yes, that 247 was on the first Am of my taking the meds. I won’t be having oatmeal again that is for sure. But like you said you will never know until you try and see what your body can handle. I can tell the veggies are good for numbers for sure but I have many other things to work on. I am not really worried about my numbers but more of how I feel. I wonder if that is the Metformin making me feel yucky off and on or my blood sugar - or is it just my body adjusting to meds and new BG numbers? I would feel better if I knew what was supposed to feel normal and what is not. So I don’t get worried at every new pang and ping that happens in my body.
Am going to tell my husband that you said I always make sense. He’s going to fall on the floor laughing!
You’re right again! Under 70 is considered low. Lows are an individualized thing. I don’t feel icky until I’m under 60. When BG is a high for a while, normal can feel low.
You’ll learn how to correct lows with the right amount of glucose. Like the rest of it, it’s trial & error. I’m small & it doesn’t take much for me. I use jelly beans for lows because I can’t stand glucose tabs. Each jelly bean has 1 gram of glucose. Each gram of glucose raises me 10 pts, so easy to pop jelly beans. If I used juice, I’d be way high fast.
I wouldn’t worry about overnight lows since you’ve just started Metformin & are taking it with breakfast & lunch.
Sorry about the dry mouth. That’s awful.
Yep, 30-35 carbs for the whole day. For breakfast, I eat hardly any carbs because I have dawn phenonmenon. Morning is a time when many people are the most carb sensitive/insulin resistant. I eat eggs & cheese, or the granola I sent you. On weekends, almond meal/flaxseed meal pancakes or muffins.
Other than unsweetened, unflavored plant protein powder, I haven’t found any good vegan protein sources that aren’t high carb. There’s only so much protein powder you can eat/drink without feeling bloated. Let me know if you find any.
From Jenny’s site, here’s a protein calculator to figure out how much protein you need: http://www.phlaunt.com/lowcarb/19058429.php. I know now that I wasn’t eating enough protein when I was vegetarian.
Just relax…and take the medicine. Your body is starting something new. Give it time to adjust. It took me a while before I started to feel “fine” or at least what the new definition of “fine” is going to be in my life. Please read about all your meds. metformin is know for causing GI tract irriatation and flatulence. I have experienced all of this…
All therapies are trial and error. What may work now may be different when your body starts to react better to the process. Then you may have take more meds. Its not an exactly science. Go to your classes and cheer up.
After I was diagnosed, it took me months before I was able to see marked progress “towards” my blood sugar goals, losing 25lbs and following the ADA diet certainly helped. But I still had fasting numbers that were like 120-140 mg/dl. It was only after adopting a lower carb diet and about a year after diagnosis that I consistently hit my blood sugar targets. Be reasonable with your expectations on how fast you are going to turn this around. Have faith that you will get this under control, but give yourself the opportunity to figure it out and be successful. If you are open to dairy products, then there are a much wider range of protein options for you, including whey and casein protein powders (derived from milk and eggs respectively). I like cottage cheese, a good source of protein and very low carb.
Ooo, jelly beans. They do make vegan jelly beans. That would be a good idea - just in case.
What exactly is dawn phenonmenon?
I had a Fasting Blood Sugar of 100 this morning! I did eat a few cashews before bed last night after my reading of 98 because my stomach started to growl and I can’t sleep on an empy stomach (not that my cats are letting me sleep nowadays anyhow!) I miss the days where I could just sleep half the day and not have to worry about a schedule - with this food and meds. I am also adjusting to a new schedule in a way because I am not a morning person and I normally like to stay up late. It seems like diabetics kind of need to be morning persons (or force themselves to anyway).
Oh, just to verify too - how many hours is the “fasting” portion at night? I think it is 8 but I heard people say 12 hours too?
I was always under the impression that most people eat too much protein esp. meat eaters (well, at least the McDonalds eating kind who eat a lot of beef at everymeal). At least, they don’t need the that Daily Allowance of Protein that is recommended anyhow. This is something I learned way back in my early veg days but like you said depends on the person. I am small too. I did used to do protein shakes way back when in my early veg days when I was worried about protein and than I stopped worrying about it and it I had no problems. Don’t remember being bloated doing the shakes. Well, we shall see how it goes! Thanks for the site. I’ll let you know what I find.
Jelly beans should be vegan. Can’t see that there would be any animal products in jelly beans. They’re just sugar & flavoring.
Fasting reading is whenever you get up. Evidence of dawn phenomenon–when fasting reading is way higher than reading before bed. Lowest BG is around 2-4 AM. In a resting mode the body slows down. As it nears time to wake up, the body gears up for the day by the liver dumping glycogen (stored glucose) into the bloodstream. Normal process. In diabetics, there’s little or no regulation of this glucose resulting in high numbers. Not eating in the morning can actually cause BG to increase by more glucose dumping by the liver.
Americans do eat a lot of protein & far too many carbs. We’re a country of carb junkies. I’m not talking about them:) Concerned about your diet & making sure you get enough protein. I sure wasn’t eating enough protein when I was vegetarian & I had no idea what a person my size needed. That calculator will help you figure it out.
