After a pretty much wasted month of March, I think I’m back on track. I’m doing alternate day fasting and I am doing much less nibbling/breaking during my fasting times. I’m also continuing to do the exercises for my back and hip that I blogged about a few days ago. I’ve found that these are definitely helping me loosen the tight muscles in my left hip that has been giving me so much pain. I’ve also found that going to the pool and sitting and stretching in the hot tub for a long time helps a lot. Speaking of hot tub, I was reading about some health/metabolism benefits to doing hot water exercises. Here are links to some informative articles.
My Review of “Quick & Easy Ketogenic Cooking” cookbook
This book is the first ketogenic cookbook I have purchased in hard cover. I have googled and found different keto recipes online but never purchased a full cookbook before. However I’m really glad I got this one and got it in hard copy form. I am overweight (to the point of obesity) and a type 2 diabetic with metabolic issues. I also have fibromyalgia and spinal disc degeneration and use a wheelchair most of the time. (so exercise is pretty much out except for swimming).
Before mid-December, 2016, I was injecting 182 units of insulin daily. Then I began my adventure with Intermittent Fasting (IF). Within 78 days of starting IF, I was down to injecting under 10 units of insulin a day and I had lost a lot of weight (from 260 to 227 pounds). I mostly practiced alternate day fasting and a few longer fasts (5 days is the longest fast I’ve done). Most of my fasts were from 24-48 hours with a few 72 hour ones.
On my eating days, I eat low carb high fat (LCHF). I try to keep my diet to a pretty low-carb, ketogenic style of eating. Here is a link to a nice article explaining the ketogenic way of eating. This way of eating has really helped my health, I have much less pain, my blood pressure is lower, my coloresterol is better and my weight is down a lot. See my previous post on my lab tests before and after I began IF.
TITLE: “Quick & Easy Ketogenic Cooking”. Time-saving paleo recipes and meal plans to improve your health and help you lose weight.
Author: Maria Emmerich. Ms. Emmerich is am international Bestselling Author.
Publisher: Victory Belt Publishing, Inc. Las Vegas
Where to Purchase: This book is available at many book stores and online. I personally purchased it on Amazon at a price of over $20. Its on sale today for $17.82. That’s a good deal. Check it out.
I have to admit to having a very bad month since February 26th. I found that after my trip to take food photos, I got off my fasting/feeding schedule and slid backwards. I had so much trouble with my fasting times. My hunger came back strong and I began to nibble and nibble on my fasting days. My nibbling was low carb at least, but broke my fasts nevertheless. Although I did have one day I craved chocolate and gave in for a dark chocolate binge. That’s a first, since I normally do not crave sweets or sugars but plain old good food. I’ve spent each day since the 26th losing a pound or two and then gaining it back again, over and over. My blood glucose reading went up and up, I was into the 200, 300 and even a few 400s. All this made me very frustrated and mad at myself. After days of high bgl, I began to inject my insulins again to bring my numbers down and then of course I could not lose any weight. But the high numbers were scaring me.
Now I’m back on track
To get back on track, it took me several tries and I basically decided to do a restart. I went back to doing one meal a day or a 20:4 fasting style and injecting enough insulin to bring my numbers down to 200 and below. Finally I’ve managed to get back to an alternate day schedule of true fasting with no nibbles. Also, I reduced my eating during my feeding window some and began to eat salads again with some chopped chicken or tuna on top. This morning I finally weighed below 235 again (233.4) for the first time since February 26th when I weighed 227. My morning fasting BGL was 251 and I did inject 10 units of short term insulin but no more today. My bgl was 190 at 2:45pm and will go down a little more before the dawn thing takes hold again in the morning. I notice that today I’m having no problem with hunger and I feel certain I will do well until my Lunch time feeding tomorrow where I plan on eating scrambled eggs and bacon. I’m also trying to drink lots of water to keep me feeling full. To motivate myself, I’ve been rereading Dr. Fung’s “The Complete Guide to Fasting” again and going to his website and reading the various success stories there. They are truly inspirational to read and help me to visualize myself being successful. I’m praying that I can now stay on an alternate day fasting schedule again and keep my weight/fast loss going. Yes, this has been a wasted month as far as making progress, but I’ve learned how a break can affect me now and know that sticking to my schedule and my LCHF eating style is important to keep me on track.
