Listen to episode 81:
“For me, less sugar and fasting are forms of self-care": Michelle

July 31, 2022

When Michelle was in her 30s, she got gestational diabetes when she was pregnant with her second child.
She had to change her diet and she felt restricted, so after she had the baby and was told that she could eat "normally" again, she went bonkers! She would buy dozens of candy bars, eat them, and hide the wrappers. She felt so ashamed.

At 5 feet 3 inches Michelle reached 200lbs. She felt heavy, physically and mentally. She felt lost. She had pain and flare-ups in her neck and back, migraines... it was hard. And she says that the sugar and processed foods she was consuming made every day more difficult.

Michelle was never allowed sugar as a child by her "health nut" mother (her words), so she felt deprived. She feels today that it's a difficult balancing act between feelings of deprivation and dependency.

When her youngest child was about 2.5, Michelle was using calorie cutting and exercise to lose weight, but it wasn't really working. After her wellness appointment with her doctor, she made a decision to do something different.

She overheard somebody talking about intermittent fasting (IF). It sounded crazy to her! But then she did some research about it and discovered Gin Stephen's books. On January 24, 2020, Michelle started intermittent fasting. She started with a 14-hour fasting time, which was amazing because she'd been used to snacking all the time.
After about 3 months, she was clean fasting 18 hours a day. In this episode, Michelle tells how her life and her health were transformed by IF.

Now Michelle enjoys non-food ways to practice self-care, including intermittent fasting.

Find Michelle's Facebook group here.
Find Michelle's "Fast and Fabulous" podcast here.

Download my list of Top 10 books about sugar, gut health, and intermittent fasting.