I don’t know how they do it. I do know the ZenoBar’s co-founders Russell Long and Susan Papuga were kind enough to send me a sample of their bar in three flavors: Cocoa Hemp, Almond Hemp and Strawberry Hemp. I’ve only tasted the Cocoa Hemp bar so far.

I gave the Strawberry one to a friend who also has type 1 diabetes and blew in from Kansas City last week to attend the UN conference on non-communicable diseases. Outside of the boozy receptions, and the dinner I made her, I think she was only living on bars.

Me, I don’t really do bars. My life is not that unpredictable and I prefer eating food. But I came home late last night from Connecticut and it was 8:45 PM before I rustled up a salad for dinner, so I ate a third of the Cocoa Hemp bar.

It was good. Moist, chewy, richly flavorful. And, it appears to be true: it barely, if at all, nudged my blood sugar up. On the label the Cocoa Hemp bar says 25 grams of carb with 10 grams of dietary fiber.

Susan and Russell say there’s only 2-4 net carbs in a bar. Truly low glycemic, you won’t ride the “roller-coaster” of up and down blood sugar, you’ll enjoy stable energy and lovely ingredients like almonds and hazelnuts, chia, flax and hemp seeds, cocoa and or organic fruit and the sweetness comes from allulose, a sugar found in figs and corn.

Check out their web site. It’s fun, colorful and you’ll meet these lovely inventors and likely learn something.

Remaining bar reflects slightly less than half. The husband stole a bite.

It’s mid-afternoon of day 4. I finished my fast last night.

I lost 4 pounds, that feels great, but I’m sure they’re racing back to me today as I re-introduce food. My blood sugar is still hovering low as it did during the fast, and I’m really sleepy. I think my body’s return to eating and digesting is taking a lot of energy.

Yesterday, day 3 of this bone broth, leafy greens and water fast, I was full of energy and not hungry. The only time I was hungry was immediately after I posted (my last post) about days 1 and 2 and said I hadn’t experienced any hunger!!! The hunger lasted from 4 PM to 9 PM when I dissolved it with a cup of decaf coffee with half & half.

Yesterday, all day I felt light, clear; like a younger version of my now Medicare self. I had an appointment with my ayurveda practitioner in NJ. I went with a friend. Afterward, we stopped at a diner on the road as she (we) hadn’t eaten lunch. I bolstered myself to be in a place with food and food aromas. It wasn’t necessary.

She ordered a spinach omelette and I ordered a cup of coffee. As the waitress put down my friend’s platter with egg, potatoes and toast, my eyes grew bigger, but still I wasn’t hungry. I did however reach over to pluck a piece of spinach out of her omelette. That’s when I thought hmmm…spinach is a leafy green, so I called the waitress back over and asked if they could make me a side of sautéed spinach. Sure enough, they could, and that and my coffee thoroughly satisfied me.

When I got home at 5 PM I made keto rolls. The husband can’t get enough of them and now friends I’ve shared them with say the same. Everyone I know broke their fast last night with whitefish, smoked salmon and rugelach (Yom Kippur). We broke our fast at 7 PM with the keto bread and what we usually eat for lunch – a vegetable soup that’s chock full of vegetables and aruvedic spices – cumin, coriander, fennel, digestive masala, turmeric, Indian sarsaparilla, ghee, salt and lime – they release toxins from the body.

Reaching for my Humalog before the meal it was other-worldly. I actually had to think again about my injection process and how much insulin to take. It’s amazing how quickly I forgot. The husband finished the meal with a piece of chocolate. For me, my second course was my I’d-take-this-with-me-to-a-desert-island-if-I-could-only-take-two-foods yogurt and almond butter.

At 11 PM my blood sugar was low, darn, so I ate a prune before going to sleep. I woke up at 69 mg/dl. I think I’m learning when you change something like this, the body takes some time to readjust.

Now day 4 I’m reflecting. I’m really glad I did a 3-day fast. I saw what it was, how it felt and if there’s a health benefit it’s nice to think I reaped it. I don’t, however, feel the need to do it again as I said at the end of day 2. Partly because my ayurveda practitioner said depriving the body of food heats the liver and most of our livers, including mine, is already too hot from years of ingesting things like vegetable oils, baked goods and refined carbs.

So, I expect to continue doing intermittent fasting a few days a week, and maybe a 24 hour fast every few months. All in all it was a great experience, even just to be able to say “I did it!.”

I know many people would like to try a fast but fear it will be too hard, how could they possibly not eat for a day much less three. I was one of those people. But it wasn’t hard. If you try it, you’ll know that.

