Ep. 60 - OMAD to lose 75 pounds | Fasting Testimonial Tuesday | Consistent weight loss progress | Progress over perfection | 365 Days | How to make a fasting lifestyle work | Getting your life back | Free OMAD Intermittent Fasting Plan

In this episode, you get you get to hear from one of the earliest adopters of the one meal a day strategy of fasting. Candice and her story are uplifting and transformational in more ways than one. While Tommy and Dr. Scott are iced in without power, heat, and of course internet, we hope you enjoy this wonderful story of consistency and simplicity. Candice, much like us, started with frustration and little results. Fast forward 365 days and you have one of the first success stories of Fasting For Life. 

Fasting For Life Ep. 60

[00:00:01] Hello, I'm Dr. Scott Watier, and I'm Tommy Welling, and you're listening to the Fasting for Life podcast, and this podcast is about using fasting as a tool to regain your health, achieve ultimate wellness and live the life you truly deserve.

[00:00:15] Each episode is a short conversation on a single topic with immediate, actionable steps. We cover everything from fat loss on health and wellness to the science of lifestyle design.

[00:00:25] We started fasting for life because of how fasting has transformed our lives, and we hope to share the tools that we have learned along the way.

[00:00:40] Hey, everyone, welcome to the Fasting for Life podcast. My name is Dr. Scott Watier, and this episode I am actually not with my good friend and colleague Tumi Welling. Don't worry, he's not going anywhere. But we are part of the twenty twenty one south Texas snow pocalypse it has been tonight will be subfreezing temperatures. We have been powerless, heat less and obviously wi fi less for the better part of going on 12 to 18 hours. Everybody is safe and sound, but we are hunkering down. And I'm actually coming to you from my kitchen because that is where the most heat is in the house. So full transparency. Peek behind the curtain. Tom and I like to record episodes either weekly or at least within a week or two of them being released to the topics in the conversations are fresh. They are conversational. We are hearing from you. We are talking about topics that are on the forefront of your mind and we really enjoy that that process. And hopefully what we have going on in the fasting for life world also comes up with some of the things and the questions that we have from you guys on the outside as part of our awesome listenership and part of the fasting for life. So tonight's episode is actually going to be a conversation with one of my favorite people who was one of the first people to actually put in the one meal a day type process for when it comes to fasting. And over the course of a year, her results were absolutely transformational. This is someone that I know I've known for years. She's fantastic and really been on this journey with us from pretty much day one. So I hope you enjoy the conversation. I know I did. And don't worry, we'll be back with more standard normal like episodes. As soon as Texas decides to become Texas again and things start to melt, temperatures start to come back to normal and we get power in wi fi back. So enjoy the episode and we will talk soon.

[00:02:49] All right, Candice, we are live on Facebook. I just want to thank you so much for taking the time out of your day. I know you've got kids and family and all the other stuff that we have on a day to day basis. So I really am appreciative that you have hopped on with us today. And when I thought about asking you to come on and share your story, I wanted to do it like weeks ago. So I'm glad we're getting it done, because every time I see you, every time we say I've known you for years, I've been a part of your health journey in the past and currently still am, interestingly enough, in a in a in a roundabout way. But I'm just super happy that you're willing to share your story, because I think it's going to be transformational for the people that we've been with. So we are on our final week. So, you know, of our twenty eight day fasting for life experience. So I want to kind of just jump right in and ask you a very open ended question of why and where you came from, meaning why you started fasting and how it's been kind of transformed your life over the last 11 months today.

[00:04:07] So where did you start? And kind of give us some perspective on why.

[00:04:12] Ok, I started this health journey almost exactly a year ago today, I had been diagnosed last summer with insulin resistance. The medication I was taking for it was not working. I had actually gained on the medication. And so in August, I had began my journey with intermittent fasting. Prior to that, I had had to gestational pregnancies, a pregnancy as a diabetic, and I was on insulin.

[00:04:53] So coming off the medicine was huge for me. Coming off the insulin, I created my wife and my way of doing it was my kids. I had no energy, very sluggish.

[00:05:15] Just your typical activities were they were rough on me. And so starting intermittent fasting was a it was a commitment. It was. But I had some goals.

[00:05:28] I started.

