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Hi everyone.
- Thread starter Junenimmo
- Start date
- Status
rebrascora
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hi June and welcome.
Sorry to hear that you now have diabetes on top of the challenges posed by a stroke. How are you doing? We all know it can be a bit overwhelming at first but with the right information you can usually find a way that works to help you manage it well.
Firstly, do you know the result of your HbA1c? This is the diagnostic blood test for diabetes and will usually be a number in excess of 47 but may be up into 3 figures if things have gone rather too awry with your body. This number can help to indicate if medication may be needed and if significant or perhaps only moderate dietary changes may be needed.
And the important follow on question is.... Have you been prescribed any medication for the diabetes and if so what?
I am guessing the stroke has impacted your mobility but are you able to walk at all or perhaps do seated exercises?
Are you able to cook for yourself or reliant on carers?
Sorry to bombard you with questions. Please feel free to ask any you have yourself and have a read of other posts on the forum, as you can pick up a lot of knowledge that was too.
Sorry to hear that you now have diabetes on top of the challenges posed by a stroke. How are you doing? We all know it can be a bit overwhelming at first but with the right information you can usually find a way that works to help you manage it well.
Firstly, do you know the result of your HbA1c? This is the diagnostic blood test for diabetes and will usually be a number in excess of 47 but may be up into 3 figures if things have gone rather too awry with your body. This number can help to indicate if medication may be needed and if significant or perhaps only moderate dietary changes may be needed.
And the important follow on question is.... Have you been prescribed any medication for the diabetes and if so what?
I am guessing the stroke has impacted your mobility but are you able to walk at all or perhaps do seated exercises?
Are you able to cook for yourself or reliant on carers?
Sorry to bombard you with questions. Please feel free to ask any you have yourself and have a read of other posts on the forum, as you can pick up a lot of knowledge that was too.
I’m doing fine but yes I’m a bit overwhelmed by this. My HbA1c number was 60 have agreed to try 12 weeks diet to see if I can get it down. Have not been prescribed any medication at the moment. And yes the stroke has impacted my mobility I can walk from seat to seat but am not able to go any distance. My husband does all the cooking, shopping etc.
Leadinglights
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
I hope your recovery progresses well. Anything that puts stress on the body can affect blood glucose levels so that may be why you have crossed that threshold into the diabetic zone. Not desperately high but high enough to take seriously and with some dietary changes it should be very possible to bring things back.
Foods that will contribute to increasing blood glucose are all carbohydrates so reducing foods like potatoes, rice, pasta, bread, breakfast cereals and the obvious cakes, biscuits, sugary drinks including fruit juice. Basing meals on meat, fish, eggs, cheese, dairy, fruit loke berries with smaller portions of those high carb foods.
This link may help you and 'the cook' some ideas for modifying your diet, it is a low carb approach which many have found successful. There are dome do's and don'ts as well as some meal suggestions. https://lowcarbfreshwell.co.uk/
Low carb is suggested as being no more than 130g total carbs per day, it does not mean NO carbs.
The book or app Carbs and Cals is a good resource for giving carb value of various portion sizes of a whole range of foods so you can compare and make better choices. Also looking at packets (usually in small writing on the back) for the nutritional info for the carbs amount. Most of us ignore the 'of which sugar' as sugar is included in the total carbs and ignore the traffic light code as it does not show total carbs so is really as much use as a chocolate teapot.
rebrascora
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- She/Her
OK. 60 isn't too bad and great to hear your GP is giving you an opportunity to try dietary changes first.
Have you been given any dietary advice and if so, what?
What was your normal diet like prior to diagnosis? ie. What sort of things did you normally eat and drink for breakfast, lunch and evening meal? Any snacks in between?
Knowing where you are starting from and making small sustainable changes can be helpful. I started by cutting out all the sweets and sugar in my coffee etc for a couple of weeks, then I cut down on bread and potatoes and rice and pasta and fruit/fruit juice. My morning porridge was pretty much the last carb rich food to go. I now have creamy Greek style natural yoghurt with a few berries and seeds for breakfast, or occasionally an omelette with salad and coleslaw which is more like a brunch really and usually sees me through to my evening meal. If I have the lighter breakfast then lunch is usually soup (without bread) or cheese with half an apple. Knowing what you have now will help us to suggest alternatives.
This is a low carb approach to reducing your Blood Glucose (BG) levels.
