In the past all I have ever done is test my morning fasting level and then sometimes 2 hours after breakfast, a late afternoon pre-dinner and then two hour after dinner/before sleep, and a middle of the night reading with occasional readings after exercise or if I think my glucose is low. Mostly I just do the morning fasting reading.
I have tried various diets and right now I am on Jenny Craig (JC). I have lost 15 pounds so far with probably 15 more to go. My morning readings are in the 80 - 120 range. If I do the treadmill in the evening I need to have a protein or long lasting carb snack before bed so that my glucose does not drop to 60 in the early am.
The Jenny Craig diet does not seem to be low carb, nor an emphasis on complex cards versus simple ones.
I have read hear that some have learned whether certain types of carbs or other foods or beverages affect them more than others. I switched to non-alcoholic beer for holiday or infrequent family parties and now only drink alcohol very rarely (<5/yr.). But when I drank more (1 or 2 beers) more frequently I never noticed any particular unexpected reaction, but never thought to check for low glucose as that has been rare for me. I don't really care about my reaction to alcohol as that is no longer a significant issue for me. But I never thought to check for how simple versus complex carbs affect my levels rapid peak versus quick fall off versus a longer but more level reading.
While the JC diet and weight loss have brought my readings down to an acceptable level, I am still maxed out on various oral medications and also take 34 units of Lantus before bed. I had been on a previous custom diet with a diabetes certified nutritionist where I was able to get the readings to an acceptable level on just 15 units of Lantus. I will be weaning myself off JC and will be going back to the nutritionist. The previous custom diet emphasized complex carbs (whole grain/wheat) and I am OK with that, but I prefer enriched bleach flour, for instance and most JC food does not specify that it is whole grain/wheat. For what it's worth supposedly JC is recommended by the American Diabetes Association and my endocrinologist was enthusiastic about me going on it. Supposedly they have a type 2 diet, but I am just on a standard one which is working. But I would like the diet to which I wean myself to work even better so my Lantus units and oral meds can be reduced while maintaining the same glucose level.
The JC diet emphasizes frequent snacks every 2 - 3 hours to avoid hunger pains that lead to binge eating and this works for me. But this makes it difficult to track glucose levels over the day.
I assume to tell my reaction to specific foods I would need to do many more readings and also log and match what I eat. But are there tips anywhere on how to do this - for instance how to isolate on which particular food in a meal causes what sugar level? Does one eat the same meal at every meal for a week, or so and just vary one ingredient such as a simple carb versus a complex carb? Of can you basically ignore food with just proteins, fats, etc. that have very low to no carbs? For instance, can you really isolate the reaction for enriched flour versus whole wheat or certain fruits (with similar glycemic indexes), or for potatoes versus jerusalem artichokes?