Holiday and travelling advice please.

Hi @Leafygreen welcome to the forum, I will tags @daisy1 who has great information for new members. I will also tag a few members who are in/from Australia who will be able to give you better advice ( @Mep @muzza3 )

Have you notified your travel insurance of your T2 diagnosis

I think from your post you pretty well have it under control
You will be a long time in the air and will have to be careful with the meals on the flight, especially watch out for breaded coatings on fish and chicken as I know for me these have a disporoportionate effect on blood glucose.
In Oz if you like fish try Barramundi in Oz ---watch out for the bones but good eating,
Steak is good and cheap in Oz but you probably have to watch eating too much red meat otherwise it is very much the same as style of diet as we get here.

Leafygreen said:

Hello All,
I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes just over a Month ago and my fasting results were 7.0 and 7.5, I am not on any medication and will be tested in two months time. I am 62 years old and retired early because of a heart condition and am in the lucky situation that I can exercise twice a day (on my treadmill) and have changed my diet to no sugar and low carbs and my results now are well back into the normal range.
We will be going on our once in a lifetime holiday to Dubai then Australia and will be away form home for a Month and would welcome any advice on foods to eat/avoid while away from home. I tried porridge this morning instead of my usual bran,nuts seeds and yogurt and had a spike in my results so will avoid if possible.

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Leafygreen, I was diagnosed 3 weeks before embarking upon a proposed 9 month trip to a third world country, so I can appreciate where your mind has been running.

My suggestion would be that you continue to work with your meter and alongside keep a food diary. That way you can fairly quickly build up a list of foods you can eat at will, those you can eat sometimes and those which are sadly off the agenda, for a while at least. Armed with that, and continued testing, I think you'll be fine.

Bottom line is, a month isn't a lifetime and if you have a couple of tricky days where your food options aren't the best, all you can do is pick the best choice you can see, and try not to eat heaps of it, without going hungry. You may find the most challenging environment is your long haul flying, where options are clearly limited and the only time I opted for a Diabetic meal, it still had loads of carbs - aligned to the NHS Eat Well Plate. I don't bother to have dietary meals any more, as I'd rather not bring attention to myself, and anyway, the special meals come so far in advance of the regular serving, it means one either waits and has a cooled meal or is faced with the prospect of eating before one's travelling companion(s).

I really do hope your trip is a great success. My own was wonderful, although I did come back, mid trip, after 4 months, to see how I was doing. During that time, I had managed to reduce my HbA1c score to a non-diabetic level, so something must have gone OK. I returned to my trip with renewed vigour.

Good luck with it all. It's a shocking diagnosis, but once you get your head around what gives, it can be managed pretty well.

Hi Leafygreen - I'm in Australia.

You shouldn't have much of a problem travelling about here. You just need to ask for the food you want basically if you can't find exactly what you're after. Also if you're going to stay in hotels, try and get the apartment style or kitchenette where you can cook your own meal if you want to. You may be near markets or green grocery stores where you can buy your fresh vegetables, etc. When I eat out these days I'm usually always asking them to adjust a dish for me. I don't normally have a problem with that. Also it's a good idea to carry food with you, or buy extra in case you need it later. I'm not sure what your travel plans are... but you should be fine if you're going to be in the big cities here. You may have less choice in towns. We also have fast food places and you can always choose low carb options from them. Eg. get chicken pieces, salad, and a drink. If I get carbs with meals I just eat what I want of it. Eg. if I'm eating a roll or something I will half the bread or less and leave the rest behind. The servings can be big here too... so ask about the entree sizes. Some of the entrees here are plenty for me. Sometimes I order an entree and ask for garden vegetables as a side. I wish you well on your travels.

@Leafygreen - Hello and Welcome to the Forum.

@Leafygreen Hi and welcome, you'll find lots of helpful, kind folk here.. ☺

@Leafygreen

Hello and welcome to the forum Here is some basic information we give to new members and I hope this will be useful to you during your trip. Ask as many questions as you need to and someone will be able to help. Have a wonderful time.

BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEW MEMBERS

Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.

A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you’ll find over 150,000 people who are demonstrating this.

On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.

The role of carbohydrate

Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.

If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.

The bad news

Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.

The good news

People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.

Controlling your carbs

The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.
There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:

• Reduce your carbohydrate intake
• Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates

Reduce your carbohydrates

A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.

The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.

Choosing better carbohydrates

Another option is to replace ‘white carbohydrates’ (such as white bread, white rice, white flour etc) with whole grain varieties. The idea behind having whole grain varieties is that the carbohydrates get broken down slower than the white varieties –and these are said to have a lower glycaemic index.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes-and-whole-grains.html

The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.

Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes

LOW CARB PROGRAM:
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/low carb program


Eating what works for you

Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.

To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.

The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:

Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)

• Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l

However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.

Access to blood glucose test strips

The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:

• structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
• self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education

Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to bloodglucose testing supplies.

You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic

Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.

No problem with Dubai and Australia.
Both English speaking, so no issues guessing what the menu actually is.
You'll get anything you ask for in Dubai, so just ask them to change the menu to what you want.
Australia is much the same menu as here, and recognisable as such.

Hi @Leafygreen

Welcome this a great forum to help you along your Diabetes journey. Great to see that you have ordered a meter as it is the number one tool in getting control and being able to actually check the effect of food on your blood glucose levels.

It wonderful that you are coming downunder and you should have no problems foodwise. Labeling is great and most foods would be available that you have at home. Feel free if you have any specific concerns to ask here

Have a great trip