Glucose Diet: Week 1

So I'm *almost* done with my first week on this low-carb diet they put me on for my glucose monitoring and I must say - I hate it.

Here's what they have me doing:

I wake up around 10/11am and take prick my finger with the glucose thingy and have the monitor give me my fasting number. I write that down, and then I make myself something to eat for breakfast.

For breakfast I can have up to 30g of carbs, although I've been cheating slightly most mornings as the dietitian/nutritionist told me my 2 slice of wheat bread with peanut butter was fine and that puts me up to 35g. I eat and then wait an hour and prick my finger again to get my 1hr post-breakfast glucose level number and I write that down.

Then I wait around for lunch which is sometime in the afternoon - she wrote it down for 2pm but I've gone as late as 4pm. I can also have a mid-morning snack between breakfast and lunch that is supposed to be around 15g of carbs. Usually it's a granola bar.

For lunch I can eat 45-60g of carbs. Lunch isn't too much of a problem - I usually have a sandwich of some sort with some veggies and a fruit cup or if I'm out I drive thru McDonald's and get 2 grilled chicken ranch snackwraps. Then again, after lunch I wait an hour, prick my finger and get my glucose level number.

I can also have a 15-30g of carbs snack between lunch and dinner as we figured I eat dinner later (around 8/9pm). At the grocery store I found I found these yummy fruit yogurt parfaits with granola you mix in that are about 23g so I've been using that as my snack now.

For dinner, like lunch, I can have 45-60g of carbs. Here's the problem though, I'm trying to eat more protein with dinner but protein has like no carbs in it so I feel like I'm barely meeting the 45g minimum sometimes so I feel like I have to scrounge up something else to eat. Also, I'm not used to eating breakfast every morning so by the time I get to dinner I'm not usually *that* hungry either. Another problem I'm noticing is that for the last 3 times now, I prick my finger to get my glucose levels an hour after dinner and they've been *just over* my cut off of 140, which really kind of annoys me.

I can also have a post-dinner, late night snack too of 15-30g although I only do maybe 50% of the time as lately I've just been so tired after dinner that I tend to just crash and pass out and go to bed early.

That's the thing I hate - I feel like crap on this diet. I feel okay for a bit after I eat but then I start to feel all tired and weak once the effect wears off as I'm eating less carbs which means less energy for me. It really kind of sucks. Tuesday, when I wasn't eating, pricking my finger or using the bathroom I spent most of the day asleep in bed I had no energy... and the rest of the week I've felt pretty sluggish, tired and weak too. My friend that does low-carb dieting often says it's probably just my body isn't use to it yet and it's in transition to it which is why I'm so tired from it.

Still, I hate it.

If Jay wants to come out in late January, I am a-okay with that! The sooner he's out the sooner I can get off this diet. Sure, it's got me eating a little better and there's stuff I'm eating now that I'll probably continue to eat after, but I feel like I need more carbs than what I have to function properly. That and the stupid test strips, even after insurance, are kinda expensive, so the sooner he comes out the sooner I can stop monitoring and using the strips which saves us money.