Name: Annika
Age: 22
Current weight: 91 kg / 14,5 stone
Goal weight: Let’s just get down to 70 kg / 11 stone first and see how we feel then.
IF method: daily fasts, about 16-20 hour fasts

Okay, here we go. This is going to be a long one, because I’ve been wanting to write this down for a while now. Not only to share it and hopefully get some encouragement and motivation back, but also to just write it down for myself and hopefully leave most of it behind me.

I’ve always been a very insecure person, starting when I was quite young (10 or something). I was a skinny child, but when I got older I started stealing candy from the local store (not nice, I know, but oh well). After that time, I’ve never been really skinny again.
When I was 11, my sister ran away from home, leaving my mom with a drinking problem (which I’ve sadly taken over later in life). My dad and her did their best for me, but all the fighting at home really left me with this feeling I didn’t really matter and I just tried to keep the peace at home, so kind of threw myself aside.

The first two years of high school I was bullied and this drove me to eventually tell a lie, hoping they would stop and get me some attention from people in my class. This of course blew up in my face so I had to change classes after that.
My next class was OK for a while, until my old class started telling things about me (that were partially true, I admit, I did some really stupid things back then) and so I stopped going to school because I couldn’t face it any more. This caused me to fail most classes and I was held back a year.

This wasn’t a bad deal though, I came in a new class where I made some friends and these people didn’t really care (or knew) about my old classmates. I was however not used to having friends, and somewhere over the next 3 years I kind of just pushed them away with my awkward behaviour. I wanted to please them so much, to be their friend, that I became really awkward and forced in almost everything.

All of this, my entire journey through high school, was quite depressing and caused me to gain even more weight. I hated that I was too heavy, but the comfort food usually won because that was a quick way to feel better.

When I was 16, I decided to start Taekwon-do. This is probably the best decision I’ve made in my life. Now, 6-7 years later, I’m a black belt and have made quite some friends and found people I can depend on. I’m a coach for the kids but also the adults, as I’m the highest ranking student within the club at the moment. The club is more of a family to me than my actual family, so that just feels amazing.
My dream is to compete in the European and/or World Championships of 2015. This is actually something my coaches think is possible, as long as I get in shape in time to train towards these tournaments!

Because yes, I am still too heavy. Outside of the club I still have a lot of stress. I dropped out of high school and eventually got my degree through adult education. After this I went on to college and am now studying Game Design & Development with Honours (third year). I’m still struggling with insecurity and a lot of things from my past though. And my weight.

I lost 13 kg before, and felt great. But then I was hospitalized due to a kick in the head and the pounds came flying back… so I’m back where I started (and even heavier than I’ve ever been).

Now, in my third year, I’m doing a year abroad. I planned on going to New Zealand for an entire year, but the internship fell through and a last minute backup became China. I didn’t really think too much about it and just went for it, because I wanted to go abroad quite bad.
However, being here (I’ve been here for 2 months now) hasn’t really been good to me. I can’t speak a word of Chinese so making friends is difficult and because I work 45 hour weeks (with colleagues who mostly also don’t speak English) I don’t have a lot of time to hang out at the university or anything. It did bring me some good things though. I notice I am sometimes annoyed by the problems people are talking about on FB, like school giving homework or even things like “I had 30 minutes delay with the train!”. Then I look around at the people living on the street here in China, or basically swimming to work during a tyfoon because that’s the only job they have… well, let’s say being here has brought me a lot of perspective on how good we have it in western countries.

I’m moving on to New Zealand in February (hopefully, because they’re being really annoying at the VAC), which I’m immensely looking forward to. Until then, I want to use my time in China to get my thoughts together and let go of a lot of things I am still holding on to (like the excessive drinking). And with that, for me, comes finally shedding those extra pounds, and finally finding a place where I can be happy with who I am.
Oh and I’ve been wanting to get a tattoo for over a year now, I have the design ready and everything – but I want to wait until I’ve reached a point where I think I earned it. Just another weight loss motivation…

So, there it is, quite a story. It’s also quite personal, but then again, the topic is “Personal stories”. Just please don’t give me any hate, if you don’t have anything nice / motivational to say, just don’t say anything. 🙂

I’m in my second day of IF and I feel good. I had a bit of a headache this morning but I just told myself that was detox, because I’ve been drinking enough water.
I overslept this morning so I’m afraid it’s going to be another 23 hour fast for me, because I didn’t bring any food with me to work. I’ll just drink heaps of water and see it as a flying start to IF…

Hey Rocky (guess that also explains which martial art you did 😉 )!

Thanks for the kind words, I appreciate them. I really want to work hard to get where I want to be, that’s why I’m starting up a HIIT regimen again next week. I’ve done it before for a couple of weeks, but I wasn’t losing weight… so hopefully with intermittent fasting it’ll get better soon!

I am actually doing another type of IF as portrayed on this site… It’s also intermittent fasting, but on a daily basis. I know most of you do the 5:2 method here, I’m doing the 18:6 method (in hours, not days). So 18 hours of fasting each day and 6 hours in which I eat the calories of that day. Sometimes the fast is longer, especially with the crazy work schedule I have here.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to continuing and getting fit again!

Thanks (not sure whether to call you R or Tomorrow… I’ll call you RT for now).

So, thanks RT! Well I was hoping no-one would be judgemental, but I’ve seen enough of the internet to know that is never excluded from the options. I was very optimistic browsing through all the pages of this forum though, hence I felt comfortable posting my story here 🙂

The only problem I’m having with the 18:6 method is that I like to exercise near the end of my fast period, but during my working days that would amount to either eating at 2 AM or having fasts of 22-23 hours and only eating 1 meal in the evening.

Do any of you (or RT of course) know more about fitting exercise into fasting? Is it ok to eat something light (like a salad, or fruits – especially no carbs) at 16:00 and then workout at 19:00 with the high fat burning still going?

Again thanks for the kind words, I have a feeling my time on this forum is going to be most pleasant 😉

Annika

Thanks 2B! Yeah I’m definitely planning on training with a TKD club in Auckland, I’ve only heard good things about the NZ Teakwon-do environment so really looking forward to that ^^.

Yeah I’ve had some hardship and I’ve taking ridiculously large (and in this case rather rash) steps in the past. But I love the quote “Take your Next Best Step”, from http://www.theiflife.com . That guy really is in touch with how IF should be a lifestyle, and he talks about letting go of the past and decide what you can do TODAY to change things. And I want to try deciding every day that this day is going to be a good day, and forget about how crappy I felt some other day in the past. Even if that day is yesterday.

And in my case browsing the forum every morning when I get to work really helps with going through the fast 😉

It’s http://healthynika.wordpress.com by the way. It’s a way to keep blabbering about weightloss and how it’s affecting me, whilst also being a good stationary way of tracking my progress (and it allows me to upload progress pictures 😉 ). And stationary in the way that my posts will always be shown and comments only when clicked on – not like here where you have to scroll for ages before reaching what you’re looking for! x)