Completing Week 11 and going for a low glycemic index/load diet

15 Mar 2009 Leave a comment

by Timi Stoop-Alcala in blood glucose level, hypoglycemia, low-glycemic index/load, meals

It’s been one week since I started taking my glucose level and noting down my diet. I think overall it has been ok, but could definitely be better. Still need to have better control of my blood glucose level throughout the day and avoid situations that can trigger hypoglycemic attacks.

March 12 – Thurs
Breakfast: Slim Fast shake, yoghurt
Lunch: Had lunch with Agnes, so I ordered 1 medium bowl of fennel soup and a herb omelette. Unfortunately, the omelette was way too salty so I returned it (it was like ordering salt with some egg ;-p ). Didn’t order a replacement, though so got hungry quickly in the afternoon.
Snack: nuts, tomatoes, low-carb biscuits
Dinner: mexican veggies and shrimps, yoghurt

Blood glucose level:
9:00 – 6.0
23:56 – 7.4

March 13 – Fri
Breakfast: Slim Fast, yoghurt
Snack: nuts, tomatoes
Lunch: pumpkin soup. It was already 15:30 when I had lunch, which I think was the reason why later I felt the shakes coming on. Round 18:00 I already felt light-headed and hungry and by the time I checked, my glucose level was going down. Since, I started to feel very light-headed and hungry, and felt my hands already shaking, I accepted the ‘stroopwaffels’ from my friend, Cherrie. I had 2 small ones and since these are waffels made from corn syrup (I think — in any case, very sweet), I felt a bit better after eating them. Took a pack of my biscuits to eat in the train. I still felt bad during the train journey and even upon reaching home. Martin wasn’t home so forced myself to cook a proper meal instead of gulping down whatever was in the fridge.
Dinner: cauliflower and shrimps with garlic and parlsey sauce, yoghurt

Blood glucose:
9:00 – 7.4
18:30 – 4.3

March 14 – Sat
I started incorporating some slow-releasing carbs this weekend after having that talk with my friend, Craig, who’s a type 1. Gave me some really sound advice, which I intend to follow, starting with including some carbs with low-glycemic index. This was my plan anyway after this initial no-carbs diet of mine. It’s been two days short of a month since I began my no-carbs diet, so I think it’s time to shift things a bit and see how to go on a low-GI (glycemic index) diet / low GL (glycemic load), instead of totally cutting out carbs.

The up-side is I get to eat my cruesli again 😉 . The no-sugar, high-fibre type from Dorset 😉 I missed those! But it’s not a liscence to start being comfy around pasta again. Although it’s a complex carb, it still has a high-glycemic index. Of course, I can still eat it, but only a small portion to ensure that the glycemic load stays low.

What exactly is GI and GL? From http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm:

“The glycemic index (GI) is a numerical system of measuring how much of a rise in circulating blood sugar a carbohydrate triggers–the higher the number, the greater the blood sugar response. So a low GI food will cause a small rise, while a high GI food will trigger a dramatic spike…

The glycemic load (GL) is a relatively new way to assess the impact of carbohydrate consumption that takes the glycemic index into account, but gives a fuller picture than does glycemic index alone. A GI value tells you only how rapidly a particular carbohydrate turns into sugar. It doesn’t tell you how much of that carbohydrate is in a serving of a particular food. You need to know both things to understand a food’s effect on blood sugar. That is where glycemic load comes in. The carbohydrate in watermelon, for example, has a high GI. But there isn’t a lot of it, so watermelon’s glycemic load is relatively low. A GL of 20 or more is high, a GL of 11 to 19 inclusive is medium, and a GL of 10 or less is low.”

So, in short, I should ideally eat low GI and low GL foods. I can eat more of a low GI – low GL food than a high GI – low GL food. The link posted above gives a much more detailed explanation of the difference between these two terms and a complete list of foods with GI and GL values.


Brunch: a bowl of Dorset cereals with lite yoghurt (still the one with plant sterol)
Snack: tuna omelette (1 yolk, 2 whites). I think I had another hypoglycemic attack, so I had to quicly make something. I didn’t measure my glucose level coz I only had two more strips which I was saving for Sunday and Monday morning. But I’m quite convinced it was a hypo-g attack since the shaking, light-headedness, difficulty in concentrating were present.
Dinner: string beans sauteed in onion, garlic with a bit of shrimp paste and coconut milk, 100 grams of mashed cauliflower and brocolli, 2 spoons of brown rice, 3 small meatballs. Yummy!!!

Blood glucose:
12:05 – 5.8

March 15 – Sun
Brunch: Leftovers from diner – string beans sauteed in onion, garlic with a bit of shrimp paste and coconut milk, 100 grams of mashed cauliflower and brocolli, 2 spoons of brown rice
Snack: a few slice of cheese, cashew nuts, no-sugar iced tea
Diner: Dorset cereals with 0% fat strawberry kwark!!! Weird, I know, but I didn’t want to cook. And I’m just craving for it, so why the hell not? 😉

Blood glucose:
13:00 – 4.9

Gonna get new strips and needles tomorrow. That’s the costly part. Will have to see if it can be covered by my insurance.

