Fasting, it does have some value, but not for the things you think. Fasting is terrible for fat loss, but it's good for other things. In today's episode, we're going to cover fasting. All of it. This is a master class. Here we go. Oh, yeah. It's been a minute since we've actually gone on deep on fasting. And has remained one of the most popular and trendy ways of dieting still. I think I don't think a month goes by where I don't hear about a family member, a friend, acquaintance that is now fasting is incorporating some form of fasting into their plan. And still it is always the for the same reasons. It still is never for the reasons that I feel like we've talked about on the show so many times on how we recommend people use it either for their clients. If you're a trainer or for yourself, there's still this trend around it as a great weight loss tool. Yeah. So obviously if you probably know what fasting is, but just to loosely define it's to go without food for a significant portion of time. So typically longer than you would normally go without food. So from breakfast to lunch, that's technically a fast. But when people talk about fasting, it's typically for, you know, six, eight, 10 hours or days without food. And usually they'll drink water. So most fasts are what are considered water fast. The reason why I think fasting is still popular is because it's one rule. Well, no, it doesn't. It restricts calories. We'll get into why it's terrible for that. If you don't eat food, guess what? You lose weight. I know. But it's one rule, right? One, like, like the challenge that people run into with diet is eating a really healthy diet for you that works for you. I mean, it's, it's complex. It requires a journey of exploration. It requires learning. It requires relearning. It requires getting rid of old ideas and concepts. It requires a good relationship with yourself. And it's, it takes time to develop, but people don't want time. They don't want to take time. They want it to happen right now. And the more simple a diet seems in terms of its rules, the more popular it is. If you look at the popularity of diets, you could literally rank them in terms of basic rule. Absolutely. Do you think that's why? That's why, that's why Atkins. The adherence because of the simplicity. Yeah. That's why Atkins crushed up what you're not first. Yes, it was counter to the message, but it was also just don't eat carbs. Oh my God, I could do that. Well, and it's such a paradigm shattering thing for a lot of people to step away from a meal, just that fact alone. Like because it's like so ingrained in culture and society and everything's socially wrapped into us eating food to get yourself sort of out of that, that formula for a minute, you become a bit of an evangelist and it becomes something that it worked for you. So therefore, you know, I think everybody could benefit from it. And also too, I was able to lose weight. And so that's what they focus in on is the losing weight part of it. Yeah, I mean, I think Sal, you're really on to something that it's what makes diets the most popular is less about how healthy or how even successful they are for people, but let more so. It's simplicity. The simplicity of, of it, right? Like I just only eat this, don't eat this and then do whatever you want. It so follows the pattern of your clients, right?  Like they don't want very few people, not everybody, but very few people hire a trainer and say, I really want to learn how to properly feed myself and exercise correctly. There's a small portion. There's a percentage. But most people are like, I want to do this. I need to do this. I have this thing coming up. Can you get me there? And I'll pay you just tell me. What do I have to push? Yeah, that's the extent of what they want to learn. Now fasting is actually, if you were to consider a diet, right? It's actually probably the oldest or one of the oldest documented quote unquote diets that there is fasting recorded document documentation of fasting goes back as far as 450 or 500 BC. It's present in every major world religion, not just the Abrahamic ones, right? Judaism, Islam and Christianity. It's present in all those. It's also present in Buddhism. It's present in many Eastern religions. It's present even in religions and practices that are not so popular. New ageism even used fasting. So it's got some value for sure. Things that span culture and time, things that are communicated and put into practice in cultures that didn't communicate or trade off with each other. You know that there's some wisdom there. So there's definitely some wisdom around fasting, but again it's been turned into a diet plan. It's typical, right? Modern society will take something with some truth or some wisdom and they'll find a way to turn it into something for fat loss or something like that along those lines. Now I have a really good experience with fasting and I believe that I fall in the category of people who benefited from this practice. So just a little context, I grew up and I started working out for a lot of different reasons, but one of them was I was very insecure. I had some body image issues. I thought I was too skinny. I thought I was too skinny, not strong enough. And so I started working out to try to get bigger, to gain size, to gain weight. And pretty much with like no holds barred, like whatever it took to gain weight and size, I was gained for. And I did this for years and years and years. In fact, the first time I heard about fasting from the perspective of it being a diet, because you know we had clients that would sometimes talk about fasting. It wasn't very common. So I knew what it was, but I didn't know, I really like consider it a diet or a way of being for health until I was in my, I want to say mid to late 20s. So at this point I'd already been lifting weights consistently for well over 10 years. I'd been a trainer and a coach for eight years or something like that. So I'd been doing it for a while, still fueled very strongly by insecurities. And I remember reading about something called the warrior diet. This was the first one that I tried. And I remember reading in at the time, it was bodybuilding.com had these forums and people would be like, Oh my God, I only eat once a day and I haven't lost any muscle. And I feel so good and I have all this energy and I'm actually, I feel great. My workouts are better. And you know, the thing that stuck out to me was I haven't lost any muscle. So my fear up into that point and it had been so hammered into my head that I had to eat every two hours. That was a message in the bodybuilding space of the muscle building world was don't go without protein for two more longer than two hours.  I literally believe this. So I would eat every two hours, literally eight to eight meals a day I would have. Now I read this thing about fasting. People are saying they're not losing muscle. I became intrigued and I tested it once. I remember it took a lot of courage for me to not eat all day, right? So I was gonna eat at night. So I remember I started that day off, no food. And I remember going out throughout the whole day and feeling okay. I actually felt okay. Like, oh, this is weird. I'm not like losing my mind. I don't have these crazy hunger pains. I'm not going nuts with cravings. And then I worked out in the late afternoon and I did have a great workout. And then later that night I had a feast. I ate this massive meal and I said, let me try this again. And I did it over and over again. And to my surprise, muscle did not completely melt off my body. I felt good. In fact, I had more energy throughout the day. There's reasons why that happened to me. And what it did for me personally is it broke the chains between me and this insecure attachment to food where no matter where I went, I had to have a protein bar on me or a shake or something because God forbid I went two hours without food. This was gonna be a bad thing. So it was so revealing to me and so transformative from that standpoint that, oh, I don't have to eat every two hours. I don't. It's not gonna...  So that was really the benefit that I got from it. So like you, I had a very similar experience with it. Now, I did experiment with it later on in my career. So I had already gone through that transition as a trainer where I realized that most people that would hire me, even the ones that I've worked with, I've worked with, I've worked with, I've worked with, I've worked with, I've worked with, I've worked with, I've worked with, I've worked with people that would hire me, even the ones that wanted to lose 30, 40, 50 pounds, were under-consuming nutrients, weren't getting, they were missing fiber, they were missing protein, they were missing healthy fats. Like I'd already piece that together. And so I knew that when I experimented with myself like, oh, this is not for most of my clients already. Like I already, when someone hires me, even the people that I know need to lose weight, this is not something that I want to use as a tool for them. But what I had was the same thing that you had.  That's how I felt and I thought, and it completely shattered my paradigm when I started to fast and incorporate that. And then I realized like, oh, who is this really good for? And I found that there's got to be a lot of clients that are like me.  Like there's a whole industry built around never missing a meal. And those were the people that I found, oh, okay, this is somebody I'm going to help teach that they can break away like I struggled with too. And so that was the first type of client. The second type of client, and this is again through my experience of realizing what I do think was people that had gut issues and helping them kind of reset that because they didn't know where it's coming from or where they're having this bloat or stuff like that. And just putting them on this two-day or three-day fast to completely reset themselves and then slowly reintroduce food was a really cool way to help people have insight to maybe you're eating foods that you have intolerance to and you don't even know it. Let's try and incorporate a fast and see what happens. So it became definitely a tool in my tool belt towards the back half of my career, but those are the only two people that I ever would apply it to. Never would I apply it to somebody who came to me and said, I want to lose weight. Yeah, that was my first introduction. The benefit that I received was the break and the digestive break and realizing that what I was feeling wasn't normal all the time. And it helped to kind of highlight a certain things that were going on with my digestive system like at night and having heartburn, having a lot of this bloat and a lot of things I just would equate to, well, this is just what happens after I eat.  