Not in a league yet, but closest would be the weekly round robins tournaments. Nothing out of the ordinary dinner, but lately I've been eating lots of ice-cream. Maybe 1/4 or 1/3 the carton!

Wow sounds a tad unhealthy mate.

I need something to drown my sorrows after a massive asswhuppin' in the tournaments But seriously, it's actually not that bad. I guess it depends on the size of the carton of ice-cream in your country and the types of frozen desert we're talking about, ie: gelato and frozen yogurt. Besides I'm not fat so I can afford to indulge when I feel like it and not worry.

I've recently discovered that I'm carbohydrate intolerant. Done a lot of research on this being a diabetic. Carbs turn to sugar in the blood, so I'm trying to have a low carb diet. I started this less than a week ago and have lost about 5kg from it already. So tonight after TT I had poached fish on fried onions with avacado and prawns. Its quite hard to eat without incorporating carbs when you have been used to doing so all your life. But its been resulting in lower blood sugars, so seems like I'll stick with it. Have to not only ignore the sweet tooth now, but also ignore staples like bread, pasta, rice (I have to have some rice now and then, so I go basmati), potatoes and more

How do you overcome the cravings and all, pure willpower?

So far, by eating satiating foods that make you feel full. And allowing myself the odd treat. I had one Tim-Tam (chocolate biscuit) on the weekend. Yeah, there's a fair bit of will-power involved. But I'd thrown my hands up in the air for a long time as a diabetic who's had trouble keeping good sugars despite best efforts to do so. But having found new information recently I decided to give it a red-hot go. Its put my sugars all over the place, but at least has them lower overall. Managing diabetes is a very hard thing. I've been doing it (often not very well) for about 12 years now. Generally when I see the doc, he's happy overall with my control. But when you see the daily levels on the blood meter, it can be very depressing (especially when you don't understand how blood glucose rises when you have fasted - which its not supposed to do - fasting should drop it). My nutritionist reckons the liver releases sugars during fasting if you get too low (when asleep), but mine rise over just a few hours (not asleep) after they reach their lowest point after eating. Their explanations don't make sense with what happens in my body....pretty strong motivation to give things a go, but when they just don't seem to help, its easy to fall off the wagon!

Have you ever give tried intermittent fasting? or heard of it?

Actually its that kind of information I've been reading. I'm not at a point where I could do full IF, but my trial diet is based upon it and stuff from Dr. Jason Fung and others in his research field. It goes against what my nutritionist has ever said, but what I'm doing is sort of bringing a bit of it in, cautiously.

Reb, I'm a huge advocate for real food diets, be they called "Paleo" or "Ancestral" or whatever. And I am also a huge believer in IF as a healthy part of one's natural dietary regimen.

Humans evolved on IF, and our bodies require hormesis to pull fat stores from the places that they exist. IF plays a big part in this.

As for lowering carb intake, it's tough at first because your brain (everyone's brain) is conditioned (addicted?) to the endorphine and chemical response we have when we take in carbs and sugars. This is why you might experience a "Carb flu" as people call it. Really, it's your body going back to normal because it's likely metabolically (and psychologically ) derranged. Satiating foods...high protein and fat will help this process, as you already mentioned. When I'm fasting and on LC, I have to remind myself to eat. I'm never hungry.

Sounds like you already know this, but...I would recommend, particularly because you are diabetic, to EITHER drop your carb intake (to SAFE levels, never completely) OR to incorporate intermittent fasting, but do NOT try both at the same time.

Where are you in lowering your carbs? Are you just going at it outright? Tapering?
Start with a moderate carb (MC) diet ~150g/day (roughly 20-25% of your diet).
Taper to a lower carb (LC) diet when you become comfortable (See attached chart for differences in MC, LC, and VLC)

If you are diabetic and on finger sticks and/or insulin, please proceed cautiously!! You don't ever want to bottom out. Of course, run any dietary regimen by a doctor you trust.

Never try Very Low Carb (VLC) aka Ketogenic Diets until your diabetes is resloved, if ever. That being said, I've had patients literally resolve their diabetes doing controlled strict low carb and ketogenic diets with the help of clinical dietiticians.

After a long while of low carb stability, then maybe try IF. And yes, your body will pull glycogen stores during IF and you will get fluctuations in BS. Awesome that you are doing this...conventional medicine has a lot of catching up to do in the area of nutrition.