Pregnant Type II struggling to control it at work. Help. page 2

[CarlaC]

Ok, focus: baby.

Nuts- unsalted. Go for that tuna salad. It's fine, don't even worry about mercury or whatever is worrying you- you need to get 75 grams of protein minimum. String cheese can last in your purse all day. Hydrate. Get some CO- it will help with the constipation issue. You are creating a human here- you really need the protein. Face the fact that the minute the baby has an ear infection you'll be calling in sick, anyway. Control is an illusion with pregnancy and parenting. Save yourself here. Eat the protein options at lunch. If the choice is salad or tuna- go for the one that will keep your blood sugar stable and your satiety high. You do not want a high blood sugar pregnancy, believe me.

Good luck to ya <3

[shema]

I It's my fasting sugars in the morning that suck an elf...Trying to stay insulin free for as long as possible.
I expressed to her that I feel like going back on drugs makes me feel like I have failed. She reassured me that having insulin resistance is actually a really good thing. If you don't get a little bit resistant, it means the baby isn't growing. Of course we want our baby to grow! Maybe it's CW nonsense, but I'll accept it to help lessen the emotional blow of "failing".

Hi Trish (Dr. Bork!) - I know exactly how you feel on wanting to avoid insulin although oddly enough, unlike you my endo seems to be fighting me every step of the way. Up until recently my sugars were decent I guess (last A1C was 5.5 and my fastings had been high 80s to low 90s). In the past few days my fasting blood sugars are creeping up...despite cutting out night time carbs I still wake up with fastings around 103 or so. Do you think that's really bad?? My endo has threatened me with night time insulin if my fasting blood sugars go up like that so I'm afraid to tell him. (He's been pushing insulin in general though...seems to think I'm depriving myself of carbs.)

(Sorry, this is a total tangent from my original post).

[Dr. Bork Bork]

Hi Trish (Dr. Bork!) - I know exactly how you feel on wanting to avoid insulin although oddly enough, unlike you my endo seems to be fighting me every step of the way. Up until recently my sugars were decent I guess (last A1C was 5.5 and my fastings had been high 80s to low 90s). In the past few days my fasting blood sugars are creeping up...despite cutting out night time carbs I still wake up with fastings around 103 or so. Do you think that's really bad?? My endo has threatened me with night time insulin if my fasting blood sugars go up like that so I'm afraid to tell him. (He's been pushing insulin in general though...seems to think I'm depriving myself of carbs.)

(Sorry, this is a total tangent from my original post).

IMO your endo needs to take a chill pill. My fasting sugar this morning was in the mid 150s. What did I eat for dinner last night? Paleo gumbo-- shrimp, tilapia, sausage, and veggies. And I went for a 45 min hilly walk. Needless to say, I'm not amused today. My last hA1c (2 mos pregnant) was 5.7, previously 5.5, drug free. I guess I am lucky in that my endo trusts my judgement. If I tell her "Please let me keep trying for one more month", she will. If there's still a problem, we work it out. She knows I'm trying hard to get it right. She wants my fasting sugar to be in the 90s. The closest I've gotten is 117. Post meal she wants it 110, and I'm usually in the 1-teens to 120 ish. She seems content with it for the time being.

my advice: find an endo who will trust your judgement and work with you every step of the way, not against you. You know your body better than anyone else.

[jammies]

Could you manage to put together some crock pots stews and soups in the evening? Leave it on while you sleep and in the morning just add the hot chili, stew, or hearty soup to a thermos. You can still eat the salad at lunch but add in a nice bowl of soup. Then you can have leftovers for a couple days that you can just heat in the morning and add to your thermos?

Another thing that can be helpful is to make a large amount of emergency protein on Sundays - cook a whole chicken, pork shoulder, etc then shred it and freeze it in individual servings. Grab one in the morning and by lunch it will be thawed and you can put it on your salad. Sausages can be precooked and frozen as well.

Avocados can be fairly filling and can be eaten with a little olive oil and salt - I frequently eat my emergency protein and an avocado during the day.

What are you eating for dinner? One quick solution is to double whatever you make for dinner, put half in a container, and just eat that for lunch.

[Rueben]

Could you manage to put together some crock pots stews and soups in the evening? Leave it on while you sleep and in the morning just add the hot chili, stew, or hearty soup to a thermos. You can still eat the salad at lunch but add in a nice bowl of soup. Then you can have leftovers for a couple days that you can just heat in the morning and add to your thermos?

Another thing that can be helpful is to make a large amount of emergency protein on Sundays - cook a whole chicken, pork shoulder, etc then shred it and freeze it in individual servings. Grab one in the morning and by lunch it will be thawed and you can put it on your salad. Sausages can be precooked and frozen as well.

Avocados can be fairly filling and can be eaten with a little olive oil and salt - I frequently eat my emergency protein and an avocado during the day.

What are you eating for dinner? One quick solution is to double whatever you make for dinner, put half in a container, and just eat that for lunch.

Really good ideas here. I always believe pregnancy is just really good practice for looking after a baby. Being tired is just not an excuse when you have a chiild to feed. So start now, feed the baby and yourself nutritious food.

I also think you are making a rod for your own back by allowing your husband to use the excuse that he cat cook. He's going to be. Father for goodness sake, and he cant make a meal to feed his own child? Book him into a cooking school, if his mother didn't teach him its up to you. Otherwise you are never going to get a break EVER.

He could start learning now so you can put your feet up at the end of the day. :-)

[jammies]

Really good ideas here. I always believe pregnancy is just really good practice for looking after a baby. Being tired is just not an excuse when you have a chiild to feed. So start now, feed the baby and yourself nutritious food.

