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My wife and I were both told we had T2 3 months ago. HBA1C's 50 & 52 respectively. It was a bit of a shock to us both I can tell you, especially after reading all the possible consequences. The Dr's advice consisted of informing your life insurance company and to take Metformin from now on. By the time we saw the Dr, I had done some research on T2 reversal and said I was interested in a Low Carb diet approach. Good idea he said and gave me a Low-Calorie diet sheet!
We then saw the Diabetes nurse and asked about blood sugar monitoring. The response was that there is no need.
Underwhelmed by all this medical assistance I set about reading Reverse your diabetes (Dr David Cavan), The Piopi diet and then endless Youtube videos on different approaches to T2 reversal.
The net result of the research was to bin the Metformin and go for a complete lifestyle change. This consisted of a reduced carb diet, so no sugar, bread, rice, pasta or beer (liquid bread!). A selection of Mediterranean diet foods (Olive oil, Fish, Garlic Prawns, Salads, Kale, Spinach tomatoes Pecans Walnuts etc. Plus for a treat a couple of squares of 90% cocoa Dark chocolate!! This was then topped up with 30 mins per day of fast walking and in my wife's case cycling (on exercise machines)
We also watched the programmes like the trouble with Carbs etc and saw the effect of 2 months on an 800 Calorie a day diet.
We did not starve ourselves at all however and eating 3 meals a day over 3 months both lost 15 kg (33lb). 9 kg of which was in the first month. Who knew you could lose weight eating Steak & Eggs, Smoked Haddock Garlic prawns and lots of Salads covered in Olive Oil.
Ignoring the advice not to bother testing our blood after 2 months I purchased a BG monitor and set about checking our BG first thing in the morning and 2 hrs after eating various meals to see the effect different foods were having on our BG. I wished we had done this from the start.
We even gave up alcohol for the first month but then decided to allow red wine, and Gin & diet tonic as an occasional treat.
After 3 months we had our HBA1C tested again and to our amazement were told we were now not diabetics (HBA1C of 35 & 33 respectively). I'm even more amazed at this, as the reading is supposedly an average over the last 3 months so was hoping if things had gone well to get a pre-diabetic result.
I guess we can't get complacent and will have to maintain the lifestyle change to avoid problems in the future. Hope this helps others.
We then saw the Diabetes nurse and asked about blood sugar monitoring. The response was that there is no need.
Underwhelmed by all this medical assistance I set about reading Reverse your diabetes (Dr David Cavan), The Piopi diet and then endless Youtube videos on different approaches to T2 reversal.
The net result of the research was to bin the Metformin and go for a complete lifestyle change. This consisted of a reduced carb diet, so no sugar, bread, rice, pasta or beer (liquid bread!). A selection of Mediterranean diet foods (Olive oil, Fish, Garlic Prawns, Salads, Kale, Spinach tomatoes Pecans Walnuts etc. Plus for a treat a couple of squares of 90% cocoa Dark chocolate!! This was then topped up with 30 mins per day of fast walking and in my wife's case cycling (on exercise machines)
We also watched the programmes like the trouble with Carbs etc and saw the effect of 2 months on an 800 Calorie a day diet.
We did not starve ourselves at all however and eating 3 meals a day over 3 months both lost 15 kg (33lb). 9 kg of which was in the first month. Who knew you could lose weight eating Steak & Eggs, Smoked Haddock Garlic prawns and lots of Salads covered in Olive Oil.
Ignoring the advice not to bother testing our blood after 2 months I purchased a BG monitor and set about checking our BG first thing in the morning and 2 hrs after eating various meals to see the effect different foods were having on our BG. I wished we had done this from the start.
We even gave up alcohol for the first month but then decided to allow red wine, and Gin & diet tonic as an occasional treat.
After 3 months we had our HBA1C tested again and to our amazement were told we were now not diabetics (HBA1C of 35 & 33 respectively). I'm even more amazed at this, as the reading is supposedly an average over the last 3 months so was hoping if things had gone well to get a pre-diabetic result.
I guess we can't get complacent and will have to maintain the lifestyle change to avoid problems in the future. Hope this helps others.