Wednesday menu/glucose level – 11 March

12 Mar 2009 Leave a comment

by Timi Stoop-Alcala in blood glucose level, meals

Wednesday, 11 Mar

Breakfast: Slim fast, 2 small yoghurt drinks
Snack: nuts / cherry tomatoes
Lunch: Shrimp salde with sweet chili sauce
Snack: nuts/ cherry tomatoes, 2 pieces high-fibre biscuits, 1 energy bar (no sugar! low-carbs)
Dinner: Left-overs from Tuesday:
Mashed mix of brocolli, cauliflower, kidney beans + 2 spoons of mexican rice (just for that added texture ;-p )
Roasted chicken thigh (without skin)
1 glass iced tea (no sugar)

Glucose level: Pretty good today (I think)
9 am – 5.3
20:40 – 5.5 (forgot to do it in the afternoon so took this one before dinner)
23:40 – 5

Menu journal – Tuesday 10 Mar.

10 Mar 2009 Leave a comment

by Timi Stoop-Alcala in meal plan, meals

(late) Breakfast:
Slim Fast chocolate shake (no milk) – (I was fasting until 10 a.m.)
lots and lots of H20

Lunch:
Waldorf salad without potatoes, had some apple slices with it
Small yoghrt
Water

Mid-afternoon:
Assorted nuts (unsalted)
2 high-fiber biscuits (no sugar added)
lots and lots of H20

Dinner:
Mashed mix of brocolli, cauliflower, kidney beans + 2 spoons of mexican rice (just for that added texture ;-p )
Roasted chicken thigh (without skin)
1 glass iced tea (no sugar)

Nightcap:
Small serving of coffee gelatin (without sugar) — i just love coffee flavoured desserts!

Thinking of meal plan

09 Mar 2009 Leave a comment

by Timi Stoop-Alcala in meal plan, meals

Yey, didn’t give in to temptation yesterday 😉
Not sure yet what to have for brunch…maybe last night’s left-overs?
For dinner, it’s roasted chicken with mexian rice for Martin and brocolli and cauliflower for me.

Still have to get groceries for the week and plan my meals. Thinkng of chili con carne but using ‘Quorn’ instead (meat substitue, mushroom-based – yum!). Martin likes that, too so I don’t have to cook different meals. For lunch, will probably alternate between brocolli/pumpkin soup and shrimp salad with swet chili. Need to get nuts and cherry tomatoes to nibble on. And new batch of those yoghurt with plants sterol thingy ;-p

Will wait for the rain to stop though (if that ever happens).

Sunday meal

08 Mar 2009 Leave a comment

by Timi Stoop-Alcala in diet, food, meals

It’s almost 12 noon and still haven’t eaten anything yet. Well, I woke up just an hour ago, so I guess that’s ok. One thing I’m beginning to learn about diabetes is that a regular eating schedule is a lot better than skipping meals, as the latter will mess up my insuline levels (or something like that ;-p ), and that it will actually help me in losing weight.

I’ve been on a no-carbs diet for 2 weeks now (ala-South beach) and for a bout 2 weeks before that, was already starting to cut down on my carbs intake. The ironic thing with me going on diet is that I actually eat regularly (5-6x), unlike when I’m not on a diet, I tend to not eat at all during the day. The last 2.5 years saw me being obssessed with finishing my work that I kept putting off eating (even peeing!) until it’s almost the end of the day. I’m at work around 8 and aside from a coffee or juice in the morning and nibbling on cheese, I only got to eat around 4 or 5. And then it would be just cup-a-soup or a peanut butter sandwich. I rarely went out to get lunch. This bad habbit made me get hypoglycemia attacks and it also made me gain weight. Since my energy level went down consistently during the day, by the time I reached the station I’d feel the ‘shakes’ coming on (hypoglemic attack) so I often ended buying pizza slices or those fried snacks. Night time saw me feeling all tired and thinking I needed some sort of reward, so I tended to eat lots more than what I’d usually eat. Also, it was an important ritual for me to have a good dinner since it was the only meal during the week that I got to share with Martin, my husband.

Now I’m trying to turn things around. Have two objectives until May (which is when I’ll be doing another blood test to determine if I go on medication or not): lower my glucose and cholesterol level, and try to lose weight responsibly while I’m at it ;-). Friends keep telling me it’s not about losing weight per se, and I totally get that, but I just wanted to jump-start my system, so I decided to adapt South beach diet for the last 2 weeks. Meaning no bad carbs (bad carbs = good stuff like pizza, pasta, rice, bread, potatoes… sigh), loads of veggies and protein. I also make sure to eliminate fat in my dishes — just the bad sort, though, so I’m ok to eat nuts and salmon and all those other sources of omega-3 fatty acids.

Ok, ’nuff said for now. Gotta go make breakfast, or brunch in this case. It’s quite challenging to hold on to planning and making my meals. This last week wasn’t planned well enough so the statisfaction level I got wasn’t as high as the previous week. But I’ll be getting groceries tomorrow, so will make sure I know what I’m gonna cook for this week to get all the right stuff and not end up with some boring meal at work.

Brunch for today would be: mushroom and tomato omelette (1 yolk + 3 whites), cottage cheese, yoghurt (with phytosterols) and some nice refreshing water. 😉

Later in the afternoon, one Slim Fast shake. Forgot to get cherry tomatoes and nuts, my usual nibbles ;-(

For dinner: ‘Bistek Tagalog’ (Beef fillet and calf liver marinated in soy sauce and cooked with lots of onions) and sauteed beans. This would’ve been perfect with rice — guaranteed to make you want to eat more rice actually, but I’m substituting rice with the stringbeans. That crunchy taste would do me good.