Exercise/Diet Support Group

[Misspendragon]

My mother had all sorts of eating habits I considered strange when I was a teen. When I got old enough to get metabolic syndrome, I started following half of them - though they were related to things like maintenance of a reducing rather than oxidizing environment, not to diabetes. Perhaps there's hope your daughter will remember too.

She followed a ketogenic diet when recommended by one doctor and it put her diabetes completely into remission, but she hated it so much she switched to a doctor who said the composition of the diet didn't matter if she could maintain the 1200kcal/day intake she had on keto. Naturally she couldn't maintain that level of intake on rice and cookies, so she became insulin dependent.

My teen daughter certainly doesn't follow my diet advice, but she's more than willing to nag me when I don't follow it - and her brothers when they don't follow theirs - so I know she's at least stored it and could use it in the future. 12 year old is starting to follow some of the advice for him - he's gluten sensitive and recently ordered a glazed corn donut that I hadn't even seen on the menu.

With diabetes but without insulin and meds one can eat very little carb, any way we slice it. But I find that I don't need to do keto exactly as long as the carbs I take are low on the glycemic index and I take them in moderation. So, if I eat a slice of whole wheat bread I order from Germany (healthier processing) with an avocado and two eggs, I know I cannot eat ANY carb for three hours. My pasta is whole wheat pasta with kale, asparagus, garlic and broccolini in olive oil, about 60 percent veggies and 40 percent pasta, and again, that's it for me for carbs for hours. I snack on berries mixed with nuts or I have my version of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich: a small slice of whole wheat bread with raw almond butter and real berries (the actual berries, not a jam). It's tricky because I do work out a lot so I have to eat, which means timing of meals is important as well. Incidentally, nothing brings my sugar level down faster (in a healthy way, without crashing) than moderate-intense exercise BUT super intense exercise will raise my sugar level even in a fasted state (probably because of cortisol).

Sweets I don't eat at all. Period. One small slice of cake will seriously mess up my sugar level for most of the day.

 

[Warren J. Dew]

Incidentally, nothing brings my sugar level down faster (in a healthy way, without crashing) than moderate-intense exercise BUT super intense exercise will raise my sugar level even in a fasted state (probably because of cortisol).

What constitutes moderate-intense versus super intense?

I'm not actually diabetic, but sometimes I get the feeling that my blood sugar is high - and a few minutes of anaerobic exercise, like briskly walking up eight or ten flights of stairs, will normally fix it.

 

[Misspendragon]

What constitutes moderate-intense versus super intense?

I'm not actually diabetic, but sometimes I get the feeling that my blood sugar is high - and a few minutes of anaerobic exercise, like briskly walking up eight or ten flights of stairs, will normally fix it.

A practice round is moderate-intense. I'm breathing fairly heavily but can still talk in coherent, short sentences. A real round and especially two back to back, when I stop saying anything altogether and afterwards must concentrate not to bend over to catch my breath, that's super high intensity. One day I did this latter without eating that day at all. My fasting sugar was 94 right before dancing. 20 min later it was 146, even though I ate nothing. But, when my sugar is climbing up after a meal and reaches 146 and I go immediately for a 20 min moderate intense tempo run, it will be around 106 when I get back. If I didn't run, it would me around 167 instead 20 min later, based on prior experience.

Maybe perfectly healthy people's sugar levels react differently, I don't know. You are perfectly healthy if your fasting sugar level is under 85. (I know official channels say under a 100 but that's simply not true. They say that because half of the country over 40 would count as diabetic if they were honest. Imagine the panic and the cost. Also, perfectly healthy people's sugar level don't go over 160 and usually over 140, rarely reaching even that).

 

[Misspendragon]

A practice round is moderate-intense. I'm breathing fairly heavily but can still talk in coherent, short sentences. A real round and especially two back to back, when I stop saying anything altogether and afterwards must concentrate not to bend over to catch my breath, that's super high intensity. One day I did this latter without eating that day at all. My fasting sugar was 94 right before dancing. 20 min later it was 146, even though I ate nothing. But, when my sugar is climbing up after a meal and reaches 146 and I go immediately for a 20 min moderate intense tempo run, it will be around 106 when I get back. If I didn't run, it would me around 167 instead 20 min later, based on prior experience.

Maybe perfectly healthy people's sugar levels react differently, I don't know. You are perfectly healthy if your fasting sugar level is under 85. (I know official channels say under a 100 but that's simply not true. They say that because half of the country over 40 would count as diabetic if they were honest. Imagine the panic and the cost. Also, perfectly healthy people's sugar level don't go over 160 and usually over 140, rarely reaching even that).

What constitutes moderate-intense versus super intense?

I'm not actually diabetic, but sometimes I get the feeling that my blood sugar is high - and a few minutes of anaerobic exercise, like briskly walking up eight or ten flights of stairs, will normally fix it.

