[00:00:00] Hey, guys, welcome to this week's episode. And if you notice, I'm actually blonde today. I went from brunette yesterday and now I'm blonde and then I'm going to go even blonde or my husband does not like me as a blonde. He only likes brunettes. So we'll see how that works out. But I just feel like I needed a change. And so today's guest is Shelby. She has a Web site called As a Mama Bear. And today, we're talking about how the fast with flexibility and how to indulge without deprivation. So this is going to be an exciting show. Shelby, welcome. And tell listeners a little bit about yourself. Oh, thanks for having me. So I am a certified strength and conditioning specialist, a nutrition coach in real life. I'm also a mom to two little girls and a four year old and a 2 year old at home. So it is chaos. I love chaos. But I started off as a mama bear because I kind of got out of the world. I used to coach bigger competitors and I got out of that world and started coaching moms and realized that, again, life is chaos. As a mom, you still kind of want to make it work. And after two pregnancies and all of the fun that comes with that, I wanted to help other moms realize that fitness and healthy food is practical. It doesn't have to be an all or nothing approach. And I just want to help everyone realize that it can be a fun journey and to make it work for you. So, yeah, it's awesome. I love that. So now talk to us a little bit about I know you do personally do some intermittent fasting. So talk about what kind of eating when do you do and what are some of the benefits you've seen from doing fasting? Right. [00:01:38][98.8]
[00:01:39] So I've been fasting. I want to see four but seven ish years now on and off. And initially, I used it to kind of drop the last ten pounds, which I really dislike that staying out of it. That was my goal at the time. And it works really, really well. Nowadays, I use it more from a health perspective. I find that it gives a lot of mental clarity and it kind of lets your body reset. So a lot of the times we eat, we don't burn what we've eaten. And then we eat again, kind of try for those three hour windows. And the truth is, your body doesn't need all of that fuel unless you are using all of that fuel. So making use of intermittent fasting gives your body a chance to use what it's stored up and taken in and then refuel when you need it. So there's that aspect which ties into weight loss, too, because that can be a powerful weight loss motivator for me personally. I love the mental clarity. So I find your first couple of fats are super tough. They're not easy at all. You do kind of get in the swing of things, but I find when I am in a fasted state, I'm able to focus more now. I'm able to prioritize more. And the reminder that you don't need to eat every 20 minutes is also kind of a nice little boost. So my fasting windows, I normally do a 13 ish fast. I'd say five days of the week and then one night of the week I do a 16 hour bars and that has just come from a lot of trial and error. So there are a lot of different ways you can use intermittent fasting and it depends on your goals, whether they are weight loss based or health face is going to have a little bit of a different variation in your hours. [00:03:12][93.2]
[00:03:13] If you're looking from a weight loss perspective, you are trying to consume a little bit less calories and fasting helps you do that because it cuts out a chunk of time that you could be eating. So for that cutting over breakfast, coming in a morning snack, awesome way to do it. When you're living from a health perspective, there's no right or wrong way too fast. It's just kind of how you feel and how your body feels. So things to look at are your energy levels. Your hunger after your fast is a big one and your performance physically. So I know with a lot of people, when they first start fasting, you kind of get that mental fog because you haven't eaten. And I normally recommend to clients to not do anything too creative. Towards the end of your fast, because you do, you can kind of have a bit of a brain fog going on. But once you overcome that, you're kind of getting a little bit more use of asking. I find I'm way more focused now, which is nice, too. So it doesn't matter so much how long my thoughts are. It's just more of tweaking based on what I enjoy. That makes sense. Yeah. So one of the things I love is that you've got some amazing recipes on your site. And you know, I think it's really important to be able to feel like you can indulge but also can indulge and make sure that you're not eating an astronomical amount of sugar so that you're spiking your your blood glucose levels and, you know, wreck havoc on other things. And so keeping your blood sugar down, but also feeling like I'm not depriving myself. And I see on your website you've got this one recipe for a white chocolate. [00:04:41][88.0]
[00:04:42] Is that your favorite recipe or what's like out of everything you've done, sweets wise? What's your favorite recipe? So I think I have to right now. I actually like salted chocolate fudge would probably be my favorite. I have cashew cookies with the chocolate frosting. Was in a pretty close second. To be honest, I am I'm a foodie. I love chocolate. I didn't get to meet someone who doesn't thoroughly enjoy some sort of treat. And I think we get into the mindset when you want to lose weight, to be healthy, that you can't have any of those things. And I just don't agree with that personally. So I do have some form of chocolate every single day. What? Because it keeps me sane. But what I have learned is that when you focus on quality over quantity, your body tends to regulate itself and you don't have as many issues when you are consuming it. So for me personally, I'm very freeing gluten free now. It wasn't always that way. But if I were to go out and just purchase a regular store-bought cupcake, I'm gonna kind of get in that sugar haze. I'm going to spike my blood sugars. I'm not going to feel great. My tummy is gonna be upset. Whereas if I make something myself, I know what's in it. I can control the amount of sugar in it and I'm normally added in something to help stabilize that sugar. So the reason I actually love the cashew cookies is because they're not based. You're getting healthy fat with a little bit of a sugar spike. I think there's maple syrup in those ones. I can't quite remember. But if you're able to better control that sugar spike enough to better regulate cravings with the chocolate fudge. [00:06:14][91.4]
