Why I don't.....

[wiflib]

.....eat even a tiny amount of carbohydrate such as a spoonful of rice, one small potato, one slice of bread or a few strands of spaghetti.

Eating foods such as these is not just about BS control. For me it is also about controlling a very overwhelming carb addiction, loosing weight and therefor improving my insulin resistance.

I did a lot of testing in the early days. A jacket potato with butter and cheese raised my postprandial readings almost to double figures. The same potato with stir-fried non-root vegetables kept my BS in non-diabetic levels. I ate a small eton mess two nights ago on a girls night out for a rare pud treat. The only sugar was in the berries and the bit of meringue. I then spent the journey home almost in tears, arguing with myself about how I was/was not going to go to my local 24 hour Tescos for a very large bar of Cadburys Caramel. The craving for more food is overwhelming and something I have little control over. Addiction is a nasty thing.

If I eat any carbs, I often eat a larger portion than if they are eliminated. And before you can say 'willpower' think; if that's the case and all it took was willpower, we would all be non-smokers, social drinkers, monogamous and slim.

Over the years (and it has now been over three) I have discovered that my weight will simply not reduce AT ALL if I eat anything other than protein, dairy, non-root vegetables and fat. Too many nuts and the scales don't shift at all. Fine and dandy if I was of a normal weight but I'm not. I started at 19 stones, lost 4 within six months and the rest, up and down, over the rest of the time. I'm now 13 stones, 9 pounds, still too much for my 5' 10" frame even considering the excess skin that will obviously not go without surgery. Thankfully, I'm not the vain type so it will stay, wobbling in the wind.

How I would love to eat two chips, 30grams of cereal or my favourite, porridge. How I love porridge but I'm ruthlessly hungry within an hour and it leads to a downward spiral for days, and yep, that was experimented with too, nuts, seeds, berries etc it made not one jot of difference.

I accept that the diet I eat I will have to continue with for the rest of my life. I miss so much of the stuff I used to eat. Nothing can replace a bacon or chip buttie, my favourite chocolate or fluffy, creamy mashed potato with grated cheese. Pasta is a distant and mourned memory.

What I eat now is simply not what I ate before. I liken it to living in a remote foreign country with no access to 'western' food. I can cook and I eat a variety of amazing and delicious food. Even my taste buds have completely changed. I couldn't tolerate anything hot or peppery and the smell of coconut made me heave. The only hot drink I loved was Earl Grey tea. I now love my pepper pot, have a new appreciation for spices and I love coconut. The tea is gone and now it's coffee with cream, I HATED coffee before!

This little story is about me and my diabetes. I'm an educated HCP and, as I do in my working life, use the research and evidence as a GUIDELINE to support decisions, not back up my decisions by trying to find evidence to support them. IYSWIM.

wiflib

 

[pianoman]

Many thanks for your inspiring post wiflib

I also found refined carbohydrates addicting but I'm no longer struggling with it. After I stopped eating them (by going cold turkey but eating my fill of low carb foods), I was amazed to find I was no longer hungry all day every day. I could still recognise the "conscious" side of appetite... "hmm, that looks good, sure smells good... I know that I would feel good if ate that!" But without the insatiable "physical" hunger I found it easier and easier to just walk on by.

It has continued to get easier as the months and years have gone by, such that I no longer miss any of it. I eat a tasty, satisfying and varied diet. There is so much out there to choose from and like you, my tastes have changed. I feel no pressure to go back to my "old ways", even if I my Diabetes went away tomorrow.

I do eat plenty of bacon, dark chocolate -- and have you tried baked potato skins (only) with cheese and bacon bits, grilled to brown the cheese, then served with sour cream, chives, avocado..? How about heavy cream with a few wild berries and maybe dark chocolate shaved over the top?

 

[Patch]

wiflib - a very honest post. And I agree with absolutely every sentiment. Eating a small amount of something I love is ridiculously difficult for me - it's why I don't buy anything that I know pushes my BG up. I miss bread and rice dreadfully, but it's easy to resist when it's not in the cupboard!

