Unbelievable!

[rowan]

A few times now I've had half a portion of noodles with very little effect on my levels so tonight I decided to see what would happen with a whole portion. I was 12.4 before (not sure why it was that high, it's usually around 8-9 before dinner). An hour later it was 14.5 and 2 hours later it was 20.7! I'm just about to go to bed so tested again, 5 hours after my dinner and it's 29.7! It's not been this high for weeks, not since I started low carbing, so lesson learnt, stick to half a portion!

 

[jack412]

un-nerving isn't it..just a few noodles can do that..
with those numbers and meds, I wouldn't have grain or grain product at all, no starch, no sugars.
if I couldn't get my numbers down to 5-6's of an afternoon in a month, I'd be asking the Dr about a basal insulin.
the main thing is to get the BG in range, everything is second to that. in my opinion

it’s a long page and a few good video’s
http://www.dietdoctor.com/lchf
For me, the more carbs we eat the more carbs we want. they don’t give up easy
http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/lowcarb101/a/firstweek.htm

 

[rowan]

un-nerving isn't it..just a few noodles can do that..
with those numbers and meds, I wouldn't have grain or grain product at all, no starch, no sugars.
if I couldn't get my numbers down to 5-6's of an afternoon in a month, I'd be asking the Dr about a basal insulin.
the main thing is to get the BG in range, everything is second to that. in my opinion

it’s a long page and a few good video’s
http://www.dietdoctor.com/lchf
For me, the more carbs we eat the more carbs we want. they don’t give up easy
http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/lowcarb101/a/firstweek.htm

It was 16th Jan when my high numbers came to light and the doctor wanted to put me on insulin, but I said no, give me time and I'd sort it. Given that i have several other chronic illnesses that affect blood sugars, and take other meds that do affect blood sugars, I've done quite well to get them down, in just 3 weeks, from over 30 to between 7-10 most of the time. The only times they've been higher is in the mornings with this dawn phenomena thing.
I have been following a lchf diet, no more than around 50-60g of carbs a day. Until last night, lesson learnt!

Just tested, nothing to eat so far, 10.6, thank goodness for that, it was frightening seeing 29.7 again!

 

[jack412]

It was 16th Jan when my high numbers came to light and the doctor wanted to put me on insulin, but I said no, give me time and I'd sort it. Given that i have several other chronic illnesses that affect blood sugars, and take other meds that do affect blood sugars, I've done quite well to get them down, in just 3 weeks, from over 30 to between 7-10 most of the time. The only times they've been higher is in the mornings with this dawn phenomena thing.
I have been following a lchf diet, no more than around 50-60g of carbs a day. Until last night, lesson learnt!

Just tested, nothing to eat so far, 10.6, thank goodness for that, it was frightening seeing 29.7 again!

have something to eat, starving yourself won't help your DP hormones stabilise.
From 30 to 7-10 is very good, and I take nothing away from that..I can see and know how hard you are working to achieve this. It really is a turn around. it looks like you will be able to do it with your current drugs and LCHF

ask your DR.. I think the more insulin resistance, the more the need to reduce the carb to see the result.
I would drop the carbs more. I would do the atkins induction diet LCHF of 20g for a month, and go easy on the protein. 60g?
google will give you recipe and food lists, if you want to do it.


I found the DP of a morning is the last number to fix and my afternoon number was the first to look ok.
I really wish you well, you never know, you wouldn't be the first that was able to reduce their meds and reset their IR and pancreas function

 

[phil1966]

Congrats on your results so far but it seems you may be very sensitive to carbs

I'm like that and I've found the only way I can keep my BS under control is to completely eliminate all bread (except special low carb wraps - 4g carbs per wrap), potatoes, rice, pasta and root vegetables and have switched to black coffee. On top of that, I have very strict carb control and try and stay below 20g carbs a day but occasionally go up to 25 with no more than 10g of carbs per meal.

