Eat and drink - What can I?

[Anthony Stirrat]

Afternoon all,
Until I know whats going on, I'm being strict and sensible but I'm needing advice on what I can drink. Currently all I'm having is sparkling water and white tea (like green but lighter) My menu's are very similar and have been the following:

Breakfast - 300ml semi skimmed with double espresso (Lavazza, made at home)
50g Porridge Oats, 60-80g frozen raspberries or blackberries and 200ml semi skimmed

Lunch - 100g lettuce, 100g celery, 100g tomatoes, 50g radishes, 50g cucumber, 50g spring onion, 75g cooked ham (or tuna) and salt & pepper to taste

Dinner - 50g carrots, 50g celery, 50g onion, 1tsp olive oil, 50g peppers, 50g mushroom, 30g black eyed bean, 30g cannelli beans, 30g kidney beans, 100g chopped tomatoes, 2 cloves of garlic, 75g smoked pork sausage and 75g roasted chicken. This is in a cassoulette style dish and these are average portion sizes as I have made it for 4 meals. If I'm not having beans I will have green lentils.

Snacks - Are either an apple or 2 satsumas a day if I feel peckish.

Any pointers or advice is appreciated, I'm trying to keep carbs under 80g a day and drink 2l of water a day

 

[stephknits]

You seem to be doing all the right things. What sort of drinks would you like to include? If you drink alchohol, a nice glass of wine shouldn't be a problem 🙂. Obviously avoid fruit juice, but you an get zero sugar squashes I believe.
The only really carby meal you are having is breakfast - do you check your blood sugar levels with a meter? Some of us here can tolerate porridge very well, others will find it tends to spike them.
for snacks you could also try non-carb things like babybells, or lower carb like a few nuts.

 

[trophywench]

Half a litre of milk with your breakfast ? (and why semi skimmed , if you wanted to reduce the carbs full fat is less) Do you not like ordinary tea?

Plus the porridge - most T2s are at their most insulin resistant first thing in a morning and all carbs whether they're in milk fruit veg the usual suspects like spuds rice and pasta or sugar - the body turns it ALL to glucose regardless of its source, so every bit of it will raise your blood glucose. Whether your body can cope with it in those amounts is anyone's guess without a meter to self test but it's most likely better to spread those carbs out a bit more during the day than have such a lump of them first thing.

Once you get hold of a metre a few tests before and after eating will soon tell you whether that item of food is a really good idea or not LOL but I can see you have taken it seriously so gradually you will learn what's best and what to avoid like the plague.

Just realised incidentally - you're obviously liking froffy coffee - and ISTR semi-skimmed uses less steam than full fat! Oh and also - some folk find that even decently strong coffee (ie much less strong than double espresso LOL) increases their BG even drunk black. It's by no means an exact science, so nobody can actually tell you exactly what to eat or not, cos every flippin one of us is different as to what our own body and metabolism can handle.

 

[Anthony Stirrat]

I've got a meter so I'll check tomorrow, it's less latte and more flat white (can't be bothered to steam the milk). I hate tea with a passion, so white tea is a compromise that I'll put up with. How long after eating should I test?

 

[trophywench]

Test first thing when you get up and as long as you have brekkie within half an hour, then test an hour after your first mouthful and again at 2 hours and see what's happening. Don't have to be on the dot, there or thereabouts will be fine.

The idea to begin with is to be as near non-d levels as poss (between roughly 4 and roughly 7.5) and then to not get a spike of more than 2.8 after any meal - but some people spike early and some spike later, that's why you need to test a bit more to being with to find out how long after you'll spike - could be 75 mins or 90 mins, etc. And then test before the next meal to see if you've come back to where you want to be and test again after to see what THAT food and drink does.

It's early days so don't be shocked if you're higher than these numbers - but certainly anything that sends you sky high needs to either be cut out or reduced enough so it doesn't do it.

It's precisely why I never buy a banana - I can have two or maybe 3 bites without soaring to the stratosphere - well it isn't worth bothering to unzip it for that - and they then stink anyway until the bin's emptied! LOL There are plenty more fruits that I've always enjoyed more anyway.

 

[Anthony Stirrat]

Morning All,
Today I just had my coffee and tested my blood, this morning my blood was 11.9 and an hour after my coffee it was 12.0. Tomorrow I'll forgo coffee and have porridge and then test my bloods

 

[DeusXM]

Based on your reading, I would say coffee doesn't affect you. After an hour, the 'change' was 0.1 mmol/l and that's not even a change. I bet if you'd tested from the same finger immediately after your first test you'd have had a result that was considerably more different.