Again I'm having a hard time dealing with the fact that in order to eat, I have to spend forever in the kitchen trying to find just the right things.
Plus, I'm sick and tired of eggs and string cheese.
8 more weeks. That's it. Stupid gestational diabetes has made me begin loathing this pregnancy. I just want it to be done now so I don't have to spend forever trying to get meals together.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Friday, September 9, 2011
Finally! Low After Breakfast Sugars!
The smoothie seems to be great for my blood sugar. I think I mentioned in the first post about it that an hour after drinking it my sugars were only 84 mg/dL and that was with 52g of carbs.
An hour after drinking the light version today my sugars are only 108 mg/dL. For breakfast, that's low. It's the first time my sugars after breakfast have been below 125. Two days ago I had 1/2 no sugar added apple sauce, 3 Tbsp whole almonds, 1c milk, and 1 bacon slice. I missed my 1 hour but my 2 hour blood sugar test was 107, which meant my 1 hour would have been in the normal range between 125-135.
I have half a mind to make up all these other kinds of smoothies and instead of eating, just drink those! Haha! They're definitely more satisfying than what I've been having and they're quicker to make.
An hour after drinking the light version today my sugars are only 108 mg/dL. For breakfast, that's low. It's the first time my sugars after breakfast have been below 125. Two days ago I had 1/2 no sugar added apple sauce, 3 Tbsp whole almonds, 1c milk, and 1 bacon slice. I missed my 1 hour but my 2 hour blood sugar test was 107, which meant my 1 hour would have been in the normal range between 125-135.
I have half a mind to make up all these other kinds of smoothies and instead of eating, just drink those! Haha! They're definitely more satisfying than what I've been having and they're quicker to make.
Updated Banana Chocolate Smoothie
Made this again for breakfast and used the minimum ingredients this time. And went to Calorie King and used the info there for a medium banana to find out calories.
This is pretty much a complete breakfast, according to my meal guide. It's just missing 1 serving of fat. This was just as delicious as last night's recipe, just lighter in texture and chocolate.
- 1 c 2% Milk
- 1/2 Medium Banana
- 1 Tbsp Cocoa Powder
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 2 Packets Splenda
This is pretty much a complete breakfast, according to my meal guide. It's just missing 1 serving of fat. This was just as delicious as last night's recipe, just lighter in texture and chocolate.
Banana Chocolate Smoothie
I still have yet to eat all my meals in a day. With the way I normally eat, it's not a problem because I just grab whatever I want throughout the day. Right now, though, it's tedious to have to look at my meal guide to see how many servings of what I can have, then having to read food label after food label. So I do tend to just wait longer between meals than I should.
Today I skipped lunch, but the snack I had was pretty much lunch due to the amount of carbs it had in it.
So I made a triple berry smoothie last week, halving it since there was so much orange juice in it. I made it from this package from Yoplait. You can find it in the freezer section next to the juice I believe. Well, I wanted something fairly quick and yummy and I had been thinking about cocoa powder a bit today, knowing I could have some. Then I remembered we got fresh bananas. Yoplait also has a chocolate banana smoothie pack and the numbers on the nutrition label aren't bad, but you can definitely make on with better for you stuff and better numbers at home and I'm sure it would taste just as good.
Thinking of all that, I decided to give it a try. If I had been able to use a syrup I would have been able to make an amazing one! Having worked at Starbucks for two years I got to test a lot of stuff and figure out measurements in order to make stuff at home (I can tell you how much chocolate syrup made with the mocha powder you can buy from Starbucks goes into how many ounces of milk by having you measure it in a shot glass).
But the Hershey's chocolate syrup had too many carbs to really be worthwhile. So unsweetened cocoa powder and Splenda it was!
I decided to use some of the non-fat Greek yogurt instead of milk, but with how much powder I used I had to put in a whole banana to make sure it wasn't overpowered, so with the yogurt it was a bit thick. So I ended up adding 1/2 a cup of 2% milk. It was still thick, but it turned out really good.
Here's my recipe, I suggest you tweak it to your own liking. Next time I will use less cocoa powder and maybe crush up some ice in a bag so the Magic Bullet my mom has can really blend that in there. I discovered with the triple berry smoothie that whole cubes just don't work, haha! I ended up popping some ice cubes into the cup when I was done and giving it a stir to make it nice and cold.
Banana Chocolate Smoothie
So this could be made for lunch or dinner. You would have to add something else to get a little more fat and protein and possibly something to give you more calories. Also I didn't taste the vanilla flavoring. I added it because my dietician said she sometimes uses vanilla flavoring to sweeten things. The Greek yogurt is pretty tart. Luckily the banana adds quite a bit of sweetness but when I put in only 2 packets of Splenda, it was still tart. Five packets doesn't make it incredibly sweet, it's still got that bit of bitter flavor from the cocoa powder with a hint of tang from the yogurt.
And something interesting, after an hour, maybe slightly over, I checked my sugars and it was only 84. For 52g of carbs that's pretty low. Especially since my dinner was a normal meal of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, a roll, and regular soda. An hour after dinner my sugars were 159, I'm sure at two hours they were higher (like the other day when I had Wendy's and it went from 150 at 1 hour to 170 at 2 hours). But that shows that my pancreas does kick in, it just takes longer.
Hope you enjoy this little idea. And from it think of all the different kind of smoothies you can make with the fruit you have. Like try something interesting like apples and lemon juice (lemon juice having about 1.3g of carbs per tablespoon) with some yogurt and sweetener. I have frozen, cut up mango in the freezer, too, so I could use some orange juice, pineapple chunks, and mangoes to make another. The Greek yogurt is a great staple for these smoothies because it's under the protein section so no meat, string cheese, or eggs.
