My story

Low carb, high fat diets have become popular in recent years for those looking to lose weight. Although I’m now a stone lighter than I was this time last year, my reason for doing so is different…

I got pregnant in March 2016 after 18 months of trying. When going through my family history at my booking appointment I mentioned that both my mum and her mum have late onset type 1 diabetes. This meant I needed a glucose tolerance test (GTT) after 20 weeks to see if I had developed gestational diabetes – a temporary form of the condition caused by the placenta, which disappears after birth. When the results came back, not only was I outside the healthy range of blood glucose for pregnancy, but also for non pregnant women (which is higher). 

I was perscribed a tablet called Metformin to bring my blood sugar levels down but was swiftly put on insulin when that wasn’t doing the trick. I tried my best to eat healthily and keep my levels down during pregnancy, not for me, but my unborn child. Cake day at work made me avoid the staff room at all costs on a Friday, and not popping to the shop for a tub of ice cream after dinner took all of my willpower, but I did it for her. It was a steep learning curve, helped massively by the wonderful Gestational Diabetes UK team and I managed my own insulin dosage well, peaking at 24 units of slow release insulin at bedtime in the 34th week. 

Nevertheless, it was hospital policy to have extra scans and induce women with gestational diabetes at 38 weeks, primarily as the excess sugars can cause large birth weights. Eventually, on the 28th December 2016 my gorgeous little girl was born a healthy 6lb11 and had her blood sugars closely monitored after birth – thankfully she was fine. 

After the birth I was told to stop all medication as the diabetes should have gone away, and slowly I fell back into indulging my sweet tooth. My husband and I had our first baby free date night 7 weeks post birth; Cocktails, a fancy meal, wine and a tub of good old Ben & Jerry’s later I felt terrible. I was up all night drinking water and going to the bathroom and it wasn’t all down to the alcohol. I decided to do a blood test out of curiousity a few days later and got a reading of 27 – a healthy person’s would be under 5.3! I called the diabetic team and went in the next day for more blood tests and be put back on insulin. I had type 1 diabetes. For life.

Yes, it sucks. But I’m not going to let it take over my life or worse, ruin my love of food! During pregnancy I dabbled in low carb alternatives and pinned a billion recipes to try out on Pinterest, never to be looked at again. But now this is a lifelong condition I need to rethink my cooking habits, hence my focus on low carb, high fat recipes.

As a first time mum on maternity leave, I don’t have the time, energy or money to cook complicated meals or use fancy ingredients only found online or in health food stores. Hence my pursuit for healthy, simple recipes for family meals and the odd treat. I only hope that this blog is useful for someone out there, for whatever reason they are looking to cut the carbs.