I’ve decided to trial out switching up what I eat on a daily basis with the hopes of easier diabetes management.
Currently, I would say that I eat moderate carbs (80-140g/day, depending on the day) with no restrictions. I am lactose intolerant and don’t digest gluten too well, but I still eat both EDIT: Checking over my tidepool from the past two weeks, I am currently averaging about 124g carbs a day. Most of my carbs currently come from processed foods: bread, waffles, crackers, candy, desserts
I have gone paleo before, the longest period going for 6 months and other times I’ll do it for a couple weeks or so. I’m thinking of being mostly paleo while I am going through a lifestyle change (to one that will be more stressful and time demanding) so I’d like to see if I even have the mental strength to do paleo anymore in preparation of this switch of my day-to-day amount of stress
When I’ve eaten paleo previously, my diabetes management was not great in the first place, but going paleo lessened the mental burden of it and also totally dropped the amount of insulin I needed as well as the up and downs of my numbers. Largely I think this was due to paleo naturally being lower carb and without processed foods as well as no gluten and mostly no dairy.
I in no way am saying that paleo is meant for everyone, but I’ve personally had success with it in the past and think that it will be good for me throughout this lifestyle change. So I figured I would chronicle here on FUD anything I notice as a T1d going from a moderate carb diet to a paleo(ish) diet.
(also am posting here to have an additional branch of accountability as I’m attemptimg to move away from dessert for breakfast )
Feel free to ask questions! I’m planning on using this thread to post updates on before and after logs of my blood sugar numbers, status updates on trends I notice, etc.
Paleo doesn’t necessarily mean low-carb, indeed a lot of paleolithic humans ate substantial carb. Maybe you can define what you consider to be on the menu for someone eating paleo, along with macro nutrient goals per day. Is it possible that you mean you are going to go “keto”?
I am guessing she will end up with lower carb than she was eating, but more carbs than a true keto diet. In my understanding Paleo means meat, fish, eggs, unlimited vegetables and some fruit. Which depending on Macro goals could be anywhere from Keto to an unchanged number of carbs than what she was eating. i.e. 80 - 140 carbs.
Agreed. However, for me, it will be end up lower carb than I am currently eating most days based on how many carbs I ate last times I was paleo
I personally won’t be focusing on hitting macro nutrient goals, as I haven’t in the past. My focus is that the majority of my food intake will be coming from whole food sources. Largely this worked for me because that meant I was cutting out grains, dairy, processed foods. While eating paleo I don’t restrict the amount of foods but the kinds of foods.
An example day while paleo for me looks like
Breakfast: 1 or 2 eggs (boiled or scrambled with chicken, turkey, shrimp, bell pepper, zucchini, asparagus, etc, without milk)
Coffee black
Lunch: some fruit (banana, apple, berries, etc) with leftovers from dinner the night before (being meat and veggies)
Dinner: some meat or fish and veggies
If I get hungry throughout the day I’ll have some almonds or whatever else is a leftover I’ve made.
And I don’t really measure out the exact proportions because I’ll make what I have and eat however much to feel satisfied in that instance
While cooking, I like to meal prep with baking meat and veggies since it’s so easy to lightly cook whatever I’m cooking with a type of oil then salt and pepper. There’s plenty of paleo recipes that I’ll follow on weekends when I have more time. My main focus while cooking is again opting for Whole Foods and avoiding processed ingredients.
From my understanding this is different from Keto in that I have no goal of ketosis in what I’m eating
To clarify as I go along I’m happy to post some of menu of the day. Its hard to side by side compare paleo to Keto since paleo can be done differently depending on the person. For me like I said the focus is cutting out processed foods, and I figured I’d frame the conversation with my current carb intake with the understanding that I do not restrict on any front. Like I said im super happy to post what I do end up eating so we can nail down an average carb and macro nutrient intake of what paleo looks like in someone such as myself
@LarissaW Another difference I can see (I’m not very familiar with Paleo, just a little and what you’ve posted here) is that keto is high in fat, 75-80% fat, with carbs and protien making up the difference - and you haven’t talked about fat. I’m struggling with keto right now; I really like the low carb aspect, but we’re (my husband and I) aren’t eating enough fat and I’m currently not eating right at all, by any definition.
