My Journey and Lessons with Gestational Diabetes

So this pregnancy I was diagnosis with gestational diabetes.  After the shock of the initial diagnosis, I learned how to deal with things.

I was lucky.  Mine was very easily controlled with diet and exercise.  I basically added in some extra walking into my day.  Just simple things like walking around my office and parking farther away and things like that worked for me, and towards the end were about all I could do.

  Diet wise I basically focused on high protein and no sweets.  At first I really watched my carbs and really stressed myself out about it.  After awhile of watching my blood sugar number, I realized as long as I made good carb choices and didn't eat them too late in the night I was ok. Now I was also in Bradley classes, and there is a diet that goes along with those classes.  The main point of the diet is getting lots of protein, you also have to make sure you are eating a variety of food.  So that is the diet I ended up following.  It worked wonderfully for me.

I learned little tricks along the way.  Like if I ate a larger meal I would walk, even just 10 minutes would ensure my blood sugars stayed low.  I think one of the most important thing for me was having a high protien snack before bed.  My fasting number (which is the one you take right when you get out of bed) could sometimes be borderline.  If I had a high protein snack, like a cheese stick or even just a handful of almonds before bed time that number was usually good.

Towards the end I started to think of my diagnosis as even a little bit of a blessing.  It made me change my diet and my level of movement.  I only gained 6 lbs during this pregnancy (and having a high BMI that was perfectly healthy).  And now that the baby has been here I am almost back down to my weight before the twins were even born.  I have been tested since pregnancy and my number are fine, so I am good to go.  I will be tested again in a few months just to make sure, but I feel pretty good about it, even with all the Halloween candy and cookies that have been around.  I will need to be tested more frequently in life now, but with the family history that is probably a good thing.

So over all what I learned was just  a reinforcement of "everything in moderation."  I did cut out sweets, but besides that I learned as long as I am eating a variety of foods and healthy foods I will be healthier and feel better.