Ok, I can find quick things to pack for lunch to take to work. but I am having a hard time with breakfast. I normally take a peanut butter sandwich and a banna, but I have been told peanut butter was a no no. and I don’t know about the fruit. my doctor told me to eat four fruits aday one being an orange because it was a fat burnner. so breakfast is a hard meal to take and go. what is everyone else doing?
Ok, you might do a little more research on this site and elsewhere about food and diabetes! Peanut butter is a very good food for us, as are peanuts! But a peanut butter sandwich (2 slices of bread) and a banana are more carbs than most of us can handle for breakfast. If you test your blood sugar 2 hours after eating you will see how it affects you. Four fruits a day is certainly more than I could handle, fruit, while healthy for non-diabetics is very high carbs and can only be eaten in certain amounts and certain fruits. Oranges are about the worst for blood sugar and some of us use orange juice to raise our blood sugar when we are hypoglycemic. Burning fat is not the goal for a diabetic, lowering blood sugar through reduced carbs is. I would meet with a dietician or diabetic educator, or just read on here as your doctor seems to be off base on food (as many are!). Good breakfasts? We had this topic recently, and there are lots of options. Trying to make it “take and go” makes it harder. Some people might have suggestions. All I can think of are boiled eggs and a more diabetes friendly fruit such as berries, and if you want peanut butter, just use one slice of bread or a small amount of crackers. I’m partial to other nut butters such as almond, cashew and macadamia. I also like nut butter and banana so I just have a banana and dip it in the nut butter! (for lunch, though). My personal advice is it’s healthier to eat at home though it might mean getting up earlier. If you do this you can make all kinds of eggs with sausage, bacon, vegie omelettes whatever.
The reason you may have heard PB is bad is because it is high in calories and fats, albeit good fats, that can take longer to digest producing a longer curve in your BG. Having PB (relatively low in cards), with a banana (relatively high in carbs) would be a problem for me personally but it really comes down down to what kind of routine you have and how your body handles it. If your just starting out, i would test 1,2 and 3 hours after and see what your coming up with. if you stay below your targets, i would say enjoy.
Personally for me me, i usually have a high protein, moderate fat and low carb breakfast. 3 eggs, 4 pieces of Canadian bacon and a piece of toast. I try to keep my carbs under 25 per meal.
The bread and the bannanna are the problem.
Four fruits a day? I would not be able to do that. My blood sugar would run high and I would gain weight.
When I have to pack a breakfast I take some of those BonBelle cheeses, a couple of handfulls of unsalted mixed nuts, and some bacon I always have on hand, and one granola bar (package comes with two I only bring one).
Breakfast at home is one egg, sausage or or bacon, coffee cup worth of Cheerioes with whole milk, and a cup of coffee.
NO carbohydrates at all, for breakfast, for me… Unless I walk first for 15 minutes. And then, I am only having 15 or less, and MOST of those have to be fiber… i.e, two Light Rye Wasa Crackers (which are worth 14 grams of carbs, but have a lot of fiber)… I can’t even use the other types of Wasa, or I spike. NO cereal for me, ever… Peanut butter is a perfect food. Sometimes I make my own energy bar, and I mix peanut butter, walnuts, coconut flakes (with no extra sugar added), and a touch of truvia… sometimes a touch of sugar free dark cocoa powder. Days when I want to cook, it’s eggs and bacon, or sausage, and a half a slice of toast. Carbohydrates and breakfast for me are completely incompatible. I spike insanely from them. Morning is when we are most insulin resistant, so we have to be very, very careful. Stay way from too much fruit, and NEVER have juice for breakfast… 
At least the fruit has fiber. Juice is just liquid candy. Nothing to fall back on. You could have a small mandarine orange for brekkie, if you made everything else protein… nuts, string cheese, pepperoni, or meat sticks… stuff like that. NO CEREAL. Not a lot of bread… No pancakes. You could have a 1 cup of Fiber One Yogurt (which has 8 net carbs, and 5 grams of fiber)… Try those things out, first…
I usually have a cup of steel-cut oats with pecans, blueberries & 1/2 cup of lactaid. I doctor it up with cinnamon & stevia. While it’s a bit of a high-carb breakfast, my numbers 2 hours after eating are always within a good range and I get my fiber, dairy & anti-oxidants all in one meal! An easy breakfast on the run (that I’ve done many times) is a hardboiled egg, a slice of cheese and a small fruit like an apple or a pear. The combination of bread from your sandwich and the banana would be a bit too many carbs for me though. I can do 4 fruits a day, but spaced out. Small orange yes - but nothing else with carbs during the same meal. I’ve also made fritattas on the weekend and slice off portions to take in a baggie - this is a great snack/breakfast on the run, but does require a bit of pre-planning. Good luck!
