Diagnoses: Diabetes... *sigh*
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NewMomTrish
Posts: 3
Hello again,
I've been on this site back and forth for the past five years and I can say that I've never stuck to anything. I've tried weight watchers but got discouraged when the scale started tipping in the opposite direction rather than in the direction I wanted. So I dropped out... yeah I'm weight watcher and MFP drop out. I've done weight watchers - this will be my third time and MFP maybe my sixth. So here we go again and now it's a little serious. It should be a lot serious but I haven't let it sink in yet. I guess I'm too scared to face it.
I was diagnosed with diabetes at the beginning of May and prescribed metformin 1000mg - yeah my mother said that was pretty high. I have yet to start taking them. Really expensive and they're just sitting there full bottle. I'm scared to, but I know I need to. A little history about my family - most of my aunts and uncles have diabetes. My mother has it too and well my father died of a heart attack - he had it all, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and what's that called plaque in the arteries?? any way and kidney failure he died at 47. I was 18 and just starting out college. I made it through college though, but I put myself on the back burner.
Now I'm 220lb the heaviest I have ever been! I wasn't even this heavy when I was pregnant! My goal is 95 to 100 pounds. I already know what I should and need to eat and what I need to stay away from I've been given the lecture, but when you work a desk job and all you look forward to is a Coke and Lunch time and you're also surrounded by tacos and donuts in the morning it's really hard to run away. I'm also soda-holic and one week I had unintentionally stopped drinking my cokes so there I was with a migraine for three days. And since I work in a mental health clinic what better way than to get help from the psychiatrist we have on staff. I mean they're trained in medical stuff too right? So I go and sit in front of Rodney, a mental health nurse practitioner's desk and he's like "whatcha got for me?" thinking I was there to consult about a client. The whole time he's writing in another chart without looking up at me. And I tell him I've had a migraine for the past three days and nothing is working! And he continues to write and then says "you drink a lot of caffeine? Soda? Coffee?" And I'm like "yeah?" Then he says, "When's the last time you've had a cup or two?" ----Dumbfounded I stutter trying to recall and finally he looks up. "Well there you go you're going through caffeine withdrawals. Try weaning yourself off a little slower or else you'll have that migraine for the next two weeks if you drink as much I think you do." Two weeks! I need to find a coke now! Good thing I work with a bunch of doctors! LOL
So there you have it. And after I drank a 20oz bottle the headache slowly started to fade away. So that's what I'm up against. I'll be looking over the Atkins diet and try getting recipes outta there. Anyway any support or words of wisdom are welcome and greatly appreciated! Thanks for reading!
*Patricia*
I've been on this site back and forth for the past five years and I can say that I've never stuck to anything. I've tried weight watchers but got discouraged when the scale started tipping in the opposite direction rather than in the direction I wanted. So I dropped out... yeah I'm weight watcher and MFP drop out. I've done weight watchers - this will be my third time and MFP maybe my sixth. So here we go again and now it's a little serious. It should be a lot serious but I haven't let it sink in yet. I guess I'm too scared to face it.
I was diagnosed with diabetes at the beginning of May and prescribed metformin 1000mg - yeah my mother said that was pretty high. I have yet to start taking them. Really expensive and they're just sitting there full bottle. I'm scared to, but I know I need to. A little history about my family - most of my aunts and uncles have diabetes. My mother has it too and well my father died of a heart attack - he had it all, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and what's that called plaque in the arteries?? any way and kidney failure he died at 47. I was 18 and just starting out college. I made it through college though, but I put myself on the back burner.
