Hi I’m just a newly diagnosed diabetic , feeling overwhelmed by the whole thing ! Iv just ordered the blood sugar diet book and joined this page . What I want to ask is about exercise. What do you guys do ? I work part time and am on my feet all day I wear a tracker so I know what I’m doing every day . I usually do between 10-15,000 steps a day depending on how busy I am . Should this be enough or should I be doing something else ?
Thanks .

Hi LynnieG

Like you, I did BSD following diagnosis. I just started walking – I aimed for 10,000 steps a day. Didn’t manage it every day but most days. So in relation to getting your blood sugars down it will be enough. My diabetes is in remission like lots of others who’ve done BSD. It is overwhelming when you are newly diagnosed but do the BSD, keep to 800 cals and your carbohydrates low, and you’ll be good.

There are lots of people on here who have great experience and will offer brilliant advice. Others will be along soon, but also join any of the threads you want and shout out for help anytime.
Jennie xx

Hi Jennie ,
It is all so much , what can I eat ? Which right now scares me ! when should I eat ,then testing my BG ! I’m looking forward to starting this diet and feeling more confident and in control. Thanks for the support it means a lot x

That’s actually a lot more steps than I usually manage, I have a very sedentary job and have tended to work through my lunch break rather than going for a healthy walk at lunch (New year resolution is to stop doing this and move more at lunch) If you want to add any other exercise then strength training is probably best. Squats or lunges are good leg strengthening body weight exercises, but there are many more before you start thinking about weights. One added benefit is that the more muscle you have, the faster your metabolism is and so the more fat you burn. Don’t worry too much about what you can eat. Start with the basics and just stop eating the white stuff (Pasta, white rice, white/brown bread, potatoes and anything with added sugar.) Everything else works to some extent or another, even if relatively high in carbs like fruit so you just keep portions of them very small.

Hi LynnieG,
I’ve not been on the forum the last few days as I’ve been caring for a relative and so have been a bit pushed for time. But wanted to get back to you so hope you see this.

I can’t remember from the BSD book how much MM focuses on the low carb bit, but for managing blood sugar it’s important even though your health care team don’t necessarily tell you this. (They’re often just not up to date enough so don’t know). I agree with Mixnmatch, you can just keep it simple by cutting out the sugar and big carbs – potatoes, rice, pasta etc. I didn’t bother with the recipes in the book, they were delicious but just too much messing about and too much food left over (only me doing it in my house).
I’d have full fat yoghurt (less sugar) for breakfast or eggs; soup or protein & salad for lunch and then protein – chicken or fish, seafood or meat with either a salad or cooked above ground veg – e.g. cauli, broccoli, spinach, etc for my evening meal. After a bit I found it easier to do 2 meals a day – I’d skip breakfast and just have lunch and dinner – I found it easier to stick to things splitting 800 cals over 2 meals.

Diet doctor is a really good website which has lots of helpful information about what you can eat – for example what foods are low carb and other good stuff. https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/vegetables
In fact, when I started this way of eating, I printed off the images of low carb fruit, low carb veg, foodstuff etc and kept them in my kitchen – I kept on having to look at them before I went shopping!
There is also a programme you can pay for but I’ve not bothered – lots of great free info.

As you do the BSD it can help to use something like fatsecret https://www.fatsecret.co.uk/ to record what you’re eating every day. This will allow you to monitor your calorie and carb intake.

Not everybody tests their blood sugar – personally I do as I find it helps – this is a good website with lots of info about Type II, testing blood sugars etc. It also has a forum which is worth visiting https://www.diabetes.co.uk/ – like here you pick up masses of information from just reading the forum posts.

There’s a thread on here called Take A Look at This where people have posted links to all sorts of resources – it might be worth looking at that at some point.

Hope things go well I’m sure they will. Let us know how you get on.
Jennie