Seems that personal blogs have gone the way of the Dodo. So, hopefully I can use this space to hold myself accountable, towards success.
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DISCLAIMER: Nothing that I communicate within this introduction, or within the ongoing thread, is to be taken as medical or dietary advice. This is something that I am doing as an experiment, albeit based on success I’ve seen elsewhere, over many years.
While I won’t be strictly adhering to the Mastering Diabetes plan, I’ll be moving towards it. For those interested in other treatment options an ever-increasing roll-call of success (Both for T1D and T2D) on a high-carb, low-fat plan, can be found at the following links:
https://www.masteringdiabetes.org/case-studies/
https://www.masteringdiabetes.org/success/
This experiment is not intended to dissuade anyone away from their current plan. If what you’re doing is working for you, then it’s working.
If anyone else is persuaded to give it a try, this is between them and their family, doctor etc. Like I said, it’s not a recommendation I’m giving. Certainly, any switch from a low-carb diet to one such as this comes with certain considerations.
Lastly: Everything I eat is vegan. To save me the redundancy of writing “Vegan” before everything, just know that it is.
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Regarding logging:
For the moment, I’ll try to log in greater detail (Though I deliberately avoid bothering to measure vegetables). But, at various moments, I’ll likely step back from such tracking and just document food photos, FBG and daily steps.
Will test various meals, along with a home-made OGTT to get an idea of baseline readings and ongoing trends. Will also occasionally use the ‘MySugr’ app to get a weekly HbA1C estimate
Regarding product substitutes: Cronometer’s product options are increasing all the time, but there are obviously still many things missing. Where I find something missing, I’ll just find a similar enough substitute. I’m not going to spend any time checking options to see which substitute is closest in macronutrient content to the one I have. Within the context or a 300-400-carb-grams-per-day diet, it’s neither here nor there whether Morrisons Strawberry Jam contains 3g more/less of carbs than the one I’m using.
Lastly, if I repeat a meal I will use the same photo repeatedly. And if there’re two pictures alongside each other, with the same food but in different quantities, it means I went back for another serving.
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The Plan:
Very simple.
Nothing is forbidden except for animal-products.
Falls somewhere between ‘Eatwell’ and ‘
THE’ guidelines, albeit with lower consumption of fats than those plans would allow for.
While I have no problems designing an RDA-busting version of a plant-based diet, I intend to let all that go…at least for a while. I’ll be eating more ‘intuitively’, to the extent that I’ll just eat what I want and when I want. If I want to eat nothing but ‘white’ spaghetti and mushrooms for a week, then so be it.
Also, the first couple of months will be tight, financially-speaking. Food will be basic, and I will be eating heavily on. Multi-vitamin supplement, to hopefully fill in some of the cracks
Another reason for simplicity is that an unfortunate and seemingly un-resolvable issue in a shared kitchen has ended with me now cooking all my meals in my bedroom, using a multi-cooker (Non-pressure). While I’m no stranger to bulk-cooking, it certainly makes weighing portions a lot more difficult (Easy to weight ingredients going in, but not of portions going out). Anyway, one-pot spaghetti being so easy to make is likely to have a huge bearing on my diet, for the foreseeable future.
Other than that, meals will generally be comprised of rice, and/or pasta, and/or potatoes and/or bread (The 4 main food groups), with some variant of cooked and raw veggies (Budget allowing). Fruit, as and when I can (Again, budget allowing).
Why not the ‘Mastering Diabetes’ plan ?
While I understand the reasoning behind their recommendations, the imposition of arbitrary restrictions is not something I’m currently interested in.
Veganism is restrictive enough.
Moreover, I don’t believe the foods that they warn against, within ‘appropriate’ limits, would have any negative implications for the success of the low-fat paradigm and its treatment of diabetes etc. Essentially, I believe success will be determined by keeping fat low enough to not cause issues with the higher-carb intake, and maintaining a caloric/energy deficit.
Who knows…I might naturally end up eating much closer to this plan, in the end. But if I do it will have to come naturally, and not via others’ rulebook.
Why low protein?
This is a short-term arrangement, and part of the experiment. My interest is in maximising carbs intake.
Why reduced levels of activity?
For many years, I’ve read too many people claim the only reason people can maintain a high-carb diet is due to commensurate levels of activity.
I don’t buy it…
Exercise will be limited to short walks (Longer walks on days where I’m shopping further afield) and small amounts of very calm Hatha Yoga.
What do I mean by remission/reversal?
Ability to reach and maintain a drug-free non-diabetic HbA1C, to reach and maintain in-range fasting BG readings and the ability to pass an OGTT.
And if I ‘fail’?
Well, I could fail in the sense of not making it past day 3…like always. Or maybe I find out that I've already pushed myself too far for too long, and I can't reach remission
What ‘ills’ do I hope to leave behind? (This list may be update, as I remember things).
Insulin-resistance.
High BP/Hypertension.
Blurry vision.
The occasional pins ’n’ needles and shooting pains in feet
As many excess pounds as possible.
Trigger-fingers in both hands. Had both my wrists operated on for carpal-tunnel, about 20 years ago. And though I suspect that the TF is lifestyle-related, it’d be nice to rule out the possibility of nerve-damage having been done during those operations.
Inflammation (Most obvious in hands) that prevents me being able to close my hands properly, and causing the little-finger on my right-hand to start to kink.
Awful Acid Reflux
Bad, restless sleep, brought on by frequent toilet-breaks, night-sweats, apnea and the aforementioned Reflux
Dehydration.
Food hangovers.
Post-meal energy crashes (Usually only happens after lunch, but can be more often depending on other lifestyle factors)
Headaches
A growing dependency on alcohol. I used to be a get-tipsy-once-every-few-months kind of guy. But this year, due mainly to the depression, that’s accelerated to the point of being almost-drunk a few times a week.
General listlessness
I’d like to reduce anxiety and depression, to the extent that lifestyle factors are to blame. Situational (Both personal and that which pertains to the current state of the world, humanity etc. are likely to remain out-of-reach).
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Added 18/01/23) Almost-constant wheeze on out-breath.
I’ve saved these three for last, as they are much rarer in occurrence and harder to track and attribute:
Retinal/Ocular migraines - Supposedly accompanied by migraine headaches, but I’ve never experienced the two together.
Vertigo - This is something that I experience very rarely, and only within the last couple of years. Attacks can be pretty severe and last a couple of days. While these would be harder to track as having been ‘cured’ by lifestyle improvements, I’m pretty sure that the last two episodes coincided with me having cut huge swathes of my sodium intake, too quickly.
Heart palpitations - Similar to above, in that they only seem to occur when I try to make drastic changes to my sodium intake, water-intake and sweat output, without the commensurate changes in other electrolytes or proper consideration for a slower adaptation/down-cycling process.
