Welcome to Episode 466 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 466 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, Win, 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 B.C. 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 466 of the intermittent fasting podcast. I'm Melanie Avalon. I'm here with Barry Conrad. Barry, how are you today?
Barry Conrad
Hey, Mel. Hey, everyone. I'm doing great. I'm having a really good day. I had a great weekend of actually trying to catch up on a bunch of films and I saw a play as well, which is really, really fun.
Melanie Avalon
Oh, what play? What play did you see?
Barry Conrad
I saw a play called Marjorie Prime. Have you heard of it? No. So Marjorie Prime is, it's based, well, there was a film based on the play, but basically it's set a little bit in the future. It's a, it's picture of this. This is 85 year old woman who's starting to lose her battle with dementia. So to cope, she gets a quote unquote prime. So picture like an AI, fully pixelated, looks exactly like a human being walking around. So she gets a prime, which is basically this high tech holographic AI version of her late husband from when he was younger. It is sweet because he's there to help her piece her memories back together and remember her life, but the catch is that while they're walking down memory lane, it turns out the family's past is, you know, starts creeping back and they use these primes to confide in and find comfort, but it's not real. So it's, it was pretty topical and really sad and amazing performances. Incredible. Yeah, you'd like it actually.
Melanie Avalon
Did you sit on the front row so you could make eye contact with the actors? Duh.
Barry Conrad
I didn't and also Mel, I don't know if this is the kind of play that you would necessarily want to be, I could just picture you trying to do that.
Melanie Avalon
having that moment.
Barry Conrad
Yes having the moment that's so funny.
Melanie Avalon
I'm going to see. Have you seen Riverdance?
Barry Conrad
I know all about it, but I have not seen that, but I do know over evidence, yes.
Melanie Avalon
I love it. I'm going this weekend and I'm second row.
Barry Conrad
Whoa. Stop everything. Second row, not first? I know. Why? Did you choose?
Melanie Avalon
They didn't have front row, there was not any left.
Barry Conrad
Are you sad about that? Yes. You're just going to have to really, you know, push the vibes over there, like really make eye contact from the second row.
Melanie Avalon
I know. How am I gonna... yeah. How am I gonna woo my men?
Barry Conrad
Oh, my gosh. Well, you have to let me know if that works or not, because the lighting's not as good as the first one.
Melanie Avalon
I know. And friends, I know this is complete first world problems and I am joking, but I'm also serious.
Barry Conrad
Melanie always maintains that she is a front rower and even when we go to the theater together, she would not change to meet my, not meet my standards, but to sit in a more comfortable position. She's like, no, you just can't have to sit with me.
Melanie Avalon
Yep. You can sit in the back and I'll sit in the front and then we can meet at intermission.
Well, that and then I was supposed to see last weekend or was the weekend before, I was supposed to see Blue Man Group and I was going to meet with them after because I had like friends of friends, but it got cancelled because of the weather. So have you seen Blue Man?
Barry Conrad
I have not. Tell me about it.
Melanie Avalon
Have you heard of it?
Barry Conrad
really no.
Melanie Avalon
Oh, you know what it is. You know what? Wait, Google Blue Man group. It's like, do they only have it in the US? And, oh, have you seen this before? Like the concept of it.
Barry Conrad
I've seen the concept of it, yes.
Melanie Avalon
It's hard to explain.
Barry Conrad
What did they do?
Melanie Avalon
they are all blue and then there's like instrumental vibey music and then they do a lot of like fun and silly things talented things but weird silly things like catching eggs in their mouth and stuff and like juggling and paint paint you might get wet on the front row they like spray stuff like they give you things to wear
Barry Conrad
Are you opposed to that or you like don't get?
Melanie Avalon
I was nervous when I went last time and that's how I actually met them because I met one of them, one of the guys last time because it's kind of like a, they do it everywhere like Vegas and then touring. So it's kind of like Riverdance where, you know, it's like they're always rotating people in it. Yeah, I was nervous. I was nervous because I had my dress on and everything, but it was fine. We didn't get too messed up.
Barry Conrad
Would you ever do that thing, you know, those shows where if you answer a question wrong and you get slimed, you know what I mean?
Melanie Avalon
Oh, well, I have.
Barry Conrad
You have? Mm-hmm. For what? What did you get slimed for?
Melanie Avalon
Have we not talked about this before?
Barry Conrad
I don't think, not the slime, no, this slime is new to me.
Melanie Avalon
I'm gonna send you a picture, hold on.
Barry Conrad
Oh, what the? This is, that's so funny.
Melanie Avalon
And then here, now you can see my blue hair in the Loser's Lounge.
Barry Conrad
That's too funny.
Melanie Avalon
We've talked about this before, right, this experience.
Barry Conrad
No, you have not told me about this. Really? I would definitely remember.
Melanie Avalon
Long story short, I made the mistake of responding to a casting call for an ABC family game show called Spellmageddon. It was horrible.
Barry Conrad
Did you get a lot of them right, the questions?
Melanie Avalon
I got hurt so bad. I got, so like basically the plot of it, it was hosted by some, I don't know who that guy is. Who's that guy? It was hosted by.
Barry Conrad
Yeah, he was on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Yeah, Alfonso.
Melanie Avalon
Yeah, we had to like spell words. And if we missed it, they would do horrible things to us. And one of the first tasks at the beginning was, it was kind of like wipe out. So it was like a slippery mat thing with like these, you know, those big foam rollers that you can like wipe people out with? I don't. So they were like wiping us out with these foam rollers. And it hit me in the head and snapped my head back. And what's crazy, I didn't have any pain that I mean, I don't remember, but I don't remember being in pain. Because I remember they were like, do you need to like, leave? And I was like, No, I'm fine. I can keep going. And I didn't feel like I was in pain or anything.
I like did the whole show. And then the next day I woke up, I literally have never been in that much pain in my entire life. Like I thought I was dying. It was horrible. But yeah, they would like shock us. We were wearing like shock things under our clothes, which they didn't tell the audience that so we would be like spelling and then we would randomly like spaz because they were shocking us. And this is a Disney channel thing. Like, you know, it's like Disney.
Barry Conrad
I need to see a video of this. I need to see the spazzing. I need to see the sliming. Is there a way to see this?
Melanie Avalon
I'm going to give you the link to all of the pictures. What's really funny too, this is, okay, what are the odds of this? So, and if listeners have heard this story before, I apologize.
But my cousin who I was living with at the time, she just so happened to be doing, because we, this was when we were doing like auditioning for like all the things and doing background acting and like audience filling. So she got booked on that show that day to be in the audience and I had no idea. So she like shows up to like do her paid audience work and I'm like in it, I'm like on stage. And so she said that she heard the producers talking about me because I misspelled, I don't know what I misspelled, misspelled something. And I got kicked out and they moved me to, you know, the loser lounge thing. And then they were doing like an audience poll to like bring somebody back. And my cousin heard the producers being like talking about me and being like, like they wanted, I guess I didn't win the audience award to come back, but they wanted to bring me back because they thought I was so entertaining.
