Jen, those two traces look excellent. Good luck with continued success.
those look great!! and omg if you can eat nuts, as a snack, celery with peanut butter. yummy and you get the crunch you might be looking for! i am addicted to it right now.
Thanks for the link! I already did basal testing a month or so ago, so Iām not going to do it again at the moment, but maybe at some point I will. Right now Iām āsurfingā and just adjusting my overnight basal rates by looking back each morning. Part of my aversion to formal basal testing is that between fluctuating hormones and fluctuating activity, my basal needs change drastically all the time (for example, I just lowered my basal rates by 7 units overnight last night!). So I find tesitng can be spot on one week but then the next week things need adjusting all over again.
I donāt know why, but I donāt like peanut butter with celery. They donāt seem to āgo togetherā to me! Itās strange, because everyone else loves it. But what Iāve been eating is celery and hummus. And if I can find a dairy-free cream cheese I can eat, I could eat that with a bunch of things, too.
Thanks! I ended up lowering my basal rates a bunch last night after having five or six lows in a row. I havenāt even gone ultra LC, Iām eating about 50 grams a day. I have things Iād like to use up in my fridge and cupboards rather than waste them. When they are gone, depending on how things are going, I may go lower.
daily adjustment of basal will be hard, every 3 days is recommended to find your base dose.
if your activity is so varied, you may want to discuss this with your Dr, a split basal and/or a different basal may be suggested to aid a big difference in need.
perhaps a pump would suit you better?
Iāve been pumping for close to 10 years. 
well thatās easier then, I thought you were on a long acting 
are you bolusing for the protein at upto 50%?
the tuesday looks wrong
Here it is:
1.8 coconut oil melted
1/8 cup cocoa powder
2 tbs stevia
1 tsp cinnamon
14 oz coconut chips
3.5 oz pumpkin seeds
3.5 oz sunflower seeds
3.5 oz chopped almonds
3.5 oz. walnut pieces
2.7 oz flaxseeds
Bake 350 for 20 minutes
1/4 =20 grams 3.1 net carbs protein 4 Fat12.5
I hope you like it as much as I do. I canāt remember where I found this, maybe this site. Wherever they get the credit.
Whew, this week has definitely been rocky! In fact, I sort of fell off the wagon after only three days. On Wednesday we had a potluck at work where I stupidly did not bring my own food becuase I thought there would be a salad there. The person who was going to bring the salad was sick. Therefore, the only thing I could eat were the veggies I had brough (but I couldnāt eat the dip, and Iād forgotten hummus). I ended up eating some fruit that someone else brought as well as some peanut butter and celery (not bad!) and some peanut butter on rice cracker things that Iād had sitting around.
Then on Thursday I had a brilliant overnight period but spent the entire morning and most of the afternoon high. I corrected every hour or two, used a temp +50% basal rate for four hours, and didnāt eat anything aside from the eggs and sausage Iād had for breakfast. I cranked up all my pump settings (basal and ratios) repeatedly. By mid-afternoon I was hungry so I had some mixed nuts, but then I went low, and by the time I got home from work, I was starving. Since I still have plenty of carbohydrates in my kitchen, I went crazy and ate (I think) about 50 grams of carbohdyrates in one meal. I kept my pump settings where they were, but made some adjustments to my basal rates, since I seem to always go high in the morning and low in the afternoon.
Today I was out at a school all day working with kids. Because so many schools are nut-free, and also because I donāt know the allergy status of any of the kids I work with, and because nuts are such a common and severe allergy, Iām not comfortable eating nuts when Iām out in the schools, so I brought blueberries as a snack. They had food provided for the event I was attending but, again, I couldnāt eat any of it: sandwiches, caesar salad, banana bread, popcorn (that contained milk). Luckily, I had brought my own lunch, but it was thrown together from things I had at home, so did contain about 50 grams of carbohydrates.
Eating carbohydrates definitely does cause big spikes (up to about 14 mmol/L) even when I dose correctly for them. Even the smaller meals Iāve been eating cause somewhat of a spikeābut then again, Iām not pre-bolusing. This morning I had no highs (aside from those after eating) and this afternoon I had no lows, so it appears the basal rate adjustments are working. Also, Diasend says that my seven-day average is 6.6 mmol/L (119 mg/dl) with a standard deviation of 2.1 mmol/L (38 mg/dl). Definitely way better than it was last week!
Now itās the weekend, and I think that will make things easier because I have access to a kitchen and time. I also hope to get a kitchen thermometer so I can actually cook meat instead of using the pre-cooked sausage, which I canāt find at my local grocery store. I think I got the ones Iāve been using at Costco, which I donāt have a membership for.
