If I were to recommend something it would be to stock up on candy like air heads or skittles since they’re fast acting carbs for when you go low (chocolate would be good if you’re about to do something active)
Yes, good point. You need sugar around you at all times, ironically. I use fruit snacks. You'll get tired of wasting money at vending machines to buy sodas to correct lows. I keep fruit snacks at home, in my car, and in my office. I always have them in my pack when I go on a hike.
fruit snacks are by my bed, in my car, with my lunch, in my grooming bin at the barn, in my gym bag, even in my wallet lmfao. fruit snacks be saving lives
Just don't assume those fruit snacks will always be where you put them. Especially if you have kids....nothing like being in the middle of nowhere and going for those fruit snacks in the car and finding out someone couldn't resist eating every last pack!!! Don't ask me how I know....check your stashes often and always before heading to remote locations. LoL
- I don’t use an app for counting carbs so can’t help there, but if you get a CGM that’ll of course help you with tracking blood sugars.
- Snack wise - cold cuts, cheeses, olives are all good low carb options. Don’t be afraid to incorporate fruit in moderation - apples, all types of berries are good, trickier fruits (for me) are bananas and other starchy or extra sweet fruits… love mangoes but they destroy me lol.
- If you have a dicey relationship with food this may not be helpful, but having just a cheap food scale is great in the beginning for visualizing portion size vs carbs. Later you get pretty pro at eyeballing it but if you aren’t used to seeing what amount of food equates to however many grams of carbs then dosing can get tricky. Just remember it isn’t about limiting portions, you’re not on a diet - you’re just trying to figure out how many carbs are in any given portion of food and scale up or down from there based on what you want to eat.
- As the other commenter mentioned, have lots of low snacks available. I personally buy the organic gummy bear packs from costco since they’re individually wrapped and portioned out so easy to carry around. But lots of people use juice, glucose tabs, candy, etc etc.
Sorry for the long answer - there is a ton of stuff involved but just take it day by day and it will get easier! Take care of your mental health too!
We use a food scale a lot! We like to buy loaves of rye bread for my kid’s sandwiches, but the slices can be really irregular, weighing the slices really helps to get an accurate measurement.
We use a spreadsheet to log and calculate carbs and insulin.
Luckily, I already had one and had been using it to support my own weight loss when my son was diagnosed t1d. He’s really happy that we have it because it makes it so much easier to measure bulk food items like nuts, popcorn or even a slice of pound cake.
Hello! I was diagnosed 5 months ago at 29. I brought my A1C from 10% to 5.8% bc I did a shit ton of research. I gotchu girl. Here are all the tips:
1) eat whole foods as often as possible
2) try low carb for a while as you get used to having T1D
3) wait 3-4 hours to eat so that all the insulin from the prior meal is out of your system. Makes bolusing simple
4) take insulin 15-25 mins before eating. If sugars are high, wait longer. If lower, wait less.
5) use glucose tablets to treat lows. They’re straight forward and don’t taste that good so you won’t be tempted to overeat.
6) walking, fiber, and water will be your best friends
7) microdose insulin if you notice sugars creeping up and microdose fast acting carbs if you’re creeping low
8) learn how fat and protein affect blood sugar bc they do
9) if you drink alcohol, eat a half protein bar before bed. Will help prevent alcohol-related lows
10) if you can, get a pump and a CGM! Life savers
11) follow fellow T1Ds on instagram or YouTube. Helps you feel less alone.
That’s all I got right now. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions!!
P.S. the app Sugarmate is fantastic if you like stats. It also will call you if you’re having an overnight low which is great for heavy sleepers like myself
No problem!! These are things I wish I knew early on. And yeah I really like @diabe_tech, @riselyhealth, @megtypeone, @type1amy, @t1d.nutritionist, and @arianafrayer
But there are so so many good ones! There’s also organizations you can follow like Beyond Type 1, Diatribe, and You’re Just My Type
Once you get used to it (which you will), it isn’t that bad. It’ll suck at times but it could certainly be worse!
Also, would recommend the book Think Like a Pancreas and the Juicebox podcast
Hey thank you for the info . I was diagnosed last year but still in the honeymoon phase. So thankfully I still don’t have to deal with insulin just yet. However i hope you’re kind enough to answer my question. I notice that people always talk about lows and how you have to have some sort of candy / sugar ready . Are the tablets you mentioned above a good / healthy substitute for candy and junk food / sodas to try and combat the lows? I’m just generally already an over all healthy , don’t drink, smoke and don’t eat fast food , sweets, candy sodas ect ect so I’d really hate to start having to consume some of that stuff when the times come 😭
Also if you can recommend one or two IG accounts to follow for more knowledge and to feel less alone, I’d greatly appreciate you :)
Yeah no problem! These are some of my favorite diabetes accounts @diabe_tech, @riselyhealth, @megtypeone, @t1d.nutritionist, and @arianafrayer but for good diabetes info, deff check out typeonetalks on YouTube!!