[00:06:14] Fudge is just delicious. And it's a no bake recipe, which keeps it simple. But again, you're looking at more quality ingredients. So coconut oil and cacao powder both have amazing benefits. There should. There is normally not butter in there, too. So another healthy fat to help stabilize the sugar from the honey. So I think just focusing on quality indulgences is a better way to go instead of fully restricting because restricting never ends. Well, it's only a short term solution. So let's talk about some of your DIY beauty products. So I the thing is, I love making some of my beauty products. The only thing I don't like is when they don't turn out as good as I want. So like, if I like, I made a cream and it turned out it was just too oily. You know, like it's you know, how sometimes you make it and it's easier to dry or too oily and trying to get that perfect recipe. But first, let's try to talk to people of why it's so important to either buy organic skin care. But there's tons of ingredients that people need to avoid. So can you talk a little bit about some of the ones like, you know, VHA and b.h. Tier Borowitz or, you know, coal tar or some of the different ones I've like? What are the things that you're really looking at to kind of say? Hey, these. This is what's in your your lotions and your creams that I really look out for. Yeah. So it's actually been a while since I've what's at the back of a lotion bottle. Because I do tend to buy my own. The truth is I started making my own beauty products when I started reading more about the effects of those ingredients on our fertility. [00:07:56][102.1]
[00:07:58] So it really got me freaked out. They just basically how different ingredients can influence our endocrine systems. And I didn't want that. So a couple of the ones that they actually look at for now, which are not even the biggest ones, but I really despise fragrance and any kind of natural additive fragrance and natural additives just are not regulated at all. They are company secrets or they just aren't tested. You can kind of. It's an umbrella term. And I don't like not knowing. So I do tend to make a lot of my own. There are some things I'd just never, ever turn out. Deodorant and shampoo for me were epic epic fails and which I think all of my clients were happy when I just started buying natural products. But when it comes to lotion, skin care, so bath bombs, baby wipes, all of those things, I find them very easy to make. You are correct, though, and with lotion. So let's talk about DIY lotions. They are the easiest thing you could start with, but they are different for everyone. So the thing with homemade body butters is not that they'll turn out different every time, but everyone likes a different consistency when it comes to their body butter. So I find with the more oily ones I don't mind them, but I've also learned that it takes a good five to 10 minutes for that oil to absorb into your skin. So getting dressed, if you if you're running out the door in the morning and you use an oily body butter, you're not going to want to get dressed right away. So it's not a great one for morning time. Whereas the harder ones I find are great for your feet or your shoulders. [00:09:34][96.3]
[00:09:35] Those types of things, because you have to kind of massage them in and then create a little bit of a barrier, extrude that extra beeswax in them. So I think it's about knowing what kind of lotions you enjoy and making them there. I have had some marvelous, marvelous fales with a lot of DIY products, which is why one of the reasons I started the blog is because I wanted to share what I learned into your kind of the tricks that no one talks about, especially like bath bombs and things like that, to kind of keep it a bit more consistent when you are making your own. So let's talk about, you know, I know that you use some different body butters. And so, I mean, you make some different ones and all of them have to start with some kind of butter. Right. So it's either that or cocoa butter or mango butter out of those three. Shea butter, cocoa butter, mango butter. Which one do you mostly use for your products? And why? So I actually alternate between cacao water and shea butter. Shea butter I love, but it is a softer butter. So your lotion is normally going to be a little bit softer, whereas cacao butter starts off very hard. So well, it does melt. It is going to harden more. So depending on which butter you choose, you're going to have to adjust your ratios of beeswax and oil to those both of the buttars I love. They're super nourishing and moisturizing and I think it's shea butter has a lot of properties when it comes to scarring. So that's a great one for belly butters or things like that. But I tend to alternate between the two of those. As for the oil involves, you have three main ingredients. [00:11:06][91.2]
