Today I am fasting.
If you want to know why fasting is a good idea - there's a whole load of information starting here. The executive summary, though is that type 2 diabetes is primarily a problem of insulin resistance. I make a shedload of insulin, but my body doesn't listen, so my blood glucose stays too high. That's type 2 diabetes - both insulin levels and glucose levels are higher than normal. And the higher the insulin gets, the less my body listens to it.
Fasting allows both glucose and insulin levels to fall. AND that actually reduces my degree of insulin resistance. It does loads of other good things as well, but the impact on insulin resistance is the primary reason why I'm doing it.
Anyhow - all the sciency stuff, and answers to all your worries about fasting - are here. This is about what it's actually like to fast.
It's heading towards 4pm. I haven't eaten since about 8pm last night. No breakfast. No lunch. No milk in drinks (I have drunk green tea and redbush tea, and water). How do I feel?
Well, OK, actually. I went for a run this morning. Took a church council meeting. Made a pastoral visit. Came home and, after a cup of (milkless) tea, have been working in my study this afternoon. I am getting on with life as usual.
I have felt hungry intermittently. But it passes. It doesn't build and build and get worse and worse - it comes and it goes.
I do think about the fact that I won't be eating today - in fact, before tomorrow lunchtime. But it's not distressing me that I haven't eaten.
What interests me is what happens to my blood glucose and ketone levels while I fast. I am testing both - first thing, 1pm, again at bedtime, tomorrow morning and then tomorrow before I break my fast at lunchtime.
What I *expect* to see is glucose coming down and settling in the normal range - that's what's happened during previous fasts - and ketone levels climbing. I'll give you the numbers tomorrow.
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