Newcastle Diet - to follow it and do shakes and veg, or deviate?

[Living-by-the-beach]

Many thanks - and right back at ya!

I know what you mean about wanting to give warnings. Since my own diagnosis I have felt an overwhelming desire to spread the word! Once I was hanging out at the cafe where my son works, back in my home country, and every time someone came in with my higher risk ethnicity (the risk is three times higher than it is for folk with just European ancestry) and ordered a coke or some kind of yummy sausage roll or baked good, crisps, chocolate (sigh! I will always feel the pull of those foods) - I wanted to say 'No No No! Don't do it! Get yourself checked out! Know how your insulin sensitivity is working before you eat those high lactose milk products, trans fats, sugars, and addictive additives....!!!' instead, of course, I just watched myself watching others, and wondering about the role of diabetes education in day to day life . (Obviously - unasked for education is not appropriate with strangers in a cafe! lol) (At least not in my home country - if you give unwanted bodily advice to the wrong person in the wrong mood you could find yourself with a black eye lol. And rightly so perhaps!)

What I did do is wrote up an information sheet on getting healthy when at risk or with prediabetes - getting one's blood glucose/insulin system working better or properly again, and gave it out as what I thought as a big gift to my friends and family who were at risk, or prediabetic, because I had learnt the really hard way. I think, fear, even that may have been going too far - apart from my adult kids who are used to me and my sticky beak, and they know where it is coming from. But never heard a word from my prediabetic or at risk pals and loved ones. Who, really, wants someone with T2D telling you to eat less processed foods and move more because you're at risk yourself?! Human nature not to want to deal with it unless you have to, perhaps. (And there is no polite way to refer to belly fat! lol. The best I did, is talk about my own belly fat issues, and let it rest there. My loved ones can see their own adipose in the mirror, without me referring to it, lol, directly. I just pointed out how dangerous it is and why.)

BTW - by at risk I mean seriously at risk! ie with parent/s who had T2D, or whose parents had even died at what we would definitely consider too early, from T2D complications. Scary stuff.

@AloeSvea

I don't know if you caught this a couple of weeks ago, (I mentioned in a blog here www.diabetes.co.uk ) a friend who had had one leg amputated due to T2 had his second leg removed all due to T2 Diabetes just 10 days ago. I am very cognizant of T2 now and hope and pray that given a couple of more years there may be a true cure for us all. In the mean time I'll secretively mention to folks who look pre-disposed to T2 to get a checkup and lose some weight. You're right unasked for opinions are not welcome at most eating places but my heart reaches out to these people these days. Trying to get them to correct their ways..

In the four years prior to my diagnosis I'd seen 4 physicians and none had talked about getting a blood test to check for pre-diabetes. In fact the 5th physician who ordered my blood test which came back with an A1c of 6.5% didn't even recognize that I was diabetic!

 

[AloeSvea]

@AloeSvea

I don't know if you caught this a couple of weeks ago, (I mentioned in a blog here www.diabetes.co.uk ) a friend who had had one leg amputated due to T2 had his second leg removed all due to T2 Diabetes just 10 days ago. I am very cognizant of T2 now and hope and pray that given a couple of more years there may be a true cure for us all. In the mean time I'll secretively mention to folks who look pre-disposed to T2 to get a checkup and lose some weight. You're right unasked for opinions are not welcome at most eating places but my heart reaches out to these people these days. Trying to get them to correct their ways..

In the four years prior to my diagnosis I'd seen 4 physicians and none had talked about getting a blood test to check for pre-diabetes. In fact the 5th physician who ordered my blood test which came back with an A1c of 6.5% didn't even recognize that I was diabetic!

I hear you! For sure. I read about your friend (in another thread I think?) - and I felt I couldn't do that sad and awful experience justice so I didn't comment at the time. (I still don't know what to say to do it justice! I am just so sorry for him.)

I like that you talk about the dread, and the dreadful complications - it is at the base of the fervour that many of us approach getting better for sure!

And yes, that fear, that fervour, feeds my desire to spread the word for sure.

I too look forward to a cure. But the more I read about the causes, there probably is no cure without changing the causes that can be changed! Ie not our genes, not what we have as homo sapiens, ie our bodies, but the environmental things that we now live with, that are causing the T2D epidemic. Of which you and I, and others in here, are just the tip of the iceberg. Or at least that is the prediction. (By environmental causes I'm talking about, for example, high fructose corn syrup in everything processed we eat, the hole in the ozone layer so getting enough sunlight and therefore vitamin D is difficult and dangerous, about our largely sedentary lives - those kinds of things.)