And for me, I would use as an excuse and I would lean into that and this helped to kind of teach me going through that natural hunger signal process, it's a natural thing that actually too long enough would go away. Like it would just go away. And a lot of times too, I was dehydrated and so that was a huge factor as well that I kind of sifted through with all that. So anyway, just in terms of like figuring out a lot of this self-reflection and being more introspective, I think that was the biggest value I received. Now it became popular for one reason because people saw that they could lose weight by fasting. That's why it became popular because like I said, it's a very old diet strategy or approach not for weight loss, but just one for many other reasons which we'll get to. But it became popular because it was a simple, not easy, but a simple way to lose weight. So there's just one step, only eat within a four hour window, for example. And then of course it got backed up by scientists and studies that showed that it increased or sped up cell autophagy and reduced inflammation and you had all these blood markers that would improve which we now know are not independent of just being in a calorie deficit. In other words, just eating in a calorie deficit produces the same effects from that standpoint as fasting. So there's really nothing special about fasting from a health, physical I should say, health perspective or even a weight loss perspective. It also did something else psychologically to people that we pieced together as trainers over years which was it gave people the freedom to kind of eat what they want so long as they stayed in that window. And we learned later on one of the reasons why diets failed was people had this weird relationship with food that if you told them you can't have cookies or you can't do these things then they would have this restrict and then binge type of relationship. And they would want a rebel. It was natural for you to want a rebel. This was a very important, this was something that was pieced together really for me with fasting too because I realized how many people had success with just sticking to this and part of that is is because they also gave themselves the freedom of like, I'm not going to tell myself I can't have a cookie or I can't eat this fast food or I can't have this ice cream. I'm just going to say I got to eat in this window. And as long as I just think that I still have the freedom to do these things I want. There's something important there that you need to understand that. That's why other types of diets fail so hard is when you put these restrictions and say I can't, I can't, I can't eventually you want to rebel. That was important to learn that as a coach and a trainer and part of why I flipped the whole diet thing with my clients on its head and said instead of telling my clients they can't do these things let me focus on telling them what I need them to go get and that was a massive shift in my coaching. Yeah.  By the way, the success rate of fasting for fat loss versus the success rate of any other diet for fat loss is about identical meaning about 90% of the people who lose weight using fasting or veganism or if it fits your macros or whatever, you know, paleo, whatever about 90% of them when they lose weight following a specific quote-unquote diet they gain it back. They gain it back within a year or two and I bet the data would show that the small percentage left over eventually gains it back as well. That's just my own experience. So that's rule number one. That's number one.  We now have the data. It's very clear. It's not more effective than other approaches at all. Now, I would argue that it has the most restrictive diets the ones with the most hard set rules tend to produce the most dysfunctional behaviors that I tend to see. Fasting for fat loss when somebody says I want to lose weight so I'm going to fast almost always in my experience with people results in a restrict binge behavior. Don't eat, don't eat, don't eat. Look at the clock, look at the clock, look at the clock.  And what happens over time and maybe at first you're somewhat aware of this but then you find just what ends up happening what I've seen slowly the eating period becomes you know, okay, I'm eating this much food and then oh, I got to eat more food and then how much can I fit in this eating window and then I can eat whatever I want and then push it and what you're actually doing with that is you're training a behavior you're conditioning yourself to go from nothing to anything nothing to anything and that's what we're constantly battling when we're working with people is that on off, on off there is no on off when it comes to eating in a healthy way that's sustainable it doesn't work that way it's always on and I don't mean always on in the sense that it's always perfect it's always your diet and it's always your behaviors but fasting for weight loss almost always results in that strange don't eat, eat anything or eat terribly type model and that's just a bad thing to train it also exacerbates what I had seen already in normal clients that were trying to lose weight most people that would come to me were over consuming processed carbohydrates sugars, saturated fats not eating enough protein not getting enough fiber not eating enough vegetables and fruits and getting a good so they were missing all these micro nutrients and in a macro nutrient when you include protein and healthy fats and they were missing those things over consuming the bad foods and then you put them in this constricted window then they had an even harder time getting that fiber, the protein healthy all those things but then and they would just over consume even more to your point of the binging habits of those bad foods so now you've made it like if I gave a client a 12 hour window all day basically to eat all these foods and they were missing all these things that are important and crucial to their overall health and they were missing that and yet struggling with still weight loss and then I say okay now you can only eat in four hours it just made that worse it just made it more difficult for them to hit their protein and take more difficult to be consistent with their fiber and more difficult to hit healthy fats they were just over consuming processed foods look a petite so we okay let me back up okay here's something that data is very clear on with diet a high protein diet one in which you're eating close to a gram of protein per pound of body weight in a normal lean individual so if you're overweight it would be your target weight so just to loosely say it roughly a gram of protein per pound of body weight okay so that the data shows clearly all things being controlled everything else being controlled calories exercise lifestyle everything else the high protein version results in more muscle less fat more satiety meaning less cravings less hunger better insulin levels or blood sugar levels so it's just superior okay so this is a fact across the board doesn't matter if you're vegan carnivore, paleo whatever however you like to eat high protein across the board in studies is just better okay that being said a petite woman who weighs 100 pounds okay so I'm using a a woman a small woman say 120, 130 I'm gonna say 100 I'm gonna say 100 somebody who does not represent the vast majority of people listening right now okay if this woman put her eating window at four hours that means she has to get 100 grams of protein in four hours okay that's hard that would mean she would have to eat 350 36 ounce chicken breast yeah imagine that in a four hour for a 100 pound woman now if you're a 150 pound woman which is average good luck I would have struggled eating 150 grams of protein in four hours now a 200 pound man like forget it you're not gonna hit your protein targets or it's gonna be really hard or what you're gonna do which a lot of people do when they fast like this is they'll eat as much protein as they can they stuff themselves like I gotta get the protein because I only have a four hour eating window then they throw a shake on top of it and now again they're doing that that binge type of thing now you throw on top of it like you said fiber or healthy food good luck trying to hit those targets in that short period of time unless you're actively stuffing yourself so literally think of this for a second starve for 12 hours or however many hours you know that you go on the fast and then cram because I gotta get these protein targets in that four hour window which is by that's one type of fasting I know there's different varieties but that's one of the more popular ones good luck not gonna work what's happening the data shows this is that when they compare fasting to other calorie restricted type models they're very similar although fasting ready for this trends towards muscle loss it tends to trend for this reason for this reason for this exact reason this is probably the main reason of 100% if I'm telling you right now that every single client I can't even think of a client who hired me that was overweight that we needed to get on a a workout plan need to start their diet they were under consuming protein with 12 hours yeah so what in the world would make me think that same client put in a protocol where they only have a four hour window would now all of a sudden hit their protein and take good luck it's hard enough no it's totally it's totally difficult unreasonable and then they but yet you see weight off the scale come down so yeah you restricted calories and temporarily yeah nothing magic yeah the scale window but your metabolism just got slower your body fat percentage probably changed very little if at all because you lost as much muscle as you lost fat so you're in a worse predicament than what you were when you started the fast yeah and and again I think people like it when they compare to other diets because it's simple yeah and by the way they like it initially almost nobody you know two three years later says oh yeah I love it it was great you know they're always like initially yeah in a short window yeah exactly now here's the reasons why fasting has some value it has tremendous value for detachment okay this is why it's present in every spiritual