Do other members of your family 'low carb' ?

When reading other forums and blogs, it is quite an eye opener to see how other members of the family do support their other half, partner, member of the family that has been diagnosed diabetic and choose to reduce their carbs. Of course a LCHF lifestyle doesn't always have to be for diabetics, many who aren't (including me) choose to follow this lifestyle and the rewards it brings.

If your other family members choose not to LCHF do you find this easy? Does it make it difficult? I'd be interested in hearing / reading your views.

All the best Jan

Mr B is eating low carb ATM.

He's always had carb cravings and chocolate and coffee addictions, which has led to varying amounts of yo yoing.   no type 2 in his family, but there is something going on.

He's been low carbing with me for the last few months, but I won't let him be as strict as I am. And he's losing, very slowly.

I keep asking if he's ok with it? If he enjoys what he's eating? Is he hungry? Does he miss carbs? I suppose I am concerned that he might be doing it just as moral support for me.

But he genuinely seems to be enjoying the food (eats liver and bacon for brekkie   )
And keeps saying that he's happy.

Mrs S (not diabetic, she checks with my meter periodically) has done LCHF with me from the beginning. Not as LC or HF as me but we have basically the same meals. This is mainly to avoid having separate menus but she is also using it to lose weight. It's also helped her IBS and overall vitality.

im afraid not, it has been an uphill battle for me, when i went low carb, she went low fat, when i was losing weight, it was too fast, when i exercised, it was too much, when i found low carb baking, she showed me google 10 reasons not to eat almonds.... this you would think would stop when she saw the new me? hmmm so i should be grateful, she dosent argue with me anymore about it, she makes me cauliflower mash and homemade burgers, she no longer puts things on my plate she knows i wont eat and i think she tries to accommodate me, i still come home after a long day to, we are having ****** there are eggs if you want an omelette (alot) but im used to it and its my diabetes not hers after all, i am jealous of eddie for the support you give him and whenever i read about it but i cant change things without commiting murder or not seeing my kids everyday so i look for the positives and crack on with it, all say arrrrr

Yes. My son does at times which is really helpful to me. He does also have weeks when his idea of a varied diet is a Hawaiian Pizza from 5 different Pizza places, but he sometimes cooks me a low carb meal, or maybe cooks a high carb meal for himself and his father so that I don't have to. We started discovering low carb eating at the same time but separately, 6 years ago whilst he was at uni and I was still pre-diabetic. He would come home and discuss various ideas with me only to find out I had been discovering the same things for myself. So it was good to have someone to learn with as I only discovered diabetic forums in November 2013. On Tuesday he came home and said he had read about cauliflower mash......and was very surprised (and pleased) to find out that was the topping on his evening meal (cottage pie) that day. He has found that LCHF is a good way to lose a few pounds, but I am a little envious that he doesn't need to stick to it all the time. I wish I had known these things when I was young.

Mr ethyl is trying to lose a bit of weight too as he no longer works full time so can't eat what he used to, so he is good with not having crisps and chips and biscuits in house these days. But he'll never go low carb unless his MOT checkup shows up anything next year as a meal isn't a meal to him without a pike of rice or a mound of spuds. I tend to cook things that he can have a carb with and I just have salad or more veg like ragu, curries, chillies or a roast dinner. Tonight is chicken faijtas - he can have tortillas and I'll have iceberg leaves as my wraps.

I'm "the other member of the family" and I have low carbed for about 14 months now (since husband's diagnosis) and feel loads better for it.  Primarily, I've lost weight, but I also feel happier and healthier.  I also used to have occasional nights when I couldn't sleep for bloating and belching, which I never put down to those "innocent", "neutral" carbs, rather to eating something too rich.  Now I suspect it was certain sorts of carbs, fermenting inside me, and no longer experience this.

I was the one who found out about low carb and introduced it, so it goes without saying that I had to lead by example.  In fact, I had to lead very firmly by example at first and there were quite a few tremendous rows.  Now, I do go off piste from time to time, when we are out, but actually don't like bread, chips, pizza anymore.  From time to time, over the summer, I have bought a nectarine and some cherries, but feel guilty eating them, and tend to wait until he is out.  

