Bad diabetic -- the importance of an evening snack

As I mentioned yesterday, it was date night last night. We ended up going to a swanky Italian restaurant in Tulsa called Garlic Rose. It was pretty much as delicious as could be, even for our snobby Italian food standards. Mark and I ordered 2 pasta dishes to share -- one was bow tie with chicken in pesto with pine nuts, goat cheese, and spinach (these 3 ingredients combined create nothing short of taste bud ecstasy!), and the second dish was a lemon seafood bucatini that included HUGE chunks of fresh squid, lobster, scallops, and ginormous shrimp. As a seafood lover, I was in heaven...especially when such divine food is polished off with a sip of 2005 Banfi Chianti Classico..mmmm!

Now would be a good time to admit that I likely went over my carbs for the meal. However, I did skip the cookie at the RD meeting yesterday, unexpectedly, and went with a 2% mozzarella cheese stick instead.

Pasta, is a "rip off" as far as carbohydrates -- 1/3 c. cooked = 1 carb choice. I'd say I had 1 1/3 cup, or 4 carb choices worth. Not bad, right? I sure didn't think so! Because our meal started with a cheese platter with toast pointes and fresh fruit (I had 2 toast pointes and approximately a half a handful of fruit -- 1 carb), I would say my meal totaled 5 carb choices. Oops!

In counseling a diabetic who goes over their carb choices, I would recommend taking their blood sugar 2 hours after they've completed their meal. When tested two hours post-prandial, blood glucose readings should fall at 140 mg/dl or less in a controlled diabetic.

From dinner, we went to a local bar that hosts hundreds of beers from across the world. I love beer, and so I partook. I limited myself to 2 beers (Black Velvets, pictured to the left -- 1/2 cider and 1/2 Guinness) -- 1 carb choice. This was obviously not the best way to spend calories OR carbohydrates, but more importantly for a diabetic is the fact that consuming alcohol LOWERS blood glucose. When we arrived home, 3 hours after finishing our dinner, I did not have an evening snack. Firstly, of course I was not hungry. Secondly, I'm not into the mind-set yet of remembering to eat a snack before bed. And thirdly, I was pooped...it was a work day ending at midnight! Regardless, I would've told any patient that it would be of utmost importance to have had a snack after last evening's alcohol consumption. If I were a diabetic and checked my blood sugar this morning, chances are it would have been high due to a blood glucose drop mid-rest and a rebound high, compliments of the liver, as we discussed previously. So, I was a BAD diabetic yesterday! Turning the page to today and moving on!

Breakfast:

1 1/2 c. Cheerios (2 carbs)

1 packet Truvia (0 carbs)

1 c. skim milk (1 carb)

cappuccino with 2 Tbsp sugar-free International Delight (0 carbs)

     Total: 3 carbs

Lunch:

1/6th Chicken Tamale Casserole (3 carbs)

2 c. toss salad with mixed veggies (0 carbs)

1 Tbsp Light Toasted Asian Sesame dressing (0 carbs)

     Total: 3 carbs

Dinner & snack:

TBD - football party over here

Predictions: Illinois over Penn State, OSU over Indiana, Michigan over Michigan State, and Oklahoma over Miami.

Does anyone have any butternut or acorn squash recipes to share? I'm heading to the grocery store for some squash and other produce...and need a squash fix soon!