Just wanted to say hello and thanks for all the useful information I have read on the forum. \it has been really useful and I've felt very supportive.
I was diagnosed on the last day of February with Type 2 Diabetes with a HbA1c reading of 127. To be honest I knew that something was wrong with me, but like many men I had put off going to the doctors. The pins and needles in my toes and on-going pains in my legs convinced me I had to do something and after the battery of tests to find out I was diabetic was (in one respect) a bit of a relief when I was worrying about all the other things this could be. So much so my wife and I went out for a meal to celebrate my diabetes.
I was immediately put on a course of metformin 500mg 3 times a day and statins for my cholesterol of 6.4. I felt that going onto the statins at the same time as the metformin was not a good idea and wanted to look to diet to reduce the cholesterol. As I'm already on blood pressure tablets for my high blood pressure I didn't want to take any more tablets than I need.
My weight was slightly over what it should have been for my height (I'm 6 ft 2in) at 14st 12, but I had been losing weight steadily for a couple of years which in hindsight was probably the diabetes and had been upto 18 stone in 2013.
Upon diagnosis I've started a lowish Carb diet knowing that I have to live with this for the rest of my life and knowing that I'm not going to be able to sustain an ultra low carb diet. I therefore aim between 100g to 130g of carbs per day and I'm using My Fitness Pal and fitbit to log food intake and weight. I've stopped eating bread, pasta, rice and potatoes and haven't had any chocolate since the diagnosis and don't miss it. I've also deliberately tried to eat foods that help reduce my cholesterol. I've also bought a blood glucose monitor as a result of advice from the forum and test 3 or 4 times a day to see the impact of food on my blood sugar levels.
Things are going in the right direction as my blood tests this week gave me a HbA1c reading of 78 and a cholesterol level of 4.8, with just the LDL level being sightly high at 3.1. I've lost weight and am now down to 13st 13 with a little bit further to go to be comfortable. I manage to do a bit of exercise, but not enough and know I need to improve this to help my levels continue to go down.
I've also deliberately sought to get my sleep as I found sleep boring (I know don't ask), but there's always something better to do than sleep!! But having read somewhere about lack of sleep not adding diabetes, thought this would help improve the overall diabetes.
Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to put things into perspective and say thank you to everyone else on the forum for all their postivity and helpful advice.
I was diagnosed on the last day of February with Type 2 Diabetes with a HbA1c reading of 127. To be honest I knew that something was wrong with me, but like many men I had put off going to the doctors. The pins and needles in my toes and on-going pains in my legs convinced me I had to do something and after the battery of tests to find out I was diabetic was (in one respect) a bit of a relief when I was worrying about all the other things this could be. So much so my wife and I went out for a meal to celebrate my diabetes.
I was immediately put on a course of metformin 500mg 3 times a day and statins for my cholesterol of 6.4. I felt that going onto the statins at the same time as the metformin was not a good idea and wanted to look to diet to reduce the cholesterol. As I'm already on blood pressure tablets for my high blood pressure I didn't want to take any more tablets than I need.
My weight was slightly over what it should have been for my height (I'm 6 ft 2in) at 14st 12, but I had been losing weight steadily for a couple of years which in hindsight was probably the diabetes and had been upto 18 stone in 2013.
Upon diagnosis I've started a lowish Carb diet knowing that I have to live with this for the rest of my life and knowing that I'm not going to be able to sustain an ultra low carb diet. I therefore aim between 100g to 130g of carbs per day and I'm using My Fitness Pal and fitbit to log food intake and weight. I've stopped eating bread, pasta, rice and potatoes and haven't had any chocolate since the diagnosis and don't miss it. I've also deliberately tried to eat foods that help reduce my cholesterol. I've also bought a blood glucose monitor as a result of advice from the forum and test 3 or 4 times a day to see the impact of food on my blood sugar levels.
Things are going in the right direction as my blood tests this week gave me a HbA1c reading of 78 and a cholesterol level of 4.8, with just the LDL level being sightly high at 3.1. I've lost weight and am now down to 13st 13 with a little bit further to go to be comfortable. I manage to do a bit of exercise, but not enough and know I need to improve this to help my levels continue to go down.
I've also deliberately sought to get my sleep as I found sleep boring (I know don't ask), but there's always something better to do than sleep!! But having read somewhere about lack of sleep not adding diabetes, thought this would help improve the overall diabetes.
Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to put things into perspective and say thank you to everyone else on the forum for all their postivity and helpful advice.
