Was a newbie, now I'm back

[Deleted member 19555]

I registered on here several years ago when I was first diagnosed with T2. I didn't bother much with the site, as things are different for me because of other health issues, and there wasn't anyone on here in a similar situation so we could support each other.
However, having just had my review I have been told I need to start insulin, or think about it at least as the drugs aren't doing any good now.
So I would like to know if there are any other ladies of my age (70 in a month), who for health reasons may need to be careful about what meds are introduced, or are just starting down the insulin path so we could support each other through email, and chat about other things as well, don't want to make it all medical but it would be nice to connect with someone in the same boat, for moral support and general cheering up! I prefer a one on one correspondence, nothing against forums and groups, it's just me.
Thank you for reading this.

 

[grovesy]

Welcome back,

 

[Drummer]

I am not far off your age - 68 this year, but I changed my diet when diagnosed and have no need of medication for anything at all menacing.
Hope you can find a buddy who is a closer match than I am.

 

[Deleted member 19555]

I am not far off your age - 68 this year, but I changed my diet when diagnosed and have no need of medication for anything at all menacing.
Hope you can find a buddy who is a closer match than I am.

Would you like to give me an idea of your meals? My problem is worsened by other medical factors which include being on steroids which are well known for increasing the appetite and if I don't eat some small amount of carbs in between meals, then I feel sick and light-headedness sets in if I don't do something about it.

 

[Drummer]

I only eat twice a day with no snacks - well - I made the mistake of not putting the packet of walnuts away and some of them seem to have jumped out....
On a normal day, when first diagnosed I would eat twice, once in the morning and again in the evening, I was eating a lot of eggs, though adding bacon and sausages, mushrooms courgette, aubergine, or making scrambled eggs with cheese and a tomato. I would have a mug of coffee with cream.
In the evening I made stir fries, mushrooms, sweet pepper, courgette, or steamed low carb vege mixtures with bean sprouts, with meat or fish, and another mug of coffee.
Going low carb tends to reduce the appetite.
Do you have a testing meter? They help to sort out the foods you can and can't tolerate.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Hello @Ditzyoldme

Welcome (back!) to the forum.

hope you can find someone to compare notes with. In the meantime, there are lots of wise T2 heads here who could share their stories 🙂

 

[Deleted member 19555]

I only eat twice a day with no snacks - well - I made the mistake of not putting the packet of walnuts away and some of them seem to have jumped out....
On a normal day, when first diagnosed I would eat twice, once in the morning and again in the evening, I was eating a lot of eggs, though adding bacon and sausages, mushrooms courgette, aubergine, or making scrambled eggs with cheese and a tomato. I would have a mug of coffee with cream.
In the evening I made stir fries, mushrooms, sweet pepper, courgette, or steamed low carb vege mixtures with bean sprouts, with meat or fish, and another mug of coffee.
Going low carb tends to reduce the appetite.
Do you have a testing meter? They help to sort out the foods you can and can't tolerate.

How much carbs do you have a day? Do you ever eat bread or potatoes? I have to eat three meals a day due to meds for other conditions which have to be taken with food and spread out during the day. Thanks for your help.

 

[Deleted member 19555]

Hello @Ditzyoldme

Welcome (back!) to the forum.

hope you can find someone to compare notes with. In the meantime, there are lots of wise T2 heads here who could share their stories 🙂

Thanks for the message. I am hoping someone can steer me through the early days when I begin insulin taking, and advise with what sort of meals they eat on low carb, or do they follow the Meditteranean diet, or some other diet plan they have devised themselves? I know I could easily see the dietitian - in my case a special one who deals with renal as well as diabetic - but I am a loner by nature, cussed too, so always want to follow my own path whilst taking advice, knowledge from others.

 

[rebrascora]

Hi and welcome.