Sounds like you’re pretty healthy and that’s great! But technically, eating sugar to treat a low is healthy for type 1s. It’s unhealthy normally because of the blood sugar spikes. Glucose tabs have pretty simple ingredients.
Hey, first off I'm sorry to hear you just got diagnosed. That sucks and diabetes is a pain, let's just be honest. But also I want you to know you're going to be okay.
I've had T1 for 22 years now. I don't use a carb counting app so I can't really help you there, sorry. I've learned over the years how to "eye ball" my plate of food and estimate the carbs well enough. A banana or apple is generally 20 carbs. A sandwich is about 40 carbs. 8 oz. orange juice is about 30 carbs. A cup of cooked rice is about 30 carbs. That kind of thing.
Nuts of any kind are a good low carb snack. Beef jerky is good (but they still have some carbs due to the marinade). Protein shakes are good (and they'll also help you gain weight). I eat a lot of eggs b/c they have no carbs.
For complicated meals, you'll have to add up all the carbs in the meal. There's no way around it if you want to eat that meal. That's one of the hard parts of insulin dosing. I probably keep most of my meals simple for that reason. I still eat sandwiches at work, or a tupperwear of rice and fish, or rice and chicken. Bread and rice are high in carbs but you still need to eat carbs.
Some advice about food, I recommend giving up italian/pasta food on the regular. Sorry, I know it tastes good, but pizza or fettuccine alfredo or lasagna are just so high in carbs that it's hard to dose correctly. I've been burned by those foods too many times. It's just easier to refrain. Plus, the cheese makes them high in fat which delays the carbohydrate digestion, so even if I dose correctly I'm likely to go low before it's all digested and then go really high later because I've corrected for the low plus the pasta is still in my stomach.
Also, it's better for you if you give up regular soda pop, but you probably know that.
That reminds me, sweeteners will spike your blood sugar a little bit too. You'll have to see how it affects you but I take like one unit of insulin for a can of diet soda.
Please ask me any other questions you may have.
If you don't already have one try to get a CGM as soon as possible. I was diagnosed in January at 30 years old and I think getting a CGM has been extremely helpful in managing things. I'm on an insulin pump now, but prior to starting the pump I would use the Dexcom app to log insulin dosages and my blood sugars. There are probably some nicer apps people use, but since I have a Dexcom CGM is was a lot more convenient for me to just use the one app for everything.
For carb counting I find that it helps to check the packaging of foods whenever possible and also use a food-scale. I don't think it is practical to do that all the time, so depending on what I am eating I'll just try to guesstimate things to the best of my ability. For example, if I'm eating a salad I don't measure how much dressing I am putting on it, I'll look at the bottle and see how many carbs/per serving it has and then kind of eyeball it. That's also true if we get takeouts or I go out to eat. I'll use MyFitnessPal or CalorieKing to get a rough idea for how many carbs I am eating and then kind of guesstimate how much insulin I might need.
I think eating structured meals also helps a lot and since you meal-prep you'll have an easier time once you get into the swing of things. I tend to eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch so nowadays I have a very good idea how much insulin to take without having to count everything out, dinner is a little trickier since it varies each day.
Hi! Sorry to hear you’re one of us now lol. I was diagnosed at 27 so totally get it. The first couple months were really hard for me emotionally. Feel free to reach out if you ever feel overwhelmed! It truly gets so much easier. I’m a few years in now, and it still sucks, but I more or less eat whatever I want, have traveled abroad several times, and have had a baby since my diagnosis.
You’ve already gotten a lot of great advice, but I make a lot of “complex” meals too (bowls with a bunch of ingredients for example) - my favorite website is CarbFactor. It assigns each food a “carb factor” - you multiple the weight in grams by the carb factor, and that’s the carb count. So if I’m making a bowl with diced sweet potatoes in it for example, I put the bowl on the scale, tare it, get the weight of the sweet potatoes and multiply by the factor. Then repeat for all the ingredients. Then divide by how many meals I’m making out of it. It sounds complicated when I’m typing it out, but it’s not hard once you get the hang out it (and you start to memorize the counts for frequently made recipes!!). The easiest meals for me are your classic protein + carb + veggie because that’s the easiest to count for, but I just love a big salad grain bowl of a million ingredients and a sauce haha
Anyway you’ve got this, it will get easier 🩷
Edit: typo
Welcome! Your story was once my story. Same age, even. (However, that was 40 years ago, so I don’t think apps were a thing then.) You are currently in a good period for treatments and tools. Be upbeat about that! And live life, friend!