One question I would like to have answered is “has this happened to other diabetes following Dr. Fung’s plan?” I’ve been watching many of his youtube videos and reading on his website to get an answer to my question, but so far, no luck with finding an answer to this.
I did learn during this break, that I need to only keep just enough food to get by in my frig. When I know that there is chicken, ground beef or other meat sitting there waiting to cook, it bothers me so much I want to cook that day and when I do that, I feel that I NEED TO EAT. So I plan from now on to only keep salad fixings in the frig along with eggs and bacon – no perishable meats. That way I will not feel the pressure to cook it or let it ruin. One good thing I learned was how to fix a ketogenic pizza and it turned out good, so I now know how to fix a pizza crust out of almond flour and cream cheese. I combined several keto recipes and came up with my own keo crust. Continue reading “A Month Wasted”
I did plateau for a while after my trip out of town and the food photo shoot. It seems like it took forever to get back into a groove. I was so messed up with my blood glucose levels that I’m back taking insulin several times a day – not a lot but still injecting. For some reason it seemed that all my will power and motivation was crushed during the trip. I certainly ate off plan and my blood glucose rose greatly. It became so hard to fast without cheating that it was demoralizing. I wanted to kick myself back into shape. But I decided to address the issue as the “sin of gluttony” and began to read up about gluttony and overcoming that failing. I found several ebooks to download and read.
Sweet Surrender (Christian 12 Step Recovery from Food Addiction)
Gluttony (A study of overeating in the Bible)
10 Reasons Christians should care about what they eat
The Obesity Code
Food Addicts Recovery from Food Addiction Anonymous
I’m now treating my overeating as a disease and helping with FA (Food Addiction) methods.
I’m also rereading Dr. Jason Fung’s book about intermittent fasting which is the book that started me on my journey. You can check it out.
Learning More about eating Keto
I’m learning more and more about eating keto and how to do it. I love keto foods and meals and I’ve just received a great cookbook I’m going to use a lot.
Quick & Easy Ketogenic Cooking: Meal Plans and Time Saving Paleo Recipes to Inspire Health and Shed Weight
I can’t wait to try some of these meals. I’m hoping that keto eating on my feeding days will help keep me in fat burning mode longer.
An Unwanted Issue with Keto Eating
Talk about the bad breath! I hate my breath when I’m in fasting mode. It’s awful, even after I brush, floss and swish mouthwash. I’ve been researching what to do and found that chewing and swalling some parsley helps – its amazing but it does.
Where I am in my Journey Today
At this point, I’ve been on my IF (intermittent fasting) journey since 12/11/16, about 65 days into this way of living. I started out weighing 260 pounds and injecting 182 units of insulin each day. This morning I weighed 237.4 – so I’ve lost about 23 pounds. I am currently injecting 10 units of long term Lantus each night and dosing with 5 units of short term nova log whenever my bgl is over 200 which is frequently, so I usually end up injecting around 15 units of nova log daily. At one point I was totally off all insulins but my trip and backsliding blew that and I’m struggling to get back to the point I was before. In addition, my weight loss plateaued and has slowed down during the 2nd month a lot.
Image of woman showing slimmer belly
I believe because of my trip and cheating on my fasting days. I have started having many more problems with hunger and giving in to temptation as I mentioned before. However I do believe my research into Ketogenic eating will help me get back in control and losing weight steadily again. I’m setting short term goals for myself. Right now I’m working on getting to a weight of 230 pounds. But I can happily say that I’m now wearing some 2X clothing. I can still wear my 3X and even my 4X (once I’ve washed them in hot water and dried them to tighten them some). I ordered a new swimsuit in the next size down since one of mine was getting way too lose on top.
What I Need Long Term?
I’ve been thinking and realizing that my insulin resistance is very high and I’m not sure when I will be able to overcome it. I definitely figure I will have to keep losing more and more weight and eating very consciously low carb, high fat. I suspect that IF will be part of my life for the long term. I’m having a problem believing that I will actually get to the point that my blood glucose levels will be close to normal and I am totally off insulins, but I intend to persevere since w/o hope life becomes a lot less fun.
Yes, 1) reaching my goal weight of 145, 2) getting off all insulins, are still my goal, along with 3) getting out of this wheelchair. I’ve started going to the indoor pool several times a week to work on strengthening my legs and straightening my back. I can only walk with a straight posture when I’m in the water up to my hip level, but this does give me hope that with more weight loss, I’ll be standing straight again at some point. I’m also adding some back stretching to my routine to lengthen muscles that have shortened from sitting so much.
