Total newbie!

[Leadinglights]

Not even water?

Oh good point, water is usually OK, though it may distort the result as it will obviously help flush any excess glucose from your system and people are often advised to drink water if their blood glucose is high to help reduce it.

 

[BTSfan2196]

Oh good point, water is usually OK, though it may distort the result as it will obviously help flush any excess glucose from your system and people are often advised to drink water if their blood glucose is high to help reduce it.

Ok. I’ll probably try to just have some with dinner then not have any for two hours so it’s accurate. Thanks for all your help!

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Thank you. You make a lot of sense! I’m definitely on board with the lifestyle changes being sustainable. I’ve always struggled with my weight but this has given me a real kick to take things seriously and I have accepted that making the wrong choices in the past has led me to this point. I’m ready to completely change my approach to food and have actually already started and am losing weight.

Great to hear you’ve channelled your diagnosis into a source of inspiration @BTSfan2196

And well done on your weight loss already!

Hopefully with the changes you are making, you’ll see some encouraging changes in your results by your next check in 3 months time 🙂

 

[saffron15]

Wow your surgery sounds supportive. My diabetes nurse is off sick! I was diagnosed in July with 64. The first reading was 69 and 64 was four weeks later. I phoned the helpline before nurse appointment and then joined day after DN appointment. I'm retired and had steadily put on weight after an early menopause. At first I chose to cut out all meat apart from occasional chicken. I've always enjoyed fish and ate it veg cheese and eggs. I was effectively eating lowish carb. I liked it because apart from checking labels ( under nutrition ) for carbs there was no calorie counting and I lost just under a kilo a week. Most type 2s have too much belly fat but not all do. The freshwell site already highlighted is very informative. Some veg is high carb particularly below ground and fruit can have lots of sugar generally fruit grown in our climate is good much tropical fruit should be avoided. Once you've worked out what you want to eat and checked how it affects you, some people love porridge for breakfast others say it affects them badly. I've decided to say goodbye to pasta but have bought alternatives. However I eat occasional potato just make sure its a small portion and extra veg. I had lost almost 10 kg when I went on medication. First two weeks of metformin bunged me up then increased dose had opposite effect.
My last hba1c a few weeks ago was 43.
Look on it as a way to get generally healthier. Don't try reducing your BG too quickly it is a shock to your body. Try and move more. A ten minute walk after food helps. Given your age and reading I'm sure you will bring it down with or without medication. I'm sure you won't have other meds added
Do ask questions. When you are new everything is a bit bewildering.

 

[BTSfan2196]

Great to hear you’ve channelled your diagnosis into a source of inspiration @BTSfan2196

And well done on your weight loss already!

Hopefully with the changes you are making, you’ll see some encouraging changes in your results by your next check in 3 months time 🙂

Thank you so much!

Wow your surgery sounds supportive. My diabetes nurse is off sick! I was diagnosed in July with 64. The first reading was 69 and 64 was four weeks later. I phoned the helpline before nurse appointment and then joined day after DN appointment. I'm retired and had steadily put on weight after an early menopause. At first I chose to cut out all meat apart from occasional chicken. I've always enjoyed fish and ate it veg cheese and eggs. I was effectively eating lowish carb. I liked it because apart from checking labels ( under nutrition ) for carbs there was no calorie counting and I lost just under a kilo a week. Most type 2s have too much belly fat but not all do. The freshwell site already highlighted is very informative. Some veg is high carb particularly below ground and fruit can have lots of sugar generally fruit grown in our climate is good much tropical fruit should be avoided. Once you've worked out what you want to eat and checked how it affects you, some people love porridge for breakfast others say it affects them badly. I've decided to say goodbye to pasta but have bought alternatives. However I eat occasional potato just make sure its a small portion and extra veg. I had lost almost 10 kg when I went on medication. First two weeks of metformin bunged me up then increased dose had opposite effect.
My last hba1c a few weeks ago was 43.
Look on it as a way to get generally healthier. Don't try reducing your BG too quickly it is a shock to your body. Try and move more. A ten minute walk after food helps. Given your age and reading I'm sure you will bring it down with or without medication. I'm sure you won't have other meds added
Do ask questions. When you are new everything is a bit bewildering.

Thank you for your reply. You’ve done incredibly well - well done! The more I read, the more I want to try to do it without the meds if possible! It is all a bit overwhelming but this forum has really helped today. Good luck with your continued success!

 

[BTSfan2196]

Welcome to the forum, one cautious note is what people might do is very individual as it will depend on what medication they may be taking and how they manage their condition.
With an HbA1C of only 53mmol/mol you are not very far over the diagnostic threshold of 48mmol/mol and many GP would give somebody the opportunity for 3 months to make dietary changes and try to get more exercise before starting medication and it is up to you whether you are prepared to give that a shot and you would need to modify your diet anyway even with the medication.
Many find a low carbohydrate approach successful and this link should point you in the right direction, https://lowcarbfreshwell.com/, it is based on the suggested no more than 130g carbs not just sugar per day. A bit of a hard time to start this but use the time to learn all you can, there is no great rush but do something you must.
As far as testing is concerned then people do test to enable them to have control over their condition rather than waiting for the periodic Hba1C. But the testing has to be for a purpose otherwise it is a waste of time. To learn what meals you are able to tolerate people test before eating and after 2 hours and if the increase is no more than 2-3 mmol/l then the meal is fine, as your levels come down then 4-7mmol/l before eating and no more than 8-8.5 2 hours post meal is what to aim at.
People also test in the morning /fasting to check progress day to day, week to week etc or if they feel unwell.
This means quite a bit of testing initially but the meal testing will reduce once you establish how many carbs per meal will keep you within those limits.
It is unlikely your prescription will cover enough strips and you are lucky to have even been given a monitor but many self fund a monitor and strips so if you want to buy more do check the price as they may be more expensive that those for a different monitor so in the long run you would save money.
Sorry for the ramble but I hope it is helpful.

