Sunday, August 5, 2012

Living as a Diabetic the Carb Challenge

I love, bread, rice and pasta in all forms. When I do the diabetic challenge I realize how much I rely on those carbs to supply my calories. Without them my diet is really trimmed down.


I woke up this morning ravenous but committed to more vegetables; so I ate the last of the rice as fried rice, with some Chinese broccoli for breakfast. I followed it with my coffee and some watermelon.

All done...59.9 grams of carb. A perfect meal in one sense, however I should have stirred an egg into my rice to up the protein.

I will try to make that up with my snack.

And snack I did. I had two Ak Mak crackers with some hummus and more of the chicken spread. 15 grams of carb and a little more protein.

After the gym I went right for the soup. (Can you tell I am alone right now and trying to use everything up). A little lunch that netted me 54 grams of carb and a ____load of fiber.

For dinner I had yet more of the chicken salad (I am starting to tire of it)so I stirred in a little hummus to kick the flavor up. I made crackers with super thin lavash bread rubbed with oil and baked. Very low carb and a great spread delivery. I topped it with a chopped tomato, two small artichoke and 1/2 an avocado. With a glass of wine it all came in at 50 grams of carb.


I made up for some of that missing fiber and really enjoyed my meal.

Thanks to the two snacks my fiber was up, my calories were up and I had a great day. I am cleaning and getting rid of things so I needed that energy. My total carbs were 180 and my total calories 1,959.

4 comments:

Mirabai said...

Karl can you write a post about your diet parameters? I know that you are actually quite healthy and I assume the instructions the dietician gave you were based on maintaining weight as a goal. I'm curious about the ratios you were given. Can you give us just height/weight and the carb:protein:fat ratios and maybe daily calories?

I was writing a paper last week on treating a patient with diabetes. The ADA website still recommends a very high carb:protein ration and emphasised making low fat choices. They recommend a 55:20:25 ratio. I was reading a couple of studies that compared a higher protein/fat, lower carb diet against the ADA recommendation and found patients maintained lower and more consistent blood sugar levels with the lower carb ratio. But there hasn't been any movement on the official level. So I was wondering what your recommendations were.

I looked at a bunch of recipes from the ADA and they were mostly pasta/rice based dished. Not the small portions you've been describing. It's easy to see how patients can become frustrated and fail at achieving good health with so much confusion out there.

ooh, long post. Sorry!

Karl said...

M,

I gave most of that in my first post. I am 5 feet 4 150 lbs. I was given 2,200 calories per day to maintain weight and up to 60 grams of carb per meal and 15 per snack and encouraged to have both meals and snacks.

As far as ratios I was told that ideal for me (not everyone) is equal parts, carb, protein and fat. I am attempting to keep the calories from each source in balance.

My recommendations are to find what works for you. If you are diabetic, or pre-diabetic, check your sugar and make adaptions and modifications in order to find your own balance.

Getting more sleep, being active, exercising, all of these things are helpful in addition to diet.

Mirabai said...

Thanks. I must have missed that first post. I was only checking in sporadically while you were taking a break.

I think the relatively equal parts works really well. It's tough, though, getting people to put down the bread in favor of vegetables.

I hope that your book is going to include not just recipes, but narrative about the struggles you've encountered. I'm completely fascinated by your travels through this project.

Karl said...

It is tough on me to put down the bread.

The funny thing is that normally I eat a ton of vegetables, but I always pair with rice or pasta, when I can't have those with the same impunity my vegetable consumption goes down.

Tonight I am going to try something different to up those veggies and see if it works for me.