Archive for February, 2007
Hello Jello
Normally I avoid packaged, processed and chemically-enhanced “foods”, but yesterday in a rushed search for something to get my blood sugar up from the low 60s before exercising, I discovered a box of Chocolate Sugar-free Jello Pudding in the cabinet and decided to whip up a batch. I knew it didn’t have much nutritional value on its own so I added in a cup of cottage cheese and a scoop of whey powder - heaven! I was actually excited when my blood sugar went too low again after dinner because I got to eat even more. I’m definitely going to have to exercise restraint if I’m going to keep this stuff around, or perhaps make my own instead so I don’t have to fear an ingredient list that includes such gems as aspartame and acesulfame potassium, tetrasodium pyrophosphate, disodium phosphate, mono- and diglycerides (”to prevent foaming” - god forbid!).
Not sure what caused my lows last night other than maybe a little delayed Starlix action. My BG was way too high (174 - suspected culprit: frozen blueberries added to my plain yogurt) after my afternoon snack which was taken with Starlix, but then an hour later it fell to between 47 on one meter and 63 on another at 7. At 8:30, post- Jello/cottage cheese/whey (taken without Starlix) and exercise it was 111, then an hour after dinner (leftover White Chicken Chili, with Starlix) it hit 53! The strange thing about the 53 after dinner was that I didn’t feel at all like I normally do during lows (shaky, confused) - instead I just felt unusually sleepy.
I should also note that I just ate the Jello/cottage/whey concoction again with only a half a Starlix (fearing a repeat of yesterdays lows), and an hour later my blood sugar is 170. Too much carbohydrate (22g by my estimations) too fast I suppose - I’ll try again some day with a whole Starlix, but maybe my new love is at least for now best reserved for lows and post-exercise.
Add comment February 27, 2007
Serving Size misunderstandishment
How would you interpret the following nutrition information at the bottom of a recipe?
PER 1 1/2-CUP SERVING: Cal 320; Fat 4.5 g; Sat fat .5 g; Chol 80 mg; Carb 28g; Protein 39 g; Fiber 9 g; Sodium 1240 mg
At first I thought it meant that the serving size is 1.5 cups and resolved to only eat one cup of the delicious White Chicken Chili I cooked last night for lunch today since an extremely (2-3 cups maybe?) large and unmeasured serving of it had my BG still a bit high at 141 an hour after dinner last night. But now, 30 minutes after lunch, I’m feeling quite sluggish and am wondering if the nutrition information should read “per single .5 cup serving”! I’ll ask my meter in 10 minutes and see what he has to say.
Update: and the meter says… 114! Down two points from 116 before the meal and 114 mid-morning. So either my meter is stuck in the 110s, the serving size is in fact 1.5 cups, or my Starlix is actually doing its job. 
Add comment February 26, 2007
More on Exercise and Highs
This morning my fasting was a happy 76, but after my normal breakfast and two mid-morning snacks of 5 almonds each, my BG was 149. I ate my lunch (leftover Buffalo cheese burger on whole wheat, caramelized onions, spinach, condiments) anyway because this morning the scale showed that I’d lost a couple of pounds which is NOT a desirable outcome and seems to indicate I’m not getting enough calories. I’m wondering if this lack of fuel to burn could also be causing the post-cardio highs.
I’m trying to get a better grasp on the physiology of how the body fuels itself during exercise, and so far if I understand things correctly, the highs could be my liver dumping glucogen into my blood stream for fuel. I’m unclear on whether this is one of your body’s “last resort” fuel sources, or whether that is a normal response to vigorous exercise. It will be interesting to see later this week and weekend if the less intense workouts I plan to do also cause highs. From what I’m reading it sounds like most type 1s just add insulin before vigorous training, but unfortunately I don’t have that option (yet :)), so I plan to try eating some protein or a small meal (with Starlix if necessary) in the late afternoon, perhaps an hour or two before exercise time.
A few helpful links:
3 comments February 21, 2007
Exercise and highs
Tonight I (barely) completed my first full 45-minute Turbo Jam workout. I had fun doing it, and afterwards thought I’d treat myself to a protien shake. But my meter said otherwise: 168 followed by 174, up from 83 immediately before my workout. What a buzz kill. An hour later I’m still in the 140s! What in the world is going on here? Perhaps its time to give my endocrinologist’s PA a ring…
Oh, I did remember albeit a bit too late to take the “high” opportunity to do my first at-home renal threshhold test, per Jenny’s excellent page about MODY. At 140+ the strip showed no sign of glucose in my urine. Hopefully next time I go into the high 100s I’ll remember to test again.
2 comments February 21, 2007
10 Degrees South
Last night the Mr. and I went to 10 Degrees South for a belated South African birthday dinner. The food was quite delicious and diabetic-friendly and even brought back some fond memories of our trip to Cape Town many moons ago. We had the crab pastries (seasoned with peri-peri, a perfect spicy something I intend to look up and pursue for use in my own kitchen) and Boerewors to start, then Ostrich and Lamb for main courses. G. had a dinner roll then sent back the remaining bread, and I skipped the mashed potatoes and ate around the carrots in my vegetable side. The meat portions were large but not over-sized, and I left stuffed but not comatose. My blood sugar was 131 an hour after dinner, and probably would have been lower had I not had a two tiny bites of G’s chocolate dessert.
