• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Had diabetes education today

Dixon1995 said:
What does your humongous breakfast consist of?

Do you eat you food really quickly?
Click to expand...

Usually 4 eggs in inlets with turkey rashers and tomatoes (although didn’t have tomatoes today) and 1 round of toast.

Didn’t used to have toast but doctor said to have a small amount of carb in each meal.

To be fair I’m usually eating at about 6am.

Lunch I know sandwich isn’t great but it’s easy and can be eaten quickly if I need to get to lessons etc.

If I know I have time between I can usually make something and have a flask but if traffic or delays happen that really does screw things up.
 
Ok guys let's work with what we have - can sandwich be replaced with ham/turkey/ lettuce roll ups? Place filling in slice of meat/lettuce instead of bread, roll like wrap?
Can bread be replaced with lower carb version?
 
The thing that strikes me is that your most urgent priority is to sort out your work / life balance. If you are in charge of your own diary, you need to build in some space to look after yourself.

Build in proper breaks (maybe only half an hour) to eat your food slowly and deliberately.

If I was you I would:

Continue with your huge breakfast, dump the toast

Buy yourself a little 12 volt fridge to go in the boot of your car.

Keep in it salad, avocados, selection of protein (ham, cold chicken, hard boiled eggs, smoked mackerel, tinned salmon, tuna, something different every day, cheese, nuts, mayonnaise or home made salad dressing) Kos lettuce makes an excellent ‘wrap’ to put your fillings in. Remember to incorporate fat (mayonnaise, olive oil, butter, a ‘laughing cow’ cheese triangle).

At pre-planned times, stop, make your meal, eat it, and have a drink out of your flask. Have a second flask filled with stock (oxo will do, with boiling water) and drink this throughout the day. Abandon the advice to have carbs with every meal, that is the cause of your problem.

It’s quick and easy to eat an avocado, just slice it in half, remove the stone, eat with a spoon.

You may ‘lose’ 2 lessons a day, but you need to focus on the long term not the short term.

The reason why you ‘drop’ and feel low may well be salt deprivation on low carb, not low blood glucose. You may well find that by dropping the carbs your hunger reduces. The oxo will deal with the salt.

If you are on any medication that lowers Blood Glucose, this is not good advice - if you are on any medication other than metformin you need to buy a monitor and check blood glucose regularly, but if you are on blood glucose lowering medication, as a driving instructor surely you should be prescribed a meter.

Good luck, all the best. I echo other thoughts, trust the people living with this and totally in control of their blood glucose, not the so called medical experts who are telling you out of date advice.
 

Hi Cana, I get the impression that it isn't so much your 'main' mealtime food but the times during your long shift, when you might be flagging or stuck in a traffic jam that is extending your work hours. I am a 24/7 shift worker so I know exactly what you mean. It is impossible to know exactly at what time you can eat as it changes dependent on what is going on. I take my packed lunches with me (in a little food container with easy to eat 'snacks', ie cheese, nuts, low carb dip and veg for example). They are easy to take out with you if you are not office bound. I also take low carb 'snack bars', ie the choc/raisin/nut kind that give you energy, taste great and are VERY easy to eat on the go. There are plenty of them about, anything from around 6 or 7 carbs to a lot of carbs, so choose carefully. Regardless of what I have been able to eat or when or if whilst at work, I feel 'safe' in the knowledge that if necessary, I can grab one of these and will be well for at least 2 hours when hopefully that traffic jam or whatever is over. Just to add, test after your snack bar just to check that it doesn't spike you as I know that even something of 6/7 carbs may be too much for some.
 


Hi smallbrit, my Doc kept going on about cheese and when I asked her about it it was clear it was nothing to do with glucose levels but cholesterol! It seems they just dole out the same old thing to everyone, all food groups bunched in together, eat this, don't eat that, don't have too many eggs, only have a matchbox piece of cheese a day, in fact have cottage cheese instead (as IF!!!). All outdated advice anyway. x
 
I’d agree to dump the toast and sandwich. Its creating a roller coaster, and likely what’s making you hungry a couple of hours later. There is literally no benefit to eating it that you can’t nutritionally get elsewhere. It will mean rethinking quick food when out and about.

