Becca Jane St Clair

I’ve now had diabetes for three months. Or at least, I was diagnosed three and a half months ago. I probably had diabetes for a little longer and it was going unmonitored. I’ve learned a lot since my diagnosis, and I still have tons to learn. I thought I would share with you some of the things I have learned in the past 90 days. When I had my check-up with my diabetic nurse at the three month mark, she was proud of me for losing a stone of weight (14lbs), dropping my Hb1ac to “safe” levels, and for not having high cholesterol. I also at this point, have no need to go on medication, which is something I am VERY pleased with avoiding. At the end of the appointment, Karen told me “keep up the good work, I’ll see you in December”!!

By no means is this post meant as a definitive guide to diabetes, it’s just my personal observations and what’s worked for me. You can feel free to add comments with what works for you, but I would appreciate it if you don’t post negative comments. Like I said, what is working for me might not work for everyone. I had to wade though an awful lot of “you should do this/you shouldn’t do that” before I decided what was right for me. You’ll probably have to do the same.

+There are loads of different symptoms for Diabetes, but they also can be symptoms for other illnesses and you might not have any symptoms at all. I know, that’s not very comforting. The worst thing you can do is go through the list of symptoms to try to convince yourself you do or don’t have Diabetes. In the end, the only thing that can prove you do or don’t have it is a blood test.

+ Not only are there Type 1 and Type 2, but there also are people who are pre-diabetes, and women who only have gestational diabetes. I also just found out it’s possible to be both Type 1 and 2 at the same time.

+ All Type 2 diabetics are not alike. Some might take medications to help control their diabetes (pills), others might have insulin shots, and some like me don’t take any meds and are just on diet control.

+ To further complicate things, the same foods don’t trigger everyone, nor does the same diet/eating plan work for everyone. a lot of diabetics use a simplified Atkins diet, a South Beach diet, or a Low Carb, High Fat (LCHF) diet. What’s been working for me is reducing my carb intake, and changing what kind of carbs I eat.

+ Refined sugar is bad any way you slice it, but we CAN allow ourselves the occasional treat at birthdays, weddings, Christmas, etc. As long as you’re not going to a birthday party every week, that is!!

+Related to the above – I’ve learned to carefully think about “treats” before I have them. For example: Do I really want to eat that piece of grocery store cake or would I rather eat a homemade slice of sponge? Would I rather have Walls ice cream, or hold out for the local dairy?

+”White” foods shuold be avoided — white bread, white flour, white rice, potatoes, etc. The only white food I can think of that is okay would be egg whites…. and salt. Yeah. White = bad. LOL

+ “brown” bread, rice, and pasta really isn’t that much better for you, but you can get away with eating them. I apply the same rule to flour-based products that I do to treats above. I consider if I really want to “waste” my carbs before I eat. I wind up eating a lot of Ryvita instead of bread because I have decided not to spend my carbs on generic bread items.

+ Fruit = sugar. Not that I didn’t know this before, but the sugar in fruit isn’t something I’ve ever thought about before. Even the fruit that is supposed to be “good” for you can mess with your blood sugar levels. HOWEVER, some fruits contain “good sugars” or contain fiber, which means it’s slow release. Apples can be had in moderation, as they are full of fiber. It’s still better to eat a piece of fruit instead of a piece of chocolate.

+ Some vegetables contain sugar and are just as bad for you as a piece of fruit. Corn is bad. Potatoes are bad. Peas are ehhhh.

+ Reducing carbs is good. Like, amazingly good. And it’s been pretty easy for me, IMHO. For me, personally, I’ve cut out ALL rice. I’ve limited my bread intake, and now ONLY ever have brown bread/grainery bread/seeded loaves. I’ve limited my pasta intake by LOADS – down to once a fornight instead of several times a week and only use whole grain or spinach pasta. I didn’t eat potatoes for the first three months, then I was told an occasional potato was fine — as long as it’s no bigger than the space between your fingers if you take your thumbs and pointer fingers and make them into a circle with your fingers and thumbs overlapping at the nail. I also was told it’s okay to have three small egg-sized boiled new potatoes. Again, it’s all ON OCCASION, and depends on what else you’ve eaten in the day or with the meal.

+We’ve also cut out a lot of fast food. I think we were probably at the chippy, chinese, or pizza at least once a week before. Now, we go very infrequently, and usually only if we have other people over. At the chippy, I pick chicken nuggets or fish (and then don’t eat the breading) and Tim will get a large chips so I only eat a few chips instead of the lot. Chinese is pretty much ALL bad, but ours do omelettes, so I order one of those…I’ve found the Chinese/Oriental buffets are better options for me because there is such a large variety to pick from. We’ve only had pizza I think three times in the past three months…and again, that’s something I used to eat and make a lot!