I'll keep working at coming up with recipes and ideas to put in here. I'm a little overwhelmed still and it doesn't help when I get a sudden craving for bad things like soda and fried chicken.
Today I skipped lunch, but the snack I had was pretty much lunch due to the amount of carbs it had in it.
So I made a triple berry smoothie last week, halving it since there was so much orange juice in it. I made it from this package from Yoplait. You can find it in the freezer section next to the juice I believe. Well, I wanted something fairly quick and yummy and I had been thinking about cocoa powder a bit today, knowing I could have some. Then I remembered we got fresh bananas. Yoplait also has a chocolate banana smoothie pack and the numbers on the nutrition label aren't bad, but you can definitely make on with better for you stuff and better numbers at home and I'm sure it would taste just as good.
Thinking of all that, I decided to give it a try. If I had been able to use a syrup I would have been able to make an amazing one! Having worked at Starbucks for two years I got to test a lot of stuff and figure out measurements in order to make stuff at home (I can tell you how much chocolate syrup made with the mocha powder you can buy from Starbucks goes into how many ounces of milk by having you measure it in a shot glass).
But the Hershey's chocolate syrup had too many carbs to really be worthwhile. So unsweetened cocoa powder and Splenda it was!
I decided to use some of the non-fat Greek yogurt instead of milk, but with how much powder I used I had to put in a whole banana to make sure it wasn't overpowered, so with the yogurt it was a bit thick. So I ended up adding 1/2 a cup of 2% milk. It was still thick, but it turned out really good.
Here's my recipe, I suggest you tweak it to your own liking. Next time I will use less cocoa powder and maybe crush up some ice in a bag so the Magic Bullet my mom has can really blend that in there. I discovered with the triple berry smoothie that whole cubes just don't work, haha! I ended up popping some ice cubes into the cup when I was done and giving it a stir to make it nice and cold.
Banana Chocolate Smoothie
- 1 Medium Banana
- 1/2c 2% Milk
- 1/2c Non-fat Greek Yogurt
- 2Tbsp Hershey's Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- 5 Packets of Splenda
- 1tsp Vanilla Extract/Flavoring
So this could be made for lunch or dinner. You would have to add something else to get a little more fat and protein and possibly something to give you more calories. Also I didn't taste the vanilla flavoring. I added it because my dietician said she sometimes uses vanilla flavoring to sweeten things. The Greek yogurt is pretty tart. Luckily the banana adds quite a bit of sweetness but when I put in only 2 packets of Splenda, it was still tart. Five packets doesn't make it incredibly sweet, it's still got that bit of bitter flavor from the cocoa powder with a hint of tang from the yogurt.
And something interesting, after an hour, maybe slightly over, I checked my sugars and it was only 84. For 52g of carbs that's pretty low. Especially since my dinner was a normal meal of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, a roll, and regular soda. An hour after dinner my sugars were 159, I'm sure at two hours they were higher (like the other day when I had Wendy's and it went from 150 at 1 hour to 170 at 2 hours). But that shows that my pancreas does kick in, it just takes longer.
Hope you enjoy this little idea. And from it think of all the different kind of smoothies you can make with the fruit you have. Like try something interesting like apples and lemon juice (lemon juice having about 1.3g of carbs per tablespoon) with some yogurt and sweetener. I have frozen, cut up mango in the freezer, too, so I could use some orange juice, pineapple chunks, and mangoes to make another. The Greek yogurt is a great staple for these smoothies because it's under the protein section so no meat, string cheese, or eggs.
I'll keep working at coming up with recipes and ideas to put in here. I'm a little overwhelmed still and it doesn't help when I get a sudden craving for bad things like soda and fried chicken.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Breakfast Food
Breakfast is the hardest time for me. Normally I just want a bowl of cereal and I'm good. Now, though, I'm having to scrounge for stuff and my breakfasts come out so odd.
I'm sick and tired of eating eggs. I stopped liking the yolk years ago and after a few month stint where I made and egg and cheese sandwich for a snack every day after school, I've grown tired of eggs in general. So I'm looking for other ways to get protein.
But I did see somewhere someone talking about quiche. Now, I like quiche, yes it has egg yolks, but with the other flavors it's not very evident. Quiche would make a lovely breakfast meal. It might be the only thing you can have, depending on the serving size, but I'm sure it will satisfy you.
I love quiche like bacon, broccoli, and cheese. That's my favorite. But I also like the ones with spinach. So I'm going to see about making some mini quiche. Maybe bacon, cheese, and something besides broccoli, even though I love it so!
Also, I was thinking that crepes would make a wonderful breakfast. They're thin and the batter usually has quite a bit of egg in it. My favorite crepe I've ever had was this one at a stand at the Portland, Oregon farmers market called C'est Ci Bon (mean's something like It's So Good, C'est means it is and Bon means good, so even not really knowing what Ci means you can get the gist of the title).
Anyways my sister got this crepe that had melted cheese, bacon, onions, and mushrooms in it. On top they added some salad greens. The crepe was thicker than I had in French class and was folded into a nice square package, encasing all the deliciousness inside. It was amazing! I did love my crepe of lemon curd with sliced strawberries and whipped cream on top, but the savory crepe was definitely the best. I wish I could have it again.
But crepes are delicious with fresh fruit or some canned stuff. I really enjoyed the one I had in French class with canned peaches and whipped cream. It was so light and fresh tasting. It didn't overpower the taste buds (neither did the savory crepe at the farmers market, though) but wasn't so light as to where you felt like it was pointless to eat.
Just thought I'd put these up here as an idea.
Oh! Beware crepes that seem rubbery. Those have way too much egg in the batter and are a pain to eat. There's a crepe vendor where I live who will sometimes be at the farmers market but I usually see them at the fair. I was not happy with their crepes at all. I was extremely disappointed. The egg was so evident in the crepe that I was having a hard time eating it. But I ate that stupid thing because fair food is way too expensive here. I couldn't even roll the thing up and eat it because it was just rubbery and didn't do right. And the presentation was definitely a 1 out of 10. It looked like an oversized thin omelet to me. Definitely not worth it.
