T2 newly diagnosed? Don't worry, don't panic. We got you....

Flora123 said:

Another great post. I was a bit confused when diagnosed as it was all about weight loss. As a size 10-12 (now 8-10-12

) and 5’8” I couldn’t identify with many posts. As you said it’s all about lifestyle change and what works for OUR body and our body mechanics.

I do feel the tide is turning on what nutritional info we are “fed”. I have a friend (who doesn’t know my diagnosis - another story) who preaches to me about veganism but it is all carbs, carbs, carbs. Her family are diabetic and this is what she is telling them to eat. Not getting involved but very LCHF speaks for itself to me 112 to 36 in three months and no meds. Love this forum xx

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Blimey, your friends family are in a tricky situ eh. I have to admit, I'd be stuck if I couldn't stay on a high protein diet, I don't know much about veganism but if it's carb heavy, yikes! I did the no meds route too, as soon as I got diagnosed I stopped *everything* and re-evaluated my whole lifestyle. Going in for my official first BG test and review at the docs next week - see how the ol' BG is reading with the recent changes. I'll do a post!

Numan said:

Great post, thanks IronLioness, I’m a few months behind you but totally agree with everything you say, 1 thing I would definitely say is to prioritise yourself at work. For years I have wolfed food down at 11 am tea break so I could work through lunch, now after reducing carbs, I take my morning tea break at 1pm, go straight into lunch, then have my afternoon break straight after that. Having a whole hour to enjoy my lunch and eat it at a gentle pace allows me to maintain low stress levels. I see my work as a contributing factor to my lifestyle, which I had to change, like you I have the power to improve my situation, and I feel in control, and that gives me a great feeling

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Spot on, Numan, I completely relate to you. I love what you've done to change your lifestyle. Do you feel better for it now? What the doc said really shook me up. Literally the day after diagnosis I booked the day off of work - because my mind was in overtime from overthinking all the bad stuff we read online about diabetes WAY too much. But, it was 'the moment' I knew I needed to sort my life out - my work/life balance was so far out of whack....definitely a contributing factor to the diagnosis. I was getting up at 4am, commuting, and not getting home until after 8pm, wolfing down whatever I could find to fit my daytime schedule for the project, super stressed/anxiety, then finding whatever I could to eat when I got home, and working on 5hrs sleep for 6mths with only weekends for exercise, and sometimes it honestly just didn't happen. Not good. I just re-evaluated everything. Then I went radical - I explained things to my works and luckily was able to change my contract to work from home, but I was prepared to leave and find a new job closer to home to get my life back on track. It's made such a huge difference, to everything, especially managing the diabetes - I just sorted out my stress/anxiety, nutrition and general lifestyle and wellbeing. Had to go hardcore and put myself first, which was difficult - I'm so used to 'work mode'. I go for my official first HBA1C next week. I'll share my results

Resurgam said:

I changed my food back to what I have always tried to eat.
I worked on what would become known as the Cambridge diet back in the 1970s - on the making and packaging of the various meal replacements - one reason I use a lot of sugar free jelly and gelatine is from back then, I was disappointed that the diet sold to the public did not include the set desserts in the end, but people wanted instant, so the shakes were chosen.
Since then, all my adult life I have always felt better eating low carb. I have always been told that it is wrong - yet on low fat high carb I always felt unwell and became weaker in constitution and less physically robust.
I used to walk to work and went through a park where there was a suspended horizontal ladder. I used to go across it swinging by my hands from rung to rung both on my way to work and coming home again - apparently few women in their 20s have the upper body strength to do that. I read a lot of Edgar Rice Burroughs as a child, and we had a lot of trees in the garden....

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That sounds fantastic, and, highly effective! I remember the Cambs Diet from back in the day, I'm also loving the sugar free jelly - it's my staple 'sweet' treat if I need something in the evening. I'm with you on the low carb and how it makes you feel, I can relate and oddly it's been since diagnosis and my new way of eating that I've noticed the difference - I keep under 100g of carbs a day and I feel *so* much better than beforehand when carbs used to feature frequently and highly per day. I much prefer the high protein diet, it works well for me, keeps me fuller for longer, too. Total winner!

The swinging ladder, you mean like the monkey bars there used to be in schoolgrounds? Wow, that's impressive, there's NO WAY I could do that, that takes some SERIOUS power, Resurgam! I like your style!

Chook said:

I once (pre-D) experimented with vegetarianIsm and, for a short while, veganism and a day or two of trying out a macrobiotic diet and found them all to be not particularly healthy. This was especially evident when talking to my daughter's teenage friends who the vegan activists so often target. So many of them lived on stuff like pizza and chips, cheese and onion pasty and chips or other rubbish foods. I was careful with what my daughter and i ate yet she still became very anaemic. Luckily i picked up on her problem early and we were able to overcome it by reverting to an omnivorous diet.

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That's really interesting Chook, is your daughter ok now? My vegan friend posts Insta pics of what looks to be v carb heavy foods. They look delicious, to be fair, but I cringe as I don't know how I'd get around that. Also, I find I carb-count or carb-guestimate now at certain foods if I'm out of see folk eat or when I'm looking at menus etc- in my head I'm looking at a plate of rice and thinking "Nope, that's about 70+g of carbs in that!" haha, I'm turning into such a carb-checker-geek!

