Episode 298 Charity Wade - A story of incredible resilience and overcoming addiction
The Fasting HighwayShow Notes
My highest weight was 233 lbs at 5’0”. That was in 2008. At that time, I went through with gastric bypass surgery. I had always been somewhat overweight, but through four pregnancies, I just kept gaining. I also dealt with postpartum depression and unresolved childhood trauma, which probably led to more overeating and a lack of motivation and energy. After the surgery, I lost weight quickly. I found myself in the 120-pound range. I was loving life. I soon began going out to bars and partying, leaving my husband and children behind. I eventually left my husband, split up our family, and continued down that very selfish path. I believe that I was self-medicating and replacing my food addiction with alcohol. I loved the attention I was getting from men. I somehow managed to raise my children for the next 17 years, but that road was really rough, especially for them. I ended up losing my career as a certified nursing assistant, dealt with legal ramifications after a couple of DWIs, and lost custody of two of my children for a time due to the drinking. I fought with my weight off and on during those years, never gaining all of it back, but certainly not taking care of myself consistently. I found myself in rehab and psychiatric hospitals as I tried to get the drinking under control. On May 12, 2025, I woke up. I have not looked back. I stopped drinking that day and have not touched it since. I am not sure to this day what finally shook me to my senses. It took a couple of weeks as I gently worked within myself to decide what was important to me and who I wanted to be. I knew that I wanted to live the most whole life possible and be the person my children had been missing out on all of these years. I somehow came across the idea of intermittent fasting. I honestly can’t remember where. I started listening to Gin Stephens’ podcasts, then read her book ‘Fast, Feast, Repeat, and on June 13, I began Alternate Day Fasting. I fast for 36 hours and then eat primarily whole foods during a 12-hour window. I am very forgiving of myself and allow exceptions. I have taken a vacation, gone camping, and celebrated essential events with food, but as soon as the trip or event is over, I jump right back into my schedule. If I want a treat,I plan to have it during my 12-hour window. I also feel that a clean fast is crucial. I stick with water - adding sea salt to some every morning, black coffee, plain green or black tea, or plain seltzer water. Unfortunately, my job does require that I taste-test cream cheese some days, but I do what I have to do and then jump right back into my schedule. ADF has changed my life. I don’t think I would have continued my sobriety had I not started intermittent fasting. It gives me a sense of control over my day. I have added pilates and yoga daily, and I'm trying to get in 10,000 steps. I have been able to stop taking all of my depression, anxiety and psychosis medications. Turns out when you aren’t drinking, and you take care of your body, your mind is much healthier!(This isn’t to say that everyone who follows intermittent fasting will be able to step away from the help that behavioural health medications provide - it just turns out that my issues were alcohol related and resolved after stopping drinking and through therapy.) When I began my journey toward a healthier me, I weighed 172 pounds. I have since lost 47 pounds as of October 26 and have reached my goal weight of 125 pounds. I do have a new goal of 110pounds, but am completely fine with where I’m at. My mantra is ‘I’m Never Going Back’!
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More from The Fasting Highway
Rachel Awad is a longtime member of the Intermittent Fasting Community, and has been a previous guest on The Fasting Highway. Originally from the US, Rachel lives in Egypt; she has been an expat for over half of her life. Currently 63 years old, she has been doing some for over IF for 12 years and has been clean fasting for 9 years. Over the years, she has followed many different fasting protocols, including 5:2, OMAD, 16/8, 19/5 and ADF. She’s a firm believer in tweaking when needed to find your fasting sweet-spot. She has lost over 100 pounds – currently down 120 lbs from her highest recorded weight. Since we last spoke in August 2025, Rachel has faced some personal obstacles and is up about 10 lbs from her lowest weight, and is determined not to let that discourage her. Lately she is very focused on the mental and emotional aspects of weight loss, which are sometimes the most challenging part of the journey.