Barry Conrad
I'm looking at an image of you holding on for dear life onto this thing while these balls are being thrown around. It does not look like you're enjoying it and you have these goggles on.
Melanie Avalon
I'm looking at it too.
Barry Conrad
Oh wow, Mel, you have to post some of these, it's so funny.
Melanie Avalon
And what are the odds of everything? What are the odds that Getty Images is there that day? This is a whole season of a show, and they come this day. So it's all online.
And oh, at one point in time, there was an animated GIF of me getting hit. I can't find it anymore. It's gone. But it was just me getting hit over and over. I was like, that's lovely.
Barry Conrad
Also, do you say, you said Jeff?
Melanie Avalon
Yeah, do you say GIF or GIF? You say GIF. GIF? I never know if it's GIF or GIF.
Barry Conrad
Also, you know what, it makes me think of another thing that you say when you've messaged me before on a voice note, you say, no, it's gnocchi gnocchi.
Melanie Avalon
I think we talked about that in real time on the podcast, didn't we?
Barry Conrad
That as well.
Melanie Avalon
No, yeah, I thought it was no I don't yeah, don't listen to me if listeners know one thing is that neither buried nor I know how to pronounce anything I think
Barry Conrad
That's so funny.
Melanie Avalon
but yeah so spell me get in fun times i should have known i should have known from the casting call that it was going to be a wild ride
Barry Conrad
You know what? Thank God for Getty Images were there because if they weren't there that day, we would not be talking about it today.
Melanie Avalon
Yeah, I should like save download all these photos. So it's just in case they go away. I Will do that tonight? Yeah, so That's fun times living in LA fun times
Barry Conrad
Do you miss download? Would you ever move back there?
Melanie Avalon
Oh yes. 100% yeah.
Barry Conrad
What would make you I want you? Yeah. Oh, you want to
Melanie Avalon
Wait, we've talked about this, right?
Barry Conrad
No. And if we have, I definitely can't remember. Like, I seriously don't recall you saying that. No.
Melanie Avalon
I love it. So I have this recurring dream in the dream.
I'm living in LA, but here's the important, the important part about the dream. It's not that I'm living in LA. It's that I'm living in LA. And then I have a thought to myself of like, Oh my goodness, I made it back. Like I'm here. Like it's like a gratitude dream. I have that dream like once a month.
Barry Conrad
This could be the year.
Melanie Avalon
No, no, no. I got to launch my coffee line first, which by the way, listeners, that should have launched by now. It should be available because we're aiming to launch it in February. So go now to glowcoffeeco.com and get the best coffee you will ever have.
I swear this coffee, we keep doing blind taste tests. People are obsessed. It tastes so good. And it's basically some of the highest antioxidant coffee you can get. It's organic. It's mold-free. We test for pesticides. We test for all the things. It comes from a sustainable farm in Colombia led by all women. It's amazing. It's like the best coffee. It's called glowcoffee. Go get it now.
Barry Conrad
Get it now, I can't wait to try it, Mel, can't wait.
Melanie Avalon
I know I can't wait to send it to you. I actually have, I got some of the bags, but I only have like three of them. So I can't really give them away yet.
Okay. So we jumped into fasting stuff. I can't wait to know that story.
Barry Conrad
No, I, no, I did not know that story. I promise like you, this is a first this I'm shocked.
Melanie Avalon
Wait, so one quick question, because I have so many stories like that. Like that's just like one out of like 500,000.
Did you go through this period of time where you were doing like this type of stuff?
Barry Conrad
No, not game, no.
Melanie Avalon
I feel like you just started out legit like right so you don't have to go through this.
Barry Conrad
No i've done what i did i want to do i'm sure i don't like it like i haven't done like a game show like that but i've done like music videos where is like you know. Love interest in music is in stuff like that i've done that kind of stuff before you know.
Melanie Avalon
Yeah, I mean I have like so many stories. It's wild of like things that are like not real life
Barry Conrad
We need to talk about just a call dedicated just to the stories.
Melanie Avalon
Oh my gosh, so many, so many. So, okay. So I have a study to start us off with, and I will send it to you. So this study, it was published January 2026. So this year, and it's called the impact of intermittent fasting during weight reduction in people living with type 2 diabetes mellitus, a randomized clinical trial. So what they did in this study is they were looking at the impact of calorie restriction in people with type 2 diabetes with or without a 12 hour fast. And how did it affect things? And they did it for three months, and they wanted to also see if it would affect their medication levels like metformin for diabetes and their weight and all of this stuff. So it was 51 people for 12 weeks. And the one group did calorie restriction, but they could eat throughout the day. And then the other one did a 12 hour quote fast. And so they only ate, they fasted from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. They ate from 8 a.m. Excuse me, they ate from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. And so they ate 45% carbs, 20% protein, 35% fats, and it was a 500 calorie deficit. So both groups did lose weight. That said, there was a lot of difference on a lot of specific markers. So the fasting group with calorie restriction, they had additional benefits like a reduction in fasting blood glucose, so fasting blood sugar, fasting insulin. And let's see, their HbA1c decreased more. So with the fasting, it went down to 6.51% compared to 6.86% in the CR only group. They also lost more weight. So they lost around 6.51% rather than 4.41%. Their waste reduced 4.64% compared to only 2.7% in the calorie restriction only group. And then their hip decreased, oh, this is a big difference, 3.12% compared to only 0.86% in the calorie restriction only group. Yeah, so basically what their conclusion was, was the potential of intermittent fasting as an effective adjunct to traditional dietary approaches. And they said that integrating IF into dietary guidelines could enhance patient outcomes and adherence, offering a promising approach to diabetes management.
So what I like about this is, I mean, we do know that obviously we can get these benefits from calorie restriction. So both groups did lose weight and did see reductions in these different numbers. But just by, and that's not even like a long fast, like 12 hours I feel is, they can still eat from 8am to 8pm. But just making that one change by saying you can only eat between 8am to 8pm made all those big massive differences. So we talked about this kind of similarly last week about like, are the benefits just due to fasting? Are they due to calorie restriction? Are they due to weight loss? What is the main player here? And are they overlapping? So is fasting benefits just due to calorie restriction? And so this is looking at two calorie restricted groups and same amount of calories, but the fasting group had much more benefits all over. So yeah, what are your thoughts on this?
Barry Conrad
I think that's a great study Mel and it's such a good point about what you said about it's not what you said last week, how a lot of people just think it's about cutting the calories that intermittent fasting is just about that. And this again is another site to show that it's really not the eight, the same amount.
