Welcome Dave,

Sounds like you are getting back on track. Sometimes despite our best efforts our drug needs increase. The goal is good BG regardless of what drugs we have to take. Do you have a pool nearby? My hubs has a really messed up back from an industrial accident. The one kind of exercise that really works for him is anything in the water. He likes to water walk at the pool. I think he would take water aerobics but he would feel uncomfortable with all the ladies who take that. So once in a while he just goes and walks and moves around.

Hi, I'm a newbie to MFP and was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 2002. I was diagnosed with major depression in 1980's. I've been a yo-yo patient, working hard at diet and exercise. A1c started at 7.0 and I would get it down to 5.8. And then back up to 7.8 and down to 6.5.

When my mother died last Oct 2011 I was at 5.8. I had discovered a raw vegan diet and I loved it. Never felt so good. But I blew all that hard work away with my grief over my mother's unexpected death. My A1c crept up, and I'm now at 10.4.

I'm seeing a registered dietician/nutritionist, and after our first visit, I was inspired, when she helped me not to feel like a failure. So here I am with you in MFP and reaching out for support from my fellow diabetes patients. Together, we can do it.

Best wishes,
Laura

My name is michelle. I'm 41 yrs old and was diagnosed as a type 2 diabetic in march of this year (2012). I have lost 27 pounds since my life change.

Welcome Laura, It sounds like you know what to do, just need to get back on track. I'm sorry about your mother, that is enough to send anyone into a tailspin and stress makes BG go up. There's lots of great supportive people on this board so I'm glad you found us.

Welcome Chuck, LOL sense of humor always helps to cope with this. You'll find lots of support and ideas here. Sorry you had to join us but glad you found us.

Hi Joyce, welcome to this group, where I hope you will find the level of support you need. You are starting with a number of advantages, eg you managed to gain conrtrol of your weight and achieved a level of control through diet and exercise. The fact that you gained significant weight simply underlines the need for constant vigilence. Your additional conditions will impact on your Diabetes so it would be important to focus on one thing at a time, gaining control where you can and adapting where this is not possible. Carb control would be one area worth looking at in terms of your food choices. Take your time to look around the boards in this and other diabetic support groups. There's lots of useful information on here which you can use. You say that you're determined to implement change which is a good attitude to have. There are lots of supportive people in this group who are willing to help but the discipline and determination required must come from yourself. I wish you well and am willing to share what I have learned through MFP if you think I can help.

New member so I hope I'm doing the correct.

I received the news Jan 2011 that I was a type 2 diabetic with a A1C of 12+ and was instantly put on 2 insulins. With a much needed diet change and excercise as of 1 month ago I am off both insulins but now taking metformin and my newest A1C is 5.3!!! I am 48 years old, customer service manager and still looking at loosing another 40#. I've lost 45#'s on my own and then hit a brick wall. Tried Weight Watchers and they told me I was eating 2 healthy, joined Curves and did well but needed something more. I now go to a personal trainer 2 x's week who is really helping me tone up but still not loosing the wt. He doesn't know much about diabetics and how he wants me to eat doesn't fit into my low carb diet. I read diet mags all the time and I just get more confused. Anyone with some helpful tips would be appreciated.

Thanks and good luck to anyone with diabetics.

Hi Everyone,

My name is Ebony and I was diagnosed with diabetes about eight months ago. Unfortunately I found out the hard way. I was sick for a while with an upset stomach which progressively got worse, and coupled with breathing issues and exhaustion...and about a week after that I woke up in the hospital and had no idea where the time had gone.

Anywho, after a few weeks in there (complete with dialysis and more), I finally made it home and started really paying attention to the carbohydrate content of my food (I was already an avid label reader due to having celiac and lactose intolerance). I've always been overweight, but I did lose about 20 lbs before my medication regimen was changed (Prandin, and then later Met were added to my insulin), but have had trouble losing anything else for several months now. I'm hoping that using the tools here on MFP will help me get myself back on track.

My blood sugar is pretty well controlled so far (a1c's in the 5 range and my doctor keeps dialing back on the insulin). Ultimately, I'd like my health to improve enough to get off of insulin altogether. I'm on less than half of what I was on when I was discharged from the hospital, and my doctor feels pretty confident that we'll be able to keep dialing it back. So I guess we'll see there.

All of that to say, here I am!

Hi Everyone

This sure looks like an active group. I've been T2D for about 15 years or so and have been on a bg roller coaster ever since. I have to admit that my body isn't totally to blame for this roller coaster ride, unless you include my conscious brain making bad choices as part of my body (I guess it is). OK, it's my body's fault . Anyway, I know what to do, I just don't always do it. I'm sure I'm unique in this behavior, anyone?

