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Reintroducing myself

C

christinet

Member
Messages
12
Location
Herts
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
People in cars that don't use their indicators.
People who have attitude
Hi there - i am 54 years old and I have been diabetic for around 10 years or so. I am type 2 and am on Insulin and tablets. I am on a Bosal Bazal regime. Unfortunately my diabetes is not very well controlled, but I now intend to get my self and my diabetes sorted out. I also due to my diabetes have severe proliferative diabetic retinopathy and am registered as partially sighted due to all of this. I am currently waiting to have a cataract on my right eye removed, which hopefully may or may not improve things slightly for me. My eyes have become due to the treatment very light sensitive.

To help get better diabetes control I certainly need to shed 3 or 4 stone and I believe the way I need to go is to try low carbing. I totally do not understand low carbing and I will be going to this particular section on this forum to try and understand a bit more and gain help from people that understand and know about it. I also want to ask if any one can tell me if any of the various slimming clubs that are about are linked in with low carbing.

Anyway wish me luck. I really really must stay positive and get my diabetic control sorted.

Thank you.

Christine
 
Although you have been a diabetic for 10 years I will post the info we give for new type 2's as they may be of some help to you.

Here is the advice we usually give to newly diagnosed type 2 diabetics.This forum doesn't always follow the recommended dietary advice, you have to work out what works for you as we are all different.

It's not just 'sugars' you need to avoid, diabetes is an inability to process glucose properly. Carbohydrate converts, in the body, to glucose. So it makes sense to reduce the amount of carbohydrate that you eat which includes sugars.

The main carbs to avoid or reduce are the complex or starchy carbohydrates such as bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, starchy root veg and also any flour based products. The starchy carbs all convert 100% to glucose in the body and raise the blood sugar levels significantly.

The way to find out how different foods affect you is to do regular daily testing and keep a food diary for a couple of weeks. If you test just before eating then two hours after eating you will see the effect of certain foods on your blood glucose levels. Some foods, which are slow acting carbohydrates, are absorbed more slowly so you may need to test three or even four hours later to see the affect that these have on your blood glucose levels.

Buy yourself a carb counter book (you can get these on-line) and you will be able to work out how much carbs you are eating, when you test, the reading two hours after should be roughly the same as the before eating reading, if it is then that meal was fine, if it isn’t then you need to check what you have eaten and think about reducing the portion size of carbs.

When you are buying products check the total carbohydrate content, this includes the sugar content. Do not just go by the amount of sugar on the packaging as this is misleading to a diabetic.

As for a tester, try asking the nurse/doctor and explain that you want to be proactive in managing your own diabetes and therefore need to test so that you can see just how foods affect your blood sugar levels. Hopefully this will work ! Sometimes they are not keen to give Type 2’s the strips on prescription, (in the UK) but you can but try !!

As a Type 2 the latest 2010 NICE guidelines for Bg levels are as follows:
Fasting (waking).......between 4 - 7 mmol/l.
2 hrs after meals......no more than 8.5 mmol/l.
If you are able to keep the post meal numbers lower, so much the better.

It also helps if you can do 30 minutes moderate exercise a day. It doesn't have to be strenuous.

Sue/Ken.
Click to expand...

Here also is a link to the "Low carb diet , newbies guide" which is in the Low Carb Forum.

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=7215&start=0
 
Thank you very much for your reply, I have found the information and the link you gave me very helpful and interesting. Hopefully, this is the start for me of getting control of my diabetes.
Thank you again :D
 
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