Carol. Is that a specific test for insulin levels? I've never heard of this unless it's called something different here in canada

First DD is over and if all the others go as easy as this one did, I will have no problem with this. I did keep the calories under the calories for the 30%. I did it with what I had using 1 bottle of Slimfast shake I. I had a low calorie shake for dinner made with the Skim milk and Slimquick powder I have.
I made do as well as I could for today until I could get to the store so I could get a gallon of Skim milk to cut my calories down to 80 calories for the DD shakes. I still have the Slimquick powder and it is only 80 calories where the Slimfast is 110. So I'll be able to cut the calories down even more for my second DD as well as the others. I also have substitute eggs for less calories on the DD. I'm only drinking 2 a day although I'm not sure I will be able to do the shakes all the time I just hope I can do the 2 weeks required. I seem to experience hypoglycemic feelings even though so far my bs has not dipped into dangerously low ranges. I have checked it before I ate or drank a shake and it was in a good range. It was 123 once, 108 another time and then 114 the last time. As long I am home, it is no problem because I can sit and relax and let the feelings pass so my body can adjust to, but I don't think I can handle it if I was out. I'll have to just take it one day at a time.

DH and I went to the funeral visitation for my step-brother and his wife. So sad about their son. We aren't going to the funeral tomorrow. My step-nephew was so popular as he was a local race car driver and he was active in the rodeo for a number of years. We had to park in back of the funeral home just for the visitation and made a place to park as there were no parking places so I know they are going to have a problem parking people tomorrow and I can't walk that far and then have to stand for the service. I don't believe there is going to be room for everyone to sit.

I did get to see my step-brother and his wife and talked to them. I feel their pain. I got to see my pastor friend who was my pastor for years. I talked to him and we plan to go visit his church in a few weeks. I haven't decided if I'm going to attend his church or not because it is a toss up between his church and the church of another pastor friend. I had a good visit with him too.

p.a. the test is called "Fasting Insulin." It can only be done through a medical facility, not at home like testing blood glucose. From what I've read, a lot of doctors won't do it because they said it is unnecessary. Online it said it is done for people who have severe hypoglycemia without meds. It also says it can be done for type 2 diabetics, but as far as I know my doctor has never done it. I had a lot of tests done in the hospital that I don't know what they were. I think doctors figure if you have high blood sugar you also have high insulin levels. They are only interested in lowering the blood glucose. My only interest in it would be to see what it was before and after doing the JUDDD plan, to see if it really lowered insulin levels.

Trish, I am glad you are finding the JUDDD plan interesting and are tying it. The book makes it sound very promising, doesn't it? That's what I found, too. But there are situation when it's very difficult to do the DD, unless you are someone who lives alone and is in complete control of what and when you eat. I was in that situation when I was single, and it's after I got married that my eating habits changed to be more like his and I gained weight. I was 137 when I got married. DH made the comment that I was thin and could eat whatever I wanted. Boy did I prove him wrong! LOL He doesn't seem to understand the part he had in changing my eating habits. He feels that I just let myself go when we married, but doesn't accept the part he played in it.

Like you, I will do it the best I can. In the fasting book it says to do the fasting the best you can, and your fasting period should be what is best for you out of all the different types. At this point, I can not do shakes, but I might reach the point when I can. DH wants me to eat with him, so the best thing for me is to eat real food in small amounts that only equal 500 calories. I'm taking it one day at a time.

I think the med you are injecting is playing a part in the feelings you are having, because those blood sugar reading are really not hypoglycemic. I know from the few times I have had that that it's an uncomfortable feeling and scary, unless you check and see that your blood sugar is not really dangerously low. I don't usually carry my meter with me. After I got that one low of 44 I do not always take the dosage of Glimiperide that is prescribed. I test blood sugar before I take it and sometimes only take 1/2 or 1/4 of the dose.

