• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Test Readings.

M

MarkCass75

Member
Messages
7
Hi,

I have just got myself a tester (for want of a better word to call it, sure there is a proper name sorry) Being new to this I am a little unsure what results I am looking for, and what they mean. Obviously I know that a high score means I have had a spike, but I don't know what kind of ranges I am looking to keep at, what readings when I have been fasting and after eating etc.

My first two readings were 10.1 before my evening meal last night, and 2 hours later after home made beef curry it was 10.6. I am pretty sure that these are both high readings, but in the grand scheme of things I have no idea what it all means.

Any help appreciated.
 
They are high but not ridiculously high for someone starting out. I was in the 9s and 10s to begin with but as I learned about foods, what to eat and what to avoid, it came down over the months. I am now, 10 months on, mostly in the 4s and 5s.

One pair of results like that don't mean much. It is patterns over a week that you look for and improvements month by month. Nonetheless your post meal reading is good given that your pre meal reading was so high. The real question is, why was the pre meal reading as high as it was and my guess is that you are probably eating all the wrong foods.

You don't say much about your beef curry but there are two things to be careful about with a meal like this.

The first is the curry itself. Don't rely on sauces in jars or packets. You often don't know what is in them and often there is sugar. Be safe, make it yourself from spices. Secondly, what did you have with it? Unless you are making your own wholemeal chapatis, don't have them. Most shop bought nans, rotis, etc have lots of white flour, even if it says wholemeal. If you are having rice, don't use white rice. Use a full grain brown rice and don't have to much to begin with, half portions.

Fill your belly with the meat. Get shin beef which is very cheap but gristly with a fair amount of connective tissue. If you cook it slowly for long enough, 5 - 7 hours typically, this all breaks down and makes the most wonderful gelatinous gravy. It is completely transformed. If you have cooked this with curry type spices, cumin, corriander, cardamon, ginger, chilli, garlic etc. you will have an outstanding sauce with that meat which will, after such a long slow cook, be as tender as tender can be and completely lean because all the other stuff has simply infused into the sauce and there is no trace of it left.

A slow cooker for about £15 from the supermarket is ideal for this type of thing. Bung it all in in the morning, put it on low and you have a great meal waiting for you when you get back.
 
I made the curry myself with spices, although it was tinned tomatoes for the main sauce, not sure about the values of that, need to do a lot of work on what's good and what isn't. It was diced beef in the curry. I didn't have anything with it, the family had rice, but I didn't have any, I just put myself a little extra meat in and veg in mine (carrots, peas and green beans) I was fine with it, it is a bit odd not having any bread or rice with it (or even chips in the past) but it's not so bad, I made it quite thick so it was a bit more like eating than drinking !

Yeah I get that it will take a while to work all of this out, I have really only just started to take this seriously after 3 months of being diagnosed, but I am really trying hard now. My reading was 6.1 when I woke this morning, and 9.9 2 hours after a small bowl of porridge, with a small cup of blueberries, and a cup of tea. I guess porridge has high carbs, so probably need to work out a better breakfast. I have only just started eating breakfast, went years without ever eating before lunch time, which obviously wasn't good, I get that and am putting it right. Small steps, and the more information I have the better I can get at this (hopefully)

Thanks
 
Well your description of your curry would explain why your post meal readng was pretty much the same as your pre meal reading. You can see the effect of carbs in the porridge has in the post meal rise. Having said that it is by no means unusual. Your early morning reading was very good.

I used to get a similar rise from porridge but as my BG levels came down in general, I started to be able to eat it, firstly with a lower rise and more lately, it has returned to normal after 2 hours. If I do 20 mins on the bike, I will get lower readings.

If you have weight to lose, lose it, become more active and learn about foods. The combination of all three is powerful. The benefits build up quickly in the first 3 months and then slow down but improvements are still to be had. With me, an increase in exercise dropped my average by another full point, so it is now from 9s and 10s to 4s and 5s in 10 months. There's plenty of stuff on the forum about foods and lots of recipes and other sections have lots of tips on exercise. There are many very keen athletes here. Not me, I just sit on a bike in the shed and listen to the radio.

But, I eat well. I enjoy my food and cooking it. My wife thinks it's great, wholegrain pasta with king prawn arabiata tonight. I also feel better, am fitter and enjoy doing things again. They are no longer a struggle. I even have plans for the future, other than growing old gracefully that is.
 
I also enjoy cooking, it's actually a hobby of mine sort of. I have a big family (5 kids) I always enjoyed cooking nice meals for us all. Need to adapt meals a bit now, but such as last night, I have no real problem with the rest of the family having some rice or bread with their meals.

I do have some weight to lose, around 3 stone really to be a reasonable weight. I'm almost 16 stone, but am a big built man, maybe even 4 stone, but one step at a time. I now do swimming twice a week, I use an exercise bike in 15 minute blasts 2-3 times a day, I want to get those up to half an hour sessions, but I am finding those difficult at the moment.

Thank you for the advice/help, much appreciated.
 
Well if you are doing that sort of exercise, cutting down on carbs and eating the more complex carbs when you do will probably kick start your weight loss. When you start to lose weight, together with the exercise, your sensitivity to the insulin that you do produce usually improves and this drives a self re-inforcing cycle. It is a regime which works for many, but not all, type 2 diabetics. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by giving it a go.
 
Back
Top