Newbie

[MEM]

Hi I’m one of those terrible type 2 persons. Diagnosed 20 years ago but pretty much on my own. No courses or advice so far apart from GP. Now on Lixisenatide injections BG still high. What should I be aiming for?

 

[Deleted member 27171]

Hi @MEM welcome to the forum - no terrible people here, you included! Do you test your own blood sugars at home or only through the GP? If you are self testing, the levels you are aiming for are generally between 4-7 before eating and 8.5 or under 2 hours post meal.
Do you know what your level as are generally? What sort of diet do you follow?
You might find it helpful to have a look through the Learning Zone at the top of the page, but do post any questions you have and if you want to share a little about your background with diabetes treatment etc I’m sure you’ll get lots of support/suggestions from those with experience.

 

[trophywench]

What's terrible about you ? Are you not another human being, utterly clueless about all the subtle nuances of diabetes whatever 'type' it's labelled as, and utterly baffled, exactly the same as most of us who didn't gain a Medical university degree?

 

[MEM]

Hi @MEM welcome to the forum - no terrible people here, you included! Do you test your own blood sugars at home or only through the GP? If you are self testing, the levels you are aiming for are generally between 4-7 before eating and 8.5 or under 2 hours post meal.
Do you know what your level as are generally? What sort of diet do you follow?
You might find it helpful to have a look through the Learning Zone at the top of the page, but do post any questions you have and if you want to share a little about your background with diabetes treatment etc I’m sure you’ll get lots of support/suggestions from those with experience.

I test at home. Since commencing Lixisenatide just before lockdown BG has been around 12.5 pre meal and as bad as 19.6 2 hours post meal. GP has told me not to do as many tests (I don’t agree and buy my own test strips to do extra). Am having HbA1c on Friday but feel I had to instigate this. Unpleasant complication recurred due to high BG. Not really following much of a ‘diet’ not helped with lockdown boredom

 

[MEM]

What's terrible about you ? Are you not another human being, utterly clueless about all the subtle nuances of diabetes whatever 'type' it's labelled as, and utterly baffled, exactly the same as most of us who didn't gain a Medical university degree?

Thanks. I feel like I’ve been struggling alone for years with this. Determined to get things under control but it’s good to know there are people out there to help

 

[Ditto]

Hello and welcome to the forum @MEM 🙂

 

[rebrascora]

Hi and welcome.
I suspect lack of suitable dietary advice is your problem, but you have come to the right place for that.

Firstly it is all carbohydrates which affect your BG levels,not just sugar and sweet stuff,so you need to ration bread potatoes, pasta, rice and particularly many breakfast cereals, including otherwise healthy foods like porridge and fruit (in all it's forms including dried, fresh and juiced). The game changer for me was realising that if I was going to eat a lot less carbs, I needed to eat something else to provide me with energy (calories) Most NHS advice is low fat, low sugar and moderate wholemeal/brown carbs, but increasing your fat intake will make a huge difference to your diet if you cut the carbs. Fat provides slow release energy, it doesn't spike your BG levels and because it takes longer to digest it keeps you feeling full, so you are not tempted to snack between meals and in fact you may find that just 2 meals a day are enough as oppose to carbohydrates which hit the blood stream in a couple of hours and then leave you feeling hungry and wanting to eat more. Since I cut my carbs right down (I no longer eat bread or pasta or rice and just a very small portion of porridge oats or potatoes every once in a while) and eat more fat, I eat so much less and I don't feel hungry. There is a growing wave of scientific thought that the low fat advice we have been following for the past 50+ years was based on flawed and possibly also cherry picked data and may in part be the reason why we are now experiencing a diabetes epidemic, because food manufacturers found that carbs were a cheaper substitute for fat, so low fat products are pretty well always higher in carbs.... even the likes of milk.... take the cream out and skimmed milk is higher in carbs because the cream doesn't contain carbs and you can sell the cream separately so increased profit. Similarly low fat yoghurts contain more sugar and starch than full fat yoghurt because yoghurt is watery and tastes naff once you make it with skimmed milk. Many of us have coffee made with double cream with our breakfast of creamy Greek Natural yoghurt with a few berries (which are the lowest carb fruits) and seeds and chopped nuts or an omelette or a fry up. (no bread or toast though) It is hard to feel deprived when you start your day with a coffee made with cream and a fry up, so thi all makes this low carb way of eating sustainable. It is important to increase your activity levels too and a brisk daily walk is the ideal choice.

If you would like to tell us what you currently eat and drink for an average breakfast, lunch and dinner we can make low carb suggestions which should help you head in the right direction but using your BG meter to test before each meal and then 2 hours after will enable you to tailor your diet to your own body's tolerance of specific carbs, which can vary quite dramatically from one person to the next. You are looking for an increase of less than 3mmols after the meal for the carb content to be OK.

