I'm Rosie and I'm a carboholic

[runner2009]

Well, edit on what I actually had today as we couldn't eat all we'd planned for so it ended up as carbs 26,cals 1161 out of 1632 - so not over at all. Husband didn't have potatoes either as he thought there was plenty without that!

@RosieLKH you are doing marvelousness really you are. Here are 2-tips; first for carb / sweet cravings I have a carton of organic double heavy cream that I take sips from when I am feeling low or hungry. It taste so great and kills my carb cravings. I just take a sip. Second, when you build up minus calories from exercising DO NOT use them to add food. Your weight loss will stall out.

Remember even keeping track, most of the history of the human condition has been to get enough calories to keep from starving, so we have been genetically programmed to underestimate our calorie intake and over estimate our calorie burn rate.




Sent from Runner2009 Burt

 

[RosieLKH]

A good day, butgot sunburnt while gardening - ouch!

Week 1 - Sat 17/5/14 - carbs 31, cals 1759 out of 1848, BG a.m. 8.7.

Still feeling OK about what I'm eating. Haven't been hungry. Haven't felt deprived. Am out for pub lunch tomorrow, so that'll be an interesting challenge.

R x

 

[skal]

Oh, this is fab reading! I am just trying to get back on track and struggling after having several years off the low carb wagon and these kind of stories will surely help my motivation!

I must say that low carb breakfasts are my firm favourites as I often have bacon and scrambled or fried eggs.
I wish you luck and motivation! And the blood sugar readings are fab, mine went down within days from 15ish down to 6ish on my first low carb adventure.

 

[Solestar]

Rosie, it's fantastic that you're taking such steps to self-manage your diabetes. If we all listened to Diabetes UK's dietary advice, we'd only be further lining the pockets of the pharmaceutical industry. I'm an admin of a Facebook group that goes against standard dietary guidelines for diabetics and uses a low carb/high fat approach to achieve near normal glucose levels. There are nearly 2,500 members, the majority are type 2 and many have managed to either reduce their medication or eliminate it altogether by this approach.

I've had type 1 diabetes for 28 years and unfortunately, for 27 of them I fell for the 'eat whatever you like but cover it with carbs' mantra. It took me that long to work out that following standard dietary guidelines wasn't working for me. You'd think I would've seen it sooner, (I know, right) but the penny never dropped. With Hba1c's consistently in the low to mid teens, I was constantly juggling and tweaking and trying to gain good glycaemic control, but instead, feeling like a failure because I never could. The diabetic specialist team would throw the questions at me: Do you want to go blind? Do you want your kidneys to pack up? Do you want to lose your legs or die from a heart attack? Of course I bloody didn't! That's like asking a child, 'do you want something to cry for?'

But they didn't see the endless hours of weighing and measuring food, trying to balance doses of insulin to carbohydrates, the endless frustration of the numbers never being where I wanted them to be, waking up in debilitating hypo or feeling the adverse effects of uncontrolled high blood glucose levels. They just looked at the numbers and made up their own minds - bad, bad diabetic! The doctors would tut, my friends and family would sigh and I'd be riddled with feelings of guilt, rage, frustration and despair and sometimes, but only very occasionally, elation, as I hit the magic number!

Now, my last A1c in February was 7.7, down from 11.6 in October and hopefully, will be down even further at the next one. My insulin requirements have reduced by nearly 70%, the range of swing between highs and lows is much less and I hypo less frequently. Ask me if I'm angry that I wasn't given this dietary advice nearly 30 years ago! (Julie)​

 

[RosieLKH]

Right. I knew today was going to be a problem. Out for a pub lunch with people I've never met before. I know me. I hate seeming different - drawing attention to what I'm eating, 'cos then people notice you're fat, right? Like they don't notice you at 17 stone! Anyway, I knew what would happen and I am not going to feel guilty for it because that way I'll despise myself and then binge eat. Today was a planned for blip on the low carbing and that's OK for me.

Week 1 - Sun 18/5/14 - carbs 127, cals 1497 out of 1200 so over by 297, BG a.m. 8.5., early evening, 2 hrs after lunch etc 10.8 - but this isn't as high as it was about this time of day at the beginning of May when I can see 16.5 and 15.7 in my log book. I wonder if it will be higher tomorrow a.m. then? That'll be interesting to see. I'm still learning a lot about how my blood sugar changes, but I'm not going to be testing quite so much next week.

