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Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
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- Thread starter Yadit
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Hi and welcome. A bit more information about yourself and you diabetes will help people give you specific advice. Do you know your HbA1C, the blood glucose number you were diagnosed with? Age, weight etc feels a bit personal but is helpful.
How are you feeling/coping?
How are you feeling/coping?
rebrascora
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hi and welcome from me too.
Along with your HbA1c, it is also useful to know if you have been prescribed any medication for your diabetes and if you have much/any weight to lose? This info will help us to give you more appropriate advice. Diabetes can be highly individual which is why there is so much controversy and confusion over what to eat and what not to eat,
One of the best things you can do is to invest in a BG meter so that you can test your own levels to see how your particular body responds to different foods and use that info to tailor your diet to your body's response and your particular tastes. Thee are a couple of basic BG meters which are recommended here on the forum for reliability and economy of use for those self funding, which are the GlucoNavii and the Spirit Tee2. There are other slightly cheaper meters available but from members posts here they haven't been as reliable as those 2 I have named. It is important to understand that it is the test strips which run up the costs of home testing, so whilst some companies will give away their meter they will make that money up on the cost of their test strips which can be 2 or even 3 times more than the test strips for those 2 meters I have mentioned. Since it is St Swithin's day which is the day that many of us change our lancet for finger pricking, I would like to point out that whilst lancets are supposed to be single use, many of us reuse them multiple times (ie change it annually today) and find that poses no health risk for us provided that lancet is just used for ourselves. ie. No testing friends and relatives with it. It is up to you whether you want to be very particular about this and change it every time in which case you will need to purchase extra lancets as well as test strips because a meter kit usually just comes with 10 of each or whether you want to be unscrupulous like many of us, in which case the 10 lancets in the kit could last you 10 years 🙄!
Anyway, I hope you find being a member of the forum as hugely beneficial as I have and that you are able to look back on your diagnosis in a few years time as the turning point towards becoming healthier by perhaps giving you the kick up the pants you needed to sort out your diet and do more exercise, as many of us do, rather than it being a negative experience. With a bit of effort, this could be the gateway to a new healthier you!
Along with your HbA1c, it is also useful to know if you have been prescribed any medication for your diabetes and if you have much/any weight to lose? This info will help us to give you more appropriate advice. Diabetes can be highly individual which is why there is so much controversy and confusion over what to eat and what not to eat,
One of the best things you can do is to invest in a BG meter so that you can test your own levels to see how your particular body responds to different foods and use that info to tailor your diet to your body's response and your particular tastes. Thee are a couple of basic BG meters which are recommended here on the forum for reliability and economy of use for those self funding, which are the GlucoNavii and the Spirit Tee2. There are other slightly cheaper meters available but from members posts here they haven't been as reliable as those 2 I have named. It is important to understand that it is the test strips which run up the costs of home testing, so whilst some companies will give away their meter they will make that money up on the cost of their test strips which can be 2 or even 3 times more than the test strips for those 2 meters I have mentioned. Since it is St Swithin's day which is the day that many of us change our lancet for finger pricking, I would like to point out that whilst lancets are supposed to be single use, many of us reuse them multiple times (ie change it annually today) and find that poses no health risk for us provided that lancet is just used for ourselves. ie. No testing friends and relatives with it. It is up to you whether you want to be very particular about this and change it every time in which case you will need to purchase extra lancets as well as test strips because a meter kit usually just comes with 10 of each or whether you want to be unscrupulous like many of us, in which case the 10 lancets in the kit could last you 10 years 🙄!
Anyway, I hope you find being a member of the forum as hugely beneficial as I have and that you are able to look back on your diagnosis in a few years time as the turning point towards becoming healthier by perhaps giving you the kick up the pants you needed to sort out your diet and do more exercise, as many of us do, rather than it being a negative experience. With a bit of effort, this could be the gateway to a new healthier you!
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Welcome to the forum @Yadit
Sorry to hear about your diagnosis, but glad you have found us!
It can be so helpful to have a friendly space to ask questions, share experiences, or just let off steam about any frustrations you have when beginning to adjust to your life with diabetes along for the ride.
If you would like a good overview of T2 diabetes, to add to the knowledge you’ve already picked up, you might want to register for an account with the Learning Zone (the orange tab in the main menu) which is packed full of informative bite-sized modules. Additionally, for a more personal take, members here frequently recommend Maggie Davey’s Letter to the Newly Diagnosed and Gretchen Becker’s book T2 Diabetes, the first year, which you can work through gradually and will give you a solid starting point.
One of the biggest questions when trying to get to grips with your diabetes is often ‘what can I eat’ and while there are obvious things like cakes, biscuits, sweets and sugary drinks that you will want to cut out straight away, you might be surprised how much *all* carbohydrate affects your BG levels, including rice, pasta, potatoes, bread, pastry, grains, cereals and many fruits.
There‘s no one-size fits all approach to eating when you have diabetes, and by exchanging ideas with members here you can pick up a variety of different approaches and strategies to find a way of eating that gives you the results you are looking for and which you can sustain long-term 🙂
Good luck, and let us know how you get on
Sorry to hear about your diagnosis, but glad you have found us!
It can be so helpful to have a friendly space to ask questions, share experiences, or just let off steam about any frustrations you have when beginning to adjust to your life with diabetes along for the ride.
If you would like a good overview of T2 diabetes, to add to the knowledge you’ve already picked up, you might want to register for an account with the Learning Zone (the orange tab in the main menu) which is packed full of informative bite-sized modules. Additionally, for a more personal take, members here frequently recommend Maggie Davey’s Letter to the Newly Diagnosed and Gretchen Becker’s book T2 Diabetes, the first year, which you can work through gradually and will give you a solid starting point.
One of the biggest questions when trying to get to grips with your diabetes is often ‘what can I eat’ and while there are obvious things like cakes, biscuits, sweets and sugary drinks that you will want to cut out straight away, you might be surprised how much *all* carbohydrate affects your BG levels, including rice, pasta, potatoes, bread, pastry, grains, cereals and many fruits.
There‘s no one-size fits all approach to eating when you have diabetes, and by exchanging ideas with members here you can pick up a variety of different approaches and strategies to find a way of eating that gives you the results you are looking for and which you can sustain long-term 🙂
Good luck, and let us know how you get on
goodybags
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Hi welcome to the forum @Yadit
you will I’m sure find loads of help & support on here
to help you manage diabetes, we’re a friendly lot with a fair bit of knowledge of how being diabetic impacted us, a good place to start is:
if you know it, post your Hba1c and how you were diagnosed, are you on meds ?
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