First time with BG meter, how are these readings?

[emporer]

Having been diagnosed with T2 a few months back I've been working hard to control it, the nurse has taken my Hba1 result of 7.5 as a baseline as it must have taken into account a good portion of my lifestyle prior to diagnosis, I've been doing daily cardio and changed a lot of my diet, not changed a great deal with regards to my main meals though, still have rice and pasta once a week etc but changed all the usual stuff so have cut out a ton of sugar etc.

So, got my BG meter today, first test was about 4 ish hours after some fish and a few chips, result was 4.8, had my dinner tonight, chicken kebabs, wholemeal pitta breads, coleslaw and salad, 2 hours after the reading was 6.8.

How does this reading sound to the more experienced diabetics?

 

[mcdonagh47]

Pretty good readings.

General recommendations for T2s are something like ...

Fasting in morning ....under 6

before a meal 4 to 7

2hours after meal under 8

bedtime 5 or 6 ( you might be affected by the Dawn Phenomenon )

 

[Fraddycat]

The thing about meter readings is to do them in pairs. Test directly before a meal and then 2 hours after. The meal should not make your BGs rise more than about 2 points. Your 2 hour reading should not be more than 7.5, so your after dinner reading is ok, but because I don't know what your pre-meal readings are its difficult to know how those particular foods have affected your BGs. Those pairs of readings will tell you what foods work well for you and what foods should be avoided.

Also remember that other factors can affect your meter readings too, infections, feeling unwell, stress, lack of sleep can all make your numbers rise, even if you are eating foods you know have been ok for you in the past. Exercise is very good at lowering numbers, alcohol also lowers numbers at the time, but can make the following morning's meter readings high.

 

[emporer]

Thanks for the replies, the first reading of 4.8 was about an hour before my meal, not sure if that would be considered as a pre meal reading but I didn't eat anything until I had the meal.

I'll be playing around with the meter and testing various foods to see what I generally have to avoid.

I think the excersize is certainly helping me, I've lost a couple of stone and do a good cardio session on the treadmill every day, twice on my days off, I'm enjoying it a lot and have decided to start weight training now to just tone up a bit hopefully.

Not sure what happens with alcohol but I don't drink so it's of no consequence to me really.

 

[Daibell]

Sounds like you are doing all the right things and those figures are pretty good. Alcohol doesn't have much effect on diabetes other than usually reducing your sugars a bit.

 

[emporer]

So this mornings reading after a good 12 hr fast is 6.9, breakfast now and will test again later this morning.

 

[emporer]

Couple of hours after breakfast and it was 7.6, had a couple of shredded wheat with semi skimmed milk and a glass of apple juice for breakfast, although today is not a normal day for me as I'm off work so have spent the morning sat on the sofa where as usually I'd be a bit more active while at work as I'm on my feet all day, not sure if that would make any difference.

overall I'm quite happy with my results so far, considering its all very new to me and what I'm doing seems to be getting my figures in a good place.

 

[emporer]

Just did a test prior to lunch, 4.9 which is good, had some chilli chicken sandwich from Greggs and an oaty flapjack, should be interesting to see how this goes as its on white bread which i've cut out now so this is a bit different for me.

 

[Yorksman]

To get the hang of it, take an early morning reading daily before breakfast. Then, to test the effect that certain foods have on you, take a reading before a meal and then 2 hours after a meal. The difference will give you an indication of how that meal has effected you. When you frist start to do this, make sure the meals are simple, with only one type of carbohydrate because if it is mixed too much, you won't be able to determine which one was responsible. Many people start off with seeing how porridge affects them, because they already take an early morning reading and it is a simple enough meal. Don't put sugar in it though, use a sweetener like Truvia. Although Truvia has a lot of carbs, they are indigestible carbs so they won't affect your BG levels. Build up your knowledge over a period of time by being methodical. Also, as a diabetic, expect some crazy swings. It happenes to all of us.

All in all though, your readings look at the lower end of the scale and with a little bit of care and attention, you should get back into the 'normal range'. Avoid highly refined carbs like white bread. White flour is like eating sugar. Most supermarket brown bread by the way is as bad as white bread.

 

[emporer]

Ok my reading 2 hours after lunch was 5.4, not sure if its that low due to doing a 20 min cardio session an hour before testing though.

I'm pleasantly surprised at my readings so far though, as for bread I tend to only have Kingsmill wholemeal but if its not really much better than white bread then I'll be looking at something else I think, maybe some kind of crackers or similar?

 

[Yorksman]

Ok my reading 2 hours after lunch was 5.4, not sure if its that low due to doing a 20 min cardio session an hour before testing though.

The exercise does have something to do with it in my experience. My last four mornings I have had woken up, taken a reading and then had porridge. The first two days I took 15 mins exercie after an hour and then a reading two hours after breakfast. Days three and four, I took not exercie before the 2 hour reading but did some after it. Then, I took a third reading, 3 hours after breakfast:

Day 1: 5.0; (15 min exercise); 4.6

Day 2: 5.3; (15 min exercise); 4.3

Day 3: 5.1; 5.6; (15 min exercise); 4.5

Day 4: 4.9; 5.5; (15 mins exercise); 4.6

I'm pleasantly surprised at my readings so far though, as for bread I tend to only have Kingsmill wholemeal but if its not really much better than white bread then I'll be looking at something else I think, maybe some kind of crackers or similar?

