Another Look Into Gestational Diabetes - Good Carbs and bad Carbs

In the beginning of my first pregnancy I was exhausted. I needed a nap every day and I would sleep the sleep of the dead. The ability to stay awake during the day came back to me during the middle of the pregnancy but at the end I was once again almost immovable if I were asleep. This time around I thought my fatigue seemed different somehow, unusual. My husband thought it was all in my head so I went with him and just ignored it. There is a small chance that he may have been moderately correct.

The further a woman gets along into her pregnancy, the placenta grows, increasing insulin resistance with each week. Meaning, in a way my possible problem wasn't quite as bad as it was going to be - at least not yet.

Gestational diabetes is not the same as type 1 or type 2 diabetes.

If you have gestational diabetes you are most insulin resistant first thing in the morning which only further proves that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

Like fats there are good carbs and bad carbs. The best way to recognize a good carb, is a carb that is in its purest and least processed (preferably unprocessed) form.

According to the intarwebzes:

Examples of good carbs:
Fruits
Vegetables
Low-fat plain dairy products
Nuts
Seeds
Whole grains
   Quinoa
   Brown Rice
   Buckwheat
   Whole wheat bulgur
   Whole wheat couscous
   Oats
   Corn
   Hulled barley
   Millet
   Wild rice
   Amaranth and
   Whole cornmeal
Beans
Legumes

Examples of bad carbs:
Pasta
Potatoes
White rice
White bread
Bagels
English muffins
Crackers
Chips
Pretzels
Most cereals
Pancakes
Waffles
Ready-made desserts

Gestational Diabetes

Early in my pregnancy I had a suspicion that I might have gestational diabetes. My husband handled my worry the way he handles a lot of things - he told me to ignore it.

During my first pregnancy I didn't know any better so before I ran out the door for my glucose test, in an effort to quickly get some food into my stomach, I hated up a small amount of leftovers. These leftovers just happened to be whole wheat pasta. My test came back with results that said I would have to take a 3 hour glucose test. I took it and all went well.

This time I was instructed by a nurse to have a breakfast with some protein. Her specific recommendations was eggs and toast. So for breakfast the morning of my one hour glucose test I made an omelet with mushrooms and a little cheese and had one slice of whole wheat toast with butter.

Once again my test came back, "a little high" (108). Another three hour glucose test was set before me. My husband personally did each of the five blood draws required.

I hadn't yet gotten the official diagnosis but from what I knew about how my levels came out - it wasn't looking promising.

This sort of dietary adjustment was something I was really unhappy about.

Just in case, before the official results came in from my OBGYN I chose to make an effort to begin educating myself and making the (very likely) necessary changed in my diet. Reading online that some of the big no-no's were high fat, saturated fat, trans fat, starchy foods, and sweet foods makes it sound like I'm never going to be able to eat or enjoy anything.

My diet frequently includes pasta and rice so finding suitable substitutes was going to be a priority.
Whole wheat pasta was mentioned but in the end didn't seem like quite the replacement I needed. I already ate whole wheat pastas and I was looking for whatever would make me feel I got the most bang for my replaced buck. Spaghetti squash, veggie ribbons, and zucchini "pasta" sounded like they would get me further away from my super vice, pasta.

Quinoa seemed like the best actual rice substitute - because it isn't rice. Eating brown rice instead of white rice felt a bit more like a band-aid that was going to require more carbohydrate counting vigilance than I was up for just yet. However when I looked at this chart that was part of this article it seemed like maybe quinoa wasn't going to be my best actual choice?


It was looking like this was going to be a ton of large adjustments that had to be made immediately for the greatest health benefit for my child.

Well, let the learning begin.

The Crunchy Betty Raw Honey Challenge

This pregnancy has done terrible things to my skin, but to be fair - I've had quite a lot of skin issues for years now. And by for years I mean probably since the age of 9 and definitely since the age of 13.

My skin problems never reached the upper echelons of terrible skin but it's been bad enough to seek the help (that didn't ultimately pan out) of a dermatologist a few times.

Enter Crunchy Betty, a green blogger loved by many. She has lovely clear skin and has a book available for purchase via Kindle about how you can fight your acne issues naturally. Her book focuses specifically on the problems of those of us with oily skin. Desperate to begin  my fight immediately I skipped right to the facial cleansers. All of them sounded like things I wanted to try but for reasons unknown to me (probably because it seemed simplest) I decided to try her cleanser using raw honey.

Rinse your face.
Gently scrub your face with raw honey.
Wait 5 - 10 minutes.
Rinse off the honey.
Done.

Having just bought some organic, fair trade, raw honey to use in the oatmeal mask recipe that is available for free I immediately tried the facial wash. I immediately liked it. My skin felt soft as did the hand I used to scrub my face and I could have almost sworn that my skin seemed at least a tiny bit brighter. Two things were then on my mind 1) I must know more! & 2) Let's try this for two weeks and see how it goes. When I returned to the book the next thing I read was Crunchy Betty challenging readers to try this raw honey method for two weeks. CAN DO!

Within a few days I noticed that the very small pimples I had were coming to a head and ready to make their exit in one way or another. My husband is an avid pimple popper and depending on how badly I have one it can be a battle to keep him from attacking my face with his usually unwashed hands. These little pimples did not go unnoticed by him.

By the end of my two weeks I saw what I felt was an absolutely noticeable change. When I washed my face before I had gotten to the point where I would feel a mass of pimples under my hand as I rubbed my Burt's Bees chamomile wash into my face. The Burt's Bees left my skin feeling clean but I felt I was getting nowhere in my fight against my regular acne now only made worse by the hormonal rush that comes from being pregnant.

I enjoyed this challenge so much that shortly after a week I recommended it to a friend of mine that I know has also had a long, unsuccessful struggle with acne. If you too have issues with your skin - try this, it works well with more than just oily skin types.

Pintesting - Chemical Free Beauty - Mud Scrub

I absolutely cannot explain why but I was super excited to make this particular scrub.

Today's pintest comes via this pin and the information found here.

Ingrediants:

1 C Sugar (white, brown, cane)  - I used white sugar

 5 TBSP Coffee grounds  - I don't actually drink coffee so i had to go out and buy the smallest amount I could for this pintest.

1/4 C oil  (veggie oil, almond oil, extra virgin olive oil, baby oil…) - since it was alreayd out and is SO wonderful I used coconut oil

1 tsp Peppermint Extract

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Following Directions:

Because my peppermint oil wasn't here yet I set my mix aside to finish once it arrived. That's when I remembered I hadn't added the vanilla extract so I went back, added it, and stirred it with the opposite end of my wooden spoon.

So how was the scrub? So excited was I that I tried it the very night I made it even though I didn't have the peppermint oil yet. When my husband came into the bathroom he remarked, "Coffee?" He's no coffee drinker either but said he liked the smell. When I had him touch my skin afterward he said it felt like I'd just put on lotion.

I also feel confident that the scrubs I use that contain coconut oil will be of great help with the stretch marks from my pregnancy, both to moisturize the areas where my skin is expanding and to help curb how bad my stretch marks may end up without some sort of attention. 

Pregnant Lunch

While I was home I had the pleasure of meeting with two friends of mine who are also pregnant. One of which is also a big fan of Pintrest. She brought craft supplies to lunch.

 Following her lead each of us made signs to hold up in front of our bellys for a picture later that afternoon.

While the girls were away from the table I took pictures of their signs in front of their stuff.

That day I learned about ribbon tape. . . . I had no idea such a thing existed.