Total newb here!

[Darren85]

Hi everyone,

Firstly, thanks for coming to this post and read my journey so far! I hope you may offer me some advice and support!

I was diagnosed in May this year as T2 diabetic. I had some serious bouts of stomach problems, of which the outcome was an unexpected diagnosis of diabetes! Im a large guy, and my BS was 24.4 on the prick test. I was asked to take a blood test - the results of which was low kidney function and HBA1C 91. I was prescribed Metformin and put on 4 tablets per day.

Roll forward near 6 months and my stomach problems have come back really badly. I managed to connect the link back to Diabetes and checked my BS and it was 22.4. I managed to speak to my doctor who was mortified - apparently I should of been having regular blood works done etc and due to Corona I've not had a thing and been left to it.

I've been trying to diet on Slimming World, and have stupidly been eating loads of vegetable rice and tomato pasta thinking im being good. I realise now I should be cutting back on rice and pasta! Rookie mistake.. but a costly one. Im a week in to my reviewing bloods every day and I've not been below 14.5 at all - and thats my wake up check.

I am really concerned because I generally feel pretty rubbish, my feet hurt my legs ache and I feel tired all the time. Ive joined this forum to hopefully provide some self learning and allow me to ask questions. Im booked in for a new blood test this Friday, with a doctors follow up next week so I will see how bad things have got.

Anyway if your still here - thanks so much for reading !

Darren

 

[Inka]

Welcome @Darren85 🙂 You sound pretty switched on if you thought to connect your symptoms to diabetes and to test your blood sugar.

You’re right - it’s the carbs you need to watch. There’s a lot of diet help on here but I think the most important thing is to assess where you are now in terms of diet (make a food diary), then work out changes you can make to improve things.

 

[Toucan]

Hello @Darren85 and welcome to the forum.

I hope you will find plenty of help and support here, there are many members that share your experience and we will always try to help and answer any questions.
You are well on track with reducing your starchy carb intake, and there is plenty of detailed advice on this on the threads and pages of the forum.

There are some useful links in https://forum.diabetes.org.uk/board...for-people-new-to-diabetes.10406/#post-938456
and in the orange tab at the top of the page 'Learning Zone'
If you want to see how somebody else found their solution have a look at Maggie Davey's letter

 

[KARNAK]

Hello @Darren85 welcome to the forum.

As already been said those figures need to come down the higher they are
the worst you will feel and I`m afraid a lot of Diabetics feel it mostly in there
lower legs and feet so try and get it below 10 and through the help of the
members we can get your diet right although you have started to teach
yourself very impressive.

Keep on learning about carbs and how to reduce them to an acceptable level
to suit you and you only we are all different, you must control your Diabetes
don`t let it control you. Keep us up to date look forward to your next post.

 

[Darren85]

Thanks so much everyone ! Really appreciate the replies. I think if I can sort out my BS to single digits via a more friendly 'pro diabetic' diet it will help with other health concerns too, sonim really motivated to do this for myself!

That being said, im going to have to read, read and read some more because I really don't know how much is good or bad. For example if bread is bad, what about brown bread, and if brown bread is ok, how much!? I don't want to replace certain carbs from my diet to release i end up making things worse.

BS checked this morning before waking up 15.2 ugh still way too high.
Food Diary for yesterday was the following (Don't bash me please!)

*Breakfast Cornflakes and semi skimmed milk.
*Lunch scrambled egg, tinned plum tomatoes and a pork steak.
*Dinner Chicken curry and rice.
Drinks 4 or 5 pints sugar free cordial / 2 coffees no sugar.

Tomorrow im having my blood test for my new HBA1C check along with the kidney check (Thank god my lower back pain is high!).

Oh one last little thing I forgot to mention, im terribly needle phobic! Dreading the blood test

Darren

 

[adrian1der]

Hi @Darren85 Cornflakes and rice are the two carby things that stand out for me. I did a Malaysian chicken curry last night. Instead of rice I had a bowl of curry and jolly good it was too!

 

[Darren85]

Hi Adrian,

Thanks for this. Do you just eat the curry sauce and chicken then ? No carbs period ?

It is going to be a huge shock to my already ruined system not touching a carb. As you can see from my signature now (If I did things correctly!) I'm a big lad !

 

[Docb]

Hi Darren85.... when I have a curry I usually make a veg curry to go with it as an alternative to rice which a decent portion of would spike me. Useful way of using up cooked veg out of the fridge!

 

[rebrascora]

I think if I can sort out my BS to single digits via a more friendly 'pro diabetic' diet it will help with other health concerns too, sonim really motivated to do this for myself!

