#92 How to lose weight through Intermittent Fasting, MCT oil vs Coconut oil, and how to lower your blood sugar naturally. With Autumn Smith!
Welcome back, gang! This week’s episode is a little different because the guest this is our very own Chantel Ray! Chantel was a guest on the Optimize Paleo Podcast and did such an awesome job that we had to share it with you guys as well! She talks about loosing weight through intermittent fasting, stabilizing your blood sugar using MCT oil and Coconut oil, and how walking is one of the best types of cardio you can do to lose weight. Enjoy!
Video version: https://youtu.be/UnKiPDMNKYM
Optimize Paleo Podcast: https://player.fm/series/optimize-paleo-by-paleovalley
Check out the amazing products from Paleovalley mentioned in this episode: https://paleovalley.com/
Autumn Smith: Hi everyone. If you’ve ever wanted to incorporate fasting into your life and know how to make it practical so that it’s not overwhelming, this is definitely the show for you. We’ve got [Chantel 00:00:12] Ray over here and intermittent fasting has basically transformed her life. Today we’re going to kind of walk you through the steps that she took. We’re going to talk a little bit about the benefits, but mostly this is going to be a practical show for you so that you can incorporate this awesome practice into your life and take your health to the next level. Welcome to the show, Chantel. We’re so excited to have you.
Chantel: Thank you. I’m so excited.
Autumn Smith: Yeah. She sent me her book this … just this week. It’s Waste Away the Chantel Ray Way. I’m singing its praises because it’s so practical, so many tips, not just how to do it, but how to do it when you’re a real person and you’re a mom and you have a job and how to make this really work in your life. Before we get into her awesome story, I just want you guys to all get a little feel for her personality. We’re going to ask you some … three fun questions.
Chantel: Okay.
Autumn Smith: First, I maybe know the answer to this, but we’re going with it anyway ’cause people often surprise me, and that’s just what did we eat for breakfast?
Chantel: I didn’t eat anything for breakfast. Yeah.
Autumn Smith: That’s kind of what I thought-
Chantel: I literally never have breakfast. I just started recently having coffee. I have coffee with … I’ll do MCT oil or sometimes I do coconut oil. Sometimes I mix coffee with coconut cream or I’ll do coconut oil. I mix it up. Sometimes I do this super food, it’s called Layered Super Food. It’s dairy-free creamer. Have you ever tried that?
Autumn Smith: You know, I actually … I haven’t tried the creamer. I’ve looked at it, but I use to, when I was a fitness trainer. I worked with his wife, so anyway, so-
Chantel: Yeah. I really like that. It’s really good. Sometimes I’ll mix ghee with MCT oil. I always have organic coffee. When I have coffee in the morning with that … with MCT oil or some kind of non-dairy creamer, it allows me to make my fasting window a lot longer. If I just have water for breakfast, then I can … I tend to be hungrier earlier. Then I’m going to start my eating window earlier. For me, I can keep my weight down when I eat in a shorter window.
Autumn Smith: Yes. I love that. I do the same thing. We’re having a little bit of grass-fed butter coffee this morning. I-
Chantel: That’s what I do. I had ghee. Yeah.
Autumn Smith: Yeah.
Chantel: One of the things that I do is I’ll take ghee and I take MCT oil. I kind of take a … maybe like a big teaspoon of each. Then I have this stick. It’s like a mixer stick. I stick it in the coffee and it literally mixes it up and froths it.
Autumn Smith: Oh.
Chantel: Yes. It’s awesome.
Autumn Smith: I love that. Have you noticed that, because if I … it’s so satisfying. If I’m-
Chantel: Yes.
Autumn Smith: Hungry in the morning, it will definitely keep me full for hours later. Do you notice that it prevents weight loss in anyone else, or any other health effects, or is it just-
Chantel: Well, the biggest thing for me is that I had to get my body to being in fat burning mode instead of being in sugar burning mode. Before, I was eating so much carbs. I was having so much sugar. All I was doing was basically I was feeding my body sugar and carbs all the time. It never got to the fat burning state because I was constantly giving it food.
Chantel: My favorite analogy that I tell people is it’s kind of like if you have cash in your pocket. If you had $50 in your pocket and you wanted to buy something that was $50, you wouldn’t go to the bank to go get money out ’cause you already have … it’s easy. You’ve got the money in your pocket. The same thing happens with your body with fuel. If you’re giving it sugar and you’re giving it carbs or you’re giving … even fruit or whatever else it is and you’re eating right now, it never needs to go to the bank account and kind of dig up those fat stores to burn the fat, the extra fat, that you have. If you’re not giving it fuel, then it has to go and get that fat storage from somewhere else. That’s basically what you’re doing.
