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Type 1 ok here we go

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nicbarnett

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First of all I have noticed I have two accounts, this will be sorted put tomorrow.
Abit about me
Female aged 46
Married one child

Type 1 diagnosed 1984
Novorapid and Lantus
Ramipril - blood pressure
Veneflaxin - depression
Sleep apenea
Prolific Retinopathy
Severe backache
Massively overweight
Constipation

Ok you lovely people, I need help, I am not looking after myself i'm scared that now i can't exercise because of my back ache that my life is nearly over, a couple of you lovely people on the forum suggested i may get help if i am honest and tell you things that i eat on an average day. At the moment because i'm signed off work I had a packet of chocolate digestives for breakfast at lunch i had 4 slices of bread made into cheese and onion sandwiches and 4 packets of hula hoops, I popped out for a coffee and had a large drinking chocolate with two cakes, in the car on the way home I ate two family size bars of chocolate, for tea we had mince and bacon mixed up with cheese and rice followed by chocolate popcorn, I couldn't sleep so have just got up and ate 6 biscuits with thick butter on them.
This is pretty much what my diet is like 50% of the time, the other times I eat porridge for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch and meat, pasta, potatoes and vegetables.
Ok don't be too harsh on me please
 x
 
Thanks for being upfront. I'm a type 2 so I'm not in a position to comment re the diet as much as I normally would with a T2 , but I imagine others will. It does not sound too good at all.

I think some changes are in order, especially if you are to lose weight. If you're prepared to change your habits, I'd think you'll see big improvements. So let's make a start and see if we can help. You've got plenty of life in front of you and have taken the first step. That took some courage.

Best of luck and stick around ... no-one will judge you, trust me :)

Mike
 
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All I can say is wow!

I feel guilty and have to deal with a spike from 2 choc digestives, I couldn't dream of eating a whole packet!!!

What are your BG levels like? You do realise what your eating is a big no no right?

I'm not getting on you, in fact I'm a bit jealous, what you described is a dream for me !
 
It's s##t isn't it. I rarely do my BG levels but have been known to give myself massive injections to counteract the rubbish eating. I know what I should be doing LCHF etc but the ironic thing is I have it drummed into me by parents that eating high fat food (other than all the rubbish I eat) will make me put weight on x
 
Hi and welcome.

Two things sprang to mind as I read your post:

Firstly, you must be pretty good at your insulin dosing and carb counting, to be still conscious after that lot! What are your blood glucose levels? Are you testing regularly? And how do you feel? There are some amazingly supportive and helpful type 1s around who can give advice on tweaking insulin, if you would like.

My second thoughts are that you sound like you are deeply in the clutches of carb addiction and carb cravings. And I know how that feels! Do you eat because you are hungry, or because it is like a gnawing need inside you? Or because it is a distraction from your depression, or from having thoughts going whirling round in your head?

The reason I ask the last few questions is that eating disorders are funny b*ggers.
I thought I had one for years. Binge eating (like you describe), feeling helpless around food. Guilt and shame and low self esteem... It was a miserable time. My weight kept rising and my depression kept growing. What worked for me was cutting the carbs. Turns out that my body is a bit more carb sensitive than most (massive understatement), and I get withdrawal cravings and am basically addicted to them. By reducing them drastically, I managed to dip below the threshold that makes me crave them - and suddenly, I felt (feel) better. The cravings now only reappear if I eat too many carbs. And so my 'eating disorder' turned out to be a chemical addiction, not a psychological issue.

On the other hand, eating disorders do exist, and they are very, very, real, and a nightmare to those afflicted. And there are links between diabetes and a whole variety of disorders, maybe because most of us have glucose intolerance in our backgrounds, and are required to focus on food so much to manage the diabetes. It's a marriage made in hell.

We have had several members posting about this kind of thing, which proves that many of us are in the same boat! Hopefully a few of them will post.

