A New Start

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lizzieK

lizzieK

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Relationship to Diabetes
At risk of diabetes
Hi! Firstly, thanks to the admin team for a warm welcome!
Yesterday I learned from my doctor that I am pre-diabetic….and quite high on the scale. In view of this I need to make changes in my diet and lifestyle. I have been told to exercise more, beware of sugars and cut carbs. It all sounded so simple until I was thinking about what foods are acceptable. Can I eat any bread if it is whole meal for example, or is that out? I have so many questions and would be so grateful for advice. I should mention that I need to lose weight too, particularly around the middle!
 
Hi @lizzieK and welcome to the forum.
Unfortunately for most of us (we vary as to how our bodies react to different carbs) wholemeal bread is almost exactly the same as white so far as our Blood Glucose is concerned. All digestible carbs turn into glucose when we digest them. So grains, bread, flour plus starchy veg like potato and for some even parsnip, carrot plus tropical fruit (banana, mango) and all fruit juices can give big Blood Glucose spikes.
This means that what most might consider to be a 'healthy breakfast: out porridge (or whole grain breakfast cereal), wholegrain toast, fruit juice is decidedly bad for a Type 2 diabetic. We fare much better on things like Eggs (cooked any way), meat (even fatty meat like bacon), high meat content sausages, fish, cheese and full fat dairy ( low fat dairy tends to have carbs added to compensate for lack of fat), low carb veg (such as brassica or leafy green veg, or celery, cucumber), mushrooms, avocado, and low carb fruit such as berries (raspberries and blackberries are best , blueberries not quite so good.

Fortunately you are only pre-diabetic, so relatively small changes such as cutting back on the higher carb foods, rather than completely eliminating them, may well be enough.

Type 2's who take low carb seriously tend to invest in a BG monitor and test strips in order to test how their own body reacts to different foods. But that is specific to them, and others may react differently, especially in regard to legumes (peas, beans) and to apples, pears and carrots, parsnips.

About half the people who try it find that a low carb way of eating (not cutting calories and not going hungry) reduces weight down to 'normal healthy' levels without dieting or additional exercise.
 
Hello @lizzieK and welcome to the Forum!

There is a lot of advice and encouragement on here. Look at -

Living With Diabetes on the Home Page of Diabetes UK
Learning Zone, the red tab at the top of this page
Previous Posts, especially in the Newbies, Food & Carbs, Exercise, and Weight Loss sections

Diabetes is the inability of the body to process carbohydrates properly, so you need to limit your consumption of all carbs
This includes starchy food such as bread, rice, pasta, spuds as well as obviously sweet things like cakes, biscuits, sweets, and sugary fizzy drinks

Unfortunately wholemeal bread contains the same amount of carb as white, so although you can eat a certain amount, it will be less than you're used to
You can have low carb bread such as Bergen Bread, or just have one or two oatcakes, as I do; you can also bake your own low carb bread, there are Threads about this in the Food Section
It really helps to have your own blood glucose meter to see how different foods affect your bg level, so see if your doctor will provide one, or consider buying your own - hopefully someone will come along with recommendations

As for losing weight & exercise, you don't need to go to the gym, or run a marathon, or do serious hiking trips (though you can if you want to!)
There is a blurring between sports/hiking/casual clothing now, so just get some comfortable clothing - Spring is nearly here, honest, and off you go!
Start with a walk to the shops and build it up from there, along minor roads, side streets, back lanes and footpaths that you can find anywhere, even in towns & cities

Or Search YouTube for 'indoor exercises'
I do Tai Chi, which is a martial art, but not as aggressive as things like karate or judo, and Canadian Airforce Exercises; find them on YT
Or you could do swimming or cycling, which I don't like, but you might
It would probably help to go to some sort of class for a bit of company & motivation, though not essential
 
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lizzieK said:
Hi! Firstly, thanks to the admin team for a warm welcome!
Yesterday I learned from my doctor that I am pre-diabetic….and quite high on the scale. In view of this I need to make changes in my diet and lifestyle. I have been told to exercise more, beware of sugars and cut carbs. It all sounded so simple until I was thinking about what foods are acceptable. Can I eat any bread if it is whole meal for example, or is that out? I have so many questions and would be so grateful for advice. I should mention that I need to lose weight too, particularly around the middle!
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As you are in the prediabetic range then you might find that a few simple changes in how you eat can make all the difference - for instance having a sandwich - if you halve the bread and double the filling it will make a big difference to the amount of carbohydrate. Taking two biscuits out of the packet and putting the rest away. Using swede or turnip rather than potato - it all adds up.
 
