Traditionally, I head out for the convenient store even at 2 in the morning and grab a bag of cornchips for snacking. Doing well on my low-carb eating plan ~ about a week into it, now. Any ideas on snacks, besides just smaller portions of what I'm eating for meals? I have been eating nuts at night when the snackies strike, but that is not a longterm solution. All ideas much appreciated!
Those parmesan cheese crisps with cream cheese come to mind. Celery & cream cheese, pork rinds & sour cream, SF jello, anything with heavy cream (diet soda/with heavy cream, etc). Google "fat fast" and take some ideas from what you find. Most of the items are very low in carbs and can accommodate that snack craving.
I've been making Chocolate milk with unsweetened Almond Milk, cocoa powder and stevia. 3 to 5 grams of carbs depending on how much cocoa powder I use(note I am subtracting the fiber). The powder does not want to dissolve so I run it through the blender. It's surprisingly filling for a liquid. One time I put in some xanthan gum but over did it and it turned into pudding.
I picked up some seaweed snacks at Trader Joes. I used to eat tons of it as a kid, way back before it was even remotely fashionable as a snack food. It was always good to satisfy that salt craving. I imagine it's a bit of an aquired taste, but it's 1g carbs per serving, and a serving is half a pack.
I do not follow Bernstein's diet but am always looking for ways to (reasonably) lower my total daily carbs. Here are a few good low carb items: beef jerky, cottage cheese, cheese, deli meat, salad, canned green beans, collard greens, green peppers, cucumber, SF jello.
These items are lower in carbs: Canned chili without beans, beef stew, some light cambells soup (23ish carbs per can), rasberries. I would also recomend buying the lowest carb bread you can find (assuming it tastes ok and you are still eating bread). Lower carb bread has really helped me. My current bread has 17 carbs per 2 slices (after deduducting half the fiber).
So far as snacks, one question would be: Do you bake?
If you do, there are some low carb cookies and muffins that can be made.
To keep carb counts low, I use alternate flours such as: almond, coconut, oat fiber, corn bran
So far as snacks, there are lots of low carb snacks out there.....
- Nuts are one of my standbys. I'm addicted to Emerald's Cinnamon Roasted Almonds.
- When I'm in the mood, pork rinds with french onion dip or hummus
- Cheese and deli meats also make great snacks
- Packets of Tuna Fish can make a high protein snack.
- Sugar free puddings can make a nice treat.
- Whey Protein Shakes help me fight off the munchies at times.
- Atkins bars can be a good alternative on the go.
I eat a lot of lunch meat (as mentioned). I like making cream cheese rolls with lunch meat, pickle and cream cheese.
Someone (maybe on TuDiabetes??) taught me about pepperoni chips. They are greasy and delicious. You just layer a cookie sheet with pepperoni slices and bake them until they are crispy chips. They are a good compliment to a cheese dip (or cottage cheese).
all great ideas - make me want to snack now! One of most important things re snacking is to be prepared for when you suddenly need a snack so next time you grill a steak for a meal, grill a second one alongside and leave it in the fridge then when hungry cut a piece of that off plus a couple of slices of cucumber and perhaps a slice of cheese - cold rare steak and perhaps a bit of english mustard-takes the hunger away! (Not saying I always have steak around but regularly roasting meat (for my meat and green veg main meals) means there should often be cold roast meat of some sort in the fridge ready for the above type snack!). Similarly when my wife boils eggs, she will often add a couple extra and hard boil them then leave them in the fridge with an "H" pencilled on - again the advantage is that it is there when you feel a snack attack appear... Make mayo with mild olive oil and eggs etc (extra virgin olive oil surprisingly does not work as tastes too strong when made into mayo-least that's what I found and could not work out why following the recipe made such awful mayo til I descovered this) to create a healthy monounsaturated mayo rather than commercial polyunsat veg oil based mayo - goes great with cold meats/cheese/eggs/cucumber slices. Finally after low carbing a while I am losing my sweet tooth but sometimes go for a piece of Lindt 85% cocoa dark chocolate - again right there in the cupboard...
Such great advice, Ralph!
The hardest part of sticking to Beirnstein's plan, in my opinion, is being prepared. If you don't have something low-car to grab when hunger hits you suddently, you might resort to grabbing something you'd regret later when you go to test.
I'm like you. I always grill a couple extra hamburger patties (on the George Foreman) or have a can of tuna handy for this reason.
Firgive this messy message. No Internet at home. Im in a bar with a tiny computer hardly see the text!
Suddenly my lowcarb diet has thrown my T2 even more wild than before. 75 to 221 before breakfast to after lunch. Goat cheese sandwich with lettuce. Breakfast Integral toast and sandwich for lunch! If I go below 120 now I feel weird, muzzy headed or light headed. Weak wobbly! OR/and like flu feling through my body! I don't know if my body is reacting badly because of my diet changes. Or maybe I actually have some natural changinges happening anyway?
I started back pretty much on what I eat before and I feel fine again!
My ideal BS used to be 100 to 120. Now going below 120 really shakes my tree!
However thanks to this site I will see an Endo forthe first time ever! Thanks TB!
I so appreciate all of you being here. You lot enabled me to know what to ask for and demand my medical rightsw. God Bless you all!
Muleman, glad you are going to see an endo! Sounds almost as if you are having lows, but if you test and it says you are high or in range... I don't know what to tell you, Are you reading labels on the food labels of your new food? maybe there are "hidden carbs" in there that are making your blood glucose higher? I suggest bringing some of the food that you think makes your blood sugar go whack-o to your endo and maybe they have some insight for you, Please let us know how you fare!
Muleman,
I was diagnosed with a blood sugar of 392 (21.7) and an A1C of 13.1. Thanks to medication and a drastic change in diet I was able to bring my blood sugars down to a reasonable range very quickly. I experienced the same thing as you initially. Two things were going on, 1st my body was not used to being in a normal range and I felt bad. Second I have since learned that when changing over to low carb our metabolisms starts to excrete more sodium, this is the cause of the so called Atkins Flue. Many have found it useful to supplement extra salt to replace the sodium being lost, one recommendation is to drink some bullion. I sometimes wonder if this is the reason so many low carbers(including me) like bacon so much.
I would have spikes like you do if I ate any bread. I see you have bread for both breakfast and lunch. Have you tried eliminating the bread and seeing what your readings are?
I found lots of paleo snacks on pinterest 
like kale chips, zuccini chips. Chips even scandinavian style made on seeds bread. They are easy to make -flax meal as ground. Coconut chips.
There is french cheese Babybel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babybel that everyone following LCHF diet in Sweden swears upon. It tastes nothing in my opinion.
I found very handy making coconut pancakes in advance, they are low in carbs and high in fiber.