Mastering Diabetes: What I have learned - Part 1

As I read Mastering Diabetes (MD) by Cyrus Khambatta and Robby Barbaro and watching their Mastering Diabetes channel on YouTube I've been learning more and more about diabetes. I think the first thing I learned is that there isn't just type 1 or type 2. There is Pre-Diabetes, Type 1, Type 1.5, Type 2 and Gestational diabetes. Each of these require different approaches to the treatment plan.

Hara Hachi Bu 腹八分

Hara Hachi Bu (腹八分) is a Japanese proverb or saying that means eat until you are 80% full. In the Okinawa Program, they identified this as an Okinawan Proverb and I certainly can't contest that statement as I don't actually know if its origins were Japanese or Okinawan. In the end its origin is/was irrelevant but the fact that I read about it again recently in the Okinawa Program is helping me define one of my goals for this year. I am adding the practice of Hara Hachi Bu to my daily routine.

Last Breakfast of 2020

Last day of 2020, and I had a fine breakfast! I toasted a banana muffin, had my almost daily savory oats and something new I fashioned up. I had some granola hanging out in the cupboard so I poured some in a bowl. I added raspbeerry pudding in place of yogurt from the Engine 2 Cookbook and topped it off with some blueberries.

This coffee isn't really coffee but Teccino Dark Roast Chicory Root "Coffee". It is close enough to real coffee that I don't really need coffee anymore. One of my goals last year, unspoken though it was, was to wean myself off of caffeine partiularly in the form of coffee. But i really like coffee, dark and black. Even Decaf has caffeine in it so I really wanted to get off caffeine. This helped me do that. It is close enough to a dark roast coffee that I was able to convince myself it was acceptable. I actually made a pot of "coffee that 1/4th was regular dark roast coffee and the rest this and I could tell almost right away the effect of caffeine on my system. I did it again yesterday and decided I don't really like the effect even though it does provide you with some focus. I decided that other than really necessary scenarios I will not be drinking coffee and even so if I want to have some caffeine I intend to get it from green tea not coffee.

Intermittent Fasting - Gonna give it a try

So I am going to give intermittent fasting a try. I don't really like the name or the fad but the practice of it seems to make sense for me right now. As you know fro my last post, I am slowing pulling together what I want my goals to be for this next year. I have already begun the process of starting the transition to getting up earlier again as I've fallen back to my night owl ways. In fact, I got up at 5am today, yay for me. Getting up to do my Morning Sadhana consistently will take time and I should be getting into the swing of it as it begins to get lighter in the mornings. However that does mean I'll need to be getting to bed earlier than I have been. This in turn impacts when I should eat dinner. So I've been thinking about that.

What I'm Reading: The Okinawa Program

I finished Your Survival Instinct is Killing You the other day so it is time to pick up a new book. I have decided to re-read The Okinawa Program. It is a book I read almost two decades ago while I still lived in Okinawa. The Okinawa Program is a book that presents the results of a 25 year study conducted by a Ryukyu University professor conducted in to the longevity of Okinawans. With this English language book revealing the results of that story, Dr. Suzuki collaborates with twin Drs. Bradley and Craig Wilcox. The foreward is by Dr. Andrew Weil.

Since I have read this before I pretty much know what is in it but I hope to take it slow so and take detailed notes so that I can start to weave a story that ties together this book, The China Study by Colin Campbell, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Caldwell Esselstyn, How Not To Die by Dr. Greger, etc. from all of the doctors I have met since switching to a whole food, plant based lifestyle in 2014. I hope to take the eCornell Plant Based Certificate program so that I get a really good grounding in the science of a whole food, plant-based lifestyle.