Diagnosed on 22nd December 2016 type 2

[Resurgam]

My breakfast today was a couple of chicken thighs left over from dinner last night, complete with the skin, though I picked them up in a sheet of kitchen towel which absorbed some of the fat. I know that by eating meat for breakfast I will not be hungry for a good while, I will have energy, and by avoiding grain my knees will not be painful, which is an added bonus.
A typical reading two hours from now will be below 7 mmol/l, even if I had added a tomato or some cucumber if my readings are still the same as I was seeing before I ran out of test strips for the blood glucose meter.
Since starting to eat low carb about 6 or 7 weeks ago I have down down a bra size and my waist is several inches smaller, so that all my clothes with fixed waist bands no longer fit and I am only left with drawstring trousers to wear. - I will have to hit the sales.

 

[AtkinsMo]

That's good going @Resurgam, well done. As an egg lover, I can always eat eggs for breakfast in one way or another, we tend to rotate between full English (as pictured, usually on Sundays) omelettes with various flavourings, smoked haddock and poached eggs and smoked salmon and scrambled eggs. For about a week I thought it strange to have any of these without bread, but now I wouldn't thank you for bread of any description, ever. Well, I make one exception, we go to a fabulous little restaurant up in the mountains near where we live in Spain where the chef makes the most fabulous olive bread, and we usually share a roll with dinner when we go up, once a year. But for people who are not egg lovers and are accustomed to cereals, toast, porridge etc, breakfast isn't generally the meal that's hardest to adjust to. For me, first starting Atkins, since a full English had always been a rare treat, we loved breakfast right from day one. But one piece of advice for people short of time or those who do not like eggs, in particular, is leftover dinner. What makes breakfast so different? It's just another time to provide your body with the nourishment it needs.

We don't usually have lunch, generally full up till evening time, and if we need a snack it's pork scratching or nuts. I 'roast' my own nuts as I don't like the artificial oils that commercially roasted nuts are cooked in, I put them in a frying pan with a knob of coconut oil and a good measure of natural unrefined sea salt and they are gorgeous, but most days we don't have a snack.

Dinners are any old meat, fish, with either a large salad or a variety of green veg. I use cauliflower to sub potatoes, both as mash, rice and ring the changes with sauces or herbs or spices and at least one other above ground leafy veg. We have root vegetables occasionally, maybe once a fortnight in stews in a winter. We never have any processed food of any description, we just eat good real food.

It's really easy, including eating out. When we eat out I don't stress too much about what's in the sauce - but now 'fully adapted' so with no sweet tooth and no carb requirement, we naturally don't choose 'bad food' - it's easy. We ask for an alternative for potatoes, rice or whatever and if all that's on offer is a salad, that's fine. I am often mystified why people cling to favourite old foods that have the potential for making them sick, when the alternative is tasty, super nourishing and satisfying.

What a great start you've made, if ever you want any tips from an 'Atkins Old Timer', just shout.

 

[CherryAA]

Hi I have been pre-diabetic for years my recent 3 month glucose test confirmed I now have diabetes type 2. Suffered with chronic pancreaticis and have liver problems. My grandmother had type 2 diabetes in later life wasn't detected until she suffered with ulcers on feet and eventually went blind, my sister is pre-diabetic. I was prescribed by the practice nurse metformin 500mg once a day for 2weeks then 2aday after. I haven't taken the medication due to the warning not to take if you have liver problems I have chirrosis so need to discuss with my gp. I've tested my blood on waking up it was 5.5 but 2 hours after my breakfast which was bran flakes and glass of tomatoes juice it's 12.2 that seems high? I had the same breakfast yesterday and my blood sugar was 5.8 Any advice would be great.
Happy new year to you all.

The same foods can cause different results on different days depending on what the starting point is - ie if you ate later on the evening before or had more carbs then, then its quite possible to be waking up to a complete different situation. For example in my own caseI have a Freestyle Libre. On two consecutive days I had a reading of 6 at 7.00 am. I then had the same breakfast following that. One of those days spiked the other didn't. why ? - those two readings were parts of entirely different continuums. In one case,I had eaten very lightly the day before and all night long the sensor showed 4's and 5's before rising to 6 at 7.00 pm and ending up at 8.00 after breakfast.
In the other case I had had a late dinner and my overnight blood sugars can come down from around 8 at midnight to 6 at 7.00 am, but the 6 was actually part of a continuing series of jerky movements coming from the previous evenings food so when I then added breakfast onto that the 6 became 12.
A further complication i that if you suffer dawn phenomenon then when you ate the previous day becomes even more important because that food yesterday then helps you to start rising in the morning with no food at all. - When I have not been in ketosis that 6 could become 12 with no food and take a while to dissipate ( in my case four hours)

for me the answer is - try to get into ketosis, try to eat your last food by around 6.00 pm, it I do those things then I still get a rapid increase in the morning with or without food, but it generally stays within the 7.8 or under range. .

 

[callyandy]

Hi I just did 3 hours after my breakfast and it's 5.7 so a good drop. I probably had a bigger bowl of cearel and more milk. I have downloaded a diabetes diary app so I can now log everything on it blood results meals to see for myself and show the nurse. I will need to keep an eye on portion sizes and try not to leave it too long before I eat something I do suffer with low blood sugar a lot. Thank you for the advice.

Hello, You're doing all the right things. Just logging on to this forum is a step in the right direction!.A previously said, this is a long journey, but every step helps. Keep monitoring and reading, there are lots of clever peeps aroungd

 

[Nicole46]

I've changed my breakfast past few days to weetabix blood sugar 2 hours after 7.1. Today 1 slice of granary bread with flora light blood sugar was 7.1 so I'm scrapping the bran flakes which I do like but my reading were still are 12.2. I'm also finding my fasting glucose is between 4.8 to 5.5. So the practice nurse has recommended me to not take metformin and just monitor my blood readings regularly.