To Begin at the Beginning

Hello!

This is a new blog to accompany a new phase in my life. Well, not entirely new - it started a few months ago. But as my confidence has been building, I've decided to go a bit more public.

The phase concerns what I eat and when I eat it. I have come to the conclusion that a low-carb, high-fat, moderate-protein diet ketogenic diet composed mainly of natural unprocessed food is the best (i.e. healthiest) way for me to eat. That's a bit of a mouthful - so let's call it LCHF, which is an acronym that Google will tell you lots about.  I've also become convinced that intermittent fasting is a very healthy thing to do.

It's also pretty much the complete opposite of Government's healthy eating guidelines. And flies in the face of advice to people with diabetes. But I think there is good reason to believe those guidelines are not helping people with diabetes, and in fact are making them worse. And probably contributed to them developing diabetes in the first place.

I stumbled on this way of eating almost by accident. When we were on holiday this summer and I was enjoying all the freshly squeezed orange juice and croissants, I had in the back of my mind the vague intention to do something about my weight once we got home.  I've always been overweight. In fact ,for most of my adult life I have been severely obese. From the start of 2012 to the middle of 2013, I had lost 7.5 stone and got off my diabetes medication.  But by the middle of 2016, I had regained 6 stone and was back on medication. And although I don't have the figures to back it up, I was pretty confident that my diabetes was not properly controlled.

So, I had to do something. And it so happened that the only English-language newspaper available in our hotel, the Daily Mail, was starting a series on low-carb eating. Now, I have heard about low-carb to manage diabetes for a long time. But whenever I heard it, I pushed it away. Sure, I can understand that eating sugar isn't a great health choice (actually, it's really damaging), and I know that carbs are mainly what increase blood glucose - especially high glycemic index ones. But, really - can anybody live without bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, cereals, and CAKE!!!

It turns out that you can.  I made a start the day after we got back from holiday - 5th July 2016. It took a few days to get my head round the concepts, and I've adjusted as I've gone along.  But, in summary, in a little over 3 months I have lost over two and a half stone. When I started eating this way, I didn't have any test strips for my blood glucose meter - it is no longer policy to prescribe them for people who are not at risk of hypos. So I bought my own (the one with the cheapest test strips) - and in 6 weeks I have seen my fasting glucose level go from the mid 7's to less than 6. (Normal is under 5.5)

And the best of all is.... I am not hungry!! I don't mean that I never get hungry - of course I do. But much less often, and much less intensely. And that means that I am not constantly wanting to snack and nibble. I am eating delicious. satisfying food, mostly cooked from scratch from fresh ingredients, as much of it as I want,  and I am getting slimmer and healthier with each day that passes.

Not bad, eh?

LCHF eating is controversial. The establishment doesn't approve of it - but (I have come to believe) the establishment's view is based on flawed interpretation of cherry-picked data. It's not saturated fat that causes heart disease - it's inflammation, caused by high levels of insulin and a high intake of sugar and other refined carbohydrates.

Anyhow - the purpose of this blog is not to convince you of the science. I'll link to some of it so you can read up on it if you want to. The purpose of this is to record my experience as I continue this journey of discovery and my body adapts.

See you soon!