The only thing that changed was when, and that is really powerful. Like all these quite dramatic changes, you know, it's the only difference is timing. One group kept all the eating, you know, and also what's interesting is that it was, it's not dramatic, but meaningful, you know, and over not that long a time. And it shows that, you know, without changing food quality or calories, it still makes a measurable difference. A small tweak can make such a huge difference, you know, and most importantly, it's done safe and nothing extreme happened to your folks. And look at these drastic changes, 12 hours. And this is what we always keep saying, it's less about restriction, more about structure, you know, and while we also keep saying that IFE doesn't have to be extreme, you know what I mean?
Melanie Avalon
Yeah, exactly. And again, I realize I've been doing fasting for so long, so I have a skewed perspective of what's normal for eating throughout the day.
But I feel like saying eating only between 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., that's a long time for eating. It's not like they restricted them to a six-hour eating window, like the study you talked about last week. This was a 12-hour window.
Barry Conrad
It's a lengthy, lengthy period of time, they've really got to enjoy their food.
Melanie Avalon
and then saw all those benefits. So, awesome.
Barry Conrad
It's basically dinner to breakfast.
Melanie Avalon
Yeah, essentially. So should we do a listener question or should we do this article that I found that I'm dying to know if you agree with the different points of it?
Barry Conrad
Let's do it. Let's dive into the article.
Melanie Avalon
So I found this article on thekitchen.com and it says, sorry, the title of it is Slam Into the Day at Full Speed. If you skip breakfast, you're likely also guilty of this, says psychology. So it's a list of things for people who skip breakfast, which they are phrasing kind of like as a negative. And they're saying if you do this, you probably these other things as well. So I want to see what you think about these if you agree. Because you, I mean, how often do you eat breakfast?
Barry Conrad
Okay, very rarely. I usually eat breakfast if a friend is in town and can only meet that time. If it's maybe the holidays, then all rules are off. But very rarely.
Sometimes I might have a Sunday where I'll have some breakfast stuff, but it's 97% of the time I don't eat breakfast. Well, not at the traditional time of breakfast. I break fast just later in the day.
Melanie Avalon
Actually, can I ask you a question related to this? Yeah. I'm dying to know your thoughts.
So you and I have been talking about this. I've been going on a lot of dates, a lot of like first dates. So I could, okay. Sometimes people will ask for the first date, they'll be like, do you want to get brunch? Actually, and this doesn't even have to be a date thing. It could be like if you're meeting new friends or something. But they'll be like, do you want to get brunch? Or I mean, people don't normally say breakfast, but they often say brunch. Do you think if you're going on like a first date situation and somebody asks that and I'm not going to go get brunch, like we're just, I'm not getting brunch. Should I explain right away? And this actually relates to another question we may or may not get to, but should I just decline and then like schedule drinks or something in the evening? Or should I explain right at the beginning that I don't need brunch? And that's probably not going to happen.
Barry Conrad
The way that I would do it, and this is only me and anyone can do whatever they want to do, what I would do is if I really didn't want to have brunch and I'd rather have a drink, I would just say something like, that sounds awesome. I can't make it that time, but how about drinks later today or just suggest the other time.
Melanie Avalon
Not say that sounds awesome, though, because that's misleading. I don't think brunch is awesome.
Barry Conrad
Not like, um, more like the getting together, like, let's get together, like, sounds great. And then during the drinks later, then you can, if it comes up naturally, then you can say, oh, you know, PS, you know, I do intermittent fasting. And then rather than sort of disclaim it or put it, put it out there in the beginning or, you know what I mean? Cause then that seems, well, from my perspective, it would seem that I was being dogmatic or being too, you know, strict about something rather than like bringing it up naturally later. And that way, it might feel a bit more effortless. Do you know what I mean?
Melanie Avalon
Yes. And I guess here's the other thing. If you haven't met them yet, you don't even know, like maybe it's not even going to be worth your time and energy to pre-explain everything.
Barry Conrad
You can also go to brunch, quote unquote, brunch, and just have some black coffee and just chill.
Melanie Avalon
Most people can, I don't, I have like zero, I think about this all the time, I have zero interest in, I work during the day, like every day.
Barry Conrad
And I think as well, a lot of people, a lot, not all, but a lot of people branches, like a regular thing or, you know, like a common time of day. So I wouldn't mind changing my usual schedule to if I, if I like the person who I do it, it's not like that much of a big deal.
It's not kind of really ruined my life or anything, but I would just like, just sip of my coffee. And if they do ask, you know, hungry, I'm just, I'm fasting, but that looks really good. And then I can naturally bring it up and say, Oh, I don't really eat this time of day, but I love their food or I'll eat later or something like that. You know what I mean?
Melanie Avalon
Yeah, yeah, this is helpful. Okay.
I think I do do that what you suggested. I typically just just a suggestion alternative Well, actually and it's not even just the fasting though It's it's also the working like a literally like I'm in work mode during the day. I like socially I'm not I'm really intense about and I I know I'm like the extreme version of this, but I do think it's very healthy to have a work social Separation in your life Like I think mentally and I've read about this in books like, you know when you're working You're working and then like transitioning to like the social side of things like that's I don't like to combine them I can't flip back and forth between work and social
Barry Conrad
That's totally fair and everyone's different and everyone feels best doing it in their own pattern, you know, and so you can't really begrudge someone for having their schedule, you know, I mean, if someone likes you, they'll, they'll meet you later or another time.
Melanie Avalon
Yeah. Okay.
So on that note, here is what they say. Seven traits. Number one, people who skip breakfast tend to skew night owl. They're normally an evening chronotype. Yeah. She says that people who are just not hungry in the morning feel this way because of timing, not willpower. They're more likely to delay their first meal and eat later overall if they're an evening chronotype. I mean, I agree with that.
Barry Conrad
Yeah, that sounds like good tracks, yeah.
Melanie Avalon
Number two, they're likely to be go hard all day, crash at night types. So frequent breakfast skippers are often people who slam into the day at full speed. Many things take up their attention in the morning, emails, kids, commute tasks, and then they realize it's 2 or 3 p.m. and they've barely eaten.
Coffee or energy drinks may become their lifeline for pushing throughout the day. And since they're not eating enough in the morning or throughout the day, the wheels come off at night where they may have larger meals, lots of snacks, and more sugar as the body tries to make up for the deficit. Dun dun dun. What do you think about that?
Barry Conrad
Uh, I think, yes, I do know people like that who hit the ground running and they just kind of like, they kind of forget to eat or they just don't eat because they're so busy all the time. So I do know those kinds of people, but I also know those people are hungry still.
Like they'll just snack on different things because they have to catch up on their breakfast. So they'll have chips or whatever or chocolates and stuff. Do you know what I mean?