Anyway, I'm 61, male and take so many drugs I'm a personal friend of the neighborhood pharmacist. I'm taking Juvamet and Lantus, which seems to do pretty good. I was doing great until "they" made me stop taking Avandia. Probably a good idea, but my bgs were really good until I stopped. Then everything went haywire. My A1C was 10 last month and so my PCP decided it was time to get serious. So now I'm seeing an endo and I hope she can get me back in shape.

I'm by nature a slug. about 1 1/2 years ago, I joined the local Y and "try" to go 3 times a week. I probably get there on average about twice a week, but in the time since I joined, I've noticed a significant improvement in my general health. I'm 50 lbs over weight, but I've lost about 30 lbs in these last 1 1/2 years just by not being such a slug.

Now I'm trying to deal with my other nature, pig. As I said before, I know what I need to do, but when I pig out with a 2500 cal dinner tonight, what can I say, I'm a pig. So to get this under some control, I joined MFP this last week and I'm impressed. I am taking diabetes classes and go to endo tomorrow and I know the strict diet is coming, but right now, I'm recording EVERYTHING I eat. A real eye opener. I've never done it before because it was too hard to keep doing. I might have done a meal once or twice, but here I've recorded the last 5 days, everything. Of those 5 days, most have been under my goal calories. Not today. But the deal I made for myself is to make a good habit of recording and getting a trend line. I'm also going to weigh myself every week. So I'm establishing a baseline. In a week, I'll be taking my nutrition class and that is maybe when I'll begin in earnest.

I'm looking for Nor Cal (San Jose) T2Ds that use fitbit. That may be too specific, but any local under 30s females can friend me too (just kidding, I'm happily married). I'll see what happens. I'm chatty but don't typically like twitter or facebook, so I'm not exactly what kids today would say is being social.

I'm looking forward to losing 50 lbs. Should be "fun"

Best Regards

Dan

Wed 08/15/12 03:09 PM

Hello,

My name is Sabrina. I have had fibromyalgia, CFS, type two diabetes, and depression for 20+ years.

Even so I try to walk 30 min a day and move as much as possible. Trying to live a normal life can be a challange at best.

I'm looking for someone else who understands what i'm going through on the bad days.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Coppak

Welcome Sabrina,

You sure have a lot going on. It's great that you are exercising. 30 minutes a day is what is recommended. I know there are several people here who have multiple conditions and everyone is always great for support.

HI! My name is Nicole and I live in Eastern North Carolina. I'm Mom to a 19yo son and a 15yo daughter, both of whom live with me. I've had an interesting year of ups and downs (pet death, divorce, hurricane, job change) and used all of that as an excuse to eat what I wanted and ignore my blood sugar. I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in early 2010. I wasn't given much guidance from my doctor, but passed on to a nutritionist that I was never able to meet. So I've been floundering. I know what to avoid eating, but have trouble finding easy, inexpensive meals to make that will satisfy my kids too. About 10 days ago, I decided to regain control of my health. I began exercising regularly and began monitoring my blood sugar level. The BS numbers scared me enough that I have kept it up and am slowly seeing my morning sugar reading drop. I am not happy with my weight or my appearance, and seeing as how I am the only one that can change all that, I'm going to do just that.

My Best Friend found out about MFP from friends of hers and she shared the site with me. We exercise together as often as we can and I have found that MFP is a great tool to use to lift each other up every day. Logging my food every day really has made me conscious of what I am(was) eating and have been super careful since I joined, and have logged everything I eat.

Welcome Nicole. It is great that you are getting things under control. i think all of us have gone through times of denial or just ignoring our disease. I was diagnosed 14 years ago so I have several rounds of bad times in there. If you can get in to see a dietitian or take a diabetes class that would probably help you get ideas.

As for what to cook that you kids will eat, it will be hard. I only have my 2 step kids at home now and since one of them and hubs don't eat a lot of veggies it is hard to cook for everyone. I usually make extra veggies for me and try to make my meat and starch as separate dishes rather than a casserole. That way, I can eat little or none of the starch but everyone else can have a normal dinner. I also like to do spaghetti. I use very little noodles but everyone else has noodles and bread. i even stretch my noodles out with some veggies like zucchini or shredded cabbage that I've boiled. I have also done tacos or enchiladas. I used the same filling but wrap it in a low carb tortilla.

Glad you found us.

hi I am Linda, and I am 59 pushing 60 really hard. I was dignose with T2D about 10 years ago. I was just recently put on insulin. I also have an underactive thyroid, plus heart disease. I have change my way of eating plus exercise 5 times a week. Hopefuly I can loose weight and get off my insulin.

Hi Linda,

I too have some kind of thyroid issue (they always thought hypo but now they aren't sure what is going on). Between that and the T2 it takes a little extra work to get the lbs off but it can be done. You are off to a great start losing weight. Many people are able to reduce meds with weightloss but don't beat yourself up if you can't. No matter what, my meds increase about every 5 years so while I try to keep my weight down and my activity up, it doesn't reduce my meds but keep them from increasing even more.