If it is any help or inspiration, my radical change of diet to low carb caused my chronic migraine problem to stop and I haven't had one since (21 months) but I had suffered with them for more than 20 years. I was also worried that I was getting close to needing a new knee but the loss of weight means that most of my joint pain is gone and I comfortably jog most days (always hated running and never good at it but I am making progress and it is good for my physical and mental health) and my asthma is at the stage that I no longer need inhalers at a time of year when I would be at my worst. I also love the fact that I can get into favourite dresses that have been in the back of my wardrobe for 30 years.... and look good in them...... just need the pandemic to be over so I can give them an airing! So there have been lots of silver linings to my diagnosis and lifestyle changes.
I won't deny cutting those carbs out was difficult at first but it really helped to focus my mind being able to see what they were doing to my BG levels on a meal by meal basis, so that I could make informed choices about what was needlessly spiking me and if reducing the portion size was worthwhile because I really liked that food or it was healthy and providing more than merely calories, or if it should be ditched in favour of a lower carb alternative. After a while I just stopped craving those high carb foods and once I started eating more fat, I no longer felt hungry and for me that was the big turning point.
Good luck getting your diabetes under control and losing some weight.

 

[adrian1der]

Hi Darren
yes no rice at all - I treat myself to a bigger portion of curry - let's face it that's the tasty bit!

 

[Darren85]

Thanks guys! You have all done such an amazing job, well done! I find it very inspirational actually, I'm glad I came here !

Ok no rice and potentially use more veg in the curry understood.

What about wholemeal bread is that a yes or no ? Obviously white bread is a no but im a little confused with wholemeal bread.

Also well done rebrascora, absolutely smashed it and its so great to hear about all the other health problems you have managed to move away from! Im massive, biggest ive been in my life. To the point I cant walk past a window reflection without dieing! Problem is im so unhappy with myself that comfort eating is a real problem.

Enough, I will do this ! 🙂

Darren

 

[Vonny]

Im massive, biggest ive been in my life. To the point I cant walk past a window reflection without dieing! Problem is im so unhappy with myself that comfort eating is a real problem.

Enough, I will do this ! 🙂

Darren

Vicious blumming circle isn't it @Darren85. For the past 12 years I've walked past shop windows either not recognising myself, or hating myself for the way I looked. I am a big comfort eater, always have been and it was only the diagnosis of diabetes that jolted me into cutting out carbs. Since then I haven't felt hungry, and the comfort has been more from getting on the scales and seeing them drop. I get more enjoyment from that from eating now, but I'm aware that's a growing danger that I may become too fixated on losing weight. That's not recommended as it needs to be a life-long attitude to food.

Keep going, you can do it 🙂

 

[rebrascora]

I have suffered with mental health problems for a lot of years, and comfort eating was one of my strategies to cope, to the point that I will freely admit I was a sugar addict as well as eating far too much bread, pasta and potatoes, so I understand how difficult it is. For me, particularly with the sugar/sweets etc, it was necessary to go cold turkey to break the habit and is why I continue to follow a very low carb diet now even though I am actually type 1 and could eat pretty much whatever I want and just inject insulin to cover it. I was already eating wholemeal bread and pasta and porridge for breakfast etc, so for me swapping to wholegrains was not really an option to improve things.
Since it sounds like you have a BG meter, I would recommend you use it to see if changing to wholemeal helps, but I imagine you are going to need to also adjust portion size.
The way to do this is to adopt a strategy of test, review adjust as outlined in this blog which is a standard reference on this forum for people to test and adjust their diet to how their individual body responds to different types of carbs...
Type 2 Diabetes - A Personal Journey: Test, Review, Adjust (loraldiabetes.blogspot.com)

Basically keeping a food diary and testing before and then 2 hours after each meal and recording the readings and the difference between them to see how much the food they ate caused their BG to increase, then adjusting the carb portion or type to reduce the increase to a level that is acceptable, usually an increase of less than 3 whole mmols at the 2 hour point after eating.

It sounds like you are ready to take on this challenge and just need a bit of support and pointing in the right direction which is probably what most of us needed. I can assure you, if I can beat my carb habit and more importantly enjoy my new diet and maintain it relatively easily, then so can you. The first few weeks are the toughest as you figure out the testing and which foods to cut back on. I found making a list of foods that I could eat without concern about my BG levels was helpful, so that if I got the munchies I had things which I could eat without concern for my glucose levels and whilst they might not have been what I was craving, they filled me up so that I wasn't hungry and the craving was bearable. Things like boiled eggs with a teaspoon of mayonnaise or a chunk of cheese, or some veggie sticks with some sour cream and chive dip or a few nuts (be careful on portion size with nuts as they can be a bit moreish). Also have tactics like going for a walk or doing something you enjoy and will get engrossed in when you get the munchies to distract you. Taking up an old or new hobby, learning a musical instrument or foreign language, something that involves your hands like DIY or crafts really helps rather than just sitting watching the TV and reaching for the crisps. Going for a walk after dinner, even just 10 mins round the block is a great strategy for helping to lower the effects of the food you ate on your levels....

Anyway, I am rabbiting on now, but lots of tips and ideas here on the forum to help you succeed so do ask if you need any support, and share with us how things are going. We like to celebrate successes even more than supporting people when they are struggling.

 

[Docb]

White, wholemeal just the same as far as I am concerned and both off limits. If you are up North, then try Booths low GI bread. Works for me!

