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Newly diagnosed - too much to absorb


Hi alliebee

Just bought a soup maker so you're gonna have to point me to some nice filling recipes that you write about so often Just want to dump everything in (cutting up the ingredients where nesessary) and make a thick low carb broth

Cheers Mike
 
Am really scared and very upset because I just had diabetes 2 last Friday. Can't cope. I ate pasta tonight with tomatoes, tuna fish. Realized it is bad cos carb. Very confused about it. No pasta, potatoes, rice, bread, cereal. What about porridge? I loves foods andxalways hungry! Now I feel funny from my body, like a bit shaking. Drink peppermint. Sounds ok with peppermint? Still learning!
 

We have all been where you are now. Frightened, confused, upset. It is perfectly normal, but you will get your head round it all and everything will become much easier. It would help if the NHS gave us proper dietary advice suitable for Type 2's, but sadly they don't. Take some deep breaths and try not to worry. We are all here to help you just as we all help each other every day. Following some form of low carb diet has helped most of us bring our levels down and control this disease, and lose weight at the same time.

For breakfasts try bacon and eggs, or eggs made any which way such as omelettes, scrambled etc. Or if you need to be quick, have a natural yogurt (not a sweetened one) with a few strawberries/raspberries/blueberries thrown in. Full fat Greek yogurts are best. You can also add some nuts or seeds.

Porridge is a funny one. Some people can manage it in small portions, others can't. A meter would tell you how much, if any, you could manage. A meter will also tell you if you can manage a slice of bread with a meal, or a couple of potatoes, or a spoonful of rice or pasta. Some can, most can't.

Just keep asking questions.
 
I will find out this Friday, how level I have because doctor didn't tell me! Peppermint tea is good? Sounds that I just eat small amount in every time when I eat? First thing is I am deaf and knowing nothing about it. What happen if my body r shaking... What shall I do?
 
Peppermint tea is fine. Just don't use sugar. There are a lot of reasons why you can feel shakey.........too many carbs and your blood sugar goes up or your blood sugar goes too low, but if you are eating regularly this should not happen. The best thing you can do is get a blood sugar reader and check your own sugar levels. I check mine before breakfast and two hours after, then before and after dinner.

Here is a link to a great site about low carb eating for diabetics. Have a read of the information on there.

http://www.dietdoctor.com/lchf

I use the model he talks about, it is easy and you don't have to weigh and measure your food. Also, when you reduce your carbs you will lose your food cravings. For dinner tonight I am going to have a good rib eye steak and some asparagus, tomato with onions and mushrooms.....yum! I eat porridge sometimes, but made with water and use cream instead of milk, it does raise my bs, but somes back about 2 hours later. So I have it like once a month. I love my cheese omelettes for breakfast.....so good. Lunch today I had a small can of salmon and some cheese. I also had black coffee with pouring cream during the day. Tonight after dinner I will have berries and cream.

Don't be scared we are all here to support you. Everyone on the forum is really helpful.Just ask questions.

MsV
 
Hi Mike. There is a great thread on here. Soups and stews. I got a lot of mine on here
Basically any veg except potatoes and parsnips. Really any you like and they all cook together and mix flavours you like. Broccolli and stilton is lush. Chicken and leek oh the list is endless. Just search Soups online too. Or low carb soups. Its where I get mine. And watch your tummy fill up and your bgs go down. Lol. Good luck. Ps I really want a soup maker.
 
l this evening (and I even tested twice) I had

Wholemeal pasta (al dente) leftover chicken, bacon, red onion, passata and a bit of cheese on baked in the oven....

Before reading was 11.3 and 2hr after 11.0 I tested twice to make sure....

Last night meal chickpea curry with 4tbsp wholemeal rice 15.5 and after 15.8

So this morning 11.8 porridge and 17.2 (so that's a no, on my menu)
Lunch chip shop fish (did not eat batter) mushy peas and about 10 chips 9.6 to 13.3 (something was wrong with meal)
Then evening meal as above....

Is it normal for the 2hr after reading to be lower than before ..... confused!!
 

Thanks alliebee

I just got a second soup maker delivered (they didn't charge me either) so if you'd like to pop over to OZ, you can have it

Mike
 

I am going to be really frank here, you are eating way to many carbs! From a ready stand point because I do really low carb I often have lower readings 2 hours after.

