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Type 2 advice, food/exercise/drink..

T

terrierist

Member
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22
Location
Aintree
Hi all..

Please bear with me if my questions have been asked before, I am new to the forum and would welcome your input.

I was diagnosed type 2 around 8/9 years ago, I was brought up in a Mill town, where food was large in portion and calories.

I was an active youngster (I'm 45 now and feeling 95..) but now my life is sedentary, as far as excercise is concerned, I absolutely loathe the gym, was doing great with cycling until some toe rag liberated our bikes for his daily fix...

I adore food, and love a pint or two ( Oh go on.. I'll have another) :thumbup: and have never really understood what to eat, what NOT to eat and drink and the like.

My joining of the site has come about through two things. 1) my renewal of my HGV licence, which now has to be done every 3 years instead of the normal 5 and 2) Being absolutely wiped out this morning with blood levels of 15.6 and feeling as mad as a wasp yet as tired as.... well summat that is tired...


I would really appreciate your input with foods, alcohol, other drinks.. also any excercise tips that you may have considering that I hate it. I mean I seriously hate excercise... I do enjoy a walk out with the pooch and the missus, but being an outdoors sort of guy anyway, it's a bit of a busmans holiday..

I'm 45, 102 KG and 1.7 summat M high, 5 foot 8 ish in old money..

Thanks for reading my drivel, and look forward to any abuse or advice you care to throw at me.

All the best

Kev
 
Not drivel at all Kev.

Welcome to the forum. You'll get some sound advice very soon but in the meantime could you tell us what you eat, portion sizes, medication you are on and any other medical conditions.
As for those numbers, you will end up with complications if they carry on like that but that's what we are here for.
In the mean time, don't worry about exercise, it's a bit of a red herring. Your main priority is to get those BG numbers down. Once you have a handle on that, the rest will follow.

wiflib
 
wiflib said:
Not drivel at all Kev.

Welcome to the forum. You'll get some sound advice very soon but in the meantime could you tell us what you eat, portion sizes, medication you are on and any other medical conditions.
As for those numbers, you will end up with complications if they carry on like that but that's what we are here for.
In the mean time, don't worry about exercise, it's a bit of a red herring. Your main priority is to get those BG numbers down. Once you have a handle on that, the rest will follow.

wiflib
Click to expand...
Thanks for reply!

Eat? anything and everything.. in quite large portions, I akways feel patronised when I have had the "Advice" from the dietary expert at my local GP.. She resembles Shamu, how can I take her seriously? :D

Here's an average days eating.

Breakfast.
Cereal ( malted wheaties/shredded wheat/corn flakes) toast x 2 slices with a scrape of marmalade

Lunch.

3 rounds of white bread in sandwiches with cooked meat, can of pepsi max bag of crisps

Evening meal.

Grilled chicken breast, oven chips and veg

Alcohol, couple of cans per day with evening meal, 4 or 5 tins on a Saturday night.
 
Thanks Kev.
Any snacks, sweet stuff, take outs, puddings?

I'm hoping Daisy or Xyzzy will be along to offer the advice all the newbies get. I'll give one of them a nudge. In the meantime, you will be doing yourself a massive favour of you drop those carbs. Don't worry about portion size for now. Go to the low-carb bit of the forum and look at what other people eat and the food section. Try 'vivs modified Atkins diet' it gives you a general idea of the types of things to eat. You also need a meter. Bully one out of your doctor or contact any amount of manufactures of them and they will send you free ones with a few strips. Then you need to test to see what different foods do to you.

wiflib
 
Hello Kev and welcome to the forum.

Just saw Libby's post so here you go. Some of this you may already be aware of like testing and meters etc but hopefully there's some other helpful stuff...

I was diagnosed just over 6 months ago and using the advice I found on this site I got my blood sugar levels back to normal within around 8 weeks and I have also normalised my cholesterol levels and blood pressure as well. I have now lost over 20kg in weight too and 10" off my waist measurement. Not a cure as I have to be very careful what I eat but I'm feeling loads better now I'm back in control. My doctor is very pleased how I am getting on and has advised me to keep doing exactly what I have been doing since it's obviously working really well.