If I stick to that, my BS figures are wonderful (< 5 in a morning and very rarely touch 6 even after a meal), but if I stray at all they go up to the teens very, very quickly.

20g may sound extreme but I've found my new regime to be very fulfilling nutritionally and I'm never hungry between meals (I don't eat snacks now) and after a couple of weeks I found it second nature

 

[Bluetit1802]

I agree with what @jack412 is saying. You have done so well to get your numbers down to where you are now, it would be a shame to spoil things. Ditch the noodles completely, even half a portion. Go very low on carbs, nothing made with or containing flour or starch. Once you have stabilised at more acceptable levels you can consider adding back a few small portions and fingers crossed you may be OK with them, but not just yet.

Another tip that worked well for me - eat breakfast as soon as you get up. It breaks the fast and stops the liver dumping any more. Otherwise your levels may keep rising during the morning, which impacts on your lunch time figures, and in turn your evening meal figures. The lowest readings of the day should be pre-evening meal as our insulin resistance improves as the day progresses, then increases again overnight.

 

[rowan]

have something to eat, starving yourself won't help your DP hormones stabilise.
From 30 to 7-10 is very good, and I take nothing away from that..I can see and know how hard you are working to achieve this. It really is a turn around. it looks like you will be able to do it with your current drugs and LCHF

Thank you, and don't worry, I don't do starving I'd only been up long enough to make a cup of tea, put 2 eggs on to boil and feed the dog, I had the eggs just after I posted.

What are DP hormones? My hormones have always been screwed up, was diagnosed with polycystic ovaries in my 20s and in my late 40s had a hysterectomy, and that's when all my health problems started, i was fine(ish) till then! I refuse to go on HRT so could my hormones, or lack of them, be a problem with the diabetes?

And thanks for the link, will have a good look!

 

[jack412]

Thank you, and don't worry, I don't do starving I'd only been up long enough to make a cup of tea, put 2 eggs on to boil and feed the dog, I had the eggs just after I posted.

What are DP hormones? My hormones have always been screwed up, was diagnosed with polycystic ovaries in my 20s and in my late 40s had a hysterectomy, and that's when all my health problems started, i was fine(ish) till then! I refuse to go on HRT so could my hormones, or lack of them, be a problem with the diabetes?

And thanks for the link, will have a good look!

DP is dawn phenomenon, your liver dumps 'sugar' early morning and because everything is out of whack, it's normally high to start with and the last to fix
http://www.diabetes.org/living-with...re/blood-glucose-control/dawn-phenomenon.html
I would see an endo and go through your hormone needs, I would do HRT if needed.

 

[rowan]

Congrats on your results so far but it seems you may be very sensitive to carbs

I'm like that and I've found the only way I can keep my BS under control is to completely eliminate all bread (except special low carb wraps - 4g carbs per wrap), potatoes, rice, pasta and root vegetables and have switched to black coffee. On top of that, I have very strict carb control and try and stay below 20g carbs a day but occasionally go up to 25 with no more than 10g of carbs per meal.

20g may sound extreme but I've found my new regime to be very fulfilling nutritionally and I'm never hungry between meals (I don't eat snacks now) and after a couple of weeks I found it second nature

Thank you I was wondering if I might be extra sensitive to carbs, i've already discovered I can't eat bread at all, but I'm ok with very low carb crackers. Where do you get your low carb wraps, they sound interesting?

I'm not ok with roast potatoes so now have roast celeriac instead, but I'm fine with 2 hash browns, strange! I make a veg soup with lentils or chickpeas, barley, beetroot and carrots among other stuff and I'm fine with all them, but i suppose in a soup I'm not having a lot of any of them.

I'd never heard of LCHF before 3 weeks ago and have found it quite easy, but I'm determined to do it and that makes anything easier. But I might give going even lower carb a go now I'm getting used to what I can eat or not.

