What did you eat for breakfast today?

Hi Everyone,

I just finished classes for the holidays and the change in my schedule seems to be wreaking havoc on my system. Every morning after breakfast I seem to be getting up to 12-14 with my bg. Perhaps my choices of eating cereal are not the wisest, but my endo seems to think that as long as you compensate with insulin it’s okay. Do you try to eat a lo GI breakfast? Should i change my settings? I’m doing my carb counts correctly, but for some reason it’s not working the same? Any suggestions?

Somehow I got used to eating “normal” food for breakfast. Before diabetes, I ate cereal or sweet things for breakfast. Now I eat a big breakfast with some protein and my numbers are much better.

This morning, I ate two pieces of toast with horseradish and salami (32g carbohyrate). Many mornings I make scrambled eggs and eat toast or leftover potatoes (when we have potatoes for dinner, I make extra and eat them for breakfast).

When I want a lighter breakfast, I eat natural yogurt with flaxseed meal and half an apple OR just a whole (small) apple (~30g) with lots of cheese or walnuts.

I don’t eat low carb, but I try not to eat more than 50g at breakfast. If I eat cereal, then I need more than 50g to feel full. I almost never eat cereal anymore and always try to eat some protein or fatty foods with my carbs for breakfast. The cheese and apple solution is the best when I am in a rush. I even eat it while running for the bus!

Also, do you give your insulin early? Especially for foods that raise blood sugar quickly (like cereal and milk), I wait 15-30 minutes AFTER giving my fast acting insulin before eating. Some people don’t need to wait so long and would have bad lows if they did. So you should be cautious. Check this discussion for more information.

Most cereals and milk are tough for me to compensate for. I miss my berries or banana and cereal breakfasts. I generally limit it to around 15 grams of carbs, now…1 piece of bread or toast or some berries and 1/2 & 1/2 with whatever protein I want…eggs, cheese, peanut butter. If I want cereal, I’ll eat a high fibre option with Hoods Calorie Countdown milk (3g’s p/8 oz) and bolus 20 - 30 minutes ahead. Doing that lets me eat pretty much anything but requires watching for highs or lows an hour or two later so not good if I am going to be busy. I find my control to be better and the maintenance easier the less carbs I eat for any meal.

Good luck. I’m sure you are glad for the break…

Okay, these are some great tips. I had never considered bolusing early, I’m usually paranoid that my BG will drop quickly. In the morning I am usually at 4.6/83 - 5.5/100. Eating cereal and even granola with berries and yogurt has put me up to 14.2/256 in the last week. I will consider the early bolus. Thanks!

I hate to say it, but sometimes the cereal and milk is 100g of carb. I think I’m going through a phase of missing the pre-diabetic lifestyle. : (

As a vegan who likes breakfast foods, breakfast has always been the toughest meal. Today, for example, I ate what I wanted instead of a diabetic friendly item. I had a vegan piece of apple spice bread that I made with black coffee. I usually have a piece of whole wheat toast with strawberry preserves or a vegan oatmeal cookie and always black coffee. Things seem to do okay when I bolus correctly. If I eat only fruit, my sugar spikes then plummets so I am supposed to try to have some fiber and complex carbs. Surprisingly the oatmeal cookie is a better choice for me than a piece of fresh fruit. Every once in a while when I am being really good I will make oatmeal and throw some nuts in it for protein. Lately I have been craving sugar in the A.M.

This is completely normal Robyn. Sometimes I still miss it (it’s been 6 years for me).

I bolus early and I find that my blood sugar doesn’t start to drop until at least 20 minutes after the bolus (but other people find different times). Even when I wake up at 5 mmol/l, I wait 20 minutes. If I am under 5 then I wait more like 10 minutes. I use the kitchen timer to make sure that I don’t forget to eat (and I prepare everything so that I can really eat when the timer goes off). Maybe try it one morning if your blood sugar is above 6 and measure every 5 minutes and see how long before the insulin makes you drop a half point.

I eat low carb at breakfast and fairly high carb the rest of the day, Robyn. My endo had me add extra fat and protein to the slice of toast I had myself down to and that actually leveled out my post-breakfast highs even better. So every single morning, I eat (and enjoy):

slice of whole wheat toast, with butter (14g)
slice of turkey bacon
1-2 scrambled eggs (the real deal)

The mornings I try to do pancakes, cereal, hot cereals, fast food…it’s horrible on my blood sugars from breakfast through post-lunch.

