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Its time for me to change.....

I

iGoode

Member
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7
Hi all. This is my first post. I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes about 2 years ago now and I've not really took it seriously. I'm overweight (over 26 stone) and my health is slowly getting worse. On average my sugar levels are around 14. I used to drink 2 litres of fizzy pop a night and order many takeaways. I've tried diet after diet and always gave up after a few weeks.

I've setup a website called http://www.iGoode.co.uk where I maintain a tracker of how I'm doing, what I'm eating. Any advice would be good, I'm on metformin and glucozide at the moment.

Andy
 
Welcome to the forum Andy,wow your a big lad!read your website.Do you really like shredded wheat,it sucks!![:p]Two things,drink water instead of fizzy drinks.Fizzy drinks are full of calories,the 'low sugar' ones are packed with other sweeteners which are high in calories.Keep the carbs down i.e. how many potatoes are you eating?
Your BS should be down below 7 to be good,this is best achieved by eating a low carb diet.Read some of the threads here especially Fergus and you will pick up some good tips and recipes.There are also some good links in this part of the forum for carb counting.Good luck with this we'll watch with interest.

Knowledge is the key to control
 
Hi Sue - tonight I had about 8 small new potatoes. Shredded Wheat tasted like cardboard but I'm determined to finish the box at least. When I drink water, I seem to become more thirsty for some reason. I used to dirnk a glass of fizzy pop then become thirsty within 10minutes and need another glass, it was awful. I'll take a look at some low carbs options, thanks for the advice :)

Andy
 
Andy, you're in the right place for lots of great help and advice.

My advice is to eliminate the carbohydrates from your diet as much as possible. By that I mean sugars (obviously!) starches, bread, pasta, rice and potatoes. Only then will you stop overproducing insulin.

Insulin is primarily responsible for manufacturing and storing body fat. Also, when insulin levels are high, it is impossible to burn the fat stores they have helped you create.

As Richard Bernstein famously said, the idea that eating fat makes you fat is as scientifically logical as saying eatin tomatoes will turn you red.

Base your new diet around meat, fish, cheese, nuts and vegetables and you'll find your weight will improve and your blood sugars will normalise very quickly.

All the best with it, Andy

fergusc
 
Cut the potatoes down to 3-4 small if you can.The good thing about drinking water is you can drink as much as you want without calories!I always got more thirsty with fizzy drinks.I'm sure it has an ingredient that makes your mouth dry so that you want more!I too finished the box,but never again! I now have one weetabix,S/S milk and a teaspoonful of cinnamon. You could try cinnamon on your shredded wheat,might make it more palatable.Cinnamon BTW can help reduce your BS.How often do you test your BS?

Knowledge is the key to control
 
Even now I didn't know carbohydrates were so bad... I've kinda closed my eyes to all this and hoped it would go away but of course it just gets worse. I have two kids and I wanna be around when their growing up, no more takeaways and if drinks like Pepsi Max are bad in other ways then its time I ditched that too.

I had been drinking lots of Tropicana recently too but the natural sugars in caused me to go "sky high" as I call it. Feels like I'm in another world.

Andy
 
I like tropicana too, Andy but I limit it to a small glass with breakfast (much to Fergus' disgust:D)Yes it certainly can put up you sugars.I took a drink of it just before I came home from work one morning and ,when I tested about three quarters of an hour later my usual 5.7 had shot up to 7.5!
Unless you are very strong willed maybe it will be better for you to start changing one thing at a time.Changing too much at once can sometimes have you running for the 'comfort'foods when you get stressed out!

Knowledge is the key to control
 
I been dirnking the Tropicana's by the carton which gave me "The Thirst" after I finished it. I realise its all a big change and the links and articles in this forum have already opened me up. Would you be against me putting a link from my site to here?

Andy
 
You have the link in your first post which works just fine.I'm sure some of the members will be following your everyday diet and advising you!
No wonder you were thirsty if you drank a whole carton of tropicana!Goodness knows what your BS went up to!!

Knowledge is the key to control
 
I'm sorry, Sue, I don't mean to be a food fascist! I'm even nice to children and small animals sometimes.

I love my food, I really do. But I do find it exasperating that the organisations whose responsibilty it is to educate and inform us have failed so miserably.

Andy, be very wary of what the NHS dieticians tell you. A lot of it is more likely to kill than to cure!

All the best,

fergusc
 
Thanks for the advice... The NHS dieticians seem to vary on what they say depending on which way the sun is shining. They have advised me to drink low sugar drinks and not to touch banana's of all things.

Andy
 
I don't eat bananas but only because they give me indigestion!Low sugar drinks are packed with calories so not good for dieting.Stick to the water.I'd be interested to see what you lose by just drinking water and no fizzy drinks/juice.I drink tea as well,especially at breakfast time.

Knowledge is the key to control
 
Don't know if this will help but I managed to lose 7 stone last year.
My downfall was orange juice and lemonade.
I replaced the lemonade with sparkling water and gradually reduced the amount of juice until I was virtually drinking just water.
I changed one thing at a time. If I'd tried to change everything at once I'd have failed.
It worked for me anyway and its only my opinion

Out of my mind,
Back in 5 minutes


>^..^<
 
For water today - I've been drinking Perfectly Clear (Apple Flavor) and me and the guys in the office can not work out if there good or bad.....

Andy
 
Hi Andy,

The Perfectly Clear range is sweetened with aspartame, which has no carbohydrate value so won't raise blood sugars, but I'm not sure about the apple flavouring they use. The label on the bottle must by law state what the carbohydrate content is and how much of that carbohydrate is sugar. You just need to look at the product contents label. I tend to steer clear of flavoured water because when you look at the contents you often find a surprisingly high level of carbohydrate.
 
Well the first week is over and I'm quite excited for tomorrow's weigh in. The BBC have invited me onto their local radio show (BBC Manchester at 11.45am). I've taken your advice and tried the sparkling water which is a good substitute for the fizzies.

Andy
 
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