I haven't been testing recently, and I have been indulging a little.
For example, I have had the occasional apple and orange, I've pinched a couple of slices of artisan bread from herself to make a cheese toasty (thin bread, thick cheese) and had a few reasonably low carb curries on offer at M&S and Waitrose. Baked beans from time to time (half a tin at 26 grams carbohydrate).
The main culprit I think was the French and Belgian beers from Lidl. As with most Lidl things you get one chance to buy or you wait for 3 months until it comes past again. So there is a rack of lovely tempting beer and one won't do any harm, will it?
Looking it up online a 330 ml bottle of Leffe has 17 grams of carbohydrate, so sharing a 750 ml bottle won't be that bad. A full bottle is about 38.6 grams of carbohydrate. Hmmm....looking a bit more.....
So it looks as though I have probably been having around 100 grams of carbohydrate some days. Still not enough (perhaps) to take me out of fat burning but not ideal.
Anyway, 6 monthly blood test coming up and I noticed that my weight had started climbing over the last couple of weeks. It had been drifting very slowly but I hit between 12 stone 6 and 12 stone 7 when I should be below 12 stone. Hmmm....time to think about this.
Tested my fasting blood glucose and it was 9.5. Bullet resistant coffee and 2.5 hours later it was 9.6.
Off food and especially booze.
Had a very, very light lunch (visiting friends) and by evening it was back down to 5.6.
Had three small bits of cheddar for tea wrapped in 3 small slices of salami for tea.
Next morning fasting was 6.8 and 2 hours after BRC it was 7.6.
After a 4 mile walk it had come down to 5.7.
This morning my fasting BG was 5.3.
More interestingly I had also noticed that my tightest hole on my belt wouldn't buckle any more. On hole -1. So the extra weight seems to have gone straight on my waist. Tested again this morning (belt was with other trousers) and I can fit tightest hole on the belt with a bit to spare. So two days of no booze and virtually no carbohydrates has taken the pod off my waist and taken my BG down as well.
I am going to stick with it for a while to try and get down below the dreaded 12 stone again but I suspect the results from my blood test this Friday will not make happy reading.
According to Professor Roy Taylor who I met recently at a conference the aim for a healthy pancreas should be to be the same weight and waist measurement that you were at 20 (or it could be 21?). Although I can't be certain, for me (going on details up to 17 years old) that should be 11 stone 7 lbs and a trouser waist of 32". Noting that trouser waists tend to be quoted a little lower than your real waist. 34" trousers are a fit with my 35" waist. So this is still my target. Nearest I've got in weight is 11 stone 10 lbs. Noting that if I mention to friends that I need to lose a bit of weight I get the "surely not" response. I don't think I look skinny, but everyone else obviously does.
This is a cautionary tale that if you don't test at least once a month and you become complacent about your weight slowly rising then you could be in for an unpleasant shock. My readings at the beginning of March look fine.
I am still amazed, though, at the speed at which my waist came back down in size in only two days.
The test now is how long I can go with no alcohol and no treats at all. Previously I have found that one week is no problem, but as I get towards the end of week 2 I start to waver, mainly through boredom at not eating very much and not having a nice pint of bitter in the sunshine. Unexpected stress doesn't help, either, as a little drink does have a calming influence. So hope for a month of nice weather and nothing unexpected.