Thanks for looking at my site and coming to this page. I would love for you to leave any questions or comments below. In addition, I’m open to new topics to research and comment on as they pertain to my own health and experience living with diabetes. Please share your interests and questions in your comments. I also love to hear others stories about how they handle their own diabetes issues. I will be sending out a monthly newsletter starting in January 2017. If you would like to receive that email newsletter, you can sign up here.
I was doing so good but now I’ve found how easy it is for me to fall back and lose ground. Speaking of falling back – I did it – literally. On a Wednesday night at church, I was rolling my wheelchair backward up a sidewalk (I do that because its so hard to push myself forward on an incline). Well, I managed to roll my wheelchair right off the sidewalk and fell backward, landing hard on the right side of my back. My entire trunk area took a big shock and my ribs on my right side (front and back) were hurting a lot as well as my left hip. It hurt to move, breathe and lay down, so I basically stayed in my recliner with a pillow to my ribs in case I needed to cough. Luckily, my doc appoint was two days later and I got him to check me out. Basically just bruising and very sore. This continued for a couple of weeks and finally I’m getting so I can lay on my right side again. But I was so mad at myself for doing that. My back and hips had just gotten so I could stand up some without pain, so definitely a setback. Then, a few days later, I managed to catch a bug or a cold and ended up with congestion and some coughing. The coughing made my ribs hurt more and my blood sugar responded by going up drastically. I was surprised that a minor cold could bring my blood glucose up so much. But my body was responding to the illness. As I recovered, my blood glucose levels dropped off again.
Changing Schedules throw me off also.
Then my schedule changed when Mel and I traveled to Little Rock to see my daughter and her family off to Papua New Guinea and the mission field. We met them for breakfast the day they flew out and of course I ate with them – the last time for 2 years. That Waffle House breakfast was not totally in LCHF compliance and managed to raise my bgl again. (I ate some hash browns and a few bites of the pancake with my little grandson.
As if that wasn’t enough, I spent the next 4 days in White Hall with a friend taking images for her cookbook. I fell completely off my fasting during that. She is a great cook and I ate anything she cooked. By blood sugar went sky high.
Even when I got back home, it was like I was totally out of control.
I tried over and over each new day to get back to my fasting. But my will power was gone. Once I cheated it was like the end of my self control. I began to nibble during the day (even if it was good food – it was still nibbling).
I tried hard exercise and well – the water aerobics raised my blood sugar also. So I’ve been back on a few units of novalog during the day and 5 units of Lantus at night to try and bring these out of control blood glucose readings down. I’m so mad at myself.
So I’ve learned the following:
Getting sick messes up my blood glucose a lot
Stress messes it up also.
Changing my schedule is bad for my fasting
I have no will-power at all
Once I start cheating, then its like a boulder rowing downhill – hard to stop.
Exercise if its hard can raise my blood glucose.
I can lose a lot of ground in 10 days.
I can’t do this alone. I need help from my creator God.
Figuring how to get back on track again
An image of chains breaking
Its been very hard figuring how to get back on track and I know I must be frustrating to my mentor, Dr. Lam. I’ve felt like a complete failure with my lack of self control. I finally went online and searched for “gluttony” and read that its a sin. So I searched for books on how to handle the sin of “gluttony”. I did find a few and began to read. As long as I keep reading these, I feel strong and can hold off my nibbling.
Sweet Surrender by Pamela Masshardt (a 12 step recovery book from food addiction). I found out I am like an alcoholic but I’m addicted to food instead. I reading this one now.
In the Deliverance ebook, I read some interested examples from the Bible.
Esau’s gluttony and lack of self control caused him to give away his inheritance to Jacob for one tasty meal
Isaac’s gluttony and lack of self control made him too impatient to check out the identify of which son was bringing him the tasty meal – so he blessed Jacob instead of Esau
Also, just think about mother Eve, she wanted that forbidden fruit because it looked good to eat and would make her wiser (according to Satan). So look what her gluttony and lack of self control lost she, Adam and all of us, their descendants.
So I’m currently in the process of seeking my self-control from the Lord and forgiveness for the sin of gluttony. Today, I managed to eat only what I said I would and even fixed Mel’s pizza for him to have during the SuperBowl. I pray I can stay back on track now. However, I know I just take it one day at a time.