Is the ALA the only thing that your DH takes for his valve? I bought it once but didn't notice a change from it so I stopped. I don't know what I expected. I have 2 bad valves. The Aortic valve has been bad from birth. When they did my heart surgery they were prepared to replace it, but when they saw it they said it was not bad enough and you're better off to keep your own valve at that point. They continue to "watch" it with regular Echocardiograms every year. It has become stiff, but still not bad enough to be replaced. Now my Mitral Valve has also become stiff. I am supposed to be aware if I become fatigued and short of breath, which signals it has become worse. There has not been much change since 2008. I would start taking the ALA if it would help. Please tell me more about it. What else does he take besides that?

Mad, although you talk about your food addiction, don't think eating a lot of cherry tomatoes is a big problem. LOL Now a whole bag of cookies or chips is a different story. I do believe that too much healthy food can also be detrimental to weight loss, though.

There was a big breakthrough this morning....DH asked me if I wanted scrambled eggs before he made them. Yay! He usually just makes them and sits them in front of me. When I worked, I always ate breakfast before going to work, but that was because I knew I could not make it until lunch without having some food. Now that I'm retired, I know I can eat whenever I get hungry, and I don't get hungry until at least 11 or sometimes later. I'm so glad that I'm learning to recognize hunger and not to eat until I'm hungry, instead of eating by the clock. It also depends on what time I get up. Sometimes I wake up as early as 5 and can't go back to sleep. Other days like today I sleep until 7, and on rare occasions, 9. My body is learning to get the amount of sleep that it needs.

I read up about ALA and I think I took it because of my psoriasis. It didn't help, so I stopped, but maybe I didn't take enough, or long enough. Either way, now I'm taking Fish Oil and I wouldn't want to take both. Maybe I could take half and half, some fish oil and some ALA. I saw where it said it was heart healthy, but didn't see anything about softening heart valves. It might be a side effect that they just don't comment on.

It says it's best to get it through food, but it always says that about supplements. I eat walnuts, and they are a source, but otherwise it says flaxseed oil or chia seeds. I'm afraid of chia seeds. I'm afraid I will grow green hair. LOL Cha Cha Cha Chia! Like a ChiaPet. LOL

Carol Sue I don't remember all that he took back then. I do know that he took magnesium and still does take one a day, but he eats a lot of nuts which has magnesium in them. His matril valve was the one that was stiff and wasn't pumping right. It was causing the blood not to flow right. Can't remember how they explained it, but they wanted to replace it. He also took Vitamin E back then but we stopped when SC doctor told us they thought it caused the problems we were trying to prevent. I still don't know if we should or shouldn't take it, but when in doubt do nothing so we don't take it any more. I did learn one thing during both of our moves from FL to SC and SC to TX... DH would be so much healthier if he would move around and be more active. He still gets terribly exhausted when mowing the lawn since he has to use the push mower. We really need a self-propel but this one was given to us. But the exhaustion he experiences does not last as long as it used to. I just can't get him to exercise. One good thing about living here, my family insists that he be included in our activities. We try to plan something at least once a week that involves him going with us. I won't allow him to become a recluse like he did in SC. He love to eat out and I can usually get him to go out with me once a week and go to the store with me.

I understand about doing the DD every other day on JUDDD and I understand about the shakes. I actually enjoyed doing the shakes yesterday and I really didn't worry about the feelings from them because I knew they were not dangerously low. I remembered what you read about riding them out so that my body can adjust to the lower reading. My bs reading before I went to bed was 110. It was 129 before I started drinking my coffee. I'll check it again before I eat breakfast. I am going to try to keep doing the 8:16 IF on UD. I figure if I can't do an extremely low 500 cal DD which I don't even attempt at this time any way, I can still do a moderately low. You remember he said in the book that he even did 50% on DD. So we might could even use that on those days when DH wants to eat. I would hope that eventually a DD could even be OMAD doing a semi-fast without shakes. That is my goal any way.

