Diabetes

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I need some advice on diabetes, I've had it for well over a year now and I'm currently on Metformin. I had another check up today (over the phone) and it has risen again so as of tomorrow il be taking another tablet along side what I'm already on.

I've been told to try and control it with diet to reduce my levels but I struggle with it, I've got a really unhealthy relationship with food, I've done all the most common diets and I still have the slight mind set of one, I don't follow it anymore but I think oh that would be so and so on said diet.

What I'm asking for is anyone a diabetic on here and if so have you got any advice,tips or food recipes please.

I wouldn't even know where to start looking apart from Google.
 
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Hi
I don't have diabetes but I know someone who has. Your doctor is the best person to advise you. You will get all the answers to the questions you seek.
All I can tell you is carbohydrates are best avoided and being active goes a long way in helping your condition. Good luck.
 
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Hi
I don't have diabetes but I know someone who has. Your doctor is the best person to advise you. You will get all the answers to the questions you seek.
All I can tell you is carbohydrates are best avoided and being active goes a long way in helping your condition. Good luck.
My son is T1d and has carbs he just uses the insulin to cover those carbs. They are an essential part of anyones diet just like protein etc.
 
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can’t really advise u on the technical aspects of controlling diabetes but have you considered addressing the root cause, ie unhealthy diet/unhealthy relationship with food? I see you’ve mentioned following different diets previously and still keeping one in mind but it may be more beneficial to you to forget about particular prescriptive diets and think more about long term changes in lifestyle and mentality towards food, could you get help with this from a nutritionist or therapist or someone along those lines? To help you unpick and address why you have an unhealthy relationship towards food and also provide you with education on nutrition, food groups etc, Things like diets are just short term fixes it takes a long term change in mentality x
 
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Not sure if you’re T1 or T2, but assuming T2. I’ve kicked mine into touch in less than a month by dropping my carbs to less than 60 grams per day and not calorie counting but generally staying under 1400 p/d. I tested very high T2 and the nurse wanted me on Gliclazide and Metformin, I’m terrible at taking meds and when she said I’d be on them for life ‘probably’, I decided that wasn’t gonna happen, so I just kept testing my blood sugar everyday (with the monitor the nurse gave me) in the morning before eating and evening after eating, i soon worked out that at 60 grams of carbs a day, my blood sugar normalised). I’m not taking any of the meds and have also lost a stone and a half in that time. It definitely can be done; good luck!
 
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can’t really advise u on the technical aspects of controlling diabetes but have you considered addressing the root cause, ie unhealthy diet/unhealthy relationship with food? I see you’ve mentioned following different diets previously and still keeping one in mind but it may be more beneficial to you to forget about particular prescriptive diets and think more about long term changes in lifestyle and mentality towards food, could you get help with this from a nutritionist or therapist or someone along those lines? To help you unpick and address why you have an unhealthy relationship towards food and also provide you with education on nutrition, food groups etc, Things like diets are just short term fixes it takes a long term change in mentality x
That is quite a valid point, I haven't looked it like that. I think I'd have to go through my doctor to obtain that sort of information, my old doctor did try to do that years ago but the referral never came to anything, he also tried to refer me back to my old diet group as well and I said no way not a chance. My main problem is i try to cut it out all together and then binge, it just goes round and round in circles and I'm desperate to break the cycle.

Not sure if you’re T1 or T2, but assuming T2. I’ve kicked mine into touch in less than a month by dropping my carbs to less than 60 grams per day and not calorie counting but generally staying under 1400 p/d. I tested very high T2 and the nurse wanted me on Gliclazide and Metformin, I’m terrible at taking meds and when she said I’d be on them for life ‘probably’, I decided that wasn’t gonna happen, so I just kept testing my blood sugar everyday (with the monitor the nurse gave me) in the morning before eating and evening after eating, i soon worked out that at 60 grams of carbs a day, my blood sugar normalised). I’m not taking any of the meds and have also lost a stone and a half in that time. It definitely can be done; good luck!
Yeah T2 with the added medication dapagliflozin, I was told by the nurse to not eat carbs especially white ones (which I'm assuming is like bread, potatoes etc) I use to use CC and my fitness pal and it baffled me after years of dieting, I've reinstalled it to get a general idea of what is going into my body. Did you work out the calories by day based on your weight and height? What blood testing kit have you got? If you don't mind me asking? What carbs were you eating in the 60 gram? Reading how you turned it around, has made me believe it can be done and I feel inspired to give it ago and reduce my calories and carb intake so thank you.
 
