Episode 41 -Michelle Montone An inspiring intermittent fasting journey losing over 50 pounds -22 Kg.

The Fasting Highway

By Michelle Montone

My story- I am a 39 year old mom of 2 boys (3&6), wife to my wonderful husband for 9 years. We live in Lake Mary, FL (suburb of Orlando). I am a full time stay-at-home mom, former paralegal (15yrs).

I am someone who started dieting around age 16. Since then I have struggled with my weight. Gained about 40lbs in college and lost it by working out 6 days a week, dieting which was depriving myself constantly. I didn’t eat meat, carbs and honestly was miserable. I maintained (not so effortlessly) a healthy weight for about 4 years until I got married at 30. This is when the weight started to pile on. I finally found comfort in a man that loved me for me, the comfort of marriage set in and before I knew it, I put on about 20lbs.

Then I became pregnant with our first son in 2014 - gained a good 60lbs, lost it all rather quickly after birth but this time by joining an MLM and using weight loss supplements and body wraps, hundreds of dollars a month. I lost around 10lbs over the next THREE years 🤦🏻‍♀️

Fast forward to 2016/7 - pregnant now with my second son. I was gaining just like the first time but at 28 weeks was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. Due to having to have an extremely strict diet to control my blood sugar, I didn’t end up gaining as much. It was what came in the next 2 years that was the worst.

I tried to go back to work (I am NOT the stay at home type) when my youngest was 7 months old. It was an absolute disaster. My husband got a big promotion 9 months later and I was forced to quit my job and stay home with an infant and 3yo in a town we just moved to. I fell into a horrible depression and developed a pretty nasty sugar addiction...you know the kind, when you’re eating an entire bag of candy in hiding, trying to cover up the wrappers in the trash. I ate fast food constantly not to mention always eating out.

Over those 2 years I gained another 25 (ish) lbs. I am 5’3” and my highest weight was around 185...although I’m not 100% as I never weighed myself. I believe I hit 200lbs at some point probably.

So many health issues started piling up at this point...I lived at the doctors office but none could give me any answers....and not ONE mentioned weight loss.

I tried everything to lose this weight...I would lose 5-6lbs then it would come right back. This went on for awhile before I accepted that this is who I was now and that I would be unhealthy and miserable.

An old friend of mine had been telling me about IF for about a year at this point. I thought he was NUTS. How could anyone not eat for 16-20 hours?! I was someone who carried snacks in my purse long before I had kids because I was taught to keep your metabolism going you should eat 6 times a day!

Fast forward to January 2020...I’m getting my hair done and overhear the client next to me chatting about how she lost 30lbs doing IF. I went home that day and began researching. A friend of mine invited me to Gins giant FB IF group where I watched for about a week before deciding to start 1/24/20 and have been clean fasting every day since. I’ve lost 45lbs meeting my original goal of 140lbs about 2 months ago. I’m currently working on my second goal (135lbs). Almost every single health issue I had, gone. The best for me though- I have completely tossed diet mentality in the trash!

IF has truly saved me. I love sharing my story and helping others find this unbelievable freedom . I have a small DDD spin off group on FB with about 2000 members, growing by the day.

Enjoy the Show

Graeme

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