Type 2 - Diet/Exercise help please

[mum2westiesGill]

Anyone know what I can reccommend to my friend. She's just found out she's type 2 and for the next month has got to just do the diet and exercise before the next bloods are done, she's worried about it all and what she can do to turn it around. She can't really do much exercise because her stomach is still healing (see below) so she's just doing some very light stretches and walking. What can I recommend to her about her healthy diet? I do know she's going for a chinese meal tomorrow because myself and my hubby are going with her and her hubby 😱

My friend has had a really bad time over the last 12 months and came very close to death. She had her gall bladder removed then had peritonitis then also pancreaitis.

 

[LeeLee]

If she needs to lose weight, she could try what has worked for me. I went to Slimming World and stuck mostly to the lower-carb Original/Red plan. PM me for more info, or take your pick from my posts in the Weight Loss forum.

 

[mum2westiesGill]

Hi LeeLee,

Thank you for your quick reply. She dosen't need to lose weight, she's lost loads already but thanks anyway.

 

[DeusXM]

She'll need to avoid blood sugar raising foods - in other words, carbohydrates. Don't want to be a party pooper but a Chines restaurant meal is probably the second worst possible food choice she could make, pizza being the very worst. Chinese food tends to have sugar laden sauces, the meat's coated in cornflour before frying, and then it's served with rice or noodles, which are essentially just starch and therefore nothing more than a whole bowl of sugar.

She'd be much better off eating quality proteins (grilled chicken, steaks, lamb chops) with sides of green veg.

 

[LeeLee]

It might be worth a mention - they will take people with just 7 lbs to lose, provided that won't take the BMI below the 'healthy' minimum. Once a member you get all the info to keep, and when target is reached membership is free. Someone reached target after just 2 weeks recently! Only wanted to lose half a stone, and stuck rigidly to the plan.

 

[Vicsetter]

A month between blood test doesn't seem right as the hba1c is the average over the last 3 months. Why has her doctor not given her a diet and exercise advise? or at the very least referred her to a dietician.
It could be her pancreatitis has caused her diabetes diagnosis as the two can be linked (both ways), if that is the case then she will almost certainly have to go on medication for it.
Any kind of exercise will do, sitting down watching TV is probably the worst thing you can do, but walking round the house doing things will help.
I tend to eat noodles instead of rice at the Chinese and don't have too much of a problem, but she should probably enjoy a treat and not worry about the effects on her possible diabetes. We are all different.
She should avoid white bread altogether and reduce her portions of other fast carbs for the next month and ask the doctor for help if he confirms the diagnosis ( which should be by a fasting glucose test - yuch).

 

[Copepod]

How long since her surgery? Does she still have any contacts with her surgiccal team? If at all possible, she should ask to see a physiotherapist who can recommend appropriate exercise for someone post abdominal surgery and after abdominal infection.

Other than that, carbohydrate intake moderation is the diet to try.

I'm making an assumption here, but for someone whose exercise options are limited, diet may make some difference to HbA1c, but absolute numbers may not be so important as a reduction. I also guess that HbA1c will be repeated in another month and so on, to see trends. It may be that medication will be needed, but that's not a failure, just the way it needs to be.

 

[yorksman]

She can't really do much exercise because her stomach is still healing (see below) so she's just doing some very light stretches and walking

Just keep doing that and increase it a little every week.

When I was diagnosed last Christmas, I couldn't even do the walking bit because of osteoarthritis in my ankle. I quickly supplemented the stretching with some simple floor exercises such as squats to use the bigger muscles in the legs to get the blood pumping and then got a rower and started doing 2 mins per day. This was upto 15 mins per day within a couple of months. Then I dug out an old bike and put it on one of those exercise stands and built up to 15 mins on that, so now I do 2 x 15 mins per day. All these exercises used big muscle groups but with little impact on my arthritic ankle. I lost 30 Kg and this summer was able to do short walks in the alps. The lowering effect on my BG levels was noticable.

A little every day builds up and the combination of diet and exercise works very well. By diet here, I mean carb watching, although in my case I did, and still do, need to lose weight too. Most Chinese restaurants add lots of sugar and fat which gives a quick and easy satisfying taste. Quality chinese restaurants do exist but they are harder to find. Things like sliced duck, with no sauce, are very good. I don't eat the white rice and few serve brown rice, but some noodles work for me with a few chnese leaves. Dishes like egg foo yung with shrimps or mushrooms tend to be OK too. King prawn with tomato, a favourite of mine, ought to be OK but you can't take it on trust because some places sweeten it. Sugar is a double whammy for me because I need to keep the blood levels low and lose weight.