Welcome to Episode 408 of The Intermittent Fasting Podcast, hosted by Melanie Avalon, biohacker, founder of AvalonX, and author of What When Wine Diet: Lose Weight And Feel Great With Paleo-Style Meals, Intermittent Fasting, And Wine, and Barry Conrad, actor, singer-songwriter, and creator and host of Banter with BC.
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TRANSCRIPT
(Note: This is generated by AI with 98% accuracy. However, any errors may cause unintended changes in meaning.)
Melanie Avalon
Welcome to episode 408 of the intermittent fasting podcast. If you want to burn fat, gain energy and enhance your health by changing when you eat, not what you eat with no calorie counting, then this show is for you. I'm Melanie Avalon, biohacker, founder of AvalonX and author of What, When, Wine. Lose weight and feel great with paleo style meals, intermittent fasting and wine. And I'm joined by my co-hosts, Barry Conrad, actor, singer, songwriter, and creator and host of Banter with BC. For more on us, check out MelanieAvalon.com and BarryConradOfficial.com. You can submit questions for the show by emailing questions at iapodcast.com or by going to iapodcast.com. We would love to hear from you. Please remember the thoughts and opinions on this show do not constitute medical advice or treatment. So pour yourself a mug of black coffee, a cup of tea, or even a glass of wine. If it's that time and get ready for the intermittent fasting podcast. Hi everybody and welcome. This is episode number 408 of the intermittent fasting podcast. I'm Melanie Avalon. I'm here with Barry Conrad. Barry, how are you today?
Barry Conrad
I'm good i'm really really good actually i feel super rested recharged how you feeling today.
Melanie Avalon
I'm glad you're feeling that way. I'm hoping that like comes over to me because I love energy. And so the more, the merrier.
Barry Conrad
I'm sending it to you right now through the computer. Take it, take it, take it.
Melanie Avalon
Normally this is my vibe, like 8 o'clock PM my time, but yeah, I'm a little bit on the struggle bus. But last night I went to a restaurant which was South African.
Barry Conrad
Wow. Where was it? What was it called? What kind of food? What was the situation like?
Melanie Avalon
It's called Yibo Beach House, spelled like H-A-U-S, I think, in Buckhead in Atlanta. I only realized it was South African because like half of the wines were, it was a lot of South African wines. Which, do you like South African wine? Have we talked about this?
Barry Conrad
We haven't talked about this, but they, I was about to say they know we, I should say, because I'm South African, we know how to do wines. It's it's really, really easy to drink. It's paired well with like meats, especially like Springbok, Budovos, Biltong, all that.
Melanie Avalon
That was a lot of words that I don't think I, what was the first one?
Barry Conrad
Springbok.
Melanie Avalon
spring, bok, buck, like a deer.
Barry Conrad
Like yeah, exactly. So spring book is
Melanie Avalon
ringed deer.
Barry Conrad
Yeah it's actually ends but we call it like for example like a rugby team is the spring box or would like to call them the book like the book.
Melanie Avalon
And it's deer, venison.
Barry Conrad
You can eat it yeah and it's it's honestly amazing like the springbok lamb shanks wow incredible.
Melanie Avalon
Wait, wait, but that would be lamb. Now I'm confused.
Barry Conrad
Like Springbok Shanks, I should say. Kind of like Springbok. I went to South Africa a couple of years ago on a trip, listeners, and we got to stay at the safari, and they fed us like Springbok Shanks, Boudevoirs, amazing chicken paired with ones. Boudevoirs? Boudevoirs. Can you try to say it? Boudevoirs? Almost, yeah. You got to roll the R.
Melanie Avalon
I can't do that. Can you do that? I've heard if you don't learn how to do it, you can't ever do it.
Barry Conrad
Maybe you can go Brouwars? It's not quite the same.
Melanie Avalon
I'm not saying it again. I'm not saying it. I'm tapping out. So what is that? That word I will not say.
Barry Conrad
So the boudevoirs, the word that you are tapping out of, it's sausage. So African sausage, we have it on, you know, like people call the barbecue, like a barbecue, we call it a braai, B-R-A-A-I, and it's like a barbecue, but way better, and we have boudevoirs on the braai, it's the best sausage you'll ever have, it's amazing, not just saying it, we have to try it together.
Melanie Avalon
I wonder if that was on the menu, I should have looked at the menu more.
Barry Conrad
What did you have then? Just the wines?
Melanie Avalon
I just drank wine. So they had a lot of South African wines, but none of them were organic. And South African wines, because of the hotter climate, I'm assuming would be higher alcohol, higher sugar. So yeah, they had one organic wine and it was my favorite white varietal. So I was a long day. I don't even know how to say it. Milan de Bourgogne from France. It was
Barry Conrad
Like a peanut, what kind of, what does it taste similar to, like a peanut grease you?
