Hi, had diabetes about 9 years now. Totally out of control now. Been a rough two years, son died May 2020 (from natural causes) and other half died in March this year. He thought he was fit and healthy but diagnosed with lung cancer in December. No cough, no nothing. Knees were hurting which is why he went to docs and they decided on a full check up. Turned out to be very aggressive and travelled to his brain very quickly. At least he didnt have to go through treatment for no reason. Trying to find my way back to lowish carb diet but chocolate is my comfort and very hard to give up.
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Hi
- Thread starter susie1960
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Felinia
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
So very sorry to hear of your losses. I had my own losses to cancer - mum and my brother - so really empathise. Are you able to build a little bit of chocolate into your daily carb count, so you are not feeling totally deprived? A treat to look forward to perhaps? I wish you all the best.
trophywench
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
The main thing is Susie - after all that happening - you're willing to try! That's more than half of the battle in a lot of cases.
Whatever you need help with, or if you just need to have a rant - we're here and will try and help so just try telling us, please.
{{{Hugs}}}
Whatever you need help with, or if you just need to have a rant - we're here and will try and help so just try telling us, please.
{{{Hugs}}}
rebrascora
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hi and welcome from me too.
So very sorry to hear of your losses. I can't begin to imagine how difficult it is to try to come to terms with that and move forward to tackle your own health issues so kudos to you for coming here to seek help. I can totally understand you leaning on chocolate for comfort and I am guessing, if you are anything like me, the odd square won't hack it and it is the whole bar or nothing. I went "cold turkey" but it was important to find other low carb treats to eat when I needed comfort. Higher fat foods helped me..... things like nice cheese or a coffee made with real cream or a pot of olives with feta..... or a packet of pork scratchings..... Or if you are into baking how about baking a batch of low carb cookies or muffins? You need special ingredients to bake low carb, but once you have them, you can make all sorts of goodies with them which won't upset your BG levels. We have a few members who do a lot of low carb baking and post their results. @Martin62 bakes every Monday and posts photos of his achievements and @NotWorriedAtAll has made an artform out of adapting recipes to be low carb. Her latest achievement was a low carb doughnut! Maybe learning to bake low carb would help as a distraction as well as enable you to eat comfort food without adversely impacting your diabetes.
Anyway, just want to send (((HUGS))) your way and if there is anything we can do to help in any way, just ask.... or as Jenny says, feel free to have a good rant!
PS, Having gone cold turkey and broken the cycle of craving, I now have half a square of dark 70% chocolate with a spoon of peanut butter and that is enough for me now. Pre diagnosis, I could demolish a multipack of Snickers or a 200g bar of Dairy Milk in an afternoon without pausing for breath, so it is possible to get control of it but admittedly, I was not dealing with the horrendous grief that you must be ravaged by.
If your levels are really high, maybe ask for some insulin to help you control things through this difficult period, when dietary control is going to be so difficult.
So very sorry to hear of your losses. I can't begin to imagine how difficult it is to try to come to terms with that and move forward to tackle your own health issues so kudos to you for coming here to seek help. I can totally understand you leaning on chocolate for comfort and I am guessing, if you are anything like me, the odd square won't hack it and it is the whole bar or nothing. I went "cold turkey" but it was important to find other low carb treats to eat when I needed comfort. Higher fat foods helped me..... things like nice cheese or a coffee made with real cream or a pot of olives with feta..... or a packet of pork scratchings..... Or if you are into baking how about baking a batch of low carb cookies or muffins? You need special ingredients to bake low carb, but once you have them, you can make all sorts of goodies with them which won't upset your BG levels. We have a few members who do a lot of low carb baking and post their results. @Martin62 bakes every Monday and posts photos of his achievements and @NotWorriedAtAll has made an artform out of adapting recipes to be low carb. Her latest achievement was a low carb doughnut! Maybe learning to bake low carb would help as a distraction as well as enable you to eat comfort food without adversely impacting your diabetes.
Anyway, just want to send (((HUGS))) your way and if there is anything we can do to help in any way, just ask.... or as Jenny says, feel free to have a good rant!
PS, Having gone cold turkey and broken the cycle of craving, I now have half a square of dark 70% chocolate with a spoon of peanut butter and that is enough for me now. Pre diagnosis, I could demolish a multipack of Snickers or a 200g bar of Dairy Milk in an afternoon without pausing for breath, so it is possible to get control of it but admittedly, I was not dealing with the horrendous grief that you must be ravaged by.
If your levels are really high, maybe ask for some insulin to help you control things through this difficult period, when dietary control is going to be so difficult.
Cherrelle DUK
Much missed Online Community Coordinator
Hi susieeadie, welcome to the forum.
So sorry to hear about the loss of your loved ones. It must be such a difficult time to be managing all of what you have on your plate.
Stress has an impact on glucose levels too so it's no wonder things are a bit wobbly at the moment.
As with anything, change has to be sustainable so I wouldn't be focused on going cold turkey, looking for satisfying substitutes may be more helpful.
Might be worth keeping a food diary then looking at what can be swapped and improved upon and take things from there.
We're here for you and will be right by your side along this journey so please do keep us updated with how you're getting on.
So sorry to hear about the loss of your loved ones. It must be such a difficult time to be managing all of what you have on your plate.
Stress has an impact on glucose levels too so it's no wonder things are a bit wobbly at the moment.
