Hello!

[Even Stephen]

I have been a Type 2 diabetic for quite a long time and I have been meaning to join an organisation for a while now. I joined this organisation after having found a leaflet at home with a slightly different URL to many others I keep seeing on Social Media.
I am 66, overweight, widowed and have a daughter living at home with me.
During the time that I have been diabetic my weight has stayed about the same and to be totally honest I haven't really been careful about what I eat or drink. However, the time has arrived where I now have some motivation to take myself in hand and sort myself out. I have just bought a set of scales and have just recorded my first weight in the My GP app. I take my blood pressure daily too. I am hoping to get some dietary inspiration from this site and I have set myself a weight loss target of 20kg. I think this will take a bit of getting used to but I am looking forward to weighing myself every Wednesday and hopefully seeing a steady decline inmy weight. So hopefully from now it will be onwards and upwards....

 

[john e]

Hello and welcome, loads of helpful folk on here

 

[ianf0ster]

Hi @Even Stephen and welcome to the forum.
While losing some weight (and perhaps doing more exercise) will help with your T2 diabetes, the one thing that does most is reducing the amount of carbohydrates we eat. Because all carbohydrates (starches as well as sugars) digest an raise out blood glucose.
Unfortunately not all of us can reduce carbs easily because GPs sometimes prescribe medication which actually requires us to eat a certain amount of carbs. Metformin is OK, but some others such as insulin when combines with low carb needs to be balanced so that the Blood Glucose doesn't go too low (a hypo).

The worst meal of the day for a T2 diabetic is often breakfast since breakfast cereals (and bread) are high in carbohydrates - even whole grains like whole oat porridge. Fruit juices and tropical fruit are also high in carbs, so my pre-diagnosis 'so-called healthy' breakfast of porridge and a large banana was probably to blame for giving me T2D in the first place.
I now eat more meat, fish, eggs (especially for breakfast) , cheese , nuts and low carb veg and only low carb fruit such as berries.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

However, the time has arrived where I now have some motivation to take myself in hand and sort myself out. I have just bought a set of scales and have just recorded my first weight in the My GP app. I take my blood pressure daily too. I am hoping to get some dietary inspiration from this site and I have set myself a weight loss target of 20kg.

Welcome to the forum @Even Stephen

Great to hear about your new determination to get a grip of your diabetes, and your impressive weight loss goal.

Have you decided on a strategy for your weight loss endeavours? Is there a dietary approach or a plan that has worked for you before?

We’ve a weight loss group where people share their successes, challenges, and encourage each other if you think that might help?