Help with carbs

Breakfast often Greek yoghurt 10% fat with shredded coconut and a dusting of cinnamon. Lunch a salad like cucumber, onions, tomatoes, eggs, cheese and olive oil or with tuna in oil and mayonnaise of left overs.

Last night we had "low carb pasta", that is finely sliced zucchini instead of pasta and a sauce of finely diced cured bacon, onions, garlic, creme fraiche and cream, reduced on low heat and then some cheddar. It was lovely. And a salad of green beans with garlic and butter.

Day before we had barbecued lamb hamburgers with grilled zucchini and a salad. Lots of olive oil.

And some cheese after.

Briefly, here is today.

Breakfast: a small piece of rump steak and two fried eggs., washed down by a mug of coffee with real full fat cream.(carbs less than one gm)
Morning snack: a slice of ripe avocado mashed into guacamole on a 6gm carb cracker. Another coffee. (carbs ~7gm)
Lunch: Home-made vege soup, one slice of bread and butter. A low carb (3gm) beer. (carbs ~15-25gm)
Afternoon snacks: another cracker and guacamole a couple of hours after lunch, and a further cracker two hours later with a slice of tomato. (carbs ~14 gm for the two)
Dinner will be half a large pork chop with salad, about 15gms carb, with a glass of dry red wine. Snacks later in the evening will not exceed 20gm total.

That adds up to less than 70gms today. Usually I have a bit more than that in the evenings, but rarely more than 140 total.

The total is actually unimportant. What matters is the BG spike after each meal. Keep that firmly in mind.

Hi sarah! there is a thread in this forum called what have you eaten today? It's in diet and nutrition> low carb diet forum. A lot of members post their Brekkie/lunch/dinner menu and sometimes share recipes and how their blood sugars react to the meal.
Gives you tips and ideas on what you can have for your next meal.

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sarahjf21 said:

Thank you, come sept i will be travelling to uni 2 hours each way on the bus so up early and in late getting concerned that i will struggle, as at the min not receiving much dietry advice from my GP or DN

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Hi @sarahjf21! In my experience it helps to plan beforehand roughly the meals you're going to have for the next two or three days. I prepare both breakfast and lunch at the same time, then when I work I carry my lunch pack with me. Then i also have an emergency stash of nuts in my bag just in case I feel hungry. I do shopping in the afternoons good for three days, then prepare dinner for the household then repeat the process. I specifically not go to the aisle where the choccies and the crisps are so I won't get tempted. Also, you can have a browse on the low carb forums for recipes (oopsies and bread). I've made low carb bread which I keep in the freezer and can store for a long time then I just get a bit when I'm feeling peckish. hope that helps!


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sarahjf21 said:

Thank you, come sept i will be travelling to uni 2 hours each way on the bus so up early and in late getting concerned that i will struggle, as at the min not receiving much dietry advice from my GP or DN

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I agree with Adelle about planning. If you are worried about getting home late, perhaps batch cooking would help. Cook a load of food such as stews and soups and freeze them in portions so you don't have to be bothered cooking during the week. Just reheating. It works out cheaper than cooking every night too. For lunches, a food flask is good.

I have half a cup full of morrisons porridge oats with a milk substitute called Kokos for breakfast. It's about 25g carbs. Lunch I have crispbreads or pumpernickel with spreads/cheese/ meats or sliced sausage. A couple of slices of pumpernickel is filling and chewy whereas crispbreads satifies a need for a crunch. The pumpernickel out at something like 25g carbs.

Evening meals I have 4 or 5 small boiled new potatoes, a portion of brown rice, pearl barley or 60g portion of wholewhat pasta.with whatever I am cooking. Usually, there are no carbs in any sauces as I make these from scratch and do not trust anything in a jar.

A favourite meal at the moment is a spicy fish stew which generally has about about 150g small potatoes sliced per serving. It's about 25g carbs. The rest is of course fish pieces, prawns, veggies and peppers and spices.

All the carbs are slow release carbs bot with other bits and pieces I am probably in the 100g to 130g carbs per day bracket. This is half of what the human body needs. Anything less than about 260g and the body has to produce its own glucose from its own stores.

Please note though, I also watch the fat content. Normally, a high fat content in the diet would not work well combined with 100 - 130 g carbs. It's sort of on the limit. Most people who do low carbs high fat eat fewer carbs than me. But, for me, having roughly half the carbs I require plus keeping my fat intake low, using spray oils, dry frying etc, I managed to lose a lot of weight and lower my bg levels.

Avocado Sevenfold said:

I agree with Adelle about planning. If you are worried about getting home late, perhaps batch cooking would help.

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Or get a cheap slow cooker and a meal can be ready for you when you get home. This is in its raw state so it doesn't look appetising but it is delicicious, nutritious and healthy eating.

