There is a BIG place in my heart for Linda Fishbeck, who blitzed the leaderboards in a couple of our early DDF Challenges and thrived in our Macros and Micros Masterclasses.
She an inspirational example of what could be achieved and an obvious choice as a moderator, offering sage words of advice from her life depth of experience.
She gave herself the nickname ‘Mrs B’ (short for Mrs Buttinski). She would launch into every conversation with calming voice of wisdom and experience to any newbie.
She was even more outlandish, brilliant and colourful in person. I had the pleasure of chatting with her a few times. Linda even helped by reviewing articles for the Optimising Nutrition blog and Big Fat Keto Lies. She added pizazz to bring my engineering analysis to life.
Then, she disappeared.
She left a big hole!
Lots of people noticed.
She checked out of Facebook and was uncontactable (though many of us tried). Many in our community were concerned about her unexplained disappearance.
Until… Eighteen months later, she popped up in the September 2022 DDF Challenge with a blistering 17.8 lb weight loss (8.1 kg) in four weeks! This was nearly as much as her 22 lb (10 kg) loss in the first round of the DDF Challenge back two years before!
| name | start (lbs) | finish (lbs) | change (lbs) | % |
| Linda | 214.0 | 196.2 | 17.8 | 8.3% |
| Rachel | 162.0 | 151.6 | 10.4 | 6.4% |
| Heidi | 141.0 | 132.0 | 9.0 | 6.4% |
| Wim | 210.1 | 198.2 | 11.9 | 5.7% |
| Belle | 186.0 | 175.8 | 10.2 | 5.5% |
| Wendi | 131.0 | 124.0 | 7.0 | 5.3% |
| Belinda | 149.6 | 141.8 | 7.8 | 5.2% |
| Ros | 166.7 | 158.2 | 8.5 | 5.1% |
| Cyn | 138.6 | 131.8 | 6.8 | 4.9% |
| Betsy | 173.5 | 165.0 | 8.5 | 4.9% |
Even more exciting, most of her weight loss was fat, with a massive 27% reduction in her body fat in just four weeks.
| name | start (lbs) | finish (lbs) | change (lbs) | % |
| Linda | 54.5 | 40.0 | 14.5 | 26.6% |
| Ben | 12.0 | 9.5 | 2.5 | 20.8% |
| Julie | 39.5 | 32.9 | 6.6 | 16.7% |
| Michael | 29.0 | 26.0 | 3.0 | 10.3% |
| Howard | 25.2 | 22.6 | 2.6 | 10.3% |
| Rebecca | 34.0 | 31.0 | 3.0 | 8.8% |
| Mark | 31.5 | 28.9 | 2.6 | 8.3% |
| Heidi | 38.3 | 35.3 | 3.0 | 7.8% |
| Stephanie | 18.6 | 17.2 | 1.4 | 7.5% |
| Winnie | 36.3 | 33.7 | 2.6 | 7.2% |
She then backed it up by placing near the top of the leaderboard in the Micros Masterclass with a 90% Diet Quality Score.
So, what happened to the beloved Mrs B?
At 75 years of age, it turns out she had some severe health complications. As a result, she ended up in hospital for an extended period.
She was preparing to die.
She deleted all her social media accounts and cleaned out everything on her computer to make things easier for her family once she was gone.
But thankfully, she pulled through, but after months of hospital food and sickness, she’d put some of the weight back on. But once she recovered, she knew how to get it off. She just got back into it and restarted the process that she’d done before!
Losing weight at 2.2% per week is massive! So, we don’t advise most people to attempt it, especially if you don’t have your macros and micros perfectly dialled in as Linda did. Unless you maximise the protein and nutrients, your cravings will kick in.
But for Mrs B, this was a matter of life and death, and she knew what to do to give her the best chance of nailing the process while minimising the risk of rebounding at the end – maximise nutrient density, dial in her protein % and use her glucose as a fuel gauge!
At the end of the challenge, Mrs B prepared this story with some hard-fought words of wisdom that she wanted me to share to encourage newbies in this journey.
Over to Linda!
Talking to the Woman in the Mirror
When someone asks where I have been the past eighteen months, I answer, “swinging back and forth on the Pearly Gates, waiting for St. Peter to decide whether I am eternally in or out.”
It is ridiculous, but soon after learning the seriousness of my illness, I hurried over to Optimising Nutrition on Facebook and deleted everything I had ever contributed or written, reasoning that if trolled, I would not be alive to defend myself.
As if it mattered what anyone said if I were dead! LOL! How macabre! What an egoist! But a brush with mortality really skews the mind.
I set up the back story so that when I claim that if a 75-year-old woman who has healed from bed-bound to chair-bound to housebound can lose on DDF, anyone can. I am not ignoring our differences but acknowledging our similarities: our miraculous bodies want to be well, and they can implement various degrees of self-healing with the right help. And DDF is part of “the right help.”
I can testify that the science, real-time personal data, actionable information, and HOPE offered by Optimising Nutrition. Its community is unparalleled anywhere in the healthcare industry, no matter the thousands of dollars or number of hours one spends seeking cures and praying for answers.
That is why I joined the September 2022 DDF Challenge—that and a touch of Déjà vu. Two years ago, also in September and before my illness, I placed first in a DDF Challenge. And that begs the question if the program is so great, why did I backslide?
