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Can You Do A 24h Fast With Type 1 Diabetes?
Recently, I’ve read a lot about fasting, intermittent fasting and how to do it.
Intermittent fasting can be done in many ways, depending on your preferences and lifestyle, and basically means to cut down on calories for a limited period of time, to give the body a chance to use its own reserves.
This can be especially helpful if you’re trying to lose weight, or keep your blood glucose levels more stable. In some cases, these two are interlinked (read: Type 2 Diabetes).
What is important to remember is to still eat enough calories. You just do it within a limited time window. Intermittent fasting makes your body use the energy (food) consumed more efficiently.
And no, skipping a meal (or even two) won’t send your body into a crisis-starvation mode. That takes a good few days to happen.
Intermittent fasting usually has numbers attached to it, depending on how long you’re fasting for;
– 5:2 means you’re restricting calories on 2 days of the week, while eating “normal” the other 5.
– 20:4 means you fast for 20 hours, eating one or more meals within the remaining 4 hours.
– 24/36/48/72:0 simply means a 24/36/48/72 hour fast.
– 16:8 means you eat your meals within an 8 hour time span, fasting the remaining 16 hours.
I’ve done a 16:8 fast in my daily life for a few months now. For me it works really well, as it enables me to keep my blood glucose levels more stable for a longer period of time (which is really beneficial on so many levels!).
And to be honest, in practice it only means skipping breakfast, and eating lunch and dinner as normal. This feels doable for me, and I can easily function without having breakfast every day.
But, is a 24 hour possible to do with insulin dependent Type 1 Diabetes as your BFF?
I decided to test it out, in the name of science. And for this blog post.
For the sake of full disclosure, it didn’t end up being quite a full 24 hour fast, but it was from dinner one day until dinner the following day (which sadly (for science) weren’t eaten at the same time of the day). However, the step from my normal 16 hour fast to 24 wasn’t too crazy in theory.
During that day, I made sure to take extra good care of myself, checking blood glucose levels more often, drinking a lot more water, and taking breaks whenever I felt I needed to. I also took my supplements and medication like I usually do.
You might be thinking that I’m insane, and that’s probably a pretty fair question generally, too. :)
Is it possible?
Well, I’m sure you’re curious now: how did I do?
Let’s do the technical part first.
My blood glucose levels kept stable all day, with a slight downward trend towards the end of the day (before dinner). This is great news for another reason – it means my basal rates are correctly configured! Yay!
My highest reading during the day was 8.0 mmol/l, which was right in the morning, and just might have had something to do with the dinner the night before, being a birthday dinner and all.
My lowest reading was 4.5 mmol/l right before dinner at the end of the fasting day, which is understandable. I don’t know about you, but for me that’s a very successful day in terms of blood glucose readings. (For reference, a healthy person’s blood glucose is around 3.5-8.0 mmol/l in a day, depending on what they eat.)
To keep myself hydrated and help my kidneys filter out some of the toxins that might be lurking in my system, I drank 4 liters of water, 1 herbal tea and 1 decaf coffee (which isn’t even unusual for me, as I cant handle caffeine) throughout the day.
Drinking about 1 liter more water than I usually do per day, naturally made me run to the bathroom more often. Lucky for me that I work from home!
It really felt good to give the body a good rinse through, and I assume that was part of my surge of energy.
Something that I noticed during my fast was that my thinking was a lot clearer. And I was so much more productive!
I felt like I was an idea-shooting-gumball machine. I’m glad I have a system set up for jotting down quick notes, because they were firing from all angles! I’m sure this was a mechanism from my body to keep me busy and not think about food, which was challenging from time to time.
And, I was a little insecure about whether or not I’d have to take many breaks during the day. But in the end, I had to take less breaks than I usually do.
The only breaks I took were for drinking liquids, going to the bathroom and one 30 minute nap in the afternoon (because I had slept so badly the night before).
I also had the feeling that I slept better.
In the night after fasting, I slept better than I have in a long time. And I don’t even have problems sleeping normally. But I felt it was a deeper, dreamless sleep, leaving me more regenerated and rested in the morning.
I only had to get up once to go to the bathroom (damn water!) and took the opportunity to check my blood glucose at the same time. More on that further down in the post.
I also had quite a big realization.I realized just how addicted to food I actually am.
Please note that I’m NOT advocating anorexia nervosa at all, or in any case; that’s a terrible disease and needs to be treated, not to be joked about.
Leaving out the lunch that I usually have at around 12-1pm was actually most annoying and demanding mentally, not physically.
During the day I had a few rumbles in my stomach, and really felt like eating once. But this feeling wasn’t even hunger pains or anything similar – it was mainly my mind telling my stomach that it was time for food (nervus vagus if you want to nerd out about it).