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That is quite a valid point, I haven't looked it like that. I think I'd have to go through my doctor to obtain that sort of information, my old doctor did try to do that years ago but the referral never came to anything, he also tried to refer me back to my old diet group as well and I said no way not a chance. My main problem is i try to cut it out all together and then binge, it just goes round and round in circles and I'm desperate to break the cycle.


Yeah T2 with the added medication dapagliflozin, I was told by the nurse to not eat carbs especially white ones (which I'm assuming is like bread, potatoes etc) I use to use CC and my fitness pal and it baffled me after years of dieting, I've reinstalled it to get a general idea of what is going into my body. Did you work out the calories by day based on your weight and height? What blood testing kit have you got? If you don't mind me asking? What carbs were you eating in the 60 gram? Reading how you turned it around, has made me believe it can be done and I feel inspired to give it ago and reduce my calories and carb intake so thank you.
It can 100% be done; I’m the *worlds worst* crappy eater, my normal diet used to consist of huge bowl of cereal for breakfast, ham sandwiches and crisps with a choc bar for lunch and something like a spag bog for tea (where most of my veg was hidden) and afternoon snack of cuppa and biscuits too! 😳 I am 5ft 2” and was 14 stone (now 12). I was given an Aga Matrix Wavesense Jazz blood glucose monitor from the nurse, (which you can get at most big pharmacies or online). There’s tons of different makes out there and they’re super easy to use.

I didn’t care too much about the cals, as I just stick to grams of carbs instead. I started by eating 100 grams of carbs per day and slowly lowered it until I found where my carb sensitivity was (60). So for instance, now I’ll have a couple of boiled eggs for brekkie or a bacon/mushroom omelette and a cuppa and lunch will be my main meal so gammon or chicken salad, a full fat yogurt and I love nuts (which are crammed full of good stuff) so I’ll have some cashew or peanuts, then I don’t really have a big tea, but as I’m terrible at snacking and needing a daily treat, I’ll have 2 sausages, pistachio nuts, 2 x Iceland Chocolate Eclairs and a mini Toblerone! 😬😂. I stick to that and once a week, jump up to 2000 cals and 200 carbs for a ‘blow out day’ so I can still look forward to a Friday night meal.

My blood sugar has gone from 22.2 to 5.2 in that time and I’ve even noticed I don’t go to the loo at night anywhere near what I used too! 😀. If you manage to find how many carbs you can comfortably eat each day without raising your blood sugars, you’ll be onto a winner. It’s really easy to count carbs, just check the back of your food packaging or lots of info on product carbs on Instagram (#carbs #lowcarb).
 
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It can 100% be done; I’m the *worlds worst* crappy eater, my normal diet used to consist of huge bowl of cereal for breakfast, ham sandwiches and crisps with a choc bar for lunch and something like a spag bog for tea (where most of my veg was hidden) and afternoon snack of cuppa and biscuits too! 😳 I am 5ft 2” and was 14 stone (now 12). I was given an Aga Matrix Wavesense Jazz blood glucose monitor from the nurse, (which you can get at most big pharmacies or online). There’s tons of different makes out there and they’re super easy to use.

I didn’t care too much about the cals, as I just stick to grams of carbs instead. I started by eating 100 grams of carbs per day and slowly lowered it until I found where my carb sensitivity was (60). So for instance, now I’ll have a couple of boiled eggs for brekkie or a bacon/mushroom omelette and a cuppa and lunch will be my main meal so gammon or chicken salad, a full fat yogurt and I love nuts (which are crammed full of good stuff) so I’ll have some cashew or peanuts, then I don’t really have a big tea, but as I’m terrible at snacking and needing a daily treat, I’ll have 2 sausages, pistachio nuts, 2 x Iceland Chocolate Eclairs and a mini Toblerone! 😬😂. I stick to that and once a week, jump up to 2000 cals and 200 carbs for a ‘blow out day’ so I can still look forward to a Friday night meal.

My blood sugar has gone from 22.2 to 5.2 in that time and I’ve even noticed I don’t go to the loo at night anywhere near what I used too! 😀. If you manage to find how many carbs you can comfortably eat each day without raising your blood sugars, you’ll be onto a winner. It’s really easy to count carbs, just check the back of your food packaging or lots of info on product carbs on Instagram (#carbs #lowcarb).
You old diet is basically how I eat now 😂 I do try and incorporate more veg (prefer that too fruit) I'm a sucker for bread or savoury snacks, I tried to cut out chocolate that didn't work so eat dark now. I was given a contour next blood testing machine, I've still got it but rarely use it. I don't drink sugary drinks it's all no added sugar stuff, duno if that's better or worse if I'm honest.

