New for September: Zoom Office Hours Where I Answer Readers' Questions
I'm holding three sessions in September to meet readers and answer questions about a variety of health and fasting topics. I hope you can make one of these sessions!
I’m convinced that September is the very best time to start afresh with your health and weight loss goals. Summer might be the most difficult time of year to stick with any weight loss or health plan, even though we’re in shorts and bathing suits. I think summer is even harder than December. For one thing, it lasts three months, not one.
From Memorial Day to Labor Day, there are endless opportunities to eat food with friends and family, which is a wonderful thing, but not always conducive to health and weight loss.
Summer travel also makes healthy eating tricky because our routines get messed up. Also, visiting others or having others stay with you makes sticking to an eating or fasting plan tricky. Don’t get me wrong—I love summer, and all the travel, cookouts, time with family, relaxing on the beach, hiking, camping, etc. But when it’s over, it’s an ideal time to recommit to fasting and digging even deeper into healthy eating habits.
Something I’ve been thinking about: when I coach people one-on-one, I repeat many of the same concepts over and over unless the person is dealing with a unique situation. So I’ve started thinking in terms of ways that I could multiply my time.
Then my husband came up with the idea of office hours—and I love it!
What Are Office Hours?
Office hours will be Zoom meetings I’ll hold for an hour, free to my paid subscribers, where I address a variety of topics and answer readers’ questions.
I will be offering three sessions of office hours in September:
Monday, September 9th at 9 am Pacific Time.
Monday, September 16th at 6 pm Pacific Time.
Wednesday, September 25 at 1 pm Pacific Time.
I hope the varied times will accommodate most people’s schedules, including the evening slot for those with day jobs.
How Office Hours Will Work
My theme for September is getting back on the wagon. So at the beginning of each session, I’ll spend a few minutes giving tips for getting back into fasting, and healthy eating after taking time off.
Next, I’ll address readers’ questions.
I’m assuming most people will want to pick just one session but people are welcome to join more than one if they’d like. The content will vary depending on what questions I receive.
If you don’t have a specific question but are interested in getting motivated, feel free to sign on without asking a question.
Technicalities: How to Join Office Hours
About 30 minutes before each session, I’ll send a Zoom link out to all the paid subscribers via the chat portion of Substack. Chat can be accessed on a computer by going to Substack.com and clicking on the chat icon on the far left of your screen.
Once you click on that icon, you should see my chat at the top since they are ordered by most recent:
Another option is to access the chat on your phone or tablet through the Substack app.
Once you click the Zoom link, make sure your microphone is muted. I would love it if people would have their cameras on so I can get to know all y’all’s faces. But if you’re having a horrific hair day and prefer to keep your camera off, that’s fine too.
How to Submit a Question for Me to Discuss:
Notice that there are three chat tabs in the photo above: “All, Direct, and Unread.” Please submit your question using the “Direct” tab so the question goes only to me and everyone doesn’t get bogged down with too many chats. If you use the “All” tab, the message will go to all of my readers.
When you submit your question, let me know which session you will attend so I know when to address your question.
If possible, submit the question at least 24 hours before the session starts for my planning purposes, especially if it’s an in-depth health question so I have time to do any necessary research. Last-minute questions are still welcome but may not get priority.
If you give me some background, I can answer each question more fully. So instead of typing only: “I’m at a weight loss stall. What should I do?”
Instead, tell me:
How long have you been fasting for
What you are eating
Is it normal American fare including fast food, frozen pizza, etc?
Or are you limiting ultra-processed foods except on weekends?
Or you eat mostly low-carb, etc?
The more honest you are here, the better I can help you. There is no judgment for any dietary choices. I had many years where I ate the standard American diet; I just need to know the facts.
Let me know approximately how much weight you’d like to lose
Let me know if you’d like me to keep your question anonymous. Anyone who doesn’t specify, I’ll assume it’s ok for me to say, “Sara asked…” If you ask me to keep it anonymous, I’ll just say in the Zoom session, “A reader asked…”
Include anything else pertinent such as any excessively stressful life circumstances, problems with sleep, digestion, autoimmune disorders, thyroid problems, and nutrient deficiencies. You don’t have to tell your life story, but just briefly state anything that could shed light on your health question.
In the office hours Zoom sessions, I will address the questions I received via direct chat first. Then, if we have extra time, people can type additional and/or follow-up questions into the Zoom chat box for me to answer.
Please keep your microphone muted unless I ask you to unmute. Depending on how many people show up, we may be able to have some time at the end for a discussion with several people unmuted at a time. We’ll play this by ear.
What Kind of Questions Can You Ask?
Your questions do not need to be about September’s theme, and they don’t even need to be about fasting. Feel free to ask me anything you want about health, chronic disease, nutrition, etc. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll simply tell you that. There are many things I don’t know but I have compiled a catalog of resources that I could point people to for things outside my wheelhouse.
For example, for ailments like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and MS, these conditions are way beyond the scope of one Zoom session. However, I can let you know about the relevant research, including the results of several randomized controlled trials that used diet, some idea of the mechanism behind how diet works, and where to find more resources to explore, such as Dr. Bredesen who believes he can naturally eradicate most early Alzheimer’s through diet.
The same is true for autoimmune diseases. I have a number of online mentors who are doing tremendous work and whom I can point people to for more information. I meticulously catalog everything worthwhile that I read and listen to, so there’s a lot of content I can point you to.
Depending on how many questions I get ahead of time, I may be able to send out a list of what I’ll discuss at each session so you can know which to attend.
I’m excited about doing office hours because it’s always so rewarding for me to connect with individuals. I do quite a bit of in-person one-on-one coaching for people who live in my town, training events in my home, and I just started teaching a health and nutrition elective at a local high school. These events made me realize that connecting with actual people is so much more fulfilling than simply writing, as much as I do love writing.
Writing will always be necessary because I need written posts to point people to. But there’s nothing in the world like seeing an individual heal and gain greater health. So I’m hoping this new addition to Substack will allow me more opportunities to make personal connections with more people.
I hope to meet many of you over Zoom very soon!
