Thanks for your replies. I’m terrified of meds because of side effects, I suffer from severe emetophobia and scared they will make me sick.
Will they give me a monitor or do I need to buy one.
I’ve definitely found my appetite has lowered due to low carbs. My go to snack is now popcorn or apple with peanut butter on!
I need to lose about 4 stone so I have a long way to go
The test that came back was the fasting one, the other one isn’t back yet
Try to relax until you get the results. Did they say anything about your blood sugar being raised because you had a virus?
Hello @Ames37 ,Thanks for your replies. I’m terrified of meds because of side effects, I suffer from severe emetophobia and scared they will make me sick.
Will they give me a monitor or do I need to buy one.
I’ve definitely found my appetite has lowered due to low carbs. My go to snack is now popcorn or apple with peanut butter on!
I need to lose about 4 stone so I have a long way to go
It is hard. And then comes a moment where it all just clicks into place and things start to make sense, believe it or not. The main carb-heavy foods to avoid: Fruits, except for most berries, tomatoes, avocado and starfruit. You having berries with yoghurt was actually a step in the right direction! You want the yoghurt to be full fat greek yoghurt though. The fattier something is, the more it'll slow down the carbs you do eat, and it's just about the lowest carb yoghurt out there. No spike = no damage.Thanks all.
So I shouldn’t be eating fruit?? Argh! I’ve been having berries and natural yogurt every morning for breakfast!
And the popcorn? I can’t have that? I have a lot to learn
My 3 month test showed 11.8, I don’t know what these numbers mean! So the fasting was 15, and my 3 month one was 11.8. Are these bad? This is really hard
It is hard. And then comes a moment where it all just clicks into place and things start to make sense, believe it or not. The main carb-heavy foods to avoid: Fruits, except for most berries, tomatoes, avocado and starfruit. You having berries with yoghurt was actually a step in the right direction! You want the yoghurt to be full fat greek yoghurt though. The fattier something is, the more it'll slow down the carbs you do eat, and it's just about the lowest carb yoghurt out there. No spike = no damage.Anyway, stuff to stay away from: anything made with flour. So bread, wraps, buns, pasta, cake... All of it, not good. Same goes for corn, cereals (yes, even weetabix), rice and potatoes. Anything starchy is out, as starches are carbs. Sadly that also takes out a lot of the underground veggies and legumes. (Though some are okay with legumes... Your meter'll tell you!) That sounds like I just told you to bin all foods ever, probably. But eggs are fine, as is meat, poultry, and fish. Cheeses are excellent, as are above-ground vegetables. If you've read the Nutritional Thingy I shared earlier, maybe use it to sort out a new grocery list...? It helps if you do it at home, because you don't want to be stuck at the supermarket going over labels for 2 hours straight and coming home with half a bag worth of air. Find brands you can swap, things you can replace etc... Easier at your desk than it is in the shop.
Your three month test, as you put it, is your HbA1c. I have no idea what 11.8 would be, as I am usually dealing with a different measurement and I don't know what units or percentage were used. And usually when i try to convert something I mess it up, haha. But your fasting blood glucose I do recognize.... And 15, that's pretty bad. Good news being, that you can totally come back from that. I did. So did many others here with me. It'll take some work, and a steep learning curve, but you can get your numbers back into the normal range. Getting a meter of your own would help enormously with that, so I'm tagging @Rachox in for some of her excellent info. Right now, getting your numbers down, if you're at 15 mmol/l when fasting, is going to take some time. Normal blood glucose readings would be between 4 and 7, and preferably never over 8,5, as that is when damage starts occuring. (Don't panic, you'll be okay). It'll take a little while to get this under control because your liver thinks you should be higher, as that is what you're used to, so your fasting blood glucose will remain relatively high for a while because your liver tends to dump glucose into your bloodstream to get you back to where it thinks you should be. So what you should aim for is a rise of no more than 2.0 mmol/l between before a meal, and 2 hours after the first bite. If you keep that going, your fasting blood glucose'll come down too.
All in all, it's a lot to learn. I know when i was first diagnosed and completely overwhelmed, besides terrified, it helped to take notes and underline things, so i could keep going back to them until my brain finally let them stick. Diagnosis is traumatic, your memory can actually get a bit of a knock. So maybe put a list of okay foods and no-no's on the fridge for instance. Repetition helps things to stick.
