In January, Dennis Pollock of the “Beat Diabetes” YouTube channel, announced he was going to solicit participants for a 6-month challenge to eat what he recommends for a low-carb diet which includes intermittent fasting with two meals a day and no snacks. It was to begin in February 2022 and go through July 2022. To participate, we were supposed to send email to grace@spiritofgrace.org and then we were supposed to get an email giving details about the 6-month challenge. I sent the email from my hegarty.com email account but I never received anything. (And, yes, I’ve been checking the Spam folder, too!)
February
It occurred to me that the reason I never received any email from Dennis Pollock is because my hegarty.com email address did not send email to him! So I emailed him from my comcast.net email account and explained the situation. Voila! I got the 6-month Challenge emails with the information: menus, links to YouTube videos, and a link to “Crush Diabetes” on Rumble (another video platform). So I’m just challenging myself to intermittent fasting for the month of February. (One month at a time, right?) I’m also back to my food journal in MyFitnessPal, trying to limit myself to the 20 grams total carbs as recommended by Dr. Eric Westman. I did not fast the first weekend in February (like I did in January) because of needing to be available to take care of Linda and Emily, especially in the first weeks of Linda’s surgery recovery…..
March 2-April 14 (Lent)
Now, this year, I really want to do a carnivore diet for Lent! I started to do it in 2020 but then the pandemic hit so that distracted me. I want to keep doing intermittent fasting, but add the weekend fasts (84 hours) and carnivore for Lent. The only plant-based foods/beverages I will consume are coffee and unsweetened chocolate almond milk (to take my pills with). The main thing that I will give up during Lent is chocolate. And that will be a real challenge! What I can eat includes:
- Bacon (pork, beef, or turkey fried in butter)
- Eggs, pasture-raised (any style, any amount)
- Butter
- Heavy cream
- Fried pork rinds
- Cream cheese
- Cottage cheese
- Sugar-free Snack Pack gelatin
- Cheese snacks (mozzarella sticks, gouda sticks, colby jack cheese sticks, Babybel cheeses)
- Puffed cheese (per recipe)
- Chaffles (egg and cheese)
- Cream cheese pancakes (cream cheese and eggs)
- Salmon, wild-caught
- Hamburger, grass-fed
- Chicken, pasture-raised
- Sour cream
- Bone broth with butter and onion salt
Weekend Fasting
If all goes well, I want to schedule an 84-hour fast the first weekend in March (March 3-7) and April (March 31-April 4). The fast will start after supper on Thursday and go until breakfast/brunch on Monday. I call it a “modified fast” since I will continue to drink coffee with heavy cream and unsweetened chocolate almond milk twice a day to take my handful of “pills” (mostly supplements). If my blood sugar goes too low (under 67 mg/dL), I will have 1 cup of bone broth with onion salt (no butter).
Walking
I will make every effort to resume my daily walks with Emily to the duck pond and back. As weather permits.
Sleep
My goal is to be in bed by midnight, meaning I will have to start “getting ready” by 11 p.m. That means, check my blood glucose, get a fresh bottle of water, and take Emily to her pee pad. I should quite naturally wake up around 8:30 a.m. We’ll see how that goes!
