Episode #328: Cold Plunging, Intermittent Fasting, & Other Fitness Trends

Intro:

Welcome to The Healthy Catholic moms podcast where we make moving and nourishing our bodies the priority, so that we not only fulfill our vocations, but excel in our callings. I’m Brittany Pearson, a Catholic wife, mom, personal trainer, and I’m here to help you build healthy habits that actually fit your life. I am here to teach you how to get the results that you want and maintain the results that you want without spending hours at the gym, or meal prepping all weekend long. I understand I am right here with you getting my workouts done in the nooks and crannies of time, looking up recipes, while nursing babies and trying to prioritize my own health amidst everything else going on. But I have really good news for you, you can get the results you want. In less time without doing hours of cardio and restrictive dieting. I’m going to teach you how to use strength training and eating in a macro balanced way to get you feeling so good and your skin full of energy, and strong to carry out your life. Okay, on this podcast, we’ll delve into how to lose fat in a simple, sustainable way. What your workouts and nutrition should look like during different seasons of life, like during pregnancy and postpartum times. We’ll also discuss healthy quick meals, and how to get them on the table make food that kids will actually want to eat. Mom hacks for making your day run more smoothly, and so much more. All the while with continuous encouragement to stay the course and live with discipline. This is a place where we’re striving to steward our bodies. Well, in order to joyfully serve. I am so happy you’re here. Let’s dive in.

Main Episode:
Hello there beautiful people. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for being here. For coming back. If you’re all the time I am pumped as always to share with you guys today. Thank you so much. I do want to tell you before we happen to today’s episode that I’m giving somebody, one of you beautiful people a $25 amazon gift card, how am I doing this, I’m going to kind of raffle one off if you submit a podcast rating and review. So very simply, all you need to do is wherever you listen to podcasts, just scroll to where for most things, it’s at the bottom to where you would leave a review. And if there’s just a star rating available, that’s awesome, I appreciate you giving it a star rating, there’s the opportunity to do a written review like Apple does have that. Spotify I believe does as well just screenshot it after you write it. So either after you give the star rating, or after a written review as well screenshot it and email it to me Brittany and healthy Catholic moms.com. And you are entered that is all you have to do to enter the screenshotting piece and emailing to me so that I know you did it. And you know, it’s there’s so many platforms, it’d be hard for me to track across all platforms, but also a lot of directories. It takes 48 hours to appear. So you might panic if you just submit it. And then you’re like, wait, I did it. I don’t know why it’s not coming up. And if that happens, and you forget to screenshot it, just you know, wait a couple days, and go back on and check for it and you should be able to screenshot it and submit it. So you have the whole month of August to do this because I want to I know August is not really like a high. listening to podcast time for myself either just tends to be a calmer time of summer, for I’m not driving around as much. And just you know, people tend to not listen quite as frequently. So I want to give everybody a chance to hear some of these episodes that they can, you know, get an opportunity to enter. So thank you in advance for doing that.

And today we’re hopping into some juicy topics cold plunging and more. And if you’re new around here, and you clicked on it, because you want to know about that maybe you just even searched cold plunging and podcasts in this episode came up what I want you to do, because today I’m just talking about my opinion, and some of the science and research right behind these topics. But if you really want to know what I think is the best route for overall health or the basics that you should be setting up I have lots of episodes like that a recent one, probably the most recent one was what you do and don’t need to focus on for fat loss. This is kind of along those lines of the where to talk about some stuff. If you don’t have the bones in place. If you’re not prioritizing sleep, if you’re not getting enough protein. If you’re not moving in general, that’s where we start don’t worry about if cold plunging is going to burn more brown fat or not because you’re eating Big Macs every day. Okay, let’s be honest. It’s true. We gotta make those other changes first by opinion get those pillars in place.