Would just like to add that I was a sugar addict and heavy bread and potato consumer pre diagnosis. A year and 4 months down the line I just don't miss them. I may have a small portion of potatoes or sweet potato once a week but I don't eat bread at all. I have experimented with beans and pulses but find that they also spike my levels badly, so tend to avoid those, but I eat lots of eggs and meat and cheese and fish and nuts and mushrooms and salad with creamy/cheese coleslaw and leafy green veg cooked in butter or cream cheese and lots of cauliflower cheese made with obscene amounts of cream cheese and grated cheese. Interestingly, despite my diet now being high in fat and particularly saturated fats, I am not putting on weight (I am a normal BMI) and my cholesterol which was not overly high to start with, has been reducing slightly without medication.

Anyway, apologies for my "war and peace" of a post. Hope you find some of it helpful. Definitely continue to test frequently but use a system of testing before and 2 hours after food so that you get maximum information from the results and use that info to guide you.

 

[Lizzzie]

Hi I’m one of those terrible type 2 persons. Diagnosed 20 years ago but pretty much on my own. No courses or advice so far apart from GP. Now on Lixisenatide injections BG still high. What should I be aiming for?

I have no idea. I'm one of those "awesome" Type one people. 😱

Er.....NOT! . Just wanted to say, kill that stereotype right there. Nobody asks for diabetes; it happens. The only judgement I'm making of you is that you're asking for help to make things better -even after 20 years of that (*insert expletive here*) illness. That's hard-core. Keep trying. Every time you eat something you shouldn't / do something you shouldn't / your sugars don't come down, keep trying. Because by doing your best, you will do better than if you don't try. You've got this. And in lots of ways, it's harder for you than for us.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @MEM

Do try not to think of yourself as ‘terrible’, or your results as ‘good’ or ‘bad’. I know it sounds silly, but that sort of language can seep into your mindset and is quite demotivating long-term.

Try to phrase things more positively when you are speaking to yourself (people often use language to themselves that they would never be so unkind as to use to anyone else!). It is fine to admit and acknowledge where you have made choices that aren't ideal, but use your results simply as information to guide you as to what to do next.

They aren’t a judgement on the effort you are putting in, and certainly not a reflection of you as a whole person. They are just infromation to guide you,

You can’t change what you did yesterday - but you can learn from it, and change what you will do today.

((((Hugs)))) to you, and look forward to seeing you posting more 🙂

 

[trophywench]

My previous DSN used to frequently use a turn of phrase I like very much, when I'd made a pig's ear out of something I was trying to do, instead of criticising she'd say, 'That probably wasn't the best choice you could have made, Jenny!' and then we'd both have a good giggle about what I should perhaps have done for a better result.

This is how you learn - by making mistakes, recognising you have made them and deciding you don't want to do that again. Slagging yourself off achieves nothing!

 

[MEM]

Hello again Well I braved it to ask for a HbA1c test two weeks ago Finally got result this morning 81 Looking to commence low carb diet 20grams only per day
If I can get bloods lower by 12 weeks good If not I will commence insulin
OMG

Hi and welcome.
I suspect lack of suitable dietary advice is your problem, but you have come to the right place for that.

Firstly it is all carbohydrates which affect your BG levels,not just sugar and sweet stuff,so you need to ration bread potatoes, pasta, rice and particularly many breakfast cereals, including otherwise healthy foods like porridge and fruit (in all it's forms including dried, fresh and juiced). The game changer for me was realising that if I was going to eat a lot less carbs, I needed to eat something else to provide me with energy (calories) Most NHS advice is low fat, low sugar and moderate wholemeal/brown carbs, but increasing your fat intake will make a huge difference to your diet if you cut the carbs. Fat provides slow release energy, it doesn't spike your BG levels and because it takes longer to digest it keeps you feeling full, so you are not tempted to snack between meals and in fact you may find that just 2 meals a day are enough as oppose to carbohydrates which hit the blood stream in a couple of hours and then leave you feeling hungry and wanting to eat more. Since I cut my carbs right down (I no longer eat bread or pasta or rice and just a very small portion of porridge oats or potatoes every once in a while) and eat more fat, I eat so much less and I don't feel hungry. There is a growing wave of scientific thought that the low fat advice we have been following for the past 50+ years was based on flawed and possibly also cherry picked data and may in part be the reason why we are now experiencing a diabetes epidemic, because food manufacturers found that carbs were a cheaper substitute for fat, so low fat products are pretty well always higher in carbs.... even the likes of milk.... take the cream out and skimmed milk is higher in carbs because the cream doesn't contain carbs and you can sell the cream separately so increased profit. Similarly low fat yoghurts contain more sugar and starch than full fat yoghurt because yoghurt is watery and tastes naff once you make it with skimmed milk. Many of us have coffee made with double cream with our breakfast of creamy Greek Natural yoghurt with a few berries (which are the lowest carb fruits) and seeds and chopped nuts or an omelette or a fry up. (no bread or toast though) It is hard to feel deprived when you start your day with a coffee made with cream and a fry up, so thi all makes this low carb way of eating sustainable. It is important to increase your activity levels too and a brisk daily walk is the ideal choice.