religion yeah this is the purpose of it all religions this is the point now why would fasting and detachment from food like why would that be valuable well one of them is what we talked about I gotta eat all the time if I don't eat oh my god I'm gonna feel crappy or I'm gonna lose muscle that helped me practice a detachment from this thing that I felt chained to but then there's also this like okay I'm not eating for breakfast lunch or dinner or I'm not eating when I'm stressed out or I'm not eating when I'm watching TV what do I do with myself what do I do with my feelings what do I how do I handle the situation and what do I reveal about myself when I take away the most commonly used you know method of medication which is food everybody medecates with food so now that I don't have that what's coming up for me how do I feel what's happening and then when you go back to eating again there are things that tend to be revealed to you by the way if you have we didn't say this in the beginning let's say this right now if you have a history of eating disorders where you restrict yourself anything that even resembles bulimia or anorexia already off the table run from fast thing methodologies as fast as you can almost always will put you back into your eating disorder yeah okay well now that kinda ruins what I was gonna say but I was gonna equate fasting in terms of like stepping away from it from the detachment part of it is meditation and then what that the benefits with that in terms of like stimulus and just constantly inundating your senses with all of the stimulus all the time and now with blue light and all these other sort of distractions out there yeah the height hype up your stress levels this can also have that physiological effect by stepping away from food for a bit well this also brings us to the next one which is comparing the difference between like short fast and long fast and this does bring up the example where I would allow a client who is trying to say lose 50 pounds and she's like I hear what you guys say I have some things I wanna detach I've abused food in the past and I definitely wanna be somebody who and I wanna use it for the meditative purposes like you know do you think I could use I would allow a client like once a month to do a single day fast 24 hours right for that purpose we're not doing this because it's going to speed up our results in your fat loss journey but I do see the benefits of going for an entire day restricting from food detaching from food so that you can focus on meditating and realize that you don't need to reach for that thing all the time you're totally okay going 24 hours and not eating and I think there's a lot of value for that reason and that would be the only way I would let that client who is trying to lose 50 pounds because I would need the other 29 days of the month focused on hitting your macro targets and your micro targets because most people trying to lose weight struggle with doing that and I would want most of our time focusing on getting that with okay once a month we can interrupt our diet plan or our month or our routine to do this complete fast so that we can look at other aspects work inward in our life if you want to use fasting for what it's valuable for then all your fasting needs to be a long fast okay what does that mean long long is subjective it needs to be a fast that challenges you okay so if skipping breakfast is a big challenge for you then that would be your fast that would be the way you would attach from something that you're you're so tied to right if fasting for breakfast and lunch is a challenge for you then that would be your fast many people probably I would say could start with a 24 hour fast but you could go pretty damn long you know people can fast for a week without food by the way make sure you're not underweight if you attempt a fast that's longer than 24 or 48 hours because then you can run into some trouble but otherwise you could go for a long time and so the question is should I fast okay you've made the points not for weight loss I get it that makes a lot of sense it's good for detachment reasons or spiritual reasons or self reflection you know type reasons then how long should I fast you want to challenge yourself that's what brings out the value in the fast is you know obviously you don't eat when you sleep well that doesn't challenge you so that but even though that's technically a fast right so it's like okay what's a length of time that I feel like I'm gonna be able to reap some of the benefits the detachment the reflection the I'm not reaching for food because I can't so I gotta deal with my feelings right now or it's lunchtime okay I always typically go get that thing and now I'm not going to what does that feel like how do I feel how is that causing my emotions to change am I more productive am I less productive what is this bringing it up for me you know that's the that's kind of how you want to view the whole thing but a successful fast or one that's gonna benefit you in that way is one that challenges you and so the length of time is dependent on that for the individual now people always ask how to prepare for a fast I do want to comment just as we get into preparing the groups of people that are most successful with fast people who tend to be able to stick to it and repeat it or people who do it for religious reasons there's your there's your clue right there that's the real value like people you know Islam people who practice Islam do this every year every single in fact they do a fast it's what is it sun up to sun down they don't even drink they don't even allow fluids and yet a large chunk of them is successful at doing it because they're doing it for spiritual reasons there's also a culture behind it so you have support with the people around you you've highlighted vegans before vegans that have the most you're fasting from meat to say the ones that do it for animal to save animals they're the ones that are successful people who do it for a diet they fail right so so how do you prepare for a fast well there's nothing special you need to do with your diet this is where this is where people who sell fasting kits tend to profit right they're like oh you know take our fasting preparation supplements or take these pills during your fast or here's your your fasting breaking you know program that you need to do you know so they surround this his fasting is like how do you make money off by the way if you're one of those people who's listening to this and you drink BCAAs during your fast because you're you're trying to not lose muscle you're not fast you're doing it the wrong way you're again you are the person who I want to fast completely because you have the same silly fear that I had all the time I'm going like oh god if I don't eat for 24 hours muscles are going to fall off of me so if you're wanting to do fasting for purposes like that and detachment then you don't need to fast okay or some supplement that someone tried to sell you that this is how you should do a fast all you need is water that's it just drink some water all day long and add some electrolytes I'll say that definitely add some sodium because going without food will deplete your body electrolytes and you may find that'll help with the shaky kind of feeling headaches the low blood pressure all that stuff actually makes a big difference literally put like we work with a company called Element put that in your water that'll make a big difference alright so how to prepare for a fast the way you prepare is you set your intention you prepare your mind you prepare your psyche or your spirit however you want to look at it and you say to yourself Wednesday for example I'm going to fast my intention is to deal with my feelings instead of medicating myself with food or my intention is to reflect on how I am as a partner or as a parent or as a you know as somebody's child or as a friend my intention is to go without to deal with my negative feelings whatever it is that's how you prepare for a fast is you go into it with an intention now the intention may change just like anytime you do something that's pro-growth something might reveal itself but having the intention really adds value and meaning to the thing you're about to do if you don't do it if you don't go in with some kind of intention you actually run the risk of falling into the oh I feel smaller oh I think I'm losing weight uh oh this you fall into you may fall into that trap you may say to yourself I'm doing this for the right reasons but then you may find that you lost five pounds of water weight you feel smaller not as bloated oh I like this this is this is why you're going to fight all the noise in your head that's telling you to go back to food and it's going to help to kind of resolve a lot of this comfortableness that you're feeling so to place your mind somewhere where it's very focused you know even if it's journaling you know just having gratitude and kind of writing things down you're grateful for something that's like really directed and focused will really help through that process I do have a small you know minor food tip going in too a mistake I've seen happen when people are going into their first like 24 hour fast is they decide to have their last meal like the last supper like you know they go super busy like the four people that we have yes and so they go so common carb heavy ice cream candy treat like they go all out on that it just makes them feel more shitty yeah it actually will make the fast more difficult I've found and by the way I know that speaking from experience like I've done that I've gone and like had the big burger fries like an ice cream meal before cravings are like exponential yes they actually makes the cravings that much more difficult over the next 24 hours versus doing a good whole food healthy high fat high protein type of meal that's minimal carbohydrates or none going into your last meal you'll actually have an easier time in my opinion going through that 24 hours and if you go like oh this is my last meal and I'm going to go all out yeah and that's if you want I think that's a healthy approach because you're going so here's the thing so what Adam's talking about if you're doing this to make the fast easier okay that's fine but that's not quite as valuable as the following I'm going into this fast with intention I want to stop self medicating with food or I want to stop hating myself if you go into the fast with that intention you're not going to lead into the fast