I'm sick and tired of eating eggs. I stopped liking the yolk years ago and after a few month stint where I made and egg and cheese sandwich for a snack every day after school, I've grown tired of eggs in general. So I'm looking for other ways to get protein.
But I did see somewhere someone talking about quiche. Now, I like quiche, yes it has egg yolks, but with the other flavors it's not very evident. Quiche would make a lovely breakfast meal. It might be the only thing you can have, depending on the serving size, but I'm sure it will satisfy you.
I love quiche like bacon, broccoli, and cheese. That's my favorite. But I also like the ones with spinach. So I'm going to see about making some mini quiche. Maybe bacon, cheese, and something besides broccoli, even though I love it so!
Also, I was thinking that crepes would make a wonderful breakfast. They're thin and the batter usually has quite a bit of egg in it. My favorite crepe I've ever had was this one at a stand at the Portland, Oregon farmers market called C'est Ci Bon (mean's something like It's So Good, C'est means it is and Bon means good, so even not really knowing what Ci means you can get the gist of the title).
Anyways my sister got this crepe that had melted cheese, bacon, onions, and mushrooms in it. On top they added some salad greens. The crepe was thicker than I had in French class and was folded into a nice square package, encasing all the deliciousness inside. It was amazing! I did love my crepe of lemon curd with sliced strawberries and whipped cream on top, but the savory crepe was definitely the best. I wish I could have it again.
But crepes are delicious with fresh fruit or some canned stuff. I really enjoyed the one I had in French class with canned peaches and whipped cream. It was so light and fresh tasting. It didn't overpower the taste buds (neither did the savory crepe at the farmers market, though) but wasn't so light as to where you felt like it was pointless to eat.
Just thought I'd put these up here as an idea.
Oh! Beware crepes that seem rubbery. Those have way too much egg in the batter and are a pain to eat. There's a crepe vendor where I live who will sometimes be at the farmers market but I usually see them at the fair. I was not happy with their crepes at all. I was extremely disappointed. The egg was so evident in the crepe that I was having a hard time eating it. But I ate that stupid thing because fair food is way too expensive here. I couldn't even roll the thing up and eat it because it was just rubbery and didn't do right. And the presentation was definitely a 1 out of 10. It looked like an oversized thin omelet to me. Definitely not worth it.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Six Pounds in Two Weeks!?
I weighed myself before I ate today. I'd lost six pounds in two weeks. Needless to say I was very concerned. So concerned that I went and got myself some fast food. I could have found something full of calories at home, but I'd also had a dentist appointment earlier and for some reason I always want fast food after I visit the dentist.
Around 4pm I had an appointment with my dietician. I brought up the six pound loss with her as we went to check my weight. Because I'd just eaten, my weight had gone back up four pounds. But she still sat down with me and helped me figure out my calories.
The day we looked at had be getting roughly about 1,500 calories. For being overweight from the beginning that was too little. What was a bit worse about that day's calories was my dinner for that day was normal. I'd had lobster tail, a little less than 3oz of steak, corn, and asparagus. So on normal GD diet days, I wouldn't be consuming that many calories with a meal.
She suggested I up my caloric intake by getting more nuts and oils (like canola or olive) in my diet. That would up the calories by a few hundred, putting me over 1,800 which is the least amount she wants me to get.
I asked several questions I'd come up with in the week I'd not seen her. One of them was about my breakfast sugars and if I could do anything to lower them. They've been between 125-135 each time. She said there's not really anything I can do. Exercising will help, but it's not going to do much overall since the pregnancy hormones are making it harder for my pancreas to produce enough insulin fast enough. And it seems that higher blood sugar readings is the trend with GD patients.
So if your after breakfast glucose levels are higher than the rest of the day, don't stress over it too much. But don't count out exercise. I've begun trying to get in 20 minutes of bike riding a day, at least. It's not much, and I could do more, but I get up so late and I end up taking a nap usually that I don't get much of a chance to do more than twice a day (10 minutes each which is about 2 miles for me going at a moderate pace). I'll do something once after breakfast and then again after 9:30pm when my mom and her husband have gone to bed. We have a stationary bike in the TV room but from 4pm to about 9pm the room is occupied by my mom's husband and her and I have no desire to sit in there with them watching boring TV.
The dietician said exercise can help my body's cells open up and be more ready to take in glucose. One of the reasons why our blood sugars are higher in the morning is because our cells are more resistant to taking in glucose. We might be awake but that doesn't mean our body is, too.
Around 4pm I had an appointment with my dietician. I brought up the six pound loss with her as we went to check my weight. Because I'd just eaten, my weight had gone back up four pounds. But she still sat down with me and helped me figure out my calories.
The day we looked at had be getting roughly about 1,500 calories. For being overweight from the beginning that was too little. What was a bit worse about that day's calories was my dinner for that day was normal. I'd had lobster tail, a little less than 3oz of steak, corn, and asparagus. So on normal GD diet days, I wouldn't be consuming that many calories with a meal.
She suggested I up my caloric intake by getting more nuts and oils (like canola or olive) in my diet. That would up the calories by a few hundred, putting me over 1,800 which is the least amount she wants me to get.
I asked several questions I'd come up with in the week I'd not seen her. One of them was about my breakfast sugars and if I could do anything to lower them. They've been between 125-135 each time. She said there's not really anything I can do. Exercising will help, but it's not going to do much overall since the pregnancy hormones are making it harder for my pancreas to produce enough insulin fast enough. And it seems that higher blood sugar readings is the trend with GD patients.
