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Confused Newbie

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NewbieSian

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2
Morning all

I received my diagnosis Monday with my first appointment 5th April.

I am so confused and scared about this and right now only here to turn to.

My blood numbers came back as 9.6 and 56 something (sorry) I have had a look at my diet and I am stumped and could do with some help pls.

My carb and sugar intake


* Rice once every few months (Indian takeaway)

* Bread (50/50) sandwiches maybe once a month as I prefer wraps (maybe once a week)

* Pasta once to twice a week

* Potatoes at least 4 times a week mash or oven cooked chips

* Chocolate maybe twice a month if that (I still have some chocs in a tin of quality st from mothers day last year and Ferrero Roche from Christmas)

* Sweets the same as chocolate although sometimes if I find the peach fizzes I may have a binge but that's not very often)

* Cakes I bake my own cakes, biscuits and scones but dont eat many myself (I prefer to watch others enjoy my food)

* I dont eat cereal but do have a pot of porridge some days with homemade bramble jam

* I make most of my main meals from scratch but do on the odd occasion have a takeaway binge from the chicken shop, a kebab when I get the house to myself ill have a McDonald's breakfast (who doesn't lol)

* Fruit and veg I will eat over meat any day and meat wise I eat chicken, beef, pork and lamb

I drink tea with 2 sugars but am a mare from a large Gin and lemonade or 2 of a night or a few pints of heineken when I'm with my brother

I have changed my bread, sugar and pasta from white to brown and my fizzy pop to diet.

Can anyone see something I cant?

It's all really thrown me and could do with help x
 
NewbieSian said:
My blood numbers came back as 9.6 and 56 something (sorry) I have had a look at my diet and I am stumped and could do with some help pls.

... I have changed my bread, sugar and pasta from white to brown and my fizzy pop to diet.

Can anyone see something I cant?

It's all really thrown me and could do with help x
Click to expand...

I suspect the first number is a blood glucose reading of 9.6mmol/l and the second is an HbA1c of 56mmol/mmol which is in the diabetic range (see here).
I'd suggest you try a low carb diet to control your blood glucose and see how you get on.
I'd suggest cutting out the table sugar. Bread and pasta are likely to raise you blood glucose.
For your meeting it might be worth asking if you can get a blood glucose meter so you can see how foods you eat affect your blood glucose.
 
NewbieSian said:
I have changed my bread, sugar and pasta from white to brown
Click to expand...
Unfortunately for you carbs are carbs whatever their colour so this is unlikely to make much (if any) difference.

If you base your meals around meat, fish, eggs and above ground veg supplemented with dairy then you won't go far wrong.
Fruit is still a bit controversial as some still contains a lot of sugar (which s what you want to avoid) raspberries and strawberries are ok in controlled portion sizes maybe with some double cream or a low carb (unsweetened unflavoured) yoghurt.
Obviously the sugar in tea will have to go too. I'd try and go cold turkey rather than use sweeteners which just prolong the agony of sugar withdrawal.
 
NewbieSian said:
Morning all

I received my diagnosis Monday with my first appointment 5th April.

I am so confused and scared about this and right now only here to turn to.

My blood numbers came back as 9.6 and 56 something (sorry) I have had a look at my diet and I am stumped and could do with some help pls.

My carb and sugar intake


* Rice once every few months (Indian takeaway)

* Bread (50/50) sandwiches maybe once a month as I prefer wraps (maybe once a week)

* Pasta once to twice a week

* Potatoes at least 4 times a week mash or oven cooked chips

* Chocolate maybe twice a month if that (I still have some chocs in a tin of quality st from mothers day last year and Ferrero Roche from Christmas)

* Sweets the same as chocolate although sometimes if I find the peach fizzes I may have a binge but that's not very often)

* Cakes I bake my own cakes, biscuits and scones but dont eat many myself (I prefer to watch others enjoy my food)

* I dont eat cereal but do have a pot of porridge some days with homemade bramble jam

* I make most of my main meals from scratch but do on the odd occasion have a takeaway binge from the chicken shop, a kebab when I get the house to myself ill have a McDonald's breakfast (who doesn't lol)

* Fruit and veg I will eat over meat any day and meat wise I eat chicken, beef, pork and lamb

I drink tea with 2 sugars but am a mare from a large Gin and lemonade or 2 of a night or a few pints of heineken when I'm with my brother

I have changed my bread, sugar and pasta from white to brown and my fizzy pop to diet.

Can anyone see something I cant?

It's all really thrown me and could do with help x
Click to expand...

Welcome and congratulations on taking the first step in understanding what on earth is going on.
Their are lots of other folks on this useful site who can and will offer far better advice than me.
By the look of your post you have been doing a bit of reading and have highlighted a few things, all this is to your credit.
This next bit is a bit controversial, but all our body chemistries are different and what works for some will not work for others, but the core basics in my opinion hold good.
The only real advice I can give is keep a food diary and if possible get a meter and test your sugars, keeping a record.
Remember you are not alone.
 
Just to add to what others have said, although porridge for breakfast may seem healthy, it is pure carbs. I used to have it a lot but now have full-fat Greek yogurt (which is really filling) with berries and nuts and seeds. Or, eggs are also very satisfying.
I don't think you eat rice that often, but you can now get cauliflower 'rice' - or just roast come cauliflower. I find it goes particularly well with lamb curry. I also mash cauliflower to top a shepherd's pie. To replace pasta, you can have 'courgetti'.
Regarding alcohol, if you like gin, why not have slimline tonic rather than lemonade, and try to avoid beer as it's high in carbs.
Also, from following advice on here, I have recently got a blood glucose meter which wasn't as bad as I anticipated (the finger pricking!) and has been very useful in seeing how my body reacts to different foods. I would recommend it. The one I have is a Gluco Navii and is very easy to use. Good luck!
 
Thank you all for replying.

I have just bought a new blood sugar monitor (accu check) today (7.7 2hrs after dinner) and have started a food diary so I am prepared for my appointment next month.

I just want to get as much knowledge as I can so I can say I kinda know what I'm talking about and I can figure out any questions I may need but not know about yet.

My aim is to go into remission and lose some weight (I have a rowing machine and one of those weighted hula hoops for low impact exercise due to multiple health issues)

Sorry I know I babble lol x
 
Hello and welcome,

Well done on getting a meter- that is absolutely the best first step you could have taken.

Are you on any medication for diabetes? If not I would do as you have indicated and keep a log of your foods and the resulting blood glucose levels. I would keep an estimate of the carb intake of the meal. All carbs 'healthy' ones unhealthy ones brown white- all of them. Then I would try experimenting with a few meals in a row with a real decrease in your carb intake and see what happens. That is the approach I took and it didn't take long for my levels to come down. I went very very low carb- I'm impatient and wanted to find out whether the advice I received here would make any difference and I found out that it did.

That doesn't mean you will have to stay very low carb forever but my approach was to try to bring my levels down so I could experiment if I wanted with less risk of very high levels.
 
Hi. I think overall you can reduce the carbs further. Stop the sugar with the drinks; either do without or have sweeteners as I do. Only have 85% dark chocolate and dispense with the porridge. Beer can be very high carb so so reduce the number of pints etc. Do you have excess weight? if so then reducing the carbs will help reduce any insulin resistance. Set yourself a daily limit of carbs to perhaps 130gm max?
 
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