I’m an atheist so I am not starving myself for god – sorry for the false advertisement – but it got you in here didn’t it?
Brrewah (chill down the spine) - this chick is GROSS! I don't care how high you make her hair, how much make-up you cake on her eyes or how high her high heels are....she's effin gross!
I like to do some racy stuff – it gets people’s attention and it gets the point across. Sometimes I don’t know what point I am trying to make and sometimes the point I was trying to make is completely shattered.
When I started out doing my blood glucose testing I got quite a few WTF’s - but by the end I learned quite a bit and I hope even those that were skeptical were able to take away some good knowledge.
I am going to test drive intermittent fasting. My span will be 20 hours of fasting with a four hour window for eating. Why am I going to fast? I have perpetually high glucose readings and I am seriously tired of stressing about it. I want a solution and success just doesn’t happen – you have to have a plan!
I am the “never ending quest for the perfect diet” kinda gal – this in itself is stressful (which isn’t good for you either – I know). The more I learn the more I stress. After doing my 30-day glucose test (which I spanned down to two weeks because those stupid test strips are ‘spensive at $1 apiece) to my dismay I realized I couldn’t keep my glucose levels between 80-90 even on a very strict Paleo diet. I had my kind of WTF moment – which “Banana Splits and Intensity: This isn’t a Cult!” ( http://i-am-paleo.blogspot.com/2011/05/banana-splits-and-intensity-this-isnt.html) was inspired from….and after my little pity party for one and my whole in “moderation” speech I have come full circle back to why the hell can’t I regulate my blood glucose levels?
The moderation speech is bullshit. It is something we tell ourselves to justify our bad behaviors, nothing more and certainly nothing less. Define moderation and you will get all sorts of varied answers – in the end it is a snuggly pillow for your lack of discipline to lay it’s head on and rest.
So…back to the racy stuff…..my fasting – my goal is 20 hours; if during those 20 hours I am starving I will eat a mix of walnuts, pecans and almonds. This isn’t about starving myself it is about regulating glucose levels, reducing inflammation and better health. I will have my four hour eating window after I workout and on the days I do not workout I will reduce the eating window to one or two hours. I will report any light headedness, mental confusion, body composition changes, weight loss, blood glucose level changes, overall cholesterol, LDL, triglycerides, pulse and blood pressure via comments on this blog. (just to keep you checking back on my blog!!)
During my fast I will allow myself coffee (which I will be open and honest about I am back on heavy whipping cream…but I will use sparingly), green tea, and water. Hydration is important.
During my four hour eating window I will still remain Paleo – I am not using fasting as an excuse to binge on potato chips, French fries, and soda.
My goal with this is not to lose weight or body fat – if I do woo-hoo but this experiment is about optimal health. As you can see in this article here: (http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html) you CAN lose weight and even body fat from calorie restriction. I am not even sure if I want to touch on this article….oh, OK, you twisted my arm.
As you have read in my previous blogs I feel that calories in versus calories out is garbage – being healthy and losing weight is about WHAT you eat, not how much of it. But this professor has done an experiment – and I do love experiments – where he lives on nothing but 1800 calories of snack cakes and loses weight and body fat and as a result he has better cholesterol numbers. Great for him!!
However I would like to point out that he started at 34% body fat – so whatever he was consuming prior to this experiment had him maintaining a body fat 16% over ideal for a man - I don’t care that he CLAIMED he had a healthy diet the simple fact is that good food choices do not pack on that much fat. PERIOD. He ended at 25% - although he did great in losing 9% of fat – that is still too much fat for a man.
In the end optimal health and healthy weight come hand in hand and it is about the metabolic process which is NOT just calories, it also includes hormone regulation and I can guarantee if this professor would have been testing his blood sugar levels while on this sugar chaos diet it wouldn’t have made headline news on CNN. You have to sift through the garbage, people, you have to.
Another thing I would like to point out is that fasting can make Paleo affordable. I hear all the time from people who take a look at what Paleo consists of and they say I can’t afford it. My first reaction to that question is you probably can’t if your whole family doesn’t do it. It would be super expensive to buy groceries for a Paleo lifestyle and then the regular garbage the rest of the family would eat. In reality Paleo IS marginally more expensive especially when a family of four eats out. But if you fast for a few meals – it’s probably the same or maybe even less.
When I started out doing my blood glucose testing I got quite a few WTF’s - but by the end I learned quite a bit and I hope even those that were skeptical were able to take away some good knowledge.
I am going to test drive intermittent fasting. My span will be 20 hours of fasting with a four hour window for eating. Why am I going to fast? I have perpetually high glucose readings and I am seriously tired of stressing about it. I want a solution and success just doesn’t happen – you have to have a plan!
I am the “never ending quest for the perfect diet” kinda gal – this in itself is stressful (which isn’t good for you either – I know). The more I learn the more I stress. After doing my 30-day glucose test (which I spanned down to two weeks because those stupid test strips are ‘spensive at $1 apiece) to my dismay I realized I couldn’t keep my glucose levels between 80-90 even on a very strict Paleo diet. I had my kind of WTF moment – which “Banana Splits and Intensity: This isn’t a Cult!” ( http://i-am-paleo.blogspot.com/2011/05/banana-splits-and-intensity-this-isnt.html) was inspired from….and after my little pity party for one and my whole in “moderation” speech I have come full circle back to why the hell can’t I regulate my blood glucose levels?
The moderation speech is bullshit. It is something we tell ourselves to justify our bad behaviors, nothing more and certainly nothing less. Define moderation and you will get all sorts of varied answers – in the end it is a snuggly pillow for your lack of discipline to lay it’s head on and rest.