So if your after breakfast glucose levels are higher than the rest of the day, don't stress over it too much. But don't count out exercise. I've begun trying to get in 20 minutes of bike riding a day, at least. It's not much, and I could do more, but I get up so late and I end up taking a nap usually that I don't get much of a chance to do more than twice a day (10 minutes each which is about 2 miles for me going at a moderate pace). I'll do something once after breakfast and then again after 9:30pm when my mom and her husband have gone to bed. We have a stationary bike in the TV room but from 4pm to about 9pm the room is occupied by my mom's husband and her and I have no desire to sit in there with them watching boring TV.
The dietician said exercise can help my body's cells open up and be more ready to take in glucose. One of the reasons why our blood sugars are higher in the morning is because our cells are more resistant to taking in glucose. We might be awake but that doesn't mean our body is, too.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Soup and a Sandwich
I have discovered that having some vegetable soup, a grilled cheese sandwich, and a stick of string cheese doesn't make my sugars soar.
Had half a can of soup, a sandwich, and string cheese for lunch and an hour later my sugars were 87. I thought that was just crazy! I did a 2 hour test and it said 90. Three points higher, but still so low. Had it again for dinner (so I could finish off the can of soup) and my sugars were 101. Some of my sugars were probably left over from my snack of a strawberry, lemonade smoothie I made with Greek yogurt and Splenda.
A word of warning for anyone thinking of using Greek yogurt for smoothies, it's pretty sour on its own. So with the lemon juice I put in the smoothie it was fairly tart. Though, I like tart, but the flavor or strawberries was hard to sense, though I could tell I'd definitely used Greek yogurt, haha!
Had half a can of soup, a sandwich, and string cheese for lunch and an hour later my sugars were 87. I thought that was just crazy! I did a 2 hour test and it said 90. Three points higher, but still so low. Had it again for dinner (so I could finish off the can of soup) and my sugars were 101. Some of my sugars were probably left over from my snack of a strawberry, lemonade smoothie I made with Greek yogurt and Splenda.
A word of warning for anyone thinking of using Greek yogurt for smoothies, it's pretty sour on its own. So with the lemon juice I put in the smoothie it was fairly tart. Though, I like tart, but the flavor or strawberries was hard to sense, though I could tell I'd definitely used Greek yogurt, haha!
Monday, September 5, 2011
Carbs, Carbs, Carbs
I'm really in the mood for something sweet and sour. I wish there was a Smoothie King around so I could see about getting one of their strawberry lemonade smoothies. It'd be even better if it was a passion fruit kind of drink. Benihana's has an amazing passion fruit lemonade that I had three glasses of during my middle sister's graduation dinner the weekend before I was told I had GD. It was heaven in a glass!
I posted about wanting the smoothie from Smoothie King on my Facebook and how there isn't one here. A friend posted, "Homemade smoothies are great!" So I figured, yeah, I could make a smoothie using some lemon juice and the Greek yogurt and some strawberries if my mom doesn't need them for canning anymore.
But I know lemons are a fruit. That means they have carbs. So off to Google I went in search of the carb count for lemon juice. Annoying and funny how I had to put 'how many carbs in lemon juice' just to get a good search. I am not great at searches.
Finally found a nifty site that someone put together a bunch of the carbs (as well as protein, calories, etc) for foods and drinks. This was meant for those on the Atkins diet, but hey, it works for those of us with GD as well, no? So I am here to share it with everyone else!
http://www.eddieoneverything.com/lists/how-many-carbs-are-in-that.php
Have fun with that. There's even an alcohol list, but obviously we are not going to be drinking for a while.
I posted about wanting the smoothie from Smoothie King on my Facebook and how there isn't one here. A friend posted, "Homemade smoothies are great!" So I figured, yeah, I could make a smoothie using some lemon juice and the Greek yogurt and some strawberries if my mom doesn't need them for canning anymore.
But I know lemons are a fruit. That means they have carbs. So off to Google I went in search of the carb count for lemon juice. Annoying and funny how I had to put 'how many carbs in lemon juice' just to get a good search. I am not great at searches.
Finally found a nifty site that someone put together a bunch of the carbs (as well as protein, calories, etc) for foods and drinks. This was meant for those on the Atkins diet, but hey, it works for those of us with GD as well, no? So I am here to share it with everyone else!
http://www.eddieoneverything.com/lists/how-many-carbs-are-in-that.php
Have fun with that. There's even an alcohol list, but obviously we are not going to be drinking for a while.
Just Something Little
I'm going to be testing this theory out, but I'm thinking that I'll be okay with eating almost anything I want as long as the servings are small, I keep the carbs and sugars down, and make sure to get some protein at every meal.
I say this because for dinner I had two ribs with some bbq sauce on them (the sauce was applied before I got them), some baked beans, and some strawberry shortcake. The strawberry shortcake was made with those individual cake things you see at the store in the produce section with the strawberries, sliced strawberries with very little (if any) sugar on them, and lite whipped cream. And no, I did not go out to a restaurant. My mom's hubby made the ribs, my mom's friend made the baked beans.
This meal was chock full of sugars. There was also cole slaw and corn. I skipped the corn because yesterday it sent my sugars to 145 with just the tiniest help from some small servings of banana pudding. I made the banana pudding myself, reading the labels carefully. Each dish had only about 22g of carbs and very little sugar. And I skipped the cole slaw because I'm not a mayo fan.
I didn't get to check my sugars until 2 1/2 hours later, but they were at 75. My 2 hours usually have me in the 90s.
Then, because I was hungry, I wanted to try the banana pudding again, see if it was that or the corn that upped my sugars last night. So I had one of those little dishes and then had some popcorn. Maybe 2 cups (all fresh popped). An hour after that I checked my sugars and they were 95. Which told me the corn was a big culprit the night before.
