Broke my 20 day Newcastle Diet...now what?

[NoCrbs4Me]

Pipp, I sincerely hope that you're right, and NoCrbs4Me, that's my worst nightmare...not to go back to at least a HEALTHY carbs way of eating. As much as I might feel physically a bit better - I am not emotionally happy with this, or mentally. It takes a lot of energy to sustain this functional way of eating. But...not to whinge on. I am just going to have to find out what, in this new way of 'being', is pleasurable. Right now, it appears to be salads with a bit of balsamic vinegar and oil.

I never did the Newcastle diet and there's no reason you have to eat the way you do now the rest of your life. I guess it depends on your definition of healthy carbs - certainly not the official healthy plate, I hope? After reading the book "Grain Brain" I don't consider any grains healthy.

Until you try the Diet Doctor's LCHF diet recommendations, you won't really know how it makes you feel. I'm guessing better than when you're on an 800 calorie a day diet.

http://www.dietdoctor.com/lchf

I understand cravings for carbs. I had that in a big way. However, once you go very low carb, the cravings disappear.

 

[AndBreathe]

Can I also ask why you are not testing your bloods at home?

You are fearful of a few things it seems, but for me, my biggest fear would have been to go through the rigours of the ND, have lost weight, but not have achieved decent blood scores. Sadly weight loss does not guarantee the reversal of T2.

When diagnosed and choosing my regime (which was carb reduction and moderated calories) my only aim was for improved blood scores. If I lost weight, that would be a bonus, but I'm keen to focus on one goal at a time, where I can. Such was this focus (and external factors conspired against me too) that I didn't weight myself for almost 3 months after adopting my way of eating. I knew I had lost weight, as my clothes were flapping around me, and I knew my numbers were looking good, so I was achieving my primary goal, with the added value of trimming up, big stylee.

In my mind the thing is, I could lose 1 stone, 2 stones, 5 stones (OK, I didn't have that much to lose, but this is only my example) and think I must surely have reversed this thing, only to find that I'm in the 30% for whom it doesn't work - having put myself through a period of very unnatural eating. At that point, I'm not sure the disappointment wouldn't have caused me a great big, carb-tastic, backlash.

If your objective is to get your numbers consistently into the non-diabetic ranges, why are you measuring something else? If your primary objective is to lose a few pounds, the why put yourself through an extreme eating programme to do this. I ask the latter, as I seem to recall your concerns about longer term eating patterns.

Clearly, we all have to decide how we tackle this disease, but I would urge you to track both elements. Trust me, when I saw my numbers lower into ranges for "good control", then "excellent control", then "non-diabetc", I can't express how inspiring that was. Those things really helped me find the additional willpower to ignore puddings at dinner parties, carb-tastic finger buffets stocked with vol au vents, crustinni and the like. I even sat piously through Thanksgiving, Christmas, New year, birthday dinner parties and didn't bat an eyelid, because I knew what I was doing was resting my body from the strain it had failed to cope with, and give it the best chance of recovery.

My signature gives all my HbA1cs since diagnosis. Who knows how long I can stay in the non-diabetic ranges, but I'd like to think I'm giving it my best shot.

Good luck with what you're doing, but please give home testing some consideration. If you only test 3 times a day (probably fasting and before and after your "proper" meal), that's only 2 tubs of strips a month. For the Codefree strips that equates to between £12 and £14 a month (depending how many strips you buy at a time), but you're probably saving that on the food you're not buying?

 

[beatdise]

In regards to reversing diabetes, I saw a doctor who specializes in treating type 2 diabetic patients last week. He looked at all my lab test results and said I definitely had diabetes a year ago, but my latest results showed I no longer have diabetes as my blood glucose results are below prediabetes levels. He said my blood pressure was good and my cholesterol levels were fine.

A year ago, being about 50 pounds over a normal BMI of 25, I started on the standard calorie restricted low fat "healthy" diet to lose weight, which has always worked for me in the past. It worked again and my HbA1c improved, but not dramatically. Then I got a blood glucose meter and could see what the "healthy" whole meal pasta and bread were doing to my blood glucose levels. I started to cut back on the carbs and increase the fat intake. Eventually I cut out all grains, rice, and starchy veg. That worked exceptionally well to stabilize my blood glucose levels.

So for me, a LCHF diet turned out to be the cure (in so far as I currently don't have diabetes). However, since a high carb diet was what likely caused my diabetes, I don't believe I can go back to it without it making me sick again. I'll be doing LCHF the rest of my life.

Ditto LCHF

 

[Living-by-the-beach]

Good, well done, @NoCrbs4Me. I do believe diabetes can be reversed.
I hope you don't get the same sort of contradictory posts I got when I first made that claim.
Reversed? In remission? Or well controlled? Whatever, it is a great achievement, and more people are showing that T2 does not have to be a progressive disease.

@Pipp I am just reading this thread, & I've had one thing bothering me. I've lost 47lbs from worst levels and that equals about 19% of body weight. I've put in a lot of time at the gym + cycling most other days, so I think it would be fair to say I've put on muscle and lost fat too.

Here's my question do you feel that the rapidity of the weight loss by ND helped BG or was it the slow and steady of gradual weight loss that fixed you? Others have implied/suggested (& that Prof Taylor thinks too) that @ the end of the day its all about one's personal fat threshold (PFT) and overall weight loss. What is your opinion ?

Thanks

JM.