You can always go back to the fundamentals.

I cannot tell you how many clients I've had go on vacation, come back and say, "Bethany, I'm shocked I did not gain any weight on vacation," and the reason they didn't is because they were really not eating between meals, they were not overindulging in alcohol, and they weren't having really high-carb foods that wasn't warranted by any movement that they were doing.

[music] Hi, everyone, it's Terri.

As we come to the very end of the year, this is one of my favorite moments to pause, take a breath, and remember that we don't need to jump into anything intense or dramatic to move forward.

In fact, this is often the best time to get grounded, reconnect with the basics, and remind ourselves what actually creates progress, not just in fasting but in life.

Here at The Fasting Method, our team has been really busy behind the scenes working on some exciting updates and new ideas for 2026.

And while we're deep in planning mode, I thought this week would be a perfect chance to revisit a foundational episode, one that Coach Bethany and I recorded about the true framework of fasting.

Although Coach Bethany is no longer working with us here at TFM, her words of wisdom can always be important for all of us.

In today's replay, we talk about why fundamentals matter, why people often get stuck when they try to skip ahead, and why going back to basics isn't a setback.

It's often the exact way forward.

If you've been finding yourself on the struggle bus, or if you're thinking about how you want to begin the New Year, this episode offers some images and analogies that I hope will stick with you and make your journey feel a little clearer.

Let's dive back in.

[music] Welcome back to The Fasting Method podcast.

This is Coach Terri and I'm very excited to be joined by Coach Bethany today.

Bethany, how are you doing?

Hey, Terri.

I'm doing great.

How are you?

I'm great, and it's so good to get to be on here with you again.

So, Bethany, you and I were talking a little bit about what to cover.

I think this topic that we want to talk about is really important, regardless of where people are in their journey and regardless of where we are in the year.

So if you're listening to this and it's during a holiday season for you, or if you're listening to this and it's the start of a new year, or it's vacation time, or it's summer time, there's always a reason why what we're going to be talking about today is so important.

So let's go ahead and dive in.

Bethany and I wanted to talk today about foundations of fasting.

And we're going to use some different references here.

And, as I just said to her before we came on here, my hope is that everyone listening leaves this episode with some analogy or image that helps them hold on to this really important concept.

And what we're really talking about is

the basics: the skills that you use to build your fasting muscle, to get to longer fasts, to do what's working for your body in a healthy way.

Just like you might think about foundations of a house.

And Bethany, I know you said that you often talk about this in terms of kind of a house analogy.

What does that sound like for you?

I do, Terri.

I have spoken about this in various channels in the Community and with my coaching clients.

And what I usually say to people is, when you're beginning your fasting journey, it is really tempting to want to jump ahead.

Frankly, when you're starting any kind of project, there are certain types of people who, for whatever reason (maybe they're just sick of being sick, or they're sick of being overweight or having diabetes, or maybe it's just their personality), they want to jump ahead and they want to get this done as soon as possible.

The analogy I use is if you are building a house from nothing, you have to lay the foundation first.

I mean, even before that, you have to have a plot of land.

If you start that project by really agonizing over what type of window you're going to have on the third storey (Is that going to be a double-hung window?

Is it going to have an awning?

Is it going to be stained glass?), you're never going to get the house built because you're obsessing about that one window way up there that's a months-away problem for you.

So what I say to folks is to practice laying the foundation, because, without that, you can't build on top of anything.

Bethany, I couldn't agree more.

I love this analogy, and I love your example of that third-storey window, because, oftentimes, I hear people almost getting in their way because they're thinking, "In four months from now, what will I do?" We don't need to worry about that right now.

Until we build that foundation, there's no sense in making that decision yet about that window.

I'm glad they're creating the image of what's coming, but we sometimes get so caught up in those details that we can't get started, we can't move forward.

And then the other thing that I think of with something like you just described, it's almost like then you get the delivery of all these supplies.

So you've got that third-storey window and you've got tons of two-by-fours, and plywood, and lots of nails, and staple guns, and things, but, if you don't have a strong foundation and you just throw all those things together, it's going to be a very unstable house.

The walls are going to fall down easily; a big wind comes through and the whole thing falls down.

