I just found out I failed the 3 hour glucose test and I'm kind of a hot mess. I'm trying to focus on the fact that I didn't cause this and I'm not a huge failure. I know some of you have had this before and any advice or words of wisdom to talk me off this ledge is appreciated.
Tgrrl, you didn't cause this and you aren't a huge failure!
It's going to be ok. Lily was born perfectly healthy and a healthy weight, and I was lucky enough that I was able to control mine with diet. I know other people were not, and it wasn't their fault and they weren't huge failures either - the pregnant body is a weird place!
What do you need most help with? I can share some meal plans - though I found a lot of that was very person-specific and will take some playing around on your part - we also did a GD check-in when we were pregnant that may be helpful for you to search and review.
It ended up being a bit of a blessing in disguise in my case, as I was watching what I was eating and didn't gain very much weight in pregnancy, which was especially good because I had started overweight.
Thank you @officedronette!! It completely blindsided me and I literally had a meltdown. So I very much appreciate your reassurance that it was nothing I did, nor am I a failure. I'm most concerned about finding enough variety to eat so I can better stick with the diet. I have a thing with textures, thus I'm picky. I'm not a huge fan of eggs or cheese sticks, so I'm trying to figure out a good assortment of easy go to protein snacks other than nuts and peanut butter. I'm also curious how my levels will be with how I eat now and I've heard that everyone seems different in how their bodies work. I'm also looking at this as I'm 11 weeks away from my due date. I just dealt with a horrible sinus infection for 13 weeks and I powered through that, I can power through this.
Tgrrl - yes, you can do anything for X period of time.
Scrambled eggs were key for me - I had a lot of omelettes for breakfast. But I also couldn't have a lot of complex carbs (bread, rice, potato), yet simpler sugars were fine (I could eat candy and ice cream).
We got a spiralizer and that was great - I'm not normally a zucchini fan but love spiralized zuches with spaghetti meat sauce. Lunch was generally meat and veg as well.
The nurses told me to eat normally at first and see what needed tweaking after testing as opposed to overhauling immediately. Good luck! Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or want to see meal plan - I kept everything in a google doc, including my sugars
Hi, former GD lady here. This is totally not your fault and you will be able to control it. My DS was also completely healthy and a healthy weight. I felt a lot better after talking to my nutritionist in that I didn't have to give up everything I liked to eat. The key was balancing it out. I did a lot of tracking and planning out my food for the day. It helped to know in advance what I was going to eat when I got hungry. I did get put on a pill because my fasting numbers where high in the morning. Not much I could do about that. I was able to control everything else with my diet. My favorite snacks that weren't cheese, were fruit with a "dip" like apples and peanut butter. Good luck, you got this!
Post by lovemyirishtwins on May 3, 2017 19:36:28 GMT -5
Tgrrl I know diabetes and GD are different but I kept a planner and wrote down what I ate, my blood sugar pre and 2hours post meals for a long time. This allowed me to see patterns and start seeing what foods I could eat and what foods are tricky for me.
I have found for myself that the ketogenic diet really works well for me. I have a cheeseburger casserole I make with cauliflower as the base that my H loves. He thought it was potatoes the first time I made it. He is a meat had potatoes type of man but requests it often. I have a lot of other good recipes that are kid friendly and good as I cook 75 to 90% of our meals at home.
I had GD. L was healthy born at 38 weeks, 6 lbs 5 oz. I was able to control it by diet. I would try to not have more than 25g of carbs each time I ate. So if I wanted chips I would count out the amount of chips in serving. Helped me deal with feeling like I was giving up so much. I ate cloud bread and found great low carb meals on pinterest. I wrote everything down that I ate and would see what would trigger a spike. So I had some go to meals that I knew my body could handle. I measured out a lot of my meals. My sister is a type 1 diabetic and she helped me out a lot. It also put it in perspective that this was temporary and would only be a few months vs a lifetime. It's scary at first, but then it got easier. You can do this..
Tgrrl I also had GD and will most likely have it again. I had a breakdown when they told me too. But in the end, F was born extremely healthy at 38 weeks and 7.5lb. I even lost a ton of weight compared to orepregnancy since I was so careful with my diet, just like @officedronette. Another perk was extra uktrasounds...I saw the baby every week
I recommend hitting up the protein bar aisle at a grocery store. I found lots of bars I liked, shakes, etc that really helped me keep on top of the snacks. I was able to diet control it except for mornings like hereiam, so I had one pill to take for that.
Another key element I don't think anyone mentioned is exercise. I found that walking helped enormously to keep my numbers down if I had something with too many carbs that normally would have spiked my sugars. The exercise burns off the extra sugar if I remember it right.
Greek yogurt is great- I make my own parfaits-- I take the oikos triple zero vanilla yogurt (no added sweeteners or junk) and add a teeny bit of granola and some fresh berries. It's about 25g of carbs, compared to 40+ found in store bought ones.
I also like cheese, nuts, apples. I eat a lot of apples and you can add protein easily with pb or another but butter.
I also like kind bars for on the go. Almond coconut are my favorite.
Make sure you eat smallish meals throughout the day, especially at work. It's easy to keep going without eating and then you wind up starving and overeating on your break, which might make your blood sugar high afterwards.
Also drink lots of water-- being dehydrated can make your blood sugar higher. If plain water is yuck, try adding lemon or even those crystal light packs. I try to avoid too many artificial sweeteners, especially during pregnancy, but it's a nice treat if you are used to drinking juice.
