Meal plans for Gestational Diabetes

It is really hard to plan and eat when you are pregnant. We always think that pregnancy is that part of our life when we can enjoy the most and that can happen when there is no restriction on the food we eat. Suddenly one day you get your test result that you have gestational diabetes, and then you are worried about what to eat. I have been through this and would like to share what helped me all the way.I had no guidance but planning ahead worked great for me. I enjoyed what I wanted to eat even when i was counting carbs.

Wai Wai Soup

Here is meals designed for 3 days that may help you plan your variations. 

Day 1: 

Breakfast: 1 cup milk, 1 toast with cottage Cheese and poached egg 

Snack 1: 1 medium apple, some almonds

Lunch: 1 cup cooked brown rice with Long Beans and Bamboo shoot curry, fried fish. 

Snack 2: 1 cup milk, 2 Digestive Biscuit

Snack 3: Cucumber Salad with Cheese (your favorite kind), Prune - 4 pieces, Almonds and Walnuts

Dinner: Wai Wai Soup (1 pack) with baby bok-choy, tomato and shrimp 

Day 2: 

Breakfast: 1 cup tea, 2 toast with almond butter, scrambled eggs

Snack 1: 1 cup yogurt, 1 cup watermelon

Lunch: 1 cup cooked white rice with goat curry, stir fried mustard greens, fried chicken, tomato salsa(golveda ko achar)

Snack 2: black tea with 1 granola bar

Snack 3: 1 cup veggie soup, 1 pack cracker

Dinner:  2 medium baked potato, sauted mushroom and broccoli, steamed salmon

Day 3:

momo

Breakfast: 1 cup coffee, 2 small pancakes, sausage and bacon

Snack 1: 16 medium grapes, 1 medium peach

Lunch: 1 cup cooked cracked wheat, scrambled minched turkey with bean sprout

Snack 2: 1 cheese stick, beet and cucumber salad, 1 cookie

Snack 3: 1 cup lentil soup with small bread stick.

Dinner: 15 small momo's, sauce for momo (momo ko achar), goat soup

Enjoy eating!



Disclaimer

Limiting "carbs" for Gestational Diabetes

It takes discipline to take in-charge of your gestational diabetes, and you can easily do it. All you need to do is:
1. Plan, plan plan - this is the key, plan all your meals and snacks. Remember that you dont want to over feed your baby, so stick to the diet always.
2. Unless your obgyn tells you not to excercise, you can do some light workouts. Brisk walk is good. You could also clean the home, vaccum, wash the dishes, cook and clean the kitchen, clean the bathroom. There are ways to keep the baby in you happy and also make your home clean.

You could plan a day with the following:
Breakfast - 30 grams of carb from category2, anything/any amount from category1
Snack - 30 grams of carb from category2,  anything/any amount from category1
Lunch - 45 grams of carb from category2,  anything/any amount from category1
Snack - 30 grams of carb from category2,  anything/any amount from category1
Snack  - 30 grams of carb from category2,  anything/any amount from category1
Dinner - 45 grams of carb from category2,  anything/any amount from category1

Category1: You can induldge on them. Happy and Free food.

turkey

pork

shrimp
tofu

fish

goat

chicken

all kinds of nuts but limit peanuts.

mustard greens (tori ko saag)

gai choy ( rayo ko saag)

gai lan (kalo tori ko saag)

pumpking vines (pharsi ko munta )

chayote vines (iskus ko munta )

eggplant/brijal ( bhanta)

ladysfinger (bhindi) 

fenugreek leaves (methi ko saag)

spinich (palungo)

peppercress (chamsur)

watercress (simrayo)

tomatoes/onion/ginger/garlic/cilantro/parsley

radish

mushroom

zhucinni

all variety of pepper (belpepper/chillies)

celery

asparagus

brocolli

cauliflower

cabbage

long beans (bodi)

green beans
bamboo shoot (tama)

cucumber

avocado

olive
all kinds of nuts

artichokes

and all the veggies you get. 