Melanie Avalon
Yeah, and what I like and again, I just I feel like there are so many articles out here like this. And it's like, they just completely ignore the concept of intermittent fasting because you could do that. And then you could go hard all day, work, work, work. And at night, it's not that the wheels are coming off. It's now you're happy you are having a larger meal. And it's your fast and it's your eating window. Like it doesn't have to, it doesn't have to necessarily be like a negative thing if you're doing it in a intermittent fasting pattern.
Barry Conrad
I agree, 100% agree, because we have a big feast at night, don't we, Mel? And we do go ahead during the day and productively.
Melanie Avalon
Yup. Number three, they might consider coffee a meal.
Many breakfast skippers use caffeine as a stand-in for food. Many people say they feel fine in the morning because they have coffee carrying them, but later they might have energy crashes, irritability, or shakiness.
Barry Conrad
I agree with this because a lot of when you were saying that I'm just picturing people that I know who they don't have they don't have coffee the way we would have it they would have their grande size Starbucks with lots of sugar and milk and all these things so it's sort of like a meal because it's like a treat but then you have these crashes insulin spiking all day so I totally get that understand it.
Melanie Avalon
Yeah, I feel like a lot of people are either on or or both they're on like a caffeine roller coaster where it's like the coffee caffeine in the crash or the sugar roller coaster from like the eating and That's why I just love I love like fasting as the alternative because then you get stable steady energy You can still have your coffee. I mean, obviously i'm releasing my coffee I at least for me I don't feel like i'm relying on the coffee as a crutch to get through anything because of being fat adapted and fasting For they may be grazers and snackers later in the day people who skip breakfast often don't skip calories They just shift them.
Okay, I can talk about this because this is not actually what the study so Show she says what this means is that they might pick they might pick or snack all afternoon and evening She says some people engage in grazing and mindless eating especially in front of screens Which we talked about last week which she says can make it hard to recognize fullness So this is actually not what the studies show because I have read studies that compare Breakfast skipping to like eating later and people do eat more at the next meal But it's not enough to make up for skipping the meal So does that make sense? So basically like you will likely eat more than the people who did not who had breakfast, but They're still overall probably going to have more because they had breakfast Number five, they might be and this is just like this just bothers me This is why I was reading and I was like we should talk about this Because you know so much of intermittent fasting you so many people skip breakfast number five. They might be over scheduled and undernourished From her experience working with people who skip breakfast She says they are frequently people who are chronically rushed in life and tell her I don't have time for myself in the morning A lot of these times these people are caregivers or high pressure workers I do agree that if you're a breakfast skipper, but not an intermittent faster That this can often be the case and again This is the reason that I like having a scheduled intermittent fasting protocol because then you don't even have to worry about having breakfast Because it's part of your protocol and now it's no longer rushed and like undernourished and over scheduled You just don't have to you and you get all that time back
Barry Conrad
Yeah, it's definitely counterproductive doing that because if you already, if you are breakfast deprived, for example, and you don't fast, it's kind of a treadmill that it's like a rat race that you can't get off that treadmill. And I think it's really, it's more common, you see it everywhere. A lot of people are just living that life and they're just chasing and chasing and chasing and chasing and their schedules are insane.
But as Mel and I were saying before, when you have that protocol, you have that energy all day, that alertness, that clarity. And then you get to relax later with your meal and feel energized all day beforehand.
Melanie Avalon
Actually, to that point, I hadn't thought about this in a while, but one of the things I love about doing fasting now, and it's something that I was so accustomed to before, was that rushing to eat breakfast was so stressful. I usually wasn't even hungry. That's not a good way to start your day, to feel rushed and that you're shoveling in food. Yeah.
Barry Conrad
Yeah. So breakfast is on the table, hurry, you got to put your clothes like, you know, we raise that way. Like hurry up, get dressed for school, breakfast, like, it's too much to think about. I'd rather just not do that.
I'm worried about free letter.
Melanie Avalon
So I went to public school through third grade and our bus was the, like it was like the later route bus. So basically we got to school very soon before school started, but they still wanted us to have breakfast. So they would let us have breakfast at school, but then we were like, and it was okay if we were quote late, but I'm like a rules oriented person. So I was always like rushing to like get to get to my first grade class on time. And it was so stressful to me.
Like, I think I have trauma from that. Still.
Barry Conrad
It is stressful.
Melanie Avalon
Yeah. So, okay. Number six, they might be disconnected from hunger cues. So it says, if someone is skipping breakfast every day, they may have gotten used to ignoring their body's signals. This means they may tend to eat when it's convenient, not when their body is telling them they're hungry. She says that over time they may struggle to tell the difference between true hunger, stress, and fatigue.
What's wild about this is if you're doing intermittent fasting and skipping breakfast every day, that helps your hunger cues. It makes you more in tune.
Barry Conrad
I just wish there was some, I wish this was a live discussion of like this journalist and other professionals that they could actually counter these things with the solution, like what we're talking about right now, because the intermittent fasting is a solution for all these points.
Melanie Avalon
I know. That's why it's like, so last one, and then I have a conclusion, but last one is they may be more likely to reach for quick sugary fixes later.
If you delay eating for long enough, you're more likely to reach for refined carbs, sweets or fast food when you finally do eat. She says it's the brain saying we're low on fuel, give me something fast and easy. What's crazy about that one to me is my experience with fasting, I skip breakfast, then I crave, I crave like real food. I don't crave like fast food. I want like protein and like, I found one of the best ways to be more in tune with craving real food compared to processed food is to do fasting and skip breakfast.
Barry Conrad
100% agree with that. And people won't know this as well.
This might sound all well and good to maybe people tuning in for the first time, but we definitely can say over time, your body does get used to that. It won't happen necessarily straight away, but it definitely happens because you give yourself a break. You give your digestion a break. You allow yourself to get in touch with those hunger cues. It does change. It can feel impossible now, but it definitely changes. And that's so relieving.
Melanie Avalon
I know it's and i guess that's the key difference here is this is creating like it's creating an idea of people who i get maybe occasionally skip breakfast but also they're saying like every day so. So their conclusion what is skipping breakfast tell us it says that people's habits often reflect their stress levels priorities and relationship with their body the three takeaways about.
What skipping breakfast may say about someone they may live a life that is very busy and externally focused they might tend to delay or downplay self care. They could experience a pattern of energy peaks and crashes with more chaotic eating later in the day where is the intermittent fasting option.
Barry Conrad
I feel like we should get this person on the show and talk about it.
Melanie Avalon
I know we should reach out to this doctor. It's a doctor, Barbara Speracino, and an award-winning psychotherapist, Isra Nasser.
Barry Conrad
I think it's also helpful to have discussions where you do differ and you can have a really great conversations.
Melanie Avalon
I agree completely. Yes. It's not really fair to them because we're talking at them and they can't talk back.
Barry Conrad
But to echo what you said, where is the intermittent fasting piece of this? It's just one-sided.
These are the people, if they skip breakfast, this is who they are. But that's not, that's totally a blanket statement, you know?
