Welcome Shannon! Trish gave you some good advice. Since your doctor has not started you on meds, it is best if you watch your carb intake. Eliminate as much as you can. Make better choices and eat smaller portions. It is very beneficial to walk, especially after meals. It doesn't have to be a long walk. 15 minutes or so should definately help.

Trish - Definately cut back on the fiber if it's bothering you. I had to cut way back after getting those belly pains and haven't had them for a while. I love quinoa! I cook it in chicken broth and add some frozen mixed veggies in with it. I use a little more liquid than the package calls for, I think 2 parts liquid to 1 part quinoa. It is different, and takes some getting used to. I didn't like it the first time I made it, but the next time I used more liquid and let it cook a little longer, until the broth was gone.

I have bought frozen okra but I don't even know if our stores have fresh okra. I think it's a southern thing that's only catching on around here recently. I only use the frozen in my veggie soup.

I went to the doctor today to get my new script for my BS. I asked him to give me Amaryl that I had taken when I was first diagnosed and he agreed that would work. Since we were going to the casino and I didn't know how my body was going to react to the new med, I only took half the dose. My BS dropped like a rock. When we got home I tested at 81. I haven't had an 81 since 2008. I was afraid to go to bed for fear it would drop too low, so I grilled a piece of fish and ate that. I will test again before I go to bed to make sure it's not too low. I have to find out how this is supposed to work because I don't want to have to keep eating something to keep my sugar from going too low. Diabetes sucke!

Ruthie - Thanks for the offer for lunch, but our weather is warming up so I think I'll stay here. LOL I didn't eat any of the grilled cheese, by the way! Yay Me!

Hi Trish! Right after that last dr appt I bought more strips and for a week or so tested my FBS daily and random meals/food items. I learned a little but kind of burned out on pricking (yeah, I know it's just something to get over, lol) and stopped and since have only tested if I felt weird or had symptoms I was concerned could be high BS. My highest high PP was in the 150s, my FBS runs 99-120. My A1c in Dec was 6.2%. For a month after that appt I started not eating as much of the starchy carbs and lost 8 lbs pretty quickly. But TOM came and I saw a gain over a couple weeks and I kind of lost heart. Now it's a couple months later and I'm ready to try again.

Thanks Rennie! Nice to see someone local here. I've been in the Raleigh/Cary/Morrisville area for 15 years!

Hi Carol Sue! I have previously been on Metformin when I had a different GP but went off it while pregnant 4 yrs ago. I had no issues with it then. I asked about trying it again last summer. My new GP was not really in favor but wrote the script; however, for some reason the GI symptoms were much worse and I discontinued after a few weeks. The GP stated in Dec that they prefer not to prescribe until there is an official diagnosis. It amazes me how there is such a difference amongst doctors, lol! So, no, no meds right now which is fine with me. Dietary and exercise changes definitely needed!

Shannon, I would love to have your numbers without meds. I think if you watch your carbs and exercise you will be good to go. Just keep testing now and then to be sure. No reason to panic at this point. I didn't get diagnosed until I was full blown D...no warning.

And Rennie, I would love to be 48 again. I was almost old enough to drink when you were born. You are doing VERY WELL!

I'm not giving up on the fiber. I know the importance of eating it. I am babying my tummy right now so my fiber is low, but calories and sodium are good. 1487 calories, 1451 mg sodium and fiber 12 g. I am going to try to keep my fiber around 15 g or so until my tummy is feeling better. Until then I am going to focus on keeping my calories and sodium down. Later when I can, I will work at raising my fiber again, but slowly. My fbs has been 127 for 2 days in a row and I want to keep it that way. I don't plan to raise my fiber extremely high next time. At this time, I plan to raise it to no more than 25 to 30 grams.

When I was in my late 20, I had colitis. I haven't suffered with it in so many years that I had forgotten about it. Today, I remembered that the doctor I had back then told me that I had to be careful eating a lot of roughage/fiber because I could not eat a lot of it because it caused my colon to go into spasms. I took medicine for it for years. I'm not going to have it again so I will be careful and eat it in moderation.

I looked up indigestion on MedMd and it suggests eating small meals about every 2 hours. I never wanted to do that, but I think I will try doing it. In fact, I think IE would help with that as it says to eat about every 2 hours and eat only as much as needed to satisfy without feeling stuffed.

Weight seems to be stalled between 226 & 227 and I don't want to screw up here and gain. Thus watching calories mostly right now.

shannon You seem to be doing the right things. Your fbs is good and if you keep doing what you are doing, you should never have full blown diabetes.

