Well, I guess folks like me because I have been hearing this a lot lately, just wondering how I am doing with this latest little development in my overall health. Primarily, the diabetes thing. Well, I think I’m doing fairly well, actually. Have gotten past the whole “why me?” sort of self pity party that comes when you get some big news like that. It did affect me for awhile, I will admit, a sort of heavy weight that just plopped down on my chest and refused to leave without being formally recognized. I did what I always do when confronted with something like that, I started to read, educate and learn as much as I could about the situation. Spent a lot of time at websites, got a few good books, just learned all I could on the disease.
Was given a blood sugar meter by some friends with a bunch of supplies and a funny lesson on how to use it. (It’s a long story, but still… it was kind of funny.) Started to test daily, a couple times a day and found it to be very depressing as it was often just way too high and wildly fluctuating. But then, that pretty much summed up my diet and way of life.
I got on the American Diabetes Association website and found it to be super good and informative. I found a diet there for a woman, my age, wanting to loose weight. With all these diabetes diets, they use a diet exchange program, that counts carbs primarily. One carb exchange is 15 grams of carbohydrate. For me it said that I could have up to 13 carbs a day, spread out, say 3.5 carbs a meal and then two to use for snacks. Up to 3 fruits a day, 6 dairy, pretty much unlimited veggies and 3 meat exchanges. Well, I decided that 13 was too much, so I went with 10… 3 carbs a meal and one for a snack. That way if I went over one or two, I was still under the recommended levels and if I could live with 10, that would be even better. And after watching a few movies/documentaries on health, I am also convinced that too much dairy and meat is really not good for you. So I’m trying to keep my dairy down to 3 a day and meat down to 2. I am writing down everything I eat… everything, even when I’m bad. (Which I have been a time or two, but still, over the last three weeks, I’ve been so darn good, I think I can be forgiven for that donut and a BIG sip of regular pop I canoodled out of Maggie. She is weak… hahah…. oh, well, I am more!)
So… my daily diet goes something like this…
Breakfast
2 eggs, a piece of toast, a fruit juicing of apples or peaches, maybe an orange
Lunch
couple slices of ham or turkey lunchmeat, a big salad with veggies and fruits and coutons for crunch, maybe a pulp cookie*
Snack
popcorn or a piece of fruit, maybe some veggies cut up, maybe a pulp cookie…
Dinner
A portion of chicken or pork or beef, veggies (try for two) and maybe a potato, or some noodles, cottage cheese or salad
Snack
A slice of bread and peanut butter, perhaps fruit, perhaps a juiced veggie/fruit drink, pulp cookie, cottage cheese, slice of cheese…
Seems to be working for me. A lot of the time I am 8 carbs or less. I’m even learning how to eat out, say Chinese or a diner, I just make sure I look for veggie loaded things, and say a chicken or fish dish, since I am not a good fish cook, so eating it out makes it much more delightful. Watch the whole bread/carb thing.
I’ve also really been reading up on the whole theory of glycemic indexes in foods and that makes a whole lot of sense to me. Rather than eating foods with processed sugar/corn syrup/white flour, I’m sticking with whole foods, whole wheat and really avoiding rice. I found that white rice really seems to knock me for a loop, where noodles made with semolina flour are much more tolerable. In fact, I found this pasta called Dreamfields that is recommended by the ADA and is really good and super low carb, yet tastes just like normal pasta. It’s awesome! I love pasta, so that really floats my boat for sure. And it’s not that much more than say a good brand of pasta.
Apparently, the best thing for a diabetic is to have a nice slight rise in sugar/carb intake through a meal than to say dump 5 carbs worth of pop into a dry stomach and then fast for 6 hours. And foods that have a low GI rating take longer for the stomach to break down into sugars. So it makes a lot of sense. 15 grams of pop which is pure easy to digest liquid is much different than 15 grams of whole wheat bread, which takes the digestive system much longer to break down and use as sugar. This slower process gives the body more time to regulate the sugar with insulin.
And I’ve also read and found to be logical, that certain foods eaten in order are better for you. Starting your meal with just a tablespoon of fat, say a small piece of cheese, will trigger the stomach to close down because it fears all the food will be fatty. And then followed by veggies, fresh, say a salad or coleslaw or crunchy carrots etc, will fill up the stomach and are harder to digest than say mushy steamed veggie or mashed potatoes. Setting your fork down between every bite slows you down and allows the body to reach that 15 minute “I’m full” level. Eating your meat/dairy/carbs after generally makes you satisfied with less, more with the taste than the bulk. And then if you want something sweet, make it a DESSERT… put a small yet delightful bit of sweet on top of it all and chances are it will not freak out your bloodstream and will leave you feeling happy for that little treat. Never dump sugar in your body on an empty stomach. Make sure it’s the last thing down so it gets to be in the whole meal mix and doesn’t spike your blood sugar.
