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Pulled my head out of the sand....AGAIN

N

Nicel

Well-Known Member
Messages
71
Location
England
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Well thought I would ask for some support. You're all such a good bunch on here when I have my head out of the sand and I want to communicate with like-minded people.

Last August I did the 800 cal a day low carb diet, like everything in my life I went all or nothing at it and I went all at this, my HBA1C was really high and I was terrified so this was the lifestyle that would fix me and it did for a few months, I lost weight came off Metformin as my blood was fab and I was testing at least 7 times a day. This was it, this was the way forward............... or so I thought.

I think it all crashed down when I started to crave for foods I missed, see I am a massive choco and cake-a-holic and I am also a sugar addict. That and diabetes don't mix at all. Once I fell off the low carb wagon I just couldn't get back on it. I kept trying but I had no motivation and I was gorging on all the bad stuff worse than I ever had. I didn't test my blood for months and months. I pretty much ignored my diabetes. I got called back to the doctors at the end of December and my blood was actually still not too bad and my cholesterol was high, I promised in the new year I would control it all by diet.... but, again, I didn't. Head back in the sand.

I have just had an amazing two weeks in the Carribean but I had put on two stone so felt fat the whole time, forgot to take my metformin most days and ate all the carbs I could see as I don't eat a lot of meat so not a lot of other stuff I could eat. I love scuba diving so did some diving out there and last Monday I had horrendous pain in my ear coming up followed by an ear infection I think, or at least horrendous ear pain. My ear worsened and today I had to visit the hospital as I was referred by my doctor who is now sending me for a CT scan as soon as he found out I was diabetic and he couldn't see an infection. This has worried me.

I decided to diet on my return from holiday last Thursday and I did my blood sugar, it was 15 fasting in the morning and it scared me, so much that since I have been on a low carb diet and I have been testing (I got it down to 9 earlier .

My partner is so supportive of me, he has said we will do this together but then I just flipped out at him for eating a bacon sandwich earlier, I think I am out of order but I just find this low carb way of life so hard. I am going to the doctors on Wednesday to see if they will medicate me further. I don't know what the best thing for me is. ~I am on the max metformin now. I am worried if I eat low carb I will binge and stick my head in the sand again as denying myself what I love doesn't work. I feel so ****** sometimes that I am diabetic and I want to ignore it. At the same time, it terrifies me.

Sorry for waffling on I just needed to speak to someone who understands, as not many people do.
 
Hi,
I'm sure many of us have done the same as you, please don't be to hard on yourself.
You've realised you have to change, hope your ear will be okay.
Here to chat anytime.
I know how hard it is, I loved chocolate to.
Take care
 
It sounds like a new way of thinking is required as much as a new dietary plan. The 800 CALORIE thing is not the same as a well formulated low carb plan. And a low carb plan comes in many shapes and sizes. Do you really understand how to eat low carb? We can give lots of advice in here from loads of people that have done really well at it, from simple how to start and more detailed troubleshoooting help.

I find the focus better when I think of what i can eat and finding new and interesting meals as opposed to dwelling on what I can’t eat. Insufficient food will make you crave. Did you increase fats before? Or were you hungry? Hunger is a guaranteed fail imo. I’d have eaten the bacon from your partners sandwich making just not the bread. I hated cream pre low carving. Now 8 can’t live without it. Butter veg are so much nicer to me now than they were. A pepper tastes sweet now. A year ago I’d have said anyone saying stuff like this was mad. I eat more chocolate now than i did, just 80%+ rather than milk.

Fear of complications is also a powerful motivator for me personally.

A few links you may or may not have seen before to help focus your mind

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/blog/jokalsbeek.401801/ for info including low carb made simple

And https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/category/success-stories-and-testimonials.43/ to show it really works and for motivation

and https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/what-have-you-eaten-today.75781/ for food ideas

also https://www.dietdoctor.com/ for more food ideas and general info of carb content of foods. Lots of other websites for recipes out there too. Just use the term low carb or keto with whatever you fancy.
 
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You are not to blame, it is the pervasive nature of these da.... high carb and sugar laden stuff. Imagine if there were only 200 choices and all of them had 5 grams of carbs per 100 grams, it would be so difficult to get into trouble and taste buds would be geared towards savoury so many morbidities would be gone. It is like trying to de-invent guns. As we are not in the food world I would like to be in, a different set of strategies have to be adopted to get health.

