That is why I didn't understand the lack of motivation. Relatively small BG shifts have a big affect on how I feel.

I worry about people who have other stresses in their lives, I have a T2 friend that does, and he just keeps procrastinating making positive changes to control the diabetes, because he is depressed. The extra hassle good management takes in every day life means it is also important to have strong morale. I'm saying that and for me it is just diet and exercise, I feel like saluting the insulin users.

That is part of my struggle. It is not easy to give up food that tastes good. Back when I was diagnosed, it seemed like I was making such radical changes.

No more coca-cola. Now I have one on my birthday. The rest of the time I drink Lemon Perrier or a cheaper brand called La Croix.

I changed from using whole milk to 2%, from Xtreme Cage Match European Butter to I Can't Believe It Costs More Than Butter.

I started buying "light" bread, with only 40 calories a slice, and of course, from sugar to Splenda.

Ooo-WeeE, I thought, as I promptly lost 55 pounds. I am all that and a bag of chips.

But it is not enough. As changes were made to doses of the squillion pills I take every day, my metabolism, or something, was impacted, and I began to gain the weight back.

I have to lose it again, and I have to keep it off. I have to accept that the only thing I can really pig out on, and probably the only thing I should be eating, is plain lettuce. Or one of its relatives. I was born with a vegetable aversion.

And since I was diagnosed, I realized the other day that I eat MORE sweets than I ever did before! Human nature. The forbidden fruit.

And lately, I have been eating too much junk food simply because changes in the larger economy have made it the cheapest food option, in terms of dollar outlay, as in the dollar menu.

I am hoping to take advantage of all the knowledge here to possibly learn of foods that are not plain lettuce, even if they don't taste good.

Well you can eat a lot more than just lettuce and still get good blood glucose control and improve complications.

What type of diabetes do you have?

How long have you been diagnosed?

Do you know Dr Bernstein's diet plan?

Can you get splenda sweetened coke in your part of the world?

Diluted cream can replace milk with less affect on BG than lower fat milk.

If you are moving onto a low carb diet, there is no problem with butter. You can eat butter.

I was diagnosed 3 years ago, Type 2, I take avandamet, not on insulin yet, I am here to learn about the various options and diets, Coke Zero probably saved my life, I drank it for the first couple of weeks after I was diagnosed, but came to loathe it, and today I much prefer lemon perrier, or the clone.

I probably have a rare genetic type, but good blood glucose control is the common target in this section of the forums. Some people have tighter targets than others, but a lot of the Type 2's have aimed at normal range and got there, if you look at their journals and some of the old threads about food you will see the ongoing reports about how, and lists of what they eat.

There are some very inspiring and hope-giving stories here!

One of my major issues is sustainability, I think I am especially concerned about that because when I was diagnosed, I immediately lost so much weight, but then I had some medication changes that impacted that, and I became discouraged, and depressed, and from there just slid back into bad habits.

I felt like I was depriving myself of so many foods I wanted, I was putting so much effort into maintaining a more healthy diet, trying to make new and better habits, but I was gaining weight anyway - gaining back weight I had lost!

Well, obviously that is not a good road to go down, or hole to crawl into really, so I am going to try to claw my way out of it now.

IMHO it is important to think of sustainability when making changes to tackle diabetes, and as long as there is consistent improvement towards your own health targets, any change is better than none.

I was amazed how soon I felt empowered after reading enough about it...someone on here did warn me about that...I think it was Dancinbr (in vague brain mode here, sorry).

Hello,

Thanks for remembering.

I am still learning from others here and will for the rest of my life.

I decided to read a bunch of threads that I haven't read in awhile or simply didn't think it was important to me at this time.

Wow.

Lots of information and real experience.

One issue I am still having is getting my weight down. In fact, this year it has gone up.

I do have good BG control now using Levemir and Novolog, but I simply need to get my weight down and I haven't.

My issue is such a low metabolic rate; probably from all the yo-yoing I did earlier in life perhaps; but whatever.

I can still walk a mile going up and down some pretty steep hills but I know intuitively I would be better off with less weight.

I generally keep my carbs below 100 and most often in the 30-60 range.

I can only lose weight by getting my Net Calories which is Calorie Intake minues "intentional" exercise calories around 1500-1700 net calories per day.

This is tough for me. When on weightwatchers I managed to maintain if I stayed around 2000 calories. Over 2000 I gain.

I am a big guy large frame, 6 foot tall but definitely carrying too much weight especially around the middle.

I need to get going, motivated. I have the tools but I need to get motivated.

Thanks for listening.

Probably should copy this post into my journal.

Ralph