Just diagnosed as diabetic....Doc recommends South Beach. T

BluegrassGuy
BluegrassGuy Posts: 10
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi, all, I was just diagnosed as diabetic....and I can't say I'm terribly surprised. I knew something was going on.

My Doc is recommending the South Beach Diet because of the processed carbs thing. I'm curious what y'all think of it. I'm not skeptical, but I would like to get some good opinions, as unbiased as possible.

Some of my initial questions:

Will it throw my logging off? Not that I've been terribly anal about logging, but now I do need to be.

Because I travel extensively with my job, how will that affect it? It APPEARS to be one of the easier ones to track when eating out often.

Thoughts?

Replies

  • Thriceshy
    Thriceshy Posts: 708 Member
    The diabetes diagnosis was what really got me moving. I don't do South Beach, but I do limit carbs--I try to keep it around 50 effective per meal and 15 per snack. I've found lower-carb replacements for most foods, and haven't had to really give up much of anything. Well, cake, but I wasn't a big cake person to start with. And fruit juices--those are gone, they're empty calories, if I want fruit I eat fruit. I almost never do fast food anymore, and that's a good thing all around. I measure my foods religiously so that I know exactly what I'm getting--no eyeballing it. A serving of pasta (I used dreamfields--some say it doesn't work for them, but my blood sugar doesn't spike when I eat one serving of Dreamfields) is ONE serving, measured out. Because that doesn't feel like much, I augment it with julienned carrots and squash. Makes for a bit plate of food with a lot fewer carbs and calories.

    I'm rambling a bit. South Beach might work for you, but it's also quite possible to do the same thing without relying on a particular diet program.

    Test your blood sugar. Often the first few months, until you get a handle on how foods affect you. Even now, a year later, I test once or twice a day.

    Kris
  • amisbest
    amisbest Posts: 38 Member
    Hi: Don't feak out because of yourself diagnosis. Here are some things to do. Diet and exercise really work. Start walking and build up to 1hr per day. Make a goal to lose at least 10 percent of your body wt. Test often and figure out what foods work. Get an A1C test and work with your doc to get meds. Use mfp to track Cal's. Good luck.
  • tcat2012
    tcat2012 Posts: 60 Member
    South Beach is fairly easy to follow and to log; there's a lot of info on it on the internet; there might even be a group for it on MFP. Lots of lean protein, whole grains, vegetables. It would be pretty easy to follow when traveling as well--after the first phase of it you are essentially just eliminating white bread/white pasta/white rice and sugar (from what I remember). There are also limitations on certain fruits, but many are allowed. You might be able to skip phase 1 (ask your doctor)--it is more restrictive and its purpose is to get rid of carb cravings by reducing them (carbs) really low for 2 weeks.
  • travisseger
    travisseger Posts: 271 Member
    In my experience in my first six months of living as a diabetic, you don't necessarily need a specific plan. South Beach may be fine, but you don't need it.

    Everybody reacts to each food differently, so the key to success is to eat to your meter. Figure out what numbers are acceptable to you (the ADA acceptable numbers are too high for my personal beliefs), and test, test, test. I spent a lot of money on test strips the first month, but it helped me know what I could and couldn't eat. If I'm eating a new food, I test before I eat it, one hour after the first bite, and two hours after the first bite. If my glucose is above 140 at the one hour mark, or above 120 at the two hours mark, it goes straight to my "do not eat list."

    While we each react to different foods differently, there are certain principles that all diabetics should follow: reduce carb intake (I eat no more than 100 total carbs per day, most days I'm well below that), rid your diet of as much processed food as possible, and exercise. It's easy to log and track all of that on here on MFP.

    Best of luck to you, it's overwhelming at first, but you can do it, and before long everything becomes second nature. For me, the diagnosis was the wake up call I needed, and in the first three months after diagnosis, I dropped by A1C from 14.2 to 5.1, and I am healthier and feel better than I have in years.

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