I have Gestational Diabetes

My new constant companion.

Becoming pregnant this time was a huge shock, but a blessing nonetheless.  I've had, and still have, bad morning (more like 24/7) sickness and low blood pressure.  This past week I was diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes.  I had escaped the condition whilst pregnant with our 3 daughters but not this time.

I had a 2 hour long hospital clinic appointment, was given a Blood Glucose Monitor which I have to use 6 - 8 times a day, and put on a strict low sugar, low carb, low GI diet.  I need to return to clinic next week to see if the diet restrictions are working and my blood sugar is stable enough or whether medication will be needed.

Our diet is fairly good, or so I thought until I went through it in great detail with the dietician.  I cook lunches and main meals mostly from scratch so modifying those recipes should be fairly straight forward.  There is sugar hidden in almost all packaged foods of some description so all will be avoided and of course I shan't be able to indulge in cafe cakes, biscuits, cups of hot chocolate, etc.  However, all is not lost! There are loads of delicious foods I can eat and I shall be experimenting with baking, creating low sugar recipes and making low GI, low carb meals.  We eat mostly wholegrains anyway but I shall be making sure there's no white flour, white rice or other high GI carbs in our meals and baking and carefully watching portion sizes too.

I have chosen not to have artificial sweetners.  I am not a fan of chemical and artificial additives to anything, especially food.  Loads of people have dietary restrictions due to allergies, health reasons or simply by choice and now I have joined their ranks.  I allowed myself one day to get grumpy and moan about it, then I got over myself.  I'm going to get on with creating tasty recipes to fit in with the restrictions I have been given, game on!