Hi,
Recently, my blood sugar level has gotten worse and a new thing popped-up, the cholesteral is too
high. I have Type 2 Diabetes and take Amaryl in the morning for it. The doctor told me to go on this
really, really strict diet that is real hard and confusing. Here's the diet, it's a 1200 calorie/day
diet and there's all these things called 'exchanges' which I don't understand and there are very few
foods on it that I like or will even eat.
Before the cholesteral mess, it was easy, I would watch for too much sugar or starch and could focus
on that. Now there's all this other stuff that makes it too confusing for me to follow. Food either
has too much sugar, too many calories, too much of that cholesteral stuff or too much fat. Sometimes
it's easier not to eat at all. Then there's this 5-4-3-2-1 business that makes it impossible to
follow. I'm not real smart and can't do much more than third grade math so calculating calories and
all of this measuring, calculating and math is a little too hard for me, plus, I forget to measure.
Anyway, to make a long story short, this diet is too confusing for me to follow, so it's not doing
me any good.
Has any of you heard of this @#%& diet?
Here are some questions:
1. What are exchanges? Who do you exchange with and what do you exchange?
2. How do you coordinate the 54321 business with the 1200 calories and no fat and no sugar and the
exchange stuff too? How does anyone turn this mess of facts and numbers into something structured
that people like me can understand?
3. Why do they call it an 'easy' diet?
4. How do you figure calories, fat and stuff on something you make from scratch, like a casserole?
Following recipies that have all of that figured out is out of the question, most of them include
wierd vegetables that my family won't eat and none of us can or will eat anything remotely spicy.
Also, we're on a budget and a lot of the food they request in those recipies is too expensive, we
stick to basics like chopped turkey and stuff like that. Also, I refuse to make separate dinners for
my family and
I.
5. How does somebody stay on such a restrictive diet for any length of time?
6. What do I do when I have a craving for something I can't have!!?
7. How do you get along without butter or margerine?
8. What about holidays when all you hear is food-food-food? How do you deal with commercial after
commercial of food you'd love to have but can't!?? Don't even think of saying 'think of the long-
term effects' because that doesn't work and half the time I forget to think of that. I'm very
forgetfull.
Here's the most frustrating part, like I have been trying to eat healthy and it's not helping me one
bit, my blood sugar is just as high as ever. I've given up stuff I like 4 years ago, I haven't had
pizza and malted milk balls for breakrast in 4 years, I gave up alcohol 4 years ago, and am trying
to excercise every day. It doesn't do a #$%* bit of good. They tell me to drink skim milk (I call it
'scum milk'😉 and I refuse 'cause it makes me nauseos just to look at it so I've given up milk except
for on cereal. This is too much for me. I am ready to give-up.
Angelfish