It's So Noisy at the Fair: The Diabetic Thread

The TGA here wont approve off-script use of Ozempic at least (you cant get it for nything but diabeets) but its still hard to get :(

Feel like I'm really beating myself up/being too hard on myself with all this lately. Vexing over my glucose levels too often, fretting if I eat a spoon of rice or have that extra vodka. I know its not healthy and I am trying to let it stress me less but ugh.

I have been put into this pilot program being run out of Royal Melb Hospital where they are getting onto ppl newly diagnosed with T2, to give them loads of extra support (educators, regular checkups/bloods, dieticians, exercise support etc) with the aim of seeing if intense work + weight loss will put it in remission. I'm greatful for the program - it costs me nothing but the time for the apppointments! - but now I feel this pressure to constantly be Dudley Do-Right as a result :(

I’ve been really struggling the last couple weeks too. Food has been stressing me out so much, so I’ve been living off protein bars and protein shakes instead of thinking about it. I caught a respiratory virus of some kind and I think that just sapped all my energy. I haven’t had a cold in years and I haven’t had Covid yet (despite jordan bringing it home from Finland last year), so I’d forgotten how miserable it is.

Some good news: I’m down from 274 to 163.

HI DERE! My A1C this year crept up to the top end of prediabetic. Doctor told me to lose weight before she even saw the result. Been riding a bike every day and doing intermittent fasting and am indeed losing, hoping I can keep it up. Trying to watch what I eat, it’s kind of depressing to look at packaging and see what’s really in everything. Also learning about glycemic is index and glycemic load, there is one website at the University of Sydney started by the woman who wrote the book on this stuff I have been looking at: https://glycemicindex.com/

My friend who is in a similar boat wears an armband that measures his GMI.

Glucose Management Indicator

Dr. Jennie Brand-Miller. Also have her book, The Low GI Handbook.

Last night I went to see some jazz at a newish place called Canary Club way down on Broome near Essex and Delancey and stared daggers at the order of french fries at the next table while I drank my water. Music was great though.

Although actually the intermittent fasting seems to be suppressing my nighttime appetite. I read something about hormonal entrainment and the growth hormone with a funny name that starts with g for growth.

I guess most people just call the growth hormone the Growth Hormone or just GH.

I'm so impressed by the Rapid Remission program I'm in, even if its meant an endless parade of appointments right when I can least fit it in cos of work crazy. Saw a dietician today, and he was so nice and so helpful and encouraging. Now I have some cocrete goals for kj, protien and carb intake, when and how to get away with a cheeky food, and what to expect. I feel very blessed that our country does things like this at no cost to me.

can you share the stuff you found most helpful?

i was given a free consult w a dietitian through my doctor & they never returned my calls grr

Giving me specific daily amounts of carbs/protein/kj to aim for (which is likely to be weight/age specific but he said 5000kj, 80-100g protien and no more than 130g carbs), getting me to go into detail about what I've been eating, being able to ask if its ok if i occasionally have rice or sneak a bit of pizza, how to mitigate it all etc and him just telling me I'm doing everything right - except not getting enough protien lol he says I should be aiming for 80-100 or more a day, Im not vegetarian but I dont eat any red mean really so I guess I need to up my tuna and salmon intake.

The basic takeaway also was "try a bit of a no no food, and measure yr BG before and after - if it doesnt spike more than 3 mmol/L then its probably ok".
So if you're 6 and it goes to 9 thats ok. If youre 6 and it goes to 11 or 12 you know that was taking the piss. But its ok if that only happens once in a while.

Sorry thats in the AU measures, 6 = 108 in the othe scale right?

BTW 500kj is low. I'm aiming for weight plateau or loss, not maintenance. Thats part of this study I think, the science seems to be there that controlled rapid weight loss can knock it on the head?

5000kj not 500 lol. 5

I went up to the next dosage of ozempic and still no side effects, so that’s pretty good. I’ve really gotta get more non starchy veggies into my diet, though.

Trayce, protein powders are a good way to get some extra protein in - the hard part is finding one that has a tolerable taste.

i got some unflavored plant protein that’s ok, hard to find any at an affordable price though. i scored mine at grocery outlet but haven’t seen it there since.

I don’t mind this one:
MOMOF4TRANSFORM MO4T Grass Fed Whey Protein Isolate Powder, Naturally Sweetened with Monk Fruit, 1.6 Pounds, 24 Serving. Natural Chocolate Flavor https://a.co/d/2eHpczY

I add some peanut butter or PB2 to it and it’s pretty decent.

My holy grail is a greek yog thats a combo of high protein, low fat and actually THICK. There's a few regular-fat ones that are deliciously creamy, but most of the low fat ones either have thickeners in them which I don't want, or they are... weirdly grainy and watery? Jalna looking at u.

Chobani's low fat's the best I've managed to get but their yog is really quite sour. My fave is this Icelandic stuff called Siggi's but its become very hard to find.

i like Fage greek yogurt over here, it’s not as sour. kinda spendy but i get it on sale sometimes
but yeah siggis is nice too! v spendy tho

my protein/fat fallback is adding peanut butter to my yogurt or oatmeal or muesli

and i eat like 7500 eggs & avocados lol

i do salami cheese snacks a bit but then i back off bc blood pressure

I used to eat Siggi's all the time in NJ but haven't been able to find it in Montana.

Greek yogurt supposed to be good for you, but lots of fat.

But came to say now I am thinking about Instant Steel Cut Oatmeal.

