Food Changes am I doing the Right Thing?

[skippyinspace]

So after an initial consulatiation with the diabetes nurse which touched upon diet and a quick run through of my diet.
Weight was just under 20 stone clothed.

Currently
Breakfast - 2 slices of Jam on toast with sunflower spread
Lunch / snack- meal deal - Sandwich (orange and red), 2 packs of crisps and 2 pepsi max
Dinner - pasta and pasta sauce, or noodles and bae buns or fish and chips or a frozen pizza (Large)
Afternoon - large bowl of crisps
Evening - Large Bowl of Crisps
Multiple pint glasses of pepsi max

The nurse picked up on the jam and suggested cutting Jam and bread out of the diet, She was trying to find suggary sweets and the like as quick wins.

So Im trying this.

Breakfast - Poridge with golden syryp (Is this rerally better than Jam on toast?)
Lunch - Replaced with Sandwich ( now trying geen / orange)on 3 days with a medium salad (Mainly pastas again is this really any better?) and changed the crisps to the baked type
Dinner - no change
Afternoon evening snacks - have tried to move down a bowl size, have also made seaweed crisps as an alternative

Weight today - naked was 18 stone 4 but Think when clothed at the Doctors there would be no real change

My question I believe the changes I made are like for like so havent made any real change or infact have made things worse.

Exercise none yet, trying to get a steps baseline so that that I can add 500 to 1000 steps per week to get to 5K and then 7K per day

Thoughts suggestion

Ian

 

[harbottle]

What is your hba1c?
I'd try those meals and test before and afterwards and adjust based on the results.
That food does look high in carbs, so testing may be a good idea to see what you can handle.

 

[Thebearcametoo]

It can easy to focus on the quick sugars like jam but it’s your overall carbs that make a difference. Porridge is often better than bread in that a 40g serving of dry oats made into porridge with water is about 25g carbs whereas 2 slices of bread is probably 35-40g so there is some saving. Jam would add 5-10g depending on how thick you have it. If you add in some berries instead of the syrup (frozen work well in porridge) then you can probably bring the whole portion in at under 30g carbs. If you were to have eggs then you would be carb free. Eggs and one slice of toast would be 17-20g.

You’re making some sensible changes with lunch in that each bag of crisps will be around 15g carbs of carbs so cutting that down is already a win. Snacking on nuts is fewer carbs but more fat so it will depend on how many nuts you eat as to how much of a win that would be overall.

In terms of main meals. Portion size will matter. Pasta is 1/3 carbs cooked so that would give you a base as to how many carbs you have. You can then decide to have a smaller portion or to eat something other than pasta. If you can make your protein the main bit of your meal with a side of veg or salad and a small helping of carbs then you’ll easily cut your carbs. It doesn’t mean you can’t eat pasta or chips just have a smaller portion. Anything in a packet will have the carbs in the nutritional info so get into the habit of seeing how many carbs you’re eating and look at ways to reduce that over each day.

Making some changes that are workable is better than trying a major change that is unsustainable so you’re already doing well. Just pointing out ways you can make changes that are going to give you faster results. And yes if you can add some steps in at a steady pace that’s good too.

 

[Leadinglights]

I'm afraid none of the things you are having for your meals/snacks would many be able to tolerate. It is all carbohydrates which people with Type 2 diabetes can't tolerate and pushes up blood glucose levels. The bread, pasta, potatoes, crisps baked or not are all high carb. You don't seem to be having any protein or vegetables in your meals.
You may find some helpful information in this link which should give you some ideas for better meals and more understanding of Type 2 diabetes

Freshwell Low Carb Project - Home

lowcarbfreshwell.co.uk

 

[trophywench]

What's the meaning of the colours with the sandwiches?

 

[Inka]

What's the meaning of the colours with the sandwiches?

I wondered if it was referring to the traffic light system? Unless the OP has access to exciting rainbow-coloured bread, of course!

 

[trophywench]

Never thought of that - never buy ready made sandwiches!

 

[Ditto]

If I ate any of the foods on your menu I would put on half a stone overnight, no kidding. My bg would be in the double figures. I have to low carb it or nothing! Good luck with sorting out what's best for you. YMMV 🙂

 

[Lucyr]

The golden syrup seems an easy thing to cut out, or swap it for this one. Normal golden syrup is just liquid syrup.

Whole oats are supposed to be better than the sachets as they digest slower, I use the sachets though as it makes portion control simpler. Read the labels for the carbs as it does vary between flavours.

If you don’t actually like porridge though I wouldn’t swap to it. I’d try 1-2 boiled eggs on 1 Wholemeal small toast instead.

 

[Deleted member 21371]

I worked with my NHS dietician to change my diet.
Low fat, cut the snacks, smaller portions, and cut the calories.
I followed that with the 800 calorie shake based diet.
I lost 5 stones, and reversed my diabetes.
That worked very well for me.
The other option that was promoted was low carb diet for life, but diet control wouldn't have worked with my lifestyle, I like to travel, eat out, street food on many occasions, so I wanted to enjoy a full spectrum of things.
I also wanted to address all health aspects, not just focus solely on BG, so I picked and chose over the many options.

You've made a great start there, and remember, it's a marathon, not a sprint.

