Newly diagnosed type 1 (plant based diet) - any tips appreciated!

[LunaLG]

Hello,

I have very recently been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. I am 33yo, female with no other health problems or family history, and it has all come as a bit of a shock and surprise!

I started noticing I was losing weight a few months ago. I dropped from 60kg to 50kg in a couple of months, which concerned me, but as I like exercise I thought perhaps a combination of the hot weather and lifting heavier weights was to blame initially. My Drs organised some blood tests, but due to blood tests causing me to have vasovagal fits as a teenager, there was a huge delay in these being done. I had extreme thirst which I put down to getting invisalign braces, but then I had such bad fatigue and dizziness for a few days that I ended up calling 111. They sent me straight to a walk in centre, and before I knew it I was in an ambulance and in the hospital hooked up to insulin! My blood sugar was 39 and my ketones were 6.8 when I was admitted - thankfully I only had to spend two days in hospital before coming home with all my new kit.

So far things have been a little up and down - I'm generally an optimistic person with a positive attitude to life's challenges, but I have had my moments. I have started having hypos at 3am which is a bit scary, but I have multiple appointments with diabetes nurses and teams this week so I am hoping we will adjust my Lantus accordingly.

I have been vegan for about six years, so as a general rule I keep a food diary and really monitor what I eat to ensure I'm getting enough protein etc. Hopefully this habit is going to come in useful 🙂

Looking forward to meeting people on here and hoping to learn from others when it comes to night time hypos, getting back into exercising (weightlifting and kickboxing are my favourites) and managing type 1 on a plant based diet.

 

[Leadinglights]

Welcome to the forum, there are many people who are vegetarian or vegan who are Type 1 and with a suitable insulin regime there is no reason that your current diet shouldn't be suitable.
It is Type 2 people who find it more challenging if veggie or vegan but still doable when they are trying to reduce carbohydrates but as Type 1 then with the appropriate tools you should be able to do it with little problem.
I'm sure some other Type 1 folk will be along, but I expect they will suggest that you try to get onto a carb counting course like DAFNE or look at the on-line BERTIE course and also ask to go onto both basal and bolus insulins as soon as possible.
It is a lot to get your head around when you get a diagnosis out of the blue, but you sound as if you have got good support.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @StephanieMLW

Goodness what a rollercoaster you’ve been on. And yes, it’s all too easy to write off or excuse symptoms you are having and then looking back you think, “Why didn’t I get that looked into earlier!”

Mercifully I escaped full-blown DKA too, but was diagnosed with BG in the high 30s (as high as the BM sticks read) and +++ Ketones. It was the final year of my degree, and I put things down to stress, even though I thought it was as I wasn’t feeling very stressed(!).

Night time hypos are no fun, and I had years of them with Lantus, pretty much until I discovered forums, basal testing, and the possibility of splitting basal and/or taking it at a different time of day.

In the end Lantus in the morning was my best-fit with that insulin. It has a mini-peak at about 5hrs which seems more marked in some people than others. If you take it at bedtime (as often advised) you can end up with the bump in action coinciding with the 3am dip in BGs - not an ideal combination!

I’m not vegan personally, but my youngest switched to a vegan (now more accurately flexi-vege-vegan) diet several years ago, so I’ve had a few years of juggling BGs and a plant-based memory.

It’s perfectly do-able! Though I did find (depending on the meal) that some meals have a higher carb content that they might otherwise have. Or perhaps that was just the recipes I was choosing!

Have you been introduced to the concept of carb counting yet? This is a way of adjusting your insulin doses to match the carb content of your meals.

There’s an overview of the idea here, if it helps:

The nuts and bolts of carb counting

When you live with type 1 diabetes, carb counting is a great way of managing your blood sugar or glucose levels. It can give you more freedom and flexibility in what you eat when you're preparing meals at home, grabbing food on the go or eating out. Carb counting does take some time and effort...

www.diabetes.org.uk

 

[Inka]

Welcome @StephanieMLW 🙂 I hope you’re feeling a lot better now you’re on insulin! I didn’t realise how ill and weak I’d been feeling until I got the insulin and felt more like myself. Emotionally, Type 1 takes longer to get used to so be kind to yourself. It’s perfectly ok to feel angry, sad, confused, resentful, scared - and many more things.

I’m not vegan but I do eat a lot of vegan food. Type 1s can eat anything we like (within reason obviously) as long as we balance it with the correct amount of insulin. If you’re not carb-counting, push very hard to be shown. It’s not hard and it makes eating easier.

Some vegan recipes are carb-counted eg in one of the Oh She Glows cookbooks but I always double-check myself as often they include all carbs whereas most Type 1s don’t count ‘free’ foods - ie foods with minimal carbs. If you haven’t yet got a half unit pen for your bolus (meal) insulin, get one. It makes dosing much easier.

 

[LunaLG]

Thank you all for your replies - it's so nice to hear from people who can relate to what is such a new situation to find myself in!