Autumn Smith: I love that analogy. That’s exactly why I thoroughly enjoyed your book because everything is broken down. It’s made simple. Beautiful. Also, do you notice a difference, last question about your breakfast, with MCT oil versus coconut oil? I don’t use MCT oil a lot. I use coconut oil, but do you notice brain boosting benefit or thermogenic effect or fat burning when it’s just with MCT?
Chantel: You know, one of the things … it’s funny because I was just going to get … for a little while I kind of got … I don’t have diabetes or anything like that, but you can see I’ve got my little handy dandy blood glucose monitor. And I love to check my blood sugar, and I have found that coconut oil, so let’s say that I wake up in the morning and I’ll check my blood sugar, and my blood sugar is 85. I will then have a cup of coffee with coconut oil, and my blood sugar will drop by 15 points. It’s unbelievable that that cup of coffee with, and I’ve tested it on other people. And it drops their blood sugar every time, somewhere between 10 and 15 points.
Chantel: So one other tip that I tell people is let’s say they have a meal that spikes their blood sugar a lot, maybe they kind of just went a little crazy, they kind of are like oh, I’m going to have this and this and this. When I have a cup of coffee, you could get a cup of decaf coffee, even with some coconut oil in it, and it will literally bring your blood sugar down by about 15 points, which is really good.
Autumn Smith: Yeah.
Chantel: Because when you’re constantly giving your body insulin and that blood sugar’s rising, that is a massive recipe for gaining weight.
Autumn Smith: Oh I love that. So you’ve noticed that there is that same effect for MCT?
Chantel: Yeah, it does, and for whatever reason, I’ve done it, and I don’t know if it’s just coincidence. The MCT oil brings it down, but maybe for me it was like 10 points for the MCT and about 15 for the coconut oil, but that might just be … like who knows, they both bring it down, so I can’t really say, it’s not that much of a difference.
Autumn Smith: Yeah, one or the other, because you know your blood sugar response depends on activity, your microbiology, and it’s so complicated.
Chantel: Yes.
Autumn Smith: Okay, awesome, awesome stuff. So second question, if we were to find you on a Saturday morning and you had nothing to do, where would you go? What would you do?
Chantel: I love to play tennis. So I always play, I do tennis cardio at 9:00 every Saturday morning. I’m really big into walking. It’s funny, I’d either be walking or I’d be playing tennis. All of my, you know I’ve interviewed over a thousand women, and when I ask them, what’s kind of the magic elixir that really helps you keep your weight off? Let’s say you’ve gained a little bit, and every one of them say walking. It’s because one of the things that someone said to me is like sometimes when you go to the gym and you work out really, really hard, like if you do like an orange theory, or you go to the gym and you do a class that’s like intermittent, they’re doing intervals and just craziness, they say that they feel like sometimes that will make them eat more.
Chantel: So they’ve worked out and then they eat so much because they’re kind of like oh, I had this crazy workout this morning, and then they kind of overdo it on the eating. But when they walk, they’re burning so many calories, but they never go oh, I had this huge walk, let me eat a little bit more than normal.
Chantel: So that is something that I have found when I do walking, if I say hey, I’m going to walk seven days a week. It’s funny, I just got back from Cancun and there was this girl, you know I still interview people, like I’m fanatical about interviewing people, but there was this girl who was wearing this thong that was literally this big. Like she had the best body. I mean literally was barely covering her nipples. I mean I’ve never seen a more skimpy bathing suit, but this girl had a body to die for.
Autumn Smith: I love that.
Chantel: I asked her about her working out and her eating and everything she did, and the thing she said is she walks for an hour and a half to two hours, walks, she walks her dog an hour and a half to two hours every day, and if I showed you this girl’s body, you’d be out, you’d be “Thanks Chantel, let me go for a walk right now.” You know?
Autumn Smith: That’s amazing. Yeah, a lot of people miss that point, and I was a fitness trainer, I used to work out like when I was, like six hours a day, and you’re right, it triggers cravings. But the other cool thing about walking is it burns off cortisol, and a lot of us, we’re way too stressed out, so that cortisol definitely helps, and I have an aura ring, I count my steps, and I have a treadmill desk. But yeah, I love that you brought that up. Genius, again, that’s a really great point.
Autumn Smith: Okay, last question, fun question, what did you have to let go of to get where you are today?
Chantel: I really had to let go of the fact that eating is not comfort, and that when I’m eating, eating for any other reason than fuel for my body is causing more damage to myself. That it’s not actually comforting me because I had this idea that if I’m stressed, if I’m upset, anything, that this was a comfort for me, and that was going to help me, and that’s the main thing that I had to realize that actually it’s harming me. It’s causing all kinds of health issues because I’m eating more than my body needs. I’m eating foods that should never even be a food. You know?
