JoKalsbeek
Expert
- Messages
- 5,982
- Type of diabetes
- I reversed my Type 2
- Treatment type
- Diet only
You're doing an excellent job. I saw a whole lot of things coming by in your thread and I'll try to touch on a couple, though many others have too by now. The thing people aren't too thrilled about is skimmed and semi-skimmed milk, they're a tad carbier than the full fat kind. Cream, yoghurt and cheeses, all full fat, would have fewer to no carbs in. There's the light versions, but usually when they take fats out to make it light, they put carbs in to make it taste like something, and more filling, so light products are usually to be avoided, with very few exceptions to the rule. Far as meats are concerned, sausages and the like can indeed be loaded with fillers, but the good quality stuff isn't. High meat content's perfectly fine. Should be on the label.So... might as well convert this thread into a bit of a reflective blog now as I'm a bit more used to things (I hope that's within the rules moderators?). Thanks all for the comments previously I learned a lot last week and I'm much more comfortable with all this now.
In the last week I cut my carbohydrate intake dramatically. I basically no longer eat high carb food such as potatoes*, pasta, bread, sweet things and any processed food I detect even *might* have it in. However I've not starved myself, I've tried to raise good fat consumption so breakfasts are now natural yogurt based or bacon/high quality sausage/poached egg. Lunch is typically (I vary it), tuna fish with mixed salad, with mayonnaise and a low carb dressing. Perhaps one piece of fruit. In the evening, it's better too. My wife got annoyed about it all at first but then went and did her own reading on it and has come around significantly. She got a warning herself on this last year and got all in denial about it, but now she's come around to the fact that it will likely benefit her too. So she's still eating potatoes as she loves them too much but we're eating much lower carb dinners.
My weight has plummeted already. Perhaps a bit too fast. Last Tuesday I was 123.5 kg. Last night I was 118.4 kg. In old money that's 10 lb in a week. It's not like this has happened by starvation though. I'm reasonably confident this is just a fast initial drop which will level out at some point. I've definitely lost some waistline and my shirts are already feeling ... loose. Excellent. I'm eating nutritious food - I've done a so-called 'detox' day or anything like that. I just stopped eating rubbish and cut down on my portions.
So
My blood glucose levels have dropped steadily all week to the point that before evening food yesterday I got a reading of 4.9 mM. It had been below 7.0 for 3 days running at that point for ALL readings.
Lessons still to be learned....
Even though I said to my wife at one point 'this means I've got my blood sugar level under control, that's all that means, it doesn't mean I'm not diabetic'... I started to unconsciously think... maybe I can get a little naughty occasionally.
Last night my wife planned dinner as a fish cake and salad. But I said, no, I had salad at lunchtime, I don't want to get 'saladed' out. Let's make it a moderately portion of potatoes and peas tonight (not just any potatoes, home cooked chips). I'll monitor and if it's bad... well we will know not do to that again...
So I monitored... that 4.9 mM turned to 8.3 mM 2 hours later. This morning my fasted reading was 6.9 mM.... yeah, potatoes and peas... they're bad mmkay.
Like I had said two days ago, successful 4.0-7.0 mM reading range maintenance does not mean I am glucose tolerant. It meant I *had* been eating appropriately. Farewell peas, farewell potatoes. (pretty sure it was the peas really - the * above somewhere indicates that potatoes have not entirely been cut out, I have had small quantities and fared OK, but still).
But that - really not entirely outrageous dinner last night does tell me I need to be ... careful... at least for the medium term future. I will maybe try that experiment again in a months time... we'll see.
Extremely pleased at the progress I've made in the last week nevertheless.
Something to do, maybe: make a list of what you'd usually buy, check their nutritional information on the supermarket's website and see if there's alternatives that have a lower carb content, or whether it's already fine as-is. It spares a few hours spent reading labels in the shop, and coming home with a head of lettuce and nothing more, out of sheer discombobulation.
For just about everything there's a low carb version... I mean, ever heard of Oppo ice cream? Just saying.
Also, long distance walking might be a better bet than cycling... Strenuous things can cause the liver to "help" by dumping glucose, so it can actually up blood sugars for a bit. Walking -NOT running!- at a steady pace for a while'll keep your liver from dumping, but it can get your blood sugars down in case of, say, a stray potato finding its way to you. After dinner walks for digestion purposes, eh.
I've actually interrupted a little dinner with my inlaws once because I didn't at that time know that chinese tomato soup is liquid sugar. So I walked it off when my head went all fuzzy on the hyper. Couple of quick walks around the mall the restaurant was next to, and I was good to go. You're rocking this thing, just so you know.
Jo
