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Just Found Out I Am T2

FatBadger

Member
Messages
12
Hi all
I had a call from the surgery last week, to let me know that my blood tests confirm I am T2 Diabetic. I have an appointment tomorrow to talk to someone about it face to face. So at this point I just have no idea what to expect.

I recently turned 59, so I suppose I am now an old dog who has many new tricks to learn, despite the old saying. I have some challenges with anxiety and It is an understatement to say this is all a bit daunting. I’m not the sharpest tool in the box and the thought of reading labels and working out what I’m allowed to eat……….

I was diagnosed with pre diabetes a few years back, but I reversed it. It wasn’t an easy task and I’m pretty upset with myself that I came off the rails again and have somehow let this happen.

Anyway, I guess I face the music tomorrow and see where I go from there. But in the meantime I hoped to ask you, whether there was a good app for the ipad, like “myfitnesspal” but for diabetics. Something I can type a food into and have it say “NO!” Or “yeah, that’s ok buddy, fill yer boots.”

FatBadger.
 
Meat, fish, eggs , green veg , dairy.

Base all your meals on that list and you won't go far wrong.

Best to cook single ingredient foods from fresh.

Here's something I wrote for another new member who was asking what I eat...

So I eat any meat, fish, seafood, eggs, dairy.
If you like it green veg (anything that grows above ground) and salad stuff are pretty much ok although I tend to eat more of a meat based diet these days.
As you get more attuned to what your body likes you might find that foods you used to eat have a not so great impact. For example I used to love cucumber but since tightening up my diet it now gives me dreadful indigestion. TO be fair it probably always did but I never associated it.

Obviously avoid anything starchy (spuds, rice, pasta) and anything sweet as they'll send you blood sugars through the roof.
Get a meter and test your bloods regularly before and 1 and 2 hours after meals so you can see what pushes your bloods up the most and then avoid that in future!

Fruit is a bit of a dodgy one. I find a few berries with double cream are ok but avoid very sweet stuff especially tropical fruits.
I'd plump for cheese over fruit as dessert.

I used cream in drinks but full fat versions of milk are ok as if full fat yoghurt (just don't go for flavoured or sweetened).

I eat pretty "clean" single ingredient freshly prepared foods along with cold meats (salami, ham etc)

Looking at food labels, although you probably won't have to if yo eat "clean", I'd avoid anything that is more than 5% carbohydrate (obviously depending on how much you plan to eat of it) and try to go for fewer than 20g of carbs per day.
If you like meat you'll find it fairly easy.
 
Two sound bits of advice above

IF you are buying ready made meals or takeaways then be careful

Total Carbohydrates on the label or menu is all you really need to know.

I try to aim for 60- 80 carbs a day
.
And now most days that might one maybe 2 meals ..you might be on 3..

So that's overall .Aka 30 gms per meal for me or 20 per meal for you.

Some days easy
Some days harder

Easiest way is to make your own dinner/ meal

Meat that looks like meat.
Veg that looks like veg.

And spices salt pepper added by you
As you cook your dinner/meal.


I get the anxiety, truly .

So maybe keeping it simple, helps us not to over think too much ?

If shopping I try to be sensible..
any ingredients
Under 5gm carb per 100.is fine by me.
Anything between 5 - 10 is mmh.
If tasty and "makes" a meal, I. It goes in basket
If not then it's, .."How much will I use"?

tomato sauce for example can be high but I don't use a lot of it. So it's ok...type of thinking .

Anything over 10 has to be pretty tasty to get onto my plate...and most gets put back on shelf, and I move to next aisle .

It takes a little adjustment but it does mean You can avoid many of the aisles in the supermarket.

Cereal, sweets, most ready meals for starters .

But I won't lie, it IS s steep learning curve checking labels in everything ...yes, every thing,

until you get accustomed to what YOU can tolerate, carb wise

Bear in mind, portion size
So when judging what you can eat v carbs remember how much you'll use...

(Was horrified when I realised the portion size on cereal is 30gm...barely covers the bottom of a bowl, I used to brim the bowl with cereal & milk )

I still have baked beans, but instead of. Whole tin..(.yes, but that was old me )

I use a ramekin and use half of a very small tin, and my sugars don't spike

Makes breakfasts nicer without being too carby, for ME

And it all comes down to that, PERSONAL data

Buy and use a meter , learn what and how much of anything YOU can eat without spiking

And progress from there
 
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Thank’s folks for the helpful information and in depth replies.

If anything I feel less capable of getting my head around it this morning, than I did yesterday! Logically I know my anxiety is stopping me from thinking straight and you’d think that the ability to put that in a sentence would mean something. It doesn’t. But none of this has ever been logical.

Appointment at the doctors is looming in a few hours and at the moment I can’t see past it.

Anyway, thank’s again
FatBadger
 
I use MyFitnessPal to calculate my carb intake.

Ask your doctor if you can have a printout of your results then you will be able to compare with your next lot of tests to see how well you are doing. If there's things you don't understand you can ask about it here.

Good luck then. Let us know how you get on.
 
Nice post @Goonergal ..
I always found those visuals really helpful early day.