If and when you do decide to do a fast, no matter in which format, remember that a lot of it is in your mind. You have to mentally prepare for not eating. Your body will be fine; in most cases it has more than enough reserves to take from.
I really did feel amazing all day. And I felt fine until the very last hour, which could be entirely psychological.
The last hour I got dizzy, cold, had a few muscle spasms (perhaps I flushed out too much Magnesium with drinking that much water?) and hunger pains. My whole body literally screamed for food!
My very kind and loving husband came home from work and cooked me dinner. Very lucky for me, because I don’t think it would have been a great idea for me to handle sharp objects, such as knives at that point.
For dinner I had zucchini noodles with smoked salmon in a cream sauce, and one piece of leftover low carb, grain-, gluten- and sugar free carrot cake from my husbands birthday the day before. I had to eat like a bird to prevent feeling nauseous, as my stomach was completely empty. This was very difficult – normally I inhale my food (I know, it’s a terrible habit to have!) My total kcal count ended up being 1376 kcal that day. I don’t usually measure, as food should be eaten, not measured, so I don’t really have the value if a normal day.
So, in short, YES, it’s possible and even beneficial in some aspects to fast as a Type 1 diabetic.
For me, dinner was probably the wrong meal to start eating again. I draw this conclusion based on that my blood glucose skyrocketed after finally eating.
It culminated at 14.7 mmol/l at 5am, but came right down after a dose of correction insulin. This could have been a direct cause of fasting, of course. And the only way to eliminate it would be to try a 24 hour fast again. But it could also have been the piece of low carb cake I had (and am not used to having). Or it could have been coincidental. The wonderful part of diabetes, the constant surprise factor! The way I like to look at it is that you at least never have time to get bored!
This is probably nothing I will be able to do on a weekly basis. It might however be a good thing to do every once in a while, if only to keep blood glucose levels that stable.
But trust me when I say that dinner hasn’t tasted that good in a long while that day.
I find this very interesting, and would love to hear your opinion: have you ever done/tried a fast? Tell me your experiences in the comments below!
Getting Confident
Sometimes being confident is just not an option.
You know what I mean – when you see your ex with a new love, or when you realize you’ve majorly messed up.
But confidence goes much deeper than that immediate, gut wrenching reaction.
Can you get confident enough to show all parts of you, of your person as well as your body? Are you ready to show others your darkest, most secret thoughts and emotions? Ready to rock a two-piece swimsuit at the beach?
If you happily say yes to these questions, I’m in awe of you.
This can be a struggle for most people. It might leave you to slip a little white lie in order to get out of the uncomfortable situation. Or plain out make you duck and dive, not to be seen.
But are these really built on other people’s thoughts of you? Or, could they, perhaps, be fictions of your own imagination?
And, what is the worst thing that can happen? They laugh at you? Laugh back. They look at you with a look that stings worse than any swam of bees? Ignore, and most importantly, move on.
I know it hurts you the very most when someone finds an old scab of yours to pick (i.e. making fun of you for something you’re already insecure about, to be clear). I really do. I’ve been bullied, poked, prodded, laughed at, stared at, pointed at, ignored, and been talked sh*t about. And it’s hurt me more than I’m willing to admit.
The key is this: you learn.
You learn to live with it, to stop seeing it and to ignore those (just equally as) insecure people who have nothing better to do with their time than to annoy you.
And it’s terrible that we have to manage like that, but this is the reality of things.
What about if you have something or wear something you have to, say, for medical reasons, and can’t, and definitely SHOULDN’T hide?
Confidence isn’t always easy, but it is definitely required. Especially by people who can’t help what they look like or what they wear.
Last week, Miss Idaho, Sierra Sandison, rocked her bikini-part of the competition wearing an insulin pump. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, read more HERE.)
Miss Idaho/Sandison’s amazing gesture has filled the diabetic community with both hope and confidence. Using the hashtag #showmeyourpump, it’s become nothing short of a social media phenomenon to share a picture of your insulin pump.
I got so inspired and deeply impressed by Miss Idaho 2014 for showcasing her insulin pump in the competition, so I decided to show my support and admiration by posing, in a bikini, showing my pump, too.
By doing that, I want every single one of you to know that it’s OK to wear a bikini (or anything else you’re shoving further back in your closet because it’s too “revealing” for wearing a device that keeps you ALIVE) – if people don’t like what they see they can kindly look away.
#showmeyourpump
And, for the sake of clarification, no, this is not easy to post for me, many parts of my body are not my favorite. But I am thankful that so many parts of it still work! And no, those dark patches are NOT bruises. My doc and I think it’s another AI issue, but no one seems to know. If you do, please let me know what it is!