Autumn Smith: Yup.
Chantel: And things that don’t need to be put in my body, so I had to get to this idea that I eat because I want to fuel my body, and I want it to make the body the best that I can be.
Autumn Smith: Oof, again, a really, really solid point. And I love too, because I have a past with the emotional eating thing as well, and not only are there health implications, but also you’re not evolving emotionally necessarily because you’re constantly chasing back those feelings, or whatever discomfort you’re experiencing rather than kind of leaning into it and going there and checking in with yourself. So awesome, okay. Now that we know-
Chantel: Oh wait, I have a good quote for you. I had on my show, I had this girl named Kristen [Cuthriel 00:11:28] that came on my show and she said the best thing to me. She said “You have to sit with unease to cure your disease.” So sometimes you just have to sit with the unease, like you have to be like “Okay, you know what? I don’t like how I’m feeling right now.” I have to sit with that unease to cure your disease because what happens is is that when you use food for other reasons than fuel, and you go, “Oh, I’m so stressed, I need a brownie, I’m so stressed, I need pizza, I need some chips and salsa.” Whatever it is, it’s because you’re not willing to sit with that unease, and guess what? Now you have a disease, whether it’s people doing that with alcohol or whatever it is, you have to be okay sometimes going, you know what? I am hurting right now and that’s okay.
Autumn Smith: Yes. Yes, exactly. I wasn’t so good at that when I was younger, but I’m embracing it now and just being like look, this is a season, this is a day, this is a period in my life where some things, my emotions are here to tell me, something’s not working. And I just need to find out what that is and have the bravery to change it and move forward, but yes, love it. Okay, so now I kind of give them a little taste of who you are, why don’t you tell us your story? It’s pretty cool, so give us like the Reader’s Digest version of who you are, how did you get into this work?
Chantel: Yeah, basically I’m literally am one of those people like I would gain 20 pounds, lose 10 pounds. Gain 30 pounds, lose 20 pounds. I was always on a yo-yo. I literally tried every single diet known to man. I mean it was just ridiculous. I mean if you look at my book closet of how many books I read, it was just on and on and on. It was always like all my friends were like okay, what diet are you on now? You know? It was just like a joke. But I finally, I had a trainer named Chris that told me about intermittent fasting, and I tried it, and it was a combination of intermittent fasting and I literally what I did was I read the Bible and I read every single Bible verse that had to do with fasting or eating.
Chantel: So a combination of that and the intermittent fasting, I lost 40 pounds and I have kept it off, and it’s just never been easier for me. So I’m just really happy with what that has done for my diet and my goals.
Autumn Smith: That’s amazing, yeah, and I can’t wait to dig into this because I have so many people that I’m like oh no, you have to try the paleo diet, and for some reason for some people it’s just too restrictive, and I think fasting is a nice way to bring people in, and they still can kind of control their weight, and still eat what they want, and still see results. So super cool. Okay, so let’s just define it for people. We’ve done one other show about intermittent fasting, but it was only 15 minutes.
Autumn Smith: So just tell us what it is, and maybe like your three favorite types.
Chantel: Yeah. So for me what I do is it basically is intermittent fasting is an eating pattern that goes okay, sometimes I fast, and sometimes I eat, and for me I do a six hour window, and I change that window all the time. So sometimes I do 12 to 6. Sometimes I do, if I want to go to a party and I want to eat later I might do 2 to 8. Sometimes I do six hours, sometimes I do eight hours. But for me, if I’m doing an eight hour window, I can maintain my weight. But if I want to lose weight, I’m more in a four to six hour window.
Chantel: So let’s say I just got back from Cancun and wanted to really slim down because I knew I was going to be in a bikini with a bunch of people, so I was like okay, I want to kind of tighten things up a little. And I just really did one meal a day. So I just ate one meal a day. Then I also right now I’m actually writing a new book. It’s going to probably be out in the next 30 days. It’s called Fasting to Freedom.
Autumn Smith: Oh, like that.
Chantel: And it really, really is talking about longer fasts. So I’m kind of for me, I do every week I do at least a one 24 hour fast. So I’ll go from like Thursday night to Friday night and not eat. So for 24 hours. Sometimes I’ll do a 48 hour fast where I’ll do two nights where I won’t eat. Then for other reasons for really healing my body if I’ve got some, my thyroid’s not functioning right, my autoimmune issues that I have, I’ll do a longer fast. I’ll do a three day fast, a five day fast. Right now when you’re talking to me, the last time I ate was Sunday night. So I have, and today is what are we on, Thursday?
