Hi there... 13 years type 2 diabetic

[major1blue]

Hi all

My name's Steve (age 51) and I was diagnosed with type 2 approx. 13yrs ago. I have been a member of Diabetes UK on and off for a few years.

I am overweight and have never really helped myself long term to get healthy.

Been working from home since March and have been shielding due to receiving the Govt letter due to my high HbA1c reading at the GP in Oct 2019..

GP rang me today and it is worse with my cholesterol (the bad one) being over the top too.

So, here I am ready to get healthy and see if I can make myself a better life to live with my wife and to young sons (3 & 5).

Looking forward to reading the forums for advice and more.

Kind regards

Steve

 

[Drummer]

Hello Steve and welcome to the forum.

There seems to be some figures around which are showing that lowering cholesterol has no benefit - in fact rather the reverse - living longer is associated with average or higher cholesterol, not lower.
The main interest should be your blood glucose levels as that is what its all about really.
How do you eat, and what medication do you take?

 

[Deleted member 27171]

Welcome to the forum @major1blue - hopefully you can get the support you need to make the changes you want to.

 

[Vonny]

Hi @major1blue and welcome from another type 2, currently losing weight and trying to get long-term healthy like you. You have a 10 year edge over me as I'm 61 so you are likely to be fit, lean and healthy long before you get to my age.
My cholesterol was also high, but the statins the doctor put me on haven't agreed with me, so I'm trying to lower that by diet and exercise alone. I'm back in 3 weeks to get my latest Hba1c and cholesterol readings.

You don't mention if you have a blood glucose monitor. If not, please get one as it is amazing what it can tell you about what you eat. I've discovered that most carbs are the work of the devil as far as my body is concerned, but other people can tolerate some without any trouble. I also keep a food diary so I know what I can and can't eat. I bought an SD Gluco Navii as the strips aren't too expensive.

I'm on metformin (3 x 500 per day), taking in around 1000-1200 calories per day and walking 3 miles per day average, and have lost 2 stones in the last 4 months. It's taken my diagnosis (back in April) to jolt me out of my bad habits and into a whole new lifestyle. At first I thought it was like a life sentence, but as the days go by it's just become a way of life....which I actually enjoy, especially being able to fit into clothes that I thought would rot in my wardrobe before I got back into them.

You've come to the right place. This forum is packed with lovely helpful people who can support you. I've learned so much already and I've only been a member for a couple of months.

Best of luck with your endeavours, you can do it x

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @major1blue

Good luck with your weight loss and health efforts. You may have been living with diabetes for over a decade, but it’s never too late to try some new strategies, and bring new focus to your diabetes management efforts.

As @Vonny suggests, it is going to be the carbohydrate content in your diet that will be having the greatest impact on your BG levels, and perhaps also your weight, but it can be hard to judge what your current level of intake is. Many members who are looking to improve their diabetes management find that keeping a food diary for a week or two is a good first step - note down all your meals and snacks (be honest!) along with an approximate carb count for each.

This will show you which meals and foods you are eating are most likely to be raising your BG levels.

Then over the next couple of weeks add BG veluws before and 2 hours after eating into the diary, so that you can see which meals and snacks are well tolerated by your metabolism, and which ones it struggles with.

At the beginning, the numbers themselves are likely to be higher than ideal, but don’t worry about that too much. What is more important are the differences between them. If you can begin to tweak meals, reducing the carb content so that the ‘meal rise’ is only 2-3mmol/L at 2 hours after eating, then your overall levels will gradually come down on their own.

And a gradual reduction in BG is much easier on the body, as it gives it time to adapt and adjust. particularly where your elevated HbA1c may indicate that your BGs have been running high for a while.

If you are taking medication for your diabetes, particularly insulin or sulfs, it is important to make changes to your menu carefully and gradually to keep yourself safe.

Good luck, and keep asking questions!