The Science is Sound

The first part of January was devoted to my first extended fast. I went 9 days. It was interesting. I never reached that fabulous euphoric state that some people report. Maybe shorter fasts will now be easier. I hope so. I am 52 hours into a half week fast, my mind does seem a bit quieter this time around.

In regards to my overall goal of healing my hyperinsulinemia I would like to shift my eating times to earlier in the day.  The theory is without changing the foods or quantities that I eat, the earlier I eat the lower the insulin response.

It is a good idea but hard to implement. I feel the least hungry at breakfast. Culturally, evenings are the time to join with friends and family and eat a meal. Evenings are the times when my brain demands that I eat.  Such a cranky mind I have. Sometimes if I eat at the beginning of the day it seems to turn my cravings on for the rest of the day. I want it to work but the times I have attempted it have not gone so well. It makes simply not eating look easier.

My relationship with my scale

There exist many differing opinions about how or if to use a scale. I am not here to convince anyone to step on a scale if they don't want to... I can only speak about what works for me.

At this time in my life I must weigh daily. The only time I don't is when I am traveling and do not have access to a scale. Over the years I have noted a very distinctive pattern to my behavior, if I don't weigh myself -- I gain weight.

If my goal is to get more healthy which includes losing weight then I have to step on the scale and record what I see. If I don't I fall into complete denial within a week. My scale is a objective tool I use to remain awake and aware. This is key for me, I need to pay attention and I need to pay attention daily. The scale is one way to do that.

Since I graph my results like the big data nerd that I am I do not pay too much attention to any given day. My interest is the trend, am I trending down? Then I try to be patient and cheer myself on. If I don't like what I see in my numbers over several days or weeks then I use that as a reason to shake things up and try something different.

It can be hard to see it as objective information all the time but I keep trying. Yet another part of me in progress.


Checking Metabolic Health

I had some carb-loaded food, potatoes and bread, and any sugar that was snuck into the food, this weekend at a German restaurant. 

I took advantage of this occurrence and measured my blood glucose 2 hours after my meal as a proxy to assess my metabolic health.  Two hours post eating my reading was 141 which is on the high end of normal. That was nice to know. The next day that I was carrying an extra couple of pounds of water weight from one carby meal but I was still in moderate ketosis. This may be due to the timing of the meal, it was lunch not dinner. Time of eating does make a difference to insulin response.

I am fortunate in that I am not a type2 diabetic and I have never had the high blood glucose numbers that many T2D struggle with, however I did notice my numbers creeping up over the past few years to the high end of normal. This is one of the reasons I made my big way of life change last August. 

I think being at the high end of normal as a sign of my hyperinsulinemia - my average insulin levels trend higher than a person with a 'normal' insulin response. Although I do not enjoy pricking my fingers at all for these tests I find them very motivating. They inspire me to make the lowest carb choices I can the majority of the time. My body does notice.

Remembering, Sadness and Food

My mum has been dead for a year and I been thinking about her a lot. It's a mixture of sadness and wanting to remember the things I really enjoyed about her. 

The memories of both my parents are intertwined with food. Which I know is quite typical in our culture, but it still is extra challenging for me right now as I am trying to heal my hyperinsulinemia, 

I find it interesting that when I want to focus on remembering my mum I first go to food related ideas. I remember the special German foods she loved to eat as rare treats so I planned a lunch for a few of us who knew her. 

Now I am thinking and wondering what other ways can I celebrate her that are not related to food. I have a feeling that answering this one question fully is something that make take me quite awhile. 

How do I remember my parents without food? How do I spend time with friends without food? How do the holidays and other celebrations happen without being solely focused on food? Vacations and food ..?

It's not that I want to or even think I can eliminate food-eating-specialness-celebrating from my life but I also would like it to stop being the center-point. 

I get very tired of thinking about food, however I know from the past if I try to ignore or avoid awareness then I will gain weight.As usual it comes back to awareness and identity. Both works in progress.

After a 9 day fast

I was very hopeful that one of the results of my 9 day fast would be that shorter fasts would seem easy in comparison.

This has not happened. (yet)  Will it ever I wonder?

Most evenings after work no matter what my brain is so cranky about me not eating at the 'right' time. Sometimes I can ignore it but sometimes not. In this scenario distraction is my friend.

Planning helps. I need to plan what I am doing in the hours between 5pm and 8pm to keep my fast going or else I struggle with automatically eating.

This week I will be working late one night and I should probably get the xmas tree un-decorated... I guess it is time.  lol

No new lows on the scale for me but my slacks are certainly looser than they were at the beginning of the month. I will enjoy that NSV.