As with anything, change has to be sustainable so I wouldn't be focused on going cold turkey, looking for satisfying substitutes may be more helpful.
Might be worth keeping a food diary then looking at what can be swapped and improved upon and take things from there.
We're here for you and will be right by your side along this journey so please do keep us updated with how you're getting on.
NotWorriedAtAll
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
- Pronouns
- She/They
Hello Susie,
oh dear you have had a very tough time and no wonder you need your comfort food right now.
If you are prepared to experiment in the kitchen there are many ways to have generous helpings of chocolate and not impact your blood sugars negatively. Actual dark chocolate as a pure substance is very low carb and cocoa butter which looks like white chocolate but needs to be used with other ingredients to make it palatable is zero carbs. So with those building blocks you can make your own chocolate treats.
The very easiest chocolate treat is to mix a teaspoon of 100% cocoa powder with some heavy cream and the sweetener of your choice to make an indulgently creamy chocolate mousse style treat. The cocoa powder 'seizes' the cream so it thickens up. It is very satisfying so you don't need a huge amount.
If you are trying to keep fat intake down then Greek Yoghurt mixed with 100% cocoa powder and sweetener and maybe a splash of vanilla extract is also yummy. I also like mixing in some instant coffee granules (just a pinch) for a mocha flavour.
I use Dr Oetkers 100% cocoa powder - it is available in most supermarkets and seems to be the lowest carb powdered chocolate available at around 8g carb per 100g.
You can buy cocoa butter on Amazon and it comes in little buttons.
If you melt a few of these ( I use the microwave) you can mix in some cocoa powder and sweetener and then put into molds and then you have very low carb chocolate that sets. You can get little chocolate bar molds on Amazon which are fun to use and help you portion out the chocolate into little squares.
Until you feel ready to start experimenting Montezuma's Absolute Black 100% cocoa chocolate is yummy and can be found in Tesco - it is bar chocolate and also has 8g carb per 100g. You can melt this down and mix some sweetener in if you feel the need and you can use it to make keto chocolate mug cakes.
oh dear you have had a very tough time and no wonder you need your comfort food right now.
If you are prepared to experiment in the kitchen there are many ways to have generous helpings of chocolate and not impact your blood sugars negatively. Actual dark chocolate as a pure substance is very low carb and cocoa butter which looks like white chocolate but needs to be used with other ingredients to make it palatable is zero carbs. So with those building blocks you can make your own chocolate treats.
The very easiest chocolate treat is to mix a teaspoon of 100% cocoa powder with some heavy cream and the sweetener of your choice to make an indulgently creamy chocolate mousse style treat. The cocoa powder 'seizes' the cream so it thickens up. It is very satisfying so you don't need a huge amount.
If you are trying to keep fat intake down then Greek Yoghurt mixed with 100% cocoa powder and sweetener and maybe a splash of vanilla extract is also yummy. I also like mixing in some instant coffee granules (just a pinch) for a mocha flavour.
I use Dr Oetkers 100% cocoa powder - it is available in most supermarkets and seems to be the lowest carb powdered chocolate available at around 8g carb per 100g.
You can buy cocoa butter on Amazon and it comes in little buttons.
If you melt a few of these ( I use the microwave) you can mix in some cocoa powder and sweetener and then put into molds and then you have very low carb chocolate that sets. You can get little chocolate bar molds on Amazon which are fun to use and help you portion out the chocolate into little squares.
Until you feel ready to start experimenting Montezuma's Absolute Black 100% cocoa chocolate is yummy and can be found in Tesco - it is bar chocolate and also has 8g carb per 100g. You can melt this down and mix some sweetener in if you feel the need and you can use it to make keto chocolate mug cakes.
Jodee
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
So sorry to hear of your 2 losses Susie. I searched to find if blood glucose levels were affected by grief as I have recently lost a close friend just before Christmas and my blood glucose has rocketed. I guess grief can well be equated to feeling stressed. I am certainly very tearful although it comes in waves. It has bought home to me my own mortality.
I did my pin prick test couple of nights ago and blood glucose level was off the scale just H1 on re test it said 30mmol.
I've hardly eaten anything today except breakfast and went for a 30 min walk retested and still at 20 mmol, well at least it is heading in the right direction.
I went to Aldi to buy a Avocado which I intend to have with salad for evening meal along with some feta in oil and herbs and hope that will be ok I do have some left over chicken so that would be ok too and some camembert that needs eating up which can have as snack with cracker.
I have over indulged over Christmas for sure but now I must try to get the blood glucose levels down even with a lot of temptation still around.
Wishing you every success with your food and glucose levels through 2023 and easing of the pain of your loss as each day passes. With Love and Best wishes for 2023
I did my pin prick test couple of nights ago and blood glucose level was off the scale just H1 on re test it said 30mmol.
I've hardly eaten anything today except breakfast and went for a 30 min walk retested and still at 20 mmol, well at least it is heading in the right direction.
I went to Aldi to buy a Avocado which I intend to have with salad for evening meal along with some feta in oil and herbs and hope that will be ok I do have some left over chicken so that would be ok too and some camembert that needs eating up which can have as snack with cracker.
I have over indulged over Christmas for sure but now I must try to get the blood glucose levels down even with a lot of temptation still around.
Wishing you every success with your food and glucose levels through 2023 and easing of the pain of your loss as each day passes. With Love and Best wishes for 2023
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