I'm about to go to bed soon and I have consumed three carb choices: Half a banana, some 2% milk (most likely not quite 8oz), and a Fiber One bar (which has about 17g of carbs). I will be checking my sugars soon just to see what that did. I'm trying to make my fasting sugars be between 70-85. I read somewhere that some woman found if she ate more carbs at night, her fasting sugars were lower.
I was talking to my mom about fasting sugars the other day and she said that some people give off this big thing of insulin while they sleep, ridding their blood of sugar. Their brain then realizes there's no sugar in the blood and so tells the body to begin pulling it from the stores. When that happens, that gives a higher fasting test. So it made sense that eating enough carbs to cover you through the night would help.
I'm not sure what kind of number I'm aiming for before bed, but I guess anything between 100-120 is good.
When I get more info on my theory of eating what I want just watching the serving size and all, I'll post it here.
I say this because for dinner I had two ribs with some bbq sauce on them (the sauce was applied before I got them), some baked beans, and some strawberry shortcake. The strawberry shortcake was made with those individual cake things you see at the store in the produce section with the strawberries, sliced strawberries with very little (if any) sugar on them, and lite whipped cream. And no, I did not go out to a restaurant. My mom's hubby made the ribs, my mom's friend made the baked beans.
This meal was chock full of sugars. There was also cole slaw and corn. I skipped the corn because yesterday it sent my sugars to 145 with just the tiniest help from some small servings of banana pudding. I made the banana pudding myself, reading the labels carefully. Each dish had only about 22g of carbs and very little sugar. And I skipped the cole slaw because I'm not a mayo fan.
I didn't get to check my sugars until 2 1/2 hours later, but they were at 75. My 2 hours usually have me in the 90s.
Then, because I was hungry, I wanted to try the banana pudding again, see if it was that or the corn that upped my sugars last night. So I had one of those little dishes and then had some popcorn. Maybe 2 cups (all fresh popped). An hour after that I checked my sugars and they were 95. Which told me the corn was a big culprit the night before.
I'm about to go to bed soon and I have consumed three carb choices: Half a banana, some 2% milk (most likely not quite 8oz), and a Fiber One bar (which has about 17g of carbs). I will be checking my sugars soon just to see what that did. I'm trying to make my fasting sugars be between 70-85. I read somewhere that some woman found if she ate more carbs at night, her fasting sugars were lower.
I was talking to my mom about fasting sugars the other day and she said that some people give off this big thing of insulin while they sleep, ridding their blood of sugar. Their brain then realizes there's no sugar in the blood and so tells the body to begin pulling it from the stores. When that happens, that gives a higher fasting test. So it made sense that eating enough carbs to cover you through the night would help.
I'm not sure what kind of number I'm aiming for before bed, but I guess anything between 100-120 is good.
When I get more info on my theory of eating what I want just watching the serving size and all, I'll post it here.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
3 Weeks So Far
Somehow, GD can sneak up on you. They warn you that if you begin suddenly putting on a lot of weight or suddenly losing a bunch without a reason (like overeating or horrible morning sickness), maybe you feel excessively thirsty, that you just may have GD. They never bother to tell you that there can be no warning signs at all.
So when I got my results back after my 28 week GTT test I was shocked. It didn't help matters any that the nurse midwife (NMW) at the OB clinic took the option of the 3 hour test off the table. I was originally going to a birthing center. It had been my dream since I was 14 and my youngest cousin was born there. I thought the place was amazing with it's decor and laid-back atmosphere. I knew I wanted my delivery to be so nice.
With the NMW saying taking the 3 hour test wasn't an option, he was just going to assume I had GD since my sugars were over 200, it was all I could to do to not storm out of the office. After finding out I struggled with my anger over not getting my nice, calm birthing center birth. I'm not saying hospitals are bad, I'm just afraid of the whole delivery being chaotic because most professionals are taught to treat delivery as a medical condition, something that has to be gotten over with quick. They act like it's not been done for thousands of years. I don't want that.
And making a birth plan can help with that, but still, medical professional do tend to ignore the patient and do what they want with certain things.
So the NMW set up a consultation with a dietician and I met with her the following Monday (which was August 29th). She was pleasant as we talked and she gave me some info about GD and about the diet I would be doing. But I've still managed to find a whole handful of questions I feel should have been answered then.
I was given a list of foods and their serving size that I could eat. There was even a small list of foods called Other Carbs that contained things like cake, doughnuts, and cookies. But the list isn't very big and to be honest, who the hell is going to cut up a carrot in order to measure 1 cup for 1 serving of veggies? Why couldn't they have put a weight or a size of carrot for a serving? All the veggies are like that. I'll have to go through site after site just to find a weight to make things easier.
As well as the list of food, I was given a paper with a guide for each meal to tell me how many carbs I should eat total for that meal and how many servings of protein, fat, and veggies I should have. To the right of that list is an example meal for each one. I kid you not that the first example snack tells me to consume 8oz (1 cup) of milk, 6 whole almonds, and a stick of string cheese.
This meal guide says it's supposed to have about 2,000 calories in it. At least, that's what the dietician led me to believe, not to mention the big, bold title saying 2000 Calorie Patter for Gestational Diabetes. The meals are small and have very little fat and very little filling starches. From eating small like that back in 2004 when I went from 193lbs to 142lbs, I know that the meal guide does not give me even close to 2,000 calories. And yesterday I checked. With everything that had a label I wrote down the calories. Aside from dinner, an apple, and 1/2 cup of cooked onions, I was barely getting 600 calories. The calories I could count were from breakfast, a snack, and lunch. If 600 was an average for 3 meals, then I'd be getting around only 1,200 calories for the entire day! For a pregnant woman, that's not enough. So that's something I have to chat with the dietician about at my next appointment.
