Oh, wow, @Terry4, that sounds delicious. That is exactly what I’d like to manage - slow rise no higher than 20, and gentle fall:)
Yes, I prefer the full-fat version, too, but it isn’t always available. Yes, I know, banana are probably the worst thing to be eating. I only put a few slices in though, still every morsel counts to a diabetic:(
Yes, I love walking, but it usually requires more than an hour to have any effect on my BG, not always but usually. I have two dogs so I am walking them at least 3 times a day, more than one of them would like, unfortunately for her!
I mix the 2 tablespoons of potato starch with about four ounces of hot tap water.
If you walk 60-90 minutes after your insulin dose, when it’s peaking, the effect is dramatic for me. I can pull down a trending high with as little as 30 minutes walking.
If potato starch is not cooked, it has very little nutritional content but it will feed the good bacteria in your gut. It has zero effect on my blood glucose.
Thanks, just checked out the BRM potato starch site. Unfortunately, they display lots of photos of delicious treats that none of us can eat!
That is a great idea, walking while there is a spike going on, as I experienced this morning. My hounds won’t typically walk that long in the morning, they are sleep heads!
Oh, HIIT, I do not do, but should! It sounds like a great mix to prevent injury, too, and definitely strengthen oneself. The BRM ps sounds like physillium powder. Not very tasty but practical. I learned about it in Dr. Bernstein’s book.
Good to know that it also supports the good bacteria, all the help, the better. I will check it out at Whole Foods or I guess the health food store. Thank you!
Update… This is what happened this morning from my Trial and Error. I had a late breakfast, and decided to try the 2U all at once, at 8:14am. BG was 86. Walked the hounds for short 15 mins. Ate at about 9am. Max Low was 40 at about 9:30am, and Max High was 93 at 10:17 (not shown). I’m back in range now at 85 but I don’t like having the lows to prevent the spike. Maybe if I had eaten sooner after the pre-bolus I would not have had the low?? I had a missed reading though and didn’t realize BG was dropping so fast.
Tomorrow’s Trial and Error will be either to eat sooner after the pre-bolus, or do the extended bolus with 1U immediate, and 1U extended over 2 hours
If you are eating higher-GI food, you want to line up the peak action of the insulin with the carb absorption. It looks like today you had the peak action of the insulin well before the carbs could catch up. I would have eaten around 8:30 to 8:35ish where you just start to see the line on the CGM go down. Remember your cgm reading lags your actual Blood glucose, so it is already dropping when you see the first little drop. Stephen Ponder, author of Sugar Surfing, calls this “waiting for the bend”
In my humble opinion, extended boluses should only be used for meals with lots of protein and fat content to help with the glucose rise that occurs 2-3 hours after the meal. Also some people use extended bolus for grazing or eating at a buffet where the consumption of carbs is really spread out. For the meal that you described, I don’t really see a need for an extended bolus.
Thank you for the feedback. I just had slightly less than one cup consisting of 1/3 cup Greek yogurt, and 2/3 cup berries+apple bits+banana+kiwi.
Yes, I read Stephen Ponder’s book and very helpful. I think I missed the bend while out walking the dogs.
I ate about 45 minutes after the bolus, but I agree with you, I should have eaten maybe 20 minutes after the bolus. I don’t know if that would have prevented a spike, but I think safer than going down so drastically like I did.
Thank you for the help in understanding the extended bolus. I really appreciate it as I am having problems determining when to use it.
You describe my evening meal which causes a rise at 3+ hours. It mainly consists of vegs, but some fish. I guess it is the fish that is causing the rise after full 3 hours, but then it is very pronounced with up arrows. Last night I had to take an additional 2U and my C:I ratio is 15:1. You can see the spike in my graph that I previously uploaded, at the bottom where BGs > 140 and my two treatments (white dots). Could all that insulin be needed just for fish??? I’ll see how it goes tonight as I intend to try the extended bolus for the fish. Here is an image of my dinner from last night.
It might be hard to see, but mostly vegs like cauliflower, celery, tofu, mushroom, some lima beans, plus tuna, 1 shrimp, and a slice of Japanese potato.
This happens to me also but it was very pronounced when I was pregnant so I would bolus for my full breakfast and eat half of it and then the other half 2 hrs later when my bg was back where I wanted it and on a d own ward trend. That said my total carb for breakfast was 30g and would be maybe one slice of toast with a bit of peanut butter with an apple or some other 15g fruit 2 hrs later, this obviously wouldn’t be practical for some meals. An apple is an easy one to throw in your bag if you’re heading to work, school etc. Obviously you have to be careful not to forget to eat the second half of breakfast but it worked well for me.
In my experience, yes, absolutely. That plate, veggies + seafood, looks very similar to what I’d have for dinner fairly often and for which I’d again use use a normal bolus + extended bolus to blunt the late spike. Another option would be a second bolus, timed based on an up-tick in bg, which would typically start 2-3 hours after such dinner.
Thanks for your confirmation that I’m not the only one experiencing this, and also for how you handle it, esp as you eat similarly! I haven’t really paid attention to proteins and fat before. I did try the extended bolus last night. I extended 1U for 3 hours (for the fish), and 1U for regular bolus. Then at 1.5 hrs after bolus I noticed I was going up with arrow trending up, with only 0.5U left on the extended bolus. So I decided to stop it and give myself a regular bolus of 1.5U. That ended up being too much as right after I gave myself the bolus, the arrow switched and started trending downward! I ended up going a bit low down to 50, but recovered right away and never had a spike. So, overall a much better outcome. It was a good test at least. I guess I combined both of your methods at once. I guess I was too aggressive. I should have left the extended bolus run its course, or at least wait longer before taking action. Tonight will be another opportunity to test
I want to thank everyone on this thread for helping me get a handle on my breakfast spikes. Thanks to @Dragan1, too, for helping with my dinner spikes, too, due to fish. That was a tough one for me to understand, but it appears that it is indeed the fish that is causing the spikes. When I omit the fish, my BG does not spike.
As a few people recommended, I started having the Chia Pudding for my breakfast using @Terry4’s recipe I found in another thread. I changed it a bit though. I use 2 tablespoons chia seeds, and 1 tablespoon each of coarsely ground flax seeds, and hemp hearts. I don’t add the butter or vanilla extract, but do use the heated water.
To top it off, I add a reduced size, 1/4 cup instead of my previous 1/2 cup, of yogurt and berries, fruit. So far, this has been working out well. Today I only spiked 40 mg/dl and did not need to even wait long after the pre-bolus, only @15 minutes. I hope this continues!
Yes, I agree with others, the chia pudding is a delicious breakfast and very substantial/satisfying. Here is a pic of it.
