Eating

Learning to Fuel My Body with Type 1 Diabetes.

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Trying to stick to a diet of 8,000 kilojoules a day is hard work.

I know that when I do eat enough to sufficiently fuel my very active body, I don’t feel lousy, exhale air or yawn half as often as I’m used to. I have more energy, focus and enthusiasm to pour into my day. In fact, I’m so focussed on getting those kilojoules into my body that I don’t think think about chocolate or even coffee half as often (no, I am not kidding).

I also know that this 8,000 kilojoules a day business is hard work (have I said that already?). Organising meals and snacks takes time out of my day, even though I am more than capable in the kitchen. It’s been very easy for me to slip back into my old habits of existing on rabbit food until dinner time when I haven’t organised myself in the mornings.

I embarked on this new eating-to-fuel-my-body kick at the end of February, rebounded for some part of March after I got sick and the Cadbury Choc Chip Hot Cross Buns kicked in, and am only just getting back on track in the past week or so.

I first learned about eating to meet my daily energy needs after reading The CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet and The CSIRO Low Carb Diet last year. Despite it all making perfect sense, putting kilojoule counting into practice on top of carb counting, checking blood sugars and all of those other diabetes tasks felt extremely overwhelming. Thankfully, the smartphone app My Fitness Pal made tracking my kilojoule intake really easy.

The biggest change since I’ve began eating more is increased insulin sensitivity. Which I guess is a good thing, right? It started with unusually easy to manage blood sugars in the evenings after dinner. I would then wake up low during the night, have a glucose tab or two, only to wake up low again a few hours later. Fun times, right?

I’ve dropped my basal rates by about 10% overall, and so far, so good. My biggest challenge is continuing to eat this way so that I can maintain the same sensitivity to insulin.

I’m not really focussed on skewing a particular way with protein, fat or carbohydrate, but do find myself eating more protein than I was before. At the moment I’m honestly just focussing on eating enough, eating well and getting a balance of everything in there.

I find myself eating more significant meals for breakfast and lunch, rather than a slice of toast or a toasted ham and cheese sandwich. Like this amazing Sunday roast of pistachio stuffed chicken breast wrapped in prosciutto that has doubled as Monday lunch.

I embarked on this way of eating for more physical reasons, but the benefits seem to have extended into my diabetes as well.

I have more energy and focus in the short term, and I’m hoping that this will only replicate further in the long run (if I can keep it up!). The increased insulin sensitivity is making blood sugar levels much easier to manage. In the past I’d correct stubborn highs with little or no effect, and override the suggested correction on my pump with a larger bolus. Now, a correction seems far more effective than before.

I get that balancing food and blood sugar levels is no easy feat, but I don’t think I ever truly appreciated just why it is so important to eat.

Happy Easter Monday!

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I just wanted to take this opportunity to wish you and your loved ones a very Happy Easter.

I hope that your day was full of chocolate, hot cross buns or anything else that you do to mark this time of the year. Enjoy what’s left of this glorious four day long weekend, and may your blood sugar levels co-operate.

For me, guilt is simply not worth it when it comes to this time of the year. But at the same time, I definitely think that my days of eating until I can no longer move are behind me. I simply don’t enjoy the insomnia, night sweats and rage correcting stubbornly high blood sugar levels long into the night.

The Easter Bunny brought me exactly what I wanted this year. There’s also a bag of Woolworths Cadbury Choc Chip Hot Cross Buns sitting in my freezer. And I may or may not be heading to the shops later to pick up a bit of extra cheap chocolate (medically necessary, of course).

If you haven’t already, be sure to head over to the Dexcom UK & Ireland Facebook page and share your Easter Selfie. For each donation received, they will donate 10 pounds to Spare a Rose which provides insulin and other diabetes supplies to children in need. Have fun!

Feeling Tired With Type 1 Diabetes

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The final stretch of last year was a pretty challenging time for me, physically.

I felt tired. All. The. Damn. Time.

