Sorry but I can’t do this anymore!!

[Whatsthepoint!]

Hi everyone, I’ve been a type 2 diabetic for about 9 years, I weigh more now than ever, and never felt worse. Can’t get to see a dietician, I don’t like fruit, veg and beans? What do you substitute carbs with? Christmas is coming, not looking forward to that. Hba1c is 90. I hate diabetes and just want to give up. Any ideas on how to make it quick?

 

[Leadinglights]

Hi everyone, I’ve been a type 2 diabetic for about 9 years, I weigh more now than ever, and never felt worse. Can’t get to see a dietician, I don’t like fruit, veg and beans? What do you substitute carbs with? Christmas is coming, not looking forward to that. Hba1c is 90. I hate diabetes and just want to give up. Any ideas on how to make it quick?

I don't think there is a quick fix but there is a way to manage your diabetes with some sensible dietary changes, that does not mean NO carbs or having to eat foods you do not like, in fact many fruits are high carb as well as some beans.
Have a look at this link for some ideas for modifying your diet, it is a low carb approach that many have found successful at losing weight and reducing blood glucose. https://lowcarbfreshwell.co.uk/
It would be helpful if you could post what medications you are on so people can make appropriate suggestions.
Substitutes for carbs are protein, so meat, fish, eggs, cheese, and healthy fats.
Sometimes people don't like vegetables because of the way they are cooked and prefer then raw.

 

[Drummer]

In previous years I have looked forward to Christmas and the foods I can eat - it will not be so easy this year, but after 5 years of low carbing I know I can cope with the protein and fat, the meat and fish and seafood, the cheese and eggs, the low carb trifle, some home made chocolate covered nuts and low carb baked goods. I can even cope with a couple of Yorkshire puddings.

 

[Inka]

Hi everyone, I’ve been a type 2 diabetic for about 9 years, I weigh more now than ever, and never felt worse. Can’t get to see a dietician, I don’t like fruit, veg and beans? What do you substitute carbs with? Christmas is coming, not looking forward to that. Hba1c is 90. I hate diabetes and just want to give up. Any ideas on how to make it quick?

If you give us an idea of an average day’s food for you, you’ll get some ideas of swaps to make to improve your blood sugar. Are you on any medication for your diabetes?

Don’t you like any veg at all? It’s one of the healthiest foods in so many ways, not just for diabetes. I’m presuming you eat meat and fish? Things like meat, fish, cheese, nuts etc are basically carb-free (nuts have a few).

If you’re happy to say, how much weight are you looking to lose?

 

[EmmaL76]

I don’t have any weight to lose, my hba1c is reasonable but I still feel exactly the same way. I’m the buffet queen, the hostess of my family and I will spend hours cooking and feeding people food I cannot eat. I’ve been ok for a while thinking this isn’t too bad, dunno if it’s Christmas coming or what but I’ve been feeling super down about it all. Even this morning, everybody gets up and just eats what they want, my tummy’s rumbling but my BG is at 9.6 before I even start! I feel dreadful and I’m so fed up with it all.

 

[EmmaL76]

Then my dear son notices I’m fed up so brings me the chocolate out of his calendar. Extremely kind of him, but not too helpful under the circumstances lol

 

[Jenny65]

Hi everyone, I’ve been a type 2 diabetic for about 9 years, I weigh more now than ever, and never felt worse. Can’t get to see a dietician, I don’t like fruit, veg and beans? What do you substitute carbs with? Christmas is coming, not looking forward to that. Hba1c is 90. I hate diabetes and just want to give up. Any ideas on how to make it quick?