About doctors - yes indeed. Thank goodness for Dr Bernstein? We need more diabetic doctors perhaps! (yes,tongue in cheek, but at the same time I mean it! I get heartily sick, sometimes, of listening to sanctimonious diabetes health practitioners who don't have a diabetic cell in their bodies - lucky bastards!)

 

[Living-by-the-beach]

Many thanks - and right back at ya!

I know what you mean about wanting to give warnings. Since my own diagnosis I have felt an overwhelming desire to spread the word! Once I was hanging out at the cafe where my son works, back in my home country, and every time someone came in with my higher risk ethnicity (the risk is three times higher than it is for folk with just European ancestry) and ordered a coke or some kind of yummy sausage roll or baked good, crisps, chocolate (sigh! I will always feel the pull of those foods) - I wanted to say 'No No No! Don't do it! Get yourself checked out! Know how your insulin sensitivity is working before you eat those high lactose milk products, trans fats, sugars, and addictive additives....!!!' instead, of course, I just watched myself watching others, and wondering about the role of diabetes education in day to day life . (Obviously - unasked for education is not appropriate with strangers in a cafe! lol) (At least not in my home country - if you give unwanted bodily advice to the wrong person in the wrong mood you could find yourself with a black eye lol. And rightly so perhaps!)

What I did do is wrote up an information sheet on getting healthy when at risk or with prediabetes - getting one's blood glucose/insulin system working better or properly again, and gave it out as what I thought as a big gift to my friends and family who were at risk, or prediabetic, because I had learnt the really hard way. I think, fear, even that may have been going too far - apart from my adult kids who are used to me and my sticky beak, and they know where it is coming from. But never heard a word from my prediabetic or at risk pals and loved ones. Who, really, wants someone with T2D telling you to eat less processed foods and move more because you're at risk yourself?! Human nature not to want to deal with it unless you have to, perhaps. (And there is no polite way to refer to belly fat! lol. The best I did, is talk about my own belly fat issues, and let it rest there. My loved ones can see their own adipose in the mirror, without me referring to it, lol, directly. I just pointed out how dangerous it is and why.)

BTW - by at risk I mean seriously at risk! ie with parent/s who had T2D, or whose parents had even died at what we would definitely consider too early, from T2D complications. Scary stuff.

@AloeSvea

As for other sufferers I try and figure out the easiest way to not offend them about their being over weight. I point out I am T2 diabetic and that I only trying to make them aware of the issues that is their problem to deal with.

I am going to mention this link again http://www.salk.edu/news/pressrelease_details.php?press_id=2062

One positive side thing for me was that I weighed in this morning @ 197½ lbs or just over 14st 1½ lbs. I'm down from 18 st even or 55lbs less. On March 11th I weighed in at 199½ lbs (you can check my blog posts) so since then I've lost 2 more lbs. This has been achieved by compressing the time I use to eat my food. So plenty of coffee in the morning then around 11-ish I figure out what I am going to eat then have my evening meal at the usual time.

I am fortunate in that I've been exercising at least 1 hour /day too but I am getting the weight off. I had previously lost 45-46lbs but then I stalled in my weight loss for more than a few months. Now I am moving so much easier to a lesser weight. One more point, where I am holding off breakfast in the mornings I am also experiencing less neuropathy in my feet at the same time too (Thank God)!

JM

 

[JTL]

I'm down from 18st to 15 fluctuating to 15 and a half but at nearly 6ft 3 I can carry that off quite easily.

 

[Living-by-the-beach]

I'm down from 18st to 15 fluctuating to 15 and a half but at nearly 6ft 3 I can carry that off quite easily.

@JACKTHELAD

That is excellent news. How are you symptoms too? Neuropathy / hair loss on tops of feet? Dry cracked soles of feet? So do you feel healthier also?

I am an 6'4" and moving closer to 14st. My BMI is now 24. I may have to move to a BMI of 23 to lose all the symptoms that go with the T2. Have a read of the link from Salk Institute above. I am grateful its gotten me thru the last 8-9 lbs. Just keep up the good work!