[00:11:06] When you make a DIY lotion, you're going to look at a butter and oil and beeswax. Your beeswax is what firms it up. So that's what gives it its hardness. If you put too much and you're gonna have a really hard lotion or vice versa. That's also the main ingredient in lotion bars. The oil is honestly up to you. I truthfully stick with almond oil and coconut oil the most just because they're easy. They work really well. They have great properties and they massage into the skin really well. So I'm honest, I'm not very fancy when it comes to that, although Africa or oil smells amazing. Awesome. And then as far as the central oils, are you do you have a kind of a favorite oil that you you prefer to use or. It depends on what I'm using the product for. So if I am using it to heal something or for scarring, like there's a lot of scarring that you can use, lavender is a staple for me because it's kind of the cure all. It's the takeaway. Red bumps. Oil. It's the smell. Good. Calm down, oil. So at the end of the night, it's a great one to use. I do use a lot of peppermint or eucalyptus. I find those are great. If you're sick and you're making a vapor, rub their wonderful thing or if you need to relieve a headache, peppermint can help with that. Or if you need that extra jolt in the morning in your face wash. Peppermint oil is a really great one to use because it kind of makes you more alert and focused. And then citrus oils. I just love. I love the smell of citrus oils. No matter what you put them in. [00:12:39][92.6]
[00:12:39] They're calling to me personally. One thing to note about citrus. Oils as if you were making a lotion or flip-top and you that you are going to put on your body and then go outside and you live in a sunny area. You do not want to put citrus oils in it because I do believe that they respond a little bit different to the sun and can cause minor burns like they they bring the sun to you, bring the sun rays in. So just be wary on your essential oils and how they react, not just on your body, is a good rule when someone is trying to make facial lotion. Right. Like that's they want to do like a face cream, but they don't want to like, you know, you don't want this kind of thickness that you'd want like a body butter for your for your the rest of your body and face. You want a little bit less. So what do you do? Do you have a DIY for your face? It's funny because it's actually on my list this year. And the reason it's on my list and not done is because I want to actually make it with beef tallow, which I know sounds very, very weird. But all the ones that I have use personally, the ones that I enjoy. Do you contain beef tallow? No, it's really, really soft. It's kind of like shea butter in that sense where it it's not oily. But you can tell that it's moisturizing your base and it dries quickly. So you're not getting that kind of oily experience that you would normally get from just a regular DIY lotions. I find most body butters and homemade lotions are amazing on your feet and your legs are fantastic. [00:14:10][90.7]
[00:14:10] But you're right on your face. You don't really want to oil up before you go anywhere. So that's actually on my list to create this year. And I'm kind of really excited about that kind of new essential oil to go in it, too. And so for people who don't know what beef tallow is, it's basically it's like a form of beef or or fat oil. And it's boiled down. And which, again, it sounds so creepy. And I will fully admit that I was a little bit weirded out when I checked my favorite face cream and saw that as the main ingredient. But looking back through a little bit of research, it's one of the things that's been used to help Exuma, which is kind of neat and like in ConDem, in conjunction with a lot of diet changes using beef tallow to kind of calm the inflammation from the zima. You can find a lot of literature on that. So I found that really, really interesting. And then like I said, I tried a face cream from one of my favorite companies, looked at the ingredients and the first ingredient was beef tallow. And so now I'm obsessed with making a face cream. Starting with that. So do you know how they make it ideal? Owens I don't I. There's gonna be a lot of trial and error. The problem I'm running into, I'm here in Canada and I can not buy beef tallow anywhere, which I find really, really weird because we do have cows. So I actually have to I'm gonna have to make the tallow myself. So I'm going to become a crazy homesteader. I would need to make a Talev myself before I can experiment. That's actually on my marks to do list. [00:15:43][92.5]
[00:15:44] Hopefully I can get that out before summer time so everyone can kind of enjoy it. Yeah. What I've heard is, is it's like a white fatty layer that surrounds the animal's organs like specifically like their loins and their kidneys, their kidneys. And so and then they just basically it's basically cow lard is what it is. You do have to boil it down to separate it and to get the thicker consistency. Right. And I can remember how long you boil it for, but it reminded me of making chicken broth when I kind of read up on how to do it, which I make all the time. So I'm assuming it shouldn't be too too bad. It's just a matter of getting going to the butcher and buying hunks of fat from the butcher us. So we'll see how it goes. It'll be a fun experiment. We'll tell listeners where they can find you and where they can follow you. Sure. So you can find me at w w w dot. That is a mama bear dot com and I have a slew of workouts and healthy recipes and some natural parenting tips and advice and obviously a lot of my DIY stuff up there. You can ask me also find me on Instagram. It is a mama bear. And again, posting a little bit of everything hippy fitness beauty related. And then recently I am jumping onto YouTube to give everyone some at home workouts because I again want to make fitness practical for those busy days when you can not hit the gym. And I think having a workout on hand you can follow is the best way to do that. Awesome. Well, if you have a question that you want answered, go to questions at shoot-out railway dot com. [00:17:20][95.9]
[00:17:20] We'll see you next time. Bye bye. [00:17:20][0.0]
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