I also think you are making a rod for your own back by allowing your husband to use the excuse that he cat cook. He's going to be. Father for goodness sake, and he cant make a meal to feed his own child? Book him into a cooking school, if his mother didn't teach him its up to you. Otherwise you are never going to get a break EVER.

He could start learning now so you can put your feet up at the end of the day. :-)

I would also add that even if dad can't cook, he can do the shopping and some of the prep! Cooking is not so bad, even when tired, if someone else does the shopping and some of the washing and chopping .

[shema]

IMO your endo needs to take a chill pill. My fasting sugar this morning was in the mid 150s. What did I eat for dinner last night? Paleo gumbo-- shrimp, tilapia, sausage, and veggies. And I went for a 45 min hilly walk. Needless to say, I'm not amused today. My last hA1c (2 mos pregnant) was 5.7, previously 5.5, drug free. I guess I am lucky in that my endo trusts my judgement. If I tell her "Please let me keep trying for one more month", she will. If there's still a problem, we work it out. She knows I'm trying hard to get it right. She wants my fasting sugar to be in the 90s. The closest I've gotten is 117. Post meal she wants it 110, and I'm usually in the 1-teens to 120 ish. She seems content with it for the time being.

my advice: find an endo who will trust your judgement and work with you every step of the way, not against you. You know your body better than anyone else.

Sorry to hear about your fasting sugars despite eating strictly paleo. I totally understand how frustrating it is b/c despite our best efforts the insulin resistance gets worse as pregnancy progresses and the placenta grows. I also dealt with this during my last pregnancy. At the time I was diagnosed with “gestational” diabetes and I was cutting carbs like crazy to keep my blood sugar under control. I started losing weight and the docs freaked and insisted that controlling my sugars “shouldn’t be so hard” and they put me on glyburide. (Absolutely horrible drug but I didn’t understand that at the time). I like my current endo for a few reasons (he was the ONLY doc who took me seriously when I was concerned that my gestational diabetes never went away - other docs were telling me I was too skinny and young to have Type II - and he was also one of the only docs that went to the trouble of doing a full glucose tolerance testing vs. just going by fasting blood sugar which would have been normal at the time!)...but his advice to load up on carbs and start shooting up tons of insulin is really annoying. He wasn't taking care of me during my last pregnancy. So I wasn't expecting us to be butting heads in this way...

I really appreciate all the awesome suggestions here. I agree that I probably need to be more pushy with hubby (BTW we are already parents!) with cooking, etc. He gets mopey when I ask for help sometimes but I should just persist. He does go shopping to pick up ingredients and stuff but yes, making him do more prep work (washing, chopping, etc.) would really help.

Thanks for the suggestion on avocado...but I’m allergic which sucks BIG time b/c I LOVE avocados. Sigh.

I do not have a crock pot but sounds like I should get one! And I need to find some good, easy crockpot recipes...

[Dr. Bork Bork]

Not strictly paleo, but I am pretty solidly primal-- If you allow my daily protein shakes (franken unsweetened coconut or almond milk with sun warrior raw protein, minimal ingredients, and heavy cream. Total of 8g carbs, nearly 40g protein, and lots of fat). Dinner is paleo 90% of the time. Tonight we had shrimp tacos (lettuce shells), but I just had a bowl of shrimp and pico de gallo cuz my stomach has been upset today. I think I ate too much coconut butter, lol. I was craving fat yesterday in a mean way.
Fasting sugar was in the 120s today after a 16 hour IF.

Crockpot is the easiest thing ever. Throw a bunch of random veggies & meat in the pot and call it a meal. I made this yesterday:
Leftovers: Barbacoa | PaleOMG - Paleo Recipe

most days I'm at 50g carbs or lower. My doc wants me to enjoy the right carbs (relax and live life as she'd put it), but I'm trying to be mindful of them. MAN AM I CRAVING BERRIES RIGHT NOW!

[shema]

Crockpot is the easiest thing ever. Throw a bunch of random veggies & meat in the pot and call it a meal. I made this yesterday:
Leftovers: Barbacoa | PaleOMG - Paleo Recipe

most days I'm at 50g carbs or lower. My doc wants me to enjoy the right carbs (relax and live life as she'd put it), but I'm trying to be mindful of them. MAN AM I CRAVING BERRIES RIGHT NOW!

That looks totally yummy! So is crockpot cooking the same as throwing stuff into a pot and cooking it on low heat on the stove top?? What's the difference - is there one?

It's great that your dr wants you to eat the RIGHT carbs!!! My endo's... different...he's said something along the lines of "you should be able to eat whatever you want like all other pregnant women!" and encourages me to go out and eat a big pasta dinner or indulge in some bread "like everyone else". Yeah, I don't think so...

[primalswan]

3 words for you: Pregnancy Discrimination Act. Seriously, expecting a lunch break is not expecting any special treatment. You need to eat. That being said, it your options for grabbing something healthy are probably limited as well. Cook a chicken or 2 on the weekends, or if you have a Costco they sell whole Turkey breasts. We buy them and slice them into 1/2" wide sticks. We eat these by themselves dipped in Paleo BBQ sauce or in a lettuce wrap with avocado and some sharp cheddar on beach days. Costco also sells Wild planet tuna in BPA free cans. Make some tuna salad and take apple & cucumber slices to dip into. Guacamole and veggies like carrot sticks, cucumber, bell peppers.Cook extra of whatever you are eating for dinner and pack it for lunch the next day. I was a sales rep and in my car all day long my 1st pregnancy. I carried a cooler with healthy things to eat because I was often trying to eat while traveling in between calls. It takes prep and planning, but your body and your baby deserve to be fed well. Good luck!