At Risk of type 2 Diabetes

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Orinoco

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At risk of diabetes
Hi everyone just joined as I am not altogether sure of what I can do to help myself although losing weight I think would be a great help. I am about 2 stone overweight but if I lost a stone I would probably feel a lot better.
I am just into the 42-47 rate not sure of the wording for it sorry but only just.
I do have high blood pressure and have been on medication for this for at least 20 years so that's a factor.
I have a very sweet tooth and had 2-3 sugars in my coffee and I liked to drink coke regular but have cut that out and use sweeteners and no sugar drinks now.
Trying diabetic biscuits but have then read a few posts on here saying not a good idea lol
I do understand it's good to eat a low carb diet but I love fillers such as bread and pasta etc.
My diet is probably not good and I find cooking a chore.
I look after my grandchildren and they only eat childrens food such as pizza, pasta etc. I cook for them so don't cook many dinners anymore as my husband likes his curries so he has his own dinners.
Exercise would be helpful and I do get some walking to the school and back but walking is not a happy place for me.
I don't get too much time to myself so when I do it's often on my computer.
Hope I don't come across as too negative as I am trying but 2 weeks in and I feel I am losing a battle already.
I am sure being on this forum will be a help to me.
I look forward to reading more about what I should eat and do.
Thanks in advance for any help.
 
Hello @Orinoco and welcome.
As you are only just into at risk numbers you might well find that a few alterations in your diet could solve several problems for you.
The problem is carbohydrate, not just sugars, so if you were to lower your intake of starches that could do the trick for you as sugar and starch becomes simple sugars in the blood with no discrimination as far as I can see.
If you decide to go lower carb watch out that your blood pressure doesn't start to go low. On the low carb group I am in several people have reported quite nasty falls on stairs after going dizzy. They continued to take the tablets after feeling symptoms as they assumed that they would always need the medication.
Maybe if you make an assessment of how many grams of carbohydrate you consume in the average day you could see what could be cut out - though it might be that removing the sugar in coffee and Coke has already been enough.
 
Hi Drummer thanks for your welcome and reply. Never want to give up carbs lol but never wanted to do no sugar drinks but I am managing that fine. Cream soda and Cherry Ade to the rescue lol. Bread I love but maybe there are good breads and bad ones out there?
Difficult with blood pressure I know and don't want to change my medication but if mine gets lower due to lifestyle changes then it would need looking at.
 
Orinoco said:
Hi Drummer thanks for your welcome and reply. Never want to give up carbs lol but never wanted to do no sugar drinks but I am managing that fine. Cream soda and Cherry Ade to the rescue lol. Bread I love but maybe there are good breads and bad ones out there?
Difficult with blood pressure I know and don't want to change my medication but if mine gets lower due to lifestyle changes then it would need looking at.
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I make low carb breads using low carb additions to a normal bread dough so as to get several loaves rather than just one - though I have made substitutions now and hardly use bread at all these days.
I got a strange taste alteration when I got Covid and cah't drink ordinary teas now. I found mint and liquorice tea bags and drank that cold at first, then warm in the winter, putting mint and liquorice tea bags together when I couldn't get the combination.
There are some good swaps though. Look up the Hairy Bikers lasagne using leek instead of pasta, and I make a great bubble and squeak using swede rather than potato, and the cauliflower cheese dish I devised was quite a hit. The low carb options are really not second best eating.
 
Drummer said:
I make low carb breads using low carb additions to a normal bread dough so as to get several loaves rather than just one - though I have made substitutions now and hardly use bread at all these days.
I got a strange taste alteration when I got Covid and cah't drink ordinary teas now. I found mint and liquorice tea bags and drank that cold at first, then warm in the winter, putting mint and liquorice tea bags together when I couldn't get the combination.
There are some good swaps though. Look up the Hairy Bikers lasagne using leek instead of pasta, and I make a great bubble and squeak using swede rather than potato, and the cauliflower cheese dish I devised was quite a hit. The low carb options are really not second best eating.
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I love bread it's a failing here but can't do without it. Cauliflower cheese I love but the wind after stops me from enjoying it. Nuts seem to give me terrible stomach ache too so I guess I am now not a nut eater. Leeks I am not overly keen so that might be a miss. Liquorish and mint tea is an odd mix but I do if I have tea only have it black I hate tea with milk. Swede I don't like at all lol I do love cheese and am trying low fat ones instead of full fat. Some low fat products are not good and others are good enough. Thanks for your advise
 
