Tag Archives: gut health

Intermittent Fasting

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It’s been awhile, I know….and I’ve had sooooo many topics I’ve wanted to write about. But the end of the year chaos as a middle school therapist is real….my energy was pulled in several different directions and I did not find the time to write. So there will most likely be several blog entries today. 🙂

As you all know from a previous blog post, I gave up artificial sweeteners in February. That is still very much in effect!!! There have been 2 times where a Diet Pepsi has sounded really good, but I just remembered how good my hip joints felt after giving up diet soda, so it has been fairly easy to avoid. It does feel a little strange when we travel to powwows now and we get snacks or drinks at a gas station. Since not all gas stations sell a LaCroix type of carbonated water, I find myself wandering the aisles before getting a bottle of plain water. It’s not bad though. The reduced inflammation in my hip and successful pain management is worth it.

Since giving up artificial sweeteners worked out so well, I decided on March 1 to give Intermittent Fasting (IF) a whirl. I became interested in it when I read a blog post on the KU Medical Center website about the benefits of IF. Intermittent Fasting is giving your body a temporary break from eating. Your body gets a break from the insulin response that occurs every time you eat something with calories, specifically carbohydrates. When I taught Diabetes and the Native Americans at Haskell, we went through what “insulin response” is, and which nutrients triggered a strong or mild response. Carbohydrates trigger a strong insulin response, protein a mild response depending on the amount you eat, and fat almost no response.

“When insulin blood sugar (from eating frequent meals or snacks, eg. every 90 minutes) dominates other hormones, proper gene expressions for longevity, healing and recovery won’t occur very much or very well. A temporary break from eating can give those healing hormones time to do their job. It’s actually very anti-inflammatory and can be corrective to hormone and metabolic issues, just to stop the food. It’s counter to everything we have been taught” (Randy Evans quote, KUMC Integrative Medicine Blog).

Hearing “anti-inflammatory” and “gut healing” was what really caught my attention. And IF as defined in the article I read wasn’t about extended fasts, it was about spacing out your meals and eating on a schedule. And the blog article talked about how traditionally, we used to have to fast at least overnight because we did not have access to food 24/7 like we do now. Grocery stores were not open 24 hours, nor were restaurants or fast food places, and convenience stores didn’t sell cooked food as they do now. When you stop eating at 6pm and don’t eat again until breakfast the next day, that is a 12-hour fast. Intermittent Fasting is not a new thing….it’s an old thing that the medical field is now realizing as beneficial.

I decided to try a 16:8 fast, where I stop eating around 8pm, then I don’t eat again until noon the next day. That gives me a 16 hour break from food, and then I have an 8-hour window to get my calories in for the day. What it meant for me was skipping breakfast, drinking my black coffee or green tea, and water until noon. It was not hard for me to do this. I read several articles and ordered books from Dr. Jason Fung and Dr. Eric Berg. It is suggested to put coconut oil in your coffee if you struggle with hunger pangs until lunch. The fat in the coconut oil will give a sense of satiety without generating an insulin response. I do this sometimes, I find that after a couple cups of coffee I don’t feel hungry anyway.

I also discovered that how I start my fast and how I break my fast are very important to how I feel doing IF. I break my fast with a low-carb lunch. I have been posting pictures of my lunches on my Wozani Waste’ Instagram blog page. That keeps my energy consistent after my  lunch and doesn’t create a strong insulin response. I continued to drink my kombucha for the gut healing properties. Sometimes I break my fast with a cup of homemade bone broth, sometimes I break my fast with 2 scoops of collagen protein powder mixed with unsweetened almond milk. The couple of times I broke my fast with a higher carb meal, my energy tanked and I didn’t feel as good I normally do coming off a 16 hour fast.

The results from Intermittent Fasting:

  1. I lost 10 pounds
  2. My hip feels GREAT!!
  3. My energy is better, no more mid-afternoon slumps
  4. I have a spring in my step
  5. It is very easy to maintain

Here are some links to the blog article and another blogger who had success with IF. I don’t think it’s an active blog, but it gives really good information and real-world experiences.

https://www.kansashealthsystem.com/InternalMedicine/integrative-medicine/blog-posts/intermittent-fasting

http://foodcanwait.com/home/my-weight-loss-journey-intermittent-fasting/

I told my friends what I was doing and they were very interested. I needed to write this a few months ago, but to be honest, I wanted to make sure it worked and that it was something I could maintain before I posted it in my blog. It works for me. Joe B started doing it too, he does a 12:12 fast. The nice thing about Intermittent Fasting is that YOU configure it to how it will work best for YOU. 16:8 works for me….I tried a 18:6 but I struggled a bit. I am so very thankful I found this information and tried it. The pain management, reducing the inflammation, has been the biggest benefit of this process.

