Newbie

[MichelleN]

I think most of us panicked at diagnosis. It is a gut reaction, but diabetes is a very manageable condition if you understand it and put some effort into getting control of it. Sounds like you are heading in the right direction. It takes time to get your head around it all and find a new ways of eating that you enjoy but doesn't cause your levels to spike too much. The breakthrough for me was adding more fat to my diet. Low carb is not sustainable long term unless you increase your fat intake. Now that I understand that I reduce carbs to control by BG and eat fat to help stabilise my weight it is easier to balance things. I have about 40-70g carbs a day and I enjoy cream in my morning coffee and chunks of cheese and nuts when I fancy them. If I want to lose weight I keep the carbs the same but don't eat so much cheese or I do more exercise. At the moment I am at a normal BMI but would like to lose another inch off my waist so I am upping the exercise and keeping my fat intake the same but I could reduce the fat and keep the exercise the same. I don't weigh or measure anything other than carbs, but I know if I have had 1 or 2 cups of coffee with cream or more than one chunk of cheese in the day etc, so I can just cut back on things like that.

It certainly does take time to get your head round things, It’s good to know that you can still have the things you enjoy but to be mindful of how much you have

 

[rebrascora]

I actually mostly don't eat the things I used to enjoy because they were all high carb foods and I was a sugar addict. I have just found low carb foods that I enjoy even more instead.. ie. I used to tip brown sugar into my coffee.... didn't even spoon it in because there couldn't be too much, even if there was a slurry of sugar siting in the bottom of the cup. Seriously, thinking about it now, I was a junkie for sugar! I always said I would rather not drink coffee as drink it without sugar. Having gone cold turkey and cured my sweet tooth I now relish that morning coffee without sugar far more than I did before because it tastes heavenly made with cream instead. My taste buds have changed. I enjoy savoury and sour and bitter foods probably more than I enjoy sweet now. It was almost like I was eating in monochrome before and now I eat in colour. Just simple foods but everything has so much more flavour now and the amazing thing is that I don't crave the other stuff anymore.