An Extra Fast Day

Okay, so maybe I'm impatient, but three days of no fasting (between Monday and Friday) seems like an age. Having not seen any results yet (either visibly or on the scale - not that I would expect this after only two days of fasting but apparently it's quite common) I decided to fast today as well as Monday and Friday. I may only do this intermittently or I may do it every week; I will see how it goes. Alternate day fasting is another type of fasting talked about in Dr Michael Mosley & Mimi Spencer's book, The Fast Diet, where, as the name suggests, people fast every other day. It isn't hugely popular due to being quite full-on, plus it is extremely difficult to plan more than a week or two ahead of time. However, a 4:3 diet is fairly similar, an in between if you like, but with much more structure (always fasting on the same weekdays) and so I know it should be just as safe me to try this.

Yesterday, my third post-fast day, was very up and down in terms of blood sugars. In fact, it felt like one of my usual 'bad control' days usually do. These days just seem to happen, regardless of what I eat, inject, or do with my day - and one of my biggest struggles with diabetes. I ended the day with some yoga and weights exercise in an attempt to level the day out, since I usually find that exercise has nothing but a positive effect on my sugar levels as long as I am sensible with regard to hypos. This obviously had the desired effect because it helped bring my sugars down from a 15.

This morning started well with my first breakfast reading under 7 mmol/l in weeks, a 5.9. The day has continued well so far, with a 7.7 reading at 12:30pm. I am also managing fine on 'lighter drinks' - my usual is a milky tea with half a spoon of sugar (to take away the bitterness which I've never enjoyed in tea), but today I have had a cup of marginally-whitened red bush tea, a coffee (again with little milk), and just now a small cup of tea with much less milk than my usual and without sugar. I was surprised at how great this tasted! Fasting today has apparently enabled me to really taste the milk and enjoy the drink much more, and without finding it bitter. Great! This also works with food - everything just tastes so much more.

No sugar in tea is something I'd like to keep up even on non-fasting days, because it's always annoyed me that I just honestly don't like tea without that bit of sugar. Even a quarter-spoon makes a huge difference to the taste as long as it isn't made too strong, but I've never quite got to the point of having none at all. I simply end up throwing two thirds of the cup away.

I am hoping that the rest of the day will pass without any particular problems. I am anticipating needing a small snack at 3pm when I collect my son from nursery because we will then be walking up to my parents' house - a very large, steep hill to push a double buggy up with a 3 year old hanging on! Other than that I think I will find it fairly easy to stick to hot drinks (nice and filling) until we get back home, where I will break my fast before bed with a small (and hopefully nutritious!) meal. Because I didn't plan this day in advance as such, I had my usual basal injection dose of 28 yesterday. It will be interesting to see how my body manages this. Technically my blood sugar should remain stable, since the lantus dose is supposed to be how much your body needs without food, but seeing as I'm not certain about being on the correct dose (I seem to have a little too much in the day; not enough at night), it's hard to know. At least, for this week, I don't have two takeaways to deal with, but instead am having my usual food for which the doses are easy to calculate!

Fasting already gives me a feeling of energy and space; I have more time to do other things or just take a break from thinking about kids or food preparation. It's really nice.