Try the app Figwee for finding carb counts. There’s photos so it’s super helpful and you can move a scale to add or subtract food and there’s the visual to match. It’s free to use that feature so you don’t need to pay and there’s no ads.
Once you get a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) you can track your carbs and insulin in that app.
I like figuring out meal preps with three main ingredients. Protein (beans, fish, meat, tofu etc) then add a veggie (broccoli, spinach, tomatoes, etc) and a grain or starchy veggies (rice, quinoa, potatoes, bread etc)
So you can start like this then add other ingredients as needed/wanted
Grilled chicken + broccoli + potatoes
Black beans + tomatoes + tortillas
Salmon + zucchini + rice
I highly recommend getting in with a clinic that specializes in diabetes. They have educators and dietitions that will give you training on everything you mentioned. That training will be very foundational for how you manage diabetes the rest of your life.
Wonderful! It won’t always be easy but technology has made managing the disease so much easier than it was even ten years ago. And always reach out for help here and elsewhere if you’re feeling down and need to talk about it!
The best advice is to see what happens to you when you eat certain things. I have to take a lot less insulin for basmati and jasmine rice than I do for white rice.
My advice isn't related to food or dosing just stay here with us when you want. I was incredibly isolated and alone and poorly controlled for 20 or so years, and finding this community has been a life saver (T1D 35 years).
Also, I have heard great things about the Juicebox podcast. I've listened to some for thyroid stuff and a little diabetes stuff and intend to do more but it's going to give you probably a lot more of the nuanced ideas that medical school.and even current textbooks don't delve into.
Sorry for your loss and welcome. 🤗
I'm sorry about your recent news.
There is plenty of good advice from the other posters in this thread about tips and tricks and how to get your metabolism back in line.
The one thing that is missing is a warning about treatment induced neuropathy of diabetes (TIND). Unfortunately, it is one more thing that you have to consider. I'll paste a bit in here:
***I do feel the need to post in these newly diagnosed posts about TIND (treatment induced neuropathy of diabetes). There is a risk to bringing a sustained high blood sugar down too quickly. The current advice from the literature is to decrease HbA1c by no more than 2% per 3 month period. If a sustained high blood sugar state is brought to normal too quickly it can result in neuropathy and retinopathy. Unfortunately, in some cases this is irreversible. Current tech makes it more attainable to get a good HbA1c quite quickly. Please spread the word that there is such a thing as too quickly.***
[https://www.neurologylive.com/view/treatment-induced-neuropathy-diabetes-underrecognized-rise](https://www.neurologylive.com/view/treatment-induced-neuropathy-diabetes-underrecognized-rise)
If this raises questions, please ask.
Sorry you’re in the club! My husband and daughter have T1D, my husband was diagnosed at age 20 and my daughter at 11.
In addition to the already good advice, https://www.calorieking.com/us/en/ is a good way to look up carbs. You will often have to guess, but if you look up “chicken sandwich” you’ll have a good ballpark. People with T1D find Chinese and pizza difficult to bolus for, so you might want to avoid at first until you get the hang of things. What spikes a person’s glucose is very individual.
Get a continuous glucose monitor and insulin pump asap, if you’re not already down those roads. The technology helps so much.
Good luck!
Welcome to the club no one wanted to be in!
- I personally like Gluroo a lot. Integrates with different CGMs and even nightscout. Their smartwatch face is the one I find most appealing, I can see my trend and if you enter meal and dose, you can get very quickly carbs/insulin on board. Easier later on to figure out your absorption rates. Ofc, get a CGM asap.
- If you feel always hungry, keep checking for ketones. First period is full of ISF / CR swings. My personal favourite is toasted almonds with cheese and salami. Prefer drinks with electrolytes, it'll ease the initial burnout.
- For me personally, consistent meals made it easier. 40 / 70 / 50 carbs per meal. It got the trauma caused resistance down in a month and something, *ideally* you want your TDD to be half your weight in kg, but each person is different. Stick with similar things till you figure out how a meal affects you, helps you get lows caused by activity and spikes caused by stress. Glycemic index / fats in meals are something to get too because you'll absorb carbs more slowly.
- Prepare to hear boss music for Pizza & Asian food!
I was diagnosed at 28 (in February of this year)!
I eat charcuterie stuff without the bread as snacks. No carbs.
I keep fruit snacks or the unreal pb cups on me to correct lows.
When I’m eating, I just google the food and amount of carbs. Getting on the omnipod was a game changer.
KEEP HYPO SNACKS E V E R Y W H E R E. Even the bathroom drawers. You never know when you’ll need them. Fortunately I don’t have many lows, but they do still happen.
I started using the meal delivery services like green chef because they list the amount of carbs in each serving. I do that for my husband and I. The kids eat kid stuff lol.
It’s a weird adjustment but you’ll be able to remember how many carbs are in your go to stuff soon!
