The apartment has finally achieved normality, as the hubs said the other night, but I still have nowhere to write so posting will be light for the foreseeable future. Thanks for sticking with me!
I want to talk about changing my diet, health at every size, and reading food labels. If any of this is not up your alley today, please enjoy this picture of an adorable beagle puppy and have a nice Wednesday.
The last few days (since Saturday) I've been noticing that I can become very dizzy and have almost fainted a couple of times. It happened for the first time Saturday night while out with friends; it had been a while since dinner, I hadn't had anything to drink for a bit, and bam! Suddenly I felt like I was going to fall, and I had to grab onto a friend and a table to keep from hitting the ground. There was literally no warning at all. Afterwards I felt shaky but mostly ok. The other time was Monday coming home on the bus; again, it'd been a bit since lunch and I was just sitting on the bus when again I felt like I was about to fall, even though the bus wasn't even moving or anything. The last thing I remember having before this was a Mr. Freezie (a small one) before leaving work. Last night at a bbq, despite having a hamburger, I noticed that a can of ice tea and a small piece of banana loaf (with icing) made me feel off kilter, though not as if I was about to fall down. I'm thinking the hamburger saved me there.
I sent off an email to my midwives last night about all of this and while they don't think they need to retest for gestational diabetes, its' likely that my low blood sugar has dipped into actual hypoglocemic territory, and that the heat is likely messing with my blood pressure as well. They said to snack as much as I want too, embrace protein sources like nuts, avoid refined carbs, and anything with too much sugar. There are now nuts in my desk and I'm reading labels for the first time ever, wondering what the heck is a refined carb and being amazed by how much sugar is in some things! With only 6 weeks or so to go with this pregnancy I'm glad that these changes to my diet wont last long but in the meantime if I want to be able to function and not grow an enormous baby, my behaviour has to change.
This to me is the essential difference between dieting and having a diet; dieting is for weight-loss purposes, restricting calories to force the body to burn fat and drop pounds. Having a diet to follow because of actual health reasons, like being diabetic, or having allergies, or being on a certain medication, is not the same thing and is actually the smart thing to do to be a healthy person. The HAES approach encourages us to listen to our bodies and this change in how I eat is definitely a huge part of that! If I hadn't been so in-tune with my body already I may have ended up in worse shape because of these sudden blood sugar changes. Now I have to take it a step further and preempt problems before they arise.
Does anyone else out there read labels on food? Any tips for not becoming obsessed with these numbers? Where should I go for solid information on 'refined carbohydrates' vs non-refined? Is it as simple as whole grains vs. processed?
For health reason, i like to choose brown rice, wheat noodles and flour, whole grains...but some days I NEED a bowl of white rice. I have the dizzies after a nything sweet...a lollipop or piece of cake. My doctor told me to have a glass of milk or some non refined carbs to go with the sweet and that would help the blood sugar rollar coaster. Luckily, I dont eat cake a lot because I hate milk. And bread pudding comes after dinner, so that helps. But yes, sugar on an empty tummy will do it to me.
Oh, and yes, itsabout refined vs complex carbs....refined like sugar breaks down more quickly because they have already done some of the breaking down for you.
Thanks for the tips, Kappy!
I had this in my first pregnancy. It was due to blood sugar swings, and dealing with hypoglycemia issues.
For me the problem was resolved when I made sure to eat PROTEIN with any carb intake at all. It also helps to avoid anything with a lot of carbs in it. Some things had more carbs in it than I was aware of, so learning about the carb contents of various foods was helpful. I tried to avoid eating more than 45-60g of carbs at any one time. I emphasized whole grains when possible, but also tried to figure out my trigger foods, which weren't always what you might think (corn, for example, for me).
I have to say, it was hard for me to learn to deal with all this in pregnancy without getting kicked back into the "diet" mentality. But in time I came to realize that there is indeed a difference between dieting for wt loss and "dieting" to find the right balance of foods that YOUR body needs for its special unique concerns, just for sheer health and not weight loss.
For me, with PCOS and a tendency towards reactive hypoglycemia, it was super important to eat frequently, to eat protein whenever I had any carbs whatsoever, to avoid high-carb foods, to have a really good snack (with protein!) before bedtime, and to add protein to my breakfast (which I didn't usually have much of before).
These things really evened out my blood sugar in pregnancy, really eased most of my morning sickness issues, and helped me avoid these weird dizzy/hypoglycemia spells you describe. Exercise was also really helpful in staying euglycemic.
A lot of it is figuring out what YOUR body needs and how YOUR body reacts and adjusting accordingly. There are general guidelines, yeah, but everyone is different so it's about figuring out your own pattern and needs.
Jen,
You bring up some good points--I agree with them.
I noticed that, personally, I feel much better and have more even energy if I don't eat sugar and avoid refined carbs and grains. Although I started eating this way years ago to promote weight loss (and fell off the wagon when the results were not what I wanted, which is why pursuing health, not weight makes so much sense to me), it evolved into something loving I do for myself to support my well-being. But, when I'm going through intense psychological stress, nothing but carbs will do! Health is a nuanced thing.
Best of luck balancing all this and having a healthy and happy pregnancy and birth!
This doesn't sound like your situation, but I have low blood pressure and if I stand up too fast, all the blood rushes out of my head, and I have no balance, etc. This is my warning that I'm dehydrated.
Processed carbs are things like bread and white rice, things that have had most fiber and many nutrients removed, then possibly fortified back in. Some breads (cardboardy), intact grains, potatoes, would be less processed, or possibly unprocessed.
Thanks everyone for the great advice; I really really appreciate it. Looks like I should have more for brekkie today than a bowl of Cheerios! Alas I don't have time. O_o