Most meat and cheese are your friends (although cottage cheese is higher in carbs apparently). For plenty of good ideas, try this site http://www.lowcarbdiabetic.co.uk/Recipes.htm
Whenever I know I have a busy week, I bake the flax seed loaf listed on the website. (Flax seed is also known as linseed). You can get milled flax seed from Holland and Barrett's, although it costs a bomb. I prefer to buy the seeds whole and mill them myself, if you have a good coffee grinder you could do it in that. There is an amazing co-operative in Northampton, you can get Linseed at an amazing price, and can order online. https://www.dailybread.coop/product/linseed-1kg
I also bake a lot with almond flour (which is just ground almonds). This is quite an expensive ingredient though, especially if you are at uni! The cheapest I have found is sainsbury's, you can get 200g of ground almonds for £2.00. I always have a batch of almond muffins on the go for easy access. http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/breads/r/lowcarbmuffins.htm

Probably the quickest meal I can put together is a green leaf salad, with some form of cheese (mozzarella or goats cheese are my preferences). I also add some bell pepper to the mix. I then get my protein from smoked salmon. I buy the sainsbury's basics offcuts of smoked salmon. It tastes exactly the same as the other packs, and is around £1.80 for 120g, which I find is good for one meal. No cooking at all, which has been great in this not weather.

@Yorksman is lucky enough to be able to have a much higher carb intake than many others of us diabetes sufferes. I limit myself to around 25 grams per day so eat a lot of fat. The only thing I keep real hard check on is the carb content but also try not to go too high in protein as this will be turned into glucose too if you have a lot of it, so then there are the fats left to fill up on. I have lost about one kilogram per month since diagnosis six months ago have now a BMI of 21.5 or probably less now, haven't weighed myself in a while. And normal bg and more energy than I have had in a quarter of a century. Do LCHF seems to work perfect for me.

sarahjf21 said:

will find this so difficult re-educating myself

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Re-educating your palette can be fun if you are adventurous enough. I found that looking for substitues for similar foods terribly disappointing. You just know it is a poor 2nd for the real thing and what you really want. I gave myself the objective of two red meat days, one beef and one pork, two poultry, one duck and one chicken, two fish days, one fresh fish and the other tinned fish and one veggie day per week help my planning enormously.

The current warm weather isn't quite right for this dish, but soon enough, you'll want a warming meal like this lamb and barley stew:

low carb burgen bread for £1 at Iceland.

Hi Sarah
Planning is essential!

filling breakfast ( I have flaxseed with hot water and it keeps me full from 6am to noon).
bottle of water (or travel mug of tea/coffee) to sip on bus
bus snack in case you need them (almonds or seeds in small plastic pot, mini cheese or sausages

(many buses have wifi so great opportunity to do study on bus which will leave you with more time with OH)


Lunch - take your own packed lunch!! Lots of students take their own lunch, most unit will have an area with tables etc, Universities are generally terrible as far as low carb options go. Typically sandwiches, wraps, pizza slices, pies, chips etc - salad bars are usually filled with pasta and rice options. If you are on a out of town campus you might not have many other options as lunch break time restrictions and location may mean you can't get to supermarket etc.
If you are in a city campus then there will be lots of cafes, coffee shops etc but again these are not always low carb and are expensive if you use them everyday (and they have too much temptation!).

If you are a post-grad then typically you will have access to a postgrad area with kitchen facilities such as microwave, so homemade soups, stews, leftovers etc are great way to control your own BG levels

Finally inform your tutor (if you are undergrad) or academic advisor if you're a post grad) of your diabetes. Then you won't be penalised in terms of missing tutorials, assessments etc if you need to attend diabetes reviews, eye exams etc.

If you are injecting the university has to provide a suitable area for you to inject (if you want to use it or not is up to individual) and a sharps container

I only started this 2 weeks ago, but a typical day for me is something like this...

Breakfast: something egg based like scrambled egg, boiled egg or omlette, or Greek yogurt with berries. Sometimes I'll have an apple, a slice of Burgen (soya & linseed bread) or a Nairn oat cracker and cottage cheese depending on my BG when I wake.
Lunch: protein or cheese salad with some kind of home made meat based soup if I'm really hungry
Dinner: Meat or other protein such as Halloumi (depends how much sodium I've had) and some "grown above ground" veggies which tend to have less carb, or a salad. Dessert is usually a Nairn oat cracker with cheese or a sugar free jelly with cream.
Snacks: nuts or seeds, cheese, oat crackers, berries with greek yogurt,

All full fat stuff of course. My BG is fine with the carbs mentioned, so long as I keep the portion sizes small. You may be different as everyone's tolerance is different.

Berries, flax n chia seeds and full fat yogurt
Blueberry muffin..
Salmon, runner beans, asparagus, leeks.

Lots of drambuie coffees with double cream today as a celebratory weekend.




Loving life

I eat just plain bog standard stuff.......

Breakfast is either 50% porridge with 50% crushed almonds and a dollop of plain yogurt or fried egg, bacon, tomatoe and mushrooms

Lunch......iceburg lettuce, cucumber, tomatoe, celery, beetroot and solme tinned tuna or corned beef, frozen prawns, with a dollop of mayonnaise. Sometimes eat cheese when the mood takes me..

Eve meal is whatever green veg is available.....cabbage, sprouts, cauli, carrots, froz peas plus some meat or chicken with gravy. Sometimes I also have celeriac or butternut squash if I'm in the mood and pennies allow. OH likes a pudding so usually do a sugarfree jelly with a mandarin or a bit of tinned pineapple. At the moment we are getting loads of lovely blackberries off the bushes growing wild. Sometimes use greek yogurt as a cream and sometimes just use coconut milk.