HEALTHY MAKES YOU A BETTER CREATOR – Part 1  3/03/18

Menopause was a hard one for me, sort of an uncomfortable rite of passage consisting of hot flashes, insomnia, weight gain, mood swings, dryness, fatigue, etc.  As much as I had disliked my monthly periods, I almost wished for them back.  My only blessing was I didn’t go through menopause until late, age 56, but now at 63 here I was an older woman and I didn’t like it.  I was irritable, easily angered, stressed out, sluggish, and I didn’t feel well.  Almost every day I had to take an hour nap just to do my job.  Luckily I work at home and could do that.  Also, I had never had a weight problem all my life and here I was struggling with that.

I finally went to a medical doctor a couple years ago, fearing something must be wrong.  Thinking maybe my thyroid wasn’t functioning well?  He was sort of an alternative medical doctor whom I chose as I did not wish to go down the same road, get on drugs for this and that, most people encounter.  I hoped he would be open to me trying to adopt a healthier lifestyle, rather than blood pressure medicine with all the side effects.  He did a lot of medical tests and my blood pressure was border line, thyroid was a little low but not substantial.  So bottom line he didn’t really find anything after spending a couple thousand dollars. 

After that the next year, I found a good acupuncturist and oriental massage clinic that I went to pretty regularly and that helped some with the fatigue and to keep me going.

Then last year the summer of 2017 at age 64, I finally decided to address my creeping weight problem that made me look old and fat.  I found a great diet at Avocadu.com which focused on keeping your insulin low by eating low carb.  The diet doable with a few modifications (I really couldn’t do the all vegetable days)  and it has became my go to way to eat.  I did add some moderate fasting and lost about 27 pounds last year.  I still have a few extra about five pounds to lose.  The diet is a very healthy and delicious, so I don’t even feel like I’m dieting and can stay with this eating plan the rest of my life.  Of course, I will allow myself an occasional indulgence.  I will post my recap of the diet information on the blog. 

The Avocadu diet is a 21 day cycling diet which incorporates a couple days of 24 hour fasts.  I found if I ate a hearty meal with some meat the night before, I could do the 24 hour fasts fairly comfortably.  What I did more frequently and was easier to me was 12 to 18 hour fasts which includes your 8 hours of sleeping.  If your last meal the evening before is around 6:00 pm you can go until lunchtime the next day and you will have an 18 hour fast.  I read a lot about the benefits of fasting, especially Dr. Jason Jung’s research, and it is the best way to quickly deal with an insulin problem.  When your insulin gets and stays too high, your body will easily store fat and not burn it, therefore you get in a cycle of packing on weight and having no energy because your body is not burning the fat. The great thing is my energy returned after being on the diet and I am feeling so much better. I really think I was getting insulin resistance which is sort of like a pre-diabetic state, therefore the fatigue and packing on the weight.  I always do my blood work and even through my sugar was under the limit for healthy, this is my conclusion of what was going on for those years.

The great thing is when you feel better and have much more energy, you are much more creative.