Mad Scientist

When I first got Diabetes, I was like, "Ugh, screw it. I'm going to eat just like everyone else. Sure, smaller portions and less carbs, but no WAY am I going on some low-carb diet. That would be like letting Diabetes win. Right?"

Funny now, I'm actually leaning towards a low-carb diet, though.
I played mad scientist by doing my own little at-home experiment this past week, to see if a low-carb diet really would improve my Blood Sugars and Diabetes management. I'll admit, I was a bit of a skeptic at first; but my results actually left me quite shocked.

I tried eating low carb for a week and honestly, I have to admit it: I experienced undeniably better Blood Glucose control when eating low-carb, versus eating carbs and using basal-bolus treatment. Basal Bolus treatment, for my readers who may not know, is basically a method of administering insulin: it gives a lot more freedom because, as opposed to eating more or less the same number of carbs at every meal and giving insulin based on your blood sugar level at the time, on Basal Bolus treatment you calculate the number of carbs in your meal and then determine how much insulin to give based on an insulin-to-carb ratio. For example, for every 20 carbs I eat I give myself 1 unit of insulin. If my taco from Taco Bell contains 40 carbs, I would give myself 2 units of insulin. For every 100 points over my Blood Sugar range of 80-130, I would give myself an extra unit of insulin in addition to the insulin I'm giving to cover the carbs. So if my blood sugar was 254 before eating a taco with 40 carbs in it, I would give myself 3 units of insulin. This is the "Bolus" in Basal-Bolus therapy. The "Basal" is the once-daily, Long-Acting Lantus administered each day. You won't always be able to give exact units in Basal Bolus therapy, but by rounding it gets the job done. I'd usually plug this in to an actual math problem to calculate the exact number of insulin units to give, but basically how I've described it is the overall gist of it. Albeit, I am new to basal bolus treatment, and imperfect at it. I imagine I will get better in time. Until then, though, I need to stop eating cereal ... because Special K may be healthier than some cereals, but that doesn't mean that "a little extra" isn't going to make my Blood Sugars whacked when I mindlessly shovel them into my mouth and don't bolus for them. No more guesstimating, Lacy. Get with the program!

I ate a lot of salad, eggs and chicken during my low-carb week. And I took the experiment a step further with a Diabetic no-no: I did not give myself insulin for them when I ate them. My endo freaked out when I told her that - "No, you probably shouldn't do that... you should eat carbs with your meals, too," She told me. So I'm on the blacklist for not following Doctors orders. And I felt kind of bad. And quite honestly, I didn't think it would work, either. But the evidence was soon right in front of me. Even though I took no insulin to cover the low-carb meal, it hardly raised my blood sugar at all. And how could I just deny the fact that eating low-carb really did work will for me, all while cutting down on the amount of shots I had to give myself each day? Instead of giving myself 4 shots, or 5, during that week I usually only took 1 shot - my Lantus, the long-acting insulin that I always have to take that keeps my blood sugars under control for 24 hours. Sure, I still had to test my blood sugars, but that was the closest to a needle-free day that I could get, and I liked it.

It wasn't just being able to cut down on needles, though. I noticed during the week that by taking less insulin and eating low carb meals, that my blood sugars remained much more stable. I experienced little if any bouncing up-and-down of blood sugars: no 200's one hour, then 45's the next. No more terrifying nighttime lows. I didn't even get any if at all lows, because I didn't accidentally bolus with too much insulin and too little carbs. For the most part, I stayed very stable within the 70-120 Blood Sugar range that entire week. My sensitivity to Lantus also seemed to improve as well.

In the end, I felt very encouraged and hopeful after experimenting with a low carb diet. I would have thought that I would miss eating a lot of carbs, but honestly, I didn't. Instead, I've learned to value my carbs more than I had before - such as, why would I want to eat only 1/2 a cup of pasta when I could have salmon and vegetables, or a big bowl of delicious salad? Or, low carb diet aside, why waste my carbs on carb-laden drinks or hamburger buns when I could have - and much better appreciate - a slice of cake instead? Or ice cream?

It feels nice to eat healthy, and nice to take care of my body. Diabetes treatment can be tough as it is an everyday challenge where you never know what to expect, but if there's anything I've learned, it's that every little thing helps. Walks in the park, a salad and vegetables instead of potatoes and rice... each day I'm learning something new.

In conclusion, would I follow a low-carb diet all the time? Well... no, not all the time. There are so many delicious foods, some with carbs, and some without, and I want to be able to appreciate and try them all. But is a low-carb diet something I would be willing to try more of in the future? Definitely!

In the meantime, I am excited to get all of the new recipes I can get my hands on. I may not necessarily be eating healthy by choice all of the time, but that doesn't mean that I can't still enjoy my food.


Playing Mad-Scientist for fun? Maybe I will make a good Biology major, after all!