Hi, Jen. This is not a food tip, I would just like to say that I am almost in the same situation as you are. IĀ“m female, type 1 (for 34 years), allergic and having Graves. I used to be hypo not hyper, but that suddenly shifted. Hypo was really no sweat for me, treated it with Levaxin for 15 years and it was all good and stable. Graves on the other hand is a totally different game. Bloodsugar is all over the place and my insulin need is sky high and I gain weight. To me, hyperthroidism is such a different disease than hypothyroidism. IĀ“ve never had such a hard time being a diabetic ever,- I get your frustration. I ate LC before I had any thyorid issues and I still do. I guess my volatile BG would have been even more volatle if I didnĀ“t. What I have found key to more stability is plenty of water, plenty of rest, plenty of good sleep and zero stressors. Every day. IĀ“m off course not able to do that because I am human and have a life,- but my experience is that every time I slow down, go to my taiji-practice and seek calming people and experiences my BG stabilizes and everthing settles down a bit. Hope you find your easy go-to-foods that works for you.
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jen I would go āno sugars and no starchesā till I get my bloods level, then slowly bring back carbs.
have you read Burnstine
or watched his youtube vids? heās one of the long term survivors
Thank you SO much for your reply!!! We do sound very similar. Iāve found it nearly impossible to find anyone else who has both Gravesā and Type 1 (and allergies!). I actually feel like my thyroid levels vary by the dayāsome days I feel fine, other days I feel fine but exhausted, and other days I feel like my levels are high (overheating, shaky, heart palpitations). Iām not sure if thatās true, since my endocrinologist said thyroid levels change slowly (or at least TSH), but it could account for some of my blood sugar craziness.
I agree with you on the stress. Back when my levels were really high I nearly took a medical leave from work; I was struggling just to make it through each work day. Things are much better now, but Iāve stepped down from some of my volunteer positions because I feel like I need to take some time to deal with my health. I need to lose weight (I also gained weight over this diagnosis, how is that even possible?!), and Iāve started going to bed every night at 9:30 and just trying not to stress about anything.
Yep, I have read Bernsteinās book. I honestly do not agree with everything he says, so I donāt know that Iāll ever go as low as he suggests. Itās placing massive dietary restrictions on myself between such low carbohydrate limits and several food allergies, and I believe some variation in blood sugar is normal. I donāt believe I will ever be perfectly flat 24/7 around the clock becuase there are so many other factors at play, food is only one (though a powerful one). From past experience, setting up ultra-tight goals like that is a recipe for burnout. When I had my best control a year ago (A1c of 6.0-6.2 for nearly a year, till Gravesā came along), I didnāt do so by setting up a strict goal or guideline but just by working to get a little better each day.
If I went really strictly with no sugar at all and no starches at all (and no dairy at all) that would leave me with eating only meat, eggs, some nuts/seeds, and some veggies. I just donāt know if I could go so strict on top of food allergies, which are already burdensome. For breakfast and dinner, meat, eggs, and/or veggies are what Iāve been eating, and nuts for snacks when Iām not out working with kids. Itās lunch that is the biggest challenge. I think once I get that worked out (and make sure to bring my lunch everywhere) things will be better.
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@Jen, I think you really need to do some ālogistics.ā Find key low carb foods that you like and are convenient that you can stock up on at home as well as work. You can either do that by preparing things in larger batches and putting them in containers in the fridge or freezer or by buying prepacked items at the store. I often cook large batches at work and have an entire cabinet of plastic containers. You can make a āsaladā with all kinds of lettuce, veggies, olives, cheese (can you eat cheese?) beans or lentils and make it in a batch for multiple servings. By making it with a marinade of some kind it getās better and better over time. I buy items like canned fish (tuna, herring or sardines) which you can just buy a dozen and they keep forever. Various kinds of jerky are great (you can also make your own).
And as a last resort you can also keep a bag of protein powder around (although you have to find one you can tolerate). Combine that with some milk like almond or coconut in a shelf stable single serving package and you can have a protein shake any time.
I agree, I need to stock up on some staples. I live in a studio apartment, so not a ton of storage space (particularly the freezer), and no real room at work for storage (we do have a fridge, but no cupboard space, and my job is sort of half office job and half out in the communtiy and travelling job, so there are lots of days Iām not actually at my office). But I donāt mind spending a Sunday preparing food for the week if I have all the staples that I need.
Nope, no cheese, butter, yogurt, cream, etc. Basically anything derived from milk (that contains milk proteins) or containing milk as an ingredient (including goatās milk) is out. Some of these are easy to find alternatives to (such as milk and butter), but some (like cheese) are harder.
I didnāt even think of beans, for some reason. Iāll pick some up.
Since lunch is my major problem, this week Iām going to make sure that I pack all my lunches ahead of time (not in the morning).
Beans can range in the number of carbs and fiber. Good choices are black beans, soy beans, black eyed peas, lima beans and lentis. David Mendosa is particularly fond of a version of lentil called chana dal.
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My doctor recently told me that generic thyroid medicines are allowed to have a rather wide variation in how much they contain, and therefore changed my thyroid prescription from generic allowed to generic not allowed.
That sounds like itās for thyroid replacement medication to me? Iām not on thyroid replacement medication (Iām on a medication that blocks the thyroid from making hormones).
Yes, thyroid replacement medicine.