Healthy 2018 Challenge and Contest

Being new here to Steemit many of you don't know me yet. I'm a fairly big guy at 6'5" tall weighing in at 350 pounds. I'm a programmer by trade and have been 'riding a desk' so to speak for the majority of my working life. The years of sedentary life have certainly taken their toll on me.

A little over three years ago my wife and I decided it was time for a change and we moved from our waterfront/canal home in Bayou Vista, TX where we had a postage stamp sized yard out to our present 2 acre homestead in Santa Fe, TX. At that point in time I weighed in at 418 pounds. The goal was to get some chickens, grow some of our own food, and make a conscious effort to improve our health.

I'm not going to say we failed at that endeavor, but early last year I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. I was still hovering around 400 pounds. My doctor wanted to start me on drugs and I didn't want to have anything to do with it. It was time to get serious with the whole diet thing. After 6 months of a strict, calorie restricted, paleo diet that involved a bunch of food we were growing ourselves, I had lost maybe 15 - 20 pounds and my diabetes didn't improve one bit. I started feeling like I had in fact failed.

Thank goodness for the Internet where I discovered Dr. Jason Fung and his book The Obesity Code. This gentleman is a REAL doctor, a nephrologist in fact, with REAL patients. In his book he goes through the top peer reviewed medical research and shows that the standard advice from doctors of diet and exercise has a 95% failure rate. Yes, you read that right. 95% failure rate! I didn't fail, the medical community failed. Oh, and the research shows that exercise contributes less than 25% to weight loss, not that I exercised much anyway. I get pretty worn out working around the homestead.

So what was Dr. Fung's solution? Intermittent fasting. Now before you go knocking it I can testify that it works. I started skipping breakfast and eating two meals per day with no snacks somewhere between the hours of noon and 8:00 pm. For the most part I ate healthy, paleo style meals. No dieting. After all, diets don't work according to the medical research. I really didn't think of this as fasting. More like delaying breakfast until noon. After 2-1/2 weeks my morning 'fasting' blood sugar levels had returned to normal. Unfortunately I wasn't loosing any weight.

The next step for me was to start fasting for longer periods. I started eating every other day, and that's the pattern I'm in right now. At my last doctor's visit my A1c level had returned to normal, and I had dropped nearly 60 pounds. My diabetes was gone! I finally found a solution that worked for me.

So what are my goals for a healthy 2018? Well, I think I'll start with the following:

• Keep intermittent fasting. No dieting. Diets don't work.
• No exercise. Lord knows I get plenty of exercise with all the projects around the homestead.
• Grow more and eat more of my own food.
• Raise some meat chickens, quail, and/or rabbit to improve the quality of my protein intake.
• Do at least two 7-10 day long fasts within the next year.

The first two on the list are no brainers. They are what I've been doing, and what led to the reversal of my diabetes. My plan is to keep doing them because they work.

The next two are things I hope to do this year. I'm working on improving a large area in the back pasture and converting it to a Back to Eden garden. I also have my chickens working for me improving different areas of the pasture and adding some nitrogen rich fertilizer. I'd like to raise some meat chickens, qual, and/or rabbit, and I think I have finally convinced my wife of the idea. She's worried about getting attached to the animals. I've assured her that I'd be the one doing all the processing.

The last one is the big one. I still have an adversarial relationship with food. I've heard of people fasting for long periods of time for religious reasons, etc. My goal is to fast long enough to reset my relationship with food. I hope a long term fast will help me to break it's hold over me.

Well, that's it. It's not a big list per se, but I can foresee some challenges in there. I'm hoping that with the support of my family and friends I'll gain some ground and reverse the ill effects on my health riding a desk has had on me all these years.