Loose Change

What a bargain grandchildren are! I give them my loose change, and they give me a million dollars worth of pleasure.
— Gene Perret

When I was cleaning the old couch set last week before getting rid of it, I naturally went through the cushions. I found a scrunchie, but that was it. There was no loose change.

Remember the days when you could go through the couch cushions and come up with a significant amount of change? Is this a sign of the times (no one carries loose change in their pockets anymore), a testament to my housekeeping, or just a sign that no one used the couch set much? I wonder . . .

I had a regular doctor’s appointment recently and as has been the case for the last year or so, it was done over the phone. My doctor was on maternity leave so I had a substitute doctor. I really liked this one’s enthusiasm – I think if I’d been seeing someone like her when I was first diagnosed with type 2 diabetes it would have made a world of difference.

And no, that’s not a slight against my current doctor, but the one before her, who’s retired now (thank god!). Anyway, one of the things she was very enthusiastic about was something called “time restricted eating.” The idea is that you only eat for a set number of hours each day, in my case eight hours. So . . . if I eat supper at 6 p.m., then I shouldn’t eat again until 10 a.m. The “fast” is supposed to bring my blood sugar down.

My first thought is, if I don’t eat anything for 16 hours, of course my blood sugar will be lower. It’s the eight hour time frame when I am eating that I’ll still need to worry about. But she was so sure about this that I’m willing to give it a try.

Now, I’ve already been trying to limit my snacking and seldom eat after supper at night. We usually eat between 6 and 7 p.m., and I get up between 6 and 7 a.m., so technically I’ve already been doing a 12 hour fast.

I intend to test my blood when I get up, as usual, and then again before I break my fast for the day to see if there’s much difference. Of course there will be, but I’ll be interested to see if the early one starts going down.

I’ll also keep track of my weight. What I’m really hoping to gain from this experiment is to lose a few pounds. It seems logical when my worst snacking times are now going to be outside of my 8 hour eating window. If nothing else, maybe it’ll cure my snacking altogether.

I’ll keep you abreast of what happens.