And I bolus about 15 minutes early…and add a unit or two if I have my coffee with breakfast to account for the spike I get from the coffee.

Hi Everyone! So I’ve tried waiting 20-30 minutes to eat after bolusing! Wow, this is a great little trick. Makes it a little easier to get away with the cereal. Perhaps I should have mentioned that I am a vegetarian as well. Oddly enough, I’ve been finding that my reaction to granola and my other fibre-y breakfast foods are still raising my BG higher than I thought they would. This is either because now that I’m not in class I am constantly checking my BG 2hours after bolusing, or because something has changed…hmmm. Thanks for all the tips everyone!

i ``eat’’ the same thing pretty much every morning – lots and lots of strong coffee. then i nibble when i make my daughter’s lunch for school, which means some cheese, a slice of ham, sometimes part of an orange. i don’t eat much and i’m pretty disciplined about limiting carbs. i don’t keep close count, but i’m pretty sure i’m in the 60-80 grams a day. seems to work. never had an a1c over 6.5 in the last 10 years.

I used to eat Morningstar sausages for breakfast but I thought they were vegan. These contain egg whites so I no longer eat them. No wonder Morningstar is Lucifer’s last name in DC comic strips. The packaging looks so vegan friendly. Lately I have been eating healthful balanced meals for everything except breakfast. Today I had another slice of the apple spice bread I made and some leftover eggplant caponata. Both contain fats. Neither contain protein. My nutritionist said that as long as I eat enough protein during the day, I do not have to concentrate on how much I eat during a single meal. She said I eat enough protein. Though we all experience blood sugar spikes an then plummets if our breakfast is a lot of simple carbs.

I consider granola to be a junk food. It usually contains a lot of sugar and dried fruit. Maybe you could try having some almonds (or any kind of nuts) with your cereal. Hot cereal like oatmeal tends to keep my blood sugar more even than cold cereal. You can cook three or four bowls of steal cut oatmeal ahead of time and keep it in a container in the fridge. I used to do this and it seemed to help me. The nuts contain both healthy fats and proteins. Before I have been on this sweets for breakfast binge of late, I often had brown rice cakes with peanut butter.

I eat cereal, but my 2 choices are either Nature,s Path Organic Smart Bran with 13g of fiber or Kellogg,s All Bran with 10g of fiber. I do not eat any cereal that has less than 10g of serving of fiber. I have never had to bolus for milk. Have no idea why, but I use Organic Fat Free milk. I also include a protein. This morning was some plain organic yogurt with 1/2 tablespoon of miked berry preserves…organic again and an organic Honey Crisp Apple. I will switch the fruits depending on the season and I will also add some cheese as well. The carbs are always around 55-60. I have found for me personally if I were to eat cereal without high fiber content my sugars will go high. Like Cheerios are the worst for me. I might as well eat high sugar for it will make my sugars really spike. I do always subtract 5g of carb for the high fiber foods. Maybe your carb to insulin ratio needs to change for breakfast? Just a thought. I have different ratios depending on time of day. Check with your Endo. Also don’t forget that just the change in your schedule and additional stress of that and the holidays could be causing issues.

For whatever reason, breakfast is harder for me too. My endo says that most people have more carb resistance in the AM. When I was pregnant it really got worse. My bolus ratio is higher in the AM than for the rest if the day. For breakfast during the week I usually have the 1 piece of 100% whole wheat bread with natural (no sugar or other stuff added) peanut or almond butter and jelly. If I use low carb bread, the carbs can be around 12; regular WW around 25. I do best under 30. The weekends I do splurge more but tend to pay for it with higher readings. I pretty much never eat cereal in the AM anymore (except oatmeal sometimes). It makes my readings high and also does not satisfy me for long. I don’t miss it much anymore, but I really miss fresh squeezed orange juice.
Congratulations on your fasting readings, they are great!

I miss orange juice, too!!! As an update, and to make everyone else feel good about themselves, I have been eating Xmas cookies and my mother-in-law’s zucchini bread for breakfast (and all the rest of the day,) all week. 1/2/10 I, am back on track.

Yum!! Anything to make up for the lack of juice right? : )

After i treated my low with some juice I had Van’s frozen blueberry vegan waffles with pure maple syrup. 35 grams of sweet carbs. Made my BG go through the roof before 12 P.M.