New to diabetes

[Mat.H]

Hi all. I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes 9 weeks ago, and have been to,d to manage it through metformin tablets and diet. So far I’m managing well with eating healthily and increasing exercise. It was a massive shock when I was diagnosed (as it probably is to everyone) but I have used the worry of the diagnosis as a positive to help me improve my lifestyle and diet. I have found the Diabetes website to be fantastic so far in educating myself and my family to what it means to have diabetes. I hope this forum can be a source of valuable information on how to manage it and keep on track. Thanks everyone, and any tips greatly appreciated

 

[Leadinglights]

Welcome to the forum, it does come as a shock to many people and it can take time to get your head around what you need to be doing to improve your blood glucose level. How high your HbA1C is determines how much work you need to do . I assume that as you have been given metformin it is well into the diabetic zone which is anything over 48mmol/mol.
Hopefully your 'healthy eating' means you are keeping a watchful eye on the amount of carbohydrates you are having as that will have the greatest impact in reducing blood glucose level.
This link may help you get an understanding of ways of managing the condition, there are some do's and don'ts as well as meal ideas which are based on normal food which should fit it with family meals. https://lowcarbfreshwell.co.uk/
The Learning Zone (orange tab at the top) should also give you some good info and links to other parts of the site.
Please do ask any questions and people will try to help.
What is your HbA1C as that will be helpful to know where you are at.

 

[Mat.H]

Welcome to the forum, it does come as a shock to many people and it can take time to get your head around what you need to be doing to improve your blood glucose level. How high your HbA1C is determines how much work you need to do . I assume that as you have been given metformin it is well into the diabetic zone which is anything over 48mmol/mol.
Hopefully your 'healthy eating' means you are keeping a watchful eye on the amount of carbohydrates you are having as that will have the greatest impact in reducing blood glucose level.
This link may help you get an understanding of ways of managing the condition, there are some do's and don'ts as well as meal ideas which are based on normal food which should fit it with family meals. https://lowcarbfreshwell.co.uk/
The Learning Zone (orange tab at the top) should also give you some good info and links to other parts of the site.
Please do ask any questions and people will try to help.
What is your HbA1C as that will be helpful to know where you are at.

Hi. Thanks for your reply. My HbA1C is 51
ive spent lots of time using the resources on the site, and as you say, the learning zone which is excellent and really informative. I’ve watched lots of the videos on there and refer back to them. I think the hardest part about coming to terms with it has been the stigma around type 2 that it is self inflicted due to poor eating and lack of exercise, and then taking responsibility to help yourself manage the condition. I’ve got past the blaming myself stage and am now determined to do what is right for me.
pin terms of eating and carbs, that is something I’ve paid particular attention to as it is the hidden sugar we don’t always think of. My family have switched to granary bread from white, brown past and rice, and potatoes are now an occasional treat rather than a stable of weekly meals. I tend to eat more vegetables with meals, make veggie alternatives to meat meals (spag Bol, chilli etc) and when I shop I’m looking out for the traffic light system on packaging which helps a lot when items say low fat, but contain lots of sugar. Things that don’t have the traffic light system I tend to avoid at the minute as I haven’t got my head around converting the grams contained into how good/bad it is. I’ve got my first blood recheck in a couple of weeks, and will Be interested to see if the meds and diet change are making a difference

 

[Leadinglights]

It sounds as if you have good support from your family as well, my other half got on board with my low carb approach and lost some weight which he wanted to do, he does have a few extras but we essentially have the same meals.
An HbA1C is not desperately high about what I was having been prediabetic for some time but the change in diet brought it down to 42 in 3 months.
The problem with the traffic light system is that it highlights 'sugar' not Total carbohydrate and it is the total carbs that is the critical number. Fat is one of the things that does not convert to glucose so need not be avoided (unless you have other medical conditions which require it), in fact full fat products are often lower in carbs than low fat.
An example of the non sense of the traffic light system is a cereal puffed wheat which shows green for sugar as it is only 0.6g sugar per 100g but a whopping 69.6g carbohydrate per 100g.
To give you an idea if following a low carb approach that would be less than 130g Total carbs per day and to put that into context a medium slice of granary bread would be 16g carb, half a tin of normal baked beans would be 31g carb so you can see that a slice of toast with beans would be almost half of your carbs for the day, but cheese on toast or egg and bacon would only have the carbs of the bread.
You will soon get the hang of looking at the carbs and making your decision of is that worth the carbs for the enjoyment of it. Full fat diary is a option to help you not to feel hungry if you are cutting carbs then you need protein and fats to give you energy.

