Come fly with me, Diabetes

Brunneria said:

The last time i flew, we got there early enough to have a large Full English (at an absurd price) between check in and boarding.

Didn't need to eat again for over 8 hours, which saw me home and dry at the destination.
Of course that depends on how far you are going...

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The full English breakfast is one of the delights this good earth has to offer us . That, and tea served in a pot.

If there had been bother and delays at Heathrow, and even an overnighter, that was going to be my consolation prize, indeed. (Minus the toast! Of course!) I agree - a full English will last me until early afternoon at the very least! (yum.)

After five hours in airports, and 1 x 2 1/2 hour flight, followed by 2 x 12 hour flights - we are pleased to be here and home, and most delightfully of all - in summer. Trans-global travel truly is a human marvel. Jetlag, the consequence, is not. A marvel that is. But as in most hidious things - it too will pass.

My BG was its usual prediabetic-dealing with a DP-level normal this morning. (6.2)

I caved, again, on the plane, due to hunger (as I got really sick of eating the nuts actually. There really IS an upper limit of how many nuts you can consume) - and ate not one little bread roll, but two (during two meal, the last two meals in the last 12 hour flight). (Those long-flight airplane meals can be pretty good - but gee they are tiny!) I plastered the rolls with butter, as my HF concession. If the 'leaky gut' folk are indeed correct, my poor guts must be leaking all over the place today. (The leaky gut/anti-grains theory is that eating grains and legumes causes intestinal permeability, which ain't good for us, causing autoimmune problems, as the body treats those crossing the gut-line grains as invaders and attacks them, and due to constant eating causes a cascade of health issues.) (In a nutshell, as it were!)

I also caved at the sight of fresh NZ strawberries at breakfast. And ate more of them than I usually do, again with a HF concession - a ton of delicious NZ cream. (Swedish cream is great too. But nothing really beats NZ butter and cream - pasture-fed absolutely for the paleo-eaters who might be reading this. Natch.) But it was the gluten-free, but still grained, bread my daughter has in the freezer that I ate for breakfast that took me over the magic 7.8 post-meal margin. 8.1. (I am clearly not one of those diabetics that can eat bread. No.) (Well, not eat bread and keep under that magic 7.8 postmeal spike line.) Hmmm. Maybe grains really ARE addictive? As some nutrition/health commentators suggest. (I'm thinking Dr Perlmutter, of 'Grain Brain' fame, in particular.)

I'll bake coconut and almond flour bread again once I have adapted to the switching day for night that trans-global travel entails. I won't be getting back into a trans-global flying session anytime soon. But I am really pleased to have gotten it together at last, and started this flying thread dealing with air travel. It can be a big deal for we diabetics - whatever our treatment.

Oh yes - re the neuropathy, and looking after my feet as a sardine. (Squashed, sitting up, unable to put my feet up for two lots of 12 hour flights with three hours in between at an airport). The support socks really worked well. I strongly recommend them. (And the Design Torget support socks are truly gorgeous - no need for your feet and legs to look dowdy.) And I liberally sprayed the cooling peppermint oil, and used a lovely Body Shop moisturizer, before putting the socks back on, in a Hong Kong airport loo so as not to disturb fellow travellers. On arrival, I did have some swelling, but no throbbing and burning pain, as can happen. (Nerve damage pain for me expresses itself as an internal burning sensation.) The no nerve-pain also allowed me to sleep better onboard. And be nicer to the air stewards over the truly foul coffee. (Oh Sweden - I will really miss your superb coffee!) (And the LCHF store with parmesan flavoured seeded hard bread.) (But I will not be missing the long cold dark winter.)

Totto said:

Hasn't SKUT any representation in New Zeeland? I think ex-pats can use it for getting supplies of vital things like coffee and I am convinced, to the core of my being, that the pound of dark roasted beans I brought with me to England in a high degree added to making the trip so delightful. First a hefty amount of newly brewed, very strong, fruity and dark coffee, then an English breakfast and life smiles at you.