Lots of suggestions above and Ditchthecarb.com have a packed lunch support page on Facebook book and section on their website. Yes it’s aimed for school lunches but a packed lunch is a packed lunch whoever it’s for.

I don’t take meds but please be sure to know if any you take could possibly cause a hypo as obviously you’d need to check before driving and notify dvla but I’m sure you already know this. If you’re not on those and you don’t eat, the worst that’ll happen is you’ll be hungry. (Also known as fasting) Eating sufficient fat in your diet and being low carb will make this less likely once used to it, and it’ll also mean a small low carb snack will satisfy you easier. And if you’re being proactive you’ll be monitoring a fair bit in these early days of change anyway and spot anything worrisome.

Lastly you mentioned being unsure how you feel in terms of hunger etc. It’s very easy to mistake routine, boredom or thirst for hunger. It’s worth taking some time (at weekends if necessary) to really try and sort these different sensations by trial and error of solutions that aren’t food. Upping water intake is essential on low carb anyway.
 
Last edited:

Yes indeed. Main mealtimes are fine (apart from lunch).

It’s more snacks.

Drinking is issue because you can’t always get to toilet. Today I went to costa to use their loo and it’s out of order so I now have 2.5 hours till I can find another. Not great.

In the car it’s mainly picky things I need. So if I fancy something I can just have a-quick snack then see how I feel and so on.

Having a fridge in the car isn’t practical, o tend to use cool bags.

I manage it’s just with diabetes in the mix I want to manage better.

Managing life work balance isn’t possible. I need to work long hours, I’m self employed.
So that’s not negotiable and again I need things that will work with my lifestyle not I have to change my lifestyle because quite frankly that can’t happen.

I tend to have set eating times but that does mean I often eat when I don’t really need to simply because i know I won’t get a chance for another couple hours.
And yes I can eat on lessons with learners but I’d rather not. Also if I’m doing the driving because I’m training instructors then it’s not really possible to eat. So I eat between lesson seven if not hungry.

Being thirsty is possibly part of it but again can’t always drink if I can’t be sure to get to a toilet.
I already have breaks between lessons but I tend to cover huge areas as I do learners and instructors. Plus the longer times between lessons the longer hours I have to work which then defeats the object.
 



Yep, I do get what you mean, it would be nice to be able to be flexible with the work/life balance but it is not always practical. I would say try to keep it in mind though because your health really IS the most important thing. Can I ask, do you need to eat every couple of hours or is this just in response to an energy lag? I know you don't have a work routine as such but maybe you can try to eat at set times during work (even if one of the meals turns out to be a snack bar if nothing else is practical). I am on insulin so that adds a whole new level to it all but I understand you aren't so I definitely wouldn't eat when I wasn't hungry just because you never know when you will get to eat next. I would suggest you don't eat when you are not hungry in the knowledge that if you miss the next 'natural' meal, well a snack will then suffice. Also you don't have to have a full meal at any time of the day, maybe small low carb snacks every few hours is the way. There are so many scenarios but I do think you should find something that works for you and your lifestyle. Good luck. x
​
 
@Cana Google low carb muffins, keto biscuits etc. Some can be frozen or just keep in the fridge.

Weigh out 30g of nuts and put in small bag. Read the label on the back for carb content.

If you Google keto snacks or fat bombs, you may find things that appeal.

If you have a good wide thermos, think about soups, stews ect, especially for winter.
 
Hiya. It’s important to understand what is happening when you eat carbs. Your blood sugar goes up and you release insulin to bring it down. Because you have T2, you release more insulin than a healthy person (because your body is resistant to it).

But of course a spike in insulin levels could (in a normal or T1 person but not in a T2) result in a hypo which is very dangerous. Your body can’t tell the difference so it sends out an urgent hunger signal to stop you falling into a coma.

Eat carbs, get hungry, get hungry, eat carbs……

Break the cycle with fat (ignore what they said on the course: fat is your friend). @AtkinsMo produced a great list above. Maybe carry around a jar of peanut or almond butter and a spoon. (check if it spikes you first).

The DESMOND course is a joke – all based on the Eatwell plate, which was produced by the Food Industry, for the Food Industry and is possibly the worst advice a T2 could receive.
 
