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Lost 18.1kg in 2 months

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L

Lmsdav

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
And counting ...

HbA1c reduced from 69 in March to 53 in September.

Went on a cognitive behavioural therapy course - Living well with Diabetes. It was totally transformative.

Use Accu-Chek Mobile
mySugr
EufyLife Scale
Omron BP monitor and app
MyNetDiary - brilliant app that tracks absolutely everything in one place on my iphone
 
Hi @Lmsdav and welcome to the forum. Impressive, especially the weight loss. Can you tell us a little more about the CBT?
 
Hi LMSDAV,

well done! My weight loss seems to have plateaued and I’ve got a long way to go - any advice?
 
It was a 10 week course which gave me 2 big insights:
1) I had not been taking accountability for how and what I had been eating.
2) lots of automatic negative thoughts about myself and food didn’t help.

the course showed me how to recognise those thoughts and challenge them. And then to start replacing them with more realistic ones. Obviously this was a personal journey for me. Others will have different experiences.

i also realised that i had what they called diabetes distress. Worrying endlessly about things and catastrophising about things like going blind etc.

the other key thing that helped was to start tracking my progress and to also learn what is in the food i was eating and now eat

myNetDiary is brilliant in that regard, for me.

when i told my dietician she asked me if she had told me to take more accountability, whether it would have helped. I said that I needed to discover this for myself. She is excellent at providing support and treating me as an intelligent adult that knows what needs to be done but had trouble doing it until recently.

The other key thing for me is I am NOT dieting. I have changed my food choices. I sometimes go off track, but that’s OK as my tracking is done daily so tomorrow is always a new day to make better choices
 
Bearing in mind that we have quite strict guidelines when it comes to referring to commercial activities, it might be helpful if you could give some insight into how you found out about the course. Did your dietician point you in that direction?

Your last paragraph is spot on. The word diet is used in the context of either eating differently or eating less. They are different things and it would be nice to have different words for each activity.
 
@Lmsdav, In my time on the forum I cannot recall any other member who has gone down the CBT route, let alone having a GP who suggested it. I don't know whether @everydayupsanddowns knows of anybody who has.

Do you think it is something others should be thinking about? What sort of people might benefit? Apologies for the questions but I am intrigued.
 
Docb said:
@Lmsdav, In my time on the forum I cannot recall any other member who has gone down the CBT route, let alone having a GP who suggested it. I don't know whether @everydayupsanddowns knows of anybody who has.

Do you think it is something others should be thinking about? What sort of people might benefit? Apologies for the questions but I am intrigued.
Click to expand...
I don’t recall anyone going down that route either.Not heard of The MyNetDiaryapp, mentioned either.
 
Sounds like an excellent outcome for you @Lmsdav thanks so much for sharing what worked for you 🙂

It looks like the “Living Well with Diabetes” course is run by the NHS in several areas as part of the IAPT initiative (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies)

eg in Sheffield (though it’s not currently running due to Covid)

Living Well with Diabetes | Sheffield IAPT (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies)

iaptsheffield.shsc.nhs.uk iaptsheffield.shsc.nhs.uk

And I think you are absolutely right... sometimes you need your head to be in the right place to receive help and information, and also (importantly) to put it into action. Just being told stuff isn’t enough... even if it’s exactly the stuff you need to hear!
 
Docb said:
@Lmsdav, In my time on the forum I cannot recall any other member who has gone down the CBT route, let alone having a GP who suggested it. I don't know whether @everydayupsanddowns knows of anybody who has.

Do you think it is something others should be thinking about? What sort of people might benefit? Apologies for the questions but I am intrigued.
Click to expand...

I dont mind answering questions.

Firstly this is obviously a very personal experience to me and I’m sure other people will have different experiences. Of the 4 people on the course with me, 2 dropped out, and I didn’t get the idea that the other two benefited as much as I did.

For me, I always knew exactly what I needed to do to lose weight and control my diabetes better. It was the doing it that I was blocked on. This helped to unblock that for me.

My GP specialises in diabetes and happens to be an excellent one. I had other medical people in the past that were not as good with me. Then again, I guess in the end, it is down to us taking accountability for our own health outcomes. As I say, that has been the biggest change for me. So easy to say and think, much more difficult to do!

I have had type 2 for over 20 years now, and this is the first time it’s actually been under control
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
Sounds like an excellent outcome for you @Lmsdav thanks so much for sharing what worked for you 🙂

It looks like the “Living Well with Diabetes” course is run by the NHS in several areas as part of the IAPT initiative (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies)

eg in Sheffield (though it’s not currently running due to Covid)

Living Well with Diabetes | Sheffield IAPT (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies)

iaptsheffield.shsc.nhs.uk iaptsheffield.shsc.nhs.uk

And I think you are absolutely right... sometimes you need your head to be in the right place to receive help and information, and also (importantly) to put it into action. Just being told stuff isn’t enough... even if it’s exactly the stuff you need to hear!
Click to expand...

Totally agree. Glad the course is in a few other places. It’s certainly something to explore if people think they could benefit.
 
grovesy said:
I don’t recall anyone going down that route either.Not heard of The MyNetDiary app, mentioned either.
Click to expand...

When I decided I wanted to track things a bit better I downloaded about 6 carb/calorie counting/travcking apps and used each for a few days. MyNetDiary was the one that worked best for me. As I said, I have an iPhone - not sure if it’s available for Android. I assume it is.

I use the mySugr app to track my glucose levels as that works directly with my meter.

I also bought a smart scale Eufy and use the EufyLife app.

I use the Omron Connect app to record my blood pressure.

The great thing is, all of these readings are then available in one place in MyNetDiary, together with any exercise I do which comes from my phone and Apple Watch. So the whole eco system works for me, although I am aware many other people are not as into their technology.

I would say though, that the technology is not the important part. What drove all of this was my ignorance about calories and carbs and wanting to know what was actually in the food I’m eating.
 
Thanks for answering my questions @Lmsdav, and hopefully it will give members who know what to do but struggle to do it something to think about as a way forward.
 
@Lmsdav, your last post seems to have gone wonk. Is it an update?
 
Great stuff!
 
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