with a massive meal because the intention has nothing to do with the fact that I'm eating not eating it's more like I'm going to deal with this thing that's fine to do that because you want to make the fast easier but the truth is if you go in with a true intention you're not going in like it's your last hurrah better get this last pizza meal in before I go into my fast it probably won't happen if you have the right intention going into the fast now the last question the second question people ask is always how to get out of a fast well the simple answer is to eat again but you know these same people make the same mistake that I just said if you come out with a huge meal expect explosive diarrhea that's just what's going to happen first-hand account if you do that your digestive system essentially turned off during the fast and it'll turn on and it'll vacate very quickly if you consume too much all at once I recommend having a small meal that's easily digestible like a broth or a soup just something that's easily digestible that you normally can eat I feel okay let's go to well it's got a nice sodium in it too so high in sodium it's got a little some protein in there it's a broth it's just not a heavy easy most people don't have any intolerances to like a chicken rice noodle yeah rice noodle chicken broth type of meal it's very very satisfying digest really really well but also keep in mind that you're already doing this even if you're doing it for like detachment reasons for other things it's always a great opportunity this is why I like to still include this in my routine you know now is that to really highlight how foods how foods are affecting you and so you're slow I like to slowly introduce different food groups to see like oh that's interesting that food like doesn't agree with me as well as I thought it did you know and you'll become you're hyper sensitive after you fast like that and so it helps people that are trying to become we talk on the show all the time to become aware of like how foods affect your mood your energy well guess what after a fast those signals are louder than they ever are and so if you were going to go into or come out of a fast and you're part of your intentions are I really want to make a better relationship with food and get better connected the guys always talk about you know pay attention after you eat like your stool and your mood and your hair and your skin like I don't know I don't notice any of that stuff I don't know now is the time become better connected to those things and this is a great way to do that after you come that fast you slowly introduce different food groups especially the ones that are on that list of like you know most likely to be a problematic for people and pay attention to how they affect you you will know the alarm will be much louder now than what it was say two weeks ago yeah now if you did like a 24-hour fast or a 48-hour fast you're probably not going to lose any muscle it's unlikely that you'll lose muscle but you will lose weight on the scale that is water weight okay expect to gain it back when you go back to eating normal do not become attached to the scale during and after fasting unless you want to trigger yourself really should be no reason for you to weigh at all don't weigh yourself before or after just leave it because what you'll notice is a swing of five to eight pounds that can depending on the person feel exciting or scary and then either relieving or scary so don't weigh yourself it's a terrible terrible strategy also people ask should I or could I work out during the fast you know I if I was doing a 24-hour this is me personally right if I do a 24-hour fast I typically can work out like I normally do anything longer than that my workouts are reduced in intensity but here's the main message that I want to give people when they're fasting when you're fasting and you're doing it for the right reasons it has nothing to do with fitness fat loss muscle building so don't work out don't worry about working out that's not the priority I don't like to and I don't like to recommend to it because of what you just said if the reason is not for fat loss or building muscle or any of those purposes which it shouldn't be then working out or not working out has no it isn't relevant at all so why so why and you don't have any fuel for that workout anyways so why and you're not eating any calories so it's like why just instead use that opportunity that all the time you're going to get back you know the thing that I think is always fascinating that and never fails to like realize like wow how much time humans spend around thinking about food prepping food and eating food and now all of a sudden you have like hours of your day you get back immediately use that for other reasons to work inward to spend time with your family do something that you haven't done that you've been meaning to do like this is not the time for me to go train at all yeah and by the way fasting can be applied to anything you feel attached to any worldly thing so you can fast from electronics you can fast if you have a bad relationship with exercise from exercising for a little while you can fast from of course alcohol or other substances so this detachment practice extends itself beyond just food and there's tremendous value in detaching and reshaping your relationship to things that you may feel chained to so again fasting for the right reasons great for the wrong reasons absolute terrible strategy look if you love the show head over to mindpumpfree.com and check out all of our free health and fitness guides we have a ton of them on there and they can help you with your health and fitness goals you can also find all of us on Instagram Justin is on Instagram at Mind Pump Justin I'm on Instagram at Mind Pump to Stefano and Adam is on Instagram at Mind Pump Adam


Okay, welcome to episode one of a new series of videos which we are calling ProShop. And well, you might find every one of these products in your local ProShop, but you certainly will find them from our channel sponsor. And that is hot gold for more about them a little bit later on in the video. But what is this all about? We'll have two intentions. One is to feature a number of products that we don't necessarily normally review on the channel. So the kind of accessories, launch monitors, GPS devices, maybe some footwear, maybe some clothing as well, we shall see. I've got plenty in store to look at. The second part of the video is really to focus on, well, perhaps a complaint that I get from a number of viewers and that's the fact that golf is incredibly expensive. The price of new drivers is extortionate and can I manage to find any bargains out there that I can relate to you that you're perhaps not familiar with and from what I've seen so far, there could be a few that feature in today's episode. Right, I'm gonna kick things off with a launch monitor that I've been really personally interested in for a number of years. This isn't new to the market, but it's very interesting in what they've done this week and this next couple of weeks at least because this is something that has got a bit of a special price going on because of the masters. It is, of course, FlightScope Mevo. Now, first of all, I just want to talk about how small this thing is. You can probably see from the size of my hand, but just to give you a better idea, that is my phone and that is FlightScope Mevo and this is far smaller than I ever thought it would be. It's a launch monitor and it provides some incredible data that can be really helpful and useful for you to start gapping your bag, for instance, getting a real understanding of your yardages out on the course. The kind of information it will provide is the carry distance, spin number, launch angle, ball speed, clubbed speed, and also peak height. The data is recorded on the Mevo app. It records your swing, provides you data. It's incredibly easy to use and the good thing going back to the size reference was this kind of thing just folds up, fits inside your pocket, inside your golf bag and you can get this thing going pretty much in a couple of minutes, whether that be at the driving range or take it out on the course, but it's really important to have that information to get a better understanding of exactly what your clubs are doing in terms of performance. So it can be really useful, can be used indoor and outdoor. Everybody right now is trying to get their hands on some form of launch monitor and to be honest with you, although it's been out for a couple of years, it provides an incredibly accurate number which is surprising to be quite honest with you. Such a small device, 3D Doppler radar and the accuracy is incredible. Even when you compare it to the likes of Trackman and the likes of the Foresight Sports, it's not that much different and certainly enough in my opinion for most average golfers to gain a bit of a benefit out on the fairways. But the big deal is this, this used to be priced at around sort of 500 quid, but right now I think it's until the 17th of April, you can buy that for 360 pound from our partners at Hotgolf. Interesting product and really worth considering at that kind of price. Now the next thing I'm gonna move to is the driver and drivers have been hugely criticized on the channel over the last couple of years. The main criticism being the price point. Pretty much the majority of things that we see right now are let's call them 500 pound flat because give or take, that's where they sit. So what I wanted to see was whether or not we can find a couple of products out there that will save you a few quid without necessarily losing out in terms of performance. And to be honest with you, this is a product, well two products, actually the Shriksen ZX5 and the Shriksen ZX7 drivers. Now this is mark one that I've got in my hand and that's the one that I wanna talk about right now. They've done incredibly well Shriksen over this last couple of years and I took the ZX5 into the data room at Hollywood Golf Club to collect some numbers and see what this thing does in terms of performance. Now for me, do I think this is good as the mark two? No, I don't. Do I think it is worth half the price of the mark two? Absolutely yes, I do. There are minor differences and minor tweaks in terms of what's gone in the progress of this product range but this driver, both of them ZX7 or ZX5, are retailing at hot golf at 249 quid right now. And that's an incredible difference in terms of where we're at with that 