Coming to terms with being T2 and remaining a foodie

Hilith said:

I was diagnosed just over a week ago with a HbA1c of 89. I’ve gone straight onto metformin and am titrations up to full dose to reduce risk of tummy problems.
I’ve been given diet advice and have moved immediately to low carb and choosing complex carbs. I feel a bit she’ll shocked to be honest. I am a real foodie and love cooking and eating socially. I know over time I will create different habits but right now I feel like I’ll never be able to enjoy any eating and drinking.
I have found loads of recipes but I guess I need to switch my mindset that this is a lifestyle change not a meal change.
Hoping I’ll get some inspiration from the forum. Thanks
Hilith

Click to expand...

Yes anything is possible. I have pretty much for a big chunk of my life bought recipe books and and rejigged recipes to suit. There is no reason why you can't make great food and socialize. There are some great cookery books to help. It takes a bit of time to get your head around it all. Yes, there are some foods you need to avoid. Best of Luck.

I am very happy eating low carb. I have stirfries, mushrooms, casseroles and stews but simply select low carb ingredients to replace the higher carb ones.
I make cauliflower cheese with cauliflower, cheese and a pinch or two of herbs, bubble and squeal with swede rather than potato. I use a pressure cooker as that seems to give the best result with getting the swede mashable.
There is a website 'sugarfreelondoner' which has lots of good recites for baked goods.

Hilith said:

I have found loads of recipes but I guess I need to switch my mindset that this is a lifestyle change not a meal change.
Hoping I’ll get some inspiration from the forum. Thanks

Click to expand...

If you like a bit of chat on the side, you might like to have a look at this thread in the low carb section of the forum. Most of us love good food and manage to have very enjoyable meals while leaving out most of the carbs.

@Hilith I was exactly the same just under 3 years ago! I didn't believe the people on here, but now I'm well into it as a way of eating for life.
You'll do fine as you already cook. Over time both your tastes and your appetite will change.

Plenty of support on here. Keep asking and posting and learning. You'll get there

yeah, I dealt with this by embracing my new need to cook everything from scratch. Being about knowing the ingredients, keeping it low-carb. I particularly like eating out too, and the social aspect of sharing food and conversation and all. Eight years on I am just really good at choosing lower-carb food items in buffets, and checking out the menu online beforehand, and I found that explaining that my disease plays out like being allergic to sugar and high-carb food as being the easiest way to explain it and be with folks as a low-carber in a high-carb food environment.

Some restaurants I don't return to - if they give me a hard time for needing to know the ingredients, or critisizing my leaving high-carb food items on my plate (I kid you not!). The restaurants and cafes I return to repeatedly, know about my T2D, and let me chat away about carb-content, if I feel like doing that. Ditto my friends I meet up with there. Hidden sugar is a problem. Sometimes, even with in-the-know chefs and cooks, they don't realise themselves about hidden sugars (factory-made sauces, dressings etc).

As for cooking myself - I started recipe collections for the first time in my life post diagnosis. (I love to eat but not to cook.) It's now a big part of my life, and I even feel sad at my carefully collected recipes going out into the garbage when I shuffle off this mortal coil. Which is kinda weird! But there you are. The only way I could have the kind of lovely low-carb dishes was to cook them myself. This is not true for folks living in highly populated areas I take it, and this situation has improved a lot in my country (Aotearoa/NZ) even, in the last year or two in particular. (Ie the avaliability of no-sugar stevia sweetened marmalade, and low-carb and keto no-grain-olas, and edible low-carb store-bought bread for instance). I saw a keto restaurant being discussed in this forum, in London, for instance. These are wonderful things for foodie 'carb-allergic' folks like me.

Hi @Hilith, welcome to the forum.

Being able to cook is actually an advantage when dealing with diabetes.
The measures you need to take to control T2 vary a lot from person to person.