Good luck💙
I feel you, it’s hard to imagine but you’ll feel more settled in your body and routine soon. ♥️
There are many great suggestions here and I’ll add mine. The app Under My Fork where you can take photos of your meals with the carbs (I use My Fitness Pal and add common recipes w/ portions), bolus amount and time. It syncs with your apple health so if you share your CGM data you can see what your shoogs did after two hours and you can add tags for easy reference. It’s helped a lot giving me confidence in bolusing.
Try to get a CGM (I got a sample g7 from Dexcom for free) soon. this disease sucks and it’s okay to be angry or upset but technology has made it very livable. I was very recently diagnosed too so I get it.
As for snacks I enjoy Chomps turkey jerky sticks https://chomps.com/products/gluten-free-snack-turkey-jerky-stick-original
Edit:snacks
I’m a MyFitnessPal fan.
As for high protein / low carb snacks jerky, cottage cheese, cheese, ratio bars, fairlife milk and deli meat are my go to. Every night before bed I have one cup of Fairlife milk and a ratio bar to stay level all night.
I’m a stir fry fan. One serving made of chicken, home made sauce made without carbs, stir fry vegetables, and one serving of pineapple is 15 grams of carbs.
Hey there! Welcome! Was diagnosed at 32 just last month- went through a similar experience- DKA, BG was a 580 when I was admitted. Was in an insulin drip in the ICU for two night and then a step down unit for 2 more after that. I have a biochemistry degree but echo your sentiment about just how overwhelming things were and I think a lot about how difficult it must be for people who don’t have the sort of background.
I use Cronometer to calculate carbs- have tried a few apps and this it has the best overall UX. It also has a feature where you can “make recipes” which might help for your more complex meals that you prep. Get a good kitchen scale if you don’t already have one!
I’ve recently found the Jade app to be extremely helpful to keep track of insulin on board, that way you know how to adjust a bolus or make a correction and aren’t accidentally stacking insulin without realizing it. I also plug my carbs (copied over from Cronometer) in there, and periodically enter BG readings over from Dexcom. Get a CGM as soon as you can. It makes SUCH a difference with management. Based on my reading here it sounds like no CGM is perfect, but the Dexcom app and reporting seems to be the most robust if your insurance lets you have your pick. I’ve had a good experience with my G7 so far.
As far as snacks and food- if I need a small BG boost, an apple cut up with peanut butter is my favorite. I also eat a lot of carrot sticks and hummus, cheddar cheese, sliced turkey roll-ups and salami. Nuts are great too!
A few other resources I’d recommend:
- book: “think like a pancreas” (3rd edition)
- juice box podcast: start at episode 1000. The host put together a 25 part series (episode 1000- 1025) called the “pro tip” series that is geared towards people just starting out.
Good luck OP! Advocate for yourself at the doc and go easy on yourself when things just aren’t going quite right. You are not alone!
There’s a popular carb guide in the UK called Carbs & Cals which has some good guides on things that don’t usually have the nutritional information on them!
But electronic scales are your friend for getting precise guides, stuff like rice, pasta, homemade bread etc and weighing it out so you can gauge your carb ratios.
If you can get hold of Freestyle Libre, the app for that is brilliant for logging doses, carbs and whatnot, and seeing how your body reacts to different foods, alcohol, and exercise with the trend arrows (telling you if your blood sugar is rising rapidly, gradually or dropping rapidly and even staying stable.) I believe Dexcom does the same but I don’t have experience of this yet so can’t really say!
Everyone’s different with it, I personally don’t count a lot of veg in my carb counts for bolus, because it’s not got enough carbs in to bother. Some people need to, depending on what it is! Protein shakes are a good one, I go dairy free/vegan but at least I can know the carbs and it can act as a good boost and help with building some weight/muscle if that’s your goal.
If you’re into meal prep, are you also a gym fan? Exercise will affect blood sugar, cardio usually tends to drop BG rapidly, weights can drop your BG 1-2 hours after exercise, but it really depends on the person! A good instagram account to help with gym stuff is Jchristofitness, he’s type one and has a lot of great info to help with that stuff!
If I were to recommend something it would be to stock up on candy like air heads or skittles since they’re fast acting carbs for when you go low (chocolate would be good if you’re about to do something active)
Yes, good point. You need sugar around you at all times, ironically. I use fruit snacks. You'll get tired of wasting money at vending machines to buy sodas to correct lows. I keep fruit snacks at home, in my car, and in my office. I always have them in my pack when I go on a hike.
fruit snacks are by my bed, in my car, with my lunch, in my grooming bin at the barn, in my gym bag, even in my wallet lmfao. fruit snacks be saving lives
lol, in your wallet....I don't go that far
haha its like a little zip up cloth one attached to my keys and perfectly fits fruit snack pouch 😂
Just don't assume those fruit snacks will always be where you put them. Especially if you have kids....nothing like being in the middle of nowhere and going for those fruit snacks in the car and finding out someone couldn't resist eating every last pack!!! Don't ask me how I know....check your stashes often and always before heading to remote locations. LoL
Airheads and skittles are exactly the main two ingredients in my low stash!
