Stick with it, Margaret! You're doing really well.
Paul. Thank you. This sentence came at exactly the right moment for me this morning. I thought I was taking on board all the dawn phenomenon info but yesterday my numbers were 6.6 before breakfast and 7.2 after and I was really pleased.This morning the before breakfast 8 was disappointing. I read your post and thought about lots of other supportive responses I've had here, got on with my morning and lo and behold two hours later it was 6.1.
It's a tough ride. It's still tough now 4 weeks in, but the first couple of weeks are especially hard. You're suddenly confronted by endless numbers. BG readings. Blood pressure reading. HBA1C. Blood test results for all sorts of things. Weight. Carbs, fat, protein grams for every single thing you eat. Exercise/activity performance stats. I'm very data driven generally, my job involves dealing with lots of data, yet this has been overwhelming and stressful at points when I've let my brain run wild and unchecked with all the information.
Just 4 weeks for me here and I wholeheartedly agree with that! 42 tangible things maybe and 4 billion intangible ones - and that's just what I've counted so far!
Control/manage = tomAtoes/tomOtoes
I would love to know how you control a group of toddlers!
Again semantics. To me control doesn’t have to mean 100% perfect (though it could do), just acceptable/ noticeably better results than without any efforts ie it makes a real difference.
As I understand it, the liver delivers glucose to the body in response to its need for it. So fight or flight, your body needs energy fast and that means glucose. Similarly, if you’ve fasted, eg overnight, you get a release of glucose from the liver, sometimes called a liver dump or dawn phenomenon. Just getting out of bed requires energy. There is nothing wrong with raised glucose levels, provided they aren’t a high spike followed by a sudden crash. You need to use the given energy. You are doing very well with your results already. Don’t beat yourself up about it, stress raises your glucose levels as well. I’ve just spent a high stress 10 days and my glucose was around 15 the whole time. It’s coming back down slowly to within range but the more stressed I got about that, the worse it got. Good luck, you are on the right track.
Thank you. I recognise the truth in everything you say. I'm just a big scaredy cat (hypochondriac) who is not dealing very well right now.. The appointment letter for my first diabetic eye screening came to day which is a whole new level of things to worry about but I really appreciate your support.
Don't worry about diabetic eye screening - it's a good thing, though a bit of a faff.
Thank you. I needed that
I get that too. I think the explanation is that in hot weather we use less energy keeping warm so the blood glucose gets used up more slowly and we need less intake to keep the levels right. I purposely reduce my carbs a bit in summer (35g/meal rather than 40 in winter) and that seems to work for me.
Like dieting to lose weight, the first week figures mean very little, give yourself a date - say two months ahead and work towards that date. It'll be here before you know it. I started at Slimming World on 20th April this year having just completed a Desmond (diabetes) workshop with a date of 20th June in view and a dream of losing a stone a month. I made it - still going to Slimming World - four months on from 20th April it's over three stone gone now and my diabetes blood results are consistently between 5 and 7. Nothing significant happens in a week. Occupy yourself losing your excessive weight and cooking the magnificent SW recipes, just do your bloods a few times a week. Set your targets in months, not days!
Not in my case. These are fasted levels, and I am on 20g/day, so food intake isn't the reason. It's clearly my liver deciding more fuel is need, but no idea why.