It will come as little surprise to members of this forum to be told that Hubby has now had four HbA1c's in the normal range, the last one being an amazing 30.  This was from a spot test start of 24mmol/L.  It just makes me so mad that I had to initiate all of this and that for 30 odd years I had been going out of my way to feed us a "healthy" diet.  How can I trust anything that the authorities tell us to do?
Sally

Funnily nough Mr Scandi mentioned low carb a while back and I laughed! Then I became diabetic and discovered diet doctor so we all eat LCHF now. Fairly sure that youngest is gluten intolerant. Doc told me she'd have to eat bread and pasta for a month before they could test. Couldn't bring myself to do it as they give her a constant upset stomach which she finds extremely distressing so we all eat LCHF. Girls have crisps and a choccie biscuit in lunch box but that is the only difference. Since both of them are stick thin (all clothes have to have adjustable waists) I don't think it's a problem. The after school club is good and doesn't give her bread.

Sally, hubby might find be can tolerate a nectarine. I manage to have a small one as kong as eat a bit if cheese with it.

My H lasted 6 months watching me eat LCHF before joining me.  His "cheese and salad'" sandwiches BGLs were way higher than mine though after a FGTT his figures plunge to exceedingly low 3.1..... reactive hypoglycemia??
We have been eating this way for about 5 years now.
I would caution anyone thinking that their children would be safe from developing issues if they are stick thin during childhood.  All three of mine were.  The eldest is now 38 and he has much weight to lose.  Second eldest was a very petite child until she reached her 30s.  At 35 she became pregnant with her first child and developed gestational diabetes.
She found out that her mother knew what foods were good for her and was able to bring down her fasting levels markedly. She is now at risk for developing T2 as she has a mother with T2 and has had GD.  
I cannot bang on about the evils of wheat to her as she has to find out for herself and I have done it long enough..  
My youngest is 32 and stick thin still to this day.  Her choice of food is mostly LCHF, grain free and she is happy to cook this way for herself.
Both my dogs are fed bones and raw fatty meat with raw veggies or occasionally fruit (grated apple, pear) and NO GRAINS, except what they sometimes steal from the chooks!!!  When the 12 year old got stuck into the wheat it set like cement in her bowel and the vet had to remove it.  Dogs should never, ever eat wheat and yet it is in much of commercial dog food.

clearviews wrote:
I would caution anyone thinking that their children would be safe from developing issues if they are stick thin during childhood.  All three of mine were.  The eldest is now 38 and he has much weight to lose.  Second eldest was a very petite child until she reached her 30s.  At 35 she became pregnant with her first child and developed gestational diabetes.
She found out that her mother knew what foods were good for her and was able to bring down her fasting levels markedly. She is now at risk for developing T2 as she has a mother with T2 and has had GD.

I think you may misunderstand me. I mean I'm not to worried about the effects of the daily packet of crisps and the chocolate biscuits. Mercifully neither of them are very interested in food but are very food aware after my diagnosis!

clearviews wrote:My H lasted 6 months watching me eat LCHF before joining me.  His "cheese and salad'" sandwiches BGLs were way higher than mine though after a FGTT his figures plunge to exceedingly low 3.1..... reactive hypoglycemia??
We have been eating this way for about 5 years now.
I would caution anyone thinking that their children would be safe from developing issues if they are stick thin during childhood.  All three of mine were.  The eldest is now 38 and he has much weight to lose.  Second eldest was a very petite child until she reached her 30s.  At 35 she became pregnant with her first child and developed gestational diabetes.
She found out that her mother knew what foods were good for her and was able to bring down her fasting levels markedly. She is now at risk for developing T2 as she has a mother with T2 and has had GD.  
I cannot bang on about the evils of wheat to her as she has to find out for herself and I have done it long enough..  
My youngest is 32 and stick thin still to this day.  Her choice of food is mostly LCHF, grain free and she is happy to cook this way for herself.
Both my dogs are fed bones and raw fatty meat with raw veggies or occasionally fruit (grated apple, pear) and NO GRAINS, except what they sometimes steal from the chooks!!!  When the 12 year old got stuck into the wheat it set like cement in her bowel and the vet had to remove it.  Dogs should never, ever eat wheat and yet it is in much of commercial dog food.

thats very interesting about the dogs, my dog (deceased) lived on dried biscuit   apart from the scraps we gave him, i never gave it a thought before, he died from an undiagnosed internal bleeding issue

I have a bad or perhaps it's good habit of reading back on older posts    Sometimes there is so much going on .....and it's good to flip back a page or two, I do the same with books.

We can all look back at what we were eating and what we do eat now. One thing I would have done different is not be 'afraid' of the good old fashioned cooked breakfast. We always used to have it one day a week with the other six being cereals, toast, fruit juice. Of course there are some that do not eat breakfast - that doesn't work for me, but we all do what suits us.

