Feeling bad

[Ali11782]

So I've already had approx 76g of carbs today and I'm feel really bad about it. I had porridge made with milk with a tablespoon of purreed berries then at 10am two slices of toast with cream cheese. I walked for 40mins in between these foods and blood sugar was lowish when I came home hence the toast. But now I'm feeling guilty

 

[Nayshiftin]

why? There is no real limit per person on carbs if your blood sugar is good then reducing carbs is only one way. Drinking and exercise and need I add less stress is a good way forward too. I am sorry but do not get too hung over one thing and carbs can be just that one thing. Enjoy life and make your diabetic diet a journey. If you've messed up one time in a day be good the rest or the next. What I am trying to say is your worth more than a beating oneself up over a few carbs. Look on the positives you did go for a walk and your bloods were low you addressed that. It might be mood swings as you blood sugars level. Be kind to yourself your are worth it

 

[helli]

I don't understand why you are feeling guilty.
You are exercising and you are managing your diabetes by eating some toast when you are going low.
This is good.

You have Type 1 diabetes. If you are able to manage your levels with your insulin, there is no reason to limit carbs.
I eat want I want. That includes a pizza and a half sometimes, bowls of pasta other times, chocolate in between, ... I do not limit my carbs. And, this week, I learnt my Hb1AC is 45.

Food associated guilt is not healthy. If you feel this way, you may want to see if you can talk to someone about it.

But from a diabetes perspective, THERE IS NO REASON TO FEEL GUILTY.

 

[Ali11782]

I don't understand why you are feeling guilty.
You are exercising and you are managing your diabetes by eating some toast when you are going low.
This is good.

You have Type 1 diabetes. If you are able to manage your levels with your insulin, there is no reason to limit carbs.
I eat want I want. That includes a pizza and a half sometimes, bowls of pasta other times, chocolate in between, ... I do not limit my carbs. And, this week, I learnt my Hb1AC is 45.

Food associated guilt is not healthy. If you feel this way, you may want to see if you can talk to someone about it.

But from a diabetes perspective, THERE IS NO REASON TO FEEL GUILTY.

Thank you. I am just struggling with fear of eating too much and putting on weight with taking my insulin even though I know that's not the case.
Suppose it just felt a lot of carbs to have had by mid morning. X

 

[Ali11782]

why? There is no real limit per person on carbs if your blood sugar is good then reducing carbs is only one way. Drinking and exercise and need I add less stress is a good way forward too. I am sorry but do not get too hung over one thing and carbs can be just that one thing. Enjoy life and make your diabetic diet a journey. If you've messed up one time in a day be good the rest or the next. What I am trying to say is your worth more than a beating oneself up over a few carbs. Look on the positives you did go for a walk and your bloods were low you addressed that. It might be mood swings as you blood sugars level. Be kind to yourself your are worth it

Thanks my night prob hasn't helped.

 

[helli]

Thank you. I am just struggling with fear of eating too much and putting on weight with taking my insulin even though I know that's not the case.
Suppose it just felt a lot of carbs to have had by mid morning. X

If your life is balanced in terms of exercise and food, Type 1 diabetes (and insulin) should not make a difference to weight gain.
This is about you, not me, but I will tell you that in addition to a healthy HbA1C, I have a BMI of less than 22. That is with all those carbs I eat.

Enjoy life, and don't let diabetes or guilt take over.

And feel free to vent here if you want to.

 

[Ali11782]

Basically I have never managed to eat 'normal', like three meals a day, always been either not eating then go through phases of binging. So it hard to adjust to the regular eating and fear of what it will be like in terms of weight. So badly want to do it but it's taking a lot of effort for my mind to adjust.

 

[Ali11782]

Th

If your life is balanced in terms of exercise and food, Type 1 diabetes (and insulin) should not make a difference to weight gain.
This is about you, not me, but I will tell you that in addition to a healthy HbA1C, I have a BMI of less than 22. That is with all those carbs I eat.

Enjoy life, and don't let diabetes or guilt take over.

And feel free to vent here if you want to.

Thanks, just written a post if you want to read it.
I walk every day 1 to 2hours. It just the adjusting to regular eating and not binging etc x

 

[Leadinglights]

Although Type 2 and therefore do restrict the amount of carbs I have, from what I read here is most people with Type 1 have whatever carbs they are comfortable with and as long as they are calculating their insulin dosing and are monitoring, not to say that sometimes it is not a struggle to balance things.

