fasting and dr.

Thank you everyone responding to my blog on fasting and all the encouragement I received. It is amazing what that alone does to one's feeling of self worth. Someone is listening to me; finds it important enough to comment on what I have to say. Thank you!

I got the same impression yesterday for the first time in a long time at the dr. office. Yes, I finely have a new doctor. If you remember I had to switch dr. because the base where I used to go (being retired military) can no longer support us civilians because they don't have the doctors on staff. After a frustrating month of phone calls and no return calls or road blocks, mainly by my insurance I thought I had a good one and placed my call last week. Once again I got answering machines and was told someone would call me back... except no one did. Monday afternoon I got tired of it and called another dr. I spoke to the receptionist, explained my situation and had an appointment within minutes for the following day. I called my Hippa consultant, had them transfer my records; called my insurance had them verify and got it all done and approved within 1 hour. Now why couldn't that go like this the first time a month ago.

My new dr. is tall, handsome and a cowboy to boot... lol I thought I throw that in. But for real here he actually listened to what I said and asked the kind of questions that told me he was listening. He made suggestions and after looking at my meds ordered them in less than a minute and had that send to my pharmacy. We outlined a plan of action... notice how I said WE... another point in his favor. I'll go back in June when my yearly blood tests are due and in the meantime I am working on the plan to reduce one of my medications by half.

... and yes, he really is tall, handsome and wears cowboy boots, we're in Texas after all!

on my fasting...
I did real well yesterday and feel great this morning. It was easier than I thought to adjust to black coffee. In fact, in the long run I think it will help me reduce the amount of coffee I drink.

I ended up with about 1600 cal. and felt not hungry or cranky. I also ate a bit better as in food choices. I had strawberries for snack instead of cheetoh's and didn't crave them yesterday. Today is my meatless day but I am eating fish for dinner, which is good. I'll have a sweet potato in the slow cooker for lunch. Both meals go well with a big salad. I have to start pulling the lettuce from my garden. We also have kale growing and love to toss the young leaves whole in salad.

I did more reading yesterday as well on the whole intermittent subject and learnt that it will help my digestion and actual fasting part a lot better if I space my meals so that between my last bite of food and the time I hit the pillow I have about 4 hours. That's how long it takes my body to digest the last food I ate. Also, It stresses the need for clear water, not nothing in it like sugar- or calorie free stuff. Water! When I am clear on that - Water- it's actually not so hard to follow.

The other thing I learnt with intermittent eating is that you don't have to stop eating breakfast if that is too hard for you. You can stop eating dinner instead. As long as you keep the time right.. you allow 8 hours of eating and 16 of not eating. Make sure it's at least 4 hours before bedtime that you stop eating; drink your water and get your rest. So if you are a morning person... eat your breakfast and lunch. If you are a night person... eat your lunch and dinner. It's that simple. Some people fast two out of 7 days, others do it every day, again others do the 24 hour fast once a month. It's really up to each of us how we do this, if at all. Nothing works on the one for all mentality!