help this fattie

[chrissieworne]

Hi all

I think I'm doing fairly well 10 weeks on from diagnosis of type2. Diet only, However, levels never lower than 5.6, usually no higher than 10.0 (apart from an odd spike which has frightened me!)but I cannot lose weight! Am seeing the nurse next week and i just know shes going to moan at me.(need to lose about 4 stone)

Trouble is, I don't feel any better. I am sooooooooo tired, verging on exaustion and I find exercise hard because I am so knackered and unfit, this hot weather is draining me. I am irritable, tearful and unusually for me...depressed. I have a desk job but it is very stressful as we are 50%staff down and I work with homeless people and its quite draining. I am starting to feel I need a break from work. My GP says there is no way she can sign me off for a couple of weeks because I am not ill!

I have an underactive Thyroid and am on 125mcg Thyroxine per day which is the right dose according to the GP. I have antithrombin defficiency 3 so have to take 75mg aspirin each day, GP put me on 40mg Simvastatin per day for highish cholesterol (5.0)I am tolerating that fine so far, no side effects. The tiredness was there at diagnosis so its not the statin. My blood pressure is high for me at 145 over 90 but GP wants to wait rather than prescribe me a BP medication. I don't really want to pop any more pills than I have to.

I am eating healthily, have moderated my portion size but I am very despondent about it.

Any ideas? I can ask the nurse to refer me to a dietician I suppose, can anyone give me a weeks eating plan, lowish carb?

Thanks
Chrissie

 

[whatashock]

You will get lots of advice, but one of the main points the dietician made to me (I also need to loose lots of weight) is to excercise.

she has told me that I need to do 30 minutes A DAY. You have a desk job, and I spend a lot of time in the car, but today for example I had no meetings, so at lunchtime I went for a 2 mile walk.

She said that even if it is 3 lots of 10, it is all about getting the heart pumping.

I was told to loose 1lb a week. And it will be 5 weeks next week since I last saw her so I am hoping I have achieved this.

good luck.

 

[hanadr]

With an underactive thyroid, weight loss is difficult.NOT IMPOSSIBLE :evil:
Try the reduced carbs route. It might help and can't hurt you.

 

[ChocFish]

Hi Chrissie
Sorry to hear you are struggling, what are you eating at the moment, what sort of eating plan do you have, do you follow specific low carb or GI or whatever? It is difficult to put together a weeks diet plan for you when we dont know what food you like and dislike, you say you work with homeless people, so do you work shifts, if so are you at home for breakfast or lunch or dinner? Do you have to pack up your food or buy it on the run, etc? How low carb do you want to go?

I work with homeless people too and believe you me I know all about the stress of doing this kind of work, and even worse since the event of Supporting People, forms to complete have doubled since then, yet we have to maintain direct client contact as well its all frustrating and there are not enough hours in the day, so there is low staff morale, people go off sick due to the pressure of it all, so you hire agency staff most of whom have not had the appropriate training, right?
I think this kind of stress is contributing to your low mood and the heat most certainly does not help, but dont blame it all on weight, I weighed over 22st and didnt cope with the heat, everyone said its the fat, I am 9st now (normally I am around 9st5 or so but I have been very ill with a none diabetes related condition and ended up 8st), but I still feel the heat something terrible, I am drinking like a fish but it doesnt really help, I am totally sapped of energy. like you I am taking thyroxine twice a day, I have recently read a very interesting book, just finished it actually and made an appointment with an Endo straight away, have a look at this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0615 ... d_i=468294
Scroll down the page and read reviews, so its possible that even though you are taking your thyroxine you are still not being treated properly as I suspect could well be the case with me.

Of course you will not feel like doing any exercise, feeling so hot and bothered and uncomfortable I cannot blame you, you say you are doing a desk job, is your office reasonably cool? Do you have a fan? Maybe you could try to do some desk exercises during your break? Something really gentle to start you off and then build up gradually, honest ANY movement counts so dont feel guilty if you dont end up puffing and panting through strenuous exercise, leave that till later. How about swimming, can you do that? At least it would keep you cool while you are in the pool (<<<hehehe look I am a poet). Some desk exercises here http://www.tellmehowto.net/healthandfit ... rcises_194

I will tell you what I had to eat today,

breakfast was green tea, boiled egg, slice of wholemeal toast with butter (the slice has 9.5 carbs), 1 Nectarine

lunch I took with me a bottle of kefir (I brew my own), shopska salad = cherry toms sliced in half, equal size chopped cucumber, couple of chopped spring onions, bunch of chopped parsley, feta cheese, I know its cheating from the original recipe but I made up a vinaigrette with organic apple cider vinegar, salt, olive oil, touch of sweetener (I use stevia) a tsp of dijon mustard, shake it and pour over

dinner just now was tofu vegetable stir fry, soya yoghurt

I had snacks mid morning and afternoon, handful of mixed nuts, an apple and 2 oatcakes with boursin (I was reeking of garlic then so everyone left me to get on with it for the rest of the day, not bad huh?)
http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/lowcar ... _Menus.htm some menu ideas there
also this link from the forum will show you what people tend to eat,
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5853&p=54224&hilit=today+i+bin#p54224

Do you have the Collins Gem carb counter, its an excellent little book, fits into your pocket even and you can devise meals to suit your taste and circumstances, also remember you can swap meals around, you can eat breakfast at lunch and dinner at breakfast.