I would often find myself crawling into bed at the end of the day, feeling utterly exhausted. I was no longer waking up to my 1am alarms, and my blood sugars definitely suffered for it. I would wake up after a solid eight hours of sleep feeling bleary eyed, wanting nothing more than to close my eyes and go back to sleep again.

I honestly could not find an explanation for the way that I was feeling. Although the management of my blood sugar levels had slipped a little since achieving a personal best hba1c in July, my ability to manage them was still far better than they had ever been in my pre-pumping era. My bloodwork from July was also really good, and I had seen my endo in August.

I probably should have made an appointment with my GP, but I honestly didn’t feel that he would have been very helpful to me.

I felt more burdened than I had felt in a long time. in fact, I’d go as far as to say I felt equally or more burdened than I did during my start on insulin pump therapy. These feelings affected my work, my attitude around others and my overall quality of life. Part of me was ready to accept that these symptoms were simply a tradeoff of living with a demanding chronic condition like diabetes.

Living with type 1 diabetes creates somewhat of a complex relationship with food. We need food to fuel our bodies, but at the same time food spikes our blood sugar levels – and we want to avoid out of range glucose levels at all costs.

What’s the best nutrition advice for a person with diabetes? From my experience, It depends on what you’re reading and who you’re talking to. While I absolutely love my diabetes community, the overwhelming messages that seep into my brain is to avoid this food group or cut back on that one that and stop the spikes from happening.

I don’t want to single out any particular way of eating, but diabetes has distorted my relationship with food without me even realising.

The average male needs to consume about 8,000 kilojoules of energy per day to fuel his body so that it can function properly and match energy expended through activity. I don’t think I was even coming close to that. Not to mention having an active job where I’m on my feet all day expending even more energy by the minute.

I honestly cannot ever recall being taught to eat to fuel my body and meet my daily energy needs – from healthcare professionals and diabetes websites alike. Or perhaps I wasn’t listening carefully enough.

The past month or so has been a bit of a learning curve for me. Let me just say that it is pretty challenging to eat 8,000 kilojoules of quality food every day, and I have slacked a little at keeping tabs on this at times.

Of course, as with anything you make a major change to in life, diabetes management also demands attention and there have been a few tweaks to basal rates. I’ll share more specifics in time. 

But I’m sitting here in the sunshine typing this today, feeling far better than I have in quite some time.

In Conversation with Leonie and Elly of Diabetes Meals Online

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Today I’m thrilled to introduce Leonie and Elly, a mother and daughter team from Melbourne who created Diabetes Meals Online. I’ve known of them for quite some time thanks to social media, and today they’ve taken some time out to chat with me about their connection to diabetes and the business that came from it.

Frank: So, you’re a mother and daughter team. Can you tell us a little about your connection to diabetes?

Leonie: Elly, my daughter, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2013 – a complete shock and we both struggled with the diagnosis for the first 6 months. I thought I must have done something wrong during pregnancy and she was in shock – we knew nothing about diabetes back then. She had 4 hospitalisations in ICU in the first 18 months and she is now managing really well and hasn’t been to hospital in a couple of years. I bought her a Dario about a year ago which she loves. She is too old for the funded CGM and pump but we intend to get her one as soon as we can.

Frank: You’ve since established Diabetes Meals Online together. Where did the inspiration for that come from?

Leonie: We both hate cooking and found trying to read the nutrition information panel of every ingredient really tiring. Elly and I, and my dad, who loved cooking, decided to try and make meals with clearly colour coded carbs and sugars to make meal times simpler for people managing diabetes. We bought a dietitian on board to design a strict nutritional criteria and a couple of years later bought an Educator on board just to check that our message was ethical and not offending anyone.

It has been quite a journey but late last year we finally found the right manufacturer for our meals – and can now deliver all over Australia (we had heaps of customers and health professionals begging us to deliver Aust wide from the beginning but we were only doing fresh meals around Melbourne – now I’m excited to be able to go Aust wide!)

Frank: Diet can be a pretty controversial topic in the diabetes community. What sort of dietary inspiration or guidelines have you drawn upon in creating your own product?

