Hi, I was diagnosed just before Christmas, so decided to ignore everything until Jan. I've done dry January and have been sober week days in Feb (Man that sounds bad) I have been going to the gym and have cut down on carbs, but not lost any weight, although I do feel better in myself. Early Jan the nurse set me up with a tester and I average 8.4 and my long range test was 95. I test about 3-4 times a day and keep a food diary, but I don't know what to do with this info?
Welcome to the forum Zosoche, I am glad that you have found us.
The purpose of testing is to find the impact of certain foods on your BG. The focus tends to be on the carbs as that is what gets converted to glucose inside you. These come in the obvious form such as sugar, biscuits and cakes but also potatoes (and all root veg), rice, pasta and also from fruit.
If you test before your meal, and again 2 hours after the meal, and record these readings alongside the amount of carbs that you ate at that meal. This can come from weighing the foods you cook, and/or reading the info on the back of packets. Your aim is for your post meal reading to be the same as your pre meal. If it is higher than the premeal then your body has not processed all the glucose in your blood, which has come from the carbs you ate. You mention that you have already reduced your carbs. Have you calculated how much you eat at each meal. If your body is not clearing these, then you may need to reduce the amount.
You can also help your body to cope with carbs if you opt for slow release versions, such as brown rather white rice, low GI bread ( such as Bergen) rather white loaves, although many find they simply need to avoid such foods. Through testing you can work out what you need to do. It will be different for each person. It may sound like a lot of work at the start but you soon become a carb expert. (Name me a biscuit and I can tell you the carbs. Attending too many meetings with biscuits there and me, as a T1, needing to stuff in a bit of insulin to match.)
For ‘sober’ I am reading alcolhol free days. We do the same and only have alcohol Fri, Sat and Sun, although I have found a glass of wine in front of me because of my OH’s adaptation of this rule for when we are programme that was recorded at the weekend!!!