New to the WISH board.

[gshoemate]

Hi all, I didn't even know this board existed.

I'm a stay at home mom to a 5 year old and a 15 month old. Moral of the story is, after 2 kids I need to lose about 20 pounds. After I had my 15 month old DS I thought I was doing really good, I even fit into my before Jacob shorts, but then I found out I was hypoglycemia and needed to increase my meals, thats when the pounds started adding on. I am starting to introduce slim fast shakes to replace my daily snacks, now I just need to find time to exercise and I will be all set. Anyone else out there that is hypoglycemic and trying to lose weight?

 

[TigH]

Hello and welcome, Ginger!

You came to the right place! Grab a WISH clippie and jump in! How many meals are you eating a day? Have you ever been to the FitDay site? http://www.fitday.com It's great, it's free, and if you don't mind spending a little time entering your data at first, it's a great resource to monitor how much you are eating (like how much of your diet comes from protein/fats/carbs). Did your Dr. recommend any specific nutritional requirements for you, or do you just have to eat at specific times of the day?

Hope you make yourself at home!

 

[msteddom]

Slim Fast Shakes, Yum! My favorite are the Rich Chocolate Royale, I have to be careful with them, I could have one for dessert, and they're supposed to be an entire meal! Welcome Gshoemate!

 

[inky dinky doo]

Welcome to the WISH board, Ginger! I'm glad to see you. You'll find a lot of friendly people and support, here.

What is hypoglycemia and how were you diagnosed? I guess what I'm asking is, what are the symptoms? I've heard it mentioned, before, but never did understand what it was.

Pat

147 days and counting . . . again!

 

[KathyTX]

Inky,

Hypoglycemia is also called "low blood sugar". It's a condition where your body metabolizes carbs and sugar with a bit too much enthusiasm sometimes (by producing a bit too much insulin, which binds with the sugars, which makes them unavailable to your body... But that's probably a little more than you were asking.)

Everybody's blood sugar levels can get really low from time to time, and you've probably experienced some of the symptoms to some degree: weakness/shakiness, dizziness, some sweating, lightheadedness or confusion, blurred vision.

For a doctor to diagnose hypoglycemia, there's a test called a glucose tolerance test. You fast before the test, drink a big glass of a yucky syrupy glucose solution, then give urine and blood samples over the course of several hours. The glucose (sugar) levels in your samples are graphed, and if your sugar levels decrease steadily and gradually, you're normal. If your levels drop more suddenly, the diagnosis is hypoglycemia.

There are lots of degrees of hypoglycemia, from mild to severe. Someone suffering from severe hypoglycemia will have the symptoms occur more suddenly and severely (perhaps to the point of actual blackouts) than those of us with milder problems.

The traditionally accepted treatment for the condition is diet- low carb, high protein, several small meals or snacks a day. The strategy is not to starve your body then suddenly feed it, and not to ingest meals that are extremely high in sugars when you don't also have proteins to metabolize.

For example, if I skip lunch and then have a slice of birthday cake in the late afternoon, I'll probably start feeling really bad 30 minutes later. Shaky, sweaty, lightheaded and grouchy. But if I have a chicken breast and a *small* slice of cake, I'll probably be fine.

Hypoglycemia is not a dangerous condition, it doesn't do any physical damage to your body. And it's certainly much more benign than its distant and very dangerous cousin, diabetes. But it can certainly be unpleasant to live with.

(Diabetes, or "high blood sugar", is caused by too LITTLE insulin, which allows too MUCH glucose to remain in your blood. It is very dangerous and can be deadly when not managed very carefully. Diabetes can cause terrible and irreversible damage to many organs.)

Was this way too TMI? Sometimes I get started and then....


Kathy(who is not a medical professional, but who has done lots of reading about hypoglycemia over the years...)

 

[gshoemate]

Wow KathyTX, what an explanation, you did that better then my doctor. And being the mom of 2 little ones, it was easy for me to skip 2 meals and then grab a pop and snickers for a meal. And then the symptoms started and boy they were scary. But I think I have a handle on it now.

 

[nativetxn]

<b>gshoemate</b> I'm really glad you decided to join us. The WISH support group is amazing. Very helpful to me.

My mother is hypoglycemic. She always tried to eat small protein snacks to control hers. A tablespoon of peanutbutter was her quickest fix. No bread or crackers. Or a piece of cheese. She said that bread made it worse so she ate the cheese and/or peanut butter plain.

Will you be following a formal eating plan or "eating sensibly"?

If you are taking the challenge would you mind posting to our WISH challenge thread too? That is our official sign up post and I use it to make up our roster. If you will post there then I won't leave you off the roster. You will find the challenge thread right <b>HERE</b>.

You may add the WISH member clipart to your signature if you want, there is a great post by Wovenwonder telling you how to do that right <b>HERE</b>.

I'm really glad you have decided to join us. I'm sure you will find that WISH is a great help to you. It has been a wonderful help to me.

Katholyn

 

[KathyTX]

Bumping an old discussion on hypoglycemia for GShoemate!

 

[PoohLover1]

WELCOME GINGER!! I just joined the board a couple of weeks ago myself and I'm SOOO glad I did . What a wonderful group of people here. You will get ALL the support you need from this board. Good luck on your weight loss. Pam