Autumn Smith: Yeah, wow.
Chantel: So yeah, Sunday to Monday, Monday to Tuesday to Wednesday, yeah, so I’m on really day four now of my fast.
Autumn Smith: Oh, and you feel great?
Chantel: I do feel good, yeah. The thing about it is when you do longer faster, you have, this is a little bit what you’re like. You’re a little bit like a roller coaster. You’re like oh my gosh, I feel like a million bucks, and then you kind of will be like oh gosh, I feel like awful, and then you feel good, and then you kind of feel awful. So but for me when I do my longer fasts, I still have coffee with coconut oil, I’ll do unsweetened tea. If I’m really dying on the vine I’ll have some bone broth, or I’ll have water with lemon just to kind of pick me up, but I’m not eating anything.
Chantel: If I’m really dying I might have water with literally like a .5 ounces of fresh squeezed orange juice just to give me a little bit of a pick me up. But very, I mean anything I’m doing I’m having under 50 calories in a day.
Autumn Smith: Okay, wow. So two things I want to talk about in there. I know you’re testing your blood sugar all the time, and probably other bio markers as well. What are you seeing when you’re doing a shorter fast versus an extended fast?
Chantel: Yeah, so the thing that is so crazy that people, that really makes no sense, but when you do a lot of fasting, it actually stabilizes your blood sugar. So people think the opposite. They’re like oh, well I have blood sugar issues, and I’ve got a lot of highs and lows, so I’ve got low blood sugar, so I could never do a long fast, or I could not do intermittent fasting. I was the same way, and actually fasting stabilized my blood sugar. It’s absolutely the opposite of what you think that’s going to happen, so that’s one of the best things. I used to be pre-diabetic.
Chantel: So what that means is when you take your blood sugar in the morning, if your fasting blood sugar is over 100, then you are … between 100 and 120, you’re pre-diabetic. After 120, you are now diabetic at your fasting blood sugar. So when I was taking my blood sugar before, I was right around 98, around 102. I was kind of right in that range. I was very close to that border of being pre-diabetic.
Chantel: And now when I take my blood sugar, I wake up in the morning and it’s perfect. It’s 70, 75, 80, it’s a really great blood sugar, and it’s funny because one of the things that I’m just a funny friend. Like one time we went out, it was a girl’s luncheon, it was friend’s birthday, and I brought my thing out and I had all different like things, and I was like okay, here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to test everyone’s blood sugar before we eat, and I literally had new test strips for everyone, and new little things to prick everyone, and we pricked everyone’s blood sugar before they ate, and we pricked everyone’s blood sugar after they ate.
Autumn Smith: Yeah.
Chantel: Yes, the skinniest girl in the bunch, I mean she’s almost like beyond skinny, like too skinny kind of. The girl that was the skinniest, guess what? She had the lowest blood sugar before, and she had the lowest blood sugar after.
Autumn Smith: Isn’t that interesting?
Chantel: Yes.
Autumn Smith: You do that, we need to hang out. Why don’t you live here? Because I can’t get my friends to do the blood sugar testing. I’m like no you guys, really, like if you just breathe out when you prick out it doesn’t even hurt.
Chantel: It’s a little prick, it’s not a big deal.
Autumn Smith: Yeah, oh my gosh, I love that you did that, but yeah, you’re right. I mean, and even me, someone who is very careful, I can’t, through my blood sugar testing I realize I don’t do well with carbs. Like I do have diabetes in my family, I just can’t really handle them, but you wouldn’t necessarily, I don’t have a lot of symptoms that would tell you that, but I just know from that testing, so I love that you’re such an advocate of that, because I am too.
Autumn Smith: Second question. So people with autoimmune disease, in particular autoimmune thyroid, a lot of people are suffering from this myth that fasting is bad for the thyroid. So can you talk about that? Are there special things?
Chantel: Yeah, the two best things I’ve ever done for my thyroid are intermittent fasting and also the paleo diet.
Autumn Smith: Yeah.
Chantel: So I’m not 100% paleo. I’m kind of, it really depends. Sometimes I’m 80/20, sometimes I’m 90/10, and sometimes I’m 95/5. It just kind of depends on where I’m at in my weight and how much I’m eating, but I will tell you the main thing for me is i had to get my potassium levels right, I had to get my iron levels right, and get my vitamin C and vitamin B complex. Paleo Valley has two products that I literally cannot live without every single day. Literally, it’s so hard to find products that are made with no fillers, no corn, no soy, no gluten, you know? And they’re literally just powders. So I had to get my iron. My iron was in really bad shape, and a lot of thyroid problems people don’t realize happen in your liver.
