Chocolate without the sugar....

I do tend to crave chocolate which can be a problem as all the edible chocolate bars have sugar in. However I have found that adding cocoa powder to peanut butter (the stuff with no sugar in) can help to prevent the chocolate cravings.

Reducing carbs to help blood sugar

In the last six months I have reduced the amount of rice, wheat and potatoes in my diet considerably. I have found this has had a really positive effect on my blood sugar levels. I feel much better and don't get shaky or moody very often at all.

Useful snack

Today I need to be in the hospital for an appointment at 11.30 with mt 5 month old. I am trying to think of suitable snack to take for while we are waiting that will keep us both going. Most of the foods he eats at he moment are pretty messy so I'm not sure what to pick. Might have to resort to a sugar free bisuit for him (organix animal biscuits) and a banana and apple for me, and a pot of peanuts in the car just in case.

I'm Back

Well it's been a long time since I've put anything up on here, but I'm on maternity leave and thought it might be a useful time to put things up. It's even more important for me to keep my blood sugar high at the moment as I'm expressing milk for my little boy.
Tonight I needed a quick dinner so made a variation of my pizza toasts recipe. I use wholemeal bread and put on it a pizza sauce and then top with soya cheese. It took about 20 mins altogether to cook and eat.

The sauce is just made from frying some finely chopped garlic, onions, mushrooms and red pepper mixed with italian dried herbs. Then I added a tin of tomatoes and blended it together. If I want extra protein I will add a tin of red kidney beans and I also often add other veg like courgette.

There is a variation of the recipe here: http://www.recipesforvegans.co.uk/quickpizza.html

Vitamins

I know that certain vitamins are supposed to help low blood sugar such as B vitamins, chromium and magnesium. Brewers Yeast is supposed to be particularly good for low blood sugar sufferers as it contains everything you need apart from the magnesium which you can find in whole grains as well as a whole host of other foods.

Sweet Treats

With valentines day coming up it might be tempting to taste more sweet treats than you should. Just remember the best time to minimise the effect of sweet things is to have them just after a meal, or in very small amounts.

shaking

Yesterday I hadn't eaten anything wholemeal since midday the day before. By the middle of the afternoon when I was going round Sainsburys I was really shaking. I felt weak and tired and sick. Fortunately I recovered a bit on the way home and managed to eat something when I got home and felt much better.
It is so long since I have got that low, I had forgotton what it was like, and it certainly reminded me how important it is to have wholemeal foods.

RECIPE: Lentil Bake

This was a great addition to our Sunday lunch and the kids loved it too!

Click here for the recipe: http://www.recipesforvegans.co.uk/lentilbake.html

Blood Sugar is lower when I'm on my own

I had a morning on my own today, the kids were with their dad and my boyfriend isn't coming down till later. Although I woke up realtively early (half seven) I sat on the laptop in bed for a while and delayed breakfast till nearly 10. What a mistake, my blood sugar has taken a real slump. A walk just now has got me moving and I've had more food and I know I will be ok, but it has just made me realise that I look after myself a lot more if I have to be around other people.

Filling Breakfasts

I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions of nice filling breakfasts I can give to my kids in the morning to stop them getting grumpy through the morning.
I usually give them porridge with fruit and sometimes toast as well, but this doesn't always seem to give them all the energy they need. Any suggestions?

GI Index

I wondered if anyone else has used the GI index of foods to work out if they are good for blood sugar? Most things are obvious to me but it does surprise me that white spagetti has low GI when wholemeal spagetti fills me up so much. Also parsnips are worse GI than mashed potato, that was also a surprise. I wonder if it has been a good guide for anyone else with low blood sugar?

Benign Goitre

I had an appointment yesterday and found out that my enlarged thyroid is benign, which I worked out basically means they don't know why. All my other tests were fine so it looks like none of they symptoms I'm experiencing are due to that. So it must be low blood sugar. I guess not surprising since I've had it since I was a child.

Snacks really help

I really notice the difference in my kids if they have a snack in between meals. Even if it is only fruit it keeps their blood sugar much higher and they don't get moody when the next meal is due.
I find they like seeds, nuts, a couple of crackers, oakcakes or ricecakes. I sometimes give them crisps but they don't seem to work as well.

Thyroid

I'm going for another appointment about my thyroid on Monday. It might be that the symptoms that I have previously attributed to low blood sugar might be due to this. Although the blood tests didn't bring up anything I do have an enlarged thyroid so it will be interesting to see what they say.

When your Blood Sugar falls too far

I was wondering if anyone else ever gets to the point with their blood sugar that they know they need something to eat but only the thing they really fancy will do. If they can't get it they won't get an alternative but will rather their blood sugar gets really low than put up with an alternative.

I get like this sometimes and it makes no sense as I should just eat to get myself feeling better, but my mind seems to not let me, I just can't understand it.

Chocolate

I never used to have anything sweet, but lately have been eating chocolate again. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions of something that is as tasty as chocolate but without the sugar.

Shaking

On Friday my youngest daughter had the shakes for the very first time. After an active afternoon at nursery and then a half an hour ballet lesson she was very shaky. She was fine after a snack, but it is difficult to give her much to eat before she does exercise. I will try to feed her up earlier in the day this week and see how she goes.

Snack Foods

I was really hungry tonight, it was past my normal dinner time and I was still in town. I picked up a chilli flavoured nut and seed selection from Asda. I'm not sure exactly what was in there but it had almonds, pine nuts, sunflower seeds and some other seeds too. I only had a few handfuls and it really worked at boosting my blood sugar. I'm not sure whether it was the seeds or the nuts that worked, but it certainly worked.

School Lunch

By giving my daughter a triple decker sandwich today I improved her mood coming out of school amazingly. It is amazing how such a small amount of extra food makes such a big difference.

Eating a Good Breakfast

This morning I got up a bit later than usual and rushed the kids through breakfast. My daughter said she was still hungry but we were running out of time so I didn't get her anything extra. As a result she came home in a terrible bad mood, and even a snack when she got in didn't help. Fortunately she is ok now she has had dinner, but it certainly taught me a lesson - make sure they have a good breakfast even if it means being a few minutes late leaving the house.