 

[rebrascora]

Do you need to eat regular meals?? I don't. I eat when I have time and when I am hungry. I have disordered eating and I have been that way for a long time. There are times when I get really hungry and I eat a lot and other times when I am not hungry and eat very little. The benefit of basal/bolus insulin regime is that it allows you to do that. Don't feel guilty or feel that you have to comply with regular meals if it doesn't suit your mentality or lifestyle. Just eat as you did before and use your insulin to cover what you eat, when you want to eat... obviously within reason..... eating a whole multipack of Snickers probably wouldn't be a good idea (something I might have done pre diagnosis 😱) but just do what feels right to you and don't worry about justifying it to anyone else or trying to fit in with someone else's idea of what you should be doing.

 

[Ali11782]

Do you need to eat regular meals?? I don't. I eat when I have time and when I am hungry. I have disordered eating and I have been that way for a long time. There are times when I get really hungry and I eat a lot and other times when I am not hungry and eat very little. The benefit of basal/bolus insulin regime is that it allows you to do that. Don't feel guilty or feel that you have to comply with regular meals if it doesn't suit your mentality or lifestyle. Just eat as you did before and use your insulin to cover what you eat, when you want to eat... obviously within reason..... eating a whole multipack of Snickers probably wouldn't be a good idea (something I might have done pre diagnosis 😱) but just do what feels right to you and don't worry about justifying it to anyone else or trying to fit in with someone else's idea of what you should be doing.

I feel I want to eat regular meals. If I'm not hungry though and blood sugar not stable I will skip a meal.
Yeah I can eat various multipacks in one go when emotions take over. But I'm determined to break this cycle. I just want to not think about food all the time. Which is what I feel I do. X

 

[Ali11782]

Would just like to just be able to not eat for a few hours and my blood sugar to stay stable no ups or downs. Is this possible x

 

[rebrascora]

I found going low carb helped me deal with my sugar addiction/carb cravings but very occasionally I will have a little splurge of carbs. I had an individual Xmas pud i found in the back of the cupboard the other day with cream for a midnight feast. It was about 55g carbs all in one little dish but somehow I timed my insulin perfectly and had it with cream to slow the carbs down and I barely had a blip on my graph ... couldn't believe it!...More by good luck than judgement I have to say.... but I actually felt quite good about it and I really enjoyed it and I think that sometimes I need to do that and maybe it is actually good for me physically and mentally. I still comfort binge occasionally but mostly on low carb foods, so the other night I had a tin of tuna with mayonnaise and finely chopped onion with some cucumber. An hour later I had another tin with the same additions as I was still craving. The second one sorted it. I will get a rise from the protein but it is a very slow, steady rise and I can take correction doses to deal with it.

You have to find what works for you. If you feel that regular meals would work best then spend some time planning them and make it as easy as possible to stick to it and be kind to yourself, but don't feel that you have to conform just because someone thinks everyone should have 3 meals a day.

BG levels do go up and down all the time, particularly through the day. Your graph you posted above is great apart from the red patch through the night but I find that Libre reads slightly lower than finger pricks and in reality you may not have ben in the red at all so I might be annoyed that oit spoiled my stats but I wouldn't be overly concerned health or safety wise Non diabetic people dip into the red too (often through the night) so don't feel like you have failed or got it wrong.

Perfection is impossible, so there is always room for improvement but we can't constantly improve, there will be slips backwards as well as progress forwards. You have to accept that a lot of stuff which affects our BG is beyond our control. You are doing REALLY WELL so cut yourself some slack and relax a bit and be more confident in the choices that you make for you. It is your life and your choice and the basal bolus system gives you that choice so feel free to use it. If you had been on the old fashioned mixed insulin you would have had to eat regular meals to try to keep your levels balanced. Do what feels right to you.

 

[Inka]

You’ve done nothing wrong @Ali11782 So you shouldn’t feel guilty at all. X

Yes, you should be able to not eat but unfortunately we have to plan our food and exercise, so that means adjusting our insulin and/or topping up the carbs.

 

[Inka]

So, if you decide to have a walk after breakfast, you need to either know that in advance and reduce your breakfast bolus, or, if you decide on the spur of the moment, you just need to eat a few carbs to ‘top up’ ready for your walk.

 

[Inka]

Although Type 2 and therefore do restrict the amount of carbs I have, from what I read here is most people with Type 1 have whatever carbs they are comfortable with and as long as they are calculating their insulin dosing and are monitoring, not to say that sometimes it is not a struggle to balance things.