Melanie Avalon
I'm looking at the comments. So the first comment says, I don't eat breakfast. None of these things are true for me.
But then the next comment says, I am exactly this way. I'm a caregiver. I'm currently trying to figure out a routine to get a morning meal in. I've gained 40 pounds being in this cycle. And see, and that's where I want to be like, try intermittent fasting. Maybe you can still skip the breakfast, but not have all these other issues that come along with it. Some people say they relate to like only some of them. Oh, I like this person. This person said breakfast is the most important meal of the day. That's why I save it for later with a wink. That sounds like maybe they're an intermittent fasting person.
Barry Conrad
That's awesome, I love that.
Melanie Avalon
I bet they are. That's so funny.
Barry Conrad
And actually, you know what? Breakfast actually kind of is the most important meal of the day, but breakfast, but not breakfast. So, you know.
Melanie Avalon
Great. Fast. Okey dokey. Shall we do some listener questions? Let's do it. So this is the one that kind of related to the day question. So do you want to read it? It's from Shelly.
Barry Conrad
So, a question from Shelly, she asks how to respond to questions about IF. Hi, I've been doing IF for around three months and I love it. You guys are great and I have learned so much from your podcast and from the Facebook group. My question is what to say to people when they ask about IF.
I thought it'd be fun if you and Melanie could do a role play. One of you could play the curious coworker and the other could be the IFer. We all know the crazy questions we get and sometimes we just don't know how to respond. Keep up the great work and I look forward to future podcasts.
Melanie Avalon
Are we going to do some role playing?
Barry Conrad
Yeah, let's do it.
Melanie Avalon
Do you want to be the curious coworker or the fasting person?
Barry Conrad
I'll be the curious coworker.
Melanie Avalon
Okay, where do we work right now? I need to know the whole scene. I'd be like an office job, right? Maybe. It's like lunchtime at the office job.
Barry Conrad
Yeah, kind of like, you know, getting coffees in the little kitchen over there, lunchtime. Yeah.
Melanie Avalon
Maybe we work at Apple.
Barry Conrad
Yeah, that sounds good.
Melanie Avalon
Does apple have structured eating times? Or is it like eat when you want? Cause they only have like nap cubicles.
Barry Conrad
Maybe, maybe this is like our team or whatever. Like we're on the same team and we're taking a break or something.
And we're in the kitchen and it's like, um, I'm so hungry. I can't wait to have this, um, this amazing sandwich is just packed in. What are you having for lunch today?
Melanie Avalon
I'm actually not having lunch today. I'm eating later.
Barry Conrad
Okay, you got like a special occasion later or something or like a party or something?
Melanie Avalon
I wish. No, I'm just working for the rest of the day. No, actually I do intermittent fasting. Have you heard of it?
Barry Conrad
Oh, is that is that the thing where you sort of just starve you don't you don't let eat you just like don't eat You just starve yourself
Melanie Avalon
So I'm actually so glad you said that because that's like the common misconception. People think you're starving.
But ironically enough, you're not starving because you're eating, you're fueling yourself from your own body fat. So fasting actually increases your ability to burn fat. And so then in the fasted state, you run off your body fat stores, then you eat during your window. So I eat later at night and it's amazing. You can still maintain muscle, you can lose weight, you can eat all you want during your window and
Barry Conrad
But doesn't that, you know, they say like, it slows your metabolism down. You have to keep eating. You can't just like not eat for that long. Don't you get hungry?
Melanie Avalon
So when you first start, it can be a little bit hard because you have to get off of the blood sugar roller coaster from being used to eating all the time, but it's crazy. You actually, and I did not believe this before I started doing it. I really didn't.
Like I thought I was going to be starving, but your body adapts, like I said, to burning fat and then you're not even hungry because you're actually, you're just running off of your own, your own fat stores and your body can actually create something called ketones, which are a very stable source of energy. So yeah, you don't have, you don't have, you don't have hunger. And then when you actually do eat, you get to really enjoy it.
Barry Conrad
I mean, that, that sounds pretty awesome, but like I trained, so I kind of need to eat before. So I have my energy. So I don't know if I could do that. I don't think that's for me.
Melanie Avalon
No, I totally I completely hear you and I I really think people need to find what works for them So with training do you do you do like strength training or cardio? What type of training?
Barry Conrad
Yeah, I do cardio and weights.
Melanie Avalon
So yeah, so basically for cardio, similar to what I was saying about being a fat burning state, cardio is actually supported really well by fat burning. Once you get adapted, you don't actually have to fuel the cardio with food. And for me, at least personally, I don't like the idea of doing physical activity right after eating because you're digesting and all of that. So you're good with cardio.
And then for muscle building, it's just really, really important that you get enough protein to support your muscle. And they used to think that you had to eat protein that you could only absorb a certain amount of protein at one time, like 30 grams max or something. But actually, they've realized that you can absorb more than that. We actually don't know what the end point is. So as long as you get ample protein to support your body weight after strength training at some point during the day, you should be good.
Barry Conrad
Oh, wow. I didn't know that was a thing. So if I wanted to give it a shot, like what's like a realistic, easy way to start, like how would I do it?
Melanie Avalon
That's such a good question. And again, so this is what I always ask people because you can count the hours of fasting. So you could say like, I'm going to fast for X amount of hours every day. Or you could choose the meals that you normally eat and just eat those meals. So maybe just eat lunch and dinner or just eat dinner or just eat breakfast or just eat breakfast and lunch. It really depends on what you naturally gravitate towards.
So like, do you tend to be like a breakfast skipper, like you're not hungry in the morning? Or do you tend, like when do you tend to get hungry normally?
Barry Conrad
I kind of am always hungry, but I reckon I like having, I definitely eat my dinner because I like to eat with my family and I like lunch as well. So maybe lunch and dinner, I reckon.
Melanie Avalon
Yeah. So I would definitely start there.
And do you do well with very delineated rules? So would it be helpful for you to have an actual time that you eat? So you could say you could eat between 2 PM and 10 PM. So that's like eight hours of eating.
Barry Conrad
That's a lot.
Melanie Avalon
Yeah. And you can even start with like 12 hours and you could like shorten it down.
So you could start with, you know, uh, six to well, let's see, uh, eight to wait, 10 to 10. You could start with like 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. And then you can make it like a little shorter the next day, like, you know, shave off an hour every day until you get to a smaller window.
Barry Conrad
Oh, that sounds way, way more doable than what I was expecting. I thought like you just sort of starve and then just eat a little, little meal or something.
Melanie Avalon
Yeah, no, that's really important. Make sure you get enough protein and get enough calories in your eating window. It's not the time to calorie restrict during the eating window.
Barry Conrad
And do I have to change like what I eat during, is it like a diet type thing or just, just time it?
