I've resisted seeing one for years but I have decided that it is time. I have been plodding along for over a year now on MDI's and have no real clue about how to count carbs. I think it's about time I learned.
So I'm going into this with the objective of learning to count carbs. So far I have always aproached carb counting with the SWAG method and I'm pretty sure that not the best way. I don't think I'm going to buy into the whole low fat high carb diet but learning to count carbs is worth the visit.
Hey Gary: Good luck!!!! Learning to count carbs is important no matter how many carbs you eat per day. It is a good skill! Good for you for taking action. Let us know how the visit goes.
I've found that a digital scale is a great aid in counting carbs. The dietician will tell you an apple has about 15 carbs. The scale might tell you that the apple you're about to eat has 21.
A reasonable dietician won't push tons of carbs on you. My original "meal plan" from the Joslin DOIT program was 225 carbs a day. The next time I saw the dietician I told her there was no way I could eat that many carbs and she said fine.
Yes, definitely a worthwhile skill. Then you can decide whether to weigh as Maurie does or get a list (app/online/paper) and just use listed carbs (I just estimate if it says a small peach is 15 and mine is medium I call it 18, works for me)
I started carb counting a couple of months ago and it has made a huge difference in my control. I'm not a big fan of math so I got a "Perfect Portions" scale. It basically takes the guess work out of figuring out how many carbs are in over a 1000 different foods. My niece came over the other day and brought a blueberry pie - lo and behold there was a code on the scale for "blueberry pie from recipe" so I plugged that in to the scale and up popped an obscene amount of calories, fat, carbs, etc, but not only was it good to know the information as far as insulin dosage, but the pie was delicious. Hope your appointment goes well.
