How did you get here, how have things changed and where are you going?

[LindsayJane]

Okay that is awesome and I was not expecting that, what did you make that with?!

@Goonergal

These are my experiences as follows!

- How has your way of eating/diabetes management changed over time? Or has it stayed the same?

Technically I was diagnosed a year and a half ago so it changed majorly over time, from Metformin to Metformin and Sitagliptin to now nothing at all but diet. I refused to take charge at first and just went on being the bad boy that I was and even ignored the Eatwell to my own detriment so my management took a massive U-turn.

- Are there things you do (or don’t do) now that you would never have believed possible/even considered at diagnosis?

Cutting out all sweets and drinking black coffee with no sweetener alongside watching what I eat and eating more fat! Plus the fact I am comfortable not eating that much in a day now, even just once is enough and now I am dipping my toe into carnivore territory I never saw myself going that way.


- Are there things you still struggle with, regret (if that’s not too strong a word) or plan on changing?

Yes... Honestly I do look back on my life before this and wonder why I ever let it get here but now? I am taking change of my health, making changes that last and will help me in the future plus not giving up on myself or the people around me. The biggest change was coming here and learning about LCHF and Keto and all the wonderfully supportive people. I now help to advise my own friends on their own diet and help navigate things. So yes I do regret it sometimes but I choose the channel the energy into the positives.

I 'made it' with the help of a friendly sound technician! In all honesty, I have no idea how he did it - all I can claim is that the idea is mine. It's going to be a background soundtrack to an art installation I'm working on. Well done you on managing OMAD - I'm not ready to go that way yet!

 

[ickihun]

I've found a holiday is very important for my mental health to stay healthy. Of course we are all different but I cannot be strict 100% all of the time, just most of the time.
A great relaxed Easter has me rearing to go again.
Heavy monitoring, 800cals if I want and compliance to all who need it from me.
I continue fighting my bodies instincts. To eat more than I'm using.
May return to my fitness app.

 

[Listlad]

We’re not talking carbs, just tasty low carb things like very high % chocolate, nut butters, sweeteners and cream. That’s my area for development!

Very interested to hear from others.

It’s only been since the end of January for me but that is 3 solid months now on a Diabetes friendly diet. I haven’t dropped carbs completely. But I continue to keep them low, less than 100 and greater than 30grams per day. I am managing to steer clear of the “nasties” and not succumb to carbohydrate indulgences. If in a situation where I am away from home and there is nothing easily accessible that is acceptable then I do without or do with what I can pull together under the circumstances. I don’t think that does me any harm.

It hasn’t been easy for me @Goonergal, but it is a lot easier now, knowing what I shouldn’t eat, where to get what I should eat from, how to cook it, dealing with days away and eating out etc etc. And I have even weaned our nipper off breakfast cereals and onto a cooked breakfast comprising meat, eggs, milk etc etc. She whined at first but doesn’t ask for breakfast cereal now - her resolve and desire has been broken and even asks for scrambled egg in the morning.

I am due to meet up with the local surgery PPG team next week. It will be interesting to see what is covered at the meeting. I am expecting that for T2 diabetics being treated at our local surgery, making the necessary changes in diet being a challenge for a good percentage of them. We shall see.

So it is more of the same for me and hopefully continue to watch the relevant numbers drop, for now.

 

[Member496333]

How did I get here? I ate what my government told me to eat.

How have things changed? I now eat the opposite of what my government told me to eat.

Where am I going? Swerving an early grave.

 

[wiflib]

Got fat on low fat home cooking and the carb addiction that went with it.
Got T2 which led to food addiction freedom.
Started eating all that lovely stuff we are not supposed to and at 58, I'm fitter and healthier than I was at 38.

My plan is to live until I'm very old but I'll be active and sharp. My mum is still alive at 98 although the only thing holding her together is Mr Kipling cakes and an unhealthy obsession to tea and wine gums.

 

[yorkshirelad27]

How did I get here: years of eating high carb and high fat foods together; drinking cider three times a week and being a yo-yo dieter.

The biggest change: my HBA1C going from 61 to 39 in three months since T2 diagnosis and feeling energised and good about myself.

Where am I going: continuing with keto/low carb diet, exercising and meditating. Promoting Keto/low carb to others and letting others know you can do it and live with diabetes.

