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What do you have for breakfast?


Hello again ShyGirl

Poor old you, I see you have been awake in the wee small hours again! Breakfast by 5.15am! :shock:

I have a feeling that perhaps if you could just get the amount of sleep you need you would be so much better so I was thinking about it and have a suggestion you might find worth a try :idea:

Start preparing for bed at least an hour before the ideal 'lights out' time. Have a (coolish in this weather!) bath with something that smells lush, burn a candle or two (even if it is still light!) and play a piece of gentle music. Make sure that you have something in your tum (and brush your teeth afterwards) and listen to that music while you are lying down in your bed. Spraying your pillow with lavender is supposedly soporific ( makes you sleepy :lol: ) so that is worth a shot too. Relaxation is key and sleep is better than food sometimes or in our case as good as food. Worth a try anyway and may well make you feel better in yourself if nothing else. Let me know how you get on!
 
Synonym,

I wouldn't recommend using lavender being diabetic, years ago I was told to keep away from using lavender oil. Do a google search, most sites do state that diabetics should stay clear of lavender products, even those with a history of blood pressure and certain other medical conditions.

http://www.naturalhealthcourses.com/Rea ... ations.htm

Nigel
 

Wow, I've been using it for years and had no idea about that. :shock: Thank you for the warning!

Drat, that means I will have to find some other way of keeping the midges out of my bedroom at night. :roll: I did read that a bowl of strong green tea will keep flies out so will have to hope that it also deters the midges!

In case you hadn't realised I hate, loathe and detest midges while they just love me - to bits! :evil: :shock:
 
My latest escapade...

Had a 40 g bowl of All Bran with a further 40 g mix of walnuts, flaxseeds and almonds with normal milk. From a fasting of 6.9 I went:

10.2 at 1 hour
9.7 at 2 hours and
5.4 at 4 hours.

Still killing myself with the experiments. Will try again tomorrow with 30 gram of All Bran and 30 gram of nuts. Feel like a mad scientist of sorts.... I had half a pink grapefruit 2 hours after the above breakfast which may account for the big drop at 4 hours?

PS - I thought these nuts would decrease the GL of the cereal? I've worked out the above had approx 19.2 grams of carbs.

What sort of carb figures do you guys tolerate?

I've noticed lack of carbs makes you dopey, so forgive any dumb questions.


PPS -
 
The meal you describe would be at least 30g carbs, quite a lot if you are trying to reduce your Bg numbers. The 'spikes' at the earlier time is due to the high carb intake, which obviously you have difficulty tolerating.

What you really need to do is cut those portion sizes down, that is what will ease the Glycaemic Load. Try 20g of each instead, see how that goes. A meal consisting of 80g weight is quite a hefty meal for anybody, let alone a Diabetic trying to control by diet only.

Another way is to cut out the cereals altogether until you have got better numbers, then gradually
re-introduce small portions and test to see the results.

Ken
 
PP,

Agree with Ken, the breakfast you had would be more like 30g of carbs. You could try reducing the portion size further, but it may be possible that you cannot tolerate the carbs at all, some people find that they are more sensitive to carbs first thing in the morning.

Nigel
 



PP.
That was sneaky.....you crept up behind me !! :lol:

All Bran is around 48g carbs per 100g weight therefore you had 40g of it, that means that you had 19.2g carbs. You then had Milk with it which is 4.7g carbs per 100 mil. Saying that you had maybe 200 mil of that, that would be another 9.4g carbs. So far that makes 28.6g carbs. Then you add the carbs in some of the rest of the ingredients.......so around 30g carbs is what you actually had. You have to total ALL the ingredients for accuracy. You have missed out a lot of carbs in your calculations.

My carb intake per meal is between 20 - 30g carbs and I am not an avid low carber, (according to the Low carb guide here ?). I use a combination of low GI/GL. Over the whole day I now have only
60 - 90 g carbs. Suits me fine, no hunger in between meals and it is only two main meals per day, a very light lunch.

It isn't what WE tolerate it is what YOU can tolerate, we are all different in how we react to certain foods.

Cutting out the carbs can make you feel a little 'dopey' as you say, this should go once your body gets used to the lower numbers you will inevitably attain. High Bg levels can also make you feel sleepy as well, so the sooner you get them lower the better. You need to stick with it and as you improve so will your fitness and vitality, I'm 61 but people keep telling me I behave and look like a much younger person.......no bad thing ! :wink:

No question is dumb.....we are here to help. It does get easier I assure you, just sometimes you need a degree in Maths, oh yes and some accurate scales and a carb counting book too.

Ken
 
cugila said:
I'm 61 but people keep telling me I behave and look like a much younger person.......no bad thing ! :wink: Ken
Click to expand...