JM

 

[JTL]

@JACKTHELAD

That is excellent news. How are you symptoms too? Neuropathy / hair loss on tops of feet? Dry cracked soles of feet? So do you feel healthier also?

I am an 6'4" and moving closer to 14st. My BMI is now 24. I may have to move to a BMI of 23 to lose all the symptoms that go with the T2. Have a read of the link from Salk Institute above. I am grateful its gotten me thru the last 8-9 lbs. Just keep up the good work!

JM

Hair loss on legs and feet yes.
Dry skin slightly on face and ears but a good rubbing of coconut oil seems to look after that.
I'm being looked at at the moment by neurologist for a number of things.
Slight damage to my sacral bone .... very bottom of spine giving me a little cauda equina syndrome problems ... loss of sensation in legs a bit of falling over now and then and pain in bottom of spine thighs and feet.
Haven't moved my toes for a few years but circulation fine.
Is it the spinal problems or is it diabetic neuropathy?
I have chronic arthritis of the spine and spondylolisthesis of the spine.
Bit of a mouthful.
Most days looking at me you'd think there wasn't much wrong with me but the last few days it's all flared up and I have been spending a lot of time drugged up to the eyeballs on my back.
The diabetes side of my life I feel I have under very good control and it's actually the least of my worries while it is under this level of control.
At 6x3 and 61 I'm not convinced I'll lose any more weight and am quite happy to stay where I am just now.
The fluctuating between fifteen and fifteen and a half stone might stop fluctuating if I cut the carbs down a little more so I become a steady fifteen.
I've been reintroducing carbs more as I've been concentrating more on BS levels than weight.
The weight loss was more a welcome side effect to the BS control.

 

[Living-by-the-beach]

Hair loss on legs and feet yes.
Dry skin slightly on face and ears but a good rubbing of coconut oil seems to look after that.
I'm being looked at at the moment by neurologist for a number of things.
Slight damage to my sacral bone .... very bottom of spine giving me a little cauda equina syndrome problems ... loss of sensation in legs a bit of falling over now and then and pain in bottom of spine thighs and feet.
Haven't moved my toes for a few years but circulation fine.
Is it the spinal problems or is it diabetic neuropathy?
I have chronic arthritis of the spine and spondylolisthesis of the spine.
Bit of a mouthful.
Most days looking at me you'd think there wasn't much wrong with me but the last few days it's all flared up and I have been spending a lot of time drugged up to the eyeballs on my back.
The diabetes side of my life I feel I have under very good control and it's actually the least of my worries while it is under this level of control.
At 6x3 and 61 I'm not convinced I'll lose any more weight and am quite happy to stay where I am just now.
The fluctuating between fifteen and fifteen and a half stone might stop fluctuating if I cut the carbs down a little more so I become a steady fifteen.
I've been reintroducing carbs more as I've been concentrating more on BS levels than weight.
The weight loss was more a welcome side effect to the BS control.

@JACKTHELAD

How much exercise are you able to fit into your daily life? That is the key. My friend Phil Jeremy invented the ABCDEF diet. The "E" is important, as in, plenty of exercise. All the info is out there for T2's to get not only a handle on our situations but to get to where Carlos Cervantes now is (diabetic free)

.

Seeing my friend before I went out of town with 1 leg then coming back and seeing him without any feet at all scares me silly. Silly as in I'll work silly hard to hold onto as much of my body as possible. Professor Taylor talks of PFT or Personal Fat Threshold. I think my BMI will be in the 23 range to get to the point in the curve of where my PFT takes care of the T2 symptoms. Its all conjecture on my part but its been well thought out..

 

[JTL]

Very little exercise.
I've gone from being a very fit big healthy bloke to stuck at home or in the car.
Struggling but still managed to lose that weight and feeling pretty good ... apart from the back of course.

 

[Living-by-the-beach]

The weight loss is great but its not everything. Exercise helps enormously. See if you can latch on to one of these https://www.google.com/search?site=...sedr...0...1ac.1.62.img..1.7.1003.dXaqg818YfY I have one in my back yard helps a great deal. Airdyne AD4 Take a look at this

its a hard core workout in 5 minutes! The Fireman is doing a Professor "Tabata" workout 10 Seconds on 20 seconds off. Do that for 8-9 sets & you'll be on the floor gasping for your breath back..

