Monitoring ketones & blood sugar because I want to!

iCosmopolis

Apologies for length, (I'm coming from a family background of nutritionists,PT's,sports science etc...my favoured method of weight loss and control has always been low carb/high protein diet fyi) I'm on a bit of mission now to start shifting my baby weight,about to start bootcamping it up,late due to section.
Bugging me though at the moment..pharmacies.Two things..I have always used ketone strips to check if I have gone into BENIGN dietary ketosis. For years. Recently asked and chemist comes stomping out demanding why I want them..ensuing lecture about how I should follow the standard guidelines for food pyramid (you know the one where they tell you to eat lots of bread and pasta!) after much arguing I said, ffs it's not like I'm trying to buy solpadine..she eventually handed them over
Then..sadly bought "low carb pasta" online, and after reading the paleo lads neg reviews and testing on the glycemic load on their own blood sugar, wanted to do the same. Enquired at another pharmacy as to how I could get a digital blood sugar monitor..she looked at me like I'd ten heads, and asked me if I had my long term illness card!! I could get one for free if I was diabetic, but couldn't buy/access one if I wasn't.
I checked this eve and can get a full testing kit on ebay for 15euro. So is there something sinister they think you're doing by testing yourself,for your own curiosity, that they are so suspicious of??

alexsmith

your question is all over the place....yes a lot of chemists are arseholes.

are you trying to get into ketosis or whats the story?

iCosmopolis

It was, sorry,was more of a waffly rant, but then it wouldn't let me edit the post after into a coherent question. Anyways I'm sorted, my folks friend is diabetic and he's getting a good monitor out for a month to loan to me to use for testing the foods. Thanks

April 73

I wanted a box of ketone stix recently & got all kinds of quizzing from the pharmacist. I ended up tying myself in knots telling lies about a diabetic uncle who asked me to get them for him :rolleyes: Afterwards I realised I was being ridiculous - if I want to buy ketone stix there is no justifiable reason why a pharmacist shouldnt sell them to you - or a blood glucose monitor either!

Good luck with getting back to the low-carb way of life. Btw - after a while low-cabing even if you are in ketosis, it won't always show on the stix once the body is burning ketones efficiently. It can be useful to use them at the beginning but there's no real point in going to the expense longer-term.

ZombieMed

I've bought ketostix from chemists and only problem is just that they're not always in stock.

chemistdirect.co.uk and amazon.co.uk are both excellent sources of ketostix and blood sugar monitors and much cheaper than Irish chemists. I think Aldi or Lidl had blood sugar monitors as their special buys one time too so you could look out for them. Stock up on the sample sticks as they're the really expensive item.