For carb counting I was given Novorapid and the instruction to use a 1 unit for 10g of carb ratio, plus additional units if my blood sugar is 9+. I have found this ok so far, though I'm definitely going to push to go on a proper course ASAP. I messed up yesterday by giving myself 5 units for a meal that contained 54g of carbs (it was a Gousto recipe, so gave me total carb count), but my sugars absolutely crashed two hours afterwards and gave me a hypo. On reflection, the meal was made up of sweet potato, sugar snap peas and leafy greens, so I'd overdone it on the Novorapid I assume. I had the exact same meal today with 2 units, and my sugars were on target all day. So I'm definitely at the trial and error phase!

@everydayupsanddowns that is very interesting RE Lantus as I feel like that's exactly what's happening to me. I spoke to a nurse on Friday who told me to dial it down gradually until the 3am episodes subside, but it hasn't changed anything yet. I have a diabetes nurse appointment tomorrow so I will definitely ask about whether morning doses might be a better fit @Inka I will also ask about the half unit pens, thank you!

 

[Inka]

The 1:10g carbs ratio you’ve been given will be a starting point - ie an estimate. If you find you’re needing less, then adjust your ratio accordingly (it can be anything eg 1:12, 1:15, 1:8, etc etc). I find sweet potato has less effect than the carbs suggest, and certainly less effect than white potato, but with a big difference in your original 5 units and your later 2 units, that could have been because Gousto counted all the carbs or simply got it wrong, or your ratio isn’t correct. I recently had a ready meal and the carb count was way off as I went high afterwards. Sometimes they just seem to do an average or simply get it wrong. Always err on the side of caution and have less insulin rather than risk a hypo.

If moving Lantus to the morning (or maybe earlier in the evening) doesn’t work, there are a number of other basal insulins you could try. Some are twice daily, which might sound less desirable to you, but many people find they give better control and more flexibility (because you can have less in the evening, for example).

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Sounds like you are off to a cracking start @StephanieMLW

Stay curious, keep experimenting, and just carry on plugging away at it. After 30 years I am still finding new hints, tips, tricks, and relearning things I thought I had ‘sorted’ previously! 🙂

 

[Rob Oldfield]

Hi @StephanieMLW

Nothing major to add to what others have already said, but just to add that you'll be fine keeping your sports going. You'll need to cater for the effects of insulin but all is doable.

 

[helli]

Welcome @StephanieMLW

Exercise with Type 1 takes a little bit more planning and trial and error but it is certainly possible.
Yesterday, I was at the gym doing some cardio on the rower followed by some weights, on Wednesday I have my spin class and tonight I will be doing my spiderman impression at the climbing centre.
I find different exercise requires different management techniques but, basically, long constant cardio usually results in increased insulin sensitivity whereas interval and resistance training causes insulin resistance. I have no experience of kick-boxing and my weights are likely to be lower weights that your weight lifting. My expectation would be that the kick boxing could cause drops of levels (unless the bouts are very short).
So, for a session at the gym with cardio and weights, I change the order depending upon my starting levels (if they are lower than 6, I start with weights and if they are higher, I start with cardio); for spin, I start with a higher level and keep hypo treatment next to my water bottle on the bike; and, with climbing, I need an insulin boost to start.
For longer cardio such as a hike or long cycle ride, I may add some weak fruit squash to my water bottle so I take on sugar most of the time and maintain my levels rather than topping them up when they fall.

 

[LunaLG]

Thanks so much @helli that's extremely useful! Though I think after couple of weeks of not lifting, the weights I'm going to be doing when I go back to the gym on Thursday won't be all that heavy 😉
I was planning for my first session back to make sure I've eaten something decent an hour or so before I arrive, check my sugars before I leave home, and perhaps even check them half way through the session to see what they're up to. I'll make sure to have my hypo sweets on hand, and make sure my trainer knows where they are too. Thankfully she has been very understanding and I will be able to take things at a sensible pace. There are also two nurses in my lifting class which is making me feel reassured about going back!!

 

[SB2015]

Thanks so much @helli that's extremely useful! Though I think after couple of weeks of not lifting, the weights I'm going to be doing when I go back to the gym on Thursday won't be all that heavy 😉
I was planning for my first session back to make sure I've eaten something decent an hour or so before I arrive, check my sugars before I leave home, and perhaps even check them half way through the session to see what they're up to. I'll make sure to have my hypo sweets on hand, and make sure my trainer knows where they are too. Thankfully she has been very understanding and I will be able to take things at a sensible pace. There are also two nurses in my lifting class which is making me feel reassured about going back!!

When you start exercising again it is always useful to monitor through the class/session. The more that you know about how your body reacts the more that Will help you with deciding how to adjust your insulin and or carb intake. We are all different but @helli has shown you how she has find different strategies for different types of exe.

There is a lot to take on board at the start, but you have clearly got a positive attitude to what you need to do. There is a wealth of expertise on here to tap into. Just ask.