 

[JTL]

Can't my spine is to unstable.

 

[Living-by-the-beach]

Can't my spine is to unstable.

Try and figure what exercise you can try and get in that's the secret. @paulins is able to run every day. I can't run my knees won't allow that exercise but I can get on a bike.. So I get on a bike and I lift weights on alternate days..

 

[AloeSvea]

@AloeSvea

As for other sufferers I try and figure out the easiest way to not offend them about their being over weight. I point out I am T2 diabetic and that I only trying to make them aware of the issues that is their problem to deal with.

I am going to mention this link again http://www.salk.edu/news/pressrelease_details.php?press_id=2062

One positive side thing for me was that I weighed in this morning @ 197½ lbs or just over 14st 1½ lbs. I'm down from 18 st even or 55lbs less. On March 11th I weighed in at 199½ lbs (you can check my blog posts) so since then I've lost 2 more lbs. This has been achieved by compressing the time I use to eat my food. So plenty of coffee in the morning then around 11-ish I figure out what I am going to eat then have my evening meal at the usual time....

Good on ya mate! As we say in my home country. I have come to think my information sheet was a bad idea for everyone but my adult kids! lol. Not a word from my mates and loved ones at any rate.

And ditto on the good on ya mate for the weight loss progress too. I will indeed go onto your blog and peruse your FBGs etc.

About the neuropathy and feet. Since my diagnosis it has taken me this long to be able to get an appointment with a foot specialist, as I have some nerve damage in my feet which I have only been able to convince anyone of, since the advent of a wonderful Diabetes Nurse who actually checked at my nagging. (This story is too common for us T2Ds? Both the negative and the positive aspects?) But absolutely - since I have been gradually lowering my glycated blood cells month by month, the awful symptoms of neuropathy have gotten MUCH better. I don't put my feet into buckets of icey water anymore! Yay! One of the big reliefs for me, of having been diagnosed is now I know what has been causing my feet 'overheating' for more years than I care to remember. I looked it up online, but I must have discounted the diabetes explanation as being too preposterous for words. (Me? With pre/diabetes? No way!Oh dear me.) And I only read about 'metabolism syndrome' last year, in relation to my diagnosis. Now I throw that term around as often as I can as it is such an important one, for those predisposed to insulin insensitivity issues. (No wonder I want my loved ones to take notice of what I say! lol.)

 

[AloeSvea]

This is my last day! On my Deviated Newcastle Diet. The sun is out, the sky is blue - and I forgot even to take my own FBG this morning! The one and only time. I had already eaten breakfast, so I took it asap, and looked at my last night's reading, and looked at my post-eating BG rise and now at my 2-hour post-meal reading (I just can't warm to the word 'postandrial') and was able to make what I think is a pretty good estimate of what my FBG probably was. (That is how many times I have taken my BG and how many entries I have on my chart now! Good lord! Eight weeks plus really IS a good chunk of time.) I am running out of test strips, and am not sure when my next batch will arrive in the post, so the chart is good in its being so comprehensive.

It is obvious I am not one of the people who are lucky enough to become post-diabetic while on a VLCD, or, I just could not get skinny enough, and for me it would be SKINNY!. "You already HAVE gotten skinny" says partner-in-crime from the sofa. I say not skinny, but slender for sure. I am certainly with a much leaner body now since my D-ND. Too sad that I was a rare woman who did not give a toss about being 'pleasantly plump', before T2D diagnosis (I didn't like the belly fat, but hey! I didn't really care enough!) My liver and my pancreas just didn't listen! Drat it all.

But my understanding of the results reported on the original ND, is that my FBG are now what is considered "in the normal range" which includes a prediabetic range. But I will look more into this when I write it up and post it in a separate thread. (Still charts and maths to do.)

Of course, ultimate results depend on the HBA1c which I will get taken again in three months time. But after I get yesterday's test results I should probably be able to predict the next one within coo-ee. (Gee, being T2diabetic has really improved my applied mathematics - groan!). We shall see at any rate.

But I am hopefully on a path now to much better health, as in better blood glucose control, as an 'intermediate hyperglycemic' (pre-diabetic) albeit in the dangerous end of the scale says my last HBA1c results (last month).

