Gina was recently featured in a very popular lifestyle & entertainment magazine’s ‘Half their Size 2017′ issue. According to this magazine:
“I overhauled my entire diet,” says the Port St. Lucie, Florida, resident, who gave up sugar, processed foods and swapped starches like pasta for veggie-heavy salads. Lassales also started wearing a Fitbit and talking long walks. Now she logs about 15,000 steps per day.
They claimed she went from 300 lbs to 120 lbs by eating many small meals throughout the day and increasing her exercise through walking.
But Is This The Truth?
As usual, mainstream media was incomplete and inaccurate when they reported her story. Unfortunately, the “Eat Less, Move More” plan is not only ineffective for the majority of the population, it’s rarely (if ever) maintainable.
Shortly after the article in People magazine came out, she wrote this on Facebook:
They did not mention my fasting protocol at all, which I kind of guessed they wouldn’t. They described it as “small meals”….um, no. Only two and small, hell no. More like huge. They did not mention the ketogenic diet by name, which I also guessed they wouldn’t since they weren’t truly understanding it when I described it to them but thank God they said I cut the sugar and replaced carbs with salads. They chose pasta even though I told them it was rice. I never ate pasta.
I get that they have to cater to their sponsors but at the very least, the message of getting rid of sugar to lose weight was told.
Gina’s Story
After struggling with her weight for years, Gina started a low fat diet initially recommended to her by her doctor for her high cholesterol. However, the more fat she replaced with carbs, the hungrier she became. Counting calories, buying low fat snacks, nothing seemed to work, including following the advice coming from her doctor.
At around 300 lbs at this point, Gina’s health started to deteriorate rapidly. In addition to her high cholesterol, now her blood pressure and triglycerides were high as well, and her postprandial (after eating) blood sugars were in the triple digits.
She suffered from a myriad of symptoms from heart palpitations to visual problems and migraines to fatigue. She struggled with lower back injuries from normal, daily activities that were bad enough she needed to use a cane to get around. After failing a stress test, and being told by her cardiologist she needed to exercise more, she had heard enough. She was getting conflicting and ineffective advice from her doctors and decided to take matters into her own hands.
The Healing Process
Gina, like many others, went to the internet for help. She read book after book and learned about the connection between carbohydrates and obesity. Taking a leap of faith, she eliminated all wheat and most sugar from her diet. This helped her drop a significant amount of weight and improved her health, however, she was stalled out at around 200 lbs and was still suffering from migraines. This sent her back to the internet, where she came across a series of videos on YouTube by Dr. Jason Fung called The Etiology of Obesity.
After watching these videos, she eliminated ALL grains, not just wheat, and ALL sugar and starches, and upped the fat content in her meals, basically following a ketogenic diet. Her hunger disappeared. She decided to implement a fasting protocol.
She started small by first eliminating all snacks, and eventually eliminating a meal. Ultimately, she narrowed her eating window to only 4-6 hours and felt very comfortable following that regimen. The migraines went away and the weight started to come off again rather quickly, ultimately leaving her at only 120 lbs.
Gina is a perfect example of bravery and determination. Don’t be afraid to go against the grain. Do your own research, and take that leap of faith in an effort to become well again. It isn’t always easy… but it’s always worth it!
To learn more about the many benefits of fasting and varied fasting protocols, grab a copy of Dr. Fung’s book “The Complete Guide To Fasting.” To stay “in the loop” with good natural health info, make sure to subscribe to our updates!
*Note: After publication of this article, Gina asked the original publisher to please remove the name of the magazine. Maybe they didn’t want people to learn about the real way she lost weight? Or possibly they were just embarrassed for their poor reporting. Who knows. 😉
Sources:
intensivedietarymanagement.com