Chinese food…my new enemy
Last Saturday night, we were round at Jenny’s new house for the evening for some fun, games, dvds and…a Chinese.
I do love chinese food. But it would appear it doesn’t love me! We ordered loads of stuff, and all shared…sweet and sour chicken, peking chicken, beef in black bean sauce, sweet chilli chicken, chicken and cashew nuts…and rice. All very nice. All things I shouldn’t be eating…I know. But I did. And I neither weighed, nor even attempted to work anything out.
And I made the fatal error of continuing to pick at the food, once I had finished what was on my plate. My reward for this was a blood sugar of 15.6 an hour or so later, so I took some more insulin, and then proceeded to fall asleep during whatever film they watched!
Still high (12ish) the next morning, and I’m only really recovering now…my sugars have been pretty high all this week so far.
So…is it worth it? Should I be avoiding that kind of food altogether? Or was it just because I wasn’t careful enough with what I was eating and what insulin I was taking.
I might have to try it again and see!!
Lovely holiday
So, we had a week in Majorca last week. And it was great, just to get away, and relax. The weather was great, apart from one day when it rained the entire day, and it was just so lovely to be off work for an entire week, and not have to do anything!
We just had such a great time relaxing, swimming, reading, sunbathing, watching series 2 of the Big Bang Theory on the iphone… got to love holidays!
Diabetes wise, things went ok…generally. Apart from the night I decided to drink Sangria (I was in Spain after all!) not having any idea what the sugar content was. Turns out, must be a lot! But I spent most of the week eating what I liked, and just guessing, and taking the heat into account…as I definitely needed less insulin than normal!
Since I have been home though is another story, and I can’t seem to get my sugar to stay where it should be, but hopefully that will sort itself out soon!
A bit of a guessing game
So I’m back from my long weekend away, and it was great. Lots of sleeping, relaxing, reading, and not doing too much else. It was nice just to unwind and have a break.
But my usual problem of being out of my routine reared its ugly head! Generally, things were ok, but I had a few blips on the radar. Nothing too low, just high. Turns out I’m not very good at guessing!
We ate out quite a few times, and I’m not yet great at working out carbohydrates when I’m not weighing my food. Sunday night proved interesting – we had a fantastic meal in the Ramore Wine bar…I had thai green chicken curry, with noodles. My problem – it arrived in a huge bowl, looking more like soup than anything else! I have no idea what to do with noodles at the best of times, but when I couldn’t clearly see the amount I was eating…it all went a bit wrong!
So I think all my high scores have decided to fight back, and stick around. Last night, going to bed, I was quite high, took a few units to correct, and was still fairly high this morning! Sometimes there is just no explanation.
Still, it was worth it to have a few days away, and I can cope with a few high numbers once in a while…especially when the food was worth it!
unfounded fears
I haven’t posted in a while – things have been mad! It was my sisters wedding last week, and I’m pleased to report that all of my diabetes-related fears were unfounded. Everything went smoothly. It was a lovely day (the weather wasn’t great, but that was the only thing that wasn’t perfect!) – beautiful ceremony, surrounded by friends and family, lovely meal etc. In place of favours they made a donation to Diabetes UK and I got up to thank them during the speeches (which was a bit scary!)
My sugars ran a bit high for the day, but that was ok, as I didn’t go low! I had all the men with packets of sweets in their pockets in case I needed them, and things all worked out perfectly!
I have been running quite high ever since, but it’s time to get back on an even keel now…as I have a hospital appointment in about 3 weeks to have my hba1c drawn…and I want it to be good!!
It’s just hard to be lieve it’s all over now!
This week’s excitement is the holiday bible club in our church, so it’s another busy week to look forward to! But isn’t it better to be kept busy!?!??!
Weekends are hard
I find that during the week, I can maintain fairly good control. I’m in a routine, doing much the same during the day, eating the same food, at the same time, and it’s not too difficult to stay within range.