My weight is already down 3 lbs, but that in itself is amazing to me since I'm not even doing the 500 DD calories. I might not have to do the shakes at all, but they do help me. Of course, I do know he says not to way tomorrow after my UD today. So it stands to reason that the weight will wobble. LOL

I am cautious about taking more supplements because I take so many meds, but if I do get the ALA I might just replace one Fish Oil with one ALA. I don't know what difference that would make. Or I might look for the Flaxseed oil. I still have that flaxseed and want to try the muffin recipe we got from Mad. That might help, too. It says that the flaxseed oil can be put directly on the psoriasis. I was reading a lot about my valves and what can happen. It's scary, but I don't have the shortness of breath yet, so the doctor said that's when it gets bad enough to need the valve replaced. I hope I never need it done, but I got through cardiac bypass surgery and with God's help I will get through this if need be.

DH is having some shortness of breath with exertion. I'm concerned, and so is he, but he won't go to the doctor until it's bad enough to go straight to the ER, and it might be too late by then. I don't want to argue with him, I can just hope and pray he's OK. Maybe God will take care of him for my sake. He had a self propelled lawnmower but he started saying that it went to fast for him and he had a hard time keeping up. Now he bought a riding mower. It's very small, as we have a small yard, but he got it half price at Walmart at the end of the year. He looks so cute riding it around. LOL

I, too, was shocked at how easily I lost weight on JUDDD. Even though you feel like you're overeating on UD, you still lose. I am doing well so far today. I am making lasagne for dinner, but plan on eating just a small piece. I am just now starting to feel so hunger, but it's not bad, just noticeable. We eat early, so I will be OK.

Trish, I was reading the beginning of chapter 13 in the Guide to Fasting. It talked about the concerns about fasting while on meds that lower blood sugar. I can cut back on Glimiperide when I am doing a fasting day, but because your injection is weekly, you cannot adjust your dose daily. So please be careful when you are doing a lower calorie day, and check your blood sugar every time you get symptoms. Don't assume your body is adjusting. It could be a true hypo. You might even consider stopping the injections for a week or so while you experiment with this plan.

Carol Sue I just read chapter 10 of ADD book titled "Give Yourself a Break: An Alternative to Dieting Every Other Day." It talks about doing IF 8:16 ration of eating and still get the same results of JUDDD. I was excited that he recommends that as an alternative.

I was also thinking about the way he figures your daily average of calories using UDDD. I really like having MFP figure everything for me especially my exercising which keeps me doing it. So I took my calculator and figured out that if I multiply 2400 calories by 15 days for UD and multiply 1000 calories by 15 days for DD then divide by 30 days my average over a month will be about 1300 calories a day. MFP will accept the 1000 calorie days and I can be more accurate. My problem will be ever getting up to the 2400 calories, but I wouldn’t want to eat that many everyday any way. It would just give me some leeway when eating out on UD and I will also be able to fit eating out on my DD too. I really believe this is very doable. I also think this way of doing JUDDD will work better with the Trulicity.

Thanks for thinking of me and the warning. I really want to just use Trulicity as a stepping stone so to speak to help me while I get the diabetes under control again. It is my plan and hope to not have to take any meds at all. I will discuss this with my new doctor tomorrow.

I already plan to do this with an IF window any way so hopefully I will get a double benefit from it.

I’m sorry your DH is not doing well and won’t go to the doctor. I think he is afraid of what he will find out. I know I’m like that sometime too, but I figure if I don’t find out how can I help myself.

DH takes one fish oil a day along with the ALA. We used to take fish oil and one day we decided that it wasn’t doing anything for us. SC doc’s nurse called one day and asked if he took it and I told her know and why we quit. He put him on 2 a day, but when the new doctor put him on 4 pills that looks like an oil of some sort when we moved here, I cut it out. However, DH insisted on taking it any way. I’m still not sure he should but I give him one a day instead of the 2. Now we will have another new doc and have to see what he says about all of this.

I have believed for a long time that if we ate right we could get a lot of the vitamins etc from our food. I am in the process of learning what foods we can eat to get the vitamins we eat with out taking the suppliments. DH hates taking them and I’m sure it would be better if we could get it from food. This is also my goal.

