I’m Kevin. My intermittent fasting journey started with my sister that was diagnosed with cancer.
I know I’m overweight, as early as when I was in kindergarten. Excessive weight never hurt me until I was diagnosed with hypertension, diabetes, and fatty liver. However, I was still what I had been, and no changes were made.
“It’s unnecessary”, I thought. “People are different. Some are fit while some are overweight. No one can simply judge you based on your body shape.” In a word, extra weight is a problem for me but not so seriously taken. I would rather link my weight more to appearance instead of health.
But that all ended when I heard about my sister’s diagnosis of cancer.
My sister and I had similar body shapes and we both spent our childhood being around the kitchen and mom. All our happiness comes from the food we’ve taken. Now, our sadness today also comes from it.
Later, I received a health warning from my doctor that I must lose weight. In fact, red flag signs have been seen in my life earlier. I always got out of breath after climbing stairs and I always feel exhausted. One day, I even felt serious pain in my chest.
My sister introduced intermittent fasting to me because she is doing it as an assistant therapy for cancer. No diet limitations, easy to follow, convenient … I can’t think of any reason to directly avoid it.
Through intermittent fasting, I lose 125 lbs in 18 months. I never imagined I could cut my weight, and neither did I imagine how fast it could go. Intermittent fasting is just amazing.
Apart from rigorous fasting and eating windows, I also choose to eliminate all the highly addictive, ultra-processed, hyper-palatable foods that made me so big, to begin with. I avoided the carbohydrates and refined sugars that I had become so dependent on. I fixed my relationship with food by focusing on proteins, healthy fats, and vegetables instead.
Finally, all the happiness returns with food. I should never blame all on what we’ve eaten. It’s just what you eat contributes to your weight loss. Changing your diet habit alone may make a difference.
I find a useful helper during my journey of intermittent fasting, SoonFasting. At first, I only used it as a fasting tracker reminding me when to start and stop fasting. Later, when my weight began to go down, the coach from SoonFasting told me to pay more attention to my diet.
However, I’m not a dietitian or nutritionist. Fortunately, SoonFasting is there. I can get numerous meal plans from the app. Whenever I check the app, it tells me what to eat and drink during either fasting or eating window. I feel so encouraged when I feel I’m accompanied by Soon.