Newbie saying hello

[Jon capewell]

Hi everyone, I been diagnosed as type 2 about 3 months ago.
I've been borderline for years but now I've gone over the line.....
I'm a 38 year old truck driver.
I was diagnosed with a read of 10.3 but after 2 months on metaformin I down to 4.7
I need to get more exercise into my day but my main problem is my diet, I eat sandwich for breakfast as I'm out on the road at 04.30 and it's slimming world meal or soup for lunch and dinner. That in itself i don't think is too bad, the problem I have is snacking, I have cut chocolate out but now I have 4 or 5 oaty biscuits a day instead, then go sleep early to avoid snacking at night.....I only like banana and grapes for fruit but been told not to eat grapes as too much sugar..... I've cut out sugar in tea/coffee and now use xylitol sweetener. ....

 

[Northerner]

Hi Jon, welcome to the forum 🙂 Sorry to hear about your diagnosis Diet, as you've guessed, is of the utmost importance - but not necessarily in terms of trying to lose weight. What you need to consider more than anything is the type of food you are eating. All types of carbohydrate will raise your blood sugar levels, some more than others, so you need to be aware of how much bread, pasta, potatoes, rice etc. you are eating, not just sugary items (sugar is just another form of carbohydrate). I'd suggest having a look at the GL (Glycaemic Load) diet, which is not a weight loss diet, but a an approach to selecting and combining foods so that they have a slow, steady impact on blood glucose levels. The GL Diet for Dummies is a very good introduction, so worth putting on your reading list - hopefully it will give you some good ideas for ways in which you could modify your diet so you don't feel deprived or hungry 🙂 Protein snacks like nuts or cheese are fine and tend to fill you up better than biscuits. Fruit, as you say, can be a problem because of the amount of sugar it contains - berries are probably the best fruit to go for.

It doesn't sound like you need to make too drastic a change, so hopefully cutting down on the carbs (replacing potatoes with more leafy veg, for example) will help you maintain good levels 🙂 Please feel free to ask any questions you may have, there are plenty of friendly experienced people here who will be happy to help! 🙂

 

[bilbie]

@Northerner I just googled GL diet and the data looks good,
http://www.lowglycemicload.com/
it also has a list of general foods and their value, I roughly work it out to 70-100g of carb a day using the 500 value and a number that would be good for a lot of diabetics to start on and then adjust acordingly
http://www.lowglycemicload.com/glycemic_table.html

@Jon capewell If you also google low carb snacks, this will help for during the day. after you reduce your carbs / glycemic load you may find you aren't as hungry

these sites helped me a lot
an introduction to low carb, which is also low GL... no need to pay to see more, there is enough on the net.
http://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb

what to expect the first week, besides being starving hungry for the first 36 hours, then it stops
https://www.verywell.com/getting-through-the-first-week-2242037

 

[Stitch147]

Hi and welcome to the forum.