Help! I am pre-diabetic

icsracer

Last week I had some blood work done and the doctor tells me I am in a pre-diabetic state. Has any had this diagnosis and been able to reverse it? What foods should I eat. The only guidance my doctor gave me was not concentrated sugar and "white Starch". Can someone help me with what that means?

I already run about 15 miles a week so the doctor is not recommending me to increase my exercise.

HeidiCooksSupper

Here's some good sources of information for this:

http://www.webmd.com/diabetes/features/prediabetes-diagnosis-what-to-do

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/

http://prevention.stanford.edu/word-pdf/Pre-Diabetes%20Recommendations.pdf

http://professional.diabetes.org/PatientEducationLibraryDetail.aspx?pmlPath=All_About_Prediabetes_24dee6ff-cbf0-4a55-80b7-9d5d29de0bd7&pmlName=All_About_Prediabetes.pdf&pmlId=101&pmlTitle=All%20About%20Prediabetes%20-%20English&utm_source=dorg&utm_medium=Online&utm_content=prediabetesd&utm_campaign=pem&s_src=vanity&s_subsrc=dorg

bravid98

It looks like you're new to logging (I could only find one day in your diary), but for starters, you need to eat real food. Having shakes for every meal will not give your body what it needs.

Maybe that one day is out of the ordinary, but you don't look to be getting very good nutrition.

unannamoss

I got that diagnosis a few years ago. Scary, but I immediately lost 10 pounds or so and I can keep my numbers in check if I:

1. Don't eat too much, as in don't eat large portions. As long as I eat a normal portion I can even work in treats now and again.
2. Eat enough fat and protein and keep the carb count low, especially ones from refined carbs such a sugar and white flour. If you are eating enough fruits and veggies then you won't have room for many refined carbs except as an occasional treat.
3. Exercise, which you are already doing.

I found a site that was very helpful to me and the author suggested buying a cheap meter and keeping track of your blood sugar levels even if your Dr. had not suggested it. Her site is full of great info but she keeps her carbs really low because she has diabetes. I found that I did not need to keep mine that low. Just balancing the carbs, protein, and fat does it for me. Here is the site:

http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/14045524.php

mrsbadkarma

Hi, fellow pre-diabetic here. I was told the same thing a year ago. I see the doc at the end of the month, so we'll see what he says. (I wasn't prescribed medication or told to do anything differently, this is just stuff I have done on my own.)

I bought a blood sugar monitor and check mine about once a day or every couple of days. I also have (with the exception of a cheat day here or there) started really logging my intake so I can see what I'm taking in... I find that once you learn what your body feels like when your sugar is high and when it is low, you can get a better read on yourself and control it more efficiently.

I read the labels on stuff I eat. Yes, counting calories is helping with weight loss but I really pay attention to sugar content in the things I'm eating. The quality of your food will also play a part, so go for "real" foods as much as possible. Processed and prepackaged foods don't make us feel any better. Increasing your fiber intake can also show some positive results. ((And for those of you looking at my food diary, I know I'm not perfect. I'm not telling the OP to be perfect either.))

Your doctor isn't telling you to change your exercise regimen, but definitely don't stop it. Change up your diet and see what results you get.

When do you visit your doctor again?

yarwell

icsracer wrote: »

What foods should I eat. The only guidance my doctor gave me was not concentrated sugar and "white Starch". Can someone help me with what that means?

Avoid or limit bread, pasta, cookies, cake, fries, chips, pizza, candy, sweets........

The difference between white bread / rice and brown is modest, both are high starch.

mrsbadkarma

icsracer wrote: »

Has any had this diagnosis and been able to reverse it?

Oh yeah, I forgot to add, my younger sister was diagnosed as a type 2 diabetic a few years ago. She was put on medication. She took control of the situation, started eating right and exercising, and within a year her doctor took her off all medicines and said she doesn't have diabetes anymore. He uses her as an example for his other type 2 diabetes patients as proof you can overcome this!

rlwilson1967

Me too. I lost 12 lbs and the doc wants me to lose 20 lbs more and he will recheck my levels. I've been watching my carb intake and just trying to learn healthy ways of eating. I don't want to become diabetic either!

icsracer

I was just doing that for a few days. Some kind of cleanse I read about. I used this site about 3 years ago and got down to 170 lbs. and let myself go.

Lizzy622

Pre-diabetic along with high cholesterol spurred me on to changing my lifestyle. After losing 40 pounds I am no longer pre-diabetic and my cholesterol levels are in normal limits. Unfortunately if I don't keep monitoring that can all change very quickly. I have been here since 2010 and never plan on leaving the site.

icsracer

I see the doctor in 3 months.

icsracer

mrsbadkarma wrote: »

icsracer wrote: »

Has any had this diagnosis and been able to reverse it?

Oh yeah, I forgot to add, my younger sister was diagnosed as a type 2 diabetic a few years ago. She was put on medication. She took control of the situation, started eating right and exercising, and within a year her doctor took her off all medicines and said she doesn't have diabetes anymore. He uses her as an example for his other type 2 diabetes patients as proof you can overcome this!

That is awesome, and very encouraging!

lynn_glenmont

A high pre-diabetic range glucose test result was a major incentive for me to get serious about weight loss a year ago, and my results came back normal at my check-up this year, so it's totally possible to reverse this. Since your doctor thinks you're getting enough exercise (although, honestly, 15 miles a week doesn't sound like that much -- I walk and run more than 25 miles a week, and do other stuff like lifting and dance classes, and I'm a woman in my 50s -- and I don't consider myself an athlete, or in training, or in shape), the other major thing to do is to get down to a healthy weight, by consuming fewer calories than your body uses.

A book I found helpful just for understanding what pre-diabetes is and its relationship to diabetes, insulin resistance, and carb consumption is The Pre-Diabetes Diet Plan by Hillary Wright, but I didn't actually adopt the diet plan -- as I say, I got the results from exercise and weight loss, and possibly from diet adjustments that may have increased my omega 3 consumption (e.g., fatty fish; flax seeds; flaxseed oil; chia seeds; English walnuts; canola oil; meat, eggs, and dairy from grass-fed animals; leafy greens; soybeans), but it's hard to say, because I don't have records of what I was eating before to compare the amounts of those foods I eat now to the amounts I was eating before.

The sites posted by HeidiCooks look like a good place to start.

RodaRose

This is usually the plan -- depending on the instruction of the doctor:

Limit this: bread, pasta, pizza, rice, corn, potatoes.
Limit this: fruit

Eat this: beef, pork, chicken, fish, eggs, dairy, nuts, beans,

Eat lots of this: broccoli, swiss chard, kale, spinach, romaine, cabbage, mushrooms, asparagus, avocados, okra, cauliflower, bell peppers, snow peas, eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, winter squash, brussels sprouts

GlucernaBrand

It's fantastic that you already are active, and you've received some excellent suggestions for information and changes to your food choices. Often keeping track of what you're eating plus the amount of carbohydrate in each food and beverage will help you figure out where you to make specific changes. There's more information here: http://www.diabetesforecast.org/2009/feb/ready-set-stop.html ~Lynn /Glucerna

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ggeise14

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