struggling!

[castaway]

Hi, I'm a Type 1 diabetic, diagnosed late last year. I think I'm still in the honeymoon period as only on approximately 9 units of Humalog a day plus 3 units of Lantus at night :?

Before I was diagnosed I had a real sweet tooth, loved my custard tarts, cheesecake, chocolate biscuits and ...well, anything sweet! Despite this, my weight has always stayed at around 8 and a half stone. But I'm struggling to give it all up. I constantly crave for my sweet treats! I've tried to replace them with healthy diabetic friendly options, but some days I just go off the rails, eating chocolate brownies and sponge cake like a non-diabetic
How did other people cope with this, I'd love to know ?

Also I'm fed up of going to bed feeling really hungry and with my tummy rumbling ,as I've tested, got a good reading for bedtime but daren't eat as it would make my BG go up....any solutions?

I'm sorry if I sound a bit whingy, I just find this quite hard to deal with, having had no help or support from anyone at the clinic/hospital since January.

Thanks in advance...hope to hear from someone soon

 

[MelanieL]

Hi, sorry to hear that you're struggling with curbing your sweet tooth - I don't have any real answer for you, other than to say take it each day at a time! I was diagnosed as type 1 on Dec 23rd last year, so I'm not an experienced insulin user (although I was wrongly diagnosed as type 2 for 16 months). It doesn't seem quite right that you should be hungry though, so I hope some of the more experienced users will reply to you soon. Can you make an appointment with your diabetes clinic to get some advice, or to tweak your insulin regime to allow you to a better ratio of food to insulin? From what you say, weight isn't an issue for you. Anyway, good luck and I hope you can beat the sugar cravings very soon.

 

[scoots]

I have struggled with this, too - having gone through the honeymoon period after being diagnosed, I struggled to come to terms with the diagnosis and rebelled against everything (I'm not saying this is what you're doing, but it was definitely what I did!).
My view is that the background insulin (whether your own or long-acting) will cope with a litttle sugar without any problems, and that it is far better to have a little of what you like than to deprive yourself and run the risk of going on a full-on sugar binge.
I always used to have a cup of milk and a couple of biscuits (Rich Tea type) at night before I went to sleep, which stopped me feeling hungry and prevented any night-time hypos. Saying that, I've not done it for a while, maybe if I got back into the routine it might make things a little better. Pass the cow juice...!
Jen

 

[janabelle]

Hi Castaway,
There's been a couple of threads recently posted similar to your problem. Ardberg suggested an Acai Berry supplement may be helpful for hunger cravings. Here's a link to one of the threads viewtopic.php?f=1&t=14405&p=131436&hilit=ACAI#p131436
I'm trying 2 lose weight and after reading that post, I went straight to Holland & Barratt! I have been eating less and lost a couple of pounds (as well as 8 for the acai :lol: ). Can't say whether it's solely down to the acai, but I'll keep taking it.
Hope that helps
Jus

 

[CarbsRok]

y

 

[Tracey167]

Hi

I have been a type 1 diabetic for 27 years and i still get cravings for sweet things, i don't think mine is helped by my hubby and 3 kids loving there chocolate and cakes. I think sometimes you have to be strong and beat temptation (easier said than done i hear u say) But i think on rare occassions it does'nt hurt to eat a couple of squares of chocolate.

Have you looked into getting a diabetic cookbook they have recipes in there for diabetic chocolate cake, cheesecake, biscuits etc... Or even check out some recipes on Diabetes UK website
Ok maynot be a everyday thing but it may help occassionally.

Tracey167

 

[castaway]

Many thanks for all your replies, you've all been very kind and helpful

I know it's early days for me and I've a lot of learning to do, some days I handle all this better than others. I think once I'm out of the honeymoon period, it will become much easier to control.

Thank you carbsrock for the offer of a cheesecake recipe, I've pm'd you...can't wait!

 

[squishy157]

hi,

i've been a diabetic for nearly 20 years and i still have a sweet tooth but recently i went through a stint of constantly having hi blood sugars from being a little rebellious

all i can say is as long as you counteract what ever your having with your insulin regime you should be fine
but if you dont want to do more insulin than you do then as many of the other people who have given you advice then again maybe there are some other sweet foods you could eat with less sugar in them

hoped this helped

 

[suesy]

hi my grandaughter was diagnosed type 1 in march and has coped really well and does have the occasional treat as a pudding and seems to be ok with that !!! we are doing the same and have lost a stone and a half so there are some good points lol hope all goes well xxxx this forum is really good and helpfull and a great bunch of people who are allways happy to help you xxx

 

[badmedisin]

If you can get onto a dafne course, that might help. You'll learn how to count carbs and calculate the right amount of insulin for what you're eating. Technically a type 1 diabetic diet should be the same as 'normal' (hmm) people are advised to eat- varied foods, not too much fat, sugar or salt, Lots of veg, everything in moderation. It's not like the old days when we were forbidden sugar and (incomprehensibly) told to boil cabbage for hours. That's well before my time! But odd.

So you can eat sweets as long as you inject for them. But I would bear in mind that sugar is quite addictive. Apparently it stimulates the same part of the brain as cocaine. Only tastier and you don't have to snort it... I gave up chocolate for about a year, which was hell for a month but after a while I stopped wanting it. Then I thought I'd eat it in moderation and now I'm obsessed with chocolate again. Oops. The more you eat, the more you want. Sad but true.