Chantel: So it’s because you’ve got liver problems, and my doctor told me that over 35% of the United States population she believes has fatty liver problems. So that’s why thyroid problems, so if you have fatty liver, or if you have liver problems, your T4 cannot convert to T3. So for whatever reason, if I do 100% of paleo diet, and I’m literally just eating lean meats, fruits and vegetables, no grains, my thyroid functions at so much higher of a level. It’s unbelievable how much better I feel and how my thyroid functions.
Chantel: So I’m constantly torn about I know how I feel the best is when I’m eating the paleo diet, so I also don’t think it’s good to deprive yourself, so I try to like, if I want a cookie, I try to make a paleo cookie that satisfies that craving of having a cookie, but it’s just made with great ingredients and honey or coconut sugar, or stuff like that.
Autumn Smith: Oh my gosh, and I can vouch for your cooking making abilities, because you sent to me these ginger snap cookies that rocked my world. So I got to say that first.
Chantel: They’re so good.
Autumn Smith: Amazing. Second thing is the cool thing about our complex too, and I thank you for saying that, the choline in it for fatty liver, we just sent out an email about this. The choline will help the fat be transported out of the liver. So sometimes you need a little more choline in your diet, which is you can find that in here too. So yes, I see that problem all the time.
Autumn Smith: Last question about the thyroid though, are you seeing your antibody levels decline as well when you fast and use paleo?
Chantel: Yes.
Autumn Smith: Is that true for you?
Chantel: Yes, absolutely.
Autumn Smith: Okay, now the thing I really love about your approach is that people probably think I’m hardcore paleo, and I do, I do think if you have digestive issues and other things, I think it’s a great way to live, but I do see a lot of people getting caught up in this deprivation and eating ten pounds of nuts instead of a cookie, you know? You got to just eat what you want, and you have these beautiful, you have these ten rules in your book, and we don’t have time to go over them, but can you pick out your five favorite ones that you think would be best for people who are just starting and talk about them because they are gems, and just, we need you to share them.
Chantel: Sure. So one of the examples that I gave, and I don’t know if I even gave this in my book, but this is a true example. So me and my assistant went out to lunch, and I was just craving pizza that day, I don’t know why, and I don’t eat pizza very often, but I was like, you know what? I just really want some pizza. So I got a gluten free pizza with cheese on it, and she got this huge cesar salad that was like this big with like tons of dressing and cheese and da-da-da-, because she was like I’m going to be good. She actually said this. She was like “I’m going to be good, I’m not going to get pizza, I’m going to get a salad.”
Chantel: Well I was watching her. She ate every bit of that salad, and if I had to estimate, that salad was like 950 calories. Meanwhile, I got this small pizza that was like just one of those real little ones, and I ate like less than half of it, I was extremely satisfied, and I pushed it away. Then she said to me, “Hey, do you mind if I have the rest of that pizza?” And I said, “Yeah, go ahead, have the rest of it.” So she ate that huge salad that was probably 900 calories worth of … even though it was a grilled chicken salad with all that dressing and the cheese and everything else that was on it, I know it was huge, and then she also ended up eating half that pizza? Why? Because that’s not what she wanted.
Chantel: She was like I really wanted pizza, but instead I got the salad. So now here’s a perfect example of someone who ate the salad, and then she ate, what would’ve been better? It would’ve been better if she had had that half of the pizza. So it’s like you have to know the differential. Like I knew that day me getting a salad with grilled chicken was just not going to cut it for whatever reason.
Chantel: Now I don’t have pizza very often. I literally have it maybe once a month or once every other month. I mean I’m not eating pizza on the regular, but I knew that day that’s what I wanted and I chose to have it that day.
Autumn Smith: Yeah.
Chantel: But I’m not having it every day, and I’m not having it every week either. So you have to know, it’s like you have to know when to hold them, and know when to fold them. You have to know, it’s also about knowing the differentials. So if I’m going to have, let’s say I want to have a dairy free ice cream that’s homemade versus a regular ice cream. Well I know that I like that dairy free ice cream, it’s going to satisfy me just as well as this one is, so why not go ahead and have the dairy free one because I know it’s going to kind of satisfy me in the same way.
Chantel: Now if it’s between a steak and a grilled chicken, if I’m really craving a steak, but I see people are like oh, I’ll get the grilled chicken because it’s healthier, well if you’re really craving the steak, then get the steak, but it’s a matter of like listening to your body. What does your body want, and what is it craving? In moderation though. It can’t be every meal, you know? Oh, I want this and I want this and I want this, and I want, you know? Then you can get yourself out of control.
