Diabetes Prevention - "A Healther You": 1 week(ish) after session 3

At the weigh-in, the scales weren't working.  So I offered a number from my own weight record.  This is a lot lower than the scales would record, as it is taken without the weight of clothing.  We will see the effect that has next time.  Also, the effect next time will be after 3 Christmas meals, so I'd be expecting a small increase rather than a decrease.

I had a brief discussion about hunger, not very helpful.  So, here's the main truth of dieting: You WILL be hungry - a lot of the time.

Session 3 is about Activity.  The recommendation is for 10,000 steps a day. I was already at around 7,000 and have already increased to about 11,000.  We were also asked for our step counts daily average.  It will be down next time due to the snow - I'm not walking the dogs as I can't get out of our road that safely in the car - it took me three attempts (on subsequent days) to get the car up the hill of our road.

I had left my book on the scanner, so had to take notes.  I don't have trouble with motivation, like almost everyone else there because I'm dog walking for a friend.  It has to be done - well, sort of.

I haven't seen any of the benefits they suggest, like lower blood pressure from my current level of activity, so I'm not expecting any from the small increase I have recently achieved.

I also received an email from the doctors, along vaguely similar lines but as usual with different requirements and measurements - BMI this time.  BMI is another discredited measure, as it doesn't differentiate between muscle and fat (mostly fat in my case, I know).  Still, the target weight by BMI is around 13 stone.  The target weight I had in mind was about 13st 7 lb. I will try for 13 stone, as it puts me just inside the green section on the chart.  Last time I got that far, lots of people became concerned about my health and tried to feed me, thinking perhaps that I had fallen into anorexia.

The doctor would also like some blood pressure figures - take 4 times a day.  Maybe next week.

Diabetes Prevention - "A Healther You": 1 week after session 2

At the weigh-in, my weight loss was quite dramatic, much more than I am seeing at home.  I believe this is due to being weighed with damp clothes last week, which inflated the recorded weight.

Session 2 is all about healthier eating.  Understanding the food groups and deciding what to eat when.  Choices are everything. The eating guide is there to help, but where are nuts on that chart? I eat a lot of nuts.

I found this session less than helpful.
 

The targets are:

• Eat every four hours: not possible with my current lifestyle, so snacking will be required.
  
• The 'rule of 300' - no more than 3 snacks of 100kcal each. If you're a snacker, get some snack bars (highly processed or what?).  
• Don't eat highly processed food.

The healthy eating guide from the book.

There was also some talk about additives which are generally bad for you, but the argument was unsubstantiated and some talk about residual radiation from Microwave cooking, again unsubstantiated.  Read what the WHO say about microwaves here: https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/radiation-microwave-ovens, it doesn't appear there is a problem, if used correctly and carefully - same as any other cooking method, and quicker and cheaper.

The recording of what I eat continues - everything is weighed or measured, although the weight loss has slowed.  That'll be, partly at least, because the daily average calories have increased from about 2100 to about 2250, which leaves me much less hungry, and able to sustain the diet without the need to binge.

Let's see what next time brings

Previous post: https://3cephas.blogspot.com/2022/11/diabetes-prevention-healther-you-1-week.html

Diabetes Prevention - "A Healther You": 1 week after session 1

So there we all stood, outside a hall in my home town that is so well hidden I had never heard of it (been here since 1981!).  The rain was threatening and started 10 minutes before the start.  Our trainer turned up, at just about 2pm (the advertised start time), and struggled to get in - she had to key the code she had received in an email twice.  Inside the hall is 1980s decor, if I'm being generous. Strip lighting, not upgraded to LED, and folding plastic chairs that are as uncomfortable as you'd expect. At least it's dry.

We set the chairs up in a circle and go through the introduction. There wasn't a requirement to announce yourself and say "I'm a potential diabetic" - which I'm very pleased about.  Everything is voluntary - they will take your weight, if they can make the scales work.  You can believe or not the statistics that say the people who follow the course instructions to the full 100% do not become diabetic.  The graph in the book tells a different story and includes the missing parameter: time. There are 3 levels (goals) for weight loss bronze - 3%, silver 5%, gold - 10%.  My calculation is that 12% is required to get me to the ideal weight that I aimed for last time, and got to.

We were told we are not counting calories, but we are - there is a food diary, that I have been trying to keep, that includes calories, and a column that says 'serves' that I don't know how to complete.  The book that is provided is inadequate, I will have filled all the available pages for the food diary in a week or two, so I'm using a spreadsheet.  It takes about as long to record the meal as it does to eat it!

