So, the official two-week tally is 11.5 pounds, 2.5 pounds for the second week. Not bad considering that I had three cheats this week (2 planned and experimental, 1 unplanned) and the fact that I have not been nearly as dedicated to the exercise part of the program as I could and should have been.
The third cheat was yesterday morning. For breakfast, I had a can of Campbell’s Chunky Sirloin Burger soup and a slice of multi-grain toast. It kept the meal under 500 calories (360 for the soup, 120 for the toast), but brought in a LOT of carbs. To be precise, it was 65 grams of carbs (12 grams of fiber, 15 grams of sugars).
I don’t have the intro to diabetes booklet I got when I was first diagnosed and counseled, but I remember two things. A “serving” of carbs is considered to be 15 grams, and the recommended amount of carbs per meal is 4-5 servings. This fell right within that guideline. But there were two things to consider…
1: A lot of the carbs in the soup came from potatoes. These are highly available carbs that get digested quickly for fast entry into the bloodstream.
2: The “multi-grain” bread, which claimed to offer 12 grams of whole grains, also offered overprocessed, nutritionally-stripped, carb-bomb flour as well. I knew this in advance. I bought it at Costco because it was the only relatively healthy bread I could buy without having to buy two or three loaves (they usually have a nice, dense truly whole grain bread in single loaves, but that wasn’t on the shelves that day). But when you’re trying to eat foods with lower glycemic index ratings, you have to read the ingredients on your “whole grain” or “multi-grain” bread packages. Usually, the next ingredient right after a whole grain flour is an “enriched” flour.
“Enriched” is a code word meaning they processed the flour within an inch of its life, took out all the things that make it good for you, leaving nothing but simple, easily-digested carbs, and then had to add in a few things just to make it even reasonably nutritious. This is the flour you want to avoid whenever and wherever possible. It’s nutritionally corrupt and it’s a cryin’ shame that our food laws allow someone to make a bread that’s 50.1% whole grain, 49.4% “enriched” flour, and label it as “whole grain” bread.
That said, my blood glucose response to the meal was fairly predictable. In two hours my glucose shot up 81 points. Considering that I’ve been hovering in the low 70s in the mornings, despite now having cut back 65% on my daily insulin intake, that put me well within ADA guidelines for a post-meal reading.
I was down by nearly 30 more points an hour later, and two hours after a low-carb lunch with some cheese, meat, and tomato, I was back into the low 80s.
So, goals for this week are:
1: a low-level reintegration of carbs back into the diet.
2: maintain the low portion sizes.
3: get off my butt more and bring up the activity/exercise level.
The weigh-in target for next Monday is 269 or below. Wish me luck.
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