Now, I want to see you showing your pump too, although I understand not everyone is ready for a full swimsuit shoot, take a photo and tag it with #showmeyourpump !
Ps. You can find Miss Idaho’s personal blog HERE.
…as well as a superb interview with her HERE by fellow d-blogger Kerri Morrone Sparling.
5 Great Ways To Get Going!
“I like to move it” sang Reel 2 Real 20 years ago. (Yes. 20.) It’s such an awesome 90’s relic!
Anyway, I think we can both agree on that exercise is good for you.
Especially these health benefits should keep both you and me on the exercise train:
Physically, exercise lowers the risk of heart disease and stroke, lowers blood pressure, reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes and obesity, reduces pain and osteoporosis, and to a certain extent even cancer. Mentally, it helps depression and anxiety, makes you sleep better, lowers tension, anger and relieves stress.
But then WHY is it often demotivating to do it?!
Some days the pure thought of getting into your shoes and even just going out for a walk is challenging to say the least.
While other days it feels like you’re flying in the same shoes that felt like bricks just the day before?!
Motivation is a funny thing sometimes. Here are a few tips on how to keep going, in case the health benefits just aren’t enough:
Activity: Find something you think is FUN to do! If you’re not having fun whilst doing it, you won’t keep doing it either. Fact.
So, what do you feel like doing, that can also be classified as exercise? Shake it out on a dance floor? Go find one! Run so fast you feel your legs are going to fall off? Get out of here now! Are you a water animal? Find that pool and go for a swim. Do you take pride in being able to lift heavy things? Maybe a gym is the right answer for you.
Purpose: If there’s someone else relying on you moving around, you’re much more likely to do it.
Team up with a friend who needs a kick in the butt too, or play with your kids, walk the neighbors dog, or rearrange your living room.
Track your process: Time yourself, keep track of how heavy you lifted last time or how far you swam. There are amazing apps out there for most of these, you just have to find one that suits you. My husband, for example, prefers Runkeeper, while I’m the happiest with the Nike+ app.
Music: A well-put-together playlist can work wonders for the old motivation. I love to put on my playlist called “Currently Awesome” and just GO. If you have Spotify, try an app like Tunigo to find some new inspiration for your uphill climbs.
Change up your routine: I recently got a little bored of my daily walks. I always went out about 2 hours after my lunch, mostly the same routes… So I thought to myself that as this is the only form of exercise I feel comfortable with right now (for several reasons), I have got to make it exciting again. Since about a week I go out in the mornings instead. And choose different routes every time. And it works! This little trick has made me all excited about it again.
So try it out, can you change the duration/sequence/intensity/company/timing of your exercise?
In the end, it doesn’t really matter what you do – as long as you have fun doing it!
Great Food Documentaries
So, today I wanted to tell you some of my favorite food documentaries that are definitely worth a watch.
These aren’t just good movies, to a certain extent they’re also provoking, sad and full of success stories, too.
Super Size Me: an oldie but goldie:
And here are some I haven’t watched yet, but they seem super interesting!
And the newest one out there, called FED UP, that I can’t WAIT to get my hands on!
Some of these can be watched straight on YouTube, others you might need to pay a little for. They’re all about the relationship between what we eat and diseases, something that I might be a little interested in… ;)
(A small piece of advice though, don’t watch them after each other, you’ll lose all respect you’ve ever had in humanity. One by one they are brilliant though!)
Did I miss any documentaries on my list? Please let me know!
Recap: My Ultimate Healthy Travelling Guide
This week, you and I will go on a little bit of a time travel, back to last year and bring back a very valuable post. Enjoy!
It’s summer, it’s vacation time (hopefully) which means (again, hopefully) traveling. But staying healthy while in transit is not always easy.
You know exactly what it’s like – you get to the airport, need to eat and there is nothing that suits you and your healthy lifestyle.
*sigh* Que: deep breaths mixed with hunger frustration. Godfrickingdamnit.
Do you have to throw all your efforts away and give in to the powerful fast food calling?
In a word: o’course not.
Granted, it is a lot more difficult than just grabbing the first thing you see. And it may require planning ahead a bit more than before. But it’s definitely not impossible!
Here is my Ultimate Guide to Staying Healthy While Traveling:
Challenge #1 – At the airport
Every fast food joint seems to be screaming your name when you walk past. First off, well done for not giving in and walking away!
If this is not an option (we both know there are less equipped airports out there), go in and try your best to stay away from the super duper size extra meal with extra this and that.
Instead, choose the one thing on the menu that has the most vegetables. Nope, the vegetarian burger does not count. Is it a salad? Great! Ask if they can add on some grilled chicken or a burger (just the meat though!). Also ask if you can have the dressing on the side, or if they have olive oil instead. Ask for water to drink, air travel dehydrates you anyway, so it’s best to stock up already before.