My mother just emailed me to “brag” that her BG after her breakfast of oatmeal and toast, which I suspected was too carb-y and have been nagging her to test after for at least two weeks now, was 90. I’m excited for her and maybe even a teeny bit jealous that her Januvia is allowing her to eat carbohydrates, but not too jealous because I think I’m adjusting to low-carb life just fine, thanks in a large part to G’s constant support. He reminds me to check my blood sugar, helps police what I eat without being overbearing, sends away bread at dinner, buys me tomes full of low-carb recipes, handles more than his share of errands so I’ll have time to exercise, and accepts huge changes his own diet without a single complaint. I feel incredibly lucky to have him. The first few days without carbohydrates were hard but once that scary “constantly hungry” feeling subsided (and the head cold passed), things started looking up.
Oh, and a special thanks to my friend out there who encouraged me to get some light cardio WHILE I was sick. It felt like torture for the first few minutes but afterwards I felt human again. My lungs especially are thanking me today - this is the first cold I’ve had in years that I haven’t been coughing up junk for days afterwards. Thanks E!
1 comment February 20, 2007
Twenty-nine
It’s been a lovely 29th birthday. My cold is still lingering, but blood sugars seem back to normal aside from a little hypoglycemic episode this afternoon that I’m going to attribute to the half a bottle of Vueve Clicquot I consumed late last night. What better way to end the weekend than with a BG of 122 mg/dl less than one hour after one of my favorite dinners in the world: buffalo and beef burger with caramelized onions on a whole wheat bun.
Add comment February 19, 2007
Common Cold
The past 24 hours have been aggravating: on top of the nasty cold, my blood sugars have been hovering in the high 140s hours after meals that would normally have me back in the safe zone an hour later. I’ve looked online and can’t find any information regarding the affect of a common cold on a diabetic’s blood sugars other than the occasional reference to “sick days” making your body dump more glucose into your bloodstream. But how sick does your body have to be to do that? And does it apply to MODY diabetics?
Normally by this point in my cold (the snotty phase) I would have started taking Mucinex, but I’m afraid of throwing even more confusion into my system.
I suppose I’m going to have to suck it up and exercise today, even though the thought of even changing clothes makes me feel like I need a nap. Who knows, maybe it’ll make me feel better instead of worse and I can actually consume a carbohydrate or two at my next meal. I know the cold has a way of everything feel about 5 times more dramatic than it really is, but thinking about every thing I put in my mouth is really, really wearing on me. I resent having to fear bread and I just want my Starlix to work again.
Add comment February 16, 2007
Happy Anniversary: a decade of diabetes
I’m not sure of the exact date, but sometime between February 14th and February 18th of 1997, I was diagnosed with diabetes. What better way to celebrate my 10th year with diabetes than with a nasty head cold?
Add comment February 15, 2007
Good tortilla, bad tortilla
This weekend Mr. Lancetqueen and I took a lovely trip to Brooklyn to visit our friends and celebrate birthdays, anniversaries and babies. After over a week of checking my blood sugar five to six times a day, my fingers needed a break! I didn’t intend to take a complete break from checking, but I have to admit that although I ate quite well, I can’t really be sure because I didn’t check a single time the entire trip. I now regret squandering the opportunity to see what affect the pedestrian New York lifestyle has on my blood sugars - we walked so much my legs are still sore.
My first post-vacation check was yesterday after the Mr. and I’s weekly lunch at Taqueria Del Sol. My willpower was weak and I couldn’t resist the tortilla chips, so despite my otherwise healthy selections (one Laredo taco and turnip greens) my BG was a whopping 149 an hour after lunch. I wish there was some way to “get away” with my one real weekly food splurge, but my little experiment of taking the Starlix 5 minutes before I ate didn’t work. Maybe I could try 15 or 20? Who am I kidding, I should just not eat the chips. I’m sure the white tortilla isn’t helping either.
Dinner last night was a success with BG in the 80s an hour after, but lunch today must have gone too far into low-carb zone because an hour after eating a La Tortilla Factory whole wheat tortilla with turkey, cucumber, spinach and tomato, my BG was 66, confirmed with a follow up of 67! Eek. Next time I’ll either turn it into two wraps with two tortillas or try it without the Starlix (the latter probably a risky idea). The La Tortilla Factory whole wheat low-carb tortillas are so tasty and such a godsend after thinking I was banished from fajitas forever. I can eat at least two without my blood sugar going over 130.
Tonight I hope to begin my endeavor to inject a little high-intensity cardio and muscle into my life, but more on that later.
Add comment February 14, 2007
Diabetes-tracking tools
My current system for keeping track of what I eat, when I exercise and what my blood sugars are throughout the day is fairly simple: I create events for each meal, exercise and blood sugar reading in iCal on my Powerbook. (Click on the image to the left for a screenshot) Although it doesn’t give me pretty charts and graphs, it does give me this nice printout (see image to right) to take with me to the endocrinologist, then they can compare it with the charts they download from my glucose meter. I can also set alarms to remind me when to check.
The main problem with this method is that it doesn’t help me track how many carbohydrates I ingest at each meal. Although I keep an account at FitDay, FitDay is also flawed for diabetes tracking in that it only tracks your total carbohydrate for the day rather than at each meal.
Application-based diabetes tracking software for Apple OS X seems few and far between. This week I’ll be giving two other systems a shot: 1-2 Tracker and Health Engage.
Does anyone knows of an online-only system similar to FitDay specifically for diabetics?
3 comments February 7, 2007