On top of the annoyances of finding food to eat, I have to test my blood sugars at least 4 times a day. I should take a picture of my finger to show you the damage. My sugars have been pretty well maintained throughout the day, usually being between 110-116 at the high. Except, of course, with breakfast. My sugars have never been under 125. Course, I've only been able to check it for four breakfasts, but still. Two of those breakfasts I was testing out the way fruit worked on me. Apples are horrible! For three days I had a tortilla with cream cheese, and fruit on top. One of those days I swapped out half the cream cheese for peanut butter to get some protein as well as fat. The first day, the fruit wad blueberries (which I've heard are great for the pancreas). My sugars tested at 129. The next day (with the peanut butter) I had half a banana. Sugars were 126. And yesterday I had an apple and my sugars were 134! So I decided no more fruit for me.
Today I ate 1/2 cup cooked cream of wheat with 2 tsp Smart Balance butter (the only kind we have at the house), 2 egg whites (because I don't like the flavor of yolks), and 8 oz of 2% milk. My sugars were 132! Somehow, something in my breakfast messed with my insulin levels. My fasting sugars was 86 today. It seems the higher the carb count I eat before bed, the lower my blood sugar is in the morning. My mom and her husband checked theirs as well coming up with 84 and 82. Not bad for me. An hour after breakfast I checked mine and got 132 and made my mom check hers so I could see what normal would be and hers was 79! Seventy-nine! I wanted to cry. If that was normal, then what the hell was I? My blood sugar is supposed to be under 140 for a 1 hour test and only last night 3 hours before bed was it ever over 140. It was 145 and I can only think that the corn I had for dinner had finally been processed. I made banana pudding for dessert but didn't get to have it until my bedtime snack. I worked hard on making sure there wasn't much sugar or carbs in it all. I roughly had about 44g of carbs and just over 12g of sugar (though I have no idea what a good amount of sugar is since the dietician never said anything about it). My lunch and dinner usually consists of 45g of carbs and my blood sugar after them has never been above 116. My lowest being 89 after consuming a slice of pepperoni pizza from Sam's and a little less than 32oz of diet caffeine free coke (diet soda is on the free list! Woohoo! Though I don't much care for it).
I've been writing down everything I eat and how much of it I eat. I'm trying to find the perfect day of meals for me without having to stick myself both before and after I eat. I love knowing my body and GD is something new and I'll only be dealing with it (most likely) for 9 more weeks. I've got to figure it out now. After my pregnancy I will be making sure I get healthy again because I will NOT be dealing with this again. I swear!
My biggest problem is breakfast. Sugars have been between 125-135. Now, I've been told that the pancreas has a hard time getting going in the morning so my sugars are going to be higher then than they will be the rest of the day. But I know there has to be a perfect breakfast for me. So far, anything I eat with a starch, banana, and peanut butter, has given me my lowest scores for having a full meal. But there's one breakfast I didn't get to test my sugars with. Eggs, a slice of toast with cream cheese, and milk. It was my first breakfast on the diet. I'm going to eat that tomorrow and see if that helps. My bread comes just under the full serving, though. A serving is 15g of carbs per slice. Mine has 9g of carbs per slice. Also, whole wheat stuff seems to have quite a bit of protein in it.
So it's been a lot of trial and error and I still have a ways to go to really figure this out. I've looked up foods that are great for nourishing the pancreas and I will be eating more of those. Also, exercise. I've been a lump the entire pregnancy which makes me pretty mad. I kept losing track of time and before I knew it, I only have 9 weeks left!
To do a more controlled test on breakfast tomorrow, I shouldn't bother with exercising for a little bit before my test. But I will make sure I get exercise in every day from now on.
I've only seen one difference in anything. From the moment I heard I could have GD I became more strict with my eating. I cut out soda completely (having fallen off the wagon and drinking a 20oz every week for a month and a half), didn't have any other sweets, stopped eating what little fast food I did, and made sure I ate at home. But my changed eating habits weren't the difference, it was my baby. The little one was moving around so much more during the day. I mentioned this to my mom and she said it could be the lack of sugary and fatty stuff, or it could just be the baby's at that stage where it's gotten big enough to really be felt. I think it's the lack of sugary and fatty stuff because I doubt one week is going to make that much of a difference in size.
Well, sorry for this long post, it was just a road so far kind of deal. I am going to try and put together some things I've found that are good and come back later today or tomorrow and post them!
So when I got my results back after my 28 week GTT test I was shocked. It didn't help matters any that the nurse midwife (NMW) at the OB clinic took the option of the 3 hour test off the table. I was originally going to a birthing center. It had been my dream since I was 14 and my youngest cousin was born there. I thought the place was amazing with it's decor and laid-back atmosphere. I knew I wanted my delivery to be so nice.
With the NMW saying taking the 3 hour test wasn't an option, he was just going to assume I had GD since my sugars were over 200, it was all I could to do to not storm out of the office. After finding out I struggled with my anger over not getting my nice, calm birthing center birth. I'm not saying hospitals are bad, I'm just afraid of the whole delivery being chaotic because most professionals are taught to treat delivery as a medical condition, something that has to be gotten over with quick. They act like it's not been done for thousands of years. I don't want that.
And making a birth plan can help with that, but still, medical professional do tend to ignore the patient and do what they want with certain things.
So the NMW set up a consultation with a dietician and I met with her the following Monday (which was August 29th). She was pleasant as we talked and she gave me some info about GD and about the diet I would be doing. But I've still managed to find a whole handful of questions I feel should have been answered then.
I was given a list of foods and their serving size that I could eat. There was even a small list of foods called Other Carbs that contained things like cake, doughnuts, and cookies. But the list isn't very big and to be honest, who the hell is going to cut up a carrot in order to measure 1 cup for 1 serving of veggies? Why couldn't they have put a weight or a size of carrot for a serving? All the veggies are like that. I'll have to go through site after site just to find a weight to make things easier.
