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Dietary Tweaks

Over the spring and summer I tried intermittant fasting, but it just didn't work for me. I was hungry all morning (my most active time of day) and tired, which is never a good thing. It did help my blood glucose numbers, but not significantly. I also gained weight rather than losing it because I ate too much during the time I was allowed to eat, which I think is mainly why fasting didn't work for me. So I started tinkering on my diet plan again.

All diabetics have special concerns with foods, and since I'm trying to control my disease with diet and exercise I can't eat like most people do. I don't use sugar, and avoid products that have it added. I limit myself to a max of 25 grams of carbs per day, which eliminates most bread and other baked products. I also have to abstain from eating potatoes, which jack up my blood glucose like crazy. I don't have the same problem with rice, but I still limit that and other grains. Tracking the food I eat and its effect on me is a daily task.

Some diabetic trivia: Did you know that corn is a grain, not a vegetable? It's used to make the much-dreaded high fructose corn syrup, which is 100% glucose. But boiled corn is just 52 on the glycemic index, so if you're fairly stable like me it's okay to have a little now and then (always check with your diabetes doctor or nutritionist to be sure.)

Since stopping intermittant fasting I try to eat smarter and get in three small meals a day versus skipping one and eating too much. Here's what I ate for breakfast this morning: scrambled egg beaters = 2 eggs, two links of chicken sausage, two slices of almond flour bread that I baked myself, and a small glass of low-sugar cranberry-grape juice. It looks like a lot of food, but it's only 422 calories, which I can work off when I walk my dogs. Here are the nutritional details for each ingredient:

Egg beaters: 6 tablespoons, 50 calories total, 5 grams protein, no carbs, no cholesterol, no sugar.
Chicken Sausage: 2 links, 50 calories total, 30 mg cholesterol (10% of RDR), 4 grams of protein, no carbs, no sugar.
Homemade almond bread (recipe here): 2 small slices, 262 calories total, 6 grams carbs, 5 grams protein, 12 grams unspecified fat, no sugar.
Cranberry-grape juice: 10 calories, 1 gram carb, 1 gram sugar.
Not pictured: 1 tablespoon of plant-based margarine that I put on the almond bread: 50 calories, no carbs, no sugar, no cholesterol.

The whole meal has just 7 grams of carbs and 1 gram of sugar, with 14 grams of protein (protein is really important for a healthy body, but for diabetics we need to stay in the 14 to 21 grams per meal range.) After I eat this breakfast my blood glucose level usually drops, too, so it's a very good breakfast option for me. I'm also full after eating it and not tempted to snack before lunch. That's half the battle with any diet, avoiding snacking.

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