Good News

[TGIFriday]

Dh and I are doing Atkins together. He is the diabetic one and the reason we are on Atkins. His blood sugars were running around 147 and the 1st week on Atkins jumped up to a whopping 167. Well, we blamed it on the diet, but decided to stick with it for a few weeks. Now I am guessing it was just body changes causing it to rise the 1st week. It has been almost a month now and sugars are running around 120/127 fasting, and generally lower in the evening - go figure! Tonight BS was a whopping 87! Now I am worried that they will drop too low, so I am having him call the doc tomorrow to see if he can lower his meds. Thanks Atkins!

[imagood1]

My blood sugar reading have gone from the 160's at the beginning to right at or just a couple points above 100 fasting. My normal evening numbers run in the mid to high 80's. The only time I have problems is if I don't eat enough for lunch and work out very strenuous - if it happens I grab a few veggies, a glass of water and take a few minutes to let my blood sugar come back up.

Thank you for doing this with him - I am one of 3 diabetics in our home but the only one following Atkins..it's difficult at times but the longer I do this the easier it gets. I don't care what they eat now.

Good luck to both of you

[TGIFriday]

Thanks Carole. I am determined to make this work for him. He just lost a sister 2 months ago that succumbed to heart disease as a result of diabetes. He has a brother going blind right now due to the disease. The brother follows a low fat regular diabetic diet and has never cheated. We are trying something different in hopes that it works out better for us. I was watching his sugars creep up more and more in the past year with a snack of low fat potato chips and sugar free ice cream every night. Now a snack might be a sugar free jello and a few pork rinds. Eating lots of veggies and good protein to me is way better than all of that junk food any day as far as I am concerned. We are early into this, but so far not missing any foods that we used to eat.

More good news, DH called the doctor today and he took him off of one of his medications and reduced the other one! I just hope the cholesterol comtinues to be low for him after all of the heavy cheese and cream that I have been using to make sauces! I am going to have to try and cut back on them low carb or not!

[imagood1]

Dr. Atkins said to wait 6 weeks after starting the plan before you have your 1st blood tests done because of the fact that the first few weeks your cholesterol may rise. We have a guy who went back to 50 - 60 carbs a day because his doctor was upset his levels had gone up - I'm scheduled to see my Internist and Endocrinologist on June 2 - before the appointments I need to go have my blood tests done - this will be the first time since I started Atkins (in January) so I am really hoping my cholesterol, triglicerides and blood pressure meds can be changed then, along with another change in my diabetes meds. My goal is to be prescription free or as close to that goal as possible by the time I loose my weight.

I'm happy your husband has a change in meds this soon!!! Great news. A friend of mine just passed from complications of diabetes - she was 55 - she found an ulcer between her toes that by the time it was looked at had gone to gangrene and her foot was amputated....during the surgery her heart failed and they also had to preform open heart surgery on her -- she had her diabetes under control for so long but the last 8 months she had let it go .... and now this. That was a real eye opened for me because I had just talked to her last week and got the call yesterday that she had passed. My resolve is stronger now than before because of my dear friend.

Keep your hubby on the straight and narrow -- if you liked fried potatoes w/onion before Atkins .... try cutting radishes in cubes and frying them with onion - I had it again for dinner tonight and absolutely LOVE them!!! I also use chopped cauliflower in place of rice or potatoes so when my family is having the real thing for dinner I have my "real thing" also!!

If you need anything let me know!!

[TGIFriday]

Wow, Carole, so sorry to hear about your friend! So young. That truly is tragic!

Out of 12 brothers and sisters, DH has lost 6 to either diabetes,heart disease, or both, at fairly young ages. He is the next to the youngest. He has an older brother that has an artificial leg due to the disease. His only sister left who is a year older and his younger brother a year younger do not yet have the disease. They are the only ones that are diabetes free.

The radishes sound strange, but I definitely will not be satisfied until I try them now. I am still having trouble with all of the fat and being a believer, but I am coming around, but then I have always been a low fat dieter, which always worked for me. Just like anything else, I fall off the wagon, and we love to eat out. I still am worried of the long term effects of the high fat diet and cancer, heart disease, etc. I just feel as if there have not been enough studies done long term, but if the numbers are good, we will continue with the diet for sure - and so far, so good.

[imagood1]

as you add more foods into your meals you lessen up on the fats....we eat them to begin with to curb the cravings and to keep more satisfied inbetween meals.

[theredhead]

I congratulate you on your loving desire to help your husband control his diabetes.

A good resource for quality information about the health benefits of eating a high fat/low carb diet, can be found in the posts on Dr. Michael Eades' blog. He's the co-author of Protein Power and a very smart doctor. Search for specific posts on low fat to start with.
Health and Nutrition by Dr. Michael R. Eades, M.D.

You are definitely on the right track.

[TGIFriday]

Carole,
I (we) have been holding on to induction in hopes of loosing (and also fear that DH's blood sugar may rise) if we move on to OWL, but since you put it that way - that you lessen up on the fats when you add more foods - it makes sense, so I am thinking that maybe we should try moving on after being on induction for 3 weeks now. Maybe uf we do this we will start loosing. I have lost 2 pounds in 3 weeks and DH has only lost 7. Maybe we just need to move on - if it doesn't work, we can always go back on induction.
Laurie, Thanks for the articles. Interesting...