Diet question

[Defren]

After posting about not being able to eat much, I decided to see if I could make my diet as appealing as possible, with minimum carbs. The problem is, I am still not sure what constitutes a health low carb diet. So I am asking all who have got a much better grasp of this than I if I am doing things right.

Yesterday, as usual I couldn't face breakfast or lunch, for dinner I had a chicken salad with green leaves, cucumber, spring onions, cherry tomato's, sprinkled with sunflower seeds and mixed seeds, dressed in a very simple oil and vinegar dressing, and two hard boiled eggs.I also add some cubed feta cheese. For supper I had a slice of burgen bread, with benecol spread and peanut butter. Through the day I drink Earl Grey tea, with Flora pro activ milk.

Today, no breakfast or lunch, dinner, grilled pork chops, grilled steak medallions, grilled bacon, grilled sausages, fried egg (2) and fried mushrooms. For supper I have either a sugar free jelly, or a slice of Burgen bread with benecol spread and peanut butter, or sometimes Philadelphia cheese and chives.

I consider that to be very low carb, I can at least manage to eat dinner made up of all meat or chicken salad. Can someone help me work out if my calculations are right? My BG is going down really well, and even after meals is good. Yesterday before dinner I was 6.2 two hours later 6.3. Today my readings so far are all in the 5's.

Opinions and advice please

 

[MaryJ]

Hi Defron

I personally couldnt go all day without eating but my hubby does this regularly. don't know if you will find it sustainable????????

The meals you are having are certainly low carb, the only things that could be a problem is the sausages (higher quality and meat content the better) and the burgen.

Your numbers suggest you can handle them, testing is the key.

Visit the low carb section for some great meal ideas

Mary x

 

[xyzzy]

Hi Defren

Like you I have real problems eating anything for breakfast I never feel like eating at all and for all my adult life until I got T2D I never ate breakfast and thought nothing of it. Likewise on some days I could quite happily not each lunch especially if I'm busy working and then pile it all in as a main evening meal.

What got me to start eating a very minimalist breakfast everyday was getting T2D and testing my levels. Like many I always wake up higher than going to bed because of DP. If you don't eat something that high level will hang around for hours so if your liver stuffed glucose in you at say 4.00am in the morning and you don't eat for say another 8 hours then that's a third of the day you are walking around with unnecessarily high levels. I admit its more important when you are newly diagnosed as that DP effect could be putting you way over the magic 7.8 but why have any unnecessary high level sloshing around you?

What I eat at breakfast is just 40g of plain yoghurt mixed with 10g of strawberry yoghurt and then add around 15g of strawberries (or other berries) I've blasted in the microwave for 30 secs to defrost. The whole thing takes around a minute to prepare each day. It amounts to eating at most 4 or 5 TEASPOONS of breakfast + a cup of coffee! I still hate eating it at that time but it does kick my levels down really quickly afterwards.

Hope that helps

 

[Defren]

Thanks both of you. xyzzy you have been a real source of help, support and inspiration to me recently. Possibly more than any other poster here, even though I read all posts with interest and a thirst to learn. I will try the yogurt and berries, really not sure I could eat them for breakfast but will try, but that may be a tempting lunch. At least it's still a little more than I can manage now

Fasting level today was 6.5 so still within a range I feel happy with. Thanks again xyzzy.

 

[Defren]

Hi Defron

I personally couldnt go all day without eating but my hubby does this regularly. don't know if you will find it sustainable????????

The meals you are having are certainly low carb, the only things that could be a problem is the sausages (higher quality and meat content the better) and the burgen.

Your numbers suggest you can handle them, testing is the key.

