I have lost 71 pounds on a diabetic "plan". What I do is follow the American Diabetes Association's meal plans. I eat yogurt and 1/2 bagel or 2 pieces light toast (with natural Peanut Butter) in the AM, snack on fruit and sugar-free Cool Whip for a midmorning snack, eat lunch (veggies, some protein, a few carbohydrates), eat more fruit or Cool Whip with jello, sugar free pudding for a snack, then dinner is a protein serving (3 oz.), some veggies, some milk, a little carbohydrate (I can tolerate about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of rice or pasta).
Be sure that you check your blood glucose FREQUENTLY until you know what foods will raise your glucose levels. Eat your food, then test at 45, 60, 90, and 120 minutes. Your highest blood sugar reading is your "spike", or how much that one food (or combination of foods) raised your blood sugar. I try to eat around 130 blood sugar or lower, and try to keep my spike under 180 -- a lot of people use lower numbers.
Try to find healthy recipes online and at American Diabetes Association. I also get ADA's cookbooks out of the library, it helps a lot. They also have a community site where you can get in touch with other diabetics. Try first to read the posts by Alan_S and Lizzy, they will guide you on your way as a beginning diabetic. There is a lot of support there. Good luck! It's really not very hard.
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Did You Know? Very often, diabetics are told to not worry about counting the grams of protein they eat, with the exception of making them as low-fat as possible. But protein grams do count!
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I am a diabetic. I need to lose weight, of course, but am having trouble finding a good, inexpensive diet. I cannot have a lot of carbs, but too little makes my sugar go too low and I feel sick. I cannot have sugar, of course. Do any fellow diabetics have any helpful hints for me? I would appreciate it.
By Tina from Orange County, CA
Ask your doctor to refer you to a nutritionist or dietitian who specializes in diabetics. They can work with you to figure out a diet program that will meet your needs. Beyond that, you don't really have to give up your favorite foods but you do need to eat them in moderation and monitor your blood sugar to see how different foods affect you. For me personally, the carbs in bread, pasta, cereal and potatoes tend to cause my blood sugar to spike up so I don't eat much of them.
However, I have found that if a particular food item has a lot of fiber, the effect on my blood sugar is much less. Fiber One and All Bran cereals are good in that way as both provide almost half a day's requirement of fiber per serving. Also, Fiber Gourmet products - pasta and cheese snack crackers - also have high amounts of fiber and are low in calories and sodium to boot. You can find their products on their own website or at Amazon.
I was diagnosed 6 months ago. This is the diet I use and it is working well for me. It's easy and doesn't require a lot of thinking. It's called the plate method. One half of the plate is your vegetables. On the other side, half is for a fist sized serving of starch, and the other is for a piece of meat the size of a deck of cards.
Your comment, you cannot have sugar. Most everything breaks down into a sugar/glucose base. Doesn't matter the origin. I cannot have any artificial sugar due to other complications, so I adjust. 1 tsp sugar is 5 grams. On my oatmeal, I use it.
www.internationaldiabetescenter.com has good information. I have a food plan from them.
You must have set for you basic calories/carb/fats and then choose the food to eat once that is established. It is easy to over think the process, but take notes, make index cards of menus to use and servings allowed.
From the Food Plan
Some information: A carb choice is a serving of food that has about 15 grams of carb and varying amounts of protein and fat.
I have 15 carbs to my daily diet. Choose wisely according to your activities too.
Vegetables - Aim for 3 or more servings in a day.
Each serving has about 5 grams of carb, 2 grams of protein, and 25 calories. A serving is 1/2 cup COOKED or 1 cup RAW. 3 choices of veg at a meal is 1 carb.
Meat - each ounce has about 7 grams of protein, 3-8 grams of fat, very little or no carb and 50-100 calories. 3 ounces is the average serving--the size of a deck of cards.
Fats - 5 grams of fat has little or no carbs or protein, 45 calories.
Packaging has the listing on the back side, according to servings.
The USDA site has charts and photos of things that is easier to set things up by. Our portion control is the best way. Needless to say, super size has been choices for many menus, learn to eat at least half of what you thought was correct. Take the foods you like, list them out what is good, not good. Learn not to like what you really should not have. Simply tossing out convenience foods, snack foods, eat what you have to prepare from scratch makes a big dent in your diet. I have a difficult time eating away from my home, we tend to go to the same places to eat out, knowing what I can have on their menu, etc.
Learn to cook without the fats/calories, and the basic food tastes better. Got lots of personal recipes, etc we use and never miss a thing. One tip: Add alot of citrus to your cooking/recipes. The taste of citrus and just eaten it makes you feel full much longer.