So was that 100 grams spread over the day? I see carbs as in bread and potatoes, nothing else. I'd rather just cut stuff like that out or if I do eat it make it brown pasta or sweet potatoes. I always thought nuts were full of fat so no good for you? What would you class as a blow out day?

I think I'm trying to control my sugars and lose weight, is it even possible to do the two things at once?

Your meal plan sounds good, but do you get bored of it? Or just switch it up on different days?

Sorry to bombard you with loads of questions.
 
No worries at all; happy to help!

Honestly, hand on heart it's not been an easy ride, I've had to ditch all of the following (mainly because they're all carb laden): *sob*

Bread (any)
Rice
Potatoes (although I do have these on my blow out day)
Breakfast Cereals (Porridge is the lowest carb, but if you love cereal, you'll lose most of your carbs to these)
Soda (Coke, Fizzy Drinks, Added Sugar etc)
and all the obvious culprits, biscuits, cake, crisps, choc (except Dark) etc

*but* the pay off for me was not having to use meds, and I've found other bonus' too, like not up all night in the loo, my eyesight isn't blurry any more, my fatigue has gone and my legs don't ache as much anymore (I used to have really bad restless leg syndrome), and obviously losing weight and feeling good in a size 16 dress *lol*.

You can do all your carbs at once, which when I get bored I'll have a bowl of fruit and fibre cereal and that'll be 40 carbs, then some bacon, egg and iceland hash browns (the HB are only 10 carbs each, and you really get a lovely potato hit with these *lol*). Or you can spread them out, I used to do 45, 20 and 45 as I loved breakfast and snacking at night. It's over the month or so, I've bit by bit lowered it and found 15, 20, 25 work best for how I like to eat.

Your blood sugar monitor will be your main guide, I hate using it, because I don't like using the pen that makes me jump, so I spike myself with the lancet directly and do it that way (yes, I'm a quirky person *lol*) where I can guage the pain for myself. *lol*. Even doing this for a couple of weeks, gives you a really good idea of what foods spike your blood sugar. For instance I realised after having foods with sorbitol in, my blood sugar rocketed. Have a nose at Michael Mosleys' book called fast 800 diet, he gives tons of examples, it's a bit hard core diet for me, but the general rules on low carb eating is spot on. Also if you're on facebook, check out low carb, high fat groups. I've personally found eating nuts (like you say, they are high in fats), have actually made me lose weight, as it's the carbs that were putting weight on me, and nuts are full of good fats too.

My blow out days, are very similar to my old way of eating, so carb laden, spuds and choc! After doing this for a couple of months now, I've found because I'm so strict 6 days a week, my blood sugars don't spike anywhere near like they used to and I'm never in the danger zone now either, the max number after a blow out day would be pre-diabetic, and I'm more than happy with that.

I was super skeptical at first, but thought I'll give it two week and see if it works, it did and happy with this way of life for me. It's worth a 2 week go I'd say. Yes, it's definitely possible to eat good fats, low carb and lose weight, I certainly have. Honestly, I know this won't work for some, but for me, it has and although I don't recommend it for everyone, I do think it's worth a go, even just to see the different with your blood sugar numbers (you'll be amazed..I certainly was!)

Righteo, talking of food, off for me treats! *lol*.
 
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@rollthedice I literally wouldn't have any probelm cutting out all usual suspects that contain the bulk of carbs as I did it before, I just upped my protein and veg intake.

Drinks- everything I do drink is no added sugar even when it's fizzy. Is that okay or do I need to cut it out? Dark chocolate no way! So what chocolate can I eat in moderation obviously?

That really is amazing, you must be so proud of yourself. It's an incredible achievement

So is that ratio of carbs for each meal a day? With those carbs is it in the food you were eating? As I've checked the packets of things and most carbs are per 100g.

My pen makes me jump and sometimes I use to struggle to get the blood outta my finger. I will check out that book thank you, I've been on Google all day searching different things as I get confused easily ( I think they call that being thick haha)

Do you weigh your nuts? Or any of your food?

So you gave one day a week where you eat what you want with restrictions haha. Where did you find your willpower? Cause I need some lol.

I'm most certainly gonna give it a go :)
 
No worries at all; happy to help!