I started with dark rye ryvita which is a wholegrain product and then german pumpernickel. Later I sourced some proper wholegrain bread, with a high rye content, from an artisan baker.

http://www.sustainweb.org/realbread/bakery_finder/

 

[emporer]

Ok so had pizza for dinner last night, knew its not the best thing in the world to have, after dinner reading was 8.6, this morning was again similar to yesterday 6.8.

I am still fairly pleased though as I'm not on meds for it but will definitely be looking at the bread issue closely now and seeing how I go with other bad stuff like rice and pasta.

 

[Fraddycat]

I am really glad you are getting reasonable numbers but I would recommend a bit of a rethink on the diet though, pizza, flapjacks, sandwiches and shredded wheat are making your pancreas work really, really hard. If you can reduce these processed carbs out of your diet you will be amazed at how much better you feel, and how much your numbers come down.

I have completely cut bread out of my diet - its hard to get used to at first but with a little forward planning you can do it. Like a previous poster I use lettuce to wrap things, cauliflower wraps, . Breakfast is normally bacon and eggs, lunch is salad with chicken or smoked sausage and avocado, dinner is steak and courgettes or broccoli Bolognese. Give it a go for a few days, you will be amazed at your numbers!

 

[emporer]

I thought shredded wheat would have been ok, what is a good breakfast cereal? I do like oaty stuff or special k.

 

[Fraddycat]

Shredded Wheat is not awful, but there are 30g of carbs in two biscuits. Then you need to add the carbs in half a pint of milk and the carbs in the fruit juice. That meal would be more carbs than I would choose to eat in a whole day. Of course its a choice thing but I feel a lot better since I reduced the carbs I eat.

 

[emporer]

So been doing more testing, i'm finding that potatoes or chips are not giving me any spikes in my readings like I thought they would, 2 hours after a roast dinner yesterday with spuds and gravy etc and I was still in the mid 5's area as per before dinner, similar thing happened on Sat afternoon with some chips.

I'm going to be getting hold of some low carb bread for my lunch at work, was looking at the Livlife stuff from Waitrose, only 3.8 carb per slice, for now i'm on the WW stuff at 12 per slice, had 4 slices last night with various meat and salad and my levels were in the mid 6's after, be interesting to see how the very low carb bread goes.

 

[paul-1976]

So been doing more testing, i'm finding that potatoes or chips are not giving me any spikes in my readings like I thought they would, 2 hours after a roast dinner yesterday with spuds and gravy etc and I was still in the mid 5's area as per before dinner, similar thing happened on Sat afternoon with some chips.

With chips and roast spuds,the fat content can slow down the absorption of the carbs and delay the spike which means you may see the spike at 3 or even 4 hours post meal despite your 2 hour reading looking reasonable.

 

[rediron]

It sounds like you are doing excellent, keep it up

 

[emporer]

I will certainly keep things up, the way I look at it is that I have to, simple really as it's my own health at stake.

Had a bad reading yesterday, a couple actually, instead of the usual shredded wheat for breakfast which doesn't raise my levels much I had a bowl of granola almond and fruity, I think my level 2 hours later was 8.2, higher than the shredded wheat so won't be enjoying granola too much now! Had my lunch of some herta frankfurter sandwiches and crisps and my levels were 5.2.

So, the wife had bought this mexican meatball thing from and some spicy potato wedges, I thought the wedges would be ok as i've had pretty good levels with chips and spuds so far, so after 2 hours my levels were 10.2! Can't quite understand it really as the portion of meatball stuff was probably only around 10 carbs and whatever the wedges would be.

I did think that it may have been something else though, last week I got some diabetic sugar free sweets, some jelly gums and some hard boiled lemon fizzy things, I had 2 of the jelly gums and 1 of the lemon fizzy after dinner, I do remember the lady in the sweet shop telling me something that although they are sugar free there could well be something in there to spike my levels, although i've been having the sweets once a day since last week and not noticed anything odd apart from the meatball meal reading so it probably isn't the sweets.

So, after last nights reading of 10.2 I had a 7.3 this morning, first time since getting my meter that my morning reading has gone over 7, could that be related to last nights high 10.2 reading from about 9pm?

On a lighter note, i've changed my bread as I have 4 slices per day for my sandwiches normally, i've gone from supermarket wholemeal to WW wholemeal Danish brown, its nice and tasty and half of the carbs of the other I used, 8.3 per slice which has cut quite a few carbs from my lunch!

 

[PhilT]

I thought shredded wheat would have been ok, what is a good breakfast cereal?

Not sure there is such a thing - they're all carbohydrates and milk has lactose in it (a sugar).

Bacon and egg or an omelette on the other hand are zero carbohydrate.