[00:05:30] So so, Candace, let me let me interject there. So you saw me in my wife's clinic one day and you did like a double take, right? You're like, wait a minute. I did what you had.

[00:05:42] Yeah. A lot of weight and severely overweight at the time, so I was looking for anything, I had tried numerous things in the past and nothing, nothing stuck to me.

[00:05:54] So when you it all quick conversation, all I said was go get Dr. Fong's book. Right. And I think three months went by. Right. So what was your mindset in the beginning? Because you had mentioned certain things about goals and you've completely reversed your disease and no more diabetes. And it's been 11 months of transformation. But like what? When you started when you when you read the information that I had read that Tommy had passed to me, what was the thing that really stood out to you being like, man, I got to do this?

[00:06:29] Once I started reading Dr. Funks book, he would give different case studies and I would read that. I would be like, oh, my gosh. I mean, that is me. Like, I have to do something. I have five kids.

[00:06:44] I've got to do something with my health help. And I felt like I mean, it was this or nothing. I had tried everything. And so my health goals of when I wanted to accomplish has kept me going and.

[00:07:03] So it's not about the way it was, it was it was about the.

[00:07:06] It was never about the weight loss. My goal was I had I knew what the journey was going to be like if I didn't reverse the insulin resistance. And that was my goal. That was my my my goal. And I started in August. I knew my next appointment with my endocrinologist was in December. So I knew I had I had to hit it hard. I went all in. I think my first day that I started fasting was only 18 hours. And after that it's been twenty two to twenty six hours.

[00:07:39] So hold on, hold on, stop. So let's let's talk a few numbers here. So what's your total weight loss.

[00:07:46] Sixty eight pounds and eleven months into intermittent fasting.

[00:07:51] That's amazing. So. Sixty eight pounds. How long did it take for the the, the disease reversal. How long was that for you.

[00:08:00] So it took four months to completely reverse the insulin resistance and blood work was a forty eight point six when I started and it went down to eight point nine in four months, which is specifically the insulin.

[00:08:18] So this is something we can talk about for everybody that's listening.

[00:08:20] But honestly, you could just tell the metabolic profile change. Now, you had not been diagnosed for long, right?

[00:08:28] It had only been I had got diagnosed May of last year.

[00:08:32] Right. So if you guys are listening and you're like, wow, I've had diabetes for two decades, four months is probably not a reasonable goal. But the point is, is that it's possible. Right. And here's the thing. When I when we did our episode of how I lost almost 50 and 50 days, I want a little more aggressive. I did some longer fast. I did multiple three every day, fast in a row. I did lots of forty eight hour to seventy two hour fast, a lot of twenty four hour fast. You got these results with twenty two to twenty six hour. Pretty much one meal a day.

[00:09:04] I did, I do one meal a day and my window is only open for about forty five minutes. I don't count my calories, I do eat pretty much what I want to eat but it's in that window. I don't have any days where I don't fast every single day since I started August eight, I have fasted. I have some longer fast in there but I tend to stay with twenty two to twenty six hours.

[00:09:33] Well if you. OK, let's let the results speak for themselves. Right. If it's working why change it. So we talked about something about goal setting. So you had a large goal in mind, but throughout the process you realized it was easier for you to set smaller goals, right?

[00:09:51] Yeah. When I started I kind of figured a way that I wanted to be and that weight would have lost. I would have lost one hundred and fifteen pounds to get there. I am shooting to one hundred and so I just have thirty two pounds to go.

[00:10:12] So the small goals, the what were those small goals on daily. Weekly.

[00:10:17] I always kept the small goals. It was always five pounds so huge five pounds. And I would hit that and it was so rewarding because I hit it pretty quickly on the five pounds. It wasn't ten or fifteen that took forever. And then I got down on myself. It was just five and five and five and five. And before you know it, I mean the first month I lost sixteen and then I, I lost during the quarantine, I lost six pounds or fourteen. So but I think the mindset that you throw into it, it keeps you going. You've got to change your habits and you've got to learn new things and you got to keep positive. I mean, on days where you might have something you shouldn't have had, you just got it. You got to keep going. Life is life and you've got to live it and and and learn from it.

[00:11:08] So would you would you anchor to because you had said something to me that was pretty powerful. You anchored to something greater than the weight and you anchored to something greater than the diagnosis. Right.

[00:11:21] You have five of them.

