Trish Thx but I failed to mention that week1 I was #18 & week2 #7 before being #48, lol. Btw what u said is a great way to look at it. Well this is week4 and I'm hoping to get first or second.

Carol Sue I have really been staying focused! I have been doing really well, I even went to the gym Saturday & did turbo kickboxing I've been feeling great!
I have not gone back to do the glucose test, I will be making an appointment soon though.

OAN I've been getting cramps in my calves and left shin Does anyone know what causes them or what I can do to stop them?

Lorib With diet, exercise and weight loss you can greatly improve your health. It is not too late so please do NOT give up. I've recently learned of a woman who had the same problems. Her diabetes is under control and she has almost normal A1c readings. You just have to learn that when you start working to get control that it cannot be just a diet to lose weight and then go back to your old way of eating. What you do to turn it around has to become a Lifestyle. Good luck on your journey. This is not a death sentence... it is a wake up call that your body needs help to heal itself.

I have had a busy few days. Spent yesterday making red tomato relish. I ended up with 13 pints. I was wore out by bedtime. I will not try to can again while babysitting 3 kids. Lol
Fbs was 101 today. They have been in the 80s before today.

Caramel Good luck on your challenge. You are working hard enough to make it.

I'm starting my day IF today. My weight seems to be stuck but my FBS is still coming back down slowly. It is 130 this morning. However, it was 130 the day I had the 5.9 A1c reading and blood work reading had been 133. So I assume this is fairly good for me.

Although yesterday my main meal was carby, my dinner was eggs, bacon, cheese and baby kale. I do not want to go backwards on this. I just want to do a little more tweaking so that if I want to eat a slice or two of the 35 calorie bread or go out and have half a baked potato once in a while that it isn't going to give me a big glucose spike.

I'm tired of counting calories etc again so I'm going to wing it. I think clocking it on MFP just makes me eat a little more to at least make the 1200 calories. I know how and what to eat and what not to eat and if I need to keep track again I can always go back and do it.

Carol Sue I hope you are getting over that cold and feeling better today.

I think Shannon said they left for the beach Sunday. I hope she isn't stressing over the food issue and sure hope the old house is getting finished so she can get out from under that stress.

Hope all of our others who don't check in very often are doing okay. Wonder whatever happened to Bonnie and Mad? Hope they are doing all right.

Have a nice day.

Lorib, Welcome to our Diabetes thread! Most of the time the doctor will start you on a low dose of Metformin for Diabetes. 500mg per say. If you start out with a higher dose you might get nausea. Other than that, I would suggest you ask your doctor if you can try to make dietary and lifestyle changes before you begin other medications for the diabetes or lipids. He's why. I was not given that opportunity. I was put right on meds, and they kept increasing them. I didn't know anything about nutrition and exercise and how it could change your lab results. I recently started sticking to a low carb diet and exercising and the next time I had labs done my numbers had dropped dramatically. The doctor was amazed. Ask him to give you 3-6 months to make changes before he starts you on meds.

For some people, a low carb diet is very hard to stick with. You have to limit sweets, and anything white, like bread, rice, pasta, potatoes. You don't have to knock yourself out exercising...walking will help tremendously, especially if you walk after a meal. Losing weight is also a plus. You can do this! At least give it a try. You might still need meds eventually, but maybe a much lower dose. Do you have a pedometer? You can get inexpensive ones at WalMart. Some count steps, and some measure distance walked. They seem to give you encouragement to see how much you can do.

If you don't have a blood glucose meter, get one. WalMart has one that I use, Relion. And the testing strips are only $9 for 50. Test 2 hours after a meal to see what foods spike your blood sugar, then avoid those foods. Everyone is different. If something spikes your sugar, you might still be able to eat it in small amounts as long as you eat it with some protein and fat.

You have a lot of changes to make and probably a lot of questions. We will help you as best we can. We are not medical personnel, but we can give you our own experience from going through this ourselves.

Caramel, keep at it! You will do good in the end.

Dgramie, I don't know how you canned tomatoes while watching 3 kids! LOL I guess when our mother's were raising us they had to do everything with kids running around.

Trish, I think you are doing fine. I wouldn't worry about a few calories up or down. If you eat fewer calories one day, you will probably make it up the next day and it will all work out.

My cold is gradually getting better. I still have trouble sleeping because when I lie down I start to cough. My cough always takes a long time to go away.

Thanks. I will try to think of it as a wake up call.

Yes, they ALL will improve with diet and exercise. Read up on low carb eating. The standard amount of carbs most medical professionals "allow" you for diabetics is way too high. (They say 45 carbs over meal... Most of us who low bicarbonate for controlling blood sugar would NEVER eat that in one meal!)

Howdy! Internet is very finicky here. I have written several posts only to have it go out before I posted them so we'll see what happens, lol!

