The Dietician

This is a story about an old dog and a stubborn mule. No, I’m not saying that the dietician is either of those animals. I am both.

I made an appointment with the dietician and met with her in late November. My initial opinion of her from our phone call held. I like her. I went armed with 3 weeks of food journals along with all the blood glucose checks surrounding those meals. It was a lot of work but worth it since I could show her what I’m doing and not just try to explain. She was glancing over my numbers and said something totally shocking! You might want to sit down for this: “I don’t see any fasting numbers below 130. You might need some long-acting insulin.”

YES!!!!! Someone paid attention!!!!! I was so excited to hear that. Now, she isn’t a doctor but, dang, she outta know!

WOOT! Happy Dance!!! My concerns felt so validated. Phew!

Now to discuss the rest of the appointment. We talked about carbs and fiber and she feels that I need more of both in my diet, as well as maybe more fat. This was completely expected on my part but I had decided to go into this appointment with an open mind. Many of her suggestions were ones that I had shunned over the years after copious testing on my part. Oatmeal, whole-grain bread, potatoes etc. She would like me to shoot for 30-45 grams of carbs per meal. I didn’t believe that I could eat that many carbs without ridiculous numbers on my meter but I was determined to follow directions and see what happened.

We also discussed fiber. I have long known that the Standard American Diet is woefully lacking in fiber and that is most likely causing lots of health issues for all of us. I have never gone about seeking more fiber, I just assumed that if I ate more real food and less processed that I’d be getting enough fiber. Well… She wants me to slowly work up to adding 25-30 grams of fiber per day. (Slowly so as not to cause my guts to rebel.) That didn’t seem like such a daunting task until I started actually looking at how much fiber is in food. For instance, one would assume that broccoli contains a boat-load of fiber. 1 cup of chopped broccoli has 2.4 grams of fiber. You do the math: I’d have to eat SO MUCH BROCCOLI to reach my daily goal! Granted, the carb to fiber ratio is good, it’s just that a lot would have to be consumed. Beans seem to be a good choice for added fiber and I have also been drinking a fiber supplement every morning for a few years. Needless to say, reaching my fiber goal will not be easy simply because I don’t eat that much food.

She encouraged me to continue “experimenting” and paying attention to how my blood glucose responds to the “new” foods. I discovered some amazing things! I was able to eat a seedy, whole grain piece of toast and my bg didn’t freak out! Unheard of. I had about ¼ cup of baked potato and the roof didn’t fall in. I was also reminded that not all bread is created equally when I ate a white dinner roll and the outcome was horrendous.

Other things to work on: eating something within 2 hours of rising. That one is so hard! I’m just not hungry in the morning. Do some yoga-type stretches (or other exercise) within 10 minutes of eating a larger meal and/or 4-5 hours before bedtime.

All in all it was a good appointment. I have fallen off the experimenting wagon since I got the flu in early December and then the holidays happened. I’m hoping to get back on the program now.

I was and old dog who thought I couldn’t learn something new. I was a stubborn mule when I allowed myself to think I could no longer eat carbs. This doesn’t give me carte blanche to eat whatever I want, far from it. I have continued to see some awful numbers on my meter and have been reminded why I stopped eating certain foods. However, I have already learned that I need to be more open-minded when it comes to food. It is not the enemy.

Oh, and I have an appointment with a new doctor on Monday. Wish me luck.