It's certainly been an eye opener, i used to have a heap of pasta, noodles, rice or spuds with every dinner and lunch was usually a sandwich with thick crusty bread, and breakfast was porridge or ready brek - no wonder my levels were so high! And of course I've spent most of my adult life believing the low fat myth so was always careful with fats!
Thank goodness I started using this forum last month, several months after I actually joined, wish I'd looked at it earlier!

 

[phil1966]

I get my low carb wraps from Amazon - they come in two sizes containing 4 and 6g of carbs respectively. They seem a bit "dry" at first (they're basically full on non-digestible fibre which is how they stay low carb) but I soon got used to them and find them delicious now

here's a link to the small ones: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Low-Carb-Tortilla-320g-pieces/dp/B00CZACDZS
and here's one to the large ones: http://www.amazon.co.uk/grocery/dp/...4-1681050?ie=UTF8&refRID=0C1FJRGVY2ACVJB2JPXW

Edit to add - ignore the calorie content printed on the Amazon page for the small ones - they seem to be showing the calorific content for the entire packet! One small tortilla has 110 calories and a large one 124g according to MyFitnessPal. MFP also shows the carbs as 4 and 6 as opposed to 3 and 5 on Amazon's site so I use the higher value in MFP when recording them

 

[AndBreathe]

Are the noodles habit, or trying to fit in with the rest of the family/group eating?

I can take a few noodles, or some rice, but once I got used to curry without rice (served in more of a bowl, rather than a flat plate), I found I wasn't so bothered whether I have rice/noodles or not.

One of our favourite "grabbing a quick bite to eat whilst out" places here serves a great chilli con carne in a deeper plate, with a great big dollow of soured cream, and soda bread don the side. No rice, unless requested. The first couple of times this took my OH by surprise, but now he prefers his chilli this way, and I can take or leave the bread, depending on what else I've eaten or how hungry I am on the day.

We've changed how we present our food at home quite a bit since I started on this journey.

 

[rowan]

DP is dawn phenomenon, your liver dumps 'sugar' early morning and because everything is out of whack, it's normally high to start with and the last to fix
http://www.diabetes.org/living-with...re/blood-glucose-control/dawn-phenomenon.html
I would see an endo and go through your hormone needs, I would do HRT if needed.

Oh yes, I get that most mornings, very annoying, spoiling all my hard work!! I'm eating earlier now hoping to stop it. I've never eaten till I've been up for a few hours so that's something else I've probably been doing wrong all these years, so am changing that too.
And will ask my doctor about the HRT thing too, and will start a new thread on here if there's not one already - after a quick google seems it has quite an effect on diabetes!

 

[rowan]

I agree with what @jack412 is saying. You have done so well to get your numbers down to where you are now, it would be a shame to spoil things. Ditch the noodles completely, even half a portion. Go very low on carbs, nothing made with or containing flour or starch. Once you have stabilised at more acceptable levels you can consider adding back a few small portions and fingers crossed you may be OK with them, but not just yet.

Another tip that worked well for me - eat breakfast as soon as you get up. It breaks the fast and stops the liver dumping any more. Otherwise your levels may keep rising during the morning, which impacts on your lunch time figures, and in turn your evening meal figures. The lowest readings of the day should be pre-evening meal as our insulin resistance improves as the day progresses, then increases again overnight.

Thank you, I've started eating brakfast earlier now after a few previous posts form you, so thank you, it seems to be helping!
I've put the remaining noodles from my cupboard into a growing box of foods to give my non-diabetic sons, they're doing well out of me at the moment

I'm having my next HBA1C next month and won't be experimenting until after then. Then I'll try the fried bread

 

[rowan]

I get my low carb wraps from Amazon - they come in two sizes containing 4 and 6g of carbs respectively. They seem a bit "dry" at first (they're basically full on non-digestible fibre which is how they stay low carb) but I soon got used to them and find them delicious now

here's a link to the small ones: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Low-Carb-Tortilla-320g-pieces/dp/B00CZACDZS
and here's one to the large ones: http://www.amazon.co.uk/grocery/dp/...4-1681050?ie=UTF8&refRID=0C1FJRGVY2ACVJB2JPXW

Edit to add - ignore the calorie content printed on the Amazon page for the small ones - they seem to be showing the calorific content for the entire packet! One small tortilla has 110 calories and a large one 124g according to MyFitnessPal. MFP also shows the carbs as 4 and 6 as opposed to 3 and 5 on Amazon's site so I use the higher value in MFP when recording them

Thank you, I'll give them a go

 

[rowan]

Are the noodles habit, or trying to fit in with the rest of the family/group eating?

