Well don't I feel like a fool. I made one of the classic schoolboy errors. Here I am, a guy who grew up reading labels, searching for key words like sugar and high fructose corn syrup and monosodium glutamate and other various additives that aren't good for you my whole life. Since my diagnosis I've gotten even more anal, checking for any glutinous ingredients or any of the manifestations of refined sugar. And I've gotten good, really good. I eat more and more macrobiotic foods, whole plants, unprocessed meats, fresh fruits and unrefined grains. But despite my obsessiveness mistakes happen. Here's an example from yesterday which may explain why my post breakfast numbers have been a bit higher than I'd like.
As one of the components of my breakfast "cereal" I include 3/4 cup of yogurt - organic, nonfat, unsweetened yogurt. I go through it pretty quickly and so I'm always back at the store buying more. Trader Joe's has a few good choices, so does Whole Foods. Both of these stores however get crowded, especially at peak hours. And when I only have 15 minutes to grab what I need, sneak through the line and bolt back to work I rush, and get sloppy and make mistakes. When reaching between an asian couple with a child (in stroller) a man restocking shelves, and an indecisive middle-aged tree-hugging type for yogurt I grabbed what looked like the last of the nonfat yogurts.
Over the next few days I made my cereal concoction as usual, guessed it to be about 110 carbohydrates, ignored my taste buds complaints at how uncharacteristically saccharine it was, and then was surprised at post-breakfast highs. When am I ever above 180 after breakfast? Why don't two pills knock out the carbs from a breakfast of cereal and fresh fruit? What the devil is going on?
I had had it with all these inconsistencies and so this morning went back to the drawing board measuring all my portions and checking it against the food labels. Everything was lining up as it usually did and I was at 100carbohydrates with only yogurt left. Unsweetened plain yogurt should have popped me up to about 110, but the stuff I was shoveling into my mouth was 30 carbohydrates! I was 20c higher than i should have been. I had compromised my health for the sake of saving a few seconds. That explains all the wacky numbers. Luckily the fix is quite simple, use less yogurt until it's done and then go back to what you usually buy.
Later in the day (after I had come up with the idea for this post) I invited a friend of mine out to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. The conversation got serious before we managed to order so I quickly browsed the menu, ordered the enchiladas, haphazardly looked up the carbohydrate content, guestimated the total and threw down a few pills. Once again my health had taken a back seat, this time to save a heartfelt conversation from interruptions. As I was about to finish my meal something began nagging me, so I went back to the carb counter book, added them up again and got a higher number, so high in fact that I decided to take a third pill (that still only totals 1.5mg, max dosage per meal is 4mg so don't freak out about the quantity). But now I was left in a strange situation, I had taken two pills a minute before eating, and then a third pill with only a few minutes left of eating. And what's worse is the book's estimate of the carbohydrate value of enchiladas seemed wrong. After all, they're little more than a tortilla wrapped around chicken with a little sauce. How could that be 49c? I added up the components and got closer to 25. Which put me way under, and since I was still hungry anyway I had a piece of peanut butter covered toast. Now I was one big mess, pills dissolving at different rates, food breaking down at different rates, my Pancreas getting the green light, followed by a second green light. And I was doing Joey tonight!
(this is me unhappy about doing Joey when my body's raging a war inside!)
If you're not used to reading labels as a diabetic or celiac it's time you started. Counting carbs is an art not a science but a good degree of practice is required before you get comfortable. Sometimes the book is wrong. It's your body, use your own judgment. The same goes for recognizing gluten and derivatives of gluten in products. If you're not sure, why risk it. Similarly with diabetes and carbs if I'm not sure I round the carbs up. Better (in my opinion) to start to descend a bit earlier than usual and correct with an extra snack then end up in the stratosphere having to decide whether to take a prandin or shot of insulin on top of what you've already had.
