[~A2~]

Hi all

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Regards

Ali

[PleaseBeAdvised]

*bump* Repost for convenience

Hello there,

I have spent some time reading old GD support threads, but couldn't really find a discussion for my question. If this has been discussed to death I apologise in advance and please point me in the right direction.

I was diagnosed with PCOS and insulin resistance early 2011, at which time I saw a dietician who provided a diet for insulin resistance. This appears to have worked with the metformin dose I was on (1500mg) as I fell pregnant within 3 cycles, and also lost a few kg. I should mention I am a "thin cyster" and don't have any of the usual symptoms of PCOS (I am normal weight, no excess hair etc) apart from irregular periods.

My first GTT (16 wks) came back negative, however, I tested positive at 24 weeks (fasting 5.4, 2hr 8.7). I am being given the chance to attempt to control levels via diet and exercise before insulin is considered.

I have been testing for 2 days. I can control my day time levels (below 7) but my fasting levels don't get below 5.4. I suppose I am looking for advice as to what may have assisted in keeping these levels down. My current practice is meal at 730-8pm, followed by 45 minute brisk walk, then small strawberries with custard or similar before bed.

Has anyone found that eating dinner and supper earlier assists with fasting levels? My initial dietician (insulin resistance diet) advised a strict 2hr meal plan (eat every 2 hours with no food in between, and don't eat after 8pm) but the hospital dietician (GD) did not agree: she agreed eating every 2 hours is a good idea but not essential, and stated free foods could be consumed in the interim.

Any advice is much appreciated!

MizRhi, I am sorry for your loss. hugs.

Chiara

[MickeyBoo]

Has anyone found that eating dinner and supper earlier assists with fasting levels? My initial dietician (insulin resistance diet) advised a strict 2hr meal plan (eat every 2 hours with no food in between, and don't eat after 8pm) but the hospital dietician (GD) did not agree: she agreed eating every 2 hours is a good idea but not essential, and stated free foods could be consumed in the interim.

Just wanted to add that I eat dinner anywhere from 5pm-7pm and it makes no difference to fasting levels, neither does having an evening snack or not. The dietician, endo and diabetes educator have all told me to have a snack at 9pm, and my insulin shot at 9.30pm.

I'm not sure in the logic of eating free foods inbetween meals, my BSL's are affected by loads of different things, and I have found this time around that some foods that have no carbs in them affect my levels a lot. Good example is cheesespread, if I have two pieces of toast with vegemite and a cup of tea for breakfast my levels come back under 5.7 every time, if I have the same but swap the vegemite for cheesespread, my levels are high 6's. There is no carb and no sugar and low fat in cheesespread, so it makes no sense for it to affect my levels the way it does, but it does every time.

I find that chewing sugar free gum in between meals can help, but it also seems that my body likes the two hour eating regime now, I set my alarm to test my BSL's at the two hour mark, and literally 5mins before it goes off every time my belly starts rumbling like clockwork!

[PleaseBeAdvised]

Thanks for your input MickeyBoo,

Have been tracking for a while now. Saw the specialist on Monday who advised I only need to check my day levels 3 days per week (have demonstrated diet and exercise control) but will need to continue to check fasting levels every morning. I did manage to get them below 5 on Sunday and Monday, which I am attributing to 1 1/2 hour yoga and 45 minute walk (Saturday) and 45 minute swim and 45 minute walk (Sunday). Levels shot up over 5 again on Tuesday I think it will be insulin for me to manage fasting levels: although I have "identified" what works for me it is not a routine I can feasibly sustain Monday - Friday. Unfortunately there are not enough hours in the day when you are working full time, although I am doing what I can (at least 30 minutes a day plus incidental).

On a side note, I am really stabby at Sydney weather at the moment. Walking to and from work would cover by 45minute x2, but this bloody rain is making things impossible!!!

I must say the 2 hours work for me as well, but only if I get a good serve of protein with the main meal.