To start consider if there are any low hanging fruits,
such as removing sugary drinks from your diet?
When I was diagnosed my HbA1c was even higher than yours,
the first thing I did was go cold turkey and coke and other fizzy drinks.
Coffee and/or tea taste better without sugar, once you are used to it.
Do you snack? Stopping was easier than I thought and you get used to it quite quickly,
In addition, snacks are usually carb-heavy, so not satiating and make you hungry again after 2 hours.
I've banned all low-fat products from my diet as these have sugar to replace the taste.
When switching to low carb, you should increase your fat intake,
as starving yourself all the time will make you feel miserable, which is not sustainable.

What is your weight? im my case, Metformin only went so far, so I gave intermittent fasting a try
and it worked. I lost 10 kg by only eating 600 calories with very low carb for two days a week,
but eating normally on the other days. Breakfast would be an egg and Greek yoghurt,
dinner would be vegetables and soup, occasionally a bit of chicken or fish.
I never really felt hungry as you can eat a lot of soup and vegetable without many calories
and being able to cook, say veggie currie and variations on eggs helps a lot.
With this I got my HbA1c down to the 40s while socialising with friends and family,
and travelling a lot for work where dinners are great for networking.

Best wishes on this journey

I am a foodie, and live with a foodie, who also used to own (but didn't work in) a very successful restaurant.

I was diagnosed in 2013 with an HbA1c of 73, and like you, wondered how my foodie future might be. I have never taken any medications for diabetes, but managed to make a significant improvement to my blood glucose within 4 months, with the next HbA1c coming in at 37. I have been lower than that since.
To be fair I have never had much of a sweet tooth, and in the very early days it was a bit strange leaving most of the carbs out of meals, but you soon get used to it and I came to view the rice and potatoes as tasteless carriers, to the main, flavourful dishes.

It takes time, but theres no reason not to enjoy your new way of eating.

Almost 10 years in, I remain a foodie, just slightly different choices. You'll be fine.

Hilith said:

I was diagnosed just over a week ago with a HbA1c of 89. I’ve gone straight onto metformin and am titrations up to full dose to reduce risk of tummy problems.
I’ve been given diet advice and have moved immediately to low carb and choosing complex carbs. I feel a bit she’ll shocked to be honest. I am a real foodie and love cooking and eating socially. I know over time I will create different habits but right now I feel like I’ll never be able to enjoy any eating and drinking.
I have found loads of recipes but I guess I need to switch my mindset that this is a lifestyle change not a meal change.
Hoping I’ll get some inspiration from the forum. Thanks
Hilith

Click to expand...

I don't know whether I can qualify as a foodie, as I can't cook to save my life (I just stick with some staples and get very repetitive), but when eating out, a properly done steak can move me to tears. At one point, a surf & turf salad had me sniffling above my plate. So you can still go out, eat socially, and enjoy the heck out of excellent meals.... Some may need a little adjusting, but it's usually just that: an adjustment. More veg or extra side salad instead of spuds, upping meats, dairy and whatnot and getting rid of most rice and pasta meals... There's still plenty to choose from. And any chef'll be happy to substitute something rather than have perfectly food thrown out. You'll be perfectly fine, honest. When I started out on this journey, all food seemed to be poison. Turned out i just had to be a little creative with my choices. It's a steep learning curve, but guess what.... There's a perk. Once you cut out a lot of sugars, your palette changes and gets more sensitive. Food flavours get more intense. It'll take a little while, but it's quite satisfying when it happens.

Hugs,
Jo

Hilith said:

I am a real foodie and love cooking and eating socially. I know over time I will create different habits but right now I feel like I’ll never be able to enjoy any eating and drinking.

Click to expand...

That’ll definitely change. Strikes me you might enjoy the low carb/diabetes cookbooks by the Caldesis - their recipes are a bit fussy for one with simple tastes like me, but should suit a foodie. I don’t have a link to hand, but Google should throw them up easily enough.

Editing to add some links. Pretty sure they’re avail on Amazon too, but at least you’ll have the titles:

Hilith said:

Wow. I was nervous about posting as I’m always nervous about people judging. But you guys are amazing thanks for the warm welcome and the tips on threads to look on

Click to expand...