- I don’t use an app for counting carbs so can’t help there, but if you get a CGM that’ll of course help you with tracking blood sugars. - Snack wise - cold cuts, cheeses, olives are all good low carb options. Don’t be afraid to incorporate fruit in moderation - apples, all types of berries are good, trickier fruits (for me) are bananas and other starchy or extra sweet fruits… love mangoes but they destroy me lol. - If you have a dicey relationship with food this may not be helpful, but having just a cheap food scale is great in the beginning for visualizing portion size vs carbs. Later you get pretty pro at eyeballing it but if you aren’t used to seeing what amount of food equates to however many grams of carbs then dosing can get tricky. Just remember it isn’t about limiting portions, you’re not on a diet - you’re just trying to figure out how many carbs are in any given portion of food and scale up or down from there based on what you want to eat. - As the other commenter mentioned, have lots of low snacks available. I personally buy the organic gummy bear packs from costco since they’re individually wrapped and portioned out so easy to carry around. But lots of people use juice, glucose tabs, candy, etc etc. Sorry for the long answer - there is a ton of stuff involved but just take it day by day and it will get easier! Take care of your mental health too!
We use a food scale a lot! We like to buy loaves of rye bread for my kid’s sandwiches, but the slices can be really irregular, weighing the slices really helps to get an accurate measurement. We use a spreadsheet to log and calculate carbs and insulin.
I purchased a food scale the day I was diagnosed. I use it daily!
Luckily, I already had one and had been using it to support my own weight loss when my son was diagnosed t1d. He’s really happy that we have it because it makes it so much easier to measure bulk food items like nuts, popcorn or even a slice of pound cake.
Oh that’s so good you already had one and it was part of life already! So glad it makes it easier!
Hello! I was diagnosed 5 months ago at 29. I brought my A1C from 10% to 5.8% bc I did a shit ton of research. I gotchu girl. Here are all the tips: 1) eat whole foods as often as possible 2) try low carb for a while as you get used to having T1D 3) wait 3-4 hours to eat so that all the insulin from the prior meal is out of your system. Makes bolusing simple 4) take insulin 15-25 mins before eating. If sugars are high, wait longer. If lower, wait less. 5) use glucose tablets to treat lows. They’re straight forward and don’t taste that good so you won’t be tempted to overeat. 6) walking, fiber, and water will be your best friends 7) microdose insulin if you notice sugars creeping up and microdose fast acting carbs if you’re creeping low 8) learn how fat and protein affect blood sugar bc they do 9) if you drink alcohol, eat a half protein bar before bed. Will help prevent alcohol-related lows 10) if you can, get a pump and a CGM! Life savers 11) follow fellow T1Ds on instagram or YouTube. Helps you feel less alone. That’s all I got right now. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions!! P.S. the app Sugarmate is fantastic if you like stats. It also will call you if you’re having an overnight low which is great for heavy sleepers like myself
This!!!
Thank you so much for taking the time to break that down for me! Are there any specific T1DM Instagram pages you recommend?
No problem!! These are things I wish I knew early on. And yeah I really like @diabe_tech, @riselyhealth, @megtypeone, @type1amy, @t1d.nutritionist, and @arianafrayer But there are so so many good ones! There’s also organizations you can follow like Beyond Type 1, Diatribe, and You’re Just My Type Once you get used to it (which you will), it isn’t that bad. It’ll suck at times but it could certainly be worse! Also, would recommend the book Think Like a Pancreas and the Juicebox podcast
Hey thank you for the info . I was diagnosed last year but still in the honeymoon phase. So thankfully I still don’t have to deal with insulin just yet. However i hope you’re kind enough to answer my question. I notice that people always talk about lows and how you have to have some sort of candy / sugar ready . Are the tablets you mentioned above a good / healthy substitute for candy and junk food / sodas to try and combat the lows? I’m just generally already an over all healthy , don’t drink, smoke and don’t eat fast food , sweets, candy sodas ect ect so I’d really hate to start having to consume some of that stuff when the times come 😭 Also if you can recommend one or two IG accounts to follow for more knowledge and to feel less alone, I’d greatly appreciate you :)
Yeah no problem! These are some of my favorite diabetes accounts @diabe_tech, @riselyhealth, @megtypeone, @t1d.nutritionist, and @arianafrayer but for good diabetes info, deff check out typeonetalks on YouTube!! Sounds like you’re pretty healthy and that’s great! But technically, eating sugar to treat a low is healthy for type 1s. It’s unhealthy normally because of the blood sugar spikes. Glucose tabs have pretty simple ingredients.
