016 What’s the Best Diabetic Nutrition Plan?

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This week, I have food on my mind. I’m struggling with when to eat, what to eat, what’s right, what’s wrong… what’s going to be the best nutrition plan for my diabetes — so, if I’m totally confused I bet you are too!

Big Thanks to Bluburry (the largest podcast directory in the world) for putting an end to me recording my podcast on my iPhone. Recently, Blubrry hosted a contest and I thrilled to win the Grand Prize; a Heil Pr-40 mic. I hope you can tell the difference in the quality of my audio in this and future fitT1Dfoodie episodes. You can visit Bluburry at https://www.blubrry.com

Heart to Heart

I don’t know whether I spend so much time thinking about food because it is such an intricate part of my diabetic well-being or if I’m just food obsessed.

Sometimes, I fear food. Sometimes I’m so afraid of what certain things will do to my blood sugar that I say “no thank you” when offered something that looks absolutely delicious. And then I just feel angry (even though it’s probably healthier overall not to enjoy those yummy looking treats).

Along the way, I’ve also discovered some safe foods… you know, predictable foods. My safe foods are foods that don’t do wild and crazy things to my blood sugars. I’m guessing you’ve found some safe foods too. I’d love to hear about them so do make sure you leave me a comment.

Dining Out

Whenever Rob and I go out for dinner… I always order roughly the same thing… a chicken cobb salad. Yeah, even though I adore chicken cobb salads, sometimes I want try something new but, I’m afraid because I don’t know what it will do to my blood sugar. Life with T1D isn’t easy and simple everyday things like what to have for dinner can cause someone living with diabetes a lot of worry.

What am I Supposed to Eat?

What I’m supposed to eat to give myself the best chance at this thing called life? Are you as confused as I am?

In the last few months I’ve heard about all the pros involved with fasting and intermittent fasting. At this time, it’s not something I’m keen on trying. But, that’s me.

Overtime, I’ve gradually developed an active low carb lifestyle. I personally prefer lean proteins and vegetables at meal time.

Confused?

If you’re confused about nutrition, don’t worry. I think the entire world is confused.

In my lifetime, I’ve heard many things about nutrition such as how fat is bad for us…. Then, suddently it was realized that fat is good… and necessary… and that there are healthy fats… and not so healthy fats. Then, we all ended up with potato-phobia and we started to hear that carbs were bad for us. It’s now theorized that the sugars in our foods and drinks are making us fat and that we shouldn’t blame fat for making us fat.

Guys like Abel James, the Fat Burning Man, have begun to tout higher fat diets and regimens like the KetoDiet have been developed. In addition, most of us have heard of the Whole 30 and the Engine2 plant based diets too. Each nutrition regimen has it’s own twist on nutrition and every day there is new research sharing sharing the pros and cons of things like coffee and red wine to our health. I’m still confused about red wine.

I’ve tried pretty much every nutrition regimen out of curiosity.

My Current Nutrition Curiosity

Two weeks ago I decided to face one of my food fears and increase the carbs in my diet to see the effect on my blood sugar and fitness. I’ve been experimenting with a balanced nutrition program timed specifically throughout the day around my workouts. I’ve been tracking my macros and I’m eating roughly 33% carb, 33% fat and 33% protein. There is a good amount of planning, the food choices are simple, I’m only two weeks in and… I’m struggling.

Why am I Struggling?

The workouts are amazing. They are exactly what I need but I’m struggling because I previously found personal blood sugar safety in the way I ate before – vegetables and meat. This isn’t my normal. I’m also struggling because I don’t enjoy eating every 2-3 hours. I am also a little freaked out because more carb has been thrown into the equation too.

After two weeks, I can report that regardless of whether there are more carbs in my nutrition plan or not, my blood sugars have been doing really well!! Whenever I eat fruit or carb, it is paired with protein. The carbs also are of a lower glycemic index so they do not skyrocket my blood-sugar so that helps.

Why Am I Doing This?

As a fit T1D foodie, I cannot have a personal opinion about something unless I’ve tried it myself. I thought, this would be a great opportunity to see if I can make any conclusion about my fitness results and diabetes using a completely different higher carb timed nutrition plan.

Will I adopt this timed fitness and nutrition lifestyle? I’m evaluating what it is doing to my blood sugars every day and I know that along the way, I’ll be able to form more of an opinion. I feel good and nutritionally satisfied and the workouts are rockstar… however, I still prefer my low carb way of eating.

What is the Best Nutrition Plan?

Because each of us have different goals, different nutritional needs and different preferences there is never going to be a one-size-fits all answer to the ultimate question of “What is the best nutrition plan.”

We are all different so I recommend not being afraid to try new things. One thing is for sure… fad diets are fads for a reason. They aren’t something most of us can imagine doing forever. Maybe a simple first step on your path to nutrition fitness is simply cutting back on the sugars in your coffee and adding some color to your meal plate with some nice leafy greens.

Before making any changes to your personal nutrition plan, I fully I recommend speaking with your healthcare team or a nutritionist to figure out a good starting point then build what satisfies you into your plan. AND, to answer “What is the best nutrition regimen?” the answer is actually quite simple: The nutrition plan you can stick with on your path to wellness.

And remember, “The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you’ve got to have a what-the-hell attitude.” ~ Julia Child