Saying No to Diabetes

Early this year I needed to make some life style changes. These pertained primarily to dietary habits and how they were affecting my health. While maintaining a healthy weight had been a struggle for me, recently I found out that maintaining a healthy blood sugar level had also become a part of my health paradigm.  

I wasn’t surprised by my new health stats. For last two years I had lived a very sedentary lifestyle. Regular exercise had dropped off my plate and I had gradually fallen prey to poor eating habits. While there were reasons for these changes, the resulting health markers were nonetheless begging for attention. It was only in my best interest and well-being to make sustainable changes that would last me a life time.  The hope was that a new lifestyle will emerge and bring about positive health outcomes.

Being an acupuncturist and holistic health practitioner, I was reluctant to even think about taking medication for the long term. Besides I was optimistic that life style and aging related negative metabolic changes could be reversed by adopting better health habits. It required some research, and yes, some soul searching! This new quest was driven by more than the sole need for weight loss. It was about being healthy from the inside, which could then, hopefully manifest on the outside too!

The question was: what were these changes going to be? What could I incorporate into my daily life that would bring about the desired health outcome yet not become burdensome or difficult to sustain? In the past I had “dieted” many a times and with great results but only to have the weight come back once the “diet” ended. It was clear that my new eating habits needed to be more than calorie counting regimens. It would certainly require choosing different types of foods, but this time the perspective needed to be long term and one that entailed more than making better food choices.

I was familiar with the concept of fasting and with a particular style of fasting that is popularly known as intermittent fasting. Both, fasting and Intermittent fasting are often credited with being ways of eating that are good for one’s health and wellbeing. I was particularly interested in intermittent fasting and decided to find out more about its benefits. To my pleasant surprise I found that lowering blood glucose levels and reversing diabetes type 2 was one of the primary benefits of intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting is actually the recommended way of life in the ayurvedic system of health that has its roots in the ancient Indian culture.

The other things that I could add to my quest for health were: reintroduce cardio exercise in my routine (yes, you may say duh…), do yoga postures that specifically help in managing insulin activity in the body, use Chinese herbs and other useful supplements, make an effort to be in bed by 11:00 PM (very difficult for me), and of course do regular acupuncture. My gut feel though was to not start all things at once. I wanted to pick one or two and monitor the results and have other things waiting in the wings to be added once I started to plateau with the initial interventions. The question then came to mind, how could I make myself more accountable? The idea of writing a blog post about my rendezvous with blood sugar levels was born! A little personal? Indeed. But the hope was that sharing openly may be a motivating factor in staying true to my new regimen and if the results were good it might motivate others in saying no to diabetes in a more holistic way and without being dependent on synthetic drugs.

I decided to start with incorporating daily intermittent fasting in my lifestyle and support that with a Chinese herbal formula while continuing to take the supplements I was already taking. The Chinese formula I started out with was Zou Gui Wan by Plum Flower also known as Left Side Replenishing Tea Pills (more on that in a future post.) I also added some occasional exercise- keeping the frequency intermittent and intensity low. I wanted to first establish new dietary habits and then focus on more regular exercise for an added punch.

Intermittent fasting is not as much about what one eats (although good food choices are very important) but more about when one eats. The big idea is that one should eat only in an eight-hour period in a day. The ayurvedic recommendation is to eat between 12 noon and 8 PM. I really struggled with this time frame. My schedule is such that I am often not home until after 8 PM and I was mentally not ready to skip eating dinner after getting home. What a dilemma! I finally decided that I needed to be flexible and not be too concerned with the actual times of eating but rather focus on limiting the eating period to no more than eight consecutive hours in a twenty four hour period. To be doable I needed to shift my eating window to between 1 PM and 9 PM or even a little later if necessary. It was not ideal but certainly worth trying.

My new journey in quest of a healthier me had begun! This time the focus was more holistic and long term. The first mental hurdle was not eating breakfast. It was a HUGE challenge. Often times breakfast was the only meal that I was preparing myself and it was a central part of my morning routine. Skipping breakfast took a lot of mental preparation. Nonetheless the desire to normalize blood sugar and avoid having to take medication forever was strong enough to bolster my will power.

To my relief going without breakfast proved to be not as difficult as I was expecting it to be. The mind was ready, and the body followed along obediently! Interestingly enough I realized how not being concerned about breakfast opened up the morning hours. Suddenly there was more time available to focus on a longer meditation and some other thing or two that needed doing. Hey, a win-win and who doesn’t like that?

In future posts I will be sharing my progress and talking more specifically about the changes I needed to make, what worked and what didn’t, so watch this space! Cheers until then and enjoy spring!