Yeah I bet they do! :roll:

Nigel
 


Jealousy Nigel...... :roll: I could give you a few phone numbers if you want ! :wink: :wink:


Oh, yes for the benefit of those who watch from afar I was consuming around 80 - 90g carbs during my Cancer treatment....needs must, however I am now back on a more reduced carb regime like I was 6/7 months ago using low GI/GL and getting my numbers back in the 4 -7 range throughout the day as they were then. I must be doing something right !
You know it makes sense. .. :wink: :twisted:

Ken-ute :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
The latest....

I tried the advice given above and had a breakfast made up as follows:

20g All Bran (carbs = 9.6)
15g walnuts (0.5g)
5g Flaxseeds (2g)
5g almonds (1g)

Total = 13.1g of carbs

+ Whole milk (?)


This is almost exactly half of what I tried last time but the bs levels were near enough identical at:

10.2 (1 hr)
9.5 (2 hrs)
5.4 (4 hours)


??????
 
PP.
Your Milk would have the amount of carbs I quoted in my previous post. Depends on the amount and that would also have to be added to the overall total of carbs consumed.

Like me, when I first started, I think that you are going to have to ditch the cereal for now. It is only now after losing over 5 stone that I am able to tolerate SMALL portions of them once in a while.

Try bacon, egg, mushrooms instead and see what results you get.

Ken
 
Ken

I'm not overweight now, which is the strange thing. Just started Metformin so i'll probably wither away to nothing now! lol

Tried Bacon, Mushroom and two eggs (scrambled), went from 5.6 at fasting, to 6.7 at 1 hour and 6.7 at 2 hours.

But have cholesterol issues so can't be enjoying this too much...might have to get on the old turkey bacon?
 


I too have issues with fats and cholesterol, I had a triple by-pass in 2004, however I have the full English twice a week and my lipid levels are all fine, have been for years. Turkey bacon sounds good. Moderation as always again.

I also have cold meats, some cheese, small portions of fruits for breakfast, Large mushrooms with Mozzarella grilled. Depends what YOU like. I only did without cereals for about 12 months, then as I said I am now able to tolerate some better. Just look at all the foods you like and see what the overall carb value is, if it is lowish, that should help, avoid too many fats, salt etc. That's all I do. Works ok for me.

Keep plugging away, testing is the only way forward, even if it is time consuming sometimes.

Ken
 
Thanks for the support mate.

I have discovered that I can tolerate 40 grams (boiled) of pearl barley in a curry, which is good news.

Also finally got some of that Burgens soy/linseed bread and although I have only tried it once, the initial trial seems promising. Bs went from 8.0 at one hour to 7.0 at two when I had 1 slice (toasted) with canned kippers (in sunflower oil). Presumably bs dropped into the 6s by 3 or 4 hours.

I'm still mostly in the high 6s or early 7s though, even on a good day.

When you do 1,2 4 hour readings do you often go into the 8 zone? Anyone reading can answer that by the way!

It's good to share info.
 
Hi P.P.

I notice you used the Soya and Linseed bread but did not mention what your bs. was prior to your meal?

Catherine.
 
PickledPepper said:
Hi Catherine

I never tested prior to the meal but it was likely to have been in the mid to high 6s.
Click to expand...

You really need to do a pre -meal test to see what is happening. Guesswork is not the way forward as your readings could have been high or low,
 
I have been keeping records. Unless I have carbs, I'm usually between 6 and 7. Sometimes a big non carb meal will have me at 7.0, 7.1, 7.3 for an hour. I never get low (so far anyway).
 

I've been trying various muesli type cereals and have found that the only one I can really tolerate is Lizi's granola - and then only 30g of that mixed with 60g yoghurt. This typically takes me from a waking BG of around 6 to around 7 after 2 hours. Basically a rise of 1 point after 2 hours - although if I have milk instead of yoghurt it goes up by about another 1 point.

I spent some time in hospital recently and to make the best of a bunch of bad choices I ended up having 40g of Alpen Muesli with skimmed milk two days on the trot. That averaged out as a 6 point rise after two hours :shock: :shock: :shock:

I tried organic porridge oats recently hoping that would be a good breakfast - 50g of oats cooked with 300ml of milk per their serving suggestion and I went from 7 to 13 after 2 hours :shock: That was a surprise.

Bacon & Eggs, or omelette seems to be fine - sometimes my levels are even lower after 2 hours than they were before! Kippers seem to be good too (1 point rise after 2 hours) - but just the Loch Fyne ones from the fish shop and not the boil in the bag ones. They're much tastier anyway.

Sadly though, eating much fruit at all seems to raise my levels in the morning. A halfway decent bowl of Strawberries & Blueberries with yoghurt will give me a 3 point rise after 2 hours....that's a real shame as I really enjoy fruit and it should be healthy for you!

Breakfast is becoming the hardest meal for me. I don't want to eat meat or cheese everyday because of the high cholesterol content. Although I don't really believe it's the direct cause of high lipids in the blood I want to have a few months worth of blood data as a baseline before I start increasing my intake.
 
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