Hi Everyone - I've been eating low carb for about a year now, off and on. I started in order to lose a few pounds, and have to say I haven't been very successful and lately I've been cheating alot. Anyway, I just wanted to get across that I'm familiar with low-carb eating and I basically know all the rules.

My reason for posting is this - my husband Bobby just had his latest check-up and if his blood sugar was one point higher, he would be in the diabetic range. He has a few family members that have been diagnosed - a cousin and an aunt, and his grandmother had diabetes - so it does run in his family. He also has high blood pressure, which he manages with medication, and IBS. He's a bit overweight, but not grossly so. He's 6'1" and about 250 - he could stand to lose 20-30 pounds, but he is a big guy. He is going to be very resistant to changing his habits and I'm looking for advice on how to work him into low carb eating as best as I can without him balking and just saying the heck with it. He is willing to cut down on his carbs, but I know that he really doesn't have much of an understanding of what that is going to mean to his day to day life.

Right off the bat I know he will refuse to give up his orange juice in the morning, and he has IBS and takes that orange metamucil, which also has alot of sugar in it, in his orange juice every morning along with his high blood pressure medication. His week-day breakfast is Quaker Oats raisin, date & walnut oatmeal - it's his favorite. Weekends he usually has a bagel/bisquit sandwich with ham or bacon, egg & cheese. He doesn't have access to refrigeration at work and actually eats his lunch while he is working at his machine, so he's limited about what he can take, which is always a sandwich. If I don't send his lunch with him, his only alternative is the coffee truck and we all know how healthy that food is! I can control what snacks are in the house as I do the grocery shopping, and I pick what we're having for supper. Unfortunately, he gets home before me and starts supper, and since his cooking skills are limited, we rely on things like spaghetti and jar sauce, frozen banquet chicken or frozen breaded fish, etc., side dishes of those packaged noodles and sauces, or rice, etc. - all the high carb foods I'm trying to avoid. As I said, I eat low carb and my daughter started this summer also, and I usually make something separate for us, but I'm going to have to re-work meals to entice him. His favorite veggie is peas which are a no-no. He will also eat corn, and carrots - more no-nos. He won't eat anything in the cabbage/broccoli family. Spinach or string beans are the only two veggies I can even think of that he can eat.

He is also a big sweet eater. He must have eaten 4 pounds of halloween candy by himself the past few days. He likes a big bowl of sweetened cereals like coco puffs, etc. for snacks also. I make a low carb cream cheese dessert for my daughter and I, but he doesn't like cheesecake or anything that resembles it so I'm at a loss about what legal "sweet" I can make for him. He won't eat ricotta cheese, which I rely on alot for dishes either. Any kind of quiche (without crust of course) he's going to refuse to eat.

I really appreciate any help you guys can give me. Anyone else out there have a resistant man they're trying to convert lol??!! My only saving grace is that he's a meat and potatoes eater, so leaving out the potatoes of course, I can entice him with any meat, or fish for that matter, altho his favorite fish is breaded and deep fried! His cholesteral is perfect thank goodness so at least that's not an issue as well.

Sorry this is so long, I was trying to cover as many bases as I could to make suggestions easier. Maybe this is a good thing - the whole house can eat low carb now and we won't be tempted to cheat if the stuff isn't in the house - altho my son is going to have a fit if his usual snacks aren't around!! Another country heard from! Thanks so much!!

Lisa

As the wife of an adorable man who is in serious denial about his health, I can relate. This man who was once 185 lbs. of muscle and bone is now 185 lbs. of fat--packed around his internal organs--who says, "What's the problem? I weigh the same as always."

In spite of a "borderline diabetes" diagnosis a few years ago, he will not curb his sugar habit. Fortunately, he eats a fairly balanced diet otherwise--although his eating patterns (time of day, etc.) continue to appall me.

Nevertheless, there's very little I can do about this. Nagging WILL NOT WORK and is highly counterproductive to a pleasant relationship. He admires my good example of controlled eating and exercise, but declines to follow it. He thinks that some of his health difficulties are just part of "getting old." Doesn't he notice that I am not getting old?

A couple of years ago, I actually called his physician privately, and urged him to discuss various subjects with my husband--in the most serious and "threatening" terms possible. This worked for a while. I may do it again.

Barb L.
Started Atkins January 2003
162/141/130



[This message was edited by Barb L. on 11-06-03 at 06:44 AM.]

PLEASE encourage him to start low carbing now. I'm type 1 diabetic for 6 yrs now. I know lots of type 2 diabetics that are on pills and shots. This disease is no fun he doesn't want to deal with this, all the complications are terrifying and I worry about them all the time. I've had family members lose limbs and their eye sight, kidney problems.Just changing the way he eats and getting some exercise could really help prevent him from crossing over to being a full blown diabetic or at least put it off as long as possible. I hope and pray he takes this seriously.