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Swimming in porridge

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous
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I am still struggling a little with an addiction to porridge in the morning and justifying it by my now increased fear of having a hypo with exercise.

So this morning I took a few readings to get a handle on what's happening.

Waking level: 6.4

Now that's a little high for me because I wasn't being too careful last night and ate too much.

Then I had a bowl of porridge and went to the pool and tested myself just before I started swimming. This was about 45mins after the porridge.

Before swim: 11.7

Then I swam for 30 mins - not particularly vigorously though today

After swim: 7.9

Then I tested again when I got home (30 mins later)

1hr after high reading: 7.3

So obviously Porridge is not good for me, as it raised my levels 5.3 points. But 30 mins swimming, which is what I do most weekday mornings, drops my levels by 3.8 - which would mean if I'd had bacon and eggs for breakfast and kept my levels in the low 7's, then I'd have been at risk of a hypo.

Modern aquatic science has not developed a way for me to eat porridge whilst swimming, yet. Do I have to find a half-way-house of no carb and then half a banana before a swim or something. What do you think?

S
 
I'm sure I've heard of people drinking fresh fruit juice just BEFORE they have a swim which combined with the exercise keeps Bg's at an even keel.I could be wrong though.
 
swimmer2 said:
But 30 mins swimming, which is what I do most weekday mornings, drops my levels by 3.8 - which would mean if I'd had bacon and eggs for breakfast and kept my levels in the low 7's, then I'd have been at risk of a hypo.
Click to expand...

Don't think that's the case Swimmer. If you start with a high reading, your exercise will knock a lot off because there is a lot of sugar in your blood to BE knocked off. If it was lower, your reduction wouldn't be so much. I don't think you're on insulin or meds that stimulate insulin production? (metformin doesn't). So if your BG gets too low with exercise, your liver will release glycogen to bring your BG back up again. That's why diabetics on diet only /metformin can get low blood sugar the same as anyone else (like non-diabetics) but don't tend to get dangeropus hypos unless we have some other impairment. I got a 3.2 after snorkeling, but it soon came back to normal.
 
Thanks for that Grazer, though I am on insulin at the moment (the 5 units of Lantus morning and night).
 
Ok swimmer, didn't know that so you do need to be more careful re - hypos. Nonetheless, the exercise won't have a fixed lowering effect in mmols, it should still depend to a degree on how high the Bg was in the first place - but you don't have quite such the same luxury of experimenting with that as I would.
 
I found a recipe on here for a porridge sort of breakfast. It's quite tasty too;

2 tablespoons ground flaxseed
2 tablespoons ground almonds
sweetener to taste

That's the basic porridge. I add unsweetened dessicated coconut, mixed seeds and/or chopped whole nuts.

Mix the basic ingredients together with water until you have a thin paste, nuke in the micro for about one minute to one minute thirty seconds, then stir in a dollop of double cream and there you have it. It took me a few mouthfuls to get used to it, but it's really good.

Julia

PS Thank you very much whomever posted the original recipe! :thumbup:
 
I have done basically the same test you have done, and after eating bacon and eggs for breakfast, and doing a pretty high intensity work out I was looking for a low BG level afterwards, but I was wrong, my BG level went up from 7.2 ( I think I have these figures right, it went up anyhow) before breakfast and workout to 8.3 afterwards. I can only put it down to a liver dump, with having a low carb breakfast and a high inesity workout. I now eat porridge before my workout, and this keeps my BG levels pretty good afterwards.
 
Swimmer, you dont mention how much porridge you are eating for breakfast, is it possible to eat a smaller portion, thus not pushing your levels up so high? The whole point of testing after eating should be to help you adjust portion sizes not to put foods on the banned list, unless you want to of course.

Also Lantus is a long acting basal insulin which would have no immediate impact on a meal as such, rather it works in the background to keep your base bg level down. Perhaps a T1 can elaborate on that in case I have got it wrong, but I know when I was on insulin I had to take a medium/long acting insulin at night and a fast acting insulin before eating.
 

Sid, I'm making 30g (dry weight) of porridge oats with 1 cup of whole milk. That equates to (very roughly) 22g for the Oats and maybe 4g for the milk, so a hefty intake. It's about 1/2 my carbs for the day. The insulin is long acting but I'm splitting the dose morning and night - so at breakfast I am 1/2 way through my 5 units of Lantus. I do have some fast acting but am refusing to take it
 
SweetHeart said:
I found a recipe on here for a porridge sort of breakfast. It's quite tasty too;

2 tablespoons ground flaxseed
2 tablespoons ground almonds
sweetener to taste
Click to expand...

Thanks for the recipe SweetHeart - I have a big bag of almonds here but no flaxseed. Perhaps I could mix the porridge oats with the almonds?? What's the worst that could happen :crazy:
 
I'm a complete beginner, Swimmer, (so if anyone needs to correct me please do) but if you mixed the oats with ground almonds and some mixed seeds (sounds a bit hippyish, but tastes really good) would it have the effect of making the oats ever so slightly slower to digest? Possibly lowering their GI? At least you'd be using fewer oats any way.

I'm not sure that's exactly the right way to put it, but you see where I'm going?

Julia
 

Got it in one SweetHeart, a gradual rise due to the other nutrients you are consuming slowing down the digestion, fats in nuts and seeds, because you have lowered the G.I. :thumbup:
 
Waaay to go Me! I'm getting there....

Thanks Catherine - it's nice to know I'm learning. I've always considered myself a good cook, but low carb cooking and catering for a diabetic is like starting all over again. Without this forum, and WhitbyJet in particular, I'd be struggling.

Julia
 
Regular porridge spikes me but when I was experimenting with it I found it improves it if i make it with water and then stir in some double cream when it is ready to eat, this eliminates the carbs from the milk.

I make a muesli mix using Jumbo oats. flaxseed, ground almonds, nuts and seeds to lower the carbs. Tastes okay once you get used to it but if you substitute the milk you use with double cream it sets like concrete!! :lol:

Regards
Angie
 
Ok, I'm going to go with a 2-1 Oats to Almonds mix tomorrow morning and will report back..
 
I have now invented.... Almond Porridge

20g Quaker Oats
10g Almond Flour
1 cup whole milk
1 pinch salt

It tastes much like porridge though the consistency is more like semolina.

Reading before swim: 9.1
After swim: 5.0

That's a bit better than yesterday - no swim tomorrow people so testing will resume on Thursday with a half-and-half mix.
 
Another way to do it is to put a mound of greek yoghurt in a shallow bowl, top with a tablespoon or 2 of cream, and then a tbsp. or 2 of mixed nuts, seeds and dessicated coconut. Excellent breakfast.
 
You know, it was really nice and it comes out of the saucepan easier. I'm curious to see how much I can reduce the Oats content before it tastes yuk. But 2-1 Oats to Almonds was tasty.
 
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