June 2022: I think this is around the time that I discovered that my AIC levels were high -- creeping above 6.0. At this time I decided to cut sugar out of my diet, and make some reasonable attempt to curb my bad carbohydrate intake. I cut out sweets, desserts, and ice cream. I'd stopped drinking sodas several years before. I didn't think it was doable to stop eating carbs altogether, but I switched to wheat bread with zero added sugars. Otherwise, however, I did not change my eating. I continued to have breakfast as soon as I got up in the morning, and I usually had a snack of popcorn in the evenings.
September, 2022: My AIC was 6.3. My doctor informed me that my diet changes were not working. She strongly advised me to start on pre-diabetic medications. I did not want to do this. I asked for more time.
Previously, Adam had used intermittent fasting for weight loss in 2014 with very good success. He did long fasts -- 2 or 3 days. It didn't last, and when he stopped fasting, he regained the weight. But intermittent fasting stuck in my mind. Adam had read Dr. Jason Fung's book and watched his videos on Youtube. Fung is a real doctor, a kidney specialist, from Toronto. He did not seem like a quack, and he'd had good success getting his obese patients to lose weight and regain health with intermittent fasting.
I've never found weight-loss to be a sufficient motivator for dieting, much less fasting. But avoiding daily diabetic medications? Metformin? Insulin injections? Finger pricks? YIKES! I'd watched my daddy battle that for 50 years, and I was determined -- very determined -- to avoid that road if I could. I resisted my doctor, who called intermittent fasting a "crazy diet." I started intermittent fasting in September, 2022. That was 20 months ago.
First, weight loss. I lost a little over 30 pounds and have kept it off. That's nice, but wasn't my goal.
Second, intermittent fasting is not easy. It requires a significant change to how most Americans eat -- WHEN we eat. We're used to focusing on WHAT we eat (which is also important, of course), but our attitude to our eating schedule is: when you want to eat, eat.
December, 2022: My AIC was 6.2.
July, 2023: My AIC was 6.1. The reversal of my pre-diabetes was slow, but it was happening!
I do a 16 hour fast every day. I eat dinner at about 4:00 pm, and I don't have anything except water until about 8:00 am the next morning. I'm not perfectly consistent, I occasionally cheat, but not often, and if I do jump off-wagon over a holiday or a vacation, I immediately resume my schedule when I get back home.
Third, no you're not hungry. I thought I was starving at first. I desperately wanted snacks in the evening. I craved chocolate. I wanted to put something in my mouth. But it's all in the mind, and not in the stomach. After about a year of intermittent fasting, I no longer craved anything, and I no longer wanted food outside of my eating window. I remind myself, during my eating window, to eat! Enjoy food! I still don't eat sweets, but I do enjoy carbs and other things. I don't crave sweets much at all. I eat more fruit than I used to.
Then, during my fasting window, I remind myself that my body is healing, it's getting rid of all those calories and quieting the sugar down. Now, when I'm fasting, I feel very good. I don't want big meals. I never want to stuff myself. Fasting really does make your body -- your gut especially -- feel good.
January, 2024: My AIC was 6.2 again, and my doctor is not pleased. However, that was after Thanksgiving and Christmas, traveling and celebrating. I'm not too worried.
I know I can control my AIC with intermittent fasting. I know I can successfully do fasting for the rest of my life without much trouble. It feels normal now to eat on this schedule. If, one evening, I can't eat dinner early and I eat at 6:00 pm, then the next morning I delay breakfast until 10:00 am. It's not that hard. I just had to overcome my mindset about eating whenever I wanted.
I can't guarantee success for anybody else, but I can recommend that you read and research for yourself. It takes commitment, probably a commitment for the rest of your life. That's hard. But I know that diabetic meds are rough on the body, and I want to be healthy, not medicated -- if possible.
4 comments:
It works. People used to eat like that all the time. There was no snacking after dinner or even between meals.
Congratulations, MK. I know how hard it is to do what you're doing but you have a good motivator ( avoiding more meds).
Keep up the good work! I'm watching what I eat to tame my acid reflux. My doctor has me on a med for 3 months to reboot my system, I think. I wish I didn't have to think so much about food, but sometimes you have to. My doctor also thinks some of my ideas from YouTube are a little crazy, but she's pretty nice about it. She says she's learning a lot from her patients, lol. Very diplomatic! :)
What I appreciate is your calm reaction to what your doctor's suggestion. Slow, steady change is so much healthier than a knee-jerk, medicated response. Plus, physicians seem in love with the numbers,and don't always focus on the positives of simple lifestyle changes.
My husband's cholesterol numbers were high recently, and automatically his doctor wanted to write a prescription. Lots to earn about that topic as we age, and it's not all bad...cholesterol,that is.
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