Dailies:
11:00 -> 126 Good enough, wish it was a tad lower though. Took 2 Prandin with cereal (actually 110c) a banana 25c, and apple 20c = 155c. At 3:00 I had a piece of bread with peanut butter 17c.
5:21 ->84 Dinner. Took 2 Prandin with enchiladas 40c, beans 40c, rice 70c, chips with salsa 40c = 190c. But, the carb counter book mislabeled enchiladas as 49 each so I took a third Prandin on mis-information, figured out my mistake later and had an additional piece of bread w/pb 19c. Total carbs 209c with 3 Prandin (1.5mg)
8:17 -> 231 High. Damn it. Probably because my meal was so carb heavy and I didn't give myself anytime to digest the Prandin before I started eating. Performed in Joey and drank a lot of water.
11:00 -> 128 Well either the Prandin is still working or Joey really uses a lot of glucose. Took 5 units of Lantus. Went bowling. First game 115, second game 124. End of year goal 180.
2:20 -> 58 What the hell?? Is the Prandin still working? I mean, I took it 6 hours ago! Unless the Lantus just decided to work really quickly. How can I possibly regulate a medication that takes up to 6 hours to fully work but not at a constant speed at all. Ugh! At least I felt able to eat an apple without worrying about a spike 20c.
2:58 -> 89 Well, finally I catch a break with a decent number. Chances are my blood sugar's on the rise, but how high can an apple put it? Just to be safe I'll also have a bunch of snow peas 12c. And some herring 0c.
These numbers do not a happy GI Jon make. Especially because I was hungry most of the day. I was hungry after breakfast despite eating 155c, and hungry after dinner despite eating 209c. And I'm tired of feeling like I ALWAYS have to load up on protein now! I mean, I eat a lot of vegetables, maybe not today, but in general. I need to be eating probably in the range of 150 carbs per meal, and yet the annoyingly slow rate that Prandin metabolizes my sugar means that that many carbs will probably create a sine curve - first high, then low. The only way i can think to avoid that would be to eat medium sized meals followed by snacks similar to what I did this morning. I would hate to see what a continuous glucose monitor would say about me.
Mamma said they'll be days like this!
Tomorrow, despite rehearsal and a show in horse I'm going to workout. With temperatures projected in the mid-high 40s, I gotta take my bike out for a ride!! :)
Day 58
As one of the components of my breakfast "cereal" I include 3/4 cup of yogurt - organic, nonfat, unsweetened yogurt. I go through it pretty quickly and so I'm always back at the store buying more. Trader Joe's has a few good choices, so does Whole Foods. Both of these stores however get crowded, especially at peak hours. And when I only have 15 minutes to grab what I need, sneak through the line and bolt back to work I rush, and get sloppy and make mistakes. When reaching between an asian couple with a child (in stroller) a man restocking shelves, and an indecisive middle-aged tree-hugging type for yogurt I grabbed what looked like the last of the nonfat yogurts.
Over the next few days I made my cereal concoction as usual, guessed it to be about 110 carbohydrates, ignored my taste buds complaints at how uncharacteristically saccharine it was, and then was surprised at post-breakfast highs. When am I ever above 180 after breakfast? Why don't two pills knock out the carbs from a breakfast of cereal and fresh fruit? What the devil is going on?
I had had it with all these inconsistencies and so this morning went back to the drawing board measuring all my portions and checking it against the food labels. Everything was lining up as it usually did and I was at 100carbohydrates with only yogurt left. Unsweetened plain yogurt should have popped me up to about 110, but the stuff I was shoveling into my mouth was 30 carbohydrates! I was 20c higher than i should have been. I had compromised my health for the sake of saving a few seconds. That explains all the wacky numbers. Luckily the fix is quite simple, use less yogurt until it's done and then go back to what you usually buy.