Too much protein? The Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) is the minimum amount required to sustain life. I frankly don’t want to eat an amount that is minimally needed to keep me alive, I want to be healthy. There is no evidence that higher levels of proteins are harmful. I try to get 1-1.5 g of protein for every pound of bodyweight, which for me is 200-300 g of protein a day. Yes, let me repeat that, in case you did not get it the first time. 200-300g of protein a day. Eating a level of 50-75g of protein a day which is the RDA will minimally sustain you, but you won’t be healthy, and you won’t be fit and strong. Although you say you are small, it would probably be prudent to try to get at least 100 g protein per day.
The other thing to remember is you need enough calories. If you cut the carbs, you need to increase the protein and fat. You may not be ready to up your diet to 50% fat, and hence those needed calories should come from increased protein.
check out the mediterranean diet. that is prove to smooth out spikes and reduce a1c’s. one word of warning about metformin. i used to think it was safe until I was hurt last summer. the hospital couldn’t do an mri until i had been off metformin for a week and a week afterward. turns out the iodine based dye used for mri’s will react with metformin and instantly kill kidney function. so, get a med id so if you ever find yourself in the hospital they will know not to inject that dye in yyou.
I am probably obsessing over metformin right now, but I can’t help myself right now. don’t let me scare you. just take precautions.
the diahrea passes quickly, but twice a week it made me dry heave. thought at times i would turn inside out. doc issued omeprazol so no more throwing up. also, it takes about a week to see really consistent results.
dincerely’
danny w
So, more progress from me…( I feel like I am keeping bowling scores or something!)
3/14:
Before din: 117
after din: 96 (steamed cauliflower and broccoli with olive oil)
3/15:
FBG: 100
after breakie: 151 (low carb toast with peanut butter - need to change this)
before lunch: 99
after lunch: 92(hummus and bok choy)
before din: 77
after din: 117(small serving refried beans with tomatoes and mixed green and vegan sour cream - still working on more din foods)
3/16:
FBG: 85! (woohoo! )
after breakie: 146 (toast/peanut butter again and Pink Emergen-C- still need to change the toast even though it is low carb only 7 grams and I have one piece it still seems too much for me right now)
before lunch: 102
I just had hummus and celery/bok choy and a small cube of rennetless non-vegan cheese (I feel guilty but a little cube has 6 grams of protein) so one little cube a day for now until a figure out other vegan sources.
Today I finally got myself to a Whole Foods for what I call “real food” - yeah, it’s expensive but it is a veg/vegan paradise. I was so happy to get myself there - I really hate the regular supermarket with all its chemicals - I feel so out of place there. So I got myself some Vegan Protein Shake mix which I will try for breakie tomorrow - only 7 grams of carbs and 2 sugars and 14 g of protein. So I will try this one out and see and if that doesn’t work there are others to try. I wanted a hemp one but the ones they had were kind of high in carbs (at least for a breakfast meal). Also got the ingredients for my low carb granola and muffins - although pretty expensive ingredients so I may have to alter the recipes for next time. So I’ll be making those too.
So, I am definatley feeling better. I still feel a bit weird after taking the Metformin - mostly makes my facial skin feel sensitive I guess you could say (not really numb just weird like maybe I got a bit of a wind burn but it goes away). I am hoping this is just the meds working on my sugars. But I am finally feeling stronger to start some light exercises again. I still have a bruise from my IV fluids - taking forever to go away. I still need to find new doctor here (since I have moved) etc so it is going slowly but at least, I don’t feel like total crap anymore. I feel like I can actually function now. Still want to see an endo though to have other tests done just to be sure because I am turning into Woody Allen here (ha ha - just kidding!).
So, I will start bloging my numbers and what I eat after this. It seems there is some skeptism about having diabetes and staying veg/vegan so I thought some people would be interested in what I eat and what my numbers are as I try new things etc. And honestly, I think it is going to work OK for me and I will not have a problem.
Keep in mind I don’t need to really lose weight (although I think I already did - ok, I need to lose the fat in my midsection but not really poundage) and I normally can eat like a bird and be fine so my portions won’t ever be really big and seem more like snacks. I also can be a boring eater and don’t mind eating the same thing day after day most of the time. So this may work in my favor since I don’t normally eat a lot. And speaking of snacks, I haven’t even been eating them but I will experiment with them soon. I am sure this will all be more of a challenge when I start working again but that will be many months down the line.
Kimberly- Brava! You’re on the meds! You’ve taken tha big first step. Congratulations!
It’s hard to adjust to the diabetes way of life- it really is. But, it looks like you’re taking control and your BG will surely show your success day by day.
Don’t have much to add with the Metformin (I’m not on it- Type 1) but just wanted to stop in and say good job!
Really? Hmm, I didn’t know that about the Emergen-C. I was drinking it for the Electrolytes and Vitamin since I felt depleted from my dehydration experince. Should I not drink it or maybe only I have it at night after I test? I do need some Vitamin C of course.
But like you said you will never know until you try and see what your body can handle. I can tell the veggies are good for numbers for sure but I have many other things to work on. I am not really worried about my numbers but more of how I feel. I wonder if that is the Metformin making me feel yucky off and on or my blood sugar - or is it just my body adjusting to meds and new BG numbers? I would feel better if I knew what was supposed to feel normal and what is not. So I don’t get worried at every new pang and ping that happens in my body.