Last week, I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. My blood sugar has been well-controlled on my diet, but it has not been easy to follow. Turns out I have more of a sweet tooth than I realized! I am craving dessert like nobody’s business!
Here’s the gist of the diet: 30 grams of carbs at breakfast, 60 at lunch and dinner, 15-30 at each of 3 snacks. Apparently, carbs turn up in all kinds of places once you start looking for them! Sneaky little devils.
The day I went to "sugar school," aka diabetic education, I had what I thought would be a very appropriate lunch at Berryhill. I had one fish taco, an ear of roasted corn, and tea. Doesn’t sound too bad, right? It’s not pasta and a coke, anyway. And fish is supposed to be good for me, so I was actually kind of proud of that. But when my two hour reading was 135 (goal is 120), I reviewed my lunch with the dietician. Here’s the Official Carb Count: Two corn tortillas on the taco at 15 grams each. 30 grams in the ear of corn! And 10 grams per sugar packet in the tea; I used two. And oh yeah, some chips and salsa to kick in another 20 or so. That’s 100 grams, WAY over my limit! And I didn’t even have dessert.
That was my first clue that this could be tricky.
It really hasn’t been that bad; I’m just indulging in a little self-pity because I’m a week in and still craving Dr. Pepper and cupcakes.
Fat, protein, and calories are essentially unlimited as long as my weight is OK, so I’m eating eggs and bacon for breakfast, and I’ve had wilted spinach salad (bacon grease in the dressing! Genius.) twice this week.
I have to laugh at myself because it really is pathetic how badly I want a Route 44 Dr. Pepper right now. Carb count = 97.
That can’t be healthy. This diet has revealed to me that my approach to food is more emotional than I had thought. Craving.
God is working on my attitude. I think it’s a real problem that I have to limit myself to diet drinks (which I hate) or water. Seriously? This counts as an actual problem? In the midst of such abundance, I’m whining about cutting back on high fructose corn syrup? It’s a little embarrassing.
I know that so many of many friends would gladly eat rocks if they could just have a baby. I am immensely grateful for what still counts as a “healthy” pregnancy.
2 comments:
so sorry you have this:(
i had it with all 3 pregnancies.
borderline, but still had it.
i really struggled with it, i felt kind of sorry for myself. i never knew anyone my age to have it? (and still haven't known anyone, till you...although i know there are women our age who have it)
and i too have a HUGE sweet tooth:)
i ended up skipping lots of bread and tortillas, etc.
i ate a lot of protein (like fajitas but without the tortilla, burger without the bun).
and if i ate something sweet i chased it with a piece of turkey lunchmeat or nuts, for protein)
i'll be thinking of you...
so glad everything else is going well with your pregnancy!
(ps there is a natural sugar called Erythritol...sold as Organic Zero (HEB)or Sweet n Natural (online). it has no bad aftertaste and does not effect your blood sugar levels. you can add it to tea, coffee, whatever...i really liked it. you can bake with it, but i had a hard time getting the adjustments right, because its sweeter than sugar and sometimes you can taste a cooling effect, its subtle, but its there. i think it works best in drinks. there is also soda made with Erythritol called Zevia. the cola flavor is best. doesn't effect sugar levels.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythritol
I agree with Elizabeth on the Stevia. I like Zevia. Sugar and I have a life long adversarial releationship. Yes, sugar is a 'force that attacks' me everywhere I go. In my first pregnancy, my midwife (to all her clients) said to me 'no sugar'...I said okay no prob (eat rocks..anything to have a healthy baby) and then advised me to keep a diet log provided by her. At my second visit I was informed that more than 15 tortilla chips = bad, honey in my tea = bad, more than 15 bing cherries = bad, etc., etc....I too had to go to 'sugar school'. All in all, I too took the GTT at about 34 weeks (whenever the normal recc. time is) and it was 140. The nice thing for me is that I was not diagnosed with GD but my midwife suggested I do home testing of my blood sugar just to monitor and make sure. I did and with those small (I say 'small' ..sometimes, it was pure torture) diet modifications (and plenty of Stevia powder!), my sugar was normal 90-ish.
Happy note. At birth, G was fine, big and healthy and soon after the birth, I only had 12 baby pounds to lose!! All that sugar sacrifice paid off in health. Now with W and T, I had a bit more fun but no sugar problems with diet maintenance in force (little Stevia though the last two)..just regular sugar,honey, etc.
One more thing, once you 'detox' from sugar (the big obvious ones like using honey, granulated sugar, etc.) after about 2 weeks, the craving dies. Mine did/does anyway. (yes, I still play this no sugar game and you have reminded me to do it again!) You do have to find replacements and Stevia is a plant so it is natural.
Have you considered knitting. ;-) Seriously, I think doing crafts and particularly knitting has decreased my eating out of boredom habits. (not to say you are bored..uh hello little J and B!) but just sayin'.
Hugs for a continued healthy pregnancy. You can do it!! Hang on!!
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