So going back to what you described of, first, you lay the foundation.

I grew up-- my dad was a carpenter and I grew up around construction sites a lot.

He was a home builder, and we built two houses that we lived in.

And I remember as a kid loving the stages of it, because the first thing, like you said, was having the plot of land, digging the foundation, pouring the footers, getting all of that solid.

And then the next part is the next thing that's important - building a strong frame.

And again, I feel like some people come to us, or report in, that they're struggling with something about fasting and they don't have a strong frame.

I have heard that many, many times.

In fact, I heard not only that, but, also, "Hey, I've gotten to my goal with fasting before and then I regained the weight." And the reason is always the same.

And I'm not even being hyperbolic.

It is universally because the person never changed their eating habits.

And I really think eating habits are that foundation that we're talking about.

It's (in the context of what we are discussing) when you eat, what you eat, and then, secondarily, how much.

And then, on top of that foundation, that frame I look at is TRE.

Those pauses that you take between meals, that's the framework.

When I was a kid, I loved walking through the house before the drywall went up because you could walk between the walls and things.

But if you don't have that all set up, like you said, the foundation of your eating habits and then the frame of TRE, when you get up to that third floor and put in that window, you're going to be lucky if the builders don't fall through back down to the ground.

So I love this: building on the foundation, creating that frame.

Can we talk a little bit about, then, Bethany, of, okay, so if I'm kind of newer

to this I want to create this image: dig the hole, build the foundation, get a strong frame.

But what if I've been doing this for six months already?

Or what if I've been doing this for two years and I'm in a vacation season, or I'm in a holiday season.

How is this house analogy important for me?

How does it fit in?

I think-- because you can always go back to-- we've been using the word "foundation." We could also use the word "fundamentals." You can always go back to the fundamentals.

I cannot tell you how many clients I've had go on vacation, come back and say, "Bethany, I'm shocked I did not gain any weight on vacation." And the reason they didn't is because they were really not eating between meals, they were not overindulging in alcohol, and they weren't having really high-carb foods that wasn't warranted by any movement that they were doing.

So just those things, as you mentioned - TRE, and food choices, and allowing a pause between meals - so that you're not constantly in a snacking mode is really conducive to maintenance.

So you can do that really whenever you want, even if you want to take a pause in your journey and just scale back, but certainly on a vacation or a weekend away or something like that.

I love that.

It reminds me, too, of (if we're still talking about the house) when you decide to do an add-on to the house, or you need to revise something about the house, you still have the frame, you still have the foundation.

And I think it's really important for all of us to know we have those fundamentals of fasting and eating that we can always rely on and also dial back to.

Now, some people in our community have heard here on the podcast or in our community meetings, a lot of different references for this.

Coach Nadia has often talked about, here in the podcast, your holding

pattern: that safe place that you come back to, kind of in a storm, that place that keeps you solid in what you're doing.

Like you said, when your people go on vacation and come back without gaining weight, they maintained a holding pattern, that safe space.

Some of us might refer to it as scaffolding.

You know, I like to use the term of the fasting dial.

Sometimes you dial up the intensity on the fasting dial, and sometimes you turn that dial down, you lower the intensity.

But we're always coming back to those fundamental pieces.

And I think the importance of that is, a lot of times, people lose sight of the fundamentals.

They get caught up in the details (like you said about the third-storey window), we get caught up in, "I've got family coming for this holiday," or, "I'm going to be on this all-inclusive vacation," or, "I'm having a really tough series of deadlines coming up at work." And what do any of us say as coaches?

Go back to your fundamentals.

Get back into that framework that you've already established.

I really agree with you, Terri.

And, you know, similarly, on the other side of that, let's say, because it happens to most people, let's say you've gone off track, whether you've fallen off your fasting or your way of eating has gone out the window for a certain amount of time.

Some people will come to me after such a time, whether it's been a holiday, a rough time in their life, an illness, whatever it is, and they'll say, "You know, I really want to switch gears and get back on track with a five-day fast," for example.

And it's almost punitive to themselves.