Got to be honest, with the change in diet direction, it helped identity some veg I had no idea off .
(Still don't when I go past any old school Asian or Carribbean grocers )

Great point about print out @zand

A bit of jumble with some surgeries going online with info & others insisting on old school papyrus

Good to have a baseline, as too often I hear new folk say they told the number/s was ok .

Ok.??..
they don't get ok back from the labs, they get numbers, because those numbers are important..

So whatever way you get it, @FatBadger
Check it out & keep it safe .

Because what gets measured, is our guide to how much we improve health wise

And it's ok not be ok

Take each day as it comes.
It can be a lot to take in

Just remember we got 'sick' over many years, so it's ok to take time to adjust appropriately..

After all it's a marathon, not a sprint race

Good luck with appointment.
 
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Hi all.
All in all I would say it was the best possible result under the circumstances. Well….. short of them having a time travel device for me I suppose.

The appointment was way longer than I expected, best part of an hour. The nurse I was talking to was really nice and my anxiety settled a bit over the course of the appointment. Not enough that they were happy with my blood pressure though and I’ve ended up bringing home a monitor to take readings over the next week.

I think I am only just over the border of Diabetes and they’ve said they’re happy not to put me on medication for the next three months, at which point they’ll reassess and see what progress I make. All in all it feels like a win to me and I’ll try hard in the next 12 weeks to show that I am moving in the right direction and don’t need to take anything. (Fingers crossed.)

Thank’s again for the info (haven’t been able to check out the links yet, because the app kept telling me to try later, but I’ll have another go later on.) and for the well wishes.

FatBadger
 
Hi and welcome.

I'm prone to anxiety, which is a beast though you have to tell yourself that you've got this and you've done it before.

I want to reduce my Hbac1 and am doing so through meds and reducing carbs and exercise as well.

I also like checking in here as there's loads of support and great tips.

Here's to a better score next time around.
 
Hi folks.
Nine weeks in and things are looking good.

My official follow up blood test and appointment aren’t until next month. But a thing with the gym not happening yet (I won’t bore you with the nitty gritty) saw me calling the doctors to ask a question and they ended up arranging an interim blood test, ahead of the one next month. And the long and short of it is that my blood sugar levels have returned to normal.

I don’t remember where I started exactly, I know I was only just the wrong side of the range. I think it was either 53 or 54. But at any rate I am now 40 and apparently anything under 41 is considered a normal level. If the levels stay normal over 18 months, the nurse says I am considered in remission. (If I’m remembering right.)

Recommended here on the forums, early on I bought “The Diabetes Code” by Dr Jason Fung. I’ve not got very far into it yet as frankly when God was giving out brains, I thought he said “Trains” and so I asked for a big slow one. So I’m finding it a bit of a tough read, despite it being praised as accessible. I’m only just now getting past the sections which were determined to make me feel better, by describing the various ways things (things I’d miss) could drop off me if left untreated! I’m looking forward immensely, getting to the bits which talk about T2 Diabetes being a thing you can reverse, rather than a life sentence.

Frightening how different parts of the medical sector have polar opposed opinions on treatment for this even today! Your FatBadger was pretty much brought up to take what doctors say as gospel and this is pretty much the first time I’ve had reason to doubt that this was unquestionably the right policy.

“So if I get it into remission,” I asked the nurse, “will I still be Diabetic?” Biting my lip to stop from asking whether Diabetes is for life, not just for Christmas. I suppose I’ll have to wait till I get further into the book, to discover the difference between “in remission” and Dr Fungs reversal. Because to me one means it’s gone, while the other means it could still pounce on you if you’re not careful.

Anyway, as usual I’m droning on. When all I really came to do was update the thread with some good news. I mean I’ve still a long way to go. The blood sugar might be normal, but the waist size? Hmmmm…. I’m not ready for the mirror just yet, no.
But overall? Well yes… shiny.
Badger
 
Well done. My view on the remission/reversal thing is that it's a bit like being allergic to something. You can maybe manage to exclude the thing from your life, so you no longer get the nasty reactions; and most of the time that's OK, as long as you keep it up. Let the thing back in your life, and the problems come back. Keeps me motivated, anyway
 


BLOOMING BRILLIANT..
Well done.

Jason Fung ..I loved the book
But you did make chuckle with the "trains" quip.

I thought the early part was laying out the 'usual' route we get left with .

He then goes on, imho to simplify some quite technical data, into ideas I could get my head around

And finishes with the simpleness of reducing the risks from T2D, by better monitoring of the very thing many describe as our 'Allergy'...(again keeping it simple)

Are we ever cured...mmh

Technically we could sit in the sun all day long, without taking precautions...but we don't because that's not really sensible.

We limit the risks by wearing hats, using sunscreen, etc etc.

Same for T2D.
We could get to safety (HBA1c 40)
Then go back to eating how we did before

Chances are, while it took many years to get to T2D danger zone...once DX and returned back to normal numbers, we'd be back much quicker, to the danger zone, imho.

And be right back where we were at DX

Happily, I think many, while relaxing a little bit once back to safer numbers, will still have learned an awful lot about food, carbs & their interaction with us, to make a head long rush back to a full carb diet, unlikely.

Cured..?
No, I think it will always hover over us.
But if you keep taking steps to monitor it, is it really an issue .
 

I love your imagery here of diabetes. Like Tigger.
I also like badgers.
I wish you continuing success with nutrition labels and eating!
 
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