+Don’t believe everything you read, because there will be conflicting information. Don’t believe everything your nurse tells you, either (particularly concerning the NHS diet guidelines if you want to go low carb). Go with what works for you. If you have a daily meter, use it and as they say on DAUK “eat to your meter” — that is, if something spikes you, either eliminate it or eat it less often, and if something doesn’t spike you, add it more often to your diet. I don’t have a meter as Karen told me I did not need one. I debate on and off about getting one, but it’s just one more thing for me to forget to do every day and if I can put off having to do it for a little bit longer, I will.

+Losing weight makes an immense improvement. Even just 5-10% of your overall body weight. My recent weight loss was more than 5%, but less than 10% of my original body weight. My goal is to lose at LEAST up to the 10% mark by August. The BMI chart claims I should actually lose about 50% of my original weight. However, I’m not going to stress myself out over it. If I drop 30-40%, I’ll be pretty darned happy.

+BMI charts aren’t all they are cracked up to be. Don’t ignore the BMI charts, but at the same time, don’t beat yourself up over it. It’s a good guideline, but if you can’t meet your EXACT target for your height, don’t stress about it….

+Stress is bad for diabetes. Which is kind of ironic, because if you’ve just been diagnosed with diabetes, your stress level is probably sky high! But do try to eliminate the causes of stress in your life, or invest in learning some relaxation techniques.

+Let’s get back to sugar. You don’t have to avoid ALL sugar, just consume less of it. When you look at the nutritional information for items, look at the per 100ml or 100g and check the sugar content. Less than 10g of sugar per 100g is okay, but under 5g per 100g is even better. I also was told if an item has a higher sugar rating, but most of the sugar comes from fruit, it’s okay to have. Fruit juice is okay, provided you don’t have a lot of it (100ml) and you drink juice made from fruit not concentrate (the innocent juices are great!).

+should you count carbs? That’s up to you. So far, I haven’t sat down and done an exact count on how many carbs I have per day, but I do know that I am having less carbs than before simply because I have been eliminating items I formerly ate daily. But I still look at the number of carbs in what I eat, and just like with bread and cake, I decide if it’s worth spending my carbs on. I just got myself a Collin’s Little Gem carb count book (used on Amazon UK for 1p!) so I can look up food while we’re on holiday. The carb book doesn’t list sugar, however, so you’ll have to use your judgement there.

+You CAN still have alcohol, just less of it. A half pint instead of a pint, a single rum and diet coke, etc. I’ve chosen to eliminate alcohol from my diet, though I probably will have a few diet shandys (from a tin or made by me with diet lemonade) while we’re on holiday.

+You also don’t have to give up chocolate! I was told that two fingers of a Kit Kat bar are okay, eating 2 Cadbury’s Heroes/Celebrations/Roses/Quality Street are okay, etc. But like anything else, I consider what I’m having first. I’d rather get to eat a small square of dark Lindt or Ritter Sport over something more generic.

+Foods labelled as “Diabetic” are not the end all and be all. Did you know that Frank’s Diabetic ice cream actually has MORE sugar in it than regular Wall’s ice cream? If you read labels, you can tell which items are better for you. In many cases, the “full fat” versions of items actually contain less sugar than those labelled as “diet”, “low fat”, or “fat free”.

+Just because something says it’s safe for diabetics or is sugar free doesn’t mean you can gorge yourself on it. Some of the artificial sweeteners can cause a laxative effect, something you don’t want!

I think that’s everything I’ve learned from various sources in the past few months. If I think of any more, I’ll add them! I hope this post can help other people.

~~*~~
The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, Networked Blogs, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users reading this from my Networked Blogs link can either comment on facebook or on my blog. If you are reading this through an e-mail subscription, you might need to go directly to my blog to view videos and images.]

WOWEE am I ever excited. We’re having a garden party steam-up on Sunday and we are serving food. Lunch of course, includes a few sweet treats and with my new diagnosis, I knew I’d be out of the running for eating cakes….and there’s nothing worse than making something you aren’t allowed to eat. So, I decided I was going to figure out a cake recipe I COULD eat, and then decided since I needed it to be taste-tested (by my husband and mom who’s visiting from the US and by my friend H who also has diabetes), I would do fairy cakes (cupcakes). This recipe is in US measurements. I wouldn’t try converting it down to grams due to Splenda being lighter than regular sugar weight-wise, but you can use a regular mug for measuring as long as you use the same one for everything. This recipe uses the low-carb baking mix, Carbquik, which can be purchased online from several retailers in the US and UK (I buy mine from AvidLite). You can use regular flour, but there will be more carbs (and sugar if you use white flour) in it. Carbquik has 2g of carbs per serving (one serving is 1/3 cup, which is approximately what is in one fairycake).