Unfortunately, Olivia is vomiting this morning so not sure what the day holds but we've had good weather and a decent time so far. I've been back on the no wheat no sugar plan for a couple days. It is really hard here though. My husband and his family are all eating tons of sweets. This morning they brought Duck Donuts to the house.....Duck Donuts are like heaven in a donut, lol. Meanwhile I cooked my eggs and sausage or bacon and drank my coffee. Every night my husband has baked a big batch of Tollhouse choc chip cookies while I ate pork rinds and dip. It is really hard to watch too. He and his sister are both dangerously overweight. It just makes me sick watching them stuff junk in their mouths. I'm trying not to be judgemental but I just hate seeing what seems like ignorance to me. But, I used to eat like that too. So glad I am changing.

I am attaching a pic of our view but for some reason it keeps loading sideways.

The old house stuff reached a breaking point but finally, after numerous very upset phone calls our realtor is supposedly fixing things and paying for it herself (since her recommended vendor was screwing us over). Pictures are being taken and should be online tomorrow. Unfortunately there are now TWO houses in our neighborhood for sale for less. Sigh.... Our house is nicer than both but it just makes it scarier....we need to recoup all these costs we weren't expecting.

Hi Laurie, good to see you here! I remember when I was in the hospital, I was only allowed to have soft foods. They were giving me pudding and jello, and I could tell from the taste of it that it wasn't sugar-free. I told my doctor and he had the dietitian come talk to me. She said it was ok that it had sugar in it because it was only 15 grams. LOL I had to eat it because I wasn't getting any other food, but ordinarily I would not eat regular pudding or jello.

I think the people who follow the rule of 45 gm of carb per meal are the ones who have to keep getting more and more meds.

I love how it autocorrected to low bicarbonate!! That is funny!

I finally got back to exercising yesterday. I walked on the treadmill for 10 minutes at a lower intensity. After I finished that I felt like doing more so I got on the elliptical. Meant to do 5 min, but it extended into 6. I didn't want to get all overheated, and I was feeling a little run down when I finished. But it was better than all the laying around I've been doing.

We went to WalMart yesterday. When I have a cart I can walk at a pretty good clip and I do a few laps around the outer perimeter. After we checked out, DH thought we got overcharged for our bacon so I went back to check....without a cart. I was trying to hurry, and I was really puffing when I got back. I think this is why they say you get a better workout walking outside than on a treadmill....nothing to hold onto. Anyway, we had a 16oz bacon instead of 12oz so we were NOT overcharged. LOL But I got an extra bit of exercise from that!

Shannon, I am so proud of you for sticking to your eating plan while surrounded with all the sweets. Just remember, you are doing the right thing! I would think that your husband would notice the changes in you with the healthier eating, but I guess when he's around his family, he is going to follow their lead. You know you feel better when eating your way! The eggs and bacon sound way better to me than the donuts. And remember, you are setting a good example for Olivia.

I wouldn't worry about the lower priced houses. People will see that they are getting what they pay for. There are so many houses in our neighborhood for sale. Our houses used to sell quickly because of the good school system. I don't know what's up now. There's a house up the street I would love to move into. It is on a slab with no basement and no steps. It has a wheelchair accessible shower. I don't need that now, but this house would be perfect for me growing older. But, DH loves his basement storage and would never move to that other house. If we stay here, I can see me eventually needing a stairlift if my knees get any worse. Gives me incentive to keep exercising to keep my knees working well.

EDIT: I went back to your like to your old house and it came up this time. It's a nice house, but I can see that you really did upgrade to a bigger one! They both look nice.

Extreme Exercise

Being physically active is an important part of a heart-healthy lifestyle. But too much exercise may be dangerous to your heart and increase the risk of afib. Lavie said studies have shown that people who exercise more than 40 minutes per day are at increased risk for atrial fibrillation. People who do extreme amounts of exercise, such as marathon and triathlon athletes, are also at greater risk of afib. "A little exercise is good for you," said Lavie. "But people who do extreme amounts of exercise have some adverse effects." From a heart-health perspective, Lavie said the ideal amount of exercise is probably about 35 to 40 minutes of moderate physical activity per day.

Trish, I copied this from an article I was reading online about heart disease. I remember one time we discussed the safe amount of exercise we should do per day. When I was exercising regularly, sometimes I would do 60-75 min of exercise, but it was not all strenuous exercise. I always did some cardio, but not usually more than 30 min. The rests was weights and my punching bag, which might be considered cardio, but it's start and stop.

When I went to cardiac rehab, the exercise physiologist told me that 150 minutes per week was good for health, but for weight loss you should do 300 min per week. That is more than 30 min per day.

I just saw my doctor. She said I am doing the right thing by dieting and she just wants to follow me for now. I was really nervous but she made it sound like it can get better

That's great Lori. I'm glad she's letting you try changing your diet and exercise before putting you on meds. All doctors should be that way. It will get better!!