Gestational Diabetes, Part II

The first thing you should know about how I eat with the gestational diabetes is that it is influenced by our month of Paleo last March.  The second thing you should know is that, while how I eat might not fit the USDA food pyramid and it might seem counterintuitive, I have lost fifteen pounds since Thanksgiving.  Early on I lost quite a few pounds each week.  This was mostly water weight, but has also been in my face, arms, lower legs, and waistline.  It's hard to avoid being big at the hips and thighs when you are pregnant.   At this point, my weight either goes up by two pounds, down by two pounds, or stays the same between appointments.  So, regardless of what the nutritionist and the USDA says, how I eat works.  And it works well.  This blog post is mostly general thoughts on how I eat.  Next post will have actual food lists and menus that work for me.

On exercise:  I did cross fit before I got pregnant and until I was eight weeks along.  After that I was too sick to do much of anything, especially cross fit.  I was sick longer with this pregnancy than any of my others, so I wasn't able to return to cross fit until I was sixteen weeks.  After that, I did cross fit three times a week until I was twenty-four weeks.  At that point, I had to stop due to having contractions.  With the exception of what I do around the house and grocery shopping, I have not "exercised" since then.  It is probably the longest period of time that I have ever gone without working out or playing sports since I was four.  And yet I have lost fifteen pounds without feeling starved or deprived and without ever being hungry.  I am sure that my body would be more tone and stronger if I was at the gym every day walking or doing the elliptical, but I'll do that later.

On carb allowances: The number of carbs I eat affects my blood sugar levels after I eat.  It is best (for everyone, not just those with gestational diabetes) to avoid a huge blood sugar spike.  I eat fewer carbs than I am allowed by the nutritionist, and I generally look at a range of grams of carbs for each meal and snack rather than sticking to a specific number.  Sometimes I eat zero carbs at a meal, or few enough that I don't even count them.  I have gotten to the point that when I have a meal with essentially zero carbs, I don't even check my bs.   Sometimes I eat a ton (relatively speaking) of carbs-those are the meals where I definitely check my bs.  I experiment quite a bit with what I eat, in what context (meaning, what else I eat it with), and how much of it in order to see how it affects my bs.  In addition, there are meals that one day will be fine and on another day will raise my bs too high.   I count grams of carbs, minus grams of fiber and any sugar alcohols.  If there is a food that does not have a label-like fruit-I either google it or look on a carb-tracking app.  The only time I have used the carb exchanges on labels is when I wanted Chick-Fil-A.  I only went to the nutritionist once, but some people go every time they have an endocrine appt.

On tracking:  I stopped tracking my food once I figured out what worked and what did not.  This took about two weeks. Until then I would write down everything I ate and the portion size. I would then keep track of the bs level 1-2 hours after eating.   This allowed me to see what individual foods and what meals would keep my bs within the acceptable range.   Most blood sugar monitors will store a ton of readings, so I don't even bother writing them down anymore.  When I would get to my dr appts, I would just go through and write the ranges down for the dr, or I would do the same when I emailed her in between appts.  I have gotten to the point where I only take my fasting bs and then whenever I eat a meal where I am unsure how a meal will affect my bs.  It could be that my endocrinologist left the practice last week, so I feel like I have less accountability, or it could be that I know what I need to eat and what I shouldn't eat.

On how I feel:  Since I changed my diet, I have more energy than I have had in years, actually.   I have less swelling in my feet, face, and hands (even at 38 weeks) than with any of my other babies, and, while I still get emotional, my emotions are less of a roller coaster than they have been in the past few years.  My belly has been huge since early on in this pregnancy, and people frequently ask me when I am going to pop.  On the other hand, many people tell me that from behind they can't tell that I am pregnant.  That is always nice to hear, but I do think that when you have a huge belly, it makes your backside and hips look smaller in relation.  That said, the week before I started my new way of eating, I couldn't button my coat over my belly and I could barely use a belt up high on my ribs.  Within a week, I could not only zip and button my entire coat over my belly, but I could use the belt.  Now I can draw the belt through the buckle a few inches.  It's nice to have a waistline.  I do not like to take pictures of myself, but I might take one when I go into labor to show the difference between this pregnancy and Sydney's.  I will be about 10 pounds heavier this time than with Sydney, but I look like a different person.  I think, though, that once I have the baby, my hips will be back to looking wide.  That's when the real work begins.

