Hey guys! I really wanted to make this video for anyone suffering from Gestaional Diabetes like myself. I have found what really works at keeping my sugars low! Hope you find this video helpful! Don’t forget to subscribe!
Hey guys so in today’s video i just wanted to talk about my experience so far with gestational diabetes how i’m managing it and how i have been managing it and some things that i learned along the way that have really worked for me in keeping my blood sugar’s low and really gaining control over this disease so that i don’t have to go on insulin and i have minimal
Risks for when i do deliver my second baby girl i wanted to first start off by saying in this video that if you have gestational diabetes it is nothing that you have done wrong there is literally nothing that you’ve done it has nothing to do with your diet it has nothing to do with your weight with how much weight you’ve gained this pregnancy you’ve literally done
Nothing wrong one in i believe it’s one in six pregnant no i think it’s thirty percent of pregnancies hold on let me check that for you so every year between 3 and 20 percent of pregnancies end up pregnant women end up with gestational diabetes and it is caused by the placenta that is why as soon as you deliver your baby it goes away you do have a higher risk of
Type 2 developing type 2 diabetes in the future but if you keep your diet under control then that should not be a problem so just know that it is your placenta that causes it it’s nothing you’ve done it’s one of those things that if you’re gonna get it you’re gonna get it so please don’t beat yourself up for it or i think that you know if i had eaten better this
Pregnancy or if i had worked out then this wouldn’t have happened because that’s not true i ate very well i’ve always eaten very well i’ve never had a weight issue in my entire life i’ve always been like a size four i think the biggest i ever was it was like a six um other than being pregnant obviously but yeah it has nothing to do with weight so i just wanted
To throw that out there and i also just wanted to say that i am not a doctor i am not a dietician and i am just sharing i’m not advising you guys on what you should be doing i’m just sharing with you the things that i have found that have worked for me and that have kept my blood sugar normal and a little bit below normal and how i’ve been managing it and the
Things that i’ve been doing to make me feel good obviously you need to consult with your doctor your dieticians your midwives do what’s best for you and your body but i will say i’m kind of going against what my dietician said because i did a little bit of my own research and the research that i have found for a couple of things are that are not in line with what
My dietician said make more sense to me and when i followed some of those things my blood sugar responded a lot like my body responded a lot better my blood sugar was a lot lower so for me i don’t really necessarily think it’s good to follow what the dietitians recommend especially because they recommend quite a few carbs and when i tried what they recommended my
Blood sugar went through the roof so i’m not saying for you guys to boycott what they say however just take everything with a grain of salt do your own research you know your body better than anybody and that’s all i’m gonna say but i’m just – i’m just sharing with you guys what i’m doing so the first thing that actually is something that everybody should be doing
It’s not gonna hurt the baby it’s not gonna hurt you it’s actually really really helped me and keep my blood sugar’s low and i actually when i asked the dietician this she said that it has proven to be effective on blood sugar and that is apple cider vinegar so the it doesn’t have to be filtered or unfiltered pasteurized non-pasteurized organic non-organic it
Doesn’t really matter it does the same thing i do have an organic brand and it’s been proven to lower your blood sugar so if if you have a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in the evening it will reduce your blood sugar in the morning because if you have gestational diabetes you know that in the morning usually that’s when your blood sugar is the highest because
When you fast your liver dumps glucose into your bloodstream so typically in the morning before breakfast that’s the highest since i started taking a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in the evening i wake up to a blood sugar in the low fives high fours so if you guys know if you don’t know the numbers normal is considered five point five to seven point seven
Roughly anything over that is considered high anything below is considered low so just so you are aware i’m on like the lower normal end or the low end i also found that taking even a teaspoon but a tablespoons a little bit better before each meal or before a meal where i’m going to have a carb or a higher carb it really reduces my blood sugar so if you have a
Tablespoon at in the evening breakfast lunch dinner it’ll make a huge huge difference on your blood sugar especially if you do want to have some more carbs at one meal obviously you can’t have too many carbs in one meal we do have to space it out but if there’s a meal where you want to have that extra piece of toast or you want to have a bowl of cereal happy
