Hi all, thanks for being there/here

Hi all

My first post so excuse any poor posting practice

I'm a tall 63 year old who about a year ago I was told I was diabetic. Was it a shock? you bet it was.! I'm 6 foot three , very active and had a BMI of around 25. It took an age to be told I had diabetes, during which time I'd google the life out of it and found the Newcastle diet which I put myself on despite objections from the diabetic nurse. Its a brutal diet but for me it worked. Over the 2 months of being on the diet, my average blood sugar reading dropped to 5.7 and I'd lost 10 kilos. Friends who hadnt seen me for a while thought I had cancer as I now look skinny. ( my BMI is now 21 )

Thanks to info on this site and others ( I've been lurking for a while) and again against the advise of my Dr and diabetic nurse I blood check often. between 5- 10 times per day, depending on how much control I can see from the meter reading. I also now take my blood pressure readings and O2 and Temperature often. Its my body, I figure and want to understand whats going on with it. I buy my blood strips on ebay when they are cheap, often ones which have short shelf lives which I test against regular ones and have found this to be ok.

My practice with BS testing is to cut out any foods which keep me above 6 for more than 2 hours, unless there is something I cant avoid.

I've discovered new ways of eating which is truly delicious, it is far harder work though and sometimes I miss the casualness of just eating anything .

I used to think I was a healthy eater, I made my own bread daily from spelt flour and lots of seeds and eat 4/5 pieces of fruit a day. None of that now, my old breakfast , porridge oats and a banana gives me BS of 8 for 3/4 hours.

Its still tough , by which I mean there are things I still dont understand. Lots of things . I've read everything I can and done a few courses including the open university open access course which is quite general but gives an overview of the subject.

At the moment I'm struggling to understand the activity / exercise thing. I'm happy to share what I've found out and what I wonder about..... if it helps anyone.

So thank you for being here, and hello!!!

re activity : I'm aiming for the 10,000 steps per day that I used to do but of late find that if I do more than around 2000 in one session my BG just climbs. Eg this morning I woke with readings of 5.7 had some water and walked 5000 steps and my readings were 6.9 , Breakfast ( Eggs , tomatoes and grilled peppers) took them down to 6.5 , carried on dropping to 6.1 at lunch (celery, peanut butter and nuts) then started climbing back to mid sixes again. This may have something to do with an inguinal hernia surgery 4 weeks ago , its tricky to know, I'm trying eating at different times, resting more etc. etc. etc. I cant seem to find any pattern ....

Happy to give something like that a try, I prefer my coffee black but get your gist and will try it . Thanks

I have to add that some days its absolutley fine though but I take your point give it a good try and monitor it all

I'm with you there. I'll try it for a week or so to give it a good chance. Best thoughts

ickihun said:

It's all about finding what works for you and then how to tweak it to perfect it.
Then have skills to recover from bad hyper times and sick days.
Exercise is extremely different for must of us. I guess because we all have different shaped muscles and stature. Genes can affect our exercise performance too.
Test and see. Use your meter to your advantage.

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Hi again, one week on from your considered thoughts and yep you are right. some protein as soon as I get up and after the morning walk and my sugars are back below 6 pretty much all day. Thanks for the reminder . Many thanks again