Hopefully my HBA1c, the most recent one (blood taken yesterday) and a follow-up in three months time will bode well for my current pre-diabetes-T2D (!! How I look at it) being able to be worked on even further over time in a downward way. If this is related to me getting even slimmer (I am currently at a BMI of 22), and it could be, according to the Personal Fat Threshold theory, then this is something I will work on at the beach, and not in the snow. I will try and get there by exercising more then, and perhaps intermittent fasting and see how that goes. I'm not sure at present. Whatever I do it will be written about in here - so - watch this post-er?

In terms of doing a 'how skinny IS my personal fat threshold' D-ND (Ie a re-run, where I would probably have to become a disappearing woman, so hopefully then it really would be a short one). Right now the prospect of calorie counting again, which includes the endless weighing of carrots and so on ), leaves me cold, naturally. But who knows what the future will bring.

My guess is I would prefer to go for a slower, nutrition-based, muscle-gaining approach, (with some chappies in here being my inspiration - like NoCrbs4me and some others), Dr Bernstein, Suzy Cohen, Dr Hyman et al, but I have the rest of the spring, till the northern spring equinox anyway, to think about this.

 

[brettsza]

@AloeSvea how's your diet going after ND
Any final figures you came to like total weight loss or inches lost. How is your bg behaving.

 

[Living-by-the-beach]

This is my last day! On my Deviated Newcastle Diet. The sun is out, the sky is blue - and I forgot even to take my own FBG this morning! The one and only time. I had already eaten breakfast, so I took it asap, and looked at my last night's reading, and looked at my post-eating BG rise and now at my 2-hour post-meal reading (I just can't warm to the word 'postandrial') and was able to make what I think is a pretty good estimate of what my FBG probably was. (That is how many times I have taken my BG and how many entries I have on my chart now! Good lord! Eight weeks plus really IS a good chunk of time.) I am running out of test strips, and am not sure when my next batch will arrive in the post, so the chart is good in its being so comprehensive.

It is obvious I am not one of the people who are lucky enough to become post-diabetic while on a VLCD, or, I just could not get skinny enough, and for me it would be SKINNY!. "You already HAVE gotten skinny" says partner-in-crime from the sofa. I say not skinny, but slender for sure. I am certainly with a much leaner body now since my D-ND. Too sad that I was a rare woman who did not give a toss about being 'pleasantly plump', before T2D diagnosis (I didn't like the belly fat, but hey! I didn't really care enough!) My liver and my pancreas just didn't listen! Drat it all.

But my understanding of the results reported on the original ND, is that my FBG are now what is considered "in the normal range" which includes a prediabetic range. But I will look more into this when I write it up and post it in a separate thread. (Still charts and maths to do.)

Of course, ultimate results depend on the HBA1c which I will get taken again in three months time. But after I get yesterday's test results I should probably be able to predict the next one within coo-ee. (Gee, being T2diabetic has really improved my applied mathematics - groan!). We shall see at any rate.

But I am hopefully on a path now to much better health, as in better blood glucose control, as an 'intermediate hyperglycemic' (pre-diabetic) albeit in the dangerous end of the scale says my last HBA1c results (last month).

Hopefully my HBA1c, the most recent one (blood taken yesterday) and a follow-up in three months time will bode well for my current pre-diabetes-T2D (!! How I look at it) being able to be worked on even further over time in a downward way. If this is related to me getting even slimmer (I am currently at a BMI of 22), and it could be, according to the Personal Fat Threshold theory, then this is something I will work on at the beach, and not in the snow. I will try and get there by exercising more then, and perhaps intermittent fasting and see how that goes. I'm not sure at present. Whatever I do it will be written about in here - so - watch this post-er?

In terms of doing a 'how skinny IS my personal fat threshold' D-ND (Ie a re-run, where I would probably have to become a disappearing woman, so hopefully then it really would be a short one). Right now the prospect of calorie counting again, which includes the endless weighing of carrots and so on ), leaves me cold, naturally. But who knows what the future will bring.

My guess is I would prefer to go for a slower, nutrition-based, muscle-gaining approach, (with some chappies in here being my inspiration - like NoCrbs4me and some others), Dr Bernstein, Suzy Cohen, Dr Hyman et al, but I have the rest of the spring, till the northern spring equinox anyway, to think about this.