Peanut butter can be alright if you use natrural peanut butter that doesn’t add sugar and more importatly hydrogenated oils. Bannanas and white bread are high gylcemic and not a good choice . There are so good books on Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load.
Thanks Welffare Queen and JeffD, I tried a Smart one breakfast meal in the box this AM it had about 12g Carb and 2 gr of surgar. I check my surgar with two meters I had on hand one hour after eating, one was Accu Check that read 151 the other was FreeStyle meter that read 131, when I woke up Fasting my reading with FreeStyle was 103, just checked it again 136. I was just trying to see the differants in meter reading, how much of a problem is the kind of meter you have? Or am I about to make things more complicated?
My meter, so far, is pretty accurate to me… but it’s best to check meters against actual lab test results. So test your blood sugar at the same time as they are drawing blood from you, and go from there. I think meters, in the way they are made, will respond differently to some people over others. FreeStyle is very accurante to me, but AccuCheck is always much lower for me. You just have to find which one will be closest to you, as per lab results.
I eat a 4oz sausage pattie and 1 slice of whole wheat (10gm) most weekdays. I walk 1.5 miles after I get to work and another 1 mile before lunch.
Okay, once again, I am going to be the voice of difference. I do eat peanut butter, whole grain toast (1 slice) and 1/2 a banana for breakfast at least three times a week. It’s easy to pack, it’s got the things MY body need to work until my AM snack. My BS go down after my swim, and I need that to raise them up to a point where I am not in trouble, and on t he days when I don’t swim in the AM; this meal is enough for me to maintain a good BS count. The other mornings, I will have an egg, a 1/2 mini bagel, and tomato juice or slices of tomato; I have made some Whole Grain waffles and froze them for breakfast…and then pop them in the toaster or toaster oven…put some fruit on them, and eat with a 4 oz serving of milk…I’ll have a chicken sandwich on the same kind of bread…
But I guess the important thing that I have learned, if nothing else, is that you do what works for your BS and you. Test out some of these meals, or your own favorites, journal what your bs’s do two hours after, and how you feel. If you don’t have any adverse reactions, mark it as doable. We are not all the same, and are diabetes isn’t going to react to the same foods in the same manner. Eating your fruit is better than drinking it. Fruit is a healthy food, but remember portion control.
It might be a good idea to check in the the nutritionist or dietican and see if they can help you with ideas and recommendations. Good luck, breakfast, although my favorite meal of the day pre-diabetes, is my biggest problem right now.
The important thing is that you always do things, and follow eating habits that keep you at a healthy, balanced blood glucose level that give you an A1C LESS than 7%, and ideally, less than 6%. Take everything you read with a grain of salt, specially, if people say it’s working fine for them, and their A1C is crap or they won’t even dare share their A1C (you can see that on their profile. I hate to say that, but it’s true.) Life is NOT about what we eat, it’s about having good health so that we can keep living for years and years to share with our loved ones. So test your blood sugar regularly whenever you pick and choose any items to eat, especially at breakfast time, when we are more insulin resistant, and especially if you do not exercise in the morning, so that you can learn what will work well for YOU, specifically.
Wow guys, all these differant breakfast meal plans sound good, being new to all this I kinda thought I was stuck just about eating cardboard. Ok now nobody tell me to add alitle salt and pepper and it’s not bad, being new to this has made me think about it 24/7, But maybe thats a good thing, after all I’m watching what I eat.and I have lost weight that I badly needed.I do thank all of you for your help and advice, it does make it easy to understand and you don’t feel alone and doom.I need to feel better I let myself go after Dec 19th 2001, That was the day I lost my 16 yr old Son Dillon in a car wreck. I gave completly up on life and now I’m having to make a come back, I have alittle Angel who was born about four years ago on Dec 16th. A gift from God I’m sure of. Now I have to try and get back in the game to keep up with her. Thats her in my profile pic.
