I just received my book and from what I’ve heard here, am excited to get started. Any hints to get me going?
There is a ton of information in the book. Im on my second go around right now as it takes at least a few reads to soak it all up. Have fun!
Truthfully, buy a lot of protein. Look up the low carb vegetables and buy them. Keep tuna in 7 oz cans in your pantry along with mayo, celery, and cream cheese. I depend on FAGE full fat yogurt that my grocery store orders for me. I buy two dozen eggs a week. I use chia seeds in my yogurt. Buy some liquid Stevia or Truvia. I have dozens of quart sized mason jars filled with nuts and seeds. In the beginning, I needed sugarless gum. I don’t buy anything special, but I cook a lot. Get used to it. I’ve been doing this for over a year and cook and bake regular food for my family. I haven’t cheated once other than eating too many sunflower seeds or too much salad. IMO, you have to exercise, too. It’s hard to find time, but my bg relects the level and frequency of my exercise. (I exercise hard.) I’m telling the truth. I just came from the gym.
Ahh. check out THIS LINK. Its one of the members of this site. There is a wealth of supplemental information. I used the nutrition calculator here, which helped me get a handle on what ratios I was supposed to be eating.
Ask a lot of questions in this forum and read old pages of this forum. I was lucky enough to have a few of the members here (and one in particular) help me to understand what was going on and make good recommendations.
Find foods that you can eat and cannot. Realize that you can replace a lot of foods. Another member here put it wonderfully, there are two types of low carbers, those that make due without and those that replace whats gone. I like to think I do both. But know this, you will go a lot further on this eating plan making your own meals and items. Heck I just made low carb stuff, cranberry sauce, cauliflower mashed, and pumpkin pie for TG. The dishes were a hit!
Cauliflower is a Godsent. It can replace rice, potatoes, and tons of other starches easily.
Low carb is high fat, not high protein. Try to bear this in mind. Also, Im coming to terms with the fact that low carb / high fat doesnt mean I can eay just any old fat and protein. It still needs to be healthy like fish, minimal packaged "low carb"
mixes, etc.
Take your time getting into it. I lowered my carbs over 2 months and am really happy with the 35 a day I eat now. Plus I couldnt be happier with my BGs. Best theyve been in the 25 years Ive had D. Heres my days BGs from yesterday / this morning. The range is 70-120 mg/dl
and lastly, when you realize your Dr. has been telling you BS. dont let your anger get the better of you. Take it in stride.
Hope it goes well for you!
I too cook from fresh pretty much every day, so I know what I’m eating.
I’ve discovered some new delights, such as berry omelettes and dark chocolate with low sugar and high cocoa powder content…
I make a mash of celeriac with sweet potato mixed and loads of fresh soups.
Hana
Ps I eat lots of cheese.
I’ve owned several of the books, I’ve given several away. I would recommend that you read, learn and think of the book as teaching your “prinicples.” It talks about a lot of aspects of diabetes, and a lot of emphasis is on diet. The diet is important, but achieving the dietary targets of 6-12-12 (carbs in breakfast-lunch-dinner) is not as important as embracing carb restriction. I’ve been at this a while, I don’t eat 6-12-12 and you don’t have. But I believe in the ideas, and I’d recommend them to you. For a more extensive Bernstein community check out diabetes-book.com. Dr. B has a recipe book, but I can’t really recommend it. I have found that I can eat gourmet meals fit for a king and still do low carb.
Checked out your Link above. Noted article on the 2 Gram Cure, for low BG. The article started the 2 Grams at
140 lbs. Okay each tab. I use is 4 Grams each therefore, how much for 115 lbs.? By the way that Link was full of info and recipes.
Thanks…Chele
Why can you not recommend the Recipe Book?
Chele
I own the book (http://www.amazon.com/Diabetes-Diet-Bernsteins-Low-Carbohydrate-Sol…). It describes a basic range of dishes, many of them simplistic and they employ only a small range of what you can do with low carb cooking. I don’t need a recipe for bacon and eggs and you probably don’t either. The recipes are not gourmet, you won’t find Coq Au Vin in the book. It uses a core set of substitution strategies that are Dr. B’s favorites. If you don’t cook and you have totally no idea how to proceed, it can helpful. But once you have read through it, you pretty much have gotten what you need to out of it. There is a lot more that you can do with low carb cooking. I would rather have something like Dana Carpenders 500 low carb recipes on my cookbook shelf.
ps. And Coq Au Vin is on plan.
I’d recommend getting yourself a notebook and pen that you take everywhere with you and take notes about how you are feeling, your insulin need changes, blood sugars. I find that it doesn’t have to be annoying meticulous note taking, but just a little here and there is priceless when reviewed later. Also, you may want to go slow and focus on one aspect of Dr. Berstein’s advice at a time since doing it all at once might be overwhelming and make it difficult to pinpoint a problem. (too many variables). Good luck!
I agree! I do low carb and often gourmet food. Coq Au Vin is one of my favorites!!! Gourmet.com has a lot of naturally low carb recipes that focus on a protein dish with great flavoring and sauces. Yum!
I had Cushing’s Syndrome from an adrenal tumor. I think that Dr. B has nailed the importance of awareness about the natural diurnal fluctuations in cortisol as it relates to bg. I just came from the Endo and told him that no matter what I eat, or don’t eat, my bg is 100 at noon to 1PM. I’m usually in full gear then after several cups of coffee. Your lowest cortisol is in the PM, and midnight is the lowest. When he says don’t exercise in the am unless you have been up and about for four hours, he’s spot on. So, I’d pay attention to when you take in the most carbs.
I found the transition to this way of eating relatively easy, despite the fact that I was a carboholic pre diagnosis. There are lots of good food choices left to you, I really don’t feel deprived. For me my carb cravings disappeared quickly. My office at work is right next to the lunch room and I am daily challenged by wonderful smells and things people have brought in to share. I can honestly say I haven’t fallen off the wagon even once. One thing that helps me is frequent testing (7 to 9 times a day). This tells me if a given food is causing problems as well as offering instant feed back to keep on the straight and narrow.
I read extensively after diagnosis and the two things that had the greatest influence on my path forward were Dr. B’s book and the bloodsugar101 website. Follow this link that describes the eat to your meter system on bloodsugar101. Basically you conduct a science experiment on yourself to find out which foods give you trouble. You can then fine tune your diet by eliminating just the foods that bother you.
Doesn’t the ADA stress that increase in protein can cause Kidney Disease?
Chele
Also know that stress increases cortisol levels and BG. Found this out from PCP and testing myself. Since my Father died with Kidney Disease I have to watch the amount of Protein I take in. To top it off, CAD is effected by Diabetes and Kidney. Good thing they do not make a Triple Shot Gun.