Thank you for saying this as a Type 2 @Leadinglights You’re absolutely right. Type 1s do not have to limit their carbs or go on special diets. Sometimes some people forget that.

When I first looked at this forum a number of years ago, I was put off joining because I felt guilty - wrongly, as it turned out, but if people are susceptible to questioning themselves or feeling bad about food or their own eating habits, some of the comments here wouldn’t help. I was eating a perfectly normal diet but reading some posts here I suddenly felt I was doing something stupid and wrong. I wasn’t. I don’t consider myself a person susceptible to guilt now (although I was as a teenager) but even so casual comments here still managed to get to me.

Cereals, bread, pasta, rice, cake, potatoes, biscuits, chocolate, etc etc are not evil and they’re perfectly ok to eat as a Type 1. The recommended diet for Type 1s is the recommended diet for people without diabetes (and some years ago Diabetes U.K. had an advert saying precisely that). There’s a reason why eating disorders are more prevalent in Type 1s and it’s not helped by demonising food. Your comment was spot on - thank you.

 

[Nayshiftin]

Thanks my night prob hasn't helped. View attachment 17459

Looks like you had a hypo and I am type two and never really gone that low other than in hospital where I believe they looked after it. I think sometimes I do get one but then my liver dumps sugar like I do not know what. Its not easy and I am newish but also type 2. Type 1 people may help you a lot more and reach out like you are doing. You have this though you are addressing it and being aware is better than head in the sand. I wish you to feel well and in control if that is the terminology soon. Just make the best of life. It throws enough rubbish at us without us trying to aim too high.

 

[Leadinglights]

Thank you for saying this as a Type 2 @Leadinglights You’re absolutely right. Type 1s do not have to limit their carbs or go on special diets. Sometimes some people forget that.

When I first looked at this forum a number of years ago, I was put off joining because I felt guilty - wrongly, as it turned out, but if people are susceptible to questioning themselves or feeling bad about food or their own eating habits, some of the comments here wouldn’t help. I was eating a perfectly normal diet but reading some posts here I suddenly felt I was doing something stupid and wrong. I wasn’t. I don’t consider myself a person susceptible to guilt now (although I was as a teenager) but even so casual comments here still managed to get to me.

Cereals, bread, pasta, rice, cake, potatoes, biscuits, chocolate, etc etc are not evil and they’re perfectly ok to eat as a Type 1. The recommended diet for Type 1s is the recommended diet for people without diabetes (and some years ago Diabetes U.K. had an advert saying precisely that). There’s a reason why eating disorders are more prevalent in Type 1s and it’s not helped by demonising food. Your comment was spot on - thank you.

The whole issue can be very confusing for people who are newly diagnosed as it is easy to latch onto something which may be inappropriate for them. The mixed messages from all the sources people have access to in this internet age means they have to sift out the b...s... from the good advice, no wonder people get stressed out.
People do need to be careful when they look at various posts not to confuse advice suggested for a Type that does not apply to them otherwise they can get the wrong end of the stick.
I had not realised initially that some people with Type 2 do need insulin so my immediate reaction was OMG what a lot of carbs they have. I think we should all be grateful for the experience and patience that you and others have in responding to peoples concerns.

 

[pm133]

Would just like to just be able to not eat for a few hours and my blood sugar to stay stable no ups or downs. Is this possible x

For that you might need to play around with your basal I think. I get nice flat lines during fasting periods but other type 1s report peaks and troughs so I'm less sure about this than I used to be.

If you are snacking between meals then it's probably giong to be impossible to get a remotely straight line. Other than your overnight hypo, your chart looks OK even with that short peak which breaches 9.0.

It sounds to me that you are worrying about the wrong things. If you want to avoid weight gain, over-eating is the thing to avoid, not carbs. The question then is whether you are constantly hungry because you aren't eating enough food to match your exercise or whether you genuinely are over-eating at times. For that you'll need to consider your calorie intake on a typical day.

 

[Ali11782]

For that you might need to play around with your basal I think. I get nice flat lines during fasting periods but other type 1s report peaks and troughs so I'm less sure about this than I used to be.

If you are snacking between meals then it's probably giong to be impossible to get a remotely straight line. Other than your overnight hypo, your chart looks OK even with that short peak which breaches 9.0.

It sounds to me that you are worrying about the wrong things. If you want to avoid weight gain, over-eating is your issue, not carbs.

Thanks. Today it just doesn't want to stay up, keeps going down so my basal must be wrong. I'm having to snack every two hours x