Autumn Smith: Yeah, totally, I love that. And a funny story, I was on tour once as a fitness trainer and I thought oh gosh, I got to eat super clean, everyone’s around, they’ll know, and then I would do this for months on end, and then I’d go home and then I’d have that minibar, and I would eat Toblerones because my body was saying that is now what you want to eat. So I would’ve been far healthier had I just done what I do now and that’s every Friday, we call it fun food Friday, every night we go out after work, me and my son and my husband, and we get whatever we want. And usually yeah, I’ll find a healthier version. Like if I want a piece of cake, yeah, I’m having it.
Autumn Smith: It’s going to be gluten free, but it’s going to be the one I would want, so that helps me look forward to that, and I just don’t bring it in my house. But I go out and I just, I treat myself, and it’s lovely.
Chantel: Yes. So we just on our podcast, the last episode, this girl’s a model, and we interviewed her, and she gave this story and I loved it. She said for some reason she likes chocolate covered marshmallows. She was at Target and she would-
Autumn Smith: [crosstalk 00:28:41]
Chantel: I know, I was like oh, that’s gross, but whatever. So she was like “I really wanted chocolate covered marshmallows.” And she was like I really want it, I really want it, and she was like nope, I’m not going to have it. Nope, I’m not going to have it. So she said she didn’t have it, and then when she went home, she made a huge batch of chocolate chip cookies, and that’s not really what she wanted, and she ate way more chocolate chip cookies, then she started having this and that. She started eating everything else. What she really wanted was that chocolate covered marshmallow. [inaudible 00:29:12] didn’t have it, and then she ended up eating times more, and it goes that is true. It goes back to the same with my assistant. She really wanted the pizza, thought she should get the salad. She ate all of the salad and the pizza and a dessert. It’s like …
Autumn Smith: Yes, I love it. You have to allow yourself to derive pleasure from food sometimes. It’s actually like a requirement and we can move on with our life, because when we don’t what we want, it’s back there, we’re like okay, well I got to find a replacement. Like you said, we often overdo it. I was hitting the nuts hard for a really long time-
Chantel: Oh, I get crazy with the nuts.
Autumn Smith: Just eat the cake, just have a piece of cake. So oh my gosh, I love that we chatted about that. The other thing I want to talk about, talk about your hunger scale. I think this was really helpful too.
Chantel: Yeah, so people who struggle with their weight, they never even know if they’re hungry or not. They just eat when it’s lunch time, they eat when it’s breakfast, they eat when they go out to dinner. They just eat for every reason, and they never know if they’re physically hungry, and what fasting did for me is now I understand when I’m physically hungry and when I’m not, and I will tell you out of the people that I interviewed, no one knew that they were intermittent fasting. This is what’s so weird. No one was like “Oh, I do intermittent fasting. That’s how I stay thin.” They never said that. What they said is … they literally were like “I only eat two meals a day. I usually eat around 12, and then I usually eat dinner around 5:30 or 6,” or whatever they said that they did, but they never used the word intermittent fasting.
Chantel: All the people that I’ve really interviewed were people who were like “No, I don’t read diet books. I’m thin, what would I need one for?” Like one of my favorite people, her name’s Missy, she’s like “I’ve never read a diet book in my entire life. I’ve never had the need for one.” She’s like look at me. You know?
Autumn Smith: Good for her, that’s amazing. And you find that they are just in touch with that natural, they don’t eat until their stomach’s growling?
Chantel: Yes, and they’re physically hungry.
Autumn Smith: Yes, you’re so right, because there are so many reasons. Like even for me that same thing was like oh my gosh, it feels good to get hungry, and then no, okay, I need to eat, rather than wow, I’m trying to avoid writing this email, I should go eat a carrot, or you know, whatever. I need to treat myself, I’m celebrating. That’s great, I love that you unpacked that. We just need to only eat when you’re hungry, truly hungry. Growling stomach hungry.
Chantel: Yes, and it’s funny because one of the girls that I have on my podcast that I asked her, she said I love the feeling, like it’s a mindset. She was like I love the feeling of my stomach growling because I can literally the fat, she’s like I can feel my body … she’s like I know it sounds weird, but I can literally feel my body eating the fat, and that’s, when your stomach’s growling, that’s what it’s doing. It’s going and saying, “Okay, you haven’t given me any food, it’s not time for me to go to the fat stores.” You’ve got hundreds of thousands of calories in your fat stores. So it’s fine. It’s not going to those fat stores and eating off the fat.
Autumn Smith: Yes, I read that book, that Jason Fung book I think, and he said you’re not actually missing a meal, you’re just not eating one because your body is taking from your fat stores, and still having a meal.
Chantel: Yes.