Hi, I may be wrong and hope I havent intepreted your message the way I think. Is your last question, on how to make it quick a reference to ending your life? I hope not, please seek help from your GP or the Samaritans if that is the case. If it was just advice on how to quickly lower your Hba1C then what other posters have said about making small changes can help. I focus on the foods I enjoy and have more of those rather than what I cant have. I have discovered I really like vegan food too, especially the sausages, write a list of food you enjoy and share it here and we will be able to get a clearer picture. For a quick start some have found the Newcastle shake diet has helped and the weight loss on that is very fast so may help with motivation.

xx

 

[Jenny65]

I don’t have any weight to lose, my hba1c is reasonable but I still feel exactly the same way. I’m the buffet queen, the hostess of my family and I will spend hours cooking and feeding people food I cannot eat. I’ve been ok for a while thinking this isn’t too bad, dunno if it’s Christmas coming or what but I’ve been feeling super down about it all. Even this morning, everybody gets up and just eats what they want, my tummy’s rumbling but my BG is at 9.6 before I even start! I feel dreadful and I’m so fed up with it all.

I always see you as an upbeat motivational poster Emma, I was surprised to read that you have been struggling too, we are all human and you are a very lovely one, I hope your BG behaves itself so you can eat breakfast soon xx

 

[Inka]

@EmmaL76 Sometimes you just have to say b*****r it and eat. My blood sugar was 9.4 just before I ate my breakfast (having kindly started out at 11.5 due to a pump site that randomly decided to stop working 🙄 ) but I just bolused and ate straight away. So two ‘crimes’ there.

Except they’re not crimes. None of us have only diabetes in our life - we have family, friends, jobs, hobbies, and so on. Sometimes we have to prioritise other things and not let the focus be solely on what the diabetes wants. Otherwise we hand it total and utter control of our life.

You have insulin, right? You can eat a pretty normal buffet diet with a bit of thought (yes, and I know it’s the thought and planning that’s part of the nuisance, but we can’t let it deprive us of good food and a normal life). Do it and taste not only the delicious food but victory over the silly old diabetes.

 

[EmmaL76]

@EmmaL76 Sometimes you just have to say b*****r it and eat. My blood sugar was 9.4 just before I ate my breakfast (having kindly started out at 11.5 due to a pump site that randomly decided to stop working 🙄 ) but I just bolused and ate straight away. So two ‘crimes’ there.

Except they’re not crimes. None of us have only diabetes in our life - we have family, friends, jobs, hobbies, and so on. Sometimes we have to prioritise other things and not let the focus be solely on what the diabetes wants. Otherwise we hand it total and utter control of our life.

You have insulin, right? You can eat a pretty normal buffet diet with a bit of thought (yes, and I know it’s the thought and planning that’s part of the nuisance, but we can’t let it deprive us of good food and a normal life). Do it and taste not only the delicious food but victory over the silly old diabetes.

Ahh thanks inka. Yes I have some insulin but am currently not using it as recommended by my new consultant. I have normal c peptide and up until recently was controlling bg really well. I’m due for a review with consultant in Jan i think. I have tried insulin so many times but the gastro effects (I know this is uncommon) are horrendoud and My blood sugar behaves very erratically. Out of the 2 years I’ve been diagnosed I’ve probably spent about 8 moths of that on insulin and those months have been awful.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Hi everyone, I’ve been a type 2 diabetic for about 9 years, I weigh more now than ever, and never felt worse. Can’t get to see a dietician, I don’t like fruit, veg and beans? What do you substitute carbs with? Christmas is coming, not looking forward to that. Hba1c is 90. I hate diabetes and just want to give up. Any ideas on how to make it quick?

Sorry to hear you are feeling so down @Whatsthepoint! (and @EmmaL76 too). Diabetes can feel like a real slog at times, and after 9 years you could well be wrestling with diabetes burnout. Elevated and erratic BG levels can have a negative impact on mood, and diabetes is associated with an increased risk of depression and other Mental Health challenges, so it’s really important to look after you mental wellbeing as well as your physical health.

And yes, if you ever feel that things are just getting too much, please to call the Samaritans free on 116 123 they are ready to talk to you and share what you are going through.

You might also like to call the DUK helpline which has trained advisors with more specialist knowledge of the challenges associated with diabetes, and the help that should be available to you. You can call Mon-Fri 9-6 on 0345 123 2399.

Hang in there. You can make it through this tricky time. Things will get better.

