I’m not entirely sure this qualifies as Fell off the horse, strictly speaking. It seemed like the best place for this post, so here goes.
I’ve been doing Keto for just about a year now and perhaps got a little too complacent. I’m a type 2 diabetic. Before Keto I was on 4 different meds (Metformin, Januvia, Invokan, and Victoza) and my A1C was still pretty lousy (as bad as 9.1). Within 3 months of going Keto, I had kicked everything but the Metformin to the curb, and I’d lowered the dosage on that. Over the course of 8 or 9 months, I’d managed to bring my A1C down to 5.8! YAY! I’d lost somewhere around 15 pounds, not a ton of weight, but inches off the middle, so…no complaints there.
I say all of that to put my current situation into perspective.
Over the last month or two I’ve found the weight creeping up and my blood sugar doing the same. I’d managed to get my average down to right about 100 mg/dL. Lately, I’ve been getting fasting readings of as high as 120 mg/dL. Now, to be sure, this is nowhere near the kinds of levels I’ve seen in the past, but not where I want to be. I’ve also found my focus and energy levels decreasing.
Here’s what I think it comes down to. I’ve been less focused, and haven’t been journaling my food intake. I’m clearly taking on more carbs than in the past. Some, to be sure, are “hidden” carbs that I simply didn’t notice. Others are perhaps tiny indulgences. You know, the one square of 70% chocolate that’s only 5g of net carbs. Not a problem, except that I’ve had more carbs during the day than I realized, or maybe I did it twice in the same day.
So, what’s this post about? Two things, primarily.
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Get it out there and use this as a re-focus/re-commitment mechanism. Getting something out to this community is a great way to get support and to remind yourself that you’re not alone.
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Declare the plan so I have something to refer to.
So, what’s the plan? Well, that one isn’t too hard. Here are the basics.
First, start tracking food intake again. Let My Fitness Pal keep me on track with the carbs and warn me if I’m straying.
Second, get a good extended fast in the mix to do an insulin reset and jump-start my metabolism. As it happens, the timing is good. Yom Kippur is coming up on September 30. Traditionally, one does a fast from sundown the night before, to sundown that evening. My wife and I decided that we’re going to do an extended fast in conjunction with that event. We’re going to begin after dinner on Wednesday, Sep 27. That will allow us to do a three day EF and end on the evening of Yom Kippur during an event with dozens of friends and family who will be breaking a one day fast. This is meaningful as a way to get back on track, but it’s also meaningful, because during Yom Kippur last year, I was able to fast for the day for the first time ever.
I’d say that’s it in a nutshell, but this post is too long to be considered a nutshell kind of thing.
In addition to just putting it out there, I’d love to hear any input that members of this community might have about resetting expectations and process in this regard. If you have thoughts about other things I can do to keep things on track and maintain focus as I reset, I’d love to hear them.
Thanks to everyone for providing a sounding board and amazing support system.