Hello - Newbie here :-)

Status
Not open for further replies.
Honor-Mission

Honor-Mission

Member
Relationship to Diabetes
At risk of diabetes
Pronouns
She/Her
Morning all - just popping on to say hello and thank you for having this forum - I can already see there's much to read and engage with to help manage things and hopefully turn things around. I was told I had a Hba1c of 42 a year ago and I started to work on turning that around by following a low-carb pre-diabetes plan.

I cut out pasta, rice and processed foods and upped my protein and fibre. And whilst I haven't been a complete angel all year the changes were significant, I started out about 5 stone overweight and over the course of the year I've lost just over 1 stone and 3 inches off my waist so there is much to be happy about - however, this morning I had my results from my bloods taken last week and my Hba1c has gone up to 46 - sigh, not what I was hoping for and now I'm really wondering what to do next.

Is it just a case of 'must try harder'? or is there something I'm missing that I could be doing to help myself? I'm really keen not to have to have medication if I can possibly turn things around myself.

Any wisdom/support, gratefully received - thank you xx
 
Great name @Honor-Mission! Love it!
I'm sure that although you'd prefer not to be at risk of diabetes, I'm pleased you've found us.

It's disheartening when we don't see the results we're hoping for, especially when you've actively been trying to make a difference. Well done on your weight loss so far. That's an achievement to be proud of and will definitely support a 'healthier you'.

I don't think it's necessarily a case of trying harder - your changes are making a difference in other ways. There are so many reasons why someone is at risk of diabetes, not necessarily all down to being overweight. For example, age (being over 40) and family members with diabetes too (usually a parent or sibling). Does any of that apply to you?

Although tough, please don't let this throw you off the great progress you're making. Continuing with eating healthily is ideal, plus if you're able to, being physically active helps too. Not just for lowering your diabetes risk, but also for your overall health and energy levels too. 🙂
 
Anna DUK said:
Great name @Honor-Mission! Love it!
I'm sure that although you'd prefer not to be at risk of diabetes, I'm pleased you've found us.

It's disheartening when we don't see the results we're hoping for, especially when you've actively been trying to make a difference. Well done on your weight loss so far. That's an achievement to be proud of and will definitely support a 'healthier you'.

I don't think it's necessarily a case of trying harder - your changes are making a difference in other ways. There are so many reasons why someone is at risk of diabetes, not necessarily all down to being overweight. For example, age (being over 40) and family members with diabetes too (usually a parent or sibling). Does any of that apply to you?

Although tough, please don't let this throw you off the great progress you're making. Continuing with eating healthily is ideal, plus if you're able to, being physically active helps too. Not just for lowering your diabetes risk, but also for your overall health and energy levels too. 🙂
Click to expand...
Hi Anna - thank you so much for your reply (and for appreciating my user name - it took me a while to come up with it but I thought it was appropriate 🙂 )

Yes, sadly both of those other factors are true - I will be 60 in October and my older brother was diagnosed with type 2 around 10 years ago and is more recently as type 1 - he has to do injections into his tum. He also has sleep apnea and a Darth Vader mask machine when he sleeps. He also has asthma and inhalers and his 2 grown-up boys appear to be following suit, both have type 2 diabetes and one is over 30 stone and struggles with many health things.

By comparison, I am fit and healthy, and pretty active (I have a large dog, a rescue pony and a big garden to take care of which means I do an average of 15000 steps a day and a fair amount of naturally occurring strength and flexibility stuff - plus I do parkrun every Saturday (I started just over 18 months ago and this week will be my 82nd run - I'm super proud of that because up to that I couldn't run for toffees! I've run more in these last 18 months than I have my whole lifetime!

I cook from scratch, am vegetarian and grow some of my own veg. I do break out and have the occasional cake or ice cream but it's not often and if I have a glass of wine a week that's a lot! - most of the time I try and stick carefully to the pre-diabetes advice the doctor gave me.

I am pleased with my other progress just a bit disappointed/saddened/puzzled/baffled/smacked around the head with a wet kipper sort of feeling about the Hba1c going up so much!

Thank you so much for your support and for being here - xx
 
Wow, you're very active and lead a healthy lifestyle. You're definitely doing all the right things and I hope that'll offer some reassurance and that even if you do develop type 2, you have done everything in your power to delay a diagnosis. Having said that though, just as the results have gone up, not all hope is lost. It can come down again; you're not on a steady trajectory to type 2. I hope the next result shows it has come down, even a little (we'll take it! 😛). My own results have been funny (not in the ha-ha sense). The last few results have been 44, 38, then 29!, back to 46, down to 43 and then the most recent 42. We live in hope!

Also, as a side note, your brother still has type 2, just that now he is insulin dependent. One type of diabetes doesn't develop into another.
 
hiya and welcome to the forum , it sounds like your doing a lot of good things and congrats on the weight loss journey . Do you test your glucose daily to see what is happening to your glucose levels before and after food and what your baseline is ? do u use oils to cook i found using butter or even just water to steam cook helps also look at the hidden sugars in products that you think are healthy anyway welcome and sounds like your doing all the right things to manage this .Also try drinking water with a slice of lemon i drink it like tea with warm water it really does help as a drink either hot or cold and lemons don't cost much also green tea is great for weight loss i swear by it and its not expensive , just small changes i think your doing great anyway good luck and welcome aboard
 
Last edited:
Oh - I didn't realise that about type 2 and 1 - I see I still have much to learn - thank you. I really did think the injections meant he had type 1 now and that one led to the other. Looks like I'll have to have a read-up.