I never knew what it was to NOT be hungry 'til I cut out all the starchy carbs. It was like waking up. I'd find myself missing meals, because my mind would be occupied with something productive, and not fixated on my next meal. So often in the past I'd be planning what I'd be eating for supper while eating lunch! Food was on my mind 24/7.

I can't tell you how good it is to be free of that feeling.

 

[LittleGreyCat]

Big vote of sympathy and support.
I find carbs addictive as well.
This is one thing they don't address in diet programs on TV - watching The Wright Stuff this morning and they talked about lowering the intensity and increasing the duration of exercise if you had cravings afterwards.
No!
Just cut out the carbs

 

[Sid Bonkers]

An interesting and informative post wiflib and one that actually makes me feel lucky that I am able to control my diabetes and keep the 4 stone in weight I lost off since diagnosis and am still able to eat pretty much anything albeit in small portions and I don't get the food cravings I used to get either which I put down to re wiring my brain perhaps when I realised things would never be the same again, I understand that is possible through hypnosis so maybe I just willed myself not to want to eat all the time and not to eat such huge portions.

The portions I eat now for my diner are smaller than I used to eat for a starter :lol: but somehow I just dont get the cravings I used to, in fact I don't even think about food other than to look forward to a meal which I never used to, probably because I was eating all the time and never really ever got hungry.

I do eat slightly larger portions now than I did when I was first diagnosed and put on insulin, perhaps that had some bearing on my present state of mind, I know it scared the life out of me and I lost 4 stones in about 6 months even whilst on insulin but I was pretty anal then about what I ate, then after around 12 months I had cut down my insulin so much that my DN told me to stop altogether which actually kind of frightened me a bit as I thought it was the insulin that was still controlling my bg even though in the final weeks I was only injecting around 2 units per meal sometimes even 1 unit but i dont think I ever went over 6.5 mmol/L.

Anyway my control is a lot less intense than it was back then but somehow I still only eat small (for me) portions of food, thats just me now.

It makes me smile now when I think that I would buy 3 or 4 choccy bars a day back before d-day, now I have maybe one a year :lol:

As for carbs, well I eat between something like 60g to 120g a day now which is low carb by some standards but of course not by others

 

[clearviews]

I am in the same boat, Wiflib. Such a frank and honest story.

I can add a further carb addiction I struggle with and that is alcohol. When I began my journey with LC 3 years ago, I cut out alcohol. Over 12 months lost 20 kgs. Maintained that for another year. Feeling I was in control with my Diabetes and weight where I wanted to be I reverted to having some alcohol. Then there was a little more and I started to gain some weight. Within a day or two of no alcohol, weight loss commences.

If I were able to have one drink per night I think that there would be no weight gain but like the carbs the craving for another is there and is why I am chosing no alcohol again.

The addiction is so seductive.

 

[jopar]

Even though I can empathise with what you say!

But what mystifies me is that just because you’ve got a problem then we are expected to form solidarity with you and follow suit! Why?

I’ve never gorged on carbs even in my pre-diabetic days, I was diagnosed when T1’s regime was tight and inflexible, you were prescribed not only your insulin dose but also the amount of carbs for each of your 3 meals and 3 snacks per day…. When they first worked out my carbs they did try to encourage me to eat more per day, 180g’s is still below the ADA, after a week it was apparent it was too much for me, so we tried 150g still too much and ended up settle on 130g’s which must days was a struggle for me! It was like having a blow out every day not good!

Perhaps I’ve just be fortunate that my natural eating habits has meant that I’ve never been overweight, and when it came to being a diabetic I only had to tinker with my foods, and cut out obvious sugar such as full fizzy, sugar in my coffee (now the no sugar in the coffee did make me cry)

As a diabetic no real problems, I use very little insulin and have excellent control..
So I really don’t see why or others should be penalised just because somebody else has a perception of us, that we need to lose weight, we have bad control and we have no ability to eat certain types of foods wisely, just because somebody else can’t!

 

[LittleGreyCat]

Even though I can empathise with what you say!

But what mystifies me is that just because you’ve got a problem then we are expected to form solidarity with you and follow suit! Why?

<snip>

In this discussion I think we were just forming solidarity.

Low carb sucks but works for some T2s.

