Totally freaked out

Don't panic Andy.... Yes your sugar was high, mines been in the 20's before and now it's normal range. You are on Metformin which is the milder of the medications, if the doctor was that concerned you would be started on Gliclazide to bring the sugar down fast and then put on Metformin once it was down.... or straight on insulin. Your blood pressure was extremely high but maybe it was because you were at A&E and feeling anxious...... Nowadays diabetes isn't what it used to be, as long as you get that sugar down to a safe level i.e. 4-7 before meals and up to 8.5 two hours after a meal and keep it there you will be fine. My doctor told me that if you have 100 diabetics in a room and they all had their sugars under control, only 4 will have complications. Cut out rice, pasta, potatoes and bread, also sugar and flour products, this will bring your sugar down and you should be fine........ don't panic ...... you're NOT about to die

Sounds like it's the old measuring system. Converted to the new system this is 11.8% I believe. They like this to be under 7.5 (lower is even better though). So while yours is quite high, this is very common when newly diagnosed (my daughter's was 13%), your next one will be lower I'm sure, now you're working on getting good control.

I'd be more worried if you weren't panicking to be honest. It's a huge life change and so it is understandable that you feel this way. After 22 years of diabetes I still get frustrated despite not knowing a life without it.

I have a friend who is a Type 2 diabetic and told me about a diet by a nutritionist called Patrick Holford called the GL diet. My friend went on it for weight loss but it works on carb and protein combinations that have a slow impact on sugar levels. He went from 3 Metformin tablets to none at all following this so called diet (which allows you to eat a lot of different things).

As a Type 1 I went on it to regulate my sugars rather then to lose weight as despite altering insulin ratios, injecting 10 times a day and testing 7 times every day nothing was working for me until I tried this out. My sugars went from wild fluctuations from 2.0 to HI without anything in range to a nice steady target range throughout the day. I am usdually quite sceptical with fad diets and nonsense like that but this actually really worked for me.

You can pick up his Low GL Diet cookbooks via his website or in most bookshops now. A chromium capsule every morning also aided me in steadying rapid swings from low to high.

If you're interested give it a try. I hope it works as well for you as it has for me and my friend. I tried everything else imaginable and this was the only thing that is now part of my lifestyle as it suits my sugar levels.

Andy12345 said:

feeling ****** today, results show stuff i dont understand, ive looked up uncontrolled diabetes and it basically says terrible things with high bp and high colestrial it basically is all bad, ive eaten not one substantial thing since diagnbosis sunday, and i have given up all hope of ever enjoying food again, which is my biggest pleasure ((apart from wife and kids) in case they read this ) theres so much i need to know, ive been reading for 5 days almost constantly, i have become an expert whenever im talking to someone else about it, and yet i know nothing at all here, but yes generally i want to stamp my feet, beat my chest, spit my dummy and cry my eyes out oh and eat until it hurts...... still im trying fish tonight which ive always hated, but here goes, i dont think things can get worse than this, but hey i bet they can ..... thanks so much for your replies , you are terrific!

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Andy, go right ahead, stamp your feet, spit your tummy, get rid of the built up tension, rant and rave, a few choice words, let it out, its unfair that you/we have diabetes and its not always easy to be positive.

In regards to food, dont even think about eating fish, you dont enjoy eating fish, so why punish yourself by forcing yourself to eat something that you dont like?? Come on, lets work out some menu that you still can enjoy, tell us what you would normally eat, we can probably adapt it to make it lower carb and you still can enjoy it, unless you go telling me that your fav is candy floss?!

Andy12345 said:

feeling ****** today, results show stuff i dont understand, ive looked up uncontrolled diabetes and it basically says terrible things with high bp and high colestrial it basically is all bad, ive eaten not one substantial thing since diagnbosis sunday, and i have given up all hope of ever enjoying food again, which is my biggest pleasure ((apart from wife and kids) in case they read this ) theres so much i need to know, ive been reading for 5 days almost constantly, i have become an expert whenever im talking to someone else about it, and yet i know nothing at all here, but yes generally i want to stamp my feet, beat my chest, spit my dummy and cry my eyes out oh and eat until it hurts...... still im trying fish tonight which ive always hated, but here goes, i dont think things can get worse than this, but hey i bet they can ..... thanks so much for your replies , you are terrific!

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Oh Andy, that's so sad, we can't have you feeling like that, we need to all get our heads together and at least sort out some nice food for you, even if we can't immediately fix the figures!

I don't like fish either (apart from battered from the chip shop which unfortunately does spike me). My favourite? Steak. I love steak, fried in butter, maybe with a nice sauce and served with salad. Or the other night I had burgers, which I stuffed with Stilton cheese and grilled, then ate wrapped in iceberg lettuce. Yesterday I had Indian takeaway - I had chicken tikka to start and then tandoori king prawns. Stir fry is nice - chicken breast or pork or beef strips, or prawns with garlic, ginger, stir fry veg pack, a bit of black bean bean sauce or oyster sauce, beansprouts. Shepherds pie is nice, just replace the mash on the top with either mashed cauliflower, mashed celeriac (I must admit I hate celeriac) or mashed swede,which is my favourite. Lots of melted cheese on top. Or you could make lasagne using sliced aubergines instead of the pasta (do precook them, brushed in olive oil). And I love full fat Greek yoghurt mixed with a few berries and some sweetener. And you can put that in the freezer too, to make ice cream.


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Some great suggestions there, Finzi - I'm getting hungry just reading about them!

Andy I'm so glad you enjoyed your meal! I must admit it made me smile when you said you were eating cod and immediately stopped eating it

You definitely don't need to be hungry. Since low carbing I am NEVER hungry. Seriously. That's because when we eat lots of carbs, our insulin levels shoot up in response, that makes your body store fat and it also makes you hungry. If you get the majority of your calories from protein and fat, that swinging up and down doesn't happen. You eat til you're full and you stay full til the next meal. Protein and fat do a much better job of filling you up than carbohydrate, whatever the dietitians propaganda might say.

I'm much more overweight than you but have lost lots of weight already without ever feeling hungry. Yes,there are sacrifices, I wouldn't deny that, because there are lots of things I used to enjoy that I can't really have any more,although oddly it isn't the sweet stuff that I miss (eg chocolate, cakes,biscuits) even though I used to eat tons of those every day. If I could have one food wish,it's that I could eat risotto again!)

Sounds like your emotions are a bit up and down at the moment, which is completely understandable. As things settle down, and hopefully your blood sugars stabilize, you will likely feel better and better. I feel a completely different person since changing my diet and lowering my blood sugar (for me,mine were around 11 before and now around 5-6, after less than four weeks). I have also lost over a stone and a half in the same period. Getting my Diabetes diagnosis in some ways was the best thing that could have happened to me (obviously I'd rather not have the condition,but since I have, knowing is way better, because instead of just feeling more and more fatigued and unwell and exhausted, I now feel really well).


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Phew, I am glad you didnt eat the fish after all, there is no point torturing yourself on top of everything else.

You've got the right idea, if you go low carb you can eat your fill, there is no need to go hungry and you still lose weight.
You say you have never been ill in your life, well, you arent really ill now though are you?? You have had a diabetes diagnosis which means that your body isnt dealing with too many carbs, but you are not ill. It may sound strange but if you do the right thing, eat what is good for you, you have every chance of being even healthier than before.
You only become ill with diabetes when you develop complications, but there is an awful lot that you can do to avoid this happening.

Have a look through the low carb recipes section, there is a recipe for burger buns, in case you fancy a change from lettuce wraps.

Stay healthy

Burger buns?? off to look for that recipe as making the brie burgers tomorrow

Sharon68 said:

Burger buns?? off to look for that recipe as making the brie burgers tomorrow

Click to expand...

4 Baps:

3/4 of a cup of Almond Flour.
1 Tbsp of Flax Seeds
1 Tbsp of Sunflower Seeds
2 Tbsp of Psyllium Husk Powder
1 Tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Salt
2 Tbsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Eggs
1/2 a cup of Creme Fraiche
Preheat oven to 200 ° C (390 ° F). Mix almond flour, seeds, psyllium, salt and baking powder in a bowl. Add eggs, olive oil and creme fraiche and mix it carefully. Let it sit for 5 mins.

Cut the dough into 4 pieces. Shape into balls and put in a pan on top of a baking sheet. Bake for approx. 15 mins.

Place the buns under a towel for a couple of minutes, before enjoying them with butter and cheese on top! Yummy!

Photos by TimTurtle = http://www.lowcarbcooking.co.nz/


Or if you send off for pofiber:
You can buy Semper pofiber here http://www.swedishfoodshop.com/semper-pofiber , click on the US button top right hand corner to translate the page into English.

I am lucky, my Swedish in-laws keep me supplied with all kinds low carb goodies that arent available over here. I couldnt imagine being without pofiber, makes all the difference to my breads/rolls, eg made these for our packed lunches this morning http://lavkarbobakst.blogg.no/134030529 ... orund.html (<<Norwegian site, look through it, if anyone wants me to translate give me a shout)

Josephine, the garlic bread is laden with butter to start with, then there's the flour it was made from. I'm such a big big lover of garlic bread, but I don't touch it since being diagnosed. it will put your bg levels up.

I used to eat an awful amount of bread, couldn't get enough carbs down me neck lol, but now I just have 1 wholemeal roll at lunchtime, no spread just a very thin scraping of salad cream. lots of meat and salad. it's very filling and if I'm still not quite satisfied I have a sugar free jelly with some fresh fruit in it.

Try replacing your usual pasta and rice for wholewheat pasta and rice. I found the wholewheat pasta put my bg up a wee bit, but the wholewheat rice isn't as bad. I keep to a half portion though.

There are some fantastic recipies on the site and the cookbook too that you can download.

hope this helps a little
vonbon

sorry by the time I finished typing this out the posts had gone way down lol

WhitbyJet said:

Sharon68 said:

Burger buns?? off to look for that recipe as making the brie burgers tomorrow

Click to expand...

4 Baps:

3/4 of a cup of Almond Flour.
1 Tbsp of Flax Seeds
1 Tbsp of Sunflower Seeds
2 Tbsp of Psyllium Husk Powder
1 Tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Salt
2 Tbsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Eggs
1/2 a cup of Creme Fraiche
Preheat oven to 200 ° C (390 ° F). Mix almond flour, seeds, psyllium, salt and baking powder in a bowl. Add eggs, olive oil and creme fraiche and mix it carefully. Let it sit for 5 mins.

Cut the dough into 4 pieces. Shape into balls and put in a pan on top of a baking sheet. Bake for approx. 15 mins.

Place the buns under a towel for a couple of minutes, before enjoying them with butter and cheese on top! Yummy!

Photos by TimTurtle = http://www.lowcarbcooking.co.nz/


Or if you send off for pofiber:
You can buy Semper pofiber here http://www.swedishfoodshop.com/semper-pofiber , click on the US button top right hand corner to translate the page into English.

I am lucky, my Swedish in-laws keep me supplied with all kinds low carb goodies that arent available over here. I couldnt imagine being without pofiber, makes all the difference to my breads/rolls, eg made these for our packed lunches this morning http://lavkarbobakst.blogg.no/134030529 ... orund.html (<<Norwegian site, look through it, if anyone wants me to translate give me a shout)

Click to expand...

Thank you for this. Think I shall have to buy online as I can't find Psyllium husks anywhere round here.

Sharon, have you tried Holland & Barrett? I got mine there.


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Vonbon - butter, garlic or otherwise, won't affect your blood sugar levels. In fact it might even slightly help - if carbohydrate is eaten with fat it can apparently slow down the absorption a bit. Although I quite agree that garlic bread, especially eaten with a pasta dish, would almost be guaranteed to spike your levels - I'm not at all surprised that Josephine had a 22.


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