And that is so interesting to see your results, thank you for sharing them and helping me realise it's not, as you say a straight-line trajectory to type 2 which is how I felt a little this morning! Feeling more hopeful again now.

I'm glad I found this forum xx
 
Also have a look in the learning zone the red bar above , lots of information in there , for me personally on my journey buying a glucose meter has been invaluable and you learn so much about how your body copes with what i eat , they are cheap to buy its the test strips that cost about £12 for 50 strips so you might test a few time a day to see where your blood sugars are then any changes you can see how your body reacts straight away everyone's different and lots of things can affect sugar levels i'e not enough sleep stress hormone s all sorts its not just sugar , i do a low carb diet and that's working for me but everyone's different and there is no one its all .
 
Last edited:
richard.m said:
hiya and welcome to the forum , it sounds like your doing a lot of good things and congrats on the weight loss journey . Do you test your glucose daily to see what is happening to your glucose levels before and after food and what your baseline is ? do u use oils to cook i found using butter or even just water to steam cook helps also look at the hidden sugars in products that you think are healthy anyway welcome and sounds like your doing all the right things to manage this .Also try drinking water with a slice of lemon i drink it like tea with warm water it really does help as a drink either hot or cold and lemons don't cost much also green tea is great for weight loss i swear by it and its not expensive , just small changes i think your doing great anyway good luck and welcome aboard
Click to expand...
Hi Richard - thank you so much for the welcome and for the super tips.

No, currently I don't test daily but someone mentioned a libre thing to me (is that what you mean?) and I thought I'd give it a go so I can see more clearly what's going on.

I use virgin olive oil and UK cold-pressed rapeseed oil and sometimes butter - I do sometimes steam but probably could do more. And thanks for the water and lemon reminder, I did do that quite a bit at the beginning but have dropped off so will get that reintroduced and thanks for the tip about green tea - that's no trouble to add in and it would probably serve to swap out a few coffees - I drink it black so no calories but, I do rather drink a lot of it. ☕☕☕☕☕☕

Thank you for your support and good wishes xx
 
no i meant a glucose test kit like accuchek instant , libres are quite expensive i think you can get a free one to try and it last 2 weeks but not sure someone else might know more about that one , i use a finger pricker and test my bood before and after meals with my meter .there are a few on amazon or in chemist just look for ones where the test strips are not to expensive
 
Just to say testing can help to know how certain foods impact your sugar levels, but results are just a snap-shot of what is happening at that moment in time. It can be easy to get hung-up on the numbers, especially if higher than expected or ideal.
 
richard.m said:
no i meant a glucose test kit like accuchek instant , libres are quite expensive i think you can get a free one to try and it last 2 weeks but not sure someone else might know more about that one , i use a finger pricker and test my bood before and after meals with my meter .there are a few on amazon or in chemist just look for ones where the test strips are not to expensive
Click to expand...
Ahh - OK, no I've not looked at that yet - will check it out - thank you xx
 
For me it’s the only way I can see where I’m at as I don’t qualify for a Libre as not on insulin , I use the numbers to learn and by tweaking meals and testing again for me this method works for me I couldn’t have reduced my hba1c results without it
 
Anna DUK said:
Just to say testing can help to know how certain foods impact your sugar levels, but results are just a snap-shot of what is happening at that moment in time. It can be easy to get hung-up on the numbers, especially if higher than expected or ideal.
Click to expand...
Thanks, Anna xx
 
richard.m said:
For me it’s the only way I can see where I’m at as I don’t qualify for a Libre as not on insulin , I use the numbers to learn and by tweaking meals and testing again for me this method works for me I couldn’t have reduced my hba1c results without it
Click to expand...
Yes, I can see that would be useful and I think I'm at that stage now as clearly some of the things I'm eating aren't as good for me as I think they are. Getting that instant feedback as you say, will give me the info to make informed tweaks .
 
have you seen the happy pear on utube , loads of good recipes for clean living
 
What are your go too breakfasts ? I like yogurt and berries or chia seed and chocolate pudding with cream fresh yum or eggs boiled scrambled or poached dinners normally a casserole loads veg or a chilli
 
#thehappypear other good links are carbs n Cals book not expensive gives good info of how many carbs in in the food or Freshwell low carb app
 
Last edited:
richard.m said:
What are your go too breakfasts ? I like yogurt and berries or chia seed and chocolate pudding with cream fresh yum or eggs boiled scrambled or poached dinners normally a casserole loads veg or a chilli
Click to expand...
Funnily enough, I've just done a 'lots of veggies' casserole and popped it in the slow cooker for tonight I typically have a bowl of chopped apple, almonds and cheddar for breakfast - but love natural yog with berries and seeds too! My weekend fav breakfast is poached eggs and avocado sprinkled with chilli flakes! - now we're talking! xx
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top