@AloeSvea

I have I sense stumbled on something from Dr Jason Fung

is the ND with its profound weight loss the issue that gives rise to being non diabetic or is it aggressive weight loss / post bariatric surgery?
In the video above it is known that folks who weigh 400lbs and have bariatric surgery frequently find themselves post surgery (within three weeks) non diabetic yet within 3 weeks they have only lost minimal weight. Yet Professor Taylor says its simply PFT. So what is it? Aggressive weight loss over short time period or extended weightloss over extended periods of time?

I am curious to know the answer..

JM

 

[Indy51]

Apparently there is a major reconfiguration of the gut microbiome after bariatric surgery which may also be involved. I also understand that the liver and pancreas are de-fatted quite quickly on a calorie restricted diet - so you don't necessarily have to lose a lot of weight to reach the PFT - the fat threshold Prof Taylor talks about is visceral fat, not body fat per se. There's also the case of the normal weight guy who did the ND for 11 days and ended up underweight by BMI standards, yet that restored his BG response.

 

[Brunneria]

Just popping in with my oft repeated reminder (sorry if I am boring you all) that the ND diet and defattifying the liver does not automatically have the desired effect on everyone.

I do not have a fatty liver, have v low triglycerides, and have had impaired glucose tolerance since I was a child, and type 2 for probably the last 4-5 years. Ish. The ND would never get me below my personal fat threshold, even if that was the problem, because my PFT is probably about 3 stone! Yes, that was a joke.

The ND is fab when it works, but professor Taylor himself states that aggressive weight loss is NOT necessary for the benefits to show. Any diet that suits the patient that results in sufficient weight loss will achieve the goal - provided their type 2 is attributable to fatty liver/being above the personal fat threshold.

I just have visions of people who will never benefit from this launching into it without proper understanding, potentially mucking up their metabolism by turning on their 'thrifty gene', and causing themselves further yoyo weight struggles further down the line.

 

[AloeSvea]

@AloeSvea how's your diet going after ND
Any final figures you came to like total weight loss or inches lost. How is your bg behaving.

Hi brettsza, et al. I've been at a local hospital diabetes ward, doing an education course, and getting a full blood count in my subarctic-country of choice (I chose this? I must be mad!) (Please - do not feel you need to comment on my sanity ), to compare diabetes education courses with that of my home country, learn more of a beautiful Scandinavian language, and generally be updated in blood glucose metering and logging - something diabetes education courses seem to be marvellous at doing. The course ended up being a bit of a disaster for me as I discovered diabetics everywhere are not so open to the 'look to your carbohydrates my friends!' line (and trans-fats, and HFCS), as on this forum. (What a lovely forum! How lucky am I to be a part of it - lest I don't say it enough.)

But I had a great pow wow with an endocrinologist Dr/Diabetes-expert, and excellent care from yet another excellent diabetes nurse. (Great nurses just must be the greatest people on the planet!) And I got my latest HBA1c results as part of a full blood test which I couldn't have gotten otherwise.(Oh, rules, oh below zero temps.) And it was interesting at the very least to mix again with other diabetics in face to face, and very lovely to meet a very nice woman around my own age doing the course, who has had T2D for 17 years. I was very impressed by her marvellous spirit and temperament, and the fact she was there to further motivate herself to make those hard yards changes the diabetes literature euphemistically calls "lifestyle changes". (I call it 'life transformation'! As that is what it was for me.) I am very sad I missed out on the 'nordic walking' exercise (Imagine! Nordic walking in a nordic country - what a treat!). But I had to pack up my stuff and get the hell out of there never to go back unless I got into a stand-up fight (not really, I exaggerate, but it was more than tense!) with one of the three older men who were telling me to be quiet during a question and answer session. I was actually asking the Dr questions about carbs (seems not culturally appropriate, even though the Dr did not mind at all - his word - "exciting", but the older diabetic gentlemen felt I was arguing with god. ) (It was bad enough being 'shushed' - in a question and answer session! post-presentation - but I really drew the line when the non-diabetic wife of a diabetic attending shushed me.) (Wow! The nerve!) Anyway, I didn't get to have the blood pressure test I wanted (the excellent diabetes nurse suggested then was not a good time, lol). "This is me with an HBA1c of 44!" I joked with her, as I was running away down the hospital ward corridor, "You should have met me when I had an HBA1c of 93!"