Time for an up day followed by a few downs, I want to get below the 170 asap. At that point I am about 10% down from the highest point in January. That will be good.
SO I am going there this week and next if needed.
JUDDD is interesting, but really doing the down days is hard.
I have been doing "fat fasts" from atkins for my down days. SO I stocked up on cream cheese. I don't like macadamia nuts, but will eat sunflower seeds instead. For those who do paleo, you can get "sunbutter" which is like peanut butter but made from sunflower seeds. and use it the same way. Fewer carbs, higher in fat, and because peanuts aren't on paleo, it fits with the plan. I am not so picky.
I am on call this week and will have to switch off down days if I have a heavy work day, so will have to plan back-ups, but I really want the next couple of pounds off.

In other news, the weather has been lovely, I have done some gardening, (not too much, we are not yet past frost danger, so can't plant too much, just managing the perennials so far) and getting out into the fresh air.

Best wishes all

Trish, my Fish Oil is prescribed by my cardiologist. It's OTC, but at his recommendation. I take one twice a day. It thins the blood and I take an aspirin a day that also thins the blood. So I don't want to add anything that thins the blood any more. Right now I don't think I will add the ALA, even though I would like to get the benefit from it. I just don't want to be playing around with my meds. If it thins too much I think I would be risking a bleed in the brain. They say if you take a supplement to discuss it with your doctor, and I don't want him changing anything, so I will let sleeping dogs lie, so to speak. LOL

I eat walnuts, but not every day. A few a couple times a week. Dr Fuhrman says it is always better to get your nutrients from food because there are phytonutrients and other compounds in vegetables and fruits that you do not get from taking a pill, along with the fiber. And that's why they say to eat the rainbow...vegetables of all the colors to get a variety of nutrients. I believe there are some things that are harder to get from food, such as Vit D. Your body makes it from sun exposure and it is added to some foods, but people in my climate are often low in Vit D because we don't get a lot of sun, and even now a lot of people avoid the sun because of skin cancer.

Mad, it is hard to do the DD, but I think once you get a rhythm going with them it gets easier. Or maybe not. I know I was a little over today, but I'm eating less than I used to by trying to stay at 500 calories. Do you know what I mean? I try not to stress out that I'm not perfect. I try to avoid the thinking that "I went over, so I will make it an UD." It's still a DD, just not as far down as I was aiming for.

Today is DD. I am fasting until after I see the new doctor. I realized that DS gets bloodwork and the works when she goes to her doctor every 3 months. So I called the doc's office and asked her if we need to be fasting. She said sometimes he does bloodwork and sometimes not. She said I could tell them we are fasting. DH was scheduled at the other place for next month and I was scheduled for September. So I don't know if he will keep us on that schedule or change it.

So I will fast until our main meal and see if I can make this a OMAD for my DD. It would really be great if I could do that on my DD. I will try to be careful with my meal to keep it within the 30% calorie range so that if I need to I can have a shake tonight. This gives me the chance to see what I can do on DD and I'll be ready for fasted bloodwork if they want to start a new with us.

There is no way I can eat more than much more than 1800 calories on UD. I struggled to get my calories that high. I'm sure on a day when I eat out with family I might could eat more, but I don't think my calories would even go more than 2000 in a day. It would be very rare if it did except on a big holiday like Thanksgiving or Christmas. So I see that I will have to work at keeping the calories no higher than 700 or 800 on most DD.

I know I'm not supposed to weigh, but I just want to see how this is working for me. I am thrilled with this woe. While I know a lot of this is water weight, I will take it. My weight was down yesterday from 220 to 217 and today after an UD it was only up .6 lbs., so I am very happy with this. It isn't difficult at all and my FBS was 129 yesterday ad was 136 today after the UD. That didn't bother me as I remember what the diabetic educator and dietician told me the numbers would fluctuate for a while as it comes down. I also noticed by checking the bs readings through out the day that is more even in the ranges between 108 to 116. This is just 2 days on this so I expect things to just get better and better. Plus my 1st DD was around 1000 calories. So this is not only great to me but for me because I don't feel like I am dieting. This can easily become a lifestyle for me.