Chook said:

Oh yes, that was quite a few years ago. Given my T2, PCOS and dietary issues she she has to be careful with her way of eating as she seems to have inherited PCOS from me.

LOL .you are exactly the same as me when eating out, I guestimate everything. I do prefer to look up restaurant menus on-line so i can work out my food choices in advance though.

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Ahh I see. It's good that you're working it out together though.

Ooh yes, I do the ol' pre-prep and check out restaurant beforehand too. It makes life so much easier. I also try to stay away from Italian restaurants - all that pasta, and bread, yummy, but I steer clear of plates of pasta now. Much safer ;-)

**Update** I did it!! Got the news that my first review and BG test at docs since diagnosis in October has gone down from 49 down to 41, yippeeeee!!!!!! All done on low carb (<100g of carbs a day), workout every day and no '**** food or drink. Now, next phase - to get it out of the prediabetic zone! Challenge is ON!

Numan said:

Well done. Keep doing what you are doing and you will soon be out of the PD zone

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Thanks Numan! Yup, that's my next goal, hoping by the time of next review. Fingers crossed!

Linnyloo said:

Thank you for this I was just diagnosed this morning. I'm only 31 and I do feel so ashamed i've allowed this to happen. However as you said I am in control now! Have my 12 week referral to slimmingworld and i'm ready to do this. Although it will be a struggle being a very poor university student but at least i get to experiment with low cost healthy food, rather than just grabbing a quick bag of sweets or crisps.

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I can relate, Linnyloo. It's a bit of a hit when the doc confirms it, but try not to focus on the past, you can't change that, but you've totally got control of your future. You don't need to be ashamed, life is life we all do things that are considered 'bad' for us, drinking, food, smoking, etc etc, whatever our individual vices are....but life is life, gotta live it, and hindsight is a wonderful thing But you're in such a strong position, full power over your future, it's rather empowering. I don't know if this helps, but that's the way I looked at it after the 'news' was dropped by the doctor, ok, there's nothing I can do about back then, but yeah, now I can *do* something to help *me* from here on in. I'm not a student but I do need to work to a tight budget so my first point of call was getting my head around low carb foods and replacing treats - sugar free jelly was a savour, as were protein bars, as they gave me a 'sweet' fix but are way less in carbs, fats and sugar than actual sweets, and they're mostly high in protein so they actually helped fill me up, too - total winner! (I use 'Grenade' bars as they have a huge range, they taste good, low in barbs, sugar and fat so they're a better 'sweet' substitute - plus I tested their effect on my blood glucose and there wasn't any). Take it day by day, work with what works for you. Shopping wise, Aldi, Lidl and Morrisons became my bestie because of the amount of protein I now buy - literally, baskets full of mostly proteins so it pays to shop where there's cheaper good foods, ha! Plus, the proteins fill me up and are readily available to take with me when I'm out and about - might be good for Uni schedules too. The cost in those shops are also pretty decent, too. I did go quite hardcore and stop any form of treats like take-aways or sweets and alcohol at the weekend, which also helped my finance situation too - it's a-mazing how much that stuff can actually hike up costs! But definitely work a plan that you're happy with. A lot of people find the low carb high fat diet works well for them, sadly, it didn't agree with me (I didn't like the high fat element because I honestly could easily get carried away with the quantities, doh!) so I tested different foods affect on my BG levels and settled on something which works for me - low carb (under 100g a day) high protein, v low sugar and low/mod fats, plus I went back to working out every day at least an hour a day, sometimes home sometimes gym, it helps. The results? It might not work for you, but just doing that and trying to build it into a lifestyle I've managed to come down from 49 at diagnosis to 41 hba1c at my first 3 months review, which is technically what they call 'a person living without diabetes', essentially I've put it into remission - I don't like the word 'reversal' as it'll never go, but I can do my bit to keep it away.

Main thing I would say is these forums are fabulous, the folks here gave better advice for me at diagnosis than the doctor surgery, the DESMOND course I had to attend, and the endless reams of conflicting info on the Web. Through these forums, you'll definitely find a plan to work for you, once you get into it, it's easy to keep to, honest. I can genuinely say, it's consistency which is key. There will be good days, and not so good days, if you fall 'off the wagon' as they say, don't worry about it, it happens, and life is life, the trick is to get back on track asap - not that I'm discouraging you, it's just good to be aware that yeah, some days life throws a curve ball and old habits can die hard. But the thing to remember is, tomorrow is always another day, and you are 100% in control of this!

Stay strong Linnyloo, you can do this! x *hugs*

Debbiedodah said:

A fantastic post, thank you IronLioness.
I was diagnosed just over a week ago and was so emotional it was ridiculous!
My doctor was great pointed me to this site which I have found really helpful and now my approach is to think about how much better I will feel.
My PN is brilliant, giving me information over the next few weeks so I’m not overloaded as at the moment we are concentrating on getting my BG down.
I shall follow your advice and think of the future

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Yep I can relate Debbiedodah, I went to pieces for a few days at first diagnosis, but sounds like you're on the case. I guess it's kind of an ongoing process, baby steps to progress and definitely count every 'win' (change) small or large. Its a great process learning more about the body and how it works, I've turned into a total food and body geek, hehe... I like fact finding - looking at nutritional value in foods, full on geek mode, I must look odd in shops, but it honestly just helps me to stay on track. Good luck to ya!