While this isn’t your ideal meal, it’s so much better than scoffing down a burger with fries and a coke.
Your other option is to take a food with you. Choose snacks that are easy to transport and nutrient-dense so you don’t need much of it to fill you up.
Suggestions include nuts, vegetable sticks, cheese cubes, avocado slices, fresh coconut slices, fruit bars, and hard-boiled eggs. Apples and bananas are usually easy to find (and make a great snack when paired with a packet of nut butter, available in most health stores) All things that are easy to eat without utensils.
You can also make homemade granola bars made with a little honey and filled with dried fruits and nuts, if you’re feeling creative.
Challenge #2: On the road
Wow, this one is certainly not easy.
Gas stations are among the most challenging places to stay healthy. You’re tired from sitting in the car for so long and really happy to get a leg stretcher.
At the same time, there is a cascade of unhealthy snacks and meals, all wanting to jump straight in your mouth.
Stop, take a second here. Are you sure you’re not just tired and bored to tears of watching kilometer after kilometer of concrete swish by you? If so, grab a bottle of water and go outside for a 5 minute walk.
If you really are hungry (as in, it’s your mealtime and you have to eat), consider your options first. What dish could you eat the most of? Leave the rest. Can they make you a special dish combined with things from a bunch of dishes? Very kind and open minded of them, and you’ll benefit greatly as well. If you’re at a gas station, choose protein-filled snacks, such as sunflower seeds, nuts, as well as fruit and nut bars, dark (85%) chocolate, or a banana.
Also: Investing in a small cooler will significantly reduce your chances of giving in to the drive-through cravings. You can fill it with your own favorites (perhaps some if them mentioned above?), including water bottles to keep hydrated.
In any on the go setting, a sandwich might be a suitable option. Don’t stop reading just yet. If you feel like making a sandwich to take along, choose whole-grain bread (or do like i do: wrap it all up in a lettuce leaf or between larger bits of bell pepper to avoid grains.) Look for sandwich meats that are free of nitrates and preservatives, add some lettuce and sliced avocado (yummy, and a super healthy fat source, in comparison to mayonnaise, for example). Make sure you layer any condiments you might enjoy (pickles, mustard, tomatoes…) between the meat slices so the bread, or lettuce wrap, doesn’t get soggy.
Challenge #3: Restaurants
Eating well at restaurants can be tricky. But again, not impossible. (How do you think people with food allergies or other medical reasons do it?!)
Anyway, of course you want to indulge on vacation. And believe me, you should indulge.
But, remember that indulging at every meal will make it harder to get back into your healthy routine when you get back home. An idea is to choose one meal a day, or every two days, as a guilt free indulgence. Please, do skip the breadbasket so you’re not filling up on empty calories before the meal though!
Anything that is grilled, broiled, steamed, roasted, baked or poached is a great choice. Dare to ask for vegetables instead of whatever starchy side they have originally paired your food with. Or, order a salad with olive oil and fresh lemon juice and eat that before your starchy part of the meal.
Challenge #4: Hotel breakfasts
Holy guacamole, I do love me some hotel breakfast! It might just be the best thing in the world.
That doesn’t mean you need to be rolling out of there, fueled up on sugar, bad fats and feeling crappy (if only to get your money’s worth!)
Although hotel breakfasts tend to offer a lot of high sugar, high carb foods that aren’t necessarily associated with healthy eating (pancakes, French toast, waffles, processed cereals etc), there is one ingenious point.
Because it’s a buffet, you have the choice of what to eat. I know, it’s a fantastic opportunity to test your willpower, but try to choose more protein, such as eggs and add veggies to your omelet if you can, vegetables, nuts, fruit, yoghurt… To go for the cheese section is still better than to go for the sugar and starch.
And, most importantly, ENJOY having someone else make you breakfast for once.
For the serious health nuts (although self-proclaimed such, I don’t do this): you can pack your own individual oatmeal breakfasts in small plastic bags. Add rolled oats, cacao nibs, shredded coconut, dried cherries, and almonds. Pour the mixture into a bowl covered with water or coconut milk the night before, store it in the fridge and your breakfast will be waiting for you in the morning.
To summarize this long post, here are 3 main points:
1. Fill up on protein to cut down on the temptation of fast food.
2. Do your best, but don’t feel guilty if you don’t succeed all the time. It’s near to impossible.
3, Sometimes you need to prepare in advance to keep at your healthy lifestyle. But remember its totally worth it. Do you remember how you felt when you were still eating all that crap?
It’s also important to allow yourself a splurge every now and then. And: don’t isolate yourself from being with friends and family because you fear there won’t be healthy options. There is usually something on every menu that you can make into a healthy meal. Just see above! :)