Hello from Bristol

[Windy]

Overall really pleased as I know I can bring that 50 back down

Good to hear that it went ok @Grace1961, keep it going, you can do it. 50 isn't very far past the diabetes HbA1c diagnosis point of 48 and over. You're doing great.
Sarah

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Hope the phone appointment goes well on Monday @Grace1961

Sorry to hear your HbA1c has risen, despite your carb reductions. Hopefully subsequent results will reflect the changes you have been making.

Are you checking before/after meals? Are your spot-check BGs showing smaller rises on low carb? Sometimes it can take a while for the HbA1c to catch up!

 

[Leadinglights]

Lower carb, higher protein and fats coupled with lower calories overall, with increased exercise, was the method I have adopted. Protein and fats have to increase to balance the loss of carbs in the diet.

There seems to be a lot of confusion with many at first (me included) with conflicting advice and sometimes misleading advice (like, switch from white bread to brown, or cut down on just sugar, etc). The real emphasis and battle is with the Carbohydrates that an individual can tolerate and that is different for every individual and specific food items they eat. It's personsl ! I keep my carbs down to below 130g aa day and generally beliw 100g a day if I can. It works for me but may not work for others.

I seem to be able to tolerate quite a range of foods but BG testing is really the only way of finding out which foods are ok for you and which are not.

I totally agree the low carb works for many people including me. I never really see mention whether it makes a difference how much carb an individual can tolerate depends partly on whether you are male or female. I do suspect it is one of many factors that come into the whole minefield of diabetes.
I hope your eye op goes well, anything to do with eyes is never trivial.
I can look at all sorts of gory ops but not eyes.

 

[Grace1961]

Lower carb, higher protein and fats coupled with lower calories overall, with increased exercise, was the method I have adopted. Protein and fats have to increase to balance the loss of carbs in the diet.

There seems to be a lot of confusion with many at first (me included) with conflicting advice and sometimes misleading advice (like, switch from white bread to brown, or cut down on just sugar, etc). The real emphasis and battle is with the Carbohydrates that an individual can tolerate and that is different for every individual and specific food items they eat. It's personsl ! I keep my carbs down to below 130g aa day and generally beliw 100g a day if I can. It works for me but may not work for others.

I seem to be able to tolerate quite a range of foods but BG testing is really the only way of finding out which foods are ok for you and which are not.

Hi Gwynn
Congrats you have done brilliantly.
It's a minefield, appreciate all your advice and if I could loose this stubborn weight, it would be a different story I feel.
I will keep plugging away.
It's interesting, I will beat this one day!

 

[Grace1961]

Hope the phone appointment goes well on Monday @Grace1961

Sorry to hear your HbA1c has risen, despite your carb reductions. Hopefully subsequent results will reflect the changes you have been making.

Are you checking before/after meals? Are your spot-check BGs showing smaller rises on low carb? Sometimes it can take a while for the HbA1c to catch up!

Hi there
I expected the rise as I had asked to reduce the metformin thinking I could crack this. Best laid plans!
It took some weight gain, less cycling, a holiday and letting go a bit of the reins.
It has taught me a lesson, there is no escape, I will have to work harder which is now cutting out pasta, rice, potato.
That should prove significant alone as most of my meals were based around pasta and rice - brown of course, little meat or fish and veg / stir fry.
So now I do the cauliflower rice replacement and I will need to up my protein.
Hopefully will get there.
Grateful it isn't worse but want improvements of course.
Thanks for your reply and help.

 

[Grace1961]

Ps I check first thing in the morning.
Sometimes 2 hours after my dinner in the evening.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Ps I check first thing in the morning.
Sometimes 2 hours after my dinner in the evening.

Might be worth checking both before and 2hrs after a meal or two to see what the effect on your BG is. Having both numbers means you can see the meal rise, which puts the ‘after’ result in context.

Eg 9.8mmol/L 2hrs after you eve meal might not look brilliant, but if you were 9.2 before the meal, then what you ate in the evening was great, and something else is up (illness… injury… stress… what you had at lunch etc etc).

There are so many things that can affect BG readings, and you don’t want to mistakenly feel that one or other food choices are ‘no good’ for you, when you could still be enjoying them 🙂

 

[Leadinglights]

Hi there
I expected the rise as I had asked to reduce the metformin thinking I could crack this. Best laid plans!
It took some weight gain, less cycling, a holiday and letting go a bit of the reins.
It has taught me a lesson, there is no escape, I will have to work harder which is now cutting out pasta, rice, potato.
That should prove significant alone as most of my meals were based around pasta and rice - brown of course, little meat or fish and veg / stir fry.
So now I do the cauliflower rice replacement and I will need to up my protein.
Hopefully will get there.
Grateful it isn't worse but want improvements of course.
Thanks for your reply and help.

Sometimes it is just a gradual slippery slope which can be precipitated by change in circumstances and illustrates how fragile your body is at maintaining good blood glucose levels.
It is so important to have a regime which become the normal and then it is less tempting to revert to old ways

 

[Burylancs]

Ps I check first thing in the morning.
Sometimes 2 hours after my dinner in the evening.

Have you come across the Glycemic Index and the Glycemic Load ? They're both important concepts for T2s. A low GI , Mediterranean Style diet has been the recommendation for decades.