I can take a few noodles, or some rice, but once I got used to curry without rice (served in more of a bowl, rather than a flat plate), I found I wasn't so bothered whether I have rice/noodles or not.

I live alone so in some ways I'm lucky that I don't have things in the house that might tempt me! I love noodles with a stir fry, I shouldn't eat raw or lightly cooked veg (I have a stoma and we're supposed to boil veg to death!) so a stir fry can be a bit sparse without noodles.

I haven't had curry since I started low carbing, I do miss it but can't imagine it without rice so am hoping a low carb rice exists somewhere just waiting for me to hear about it!

 

[AndBreathe]

Have you discovered cauliflower rice yet? It's merely grated or blended cauli, then steamed or stir fried. It's exactly like rice, but gives a decent bulk and texture substitute.

There's also "Slim Rice", which is extremely low carb, but makes me a little bloated and windy (sorry TMI). It has to be prepared carefully (washed well before heating), but again, gives bulk, texture and the appearance of rice.

Finally, some say Morrison's Par Boiled quick-cook rice works for them. I've tried that too, and it's fine.

As I say, I'm fortunate to be able to eat modest portions of the real thing (these days), so I have a real variety of options.

 

[jack412]

I live alone so in some ways I'm lucky that I don't have things in the house that might tempt me! I love noodles with a stir fry, I shouldn't eat raw or lightly cooked veg (I have a stoma and we're supposed to boil veg to death!) so a stir fry can be a bit sparse without noodles.

I haven't had curry since I started low carbing, I do miss it but can't imagine it without rice so am hoping a low carb rice exists somewhere just waiting for me to hear about it!

this is for later. I'd add some chickpea flower too and gluten powder is different to gluten flour
https://yikesnocarbs.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/low-carb-soy-flour-pastanoodles/

cauliflower rice
low carb roti if you must

 

[rowan]

Have you discovered cauliflower rice yet? It's merely grated or blended cauli, then steamed or stir fried. It's exactly like rice, but gives a decent bulk and texture substitute.

There's also "Slim Rice", which is extremely low carb, but makes me a little bloated and windy (sorry TMI). It has to be prepared carefully (washed well before heating), but again, gives bulk, texture and the appearance of rice.

Finally, some say Morrison's Par Boiled quick-cook rice works for them. I've tried that too, and it's fine.

I've read about teh cauliflower rice, have put it on my next shopping list
And Slim Rice? Could be teh answer to my dreams, lol! I knew about teh Slim Noodles and was going to get some next time i went into the town, there's a Holland and Barrett there, and I'll definitely look to see what else they have. If teh noodles and rice are ok this low carb thing will be a doddle

There's a Morrisons there too so will look at ther rice, thank you

 

[AndBreathe]

I've read about teh cauliflower rice, have put it on my next shopping list
And Slim Rice? Could be teh answer to my dreams, lol! I knew about teh Slim Noodles and was going to get some next time i went into the town, there's a Holland and Barrett there, and I'll definitely look to see what else they have. If teh noodles and rice are ok this low carb thing will be a doddle

There's a Morrisons there too so will look at ther rice, thank you

Slim rice/noodles/pasta give texture, but not taste like the "real thing", and comparatively, they're not cheap. Take it slowly as they are full of fibre and can take a little getting used to.

 

[rowan]

Thanks, I have to be careful with fibre so I'll just have half a portion to test first