Welcome to my site! This site is all things diabetes, with an emphasis on diet for gestational diabetes (GD). On occasion, I’ll post information on exercising or anything else that’s of interest to all people with type two diabetes, but it’s my primary goal to help pregnant women who are surprised with the great news of GD! Oh, and you need to start your diet yesterday. Ready? No? Too bad, GO!
My first pregnancy was running so smoothly. No morning sickness, no pain, no aches, my bloodwork, including my A1C, was perfect. All was great. When I took the glucose tolerance test, I wasn’t worried. Then I got the phone call that told me I needed to go in for the three-hour test. Eh, no biggie. It’s a fluke. My OB told me that can happen sometimes. Then I got another call. I had GD. I honestly thought that I would take a pill for the remainder of my pregnancy and it wouldn’t be an issue. I was wrong. Very wrong.
I was sent to a dietitian who gave me a glucose meter and gave me instructions on how to change my diet. I was to start immediately. Even though I already ate relatively healthy, the instructions seemed daunting. It was a huge learning curve, especially for someone who’s had no experience whatsoever with the disease or a reduced carb diet. I didn’t know beans are a carb. I didn’t know that milk and potatoes are carbs. You know that “Total Carbohydrate” section on the nutrition label? I never paid attention. But after GD, I have no choice but to pay attention. The “Total Carb” section has become my reluctant friend. You know what I mean. That person you don’t particularly like but you see so often that you become friends, sort of. If you never saw that person again, you wouldn’t be sad. That pretty much sums it up.
I struggled a lot trying to find diabetic food, especially for breakfast. I grew up eating cold cereal with milk or instant oatmeal with milk, and had pancakes or waffles on occasion, with juice to get my daily vitamin C. I continued to eat breakfast that way after moving out, getting married, and even after getting pregnant. I’m not a morning person so it worked. Stumble out of bed, pour some cereal, pour some milk, pour some juice, sit in a daze for a bit until the food kicks in, start your day. Easy and done. But now they were telling me I had to balance my carbs with a protein and, to top it off, I couldn’t have milk or fruit in the morning and no juice at all. My whole world crumbled.
Whenever I looked up diabetic recipes, I would find items that I couldn’t have. Finding breakfast recipes was the hardest: sugar-free blueberry muffins, fruit medleys, oatmeal with bananas, breakfast shake with fruit. Who decides that these are helpful? Maybe they’re fine for general type-two diabetes, but not for GD. I ended up eating scrambled eggs with refried pinto beans every morning. My sugars would spike with bread so toast or breakfast sandwiches were out and I didn’t know what else to make. Besides, I’m not a morning person, remember? That crustless quiche that has too many steps and takes too long in the oven was not an option. So… crack an egg, stir in pan, open a can, heat… not as easy as my former cereal routine, but it worked. I added salsa or avocado or bell peppers sometimes for variety, but it got pretty boring pretty fast. I got to the point where I didn’t want to see eggs again. After I had my baby, I went on a no-egg spree for a while.
Lunches and dinners weren’t much easier. I was doing a lot of turkey wraps (at the time, deli meats weren’t off limits during pregnancy) and chicken or beef with whole wheat pasta and marinara sauce.
Fast forward to pregnancy number two. Honestly, my husband and I debated having a second child. We’d wanted two from the start, but after the GD experience, we weren’t so sure we wanted to go through it a second time. Finally, we decided that three-four months out of our lives would be worth it to provide a sibling for our older child.
I knew having a 2-year-old would make this pregnancy with GD much more difficult. So I started preparing before we even got pregnant. I collected recipes galore because my kiddo doesn’t eat the same thing over and over again (and frankly, I’m not too fond of it myself). I found Keto and other low-carb recipes and modified them for a gestational diabetic diet. I found breakfast recipes that could be frozen and reheated so I wouldn’t have to do a lot of work in the mornings. I even found lunch and dinner recipes that could be frozen and reheated easily for those times when your chicken is still completely frozen, or that new dish you decided to try is inedible, or your husband took the leftovers to work so you have nothing to eat that’s diet approved.
Fast forward to post baby number two. After my second was born, my numbers never fully went back to normal. I’m officially pre-diabetic. In other words, I need to watch my diet and continue to exercise or I’ll end up diabetic. My husband can tell you that I went through the mourning process. I never imagined that this is where I would end up. It was supposed to be for one trimester only, not the rest of my life! But I finally came to terms with it and decided to make lemonade (albeit sugar-free) out of the lemons that life handed me. I was going to make the best diabetic-friendly food that I could. It was going to taste so amazing that no one would know it was for a specific diet. I was going to have a ton of recipes under my belt so my boys could enjoy a variety of meals and not just eggs and beans over and over again. I was doing it for myself and for my family, of course. I never considered creating a blog or trying to help others until a friend approached me asking if I could help a friend of hers with the diet and meal planning. I was so happy to help her since I once struggled so much! If creating this blog helps even one woman who’s struggling with gestational diabetes, then everything I experienced would be worth it.
Keep in mind, that this diet isn’t just for people with a form of type two diabetes. My husband supported me by following the diet as well. He, of course, didn’t have to be as strict. While I had to limit my intake to 1/3 cup of whole wheat pasta, he piled his on. While I couldn’t even take a bite of a doughnut, he would have them sometimes at work. But after our most recent annual lab-work, our triglyceride and cholesterol levels were perfect! It proves that even a modified version of the diet can work for people who don’t have diabetes.
So, let’s work together to maintain our health, keep our blood sugars low, and keep type two diabetes away through Great Dining! Bon appetit!
My GD 