For my daughter, advice for dealing with lows ...

[ErinB]

Originally Posted by ErinB

Could any of you give advice as to which induction legal foods have worked best for you in this situation?

Anyone with experience doing this, do some foods work better for you than others?

[ErinB]

Since it appears nobody else has experience dealing with quite what my daughter does, I thought I would give an update.

She is finding success with this WOE, with the decreased need for adding insulin because of the lowered blood sugar readings and also with the weight loss. For a low blood sugar, she finds a veggie such as snap pea pods (work more quickly than zucchini) brings her back to normal and she doesn't feel miserable the rest of the day like she did with glucophage. Yay!

And the best part is the weight loss. The first couple of weeks were rough for her because she kept having low blood sugar readings, kept having to deal with those. She has fewer of those now and a better way to deal with them. After two weeks of induction she had only lost two pounds, but at the six week mark she was down 12 pounds. She has now started workouts at the gym, so she is on her way.

Beyond all that she feels better than she has felt since long before she was diagnosed. I would say she is already one more living proof this WOE is a good thing, probably even a life saver, for diabetics.

[MelTin]

Thanks for the update. I feel that we need to get this message out to a lot of diabetics.

[liv]

That is great to hear Erin. So good that she stuck with it.
You are such an inspiration to all of us too.

[imagood1]

I take metformin morning and evening -- it's a slow process getting the weight off but it's something I know I need to do and have to do to keep my diabetes on an even keel.

I was diagnosed Type 2 last year - my A1C was 10.3 - in January of this year I started Atkins and had good success until I started screwing myself up (my fault not the plan). My last A1C was 5.0 so my diabetes isconsidered under control but because of other health issues I'm still on meds and probably will be for quite some time.

This past Monday, after being ill for a couple weeks, I finished reading the book again and was re-focused to do it correctly this time and get ALL of my health issues in check.

When I have had low blood sugars I can always feel them coming on (I can almost tell what my number will be before I do a check with my meter) - I eat celery with cream cheese, a cheese stick, a pickle wrapped in cream cheese & ham or something along this line. I tried just eating a salad or having a handfull of vegetables but I have better luck when I eat a protein and fat together.

Sorry no one was able to help you then you were here asking for help. As far as the keotsis sticks, I have never gotten them to change color so along with others on the site don't really believe in them.

Hopefully your daughter will learn how to regulate her meds so she can keep from having low sugar levels -- mine happen so infrequently now I had to stop and remember what I ate when it happened. Much luck to her.

[ErinB]

Actually, J. was quite helpful and, as I mentioned, daughter is doing well, seems to be on her way. I don't know yet whether it will be slow for her or not. Certainly it seemed to be while her blood sugar kept going low early mornings, but that isn't happening as often now.

She does hope she can gradually reduce the insulin as the weight comes off and her doctor says that should happen with weight loss. She dreams of getting off the insulin entirely, but only time will tell. According to Dr. Atkins the insulin makes weight loss even tougher than Metformin. She absolutely cannot tolerate that, though. Her doc tried everything with her and only the insulin works.

Thanks so much for adding your experience to this topic. I have passed that on to my daughter so she can experiment with the ideas to see what works best for her.

I'm also glad to see you are getting better. You had me worried being sick so long.

[imagood1]

I don't believe these is a one food cure all for each diabetic. We've been told over and over "sweets - juice - carbs" when you experience low sugar levels....it's hard to not take the advise of your professional and find what works for you.

Someone who isn't going through the daily struggles with diabetes can give observations, but unless you are an actual diabetic and find the foods that help you it's not much help. I'm glad your daughter has found what works best for her.

She will loose weight, it is much slower and painfully hard sometimes, but she's going to have to work harder - tell her to drink at least half her weight in pure water daily -- then add 2 more glasses (that's what is helping me). Exercise is even more crucial for us....it helps us keep our system moving, will help her loose the weight a little easier.

Good luck to her!!