You were saved in the first meal by the bacon, chicken and cheese, but you are still far too high.

MsV
 
I was diagnosed 3 weeks ago and this week got results of HbA1c of 102

Should after this time my sugar readings be 4-7 before meals....

I have been measuring before meals and aiming for a less than 2 increase so for example last nights meal was 15.5 before and after 15.8 so I saw this as a good meal... and this evening a decrease of 0.3 so again a good meal.

Not really sure if I am getting this right.
 
Again, way too high start points I'm afraid. Keeping the 2 hour counts within a good range is one thing, but in the overall scheme of things, not relevant if the first pre meal reading is as high as yours.

I suspect you're gonna be flooded with advice so don't feel overwhelmed ... you'll get there.
 
@Nightwishing1984 your HbA1c of 102 is high and you need to get your daily readings down into single figures to start with. As Mike says there are too many carbs in your meals. Ditch the pasta, rice, bread and potatoes, despite what you may have been told is a healthy diet. It isn't for diabetics. Have a look at www.dietdoctor.com/LCHF for what many T2s on here do to manage their levels.
 

I cut all grain, grain product= bread porridge pasta etc, fruit and sugary stuff..added healthy fat like olive oil, coconut oil, real butter, I cut grain oil and marge
I took metformin and ate lots of non starch veg, normal meats and lots of fat and I've lost 12kg and my BG is normal range
the first 3 days are the worst of your life and the first week generally sucks, drink more water and have more salt
http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/lowcarbliving/a/Food-Cravings.htm http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/lowcarb101/a/firstweek.htm


these links helped me
 
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Hi allibee Trust you're well

I found some AMAZING free books (pdf) online. Just search for "cuisinart pdf soup maker" into your search engine. There's at least three of them and they cover EVERYTHING (starters / sauces / drinks, not just soups) and come complete with cooking instructions.

Well worth a look
 
Hi again

Your last hba1c score of 102 indicated that your average glucose level over the last three months was 15,7 mmol.

From the few readings that you have listed I would expect your average to already be on the way down. So well done on that.

I am also pleased to see that you are beginning to achieve a level of control over your after meal counts, meeting the rule of thumb target ceiling of 2 mmol. What is more you are correctly using this to identify meals that you need to avoid or limit.

For instance porridge in the morning, or 10 chips with your fish and chips.

Long term you want to bring both your pre meal levels down to the 4-7 mmol range and your two hour after meal range to under 7,8 mmol.

You can not lower your blood sugar from an average of almost 16 to within the above range overnight.

When you first wrote in, you were feeling overwhelmed with all the info and I wanted to give you something fairly simple that you could use as a rule to get your levels down, so I advised you to concentrate on getting control of your post meal readings by keeping them within 2 mmol of your pre meal readings.

I still stand by my advice.

At the moment you are still learning and only achieving this target some times. The problem seems to be that when you get things wrong you arrive at the next meal too high and so even though you then manage to achieve the 2 mmol ceiling, in absolute terms both your before and after readings for that meal are high.

Taking yesterday as an example.

Your waking up level of 11,8 is in absolute terms on the high side but probably a significant improvement on where you used to be judging by your average glucose of 15,7 suggested by your HbA1c score of 102.

You then had porridge for breakfast which spiked you to 17,2. Porridge and more so cereals are not the best breakfast choices for most diabetics. You could try something with less carbs in it instead such as , omelette, eggs and bacon, plain greek yoghurt with berries,

Before lunch you had dropped to 9,6. I would read this the same as your waking reading, still high in absolute terms but probably a good improvement on what your previous scores were.

The 10 chips in your lunch then spiked you to 13,3 at two hours after meal. You correctly identified that you need to adjust something in the meal. Either reduce the number of chips to say 2-3 or have the fish (without the butter) with some salad instead of chips. You do appear to have too little green vegetables and salads in your choice of meals. You need to make these a big part of every meal.

Worth noting that with chips your true spike could be higher and later past the two hour point.

Just before dinner your level was 11,3, again high in absolute terms but probably an improvement on previous , and your post meal count was actually lower at 11,0 mmol.