The other main option is to go for a very low Calorie approach to burn visceral fat off the liver and pancreas as these 2 organs regulate your BG levels and that visceral fat stops them from working effectively. The Newcastle or Fast 800 diet is a short term 8-12 week, 800calorie a day, usually shakes based, diet designed to help your body shed that visceral fat and restore better insulin function. Perhaps that approach may be easier for you. Maybe you have tried shakes based diets before with or without success?
Some people find a combination of the two options above works for them. Finding the approach which works well for you is key. You know yourself better than anyone so will perhaps have an idea of the approach which is most likely to be successful. I was a sugar addict pre diagnosis, so cutting the carbs/sugar for me has been best. I don't crave them even if someone is eating them in front of me but if I eat some, I start wanting more and then the cravings take over and I lose control, so the low carb way of life works best for me, but others find the Newcastle diet helped them to lose a lot of weight and reverse their diabetes diagnosis so that they can now eat a normal diet provided that they maintain their weight loss. Horses for courses as they say!
It is also worth looking into seated exercises. Keeping your circulation going, particularly to your feet which are vulnerable to problems for those of us with diabetes, is important, but any exercise will also help you to lose some weight, even if it is just putting some music on and tapping your feet along and clapping your hands above your head and to the sides or waving them around.... it all helps.
Have you been given any dietary advice and if so, what?
What was your normal diet like prior to diagnosis? ie. What sort of things did you normally eat and drink for breakfast, lunch and evening meal? Any snacks in between?
Knowing where you are starting from and making small sustainable changes can be helpful. I started by cutting out all the sweets and sugar in my coffee etc for a couple of weeks, then I cut down on bread and potatoes and rice and pasta and fruit/fruit juice. My morning porridge was pretty much the last carb rich food to go. I now have creamy Greek style natural yoghurt with a few berries and seeds for breakfast, or occasionally an omelette with salad and coleslaw which is more like a brunch really and usually sees me through to my evening meal. If I have the lighter breakfast then lunch is usually soup (without bread) or cheese with half an apple. Knowing what you have now will help us to suggest alternatives.
This is a low carb approach to reducing your Blood Glucose (BG) levels.
The other main option is to go for a very low Calorie approach to burn visceral fat off the liver and pancreas as these 2 organs regulate your BG levels and that visceral fat stops them from working effectively. The Newcastle or Fast 800 diet is a short term 8-12 week, 800calorie a day, usually shakes based, diet designed to help your body shed that visceral fat and restore better insulin function. Perhaps that approach may be easier for you. Maybe you have tried shakes based diets before with or without success?
Some people find a combination of the two options above works for them. Finding the approach which works well for you is key. You know yourself better than anyone so will perhaps have an idea of the approach which is most likely to be successful. I was a sugar addict pre diagnosis, so cutting the carbs/sugar for me has been best. I don't crave them even if someone is eating them in front of me but if I eat some, I start wanting more and then the cravings take over and I lose control, so the low carb way of life works best for me, but others find the Newcastle diet helped them to lose a lot of weight and reverse their diabetes diagnosis so that they can now eat a normal diet provided that they maintain their weight loss. Horses for courses as they say!
It is also worth looking into seated exercises. Keeping your circulation going, particularly to your feet which are vulnerable to problems for those of us with diabetes, is important, but any exercise will also help you to lose some weight, even if it is just putting some music on and tapping your feet along and clapping your hands above your head and to the sides or waving them around.... it all helps.
Drummer
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
After decades of being pushed to eat carbs because they are regarded as health, then going back to my normal diet, I know that the only way I lose weight is to go low carb.
I find it a far easier diet, that is, way of eating, simpler to shop and cook for.
Dinner this evening is roast chicken and stir fry.
I find it a far easier diet, that is, way of eating, simpler to shop and cook for.
Dinner this evening is roast chicken and stir fry.
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Welcome to the forum @Junenimmo
It's quite natural to feel a bit overwhelmed and knocked sideways by a diagnosis with diabetes. Sorry to hear about your stroke and limited mobility
We have had a few members over the years with limited mobility who have been able to successfully manage their diabetes.
Hopefully you'll manage to find modifications to your way of eating that gradually help to move your BG levels back towards a pre-diabetic range.
With your impaired mobility I guess your options for increased activity will be limited, but I wonder if there may be some seated exercises or something similar that you might find helpful?
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