Did I say welcome? Because you are. :)
 
nicbarnett said:
It's s##t isn't it. I rarely do my BG levels but have been known to give myself massive injections to counteract the rubbish eating. I know what I should be doing LCHF etc but the ironic thing is I have it drummed into me by parents that eating high fat food (other than all the rubbish I eat) will make me put weight on x
Click to expand...

That sounds like a vicious cycle you've entered and not the ideal treatment for your condition. You must test your BGs for starters and let us know what the readings are. Before that, please consider your circumstances, take some actions and try and turn this around.

Pasta, chocolate and potatoes are not good for T2s and I doubt they're all that good for T1s either .... and attempting to correct your diet thru medications is a self defeating exercise.

Hi fat foods are fine BUT ONLY if they're accompanied by low carbs and exercise. This is gonna take some time and a big commitment with some advice from your GP and suggestions here

Hope you're up for it :)

Mike :)
 
Welcome...

Your parents are right in some sense.. If you are eating all those carbs and you ate more fat then you will put more weight on.

If you go lower carb, then it really us just that. No excess at all on carbs unless on a rare treat day (birthday and easter and christmas day?)

I been T1 for 30+ years.

The best advice I can give is what my mum did to me 30 years ago. Ditch everything from the cupboards, fridge and freezer that you know you shouldn't be eating. Literally empty them and take the food to a food bank....

Then make yourself a meal plan for the week and shopping list and restock your cupboards and fridge and freezer with low carb products.

See if you can watch the programme last night on "whats the right diet" on bbc2 on carch up tv... Find out what group of eaters you think you fall in to.. Is it stress and emotion? Or are you a carb craver?

What ever your causes for your eating patterns you do know you have to change, so please consider the above. We will all support you.

The other thing is that you admitted to rarely bg testing... If you are a driver, please ensure you test every time you get behind the wheel. Be honest here, why do you not test often.. Is it because you know the results aren't going to be good and its just reinforcing that you are out of control with your diabetes?

You have a child. Please, for your childs sake take the first step and ditch every ounce of junk food. You know you are also giving your child these eating patterns too... Just by seeing these your children could just join the band wagon of your eating style.. Which you know isn't good.... Ir they could actually be repulsed by it... Either way you are impacting on their childhood...

Tough words, I apologise but think you know all of this to be honest... But you need some support... We are here and will support you all the way on this journey of imorovement....
 
You are starting from a difficult place but since you took the trouble to post I suppose you have to find somewhere to begin.

You are heavily into carbs for snacks and main meals and you have to eat less of flour and sugar. Considering your current eating habits I think that news might dismay you. However, play the game, each time you wish to snack see if you can find an acceptable food that does not contain flour and/or sugar. You will get better at it with practice.

Some of the items you might investigate are Mathesons smoked pork sausage, corned beef salad, original recipe KFC and maybe many other things. No fizzy drinks or sugar in your tea.

If you start this then the amount of insulin you need will change but being a type 2 myself my help on that is limited to say the least Heed the note to diabetics on the website below.

http://www.dietdoctor.com/lchf
 
Yes welcome to the forum from me too:)

I am type 2 so can't help you with the type1 'stuff' sorry. From your list I have suffered from

blood pressure - at one time I was taking 3 blood pressure tablets
depression - am taking Citalopram currently
Severe backache
Massively overweight
Constipation
and
Inability to walk far without getting breathless due to a heart condition which has thankfully been sorted out now.

You are doing the right thing by making a thread about this. It was the best thing I have ever done. I felt my life was almost over at one point too, the list of ailments just kept piling up. They all started at about your age. I am 57 now. You already know that losing weight will help you with all of your health problems. My doctors kept saying to me "Have you thought of losing weight?" I had thought of nothing else for 25 years! They didn't tell me how to do it though. Just more blame making me more depressed.

It would be helpful if you could let us know your HbA1c results.