Now I'm 220lb the heaviest I have ever been! I wasn't even this heavy when I was pregnant! My goal is 95 to 100 pounds. I already know what I should and need to eat and what I need to stay away from I've been given the lecture, but when you work a desk job and all you look forward to is a Coke and Lunch time and you're also surrounded by tacos and donuts in the morning it's really hard to run away. I'm also soda-holic and one week I had unintentionally stopped drinking my cokes so there I was with a migraine for three days. And since I work in a mental health clinic what better way than to get help from the psychiatrist we have on staff. I mean they're trained in medical stuff too right? So I go and sit in front of Rodney, a mental health nurse practitioner's desk and he's like "whatcha got for me?" thinking I was there to consult about a client. The whole time he's writing in another chart without looking up at me. And I tell him I've had a migraine for the past three days and nothing is working! And he continues to write and then says "you drink a lot of caffeine? Soda? Coffee?" And I'm like "yeah?" Then he says, "When's the last time you've had a cup or two?" ----Dumbfounded I stutter trying to recall and finally he looks up. "Well there you go you're going through caffeine withdrawals. Try weaning yourself off a little slower or else you'll have that migraine for the next two weeks if you drink as much I think you do." Two weeks! I need to find a coke now! Good thing I work with a bunch of doctors! LOL
So there you have it. And after I drank a 20oz bottle the headache slowly started to fade away. So that's what I'm up against. I'll be looking over the Atkins diet and try getting recipes outta there. Anyway any support or words of wisdom are welcome and greatly appreciated! Thanks for reading!
*Patricia*
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Replies
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Just a few resources and links, there is a huge amount of information and support on the community boards at the ada website and also at tudiabetes. Not sure how much info your doc gave you or wether you are checking your BG Levels in relation to your meals but that is one of the best ways to know what you personally can eat. There is no one size fits all diet for T2, every ones body responds differently to the kinds and amount and time of day you eat carbs. You will need to find what works for your body. If you did not get a script for a meter and test strips call back and get one. Also an appointment/referal to a Certified Diabetes Educator will hep you on your journey.
The metformin will help you start to bring your numbers down. Yes it can cause GI distress but you can start small and work up. The 1000 can be cut in two so you start at 500 for a week then add the other half later in the day. Once that sits well then add another 500, etc. If that does not work for you ask your MD for extended release metformin it is much gentler on the system.
Exercise and weight loss is a part of the puzzle, just know that any increase in activity will help. Simply walking after meals for 10-20 minutes or walking up a few flight of stairs after you meal can help a lot.
Just be aware that as you make changes and bring your numbers down you will start to feel better, and have a much brighter future going forward.
http://www.diabetesmine.com/blogroll
http://lizzysdlounge.com/2012/03/14/testing-101/
http://lizzysdlounge.com/2012/03/14/all-about-carbs/
http://loraldiabetes.blogspot.com/2006/10/test-review-adjust.html
Http://community.diabetes.org/t5/Main-Community/ct-p/Support-Forums
http://www.tudiabetes.org/0 -
So sorry to hear about your struggles. I think that it is important to focus on small changes that will lead to a better lifestyle over time. How about making smaller goals? Try setting your first goal to get below 200 pounds. Log your calories daily. If you look at it as a journey, you won't get discouraged and it will keep you headed in the right direction. Add some (or more) exercise to your daily routine slowly (move more during the day, take walks at lunch, pick a fun exercise to start - bike riding, Zumba, etc.) Find lower calorie caffeine alternatives to soda (black or green tea for example - caffeine can actually help your weight loss efforts if what you are drinking does not have a lot of empty calories in it). Start adding more fruit and vegetables to your diet. Stay away from areas at work that have unhealthy foods, plan out what you will eat. Take vitamins with extra D and B 12 and iron so you will have more energy to make those changes. Take the time to take care of yourself. CDo not over restrict your eating, because that sets you up for failure. Drink more water. Don't be so hard on yourself. Make it a lifelong journey, not a quick fix. If you change your perspective, I know you will have success. I wish you the best.0
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I do Atkins and I can testify it works! I was 356 and lost more than 200 pounds. You don't need to give up caffine, but you do need to limit your artificial sweeteners if they cause cravings. It is a great diet for diabetics. If you go to the Atkins website, there is all the information you need for all phases when you click the Learn Atkins tab. Your diabetes will improve and you will need smaller and smaller does of medication as your weight comes off. You can get low carb tortillas and make your own tacos. Lots of good recipes on the website, too.
I was 356 and lost more than 200 pounds.0 -
So that's what I'm up against.