Visit the low carb section for some great meal ideas

Mary x

Hi Mary, yes I make sure the sausages I buy are good quality and low in carbs. I understand that many sausages are made up of a bread filler, so am very careful which ones I choose. The not eating breakfast and lunch is due to Metformin, I plan to ask my Doctor for the SR ones, I'm sure that will make a difference. Thanks for your advice.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Defren, not an expert on low-carbing but want to give you a tip. I remember from your other post that you have trouble eating anything at all, if that's still the case I suggest you skip the cucumber and lettuce - not much nutrition there. Go with leaves of spinach and cabbage instead. If you only eat one or two meals a day, there's no room for useless stuff

 

[claymic]

I would not be able to spend all day without eating anything. I am trying to low carb. To be honest I am feeling better now that I am not actually calculating every single carb I eat. I know what is high carb or not, so I am not having any bread, pasta, potatoes etc... I have had a mini wrap which I found in Tesco and that did not raise by BS much. If i get hungry i have a slice of ham or a bit of cheese.

I need to be mindful of calories as I have lots of weight to lose but the last few days have been really good so I am going to stick to this system as long as it works and i am still losing weight.

Good luck

 

[Defren]

Hi Defren, not an expert on low-carbing but want to give you a tip. I remember from your other post that you have trouble eating anything at all, if that's still the case I suggest you skip the cucumber and lettuce - not much nutrition there. Go with leaves of spinach and cabbage instead. If you only eat one or two meals a day, there's no room for useless stuff

Hi fenix, yes I see what you're saying. Other meals are things like chops, or steak or sausages, gammon, that type of thing, which I have with savoy cabbage, green beans, cauliflower, and sprouts. I do find salad easier to eat at the moment, but since diagnosis have had the veggie meals.

I have now read some T2's can get down as low as 4's, my lowest has been 5.1, so that is my new challenge for myself :mrgreen:

 

[Defren]

I would not be able to spend all day without eating anything. I am trying to low carb. To be honest I am feeling better now that I am not actually calculating every single carb I eat. I know what is high carb or not, so I am not having any bread, pasta, potatoes etc... I have had a mini wrap which I found in Tesco and that did not raise by BS much. If i get hungry i have a slice of ham or a bit of cheese.

I need to be mindful of calories as I have lots of weight to lose but the last few days have been really good so I am going to stick to this system as long as it works and i am still losing weight.

Good luck

I'm sure we will get there in the end. It's a slow road (I don't 'do' slow, I like to see results :mrgreen: ) but perhaps slow and steady is better, and our bodies are just keeping us in check :lol:

 

[WhitbyJet]

Defren - dont be so hard on yourself, remember the old saying, we are all different, you have other health issues (you said in a different thread), and as it is you are doing extremely well, you have good numbers already as it is, you dont need to be in the 4s, the 5s is very, very good I am telling you.

Besides if you are stressing and trying so extra hard you are putting yourself into a stressful situation and by doing that you may well inadvertently raise your bg levels. So just relax, pat on your back for doing so well and taking diabetes seriously so very early on (wish I had done that) and dealing with it.
Be happy with 5s and 6s even, and carry on as you are doing, dont worry too much and who knows one day you will have the magic 4s, it may well happen, but its not a competition.

All the best x x

 

[Defren]

Defren - dont be so hard on yourself, remember the old saying, we are all different, you have other health issues (you said in a different thread), and as it is you are doing extremely well, you have good numbers already as it is, you dont need to be in the 4s, the 5s is very, very good I am telling you.

Besides if you are stressing and trying so extra hard you are putting yourself into a stressful situation and by doing that you may well inadvertently raise your bg levels. So just relax, pat on your back for doing so well and taking diabetes seriously so very early on (wish I had done that) and dealing with it.
Be happy with 5s and 6s even, and carry on as you are doing, dont worry too much and who knows one day you will have the magic 4s, it may well happen, but its not a competition.

All the best x x

Thanks so much WJ it's a relief to hear all of this. Thanks to another poster I log all my foods onto my fitness. com and seeing the carbs, protein and fat has been a real eye opener. I can add things I might like to try and see what that would do. So I plan on using the web site, and my meter, to ensure good balance. Yesterday was spot on 20g of carbs, and that was a very welcome surprise as I had a day of eating things I like, but that also filled me up.