Like I said, you'll be okay, even if you don't believe that right now. You don't have to get everything perfectly right overnight.
Hugs,
Jo
It's your gut reaction because it's what you've been told for so long... You have a metabolic condition that means you are unable to process carbs. But the past half century or so, people have been told to cut the fats and load up on carbs. They're in everything. And boom... Now there's a T2 pandemic, because dietary advice is all wrong... I was a big girl. I was already insulin resistant because of the PCOS, but I didn't know that. I wanted to lose weight for my wedding and I'd tried everything, but nothing stuck. So I went to the hospital's dietician. I did everything she told me to. And I ballooned. I cut the fats, upped the carbs, and I went from obese to morbidly obese. Few years later I was thoroughly diabetic, had a non-alcoholic fatty liver disease that was so bad they initially thought I was in the last stage of liver cancer, and I could barely move because I was exhausted all the time. Did I do that to myself? I didn't know my body didn't function correctly, and I did everything I was told to by the pro's. There was no escaping this, not with the EatWell plate drilled into me at school and later by the same dietician I went to once diagnosed a T2. Guess what she prescribed? Light products, lots of carbs, no fats. She could tell I was going to stick with LCHF and I didn't have to come back. I'm the difficult patient. I lost a lot of that weight, my blood sugars are in the normal range, my liver's perfectly fine and functioning normally, and I actually can walk a decent distance with my rather heavy camera gear now. Could't've dreamed of that a few years ago.Thanks so much for this. It’s so nice to have people that understand and care enough to take time to post. I am struggling with this because I feel so ashamed (that’s just me though, always hard on myself) I have let myself get into this situation and I’m worried I won’t get out of it. I hope propel aren’t offended by that, it’s just my first gut reaction and I usually blame myself for everything!
It's your gut reaction because it's what you've been told for so long... You have a metabolic condition that means you are unable to process carbs. But the past half century or so, people have been told to cut the fats and load up on carbs. They're in everything. And boom... Now there's a T2 pandemic, because dietary advice is all wrong... I was a big girl. I was already insulin resistant because of the PCOS, but I didn't know that. I wanted to lose weight for my wedding and I'd tried everything, but nothing stuck. So I went to the hospital's dietician. I did everything she told me to. And I ballooned. I cut the fats, upped the carbs, and I went from obese to morbidly obese. Few years later I was thoroughly diabetic, had a non-alcoholic fatty liver disease that was so bad they initially thought I was in the last stage of liver cancer, and I could barely move because I was exhausted all the time. Did I do that to myself? I didn't know my body didn't function correctly, and I did everything I was told to by the pro's. There was no escaping this, not with the EatWell plate drilled into me at school and later by the same dietician I went to once diagnosed a T2. Guess what she prescribed? Light products, lots of carbs, no fats. She could tell I was going to stick with LCHF and I didn't have to come back. I'm the difficult patient. I lost a lot of that weight, my blood sugars are in the normal range, my liver's perfectly fine and functioning normally, and I actually can walk a decent distance with my rather heavy camera gear now. Could't've dreamed of that a few years ago.
So no, this isn't on you, you're not to blame. T2 is a genetic issue, unless it's brought on by steroids or statins. This was going to happen sooner or later, and with the diet that is the current global norm, meaning carb heavy... You couldn't avoid it because you didn't know. Now you do. New leaf, this. Besides... From my Thingy:
"5. Are you overweight? 90% of T2’s are. Yeah, that means 10% are slim and always were.* If you did gain weight, it was the precursor of this metabolic condition. We make loads of insulin, but become insensitive to it. So carbs we eat turn to glucose, and normally, insulin helps us burn that glucose for fuel. When it doesn’t, that glucose is stored in fat cells instead. When those fat stores are full, the glucose remains in our bloodstream, overflowing, into our eyes, tears, urine, saliva… And then we’re T2’s. So weight gain is a symptom, not a cause. This also means that “regular” dietary advice doesn’t work for us. The problem lies in our inability to process carbs. And most diets focus on lowering fats and upping carb intake. Which is the direct opposite of what a T2, or prediabetic, for that matter, needs."
Keep that in mind. There's no shame in this, whatsoever.
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?