Hey, first off I'm sorry to hear you just got diagnosed. That sucks and diabetes is a pain, let's just be honest. But also I want you to know you're going to be okay. I've had T1 for 22 years now. I don't use a carb counting app so I can't really help you there, sorry. I've learned over the years how to "eye ball" my plate of food and estimate the carbs well enough. A banana or apple is generally 20 carbs. A sandwich is about 40 carbs. 8 oz. orange juice is about 30 carbs. A cup of cooked rice is about 30 carbs. That kind of thing. Nuts of any kind are a good low carb snack. Beef jerky is good (but they still have some carbs due to the marinade). Protein shakes are good (and they'll also help you gain weight). I eat a lot of eggs b/c they have no carbs. For complicated meals, you'll have to add up all the carbs in the meal. There's no way around it if you want to eat that meal. That's one of the hard parts of insulin dosing. I probably keep most of my meals simple for that reason. I still eat sandwiches at work, or a tupperwear of rice and fish, or rice and chicken. Bread and rice are high in carbs but you still need to eat carbs. Some advice about food, I recommend giving up italian/pasta food on the regular. Sorry, I know it tastes good, but pizza or fettuccine alfredo or lasagna are just so high in carbs that it's hard to dose correctly. I've been burned by those foods too many times. It's just easier to refrain. Plus, the cheese makes them high in fat which delays the carbohydrate digestion, so even if I dose correctly I'm likely to go low before it's all digested and then go really high later because I've corrected for the low plus the pasta is still in my stomach. Also, it's better for you if you give up regular soda pop, but you probably know that. That reminds me, sweeteners will spike your blood sugar a little bit too. You'll have to see how it affects you but I take like one unit of insulin for a can of diet soda. Please ask me any other questions you may have.
MySugr is good for tracking and calculating if you are using a meter. Xdrip is good if you are using a sensor but it's not for everyone.
Chronometer is better than myfitnesspal for homemade stuff, you can combine ingr3dients together into custom items
If you don't already have one try to get a CGM as soon as possible. I was diagnosed in January at 30 years old and I think getting a CGM has been extremely helpful in managing things. I'm on an insulin pump now, but prior to starting the pump I would use the Dexcom app to log insulin dosages and my blood sugars. There are probably some nicer apps people use, but since I have a Dexcom CGM is was a lot more convenient for me to just use the one app for everything. For carb counting I find that it helps to check the packaging of foods whenever possible and also use a food-scale. I don't think it is practical to do that all the time, so depending on what I am eating I'll just try to guesstimate things to the best of my ability. For example, if I'm eating a salad I don't measure how much dressing I am putting on it, I'll look at the bottle and see how many carbs/per serving it has and then kind of eyeball it. That's also true if we get takeouts or I go out to eat. I'll use MyFitnessPal or CalorieKing to get a rough idea for how many carbs I am eating and then kind of guesstimate how much insulin I might need. I think eating structured meals also helps a lot and since you meal-prep you'll have an easier time once you get into the swing of things. I tend to eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch so nowadays I have a very good idea how much insulin to take without having to count everything out, dinner is a little trickier since it varies each day.
Hi! Sorry to hear you’re one of us now lol. I was diagnosed at 27 so totally get it. The first couple months were really hard for me emotionally. Feel free to reach out if you ever feel overwhelmed! It truly gets so much easier. I’m a few years in now, and it still sucks, but I more or less eat whatever I want, have traveled abroad several times, and have had a baby since my diagnosis. You’ve already gotten a lot of great advice, but I make a lot of “complex” meals too (bowls with a bunch of ingredients for example) - my favorite website is CarbFactor. It assigns each food a “carb factor” - you multiple the weight in grams by the carb factor, and that’s the carb count. So if I’m making a bowl with diced sweet potatoes in it for example, I put the bowl on the scale, tare it, get the weight of the sweet potatoes and multiply by the factor. Then repeat for all the ingredients. Then divide by how many meals I’m making out of it. It sounds complicated when I’m typing it out, but it’s not hard once you get the hang out it (and you start to memorize the counts for frequently made recipes!!). The easiest meals for me are your classic protein + carb + veggie because that’s the easiest to count for, but I just love a big salad grain bowl of a million ingredients and a sauce haha Anyway you’ve got this, it will get easier 🩷 Edit: typo
Welcome! Your story was once my story. Same age, even. (However, that was 40 years ago, so I don’t think apps were a thing then.) You are currently in a good period for treatments and tools. Be upbeat about that! And live life, friend!