 

[Mrs Mimoo]

Hi there
I expected the rise as I had asked to reduce the metformin thinking I could crack this. Best laid plans!
It took some weight gain, less cycling, a holiday and letting go a bit of the reins.
It has taught me a lesson, there is no escape, I will have to work harder which is now cutting out pasta, rice, potato.
That should prove significant alone as most of my meals were based around pasta and rice - brown of course, little meat or fish and veg / stir fry.
So now I do the cauliflower rice replacement and I will need to up my protein.
Hopefully will get there.
Grateful it isn't worse but want improvements of course.
Thanks for your reply and help.

You can also try 'slim pasta' and 'slim rice' whcih are made of konjac, a kind of fibre. They are a bit slimy at first but if you rinse and pat dry with kitchen roll they make acceptable subs for rice and pasta. 18 calories a portion and no carbs. I also like cauliflower rice.

 

[harbottle]

I recently found my local Aldi sells a low carb pasta made from Edamame beans and Mung Beans. I was quite surprised at how nice it was.

I second the recommendation for Konjac based products. I use noodles quite often, and yes, they do need rinsing as they pong and feel slimy! They make great stir fries.

 

[Windy]

I went to a health food shop for edamame spaghetti, and it was over £4 a box! Looked on Aldi's website and there's is half the price there. Looks like I'll be having a walk to Aldi sometime soon. Cheers for the heads up @harbottle 🙂

 

[Leadinglights]

I went to a health food shop for edamame spaghetti, and it was over £4 a box! Looked on Aldi's website and there's is half the price there. Looks like I'll be having a walk to Aldi sometime soon. Cheers for the heads up @harbottle 🙂

I bought from Amazon, product not a bad price but some suppliers were charging delivery as if it was coming from THE AMAZON. Beware. A bit hit and mis whether our Aldi has it.

 

[Windy]

I bought from Amazon, product not a bad price but some suppliers were charging delivery as if it was coming from THE AMAZON. Beware. A bit hit and mis whether our Aldi has it.

Cheers @Leadinglights 🙂. I don't normally shop at Aldi (as there's a Lidl closer to my house), so I'll make a list of other stuff to get too, in the hope that they do have the low carb pasta in, or just order it from Amazon if they don't.

 

[Grace1961]

I had my review from my blood results over the phone with a nurse, seems to be the new norm! My bloods had gone from 41 to 50 and my weight well up 8kg.
I have been offered the injection and am going into the surgery to chat and discover more - I have basically said Yes, if it helps me loose weight along with the Dukan diet I started yesterday - thats all I want. Does anyone have any comment on this weekly injection which I understands aids with appetite and is licenced in Europe for weight loss.
Love to hear anyone who is taking it and any negative thoughts comments too.
Thank you.

 

[rebrascora]

I had my review from my blood results over the phone with a nurse, seems to be the new norm! My bloods had gone from 41 to 50 and my weight well up 8kg.
I have been offered the injection and am going into the surgery to chat and discover more - I have basically said Yes, if it helps me loose weight along with the Dukan diet I started yesterday - thats all I want. Does anyone have any comment on this weekly injection which I understands aids with appetite and is licenced in Europe for weight loss.
Love to hear anyone who is taking it and any negative thoughts comments too.
Thank you.

I am guessing it is going to be Ozempic or Victoza or something like that. Many people find that it does suppress their appetite but it can also come with nausea and digestive upset from what I have read. Of course not everyone will get such side effects so you might be unfortunate not to suffer them. I believe you start on a low dose and gradually build it up over a number of weeks. There are a few threads on the subject if you find out what is being offered and come back to the forum, you can do a search for that particular one. Bear in mind that unless it is exceptionally effective (ie. miracle cure 🙄) most people will come and create a post about the side effects they are suffering from it rather than say that it is working fabulously and that they have lost 6 stone using it, so comments may over emphasize the negatives rather than reflect the possible longer term gains.

 

[trophywench]

There are still some carbs in almonds albeit a lot fewer than eg 'normal' wheat flour. There are carbs in even eg cucumber and lettuce - but of course you'd have to eat an awful lot of lettuce to get anywhere near the carbs in a piece of toast!

 

[Grace1961]

I am guessing it is going to be Ozempic or Victoza or something like that. Many people find that it does suppress their appetite but it can also come with nausea and digestive upset from what I have read. Of course not everyone will get such side effects so you might be unfortunate not to suffer them. I believe you start on a low dose and gradually build it up over a number of weeks. There are a few threads on the subject if you find out what is being offered and come back to the forum, you can do a search for that particular one. Bear in mind that unless it is exceptionally effective (ie. miracle cure 🙄) most people will come and create a post about the side effects they are suffering from it rather than say that it is working fabulously and that they have lost 6 stone using it, so comments may over emphasize the negatives rather than reflect the possible longer term gains.

 

[Grace1961]

I am guessing it is going to be Ozempic or Victoza or something like that. Many people find that it does suppress their appetite but it can also come with nausea and digestive upset from what I have read. Of course not everyone will get such side effects so you might be unfortunate not to suffer them. I believe you start on a low dose and gradually build it up over a number of weeks. There are a few threads on the subject if you find out what is being offered and come back to the forum, you can do a search for that particular one. Bear in mind that unless it is exceptionally effective (ie. miracle cure 🙄) most people will come and create a post about the side effects they are suffering from it rather than say that it is working fabulously and that they have lost 6 stone using it, so comments may over emphasize the negatives rather than reflect the possible longer term gains.

Hi Barbara
Thank you so much for your message. Well I will keep my eye open and do some more investigation.