Anyway, I had a lovely time out, feel fine about eating more carbs and know I will not be eating them tomorrow. My shoulders are even more sunburnt than yesterday though as we sat outside and I hadn't thought to take cream!

Tomorrow I am going to start the new you in 42 challenge and fit in an extra 30 minutes exercise each day. In fact I might even do some now.

R x

 

[RosieLKH]

Week 2 - Mon 18/5/14 - carbs 107 (I tried a different breakfast. Yoghurt and blueberries had a lot more carbs in that I'd expected - didn't have any bread, potatoes or pasta though - just the carbs in good things), cals 1509 out of 1427 so over by 82 - which was an orange and some nuts) , BG a.m. 9.9 - back to poached egg and ham for my brekkie then.

This week my aims are to up my exercise with 'new you in 42, and to see if my BG will go below 8. Other aims - renovate garden furniture and finish editing my novel.

 

[zand]

Good luck with the rest of week 2 Rosie!

 

[RosieLKH]

Week 2 - Tues 19/5/14

• carbs 63 - should NOT have had a bottle of cider - didn't need it - should have ignored it staring at me and put it in a cupboard.
• cals - 1553 out of 1335 so over by 218 - Oh dear. Went wrong today with the cider, and compounded it by snacking on crispy bacon driving home from shopping after working. I was hungry (never shop when you're...yeah!) and cooked meat seemed like a good, low carb option. Especially when all those end of day cut price pastries and doughnuts were calling. Then I had a handful of nuts later in the evening. I am going to have to come to terms with trying low cal and low carb and not eat the higher cal low carb snacks.
• BG - a.m. 10.2 - highest since starting low carb - but I hope this is left over from Sunday, or it's down to going over 100 in my carbs yesterday.

No weight lost this week - or I've lost 2lb - as I suspect I updated my weight wrong last week. Anyway, at the hospital pre-op on 7.5.14 for the later cancelled knee op (due to high BG) I weighed 111kg, which is 244lb, and now I'm 238lb. So I'm telling myself it's going down. I thought last Tues I was 17st (238lb), then whenever I've got on the scales this week it's been 240 or 242 lb, then this morning it was 238lb. I guess I just leave of cheering myself till next week then!

 

[Spiker]

Crispy bacon is a good snack surely?

Cider is bad though. Worse than anything except alcopops and sweet liqueurs.

Sent from the Diabetes Forum App

 

[skal]

Hey, don't beat yourself up! Every scale is different and will show different numbers so just rely on your regular scale.
Also, out of interest, why are you restricting calories? For me, the biggest appeal is the cream, nuts and butter as well as bacon and probably consume at least 2000 calories and still losing weight quite effectively (well, when I am on track anyway..) .

 

[RosieLKH]

Skal - I just can't see that I'd lose weight on 2000 cals, especially while on Gliclazide. I can see the value of low carb for reducing my blood sugar. Today I have hit my lowest recording in a year - 7.3, but I am a lifelong calorie counter, so getting my head around low carb working for weight loss is like believing in fairies. I've been so long sold on cals in need to be less than cals burnt. Maybe I need to read up on it more.

Spiker - I know, I know - cider! I don't know why I did it. I could have had a white wine spritzer just as easily. I think once I put in to MyFitnessPal what I've had, and seen what it does to my BG, then I believe it's a bad thing and hopefully don't do it again.

 

[Spiker]

I am a lifelong calorie counter, so getting my head around low carb working for weight loss is like believing in fairies. I've been so long sold on cals in need to be less than cals burnt. Maybe I need to read up on it more.

OK here's the really short version. It's "calories in, calories out" as long as you have an elevated insulin level, such as moderate carbs (or more) would cause. If you don't have an elevated insulin level, it's a case of "calories in, calories out yer bum".

