Hello Everyone - (Another Newbee)

[Lishay02]

Good afternoon,

My name is Lisa, I am 33 years old and I believe I am type 2 Diabetic. I lost my Mum December 2007 - (My Mum was insulin dependant via injection) and last year I started feeling so ill, going to the loo alot, tired all the time, drinking loads, having no energy etc etc. Visited the Doc after a 2 wk hol in Greece of lying around doing absolutely nothing to find my blood pressure high, eventually sent me for blood tests, sugar result of 22, a fasting one done of 18.

I then was prescribed Metformin tablets by my Doctor, but he has now changed them to Metformin 500mg Slow Release Tablets, I take 4 a day.

I have never done any exercise before, and are seriously overweight, my Mum and other members of my family are/were Diabetic. So I decided to try and help myself and joined a gym. I have lost 1 stone and 7 pounds so far, but over xmas and with moving house this has lapsed :-( now getting back on track. My family say they can see abig difference in me already. Doc happy with my weight loss, etc, but what to eat ? Trying to be healthy. My levels came back that over the last few months my sugar was 10. Doc wants it to 7, and in my first check up (3 months) I have got it down to 8.5 already - is this good ? Am I on the right track ? Doc says when I go again, if it hasnt changed much, he will put me on another tablet to take as well ?

I am so confused though, what I can eat, what I shouldn't eat, etc, can I have an occasional drink and if so what etc ? So all advice/help would be so helpful; I no longer have sugar, cake, biscuits, although I do have an occasional bar of chocolate (naughty I know), what should I eat, steer away from, etc etc - I used to have the occasional Vodka, now quite like Gin as my taste buds have changed as its souer. Never been a big drinker! Always have diet drink as a mixer of slimline tonic. Dont drink fizzy drinks if I do occasionally Diet. Drink Robinsons no added sugar juice with water ? Is this ok ? Can I have no added sugar Muesli, as everyone says to steer away from Cereal ?

Thanks ever so much for your help.

Kind Regards
Lisa

 

[cugila]

Hi Lisa.
Welcome to the Forum. Have a good look around especially th Food Forum areas, you will get some tips there on certain foods.

This is the advice we hand out to Newbies, have a read. Any questions just ask. You though, have to sort out what foods YOU can eat by frequent testing and recording what you ate..

It's not just 'sugars' you need to avoid, diabetes is an inability to process glucose properly. Carbohydrate converts, in the body, to glucose. So it makes sense to reduce the amount of carbohydrate that you eat which includes sugars.

The main carbs to avoid or reduce are the complex or starchy carbohydrates such a bread, potatoes, pasta and rice also any flour based products. The starchy carbs all convert 100% to glucose in the body and raise the blood sugar levels significantly.

The way to find out how different foods affect you is to do regular daily testing and keep a food diary for a couple of weeks. If you test just before eating then two hours after eating you will see the effect of certain foods on your blood glucose levels.

Buy yourself a carb counter book (you can get these on-line) and you will be able to work out how much carbs you are eating, when you test, the reading two hours after should be roughly the same as the before eating reading, if it is then that meal was fine, if it isn’t then you need to check what you have eaten and think about reducing the portion size of carbs.

When you are buying products check the total carbohydrate content, this includes the sugar content. Do not just go by the amount of sugar on the packaging as this is misleading to a diabetic.

As for a tester, try asking the nurse/doctor and explain that you want to be proactive in managing your own diabetes and therefore need to test so that you can see just how foods affect your blood sugar levels. Hopefully this will work ! Sometimes they are not keen to give Type 2’s the strips on prescription, (in the UK) but you can but try !!

 

[Lishay02]

Hi Cugila,

Thanks so much for your advice when I go to the supermarket, I always check the sugar content, and NOT the carbohydrate so I have already learned something new.

Yesh I will try that with the Doctors, as everyone else is checking their levels I see, and I like you say want to be pro-active, I will have a word with him next when I go for a check up, if not I think I will buy one - my Mum always used to test her levels, this is why I thought I should be too.

Thanks again,

Regards
Lisa

 

[Angel56]

Hi I'm Another Newbee.
I am still a bit surprised that i have got type 2 Diabetes,I Live in Greater Manchester is there
any support groups that anyone can advise me about thanks

Angel56.

 

[Ardbeg]

Hi Angel56,

I would have thought that the best person to ask about local support groups would be your diabetic nurse. When I visited mine for the first time recently she mentioned a local support group to me almost straight away. I declined; I'd much rather do this on my own, but with help from this wonderful forum too. 8)