I'm off to get ready to meet the new doctor soon.

We had a great visit with the new doctor. He is friends with our previous new doctor. They did their internship together in Houston. He is very good.

I told him about my new diet JUDDD. He had not ever heard of it. I kind of got his approval because I told him I use MFP to count calories and they won't accept less than 1000 calories a day so I was doing 1000 calories on DD and 1800 calories on UD. He and his PA student commented that they thought 1000 calories was pretty low when I told him the diet called for lower calories on DD. I told him I chose to do 1000 because of me taking Trulicity. So he didn't say no. I told him how often I checked my blood sugar while getting on this diet plan and how good the readings were throughout the day. He said, "Save your money. You don't have to check you blood sugar all the time. I'll do a A1c every 3 months and I like for it to be under 7 and yours is 5.8."

He decided not to put me on a statin because my last blood work showed that my cholesterol numbers were good. He didn't mention the triglycerides. He said we would wait on that when I told him the Lipitor made me depressed, irritable and raised my blood sugar. He said he would keep an eye on it and if I had to go on one that he would put me on Crestor. It is a different kind of statin. He sent orders for me to have a mammogram, colonoscopy and see an eye doctor. I believe he will be a great doctor.

He had an x-ray done of DH back and wants him to see a pain management doctor. DH isn't sure he wants to do that. However, I think that is because he had a bad experience with the one he had in S.C. I am going to try to talk him into doing it. He took him off of Warfarin and put him on Xarelto so he doesn't have to go to all those appointments and get his fingers pricked. I was concerned for how they would know if he had a bleed, but he explained how DH would know. Also he said if he ever has an injury to his head he should get to the ER immediately to be checked out even if he feels okay just to be sure that he doesn't have a bleed. So we agreed for him to switch to it. He wants to work at DH getting on less meds if he can. He told me that if I keep doing as well as I am with my blood sugar that I might be able to come of the Trulicity in time. I told him that is my goal to get off the meds that I can.

I told him that the medicine that DH started last month for Triglycerides was very expensive. So he said that we could stop it if we want to and DH can take Fish Oil instead. We may do that when it comes time to order it again. He said that fish oil will do the same thing as that medicine although not as well. I figure with DH and me eating at home more than we were when we met the previous doctor, that the fish oil will work as it did before. Over all the 1st meeting with out doctor went very well.
Todays calories are going to be way under 1000. In fact, it probably won't even be 800.

I'll catch y'all tomorrow.

Trish, I didn't realize you weren't supposed to weigh on JUDDD. I was weighing before. I haven't weighed since I messed up and have been working toward getting back on plan. I got on the scale this morning and was pleasantly surprised to be back down to 201. I was shocked! I think that is because although I have not been able to get back to 500 cal DDs I am trying so hard to do it, and therefore I'm eating a lot less.

I don't know what happened to my stats.

Today on the news they showed a woman who's Fitbit exploded. She had a horrible looking black burn on her arm. I sure hope that doesn't happen to me. I love my Fitbit.

Wow Carol Sue, I have to wonder what would make a fit bit explode?
I guess if the battery had a problem and leaked it could happen, but seems very odd.
Today will be the Down Day for me. I will take a smoothie with me when I go to work and will have a quiet day.
I am not sleeping well and feel crummy as a result. I had a colleague do some blood work on me last week and its all fine, so doesn't seem to be a basis for how I feel other than lack of sleep.

I hope we all do well with our down days and can kick start some good weight loss again.

I am wondering what made the Fitbit explode. I think eventually they will find the reason. It was probably something to do with the battery. I don't have the type of Fitbit that she had, but I don't know if that makes a difference. It was a Flex 2.

Sometimes I have trouble sleeping well, like last night, and other times I sleep very well. I don't know what makes the difference. If I take Tylenol at bedtime I sleep much better, but I don't like to take it every day. I only do that if I haven't slept well for consecutive days and really need some good sleep. It just seems to relax me. I don't like to take anything that makes me feel drugged.