Cheers

LGC

 

[phoenix]

I think this is a very honest post, it isn't a problem that I recognise in myself but obviously it's true for you.
I was reading it just after listening to Jenny Ruhls podcast (you'll have to google for it, not a good one to link to on here). About 10 min from the end, and it's probably an hour long, she talks about the problem you had when you ate the Eton Mess and gives an answer which to me makes sense;after reading you post I listened again to check ... but then I don't have the same experiences as you. Might be worth listening to and seeing what you think.

 

[wiflib]

Jopar, I'm not quite sure exactly where I insinuated that you were expected to follow suit and form a solidarity with me. Where did you get that idea! I was merely explaining why I, as a non-insulin dependent T2 can't eat even a tiny bit of carb. It has obviously struck a note with others on the forum and they have very kindly posted in support of how I feel.


You and I don't even have the same disease.

wiflib

 

[viviennem]

Wiflib and Clearviews - I'm with you all the way!

I'm lucky I live alone - I don't have anything in the house I can't eat or drink, which makes life easier.

Viv 8)

 

[jopar]

You make no mention in your original post that you have a different disease!

I'm therorically a low carber always have been so perhaps that's why I don't feel the need to justificate or demand that other follow my lead..

Which after all is what this post is all about!

Lets all get on the band wagon and go extreme low carbing..

I prefer to allow people to make there own minds up to what level of carbs they eat or work out what tollerance levels they have...

 

[viviennem]

Come on, Jopar, this is Wiflib's personal story!

She called the thread 'Why I don't . . ', not 'Why no-one should . . .'!

Viv 8)

 

[ailz]

I agree with you wiflib, and others, I'm a carb addict and until I read this site I didn't realise that it was even possible to be one. I can identify with the continuous hunger, the overeating, the real need for huge chocolate bars. I could eat a lot more than my hubby.

As a child we were pretty hard up and we lived on large portions of cheap filling food ' lots of bread and potatoes. All my family is fat. My parents still live on the processed carbs, but I've now given them up - and by bg is better for it - and the weight is slowly, slowly reducing.

We all need to find our own way, but the more stories there are of people's personal experience the more chance newbies have of finding ones that resonate with them.

Cheers
Ailz

 

[benedict]

This is getting a bit too personal in places here. Just a reminder to keep things relatively friendly.

 

[wiflib]

Back on track.........
I've been VERY strict with myself for the past three weeks (apart from that bl**dy Eaton mess) as I was fed up with this stalled weight loss and so the scales have started on a downward action again.
The only time I've been an ideal weight was in my teens and very early twenties. I'm now 50 with two children and three grandchildren!
What I'm clinging on to is when, not if, I'm a 'normal' weight, staying there will be a **** sight easier now I have the knowledge to do so.

Has anyone else managed this? How was it?

I'm going to the Cambridge Rock Festival next month and I'm hoping to get a bit of flesh on show before I become that sad, old lady hippy that should know better.

wiflib

 

[Administrator]

For a minute I read "Cambridge Rock Festival" as Coldplay Rock Festival... was about to ask for tickets!

 

[wiflib]

Coldplay? Really?

Takes all sorts :wink:

wiflib

 

[WhitbyJet]

Wiflib - I am in awe of you. thank you for sharing.

 

[wiflib]

I've come back to my thread because I realised my lack of manners was shocking.

Thank you all so much for your responses and stories. It has obviously struck a cord with a few of you here. Certainly makes me feel like I'm not on my own in my own freaky little world.

I've been incredibly strict with my diet over the last 4-5 weeks and the reward is the scales are moving in a downward direction. Go me! I'm in ketosis all of the time and the ketones are suppressing my cravings and appetite and I'm not finding it at all difficult. I have proved to myself just how carb sensitive I am though. A night shift consisting of no breaks, a hospital so busy it closed and my food sitting on the kitchen table, saw me eat a brown bread tuna mayo sandwich. No idea what it did to my BS, no time to test. However, I put on two pounds. I was shocked, really shocked, but it has focused my resolve. The two pounds went two days later and I'm continuing to see a loss.

Enjoy the rain, my squashes are, I'm having to beat them back from the house with a big stick.

wiflib