The answer is that during months of surgeries, treatments, tests, isolation, hospitalisations, and medications, I lost my positive self-regard, independence, mobility, and cognitive abilities.
I lost my autonomy, endurance, balance, lean body mass, hobbies, and passions.
But through the Grace of God, I never lost my sense of humour, personality, or will to recover, survive, and thrive.
So here I am, rocking along with all the other DDFers and Optimisers with similar histories, working hard at winning by losing.
My plan is a repeat of what I did in 2020, including new hacks that signpost my journey. I call it DDF.3G (Glucose, Guts [courage and microbiome], and Glory [to my miraculous body and its Maker]).
Make It Happen Prompts:
- Enlist Health Care Team Support
- Cronometer (Not required for DDF Challenge but essential to my success)
- Ignore POPs. (Perpetually Opinionated, Outraged, Offended People) Not everyone agrees with my course of action, but as Mother Teresa said, “it was never between you and them anyway.”
- Take baby steps. Tiny habits = big changes
- Practice Positive Self-Talk Mime an anteater and snoot up ants. (Automatic Negative Thoughts)
- Be formidable. Courage is not the mighty oak that survives the storm, it is the fragile blossom that blooms in the snow. On a less sentimental note, keep faith with Football Hall of Fame legend, Roger Staubach.
Remember. There is a fine line between setting a good example and braggadocios grandstanding. Recognise and respect the boundaries and choose wisely what and who to follow.
Surrender. Admit that if I had perfect knowledge of health, diet, exercise, nutrition, and healing, I would not need DDF or Optimising Nutrition.
Lean into the plan. For 30 days, suspend all beliefs and preconceived notions and follow the DDF program exactly as written—no riffs, improvs, or arias. Go strictly by the book!
Take the Hard Road. Embrace the suck! Marty says the program design challenges us to stretch without snapping. Bend without breaking. But that does not license liberties with the tenets of DDF. For 30 days, ignore whines (wines?), wants, and wishes, and gather clean data to implement goals and measure the effectiveness of interventions.
Be Steadfast
- Progress Over Perfection
- Trust the Process
- Read the labels. Ignore phony claims that are more marketing ploys than accurate nutrition information. The less packaging and ingredients, the more nutritious the choice and the more likely to be a whole, nutrient-dense food.
- Read Every Post The phenomenal, freely shared knowledge and experience of the Optimiser Community is worth the price of admission. Take every advantage.
- Avoid Too Much of a Good Thing Even healthy foods, in excess, overfill fuel tanks. So, focus on maxing out on nutrition, not copycat recipes of Frankenfoods made “legal” using “approved” or “certified” keto, or low-carb ingredients.
- There are no “small” victories. Everything counts as a win, even failure!
Going Forward
Slow and steady wins the race, but I am not racing. I am re-learning how to walk. My goal is to shred weight from my frame as quickly as possible while rebuilding lean body mass.
At my age, I do not even buy green bananas, so the long-term sustainability of PSMF is not an issue. LOL!
“Slow and steady weight loss” is a myth, a grand lie perpetuated on the masses. Rapid weight loss works better, works faster, and leads to greater lasting changes.
Implement Maintenance Interventions That Minimize Regain – Statistics show that up to 97% of dieters do not maintain weight loss, no matter their diet method. I will continue with the Macro and Micro Masterclasses and additional Challenges. As Marty says, my diet does not need a name, just enough nutrients.
I did not expect to lose eighteen pounds and drop six inches from my waist over the thirty-day challenge. Being larger, I expected to lose faster than someone closer to their goal weight. I was low-carb and fat-adapted before the Challenge and did not experience the typical WHOOSH of lost water weight. My age and health were other factors in anticipating slow, steady fat loss.
Exercise – Being sedentary is of great concern, as is sarcopenia. Chronic fatigue limits my activity. I continue, as able, using Cubii workouts, light resistance bands, and vibration plate therapy. Last January, defying months of being housebound, I resolved to develop the endurance to take a much-abbreviated shopping trip by my 75th birthday, September 10th.
With my son’s help and God’s Grace, I did it! I lurched from his truck to a grocery cart, then rolled it across the parking lot and into the supermarket, where I made for the freezer cases in front of the store, opened a door, and revived myself in the frigid air blowing over a frozen garden of fruits and veggies. Tears and prayers of gratitude! Frostbite never felt so good! Now Patrick plans to stop on his way to work every day to take me outside as part of a formal walking program. How exciting is that?
This LOL (Little Old Lady) is way too cool to use a Zimmer frame/walker or go walkabout with a clunky LIFE Alert bobble dangling from her neck. Instead, I opt for Nordic Trekking Poles and an Apple watch that can call for help and instantly send vital signs and ECGs to my primary care doctor. Now people think I am weird, not diminished, and they are correct.
Thank you Linda for this amazing testimony. That’s brilliant and very very inspiring.
With love ?
Mag
Linda, I have missed you. Please get in touch.
Sue Davies – that other Butinsky ??
God bless you!! XOXO
Welcome back Mrs. B!! I think you are the greatest and we are lucky to have you with us.
Love, Beth
What an inspirational writer you are! Thanks so much!
Patti C