 

[EmmaL76]

I always see you as an upbeat motivational poster Emma, I was surprised to read that you have been struggling too, we are all human and you are a very lovely one, I hope your BG behaves itself so you can eat breakfast soon xx

Thanks Jenny I do try, and I’m great at giving others advice but rubbish at listening to reason when it comes to myself. Sometimes I joke about when I’m feeling at my worst. Tears of a clown I suppose lol

 

[EmmaL76]

@Whatsthepoint! sorry I didn’t actually read you first post in its entirety. Sounds like your feeling pretty desperate. Many of us can relate to this, sometimes I think to myself that although today is really shockingly bad, tomorrow might not be, or next week. So much love and support here for you. Please keep posting xx

 

[mastrs32]

Hi, newbie here:

I've had diabetes for five years now and apart from the first few months I've manged diabetes horribly until recently. I've buried my head in the sand and just could not accept that I had this awful condition. This resulted in me cancelling review appointments until I finally had to go to find out my reading was 93mmol, despite taking 4 metformin tablets daily.

I’ve done research into the diets you need to reduce diabetes, these very low carb diets, just seemed unobtainable for me, so in my search for to help my diabetes I found myself doing nothing and self-harming by my dietary choices, as perfection was not an option for me.

Also for the last 12 months I’ve been suffering terribly with long covid, and despite visiting my GPs often to try and get assistance there’s been very little they can do for help. To see if I could make any improvements I started logging my foods to see if they were exacerbating my long covid. I used an app called Nutracheck which provides all the macros from your food groups so you can clearly see what you are eating.

I almost immediately started making better food choices as I could see the fat, carb, sugar content of my foods, so I can clearly make an informed choice on whether an unhealthy food choice was worth it.

To cut a long story short, it soon came apparent that this approach could help with my diabetes management. I decided to try and reduce my carbs to moderate levels. I’ve read in studies that carbs between 160g to 240g can herald good results, this seemed far more achievable then going with the really low carbs levels. I also get my sugar levels on average to under 60g today. I was getting around half of these sugars from fruit and veg though, as well as skimmed milk. The rest of my macros were decent (inc salt intake) and my calories were averaging 1690 per day. It’s surprising how much food you can have when you make informed choices under that allowance. I still had the odd day where I wasn’t’ as strict and that made it feel like I wasn’t on a diet. In the 13 weeks I have been doing this I’ve lost 1st8 lbs and I got my HB1ac results back at 51mmol from 93.

By no means do I think I’ve cracked this, but what I’ve learnt is making informed choices is key and to not bury my head to ignore my diabetes. Also searching for perfection, is just so counterproductive for me. My exercise levels are still fairly low because of my long covid, so if I could exercise more, I think my results could be even better.

So why am I telling you all of this. Well, your post resonated to exactly how I was feeling a few months back, so just wanted to say that maybe a few small changes might help, and that it may doesn’t have to be a very low carb option if you feel like you really need them

Good luck


Michael

 

[Inka]

Ahh thanks inka. Yes I have some insulin but am currently not using it as recommended by my new consultant. I have normal c peptide and up until recently was controlling bg really well. I’m due for a review with consultant in Jan i think. I have tried insulin so many times but the gastro effects (I know this is uncommon) are horrendoud and My blood sugar behaves very erratically. Out of the 2 years I’ve been diagnosed I’ve probably spent about 8 moths of that on insulin and those months have been awful.

I bet the insulin was an analogue. Stomach problems aren’t unknown with them, along with joint and muscle pains, brain fog…Not every insulin suits every person and sometimes an older insulin is better.

It must be very frustrating to have erratic sugars. In a way I think it’s almost worse than ‘just’ being higher than desired because the unpredictability of it is very stressful and really affects your life and mood.

 

[bulkbiker]

Hi everyone, I’ve been a type 2 diabetic for about 9 years, I weigh more now than ever, and never felt worse. Can’t get to see a dietician, I don’t like fruit, veg and beans? What do you substitute carbs with? Christmas is coming, not looking forward to that. Hba1c is 90. I hate diabetes and just want to give up. Any ideas on how to make it quick?

Meat meat and more meat.. ever thought of trying carnivore?

Has been known to do wonders for mental health as well as assisting weight loss and obviously keeping blood sugars low.