Melanie Avalon
It tastes like melon, honestly, which I love. It's really light, fruity, melony. Melony, not Melanie. Melony. But and something I had before, which I'm dying to tell listeners about. I literally did not plan this, but perfect segue. I interviewed recently Zach Abbott. He is the founder of a company called Zebiotics. Have you heard of this company? I haven't told me. So he made the world's first genetically modified probiotic. So the probiotic is genetically engineered. And we had a whole side topic discussion about the like the misperception of GMOs. Like they're not necessarily bad. Like the concept of like genetically engineering something or modifying something. They modify this probiotic to create the enzyme which breaks down diacetaldehyde, the toxic byproduct of alcohol metabolism. Oh, wow. Yeah. So your liver is really good at breaking that down, but the stomach cannot doesn't really have that enzyme. So according to him, a lot of like the negative effects from drinking come from the diacetaldehyde that is in the stomach because there's no enzyme to break it down because it doesn't all make its way to the liver. So this probiotic is engineered to create that enzyme. So you take it before drinking. It's called Zebiotics. It's like in a little, it's a liquid in a little like shot. You take a shot of it before drinking and it breaks down that, that toxic byproduct. So it is amazing for, if you're drinking a lot or moderately.
Barry Conrad
We need that, Mel. We need to try that. I think that's for us.
Melanie Avalon
Oh, I'm using it now, like on the regular. And now every time I go out, I take it before hand. I'm obsessed. It's like part of my protocol.
Barry Conrad
How long before you drink do you have to take the shot is it like a half an hour is like faster an hour?
Melanie Avalon
Like right before you start drinking, but it also lasts 24 hours, which is cool. And he said it produces more, like more enzyme than you could ever drink enough to, like it's enough to cover however much you're drinking, essentially. I'm noticing a difference. Like it really works. And I posted about it in my Facebook group and so many people commented saying that they've tried it and it really, they really noticed a difference.
Barry Conrad
So you feel, what do you feel when you have it compared to before when you weren't trying it?
Melanie Avalon
I just, well, I do so many other things in my like drinking protocol. So I don't really get intense hangover-y type symptoms ever. Cause I'm like so intense with everything, but I just notice, so it's comparing it, I don't know. I drank a lot for new years.
Barry Conrad
like what
Melanie Avalon
will dry farm wines, but then they had like cheap champagne and I had some of that and it was like way too much. And I definitely noticed the next day, like not, I just would have felt that a lot more, I think, if I hadn't had that before. So I highly recommend it. He also has one that I have not tried that turns some sugar into fiber. It like converts sugar into fiber. I have not tried that one yet.
Barry Conrad
like commercially where like people need these things because this is going to just help like your everyday life. I need to try these both of those.
Melanie Avalon
Yeah, no, it's it's super cool. So if listeners are interested, I wonder if they ship to Australia.
Barry Conrad
Australia was about to ask.
Melanie Avalon
Probably not. But maybe. Actually, I don't know. I feel like with their regulations and stuff, we should check.
Barry Conrad
Does it come like refrigerated in the start of the year? Probably, I don't know if it would.
Melanie Avalon
it's not refrigerated, it's shelf stable. Yeah. But in any case, listeners, if they would like to try it, they can go to Melanie Avalon.com slash Z Biotics. So it's Z B I O T I C S. Use the coupon code Melanie Avalon to get 10% off. Definitely check that out. Literally, like I said, it is part of my protocol now, not every night because of the cost of it, but on nights that go out for sure.
Barry Conrad
Okay, well, I'm gonna have to jump on that train. It's super cool.
Melanie Avalon
Anything new in your life before we jump into topics?
Barry Conrad
Yeah, I've I've actually been revisiting like a book that I have read before it's called atomic habits. Have you heard of that book?
Melanie Avalon
Yes, that's one of my favorite books. It's shocking how long that book was on the New York Times bestseller list. It just never left the list. It just stayed there.
Barry Conrad
Yeah. And listeners, if you don't know about this book, it's by James Clear. And it's basically about habits, but not just a generic way of explaining it. It's about small, consistent daily habits over time, rather than a big, dramatic one. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. And making it easy and more identity based. So for example, rather than saying, I can't have that to eat. It's like, well, I'm a healthy person kind of a thing. So basically, creating more of a structure around your life. So you don't need the self control, basically making it hacking your habits in a way. And so I think it's super cool. Because, I mean, Mel, you and I talked about this a while ago, how, like, there's more freedom and structure. I really think that I've always lived that way. And this book is all about that. And even if you were to tie it back to, like, even like intermittent fasting, it's the same sort of thing. Like the structure of having a fasting or eating window. And just remember the decision fatigue. And we're not making choices all day. So I think it's such a good book. I love it. It's a really, really good book for any time of year. So I highly recommend that. Listeners, please check it out, Atomic Habits by James Clear.
Melanie Avalon
I love that so much. I actually, I think that's the one that I, wait, is that the one that I cried at the end? Wait, have you finished it?
Barry Conrad
I've read it once before, but I'm going through it again, yeah.
Melanie Avalon
Do you remember at the end, does he talk about mindfulness and stuff? Is that how it ends? Okay. Yeah. I cried. How are you consuming it? I usually...
Barry Conrad
Consuming having it with like a knife and fork no I usually I usually listen audiobook for nonfiction but this one I kind of wanted to sit down and read something because it was getting distracted a lot and I wanted to kind of block things out some reading it the paperback.
Melanie Avalon
Okay, I listened to it and him reading the ending. I was crying. I was like, what am I doing?
Barry Conrad
What about the ending made you cry? Like, why, what do you think? That was probably.
