Help me return!!

Anticarb
you MUST get back to the low carb eating!
It suited you before and it works for you. I don't find it hard to stick to, especially when I'm busy as you must be with a new baby.
I set aside a few minutes once a week to plan my main meals for the week. I base the plans on lots of good nutition and cook pretty much everything from scratch.
I don't find the foos choices restrictive. Are you a fussy eater by any chance, because that makes it more difficult
for example, last nights dinner here was Greek salad. Todays is roast chicken with fresh vegetables.
I can suggest loads of excellent low carb recipes. If you are not a cook, perhaps I can help there too. Fresh food isn't expensive, even if it seems so at first.
Hana

Hi Anticarb, I was worried about social situations because I travel a lot with work, but so far I have managed to make it work. I have lots of good snacks stashed away such at Atkins bars, baby bel cheeses and pepperami, which you can sneakily eat without people noticing. If you go to parties and there are lots of naughty snacks, eat before you go so that you don't have to feel tempted. If you are ordering in a restaurant ask them to swap chips or potatoes for salad or veg because if they bring those things to the table they are MUCH harder to resist - and choose a cheese plate or berries for dessert if possible. Now that I am starting to lose weight steadily I find that my motivation to stick to it is really high, I am sure once you get started you will feel the same!

If you need foody ideas let us know and we will all chip (!) in with suggestions!

Good luck

I know there are some good posts by WJ and other members regarding low carb receipes. I hope you can succeed my fingers are crossed for you best wishes RRB

Hi again,

I don't exactly count carbs like some others do, and I can't advise on insulin but I really don't eat many carbs at all. I would say the majority of the carbs I eat are from dairy such as yoghurt or milk for my tea, and cream and cheese as a treat. Obviously there are some carbs in the veggies I eat but I don't count them up. I have just found that sticking to meat, eggs, cheese, butter, cream, veggies that grow above the ground and berries has really worked for me.

Hi,

Here is some advice from someone who struggled initially. Take it slow - so what if it takes two years to lose two stones - it is better than staying the same for the next two years.

I find that around the 100 carbs keeps me around 6 HB, without any medication - I am type 2. It is restrictive, but eventually it just becomes a habitual way of eating. If I were you I would put my whole family on a low carb lifestyle. It does them no harm, they can have chips if they like - give them oven chips, no sensible person wants many of them!

You could be saving them a lifetime of weight worries by establishing a right eating patterns now, and it will be easier if there is nothing in the house to tempt you.

I'm 60, I've been on the low gl diet and found it so easy to keep to, lost 3 stone, all in the right places (found my waist again) and sugar levels are coming down slowly but feel so fit now and blood pressure is really down. Haven't been this weight for 18 years and have no intention of stopping till I reach my goal.

Hi Anti-Carb..

I guess a little bit of input from a low carb (most of the time!) type I.

1. Low carb should make your blood glucose much easier to control.. if your background insulin is correct then the small amount of carb that you will eat will have little effect on them..

2. Low carb will reduce hypo's and their severity.. for most type I's hypo's are insulin induced.. i.e. we miss calculate and inject to much.. these hypo's are bad news because rapid insulin lowers the blood glucose so quickly it is very hard to spot what is going to happen before it is! On low carb you eat much less carb.. therefore less rapid insulin and what you do take you take in small amounts.. for most people insulin when injected in large amounts can become a little but unpredictable so you cut this risk as well.

3. If you want to eat carb's do so at lunchtime! This gives you the whole day to sort out your blood glucose if they do go squiffy and means that you aren't going to bed at night having carb binged and injected a load of insulin worried about what your BGs are going to do. Also this gives your body some time to process the carbs.. I have found that a carby evening can give me more of a DP in the morning.

4. Amount of carbs is a difficult one.. for most type II's we would say eat to a level that gives you good BGs.. clearly in type I that isn't an issue.. I personally find that less than 60g a day gets a bit limiting but others happily eat less.

5. Generally if you low carb then you will also find that your calorie intake falls.. unless you are swimming in double cream or eating piles of cheese! I find it pretty difficult to eat over 1800 calories even if I do eat a load of dairy.

Hi Anticarb, re: your manager's meeting, do you have on-site catering or is the food from an external company? You could tell the person ordering the food that you have developed a sensitivity to bread, so could you have salad instead (some people will be jealous of your salad and will say 'oh I wish I had ordered that', and next meeting I bet there will be a mixture of salad and sarnies). I'm not always comfortable with telling people I have diabetes, especially in a work environment, so I say I have a gluten intolerance or that I am dieting. You could also ask for fruit snacks along with the donuts/cakes, at least then you have the option to make healthy choices, except that other people in the meeting will nick the fruit and leave you with the cookies.

I too am an all or nothing kind of person so I know exactly how you feel, once you start on that stuff you just have to keep going, but if you have the option to eat other stuff then you probably will. I always think of how much exercise I will have to do to offset the bad stuff and how much its going to hurt, and that I could be losing weight instead of fighting off what I ate today. Anyway, good luck

Good luck Anticarb, you know you can do it if you set your mind to it. I'm rooting for you!