So I'll tell you what I did. I was pre-diabetic (no-one told me, I worked it out for myself after reading about it). I started swapping foods for healthier alternatives. I rarely buy anything processed now and I gradually moved towards low carb. I still have around 6 stones to lose, but things are beginning to look up. Once you manage to turn the vicious circle of more and more problems into a virtuous one as you get the problems sorted out one by one then you will feel so much more in control and will start to feel better. Your life isn't nearly over. :) If you take steps now a new one will be just beginning for you.:)

If you can lower your carb intake you will feel better. More veggies will help ease the constipation, as will psyllium husks and drinking lots of water. The fact that you are taking control will help your mood. You will have ups and downs but keep coming back to this thread and tell us about them. I always found that was the first step to dealing with anything. The impossible slowly became possible with help from this forum. Brunneria is right about carb addiction, the more you have the more you want. Rather than thinking of this as cutting out things (because you do have a lot that you need to cut out of your diet) think of all the things you can have instead and fill yourself with those.

I found out that carbs actually make you more hungry by accident. I was in the habit of having a bacon butty for breakfast with my son. One day I didn't have enough bread so I gave him the butties and I had just the same amount of bacon. Nothing else. Normally I was starving hungry by 10 am and reached for snacks - crisps, sandwiches, chocolate, biscuits. To my amazement that day I didn't even think of food until 1 pm! I usually had lunch at 12 and a few snacks before then. So that was when I started cutting out carbs. They only make you hungry again very quickly.

Next I started thinking what I could have for breakfast, fried tomatoes, bacon, sausage, mushrooms (unfortunately I don't like egg, I wish I did). I did the same with other meals, piling my plate higher than I ever had, not counting calories or cutting down on my total food intake at all. Lots and lots of vegetables adding tasty things like onion and peppers. I started to lose a pound a week until other health issues kicked in and set me back a bit. One of the reason carbs are addictive is that they taste so bland, so you are not really satisfied, so add herbs to spice things up. if your taste buds are satisfied then you will be too. It's hard for the first 2 weeks. After that it gets easier. In the beginning I simply cut out potatoes, bread, pasta, pastry, rice, cakes, sugar etc, but allowed myself smaller quantities of carbs... say for instance cod in breadcrumbs, or adding ketchup occasionally. I wasn't as low carb then and not yet diabetic and found this gave me more flexibility. Now I'm diabetic I have to be more careful about these added carbs.

If you need help reducing your insulin to fit your new diet say so and I'm sure some type 1's will be able to tell you what they do.

Once your food is sorted your back may be a little better and you may feel more able to exercise. Food is the important thing to start with.

This thread might help you with tips on low carbing, while you work out the best diet for you (by 'diet' I mean lifestyle diet, not slimming diet)

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/a-new-low-carb-guide-for-beginners.68695/

This is so exciting. Keep posting. Keep asking questions :)
 
@nicbarnett

Hello Nic and welcome to the forum :) You have already received some good responses from members. I think it would be useful to you to read the information on carbs in the Basic Information below, which you may have seen already as your alter ego! Bearing in mind that you are not newly diagnosed but were diagnosed in 1985. Ask all the questions you need to and someone will help.

BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEW MEMBERS

Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.

A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you’ll find over 130,000 people who are demonstrating this.

On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.

The role of carbohydrate

Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.

If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.

The bad news

Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.

The good news

People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.

Controlling your carbs

The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.
There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:

  • Reduce your carbohydrate intake
  • Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates

Reduce your carbohydrates

A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.

The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.

Choosing better carbohydrates

Another option is to replace ‘white carbohydrates’ (such as white bread, white rice, white flour etc) with whole grain varieties. The idea behind having whole grain varieties is that the carbohydrates get broken down slower than the white varieties –and these are said to have a lower glycaemic index.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes-and-whole-grains.html

The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.

Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes

Eating what works for you

Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.

To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.

The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:

Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes
  • Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
  • 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l
Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)
  • Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
  • 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l
Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)
  • Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
  • 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l
However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.

Access to blood glucose test strips

The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:

  • structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
  • self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education

Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to bloodglucose testing supplies.

You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic

Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.
 