You may need help on the psychological aspects of food, as it appears you know what to do but the execution is not there. Maybe the first thing to do is to ensure your partner is on board again. I am at a stage where 100% dark chocolate works for me (everyday), is it possible that you try maybe 70%, then 85%...... as a start. The actual food, you and your partner may need to get regimented, via a programme until it becomes natural.
 
I won't give advice, because i'm in a similar boat so don't want to be a hypocrite!

I just wanted to say that I so, so feel for you. It's just so relentlessly hard. Well done for posting here, even that takes some strength.

Completely feel you re just wanting to ignore it, but then having this awful fear at the same time. It's no way to live.
 
I would, quite honestly prefer to have bacon between two eggs than between two slices of bread - eggs fried so that they are just going crispy at the edges, cooked in the same pan as the bacon - I have a ceramic coated pan with a glass lid which is perfect - and big enough to add mushrooms and sweet peppers - sigh.
 

Amateur. A bacon sandwich is a packet of bacon sandwiched between two packets of bacon. Box of eggs as a side.
 
No carbohydrate food is ever going to compensate for the potential loss of my sight, my kidneys or a limb. I owe it to myself and my family to do everything I can to avoid this.
Mbaker and HSSS have got most the supportive ideas covered!
 

I really feel for you. I know it can be difficult when you want to carry on eating the foods which you enjoyed. You've done it once and you can do it again. I'm sure lots of us fall of the wagon sometimes, but then you have to dust yourself off and get back on track. Have you thought of baking some low carb treats so that you don't feel deprived. There are some really good recipes and with practice they taste divine. Once you get used to a low carb diet you'll realise how sweet high carb foods are and they aren't that nice. Also, I tend to think of low carbing not as a diet but as a way of eating for life. By saying diet it makes me think it's only for a certain amount of time and then I can change it. Low-Carbing is a way of eating for life and even though there maybe times when you eat something deemed to be bad, that's o.k too. We need to look after our mental health which in turn will give us the incentive we need to maintain our physical health. I hope you feel better soon.
 
I know exactly where you are coming from. I was diagnosed type 2 in 2012 and for the first couple of months raged against the diagnosis. I was not on any medication but was advised to use the eat well plate as a template for meals. Despite that advice I managed to loose about 4 stone in weight and my bg results were in the low 5's. Then I rather let it go out the weight back on was put on Metformin which I could not tolerate and ended up on Dapaglaflozin.
My last HbA1c was 73. I was ashamed that I had let all of the original gains go. I then found this web site and read round carbs and low carb eating. I changed my diet from Jaffa cakes, chocolate, crisps, fast food to low carb high fat cook from scratch. The recipies on diet doctor are very good. Apart from the first week when I craved white bread and chocolate I can honestly say that I have not missed sweet stuff ( I was/ am a sugar addict) I have not been hungry at all. I have without really trying lost 1.5 stones in 6 weeks.
So my advice would be give it a go what have you got to lose? I wish I had known about it in 2012 I could have saved myself a lot of grief.
 
Thanks all. Your posts have helped lots. I’ve been to the doctors my hba1c is 80. So I am now on metformin and glicozide which i want to try out. Today my bg dropped to 5 which is unheard of for me and I felt shaky but I think it’s just me getting used to it. I’m reducing sugar and bad carbs which the hope or finding some balance and feeling happy again.
 
Good luck.......give guilt a kick in the goolagongs and get busy living
 
Like @Mbaker and @HSSS , my normal dessert is two squares of dark chocolate. I used to have the Raspberry one from Lidl*, which was about 70%. I'm now trying the 81% version. It's quite strong but I find a tiny sip of Bourbon, then a bite of choccy helps it go down.



*JD Gross Ecuador and Arriba
 
My weakness is Montezumas Absolute Black - 100% cocoa, 8g carbs per 100 gram bar and so tasty!
 
Barrowbakers said:
I’m finding Sainsbury’s own label 85% is very good and each bar is split into 6 small wrapped bars with about 2g carbs in each. Very smooth!
Click to expand...
I think I'll track this one down and work my way towards the 100% eventually. It's for the "I-fancy-something-sweet" moment when the washing-up's done and the film's about to start.
 
LindsayJane said:
My weakness is Montezumas Absolute Black - 100% cocoa, 8g carbs per 100 gram bar and so tasty!
Click to expand...

Yeah this is wonderful chocolate and contains nothing but 100% cocoa solids. I stopped buying it because it’s so moreish and has so much caffeine in it that it raises my resting pulse

Gorgeous chocolate though, and I’d still be buying it if I thought I could moderate it consistently
 
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