Dr. Lam and I have agreed for me to try one meal a day during my eating days. That meal will consist of two eggs and avocados. This will get rid of most carbs and sugars and hopefully bring my blood glucose levels back into control. I will fast completely on Mondays-Wednesdays-Fridays and eat Sat-Sun-Tues-Thurs (hopefully just one meal). I can put heavy cream in my coffee if I need it. Still working on drinking lots of water. I plan on hitting the pool at least twice this week and doing moderate exercise.
My current goal is to lose the 7-8 pounds I managed to gain back and get my blood glucose under 200 and keep it there. My secondary goal is to get so controlled I do not need ANY insulins at all again.
COMMENTS
Thanks for looking at my site and coming to this page. I would love for you to leave any questions or comments below. In addition, I’m open to new topics to research and comment on as they pertain to my own health and experience living with diabetes. Please share your interests and questions in your comments. I also love to hear others stories about how they handle their own diabetes issues. I will be sending out a monthly newsletter starting in January 2017. If you would like to receive that email newsletter, you can sign up here.
About the time I started doing IF, I met Dr. Manuel Lam online and he offered to help me, as I was struggling on how to determine how much of my insulins I should use and how to begin my intermittent fasting. He was awesome with helping manage my fasting times and how much of my insulins to take. His encouragement and knowledge of what would happen from me doing IF was wonderful.
I’m currently on Day 34 of my IF adventure. I’m down 22 pounds and essentially off all my insulins (short and long term). My fibromyalgia pain is pretty much gone and I’m getting up from my wheelchair and walking a few steps now. My A1C is down and in fact, my overall blood work is much better.
Here are my Blood work numbers and stats from an appointment with my general physician on 9/12/16 and a follow-up appointment today (1/13/17).
9/12/16
1/9/17
Tests/Stats
Results
Results
Hemoglobin A1C
7.1%
6.9%
Est Avg. Glucose
157
151
Cholesterol
186
92
Triglyceride
231
135
HDL
40
32
LDL Calculated
100
33
non-HDL Cholesterol.
146
60
Sodium
141
137
Potassium
4.4
4.2
chloride
103
97
CO2
24
22
Calcium
10.5
10.5
Bun
16
12
Creatinine
0.47
0.62
Glucose
97
155
Total Protein
7.4
7.7
Albumin
4
4.2
Bilirubin Total
0.2
0.5
Alkaline Phosphatase
136
109
AST
17
18
ALT
19
13
Blood pressure
136/85
123/77
Pulse
79
81
Temp
99.4 F
98.4 F
Respirations
20
20
Weight
260.9
239
BMI
43.37
39.77
Inches lost
12.5
My general physician was pleasantly surprised by my 21 pound weight loss and the much better numbers on my tests. He was curious about what intermittent fasting was and how I was eating. So I explained. My husband was there and wanted to ask if I was going to hurt myself. My doc indicated that I would not do myself harm the way I was fasting and eating and that all was good. I was happy after leaving my appointment.
DAY 34 GALLERY
I did take some more pictures today to start my before and after progression gallery. So I’m including them as part of this post. You’ll see that my 118 pound Giant Schnauzer decided to be part of that bottom right image. There’s not a lot of change to see yet, but I can feel those 12.5 inches gone and can definitely get up and down easier. And Wow oh Wow, I’m practically off all my insulins! Thank you SO much Dr. Lam
Day 34-gallery images
I can’t wait until I’ve lost enough to do swimsuit pictures, as of right now, it would be very embarrassing.
I’m sharing a link to the book that I read which started me on this journey. It’s wonderful and when I read that Dr. Jason Fung stated IF (intermittent fasting) is like “bariatric surgery without the knife”, I was hooked.
Thanks for looking at my site and coming to this page. I would love for you to leave any questions or comments below. In addition, I’m open to new topics to research and comment on as they pertain to my own health and experience living with diabetes. Please share your interests and questions in your comments. I also love to hear others stories about how they handle their own diabetes issues. I will be sending out a monthly newsletter starting in January 2017. If you would like to receive that email newsletter, you can sign up here.
An image of diabetic testing and injection equipment.
This is Day 34 of my journey in intermittent fasting and I’m down 17.4 pounds and practically off my insulins. This is the best thing I’ve ever found for my diabetes and my health. My fibromyalgia pain is almost all gone too. As for the experience, its been great. I continue to be surprised with the lack of hunger I feel for most of the time when I’m fasting. Everyone has been telling me that and I’ve been reading it in my reading about fasting, but it still seems unbelievable for this to be comparatively easy.