 

[Drummer]

I just eat low carb foods - meat, fish, seafood, eggs, cheese, full fat dairy, with low carb choices such as stirfry, mushrooms, frozen mixed veges without sweetcorn, and occasionally some mixed berries, kept frozen year round, or fresh in summer.
I eat up to 40 gm of carbs a day and don't need medication. I have lost quite a bit of weight and changed shape since diagnosis. I plan to eat 2 meals a day, but sometimes I am so not hungry (like today) that I just don't bother until the evening. According to Atkins I am resistant to weightloss except at really low levels of carb - but I find food is not important these days. I still have some things bought for Christmas - but I don't find them 'treats' - I just don't feel deprived without them. I only just finished the Christmas pudding, but I did manage to eat a whole tin of salmon in a day this week.
If I am out all day I can have more carbs than usual without causing a spike in blood glucose or feeling sleepy. In the summer heat wave I once bought two icecreams in one day!! But when out I am usually singing and playing music for dancing, so am quite active, and now, 5 years from diagnosis I don't have to bother all that much about diet - but it was carbs which caused the weight gain every time I was pushed to eat all those so healthy starches. I was almost spherical as I gain weight so easily eating carbs.

 

[Cuttingthecarbs]

I'm pre diabetic so am on a lower carb diet to lose a bit of weight in the hope that I'll go into remission with the pre diabetes.

I would suggest you decide what type of diet you want to do. For example, if you're cutting carbs you need to look at the 'big gun' carbs like pasta, potatoes, bread and rice (and pizza) and reduce or swap them out of your meals.

So, for example, if you're doing lower carbs and you take a look at one of the on line supermarkets (like Tesco) or the back of the packet for the carb value of normal crisps and baked crisps (any brand) you'll see that they're pretty much the same (in fact the normal crisps have slightly less carbs than the baked!) Because they're made with the same amount of potato. The cooking method doesn't change that fact. The carbs are in the potato so the same weight = the same carbs.

I've set up a small excel spreadsheet to log my carbs and am trying to stay 130gram carbs a day or under (the lowish carb diet on this site). It's actually been pretty easy with swapping out. I've lost 9lb since November which obviously included Christmas where I did enjoy the odd chocolate and the desserts without feeling the need to stuff my face as usual so something is working to curb my appetite for carbs!

I've got a teenager and a husband and I work so I didn't want too much faffing about with totally different meals - the odd 'swapping out' is fine but cooking completely different is a pain when you get home from work. So...

I've swapped toast for porridge with almond milk (lower carb than cows milk). I'm not a fan of berries so I'll either mash half a banana or I'll add a scant (level) teaspoon of sugar. That gives enough sweetness and I'm full for the morning with that. Energy level is up too - I had toast the other day and felt so sleepy and craved more toast afterwards which is weird.

Sometimes I'll just have coffee with a few teaspoons of double cream if I'm not hungry. I cut out sugar in my tea/coffee a few years ago.

I take a salad or Ryvita (half the carbs of a slice of bread in each 'slice') with cheese, hummus or chicken plus some tomatoes/cucumber to work. If I'm home I'll do an omelette with cheese or ham or mushrooms (weighed so I can add that to my carbs) or eggs and bacon/ham. No bread.

If we have pasta at home, I'll weigh a full portion for them and a one third portion for me. Then I'll fill the remaining 'space' with veg or salad. Can't stand the spiralled veg pasta replacement idea - it doesn't taste like pasta! So cutting right back is my only option.

I have cauliflower mash and cauliflower rice instead of the usual suspects and actually prefer them now. I make chicken curry with stock or tinned tomatoes, curry powder instead of paste rather than chuck a ready made jar of sauce over it. Lower carbs...

I have chips, roast potatoes and jacket potatoes. BUT, I count out 10 chips if I have them with fish (yes just 10!). I don't have battered fish (unless it's from the chip shop which hasn't happened in two months so isn't frequent). That's all. My mind knows I've eaten chips - I fill the rest of the plate with veg - so I don't start craving. I've had fish AND chips as far as my cravings are concerned. But I've only had 10. Same with roast potatoes. I just have one medium. But it's on the plate, with the roast, so I've obviously had roast potatoes haven't I? And I'll have a small jacket potato if it's part of the meal I'm doing. Because I know I will miss it if everyone else is having one. But I don't NEED a full size potato.

At the weekend we had pizza, but I had two small slices plus a few fresh (i.e not coated) chicken wings with salad. So I had the taste of pizza but filled up on chicken (no carbs) and salad (few carbs) rather than a large amount of pizza. If you live alone and like the large pizza type then cut it into a few portions (as a man you need more than I do) then put the rest in the freezer. Add salad (and chicken if you want the 'full up' feeling that a large pizza would give). Not coated chicken though! The chicken has no carbs remember.

I don't have crisps now. They're my downfall so I leave them alone. Same with fizzy drinks. If I have them, I crave them because of the sweet taste (cola) and the tangy taste (crisps). If I don't get the 'taste' I don't want them. I would say you may be similar with the crisps and the cola - worth thinking about cutting them out for a while and see if the cravings disappear (they do - honestly).

If you're buying your sandwiches, can you make them instead? That stops the temptation to add the fizzy drink and crisps and you'll know exactly what's in them? Take half a sandwich and a salad with you instead (you've halved the carbs automatically). Add veg to your plate at every meal so you can do smaller portions of pasta (for example) if you can't cut them completely.

Ultimately, if you're reducing carbs, it's all about swapping higher carbs for lower carbs or adding veg to higher carb meals so you can slice away at the amount of them you're eating in one sitting. Read the back of packets and weigh everything to start with. My portion sizes were way off the scale compared to what I thought they were!