Soozcat Member

I can't cheat. I'm a Type 2 diabetic and if I don't keep my blood sugars within tight parameters every day, I can look forward to things like retinopathy/blindness, neuropathy, kidney failure and congestive heart failure in 10 to 20 years. The best I can do is a single piece of chocolate when my blood sugars are low.

The one that always made me laugh is, "Hi, I like your clothes. Can I try them on?"

Bread is high in carbohydrates. Maybe your body is craving sugar of some kind.

I've been following the strategy of eating to my meter. I watch what happens to my blood sugar after meals; if a particular food kicks the numbers up too high, I greatly reduce or eliminate it. Not tracking carefully, but I've probably been eating around 60g carbs a day. My doctor also has me on the maximum dose of…

I think I would have said, "If your dog attempts to bite me again, I will see you in court. If you can't control him, you should keep him leashed. Have a nice day." And run.

The South Beach Diet claims to help people lose stubborn belly fat first. I'd take all such claims with a grain of salt, since spot reducing has never really proven to work, but I will say that when I was eating South Beach I took many inches off my waist.

When I was first diagnosed with Type 2 this year, I got online and immediately started looking around for information. I knew nobody could "cure" diabetes, so I ignored the sites that offered miracle cures, assuming they were snake oil salesmen. I did, however, take an interest in bloodsugar101.com, as the information…

When it comes to diet and certain trigger foods, I've been learning: never test your willpower. Just don't. It's your brain's subliminal way of trying to tempt you into blowing your diet.

May I suggest geocaching? It's like treasure hunting for adults. There are caches scattered all over Napa; I checked on the Geocaching website. If you have a smartphone, you can download an app that turns your phone into a GPS device and go out looking for these little hidden treasure boxes. It's fun, and since it gets you…

I'm not sure if nausea is always a symptom of diabetes, but some of the other things you've mentioned could be undiagnosed Type 2. You should talk to a doctor about getting tested; if you are diabetic, the sooner you get diagnosed and can bring your blood sugar down to normal levels, the better your health will be. Best of…

You feel like saying something like, "Um, hello? Still the same person that I was then."

I don't disagree with this. We all have the power to say no. I recently attended a family reunion and had to be very selective about the things I ate; my choices were relatively limited, but they were sufficient and it was fine. Several people, not knowing my situation, came up to me and politely offered me dessert, which…

I don't know about this. Imagine someone who is dealing with the fact that she's an alcoholic and is trying to leave drinking cold turkey, hanging around friends who are insensitive enough to suggest that she go out bar-hopping with them on the weekends. That's pretty clear-cut -- if you're sick and you have friends who…

I've got the same thing going on. Down 40 lbs. from my highest weight -- I'm checking it on a scale that also measures fat percentage lost -- and I haven't even had to take in my pants yet. I know it's coming off but I can't *see* that it's coming off.

If you're not getting enough net calories, your body goes into starvation mode and works against your weight loss plan by tenaciously hanging onto everything it gets. It will also slow your metabolism so you feel tired and lethargic all the time. You need to reassure your body that everything is fine by raising your total…

Some of you have probably read the news about a (very small) study done in England wherein the 11 diabetic participants were placed on a very strict 600-calorie-per-day diet for eight weeks, and "got rid" of their diabetes. If you were skeptical about this, you were right to be. There's a great write-up about why this new…

Congratulations! That's awesome news.

Seconded on the drinking of water. Just out of curiosity, how many calories per day are you allowing yourself? Most dieticians say less than 1500 calories a day will put your body into starvation mode.

I know I'm like a broken record, but bloodsugar101.com was so useful when I was first diagnosed. Helped me get my sugars under control within weeks.

I don't pay much attention to the glycemic index. It's derived by testing the blood glucose rise of particular foods in people with normal pancreatic function. Since I, as a diabetic, no longer have normal pancreatic function... I prefer to focus on grams of carbs per serving. But if it works for you, great.

I'm guessing you've given a low-carbohydrate diet a try? Everyone's body works a little differently, but going low-carb brought my blood sugars down to non-diabetic levels within 2 weeks of being diagnosed. I test my blood 1 and 2 hours after a meal to see how what I've eaten is affecting my glucose levels, and keep track…

Lexie: please, please don't blame yourself. We do understand that just being diagnosed with Type 2 and coming to grips with that knowledge is difficult enough. You should know that the more research done about Type 2 diabetes, the more it appears that weight gain is not the cause of diabetes, but one of its symptoms.…

Have you tried eating Smarties when your blood sugar goes low? (The American kind, not the British kind.) They're almost pure dextrose (aka glucose) so they raise blood sugar quickly. And a whole roll is something like 25 calories.

Someone's probably already mentioned this, but let me recommend bloodsugar101.com as a great repository of information about Type 2.

Well, it took a few weeks of daily Metformin use and a low-carbohydrate diet, but I've got my sugars down to non-diabetic levels (fasting numbers in the 80s and 90s, bumping up into the 100s and 110s after meals). I lost 4 pounds last week, pushing my mom all over Manhattan in a wheelchair. Mom is actually the primary…

Good stuff and good general advice. The final arbiter, of course, is your own glucose monitor -- test, test, test. Certain foods that work very well for some diabetics are horrible for others (all the grains I've tried, including oatmeal, raise my sugars too high; on the other hand, small portions of very dark chocolate…

BTW, if you folks don't already know about bloodsugar101.com, let me be an obnoxious cheerleader for the site. So much useful information on bringing down your blood sugar to normal levels (actually far more than my doctor has been willing to provide since I was diagnosed. It appears that either she never responds to phone…

If you need to lose 100 lbs., you need to lose 100 lbs. It's like balking over a particular dress size, or your age -- there's not really a point in denying the truth of it, is there? For what it's worth, I also need to lose 100 pounds. I've been trying to think of it as losing 10 pounds 10 times. (Just not the same 10…

I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes earlier this week, and frankly have spent the last few days in a funk of depression and self-loathing. I knew Type 2 ran in my family, I knew I needed to lose the weight, I even knew my blood sugars were up (my mom, who has been diabetic for years, tested my blood on her glucose monitor…

Just so we're all on the same page -- when Americans talk about "sprouts" in their sandwiches, they usually mean alfalfa or broccoli sprouts, NOT Brussels sprouts. I'm looking forward to more ideas, too... I'll need to pack a lunch for an upcoming plane trip.