I do hope that some of this helps you, you are doing so well already keeping really good bg readings, so you have no reason to feel down in the dumps, smile and be proud of yourself for what you have achieved so far.

All the best

Karen

 

[chrissieworne]

Hi Karen
Thanks for your support
Yesterday I had 2 weetabix with semi skim milk for brekkie, a banana mid morning, a wholemeal bread tuna sarnie for lunch (2 slices, benecol spread)and an apple, nothing till t time when I had a chicken salad and a yougurt (mullerlight) drank about 3 ltrs of water during whole day and a couple of cups of tea. In the evening I had a ice lolly which I had made with diet coke. B4 brekkie my BG was 7.9 (usually about that first thing), didn't check again until b4 tea when I got in from work and it was 5.8.
Nurse has told me to test 3 times a week!! but how can i see how things affect me like that!
Did a fair bit of walking, 20 mins to work, same home and 25 mins at lunch time.
Work is killing me tho , I am so stressed out and my head is throbbing every day, especially in this heat. Must be taking 6 painkillers a day which worries me a bit.No, I don;t have the Collins gem carb book and I don't know whether to go low carb, I get sooooo hungry tho and am not a big meat eater so feel like I'm stuck. I should be losing weight as my portions are smaller. I suppose I am disappointed I don't feel any better at all.
Had my cholesterol tested again yesterday so it will be interetsing to see if 6 weeks on the Simvastatin has heled at all.

Am seeing the chiropodist Monday...whopeee.....

Regards Chrissie

 

[ChocFish]

Chrissie, you might not have to go really low carb, but carb reduced to help you achieve good bg levels, I dont know about your headaches, my guess is that its a combination of the heat and your stress levels, can you tell why your job is so stressful, you can PM me if you prefer, I work within the homeless sector also. I am a hostel manager in a direct access hostel so you probably can imagine how 'lively' the hostel can get. Certainly never boring thats for sure.
Do your colleagues find the job as stressful? If so get together at a team meeting and discuss, there must be something that can be done to make things a bit easier. Prolonged stress can play havoc with your entire system both physical and mental, dont go heading for complete burn out (done that some years ago, never again)

Do get hold of the carb counter booklet, even if you are not sure of going very low carb, you still need to know the carb value of food as it is very likely that you need to reduce carbs in some way.
Dr Charles Clark Diabetes Revolution has complete weekly meal plans in there and secions on breakfast, lunch, dinner so you can just pick one from each section each day, it doent get any easier than that. Now I prefer to cook/prepare my food from scratch, I am very fussy re additives and other nasty things in my food, but a couple of members in my diabetes self-help group got hold of Dr Charles Clark Healthy Fast Food Low Carb diet, both are very busy and cant or dont feel like cooking, the book costs just £7.99, maybe that might make things a bit less stressful?
As I said I am guessing here, I wonder if you are adding to your stress by constanly worrying 'diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol, etc' - is that what is occupying your mind all time, and thinking of your bg?
I think you are doing pretty well actually, most newly diagnosed diabetics would give their eye teeth to have redings like yours, between 5 - 6 is not so bad and een 7 isnt, you will get that down once you lost more weight and slightly reduced your carbs, just a little more, you probably can increase the carbs once you have lost excess weight, Dr Clarke writes about this in his book too. So Chrissie dont be so hard on yourself and relax a bit more, do things you enjoy doing, life isnt all about work and worrying about diabetes, what kind of things do you find relaxing? For me its a few drops of lavender or neroli aromatherapy oil and sitting ou in the shade i the garden, closing my eyes and thiking nice things, that is in summer when it is hot, I do different things in winter.
Why did you miss lunch the other day? Of course you will go hunry, and it really is not necessary to miss out lunch, you wont lose weight any quicker, insetad you will become frustrated and depressed and more stressed out. So do try to make little changes here and there into he right direction.

Love fom

Karen x

PS and you dont have to eat so much meat if you dont like it, there is fish, eggs, nuts, cheese,vegetarian options such as tofu, soya, etc that will gve you the proteing you need.