Delay, Don't Deny: Living an Intermittent Fasting Lifestyle

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IF is free. You don’t need to join our community to fast. But if you’re looking for support from a community of like-minded IFers, we are here for you at ginstephens.com/community. I rationalized my weight gain, however, and consoled myself with comparison to others. On occasion, I would encounter a picture that I was not able to throw out, and I would be confronted with the truth. I had gone from wearing sizes 4-6 to wearing 12-14’s at the height of my weight gain. I had no idea how much I weighed, as my scale had broken years before and I had never replaced it. Then, at age 61, I stopped eating animals. I’m an artist and was doing illustrations of adorable creatures...and something snapped inside. Practically overnight, I became a vegan. I immediately lost 20 pounds while I figured out what I could eat. Within a few months, I realized there were some astounding health benefits to my new lifestyle. My blood pressure and cholesterol plummeted enough that I no longer needed medication. Acid reflux disappeared as well. That encouraged me to start researching plant-based diets. At age 63, I discovered Dr. John McDougall (and several other plant-based physicians) and started eating high carb low fat. That’s also when I started following Dr. Douglas Lisle, psychologist, and learned the why’s and wherefore’s of so-called emotional eating. I credit these two doctors with saving my life and sanity. By age 68, I was down to 147 pounds...but couldn’t seem to get any lower. I wondered if that was going to be my body’s final resting weight. Oh, I could have sacrificed and severely dieted my way lower, but I was trying to get out of my diet mentality, not sink further in.

6 Intermittent Fasting Mistakes to Avoid - MyFitnessPal 6 Intermittent Fasting Mistakes to Avoid - MyFitnessPal

At some point on my Facebook feed I started getting information about Intermittent Fasting from various sources. One that I remember suggested that women should fast 12-14 hours, then have their first meal. I dabbled with that for some time and felt great doing it. If you normally eat every 3–4 hours and then suddenly shrink your eating period to an 8-hour window, you’ll likely feel hungry all the time and discouraged. “Some people quit if they start out by fasting for too many hours without an adjustment period from a previous eating style,” says Krista Varady, PhD, associate professor of kinesiology and nutrition at the University of Illinois at Chicago and author of “The Every-Other-Day Diet.” It may take 10 days to two weeks until you stop feeling hungry when you’re fasting. Long story short: after 777 days, a first year of 20:4 IF and a second year of mostly <2 hour eating windows, I attained my goal of losing 100 pounds. I love fasting. This lifestyle is something I share with anyone who wants to listen. I carry a copy of DDD in my work bag and help other flight attendants if they want to learn the lifestyle. Our job sets us up for random eating, late hotels drinks with bar food and heavy airport meals. Its not uncommon for a flight attendant to gain weight and have a hard time losing it. I love getting others started on this way of life. Teresa has lost 83 pounds and is working on losing more. She has also healed childhood pain and shame and loves her body for the first time.Throughout my 30s I've had struggles with weight loss. I have tried lots of strategies, including the 1000 cal and HCG diets, diet pills, brutal exercise regimens....you name it, I tried it in my quest to lose and keep off-the-shelf weight. In the end I would regain all and more. Why? Because I love food, would eat whatever...whenever, and have the stuff that I restricted in abundance once I reach my goal after dieting.

Community - Gin Stephens, author and intermittent faster

Well, thank goodness my sister Katie introduced me to IF on December 27, 2016. When she explained this way of eating, my response was: no, that can't be. How can you eat everything you love and eat all those carbs and lose a lot of weight? Knowing my sister, she LOVES her salads and vegetables, and can pretty much live off of that stuff alone. I was very hesitant, BECAUSE I LOVE MY CARBS .... and I thought her weight loss was because of her love for salads and vegetables. My thought was, what can it hurt? The worst that can happen is I wouldn't lose weight . The best part? I have returned to my home cuisine, which I enjoy eating with my family every night. My food has no restrictions – wholemeal grains and millet, lots of dal, nuts & seeds, fermented food, all kinds of fruit & vegetables, full fat yoghurt and cheese. I began slowly gaining weight around 10 years ago. I attribute this to a time of extreme stress which caused me to quit caring for myself physically. Prior to this I had always been what most would consider thin. It took a few years for the weight gain to become visible to others, and even then, most would not have considered it extreme. It wasn’t until about 2015 that it really became noticeable. I started out my current weightloss journey doing a low carb/ketogenic diet in the spring of 2016. I had heard about keto from a friend who touted it's effectiveness. I read up on it, and started eating that way, and it was indeed effective, but I couldn't shrug off this feeling that I was still a slave to my weight. Sure, I could eat all the bacon I wanted, but I couldn't feel free to celebrate with a piece of birthday cake with my family, or a glass of wine with friends. I had this constant anxiety that one molecule of dreaded carbs would erase all my hard work. I could never feel totally "normal" eating low carb. It wasn't a feasible lifestyle change for me, because it didn't fully allow me to live. Today was my final visit with my dietitian. Being down 38 lbs since I started, I have decided to cancel my surgery. I have until the end of the year to change my mind, but .... if I think about it, the lifestyle I live now is working and well worth it. I have improved my life for the better. My house looks good, cars look good, I look good, bank account looks good (not spending a lot of money on food). My blood sugar is now in the range of pre-diabetes. My body feels cleaner, not getting pains and aches I use to get. I am not at my goal weight, but I am at at my goal mindset - it's okay to love food, but don't let it control you; become an active member in your life and stop being lazy; and enjoy the life you live.

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Here are six common mistakes people make while trying to adopt intermittent fasting and how to fix them: