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Transition to real food post newcastle diet

B

brettsza

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,205
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Hi

I have seen a lot of threads discussing newcastle diet but nothing that basically tells about how everyone who has completed the ND actually got to the real food and how there bg readings were effected.
So my experience is one week out of ND and I have maintained a very strict LCHF regime.
I try to walk about 4 to 5 miles a day. I have lost about 1 kilo after ND, I actually expected to gain weight but I am too much into gardening and with weather permitting I spend upto 4 hours on the weekends and its just not simple mowing.
Initially I only could have a few nuts at a time and that would fill me up or some salad but now I am having salad and some proteins in one meal so appetite getting better.
I did boil some chicken breast and if I feel hungry I have a slice or two of it, since initially I could not eat a lot I was eating a slice every few hours, this gave me proteins and kept me low carb too.
Trying one pot dinners like casseroles and soups most of the times now/

It would be intresting to know everyone else's experience too as it will help a lot of us who are coming off ND to get ideas of what we could do.
 
Week 2 post ND
I have gained half a kilo this week and fasting has gone up from 4's to 5's but I was on steroids for this week, Stopped is in last 2 days and gradually going back into 4's on fasting in the last two days.
I have had 2 treat days which were promised even before my ND had begun and I am pleasantly surprised with the results.
Both meals included white flour and at 2 hours I was 5.2 both the times.
I estimate the carbs to be about 250g per treat so I dont think it was bad in the end.
Still doing lot of gardening and walking and having low carb meals and still doing intermittent fasting of 16 hours a day and skipping breakfast.
I had nandos yesterday which I had been craving for since 3 months and I got a reading of 5.5 after an hour which had chicken, garlic bread and about 10 to 15 chips. No drinks not even diet soda but did have some plain cold water.
 
I'm looking to make this transition in 3 weeks time, planning to continue on LCHF to maintan a degree of weight loss post-ND 8 weeks. There's a few of us on this journey and I look forward to reading the pathfinder's scribings.
 
Please see @Andrew Colvin thread is very good I took a lot of info from his thread and is a successful nd'er. I will keep it updated weekly and would like others to join as well so we have one thread for post nd too.
 
Week 3 post newcastle diet
Weight gained 1 Kilo
Having too many nuts I suppose
One more treat this week with my wife this time and kid and went for an indian curry, had one naan bread and I was 4.9 after 2 hours and 5.6 at 1 hour so not bad at all.
I will have my a1c next week which will give me an indication of how well that has behaved.
I am still doing IF but i will be honest, as I am getting used to food I am finding it harder and harder to be on fasting as I have a very light dinner of salads and some meat at about 8 in the evening.
Bloods have crept up slightly higher so instead of seeing most of them at low 4's to mid 4's while on ND, I am seeing mid 4's to mid 5's but most of the mid 5's are after carbs and they are 1 hour reads, I did see a 6 when I had ice cream which was naughty but that again was a 1 hour read. But I think the bg's will increase coz I am doing something I was not doing while on ND and that is eating.
I have not had a full blown italian night out yet but I do plan to have one at some point of time with a bit of pasta and pizza.
Still mostly on low carbs, but treating myself once a week, but no treats planned for this week fingers crossed
 
brettsza said:
Week 3 post newcastle diet
Weight gained 1 Kilo
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That's what I fear - the backwards step after completing my stint on 600 calories. I still have just over 2 weeks to go and 8lbs to reach my arbitrarily decided target of 14 stones. If I achieve it I will have lost 3 stones in 8 weeks (just over 19kgs) but my BMI will still be 27.4. Post ND I am hoping to achieve further losses on LCHF. With another 1st 3lbs off my BMI will hit the 24.9 top end of "normal". Time will tell if my intentions translate into reality .

TBH when I started down this path I didn't really think I would achieve what I have already. I really didn't think I'd have the willpower & determination to stick to the regime, but the encouraging posts on here and the excellent results in weight loss, lowering of BG & BP readings and medication reductions have all combined to spur me on.

Good luck with the rest of your transition - The comparison to August last year is inspiring.
 
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I think weight gain will happen, you go from not eating at all to eating full fat things so body will store them but I think a weight gain of 1 or 2 kilos after loosing about 20 is not bad, I do not want to get into the situation where I have lets say gained a stone back, I am still working out a lot but its mostly gardening and walking, I dont do weight trainings.

I measure myself twice once on saturday/sunday which is like mid week and once on tuesday which is when I normally report. Till sunday I was same weight I was last week, I did have a verry heavy dinner last night and it might be that I did not really gain weight or may be i only gained a bit but I know what the figures were last week and what they are now and whatever is the difference I mention this here. It helps me as well so if a year down the line I want to see where I stood at, I will know exactly. Not that I plan to do another ND anytime soon
Its tough, hats off to everyone who is doing it even now, I always said that earlier too, Its not something for faint hearted and definitely not if your gp is being a GP and not supporting you on it.
 
Week 4 off Newcastle diet
I always weigh myself on Saturday and tuesday. I had gained half a kilo last week and lost it by Saturday but the bbq at my house on Saturday did not help at all and gained that half kilo back by tuesday. I don't think it has been helped by the kind of food I have eaten in last few days either, but this week I am gradually adding carbs to my meals.
I did add some sweet stuff too to get an idea of what the readings will be like.
So at the bbq I had chicken, sausages, corn, sweet potato, normal potatoes, a beer, ice cream, tea with sugar.
I had my first alcoholic drink after a very long time, I am not a frequent drinker anyways, so may be 1 or 2 in months and my test was 1 hour after beer which came at 5.4, I did eat a few things while they were being cooked but not meat, I had veggies with the beer.
After the bbq I had some ice cream and a cup of tea with normal sugar. Since bbq lasted for 2 to 3 hours I tested at 1 hour after the tea as it was the last thing I had. I was also the host so I was cooking too so I only ate toward the end but anyways I tested 1 hour after everything I ate and I was 4.7 or 4.8 if I remember correctly.
Yesterday I had a slice of cake and was 5.0 after 2 hours. Did not do 1 hour as I did not have meter.
I already had burger and chips in lunch and then this slice of cake at 5 and finally dinner was rice lentils and naan bread, 1 hour after dinner I was 5.5 as it was too late I did not bother with 2 hour test. Fasting is 4.8 today so I think all the numbers were ok.

What I have realised is that no matter whether I eat low carb or high carb I stay in 4's and 5's, I don't go very high or come too low like into 3's. Even on nd I was mostly between 4.1 to 5.3
It doesn't matter if I eat carbs or not, sometimes after a very low carb dinner I could be 5.3 after 2 hours and same with a high carb meal. I have not gained weight as post nd I have made slight changes to my diet, I know I can very quickly gain weight so instead of low carb high fat I am adopting more a low car modefate fat, I have swapped the nuts for snack to celery, carrot, cucumber or pepper sticks, if I need a bit of dip, I make my own dip which is low carb but only lasts for few days.
I know the food I posted above is neither low carb nor low fat but this is something I have only introduced in last few days to see its effects on my bg. I am still doing 18 hour fasting everyday, a bit relaxed on the weekend though as it depends if my family wakes up early and have breakfast together, I will join them and not be rigid about my fast, weekdays I know I can do it easily so I do it the way I should be doing it. There is only one life and sometime I let the D take a back seat, atleast in front of my family, it definitely always stays at the back of my mind and keeps me focused.
I plan to get my a1c done this week some day and I should have results soon.
 
Wow, @brettsza, that is great; gives us all hope.I have no weight to lose but want to be able to eat more normally. My husband won't eat what I eat and cooks with high carb sauces so I do my own meals and we eat separately as we can't both be cooking together and he won't change his eating habits He will ask me if I can eat beef stew and when I say I can if it hasn't got high card sauce in it he puts it in anyway so I can't have it..

The final straw was when I went to a friends birthday held at a bowls club. There was no alcohol so I just had a glass of water as the drinks provided were juices so too high carb for me. Then the food was sandwiches, sausage rolls, scones with jam and cream and cakes none of which I can presently eat without my glucose going way too high. Coffee was served with the sandwiches so I had my usual black coffee which I like. I had one small sausage roll and removed the pastry and then had two small scones with a smear of strawberry jam and some cream. I had intended to only have one but I was hungry and they were so delicious I succumbed to a second. Could have eaten another three!!! I didn't test as by the time I got home after a 40 minute drive it would have been 3 hours since I had eaten the scones but I am sure my glucose would have been high.

