To my new best friend?
The power of food in regards to diabetes management is astounding sometimes. As I am learning more about it, and coming to terms with things I have not wanted to admit, I am just in awe over the impacts of what we eat.
Eating is a sensitive area for me. I have weird eating habits and a lot of deep seeded mental issues around when and what I want to eat.
On the weird eating habits. A couple of things. We’ve already talked a little bit about how I enjoy a good cheese & mayo (or Miracle Whip) sandwich. Have you ever done any of these?
- Had (and enjoyed)a ketchup & mustard sandwich, dipped in even more ketchup?
- Had fries AND hashbrowns in the same meal (with ketchup of course)?
- Consumed more than 200 grams of carbs in a single meal?
- Had a Miracle Whip sandwich (that’s right, nothing else)?
- Had a potato chip sandwich, dipped in (you guessed it) ketchup?
- Made a burrito with nothing but sour cream and shredded cheddar cheese?
- Wanted to eat something just because you arrived? At work, at home? For no other reason than just getting there.
- Oooh – potato chips dipped in ketchup (are you noticing a pattern here?)
The list could go on and on…
Enter the dietitian.
I had my first appointment with her a Long Time Ago. April of 2006, and it was GREAT!
So what happened? Well, I just kind of let it all go. Sure, I learned a lot, and applied a little. If I’m not mistaken, it was the very next day that I tried hummus and have been enjoying it ever since.
But I let it all slide. I didn’t apply much of what I learned and didn’t go back to her.
Warp to March of 2007. I’m back in her office and ready to make another run at it.
This time I bring with me a stack of at least a month worth of logs (thanks to Kevin!). In these logs I have fairly detailed notes of what I’m eating and when, as well as all of my insulin and blood sugar events.
Who would have ever thought bringing BG logs to your dietitian would be helpful? We sat down and she dug into my logs like an archaeologist on a dig! I guess to her they were glorified food records? Complete with insulin and blood sugar details.
We talked about my basal rate adjustments for basketball, how I feel when I’m playing, how I’m feeling afterwards, my after work environment, the family eating situation, so on and so on.
We made some slight adjustments to my basal rates for basketball. It’s now a pretty complex pattern. Let’s take a quick peek.
Here’s what I do on a non-basketball day:
00:00 1.00
03:00 1.50
11:00 1.00
Here’s what it looks like on a basketball day:
00:00 1.00
03:00 1.50
10:00 0.45
12:00 0.80
13:30 1.80
15:00 1.50
18:00 1.00
Yikes! There is a lot going on there! I was impressed with her knowledge and ability to work with basal rates. She’s a dietitian, not a CDE or Endocrinologist!!
She suggested that I eat breakfast earlier, giving my breakfast insulin a little more time to work its way out of my system. Even a half hour can make a difference she said! She also suggested that rather than about 30 grams of carbs before basketball that I bring that down to somewhere around 15 grams or so. I dutifully followed her instructions.
Can I show you a picture of one basketball day in particular? After a day like this I was willing to do almost anything she said. The proof is in the pudding. Again, Kevin’s marvelous logbook:
The whole day was incredible, but do you see that area I circled? Yes, the FLAT LINE?! May I remind you that I was PLAYING FULL COURT BASKETBALL during that time? Amazing…
A day like this, with full court basketball in the mix, is enough proof for me that she is pretty damn good. I’ll do whatever she tells me to do.
She’s my new best friend.
My next appointment with her is on 3/23. I can’t wait!
If you don’t have a dietitian in your care team, I highly recommend trying to find one. Specifically one that knows diabetes. If you can hook up with one you like they can prove to be an extremely valuable tool.
Mine is worth her weight in carbohydrates and ketchup if you ask me…
Persons with diabetes should keep their blood sugar at a healthy level to prevent or slow down diabetes problems. Ask your doctor or diabetes teacher what a healthy blood sugar level is for you. Your blood sugar can get too high if you eat too much. If your blood sugar becomes too high, you can get sick. Your blood sugar can also go too high if you do not take the right amount of diabetes medicine. Diabetes Symptom at http://diets-diabetes.blogspot.com
Great blog! I’ll be back. Everyone needs a great RD.
