I had my first appointment with a nutrition specialist on Friday of last week.
It was wonderful! She is a very neat lady who did not make me feel strange about the way I have been eating. She was very energetic and very encouraging.
We talked for a while about what had brought me to her. I explained that I feel my eating habits are the last frontier or barrier to good diabetic control, and I wanted to focus some attention on that area of management. I talked a bit about my strange likes and dislikes, and the frustrations that they cause with my blood sugars.
You know what? She was excited to help me! Wow! I was blown away. I could literally see the gears turning in her head.
We talked about the typical times of day that I ate. She threw out about a zillion ideas of foods, trying to get a better feel for things that I liked/disliked, or things I was or was not willing to try. There were a pretty large number of things that I thought I might like, or at least thought I could try.
One of the biggest things we came up with for why I like/don’t like foods was the texture. She had a solution for that. “Blenderize it!!” she says! Make a smoothie. Puree the crap out of things where the texture bothers you! Try to learn the taste of it, and we can overcome the texture of it.
We came up with a schedule of times that would be best for me to eat, and estimated calories for each meal & snack.
We started a menu of sorts, where I have a handful of things that I can try for breakfast, lunch, & snacks. We ran out of time to build up anything for dinner, but she did lay out a calorie target and servings from the different nutritional groups.
Do you remember me talking about how the appointment was scheduled for 75 minutes? Well I met with her for the entire 75 minutes, and could have used another 75 minutes! Boy, the time just FLEW by!!
So I’ve got a very short menu of a few different things to try. She felt strongly about not trying to change the world in a day. She talked about trying different things and building up a menu of things to choose from.
For the past few days the appointment has been “digesting” in my head. And like much else in life, it seems that planning is the key. I have to wake up with a plan laid out for what I’m having to eat that day. If I can get that part done, I think the rest will be pretty easy.
[…] had my first appointment with her a Long Time Ago. April of 2006, and it was […]
Sure thing Nicole. Right now she said I should eat 2500 calories per day. I’m a pretty big guy, like 6’1″ and around 260. I’d love to lie to you and say it’s because I’m just rippling with muscles, but that’s only mostly true. :-p Anyways, back to reality. That’s still a lot of calories, but combined with some exercise it should land me eventually weighing in at around 220 or so. That’s my long term goal, and I’ll re-evaluate once I’m there. She split these calories up into three meals, averaging around 400-500 cals for breakfast, 500-600 for lunch… Read more »
I’m so glad this went well for you. Do you mind sharing what your total calorie count for one day is? I’m curious…
Wow! does your nutritionist do phone calls? 🙂 she sounds great! interesting yesturday I was interpreting a conference about taking things step by step and even breaking down small steps into smaller.. like if your goal is to exercise the speaker said maybe break it down even smaller and just get out of bed every morning at 6am for a week then the following week get up at 6am and put on you sneakers Etc Etc until you get to the point where your exercising. The fact that you went and you thining about preparing is AWSOME! pat urself on… Read more »
Awesome to hear,Scott.
Makes diabetes care a bit easier, when you have a understand, helpful team.
(the more choices you have, the more you’re likely to go with the program)
Everyone should see a dietician periodically, just as a refresher..(if insurance companies would only cover them!)
I’m luck that mine does.