After a lot of experimentation over the years, I believe I’ve finally found my sweet spot between diet, insulin, exercise, etc. for blood sugar control and thought I’d share:
Meals…
Basically 0-carb breakfast-- usually consists of eggs and bacon or sausage, with coffee (cream + artificial sweetener)
Very low carb lunch-- salad with veggies and oil/vinegar dressing
Nuts for a snack if I can’t make it from lunch to dinner-- go to’s are almonds and macadamia nuts
Whatever I want to eat for dinner, followed by exercise/walk
What the above gets me is phenomenal blood sugar control for about 80% of the day. Unless I get lucky with the dinner bolus I usually get a nice blood sugar bump in the evenings, but being able to eat whatever I want to at dinner makes it mentally much easier to stick to my guns for breakfast and lunch. Depending on carb/insulin load of dinner, sometimes the exercise part is a little tricky, but it seems to help level things out on the whole.
Current Setup…
Dexcom G6
Omnipod
Loop
I posted in another thread about how awesome Loop has been for me. The biggest two wins for me have been overnight blood sugar control and being able to dose from my watch. Anecdotally, I seem to have fewer lows to correct now as well.
@Jason22, thanks for sharing your success story. My strategy is very similar. My ‘whatever’ meal is lunch. I over-bolus and go on a brisk walk directly after the meal. Exercise works so much faster than insulin. It is a great way to cap the spike. Over-bolusing further reduces the spike. I orchestrate a soft landing with yummy fruit. Loop takes care of the rest of my day. I typically stay in range about 90%.
Are you pretty sure you can’t just bump up your basals and eat less restrictively?
I’ve been eating sugar cereal for breakfast on Loop and not breaking 180. Its surprising. I’m a super high carb eater (vegetarian) so the postprandials have always been rough on me. But, I’ve found the algorithm to be super duper resilient with retroactive correction setting turned on. That made a difference.
I just hate the idea that it might be possible to avoid some of that difficulty by bumping up the basals.
Maybe not. Just throwing it out there as an idea. If you want to compare how similar/dis-similar we are, my basals are currently set at:
12AM - 1.15
3AM - 1.45
6AM - 1.7
12PM - 0.9
5PM - 1.1
For those settings I will run flatline on the old fashioned Omnipod…if I never eat. If I eat, then we see trouble, lol. Typical postpranials might be 250 or 300 without using an extended bolus. But, since using Loop, post-meals look good. First time in my life thats happened (unless I ran the basals dangerously high).
I feel sad for you guys who do the restricted eating stuff. You probably dont mind it, but It just makes my heart sad.
@mohe0001 It’s a good question-- our basal settings are similar in that we both increase over night (I run .75 from 10p-11a, .4 during the day), but my settings do a pretty good job keeping me level when not eating. My overnights tend to vary wildly, and it’s a problem I’ve always had-- doesn’t seem to fit a nice pattern where I could manually dial up basal at a specific time. I do give Loop a wide berth on basal (up to 6 I think).
As to meals and insulin, the largest problem I have is that I have a desk job and movement is really constrained most work days. I’ve found that insulin is insanely unreliable if I’m sitting around-- some times 1x insulin works, some times for the exact same meal I end up taking 3x. So to help manage the stress of job + “OMG my insulin isn’t working” that’s part of the reason why I’ve settled on pushing carbs to end of the day and tying them up with exercise.
I’ve tried a bunch of different combinations of things, and for now this seems to work for me. Appreciate you sharing tips/info with me, always open to adjusting/tweaking
Thats interesting feedback, Jason. Its neat to see the range of user experiences. 3x is a lot. Thats more variability than I get.
Have you seen any increase in predictability with Loop? Or, is it hard to say? When I ran open loop, I still see better meal data. So, I was under the impression that Loop was delivering meal insulin very differently than standard Omnipod. Do you think that’s true?
I only ran open loop for the first little bit and I can’t say I noticed much difference before or after Loop with the boluses. If I ever switch back to open to play around with basal I’ll let you know.
That’s an odd comment for a vegetarian to make. Vegetarians are, by definition, people who restrict their diets.
Remember, food is so much more than the pleasure you get from putting something in your mouth. Food is chemistry, nutrition, and culture. When I think about eating something I don’t just think about the 30 seconds it will be in my mouth and taste good. I think about what that food will do to me over the next four to eight hours, and whether that will be good for me or bad for me. If it’s bad for me, I don’t eat it. And things that are high in sugar, and thus require more insulin, are bad for me.
Jason22, I follow almost exactly the same diet and pattern as you do, except you can swap the breakfast sausages with some beans. And other people may not understand, but I truly look forward to my salad ever day. It’s delicious, it’s low carb, and everything about eating it makes me feel good.
Amen!! I might not do it at every meal but I do ask myself at what cost will this nutrition come? I too love my lunch salads and with loop have begun to “enjoy” higher carb dinners again. I had pasta for the first time since being diagnosed 3 years ago. It was exciting but I realized I am all about the sauce and don’t really miss pasta as much as I thought.
Ditto ! I love Dex-pod looping although it has only been 2 weeks. And find my low carb approach to make things much more manageable. If I’m not hungry in the morning I don’t eat. Otherwise usually eggs & coffee. Lunch salads rule my world and I love them, always have. I stick to low carb dinners ( no grains or starchy veggies.) and really enjoy my craft beer and dark chocolates in smaller amounts. I go for 30-40 min dog walks on trails 3 times a week and mtn bike or run twice a week.
It is so nice to see I was right. I think diabetics can normalize their blood sugars if they are diligent and can embrace the technology that is out there. I am in range over 90% of the time (80-130) with a std deviation 19-22%. My 90 day BG avg is 108mg/dL. Thanks to diligence and technology!!
Quick update… Endo appointment today. Always wanted to get A1C under 6 since I was diagnosed 8 years ago… finally made it happen!! Huge shout out to this community as well as the Loop folks!!
This is great! I’m glad you’ve figured out a system that works for you. I have a desk job too, and since I started it I’ve gained weight and take WAY more insulin than I did in a stand up/moving around role. Do you put protein on your salads? I have been thinking about keeping my lunches low low low carb because it keeps things easier at work. I’m not sure I’d be full without the protein though.
Thanks-- my usual mix on the salad I put on nuts, cheese, and turkey pepperoni. I wouldn’t be against other protein (chicken, etc) but usually it’s just a convenience thing and I don’t have leftovers, or time to make specifically for the salad. Hunger can be an issue for me with the salads too-- I try to pack as much as I can with lots of toppings and italian dressing… I will get hungry later unless I’m intentional with portions
I am not low carb, but I absolutely love my salads and put all sorts of things on them. I like to mix up the veggies on them. For protein it’s usually beans, peas, tofu or fake meats. Fake bacon being a high favorite. I just want to suggest if there is a refrigeration problem fake bacon or most of the fake meats being out of the refrigerator for the hours until lunch is not an issue. Yves Canadian Bacon Alternative tastes just like bacon which is an easily duplicated flavor.
Huge shout out to this community as well as the Loop folks!!