You Will Need:

2 Cups Carbquik
2 tsp Baking powder
1 1/3 Cup Splenda (regular Splenda, not the baking blend sold in the US)
1/2 Cup butter (or margarine/Stork/suitable substitute for baking)
1 Cup Milk (skim or semi-skim is best)
2 tsp Vanilla
2 medium-sized eggs

-Preheat oven to 175C (350F).
-Sift Carbquik, baking powder, and Splenda together.
-Add butter and beat until fluffy.
-Add eggs one at a time and beat after each addition.
-Slowly pour in the milk while mixing and add vanilla.
-Fill cupcake cases 2/3 full and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
-Should make 18 regular-sized cupcakes.

Cool on a wire rack.

For the Chocolate Buttercream:

1/2 Cup Butter
3 Cups Powdered Splenda (recipe to follow)
1/3 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa
1/3 Cup Milk
1 tsp Vanilla

-Sift together powdered Splenda and cocoa and set aside.
-Beat butter until fluffy.
-Add milk.
-Slowly add Splenda/Cocoa mixture and beat well. Add vanilla.

Your icing should be nice and creamy. If it’s too runny, add more powdered Splenda or cocoa. If it’s too thick, add more milk a teaspoonful at a time.

To make Splenda Powdered Sugar:

Combine 3/4 Cup Splenda and 2TBS corn flour (cornstarch) in a blender and mix until it is a fine powder. You can use this in any recipe that calls for powdered sugar/X-10/confectioners/icing sugar.

~~*~~
The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, Networked Blogs, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users reading this from my Networked Blogs link can either comment on facebook or on my blog. If you are reading this through an e-mail subscription, you might need to go directly to my blog to view videos and images.]

There’s been something weighing on my mind for the past several weeks and at fist I didn’t want to tell anyone — not even my family — but then Tim convinced me that I should tell my mom and his parents and then I branched out and told a few local friends who I thought could help me, I told one of my cousins, and I told a close friend who knows what it’s like to deal with this. I haven’t told any of my other close/best friends, for which I apologize. I should have come and told some of you sooner than now, but I just didn’t know how to word things and I didn’t want pity, and even with just the small group who know I’m already being given loads of (often conflicting!) advice.

When I went to the GP a few weeks back for the results of a blood test (done for unrelated reasons), my glucose level came back high. Dr Howard wanted me to do another Glucose tolerance test (the last one had been done in August 2010), so I had that the following Monday, and my results appointment with Dr Howard the following Friday.

My glucose level was 11.4. Under UK guidelines, I have diabetes (Type 2) (the cut off is above 11.1).

I had to wait over a week before I could see the diabetic nurse, and it was an AWFUL week. I didn’t know what to do and I spent the week cutting out as much junk from my diet as possible, and switching a lot of my habits around. I eliminated all white flour from my kitchen (my MIL got a huge bag of things), most of the white sugar (I left a little for guests who need sugar in their tea!), and anything else I knew was now on my “nono” list. I researched and picked up a few diabetic cookbooks and talked to my friends. A plan started to form.

On Monday, I saw the diabetic nurse. She confirmed that I was “barely” diabetic, with my Hb1ac level at just below 50 (which I understand is about 6.7%). If it was above 50, I would need medication, but as it’s just under, I’ve been advised to work on controlling my diet for the next two months when I’ll go back in again for another review. While it’s not possible to reverse diabetes or never have it again, it IS possible to eliminate actively having it provided I change my diet and stick to it.

I have decided to go low-carb and have eliminated bread from my diet. I now have lots of wholewheat wraps for my sandwiches and no longer have toast in the morning. I do my best to have breakfast every day – Weetabix, yoghurt with fruit, or an Atkins bar.

Baking is going to be the toughest thing to handle, but I’ve found low-carb flour (Carbalose and Carbquik) and I’ve also replaced my white self-rising flour with whole wheat self-rising flour.

I’ve also had to eliminate potatoes from my diet, which has been really rough!

So that’s where I’m at right now. My primary GP would like me to lose 2 stone (28lbs) in the next 6 months, but then he mentioned August to me, so who knows? I have managed to lose about 5 pounds so far in the two weeks since being diagnosed, so at least I’m on a good start.

Advice, products to get, and recipes are more than welcome, but if I start getting conflicting advice, whatever the GP and nurse say will always win.

The above will be cross-posted to my blog, facebook, and LJ. Anything appearing below this paragraph is specific to that page.

~~*~~
The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, Networked Blogs, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users reading this from my Networked Blogs link can either comment on facebook or on my blog. If you are reading this through an e-mail subscription, you might need to go directly to my blog to view videos and images.]