4 weeks of low carbs and low sugar

I just wanted to update on life "without" carbohydrates or sugar.


I say without but I mean of curse, different carbs and hardly any sugar. I have switched to low G.I - slow releasing carbs or food with no or low carbs in them. After the the new diet and checking my blood count three times a day - my blood sugars are great and can now go back to the midwife, leaving the gynaecologist and hopefully await a straight forward birth.

I thought I ate relatively heathily but actually I was fooling myself. There are of course plenty of unhealthy veggies out there and I can see now how much of the UK and US is sleepwalking to diabetes.

Cornflakes for breakfast are not great or brown toast and cheese - without checking the package to see if it is real brown bread; hardly any lunch and then a whopping great bog portion of white pasta for dinner and half a large packet of crisps in the evening whilst sitting on the sofa - having done no more exercise than running around after the three kids.

What I have learnt from living with (allbeit temporary) diabetes:

Check your brown bread! It may not really be brown! I now check that it is 'volkoren bloem'- wholegrain flour: proper brown; if you don't check, you may end up with white bread which is made a brown colour by adding burnt sugar!! That's what we were eating. Now we are not and the kids haven't even noticed the difference.

Volkoren/wholeweat/grain pasta is tastier than the white stuff and better for controlling blood sugar as it releases sugar more slowly than the white counterpart.  I also need to eat less of it.

Eating more regularly throughout the day using wholegrain products fills me up so I am not a complete pig at dinner time!

Sugar is actually too sweet, and you really don't need it - or that much of it (duh!). I find a caffe latte now fine without sugar, and earl grey tea but I just can't get on with English strong milky tea and no sugar: so I have stopped drinking it. I suppose I could use an artificial sweetener but I happen to think a lump of sugar, even with diabetes is better than a chemical substitute; there is that plant derivative Stevia but long term trials have yet to be done and I don't know what effect it has on unborn children: so  shall just live without either.

I make oatmeal, wholeweat cookies with dark choc chip with my eldest daughter every week and my cookie obsessed son prefers the ones made at home - even though they have a quarter of the sugar stated in the recipe. Hurray!

Check even things like peanut butter: price makes a difference for me but they was such a huge difference between the levels of carbs in the cheapest versus the next cheapest that I left the cheapest on the shelf this time. The cheapest had of course only 51% peanuts and the rest was oil and other stuff. The more peanuts in the fewer carbs (but more fat of course). 

Mashing food that is a carbohydrate makes it release its sugars into your blood more quickly: so mashed potato is worse than boiled potatoes their skins on.

I can have a treat now and then. The longer I go without sugar laden foods or white carbs the less  need them. I had one bar of a twirl bar last night: I didn't need any more. It was too sweet. That was the first bar of chocolate in 4 weeks.

That is not to say that I don't look at the tompouse in the cake counter; or crave a nice big piece of home-made Victoria sandwich cake. But I have quite a strong will and I know I should steer clear of them: unless there is a special occasion.

I feel less tired, without a doubt. I have more energy!

I am now at a higher risk of diabetes later in life so ought to stick to this diet after baby is here;   I  have found it pretty easy to rationalise this diet with ensuring a better outcome for baby but I don't know if I can out my own health first and stick to this long term. I hope so..