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Ok - I know that I haven't been on here in a while. We recently decided to start carpooling from out in Cocoa to Orlando everyday and it's a LONG time in the car for me. We get up at 5, get home by 7:30, and are in bed by 10:00 usually. I makes for some pretty long days!

Anyway, I had scheduled a doc apt for Terry and I to get our sugars checked, but I forgot to go in and pick up the new patient paperwork ahead of time so we lost our spot! Totallly my fault, but I was really anxious to see what our numbers were.

Then it dawned on me that I still had a meter with strips and lancets from when I was pregnant. So for the last week Terry and I have been taking our levels first thing when we get up in the morning to get a good average. Hopefully this is a good way to see what our fasting level is for both of us - that should work the same right? using the strips in the morning?

Anyway - Terry has been between 89 and 99 all week, but I on the other hand, have been floating from 98 to 115. That is until this morning! I tested and my first strip said 127!!! Then I tested two additonal times and came up with 117 and 120. I thought it was odd that the numbers were so different - but I tested the strips and they were still good. BUT this still says to me that I'm right on the edge and this is my absolute last chance to do something about this. I know that not only will I be letting myself down, but my whole entire family, and especially my little baby daughter Harper.

Diabetes is a horrible thing to get, but I can prevent it 100% at this point!!! Up till right now, when it is slapping me in the face, I have basically chosen to be selfish and basically started killing myself over a plate of fries! Losing my vision because of a candy bar! Getting my foot removed because of an extra helping at dinner! How would I explain that someday to my little girl who wants to know why her mommy is sick?!

It's that 127 that hit me right between the eyes. If that would have been my test at the doctor they would have stamped a big ol "TYPE 2" on my forhead. And that would be it - no more second chances then.

So we sat down and wrote up daily menus for ourselves. We are SO busy and on such a tight budget that we just set up what we eat every day for breakfast and lunch. We both have an egg sandwich with a little ham and cheese on whole wheat bread in the morning, and I have some soup with crakers for lunch, a fruit cup, and a mini bag of low fat popcorn. That brings me to a combo of about 1100 calories with like 52% carbs, 18% protien, and 28% fat. Which from what I've read is a good combo for keeping your levels ok. Then that night I add on a dinner that has about the same percentages and about 500 to 700 calories.

So far it's been working pretty well - makes packing lunches really easy in the morning. Also now that it's a little cooler, I walked for 30 min in the park today and I plan on doing an hour on the eliptical when I get home. I know thats a lot - but once I get back down below 200 I can cut back. Right now the weight needs to come off a little faster till I get my numbers under control.

I talked to my OBGYN who put me on my meter and stuff when I got prego and asked her to refill my strips just till I can get set up with our new doctor and she agreed. So I'm going to be testing myself every morning just to see how I'm doing while I'm taking the weight off.

Any pointers would be great! :)

Rachel

Start: 245

Now: 240

Down -5

10/25 Eliptical 26 minutes, 1797 calories - Carbs 54%, Fat 18%, Pro 28%

10/26 Walking 30 min, Eliptical 60 min, 1594 cal - carbs 49%, fat 33%, pro 18%

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Good on you for taking control!!

I lost the weight I put on after having children. I was not very disciplined though and it took me ages.

Looks like what you are doing is going to work. Very sim to my diet. Be careful not to drop your calories per day to low.

I took photos plates of food that had the same calorie contents and stuck them up in my kitchen. Just to remind me what I should be eating. I will put them on my blog if you are interested. All I can say is Vegetables Vegetables Vegetables!!

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Rachel,

A low fat 50% carb diet is a sure way of worsening your diabetes. It also is guaranteed to make you starving all the time.

The idea that a low fat diet prevents heart disease has been completely debunked. Gary Taubes’s new book, Good Calories Bad Calories documents exactly why it is carbs, not fat that cause heart disease.

Those of us who have diabetes have learned that it is carbs and carbs alone that worsen our blood sugar. In addition, eating that 50% carbs diet will raise your blood sugar enough to put you on the “rollercoaster” that results in relentless hunger that makes control that much harder.

If the Taubes book is too technical, read Protein Power. Or Gretchen Becker’s “The First Year: Type 2 Diabetes.”

You don’t have to torture yourself to get back into good control, but you do have to move away from the damaging flawed low fat diet advice that has never been shown in well conducted studies to do anything positive for health.

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Thanks for the info! Our big problem at my house is trying to stay on a super tight budget so we are trying to use fruits and veggies in the canned and frozen varieties. I know fresh is better - but they always tend to go bad in our house! :wink: I figure if we are at least actually eating the frozen stuff its better than letting the fresh stuff go bad!

It’s really tricky to get those percentages right too! I have been using www.fitday.com and that helps a lot because it totals all that stuff for you at the end of the day. But man, its hard to work it out so all the numbers fit.

The only thing I am really happy about is the fact that the good eating is NOT no carbs! I don’t think I could do it! :slight_smile:

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It is very time consuming to count calories as well as percentages. I did it simply because I like to have the control. I go mad not knowing what I’ve eaten and have a tendency to over eat.

My husband on the other hand is well on the way to loosing his second stone and he is not counting calories or percentages.

I suppose you just have to do whats best for you!

What is your definition of no carbs? Mine definition is no bread, pasta, potatoes, rice etc. I don’t include fruit or vegetables.

I did cut radically cut down on bread. And reduced my pasta and rice intake. When I did eat them I replaced white for wholemeal.

I added a lot more beans, peas and lentils into my diet. And made sure I ate breakfast every morning. To get my protein up (vegetarian) I added protein powder to my morning smoothie. To get my good oils I take a cold pressed oil that is high in omega 3, 6 & 9.

I can’t comment on the affect on blood sugars. Jenny sounds like she is more up to date with all that me.

When it comes down to what you can afford to eat though rice, bread, pasta and potatoes are some of the cheapest foods you can buy. Meat and Vegetables can be very expensive. I have no problem with eating canned or frozen veggies and we supplement our fresh veggies with these. Same with canned beans. I just make sure I get the ones with out salt and sugar added.