Melanie Avalon
probably like 2018, it's probably like six or seven years ago, something about just how motivating it was. It was really inspiring. Yeah, I love what you said about it's really great for something like working on habits surrounding fasting and things like that. It's funny, I actually thought about you last night because I was talking with one of the girls and we were talking about, because you just mentioned the freedom and structure concept, and we were talking about making plans. And I was talking about how I feel safe when there were plans. I need plans to feel in control of life and feel safe and feel good and have freedom. And she was saying that the idea of planning something is horrible. It makes her feel constricted and horrible and want to run away. And it's so interesting that people can have completely different feelings about that.
Barry Conrad
I'm with you. There's more freedom in that because you can always divert from the plan, but not having a plan is kind of like, Oh, what's going to happen? Okay, let me zoom out for a second. I think in certain situations, not all situations, if you're hanging out with people on the day and you're kind of just having a day all day, like I'd go with the floor and whatnot. But if I'm scheduling a specific time or whatever, I'd love to just schedule that.
Melanie Avalon
Yeah, same. We were talking about the example of like, I love making future plans. Like I have, you know, my guests are scheduled out through 2026. I have like theater shows scheduled out to go to through like the whole year. And she was saying that the idea of like making a plan to see a show in May is just like the worst, you know, like really, she does not like that concept. And I
Barry Conrad
That is really interesting. And that's actually so far in the future. I don't think I'm that, I don't know if I'm that well versed in the planning, but I think, you know, maybe it's going to inspire me to do that more. Because sometimes I can see if something's so far in the future, I'm like, am I going to be around? And you kind of get like trepidation or fear about like, what if I'm going to miss out on something else? But sometimes it's good just to be, well, it is good just to be certain and just, you know, decisive and just plan it.
Melanie Avalon
Well, it's kind of like what you said. You don't have, you know, once the time comes, things can change. But if I don't plan it, then, and it's something I want to do, then I don't know that I actually might be able to do it unless I put it down on my calendar. Yep.
Barry Conrad
I'd love to see your calendar. It's probably like so crazy, like just dates everywhere, writing everywhere, right? Yeah, pretty much.
Melanie Avalon
It makes me happy. It's my favorite thing. Okay. Shall we jump into some intermittent fasting related things?
Barry Conrad
Julian on Facebook says, I just recently started implementing black coffee with MCT oil in the morning during a fasted state. I usually also take seropeptase during that time as well. Would it be fine to take both MCT oil and seropeptase simultaneously? I want to make sure the MCT oil didn't interfere with the seropeptase since it's helped my sinuses drastically. Also, if I'm having black coffee with MCT oil, would I still be in the fasted state? Thank you.
Melanie Avalon
Thank you. All right, Julian, thank you so much for your question. So it's a pretty simple answer. Well, first of all, about being in the fastest state with the MCT oil, this is heavily debated as it has been for eons and eons. On this show, consistently, we do believe, well, actually, Barry, I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Historically, we believe that having anything caloric, especially something like MCT oil, like fat, would, quote, break the fast, because you're taking in calories. People say that MCT oil doesn't break the fast because it's a type of fat that's immediately, essentially, shuttled to the liver for energy, and it supports the production of ketones. So people will say that it's supporting the fasted state because it's just creating more ketones and running on fat. I believe, though, you're taking in calories, it is a food, so I do not consider black coffee with MCT oil still being in the fastest state. I would see it as being in a state fed on MCT oil and still producing ketones like the fasted state, but not actually being fasted. What are your thoughts on that, Barry?
Barry Conrad
I 100% agree. I mean, it has calories, so that technically it's going to break your fast. So, you know, if you're wanting to do, if you're someone that subscribes to like a modified fast approach, which some people say, because you want mental clarity or energy without spiking insulin too much, go ahead. But I personally, and I know that you feel the same way, it's not really the clean fast. It's going to break your fast. Do you know what I mean? So I'm on that team for sure. I'd skip the MCT all and just, you know, just have it during the faster window. I mean, just, just have it during eating. We know, I should say, let's do that.
Melanie Avalon
Yeah, and when I add MCT oil it actually for me would always make me hungrier when I would experiment with that I don't know. Have you experimented with adding MCT oil to your coffee ever?
Barry Conrad
You know, during the bulletproof craze, I've introduced butter and whatnot, but not MCT oil so much. Is it much different? Like the feeling or the taste or the effect, having a bit of butter?
Melanie Avalon
Yeah, it is. It is pretty different because the butter is a long chain triglyceride. So it's like a saturated fat that has to be broken down, digested, you know, turned into energy. And then like I was saying before, MCT oil, especially there's like, there's the C8 and the C10 version, and I would always get the C8 version, which is even quicker in how it is metabolized and turned into ketones. So it does provide like much faster energy. The taste is different because butter has like a buttery taste, MCT oil tastes. I love the way it tastes. I actually used to put in my food sometimes. It's a very neutral taste.
Barry Conrad
your food.
Melanie Avalon
Yeah when i was doing like low carb for a while i would just add a lot of empty oil so i feel like it really makes the food i don't know i love it i love the taste of it.
Barry Conrad
Is this kind of like when you would have the rotisserie chicken that phase? Like when you put the amputee over that or not really?
Melanie Avalon
Not that they actually back then I was doing a lot of coconut oil, which has MCTs in it, but it's primarily that that's a misconception. People think coconut oil is like all MCTs. It's not. It's like a small, a little bit of it is MCTs, but the majority of it is actually lauric acid. A majority of it is lauric acid, which is a long chain fatty acid. No, this was after, after that phase. But when I would do like, I just went through a stint where I was doing like low carb, quote, high fat, but it was high MCT oil fat. I actually think that's a good hack for people if what they're doing isn't working and they're doing low carb, but they still want to do low carb and they don't want to try like a carb approach. I think switching out all your fats for MCT oil or even just like removing your fats and just adding a little bit of MCT oil can actually be a way to try to break a plateau or get weight loss going again.