Rennie CONGRATULATIONS on the new low of 163.6. I hope you will make your goal of 160 on 4/14. Although it is difficult losing the last few lbs, I hope you will make it. I also pray that you are so close to it that if you don't make your goal date that you will continue until you do make it.

Carol Sue Glad your doc worked with you on the meds. I thought about asking doc to give me a prescription of for the med DH takes to lower my bs, but I'm afraid to take them. I tried one just one time and my bs went down so fast I thought I was going to die and then at one point I hoped I would. I had to eat something to get it back to normal and then I had to make myself move around to stay awake. I can now honestly understand how someone could just go into a coma and not wake up. Ever since then, I decided that I was going to fight to lower my fbs with diet and exercise. I never want to have to take it and I don't like needles so I don't want to take insulin either. Just work at getting it all working for you. Eat often enough to keep it working right for you. Good luck.

Trish, the drug he put me on is Amaryl, or the generic Glimiperide. I was put on it when I was first diagnosed but after a week my PCP took me off it because I was doing well enough to just take metformin. It brings my BS down lower than it has been in years. I really had no choice, because I was staying in the 200s with spikes in the 300s. I also am afraid of it. I bought some glucose tablets to have on hand just in case. I am to take it with breakfast and dinner. Both of these meals are big enough that I shouldn't have a problem. I am checking my BS before I eat, to make sure I'm not already low before I take the meds. Then I check 2-3 hours after meals to be sure I didn't go too low. Then again at bedtime. I'm glad I have the $9 strips from Walmart for all this testing. Also, my exercise time is right after lunch so I shouldn't get a low from exercising. I don't want to stay on this med forever. I want to use it as a tool to get my sugar down while I work on diet and exercise. Eventually, I want to go back on just Metformin. If I find that this isn't working I will go back to taking the half dose.

I know that on this med, I would be able to eat more carbs, but I don't want to go back to them. I have done exceptionally well avoiding them and I don't want to screw up. I want to continue losing and keeping the carbs down.

I also have heard that this med can cause weight gain. YIKES!! I am wondering if it is because:

a. the drug itself causes weight gain
b. it increases appetite and you eat more
c. you eat more because you know the med will keep your BS down

I am prepared to deal with b and c, but if it's a, I will have to make a decision about it. Gaining weight is NOT going to help me at all. Today I was down another half pound, so that's 6 1/2. I am going to monitor it very carefully to make sure I don't start gaining.

After I had my colon surgery I was also told to watch my fiber intake, but I think that was just until everything healed. I'm not sure. I know the surgeon told me to eat lots of fruits and vegetables. I think I'm OK with the amount of fiber I eat.

I also never want to go on insulin. My son's FIL had a big problem once when he injected his dose of insulin at bedtime but for some reason the food he ate was not absorbed as quickly as it should have been and his BS went so low in the middle of the night his wife called an ambulance. Thank God she woke up and realized what was happening. I read that some foods start to be absorbed in the small intestines as soon as you eat it, and other foods go through the small intestines and are absorbed nearer the end of the large intestines. The same thing happened to him one day while he was cutting grass. There is just too much information you have to know about. Details about every little thing you eat.

Carol Sue I really didn't mean to imply I was worried about you taking the Amaryl as I know you are cautious enough to take care of yourself while on it. If I was still having highs of 200 or more, I most certainly would talk to my doctor about giving me something with the Metformin, because I am aware of the dangers of it being so high and staying high for too long. So I understand and support you in your decision. Getting this disease under control is our biggest goal friend and we will do it.

Good night. Catch you tomorrow.

Trish, I was not bothered by your comment. In fact, it made me feel good that you were watching out for me! We are a close bunch here and watch out for each other.

I woke up around 5 AM today, so since I was up anyway I checked my BS. It had gone up about 10 points overnight, which is not unusual. I wanted to wait and eat breakfast with my husband when he got up so I didn't eat or take my meds. I was waiting to take them with breakfast. By the time he got up around 9, my BS had gone up another 30 points! I had heard people say that if you go too long without eating your body will start dumping glucose, even if your BG is not low. I guess I was a prime example this morning. I only ate 2 scrambled eggs with sauteed mushrooms so I only took a half a pill. That did nothing. Two hours later my BS had not gone down at all but it also didn't go up, but it was too high (199). So I made a salad with spinach and iceberg lettuce and a hard boiled egg for lunch and took the other half of the pill. Now I'm waiting to check at 2 PM to see what happens. I think my BG is taking more than 2 hours to drop after I eat and I might be better off to check at 3 hours instead of 2. I'm not used to this much checking, but I want to see how these new meds are effecting me. Poor little fingers! LOL

I am working on breaking the habit of eating between meals, so I don't want to start eating more smaller meals. However, I am considering taking some calories from each meal and adding a very small snack between meals. If I go with the theory that the longer I go without eating the higher my glucose will go, then it's beneficial to me to have a small snack to keep my glucose steady instead of having the roller coaster. By a small snack, I mean a couple tablespoons of yogurt with a sprinkle of Fiber One, or a couple celery sticks with a bit of PB or hummus. Not enough to be considered a meal, but enough to tell my body I'm eating. And I will make sure I deduct some calories from my other meals rather than just adding more calories. I'm going to figure this out if it kills me. Hmmmm, I guess "kills me" was not a good choice of words.

