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Experimenting With The BG Meter - Its Good Fun!

Anthony1738

Well-Known Member
Messages
92
Location
Naklua, Thailand
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
Boom Boom Club Music (cant see the point its not Music) Moto GP and Manchester United
From time to time I like to try out new things and experiment with my new sneaky friend (Type 2). For instance, since I left the UK 3 years ago, the thing I miss the most is Fresh Fish and Chips but fortunately we have a small Fish and Chip Restraunt in town who does a very good job of cooking traditional English fish and chips, so ive just pulled up my dietry records and the entry for 10/07/2017 shows that for lunch I ate the said fish and chips, complete with mushy peas, a slice of wholemeal bread and a cup of Tetleys Tea milk no sugar. 90 Mins later my BG was 140 or 6.5 depending on which scale you use.

31/07/2017 I see I ate a large Steak and onion Pie with Carrots, Brocoli, Cauliflower and a small baked white potoatoe,
the resulting after meal BG was 109 or 5.5, once or twice a month I do this with different stuff as an experiment as to what by sneaky friend (Type 2) will tolerate, I know full well I cant do this every day, but in these two occasions Ive beaten him! Haha Anthony 2 - Type 2 Nil.

Next week I am going to try A Pizza, and after that I am going to be really brave and try a Burger King!!

Seriousley though, Type 2 Diabetes is not a death sentence, it is a really bad disease, but it can be controlled and I firmly believe that LCHF with a bit of fasting here and there plus excersise of course is the way to deal with it, and just once in a while treat yourself (because you deserve it) to something you really like from your pre diabetic era.

Thanks for reading
 
I am glad that you can treat yourself once in a while but you must remember that different people have different tolerance levels.
Nothing could convince me that chips or a store (or chippy) bought pie is enough of a treat to risk a higher than normal bg reading. As I progress in my learning about T2 the more I ask myself 'Is that xxxx worth a toe or an eye or a kidney?'.
When I decide to treat myself it will be with caution and with one eye on the possibility of slipping into complacency.
 

I agree - and I think that was what @Anthony1738 was saying - once your under control and made some space perhaps you could try some things and if they do not peek your BG (and those reading were fantastic) then that is great.
And a treat is in the eye of the beholder - I must say there are one or two things that just once a while I would like to give a go. Of course not to trade a kidney for.
 

Yes @Guzzler, I agree with your caution, and I am not trying to encourage people the wrong way, its just an experiment, and I'm very confident that one or two Pies per month or a plate of Fish and chips won't hurt, I do have my toes and eyes checked regularly and I can assure you that i won't be parting with either anytime soon.

Seriousley Though I do manage my diet with caution because I want to maintain this reversal as long as possible. I know its early days, but so far so good, thankyou for your comments and I wish you well.
 
You lucky thing!!!

Because of the fat content it might be an idea to check at 3 hours and 4 hours - I'm told that fat slows down the rate at which carbs are metabolised. I would LOVE a plateful of fish, chips and mushy peas. I do occasionally have the chippy fish (take off the batter) and some mushy peas but haven't had even one chip in at least two years.....
 


Thank you @Chook for your reply and comments, I will next time check after 3 or four hours after, good idea, thanks again
 

It's been about six or more years for me!
Potatoes, cooked any which way, is like a poison to my blood levels!
Just can't tolerate them!
 
Did you only check at 90 minutes or did you do more follow up tests - don't want to pee on your chips so to speak but I would have had lower numbers than that at 90 minutes usually in the 5s as I take a small dose of gliclizide- but my 3, 4 and even 5 hour tests would be in the 7- 9 range - and stay there in the high 6s for most of the next day - enjoy but be careful with your experiments- if you do try pizza it could be a bit of surprise for you how long your numbers will rise and the time it takes to come back down
 

Thanks for writing! You have cheered me up. I'm new to all this and life seems to have reduced for the moment to little beyond what seems to me drastic deprivation of carbs and not so wonderful results to show for it. When the dust has settled I think I'll try your plan. I do like the experimental aspect of learning to cope with pre-diabetes. And I do echo your endorsement of exercise. Trouble is, I get the impression the carbs (and energy) have gone out of my poor legs without leaving my blood - NOT the way I want things to be. Has LCHF affected your ability to exercise?
 
Today we went out for lunch, I ordered a goats cheese salad that unexpectedly come with some very nice bread, I had the bread. For my sins I walked home while my wife drove, 2hr after the meal, I was at 5.4, a few months ago it would have peaked me.