Barry Conrad
Right. Julian, if you're in doubt, the rule of thumb, the best way to approach it is black coffee, water, black tea. If you're having to flirt with anything else, if it has calories, it's going to break your fast. Just keep that in mind.
Melanie Avalon
I agree with you Barry so much like people stress a lot about all the different things to like the perfect, you know, fasting supporting drink or supplement or do you want to add amino acids? Do you want to add these different pre-workout things and really friends like coffee and tea are just like the work so well. Yeah, we love peak tea around here. They actually have a fasting tea that they made in collaboration with Dr. Jason Fung. The bergamot one is just pure organic black tea. And so again, Dr. Jason Fung helped formulate that to help support fasting. So listeners can actually get 10% off when you go to peaklife.com slash IF podcast, that's P-I-Q-U-E-L-I-F-E.com slash IF podcast. That's on the tea front. And then hopefully we're recording a little bit in advance, but hopefully by the time this comes out, my glow coffee will be hopefully on its way. So plug for that. We're creating that to be the highest CGA content coffee possible and CGA is the antioxidant, which is one of the main antioxidants that gives coffee all of its health benefits. So we specifically searched and sought out beans that are high naturally in CGA. And then we roast them, especially to be high in CGA. And then we third party lab test the coffee to make sure it's free of toxins and mold and pesticides and all the things. And actually over the holidays, Barry, I wish you could have been there. This was so fun. We did a blind taste test with like six of my friends and we tasted it against two other coffee brands that are similar to see what people liked the most. I was happy with the results. We tasted three coffees. It was neck and neck with one of them for being the crowd favorite. And then the other one people did not like as much.
Barry Conrad
That's amazing. That's awesome.
Melanie Avalon
Is there like a profile of coffee that you like?
Barry Conrad
Not too bitter, but I don't love too light. It's got to still give me that kick. Like I love actually tasting the coffee. So somewhere probably profile wise, mid to strong, I would say. Yeah. I need to try some of it when it comes out when it's ready. I can't wait.
Melanie Avalon
or like wrapping up right now, like the art and yes. And I love the way it tastes. It's lighter to medium. It does have like some fruity notes and acidity to it, but it does have like a nutty flavorful finish as well. It tastes really good. It was half of the people's favorite out of all the three.
Barry Conrad
It's so exciting, I can't wait to try it.
Melanie Avalon
I'm excited too. You and I were talking offline, just while we're talking about drinks and pre-workouts breaking the fast. What did you get asked recently from somebody about a drink breaking the fast?
Barry Conrad
somebody asked me the other day, they were like, if I drink this, I'm not going to say the brand, this zero sugar energy drink, will that break my fast? Because, bro, it's like, it's energy. So, and it has no sugar. So, surely, that'll be fine. I'm like, bro, it's not fine. It's going to break too fast. It has calories. It's besides the point. Do you get asked that?
Melanie Avalon
Yes. And there's just so many, I like shutter when I look at those drinks, like all the ingredients in them and things. Like you could just get, like I was saying before, you could get health benefits and support your metabolism and all the things with, you know, a really good organic tea or coffee. That'll do it.
Barry Conrad
So you need, just get that glow. Get it. Yep. So we have a question from Jill and she asked, how to incorporate fasting into colonoscopy prep?
Melanie Avalon
Okay, so Jill, I'm so, I'm actually surprised in the seven years or so that I've done this podcast that I don't think we've been asked this. And what's interesting about it, Well, Barry, have you had a colonoscopy?
Barry Conrad
This is very tasty conversation and I have not yet, but I actually am totally keen to try one because I heard it has so many benefits, right? Clearing out your system.
Melanie Avalon
Well, so Australia, they must have different. So like here in the US, I think you like are supposed to get one. Okay. So actually I just checked the rules. I guess I thought, I thought it was like in your thirties that you were supposed to get one in the US, but in the US it's, they recommend at 45. And then earlier, if you have a family history of colorectal cancer. Yeah. So I've actually had three, three already. Yeah. That's why I have so many thoughts. That's about this question.
Barry Conrad
I, Melanie, I have not had one, I can safely say, but I definitely, even though I did confuse it with something else before, it's very important to get one because of, especially have family history, and I am due to get one, so.