 

[Mat.H]

It sounds as if you have good support from your family as well, my other half got on board with my low carb approach and lost some weight which he wanted to do, he does have a few extras but we essentially have the same meals.
An HbA1C is not desperately high about what I was having been prediabetic for some time but the change in diet brought it down to 42 in 3 months.
The problem with the traffic light system is that it highlights 'sugar' not Total carbohydrate and it is the total carbs that is the critical number. Fat is one of the things that does not convert to glucose so need not be avoided (unless you have other medical conditions which require it), in fact full fat products are often lower in carbs than low fat.
An example of the non sense of the traffic light system is a cereal puffed wheat which shows green for sugar as it is only 0.6g sugar per 100g but a whopping 69.6g carbohydrate per 100g.
To give you an idea if following a low carb approach that would be less than 130g Total carbs per day and to put that into context a medium slice of granary bread would be 16g carb, half a tin of normal baked beans would be 31g carb so you can see that a slice of toast with beans would be almost half of your carbs for the day, but cheese on toast or egg and bacon would only have the carbs of the bread.
You will soon get the hang of looking at the carbs and making your decision of is that worth the carbs for the enjoyment of it. Full fat diary is a option to help you not to feel hungry if you are cutting carbs then you need protein and fats to give you energy.

Thank you. I’m glad I joined the forum and can share and use the knowledge of others in the same place as me. I do look at the carbohydrates as well on packaging, you are right, some are very deceiving. I tend to go for weetabix or toast with olive oil light spread rather than margarine(hopefully the right choice and you aren’t going to say they are bad for me! Lol) sometimes I will have boiled eggs if I get time to make them in the mornings. I try and avoid red meats too much so bacon is an occasional treat, as I have high blood pressure as well so processed meat not great for that. I try and eat white meat as much as I can now, or quorn alternative(which has improved in flavour dramatically since I last tried it 15 years ago!)

 

[Leadinglights]

Thank you. I’m glad I joined the forum and can share and use the knowledge of others in the same place as me. I do look at the carbohydrates as well on packaging, you are right, some are very deceiving. I tend to go for weetabix or toast with olive oil light spread rather than margarine(hopefully the right choice and you aren’t going to say they are bad for me! Lol) sometimes I will have boiled eggs if I get time to make them in the mornings. I try and avoid red meats too much so bacon is an occasional treat, as I have high blood pressure as well so processed meat not great for that. I try and eat white meat as much as I can now, or quorn alternative(which has improved in flavour dramatically since I last tried it 15 years ago!)

It is a pity the What did you eat yesterday thread seems to have become inactive recently as there were some good suggestions from people about the meals they have.
The only cereals I have are a very small 15g portion of a low sugar granola (Lizi's) with full fat Greek yoghurt and berries of some sort. or 1 thin slice of toast with eggs of some sort or bacon, mushrooms or tomato, that keeps me going until lunch time.
Meat, fish, eggs and cheese are all zero or pretty low carb but beware of some of the 'alternative meats' as they can be higher carb but with lots of veg or salad are a option.
You will soon find what you can tolerate once you get your monitor.
I am perhaps more cautious about the carbs as I went with 70g per day but no meds.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @Mat.H

And well done for leaping into action! Yes, you aren’t the first forum member to have had that experience - quite a few have later reflected that their diagnosis became a sort of catalyst that prompted them to make some positive changes to their menu and activity levels - perhaps changes they had been intending to make for years!

Hope the information you have picked up so far, along with the support and encouragement of forum members help you to keep up the momentum you have already achieved 🙂

 

[Deleted member 21371]

Many of us who were overweight on diagnosis found simply eating less, exercising, and losing weight made a substantial difference to our BG, and blood pressure.

 

[Mat.H]

Many of us who were overweight on diagnosis found simply eating less, exercising, and losing weight made a substantial difference to our BG, and blood pressure.

Thanks, that helps keep the positivity going, stories like yours on here help me see its possible to turn around your lifestyle. So far I have lost 13kg since starting eating healthier and increasing exercise. I feel tons better for it already, but realise I have about a further 10kg to go to get to my target weight which will put me in the healthy weight bracket. I’ve dropped a trouser size and can fit into clothes I put away in the wardrobe 4 years ago hoping one day I could get in them again. It’s a mental and physical boost to see the fruits of my efforts paying off, and spurring me on to continueoing

 

[Deleted member 21371]

Thanks, that helps keep the positivity going, stories like yours on here help me see its possible to turn around your lifestyle. So far I have lost 13kg since starting eating healthier and increasing exercise. I feel tons better for it already, but realise I have about a further 10kg to go to get to my target weight which will put me in the healthy weight bracket. I’ve dropped a trouser size and can fit into clothes I put away in the wardrobe 4 years ago hoping one day I could get in them again. It’s a mental and physical boost to see the fruits of my efforts paying off, and spurring me on to continueoing

Yes the difference losing weight makes!
I was doing the equivalent of piggy backing one of my kids about full time.
I found a sweat shirt I had in my first job, over 35 years ago, and actually fitted back into it, as opposed to using it as a hat.