And what I say is, "Why don't we, for example, do some fat fasting this week, get back into some 24s for a week, then get back to alternate day." If you want to do an extended fast, and there are no reasons that you should not do that, then by all means I will support that, but it shouldn't be used as a punishment or as a way to shunt yourself back on to the right track.

You should build back up the way you did initially.

You're singing my song here, Bethany.

I am someone who really cautions people about that, and so I love that you highlighted this so well.

That idea that oftentimes people want to compensate for a holiday meal, or a vacation, or somehow being off track by reining themselves in to the other degree of intensity so they go overboard and want to jump into a really long fast to make up for what just happened these last few days.

And often I see people kind of get into more trouble because now, not only are they already in the place where they were struggling, but now they've upped the ante, they've made a harder goal to get back in.

And so, like you said, going back, dialing back the intensity a little bit, using some fat fasting first, focusing just on getting back to whole foods, no snacking, no grazing.

And then maybe next week you can start to increase your number of hours of fasting again.

I had a Latin teacher in high school and he used to say, "If you haven't studied for the exam prior to the night before the exam, don't study at all.

Just go to sleep." And he said, "The reason is-- it has nothing to do with, you know, sleep and performance.

He said, "The reason is, you know, Michael Jordan trains year round." This was when Michael Jordan still played in the NBA.

"Michael Jordan plays year round.

He doesn't play seven hours straight of basketball before a big game and then go home and go to sleep." And he said, "You need to be putting in your time every single day." Fasting is no different.

There is absolutely no way around it.

It's a long haul.

I'm so impressed that you took Latin; I'm still caught up on that detail, Bethany.

I totally agree.

So many of us want to show up for this big fast, but it's what we do midday, evening, morning, every day that really makes the difference.

Not showing up for that real intense, one, big fast every couple of months or in a compensatory way.

I think that is one reason that people want to get into alternate day or extended fasting right off the bat.

And I really do have sympathy and empathy for people who come to The Fasting Method because they have tried every other diet or way of losing weight that they have been exposed to.

And so I completely understand why someone would think, "Well, I don't want to focus more on my eating.

I can't fix my eating.

That's why I'm here.

I need to fast it off." Now, the truth of the matter is, fasting is a therapeutic way of losing weight, of losing fat.

You are not going to be doing (if you do this correctly) therapeutic fasting for the rest of your life.

And so there is no way around learning to work with your relationship with food, building a healthy relationship with food.

So as tempting as I think it is for some people to try to out-fast a poor way of eating, it's the same thing that the fitness industry has been saying correctly (this is something they've been saying correctly) for years, which is you can't outrun a bad diet.

And the same is true for fasting.

Now, once you build up to the point where you are able to do consistent, alternate-day fasts, and to sprinkle in extended fasts, then fasting really, in my experience and that of my clients, it really can seem a little miraculous because it feels easy, it's comfortable, and it works.

But you need to build up to that point, otherwise you're going to be setting yourself back.

I think that's a good point, too, that, if you find that you have been able to do it well - you've been able to therapeutically fast and have good results and feel good doing it - and then suddenly it's not working, you're not getting results or you don't feel well-- or one of the favorite phrases, I think, of people in our community is to say, "I'm on the struggle bus." If you find yourself on the struggle bus, where are you going to go?

You don't need a different map.

You need to go back to the same map.

Go back to the fundamentals.

Get yourself strong.

Get yourself-- you know, maybe the some tension or stress needs to be relieved in there.

Circling back to those fundamentals is so important rather than I'm going to jump to some other fantastical kind of fasting manipulation of this.

No, go back to those fundamentals.

Go back to your-- like you said, Bethany, go back to eating well in a way that serves your body.

Go back to TRE.

Build up to the fasts again.

The other thing that I hear so many people talk about is they look a little defeated when I say that because it feels to them like they're going backwards.

And I know we talked about this before in an episode with Coach Heather about it's kind of like a video game.

You know, you don't start all the way over again at the very beginning of the game.

You get to go back to the most recent level of achievement.

And so, when we have to kind of go to the fundamentals again, it doesn't mean we're at square one and we don't know anything, but we do need to go and rehearse them again, practice them again, let them work again before dialing back up.

