Easy replacements for carbs

[TypeZero.]

My dietitian doesn’t recommend a low carb diet I don’t know why. My point of view: less carbs = less insulin = less fluctuation between high and lows

I’ve struggled with doing 160g of carbs a day, how do you guys manage to eat so low? I can’t imagine cutting out bread which is the basis to a lot of meals.

Any easy carb replacements that’s easily prepared so that a uni student can take to lunch? I appreciate your contributions

 

[bulkbiker]

Cheese slices rolled around salami or ham?
What you would normally wrap in bread but more of it?

 

[Alexandra100]

I can’t imagine cutting out bread which is the basis to a lot of meals.

You're right, cutting down carbs does complicate life, especially for eating on the fly. Some people go for the burger without the bun. Some like to wrap iceberg lettuce round their protein instead of bread. Not exactly comfort food, though! Some people bake or buy lower carb bread. If you search you will find lots of discussion and tips on this site. To eat at home, the 0 carb Slim range of imitation pasta and rice are a possibility, but not cheap. One advantage over real rice / past is that they don't need cooking. Available from Holland & Barratt. I like them, others hate them.

 

[TriciaWs]

Make sure you eat plenty of green veg to fill up.
I used to love rice, so have a lot of riced cauliflower instead. I occasionally used courgetti instead of pasta - or just eat the sauce/meat with cheese. There are a few lower carb/hi protein breads but a quick alternative is 90 second bread made with ground almonds - even better split and toasted after.
I'm fine eating salads without bread, usually tuna/chicken/egg with plenty of green leaves, celery, cucumber and home made pickled onion or mayo but I make a BLT with the 90 sec bread.
And don't forget real greek yogurt with a few berries as dessert.
Like others I order burger without the bun when out - the staff never blink an eye - or a second helping of green veg instead of potatoes.
Most people have a protein based breakfast, eg steak, bacon, eggs, maybe with mushrooms or avocado. I can't cope with that but make up my own porridge with milled flaxseed and chia seeds plus a little oatbran, and add a pinch of salt and plenty of cinnamon. I make it with water and some coconut milk and serve with double cream.

 

[hankjam]

My current standbys are:
tins of sardines in olive oil.... mmmmm
olives
celery
cheese
sauerkraut
cold chicken wrapped in streaky bacon, cooked...
plain Greek yogurt

Sorry to say, bread is never going to be part of a low carb diet.

Good luck

 

[MrsA2]

Rather than trying to find a lookalike replacement, I find it easier just not to have bread, pasta, potatoes etc. I just leave them out of the meal increasing veg and other low carb stuff instead.
The occasional urge for mash or chips is filled by celeriac, pizza or cheese on toast is filled just by grilled cheese ( a silicon mat makes this easy), sandwich lunch is now a salad lunch etc etc

 

[DCUKMod]

@typeZero - If you decide to try a low carb way of living clip top containers and foil are your friends.

If I need to do a packed lunch or suchlike, I'll treat a clip-top container like a plate or bowl, and drop my food into it. That could include slices or chunks of meat, chicken wings/drummers or by preference thighs, wrapped in foil, to keep the fingers clean, hard boiled eggs - shelled or intact, cherry tomatoes, slices of chunks of cucumber or celery, and even small, portion sized pot for mayo or cream cheese, and if the latter, maybe some celery (although not a fave of mine) for dipping purposes.

I try where possible to make it finger food, or if not take some wooden/bamboo cutlery - spork or suchlike,

When finishes, replace to pot top for washing at home, and repeat.

Things like chicken, chipolatas, chorizon, eggs salamis or other cold meats can be cooked in semi bulk, once a week/few days, and kept in the fridge or freezer, and just pulled out the day they are required.

Initially, it sounds like a lot of work, but if you are going to do chicken, chipolatas or whatever, do they all at the same time, so that's about 45 minutes of a decent ignoring in an oven, a bit of cooling time, and lunches are ready for a few days. I look on it like a tapas box

Much of it is a mindset, but right now, I have a feeling that whilst you are in honeymoon things will continue to change at their own will for a while yet, so radically changing your way of living might not have the impact you want.

