Healthy Eating Experiment – The Struggle is real
Summary – I am going to start a new 4 week challenge where I will be eating whatever I want an fasting 42 hours 3 times a week. The goal is to lose weight and improve my blood glucose in a noticeable amount and get into the “Healthy range.”
Over the last few months I have been pondering what to do with the Party Like an Adult brand because I LOVE wine and cocktails. However, I also am committed to living to 100 and want to be healthy. Drinking alcohol, while some research shows a little alcohol is okay, for the most part longevity and alcohol do not seem to go together. Life often feels like a constant struggle about what to do with food, wine and healthy lifestyle.
Some more background information, I am a professional dieter. I have tried many and many have failed for various reasons. I have 10+ years in diet experience. I even got a Health Coach certification back in 2012, thinking that if I did that I would finally get the information that I needed to lose weight for real, real. I had a baby in 2013 and ended up 10 lbs heavier than I started and then in 2017 I did it again and ended up another 10 lbs heavier. But this time the weight didn’t seem to want to come off as easily. I gave myself a year to not completely obsess about it and then around a year after, around March 2018, I started to gain weight doing what i had previously done without gaining weight. In July, I had heard and talked to a lot of people about Intermittent fasting so I tried doing 19 hours a day for about three weeks. And it was really hard. And I gained about 10 lbs, didn’t lose at all.
I was frustrated. I was starting to freak out. I had literally done everything I knew to do and nothing was working. The scale just kept slowly creeping up.
In August I hired a health coach. I worked with the health coach, I exercised more, I ate less, I cut back on my wine intake. I was running a calorie deficit for months and I actually gained more weight. I was a BIG believer in calories in and calories out, until I experienced weight gain while running a deficit. I looked at my lifestyle and noticed I had a bunch of stress in my life so I worked on that. I do have small children so I became religious about my sleep and slept in different rooms and beds, depending on where it was quietest.
I stopped taking my anti-depressant, Prozac in late September thinking that might help. I have struggled with anxiety, depression, and panic attacks since I was 21. I had never been on an anti-depressant before but, after my dad and two aunts had passed in 2015, Prozac was the one thing that was able to pull me out of my intense depression. However, alot had changed since 2015 and I didn’t want to be on Prozac for life so I thought it was a good time to try to get off of it.
I started seeing a new doctor in October. I did lots of blood tests and for the first time ever I had high cholesterol and protein in my urine, maybe an overshare but it will make sense why I am sharing later in this article. I also got a test that said I had a nodule in my thyroid. Doctor said it was nothing to really worry about but I had also read a book about properly balancing my thyroid, so I got on thyroid medication. The NP thyroid made me sick and have a headache. And the Levoxy messed with my period. Anything that makes my cycle less regular I tend to vote down. But besides that it didn’t really seem to do anything so I figured its better to cut it out then just take it because.
January 2019, I did a 30 day Bikram yoga challenge with my husband. I only did 25 days of the 30, which isn’t too shabby. In case you don’t know Bikram is a 90 minute, 105 degree, power yoga class. During this challenge, I lost 1% fat and 4 lbs. I ate well and drank wine minimally. So I would have thought it would have been more in the 12 lb range, but needless to say I finally did lose a little weight! Woo!
In January, I also went back to the DR for a new round of tests and for the first time ever I got a blood glucose reading of 100. I had fasted for 15+ hours and got a reading of 100, which the healthy range is 65- 99, so it wasn’t outrageous. My DR said, don’t worry your H1AC is just fine so its probably just a bad test. I did worry, I thought that I had insulin resistance for years and with my dad being type 2 diabetic late in life, I knew I was susceptible. So… I tested my blood four more times, at home, my obsessiveness knows no bounds, once the next morning after fasting and then 3 more times throughout the day and ALL the readings were over 100. I am not “pre-diabetic” but my body is certainly not processing glucose the way it should. I, of course, turned to Google and looked up what are other symptoms of insulin resistance and prediabetes.
In case you don’t know, these are them and I highlighted the ones I have:
- Protein in urine from kidneys not process glucose properly
- High cholesterol
-
Fatigue
-
Depression
-
Mood swings
-
Frequent Urination
-
Weight Gain
- High blood pressure – I dont have this
I had read the Obesity Code by Dr Jason Fung early in the year, which is why I thought about fasting in the first place. His website talks alot about healing prediabetes and diabetes type 2. I downloaded his newest book, “The Complete Guide to Fasting” by Dr Jason Fung and Jimmy Moore. I read through it in two days they had lots of stories about people who were like me and people further down the line than me in their diabetes or high cholesterol or obesity journey. Here is what I got from their book:
- It is hard to stick to a Keto/Paleo/No alcohol ever way of life
- You can cure your insulin resistance by fasting and/or not eating sugar
Therefore, I think, I think I finally have the answer to all my problems and if I look it makes sense given all of my symptoms and issues. So party people I am going to do a new four week challenge. I am going to eat what I want when I am eating, however, I am going to fast 42 hours 3 times over the week. This is what my schedule will look like:
Sunday – Eat from 1-8pm
Monday – No eating (Except 1 bullet proof coffee and 16 oz of bone broth)
Tuesday – Eat from 1-8pm
Wednesday – No eating (Except 1 bullet proof coffee and 16 oz of bone broth)
Thursday – Eat from 1-8pm
Friday – No eating (Except 1 bullet proof coffee and 16 oz of bone broth)
Saturday – Eat from 1-8pm
No you may be like that doesn’t sound like something I would want to do at all. And for those of you reading carefully you know I already failed to do a 19 hour fast with any success in weight loss. Two things are different, I am adding in Bullet proof coffe and bone broth per Dr Fung’s recommendation and now I have a lot more at stake, the whole longevity thing, diabetes is a terrible, horrible, progressive disease that I want nothing to do with. And since it is so hard to only eat vegetables, fat and meat to have my body use up all my sugar, I need an alternative. Enter in fasting. Now theoretically you can go into burning all your sugar and starting to burn your fat in as little as 24 hours, we are going to test when I actually go into fat burning mode and start producing “ketones.” I am also going to be testing my blood. This is also theoretically going to radically improve my insuling resistnace and glucose issues so I will be measuring my glucose levels throughout the day and month, as well.
For those of you partying with me from the sidelines, cheers to us. I am writing and reviewing this article on a plane from Orlando to Washington DC. I am drinking wine, FYI, because that is how we roll. Let’s see how this experiment goes. I am going to finish my wine and burrito and start my first 42 hour fast.
