My New Low-Carb Diet

If you have diabetes, pre-diabetes or insulin resistance, not only is what you eat important, but how much and when.  The goal is to get your blood sugar manageable and with as few large spikes as possible throughout the day.  So that means that starving all day and eating a pizza at night with your buddies, even if you are staying under your total daily allowances?  Is a bad, bad idea.  Long-term, you're going to hurt yourself like that.

So.  It's a real lifestyle change because you're eating smaller meals, not the big ol' sit-down, "let's talk for three hours over dinner" type of dining. And you must take a break from your work routine to eat at regular intervals, even if it seems other things around you are far more important or urgent at that moment.  That's way harder than it sounds, and I stay home all day and do "nothing," ok? But smaller meals spaced throughout the day, along with an overall diet low in carbohydrates is going to help you stay healthy long-term.

My endocrinologist would like me to eat 40 - 45 grams of carbohydrates per meal.  I use the fatsecret.com website to enter in foods and it keeps track of carbs for me.  I do this before I eat or in the planning stages at this point.  I am still new at this and am not a good estimator of what is an acceptable meal.

So I'll give just one example, with my heaviest meal:  a cup of coffee with cocoa mixed in, and two eggs and two slices of cheese in a tortilla is 650 calories and 50 g of carbs.  A mite over the goal, but still pretty good.  For a snack later on, I might have a yogurt with 13 g of carbs and about 100 calories.   Steaks and that sort of thing are lower in carbs.  Any sort of really yummy foods like frosting, pizza, bakery breads and the like are super-high in carbs.

It's almost a good rule of thumb that if it's something you really like, it's got a buncha carbs in it.  Though sometimes reading the calorie and carb content of some foods will send you into shock.  Before I was diagnosed as insulin resistant, I had been drinking all these juice smoothies and going, "Why am I so tired and unable to lose weight?"  Ok, bingo.  Now we know.  That "healthy" fruit stuff is bad for me in large quantities.

1/10 of this measly cake mix - without the frosting - has 35 stinkin' grams of carbs.  Fuhgettaboutit. 

My whole life is different now.  And not in a good way.  Or a bad way.  It's a really mixed bag, this new medication and diet routine.  On the one hand, I don't like counting all my foods and measuring things - it takes out so much spontaneity.  But then again?  I'm finally losing weight, and eating about the same amount as before.  I'm just choosing foods with fewer carbs.

Later this week, I will share an "as seen on TV" product I ordered online to help me do this diet and give a review.  'Till next time, if you have a great low-carb food that works for you, pop it in the comments!  Or just pop me a comment.  I'd love to hear from you.

Disclaimer:  I'm not a doctor, and if you are relying on a homeschool blog for medical advice you are officially a sad, sorry person.  I say lots of interesting stuff, but go chat with your physician about it, willya?  Thanks.