Melanie Avalon
So that's another great thing is you can actually get these benefits without changing what you eat. I can say most likely, even without changing anything, you will experience the majority of these benefits.
And then if you want to also, quote, clean up or change what you're actually eating, that will only further optimize things. But you might find that you actually start naturally craving those more whole foods anyways, because it really helps with your hunger signals, your cravings, you might find that you naturally start eating a different way. So I wouldn't, I wouldn't like stack all that at once, because that's like a lot, you can just start with the fasting and go from there.
Barry Conrad
You know what, Mel, I think I'm going to give this a shot and let you know how I go. Maybe I'll try it tomorrow and see how I feel.
Melanie Avalon
Perfect, let me know.
Barry Conrad
Well thanks for the tips!
Melanie Avalon
You're welcome. Thanks for asking.
Barry Conrad
That was fun. That was impromptu, Shelly, and we didn't go through that. And it's a very common scenario, those sorts of questions. And Mel, that was amazing answers. So easy to understand.
Melanie Avalon
I did answer as myself having all the knowledge, but not all the knowledge. I gave a lot of facts. You don't have to give that much information, and you can refer them to resources.
You can give the basics and make it that it's working for you, and you've researched it, and if people are interested, they could check out the Intermittent Fasting Podcast or the different books out there. You don't have to know all the answers yet, but the reason I wrote my book originally was because she says we get crazy questions. We don't know how to respond. I think the ones I would get the most would be some of the ones you mentioned, like, doesn't your metabolism slow down? Oh, it's bad to not skip. It's bad to skip breakfast. I'm trying to think what some really crazy questions would be. Maybe listeners write in if you have, we should ask this in the Facebook group, like, what's the... Ooh, I'm going to make a note. We should ask in the Facebook group, what are some of the craziest questions that you've gotten?
Barry Conrad
Because people do really not not all people a lot of people when they do hear about intermittent fasting they really can change the mood can change so much they get can get defensive and Go into that They sort of know all the answers before even asking you a question and they can get really defensive about it So I totally get that it's not fun to get those questions But it's also important to yeah Know the basics you don't have to know the answers as Mel was saying but it's just part of it comes with the territory and again as Mel said you can just refer them to a Podcast the books is lots of resources out there
Melanie Avalon
And also to that point, like with the defensiveness, like you also don't have to convince anybody of anything, you know, like that's not the goal. It's really just, I always really make it about like how this can maybe work for them, like what works for them, finding what works for you. And also they don't have to do it if they don't want to. And you fasting should not affect them, you know, like people will get like offended by people fasting in some way.
Barry Conrad
It's like, why aren't you eating? Well, it's like, it does, it's a very, eating is a very loaded thing. And we've talked about this many times. People feel some kind of way about people not eating or eating both ways, yeah.
Melanie Avalon
I think the one I used to get the most that was hard to deal with was, I mean, it was well intentioned, but my mom would always be like, if you don't eat your grandmother's cake that she made special for you, that's going to hurt her feelings and she worked so hard to make this cake and you're not going to have it. I would handle it differently now because this was when I was way younger and I was really annoyed by all that and I was just kind of defiant about it and I was like, well, I don't have to eat it if I don't want to.
But now I would say, and I've talked about this before on the show, but I would offer an alternative way to accept love from the person who bought me some, who made me some food. So I'd be like, thank you so much for making this cake. You know, I love it so much. I really appreciate it. I'm actually doing like a fasting protocol right now. So could we like sit and talk instead or could you make me some tea, like, like offer like an alternative way for them to like show love to you. On that note, speaking of, shall we break our proverbial fast?
Barry Conrad
Yes, let's do it.
Melanie Avalon
Okie dokie. So the purpose of this point of the show is that the fasting, the benefits are not just about the fasting, they are also from the eating. That is where actually, that's where a lot of the magic happens because that's when you're fueling yourself, nourishing yourself, all the things, and just finally enjoying food without guilt of dieting and all of the crazy stuff.
So we like to pick a restaurant every week and profile it, talk about why we would go there, and what would we order while breaking our fast. So Barry, what restaurant do you have for us this week?
Barry Conrad
Yes, and the restaurant I have for us this week, it's called Quelino's in London, and I've sent you the link there, Mel, so you can check it out. And why this place, why I chose this place and why it's so special, it's one of London's original grand restaurants, OG grand restaurants, famous for its sweeping staircase and dramatic art deco meets modern dining room, which you'd like, ala carte menu, which we love as well with European polish and a crowd pleasing luxury ingredients. The wine list is celebration friendly and built for tables that want to toast to something. And the vibe is meant to be bold, glamorous, and where you want to go when you want the room to do half the talking. So it looks like a great place.
So I phonetically actually did look up how to pronounce it because I didn't want to get it wrong.
Melanie Avalon
oh is this it with like the oh yeah there's the staircase kind of like oh and then that the the lighting on top is like a it's like a pyramid or something
Barry Conrad
Yep, looks pretty grand, looks grand.
Melanie Avalon
I like the looks of this. Good lighting is everywhere.
Barry Conrad
I know you like good lighting.
Melanie Avalon
Oh wait, here's a question for you. You're given an option of two restaurants to go to.
One has incredible food, incredible food, but horrible lighting. Like we're talking fluorescent lighting. The other one has perfect lighting, amazing vibe, but not good food. Where do you go?
Barry Conrad
Is the not good food like okay food or just really bad food?
Melanie Avalon
I guess we should make it, I don't know, should they both be like really bad? So like really, really, really bad lighting and good food or really, really, really good lighting and bad food.
Barry Conrad
Yeah, well, bad lighting is bad. I mean, it's, it's hard to get around that.
And also the food is really good. Yeah. I don't know if I could pass it up. It depends also who I was with, you know, if I was with one of my bros, I wouldn't care, but if it was there with anyone else, I might care a lot.
Melanie Avalon
Yeah, yeah, exactly. But so here's the thing about bad food. Because I eat so simply, I don't know how it can even be that bad. Like I can basically eat because as long as it's like steak or chicken or fish plain, unless it's like I can I can pretty much eat any of that. Like I don't know how it would be bad enough that it would bother me extraordinarily bother me, bother me unless it's fish that has, you know, has gone bad or something.
Oh, this is yeah, this is like literally gone bad.
Barry Conrad
Yeah, I guess that's a good point. You could probably put up with a good vibe and good lighting. I'm sure you could put up with not the best food.
Melanie Avalon
But in any case, either way, I feel like this restaurant is both good lighting and good food.
Barry Conrad
Yes, definitely. And if you click on the ala kat menu, you'll see that there is looks like there's amazing options.
Melanie Avalon
I definitely see that there are 12 Jersey rock oysters.
Barry Conrad
Catching my eye, yes.
Melanie Avalon
Yeah, I'm not getting, oh, and prawns and baby, oh wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, here's a moment. Is this our first time berry where it has both prawns and shrimp and the same option?