Leonie: Yes it sure can and we want to remain ethical and trustworthy thus our dietitian and diabetes educator advise us on all things medical. I follow lots of diabetes groups and am pretty active on social media watching what authorities are posting and staying up to date. We never, ever give medical advice – we always point people back to their own health professional for individual advice. We don’t (and would never) claim our meals help manage diabetes – but simply make meal time choice easier.

Frank: I’ve seen that your meals are pressure cooked, sealed and can be stored in the pantry for up to two years. Could you tell us a bit more about the process involved in producing the meals?

Leonie: Yes, it’s called Retort and is very popular worldwide. We are a bit behind here in Aus but Heinz use the same process for their soups and baby foods. All the fresh ingredients are put into the special pouch which is then sealed. They are then pressure cooked in a huge pressure cooker. This locks in nutrition, flavour and aroma and makes them commercially sterile meaning they have the long shelf life and don’t need refrigeration (until opened).

Frank: What has been the most valuable thing for you both in terms of living with diabetes?

Leonie: Hmm – tough one. I think for Elly, over the past couple of years, she has realised that it is not going to stop her living her life the way she wants – she just has to deal with things that people without diabetes would never even think about. For me it has been offering a meal option for others to help make that meal time easier – there is enough to deal with in diabetes and when I read all the customers ‘thanks for providing such a valuable service’ I’m really touched – and proud!

***

Leonie also sent me some meal samples to try, and I wasn’t really sure what to expect as I have never used a meal service before.

The meals arrive pressure cooked and sealed, and can simply be kept on hand in the pantry until needed. Heating up is as simple as making a small perforation in one of the top corners of the packet to allow for steam to escape, and then placing in the microwave on high for 2-3 minutes.

Carbohydrates, sugar content and calories are at the forefront of the packaging, along with the usual nutrition information panel. The ingredient list was also very easy to read!

The meals are clearly designed to meet the body’s energy needs and nutrition criteria, and include a balance of carbohydrate, fat and protein in each serve. The carbohydrate content ranged from 19 to 30g per meal, which probably won’t be an option for those following low carb diets. The meals are gluten free, however, which is a great option for type 1s with intolerances or coeliac disease.

Chunky Italian Meatballs in Herbed Tomato Sauce.

Chilli Con Carne with Brown Rice

After cautiously inspecting, preparing and smelling this strange new product, I was pleasantly surprised. The flavours were there and it tasted like a freshly prepared meal. The seasonings were a little strong for my liking when I tried the meatballs, however my second meal of Chilli Con Carne was much more enjoyable. I’ve still got the Mild Butter Chicken to try.

You can find Leonie and Elly’s range of meals available at diabetesmealsonline.com.au. They deliver Australia wide.

Disclosure: Leonie sent me three meal samples to try. There was no expectation that I would blog about Diabetes Meals Online, and all thoughts expressed here are my own! 

Navigating My Way Through a Food Heavy Culture

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There’s a new column up over at Diabetes Daily, all about the challenges of learning to manage diabetes among a very food heavy culture.

“Growing up in an Italian family, there has always been a big emphasis on food.

Our cupboards, fridges and freezers at home are always well stocked. Every Friday, I receive a reminder from Mum and Dad to add whatever I want to the weekly shopping list. If I haven’t taken any lunch to work with me, my parents are usually quick to notice. When I go to Nonna’s house, the cafeteria comes out and she motions for me to have some of the biscotti or chocolates on the table. If I’m the first to finish eating at a family get together, the host soon tells me to go up for seconds.

Food is at the center of family gatherings, visits to peoples homes and day to day life. Bringing the family together over a dish of pasta or Nonna’s cannoli is a lovely thing. Yet it has also proven to be one of the greatest challenges I have faced since being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. I have been conditioned to eat for as long as I can remember and diabetes has really challenged me to break away from this.”

You can check out the full column over at Diabetes Daily here.

(Also, can’t help but be reminded of this GIF…)