Greek yogurt is great- I make my own parfaits-- I take the oikos triple zero vanilla yogurt (no added sweeteners or junk) and add a teeny bit of granola and some fresh berries. It's about 25g of carbs, compared to 40+ found in store bought ones.
I also like cheese, nuts, apples. I eat a lot of apples and you can add protein easily with pb or another but butter.
I also like kind bars for on the go. Almond coconut are my favorite.
Make sure you eat smallish meals throughout the day, especially at work. It's easy to keep going without eating and then you wind up starving and overeating on your break, which might make your blood sugar high afterwards.
Also drink lots of water-- being dehydrated can make your blood sugar higher. If plain water is yuck, try adding lemon or even those crystal light packs. I try to avoid too many artificial sweeteners, especially during pregnancy, but it's a nice treat if you are used to drinking juice.
Thank you! Work is definitely going to be a challenge. I'm already a big water drinker, I use propel packets to flavor, so at least I won't have to worry about getting that in.
So my appointment for my education is a ways off. I don't meet with the educator until the 15th and I have to wait to meet with the nutritionist until the 30th. I'd like to start trying to adjust my diet now, but I have some questions. 1. I get that you try to balance out your carb intake and pair with a protein, but is there a minimum amount you need to have? Like, if I were to eat a Kind bar for a snack is that enough or do I need more? 2. I have really bad heartburn and due to that, I very rarely am able to eat much at any given time. I end up grazing most of the day. Will this be a problem? Thank you all again for your input and support, I really do appreciate it. It really helps to know those that went through it and nothing horrible happened because of it.
Tgrrl - I was not given a minimum nor a maximum. Though to give you an example of how weird my reactions were, I could have an egg sandwich with about 25g of carbs and be almost over my limit, and I could have a peanut butter milkshake with 80+g carbs and be well under it.
Tgrrl - I was not given a minimum nor a maximum. Though to give you an example of how weird my reactions were, I could have an egg sandwich with about 25g of carbs and be almost over my limit, and I could have a peanut butter milkshake with 80+g carbs and be well under it.
It's so crazy how everyone is so different! I've decided it may be nice to have my nutritionist appointment a couple weeks after I get my meter, so I'll have more specific questions. For right now I'm trying to eat something with a good carb/protein balance and being more aware of eating every 2-3 hours during the day. Until I can check my levels I really have no idea how it's working, but at least I'll have a framework to go off of. Of note I was able to check my urine at work to see if I had any glucose or ketones and I don't, so I felt a little better. I know things need to be pretty bad in order for those things to happen, but I was reassured nevertheless. I also did some reading on up to date which is like Wikipedia for health care professionals and I feel better except for their recommendations of doing a 2 hour GTT at 6 weeks postpartum to see if the GD is gone. Nope nope nope. Not drinking that stuff again and not doing that with a newborn!
So my appointment for my education is a ways off. I don't meet with the educator until the 15th and I have to wait to meet with the nutritionist until the 30th. I'd like to start trying to adjust my diet now, but I have some questions. 1. I get that you try to balance out your carb intake and pair with a protein, but is there a minimum amount you need to have? Like, if I were to eat a Kind bar for a snack is that enough or do I need more? 2. I have really bad heartburn and due to that, I very rarely am able to eat much at any given time. I end up grazing most of the day. Will this be a problem? Thank you all again for your input and support, I really do appreciate it. It really helps to know those that went through it and nothing horrible happened because of it.
I'm sure everyone is different but to give you an example, my carb limits were: 45g breakfast,60g lunch,45g for dinner and 15g for snacks (morning, afternoon, after dinner for snack). I was able to switch lunch and dinner carbs if I wanted. Along with this I was to eat protein and vegetables. I personally had trouble with my morning sugar going high so I had to eat less carbs at that meal. The goal is to keep healthy and steady numbers all day long which is why you shouldn't skip meals or snacks.
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So my appointment for my education is a ways off. I don't meet with the educator until the 15th and I have to wait to meet with the nutritionist until the 30th. I'd like to start trying to adjust my diet now, but I have some questions. 1. I get that you try to balance out your carb intake and pair with a protein, but is there a minimum amount you need to have? Like, if I were to eat a Kind bar for a snack is that enough or do I need more? 2. I have really bad heartburn and due to that, I very rarely am able to eat much at any given time. I end up grazing most of the day. Will this be a problem? Thank you all again for your input and support, I really do appreciate it. It really helps to know those that went through it and nothing horrible happened because of it.
I'm sure everyone is different but to give you an example, my carb limits were: 45g breakfast,60g lunch,45g for dinner and 15g for snacks (morning, afternoon, after dinner for snack). I was able to switch lunch and dinner carbs if I wanted. Along with this I was to eat protein and vegetables. I personally had trouble with my morning sugar going high so I had to eat less carbs at that meal. The goal is to keep healthy and steady numbers all day long which is why you shouldn't skip meals or snacks.
I'm having a hard time getting in that much eating! I'm just not hungry. Plus work gets so busy, that time flies and before I know it, it's time for another meal and I never had a snack!
It definitely took some getting used to. My husband had to remind me to snack, especially between breakfast and lunch. I'm also not sure it's how much you eat, but that it's consistent throughout your day so that your sugar doesn't go up and down all day.
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