 

[skal]

Spiker, that was priceless!
And must be true, as my typical days food would be 2 fried eggs, 3-4 rashers streaky bacon and tomatoes or mushroom for brekkie, salad with full fat cheese, olives, coleslaw or a tuna and full fat mayo for lunch and a steak, veg and a double cream and peppercorn sauce for dinner with nuts for snacks. I'm only 5 ft 3 and 17 stone and eat like a 6 ft 5 man with no portion control as a rule. I still lost over a stone in a month and got all under 6 blood sugars. As a brainwashed low fat dieter (attempted) it sounds ludicrous... But read the Atkins book and Dr Bernstein's book and you will get a really clear and easily understood explanation why and how it all works and why many people reach a "remission" with their diabetes with halt of disease progression and complications. Some even see a degree of reversal with kidneys, neuropathy and vascular problems. I know it sounds insane, but for my own experience, my HDL cholesterol went from 1 to 2.8 in weeks by eating saturated fat and red meat.

 

[zand]

Skal - I just can't see that I'd lose weight on 2000 cals, especially while on Gliclazide. I can see the value of low carb for reducing my blood sugar. Today I have hit my lowest recording in a year - 7.3, but I am a lifelong calorie counter, so getting my head around low carb working for weight loss is like believing in fairies. I've been so long sold on cals in need to be less than cals burnt. Maybe I need to read up on it more.
Spiker - I know, I know - cider! I don't know why I did it. I could have had a white wine spritzer just as easily. I think once I put in to MyFitnessPal what I've had, and seen what it does to my BG, then I believe it's a bad thing and hopefully don't do it again.

Rosie, I hope I haven't misled you because I am low-carbing and calorie counting as well. I ate a low carb diet for over 2 years with enough protein and fat so that I didn't go hungry and only had minimal weightloss. It might not be like that for you. Many people lose weight doing this, I didn't. The advantage of not calorie counting is that you need never go hungry, because you can always have cheese or some nuts as a snack ( or bacon as someone said above) and then you won't be so likely to fall for the cider or other carb treats. As I said I calorie count as well because I desperately need to lose the weight now, but it does make it harder to resist those treats because I do get hungry sometimes. Also if I ever met you when you were walking your dog, I would love to walk and chat with you!
x

 

[RosieLKH]

I think what I'll do is set the calorie levels on MFP a bit higher until I get used to the low carb bit and see how I get on, but I will try not using any extra cals I earn through exercise. Does that sound like a plan?

So far today I've had ham and egg for breakfast, but then because I've been busy I kind of skipped lunch and opted for snacking on a couple of strips of bacon, a few nuts and green tea. Amazingly I've not been at all hungry.

I'm off now to munch on celery and then tidy up the mess I've made planting up the pots on my patio. I shall also prod my lazy dog, who hasn't moved from the sofa since we went for a walk at midday. That's a greyhound mix for you!

 

[zand]

Yes that does sound like a good idea to me. I reckon you havn't been hungry because you havn't had any carbs. You've just reminded me that I have some plants to pot up too!

 

[RosieLKH]

Week 2 - Weds 20/5/14 A good day.

• carbs 43
• cals - 1194 - I've set my cals on MFP to a daily goal of 1280, which should give a slow weight loss.
• BG - 7.3 - very good for me. I've only been below 8 three times in the last year of not bothering to change diet, but occasionally testing blood.

I'm happy with this for yesterday.

Made the mistake this morning of having gravad lax with poached egg for my breakfast. It was nowhere near as nice as smoked salmon and I gave up with it, to the dog's benefit.

 

[Spiker]

I didn't know there was a difference between gravad lax and smoked salmon.! Learn something knew etc...

Sent from the Diabetes Forum App

 

[RosieLKH]

Gravad lax is salt cured - with herbs and often in brine - so has a rawer (not a real word, methinks!), slimier texture - which I find fine with slices of rye bread, but not with poached egg (and I'm generally more squeamish at breakfast).
Smoked salmon is, well, smoked - even cold smoking gives a slightly less slimy feel.

Edit - just found out gravad lax also uses sugar in the curing process - so that's another reason not to buy it again. 3g carbs in 100g, as opposed to 1g in smoked salmon. Calories are much the same.

 

[Spiker]

I've set my cals on MFP to a daily goal of 1280, which should give a slow weight loss.

One thing to be aware of with daily calorie targets that a lot of people don't realise is that when you set a daily calorie target, you are in effect setting a goal weight, not so much a weight loss rate. Why? Because once you reach a certain weight that matches that number of calories as the basal metabolism requirement for that weight, you will stop losing weight.

In other words if you stop losing weight, further reduce your daily calorie target.

(And you know that if you low carb low enough, you don't need to calorie count right? I'm sure you do, just checking!)