Breakfast: a few tablespoons of homemade granola with a splash of milk; scrambled eggs with mushrooms on sourdough rye toast; 1 Timbit (“donut hole” in American)
Lunch: green salad with kohlrabi, cherry tomatoes from the garden, and tuna; 1 peach
Dinner: gin and tonic; 2 rosemary crackers with butter and salt; fresh corn spoon bread; green beans cooked with bacon; leftover lamb sausage; homemade cherry bourbon ice cream; small glass of milk
Seemed to work well – though not all days are this nice:
Breakfast was 60g Bob’s Red Mill Muesli (Old Country Style) with 100g blueberries and somewhere around 3 oz half-and-half, followed by 2 Walkers shortbread and a pot of Harney’s Earl Grey supreme. I pretty much never eat lunch (for over 50 years). Dinner yesterday was about 3 oz Stilton on 8 Ryvita with sesame crackers (40 g carb) with a nice Argentinian red, followed by a chickpea curry with quinoa (about 90 g carb). Late snack was about 1/2 oz dark chocolate.
Today was pretty typical for me (so far, the day is not over):
Wake up, 07:36: 12.1g of lactose; the milk added to my tea.
Breakfast, 09:02: 20g;
I’ve yet to eat dinner, like, I’m on the west coast dude. Yesterday might prove more complete ;
Wake up, 06:14: 12.1g of lactose; the milk added to my tea.
Lunch, 12:26: 35g;
Dinner, 18:55: 35g,
So Wednesday was slightly weird because I went to the big city to get my teeth done.
All of those figures ignore the unreported munchies late at night, which vary according to the produce available. (I’m taking care these days to ensure I have an adequate supply of my own strained yoghurt.)
Sorry the pictures are so lores; SugarMate. My wife’s cooking is amazing, wonderful, to die for and the selection presented is pretty much just breakfast. I’ll update this post with dinner today; have to leave now; “Food’s ready. F*ck, OK.”
UPDATE:
Estimated at 35g; there’s some rice buried below what my wife terms “veggie burgers” (because there is no bun). Excellent. We go out to eat but every time I think, “Why am I eating this?” I’m spoiled.
Breakfast: 3 eggs, 12 oz V8, yogurt, English muffin
Lunch: PBJ, Kind protein bar, That’s it fruit bar
Pre-Hockey meal: PBJ, apple sauce
After hockey tailgate: 2 beers, hot dog on bun
Late dinner: ravioli, beer
Looking at many of these posts, I am hungry for carbs. How do you manage without that component? Without it, I’d feel starved and much more likely to snack later.
Like bkh, I started my day as I always do: with Red Hill or steel cut oatmeal, at least 1/2 cup fresh fruit, Greek yogurt and 2 Splendas. Lots of black coffee. Lunch almost always includes left overs. Yesterday it was homemade pizza, today it was Thai rice noodle casserole with green beans. Tonight’s dinner will be homemade meatballs in a pita bread and fresh corn.
I do eat carbs, lots of them. They are in the “vegetables”. Things like broccoli (which is a fruit too, but has a lot of wrapping), spinach, asparagus, fennel (anise, the bulb), bok choi, good cabbage for that matter, peppers (clearly a fruit). These are things I crave. Lots of carbs. Loadsa carbs.
The danger for me is in the staples; bread, rice, noodles (wheat), cassava, manioc. Nope; just say no. I guess I have to add sugar cane to that list even though it is a grass. I do like bamboo, yet that is dangerous for the same reason sugar cane is.
So… my wife explained to me a few hours ago that she has to add “a tablespoon of rice” to what she eats because it isn’t a meal without rice. She is showing insulin resistance; highs after eating, HbA1C 6.3.
It’s the staples that do it; if we are to go out and fight an enemy with our hands and our hearts we really do need a lot of carbs quickly. When we watch NetFlix we don’t, even though the action may be the same.
Three ways to resist:
Buddhism (not recommended, doesn’t work for my wife.)
Colonoscopy. One of my girlfriends insisted on drinking large amounts of water (warm); worked for her. Drink a pint when you get up, drink a pint before you eat. It doesn’t work to substitute the English diet, which is a pint of beer, sorry Eric.
