Diabetes

I had my appointment with the nutritionist this morning. What she gave me was different from the nutritionist I saw 4 years ago when I lived in a different town. This one looks much more complicated. It's the one based on exchanges.

In looking through the material, it looks like it will be hard to figure food for me and food for my DH.

She wrote me up a plan to have 3 carbs, 1 meat and 1 fat for breakfast, 3 carbs, 3 ounces of meat and 1 fat for lunch and the same for dinner. No snacks. I have pages and pages of stuff to read.

What I'm trying to do now is to break it down to size is to highlight the foods that I feel I can live with, that will give me a feeling of fullness at least. I am trying to figure 2 days of food for me. Then I can alternate the days. Since I have to cook a good dinner for DH, I figure I can do something like this: put some veggies and meat in a bowl and nuke it for my dinner while I cook for DH. That way it won't seem so much like cooking separate meals. I have a feeling it won't taste good at first and I'll be hungry but I'll become accustomed to it after a week or two. ie: 3 units of broccoli and 3 ounces of chicken cut up in a bowl. What I'm trying to keep in mind is that I'm not going for taste but for exchanges that will bring my blood sugar down.

Food has always been a pleasure for me but I have to stop thinking of it that way. I'm just eating my bowl of exchanges/nutrition. I've heard it's like that after a gastric bypass which is why I decided not to have one.

It just seems like there is so little protein. Can I make a low calorie protein shake (I love the designer protein from GNC) which is filling. I could add powdered milk to make up the carb count in it.

You'd be surprised at how much protein we're trained to eat versus how much a human body on average needs. The RDA is .8 grams to 1 gram per kilogram of body weight. If you divide your weight by 2, that will get you approximately within the top end of the range (1 kg = 2.2 lbs if you want to be more precise). So, a 100 lb person (not an endurance athlete or serious weight lifter or pregnant person, just a regular person) would need about 50 grams per day, on average. 1/2 a baked chicken breast (which would probably equal a 3 oz serving - 3 oz of meat is about the size of a deck of playing cards) is about 25 grams. I'm guessing "1 meat" is the same as "3 oz meat" since you use two different terminologies. Two 3 oz portions of chicken (for example) would be 50 grams of protein - easily done isn't it? And you'd still need a protein for dinner (since you get basically one serving at each meal from the info provided).

And, don't forget the carbs - broccoli and chicken in a bowl is not much carbs at all and your info indicates you should be having some at each meal. So, chicken, broccoli, brown rice or whole grain pasta (add a little low fat alfredo sauce maybe as the fat?) or a slice of low carb bread with margarine. Does your hubby not like that as a meal - meat, starch, veggie? I'm not sure why you'd need to cook a different meal entirely - just check the portion sizes you put on your plate and avoid making the entire meal pasta (for example). Which is a better thing all around anyhow.

You might also want to go back to the nutritionist and ask for a non-exchange plan. As far as I know, that way of managing diabetic eating hasn't been all that popular for a decade or so really. Carb counting is way more commonly recommended in recent years. Unless, of course, there is a specific reason for you specifically to use exchanges instead (since each person varies widely).

--Deb R

Oh, also, on most exchange programs, you can divide some of the servings into snacks - so instead of 3 carbs and a fat in one sitting, you might do 2 carbs and save the carb and fat for a mid morning snack or mid afternoon snack (whichever as appropriate). Again, it depends on you - some people do better with just 3 regularly spaced meals and other people do better with 5 smaller things throughout the day. What you can't do is 'add up' carbs - that is, you can't skip the breakfast and lunch carbs and have 9 carb exchanges at dinner. But you can "divide up" the carbs into smaller amounts more frequently. For example, I have breakfast around 7 am, lunch around noon, dinner around 5:30; snacks around 9:30-10:00 and 2:30-3:00, depending on what dinner was, I might have an evening snack around 8 pm (typically if dinner is heavily weighted to the veggie side and not a lot of carbs). Makes it easier to control my portions at meals because I don't get crazy hungry in between.

--Deb R

I am surprised that they gave you exchanges.  Most diabetics count carbs now.  That way very little is off limites and eating is more 'normal'.  With carb counting you may decide against certain choices but if you WANT them you can usually find a way to have it.  You may have to plan in advance but you can do it. 

3 carb exchanges is 45 grams of carbs.  That is actually higher in general than general rule of thumb carb counting for diabetics.  That is 30 grams of carbs for breakfast, 45 grams of carbs for lunch and 45 grams of carbs for supper. 

I can't tell you what to do.  I am not a medical person.  I can tell you what I did/do.  When I was handed a diabetic diet with exchanges, I sat down and looked at it, and knew I could not do it.  By that time, it took them so long to get it to me, I was counting carbs.  Thanks to Lynn, pdljmpr.  It worked for me and it still does.  And it is doable!!!  I make the choice what I eat. 

Honestly, I know they say our society is too live to eat when in fact we should be eat to live, but if you don't like what you are eating, it will be far easier for a life style change to give up, get frustrated etc.  Listening to you and how you feel about this now, it won't be good. 

And do not even get started cooking one thing for you and another for your dh.  He can eat what you do.  That will also get too old, too fast. 

As for the protein shake...  check the label for carbs.  I have no idea about that in it. 

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