IKEA can be a source for vital food items too.

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My dear Totto - can you imagine - a country with NO IKEA!!! Yes. Indeed. You read correctly. We brought 3kg of IKEA serviettes with us in our checked-in luggage. More arriving later in a container. (Life without IKEA serviettes is just too too hard!)

We can get good coffee here in nz - a big coffee and cafe culture, but it's more the depth, strength and intensity of the whole love of coffee thing and availability in Sweden that you can't imitate anywhere, except maybe in Finland and Germany. I put it down to the weather and the rules . If you are going to live with "We have our rules!" in minus zero and no warm sun forever and for months on end you better have a damned good drug at hand! .

But we have a Scando food store. Herr Svea is much relieved to be able to get normal knäckebröd (and kaviar - you know the drill). Maybe I can talk the very nice Finnish owner of the Scando food store Safka in Auckland, to import LCHF knäckeböd? Maybe I can! What a great idea - many thanks for the inspiration Totto.

Food is so personal isn't it? And social. And so much part of our cultures and family life and our memories. And where we live geographically speaking. (You and I could have a very good talk about lamb, for instance! .) (And yes - English breakfasts are superb.)

Just a Blood Glucose summary now, as in the affect of trans global airplane travel on it, now the day for night switch has been made. (Just in case any diabetic reading this is crossing the globe and hasn't experienced it before - if you have a night liver dump/dawn phenomenon (DP), your body can get confused by the circadian rhythm and time zone change, unfortunately only temporarily - as it can do wonders for your FBG, and sometimes accompanied by a good last thing at night BG.) (My FBG yesterday was 5.0. Lovely!)

Understandably I did get some unusual postmeal BG spikes (8.0, 8.1, 8.1, 9.4) probably from eating carbs onboard (caving with the bread rolls - twice!), over the following two days after the final touchdown.

And, what seems to have happened to me before, if I have a white-flour-baked good, I want more. If it isn't addictive, it sure feels that way at least! In short, I have resisted my daughter's crumpets in the freezer, but gee it was hard, when dealing with full throttle jetlag in the last few days. (As true blue jetlag is like having the flu - carb cravings following recent consumption of high carb products - definitely!) I ate a LOT of nuts!

Now, three-four days later, my BG post-meal readings are still slightly elevated, but the FBG is back to normal (a pre-diabetic, with some DP, level). I need to get my body moving again, and get back into my exercise, and probably as important - my fasting regime. Just in time for Xmas! Argh!

This diabetic thing never ends does it? A distant friend of mine emailed me today telling me he had read in the newspaper that diabetes can be reversed, had I heard? And that "Some say right routine can do that in only a couple of weeks of lifestyle changes." I was very kind, and emailed him back that it, ah, took a lot more than that. And I didn't even add I would not talk about 'reversal', but good management, and at best remission. But part of having diabetes is having non-diabetics inform us of this stuff? For the rest of our lives? #*!@ ***! (Exclamation of choice.)

"A couple of weeks of lifestyle changes" ??!!! #@#*! All right!

Mep said:

haha.... yes, I know that all too well. The most recent question I got was did I know they have found a plant that cures diabetes? People are so ignorant about things. I seem to get the same with my other health conditions too. I get told cranberry cures cystitis. I tell them well I can't even have cranberry as it puts me in a bad flare and they give me a funny look and say but it is very good for it and you should be using cranberry. Um, I don't have bacterial cystitis to start with, so stop giving me advice about a condition you know nothing about. lol. Also I have reflux laryngitis and muscle tension dysphonia which means I sound awful every time I talk. I get told "you need some honey and lemon for your throat" and "salt gargle is good, you should do that", and "what, you're still sick?".... they must think I've had the flu for years these people... hilarious! We have to develop a tough skin along with these chronic conditions just to put up with other people's nonsense. lol.