Starting the year with a long fast

When 2019 started I was ready to focus again on my health goals without holiday distractions. I decided to attempt a 240 hour (ten day fast) the first ten days of the year. Previously my longest fast was 75 hours but I was ready to challenge myself.

It went fine (not easy but doable) until the end of the 9th day when I started to feel seriously, weirdly unwell and I made the decision to break my fast. It was the best decision. I completed 214 hours of fasting. I feel very proud and very happy to be done with it.

I did lose 8 pounds during the fast bringing my total weight loss to 51.4 pounds. I am hoping the fast contributed toward healing my insulin resistance.  I also hope shorter fasts will now be much easier going forward.

I am not sure that I will ever do such a long fast again but I can see 3 and 5 day fasts in my future.

A recount of Stage 3 of my current health journey

Stage 3 started with a close friend's birthday late October and continued through the end of the year. 

During this time I ended up eating out a lot, and frequently not by choice. I learned how to fast after eating restaurant food full of hidden carbs and sugar in order to return to balance.

I learned how to fast longer times up to 75 hours. I learned to eat more fats to balance out the fasting and deal with cravings. I kept on weight-lifting. I navigated meals for my birthday, Thanksgiving, long weekend in NYC and the winter holidays without losing my mind. I shopped thrift stores for smaller clothing. I weighed myself every day. I recorded all numbers. I made lists of accomplishments and motivational sayings.

I decided to invest in a keto mojo monitor so I would know when I was or was not in ketosis. I learned how to prick my finger to take measurements. I kept track of my morning blood sugar numbers and calculated my daily GKI ratio. I could no longer kid myself about the effect a meal out had on me. I decided to stop drinking alcohol for the duration. I did not try for perfection but I did strive for awareness and clarity.

Early in Stage 3 I entered onderland with much rejoicing. By the end of the year I had lost 44 pounds total in 22 weeks.

The next stage (4) is the current stage.

A recount of Stage 2 of my current health Journey

Mid-September of 2018 I changed up several things in my health quest and I continue to do them today.

I started super-slow strength training. I have wanted to do this kind of training with a trainer for years. I view this as a fun thing I can now do thanks to more time in my schedule.

I added a few more foods back into my eating plan. I eat olives, avocados, cauliflower, spinach, mushrooms, 100% baking chocolate and other LC choices although my meals are still primarily fat, meat, seafood and eggs.

I started fasting to heal my insulin resistance. (see any of Dr. Jason Fung's books if you are interested in the science or 'why' behind this) At first I panicked when I didn't eat for 24 hours but I kept plugging away at it.  I learned that eating is mostly habit for me. After all I have months of stored energy available to me on my body. Do I ever feel true hunger?

I also learned how to plan better and dealt with many (too many) restaurant meals. Planning ahead for me is key. I started tracking my strength training numbers as well. Got on the scale everyday

By the end of another 6 or so weeks I was down another 14 pounds and I lost 4 inches on my waist, 8 inches on my hips. I dug out smaller clothing I had put away. My edema was mostly gone and my blood pressure was back to normal.

Lots of positive outcomes but I was dreading the start of the holiday season which for me starts at the end of October.

Stage 3 recount coming up

A recount of Stage 1 of my current health journey

Apparently I have a strange idea of fun because shortly after writing the previous post I decided I had time to focus once again on weight loss. This was 5+ months ago.
          
My goals: lose 100 pounds [or so], get way more energy [lots more], get rid of edema, lower inflammation and heal my insulin resistance.
     

To get myself into ketosis as quickly as possible I ate meat, seafood, eggs, a little cheese, mayonnaise and coffee and tea for 6 weeks. I removed all sugars including fruit and sweeteners including stevia. I took baseline measurements of waist, hips, bust and thigh. I weighed myself every day. I tracked all these numbers on a spreadsheet. 

I lost 15 pounds and went into ketosis. (fat-burning mode). My breath smelled so bad - mint essential oils were a necessity.

I know I need to document my health efforts else I become lazy and mindless. So I am going to do so here for 2019.

Stage 2 recount to come.

The past 3 plus years

Where have I been the past 3 years?  The simple answer: Graduate School.

Why didn't I post while in school? Truth: In my experience blogging is more fun than classwork. If I wanted to complete all of my writing assignments I had to limit the distraction of other writing.  So I did. 

All of my classwork is done and I have my final project to complete. I feel that I can start slowly adding fun things back into my life. This may only be a couple of posts a month but I am delighted to have some time to do old things I like to do.