No reason why you can't follow the same low carb diet as @Drummer but have 3 meals a day.
I used to eat huge amounts of wholemeal bread and potatoes pre diagnosis as well as lots of sweets and cakes and biscuits but I really don't miss them now. Once you stop eating those carbs you stop craving them. It takes a few weeks but it is quite liberating to overcome it and I really enjoy my low carb diet now.
Omelettes with mushrooms, onions, courgettes, peppers, ham and cheese with a side salad are great for breakfast or lunch and very tasty and filling.
It is really important to make sure you have low carb treats like cheese, olives, nuts and veggie crudités with dips like sour cream and chive or hummus. Learning how to cook with cauliflower instead of potato or rice also helps, so cottage pie topped with mashed cauli and cheese instead of mashed potato. Courgetti instead of spaghetti or Naked Noodles. Cauliflower rice with your home made curry etc. Cauliflower cheese made by coating precooked cauli with cream cheese and grated cheese instead of a cheese sauce using flour and then baking it in the oven or under the grill until the cheese browns.
Full fat Creamy Greek Natural Yoghurt (Lidl do a 1 litre "Milbona" bucket which is gorgeous and cheap and low carb) with raspberries and chopped hazelnuts makes a nice dessert or sugar free jelly whisked into the yoghurt)

It is really about learning how to eat low carb and after a lifetime of filling our plates with carbs at every meal, it is difficult to get your head around initially, but once you learn which products to buy and how to make meals from them, it all becomes quite simple and most importantly, enjoyable. I have @Drummer to thank for pointing me in the right direction with this and whilst I am now on insulin as I am Type 1 and can therefore eat whatever I want and inject for it, I choose to continue with a low carb, higher fat diet, because I enjoy it and it keeps the weight off and it reduces the risk of hypos because I use a minimal amount of insulin.

 

[TheClockworkDodo]

Welcome back, @Ditzyoldme 🙂

I don't know whether she can help you, but I'm tagging @Ljc as she's a type 2 who is on insulin and also dealing with other health issues.

 

[Ljc]

Hello @Ditzyoldme , welcome back.
Many of us on here are battling much worse than diabetes, as you get to know us again you will discover who. Compared to quite a few others on here I have it easy , Chronic kidney Disease is my worst, though atm fingers and everything else crossed it’s more of a a problem for the medics ie what meds they can give me than it is for me.

I went onto insulin a few years back, to be frank it’s been a godsend to me.

Do you know what insulin’s you are going onto as there are different types and different regimes, I am on what is often called MDI , two different insulins , one to work in the background dealing with the glucose our liver puts out 24/7 to fuel our organs and brain and a mealtime one . Imo this is more flexible than the mixed insulins where you have to eat to your insulin .

 

[Drummer]

How much carbs do you have a day? Do you ever eat bread or potatoes? I have to eat three meals a day due to meds for other conditions which have to be taken with food and spread out during the day. Thanks for your help.

I started with 50 gm of carbs a day as that was what I used to eat doing Atkins, and I reduced down to normal levels eating the same way, but I did not see my levels falling after that, so reduced down to no more than 40, but I think the decades of high carb, low fat low calorie diets have caused me to stick at the top end of normal.
I get Livlife bread from Waitrose and protein bread from Asda, which have only 4 gm of carbs per (small) slice, but I do not eat it very often as it is mainly to eat with kippers, as their taste is too strong eaten alone. On a day to day basis I avoid high carb foods, restricting my choices to foods which are 10 percent of carbs or less - it makes for a surprisingly varied menu.

 

[Deleted member 19555]

Hello @Ditzyoldme , welcome back.
Many of us on here are battling much worse than diabetes, as you get to know us again you will discover who. Compared to quite a few others on here I have it easy , Chronic kidney Disease is my worst, though atm fingers and everything else crossed it’s more of a a problem for the medics ie what meds they can give me than it is for me.

I went onto insulin a few years back, to be frank it’s been a godsend to me.

Do you know what insulin’s you are going onto as there are different types and different regimes, I am on what is often called MDI , two different insulins , one to work in the background dealing with the glucose our liver puts out 24/7 to fuel our organs and brain and a mealtime one . Imo this is more flexible than the mixed insulins where you have to eat to your insulin .

Thanks Ljc. I know the difficulties the medics have prescribing the right drugs as I am a renal transplantee, have had this precious gift of life for 33 years now and intend looking after it. There were problems finding a suitable diabetes drug as many of them work through the kidney so were not suitable. But the ones I have been on are not doing their job, and at the moment I have no idea what regime I am on. I am anxious about it all because of having to work out how much insulin, as my memory/brain don't seem to work as well any more. Also about injecting as I have problems with my thumbs (a lifetime of crafting) which can be painful under pressure. I am overthinking it all at the moment, only having been told yesterday there are lots of things running round in my head. I was sent away to have a good think about it as I have been reluctant to go on insulin. But now there's no choice, its out of my control, and being a bit of a control freak, that's not a comfy feeling!

 

[Deleted member 19555]

Hi and welcome.

