Getting a Handle on Type 2 Diabetes — Part 1

I am not a doctor, or a diabetes specialist. I am learning about being diabetic as a recently diagnosed person. Please always check with your doctor before adapting any information to your personal situation. What’s right for me, may not be what’s right for you.

I met with a diabetes specialist last week. If you are diabetic and haven’t talked to a specialist, I encourage you to do so. I feel so empowered after that appointment. I learned three important things. And I will share them with you over the next three blog posts:

1. I asked her about all the contradictory information online – one site says you can eat “fill in the blank.” Another site says the complete opposite. Plus, I eat a high vegan diet. How am I supposed to know what to eat?

The answer – If foods affected each person the same way, this would be an easy fix! But it’s not. Everyone processes each food differently. What one diabetic can eat, another may not be able to, regardless of what the Internet says. The one agreement – carbohydrates (“carbs”) are consistently an issue. That doesn’t mean you can’t eat any carbs, but low-carb diets are highly recommended.

I was testing my blood morning and night as requested by my doctor. The specialist recommended testing my blood morning (not sleeping well affects your blood sugar), before lunch (to test for breakfast), before supper (to test for lunch) and bedtime (to test for supper). (I’m not a big “snacker” and sometimes struggle to get lunch in.) This will tell me how my glucose is after the meal I last ate. If the number is within a normal range, then what I ate was fine and my body was able to process the food with no glucose issues. If the number is high, then I need to assess what I ate and make accommodations. Over time I will get a very clear idea of what my body can and can’t process in terms of blood glucose levels.

See Part 2 and Part 3