I've had that same experience, Terri, with people being disappointed or even frustrated that I'm not recommending that right off the bat, for example, they jump into a 72-hour fast, which I would not do because I don't think for most people that it's safe, let alone comfortable or conducive to wanting to fast for months if that's what you need to do.

So it really is a mindset shift, and it does require a bit of trust in the process that you build up slowly over time.

You can also liken this to any kind of physical training, you know, training for a marathon or training for a powerlifting competition.

There are tons of adaptations that happen in the body that take months to build up.

But if you start your marathon training right out of the gate with an 18-mile run, or you start powerlifting and you want to hit a one-rep max every single day, you're more likely to get injured than anything else.

So it really is taking a stepwise approach over time that's going to be the most effective.

Absolutely.

People who come to my Community groups know I love a lot of sports analogies, even though I'm really not that into sports, but I think they're things that we all have some familiarity with, even if we've never done them.

Like, it makes sense to anyone if I say, "If you decided tomorrow that you wanted to run a marathon and you wanted me to coach you on it, you would look at me like I had four heads if I said, 'Great, go out and run 18 miles tomorrow.' I mean, I don't know, maybe you're really fit and somehow you did it, but where is that going to take you?

It's not going to help build what you're working on building." If you're like me and you're just starting out, I started with that Couch to 5K program.

I think the first day of that, the longest you run is something like 30 seconds.

I had to really build up to the point where I could run three miles at a time, and then I could get further into my run, and then eventually I could do a half marathon.

But, I guarantee you, I didn't start it and say, "Oh, I want to run my half marathon next week so I'm going to have to train hard this week." It's a really great way for me to think about it, is you start slow and low and then you build up.

You build that stamina, the knowledge, even the muscle memory or the experience of it so that you know how it goes as you get into those longer segments.

Similar with fasting.

TRE is a short version of fasting, and then you build your way up to longer fasts.

You know, Terri, I likened this process or this journey to a marathon.

You know, this is semantic, but I do think it's a little bit more like a duathlon because you have the eating and you have the fasting.

And so I don't know about you, but I have had clients say something to the effect of, "Well, I didn't get my three-mile run in yesterday, and the reason I did not get my three-mile run in yesterday is because I was not asked to ride 40 miles on my bike." In other words, they say, "Well, no, I did not do TRE and no snacking this week.

And the reason is I think I need to do more fasting." What do you say to clients-- I'm guessing you've had clients ask the same of you.

What do you say to that?

In some way, Bethany, as I think about that, I go back to our kind of topic of this whole episode of the foundations, the fundamentals.

It's about balance.

It's about relying on the two, really necessary aspects.

So it would be like if someone doing a duathlon was spending all of their focus on one aspect of it, and that didn't leave them or allow them to develop the other aspect.

They're going to have a tough time in that competition.

You've got to be kind of equally trained, equally balanced in those things.

And so often I see people trying to do the fasting without being equally balanced in the food area, and they think the solution will be, "Let me just fast more, let me do some more fasts this week, because that's how I'll control this." And really, fasting and eating well, it's not about controlling yourself.

It's about doing what's healthy and a balancing effort for your body.

It would be like that athlete saying, "Well, let me just do the cycling." I could see myself if I were training for this.

I enjoy the cycling part.

I do not enjoy the running part.

So my coach would be like, "Uh, Terri, I noticed you clocked a lot of miles on the bike this week, but you haven't done any of the running." Yeah, because I feel better able to manage what I'm doing when I'm on the bike than when I'm running.

And that's what I see people doing - leaning too heavily on the fasting and not paying any attention to the eating or not paying enough attention to the eating.

They're going to maybe their strong suit.

And for some of us, that's the opposite.

We lean so heavily on, "I'm eating properly, I'm eating foods that work for my body," and they're not ever leaning into that part that seems more challenging for them of getting the fasting going.

That was me.

That was me and my journey.

It took me six months to be able to do an alternate-day fast.

And part of that was physiological, but I think a large part of that was mental as well.

I spent a lot of time eating a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet and doing 24-hour fasts, three 24-hour fasts a week.

And I started to feel better.