Tablespoon of apple cider vinegar first and that will make a huge difference on your blood sugar i have noticed since i’ve been doing that my blood sugar is consistently the high fours or excuse me i’m pregnant i have indigestion high fours or low fives it does make a huge difference and it is perfectly safe for pregnancy the next thing that i have found works
And this is something that the dietitians recommend and every time i do this and then eat a meal my blood sugar’s always lower and that’s exercise and it doesn’t have to be like like let’s get real i have 31 weeks pregnant i am not going to be going to the gym lifting weights doing squats and dumbbells and all this thing or some high cardio stuff because i’m 31
Weeks pregnant like that is not happening but all i do is go for a walk outside with my 19 month old in her stroller and with my mom and not like a fast pace because that’s the if i can’t walk that fast these days my belly is huge so just like a casual comfortable pace for at least 30 minutes and i find if you do just 30 minutes every day it makes the world of a
Difference on your blood sugar exercise is one of the top things you can do to keep your gestational diabetes under control and check and keep your blood sugar levels from spiking i’m not sure on the science of why that is i’m assuming that when you exercise your body just uses up that extra glucose for energy that’s floating around in your blood that makes sense
To me but you could just look it up if you’re curious but exercise is probably one of the number one things you can do to maintain a healthy blood sugar keep it from spiking and it’s also really good for the baby it’s so good for the baby to get exercise it’s amazing especially in your earlier stages of pregnancy but it’s also gonna help with your weight gain it’s
Gonna make you feel better and it’s gonna help you prepare for delivery if you are more physically fit than someone who’s just like a couch potato in pregnant you know what i mean so exercise is one of the number one things you can do for gestational diabetes so the next one and the final one that i’m going to talk about is a little bit controversial especially in
The gestational diabetes and pregnancy community and before i get into i just want to say i am not condoning or i don’t think it’s good to not eat carbs like i’m just gonna put that out there your body does need carbohydrates it’s your body’s number one energy source you need carbs i don’t think it’s good to completely cut out carbohydrates carbohydrates are also
In vegetables so anytime you need a salad there are carbs in your salad anytime you have like squash your sweet potato or brussels sprouts or broccoli those are carbohydrates now when you have gestational diabetes the dietitians will tell you they don’t count vegetables as a car they count things like certain dairy and grains and things like that but they don’t
Count vegetables but keep in mind that vegetables are a carb just so that you know it makes a little bit sense when i talk about this so the dietitians will recommend or at least mine recommended having anywhere from three to four servings of carbohydrates at every meal three to four servings works out to well one serving is 15 grams of carbs so that would be 16
Of a gluten-free cracker a little tiny cracker or a cup of blueberries or 1/3 cup of strawberries or something like that is about 15 grams so anytime in the past that i have even eaten 30 grams at a meal without my apple cider vinegar my blood sugar went up now it was still pretty well within the normal range i’m not going to lie and say it was like way high and
Outside of the normal range but even for me seeing my blood sugar creep up to the sevens even though 7 is still normal it’s still at the high end of normal and it just made me nervous and i just don’t want to be anywhere near high so i didn’t like that anytime i did what they and that was only 30 grams i was only two servings can you imagine what my blood sugar
Would be if i had had 4 servings of carbs in one sitting it’d probably be like 10 which is too high because i only had two and i was in like the high sixes in mid 7 sometimes so i don’t agree with what they suggest for that i think that’s a way too much i truly believe that a lower carb diet is better for gestational diabetes and you know i a lot of people ask me
Like well they say that if you have low-carb then that’s bad for babies brain development it’s bad for for this and that but to be perfectly honest with you i try and think of things logically so when i was pregnant with my daughter i never ate cereal i did eat bread but it was white bread which is not healthy i ate i didn’t eat very much fruit i mostly ate vegetables
And she came out perfectly healthy i don’t see anything wrong with eating lots of protein lots of healthy fats like in nuts and seeds and like avocados and eggs and lean meats like chicken and turkey and fish and tons and a wide variety of vegetables i don’t see how that because that is low carb i don’t see how that is detrimental to a baby’s development and since