[00:11:22] I have five kids, and I didn't want to be I can remember going on vacations where I stayed in the beach house or we went to the mountains and I stayed in the car because I didn't have the energy to to do things with them. I have a large range of ages. My youngest is two, I, I couldn't chase them around. I had no energy. I literally would get them off to school and go back to bed. And so they, like I said, have always been my wife and the more the healthier I became. And with that became a weight loss as well. But mainly I the insulin spikes, I no longer had those.

[00:12:06] I no longer felt dizzy or.

[00:12:11] Out of breath, and so they got their mom back.

[00:12:14] My husband got his wife back, and so the journey has been it's been so rewarding and I mean, weight loss was an action to to be in healthier, but it was never my goal.

[00:12:28] And my kids and you mentioned something specifically about your daughter, which almost floored me. I was like, whoa, that's powerful.

[00:12:38] I have two daughters. I have at one that's actually turning 19 tomorrow. And I have a 10 year old. And I was never comfortable in my skin for years and I never really wanted to be noticed. I kind of quit volunteering because I was like hiding behind my skin and I didn't want them to look at that and be like, you know. I wanted to I just had to change things so that they would look at me a little differently instead of that's my mom.

[00:13:20] The other thing is, I didn't want them to follow in my footsteps, I wanted to to be healthier and have healthier habits, I guess you could say, and I didn't want them to say, well, I'm going to have diabetes because my mother had it or I'm going to be on insulin or or whatever, because my mom had it. I wanted to stop with me because it's not always hereditary. It is your life. It's your habits. It's it's the way you make your life. And so having girls, knowing that the girls look up to you and your habits and how you handle yourself, I wanted them to be going to see me as I love myself. I love my body as it's changing. I love myself and I wanted them to love themselves.

[00:14:10] So I had to be the model, the role model that is I'm getting a little choked up here and that was not planned. So excuse me for a second. But that is I mean, that's the reality of it. That's where it is. I looked at my dad and all the struggles he had and I'm like, wait a minute, I'm turning into him and I love him. And no offense, it was misinformation and lifestyle decisions and doctors and medicine and all these things that you didn't realize it was happening as as as the years go by. But then you look at me like, well, I want something different for my kids. And that was just I mean, when you said that to me earlier and then you you just said it to me again and I was like, whoa, that's that's where it gets real. So I love what you gave me.

[00:14:59] And it was you gave me a couple right in one one about the challenge. If it doesn't challenge you, what was the one I can't quote it off top of my head.

[00:15:08] It doesn't challenge you. It doesn't change you. And I literally that goes through my mind every single day. I I've never been able to exercise, but I have I have smarts. I go anywhere from three to seven miles. I'm actually trying to train myself to run my first five game. But when I'm out and about and I'm working out, it gets tough and it's hard and it's hot outside. And so that quote comes back to my mind. If it doesn't challenge me, it's not going to change me. So that just keeps me going.

[00:15:48] You know, so we talk a lot, we've talked a lot about.

[00:15:56] The mindset that you have to have the mind, your motivation needs to be there to anchor to something greater, your mindset needs to be framework, we have a lot of this negative psychology that's built into weight loss and health and looking up to our parents.

[00:16:10] And all of this stuff came organically to you as you started to digest the power of fasting. Right. And I was kind of a play on words there, not intentionally. And then you found out what works and what's what fits into your life that that one meal a day works for you. So having that mindset and the motivation, the anchor I was trying to type your quote in and somebody typed it in for me. That's watching. That's awesome. Thank you. So if it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you. And then there was something you had mentioned and we can kind of wrap up with some final thoughts of speaking to the people that are struggling or that haven't just bought into it yet, even though they have all the knowledge and all the information they need probably more than they need. But you said the world's going to keep going with or without you. Right. Can you elaborate on kind of what you meant by that?

[00:16:58] So the world is it's going and you can see that in my eyes. I was like, I can get on board and I can do the commitment to myself, to my kids or my family, or I can sit back and sit on the couch and eat whatever I want to. Life's is going to turn anyway, so I might as well make a positive change. And and I did. And that's awesome. Actually, I'm a work in progress. Yes, I believe that. Yeah, and I I think that the health journey is different than a weight loss journey, and mine has always been the health journey with the bonus of of the weight loss of the weight loss.