Its not that I am not tempted at times, especially when my family is having a great meal and for sure when I am doing the cooking myself. And I’m finding my major problem that I need to figure how to deal with is how to eat during my eating times. I know that in order to keep burning fat, I need to eat very ketogenically (very low carb), but I do find that is hard for me to do. I struggle with my age old problem with overeating. Actually sometimes I’m glad to get back to the fasting, because it makes me feel more in control. Don’t get that wrong, I enjoy my eating and look forward to my eating periods, and I’m certainly not in danger of developing a eating disorder. I seriously want to be able to eat enough to satiate my hunger and to give my body the nutrients it needs, but also to not overeat. I find overeating to be more likely the longer I fast. The 24 hour and even the 36 hour fasts do not seem to turn me into an eating machine. Maybe when I have achieved my goal weight and fixed my pancreas, I’ll be able to maintain with the shorter fasts and handle my eating periods better.
CONTINUOUS WEIGHT LOSS – NOT!!
I’m finding that while I’m losing weight pretty quickly and averaging just over 1/2 pound lost each day, I do often gain a little back during my eating periods and then drop that gain and lose more when I fast again. I also know that drinking lots of water helps me to continue losing weight. And I found out that drinking a diet root beer contributed to me not losing weight during my last eating period. So sodas are definitely off the menu for a long time – hopefully forever.
Here’s the daily weight lost from day 6 through this morning. You can see the days I overate and gained weight then started losing again.
As for getting off my diabetic medications and curing my diabetees, since Day 20, I’ve been mostly off both my long and short term insulins. Ocassionally I’ve had to dose a few units when I eat too much or to bring my dawn phenomena readings down. But as I look over my spreadsheet, I see that my blood glucose readings in the mornings when I wake up have been slowly trending downward. Here are my morning numbers from Day 6 through Day 34 – this morning:
I’m still taking my metformin in the morning and evening and my one statin drug. I can’t wait to see my A1C numbers and the results from my metabolic panel next week. I have lab work done on Tuesday and see my general physician next Friday. Boy is he going to be surprised. I should be down over 20 pounds since he last saw me and of course off practically all my insulins. I’ll be taking new pictures of myself this weekend too. Every 20 pounds of weight loss, I’m going to snap a few as Dr. Lam suggests to show my progression. I’ll post a before pic and then an after 20 pound loss one for my next post. (much as I hate pics of myself – I’ll do it).
STAYING MOTIVATED?
A motivating image of climbers
I’m finding that I’m staying pretty motivated to continue you till I reach my 3 goals.
Get off my diabetic medications and cure my diabetes.
Lose down to a normal weight of around 145 pounds.
Get up out of this wheelchair and walk.
Doc Manny (Dr. Manuel Lam) is very supportive and says a lot of encouraging words and that helps. My daughter who has been visiting has been very encouraging also. My husband I believe is finally coming around and starting to approve also. He still has moments he indicates he doesn’t want me to hurt myself doing this, but I keep telling him what I’ve been reading and I’m going to make a believer out of him. I like to read the testimonials by those who have changed their lives for he better via intermittent fasting. Here’s a few links if you want to read a few great stories.
Here’s a link to an article I read about researchers seeking FDA’s approval for IF treatment of cancer patients. It caught my eye since I worked for FDA for 33 years.
I also came across this blog which is a good example of what NOT TO DO. Check it out and decide right now not to fall in the trap this young lady did. Remember, when eating, eat healthy to feed your body what it needs to be healthy. Then you will feel great AND look great.
COMMENTS
Thanks for looking at my site and coming to this page. I would love for you to leave any questions or comments below. In addition, I’m open to new topics to research and comment on as they pertain to my own health and experience living with diabetes. Please share your interests and questions in your comments. I also love to hear others stories about how they handle their own diabetes issues. I will be sending out a monthly newsletter starting in January 2017. If you would like to receive that email newsletter, you can sign up here.
