[rdsmommy]

My dh was diagnosed pre diabetic about a year and a half ago. His doctor recommended going Keto or super low-carb. We cut out all bread, pasta, rice, sugar, etc. The first month was really hard but after that most of the cravings were gone and more importantly his numbers were all back to normal at his follow up 3 months later. We've been eating this way ever since then and his numbers have all just gotten better and better. We also both lost quite a bit of weight.

In the beginning we were super strict about it and didn't eat anything with carbs except certain fruits and vegis. We have loosened up a little but we still only eat things with a limited amount of carbs so nothing that is primarily carbs.

I also agree with avoiding substitute sweets as much as possible. We do use them in coffee and every once in a while in a homemade desert but mostly we just skip sweets and believe it or not real sweets actually make me feel ill now.

For fast and easy we like lettuce wraps. We put chicken salad, tuna salad, ham etc. In a lettuce leaf with cheese, tomatoes, mayo and eat it like a sandwich. We also eat hamburgers the same way. We eat a lot of carrot sticks and frozen vegetables for quick and easy as well. We snack on nuts and berries. We also love roasting veggies in the oven. Roasted butternut squash tastes like sweet potato fries.

Grocery shopping is also super easy now because all I have to do is make sure I pick up some meat and veggies and I'm good to go.

I will say I think this worked mainly because cutting out carbs cuts out pretty much all junk food and you probably don't have to go as strict as we did but it just made it easier for us to say we don't eat carbs period. And full disclosure I never gave up sweet tea, but that is my one splurge and I drink it super slow so it's mostly melted ice by the end.

Oh and on that note one last thing. If you have craving for something that just won't go away. Determine what is the smallest amount you can eat and then just eat that. For example, in the beginning I really wanted toast so I found the lowest carb bread and had half a slice with 1/4 tsp of jam. Or I wanted chocolate so I measured out 1tsp of mini chocolate chips and I would sit down and eat them one by one. It totaled to only about 3 carbs but when I finished eating them I was good and the craving was gone. I hardly have to do this at all anymore because I don't have cravings but it really helped me stay on track in the beginning.