Barry Conrad
I think it is our first time. Tiger prawns and baby shrimp.
Melanie Avalon
tiger bronze and baby shrimp. So is that accurate? Like, is it actually bronze and shrimp?
Barry Conrad
Yeah, I would say so for sure.
Melanie Avalon
if they're like taking the moment to like distinguish.
Barry Conrad
I feel like they have the universe wanted us to see this because we've had this thing. Is it prawns or shrimp or shrimp or prawns, you know, all last year and now for.
Melanie Avalon
the first one or second one of the year. Yeah. And you know, what's really horrible is I don't remember. What did we learn? Prawns are okay.
Barry Conrad
If it's in Australia, it's probably prawns. If it's in America, it's.
Melanie Avalon
Shrimp but shrimp, okay and shrimp is normally shrimp, but like in like the UK There's like prawns that are shrimp though, and I said I was gonna remember. I don't know.
I don't know. Okay, so starters so is that oh is that that's a set price menu the Oyster shrimp thing or is that a starter?
Barry Conrad
I think that is a set starter sort of thing.
Melanie Avalon
I don't really want that, but if you get it, I would have, I would taste the oysters for you. I would have the bronze and shrimp and I still haven't had clams or mussels. So actually maybe.
Barry Conrad
Melanie, this is the year for muscles and clams. I feel like you definitely like them, for sure. It's really good. Really, really, really good.
Melanie Avalon
I think so, not oysters, but okay, so I, what are you going to get?
Barry Conrad
Well, definitely going to get that. And then in terms of the other things, I would get the slow braised pork cheeks, caramelized cauliflower, roasted baby onion, shaved black autumn truffle, and also the corn fed roasted chicken bouleté, barbecued filet, crispy skin, and cob fricassee, because I don't think they'll be big because in the UK, historically, everything's a lot more small, like smaller portions.
Oh, they've got fish chowder. Oh, I love chowder so much. Oh, so many options. Oh, are you going to get that? Yeah, because it'll be light.
Melanie Avalon
Oh, and it's like on the side, right? It's the French trimmed filet of Dover sole. Is that what you're looking at? I want that for sure.
Cause I like, I really liked Dover sole. Perfect. Can we get that and can we get it like deconstructed and then, and it comes with salmon row, which I like. So I can like have the salmon and the, the sole and then you can have the chowder, but you can have all of it as well. Of course, if we like it, we can get another one. Exactly. I would get that. What about caviar?
Barry Conrad
Ah, caviar, I didn't see that. I love caviar. On some blinis, you like blinis?
Melanie Avalon
I mean, in theory, but those are like pastries, right?
Barry Conrad
Well, if you, if you can picture really playing pancakes, but very small, like miniature, like miniature, miniature, tiny, like almost like a.
Melanie Avalon
Yeah, I love them in my mind.
Barry Conrad
They're really good and they're really light.
Melanie Avalon
so I will enjoy it through you vicariously. They also have halibut ceviche.
Barry Conrad
The future is delicious.
Melanie Avalon
I would have that. Is it ceviche or ceviche?
Barry Conrad
I like to say ceviche, but I feel like it's pareto tomato.
Melanie Avalon
Maybe that too, lime-caught halibut, ceviche, fennel, Alfonso mango, pickled baby cucumber, jalapeno emulsion, oh that's another one, and orange liqueur, jalapeno or jalapeno.
Barry Conrad
So, I'll say, hello, Penyos.
Melanie Avalon
I say helipino. Yeah. So, mains. Oh, and they're using your language.
Barry Conrad
Mainz, yes.
Melanie Avalon
It's funny that we had a whole debate about what terminology should we use when we could literally just use the terminology on the menu. So mains, what are you going to get? I see what I want.
Barry Conrad
I think I'm going to, no, I think I know I'm going to get the saddle of wild highland venison, pine-crusted beetwood pave, pickled blackberry, juniper-roasting dew, and sorrel. That sounds great.
Melanie Avalon
That's what I wanted. Yeah? Yeah.
Barry Conrad
Well, why don't you get that and then I'll switch it up.
Melanie Avalon
I mean, we can both get it.
Barry Conrad
Yeah, we could both get it because I also want to try the octopus. Have you told me if you've had octopus yet?
Melanie Avalon
I have not.
Barry Conrad
It's so good.
Melanie Avalon
And it comes with, so it's pan fried, well, it's also bass, so pan fried stone bass, char grilled octopus, squid ink emulsion, red pepper, pepper rod, foraged sea herbs, foraged. They're like, that's cool.
I mean, I guess how else would you do it though? Yeah, I would definitely taste that.
Barry Conrad
I like that they have these combinations of things, you know, and even the starters, like I like the groupings. It's very thought out.
Melanie Avalon
Yeah. And what is, cause you ordered from the starters, you ordered the slow braised pork cheeks.
I don't use, I don't think they use that word here. Cause I also see for the mains, they have honey and red wine glazed ox cheek. What is the cheek?
Barry Conrad
Like the cheek, isn't it the literal cheek of the pork like the cheek?
Melanie Avalon
in their mouth? Or is it like butt cheek? I think it's
Barry Conrad
Oh, actually, you know what? I actually could do the butt. Yeah, it's because it's fat.
Melanie Avalon
I highly doubt it's like they're milked.
Barry Conrad
actually okay we have to take another podcast like very really
Melanie Avalon
No, we can't keep, we have to keep that in. Editors keep that in.
We have to keep that in. Can you imagine? Wait, you know what? What it would, I mean, it could be, it could be. Let's look it up. It's from the face.
Barry Conrad
Oh, what? Yes! It is from the faith.
Melanie Avalon
Pork cheek or pork jowl is a flavorful, marbled cut from the pig's face, known for its rich fat and tender meat, which becomes incredibly succulent when slow cooked or braised until it's melt in your mouth soft.
Okay, so does that mean ox cheek, well, ox, let's see, what is ox? Ox cheek is a flavorful, tough cut of meat from the jaw muscle of cattle, rich in collagen that becomes incredibly tender, rich in succulent, that sounds like the exact same thing I just said, but for ox. Oh my goodness, that's funny that we were making fun of you for saying that it was the mouth when it actually literally is the mouth.
Barry Conrad
We have to keep that in, it is.
Melanie Avalon
Oh my goodness. I learned so much. So if that had been like you got a bet on this and you're going to die, I would have died because I would have bet that it was like a butt cheek situation.
Barry Conrad
Yeah. All it seems will be more fat and juicy, I guess, if it's the bop. But I mean, pigs have pretty fatty, you know, cheeky cheeks.
Melanie Avalon
Oh my gosh. Okay. And oh, wait, I didn't even look at the grill and the share section. Oh my gosh. Okay.
Barry Conrad
I feel like this is going to be one of, well, let's be real, most of the restaurants we go to, we order several mains.