So, yah, if you’re diabetic or live with one, this is probably nothing new, but it was pretty good stuff to me. And it’s working. I have dropped my blood sugar average down 50 points and have lost 10 pounds. Feel awesome for the most part, just a little tired at times because my poor old body was SO used to near constant sugar and carb overload for fast energy that now it’s having to deal with like 75% less!!! I’ve been told it might take a month or two before that feeling goes away. I’ve noticed that my skin is cleaning up considerably, especially my psoriasis. And I’ve been sleeping better, and just have been really feeling good. Focus is better, just feel more, alive? Active? I couldn’t believe all we got done this week, I just felt great even working in the near 90 degree weather. I love naps but to be honest, I didn’t take one all week yet!!! (I think I’m due one tomorrow afternoon though… in the hammock…. yeah….)
Haven’t had the A1C test yet, and I’m not on any drugs yet. Am waiting for an appointment through the cheap clinic, have to finish a ton of paperwork first. I am testing my fasting blood sugar every day. Three weeks ago it was wild from 270 to 350 fasting. Now, its between 220 and 240. I know its still high, but I am super enthused that just a few weeks of flying straight and eating good, carefully has shown such a good improvement. And what I really like is that even 2 hours after a good meal, it only goes up about 100 points where the first week it would go sky high easily. So there must be something to this careful eating, watching the carbs closely, laying the food in the stomach in a good way, and watching portions carefully. And lots of good exercise.
And the best part??? A York peppermint patty is only 1 carb!!! Yahoooooo! (Those are my most favorite candies in the world and I am so happy that I can actually have one here and there, or heck even every day if I am a good girl and allow for it.) Right now if I come to the end of the day at dinner under 7 carbs then a York patty is my reward for desert. Life is pretty darn good!!!!
And I began to think… if I hadn’t have been in pain, and gone to the ER, this other issue might never have been found until it was too late. It was a true blessing in disguise. Sure, I really didn’t need a $5,000 ER bill. (Which hopefully, I will be able to qualify for a few reductions through income programs and such….) but still, I could have easily ended up in a coma or with a heart attack, dead as a doornail. Everything has a silver lining and I think that I may have just dodged a major bullet. I am thankful that I have the chance to work on this, be a good girl and get my life in order. I got a whole lot more living to do for sure!!!!
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Sherri’s Super Awecious Juicer Pulp Oatmeal Cookies
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup white flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 to 1/2 cup granular sweetener
(Use what you like… I like brown sugar best, and about 3/8 a cup… 1/2 cup is too sweet, but 1/4 is a little too, ah, not sweet… haha…)
2 eggs
1 cup quick oats
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon or more of cinnamon (Cinnamon is being found to really help with your blood sugar!)
1 cup of juicer pulp (apple, carrot, peach, plum, grapes, anything!)
1/2 cup of chopped nuts (walnuts are awesome)
Mix all the first ingredients up, stirring after each one. Get it all nice and good and batter like and then add the last two, the pulp and the nuts. Super simple to stir up. Will be sort of sticky, a little gooey. Either spread in a pan to about 1/2 inch thick, like a small cookie pan, or use a scoop to make individual cookies.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes at 350 degrees until they are dense but feel done. I used a light spray of cooking oil spray.
These are really heavy, dense and satisfying cookies. Moist and super good. They feel like you are SO cheating, but they are filled with super good stuff, oatmeal leaves you very content and is a low GI food. And the fruit, yummy!
I calculated the entire batch of cookies with nuts and brown sugar as my sweetener to be 230 grams of carb. I usually get 18 cookies from the batch, so that makes each one 12.7 grams or lets call it 15, or one carb exchange. If you make them smaller, you can get 2 cookies for each carb exchange! And if you drop the sweetner to 1/4 cup, you can lower the over all carb count of the batch by 20 grams. (So you can have more cookies for the same old carb exchange!!!) Just count how many you end up with and divide by either 230 or 210 depending on how much sweetener you use. If you use something low sugar like an artificial sweetener (Splenda?) then you can take away 45 grams and add whatever your sweetener is, to the grand total. I haven’t tried that yet because I’m not a big fan of those other sweeteners.