The Farmers’ Market Solution; go to a farmers’s market, buy everything vegetative in sight, stir fry it.
[Spanish Inquisition extra]; go full red-blood carnivore. Eat steak. Add microwaved broccoli to taste. Wine helps.
This is asparagus, pork and breaded shrimp. It’s estimated at 35g for which I did 4.35IU but I had a fig which weighed 16g @16:23 (BG 83) and the meal was @17:27. My BS has just hit 202. It will come down.
4.35IU is on the lower side of typical for me at a meal and often my meals have much more volume. I’m looking at those breaded shrimps and, much as I loved them, I hate them too.
EDIT: my blood sugar didn’t come down, it stuck at between 200 and 223 the whole night, I did 2.8IU at 2am this morning. So there was probably more than 35g in that meal. My current ratios correspond to 6mg/dl per gramme of carbohydrate, so I was underestimating the total carbs (including the 16g fig) by 16g. That can’t all have been the fig; in fact I seem to have eaten some cashews as well and that is almost certainly most of the cause.
Another EDIT: I double checked and the wine I had may well also contribute to my error. The problem is that wine residual sugar has an extremely wide range. Wine Folly explains this and there is a less numerical prior article too.
Since wine isn’t labelled with carb content in the US the enormous range of sugar content makes it hit or miss for insulin; a bottle of Brut champagne will contain under 0.5g of carbs, a bottle of Bertani Amarone della Valpolicella Classico runs at about 4g and Amabile degli Angeli Recioto della Valpolicella Classo DOC 2007, entry 9 on this page, has a staggering 70g of carbs. Not that is it difficult to notice the sugar in Recioto della Valpolicella, but that is almost as much sugar as in Coca Cola’s infamous (but far cheaper) beverage (82g in 750mL; 110g/L).
IDK either, but I’m going to try to find out… I’m doing low carb for this week. IDK exactly how many carbs, but I’m getting my carbs from salad or non starcy veg such as broc, cauli or aspar and then focusing on proteins for the “full” feeling. For sweets, as I’m expecting that craving won’t be going anywhere, I’ve bought coconut oil and am going to make some fat bomb desserts.
I also bought an apple watch and have my dexcom readings going there, which I love so far.
REALLY trying to get control again and the only way I’ve been successful is through watching my dexcom, adjusting my basal as necessary and eating little carbohydrate. I’m just going to try this approach until my Endo appointment and then show him the data and plead for some help in making sense of it. I’ve been unable to get any control since the 2nd dose of my COVID vaccine (within hours) and that’s been 1.5 months now, 2 hospital visits, no help from any doctor I’ve reached out to. Sucks, feel hopeless and a little let down. BUT, going to try this approach and hope to at least get lower numbers because I’m really worried about my health.
I became diabetic while pregnant 34 years ago. I resisted every type of carb, and monitored every crumb I ate. About a year or two later, I read an article in the newspaper that it’s not the amount of carbs you eat that is critical, but making sure your carb intake matches the amount and type of insulin you inject. The article went on to remind diabetics to stop feeling guilty about eating dessert.
At last, my world opened up again. I was told something I could do. Or could stop doing: feeling guilty.
Today, I could never, ever simply eat a meal of a little portion of protein along with a bunch of veggies, no mattered how many different types of veggies I added and feel that’s enough. It’s just not. If I skipped the carb, I’d “justify” that meal with a little of this (like a little fig isn’t nearly as satisfying to me as a slice of toast or a bowlful of applesauce), or “a glassful” of wine (which is likely to cause spikes and crashes because of its variability). Over the years, I have cut back some, but have not eliminated staple carbs completely. I eat whole grains whenever possible and prefer rice or polenta/corn over wheat or potatoes.
Most important to me is the result. Did I take enough insulin? Did I watch my meter numbers often enough and did I bolus accurately if necessary?
I haven’t changed sizes since high school, so thank goodness for that area of consistency. 5’5", 114 lbs. And with my latest A1C test result - 6.5, my doctor didn’t think I needed to revise anything. So if I actually did eliminate the starchy carbs from my diet, how would my insulin change? To me, that’s really how to manage my control, not how many carbs should be in my diet but how much insulin do I need to match too?
