I underwent a routine blood test only to get a call from my doctor. You have prediabetes, a condition where your blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but not high enough for a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.
A prediabetes diagnosis sounds scary and it was. But, the good news is reversing prediabetes is possible - with simple lifestyle changes. With the help of the NHS and WW I have done this, I am now NORMAL and more than one stone lighter.
Its a diagnosis that should be taken seriously, but with early intervention, such as following a healthy diet, maintaining a healthy weight, and getting regular exercise you can reduce the risk.
The NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme together with WW helped me to take control of my health, supporting me to make changes to my diet, weight and the exercise.
If you've had a bad day at work and the kids are driving you mad, we all know what will help: half a packet of chocolate digestives, that's what. Except, of course, it won't. So why is it that, when we're feeling stressed or hard done by, all we can think about is gorging ourselves on something tasty? When we have any negative emotions (and with Covid 19 its especially hard) such as stress, boredom or fear, we want something to take our mind off it. Some people turn to shopping, gambling or drugs. But most of us use what's right under our nose - food. From birth, food is our coping mechanism. We're born, slapped on the bum and handed to our mother so she can feed us. The comfort eating continues from there: a lollipop when we fall over in the playground, chocolate cake when our first love dumps us, a takeaway after a bad day at work.
We're not given the tools we need to cope with anger, hurt, resentment, pain and loneliness, instead we're taught that food can make all our disappointments more bearable. The good news is that no matter why we comfort eat, we can break the cycle. As long as we know how.
OK I know it's not that easy but the amazing WW coaches helped.
Choose the right foods (and don't forget to practice portion control). Consider switching to a smaller plate and drinking a full glass of water with every meal to curb your appetite. Avoid certain foods. Diet has a big impact on blood glucose levels. Limit saturated fats and refined carbohydrates. Minimise your consumption of processed meats and anything made with white flour such as pizza, pasta and sugary foods such as ice cream, milk chocolate and juice. Other foods to avoid or limit if you're working on reversing prediabetes include fried foods and high calorie, high fat foods. Increase your fibre intake. I thought I was getting enough but 30 grams of porridge is NOT 30 grams of fibre! Eating non-starchy vegetables is a great way to reach this goal. Talk to family and friends about pre-diabetes. It's just really important for your health you keep a close eye on what and how much you eat. Don't let pressure from anyone else sway you from your efforts.
To help WW provides an app which allows you to track everything you eat, providing point values for common packaged and branded food, fresh ingredients, and even chain restaurant dishes. If packaged items don't come up when you search, you can add them into the app by in putting nutritional values. You can even use the app to input the recipes you make frequently at home, and it'll calculate how many points make up one serving. But the best part is that it has a barcode scanner, so you can essentially just take a picture of an item at the supermarket and immediately know its point value. This feature has really helped me to understand how and why certain foods are valued the way they are. When I first started WW it was extremely helpful to pre-track all the things I planned to eat in a day. I did this by mapping out my week's meals so I knew exactly what days I'd need to save extra points for, and what meals would take up more or less of them. It takes time and patience to lose weight, but the app really does work. I've lost about one pound a week on average using the app but I've learned to give myself the flexibility to occasionally stay stagnant or put a few pounds back on especially when we will be allowed to go on holiday again. It has helped me to think about weight management and healthy eating as a lifelong goal as opposed to a short-term diet.
Drinking water is also important to stay properly hydrated. The amount of water you drink can play a role in how your body regulates blood sugar. Most people need to drink 8 -10 cups of water each day. I also cut down on my wine intake!!!
Based on my WW coaches recommendations I also focused on daily exercise for at least 30 minutes per day. Exercise helps with weight loss, but also trains muscles to become better at removing sugar from the bloodstream.
Getting at least seven hours of high quality sleep per night is also very important. Sleep deprivation has been shown to increase insulin resistance.
The key is to change your behaviour around weight, diet, physical activity and sleep. To be honest this isn't easy and must be an ongoing personal process.
So I did all of the above for 6 months (3 months in lockdown) and went for another blood test fully confident that my sugar levels would be lower. BUT NO they had gone up. I was distraught but after talking to the nurse decided to stick with the programme. The NHS were paying for this and I didn't want to waste their money. The nurse told me to eat less fruit, especially tropical fruit as this is very high in sugar and not to drink orange juice for breakfast. But the biggest factor was probably due to STRESS and the Corona virus. When we're stressed, our body releases the hormone cortisol, which keeps our brains on danger alert. By maintaining high blood-sugar levels, we feel we're ready for action - which is why we want sugary foods when we're stressed. So I have learnt to relax more. Everyone has stress but doing things that make you happy - like watching the sunset or chatting with a friend - can help you stay calm.
I really found that attending the workshops weekly (initially at the community centre and then via Zoom) helped. Workshops are like therapy. It's a community and all the members are happy for me and that spurs me on. I also get some great tips. The support is wonderful. To be honest we all struggle but the coaches help to keep me positive and on track.
It's easy enough if you've got an iron will. Sometimes you can get bored with eggs. Bored stiff avoiding the french bread. Really very, very bored with staying off the booze. I must be strong though. I have been taught it isn't a total disaster if I encounter the odd slippage. I'm sure EVERYONE breaks the programme at least once a week. Slips can be compensated for by reverting to the attack phase and being firm. You have to make an effort. It is a small war and you have to be a good soldier. I want to eliminate the problem of diabetes for the rest of my life.
Thank you NHS for putting me on the WW programme and an especially large thank you to my coaches, Mandip, Nina, Lin and Lisa. The app is great but your support is better. I was so sad this week to learn that a lot of hard working coaches have been made redundant.
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