I also really enjoyed discovering that I have more control over my hunger than I ever thought possible, and that is a really good thing. So when that voice comes, “eat, eat something now,” and half the time it comes out of boredom or habit, I have the choice to say, “thanks but no thanks,” and let it go to find someone else to mess with.

Vegetable soup and keto bread with ghee

The dynamic duo

I didn’t write about day 1, yesterday. But if you read me, you’ll know I’ve been doing a bit of intermittent fasting lately. About three days a week I don’t eat after dinner around 8 PM until lunch the next day at around 1 PM. I remarkably don’t find it hard to do, which I thought for sure I would. I thought I’d be ravenous skipping a late night snack, and since I like breakfast and wake up hungry, I thought no brekkie would be horrible.

Yet, here’s the truth. When you know there’s a rule to follow it’s much easier: I set my mind to the rule – no late night snacking and no food until lunch. I have a cup of coffee for breakfast either with a tbs of coconut oil or a bit of half & half. Amazingly, my morning craving for breakfast basically subsided. I did miss though the foods I had had for breakfast – Brown Cow whole milk plain yogurt, some berries and tahini or almond butter so some days I get it in during my eating window (lunch through 8 PM) for a snack. This is so much easier than a diet where you have to count calories, where you’re hungry all the time and mucking up your metabolism.

I have come to realize a few things, for me, as it may be different for you. Much of eating is a habit. Automatic, thoughtless. Since we eat every few hours our bodies are primed for the next meal. When you break the habit, your body sort of resets. And without blood sugar going up and down, your appetite falls away.

My intermittent fasting, about 3 days in a row out of a week, was going really good, so I decided to do a 3-day fast. Why? Two reasons: 1) as an experiment to see if I could do it, how I would feel, what I would notice? 2) buying into the idea that something called autophagy is happening, – your body switches over from burning glucose to burning fat, drawing energy from your stored fat as ketones, gobbling up damaged, junky cells and replenishing with healthier cells – I expect there are real health benefits.

I imagine I can’t really know if autophagy is happening without testing my ketone level, but from all I’ve read, I trust that it is. If you are concerned about ketones as in type 1 diabetic ketoacidosis, while they are the same ketones, you are not in danger of ketoacidosis. Your body is burning the ketones differently.

If you are thinking of doing this, many experts say work your way up to a 3-day fast. I have been on a low carb, high healthy fat diet for probably a decade. I was doing intermittent fasting for about two months, so I consider I had my warm up period. I’d also say do it with someone. The husband decided to do it with me which makes it sooo much easier. We know what the other is going through, and there’s almost no cooking or eating going on in this house to make the fasting person crazy. Even though I’m not hungry, I think the smells of food would start hunger hormones to activate and could be nearly impossible to resist.

I am also doing this fast with two type 1 friends, Karen and Denise, and I cannot tell you how much fun that is. We are emailing every few hours to check in, share feelings, what we’re doing, and I notice how we have all had lows fasting. We are all checking our continuous glucose monitors, which I would consider almost a necessity to do this, and we are smart cookies (sorry, guess my mind is food-rummaging) so we are being cautious.

We are all following the same basic eating plan. Bone broth at meals, Karen Rose Tank of course made her own from scratch. I bought the Culinary Treasures brand from Costco which Ginger Vieira, who was my first mate on this fasting adventure, recommended. At my house we grind up leafy greens like kale, arugula, spinach in a tiny food processor and put that in our soup. We add some of our ayurveda spices like cumin, coriander, fennel, masala, tumeric. I add salt and pepper and a drop of apple cider vinegar. Sometimes a dash of lemon or lime.

When we finish our “meal” we look at each other, “Delicious!” Either we’ve gone mad and haven’t noticed, or this brew we’ve concocted is really pretty good. Other than bone broth for lunch and dinner, we are drinking plenty of water. I have my morning coffee  and either late afternoon or evening I’ll have a cup of tea with half & half or decaf coffee with half & half. The husband has even relinquished his Starbuck’s cappuccino for plain coffee with a dash of half & half.

All that we’re eating is on the plan outlined by fasting doctor advocate, Dr. Jason Fung. Fung is a kidney specialist with a majority of patients with type 2 diabetes. In his practice he wondered why the typical diabetic meal plan had so many carbs on it and in return led patients to go on insulin and keep upping it. So he started putting his patients on intermittent fasting and longer supervised fasting protocols and saw that his patients were losing weight they hadn’t been able to lose before, reducing their insulin and getting off some of their meds. His two well-known books are The Obesity Code and The  Complete Guide to Fasting. 

