Not diagnosed yet but HPA1c levels r ridiculous

[jayne_elizabeth]

Hi all

Had a blood test last friday and the results of my HPA1c was 94!! I am sure that I will get the T2 diagnoses and probably medication. I have a nurses appointment tomorrow over the phone and a diabetic nurse appointment on may 24th. What I really need to know is what next. The meds will help I guess. I am over weight and know I need to lose some weight. I am 5.4ft and 15.4 stone! So I know what I need to do. But heres the biggest task..... my biggest go to food is white breaded sandwich with lashings of butter and mayo. This will have to stop. I love carbs too so this also needs to be reduced too. I don't know where to start or how to feel!!

Help for a newbie pls!!

 

[Rachox]

Hi @jayne_elizabeth and welcome to the forum. Please don’t panic, we have all been where you are now. Many of us have successfully lost weight and got our blood sugars under control and back to normal levels.
You have the right idea that cutting carbs is necessary. I’ll post a link to a blog one of our members wrote which I hope you’ll find useful. Just remember you don’t have to do everything at once.
https://josekalsbeek.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-nutritional-thingy.html

Edit to add, if you have any questions, ask away, there’s always someone who’ll try to help.

 

[mouseee]

Hello!
I had hba1c of 101 at diagnosis ,got it down quickly but over thr years it's yoyoed a bit, currently 52.
Meds will help but low carb will help more! I have recently posted about the Freshwell App which is free and is a really good introduction to low carb. There are many on here who have eaten low carb for many years. I have never lost weight easily and low carb is the only one I can actually say has worked. So you're on a double winner with it....blood sugar and weight loss.
Oh, and other advice is get a blood sugar monitor and test. There'll be more info on that feom others I'm sure!!

 

[MissMuffett]

Hi @jayne_elizabeth and welcome. Like you I used to live on white bread sandwiches and had one everyday for my lunch. I do occasionally have a sandwich now and use Hovis50 which is brown nimble. It’s only 8g a slice as apposed to around 25g for white! As I don’t work I usually have something on one slice of toast which reduces the carb count even more, things like egg, cheese, ham and cheese. I also use lettuce leaves as a wrap and put ham and slices of cheese in it. Any meat; chicken, shredded pork etc. it’s become a habit now and It’s surprising how inventive you can be and you can still have mayo but have a go at making your own with mild olive oil. Lots of keto mayo recipes on YouTube

 

[rekotek]

Don't panic and take your time to adjust the lifestyle changes.

My hba1c was even higher than yours at 135 but managed to bring it down to 41 after 3 months.

I don't count how much g of carbs I eat but I do eat more vegetables + lean meats, only small handful of carbs and stopped all sweetie snacks/drinks.

Good rest also important and changed a lot after I changed night time job to day time job .

 

[Outlier]

You can still have butter and mayo, as long as the mayo is either made by you or one of the luxury ones like Hellman's that doesn't have a load of added carbs and sugars. It is surprising how quickly you will lose the feeling that there ought to be bread. Or try one of the very low carb breads as mentioned. But I found it easier to forget bread ever existed. Stay with us for lots of support and food ideas. Most of us have been where you are now, and it DOES get lots better.

 

[Helen H]

you have come to the right place here - lots of great information from lots of people that have got their type 2 in remission through low carb diet. For what it is worth I got told I was pre-diabetic last November - admittedly my results were not as high as yours. I quickly found this forum and decided to go low carb. I have lost 2.5 stone and have found it pretty easy to do on this way of eating. For my bread fix I now buy a liw carb bread from Srsly Low Carb (not cheap but I find it worth it for me) or I make keto mug bread and also “chaffles“. If you like baking there are also plenty of low carb recipes for things like brownies/scones etc.
Also, as someone else said - get yourself a blood glucose meter and some test strips, more experienced members will be along with advice on this. Your nurse/diabetic nurse/gp will probably tell you you don’t need to test yourself - I look at it this way - how do I know what my. body can and can’t cope with if I don’t test - at the end of the day it is my body, my health and my future so i do test.

it will all seem a bit over whelming to start with but you will get there.

 

[oldminer88]

Great thing about testing is you get to know the things that really do the damage, mine were home made sponge with custard and my weekly pizza

 

[derekhansen]

Just adding my voice to all the others encouraging the low carb route. I lost loads of weight and reduced my Hb1ac by converting to a low carb diet. Yes, it does mean sacrifices but you will find loads of your favourite foods (like butter and mayo) are not taboo and please believe me it is sooo much easier and more sustainable than calorie counting. Before being diagnosed as T2, I had been steadily gaining weight for 20 years. I tried calorie control diets on a number of occasions but always gave up because I was constantly hungry. Of course being diagnosed was a great incentive but honestly I havn't found the low carb lifestyle to be anywhere near as difficult as calorie counting.