Hi everyone,
Once I get my A1c next week and the final go-ahead (which I expect to get! yay!), my husband and I are going to start trying to conceive. Over the last year I've worked my butt off to get my A1c down (8.6 last October, now 5.5-6.0)... I'm active, eat healthy for the most part... but I have stepped it up, and have started to eat the same thing every morning and have started making dinner a lot more often...
But it is expect that folks at my job go out to eat lunch -- up to 3x/week. We have lunch meetings, do business, etc. over eating. Usually at delicious Asian restaurants with loads of rice and noodles. Since its a new job (month 3), AND I've never restricted my eating out before, I've been ordering alongside everyone else. But I almost always get high (the sort of high that is hard to predict - 5 or 6 hours later at 250-300), correct, and then feel bummed out when I start thinking that I have to stop this. So, how do you all handle this sort of thing? Clearly I do not want to annouce to everyone that, fingers-crossed, I'll be pregnant soon!, so need to quit eating foods for which I don't have a clear understanding (or rather, understand that they take over my body). I keep telling myself that once I start trying to conceive, I'll be much more motivated and figure out a way to handle the situation ... That I'll be much more motivated to watch what I eat, motivated to avoid foods I love but know always send me high, etc. Have you all found this to be the case, or am I kidding myself?
I’m in the exact same boat. I’ve been eating lunch out with the same people for 5 years, but about 3-4 months ago when we were getting close to the point of TTC, I decided to tell everyone that my doctor recommended a much stricter diet for my diabetes than what I had been following until that point (I didn’t mention that it had anything to do with pregnancy). Now when we go out, I order an extremely low carb meal (meat and veggies) and I bring my own carbs so that I can count exactly. I have these fiber crackers (like Wasa bread) that I bring with me. It has happened before that we went somewhere that didn’t have low carb food. I had a soup and then ate my own lunch later. I know that it might be hard at Asian restaurants, but you could try ordering steamed veggies and plain meat. Another option would be to always order to same thing and figure out how to bolus for it.
Everyone is used to it by now and is not surprised when I pull my crackers out 
We are TTC and the motivation is definitely MUCH, MUCH higher now that I know there is even a possibility that I am pregnant. So I think it is realistic to expect an increase in motivation
I find that asian food be it Japanese, Vietnemese, Chinese all make me have high numbers. I really don’t know why even when I eat just the protien & veggies. Maybe the sauce.
If it’s expected of you as a team member why not offer an alternative. Come up with suggestions in the area that will be more likely to keep your numbers down. If that isn’t an option ask for your food to be steamed & the sauce put on the side of your meals. Stay away from anything fried. Ask for brown rice instead of white. Do not eat the entire portion of rice or just tell them to not bring it.
If all else fails & you are still having a hard time keeping your #'s down than you might want to speak up. Let the team know you are diabetic & it is imperative to your health that you not be eating out as much. Suggest that everyone brown bag it if they can.
Best of luck with all of it.
Most of the sauces have sugars. I always try to pick the least shiny dish. Also, rice pasta is often available and much lower carb than rice.
Also when I was pregnant I stuck to my diet extriemly well. I had amazing willpower & was a model patient according to my doctors. It’s amazing what you can do when there is a little life other than your own to worry about. You can do!
Thank you both! Makes sense: Let em know I have diabetes and need to stick to a stricter diet, so bring on the steamed veggies! Or, keep ordering the same thing (which is a good idea, considering we tend to go to a lot of the same places…). I am really feeling nervous about my ability to actually order and eat the steamed veggies tho… but maybe I’m just freaking out because we’re getting soooo close to TTC. That little voice in the back of my head says — muahaha, how are you possibly going to have a healthy baby if you can’t skip the noodles? Its helpful to know that its a lot easier to stay motivated once you’re TTC and/or pregnant!
Yes, you can do it Natasha! I was not a low carber or even a healthy eater. I would binge on “forbidden foods” (which I ate so often that I could hardly do it). Now I only eat foods if I KNOW the carb count and I try not to “waste” my carbs on food that is not filled with nutrition. If you told me that I could follow my current diet two years ago, I wouldn’t have believed you
Keep us posted on how you are doing!