[00:17:40] Yeah. And all the other and all the other great stuff. The more energy, the more fun. Yeah. So I love the world is going to keep going with or without you. Is, is, is kind of an exercise we like to do like the time machine exercise. Like imagine yourself five or ten years from now. If you don't change something you're going to be in the exact same place or worse, typically worse. So it's it's framing it like like it's going to keep moving. So let's start to move with it. Right. And just start with those small victories. If you're doing twenty four hours, push it to twenty eight, you're doing twenty four. Push it to thirty six. If you're doing eighteen, push it to twenty four and do that for a couple of weeks, you're going to, you're going to see the results. So I just applaud you for diving in too, because you and I have known each other for a while and I've seen your struggles and you've seen mine. Right. And it's like that relatability is huge. So you were going to say something there?

[00:18:37] Well, I, I the reason my hours are twenty two to twenty six. I'm not hard on myself if today I have to cut it at twenty two. If tomorrow is twenty five I, I, I'm ok with that like so I'm not as strict. OK, it's got to be two hours so it just, it fits with my schedule and I think that's why it works so well with me. It fits your life if it's my life. Right. And at first yeah it was, there were some struggles. I have five kids. I have to cook for them even though I eat one meal a day. I have the problem with it now and I have cravings either.

[00:19:14] Cool. So it gets easier. The cravings go away. The hunger is not real. You don't want your your habits get better. The bingeing goes down.

[00:19:22] So one thing you mentioned as we kind of I want like one or two things we can tell people to encourage them. But your story is going to be encouragement enough. I can guarantee it. I'm seeing some of the comments and some of the responses. You had mentioned being hard on yourself. And one of the ways people are hurting themselves is because they rely solely on the scale. And you mentioned non scale victories. What were some of those times?

[00:19:49] I actually get more excited about non scale victories than I do the actual weight loss. I mean, the the noticeable one is, is your class size changes another one. And there's probably men and women on here just getting out of the shower and being able to wrap the towel around you. I mean, that was like huge for me. It was like another is going places and I can sit in a chair and I don't have to worry about the chair collapsing.

[00:20:19] That was well, that's a huge one for me. Yeah. The.

[00:20:25] The exercise got easier and more energy for your kids, like, yeah, I can go out and jog, but I've never been able to really do that since I was a teenager.

[00:20:36] So just some of the just they can be very small non scale victories, but they're huge in the mindset.

[00:20:46] Yep, yep.

[00:20:48] We talk about we talk about little wins all the time. So get a couple of little wins under your belt and your body will physiologically want those wins. And instead of getting the dopamine hit from all the negative, bad psychological things that go with weight loss and dieting, you'll get a positive reinforcement of dopamine and be like, oh, right. Yeah, the body likes this is going to keep doing it. So it just takes the perseverance in the beginning. So if you're speaking to someone that struggled like you have or I have, or a lot of the people that we work with have in terms of our coaching and, you know, clients and whatnot, what is something that you can say for someone that just hasn't bought all the way and they kind of like do the hot tub experience where they dip their put in and then they come out and they and that's all based on previous failed experience.

[00:21:38] I get it. I've been there. Right. You've been there. So it's not like you're doing anything wrong, but something that we can say to like we'll know like here here it is, the times. Now let's rock and roll.

[00:21:48] Well, health is a big thing. I think one thing that I really had to use, and I still use it daily, but I really had to use at the beginning, was every single thing you put in your mouth raises your insulin. And my goal was to reverse the insulin resistance. So I had to watch what went in my mouth. And that is the reason I did one meal a day. So if somebody is struggling, if they can put it in their mind every single time they stick something in your mouth, you have just raised your insulin.

[00:22:29] When you and I first had that first conversation back in late July and you just took a piece of paper and you drew that line and you showed me how the insulin spikes with everything you eat, that is still very much in my mind and that doesn't leave. So for someone struggling with it, if you stop and you count how many times you put a piece of gum in your mouth or a peppermint or a coke or any anything that that raises your insulin, I think that right there, when I looked at the number of times I did it, that helped me go.