I know others have told you that you are still eating to many carbs and your levels are too high, which is probably confusing you.

I am not saying that they are wrong. Your levels are still high compared to the ideal.

What I am saying is that you are showing good progress, you are applying what you have been advised on this forum and your teaching yourself what works for your body and what does not.

The above was just one day.

You need to get what you have learned from it and use it in your meal selection for the next day and then the one after that.

The more you do this the more knowledge and data you will be gathering and hopefully you will see a significant decreasing trend in your pre meal counts all the way down to the desired 4-7 mmol level.

Like others on this forum, what I am trying to do is guide you in how to get your levels down to the target levels. Where we may differ is in how quickly we want to get you there. How much you restrict your carb intake will be the determining factor for that.

My preference is that, rather than cutting them down drastically and going cold turkey, you let your glucose meter guide you down in a more gradual way.

I think you are already well on your way there and just need to continue testing and adjusting your meals as you are doing now.

All the best

Pavlos
 
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@pavlosn it seems it doesn't take long, this is on a 800 calorie reduced to 80g of carb a day is one option
when I started, it was very confusing, I found it easier to cut the carbs except mainly nonstarch veg, so I was on under 20-50g of carb a day...but I had near full calories of 2,000 a day and wasn't hungry with LCHF...it worked quickly for me,
it gave me time to learn about how many carbs I could eat or wanted to eat later. I thought the main thing was to get my BG in range

https://campus.recap.ncl.ac.uk/Panopto/Pages/Embed.aspx?id=c3bef819-e5f4-4a55-876f-0a23436988ed&v=1
 
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Perhaps rather than "can not lower" I should have said "should not lower".

I know high glucose levels are bad for us but would getting them done very fast not have been too much of a shock to the system, As a minimum her eyesight would have been temporarily affected and I also understand that the risk of retinopathy is increased by too rapid a drop.

The OP is newly diagnosed and wrote in expressing feelings of confusion and of being overwhelmed by what has happening to her and the flood of Information she was received.

In the circumstances, and bearing in mind the sort of dietary advice she probably had from her doctor, I do not consider that to advise a reduction of calories to 800 and 80 grams would have been the best way forward.

I would be running the risk that the advise would be rejected out hand as too extreme or that the OP would find it too difficult to maintain become disillusioned and give up.

I appreciate that personally you found it easier to effectively give up carbs rather than reduce gradually and that is certainly one option. I am not sure that everyone is built the same though.

I preferred to offer an advise that was simple to understand and follow "keep post meal counts within two mmol of pre meal counts", would be less likely to scare the OP off, would build habits and educate the OP along the way and hopefully lead her to glycemic control.

We can all advise primarily based on our own experience and that has led me to consider that the mental aspect of copying with these disease is extremely important. So in my advise I try not to built expectations to the point where it could risk disillusionment.

I am a firm believer that in controlling our disease we need to find the diet and other healthy habits that what work for us and that we will be willing to stick with for life. To achieve this we need to be allowed to experiment along the way, get things wrong even and learn from our mistakes.

Perhaps I prefer to look and praise the progress that the OP has already done while pointing out that she still has work to do to get her levels to an acceptable range.

Others may prefer to point out that her levels are still too high and she probably is still consuming too many carbs. I am not saying they are wrong. I am saying that they need to give the OP credit for what she has already achieved and allow her to make her own mind up for what her best way forward is.

Pavlos
 
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As I said Jack we can all advise based on our own experience and own judgement.

I never suggested that the OP needs to learn carb counting though. I can not carb count even now and I have been diabetic for 5 years.

But I do know that eating more than one slice of bread or two spoonfuls of rice will spike me. I don't thing that it takes long to learn that.
 
Thank you Pavlos for your advice...
You have settled my mind a little... from some of the other posts yesterday I was thinking I was totally wrong...

I agree that that counting spoonfuls is the way I will be doing that..

This morning is higher than last night but a lesson learnt, this morning I have tried 1 piece of toast with bacon and egg fried in coconut oil...

Pavlos how did you deal with meals out? Its my fiancees birthday today so will be a meal out, My plan is too try to look at the menu before hand and make a choice before hand what I am having and stick to it.
 
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