I continue my journey with IF (intermittent fasting) to cure my diabetes and to lose weight. Today is Day 22. I’ve had such awesome success these 3 weeks of fasting for my health. I have lost just under 15 pounds, reduced my insulins from 182 to 10 maybe (even one day with 0 insulin), and lost 6.7 inches off my body. I’m averaging a little over .5 pound of weight loss each day. Until yesterday, Its been pretty much all progress, but yesterday I had to use a little of my insulins because my bgl (blood glucose level) went up and I didn’t lose weight at all – I gained 2.5 pounds. I was certainly disappointed with that. (I blame my overeating the day before for this). However, overall I’m very pleased with my progress. I feel good, my pain level is much reduced and its getting easier to get up out of my wheelchair and even walk a little with my cane. My hunger level has been pretty tolerable during my fasts. I have hardly any problem with 24-36 hour fasts; but I am finding that during the 72 hour fasts, I do have more hunger and have to push myself to continue fasting. Also, if I eat too much on my eating days I have some tummy issues afterwards. When I eat smart and not too much, I do great.
My Eating Days
On the days that I eat, I’m finding that breaking my fast with something like cottage cheese is helpful; also broth works fine for me. Then I can eat some meat or fish and vegetables. I try hard to hold breads and sugars. My body still reacts to sugar consumption with my bgl’s rising quickly. So the less sugar containing foods I eat, the better. I tend to eat the dinner meal on my eating days rather than breakfast or lunch. I find that eating dinner is part of my social life and I enjoy it more than lunch or even breakfast. Eating dinner on my eating days allows me to feel not so deprived because of my fasting. I have been able to go to the indoor pool a couple of times, which is nice, because the exercise will bring my normal morning highs (dawn phenomenon) down quite a few points. Hopefully I can continue this 2 or 3 times each week. That’s pretty much all the exercise I can get in my wheelchair. I do try to do stretches and crunches and a few other exercises I can do laying down or in my chair – but all are pretty mild as exercise goes
Victory Over Temptations
Some of the things I find that are temptations to me are:
Am image of Asian appetizers
Cooking for my husband who is NOT fasting. I tend to feel hunger when I fix his meals and especially if I stir or scrape food from a pot or bowl, I have to watch myself to keep from licking the spoon – lol.
Slow cooker cooking. I notice that when I cook in my crockpot, which I love to do, the smell is extremely tempting and the house is filled with delicious smells for hours.
Going out and sitting at a table with just glasses of water/tea or a cup of coffee while others at the table eat their meal. I have managed to do this when visiting my mother-in-law at her nursing home, but it was difficult.
Ignoring real food. Cookies or candy are not as tempting to me as “real” food like chicken or beef or even bacon and eggs.
When Mel and I do go out to dinner on my eating days, I’m finding it hard not to want to order an appetizer. I’m learning that many appetizers are not good candidates for low carb style eating because of the breading or sauces with carbs and sugar.
Spreading the Word
I am so happy with the results I’ve been getting from this eating style, I want to tell everyone about it. Especially when I see another woman who is overweight or I know struggles with diabetes also; I want to grab them and extol the benefits of IF. I keep reading more and more articles about intermittent fasting and how it has helped many people with their health issues and weight loss. I love to read fasters’ testimonials – I understand how they feel when there is something great to share about their health. I’m finding that I’m already beginning to feel like a new person. For so many years now, I’ve not worried very much about my appearance – mostly doing what is the most comfortable for me. I find myself looking forward to the day I need to purchase clothes in smaller sizes and especially wear clothing that isn’t black and actually has some pattern in it. I’ve gotten used to avoiding lighter colors and busy patterns because they are not slimming. I’m also looking forward to the potential of being able to get out of the wheelchair and walk on my own again. I don’t know that this will happen, but I’m certainly hoping that
when I lose sufficient weight, less stress on the discs in my low back will allow me to walk again. Talk about a dream come true.
An image of dollar signs
Another positive for me is the fact that I’m using so much less medication. I’ve been injecting two different insulins for years now and none of them are cheap. At one point, I was spending between $500-$600 every six weeks on my insulins and that was my share after my insurance paid their part. I can think of several nice things that I could do with the thousands saved each year. Think “Hawaiian Cruise” or “new living room furniture”, or “art lessons”, etc. And just the fact I’m injecting insulins less is exciting – no one loves needles!
A Long Way to Go
I keep telling myself that I still have a long way to go to know I will not need any insulins at all again, and to lose the over 100 pounds I still need to lose. However, just knowing that both those dreams are a part of my future reality is inspiring me to continue on. It will take months for me to reach my goals and then to figure out how to maintain the “new me” without backsliding. I will continuing blogging my progress regularly and for those of you who are considering the IF lifestyle, I’ll be glad to share my ups and downs and what I’m learning along the way.