I fiddled around with an old oatmeal cookie recipe I had for years and adapted it to work out nice, taste good and just give me that feeling of a sweet cookie treat. With the carrot in the mix they almost taste like a super good carrot cake. I bet you could dribble a wee bit of cream cheese icing to make them super special. Just a wee bit.
And it’s awesome to use that good fruit and veggie pulp for something so good!!! Nothing is wasted!!!
Enjoy!
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Man please oh please do not take this the wrong way… I am NOT being witchy in ANY way…
If I am reading correctly the ADA is saying you can have 15 units of 15 carbs a day?
So 225 carbs a day?
That is nowhere near “lowcarb” at all. Not trying to be snarky. Lowcarb for most lowcarbers means well under 100 carbs and usually under 50 with no bread/popcorn/potatoes/sugar/fruit. Most fruit (especially juice) is not low glycemic at all. It’s basically drinking sugar when you are diabetic. Most lowcarbers avoid all fruit or maybe have berries as they are low in carbs in moderation.
It might be the reason why your numbers arent getting lower. Hubby had to go *true* low carb to get his numbers into the low 100’s.
Like I said before I have a big issue with the ADA. They seem to think telling diabetic people to eat sugar and flour and carbs is a good plan. Makes me question their motives and if they have political ties to pharmecutical companies.
Like I said… not attacking. It is your path. Your choice and your life. I wont comment anymore after this post.
Just remember though if your numbers still stay that bad (yes 200’s is bad) even after doing what they say… then maybe what they say isn’t actually working.
Good luck!!!
{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{hugs}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}
Hi…. Thanks for speaking out, it’s fine with me, I know you’re not being mean spirited at all!
Yes, they do say that 15 grams equals one carb exchange and that a woman, wanting to loose weight should have between 2 and 3.5 carb exchanges a meal, and snacks… so at the high end that would be 11.5 for meals and then 2 more for snacks… 13.5…. sounds high to me! I totally agree!
I can’t find the website, of course, that used 15 as the total total, but still 13.5 is still pretty high.
I’ve been using 10 as my max and really have been coming in under that and even as low as 7 one day.
I found some interesting stuff that was kind of slamming the ADA…
http://www.healthy-eating-politics.com/american-diabetes-association.html
That’s too bad that they are kinda of being a little misleading… Or certainly not really recommending the best for the people they are supposed to be helping.
Well, I just hit my best number yet, for morning fasting blood sugar. 200. I know it’s still high, totally, but I’m so geeked that it’s going down, down, down. I see now that I will have to work a little harder, I’m going to shoot for 6 carb exchanges a day for a week or two and see how that helps. I think I can do it. I will have one for breakfast, 2 for lunch and 3 for dinner, with no carb snacks in between. I know that more carbs in the morning would be better, but I just don’t seem to want them, then, as much as dinnertime.
Will dink around with this new goal and see how it works. All a new experience for me, and I know if I make it too severe, I won’t do it. It’s going to have to be something I sort of ease into, like I have been doing. When my fasting levels were 300+, I’ll take a 100 point average drop in three weeks with much rejoicing! It’s closer to the high normal… and it’s not hurting me or making me grouchy or nasty… haha…. that’s important too.
If I can whack another 2 or 3 carb exchanges outta my day and still see lower results and live with it, that will be wonderful! I’d really like to be able to control this with just diet and exercise. That is my goal.
Thanks a bunch for being able to come forward and all! I do appreciate it! Im no expert, just trying hard to make heads and tails of all the stuff out there and buddy, there is a ton of information out there!
((((hugs!))))
Sherri
I was wondering the same thing as Freya too, if that meant 15 of 15 or just 15grams period. 15 seems too low but 15 of 15 is SO much. I’m just curious about stuff and always interested to see what people find works for them. I also don’ mean to criticize so I hope it doesn’t sound that way when it’s typed.