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Absolutely!

Just a one-week-after on my own long haul trip. Two issues I realise I did not address - bowel (etc) issues, and water retention.

I was stunned that I had seemingly gained 2-3 kg and a cm around my hips and waist. This was particularly apparent when my daughter and I went swimsuit shopping soon after my arrival. But am doing one of my treatment-fasts, and the extra cm has disappeared (so it was water), ditto the extra weight (so it was water). It's really true what they say about flight and water retention! Very relevant to we diabetics keeping an eye on maximising our insulin sensitivity by watching our waists. Don't stress it, I guess is what I am saying.

And last but not least, nothing to do with diabetes, (and I am loathe to discuss it but as indirectly as I can!) Sitting on my tush in a cramped way for hours on end obviously affected my tubes and delicate area, even without constipation (which can happen after longhaul flights unless you take some kind of prevention - for me it was the nuts which work wonderfully in terms of providing fibre.) Pain, before the cream, indeed. Yes. Hemorrhoids! (Hard for me to say in public!) Hidious hemorrhoids. (Thank goodness for pharmacies!)

And quickly changing the subject - back to jetlag. That known quantity of quickish transglobal travel. It took me a whole 7-8 days to have a consistent sleeping at night patterns, and I still haven't knocked the feeling of wanting to crawl into bed and sleep between 2pm and 6pm NZ-time (between 2am and 6am back in the cold country). I fight it of course. Sadly, jetlag gets worse as you get older. (Circadian rhythms get more 'set' I guess.) Mr Svea adjusts much better than me, but he grew up adjusting to some of the most unusual circadian rhythms on the planet. (summer when it never gets dark, and winter where it never gets the sun. Hard to believe that some folks live with that - but they do! Very successfully even. Got to love the extreme-northern folk.)

My BG readings normalised quite quickly though, more's the pity, as it can work quite well for a while - fooling the liver into not dumping in the morning. I guess we can't trip up our hormones, and how our bodies read the light signals - for long.

MellitusTrap said:

Always pack a sandwich!!

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Lol - for transglobal flights that is a lot of sandwiches! (I was onboard for 26 hours, for instance, getting from one side of the world to another.)

And as a diabetic who treats with diet - that's sandwiches without bread . Wouldn't keep the wolves from the door for me.

But I hear you - pack your own food on shorter haul flights - good advice indeed. And definitely diabetic-friendly snacks.

I try to keep peanut consumption down - something from the Paleo-diet thing, as peanuts are a legume, and some believe it can causes digestion problems. Who knows?! But anyway - if peanuts are an OK item for you there are always plenty of peanuts available for snacks on board is my experience, on every airline.

Also, from my pov, I love being served food and having little trays with tiny little servings of yummy morsels. It's a treat, and when going through hell on coach flying from one part of the world to the other - movies, coffee,wine, and sparkling water, and little tiny trays of food served to me by a usually very nice air steward - it's a treat I really want. (I'm sorry to say - nice stewards are on any airline apart except a Scando one! It's the weather. It turns them into robots, or rude robots. They can't really help it. If we ever end up on a plane sitting beside each other I'll tell you about the awful experience I had when an exceedingly rude Norwegian Airlines steward got between me and the dinner I had actually paid for. It all started when ..... ).

MellitusTrap said:

LOL - flown a lot on Norwegian and SAS and never noticed the stewards. At least on Norwegian you get free wifi!

Good point regarding diabetic friendly.
Perhaps some beef jerky etc might hit the Palaeolithic sweet spot?

Although, my heart goes out to those sitting next to you

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Lol - too right!

@nosher8355 and @MellitusTrap - I loved The Liver Birds. (Same creator - Carla Lane - I see in wikipedia.)

(See Mellitus - if we had been sitting next to each other on a plane we could've talked TV )

(And all three of us would have noticed the special food items brought onboard!)

Go Liverpool! Yay!