... When I don't have the opportunity to run, I do pushups and body weight squats for ten minutes. It works surprisingly well, too.

 

[ProgressNotPerfection]

... When I don't have the opportunity to run, I do pushups and body weight squats for ten minutes. It works surprisingly well, too.

I admire your discipline. Not just wrt working out, but your careful monitoring of everything you eat and drink. Sometimes I forget how lucky I am…despite some unusual medical issues (which have made medical providers scratch their heads for years, but which are not life-threatening if controlled), and despite some periodic REALLY bad eating habits (i.e., so much refined sugar that my non-fasting glucose levels have no right to stay below 100), I am overall in good health.

But I realize I can’t continue stress eating All.The.Sugar. and still expect to stay healthy. I’ve just been lucky so far, and need to quit pushing my luck.

Maybe I should follow your lead (pun intended, lol).

 

[Purr]

I think the trick for me is watching what I stress eat between meals. A handful of pistachio nuts is 120 calories, and pistachios are reasonably healthy. A cashew and sunflower butter granola bar is 140 calories. The sugar is higher than I would like, and the protein value is low, but it's quite tasty. A serving of trail mix (peanuts, raisins, chocolate and sunflower seeds) is 210 calories. This may be an option when I absolutely much have chocolate.

I don't currently have in the house Dove dark chocolate squares. While they are very tasty, just one or two doesn't help a snack craving. Usually that brings on me looking for something else to eat.

I sometimes fix a cup of hibiscus or chai tea. That way I have something instead of nothing.

 

[Misspendragon]

I admire your discipline. Not just wrt working out, but your careful monitoring of everything you eat and drink. Sometimes I forget how lucky I am…despite some unusual medical issues (which have made medical providers scratch their heads for years, but which are not life-threatening if controlled), and despite some periodic REALLY bad eating habits (i.e., so much refined sugar that my non-fasting glucose levels have no right to stay below 100), I am overall in good health.

But I realize I can’t continue stress eating All.The.Sugar. and still expect to stay healthy. I’ve just been lucky so far, and need to quit pushing my luck.

Maybe I should follow your lead (pun intended, lol).

I think the trick for me is watching what I stress eat between meals. A handful of pistachio nuts is 120 calories, and pistachios are reasonably healthy. A cashew and sunflower butter granola bar is 140 calories. The sugar is higher than I would like, and the protein value is low, but it's quite tasty. A serving of trail mix (peanuts, raisins, chocolate and sunflower seeds) is 210 calories. This may be an option when I absolutely much have chocolate.

I don't currently have in the house Dove dark chocolate squares. While they are very tasty, just one or two doesn't help a snack craving. Usually that brings on me looking for something else to eat.

I sometimes fix a cup of hibiscus or chai tea. That way I have something instead of nothing.

I agree, figuring out healthy snacks one actually likes is vital. For me, that's mixing berries (fresh blueberries) with nuts: walnuts and almonds are the healthiest, but I love pistachios and they are okay, too. If I wasn't diabetic I would probably throw in some dark chocolate as well; the 75% ones still taste good and they are actually good for you. Alas, for me they are still too high in sugar, but I sometimes have a little right before running. I used to abhor salads (in Hungary, we eat salad WITH the dish to compliment it, but salad as a meal or appetizer just doesn't exists), but once I applied myself and experimented with healthy salad options, I found several that I really like. Caprese salad, for example, passes for lunch, it has enough calories. I also snack on that whole wheat toast with raw almonds butter and real berries thing I mentioned above (when I quit eating sugary stuff, I found that I really missed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and that's my replacement of it). If you force yourself to eat things that bore you and especially stuff you dislike, dieting will not work. On the other hand, I can get used to most dishes I don't downright hate, if I give it 2 weeks of daily consumption. For example, I LOVE (as in I crave it daily) my kale/broccolini/asparagus/garlic/olive oil whole wheat pasta, and I used to hate kale and veggies in general, favoring Bolognese and Carbonara pastas. Now, I think I would choose my pasta over a Carbonara even if I could eat as much pasta as anyone. Sane with tofu and tempeh; I used to be one of those people who made fun of others eating sponge (tofu), and while tofu certainly doesn't taste much on its own, I found a great book that uses it in very creative ways, and even the kids love the tempeh dishes I make. I highly recommend this book because the dishes are surprisingly tasty and super healthy; its vegetarian and I'm not vegetarian at all, yet I still like the meals in that book. I got it because it was written by two experts on Alzheimer's and I'm paranoid about Alzheimer's . I cut the carbs to half sometimes in the recipes but that's just because I'm diabetic, however the dishes are not high on carbs to begin with, and when the kids want real meat, I replace the tempeh or tofu with turkey fajitas or bison meat (less fat than cows). The breakfast smoothies the book has are also great. Every time I try a recipe in that book I think, oh this will taste weird and every time so far I was wrong, the dish tasted great.

