How it all began

I first heard about IF from my cousin who had heard of a book called Super fat to Super fit or something like that. This was the first time I had heard of anyone fasting for weight loss rather than the little "cleanses" that people do to try to get rid of a few pounds.

She said this guy was writing this book because he had lost over 100 LBS and kept it off for a year by eating whatever he wanted one day and fasting all day the next day. He was now super fit and was training for a triathlon. I now can't remember the guy's name or where I saw his site on the internet, but that is where I began my research. I loved the idea of eating whatever I wanted and still losing weight.

I had dieted for years and lost and gained back tons of weight in the process. So much so, that I had wore out my gaul bladder, created gaul stones and ended up on the emergency room 7 times in one month before they finally removed my gaul bladder.

I knew that depriving myself of the foods I loved didn't work. That it was too hard to incorporate all these diets that I tried into my lifestyle. I knew that I was never going to be able to avoid restaurant food for life or count every piece of food that went into my mouth. I had to find something that gave me more freedom and this sounded like it had freedom to offer.


I decided to try it for a week. Eat what I want one day and then fast all day the next day. The first day was a bit of a challenge, to say the least. Here I was, used to eating all day long every day and I was just going cold turkey and having absolutely no food at all for an entire day. I was curious to see if I could do it. It was really, really hard. The day dragged on and on and I felt a really negative vibe to the whole thing. I was painfully hungry. I counted the seconds until bedtime and dreamt of the morning when I could have what ever I felt like eating. At the end of the second day of fasting all day, I realized that it wasn't for me. I was not enjoying my fasting days and was just living for tomorrow. I decided to do some research into intermittent fasting and see if there was any other forms of it that didn't call for such long periods without food. 

That is where I found Paula. I saw her You Tube channel and started watching all of her videos about the Fast 5 way of Intermittent fasting. I downloaded Dr. Herrings book and decided to try again with the Fast 5 plan. I think that initial few days where I fasted all day were actually good preparation for me to follow Fast 5. I found it easy to skip breakfast and just wait for my window to open at 12 noon. I had kind of already gone through "detox or withdrawals" and was finding the transition to Fast 5 easy. In my first week following Fast 5 I lost 8 LBS!!! Wow, that is good motivation. 

One of Paula's inspirational videos

Seeing results like that is really what got me hooked to this lifestyle. Watching Paula's videos and hearing about her success kept me in the game, and how I felt only fueled the fire. I felt AMAZING! And I was looking AMAZING too. From then on I was hooked. I found that the hunger pains greatly diminished once my body got used to needing less food. I looked forward to my fasting state, felt a surplus of energy and enjoyed each day much more than I had in a long, long time.

I kept doing research online and found out about all the health benefits associated with Intermittent Fasting, longer life, decreased risk of cancer, lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure, quicker recovery from illness, decreased inflammation in the lungs (good for people with asthma) etc. And I continued to refine my schedule to include full fast Sundays and a later window on Saturday in preparation for the Sunday fast etc...I lost a substantial amount of weight my first two months and started to realize that I could actually meet my weight loss goals and stay there!

Now, at 33Lbs down, it is just part of my life and I rarely have to think about it or work on it anymore. It just comes natural. I rarely think of eating in the evenings now and often am in bed at around 10pm and realize that eating never even crossed my mind. I really enjoy eating only in the middle of the day and having an empty stomach during sleep. It feels so much more natural I feel so much better. I feel excited, I feel motivated, I feel energetic, I feel alert, and I FEEL FREE!


Fast 5 has changed my life.