Scared. Hiding. Depressed

[Bricky1991]

Hi,

I’m new here - I’ve just got back from a diabetic clinic. I was diagnosed two years ago at 25 with type 2 diabetes. For a long time I’ve buried my head in the sand. Why me? Woe is me etc...etc.

I feel ashamed. Ashamed that I haven’t done anything about it but ashamed that I’d let myself down so much.

I’ve tried lots of different things, not eating, eating only soup, not eating carbs. They all end in the same way. Over eating and crying!

Is there anyone out there that has been through this? How did you get out of it? I need to stop hiding and get myself back.

Thanks,

Bricky

 

[Sally W]

Sorry to hear you’re having a tough time. I empathise and would firstly say don’t beat yourself up. It’s a completely natural response to the chronic condition that it is.

I think sustainability is the most important thing. Soup diets work for a while; extremely low carb can be difficult to manage long term if you are not a big meat eater. I followed an extreme diet when I was diagnosed and was miserable. What changed it for me was buying a code free meter and testing certain foods. I found a high protein pasta that doesn’t spike me so I eat that occasionally and find sourdough bread is the same. Also eating many different veg is good for gut bacteria which helped with weight loss. (Clever Gut Diet book by a Michael Mosley)

So, if you fund a cheap meter, if you’re not prescribed and you may find certain foods help. Carbs & Cals is a good book which easily identifies lower carb foods and that is recommended too.

Think long term: a marathon not a sprint and you may find with testing you can indulge a little.

Good luck!

 

[Lisa66]

Hi. As @Sally W says, please don’t beat yourself of or feel ashamed, put all that behind you and start anew.

Did your clinic give you any helpful advice?

Start again tomorrow as if you’ve just been diagnosed. Slow and sustainable is definitely the way forward, small achievable goals, otherwise we make it too hard and just set ourselves up for failure.

Give yourself the advice you’d give to others and keep coming back and asking questions if you need to. Trawl through posts and you’ll get lots of helpful tips and see others have been where you are. There’s lots of support here for you. 🙂

 

[CathyB]

Hi, I totally agree with the others, forget yesterday and focus instead on tomorrow because it’s a brand new day and the first of the rest of your life 🙂 When I started I was convinced I would starve to death, nothing worth eating, I would be miserable for ever 🙄
If I only knew then what I know now I chose the low carb pathway and cut out all rice, pasta, potatoes and only eat Burgen bread, I’m lucky in that I love salad and most vegetables so I do wet quite a bit of variety. The pain is that I choose to cook fresh so no more weekly shop, planning meals is essential or I end up with meat and nothing to have with it 😳 Fall back position is always egg and bacon so not bad as a back up eh! Testing is SO important to learn what works for you or doesn’t, track your results with a food diary and you will soon see patterns 😉

 

[Flower]

Hello @Bricky1991 and welcome 🙂

What the others have said. Please don't give yourself a hard time, finding the way through with a diabetes diagnosis is tough. Managing diabetes is long haul so it has to be something you can sustain and works with your life.

Start by keeping a food diary of what you eat over a normal week ( not when you're only having soup!) and note the carbohydrate content of all meals/snacks/drinks. Most packets have a label on giving the carbohydrate content per serving/per 100g etc and the Carbs and Cals app/book is a good guide. Total up each day then have a look where you can cut down on some of the more carb heavy foods and either reduce the portion size or exchange it for something a little less carb rich. The time you can invest now will pay off for a healthy future.

Let us know how things go and ask for any help on here, we get what a challenge it can be. 🙂

 

[SB2015]

Welcome to the forum @Bricky1991

I am glad that you have found us, and you have already seen that there is plenty of help and support from people on here who really ‘get it’. Keep in touch and keep asking questions and people will help.

I have learnt so much from people on here and found the support from other so valuable.

 

[Drummer]

Sometimes the doctors are too busy to actually explain that the problem is carbohydrates.
Type ones need insulin to survive at all, type twos, if they are lucky can return to normal by not eating carbohydrates, the sugars and starches we can't cope with. Some type twos can do that just by modifying their diet. Soup is not a good idea as it is often thickened with starch, but why soup when you can have roast meat? - or fish, shellfish, eggs, cheese - with salad stuff or stirfry, or roast veges, steamed veges - just avoid the high carb foods and enjoy the rest.

 

[JMyrtle]

As Jenny has said commercial soups are thickened with starch, but only if you by them in.
Make your own and leave them chunky or "whiz" for a puree.
One recipe I use is to keep all the tomato juice from the tinned tomatoes I use in a container in the freezer, when I have enough I fry up an onion, couple of rashers of bacon, a carrot and some celery and some finely shreaded lemon peel, add tomato juice and.simmer until vegies are cooked, add a chopped up red pepper, a pinch of chilli and some herbs from the garden, simmer a bit longer until peppers are cooked, season and blend, shouldn't need added sugar but add cream and chopped parsley or chives to serve if you wish.