 

[Drummer]

Tonight's dinner was lamb steaks with stirfry - the frozen stuff from Lidl is under 5 percent carbs so I ate half a bag as I didn't eat anything earlier.
I do not eat bread as such - I have bought Livlife as it is small slices and 4 gm of carb per slice, but not had any for ages. Ordianry bread of any colour is high in carbs.
Curry - I steam some cauliflower and chop it up a bit to substitute for rice.
I put slices of swede in the tray under roasting chicken or a joint and chop that, or I boil it and mash it with cream. Cauliflower can be mashed too - if you boil it put a plate on top and squash out the water or it will be sloppy.
Eating a low carb diet, I lost 50lb without trying and I keep finding that I need to make my clothes smaller. I just got my heavy knits out for winter and they are all too big, again. Luckily I make them myself and have the original patterns, and the smaller patterns, and the smaller ones still - so I can do them again.
I was going to have a dessert - but I am stuffed.
I have sugar free jelly - there are various berries in the freezer and some cream I ought to use up, - maybe tomorrow.

 

[Darren85]

Tonight's dinner was lamb steaks with stirfry - the frozen stuff from Lidl is under 5 percent carbs so I ate half a bag as I didn't eat anything earlier.
I do not eat bread as such - I have bought Livlife as it is small slices and 4 gm of carb per slice, but not had any for ages. Ordianry bread of any colour is high in carbs.
Curry - I steam some cauliflower and chop it up a bit to substitute for rice.
I put slices of swede in the tray under roasting chicken or a joint and chop that, or I boil it and mash it with cream. Cauliflower can be mashed too - if you boil it put a plate on top and squash out the water or it will be sloppy.
Eating a low carb diet, I lost 50lb without trying and I keep finding that I need to make my clothes smaller. I just got my heavy knits out for winter and they are all too big, again. Luckily I make them myself and have the original patterns, and the smaller patterns, and the smaller ones still - so I can do them again.
I was going to have a dessert - but I am stuffed.
I have sugar free jelly - there are various berries in the freezer and some cream I ought to use up, - maybe tomorrow.

Wow 50 lbs ! Well done !

I wish I could be talking about that sort of weight loss. In fact I need to lose more ! Thanks for the advice its really so helpful to me as a total beginner. I like the idea of the swede under a chicken ! Lots of people have also mentioned cauliflour as rice which i will definitely do. Im concerned about bread i eat a lot usually im going to crave it like mad, but maybe its something I just have to cut out totally - if I go for low carbon bread it will probably make me want the real thing more.

So question for everyone- I tried keto diet a few months back and it completely ruined me. I came down with the worst none flu flu I had had in years. The headaches where so awful - I had to pack it in. Im worried if I try again the same will happen.

Had my blood test today ready for next Wednesdays appointment to see how bad my Hba1c has gone.

Darren

 

[Christy]

For me, keto was a step too far. Try reducing carbs instead or cutting out some of them. There's still lots of delicious food to eat 🙂 🙂

 

[rebrascora]

I agree. For me the strictness of Keto is a step too far and as an insulin dependent diabetic I occasionally need to eat jelly babies or other quick acting carbs, so it just doesn't quite fit the bill for me and I think it is easier on your body to reduce carbs gradually. I cut out all the sweet stuff first for 2 weeks although I was still having a few sultanas in my porridge, but I was still eating wholemeal bread and pasta and potatoes and wholegrains and then I started to cut down on those for another 4-5 weeks until eventually my morning porridge was the final thing to get cut. Not sure I would have coped with going completely cold turkey will all major carb rich foods at once. Not surprised you felt ill! Diabetes is often described as a marathon not a sprint. I am learning to be a long distance runner with it!

 

[Perfect10]

Bread - I buy Livlife bread from Waitrose (only place that sells it near me) it is only about 3.8g carbs per slice
Rice - cauliflower rice you can buy it in packets or frozen or just grate some cauliflower and fry in a little oil. Alternatively there is a product called Barenaked rice/noodles or Holland and Barrett do one, they are made from konjac and are zero carb and soak up a curry just fine
Chips - I cut up celeriac into chips and bake in the oven.
Cornflakes - I now make my own granola, lots of recipes for keto granola on the internet
Milk - I generally use almond milk on my granola
Mash - cauliflower or celeriac make good mash even nicer with a little double cream
I think most people recommend reducing carbs gradually. As my levels were lower to start and I have not been on meds I have been able to switch to a new way of eating quickly and finding it fine.
I read all food labels in shops now to find out how many carbs in everything and I count carbs using an app. Loads of good advice on this forum good luck with your journey x

 

[Vonny]

Im concerned about bread i eat a lot usually im going to crave it like mad, but maybe its something I just have to cut out totally - if I go for low carbon bread it will probably make me want the real thing more.

Bread was my passion and I can report that not eating it actually stopped the passion. You will crave it for a few days but as your body gets used to low carb it won't scream out "eat me, eat me" when you pass by a baguette in the bakery window! At least, that's my experience. Bread and chips were my downfall and I crave neither now. I have one slice of wholemeal toast soldiers with my boiled eggs on a Saturday (creature of habit!) and that suits me fine.