Melanie Avalon
Yeah, Barry was confusing it with colonics, which I love colonics do not get me started on colonics. We actually have talked about those on the show, but for the colonoscopy, so I didn't ever have it. I didn't have it for like, I don't have a genetic risk for cancer or anything. I just had it because of my, because of my anemia, actually they were trying to see, which I don't have anymore, but they were trying to see if I had internal bleeding or something like that. So the prep for it, because she says, how do you incorporate fasting into colonoscopy prep, you actually drink, it's, it's not fun. You have to, I'm like having flashbacks. You have to drink this like liquid laxative, like we're talking like a gallon of it. Like it is so much that you have to drink. I think it changes the different times I've done it, but I started an amount of time before you stop eating and then you just start drinking and drinking this stuff. Yeah. It's funny though. This is what's funny about it. So one of the times I did it, I was actually in the hospital for anemia. So I didn't have the, I wasn't able to kind of like make it my own. Like if I, cause when I did it at a later time, they just gave me the powder to make the drink and then you could like flavor it with the flavors they gave you. But I wanted to make it as like clean as possible. So I didn't do that, which I will circle back to you about how to incorporate fasting. But when I was in the hospital, I had to just drink, they already pre-mixed it. I had to drink it. It had like, we were talking earlier about flavors and stuff. It had all this like horrible stuff in it, like probably Stevia sweetened. I hadn't had anything like flavored and fake tasting in forever that literally when I started drinking it, I was like, this tastes amazing. Cause it tastes like candy cause I hadn't had like, you know, I hadn't had like that fake flavor-y stuff in years. I was like, this is great. It's like drinking Pez. Do they have Pez in Australia?
Barry Conrad
We don't have Pez. What is that similar to? Is it like a sugary drink? What is it?
Melanie Avalon
And no, no, no, it's like, it's like Pez dispensers, like these little like, it's like all the different, they're like different cartoon characters and then they dispense these little like sugar tablets that are flavored.
Barry Conrad
I feel like I feel like I can see what you're talking about and that's that's pretty delicious but drinking it. Yeah, I can see that.
Melanie Avalon
it literally tastes like that. But then by the end, I was like, Oh my gosh, this is like horrible. I can't not drink another sip. But in any case, so my reframe for colonoscopy prep as a expert colonoscopy undergoer is it is a nice chance to do an extended fast because you do have to stop eating a certain amount of time before the surgery. It's not, I said surgery before the procedure. You have to be drinking this stuff, which even though it's, if you do like the flavored stuff, it does quote break the fast, but it isn't any calories. So you're not taking in any calories and then you like clean everything out. And then if you try to think if I like did not eat that, basically I was able to incorporate it and have a, an extended fast. All right, because the night before I didn't eat the night before cause I was doing the prep. So it was kind of a nice way to get in like a lot longer fasting hours and you actually can drink bone broth. So the most recent time I did it, I drank bone broth. So that actually was like food. So that time I kind of saw it as like an extended fast with a bone broth fast added on or like my normal fasting with like a bone broth fast. If you have to do a colonoscopy prep, I would try to make the actual stuff that you drink as benign as possible. So if you can get the version, cause it's usually covered by insurance, you can get a version where you're flavoring it yourself. Then you can just not use those flavor packets and you can flavor it with more helpful options. So I went to the store and I bought cause what it comes with is like is flavored with artificial sweeteners that are not good and you know, stuff you don't want. So I would, I went and found these like stevia flavored things at the store, which were a little bit more benign to flavor it. So I would recommend doing that. And then if you actually want to have food as well, you can do bone broth. So you can see it as like a way to have a bone broth thing. And then you have the procedure, which is actually, you know, you're under anesthesia. So it's quick from your perception.
Barry Conrad
You had the bone broth and you're just awake in two seconds.
Melanie Avalon
Yeah, you'll have to report back, Mary, if you do this.
Barry Conrad
So clear, non-caloric liquids, what I'm hearing is non-caloric liquids like water, bone broth, if allowed by your doctor, if they prescribe that, make sure you're hydrated beforehand, but also adjusting your fasting ahead of time. How did you approach your fasting maybe the day, two days beforehand?
Melanie Avalon
Yeah, so I did completely normal up until the day before. And then the day before was the day where I had to start the prep. So that's where I got in my longer fast because normally I would have eaten that night but I didn't I for the first two I didn't have anything caloric I just had those drinks and then the third time I did it I had bone broth. Yeah, so basically the day before is where I didn't have a one meal a day meal like I normally do so I got in a longer fasting period of time and then had the procedure the next day and then you can eat well, I don't know if they recommend like go I think they do recommend like going slow but I'm so used to that's one thing I've noticed like I'm so used to fasting during the day and then eating a massive meal at night that I don't have to make any special like adjustment I don't need to like ease into my big meal again I'm like good to go. Yeah, you're good to go. Yeah, but I've been doing one meal a day.
Barry Conrad
Yeah, it's the same thing where doctors always say ease into it after any kind of a surgery or procedure, but I think the great thing about fasting is you already are having that long time of not eating, so your body's really primed for that. Just go back to your eating. You don't have to try to ease into having three gentle meals or five gentle meals, you know what I mean? So that's great. There's another benefit of IF.
Melanie Avalon
Yeah, actually, and similar with like when I get the thing, you confused it with a colonic. Sometimes if I go to a new place, they'll give you all the material where they're like, you know, ease into foods after I'm like, I'm good. Like, like, I am totally good. I literally, I don't ever need it. I think even if I did like, I mean, I haven't, but I think even if I did like a five day extended fast, I literally probably could just like feast after and be fine. I'm not saying to do that. Ease in if you need to.
Barry Conrad
We're not endorsing, but we're just saying if you're used to that, then you know what you do you.
Melanie Avalon
We're just being real. So yeah, but on the flip side of not eating, speaking of food, Barry, you have a restaurant to explore?
