Having an absolute nightmare

[spriklett]

Hi,

I'm having an absolute nightmare...I was diagnosed with Type 2 in 2011 and at first I was really on top of it, quickly got my readings down to low figures (4 to 5) was really strict on everything I ate and everything was fine. Then it all went wrong to the point that now I am stuggling to get my levels below 10 even though I am still (generally) careful about what I eat. I guess the trouble is I just don't want to be careful, I want to to stuff myself silly on Dairy Milk (which I adore) but now avoid...it is all those things that I used to love but now can't have...I still love them...I still want them desperately but can't have them and it is driving me nuts (low carb nuts obviously). I went round Sainsbury's this morning with the wife and did the weekly shopping and I just stood in one of the aisles and thought "Do you know I don't want anything here" while she was getting cookies and treats for herself and my son I was looking at rice cakes and trying to work out if they were low carb enough each for me to dare to eat them. I don't want to be looking at rice cakes...I don't like rice cakes...I like Dairy Milk...how can I spend the next however many years eating foods I don't want and don't like, whilst avoiding all the things I like and I mean really really like?

 

[hanadr]

May I suggest you try for a week or 2 planning all your eatin in advance and if you crave chocolate, buy a low sugar dark chocolate and include it in your plan. Keep a food diary for the 2 weeks and don't forget to include your snacks in it.
This approach might work
I plan our main meaal of the day once a week and shop to the list. I keep BG below 6 most of the time and below 7 All the time.
It saves money too. I buy 3 or 4 packs of dark wholenut chocolate from Lidl at a time [ It's only about £1 !] and have a strip of a bar every evening. It's my little ritual and it isn't going to tip me over the edge.
Hana

 

[Yorksman]

You might be in a situation where your shopping list is more or less the same as before but minus the things you can't have. It is bound to leave a big hole. Gone for me are sweets, biscuits, chocolate bars, iced and jam doughnuts and other nice buns. All the things which gave me diabetes in the first place. There are plenty of pot holes which need filling.

Oddly enough, I am filling them with savoury foods which I have made myself, southern style chicken and prawn jambalaya, thai style prawn and noodle soup, ragu ala bolognese, indian mixed lentil curry, salt and pepper spare ribs and salt and pepper tiger prawns with egg foo yung and shrimps, lamb and barley stew. They are all very tasty and filling. If you have good tasty meals, you feel less inclined to go for the satisfying hit of a sugary snack. You tend not to need it as much. Most of these things are themselves filling a hole in the main diet, which is often lacking in taste and texture. If I need a sweet, I will mix a smoothie, usually made from some berries and plain yoghurt. Often during the day, a large glass of cold diet lemonade from the supermarket, zero cal, zero carb and probably zero lemons, but to which I add the juice of a freshly squeezed lemon. That is a very satisfying hit on the taste buds and will see you right for a couple of hours. The lemon actually does you good too but either way, you won't feel like you need that chocolate for a while. If I need a crunch, Lidl do a rye crispbreda with sesame seeds. It is very light and crunchy, and thinner than a ryvita and with a fish paste spread is much better than any packet of crisps. When supermarkets have it on offer, but a shoulder of pork to slow roast, 5 hours. Not only is the meat fantastic and keepyou going for a few days, the crackling with make for very many snacks. It's brill.

 

[Dennis]

Hi spriklett,

One of the main things you are suffering from is withdrawal symptoms from what is a highly addictive substance - sugar. Unfortunately milk chocolate is absolutely loaded with it, and for two reasons.
1 - sugar is much cheaper than cocoa, so when the price of cocoa goes up, manufacturers will use less cocoa and simply bulk it up with more sugar. This allows them to keep the price stable. A contact in one of the luxury chocolate manufacturers admitted to me that each bar of "high street" chocolate now has around double the amount of sugar they had 50 years ago!

2 - sugar is addictive and when you eat it, you crave more - your next hit. The chocolate manufacturers are well aware of this and this is another reason why the ratio of sugar to chocolate keeps rising - if their bar contains more sugar than their rivals' bars then you will be more likely to choose it over their rivals products next time you buy some.

That's the information - but what you can do to get over the cravings is another matter! You could go cold turkey and not have any chocolate for 6 months until the desire wears off. Or you could gradually wean yourself off the high-sugar stuff and gradually switch to dark chocolate (most dark chocolate tells you the percentage of cocoa solids). Dark chocolate also contains no milk, which is of course a source of carbohydrate. You could try the 70% (the other 30% is mostly sugar) to start and gradually work your way up to 85 or 90% - the higher the percentage then the less sugar the bar contains.

Good luck - just think of the fun you can have experimenting! Just don't overdo it - small quantities!

Dennis

 

[Daibell]

Hi. Yes, it's not easy. Do go for 85% Dark chocolate. I have Green & Blacks which is nice and smooth. Eventually you will like it and wonder why you ever liked sweet and sickly Milk chocolate that is stuffed with sugar