Hi @Hilith .

I think the others have covered this nicely .

I wasn't a good cook by any means, but going back to basics, meant I controlled what I ate, so if you like cooking, you'll be fine, and might even get great pleasure from going off piste, so to say .

As for being wary....no need as you now know.

See it as a huge lake, that many won't see or don't want to swim in, until they have to.

It has healing nature's, and all the people who use it, want to do, is just to share its secret.

So from one who asked loads of what now might seem silly questions, but back then had me worried sick.

I can't name one person from all the hundreds who replied over my newcomer stage who wasn't offering helpful advice or a shoulder to lean on .

I think everyone of us carry on that ethos others displayed when we arrived, battered & bemused.

If the forum has one of those Latin mottos on its school badge, it would be
"Never look down on anyone, unless you are offering a hand up"

I love it & it's members.

I hope you do too ...
And judging by your second post, I think you've Got This .

Good luck finding choices & foods that work for you.

I love food. There is so much really enjoyable food that we T2s can eat, and no need ever to feel hungry or bored. I am a good basic peasant-style cook, cook everything from scratch, and am lazy in the kitchen, so nothing is difficult to do. I agree with the concept of using early 20 th century cookery books - I cook the way my mother used to (without the carbs and sugars) and it's delicious as well as easy. You will have a ball doing this - and superb meals as well.

Hilith said:

a real foodie and love cooking

Click to expand...

www.dietdoctor.com should have some interesting low carb recipes for you to experiment on too..

Another low carb success here.

I don't do much cooking now but when I was first diagnosed I thought hard about my favourite higher carb foods and what I could just stop eating or what to replace them with. I have cauliflower rice (oven cooked as I prefer the taste and texture), and I made pastry with ground almonds plus 90s bread. I trialled a few low-carb cake recipes and also found some great savoury recipes online - including a very tasty prawn and mushroom 'risotto'.
I eat several veg I never tried before, such as kohlrabi, and was delighted to find Riverford had both spaghetti squash and mashed potato squash on sale last autumn.
So it is possible to be a foodie and low-carb.

Hi Hilith
I was diagnosed back in November 22 and felt the same.
It’s about a total different mindset on food but with a good low carb count on meals it will get easier.

I aim at roughly 40 grams of carbs per meal and drink plenty of water.

I’ve lost 19 pound since November and learning when my body is low on energy to have a hot drink and a small booster and even to lay down for ten minutes and your energy returns and you carry on to your next meal time.

My HbA1c was 98 and it scared me to be honest. I gave up drinking alcohol and added sugar straight away. The main thing is to move forward and stay positive of your body and keep your mind busy with jobs or hobbies and trying to plan your free time around something to keep focused and that way your meals will not be demanding of you and making a foodie decision will be one easier.

All the best

John

Hilith said:

I was diagnosed just over a week ago with a HbA1c of 89. I’ve gone straight onto metformin and am titrations up to full dose to reduce risk of tummy problems.
I’ve been given diet advice and have moved immediately to low carb and choosing complex carbs. I feel a bit she’ll shocked to be honest. I am a real foodie and love cooking and eating socially. I know over time I will create different habits but right now I feel like I’ll never be able to enjoy any eating and drinking.
I have found loads of recipes but I guess I need to switch my mindset that this is a lifestyle change not a meal change.
Hoping I’ll get some inspiration from the forum. Thanks
Hilith

Click to expand...

Sorry to hear that Hilith, all the best with managing going forwards.

Intermittent fasting has worked wonders for me, if you google Dr Fung Diabetes he explains in detail how fasting can help with Insulin resistance. The meds only help with the symptoms not actual issue which for type 2 can be insulin resistance not high blood sugar.

Low carb all the way and you will be able to manage your blood sugar levels fine, my weakness was pasta but I found this substitute and I won't lie and say its the same as pasta but with a sauce on top its the closest I have found; Edamame & Mung Bean Fettuccine whole box only has 21 grams of carbs literally a third of normal pasta.