“My doctor thought he had the wrong patient.”
Recently I had a chat with Connie Ragen Green about her experience starting Intermittent Fasting and the 10 Day Fast Factor Challenge she…
Recently I had a chat with Connie Ragen Green about her experience starting Intermittent Fasting and the 10 Day Fast Factor Challenge she completed. You’ll find the lightly edit transcript below if you prefer reading over watching the video! 😍
Connie Ragen Green’s story is inspiring!
Denise Wakeman: Hello. This morning I am with Connie Ragen Green and we are talking about intermittent fasting. It’s good to be here with you, Connie.
Connie Ragen Green: Yes. Good to be here with you as well, Denise. You really changed, changed my life with all of this and I wasn’t expecting that. I really wasn’t. I had heard about intermittent fasting and I’d even tried it a couple of times, but I didn’t know what I was doing. So it basically, you know, it’s something that came and went within a week and I never gave another thought to it.
Denise: We’re talking a little bit about the intermittent fasting challenge that I hosted with my partner, Dr. Ellen Britt. And I wanted to ask you a few questions about your experience with that challenge.
What would you say was going on for you before the challenge that made you think about or consider joining the challenge?
Connie: Well I guess my health, you know, I was in denial for quite a while, but finally I had become pre-diabetic and that really scared me. I’m 64. And when they said I was prediabetic and they were starting to want to prescribe a whole lot of things for me and talking about insulin and glucose testing and this and that, I thought, I don’t think that’s a road I want to go down to down and am I going to have to? Then you talked about the challenge and I thought, well, let me see, maybe this would be just the way for me to just think about my health in a different way and be able to do it. So it was my health issues where I thought this could be something that could help me make a difference, but I honestly didn’t think it would be so dramatic. I thought that I would have a few results and that would be nice. That’s better than not doing anything, but I didn’t realize so much was possible. And in such a short period of time.
Denise: What would you say was the most transformative part for you or the most valuable? Either one of those are both about doing the challenge or intermittent fasting?
Connie: Well, being in the group with you and Dr. Ellen, I call her Dr. Ellen because she is it really, and you have years of experience of doing the intermittent fasting very successfully. And I felt that I had guidance on a daily basis. So all the questions, cause one of the questions I had was what about brushing my teeth? Is it okay to brush my teeth? You know, and it turns out yes, it’s okay to do that. And I was able to discuss things and it’s a real safe group. It’s a community. And when I talked about inflammation and you know, my ankles being swollen for so long that I used to have feet that I guess they were like Fred Flinstone feet. And pretty quickly within the first week my, my ankles went back to normal, normal ankles.
I have normal feet and ankles now, which is really kind of cool because I know, if I had become diabetic then that becomes an issue. Something with the feet, neurological things, all these things and the support from the community, the ongoing guidance, being able to ask a question, even if it sounds like a silly question and sharing of recipes, sharing of other people’s experiences. I think I felt safe and supported during that time and that’s, important to all of us. And you know, the fact that I was able to reveal personal things that felt very good. It felt very trusting and it felt like I was with extended family members. So I, I just loved that whole process.
Denise: Good. That’s, that’s something that we want to have happen and develop and sometimes you don’t know if that will work or not, but I think that it has in the various intermittent fasting groups Ellen and I run. Which I love too.
So how did you feel or what was the experience you had throughout, it’s a little bit similar to what I just asked, participating on a day to day basis?
Connie: Well, every day I seem to feel a little better. And I can’t remember how you term it, where it’s something that can’t be measured. It’s the non-scale victories.
Okay. So I had, for so many years ringing in the ears and I think that’s called tinnitus, but I don’t think I’ve ever discussed it with a doctor because over time I started telling the doctors less but the ringing in the ears, I realized one day I thought, wait, what’s that sound? Oh, it’s nothing. It’s quiet because I don’t have the ringing in the ears anymore. So you know, that was really huge for me and for every day to have a little something that felt better, like clothes like this, this blouse I’m wearing, I have worn it in the past year, but it was so tight and really shouldn’t have been wearing it and now it’s comfortable and loose. So I was able to share little things like that.
Plus I had a new doctor, I had switched my medical plans and I had a new doctor at the very beginning of April. And I was in the office and he was kind of walking past and I thought, why am I waiting? And it turned out that when he saw my lab work, my blood tests from just the day prior, he thought that he had the wrong results. He thought he had confused me with a different patient because my numbers have been so high and they were starting to drop and they’ve continued to drop. And that’s the A1C number where I was up to 8.4 at the first of the year. And then when I saw him it was 4.6 and now it’s 3.1 so yeah, I mean it’s just huge in terms of what my life is, the possibilities for my life.
