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Panic stations !! - my GC has gone up

bob2025

Member
Messages
20
Location
Surrey
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
Diabetes - may it burn in hell !!!
Pointless clock change back to GMT - too dark
Politicians and other petty administrators
HI All

I seem to be floundering.

Was diagnosed a month ago Over the month it has come down slowly at first with a reading of 17.
Since June 22nd it's come from 15, 14, 15, 11, 9 and then 7.
Now alarmingly it;s gone upwards to 8. **** and blast I don't believe it.
I've been going to the gym each day as I was made unemployed in the same month.
I was the only person that showed up the the Ab training course this morning at 7.30 and so I got the full treatment.

The GC level seems a bit random.
How do I track this?
I think my portion was bigger yesterday and I've put on about half a pound. BMI is at 26, so I need to loose about 9 pounds at least.
I know it's not random and I have weighed out my breakfast cereal.
Typical intake is:

Breakfast - one whetabix and banana Semi Skimmed milk topped up with water
one pint of water
Tea with skimmed mike (used to drink black coffer but told to drink Tea with milk.

Lunch - Salad "sweet" crunchy salad, green salad e..g spinage, 4
Cod Fish cake (did have bread crumbs on it) - sometimes swap around with avocado/prawns,
Salomon burger (1), fresh salmon m (hint of lemon/paprika)
Sliced cumber, beetroot, tomato
Thimble full of balsamic vinegar

Desert - Porridge oats 50g (not instant)
Skimmed milk
Apricot mash in (sometimes kiwi fruit, other an other)

Evening Meal - Salad as per lunch - slight bigger portions
Dessert - as per lunch

Obviously this is too much.
It must be the size f my portions or the ripeness of the fruit or the wind has changed direction.

Going back to the gym

This means WAR !!!
 
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Try not to stress over one reading. going from a 7 to an 8 is within meters accepted tolerance anyway. Keep a BG diary and look for trends rather than one-off readings. The fact you had a hard workout may also cause levels to rise a little but the benefits are worth it.
You've made some great progress since diagnosis BTW !
 
For me it would be the Weetabix and banana and the apricots and the porridge, seems a lot of carbs to me. Are you testing properly? Washing hands etc.? And are you sure the carbs you are eating are working for you?
 
dawnmc said:
For me it would be the Weetabix and banana and the apricots and the porridge, seems a lot of carbs to me. Are you testing properly? Washing hands etc.? And are you sure the carbs you are eating are working for you?
Click to expand...

Hi Mo and Dawn

Thanks for your positive feedback.
I specifically check "Can I eat wetabix with a banana" this morning. (not my DN aka "Egor" as she is on holiday and my Gp aka "Dr Evil" is a proper diabetic Doc. but I didn't see him. Nor have I seen a dietitian yet.

Obviously, I have completely cut out any alcohol, biscuits, cakes, chocolate, canned drinks, fruit juices and no sweeteners
My normal drink is black coffer. But I was advised by Egor to have tea with skimmed milk. So I changed to tea/milk. Bit yukky.

According to the photocopy of a leaflet I was handed, which is now my bible;

" Cereal is an ideal Breakfast and a useful snack meal when feeling extra hungry"
" For people with diabetes treated with insulin, cereal is a perfect bedtime snack"
++ As I'm not treated with insulin does that mean I shouldn't be eating cereal? ++
"Always use skimmed or semi skinned milk to keep fat and calories to a minimum"
"Serve with all types of fresh fruit like chopped banana or strawberries pr dried fruit like prunes or sultans"
"Cereals don't need to be sugar free - just avoid the like of Frosties, sugar puffs etc."
"Look out for cereals that contain oats like oat bran flakes, Krunchies, no added sugar muesli, Ready Brek or porridge"

Best choices
Porridge
Instant oats like ready brek
Oat Bran flakes
Oak Krunchies
No added sugar muesli
Sultana bran
All bran
Fruit and Fiber