No reason why you can't follow the same low carb diet as @Drummer but have 3 meals a day.
I used to eat huge amounts of wholemeal bread and potatoes pre diagnosis as well as lots of sweets and cakes and biscuits but I really don't miss them now. Once you stop eating those carbs you stop craving them. It takes a few weeks but it is quite liberating to overcome it and I really enjoy my low carb diet now.
Omelettes with mushrooms, onions, courgettes, peppers, ham and cheese with a side salad are great for breakfast or lunch and very tasty and filling.
It is really important to make sure you have low carb treats like cheese, olives, nuts and veggie crudités with dips like sour cream and chive or hummus. Learning how to cook with cauliflower instead of potato or rice also helps, so cottage pie topped with mashed cauli and cheese instead of mashed potato. Courgetti instead of spaghetti or Naked Noodles. Cauliflower rice with your home made curry etc. Cauliflower cheese made by coating precooked cauli with cream cheese and grated cheese instead of a cheese sauce using flour and then baking it in the oven or under the grill until the cheese browns.
Full fat Creamy Greek Natural Yoghurt (Lidl do a 1 litre "Milbona" bucket which is gorgeous and cheap and low carb) with raspberries and chopped hazelnuts makes a nice dessert or sugar free jelly whisked into the yoghurt)

It is really about learning how to eat low carb and after a lifetime of filling our plates with carbs at every meal, it is difficult to get your head around initially, but once you learn which products to buy and how to make meals from them, it all becomes quite simple and most importantly, enjoyable. I have @Drummer to thank for pointing me in the right direction with this and whilst I am now on insulin as I am Type 1 and can therefore eat whatever I want and inject for it, I choose to continue with a low carb, higher fat diet, because I enjoy it and it keeps the weight off and it reduces the risk of hypos because I use a minimal amount of insulin.

Thank you Barbara for this message, lots of advice succinctly put, better than some of the pamphlets I've read! I can't eat yoghurt for various health reasons, mainly because it's live. I haven't eaten sweets or cake or biscuits for years, apart from the occasional treat. Potatoes and potato products are my downfall, and bread. Tried those special breads but they lay like lead in my stomach so gave them up. I eat bread, a slice of toast for breakfast, and will continue with this since it's the way I've eaten the last forty years and don't intend changing. But what I will change is the crisps, and cut down on bread, and potatoes generally. This will be hard. Love veggies and cheese too. How many grams of carbs do you eat, some of the levels I've read seem an impossible achievement for me personally. Do you eat fruit or drink pure fruit juice? If you get a sugar craving, do you ave a sweet treat other than the yoghurt? I didn;t know you could eat what you want and just take the right amount of insulin to combat the effects, having read something that said that's what you shouldn't do
I have done something similar to this when I was first diagnosed with chronic renal failure and had to be careful about the amount of gluten I had in my diet.... potatoes had to be boiled twice to remove starch. Well, you can probably imagine the gloop that resulted in! The amount of products available at the time was limited to one type of bread and two types of biscuits, all of which left a wallpaper like texture to the inside of your mouth. So I adjusted my diet, cut right back on starchy foods, and although dialysis was inevitable, eating this way made me feel better than I could have felt.
By next week I should have spoken to my specialist diabetic nurse and be on the way.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to reply.

 

[TheClockworkDodo]

It is possible to inject using your index finger rather than your thumb - I would find it awkward, but not impossible - but when I tried to get my partner to practice giving an injection (in case he ever needs to inject me) I told him to use his thumb and he found that impossible - it was much easier for him to use his index finger. So don't worry too much about the thumbs!

If you are put on Multiple Daily Injections (MDI) which I hope for your sake you will be, because it's much more flexible, then you can in theory eat (more or less) whatever you like and inject the right amount of insulin to cover exactly what you eat. I say in theory because in practice there will still be some things which spike your blood sugar, which are best avoided - what they are you will have to find out for yourself, as this varies from person to person, but pizza and bananas are both likely candidates! If you are put on fixed doses of mixed insulin, you will have to eat to match the insulin, which is much less flexible - with mixed insulin you have to eat carbs and you have to eat regular meals.

I would never ever recommend drinking pure fruit juice unless your blood sugar goes too low - it's suitable to use as a hypo treatment, but otherwise completely unsuitable for diabetics because it raises your blood sugar very rapidly. It's one of the few things you can't have, even on MDI, even in theory, unless your blood sugar's under 4mmol/L.