500 pound driver. I know great mathematician, but that's literally half the price of what you're being asked to pay. So this is brand new by the way, but there's also one other consideration because all the shafts that they've been provided with in terms of this ZX5 and ZX7 mark ones are small batch shafts from Project X. This is the even flow rip tide. Why am I telling you that? Well, because that shaft is worth 240 quid at retail. So in other words, you get in the head pretty much for free or you get in the shaft for free, whichever way you look at it, but you cannot lose with that kind of deal. So you're getting a, this is brand new by the way, this isn't a huge product, this is brand new product, 249 quid, that shaft is pretty much worth exactly the same kind of money if you were trying to buy that online now. So pretty much a no-brainer and some option at least to save you some significant money if you don't fancy shelling out that top end at 500. So golf is still affordable even in brand new product if you're prepared to have a look around in the right places. Right, talking about affordability, next up is a golf ball. It's a golf ball from TaylorMade. It's these things that I have featured on the channel in recent weeks. I did a review in the winter to be honest with you, because I was looking at a value ball that well, would do a job basically. Why spend big money during the summer months or the winter months rather on a golf ball. That gets very muddy, gets lost under leaves and well, I tried the TaylorMade distance ball and I gave a very favorable review. I actually bought those balls at the time from Amazon and I was suggesting how good it was because they were I think 15, 99, a dozen, which to me was a real good price point. It performed really, really well. To my surprise to be quite honest with you, what's going on right now is you can buy TaylorMade distance golf balls in a three for two deal. So that's 36 golf balls and it basically works out at 11 pound or just over 11 pound a dozen, which again is a phenomenal price point for a decent product.  So that's a golf ball at a real decent price as well. Right, what have I got next because I'm rattling through these and I hope some of these items that we've featured so far might just, well, be of interest to you. I'm going to reach across to the next thing which is a piece of footwear. Just take a look at that. That is the new Under Armour Phantom Golf Shoe. It's kind of like the material, the fabric is very soft indeed. It's almost like a kind of that sock idea where you pull it on, it's a second skin in terms of how it fits, extremely comfortable to wear. What I was really impressed with again though is if you take a look underneath and just to have a look at the grip, that's very, very different from what we've seen in terms of spike-less, see if you can get a better look at there, kind of the depth of them. They're very deep in terms of that grip and the groove and what I'm interested in is just how good that is in terms of out on the fairways. But don't forget, this is a bright white shoe. You're probably wearing it in fairly dry conditions in the summer, but I do know they're available in a number of colour options as well. It says 360 weather protection. So I would assume again, fairly waterproof. I haven't mentioned the place, have I? Because that's the big deal about this whole series of videos. It's really, don't get me wrong. I've got to be very careful here. This doesn't come across as a bit of a sales pitch because trust me, I don't get nothing in terms of benefit from whether you buy these products or not, but it's a new area which I'd like to delve into to highlight these products. But me highlighting them and me sort of coming across as selling them is something that I've got to be very wary of. Anyway, that said, those are priced at, I think, £89 once again. To me, that's a real well-priced product and it's real decent quality. I love the way it fits. I love that sock idea when you pull it on. It's just like a second skin. Really, really impressed with what Under Armour have done there. And I think for that kind of money, extremely good value. Right, I've got one more product that I want to finish off with and that's because it is, of course, Masters Week. I talked about the Masters Special in terms of the FlightScope Mevo. We've also got, whilst it's not a special and it's quite expensive as well, this is certainly not at that budget end, but it's a product that I can't ignore. It's the TaylorMade Masters Tour Bag. You'll see all the staffers using it this week at Augusta and I took it out on the course to film at Hollywood Golf Club earlier on this week. The sun was shining. The bag looked absolutely stunning to be quite honest with you. It's a type of thing at £499 that I don't think you're really going to drag round on a satay afternoon in October when it's peeing down with rain in the UK at least. It's probably going to sit in, well, pride of place somewhere as a little bit of a collector's item, but I thought I would highlight that bag because it's absolutely stunning and obviously it's Masters Week. Right, that's pretty much me done for my very first episode of Pro Shop. I'm sure this thing will evolve and develop as we go along and more importantly right now I'm interested in your feedback to see how we develop and evolve. So what I want to know is this. Was there any interest in the products that I've shown you in today's episode? Have you tried any of these products in today's episode? And if so, this is a real video where I'd like to see some. The comments section buzzing. I want great communication between other viewers to let them know, for example, what is this ZX7 Lakemark one? Have you got any feedback that you can relate to your fellow golfer? Because that's the kind of thing I want to know. I'd also like to know what you think of our attempt at this video and if it's something that you approve of and perhaps what you'd like to see feature within future episodes. Because as you know, I'm always all ears and happy to accommodate where possible. I do want to thank the sponsor of the video which is HotGolf. They've been very good to us in this last few months and the idea of me being able to access product that I wouldn't ordinarily gives us another angle to provide content to you, the viewer. So I hope you enjoyed it. I'm sure you'll let me know if you don't. Thanks for watching and I'll see you all tomorrow night.


Welcome back to another one. If you're new to the channel, I'm Goldpony and today we are in the new 2020 Acura RDX courtesy of Bobby Ray Hall Acura in Mechanicsburg PA. And so I'm in this one today to be quite honest because of the looks. This is one of the better looking SUVs out there right now, in my opinion, especially with the A-Spec package. But I'm getting ahead of myself and as always, let's start with pricing. And so there will be several different package options available for the 2020 Acura RDX. First one being front wheel drive with the standard package, starting at $37,600. Then you have the front wheel drive with the technology package, starting at $40,800. Front wheel drive with the A-Spec starting at $43,800. And front wheel drive with the advanced package starting at $45,700. And as you guys probably have already figured out, that was pricing for the front wheel drive. If you wanted all wheel drive, you can add that to any of those package options, just simply add $2,000 to any of those prices. But so, regardless of the package option that you go with, the power plant on the RDX will be the same. Powering this one is a 2.0-liter turbocharged inline 4-cylinder, putting out 272 horsepower at 6,500 RPM. 280 pound-feet of torque available from the power band of 1,600 to 4,500 RPM. Power sent to front wheels or all wheels, and by the way, that all wheel drive system, that is Acura's super handling all wheel drive. Same all wheel drive system found on Acura's Supercar, Acura NSX of course. But that power is going to be sent to the ground through a 10-speed automatic with paddle shifters, which we will test out in a little bit here, giving you 0-60 time of approximately 6.4 seconds, with FBG numbers coming in at 22 in the city, 28 on the highway for front wheel drive, 21 city, 27 highway for the all wheel drive. But so that before we do any kind of accelerations here in the RDX, I did want to mention there is a round circular button front and center labeled dynamic mode. That is going to be your driving modes on the RDX, and when you turn that to the left or to the right, it is going to make a cool little sound for one, but it's also going to give you driving modes like snow, comfort, sport, and Sport Plus. But so what those driving modes are actually going to do is adjust things like the shift points, throttle response, and actually the steering sensitivity as well. And so how about let's put it in Sport Plus driving mode here and actually immediately just downshift it. So it's definitely going to hold the RPMs at a higher level, giving you more power on demand. Oh my gosh, it's a noticeably different steering feel as well. The steering wheel does have a much heavier feel to it. I absolutely love it. It was not just that way when I had it in that comfort driving mode, so you got to appreciate that. But having said that, let's go ahead and put it in manual shifting mode. And so to do that, what you're going to want to do is press the drive button one more time and it's going to give you full control over the shifting. So let's test out the paddle shifters. Slight delay, not bad though. It's just an ever so slight delay. So with RDX, I probably wouldn't mind playing around with the paddle shifters. They're really not all that bad. Definitely going to be useful though when it snows as well. You can use the paddle shifters to do some engine braking rather than actual braking when you're going downhill. So they're there for that as well. But acceleration was actually quite impressive too. Definitely no issues emerging onto the highway. And personally, I didn't notice any turbo lag or anything like that either. So sometimes the turbocharged engines, you run into that where it's a little slow off the start, but this particular turbocharged engine felt just fine to me. But so then as always, to go along with that acceleration, braking is equally important.  