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ballboykie

Newbie
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3
Location
St Francis Eastern Cape South Africa
Hi guys.
This is my 1st time at this so bear with me. I'm a 50 year old male from Cape Town South Africa and was diagnosed with type 1 almost 20 years ago. I believe I have been diabetic from my school days, but was never at a Doc in order to be diagnosed at the time.
My diabetes is poorly controlled as I appear to be highly insulin resistant. My sugar readings fluctuate between 12 and 32 daily and have seldom been below 10 despite copious amounts of insulin and oral meds.
I am obese weighing 150kg, have arthritis in both knees, water retention and severe swelling in the feet, dark "tanning" of the skin on both legs and I have 60% loss of vision.
I know I sound like a wreck, but I remain positive, eat very healthily, follow a low carb regime and exercise moderately. I have reduced my weight from 177kg and I am proud of that, but I have a long way to go and seem to have reached a plateau. The amounts of insulin I take make it really difficult to lose weight.
I am constantly searching for new methods to approach my treatment and health, hence my joining this forum.
I hope I can be of help to anyone who might need some advice and I too hope to find some innovative thinkers and brave souls who are willing to try and share anything in order to stay positive and healthy! :D
 
Hi BBK and welcome to the forum :) What a beautiful part of the world you come from - I remember my holiday there. You are on the right track following a low carb diet. I see you have already lost a good amount of weight and now have reached the dreaded plateau. The only way to get moving again is to reduce your carbs even further. By reducing your carbs you will be able to use less insulin which makes you put on weight. This will improve your levels as well and reduce the risk of any more complications and perhaps lessen the ones you already have. Keep up with the exercise too. I am not sure how many carbs you are actually eating but I think you might like to try and follow this diet - called Viv's diet - as it was written by one of our members. There is the main version and another one which goes into more detail about what you can actually eat. Other members have tried it and have had good results with it. Here are the links:

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=18803#p170998
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=18803&start=15#p176592

It might help you to brush up on the basics as I know you were diagnosed 20 years ago, and have a look at this advice written by the Forum Monitors for new members. (Ignore the mention to newly diagnosed which obviously doesn't apply to you).

Here is the advice that Ken and I, as Forum Monitors, usually give to newly diagnosed Diabetics. We hope that these few ideas gained through experience help you to gain control and give you some understanding of Diabetes. This forum doesn't always follow the recommended dietary advice, you have to work out what works for you as we are all different.

It's not just 'sugars' you need to avoid, diabetes is an inability to process glucose properly. Carbohydrate converts, in the body, to glucose. So it makes sense to reduce the amount of carbohydrate that you eat which includes sugars.

For more information on CARBOHYDRATE see here:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=20306

This is NOT a low carb diet suggestion, just a reduction in your intake of carbohydrate. You have to decide yourself how much of a reduction will keep your blood glucose levels in control.

The main carbs to avoid OR reduce are the complex or starchy carbohydrates such as bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, starchy root veg and also any flour based products. The starchy carbs all convert 100% to glucose in the body and raise the blood sugar levels significantly.

If you are on Insulin you may find that reducing the carb intake also means that you can reduce your dose of insulin. This can help you to keep weight gain down as Insulin tends to make you put on weight and eventually cause insulin resistance. This should be done slowly so as not to cause hypos.

The way to find out how different foods affect you is to do regular daily testing and keep a food diary for a couple of weeks. If you test just before eating, then two hours after eating, you will see the effect of certain foods on your blood glucose levels. Some foods, which are slow acting carbohydrates, are absorbed more slowly so you may need to test three or even four hours later to see the effect that these have on your blood glucose levels.

Buy yourself a carb counter book (you can get these on-line) and you will be able to work out how much carbs you are eating, when you test, the reading two hours after should be roughly the same as the before eating reading, if it is then that meal was fine, if it isn’t then you need to check what you have eaten and think about reducing the portion size of carbs.

When you are buying products check the total carbohydrate content, this includes the sugar content. Do not just go by the amount of sugar on the packaging as this is misleading to a diabetic.


As for a tester, try asking the nurse/doctor and explain that you want to be proactive in managing your own diabetes and therefore need to test so that you can see just how foods affect your blood sugar levels. Hopefully this will work ! Sometimes they are not keen to give Type 2’s the strips on prescription, (in the UK) but you can but try!!

For TIPS FOR STRIPS see here:

viewtopic.php?f=20&t=19002#p173253

If you are an Insulin user in theory you should have no problem getting test strips.

The latest 2011 NICE guidelines for Bg levels are as follows:
Fasting (waking and before meals).......between 4 - 7 mmol/l...(Type 1 & 2)
2 hrs after meals........................no more than 8.5 mmol/l.....( Type 2)

2hrs after meals......................... no more than 9 mmol/l ......(Type 1)

If you are able to keep the post meal numbers lower, so much the better.

It also helps if you can do at least 30 minutes moderate exercise a day, it can be split into 10 min sessions to start with. It doesn't have to be strenuous.

The above is just general advice and it is recommended that you discuss with your HCP before making any changes. You can also ask questions on the forum on anything that is not clear.

Finally a few QUESTIONS TO ASK AT DIABETES CLINIC.

viewtopic.php?f=20&t=17091



Sue/Ken.
Click to expand...
 
Good luck with the diet :) I hope you have a lovely Easter too. Unfortunately I couldn't find a version of Viv's diet that had Easter Eggs in it 8)
 
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