Another newbie

[milly_moo]

I am currently waiting for an appointment to see my GP but everything points to Type 2 diabetes. For quite some time I've needed to get up during the night to go to the loo once or twice, but in the last 2 weeks it's escalated to every hour so I started to do a bit of research.
My diet has never been the best - I have a sweet tooth, quite a few food allergies, and my mother was an anorexic so I've been terrified of dieting. Normally I exercise fairly regularly - I have a dog so walk a few miles most days, but recently had an injury which meant 2 months of doing nothing. Oh and my cholesterol is very high but I was given the chance to reduce it with diet, but not given any help about how so just tried to eat low fat stuff which is probably why my sugars escalated.
Ideally I'd like to address this with diet and exercise - I've been reading the forum and would really like to try the low carb diet but just wondered if I should go for it cold turkey or change gradually as my body is currently used to the bad stuff.

 

[JTL]

Yo MillyMoo.
Welcome aboard.
I went cold turkey and the first week was as good as no carbs not low carbs.
First week was a bit extreme but it did me more good than harm.

I've been learning more on this site and reading labels.
I don't measure or count anything.
In the last four weeks I've lost twelve pounds.
You lose a bit you put a bit back on you don't know why and get frustrated ... don't let the frustration derail you ... have a fry up instead and enjoy it ... seriously.
You've arrived at the right place ... stick around.

 

[Bluetit1802]

Hi Millie and welcome,

Some go cold turkey, others go gradually. I decided on the gradual approach. I started with 126g of carbs a week. That was too much for me, so reduced it each month. 96g then 75g then 70g, eventually arriving at about 60g. and I'm happy with that. I increased my fats, but only enough to make up the deficit in calories lost by reducing carbs, and stuck to 1200 calories a week more or less. I have lost 3stones 5lbs which is 26% of my starting weight. I am now trying desperately to maintain my weight but still keep losing the odd pound here and there - I am finding it difficult to find the right balance without adding extra carbs, but I'll get there in the end!

Stay posting, ask questions, and good luck.

 

[milly_moo]

I think the gradual approach will probably work best for me. I've not slept because of the constant loo visits so feel a bit tired / light-headed and I'm worried that a sudden change might make things worse.

 

[jack412]

in my uninformed opinion, it may not make it worse, you may feel better sooner. you may get blurry vision as the glucose leaves the eye lens for a while
what I did was go cold turkey and cut all grain and grain product, potato and sugary stuff

these are the links that helped me the most
http://www.dietdoctor.com/lchf
http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/lowcarbliving/a/Food-Cravings.htm
http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/14045524.php
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/

 

[PatsyB]

I have no idea on how to measure carbs but learning daily........thanx to the forum

 

[Loobles]

I did the gradual approach too, starting at about 100-120 a day and then reducing to my lowest level of around 30-40. I've since upped it a bit to 60-80 because that seemed to be something more acceptable for my lifestyle and blood glucose levels. I'm still learning all the time though, as you will be

there's loads of help and wisdom here, so I'm sure you'll be fine...

 

[milly_moo]

Well I started with the gradual approach yesterday, mainly because we have quite a lot of carb-y stuff in the house (breakfast cereals, etc.) that I don't want to throw out, but I've drastically reduced the portions and I'm focusing on low carb.
Even after such a short period I noticed two things - I went to the loo less during the night (although kept waking out of habit ) and I had a couple of small cramps in my feet / legs so think I need to up the salt intake a bit.