Barry Conrad
I have a restaurant to explore and let me tell you this is one that I hunted down because one of my favorite cuisines is Greek food and the restaurant is called The Bright Star. The Bright Star is actually based in Alabama and it's the oldest continuously operating restaurant in Alabama. It started as this 25-cafe catering to local workers and it's grown into this 330-seat iconic landmark. It survived the Great Depression, stayed open to serve the community through that time. Oh, wow. Yeah, it was featured in the 100 dishes to eat in Alabama before you die. Yes!
Melanie Avalon
We love that.
Barry Conrad
Yeah, and it's a family run establishment, so it's got lots of history. I love that it wasn't featured in that hundred dishes to eat in Alabama for you because I'm all about that final meals and whatnot. So should we dive in? Let's do it. Should we look at the menu?
Melanie Avalon
And first of all, I have to say I love places with like I love finding restaurants with history that have been around for so long. That's why for the first time we did this, I picked one that was like one of the oldest restaurants in America. I just it's so cool to think I just love like history of places. It's cool to think about. So for listeners, every episode we like to feature a cool restaurant that we found and say what we would order from the menu in our breaking of our fast because fasting one of the awesome things about fasting is the feasting on the other side.
Barry Conrad
Let's go to the dinner section and then, so we'll go look at the dinner section after choosing all of our food, then there's wine and beer and cocktail. So I think after dessert, even we might have to even check that out a drink of some sort, you're down.
Melanie Avalon
Yeah. Okay. Well, this menu is massive. So, and they have a quick menu. I wonder what that's. Okay. You know, it's a massive menu when they start with their quote quick menu and the quick menu is, is larger than most menus. Very confusing. I'm confused. I'm confused. So what would you get for appetizer? Oh my gosh. There's so many things.
Barry Conrad
So I'm going down right now. Let me have a look. I'm gonna go for the appetizer.
Melanie Avalon
We have appetizers and then we have appetizer as entree.
Barry Conrad
When I saw that initially, I thought of, it's not the same thing, but when you said, I'll have my mains for dessert. But one thing that jumped out of me straight away was remember how I said I hadn't had. There's one thing on here, Mel, that I've told you that I haven't had before and you were really shocked. Can you guess what it is? It begins with an S, it's two words.
Melanie Avalon
I mean is it shrimp related? No because you like shrimp. Yeah. What was the shellfish that you... Oh right, shrimp cocktail.
Barry Conrad
I've never had a shrimp cocktail listeners ever I love shrimp I eat it normally but I just assume cocktail is not really a thing that you typically get in Australia at restaurants so that's definitely going to be on my starter situation. What is spag spag spag it sounds like is that spaghetti because we called spat like a spag bowl like a spaghetti bowl here in Australia.
Melanie Avalon
Really? It looks like it's an animal.
Barry Conrad
a spag.
Melanie Avalon
Well, it's definitely, okay, Chad GPT says it's a small particle aerosol generator. I don't think it's that. Oh yeah, you're right. They're saying spaghetti.
Barry Conrad
Slickest bag, yeah.
Melanie Avalon
Hm, I've never heard it called that. Interesting.
Barry Conrad
Okay, so I'm going to tell you my status first. I have a few. I'm going to do the shrimp cocktail, the entree baked mushrooms, and the entree bowl gumbo because I love gumbo. I tried it in New Orleans and it was game changing. So I'd love to try a Greek styled version. So that's my starters plural. What would you have?
Melanie Avalon
I would probably, I would maybe have lobster and crab. Oh my goodness. I can have so many things. Lobster and crab and salmon and shrimp. What is snap throat? Oh, snapper throat. Maybe they seem to like snapper here. I think I would get lobster, crab, shrimp, salmon. Let's just get all of it.
Barry Conrad
All of it. I feel like when we find the listeners, when we finally eat together, we probably need two tables put together because we want to have like taste little bits of everything, I reckon.
Melanie Avalon
Yeah. I'd be down. I would be down. What would you get as your main thing?
Barry Conrad
I would get the lobster and we get the fried chicken I love fried chicken with the passion and I love lobster as well so both of those for the manes for me.
Melanie Avalon
I feel like apparently snapper is their thing. I feel like I need to get snapper. I'm a little bit curious though about the mercury levels and snapper. So I probably wouldn't get the snapper. Now that I say that I probably look it up and see if I could find mercury levels in it. But from my memory, I don't think it's I don't think it's low.
Barry Conrad
I forgot to add that one of the signature dishes is the Greek style snapper.
Melanie Avalon
Yeah. So you might be missing out. I don't think, yeah, I would want it, but I don't think I would get it because of the mercury. So I probably get filet mignon. Yes.
Barry Conrad
Okay, and for dessert, are you going to get just the one or are you going to get another one?
Melanie Avalon
Oh, right. I think because I got so many appetizers that I can just have the filet. Oh, they have a veal steak. Hmm. I changed my mind. I'm like, I'm gonna get the veal steak.
Barry Conrad
Big, it's a big menu. I'm very impressed this place.
Melanie Avalon
I am too. And then they have a ton of dessert, what would you get for dessert?
Barry Conrad
Okay, I'm looking at it now.
Melanie Avalon
Can you get the birthday pie so I can look at it?
Barry Conrad
Okay, I've got a few choices. I'm going to I'm going to do the because you know, I love chocolate. It's my favorite. I'm going to do the whole chocolate pie, the peanut butter slice with vanilla ice cream on the side, and then the birthday cake. I'll order as well, but I'm not going to have all of it. I'll just have it for you to a look at and for me to like taste. How's that?
