Newbie

[Neenie.P]

Hi there, I have just been told my Hba1c has now moved from pre diabetic to Diabetic. So here I am. Feel a little nervous. I have not actually seen the nurse yet but have been doing my own research. I don't want to take Metformin so want to try my best to bring my blood sugar down naturally.
I am not massively over weight. 5ft 2 and 10st 4.
I am quite active, have my 2 grandkids x 2 week, work 20 hours in 2 days a week, on my feet all day and go to the gym to weight lift x 3 a week.
We have a fairly healthy diet. So I'm hoping I can up my game and get on track. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
Kind regards to everyone

 

[Ciara DUK]

Hi there @Neenie.P , and welcome to the forum 🙂

It's natural to feel nervous about a new diagnosis, it can be overwhelming when you first find out, certainly. The forum is a wonderful and friendly community - we're all here to support you through this!

It's good to hear you're looking into things yourself, and I hope that when you do see the nurse, that will be helpful and that you feel you have a better understanding of diabetes by then.

Thanks for sharing some details about your lifestyle and how you're getting on currently - it helps us get to know you, and can help guide us with knowing how to best to offer any help.

If you would like to take a look at our threads on food and recipes, as well as our one on exercise, please feel free to check out these here -

Food/carb queries + recipes

Coming to terms with diabetes and food can be very difficult - this forum is for all your food and carbohydrate queries and a place to post your favourite recipes!

forum.diabetes.org.uk

Exercise/Sport

Please post all your exercise/sport queries and experiences in this forum.

forum.diabetes.org.uk

As well as this, you may find the orange tab at the top of the page, our 'Learning Zone', a helpful resource for getting started with learning more about diabetes.

There's always our website too, with lots of handy information, as well as free resources on our online shop (Shop linked here - https://shop.diabetes.org.uk/collections/information-for-you)

Hopefully, this helps to give you some additional information, and if you have any questions for us, please do ask away!
As well as this, please feel free to check back in after your appointment with the nurse, too 🙂

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @Neenie.P

Glad you have joined us!

It can feel quite overwhelming at the start, so be kind to yourself. We have lots of members here using different strategies and approaches to manage their glucose levels day to day, so you’ll have lots of experiences and ideas to dip into.

There’s no one single approach that will work for everyone, so it’s a question of experimenting, trying things out, exploring the options and finding a “diabetes toolkit” that works for you.

Good luck, and keep firing away with any questions 🙂

 

[Leadinglights]

I wonder whether you didn't take enough action when you were at the prediabetic stage, many think they eat healthily but what may be healthy when not diabetic is not so good if you have an issue with tolerating carbohydrates and people who follow the NHS Eatwell plate are actually having more carbs than many can tolerate. The suggested amount of carbs per day is no more than 130g.
This link may help you with some ideas for modifying your diet. I followed the principals and reduced my HbA1C from 50mmol/mol to 42 in 3 months without meds. https://lowcarbfreshwell.com/

 

[Drummer]

I was on a 'healthy' diet before diagnosis - far too much carb for me, I was almost spherical.
Swapping those foods for something 10% carbs or less has made all the difference.

 

[DiabloT2]

Hi there, I have just been told my Hba1c has now moved from pre diabetic to Diabetic. So here I am. Feel a little nervous. I have not actually seen the nurse yet but have been doing my own research. I don't want to take Metformin so want to try my best to bring my blood sugar down naturally.
I am not massively over weight. 5ft 2 and 10st 4.
I am quite active, have my 2 grandkids x 2 week, work 20 hours in 2 days a week, on my feet all day and go to the gym to weight lift x 3 a week.
We have a fairly healthy diet. So I'm hoping I can up my game and get on track. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
Kind regards to everyone

I too was keen to try and bring my blood sugar down naturally. I was able to do it and the biggest factor in doing so was adopting a lower carb diet. My prior diet had a lot of carbs so reducing them wasn't that difficult - it was mainly a matter of educating myself about the carb content of foods - something I'd not taken any note of until I got diagnosed.

 

[SB2015]

Hi there, I have just been told my Hba1c has now moved from pre diabetic to Diabetic. So here I am. Feel a little nervous. I have not actually seen the nurse yet but have been doing my own research. I don't want to take Metformin so want to try my best to bring my blood sugar down naturally.
I am not massively over weight. 5ft 2 and 10st 4.
I am quite active, have my 2 grandkids x 2 week, work 20 hours in 2 days a week, on my feet all day and go to the gym to weight lift x 3 a week.
We have a fairly healthy diet. So I'm hoping I can up my game and get on track. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
Kind regards to everyone

Welcome to the forum.
Glad that you have found us, and you now have access to loads of experience of others managing their diabetes. You have been pointed to loads of resources. These may help you to create a list of questions in preparation for your appointment.
I look forward to hearing more from you.