Fast Day no. 1

Having fasted a few times before, I already knew that the effects on the body were slightly more awkward when attempting as a diabetic - not just during the fast, but afterwards too. For example, in my case, food before bed (that is, before sleep) was essential for me to avoid a hypo. So already I knew I'd have to do the 24 hours from evening to evening, rather than morning to morning like you might otherwise choose.

I began, inspired, with no forward planning, and so my first fast was from about 10 pm (when I last happened to have snacked) til 8pm the following day. 22 hours - close enough for the first try! Because of the lack of planning, I hadn't reduced my basal insulin, so instead made sure the fasting food was medium/high in carbohydrates to keep me going. I ate a cereal bar when I first woke because my sugar was quite low. Maybe about half an hour later I got up, exercised (about 10 minutes of weight lifting) and then ate a normal breakfast (shreddies with milk, approx 200 cals), my bg being 7.4. I had half a cereal bar at about noon to keep my sugars up. At lunch my bg was 9.4. I think I ate 2 strawberries and a grape over the afternoon (14 cals). My bg was 5.9 mid afternoon. I had nothing else save cups of tea until after 8pm, when my bg was 4.4. I was fairly peckish by this time but mostly because of feeling the effects of low blood sugar. I remember my total calorie intake excluding cups of tea was 333 (women are allowed up to 500). I think it's up to you what you drink during your fast day. My cups of tea are about 40 cals each, but I choose not to count them in the calorie intake because i think, for the moment, they help stabilise my blood sugar. I may or may not switch to black tea in the future! However, even including my drinks, my intake was still only about 573 calories.

I broke my fast with a slice of cheese and then we had a takeaway, which was not how i planned it but made it interesting. I ate the whole lot which I don't often do despite the fact that we split the dishes (i have a curry portion, a popadom, half a rice portion and half a naan bread) plus a slice of fruit cake and a piece of chocolate, but i regretted this because I felt absolutely stuffed full for about two hours afterwards! Ideally i would hope to have a fairly ordinary meal after fasting, if not smaller than usual. However, i think the extras after the meal were because I still felt quite low. About half an hour after finishing my meal I thought I'd better bolus, since a takeaway has masses of carbs in and I reasoned that even after fasting I would need SOME insulin. I had about half the insulin I would normally have for the amount of carbs eaten (6 units less - it was a lot of carbs...). Interestingly, this was still too much. 90 minutes after the meal I was only 5.8, and before bed I was down to 4.6 and had to snack before sleeping. During the night I was 13.8 and had 3 correction units out of habit (hard to break, apparently!), though by morning I'm not sure what had happened because I was 15.6 but felt as though I was quite low. Whether I'd gone low and bounced back up or simply needed more food after fasting, I don't know. Ah well, onto the next day!