Good evening.
My name is Liz and my doctor diagnosed me with Type 2 diabetes today.
I do need to get my weight down and am starting Weightwatchers tomorrow, so trying to absorb everything - but at the moment my head is all over the place (some would say nothing new in that)
Anywho just popped in to say hello 🙂 and give a quick wave
Hi Liz, welcome to the forum
🙂 I'm sorry to hear about your diagnosis, how did it come about? Do you have any family history of diabetes? The good news is that, now you have a diagnosis, you can set about improving your situation. Diabetes is a serious condition, but it is manageable, and it's more than likely that by learning how to manage your blood sugar levels well you will end up feeling much happier and healthier than you may have for some time
🙂
Whilst weight loss can be an important factor, if you need to lose some, the first thing to address is reviewing your diet and learning how to tailor it so that it is friendlier to your blood sugar levels
🙂 Quite often, the modifications you make will result in weight loss without 'trying' - although, of course you will have changed your diet! The most important thing to watch out for is anything containing carbohydrates. This doesn't mean that you need to cut them all out of your diet, but we all have different tolerances, so you need to discover your own and what works for you as an individual. I'd suggest starting by reading
Maggie Davey's letter, which will give you a good overview and an idea of what to look out for. Also, highly-recommended is
Type 2 Diabetes: The First Year by Gretchen Becker, which will guide you through these early weeks and months, so I urge you to get hold of a copy
🙂
As I said earlier, it's most important to understand your food choices and what effect they are having on your blood sugar levels. The only real way to do this is to test your blood sugar before and after eating, as described in
Test,Review, Adjust by Alan S. If you don't have a meter and a prescription for test strips (these are often not issued in order to 'save money', although it's a false economy, because the more you know in this game, the better controlled you will be and probably therefore need less medication in future) then it's really worth funding your own. The cheapest option we have come across is the
SD Codefree Meter which has
test strips at around £8 for 50. Read
Testing on a budget to understand how you can use the precious strips efficiently and economically
🙂 I'd recommend starting off by writing a Food Diary, noting down the amount of carbohydrates in everything you eat and drink each day. This will give you a very good, true picture of your current carbohydrate consumption, and you can then use it to look for areas where you might improve things by perhaps reducing portions of some things, or finding more blood sugar-friendly replacements (e.g. have less potato and more green veg, replace rice with cauliflower rice - there are plenty of suggestion in our Food and Recipes section
🙂) If you get a meter then you will also be able to note down the before and after readings, and eventually you will see a clear pattern of what foods you tolerate well, and what you might need to change. It's all a bit tedious - or interesting, depending on your point of view! - but it is well worth it. In time you shouldn't need to test as often, except occasionally when you try new things, or as 'confidence' tests to ensure you are still on track
🙂
Finally, if you can get some regular, daily exercise in then this will really help - not so much in it's effect on losing weight, but principally because it will make your body more sensitive to the insulin it is producing. This means less insulin is needed by your body, and can mean that less of that sugar/ carbohydrate will turn to fat - similarly, reducing your overall carbohydrate intake will mean your body needs to produce less insulin, so you can perhaps see how all this works together to help your body manage itself better
🙂 Be patient, because this can all take a little while, but once you have 'cracked it' you will be set for a much healthier future
🙂
Please let us know if we can help in any way, if you have any questions or concerns. There are lots of friendly, experienced people here who will be more than happy to put your mind at ease
🙂
