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Will I ever be able to eat normal food ever again?

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Purple_Panda

Active Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Since November I've not eaten things like Fish and Chips, rice, pasta, normal bread, chocolate, sushi, pizza, even things like diet soft drinks.

Will I ever get to a point in time even in remission where I might be able to eat these things ever again? I feel like I have lost a significant chunk of my life. I love things like sushi but I know atm it still spikes my BG levels. I used to love a big bowl of steaming hot pasta with juicy tomatoes and mushrooms in the pasta sauce and lots of cheese with chillies. I used to love eating hot white bread toast with butter and marmite.

Now I'm certainly not "craving" for these things but I do sure as hell miss them all but I'm nowhere near my fitness and weight and health goals where I can simply try even treating myself to these things. Even binging on these no added sugar wafers this evening has taken my BG levels up to 10.9

I'm desperate to make sure I go into remission. I don't want to lose my eyes or limbs or have a heart attack or my kidneys to get damaged further. But I really don't know how I can stick with all this.
 
Hello @Purple_Panda . Imo an occasional treat is fine , just watch the portion size . Remember that old saying all work and no play.....
what I mean by occasional is say once a week or once a fortnight.

In time you may well find your body can cope with a little of the things you have mention above , depending on what your BG levels are at the time and won’t cause a spike .


I have LADA not T2 and am on MDI insulin so things are rathe different fo me however depending on my BG levels at the time I can eat one of these without needing to inject insulin, A pear, nectarine, peach and a huge bowl of strawberries goes down a treat and never affects my BGs
Using your meter you may well find some goodies that don’t adversely affect your BG levels

You might also find some good substitutes for those things you like, I have never tried it but some here buy protein bread, I think it’s Nimble but not sure , some have Burgen (sp?) soya and linseed bread , I detest it .
Personally I don’t do low fat .
 
I started out thinking "never" about pizza, burgers etc. Managed about two months before freaking out and reverting to really terrible eating for a couple of months.

Now I'm temporarily doing a strict diet to try and get some weight off, but I'm not thinking "never again" about all the unhealthy stuff. But what I am going to try and do is make the unhealthy stuff "count". E.g. it should be properly special, or for some special occasion.
 
But what I am going to try and do is make the unhealthy stuff "count". E.g. it should be properly special, or for some special occasion
That sounds a good plan. They will be even more of a treat when you do have them.
Depending on what you have learnt about what your body can cope with, you might still need to reduce portion sizes.
 
As a person with Type 2 diabetes even if your blood glucose is below the prediabetic range that will generally have only been by a huge effort in reducing carbs and or taking medication but does not really alter the fact that your body will struggle with coping with carbs so realistically you can't risk going back to the eating habits you know your body can't cope with. Having said that you may find that there are some things which you think it is worth having occasionally and you have tested that portion to see if the blood glucose rise is acceptable. I think many people have been there, thinking I've got this under control now and slipping back into old ways, been there done that.
 
You can always eat normal foods and if you crave bread make Keto bread better than any processed bread. In reality there is nothing normal about Burgers/Pizza it's all tasty and nice to eat but full of processed c**p unless you make them from scratch so in moderation if you must.

If anything having Diabetes in November 2020 has liberated me regarding food it's taken me to a whole new way of eating which is much more enjoyable than the c**p I was eating so it's a head thing, once you find your way with the foods you can eat it becomes the norm.

This is just my thinking not disssing junk food but junk it is.
 
The answer is yes, in moderation and as an occasional. I still have pasta, a lot less than I used to. I still have rice, maybe a table spoon full, I still eat bread, but get seedy bread which doesn't impact my sugars as much. I don't go really low carb as I know I can't stick to it. I have approx 150g grams a day. I try and make my lunch as low carb as possible, usually a chicken salad. I make almost everything I eat from scratch. That way I know what's in it. I never feel like I'm missing out.
 
Since November I've not eaten things like Fish and Chips, rice, pasta, normal bread, chocolate, sushi, pizza, even things like diet soft drinks.

Will I ever get to a point in time even in remission where I might be able to eat these things ever again? I feel like I have lost a significant chunk of my life. I love things like sushi but I know atm it still spikes my BG levels. I used to love a big bowl of steaming hot pasta with juicy tomatoes and mushrooms in the pasta sauce and lots of cheese with chillies. I used to love eating hot white bread toast with butter and marmite.

Now I'm certainly not "craving" for these things but I do sure as hell miss them all but I'm nowhere near my fitness and weight and health goals where I can simply try even treating myself to these things. Even binging on these no added sugar wafers this evening has taken my BG levels up to 10.9

I'm desperate to make sure I go into remission. I don't want to lose my eyes or limbs or have a heart attack or my kidneys to get damaged further. But I really don't know how I can stick with all this.

It depends on what your long term aim for "remission" is.
If you mean diet control, usually that is a diet for life.

To avoid the diabetic complications, you need to control your BG.
It's not a sprint though.
It's a marathon.
Have you had a new hba1c since November?
 
It depends on what your long term aim for "remission" is.
If you mean diet control, usually that is a diet for life.

To avoid the diabetic complications, you need to control your BG.
It's not a sprint though.
It's a marathon.
Have you had a new hba1c since November?
Yes I had two: 37 and 38.

My aim for remission is to come off the medication and lead as normal a lifestyle as possible and of course avoid any complications. I never want to lose my eyesight or have an amputation of any kind. I would honestly rather be dead than reach that stage and apologies if that offends anyone. It's just how I feel. My eye-sight and my movement is everything to me and my career.
 
I guess it depends on your definition of 'normal'. One of the things diabetes has highlighted for me is that the way we eat as a society may not be as normal as we think.

A healthier balance has become the new norm for a lot of us b flipping things on it's head and instead of certain foods being a staple, they are a treat / accompaniment to a main diet of healthy foods.

Drinking water and exercising also have a great positive impact so maybe if you have foods that may impact your BG, plan a nice walk after or dance around the house!

You sound really motivated so it's a matter of time before you reach your goal so do be gentle with yourself and it's a life long journey to better health.
 
Yes I had two: 37 and 38.

My aim for remission is to come off the medication and lead as normal a lifestyle as possible and of course avoid any complications. I never want to lose my eyesight or have an amputation of any kind. I would honestly rather be dead than reach that stage and apologies if that offends anyone. It's just how I feel. My eye-sight and my movement is everything to me and my career.

There is absolutely no reason for you to be worrying about things like eyesight loss and amputations.
You've already got your blood glucose under control and so have done everything reasonable to avoid complications.
Having the odd pizza, bowl of pasta or sandwich isn't going to damage you.
 
Personally I find that the alternative, low carb choices are far nicer.
I am getting fairly good results with the bread making machine - it requires a fast acting yeast - so bit by bit my diet is seemingly more normal, but it has always been very tasty.
 
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