Hello everyone, I have recently been diagnosed as pre-diabetic. I am also menopausal and live with anxiety (medicated) and underactive thyroid (taking levothyroxine).
It would be great to hear from people who may be experiencing a similar situation, and get any advice you care to share about lifestyle management to prevent the onset of T2 while coping with co-morbidities.
Thank you.
Welcome to the forum
@MerryShep
Sorry to hear you are juggling a few health conditions, and trying to find a balance between them. We have quite a few members who need to find a way to keep several conditions happy at once, so you are in good company.
In terms of your risk of diabetes, one approach that helps lots of newcomers is to begin to take stock of where you are starting from before you identify any possible changes that might be helpful.
While there are obvious things like cakes, biscuits, sweets and sugary drinks that you will want to cut out straight away, you might be surprised how much *all* carbohydrate can affect your BG levels, including rice, pasta, potatoes, bread, pastry, grains, cereals and many fruits. That doesn’t mean you have to avoid all those things entirely - but finding the types that suit you best, and the right portion sizes can be a very powerful strategy.
In terms of getting an idea of your starting point it can be really helpful to keep a brutally honest food diary for a week or two. Note down everything you eat and drink, along with a reasonable estimate of the total carbohydrate content (not just ’of which sugars’) in your meals and snacks - it doesn’t have to be gram-perfect, the nearest 5-10g is fine. It might sound like a bit of a faff, and will involve weighing portions, squinting at the fine print on packaging, and possibly looking up things on the internet, but it will give you a really good idea of which foods are the main sources of carbs in your menu.
Once you can see which meals or snacks are your ‘big hitters’, and where carbs might be unexpectedly lurking, the diary might also suggest some likely candidates for swaps, portion reductions, or using lower carb alternatives (eg celeriac or swede mash, or cauli ‘rice’). You may also discover that some of the meals you already enjoy are relatively light in carbs, which will most likely mean they will have less impact on your glucose levels.
Good luck, and let us know how you get on
🙂