It sounds like you now have a really healthy relationship with food/diabetes which is wonderful! I hope to get there someday too!! Right now I’m just going to do what I can to get my numbers down to somewhat normal (I’ve been all over the map up to the 30s for 1.5 months) and for whatever reason I cannot handle carbs at all these days. On a positive note, I’m REALLY active, so I actually like the idea of less carbs meaning less bolus on board/less low worries whilst being active!
The thing I tried once a couple of years ago was the carnivore approach; just eating red meat. It’s filling but somewhat more expensive than meat+green vegetables. One of the problems people face is that avoiding the starchy carbs is expensive; green vegetables are a lot more expensive, particularly if you go for organics.
Nuts are the thing that make me feel full. The cashews I ate last night are 47-17-26 Fat%-Protein%-Carb% (3% indigestible fibre). For me the adsorption rate seems quite slow and the total carbs after the protein and fat get converted is probably around 1/3 of the weight. Nevertheless I’m starting to go off nuts; I don’t actually like the full-ness feeling I get from them.
I think I’m lucky in one way; I don’t get hungry unless I do a lot of exercise or get the munchies from low blood sugar or wine consumption. So if I am just sitting around not doing much I have no inclination to prepare food more than once a day.
I’ve tried to be a carnivore OMAD-er but I get in my own way every time and boredom eat. I’m rare in that when I workout I don’t feel hungry, and I don’t drink at all, so I have those two things going for me… BUT, I have bad anxiety and stress eat and strait up only want carbs when I do. Trying to change. Today’s going well… I had coffee for “breakfast” an egg when I got hungry or bored or whatever, then lunch was a salad with a side plate of cheese, salami and olives. I ate all three coconut oil fatbomb desserts I made, but oh well. Now it’s that early afternoon time before work ends, long before dinner… I’m going to have a tea no food till din dins. I have a tenderloin steak for dinner which I may eat with butter not sure if I’ll add a side of veg or not. Long bike ride planned before dinner, so not sure if I’ll need carbs for that or not. So far today I’ve only used basal (no bolus for lunch, just about an hour long walk right after). I’ve been flatline today from 6.8-8.4 ish range which is a MAJOR win for me of late. I’m hoping I can keep it up and not get snacky late tonight. Might get some nuts just in case to have on hand. That is actually a good snack idea save for the boatload of calories, but right now that’s not my main problem to work on.
Update: I stayed strong and had my steak w butter and another coconut oil fat bomb. Numbers worked pretty well but got so nauseous around 830. Went to bed and slept it off. Perhaps was so much protein/fat? Ate at 6pm for reference. Wonder why I spiked around 330am? That’s usually when I start going low.
PP777, your spike looks like mine, which is my one major area of constant concern for me. Why do I spike every evening and why does it take 6-7 hours after my dinnertime meal? I’m exhausted trying to figure it out, maybe cuz I often stay up LATE to catch the spike.
Unlike most on this forum, I am not on a pump in part because I don’t trust them. I had been on a pump years ago, during the time I was pregnant, but I don’t ever think I could accurately program them. Also, unlike many here, I do not use the Dexcom. I had a terrible time with their distribution of supplies (ended up getting refunds for the next two years). So I take Toujeo for my basal and use the Libre 14-day CGM. I feel my concerns would be the same regardless of the monitoring system I use and I really prefer feeling free from being so electronically connected.
My latest change is to switch when I take Toujeo. Although I used to take it at “bedtime”, I was not always so regular about the exact hour I took the shot before. But my endocrin. doctor wondered if that medication actually lasted 24 hours, so she suggested I inject it at 7:00pm and watch if my evening sugars still spike. Other suggestions were: try NPh, try a different 24-hr insulin, delay my dinnertime bolus to after I eat. I have now done the evening-not-bedtime shot, but I still spike about 7 hours after my meal. I honestly don’t think it has to do with the what I eat, but the time of my meal. Maybe I should simply give up any carbs at dinnertime, as you’re all doing, but worry about the lows and then highs as a result. I’m envious of the graph you posted.
@Jubilee, we do have many members on MDI that don’t like pumps. I think the fact that on MDI there are fewer adjustments…so less to discuss…so less threads on it. However, your issue is interesting. Have you though about starting a thread on it? Although, you may not need anymore ideas you appear to have a pretty good list of possible solutions to try.