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I was recently diagnosed, although my fasting blood glucose from physicals has been over 120 for at least four years. Since I've been educating myself (mainly on Blood Sugar 101, a life saver!) I realize that my doc should have been more proactive.
I've been testing myself daily for over a month and charting meals/exercise on MyFitnessPal. No meds, although I do take vitamin D and fish oil, and recently starting taking Advanced Sugar Support from Vitamin Shoppe. I am 66 years old and have various other medical issues, including obesity, osteoarthritis, spinal stenosis, and diverticulosis. Yes, I'm a mess.
Since I've been diagnosed two months ago, I've lost about 14 pounds, and tried to get more regular exercise. It's difficult because of the arthritis, but there is a Senior Center nearby that has free exercise classes for sedentary types like me. I used to folk dance several times a week, but stopped when my orthopedist told me it was too hard on my knees. I used to swim at the local Y, but had to cut costs. My house is three stories, I have to go up and down stairs all day, so I count that as my daily walk.
I've been retired for five years, and I had really bad eating habits, eating whatever I felt like whenever I felt like eating. Zero meal planning and very little real cooking. That is changing rapidly. Thanks to my children, I now have a raised garden for herbs and small vegetables, like onions and carrots. My son grew tomatoes, and I still have three boxes left. I've been making wonderful low carb/high nutrition sauces to put on kale, spinach, and other non-starchy veggies.
By charting my meals and blood glucose levels, I've found that having more than 15 g carbs in a two hour period sends my glucose over 140. So now I plan carefully to never go over 15 g carbs per meal or snack, and never let myself get too hungry. It's a good thing that I'm retired, because this is all very time consuming as I'm learning new coping skills.
I'm actively seeking new ways of preparing foods that mimic old favorite comfort foods: fried chicken, gravy, mashed potatoes, mac n cheese. I hear that cauliflower is very useful for at least one of those. So far, the only cookie recipe I've found that interests me at all is almond cookies.
I do have one question I hope that you can help me with. When I'm tired and cold or maybe sick, my blood glucose reading soars (but comes down within an hour or so). Is this common? Does it mean that I need to avoid getting chilled?
Thanks for any advice you can give me. I'm looking forward to a rewarding experience here.
I've been testing myself daily for over a month and charting meals/exercise on MyFitnessPal. No meds, although I do take vitamin D and fish oil, and recently starting taking Advanced Sugar Support from Vitamin Shoppe. I am 66 years old and have various other medical issues, including obesity, osteoarthritis, spinal stenosis, and diverticulosis. Yes, I'm a mess.
Since I've been diagnosed two months ago, I've lost about 14 pounds, and tried to get more regular exercise. It's difficult because of the arthritis, but there is a Senior Center nearby that has free exercise classes for sedentary types like me. I used to folk dance several times a week, but stopped when my orthopedist told me it was too hard on my knees. I used to swim at the local Y, but had to cut costs. My house is three stories, I have to go up and down stairs all day, so I count that as my daily walk.
I've been retired for five years, and I had really bad eating habits, eating whatever I felt like whenever I felt like eating. Zero meal planning and very little real cooking. That is changing rapidly. Thanks to my children, I now have a raised garden for herbs and small vegetables, like onions and carrots. My son grew tomatoes, and I still have three boxes left. I've been making wonderful low carb/high nutrition sauces to put on kale, spinach, and other non-starchy veggies.
By charting my meals and blood glucose levels, I've found that having more than 15 g carbs in a two hour period sends my glucose over 140. So now I plan carefully to never go over 15 g carbs per meal or snack, and never let myself get too hungry. It's a good thing that I'm retired, because this is all very time consuming as I'm learning new coping skills.
I'm actively seeking new ways of preparing foods that mimic old favorite comfort foods: fried chicken, gravy, mashed potatoes, mac n cheese. I hear that cauliflower is very useful for at least one of those. So far, the only cookie recipe I've found that interests me at all is almond cookies.
I do have one question I hope that you can help me with. When I'm tired and cold or maybe sick, my blood glucose reading soars (but comes down within an hour or so). Is this common? Does it mean that I need to avoid getting chilled?
Thanks for any advice you can give me. I'm looking forward to a rewarding experience here.