I had a slight fat loss, but it wasn't until I got to that fasting, that alternate-day fasting, consistently, two or three times a week, that I really started healing and losing fat.

And it was frustrating, but what I say to people, even though that's not what I recommend-- I don't recommend that people take six months to build up to an alternate-day fast because, for most people, it's just not necessary and you can lose motivation in that time.

What I do think it did for me is I really built a new relationship with food during that time.

I got lots of practice in eating and preparing food, so I think that was beneficial in that way.

It seems like that was part of you developing the one side strong enough so that, when you brought the other side in, there was a good balance.

And I think that's, you know, another important part of this whole topic of fundamentals.

We want to have both of them be strong.

And, you know, we might for a while lean too heavily on one because we feel safer.

And I know this sounds surprising to some people, but a lot of people report they feel safer fasting, even though, for many of us, that was the harder part to begin.

They feel safer fasting because they don't have to make decisions about food, whereas, once they're eating, it's all kinds of decisions that need to be made.

So I think kind of just going back to, as we're talking about, those foundations and the fundamentals of fasting and eating well, that they are balanced.

And whether you, as I said, you're going through a holiday season or some of us it's coming into a new season, a new time of year, vacations, family stressors, work stressors.

Balancing your fundamentals is always the best route to go.

And unfortunately, I've watched so many people feel the need to increase the intensity, "Let me fast more," "Let me take five more things out of my diet right now." That's not the best time to do this, while you're navigating these other stressors in life.

So coming back to the fundamentals, coming back to that foundation.

So, Bethany, I think that you and I have covered a lot today in our thoughts around this whole topic, and I just wondered if you had any kind of closing encouragement that you wanted to share before we close out here.

I would share with people that, similarly to whatever it is they're comparing themselves to in other areas of life, if you're starting out with fasting, don't worry that someone else in the Community, or someone else on Facebook, or who you know in your neighborhood is doing a 48-hour fast and you are eating six times a day.

Focus on, first, changing what you're eating so that you're not hungry that often, that frequently.

Then focus on eating square meals, really taking a stepwise approach.

These are all examples.

But don't plan on jumping in.

It's paradoxical in a way.

The slower you try to go, the more you'll probably be able to do more quickly, as opposed to, if you just-- if you've never fasted before and you dive right into a five-day, water fast, it's going to be really uncomfortable and it might leave you with a sense that fasting is not for you.

So I would just be prepared to trust the process and take your time with this.

You know, Bethany, as you were just talking, it reminded me of one more thing I wanted to share.

And that is, when I was in high school, I was a pretty bright student and I really had horrible habits.

I didn't study.

I didn't do the work.

I would write all of my papers the last night before they were due.

And I had a really good friend who was struggling with some of the academic knowledge part, but she had such good habits.

She worked on it every day.

She got support.

You know, she did all of the things that you should do.

And I remember then kind of looking at that and, you know, I think she was a little bit like, "Oh, man, if only I could tackle this information as easily as Terri can," but, by the time we went to college and things, who do you think was in a better place?

She knew how to work through difficult content.

I only knew how to fly through stuff that kind of just came easily to me and, you know, that didn't last very long.

And I really struggled then because I didn't

have the fundamentals: I didn't have good study skills, I didn't have good organizational skills and things.

So I encourage people to keep looking at this.

There's no quick way to the end of this race.

The fundamentals, the basics are really the place to keep yourself going.

And like you said, Bethany, even if you're hearing, "Oh my gosh, this person's done that achievement, lost this much weight, or did this length of fast," stick with your fundamentals because that's what's actually going to carry you through.

Like you said, you're going to accomplish more in the long run.

[music] Thank you for listening, and I hope this episode gave you a renewed sense of steadiness as you wrap up the year.

Your foundations are not a fallback.

They're your strength, your structure, and your safety net.

Returning to them isn't doing less.

It's doing the work that actually lasts.

If this replay resonated with you, please share it with someone who might need a fresh start that feels realistic and compassionate.

And don't forget to stay connected with us inside the The Fasting Method Community.

We've got a lot of exciting things coming, and we'd love for you to be a part of the journey as we move forward toward 2026.

Take good care of yourself and I'll see you again in the New Year.

[music]