I am finding that I can now be more relaxed when eating out, but am keeping to Low Carb 100% of the time when at home.
 
For good or bad, I also occasionally go off plan. When I do, I follow my glucose readings hourly to find the peak. Sometimes the peak is 5 or 6 hrs out. I have also found that it can take 3-4 days including a 36 hr fast for my readings to come back down. That was the pizza. Very scary. Needless to say, the longer I do this, the longer the period between lapses. It just takes too much to get back on track.

I have also found that I am more likely to go off plan when I have been lazy in the kitchen, am highly stressed, or in the recent case of losing power and the contents of my fridge and freezer, I have no substitutes for what I crave. (Thank you Hurricane Irma ! ). I search for low carb recipes that are similar to what I miss and then try to keep them around. With all the people now advocating a low carb Ketogenic way of eating, you might be surprised at the number of substitute recipes out there?
 


Thanks for the heads up on follow up tests, I'm still learning. I did the pizza thing last night, a full 10 inch Haiwan, (Ham and Pineapple from "The Pizza Company) plus 3 chicken wings, and did a proper testing:

Before Eating 7.00 pm - 75 or 4.3 whichever scale you use
2 hours after 9.00pm - 113 or 5.6
Bedtime 11.30 pm - 139 or 7.5
FSB this morning 8.00 am- 120 or 5.8

No Medication

I really believe that my doctor got it bang right in the beginning, I was only diagnosed 3 Month ago with a Hb1Ac of 12.9 and a very high triglyceride level, I knew nothing of these letters and numbers he was quoting me, so he explained in great detail and showed me diagrams of how type 2 worked. In a nutshell, I wasnt overweight, i was eating pretty well, and had a very good excersise regime but consuming too much alchohol, and the doctor pointed this out and his diagrams backed up what he said and it made sense to me. So together we made a treatment plan to treat the cause and not the symptoms, simple, stop drinking beer, and in no time my blood levels returned to normal. But I did embark on a low carb diet, so my mission now is to find out if it was stopping drinking or the low carb diet wich so quickly reversed my condition, so far my experiments are leaning towards the former.

footnote: I suffered with high blood pressure most of my life, it is now normal and I dont take medication for that anymore either.
 

I have actually increased my excersise levels, I feel more energetic especially first thing in the morning, I feel more alive and I'm really enjoying life, next year I plan to run the annual Pattaya marathon!
 
Anthony1738 said:
I have actually increased my excersise levels, I feel more energetic especially first thing in the morning, I feel more alive and I'm really enjoying life, next year I plan to run the annual Pattaya marathon!
Click to expand...
Wow! My exercise plans are less ambitious than yours, and at present, as I said, I am feeling a bit weak especially in my leg muscles, which is obviously not helping my running. How do you fuel your workouts?
 
Alexandra100 said:
Wow! My exercise plans are less ambitious than yours, and at present, as I said, I am feeling a bit weak especially in my leg muscles, which is obviously not helping my running. How do you fuel your workouts?
Click to expand...

On my Gym days for Badminton I usually have a 3 egg Mushroom Omelette, with 2 Tablespoons of Baked Beans and a Cup of tea with Milk no sugar, on walk days I skip Breakfast as such because I walk 4 kms to a nice little cafe on Bali Hai marina where I consume a large pot of Green Tea and 2 Chocolate chip cookies ( I know its not a good idea to eat the cookies) but I am sure the 4km walk back burns off the immediate Glucose spike. The walk out cures the dawn phenonomen, I take a reading when I arrive at the cafe which is usually well within the normal range then I take a reading upon my return home which is alao usually within the normal Range. When I do the cycling I have normal cooked english breakfast minus the bread or toast followed by 1 small apple a handfull of grapes and acouple of pieces of jack fruit. And that it.
 


Glad to hear Ive cheered someone up, I know its a very serious condition that we suffer, but I feel a lttle lightheartedness now again does us good.
 
Had a baked potatoe with cheese and beans today, bad mistake, but thats what my meters for - to let me know what I can and cant get away with, and it is quite clear potatoes are off the menu, which in all honesty I already knew, I got over confident I guess, but I only had the one in the pantry and it will not be replaced for sure, the result was two hours after consuming this piece of poison was a BG of 7.7! I will not do that again.
 
 

Just retested 1 hour later BG down to 5.7, which seems to be a big drop in short space of time, during that 1 hour I did nothing I remained on the sofa watching TV, I had nothing to drink or eat, which leads me to ask the question, is my insulin production working again to sort the spike in BG out so quickly???
 
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