Thanks
I want to thank the members of the Wefast Intermittent Fasting Community on Facebook who have encouraged me and shared their own journeys and especially Dr. Manuel Lam (Doc Manny) who is helping me so much on my journey.
Comments
Thanks for looking at my site and coming to this page. I would love for you to leave any questions or comments below. In addition, I’m open to new topics to research and comment on as they pertain to my own health and experience living with diabetes. Please share your interests and questions in your comments. I also love to hear others stories about how they handle their own diabetes issues. I will be sending out a monthly newsletter starting in January 2017. If you would like to receive that email newsletter, you can sign up here.
I just finished fixing my husband a brunch of bacon, eggs and toast. And all the time I did not crave food. I’ve been fasting now for over 42 hours and I did not get hungry while cooking his meal. Overall, this is the easiest “diet” I haven undertaken to date (and I’ve tried many).
An image of a scale with tape measure.
I’m on Day 19 of my journey with Intermittent Fasting (IF) to cure my diabetes and lose weight. I began this journey on December 11th after reading Dr. Jason Fung’s book “The Complete Guide to Fasting: Heal Your Body Through Intermittent, Alternate-Day, and Extended Fasting”.
I managed to make it through the holidays well and its working. I started out weighing 260 pounds and this morning I weighed 246.8 pounds. 13 pounds in 19 days. I’ve averaged a loss of .6842 a day (a little more than a half a pound per day).
How Can I Do This?
I must say that without some support, I’m not sure I could have done it. But fortunately for me, about 4 days in, a doc in one of the Facebook Intermittent Fasting Groups took me under his wing and began helping me. Doc Manny (Dr. Manuel Lam) has been wonderful and invaluable in this journey.
I’ve done several fasts of varying lengths: As follows they are:
20.8 hours
23 hour
42 hours
44 hours
46 hours
22.5 hours
49.5 hours
42 hours
72 hours (which I am in the middle of now.
That’s almost 362 hours of intentional fasting.
Since I’m a Type 2 diabetic, I had lots of questions about how to reduce my insulins during this time. I was previously taking about 182 units of insulins per day (including both my short and long term insulins). I did not want to experience any lows and have to eat something during my fasting periods and thankfully Doc Manny (Dr. Manuel Lam) has been giving me awesome advice about how much to take. I had one low of 65 before he started helping me, but since then I’ve had no lows at all. Yesterday, my total insulin used was only 10 units of my long acting Lantus last night.
I haven’t had to deal a lot with hunger during my fasting times. Whenever I start to crave eating, I drink some no carb organic broth or eat a spoonful of coconut oil. That seems to work well in keeping me going on my fasting period. Otherwisde, during my fasting periods, I drink coffee, tea and water only.
My fasting schedule right now is fast on Monday-Tuesday-Thursday-Friday and eat on Saturday-Sunday and Wednesday. On my eating periods, I’m usually only eating one meal (dinner) but occasionally two meals. I’m trying to keep my calories during my eating times to <1000. That’s a pretty low number but I’m treating this like Dr. Fung said, basically its like I’m undergoing bariatric surgery without the surgery. Once I’ve lost the weight and am off all my diabetic meds, I hope to maintain with only 2 fasts of 20 hours each week, eating Paleo style when I’m not fasting. Of course, I’ll have to see if that works when the time comes.
Right now, during my eating periods, I’m sticking to a paleo/whole food eating style. Low on carbs, high good fats and medium proteins. I think that helps with my hunger during my fasting periods. I’ve found that if I eat a normal diet with too much sugar I don’t’ feel well at all that night and I experience more hunger during the next fast.
Exercise?
An image of women doing water aerobics
For 18 days, I did not exercise at all and I’m pretty sedentary, in my wheelchair all day. Yesterday, I began doing some water exercise,and I plan on doing that at least 3 days a week from now on. My BGL (blood glucose level) was 193 before I went to the pool and after my exercise of two hours, it dropped 40 points.
I have always had high morning levels (the dawn phenomena). You can read about that here. I’m finding that so far, my morning BGL readings are still higher, but overall they are coming down, even in the morning testing. My meter is showing an average of 164. Before I began IF, the average was well over 200 (my diabetes was not very well controlled).
