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T2 tantrum…

McHelen

Well-Known Member
Messages
91
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
I was diagnosed T2 in July 2021, I have spent hours reading the great advice on here and other sites/forums, I have attended an ‘educational’ webinar prescribed by my GP, I have used a Libre2 to gain an understanding of how different foods effect my glucose readings, I have brought a couple of good books and read them from cover to cover, I have spoken to family members who are also T2, so I have the information, advice and know what I need to do and here is the problem; my brain has gone into rebel mode and I just want everything that I know I need to avoid. My OH tries gently to remind me but I have had a couple of real meltdowns, almost stamping my feet. Hopefully this is just a phase that I need to work trough before I fully accept how controlled I need to be.
 
The denial and grief phase! And quite understandable as you are working hard at making a big and permanent change to your lifestyle and that is requiring time and energy.
I don't deny myself completely. I used to allow myself a really good slice of cake in a nice cafe once a month usually after a good walk. I also used to have fish and chips once a month as a treat. These 'rewards' allowed me to continue to make dietary changes and set new patterns of eating. Now I seldom have cake or fish and chips not because I can't but because they really don't appeal any more.
 

You are fighting your food addictions.. it takes strength and will power but your health will improve if you can manage to overcome.

Try Jen Unwin's book "Fork in the Road" that might help?
https://forkintheroad.co.uk
 
Don't be too hard on yourself, coming to terms with a diabetes diagnosis and accepting the changes this will mean is very difficult. You'd likely be very kind and patient with a friend or loved one going through this, try to remember to show the same kindness to yourself!

I think each of us has to find our own path through this stage, our own reasons to make the right choices. For me it was the realisation that my health and future was too precious, time too short, to allow it all to be compromised by the dreadful complications diabetes can bring.

Keep at it, think about all you want from your future, and you'll find your way. Good luck!
 
Thank you, I am waiting for my ‘angel’ and my ‘devil’ to come to some sort of compromise!!!!
 
Many here follow a keto lifestyle which is fairly daunting at first but becomes easier with practice - a bit like riding a bicycle. I decided to be more lenient with myself, and have a more relaxed approach. I do use some medication, but at a minimum level, and I eat to the meter. I have done it for nearly 6 years now, and it has become second nature for me. I am also more relaxed than when I was trying to go into ketosis, and that helps the little grey cells for me.
 
I suggest making some sort of bubble and squeak from low carb veges and eggs - it is really hard to feel hard done by when eating that - particularly when accompanied by sausages or bacon, or both. I like swede as a basis, but anything suitable, such as cauliflower is often used at a pinch.
Follow up with a roast dinner, maybe with a stirfry accompaniment, perhaps a smallish salad to start with - a little seafood maybe?
I find it very hard to think of eating foods which are not low carb these days. I often read of 'treats' being off limits - not for me - I have treats at every meal, just not the carby ones.
 
There's a theory that our gut microbiome tries to keep us eating what we're used to because the species that flourish on refined carbs want to keep flourishing and don't want to starve. And those little fellas have ways of manipulating our appetite to get what they need. So maybe an element of your struggle is those species making their last stand before giving way to the different species that will flourish under your new regime (and help you to flourish too). I have no idea whether this is all total BS, but I've definitely read some guy on the Net talking about it, so it must be true! It's a nice idea, anyway.
 

I love this, a good battle raging in my gut. Banish the Orcs! Thank you, I am much happier this afternoon!
 
Hi. We've all been thru the initial diagnosis phase and disbelief so don't be hard on yourself. Yes, the right diet is number one with lower carbs but it's nice to know you can have eggs, bacon, steak, 85% Dark Chocolate and many other foods that aren't too carby. It's good you have the Libre 2 which will be really helpful.
 
Make a nice fritatta too - it's great to use stuff up from the fridge. I use 12 eggs, cottage cheese with chives, grated cheddar and then anything I can get my hands on. This weeks is 2 tins of tuna, 2 tins of sliced mushrooms, some reduced to clear asparagus and 8 cherry tomatoes then sliced into 8. Handy to take out too. Just to clarify, it's Mr Zig that has the dreaded D word, I used to cry trying to think what he could eat at the beginning. He used to love a whole packet of custard creams dunked into a mug of cocoa!! This site is fab. The doctor told him he was amazed after 3 months, he had completely changed his reading so is diet controlled (by me). I can remember visiting a pop up Diabetes UK stall and they were handing out apples, oranges and bananas!!
 
I went to Diabetes UK (the other lot) doing a popup in a supermarket store, and they were doing a prize raffle on their stand where the main prize was a huge Xmas hamper stuffed full of the joys of that carbfest. They also offered minor prizes of choccies and iced cakes. The stand was offering free mince pies. I also attended on another occasion the same charity doing a special talk on diabetes care, and they too had sticky buns and cakes on offer in the interval. There was coffee but no sweeteners. No cream either, only green top. milk. They had the gall to ask me for my donation which I would have been escorted off the premises had I obliged!
 
Couldn't make it up!! :-D
 
I cannot politely say what I think about this!!!!!!!!!
 
I went to Diabetes Awareness classes with my Dad 5 years ago (DESMONDs) at the hospital. They were advocating toast, as much as you like, and cereal and any fruit, I actually cried with madness when we had a one to one. Trying to get my 87 year old Dad to listen to me was impossible after that.
 
I didn't speak up when the advice to eat 'healthy' carbs was being dished out at the education sessions I attended.
I can still see the fellow attendee at the supermarket some time later getting along so well despite having lost one leg below the knee and having the other foot all bandaged up - still makes me want to cry.
 
It's a phase. Snoddy's right, you're going through stages of grief here. And oooh yeah, been there, done that.... And sometimes I still get recalcitrant, though that's just a blip and doesn't happen more than once or twice a year for 5 minutes. (Just about long enough to eat something I'll regret, haha)

Knowing what you should be doing, when you just want to go back to what you were used to, well... That's all fine and dandy, but you have emotional scars to deal with as well: a diagnosis is traumatic and you have to work through that. As if switching your diet around isn't enough on your proverbial plate. What helps? Time. Give yourself some to process all this. And finding stuff you really enjoy eating that still fits with low carb. Be it hard cheeses, or coffee with unsweetened whipped cream, find things that are decadent and that make you feel like you're breaking the rules. (After all, there's the anti-fat doctrine you can absolutely kick to the curb now, as fat's your friend!). You'll get through this. But right now it's perfectly fine to be really, seriously angry about the hand you've been dealt. I know I was. And most of us were. It gets better though. It does.
 
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