On cravings: I do not feel the need for caffeine like I normally do.  Sometimes my body tells me that having a coke would make me happy, but I do not crave a coke like I normally do.  I have learned to drink diet coke, diet pepsi, and diet dr pepper, but I do not have a soda every day.  I drink Fresca and flavored water and lots of regular water.   I do crave Simply Orange orange juice.  And oranges and clementines.  I don't usually even like oranges, but a juicy clementine sounds so yummy right now.  Sadly, I have the palette of a 12 year old.  I love oreos and powder sugar donuts and chocolate milk and candy and homemade chocolate chip cookies.  And fast food.  It's pretty unfortunate.  I do have 1% chocolate milk on a regular basis, but none of the other treats.  I felt pretty grouchy early on thinking that I would have to go without sweets for so long.  But I found an ice cream where 1/2 cup is only fifteen grams of carbs.  And I found a  mini Trader Joe's dark chocolate bar that is only seven grams.  And diet hot cocoa that is four. I ate these more in the first few weeks.  I don't really crave sweets any more, but I keep a stash of these treats on hand so that I don't feel deprived.  I haven't even touched the ice cream.  I did try a "low-carb" eskimo pie that has sugar alcohols, but it is also low-fat and that means less creamy, more icy, ice cream.  It's not worth the carbs to me.  Another food I crave is french toast.  I love french toast.  I have low carb bread and sugar-free syrup so that I could make myself french toast if I ever felt the need.  I tried it once, it was ok, but not great on my bs, and it didn't taste as good as I wanted it to.  I haven't really craved french toast since then, but I have the stuff on hand so that I don't feel deprived.

On eating out:  I do eat out, but generally it is only someplace where I can have a mexican food-ish salad or a burger sans top bun and fries.  We tried going out to our favorite restaurant in early December.  It was incredibly depressing not to eat the bread and to order steak tips with green beans and a salad.  I can have that at home without missing out on the best bread ever made.  Neil and I eat at Chipotle and Five Guys when we go out on a date.  I also have been known to grab McDonald's when I am running errands during the day.  Interestingly, I generally love McD's breakfast (see the 12 yr old palette comment), and I tried that successfully a few times early on.  But I have not had that, or felt the need for it, since early December.  Last week I not only tried Chick-Fil-A, but also Moe's, and it was nice to have some new foods.  I can have one slice of a locally made thin crust pizza made with crushed tomatoes for the sauce, but I cannot have two.  I cannot have a slice of pizza from Costco or Dominoe's because my blood sugar is too high afterwards.

On the post-baby food honeymoon:  I have been given two(!) days after I have the baby to eat whatever I want before going back to eating this way.  (BTW, you could classify this as low glycemic index, high protein.  Or modified Paleo.  Either way, it is full-fat, high protein, high vegetables, low carbs.  It is actually easier than Paleo, in case you are a fan of Paleo.)  My list consists of multiple fountain cokes (or a glass-bottle mexican coke, but no plastic bottles or cans.), pizza, homemade chocolate chip cookies, orange juice, bread from Not Your Average Joe's, and I am adding pancakes and french toast.  Although I can't wait, I just know that I will feel like garbage after eating some of those things.  It kind of scares me to have them because I don't want to have to reset my body or overcome cravings again.  But I figure two days is better than the two weeks I originally asked for.  And maybe all I'll need is just a taste.  In fact, the other day, there was one golden oreo left, it was dessert time, and I can have one of those.  I took one bite, and it tasted like metal.  I threw the rest of the cookie out and spit out the bite in my mouth.  Not only did it taste gross, but it wasn't worth the carbs.  Maybe that's how I will feel about the foods on the honeymoon list.  I hope so.