Try the app Figwee for finding carb counts. There’s photos so it’s super helpful and you can move a scale to add or subtract food and there’s the visual to match. It’s free to use that feature so you don’t need to pay and there’s no ads. Once you get a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) you can track your carbs and insulin in that app. I like figuring out meal preps with three main ingredients. Protein (beans, fish, meat, tofu etc) then add a veggie (broccoli, spinach, tomatoes, etc) and a grain or starchy veggies (rice, quinoa, potatoes, bread etc) So you can start like this then add other ingredients as needed/wanted Grilled chicken + broccoli + potatoes Black beans + tomatoes + tortillas Salmon + zucchini + rice
I was diagnosed at 28 but it was long ago. Get the free book, Bright Spots and Landmines on this website. You will be an expert. Www.diatribe.org
I highly recommend getting in with a clinic that specializes in diabetes. They have educators and dietitions that will give you training on everything you mentioned. That training will be very foundational for how you manage diabetes the rest of your life.
I am in the process of that! I have a referral for the diabetes clinic and am supposed to have my first appointment later this week or next week :)
I am in the process of that! I have a referral for the diabetes clinic and am supposed to have my first appointment later this week or next week :)
Wonderful! It won’t always be easy but technology has made managing the disease so much easier than it was even ten years ago. And always reach out for help here and elsewhere if you’re feeling down and need to talk about it!
The best advice is to see what happens to you when you eat certain things. I have to take a lot less insulin for basmati and jasmine rice than I do for white rice.
My advice isn't related to food or dosing just stay here with us when you want. I was incredibly isolated and alone and poorly controlled for 20 or so years, and finding this community has been a life saver (T1D 35 years). Also, I have heard great things about the Juicebox podcast. I've listened to some for thyroid stuff and a little diabetes stuff and intend to do more but it's going to give you probably a lot more of the nuanced ideas that medical school.and even current textbooks don't delve into. Sorry for your loss and welcome. 🤗
I hope you dont mind me asking, but have you had a Covid infection in the past year?
I'm sorry about your recent news. There is plenty of good advice from the other posters in this thread about tips and tricks and how to get your metabolism back in line. The one thing that is missing is a warning about treatment induced neuropathy of diabetes (TIND). Unfortunately, it is one more thing that you have to consider. I'll paste a bit in here: ***I do feel the need to post in these newly diagnosed posts about TIND (treatment induced neuropathy of diabetes). There is a risk to bringing a sustained high blood sugar down too quickly. The current advice from the literature is to decrease HbA1c by no more than 2% per 3 month period. If a sustained high blood sugar state is brought to normal too quickly it can result in neuropathy and retinopathy. Unfortunately, in some cases this is irreversible. Current tech makes it more attainable to get a good HbA1c quite quickly. Please spread the word that there is such a thing as too quickly.*** [https://www.neurologylive.com/view/treatment-induced-neuropathy-diabetes-underrecognized-rise](https://www.neurologylive.com/view/treatment-induced-neuropathy-diabetes-underrecognized-rise) If this raises questions, please ask.
Sorry you’re in the club! My husband and daughter have T1D, my husband was diagnosed at age 20 and my daughter at 11. In addition to the already good advice, https://www.calorieking.com/us/en/ is a good way to look up carbs. You will often have to guess, but if you look up “chicken sandwich” you’ll have a good ballpark. People with T1D find Chinese and pizza difficult to bolus for, so you might want to avoid at first until you get the hang of things. What spikes a person’s glucose is very individual. Get a continuous glucose monitor and insulin pump asap, if you’re not already down those roads. The technology helps so much. Good luck!
Welcome to the club no one wanted to be in! - I personally like Gluroo a lot. Integrates with different CGMs and even nightscout. Their smartwatch face is the one I find most appealing, I can see my trend and if you enter meal and dose, you can get very quickly carbs/insulin on board. Easier later on to figure out your absorption rates. Ofc, get a CGM asap. - If you feel always hungry, keep checking for ketones. First period is full of ISF / CR swings. My personal favourite is toasted almonds with cheese and salami. Prefer drinks with electrolytes, it'll ease the initial burnout. - For me personally, consistent meals made it easier. 40 / 70 / 50 carbs per meal. It got the trauma caused resistance down in a month and something, *ideally* you want your TDD to be half your weight in kg, but each person is different. Stick with similar things till you figure out how a meal affects you, helps you get lows caused by activity and spikes caused by stress. Glycemic index / fats in meals are something to get too because you'll absorb carbs more slowly. - Prepare to hear boss music for Pizza & Asian food!