I woke up with indigestion this morning, but never told DH. We had planned to pick up DGS from campus so he could go to church with us. Then my beautician had written on FB and said she and her little 4 yr old GS was coming to church. So I dressed and decided to eat 1 slice of cheese toast before I went. I tried to eat just fruit before I went to church last week and was really wiped out before I got home. The toast only helped my tummy for a while and I was really ready to eat when we got home.

I've never had time to do the 2 week Atkins Induction, but I have 3 weeks coming up with nothing that I have to do except go to church, store and beauty shop. No doctor's appt. , nothing. So I've decided to switch to Atkins Induction for a few days. I'll take it one day at a time shooting for a week and then decide about the next week when I get there. I really think I have to do this for my stomach. Then I can build up the fiber and the carbs at the same time. I'm laying off of my coffee for a while and drinking decaf green tea and water.

Your trying to stop eating in between meals and I am going to have to learn how to eat 5 or 6 smaller meals. I think we both have learned what we need to do and now we just have to get it going. We can do this.

Shannon yeah it is nice to meet someone that is close on here. and on the pricking of your finger after awhile your fingers get use to it ... I didn't think mine ever would. The worse was cutting an onion or potato. I had no idea that the juice in the potato would burn like an onion did. Who knew? Shannon where are you? Like I can talk, I've been MIA also

Carol Sue, I like being the baby on this thread, well now my and Shannon. I learn a ton from you all Carol Sue, no not a good choice of words at all but when I was on insulin (I know you're not taking insulin) but I think I was told to eat a 100 calorie snack between meals and before bed I would eat 5 saltines nightly which to me was a treat (and a piece of cheese I think)

TrishI want to get in more fiber also. I think it's great that you do. I drink the occasional glass of warm prune juice but trying to stay away from bread which was my fiber go to with the double fiber natures own. I may try it again after Lent. Though I messed up today with cake my son made, Thanks Trish on the making my goal I will definitely not give up. Trish when you do Atkins induction would you mind posting your meals. I'd like to see how you're doing with what you're eating

... saw a new low of 163.2 yesterday and was up .2 today to 163.4. Then after church I came in here and ate some of my sons snacks, then my other son made a cake and I ate some of that ... duh, what on earth am I thinking/doing? The boys had been talking about going to the gym since early this morning so we made it before they closed. I did 2.44 miles on an incline and burned 325 calories which was only the cake but still better than nothing so I hope I didn't do too much damage. I don't want to see anymore ups on the scale ... can I say EVER

Happy Sunday! We went to my hometown today because my brother was filling in for the pastor at his church and we wanted to hear him preach. His church had a luncheon afterwards. Wow, gobs and gobs of fried chicken, breads and desserts. I did good with carbs on my meal but caved on the desserts. Afterwards we ended up staying in town longer than planned and ate dinner at a local place we like and it was another carb festival. I feel bloated!

Happy Sunday to you also Sorry about the bloat but get as much water as you can in to reduce the sodium part of the bloat and start fresh tomorrow

My sons cooked seasoned fries and fried chicken thighs oh my goodness it smells good in here

ERennie I planned my menu for tomorrow. So I will post it for you tonight.

Breakfast - 2 sl bacon, 2 eggs, 1 sl American cheese & 1/2 avocado

Lunch - 6 chicken wings and 1/2 c broccoli

Dinner - 4 oz whiting fillet and 1/2 c asparagus

Snack #1 - 2 sl Hickory smoked turkey 1 sl reduced fat swiss cheese

Snack #2 - egg salad made with mayo and dill relish and mayo

This comes to 1281 calories, 16 g carbs, 2536 mg sodium and 9 g fiber

I won't be doing the 5 miles on my bike while doing AI beca use Atkins recommends not exercising while on Induction. However, I will decided to do the 3.5 miles 3x a week because I don't want to lose ground and I don't want my hip to start hurting again. Also the sodium is a little high, but according to the new Atkins book when doing low carb especially during Induction, we need the salt to prevent the leg cramps. So for now I'm not going to worry about it because I sure hate waking up in the middle of the night with those leg cramps.