 

[Misspendragon]

I admire your discipline. Not just wrt working out, but your careful monitoring of everything you eat and drink. Sometimes I forget how lucky I am…despite some unusual medical issues (which have made medical providers scratch their heads for years, but which are not life-threatening if controlled), and despite some periodic REALLY bad eating habits (i.e., so much refined sugar that my non-fasting glucose levels have no right to stay below 100), I am overall in good health.

But I realize I can’t continue stress eating All.The.Sugar. and still expect to stay healthy. I’ve just been lucky so far, and need to quit pushing my luck.

Maybe I should follow your lead (pun intended, lol).

In your defense, it was easier for me to start eating healthy because I was pregnant when they figured it out that I was diabetic. I had no idea. I was occasionally more tired than I thought I should be and I woke up at night to pee at least twice, but neither seemed like a big deal. Then, at only 32, trim and healthy, 2 months pregnant, one evening I ate too much pasta and chocolates and I woke up in the middle of the night knowing that I was going to pass out, and I did. At the hospital, I was told that I had diabetes and I said, oh because of the pregnancy? They said, no. You probably have been diabetic for a while, and you must go on medication. I said, no. I will stop eating carbs. The doc said, you won't. I said, watch me. And I did stop eating carbs almost entirely that day. However, I don't know if I would have had the willpower if not for the baby. I knew constant high sugar levels were bad for her and I didn't want her to become diabetic too, so that helped. I LOST weight while I was pregnant, even though I wasn't overweight to begin with, and even though I was eating more protein etc. to make sure the baby was still fed. The keto diet didn't work for me on the long run because my cholesterol and liver markers got worse over time (neither are a problem for me usually), but a low-carb diet combined with exercise does work. Still, much of diabetes is genetic: my father drinks his tea with six spoon of sugar and at 70 still is diabetes free. My mother had diabetes by the time she was 35. So, count your blessings and as you have said, don't take your good sugar levels for granted, but don't feel bad about a slice of cake when you feel like it, either. Unless of course you feel like it every night . That may become a problem on the long run, even with good genes.

 

[ProgressNotPerfection]

don't feel bad about a slice of cake

 

[Warren J. Dew]

However, I don't know if I would have had the willpower if not for the baby.

They are such a good motivator. My big diet changes were around when my eldest was born; I did all the cooking at the time, and my wife was starting breast feeding, so I spent a lot of time researching the best diet for breast feeding and then made it for both of us.

Fortunately from a cooking standpoint the changes were pretty simple; mostly it consisted of replacing steak & potatoes with steak and salmon.

 

[Purr]

For the past few weeks, I've been buying the strawberry poppyseed chicken salad from Panera Bread Sunday afternoon, and eating half for lunch Monday and half for lunch Tuesday. It's 340 calories for the whole salad, so half is 170 calories. The salad has strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, mandarin oranges, pecans, lettuce, and chicken, and it's pretty good. The problem is, half a salad isn't a meal, so I have to eat something else so I'm not feeling like I'm starving until dinner.

 

[Misspendragon]

For the past few weeks, I've been buying the strawberry poppyseed chicken salad from Panera Bread Sunday afternoon, and eating half for lunch Monday and half for lunch Tuesday. It's 340 calories for the whole salad, so half is 170 calories. The salad has strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, mandarin oranges, pecans, lettuce, and chicken, and it's pretty good. The problem is, half a salad isn't a meal, so I have to eat something else so I'm not feeling like I'm starving until dinner.

That sounds yummy. If only they omitted pineapples, those are loaded with sugar. I should try it though and give the pineapples to my younger daughter. She adores pineapples. Thanks for the tip! I'm always in trouble when I find myself on the road and need a healthy version of fast food, without all the carbs.

 

[Purr]

That sounds yummy. If only they omitted pineapples, those are loaded with sugar. I should try it though and give the pineapples to my younger daughter. She adores pineapples. Thanks for the tip! I'm always in trouble when I find myself on the road and need a healthy version of fast food, without all the carbs.

Generally, there aren't very many pineapple pieces. But I also think it depends on the team member that puts together the salad. Last week the team member who did my salad was generous with everything. This week, well, another team member was not so generous. In my opinion, there wasn't enough chicken or pecans.

Early on during the pandemic I would order this salad for curbside pickup. Because of the shortages, I was never sure what might be left out. Usually it was pecans or blueberries.

I also like Panera Bread's chicken noodle soup, but I haven't had it in awhile.

 

[Warren J. Dew]

On the way home from practice tonight, I stopped at CVS for snacks for the kids. CVS prints out coupons along with the receipt.

Tonight, the first coupon was $4 off any diabetic support products.

 

[ProgressNotPerfection]

Tonight, the first coupon was $4 off any diabetic support products.