So, what have I noticed? Again, even day 2 of this 3 day fast has not been hard. I’m now 41 hours in. My stomach has rumbled once this morning but that’s about it. I’m not hungry, although today I do notice I feel empty. I miss the ritual of food more than eating it: thinking about what I’ll eat, preparing a meal, sitting down to it with the husband for nourishment and conversation. I am not having food dreams, either waking or sleeping. I even realized this morning I haven’t thought of a glass of wine, it’s completely disappeared from my radar. My energy seems pretty similar to any other day. I haven’t experienced any of the symptoms of “keto flu” – lightheaded, headachy, nausea, cranky…I feel closer to my bones, have shed 4 pounds, and am at a weight I haven’t seen since I was probably 14. I’m also surprisingly clear and sharp on business calls.

As for titrating my meds being on MDI, I reduced my long-acting Tresiba by 1 unit two days before the fast, and today dropped it 1 more unit. So from 7 originally to 5 today. I take 2/3rds or 1 unit in the morning of my short-acting Humalog just for the Dawn Effect rise of my blood sugar. I don’t take any more short acting than that for the day. I am staying consistently level, trending toward low and here and there I have to raise my blood sugar which I’m doing with a teaspoon of honey. Am I breaking the fast? Maybe, but we’ve all had to treat lows and in my book, diabetes comes before fasting and it is what it is.

What else? 1) You can exercise while doing this. I’ve kept up my walking. 2) Don’t tell your friends who don’t understand. They’ll bring you down. 3) Schedule it for when you have no big plans, work or social. And 4) It helps to keep yourself busy and distracted. Beside working, I’ve been watching a slew of fountain pen videos and plan to watch clips from last night’s Emmy Award show tonight.

My parting words: do a lot of reading before you jump in. Start with a short fast, 8, 16 or 24 hours, to have a try. If you decide to do a few days fast, talk to your doctor if you’re on meds and/or friends who’ve done it. It’s getting so popular, I wouldn’t be surprised if one person within your spitting distance has done a fast. But not a juice fast where you’re taking in lots of sugar from juices, but a water and bone broth fast.

Funny, I’m much more a ‘classics’ girl than ‘trendy’ but I think this fasting is the real deal. This morning the husband said, “Let’s do this more often than we have.” I said, “Since we’ve never done it before that won’t be hard.” I imagine once or twice a year might just make it onto the calendar now. The fact that I’m ending my fast tomorrow night when everyone observing Yom Kippur will be ending their 24 hour fast is kinda funny and pure coincidence.

I heard the refrain from a Classic 1970’s Peter Allen/Carole Bayer song when my friend Alyssa called me last week,

Don’t throw the past away

You might need it some rainy day

Dreams can come true again

When everything old is new again

Because Alyssa, who’s had type 1 diabetes since the age of 10, and been on an insulin pump for the great majority of years, is wondering about switching to MDI (multiple daily injections). The “poor man’s pump” I was told years ago.

I have never used an insulin pump. People are always surprised, I’ve had type 1 46 years, I’m intelligent enough, super responsible, but MDI works for me. I’m accustomed to shots, I feel like I have control taking shots, my syringe won’t get occluded, and I don’t enjoy the idea of being tethered either through a foot or two of plastic tubing or just the weight of an Omnipod on me.

Alyssa’s query whether she should come off the pump and start MDI was a challenging consideration for her. She’s more or less run out of real estate on her slim body, and now, being so muscular from her latest hobby, acrobatics, the infusion sets, in her words, “… pop off and won’t go in,” and the whole device is in the way. Yet, she knows diabetes management from a pumper’s perspective.

So she came to me, the old hand using the old delivery system. Of course, for people who take a step “backward”, or take pump vacations as so many do, it’s not just re-learning injection techniques, it’s learning how to do the mental math a pump does for you every time you dose. It’s calculating carb ratios, carbs in food to consume and insulin on board.

I don’t really count carbs. Being on a low carb diet, most meals require about 1 unit of rapid acting insulin or a bit less, so I just eyeball food. Ah, that needs a half unit, that a quarter. And, since there’s so little rapid acting insulin in my body at any one time, I don’t give much thought to insulin on board. Talking with Alyssa I realized how we live in two different diabetes worlds.