And overall, as far as the braking feel goes, once again, kind of just like the TLX, there is a slight delay. I guess you could say it's kind of spongy would be a word I could use. So what I'm essentially saying is you have to press down the brake pedal a little bit further than you do in most other manufacturers to get it to stop. But having said that, once you get to that braking point, there definitely is no issues with bringing the RDX to a stop. It's just you have to press down a little further. Then touching on suspension and handling up front, you will find a McPherson strut front suspension in the back of multi-link rear suspension. Also, if you go with the advanced package at least, you will get an adaptive damping system where it monitors each shock absorber individually and adjusts the suspension based on not only road conditions, but your driving style as well. So that is not only going to give you a smoother ride, but it's also going to firm up the suspension during heavy corner and giving you a little better handling as well there. And again, as far as the steering feel goes, if you have it in that sport plus driving mode, it is excellent, in my opinion. If you wanted to lose your steering feel, you do have those other drive modes as well. So they're going to be there for you. So the RDX really does adapt to you. You can really make it your own. So that's kind of cool. And so as far as ride quality goes, we do have the technology package today. So even without that adaptive damping system, ride quality is definitely fine for me. No issues with RDX soaking up Pennsylvania's road imperfections in this drive today, at least. And as far as cabin noise goes, definitely no issues there. Either the only noise I'm really hearing is the air conditioner on right now, but that's about it. And that's partly due, in fact, because the RDX does come standard with an acoustic glass front windshield. So that's going to absorb a lot of the exterior sound right there. And actually, if you go with the advanced package, more is added to that, including acoustic front side glass as well for an even quieter ride. So that's part of the reason why the RDX does have a nice quiet cabin inside here. But then touching on visibility a little bit, I can see perfectly fine out the back. I will say in the back two upper corners there, you usually don't see those corners protrude down a little bit like that on SUVs. But then again, that's partly due, in fact, because this one does have a nicer shape. So really, it's a smaller SUV, so you're not going to have any issues of visibility anyways. But now I keep mentioning the styling on this 2020 RDX. So what do you say? Let's take a look starting up front. But actually, first, I wanted to mention there is one new color option for the 2020 RDX being premium white pearl. But now, having said that, to the side, you will find July LED headlights. That will come standard LED fog lights are actually going to be found just below if you went with the A-Spec or the advanced packages. A-Spec is actually also going to add a revised front bumper as well, some dark accents around the headlights as well. Again, contributing to its more aggressive appearance. Then making your way to the side, you will find power adjustable heated side mirrors with LED integrated turn signals and zooming out a little bit. There are also chrome window surrounds for all packages, but the A-Spec package because with that one, of course, being a sportier package, it is going to have black window surrounds there. But take a look down at the wheel setup. 19 inch alloy wheels will come standard with the standard technology and advanced packages that are going to differ slightly in design. But same wheel size, though. And then the A-Spec package is going to be the one package option that is going to bump that wheel size up to 20 inches and make your way to the back. There is a rear spoiler with an integrated brake light that will come standard just below that of rear window wiper. And one of the cooler features just because of the name that Acura signed it is LED illuminated drag and tail tail lights. So just because they're labeled drag and tail just makes them so super cool back there. And below it all dual exhaust outlets with chrome tips. So you guys know what we have to do next as always here is that exhaust clip. And so now since we are around back to open that rear hatch, there is a button on the key fob that is the simplest way in my opinion. So just simply press that and then once opened up, cargo capacity is going to commit at 29.5 cubic feet. If that was not enough space for you, those rear seats do fall down. There is a 60 40 split bumping the cubic feet. Up to 58.9 cubic feet. And I did what also mentioned back there in the cargo area, there is some rear underfloor storage as well. That's always nice if you wanted to conceal some groceries or something like that. But make your way up to the rear leg room. That's going to come in an even 38 inches. So for reference, I'm in even six feet tall. This is how much space I have back there. Also for those rear passengers, though, they will find a rear center armrest with cup holders in addition to rear ventilation. And if you want with the advanced package, you will find heated rear seats as well. That is definitely nice. Make your way to the front seats. They are power adjustable front seats with power lumbar. They will come standard heated front seats will come standard as well. And if you want a ventilated front seats, go with the A spec or advanced packages. If you wanted suede accents, that is going to come with the A spec. But leather at trim is going to come standard in a Milano premium leather is going to come with the tech Sherman up. But so then taking a look forward, there is a tilt and telescoping steering wheel. It is leather wrapped. And if you want with the advanced package, it will come heated as well. When it comes to the startup, let me first start by showing you guys the key here. You do have your Acura logo on the one side end. When you flip it over, lock unlock and again, that button to pop the rear hatch. But a push button start is actually going to come standard on all package options. So all you need to do is to simply push your foot on the break and press that engine start button just by the driver's right knee there. It's open then once started up, tachometers on your left, speedometers on your right. There is a fairly large digital display front and center to control what is on that digital display, simply use a steering wheel mounted controls on the right side there. And I did want to also mention there is a head up display.  It's going to have some red accents to it, basically. But touching on overall interior quality, a spec package is going to add black headliner, sport pedals, dark brushed aluminum trim and a spec door sales. But other than that, ambient lighting will come standard, frameless rear view mirror as well, along with an auto dimming rear view mirror. I always love the frameless rear view mirrors, but dual zoom climate control standard along with a panoramic moon roof letting in so much more light today. Got to love it. Homelight controls also standard found right underneath that rear view mirror there. And overall, I love the two tone finishes and the brushed aluminum trim found throughout this one, definitely a very high end look on the interior. I'm definitely a fan, but now let's make our way to the tech actually. Ten point two inch high resolution display screen will come standard to control what is on that display screen. There is a touch back controller and a couple of buttons located just behind the drive button there. And in case you were wondering, it is not touch screen. And I guess that kind of makes sense. It is a little bit of a distance for you to actually reach out and touch that screen unless you're stretch arm strong or something. But just playing around with it today, it is fairly easy to use. So it essentially kind of reminds me of using maybe a laptop, I guess you could say. But up front on that screen, you will find Bluetooth and audio streaming as well as Android, auto and Apple CarPlay coming standard. Factory navigation system is going to come with the technology package and up. And you can, of course, find your radio settings up there as well. By the way, the sound systems do vary from package to package here. So I should mention this, accurate premium audio system will come with the standard package that gives you nine speakers. If you want with the technology package that we have today, you get an ELS Studio premium audio system with 12 speakers. And if you go with the A spec or advanced package, you will get an ELS Studio 3D sound system with 16 speakers and 710 watts. But that's not the one we have today. We do have the 12 speaker ELS Studio premium sound system. So let's go ahead and turn it on here. So we got playing today and let's test out the clarity of this one. Actually quite clear, very impressed with the clarity there. Good bit of bass as well. Again, I never know what's going to come on, but definitely with the 12 speaker ELS Studio sound system. Definitely pretty impressed there. But then on that tech display, last thing I wanted to mention is when you do put the RDX in reverse, by the way, the way to do that, there is an R button there. Just press back on that little button and that will put you in reverse. And when you do that, that is going to give you a rear view camera. And if you want with the advanced package, you're going to get a surround view camera. But either way, that is going to let you know who or what is behind you, which is always is going to lead us into safety. And so to start, there are front side and side curtain airbags as well as driver and passenger knee airbags. As well, you don't usually find that standard on vehicles. In the back, you're going to have latch, of course, lower anchors and tethers for children for the rear car seats, but also standard. All package options are going to include collision mitigation braking system, adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist, road departure mitigation system, forward collision warning and lane departure warning. That's a ton of standard safety there. And if you want with the technology packaging up, you are also going to get front and rear parking sensors and a blind spot information system with rear cross traffic alert. Ain't so, but that is about it for this one, you guys. Thank you so much for watching. Be sure to like the video and subscribe. Feel free to follow me on social media at the bottom of the screen there. And I will see you guys in the next video. Stay gold.


