Hello,

[Jacky Seldis]

Hi there
I'm not newly diagnosed but a newly acknowledged diabetic! Diagnosed in 2008 but couldn't acknowledge it! Stupid eh?!?

Well eight years later I'm finally come to my senses and wish to understand and learn how to live with the problem. About bloody time I hear you say, well for some of us it takes longer than others.

I live in Eastbourne and there isn't a support group nearby, so I need newby help for an idiot!

I have at the same time decided to get my weight in hand and started weight watchers. Loosing weight slowly. But a question has arisen, is the weight watchers diet ideal for me? You're all more experienced than I, is it? Help required to get me on the road to control this

Thanks

 

[Pine Marten]

Welcome to the forum, Jacky. I've no experience of weight watchers so can't help there, but losing weight is a very good idea anyway, as is testing your blood glucose levels with a meter. Do you have one? The Codefree one & test strips from Home Health is the cheapest. I'm sure others will be along in a mo with advice, so ask any questions you like!

 

[Northerner]

Hi there
I'm not newly diagnosed but a newly acknowledged diabetic! Diagnosed in 2008 but couldn't acknowledge it! Stupid eh?!?

Well eight years later I'm finally come to my senses and wish to understand and learn how to live with the problem. About bloody time I hear you say, well for some of us it takes longer than others.

I live in Eastbourne and there isn't a support group nearby, so I need newby help for an idiot!

I have at the same time decided to get my weight in hand and started weight watchers. Loosing weight slowly. But a question has arisen, is the weight watchers diet ideal for me? You're all more experienced than I, is it? Help required to get me on the road to control this

Thanks

Hi Jacky, welcome to the forum 🙂 I was diagnosed in 2008 as well! Good to hear that you have decided to get things on the right track - never too late! 🙂 I'd suggest regarding yourself as newly-diagnosed and make a new start from now. Have a read of Jennifer's Advice and Maggie Davey's letter and see if they make sense in light of your experiences over the years. I'd also recommend getting a copy of Type 2 Diabetes: The First Year by Gretchen Becker, which many people find helpful as a programme for this year of getting things under good control 🙂

Do you test your blood sugar levels before and after eating so you can determine what things you tolerate well and what you ought to reduce or avoid? If not, I would certainly recommend starting - it's the best way to understand how your diet choices directly impact your blood sugar levels and get the information you need to start making any changes. Have a read of Test,Review, Adjust by Alan S to understand how to do this efficiently and effectively 🙂

I can't comment on WW as I haven't tried it, but I know some of our members have had success with it, and Slimming World also, so hopefully they will be along to comment.

Please feel free to ask any questions you may have, and we will do our best to help! 🙂

 

[Jacky Seldis]

Thanks Pine Marten, my GP nor the practice nurse want me to test, they feel that the starvation blood test that I do prior to my appointment is better than daily testing, now confused?!?!

 

[Jacky Seldis]

Thanks Northener will take this on board, loads to learn phew!

 

[Northerner]

Thanks Pine Marten, my GP nor the practice nurse want me to test, they feel that the starvation blood test that I do prior to my appointment is better than daily testing, now confused?!?!

The trouble with that is that, if the result isn't good then you don't know what to change in order to improve things Unfortunately, many healthcare professionals think they are doing you a favour and saving the NHS money by not prescribing test strips, but you could go on forever thinking you are eating 'healthily', getting less-than-ideal results every 3-6 months (or however often they test you) and never knowing that you shouldn't (for example) be eating porridge every morning because it shoots your blood sugar levels up!

It's a very common response, I'm afraid, and next to useless in terms of helping you

 

[Marsbartoastie]

Hi Jacky

A very warm welcome. I'm so glad you decided to get to grips with things.

To answer your question...I'm sure WW is OK for people wishing to lose weight slowly...and then...almost inevitably...put it back on again. However, a number of us 'forumites' have adopted a low carb/full fat approach to getting our weight down and BG levels under control. It seems counter intuitive, but it works. It's the only 'diet' I've ever tried (and believe me, I've tried them all over the years) that has yielded excellent, sustained weight loss with minimal effort and little or no hunger/cravings. I would highly recommend it over anything else. If you look at my stats (at the bottom of this message)...you'll see that it works. I have a couple of links to presentations on Youtube that outline this approach. Let me know if you're interested and I'll send them to you. In the meantime, enjoy all that the forum has to offer.

 

[Ljc]

Hi Jacky, Welcome . No we won't say any of those things, we're a friendly supportive bunch here.
Feel free to ask questions . I've found that by lowering my carbohydrate intake and avoiding any thing that is made to be low fat ie Low fat yogurts etc its higher carb due to added sugar that I'm not only gaining better control of my BGs (blood glucose) levels but I am losing weight too. High carb foods are, potatoes, pasta rice and bread . We have to be careful with fruit, fruit juice and grapes are high sugar .
So many T2 s are told not to test, mostly it's down to cost of funding the test strips rather than them thinking of our well being.
As previously mentioned the SD Codefree is the most economical to self fund
If they won't provide you with a meter and strips and you can afford to fund your own
http://homehealth-uk.com/all-products/codefree-blood-glucose-monitoring-system-mmoll-or-mgdl/

 

[grovesy]

Welcome!

 

[Mark Parrott]

Hi, Jacky, & welcome to the forum.

 

[Jacky Seldis]

Thanks everyone ( Mark Parrott, Grovesy, Ljc and Northener) for your input. I've spent a very intense afternoon reading the articles, starting the book and deciding to ignore the GP and ordered a testing kit! I'm taking control, day 1.

Many thanks for all the info and your great welcome to the group

Jacky

 

[Andy HB]

I agree with testing as well. But only so long as we learn something from it. Initially, make a note of what you ate and relate it to your readings and adjust your diet, as indicated.

Try things you like even if they affect others badly. It's strange, but true that some people are OK with certain foods which send others sky high. An example of this is porridge.

Anyhoo, good luck with things,

Andy 🙂

 

[Mark Parrott]

Testing is the start of good diabetes control. Rebel against your doctor! Smash the system!

 

[weecee]

Welcome Jacky. You have come to the right place for information gained from many experiences with this disease. Someone here will have come across almost any problem so ask and you will be surprised what you will receive back.

 

[Ljc]

Hi Jacky . I'm glad you've decided to test. You can learn so much about which foods you tolerate best as we are all different , with diabetes it's definitely not one size fits all. My body loves porridge others can't even stand near a box of it . The other day I read that one member here can eat cake and BGs are fine but if they eat an egg BGs are all over the place.
Exercise plays a big part in BG control too