Misty Zaugg's Blog - Posts Tagged "fast"

Hi friends,

I love sunshine! At least before we reach the super-hot, muggy days of summer. I'm sitting here in front of a sunny window in my role as an 'adult supervisor' while my teenage son runs a Dungeons & Dragons class at our local homeschool co-op. There is lots of laughter and creativity happening here. :D

I hope you also have sparks of joy wherever you are in the world.

Speaking of . . . I wanted to share a simple tip to help combat the doldrums brought on by depression and/or anxiety issues.

How to talk back to depression and anxiety in 10 minutes.

Many times our thoughts can pull our mood down or increase our stress by filling our head with ideas that cause those not-so-fun emotions.

If this is something you or someone you love struggles with and you're looking for new ideas, I really like the techniques taught in "Feeling Good" or "When Panic Attacks" by David Burns.

The basic premise of cognitive behavior therapy is that we have thoughts that lead to emotions and if we can change the thoughts, the emotions will improve.

Example:
1. You have a long list of tasks on your mental to-do list and looming deadlines.
2. Thoughts running through your mind might be: "I'm never going to get everything done in time. I'm going to miss deadlines, get late-fees, and be in all kinds of trouble. Why even bother trying when I'm going to fail?"
3. You feel disheartened, ready to quit and hopeless.

Simple exercise:
1. When you feel down or stressed, stop for a moment and write down the thoughts in your mind (see #2 above).
2. Then talk back with a statement you believe just as much as the disheartening one.

Example:
I'm never going to get everything done in time.

Talk back: I might not get everything done, but if I split them up into smaller tasks, I can get quite a few done. I feel a lot more calm when I have smaller tasks and a plan to do them.
----
I'm going to miss deadlines, get late-fees, and be in all kinds of trouble.

I might miss one or two deadlines, but if I organize the tasks with the urgent ones at the top, I bet I could take care of the most urgent ones in time to meet the deadlines. Some of the tasks can wait until the weekend when I can schedule some time to finish them. If I'm getting close to a deadline, I can call for an extension. Even paying one or two late-fees isn't the end of the world.
----
Why even bother trying when I'm going to fail?

I know in the past, once I actually sit down to take care of a yucky chore, it tends to get done much faster than I anticipate and usually isn't as hard as I thought it would be. Getting anything done on my list is better than nothing.
----
And that's it. As you replace the negative self-condemning thoughts with more realistic, positive ones, check in and see how your emotions have improved.

A few tips:
1. Do this as a writing exercise, not just in your head. Engaging more senses by writing (touch, sight) makes the exercise more concrete. It also forces you to define the nebulous 'bad thoughts' into specific words.
2. Write down your counter arguments. Same reasons as above. :)
3. Short and frequent is more effective. Spending ten minutes for six days will have more impact than an hour on a single day.
4. Find a friend and decide to do this together. Like any new habit, doing it with a friend will help both of you follow through.

How about you? Any simple tips you've found that help with depression and/or anxiety? I'm happy to include them in future newsletters.

Find a little sunshine and enjoy today!

— Misty :)
______________________

Misty's Writing Update:
I got some funny penname ideas from you like M. Zauggenaut and Zauggy Mist - LOL. I think I'll stick with M. Zaugg. :D

I have finally got most of the non-writing part done with this new series and am getting ready to brainstorm the plot direction for book 2 along with exactly what new spells and upgrades our MC will be able to acquire.

Not to mention he has a bunch of coin and rewards from the end of book 1 he gets to spend in the Academy store, so I'll have to make a whole lot of tempting armor, weapon and spell items to choose from.

It's always fun to give them the quandary of choosing when they really want all of it. :D

Oh, and his pet will be leveling up and needs a fancy, stealthy type skill or ability. If you have an idea for something cool a 'ninja' baby star-nosed mole could do, suggest it please!

I'm planning on the MC using the pet as a scout to spy around the school and keep tabs on those working against him and/or get good intel to help him and his buddies' progress.

So, this is a new writing skill for me, generating game-like content alongside the usual plot elements that I'm much more familiar with. Hopefully the ideas I come up are fun for my readers.

Thanks for your help and support!

Enjoy reading this week!

— Misty :)
Misty Zaugg Website

Hi friends,

First of all, I hope those of you who picked up the boxsets for the 6-book Aftermath series Steph and I wrote last year are enjoying the stories! We had a great time writing them!

If you missed the email last week, our publisher still has them at 99c each! So 6 books and 2k+ pages to read for under $2. Awesome deal! (Also free to read in Kindle Unlimited if you're a subscriber)
______________________



Boxset 1: First three books!


Boxset 2: Last three books!
______________________

My husband is still finishing up the poison ivy healing. Thanks for all the amazing suggestions you sent me. They really helped!

I'll put together what treatments worked and didn't for next week's newsletter.

For today, I thought you might enjoy a little discussion on fasting, juice fasting in particular.

I have a familial type of diabetes that doesn't respond well to traditional treatment. Both my father and brother are very sick with serious medical issues despite following their doctor's treatment. So, I'm always on the lookout for ways to maintain my health as I get older.

Fasting is a technique used throughout history for many ailments and it can be very effective.

The study that caught my eye years ago was an investigation into something curious about patients having stomach reduction surgery who also had diabetes. It turns out that their blood sugars began to improve almost immediately after the surgery, long before it could be attributed to the weight they eventually lost.

The study hypothesized it was the minimal amount of food the patients were able to eat after the surgery, ie. essentially a type of fasting.

