When you do decide to eat something sweet, what is your strategy so it will have minimal effects to blood sugar. Do you eat with a meal for example or how do you plan for it?
Thanks Lori
My strategy is to eat like a mouse. This works best if I’m out with obliging friends who will let me have a teaspoon out of each of their desserts. Or if I’m at a serve-yourself buffet.
I dont eat many desserts, likely because I conditioned myself to not eat them when younger and have never bothered to break the habit. One treat I really like and often make “time” for during this holliday season is peanut butter cups. Coincedentally, I use the same tips for drinking a beer as those carbs hit me fast as well.
Portion control: I try to limit the carbs to under 20 g. Starting BG: I try to start with a good BG that leaves room for the dessert carbs to hit faster than my insulin, but still hopefully keep me within my target range. Maybe a BG in the 80s to 90s. Pre-bolus: I try to time the bolus so that my BG is headed down when the carbs will kick in so that the BG spike will be lessened.
Very good point! Strenuous exercise can sometimes lower my BG faster than I can say my ABCs sometimes. Exercise can be a very useful way to eat extra or fast carbs and limit the upcomming BG spike.
I generally stay away from deserts. They make things too dicey…I end up over-bolusing, drop too low and then have to deal with rebound highs. BUT, when I want to give myself a little treat, I stick with small portions, avoid things that are really carby (cakes, cookies, etc), and only have dessert if my BGs have been relatively stable that day. Sometimes I will try and time desert after exercise or a time when I know I’m more likely to go low.
You guys have way much more willpower than I do. When I want dessert I want more than 1 bite. I want to feel like I have had a treat.
Thanks Lori
Since my Dx a year ago I haven’t had sugar items much at all. Now when I do have something sweet it is usually a bite or two and I find that I really don’t like it. I am finding that most sugary treats are not worth it. I would have no problem eating a desert if I liked it, but mostly I take one bite and say YUK. Kind of disappointing because a number of times I have planned for this treat only to not enjoy it. Nowdays I am much happier with some fruit or Greek yogurt with berries. Sometimes I will add a spoon of Sweet Perfection to this. It tastes better to me than sugar is high fiber and zero glycemic.
As the others said, I don’t really do many desserts, but if I have a craving, I’ll try to do minimal carbs on the main meal and obviously use them up with dessert.
I don’t eat many very sweet desserts these days…
Nightly I eat a “light” yogurt with fruit, 15g of carb. Another dessert that is relatively low carb
is Jell-O’s sugar-free mousse temptations.
http://w3.kraftbrands.com/Jello/products/Mousse-Temptations.aspx (60 calories, 10g of carb, of which a lot is sugar alcohols
so you can subtract 1/2 the grams from sugar alcohols)
Once in awhile I will splurge. On my birthday, I had a creme brulee, but evidently miscounted the carbs for the meal with
dessert and ended up at 350!
As others have noted, the more the carbs, the greater the possibility for errors either way.
I saw a guy in the cafeteria at work the other day with a pump who got a gigantic sticky cinnamon bun. Either he is
much more experienced than I am (very likely) or there will be hell to pay.
For me:
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It’s gotta be fatty. Ice cream, not sorbet, etc. Cake or creme brulee, not soda.
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It’s gotta be late afternoon or evening. Sweet doesn’t work for me in the AM.
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It’s best if I’ve already eaten dinner, and thus already have insulin working.
I find I don’t need to prebolus under these conditions, and with small portions and accurate carb counts, I’m pretty much OK. It was SUCH A BLESSING to learn that my body can perfectly well handle ice cream! Now that I’m pregnant especially. 
Yeah, Ben and Jerry’s full fat ice cream isn’t too bad…should be even easier as I move to the pump with
the capability to extend the bolus.
Excellent Question. I normally eat it with a meal. The meal’s fat/protein content plus the desserts fat/protein content make me rise a lot more slowly than just eating the dessert on its own. I do however have to have an extended bolus for that.
Excellent point as well. If I am doing an hour of yard work, or exercise or something I’ll have ices or cake or ice cream so I don’t drop. I drop quickly if I don’t have carbs during strenuous activity
For me, the definition of a treat depends more on the quality than the quantity. One bite of a perfect chocolate tart, one perfectly sweet strawberry, half an inch of perfect crusty bread - all of that is more of a treat than an entire box of crap chocolates or an entire loaf of six-day-old WonderBread.
And if that’s not enough motivation, I paraphrase the model Kate Moss and remind myself that nothing tastes as good as stable, normal blood sugars.
I plan it out…If I really want to eat something sweet then I rationalize it, if its a spur of the moment thing then I make sure I keep a close eye on my BG and be ready to correct. Usually the next couple of days I am really good to counter-act my cheat. If I plan ahead then I am extremely good with eating all the way up to the moment, for example I will eat a low cal/ carb meal like fish and veggies or a salad then eat my dessert. I also make sure I do not eat it within like 3 hours before bed just in case of any corrections I may need to do…
If you really have a sweet tooth then I would look into sugar-free options like Jello Mousse, they have chocolate and its very good…or sugar free candy or desserts that are made from natural sugar like agave…So Delicious makes ice cream sandwiches with coconut milk and agave nector, very good and only 100 calories and15 carbs…
Want a sweet–5 or 6 M&M peanuts. One pack is 30 carbs, so if I limit myself, it is less than 10 carbs. I get the chocolate, as well as the peanut. My answer for years and years.
And, yes, I will steal bites, but it usually gets me into trouble. Had one bite of my grandson’s birthday cake and took 18 hours to chill the BG.
Sometimes it is worth it to go whole hog, and regret it for days.
I usually only do this@ big family gatherings and a lot of times the appetizers will run me up so there’s a big shot already chugging away, then dinner hits so I’ll have another shot and sort of nudge it up and think “well, I’ll only eat dessert if I need it” but then all the insulin will leave me in the 70s w/ 5-7U still cooking away after dinner and I’ll go ahead and let me BG decide about dessert for me.
“let me BG decide about desesrt for me.” Welcome Captain Jack Sparrow, but a good strategy. I tend to be very ontrack: miniscule appetizer,small main course proportions, but I am usually cooking. Dessert is hard, especially if it is traditional, especially family style.
I make huge family meals, and eat very little.(sigh) That is why the 5-6 peanut M&Ms make me so happy!!
Hmmm you’re inspiring naughty ideas, with T-day coming up. I can eat all the turducken my SIL makes, and moderate portion of my chestnut dressing, oven browned 'taters… sigh. Maybe if I over-bolus I can eat more than a sliver of dessert :))