Melanie Avalon
I would also want to get, maybe this might be like a table situation, like we get like the venison and then which steak would you want? Would you want the something from like a sirloin, a ribeye, beef filet, or the shareable tomahawk?
Barry Conrad
The tomahawk actually looks pretty good also because I'm looking because it's so big, you know looking at the size But I do prefer soil line
Melanie Avalon
Okay, so a tomahawk stave, oh, it's ribeye with the, okay, it's the ribeye with the bone. Is it bad that I worked and find I need steak houses for so long and I sometimes don't remember what some of these things are?
No, it's not.
Barry Conrad
It's not bad, it's been a while.
Melanie Avalon
I really like sirloin though, so maybe sirloin. How are we going to get it cooked?
Barry Conrad
on the more rare side of medium rare
Melanie Avalon
I can, I can compromise, I can do that.
Barry Conrad
This is not like the front row of the show situation.
Melanie Avalon
That's the equivalent of like second row, third row, but I can do it. Okay, and do you want any sides?
Barry Conrad
I like some fresh bread and butter. I think there's plenty of food there. Lots of protein. What about you? I think I'm good. Dessert?
Melanie Avalon
Dessert. Yes. So lots of dessert options. Okay. So I don't think they've updated it though, because it has some Christmas.
Barry Conrad
Yeah.
Melanie Avalon
Wait. Can I guess what you want? Can I guess what you want?
Barry Conrad
Guess what I want.
Melanie Avalon
How many do you want? Maybe two.
And again, this is a very outdated menu, but and do you want the chocolate pot de creme? Yes. Yes. Yes. Which is 54% dark chocolate creme meux, macadamia, and hazelnut mousse, cocoa, meringues, and toasted macadamias. So is it, what is it? Is it like chocolate? Sometimes I can't even tell like what this is. Is it like a thing of chocolate, like a creme brulee, but chocolate formed? But with mousse?
Barry Conrad
It seems like something like that. I don't think yeah, it's like a pot.
Melanie Avalon
I feel like it's like a wet situation of chocolate.
Barry Conrad
It doesn't sound appealing, that's a wet situation of chocolate, there you go.
Melanie Avalon
Okay. And then for your second one, do you want... Can I have a hint?
Barry Conrad
You kind of said it when you were describing
Melanie Avalon
So it was the creme brulee.
Barry Conrad
Yeah, I love Cumbula.
Melanie Avalon
the pistachio creme brulee with spiced pistachio custard, chocolate orange, sable, and whipped orange chantilly. So do you like pistachio?
Barry Conrad
I was going to say I'm not like a massive fan, not like not a fan, but just nothing I'd seek out normally, but I'm all about Creme Brulee, so I'm happy to try that.
Melanie Avalon
Well, how do you feel about the whole Dubai chocolate movement that was, like, overwhelming?
Barry Conrad
Of all the other Dubai chocolate, yeah.
Melanie Avalon
like everything is to buy chocolate like everything and their mother is to buy chocolate and i don't i don't know why like i don't know how i get really interested in like how does this happen because it doesn't happen by accident like there's no way that this one random thing that has been a thing already in another country for a long time and then like the whole us gets obsessed and every brand is making like a dubai chocolate version of everything like how does that happen
Barry Conrad
I don't know, but people definitely jumped on the bandwagon. I haven't tried any of that, have you?
Melanie Avalon
No, I mean, can you can you and report back if it's like.
Barry Conrad
Do you buy chocolate? Of course. I will try anything chocolatey. Just not like a wet chocolate situation. Just the sound bite of the show in a pot. Sounds like a wet chocolate situation.
Melanie Avalon
I mean, that's what it feels like for a chocolate pot to cream. Okay, actually the majority of these desserts look look wet because it's like Chestnut an apricot mousse. That's what the creme brulee the pot de creme and then like the Christmas one is white chocolate mousse I feel like it's like a lot of Yeah ice cream and sorbet Do they have like a solid cake here? I don't think so.
I don't see a solid cake on the menu Maybe they're known for this. Okay. Are you getting a dessert wine or a port?
Barry Conrad
I think I'm just going to get a Graham six grapes, uh, port, which is rich and spicy plum black cherry prune raisin to something the zerty. What about you?
Melanie Avalon
I'm just gonna get a repeat of whatever I like the most from the a la carte menu.
Barry Conrad
There is a wine list if you get to see it.
Melanie Avalon
They have a lot of options. Again, so basically every time I go to the restaurant, I have to like, I take, now I take a screenshot of the list and I give it to chat GPT and I say, are any of these organic? And then I figure it out from there.
But looking at this briefly, it looks like they, again, I have to like confirm, but I would probably get like a French, they have like a French Côte de Ronde Luna that could be promising or, oh, they have a French Bourgeois, I love that. They have an Italian Pinot Grigio. So a lot of options. I do feel like when we first hang out at a restaurant, which will happen, we've got, I think we should start with a organic Pinot Grigio because we both like love that.
Barry Conrad
That actually sounds like a good, safe bet, like sort of like a palate cleanser, something that can just stay on the table, you know? Yep.
And then like, you know, two dozen oysters, maybe perfect, and maybe like a wet chocolate situation in the past.
Melanie Avalon
two dozen oysters for you. Oh, man, you do know like genuinely like
Barry Conrad
Are you going to try them?
Melanie Avalon
Well, yes, I will try them and you know, I'm never gonna like them like I am not I am I am certain I've had them multiple times and I have never Ever had the experience of even remotely thinking that I might like it. They taste like the ocean They taste like everything bad in the ocean and something that you put into your mouth. I'm not a fan
Barry Conrad
Well, this restaurant is awesome. That's all we can say.
Melanie Avalon
Good vibes, good lighting, good food, approachable prices, especially compared to last week's menu, which was like not that approachable, so. Okay, awesome.
Well, this was so fun. Listeners, we hope you enjoyed your time with us. We would love to hear from you. If you have questions, please email questions at ifpodcast.com or you can go to ifpodcast.com and submit questions there. Or you can go to our Facebook group and you can ask questions there as well. And we do post a lot of questions there for you guys to weigh in on, so we would love to see you there. That group is called IF Biohackers, Intermittent Fasting plus Real Foods plus Life. And the show notes for today's episode will be at ifpodcast.com slash episode 466. There will be links to everything that we talked about, so definitely check that out. And you can follow us on Instagram, we are ifpodcast. I am Melanie Avalon, Barry is Barry underscore Conrad. And yeah, I think that's all the things. Happy end of March to everybody. Hello, April, here we come. Anything from you, Barry, before we go?
Barry Conrad
Here we come. Thank you so much for tuning in once again, everyone. Have an amazing week and we'll see you next time. Talk to you next week. Talk to you next week. Bye. Bye.
Melanie Avalon
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.
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