So I know the kind of fun stuff here number one cold plunging. isn’t great for fat loss is what we’re gonna talk about first. Research is showing that there is not enough evidence for fat loss. Now, I have done a lot of research on this for myself. I’ve listened to it on a lot of other podcasts. I know it’s a thing. I know, it’s a very hot thing right now it’s been for like, over a year, probably more. I myself tried it. Like starting this year 2023. I was like, Alright, I’m going to do this every day, the logistics got tricky if you don’t have an ice bath. Like a lot of people in that I’ve gotten some offers to be sponsored by cold plunge things and whatnot. But it’s when I saw what I was looking into it, then in January, I was planning to do it more for mental toughness. So I wanted to delve more into the how why like if it is supposed to inspire fat loss and whatnot. So research pretty much shows as again, I’ve looked at it myself, but I’ve also then taken a listen to other people’s views on other podcasts. And I haven’t heard anyone say yes, go do cold plunge for fat loss. So research is showing not enough evidence for fat loss. And research is mixed as to whether it’s good for reducing inflammation, speeding recovery, and etc, etc. So the other thing, though, is ice baths have have been used for years in sports recovery, right? You see that all the time, like athletes go into the ice bath. I don’t know how accurate that is, how realistic that is. I need some sports trainers weighing in here. But I you know, we hear ice baths as a thing. So I would assume it’s going to help at least in those areas, speeding up recovery and reducing inflammation. But again, if you’re trying to do this for fat loss, there’s a lot of other things you can do. Because there’s just not enough evidence that shows like, yes, for sure. There’s a whole argument about Yes, brown fat and white fat, like is it gonna burn more, and it’s just inconclusive at this point. So some research even advises against it for the general population, because it basically shocks your body, it raises your blood pressure, and whatnot. What I think it’s excellent for why I was doing it is for the Mental Toughness part, you want to do something hard, you want to force your body to be uncomfortable. That is a great way to do that to make yourself uncomfortable. It’s, you know, I think one of those things and why you see it a lot. I don’t know how many of you have seen this lot. But there’s a lot of people in the business world that I follow, who have gotten into it even more recently, in the past couple of months. Like it seems like there’s a huge boom in the business world. And I think the idea there is like make yourself do something hard right away, because there’s a lot of things you have to do that are hard, that are uncomfortable. And you’re starting your day off with that with a win of staying under ice cold water for two minutes or four minutes or six minutes. You know, whatever you’ve it’s also a lot of people cite the benefits is all like anecdotal than just like the benefits of feeling really clear headed and really awake alive. You know, it’s make sense when somebody’s sleeping, or like I’m gonna dump a bucket of cold water over your head like Yeah, but wakes you up. So if you want to go after it for any of those things, for the Mental Toughness for feeling really awake and alive and feeling like you’ve conquered something really hard to start your day off. Amen. Have at it. Obviously consulted Doctor verse, I’m not a doctor. And I have to say that because I don’t want you to shock your body. But if you’re going to try it for fat loss, just skip it do something else for fat loss, okay? Like walk, string, train, eat high protein, all that good stuff.

All right, Topic number two is intermittent fasting. I have brought this up multiple times before I there’s one episode in particular that sticks out in my mind of when I said like the pros and cons of different styles of eating like keto, like intermittent fasting like Weight Watchers, because there’s definitely good things that we can apply from even things that are fads and fleeting ways of eating or diets that I wouldn’t tell you to stick to or to follow. But you know, we can glean some things from it. But intermittent fasting has been hot for a while I think continues to be hot. Those who do this and see fat loss. This is according to research. Those who do this and see fat loss are typically seeing results because they’re eating in a calorie deficit. That’s kind of the takeaway. There isn’t this isn’t another annoying and conclusive answer. But there is not enough research at this point to show Yes, you definitely burn more fat just from having a shorter eating window. When people lose fat and lose weight from intermittent fasting. It’s usually because they are just cutting out calories if they were a nighttime snacker and now they’re only eating 11 to seven every day. Well, they just cut out 500 calories that they were eating at night, or having with drinks that night. It’s usually more of a lifestyle change and they’re not usually eating the same amount of calories in that eating window. So Oh, if you feel good on it, this is such an individual thing. Great, then do that, you know, give your body a break from digestion. Now, there’s a lot of research that shows that it’s good to eat within 90 minutes of waking up like not right away when you wake up. But about an hour to 90 minutes after is a pretty natural time for your body to have woken up. Hopefully, you’ve gotten out in some sunlight and like your body’s adjusted and realize it’s awake for the day, then you get your first meal and get your metabolism going to get protein synthesis going.
So if you’re trying to force it to 11 o’clock or till noon, or till two or something, just because you think it’s going to jumpstart fat loss. And, you know, for that reason, don’t do it. Okay, if you feel good waiting till 9am, or even 11am to eat, but you’re getting in enough calories for yourself that day. You know, again, not a doctor, do what feels best for you. It is really good for people who struggle to have boundaries around eating and who are really indecisive. And we’ll just do the How should I shouldn’t I dance. But it’s not great for social situations. I was just talking with a client about this the other day on a coaching call. Because she was asking my opinion about it. I said that I’ve seen it be helpful for clients who do struggle with like nighttime snacking, or different boundaries around food that it helps to just have a kitchen cut off time, you know, not necessarily a hard and fast even if it’s 9pm. Like Nope, I don’t eat after 9pm. So you have ample time to eat dinner, and have a glass of wine or something after dinner, have some dessert and then kitchens closed. Like it’s just nice to have the hard and fast boundary. But so that’s really great. But if you’re, you know going to see fireworks and it’s nine o’clock you’re going to the drive and you’re like oh, I can’t eat now or in the morning you’re going to a family brunch for you like well, I don’t eat till noon, you know where we’re having brunch at 10. It’s hard to make work for the long term. Obviously, if you make anything work, if you’re dedicated to it. This is just there’s not enough evidence that shows that because you’re fasting different times of the day, you’re automatically burning fat there. It’s usually what research thinks is more due to the calorie deficit. So you could do the same thing by just making sure you are burning more than you’re taking in, which is what we try to do if we’re trying to pursue fat loss whether you’re working with me one on one, or in the eight week beginner program. That’s what we do we find a calorie deficit for you.

