Learning to Cope

Finding out I was gluten-intolerant was not “the end of the world” for me, like it seems to be with some people. I never spent any time grieving, being angry or in denial, or any of that. It was a miracle to me to find out what was wrong and be able to easily fix it. I learned what to do, then I learned how to bake, and I’ve been helping others ever since.

I don’t know why, but this whole gestational diabetes thing has turned my life upside-down and inside-out. The strange thing is, I can’t even understand why. It’s not like I’m being forced to count carbs for the rest of my life – only the next 10 weeks (give or take). But there has definitely been anger – anger I didn’t even realize was there until it was unleashed on someone else. Is that because of the diagnosis, or because of my blood sugar, or because of my pregnancy hormones (or probably some of it all)?

Pricking my finger and taking my blood glucose level is no big deal (actually, it’s kinda neat to see the numbers – if only I understood them a little better). I now don’t even feel the prick, and have to squeeze my finger before I know if it actually got me or not.

Eating healthy? Well, I’ve pretty much always done that.

But eating 6 times a day? That, I just cannot seem to do. I feel like I’m spending almost all of my day eating, and even at that, I always miss at least one of my snacks.

And I’m nearly terrified to leave the house for any real length of time. The kids and I really needed to be with friends this week, but I can barely manage to get my meals and snacks together as it is, without having to prepare beforehand.

When I met with the dietitian on Thursday, I thought I understood everything I needed to do, and I felt fine. Well, that feeling didn’t last very long. Tomorrow, I have an appointment with another dietitian, and I definitely have some questions to ask. (I also have an ultrasound tomorrow, as the doctor wants to check and make sure the baby is as big as she’s supposed to be. Yeah, that doesn’t seem to make much sense with having gestational diabetes. But when has my body ever tried to be rational about anything? LOL.)

I guess, though, that I really must be fair to myself and say that this is only the 4th day, and things are getting easier (a bit). A few of the foods that I’ve been eating, I now “know” and I no longer need to look at the number of carbs before preparing my meal. I don’t really need to look at my chart anymore to know how much protein, carbs and fat I’m supposed to have at each meal and each snack. Hopefully, tomorrow I will make some bread (I’ve been saying I’d do that all weekend). That will give me a few more options, especially for snacks and meals on the go (like to church or a friend’s house).

Now I really need to start menu planning. It would really take the frustration out of preparing meals.

Some of the things I’ve been doing that help me are:
Using www.nutritiondata.com to make a food label for recipes I have
Sharing (emotionally) – a little bit here and there with various people, and a lot with my husband
Adding vegetables everywhere
Adjusting the recipes slightly to give a little more fiber and less sugar

I did have quite a bit of fun preparing spaghetti last night. I made the sauce from scratch. I started with the ground beef (one pound), and had some chopped bell pepper and carrots (matchstick carrots – so much easier) cooking up with the meat. When that was cooked, I added a box of frozen spinach, half a can of beets (shoestring), a can of large tomato chunks, almost 2 cans of tomato sauce (I had some leftovers in the fridge) and a can of tomato paste. A dash of salt, a little garlic powder, parsley, rosemary, and thyme, a little simmering, and presto! It was good. I had some on top of a bit of spaghetti and a salad (it was good on the salad, too – even Braden ate his that way).

What have you found that has totally knocked you flat, and how did you deal with it? Feel free to share in the comments, if you’d like.