Episode 526: Belle

In this episode of Intermittent Fasting Stories, Gin talks to Belle from the Adirondacks of NY.

Join Gin in the new 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.

Belle is a retired professional meeting planner and butler. Since discovering intermittent fasting in 2020 through a WW community message board, she's reclaimed her health, shed 20 pounds, and found freedom from sugar addiction that haunted her for decades. Despite multiple attempts and setbacks, Belle’s journey reveals a powerful truth: the key to lasting change is understanding your own body and making honest, sustainable choices

In this episode, Belle shares how intermittent fasting transformed her relationship with food and her body. She discusses her long history with weight struggles, from childhood dieting to lap band surgery, and how fasting and giving up sugar finally broke her cycle. You'll discover how she navigates special occasions like cruises, manages cravings, and uses simple tricks—like parking further away or tracking her progress—to stay aligned with her health goals. Belle emphasizes the importance of tuning in to your body's signals, avoiding diet obsession, and crafting a personalized approach that works for YOU.

Gin and Belle break down practical insights including her experiment of one—trying different strategies until she found what truly sticks—and how the "quietness" of fasting creates space for self-awareness and honest self-talk. If you’ve ever felt trapped in the cycle of dieting, or overwhelmed by how to finally get control over sugar cravings, this episode offers hope, clarity, and a reminder: your body’s resilience is greater than you think. Belle’s advice to new intermittent fasters is to be patient, listen to your body, and trust the process, as reclaiming your health isn’t about perfection—it's about patience, listening, and gentle tweaks.

Join Gin in the new 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

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