[00:23:12] Good. That's huge, because that's that's how much simpler could fasting be, right? Like, you either do it or you don't. And if you didn't, you start. Now you just move on. And it's not the counting in the numbers. We do talk and train on the numbers and the accounting because that really becomes the mastery of it, especially when you get down to the last few before the end goal. You got to look at that stuff. But it's so simple. So if you can envision that chart, I love that action stuff we did. We do action steps on our podcast. We do action steps and our conversations. So that is a perfect ending and kind of wrapping a bow on everything of an action step of just saying, you know, here it is. This is what you do every time you do this thing. This is what happens. It couldn't be any simpler. So I appreciate that insight.

[00:24:01] And me personally, I've done the yo yo dieting. I've started. I've stopped. OK, I'm going to start Monday because we have a birthday or whatever. I, I didn't do this with this. I went all in and I cold turkey, cold turkey, the gum, the, the sweetened tea, whatever it was.

[00:24:19] And I did cold turkey and to me that's easier for me. It's easier now cold turkey than it was to. OK, I'll just have it this one time because it doesn't stop one time. So so everybody that's listening. I am so glad to have desserts. I did not the first six months I very like it was rare. If I had something sweet I have changed. The insulin in my cells, the insulin in the liver and stuff, so I can now have a dessert in, it doesn't it doesn't upset me and I will lose the weight the next morning.

[00:24:58] Fantastic. So this is part of the mystery that we talk about. So we broken it up into mindset, motivation, method, mastery. So I want everybody that's in this group that's hearing this, or if we put this out on the podcast or Candace uses it in her coaching or whatever, like none of this was scripted. Like all of these talking points that are coming out in this conversation are purely from her experience.

[00:25:22] I just want you to know none of that was brought up other than a couple of the quotes and some of the questions I was going to ask. But all of those things are hitting on are the things that we found. So in wrapping this up, Candace, I want to give you an opportunity to say if there's any other things you want to drop, but I love and appreciate you for being you and for your transparency and for pulling me aside that day and actually asking the question, because once you ask that question, the cascade started. So I thank you for sharing your story because I absolutely know what is going to be hugely impactful for every single person that hears it.

[00:26:01] There's two things on a day if you're if you're having a rough day and you're having a little bit of a hard time going, I'm big on inspirational quotes. So if I'm having a sluggish day and I just need that extra good, too, I, I look up inspirational quotes and that that kind of helps me go.

[00:26:20] Another thing is I know you usually start out with you don't talk about fasting and it's true, you get a lot of use on it whether you want to hear their views on it or not. You do. I just have to I know it's working for me, so I don't really care what anybody else says about it because I know it's working. Well, I think those people that turned around and had that negative approach when I first started there looking now like now what were you doing? And so, you know, that that's that's good.

[00:27:01] It's good when I can see that I've inspired somebody. I mean, that makes my day if I can turn somebody around. So.

[00:27:09] So two things just to recap out there. And I love it. So find something that's your muse. So find your thing that you can stick to. If it's a quote, if it's picturing that chart, the insulin chart, it's in module two. And we talked about it. I showed the exact same thing and we drew it out.

[00:27:25] And then, yes, in the beginning I'd summarize that is protect your inputs. Right?

[00:27:29] So protect the people that are pouring into you. And that's why I think the coaching, the accountability is so important for success in this.

[00:27:36] So you've done amazing, Canice, and I just want to thank you again for being so transparent and sharing your story.

[00:27:43] And you and I are on this journey together, so let's keep killing it and we'll talk to you soon, OK? I'm in for some people that lose a lot of weight and they.

[00:27:55] They have the extra skin and stuff like that.

[00:27:58] I I'm not doing anything to change that. That is my roadmap and that leads me to remember where I came from. So I know that's one thing that I'm always asked is what are you going to do with this? Well, I'm not. That's who I am.

[00:28:11] Ok, so I love I love that. And.

[00:28:16] I.

[00:28:18] Forty plus pounds kept off. I have not had that problem, but I know some of the women that we've coached have and, you know, and they've experienced it and there are things you can do out there. It's not something that I feel comfortable speaking about. Right, because it's not in my wheelhouse.

[00:28:38] So I love your perspective on that, Candice, that for you, you know it you're going to use that as as an empowering tool to be like, no, this is this is part of me. This is part of my journey.

[00:28:50] And I think people will appreciate that transparency to so cool will give my best to your family. Once again, I appreciate you. And we will talk soon.

[00:29:02] Thank you. Good luck, everyone. Thanks.

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