If it’s not one thing, it’s another. With the East Coast slowly emerging from the killer heat wave of the past week, I’ve been in the grip of a series of low blood sugars, which didn’t make much sense until I realized something fundamental about me and the summertime. It isn’t the constant sweating (a la Jess) or the exercise that knocks my sugars low; it’s my change in diet. Simply put, I can’t eat as much in the hot weather, and with a damper on my intake, my sugars start to slump.
The answer for people without diabetes, I think, is to stock up on high fat, high sugar treats — ice cream, gelatos and sorbets. But with high blood sugars always on the horizon, those are off the table. So, I eat my healthy yogurt and fruit and do my regular exercises and an hour later I feel that familiar weakness in the knees and pretty soon I’m sucking down glucose tablets
Can you say exhausting? It’s funny how people always think of people with diabetes and what they can and cannot eat, and here I am trying to eat enough to keep my blood sugars stable.
Sometimes it’s hard to name the most challenging part of this disease…
I laughed about growing feathers from eating so many eggs. :) Too cute! Having said that, when I read that you were eating yogurt and fruit as well as cereal, I was concerned for you. That is the ONLY reason I am naming it….these foods are too carb-rich (unless your yogurt is plain and full fat). I am a type II and I understand your boredom with eggs sometimes. When this happens to me, I have a whey protein shake with low carb almond milk (1 gram effective carb per cup) and some oil in there if I’m going for… Read more »
I’ve been eating less, too, thanks to the weather. The one food that has been keeping me happy this summer even when I have no appetite is plums. We’ve had some amazingly good ones this year. When I was pregnant I ate halva for extra calories/carb. Thanks to the high fat content, it would raise my blood sugar very slowly.
Ilene, you’re so right. When I was in Chicago–with tons of humidity and super high temps–I was downing Rice Krispie treats and going on with my day. That would never happen in Seattle, where I still have the down comforter on my bed. I guess we just have to keep monitoring everything and trying to find patterns so that we can continue to balance protein and fat and carbs and and and… :) Best wishes to you! Stay cool!
Ilene, what a helpful insight! I’ve been having a LOT of lows in the couple of weeks, and I haven’t been able to figure out why. I think you must be right. I also think, even in the heat, that I’m more physically active, less hunkered down, in the summer weather — not so much exercising more, just moving more.
Should I eat more, or take less insulin? A balance of both?
Must figure this out. Sometimes the “one day at a time” paradigm means that I let these patterns go by when I should look for and address them.