I hope all goes well for you and who knows, maybe this will be an avenue that we’ll give a-go too at some point in the future!
I’ll love following along! I’m in process of gradually transitioning (or really, finalizing the transition) to a paleo-ish way of eating. I already primarily eat whole foods, except for occasional gf breads/crackers and desserts. Lately I’ve been having some fairly major issues with several foods, so I’ll likely go more autoimmune paleo first, then slide back to paleo. Which will be tough…
@Tapestry If you’d like to message me, I’ve been on a keto lifestyle for almost a year (less than 15 grams of carbs per day). One of the most common difficulties in successfully transitioning to keto is getting your fat macro above 70% of your total daily calories.
Maybe that is what Paleo has become, but it used to be almost exclusively meat, which is why I have never had any interest in it whatsoever. It used to exclude most fruits and vegetables (apples, bananas, peppers, tomatoes, citrus, etc.) since they had been hybridized by man and are different from the way they first appeared in nature.
What’s being described as Paleo here sounds a lot like Mediterranean diet except without the whole grains - Mediterranean also consists of whole foods and minimizes processed foods.
Aww, don’t be too hard on dessert for breakfast. Several hundred million generally healthy people do it. The French with their croissants and pains au chocolat and brioche, the Italians with cornetti and plum cake aka yellow cake, the Greeks with their custard-filled bougatsa, and the Spanish and their churros. So go ahead! Just tell people you’re following the Mediterranean diet.
Thank you @Tapestry!
Yes, like you picked up on with paleo (at least in my eyes), there’s not a strong focus on how much fat intake there is. Personally I don’t want to be figuring out/calculating the amount of fat, protein and carbs I’m intaking, especially knowing I’ll be moving onto a stressful lifestyle where that will be a low ranking priority. Which is a plus for paleo since it should be an easier management for me as long as I stick to eating unprocessed foods
I’d love to see what sort of things you have on your menu! Especially autoimmune paleo. What does that entail and how does that compare to “normal” paleo??
So now I’m curious because I kinda use “the force” (as described by eric) with calculating how much insulin I need. I don’t really carb count strictly. How many carbs would you say I had today? Does caffeine and protein fall into carb counting because I still bolus for them but wouldn’t call them carbs?
This is a pretty typical day for me on paleo
And to round it out, look at how CUTE my blood sugars been today
Ok ok I know it’s only day 2 of paleo, but some trends I’m noticing already
I think I need to drop my basal. I’ll try out a -5% all day tomorrow
Numbers are definitely a lot tighter and if I’m rising or falling it’s a lot slower and thus a lot easier to catch. Today I had a standard deviation of 23 mg/dL - never experienced anything like that before !
-5% wasn’t quite enough since I was running low all day. I even tried cutting my boluses so they were about -30% of what I’d give if I were on my non-paleo diet. I think the basal is just weighing me down so when I do bolus, even extended over 3-4 hours, I drift down. I’ll be trying out -15% basal today. (for note: I am not on a sensitive phase of my cycle right now, and I have not exercised more than normal, so I am assuming that this drop in basal is due to diet change from non-paleo to paleo)
Though now I’m wondering: will my boluses be less for meal X when I’m paleo as compared to when I’m non-paleo? If so, could this be related to just how much other processed food is still in my body at that time (being more processed food = insulin resistance OR less processed food = insulin sensitivity)? Maybe a relation to microinflammation associated with processed food, namely gluten and dairy that I have some sensitivities too?
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Lately I’ve been having some fairly major issues with several foods, so I’ll likely go more autoimmune paleo first, then slide back to paleo. Which will be tough…
