Hi everyone,
I have been off the forum for a while. Late 2017 and most of 2018 was incredibly troublesome for me and while I did lose lots of weight with fasting of various periods (longest was 18 days in Fall 2017) and changing what I ate and when, I fell off the wagon several times in 2018 and ate what I vowed not to, including candy, pizzas & similar “food”, french fries. I did decide to stop eating meat in early July although I did eat cheese in those pizzas up until November. But since then, I have decided to go non-animal foods source.
In addition to the wagon-falling-off food wise, I also found fasting much more difficult during 2018, even for 2-3 days or so. I thought about food the whole time I was fasting. I was also emotionally troubled during 2018, which may have intensified the cravings and focus on eating.
I have done another 18 days fast recently and got to where my morning BS readings were in the 80s and early 90s. They fluctuated mysteriously in this range and I didn’t know why.
My key aims for fasting was to reverse my T2 diabetes, for which I was on 3 drugs - Metformin, Levemir and Victoza. I no longer have access to Levemir and Victoza because I do not have a job and I cannot afford my own health insurance. I also do not qualify for any free drug programs or getting these drugs directly from the pharma company that makes them, because they deem my income too high. I have non-employment income.
So I am in no-man’s land with the health system in the US, and visiting a doctor is financially prohibitive at the moment for me and so my motivation for keep fasting is to be able to reverse my diabetes myself and not need these drugs.
Weight loss was also another and diabetes-associated reason for doing fasting.
I also understand how individual we all are and that this means that no-one can really know or predict what will happen if any step/steps are taken in respect of the goals I am trying to achieve. And so therefore, the only way to really know what effect “X” or “Y” will have on me is to get tailored advice and a plan of action from some kind of sympathetic specialist. But as you can probably guess, this is a non-starter for me as I do not have the money to afford such a person and approach.
My blood sugars rise significantly once i start re-feeding (into the upper 100s and this past re-feeding period, upto 275), and the weight loss that I achieved during fasting seems to come back within a week of my re-feeding. When I start eating again, I am eating green leafy vegetables, all manner of other veggies, including potatoes and carrots, herbs & spices, plus I think I am eating a lot of nuts & seeds. Maybe I have an “overeating condition”? Maybe I have a conditioned cram circuit? I don’t know for sure.
Thus, I really am on my own and so reading forums, watching youtube videos that many of you have also watched is really my only resource. In case you are thinking of recommending any books, I should tell you that I don’t have the patience to sit down and read books for some reason. I have a small library of "well-intentioned-purchased-but-never-opened-books in my home and I don’t plan to add to that. I also find podcasts difficult to concentrate on, no matter the subject, unless they are very short (<10 mins). Videos are OK though.
Since I cannot afford any doctor-type person, or increase my income, or read books, what would you say is available to me in order to understand what steps I need to take to achieve my goals? I am somewhat befuddled by so much information that I encounter and I am not sure what to take as true and follow and what not to or leave alone for the time being.
Some bio info.
My current weight is 190lbs (86Kg) , my height is 5’7"(170cm). I am in my late 50s.
My blood sugar reading this morning is 174 (after black coffee it was 177).
I am on day 3 of my current fasting period.
I have some belly fat that refuses to go away even after I have lost weight in every other part of my body. I started doing some HIIT yesterday and hope this helps with metabolizing that fat into muscle. Its too early to say if this is significant or means anything yet, but my BS reading yesterday was 232, 4 hours before I did the HIIT.
I walk for about an hour 3 times a week (around 3 miles) and I sit at my desk or on the sofa the rest of the time each and every day.
I don’t have friends or family that I can meet with and with no job, I have no “go here and there routine each day”. I talk with a few friends and family once every so often via video chat or on the phone. But I like being on my own, so I think I am OK with that. I don’t desire much socializing. I maybe a closet hermit!
I don’t want to take any drugs at all given all that I have learned about them (I also have/had high blood pressure which I was encouraged to test twice a day and have done for a few years). Following my weight loss in 2017, my doctor took me off 2 blood pressure meds a while ago, but I think the testing might keep me at a high BP level because I focus on it and this may raise anxiety a little. Also, my blood pressure meter developed a fault last September and so I stopped testing my BP. I have also stopped taking my remaining 2 blood pressure meds about a month ago. I seem to feel fine.
I’m not saying that going as long as 18 days is necessarily good, but it will be an individual thing, and for sure - fasting is great for improving insulin sensitivity and lowering our average blood sugar.