 

[rebrascora]

Hi again Ditzy.... (Really love your forum name, hope you don't mind me shortening it)

Yes I eat at least one piece of fruit a day (usually raspberries, strawberries, kiwi or an apple as these are the ones that least affect me) and I will have it with something fatty like a chunk of cheese or yoghurt or cream and I eat lots of veggies and salad to make up my 5+ a day, but absolutely no to fruit juice....I used to drink it by the litre before diagnosis but that had to stop. It is one of the quickest ways to get glucose into your blood.... so much so that it is recommended as a treatment for a hypo, so it is the last thing you should drink as a diabetic, unless your BG has dropped into the danger zone as a result of too much insulin. I can still enjoy a rum and diet coke though and a glass of red wine and I think it is very important to focus on the positives ie the things that I can enjoy, rather than the things that I now need to avoid. I do have the occasional square of dark chocolate as a sweet treat.... Lidl do a 70% dark chocolate and raspberry bar or a caramel one and a square is 2.5g carbs and Aldi do a sour cherry and chilli one which I really like. I try to keep my carb intake about the 50-70g mark and mostly from fruit and veg but I am not really strict about it. What you find is that once you cut it down to this level and eat more fat, the craving for sweet stuff stops, which is so empowering! I feel like I have been a junky for sugar and starch for the past 30+ years and it is so good to be free of it now. I used to love Cadbury's chocolate and the first serious concern when I was diagnosed was that I would never be able to eat another Cream Egg... I would scoff a whole box of them one after the next, pre-diagnosis. Snickers and Mars Bars were the same, I just devoured whatever I bought.... I had no "off switch". It amazes me that I can now snap off one square from a bar of dark chocolate and be satisfied with that and of course it helps that in the back of my mind there is a little voice telling me that eating more will seriously damage my health, but I really just don't crave it anymore.... partly because it is not really sweet milk chocolate, but I savour that small piece more that any one of those Cream Eggs I consumed. I also treat myself to a packet of pork scratchings every now and then when I would have eaten a packet of crisps. It is just about finding alternatives and learning to like new things that are less damaging to your body.

As regards the double cooking of your potatoes (or pasta), the important thing is to slightly undercook them the first time and then cool and just reheat to finish the cooking process when you are going to eat them. There is no need to overcooked them to a gloopy mess, in order for the starches to be made less easily digestible.

I should add that I love my new diet and would not want to go back to my old way of eating. I feel so much healthier now. I eat more fish than I ever have and I am more confident about cooking it and many other foods and I quite enjoy experimenting with new foods. I bought some gram flour (chickpea flour) the other day and onion bhajis are something I am going to try to make soon.

 

[Ljc]

Don't be put off of MDI by the maths, you can use a calculator, your fingers but initially they will tell you how much to inject and gradually tweak it. In time you will learn how to adjust your own doses, they won’t rush you into doing this either.

When your told what insulin(s) you might want to ask if they can be used with an Echo pen, a few can, this is one if the re usable pens , it has three good features such as a basic last dose and when ,
The plunger doesn’t rise up as far as other pens, which may make it easier for you to use.
It can also deliver half units which is very handy if one extra unit is a little too much or not quite enough.
They look great too .

Please try not to worry about going onto insulin, I know it is scary , maybe you have heard awful stories about it , including things like it makes you put on weight I’ve found that to be so untrue, of course if we over eat we will put on weight
Though I am adjusting my insulin to carbs eaten I can in theory eat what I want, I am mostly a good girl

I would only have fruit juice to treat a hypo (low blood glucose)

 

[rebrascora]

I would add that despite being shown how to inject by holding the pen in my fist and jabbing it in and then using my thumb to depress it, I find it much easier to hold it like I would a pen and use my index finger to depress it, so don't worry too much about your thumbs if it comes to that. We all find our own way to manage things to suit our various situations. I think we were probably all a bit apprehensive about injecting insulin when we first had to start but doing it several times a day, it soon becomes the new normal. Calculating how much can be a little tricky and you will get some guidance, but a lot of the time it is trial and error and it is important to accept that you will get it wrong sometimes and be aware of what you need to do when you use too much and go low. It is a very powerful and potentially dangerous drug, so you do need to give it your full concentration in the early days particularly. Once you get into the swing of it, you will look at a plate of food and just know from experience roughly how many grams of carbs are in it and how much insulin it will need.