And I think now we’re going through a huge challenge in the world. Literally I’m saving my life and the lives of people around me by taking care of my body, my health, and thinking differently about it. And it was the group, it was the 10-day challenge that got me on that road to victory on a personal level. And so now I feel very close to you and Dr. Ellen all the people that were in the group because you were there with me on my journey and it was a journey I didn’t know was possible.
Denise: Yeah, it just makes me well up. But you know, when I hear that story, with the doctor because that’s such a major shift in actually a short time. Now of course not everybody will get that, but you were clearly ready and your body was ready…
Connie: Yeah. Well, also I think that I considered my health to be okay. If you would have asked me if they’d given me a survey or something, I would have said, yeah I’m doing pretty well. But the truth was I wasn’t, I was eating probably, you know, I don’t know, 18 hours a day. First thing when I got up, cause I had myself convinced I’d have low blood sugar and I’d have a headache if I didn’t eat. And then I was eating pretty much until the last half hour before I go to bed. So I wasn’t taking care of myself and I didn’t understand. And when Dr. Ellen brings science into it, because I love facts and truth and science and when she brings the science into it, then I learned things and I felt like a student. I had taken chemistry and biology and stuff in college, it’s not the same thing because now you’re living it and you really get to learn.
And I learned new words like autophagy and, and some others. And you know, it’s exciting for me to be on this path. And then for people that know me to say, you know, Oh, you know, you’re up early. And I said, well, I usually get up early, but usually, I was just a little foggy in the morning and now it’s different. Now I have my, my brain back. And that’s important to me as well. It really is just everything. And you know, and I know it wasn’t about weight loss and I think that you emphasize that at the beginning or at some point, and I didn’t lose weight immediately, but by the end of that first week I had started to lose weight and I’ve now lost 18 pounds, which is 6% of my body weight. So I’ll let people do the math if they want to. I was at a very, very unhealthy weight on anybody’s chart anywhere in pounds or kilos or whatever the measurement is. And it feels just so, so wonderful to just be feeling my body again.
Denise: What would you say to somebody who is on the fence about intermittent fasting or joining the challenge?
Connie: I would say come in and take the challenge no matter what your circumstances, no matter where you’ve started from, especially if you’ve tried intermittent fasting in the past because those seem to be the people that they say, Oh, I didn’t realize it was this. It’s just so, so different. So I would say jump in, you’ll learn so much, you’ll have the community and things that are going on with you physically and mentally. You’ll start to see ways that that will change. But the intermittent fasting, so don’t be on the fence, don’t be a fence-sitter, you know, just jump in with both feet and it’s painless and so much fun. We have so much fun in the group and you’ll learn so, so much that I think you owe it to yourself and to your family members during this time in the world and at any time to come in and give this a try.
Denise: Great. Thank you. Connie, is there anything else you’d like to add before we sign off? You’re an inspiration to me and if there’s anything else that you’d like to add, please do.
Connie: Well, I guess, you know, I think we all have a fear of making big changes in our life. And, also I’m an introvert and the group is introvert-friendly. So cause you’ve described yourself as an introvert Denise and I think for many of us, but we were able to do this and I think that any kind of fears that we have about changing our routine or changing what we eat or how we eat or anything about that, I think we have to push through that fear and give something that’s got such a record of success. And especially with you, Denise and Dr. Ellen and you have your own publication about intermittent fasting. And I like to go back and read those issues and things like that. So there’s so much knowledge there and you know, just see if you can have an open mind just for the challenge and just see how it goes because you deserve it.
And you know, there isn’t anything that’s like this. This is a very unique program with unique leaders and push through that fear. Come aboard, get to know all of us because it’s fun because a lot of us are there just as friends now and as business connections and things like that. So there are so many things that we’re doing around this type of networking but push through the fear. Just come aboard and I promise you’ll see some results no matter what they might be. But I want you to do it, make this decision and make it happen, please.
IF Insider — №5 — April 28, 2020
Special “Fun” Editionmedium.com
Published by Dr. Ellen Britt & Denise Wakeman, Fast Factor Community.
Click here to get your free Fast Factor Primer: The Entrepreneur’s Quick Start Guide to Intermittent Fasting.
Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash