Help reducing bg's

You say that you need to get your blood sugars down, but also say, regarding low carb, that "you can't do it". When you say that you feel "really sick", do you mean vomiting or feeling you are about to vomit, or do you mean tired / listless / headache / generally "under the weather"? You could be going through carb-flu, in which case you have to sit it out and try and alleviate symptoms by keeping up your fluids and salt intake.

If something is difficult to do all at once, it's often worth trying doing it in stages. For example, if you normally have two pieces of toast for breakfast, reduce to one and have a lump of cheese with it. Do this for a week and then reduce further. Cut back something at every meal and gradually decrease carbs throughout the day. Perhaps begin by only having very, very low carb snacks.

In the end, you have to do it, the alternative is much worse.
Sally

I'm a big advocate of doing things slowly and gradually. There are several reasons why I feel this is a better approach for some of us - mainly because it gives your body time to adjust and get used to a different eating regime, different foods and digestive processes and it also allows your blood glucose to drop steadily, preventing some of the unpleasant effects of a rapid drop. Dropping carbs significantly overnight is quite a nutritional shock to the system.

For example, for arguments sake, if you had been eating toast and marmalade for breakfast and swapped that overnight to having eggs and bacon - the latter is much richer and needs different enzymes and gut bacteria to process and this can be a shock to the system. So what I did was change to having one scrambled egg on toast - bridge the gap to allow your body to get used to the different foods. I can't easily stomach rich foods, so have eased myself into the low carb full fat routine gradually over several weeks. I've now gone from having one large egg to 2 medium eggs. I had a 2 egg cheese omelette this morning - I simply couldn't have stomached that a month ago. I know that some can make those changes overnight, but it sounds like you're a bit more sensitive, as I am. So a gradual approach will probably suit you better.

Start by modifying your meals in increments. If you had a piece of chicken, chips and veggies - have only a few chips and lots more veggies instead - just gradually tweak the proportions on your plate to reduce the carbs. This way you can eat the same as the rest of the family, just have different proportions to the others. My husband and I eat the same, but he isn't low carbing, we just eat different proportions of the same foods or have the odd ingredient different. I like Greek yogurt with some fruit stirred in after dinner, my husband has fruit with a dollop of yogurt on it - same foods, different proportions.

I've just realised that sally and james said exactly the same thing - I started typing this ages ago and got interrupted.

googlegoss said:

Hi Sally, thanks for the reply. Normally have bacon and egg in the morning which is fine, its when I have a lot of fat that I feel sick, e.g. home made quiche.

Think I will gradually reduce the carbs, eg have about 20 per meal and see how I get on with that. This morning I had 31 carbs, which included a sandwich thin and weight watchers sausages which were 11. Just had some strawberries and cream and feel okay with that at the moment. I know there is some fab recipes on here but a lot of them include buying almond flour, coconut flour, etc and this is too expensive for me at the moment I'm afraid so need to stick to basics at the moment and eat mostly what everyone is eating. Did buy cathedral city selections and have one of these mid morning and afternoon. Think it may have been TOO much cheese in the quiche as melted cheese on jacket potatoes always make me feel sick as well but okay if its only grated. I'm just weird lol.

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You're weird?

BooJewels, I never thought about how eating foods different from what you're used to might require different enzymes and digestive processes.

Two things helped me when I started the diet: 1) I already ate all the LCHF foods I eat now, both as a child and today as an adult, and 2) I had given up wheat, barley, and rye four years earlier (though I'll always miss rye breads and crackers). Even so, while I ate far less carbs than most people, that still was a huge adjustment. Also, figuring out how to manage my electrolytes. Taking 99 mg potassium with breakfast, and 150 mg magnesium with each meal has helped a lot. At first I had drank salted hot water once a day, but not so much now.

Having a variety of LCHF foods in the house that I liked at all times helped. Adjusting to the different textures of the food was also hard. I missed "crispy" and "rich, creamy" textures the most. Every few nights I'd cheat and eat three to four corn chips topped with melted cheddar cheese, or not cheat and have a slice of ham wrapped around cream cheese with a dill pickle slice. Drinking green tea between meals took away the need to overeat, and green olives helped when I repeatedly would open the refridgerator door with the need to eat "something".

I think if I didn't already like meats, cheeses, and butter, this would have been a lot harder, and it was hard enough. When I went on the diet, I was eating a potato in one form or another at least once a day. Not sure which was harder, giving up bread or potato, or sweet potato...ah, those wonderful starchy sugars.

Googlegoss, hope you get through the adjustment soon.

Digestive enzymes can help a lot with fat digestion while you adjust to the dietary changes. Definitely helped me.

Indy51, I want to try that. How do I figure out what to get for fat digestion?

Winnie53 said:

Indy51, I want to try that. How do I figure out what to get for fat digestion?

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Lipase is the enzyme for lipids, but not sure if they can be purchased separately. The standard mix of enzymes will normally have amylase (for carbs), protease (for protein), lipase (for lipids), tilactase (for lactose) and cellulase (for fibre?). The one I have on hand also has bromelains - not sure what they're for and gentiana lutea root. You can also get variations that have betaine hydrocholoride if you feel you need extra acid support.

I'm doing the 5.2 diet. Obviously the 2 fast days keep sugar low those days. But I find the 48 hours following the fasting day are great too. I have no science to offer just my own observation. I had a chicken kebab in pitta and chips for dinner the day after fasting and was 4.6 2 hours later. Same meal 3 days after the same fasting day 6.3 at 2 hours.

One way to bring BG levels down is exercise, if mine are are little too high for my "normal" I do a fast run on the spot or a bit of dancing with the kids.


Have you got an Aldi or Lidl near you? I have a Lidl and it sells ground almonds and fine shredded coconut (give an extra blitz in processor for flour - not quite as fine as coconut flour but good enough and MUCH cheaper)

Scimama said:

One way to bring BG levels down is exercise, if mine are are little too high for my "normal" I do a fast run on the spot or a bit of dancing with the kids.

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I try to walk 2 miles a day, which I think helps too, but when I have a high blood glucose reading, I do two things: I have green tea and no snacks between meals that day and I drink lots of water. This shortens my recovery time from days to a day, sometimes to hours.

googlegoss said:

Well am trying my lower carbs today.

For breakfast I had an egg and bacon thin which was 17 carbs and scraping of brown sauce 3 carbs

Lunch is a tin of Princes chicken casserole which is 22 carbs

Dinner - not sure but think it may be Birds Eye Salmon with lemon & dill sauce with cauliflower and runner beans which is just carbs for the veg

Snack - have a small crustless quiche from Morrisons which I will have during the day which comes out at 23 carbs in total (probably because its a low fat version) and 2 cathedral city selection sticks (12g each).

Total grams for the day is 74 which I dont think is too bad to begin with.

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Googlegoss - you mention 12g relating to a Cargedral City Variety cheese portion. As you adding that 12g to get your 74 gr total? 12gr is the weight of the cheese portion, not the carb content?

On a different topic; buying cheese in this way is incredibly expensive, by comparison to buying a block and cutting a portion from it. I appreciate its very easy to achieve a consistent portion size by using these, but if you're watching your budget, maybe it's worth considering the options?

Good luck with it all. It takes a bit of juggling sometimes.