What are your motivations. please?

This topic contains 10 replies, has 3 voices, and was last updated by VH1 8 years, 3 months ago.

Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)

VH1

10:33 am
14 Aug 16
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Hi all. Thanks for having me.

I’ve been on a weight loss journey for 2 years now and have lost 3 stone, but I’m now in the – what’s called ‘vanity pounds’ – stage, trying to get leaner and more toned.

I want to connect with others who are intermittent fasting – this can be a lonely process and, now i’m in the vanity pounds stage, it’s getting harder.

I would just love to hear others stories. The reasons you wanted to lose weight, how you wanted your body to look, your motivations, how the journey’s gone/going, your health – anything and everything!

Look forward to hearing back from people!

Minka

11:59 am
15 Aug 16
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Hi VH, Well done for shedding the 3 stone. That’s 42 pounds isn’t it?!? What a feat!

I love this forum and poke my head into a lot of different threads and find heaps of support and what I’ve learned from others’ posts is golden and is why I’ve so happily continued with 5:2. I’m a relative newbie having only started the program in late June 2016.

My main motivation has been witnessing the transformation of a few different acquaintances, who have been practicing 5:2 since Michael Mosley brought intermittent fasting to Australia via his television series. Seeing these various acquaintances look younger each time I met up with them made me want what they have!

I’d love my body to look like it did 12 years ago pre-menopause, prior to Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis diagnosis. I’d love to weigh what I weighed then and have as dense muscle mass as back then. Mimi Spencer and I are the same height and about 12 years ago I naturally weighed the weight Mimi reached at her goal weight after practicing 5:2 for 3 months.

The journey is going magically for me. I love every twist and turn, every insight and revelation, every bite I take to satiate the real hunger I’ve come to know. I love being in ‘the zone’. I’m in no hurry to get anywhere and am happy here and where I’ll be tomorrow.

VH1

7:09 pm
15 Aug 16
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Hi Lael

Thanks for your reply, great to hear from you.

That all sounds so great for you, well done.

Can I ask you why you’re looking to achieve the weight you are? Is it to look a certain way in clothes, etc?

I originally put on weight and then lost it again (then went way past that point, too) for a role I’ve written and am playing, so I like to ask people about their desire’s and motivations, as well as what is so hard about losing – it really informs the character, who struggled with weight gain and loss.

Vicki

Minka

4:02 am
16 Aug 16
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Hi Vicki, That’s a good question about why I’m looking to achieve a particular weight! A main desire of mine is to reduce the size of my belly because I know the type of fat that has collected there is contributing to ill health on a number of levels including contributing to insulin resistance and diabetes. I’m the youngest of 8 and just about all my older siblings are being treated for some stage of diabetes or heart disease. I’d like to prevent the need to go there if possible! Reducing my belly fat down to a healthy range would be a huge step in that direction.

So, as far as how I’d like to look, is better proportioned so that when I turn to the side I don’t look so thick in the middle. When I face front, I think I look fine already since, even being on 5:2 for 2 months I’m of a healthier weight than I’ve been in 5 years. In many respects I’m happy at my current weight. I can wear just about everything in my wardrobe that previously hung dormant. However, I’d like the belly flatter and for me to look healthily proportioned viewed from side!

Minka

4:04 am
16 Aug 16
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P.S. You mentioned writing a role and playing the role. Are you referring to a stage performance? I’m intrigued! I’d like to hear more!

VH1

4:26 pm
16 Aug 16
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So your belly is a big aspect, as it represents both what you’d like to achieve aesthetically and health-wise?
How did you end up finding the 5:2 diet, can I ask?

It’s a web series that I’ve written and am filming – it’s a superhero, following her weight gain and binge eating through to her picking herself up, losing weight and becoming a hero.

Minka

9:51 am
17 Aug 16
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Hey VH, I love your super hero idea and hope there is a way I can view your finished film! It sounds like it will be something that hits the spot for many of us! We often learn deeply through narrative!

Yes, my belly represents achievements on both health and aesthetic levels!

I initially found out about 5:2 from watching Michael Mosley’s series ‘Eat, Fast and Live Longer’ which was a BBC production shown here in Australia on one of our government channels. I remember wanting to do it straight away after watching it, though at the time I was at rock bottom with adrenal fatigue and had just begun taking oral cortisol replacement and those health issues made me unable to even consider starting 5:2. 5:2 or any fasting stresses out the body and requires the body to produce more cortisol which is a stress hormone. My adrenals weren’t able to produce much, hence my chronic fatigue. I wouldn’t have been able to take enough replacement hormone to enable me to fast, so that was that.

However, that documentary series really took Australia by storm! I had a friend who started 5:2 immediately. I remember feeling envious of her and watched her lose weight (she is/was obese) and start to look great. However, she ended up feeling completely frustrated with it since she initially lost some weight and then none for a number of weeks. She didn’t feel the impetus to tweak and make it work, so has continued to gain weight ever since, sadly.

A year passed and I happened to run into a few more people I hadn’t seen in a long time. Each looked 10 years younger than they had previously and all had been overweight and when I saw them each, I asked them what heralded their transformation. They each said 5:2!!! In other words, they’d all been practicing 5:2 for a good year by that point. Their transformations shouted out to me that 5:2 really works! I still couldn’t start on it, was still on medication.

I was able to wean my medication and feel up to starting 5:2 by July of this year. I had to go carefully first, only doing 6:1 at the beginning to see if my adrenals were up to the extra stress. To my surprise they were and so I moved to 5:2.

VH1

7:48 pm
17 Aug 16
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That’s great. And it’s going well for you?

Can I ask what are your aesthetic motivations? Some people feel it’s not the best motivation to have the way you look in clothes or in a bikini be one of the biggest factors, but it honestly just is for me.
Health is extremely important, but how you feel when you look in the mirror is undeniably a big desire. Do you agree?

Minka

12:04 pm
18 Aug 16
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Hi VH,

5:2 is going very well! I’m so grateful to have found this program and that I’m able to actually do it! Looking good is important, of course! A favorite reward after a fasting day is to try on clothes in my closet I wasn’t able to wear when I weighed more and discovering how well they fit and look.

However, because I’ve had so many health issues, feeling better has become my priority over how I look and 5:2 is so way beyond looking good for me. In fact if this were only about looking good, I know I’d soon lose interest. I’m of an age in which bikini wearing doesn’t mean to me what it once did! However, I’ve still got a couple of dresses in the wardrobe that I’ve still yet to fit into. Being able to wear them comfortably would mean a lot, though a part of me wonders if they’ll still look good since I’m now decades older?

PinkQueen

3:38 pm
18 Aug 16
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My motivation first was my health. My blood pressure was inching upwards and scaring me as my maternal grandpa died fairly young of heart disease. My mother also struggles with high blood pressure. It scared me, I want to see my future grandkids actually become adults and have their own babies! The other motivation was for vanity of course, I have not been happy in my skin for 10 years :/. Every pound I lose sheds another layer revealing my happy weight!

VH1

10:12 am
20 Aug 16
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That’s great to hear – both looking to change your health and using that as your goals, as well as fitting in to clothe you’d like to wear and like what you see in the mirror. Sounds great to me!