Diabetic Living Australia – March-April 2019

PRE-^

DIABE

TES

Within 12 months of

starting her new approach,

the mother of three is proud

to have lost 30kg and have her

blood glucose levels right back

where she wanted them.

Were you surprised to be

diagnosed with pre-diabetes?

It did come as a bit of a shock.

I’ve always been overweight

and I’ve never really cared about

what I was eating or looked

after myself. Then, three years

ago, I damaged my spine and

had surgery, which left me

bedridden for three months.

I was 30 and everything

started to go downhill.

I was heavily medicated

and feeling very sorry for

myself; I’d rather give

birth 50 billion times

than ever go through

that pain again. I put

on more weight and

I started feeling

really lethargic.

My GP decided

to do a blood test and

he called me with the

results. He said ‘You are pre-

diabetic and you need to do

something about it or you are

going to end up with diabetes.’

I changed my diet straightaway.

What changes did you

make to your diet?

I had never been on a diet before,

but I’d heard about the 5:2 diet

and intermittent fasting, so

I started on a version of that

and it has really worked for me.

I fast for one day a week,

sometimes two, depending

on what my weekend is like

(birthday parties, other

functions etc), for a minimum

of 16 hours at a time.

But I don’t end up starving

hungry, because I can have up

to 2000 kilojoules. I’m just

careful not to eat any carbs.

So I might eat something with

carbs at 6pm and then I won’t

eat carbs again until 11am or

so – I’ll go as long as I can.

I might have some bacon and

two eggs with sundried tomatoes,

which is 585 kilojoules. Or I

might make a salad with rocket,

A diagnosis of

pre-diabetes

inspired

Haroula

Giameos to

make big

changes to

her eating

habits in order

to improve

her health