Alyssa will make her choice. I think it’s a good thing if you pump to also have the dexterity to switch between pumping and injections. And she helped me realize just because something’s old, MDI, it doesn’t mean it’s any less or inferior. It’s all about what works for you and what you’re willing to sacrifice and gain.

Now of course I’m thinking this acrobatics looks pretty cool…hmmm…and I wouldn’t have to worry about my insulin pump.

This is one of my primary care physician’s exam rooms. The one I found myself in a week ago, just for an annual check-up. Ignore the book, that was mine. Notice the set up.

The nurse came in to take my weight and blood pressure. Then she sat in that chair with her back to me to take me a zillion questions to fill out a form on that computer.

I had difficulty hearing her, as she was talking to the computer screen. There was no connection between us as she hardly looked at me. Only when I asked her to repeat the question because I couldn’t hear her and then she had to turn around.

How does this make patients feel? I talk when I share the Flourishing Approach with health professionals about the importance of creating connection. It’s really hampered here based on the environment.

An office visit isn’t just about getting looked at and getting a script. It’s also about getting LOOKED at, seeing one another, connecting, collaborating, and feeling like you’ve got a partner there.

My doctor, bless his heart, when sitting in that chair, has me sit in the chair aside the computer. He never has his back to me. I think he knows instinctively the importance of seeing his patients and having them see him. But I can’t tell you how many nurses, physician assistants and lab technicians who never face the patient.

I already told my doctor I could redesign the office for him. He smiled wearily and revealed how much has to be fixed today in healthcare.

Pre-cut Biscotti on left, Keto rolls on right. Both made from almond meal.

Really, how did I survive before almond meal? First, let me clear up that it’s not the same as almond flour, but pretty darn close. They’re both finely ground almonds. Almond meal tends to be slightly courser while almond flour is finer and is made from blanched almonds, meaning the skin has been removed. But for recipes that call for almond flour you can substitute almond meal. And I do, it’s cheaper and I like the really nutty flavor. I buy it at Trader Joe.

I’ve probably posted almond meal recipes before, but now it’s like we can’t get enough of it here in this house. Ever since I started making this Keto bread, the husband has put in an order for another six rolls almost every other day. That, from a man who grew up in the Netherlands which he never fails to tell me is, “bread country.”

And then there’s the almond meal pizette, (below) which substitutes for an incredible pizza and a quick meal when we get home late from somewhere, or I’ve just run out of ideas for dinner. Or I make it as a starter and it’s so satisfying and filling, the main gets put away.

The defining touches on this pizza crust are slathering artichoke antipasto (also from Trader Joe) and just a bit of cheese, your choice, on it after you bake it the first time and before it’s second bake. And when it’s completely done, top it with pesto, which I make myself these days, thank you, or fresh arugula. We also like some chili flakes on top.

In my formative, fatter years, teens, twenties, thirties, if you told me I would have to give up my scones, croissants and corn muffins I would have cried and then cried some more. Big, salty tears.

Now, granted if I’m in France, I will during the trip have a croissant. If I”m in the U.K., I will have a scone. And I will enjoy the heck out of them. But here at home, nada, never.

I am so content with living in a world of almonds the thought never crosses my mind. Now keto bread with almond butter? To die for, or actually just the opposite. This stuff barely nudges the blood sugar. In fact, I’m more likely to overshoot for it, a lesson in the making, or should I say baking?

Here are three more recipes worth biting into – almond meal biscotti, the flax muffin you make in a mug and life-changing bread.

They’ve all changed my life and made it oh, so delicious.

For the past few weeks I’ve been doing intermittent fasting on and off – not eating from around 8 PM to lunch the next day. I do it for two or three days then go back to having breakfast. I’ve been doing it just to see if I notice any positive results. I wrote about the benefits of fasting a few posts ago.

As for positive results of intermittent fasting, I will say I’ve lost two pounds, and I realize it’s not a big deal to skip a meal. But in addition to the two pounds I’ve lost, I’ve had a huge “aha.” Even when I fast in the morning, I’ve been watching my blood sugar rise like mad. As much as 40 points.

I always thought my morning cup of coffee raised my blood sugar (even though I know coffee doesn’t do this any other time of day) and that I needed 1 unit to cover the coffee. But, in actuality, it’s not the coffee that’s raising my morning blood sugar, but the strong effects of the Dawn Phenomenon.

The Dawn Phenomenon is the liver spilling glucose into your blood stream in the early morning hours to get you ready for activity. When I was having my coffee and eating breakfast first thing upon rising, I calculated I needed an extra unit for the caffeine from my coffee, but in actuality, that unit was a corrective dose for my liver spilling glucose into my blood stream.