A load of excuses? Sorry if it sounds harsh, but it's true...0 -
I was diagnosed with diabetes at 27 years old, and I used MFP to lose some weight, and my blood sugar is a lot better off than before. Don't excuse and enable yourself, you're better than that.0
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I think friends are what you need. I'll add you!0
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I give you a lot of credit for not giving up and continuing to figure out the best way to improve your health. I know it can be scary when so many people in your family have diabetes, but I bet they will all tell you to start taking the metformin now. It's going to lower your blood sugar levels and help you feel better, plus you can feel good about taking the first step toward improving your health. As others have said, one step at a time is going to get you to your goals. ~Lynn /Glucerna0
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Just on the caffiene withdrawals thing, find another source of caffiene that doesn't include sugar you can use to ease the withdrawals. Tea, coffee, diet soda or even caffiene pills will help. If you're drinking as much coke as it sounds like this could potentially make a huge difference in calorie intake and is probably essential in the management of your diabetes.0
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Just a few resources and links, there is a huge amount of information and support on the community boards at the ada website and also at tudiabetes. Not sure how much info your doc gave you or wether you are checking your BG Levels in relation to your meals but that is one of the best ways to know what you personally can eat. There is no one size fits all diet for T2, every ones body responds differently to the kinds and amount and time of day you eat carbs. You will need to find what works for your body. If you did not get a script for a meter and test strips call back and get one. Also an appointment/referal to a Certified Diabetes Educator will hep you on your journey.
The metformin will help you start to bring your numbers down. Yes it can cause GI distress but you can start small and work up. The 1000 can be cut in two so you start at 500 for a week then add the other half later in the day. Once that sits well then add another 500, etc. If that does not work for you ask your MD for extended release metformin it is much gentler on the system.
Exercise and weight loss is a part of the puzzle, just know that any increase in activity will help. Simply walking after meals for 10-20 minutes or walking up a few flight of stairs after you meal can help a lot.
Just be aware that as you make changes and bring your numbers down you will start to feel better, and have a much brighter future going forward.
http://www.diabetesmine.com/blogroll
http://lizzysdlounge.com/2012/03/14/testing-101/
http://lizzysdlounge.com/2012/03/14/all-about-carbs/
http://loraldiabetes.blogspot.com/2006/10/test-review-adjust.html
Http://community.diabetes.org/t5/Main-Community/ct-p/Support-Forums
http://www.tudiabetes.org/
1st, Don't do Anything that hasn't come from the mouth of Your Dr, such as modifying your meds!
These are only suggestions from people!!
Do as Your Dr told/explained to you.
Almost 2 months ago I was diagnosed with being diabetic...I cried because I have a fear of needles but at least when someone else is poking me I can somewhat distract myself...not so much when Im doing the poking!
I was initially given 1 (500 mg) because she wanted to see how Id do but my F-I-L had found out 3 months before me that he was diabetic so he said I should go back & talk with her about upping my dosage to 1000 ( 2 (500 mg) ).
So after 2 Days she put me on 500mg with breakfast and 500mg with dinner.
I started at 178 (2 months ago) and 3 weeks ago I got down to 68 (a few days before that Id noticed it was declining) so I called the nurse and she said just to keep tabs on it.
I was so surprised that by signing up w/ MFP and logging what was going in, that I could either modify or put aside things that I liked.
Since 3 weeks ago I have stayed between the high 70's and mid 80's.
My F-I-L who who found out 3 months before me still battles with trying to get his #'s down (he actually started at a much lower # than I did).
My M-I-L told me this past Sun that shes proud of how much Ive done, hoping to use my success/story to encourage him!
I'm nowhere close to my weight loss (only 5.5 lbs in 3 wks) BUT I've gotten my diabetic #'s down (now I just need to learn to maintain them)!
Talk with Your Dr!
Good luck!!0 -
Sorry to hear you're having a tough time. If your doctor has prescribed meds for you, it's probably best that you take them, especially with something as serious as diabetes. Just one word of advice from a personal experience, check with your doc on what the side-effects are for the meds they have prescribed. Be sure you know what the potential side-effects are (if any) so that you can make an informed decision on what is best for you.
