First Diabetic Thanksgiving
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brendacshiver
Posts: 12 Member
Hi all! This is my first Thanksgiving knowing I am diabetic. How do you handle it? I have modified my recipes and menus, but am still concerned as to how to plan for the day.....I plan on adding a good walk, but am wondering....do I just have a "cheat day" on calories and carbs, and then go back to "being good" after the fact? How have you pros handled it?
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Good question & I'd like to know for Christmas too !0
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I pretty much have all the goodies I want but change the proportions. More of the lower carb items and just a small serving of the higher carbs. That way I don't feel like I'm being deprived of some of things that we don't have very often. And since there are usually left-overs, I have a second helping the next day. No one said I had to eat it all at one sitting!0
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This is my first Thanksgiving knowing I have diabetes as well. Gonna try really hard to limit my portions of the high carb side dishes. Mashed potatoes and stuffing are big weaknesses for me. Wish me luck, haha!0
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Were you given a glucose testing kit? Not sure when thanksgiving is, but it could be useful to find out what causes intraday BG spikes. Ie, if white bread (stuffing), potatoes, sweet potatoes are all culprits.0
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Nope. Absolutely no cheating. I make an extremely low carb pumpkin pie, no sugar or flour, with heavy whipping cream instead of condensed milk, a low carb crustless cheesecake, skip the apple pie because that's just loaded with carbs, herbed flax meal bread at 5 carbs for 2 slices, etc... cauliflower mash instead of mashed potatoes, etc, etc, etc.. It's going to be a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Remember that Thanksgiving is not about food, it's about family and friends. You want to enjoy them, not have to chase down your blood sugars, not have to feel so rotten that you can't enjoy those you love. Thanksgiving is about giving to others, not taking. If you are sick, you can't give much. Just a thought.
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A few thoughts on everyone's post...yep...a little late, but hopefully helpful for another big day of eating. Totally agree with GentyI on changing up the foods/recipes...if you can.
All depends on how many carbs you're allowed at a meal, too. Some people know they can have 60 carbs at a meal, some can't...meds or not.
Also depends on if you've been very low carb for a while...if so, and then you eat tons of carbs at once, you just won't feel very good for a few days....soooooo...not worth it.
If you're not sure, pick and choose the item(s) that you really feel will be worth it for you. I stayed away for the last couple of years and made my alternates...cauliflower mashed, VLC crustless cheese cake, VLC crustless pumpkin, etc. Didn't mind at all because I knew it was one meal, but it would take me week to recover from it....NOT WORTH IT AT ALL! (also, my kids like the alternates and other people actually like them, too.)
This year, I had about 1/4 cup potatoes, 1 slice fruit pie, 1/2 c homemade cranberry sauce and 1/2 c beets....I'm still feeling a bloaty because my body's just not used to that kind of food (sugar, butter, flour). But because I am now NON-DIABETIC, I don't feel sick like I would have in the past. It'll probably still be a few days to reset my pancreas, but it's all good.
Try to take out the idea of cheating versus no cheating....when you think you're cheating, you're dealing with guilt. Just make different choices, choices for life. You can get rid of diabetes...not easy, but doable! And food, good, bad and abundant, will always be around to make it hard.0 -
I eat the same as I do any day. Any carbs are from fruits and veggies. I made crustless low carb pumpkin and cranberries. in the last couple of years I have found a couple of really good recipes that are low carb but takes more time to prepare so I create those on holidays so I have special treats too. The sweet potato casserole I made this year was taken over by the non diabetics it was so good. The recipe is on dashing dish.com if you are interested.
I treat carbs like I were allergic to them. My life style has changed but my life counts on me controlling the carb intake so that is everyday, holidays included. The good part of this is I finally understand that eating healthy is a lifestyle change.0 -
I love all of the positive choices I'm reading in this discussion. I like to think about 'choice' instead of 'cheating'. When we make a choice, we evaluate our options and make a decision, and hopefully feel good about that decision. I hope everyone enjoyed th holiday! ~Lynn /Glucerna0