Honestly, hand on heart it's not been an easy ride, I've had to ditch all of the following (mainly because they're all carb laden): *sob*

Bread (any)
Rice
Potatoes (although I do have these on my blow out day)
Breakfast Cereals (Porridge is the lowest carb, but if you love cereal, you'll lose most of your carbs to these)
Soda (Coke, Fizzy Drinks, Added Sugar etc)
and all the obvious culprits, biscuits, cake, crisps, choc (except Dark) etc

*but* the pay off for me was not having to use meds, and I've found other bonus' too, like not up all night in the loo, my eyesight isn't blurry any more, my fatigue has gone and my legs don't ache as much anymore (I used to have really bad restless leg syndrome), and obviously losing weight and feeling good in a size 16 dress *lol*.

You can do all your carbs at once, which when I get bored I'll have a bowl of fruit and fibre cereal and that'll be 40 carbs, then some bacon, egg and iceland hash browns (the HB are only 10 carbs each, and you really get a lovely potato hit with these *lol*). Or you can spread them out, I used to do 45, 20 and 45 as I loved breakfast and snacking at night. It's over the month or so, I've bit by bit lowered it and found 15, 20, 25 work best for how I like to eat.

Your blood sugar monitor will be your main guide, I hate using it, because I don't like using the pen that makes me jump, so I spike myself with the lancet directly and do it that way (yes, I'm a quirky person *lol*) where I can guage the pain for myself. *lol*. Even doing this for a couple of weeks, gives you a really good idea of what foods spike your blood sugar. For instance I realised after having foods with sorbitol in, my blood sugar rocketed. Have a nose at Michael Mosleys' book called fast 800 diet, he gives tons of examples, it's a bit hard core diet for me, but the general rules on low carb eating is spot on. Also if you're on facebook, check out low carb, high fat groups. I've personally found eating nuts (like you say, they are high in fats), have actually made me lose weight, as it's the carbs that were putting weight on me, and nuts are full of good fats too.

My blow out days, are very similar to my old way of eating, so carb laden, spuds and choc! After doing this for a couple of months now, I've found because I'm so strict 6 days a week, my blood sugars don't spike anywhere near like they used to and I'm never in the danger zone now either, the max number after a blow out day would be pre-diabetic, and I'm more than happy with that.

I was super skeptical at first, but thought I'll give it two week and see if it works, it did and happy with this way of life for me. It's worth a 2 week go I'd say. Yes, it's definitely possible to eat good fats, low carb and lose weight, I certainly have. Honestly, I know this won't work for some, but for me, it has and although I don't recommend it for everyone, I do think it's worth a go, even just to see the different with your blood sugar numbers (you'll be amazed..I certainly was!)

Righteo, talking of food, off for me treats! *lol*.
Today is the day that I've started to change my eating habits, I've got plenty of healthy food in, low carbs and no treats.

Started off with 100g carbs for the day and so far it's going well.

Feeling quite motivated so let's hope I can keep it up.
 
Today is the day that I've started to change my eating habits, I've got plenty of healthy food in, low carbs and no treats.

Started off with 100g carbs for the day and so far it's going well.

Feeling quite motivated so let's hope I can keep it up.
Good luck to you! 😃
I'm not diabetic but do want to lose some weight and found some really great tips on this thread.
Thanks to all. x
 
Hi, I'm type 2 diabetic, and my HbA1c has gone from 68 to 38 over a couple of years (I also take 1g of Metformin SR a day). I find that eating little and often works well for me, I try to have 4 small meals a day and no snacking. Just be wary of cutting carbs out too much - I did this initially, but ended up with horrendous constipation (sorry if that's TMI) and found that it really buggered about with my weight loss. I do eat carbs, but I have seeded wholemeal bread, wholegrain rice or pasta, and the only potatoes I ever have are new ones with skin on. A serving is never more than 2 tablespoons. It's really a case of finding out what works for you without too much compromise. I love dark chocolate so a couple of squares is a real treat these days. There are some interesting findings on carb and protein pairings..... so if you eat bread, put peanut butter on it instead of normal butter. It slows down the rate you process it at. I also do a lot of walking... luckily my 2 dogs are nutty spaniels and can never have too much exercise. I hate the gym, so we walk briskly and it works for me as it doesn't feel like a punishment. And I have a strict no sweetener or diet drinks rule.
 
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I drink a lot of sparkling water too, and hot water with lemon slices. And I drink tea/coffee with unsweetened soya milk. I also like making up a big water bottle in the fridge and putting some lemon/raspberry/melon into for some flavour overnight.
 
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