Newbie saying hello

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Katiedares

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Hello everyone. Type 2 here. Diagnosed nearly 3 years ago, lost 2 stone, brought my level from 103 to 57. Now wading around in the slough of despond, struggling with diet and experiencing glucose related woes. My diabetes mentor is being very firm with me - reduce carbs your body can’t deal with the level you are putting in. Struggling with ideas to keep my appetite under control, reduce portions and giving in to hunger pangs and comfort eating. And it’s raining - what happened to summer? :D
 
Welcome to the forum @Katiedares

Massive congratulations on your weight loss, and improvements in your HbA1c. But sorry to hear you are struggling.

Diabetes is a marathon, not a sprint, and in an ideal world you will be able to find a new way of eating that is enjoyable, flexible, satisfying, varied, and which suits your metabolism and gives you the results you are looking for.

When aiming for a lower carbohydrate approach, many members here find it is important to rebalance the amount of protein and good fats, within the overall calorie balance - because those can help you feel fuller for longer. It can also really help to find swaps and workarounds so that some of your ‘old favourites’ are still available - just in a slightly different form (eg konjac or black bean pasta, or cauli ‘rice’)

Have you got a BG meter to check before and after meals, so that you can observe how your metabolism is coping with different sources and portion-sizes of carbs?
 
Welcome to forum @Katiedares
Well done on making a great start and pleased that you are reaching out on here.
 
Katiedares said:
Hello everyone. Type 2 here. Diagnosed nearly 3 years ago, lost 2 stone, brought my level from 103 to 57. Now wading around in the slough of despond, struggling with diet and experiencing glucose related woes. My diabetes mentor is being very firm with me - reduce carbs your body can’t deal with the level you are putting in. Struggling with ideas to keep my appetite under control, reduce portions and giving in to hunger pangs and comfort eating. And it’s raining - what happened to summer? :D
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Well done on your progress so far but if you are in a bit of a rut have a look at this link as it may give you some new ideas. https://lowcarbfreshwell.com/
I found this successful, plenty of variety, no hunger and a very sustainable way of eating with allowing myself about 70g carbs per day.
 
Hi and welcome from me too.

Many congratulations on such a huge reduction in HbA1c and fantastic weight loss. Don't lose sight of those amazing achievements in your frustration at not making more progress. What you have achieved is amazing and will have gained you a lot of ground in reducing the risks of diabetic complications. It sounds like you just need a bit of fine tuning to make it sustainable and perhaps see a bit more improvement.
You mention a diabetes mentor.... Is this a friend or a some private organization that you have subscribed to? What suggestions is that person offering?

As @everydayupsanddowns says, if you are having to reduce your carbohydrate intake quite significantly, it is important to increase protein and fat and plenty of low carb veggies. For many years (pretty well all our lives) we have been discouraged from eating fat so it seems fundamentally wrong to eat more and I know it took me a long time to get over that mental barrier especially as my Diabetic Nurse at my GP practice was also reinforcing that I needed to eat low fat and low salt. My low carb way of eating became much more enjoyable and sustainable once I increased my fat intake. Of all the macro nutrients, fat is the slowest to digest and the least likely to raise our BG levels, so it is filling and satisfying and provides slow release energy. In fact, it is suspected that our low fat diet over the decades may in part have lead to the obesity epidemic we are now experiencing because without the natural fat to make us feel satisfied because it is slow to digest and provide that slow release energy, we started eating more carbs and the carbs digest and release their glucose very quickly, so we feel hungry a couple of hours after eating them and then we are looking for snacks between meals to offset that hunger, which means more carbs. If you cut the carbs enough and eat more protein and fat, you stop craving the carbs and comfort eating.
I was a sugar addict and major comfort/binge eater pre-diagnosis and I have definitely found out for myself that having more fat in my diet has made it sustainable and enjoyable. That doesn't mean I eat blocks of butter or lard, although I do use both those natural animal fats for cooking, but I have real double cream in my morning coffee. It is a daily luxury that I really enjoy and helps stop me from feeling deprived. I eat plenty of nice cheeses and I cook many of my vegetables with a knob of butter and I will toss my cooked cabbage in the pan with the bacon to absorb the bacon fat. I have creamy Greek style natural yoghurt most mornings. I buy fatty meat rather than lean meat and I keep any fat that renders off it during cooking to fry eggs and mushrooms in. I eat plenty of eggs and nuts because they are high in protein and fat and therefore filling and satisfying. I also make sure that I have plenty of low carb veggies or salad on my plate, so that I am eating a big plateful of food. If salad, then I will have a big dollop of creamy coleslaw with it. I also eat lots of olives, usually with feta or Manchego cheese. And 100% crunch peanut butter is a staple on shopping list.
Some or perhaps all of these things may not appeal to you but finding enjoyable ways of incorporating more protein and fat into your diet should make low carb much easier and more sustainable and the key is to finding those things that you enjoy. My experience has been (and I am not the only one) that you then stop craving the higher carb treats that you used to enjoy.
 
Hi @Katiedares

If you are happy to do so, it can help us in our responses to any questions that you have if you can tell us what meds you are on. There will be plenty of people on here using the same who can give more specific answers.

There are some useful resources in the Learning Zone (orange tab at the top or in the menu on a phone) where you can search for specifics. If you have any questions just ask on here. Nothing is considered silly on the forum.
 
Katiedares said:
Hello everyone. Type 2 here. Diagnosed nearly 3 years ago, lost 2 stone, brought my level from 103 to 57. Now wading around in the slough of despond, struggling with diet and experiencing glucose related woes. My diabetes mentor is being very firm with me - reduce carbs your body can’t deal with the level you are putting in. Struggling with ideas to keep my appetite under control, reduce portions and giving in to hunger pangs and comfort eating. And it’s raining - what happened to summer? :D
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If you are hungry - eat - you can have any meat or fish, eggs, dairy, as protein and fats are what we need to live and thrive - add in mushrooms, low carb veges and fruits and there is a huge range of foods to chose from. You can even get recipes for low carb baking - lowcarblondoner is a really good website to browse around, mixing bowl at the ready.
 
Drummer said:
If you are hungry - eat - you can have any meat or fish, eggs, dairy, as protein and fats are what we need to live and thrive - add in mushrooms, low carb veges and fruits and there is a huge range of foods to chose from. You can even get recipes for low carb baking - lowcarblondoner is a really good website to browse around, mixing bowl at the ready.
Click to expand...
I think you mean sugarfreelondoner website.
 
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