Okay, last up this one’s funny, because I was very familiar with the first tubing thing and I was like, What in the heavens? Reverse running according to gem dusk.com is like all the rage right now for 2023. It is literally what it sounds like running backwards. Now I have a neighbor who I’ve mentioned on the podcast folks, she’s very disciplined. She walks for miles in the morning for miles at night, every single day. I don’t think she’s I talked to her a couple years ago about this. And she had not missed a day. And I don’t know how many years to that point. So I’m assuming her streak is still going I still see her. She’s missed a single day, but I still see her all the time. So she’s still at it. But she kind of like serpentine when she walks because she was telling me one day that she looked up research about it’s better for your joints and whatnot to do that. So they’re not just walking flat when you’re walking so much like that. It is funny because people you know, it looks funny to be serpentine down the sidewalk and or, um, you know, fire hydrants. But, yeah, reverse running, I guess is up there too. And according to Jim desk.com, it’s supposed to help with posture. Okay. Some experts have claimed that running backward provides up to eight times the benefit of running forward. I just find this one so hilarious, because I can’t really see implementing it much in daily life. Like I have a treadmill and I don’t trust myself. I know I used to do that. Even actually back when I was at the gym, so I guess I just had no shame. I would run forward run to the side we see people do this right. And you might do this yourself too. And I definitely did this like side shuffle side, shuffle the other side run backward for a couple seconds. Like do it again, put up the incline a little and do that. I haven’t done it forever, but also thinking about just running like backwards outside just sounds very funny to me. But I don’t know I personally feel like there’s other ways I can work on my pasture, like banded face poles and lying on the ground doing angel wings two exercises I love and I always put in our monthly workout group in the chasing greatness program. But if you want to dry reverse running, it doesn’t seem to have any downsides except for maybe injury I could see it’s going to kind of challenge coordination and balance there but again, have at it. So the takeaway here is of these three like don’t do it if you don’t want to because There’s not enough research to back up, why you should do it. And if it’s something that you’re going for, like the first two, in particular cold plunging and intermittent fasting, if you are after fat loss and that’s your goal around them, just don’t do them. Okay? But if you’re looking for different benefits, like mental toughness when it comes to coal plunging or like, having stricter boundaries, when it comes to intermittent fasting, taking that decision off the table, reducing decision fatigue, like, awesome, maybe that’s something to try out and adapt for your life. Even I bet I would do that my husband and I, during the week I remember a period of saying because we had gotten into the habit of having a drink at night. And we were like, okay, Monday through Friday, like we just kitchen caught off at 7pm or whatever, whenever we eat dinner like dinner, done, no drink, no snacks and then on the weekends, we will and good for our waistlines good for our budgets. Well we can adapt those kinds of things as well doesn’t have to be all or nothing. All right, I hope this was helpful. Thank you so much for being here. And if you have any questions about anything head over my website healthy Catholic moms.com, pregnancy and postpartum programs up monthly workout group that we do is chasing greatness. There’s gonna be another eight week challenge coming up soon in September. So all the information is on the work with me page of my website and feel free to shoot me an email if you have any questions as well. All right, ladies, have a great rest of your day. I will talk to you next time and next time we are talking about how to use macros and intuitive eating for fat loss and maintenance. All right, we’re gonna be a good one. I’ll talk to you then.

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