I am afraid that this does look like you are currently on a very high carb diet - if you make some fairly drastic changes to that then you will probably be able to get your BG down a lot. You might even be able to reduce (or even completely get off) your medication.
redcat said:
Yesterday - the BS 30 day - I had sandwiches for lunch (Whole grain bread) and then more sandwiches (Hovis Best of Both) for tea.
Bread is always going to be quite high in carbs. Whole grain bread is damage limited in the sense that it is low GI, but there are still a lot of carbs there. I just looked up the nutritional information for Hovis
Best of Both - it is actually white bread with added wheatgerm, from a diabetics point of view it is just white bread, and that is about as bad as you can get. Some diabetics manage to get away with eating modest quantities of wholemeal bread without too much problem, but I have found that it sends my BG sky high - and you might be similar. I suggest that you try to give up bread as much as possible (there are many alternatives, if you use a bit of imagination). If you must eat bread then make sure that it is wholemeal - and absolutely don't touch anything like the
Best of Both which is made with white flour.
redcat said:
Today, I had a packet of crisps and a packet of ham for lunch instead of my usual packet of crisps and a sandwich.
Ham is good, but crisps are
really bad I am afraid - they are made out of potatoes - that are extremely carbohydrate rich. I am afraid that I really can't think of any real substitute for crisps, but you will help yourself a lot if you can wean yourself off them (or at least make them an occasional treat).
redcat said:
I then had sausages and chips of dinner
Chips, I am afraid, are just as bad as crisps (worse, in fact, because it is easier to eat a lot of them. Sausages
might be OK - it depends how much meat there is in them. Really high quality sausages (the sort you get from an old-fashioned butcher) mostly just contain meat, and that is very good. Likewise, cured sausages (things like salamis) are usually OK, but the sort of sausages you get in supermarkets (or indeed canteens) are terrible - they use a lot of carbohydrate rich filler and, believe it or not, they frequently contain significant quantities of sugar.
redcat said:
I was on a ferry at 5.30 and that was the lesser of many evils.
I am afraid it can be a real challenge to eat low-carb things when you are out and about. Where I work there is quite a large and well stocked shop, a canteen and a coffee bar. Before I was diagnosed with diabetes, I almost always used to eat at one of these, but now I am on a moderately low carb diet I have found that there is virtually nothing that I can eat in them - everything either contains bread, pastry, sugar, potatoes or something as bad. Literally, all that I have found that has a low carb content in the shop is Babybell cheese and Peperami sausages. All that I can suggest is that you get into the habit of packing your own meals and taking them with you (ham with a green salad is easy and really good for keeping the carbs down). If you are in the sort of cafe at 5.30am that does traditional breakfasts, then bacon and eggs is pretty good (just avoid the toast and baked beans!).
redcat said:
Anyway, I'll certainly hang around here and take a look at what's happening. It certainly seems like a friendly bunch
This forum is generally a very civilized place - a lot less posturing and back-biting than you will find on many corners of the Internet. There are also some seriously knowledgeable people here - mostly very well read diabetics, but you might also come across the occasional medic and dietitian. It is a great place to get non-judgmental advice.
Last thing, with all that talk about food don't forget exercise. This is at least as important as diet, and you should aim to be doing something moderately strenuous for at least 45 minutes per day.