 

Bone Broth – 1st Batch

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Ta-daaaaaa! My 1st batch of bone broth is complete. And frankly….I’m not quite sure what to think. Lol.

It’s very dark. It looks like coffee. And feels rather thick when I drink it. It has somewhat of an earthy taste to it. It’s very rich.

I used beef marrow bones and let it simmer for 70 hours. I did NOT roast the bones first, which is something I will attempt with the next batch. It did not gel when it cooled, but from what I understand it’s because I didn’t use any bones with cartilage or connective tissue. Something else I will try with my next batch. I strained with some cheesecloth so it’s not cloudy at all, but it’s so thick you can’t see through it in the jar anyway.

I was surprised how much it cooked down. I started out with a little over 6 quarts of water to 3 lbs of beef marrow bones and I think I ended up with a little over 2 quarts of broth. I didn’t know if I should dilute it, or what. So I’m drankin it straight up. Lol.

If anyone has any words of wisdom with this bone broth making process, I would love to hear it.

So now I sit here and sip….and wait for all the healing properties to kick in. Any minute now….any minute now. 😁😊

Trying My Hand At Homemade Bone Broth

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Trying my hand at making homemade bone broth. I bought 3 lbs of local beef bones yesterday at Steve’s Meat Market in DeSoto, KS. So there’s the 3 lbs of bones, onion, carrots, celery, red and green bell pepper, pink Himalayan salt and black peppercorns, sitting in a large stock pot. I let the bones soak for 30 minutes in water and 2 Tbs of organic apple cider vinegar (the kind that includes the “mother”) first. Now it’s heating up and it has to simmer for at least 24 hours. I’ve been reading about the benefits of bone broth: gut healing properties, help with inflammation, relief for the symptoms of arthritis, joint and muscle repair. It’s an excellent source of calcium and magnesium for people who don’t have access to dairy products. So THAT’S how we got our calcium back in the day!! Back when we as Native people were the healthiest people on the planet. 😊

I’ll keep you posted on how it turns out.

Gut Health and Healing From A Cellular Level

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Some of the lifestyle changes I’m in the process making are about my health, and not necessarily about losing weight. I want my body to heal and to become strong from the inside out. I want to heal at a cellular level, if that helps explain my mindset. My desire to make positive change feels that deep. I’m making changes for healing my body, my mind and my spirit.

I’m not about making huge sweeping changes and being obsessive about cutting out types of foods. Except for artificial sweetener. That’s gone for good. I am absolutely loving being without artificial sweeteners. It’s 3 weeks now since I gave it up. I continue to not have sugar cravings. When I do eat something sweet, it’s a deliberate decision. Not one based on stress or other emotions. I am finding though that I am indulging in sweets very little. It’s really nice not to feel like I’m fighting cravings all the time. That was getting so frustrating. It was like a weight hanging around my neck that I couldn’t shake. That weight is gone and so is any guilt about indulging occasionally. The cravings being gone gives me some space in my head to think about whether I really want something, and also has helped my creativity in coming up with sweet treats made from real food when I want to indulge.

I’ve also been asking questions via FB messenger of a former coworker, a dietician, about artificial sweeteners. She told me how some artificial sweeteners can change the Ph in your gut, and may kill gut bacteria. Losing gut bacteria may lead to some gut permeability and then inflammation. In my case, inflammation leads to increased hip pain, but I also learned that it’s a big risk factor for heart disease and chronic conditions like type 2 diabetes, and possibly lupus and RA.

So then I had to look up “gut permeability” and found out it’s called “leaky gut syndrome”. I’d heard of it before but had no clue what it was. What I read wasn’t fun. But it made sense to me. That’s a whole ‘nother blog post because it’s very science-y. But it made me realize how quitting artificial sweeteners is the beginning of the healing process for my gut.

I remain surprised and grateful for the huge difference I’ve felt in my hip pain since giving up artificial sweetener. And if it’s related to healing my gut, then I want more of that. I’ve began drinking kombucha since last fall, and this weekend I’m going to give bone broth a whirl. Plain Greek yogurt is always in my fridge, as well as fruits, veggies, and healthy fats like avocados and nuts.

Friends and family, you have no idea how thankful I feel to finally start feeling better. I have a spring in my step for the first time in a long time. My mood has improved. And I appreciate the taste of food so much more than before. The changes feel good. And there are more changes we’ve been making that I will write about soon. Drop a comment below if you have had similar experiences. I would love to hear your stories.