I have been eating that way which is still super healthy but it’s lower carb so i don’t eat pasta i don’t eat the only bread i do eat is spelt and it’s like one slice in the morning with my eggs and i’ll have like i’ll have squash which is still a carb even though the dietitians don’t count it when you have diabetes and like i don’t eat rice i don’t eat any other
Grain i don’t we don’t meal i don’t have cereal since i’ve been doing that my blood sugar has been so much better i’ve also i lost six pounds when i started it my baby is healthy i’ve gained 28 pounds at 31 weeks i’m not nearly as puffy i feel so much better physically and you can just see it like in my face and in my lips and like just my body compared to what
I was pregnant with my daughter eating all that crap so i know they say it’s not good to be like in ketosis and have to have such low blood sugar that you are in ketosis and i don’t know how i feel about that or not yet i was only in ketosis for one day but i don’t see how eating a wide variety of vegetables and healthy proteins and fats are gonna be bad for the
Baby and in fact i think that’s one of the healthier things you can do for the baby and i just think that grains are not good for your body they’re inflammatory and that’s why so many people go gluten-free because they’re just not good for your body at any time you eat stuff like that you’re gonna spike your blood sugar so a lower carb diet of like 15 grams or less
At a meal has kept my blood sugar in check i’m telling you i am mostly in the high fours low fives and that’s really really good for somebody that has gestational diabetes usually people that have gestational diabetes they’re in the tens so i just wanted to throw that out there i know there’s there’s not enough research to say whether or not low carb is healthy
Or not in pregnancy there are people and there are professional doctors and dietitians that are a hundred percent for even a keto diet when you’re pregnant there are people that have had a full keto pregnancy and have had healthy babies and they’ve had less complications so there’s research to support both sides but there’s not enough to say whether yes it’s safe
Or no it’s not safe it’s kind of more opinion based right now so that’s why saying you have to take everything with a grain of salt do your own research and test it out for yourself see how your blood sugar is eating 2 to 3 or 3 to 4 servings of carbs at every meal and then the next day see how it is having 15 grams at a meal and just compare the two and compare
How you feel and there’s that’s gonna be your answer i mean for me 15 grams is plenty at each meal i don’t need more than that and sometimes i have none at a meal and i feel great i know baby’s healthy she’s measuring right on track so yeah that’s all i have to say about that i’m sorry if i rambled a little bit it’s just i try i really want to get my point across
And say i’m not advocating for anything i’m just sharing with you what worked for me and all these things combined have really kept it in check and i just want to help you guys because i literally feel like there’s no videos on youtube i thought people talking about gestational diabetes either it’s something that people are afraid to talk about before it because
They’re embarrassed or whatever but it’s nothing to be embarrassed about or there’s just no youtube where does that have it i mean i don’t know i feel like i’m literally the only one and if that is that’s the case then sophia that i want to be that advocate for other women who feel like when they hear that phone call of hey you have gestational diabetes and i
Know what it’s like to tell your family and feel that guilt and feel that shame initially and be like i have diabetes like is it this for people who have like a weight problem and who are unhealthy like well you know it just it’s just it feels like you got kicked in the stomach when you hear that diagnosis but i promise you it’s gonna be okay it’s not a big well
It is a big deal but you can manage it it’s if you follow these things you’re gonna you’re gonna be okay your baby’s gonna be okay and i just if you guys have any questions please leave them down below i have i will link my instagram down below to if you have any questions you can dm me because that’s how that’s a bit easier to get ahold of me than anything else
So anyways i ramble long enough but those are three things that i have found work for me and i’m managing it just fine and yeah i mean if you guys saw me at 31 weeks pregnant with my daughter my first daughter i looked pregnant in the face right now i don’t feel like i look really well i am a little bit puffier but i don’t look that pregnant in the face compared
To when i was pregnant with her so it helps so much with swelling and everything else and getting 28 pounds so far i don’t think that’s i think that’s healthy and i weigh less now than i did at 26 weeks pregnant so anyways i love you guys i hope you found this helpful and yeah i will see you my next video bye
Transcribed from video
How To Manage Gestational DIabetes…Tips and Things That WORK! By Lindsay Christine