Hi, my name is Leon Rowe currency trader and trading coach at trading 180.com Welcome to this week's plan demand for us and gold fundamental and technical analysis for the week ahead starting the 11th of February hope you all had a great trading week and they're looking forward to the upcoming week and before we get into The fundamentals and technicals. Please do like subscribe and share the video if you in Enjoy the content and you find the content useful for your trading and Yeah, let's get into it So week ahead 11th of February in the US investors will closely watch inflation report followed by retail sales figures producer inflation data and the Michigan consumer confidence Index of this nearly speeches by several Federal Reserve officials will be monitored so again all eyes on the US dollar really the theme is when are when is the Federal Reserve going to cut rates right and that is really where what is driving Prices over the medium to long term so the longer they hold or seem to hold Which would basically mean that if inflation remains sticky and not coming down to their 2% target And the longer they hold is the more the dollar will end up being a buyer So this week is going to be quite an important week in terms of Where the market prices in or how the market prices in the next rate cut whether it's going to be sooner or later? So internationally highlights include the UK's fourth quarter Q4 GDP Inflation and unemployment data as well as Q4 flash GDP growth rates for Japan So the UK have got a lot of data coming out as well and also as well Japan that's going to be interesting as it may if GDP growth kind of holds up, which I think it's expected to then the Bank of Japan a likely or potentially likely to Hike rates a bit sooner. Of course, we'll get into the Japanese data a bit later in the video and inflation rates for the UK and Switzerland will be followed along with unemployment rates for Australia finally Germany's ZEW economic sentiment and Australia's NAB business confidence are set to be released So lots of data coming out especially for the dollar the Pound as well as Japan so yep, that's it for For the upcoming week. So before we do get into the analysis just wanted to go over Trade analysis and trade that I'd taken a couple of weeks ago, and it was on the Euro Swiss and Euro Swiss this was the Chart and this was basically the this the setup And so if we go into the discord group on the 30th of the first Tuesday the 30th of January I basically said to everyone in the group said due to the Eurozone dodging of a session There is an opportunity to buy the Euro my pick is the Euro Swiss and this is this just come after the The Europe in Eurozone had dodged the recession. So I expected actually some upside and the Swiss Frank is basically on our Cell list, and it's been like that for the past few weeks and So there was really a kind of a divergence in terms of you know Trying to buy the Euro and the Euro I'm actually not not bullish on overall, but I think there was If I'm gonna buy the Euro it was gonna be a base against a week What I thought would be a weaker currency and it was gonna be against the Swiss Frank. So This was really the setup and just going back to the discord group. This was really the setup right here And so if you open it in the browser This is what I'd seen at the time. So we come down into this daily demand zone right here And so yeah, it was pretty much a Buy right in my book so This is where I'd entered. So I'd entered into three positions or I was hoping to get into three positions, which I ended up getting into three positions. So the first Entry was a market order at the zero point nine three five one Right so that white line that extends there. That was the first entry the second Entry was a 50% pullback pending order by at zero point nine three three three And then the third if prices had pulled back would have been at the zero point nine three one six and so Many of the guys all of the guys in the discord group know exactly how you know how to enter and how we've been entering for years and years, this is basically the method that I use and If it comes back then brilliant if it doesn't then in terms of, you know, putting back and triggering me into these positions then Then brilliant, right? But if it doesn't then at least I'm in a market order there, but on this trade what I've done You know, just basically what price had done is it had come down triggered me into all three positions My stop-loss was at the zero point nine two nine sevens I think it was one nine eights around there and so I've been triggered into all three positions now at this point It does get a bit, you know, bit scary because you could lose three positions But can't being confident of course and doing my backtesting and stuff I know that this works and they've been trading like this for years And so there is obviously a chance that I could lose all three. That's fine But you know pretty much if I'm right about this trade then The risk reward is typically really good, but on this trade what I did was because I Wasn't necessarily, you know overly confident on the euro and although I did think that it was gonna go higher What I decided to do was take profit along the way So as we got triggered into all three positions what I did on this and on the The pending order that was at the bottom right here About 95% of the tradesman. I took profit off there at a one-to-one. Yeah, and then What I also did when prices started going higher took took a one-to-one off here So now I am In a profitable position right thinking that I can hold this and swing trade this but as Data started coming out for the euro. I wasn't too confident that prices would go too much higher Of course, there was always a possibility that prices could go all the way up to you know reach these highs, but I Just thought what I'd do is I was in some other Swiss Frank trades as well Many of you know I was in the Aussie Swiss as well as the dollar Swiss And so what I thought I'd do is I'll just take profit off at On the final position about a 1.1 to 1 which was around here on the final position rather than trying to swing trade it Maybe up here. I was kind of swing trading the other Swiss positions. And so on the Wednesday the 7th of February I managed to completely get out of all positions. So three wins On the euro Swiss Frank. So that ended up being a a really good trade and a really good example of You know just high-time thing trading and really how to manage the trades and and the fundamentals playing out in In our favor, right? So that was the the trade breakdown. Anyways, let's get into the week's analysis and looking at the dollar Index and this is the dollar of index. This is the equally weighted dollar index and If you want the calculations for the weekly dollar index, I do have a video on my YouTube channel I'll put the link up in the top right-hand side as well as the description Box in if you're watching this on YouTube. So last week I was saying I'm pretty much bullish and waiting for you know prices to kind of go to the upsides the dollar Fundamentally this week pal Tells 60 minutes fed is wary of cutting rates too soon So power a race that a March interest rate cut is unlikely and 2024 rate forecast probably haven't changed Dramatically and so it says here the Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Americans May have to wait beyond March for the central bank to cut rates as officials look for more economic data To confirm that inflation is headed down to 2% in an interview conducted Thursdays with Thursday with CBS's 60 minutes that aired Sunday evening power saw to explain the central banks rationale for eventual reductions to a broad public audience and he said the danger of moving too soon is that jobs not quite done and that The really good readings we've had for the last six months Somehow turned out not to be a true indicator of where inflation is heading Powell said in the interview with CBS Scott Pelly according to a transcript provided by the network. So I've been saying this for months. If not years if anyone's been following me for that long You know that really prices are driven by Monetary policy right a monetary policy divergence on what we're having is is the pricing out of rate cuts Which is usually bullish for a currency or appreciates a currency and the market had got really too far ahead of itself And so on the charts, that's pretty much what you're seeing But this week prices really didn't go anywhere for the for the dollar and I think the market is really waiting for this week This week CPI data to really kind of confirm whether the dollar And the Federal Reserve are likely to have a cut rates sooner or later now if they're likely to cut sooner Then what you're likely to have is The dollar set off right so if inflation Really starts to surprise to the downside and goes towards their 2% target then the dollar is actually likely to start to set off right and there's an opportunity there if it is You know if it remains sticky or actually goes higher then in fact, I think the dollar is likely to rally So I'm still a dollar bullet the moment of course that can change if You know the data support has to support the narrative the data doesn't support, you know Rate hikes later. I'm sorry rate cuts later then Then there's an opportunity to look for some shorts on the dollar Now looking at the the dollar yen and again with some decent news With with the dollar, you know prices basically pushed past this supply zone right here Did react from it last week, but then there was some data Out I think it was for was it for the end? I can't remember if it was for the for the end last week. I know last week's data was consumer confidence. So It must have been for the dollar that kind of pushed it higher anyways The yen is gonna be interesting because I Think it's one of the trades for 2024 in terms of buying the yen and it says here Japanese firms boosting pay for young workers is good news for the Bank of Japan and so big firms have really announced starting salary pay gains may translate to smaller firms overall wages and push Bank of Japan so Japanese firms are increasingly boosting starting pay for young employees Potentially building longer term momentum for overall wage growth in a welcome development for the Bank of Japan as it seeks evidence of a virtuous wage price cycles or wage prices Contribute to inflation and if inflation starts to rise due to wage Price hikes from companies Then the Bank of Japan are likely to hike rates And they're the only G10 central bank that are you know looking to hike rates while everyone is looking to cut rates So there's a massive divergence there. And so for me the yen is looking like Buy but of course the data needs to support the narrative Of course if there's no point in saying I want to be a buyer at the end If the data doesn't show that you should be a buyer at the end He says