Staying away from medication

Thursday:

My dietician friend told me that if I do have diabetes it could be months before I am able to see an endocrinologist or whatever specialist I need to see, so the doctor could put me on medication straight away without waiting for a specialist opinion. I don't think my doctor would, but I am not seeing my regular doctor. Of course I want to avoid hopefully-unnecessary medication; so for next six days, until I see the doctor, I will be managing my diet and taking regular blood glucose tests. That way, when I see the doctor next week I can prove that I can manage diabetes without medication. Or if I can't, at least I will know. And of course if I don't have diabetes (fingers crossed), managing my diet will help me avoid getting it in the future.

A "diabetes" diet is in most ways just a basic healthy diet: a balance of protein, carbs, fibre, dairy etc, not too much fat. But I need to spread my carbs out evenly throughout the day. I am currently using the handouts I got when I had gestational diabetes, and I am going to pick up some books from the library today. I am aiming for 1-2 serves of carbohydrate for each snack and 2-3 serves at each meal. One serve is 15g of carbohydrate: one slice of bread, a small apple, half a potato. Non-starchy vegetables have very little carbohydrate; meat and cheese have none.

I am also going to exercise regularly; both to stabilise blood sugar (it helps) and to lose weight.

Getting rid of my dangerous belly fat is a long-term goal.

This kind of sounds like I think I have diabetes; I don't really. I am expecting pre-diabetes or nothing. But I am in a fairly high risk category and I need to take action now to avoid getting it in five or ten years. I am using this as a motivator.