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Just told pre diabetic
- Thread starter Carol680
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Drummer
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Being in the prediabetic range means that you really only need to cut back a bit on the carbohydrate in your diet in order to go back to normal - apologies for seeming blaze, but eating a low carb diet is such a powerful tool in the control of type two, full blown and long term as I was it has fixed me.
I'd say forget diets - they always seem very formulaic, with recipes to follow and meal plans etc. If you alter your shopping list to have more low carb veges, salad and the like, and fewer high carb foods, and then - of course - you eat them, the plan should work. The big advantage is that once you stop eating sweet things the urge to eat them reduces, your appetite reducess as there is less insulin released, the metabolism starts to get back to normal and often there is weightloss with no effort. I was really shocked to discover my weight - I only went to weigh myself as my clothes had become so loose - my trousers fell down.
I'd say forget diets - they always seem very formulaic, with recipes to follow and meal plans etc. If you alter your shopping list to have more low carb veges, salad and the like, and fewer high carb foods, and then - of course - you eat them, the plan should work. The big advantage is that once you stop eating sweet things the urge to eat them reduces, your appetite reducess as there is less insulin released, the metabolism starts to get back to normal and often there is weightloss with no effort. I was really shocked to discover my weight - I only went to weigh myself as my clothes had become so loose - my trousers fell down.
Thanks for replying. It’s good to know that if I really try then the cravings for sugar will lessen. My meals are generally healthy but I really have no stop button with sweet stuff in between. Have half a sugar in tea and will try again to go without and hope I get used to it!
Forget the 'diet' part. Don't consciously cut calories, instead try to adopt a 'Low Carb way of eating'.
You can lose weight by just reducing the insulin in your bloodstream just by cutting Carbs - so count carbs not Calories.
Use a Blood Glucose meter to test the effect of different foods on your Blood Glucose. try to keep the pre meal to '2hrs after first bite' spikes down to below 2.0mmol. You will need to do a lot of testing of different foods at first so get a BG meter with cheaper test strips such as the TEE2 from Spirit Health.
If you aren't hungry you will crave sugar much less. Find some nice fatty fish, meat, eggs, cheese etc that you like to eat. Supplement that with leafy and above ground veg. If you drink coffee, have it either black or just with double cream. Try to avoid using an artificial sweetener unless you have to, because that keeps your 'sweet tooth' alive.
You can lose weight by just reducing the insulin in your bloodstream just by cutting Carbs - so count carbs not Calories.
Use a Blood Glucose meter to test the effect of different foods on your Blood Glucose. try to keep the pre meal to '2hrs after first bite' spikes down to below 2.0mmol. You will need to do a lot of testing of different foods at first so get a BG meter with cheaper test strips such as the TEE2 from Spirit Health.
If you aren't hungry you will crave sugar much less. Find some nice fatty fish, meat, eggs, cheese etc that you like to eat. Supplement that with leafy and above ground veg. If you drink coffee, have it either black or just with double cream. Try to avoid using an artificial sweetener unless you have to, because that keeps your 'sweet tooth' alive.
trophywench
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Having carted off into hospital with T1 (as we all were back then) and having the classic raging thirst when the tea trolley manifested on the first afternoon I had my first cuppa without - saying Well I'm going to have to get used to it so I'll have to! - it was horrible of course, which is why I hadn't already eschewed the sugar in tea though I'd given it up in coffee long before that, simply to try and avoid weight gain - half an hour later to my utter amazement I was telling my sister that oddly enough - it had really quenched my thirst - how exceedingly weird! It still does that very thing.
Hi @Carol680 - I can sympathise! When i was hit by the BIG D last year i thought it was going to be soooo difficult. Me and Hubby loved a bar of chocolate & packet of crisps watching a movie now and then, I thought how am i gonna do without!! And although my Dr advised against these sugar free bars you can get in certain pharmacists, because she said they're a waste of money (and are high in calories) - I have to confess in the 1st two months I had a couple of bars. And it got me over my sugar cravings.... After 6 months of my new eating regime (and a stone lighter without even trying) Hubby was eating a kit-kat and i said "hmmm lets have a bite"! Carol, it was disgustingly sweet, it made my teeth literally itch!! 😱 It was horrible!....It was the same when i had high blood pressure and had to give up salt, I can now so easily taste it in things i never thought were that salty before!! So yes, you will acclimatise and you will adapt. It just take a little time. 😎
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Toucan
Forum Host
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Hello @Carol680 welcome to the forum.
