Consequently, I decided to follow Bernstein's guidelines, which are quite restrictive: 6 g carb for breakfast, 12 each for lunch and dinner (i.e. 30 g/day). Atkins "induction" is 20, the Eades recommend an induction of no more than 7-10 g/meal and less than 40/day. The Eades recommend staying at that level until metabolic issues have resolved themselves and weight is normal (some time away for me). That's what I have to do.
This means (for me) meat/fish/eggs/cheese plus salads and/or non-starchy veggies (green beans, etc.). No fruit, no nuts for now. I need to do this for at least 4 weeks or so to get a good baseline of food, how it affects me, and blood sugars. After that, I can experiment gradually (measuring blood sugar always!), adding (one at a time) low carb fruits (such as berries) or nuts (tough part here is to limit them!). Then I can know if I can stay within guidelines for carbs with fruit or nuts, but not blow my blood sugars.
I started on Monday. Following my colonoscopy on Friday, I relaxed on carbs over the weekend (partly because I knew I was going to go very low Monday!) with mostly moderate blood sugar, but one at 172 (yeah, I had soft drinks--NOT good).
Bernstein convinced me that I need to keep blood sugar in the correct range ALL the time. That for someone like me, metabolically compromised, allowing the larger numbers is NOT a good idea. Damage is constantly being done to blood vessels and nerves (which is why you see diabetics who are blind or have amputations--we had a colleague with both of those problems).
The American Diabetes Association says for tight control:
Tight control means getting as close to a normal (nondiabetic) blood glucose level as you safely can. Ideally, this means levels between 70 and 130 mg/dl before meals, and less than 180 two hours after starting a meal, with a glycated hemoglobin (A1C) level less than 7 percent.For Bernstein this isn't even close to "tight" control. I want to move closer to his range, rather than the ADA's.
Here's where I am for the first two days:
Monday: waking 109; 1 hour after (normal post-prandial measurement) breakfast (3 eggs fried in butter, 5 cherry tomatoes) 115; chicken broth (remember, this is recommended when you start with this low carb content to replace sodium); dinner: steak, salad (forgot to measure after)
Tuesday: waking 95; breakfast: left over steak, 6 tbl coconut oil (supposed to help get into ketosis); pp 120; lunch: chicken (left over from a roast chicken we bought for dinner over the weekend), celery, cherry tomatoes, 1/2 avocado; 102; beef broth; dinner: 2 brats, sugar free jello; 98
This is a challenging diet for someone who loves bread, pasta, chips, and all manner of sweet things! It will be a challenge to stay with this, but I have to think about where I want to be, health-wise, for the rest of my life.
Picture of lunch below (very good, really!):
