Weight change & associated health problems

But do you think that they have given you the information in, let’s say, plain English, in a way that you can absorb and is easy?

Yes, yeah, I think so and as I say, with the, the Internet sites as well, you, you begin to pick up very quickly, the NHS, Mayo clinic, as I said before, they’re very good with their information. Diabetes UK, all, there’s always something you can pick up proper information from. You do have to be careful you’re not going on to these sites that are going to frighten the living daylights out of you because they don’t know what they’re talking about. You need to go on a proper, you know, recommended site, I think.

So you are part of this forums in which you exchange information with other people. Is that your main kind of support?

Yep.

Yep.

There’s an awful lot of people who come on it, just and usually quite young people saying that they’ve just been diagnosed, they’ve no idea what to do. Now, so that’s still happening and the people, I never give an opinion because I feel that my opinion might not be right and so I just, I read it and I take the information in, but I don’t give any out because there’s always other people who are more experienced than me who can tell them better things to do than I could.

I mean, I would say to anybody, “Cut your carbs, start exercising.” End of. But that might not be right. It might work for me. It might not work for anybody else…

Okay.

….so I’m more a reader than a, I don’t given opinions.

Okay so you read other people’s post.

Yeah.

Okay rather than you.

I can have my own opinion, ‘I’ll say, “What an idiot or whatever,” or “that’s good. But some of them come on are completely lost, especially the young ones, like the twenties, they haven’t got a clue and they feel very, very lost and they don’t know that you can sort of go to your doctor and demand this and demand that.
 

Yeah, well certainly medical stuff I do. I mean people laugh and talk about, ‘Dr Google,’ don’t they, but I think it’s quite helpful. I do, I do, yeah.

Which type of websites?

One thing that I found really helpful which not, about, about medical things and probably weight as well is some of the Facebook support groups.

Ah, okay.

There’s one I found for people who’ve had hip replacements which I found really helpful because it gave you all sorts of useful information before you go in for it, the sort of stuff you’d need when you come home.

And also with the adrenal tumours, it’s so rare that the changes of finding anybody else and meeting anybody else who’d had it is almost nil. But on, on Facebook you find people who have the same issues as you, and yeah, I haven’t particularly used it for diet but for health issues, yeah.

Okay and you sort of kind of chat, do you?

Well people put, you know, often put something on and people come back and say, “Oh yes I’ve had that problem,” and yeah.

Well, I am sort of... I am on Facebook on a couple of groups there that are allied to Slimming World. One is a sort of a Slimming World site which is called a Pinch of Nom, which is a quite a... you know quite nice, quite supportive, and I do...oh, how do I love seeing the before and after pictures of people who were fat to now they're thin, and I'm thinking, 'Well done, I hate you.' And then there's another one which is a slightly more subversive group, which...I think it's called Two Chubby Cubs, and they kind of do the Slimming World thing. And they put some really good recipes on and, you know which I like because...ooh I'll take a screenshot of that; I'll do that for tea tonight, that kind of thing, so I do quite like the online stuff, and they are a bit more subversive. They're much more sweary and stuff, which I quite like because at least that makes you laugh, you know when people are having a rant; you can have a little giggle at that. So, it's not quite so self-righteous and self...full of self-praise, it's a bit more subversive. So, I do have a couple of groups online that I look at yeh.
 
OK. And how do you feel after you have ...especially the one that you can… the one that are more kind of fun.
 
Yeh [laughs], a bit more subversive. Yeh, I mean yeh, I do, I... you know, at least you're getting... at least you can have a smile with some of those. You know, you read some people's ...because a lot of people will use it as like a blogging site. So, they’ll put like a little... like a diary entry on there about what they’ve done or how they feel, and it can be very funny, very entertaining. And at least you do get some people out there who say, "Well, look you know, I'm trying really hard and nothing's happening," and I think, 'Yeh, you and me both.'

So, but you have used the applications to help you?

Yes. That was particularly useful when I started out, when I had no idea and it was very useful because it gave you grams or it gave you numbers of. So you could weigh things and know you had exactly what, what the calories were and I adapted recipes that I’d previously used to, so I would, sometimes we’ll have what I call, ‘chicken and mushrooms and tarragon,’ and I could, I would know that if I had two bits of chicken that was so many calories. But I could have lots more mushrooms and onions because they weren’t so many calories and you can still feel satisfied especially if you just have a little bit of the chicken.

Do you use any applications on your mobile to check things or to do with diet or..?

No, I tend to use their online app so every day I fill in my food to tell me what, what I’ve had, and you can, it does meals now so that’s better. So you can just put a whole Slimming World meal in. You haven’t got to sit and work it. It’s got, the one thing I’ve learned it’s got to be something quick. I’m no good at counting calories and weighing stuff too much because that’s too much time. I haven’t got the time to do that. So I’m better off, I know I can pick up that. I can have that potato, that’s fine and just sort of keep it like that. So, yeah, I do use that one online but not anything on my phone.

I think Diabetes UK because I have a newsletter and I kind of, like, sometime read, or I would probably read online. But I haven’t found nothing else.

Something else I do is like because in [country] like, on like, every like, every Wednesday they have half an hour.

So what…

So, I’m just like on a Wednesday they have the on the radio in Mauritius, every Wednesday they have half an hour. So that’s what I mean before going to work then I make sure I listen to this and they talk about diabetes and, you know, what, what, you know, what exercise maybe you should be doing and what is important to eat. Like talking about psychological side of it, how you have to be healthy, your well-being, so like today they talking about psychological and last week they talk about I mean the heart. You know, so, I have been listening to this one I would say on the radio.