You already have several helpful replies about dealing with cravings, and re-assurance that given time the cravings will diminish, and I have also experienced this.
There is still the difficult time to cope with until you reach that situation.
If your body isn’t getting some of the things it is used to having, the brain still signals that ‘you are starving to death’ usually resulting in a craving for a particular food.
I found it useful to develop some strategies to help get through this phase without sabotaging plans too often.
Some of the things I do are:
Set a timer for 20 minutes, before taking the snack. (The craving may go away in that time as if you have just eaten it takes 20 minutes for your brain to get the signal that you are full)
Then have a list of distractions to take your mind away from the snack focus - My list has such things as phone a friend I've been meaning to contact for a while; water the plants; tidy that annoying drawer where I can never find anything etc etc.
Often I will then have forgotten about the craving by the time the timer pings. If not I'll try either a hot drink, or some fizzy water.
Mindfulness is something else I try sometimes, also thinking if there are any particular triggers that start the craving, and working out a way of coping with these.
Sometimes none of it works - then the thing to do is just to snack and move on, and don't go into self-blame.
None of us can get it right all of the time, and if we can achieve 80% or so we are doing very well.
Best wishes Carol, and please keep posting and let us know how it goes.
You already have several helpful replies about dealing with cravings, and re-assurance that given time the cravings will diminish, and I have also experienced this.
There is still the difficult time to cope with until you reach that situation.
If your body isn’t getting some of the things it is used to having, the brain still signals that ‘you are starving to death’ usually resulting in a craving for a particular food.
I found it useful to develop some strategies to help get through this phase without sabotaging plans too often.
Some of the things I do are:
Set a timer for 20 minutes, before taking the snack. (The craving may go away in that time as if you have just eaten it takes 20 minutes for your brain to get the signal that you are full)
Then have a list of distractions to take your mind away from the snack focus - My list has such things as phone a friend I've been meaning to contact for a while; water the plants; tidy that annoying drawer where I can never find anything etc etc.
Often I will then have forgotten about the craving by the time the timer pings. If not I'll try either a hot drink, or some fizzy water.
Mindfulness is something else I try sometimes, also thinking if there are any particular triggers that start the craving, and working out a way of coping with these.
Sometimes none of it works - then the thing to do is just to snack and move on, and don't go into self-blame.
None of us can get it right all of the time, and if we can achieve 80% or so we are doing very well.
Best wishes Carol, and please keep posting and let us know how it goes.
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Welcome to the forum @Carol680
You‘ve had some good encouragement already, and I’m another who found the idea of coffee without sugar horrifying, but now can‘t bear the taste if I accidentally sip a sweet one.
I think it’s important to recognise too that, while it can be a helpful shorthand ‘prediabetes’ isn’t actually a diagnosis. It’s just a term used where people have certain markers that show they are at increased risk of diabetes. But this is risk, not certainty. This is not a one-way street, and if you act now you can give yourself a great chance of a future free of diabetes.
Cut back on sweet things, reduce your starchy carb intake, eat more leafy and low carb veggies, opt for berries rather than high carb fruits, increase your levels of activity, and you will do great.
We have many members of the forum who have turned this around, and you can do it too. 🙂
You‘ve had some good encouragement already, and I’m another who found the idea of coffee without sugar horrifying, but now can‘t bear the taste if I accidentally sip a sweet one.
I think it’s important to recognise too that, while it can be a helpful shorthand ‘prediabetes’ isn’t actually a diagnosis. It’s just a term used where people have certain markers that show they are at increased risk of diabetes. But this is risk, not certainty. This is not a one-way street, and if you act now you can give yourself a great chance of a future free of diabetes.
Cut back on sweet things, reduce your starchy carb intake, eat more leafy and low carb veggies, opt for berries rather than high carb fruits, increase your levels of activity, and you will do great.
We have many members of the forum who have turned this around, and you can do it too. 🙂
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