I appreciate someone who has been posting comments lately on my blog. I wanted to address her concern about my high morning blood sugars. I have a great endocrinologist and she taught me that my 24 hour insulin (which is lantus) should not cover my food (my humalog is for that) but is for covering my hormones, etc during the day. In other words, if I fasted all day my blood sugars should remain steady. So, for instance, if I wake up with a good blood sugar I should be able to make it to 2 or 3 in the afternoon without eating and maintain a good blood sugar. Then she gave me a way to do the same thing to check my afternoon and evening levels. Sometimes I think I need 10 1/2 units of lantus instead of 10, but unfortunately my lantus pen does not do 1/2 units. 11 however, is too much, as I crash and am forced to eat - which is not what should happen.
So, my high morning blood sugars are caused by other factors and I know what they are but, unfortunately, I am not doing things perfectly and these factors still occur. Things like:
- eating too late the night before
- stress of my morning routine
- not enough sleep the night before.
Stress does make my blood sugar go up, unfortunately. Judging how much insulin to take to cover raw food is sometimes difficult to gauge since fruits & veggies vary so much in size and sweetness. So, if I eat a fruit smoothie, for example, late at night and don't finish eating it at least 3 hours before I go to bed, then if I gave myself 5 units (and I'd rather underestimate than overestimate and my endocrinologist agrees that crashing is worse) and I really needed 6 or 7 units my bs will rise during the night while I am sleeping.
I am excited that other Type 1 diabetics are following my blog. That is cool. But, remember we are all different and this diet might work even better for you than it does for me. All my doctors, endocrinologists, nutritionists, and other practitioners think I am a tough case and I just seem sensitive to everything. I mean I have to take insulin if I take Omega 3 supplements, so I don't take them, and everyone is always stumped by this. Before I went on the raw food diet, my endocrinologist shook her head and said I don't know what else to suggest for you. But now she is much happier with how I am doing. My theory with raw food is that even if my blood sugar goes high because it is hard to estimate the insulin to take, that the nutrients in the raw food help to heal damage from the sugar - to some extent. Hence my better A1c numbers. But keep posting any and all comments, I appreciate it. Or email me if you want. Thanks!
I went to a raw food workshop from 10 - 2 yesterday. It was hosted by Christie Kellogg of www.rawinanutshell.com. We tasted a lot of great raw food, including raw zucchini lasagna and blueberry pie. I checked my blood sugar under the table a couple of times during the workshop, but it would have been hard to estimate how much insulin to take or to sneak off and inject it. I definitely didn't want my blood sugar to crash during the workshop, so I was kind of chasing my blood sugars the rest of the day.
Yesterday:
- 9:15 am - 159
- 11:30 am - 135 - eating at raw food workshop
- 1:15 pm - 164 - still eating at workshop
- 2:45 pm - 273 - Raw food workshop ran late, so this was my first chance to check my blood sugar and take insulin. - 2 units - I probably needed more as my blood sugar was probably still rising from the workshop, but I didn't want to crash (my blood sugars, not my car - although it could end up being both) while driving home.
- 7:15 pm - 332 - salad of dandelion greens, green leaf lettuce, thyme, tomatoe, mushrooms, and cucumber with a raw black tahini/water dressing - 2 units for salad + 2 1/2 units for being over (I normally would have taken 3 units, but my pen ran out and I didn't think it was worth it to refill it for 1/2 unit)
- midnight - 191 - 1 unit + 10 units lantus - I didn't finish eating 3 hours ago, so I was afraid that I might not need another unit.
Today:
- 10:45 am - 56 - yeah, I probably didn't need that unit at midnight last night. - 1 granny smith apple - no insulin
- 1:40 pm - 149 - ate a small flax cracker with raw nut butter before driving
- 3:40 pm - 143 - 2 raw bars & some raw olives - 4 units
- 6:30 pm - 246 - made a tropical smoothie of young coconut meat & water, 10 chunks of pineapple, 5 slices of mango, 2 bananas, & 10 frozen strawberries. - 5 units + 2 units for high bs - hard to estimate the insulin, I will probably need more.
- 11:10 pm - 285 - 2 units + 10 units lantus