The weekends, however are a different matter. Factoring in things like getting up later, eating at different times, maybe eating out, it all makes things just that little bit more complicated, and I tend to swing from high to low, and back again, quite a bit.
This past weekend was no exception. Saturday saw us make the 2 hour trip to Dublin, for the first of Jenny’s hen parties. So the bride, bridesmaid and the mother’s of both bride and groom, headed off, wearing our lovely pink sashes.
I was driving. A 2 hour drive which saw me slide down the slope from 12.8 to 4.4 (which included a break for some chocolate in the middle!)
The main event for the day was to see Riverdance, in the Gaeity theatre, which was as I had hoped…wonderful, and we all enjoyed it.
Then a bit of shopping. The highlight of this was when Jen and me were offered free hand massages at the Jo Malone counter in Brown Thomas, and given big gift bags full of freebies…for all 4 of us! (The benefits of wearing something that makes it clear you’re there on a hen party) It was lovely! The lovely Jo Malone girls also gave us some juice to drink. Which, I drank, probably unwisely, without question (but thankfully it didn’t seem to do me too much harm!)
Then it was on to dinner in Captain Americas, which was great, and I tried to be more sensible this time round. Which I think, would have worked, but for the walk back to the car…which saw my insulin lowering my sugar more quickly than my food raised it, and I was low by the time I started the drive home. (I hate treating a low that isn’t really a low, it’s a high that hasn’t quite got started yet, and all I’m doing is making it worse!)
Anyway, all in all it was a lovely day, and diabetes-wise, much less stressful than it could have been!
I think sometimes, you just have to go with it, and take whatever diabetes throws at you, and not question it too much!
And then the wheels fell off
I have only been recording my results for 3 weeks, and so far have been seeing lovely, low-but-not-to-low, in target results. To the extent, in fact, that I have been querying whether or not I’m actually diabetic.
It all seemed too good to last…
On Saturday night, the wheels fell off. We were out for dinner to celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary. We went to TGI Friday’s in Victoria Square. I love, love, love the food there, and it did not disappoint.
This was my first experience of eating out since DAFNE and I was a bit unsure of how to work everything out.
I had a rack of ribs (which was, to be fair, awesome) and chips. I think I got the chips right. And then I had a brownie and ice cream (just because I can), which I still think I got right…and I only managed to eat half of it. And a few glasses of wine. And I was low before eating…which all added up to ‘let’s err on the side of caution rather than taking too much insulin, then going low later’…
The plan might have worked…but for the sauce. The ribs were from the Jack Daniels range and the sauce was immense. To be fair, my first clue should have been the word ‘glaze’. And the taste should have given it away. As should the general look and smell of the whole thing. Sugar. And I didn’t give it enough credit (or insulin apparently).
11.8 before going to sleep, I took 2 units to correct, which I thought was ok taking the wine into account. And woke in the middle of the night to a 13.2. Now, I know that’s not astronomically high…but it is for me! And I’m trying to be very very tight with my control. So that blew that plan out of the water!
I was still in the 9′s when I woke yesterday morning.
But you know what, it was worth it!
Lesson from the weekend…just because I can, doesn’t mean I should!
Dafne
Dafne…Dose Adjustment for Normal Eating
This is what I do now! I was on a week long course last week, teaching me this new concept.
I’m now recording all my results, something I have never done before, and counting carbs. It’s a lot to get my head around – CP’s, BI, QA, BG – that’s what I’m recording at each meal (carbohydrate portions, background insulin, quick acting insulin and blood glucose, so nothing fancy!)
I’m also weighing food, or reading labels. So it’s a lot to get used to, but it seems to be working so far, although I’m running a little lower than normal, which is no bad thing I suppose.
We’re taking our Youth Fellowship ‘Snow Tubing’ tonight. What that actually is remains to be seen…but we’re going to McDonalds afterwards. So I’ve been on the McDonalds web site…working out the carbs, in case I want to eat.
That’s what I call organised!!
