Sorry About That

I am sorry I have not responded to questions and answers I have received.  I am very new to "forums and boards" and didn't realize I was supposed to.  I was diagnosed with Diabetes a little more than a week ago and everything is so overwhelming to me.  I am like a hawk watching these boards to learn as much as I can - one thing I learned was that I was drinking about 6 cans of soda a day with a total of over 300 carbs and now am down to 1 diet soda a day - if that.  I am scared.  My doctor told me first step is to lose weight and exercise - I am VERY overweight so I have been keeping track of what I'm eating and walking twice a day which is not an easy thing as I use a walker.  I always wondered what I would have done if I could have lived my life over - would I have been different in my choices?  Well now I don't have a choice.  Thanks again for all responses received.

Sable, since you asked several questions, I was thinking that you would come and respond that you understood or didn't understand what the posts were trying to convey.  I don't mean to say that you have to.  I know that you are newly diagnosed and it may take awhile to understand all the information about diet.  The easiest thing to remember is to stay away from food made with flour and sugar, potatoes and corn.  All this has the biggest impact on your blood sugar.  I have asked you if you got a blood sugar meter but you haven't answered.  The reason this is important is that there's no other way for you to know how your metabolism reacts to the food you're eating.  Prepared food (that comes in boxes, packages, bags) usually has additives to make it 'tastier' and sugar and flour are frequently added for taste and bulk.  Fresh or plain frozen vegetables, even canned but be careful of the salt, is better for you than something like pot pies and even some soups.  Always check the labels for additives and the carbs.  You can do this, as Judy says.  I've done it.  Chris has done it.  As far as exercising, you do what you have the ability to do.  If you cannot walk far, there are exercises you can do sitting down or standing while holding onto a chair.  You can twist, move your arms, torso, etc.  That's exercise.  The point is to make a committment to do it regularly which is why a daily journal helps.  I'm sorry for the sad and unfortunate incident here today.  Ignore it.

Reader's Digest, the February edition, just came out and has an interesting interview with Gary Taubes.  He is the author of Good Calories, Bad Calories, which came out a few years ago.  This interview is about losing weight.  

Thanks TVEditor - one more question, seems like I have one all the time!  Some people say it's different with each person but how many carbs a day do you think I should be having right now till my next appt.  I know you folks aren't doctors but I need some kind of reference to see if I'm doing it correctly.  Thanks.

Well, 20-30g of carbs is certainly very little. My current diet that I'm trying to follow as type 1 is 6 times as much. I'm a guy, somewhere on the high end of what they consider normal weight. I once had my basal metabolic rate measured and this figure was around 1900 kcal. This is the amount of calories my body burns just for upkeep, resting, without activity. I assume that a 2000kcal diet would roughly equal 170g of carbs. So, if I ate less than that amount of calories, my weight should logically and slowly drop. Activity increases the metabolic rate of course. Don't expect miracles in a week, and it may not be good to cut nearly all the carbs off immediately, because after the initial drop, the weight could just bounce back when the body adjusts.

It's not all about grams of carbohydrates. However, carbs are easier to calculate than calories, and they do still correlate a bit. High carb meals usually also contain high amounts of calories as far as I know even though I don't have a clue how many calories I'm getting each day. I'm trying to modify my habits when I eat lunch at work. Instead of ordering a meal, I take from the buffet so that I can portion it better and with lots of vegetables, boiled or not. For breakfasts I have two small slices of bread and a glass of skimmed milk. I can't stand milk with practically any fat in it because I can taste it. I'd drink water, but then I'd lose my main source of vitamin D. Add a fruit to the breakfast if I'm afraid that my blood glucose might drop too much by lunch.

Again, please note that I'm type 1, and my blood glucose goes up and down very wildly, especially with this amount of insulin I'm taking. I'm still trying to learn to control my weight too, but still gaining about 1kg each year. Another year, another kilogram, eh... All I can say, it takes a lot of self control to lose weight. I may need to drop both insulin intake and food intake, sounds simple, but I haven't figured out how to make it work in the long term.