Newly diagnosed type 2 at 30yrs

[Woods268]

Hi all,
I have recently in the past couple of months been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes at 30 years old and to be honest it has hit me hard and a little confused as to why, how, when the usual questions you know! When diagnosed I was 122kgs and now I am approx.117kgs 5ft11 built fairly stocky. I have purchased a mountain bike and have been doing about 20miles a week until recently due to weather and times I get home from work on the evenings, so I have brought a bike turbo trainer so I can do a bit more on an evening and not worry about the late nights biking on the roads.

I have been told by my GP/Nurse to try and control my diabetes by diet before I get prescribed any medication as the think I can make a big change just through diet alone, which I am willing to do but I am struggling with a diet plan. On which diet to do, on what to eat, right foods and wrong foods, exercise and with the job that I do I find it hard. I am a mechanic working for Motability and we have a restaurant providing one free meal a day which could be anything from Pie, Piri-Piri Chicken with mash, veg or chips. The temptation is so much to have them nice warm lovely meals but I try to have like a Tuna-mayo salad wrap with coleslaw on the side and on an evening I have a salad as often as I can but not everyone in my household wants a salad.
Does anyone else find it hard or follow a set plan or is it just me?

I want to try and put my type 2 into remission but to be honest I am finding it hard to stay focused but then I get frustrated with myself, but with no one in my family having diabetes the whole family is finding it hard, even more so at meal times and snacks.

I am sorry its a bit rabbity its just because its all new to me and my family and just want to try something, ideas or advice, thank you.

Richard

 

[Leadinglights]

Welcome to the forum, it is a shock to get a diabetes diagnosis but there is very much something you can do about it indeed have to do something for the sake of your family.
Dietary management is very possible for many and you should certainly give that a try before medication. Losing weight can help but as you surmise making changes to your diet is challenging when you have a family and also meals on hand at work.
Many find a low carbohydrate approach successful and by careful food choices you can still have a variety of meals but still manage to reduce your blood glucose. Have a look at this link which is based on REAL food so easier to fit in with family life. There are some do's and don'ts as well as some meal ideas.

Freshwell Low Carb Project - Home

lowcarbfreshwell.co.uk

Depending on what your HbA1C is will determine how much work you have to do so knowing that is important and will help people make suggestions.
The work meals you mention will be a bit too high in carbs unless you ditch the chips, mash and pies but ask for extra veg, and of course steer clear of puddings.

 

[Cherrelle DUK]

Hi Woods268, welcome to the forum.

It comes as quite a shock to many people and you're certainly not alone in struggling with the food part. 🙂

I feel like free food should also be carb and calorie free otherwise it's just unfair! The main part of managing diabetes is reducing carbs/ sugar which includes things like pastry, porridge and sugary drinks.

Regarding family, I've found that making the main meal suitable for all and then the sides optional so maybe some chicken as the main element then lots of veg to make a complete meal and rice for those who want it. Some steak and steamed veg with potatoes on the side for those who prefer it.

It's best not to make drastic changes all at once so take some time to create a food diary for a week or have a chat with the family and see how you can incorporate less carbs into the meals made. It's very possible to get within a safe diabetic range but will require some additional strategies.

 

[42istheanswer]

Hi @Woods268 I was diagnosed in August and ate a lot of salads while it was hot but I'm eating more soups and stews now. If the rest of your family like those, then you can always make them and they can have e.g. bread or scones with them and you can have a larger portion of soup/stew and maybe a small portion of the carb side?

I also have things like omelette/frittata (basically crustless quiche) - often I have those for breakfast. They are very low carb if you just put meat, veg and cheese in with the eggs & milk.

I often have to cook separate meals for me anyway as my children only eat certain foods, so I have been doing some batch cooking so that I get several meals rather than always cooking something different for me every day.

Regarding the work canteen meals, have you discussed your diagnosis with your manager or Occupational Health team at work? They might be able to ask for there to be consideration of how to make the meals lower carb for you to meet medical needs e.g. could you have the piri piri chicken just with vegetables and no potato? That would be pretty low carb. Pie might be more challenging, but if it's a meat pie rather than a potato pie then if you could have that just with vegetables and discipline yourself to not eat all the crust that would reduce the carb content of the meal.

There's a thread where some of us have posted photos of meals we have had - some of the posters eat higher carb levels (e.g due to being on insulin), but there are a fair few low-ish carb meal ideas in there.

 

[Drummer]

I found it relatively easy to feed the family and keep myself to low carb, though that was long before diabetes. I'd have two low carb veges and they would have whatever vege they liked with potato or Yorkshire puddings, or both, and for dessert I'd have fruit and cream and they would have a fruit pie and custard - the pie was baked in separate pieces, then assembled and kept warm before being served. If you go really low carb in the evening then eating a bit more carby stuff at lunch time might be OK - we are all individual and react in different ways.