For breakfast it’s either porridge or weetabix. Lunch during the week will be flatbreads with cooked meat and salad plus some fruit and maybe soup. Possibly also some low fat crisps. Tea (dinner! ) we tend to have about 6:30-7:00 and is usually standard protein with a carb and veg. He will sometimes have yogurt and fruit after tea or something else snacky. We tend to go to bed between 9 and 9.30 as we are up shortly after 6 each day
I’ll see if I can get him to join - although not sure he is in the right mental place right now hence my cry for help
I have absolutely fantastic news for your husband! His diet is absolutely horrible and he doesn't have to eat that stuff anymore. (Not kidding). Long story short: practically all carbs turn to glucose once ingested, so carbs will make his blood sugars rise... And he's having a LOT of carbs in a day now. Not especially tasty ones either. I don't know who put him on this diet, but they need a lesson in how to eat like a diabetic... Honestly, there is so much to gain here. Not just get a new relationship with food (a pleasurable one), but in all likelyhood he'll be able to cut back on the medication. He wouldn't be the first one here who could ditch all the meds. Speaking of which, statins are for cholesterol, not diabetes, and can raise bloodsugars (and in some people, even cause T2. If he was given them because it is the standard to give any newly diagnosed T2 statins, and he hasn't had a cardiac event in the past, he probably doesn't need them.). So... No bread, spuds, rice, pasta, cereal (One portion of weetabix or porridge contains more carbs than I eat in two or three days!), fruit (don't worry, there's plenty of vitamins in vegetables to compensate).... So yeah... He can bring his bloodsugars down, probably cut down on or completely ditch medication, and probably enjoy eating a lot more. Have a read here, which is basically everything I wish someone'd told me when I was first diagnose and life looks absolutely bleak...
https://josekalsbeek.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-nutritional-thingy.html If it sounds like something he, or even the both of you could stick with, dive deeper into it with Dr. Jason Fung's The Diabetes Code book or his (free) youtube video's, this forum's website (diabetes.co.uk that is, not .org!), and
www.dietdoctor.com .
Get him started in the morning with some proper breakfast: three eggs, bacon, high meat content sausage, maybe a tomato tossed in, and he'll sail through the morning with excellent blood sugars. Green salad for lunch with something fatty to fill him up (no sugary dressing though! Try olive oil and apple cider vinegar or mayo), so add salmon, tuna or warmed up goat's cheese. Dinner? Above ground veggies/leafy greens with fish, meat or poultry. Just get some extra veggies and meat in there to compensate for the loss of fillers like spuds. Cauliflower rice is a stupidly versatile replacement. For snacks, go for hard cheeses, olives, extra dark chocolate (85% and up), pork scratchings, walnuts, pecans... And absolutely do steer clear of things that are low in fat. They're usually full of carbs to compensate the loss of flavour and bulk, plus, fats are a glucose flatline: they will not raise bloodsugars. better yet, they slow down the uptake of the carbs one does ingest, so spikes are less severe. Yay for bacon.
Anyway.... It's a lot to take in and change, but this way I have gotten rid of my medication, have been in the non-diabetic range for over 3 years now, lost quite a bit of weight, got rid of my non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and my cholesterol, even with all the extra fat I've been consuming, is perfectly in range. And I'm not the only one here who's done it. So you guys can certainly tackle this too.
I know your husband isn't feeling right at the moment, but did you know high bloodsugars can and will affect mood and feed into depression and panic attacks? Get his blood sugars down and he'll start feeling a whole lot better, both mentally and physically. Get a meter, test before a meal and 2 hours after the first bite, and see whether he goes up 2.0 mmol/l or less. That's pretty much the ideal. With the new regime that should be more than do-able, and he can see instant results, which are a great motivator, besides giving one a feeling of empowerment. He can tackle this, and he's got you in his corner. (Plus, this diet is perfectly safe for non-diabetics too, so you're welcome to join him).
Good luck!
Jo