Later in the day (after I had come up with the idea for this post) I invited a friend of mine out to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. The conversation got serious before we managed to order so I quickly browsed the menu, ordered the enchiladas, haphazardly looked up the carbohydrate content, guestimated the total and threw down a few pills. Once again my health had taken a back seat, this time to save a heartfelt conversation from interruptions. As I was about to finish my meal something began nagging me, so I went back to the carb counter book, added them up again and got a higher number, so high in fact that I decided to take a third pill (that still only totals 1.5mg, max dosage per meal is 4mg so don't freak out about the quantity). But now I was left in a strange situation, I had taken two pills a minute before eating, and then a third pill with only a few minutes left of eating. And what's worse is the book's estimate of the carbohydrate value of enchiladas seemed wrong. After all, they're little more than a tortilla wrapped around chicken with a little sauce. How could that be 49c? I added up the components and got closer to 25. Which put me way under, and since I was still hungry anyway I had a piece of peanut butter covered toast. Now I was one big mess, pills dissolving at different rates, food breaking down at different rates, my Pancreas getting the green light, followed by a second green light. And I was doing Joey tonight!
(this is me unhappy about doing Joey when my body's raging a war inside!)If you're not used to reading labels as a diabetic or celiac it's time you started. Counting carbs is an art not a science but a good degree of practice is required before you get comfortable. Sometimes the book is wrong. It's your body, use your own judgment. The same goes for recognizing gluten and derivatives of gluten in products. If you're not sure, why risk it. Similarly with diabetes and carbs if I'm not sure I round the carbs up. Better (in my opinion) to start to descend a bit earlier than usual and correct with an extra snack then end up in the stratosphere having to decide whether to take a prandin or shot of insulin on top of what you've already had.
Dailies:
11:00 -> 126 Good enough, wish it was a tad lower though. Took 2 Prandin with cereal (actually 110c) a banana 25c, and apple 20c = 155c. At 3:00 I had a piece of bread with peanut butter 17c.
5:21 ->84 Dinner. Took 2 Prandin with enchiladas 40c, beans 40c, rice 70c, chips with salsa 40c = 190c. But, the carb counter book mislabeled enchiladas as 49 each so I took a third Prandin on mis-information, figured out my mistake later and had an additional piece of bread w/pb 19c. Total carbs 209c with 3 Prandin (1.5mg)
8:17 -> 231 High. Damn it. Probably because my meal was so carb heavy and I didn't give myself anytime to digest the Prandin before I started eating. Performed in Joey and drank a lot of water.
11:00 -> 128 Well either the Prandin is still working or Joey really uses a lot of glucose. Took 5 units of Lantus. Went bowling. First game 115, second game 124. End of year goal 180.
2:20 -> 58 What the hell?? Is the Prandin still working? I mean, I took it 6 hours ago! Unless the Lantus just decided to work really quickly. How can I possibly regulate a medication that takes up to 6 hours to fully work but not at a constant speed at all. Ugh! At least I felt able to eat an apple without worrying about a spike 20c.
2:58 -> 89 Well, finally I catch a break with a decent number. Chances are my blood sugar's on the rise, but how high can an apple put it? Just to be safe I'll also have a bunch of snow peas 12c. And some herring 0c.
These numbers do not a happy GI Jon make. Especially because I was hungry most of the day. I was hungry after breakfast despite eating 155c, and hungry after dinner despite eating 209c. And I'm tired of feeling like I ALWAYS have to load up on protein now! I mean, I eat a lot of vegetables, maybe not today, but in general. I need to be eating probably in the range of 150 carbs per meal, and yet the annoyingly slow rate that Prandin metabolizes my sugar means that that many carbs will probably create a sine curve - first high, then low. The only way i can think to avoid that would be to eat medium sized meals followed by snacks similar to what I did this morning. I would hate to see what a continuous glucose monitor would say about me.
Mamma said they'll be days like this!
Tomorrow, despite rehearsal and a show in horse I'm going to workout. With temperatures projected in the mid-high 40s, I gotta take my bike out for a ride!! :)
Day 58
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