dietme10 said:
Hi Andi,
Low Carb 30g (ish)
Hba1c 106 in Feb 2013 BMI 31.0
Hba1c 56 in May 2013 BMI 26.0
Hba1c 41 in July 2013 BMI 23.6
I am really fascinated with the level at which your Hba1c and BMI is gradually reducing on your low carb diet. Any help as to how you re doing it will be gladly appreciated.
Thanks
hi, don't know where to start....
ok I warn everyone to switch over channels this could get boring
history pre diagnosis
usually 19 stone , big boned, big built, hard manual worker, ate 15 takeaways a week,
a typical day for me upto the 9th of February 2013
6am Weetabix x4 loads odf milk and sugar
10am mcdonalds brekkies x2
1pm sausage in a roll (from snack wagon) mars bar & crisps
6pm Chinese or indian or kfc or mcdonalds or kebab & chips or sausage and sausage in batter with large chips or or or...
watching tv at night maybe 2 packets of crisps and a large cadburys whole nut or similar
my little one has insulin issues etc so home eating has always been healthy since she was 2 so I never ate at home always had a takeaways on the way home from work
my symptons where just thirst, ridiculous thirst so my wife tests my bg with my daughters monitor and I was 24.9 so I rang doc he said go see him, out of hours so I did he tested my wee and said I had keytones so I had to go to a&e so I spent the night up the hospital for what I don't know, they put me on a drip for what I don't know so I discharged myself at 3am
so I go to the doctors next day I think and he told me I was a ticking bomb as my bp was 250/125 cholesterol was 6.3 etc and I was 5 years away from major organ failure, 4 years earlier my dad died from diabetes, he was a heavy drinker and eater and diabetes didn't stop him from doing either, so he had a heart attack at 67 and died there in the living room watching the telly, good for him very very bad for everyone else lol
so you see I come from a standpoint of having a really huge room for improvement dietarily and a huge insentive for not dieing and another huge incentive to show a good example to my little one on how she should attack things
ok now to your question
basically I have listened to this forum for everything, right or wrong I listened, im no brain surgeon and have tried researching stuff etc but find it very hard to understand so I taken on board the low carb theories as the way to go I know not all agree but this sounded good to me and started lower carbing, I got the "myfitnesspal" app on my phone and set about recording everything I eat, being shocked at the carbs in stuff and learning each day different ways to reduce my carbs, each day or so I would try to change what I ate to reduce my carbs even by 1g and then find an alternative to that meal and save another gram, some experiments were a disaster, for example I tried to like fish which I never ate because I hated it, well the wife cooked me some cod in parsley sauce and I was looking forward to it because I knew I had to be sensible and try to like stuff I didn't before, well I actually cried while eating it, cant remember who said it but I had one eye on the forum and had mentioned I was trying fish which I hated and as I was eating it I read a reply saying "don't you dare eat the fish" well this was a revelation for me and decided I would not under any circumstances eat something I didn't enjoy, and haven't since, if I try something no matter how difficult it was to cook I just throw it away no exceptions, so yes here I am taking 2g of metformin a day bp meds and statins (I have played with the meds but that's a story for a different day) so I get my carbs down to 30g ish which was impossible in my opinion until I made it
I taught myself to cook/bake which no small amount of help from folks like WhitbyJet and ewelina and every weekend bake myself some low carb treats, it totally keeps me sane, I test like crazy or did, before and after eating and other times if im wondering about certain foods, ie I read about fat slowing down the carbs so if I ate a really fatty meal I tested 1 hour 2 3 4 5 for instance and after a long while bgs settled down and actually started to make sense, I eat as much fat as I like, I actually look for fatty foods and take great pleasure telling people who ask me how I do it that im on a high fat diet, I mention the fat before the carbs because it fraks people out and this gives me an excuse to talk about it which I love doing, my weight is 13.2 stone (I was 17.1 at dx) my bp is 110/65 avg. cholesterol is 4.3 (that's a drop of 2 without taking statins which im now taking so thatll be interesting
a typical day now
6am fage natural greek yogurts with berries and linwoods ground flax sprinkled on top
10am hand full of almonds
1pm salad with some cheese of slice of ham or a subway salad with spicy Italian or something like that
6pm evening meal an omelette with cheese and peppers for example
6:30 jelly and cream (every night) lol
sunday dinner ill have lots of meat and veggies and no potatoes or Yorkshire puddings (cauliflower mash instead)
spaghetti bolognaise minus the spaghetti
home made curry minus the rice
homemade beef burgers with salad and lettuce wrap for the burgers no bread
never have bread unless im totally stuck somewhere and have no choice but even then ill maybe buy 2 sausage sandwiches and throw away the bread etc you get the idea....
my bgs improved quite quickly the lower my carbs went which confirmed for me that I was on the right course
I joined a gym and started training with a personal trainer on Saturdays, I found that I only really enjoyed the running machine so now I go jogging at night and do a 5k park run on Saturday mornings, that took some building up to but am happy to be doing the runs, I found that if I don't exercise that my bgs go from 3-6 to 5-9 so I think its essential for me to keep control, I look like having CKD which im avoiding going to the doc about I did try but it didn't go well, I have been advised by a good friend to go and insist on further investigations but have come to the conclusion that im following the course of action they would recommend anyways.
I have made all this sound seemless and easy, well its easy to say, ive lost count of the bad days and weeks, set backs seem to be part of it, diabetes was my obsession, it kinda still is but im chilling out a little bit and have moments when im not thinking about it, I rarely cheat at all, I take the meds when im sposed to, I live it, its the only way for me im an all or nothing kinda person. I fee very sorry for folks who have less to change, the ones that get diab when they are already fit and eat healthily, or the folks that cannot exercise due to other health issues, and I feel bad for people that try and fail, its easy for some and impossible for others to stick to, I think that's probly genetic or something, I don't think its anyones fault who fails, they just failed, like some people are good runners or good at maths, its not my fault I suck at football ill never be able to play football no matter how hard I try well its the same with food, some people can follow a diet some cant like some people don't mind the dentist some are terrified, I know that sounds like a cop out but I don't mean it like that, I just think its harder for some than others and as long as people are trying they deserve as much respect as the ones that have succeeded
I would put my "success" so far down to
this forum, when im here I feel like its the only place people get what im going through
myfitnesspal app
friends made here giving great advice
determination
deprivation
low carb home cooking
finding low carbing a game and a challenge has helped, its not like a diet its a way of life so ive tried to find ways of eating that I think ill be able to follow forever give or take.
I hope I can carry on eating this way and keeping control for a zillion reasons and if there is anything at all I can do to help anyone else im more than happy, I owe it after all the help I have gotten and still get.
sorry I probly missed loads of stuff, I just got home from 4 days fishing and im knackered hehe
any specific stuff I missed that you want to know please ask
sorry for hijacking the thread