Caffeine withdrawal sucks, I'm not going to lie but you need to be careful about how you're getting that caffeine. A 20oz bottle of coke is 11 teaspoons of sugar (on the full fat version). So your diabetes is taking a huge hit on every soda. There are healthier caffeine alternatives. If quitting soda cold turkey is hard, then at least consider alternating the soda with tea or water while you wean yourself off the caffeine.
As far as the donuts and temptations, drink a 20oz bottle of water (NOT SODA!) before giving in. You might still have the craving for the sweet stuff after the water, but you'll feel fuller before you start which may reduce the amount you eat. There is a lot of added sugar in stuff so logging everything you eat will show you where your biggest sugar hits are coming from. I've personally found higher sugar numbers in foods I had never thought were sugary so those items had to go.
All the best and one day, one meal and one workout at a time.0 -
It sounds like you have a long way to go, and I don't mean by pounds. You have many habits that you need to change in order to see sustainable change. I suggest you break it into pieces.
1st: start logging everything you eat. Get a food scale and good measuring cups and weigh and measure everything. Set a goal to do this every day for 2 weeks. The objective of these first two weeks is to get in the habit of preparing your own food and logging everything. If you're logging in everyday, your MFP friends can help encourage you keep coming back.
2nd: Quit drinking soda. The sugar can potentially raise your blood glucose into dangerous levels, and sugar tends to make people hungry. If eating makes you hungry, you're going to find difficult to stick to any diet. I suggest you switch to coffee or green tea, or wean yourself off completely. Work on two weeks without soda. I don't recommend diet sodas either. Artificial sweeteners are shown to increase sugar cravings.
It will probably take about a month to make those two big changes. During this time: research, research, research. Read something every day. Read a bunch of the articles people have already referenced. Read the Atkins book, low-carb diets have shown potential for reversing diabetes. Do your reading, and then go see your doctor and ask questions.
One other thing: you mentioned you quit before because the scale was moving in the wrong direction. I suggest you try weighing yourself every day. Weight fluctuations are natural (just this past week, I gained 3 lbs). Your weight will go up, and then go down again. If you weigh yourself every day, you might become desensitized to these fluctuations. Or, you might obsess over it and decide to weigh every week instead. You won't know until you try.0 -
You could just keep drinking cokes, gaining weight, refuse to follow your doctor's advice, go blind and have your legs amputated in a few years...
*sigh*0 -
Hugs. Please don't be afraid to take the medicine, it will help, and possibly suppress your appetite too. You don't have to give up soda/caffeine if it is too overwhelming now, just stick to sugar free. Please do check out Atkins, I'm on my fifth day of low carb and loving it. Get hooked up with your dr, and a good nutritionist. Do this for you, you deserve to be well.Hello again,
I've been on this site back and forth for the past five years and I can say that I've never stuck to anything. I've tried weight watchers but got discouraged when the scale started tipping in the opposite direction rather than in the direction I wanted. So I dropped out... yeah I'm weight watcher and MFP drop out. I've done weight watchers - this will be my third time and MFP maybe my sixth. So here we go again and now it's a little serious. It should be a lot serious but I haven't let it sink in yet. I guess I'm too scared to face it.
I was diagnosed with diabetes at the beginning of May and prescribed metformin 1000mg - yeah my mother said that was pretty high. I have yet to start taking them. Really expensive and they're just sitting there full bottle. I'm scared to, but I know I need to. A little history about my family - most of my aunts and uncles have diabetes. My mother has it too and well my father died of a heart attack - he had it all, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and what's that called plaque in the arteries?? any way and kidney failure he died at 47. I was 18 and just starting out college. I made it through college though, but I put myself on the back burner.
