[nycfem]

Thanks for this post Jo. I've been pre-diabetic for a number of years and have steadily improved my knowledge of healthy eating and the actual doing of it over the past three (and have lost some weight along the way). I gave up coffee and all caffeine and have found that really helpful. I switched from white/bad carbs to pure whole grain carbs and love that! I now have a job at a school instead of working long hours at a hospital. This has helped tremendously because I can come home and cook healthy dinners for BB and me (who, thankfully, eats whatever I cook). I still drink diet soda sometimes, though my primary drink is water. How does it help to give up diet soda in regard to diabetes? Maybe you'll answer will motivate me

Originally Posted by JustJo

Lovely thread fetching

My diet used to be pretty atrocious...single, working mom, long commute, going to school at night and on the weekends, tired all the time and living on fast food (as in McDonald's 5 to 7 times a week), processed food, several Cokes a day, etc. The crazy part is that I know how to cook from scratch, have done preserving (jams, pickles, etc.) since I was 10...just didn't have the time and energy and focus to get it done.

Well...turns out I was undiagnosed diabetic, and while part of my exhaustion was my schedule, part of it was the effect of my diet on my diabetic body.

Since then, I've virtually stopped with the fast food (maybe once or twice a month), eliminated regular soda, and gone back to cooking the way I know how to cook...with almost everything from scratch.

I avoid high fructose corn syrup completely and cane sugar as much as possible. I use stevia for making my iced tea, although I haven't figured out how to bake with it yet.

I bake my own bread sometimes...and if we're having treats it's home-baked cookies or cake so that there are no artificial colors or preservatives, and I can go easy on the sugar. Our only non-homemade splurge is ice cream....which I have occasionally cuz I'm human

Lately I was having some negative reactions to my diabetic meds, and cut out both diet soda and coffee. This is very, very tough for me...cuz it means that my okay beverage list is now water, tea (hot or iced), or an occasional glass of red wine. Pretty limited.

I figure that the foods our bodies have been eating for hundreds of years are okay...so I eat butter and eggs (and have no problem with them), lean meats, all fruits and veggies...and basically just try to keep it simple.

It helps.