Portion control – Helen’s story

Helen tells us of the important changes she made to her diet and the positive results she achieved. Hear in her own words how she took on the challenge and how it paid off with the support of NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme.

“I had a reasonably balanced diet before the joining ‘Healthier You’ programme, but my guilty pleasure was chocolate and biscuits after a meal. I was surprised about the risk factors, and how close I was to developing type 2 diabetes.

“Alcohol wasn’t an issue as I only drank occasionally, neither was processed food as I often cook from scratch. During lockdown I walked every day, but this dwindled as lockdown ended as I became busy in other areas.

“The main thing I have changed is my food portion sizes, reduced the amount of bread I eat, and much smaller portion of rice or potatoes is consumed with my meals. Biscuits are only eaten as a treat now and the occasional piece of cake this is now a lot smaller with no jam, cream, or icing. I’ve also limited the chocolate I eat, to one bar a week as a treat.

“Since attending the sessions and implementing these changes to my diet and lifestyle, I have lost a stone in weight and my Hb reading has gone down from 43 to 41. My blood pressure is now at its lowest in years.

“I have felt really positive from the changes I’ve made, and as I maintain this it will help to reduce the possibility of diabetes for the future too. This shows that, we as individuals, can have an influence with our diet and activity to prevent this disease.”