So…back to the racy stuff…..my fasting – my goal is 20 hours; if during those 20 hours I am starving I will eat a mix of walnuts, pecans and almonds. This isn’t about starving myself it is about regulating glucose levels, reducing inflammation and better health. I will have my four hour eating window after I workout and on the days I do not workout I will reduce the eating window to one or two hours. I will report any light headedness, mental confusion, body composition changes, weight loss, blood glucose level changes, overall cholesterol, LDL, triglycerides, pulse and blood pressure via comments on this blog. (just to keep you checking back on my blog!!)
During my fast I will allow myself coffee (which I will be open and honest about I am back on heavy whipping cream…but I will use sparingly), green tea, and water. Hydration is important.
During my four hour eating window I will still remain Paleo – I am not using fasting as an excuse to binge on potato chips, French fries, and soda.
My goal with this is not to lose weight or body fat – if I do woo-hoo but this experiment is about optimal health. As you can see in this article here: (http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html) you CAN lose weight and even body fat from calorie restriction. I am not even sure if I want to touch on this article….oh, OK, you twisted my arm.
As you have read in my previous blogs I feel that calories in versus calories out is garbage – being healthy and losing weight is about WHAT you eat, not how much of it. But this professor has done an experiment – and I do love experiments – where he lives on nothing but 1800 calories of snack cakes and loses weight and body fat and as a result he has better cholesterol numbers. Great for him!!
However I would like to point out that he started at 34% body fat – so whatever he was consuming prior to this experiment had him maintaining a body fat 16% over ideal for a man - I don’t care that he CLAIMED he had a healthy diet the simple fact is that good food choices do not pack on that much fat. PERIOD. He ended at 25% - although he did great in losing 9% of fat – that is still too much fat for a man.
In the end optimal health and healthy weight come hand in hand and it is about the metabolic process which is NOT just calories, it also includes hormone regulation and I can guarantee if this professor would have been testing his blood sugar levels while on this sugar chaos diet it wouldn’t have made headline news on CNN. You have to sift through the garbage, people, you have to.
Another thing I would like to point out is that fasting can make Paleo affordable. I hear all the time from people who take a look at what Paleo consists of and they say I can’t afford it. My first reaction to that question is you probably can’t if your whole family doesn’t do it. It would be super expensive to buy groceries for a Paleo lifestyle and then the regular garbage the rest of the family would eat. In reality Paleo IS marginally more expensive especially when a family of four eats out. But if you fast for a few meals – it’s probably the same or maybe even less.
So back to ME! I am officially starting my experiment today; I am six hours into my first 20 hour fast. Woot! Wish me luck!!
Angela,
ReplyDeleteI ran across your blog today. Your profile photo certainly doesn't look like you should have blood glucose issues - you look fantastic! I'm unlike you in that respect (I'm packing an extra 30 lbs.). However, I also experience high glucose readings (100+, rarely lower) no matter what I do. Fasting for 18-20 hrs hasn't helped me a bit in trying to lower them. I love the paleo lifestyle which I try to live as best I can. IF hasn't made me thinner, nor helped my blood sugar. I'm at a loss as how to proceed so I'm looking forward to you sharing your experience. Thanks and Wishing you Good Luck!
Hi Johannah, thanks for reading and the compliments!!
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of things I am finding that will spike BGL - especially for a woman. Do you take any sort of hormone? Birth control, etc? That has a good impact on it - also you eat Paleo but do you eat a lot of fruit? Have you taken out certain foods? Like coffee, cashews, fruit? I have severe sensitivity to these foods yet my husband doesn't - how cruel!! Have you tried fish oil and cinnamon supplements? If you want to discuss further just email me - w8isgr8@gmail.com and I am sure we can figure it out.
Yesterday I had great success with the fast - I was steady at 78 all day with the BGL and after I ate (chicken wings, beef brisquette, cashew butter and asparagus...not necessarily in that grouping =)) post meal I was at 84. My BP was 106/72 and pulse was 72 - I don't have any test strips left for Chol/LDL/Trig - will report later. Weight was 132# and BF was 17.7% - I had my nut mix around noon - I had one cup coffee in the am and another around 1300 - lots of water - 9 fish oil pills total and 2 cinnamon. I didn't have any hunger pains - I also didn't work out yesterday - that is tonight.
I incorporate IF often and it's a life send for me just because for YEARS and years I was glued to the 6 small meals a day mantra and constantly stressed about when and what I was going to eat. IF allows me FREEDOM to go shopping all day and NOT CARE that I didn't eat. It was really liberating!
ReplyDeleteHey what glucose reader did you use? I want to really try that. I think that my coffee is spiking mine. I don't have proof, it's just a feeling..... Did the pricking hurt?
Hi Me,
ReplyDeleteI bought a glucose meter for $10 at CVS - it came with 10 free strips. But I think everyone else bought the same one because I've tried 5 different CVS's and they are always out of those strips. So I suggest whatever one you do buy you the strips at the same time - the strips are the expensive part of glucose testing. They are about $1 a piece.
The pricking does not hurt. Just prick yourself on the outside of your finger not in the pad. Also keep it dialed low. I usually use a 1 or 2. The worst part is the anticipation!!
Coffee does spike glucose levels, along with not getting enough sleep, anti-inflammatories (motrin, aspirin) and even exercise. The key is seeing how long it is spiked. If coffee spikes your levels for more than 90 minutes it's time to evaluate how important it is to you =)
Hope this helps. I will check out your blog!
Why in the hell does it say my name is ME?? lol
ReplyDeleteThanks. I'm going to check out a meter again. I visited the ideal last year and didn't follow thru.