Orinoco said:
I love bread it's a failing here but can't do without it. Cauliflower cheese I love but the wind after stops me from enjoying it. Nuts seem to give me terrible stomach ache too so I guess I am now not a nut eater. Leeks I am not overly keen so that might be a miss. Liquorish and mint tea is an odd mix but I do if I have tea only have it black I hate tea with milk. Swede I don't like at all lol I do love cheese and am trying low fat ones instead of full fat. Some low fat products are not good and others are good enough. Thanks for your advise
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Fats and protein do not convert to glucose so having those, well that is healthy fats and protein with veg and salads but with smaller portions of the high carb foods like bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, breakfast cereals and pastry. Many find their gut issues improve by reducing the carbs in their diet.
The website sugarfreelondoner has good recipes for low carb cakes, biscuits as well as savoury dishes.
Low fat cheese is generally flavourless and you would be better with a nice strong cheese which you could then use less of.
There is no need to eat foods that you don't like as there are plenty of alternatives. Have a look at this link for some ideas for making some changes, https://lowcarbfreshwell.com/. It is a low carb approach it is not NO carbs. For veggies you are not keen on then look at other ways of cooking then, I find broccoli less strong a flavour than cauliflower though I do use it in a butternut squash, cauliflower and chickpea curry.
Meals do not need to be complicated, if you like curry then no reason not to have it just go easy on any rice and have other veg instead.
The thing that motivated me to make changes was I did not want my daughters to have to become my carers in the future and to be there to enjoy my grandchildren growing up.
You have to take care of yourself to enable you to take care of your grandchildren.
 
Hi @Orinoco from an ex-carb head! Bread in particular: white, brown, rolls, sliced, crusty, you name it I loved it. About 2 weeks after I cut bread out (though you are supposed to reduce it gradually not cut it right out straightaway) I stopped craving carbs and got less and less hungry. Previously I'd have a bagel (or 2!) for breakfast then be looking forward to a bagette or chippy dinner for lunch, and was still hungry.

It is enormously hard at first and I only managed by taking one day at a time. If I thought of the bigger picture, ie 5 stones to lose, I'd have given up and wept.

Look on it as an early warning sign. You don't have much weight to lose and not far to get back to "normal" blood glucose levels so no need to go at it hammer-and-tongs. I'm sure you can do it. Wishing you all the best x
 
Hi Orinico,

Dr David Unwin, a diabetes trail blazing GP (as is Dr David Oliver at Freshwell mentioned by LeadingLights), says diabetes is always a puzzle to be solved with his patient. His success rate with prediabetic patients like yourself is 93%. He explained his approach to an audience of GPs last year in this entertaining video and his diet sheet is here.

Your puzzle is how to win the battle. You have had high blood pressure for 20 years, you are two stone overweight, your blood glucose is too high, and the quality of your diet is too low. The battleground is your weight and you need to improve diet to win. Your waist measurement is a simple indicator of success, as a rule of thumb experts say aim for less than half your height.

HbA1c is a good indicator too. 42 is borderline prediabetic, meaning the level of fat in your liver is on the high side. Average HbA1c for people without diabetes or prediabetes is around 35. I hope it's obvious 35 is a better place to be than 42!

You ask about what to eat. As well as Freshwell meal pleans and recipes and Dr Unwin's diet, I'd suggest you have a look at Zoe Harcombe's article 'What should we eat?' - it includes a handy table of foods to include in a weight loss diet. Three variations on a low carb theme. I am following Harcombe principles, about weight loss in particular, to maintain my target weight. So far so good after one year.

Professor Roy Taylor's book 'Life without Diabetes (Type 2)' solved the puzzle for me. In 2008 he and his team at Newcastle University showed the world for the first time that T2D can disappear when you reverse 'fatty liver' by diet. That's why Dr Unwin is achieving 93% success with his prediabetic patients.
 
Hi @Orinoco

Sorry to hear of your diagnosis but pleased that you have found the forum, where you can tap into a wealth of experience and support.

If you are keen to keep bread on the menu, you could look at lower carbs options. If you use unsliced you could simply cut thinner slices. Overall it is the reduction in carbs that will help to reduce glucose levels in your blood, as you can match the amount of carbs to the insulin that you are producing. For our meals in general we found it helpful to use smaller plates. That may sound bonkers but it really helped, making the reductions in portion sizes that we chose to make fill the plate rather than looking rather paltry on our bigger plates.

Another thing I find helps me to manage my levels is to stick with ‘don’t sit down for 15 min after a meal’. This sometimes means that we go for a walk, or it might mean doing a bit of ironing, doing the clearing up before sitting down.

If you are making ‘children’s meals’ care you using pre prepared meals, or making your own. Ready meals often include a lot of hidden carbs. By making your own, you could involve the children in making them and choosing toppings.

As others have said it is not easy to make changes to our habits, but think of the long term.
Small changes that you are able to maintain are good to aim for.
 
Thank you all for your replies I will take note of all you have said and hopefully I will update when I have lost weight lol I am laughing as don't know how that's going to go. Will do my best . Take care all of you x
 
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