DAY 1 - 2016 WEIGHT LOSS AND BLOOD GLUCOSE CHALLENGE

Christmas Eve 2015

Many, many years ago, my mom's brother, Buell Carlton Cole, was the surgeon to the President of the United States.  Had the current president needed surgery, my Uncle Buell would have been the one to operate.  As fate would have it, the president did not need surgery, so my uncle didn't get his chance.  Why am I talking about my uncle?  Well, I've been thinking about him off and on since I started my healthy way of eating, because of something my father told me about how my uncle managed his weight.

Evidently, for a portion of his life, Uncle Buell controlled his weight using Intermittent Fasting (IF).  If he saw that his weight was creeping up, he would just stop eating until it got back to where it belonged.  My dad recalls that his limit for weight gain was ten pounds, and if he gained those ten pounds, he would stop eating until the pounds were gone.

The first time I heard this, I thought it was a very unhealthy thing to do.  I thought it would slow down the metabolism and make it harder to lose weight in the long run.  That was before I started researching IF and found that it was actually a very healthy thing to do.  In just the past few months, I have read how IF can help control blood glucose and how a person with high blood sugar can achieve lower readings by eating every other day.

For a few years, I have been mentally toying around with Uncle Buell's idea, and I finally decided to give it a go.  But instead of waiting to gain several pounds before fasting, I will have a goal for every day and use that goal to decide whether to eat that day or not.

With all the stress of helping care for my father, then his death in October, then traveling to see my sister, then her death in November, and the stress of business and settling my father's estate, etc., not to mention the excesses of the holidays, I now need to lose 18 pounds to reach what I think is a reasonable weight for my aging body.  Not to mention that, with all the extra carbs, my blood glucose has been creeping back up into diabetic range.

So here is my plan: After researching fasting and being convinced of its safety and aid to regulating blood sugar and weight, I have decided to fast on any day when my weight is above my goal for the day, which is to lose 0.2 pounds, and when my morning fasting blood glucose is 90 or above.

The only exception to my rule is if a Fast Day falls on a special occasion.  If that happens, I will suspend my rule for that day only.  Of course, I will usually know when that day is coming, and I can always fast the day before to get a jump on it.

A perk of this plan is that I am not going to count fat grams, protein grams or carb grams.  I will eat in a responsible way, trying to eat three meals a day, with no snacking in between, and try to stop eating at 7 pm each day.

This challenge will last for 91 days, starting on January 1st and ending on March 31st.  At that time, if I have been successful, I will consider eating this way from now on.

One important thing about IF is that you should not try to restrict your food on the days that you eat, or you will only be using calorie restriction, which does not work for the majority of people.  The hormonal changes that come about by fasting are the key, and if you eat like a bird on the days that you are allowed to eat, it will result in hormonal changes that will increase cortisol and sabotage weight loss.  For this reason, many people use the words "Feast" and "Fast" for this type of eating plan.

Today is Day 1.  My weight goal for today is 154 and I weigh 154.  My blood glucose goal is 89 and my actual is 81, so today is a Feast Day.  For me, that means a ketogenic diet - high fat, moderate protein and very low carb. Each day, I will weigh in, check my fasting blood glucose, find out if I will feast or fast that day, update my chart and post it here on the big blog. I'm posting it to motivate myself not to give up, and if I think that anyone is looking at this, it will help to keep me accountable.

The charts will be posted tomorrow and then each day for the length of the challenge.

This is a personal challenge just for me, but if anyone reading would like to join me, please talk to your doctor and make sure that it will not conflict with your current medical condition or medications.  If you are taking the challenge, please be sure to let me know how you are doing!  Thanks for reading!