Not eating til noon or 1 PM, I find I have to take 1.5 units of Humalog when I wake up to cover my liver’s sugar-slide, even when I take my 9 AM hour walk. Even when I take my walk to my yoga class and then walk back.

I’ve always said if I used an insulin pump I’d have more elegant control, and for sure, this is one of those areas I could better manage with a pump. But, ah, well…

This is the face of Companion Medical’s InPen’s app. A couple of weeks ago I was given the InPen to try out. The InPen holds rapid acting insulin, a Humalog or Novolog cartridge, and has multi-functions that help you keep track of your dosing. It works through an app on your smartphone bringing some of the functions of an insulin pump to MDI (multiple daily injections) users.

In addition to providing you the comfort of whether you took your shot, it stores records of your blood sugars for your doctor and family members that you can transfer wirelessly. If you wear a Dexcom CGM, you can see your numbers on the app but they’re on a three hour delay. The company is working on that. But they are stored in the app and get sent to your HCP as part of the records.

The pen also has a built in dose calculator based on the carbs you’re planning to eat, tells you how much insulin you still have onboard and you can set alerts and reminders. Plus the InPen delivers half units.

The shiny blue pen in the foreground is the InPen. In the background is my Tresiba long acting insulin pen. Actually both pens are the same size, it’s an optical illusion that they seem different sizes. My Tresiba pen is sporting its Timesulin cap, a simple counter that lets me know whether or not I took my dose. I find it invaluable, thus, the reason I wanted to try the InPen.

So, is it worth it? Well, it’s funny because I was asking myself the same question when I learned that it kind of is. A few days ago I was in a hotel breakfast dining room and I was so busy enjoying the buffet, and clearly out of my routine, that after I finished breakfast I couldn’t remember whether or not I’d taken my shot.

A wave of anxiety blanketed me and then I thought – check my InPen. I looked at the app and sure enough saw that I had not taken my dose. Whosh! I took out my InPen, took my insulin and the fear was forgotten.

The InPen is not inexpensive. It costs $799 but many insurance policies cover it. You can check whether your insurance covers the pen here. If your insurance covers it, it’s a no brainer to try it out. If not, Companion Medical offers a $250 off coupon bringing the price down to $549.

As someone who uses very small doses of insulin – .5, 1-2 units due to my low carb diet, I hate to waste two units of insulin priming the pen. I often withdraw my insulin with a syringe (don’t tell) and then log my doses manually.

The InPen lasts one year and requires no charging. It’s a very cool looking pen that comes in blue, pink and grey.  Now that I’ve got two insulin pens, and they’re both blue, I separate them on my kitchen counter in separate mugs so I don’t mix them up. I’ve done that once before years ago and hope to never repeat the experience.

Disclaimer – I was given my InPen by Companion Medical.

I’ve read about this for years and buy it. Yet the traditional thinking is so ingrained – to lose weight we must eat less and exercise more. Even doctors have bought the Kool Aid. It just ain’t so. Our bodies aren’t designed that way.

Simply, when you take in less calories, your body’s metabolism slows to match the loss. And exercise, while healthy for us, does not impact weight loss unless you’re spending more than two hours a day at the gym vigorously sweating.

Our hormonal system, working in concert with our metabolism, is primed to keep our body at our set weight. It is higher for some than others. Why? I’ve not read that far in Dr. Fung’s book yet. But unequivocally, The Obesity Code, explains why the conventional motto of “eat less, move more” doesn’t work and why insulin is the prime culprit.

Take almost anyone with type 2 diabetes who’s been put on insulin and you’ll find their weight goes up. Yet we ignore it and still tell people to lose weight and it’s their fault if they’re not. So, the prime remedy for lowering blood sugar is insulin, yet insulin is a fat storage hormone. If you’re insulin resistant you’ll have higher than normal levels of insulin circulating in your blood stream. What’s it doing? Beside lowering your blood sugar it’s storing your unburned carbohydrates as fat.

The solution I know of is to eat a low carbohydrate diet which requires less insulin. Less insulin, less insulin resistance and less fat storage. But I’m sure I’ll learn more before I finish the book. Just a snippet, page 86:

Dr. Fung’s last chapter is about his strategy that’s helped his patients overcome insulin resistance: fasting. Periods of not eating let insulin and insulin resistance decrease, and of course it cuts calories. But if there’s one theme throughout this book it’s this: calories don’t make us fat and cause chronic illness, insulin resistance does. I agree.