I would say think of work days as tapas days.

You could have slices of LC Fritatta, chicken wings, thighs or for big tapas, legs! There are decent quality cooked sausages or chipolatas, hard boiled eggs, low carb Scotch Eggs, cheese, nuts, celery with cream cheese (Boursin, Philli or the like) or peanut butter.

Crispy cooked bacon - all the supermarkets and M&S do them, but M&S are better by far, in my view. M&S also do crackling wheels or straws. Mozzarella pearls with cherry tomatoes are lovely. M&S do some lovely cooked prawn pots.

Were I in your shoes, I'd spend a weekend a weekend or a couple of evenings gearing up, cooking - the chicken, sausages, bacon, if doing your own, eggs and so on, and freeze them. Taken out the night before they'd be defrosted for the morning, or if taken out on the morning, they'd be fine too, although the cool bag could slow things up a bit.

It's easy for me to say it's easy, but to be honest, if you cab get yourself a little stock of options in the fridge or freezer, you can have quality, nutritious and blood sugar friendly to hand for whenever you want.
 
Last edited:
Sadly it’s just about impossible to control diabetes without drugs without lifestyle change. I get that you can’t change your job but how, what and when you eat around the job can be modified to improve things. Lots of great suggestions above to try.
 
Hi. There are some people like my wife whose appetite never really switches off. It's a known metabolic problem for some and with no easy solution. The low carb higher fat & protein diet approach is still valid and I'm not aware of any alternative options so I'm afraid will power and body training will be needed. My wife avoids looking at food between meals as it triggers her hunger. We eat nuts for between meals snacks to help bridge the gap if needed.
 
Hi @HSSS I am interested in the newsbot report about the ADA, but I can't find it. Any clues?
 
When I am at work I live out of my car. I use superstore loos, less to tempt you than Costa and if you need a coffee most now have coffee machines. I never know when I will have time to eat, so what I do not eat I have for supper when I get home. Not perfect but that's shift work.
I have a small cool bag stuffed with nibbles on the front seat, like cheese and 85% dark chocolate, boiled eggs and pot of chopped salad, onions cucumber,peppers and a few tomatoes, plain yoghurt with a few blueberries. A pull ring tin of tuna or some ham or chicken to add to the salad. If you buy large tubs of yoghurt like Liberte you get a free plastic tub to reuse A treat is biltong but you have to check what its flavoured with, it takes ages to chew. I think if you know you are not going to run out of food you eat less and you are never really hungry.
I would ditch the bread completely, if your BS goes up you will feel tired.
What you have to remember is you are just at the start, you will become the expert on you. People can give you advice but its up to you to find what works for you, there is no one size fits all.
Unfortunately there seems to be no readily available source of carb content of foods apart from apps like Myfitnesspal but they are useful for tracking what you eat and I would suggest downloading one onto your phone to help you monitor how you are doing and it keeps a log so you could look back on what makes you feel not so good on certain days.
You pee more when you have a high BS, your body is trying to get rid of it. You need fluid you to get it out so actually drinking is a way of clearing the excess sugar so unless you eat anything to raise your BS again you should feel better and eventually pee less.
I know you work long hours but a relatively small amount of time now getting your BS lower will mean you are less likely to have the complications associated with diabetes, which is the long game.
 
Thanks for advice. Have had brief look and already feels better. Will keep looking and resting properly.

One question.

Today I feel lousy. Feel weak headache tired and just generally off. Struggling to be sociable etc because I just feel icky.

Been eating all morning, had normal breakfast, almonds peanut butter (felt off and needed to teach so ate to get some energy)

I know if I went and had a bottle of Diet Coke it would make me feel better but also it then makes me struggle as I want sugar. So don’t want that.

Levels are fine as 9.0 so I’m not low or even false hypo. But I feel like they are on the floor.

Any ideas?

Probably cancelling my last lesson today as just don’t think I have the energy to teach
 
The hardest part of LCHf is getting over carb addiction. Once you have done that the cravings for carbs decreases significantly. You are going through the toughest part right now, it will get better. As your numbers drop you will feel better.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…