Do let us know when you get your HbA1c result and really pleased with your reversal/remission of your diabetes. Well done.
 
My wife takes up low carb food well but I do not want her to change her eating habits so we cook separate as well, my food is entirely different from her and she can cook for herself and my son, although my son likes what I cook more than the normal high carb food, but we are trying to keep him get used to low carb and normal high carb food at same time, he is only 1 and a half so he can get used to it while still young.
I will share the a1c results, I should get them done on friday but gp does not tell the results over the phone so easily and getting an appointment with him to see me will be 4 weeks, I sure am too impatient to wait for all that time so will see how quickly I can get the results.
 

Arab Horse - Surely life is a game of compromise. Is eating separate meals not harming your overall relationship with your husband? I am fortunate that MrB agreed we would eat basically the same meals after I was diagnosed, so we have both made compromises, and sometimes we will share the sam emeal, but our plates look quite different; with my plate focusing on veggies and his having a greater proportion of other elements, including carbs.

At the outset, when we were planning how I was going to tackle my D, we agreed we would modify our diet, but if that wsn't enough, I might be forced to get my head around some form of meds. There's no mistaking I would have been very disappointed to have to resort to medication, and that would have impacted on other areas of my life, but it was a potential compromise we agreed in as a Plan B to preserving our overall life and lifestyle.

Maybe you're coming close to that hard thinking place again, where acceptance of something to widen your enjoyment of your life would win over the "luxury" of controlling this by what seems to me (as I read your posts) a life of burdensome deprivation.
 

May I ask why you don't want your wife to modify her diet, if she is willing to do it? Isn't eating "en famile" an important part of your son's social development? How do you both manage to be cooking in the kitchen at the same time, or do you have different meal schedules too?
 

Hi @AndBreathe

She eats both the meals but she cant eat as much proteins as me, she can have a piece of chicken once in a week but not every alternate day as I do. She enjoys what I cook but she adds some more carbs so lets say if i make roasted chicken, I would have it as it is or may be with almond bread that I bake on my own, and she will add a white sandwich roll to it to make it into a burger with some chips. If I make cauli and broccoli bake, I make one big quantity for it to last me for long time and she would add something to it so we can all have same thing together. I would normally only cook once on the weekend so when she wants to have lets say rice with curry, she will make it and we will eat it together and my son might have a bit of both or whatever he prefers.
I would say we eat same meals with slight modifications on 2 or 3 days a week and different meals on the rest of the days, so its more like a combination of both.
 
Post ND in last few days we have had same meals a lot of times which are high in carbs and it does not really spike me so we are looking to change those things slowly and gradually, that is why it is easy to keep a fasting regime on weekdays as I am not with them but on weekends I adapt to what there plan is and eat with them even if I am not through the 18 hour fast.
 

I don't want to pry, but is there a medical reason she can't eat the proteins you do? Family dynamics are fascinating.
 
AndBreathe said:
I don't want to pry, but is there a medical reason she can't eat the proteins you do? Family dynamics are fascinating.
Click to expand...

Hi @AndBreathe
No medical reasons, she just does not like eating proteins everyday and would rather have toast and butter with eggs for breakfast instead of me having only eggs, she would rather have vegetables made in any form any day that meat cooked in the same way. She likes making curries and I have them too but I would add proteins like a piece of pork or lamb and she would have it with a roti or naan.

Before being diabetic, I used to eat the same as well but certain changes had to be made and not all were by choice unfortunately.
 

I really don't want to start the downward spiral of more and more drugs. I take metformin and statins and was put on another drug after a couple of months. However, being a scientist I had to research it when I had the time and once I did I took myself off it the same day and made an appointment to see my DN. She was unaware of the research paper I took to show her so I gave it to her; she didn't try to persuade me to restart taking it; in fact she said she she would bring it up at her next diabetic meeting. Hence why, despite being underweight since I cut the carbs (I was a healthy weight before then) I want to do the ND so that I can hopefully start to eat more normally without my BG going way too high with all the side effects that will give me.

Sadly my husband will not modify his diet in any way; I wish he would as his diet is appalling, I would not eat a lot of it even if I wasn't diabetic! He worked away until recently but now he is home he will only eat what he wants to and refuses to eat more healthily and drink less.
 
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