Avoid veggies that are high in carb like  plantain (kera ko tarkari), corn, sweet potatoes, any kind of poatatoes, peas, carrots.

All kinds of cheese (avoid cheese that are soft and viened as it may contain listeria, not at all a good thing for the baby like feta cheese, blue cheese)
Indulge peanuts in less quantity as they are higher in carb compared to other nuts.

Category2: Measure and eat, make sure to read labels

white rice

brown rice

noodles

bread

roti

poori

paratha

milk

yogurt
fruits

any Daal - you have been thiking it is protien but it has a lot of carb too.

NO NO NO, you can see how much you should avoid this by looking at the number of no's

fries

fried chicken - you can go for baked chicken and eat a lot of them

cookies/doughnut/muffins/bagel/

cakes pies/icreacreams

soda, energy drinks, juices, smoothies, milk shakes

pizza 

jam/jelly/honey
Rice bread (sel roti)
desserts (all kinds)

Disclaimer

Gestational Diabetes - Positive Vibes

It's hard when your doctor calls and tells you that you have gestational diabetes. Gestational Diabetes is mostly detected during week 24-28 during pregnancy, but for some with family history of diabetes or who are obese, this is detected even earlier.  Women do get back to normal once the baby is born and a special diet is followed postpartum. 

Should you be really worried about it? I think no, it just means that your body is not able to produce enough insulin to process the glucose intake. This is all due to the growing belly and other organs in the body gets crunched and unable to function as it used to. I know it feels nervous and scary in the beginning, but think about the effort  you are putting to bring someone special into this world.

The baby inside must be saying  "I am so special, and mommy needs to work a little harder to make sure everything is right. I think i deserve a little attention. don't you? "

The first thing you do is google (smiley), and find millions of hits, but consulting a nutritionist adds that extra benefit. Adding more complex carbs to your diet, lets the glucose in the food dissolve slowly maintaining a constant  blood sugar level. Also adding more protein to the diet makes you feel full longer. The hardest of all is, eliminate all processed foods, desserts from your diet. You must be thinking that this is the only time i get to enjoy them, and how to eliminate, but actually if you think, you are taking the bad things out of your body. Processed food and high sugar content of dessert do no good to your body. Sticking to frequent eating habit does not let you feel hungry, apart from breakfast, lunch and dinner, add snacks 2 hrs after each meal, meaning you are eating smaller portions, 6 times a day.It is also a good practice to walk altleast 20-25 mins after each major meal and adding yoga and stretching to your daily routine once a day. This increases your metabolism and also helps maintain a healthy glucose level. 

Stick to the routine and things will be fine.

Disclaimer

Postpartum nutrition

Postpartum is the period when one struggles to get the best nutrition and it is for the mom's recovery as well as for the growth of the baby. Doctors say you can eat anything postpartum, but it can be challenging to come up with a healthy yet nourishing set of food that you can eat. Along with the mother, the baby directly gets that food you eat, so it is very important not to upset the new born from the food that the mom consumes. This is the time when the mothers body is recovering at a very high speed. All the organs that were displaced when you were pregnant try to move back to its own position and hence it is not a good idea to stress the body and organs. Also the new born, who was used to only the amniotic fluid inside the womb is now trying to consume and digest mothers milk. Mothers milk is all made up of what the mom's eat, hence it is very important to be careful of what you eat at this time.

Food that must be  avoided atleast a month postpartum : chillies, lots of oil/butter/ghee(moderate amounts can be consumed, as it aids in milk production), whole beans (gedagudi), cauliflower, brocolli

If the baby is not digesting food well enough, they have bloating, vomiting and spitups, try to make sure that the food you take is not the ones that may cause allery to the babies and may be upsetting the baby.

Must eats: rice, oats, breads, lots of whole grains, lots of cooked greens (avoid raw greens and it is hard to digest), lentils, milk, red meat soup (khasi ko jhol), vegetable soup (tarkari ko jhol), asparagus soup (kurilo ko raas)

Disclaimer