My magic number is 200 mg/dl and above.
When my blood sugar is 200 mg/dl or higher, I fight some seriously strong cravings. This is no new issue for me, but I still haven’t figured it out, or how to beat it.
These are no ordinary boredom, sleepy, munchy, emotionally upset cravings. These are the high blood sugar cravings! All of my usual tricks (drink water, chew gum, do a little exercise) are powerless against these cravings.
Honestly, I often end up caving in, taking more insulin (which is WAY too slow to help anyway), and satisfy my craving. I feel a bit ashamed to admit that, but the truth is what it is.
I don’t understand why this happens, and would love for anybody to educate me.
My friend Chrissie (in Belgium) once said to me “fix the BG and you fix the hunger”. She is so wise! And it is true! But so damn hard to do.
Try as I do, I see 200 mg/dl or higher way too often. Food choices, timing, miscalculations, sickness, and all of the other things that we don’t know about, all work their mischeif on my blood sugar. It is often very hard to just “fix it”, especially with how slow our “rapid” acting insulins are.
I think that the battle is one of time. If I can fight the cravings for long enough to get my blood sugar down, then the craving leaves! But there are times where my blood sugar is not minding its manners, and seems stuck, for hours. How can a person possibly fight the cravings for so long? It takes every ounce of mental strength, and some days there’s just not enough strength available.
Does anyone know why this happens? How do you cope with it?
I have looked at many of the posts on your website now, and I absolutely love your style of blogging. Great job!
I am a new subscriber to the dLife website. my mother is a diabetic and I am interested in the experience of people with diabetes self management.
Thanks
I know how ya feel…i mean im 17 years old and im 111 lbs. and honestly im not sure why because im always craving carbs or something i know i shouldnt have…idk why i do besides i see kids at skool constantly eating these things and by the time i get home thats all i can think about…i try to do what i should but thats easier said than done!!
I am still having overnight issues so I wake up around 150-175 and crave doughnuts, pancakes, poptarts….it sucks to start the day on a high and fight the cravings at the same time.
Ruth I am gonna have to try the olives thing. MY weakness is cheetoes. Oh the glorious cheetoes and their orange goodness. I usually fight it with spoonfuls of peanut butter. Its just too hard to eat alot of it.
It’s true that your body is craving energy because it can’t access your BS. What works for me is olives in olive oil. No carbs but they give you a real kick of energy and do something wonderful for your nervous system. Eat a dozen of them and if that’s still not enough, a handful of nuts (also contain monounsaturates but not as good as olives because nuts also have carbs embedded in their lovely fibre).
In fact, monounsaturates work for me any time….
Scott, I feel you pain. My blood sugar has not gotten that high but I do understand the cravings. Cashew, could help, but you can’t eat to many of them. Have you tried any of the glucerna products? My craving happen in the middle of the night and I eat what I want. But, in the morning when I test, it is high. I don’t think any of us has an answer to that question. It maybe a trail and error period. You may have to keep trying things until you hit on the right combation.
ONE WORD!
CASHEWS!!!!
Reese’s pop in my head, I grab a handful of cashews
I fill up on water and sf chai (sf Oregon chai mix and unsweetened soy milk).
Yes. I have food cravings like that of a 300 pound linebacker from the Pittsburgh Steelers after a winning Superbowl game. I’m 5’5″ and 120 lbs, and sometimes I could clean out the shelves at the local grocery store. I give in with a huge bowl of homemade popcorn with a ton of salt and butter, and then I eat……
Well, I must admit, that I do get hungry, but I am so scared that what if it is my pump and not me, or a site issue or something to that affect, I get this fear of DKA, death, the works…Not fun to have anxiety like that…..
Don’t get me wrong while my bg’s were lingering in the 200’s way too much, I was getting brave and ate food, but i was hitting 300’s so much that there was one day, and i got on the forum that my bg would not go below 240-250 for a while, and I felt like death,
I just crave food in general….I am sorry that you go thru those kind of things….maybe thinking playing with fire might help…..your life could be at stake you never know….I mean not a great mentality to have…but I have it….tons of it….
cheryl
I think Zazzy is on to something. It’s almost like a minature version of DKA. Our body is craving sugar because even though it is floating around in our blood (hence the +200) it isn’t getting where it needs to be, so our body tells us we ‘need’ more… or something like that.
Maybe edamame would help?! 😉
lol,yeah you aint alone on this one.i cant help you either!!i also just give in.ive tried celery,diet pop,chewing on a straw,whatever.but for me it doesnt go away until i have something sweet.sorry
Oh yes, Scott, I get those cravings when I’m high too. Mostly for chocolate and any kind of chips/cheese curls/etc. Salty, fried and sweet – and I want to eat a ton!! I wish I could tell you how to nip those cravings in the bud. I usually just try my hardest to stay strong and fight them. But on those days when I’m just tired of diabetes and cranky at fighting a stupid high, I have been know to say &^%&**# and eat what I want. It’s the whole “I’m high anyway, so what does it matter.” Stupid, but we are just human, after all.
After a crazy busy afternoon yesterday it dawned on me that I felt sick…really sick, so I decided I better test my bloodsugar since it had been hours since I checked. The number shocked me 504!!!! wth? I checked my pump site only to realize that the pump was disconnected and must have been for hours!! Yikes! I can’t remember the last time I went so high. The weird thing is that I was not thirsty like usual. In fact, I had no tell-tale signs of being high other than feeling sick (but I’ve had the flu so this was just par for the course) The weird craving that I had and continued to have for about 6 hours afterwards was the craving for sugar…the complete opposite of what my body needed. After about 2 hours I finally caved and ate some M&M’s….totally ridiculous but the craving was overpowering. So strange. What was stranger yet was that despite all of my knowledge and rational thinking I could not “shake” those intense cravings for something sweet-something completely opposite of what I needed. The cravings won.
Oh my!!!! I am so relived I am not the only person that fights this stuff. I have had luck with peanut butter crackers and granola bars, but it doesn’t always work. I can see the vending machine out of my office window! It’s so hard some days.
That is so hard isn’t it! What I try to do if I am high and with a craving is have a bit of what I want and then something with out or with low carbs in it to fill me up. This usually involves a salad or eggs paired with odd things like a scoop of ice cream or half a dozen mini Reeses Pieces PB cups.
I was told that when your blood sugar is so high, the fuel isn’t getting into your cells and your body thinks it should eat to get more fuel. It makes sense but I don’t know if it’s accurate. It does seem obscene to me that when I’m high all I want to do is eat more.
I go for almonds or something like that. It’s hard because I am not sure what causes it. I was in the 300’s all weekend it seemed and I wanted more and more to eat. I have no clue what the deal.
I need pancakes.