A full 9 months later and I've just completed my local face to face Healthier You NHS Diabetes Programme which in my area was run by a company called LWTC Living Well Taking Control
I did miss a couple of sessions due to holidays.
Overall for me I learnt nothing new (but having been diagnosed 6 years now and having educated myself myself I was already ahead of the game). It was a good reminder to help me to stay on track and accountable. We were weighed and waist measurement taken every session. I put on a kilo!
As expected they wouldn't countenance or recommend low carb or keto. There was strong emphasis on increasing beans and pulses.And eating healthy 80% of the time. That for me wouldn't work, my bg would go too high too often in the 20% time! There were mentions of ultra processed food (bad) and fermented food (good).
There was no mention of monitoring ones own bg , and when I mentioned I did, the trainer quickly shut me down.
However all the other participants were starting from zero knowledge and some of them did make great strides and reduced weight and bg , some considerably over the 9 months. Of the 25 or so starters about 5 reported great improvements, which I assume the NHS take as a win.
As well as food there were sessions on exercise, stress and sleep ie general health.
It was free but somewhat awkward timings, the sessions were irregular.
A lot of the attendees were in their 80s and even 90s and I did wonder, that with diabetic complications taking years to manifest, whether it was worth worrying those people so much. There was one lovely lady nearly 90 who was in tears thinking she could no longer eat a ham sandwich which had been her daily lunch as it was the only thing she managed to make for herself. She struggled to walk to each session and left most sessions just feeling guilty and worried. It was so sad.
All the above is only my personal impressions and opinions.
How's yours going
@Zeppx ?
Thanks very much, Mrs A. That's very interesting. My group's last session is next Wednesday, Feb. 4th, so I will probably report back again then.
I think our group was in the same numbers as yours, but it has now declined to five of us. I missed once in December and once the trainer was on holiday so it was on Zoom, but because people couldn't find the link, not their fault I think, it was just me and one trainer who failed to start the presentation. When she was on page 18 I said I'm on page 2, and she said "Did you think I was just talking to you?" Well, yes. I stopped it after 30 mins and said I don't feel comfortable answering all the questions alone. Like you, I am educated, I know there are five possible ways to improve my sleep so I don't want to hear them again.
I think ours was run by Thrive Tribe. Did you have a huge "journal" where you were supposed to answer questions, such as "Finding your why?" - Why do I want to stop prediabetes? Strange question, why wouldn't I? Constantly at the end of a session we had to choose our 1%, meaning a small change we would make, which adds up to 37% over a year (something from the book Atomic Habits, but never explained to us). I think we will have to consider our Why? on Wednesday.
(I see I have already mentioned this). The programme was, as I wrote earlier, not at all prescriptive. Everyone is different so scarcely any advice re diabetes was given. We were to live healthier lives, read food labels when shopping, sleep better, get more exercise etc.
We were weighed but the trainer never looked at the weight, just entered it. When I asked why we were weighed, she said she couldn't see the point. But online I found that the service prides itself on the weight lost. I did lose 14 kilos, not through the programme, but this wasn't noticed but was recorded. Our waists were not measured. I had a blood test and my Hba1c had not changed - my GP wrote "normal for this patient", no follow-up.
The big idea was that we mustn't be harsh on ourselves and should only make small changes, but it was a bit vague what we should do. The Eatwell guide, i.e. a third of the plate of carbs, was the basis. I am not convinced that brown rice is a very big fibre source, but we didn't talk about that. I lost weight through very long time-restricted eating fasts (24 or 36 hours) but would not dare to mention this. I also do some mild weights training. The trainer did sports at university and had been put off by men in her class all wanting a six-pack. That was all that muscles meant to her, she was totally against it lifting weights. If I find I can walk further, it's all down to my weight loss and not at all to the gym machines. I thought this was narrow-minded and that older women ought to have muscles. The idea for us was "exercise bites".
I am 78 and was the oldest! Fancy you having so many really old people in the group.
We have an Indian vegetarian couple who eat no fish. They wanted to know how to get more protein in vegetables. The trainer was out of her depth and showed them a page in the journal showing how many varieties of vegetables there are. But they must know that. Again through Google, I found that Thrive Tribe does have stuff on its website about other regional diets, but obviously that was not told to the trainer. We live in a multi-cultural society so I intend to complain about that.
It has been good meeting other people. I am probably drinking more water and taking more exercise, and thinking about not sitting so long.
Onward and upward.