Gosh - I'd love to be able to add a sharp, witty, insightful post to this thread, but to be honest, almost everything I would have wanted to say has been said by a couple of the others already.

May I ask what you are signed off work with, and if you are signed off long-term, or shorter term? I guess within that is enquiring what support services you might have open to you.

I'm a T2 who has managed to dodge medication of any kind, so I'm certainly not qualifies to advise you on insulin dosing or the like, but I would ask you to seriously get your head around testing your bloods. I don't say this to set up a horror scenario every few hours, but to help you gain an insight into another part of your personal jigsaw. I would speculate you are addicted to carbs, like so many diabetics, and just by it's definition, your addiction will shepherd (more like bully actually of eat, "satisfied", craving, eat, and so on. Obviously, your bloods will reflect this to some degree. As Brunneria has suggested, you must be pretty good at guessing your dosing if you are surviving and not ending up in DKA.

I know when I started testing, I pretty quickly realised that my diabetic "happy place" was at it's happiest when the graphs of my blood scores were fairly smooth, and without massive peaks and troughs. My peaks would lead to sharp drops, which would lead to a carb craving, and we all know what happens when we eat in those circumstances? Who emptied the fridge?? Then we have the peak, and so on it goes. So, I'd probably say that if you could start testing today, and recording the results, along with what you eat, then if you are getting your insulin right, your curves may moderate a bit anyway, and undoubtedly that alone would help you feel better in yourself.

Like most of us, you have arrived here with a big of extra poundage on board. I'm not going to go on too much about weight loss, because I was actually one of the really lucky ones who found that bit easy. In fact, when I got to target weight, I had trouble stabilising and have ended up a skinny Minnie.

Due to circumstances I won't bore you with, I didn't have scales for the first couple of months after diagnosis, and where I was, there just aren't weighing scales in Pharmacies, so I just concentrated on getting my bloods smoothed out. Then one day, we were in a hardware store and there, in front of me were a set of bathroom scales, so I put them on the floor, set the dial to zero and jumped on. My OH was mortified; especially when I was screeching for him to come and look at the dial. I knew I was losing weight because my clothes were loose, but I couldn't put a number on it. In a roundabout way, I think that helped me, as at the outset I could just concentrate on one thing - my bloods.

Whilst my story is just that, there are so many of us end up on this forum with a handful of issues; high bloods, excess poundage, raised cholesterol, high blood pressure and various aches and pains, so many of us have found that if we sort out our bloods, some of the other stuff just falls into line.

Where we T2s really get "lucky" is that we really do have to tackle our diets, because Metformin and the other simple diabetes drugs don't lower our scores by much. T1s, with the ability to match insulin to diet have a real double-edged sword, in that you can tweak your insulin to match what you eat, but weight gain and carb cravings can be the result, as you probably know.

So, for someone with nothing to say, I waffled a lot! But, to summarise, please do start testing. You probably won't like the numbers you see, but at least you will be able to take control of the situation and aim to smooth the peaks and troughs. Knowledge is power.

And lastly, how are you for supplies? Please check, and get yourself well stocked up - with insulin, test strips, and whatever you use for testing ketones. You're going to need them!
 
Oh my goodness, I am overwhelmed by all your answers and advice, it will take me a while to read through them but in a nutshell

I am signed off work as I have had another retinal bleed, I have Prolific Retinopathy and the blood in my eye hasn't cleared this time so operation maybe on the cards. I intend to go.back to work on Monday

Yes I think I am definitely addicted to carbs.

I have plenty of supplies, never been.given anything to test of keytones though

I will beat this, I will go shopping later and buy salad and veg and meats etc

Thank you all so much, how can strangers seem to care about my life.
 
nicbarnett said:
Oh my goodness, I am overwhelmed by all your answers and advice, it will take me a while to read through them but in a nutshell

I am signed off work as I have had another retinal bleed, I have Prolific Retinopathy and the blood in my eye hasn't cleared this time so operation maybe on the cards. I intend to go.back to work on Monday

Yes I think I am definitely addicted to carbs.

