Diabetic Mommy's Type 2
Diabetes Weight Loss Adventure

Ask Diabetic Mommy

On this page I will include questions I've been asked about what I'm doing for my weight loss adventure and my responses.

Q: How do you measure your blood sugars if you are eating every hour? - kirstymomma

A: I don't actually eat every hour. I try to still follow my snack, meal, and carb plan but I mind the calories too. However, if I'm hungry and I'm tempted to grab some chips or something and an hour has passed since I last ate, then I'll eat something that has 100 calories in it.

I still measure my sugars like normal - fasting, before & after meals, bedtime. I limit the snacks to 1 carb serving and meals to 2 or 3. But I have stopped my insulin and my Amaryl pill...so I'm not so strict with the blood sugar testing before and after every single meal. Plus I'm giving myself two weeks of exercise to let my body adjust to the increased activity and then I'll see where my blood sugars stand then.

If I ate breakfast at 8 am and had a snack two hours later at 10 am, it could be up to 200 calories (100 calories for each hour that has passed). If I eat lunch at 1 am three hours later, then I would have 300 calories.

BUT if I wanted to go eat a heftier lunch at 1 am....then I might just limit the snack to 100 calories so that I could have 400 calories for lunch.

I start with a good breakfast because I usually don't eat after 8 or 9 pm so I figure those hours and the hours I sleep can make for a good breakfast. I don't start counting calories/hour until after breakfast.

On a normal day with no irresistable cravings, my schedule might look like this:

snack 8 am : 100 calories - a Kashi peanut bar

breakfast 9:30: 400 calories (I allow a good breakfast) - veggie stir-fry with eggs and corn tortilla

snack 11:30: 100 calories - a simple 1/2 sandwich (peanut butter or just cheese or one piece of lunch meat) or sliced tomatoes and cucumbers with salt olive oil and lemon, etc.

lunch 1:30: 300 calories - a hefty sandwich very, very heavy on the veggies - almost to the point of where you cannot hold it. I usually cannot finish the sandwich. In fact, I've got one sitting in front of me right now that I'll have to wrap up and put in the fridge. I put in 1 slice meat, 1 slice cheese, sprouts, shelled cooked pumpkin seeds, tomato, avocado onion, pickles, splash olive oil, garlic pepper, salt, and a mayo/mustard mix, heavy on the mustard.

Note - When making my sandwiches, I really watch the amount of lunch meat, cheese, seeds or nuts, avocado, and olive oil. These things really can bring up the calorie count. So I limit them, like just a tiny sprinkle of pumpkin seeds and less than a tsp of oil. But I find including them helps me feel full for a longer time.

snack 3:30: 100 calories - apples, cheese, and nuts.

dinner 7:00: 500 calories - varies. Last night I had a big fish filet broiled with a mixture of crumbs/butter/parsley on top, and I did eat some of the skin. And I had steamed broccoli with garlic I mashed into a little butter and put that on top. Oh and I had a slice of garlic sourdough bread too. I'll have to rethink that one though, because an hour later I was hungry again and wanted sweets. I chomped on a sugary gumball and I was okay. I think the bread made me crave more.

I had written down my foods and calories for months. It wasn't too hard, but I find it easier to just pull out my calorie counter book to make sure of what I'm eating at that particular snack or meal and not worry about writing it all down (although my doctor and trainer would like me to). The 100 calories per hour fits with my own calorie goal for the day - about 1500 calories. But my calorie goal may change, and then that number will change. Plus remember my calorie goal for the day may not be the same as yours - so this isn't a one-size-fits-all thing.

My personal trainer actually recommends 6 mini-meals throughout the day - each consisting of about 300 calories each. I'm not sure how you would test for that. Would need to ask a health professional about that...because remember I am not a health professional. Just another yahoo. haha. -Bjay

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