If you would like to tell us what you currently eat and drink for an average breakfast, lunch and dinner we can make low carb suggestions which should help you head in the right direction but using your BG meter to test before each meal and then 2 hours after will enable you to tailor your diet to your own body's tolerance of specific carbs, which can vary quite dramatically from one person to the next. You are looking for an increase of less than 3mmols after the meal for the carb content to be OK.

Would just like to add that I was a sugar addict and heavy bread and potato consumer pre diagnosis. A year and 4 months down the line I just don't miss them. I may have a small portion of potatoes or sweet potato once a week but I don't eat bread at all. I have experimented with beans and pulses but find that they also spike my levels badly, so tend to avoid those, but I eat lots of eggs and meat and cheese and fish and nuts and mushrooms and salad with creamy/cheese coleslaw and leafy green veg cooked in butter or cream cheese and lots of cauliflower cheese made with obscene amounts of cream cheese and grated cheese. Interestingly, despite my diet now being high in fat and particularly saturated fats, I am not putting on weight (I am a normal BMI) and my cholesterol which was not overly high to start with, has been reducing slightly without medication.

Anyway, apologies for my "war and peace" of a post. Hope you find some of it helpful. Definitely continue to test frequently but use a system of testing before and 2 hours after food so that you get maximum information from the results and use that info to guide you.

THANK YOU. Barbara. This is most helpful and encouraging. I will give all this a try It’s good to know there is a way out of this mess I’m in

 

[MEM]

I’ve been looking up The Diet Doctor for info on low carbs and am also involved with a COVID 19 symptom tracker research programme. Some of their research has also led me to a low carb diet. So. Watch this space. I’m on it (hopefully)
thanks all

 

[MEM]

I have no idea. I'm one of those "awesome" Type one people. 😱

Er.....NOT! . Just wanted to say, kill that stereotype right there. Nobody asks for diabetes; it happens. The only judgement I'm making of you is that you're asking for help to make things better -even after 20 years of that (*insert expletive here*) illness. That's hard-core. Keep trying. Every time you eat something you shouldn't / do something you shouldn't / your sugars don't come down, keep trying. Because by doing your best, you will do better than if you don't try. You've got this. And in lots of ways, it's harder for you than for us.

Thanks Lizzy.
im working on a low carb diet plan now due to shocking HbA1c result today of 81. Determined to do all I can to get this down to manageable levels Would this explaine why my mouth feels so sore I wonder..
thanks again for support

 

[rebrascora]

You would be well advised to go low carb gradually, particularly with an HbA1c as high as 81. Maybe aim for under 130g the first week and then drop it to under 100g the next and then down to 70 etc. Lowering your BG levels too quickly can cause damage to small blood vessels and nerves.... you are likely to notice it most in your eyes with your sight being affected, so best to ease yourself into it gently rather than go straight for just 20g and risk doing damage.

 

[rebrascora]

And yes, you are much more prone to infections, ulcers, decay and gum disease with high BG levels.

 

[MEM]

Welcome to the forum @MEM

Do try not to think of yourself as ‘terrible’, or your results as ‘good’ or ‘bad’. I know it sounds silly, but that sort of language can seep into your mindset and is quite demotivating long-term.

Try to phrase things more positively when you are speaking to yourself (people often use language to themselves that they would never be so unkind as to use to anyone else!). It is fine to admit and acknowledge where you have made choices that aren't ideal, but use your results simply as information to guide you as to what to do next.

They aren’t a judgement on the effort you are putting in, and certainly not a reflection of you as a whole person. They are just infromation to guide you,

You can’t change what you did yesterday - but you can learn from it, and change what you will do today.

((((Hugs)))) to you, and look forward to seeing you posting more 🙂

Thanks Mike. im now focussing my efforts to a low carb diet to get bloods down. On top of HbA1c result that was pretty devastating I was told I am now advised to shield because of Covid 19. A bit of a shocking morning today
determined to beat it though

 

[trophywench]

Good for you - and jolly good luck!

 

[MEM]

Good for you - and jolly good luck!

i think I will need some luck. But thanks for encouragement