Anyway - a long way to answer you on my latest and post D-ND HBA1c result. (I was much more succinct about low-carbs and food additives at the course - I promise!). Getting further down the line of pre-diabetic readings (combined with a now solidly pre-diabetic/good control Fasting Blood Glucose). I was thrilled to hear the '44' a couple of days ago. Four points closer to the magical (to me in any case) 40, which will make me (and my liver and my pancreas) very happy one day. If I can get there. But I am pretty chuffed now, for sure. (I was daring to hope for a drop to 45, so 44 really was a thrill.)

I am now lean, which is interesting. (I describe myself now that way, but so did the diabetes doc at the hospital, so it must be true!) I just got up and admired my abs in the mirror - but have no fear! I have an adult daughter who does not let me get away with anything, and when I told her I no longer have any belly fat, she begged to differ. (I am very happy to be kept in line, lest I fall into the pool of my own musculature, and drown.) (And my abs are rather modest - it's just that I haven't seen anything like that in my own ab region before.) (BTW Down to squats, wall push-ups, and a with-piston-arms crunch exercise.)

My FBG numbers are better now - ie the signalling has improved, which is what I wanted to happen. But the signaling between my liver and my pancreas re my blood glucose levels is still out, as I am still getting the dawn phenomenon/sugar dumping/gluconeogenesis , if I have understood the science/mechanism correctly, so I can go to bed with a 5.7 level of BG, and wake up with 6.4. They were better in the midst of the diet, but have stabilised at a pretty solid prediabetes level. (Or, 'intermediate hyperglycemic' level, depending on what you want to call it.)

But what has really improved is my post-meal blood glucose readings. My own insulin response to food seems to really have gotten a boost post semi-starvation (I can't remember the 'insulin phase' description - I am a bit woolley in my recall of baseline/phase one/phase two descriptions, but I will re-read the wonderful Jenny Ruhl before writing something up for an 'official' post D-ND post). I have a graph with my FBGs, and currently getting a post-meal-reading graph together. (It isn't actually me getting the graphs together - I have help!). Bear in mind too, this is in 'the Diabetic-and-food world' of a low-carb gal. (I haven't eaten classic modern carbs as in bread, rice, pasta and potatoes, since mid Jan, ie a bit over two months, bar a few teeny morsels of cinnamon bun, and maybe one potato - oh yes and a quarter slice of homemade sourdough when I just couldn't resist!) (I do eat sweet potato and other tubers. Yeah, I do think about it. But I also eat fruit whenever I want to.)

Anyway, proper write-up will come eventually, after my April HBA1c. One of the benefits of the ND being (a very long) 8 weeks I guess, is I only have to wait another month to get a final reading for my blood-glycation levels. But, saying, that, if I understood one of the points made on my ill-fated course, is that HBA1cs done at that research hospital/facility reflect the previous 4-6 weeks. (I had been told 2-3 months for HBA1cs, previously.) If the 4-6 weeks is the case then I have the final result. We shall see, in any case (I'll check my understanding with one of those fabulous diabetes nurses), if there is much change, if any, next month. (Or, it could go UP I guess! Gee, I hope not.)
Cheers.

 

[AloeSvea]

@AloeSvea

I have I sense stumbled on something from Dr Jason Fung

is the ND with its profound weight loss the issue that gives rise to being non diabetic or is it aggressive weight loss / post bariatric surgery?
In the video above it is known that folks who weigh 400lbs and have bariatric surgery frequently find themselves post surgery (within three weeks) non diabetic yet within 3 weeks they have only lost minimal weight. Yet Professor Taylor says its simply PFT. So what is it? Aggressive weight loss over short time period or extended weightloss over extended periods of time?

I am curious to know the answer..

JM

Hi JM - I have also stumbled upon Jason Fung previously, and liked him and his approach. I will watch the clip on your link with relish, and respond anon...

 

[Living-by-the-beach]

Hi JM - I have also stumbled upon Jason Fung previously, and liked him and his approach. I will watch the clip on your link with relish, and respond anon...

@AloeSvea

I am starting to eat most days around lunch time for the moment I am drinking coffee in the morning. I went for a bike ride yesterday with a non exercising type = very heavy overweight person BMI 30+ and he was out of breath and breaking a serious sweat. I told him about Pre-diabetes. Hopefully he sidesteps T2 in a big way.

As for the neuropathy I've got it in my right hand as I type right now. This T2 never lets up..