South Beach Diet

[CeeCee59]

I was wondering if anyone has any experience with the South Beach Diet? I really want to try to manage my t2 diabetes with diet alone and am looking for a healthy diet that doesn't cost the earth and wondered if this was the right choice. I find I'm really craving the carbs and need to find a plan that allows healthy carbs in moderation. I've never actually followed a "diet" before as in general I don't believe in them - but now, maybe I'm open to it.

 

[Sid Bonkers]

Hi CeeCee, I have no idea what the South Beach diet is but I do know that you will be diabetic for the rest of your life and any diet that is designed for people to use short term to loose weight will not be tailored for any individual to eat for the rest of their natural.

I would recommend that you find out through testing what foods you can manage in what quantities and design your own lifestyle around what you are able to eat whilst comfortably controlling your bg levels, no diet designed by anyone else is going to do that for you I'm afraid.

Test test and test again until you know what you can eat.

Sorry to sound so negative towards 'diets' but thats just the way it is, everyone has to find their own diabetes lifestyle path to follow, what works for me almost certainly wouldn't work for you and vice versa.

 

[CeeCee59]

Thanks Sid. I have never followed any kind of diet before (for weight loss or any other reason) but now that I am trying to find out through testing what foods raise my levels I was trying to research ideas for good suggestions for lower carb foods. I am really struggling with "so what was it in that particular meal that wasn't good for me?". Does anyone else find that even the brand of bread makes a difference? It seems that for me, some wholewheat bread (major grocery store chain) is okay but the good tasting stuff from the health food bakery really gets the numbers high - even though that stuff is made from stone ground whole wheat flour with no added preservatives or sugar! If is all very depressing

Well trial and error I guess. Hate those pin pricks four or five times a day though!!

Currenlty I test on waking (most of the time) and then try to test for two of my three meals. (Before the meal and two hours after) Sometimes if I'm feeling not quite right, I test to see what my levels are so that I can attempt to figure out what's going on.

 

[Sid Bonkers]

Ive always found that wholemeal bread is just the same as white bread whether stone ground or not, the only bread I could eat after diagnosis was Burgen, now my bg levels seem to be stable I am able to eat wholegrain bread in moderation, but I am aware that that could change at any time. Most lunches for me now comprise of a small slice of Quiche or a scotch egg with salad but I dare say I will get fed up with that soon and move on to something else which I will test thoroughly.

I am at a lucky place right now where I can enjoy life without testing every five minutes, but when I was first diagnosed I tested seven or eight times a day to get my meals fine tuned, again in some respects I was lucky in that I was put straight onto insulin so never had to pay for test strips, well not that often anyway. Stick with the testing and after a while you will know what foods are likely to do what to your numbers and you will be able to adjust the portion sizes to suit. Now I am no longer on insulin and have gained control at least at the present moment in time, I have relaxed my testing to a handful of times a week, but I realise that that could change at any time but I have definitely found that the less I worry about my control the easier it has become, I am convinced that stress plays it's part.

When I first came out of hospital I was eating a bowl of cereal with a banana sliced on top and a glass of grapefruit juice for breakfast every morning thinking I was eating a healthy diet, now if I have cereal it is 17g to 22g of corn flakes which just about covers the bottom of a cereal bowl I am so glad |I found this site when I did