The thing about a honeymoon period, from what I have observed, is you will only really realise the impact of it when it's gone. I bit like learning unexpectedly you need to wear glasses, the discovering the world is actually a bit sharper than you saw if for recent times.

All very frustrating I'm sure, but as I have said before, to you or another young man in very similar circumstances, you are going to have to dig very deep and find some patience, else you increase your chances of burnout, and very fast.

Right now, I don't believe big changes; whether to diet, exercise, or pumps are the panacea to the problems you cite. I believe a period of patience and focusing on starting a new life at Uni, with robust T1 management strategies in place is in your best interest, then when things settle, you will likely be better placed to know if pumping, low carb or anything else is the best way forward.

Personally, I am not a patient person, but sometimes there is little benefit from not giving in to it.

 

[TypeZero.]

@typeZero - If you decide to try a low carb way of living clip top containers and foil are your friends.

If I need to do a packed lunch or suchlike, I'll treat a clip-top container like a plate or bowl, and drop my food into it. That could include slices or chuncks of meat, chicken wings/drummers or by preference thighs, wrapped in foil, to keep the fingers clean, hard boiled eggs - shelled or intact, cherry tomatoes, slices of chunks of cucumber or celery, and even small, portion sized pot for mayo or cream cheese, and if the latter, maybe some celery (although not a fave of mine) for dipping purposes).

I try where possible to make it finger food, or if not take some wooden/bamboo cutlery - spork or suchlike,

When finishes, replace to pot top for washing at home, and repeat.

Things like chicken, chipolatas, chorizon, eggs salamis or other cold meats can be cooked in semi bulk, once a week/few days, and kept in the fridge or freezer, and just pulled out the day they are required.

Initially, it sounds like a lot of work, but if you are going to do chicken, chipolatas or whatever, do they all at the same time, so that's about 45 minutes of a decent ignoring in an oven, a bit of cooling time, and lunches are ready for a few days. I look on it like a tapas box

Much of it is a mindset, but right now, I have a feeling that whilst you are in honeymoon things will continue to change at their will for a while yet, so radically changing your way of living might not have the impact you want.

The thing about a honeymoon period, from what I have observed, is you will only really realise the impact of it when it's gone. I bit like learning unexpectedly you need to wear glasses, the discovering the world ir actually a bit charper than you saw if for recent times.

All very frustrating I'm sure, but as I have said before, to you or another young man in very similar circumstances, you are going to have to dig very deep and find some patience, else you increase your chances of burnout fast.

Right now, I don't believe big changes; whether to diet, exercise, or pumps are the panacea to the problems you cite. I believe a period of patience and focusing on starting a new life at Uni, with robust T1 management strategies in place is in your best interest, then when things settle, you will likely be better placed to know if pumping, low carb or anything else is the best way forward.

Personally, I am not a patient person, but sometimes there is little benefit from not giving in to it.

Yeah I am quite impatient, I suppose I just want to get/do everything I need and get into a routine while I am free at the moment so it doesn’t become such a hurdle when I start uni and I’m juggling work, uni and diabetes at the same time. I just want everything to be done and over with so I don’t need to see my medical team so often and so my normal life isn’t impacted.

For example for the pump you need to do a 5 day DAFNE course between 9am to 5pm. That would mean I would eat into my annual paid holiday and miss uni days. I’m scheduled for an appointment every month sometimes twice a month which eats into around 1/2 of my paid holiday. Because I will miss uni days I will have to make up for it during the weekend which eats into my free time when I usually go to the gym or do extra work. If I got into a routine, got all the things I want like a pump then I wouldn’t need to sacrifice time that could be used for uni or work

My plan is to get everything sorted as soon as possible so I don’t have to worry about my diabetes too much in the future. I understand that it may be annoying for older people with diabetes to hear me because they’ve been doing it for years and a lot of the time they’ve been left in the dark with no technology to help them, I’m trying to make my life easy as soon as possible so it doesn’t impact anything non-diabetes. When is a better time to do it than now? I’m practically at home/holiday until September so I can change my lifestyle to make diabetes manageable and do the stuff I need to now rather than later when I have to worry about being a laboratory assistant and biology student

 

[Rokaab]

Yeah I am quite impatient, I suppose I just want to get/do everything I need and get into a routine while I am free at the moment so it doesn’t become such a hurdle when I start uni and I’m juggling work, uni and diabetes at the same time. I just want everything to be done and over with so I don’t need to see my medical team so often and so my normal life isn’t impacted.