Continuing
I’m so happy with the results I’ve had so far, that I intend to keep on until I reach my three goals:
Getting off all my diabetic meds
Losing 125 pounds (I would weigh 145 at that point)
Getting out of this wheelchair if possible
I’m already achieving significant loss of pain (from my fibromyalgia and hip). Time will tell and I’m praying my will-power and determination will stay the course.
Comments
Thanks for looking at my site and coming to this page. I would love for you to leave any questions or comments below. In addition, I’m open to new topics to research and comment on as they pertain to my own health and experience living with diabetes. Please share your interests and questions in your comments. I also love to hear others stories about how they handle their own diabetes issues. I will be sending out a monthly newsletter staring in January 2017. If you would like to receive that email newsletter, you can sign up here.
An image showing weight loss and thinner waistline
I’m continuing on my journey with intermittent fasting (IF). Since I started this journey on December 11th, I have lost almost 10 pounds (from 160 to 150.8). I’m also noticing that my tummy is becoming a little flatter (so nice!). But the best result is that my insulin requirements have dropped dramatically. From taking my former regiment of:
Lantus 1/x 70 units
Novalog 30/42/40 (breakfast/lunch/dinner)
Total Insulin = 182 units
I’m now taking between 20-50 units total each day. I modify my amounts depending on the number of meals I expect to eat the next day and my blood glucose levels when I test. At this point if my bgl is >180 I’m taking 5 Novalog units. As for my long term Lantus, each evening I take 30 units w/2 meals next day; 25 w/1 meal next day; 20 w/no meals next day. I’m really not doing days with 3 meals at the present time. Its very easy for me to do just the 2 meals a day and surprisingly enough, having only 1 meal a day is pretty easy in itself.
A graph image of my insulin usage since December 16th.
It is so amazing that I have decreased my insulin injections so much in just 15 days.
Getting Support During Fasting
I’m finding that having support during my fasting is truly motivating and helping me a lot. I’ve been reading lots of posts in several different Facebook fasting groups and the assistance I’m receiving from Dr. Manny (Dr. Manuel Lam) on the Wefast FaceBook group is totally amazing. He is monitoring my bgl levels and insulins very carefully and encouraging me to continue.
Its so nice to have encouragement and not criticism. I’ve found that over the years and my many attempts at losing weight (all fails), my husband has become very much a skeptic. I do get encouragement from my sisters and my daughter; although they too have questions about the fasting and is it “healthy”.
I have a long way to go before my body becomes a true “fat burning machine” and this 100 extra pounds goes away, but right now I’m pretty pumped about the results I’ve had so far and I’m going to continue on.
Dr. Jason Fung’s book which started me on my “journey to a cure” is:
While I have not experienced a lot of really hungry moments, I have had some temptation moments and periods when I feel not so great. During those times of temptation, I’m making sure I drink more water, tea or coffee. I’m increasing my water consumption and I notice the pounds are coming off faster as I do that. Whenever I’m feeling slightly queasy or hungry, I’m eating a spoonful of coconut oil or occasionally drinking a cup of bone or organic broth. I’ve always felt better after I do that and can continue with my fast.
So far, I’ve only had one bad experience. I broke my first 46 hour fast by eating 3 meals the next day totaling over 1800 calories. That was too much and I was sick at my tummy that evening. Since then, I’ve been eating more modestly after breaking a fasting period and I’ve felt fine.
Overall, I must say that my energy level has increased and I feel better each day. I’m also finding it easier to get up from my chair or my bed.
Recordkeeping My Journey
I’m doing some recordkeeping of this journey, including this blogsite to record my experience/success with IF. I have set up a spreadsheet on a google drive and record my bgl testing (up to 5 times a day – waking/breakfast/lunch/dinner/bedtime). Also weighing each morning and recording my weight, In addition, I record my hunger level at each testing time (on a scale from 0-10), my insulin amounts and my calorie consumption each day (I use myfitnesspal.com to determine this). Dr. Manny has added his own sheet to mine and created the cool graphs.
When I consider I’ve been able to do this over a holiday period, I’m very much surprised and happy. Its going to take months for me to get where I want to be, but I now know its possible and one day I may have to change the name of this website from “Growing Old With Diabetes” to “Growing Old after Diabetes”….Ha, Ha!
Comments
Thanks for looking at my site and coming to this page. I would love for you to leave any questions or comments below. In addition, I’m open to new topics to research and comment on as they pertain to my own health and experience living with diabetes. Please share your interests and questions in your comments. I also love to hear others stories about how they handle their own diabetes issues.