 

[Deleted member 19555]

Hi again Ditzy.... (Really love your forum name, hope you don't mind me shortening it)

Yes I eat at least one piece of fruit a day (usually raspberries, strawberries, kiwi or an apple as these are the ones that least affect me) and I will have it with something fatty like a chunk of cheese or yoghurt or cream and I eat lots of veggies and salad to make up my 5+ a day, but absolutely no to fruit juice....I used to drink it by the litre before diagnosis but that had to stop. It is one of the quickest ways to get glucose into your blood.... so much so that it is recommended as a treatment for a hypo, so it is the last thing you should drink as a diabetic, unless your BG has dropped into the danger zone as a result of too much insulin. I can still enjoy a rum and diet coke though and a glass of red wine and I think it is very important to focus on the positives ie the things that I can enjoy, rather than the things that I now need to avoid. I do have the occasional square of dark chocolate as a sweet treat.... Lidl do a 70% dark chocolate and raspberry bar or a caramel one and a square is 2.5g carbs and Aldi do a sour cherry and chilli one which I really like. I try to keep my carb intake about the 50-70g mark and mostly from fruit and veg but I am not really strict about it. What you find is that once you cut it down to this level and eat more fat, the craving for sweet stuff stops, which is so empowering! I feel like I have been a junky for sugar and starch for the past 30+ years and it is so good to be free of it now. I used to love Cadbury's chocolate and the first serious concern when I was diagnosed was that I would never be able to eat another Cream Egg... I would scoff a whole box of them one after the next, pre-diagnosis. Snickers and Mars Bars were the same, I just devoured whatever I bought.... I had no "off switch". It amazes me that I can now snap off one square from a bar of dark chocolate and be satisfied with that and of course it helps that in the back of my mind there is a little voice telling me that eating more will seriously damage my health, but I really just don't crave it anymore.... partly because it is not really sweet milk chocolate, but I savour that small piece more that any one of those Cream Eggs I consumed. I also treat myself to a packet of pork scratchings every now and then when I would have eaten a packet of crisps. It is just about finding alternatives and learning to like new things that are less damaging to your body.

As regards the double cooking of your potatoes (or pasta), the important thing is to slightly undercook them the first time and then cool and just reheat to finish the cooking process when you are going to eat them. There is no need to overcooked them to a gloopy mess, in order for the starches to be made less easily digestible.

I should add that I love my new diet and would not want to go back to my old way of eating. I feel so much healthier now. I eat more fish than I ever have and I am more confident about cooking it and many other foods and I quite enjoy experimenting with new foods. I bought some gram flour (chickpea flour) the other day and onion bhajis are something I am going to try to make soon.

Again, a brilliant reply, thank you so much for taking the time. I have never had strong sugar cravings, never been able to eat a whole Mars bar and a creme egg would defeat me too. I never thought of pork scratchings as an alternative to crisps, which are one of my savoury weaknesses. I only had to do the double cooking when I was first diagnosed with Chronic Renal Failure in the early 80s when the range of gluten free products was limited to two items. Thank goodness, for those who need gluten free, that there is such a wide variety now available. I am confused by the fact that some low carb recipes include pulses which are not particularly low carb. I love them.... And I also wondered if anyone on here T2, used a pump?

 

[Deleted member 19555]

Don't be put off of MDI by the maths, you can use a calculator, your fingers but initially they will tell you how much to inject and gradually tweak it. In time you will learn how to adjust your own doses, they won’t rush you into doing this either.

When your told what insulin(s) you might want to ask if they can be used with an Echo pen, a few can, this is one if the re usable pens , it has three good features such as a basic last dose and when ,
The plunger doesn’t rise up as far as other pens, which may make it easier for you to use.
It can also deliver half units which is very handy if one extra unit is a little too much or not quite enough.
They look great too .

Please try not to worry about going onto insulin, I know it is scary , maybe you have heard awful stories about it , including things like it makes you put on weight I’ve found that to be so untrue, of course if we over eat we will put on weight
Though I am adjusting my insulin to carbs eaten I can in theory eat what I want, I am mostly a good girl

I would only have fruit juice to treat a hypo (low blood glucose)

Thanks Lin... I've made a note of the Echo pen to mention it to the nurse when I see her next week... the list of concerns/questions is growing by the day! Have you ever considered a pump, or is that usually only for T1? Something else that's on the list. I like the 'I am mostly a good girl' comment!