There is a recommendation for, 10000 steps a day to get active, and we were given pedometers to measure our steps.  This goal has largely been de-bunked as being useful, so far as I can tell.  It is certainly not a useful measure of activity, as I found out on my long weekend break.  I can amble about all day and hardly use more calories than sitting reading - humans are designed to walk efficiently, that's how we spread across the world.  The pedometer reads between +10% and about +200% as compared to google fit on my phone - something is wrong somewhere.  The NHS recommends 150 minutes of moderate activity a week here https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/exercise-guidelines/physical-activity-guidelines-for-adults-aged-19-to-64/ (done on 5 of 7 days it's 30 minutes per day)  They recommend an app called 'Active 10' which sets a target of 3 x 10 minutes brisk walks per day.  This app simply measures active time, so if I walk 2 miles in 40 minutes, I get 40 minutes credited.  If I walk 2 miles in 30 minutes, I get 30 minutes credited, but have actually done more exercise for less reward! 

So, I am as underwhelmed as I expected to be. The only interesting thing so far was finding out that 'oat bran' has more calories per gram than rolled oats.  Someone needs to explain how that works that to me, because it doesn't make any sense.

None of this is sustainable, I'm already fed up with weighing every tiny item of food and will stop as soon as the course is over (August 2023), or when I get properly bored by it.  The steps target could be kept, but I am close to meeting that anyway - typically my Google fit step count is about 7000 a day.

This week we were away for a long weekend, so Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday are not fully recorded in the food diary as the information I require was unavailable.  The step counts we achieved on those days are around, 15000 a day, except Monday which was a rest day.

Previous post: https://3cephas.blogspot.com/2022/11/diabetes-prevention-welcome-to.html

Diabetes Prevention - Welcome to "A Healthier You"

The journey continues.  I have now been booked on a course, here's how it happened.

What they said in the email

    "Look out for a call from 0800 092 1191"

What actually happened

    I got a text message, which was marked as a scam by my phone.

What it said

You were referred to join Healthier You: the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme, provided by Reed Wellbeing. We now have a face-to-face programme available for you to join in your local area! 14th December 2022 15:00 pm at Hannakins Farm, Community Centre Rosebay Avenue, Billericay, Essex, CM12 OSY. Please call 0800 092 1191 to book in. Thank you! 

 What happened next

After carefully checking the text message, and noting that "15:00pm" is a good indication of a scam, I also noticed that the phone number is the same as the one I got in the unsolicited email. 

What I did next 

I called the number - the phone recognised the number as Reed (that's good!)

What did they say / do? 

I was offered the course at a different time and place by a lady whose English was poor and who was difficult to understand as a result. I booked the course and shortly afterwards received an email with details of the sessions. They start in November (next week) and go all the way through to August 2023.

This 'almost right' approach reminds me of the phrase used by my former employer, "good enough for government work". Which basically means not good enough! The government via the NHS is being ripped off by this company.

Diabetes Prevention - A journey?

For years now, I've been on the edge, sometimes my 12-week monitoring blood tests show me as over the measure for blood sugar, and sometimes under.  It's always close.  I've also been gaining weight again recently, after successfully dieting a number of years ago.  Despite daily monitoring, I have yet to understand why some days I am 4lb (nearly 2 kg) heavier than I was the previous day.  These are the occasional jumps that cause the problem.  Smaller increases are usually recovered.  

Diet

In my original dieting, I cut out potatoes and bread as advised by my GP and was careful with a number of other foods. I also changed my breakfast from Shredded Wheat to porridge.  The result was that I got down to under 13 st (about 82 kg), losing about 3.5 st (22 kg).  My appearance changed, and people I knew began to be concerned.   I Now find that on the rare occasion that I eat bread or potatoes, I have an uncomfortable digestive system about 3 hours later.  Other foods, though, I am less careful with now.

The programme

So I have now been signed up for "Healthier You".  The initial emails came through on 14 October.  I have read through the material provided.  There is nothing new in it for me, only the approach has changed.  I have to be honest here and say that I am EXTREMELY sceptical, even cynical, about such programmes.  In my entire life I have been on training courses to learn things quite successfully, but never been coached in this way, and my very few interactions which may be considered similar have not been successful.

The programme tells me:

DEVELOPING TYPE 2 DIABETES ISN’T INEVITABLE.

Yes, the block capitals are theirs.  We will see.

 

So, now, I await their call to get me booked on their 'programme'.