AlwaysAgnes wrote:Atheria wrote:My eating less for lunch thing helped a lot. I didn't take a walk either, due to the annoying WINDY weather in NM right now. 2 hours post lunch I was 163...not perfect, but much better than 259. Perhaps eating smaller "meals" more often is the way to go to keep your sugar more stable. I can't afford to lose weight, so if I kept eating this little, and only 3 times a day, I'd end up dead.
Although I don't think obsessively checking your blood sugar is needed, I also don't believe in NOT checking your blood sugar. The reason diabetics end up in trouble is because they don't know they're diabetic until a lot of damage has been done. You know you have an issue and are actively trying to help yourself. Monitoring how your body behaves is a good idea.
Other things can cause your sugar to rise, also. Some people's blood sugar freaks out if they get sick, or if it's hot/humid weather. I knew a woman who ended up in a hospital for 5 days with dangerously high blood sugar because she'd gotten a cortisone shot in her bad knee. Steroids make your sugar go up. Then there's the whole "Sunrise Effect" that's odd.
Best wishes,
Atheria
I think if you are very thin and having high blood sugar, the issue might be more about not producing enough insulin--partial insulin deficiency But that's probably not the OP's issue. I think the OP will see the blood sugar numbers come down with weight loss. But the diabetes meds may be interfering with that, since they tend to cause weight gain. With his patients, Dr. McDougall goes by the morning fasting blood sugar number. He does not prescribe diabetes meds, except for long-acting insulin in some cases. Here's what he writes in the 2009 article I linked: "At the same time medication changes are being made, my patients begin strictly following the McDougall Diet and exercising daily (slowly at first). I ask them to monitor their blood sugars (fasting) every morning with their home measuring unit and report the results to me daily. Based on these blood sugar numbers their insulin injection dosage is either raised or lowered for that evening or the next day. The goal is to keep their fasting blood sugars between 150 mg/dL and 300 mg/dL. I discourage blood sugar measurements at any other time of the day unless they suspect hypoglycemia (too low a sugar). The finding of elevated sugars later in the day after eating just upsets the patient and does not add any useful information in deciding on the next dosage of insulin to be given."
Here's something about the sunrise effect. http://www.diabetes.org/living-with-dia ... menon.html
Hi Agnes,
What does OP mean? My history is like my now insulin dependent mother's....but....unlike her, I am trying to help myself via diet and exercise instead of meds. (Trust me, I'm VERY anti Big Pharma.) In 2010 I started off with my endocrine system "blowing" after a very high glycemic vegan Thanksgiving with too much wine. I became SEVERELY hypoglycemic and struggled with that for a few years. At one point, an endocrinologist said that my form of hypo usually became diabetes eventually. He said something about my pancreas probably shooting out insulin too late. My mom started off with sudden hypoglycemia in her 30s (it hit me at age 44....and I think being vegan bought me 10 years) but she kept eating crap food and gained a bunch of weight, and now is in bad shape at age 75. I'm 51. The past couple of years, my blood sugar is going too high more often than too low....so my body is trying to become diabetic. I just flat out refuse to let it win!
I am giving more credit to my fasting numbers than post meal numbers, but still....if my sugar is too high for quite a few hours of the day, that's not good either. When you are high, damage is being done. My goal is to keep my sugar as stable as possible. Now, it's possible that because I've only been back on high carb/low fat for a few days I need to give my body some time to adjust and stop freaking out.
I do think that for anyone with diabetes, any tortillas or bread are not the best options. I have an inherited gluten issue, so I can't have wheat (sniff....sniff....sob) and I've found that the gluten free breads are WAY worse than wheat bread. Rice breads, for example, are like pouring straight sugar packets onto my tongue. Even if the tortillas are made at home and don't have added fat (yes....flour ones from the store are usually high fat), someone who is struggling to get his/her numbers down shouldn't eat them. It sucks, but it's true.
Thank you,
Atheria