NOTE: Due to the nature of remote interviews, sometimes the technology doesn’t cooperate. The audio fades out in a few spots during this interview. Please excuse the imperfections and enjoy the content!
In this episode of the Intermittent Fasting Stories podcast, host Gin Stephens speaks to Charlee Rankin of Idaho Falls. Charlee is a stay-at-home mom. She has five kids ranging in age from 14 to 4. Despite a tiny frame and peak adult height of 4’10”, she says she never had a problem managing her weight until her pregnancies. She breastfed each of her five babies and contrary to conventional wisdom, she gained weight while breastfeeding even though she stayed active. She tried Beachbody as well as ItWorks! Products, but continued to gain weight. In 2016, her sister mentioned intermittent fasting, but Charlee felt it sounded crazy and restrictive.
Around that time, life began to get very busy as she took on the care of 4 additional children. Though she’d always exercised consistently, she stopped making time for it and began to feel exhausted. Other symptoms included depression, anxiety, and heart palpitations. A medical workup did not reveal a cause, but it did show her blood glucose to be in the pre-diabetic range. The final straw came when she went to a walk-in clinic with a sinus infection and their scale read out ‘157 pounds.’ With an ideal weight of 90-100 pounds for her frame, 157 was the highest weight she had ever seen outside pregnancy. She was finally ready to give intermittent fasting a try, and started around New Year’s Day of 2018.
She recalls setting out saying, “If Gin can do it, I can do it!” She was motivated when she lost 10 pounds in the first 2-3 weeks, but then her weight loss plateaued and she got discouraged. She realized she was overly focused on the scale, and began working to tweak her regimen. Eating her main meal in the evening left her too full to go to sleep comfortably, so she shifted her main meal to midday. She happily sits with her family in the evenings while they eat and she drinks sparkling water. She has noted a growing distaste for processed foods she previously enjoyed, such as Chips Ahoy cookies, and a trend toward more healthful options. The best part of her health improvement is an elevated mood and a sense of freedom. She explains how the persistence and determination of her toddler daughter inspired her to stick to her goals, and encourages listeners to never give up.
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