Thank you all for replying with such useful info and advice. I feel a lot more comfortable now at looking at my options. I feel sure that as I go along my choices will become automatic. Thank you DRUMMER for the suggestion re swede and turnip….I was wondering about those. Fortunately I like most veggies so that should be a help. Another question….two of my fav breakfasts are Weetabix with milk and a wholemeal seeded bagel thin with cream cheese. Will these work okay if I watch carbs for the rest of the day?
 
lizzieK said:
Thank you all for replying with such useful info and advice. I feel a lot more comfortable now at looking at my options. I feel sure that as I go along my choices will become automatic. Thank you DRUMMER for the suggestion re swede and turnip….I was wondering about those. Fortunately I like most veggies so that should be a help. Another question….two of my fav breakfasts are Weetabix with milk and a wholemeal seeded bagel thin with cream cheese. Will these work okay if I watch carbs for the rest of the day?
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Those would not do for me as in the morning I don't cope with carbs as well as in the evening, though I seem to need some small amount - I aim for 10 gm but no more. I do feel that there are better options than cereal based foods.
I have a wide variety of breakfasts, scrambled eggs with cheese, with a thinly sliced tomato dropped on top and a plate put over so it is warmed through, I have steak and mushrooms or stir fry, left over chicken and stir fry - I get the flavoured frozen packs from Lidl, Italian and Asian - I might have a pork chop. In the Summer I have fish and salad. If I cooked a swede for dinner I put all of it into the pressure cooker as that seems to do it best, then I might do bubble and squeak with bacon next morning, or 'bubble and squeal' which is mashed swede with eggs beaten into it, then put into the oven covered in cheese - or you can mix in cheese. Another good option is cauliflower cheese - steam the cauliflower until almost done, drain and place in a warm dish, cover with cream cheese, sprinkle on any herb or spice you fancy, then heap on grated cheese and place in the oven until the cheese is just getting a light golden tan.
 
If you are in a rush in the morning then having something lower carb but with protein and healthy fats will to keep you going until lunch time.
Many of us have full fat Greek yoghurt with some berries with seeds and nuts or a small 15-20g of a low carb cereal like low sugar granola or All Bran or eggs in any form with maybe 1 small slice toast.
Some substitutions for potatoes can be butternut squash, celeriac or swede, edamame bean or black bean pasta instead of normal pasta and cauliflower rice rather than rice or smaller portions of the higher carb foods.
Carbs and Cals book or app is a good resource for giving pictorial portion sizes and carb values so you can compare your options.
 
Thank you all for so many great ideas! I can see that my breakfast is going to make a huge change! Also that I have a lot of reading to do….there seems to be a lot of help around if you need it. One thing I would like to ask is, can anyone recommend a carb counting book/app? I would like to monitor my carbs daily just to see how it adds up, also what my target should be.
 
Welcome to the forum @lizzieK

Glad you have found us!

Some members find they get good results with higher carb intake than others. And no-go foods for some (eg porridge or weetabix) are a reliable staple for other members. It is this person-to-person variability that can make diabetes so tricky!

Many folks on the forum have found that the way to work around this confusing variability is to consult an independent, impartial expert. Not in this case your Dr or nurse, but a little gadget that measures your response to foods and tells you which have spiked your BG more than you’d like.

Most of the suggestions you are getting in this thread come from people running experiments on themselves. Eat a thing, check immediately before and again 2hrs after the first mouthful, compare the two numbers. If the rise is more than 2-3mmol/L at the 2 hr mark try a smaller portion, or swap the main source of carbs for something else. And repeat the process until you have a workable menu that suits you and which your body copes well with.

After that initial intensive fact-finding process many can then drop back to only checking very occasionally to see how things are doing, or if eating something new.

If you’d like to try this approach for yourself, you will most likely have to self-find your meter, and the strips it comes with (the cost of strips can quickly mount up). The most affordable meters members here have found are the SD Gluco Navii or the Spirit Tee2 - which both have test strips at around £10 for 50

You may find you get some happy surprises along the way, and things that you worried may be ‘off limits’ may end up being pretty BG-friendly for you as an individual.

Good luck with your menu tweaks, and let us know how you get on 🙂
 
lizzieK said:
Thank you all for so many great ideas! I can see that my breakfast is going to make a huge change! Also that I have a lot of reading to do….there seems to be a lot of help around if you need it. One thing I would like to ask is, can anyone recommend a carb counting book/app? I would like to monitor my carbs daily just to see how it adds up, also what my target should be.
Click to expand...
I have just seen edamame bean, black bean and soya bean pasta in the middle isle at Aldi at not a bad price.
 
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