bloods all over the place

Hi @Bluebirdsinging - welcome to the forum. You're doing great! You're asking all the right questions and approaching your journey with curiosity and enthusiasm.

Have you looked at The Low Carb Program? It's a 10-week, step-by-step education program that explains the ins and outs of sugar and carbs, where they hide in what we eat and what we can eat instead. I think you might find it useful!

It's going to take time for you to figure out what your daily targets are and what you can and can't eat, and every single person on this forum - no matter their level of success - will have different targets and foods they can and can't tolerate. What they will all agree on, though, is the huge benefits of finally being in control of what you eat.

It's not the easiest road to travel at times, but there are literally thousands of people here traveling in the same direction as you, and many of them are ready with an encouraging word, patient answer or some sound advice.

It sounds like you might be doing so already, but keep a food diary of everything you eat, carbs, calories and fat. Don't use your meter until 2 hours have passed since your last meal, and set yourself attainable goals with short shelf-lives (week by week or even day by day).

You're going to be great at this!

Sock x

Oh whoops! We posted at the same time! I'll let my last post stand and write a new one...

My food diary technique is to use a double page of an ordinary notebook. The top 5 or so lines I save for my BG, and I record the times and the readings there. Below that, I'll write the time, what I ate, how much it weighed on one page, and then on the other side I'll write how many carbs, cals and protein was in each thing.

This info you can get from a variety of different sources - the packaging the products came in, the supermarket website you bought it from, Google or DietDoctor. I tend to tot my totals up every evening, other people do it as they go so that they get a feel for what's left in their "budget" and can adjust accordingly.

Be honest in your diary. And don't be over-detailed. You don't need to record every tiny piece of nutritional advice, just the big hitters - carbs (which break down into sugars), fat, which affects how fast or slowly those sugars hit your meter, and calories which gives you an idea of your overall intake.

It's not until you understand your eating patterns now that you'll know what you want / need to change.

Personally, I've found the food diary to be the key to regaining my sense of control and to being able to shift to a new lifestyle (I refuse to call LCHF a diet; I never intend to high-carb again, therefore it's a lifestyle). I can see both what I've eaten in a day and what that did to my BG as well as track my progress over time. And I'm constantly surprised by the info it reveals.

Good luck, enjoy it. You'll find a way that works for you.

Honestly, it's personal choice and depends entirely on what your target intakes are and how your body deals with them. Some people are fine with legumes, others struggle to keep their BG on track with them.

Maybe you'll find it encouraging to know that, in a month's time, you'll have completely forgotten about the concept of "staples" - you just won't need them anymore.

Bluebirdsinging said:

Can I ask you all, now clearing out cupboards to take to a food bank how is brown rice pasta, what your take on beans, kidney butter beans flagolet and lentils and cous cous?

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I would wait until you have tried them, and tested with your meter two hours later, to see their effect on you. We are all different. Some of us can have certain carbs, or certain amounts of carbs at one time. Until you do some trials you wont know your threshold.

Bluebirdsinging said:

Can I ask you all, now clearing out cupboards to take to a food bank how is brown rice pasta, what your take on beans, kidney butter beans flagolet and lentils and cous cous?

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If any of them are packaged they will have a nutrition label on them, which will include the amounts of carbs, fat, fibre and, protein in grams per 100 grams. This is a legal requirement. If something says 10g per 100g. it is the same as saying that the food (whatever portion you have) will be 10% carbohydrate. This is a good indicator to look for. This amount may vary a lot between different brands of the same food. (They also say "of which sugars" and you can ignore this. It is total carbs you look for.)

My food diary is kept on an excel sheet on my PC. That way I can copy and paste when I repeat meals. My blood sugar levels are also recorded on an excel sheet so can be averaged very easily and I can create graphs. I used to keep a very detailed food diary, with all the nutrients listed. I am years down the line now, bit I still keep a sort of diary, every day, every meal, but I only list the foods. It takes me seconds to do.

They would not have been good for me .. but now in remission I am able to eat them .. So try and test .. It took me a few years of low carb high fat to realise I was in remission .. Fingers crossed for you reaching remission .. and if its not happing there are meds available

Bluebirdsinging said:

Hi rather worried as my bloods seem to be all over the place this morning. Did a very strenuous exercise fie a hour this morning
After a bowl of porrage my bloods rose from 10.5 to 15.5. I am completely confused.... Any suggestions would be gratefully received.....

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One word - PORRIDGE. Porridge is a breakfast cereal, and cereals are among the worst foods for raising blood sugar levels. Especially so if it was a good bowl full and made with milk or had added fruit etc. This is why you need a food diary, including portion sizes, and to record your levels alongside. Tomorrow, try eggs cooked any which way, maybe with bacon and mushrooms, or try cold meats or cheese. See what difference there is.

Have a look at this link, which may help you. Note that porridge has a lot of sugar in it.
https://phcuk.org/sugar/

Please don't be worried, this is a learning period about what raises your blood sugar levels too high.

I'm still upset about porridge, some people can tolerate small amounts I went from around 6 to 13 so have given it up except for rare pre exercise treats.

Bluebirdsinging said:

Thxs everybody. I feel pretty released as I thought I might have to go on insulin if my blood did not come down. I am going to do a bs monitor and food diary, any recommendations?

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MyFitnessPal is a good, free app for recording your food macros and even has a bar code scanner to make input a bit easier. It can be a bit US centric (cups etc) but is easier than writing it all out longhand.

Bluebell_GB said:

MyFitnessPal is a good, free app for recording your food macros and even has a bar code scanner to make input a bit easier. It can be a bit US centric (cups etc) but is easier than writing it all out longhand.

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You also have to watch the amounts of the nutrients entered by our cousins from across the pond. Food production methods vary, nutrition labels are different, even well known brands are produced differently, tailored to what sells best in different countries. There are also a lot of errors possibly because most users are only interested in calories and little else. You need to be on your guard.