Good Choices
Weetabix
Sustain
Shredded Wheat
Bran Flakes
Specical K
Fruitful
Just right
Puffed wheat
Shreddies

Ok stuff is typically corn flakes etc

Suggestions
Add fruit to your breakfast cereal
Eat more pasta or rice based dishes
Have fruit as snacks instead of biscuits
Try jacket potato with baked beans as a light snack
Eat more beans, lentils etc

How to fit in your 5 a day
Have your cereal with a banana (1)
Have an apple or pear as a snack mid-morning and mid -afternoon (2)
Have two servings of vegetables (2)

Sorry is this is really long, more of an essay, than a post.
But I wanted to get your feedback on my diet advice to date.

Cheers
 
Your numbers have reduced really well, and in reality, the difference between 7 and 8, as a one-off is nothing to be concerned about. At your stage in your diabetes journey, there are so many factors that could impact on a number, but I have to stress a variation of 1 is not a reason to panic.

You need to look for trends. Thus your current trend is significantly downward, with one out lyer, the 8. Keep on tracking and see how it goes.

Whilst your changes are great, you may be able to shave more off those numbers by tweaking your diet further. Whilst the NHS advice is to eat lots of carbohydrate foods (cereals, pasta etc), many diabetics find they actually do much better by eating less of those foods than the NHS would naturally recommend. It's similar with fruit. But, we're all different, and it's trial and error to get out personal diet right.

On a final observation. Are you enjoying eating salad for two meals a day, or does this feel very much like being on a diet? Do you usually eat salad in winter? There are loads of meal ideas in a thread called something like, "What you have eaten today?", and in the Low Carb section of the forum.
 
Readings vary for many reasons, meter inaccuracy, quality of blood sample, how evenly the glucose is mixed in the blood and your sampling site.

Normally my early morning readings are in the 4s or low 5s. Yesterday and today however, they were 5.8 on my middle finger. I knew this was odd because I han't eaten anything carby and had been doing a lot of cycling. I had expected lower. Retesting on my index finger the readings were lower, 4.8 and on my annular finger, 4.6 yesterday and 4.2 today.

The reason for the fluctuation is that I probably got low, around 4.0 and my body released extra glucose into my system. It takes roughly an hour for this to mix evenly and with one finger reading 4.2 and another reading 5.8, my guess is that this release only just happened. The way your blood circulates around the body is not at all obvious. It doesn't jump from one finger to the other but appears to go the long way around. When this has happened in the past, I have avoided breakfast and retested after 45 mins or so and sure enough, things have averaged out. Now I just get stuck into my porridge.

If you ever get surprising results, test again using a different sample site.
 
Hi AndBreathe

Thanks for your input.
I was a bit shocked that it had risen at all.
But I think I had a larger evening salad.
Gone back down to some prawns/boiled egg and some green salad.
Also had a fantastic coconut milk yogurt. Gluten, lactose, soya,diary free and no added suguar
Per 100ml
Carbs 5.7g
Sugar 0.5g
Fat total 17.g
Sodium 5mg (not sure why sodium is relevant?)

I view it as very much being on a diet for the summer and autumn at least.
Lost 5 pounds since diagnosis - last week of June.
But had a two week holiday with no info and minimal meds.
Need to loose 8-9 pounds - which will take me about 8-12 weeks
Exercising about 5 times+ a week

Winter will be a problem as I get very hungry in the winter and there is never enough daylight.
I have winters in the UK. Gloomy place.
Need to plan my meals over the weekend and freeze them, or at least get the produce in.
My wife and daughters are really helping me.
Emma cooked some fantastic stuffed mushrooms with chickpea filing.
I bought a diabetic diet cook book. Looks very yummy.
I may be eating more on the diet than I normally would
Except that it's not biscuits, chocolate and beer anymore.