I have plenty of supplies, never been.given anything to test of keytones though

I will beat this, I will go shopping later and buy salad and veg and meats etc

Thank you all so much, how can strangers seem to care about my life.
Click to expand...

I think T1s should really have access to Ketone testing supplies, as ketones can play naughty if your bloods are running high. Maybe @Spiker , who is a T1, could comment a little on that? (Hello Spiker!)

Have a look in the What have you eaten today thread: http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/what-have-you-eaten-today.36803/page-261#post-732090 There are some seriously scrummy foods in there.

Whatever you do, don't go hungry. Hunger will push you to eat (possibly not the best things), so best to avoid that.

Keep coming back, and keep asking questions. Your story is different to everyone else's, but really we all start in the same place - bewilderment, anger, frustration and not feeling our best. There is a way forward.
 
Hi and welcome. Proteins and fats will help you feel full and help to move away from the carb addiction. Many of us were having too many carbs when diagnosed but find we have been able to gradually wean ourselves off them. If you can avoid having some of the carby foods in the house it might help; we never have biscuits in the hours; too tempting! My wife and I snack on nuts and cheese.
 
Absolutely!

Don't go hungry. Salads are great. But to make me feel full, I need mayo with them. And that's fine, so long as I don't eat carbs at the same time.
And what veg isn't better with butter, or a cheese sauce? :)

Please note, I am not saying 'stuff yourself with fat'
What I am saying is that if you reduce your carbs, the cravings will be a (short term) pain, and in my experience, eating stuff like mayo, and fat, is the best way to kill the cravings in the first few days of reducing your carbs. cream in coffee, snacks of cheese and a handful (just a handful!) of nuts are the way to go.

Have a look at this thread, for some helpful hints.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/what-is-your-number-1-lchf-tip.67929/
 
Wow, I've just jumped on the scales, 19 stone 10 that's a good 7 or 8 stone of excess weight I am carrying, no wonder I find it hard to do anything
Onwards and upwards and once again.thank you
 
nicbarnett said:
Wow, I've just jumped on the scales, 19 stone 10 that's a good 7 or 8 stone of excess weight I am carrying, no wonder I find it hard to do anything
Onwards and upwards and once again.thank you
Click to expand...

Well, you weigh a bit less than me - and that is after I've lost a stone and a half on this Low Carb Enough Fat eating.
:D
Not that we are competing for heffalump of the year, but just to make sure (in case the posts above didn't get the message across) that you understand you are not alone.
:D
 
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It is a hard battle to sort out entrenched eating habits. I had a set of problems the reverse of yours in that I suffered from anorexia for years and developed sight threatening proliferative retinopathy as a result of manipulating insulin and food. Either way the end result is not good.

Do you attend a diabetes clinic with a DSN? They really have seen it all before in all shapes and sizes and for me getting back in touch with a diabetes team was the start of getting things sorted. I went to an eating disorders clinic where little by little we introduced eating small low carb meals at a set time. Obviously a plan has got to work for you, if you immediately set about too drastic a change any improvements will be short lived.

Do you have days when you eat better than others and don't need extra carbs? If so, try to extend that pattern more and more, eating only at set meal times. Start testing regularly and working out the carbs for each meal, find something carb free or low carb to occupy yourself with when you feel the need for extra, sugar free gum is a great way to keep your mouth occupied!

Get as much help as you can from your health team, it is too important not to. Get advice on the best way to improve your control from the ophthalmologists treating your proliferative retinopathy as a rapid improvement in control can worsen problems with retinopathy.

Good luck getting things under better control, it is a battle but it is achievable.
 
Crikey, I wouldn't know where to begin to bolus for that amount of food.

Listen Nic, you know where you are going wrong, as Flowerpot says do ask for help from your diabetes team asap, they are use to dealing with issues such as the ones that your experiencing and will help you get back on track. Good luck.
 
My DSN had been no help to me in the past and my next diabetic appointment is in may where I have aimed to lost about 4 stone x
 
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