Now I'm 220lb the heaviest I have ever been! I wasn't even this heavy when I was pregnant! My goal is 95 to 100 pounds. I already know what I should and need to eat and what I need to stay away from I've been given the lecture, but when you work a desk job and all you look forward to is a Coke and Lunch time and you're also surrounded by tacos and donuts in the morning it's really hard to run away. I'm also soda-holic and one week I had unintentionally stopped drinking my cokes so there I was with a migraine for three days. And since I work in a mental health clinic what better way than to get help from the psychiatrist we have on staff. I mean they're trained in medical stuff too right? So I go and sit in front of Rodney, a mental health nurse practitioner's desk and he's like "whatcha got for me?" thinking I was there to consult about a client. The whole time he's writing in another chart without looking up at me. And I tell him I've had a migraine for the past three days and nothing is working! And he continues to write and then says "you drink a lot of caffeine? Soda? Coffee?" And I'm like "yeah?" Then he says, "When's the last time you've had a cup or two?" ----Dumbfounded I stutter trying to recall and finally he looks up. "Well there you go you're going through caffeine withdrawals. Try weaning yourself off a little slower or else you'll have that migraine for the next two weeks if you drink as much I think you do." Two weeks! I need to find a coke now! Good thing I work with a bunch of doctors! LOL
So there you have it. And after I drank a 20oz bottle the headache slowly started to fade away. So that's what I'm up against. I'll be looking over the Atkins diet and try getting recipes outta there. Anyway any support or words of wisdom are welcome and greatly appreciated! Thanks for reading!
*Patricia*0 -
Here's a couple of links to get you started.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/833026-important-posts-to-read
The victory of success is half won when one gains the habit of setting goals and achieving them. Even the most tedious chore will become endurable as you parade through each day convinced that every task, no matter how menial or boring, brings you closer to fulfilling your dreams
Og Mandino0 -
I was terrified of the thought of being diabetic with the extra pounds, but luckily it doesn't have to be quite the death sentence as a lot of people think it will be. If you work hard and take care of yourself, you will be able to manage it much better and have no real need to be afraid of it.
Schedule an appointment with a DR to get some tests done, see what you are really up against and how to go about it, spend time getting in to the zone and breaking bad habits. Yes, you have some pounds and medical issues to compete with, but you also have a lot of mental hang ups. What motivates you? What really makes you want to lose the weight and get healthier? Is it your child? Yourself?Has your weight kept you from doing something more with your life? Choose your motivation, keep in in the front of your mind and draw strength from it at times of weakness and poor choices.
I gave up pop about 5 months ago and my weightloss got faster, more noticeable and I felt so much better in general. I used to drink like 5 glasses a day of the sludge. I replaced it with tea and water infused with fruit, no sweetner, now I don't miss it at all and never crave it or think, " A tall pepsi would be great with this burger" I just order lemon water with my meals and it also saves me money.
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I totally understood what you were saying about the soda. In college I drank 3 Dr Peppers a day, eventually cut down to one a day, and kept up that habit for years. As a teacher, all I looked forward to all day was that Dr Pepper and peanut butter crackers during my planning period. But when I joined MFP (for the third time, yes I've dropped out before too) and started logging and saw what it did to my calories and sugar, I cut it out QUICK. (That 'snack' I had every day during my planning was 330 calories!) I had a migraine for 3 days, but I took Goody's powder (which does have caffeine in it) and didn't give up. Now I look forward to my almonds or yogurt and water; it's weird that I don't really miss the Dr Pepper. I don't keep sodas in the house, and I don't bring change with me to work so I'm not tempted to get one from the vending machine. If you look at my food diary, you'll see I still do have them occasionally. In the past 85 days that I've been on MFP, I've probably had 5 Dr Peppers. In fact, today I had half a can. (My in-laws had gotten it for me at lunch not knowing that I've stopped drinking them.) What I'm trying to say by all this is that logging your food will help if you are honest about it because you will see how many calories you are drinking. And once you give it up, you probably won't miss it and will eventually crave water instead. And PLEASE, listen to your doctor and take your meds. I've heard that metformin can help you lose weight. I know a lot of people who've taken it for fertility purposes and they said they lost weight on it. Good luck and remember, if you cheat, you're only cheating yourself.0
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