Diet wise its really easy. Just drastically cut down or better cut out all things with plain sugar, so biscuits, cakes, sugar in tea and coffee, pure fruit juices, non diet versions of soft drinks. Next and really importantly try halving starchy foods like rice, pasta, potatoes, bread, cereals and any other flour based products. Replace what's now missing with extra meat, fish, eggs, cheese and especially vegetables. Vegetables that grow above ground are best although most of us find carrots fine. Things like yoghurt are fine as is a small amount of fresh fruit. I find the ones that end in "berry" are the best. If you don't mind artificial sweeteners things like Diet Coke are fine to drink. On the starchy foods that are left swap try brown basmati rice instead of white and brown or tri-colour pasta. The bread that most recommend is actually Bergen soya bread but some do ok with wholemeal as well.

The above diet is close to one you would be one recommended to try by the Swedish Health service. It was introduced in that country last year and the American health service and several other countries health services recommend something very similar for Type 2 diabetics. In the UK the diet guidelines are now over 30 years old and are only gradually being updated. As the UK is lagging behind you may find what I and other forum members recommend will be different to what your are told is a good diet for you follow.

I see you are already measuring your blood levels which is great as most forum members would recommend doing that. If your doctor prescribed the meter and strips you are one of the lucky ones as many of us have to self finance testing. It's a bit of a post code lottery and we find some progressive surgeries are pro testing and others anti. I'll warn you the anti ones can sometimes be very vocally anti!

The reason testing is important is you should try and keep your blood sugars below 8ish two hours after eating any meal. Above the 8 value is where the dangers of complications do begin to occur according to diabetic experts. So if you can't test how will you now if what you are eating is keeping you safe? The problem is every diabetic is different so my earlier advice to halve starchy foods is just a rough guide. You may find you need to eat less than half (like me) or that you can eat more than half like others.

As you get into it all and read around the forum you may see people talking about carb counting. If you want to understand what that is just ask. It is a powerful weapon that a diabetic can use to control their condition and one that many of us use to great effect.

Good luck and keep asking questions.

PS Here's three good links about what's good to eat.

First is the lady doctor who's low carb / low GI recommendations seem to form the basis of what's recommended in Sweden

http://blogg.passagen.se/dahlqvistannika/?anchor=my_lowcarb_dietary_programe_in

Second is a good beginners guide to low carb regimes that are excellent for reducing blood sugar levels and losing weight.

http://www.dietdoctor.com/lchf

There are also loads of brilliant recipes on the forum. You can find them here http://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes-forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=4871.

Good luck and keep asking questions.
 
I agree with Libby and Xyzzy
Carrying a load like a blood glucose of 15 is exhausting. You need to get it down. Cutting the carbs is a simple way of doing that wihtthout further medication. As to exercise. Get out your trainers and start using your feet as a mode of transport. Healthy and not costly.
Hana
 
Thaks so much for the replies and info..

My problem is that I am a proper foodie, and love trying new stuff, I adore to cook and my home made sauces are pretty good even though I say meself! :thumbup:

Protein isn't a problem, nor are fresh veggies, as that is what I do, I deliver fresh veg and fruit to Market.. I have a never ending supply of calabrese, Brassica and carrot.. Unfortunately that includes spuds too, which look like I need to cut down on.

I was dropped on by the cost of strips, and can see now why the Shysters want to dole out the free machines, good job I'm in the right postcode for getting free strips!

My basic knowledge of Diabetes has been pretty pants to say the least, but it looks like I will get some good advice here!

Thanks once again for all your replies, hope to read some more soon!

Kev
 
wiflib said:
I'm hoping Daisy or Xyzzy will be along to offer the advice all the newbies get. I'll give one of them a nudge.
Click to expand...

Hi again Kev - I already posted the information we give to new members a while ago on your other thread here:

viewtopic.php?f=20&t=30377#p285246

I hope it's useful to you.
 
Hi Kev

Welcome to the best place in the world for diabetics.

You;ll will be so glad you decided to take control of your diabetes. It will make the world of difference

Read and ask questions - no such thing as a daft one.

Mary x
 
terrierist said:
My problem is that I am a proper foodie, and love trying new stuff, I adore to cook and my home made sauces are pretty good even though I say meself! :thumbup:
Click to expand...

But here's the thing Kev, we all love food, that's how most of us got here in the first place.

If you want to get your BG under control, you're going to have to increase the quality of what you eat, but that doesn't mean you need to have less fun cooking and eating it. In fact the reverse is probably true.

But if you think you'll get some special pass from the "Diabetic Complication Fairies" or there is someway out of this that doesn't involve seriously managing your carbohydrates (or accepting a lifetime on some hardcore medication) then you're going to be disappointed.

Diabetes sucks, but you'll just have to get used to it.
 
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