 

[yorkshirelad27]

How did I get here: years of eating high carb and high fat foods together; drinking cider three times a week and being a yo-yo dieter.

The biggest change: my HBA1C going from 61 to 39 in three months since T2 diagnosis and feeling energised and good about myself.

Where am I going: continuing with Leto/low carb diet, exercising and meditating. Promoting Keto/low carb to others and letting people know that you can do it and live with diabetes.

 

[Veryanxious]

Over eating, trying to get fat body like everyone else so that I wouldn't called weak and skinny and eat with society accepted proportions.
Ended up looking swelled and with insulin resistance.
I want improve my insulin sensitivity, so my path to find out food and exercise that will help me go there.
I have had excellent results with keto, I dived straight into it never saw my BG above 100 even after food.
But now trying to experiment a bit with carbs and exercise combination.
I am planning to figure out amount of carbs that would just keep me out out of ketosis and doesn't get stored in cells and dont want spike me BG as well. Though Intermittent fasting is permanent for me now.
I think I am extremely intolerant towards carbs, yesterday ate half roti made with wheat flour and ended up retaining 1kg water weight and again looking swelled up. Though I ate it after one month of strict keto that could be a reason too.

 

[bulkbiker]

I am planning to figure out amount of carbs that would just keep me out out of ketosis

Any particular reason why you would want that?

 

[Member496333]

If you’re insulin resistant and can’t process carbohydrate safely then intentionally trying to stay out of ketosis might not be the best strategy. You’ll be teasing your body into remaining a default glucose burner. Most likely it will also manufacture glucose where otherwise it would have used ketones.

Might work, might not. Experience tells me it’ll be a frustrating nightmare flirting with carbohydrate and attempting to manually maintain energy homeostasis. Probably a perfect playground in which gluconeogenesis can get to work producing glucose that the rest of the system doesn’t want.

 

[Laserqueen]

Hi! Been reading here for about a year, learned a lot from all of you.

1. I was eating the high carbohydrate, low fat, 6 small meals a day paradigm, and then landed here, with Type 2 DM and high blood pressure and over 100 pounds overweight. Now I follow a LCHF diet, IF 16/8 schedule, two meals a day regimen.

2. Things I never thought I'd do at diagnosis: I love amusement parks, hiking, kayaking/canoeing and zip lining. I hadn't participated in those activities in years. This summer, my two teens and I are going to take a few weekends and do all those things together. We are all very happy about this.

3.Things I still struggle with: I know this is strange and seems like not many understand, but I had always been a strong healthy tall woman that carried more weight than society thought acceptable. Always shopped at the largest end of any clothing store. I find shopping now to be incredibly overwhelming. I've no idea what size I am or how to navigate the "normal" part of the store. I struggle with my smaller body and it's unfamiliar. And I know more changes are ahead- I'm about 2/3 of the way to a healthy weight to carry for me.

Thank you all so much here in the Type 2 forum- I've been journeying silently with you for a year, now here in a proper way.

 

[Chook]

I think diabetes was coming for a lot of years. Thinking back there were symptoms as long ago as 1978, maybe even before that. I really struggled with my weight and yoyo dieted for years. Eventually I decided that for my sanity my best option was to be overweight but eat a very 'healthy' diet - you know the one: virtually no meat or fat, plenty of brown carbs, loads of veg, huge (and I mean HUGE) amounts of fruit - and I slowly got bigger and bigger. Then one day I noticed the world was all cloudy and out of focus. By the end of that day I was on Metformin with a lovely laminated diet sheet that set out my new diet... which was exactly the same as the previous one. A few months later and, no surprise, I was bigger with even higher BGs and I was prescribed insulin.

A couple of years later I made a really stupid mistake with the insulin and scared myself silly. I decided there had to be a better way and devised what I thought was a revolutionary very low carb diet. It was a couple of months later that I found this forum and was thrilled to find other people who were low carbing (but just a bit disappointed that I wasn't the first!!!)

How things have changed... well, the night of the insulin mistake I really couldn't see a future for myself, I wasn't even sure I'd see the end of that year. Now I'm several years off the insulin and am able to keep my BGs at a reasonable level by low carbing and I feel much more positive about my health.