In this episode of Intermittent Fasting Stories, Gin talks to Janet Divin from College Station, TX.
Join Gin in the Fast Feast Repeat app for The Grown-Up Year: 52 Weeks to Listen, Play, and Nourish, as well as a growing collection of intermittent fasting resources. Go to app.fastfeastrepeat.com to join us or go to the App Store and download the Fast Feast Repeat app, available for both iPhone and Android.
Are you ready to take your intermittent fasting lifestyle to the next level? There’s nothing better than community to help with that. In the Delay, Don’t Deny community we all embrace the clean fast, and there’s just the right support for you as you live your intermittent fasting lifestyle.
You can connect directly with Gin in the Ask Gin group, and she will answer all of your questions personally. If you’re new to intermittent fasting or recommitting to the IF lifestyle, join the 28-Day FAST Start group. After your fast start, join us for support in The 1st Year group. Need tips for long term maintenance? We have a place for that! There are many more useful spaces beyond these, and you can interact in as many as you like.
Visit ginstephens.com/community to join us. An annual membership costs just over a dollar a week when you do the math. If you aren’t ready to fully commit for a year, join for a month and you can cancel at any time. If you know you’ll want to stay forever, we also have a lifetime membership option available.
IF is free. You don’t need to join our community to fast. But if you’re looking for support from a community of like-minded IFers, we are here for you at ginstephens.com/community.
Janet is the office manager at an architect firm. Janet’s story is a reminder that real change often happens in layers, not all at once. She first discovered intermittent fasting four years ago through a friend who recommended Gin’s book Delay, Don’t Deny. She started during Lent and quickly proved to herself that she could do it, but like many people with a dieting background, she struggled when the “challenge” was over and old patterns crept back in. What finally shifted things for her was not another reset, but a deeper mindset change sparked by a photo of herself and a decision to stop treating each healthy streak like a temporary project.That shift was strengthened by community, accountability, and a more flexible approach to fasting. Janet moved from time-restricted eating into alternate day fasting, eventually settling into a rhythm that works for her life: down days on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, up days on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and a more intentional eating window on Sunday. Along the way, she began focusing less on arbitrary scale numbers and more on the habits she could control, while also paying closer attention to food quality, ingredients, and how different meals made her feel. She shared her encouraging health changes too, including improved blood work, lower insulin resistance, better sleep, and a fast-healing skin cancer surgery scar.The bigger takeaway from Janet’s episode is that fasting became sustainable once it stopped being about restriction and started being about freedom, support, and learning to trust her body. She talks candidly about emotional eating, fear of “success,” and the pull of free food or social pressure, but she also shows how powerful it is to replace those habits with community, journaling, and a more grown-up way of eating. She has a powerful accountability circle of friends, and they encourage one another daily, which has made a tremendous difference for all of them.
Janet’s advice for new intermittent fasters is simple and grounded: relax into the process, don’t expect perfection, stay plugged into a supportive community, and trust that your body will know what to do.
Join Gin in the Fast Feast Repeat app for The Grown-Up Year: 52 Weeks to Listen, Play, and Nourish, as well as a growing collection of intermittent fasting resources. Go to app.fastfeastrepeat.com to join us or go to the App Store and download the Fast Feast Repeat app, available for both iPhone and Android.
Get Gin’s books at: https://www.ginstephens.com/get-the-books.html. Good news! The second edition of Delay, Don’t Deny is now available in ebook, paperback, hardback, and audiobook. This is the book that you’ll want to start with or share with others, as it is a simple introduction to IF. It’s been updated to include the clean fast, an easier to understand and more thorough description of ADF and all of your ADF options, and an all new success stories section. When shopping, make sure to get the second edition, which has a 2024 publication date. The audiobook for the second edition is available now!
Join Gin’s community! Go to: ginstephens.com/community
Do you enjoy Intermittent Fasting Stories? You’ll probably also like Gin’s other podcast with cohost Sheri Bullock: Fast. Feast. Repeat. Intermittent Fasting for Life. Find it wherever you listen to podcasts.
Share your intermittent fasting stories with Gin: gin@intermittentfastingstories.com
Visit Gin’s website at: ginstephens.com
Check out Gin’s Favorite Things at http://www.ginstephens.com/gins-favorite-things.html
Subscribe to Gin’s YouTube Channel! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_frGNiTEoJ88rZOwvuG2CA
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