Hello. I’ve done my first testing this evening - 6.3 before eating and 6.1 two hours later. I’m assuming this is good news in terms of what I had for dinner?

 

[dannybgoode]

Hello. I’ve done my first testing this evening - 6.3 before eating and 6.1 two hours later. I’m assuming this is good news in terms of what I had for dinner?

Sounds pretty spot on. You have ended up where you started so your body has processed the carbs and you've not got a raised BG...

 

[BTSfan2196]

Sounds pretty spot on. You have ended up where you started so your body has processed the carbs and you've not got a raised BG...

Fantastic! I think I’m getting my head around how this works. Thanks for replying!

 

[Leadinglights]

Hello. I’ve done my first testing this evening - 6.3 before eating and 6.1 two hours later. I’m assuming this is good news in terms of what I had for dinner?

Spectacular, what did you have? just curious.

 

[BTSfan2196]

Spectacular, what did you have? just curious.

I did a pile of stir fry veg and a salmon fillet in the air fryer. I did add half a sachet of stir fry sauce which has carbs and some sugar in but I thought it would be ok as there wasn’t really much else in the way of carbs in the meal. It was a bit of an experiment!

 

[saffron15]

@BTSfan2196 read up some of the recent stories. I wasn't given the opportunity to go unmedicated. My reading was 58 at the beginning of September when I had been on metformin for two weeks. My initial appointment at the surgery was to say cholestral had crept up after my annual blood test as I have high blood pressure. I discovered my blood wasn't being tested for diabetes and asked that it was. My initial eating lots of fish was concern over cholestral. Otherwise I'd be having a fried breakfast once a week minus toast beans and hash browns. I have had two since diagnosis. It is low carb.
I'm amazed with your reading you were given a meter. Make sure your hands are clean and warm hug a mug.
There are lots of videos as to how to do fingerpricking on YouTube.

 

[Lucyr]

I did a pile of stir fry veg and a salmon fillet in the air fryer. I did add half a sachet of stir fry sauce which has carbs and some sugar in but I thought it would be ok as there wasn’t really much else in the way of carbs in the meal. It was a bit of an experiment!

It worked well and you could have had more carbs with the meal given your 2hr bg was same as starting bg

 

[BTSfan2196]

@BTSfan2196 read up some of the recent stories. I wasn't given the opportunity to go unmedicated. My reading was 58 at the beginning of September when I had been on metformin for two weeks. My initial appointment at the surgery was to say cholestral had crept up after my annual blood test as I have high blood pressure. I discovered my blood wasn't being tested for diabetes and asked that it was. My initial eating lots of fish was concern over cholestral. Otherwise I'd be having a fried breakfast once a week minus toast beans and hash browns. I have had two since diagnosis. It is low carb.
I'm amazed with your reading you were given a meter. Make sure your hands are clean and warm hug a mug.
There are lots of videos as to how to do fingerpricking on YouTube.

Thanks. I think maybe I caught her on a good day! I wasn’t expecting her to give me a meter - I asked if I should be checking at home and she gave me one!

 

[BTSfan2196]

It worked well and you could have had more carbs with the meal given your 2hr bg was same as starting bg

Ok thanks for the advice. I would have had rice with it originally but I don’t have any and I wanted to avoid white noodles. I need to buy some whole grain rice. I’ll have that next time.

 

[Leadinglights]

Ok thanks for the advice. I would have had rice with it originally but I don’t have any and I wanted to avoid white noodles. I need to buy some whole grain rice. I’ll have that next time.

Brown rice is just as many carbs as white rice as is wheat based pasta and noodles but edamame or black bean noodles ( Holland and Barrett or internet) are much lower carb.

 

[BTSfan2196]

Brown rice is just as many carbs as white rice as is wheat based pasta and noodles but edamame or black bean noodles ( Holland and Barrett or internet) are much lower carb.

Oh ok thanks! I got that totally wrong then! That’s helpful.

 

[Leadinglights]

Oh ok thanks! I got that totally wrong then! That’s helpful.

You may find the book or app Carbs and Cals useful as it gives carb values of portion sizes of a whole range of foods, there is also a World Food edition which covers more ethic foods.

 

[BTSfan2196]

You may find the book or app Carbs and Cals useful as it gives carb values of portion sizes of a whole range of foods, there is also a World Food edition which covers more ethic foods.

Oh yes the nurse recommended this to me. I’ll check it out thank you.

 

[harbottle]

Oh good point, water is usually OK, though it may distort the result as it will obviously help flush any excess glucose from your system and people are often advised to drink water if their blood glucose is high to help reduce it.

Drinking water doesn’t lower blood glucose.

If you have high blood glucose, then fluid intake may prevent dehydration due to the loss of water causes by excess urination.

 

[BTSfan2196]

Drinking water doesn’t lower blood glucose.

If you have high blood glucose, then fluid intake may prevent dehydration due to the loss of water causes by excess urination.

Ok thanks. I don’t have this problem anyway which is good!