Diabetes 2

[Vixon69]

Hey, not sure if i'm in the right room or not it's not easy to find out where to message from on this site from your mobile.
My question does or did anyone suffer with excessive sleeping ?
I went to my GP 2014 because I was excessively sleeping, they did a blood test and told me I had diabetes 2, so far diet controlled, I still don't know how to concor this. Has anyone else suffered with this and can you offer any advice

 

[Lynn Davies]

Hi and welcome Vixon - do you test to see what your glucose levels are?

 

[Sydney Bristowe]

It was needing to sleep too much that convinced me to go to the Doctors - at one point I'd slept for 15 hours, got up, did a few chores, needed a nap again after 2 hours and then crashed out again at my normal time the next night. My tests revealed that I was diabetic.

Since my diagnosis I've been out on Metformin so am now up to the max dose they recommended for me and transformed my diet. I cut out almost all added sugars, cut out all white carbs and reduced the amount I have of low GI carbs too. Since doing this I've started to need less sleep. I can cope now if I only get 8 hours for a few nights and just need the occasional 10 hour top up. So I'm still not back to normal but much improved. I also notice that if I have a less controlled day, the next day I suffer more with tiredness, so that's given me an extra kick to maintain good dietary control.

Of course Type 2 is a very varied condition, so what has worked for me might not work for you, but looking at your control is always a good thing

 

[Vixon69]

Hi and welcome Vixon - do you test to see what your glucose levels are?

Hi Lynn and thank you. No I don't check, I was told last year that my levels had not changed from my original diagnosis, I go for my 3rd diabetic clinic 25th for a check up. I was told to cut out all sugar all salt and all fats. I have cut back alot on my sugar intake, I try to dry fry all meat, something I learnt from Slimming World yrs ago.

 

[Vixon69]

It was needing to sleep too much that convinced me to go to the Doctors - at one point I'd slept for 15 hours, got up, did a few chores, needed a nap again after 2 hours and then crashed out again at my normal time the next night. My tests revealed that I was diabetic.

Since my diagnosis I've been out on Metformin so am now up to the max dose they recommended for me and transformed my diet. I cut out almost all added sugars, cut out all white carbs and reduced the amount I have of low GI carbs too. Since doing this I've started to need less sleep. I can cope now if I only get 8 hours for a few nights and just need the occasional 10 hour top up. So I'm still not back to normal but much improved. I also notice that if I have a less controlled day, the next day I suffer more with tiredness, so that's given me an extra kick to maintain good dietary control.

Of course Type 2 is a very varied condition, so what has worked for me might not work for you, but looking at your control is always a good thing

Hi Sydney, thanks for that, yeah I don't want to sleep my life away and it doesn't help that my full time job the shifts are all over the place (not a 9 - 5pm) I used to have a large bar of chocolate a day, now I have one a week. Everyday I have jacket potatoes with tuna or cheese. And for a light lunch ham sandwiches 50/50 bread. Toast for breakfast. And once a week I will have a treat with my bestie fish 'n' chips. (I used to have McDonald's or KFC for breaks at work, doesn't help that I am surrounded by them, but I hardly touch them now) so I feel I have made dietary big cuts and yes I could do more and I am working on that abit at a time.

 

[Stitch147]

Hi Vixon and welcome to the forum.

 

[Lynn Davies]

I have always thought it a bit shortsighted of Dr's and nurses to not allow type 2's to test. I find it invaluable to see how different foods impact on my blood glucose levels.

My surgery won't fund type 2's so I bought my own from Amazon. SD codefree is the cheapest one for test strips with a pot of 50 costing about £8. It sure helped me to know what I could tolerate and what I couldnt.

I have a spreadsheet that I record onto noting different foods and how then effected my test results.

Hopefully Northerner will spot this and give you the link to Test, review, adjust information which is a very good read.

 

[Vixon69]

Thanks for your help, I agree if I knew what made mine better&worse I should be able to control it alot better. I will have a look on Amazon. 🙂

 

[Sydney Bristowe]

Hi Sydney, thanks for that, yeah I don't want to sleep my life away and it doesn't help that my full time job the shifts are all over the place (not a 9 - 5pm) I used to have a large bar of chocolate a day, now I have one a week. Everyday I have jacket potatoes with tuna or cheese. And for a light lunch ham sandwiches 50/50 bread. Toast for breakfast. And once a week I will have a treat with my bestie fish 'n' chips. (I used to have McDonald's or KFC for breaks at work, doesn't help that I am surrounded by them, but I hardly touch them now) so I feel I have made dietary big cuts and yes I could do more and I am working on that abit at a time.

I'll caveat all I'm about to say with the fact that I'm not a dietician nor am I an expert on diabetes, but my observations on the above would be:

Cutting back on the chocolate is great! I could never give up on chocolate, but I've switched to Dark as it has lower sugar content. Cutting down from the levels you were having should be an on going process so you are not tempted to binge

It may be just a slip of the keyboard, but you mention jacket potatoes (i.e. more than one) As a starchy carb, potatoes are something you should look at cutting down on, so maybe trying to have one jacket and add in some salad or switch to sweet potatoes instead as they are lower GI might work

50/50 bread is better than white, but if you can tolerate granary/wholegrain bread then that switch will be a good one. Will still work well with Ham and will probably leave you feeling fuller for longer

Nowt wrong with the occasional fish and chips - as long as it really is only occasional and the rest of the day you have good control

Overall I think you would benefit from looking at where you could add some more protein and 'good' fats - say a small handful of unsalted nuts as a snack or some mashed avocado on your lunchtime sandwich as well as the ham. I believe its important that you don't feel deprived as it unsustainable long term

Of course when you get your meter you may find that I've been talking rubbish and those tips just don't work for you. But it will definitely make life easier to know what is working for you and what isn't 🙂

 

[Lynn Davies]

Great advise from Sydney. Cutting out your carbs and replacing them with healthy protein is a great way to go. Whilst salad may not be the most tempting of meals you can add some lower carb dressings. Full fat mayo is 1 carb per tablespoonful.

 

[Vixon69]

Thank you both, I obviously need to knuckle down to work out what foods to swap with, although my diet is not perfect I have changed alot and I was not prepared to go cold turkey as advised by my GP to cut out all sugar, salt and fats in my diet now (I'd turn into a raving monster).. because I am not on meds at the moment if I did metre readings daily I would have to get one, Something I will ask my GP if I need to buy. Thanks for your help 🙂