I went to a class on managing gestational diabetes yesterday. It was really just 3 pregnant women in the office of a dietitian with my medical group, so it was very personalized. She showed us a power point presentation all about gestational diabetes, gave us some hand-outs on diet and answered all of our questions. It was definitely informative.
The first thing she assured us was that it wasn't our fault. We didn't get GD because we had a hot fudge sundae. I was feeling guilty about having too many sweets, so this was reassuring. Apparently, pregnancy hormones suppress the effectiveness of insulin and this causes GD. Although I'm not sure why it only happens to about 3-5% of pregnant women. Age plays a part, but I forget some of the other factors. Unfortunately, she said getting GD increases your risk of developing Type II diabetes by 50-60% in the next 5 years. I'm already at increased risk due to family history. But she covered ways to prevent or delay developing Type II diabetes, which basically involves eating healthy (which also means eating frequently) and exercising.
I need to eat 3 meals and 3 snacks a day, with prescribed amounts of carbs at each meal. No milk, yogurt or fruit before noon - because pregnancy hormones interfere with insulin the most in the morning which can lead to glucose spikes. I need to eat some protein with each meal and snack. And there is a list of things I can't have, including soda, fruit juice, cookies, ice cream, etc.
Once I had gotten the news from my OB last week, I had started to make adjustments. I didn't know exactly what the guidelines would be, but I stopped drinking juice and this blood orange soda we get at Trader Joe's (which was usually just a glass a day with a meal). I stopped putting sugar in my coffee and using cream instead of milk (no carbs in cream, lots of carbs from lactose in the milk). And I generally tried to eat fewer carbs and to eat snacks with protein. I had been feeling hungry more often, but not too bad. So I was surprised that when the dietitian weighed us, I was several pounds lighter than my last prenatal visit. It was a different scale, so I'm not sure if I really lost 4 pounds or not. She said she wants to keep track of our weight because people tend to drop weight on the GD diet and they don't really want you to do that. But it's a natural response to eating healthier.
I also got a glucose meter and need to test my blood sugar upon waking in the morning and 1 hour after breakfast, lunch and dinner. My fasting BS should be between 60 and 95. The post-meal readings should be under 130. Last night, I was 134 after dinner. It was tough because I hosted my book club and made dinner from the snacks I provided - which weren't too bad, but it might not have included enough protein. This morning, my BS was 80, right in range. After breakfast it was 131, so pretty close to target. And after lunch it was 118.
Finding things to eat will be a challenge, especially given my lack of appetite this pregnancy. For breakfast, I had a vegetarian sausage patty on a half sandwich (made with whole wheat toast), with one fried egg with some cheese and tomato. I was so hungry afterwards that I was counting down the minutes until my snack. Which was a handful of almonds and 3 crackers (only allowed 15 g of carbs at breakfast and snack time). I was so weak and hungry, I barely had energy to make lunch. I had a chicken sausage sandwich with avocado at noon, served with a pile of carrot and zucchini sticks and some dip. With a glass of milk. Oh, and 3 crackers to make my total carb count 45 g. Although I felt full afterwards, I still felt hungry, although I'm starting to not feel so bad. I'm looking forward to a snack of cottage cheese and 12 fresh cherries in another hour or so.
I think the diet will take some getting used to. Hopefully I won't continue to feel hungry all the time. It makes it hard to concentrate and I've had no motivation to get anything done today. Except prepare food. I'm also supposed to exercise (walk) 10-20 minutes after each meal. I didn't have the energy after breakfast and by lunchtime, it was in the low 90s. Maybe after dinner it will be cool enough.
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