So they took a group of people with Type 2 Diabetes and put them on the same restricted calorie diet of the post-op patients to see if they could duplicate the effect without the surgery.

No surprise, but they had quiet a few drop outs. Fasting isn't easy! Only when we make a significant dietary change do we realize how much eating food is an integral part of our lives - celebrations, luncheons, parties, family gatherings, etc.

But for those who stuck out the study, the had similar, amazing improvements in blood sugar and HbA1c levels.

That started my fasting journey, and every time I've done a juice fast, I've found that my diabetes numbers improve.

But it's hard for me. Both in the not eating food as well as the work of buying produce, washing, juicing and cleaning up.

So, despite my personal successes in the past, I haven't done one in a while. Lately, however, my diabetes numbers have gotten worse. My husband also wanted to get a little healthier. So we found a company on Amazon that will ship organic juices that are frozen fresh.

That takes all the work out of it, leaving just the not eating part. Ugh!

My husband "bought" me the juice fast for Christmas and it took us until June to finally place the order. A mix of procrastination and reluctance. LOL

Here's what showed up mostly frozen on our porch on Wednesday:



Raw Fountain 7 day Juice Fast

And here's what we drink each day, starting about 30 minutes after we wake up: one of these 12 oz bottles every 2 hours.


I did label them with M's and T's so my husband and I could find ours more easily while digging them out of the chest freezer.

So today is the second day and here's what my blood sugar looked like yesterday. Can you figure out when I drank the six juices? Count the peaks starting around just before noon. :D



My blood glucose averaged around 135 for the day, which is decent but nothing special. Hopefully I'll se more improvements throughout the week.

Oh, and my weight started at 155.6 lbs and is 153.4 this morning. Based on experience, I know the first 5 to 6 pounds lost will come back once I start eating again and fill up my digestive system. :)

I'll give you an update when we finish. Let me know if you have any questions.

Plus, if you've tried any form of fasting, I'd love to hear your experiences with it.

Stay healthy out there!
____________________

Misty's Writing Update:

I feel a bit like I'm treading water, not many words this week. But sometimes, that's the way it goes.

Plus, I'm trying to decide when to start publishing my litrpg book on Royal Road.

The issue is summer family plans. I'm heading to Florida for a week to help with my grandbaby on vacation. My oldest daughter is returning from her year and a half mission trip at the end of July. And then we're heading out to visit family and take her back to school for a couple of weeks in August.

The issue is that once I publish on Royal Road, I'm committed to publishing three or four chapters a week if I want to see some success. Being unreliable with putting up chapters will lose readers.

I obviously will struggle to get chapters written while doing all the family stuff, but on the other hand, I have a pretty decent number of chapters written, so I should be alright. I'd just lose a chunk of my buffer of chapters while I don't write on vacations.

I could wait until Sept. 1st to start, but I'm getting antsy to see what readers think of this story and don't really want to wait.

What do you think? Take the plunge now or wait until Sept?

Thanks!

Enjoy reading this week!

— Misty :)
Misty Zaugg Website

Juice Fast Results - Health Tip #9
Hi friends,

Whew! I can eat again! And good news is any food seems and tastes like a treat. This really helps with the pleasure eating and makes healthier foods easier to choose over junk food. :)

Thanks to all of you who shared your fasting journeys with me. I loved learning about them and picked up a bunch of new information!

I'm not sure why I really struggled with hunger for this fast, even though this is the shortest one I've done, some previous ones as long as 30 days. Possibly it was due to getting older, a lower quantity of juice or that this was purchased instead of made fresh myself.

In any case, I thought you might enjoy seeing the results:

1. Weight loss (BMI for my height indicates a healthy weight of 121-153 lbs):
• Starting weight: 155.6 lbs
• Day 1: 153.4 (loss of 2.2 lbs - weight often comes off fastest at the beginning as your digestive system empties out)
• Day 2: 151.6 (loss of 1.8)
• Day 3: 149.6 (loss of 2.0)
• Day 4: 148.8 (loss of 0.8)
• Day 5: 147.2 (loss of 1.6)
• Day 6: 146.4 (loss of 0.8)
• Day 7: 147.4 (gain of 1.0 - not sure why)
• Total weight loss = 8.2 lbs
• And then this morning after my first day eating yesterday: 146.6! Which would put my total weight loss at an even 9 lbs.

I'm totally happy with this because I was creeping up out of the healthy range and am glad to be back within it. In the past, I've seen about 5 lbs come back once I start eating again, so I was surprised to see this morning's weight drop. I'm just happy to meet my goal to be within the BMI range.

2. Diabetes - My average daily glucose sat around 135, which translates to a Ha1c of 6.3. This isn't too much better than where I normally sit, though my last Ha1c was 7.1 in December which is an average glucose of 157.

In any case, I've had drops to the low hundreds in previous juice fasts, so I was disappointed seeing some 200+ responses after drinking a juice.

It was only when I started eating my normal lower carb, healthy diet yesterday, that I saw a big difference. My glucose response to my normal meals was much lower than usual!

Yesterday, my average glucose dropped like a rock and at this moment it's 108 for the last 24 hours! Very nice!

The fast has definitely improved my diabetic response to food.

Then last night, I actually had some lows, which indicates I might be able to discontinue the second diabetes medication, at least in the short term. I was forced to add it recently when my nighttime numbers had crept up.

So, if I can reduce back to a single medication, instead of two, this seven days of fasting was completely worth it!

Thanks for your support, and stay healthy out there!

— Misty :)
Misty Zaugg Website