Dealing with Diabetes and the copious amounts of food that the holidays bring is a very difficult thing to balance.  I thought I would share a few tips and tricks that helped me maintain control while also indulging in the feast.

First I made sure to go into the day with a good blood sugar level.  I have been generally running a little on the high side (must have an infection brewing again, or maybe it is stress?), so in the morning with my coffee I did a correction to bring myself into the 80-90 range post coffee.  Going into the day with a good level is key to keeping everything else in control.

Second, I planned ahead.  Most thanksgiving dinners include the same sorts of items;  mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, dressing, gravy, cranberry relish, pumpkin pie….. loads and loads of carbs.  What I did ahead of time was looked up the carb counts and made a mental note.  If I indulged in seconds (thirds, fourths, hehe!) I could do so while balancing the amount of insulin I took.  I tried to choose wisely and had a small amount of the sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and other high carb items, and loaded up with turkey, low carb veggies, and heck, is there anything else low carb?? Not much! But that trick seemed to work.  As long as I got a taste of the good stuff my tummy was happy. I did not need to overdo it.  Now for those poor diabetics on the old style of x-amount of insulin at x-time, with x-amount of carbs, I have no idea how you deal with the holidays. That has to be quite frustrating, I feel for you.  ((hugs!))

My family had “dinner” fairly early in the day, so I was not in the mood for eating a lot. (who has dinner at noon!) I think that helped me keep my numbers from going toooo high.  I will admit, it was a “special” day and I forgave myself if I was not the “ideal” diabetic patient (hahaha! like I ever am! details to come in future posts).

Third, I wore my continuous glucose monitor.  I try not to rely on it too much, and I really did not have to because of my careful carb counting plan.  It was a bit of relief to have it though, just in case.  I never ever want to be upwards of 300, which DOES happen, but I just hate the feeling and the repercussions of it.  Plus, in case I get over zealous with the insulin, I don’t want to drop too low either.

Turns out it was a lucky day for me.  Somehow I was able to guess my carbs fairly close to what I ate, and only had to look up the pumpkin pie on CalorieKing.com via my BlackBerry (two things I am very thankful for).  Mom gives me heck for always being on my BB.  Little does she realize I am not screwing around on it, but usually looking up carb counts (insert rollyeyes icon here).  After we finished dinner/dessert I was still famished.  Don’t know what has been going on recently but I just can’t quench my hunger.  I’ve been feeling like a hippo, the pink one, in that hungry hungry hippo game I played as a kid (which mom hated because it made too much noise, lol).  Anyway, I tried my hardest to resist snacking for three hours.  At two hours, I tested and was high (but less than 300) so I waited because I still had a lot of insulin still kicking in my system.  At the three hour mark I was still a bit high so I made a correction (my pump figured out how much insulin I still had “active” in my system, SOOOO thankful for my insulin pump) and had a snack of two roast beef sandwiches (yes, we did not have enough food for fourths).  (thankful for more food!!)

I was quite nervous going into the day knowing it was going to be a tough one diabetes-wise.  But with a little planning and a little luck everything turned out ok.

Still dealing with high blood sugars. I just can’t figure out this insulin vs. carbohydrate thing.

Noticed my continuous blood sugars were really causing issues. I started to take a more active roll in trying to control them, but I felt so helpless. I had such a hard time figuring out how many carbs were in the foods I ate. I was so scared I would go to low and not realize it until it was to late (I still have this fear). But, it seemed like no matter how much I tried to gain control, I just couldn’t. I still have this problem today. There are just soooo many factors that affect blood sugar levels it is crazy!