenic lifestyle. Don’t pass up on the opportunity to request a topic. Become a patron. Okay,

View Details

In this brief, pilot episode Genie Lauren shares the story of how she learned to fast, and was introduced to a ketogenic life, thanks to a shocking diagnosis before one very special day.

Show Transcript: Let’s start from the very beginning. A very good place to start.

I’m Genie Lauren and this is my Fast Life.

So, you’ve heard this story before. . . or, maybe you haven’t? Either way, I’m gonna tell it. Here it goes.

Picture it, New York City, the day before Thanksgiving, 2017; I’m at a follow-up to my annual physical and my doctor diagnoses me with prediabetes.

Let me reiterate, this is the day before Thanksgiving. The biggest food day in an American year.

Now, to be honest, I’m not even that much of a foodie. But, who doesn’t want to eat on Thanksgiving day?

And, guess what my doctor ordered me to do.

Cut sugar. The day before Thanksgiving.

Power down sound

Yeah, that wasn’t gonna happen. So, as you could imagine, the day after my doctor’s visit (Thanksgiving day) I BINGE.

Two helpings of candied yams. Three slices of pie. Is that chocolate cake? I’ll have that too. Wash it all down with apple cider. Binge.

B I N G E, binging was for me.

If I was going to stop eating sugar (at least, for the immediate future), I was going to make my “goodbye” as sweet as possible. Pun sort of intended.

I didn’t know it then, but in many ways, the next day would be the first day of my life. As you’d imagine, it was hard, at first — sugar is in almost everything. Bread? Sugar. Snacks? Sugar. Certain sauces? Sugar. I don’t care what Beyonce tells you — fruit? Sugar.

We’ll dive into sugar, in another episode. Just understand that I successfully cut sugar, in all its forms, out of my diet for three months — right on time for my follow-up to the follow-up visit with my doctor. And, my reward for following instructions was an improved A1C and a loss of 10 lbs. I won! Right?

Not so fast! If I went back to eating sugar I would just go back to being prediabetic (completely defeating the purpose of all my hard work). This wasn’t a time for backsliding, and my doctor ain’t Booboo The Fool. We wanted to keep the momentum moving forward, so for the next step, she recommended that I start intermittent fasting.

Intermittent fasting is when you don’t eat for the majority of the day, condensing your meals into fewer hours in the day. We’ll get more into THAT later, what you need to know for now is that I. Was. STARVING.

I’ve never been a foodie, but you never want something more than when you can’t have it. I wanted food, bad, but I couldn’t have it before 12:00 noon and after 8:00 pm — my new window of time for eating, each day.

Like cutting sugar from my diet, intermittent fasting took some getting used to, but once I got the hang of it and it became my lifestyle, I grew curious as to what exactly my body was doing.

I was losing weight (about another 10 lbs), and sleeping better (bye-bye, insomnia), but I had no idea why. So, I went to the place we all go when we are in search of knowledge and wisdom. I Googled.

Come to find out what I was doing every day was putting my body into ketosis which resulted in some remarkable health benefits (if you’re wondering what ketosis is, we’ll get into that later, as well. I know! You want to know everything now, but I can’t give it all up right away.)

I also discovered that intermittent fasting is even more powerful when paired with a ketogenic diet. Essentially the way it works is, a ketogenic diet puts you into ketosis and intermittent fasting keeps you there, and vice versa.

After already seeing results with cutting sugar and intermittent fasting, I dove into the keto life.

Fasting until 12:00 PM, eating strictly keto meals, and ceasing once the clock struck 8 was my new lifestyle. No pain, no gain.

No, literally. Over a span of five months, there was no pain and I did not gain. In fact, I lost an additional 30 lbs of fat.

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In this brief, pilot episode Genie Lauren shares the story of how she learned to fast, and was introduced to a ketogenic life, thanks to a shocking diagnosis before one very special day.

Show Transcript:

Let’s start from the very beginning.

A very good place to start.

I’m Genie Lauren and this is my Fast Life.

So, you’ve heard this story before. . . or, maybe you haven’t?

Either way, I’m gonna tell it. Here it goes.

Picture it, New York City, the day before Thanksgiving, 2017; I’m at a follow-up to my annual physical and my doctor diagnoses me with prediabetes.

Let me reiterate, this is the day before Thanksgiving.

The biggest food day in an American year.

Now, to be honest, I’m not even that much of a foodie. But, who doesn’t want to eat on Thanksgiving day?

And, guess what my doctor ordered me to do.

Cut sugar. The day before Thanksgiving.

Power down sound

Yeah, that wasn’t gonna happen. So, as you could imagine, the day after my doctor’s visit (Thanksgiving day) I BINGE.

Two helpings of candied yams.

Three slices of pie.

Is that chocolate cake? I’ll have that too.

Wash it all down with apple cider.

Binge.

B I N G E, binging was for me.

If I was going to stop eating sugar (at least, for the immediate future), I was going to make my “goodbye” as sweet as possible. Pun sort of intended.

I didn’t know it then, but in many ways, the next day would be the first day of my life. As you’d imagine, it was hard, at first — sugar is in almost everything. Bread? Sugar. Snacks? Sugar. Certain sauces? Sugar. I don’t care what Beyonce tells you — fruit? Sugar.

We’ll dive into sugar, in another episode. Just understand that I successfully cut sugar, in all its forms, out of my diet for three months — right on time for my follow-up to the follow-up visit with my doctor. And, my reward for following instructions was an improved A1C and a loss of 10 lbs.

I won! Right?