Like does the Instant cancel out the Steel Cut?

i doubt that it cancels it out completely? maybe less robust in terms of whole carbs
i imagine its like instant oats vs rolled oats
but i am just guessing.

mr veg makes a big pot of regular steelcut oats overnight in the slowcooker & for the rest of the week we reheat leftovers

I got a decent quarterly report card on Tuesday, A1C down a tenth to 6.2. It's been solidly between 6.2 and 6.6 for several years now, and since I don't have any bad reactions to my meds, I have full sensitivity in my feet, and my eye exams show no sign of damage/degradation, my doctor is fine with me being in that range. She did pat me on the gut this week and say "what are we going to do about that?" though. I said "hell if I know, food is delicious."

lol hell yeah!

Disappointed. From 11/11/22 to 8/31/23, I had 29 home readings between 4.9 and 6.1; my last two have been 6.4 and 6.5. I don't know if I'm splitting hairs or if something's changed...I feel like more or less doing everything the same.

I used to eat Siggi's all the time in NJ but haven't been able to find it in Montana.

They do a plain one - I managed to find some the other day and it is really good. Sadly not low fat but I think I'm resigned that low fat yog is just garbage anyway.

The Ozempic is making me struggle to eat. Not sick exactly, just completely lost interest in food. And I'm a foodie! Its quite unnerrving.

sounds terrifying imo lol

Thanks, Trayce. The fat/no fat yogurt thing is a conundrum, and in general. Some fat is okay theoretically because of the way it interacts with carbs, but then there are Chet Atkins diet types who just load up on it. Something I just read says no more than 20% of your calories should come from unsaturated fat, but I dunno still seems kind of high.

Sorry, saturated fat.

i try to walk somewhere down the middle btw non fat tastelessness vs keto full fat craziness

and try to favor fats like avocado, peanut butter etc

but i’m not putting butter in my coffee or making cakes out of cream cheese lol

In general I wouldnt say an old school Atkins diet is good for diabetics, because as you say they go a bit ham on the fats and Type 2 is all about trying to lose weight and even out the insulin resistance.

Keto diets seem a bit better. I'm not following any "diet", I just cut out the things they said were bad immediately (white bread, any white rice aside from basmati, sugar, fried potato) and reduced my portion sizes strictly (easier now on the meds due to aforementioned appetite loss). I think portion size control is a major one for me anyway. I've lost 10kg since I first started getting ill just before being diagosed. And that was in June, so thats not too bad.

xpost yes, I am still eating a lot of dairy fo the protein! Lo fat cheese mostly, plus some yog and eggs. And yeah going for olive oil esp when I mightve used butter before (except like, on a sandwhich lol I'm not gonna spread oil on my sammich).

But yeah no one can sit here and tell me 4 bacon rashers layered with cheese on a grill is a good thing to eat.

yeah overall balance & reduced portion sizes has worked p well for me

Thirded

Type 2 is all about trying to lose weight and even out the insulin resistance

Not for everyone, mind you. I'm 6'2" and weigh ~165. I'm trying to up my protein intake but also balance out my carbs just enough so that I don't get the shakes between meals. As it is, I often wake up literally weak with hunger in the morning; going 12-13 hours without food (dinner at 6 PM, breakfast at 7 AM) is a real fucking problem. Back in NJ there were a few times before I left that I'd wake up at 3 or 4 in the morning, eat a cup of peanuts and raisins, and go back to sleep for another 3 hours.

I've started exercising lately, using a resistance band and small weights (10 pound hand weights, 15 pound kettlebell) and doing standing pushups off the wall, squats, stuff like that. I'm not trying to get big, obviously, just tightening my muscles up a bit. The hardest part so far is getting to the point where it's habitual, or even where it's something I want to do rather than something I have to remind myself to do every day.

Struggling a bit lately. Increased Ozempic dose has completely destroyed my appetite/ability to want food. Like, so completely, I have to *force* myself to eat anything. As a result I am headachy and tired all the time (well, I assume thats why). And the clinic/hospital team want me to go up to the full dose!? Farrrk no. My sugars are sitting around 6, so I dont see the need. But I hope this settles, or I get to go back off this shit at some point because this really sucks.

Day to day, the diabetes doesn't affect my life much, except in what I eat. So mostly I just post blood-prick numbers here. After two bumps in a row back to the mid-sixes, I was definitely nervous doing a test tonight (first one in 19 days--kept putting it off). Back down to 5.8, so that was a relief. I'm due for a three-month in the next week or two, so we'll see where that's at.

Isnt mid sixes still ok? I'm around there and I'm happy with that!

I think it's fine, it's just that I had gotten things as low as 4.9, and spent months in the 5.0s, so back into the sixes was a step back and in the wrong direction if that continued. But that's just relative to me; I think mid-sixes is a perfectly good place to be.

Also: I over-worry everything.

Oh for a value of trending upward, yeah that makes sense.

Latest HbA1c - 5.3 awww yis.

But unfortunately, Im continuing to have other baffling increases in my liver enzymes despite having cut right back on alcohol (to once a week, tho admittedly on that once a week I still have a few more than I should) and cutting my paracetamol consumption down. The doc really doesnt know why. Could be the ozempic, or the statins, or gall bladder issues or fuck only knows. I'm so tired of all the blood tests and ultrasounds. Can I just be less broken pls.

<3 hang in there. congrats on the 5.3 tho, that’s great news

That's really low--good job.

Had a stupid workplace thing a couple days ago where I was putting away hollow blocks in a kindergarten class and let one drop on my thumb. A little pain, very discolored at the base of the nail. Because of the diabetes, I decided during the night that for sure this meant amputation (I wouldn't even look at it till the next morning), but the doctor I saw the next day said I'll lose the nail, it'll come back, and that'll be it. No pain at all now, but still discolored four days later.

I'm never sure if I should continue to extra-worry these things because of the diabetes.