New Pictures taken Today

Posted on April 1, 2017April 1, 2017 by admin

Took New Pictures Today

This is after 112 days practicing Intermittent Fasting.

Down almost 30 pounds.

Lost 15 inches overall.

Insulins reduced by over 2/3 most of the time.

Went from size 4X to size 2X clothing.

Before beginning IF - front view — Me after 112 days on IF

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 May 2017. If you would like to receive that email newsletter, you can sign up here.

– Shirley

Slowly Making Progress Again

Posted on February 16, 2017May 13, 2018 by admin

I’m Finally Making Progress Again

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.
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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.

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.

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.

– Shirley

My Cure is in Sight!

Posted on December 30, 2016January 3, 2017 by admin

My Intermittent Fasting is Definitely Working

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).

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?

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.

– Shirley