[ssj]

Hi everyone,

I'm 33 weeks with my 3rd pregnancy and have been diagnosed with gestational diabetes a week ago. (Kind of late, I know. Someone was supposed to call me with the results of the GTT but for some reason they didn't...).

I've only been testing for 2 days, and have been under each time (yay). I enjoyed reading over the last thread and getting lots of great tips from others. Really appreciate the advice of those who have gone before me.

My question is - is it possible to eat any kind of cakes or biscuits at all? Does anyone know of some tasty and easy recipes for cakes/biscuits/slices that can fit with thise sort of diet? Or is it a matter of portion control ie I can have something like that but only in very small doses?

Actually I have another question - how much protein can I eat? I feel hungry alot...

Thanks!

SSJ

[PleaseBeAdvised]

Hi Ssj,

Will you be seeing a dietician? I was automatically referred by my midwife clinic (I am in the public system). I went in with a list of my favourite foods and essentially got yes or no answers as to whether they were recommended or not. Very helpful Don't be embarrassed to ask, as I now know 3 cups of movie popcorn is actually a-ok.

Some PP have noted sugar free biscuits/chocolate and the like for snacks, but I haven't tried them as yet. Not much of a biscuit person myself, but interested in everyone's view on chocolate.

This may help
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/collection...etes+friendly/1

I have it bookmarked but haven't gone through to see what desserts are on offer.

[MickeyBoo]

My question is - is it possible to eat any kind of cakes or biscuits at all? Does anyone know of some tasty and easy recipes for cakes/biscuits/slices that can fit with thise sort of diet? Or is it a matter of portion control ie I can have something like that but only in very small doses?

Actually I have another question - how much protein can I eat? I feel hungry alot...

SSJ

Hi SSJ,

No one has ever mentioned protein intake to me, aside from make sure I have a normal serve per meal and fill up with more vegetables. If I mention that I have felt hungry they say to eat more vegetables as they are 'free foods'. I sometimes have a steamer bag of veg at lunch time and it does fill me up. I have found this guide online from a WA hospital which is almost identical to what they give out at my hospital in the information sessions and initial consult. It has quite an extensive list of foods to eat/foods to avoid and a page on snack options. Well worth a read.

http://www.kemh.health.wa.gov.au/brochures...rs/wnhs0560.pdf

I have found Sugar Free Marie biscuits at Aldi and you can have 5 biscuits for one serve of carb, they are quite plain and not really appealing, but are ok dunked into my hot milo My dietician recommended Tea Biscuits, I can have two of them for one serve of carb and they are much nicer. If you do a google search on Low GI recipes there will be a fair bit that comes up, I like buying the Diabetes Living magazine and looking at their recipes too.

[ssj]

Hi,

ChiaraB - yes, I have seen a dietician, but only once so far. I did ask a bunch of questions and have more for next time, but it'll be a week and a half before I see her again. I got the feeling that she was trying to answer with 2 hats on - one that was thinking in terms of GD, and one that was about general wellbeing. EG I asked her whether sausages were good or not, and she said, um, they're ok, by which I assumed she meant they aren't going to hugely affect my levels, but they're not that healthy overall. I've been able to manage my levels pretty well so far, so maybe she'll relax a bit with my next appointment when she sees that I've been able to manage it so far.

Thanks for the Taste link! I searched their low-GI recipes but not their diabetic friendly ones. I guess I'm a bit confused about whether it's more important to reduce my refined carbs or my sugar? She did tell me that even though it sounds strange, sugar and honey etc aren't actually high GI (I think she said they were medium?) and that something like white rice was worse than having a spoon of sugar in some greek yoghurt, for example.. I figured out I could make crumble, especially if I reduced or eliminated the flour in the crumble topping, and used lots of rolled oats. Maybe anzac biscuits as well? Will have to search the supermarket shelves for low-sugar/low-GI biscuits.

Has anyone done any baking with oat flour? Is there even such a thing?