I didn’t set out to do low carb purposefully but I had lung damage from the flu and then found that grains really aggravated my lung inflammation. So over the last few years I cut grains down and finally almost completely eliminated them over 6 mo ago. I do eat a small amount of non-gluten grains every now and then (corn or rice), like once or twice a month I mean. Otherwise completely grain free of every kind of grain. Besides it helping my lungs I’ve had many other health benefits I didn’t expect and have lost a lot of wait and keep losing. I also used to have trouble with blood sugar going too low and now it is steady all the time and I have steady energy throughout the day. I do Nourishing Traditions type diet to begin with so I was fermenting grains before but they still bothered me. Anyway, I do believe that different diets/nutrition work for different people, so everyone has to find what is best for them. For me it turned out to be no grain and high (good saturated) fat (grass fed meat and dairy, avocados, coconut oil, etc). I’ve read a lot on the Primal diet blogs, Paleo, GAPS and other grain free or low grain diets. Also I read a lot from Dr. Mercola about grains and fructose from fruit also. I didn’t start reading any of that until I found I had problems with the grain though, so it’s like you said life does things that end up leading us where we need to go for other reasons. I don’t follow any of those diets because I do eat potatoes and other stuff they don’t eat but I find ideas for recipes and stuff. At first I didn’t know how I would live without grains but now I wonder why I ever ate them. I feel so much better. I do bake with coconut flour which is very low starch/carb and also doesn’t bother my lungs. And I don’t count carbs every day but based on what I eat I’m usually under 100 grams per day. Often around 50 -70 grams. But at 15 grams I don’t think that would be enough to have energy to get around daily life, so that is why I was curious.
Yep, they mean 15 grams of carbs equals one carb exchange.
And they recommended 2 – 3.5 carbs a meal with snacks… Can’t find the exact site that said 15, but the ADA’s high for a woman to loose weight is 13.5…
I think I’ll be shooting for half that, or say 6 a day… see if that continues to help me bring the levels down. It’s all new to me, I was probably doing 30 + carb exchanges a day easily with the pop and such.
I just had my first 200 fasting blood sugar, the lowest since I started and I’ so happy! I know it’s still high, but it’s a low high… haha…. so much better than the 340 that was my highest high… fasting. It’s a great start.
My first “goal” is 170. I’m only 30 points away!!!!!!! I’m going to do as you and Freya suggested and try this week to lower it to 6 carbs a day. See if I can do it and how it affects my over all averages. I think I can do it. Just have to really be watchful and careful. Make good choices.
Thanks for your comment! It means a lot to me that folks take the time to react and all!
Sherri
That is great you are already seeing so much progress already! It’s sad how we don’t learn these things until we have more drastic health problems, but that is life I guess. It took a lot of trial and error and reading lots of different stuff for me to find what worked best for my health, but it has sure made a huge difference for me. Plus now that I’m eating right for my body I almost never have food cravings or feel deprived of anything even though there is lots of stuff I quit eating. Sounds like you are on the same kind of track, figuring out what works best for your body. Even though having health problems is frustrating I’ve also found it to be really empowering along the way of trying to solve them through nutrition. Best wishes for your journey and continued improved health!
I don’t know why they don’t test these things on everyone, often say past a certain age… it’s such a easy thing, just a pin prick and a reading. I wish I knew the levels I was at a year ago or even six months ago, because I’m betting they were TERRIBLY high… But I just have to know that I’m doing better and I am seeing progress, and hopefully within another month I’ll have even better progress and can report that I am in the normal level with controls, good diet and exercise and perhaps a low dose medication to assist. That is my goal. Thanks a bunch for writing!!!!
Sherri
*weight* not wait, LOL
Man I had to come back worrying all night if you took my post wrong as an attack!
You have done a great job and my post was not meant in anyway to belittle or make light of the hard work you have done already! I know you will figure out your way!
And great job on getting your numbers dropped further!
And I second the “Nourishing Traditions” book! It is AWESOME!!!!!!
You can do this!!!!!!!!
Naw, it takes a whole lot more than that to get me upset. I’m so easy going its not funny. And I appreciate that you care enough to take the time and get it straight. You enlightened me, and I think I’m beginning to see that the ADA is a little, well, wack on some of the things they are saying. I did like that one poster/graphic that said why is the ADA recommending carbs to carb intolerate people??? Haha… hmmmm….
You just see things like that, from a big organization and it’s very easy to think, wow, they know what is up. I know I’m heading in the right direction, because of the lowered levels, they just are still high, no doubt but way better. I dread to think what they were before when I was drinking a LOT of sugar pop and eating whatever I wanted, mostly a good deal of white flour stuff and all. I had been really into fast food, like 3 or 4 times a week, for the convience… but moving out here stopped that since there are few and far between places for the foul stuff. But still, I was probably easily doing about 30+ carb exchanges on a bad day. So to go down to 10? Yeah, it is working.
Been trying to go to 6 and that is a little harder. I seem to hit 7 okay and it’s funny how just one less is a challenge. But I’ll make it. Going to have to. I want to be around a good long time! (And I don’t want to take shots!!!!!)
Just got to make it all happen and get with a real doctor instead of playing one on the internet! haha… soon I hope. I think that the metformin or some other type drug will help too. And of course, awesome people like you guys out there! You help too!!!
Sherri