Diabetes class and nutrition

today i went to a diabetes class. i was the only one there! but that worked out to my advantage cause i had sole time with the counselor to ask as many questions as necessary!! she basically went over what happens physiologicaly when a person is diabetic, most of which i already knew. even though i'm only "boarderline" diabetic and not gestationally diabetic (yet) alot of the management skills are the same. the nurse said that based on my info i'll most likely be put on insulin even with diet and exercise modifications. the hormones kicked out by the placenta around week 24 is what causes gestational diabetes and since i'm already insulin resistant regardless thats why its pretty certain when the time comes i'll have gestational diabetes. make sense?

the cool part is after speaking with that lady i then met with a nutritionist who worked out a personal meal plan geared especially for this. and actually i'll be eating alot more than i do now! about 2200 calories daily. the food modifications are not much different than what i'm already eating...the hardest part is just having to eat more frequently..odd as that sounds. i'll have 6-7 mini meals a day. the main thing is watching total carbs. i have guidelines as far as how many carbs at each meal, etc. no more than 3 servings of carbs at each meal (this includes starch, fruit, or milk) but its pretty easy to figure out. you know those 100calorie packs out now in alot of differnt varieites? that counts as 1 startch. or those lowfat granola bars? 1 starch. or 3 cups of lowfat popcorn is 1 starch. so that makes crunchy snacks easy! i have a book which has food substitutions to choose from. i can have unlimited proteins because protein doenst mess with your blood sugar, and i can have unlimited vegetables. no fruit at breakfast (it has alot of natural sugar and will spike the levels quickly first thing in the A.M.) but its ok to have the rest of the day. an exaple menu that we put together for me would be, keeping in mind meat can be more if desired,:

breakfast: 2 servings carbs (1 starch, 1 milk), 1 meat group,2 fats (peanutbutter toast, yougurt )

snack: 1 fruit, 1 meat, 1 starch, 1 fat (tangerines, cottage cheese , 100 calorie snack pack nuts)

lunch: 3 carbs (2 starch, 1 milk), vegetables, 3 meat, 2 fats (chicken , 2/3 c rice with butter <>, broccoli , milk )

snack: 1 fruit, 1 meat, 1 starch, 1 fat (popcorn , apple , string cheese )

snack: 1/2 meat, 1 starch, 1 fat (granola bar , hard boiled egg)

dinner: 3 starch, vegetables, 3 meat, 2 fat (burrito , veggies, tangerine )

snack: 1 meat, 1 starch, 1 fat, 1 milk (peanutbutter , crackers , glass of milk)

i know from all the various diets i've been on in the past that eventually i wont have to write all this down each time and it will just come naturally.but i think in the beginning i'll cary a notebook in my purse so i know if i've eaten everything i'm suppossed to in a day!

all in all it was a very educational experience this morning. now i gotta go make my grocery list so i can put it in action :)