I have been speaking to Newcastle Biomedicine, Magnetic Resonance Centre at Newcastle Uni.
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/press.office/press.release/item/low-calorie-diets-for-type-2-diabetes-assessed
I am going to speak to my wife and if she is happy, have a chat with DR Evil and go on the diet to try and reverse the effects.
I was 18st 7ibs about 4-5 years ago I lost the weight and went down to about 12 st. From an 18+ inch neck to around 15.5 Inch neck.
46 inch waste to 32-34 inch waste. Very dramatic weight loss. Way below average BMI
I have put on about 2 stone. Now around 13st 7ibs. Overweight and it shows.
I think my body is now less tolerant of the amount of weight I have put back on. Hence T2.

Any thoughts and feedback most welcome.

Also, @dawnmc thanks for the info on cleaning my hands before the GC test. Sounds obvious, but it never occurred to me.
I had just dashed from the Gym to the doctors and an hour later back at the gym again.
I think someone, when I was born, selected the 'find out the hard way'' option for me.
 
Hi
Many thanks for the advice and extremely helpful tips.
I had not realised that GC testing was so hit and miss.
I was trying to keep roughly to the same diet and see if/how it varied.
Got my wish...it did vary, but not quite how I expected.
 
I think your food is too heavy in carbs. Most of us are unable to manage cereals of any sort, also the tropical fruit you are having is full of sugar. I would change the banana, kiwi and apricot for berries, and only a few at a meal. A small apple may be OK.

Then I would throw away that diet sheet you have. It is a recipe for disastrous blood sugars! Do you have a meter and do you test yourself before you eat and then 1 hour and 2 hours after? This is essential if you want to get to grips with your diet. It will show you where you are going wrong.
 
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Are you eating to that 'bible' bob. Personally I would throw it away. You have done really well losing that weight. If I eat breakfast I have eggs and or bacon or omelettes, lunch is chicken legs if I can be bothered with salad. Tea is steak, chicken, etc with either a salad or green cooked veg.
 
Thanks all

Great feedback.
I did wonder about the diet sheet as the NHS one looked daft.
I now have a test kit but for the first 2 weeks after my return from holiday we didn't know how to use it.
Took another two trips to the doctors - bit of a disaster.
They charged me £10 for it and that was that.

Managed to get more supplies now. Only had one test left.

Eggs, steak, chicken - what music to my ears,,,!
I will call the Surgery again and arrange another appointment.

This has really cheered me up.
If the cereals and fruit are to carby and high in sugar, if I can get this diet/lfestlye right I'm in with a good chance of getting my GC down in further.

More regular testing and trying to seek our the dictation.

Wow - thanks again
 
I agree with all the advice about avoiding all those carbs.

Eating those 'complex carbohydrates' would shoot my BG sky high, and make me feel dreadful. A low carb protein breakfast is a wonderful thing.

I have to ask though; what is your GC? I know you are talking about your blood glucose level, but what do the G and C stand for?

Re-exercise - you've made fantastic progress with your BG levels, but really strenuous exercise can cause your liver to release glucose which temporarily raises your BG.

When are you testing your BG?
 
Also ditch the skimmed milk and low fat stuff - they all have added sugar. Use full or at worst semi skimmed milk, better still have tea without milk and use double cream in your coffee.
 
coffee can act similarly to adrenaline and stimulate the liver to release glucose, after all that's why we drink it.

I may be misreading on a quick skim, but you seem to be eating an awful lot, full stop. I wasn't sure if you were eating all that stuff in the first post in one day, or that was a list of selections.

Yesterday for me, for example was
Breakfast - Apple, Peanut butter, coconut and coffee
Lunch - 3-egg omlette with veg and two thin slices sourdough bread (more coffee)
Snack - small handful nuts
Dinner - stir fried veggies, quorn with a peanut and coconut sauce, cheese on two crackers,. 1 pint homebrew beer
1 whisky as a night cap.


I think that was probably a bit much for me as I'm on a lower overall activity level this week, nursing an injury at the moment. I'd normally have more snacks.

Have you taken a look at calorie intake vs usage on a grand scale, may help you see why the weight has come back on. As others have pointed out, you're also quite rich in carbs.
 
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