Melanie Avalon
perfect. And I would just watch and get some more, probably some more salmon, maybe probably whatever appetizer, like the best out of the salmon shrimp lobster, grab more of whatever I liked the most.
Barry Conrad
What about a drink? A beverage? What would you like to have? There's wine there, there's beer there, there's cocktails. I'm eyeing the cocktails, just FYI.
Melanie Avalon
I don't know I'd have to look I don't know if there's a wine I'd have to look up all the wines and there's a lot and I'm not sure if there are any that are organic low alcohol European so yeah what would you get?
Barry Conrad
I'm going to go, you know, I love a margarita meal, so I'm going to go for their blueberry lemonade margarita. Something different. I usually get a spicy, but I'm all about trying different margaritas, so that's my choice.
Melanie Avalon
Nice. Oh wait, actually they have lovey bunches. I think that's actually, wait, oh my goodness, wait a minute. Actually, they have one of my favorite organic wines. It's not European. It's, I'm assuming it's a typo on their website because it says love you bumches, but I think it's, if it's love you bunches, if that's supposed to be an N, that I love that wine. It doesn't say which a varietal it is, but they have a rosé that's organic, low alcohol. They also have a red. It's by Staltman Vineyards. Yeah, I really love them. They have really nice organic practices as well. And they're like light, low alcohol. Oh, I'm happy. Yay. Okay. Awesome.
Barry Conrad
I don't think we've had one in our very few restaurants we've done so far where you've pointed out like a wine that's organic, so that's pretty good. That's awesome. Thanks, Brightstar.
Melanie Avalon
I haven't looked at the wine list before this. Going forward, I will for sure. Well, a shout out again to the Bright Star Restaurant.
Barry Conrad
Shout out to Bart star when we're in Alabama next we'll have to check you out we have to make a list of all these restaurants by the way by the end of at the end of each year and sort of like okay when when we're going to be there let's just go through list and just do a tour of all the places.
Melanie Avalon
Sounds like a plan in my dream mind.
Barry Conrad
I don't think you're going to do that because you want to travel for a day.
Melanie Avalon
Yeah, you can do it. I'll watch. I'll come to one of them.
Barry Conrad
That's so funny.
Melanie Avalon
Shall we answer one more question? Let's do it. Jennifer would like to know, if you could only have one biohack in your life, what would it be?
Barry Conrad
Okay, that's that is a tough one. But for me, I would probably say real life therapy for me, because the benefits next level, you know, it boosts my collagen and production, which means smoother, firmer skin for me, which is great for what I do. So I'm not going to be mad at that. It's it's great for also even more importantly, recovery muscle recovery, because I work out a lot. I work out at least three times a week doing resistance training. So that's usually beneficial for me. So red light therapy has already helped. I've found I've got a device or two devices actually that I use already and that has made a difference. So use that on the daily. It also helps with inflammation and pain and even with hair growth. And you know, it's not just about looking good for me. It's about feeling great. And I definitely feel like even having that Melanie, how you say you have the ambient sort of red light on while you're working away that I feel the same way. Like I just have it like playing. It only goes for 10 minutes at a time though. So I have to like time it and then put it on again. But that's part of my daily. I love it. That's probably the one hack that I would choose so far. Watch the space is probably going to be more to come. What about you?
Melanie Avalon
Well, that's a really good choice. That's definitely in my, my running. This question is so hard and I'm so glad I don't ever have to actually do this. Like just picking one would be so I would be so hard. So thinking about it, I'm obsessed with my cryotherapy, but if I could only have one, then I could, I could like not go to cryotherapy every day and just do like a cold shower. Am I allowed to like, like tweak this? So like, basically I could, I could get it, you know, without the actual biohack form, which is like going into a cold chamber, but I would really miss it. Red light, that's really up there. The one thing that I like blue light walking glasses at night, but it's like, okay, well then I could just force myself to not look at screens at night. But one of the ones where like I travel and I just, it's really hard to not have that is my daily infrared sauna session. It's so profound the way it makes me feel. And I feel you go in, it feels so good and relaxing. You sweat, you sweat out all these toxins and you just feel cleansed on an internal cellular level after it. And when I travel, I'm like, Oh, I needed sauna sessions. So bad. So, and that's not something where I can, I guess you could sweat by like working out of the gym, but this I don't, I'm not going to do that. So it would be my sunlight in infrared sauna and for listeners. So I have the solo unit, which is where you lay down inside of it and your head is outside of it. So you can like do your work while you're in it or read or something like that. But they also have cabin units as well. Literally one of my favorite things in my entire life. And if you tell them I sent you Melanie Avalon, they'll give you a major discount. So sunlight in infrared sauna is my choice.
Barry Conrad
I've only done one infrared sauna before and that was last year at like a like a health and fitness joint nearby and it was it was amazing like it's different to it's so different to a regular like steam sauna like because you do feel like it's from the inside out and you do feel refreshed and you're sweating you know your butt off as well so it's it's quite a unique experience so I can see why you would go for that I actually forgot about that that's that's a really good one
Melanie Avalon
Yeah. Did you feel like you wanted to get one of your own integrated into your life daily?
Barry Conrad
I did actually feel that and then I just and I made a note to like do it again and I just haven't but I think it would definitely be really relaxing too because I like I actually like the feeling of being hot when it's for a purpose I don't like feeling hot when I'm just you know at home that's why I like being cold just like you but it's a really it's a really good feeling isn't it?