Lots of things to consider here. Fruit first. Great things come of fruit, but as others have noted for a diabetic thats just glucose. Ive been told to try to stick to berries if Im going to consume fruit as they tend to be lower in carbs. Bread, normal store bought bread - say Orowheat whole wheat, runs about 20 carbs a slice which is turned straight into glucose in your system. Recently I was turned onto Natures Own, who have a bread that is 10 carbs a slice. Its tasty to boot. As for PB, as long as your not eating the generic national brands, usually PB is 6-8 carbs for 2 tbsp. You can easily get away with 1tbsp on a slice of bread and only have a 13 carbs. PB is full of good fats and is quite tasty as Im sure we all know.
As for the meters, listen to Welfare Queen and check the meters against your labs. Using two meters will only add more variables to the information your trying to discern. I would do a solution test on both to make sure they are accurate, then test them both against the labs and use the one that is more accurate, saving the other for emergency only.
Lastly, burning fat. Using less carbs in your diet with exercise seems to be the more advisable method. Eating fast acting carbs upon fast acting carbs inst beneficial to weight loss unless you work it off daily (i.e., banana with BP sandwich 80 carbs?). We all are extremely different (and YDMV), but when your body’s glucose requirements are met, carbs just get stored for later use… around your waist line. The only answer to this is to burn them off with exercise or lower the carb intake. So, skip the fruit and have some veggies instead. Try asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, or string beans instead (just to name a few). Hope this helps.
I’m so sorry about your loss, Lanew. I’m happy to hear about your daughter and you’ve come to the right place to get back in the game for your health!
another big variable is exercise. I could probably eat some more carbs for breakfast if I got my walk in, but because of the way things are at the moment with work I don’t first thing in the morning whether I will get a walk in or not.
A walk or a swim is a healthy way to cover some carb overage.
I agree, each person’s eating habits serves him\her differently. I live in Lebanon and people who know this country should know that we have one of the best recipes in the world. Its really hard at times to ignore that 
however i think people need to have a variety of healthy food in moderate doses to stay healthy. I am type 1 and use carb counting to manage my meals. The most important thing is that people shouldn’t fixate on what to eat but should rather eat moderatly, test, and ajust…keep a log and share those reports with healthcare providers. Wish the best health for all
I eat a lot of peanut butter. I have gastroparesis which makes it hard to digest a lot of things and peanut butter is a good protein source for me. However, I don’t use bread with mine – I stick a tablespoon in my peanut butter jar and eat it that way. I also have eggs every day for breakfast.
You know, I think my doctor has me on a Triglycerides diet, it is alot like the D diet but the focus is on triglyceride, My gut feeling is if I get my BS under control the triglyceride will follow. at least that is what I reading about BS. Thanks all for all the help with the breakfast meal. have alot more to pick from now.
I think your doctor’s nutrition advice is good for the general population but not for pre-diabetics or diabetics.
I’m a big fan of PB and if you are too, there’s no reason to forego it. Read the label, eat it by the spoonful or on a high fiber slice of bread - one slice as some have previously recommended.
As for fruit, you don’t have to give that up either, although the bananas are not the best choice. Think of a banana as a tube of starch. At most eat half a banana and make sure it’s yellow - as close to green as you can stand.
Generally with fruit the riper it is, the more fructose it has in it, so eat them before they get too ripe. I find apples are best for me, but a near crunchy apricot, peach or nectarine works, as do clementines/tangerines (approx 7 carbs each.) They are also good for on-the-go because they come with their own container.
Another good on-the-go breakfast item is nuts. About half a cup. Don’t overdo it. I used to go crazy on mixed nuts, but it’s kind of like thinking you won’t get drunk on beer because you’re drinking it in shots. (Doh!)
Check out breakfast and snack bars, too but READ THE LABEL(S). Over 30 carbs, not good, especially if you’re not active after breakfast. Extend Bars claim to be stacked primarily with ‘slow acting’ carbs, but I can’t verify that from experience.
Congratulations on you new lease on life. I’m sorry for you loss, but the universe seems to have opened up a different door for you. She’s a cutie.
Terry