Thank you. I have literally just ordered a monitor. Just a basic one to see how I get on. I will have to make major changes to my everyday 'diet'. I eat a lot of pasta, rice, all root veg. I only eat bread occasionally. Well, here's to a new lifestyle.
Hi
@MrsMatt ,
Sorry about the diagnosis, but you're well on your way, I see. If you have T2, a basic monitor is all you need to get started if you want to know how you respond to foods. The fancier ones have all sorts of bells and whistles, (sometimes, literally), but if you simply want to know what foods do what, and you don't have to take insulin jabs into account and whatnot, you're all set with a "basic" monitor. So excellent start!
The course sounds like a right nightmare, and I'd rather sleep through something like that too, than be aware and wakeful throughout, haha. Never did anything like that, though wasn't offered either... Just read books, watched youtube vids and visited websites, took notes, changed my shopping list a thousand times as I went along, and just experimented with food and finger-jabs.
By the way, we're on a lot about diet on here because it's something that affects blood glucose a lot, and it is something that is relatively easily changed around to suit our needs better. But I couldn't help but notice you start work at 4 a.m.? I take it that means you get up to get ready even earlier? Because quite a few people who do shift work or night work, and basically work against their circadian rhythm, can experience a rise in blood glucose as well. Normally I'd say, test around meals and see what suits you, but in your case I'd also want to know, if I were you, what your blood glucose does when you get up. Also, when do you eat your first meal of the day? Most of us experience a liver dump in the morning, where it releases glucose into the blood to help us start the day. If, for instance, you get up really early, get ready for work, work, and then have your first meal of the day hours later at the crack of dawn, your liver might've been pumping quite a bit of glucose into your body to help you out. It means well, but it might be more glucose than you can burn effectively. While I appreciate it might not be possible to change your job where you can work when the sun is up,
if you don't already, you might want to have a bit of protein before your workday starts. Bit of cheese or something, so the liver thinks it doesn't have to be a busybody. It could calm your liver down some and make it release less glucose. Just wild stabs in the dark though. For all I know you start with a bowl of porridge at 3 am, which could easily be changed to eggs with bacon, and then bob'd be your uncle in the middle of the night.
Take some time to find out what your body is doing and why, whether there's a correlation only with high carb foods or also with what your day looks like. Doesn't have to be figured out overnight, if at all. But it's something that might help you get your numbers back into the non-diabetic range. If you're "only" pre-diabetic now, odds are just a change in diet'll get you sorted. But should you find it's not cutting it (it likely will, but no guarantees)... Your daily rhythm might need a little attention, and loopholes found so you can still do your thing. All in all though... I have a feeling you'll learn more here than you would at a boring course in a stifling room, when you've already had a workday behind you, and can't keep your eyes open!
Good luck,
Jo