Could I borrow that dietician to make such valuable suggestions for my soccer game days? Please? 🙂
I would so love to see a flat line of sugars during soccer, but I have to admit that I haven’t yet given the dietician a chance to come up with suggestions. Maybe I should, and then hope that she is just as good as yours 🙂
Scott–
I am glad that you had such a positive experience with your dietitian. I am about 5 months away from being one myself (assuming I pass the RD exam) and, as a type I myself, I can’t wait to start helping fellow diabetics. Over the last 10 years dietetic professionals have come a long way. One major shift is going from general education to individualized education–exactly what your RD did for you. I hope everything continues to go well for you!
Deanna
That’s great, Scott. I’m glad you found her.
And, miracle whip sandwhiches and potato chips with ketchup, I’m guilty of both.
Just wondering if you have been spying on me. That “menu” of yours sounds like it came from my house. And of course Miracle Whip IS better than Mayo.
i have met… 1 dietician in my life as a diabetic. …and i hated him. …of course he DID manage to predict for me a blind and legless near future after knowing me for about 5 minutes…
if i met yours i am sure i would love her though.
i love ketchup. and i am also a vegetarian. there are definitely some HIGH carb moments, especially when feeling particularly lazy and defeated.
I have some pretty good CDE’s as far as basals are concerned, but my doctor takes the cake. She is always right when she wants to make an adjustment…
Send your dietician over to me!
That rocks, Scott.
Keeping a flat blood sugar while busting your ass on the court is way cool.
I’m a pretty big fan of ketchup myself, but I don’t know how you eat half of those things! (But I totally get you’re EUA (Eating Upon Arrival) — I do that too).
I hope you have more flat-line basketball days like that under this new game plan and that you continue to have more great meetings with your dietitian (and that she convinces you to eat some vegetables too!).
(And: Shannon: I’m blushing. I’m so happy you’re finding the logbook useful. Julia: I’ll send you a log sheet tomorrow or (most likely) Monday).
Not to be a downer, but I am a long term diabetic, 40 years, ahhh!!!
If the basals work the second time playing basketball, I will be a believer of your dietician.
Good luck and I hope it works again for you.
Karen
I love Miracle Whip sandwiches.
And? If you go to Canada, you can get ketchup-flavoured chips. They rock! Ketchup! Right in the chip! FanTABulous!
Could you email me a copy of that log? I need to get my shit together WRT O’s log books. Right now, we’re not logging at all. Bad, bad mother.
I’m so glad that are digging this dietician!
I put hummus on almost everything! Eggs, veggies, sandwiches, in tuna – I always have at least 3 different types of hummus on hand!
How exciting to have such a good fit.
When I was recovering from my broken ankle I started eating double toasted English mufins slathered with peanut butter and then topped with Miracle Whip.
yum for mayo and cheese sandwich and I love ketchup with majority of my food.
Can we borrow your dietitian in Nova Scotia? HA! You are lucky – feels good to have support and knowledge like that!!
Oh yeah….anything with ketchup is good!
When I was a kid I would eat Mayo sandwiches instead of the Whip! I cannot imagine eating it now. I also used to eat raw hot dogs! OMFG I am gonna yack!
Dude, yet another reason to move to Minnesota. I have the WORST care team! 😛
A peanut butter and jam with potato chips sandwich is a guilty pleasure. The jam is sugar free – doesn’t that make it okay?
I saw my dietician a lot through pregnancy, but haven’t seen her since (6 years ago). I figure I know everything by now right? But I never thought to take my readings, I thought she was just there to show me a fake blob of mashed potato and a rubbery piece of salmon to show me food sizes. Brilliant idea! I think she could help me in a similiar way.
Regarding food: How about a hot dog bun or white with Italian dressing? I can’t eat a grilled cheese sandwich without ketchup, but I never eat ketchup with anything else.
Your basal rates for your nonbasketball day look like Brendon’s everday rates (less insulin of course).
Don’t you LOVE Kevin’s log? I recently hit him up for a copy because you guys kept mentioning it and I love it. When I’m through with the blogs, I’ll be entering Bren’s numbers and looking at the “trends”…trends do exist don’t they? (please say yes, lol).
I think it’s awesome that your dietician digs deep and helps solve ALL problems, not just go over the food.
I hope the changes work out!
Heh, well, I have had fries and a baked potato in the same meal because we only had time to do fast food and I’m a vegetarian.
Your dietician sounds *amazing.* Sadly, I have yet to see one like that. Make sure you keep that one!