Dana last appeared on the podcast in Episode 263 in March 2025, where she shared her IF story. She started IF on September 5, 2023, after learning about it on a podcast focusing on Alzheimer's and dementia prevention and mitigation—a topic close to her heart after losing both of her parents-in-law to the disease. At 5'2" and 55 years old, Dana spent most of her adult life weighing between 128 and 140 pounds, but now comfortably maintains between 113 and 116 pounds. Within just one week of starting IF, she remembers saying out loud to her husband, “I feel fantastic. I don’t think I’ll ever want to stop doing this.” She never looked back and has been thrilled that the journey continues to bring her so many non-scale victories (NSVs) that she can't imagine ever not fasting daily. It has truly become part of her identity, and she is deeply grateful. Even through the hardest times, fasting is the one thing that gives her a positive sense of control over her health and happiness. Although she still struggles with emotional eating at times—and occasionally too much sugar—she holds fast to the 80/20 rule and feels confident she can maintain this lifestyle forever. She completely flipped the script on her diet: she used to eat sugar and ultra-processed foods (UPFs) 80% of the time and nutritious foods only 20% of the time, but now that ratio is fully reversed! Her mental health is better, her motivation is higher, her nutrition is improved, her sleep is better, and her mood is brighter... the benefits don't stop there! So many positive changes have happened simply because she gave her digestive system the rest it needs. Dana attributes much of her progress to staying active and informed. She relies on the ZOE app to select healthier foods with confidence and ease, and draws daily inspiration from James Clear's Atomic Habits. Her routine includes lifting weights 3 to 4 times a week, fitting in two HIIT workouts, prioritising rest days, and walking after meals or hopping on her vibration plate. A retired English teacher, current theatre director, wedding officiant, and part-time nanny, she keeps active and on her feet three days a week nannying in a large house. Dana is super grateful for fasting mentors like Graeme, Gin, and Dr Fung—all of whom she listens to regularly and is inspired by. She encourages anyone and everyone to try fasting and loves talking about it. Given her deep passion for its health benefits, she is even considering pursuing a coaching certification to help guide others on their own journeys!
A real treat: inspiring community member Jacqui Lewis, a Journalist and keen podcast fan, takes over the host chair this week. Jacqui delves into Graeme's early life and how Intermittent Fasting has changed his life for the better. Graeme shares some very personal moments in this candid interview. A big thank you to Jacqui Lewis; it was a thrill to be interviewed by her, a person I hold in very high regard.
Bonnie is 64 and lives with her husband in beautiful southern Oregon in the western United States. She enjoys her full-time office work. She has a great life with her husband and their little sausage dog, and she likes to visit her grown children who live out of the area whenever she can. After being thin throughout childhood, Bonnie first felt the need to lose weight in her mid-twenties. This was followed by decades of yo-yo dieting, as she was unable to maintain for very long any success she achieved. She discovered intermittent fasting in 2017 and dabbled in it for a few years without reaching its full potential. In January 2025, Bonnie turned the corner in her pursuit of health through a committed daily practice of intermittent fasting that she has continued to this day. She lost 50 pounds in about 8 months to reach her healthy weight range and has maintained her loss for about a year. Her “why” for IF as a life practice is the continued pursuit of health to do all she can to avoid very serious health problems suffered by her family. She considers her weight just one indicator of that pursuit. Bonnie sees maintenance as its own journey. She practices IF daily with a little added flexibility to accommodate and enjoy life events. She feels maintenance is the “real game” for her, and weight loss was the “pre-game” warm-up. Before IF, she couldn't keep her weight in a healthy range, but with IF, she's finding success. She believes IF will always be part of her life. In this discussion, she shares some of the guardrails she uses to stay focused on her pursuit of health. She mentions challenges in crossing the bridge from “knowing” what to do to “doing” what is best for her. She speaks of the hope she feels now as she does whatever she can to help her healthspan last as long as her lifespan. Maintenance has given her the opportunity to explore broader health topics like gut health, enjoy new creativity in nutrition, and discover the health effects of various food choices. She tries to make each meal worthy of the fasting time she invested to get to it. Bonnie enjoys the fasting community. She loves learning from and sharing ideas and encouragement with fellow travellers on the IF journey.
Jim Peeler lives in Hickory, a small city in North Carolina's foothills. He and his wife, Diana, have two adult children who both live in the mountains of western NC, and one grandson. Jim is a financial controller for a logistics company. Jim passed his two-year anniversary of fasting on February 1, 2026. This past year, Jim has completed his first year and a half of maintenance and offers great insight in this episode. Jim has struggled with weight issues at least since the 5th grade of elementary school, at the age of ten. He has lost hundreds of pounds over the years, using various methods, but has always regained even more once the diet ended. The hope is that intermittent fasting will hold the key to finally losing significant weight for good. Looking back, Jim realises that over his life he had reached a tipping point roughly every 10 years that prompted him to start a serious weight-loss attempt, with numerous attempts in between that never lasted very long. Jim was successful at losing weight in these serious attempts, shedding more and more pounds each time, but the diet rollercoaster led him to heavier weights with each try until he reached a maximum weight of 245 pounds in late 2018. And at only 5 feet, 4 inches, he was seriously morbidly obese. Through 2019 and 2020, he successfully reached150 pounds through calorie reduction and walking, but by 2024, he had once again risen to 215 pounds following a job change and the loss of his mother, among other stressful situations. He had heard of intermittent fasting some time before, but had never seriously considered it until he decided to give it a try in February 2024. Since then, he has lived a fasting lifestyle and is on the path to long-term maintenance, thanks to intermittent fasting.