Managing My Diabetes Over Christmas

There are people in the diabetes community who have found plenty of alternatives that they find are easier on blood sugars at this time of the year.

Then there are people like me, who could be found scooping the residual chocolate out of the mixing bowl from the Malteasers cupcakes I baked over the weekend for a family get together.

This may be an unpopular opinion to some, but I’d personally take the real deal over the alternatives any day. I don’t personally feel the need to place any dietary restrictions upon myself at this point in time, let alone at Christmas. Nor do I think that in doing so I need to sacrifice decent blood sugars.

That being said, Christmas is somewhat trickier to navigate when I’m balancing blood sugars, insulin and a lot more food than normal. I’ve definitely endured my fair share of Christmases where I’ve been left dealing with the aftermath for several hours, if not days, afterward.

One thing I’ve noticed is that the after effects of larger Christmas meals on blood sugars are often delayed and sustained as the fat, protein and excess carbs take longer to digest.

So my main approach to the Christmas smorgasbord is remembering that I don’t have to try everything just for the sake of doing so. I’d rather just pick a few things that I know I’ll truly enjoy, and avoid leaving the table feeling sleepy and ‘stuffed.’ Which really isn’t good for anyone, diabetes or not.

The one thing at the forefront of my mind is that I don’t like having to endure a night full of sweating and uncomfortable sleep, whilst battling stubborn high blood sugars. Which again, isn’t good for anyone, diabetes or no diabetes.

I’ll probably make a generous estimate of the carbs on my plate as I sit down to eat, and start with the lower carb options like roasts and veg to give time for my insulin to kick in.

I know I won’t always get it right, and there will undoubtedly be some blood sugars outside of my target range over the next few days. But I feel this strategy does mitigate most of the damage, making it far easier to correct a high with ease.

Last but not least, food and blood sugar levels are definitely not things that I’m prepared to judge myself for over the next couple of days.

For all those annoying diabetes comments coming my way this week, my shirt says it all.

7 Comments

  1. Patricia Keating

    Sounds like a plan Frank, I too will be doing this. Really hard when there’s so much yummy food around. Merry Xmas πŸ€ͺπŸ₯³πŸŽ…πŸΎπŸΊπŸ’🍑🧁🍦🍨

  2. Rick Phillips

    Christmas dinner = 789K carbohydrates. Give or take a few. You know once you get to 1,000 carbohydrates, the next 14,000 is really just the standard error around the mean.

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