Tracking your food and blood sugar is important because you learn what works, what doesn’t, and how you can adjust. Especially since your insulin sensitivity is constantly changing. If you’re diabetic and don’t test with a purpose, what’s the point? You’ll get your results but hardly any information on how you got there. Having knowledge and a history of your blood sugar readings minimizes ugly surprises because you’ll already know how the food you eat and the exercises you do affect your glucose levels.
Tracking your food and blood sugar also keeps you from deviating. When you start a good habit, there’s a tendency for other bad habits to sneak in and take over. One cookie for dessert can lead to three or four in a matter of days or weeks, if you allow it. You then don’t realize how far off track you’ve gotten and get discouraged when you stop getting good results.
TRACKING BROUGHT EVERYTHING TOGETHER FOR ME
By tracking and testing every piece of food I’ve eaten and exercise I’ve done since diagnosis, I’ve learned so much about how my body responds and how I can improve my blood sugar levels. I would have never gotten my A1c from 13.0 to 6.0 in less than three months without doing this.
After I got a rhythm and a good understanding of how my blood sugar typically responds, I eventually backed off. I don’t test as often as I used to when I eat food and do exercises that I’m familiar with, but I do still make tracking an important part of my health regiment. Setting and forgetting is nice, but it can slowly lead to complacency and the way our bodies metabolize food is always changing and I want to stay on top of it.
Tracking my food and blood sugar also helped me learn a lot about the quality of what I eat, too. You can quickly discover what foods are loaded with sugar and which ones live up to their claims of being “sugar-free”. There are many manipulations that food companies do to put this label on their products but I use my glucose meter as a bullshit detector. You’ll also discover the truth behind some of the most common and misleading food label claims such as “sugar-free”, “high fiber”, and “all-natural”. Remember, all carbohydrates are sugar. The amount of sugar labeled below carbohydrates isn’t the only sugar in the food. Food manufacturers will find loops to make the sugar label amount as low as possible to trick people into thinking that there’s less sugar than there really is, so make sure you look at the entire carbohydrate amount.
MAKE BLOOD SUGAR TESTING SIMPLE
Testing your blood sugar doesn’t have to be complicated. All you need to do is test before eating or doing a physical activity, test about 2 hours after, then log it. Simple.
Here’s when I test my blood sugar:
- When I wake up.
- Whenever I eat something new that I have no experience with and I’ll probably want to eat more often in the future (i.e. a new type of protein powder, a new recipe, indulgences). I still test familiar food but less often, just so I can make sure I’m still having the same response to it.
- At least 1-2 times a week before and after a workout (this will vary as your insulin sensitivity fluctuates).
- When I go to bed, so I can know how much Basal insulin to inject.
This regiment is simple, but it gives me all the information I need to keep my blood sugar tight.
MAKE FOOD TRACKING SIMPLE
Even if you’re not diabetic, tracking food is one of the best things you can do for your health, but many people think that it’s too much work.
First, if you want to make any change in your life, it will take some extra focus and energy. Reaching a goal is never handed to us and the path of least resistance is often the path of least success. Second, it’s not that bad. You’ll need to do a little work upfront to know how many calories to eat per day and how much of each macronutrient (carbohydrates, fat, and protein) to eat, but after that it gets so much easier and kind of fun.
Luckily, there’s an app that can help make it even easier for you: MyFitnessPal.
This app has everything you need for food tracking, and it’s free. You put in your age, height, weight, goal, and it spits out a plan telling you how many calories to eat and how many from each macronutrient. It also lets you adjust your calorie and macro targets if you don’t agree with their recommendations. With its huge database, you can type in or scan virtually any food you can think of and add it to your food log – animal products, food that’s grown, restaurant food, packaged food, and even your recipes!
In my plan, I give myself 2,600 calories to eat per day based on my height, weight, and fitness level. This amount is then divided into protein, carbs, and fat. For protein, I shoot for about 200 grams per day. For carbs, I eat a maximum of about 50-60 grams per day, including fiber. I fill in the rest of the calories with fat (150+ grams). This breaks down to about 30% protein, 8-10% carbs, and 50-60% fat.
This regiment is what works best for my blood sugar goals along with my training. Others are different. For example, the Zone Diet recommends a distribution of 40% carbs, 30% protein, and 30% fat. Weight Watchers takes this relationship and converts it to a point system that makes it easier for people to understand. The Keto Diet has a caloric ratio of 60-75% fat, 15-30% protein, and 5-10% carbs. But there is no perfect diet. Everyone’s body responds differently and you’ll have to figure out what works best for you. Whichever route you take, food tracking works the same with all of them!
A TIP MAKE FOOD TRACKING EVEN SIMPLER
One of the best strategies I use for making food tracking easy is to eat the same food from at least Monday through Friday. That way, all you need to do is copy your log over to the next day. It keeps you on track and minimizes work. You can always change an item out if you want to substitute it for something else.
Because you’re eating the same stuff for 5 days, you must like it. It sucks being at work and not looking forward to your lunch, so make damn sure it’s good and always look for ways to make it taste better or different.
My wife and I switch up our meal plan every week or two, but not by much. Usually, we just change the type of protein we’re eating (i.e. pork or ground turkey instead of chicken) or a special side dish we want to try out. When we first started doing this, I thought this was going to suck. But after only a couple of weeks, I started to enjoy the process because I didn’t have to think about what I was going to eat, and I lost weight and gained muscle fast. I would look for new and simple recipes to make each week and, four years later, I still look forward to my food every day. Another caveat is that when you cook often for yourself, junk food will start tasting like, well, junk.
RECAP
Let’s recap the 3 rules I learned from Dr. Bernstein that helped me get excellent blood sugar readings:
- Rule 1: Exercise consistently with a focus on anaerobic activity
- Rule 2: Avoid starchy carbohydrates
- Rule 3: Track your food and blood sugar
Is it hard to believe that these are essentially the only things I do to keep my blood sugar in check? What about insulin dosing, pill-form medication, supplements, and genetics? Yes, those are all important and you should consult with your doctor on those matters as they vary case by case.
However, diabetic drugs and medication should only be regarded as tools to help you follow these three rules. Problems arise when people start relying solely on medication to correct their blood sugar. It’s the easy way out and it becomes their crutch and excuse.
If you want to take your health into your own hands, I’m confident that anyone who follows these three rules will start seeing results within a few days or weeks. They’ve not only helped me bring my blood sugar down to near non-diabetic levels but have helped me get in the best shape of my life.
I’m stronger, faster, leaner, more energetic, and optimistic about my future because of I follow these rules. With a little work, you can get there, too. If you’re diabetic and serious about your health, challenge yourself to follow these rules and let me know how it goes or how it’s been going. But remember, you’ll get the best results if you follow all 3 rules and not just the ones you like.
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