Autumn Smith: You’re still getting everything that you need, but yeah, oh, I love that, the hunger scale. And sorry, I cut you off, because you were going to tell us your favorite rules, and then I just want to make sure we got to that one. But continue, if you want like two other rules?
Chantel: Yes, so I would say my other one would be the enjoyment scale. So one of the things, we have another girl if you listen to the podcast, she talks about how her husband, actually I don’t think she says her husband, whoops. She said a friend, but she was really talking about her husband, and she said that he eats, like it doesn’t matter if he’s hungry or if he’s not hungry, or if he likes it or if he doesn’t like it, if you put it in front of him, he’ll eat it.
Chantel: So it’s like he’ll literally say something like this, like he’ll be eating it and be like … like she’ll say “How’s your sandwich?” And he’ll be like “Not really good.” But he’s still eating it. And it’s like for me, she goes if it’s not a level four or a level five, I don’t eat it. Like five stars being like amazing, right? Four starts is really good. Anything that’s not really good, the second it’s not really good, why do I want to eat it? Why don’t I want to make sure that every bite that I put in my body is coming from me?
Autumn Smith: Yeah.
Chantel: It’s just amazing, it’s just like this is the best bite I’ve eaten, and if it’s really good, that’s fine, but the minute it drops from being really good, I’m not going to eat it anymore.
Autumn Smith: I love that, and we’re not talking about a free for all here, because you can make truly healthy and nutritious foods taste really, really good. Like my smoothie, I’m kind of guilty of this. I make this terrible smoothie, it’s very green and I drink it because I know I should. But then I kind of give myself a free pass the rest of the day. But I think if I would take the time and make it just a little more delicious, I’d feel more satisfied, and I’d probably eat less.
Autumn Smith: The other thing I loved in your book was your three bite rule. Can you talk about that really fast? And I’m sorry, before we go there, you also talk about rating the parts of food, and this really resonated with me because a cupcake, all about the frosting, and just that first layer, that’s the part I love. Like the other stuff I could totally do without, so even when I eat one, I just stick to that because I know that’s what I’m really here for. So rating food and rating parts of food, and the edges of brownies, and I just love that. Okay, so now talk about your three bite rule.
Chantel: Yeah, so one of the things is like what people do, I’m going to give you an analogy. I was on a walk with one of my friends that’s a counselor, and we were walking from my house to her house, and she said you know what people do that have problems with eating or drinking or anything, what they do is they go, let’s say we’re taking a walk, and let’s say I walk backwards for a couple of steps. If I walk backwards for a couple of steps, I don’t go okay, I’m going to go all the way back to your house to get to my destination. I just go okay, I fell back a couple steps, I’m still going to move forward.
Chantel: People who have problems with their eating, what happens is they’ll eat three bites of cake, and they’ll go, oh, I had three bites, oh, I might as well eat the entire cake, and then I’ll start next week and I’ll start my diet. That’s what gets you in trouble. You eat the three bites of cake, because you’re allowed to have three bites of cake. Once you eat those three bites, now you put it away and you keep moving forward. You don’t take three steps backwards and then go, “I’m going to go all the way back here to go forward to where I need to go.” Does that make sense?
Autumn Smith: That’s a … I love that analogy, and also I worked with Jennifer Lopez when I was a fitness trainer, she let herself have three bites of anything.
Chantel: Anything.
Autumn Smith: It kept her very happy, satisfied. She’s never like denying herself. It’s just three bites, three bites. And then we move on, right? Okay.
Chantel: Yes, three bites of whatever you want, and three bites of anything is not going to reduce you from where your goals need to be. Then you’ve satisfied it.
Autumn Smith: Exactly. That’s what I practice too. Okay, awesome. Is there one other rule, and then we’ll have people connect with you, and we’ll give you all the details, but just one other thing you think people should know out there about making this super practical?
Chantel: Yeah, one of the things I talk about in my book is chemical city, and that’s why I love Paleo Valley products so much is because people think, like just like I said with these vitamins, like these vitamins that you have at Paleo Valley are amazing and they don’t have all these ingredients in it, but you can go to having these vitamins and some of these other things that you think are good, but then they’re filled with all these chemicals and fillers and everything else. So it’s really diving in and going okay, what is it? You guys have the most amazing, Paleo Valley has the best beef jerky in town. There’s no one that’s going to have better, and my husband absolutely loves it. But the ingredients are great.
Chantel: But if you’re going to have a Slim Jim, it’s just literally filled with so much chemicals, and it’s not grass fed beef, and it’s just awful.
Autumn Smith: Yeah.