MickeyBoo - that document is heaps more comprehensive than the brochures I got so I look forward to going through it in more detail. It's brilliant, thank you! No Aldi where I am (very sad) so will have to look elsewhere for similar biscuits. The protein thing is a big deal for me. So if I have fruit without yoghurt I'm always hungrier, or if I have salad and bread for lunch without tinned salmon, cheese or a hard-boiled egg, I'm starving an hour later. What's the GI rating of Milo? The nutritional panel, from memory, said that 20g had 12 or 14g of carbs so I was a bit scared to try it. It is one of the questions I have planned for the dietician.

Very proud of myself - the whole family went to a tropical fruit icecream place this afternoon, I had just had a coke zero, with a few licks of the different flavours!

[PleaseBeAdvised]

Ssj,

Sounds like we had dieticians coming from slightly different perspectives! I was advised to concentrate on the "exchange" method: 1 exchange = 15g carbohydrate, so 3 exchanges per main meal and 1 exchange per snack (ETA 3 snacks per day). Avoid all biscuits/lollies/soft drink/juice and hi GI foods (although have no idea how to differentiate between GIs and have to google as I shop ). I wasn't given any guidelines on protein fats etc and my dietician advised against "lite" meals and the splenda type sugars, I think because I am well within weight range and started pregnancy a little underweight. The dietician is worrying more about my baby's weight, rather than my weight, if that makes sense.

Congrats on being strong and going without the ice cream! I walked all the way to my favourite gelato shop with DH last night and didn't have a bite! 1 hour round trip. HAving said that, I did down a fair bit of popcorn and a coke zero at the cinema tonight

This post has been edited by ChiaraB: 11/02/2012, 11:19 PM

[MickeyBoo]

I think my dietician sounds like somewhere in the middle lol. In my past two pregnancies I was told to watch my carbs, stick to a handful size per serve, and have one serve of carbs per meal. they were really blase and not very informative. I could still have 'diet' treats as long as they were low GI (so things like nestle mousse cups etc) and stick to sweetners instead of sugar. But I could also still have things like honey and sugar, I just had to limit my portions.

This time around they are using the carb exchange system, telling me that 15gm of carb is one serve, and I was to eat 1-2 serves per snack and 3-4 per main meal. I am used to reading labels so for me working out 15gm serves of carbs is so much easier and I don't feel as restricted diet wise this time. They aren't as strict on the brown rice/wholemeal pasta thing and are happy for me to have white rice/white pasta as long as my levels are fine. I can still have a scrape of jam or honey if I really want it and they prefer me to use sweetners. Both of which are fine as I don't eat jam or honey and only use sweetner in my coffee.

I prefer a higher protein diet too and while not pregnant I am still diabetic, but tend to cut the carbs down to a bare minimum and rely heavily on proteins. That is the most effective way for me to lose weight. In pregnancy there's no problem with having extra protein to help fill you up, but the right carb serve has to come first. Some proteins have a higher fat content (fat converts to sugar so that's a big no-no) or a higher sugar so you just need to read the labels. I have found that boiled eggs are a really good snack, little tins of tuna, and cheese on multigrain crackers is my new best friend.

This time I am finding it easier with diet, I am on insulin after lunch/dinner and overnight, but I am eating the right carb exchanges and I am having fruit or crackers for snacks and really just avoiding all the cakey/sweet things. I will admit to having a piece of something nice when I go for a coffee once a week, but I halve it with a friend and then DS gets half of my half so I get a taste, but it's not a big one. I go for my first sizing scan in 4 weeks so I'm hoping it comes back normal and if not then I can adjust my diet. As far as my levels go they are all well within normal range.

Milo is low GI when served with low fat milk. (GI of 35 with milk and 55 with water) One serve is 3 heaped teaspoons and 1 cup of milk. I have 2 heaped teaspoons and about 3/4 cup of hot milk and top the rest up with hot water. My dietician recommends a cup of milo as an evening snack.

This post has been edited by MickeyBoo: 12/02/2012, 07:53 AM