I think this is now week 14 for me and I felt I was due a bit of a review.
I've been checking in less frequently, but am still trying to follow my new low carb lifestyle. I have had carbs on a few occasions, but am still on average keeping my daily carbs below 50g for the last 90 days (actually, on the MyFitnessPal report it shows av 41). However, in the last month that does include 5 days where I went over 100g, 4 days when I went above 200g, and one sad day when I went above 300g. I'm not managing so many days below 30, which I was doing in the very early days of low carbing. Consequently my average BS is higher than in the early days.
Being able to look back and see what I've been eating is useful. For the last week I've not really been keeping my food record and reviewing my progress like this does show me I should get back to that as it keeps my goals in mind.
I am slowly losing weight. I was getting a bit despondent about how slow this is. I am getting on the scales every day even though I know this is a bad idea for me. I seem to need to know I'm not going up, but I also know my weight fluctuates a lot on a daily basis. However, looking at it over a longer period I see that at the beginning of July I was 16st 7lb and at the beg of Aug I was 16st 4lb. I know that's not a huge loss, but seeing smaller numbers in black and white is a bit of a boost.
I have had a general feeling of having struggled to keep my BS low recently, but looking at my records I can see partly this has been because I've been testing a few fasting times, so that has put my average higher. It also includes one day when I completely forgot to take my morning meds. No idea why, but the result was testing at 11.8. Most days it's in the 6s or 7s, but my average for July is actually 8, so I do need to work on this some more. It's telling me that it's way too early to try introducing a few more carbs, like the roti I made to with curry last night (still better than naan).
I'm not bored with low carbing. It seems to fit with my likes. I don't particularly miss potatoes, pasta or rice. I do miss bread in all forms from toast, sandwiches and naan, to doughnuts, iced-buns and biscuits. I also miss ice-cream. I just have to accept these things will damage me more than it's worth for the short term enjoyment.
I am feeling really healthy. Following advice on the forum to considerably up my water intake has stopped me swinging between constipation and the Metformin runs. I am walking so much better, and pain from arthritis is greatly reduced so barely an Ibuprofen passes my lips. I am seriously considering holding out on the knee replacement for a bit, at least until I lose some more weight and so ease recovery. Less sugar also means I don't get any nasty yeast infections and my skin and hair are great.
Being refused the knee operation due to high blood sugar was what made me start accepting the diabetes and begin to do something about it. Wanting to be able to walk when my husband and I go travelling is a great incentive to keep it up. My dad also has diabetes, which he makes little effort to control and now uses insulin. He's just been on holiday with the rest of the family and couldn't go anywhere really, as he just can't walk. I know he could improve, but he chooses not to. I'm not going down that route.
Choosing to follow a low carb low calorie diet is working well for me. I'm not a saint. I still have times where I don't follow good portion control, or I am seduced by ice-cream, but largely I'm OK. My report on my self would be am doing fine with areas where I could improve.