Chantel: So it’s really about finding what you want, but finding the version that isn’t so filled with chemical city, because that’s just a term that I made up. I don’t know why, but my son would come to me and say, “Mom, I came home from baseball and they gave me these snacks, can I have it?” So I look at the thing and I’d be reading it and I’d be like “Son, this is chemical city, are you kidding me? You aren’t eating this, no.” And then he’d be like “Well what about this?” And I’d be like reading the ingredients. I’m like “Ah, chemical city, no.” So now that’s kind of my phrase that I coined that’s called chemical city.
Autumn Smith: And it’s genius, and it’s what you do so beautifully. Like I said, you just make it really practical for everyone. Everyone understands that. You don’t need to memorize, just are there chemicals in there, don’t eat it, like you said. Oh I loved it. This has been so helpful, and again, guys, Waste Away, and then her new books, Fasting to Freedom sounds awesome, check it out. So Chantel, where can people connect with you if they want to learn more?
Chantel: Yeah, so you can go to, I have two different sites. I have ChantelRayWay.com, and that has everything, I’ve got an amazing recipe that I’m going to send you, but it’s going to be on Waste Away on the Chantel Ray Way site, and if you go under recipes, I have the best new smoothie that has got tons of greens that is to die for. I absolutely love it. It’s got a lot of lemon and ginger and cayenne, and it is so delicious. I have two versions. One’s a little bit higher sugar level when I just want something that’s really good, because it’s got a tiny bit of pineapple, but it’s only four ounces, so it’s not a lot.
Autumn Smith: Yeah.
Chantel: Then I have one that just has unsweetened acai version. So I have two versions of it. One just has a little bit less sugar than the other, but they are to die for, and it’s with kale and with greens. So I will send that to you, or just go to ChantelRayWay.com and you can find it there. But then my new book, we have, it should be out, but it’s called Fasting to Freedom, it’s not out yet, but if you want you can go and you can put your name on the waiting list and we can give you updates, and you can get a few free sneak books for the book.
Autumn Smith: So cool, so cool, and I highly recommend checking all of her stuff out like I said, you are a blast, and last question is I’m going to put you in a time machine 20 years, you’re going to go back in time, and you’re going to be able to tell your 20 year younger self one piece of advice that you think would have the most positive affect on the trajectory of your life, what would that piece of advice be?
Chantel: I would say run to God and not to food, and that would be it is that all of us have areas in our life that we just constantly, where we have a God shaped hole, every single person inside of our heart, and we’re always trying to find it through food or drugs or drinking or friends or gossip, or whatever it is, and we try to fill that God shaped hole, and it never ever will be filled with all the things that we’re trying to fill it with. So instead you have to just kind of say, kind of what we talked about is saying you know what God? I’m really stressed right now, and I’m really anxious about this or whatever it.
Chantel: So the Bible says that God will give you the peace that passes all understanding. So really running to him and running to his arms for that instead of all these other things we run to.
Autumn Smith: I love that. I think spirituality is like you said, something that a lot of people are missing and suffering because of, so I forgot to mention that about your book. You have Bible verses, a lot of religious content, which I think is going to help so many people. If you could leave us, you left us that beautiful Bible verse just there that he’ll give us peace that surpasses all understanding. Is there anything else you use in your times, like this is so hard, I’m really wanting to whatever, fly off the rails here, drink a six pack, or eat this birthday cake. Is there something else that helps you in those times?
Chantel: Yeah, what I say is there’s a verse that says open your mouth wide and I will fill it says the Lord, and I love that for me because what I always wanted to do was be like, I would literally say God what I want to do right now, I’m really stressed about work, and what I want to do right now is run and go eat an entire pan of brownies, but I just pray that you say in your word open your mouth wide and I will fill it, so I just ask that you fill my mouth with the peace that I need right now so that I’m not running to something that’s going to make me more miserable in the end. Because it’s just never going to fill me the way that I want it to, because the truth is if I go and eat that entire pan of brownies, it will make me happy for such a short amount of time, and then guess what? Then I feel so much worse afterwards.
Chantel: So I want that lasting peace, not just that short term peace.
Autumn Smith: Love that. I think that’s going to be so helpful for so many people. So thank you again for your time. You’re amazing, and I need that smoothie recipe, and you guys need to check out all of her recipes.
Chantel: [crosstalk 00:43:37]
Autumn Smith: Because her cookies are amazing.
Chantel: My granola, I will tell you … I need to send you my paleo granola. It is hands down, I need to turn it into a bar. It is the best granola you will ever eat. I’m telling you right now. I’m going to send you some.
Autumn Smith: Okay, I can’t wait again.
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***As always, this podcast is not designed to diagnose, treat, prevent or cure any condition and is for information purposes only. Please consult with your healthcare professional before making any changes to your current lifestyle.***