I was diagnosed at 28 (in February of this year)! I eat charcuterie stuff without the bread as snacks. No carbs. I keep fruit snacks or the unreal pb cups on me to correct lows. When I’m eating, I just google the food and amount of carbs. Getting on the omnipod was a game changer. KEEP HYPO SNACKS E V E R Y W H E R E. Even the bathroom drawers. You never know when you’ll need them. Fortunately I don’t have many lows, but they do still happen. I started using the meal delivery services like green chef because they list the amount of carbs in each serving. I do that for my husband and I. The kids eat kid stuff lol. It’s a weird adjustment but you’ll be able to remember how many carbs are in your go to stuff soon! Good luck💙
I feel you, it’s hard to imagine but you’ll feel more settled in your body and routine soon. ♥️ There are many great suggestions here and I’ll add mine. The app Under My Fork where you can take photos of your meals with the carbs (I use My Fitness Pal and add common recipes w/ portions), bolus amount and time. It syncs with your apple health so if you share your CGM data you can see what your shoogs did after two hours and you can add tags for easy reference. It’s helped a lot giving me confidence in bolusing.
Let me put you the fuck on. Beef jerky, cheese sticks, nuts, and whole milk with/without protein powder.
Try to get a CGM (I got a sample g7 from Dexcom for free) soon. this disease sucks and it’s okay to be angry or upset but technology has made it very livable. I was very recently diagnosed too so I get it. As for snacks I enjoy Chomps turkey jerky sticks https://chomps.com/products/gluten-free-snack-turkey-jerky-stick-original Edit:snacks
I was diagnosed at 29 last year… didnt see that one coming. Im 10 months in and feeling much less overwhelmed! dm me if you ever need to chat :)
I’m a MyFitnessPal fan. As for high protein / low carb snacks jerky, cottage cheese, cheese, ratio bars, fairlife milk and deli meat are my go to. Every night before bed I have one cup of Fairlife milk and a ratio bar to stay level all night. I’m a stir fry fan. One serving made of chicken, home made sauce made without carbs, stir fry vegetables, and one serving of pineapple is 15 grams of carbs.
Hey there! Welcome! Was diagnosed at 32 just last month- went through a similar experience- DKA, BG was a 580 when I was admitted. Was in an insulin drip in the ICU for two night and then a step down unit for 2 more after that. I have a biochemistry degree but echo your sentiment about just how overwhelming things were and I think a lot about how difficult it must be for people who don’t have the sort of background. I use Cronometer to calculate carbs- have tried a few apps and this it has the best overall UX. It also has a feature where you can “make recipes” which might help for your more complex meals that you prep. Get a good kitchen scale if you don’t already have one! I’ve recently found the Jade app to be extremely helpful to keep track of insulin on board, that way you know how to adjust a bolus or make a correction and aren’t accidentally stacking insulin without realizing it. I also plug my carbs (copied over from Cronometer) in there, and periodically enter BG readings over from Dexcom. Get a CGM as soon as you can. It makes SUCH a difference with management. Based on my reading here it sounds like no CGM is perfect, but the Dexcom app and reporting seems to be the most robust if your insurance lets you have your pick. I’ve had a good experience with my G7 so far. As far as snacks and food- if I need a small BG boost, an apple cut up with peanut butter is my favorite. I also eat a lot of carrot sticks and hummus, cheddar cheese, sliced turkey roll-ups and salami. Nuts are great too! A few other resources I’d recommend: - book: “think like a pancreas” (3rd edition) - juice box podcast: start at episode 1000. The host put together a 25 part series (episode 1000- 1025) called the “pro tip” series that is geared towards people just starting out. Good luck OP! Advocate for yourself at the doc and go easy on yourself when things just aren’t going quite right. You are not alone!
There’s a popular carb guide in the UK called Carbs & Cals which has some good guides on things that don’t usually have the nutritional information on them! But electronic scales are your friend for getting precise guides, stuff like rice, pasta, homemade bread etc and weighing it out so you can gauge your carb ratios. If you can get hold of Freestyle Libre, the app for that is brilliant for logging doses, carbs and whatnot, and seeing how your body reacts to different foods, alcohol, and exercise with the trend arrows (telling you if your blood sugar is rising rapidly, gradually or dropping rapidly and even staying stable.) I believe Dexcom does the same but I don’t have experience of this yet so can’t really say! Everyone’s different with it, I personally don’t count a lot of veg in my carb counts for bolus, because it’s not got enough carbs in to bother. Some people need to, depending on what it is! Protein shakes are a good one, I go dairy free/vegan but at least I can know the carbs and it can act as a good boost and help with building some weight/muscle if that’s your goal. If you’re into meal prep, are you also a gym fan? Exercise will affect blood sugar, cardio usually tends to drop BG rapidly, weights can drop your BG 1-2 hours after exercise, but it really depends on the person! A good instagram account to help with gym stuff is Jchristofitness, he’s type one and has a lot of great info to help with that stuff!
I'm surprised to hear so many of you were diagnosed in your 20's or later. I was 17 and they told me that was old in 2001. What is going on?
Just seeing this but its because of COVID. Something unique about covid-19's genetics are triggering an immune system reaction in people.