Unfortunately though you will just have to be patient and just have to wait it out, its a bit like life in general you just have to have patience, and realise that you can't always get everything done with when you would like it to be - life really does keep throwing spanners in the works I'm afraid and your immune system will do what it wants to do at its own speed.
Many of us have gone through school, uni, work etc - yes diabetes does mean we have to think about a lot more than others may (seemingly) have to, but we all manage and I'm sure you will too

 

[DCUKMod]

Yeah I am quite impatient, I suppose I just want to get/do everything I need and get into a routine while I am free at the moment so it doesn’t become such a hurdle when I start uni and I’m juggling work, uni and diabetes at the same time. I just want everything to be done and over with so I don’t need to see my medical team so often and so my normal life isn’t impacted.

For example for the pump you need to do a 5 day DAFNE course between 9am to 5pm. That would mean I would eat into my annual paid holiday and miss uni days. I’m scheduled for an appointment every month sometimes twice a month which eats into around 1/2 of my paid holiday. Because I will miss uni days I will have to make up for it during the weekend which eats into my free time when I usually go to the gym or do extra work. If I got into a routine, got all the things I want like a pump then I wouldn’t need to sacrifice time that could be used for uni or work

My plan is to get everything sorted as soon as possible so I don’t have to worry about my diabetes too much in the future. I understand that it may be annoying for older people with diabetes to hear me because they’ve been doing it for years and a lot of the time they’ve been left in the dark with no technology to help them, I’m trying to make my life easy as soon as possible so it doesn’t impact anything non-diabetes. When is a better time to do it than now? I’m practically at home/holiday until September so I can change my lifestyle to make diabetes manageable and do the stuff I need to now rather than later when I have to worry about being a laboratory assistant and biology student

Those all seem like very noble aims, but in my experience of life, it rarely works out that way.

Again, from observation, T1 is a lifelong learning experience. Are you familiar with that glib, throwaway remark, "every day's a school day"? Well, that sums up T1 perfectly in my view. One certain thing in life is change, and T1 just brings another dimension to that,

In terms of appointments, you should not have to take annual leave for appointments. In UK, your employer should be allowing you appropriate time off for appointments, but they are not obliged to pay you for that. Oftne they will. Often they might ask you to make up the time later, but you should not be compelled to take leave.

For clarity "appropriate time off" would be a few ours, or half day, depending on the logistics of it all.

Perhaps a discussion to have with your Line manager or HR.

In terms of the DAFNE course. There have been numerous thread on here relating to that - whether it is 5 consecutive days, or 5 Mondays or whatever. These places are dealing with people in real life situations, juggling work, family, caring, and all manner of issues.

There are often options to do the course over maybe more, shorter sessions in the evenings, or flexed a bit more in terms of the span of the course. That would be something to discuss with your health care team.

As a Uni student, of course, you r term times will be busy, but then you will also have extended Vac time.

Most clinics run a number of courses a year. I'm not saying they will flex their timetable to suit you, but you also must open your mind as to how you can be flexible enough to make things work for both parties.

I totally sympathise with you that you will have this T1 with you for a long time, if not your lifetime, so really it is essential you learn to view life in more than small time chunks.

I reiterate, get good grips on your T1, then look for the icing on the cake. Pumping straight out, in honeymoon would be mind frying, along with starting Uni, time pressures of assignments/essays, perhaps living away from home, and maybe working alongside to help limit the financial bucket with a hole in it.

Relax a bit. You'll never be 18 again, and I doubt you'll ever have a time again when you have fewer responsibilities.

Enjoy life. We only pass this way one.