here the positive news on pay comes as annual wage negotiations have kicked into high gear If wage gain momentum carries over into this year The Bank of Japan is expected to end the world's last negative interest rate regime by April According to a majority of economists surveyed in January by Bloomberg. So I think technically it's not necessarily a pair That I'm watching and unless actually I think this week might actually be a Might be a decent start to a bit of a rollover if the the The US inflation does start to actually come in a bit lower So I think there could be a decent short as well as any kind of data this week And we've got GDP but more importantly inflation data for the yen if that starts to come out Higher than I think actually the dollar yen with you know The Federal Reserve looking to cut rates and the yen looking to High crates. I think we could see a really nice Swing trade to the downside, but again the trigger is really the data supporting The narrative so that's where you are if you do want to be a buyer of the of the dollar yen Then you're looking at this area here in terms of demand so pull back into this so here or Pull back into the zone down here before looking at getting long dollar CAD dollar CAD this week we were saying last week Prices could come up here and start to reverse But we did have basically prices bounce off of this level of supply and so not necessarily a pair that I'm interested in trading but If you are I do think that Again, it's this difficult one to kind of read. I think the The that it's really about the dollar and whether inflation is coming higher or lower So across the board any kind of dollar crosses this week going to be driven by What what happens with the data if you are looking at buying the dollar though? I think pull back into this so maybe maybe now matter of fact Maybe a bit deeper into that zone should be nice if you are looking for a sell trade I think the fresher area of supply Up at the one three sixes should be a decent area to look for a short trade pound Dollar the pound dollar again not really a pair that I'm looking at trading for now But that could change obviously depending on what happens this week The pound does have a lot of news coming out. So you've got unemployment rate on What's that Tuesday, then you've got GDP and then you've got retail sales as well. So Lots of data coming out. We have bounced. We did end up bouncing off of this level that I thought You know was it was a decent level of not only demand, but it had the confidence of support and resistance It was the bottom of this auction as well Where prices made higher highs so a really nice technical level, but in terms of fundamentals, I think the This pair isn't necessarily the best pair to look for a trade in terms of divergence is the UK says job market was tighter than expected in late 2023 so Unemployment rate lower and and inactivity higher than estimated. So the new data meant to improve flagship labor force Survey, so what does that all mean? It says here unemployment by the new measure was three point nine percent in the three months Through November well below the four point two estimated using previous data office of the national statistics said Monday Joblessness has now fallen in four straight months according to the improved data set when the temporary Experimental figures had shown it to be flat over the same period So the combination of factors suggests that labor market has not Loosened as much as thought and may be putting more upward pressure on wages and prices That may help persuade the Bank of England to wait for wait a few more months before starting to cut interest rates So the fact that labor market hasn't All unemployment hasn't risen Is and and you know, it has an effect on pressure on wages and prices prices being inflation it Obviously hasn't the effect that the Bank of England If it isn't coming down the Bank of England are likely to hold for longer. So in fact that is more of a positive and then not very even positive but just more appreciative of the for the For the pound and so that's the reason why you're seeing this this potential bounce at the moment I'm actually over a buyer of the pound, but just not against the dollar But if you are looking to buy the pound and again, it depends on what happens this week Any pullbacks will be nice and if you're looking to be a seller of the pound I think pull back up into this the highs of the 128 is going to be a decent area to look for or maybe even just above that could be nice for a potential sell there pounds yen we are at a very interesting level and Again, I think there could be a decent turning point driven by data if data comes out and supports Maybe some pounds selling then then I think we could have prices start to pull back Around here, and this could be a really nice short trade There is a stop-hunt opportunity as well above that for anyone who looking for shorts on the Pounds yen, so that's where we are with that in terms of buying You've got also another demand zone right there and so any pullbacks into that zone I think is going to be nice technically for a potential buy You also have some support and resistance right there so level level within that area of demand Looking at the euro dollar so the euro dollar the euro Again, not necessarily an all-out buy. I'm out of the I said the euro Swiss My bias is probably still looking a bit bearish simply because Although they avoided a recession It does look like they could be one of the first central banks to look to cut rates And so it says here the ECB rate cut timing is only First tricky call in easing process the size of steps easing pace and endpoint are all up for debate and Officials have shared widely different views on how to proceed So it says here officials are currently hammering out whether the cut whether to begin cuts in April or June and so You know the fact that they're considering April in the market is looking like his pricing in April doesn't look good And they would be one of the first central banks to cut rate This is the reason why I actually exited the the euro Swiss And so it says here comparatively simple decision considering they must also weigh the size of their steps How quickly they want to proceed and where borrowing costs will end up? So the eventual strategy hinges on the clauses or say the clauses the pluses and minuses of acting sooner and slower versus later and more rapidly Governing council 26 member must also find a way of signaling their intentions without reigning on repeated pledges to be steered by data. So Yeah, the ECB had definitely have a bit of a headache at the moment and So we could see potentially more downsides You know to this to the euro dollar but I think at the moment this week is really going to be driven mainly by What happens with the US data this week and so? Strong US data should push prices to the downside Anything where the where the Fed with a market things at the Fed are likely to cut sooner Then actually in fact, you probably will see prices moves to the upside On the euro dollar. So again, probably it's more waiting the news For this week Euro yen. I am bearish on this of prices have come up to actually Decent level and so I do want to look for some short trades Hopefully slightly higher if prices can come up to this This higher round here, then I really want to be a buyer there or just above that area there And it's going to be a really nice stock hunt.  I put that. Yeah, that's that's there as that is where supply is Right there. So yeah, that's nice. I've got a lot of confluence nice clean level and so buying the yen for me is Again, just just need the data to kind of support my buying and so let's see what happens on this if you are looking to buy the Euro right then really you're looking for a pullback down into this demand zone probably with a bit more confidence of the That support and resistance level within that level area of of demand Euro pounds Euro pounds the Bank of England are expected to Cut later than then Europe. So I do think any pullbacks up into that zone there should be actually quite nice for a sell At the moment, we've just seen prices really kind of auction Within here, but if they're you know data does change and the euro does get its act together Then I think actually this could be a decent pullback buy But for now my bias is really looking for short trades And I'm looking for more of a fresher area of supply. So prices pull back to the 85 50s 85 90s, then I think that's going to be really nice for a sell trade Aussie dollar Aussie dollar again I'm actually a bullish on the Australian dollar but I think Well, not against the the US dollar, but let's see what happens here this week and again this level is probably holding up based off of Not only the the dollar news or the expectation but also as well, I think NAB confidence doesn't necessarily have a Great or any kind of major impact on price So I think this week is really going to be again core inflation and The the Australian dollar could actually be quite a good decent buy against the the dollar if You know the Fed a signaling that they may cut sooner or the market thinks that the Fed will cut sooner So at the moment, I think price of the Australian dollar is going to be driven mainly by What happens with the Fed rather than the the Australian central bank the RBA? but if you do want to be a seller and buy the dollar the US dollar Then any pullbacks up into that supply zone there is going to really be where you want to look for a trade Technically and finally gold. So gold Again with dollar strength this week You've seen basically a sell-off not say a sell-off, but that's basically just a bit of a pullback And so really gold is going to be driven by the interest rate cutting cycle And again, if price does come down here, you want to be a buyer of gold I think that's going to be a really nice level to look for any kind of buying again you need really the confluence of the dollar to be to be weak in terms of Interest rate cuts If you are looking for short trades and a pullback up into this fresh area of supply is really where you're looking for sell trades overall Gold as you know central banks are in there cutting cycle Gold should really be a buy over the medium to long term. So any pullbacks I think should be buying opportunities. It depends on when you want to buy a right just about the timing. So overall, I am Would be bullish on gold if it pulls back to even, you know in 90 the 1970s 1980s 1970s that would be a really good technical buy. I think but Again being slightly more bullish on the dollar at the moment. I don't think I Want to be a buyer of gold just at these levels just yet But again, it really does depend upon what happens this week For with inflation, so that's it for this week. Hope you enjoyed the content and found it useful I wish you a great trading week and I'll speak to you soon until the next video