Carb flu - how to get past it?

AndBreathe said:

@akindrat – I haven’t posted on your thread for ages and ages, as I felt I had said all I could in any attempt to help you months ago, and having reiterated it several times, I felt I would save myself the keystrokes, but here I am.

I stand utterly fast on my belief that the absolute key to control of T2 diabetes is every morsel we put in our mouths, followed, in most cases by the style and dose of any medication, then finessed by exercise and general activity. None of that belief is altered by your apparent experiences or your journey so far.

I really am sorry you’re having a hard time with all of this for whatever reason, but your eating is critical to it all. I’m not suggesting you don’t deep down know this, but also, as I have said before, you need to dig deep to make a difference to your own situation. We can all have the most fabulous ideas of how we would do it or how we would feel in your shoes, but that’s completely irrelevant. You and only you are the one who can walk the walk to make a difference to your life.

It isn’t something I have posted about on here, and I never thought I would, but I will. But, in my late 20s I suffered an eating disorder. For me it was rather the opposite of yours, in that I starved myself to a point near death. I was living overseas at the time, and my parents had to fly out to say goodbye to me. Yes, I was that close to death. Please trust me when I say you never, ever want to see the look I saw in both my parents eyes on the days they arrived. They were utterly broken hearted. At that moment; twice, 2 days apart (as they had had to travel separately for reasons I won’t bother with here) I knew that I just had to do something for myself to change and try my hardest to come back from the brink. Suddenly, I had my reason to change. Everyone needs their reason to change. Don’t you allow yourself to be in the position in which I found myself. Every day since, for the last 30 years I am thankful that I had that opportunity, and that I got extremely lucky in being able to turn around the behavioural juggernaut that was taking me rapidly to the exit I am pleased to say I have made a full recovery and miraculously suffered no long term effects, aside from infertility, which may or may not have been an issue, without my eating disorder. We’ll simply never know on that point. But in reality, my kidneys, liver, heart and all other vital systems work completely normally. How flippin’ fortunate am I? And maybe that explains my up-beat approach to diabetes and how I have tackled it. I have vowed never to be taken on a wave of defeatism by a condition I can influence by my own actions. Of course, I accept some things can’t be influenced, and I have to hope I can stave such conditions off for a very long time.

But, back to you. I have done quite a bit of reading about insulin therapy and will make a few comments now. These are not advice. These are observations, which I am hopeful someone actually using insulin (T1 or T2 – probably doesn’t matter) will counter comment on some of the points I may make.

But, it is my firm belief that insulin really is a balancing act, and a tricky one at that. I could be so bold as to state that I believe T1s who do not produce any insulin of their own may have it slightly easier than T2s who can often already be awash with insulin, but who can’t use it effectively, due to insulin resistance. But, that’s not the thrust of what I wanted to say.

Bottom line is that, in my belief, using insulin has a greater potential to lead you into higher highs and lower lows. If your eating is not under control, with additional insulin in your system, you may eat more unfavourable foods even that now. Clearly that’s speculation. But I have read so many times that insulin stimulates hunger. So many people new to taking insulin gain weight because they get hungry and eat more. Without being too personal, I think we would probably violently agree you neither need to eat more nor would gaining weight do you any favours.

There are many T1s on here who eat a low carb diet because it helps then reduce the amount of insulin they take, which in turn leads to a kinder hunger pattern and that in turn can impact on weight loss/stability/gain.

Again to reiterate that this statement is a general one, and not aimed at you, or anyone else, but it has to be said, in my view. If a T2, with significant insulin resistance is started on insulin and diet not controlled then it would be difficult to both estimate regular dosages and secondly to manage weight. Going on a hyper<>hypo<>hyper<>hypo roller coaster is something nobody needs, but without any dietary control, it’s a bit like buying an open season ticket to the ride. Another analogy would be like someone with depression being prescribed “uppers” to control the downs, then when in a manic up phase, being prescribed “downers” to bring them down, then giving them an open prescription to access the drugs at will.

I appreciate I may have made radical points here, but I’m trying my hardest to help you akindrat. I don’t intend rejoining this thread regularly as I can really only repeat myself so many times without boring even myself.

But good luck with it. You need to step back, think hard, dig deep and DO SOMETHING. My feeling is that you are currently standing at a fork in life’s road and you must take care not to choose a one way street.

Click to expand...

Totto said:

You are a remarkable woman @AndBreathe

Click to expand...