As well as the list of food, I was given a paper with a guide for each meal to tell me how many carbs I should eat total for that meal and how many servings of protein, fat, and veggies I should have. To the right of that list is an example meal for each one. I kid you not that the first example snack tells me to consume 8oz (1 cup) of milk, 6 whole almonds, and a stick of string cheese.
This meal guide says it's supposed to have about 2,000 calories in it. At least, that's what the dietician led me to believe, not to mention the big, bold title saying 2000 Calorie Patter for Gestational Diabetes. The meals are small and have very little fat and very little filling starches. From eating small like that back in 2004 when I went from 193lbs to 142lbs, I know that the meal guide does not give me even close to 2,000 calories. And yesterday I checked. With everything that had a label I wrote down the calories. Aside from dinner, an apple, and 1/2 cup of cooked onions, I was barely getting 600 calories. The calories I could count were from breakfast, a snack, and lunch. If 600 was an average for 3 meals, then I'd be getting around only 1,200 calories for the entire day! For a pregnant woman, that's not enough. So that's something I have to chat with the dietician about at my next appointment.
On top of the annoyances of finding food to eat, I have to test my blood sugars at least 4 times a day. I should take a picture of my finger to show you the damage. My sugars have been pretty well maintained throughout the day, usually being between 110-116 at the high. Except, of course, with breakfast. My sugars have never been under 125. Course, I've only been able to check it for four breakfasts, but still. Two of those breakfasts I was testing out the way fruit worked on me. Apples are horrible! For three days I had a tortilla with cream cheese, and fruit on top. One of those days I swapped out half the cream cheese for peanut butter to get some protein as well as fat. The first day, the fruit wad blueberries (which I've heard are great for the pancreas). My sugars tested at 129. The next day (with the peanut butter) I had half a banana. Sugars were 126. And yesterday I had an apple and my sugars were 134! So I decided no more fruit for me.
Today I ate 1/2 cup cooked cream of wheat with 2 tsp Smart Balance butter (the only kind we have at the house), 2 egg whites (because I don't like the flavor of yolks), and 8 oz of 2% milk. My sugars were 132! Somehow, something in my breakfast messed with my insulin levels. My fasting sugars was 86 today. It seems the higher the carb count I eat before bed, the lower my blood sugar is in the morning. My mom and her husband checked theirs as well coming up with 84 and 82. Not bad for me. An hour after breakfast I checked mine and got 132 and made my mom check hers so I could see what normal would be and hers was 79! Seventy-nine! I wanted to cry. If that was normal, then what the hell was I? My blood sugar is supposed to be under 140 for a 1 hour test and only last night 3 hours before bed was it ever over 140. It was 145 and I can only think that the corn I had for dinner had finally been processed. I made banana pudding for dessert but didn't get to have it until my bedtime snack. I worked hard on making sure there wasn't much sugar or carbs in it all. I roughly had about 44g of carbs and just over 12g of sugar (though I have no idea what a good amount of sugar is since the dietician never said anything about it). My lunch and dinner usually consists of 45g of carbs and my blood sugar after them has never been above 116. My lowest being 89 after consuming a slice of pepperoni pizza from Sam's and a little less than 32oz of diet caffeine free coke (diet soda is on the free list! Woohoo! Though I don't much care for it).
I've been writing down everything I eat and how much of it I eat. I'm trying to find the perfect day of meals for me without having to stick myself both before and after I eat. I love knowing my body and GD is something new and I'll only be dealing with it (most likely) for 9 more weeks. I've got to figure it out now. After my pregnancy I will be making sure I get healthy again because I will NOT be dealing with this again. I swear!
My biggest problem is breakfast. Sugars have been between 125-135. Now, I've been told that the pancreas has a hard time getting going in the morning so my sugars are going to be higher then than they will be the rest of the day. But I know there has to be a perfect breakfast for me. So far, anything I eat with a starch, banana, and peanut butter, has given me my lowest scores for having a full meal. But there's one breakfast I didn't get to test my sugars with. Eggs, a slice of toast with cream cheese, and milk. It was my first breakfast on the diet. I'm going to eat that tomorrow and see if that helps. My bread comes just under the full serving, though. A serving is 15g of carbs per slice. Mine has 9g of carbs per slice. Also, whole wheat stuff seems to have quite a bit of protein in it.
So it's been a lot of trial and error and I still have a ways to go to really figure this out. I've looked up foods that are great for nourishing the pancreas and I will be eating more of those. Also, exercise. I've been a lump the entire pregnancy which makes me pretty mad. I kept losing track of time and before I knew it, I only have 9 weeks left!
To do a more controlled test on breakfast tomorrow, I shouldn't bother with exercising for a little bit before my test. But I will make sure I get exercise in every day from now on.
I've only seen one difference in anything. From the moment I heard I could have GD I became more strict with my eating. I cut out soda completely (having fallen off the wagon and drinking a 20oz every week for a month and a half), didn't have any other sweets, stopped eating what little fast food I did, and made sure I ate at home. But my changed eating habits weren't the difference, it was my baby. The little one was moving around so much more during the day. I mentioned this to my mom and she said it could be the lack of sugary and fatty stuff, or it could just be the baby's at that stage where it's gotten big enough to really be felt. I think it's the lack of sugary and fatty stuff because I doubt one week is going to make that much of a difference in size.
Well, sorry for this long post, it was just a road so far kind of deal. I am going to try and put together some things I've found that are good and come back later today or tomorrow and post them!
Hello!
Hi, my name is Sarah and I am here to blog about the troubles and triumphs of the last few weeks of my pregnancy while dealing with gestational diabetes. I started this blog in hopes of putting together as much information about gestational diabetes as I can for other women. I hope to inform you about the risks and also offer a bit of hope.