Family weekends are a great time to get together and enjoy an early cooked brunch of low carb sausage, bacon, mushrooms, eggs......coffee or tea and a good chat, before going off for family walks, football, hockey or nowadays fishing

As well as us 'humans' eating more healthily YES it must be important for our house pets too.

Are you having a cooked breakfast tomorrow ?

All the best Jan

Still enjoy a fry up at the weekends ! What a start to the day !

A good 'fry up' ......scrambled eggs made - whisked with a little double cream

AND

eating butter and not those soft spreads made with chemicals.

Now that's living and the kids like it too LCHF it's the way to go

All the best Jan

I must admit, it's tough trying to explain to family members the benefits of reducing carbs and increasing proteins/fats. My wife is vegetarian and naturally eats a healthy diet but my kids and other family members sometimes look at me as if I were daft lol ! Years of brainwashing and false Gov't advice. If I tell my boys to skip cereal and have sausage & bacon they think I'm potty. I can see the benefit due to testing BG levels etc but prior to diagnosis, I would have laughed at these suggestions. Just gotta keep plodding away I guess :-)

i totally agree it would have bounced off me like a skimmer across the water before diagnosis, i was 100% sold on what was healthy and tried my upmost to avoid it, unfortunately i avoided it in the wrong way and went for takeaways, its going to take a long long time for people to change me thinks

Before diabetes 20 years of low fat high carb. Typical breakfast a large bowl of cereal, 3 or 4 slices of white toast and lashings of Tropicana orange juice, a grease up was Saturday morning only, because it was not healthy LOL

Result type two diabetes, atherosclerosis, two heart stents and very nearly the knackers yard. Why are so many dietitians and medics trying to kill us all off ?

Eddie a NHS diet survivor.

eddie1 wrote:Why are so many dietitians and medics trying to kill us all off ?

If you're dead you don't cost the NHS anything. (Sorry I said that out loud didn't I )

sanguine wrote:

eddie1 wrote:Why are so many dietitians and medics trying to kill us all off ?

If you're dead you don't cost the NHS anything.     (Sorry I said that out loud didn't I )

Well as Bill Maher said " there's no money in dead people and there's no money in healthy people. The money is in keeping people alive ...........sort of. Keeping people alive on ever more medication for life"


That's why Eddie and I and all of you good people have gone the minimal/nil meds route (Type 2's) but we know whether a diabetic or not it just makes sense to reduce those carbs and sugars.

Now dinner tonight is fish with some roasted vegetables and that lovely mashed swede with lots of lovely butter mashed in too.

What's your dinner ?

All the best Jan

None of my immediate family has diabetes and as I've said previously we all have a family history of keeling over quickly with strokes and heart attacks. We are all extremely sensitive to carbs which contribute to all our health issues and obesity.

All immediate family members are low-carbing or no-carbing.

Brother who has a job-related blood cancer has been in remission for 7 years by eating a very, very low carb diet. Just meat, eggs and organ meats. He eats no vegetables and drinks only water. He dropped over 80 lbs and has maintained his good health. Not only has he maintained his good health but at 56 years of age still does cycling marathons without the so-called "carb loading." His cardiovascular risk at last count was of a 46 year old male.

My sister at 57 has been low-carbing for a few years and has dropped 90 lbs. She has resolved a number of health issues such as back pain and constant migraines. Her job keeps her active and she's continuing losing weight and feeling great.

My son is on board and knows all the benefits of low-carbing however he lives out of town at this time and I can't always keep track of what he's doing all the time.

It is so wonderful to have family supportive of this way of eating. It must be hell for those who do not have this support.

Spoke to the man at the meat market yesterday. Fresh chicken livers come in Wednesday afternoon and fresh beef kidneys arrive on Thursday afternoon. Guess who's going to be first in line cause they sell out really fast.

So good to have so much family support. Also good to read it's not just beneficial to diabetics !

@Horf

It is so good to have family support and everyone benefits.

I like shopping at Farmers Markets, we have a few locally. Your Meat Market with fresh chicken livers and fresh beef kidneys sounds good.......and I'm sure you'll be one of the first in line.

All the best Jan

I try and keep myself motivated by picturing the next 20 years of my life. Do I want to spend it in a wheelchair drooling into my lap or do I want to continue letting men chase after me until I catch them? Hmm, let me see? Such a difficult choice.

Always aim to be a chaser lol ! The older they get, the slower they get :-)