Wow - it's been over two weeks since I posted!! No particular reason, just one of those things. Let's see.... what's new....
Oh yes!! I got the result of my HbA1C back. I don't actually see the nurse till next week, but I was over at the surgery having my annual retinopathy screening, and asked if they had the result back yet. It was 40 - which is in the normal range. Down from 62 - which decidedly isn't.
I was, to put it mildly, dead chuffed. And then I decided to do some comparisons with 2012, when I set out on what was to become my biggest ever weight loss.
At the outset of that, my HbA1C was 56, and in the course of 12 weeks, it dropped to 48. Which is still an impressive achievement, and represents a significant reduction in risk. But it's a drop of 8 points, as against the 22 points I achieved this time. On that occasion, I lost more weight - though if you take my weight loss at the very start of my LCHF eating, and look at percentage rather than pounds (because I started from a higher weight) - there is nothing in it. But nearly 3 times as big a reduction in HbA1C. Just goes to show the power of reducing carbs, as compared to the low-fat, low-sugar, mostly whole foods balanced diet I did last time.
Don't get me wrong - that diet, the sort recommended for people with diabetes and for everyone else as well, is a lot healthier than eating a lot of sweets and highly processed food, snacks and fast food. No doubt - if you eat fresh fruit and veg, whole grains, lean meat etc you will be healthier than someone who survives on donuts and pizza. But just because it's a better diet (than a pile of junk) doesn't make it the best diet. Not by a long way.
As for missing things.... the truth is, I don't. I've lost the need for cakes and biscuits - I'm actually quite content without them. OK, there's the odd occasion when I think, wouldn't that be nice - but I think it's just my old habits talking. Because when I think about what it would be like to actually have that in my mouth.... no, thanks. And as for white bread and pastry.... no, I don't think so.
Which gives me something of a dilemma - because Christmas is coming. So I have it in mind to find myself a bunch of festive treats which are broadly compatible with this way of eating. Yes, I'll slacken up a bit, I'll increase my carbs a bit to allow some indulgences. But I'm talking maybe going to 50-60g carb, rather than several hundred. There might be a single roast potato with my turkey, I won't ask too many questions about what's gone in the pigs in blankets, and I'll find myself some low-carb cakes or sweet treats that I wouldn't normally have, but since it's Christmas, I'll indulge a little. I may come out of ketosis - but not by much, and not for long. The benefits are just too great to want to throw them away.
And besides - if I had a traditional Christmas dinner, with a pile of roasties, parsnips and stuffing, followed by Christmas pudding and brandy sauce, and then tubs and tubs of chocolate..... I actually don't think I would enjoy it that much....
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