I tried searching the internet for a decent site containing meal ideas, maybe a few meals plans, and recipes for women with gestational diabetes (from here on out referred to as GD). No matter how much I looked, there was no one site that held everything I wanted. Those that had anything about GD were sub par and didn't help me out very much.
Yes, GD is a medical condition brought on by the stress (not to mention hormones) a woman's body takes during pregnancy (usually caused by genes and beginning the pregnancy overweight and unhealthy). But there is so much more to the whole deal that even the dietician doesn't bother to explain.
Let's face it, we're not used to eating like we have to while on the GD diet. If we were, we most likely would not be having this problem. So to just give us a list of good and bad foods, a generic meal plan, and a few pointers, really doesn't help us out much. If you're anything like me, you end up standing in the kitchen staring at food label after food label, adding up carbs and proteins in your head or on your hand, hoping that you get the right amount of everything. It's daunting, it's tedious, and downright annoying!
All I want is a master list of foods (a list that includes even a load of bad-for-you processed junk), a little booklet with meal plans for every day for 12 weeks, and then some amazing recipes. I'm sure there's some huge book that goes into detail about everything but you end up having to sift through all this information you really don't need. I'd much rather have something short and to the point. Something I don't have to give an arm and a leg to have. I believe information like this should be given free of charge. Why should we have to spend wads of cash in order to be healthy? Whose right is it to make money off of us because we don't happen to be doctors?
So, again, with this blog I want to put together as much info as I can in order to help other pregnant women with GD easily deal with their condition. To some, 12 weeks might not seem like a lot, but to those of us having to change our entire way of eating, it can feel like a million years.
***A Little About Me***
As I said in the beginning, my name is Sarah. I'm 23 and am currently 31 weeks pregnant (yes I know the blog is 12 Weeks and Counting, but it took me this long to figure out I'm S.O.L. when it comes to getting info on food and meals for GD) with my first child. I live in Alaska and have since December 1999.
Pre-pregnancy I weighed 230lbs. As of Monday, August 29th, I have gained only 15lbs. It's a little more than I had wanted to gain by now, but certainly much less than I could have. I barely changed my eating habits after finding out I was pregnant. I did cut down on soda (though I didn't drink much to begin with), didn't have fast food for months (it was one of my aversions), and tried not to eat too much at each meal. I'm not a sugar junkie and though I do like junk food I don't eat many potato chips and whatnot.
If you're wondering where my 230lbs came from, it's leftover breakup weight from 2007. I'm pretty good at maintaining my weight but not so good at losing it.
Well, diabetes runs in both sides of my family and my oldest sister (I have two older sisters, no other siblings) had GD with her first pregnancy. Still waiting to see if she'll have it again with this one (she's pregnant, too, due 7 weeks after me). So with my weight and genes against me, there wasn't much hope of not having GD. I'm just trying to make the best of it.
I tried searching the internet for a decent site containing meal ideas, maybe a few meals plans, and recipes for women with gestational diabetes (from here on out referred to as GD). No matter how much I looked, there was no one site that held everything I wanted. Those that had anything about GD were sub par and didn't help me out very much.
Yes, GD is a medical condition brought on by the stress (not to mention hormones) a woman's body takes during pregnancy (usually caused by genes and beginning the pregnancy overweight and unhealthy). But there is so much more to the whole deal that even the dietician doesn't bother to explain.
Let's face it, we're not used to eating like we have to while on the GD diet. If we were, we most likely would not be having this problem. So to just give us a list of good and bad foods, a generic meal plan, and a few pointers, really doesn't help us out much. If you're anything like me, you end up standing in the kitchen staring at food label after food label, adding up carbs and proteins in your head or on your hand, hoping that you get the right amount of everything. It's daunting, it's tedious, and downright annoying!
All I want is a master list of foods (a list that includes even a load of bad-for-you processed junk), a little booklet with meal plans for every day for 12 weeks, and then some amazing recipes. I'm sure there's some huge book that goes into detail about everything but you end up having to sift through all this information you really don't need. I'd much rather have something short and to the point. Something I don't have to give an arm and a leg to have. I believe information like this should be given free of charge. Why should we have to spend wads of cash in order to be healthy? Whose right is it to make money off of us because we don't happen to be doctors?
So, again, with this blog I want to put together as much info as I can in order to help other pregnant women with GD easily deal with their condition. To some, 12 weeks might not seem like a lot, but to those of us having to change our entire way of eating, it can feel like a million years.
***A Little About Me***
As I said in the beginning, my name is Sarah. I'm 23 and am currently 31 weeks pregnant (yes I know the blog is 12 Weeks and Counting, but it took me this long to figure out I'm S.O.L. when it comes to getting info on food and meals for GD) with my first child. I live in Alaska and have since December 1999.
Pre-pregnancy I weighed 230lbs. As of Monday, August 29th, I have gained only 15lbs. It's a little more than I had wanted to gain by now, but certainly much less than I could have. I barely changed my eating habits after finding out I was pregnant. I did cut down on soda (though I didn't drink much to begin with), didn't have fast food for months (it was one of my aversions), and tried not to eat too much at each meal. I'm not a sugar junkie and though I do like junk food I don't eat many potato chips and whatnot.
If you're wondering where my 230lbs came from, it's leftover breakup weight from 2007. I'm pretty good at maintaining my weight but not so good at losing it.
Well, diabetes runs in both sides of my family and my oldest sister (I have two older sisters, no other siblings) had GD with her first pregnancy. Still waiting to see if she'll have it again with this one (she's pregnant, too, due 7 weeks after me). So with my weight and genes against me, there wasn't much hope of not having GD. I'm just trying to make the best of it.
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