Diet for insulin-dependent diabetes: how to lose weight? Personal experience

Good day! My name is Dmitry Koval, I have been an insulin dependent diabetic for 15 years already. The beginning of injections is a new starting point in the life of every person with diabetes. My life demanded dramatic changes, and the first thing I started to monitor my own body weight. Thoughtlessly copying the diets prescribed on the Internet threatens not only health, but even the life of a diabetic, so the work had to be done enormous. The first recommendation is to draw up a meal plan in collaboration with your doctor. The doctor will help you create a competent diet for keeping and losing body weight without compromising your well-being. I would like to share this experience with you.

Background

At the age of 30, I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Shock, panic, rejection of what was heard – everything was passed, but the disease does not disappear from emotional experiences, only getting worse. I had to pull myself together and start living from scratch. All my life I went in for sports, played basketball, swam, and ran short and long distances. He was always a fit, slender person, with a height of 183 cm, weighed 73-75 kg. Until the last time, he argued with doctors, did not want to give insulin injections, because he knew about the sharp increase in the weight of each patient after taking the drug. It was not possible to avoid the trouble, in 1 month I gained 18 kg. The cubes of the press were in the past, without shortness of breath I could no longer climb to the 5th floor, the reflection in the mirror evoked only negative emotions. My therapist, Viktor Stepanovich, quickly grasped my depressive moods and said that it is possible to restore the former beauty of the body, but difficult. Athletes are not afraid of difficulties, it was decided to lose weight. Joint work with Viktor Stepanovich and his friend, an endocrinologist (unfortunately, I don’t remember his name) was difficult, but as a result, we described several different options.

The pillars of weight loss mechanisms

The diet for insulin-dependent diabetes requires scheduling of injections and meals. Based on the information, I had to adjust:

• The daily dose of insulin;
• New injection schedule;
• Eating behavior.

It was not without the study of professional literature. I have prescribed foods that are approved for use in diabetes. He pushed personal preferences aside, but still took them into account when drawing up the desired diet.

Diet start

Started off by contradiction. Firmly excluded from the menu:

• Flour products;
• Confectionery sweets;
• Carbonated drinks like Coca-Cola;
• Fast carbohydrate meals.

The number of meals was reduced to 4 times a day. I used to eat 6-7 times a day, at first it was difficult, but the habit was formed after 2 weeks. Endurance and willpower are the keys to success, so I have scheduled breakfast, lunch, dinner and evening snacks by the hour. The first time I wanted to chew something between meals, I decided to find new goodies for myself. No sweets, no fast food – stopped at healthy dishes:

• Vegetable salads;
• Nuts;
• Low-fat boiled, baked, steamed meat;
• Bran free of extraneous additives.

Seasonings also had to be abandoned, but black and red peppers are acceptable in small quantities. The real taste of the pepper is revealed in contrast to the heavily seasoned food. The same goes for ginger, which is not only tasty, but also beneficial for a man’s health.

We must not forget about the liquid consumed during the day. I settled on plain clean water, which can replace tea, coffee, soda, juices and other drinks. As an alternative, I used pharmaceutical herbal teas, but due to the specifics of taste, I cannot drink them for a long time. Water is the best option, selected according to individual preferences.

Menu

I have type 1 diabetes, but food is fine for people with other forms of the condition. Tune in psychologically in advance: dependence on delicious food will definitely make itself felt, and you will want to break loose. Getting out of your comfort zone is an inevitable part of any endeavor, including diet. I use a lean menu that includes:

• Frozen, fresh vegetables and herbs;
• Legumes, seeds, and nuts in moderation
• Sprouted millet, bran;
• Soy meat, turkey, sometimes boiled veal.

Now in more detail. For breakfast I eat oatmeal in water or low-fat milk, I don’t salt it. The empty taste is compensated by the dessert – fresh fruit salad. I start my lunch break with fresh fish soup, which I sometimes replace with mushroom or pearl barley / pumpkin porridge. For greater satiety, I eat a brown bread sandwich with slices of tomatoes and a vegetable salad without oil and salt. I only pepper the salad. Dinner is a celebration. A portion of buckwheat with boiled meat goes especially well. I drink it with a glass of low-fat kefir 40 minutes after a meal. Sometimes kefir is replaced with water. Personal experience of losing weight with insulin-dependent diabetes showed good results only 6-7 weeks after starting the diet. I managed to lose 13 kg, but the secret lies not only in the food you eat. Moderate physical activity and normalization of the psychological background are the main keys to success!

Psychological and physical training

I don’t want to cut kilometers by jogging, as before, but physical education is included in my daily schedule. I like to walk in a local park, sometimes I pull myself up on horizontal bars, every morning I do warm-up and stretching. I plan to attend group classes in the gym, but due to the work schedule, it is difficult to dock workouts. In combination with a diet, physical activity will give the best result, I lost weight without them. Deal with the normalization of the psychological mood. Forget about stress, learn to respond more easily to external stimuli, workload. Stop fights at home, forgive past offenses, open up to the positive, learn to smile through strength. You will immediately notice an improvement in your mood, motivation will no longer disappear by itself, love for your own body helps you lose weight faster and better. Nervousness is dangerous for diabetics, so you need to fight it first!

If you are not afraid of water, sign up for the pool. It is a combination of physical exertion and emotional release. For diabetics, such a therapy plan is the best, combining everything you need to lose weight and normalize the rhythm of life.

What should you watch out for?

I will give a few recommendations that help me to successfully diets without difficulties and problems:

• Losing weight with insulin-dependent diabetes is possible and necessary;
• Diabetes mellitus is a lifestyle, not a disease. Remember this;
• Monitor your well-being every day, systematically see a doctor;
• Measure sugar in the morning on an empty stomach, before every insulin injection, before every meal and 2 hours after it, and before bed;
• Have sweets in your personal bag, pocket or just at hand (refined sugar works best);
• Measure the level of acetone in your urine with a test strip.

Diabetes in the modern realities of medicine is not a sentence. It can be controlled, you can live happily ever after. Strict dietary restrictions are being replaced by healthy and equally tasty foods that can be prepared in a variety of ways. I wish you good luck in your endeavors, do not stop at your own goals, and act to the bitter end!