Melanie Avalon
Wait, that is so true. So I do not like being hot. The only time is when I'm in a sauna because it's like a controlled environment for a purpose. You're, you're not sweating over yourself because you're like, it's, I don't like, I don't like sweating with clothes on. It's like, I don't like textures of that.
Barry Conrad
In the gym, you do that, though, so...
Melanie Avalon
Right, but I don't go to the gym. You don't do the gym, yeah. I don't like it. I'm thinking about it right now. It feels so disgusting. I think I'm like texture, but I don't like the texture of certain things on my body. I'm very sensitive to that.
Barry Conrad
What do you mean? Like, give me an example.
Melanie Avalon
like clothing and like sweat and not about it.
Barry Conrad
Do you like black, you know those black dresses that you wear to these awesome letouts, does that count?
Melanie Avalon
So dresses, I don't like pants because I don't like all that constrictive clothing on my body. So dresses are great because they're very flowy. They're maybe tight at top, but you know, or maybe they could be, they're not as constrictive. I could not be a man and wear pants all the time.
Barry Conrad
You know, now that you mentioned, I've actually never seen you wear pants in like in any post ever. Like, that's such a good point. Like, never seen you wear jeans, pants. Do you wear jeans?
Melanie Avalon
I do not like jeans. The last time I wore jeans was, so every year I post my annual Christmas tree getting video. One of the times I went, I was like, I'm gonna dress up like rustic to get this Christmas tree. So I wore jeans.
Barry Conrad
I actually can't picture it now. I actually can't picture you in like jeans and boots. I mean, jeans. Yeah. That's so interesting. Wow. There you go.
Melanie Avalon
Yeah, you're missing out Barry with the dresses.
Barry Conrad
Well, I feel it could be too breezy for me. I mean, it's, yeah, let's not keep going down that path. I'm just going to pass now.
Melanie Avalon
So, at any point, that's why I love the sauna because it's like you sweat and like this sweat immediately is, you know, you're naked, it's like whisked away onto towels. And then you're like out, you shower, it's all contained.
Barry Conrad
How many showers do you have a day like two three.
Melanie Avalon
Oh, that's such a good question. It depends how many sauna sessions I do in a day. How many do you do in a day? Well, I always do at least one long one, but sometimes I do two, sometimes I do three. I like taking sauna naps. That's a hack. That's a good biohack. So you can sleep. Yeah, because then you literally sleep and get a cardiovascular workout at the same time. Like what?
Barry Conrad
So cool. I'm trying to picture this device. I need to... Is this... Is it like a chamber? What is it?
Melanie Avalon
It's like a dome. So again, so Sunline makes cabin units like the stereotypical cabin units, but they make this solo unit. It's like a dome that you slide into.
Barry Conrad
Wow, that sounds awesome, actually.
Melanie Avalon
So yeah, I like, I've like set it up with my hulk and trap. So I put it on top of a twin bed, a twin bed frame that I got on Amazon, like a metal twin bed frame. So it's on top of that. So then I can store stuff underneath it. I got a little arm thing that I attached to it that holds my iPhone above my head to do like work. And then I got a standup fan. So I put a fan on my face. So then I don't even feel that hot cause I have the fan on my face. And if you want to take a nap, if you're like really exhausted, you can take a nap in there and you wake up and it's like you worked out. That's.
Barry Conrad
wild. You never told me this before until now in terms of the whole setup. That's crazy.
Melanie Avalon
Yeah, it's really cool. So to answer your question, I take a shower in the morning and then however many sauna sessions, I take a shower after every one of those. So the most hours I take would be four, I guess, in a day.
Barry Conrad
Yeah, I love showers.
Melanie Avalon
Do you end with a cold blast?
Barry Conrad
You know what? I've definitely started introducing that more because it's kind of my way of doing the cryotherapy, but it's not really. It's just more cold water therapy. Because cryo, from what I understand, is freezing. Freezing, freezing, freezing. But it definitely refreshes me doing it. I had a cold water shower today before doing the podcast after the gym. It wakes you up. Yeah. Didn't you hear it? I'm peppy. Yeah.
Melanie Avalon
So awesome. Okay. Well, Jennifer, thank you for the question and thank you everybody else for your questions. If you would like to submit your own questions for the show, you can directly email questions at ipodcast.com and can go to ipodcast.com and submit questions there. And you can get all of the stuff that we like at ipodcast.com slash stuff we like. Definitely follow us on Instagram. I'm Melanie Avalon. Barry is okay. Ready? Barry underscore Conrad, right? You got it. Yes. And on Instagram, our show is IF Podcast. So yeah, I think that's all the things. Anything from you, Barry, before we go?
Barry Conrad
I hope you all have an awesome day and something really great to break your fast and we'll talk to you next time.
Melanie Avalon
Awesome! I will talk to you next week!
Barry Conrad
See you later!
Melanie Avalon
Bye. Bye. Thank you so much for listening to the Intermittent Fasting Podcast. Please remember, everything we discussed on this show does not constitute medical advice and no patient-doctor relationship is formed. If you enjoyed the show, please consider writing a review on iTunes. We couldn't do this without our amazing team, editing by podcast doctors, show notes and artwork by Brianna Joyner, and original theme composed by Leland Cox and recomposed by Steve Saunders. See you next week!